Take your Bibles now and let's turn to 1 Timothy chapter 3. 1 Timothy chapter 3, I said to you yesterday that this book of 1 Timothy is as contemporary as any book you can get. There is not an issue that churches are facing today that are not addressed here under divine authority. Everybody's got their opinion, but this is the word of the Lord, and that's the only thing we have to follow. We're so interested in church experts and advisors and counselors, Everything you need is right here.

Isn't it interesting? Every life issue is addressed in the scriptures. Every life issue is addressed in the scriptures. We just don't know them enough. Now, Yesterday I explained a little bit the background.

I don't need to go over that. But it's a church in trouble, serious trouble, church with every advantage, every privilege. And yet false teaching got into this church. It's a real lesson right there. Don't be naive to think that false teaching cannot take a grip in your church.

You would be childlike to think of that. Long history of this. But here is a church under the direct care of the apostle. And when he leaves, what happens? The false teachers come.

And wherever Paul went, wherever he went, the false teachers, they just follow right along, sneak in, and go, well, you know, he's not giving you the whole gospel. He's not telling you that you do need to be circumcised, and you do need to follow the law of Moses. Or you do need to understand how a secular philosophy does interact with what you believe. They're Always there. So in Acts 20, he says, I know.

He didn't say, I think, possibly, maybe this might happen, he says, I know that after my departure, savage wolves, you know, they're not nice guys, savage wolves, a pack of savage wolves, will come in among you and they're not going to spare the flock. And most frightening, even from among your own selves will arise. Among your elders will arise. Men speaking twisted perverted things to draw away the disciples after them. This is an apostolic prophetic word.

It is the history of the whole church of Jesus Christ. The arch enemy of the church of Jesus Christ is the false teacher. It's all predicted by the apostle in Acts 20. And it happened here. It happened in this lovely church.

Can you imagine the heartbreak of Paul to see this church? He spent three years with them. To see the elders who they were like that, They were close together, they kissed each other, they fell upon each other's necks, they loved him. Wouldn't they know that within six to seven years they would be in the death grip of false teachers? Can you imagine how grievous that was?

He loved this church, loved these people. My brothers, this is reality. This is reality. It's a tough world we're dealing with out there. Church work is tough.

It'll kill you. You don't trust the Lord and rest in the Lord. It'll tear you to pieces and tear your family to pieces. You are in a battle, whether you agree with it or not, you are in a battle. Let's just real quickly keep your finger there, turn over to Ephesians 6.

Ephesians 6, just in case you get a little naive and you're not thinking any longer. Verse 12. For we brothers and sisters do not wrestle against flesh and blood, we're not wrestling against guns and hand grenades and tanks and jet planes. Are you looking at this? But against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places.

Therefore, in light of the war, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, having done all, to stand firm." Did you see that? This present darkness against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places. That's who we're encountering. And if your church is doing well, it's just a matter of time before the evil one and his demonic host are waiting. There's like a prowling lion.

He's just waiting. He will attack. He will attack. That's why we're to be alert. Acts 20, 31, we're to be alert.

Night and day, Paul says, even with tears, broke my heart, to warn you that these people are coming. And one of the worst of the scenarios is it comes right from within the eldership to knock down, drag out, battle for life. So 1 Timothy is correcting these confusing problems that resulted as a result of these false teachers. So it wasn't a pretty picture in the church. So we read in chapter three, he deals with the question of spiritual leadership.

The saying is trustworthy. If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. This is meant to be an encouraging word. There's a lot of discouragement in the church. But he says, if you desire spiritual oversight over the house of God, that's a good thing.

He's not discouraging. He's encouraging it. It's not pride to want to lead the Lord's people. It can be. It can be self-deception.

It can be. But it's a good thing when you desire to care for the Lord's people. And he's encouraging that. But there's a warning here. You must be of a certain character.

Desire is good. It starts with desire. But ultimately, you have to have a certain character. And so therefore, it's such a noble task. Therefore, an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife.

And then he lists these character requirements. Now, I have studied these character requirements and written on them for over 40 years. And I wanted to say this to you. In 40 years of studying these character requirements, I have not exhausted them. I keep finding greater and greater wisdom in every single one of them.

There's a reason for every single character requirement. And you will not plummet the depth of all these things, because it's divinely inspired, and God knows what is best for his church. And he knows what we need to be like to care for his people. So every one of these qualifications or requirements has divine wisdom behind it. And you can study and keep studying and studying how each is so valuable and why it's there in scripture.

I'm still finding new things. The thing that I have found new is how much of this is on temperament, and in leadership you have to have a certain temperament, particularly working at General Motors. No, particularly in the military, no. Particularly in the household of God. A different kind of temperament.

We're not running Ford Motor Company. We're not running the US military. We're not running some organization. This is a different animal, a different species. We are leading the Lord's people.

They're not our people. He has graciously allowed us to be under shepherds of his people. So these requirements are for that kind of organization and that kind of leadership style. So he talks about the overseers who were later called the elders. But then he tells us about a group of people called Diakonoi, the deacons.

And for many of us, it just sort of comes out of nowhere, well, who in the world are these people? Let's just read the passage. Gotta watch my time here. Let's read the passage, and then we'll come back to these people called diakonoi. Deacons, diakonoi, Likewise, like the overseers, must be dignified.

This is sort of a general term. Worthy of respect, some of your Bibles might say. A lot of different translations of this. The idea, person worthy of esteem, worthy of honor. Not double tongue, says one thing to one person, another thing to another person, not addicted to much wine, can't have an addiction problem with alcohol, leads to all kinds of other sins.

And it shows you you're not spirit controlled. Because the opposite in Ephesians 5.18 is, don't get drunk with wine. That's debauchery. But be controlled by the Holy Spirit. So you can't be controlled by wine and be controlled by the Holy Spirit.

And the addiction to wine or alcohol or anything will lead to further sins. Not greedy for dishonest gain. Undoubtedly, these people had some access to church money. And as I said to you yesterday, this is a bigger problem than you realize worldwide. Any missionary will tell you a key moment in the history of the church is when the missionary hands the money over to the people or to the leaders.

Because in many, many countries of the world, maybe not here in Alabama, stealing is almost a way of life, and they're very, very poor people, and they get access to money, the temptation is almost overwhelming. One of our works, I cannot tell you the country, because it could be dangerous me mentioning this, but one of our missionaries started 10 churches in a country that's Muslim oriented, and he's been very much blessed with the Lord. But one of the key, key leaders in this country got caught stealing church money. Oh, it was devastating to him, devastating. It's a key moment in missions when you hand the money, which usually is coming from someplace else, over to the missionary.

So this is a bigger problem than you may realize. And that's why money should always be handled by more than one person. There's no such thing as the pastor putting the money in one pocket and taking it out of the other. That is trouble. You're not asking for trouble, it is trouble.

They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. In other words, the mystery of the faith is the gospel message, the full doctrinal package, and he has to hold it consistently. In other words, his life and his doctrine match. You can't have a disconnect between what he believes and how he lives. That's a qualification for a deacon.

Now verse 10 is extremely important and it's where we fail again and again and again, we don't test these people. And let them also be tested. I like the translation examined. And let them also, that means let them also, like the overseers, Jason read this yesterday, 1 Timothy 5, 24 and 25, a series of little staccato commands about testing a person for eldership, don't lay hands subtly on someone, this is the same idea, and let them also, let the overseers be examined first, notice there's a proper order here, examine first, examine as to what? The qualifications.

You know, the qualifications are nothing but an empty words on a piece of paper unless there's some kind of formal examination. In other words, testing to see, does this person line up? Here is the biggest mistake churches make. You wonder how they can be so dumb sometimes. They bring on deacons, they bring on elders, and they never ask the right questions.

They don't test as to qualifications and requirements. They just say, well, it's Brother So-and-so, and he's a big giver. Or Brother So-and-so has been here since the beginning of time, he should become an elder or deacon. A man actually said this to me. He believed that everyone in the church should get a chance to be an elder.

That's scriptural. Everyone should get their turn to be an elder. The things I've heard are so ridiculous that after a while you should write a joke book about it. Like one man said, elders, this is true, elders hand out the church bulletins. Of course if you're another kind of church you'd say, no the deacons hand out the church bulletins.

Oh the apostle Paul would just roll over in his grave if he heard all these things. Oh, blessedly he's in heaven and he doesn't want to hear all this. Let them also be examined first, then let them serve after if they prove themselves blameless, blameless as unto the Lord's requirements for this office. This is where we fail. We fail to really test, No one should be an elder, no one should be a deacon who has not been tested by the church, examined by those who know the person.

Do they meet these qualifications? And when we bring on unqualified deacons, unqualified elders, we have years of problems, years of problems. We create our own problems and then complain. They're wives, likewise. I am personally of the opinion, after studying this, I can just tell you that my opinion is that the weight of evidence is that wives should be the correct translation.

If you want to see a document on that, if you go to deaconbook.com, I have 35 pages on the different views, and conclude. Very good Bible commentators say there are deaconesses. We don't know anything about deaconesses, however, for 250 years later. I think that evidence leans towards, he's talking about deacon's wives. Some of you may feel differently and that's fine, but I'm the speaker so I get away with my opinion.

Their wives likewise must be dignified, not slanderous, but sober-minded, faithful in all things. You know, if you're a deacon's wife, you get access to a lot of information, and you get to know some of the dirt in the church. There's always plenty of dirt and plenty of gossip. Don't worry about that. Never run out of that.

So a deacon's wife cannot be the kind of person that yaks too much and passes slander around. Now of course they don't call it slander, They call it spiritual insight. Prayer requests. Let all the other sisters know in the church we've got a special prayer request. But sober minded.

She's a balanced woman, good judgment. She's not an extremist either way. And here's a real broad thing. She's faithful in all things. She's reliable, trustworthy in all things, all areas of life, her home, the church, her personal life, she shows herself a reliable, dependable, trustworthy, faithful woman.

Nice big broad category there. In other words, she's dignified, or she's worthy of respect. She's a woman that the other women can respect. Not let's run as fast as we can away from her. All right, then, let the deacons, he comes back to the deacons, they're male, of course.

Let the deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their households well. Now isn't it interesting, many of the qualifications for a deacon are very similar to the qualifications for the overseer, and I'm gonna point up, that's gonna give us a clue to who they are. Very similar. Notice also a deacon must have a good reputation with his home life. Let me just pause and say one thing here because this can be a tricky thing.

Sometimes we look at a family and I've had raised four children so I know how each child is made by God differently. And we have to acknowledge that. If you're a parent, you better learn one of the first things is each of your children is different. Don't try to make them cookie cutter people. And when the Bible says about if you train a child in a certain way, they'll go.

What he means is a child is built in a certain way. You help that child in that direction. One child's built towards academics and scholarly things and has a tremendous mind. All right, you point them in that way and they'll go that way. Another child, very good with their hands.

One child, you know they got energy. They're bouncing off the walls. Can't control themselves hardly. Another child is very compliant, very passive. Seen that with my own children.

You've got to study your child. You have to study your child and work with your child as that child has been made by God. And God does make us all different. You know, He didn't make us all robots. And He loves that.

And he will use each of us according to our particular gifts and abilities and how we have been made. So in parenting, there are often children that are more difficult to others. So my first daughter, piece of cake, I could have written a book on parenting if I only had one child. I mean, she was perfect. I could almost say that to you.

It was a perfect child. She's still perfect. But my second child wasn't perfect. But you know, it was the second child that showed me, I gotta learn more about this parenting thing. My first child would have been, oh, boy, look at that child I've raised.

I actually didn't do anything. She was that way from birth. She's still that way. You know, so sweet, so compliant. But the second child from birth literally had problems from birth, a physical problem.

And I realized it's going to take a great deal of wisdom and patience and skill. So Sometimes we have to be careful what credit we take and judging other people, some children take more work and it's not the parent's fault. The parent actually has to use greater wisdom in raising that child to be honoring the Lord. So we have to be careful how we judge others. Sometimes we look at other families and say, oh, they're not a good parent.

Well, they may have a much more difficult job, and they're doing the job. For those, now here's another word of encouragement, for those who serve well as deacons, two things are gonna happen to them, they're gonna get a good standing, in other words, this standing is the standing, not in front of God, because the context is about the church, he's going to have a good standing in the church. In other words, if the deacon does his job well, people are going to honor the deacon. Notice The whole passage starts with an encouraging, positive word. If you want to be an overseer, this is a good thing.

It's a good work. It's a noble work. It's a praiseworthy work. And he concludes with the deacons saying, those who do their job well, they're going to have a good standing, respect, and honor within the local church. And then the last thing is, to me, very beautiful, which shows us the importance of the deacons, by the way, and also great confidence in their faith, that is in Christ Jesus.

In other words, their relationship with Christ Jesus, with the Lord Jesus, will be deepened, enlarged, and emboldened. So it's really hard to give an exact translation to great confidence. Some Bibles say great boldness. That would mean boldness in their faith in the Lord. And some say assurance.

That's another translation. Actually in a sense all these words sort of shade into each other. So the idea is here, Not only will a deacon get good standing before the eyes of the believer, but they'll enrich their relationship with the Lord and their faith in the Lord. Well, that's a wonderful reward. And by the way, they don't get it as a status symbol.

They get it in the work. Notice, those who serve well. As they're serving well, they're gaining greater faith in the Lord, deeper, richer, and large relationship with Christ. That's beautiful. Now, I want you to notice something here.

It's the deacons who serve well. Remember 1 Timothy 5? How many remember Zachariah? Do you remember 1 Timothy 5 yesterday? Do you remember?

Remember the old days, the good old days yesterday? Oh, the good old days, yes. Yesterday we talked about 1 Timothy 5, and there were elders who were leading well. Remember that? Yeah, how many remember?

Where you sleep? OK, all right. Rest of you were asleep. Well, this is the same idea here. The deacons who serve well.

In other words, all deacons serve, but some are outstanding in their service. So the promise isn't to all deacons. It's to the deacons who serve well. What is a deacon who serves well? What does that mean?

Well, follows through with his responsibilities. He does a good job in what he does. He's diligent. He goes beyond just the basics. So in both categories of elders and deacons, 1 Timothy 5, 1 Timothy 3, there is an acknowledgement that some do a very excellent, diligent job.

And for that, they will receive double honor or they will receive this special reward of high standing in the church and their relationship with Christ. It's really a beautiful conclusion, which tells me that deacons are important if they get this kind of standing in the church and in their relationship with Christ. All right, here's the big question. Deacons are only mentioned in Philippians 1, 1, and 1 Timothy 3. It's the only two places that are mentioned in the New Testament, although as soon as you hit the second century, they explode.

They're all over the pages of all the church writers of the second century. They're known from the east to the west, very well recognized, no question about that. But this is all the information we have in the New Testament. And so when we come to deacons, there's been an enormous amount of confusion, an enormous amount of confusion. I'll just give you three ideas right now.

I'm not wanting you to linger here. We want to get on to some more practical things. A very common view, and I'm sure you all know it, is the pastor with his board of deacons. Uh-oh, there's the wrong word right there. The board of deacons.

Friend of mine said, when you're a pastor and you go into these churches, you better make peace with the deacons right away. They govern the church. They rule the church. And if you don't get along with them, well, you know what they say. It's time to move on.

Time to move on. And so the deacons really become in many churches the elders. And they're the board of directors. They deal with the money. Someone said to me, nothing happens in this church without the deacons.

How far that is from the New Testament or even the second and third century, I can hardly even say. It just shows you how powerful tradition is. There's no biblical warrant for making the deacons the elders. And yet, many churches are totally committed to that. To become a deacon is a powerful job.

Now, there are churches where becoming a deacon is probably the maintenance managers of the church. The general servant view is another big view, and this is very popular today, where, well, we got a man at the sound booth back there, a man at the sound, So he'll become a deacon, because he serves. And then there's someone out in the parking lot. I'm not joking. I've got this all recorded from other people.

You have the deacon over the parking lot, deacon over the sound system, got the deacon over setting up the tables and taking tables down. The only thing I can call this is the general servant view. Another view, very popular view, is the servant leader view. So people in key positions in the church. So you're over all Sunday school, you're over the whole building maintenance, you're a deacon.

And you're a leader deacon. So you actually are a leader in the church. So key leadership positions, they're called deacons. All right, we could go on forever. And then of course there's the classic view, which I did in my first book, which is the ministers of mercy.

It's Acts 6, they're exactly the same as Acts 6, they care the poor, the needy. So about Several years ago, I was going to revise my book, just do an update of my book on deacons, called The Minister of Mercy. And when I got into this, I thought it'd be a real easy one-year project. And just a book after 20 years, you need to bring it up to date. However, I ran right into a buzzsaw.

Because after I wrote the Deacon's book, some major studies have come out. I cannot go into this with you. It's too deep, it's in the Deacon's book. But major, massive studies were done on the word diakonos, the word servant. And we all, including myself, believe the word simply, you'll see this over and over, it simply means servant and nothing more.

It simply means servant and nothing more. Well John Collins, Clarence Agent, Clarence Agent has looked at over 700 uses of diakonos in the diverse literature before Christ and after Christ, and he concluded, and so did John Collins in a massive book which just about killed me to read, There are actually four uses of the word diakonos. It isn't one use, simply serving it and nothing more. There are four distinct uses, and we can even see it in the New Testament. Well, this broke open a whole new study, which has now been brought over into our Greek-English lexicon.

It's part of the lexicon now, these four uses. Not one use, four uses in the Greek literature. All right, long story short, one of the four uses is assistant, someone who is both under those who send the person and yet over those who they're sent to. It's under and over. It has this unique use of setting someone on the behest of someone else.

So I will send you, and I will give you the authority to do the job you're going to do, and you will be over those who I send you to. So this unique use of diakonos has been picked up by the dictionaries. Really, the scholarly consensus has moved that way. I listened to the book of all the premier world scholars who said, you know, this makes sense. I even called on the phone some well-known scholars in England and talked to them about this.

But what is really vital is to see that whenever deacons appear, they're always with the overseers. And there's nothing in the context that says they're even general servants or ministers of mercy or leaders of servants. They're always in close association with the overseers. Their qualifications are similar to the overseers. And so, long story short, I had to change my view, although it does not disqualify the first view of ministers of mercy, So here's what I came up with.

You can read this. The deacons are the formal assistants to the elders in caring for the church of God. Act 6 becomes sort of a model. They're not exactly the same. Act six is a model how the 12 apostles needed relief from the very heavy burden of caring for the poor and the needy and handling the finances.

They're never called deacons. That's something that's very unusual since we thought they were deacons. So, even though I turned from the view I had, the view I had, ministers of mercy, would still be included because one of the big jobs elders need to relieve them so they can work at leading and teaching is taking care of those who have all these needs. And it will mean handling money, handling very vulnerable people. So it doesn't discard the view I had, it actually makes it a bigger view that includes that.

And so I would say this, the deacons assist the elders in a very close relationship to relieve them so they can concentrate on an already overwhelming job, the teaching and leading of the church, a pastoral oversight of the church. So the deacons, unlike the man who runs the sound system or takes care of the parking lot, which are the general duties of the whole people of God, we're all gifted, we all should be serving. What's the difference between those who serve and those who are called deacons? Well, the difference is the deacons work in close association with the elders, working with them to relieve them and to assist them in the care of God's people. That's why they must be qualified in a certain way similar to the overseers.

Where the sound person is not under those qualifications, the person who does the parking lot attendant, the person who organizes weddings, the person who cleans up here, does not have to qualify under these qualifications. They're a general servant and we're all general servants serving any way we can to build up the body. So all right, oh boy, these poor children, you guys must be exhausted, are you exhausted down here? Are you exhausted? I'm exhausted, Why aren't you exhausted?

All right, they have a lot more energy than I have. They have a lot of energy, and you know you need that energy because you've got a lot to learn. You have a lot to learn. You need energy to learn. Okay, I need sleep.

All right, so if you're interested in this, I gave away the last copy here. Just go to amazon.com or go to CBD, and you can get the book at a cheap price, or if you're really smart, you'll call me and get it free. Alright, let's talk about elders and deacons. If the deacon's main job is to assist the elders in the care of God's church, because we're told in 1 Timothy chapter three that they care for God's church, That's why they have to be able to care for their family. If they can't care for their family, then they care for God's church.

If the deacons' jobs are to assist the elders, relieve the elders, work closely with them, with really, in many ways, overlapping responsibilities, maybe visiting a hospital, helping with some people who are very sick, and helping with finances, you know. Well, here's a couple things. If that's true, I certainly think it's as close to the truth we'll ever get, because we don't have a lot of biblical information. I think this is as close as you're going to get, then it means that the elders and deacons have a very close relationship in the work of the Lord. And when you have a close relationship and you have two offices, you know what happens, don't you?

You're gonna have clashing very easily. So let's talk about this right now. So deacons, deacons. Deacons must clothe themselves with humility and diligence in their work if there's going to be harmony. Elders and deacons cannot work together because, unless they're humble, because we see all this conflict.

Sometimes they joke about deacons, and maybe you hear them say, oh, the demons. Oh, I mean the deacons. Have you heard that joke before? Oh, those demons, I mean deacons. Very often you'll hear about the deacons getting into real conflict with the elders or the pastor of a church.

And instead of being a blessing, they're sort of a curse. They set themselves up as a check and balance against the leaders. They are not a check and balance on the leaders. They're not their own independent office that does its own thing, and they're not there to be the ringside critics of the elders. Once you set that up, you're just, it's gonna be a power struggle, and people love power struggles, give people a little authority and it goes to their head.

It will not work, it will not work. So deacons must come under the Christian virtues of humility, serving one another, the fruits of the Spirit, the Christ-like attitudes of Philippians chapter 2, 3 to 7. There is No way you will enjoy harmony working together in the church of God unless the deacons are humble and unless they serve with a heart of humility and brokenness, Philippians chapter two. Have this Christ-like attitude. Have this mind of Christ.

Have it in you. Let's say, let's say I set up through the whole building a thousand pianos. Now you musicians will know this. I have a thousand pianos here and I start tuning the first piano to the second piano to the third piano. What's going to happen?

Anyone tell me. Brilliant person, tell me. They'll be out of tune pretty quick. Isn't that interesting? But let's take a thousand pianos and one tuning fork.

What will happen? They'll all be in tune with the tuning fork. That's Philippians 2. All right, Paul is setting attitudes. He's setting the tone of the church.

This is a good church, but there's conflict. There's conflict. There's no such thing as a church without some form of conflict. This may be very low and that's good. Paul says, all you members of the church of Philippi, who I love very, very much, very dear to me, I long for you.

Every one of you set your attitude with the tuning fork. The Christ-like attitude who humbled himself and served others. That's the mind of Christ, the attitude, the disposition of Christ that should go through the whole church. Well, deacons and elders have to have this attitude towards one another because issues will come and problems will come that you'll disagree on. Guaranteed, guaranteed.

And it's not long before you are clashing. So deacons must serve with humility. They must be careful of pride because when you give people a little authority, you give them a position, maybe they're touching money or they have authority over people to do things that the elders have asked, it's not long before, I'm a deacon, you know? I'm a big shot. Big shot syndrome, we love to be big shots.

Pride will only cause terrible problems. And the critical spirit, deacons have to be careful because they get to read the elders and they say, oh boy, he's a little lazy, he's just dumping all his work on me. And after a while, the deacons become very critical of the elders, and they become the check and balance. Well, we have to remember Hebrews 13, 17, obey and submit to those who are your leaders. Deacons have to obey and submit to the leadership of the elders.

They are not the elders. And that's why Paul says, esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace with one another. So deacons have a responsibility to check pride at the door. We'll look at a great verse in a moment, and they must see themself as serving the church by serving the elders and work in harmony.

Now, the second thing, first, deacons must operate with humility or you got nothing but problems. Second thing is deacons must be diligent. They must follow through with their responsibilities. If they don't do their work, if they don't follow through with their responsibilities, if they're not eager to do what they do, they actually become a problem to the elders. And we have this in our own church, deacons who don't deacon.

I have no idea why they want to be deacons. Some people want a title. They want a badge. They want to be able to say, I'm a deacon in that church. I'm an elder in that church.

They may not do a thing. This is a big problem. The love of position, the love of titles. Well, it's not gonna be any help to the elders if you just love the title. Listen to what Paul says.

Those who serve well gain a good standing in the church. Those who serve well, not those who just have the title. And there are people who have the title and they want to do the minimal amount of work. The way they will help the elders and help the church is to be diligent. That means Follow through on your responsibilities.

Be organized, be on time, be an example. And then of course, Paul emphasizes very much their character. So, elders and deacons work closely together. They even have overlapping responsibilities. Now, here's something I've learned about deacons in many years of dealing with deacons.

We have one group of deacons in our church. Deacons normally do not function well if they're not guided. If you leave them out there, they get in trouble, or they don't know what they're, I hear this all the time, I don't know what they're supposed to really do as a deacon, or they take up their own cause and they go off on their own. They're an independent organization, which they're not. The elders are the overseers of the church, the shepherds of the church.

The deacons are not that, and they need to be told that, very clearly. You assist us as we oversee the church pastorally. So, what I'm saying to you is that deacons must do their job, they must follow through with their job, but the elders must guide them. And so it's so important that the elders specifically say, you're gonna help with hospital visitation, we've got some families falling apart here, there's no money in the family, we want you to make sure and rally others, deacons will use other people's gifts, we're going to help this family who's really in trouble right now. The more the elders guide the deacons, the more the deacons like it and the more they know what to do.

So you might have the deacons handle a lot of the finances. Not all, but the elders should make the final decision on that. With the congregation knowing about the finances, should be no secret finances in a church, good way to have people not give. These things should be open, there should be integrity in finances, we just saw that in the qualifications. So you might want the deacons to handle the finances with the elders oversight.

You might want them to take care of all facilities. Whatever the elders think they need to assist them so they can keep their focus and concentration on their job, which already is hard enough. So, very often, like on a Wednesday night, I go visiting. I'm not an elder, I go visiting because I've always done it. I don't know what else to do on Wednesday night.

I'll take one of the deacons with me. I'll take one of the deacons with me. Good training for him, too. So Deacons need guidance from the elders. They need training from the elders.

And I see many deacons fail because the elders don't guide them. They don't lay out the course. They don't specifically say. Now also, deacons need to report to the elders. There's different ways you can do this.

So one church I know, a very good diaconate, they meet with the elders, and the elders meeting all the time. Other elders don't care for that. Or another church has one deacon meet with the elders. And then all the minutes from the elders meeting goes to all the deacons, and all the minutes from the deacons go to the elders. So, there's different ways you can do this.

There isn't one way. See what works best for you. But I think a close relationship with the elders and deacons is what you want to aim for. You'll get the most use out of deacons if you're close, if they sense we really are helping you, we are really needed, and you are training us and guiding us. So I see the big failure in the elders not organizing them and pointing them in the direction that they need to be.

So, it's the old thing. If you're gonna delegate work, remember, you're gonna get work. You can't just delegate work without teaching the people what you want them to do and give them guidance and follow up on what they're doing. That's all the elders' job in spiritual oversight. Then let's look at the elders here briefly.

Let's look at the elders. So the deacons are to assist the elders in whatever they need in the care of God's people. The elders must direct the deacons. They must make sure the deacons are trained. We have a whole study guide for that.

Deacons should know clearly what their job is, their position in the church. The clearer, the better. And I think a good eldership will work closely with their deacons. And there'll be a nice working relationship so the deacons don't feel they're out there. And one thing that ticks deacons off is when they feel the elders are just dumping all their work on them, you know.

And they pick up on that quickly. And there's character flaws in the elders. So really, there's a lot of responsibility on the elder side to deal with deacons and make sure they're deaconing and doing what they're supposed to do and being the helper they should be. Then let's look at the elder side. The elders have responsibilities to the deacons, too.

First of all, the elders must lead according to the biblical principles of servant leadership. They are not lords over the deacons. The deacons are not their dumping ground. The deacon is not my personal assistant. Hey, clean my car.

Hey, I take my suit to the cleaners. Don't get that idea. Remember, these are corporate groups assisting one another, always for the purpose of the care of the Lord's people. The elders must operate according to the biblical principles of gentleness and self-sacrificing love and humility. They are not to, 1 Peter 5, 3, domineer over those in your charge.

Elders can act like bosses over the deacons and boss them around and deacons get ticked off at that. They're not to be diatrophied like leaders. They are to be true servant leaders and the deacons see that and they know these men are really serving. These men are burning themselves out for God. We're gonna help them.

Notice the qualifications for elders in dealing with people in general, deacons specifically. Elders are to be gentle. That's one of the most beautiful qualifications for an elder. Look it up in the biblical eldership book. Elders are to be gentle.

They are not to be violent. They are not to be quarrelsome. They are not to be arrogant. These are the qualifications. They're not to be quick-tempered.

Now if they're that way, they're going to fall foul of the deacons. Guaranteed you're going to have a lot of disharmony between elders and deacons, because people get fed up with being bullied and quick-tempered leaders and leaders who are not Christ-like. Listen to 1 Peter 5.5. We need to go over this verse more. Peter has just now spoken to the leaders of the church, the elders of the church, and then he concludes with this.

Brilliant counsel. Be subject to the elders, you younger men, be subject to the elders. Who are these younger men? Well, it's the next generation of elders, it's the people who are busy in the church, acting in the church, they're not elders, and they get ticked off at the elders because the elders aren't doing enough, the elders aren't changing, the elders aren't moving quick enough, and so is this natural conflict between the young bulls and the old bulls. Be subject to the elders.

Clothe yourselves. But catch this, all of you, elders and younger men, clothe yourselves with humility towards one another. It's the only way we can ever, ever live together, if we clothe ourselves with humility. So I'm at this conference, and right in the front is a bunch of young men, maybe late teens, early 20s, and I say to them, because I can see how they're dressed, you know, they got flip-flops on, and half their clothes off, and I say to them, I say, I'm gonna tell you men how to dress for church. And they shake their head like that.

Oh no, I'm gonna tell you how to dress for church. And now they're going like this. Oh, I was feeling good about the whole thing. So anyway, do not come to church unless you're clothed in humility. Oh, they thought that was funny.

But it's not funny. Don't bother going to church if you don't put on the clothes of humility. Because you know what? You're gonna cause problems. Because if you don't put on the clothes of humility, I know what clothes you got.

Pride and selfishness. The two root sins of all our conflict. Pride and selfishness. Clothe yourselves, clothe yourselves, all of you, all of you, not just the young men, elders and young men, with humility towards one another. Oh, this scares the wits out of me, for God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble.

You don't want God opposing you, let me tell you. You do not win. If the elders of the church do not clothe themselves with humility and the great virtues of the Christian faith and the fruit of the Spirit, I guarantee you much conflict. An unnecessary conflict. Some people have a unique gift to create conflict.

It's too bad it's not a spiritual gift. There's no spiritual gift of criticism. I had a woman tell me once, I have the gift of criticism. I said, well, you're doing a good job at it. But there is no such gift.

Now, There's another problem with elders. There's the problem of elders not operating in the spirit, not operating with humility and servanthood and love and forgiveness. That's a problem, but here's another problem, and it's a bigger one, and that is elders who are not doing their job diligently. If elders are lazy and they're ineffective in what they're doing, they don't communicate with the deacons, is something I hear a lot about. They don't forgive, they're disorganized, they appear to be unloading their work onto the deacons, you've got problems and you've got damaged relationships, and after a while people don't even want to work with one another.

So elders, you have to be a model of hard work. You have to be a model of diligence. And you need to improve where you're falling down. If you're a disorganized group of men, get organized. Or get someone to help you get organized.

If you're not following through with your duties, that really hurts people. There's nothing that hurts a group when people have a responsibility and they don't show up. Boy, that makes the people mad. And you got a responsibility, you gotta call these people, you don't call. You gotta visit this hospital and you don't show up.

Whew, that hurts the whole group. So, Monday morning, a brother is gonna go through a very serious operation. Elder's praying, the church prays on Monday, and one of the elders says, I will be there with the family. Operation comes, he's not there with the family. That reflects on the whole eldership, and it reflects on the deacons.

And after a while, people pick up on that. Don't ask him to do anything. He probably won't get it done. And after a while, you build a bad reputation in the church, not a high standing in the church. Notice, the deacons who do their work well get the high standing, not those who walk around with the badge.

And I've been in church where they have a badge. Deacon, Deacon Jones, you know, deacon this guy. And people love those badges. Actually, it ruins your clothes, I think. But anyway, they love those badges, elder so-and-so or pastor so-and-so.

You must display diligence because Romans 12.8 says in the list of spiritual gifts there, if leadership, prohistemi, if leading, then with zeal. You ever notice that? Look that check that out. With zeal, with wholeheartedly. If God has put you in a position of responsibility over the church, you better be diligent about it.

You better do the job, you better follow through, you better be there, you better Be on time. So discouraging to a church when the elders show up late or elders miss a lot of meetings. It really, it hurts everyone, that's what you have to see. I remember once one of our elders complaining to me about our senior elder who had started the church, Mr. Herb Banks, I'll tell you.

And this brother, fellow colleague, was complaining to me that Herb's always on him all the time to do his job. And he was getting tired of it. So I said to the brother, I said, now hold it a second. Why are you angry? Herb should be angry.

Why does he have to tell you, like a little child, to do what you're supposed to do? Why don't you just do it? And don't worry about Herb. He always does his jobs. Isn't that interesting?

We don't like it when someone calls us to account, do we? We all talk about accountability. No sane person likes accountability. We just talk the talk. But if there's real accountability among the elders, well, there's gonna be some rebuking.

And you have to say to some elders, you did not fall through. You were not at the hospital Monday morning, and we all look bad now to that family. Well, I forgot. Well, that's not an excuse. Don't forget.

And if you're that forgetful, maybe you ought to go to a doctor and find out what's wrong with your brain. Write it down. Keep notes. I learned this from Brother Herb Banks. I learned many things from this man.

He's with the Lord now. I learned many things. Whenever something comes to my mind, I write it down right away. Now some of you put it on your smart phones, that's right. This works for me.

As Soon as something comes to me, I'm sitting at the table, maybe I'm even preaching, I think of something, I start writing it down here, because if I don't write it down, I won't remember. And so When people give prayer requests, I always pull this out and write the prayer requests, because don't ever tell people I'm going to pray for you and you don't pray for them. That's really basically a lie. So one time this lady came up to me at church at the end of the service and she came up, would you pray for my husband? He's just lost his job in that.

And I said, yes, I will. And she stood there and said, well write it down. You always say you write it down. I said, oh, you're right. You're right.

I better write. She's rebuking me. All right, all right, pray. Oh, now I feel better. Go.

Smart woman, smart woman. You know these women are smart. You can fool one another, but you can't fool the women. They don't say anything, but they know what's going on. So you want to know what's going on, ask the women.

So if the elders are lazy, incompetent, they're not communicating, you're gonna have problems and you're not gonna be able to use the deacons properly. Now, one more thing with this I'll end. In leadership, there's hardly anything more important than good communication. You know a lot of elderships think they're communicating with the congregation. They're not, they're not, they just think that.

Not true. They don't really know what's going on. So we are a group of elders, we think we know what's going on in the church, so one time we put out a little special prayer thing saying we wanna be praying elders, and we wanna be praying for you, but we need more requests. Now we think we know the congregation, so we give every single member one of these special prayer cards where they're gonna put down family issues, financial, and that. We got these cards back, and when we got them back, I don't think we wanted them.

The problems in our church were way beyond what we thought. Some of the heartache was way beyond, and we go, we don't really know what's going on out there. And in a sense you go, is that true? Is that true? So, you think we're communicating, you think we know the congregation, and very often that's just not true.

A good eldership goes out of its way to communicate, and communicate regularly with the congregation. What you're thinking, maybe big issues you're facing. So I know one church, this is a great idea, they put in their church bulletin what the elders are discussing, And they're asking the congregation for prayer. We have these issues ahead of us. Pray, this is very private, you don't put that in there.

Let the deacons know what you're thinking, what you're doing. Have a deacon at the elders meeting, or you can have all the deacons at the elders meeting. I think that's a real good idea. They can be there, get the flow, get the feel for what the elders are going through since they assist them. The better they know what the elders are thinking and the problems they're going through, the better The deacons can do their job.

And the deacons must do the same thing. They must communicate to the elders. So here's what we do. There's a lot of ways to do this. The computer does help with this.

So once a week, our church administrator sends out an email to anyone who's ministering, visiting, hospital work, phone calls, whatever. You, so for example, I may make three or four phone calls, and I will visit someone this week. I write in who I called and who I visited so that all the elders know, and we're not duplicating one other thing and dropping some people. So some method to communicate, I have visited this person, I have been praying for this person, I've been calling these people regularly, especially if they're shut-ins or people who can't come, or there's some problem, so that everybody knows and that people aren't dropped or fall, as we say, fall through the cracks. So all that you can do to communicate and keep communicating is gonna make you a better leader among the Lord's people.

Don't think people can actually read your mind. They can't. They don't get things by osmosis. Because I stand close to someone doesn't mean they know anything about me. You have to tell them, you have to open your mouth, And sometimes we men are not good at that.

We're not good at communication, because communication is work. And we have to learn to get better at it. But we need to learn to communicate. And just one more thing. When I say communication, that means saying thank you to people.

So we have all these lovely ladies over here and some men setting up for us. Did you say thank you to them? Say I really appreciate all your work. How about a person who plays the piano or a guitar at your church. You thank them regularly.

Or what about people working with the little children? I saw people out there helping with the little infants. Do you thank them? Do you thank them? Don't think they can read your mind.

So often we elders, we don't say thank you. We don't say really appreciate what you're doing. Acknowledge people, put your arm around them. That means so much to people. We're not communicating.

And that hurts the sheep. It hurts the sheep. People want to hear a word of praise. Now, maybe you think that isn't scriptural. Go to Romans 16.

Paul lists this whole list of people, and he says, Sister So-and-so, who's been a hard worker, Sister So-and-so has been like a mother to me. He praises them. He acknowledges their work. So as a leader, You need to be affirming people, thanking people, nothing wrong with praising people, and telling them we're so proud of you. By the way, your children need to hear that too.

Terrible thing for a children never to hear from a parent how they feel about them. You know, again, somehow they know. That my children know I love them. Well, you know what? It might help if you actually say that, because maybe they don't.

Maybe they don't. I know a missionary said to me one day, you know, I never heard from my father, and he was an elder in a church, a very godly man. He said, I never once in my life as a child and a young adult ever heard one positive thing from my father, like I love you, we're proud of you. Now he says, I know my father loves me. I have no question about that.

But I would like to hear it. I would like to hear it. Well, the reason we'd like to hear it is God made us that way. We need affirmation from those who are over us, and training us, and being with us. It helps us.

Someone has called encouragement the oxygen of the soul, the oxygen of the soul. So Just saying to those ladies that are over there, hey, we appreciate all your hard work, and really, you've just been so, they need that. That encourages them. But if they have to look at a bunch of sour faces, it doesn't help. And you're at a restaurant and you have people, listen, think of this, people are being paid to serve you.

You ever think of that? People are being paid to serve you. All you have to do is be a little nice and smile and get their name and then you're ready to give a track. Don't give a track if you don't give a tip. Just be quiet about the Lord because you're gonna be a bad testimony of the Lord.

But smile, be friendly to them, they make a mistake, say, don't worry about it. I'll just tell one more story and I'm done. It's in the book, Leading with Love. But there was a minister, a preacher, well-known, many of you may even know his name, and so they were in a restaurant, and a lady poured water all over him. Well, that minister went crazy.

He was yelling, what are you stupid, and all this. And so when he got done making a big scene over having water poured on him, the other minister leaned over and said, let's witness to her now. There's no witness. I was on an airplane and I got bumped to first class. That was real nice.

So I'm sitting in first class. Don't go first class. It ruins your whole mind about flying. So anyway, I got bumped to first class, and I'm in first class. And this guy drops a glass of wine all over my pants.

And I'm going to a conference, wine all over my pants. Oh, he was so sorry. I said, you know, these things happen, we're all close. A second time he drops wine on my pants, twice in one flight. I said, they're all gonna think I'm an alcoholic, so here I get to the conference and I smell like a brewery.

I said, really, it's nothing, it's nothing. I had a man in the park his dog came up to me and literally tore my, imagine if he had my skin tore my pants oh he's so apologetic. I said you know I must have looked at the dog in the wrong way. These times are times that we have great to witness of the Lord, of the gentleness and the thoughtfulness and the embarrassment of the other person instead of ourselves, right? Same thing happens in the church.

Always be other oriented. All those examples illustrate the word gentle. Let's pray. All right, Lord, we thank you for elders and deacons. We thank you that you appoint them.

We thank you you gave us the guidance of who they're supposed to be and what they're to be like so that there would be good people leading us and teaching us. Pray that you'll help us to understand these things, but more important that we will practice them. Not just be hearers of the word, tasters of sermons, but practitioners of the truth, not theoreticians of the truth. So all these ends we ask your help, amen. Now this is my last time with you speaking, But I want to tell you, you've been a great audience, and I have to admit, no one was sleeping.

I didn't see anyone sleeping. I saw one or two closed. And these young people are extraordinary. Look at them. Look at them.

Oh, so beautiful. They just look at you the whole time. There's one right there too. There's some right there. They just look at you and sit there.

It is really amazing. The Lord be praised.