(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Alright, so we're there in Philippians and we're just going to look at one verse and it's the very first verse there. Philippians chapter one and verse number one. One thing that we learn here in verse number one is just that this Philippian church is quite a mature, quite a developed church. There are other churches that we read about, other epistles where you kind of see they're still growing, they're still young, they're still immature. But the Philippian church is quite an established church. And we know because from the very first verse there, it says Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus, which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons. So you can see that there are two offices that have been held in this church there, the office of the bishop and the office of the deacons. And last week I looked at the office of the bishop and I said that this week we're going to be looking at the office of a deacon. So the title of the sermon tonight is The Office of a Deacon. Why would a church not just need a bishop, at what point would a church say, hey, we need some deacons as well, we need a deacon here to help out in the church. So that's what I want to pull out today. Now, you know, on the journey to look for a full-time pastor for Blessed Our Baptist Church, it might be that we don't necessarily come across a pastor immediately. It might be that we first have a need for a deacon. And so, you know, we want to see what does the Bible have to say about this topic. What are their responsibilities? Do they hold authority? You know, why would a church ever need a deacon? And so what we're going to do now is please go to Acts 6. Go to Acts 6 and we're going to see the beginning of the office of a deacon. Why did this come to be? At what point was this developed? Well, this first started in the church in Jerusalem. The very first church after Christ ascended up to heaven, the very first church, of course, started in Jerusalem. And it was a big church. You know, this church had thousands of people. And so, obviously, when your church is growing, you're going to require more and more workers, more and more full-time workers to serve in the house of the Lord. So in Acts 6, verse number 1, it says, And in those days, when the number of the disciples were multiplied, so you can see this church is flourishing, it's growing, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. So let's stop there and understand what is one of the roles of a church. Obviously, this church, you know, as it grew, it was not just made up of Jews. Hey, there were Grecians as well, there were Gentiles, even in the church there in Jerusalem. Okay? And this church obviously had widows. And, you know, one of the main responsibilities, one of the responsibilities for a church is to look out for the widows that are in the church. Now, we're a young church, we're a small church, you know, we may not necessarily have the widow there, but that is definitely one of the responsibilities of the church. In fact, the Bible does contain the criteria of helping out a widow. You know, if a widow has been in a church and they've been faithfully serving the church, you know, faithfully ministering the church, and, you know, her husband passes away, and she's got no other family to take care of her, then it becomes the responsibility of the church to make sure her needs are met. And so what is happening here, as this church continues to grow, you know, the apostles, they're not able to, you know, minister the word of God, which is preaching God's word, feeding people God's word, which is the main responsibility of the leadership there, and the taking care of the widows is being left behind. You know, the Grecians are saying, hey, our widows are not being taken care of in the church. And so as a church grows, yeah, it's great, but as the church grows, it also creates other problems, okay? And so this was being neglected, the taking care of the widows was being neglected, and if you look at, once again, verse number two, let's read verse number two, it says there, then the twelve, of course, that's the twelve apostles, okay, called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, it is not reason that we should leave the word of God and serve tables, okay? They were able to take care of the widow's needs and other administrative tasks that in the house of God, it got too much for the twelve to take care of. And they said, look, we cannot leave the word of God. And so one thing you need to understand in a church, the major responsibility, the major, the first and primary ministry of a church is to ensure God's word is being preached. Now, many churches, they neglect God's word, and they do everything else. I mean, you've got the stage, you've got the rock band, you've got all the people dancing out there, you've got everything else going, you've got the coffee shop in the back, right, you've got all the libraries, you've got all the different ministries that are going on, and then when the preacher gets up, he preaches this ten-minute feel-good sermon, and that's it. No, but the sermon is meant to be the main part of the church service, feeding people God's word, and so we cannot neglect God's word. And right now, for our church, you know, I do most of the administrative work. I do have helpers, of course, you know, that help out in different areas, but, you know, it's not just the preaching, it's not just preparing the sermons, it's not just the godly counsel that I give people, but it's also just other administrative tasks that are on my plate. Well, as our church grows, or, you know what, when I get back to Queensland, I might need somebody here to be boots on ground to take care of some of that administrative task so that we don't neglect the preaching of God's word. And I want you to notice, we're going to go back to the Greek now, okay? In verse number two, at the end of verse number two, when it says, and serve tables, if you go back to the Greek word there, and I'm not going to pronounce this right, okay, so please forgive me, but the Greek word there is diaconel, diaconel, okay? So, if I'm preaching about the office of the deacon, you can probably see where that comes from, diaconel, okay? And the main Greek word that is used for deacons is the word diakonos, okay? It's the same root word as diaconel, but diakonos is where we get the word deacon, okay? The English was not translated, but transliterated into the word deacon, and when it says, and serve tables, that's where the word deacon comes from, okay? So, let's keep going, let's go to verse number three now. Wherefore, brethren, so this is what the twelve apostles are saying, look ye out among you, seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, that we may appoint over this business. So, now you see, we need seven people in this church. Please look out amongst yourselves, look who is the more faithful Christians, the ones that are full of Holy Ghost, that we can appoint over this business. The things that were being neglected, because the church was growing, and this is again a good problem to have, and it will happen in times when our church starts to neglect things, hopefully not on purpose, but just because there's so much other things to do, and that's when you say, hey, we need to appoint people over this business. We need other people to serve the tables, okay? We need other diocanous people, deacons, to take care of the ministry of the church. Verse number four, it says, and we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word. You know, one thing that I took for granted, becoming a pastor, you know, you kind of look at pastors, right? You see them preach, you see them giving counsel sometimes, but one thing that people don't see is the prayer time, okay? One thing you notice here, that they want to commit themselves, give themselves over to prayer, and to the ministry of the word, okay? So this is kind of the behind the scenes work that nobody sees, that every pastor should be doing, is spending time in prayer. You know, in serious prayer to the Lord, for the church, for the ministry of the work of God, for the kingdom of God, and of course for the families and individuals that make up the church. But a lot of people just don't realize that's one of the main responsibilities of the church leadership as well. And so they want to give this business over to these seven men. Let's keep going, verse number five. It says, So now we're going to get the names of the seven. Stephen and Philip are sort of the main deacons that we read about in the Bible. That's why they get mentioned first, because as we continue through the book of Acts, you're going to start reading stories about Stephen and Philip. One of the names it says, So they choose seven men. They say, yeah, these are the best guys that we can appoint to in this business. They bring them before the apostles, all right? And when they had prayed and laid their hands on them, so normally when you ordain someone, when you appoint someone to a job, you know, to a spiritual position, an office in the church, you lay your hands upon them and you pray for them and you appoint them to the job. Verse number seven. And this is the first time that we learn where the deacons come in. What are the deacons? The deacons are there to help, you know, the bishops or the... we don't have apostles today, but the highest office that we have today in the church is the bishop and the deacon is to come under that authority and help out with the daily ministration of the church. And you say, well, you know, is it to take care of widows? What if we don't have widows? Well, this is just a story. This is just an example of when you need deacons. You see, there might be other times where other responsibilities, other things are being neglected by the church. You know, in that case, yeah, we'll need a deacon as well to take care of that. It's not just, okay, we have widows, therefore let's have a deacon. No, it's any time any responsibility in a church is fallen away, let's appoint men to become deacons and take that responsibility. All right, now let's keep going. Let's drop down to verse number eight. Acts 6, verse number eight. As I said, two of the main deacons that are brought up here is Stephen, the first name mentioned, and then Philip. And now we learn a little bit more about Stephen. It says in verse number eight, Is all Stephen concerned about are the widows? Is that all he's worried about? No, it says, the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake. So notice another responsibility that Stephen is doing here. Even though he's being appointed as a deacon, what else is he doing? He's preaching God's Word as well. You know, ideally, you know, if we want somebody to be a deacon in our church, I personally think that person is also somebody that is able to expound God's Word, preach God's Word, and do great works for God as well. Okay? Now, I just want to show you, of course, Stephen becomes the first martyr of New Testament Christianity, and he gives his life, you know, he suffers a death because of the name of Jesus Christ, or preaching Jesus Christ. Now, let's go to Acts chapter eight. Let's go to Acts chapter eight. Let's learn a little bit about Philip now. Okay, Philip was the second name that was mentioned amongst the seven. Acts chapter eight, verse number four. Acts chapter eight, verse number four says, This is because of persecution. They went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them. So what else is a deacon doing once again? They're preaching God's Word. They're preaching Jesus Christ. Hey, they're a soul winner. And let me just make it very clear. I will not ordain a man who is not a soul winner, who's not a proven soul winner, who's not shown that he's able to lead people to the Lord, who's not shown that he's able to even guide and instruct and give good feedback to people. We need soul winners, right? Sometimes people think, oh, I've taken another position in my church. Then I can just drop the soul winning because I'm needed in this capacity at church. No, soul winning, preaching Christ, preaching the Bible. We need this from a deacon as well. It says in verse number six, So I just want to show you these deacons, okay? They're not like some second-class citizens or something, okay? Yeah, okay, they're taking care of the church needs, the widows, the administration, serving tables, whatever it is that needs to be done in the house of God. But they still don't neglect the main job, which is preaching Jesus Christ, preaching God's Word. And you know what? Maybe, you know, you don't feel like you can be a bishop. Hey, but maybe the Lord will want you to be a deacon one day. And so this is why we need to look at this. You know, as I said, it might be that Blessed or Baptist Church needs a deacon rather than a bishop at this point in time. I don't know, okay? We just have to see how the Lord opens those doors. But I want you to understand that it's not this rush. It's not like, oh, a church, we must have a deacon. It's when the need arises, and we'll soon see later, if we have somebody that meets those qualifications, then we can appoint a deacon over the business for the house of God. All right? So one thing I'm going to prove just later on is that it's the bishop and the deacon that hold officers of authority in the church. Now, there are other officers in the local church. You know, I do believe the evangelists for other, you know, other people might have an office as a teacher. And these, you know, I'll have other men sometimes come up and preach, but they don't hold an office of authority, but I allow them to come and preach, you know, and teach in that capacity. But when it comes to authority in the church, one thing that we see in the Bible is the bishops, okay? The overseer, I had said that the overseer is like a supervisor, okay? And then you've got the deacon under that supervisor helping out in the work of the Lord. Now, please go to Romans chapter 16. Romans chapter 16, because I want you to be careful about going back to the Greek, okay? We went back to the Greek just to show you where this whole idea of deacons comes in. But when we looked at the word deacon, what did we notice? That it's just another way of saying serve, okay? So aren't we all servants? Don't we all serve the Lord, even if we don't have the office of a bishop or a deacon? Well, look at Romans chapter 16, please. Romans 16, because then you have other churches, other people that say, well, women can be deacons as well, they'll say. And so I just want to show you where they get that from, okay? So Romans 16 verse number 1, it says, I commend unto you Phoebe our sister, which is a servant of the church which is in Cintria. Okay? So let's say, well, if you go back to the Greek there, the word servant is diakonos or something like that, okay? One of those root words that are similar like that. So you will see Phoebe was a deacon. And so ladies can be deacons as well. Okay, let me just explain this to you, all right? And we'll soon see the qualifications for the deacon. We'll look at that very shortly. But just because, like I said, we're all servants. We're all deacons as it were. If we're serving the Lord, we're ministering to one another. Yes, we're all operating as deacons, but there's something very different. As we read there in Acts 16, where you get seven men and you appoint them, you ordain them, and you give them the office of a deacon. There's something different between the office of a deacon, which is an official capacity with authority in the local church, versus everybody else that's just a deacon. Okay? So those are the two things that you need to separate. Let me just, you know, I'm just going to prove, actually you're in Romans. So go back one chapter. Go to Romans 15. Romans 15, verse number 8. Let me just show you how stupid this thought is. This is why you've got to be careful about going back to the Greek. Because when you go to Romans 15, looking at verse number 8, it says, Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister. Now if you go back to the word minister in the Greek, guess what you're going to find? The archonos. Okay? Of the circumcision for the truth of God to confirm the promises made unto the fathers. So Jesus was a deacon, but did Jesus hold the office of a deacon in a church? No, of course not. Because deacon just means servant. It means minister. Okay? That's all it means. In fact, the office of a bishop and the office of a deacon is to minister to God's people, to serve God's people, but in an official capacity with the authorities that have been given to them to help organize the church and to run the church and to lead the church. Okay? So we can't just, every time we find the word deacon in the Greek, therefore it doesn't matter if it was a man or woman, that person had an official capacity as a deacon. No. Okay? You can see that it was seven men. Men? Men? It was the big church. I'm sure they were faithful women as well, but they chose men and they appointed men to that position. All right. Now, can you please go to 1 Timothy 3? 1 Timothy 3. And verse number 8. So this is where we're going to prove that being a deacon, you know, we're going to prove it once again that it's for men. It's for men. We're looking at the qualifications. So once again, many churches, even independent fundamental Baptist churches, it's like they ignore, you know, these qualifications and they just appoint. It's like, well, we need somebody. We need a deacon because our church constitution says we need to have deacons. And even if we don't have someone qualified, we're going to appoint them anyway. Now, I'm thankful that in one of my old churches, I was appointed a deacon and I accepted the opportunity to become a deacon because I knew, and after speaking to my pastors, that I was meeting up with the qualifications needed for that role. And I was excited. One thing that caught me by surprise was that when I took up the office of a deacon, there were other men that were deacons that did not meet the qualifications. And I kind of just thought, well, you know, then it's not that, is it that important really? If they don't take this seriously, why should I take my role seriously? You know, if you work hard to meet the qualifications and you're like, yes, I get to be a deacon. I get to serve God in this capacity. And then someone else that doesn't meet the qualifications gets the same position. It's like, what was all the hard work for? You know, it's ridiculous. But there are clear qualifications for this role. Verse number eight, it says, you know, if we look at 1 Timothy 3, it begins by showing the qualifications of the bishop, okay? Now we're looking at the qualifications of a deacon. Verse number eight, it says, likewise must the deacons be grave, not double-tongued, not given too much wine, not greedy for filthy lucre. And so many of the qualifications, in fact, I would say to you, the qualifications of the deacon are almost identical to that of a pastor, almost identical, because that's the kind of man you want. Like, they're taking on a significant role in the house of God. And so the first thing that gets mentioned here in verse number eight is the deacons ought to be grave, okay? Now the word grave is similar to the word sober, but it's a little bit different. To be grave is to be kind of fully aware, mentally aware and serious, okay? Serious, thoughtful, okay? Now why is that so important? That someone has to be grave, you know, considering the things of God and the things of church is once again because the deacon is there to ensure that there are things that have been neglected in church, they're able to cover those things. So they need to be aware, they need to be conscious, hey, this area of church is not being dealt with. This is not being dealt with. And they understand, well, it's my role as a deacon to make sure that these things that I go and help the bishops, or, you know, in the days of the New Testament here, I go and help the apostles because I see there are areas that need attention and I need to go and help in that area, okay? This is why you need people that take the work of God seriously. The next thing that gets mentioned there is not double-tongued. Not double-tongued. And of course, being a double-tongued person is someone that says one thing out of one side of his mouth and then he says something totally different on the other side of his mouth. You know, he'll say one thing to one person and say the completely opposite thing to another person. And we can't have this kind of person, right? If you're going to take on an office as a bishop or a deacon, you need to make sure you have to speak truthfully, okay? And you don't want to be a respecter of persons where you just, you know, I only want to say certain things to this person and certain things to that person. You need to make sure that you're open and honest and transparent. You know, the double-tongued person is double-tongued because they're trying to hide certain things. You know, like I said, a double-tongued person might come up to me and say, hey, pastor, great job, you know, you're serving the Lord, great preaching, and then they'll go behind my back and say horrible things about me to someone else. That would be a double-tongued person that's someone that is not suited. That's someone that is disqualified from this office. And so, you know, one thing that you need to understand with a deacon is that, you know, they're required to, as I said, pay attention to the things that have been neglected. And so one thing that I have discovered, you know, not just in church, but also just in business and just in life in general, that we're all very good at pointing out problems. Like, we're all very good at pointing out faults. Oh, this could be done better. That could be done better. But when I'm thinking about someone who is a deacon, this is what I want them to be, you know, and this is what I, when I was managing supervisors, this is what I would encourage them to do. I say, look, if you find a problem, you found it because you're focused on that area, okay? And other people have kind of just overlooked that. You're focused on that area. You know it's been neglected. You know there's a problem. Therefore, you should also come up with a solution. And so when you come to me with a problem, say, hey, pastor, or, you know, hey, boss, whatever, you know, I discovered this issue and this is how I think we can fix it. Then I know you're actually profitable. Then I know you actually care about this, the future of our organization, of our church, whatever it is, because anybody can just pick out faults. And you'll find that there are people that, yeah, this is a problem, that's a problem, that's a problem, and they do it because they just want to whine and complain and they actually enjoy doing that and they're not actually trying to fix things and making things better. You know, they just want to shoot everything down, make everything look negative, make everything look bad. You know, I don't know why they'd like to do that, but there are just whiners, there are complainers like that. That person is not suited to be a deacon. We need a deacon to be a man of action, finds a problem and says, hey, I'm also going to find a solution as well. You know, I'm not going to bother my pastor, I'm not going to worry the bishop, I'm in this position and I've got to go sort out this issue. And so, as I said, not double tongued as well. And if I can just read to you from Psalm 12 verse 1, Psalm 12 verse 1, it says, Help, Lord, for the godly man seeseth, for the faithful fail from among the children of men. They speak vanity, everyone with his neighbour, with flattering lips, and with a double heart do they speak. The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things. You know, when someone is a flatterer and they're just constantly speaking highly of you or someone else, you've got to be careful because quite often the flatterer is the double tongued. You know, they'll butter you up, make you feel wonderful and great, then they go to someone else and just say all the horrible things that they think about you, okay? Obviously, that person's not suited to be in the position of a deacon. The next thing that gets mentioned there, not given so much wine, I already covered this with a bishop last week, you know, of course, not an alcoholic, not someone that drinks alcohol. And it says, Not greedy of filthy lucre. Now, we already saw this with the office of the bishop, and as I said, you know, especially if you've got a large church, there's going to be quite a lot of money, offerings, you know, tithes and offerings that gets given, and these men are handling large amounts of money. And it's just, I don't know, you know, it's just with you, man, for some reason, when they just got too much money in their hands, they can go nuts, they can go crazy, okay? And so it's so important that these men are able to manage financial affairs honestly and openly, right, without ripping off the church, without stealing. And, you know, when I became a deacon in my old church, one of my responsibilities was to, what's the word I'm looking for, to support or to, you know, give the pastor, you know, assurance that if he felt there was, you know, an expenditure was necessary in a certain area, not every little expense, but, you know, if the pastor was going to, you know, spend a lot of money on a certain project, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars, let's say, that they would run that by the deacons. I think that's wise. I think it's always wise that if you're going to spend a lot of money, run it by a few men that you can trust. And, you know, that was one of the responsibilities that I had was to just tick off certain expenses of the church, especially when they were very high, when they were very high. So, you know, I think that's a very wise thing. And, again, you know, you need someone that is not greedy or filthy lucre. What else do we read? Verse number nine. It says, holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. All right, so what does that mean? You know, look at that. Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. You know, I don't know if you have any thoughts about what that might look like, what that represents. Well, what this reminds me of, when we look at the qualifications for a bishop in the Book of Titus, you may remember that in Titus 1.9 it says, holding fast the faithful word. Holding fast the faithful word. And we saw that that has to do with being able to teach and be able to convince the gainsayers so they have, you know, good Bible knowledge, the bishop, right? He's teaching the church, he's feeding the flock. Well, when we look at this here with the deacon, you kind of see a similar language there, holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. Now, the Bible's saying that when it comes to our faith, when it comes to biblical ideas and doctrines, there is a mystery to it all, okay? And the closest connection that I could see in the Bible, if you can keep your finger there in Titus and go to 1 Corinthians chapter 2, go to 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse number 6. 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse number 6, we'll learn that when it comes to preaching God's Word, it's very mysterious. When it comes to the world, when an ungodly, unsaved man approaches the Bible and reads the Bible, it is a mystery to them. You know, right now I'm listening to an audiobook, and every now and again the author refers to the Bible and biblical stories, and he expresses how he understands the story to be, and I'm like, man, you really miss the story. Like you just don't get like, you know, there are some truths in what he's saying, but really you just miss the point. And that's how it is when you're unsaved. The Bible is a mystery. You can gather some information, but really it's mysterious. And look at 1 Corinthians 2 verse number 6. It says, We speak wisdom among them that are perfect, yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world that come to nought. So when we preach God's Word, we're speaking and preaching wisdom, but it's not the wisdom of the world. And so when the world listens to us preach God's wisdom, it's like foolishness to them. It's a mystery. They don't get it. Look at verse number 7. It says, So it's mysterious to the unbeliever. Now look at verse number 8. You know, our politicians, our prime minister, I don't care if he's a, you know, so-called Christian, he's not saved. You know, our premiers, they don't know what this contains. They don't understand. I mean, look. Look at their orders. Look at their health orders. Look at the laws they pass. Look how they run the nation. Of course they don't know God's Word. If they had the wisdom of God's Word, they'd be much better politicians. If they had a fear of God. But, verse number 8, Praise God. You know, if my preaching makes sense to you, as I expound God's Word, it makes sense. It's wisdom. Wow, yeah, this makes sense. This is obvious. You know, yeah, I can see that in God's Word. You know, rejoice, because God has prepared that wisdom and that knowledge for us, as God's people. The rest of this world does not get it. They think you're insane for listening to me right now preaching God's Word. I think you're insane for listening to me right now preaching God's Word. I think you're insane for listening to me right now preaching God's Word. Right, this old book, right? They say, well, why don't you listen to modern philosophers and modern science and fill your head with that knowledge. Why? Because it's the foolishness of the world. We don't want that. You know, we want the wisdom that comes from God and it's a mystery. It's been prepared for us. And how is it that we understand this mystery? Well, it says in verse number 10, But God hath revealed them, that's the mysteries, unto us by his Spirit, for the Spirit searcheth all things, and of all things, yea, the deep things of God. So how is it that we can understand the Bible? Because we have the Holy Spirit of God teaching us these things. This is why the unsaved man, the natural man, cannot receive the things of God. And so if we talk about the deacon once again holding the mystery of the faith, what are we saying? We're saying the deacon is not just an administrator, not just serving tables, not just making sure the widows are taken care of, but that he's grounded in the Bible. He's grounded in the mystery of the faith. He's grounded in teaching and understanding biblical doctrines. He should be seen as a help to the bishop. If the bishop might be overwhelmed with counseling people and helping people through God's word, then the deacon ought to be someone else. They say, hey, this is a man that knows the word of God well. This is a man that holds fast the mystery of the faith and that you can go to him for godly counsel and biblical advice as well. And so a deacon ought to know the Bible. He ought to be grounded in the faith. And as it's said there in 1 Timothy 3 and 9, it says holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience, in a pure conscience. Now, this is so important to me as a pastor. First of all, it's important for all of us to have a pure conscience, no matter where you serve. But one thing that I wanted to make sure, that if I'm going to pastor a church, I have to have a pure conscience. I have to have a clear conscience before God. Whatever it is that I decide to do as a pastor, as a bishop, whatever decisions, whether it's related to lockdown, or just whether it's come related to just how we run our church, when we meet, how often we go soul winning, I wanted to make sure that I personally have a pure conscience before God. This is so important. And the reason you need a pure conscience is because when you take on an office like this, you need to remember I'm doing this for the Lord. The Lord is going to hold me accountable for what we do in the church, for how I ran the ministries that I've been given in the house of God. And I often, you know, if people talk to me about church and, you know, some tough questions, I'll often say, well, I'm doing this or that because I've got a pure conscience in that area, or I'm trying to keep a pure conscience in this area. And I'm going to rattle off some verses to you because this isn't, you know, some people kind of like, I've had people laugh at me kind of like, why do I say that a lot? It's so important. In fact, it's all over the Bible. I'll just read some passages to you. Acts 23, 1. It says, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day. Acts 24, 16. And herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience, void of offense toward God and toward men. Romans 9, 1. I say the truth in Christ, I lie not. My conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost. 1 Timothy 1, 5. Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfeigned. 1 Timothy 1, 19. Holding faith and a good conscience, which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck. 2 Timothy 1, 3. I thank God whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience. Hebrews 13, 18. Pray for us, for we trust we have a good conscience in all things willing to live honestly. And 1 Peter 3, 15 and 16. But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear, having a good conscience. This is so clear. Over and over, pure conscience, clear conscience. A good conscience before God. You know, we come here to serve the Lord and to serve the people of God, not to make a name for ourselves. I don't care about, you know, having the biggest church. I don't care about making money in God's ministry. This is not about me. If it was about me, I would take my conscience and then I wouldn't want to serve God anymore in this capacity. You know, the deacon needs to make sure he's taking on an office. He's taking in authority. You know, he's going to, you know, handling affairs of God, the house of God, the pillar and ground of truth, and he's going to make sure that he's not doing it for his own, you know, his own pleasures, his own status, to look good in the eyes of men. You've got to make sure you keep that pure conscience before God. You see how important it is to make sure we choose the right people. You know, we don't rush into just ordaining whoever is willing to do it. We've got to make sure that they meet the qualifications. Can we say about this individual that they have a love for God, they have a love for the people, it's not about them, they just want to serve God and they keep a clear conscience, a pure conscience before all men and before God. So critical. Back to 1 Timothy, please, chapter 3 and verse number 10. 1 Timothy, chapter 3, verse number 10 now. It says, And let these also first be proved, then let them use the office of a deacon being found blameless. So should we just ordain whichever man we want into the office of a deacon? No. It says, And let these also first be proved, and then let them use the office of a deacon. So when it comes to choosing a deacon, we need to make sure has this man proved himself in God's house? You know, is this someone, just like we saw earlier in Acts 6-3, where it says, Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. You know, the apostles said to the church, Hey, look out for these men. Which men have proven themselves in the house of God? And so we need to make sure that whoever we appoint in the business of the house of God, even a deacon, that they have first proven themselves to be able to do the job, that they love the church, they serve the church. You know, if someone only serves the church because I'm going to become a deacon or I want to be a deacon, that's not the right person. You know, people ought to be able to serve in the house of God sacrificially, hey, and if they get the opportunity, it comes up, God willing, for them to become a deacon. Praise God, it all works out. But, you know, we're looking for someone who's already serving, who's already faithfully winning souls, who has already faithfully proven that they know the Bible, that they love the house of God, that they keep in a pure conscience. I've often said that, you know, before I ordain somebody, before I lay my hands on someone and I ordain them into whatever position, that I want to make sure that person has been serving, you know, in one of my churches for at least three years. You know, some people have misunderstood that and thought that if you complete three years, you're going to get ordained. No, I'm just saying, you know, we need a minimum of three years. You know, when Christ was on the earth, he had three years in ministry, okay, where he was guiding and teaching his apostles before he left, you know, so I used that as my platform. Let's see someone prove themselves for three years, serving faithfully in the house of God at minimum. I'm saying then it could be five years, it could be seven years, it could be ten years, but three years minimum where they've proven themselves to be this person and then let them use the office of a deacon being found blameless. So we said, hey, this person's blameless, this person's able, hey, this person's full of the Holy Ghost, this person loves the Lord, hey, this person is, you know, the guy that we need in the office of a deacon. You know, you might say, well, if the qualifications are so similar between deacon and bishop, why then don't we just ordain that person as a bishop? Because not everybody wants to be the bishop, right? The bishop, as I said, has the highest authority in the house of God. Not everybody wants all that responsibility and that accountability, but they want something similar. They want to be able to help the Lord and help, you know, another man of God do the business, and that's fine. You know, for some people, being a deacon is all they need. Hey, and for others, being a deacon might be a good stepping stone to eventually get to the office of bishop anyway because they learn some great truths and they get to be trained under another bishop for that time period. What else do we learn? In verse number 11, even so must their wives be grave. So what do we learn there? This man, to be qualified, he must be married. He must have a wife. Yeah, even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things. You see, it's not just a man. You need to look at the man's wife, and if the man's wife is a slanderer, you know, going behind people's back, and, you know, sometimes ladies struggle with this. You know, I've seen this many times in many churches where ladies just struggle to... they just become gossipers. This is just one of the issues that ladies have. They love to talk. They love to chit-chat. And sometimes the sin nature gets in the way and they start to chit-chat about the wrong things, you know? And so the wife also needs to show herself that, hey, you know, she's serious, that she's not a slanderer, sober, faithful in all things. Look at verse number 12. Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife. Once again, who can be a husband of one wife? Only a man. This is an office for a man, okay? And then it says, ruling their children and their own house as well. When we looked at the bishop, why was it so important they could rule over their family? Because then they had to rule in the house of God. Well, this is the same thing. If they're able to show they can rule their wife and their children in their house as well, well, again, that proves that the deacon has some level of authority because he's got to rule over in some aspects of church ministry. He may not rule over the entire church, that's where the bishop is the overseer, but he's got his ministries where he does have rule over and so it's important that he has once again proven that he's a good leader and he's able to have, you know, manage the affairs of his household because managing the church is very similar to managing a family. Verse number 13. For they that have used the office of a deacon well purchased to themselves a good degree which is in Christ Jesus. And so the Bible doesn't say here that the degree that you need to purchase is in Bible college. It's not a bachelor's degree. It's not an associate's degree. No, if you become a deacon you've purchased a good degree. And I kind of feel like if we ever get a deacon I kind of feel like giving a certificate. Put this up on your wall. There's your good degree, right? Well, you've done well. Copying the Bible college system. You know, it's not this lesser role and it's just, you know, some people just think it's a joke sometimes, right? Who cares if he's not married? Who cares if he doesn't have kids? We need a deacon just because we need a deacon. It makes a mockery of God's word. This is a serious position. They purchased to themselves a good degree and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus. I don't fully understand that but I'm thankful once again that I was able to serve as a deacon for two years. Because when you serve as a deacon of course you see kind of behind the scenes operation of the church, the internal issues that come up. You get a lot more visibility of running a church, the problems that come up in church and individuals. And so yeah, you do learn a lot in that office. And so yeah, that's the last part that we have there about the deacon. I just want to show you brethren, how this is an important role. You know, if your heart desires to just serve the Lord and you meet the qualifications to be a bishop and you say, you know what, I don't think I'm ready to be a bishop you know, but I meet the qualifications well maybe being a deacon is the next best thing. You know, personally I would want a deacon that we could pay a full time salary. You know, to hand over responsibilities where they can know that they can be they can take care of themselves financially to some extent and take care of the church needs. They can preach God's word. You know, when I get back to Queensland it would be ideal to find someone that could take on that role. But you know what, if we don't have someone that can take that role we're not going to rush it either. We're not just going to go, well, he's not married well, he's only got one kid, therefore we'll just ordain him anyway. No, we're not going to do that. We just allow other people to faithfully serve the Lord. Didn't we all begin by saying we can all be deacons? We can all be servants, we can all be ministers? Absolutely we can. It's just that, obviously, other people that serve in the house of God and maybe even get a paycheck doesn't necessarily mean that they hold the office. The office gives that person authority in the affairs of the house of God. And so I hope that's given you some further understanding of what a deacon is, the office of a deacon. You know, as I said, we can all be deacons, as it were but there's only the office. The office is different, sorry, from everybody else that serves and they're there to be a help to find the things that have been neglected to help the bishop, right? To help alleviate the administrative task so the bishop can, you know, spend time in prayer spend time studying God's word so he can feed people the word of God. Right? Okay, let's pray.