Quality Service 2 // Mike Richard // Living Hope Community Church transcript

Uh so here's my this is kind of like part two. Uh we're going to talk a little bit about service again. Um but I I just could you could you just could you just process with me what it would be like if the church did quality service? Like if people weren't always grumbling or if people weren't doing stuff they shouldn't be doing or if people wouldn't be uh judging others uh for things that don't matter. Um or if people weren't just being so critical or like when this person serves I'll serve when the way that they're serving I'll go up to that level but I won't do anything else.

Like what would life be like if the church gave quality service to? Let's pray. Let's pray. Jesus, first of all, you are Lord and Savior. We thank you for loving us, dying for us, rising again for us, defeating sin and death. We thank you that um you want to lead us and guide us and bring us close. We thank you that you are willing to adopt us into your family. What a blessing it is to be chosen um by you, God. Thank you for loving the whole world and dying for the whole world.

And Lord, I pray that we have such a service towards you and towards others that people will come to know you from it. I pray God for people's salvation that you would um draw them to yourself, bring them to repentance, and bring them to new life. Lord, here this morning, I pray God that I would um that you would give me anointed ears and heart to continue to hear what you're saying to me even now. And I pray, Lord, that you'd anoint my lips to speak the words that you want me to speak.

I also pray, Lord, that you would uh bless and anoint every hearer's ears and heart to hear what you're trying to say through your word. I pray, Lord, that um you will continue to help me to understand your word, to be able to teach it well for your honor and for your glory. We give you praise in your name, Jesus. Amen. Okay. So, for those that don't know, we've been going through a book called First Timothy. This book is a letter that's written to Timothy from Paul, which is he would call himself his spiritual father.

And uh he cares about him a lot. And uh so when you when you care about somebody a lot, sometimes you will give them warnings, instruction, maybe you'll embrace them, you'll encourage them, you'll exhort them, maybe you'll challenge them. Um a lot of times, um when somebody cares for somebody, uh they want to see that person reach their potential. Anybody know what I'm talking about? You love somebody so much and you see so much in them and you want to see them reach their potential, right?

And so a lot of times when you come alongside like Paul is coming alongside Timothy or like Priscilla and Aquilla came alongside Apollos whatever it is when these things happen um it's because we see something in them and we want them to fulfill that. We want to see them rise up to their potential. And so all I'm saying is if if you feel like um uh you don't know how to share with somebody, that's a good way to share.

I know there's more in you. I can see it. God has shown me there's more in I know there's more in you. Um and you can encourage them that way. Uh but don't forget when you're doing this to also let them know what you do see already. That's good. Like Paul is saying, "Hey, these things are good. you're doing these things like, "Hey, you're staying in this place like you were supposed to stay. I need you to continue to stay.

You're doing great. You're the man that's for the job." Um, but there's some stuff there that we could probably pivot and switch. So, let's let's work on that. So, um, so I'm going to reread uh chapter 3. I think it's in the Pew Bible. It's 9:32 or 9:33. Um, I'm going to reread chapter 3 verse 8-13. I'm not going to stop much. I'm just going to read it through because there's uh then we're going to pivot. All right. Verse eight.

Are you there? Okay. Deacons likewise must be dignified. Remember, this is coming right after uh talking about elders. Deacons likewise must be dignified. not double tonged, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain. They must 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. Their wives likewise or women likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober minded, faithful in all things.

Let deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their own households well. For those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and also great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus. So I I want us to do something uh real quick. When we see the Bible and we see that there are certain characteristics that uh are pointed towards male or female when it comes to you should be this type of person.

I'll give you an example. An example is uh in the previous chapter it said that women should dress modestly. It doesn't say that men should dress modestly. So should we infer or believe that men can dress immodestly because it wasn't given to men? There's an answer to that. What's the answer? >> No. That would be bad ex Jesus. Okay. In this the the transcendent truth is that both male and female should dress which way? >> Modestly.

Um but in this particular case, there were women that were adorning themselves. And just so you know, when you adorn yourselves with your hair and your hair takes you six hours to get ready and then you come to church because you want to be like, "Look at me." That's the issue. And so he's calling that out. Be like, "Listen, be more modest than that, okay? wear sweatpants. It's not what he's saying. It's not what he's saying.

It's not what he's saying. Okay. That's not what he's saying. Some of the moms in here were like, "Yeah, got it." Yeah. So, um, no, but it it's it's for it's for both. So, so when we also see some of these things like women need to be like this, men need to be like this, the truth is we both need to be like those things, both man and women. Okay. So, it doesn't mean that, you know, like women should be sober minded, but men don't have to be.

No, you need to think of the gospel clearly as well, men. Um, so I I don't I don't want us to get so literally exposed to this wording that we're like, "Oh, women, you need to do these four things, and men, you need to do these." And they're not the same. They're very different. But when it comes to the characteristics of godly mankind, they're the same. Okay? Now, how those uh happen are a little bit different due to one's male and one's female, but um not they're really not that far apart.

So, okay. So, uh last week we we went over that. We read that. So, we see that this is in my opinion this is one of the latest um mentions of Deacon. And then we went to what I would consider one of the earliest uh figuring outs, if you will. I don't know really how to say this of what what uh church governance could look like. When we look at the book of um not the book, the book of Exodus with Moses and how his father-in-law said, "Hey, you should not be staying here from morning till night helping people with all their problems.

You you shouldn't be doing that. You should find people that are capable of doing this and you should set them over tens and hundreds and thousands and uh and uh then when there's a great matter, they should come to you then." But in all these other matters that are not considered great, um, let them deal with it. That's why you pick people of great repute. You pick people that know what know the scriptures. You pick people that actually spend time with Jesus.

You pick people that are serious about prayer, right? Um, you pick people that are not prideful. You pick people that are not arrogant. People that don't think that they're always right. You pick people that aren't hottie and tempered are misted. Right? You you look for those people that are serious about Jesus, serious about the gospel, and allow the gospel to change them because ultimately we all should be in that position knowing that we're not perfect and we want to be changed by the gospel.

Right? If this if you if this first of all, if this is in your house and you never open it, it's probably not changing you. Okay? So consider a getting one of these and b reading it. Okay? If you want it to change you, you need to have it and you need to read it. Also, um, if you can't hear God's voice too much or you don't really know what he's saying or you don't really know his character, maybe you should talk to him.

You will learn his voice. You will learn who he is. You'll learn what he's interested in. And so, we need to do both of those things constantly. We need to be reading and we need to be praying. What is prayer? >> It's just uh it's just an external expression to people around us, right? No, no, no, no. It's communication to God. And so without prayer, we'll have no communications. So we want to be communicating. All right.

So Exodus all the way to 1 Timothy where we didn't hit is uh they don't use the word diocinos, but I think it's very important. So we're going to turn to Acts chapter 6. And this is another establishment um of of a realization. And there's really really good points in Acts chapter 6. I did go over Acts chapter 6 probably uh two a year, two years ago. Um so I think we could hit it again. Why not? Why not? So if you could turn to Acts chapter 6, I want you to say there when you're there because it's important that you're there.

Some of us are audio like audible learners. Some of us are visual learners. But did you know we could learn best if we do both? If you listen and you read. Don't just listen to my words. Make sure I'm actually saying scripture. Right? Believe it or not, I'm not perfect. You're like, "We know that. We know that." If there's one thing we know about this church is that that pastor ain't perfect. You are right. You are right.

But I serve one who is. >> Okay. So uh so we're going to break this down. Um I am going to break down as I'm reading it and give you some information that I think will be helpful. Just realize that the word diocinos which is the the word that we keep finding. So this word was used before the church just so you know. And what it meant before the church in general was like somebody who serves serves in general whether they serve for the government or they serve their community or it could be used for a couple different context.

Uh it could be military perhaps. It could be different different ways, right? But in in there was a place in time when the church started to coin it and not just use it as we need to serve, but that there is this office of a server. Okay? And this diocinos and that and that's kind of like what it ends up getting to when it's establishing people. This is kind of the in between where they didn't have a word for it. Okay?

So, but I do want to read it. um we don't just simply look up what does the Bible say about this one Greek word but what is the concept what is happening because that word also is not in uh Exodus I believe uh chapter 18 okay you guys ready now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number a complaint by the Hellenists okay the the important thing about Helenists to realize is they are Jewish people their primary language language is Greek.

Greek. And uh the apostles primary language was >> Aramaic. Aramaic. Yes. Yes. Um now they they they mostly spoke Aramaic. They also did speak uh Hebrew. And then uh the Helenist they were Jewish. Okay. But they spoke Greek. Okay. And that it's important. But just think about think about the the differences because I want to hone in on what I need to talk about and not some other stuff cuz there is more stuff to talk about.

But ready? Um, a complaint by the Helenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. Now, um, this will tell us a couple things. Number one, uh, a complaint could be perhaps beneficial. That's kind of weird. Nobody likes complainers, but I don't think it was a complaining spirit or a complaining um, uh, critical kind of like come down on. It was like, there's a problem.

There's a problem. Which is a complaint, by the way. If you say, "Hey, there's a problem." It doesn't have to be like you're the problem. It can be like there's a problem and we need to resolve the problem. Uh I I'll give you a good example. A lot of times I meet with uh some different teams and we have meetings and we stuff and like a lot of times what I bring up is I see this problem there's this problem that we need to resolve.

What should we do? Like how can we do this? When we look at the lens of the Bible like how did they do it and what does it look like today? Because they had the answer but how does it work here and how do we do that now? And who the heck is going to do that? You know, like we don't know all the answers. Okay. Um, let's continue. So, uh, their widows were been being neglected in the daily distribution. Can we all agree that that's a problem?

If there were people that needed to be taken care of and weren't being taken care of, I can see why there could be a complaint, right? The complaint is is that there are people that are missing out. Now, do you believe that the apostles really just didn't like them? Do you think that their heart was against them? Do you think that they were like, "Well, you speak the wrong language. I'm not really interested in knowing what's going on over there." I think some people would say, "Yeah, they were a bit racist.

They were a bit weird. They didn't they didn't like their culture." I don't think that was the problem, but we'll keep going. Ready? And it says, "And the 12," which is talking about the apostles, "summoned the full number of the disciples and said, are you hearing me? The full number of disciples," this is the very first important part of what it means for you to be able to even participate in this conversation. You have to be a disciple.

There's a lot of people who want to do the work of God, but they don't want to be a disciple of God. That's not okay. That's not helpful. So, so the number one thing is if you want to be in this conversation, you need to be a disciple of God. And what does that mean? Go read Matthew 28:18 to20. Just read those three verses. If you read those three verses and you are practicing those things, you're a disciple. Okay? Got it?

Matthew 28:18 to20. Just so you guys can all check in your spiritual mirror. Ready? They said this after they brought the full number of disciples. They said, "It is not right that we should give up preaching the word and God of God to serve tables." Okay. When I was younger, the way that I read this was, "Who the do you think you're talking to?" Right? That's not what I believe is happening. What I do believe is happening is they knew God's call on their life.

And that meant more to them than anything else. See, being obedient to God is more important than serving anybody else. Do you hear me? It's weird to say it, especially if you're like you love people and you serve people, right? But hear me. Being obedient to God is more important than serving anybody. Okay? Now, were they serving people by carrying out the word of God, by preaching it, by sharing it, by instructing it?

Yes. But us in our human minds sometimes say serving is in this category. So this if I'm not doing this, if I'm not wiping down tables, if I'm not um uh if I'm not babysitting, if I'm not cleaning, if I'm not like that's what's serving. If I'm not doing the I come here on stew work days and I work on the building, like that's serving. It is. It is serving, but it's not the only way to serve. And so then it says uh sorry it continues and it says therefore brothers pick out from among you seven men of good repute full of the spirit and of wisdom.

Ready? Here we come in with more characteristics. They have to be a disciple. They have to be of good repute. They have to be full of the spirit and of wisdom. It's like you can't just be full of the spirit but you also need to be wise. It's like can you be full of the spirit and not wise? Well, I don't know about you, but I was following Jesus and I did some unwise things, right? And he had to bring me back on the path and say, "Hey, can we put both feet on this path again?" Um, so full of the spirit and of wisdom whom we will appoint to this duty.

Okay. So, did you guys catch what happened? The apostles actually said, "We are interested in your recommendations. We don't need to necessarily pick them. We need your recommendations." The interesting part about this is there seemed to be a problem with Helenist and I would say there's two primary things that were going on. Number one is there was maybe cultural differences. Okay? Um if you have a cultural difference, um if if any of you guys are married to somebody from another culture, I am, so I understand this very very well.

If you don't, it might be a little hard to understand um because I live it. Um but I'll give you one example at my house. All right? And you guys can I'll learn this. Okay? Please tell me you want to come over first, right? Meaning, um text me or call me to say, "Hey, we're in the neighborhood. Are you available?" Right? Um some of you have just shown up and that's still okay. I'm just saying if you want to know my preference, my preference is let me know that you're considering coming over.

And be honest, if you're just around the neighborhood, I probably tell you just to come over anyway. But I'm just saying like give me some warning, you know? Let me let me get my kids looking like we take care of them first. Okay. So uh so there's there's this where in in my culture the way that I grew well I grew up whatever my my culture my family it was like um be respectful in this way the respect for us was let us know that you'd want to come over and let us tell you you can okay now my wife's culture that doesn't happen in fact that is not even remotely close to what happens you could be a complete stranger and you can yell through the gate because they gates around their homes.

You could yell through the gate and say hi. And they'll say, "Come in and eat with us." And I'm like, "Who is this guy?" My wife's like, "Uh, I think it's probably a neighbor." Probably a neighbor. Probably like the drugdeing neighbor or what neighbor are we what neighbor is it? Um, and that's just very very normal. They don't have to text. They don't have to call. Literally anybody from anywhere. They could have drove from 3 hours. three hours away and they wouldn't even said they were coming into town and they would just like yell outside the door.

No, no offense, but like I'm not driving anywhere for three hours without letting them know like, "Hey, are you going to be there? Are you going to be around?" In their culture, it's like, "We'll figure it out. It's fine." And everybody just comes in. So, you can you can you can understand my great amount of frustration. The first time I ever went there and I was like, "Do we have any privacy?" Well, no we don't. That's just how that works.

Okay. So, I have to believe that in this case there was a cultural difference. And what cultural difference? There's a communication difference. But then the second issue is this is literally they had two different primary languages. And so, in my opinion, things were getting missed. There were things that were falling through the cracks. Um, and so we need to be mindful as the church that uh are there things that are falling through the cracks because we come from different backgrounds, you know, like even here it's different for me than where I grew up.

And so I I have to constantly be reminded that um people don't always think how I thought growing up or the way that my family thinks or the way that the church that I grew up thought. You know, it's very different actually. And so it's it's good to have somebody who knows what's going on. So they said, "Pick seven people among you um in wisdom, I believe, because they're like, you know, who's serious about Jesus. You know who loves widows.

You know who wants to, you know, who's called to ser like you know these people that have these abilities." like through a language barrier. They could probably pretend because they can't say all the words or there's some stuff going on. But you guys know them. So please among you pick seven men of good repute, full of the spirit and of wisdom and so on and so forth. Then it goes to this verse 5. And what they said pleased the whole gathering.

This made them happy because it's clear to me that there was trust that was given over to the Henist to say, "Hey, you pick them." And they knew they submitted to the leadership of the apostles. You can tell, right? Because they didn't just do this. They submitted to the leader leadership of the apostles. But when the apostles said this, they also felt like, "Hey, you trust me and you care about us." It's not this like, "Oh, we're going to do our thing and you're going to do your thing." No, they were like, "Yeah, let's figure this out.

Thank you for bringing it up. But I can't stop doing what I'm called to do. Do you understand? If there's seven people among you, let's do this thing, but I cannot stop doing what I'm called to do. And I just want to be I want to be very open about this. This can be very offensive, right? Like God called me to do this. I have to do this. This is where I'm supposed to be. This is my thing. A lot of people can look at that and be like, uh, very judgmental or critical of that.

And I just have to say, well, do you do you see their character? Like, what type of people are they? Do they seem like they're really serving? Are they very serious about it? Like, or are they just messing around? You know, like I think you could tell by their character. But if you see that their character is like, "No, they're serious about the gospel. They're serious about the scriptures. They're serious about God.

And they're called to it." And it and it and it has to be there has to be some people around them that it makes sense to, right? Like when the spirit is doing something and you know the spirit as well, it like you bear witness to what's happening. So if nobody in the room bears witness to what you're doing, that's when I have some questions because then maybe you just think God's calling you to do something and he's not um because nobody else agrees or maybe that's just the wrong place or something else.

Let's continue. Um and what they said pleased the whole gathering and they chose Stephen a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit and Philillip which are by the way are the only two people that were chosen that you'll continue to hear about the other five you will not but uh Stephen very quickly he becomes this servant and then he gets martyed. So, if you want to serve, just know that it's possible that you'll get yourself into a situation that people won't like you.

Um, and Precarius and Niconor and Timone and uh, Parminus and uh, Nicholas, a procelite of Antioch. These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them. So there was this here they are the apostles probably affirmed it saying okay I think I think we're good and then they laid their hands on to bless it. Then it says this which to me is the thing I actually want you to take home today. Are you hearing me?

Verse 7. And the word of God continued to increase and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem. And a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. It's not just saying people that were lost, but people that were too religious or didn't understand or could be against Jesus or could have find another way. Even they came obedient to the faith of Jesus. And the reason why I want you to take this home as this is the most important thing is probably because probably because I want you to realize if you do what you are called to do and serve in the capacity in the way that you're supposed to uh do it that people will come to know Jesus.

And so when we all come together because we are all members of a body but we're not a full body alone. when we all come together to work as the body, that's when the head, which is Christ, can function the best. So, we need to come together. We need to stop saying um you know the the the the elders are the body and we will watch from afar or um or we have teams for this and we have teams for that and we have this that happens and we can I just can I just be really blunt with you?

If the toilet's dirty, clean it. Why are you leaving it for somebody else to clean it? We should be serving each other. If if you see something that's fallen on the ground at the church or outside, why are you not picking it up? Because we serve you. No, we should serve together, right? Like, we should be doing this together. Can you imagine if we all participated how much stuff we'd be able to get done and how much probably the gospel would go forth?

But instead, what happens is like there's a usually in churches, there's a there's a small amount of people that consistently do work and everybody else kind of consumes. Let living hope not be that because I think that we could do so much more. Yes, I get it. The toilet's dirty. Um, you clean it at home. Hopefully, you can clean it here, right? Get a brush, scrub it. You need to get a plunger. Ask questions. Figure it out.

Seriously, I'm being serious. This is like this is not You should participate in this way. Do you come to be served or do you come to serve? You know, I think so many people show up at an American church to be served. And I'm telling you that that is not the gospel. But don't take my words for it. Let's flip there. All right. So, let's go to Matthew chapter 20. Let's go to Matthew chapter 20. I think that if Jesus has something to say about this, I want to hear it.

What about you guys? >> Okay. So, I'm going to give a little bit of backdrop here. Here is the It's called my my Bible says a mother's request. A mother's request. Okay. It's the mother of um the sons of Zebedee. Okay. which is known to be Jesus' cousins. Okay, family. All right, you hearing me? Family. And so he she comes up to him and she says, "Hey, whenever you go to your throne, whenever you go ascend, whenever you go to your place, can you have my sons on the left and the right?

Can you have my sons on both of your sides?" And I don't know if this was like, "I'm so proud of my boys. Like, I want them on the next to you. Like, they're the best of the best. Like Jesus, you're the best, but they're the second best. Please have them sit next to you. Not only so when people look at you, they see you, but when they look at you, they see my boys. Right? Anybody got a mom like that? Anybody got mama like I I used to have some problems in school.

My mom would call the principal and yell at them. Why' you let that boy hit my son first so he had to beat him up? Serious story. That's like a true story, you know, like my mom's wild. Okay. My mom's wild. All right. So, so I don't know if it's just this, but but but Jesus is like, I love them, too. They're amazing. I'm glad they're in the family of God. Like, they're amazing. But do you know what you're asking? Do you know what I'm going to have to go through to to even have that seat?

Do you understand the cup that I'm going to have to drink? Do you want your kids to drink the same cup because they're not supposed to? You know, this is kind of like that honor is because I'm gonna be forsaken and I'm going to drink the cup. Do you want your children also to deal with that? You know, and kind of going through this thing. But this is what he ends up saying. We're going to start here in uh a little bit into verse 26.

He says, "But whoever," I can read it from the beginning in case you're there. "It shall not be among be so among you, but whoever would be great among you must be your servant." Jesus tells us that the greatest person is the one whom serves. But he doesn't stop there. He says, "Even as the son of man came not to be served, but to serve." Jesus didn't come to even be served. This is the king of kings and lord of lords who came to serve and to not be served.

If we feel like as not listen, I'm going to be honest. You're not the savior of the world. You're not the savior of the world. Right? Right. You're not the savior of the world. You're just not. You you neither. Sorry. You're not the savior of the world. Right. There's only one savior of the world and even he did not count himself to be served but to be the servant. If he whom is the savior of the world came to serve the savior of the world came to serve the world how can we say that we deserve to be served are you hearing me and I think that okay now let's be honest who here is human who's here who's here human who likes who likes to be served I love to be served I think it's great when when the when the when the plate of food magically shows up on my dining room It's amazing, right?

When I didn't have to put in an hour of cooking, I love it, right? Sometimes I add salt. You know what I mean? Right? Sometimes I add a little salt. But here here's the deal is is adding salt takes 10 seconds. Cooking that meal took one hour. And I'm going to sit here to be like, "You should have added more salt." What kind of attitude would that be? What kind of attitude? You know, and so just just as this this idea that Jesus came to serve, we should also hold that same thing.

Now, now I said we're we're humans. Let's be honest. We like to be served. I think here's the issue is when you demand service from somebody else, that's where the issue lies. It's okay if you enjoy to be served because it's enjoyable. It's nice to be served. It's encouraging to be served. It's beneficial to be served, right? It gives me energy to go through the rest of the day when I'm served, right? That's why we carry each other's burdens and serve each other so that we can keep doing this thing, right?

Also, that means please don't isolate yourself. Okay? Serve and be served. Okay? But if you're only coming to be served, I'm I'm just going to be honest. it will actually be unfulfilling because you're going to have this expectation always and you're going to always be the the energy sucker and people are going to be like I don't know what else to do or to give or to help or to whatever like it's not even helping nothing's benefiting right so please don't come to be served um but it is okay if you help people carry your burdens okay so don't don't don't don't like uh don't like crucify yourself so much that you can't even accept help, right?

And I know I'm speaking to some people here that don't know how to ask for help. Uh saying, "I need help," is not in their vocabulary. That's probably a pride issue. You need to work on that. Okay, that's a different issue, but we still need to work on that. So, he continues though, he's not done. Even as the son of man came to uh not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many as an exchange for many.

If you walked around this life and you decided that you would exchange your comfort, you would exchange your enjoyment, you would exchange your schedule, you would exchange some money, you would exchange your feelings to serve somebody else. Maybe there would be a great benefit for them. But we're so protective of ourselves because we want to be happy. And I just want you to know serving can be one of the most joyful things you do in your life.

Participating with somebody, encouraging somebody, being there for somebody, you know, when you serve somebody and somehow with your part, it doesn't mean that you you you're like planting a seed by serving whether it's a an a Christian in their sanctification process or whether it's a non-Christian in their in their uh in their process as well. But like you serve somebody and you watch them come closer to Jesus. It's one of the most fulfilling things that you can do.

It really is. And and some of us have not had the privilege of watching that or seeing that or noticing that. But continue to serve and you'll see that oh, this is doing something. It's benefiting. Now, please don't serve because you're looking for something. It doesn't that also is a bad expectation. Uh that won't be helpful for you. But Jesus not only came to serve, but he gave his life up. Can you imagine if we actually picked up our cross and followed Jesus and gave our own uh feelings up and we gave our own emotions up and we gave our own um uh passions up so that we could serve.

I just wonder what would Living Hope, what would Lancaster look like if we were all in on that? Not five of us, not 10 of us, but imagine a 100 people, 120 people, 150 people. That's what they were about. I have a feeling that it would affect there would be this aura of uh effectiveness that would go out because it's not simply just one person, but a group of people that are serious about the gospel and serious about dying to themselves like Jesus did.

I mean, Jesus obviously was the ultimate sacrifice, but if we're called to be like him, then we should also be sacrificial. So, what does that mean, Mike? Well, um, and what does this have to do with deacons, right? Sure, you're not thinking about that at this moment. So, let me bring it back. We're originally talking about deacons, but these were just qualifications for a type of person. The coolest thing about Acts chapter 6 is they said, "Pick seven of these dudes among you because there's way more than seven.

Pick this many dudes among you because there's way more because there's so many people who are serious about Jesus and about the gospel that you guys know even better. We would pick probably too many people. You know, you you should pick some. You should pick some." And so we all should try to honor these characteristics of Christians that are serious about, you know, be soberminded, don't be given over too much wine, um think of the gospel clearly, uh be willing to serve and not to be served.

Like these are things that we all should be a part of because that's the thing that happens first, right? This is what happens first. Then after that happens, then they say, "Okay, yeah, look for some Christians that are like this. they would serve well in this position. Okay? You shouldn't serve, you shouldn't be like that because you want the position of deacon. You should serve like that because you're a Christian, right?

Because you follow Jesus. So Jesus' opinion is is that it's better to be a slave than it is to be served. Yikes. Have fun with that one this week. That should be fun. Turning back to first Timothy here as I'm leaving as I'm leaving this idea of Acts. And so I I I kind of want to like close up this section and then I have a few questions for you in this just kind of giving a brief overview of some of the stuff that we've talked about. we have this Exodus story where where Moses was leading almost solo.

Um although very interestingly enough they were just in a war or a battle and he couldn't do it alone and then yet he moves from that only winning from help moving to trying to do it alone again. Be careful. Be careful. We always need each other. Okay. um don't just try to do it alone after you just knew you needed help. Okay. Um so then so then they get into this and his father-in-law uh doesn't approve of his method.

Um and the main reason why is because Moses was called to instruct and to warn the people. And to instruct and to warn them didn't necessarily mean that he had to be on the judgment seat for them on this day all day long. And so he had to put good men in place that were serious about the gospel. Then we go to Acts and we see that there was this thing that was missing. And I would say that living hope there are um there are there are things that fall through the cracks.

And if that is true, that's probably because we just don't have people serving in all those capacities and whatever. And so I continue to pray for that. Um, but there's stuff that definitely falls through the cracks and that's because one man can't do it. And that's because three guys on an elder team can't just do it. Um, and there's a lot of other people that serve too, but they're serving in their particular roles and there's still stuff that falls through the cracks.

And so we see here in Acts and it just gets redised at Living Hope, right? That sometimes there's things that fall through the cracks. Could be cultural. It could be a language barrier. It could be a lack of position. There's not like somebody doing it, right? Everybody might be doing something but nobody's doing that, right? Um and so we see that in Acts that there was this need that was a good need and they shared it with them.

And so then they implemented these people to come alongside. Moses implemented people, the apostles implemented people and first Timothy is uh being or Timothy is being told by Paul you we need to implement these people. And it seems like here around 1 Timothy this is when it starts to become like an office that was made. You got to remember when the church was born um uh around Jesus' time when it actually started first century church they were figuring it out and then at some point it seemed like uh couple decades later hey I think we need to put people in a specific position that we can make sure this will not get this will not fall through the cracks right and so that's the reason why we have these positions and things in the church in general is because we noticed that we just want to make sure somebody is overseeing that thing like we We don't want that thing to get dropped, right?

People are too important to have it drop all the time. So, can we make sure that we don't get this this doesn't fall through, right? Um, and then in Acts, I just wanted to say that it seems very clear that the apostles knew what they were called to do. And to me, the Henist didn't take offense to it. They understood that, but they wanted a result. They wanted something. They were like, "What can we do then?" And so they respected that that was their calling probably because they also have participated in hearing it, knowing it, feeling it, bearing witness to it.

So they knew that yes, the apostles are clearly called to bringing the word forth. They're clearly called to prayer. They're clearly called to do these things, right? And if if they are called to do that, and this is missing, they just told us, "Hey, here's the answer. Why don't you go find some people that could do it?" And that was the answer. So in the same way as Christians a you shouldn't be doing everything yourself and uh you should consider that if you're not doing all the things that uh should be getting done who can do it.

Consider that pray for it. Um God doesn't always just drop somebody immediately in your lap though. Just so you know there's not like always oh this person right here like or drops it in your mind as you're praying. It's like yep this guy. Um, so what I have realized and now I'm going to give a a short brief thing about myself. What I've realized in this position, can I can I is it okay? Can I wear my heart on my sleeve?

Is that okay with you guys? Being in this position is uh both a privilege and a pain. And um and uh mostly a privilege because why would God choose me? I don't know. like um I think it's probably a pain for him and a privilege for me. But uh but with it comes these when you when you really care about people that are your church family and you see things that there's cracks and things are falling through and you know they're falling through and you have a wife and four children and a house to take care of and you're the lead pastor and you lead all these teams and you do all this stuff and you're still trying to be a Christian uh day in and day out even in real life, you know, like we're not just Christians here, we're Christians out there, you know. um uh when when we when we act like that, it seems like, okay, there's there I just don't have enough time.

I can't do everything, you know, and so accidentally what Mike Richard has done in the past was I will pick up stuff that I shouldn't have picked up and I will run with it to help and then I will get like burned out or I won't be able to do it. Um and so the reality is is Mike is growing in that and realizing I shouldn't do this because it won't be good for my family. I shouldn't do this because it won't be good for the church.

I shouldn't do this because of X, Y, and Z. And so, um, I am even currently in this life, I'm figuring out exactly what God is calling me to do so I can be obedient to what I'm called to do and not accidentally pick up this other stuff. But I'll be honest, it's really tempting because it needs to be handled. There's stuff that needs to happen that would be beneficial for all of us that could help our neighborhood, that could help people come to know Jesus, that could help us know God better, you know, that we could get closer to him and all this stuff. like I just can't do it all.

Right? And so this is real for me. Uh I've been studying this and saying, "God, what is the answer?" And the answer is the ultimate answer is we need to do it together. That's the ultimate answer. Um and the best people to do it are the people that are disciples, right? Not just people that want to serve, but that they follow Jesus. And um and so that's kind of the crux of this whole first Timothy thing I believe is what kind of Paul is saying is like once again you shouldn't be doing this alone.

You need this help. These people need to be serving. Um and he's setting up some order. And so uh I think that as Christians we should be okay with this order as well as understand what is being said so that we can learn from the order and benefit others. Um, I don't know about you, I'm not really interested in entertaining and doing a program. When it comes to my life, if I knew that this was just an act and I just have to perform every Sunday, I would have already left.

I can't do that. I I am not gonna come before God and he'll be like, "You're a really good actor. I'm not interested in acting. I'm serious about Jesus and I'm serious about the word. And when it says stuff, I have to look in the mirror and say, "How am I doing with this?" You know, as a father, as a husband, as a leader, and you guys should, too. And so, you guys are going to love me today. I just am going to read his point and then we're going to read the questions.

The point is verse 14 to verse 16. This is the whole crux of why he wrote 1 Timothy. So we're just going to read this is the summarization. Okay? So we're going to read it. We don't really have to go through it much. We're going to read it. And just so you know, this is his point. I hope to come to you soon. But I am writing these things to you so that if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God.

You hear that? Point number one. I am letting you know how you should act at church. Okay? That's what he's telling you. I'm letting you to know how you should act in the household of God. Which is the church of the living God, which is the people. This is not a building. The people of the living God. He's not a dead God. He's a living God. He's still breathing and moving and doing miracles now and today. And it says a pillar and buttress of the truth.

This is the provider and protector of the truth. Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness. And then here's still the point. He was manifested in the flesh, talking of Jesus, vindicated by the spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory. Wait. Yeah, that's it. Good. Okay. Taken up in glory. I read uh the the amplified version. It's a bit longer. All right.

So, taken up in glory. So, he's he's manifesting this idea of Jesus is the point and the point of Jesus is that he is the truth and that's why we're doing what we're doing and we need to act like this way in the church because of who he is. Okay, here's your three questions. Number one, do I prefer to serve others or be seen by others? Do I prefer to serve others or be seen by others? Am I serving with excellence or just checking the box?

Am I serving with excellence or just checking the box? And am I willing to do my part so the gospel goes forth? Last one. Am I willing to do my part so the gospel goes forth? Let's pray.