WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:26.260 Let's wait and hear it first. 00:26.260 --> 00:34.300 Surely you deacons, however, I would like to share this with new ones. 00:34.300 --> 00:37.900 There's a five-page study. 00:37.900 --> 00:44.540 Every word used in the Bible for the word diaconos or deacon, or there are many words, 00:44.540 --> 00:46.540 as well as elder. 00:46.540 --> 00:50.980 And I might add, if you don't understand that and you are not a deacon or an elder, it wouldn't 00:50.980 --> 00:54.180 hurt you to pick up a copy of that either. 00:54.180 --> 01:01.180 It's a wonderful word study, the brunt of which has come from a very wonderful man who 01:01.180 --> 01:07.780 will be preaching for us during Resurrection Sunday at three services, and that's Brother 01:07.780 --> 01:09.900 Dale Mason. 01:09.900 --> 01:13.780 And I also want you, I'm going to share some very deep things with you. 01:13.780 --> 01:17.420 This isn't just for strangers today. 01:17.420 --> 01:23.820 Unfortunately we don't have to worry about that, and that makes me want to weep. 01:23.820 --> 01:30.940 But there's sometimes when God's household needs to take priority, as well as the unsaved. 01:30.940 --> 01:38.340 And so I'd welcome any of you to come and take a copy of this, because it is every reference 01:38.340 --> 01:46.580 to that wonderful ministry of God to be a leader in God's household. 01:46.580 --> 01:52.340 Gracious Father, how we thank you for the gift of life, for the sweetness of service 01:52.340 --> 01:54.500 in your behalf. 01:54.500 --> 02:01.900 And Father, we pray for these men, they're good men, they have a reputation of honor 02:01.900 --> 02:02.900 and decency. 02:02.900 --> 02:10.900 And Father, we pray that you'll use them to become great in the kingdom of God. 02:10.900 --> 02:16.940 And we thank you Father, that we may aspire to be noble in the household of the faith 02:16.940 --> 02:19.540 and not to be mediocre ever. 02:19.540 --> 02:21.900 I do thank you for Jesus. 02:21.900 --> 02:27.820 And I pray that from these men will come great works, and news will be heard and broadcast 02:27.820 --> 02:35.780 all over the world, because these young men gave themselves wholeheartedly to their work 02:35.780 --> 02:43.740 of being a deacon, of being an elder, of being a servant in the household of Jesus Christ. 02:43.740 --> 02:48.900 And in that precious name we pray, amen. 02:48.900 --> 02:54.660 I would like to use the phrase, give us a king, and we'll repeat it several times. 02:54.660 --> 02:58.180 And it comes from 1 Samuel 8.6. 02:58.180 --> 03:03.220 There's just something built in our nature that we want someone to be the kahuna. 03:03.220 --> 03:05.980 We want someone to be the mucky muck. 03:05.980 --> 03:11.940 We want someone to be the holy man, who takes responsibility for us in prayers and in our 03:11.940 --> 03:14.480 thinking and in our direction. 03:14.480 --> 03:19.960 As a matter of fact, great and powerful churches have men so powerful that no one dares argue 03:19.960 --> 03:22.560 with them at all. 03:22.560 --> 03:24.360 That's gone too far. 03:24.360 --> 03:32.400 And I think that we need to look at, give us a king was the wrong kind of question as 03:32.400 --> 03:35.640 far as God was concerned. 03:35.640 --> 03:42.040 We all, in a way, are told to be priests in the household of God, twice we're told that 03:42.120 --> 03:44.560 we are priests in the household of God. 03:44.560 --> 03:50.240 A priest was only this, a go-between between God and man. 03:50.240 --> 03:51.560 Now stop and think about that. 03:51.560 --> 03:55.080 Well, you can immediately say, that discounts me because I'm a deacon. 03:55.080 --> 03:57.080 No, no, it doesn't. 03:57.080 --> 03:59.280 I say, this is not for children this morning. 03:59.280 --> 04:02.960 This is for those who are learned in their scriptures, and we're going to see that there 04:02.960 --> 04:07.080 is very little distinction between the deacon and the elder. 04:07.080 --> 04:10.400 And you need to really understand that. 04:10.400 --> 04:13.920 Maybe a little bit of responsibility is different for the elder. 04:13.920 --> 04:17.000 I'm not even sure you can make that complete point. 04:17.000 --> 04:21.320 But hear me out, because I want to share the scriptures with you. 04:21.320 --> 04:28.520 In 1 Samuel 8.6, the people had reneged on God, had reneged on Samuel, and they just 04:28.520 --> 04:32.000 would not do what they were commanded to do. 04:32.000 --> 04:36.560 And finally they said, we don't like this system, give us a king. 04:36.560 --> 04:43.880 He'll direct us, he'll provide an army, he'll provide a way, he'll provide a place. 04:43.880 --> 04:49.800 Give all the problems of God's household to the king, and that will solve all of our problems. 04:49.800 --> 04:54.300 Well, you know that kings bring problems, don't they? 04:54.300 --> 04:58.400 As much to say that if you can get a snooty minister, you'll cease to have problems in 04:58.400 --> 04:59.480 a church. 04:59.480 --> 05:03.600 I don't think that the electric church has manifested that truth. 05:03.600 --> 05:08.360 To you, I think it's quite contrary as a matter of fact. 05:08.360 --> 05:10.960 Now listen to what that verse says. 05:10.960 --> 05:12.360 Now make us a king. 05:12.360 --> 05:17.440 King James says, now give us a king, to judge us like all the other nations. 05:17.440 --> 05:25.920 But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, give us a king to judge us. 05:25.920 --> 05:27.360 That was displeasing to Samuel. 05:27.360 --> 05:31.720 Now I'd like to share some insight while I think God's man was displeased. 05:31.720 --> 05:34.080 A king isn't going to make you religious. 05:34.080 --> 05:37.120 You make yourself religious. 05:37.120 --> 05:38.920 You do the right thing. 05:38.920 --> 05:41.280 I think there is a better way and more pleasing. 05:41.280 --> 05:48.320 Now may I prayer phrase that plea from the people, give us good elders. 05:48.320 --> 05:50.160 Give us good deacons. 05:50.160 --> 05:51.800 That's what we ought to be asking for. 05:51.800 --> 05:54.520 And where do they come from? 05:54.520 --> 05:58.520 These are not just mere men for hire, though there's nothing wrong with that, as long as 05:58.520 --> 06:04.120 that's not all they are, just men for hire to do the things we don't want to do. 06:04.120 --> 06:06.280 But here is the point. 06:06.280 --> 06:10.960 The men and women who lead this church come from the church. 06:10.960 --> 06:11.960 We know them. 06:11.960 --> 06:12.960 We've lived with them. 06:12.960 --> 06:14.460 We've put up with them. 06:14.460 --> 06:20.240 We've learned with them and growing up together is a wonderful way to judge who will be your 06:20.240 --> 06:21.240 leadership. 06:21.240 --> 06:23.520 Don't you believe that? 06:23.520 --> 06:30.160 My lens, I'm so thankful we do not have that awful problem of trying to find a minister 06:30.160 --> 06:35.160 on every about six months to three years occasion. 06:35.160 --> 06:36.920 It's a nightmare. 06:36.920 --> 06:37.920 It is a nightmare. 06:37.920 --> 06:43.600 One of the men at one of our board, he said, well, where would we get a man? 06:43.600 --> 06:47.640 We hadn't done our work, have we? 06:47.640 --> 06:48.760 We have met the enemy. 06:48.760 --> 06:51.840 He is us. 06:51.840 --> 06:57.280 The elders and the deacons come from the local congregation, and we know them. 06:57.280 --> 07:00.720 We understand them, and we have lived with us. 07:00.720 --> 07:03.840 Give us good elders, for they come from among us. 07:03.840 --> 07:12.240 That word is episcope, telescope, microscope, you see, to look out. 07:12.240 --> 07:16.600 Boy, listen, when I see an antelope, I want to look like this, make sure it's a good big 07:16.600 --> 07:21.560 dry fawn, and epa means above or looking out. 07:22.520 --> 07:33.120 What is an episcope, well, it's an elder who looks out ahead and sees what's coming, and 07:33.120 --> 07:35.200 see thus can be a better guide. 07:35.200 --> 07:40.040 So when we talk, Peter talks about that great elder or that chief elder, it's one who has 07:40.040 --> 07:45.520 walked before us, who stands tall, knows the sheep, looks out over and sees what's coming 07:45.520 --> 07:47.240 in their pathway. 07:47.240 --> 07:56.320 That's his specific duty, and that, by the way, is also an obligation, a responsibility, 07:56.320 --> 07:58.080 as well as a duty. 07:58.080 --> 08:02.960 Listen, it's one who sees, one who therefore becomes a guardian of the soul. 08:02.960 --> 08:09.360 Not that he can pray you out a purgatory, which we don't even believe in, but he helps 08:09.360 --> 08:15.760 us guide the pathway among the intricacies of doctrine about us to see that that which 08:15.760 --> 08:18.720 is done is as odd as it ought to be. 08:18.720 --> 08:24.680 In 1 Peter 2.12 he says, Live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you 08:24.680 --> 08:32.080 of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day that he visits 08:32.080 --> 08:33.080 us. 08:33.080 --> 08:38.360 They must see, and they must see it in the leadership, deacon or elder, they must see 08:38.360 --> 08:41.960 in you something special and something different. 08:41.960 --> 08:48.200 If the people of a church are not honorable, are not noble, and in what way are they honorable 08:48.200 --> 08:54.480 or noble in the scriptures, then the elders must be, or you've lost the church. 08:54.480 --> 08:56.320 You have lost the church. 08:56.320 --> 09:01.440 There is always, always a plurality of elders. 09:01.440 --> 09:08.400 The church was brought into a dark ages when one elder lorded it over the household of 09:08.400 --> 09:09.400 God. 09:09.400 --> 09:13.920 That's a literal, ugly, dark age. 09:13.920 --> 09:21.560 There must always be a plurality of elders, and so it must be, and so it will be here, 09:21.560 --> 09:27.200 have several, but never one, or have none at all. 09:27.200 --> 09:30.880 And I really believe that one of the problems in the world today is that we don't even have 09:30.880 --> 09:33.520 elders in many of the churches anymore. 09:33.520 --> 09:39.240 That's a problem to the church, and I think we have paid a price for it. 09:39.240 --> 09:40.480 What do you mean by that? 09:40.480 --> 09:41.480 We should be noble. 09:41.480 --> 09:46.800 Listen to what he says in Acts 1711, now the Bereans were more noble characters. 09:46.800 --> 09:56.200 King James says, the Bereans were more, what is the word that King James uses, I'll think 09:56.200 --> 09:57.680 of it in a minute. 09:57.680 --> 10:04.440 But at least in this passage in IV says, were more noble characters than the Thessalonians, 10:04.440 --> 10:08.680 for they received the message with great eagerness. 10:08.680 --> 10:10.400 I see how there's a feeling here. 10:10.400 --> 10:15.720 You have a man who preaches and teaches, very moral responsibility, very sound in the doctrine, 10:15.720 --> 10:18.240 but the people had to judge his soundness. 10:18.240 --> 10:20.480 They judged him, did they not? 10:20.480 --> 10:24.520 And they searched the scriptures daily, and that's an incredible thing. 10:24.520 --> 10:26.280 That's the kind of church we really ought to have. 10:26.280 --> 10:28.400 Those are the Bibles flipping back and forth there. 10:28.400 --> 10:31.360 See, someone should have told me what King James says. 10:31.360 --> 10:35.120 These are one of those things where you blank out now and then, well, that happened. 10:35.120 --> 10:37.640 That's problem with old age, isn't it? 10:37.640 --> 10:43.600 They examined the scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. 10:43.600 --> 10:47.040 They checked out the minister, didn't they? 10:47.040 --> 10:50.880 Now there's another word called hegemony. 10:50.880 --> 10:53.480 Hegemony, that is what Hitler had. 10:53.480 --> 10:55.040 That's what Stalin had. 10:55.040 --> 11:01.680 Hegemony is an iron bound system of leadership, and there's no disputation, no discussion, 11:01.680 --> 11:03.560 no voting. 11:03.560 --> 11:05.200 And that's a good word, isn't it? 11:05.200 --> 11:10.160 Unused as a leadership by example. 11:10.160 --> 11:15.120 You have to honor what the guy does because he walks tall. 11:15.120 --> 11:16.920 He's doing the right thing. 11:16.920 --> 11:18.800 He's living the life. 11:18.800 --> 11:21.040 It's not just words to him. 11:21.040 --> 11:26.120 Related to that, and often associated with the eldership is the word tuppos in the Greek, 11:26.120 --> 11:31.320 and the reason the God uses Greek is the Greek is most word specific of all languages. 11:31.320 --> 11:32.320 That's why he chose it. 11:32.320 --> 11:35.040 I love you, baby, with a pure love. 11:35.040 --> 11:39.640 It's Americanese, and that doesn't mean what that says, does it? 11:39.640 --> 11:41.520 You kill me, man. 11:41.520 --> 11:46.680 In Americanese, you wouldn't want to write the Bible originally in American language. 11:46.680 --> 11:50.840 You'd have so many weird versions, it'd be impossible. 11:50.840 --> 11:55.320 When he talks about love, there's seven specific words for love. 11:55.320 --> 11:57.600 Kill means something else in the Greek. 11:57.600 --> 11:59.240 Let me tell you. 11:59.240 --> 12:01.280 Kill when you say it in America, man. 12:01.280 --> 12:02.280 You fracture me. 12:02.560 --> 12:05.560 It doesn't mean at all what it says, does it? 12:05.560 --> 12:08.840 He's a lady killer. 12:08.840 --> 12:13.880 He doesn't kill ladies, well, in a way he may. 12:13.880 --> 12:16.240 But not really, you see. 12:16.240 --> 12:23.000 Words in God's language are word specific, and that's important to remember. 12:23.000 --> 12:27.800 Tuppos, typewriter, and a type is a perfect example. 12:27.800 --> 12:31.760 If I press the A key, it can't be the B key, can it? 12:31.760 --> 12:36.720 It must be a perfect representation of the A, which I press. 12:36.720 --> 12:40.920 It's like stamping a deal like this in soft metal and take a hard iron thing and just 12:40.920 --> 12:43.120 smack it hard, bang! 12:43.120 --> 12:52.920 And what comes out on that metal is the impact is a type, an exact example of the image. 12:52.920 --> 12:55.720 An exact example, and that's important. 12:55.720 --> 12:59.960 We should be copies of Jesus, which are exact. 12:59.960 --> 13:03.920 Copy of our Lord Jesus, of the Master, our Father in Heaven. 13:03.920 --> 13:11.880 We didn't see God, but we saw Jesus, and therefore we can be typed in the image of God, you see. 13:11.880 --> 13:13.840 So Tuppos is used often. 13:13.840 --> 13:14.840 Listen to this. 13:14.840 --> 13:18.480 Literally, this is Jesus speaking, John 20, verse 25. 13:18.480 --> 13:25.520 No, this was Thomas Diddism speaking, speaking of Jesus in the wounds, unless I see the nail 13:25.560 --> 13:32.080 marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were and put my hands into his side, 13:32.080 --> 13:35.160 I will not believe it. 13:35.160 --> 13:38.120 That's a show me, doubting Thomas, isn't it? 13:38.120 --> 13:39.720 He would have made a good deacon. 13:39.720 --> 13:44.360 He would have made a good elder, and probably he was. 13:44.360 --> 13:50.120 And so I really believe we need to be a type, word specific. 13:50.120 --> 13:53.920 We need to be exactly like God himself. 13:53.920 --> 14:01.880 Secondly, not only crying out, give us good elders, give us good deacons. 14:01.880 --> 14:03.560 Now those were interesting words. 14:03.560 --> 14:07.320 By the way, in the word study here is every example. 14:07.320 --> 14:10.120 And when I say a certain number of times, that's the way it is. 14:10.120 --> 14:14.840 If you want to go through and count up the words, minister is used 20 times as the word 14:14.840 --> 14:15.840 diaconos. 14:15.840 --> 14:17.160 We get the word deacon. 14:17.160 --> 14:21.040 That's how we transliterate it, see, in the English name. 14:21.040 --> 14:22.040 Deacon servant. 14:22.480 --> 14:25.360 It is used 20 times as a servant or minister. 14:25.360 --> 14:29.400 It is used 16 times as one having a ministry. 14:29.400 --> 14:31.320 We'll talk a minute about that. 14:31.320 --> 14:37.800 Each one of you knew men, and I would pray that every deacon has a ministry. 14:37.800 --> 14:40.960 When you look at them, you think, oh, the school, he loves that. 14:40.960 --> 14:42.920 Oh, he likes to go to the hospital. 14:42.920 --> 14:45.320 Oh, his ministry is a jail. 14:45.320 --> 14:47.120 You see, whatever it might be. 14:47.120 --> 14:51.400 It takes all things to make this a successful church. 14:51.400 --> 14:55.040 We do more things than probably 15 churches. 14:55.040 --> 14:58.120 And the reason is we have people who have ministries. 14:58.120 --> 15:05.080 And I just pray that each one of you deliberately and willfully seeks out, God, what is my charisma? 15:05.080 --> 15:06.680 What is my gift? 15:06.680 --> 15:11.360 And God, therefore, put me busy with the thing that I'm good at. 15:11.360 --> 15:12.360 I like to do it. 15:12.360 --> 15:13.520 I love it. 15:13.520 --> 15:17.760 And therefore I do it, and I don't get burned out. 15:17.760 --> 15:22.560 There are men and women who have been serving ever since I have known them, and they've 15:22.560 --> 15:23.560 never had burnout. 15:23.560 --> 15:26.180 I wonder why that is. 15:26.180 --> 15:30.560 Someone else has a little children's class for three weeks out of the year, and they 15:30.560 --> 15:32.040 have a nervous breakdown. 15:32.040 --> 15:37.480 They don't love the little kids, and they wouldn't have that kind of a problem. 15:37.480 --> 15:40.720 And I know that you get tired of doing things. 15:40.720 --> 15:46.880 I'm just saying, when you love what you're doing, man, you can't keep you out of it. 15:47.560 --> 15:50.800 You see, you just can't keep you out of it. 15:50.800 --> 15:57.400 There is another very precious word which stands for deacon, and that is d-o-u-l-o, 15:57.400 --> 15:58.400 duolo. 15:58.400 --> 16:03.280 I'm going to pronounce it that way, because I heard a minister pronounce it that way. 16:03.280 --> 16:07.080 By the way, I've looked up every one of these, and I've looked it up in the Greek. 16:07.080 --> 16:10.480 I'm not a Greek scholar, but I'm bright enough to do that. 16:10.480 --> 16:13.400 It doesn't take much of a genius to do that. 16:13.400 --> 16:17.240 Duolo means slave, bondservant. 16:17.240 --> 16:23.160 Folks, do you realize that in the time of Jesus, over 50% of the people of the world 16:23.160 --> 16:25.960 were abject slaves? 16:25.960 --> 16:29.600 There was an island in the Mediterranean, on the southeast side of the Mediterranean, 16:29.600 --> 16:35.360 where over 4,000 men were incarcerated, former slaves or recalculated slaves, or slaves who 16:35.360 --> 16:39.920 caused trouble, whose right eye had been removed and filled with hot lead. 16:40.800 --> 16:47.720 Now if you think that these folks didn't understand what a slave was, you're wrong. 16:47.720 --> 16:54.200 And the Roman letter talks about being a slave, and bondservant is no minor thing. 16:54.200 --> 17:01.120 Well, you know, today's servants can simply leave when they're asked to wash windows. 17:01.120 --> 17:04.880 But you didn't do that in Jesus' day, did you? 17:04.880 --> 17:07.480 Bond service unto the life. 17:07.480 --> 17:11.080 If he wanted your life, he could take it, your master. 17:11.080 --> 17:15.760 If he wanted you to work night and day until you died, he could do that. 17:15.760 --> 17:22.160 He could do anything he wanted to, and a slave had value only in the sense as, what could 17:22.160 --> 17:25.480 that slave do for the master? 17:25.480 --> 17:31.080 It's really frightening to think that we think of servitude as just simply having to 17:31.080 --> 17:34.040 do something in the church. 17:34.040 --> 17:40.720 That's considered slavery, ah, Fui, that isn't even biblical at all, is it? 17:40.720 --> 17:47.560 Now listen to this, and if you'll bear with me, I'm going to do this twice, because this 17:47.560 --> 17:52.520 gives me a new feeling about the deaconship. 17:52.520 --> 17:57.120 And I need to learn new things, and I've known this for a long time. 17:57.120 --> 18:02.960 But they'll put it in these words, and it's pure Scripture, and now listen, Jesus is speaking. 18:02.960 --> 18:07.240 I'm going to use the Greek first, and I'll show you how it comes out in the English. 18:07.240 --> 18:13.080 Now listen, Matthew 20, verse 26 to 28, it's a marvelous Scripture. 18:13.080 --> 18:19.480 Whether you agree with this or not, and you really have to, and I don't care, you must 18:19.480 --> 18:22.760 have your Bible to say that it is wrong. 18:22.760 --> 18:28.280 Your opinion of it doesn't matter, but this is what it is literally saying. 18:28.280 --> 18:36.400 Now listen, whoever would become great among you, let him be your diaconos, your deacon. 18:36.400 --> 18:38.720 This is the literal word which is used. 18:38.720 --> 18:49.200 And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your dwalos, your slave, your boncer. 18:49.200 --> 19:01.040 Even as the son of man did not come to be diaca tenentai, I've pronounced it 15 times 19:01.040 --> 19:05.240 in the middle of the night, last night, and I goofed it, didn't I? 19:05.240 --> 19:17.160 Diaca tenentai deaconed unto, but to diaconasai be a deacon, and to give his life a ransom 19:17.160 --> 19:18.160 for many. 19:18.160 --> 19:24.120 I'm going to say it again without the tricky Greek words, which I'm not good at, but what 19:24.120 --> 19:26.600 I'm saying is what it says. 19:26.600 --> 19:35.040 Now listen, whoever would become great among you, let him be your diacon, and whoever desires 19:35.040 --> 19:41.120 to be first among you, let him be your slave. 19:41.120 --> 19:50.920 And he goes on to say, even as the son of man did not come to be a diacon, to be diacon 19:50.920 --> 19:58.000 unto, but to diacon, and to give his life a ransom for many. 19:58.000 --> 20:05.880 He did not come to be diacon unto, but he came to diacon, to be a diacon, and to give 20:05.880 --> 20:09.160 his life a ransom for many. 20:09.160 --> 20:13.040 How did Jesus give his life a ransom for many? 20:13.040 --> 20:17.000 Died on the cross. 20:17.000 --> 20:23.160 Abject slave to his father, did whatever his father commanded him, that you and I might 20:23.160 --> 20:24.960 have eternal life. 20:24.960 --> 20:32.680 He didn't come to be diacon unto, he didn't come to be served, but he came to be a servant. 20:32.680 --> 20:35.080 You see the difference there? 20:35.080 --> 20:40.600 I know the words may be, and I didn't do that as well as I prayed that I would, but the 20:40.600 --> 20:45.120 words are there. 20:45.120 --> 20:50.040 Become a diacon, and you will become great. 20:50.040 --> 20:51.800 Become a servant, and you will become great. 20:51.800 --> 20:56.080 For those of you who have greater aspirations than just being great, many of you may want 20:56.080 --> 21:00.800 to say, I'd like to be first in the kingdom of God in something, and how can you honor 21:00.800 --> 21:05.800 a guy who can sell more TVs than anybody else? 21:05.800 --> 21:07.880 Or why would you honor somebody who's a teacher? 21:07.880 --> 21:11.880 Why would you honor somebody who can sell more insurance policies? 21:11.880 --> 21:17.480 Why do you give them honor, and not give honor to people who are ransoming their lives for 21:17.480 --> 21:22.320 many, offering a ransom in their own life? 21:22.320 --> 21:26.960 Become a slave, he says, and you will become first. 21:26.960 --> 21:33.200 You see the attitude of mine there, of those who would lead God to become good deacons. 21:33.200 --> 21:36.680 It's ever been as important as the eldership, isn't it? 21:36.680 --> 21:45.680 In effect, it is the eldership too, diaconos, to be a servant, to deacon in such a way that 21:45.680 --> 21:49.920 your life becomes a ransom for many. 21:49.920 --> 21:53.640 I don't get tired when I think of that, do you? 21:53.640 --> 22:00.000 I really don't, because if I live the life of servitude to the kingdom of God, I will 22:00.000 --> 22:02.280 ransom many. 22:02.280 --> 22:10.760 If I had to become great, I'll ransom very many, multitudes even, you see. 22:10.760 --> 22:12.400 Didn't Paul do such a thing? 22:12.400 --> 22:14.120 I think he did. 22:14.120 --> 22:15.400 How could I do such a thing? 22:15.400 --> 22:21.280 And in conclusion, I'd say this, by my ministry, I don't really believe you can be a deacon 22:21.280 --> 22:28.080 and certainly not an elder unless you have a ministry, something that you do, which distinguishes 22:28.080 --> 22:31.240 you from others in being a servant of God. 22:31.240 --> 22:35.600 Well, by being a teacher, you know that we need more teachers. 22:35.600 --> 22:36.600 We need more teachers. 22:36.600 --> 22:40.400 We've got a lot of little kids and we need more teachers. 22:40.400 --> 22:48.720 The ministry to the poor, we give away, I can guess, in $17,000 to people who need help. 22:48.720 --> 22:52.040 And someone has to do that, has to look after that. 22:52.040 --> 22:53.040 Sick. 22:53.040 --> 22:54.040 I don't know about you. 22:54.040 --> 22:59.560 I've been in the hospital eight times in the last seven days and I missed the day. 22:59.560 --> 23:05.160 I just could not get it done and that didn't make the church grow at all. 23:05.160 --> 23:10.800 That's just one of the servant things which the church must minister to, it's sick. 23:10.800 --> 23:15.480 And you know, if you tie me up that much, that's a lot of times that I won't be able 23:15.480 --> 23:18.240 to talk to the lost, you see. 23:18.240 --> 23:23.600 Or Larry, or Jerry, or anybody else, it doesn't matter. 23:23.600 --> 23:29.640 You see, we need to share that labor and I think that's what the diaconos was to do. 23:29.640 --> 23:32.480 You know, the little church is clean this morning. 23:32.480 --> 23:36.280 Whoever did it, thank you, because I know how it got clean. 23:36.280 --> 23:40.320 You just spent several hours over here doing that yesterday. 23:40.320 --> 23:42.920 And I appreciate that. 23:42.920 --> 23:46.920 You know, that's a holy calling. 23:46.920 --> 23:52.960 One of the biggest churches in our brotherhood has five families who clean the church every 23:52.960 --> 23:55.960 Lord's Day, five different families. 23:55.960 --> 24:00.240 They run about 2,000, it's Louisville Christian Church and it's one of the reasons why we're 24:00.240 --> 24:02.240 not sending Sally and Todd. 24:02.240 --> 24:09.200 They sent Sally and Todd because they are servants and they're men and women, by the 24:09.200 --> 24:13.240 way, clean the church and they send their money to missions. 24:13.240 --> 24:15.080 And you see, that's a ministry. 24:15.080 --> 24:18.120 Your time is a ministry to use it for God. 24:18.120 --> 24:21.560 And anything you do for a kid is a ministry. 24:21.560 --> 24:25.520 I'm kind of excited about some of the new things that are going on. 24:25.520 --> 24:26.720 Grab ahold of it. 24:26.720 --> 24:27.720 Look at some of the things. 24:27.720 --> 24:29.840 Talk to Larry, talk to the men of the church. 24:29.840 --> 24:34.360 There are so many things that we can do and we can do it better if we do it together. 24:34.360 --> 24:36.400 Well, that ministry is important. 24:36.400 --> 24:41.840 To reproduce ourselves, 1 Thessalonians 1, 7 and 8, and so you become a model to all 24:41.840 --> 24:49.120 the believers in Macedonia and Ikea, to the Lord's message would ring out and from you, 24:49.120 --> 24:55.240 not only in Macedonia and Ikea, but your faith in God has become known everywhere. 24:55.240 --> 24:59.480 Did you know this church is a much talked about church because it broke the pattern? 24:59.480 --> 25:05.360 We did not just have one man do it, all of it for us. 25:05.360 --> 25:10.440 First Thessalonians 5, 12, 13, so we asked you now, brothers, to respect those who work 25:10.440 --> 25:16.960 hard among you, who are over you in the Lord, to admonish you, hold them in the highest 25:16.960 --> 25:22.840 regard and love because of their work, live in peace with each other. 25:22.840 --> 25:29.240 And so I present you with your credentials, young men, you're not also young either. 25:29.240 --> 25:31.320 That's what's wonderful. 25:31.320 --> 25:36.280 Some of you are old enough to have busted your nose against the problems of life and 25:36.280 --> 25:37.680 you know how to win. 25:37.680 --> 25:41.040 You've been a winner and the church needs it. 25:41.040 --> 25:42.600 Church needs youthful strength. 25:42.600 --> 25:48.440 The church needs wisdom of the older folks to guide and to protest and to bless. 25:48.440 --> 25:50.880 I present you with your credentials. 25:50.880 --> 25:57.240 The 2 Timothy 2, 2, the things thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit 25:57.240 --> 26:04.200 thou unto faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. 26:04.200 --> 26:06.440 I'll be gone before too long. 26:06.440 --> 26:14.920 And I pray that one of my ministries was to, hey, pass it on, give someone else the teaching, 26:14.920 --> 26:20.680 give someone else the blessing, give someone else the opportunity to serve in the household 26:20.680 --> 26:21.680 of God. 26:21.680 --> 26:27.800 And then I adjure you to listen to 1 Corinthians 15, 58, therefore my beloved brethren, be 26:27.800 --> 26:33.720 you steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. 26:33.720 --> 26:38.760 For as much as you know that your labor in the Lord is never a vain thing. 26:38.760 --> 26:41.240 The word there is copiazzo. 26:41.240 --> 26:47.880 It's used 489 times in the past tense, having worked, worked. 26:47.880 --> 26:49.000 That's amazing. 26:49.000 --> 26:54.120 Used five times more than baptism is in the New Testament. 26:54.120 --> 26:57.640 And you know, you don't hear many sermons about work, do you? 26:57.640 --> 27:00.600 And work parties, that's your party, isn't it? 27:00.600 --> 27:02.680 But it's an essential. 27:02.680 --> 27:06.560 Don't cry out, give us a king. 27:06.560 --> 27:10.400 Don't cry out, give us a minister. 27:10.400 --> 27:15.560 You cry out, give us a ministry. 27:15.560 --> 27:23.640 And I give you God's blessing that if you serve the kingdom of God, you'll be the greatest 27:23.640 --> 27:25.720 in the kingdom of God. 27:25.720 --> 27:33.680 Let's stand as we sing our hymn of invitation, which is number 471. 27:33.680 --> 27:34.680 Number 400. 27:34.680 --> 27:35.680 You have a decision to make. 27:35.680 --> 27:36.680 You have a commitment to make. 27:36.680 --> 27:37.680 If you have been challenged, if you need a church poem, whatever it might be, now is 27:37.680 --> 27:38.680 that time. 27:38.680 --> 27:56.680 We sing the first verse, please. 28:08.680 --> 28:35.680 Let's stand as we sing our hymn of invitation, which is number 471. 28:35.680 --> 29:03.680 Let's stand as we sing our hymn of invitation, which is number 471.