Quality Service // Mike Richard // Living Hope Community Church transcript

I know y'all go to restaurants, so I got a little something to ask. Anybody ever went to a restaurant in 2025? Anybody go 2025? You went to a restaurant? Raise your hand nice and nice and high. Not this elbow stuff. We're not an elbow church, okay? We're we're an extension a full extension church, okay? In worship, by the way, you can do that. It's okay. Some of y'all just want to carry like the monitor. There's a bit there's a comedian uh a bit out there about that.

Anyway, all right. So So most of you guys want Did any of you guys go to a restaurant in 2020? Post March. Did any of you guys go to a a restaurant post March in 2020? Yeah. Me too. Me too. little bit different experience 2020 versus 2025, but that's not really what I'm talking about. So, has anybody ever went to a place and um your the hostess brought you to the table, then a waiter or waitress came out and they helped you.

And when all this was going on, you're like, it felt like a pleasant time. It felt like a pleasant time. um to the point where you're like, I really like coming here. This is a place that I don't mind coming to. You didn't even get food yet. You just enjoy the atmosphere. You enjoy the presence of the people. You enjoy how they treat you. You enjoy some of the things that it made you feel, right? Maybe they welcomed people that uh are hard to welcome.

Anybody uh here ever go to a restaurant with somebody who's hard to welcome? I don't know about you, but me me some of them are you. Just kidding. Just kidding. Just making sure you're still there. Um, so then you get the food and the food's pretty good, too. That's That's not bad. But what if the food's not good? What if food's not good? And it's like, okay, hey, they're really nice. They're really nice. You guys ever had company at your house or you No.

No, better yet, you ever go to some your company at somebody else's house? They're really nice. You like hang out and they're really awesome, but they don't cook great. Me. I've been there. I've been there. All right. But because of the way that they treated me, I did actually go back. I didn't just go there to get a good meal, right? So the way that they they they treated me, the way that they hosted me, the way they served me obviously mattered more than the quality of their food, right?

Or my opinion of their food, right? Um I also have been on the opposite side where I tried something completely new and I invited people over and it was not good at all. Okay. Uh my wife always warns me. She said, "People are coming over. Don't try anything new. So, we usually try to go with some staples, but sometimes I get, you know, I got to throw a little zinger in there. So, what about the opposite? Have you guys ever showed up at a restaurant and uh and you walk in and you're just treated like trash?

It It seems like to me like the hostess really doesn't want to be there. The waiter or waitress is waiting for them to finally clock out. Nowadays, all these teeny boppers are on their phones while they're serving you. They're not really paying attention to what you're saying, right? Um, I don't know about you, but I've experienced this before where I was treated poorly and uh just because of that, regardless of how good or bad the food was, I really didn't want to go back.

I didn't really want to go back because I don't really want to go to a place to invest into a place and then realize that I am treated poorly. It's not something that I enjoy. So, there's times where I would go in whether the food was good or bad and I would be treated very poorly and uh it would inside whether I chose to go back or not inside I was like I didn't love that experience. That wasn't wonderful. What was up with them?

Now, as a as a Christian as a Christian, remember, you're still a Christian when you go to the restaurant. All right? So, don't be annoying. All right? If people are waiting on you, you should be the best person that they wait on that day. Okay? So, you're still a Christian. That doesn't mean that they that they shouldn't fix an order. They may be messed up, but how are you treating them? What how are you displaying yourself?

How are you communicating? Right? This is very important. Um, so why am I talking about why am I talking about this? Uh, because I just wanted to make sure we could stay here until 12:30 today. I'm joking. I'm joking. Why the reason why I actually brought it up was because I think it's important, especially as a Christian, that we realize that we need to be offering quality service. Let's pray. Lord, I first of all I want to thank you for the scriptures.

Thank you for um just the leaps and bounds and amounts of um inspiration, stories, um inherency that you give to us so that we could live a life by what you wrote, so we can learn um so we can be convicted. so we can be challenged and so we can grow. So we thank you for this beautiful book that you have um kept safe for all these years. I pray God that you would teach us this morning all the things that you want to teach us.

I God I pray that you would anoint my ears and my heart right now to continue to hear you speak uh so that I can uh share your thoughts. And I pray God that you would anoint each hearer's ears and heart to hear what you're saying to them. I pray God that you would bless us here this morning that we would learn much and uh that this learning wouldn't be simply learning, but it would teach us and convict us to be different and to grow.

God, I pray that you would help us change. Uh another dirty word in Christianity is change. And I pray God that you would teach us to change to be more like you. Um, help us to not um, make it all about us and we are this way and we'll always be this way, but Lord, help us to die to oursel because we follow you. You've asked us to do so. Pray here this morning that you'd teach us well, that we'd be pulled in by your Holy Spirit and we'd walk alongside of you in your name, Jesus.

Amen. Okay, so uh, I should give a couple precursors. The first precursor is this may be I'm not positive but this may be uh I think it will be um I won't finish today is what I'm trying to say. So I think I'll have to finish the thought next week. But uh but we should dive in so that we can get a good portion done. But before we do that um let's talk about the book that we're in. First Timothy. Uh right now we the last place we were is 1 Timothy chapter 3.

Um we're not going to turn there just yet. Okay. But for your future reference, it's like page 932 or 933 in the Pew Bible. Um uh so anyway, so we're we're in this part and we just talked about two weeks ago because last week we had VBS, right? So there's like a VBS expression. We kind of shared what happened and all that stuff is pretty good. Um but two weeks ago we talked about um elders uh qualified overseers and we kind of um discussed that a bit and we discussed the the things that are important about that.

What what is the characteristics? What does that mean? What makes you qualified? Um is qualification the most important or is your skills most important? I think we agreed that qualification is more important or at least that's what I shared. Um we talked about um the job of the church towards leadership. Uh one of their jobs is to admonish leadership, to respect leadership, to not give them a hard time. Um uh the reason for some of that is because they pray for you.

They care for you. They're trying to do God's best for you. And that's already hard. I know from experience it's difficult, right? Um we care, so we intercede. We care, so we pray. We care, so we dive in. We care so we study. We care so we disciple. we care. So um so that's a lot of work already. Uh and then um a response is so the response is to admonish. Another one is to obey and to submit. Um and it is important that the elders that are at any church or any location um do have the qualifications of an elder or that this is their primary goal.

Not that they're absolutely perfect. Remember Paul is not asking for perfection. He is asking for um what what are they admonishing to? What are they aspiring to? What what are they 95% of the time, 99% of the time? Unfortunately, we're humans and we don't always get it right. Even an elder in a moment can be selfish, right? Um the goal is to not be ever, right? But unfortunately, um elders are also humans. So, uh so they'll deal with that.

So then then the next part in first Timothy actually talks about uh deacons. So we're going to talk a little bit not just about deacons but kind of like what is church governance? Why are we doing this? Why does it matter? Like at Living Hope, we don't really have anybody in the office of deacon. Why not? Should we? Should we not? Remember I said as we going through first Timothy chapter 3, let us reflect personally and as a congregation.

What is this church about? What are we about? And so I think one of the best places to go to begin this is to give a little bit of foundation. And so we'll have to go to Exodus chapter 18. Um if you guys is it if anybody has a pew Bible and you know the page number you want to yell it out that's fine. Um I don't have it with me. Page 55. Thank you Dylan. Page 55. All right. So, let me give you a backdrop where you're getting there.

Okay, Exodus chapter 18, this is briefly after this time where the Amalachites uh had to be where the Israelites were fighting the Amalachites. Okay. And the interesting thing about this about this story to me to me is that when they were fighting the Amalachites, Moses, if he is if his arms were held up, they were winning and if they came down, they were losing. Okay. Um and you're like, "Well, that's weird." I know.

I know. Following God is weird. Okay. Being obedient to God can be weird. Okay. But the interesting thing about that story to me is that if Moses were to do it alone, they would have lost. Do you hear me? If Moses had to keep his own arms up by himself, they would have lost the battle. So they had two people. He had two people next to him. Do you guys know their names? Aaron and her. Yep, that's right. So Aaron had one side and her had the other.

Okay. And so if Aaron and her ceased to hold Moses' arms up, they would have also lost. They would have also lost. Well, what about everybody in the battle? What about everybody in the battle? Everybody in the battlefield was doing their job by fighting battling, right? That's what they were doing. If they weren't doing their job, Aaron and her couldn't have done their job because they would have also been attacked and they would have to fight for themselves and therefore Moses' hand would not have been held up and therefore Moses' hand would have came down and they would have lost.

Everybody has a part, right? But here's the biggest thing that I want to know you want you to know, not not know you, but want you to know is that Moses simply shouldn't have, couldn't have, and wouldn't have succeeded if it wasn't for others. Okay? Now, Moses got the call. Moses was told what to do. Moses was being obedient. But him walking in obedience, he needed others, right? And so, a lot of times, guys, when you walk in obedience, just know that sometimes you're going to need others help, too.

It's not all about you and God. You and God, right? There will be times for you and God. You go to that bush, you talk to him, you go up on that mountain, you go talk to him. That's good. But you need people because if not, you probably will fail. Uh isolation is a bad idea. Isolation for a time to get right with the Lord. Okay. But if you've done that more than 40 days, I think you're done. Okay. Just that's just a number from being in a wilderness.

I'm not saying that's the best number. I'm not saying it's 40 days. If you go 41, you're ungodly. In fact, if you're gone for 40, I still am concerned. So, this story just happens, right? This story just happens where uh Aaron and her are holding up Moses' hands and then we get into this. Okay? So, I want you to remember that. Don't forget that that just happened. Okay? That just happened. Jethro, we're starting in uh chapter 18, verse one.

Uh no, we're not. No, we're not. We're going to start in verse 13. Sorry. Uh I'll explain that a little bit. All right. So the next day, Moses sat to judge the people. And the people stood around Moses from morning till evening. When Moses' father-in-law saw all of all that he was doing for the people, he said, "What is this that you are doing for the people?" Okay, I want to stop. Anybody else have a father-in-law or mother-in-law?

They have their opinions about how you should live your life. You know what I'm saying? Just so you know, some of their opinions are good. Okay? So, just because they're opening their mouth doesn't mean you stop listening. Okay. The interesting thing about this is is um is Jethro was not even an Israelite. Okay. But he recognized what the God of Israel was doing. And he rec if you read through the chapter, he recognized and honored the God of Israel and he honored Moses for what he was doing.

And so what does this mean? Maybe maybe he already had a conversion where he believes he actually believes in the God of Israel, you know, Yahweh. Maybe he doesn't. But we we don't know that exact answer. But what we do know is that Jethro was able to see what was happening in Moses's life. He saw the miracles. He saw the craziness. He saw the the them being set free. He saw them going through all sorts of adversity.

Jethro saw all of that and he said, "Well, because of all of that, we have to give honor to the God of Israel." Right? And so out of Moses' obedience, um, Jethro was giving honor to the God of Israel. Do you know that through your obedience, people may honor the God of Israel? So consider you're not just being obedient so that you and God are right. You're being obedient so that others and God can be right. Okay? Remember, there's other people's lives at stake here.

All right? So then he continues. He says, uh, what is that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone? Um why do you sit alone and the people stand around you from morning till evening? Anybody ever question anything you've done before? And they're like, "What are you doing? What are you doing?" Now, it doesn't say this, but in in Mike's paraphrased version, it says, "Moses, why are you an idiot? Moses, why are you an idiot?

What are you doing? what are you doing? And Moses said to his father-in-law, because the people come to me to inquire of God when they have a dispute, they come to me uh they come to me and I decide between one person and another and I make them know the statutes of God and his laws. Moses recognized that this is important work. Jethro is saying it doesn't have to be yours. Okay? It is not that it's not important, but Jethro is saying it's not yours.

You shouldn't have to do that. When they have a dispute, they come to me and I decide between one person and another and I make them know the statutes of God and his laws. Moses uh father-in-law said to him, "What you are doing is not good." Although the thing that is happening is good, Moses doing it is not good. You following me? Just because something is good doesn't mean that everybody does it or should do it. you and the people with uh with you wi will certainly wear yourselves out.

Amen. This I have felt this so strongly of the importance of this principle because one person can't do more than one person can do you know and in fact each person has their own capacity and all capacities are not the same. Um, this is not part of my sermon, but I'm going to share it anyway. Um, there are people in here, there are people that are listening online, there are people that are going to hear this message in the future, and you have always felt not good enough because you can't match the capacity of somebody else.

What if it's not your capacity? What if you're not called to it? Stop judging yourself based off of the person next to you. Judge yourself based off of what God is calling you to do. If God is calling you to do it and you're not doing it and then you feel bad, good. Good. I hope you do. Because then maybe you'll get right and you'll realize, I'm not doing what God is calling me to do. I should. Okay? But don't look at the person to the left of you and said, "They can do so much more than me.

I'm not good enough. I'm not." That's not biblical. That's not Don't do that. That is a bad measurement, right? Because we all fall short. So, let's all measure to Jesus, realize we all fall short, and then find out how we can catch up. All right? Let's not look side to side when it comes to that type of stuff. So, you and the people will certainly wear yourselves out. Remember, it's not just Moses that will get worn out.

It's the people as well. For the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone. Now, obey my voice. He says, I don't know if my father-in-law said that. I'd be like I'd be like, "Okay, guy. You need to have a better relationship with Jesus first, but then we'll talk about it." But he says, "Obey my voice. I will give you advice and God be with you. You shall represent the people before God and bring their cases to God.

And you shall warn them about the statutes and the laws and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do." Are you understanding that he's saying that? Listen, yes, they need to be judged. They need to figure some stuff out. That's true. But you have a job to do. What is Moses's primary job is what he's saying. Do you guys know it is, you shall warn them about the statutes and the laws, and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do.

He needs to know God well. He needs to spend time in prayer and intercession. He needs to understand what God is saying so that he can help the people understand. That is his primary goal is instructing and warning which also I believe by the way is the primary job of a of a pastor or an elder in church today. I don't think they all do that but that should be their primary goal. The primary goal of an elder, in my opinion, should be to instruct and to warn, if they are talking um about a bunch of stuff that isn't important, then maybe they're not a good elder.

If all they do is motivational speech to tell you how great you are, maybe they're not a good elder. They are called to warn and to instruct. Now, just so you know, a warning never feels good. I warn my children to not do things or there will be a consequence. They're not like, "Yay, another warning." Right? Warning isn't called to feel good. So, so if a if a pastor or a preacher or an elder is only making you feel good week after week after week or fighting for things that are unscriptural, they're probably likely a bad elder.

Okay? There's a lot of stuff we don't need to be talking about. What we need to be talking about is this right here. This this is important. He continues. He says, "Moreover, look for able men." Now, we're going to talk about these are some qualifications of people that he needs help from. Okay, ready? And you shall sorry. Moreover, look for able men from all all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe.

There's only three qualifications here. They have to fear God. First of all, that's a big qualification. Okay, that means that you fear God more than yourself. You fear God more than politics. You fear God more than your your uh your bills. You fear God more than money. You fear God more than your mother-in-law and father-in-law. You fear God more than your neighbor. Okay? You give him great reverence and understanding in who he is.

And so therefore, you trust him. That's the fear of God. And then it says, "Who are trustworthy." These are people. People that are trustworthy are people that you can trust with your children, that you can trust with your family, that you can trust with your money, you can trust with your bills, you can trust with your heart. Those people are trustworthy. Okay? These are people that don't talk bad behind your back. These are people that don't decide to gossip.

These are people that uh always keep it in Jesus, right? And then there's one other and it says hate a bribe. Why is hating a bribe very important? Because if you accept a bribe, you also accept favoritism. If you have favoritism that is not godly, imagine that I am helping 12 people and one of them is allowed to bribe me. If this one is allowed to bribe me, then they will become special to me. And if they're special to me, then they will get their way more than the others.

If they get their way more than the others, they are likely not going to hear good instruction and good warning. I would do a poor job at leading them because now I've accepted a bribe. Not only is that part of it, but also you're accepting something personally for yourself. That's also not okay. But there's just more to accepting a bribe than getting money or getting a favor. All right. Now, here's the instruction. It says, "And place such men," it has to be these types of men, not other men, such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of 50s, and of tens.

Now, I love that it kind of displays all of these levels, if you will, because different people, ready, have different capacities. Some of you can only handle 10 people. Some of you can handle a hundred. Some of you can handle a thousand. Okay? Some of you can handle three. Okay? That's okay. That's okay. I'm not saying that's even bad. I'm literally not saying that some of you can handle three. Focus on the three. Okay? focus on the three.

Now, what's interesting is the some of the verbiage that is used in the original language actually it kind of has a context of military. There's kind of like this this military uh word that is used and and it's like their main job isn't to host them. Their main job isn't to make them feel good. Their main job is to be their general. Do you understand? to lead them, to not coers them, to not rub their backs, to not give them massages on their sin because you want them to feel better about their sin.

Okay? It is to help lead them in the way to God as a military person would lead an army. And then it says this, "And let them judge the people at all times." Let them do it. Moses, the thing that I told you not to do, they're going to do. Why? Because they're men who fear God. They're trustworthy, and they will not take a bribe. You put in the correct people, people that are willing to serve. Now, that to me is quality service, right?

Let's continue. Um it says this, "Every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves." Why is it? Well, what what is what is a great matter? Right? Some people think their matter is great and it's not. They just have to put their cat down. That's important, okay, for all you pet loving people. But that doesn't need to go to Moses. My cat's sick. What do I do? You should figure that out with the men that are trustworthy, that fear God, and that don't take a bribe first.

A great matter could be, I'm assuming, a very large great matter where there's some gray area and misunderstanding or not understanding completely. So, they need some extra insight. A great matter. Here's the thing. The the important reason why you put in a quality person into this position is because they should be able to handle all matters at all times except for the really weird great big ones. Right? So if you put somebody in place to help lead that isn't really they don't really fear God, they don't really know God's instruction well, they don't know the word of God, it's likely that every matter is a great matter.

And then it results in the same problem that Jethro just yelled at Moses about a minute ago. Okay. So that's why there is some qualifications and why qualifications are important. So why do we do this? Why is this even important? Why did Moses do this? Um why did he even consider this? Why was Jethro saying this to him? This is why. So it will be easier for you and they will bear the burden with you. The reason is so that the load is shared.

The load should be shared. It's important for it to be shared. A lot of times the leadership, the staff or whomever at a church does everything. It's not good. It shouldn't be like that. Um remember in in mo in in this time where Moses was fighting the Amalachites, there was Moses, then he had two dudes next to him, like his his right hand and his left-hand man, and then there was a whole army that was willing to go to war.

Right? That's how the church should be. There should be may maybe there is one appointed leader. Fine. But they can't do it alone. They should have other people around them, right? And not just that, they shouldn't do it all. There should be an army that's willing to go into war. So this is what the church should be, right? It's important that the whole church is involved just at different capacities. If you do this, God will direct you.

You will be able to endure and all this people also will go to their place in peace. You know, there's a there's a couple uh statistics out there. Um and there's varying reason there's varying reasons why um these statistics are out there, but usually a a person that is a pastor like they're ready to quit at year two. Usually, statistically, it says that uh a lead pastor or a senior leader is ready to quit at about year two.

And most of them do. And most of them do. I just want you to know I'm almost at four. And it's not easy. Okay. So, so when when we consider when we consider that there's this statistic, we have to ask why. Why is this a statistic? Well, because I I personally believe there's there's other variables. There's other variables. Okay? There's a lot of leaders out there who shouldn't have ever led in the first place. There's a lot of pastors who weren't called to be a pastor.

They were just a nice guy, so they decided to pick them. There's a lot of stuff that goes on out there, okay? There's people that um weren't supposed to do it, but they weren't supposed to do it, but they also had all the qualifications, so they accepted it because it's a good thing to do. Okay? That also will burn you out. But I have to believe that part of this is the expectation on that leader or the leaders to fulfill and do almost everything perfectly by the people they are serving.

Why do I think that I don't I don't receive a ton of that personally. I have just re I've received some, but I've I've also seen uh my other my friends and and uh colleagues in ministry have received similar or they've seen similar or it's just across the board. It's very normal unfortunately. And so why is it important? It's important because then the burden is shared and therefore you can continue doing it because you will be able to endure is what he says.

If you do this, God will direct you. You will be able to endure. I'm not even blaming a lot of those pastors for bouncing because I don't really know the situation. I can't really judge. But I do know that if they maybe had like a biblical uh idea of leadership and participation that perhaps perhaps they might still be there because they might have been able to endure it. It's hard to endure. It's hard to endure. Okay.

So we we see this we see this here and and this is one aspect of uh of kind of like a leadership structure of kind of a leadership structure. We don't see here elders and deacons and overseer and all this. We don't see that here. We don't see pastor prophet. We don't see any of these other giftings or characteristics. We don't see that. But what I'm telling you is the most important thing that had to be established in the very be very beginning is the is the quality of their character.

Okay? It was the quality of their character. That's the most important thing to God. It seems some from the very beginning is that they're men who fear God, that they're trustworthy, and that they don't accept the bribe. Very simple at first. Very simple. Very simple. Now, um, let's go all the way to First Timothy. And that should be page 932 or 9:33. So, 1 Timothy chapter 3. And I just want to read the actual scriptures we're supposed to be going through, okay?

Because we're going through the book of Timothy. Um, and don't worry, I'm not done yet. There's other scriptures we're going to be hopping into. Maybe not today, but we will. Okay? So, we're going to start in verse 8. But before we get to verse eight, you like how I do that? Let's start in verse eight. But before we get there, I do that a lot because I think it's always important to know where we came from, where we're going.

We just talked about the qualifications of overseers. We discussed two weeks ago that my personal belief is that overseers and elders should be males. Um I do want to say something about that because uh it's not necessarily my desire or my um my heart uh to uh to pick it but I feel like it is correct scripturally. So I have to obey the scriptures. But one thing that I have seen happen at churches, I know friends that participate in a church like this.

I know people who are on an elder board like this. Okay. Um I do want to say that I have seen husband and wife work together in an eldership group. And I think that that can function. Um I think the predominant reason why it can function is because uh both things that are in place biblically are still in place. the husband is still being responsible for his wife because they're actually doing it together. I don't know why he he couldn't also be a part of that.

Um and then in addition to that um uh the other thing particularly that seems to happen there is that an an elder should be able to teach um but also a woman should not be able to necessarily teach, right? like uh teach men and um do those things. So if it is under a capacity an non-eing capacity, I don't see why it could not work. Um now I also said I also said that if a man is uh this sounds like so it's not misogynistic.

It's really not. Uh I don't want it to come off that way because it's not. I I women are great. Um, and and by the way, women work harder than a lot of men do. But anyway, we're not going to get into that right now. Um, so, uh, that doesn't mean that if a man or a um, a male eldership is leading that a woman could not teach under their oversight. I'm not saying that that's not impossible either. That's my personal belief and my personal opinion is that I don't see why not because in my opinion, what is actually going wrong?

If they are submitting to the eldership, the eldership has peace about it. They're giving them that platform and opportunity. Why not? Why not? I don't know. Um, we don't really do that very often at Living Hope, it seems. But I wouldn't be all jarred if I saw that before. And by the way, I have seen this before. And there have been women who have taught that I have learned from personally. It doesn't mean that something that God intended uh could be done incorrectly or wrong or something and he could not still use it for his glory.

Um, he does and he can. That's what he's been doing with humanity forever. like we get it wrong all the time and yet he still uses it for his glory. Um so anyway, I just wanted to share that I have seen it operate with husband and wife and uh I think that it possibly could. Um I just wanted to share that. Okay. So now let's get into deacons which um in this whole governance thing uh seems to be the next thing that Paul wants to share with Timothy.

And he says this in verse 8 he says deacons likewise. When you hear the word likewise, let's remember that now we're switching to maybe another people group. Okay? So, um, if you say, "Hey, you so and so, you got to be doing this likewise." You should do it as well, changing to the different person that he's speaking to or speaking about. Okay? So, I just want you to mark and remember that word likewise. So deacons likewise must mean must be dignified, not double tonged, meaning we don't speak in both sides of our mouth.

We don't say one thing and mean another. We don't say one thing in front of people and another behind. We don't say one thing to God in public and another in private. Right? Double tongue means there's basically two people inside that you are allowing to speak two different ways. That just means that you're a hypocrite. Okay? Do not be double tonged. Do not be a hypocrite, not addicted to much wine. We talked about this as elders, but they bring it up again because it's like I it's like Paul wants them to know just because you're not an elder doesn't mean now you can drink a lot of wine.

Okay? He's saying you also, by the way, cannot be addicted to much wine. If you want to have a glass of wine at dinner, if you want to do fine, but if you are addicted to much wine, you become disqualified. All right. Then it says, "Not greedy for dishonest gain." I don't know if there's another type of greedy. Um, but can you be greedy for honest gain? I don't know. Have you ever been greedy in the prayer closet? I just think I just think it's interesting that you can't be greedy for dishonest gain.

But what if you're like what if you're interceding for somebody's behalf because you're greedy for them? Now, maybe greedy is the wrong word, but you want something so bad for somebody that you're willing to go in your closet and not take no for an answer. God, I really want this for them. I want them to know you. I want I want them to come closer. I want them to uh to admire you. I want them to admonish you. I want them to understand you.

And they don't understand you. Some of us, most of us, by the way, would quit. We'd quit on one prayer. We're like, "We tried. We threw it up. God didn't answer. I guess he's not answering that one. Let's move on." But some of us need to learn how to be a little bit more greedy in the closet. We need to start praying to the Lord. We need to start petitioning the Lord. We need to start asking the Lord. And if your heart's right, I don't know why he wouldn't give it to you.

But when is our heart right? When our will coincides with his will, right? And we and like uh think of Jesus in the garden. Jesus like I don't want this cup. He's praying that this cup be taken. He's not interested in the cup. He's like I don't want to be forsaken. I don't I'm not I don't want to die in this way. I'm not interested in this great amount of breath. It's not something I really want to want to drink. Right?

Have you ever just been in your prayer time and just said, "God, I'm just not interested. I'm just not interested in this. I know it seems like you're calling me in this direction, but it doesn't seem like something I really want to do. But Jesus' followup, may it teach us all, not my will be done, but yours. And that's the difference. The difference is you can pray whatever you want in your prayer closet, but when your heart coincides with heart, you say, "Listen, that's how I feel, but ultimately I want my will to be your will, and therefore, whatever that is, that's what I'm going to submit to." And so continue to submit to the father's will while you're doing that.

Um, so it's okay to pray different things. That's fine. But in the end, maybe it's like, "But Lord, ultimately your will be done, not mine. And whatever the outcome shall be, I will accept. I will accept. They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. Now, the mystery of the faith here is is seeming to describe Jesus Christ as the mysterious savior that didn't come in a militant way, but did not only save the Jewish people, but also save the Gentiles.

There's this mystery about how it is the God of the Israelites, but yet he extends his saving ability beyond. And so they need to hold this mystery sobermindedly. They need to understand it well. Why do they need to understand it well and have a clear conscience about it? Because there will both be uh Jews and Greeks and Gentiles and non-Greeks probably, right? So eventually uh non-Jew, non-Greek, another nation or another, uh type of people that want to come to know the Lord, they have to have a clear conscience on what the gospel actually is.

It's important for them to actually understand the gospel. If they don't understand the gospel, they will not share the gospel. They will not live the gospel. They will not be an example of the gospel to others. Right now we are just just to understand we're talking about the characteristics of deacons and let them also be tested first. This is interesting that when Paul is saying you can establish deacons in the church.

First of all, we don't even know what deacons do yet. We just know that they have to be like this, right? And this is this is uh this is early on in the church when they realized like maybe some church governance could be helpful. You guys remember like back in uh back in Acts in the very beginning it was kind of like hey we're all doing this thing together. Everything's going to work out. It's going to be fine. Let's all like pursue it together.

Let's do everything. Let's make everything even. But then there's something here where where Paul's like, it's good idea to have some levels of authority and help that are established in some type of office. Okay? Not like a like a work office, but like the office that you hold, like the position office. Uh, and let them hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. And let them also be tested first. Then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless.

Not only do we go with qualifications, but then we go with practicality. Can they actually serve? Can they actually do the job? Can they actually understand the description and walk it out? Are are they really godly men? Do they really hold the gospel with a clear conscience? Are they really not taking bribes? You know, sometimes when people get in position, that's what creates in them a desire to start accepting bribes because they start coming, right?

So, we have to test them first to make sure that they're actually men of God who fear God, who are serious about the gospel, understand the mystery of of of of faith and godliness and the gospel so that they can live by it. So, they need to be tested just to clarify and make sure. Then once they are proven um they can serve as deacons. How do they prove themselves? They prove themselves blameless. Blameless. Like when a situation comes up, they're not to blame.

When something happens, they're not to blame. They're trying to do everything that they can to follow Jesus and to help people do that. They're not to blame. That doesn't mean that they're perfect, but they're not to blame, right? Their wives likewise. Okay, so there's two important things here. The word husband and wife in this particular category in in here in in chapter 3 could be uh translated as woman or wife or husband or man.

Okay, the word is very similar. Okay. Um, and so it's translated as wise. But here's a key kicker for me. It says their wives likewise. He's going from talking to the the men to talking to women or the wives. And he shares this likewise. What's interesting to me about this, if you calculate and you look, he did not mention this in overseer or elder. He didn't shift over to talk to women. But here he does. And why is he doing that?

My personal opinion, I think that it's possible that a woman can serve as a deacon. That's what it seems to be to me that he's shifting over to say, "Okay, now now that I've talked to the guys, I want to talk to the girls." Likewise, there's some things that you guys need to know, too. Um, there's a few reasons for that. Um, my belief in that. Number one, I don't feel like it goes against anything that uh that Paul has said about authority and teaching. a deacon.

A deacon by the root word is the root word diocinos. And the root word diokinos translates best as servant. But then in the Bible, diocinos is used in two different forms. One is as a general servant and one is as the office of a deacon. And this word was used previous to the church and then the church kind of capitalized on and started using as this position as we see here. And so these people are called, deacons are called, if they're were using the word dioconos, to serve, to serve.

To be the hands and feet of Jesus to the people around them, to serve in ways that are helpful. What does that look like? Well, there's a lot of denominations that do a lot of different things. Some of them are biblical and some of them aren't. You know, um the thing is we look into scripture and we see a few things. Um we see that their character is laid out. And I'll get to more of the establishment of what are some of the things that they can do next week.

But um but let's let's let's keep going. So their their wives likewise or the women likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober minded. It's important that women are dignified in the way that they dress and the way that they act. It's important that a woman uh doesn't gossip or talk behind people's backs. It's important that she's not slandering people just because they're not good enough. It's important for her to be sober minded, to think clearly of the gospel, to think clearly of Jesus, to think clearly of the scriptures, to think clearly of eternity.

No man or woman should probably be in a position of um an office at a church if they're always concerned with this life. That's not going to be helpful. That won't be helpful for people, right? Faithful in all things. Faithful in your marriage, faithful in your friendships, faithful to your church, faithful to your leadership, faithful to your neighbors, faithful to your neighborhood, faithful in all things, faithfully wake up and spend time with Jesus, faithfully worship God day by day, faithfully do what you're supposed to do, faithfully obey and submit to God.

Faithful in all things. It doesn't say in most things, let deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their own household. Well, um, this is the one that for me has been something I have personally thought about when it comes to the quality of a godly leader. Why? Because I have a wife and several children. And as a leader in my household, I have to always ask myself, am I leading? Am I leading well?

Um, if it's my responsibility to help pastor and lead my family and I can't do it well, I probably shouldn't be pastoring a church, right? And so they're my first priority. If I can get that right, I can probably get this right. And they're both difficult. They both have different hardships and they both have different things to wrestle through. But it's important that a man or a woman can participate at home knowing that the spiritual guidance, authority, and encouragement at home is super important. if they act like what's at home is not important but what's at church is they're not qualified because what's at home is very important and so if they can't manage that how do you expect them to manage anything else now we all live in our own lives and we all live at home and we know that that that house is never perfect but if we strive and we aspire to lead well and to always point back to scripture and point to God and lead by example, that's how we know that we become more qualified.

But if you're going to tell me that God is calling you to some type of leadership or some type of office of deacon and yet you cannot manage your own house, I'm going to say I don't think so. I'm not quite sure that's true. I'm not saying that home is going to be perfect. I want to be clear. This isn't supposed to be condemning. This is honest, right? Home is hard, right? Everybody knows you the best there, right? The reason why, by the way, you argue with your spouse more than anybody else is because they know you, right?

And the reason why you uh argue with them, like you attack them or you have problems with them, is because you know them. Everybody in the house sees everybody's flaws. You can pretend really well at church. You shouldn't, but you can. At home, it's really hard to pretend 247. So, why do you argue with your spouse more than you argue with anybody else? Because you guys know each other. Now, work through it. Pray through it.

What does God call you guys to do in that situation, that circumstance? What are you supposed to do? Work through it together. The person that you'll be the rast with will always or should always, Here you go, should always be your spouse. Unfortunately, I I the reason why I reigged is because uh unfortunately that's not true for every marriage, but it should be. You should be completely open and honest with that person more than any other person.

And if you're more open with somebody else, I'm going to tell you now, stop. Inappropriate and unhelpful. Let's continue. For those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and also great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Christ Jesus. It's important to serve well. The reason why it's important to serve well in general is because it creates this good standing in us. What is this good standing for?

Well, I'd say it's probably twofold. Uh one, it's a good standing with God. If you're faithful and you're serious about God and you're trying to serve God and you're trying to participate, your standing with God is good. But Paul is always interested in the standing of the world. What is our standing for the world? Why is that his heart? Because how we stand will help them believe or not believe. Paul is always interested in people knowing eternity.

He's always interested in people knowing the true gospel. And so what's important for us is what we serve while we try to serve well at home and we try to serve well at the church. The reason why we do this is because it gives us good standing with God and good standing with the out outside world as well as with the church. Okay. So it's important for us to be able to be in good standing for ourselves and also um have great confidence in faith in Jesus.

Sometimes you need to serve. Be a diocinos at least in position not like a office but being willing to serve so that you can see um God's faithfulness through it. Many of us like to like sit at home and don't do anything with our faith. Go do something. Start serving people. Start caring about people. Think of others before yourself. Uh we used to do uh we used to do when I was a youth pastor we used to do this event called Toot.

The reason it was called Toot uh we used to sleep outside in the middle of winter um uh and we would uh do a coat drive and so we would we would gather all these coats that we give it out to homeless people or people that didn't have coats. And so um uh so we would do that and we called it toot for two reasons. One was so that when we held signs up, people would toot their horn, right? Little play on words here. But then toot also meant thinking of others today.

And so if you would apply toot to your life, maybe you would watch yourself start acting like a dioon. Start serving the body, start serving your neighborhood, start serving people. If you would just look at one day, some people are like, "Oh, but my calling is to do this thing in 10 years." I don't care what are you called to do today. If you think of others today, you'll be okay for today because tomorrow's not promised anyway, right?

So then tomorrow you can apply it again and again and then when you realize I didn't apply it very good yesterday, so I'm going to try to apply it today. So think of others today. The only other thing I want to say before we stop is that I don't think I said this in Romans chapter 16. Um Paul also wrote Romans and uh he talks about a girl named Phoebe and the word that he described Phoebe as the word diocinos. And so when he describes her, some some scholars would say, "Well, that means that like for her, for her it just means like a general servant." I just think that's a little misogynistic to say if if Phoebe was Philip, they would have said deacon, I believe.

Um and so when it's the same exact word that is used in this context even even later on when these letters are being written uh I have to believe that this this lady she she gave up like her life to serve the church. It says if you read what it says it's like she was a patron. She was a patron to both Paul and to the church. She didn't just give up her time. She gave up her money. She gave up her freedom. She gave up all things to serve the body and to serve Paul.

And so, uh, that's just another example that I that I want to share, uh, that says to me that it seems once again that why can a woman not serve as a deacon? It seems to me that they can. Um, okay, I'm gonna wrap up and then we'll come back next week. I still have more to do. uh still have more to go through when it talks about church governance and the way that it should work and what does this look like for this like army like if there's a general then there's two more people that help and then there's uh there's people over tens and over a hundreds and over a thousands and we have all of this stuff.

Um, should we not all be participating in some type of capacity is my question. And at Living Hope, here's the question for you guys. Like, are you participating in some type of capacity? And do you know that all capacities don't come with position? And I feel like people think they can only serve the Lord with a position or a title. I want you to know that they started making up positions and titles because they had to call things things, not because people were extra special.

Although there are people that are more qualified for different capacities. Okay. Um Okay. So, I have one question for you today. One question for you and then we're going to wrap up and pray. Believe it or not, I'm doing better than I did two weeks ago and the week before. So, you know, do you know we come to church to be warned and instructed not to feel good, gushy, and leave and forget, right? Let's not waste our time.

Let's not waste God's time. All right. So, my one question to you is in in if you're honest, do you prefer to serve or to be served? If you're honest, do you prefer to be served? Do you prefer to serve or to be served? Let's pray.