So we're picking up in the third chapter
of 1st Timothy, and tonight we'll actually be
looking at verses 8 through 13.
In our previous study, we looked at the
qualifications for the pastor, and we saw that
the pastor's primary responsibility is the spiritual oversight
of the people of God.
We come now to the deacons, and so
Paul says here in verse 8, likewise deacons.
The Greek word is the word diakonos.
The word literally means a servant, and so
the deacons are also servants.
The word is also many times translated minister.
The primary responsibility of the deacon is to
serve the body of Christ in a practical
way.
So in the local church, you have the
pastors, and last week you remember I told
you that the pastor, the elder, the bishop,
the overseer, that's all the same person, just
different perspectives on the same person in the
same ministry.
So in the local church, you have the
pastor, the elder, whatever term you want to
use, and then you have the deacons.
Now, in the overall church, you have apostles
and prophets and evangelists, but when you look
at the apostles and prophets and evangelists, it
seems like their ministry is sort of a
ministry to the entire body of Christ.
You know, you think of Billy Graham, for
example, as an evangelist.
And of course, next week will be the
Billy Graham crusade up in L.A. And,
you know, what church does Billy Graham belong
to?
Well, he belongs to the Church of Jesus
Christ, doesn't he?
He belongs to every church.
He belongs to every Christian.
Hardly anyone would not embrace Billy Graham.
He's an evangelist.
And that's the same with those who have
a prophetic sort of a ministry, an apostolic
sort of a ministry.
It goes beyond just the local church, but
in the local church, the local congregation, what
you have are the pastors and the deacons.
The pastors and the ministers, the servants, whatever
term you want to you want to use.
But the pastor, the primary task of the
pastor is to, as we learned last time,
is to shepherd the flock of God, to
feed God's people, to tend to God's people
and to lead God's people.
The deacons are the ones who come alongside
and take up the practical aspect of the
ministry so that the pastors can be freed
up in order to do the spiritual overseeing
of the people.
The office of the deacon originated in the
early days of the church when the apostles
realized the need for help so that they
could continue to concentrate on taking care of
the spiritual needs of the body.
In Acts chapter six, verse two, we read
this.
Peter is the one who's speaking.
He says it is not desirable that we
should leave the word of God and serve
tables.
Therefore, seek out from among you seven men
of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit
and wisdom whom we may appoint over this
business.
Now, there in Acts chapter six, what we
had occurring was there there was a difficulty,
there was a struggle that was going on
when it came to meeting some of the
practical needs of the believers.
And there were two sort of culturally distinct
groups in the in the church in Jerusalem.
There were the Jews who came from a
Hebrew culture that the locals, if you will,
they they maintained a strong connection to historical
Judaism and all that was connected with it,
the language and everything else.
But then there were a large number of
Jews who had been greatly influenced by the
Greek culture and they had come back to
Jerusalem for the feast.
And evidently, many of them after their conversion,
they they decided to stay in Jerusalem.
But you had this this distinction between the
cultural groups and the Greek group felt like
they were being sort of slighted when it
came to being taken care of on a
practical level.
And so they came to the apostles with
the complaint.
And that's where Peter responded.
Peter said, you know, it's not the proper
thing for us to leave the word of
God.
And to take up this business of ministering
on this practical level, this is something that
someone else needs to do.
And so this is really where the office
of the deacon originated.
Peter said, it's not desirable that we should
leave the word of God and serve tables.
What does that mean?
The serving of tables?
Well, this practice probably was taken over from
the synagogue among the Jews.
What they would do is as a community
where there would be a synagogue, they would
want to try to take care of the
less fortunate people in the community.
And so there were a couple of people
that were assigned to go throughout the community
and throughout during the week they would go
throughout the community and they would collect things
from the people.
They would collect food, they would collect clothing
and they would sometimes collect money as well.
They would bring that into the synagogue and
on a particular day they would set out
these tables and there would be food on
the tables, there would be clothing and there
would be somebody there occasionally to distribute money
as well.
It seems like that practice was taken over
into the early experience of the church there
in Jerusalem.
And so that's what Peter was referring to.
It was ministering on this very practical level,
supplying food for people who needed food, clothing
for people who needed clothing and occasionally supplying
money for those who needed money.
So.
This is what the deacons originally did.
Now, whether or not this exact kind of
practice continued to go on in all of
the churches, the Gentile churches, we don't know
that for sure.
But among the Gentile churches, there were certainly
deacons that were appointed as well.
When Paul writes to the Philippian church, he
addresses himself to the bishops and the deacons
of the church.
And so there were those that helped out
in practical ways.
You know, here at Calvary Chapel, we have
the same sort of thing.
We have the pastors and that's that the
group of men whose primary responsibility is to
take care of the spiritual needs of the
body here.
But then we have a number of people
that would also really serve as deacons, although
we haven't necessarily given them that title or
we don't necessarily, you know, call them by
that Deacon Bob or Deacon Joe or, you
know, whatever else.
We don't necessarily use the terminology, but for
all practical purposes, what they are doing is
what the deacons have been doing historically throughout
the church.
Now, Paul here, like he did with the
pastors, he lays out a list of qualifications,
and it's interesting that there are some real
definite similarities between the qualifications for the deacons
as.
Qualifications very similar to the pastors, and then
there are a couple of things that are
distinct and somewhat unique to the deacons.
So let's go ahead and pick up in
verse eight and we can read right on
through verse 13 and then we'll come back.
But let's skip verse 11 because we'll come
back to it.
So likewise, deacons must be reverent, not double
tongued, not given too much wine, not greedy
for money, holding the mystery of the faith
with a pure conscience.
But let these also first be tested, then
let them serve as deacons being found blameless.
Verse 12.
Let deacons be the husbands of one wife,
ruling their children and their own houses well
for those who have served well as deacons
obtain for themselves a good standing and great
boldness or confidence in the faith which is
in Christ Jesus.
So here Paul goes through a list of
qualifications right at the top of the list.
The deacons are to be reverent.
The word is translated in another version, men
worthy of respect.
Another version translates it, men of dignity.
Remember what Peter said.
He said, look out from among you.
First of all, men of good reputation, the
same idea.
So a deacon is to be a man
who is a man of integrity, a man
with a good reputation, a man who's worthy
of respect.
Secondly, the deacon is not to be double
tongued.
Now, the term here double tongued, it doesn't
refer necessarily to a gossiper.
But what it actually probably refers to is
the need for a deacon to be a
straight shooter.
If we could use that sort of a
modern term, the Greek word actually means straight.
And the idea is that this person, they
would they would speak very forthrightly and they
wouldn't say one thing to to one person
and then turn around and say something different
to somebody else.
Now, they're going to be in this position
of taking care of practical things in the
church.
They're going to be dealing with people.
They're going to be you know, questioning people.
They're going to be, you know, making commitments
and things like that.
So they need to be men of real
integrity in their speech.
You know, the tongue, as James tells us,
it is a world of iniquity and it
can get us in so much trouble and
it does cause quite a bit of trouble
around the church these days, always has evidently
because there's so much written about it in
the scriptures.
But it's something that, you know, we we
don't always think so seriously about, but it's
something that we need to really guard ourselves
in regard to.
We need to watch the tongue.
David, in one of the psalms, he said,
oh, Lord, put a watch on my mouth,
put a guard before my lips, and that'd
be a good prayer for all of us.
In another psalm, he said, let the words
of my mouth and the meditation of my
heart be acceptable in your sight.
It's so easy to just, you know, be
loose in our speech and to say things
that can be hurtful to people.
And I myself can think of many times
that I've said things and oh, boy.
You just think, why in the world did
I ever open my mouth?
So the deacon is to be a man
who has control over the tongue and then
like the overseer not to be addicted to
wine, not to be greedy for money.
We looked at those things in the previous
study, but then he says, holding the mystery
of the faith in a pure conscience.
So a deacon, a deacon must have a
good grasp upon the faith.
A deacon is to be a spiritual man
as well.
And although that's clearly laid out here in
the scripture, historically, quite often men have been
appointed to the position of deacon who were
not necessarily spiritual men.
But Paul makes that a requirement.
And remember again, back in Acts chapter six,
they were to be men of good reputation,
full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom.
Now, going back to Acts for a moment,
when you look there in the sixth chapter.
As as Peter gives that instruction, they go
ahead and they choose seven men and and
those seven men's names are listed for us.
And two of the men, Stephen and Philip,
two of those men, their ministries are then
highlighted in the next couple of chapters of
Acts.
In chapter seven, you have the ministry of
Stephen.
In chapter eight, you have the ministry of
Philip.
And what you find is that these men
that were appointed to take care of the
practical aspects of the ministry were indeed full
of the Holy Spirit and wisdom.
They were men who had a great understanding
of the faith.
They were godly men.
They were men who were used powerfully by
God.
Stephen, of course, was the first martyr in
the church, and he was martyred because he
stood before the Jewish Sanhedrin and he rehearsed
their entire history to them and then pointed
out to them that they were continuing to
follow in the footsteps of their fathers by
resisting the Holy Spirit.
And they killed him for it.
But the amazing thing is, is as you
read through that whole seventh chapter there, you
find Stephen knew the scripture so well.
He rehearsed all of the Old Testament.
To these men and then coming into the
eighth chapter, you find this other man who
was appointed to be a deacon, Philip, and
you find that he was used in an
extraordinary way as an evangelist.
He went from Jerusalem over to Samaria and
God used him in Samaria to bring a
great work of the spirit.
And many of the Samaritans were converted under
Philip's ministry.
And then Philip was called by God to
leave Samaria and he went down into the
area of Gaza and it was there that
he led the Ethiopian eunuch to Christ.
And so you get an example in Stephen
and Philip, you get an example of the
kind of caliber of men.
That the deacons are to be.
Men who have a good grasp on the
faith and then it says that they are
to be tested first.
And I think here what Paul is basically
saying is similar to what he said in
regard to the pastors.
You remember he said that an overseer is
not to be a novice, not to be
a new believer.
And I think the idea here with the
deacon is similar is to be tested first.
In other words, you don't just throw anybody
into the position.
And as I said a few moments ago,
historically.
That's what's happened in many churches, they just
threw anybody into the position and it's become
quite disastrous at times because of that, sometimes
the deacons are chosen because they're sharp in
business or, you know, in some cases they're
chosen because they're, you know, they have some
sort of prestige in the community or wealth
or something like that.
And of course, those are obviously all the
wrong reasons.
But historically, those kinds of things have occurred
many times over, haven't taken into consideration the
spiritual caliber of the individual, but just, you
know, wow, that guy's wealthy and he's a,
you know, a big tither.
And those are some of the, you know,
that has happened definitely or, you know, oh
boy, well, he's sharp in this area, so
we want to get him here in here
on this.
And but you find that people who might
be sharp in the area of business or
something like that, unless they're truly spiritual men,
they're not going to be beneficial to the
ministry.
If they are truly spiritual men and sharpened
business and all that as well, well, that
can be a real blessing.
And we have that here.
Some of the guys that serve here in
that role of deacons, they're sharp, sharp men.
And in their fields, they've done very well.
But beyond all that, they're godly guys.
They love the Lord.
And you see that that's what you look
for, first and foremost.
So there's a test.
And I think basically what the picture is
here is that before a person is sort
of recognized as a deacon, that they would
be, in a sense, sort of just doing
the work already.
And in the years I've been in the
ministry, that's generally what I have done when
I have been looking for people that I
wanted to put in a position in the
ministry.
You know, I didn't put an ad in
the paper and see if somebody would respond
to it.
But what I would do is I would
look around the congregation and see, well, who's
who's already doing this?
And you find a number of people, well,
they're they're actually doing it already.
So what we're going to do now is
we're just going to acknowledge that.
In some cases, it might in our current
situation, it might have meant a person would
go from maybe being a volunteer to coming
on, you know, the paid staff could mean
a number of other things.
But but you look for a person who's
already involved in ministry.
They're not doing it because of anything other
than just love for Jesus.
They just want to serve the Lord and
they're there as servants.
That's that's the meaning of the word again.
And so then the the deacon is to
be the husband of one wife, as is
the pastor.
And the deacon is to have his children
in his house under control.
And again, we looked at that previously, so
we won't go any further into it.
But then it says that those who have
served well as deacons, they obtain for themselves
a good standing and great boldness or confidence
in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.
So those who are faithful servants within the
body of Christ, they gain a good standing.
And, you know, that's true.
There are people that you just look at
and they're they're servants of the Lord in
the fellowship.
And and you look at them and you
respect them.
You admire them.
You look up to them.
You think, man, that's a that's a great
guy right there.
That's a godly man.
That's somebody that I'd like to pray with.
That's somebody that I want to seek counsel
or advice that from.
That's that's what happens just on a very
practical level.
That's what happens when somebody serves faithfully in
this role.
But then it says and they also gain
great boldness in the faith which is in
Christ Jesus.
The word boldness can be translated confidence or
assurance.
And I think that confidence or assurance is
probably a little bit of a better word
to communicate what's actually being stated here.
Boldness makes me think of somebody serves as
a deacon and then they go out boldly
to minister the gospel.
And, you know, I think that's a great
thing, too, but I don't necessarily think that
that's what is being spoken of here exactly.
I think the idea is more that the
person who faithfully serves the Lord, as a
result of that, it's inevitable you develop a
greater confidence in your walk and your relationship
with the Lord.
You know, there are a lot of people
who are very unstable in their walk there,
they lack any real confidence or assurance.
Sometimes they go through much of their Christian
life, wondering if they're even ultimately going to
make it to heaven.
A lot of instability.
But, you know, when somebody takes on a
task of ministry and and commits themselves to
it, it begins to faithfully do it.
It has a way of just solidifying them
in their walk and relationship with the Lord,
sometimes in even a greater way.
And the end result of that is you
you just grow in your confidence in your
relationship with God.
And I think that's what Paul is actually
referring to here.
Those men who are serving well, who are
faithful, their their confidence in their relationship with
the Lord increases through that faithful service.
And so these are the qualifications that Paul
gives for the deacon.
And in just a minute, we're going to
come back and we're going to kind of
connect both the pastors and the deacons together
and talk a little bit about what it
might look like when a person is being
called into one or the other of those
positions.
But verse 11, it says, likewise, that was
great.
But likewise, or likewise, their wives must be
reverent, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things.
Now, the reason why I came back to
verse 11 is because it is.
There's two possibilities with verse 11.
It is possible that as it reads right
here, likewise, their wives is actually what it
says.
But it's also possible that this isn't so
much a reference to the wives of the
deacons, but it's actually a reference to the
women serving in the position of a deaconess.
And the interesting thing is the word for
wife and the word for woman in the
Greek, it's the same word.
So the context just sort of you have
to determine by the context whether it's wife
or woman.
The literal rendering here is not likewise their
wives.
The literal rendering is women likewise.
So some believe that what Paul is doing
right here is he is breaking for a
moment to address the female.
The females who are serving in that same
kind of a capacity, and we talked to
a few weeks back when we were looking
at the role of women in the church,
we we mentioned a woman named Phoebe.
Her name comes up in Acts chapter or
excuse me, Romans chapter 16.
And she's referred to as the the deaconess
of the church of Centuria.
And we talked about the word meaning servant
or minister.
And so it could very well be that
in the early church, they recognize certain women
that would serve in this practical role.
And.
I think that there's a good reason to
perhaps believe that that is what Paul is
talking about.
You know, there are certain things that that
men are probably shouldn't do.
You know, quite frankly, one of the great
problems.
In the churches have been problems related to
infidelity, sexual immorality, things of that nature, and
quite often it's happened because men have been
getting involved in women's lives and counseling them
and ministering to them and things like that.
And one thing leads to another.
And, you know, sometimes it ends up in
a in a horrific situation that could probably.
Be avoided greatly.
If we would.
Realize that women.
Ought to be the ones primarily to minister
to women on a personal level.
And that's what happened in the early church.
The ladies would minister to the other ladies.
And a bit later on after the apostolic
period, we know from some of the some
of the literature of the day that there
were women who were responsible for baptizing other
women and things like that.
Now, I don't know if we have to
go to that extreme, but they did do
that.
This is after the apostolic period.
There's, of course, John the Baptist baptized the
apostles baptized.
There's never any reference to any women that
were helping them in the baptism.
So that might have gone, you know, a
bit overboard.
But I do think that there is a
place where women ministering to women is much
more appropriate.
And I'll just be real honest with you
guys.
I've had times when I'm counseling with women
and they're saying stuff to me that you
know what?
I don't want you to say that to
me.
I don't really want to hear that.
It's inappropriate.
It's not right for me to listen to
that kind of thing.
It's just you know, it's just weird.
It's awkward.
And, you know, so, you know, and it's
not sometimes that happens with husbands and wives
as well.
You know, sometimes people want to get very
explicit and detailed into their personal lives and
say, you know, I can I think I
can figure it out on my own.
You know, I don't really need you to
give me any, you know, my my kids,
they anything like that that goes on, they
say too much information.
That's yeah, I agree.
That's too much information.
I don't need that much.
But.
The point is simply.
That women.
I think from verse 11, we can again
build a case that women serve in these
kinds of capacities.
And if you think about the serving tables
that we mentioned earlier, as as the ladies
would come, of course, there would have been
women there to help them with the distribution
of food, with the distribution of clothing and
things like that, as well as men involved
in it.
So anyway, just another area of ministry for
the ladies to be involved in.
And we did talk extensively about that a
few weeks back, and so I won't go
any further with it.
But as we look at this third chapter
up through these first 13 verses.
Paul is giving instruction, as we've seen, he's
giving instruction regarding the pastors, regarding the deacons.
And he's talking about.
The leadership of the church.
The whole of this epistle has to do
with the life of the church.
Look at verse 14, these things I write
to you, though I hope to come to
you shortly, but if I am delayed, I
write so that you may know how you
ought to conduct yourself in the house of
God.
So for Paul, the apostle and for the
other apostles as well, and for Jesus, for
that matter, remember, Jesus is the one who
said.
Go into the world and make disciples of
all nations.
Jesus is the one who brought the church
into existence.
You see, the church is God's means of
reaching the world.
The church is the vehicle that God uses
to reach the world.
And the biggest mistake Christians have made historically.
When it comes to seeking to fulfill the
Great Commission is to go out and evangelize,
but not establish churches.
You see, when you go out and you
just evangelize, but you don't establish a church,
you do not set up the God appointed
means through which people are to be discipled
and to grow in the faith.
So what did the apostles do?
They went out and they didn't simply go
out evangelizing.
They didn't simply go out handing out tracts
or doing different kinds of outreach to get
people to accept Jesus.
They went into communities and they planted churches.
They led people to Christ and then they
established fellowships so those people could be brought
up in the faith.
That's what it's all about.
That's what we are to be doing today.
And God calls people.
Into the ministry, no one.
Takes the ministry upon themselves, at least no
one ought to.
A person who goes into the ministry ought
to go into the ministry because they are
being called by God into it.
Now, as I as I mentioned in the
previous study, and I want to go back
to that, we were talking about, you know,
people being called, people being sent out.
We were talking about churches being planted.
And I said in the last study that,
you know, some of you might listen and
think, well, you know, who am I and
how why would God want to use me
or, you know, how could it be possible
that I might even be able to do
something?
I'm not a pastor.
I'm not like Pastor Chuck or I'm not
like Pastor John or I'm not like that.
And remember, I said, you know, there was
a point where those people that we look
to admire, respect, learn from, there was a
point where they were right where you are.
They were there learning.
And growing.
And probably in some ways not even imagining,
I know for sure some were not even
imagining that God could or would do anything
in and through their lives.
But guess what happened?
God began to stir their hearts.
God put a call upon their lives and
through a process of time and through different
circumstances, they became convinced that the Lord wanted
them to go into pastoral ministry or God
wanted them to serve in the capacity of
a deacon or something like that.
And that's how.
The almost fifteen hundred Calvary chapels worldwide, that's
how they've pretty much happened.
People sitting in the church, getting fed the
word, being stirred up and thinking, man, I
want to do something for the Lord.
When I was sitting here, however long ago
it was a long time ago and listening
to Pastor Chuck.
I just thought, you know, I want to
do that.
I want to serve the Lord.
And just sensing that God was calling me
to do that very thing.
Now, who was I?
I was just.
Just me.
Was it anybody?
I'm still not, but.
You know, that's the thing, I want you
guys to grab hold of this and to
realize this, that, you know, God just takes
ordinary people.
That's the story of the work of God
throughout all of history.
Now we know about Abraham.
We know about Isaac and Jacob and Moses.
David, we know all these people.
How do we know these people?
We know them simply because God chose them.
He exalted them.
He used them.
And that was written down for us.
And and it goes all the way right
down to this very day.
It's just simply because of what God does.
And so I want to just take a
few moments and I want to address the
subject of the call to the ministry, because
I believe that in this church.
There are people that are called people that
God wants to raise up and send out
as pastors, as deacons, as deaconesses, as just
helpers in the ministry.
You know, we are a fellowship of, you
know, to some extent, I think, of people
who are more well taught.
Then perhaps most people in the church today.
But that teaching, that information that's been imparted
to us is not simply so we can
just sit here year after year after year
and feed on this stuff.
You know, there's a point where you've got
to get out and you've got to begin
to pass on to others the things that
God has shared with you.
So there is a call to the ministry,
and this is the question I want to
address.
How do you know whether or not God
might be calling you?
What are some of the signs?
What are some of the indicators?
What are some of the things that you
can sort of look to to see whether
or not maybe God is calling you?
I have found this many, many times.
People who are actually being called generally speaking,
initially they don't they don't believe it.
They can't imagine it.
No, it can't really be happening.
And I've talked to people who have, you
know, they'll tell me about what's going on
in their life and their experiences and things.
And I say, you know, I think the
Lord's calling you.
So, oh, no, that's not me.
No way God can.
But, you know, if you have those kinds
of things stirring in you, if you have
desires, if you have some vision developing and,
you know, there's a strong possibility that that
is something God's doing in you.
And so let's look at seven things that.
Can indicate to us.
That God is placing a call upon our
lives, and I'm speaking more specifically about the
role of the pastor, the role of the
deacon.
And let me say this when when churches
have been planted in other parts of the
country or other parts of the world, for
that matter.
And this is what happened back in in
the New Testament period as well.
Paul traveled around with a team of people
and as they would establish churches in areas,
Paul would leave parts of his team there
to develop the the disciples.
And then once a team was sort of
raised up to replace them, they would then
move on, rejoin the apostle, and then they
would go about their business.
God often sends people out in teams.
And so it might not be that you're
actually being called to be a pastor, but
God might be calling you to go out
and be part of a team that's going
to go into a community and establish a
church.
Many of you know Chris Warner and Chris
filled in for me many times when I
was traveling and Chris has gone out to
the Washington, D.C. area.
And we planted a church out there a
few years ago with a good friend, Jeff
Quazzo, who since has gone back to the
UK.
And and so Chris is out there.
Chris has been called out there to pastor
the church.
But there are some others that have gone
out with him and they're part of the
team they're serving alongside of Chris.
They're not pastoring, but in a sense, they're
kind of serving as deacons.
They have jobs in the community.
A couple from here went out there, both
teachers.
He went back.
He got a job teaching in one of
the local schools.
She got a job working for an adoption
agency.
Another couple gifted in music and worship leading.
He works at a print shop and I'm
not sure where she works, but they're a
vital part of that team that's establishing this
church.
And so I wanted to share that with
you because.
I want you to understand that it's not
just being called to be a pastor, God
will call us to to go out and
be part of what he's doing, to come
alongside and make a contribution and support and
maybe do children's ministry or something like that,
but maybe move to a place, get a
job in the area.
But you're really there, not so much for
that job.
You're really there for that work that God's
establishing.
So seven things.
That we can look to that can indicate
to us that God might be calling us.
Number one, for those who are being called,
there is an intense.
All absorbing desire for the work.
Here's what happens when somebody is being called,
especially into pastoral ministry, this the desire for
it sort of just overwhelms their life.
It just kind of takes over everything else.
You might have previously been totally content doing
what you're doing.
Maybe you went to college, maybe you went
there because you wanted to do a specific
kind of a job or a business or
whatever, and you've done all of that, you've
gotten into it.
But now you're finding that although you initially
loved it and maybe spent years and years
and enjoying doing that, it just it's not
where your heart is anymore.
And you find that more and more you're
you're wishing and desiring that you could be
freed up so you could be more involved
in ministry.
That is one of the first things that
to me are strong indicators that God might
be doing something like that.
Secondly, there would be an understanding of the
scriptures and a desire to share them.
There's there's a God given understanding that comes.
You know, not everybody has the same kind
of insight into the scriptures that those who
are gifted by God to teach do.
And you guys know that.
I mean, sometimes people say this quite often.
You know, they say, you know, I read
that same passage.
I didn't get any of that stuff out
of there.
Well, don't feel bad about that.
If you did, then we wouldn't have anything
to do.
And that's that's that's where we come in.
But there's the there's the gifts that God
gives.
He gives certain people to teach.
So it's not the kind of thing that
just anybody and everybody can do.
So there's an understanding of the scriptures and
then there's a passion, a desire to communicate
them with others.
And as I said, and thirdly, but it's
connected to that there is this God given
ability.
That comes upon a person and they are
able to communicate the truth of God in
a way that people can lay hold of
it, they can grasp it, they can they
can make it part of their lives and
they can experience growth and maturity in the
faith.
So an all intense and intense, all absorbing
desire for the work and understanding the scriptures
and a desire to share them, a God
given ability to teach a love for souls.
You know, maybe God's just poured out his
love in your heart.
You just love people.
You want to you want to see them
saved.
That's the Lord.
We don't naturally have that kind of love
in us.
But when God's calling a person, he gives
us a passion and a concern for other
people and a desire to see them come
to know Christ or a desire to see
them built up in the faith.
There also is.
As I alluded to earlier, but I want
to elaborate on it just a bit more,
there also is, along with all of it,
a sense of inadequacy.
When God's calling you, you know, you're thinking,
I, I don't think so.
I, I doubt it.
It's just, you know, because you're looking at
yourself and you're, you're, you're just realizing that,
man, this is this is so far beyond
me.
The person who's like that is quite often
a person who God really is calling the
person who's the opposite of that.
Of course, God's calling me.
How could he not?
I mean, you know, what is he?
You know, he's not very smart if he's
not calling me because I'm such a great
guy.
I would do a great job for him.
And some people do think like that.
But those are the people who aren't being
called, the ones who are are there.
They're not looking at it like that at
all.
And those who are being called are going
to be living a holy life.
They're going to have a genuine experience with
Christ in their own life.
That's that's given them victory.
And that's, you know, caused them to be
an example, really, in their lifestyle.
And then finally, when God is calling, there
will be others that will bear witness to
the call.
There will be others that will say, you
know, I, I sense that God's doing something
in your life.
Or you might come and share what you're
feeling and the things that are stirring in
you.
And they'll say, you know what?
I've I've sensed that with you.
I've seen that I've seen how God's hand
is upon you.
And like I was saying earlier, with the
with the deacons that Paul mentioned here.
Those who are being called.
Generally, are also already just sort of involved,
you can't just sit around and do nothing,
you got to get involved.
And so you've you've maybe got involved in
children's ministry, maybe you've just been helping out
ushering, maybe you're joined the men's prayer group
or the ladies prayer fellowship or but, you
know, something's going on already.
So all of these things.
These things can all be indicators.
And I'll tell you what, if you've got
four out of the seven, I would say
you're being called and.
We need we need.
To see, as I said in the previous
study, we need to see more believers, more
men and women rise up and take the
call and get the message out.
You know, it's funny.
Remember last week I was saying, you know,
well, a good place to start and talking
about the blue states, the blue counties.
I got an email this week from a
pastor and he's struggling.
It's in a rough area.
He's wanting to leave.
And he says to me, he says, you
know, I'm in one of those blue counties
and I want to come back out to
another place.
And so I wrote him back and I
said, well, if you heard my message last
week, you're going to know this.
You're not going to find any sympathy with
me.
You're not going to find any sympathy with
me wanting to leave a blue county and
come back to a red one, because that's
not what we need.
We need to get into those places where
the devil has just taken control of people's
lives.
And you know what it is?
It I'm telling you, it's because a lot
of it is simply because the church has
stopped doing what the church is supposed to
do.
I don't know if you realize this or
not, but most churches and I'm not exaggerating,
most churches do not do what.
The Bible presents as the picture of what
the church is supposed to be doing.
And we wonder why sin is proliferating in
our society.
We wonder why the inner cities are taken
over by sin and all that is because
the church stopped doing what it was supposed
to do.
The church doesn't preach the gospel, the church
doesn't teach the Bible.
And what's the solution?
The solution is the church needs to get
back in there and do it.
Now, once a church or a denomination turns
away from the the essentials of the faith,
decides to go in a different direction, it's
highly unlikely that they're ever going to reverse
it.
It's highly unlikely that they're ever going to
change their direction.
Once you start going down the road to
liberalism or whatever else you go down the
road to, it's highly unlikely that you'll ever
come back.
So in other words, we can't sit around
and wait for those churches that were once
maybe 60, 100 years ago doing something in
that community to start doing something fresh and
new.
They're never going to do it.
We've got to go back and start all
over again.
And I believe that that is what God
has raised up Calvary Chapel to do, and
that's what's been happening.
And I believe that God wants it to
happen more and more and more.
And this is kind of radical, I guess,
but, you know, in my mind, I think,
well, we ought to have a Calvary Chapel
in every city in the world.
Why not?
I mean, why not?
Maybe it's beyond the realm of possibility, but
hey, it's a good goal to shoot for.
But how does it happen?
It happens because God puts his call upon
the lives of men and women.
And he leads us out into his service
and he uses us to bring his gospel
to people and to build them up in
the faith.
And then their lives touch lives and those
lives touch other lives.
And it's just a wonderful chain reaction.
What God sent us to the UK back
in 96, there were five churches, Calvary Chapel
affiliated churches in the country.
Today, there's almost 30.
And it's just that sort of thing.
You know, you go and you touch people's
lives and they get excited about God and
they want to move out and do something.
And it just starts happening like that.
And so I want to close tonight, as
we've looked at the pastors and the deacons,
I don't want it to just be simply
information for us to know what this is
supposed to look like.
But I want us to be able to
look at it and say, Lord, where do
I fit into the picture?
What are you doing with me?
Maybe God wants to give you new direction
in life.
Maybe he wants to call you out.
Maybe he wants to send you somewhere.
Maybe he wants you to get plugged in
right here.
Maybe you've just been sort of spectating and
the Lord is wanting you to move into
active service to him.
I trust that he will direct you accordingly.
Let's pray.
Lord, we do thank you that the work
you began.
Two thousand years ago is a work that's
carrying on today.
And Lord, we thank you that we are
part of that work.
And Lord, I thank you that you're still
calling men.
You're still calling women into ministry today.
And Lord, that there's a whole great big
world out there.
That we can get out to.
And get your word out to.
And so, Lord, whatever it is, if it's
to pack up and head out, if it's
to just plug in and get involved right
here, if it's to take the gifts that
we might have never thought to use for
your glory.
Whatever it is, Lord, we just want to
we want to serve you.
And so, Lord, I pray that you would
touch hearts and speak into lives.
Lord, that you would send forth labors into
your harvest, that you would raise up pastors
and deacons to shepherd your flock in these
days.
We pray in Jesus name, amen.