Title: Servant Leadership (part 2)
Scripture: 1 Timothy 3:11-13
Speaker: Nate Pickowicz
In Isaiah's prophecy written 700 years before the time of Christ, he records a series of servant songs that point to a mysterious figure who accomplishes the work of the Lord. In Isaiah 42, it begins, Behold, my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him.
He will bring forth justice to the nations. This servant that's listed has been identified throughout the course of biblical history, biblical exegesis. We understand this is the person of Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is the servant, the ultimately the suffering servant, who be tasked with fulfilling God's righteous purposes. And so in those servant songs, and we looked at those several years ago, we went right through the whole series of them, Isaiah 42 depicts him as being humble and gentle. Isaiah 49 showcases his work to restore Israel and extend salvation to the ends of the earth.
Isaiah 50 displays the servant's obedience and suffering. But the culmination of the servant songs comes in Isaiah 53, whereby the servant is said to prosper, to be high and lifted up. Yet in order to be exalted, he must first be despised and forsaken of men.
Because the ultimate form of his service is to accomplish the work of salvation. And we read these very famous verses. We read, Surely our griefs he himself bore, and our sorrows he carried.
Yet we ourselves esteemed him, stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities.
The chastening for our well-being fell upon him, and by his scourging we are healed. Again, 700 years before the time of Christ, Isaiah was describing the horrors of the cross that Jesus would endure. But he would do so as the Lord's servant.
And in this service, Christ provides satisfaction for the wrath of God against sin. He serves in earning forgiveness for his people. That's us, believers.
He brings glory to the Father through his service. And he accomplishes salvation for those who could not themselves accomplish it. And this work of salvation accomplishes what's called justification, where God is able to declare his people to be forgiven and righteous, even though we're not.
And this is a legal act of justice that has been satisfied by Jesus dying on the cross. Again, that's the doctrine of justification, which Isaiah 53 11 actually points to. It says, The righteous one, my servant, will justify the many as he will bear their iniquities.
Again, we see these themes of service coming through. And so this is what Jesus also says in the Gospels. The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
Let me back up just a little bit here into our text before I move ahead. We're talking about, again, the theme of the servant of the Lord who is Jesus Christ. Isaiah 53 is the culmination of that moment where we talk about the righteous one, my servant, who justifies the many as he bears their iniquities.
Jesus also says this in the Gospels when he says, The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Of course, we see our Lord serving in a multitude of ways, and in the greatest of those ways is serving us in salvation. And yet, even though he serves us in salvation, he calls us, his people, to serve and love one another.
He calls us to love one another, to bear with one another, to serve one another, and he calls all others to be servant leaders whom he calls deacons in the Scriptures. And so for that purpose, we're going to focus on the topic of deacons today from 1st Timothy chapter 3. So if you want to turn in your copy of Scripture to 1st Timothy chapter 3, we've been here for a few weeks now. Last week was kind of our part one.
We're going to wrap up this portion of Scripture today. Paul's first letter to Timothy addresses numerous issues within the church, and in chapter 3, we're dealing with the required qualifications for church leaders, which are known as elders in verses 1 through 7 of chapter 3. And then we see those who are in charge of service, known as deacons, in chapter 3 verses 8 through 13, and that's where we are today. Now this is not based on how long you've been part of the church.
It's not based on how skilled you are, how influential you are in the community, how much you desire to do a thing. Rather, deacons must be believers who, like elders, are above reproach in their character. And so we're going to re-examine this today, look at 1st Timothy chapter 3 verses 8 through 13.
Paul writes, deacons likewise must be men of integrity, not double-tongued or addicted to much wine or fond of sordid game, but holding to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. These men must also first be tested, then let them serve as deacons if they are beyond reproach. Women likewise must be dignified, not malicious gossips, but temperate, faithful in all things.
Deacons must be husbands of only one wife and good managers of their children and of their households. Those who have served well as deacons obtain for themselves a high standing and great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus. Now again, we dipped our toe into the waters last week.
We covered the first couple of verses, sort of leading up to the end of this passage here. We learned last time that the Greek word diakonos, deacon, literally refers to a person who is a servant. So deacon literally means servant.
Diakonos is servant. Now in the Bible, this word can refer to anyone who serves others, but we know from places like Philippians 1.1 that there is a recognized designation, an official office of deacon. Philippians 1.1 talks about addressing elders and deacons together.
Now those who provide this specific service are regarded as the office of deacon, and so those who are called to deacons must be, the Bible says, men of integrity. This refers to being respectable. They must be those who are within the church who are of high regard.
And then we see three negative qualifiers referring to their speech, discipline, and motivation. We looked at these last week again. First, they must not be double-tongued.
Dialogos in the Greek, double tongue, speaking out of both sides of your mouth. But this really has to do with not being insincere or being duplicitous. Rather, they must be, have integrity with their speech.
Secondly, they must also not be addicted to much wine. They're not to be a drunkard. They're not to be a user, but they're to be so minded and self-controlled.
Thirdly, they must not be fond of sordid gain. This refers to greed. But rather, the bigger issue here is motivations.
The bigger picture has to do with integrity of the heart, which is reflected in their speech. They are disciplined in their life, and they are serving also for the right reasons. Ultimately, deacons are called to serve because, number one, they love the Lord God, and number two, they love God's people.
Next, he says, they must also be a conscientious believer. That's verse 9. He qualifies here, holding to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. They must be settled in their general convictions and are able to hold, as the NIV would render this, hold to the deep truths of the Christian faith.
Now, they must not necessarily be scholars or experts. They're not theologians, as we would regard them, but they are faithful believers. And then verse 10, it says, these men must also first be tested and let them serve as deacons if they are beyond reproach.
And so deacons must be those who are found to be faithful. They need to be examined in their life, in their families, in the church. And we saw from verse 12 how it dovetails into this.
Verse 12, there's sort of a, it goes from verse 10, there's a verse about women, and then it goes into verse 12 here. They must be faithful to their wives, responsible with their children, and responsible in their own households. Everyone who serves as a deacon should be talked to, looked at, and regarded well by the church.
And if they are found to be beyond reproach, they may serve as deacons. Again, we covered these in greater detail last week, but then we started by looking at the question at the very end of last week's message. We went from what deacons are to be to what deacons ought to do.
What do deacons do? That's a big mystery in a lot of churches, a big, probably the most confusing issue when it regards to church leadership. In some churches, deacons function more like elders, and I would say that's a large majority of churches in the Northeast. In the old Baptist or even old congregational churches, deacons function in a leadership capacity.
They do everything, they decide everything, and they act like they own everything. That's most churches with most deacons. In other churches, deacons are merely a governing body.
There is just kind of a group of those who sit and sort of talk about things and make decisions, and that's sort of, that's what they do. In other churches, they exist to be checks and balances, a system to keep the pastor in check. I've seen that situation as well.
But the New Testament points to a very different picture of deacons, and one key passage that we looked at last time was Acts chapter 6. Now, we're not going to go back to that today, but I just want to remind you of what we talked about last week from Acts chapter 6. There was a problem that arose in the early church whereby the Hellenistic Jewish believers were being neglected over the native Hebrew believers, specifically the issue of the widows. The church was caring for widows in their congregation, but they seemed, at least according to the accusation, they seemed to be preferring one group over the other group in the serving of the food. And so Jewish Christian widows are being cared for and served food while the Greek Jews are being overlooked in this manner.
And the problem was this was creating division inside of the church, and you could imagine how this would go. Well, how come they're getting their food and we're not getting our food and they're getting taken care of first and we're not being cared for, and it was a massive problem. And so once the Apostles are notified about this, it says that they instructed the church to select from themselves seven men of a good reputation, full of the spirit and wisdom who they could assign this task to.
Why did they delegate the task to other people and not take care of it themselves? I mean, the Apostles certainly could have swooped in and taken care of things, but the text tells us that they reasoned this way. It is not desirable for us, the Apostles, to neglect the Word of God in order to serve tables. See, serving widows was important.
Caring for people's physical needs is important, it's very important, but not at the expense of gospel ministry. That's the point. And so these seven men who were essentially early forms of deacons were called to the task of taking care of this very specific ministry.
And that's really the first priority of what deacons do. In his book on deacons, there's a book out there that's very helpful, Matt Smethurst is the author. He outlines a job description that he finds in Scripture, and he gives three key responsibilities.
And so I just want to highlight these, I think these are very helpful, and I'm going to go actually in reverse order of how he presents them in his book, but I would say that Act 6 demonstrates the very first principle for what deacons do. So number one, what do deacons do? Number one, their responsibility is serving and supporting the ministry of the elders. Serving and supporting the ministry of the elders.
The deacons assist the elders so that they can focus on their obedience of their calling. Without the ministry of the deacons, the elders are not able to do everything that they're supposed to do. In this way, Alexander Strock, in his book, he says that deacons are the formal assistants to the elders.
The formal assistants to the elders. They serve the proverbial tables while the elders cook the biblical meal, if you want to take the analogy even further. And so that's the first responsibility for deacons, is that they serve alongside and they assist the elders in doing what the elders are called and tasked to do.
Number two, responsibility. Deacons are responsible for spotting and meeting tangible needs. They're responsible for spotting and meeting tangible needs.
Matt Smethurst writes this, a deacon should be skilled at spotting practical needs and then taking the initiative to meet them efficiently. But the best deacons don't just react to present problems, they also anticipate future ones. This is a really important point here.
It's one thing to say to a person, to a deacon, hey this is a problem needs to be fixed and then pointing them in that direction. And there may even be times when things get overlooked and you have to keep on pointing to the problem. But a deacon in this responsibility would actually see that need before anyone even offers that or suggests that.
They would see the need ahead of time and they would anticipate that need and get in front of it. I mean that's really first-rate service to the body of Christ, to see a problem and desire to meet the need ahead of time. Whether that's the issue of the building, whether it's the parking lot, the finances, the communion trays, the office supplies, the needs of our people.
Whatever it may be, you see a need or you even anticipate a need coming and you jump to meet it. Whatever the need, you're actively identifying and meeting that need. And so spotting and meeting tangible needs.
And then the third responsibility that he gives is that deacons are responsible to protect and promote church unity. To protect and promote church unity. And the deacon, our deacons have heard me say this a hundred times, that everything is spiritual.
Everything is spiritual. A light bulb is spiritual. A chair is spiritual.
Everything. Well why? Why are tangible inanimate objects and needs, why are those spiritual? Why are those important? Well because they're always attached to people's hearts in some kind of a way. Let me give you an example.
If we were to fail to treat the parking lot or the walkways and somebody were to fall on their way in, they would most likely not just say, oh I slipped and fell. Really what tends to happen inside the heart is they feel this way. The church doesn't love me.
Again, whether or not that's true, that's how we tend to feel. When we feel neglected, when we don't feel cared for, it becomes a spiritual thing. And that's where hurt can come in.
That's where bitterness can come in. That's when all kinds of things can come in. Again, there's always a balance and you have to understand that too.
We can't simply always, ever, forever make everybody feel 100% happy all the time. There are mistakes that happen and, you know, we can't attend to every single feeling. But we are charged to care for one another in real and tangible ways so that all of us have a sense of feeling loved and happy and unified.
There's something about a happy church. More than this, when the body sees the deacons serving joyfully and faithfully, they themselves are built up and encouraged to do the same. When you see someone else serving well, it motivates you.
I want to serve well too. It encourages. What about here at Harvest? What do our deacons do? Well, over the years, we've actually morphed and changed a little bit how we approach the deacons.
In the beginning, back when we first called our very first deacon board, it was more of a larger group of deacons who gathered together and they solved problems as they came up. And it was kind of just sort of all for one and one for all. But over time, we actually changed the way that we approach it and now our deacon board is specific assigned tasks for every single deacon.
And that way, everybody kind of knows what they're walking into when they come to the table. Is it this specific need? Okay, that's this deacon. What about this thing? Oh, that's that deacon.
And that seems to, we seem to function pretty well that way. Everybody kind of knows what their job is and that way we can move ahead with assigned tasks. At current, we have several identified areas of service that either have a deacon attached or is in need of a deacon at the present time.
Those responsibilities include benevolence, our building, the grounds that we own, the technology, ushering, safety and security, missions this year, serve projects and finances. Right now, we're, we need a lot more hands, I believe, but we are grateful for the deacons that the Lord has provided. We have a good group of godly deacons who serve this church.
They really are, as Matt Smethurst regards them, the shock absorbers of the church. They really absorb a lot of those needs and the changes. They are men of dignity, character, ability and godliness.
I'm very thankful for them. And so, this is where we kind of come into what do the deacons do. And that's what we're leading into here with verses 8, 9 and 10.
And then we come to verse 11. Verse 11. Now, up to this point, we've been talking about godly, qualified men who serve as deacons.
And then Paul shifts the focus here in verse 11 to something a little bit different here. He says in verse 11, women must likewise be dignified, not malicious gossips, but temperate, faithful in all things. Now, this verse, as you can imagine, has been the source of much discussion.
Who are these women in verse 11? Why are they mentioned here? Are they deacons? Well, from what I've gathered and explored, there are at least five views of this verse. Five views on this verse. I'm not going to labor too long on each of them, but I do want to show them to you so you can see them.
One view holds that verse 11 is referring to all the women of the church. That God desires for all women to be dignified, not malicious gossips, temperate and faithful in all things. Now, we know that that's certainly true.
That's a true sentiment. In fact, Paul says much of the same thing about women in Titus 2.3. However, when you look at the context of this passage here, the passage is about elders and deacons and does not make sense for Paul to be dropping such a random exhortation in the middle of deacon qualifications. So, I don't believe that this is accurate to say this is about all women in general, even though the sentiment itself is certainly true.
Another view is that this is referring to the wives of the deacons. Many scholars hold this view, including John Calvin and most of the Reformers. In more modern times, scholars like Ralph Earl, Denny Burke, who's a Southern Baptist scholar, Wayne Grudem holds this view, Tom Schreiner and many others.
This is a very popular view. This has to do with the idea that this word gounikos in the Greek can refer to both women and wives. So, you could translate that Greek word as wives or women.
So, some scholars wrestle with, well, how are we accurately translating this word? And so, the idea here is that you have these men serving in the deaconal ministry and their wives are likely serving alongside them. And they must, that's why he uses the word likewise, they must likewise be qualified. And we can see how this would work out.
You call someone to the office of deacon, they begin to minister and serve, and their wives, they jump in the fray with them. And even in our own situation right now, to my knowledge, all of the deacons that we have, their wives are engaged on some level. Whether or not it's actually doing some of the work themselves or supporting their husband as he does the ministry, whatever the situation here, you have these wives upholding godly character, serving and supporting their husbands in the deaconal ministry.
One key argument against this interpretation is that you don't find such a qualification for elders' wives. There's only qualifications in this view for deacon's wives, not elders' wives. And so, the argument is, well, since they don't qualify one and not the other, that that's somehow not what this is referring to.
But I would, it's hard to be conclusive about that. I'm not sure exactly if that is the most, the strongest evidence against that view, but that is a popular view. And maybe some of you came from churches where that was the interpretation of this verse.
A third view is that Paul intends to include women in the office of deacon, that it's both men and women. Now, we understand that the Bible prohibits women in chapter 2, verses 11 through 14, for serving as elders, spiritual leadership, due to the issues of authority, submission, and headship. And we talked about that for several weeks back when we covered chapter 2. If you missed that or want to go back to those sermons, you certainly can go back and listen to those.
I think the case is very clear from Scripture. But here's the thing, the responsibilities of deacons, they bear no such authority. If exercised correctly, women would not be in a violation of headship or submission if they were to serve as deacons.
So you don't have an issue of headship or authority. They're not doing any kind of teaching ministry by serving as a deacon. And so it does not seem like God prohibits women from being deacons on principle.
But the question we have to ask is, what does Paul intend to say? Is that what Paul is leading us to here? After all, the church, when they needed deacons in Acts chapter 6, the apostles instructed the church to call seven men, specifically men. Furthermore, the rest of the passage here in 1st Timothy 3 leans into men specifically. Just go back to verse 8, deacons must be men of integrity.
Verse 12, let deacons be husbands of only one wife. And so there does seem to be a leaning into men doing this responsibility. But this has led scholars then to follow this train of thinking and do a fourth view.
And this view is prominent as well. Homer Kent holds this, Ben Witherington, John MacArthur holds this fourth view. And the fourth view is this, that 1st Timothy 311 refers to another group known as deaconesses.
Now we might ask, what's the difference here? And why does Paul not use that word? Couldn't he just have said deaconess? Except that that word, the way that we understand it, didn't exist at this time. It was sort of coined a little bit later, but we understand that the Bible uses the masculine form of deaconess to refer to both men and women. So for example, the women of Phoebe in Romans 16, 1, the same word is used of her, deaconess, as it would be for a man.
And so the argument here is that he's referring to women to distinguish them from the men to serve in a similar role. So he's talking about those who are in service, he's talking mostly to the men, and then he stops and kind of pivots to talk to women. In fact, even the way that verse 11 is structured is very similar to what we see in verse 8. And why does that matter? Well, it seems to be a separate category.
Look again at verse 8. Deacons must be men of dignity, not double-tongued or addicted to wine or greedy. Verse 11, women must likewise be dignified, not malicious gossips, but temperate and faithful. It's the same construction.
They're parallel. It's almost as if Paul is working with these three categories, elder in verses 1-7, deacon, and deaconess. That's what it looks like.
This view, according to Alexander Strock, the deaconesses serve primarily to work with the women of the church. That's how we would understand that. And so this view has become increasingly popular.
Are you confused and troubled yet? So am I. There's a lot going on here, and it's hard to delineate between all of these. There's a fifth view, and I'll close with this fifth view here. A fifth view held by William Hendrickson is that he's not actually addressing deaconesses or female deacons, but rather a separate group of women who are ministering and acting as assistants to the deacons.
In the same way that the deacons are assistants to the elders, these women are assistants to the deacons. That's also possible. Hendrickson makes a pretty compelling case.
He cites 14 women in the New Testament who we see assisting and serving alongside church leaders, which includes women like Dorcas, Lydia, Phoebe, and others. And so, which is it? Based on the content, based on the exegesis, I tend to lean either toward the view that sees verse 11 as either deaconesses or assistants to the deacons, but I've got to tell you, deacons' wives, qualifications for deacon's wives, is also very compelling. I could see the argument for that, but it really comes down to this.
Because there is not clarity, 100% clarity in the text, and because church history is very broad and diverse, it does provide us with a little bit of leeway. That's not necessarily bad, but the question is, what is best and most fitting for our church? How are we going to approach this? How have we approached this for the last seven years? Historically, we've been very slow to embrace the idea of female deacons or deaconesses, largely, and this is kind of a one key reason, because of the misconception of the office in the Northeast, whereas other parts of the country, other parts of the world, don't have the same history that we do. Again, most of the churches up here, deacons are considered elders, and so as soon as you come to a church that is muddling that up, you don't know what's going on.
So when people come to Harvest, if all of a sudden we have women deacons, then it raises questions, and that's not the only reason why you wouldn't do something, but I'll tell you, it has given us pause over the years. Even when we opened the door to deaconesses many years ago, the reaction from both men and women, actually, it was a stronger reaction from the women, was substantial. At the time, it was not something we wanted to pursue, but even when we opened the door and solicited recommendations, we didn't have any ladies that were recommended.
I even had one woman who was very much so qualified in serving in such a capacity, she flat out told me, she says, you know, I probably could maybe serve in that way, she says, but I really don't want to, and I pressed her, I says, well, why? And she says, well, honestly, my ego can't take it. My pride can't take it. I just want to serve quietly, serve the Lord, serve this church, and I'm okay with that, and I was pleasantly surprised that she had an analysis of her own heart in such a way.
It brings us back to this. Even if it's biblically permissible, we have to consider if something is beneficial. Are we going to create a stumbling block for our ladies? And that's been a question we've been toying with for a long time.
The truth is, is that we really boil it down. Here's what's going on right now. There are many women in this church who are serving in a deaconal type ministry, yet they're doing so without a title.
They are faithful women who are serving and leading in such ministries as the children's ministry, the youth group, the prayer ministry, hospitality, meals ministry, finance. I mean, there are ladies who are faithfully serving those ministries and in leading those ministries and blessing this church substantially. And so whether or not we ever install a deaconess in this church, God's desire, it's very clear from Scripture, God's desire for any women serving in the church is that which she would be, in verse 11, she would be dignified, semnos in the Greek, respectable, honorable.
God wants all Christian women to be respectable, honorable, but certainly requires if you're going to serve in any kind of capacity in the local church, you must be a respectable, honorable, dignified woman. You must also not be a malicious gossip. This is a constant warning we see in Scripture, certainly in places like Titus 2.3. It's referred to in 2 Timothy 3.3 as well.
There is a propensity, this is why Scripture 0 is in on this, there is a propensity for many women to get caught up in gossip and even malicious, slanderous gossip. And so women are not called to do that, but they're called to be loving and honorable in their speech and in their conduct as well. But then he turns it on the other side of it, he says that she should be temperate, referring to self-control and sobriety in her thinking, and that in all things she would be faithful, trustworthy, dependable.
And so title or no title, office or no office, our church is made stronger by women who serve faithfully, with dignity, with love, with care. That's the kind of ministry that builds up and blesses the body, and frankly, that kind of ministry assists the elders. It helps us to be able to do our job when we have godly people, competent people, qualified people, leading in ministries, servant ministries, that are able to minister the needs of the church.
So that's where we've gone in verse 11, and by verse 12 here, and this is another reason why there's some question about this office again, is as soon as you get to verse 12, you go back to the men again. Deacons must be husbands of only one wife, good managers of their children, of their own households. We seem to sandwich in these male qualifications, but this again is addressing their realm of faithfulness.
But where does this all bring us to? Where is the landing point for these ministries? We see in verse 13, we have the pronouncement of a blessing. There's a blessing here. Look at verse 13.
For those who have served well as deacons obtain for themselves a high standing and great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus. There are blessings for faithfulness in this area. For those who have, and literally the Greek is diakoneo kalos, those who have deaconed well, those who have deaconed in a good way, served commendably, two things are given to them if they serve well, if they steward what they have.
First, he says, they obtain for themselves a high standing. This word here, standing, in the Greek refers to the step on a staircase. Literally, it's to step up onto a pedestal of some kind.
Now, it's not that the deacons are elevated above other people in a prideful or a sinful way. It's not self-elevation or exalting individuals to a high place in a prideful way, but rather it's a lifting them up in regard to their visible standing within the church. They become highly regarded by other people.
They are recognized. They are appreciated in the church. Serving the body of Christ well places you into a joyful position, a position of love, a position of respect, a position of admiration.
Of course, this should not surprise us that servants who consider themselves to be last in all things, Jesus says, will be first in the estimation of other people. And again, why do we desire to serve at all? It's because we know the Lord has served us so well. He is the chief servant of all.
And so there is a blessing, again, of faithful deacons who obtain for themselves a high standing. They're regarded well by the body of Christ. When you see someone serving well, running well, it encourages your heart, doesn't it? And we tend to our hearts tend to gravitate toward those who are serving us so well.
We love those people who serve us well. I know in my own heart, when I see someone running well and serving this church and loving this church well, it just it makes me sing. I mean, I get excited about that.
It's a blessing and I hold them in high regard. That's the sense of the blessing. There's also a secondary blessing to this as well.
And I say secondary not to diminish it, but to say that's the second of the blessings that are offered here. They obtain for themselves, he says, great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus. This word translated confidence refers to boldness or even assurance.
Now, we've already saw that deacons are required to hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. But once they begin serving their confidence in Christ and in the Christian faith, it increases. Why? Why does their faith and their confidence and their assurance increase when they serve in such a way? Well, because you're putting your faith into action.
It's more than words, it's more than a profession at that point. You're engaged actively in dying to self and loving others in tangible ways. And that's really what deacons are called to do.
It's to take a responsibility over a specific task, and you put your faith into action and you move it forward. And so the question is, do you want to grow in your faith? The answer is serve the body of Christ. That doesn't matter whether you're called to be a deacon of this church or not.
If you want to grow, serve other people, serve other people. And by serving Christ's body, you're serving him. Because I think sometimes it's easy to divorce the two to say, oh, I want to serve the Lord.
I want to focus everything on the Lord. But then they're absent here. And that happens with some people.
They're they're very vertically focused. And again, it's wonderful to be focused on the Lord. But if that faith and love for God never translates into using your hands and your feet for the body of Christ, the bride for whom he gave his life, the body of which you are a member, then there's something that's disconnected.
Our vertical love and devotion to God should translate into our devotion and love for other people, specifically the body of Christ. And so when that happens in your action, your hands, your feet are getting engaged. It activates more and more of your faith.
You're seeing the action. You're seeing it worked out. What does James say? Faith without works is dead.
Show me your faith. And he says, I'll show you my faith by what I do, by my works. And so we see that those who serve well and are faithful in ministering to the body of Christ, their faith gets put into action.
That's if they have their hearts and their minds in the right place. If it's not just mere service. Again, all service, all ministering is spiritual.
And I would even offer a warning. If you serve this church out of a cold heart, if you're serving this church just in a mechanical way and you're not engaged with the Lord, if you're not engaged with other people, if you're doing so begrudgingly, if you're doing so as just a nine-to-five kind of a job attitude, you're gonna rob yourself of the relationship with God, the communion with God, the devotion to God. You're gonna rob yourself of the blessing of other people as well.
And ultimately, if you don't serve with the right heart, you will, mark my words, you will become embittered with other people. You'll become embittered with the church. Why does that happen? Well, because again, if you're not doing so with the right motives, if you're greedy for gain, if you're greedy for approval and people don't approve you enough, you start to get into this cycle, don't you? And so there's a warning there to making sure that your heart and your mind and your actions are engaged and connected in the right way.
And if they are, if you serve well, if you serve this church well, there'll be a blessing for you. Great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus. Ultimately, yes, we're serving the body, but we're ultimately serving the Lord.
And those who serve the Lord demonstrate they have a love for him and they demonstrate that they have been loved by him. It's worth more than anything else that you could attain in this world. Serving others, loving others.
What did Jesus say the greatest commandment is to love your Lord, the Lord, your God, with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. But then he added one, didn't he? He didn't just stop with that one. He said in the second is like it to love your neighbor as yourself.
Beloved, let's get busy loving one another because of our love for the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word.
We thank you for the biblical text this morning. Father, we ask that you would give us grace and clarity and wisdom and understanding, not just in the text, Lord, but for one another. Lord, that you would provide a blessing for those who are serving as deacons currently, that you would bless those who will serve as deacons in the future.
Lord, for any and all who serve in any capacity here, Lord, that you would continue to increase their faith, increase their confidence, increase their standing, their love from the other believers in this congregation. Lord, that we would learn how to serve you well and learn how to love you well. Lord, give us grace and give us peace.
Lord, we understand that we can do nothing apart from the grace that's been given to us in Christ. We can do nothing apart from the gospel that's transformed us. Lord, we can't just do things if our heart isn't engaged.
If we don't belong to you, then everything else we do is going to fall short. It's going to be empty. But Lord, we know we've been transformed because of the work that you have done.
Oh, Lord Jesus, what we saw in the servant songs very briefly, that you gave yourself up for us by dying on the cross to pay for our sins. You washed our sins away and you've given us new life, that all who have turned away from their sins and put their faith, their trust in you, have eternal life and in eternal life. You've given us a new heart, a heart that desires to obey you and to love you.
And in that same way, a heart that desires to love and serve other people. It's only by knowing and being saved in a relationship with you, Lord, that we can do anything for other people. So, Lord, I pray if there's any here, Lord, today that don't know you, I pray that today would be the day of their salvation, that they would see their need to be forgiven of sin, receive new life and forgiveness, Lord, that they would walk with you in faith and obedience.
Lord, help us now. And Father, in these moments, as we consider the end of this service, I also want to lift up one more time, I pray, for Fred and Lorraine Buchholz, Lord. I pray that you would help Fred as he was making his way out the door, Lord, that you administer comfort, that you'd bring him back to us, Lord, in good order, that we could worship with them again next week.
Thank you, Lord, and I pray that our hearts would even go out and minister to them in their time of need. Lord, providentially an example of those who would need ministering. So, Lord, help us to be attentive to their needs.
Thank you, Lord, for all that you've given to us. Thank you for serving us so that we could serve other people. We pray all of these things in Jesus' name.
Amen.