Good evening. Praise books. Yes. I forgot again. Put those out. Good evening to those online. At the Dark Roaster watching, I left my guitar on the couch. Don't sit on it. Do I sit on it? Boy, it is fall, isn't it? Chill in the air. Dark now when church starts. What? Yeah. And they're kind of prettier than I thought they'd be with all the drought and everything. But there's a few trees that aren't looking real good out there where we're at. One of them we have, when it's a nice season, it gets real bright red. We haven't seen that for a couple of years out there. All right, well, Checking my messages here, trying to see if everybody seems to be doing okay. How many days till Christmas, Greg? 70 days till Christmas. Wow. And let me check myself. Bring that up. Well, 69 days and some hours. I was off by a few hours. 69 days. So get busy, Jim. Get that chopping done. Black Friday. I stay home for Black Friday. But. You guys go out. I do. I need it. I need kicking pants to kick in. Yeah. Kim's face. Oh yeah, see, that's the way. We try, but haven't succeeded in recent years. We blame COVID, just because everything else gets blamed on COVID, so we just blame COVID. Page six, now that y'all got a praise book in your lap. Page six, it's in Jesus. Before there was anything, my God was king. In the beginning, He made everything. From dust, with His own hand, He made man. But sin in the garden spilled the blood of the Lamb And it's in Jesus I live It's in Jesus It's in Jesus I have my being He's why I sing He's my Lord, my Savior and King Jesus Christ and love divine Step into time My sins were washed away that day. The price was paid. He rose from the grave. Leaving me safe. And it's in Jesus' name. Jesus, I have my being. He's why I sing. He's my Lord, my Savior, and King. He's why I sing. He's my Lord, my Savior, and King. And good singer, page 16. I think that you'll look at you have to watch a video later I Except the Lord build a house, they labor in vain that building Except the Lord keep the city, the watchmen wait in blood and pain Except the Lord keep the city The watchman wicked but in vain It is vain for you to rise up early To sit all late to eat the bread of sorrows Except the Lord build the house They labor in vain that building Except the Lord build a house, lay labor and faith, and build it For so He giveth His Beloved's sleep For so He giveth His Beloved's sleep Alleluia! Well, except the Lord build a house, lay labor and faith, and build it ♪ Except the Lord build the house ♪ They labor and bang that building ♪ They labor and bang that building ♪ Except the Lord build the house Amen. Won't be too long, we'll see Martha and maybe we'll get to sing this with her. Somewhere in the kingdom, amen? All right, let's go to page 19. Sanctuary. Prepare me to be a sanctuary Pure and holy, tried and true With thanksgiving I'll be a living It is you, Lord, who came to save us. Who knows my weakness? Who gives me strength when I know Him? Lead me on, Lord, from temptation. Purify me from within Fill my heart with Your Holy Spirit Take away all of my sin But prepare me To be a sanctuary Pure and holy Tried and true With thanksgiving I'll be a living Lord, prepare me to be a sanctuary, pure and holy, tried and true. With thanksgiving, I'll be a living sanctuary for you. With thanksgiving I'll be a living sanctuary for you. Amen. Good singing. All right, well, raise your hand as Janie makes her way to the prayer cards and onliners. Get your requests in to bbfohio at protonmail.com. Ah, that never gets old. All right. As we get our house in order here before we get into the Bible study. You hear that back there? Everything sounds good and looks good. Camera's all zoomed in. We'll be in 1 Timothy chapter three. 1 Timothy chapter three. Beginning verse eight. So you have your Bibles ready to go. We ask you not to talk over me or the videos. Don't drown out what's going on up here while we're doing a... Currently Goods Update. Number one, Israel at war. Today's date is 10-16-24, day 373. Still 110 hostages and many of those deceased. Israel continues defeating her enemies. IDF spokesperson announced that the entire Hezbollah leadership has been destroyed. And that's a major, major accomplishment in any war. And I haven't heard, but I think most of the Gazan Hamas leadership has also been destroyed. He presented this chart that we've shown actually in a previous study, but there was still one or two left. And, uh, he likened it to a structure of a beehive and, uh, say hornets is what I would say. And he claimed it's been entirely dismantled by Israeli forces. In the meantime, though, as we showed previously, the Biden administration continues undermining Israel behind the scenes. Here's a little report on that. Breaking overnight, smoke is rising from Beirut's suburbs this morning after Israeli strikes targeted Lebanon's capital. This is the first time this has happened in six days. That was Tuesday morning. Israel says it targeted a Hezbollah weapons warehouse under a residential building. This strike comes hours after the U.S. State Department expressed concerns over the civilian toll from attacks in Beirut. And as Israel announced it killed a Hamas leader in northern Gaza, the United States is giving the country an ultimatum. Either improve conditions in the war-torn region within 30 days or your military aid may be in jeopardy. News Nation's Tom Dempsey has the latest from Washington this morning. Tom, what is the U.S. demanding and will Israel listen? Hey, good morning from Washington, D.C. Markey. Look, President Joe Biden's team has made it pretty clear for Israel 30 days to boost aid going into Gaza or risk a change in United States policy. Keep in mind, this all comes as the United Nations recently reported that aid going into Gaza has reached its lowest level in months. A news nation actually obtained a copy of the letter that's circulating right now from Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, sent to Israel's defense minister and a senior advisor to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's team. Israel is asked to increase the amount of aid trucks going into Israel to at least 350 a day and hold more humanitarian pauses in fighting and increase security at humanitarian sites. This all comes as Gaza sees deteriorating conditions. Just this week, an Israeli airstrike hit a hospital tent in central Gaza that killed four people and injured around two dozen others. And the Israeli military saying Hamas fighters were hiding among the people there. But President Joe Biden's team says more must be done to protect civilians. You know what? If you don't want a war, don't start one. We don't like the idea of war. We don't like innocent people dying. But there's never been a war fought where you have the nation that was attacked is expected to provide humanitarian aid to the enemy. This has never been seen before. It's just amazing how ignorant the world is, because you hear people saying, well, I think they should be doing this. You're asking something of Israel you've never asked of any other country during war, ever. It's just amazing. And most of the stuff they send over is stolen by Hamas and used by Hamas, not the Palestinian people. So you're literally requiring Israel to feed its enemy. Just amazing. Netanyahu hits the Biden administration and says, Israel, not the US, will decide how to handle Iran. Amen. Now, if we'd like to see him, well, it says, sadly, says Israel has vowed not to attack Iranian oil and nuclear targets. You know, the only thing I can figure is that, you know, this, I'm hoping that this is because God is going to protect Israel, but he's setting things up for what's going to happen in the tribulation. And Iran is Persia, going to be part of the whole Gog and Magog thing. So in the meantime, the war against Israel continues by most of the nations on the face of the earth. The UK is imposing sanctions on what they call extremist localities in the West Bank. Again, they are protecting themselves and the UK is calling them extremists for protecting themselves. And Of course, they say the timing of the announcement is particularly significant, coinciding with the start of the olive harvest, a period traditionally associated with increased violence. Well, they're trying to tie their hands behind their back, whether the Palestinian or Islamists are going to be attacking them, and they don't want them to defend themselves. Here in America, Amazon deleted this video of a exec wearing a necklace that showed it's Israel with the Palestinian flag on top of it. Now, you can't see it from there. Obviously, we zoom in and you can sort of make it out there, but here's what it looks like if you get it online. That is anti-Israel 100%. There's no other, you know, And then you have the Guardian, again, over in the UK, publishing things like this. Israel is a rogue nation. It should be removed from the United Nations. How many times did you ever just talk about this? Numbers 23 and nine, I'll quote in just a minute. But look what he says. Over the past year, Israel has launched attacks. on multiple countries and occupied territories. The Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iran. They're shooting back. Israel hasn't launched attacks. They were attacked. And they responded like every nation in human history ever has by responding with military responses. It's just insane. Of course, Mehdi Hassan, he's probably a lost Muslim as a devil. But again, that is a fulfillment of what's happening, Numbers 23, nine. For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him. Lo, the people shall dwell alone and shall not be reckoned among the nations. And that's gonna happen leading up to, I believe that the Antichrist, that's why it's such a big deal, the Antichrist makes this covenant. He confirms the covenant. In the Bible, the covenant is the Mosaic covenant with Israel and the world government because Israel's on the outside. So it'll bring about a temporary, maybe three year, three and a half year, possibly right up to the time of the abomination of desolation in the temple. There'll be peace, but when they say peace, peace, then sudden destruction. And so Israel's going to have this covenant with death and hell for three and a half years, but before that, I believe they're going to be, that's why they're going to be brought into this special covenant with the Antichrist is because they're not reckoned among the nations. Then three and a half years in the tribulation, Revelation 12 shows you once again, Israel's booted out of the land and no longer recognized as a nation and under attack until Jesus returns. We stand with Israel. Amen. And then of course, election 2024 voting has started. Americans are too stupid to have election day, so they have to be given six weeks to vote. And people evidently are too stupid to be able to have a ID. So they're, you know, you're a racist if you tell somebody, because they are so racist, they think that minorities are too stupid to get a photo ID. See, I'm not a racist. I believe they're just as smart as we are. And I believe the minorities are just as smart as whitey. And they can get a photo ID. And so asking for a photo ID and making sure that they're actual citizens is not racism. It's a ploy of the leftist to destroy our country. That's what it is. But number two, it's interesting and hard to watch without a sense of humor what's going on. The news media is full blown Orwellian. We've shown you instance after instance of this. And I want to show you, I'm not a big fan of Speaker Johnson. He's failed us on a number of occasions as far as constitutional conservatives. But this is what aired on TV, and then we'll see. So that's a different accounting than this 2% you say was distributed? Yeah, so they've obligated some funds, but they've only distributed 2%. The rescue and recovery effort's still going on, and then we address the rest of it. That's what was aired. Now I don't know if this is Johnson or somebody had a phone set up and recorded what he actually said. So this was what was deleted. So that's a different accounting than this 2% you say was distributed. Yeah, so they've obligated some funds, but they've only distributed 2%. And when I was there on the ground, and you should go, I mean, bring the cameras and talk to the people there. They'll tell you, don't take politicians' words for this or the administration's word. Talk to the people there on the ground. They had not been provided the resources. almost two weeks out from the storm that they desperately needed. And when I was there, 13 days post the storm hitting that state, people are still being rescued. They're stuck in the higher elevations in the mountains because the roads are down and all the rest. So they need every available resource and all hands on deck. The rescue and recovery efforts still going on, and then we address the rest of it. After the first 10, 15 seconds, the rest of that was deleted and people didn't hear it. It's just, we're in this thinking, it's just, I don't know how to, I don't have words. Because our friends and neighbors and the people we're interacting with every day, they think they're getting the news and they continue. Look at the stats, they're still getting their news, knowingly being lied to. because they've heard it over and over through the years, that's fake news, it's fake news, and what do they do? They willingly turn on what's going to be fake news and watch it. And a lot of them are professing Christians. And I talk to them, I hear from them, I get email, I get texts, I get phone calls, I interact with them all the time, and they're quoting, and I know what they're quoting, because I see this stuff, but I don't believe any of it. You know, I watch it as a, you know, the watchman, the gatekeeper, so to speak. I know not everybody has time to watch this stuff all the time. So, Ginny, I'll tell you, I mean, it drives you crazy. But today, I watched the, what's her name, Ethel, Ethel Kennedy, Robert Kennedy's widow, died and they had her funeral today. And it's just, Yeah, again, you're watching this thinking these people at this big church and it's all religious sounding and all that, they don't believe in God. They don't believe the Bible. It's just a big show. It just, I guess it saves their conscience by pretending and playing Christianity when someone dies or gets married. It's just the weirdest thing. and can't get into all of that, but I watch that stuff because, you know, it's how you know what's really going on, but it seems like, this is why I don't, I'm not saying anything bad about anybody in this room, but I stopped even recommending that other Christians watch this stuff, because I would say, yeah, if you turn this on, you'll see, and they come back and kind of like, eh, you know, wait a minute, you do know that I told you, when I told you to watch that, it was with the idea it was false. You know, and then they come back all wigged quiet, you know, and it's like weird and So I just that's why we started having current events update instead of telling you by well, you can watch this or this I'll just give it to you in the context of Scripture so that at least I know you're getting that before you go out and watch this stuff because there's a level of deception going on right now even among professing Christians that I just never saw before until recently. And I'm not saying it's related to COVID, but COVID was one of the things that really showed us how bad it is. The lack of discernment. I'm like this guy, you know? Both the fact that they edit it and are brainwashing people, but so many people are willingly submitting to it. That's what makes me look like that. And then you have Jimmy Carter, enthusiastically votes for Kamala. Now watch, he's about to jump out of his seat here. And that was released by the family and the Democrat Party, as though people were going to be impressed with the fact that this was yesterday, and that was the first day of voting in Georgia, and he's going to vote for Kamala. He's obviously he's going to be dead within a matter of days at the most. I'll guarantee you he keeps voting for Democrats. But that's just one of the one of the people who posted that said, you know, that the they said something about, oh, it's the first day of voting in Georgia. So the Democrats roll out Jimmy Carter. He doesn't even know where he's at. He's barely alive. Well, speaking of someone who's barely alive, Joe Biden, did you see this? He explains why Trump won't debate Harris. She beat Trump so badly in the debate, he's scared to death to beat her again. That's a fact. Tough guy, right? He's scared to death to beat her again. That's a fact. But as ridiculous as these people are, they are deadly serious about enslaving you. They're deadly serious about it. I'm going to let Ron Paul. I want to start off with a headline from Zero Hedge. It's a pretty hot headline. U.S. military now is authorized to kill Americans on U.S. soil. That can't be possible. Did you hear that? This would open up. Yeah. But we want to start off with a headline from Zero Hedge. It's a pretty hot headline. US military now is authorized to kill Americans on US soil. That can't be possible. This would open up the door for the careless use, and it's more frequent, and legal. It'll be legal now, so nobody will have to worry about that. Send in the troops. We need you to shoot a couple of these people. They're opposing our policies. They're demonstrating against COVID rules or something they'll come up with. So I think it's very, very dangerous. So here it is. Now, Zurich picked it up from Armageddon Prose, which is a sub-stack which they often run. It says, U.S. military now authorized to kill Americans on U.S. soil just ahead, intriguingly, of November elections. And that was my second thought. The military has granted itself permission to unleash lethal force on the civilian population Again, I thought this has got to be an exaggeration so I went and looked and actually go to the next one because this explains what it is. Now, it's not a law. It's a DOD directive. So this is, you know, the whole the administrative state where they take over. They don't pass laws. They are laws unto themselves. Go to the next one if you can because this is what they're talking about. And I went and I read this secondly and it talks about a reissued DOD directive that was reissued just on September 27, 2024. It governs the Department of Defense intelligence activities and now includes provisions authorizing lethal force in certain circumstances. And it supplants the 2016 version, which did not mention that. So I read all of this, too, which is someone else's analysis. I said, OK, this sounds even more troubling. I want to go look at the document itself. And so go to the next one. I actually went and looked. at the D.O.D. directive. It's D.O.D. directive 5240.01. Now go to the next one. I'm just going to get to this really quick so I can just show people this is on their own website. Now this is section three of that directive. Assistance to law enforcement agencies and other civil authorities. Now go to the next one. Now this is levels of authority. This is section 3.3. Defense intelligence components may provide personnel to assist a federal department or agency, including a federal law enforcement agency or a state or local law enforcement agency, when lives are in danger in response to such a request. for such assistance in accordance with the following approval authorities. Now, here are the authorities. I'm sorry to get so far into the woods here, but go to the next one. Responding with assets with potential for lethality, and I underline this, I highlighted it, or any situation where it is reasonably foreseeable that providing the requested assistance may involve the use of force that is likely to result in lethal force, including death or serious bodily injury. I'm sorry to bog the discussion down with that, Dr. Wall, but I really wanted to hone in on this is their actual document. It's not just someone's analysis. There you go. In other words, what you just heard, if you didn't understand it, the government has now given the okay that if they want to, they can just kill you. That's what this is all about. And how are you going to get U.S. soldiers to do that? Go look up how many U.S. soldiers are foreign-born. And they're even pitching the idea of allowing all these illegals to come in and earn their citizenship by serving in the military. In the meantime, with a uniform and a gun, if they're ordered to, they will be Doeg the Edomite. Look that up. Revelation 13, 15, this is what it's setting the stage for, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. That's what it's setting the stage for. And real quick, the strong delusion, prepping for the rapture. Now we've shown on numerous occasions that the world is being brainwashed to explain away the rapture. of Christians. Masses will believe that it's an act by alien body snatchers. And if you don't understand this, there is a huge number, a large percentage of people in the world, but in America specifically, who believe in aliens, believe that we've been visited, believe that people are being abducted. Now, he says, I believe there's things happening, but I don't believe it's aliens, I believe it's satanic. Or it can be delusional at times, and it can be fake at times as well, but I believe there are real spiritual entities involved with this, and that's who's gonna be behind a lot of the delusion that's going on and going to happen after the rapture. But we see it kind of laid out like this, and I got another, There's a headline behind that, for some reason it didn't show. But British film producer claims scientists increasingly believe an old radio signal came from extraterrestrial intelligence. This is not, you know, the History Channel with the guy with the big hair and all that kind of thing. This is people who are considered legit. Signs of non-human intelligence in our galaxy have been discovered and the proof will be made public within a month, British filmmaker Simon Holland has claimed. In an interview with the Daily Mail, Holland, who has worked on various documentaries for a NASA-funded asteroid tracking project, spoke about a five-hour-long burst of radio waves originally detected by Earth-based telescopes five years ago. How many of you know what SETI is? It's that kind of a thing where they're scanning the skies for any kind of signal or anything, and they claim that they picked up a five-hour burst of signals that have an intelligence component to it. It must be some kind of like, it's not Morse code, but you know what I mean, something like that. So we'll see what they come out with. and then what the result of it is. But you have to understand this is not just some whacked out leftist thing. I mean, you're seeing this on Fox News, Tucker Carlson, Joe Rogan, you name it, these guys are pushing this idea of the whole alien thing. And so, and a lot of these guys are unsaved. So they're gonna be part of the strong delusion. It's prophesied in 2 Thessalonians 2 11, and for this cause, God shall send them strong delusion. that they should believe a lie. And that's what's being, it's not in total effect, but it's, the beginnings are here. As Jesus said, look up when these things begin to come to pass. Look up for your redemption draweth nigh. Amen? So be informed, pray and act accordingly. And we got a couple of minutes for comments, questions, starting with Nancy back there. Christian group in Minnesota, I think they got t-shirts that said, aliens didn't take me, Jesus did on the back. Yeah, but they probably need to put that like in a poster, because if they're raptured, the t-shirts go up. Or, well, the clothing may, like, some people think it's going to disappear, others think it'll be in a pile. John Hagee thinks angels are going to walk around folding it for everybody. So that might not be a bad idea if you get raptured and your t-shirt's left behind, you know, and they pull up and say aliens didn't take me. Jessica? I have a question for you. Okay, I was talking to Leah, my sister-in-law, about some of the things that about the elections and stuff. And I've said that some of the times we have videos here that you show. And like today, if I say something to her about that, it will, I don't wanna, I don't know, I don't wanna say, will you get in trouble or? What would I get in trouble for? I don't know. Yeah, but... If she doesn't shoot me, then I'm probably pretty safe. No, but... You could just hear her talk about the mistakes. Yeah, show it to anybody. Okay. Brian? Yeah, so I was reading in the Jerusalem Post a reference to what you were talking about in the number 23 where Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, Yeah Yeah, and they said something about to how they owe the UN or something Yeah, McCron's an idiot But most of those guys leading countries right now in Europe are totally They're ready for the strong delusion, I guess you'd say. All right, well, that's your current events, and we're ready to go. Lord, when you're ready. We're ready. All right, 1 Timothy chapter three is where our Bible study is, and we'll open with a word of prayer, and then get right in here, and ask Brother Doug if you would of the Bible study of prayer. This is Kyle. We pray that Brother Greg gives us another good, solid message that will feed us for the rest of the week. And we need to get in there and study all the time if we're going to go week by week and not like chew on something good. Amen yeah you know I hear every once while so I says you know I've never studied the Bible like that before and I've never heard this stuff even talked about in church before and well it's real simple you go verse by verse you're gonna hit it So it's what we're doing here tonight, Likewise Must the Deacons is what we're titling this one. We continue our study in 1 Timothy 3, but this week we look at the deacon slash elder. And so let's read and then we'll talk more about it. 1 Timothy 3, eight through 10. Just read all three verses with me. Likewise, must the deacons be grave, not double-tongued, not giving too much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre, holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience, and let these also first be proved, then let them use the office of a deacon being found blameless. Amen? So we look at the idea, or the ideal, that elders are to aspire unto. Just like with the bishops and the pastors, it's not something that you hold them to and use as a way to get rid of your pastor or anything like that. But really, most of what we read, Jenny said this last week after we studied, that most everything in there is really, all Christians should be aspiring to. And the same thing's true here. We'll see in verse eight, it's similar to what's said about bishops. They're to have a biblical faith and life, and they're to be proven and blameless as a result. Now, deacons and elders, the titles of deacon and elder are used interchangeably and synonymously, just like bishop and pastor is. The deacon and elder, two words that You hear some people claim they're not the same office, but if you read, just do a word search and look up all the uses of deacon and all the uses of elder, when it talks about ordaining, it is obvious that we're talking about the same office. Now, why is more than one word used? That's true about just about every, you think about apostles, they're also disciples. Not all disciples are apostles. but you have bishops and pastors. Not all pastors are bishops, but a bishop is a pastor. And so that's why we use the word pastor. Like we said, bishop would probably be the better word to use, but it's been so perverted that, you know, you don't want the baggage. Deacons and elders. I would prefer using the word elders because the word deacons, we'll talk about that in a little bit, but it's been, the offices of deacon in most churches doesn't, really reflect what the Bible teaches about it. So just for the record, I don't bring up Greek very often, but you'll hear people say that a better translation would be, and that's all bogus. You can see the English transliteration of diakonos. Diakonos, deacon, doesn't that sound very, that's all, the word is deacon, diakonos in Greek. And to say that it should be translated something else is just absurd. But you'll hear that from time to time when you, if you listen to other people teach on this in other texts where the word is used. The American Track Society Dictionary has this good information. The original meaning of this word deacon is an attendant. assistant, a helper. It is sometimes translated minister or servant. Now I'm gonna tell you, if you've been in very many churches and you know the deacon board, you'll find out that a lot of the deacons are anything but this. They actually think that they as a board rule over and the bishop is the overseer. The deacon is supposed to be the helper of the bishop. In an ideal situation, the bishop has a board of elders or deacons. They're kind of like his right-hand men and not ruling, helping, assisting. And then if you have larger churches, you have to have that because there's no way one man can handle all this. So the, like I, you know, you go to a hospital. Pastor can only make so many hospital visits If he has funerals, if he has weddings, and that kind of thing, on top of that, you gotta have some deacons who can step in and minister in, basically, in the name of the local church for the cause of Christ, but they're a helper to the pastor to do those things. Yes? Okay, so, first part is, so, No, but let's wait on those questions. We're going to talk more about these things. Yeah. That's a woman is to have that heart of a servant and everything. Yes, that's true. Sadly, that's the opposite of what the deacon has become in many churches today, as I said. And there are some churches where the deacons will rule the church so hard that they can't even find somebody who's willing to be their hireling. So there are churches who go years without a pastor. and they'll have deacon boards, and the deacons will pay men to come in and fill the pulpit, and then if one or two or more of the deacons feel like they can teach, they'll take turns, and there's no, what's it say, where there's no vision, the people perish. I was probably, I think I was 20 years old, 21 years old, and I had no desire to pastor. I wanted experience. I knew what the Bible said. I knew I was still a novice, you know? I still needed to learn a lot. But there was a little church outside of town. And really, it was about the size of this building. And they only had about 15 people on if everybody showed up. And they asked me to be interim pastor. And so I said, what does that mean? Well, you'll just fill the pulpit. And then, of course, if there's something where somebody needs a visit or something, we'd ask you to do that. All right, yeah. I'll be willing to do that. Well, after about six months of this, I went to the board and I said, you know, I'm going to have to ask you to either hire me as your pastor or cut me loose. And so they knew that if they brought me in as pastor, that I was going to want to go, you know, radio, internet, tracks, you know, all the things you do, they knew I was going to do that. And they didn't want that. They wanted their little group, you know, and they didn't want to see, they'd love to see people get saved as long as it didn't mean their church got any bigger. That's really what it was. So they did kind of like the Oregon coach did Saturday, some of you might have seen that, where what he did wasn't illegal, but it was considered unethical by some, it was considered an abuse of the rules. So in that little church, he pulled off the same kind of thing, is they had had about six people coming after I started being interim pastor. So they were running up, close to 30 actually was coming. Well, they hadn't put them on an official membership. So when they had their election to vote whether I was gonna be the pastor, only that core group that didn't wanna see any growth voted. I still only lost by one vote. But that was all they needed. Ow, it was ugly. There was a handful of people that started crying. I didn't want any of that, but that's what you get when the church is not functioning biblically and you have a bunch of deacons running things. And that church, for years, didn't have a pastor. And I've seen a number of churches like that. The deacon elder, I'm calling that, you know, synonymous terms, is to live under no less a standard than the bishop slash pastor. And we see that, similar qualifications. And we began with two qualifications for the deacon, not specifically mentioned in the previous list for the bishop and pastor. Look at that in verse eight. Likewise, must the deacons be grave, not double-tongued. Grave does not mean he's Reverend Droopy. All right, please, no laughing, no laughing. We're going to be serious about this. You know, that's not, grave doesn't mean that it's some guy who just walks around and never smiles. You know. You rang? You know. Alert. What grave means, and grave in double tongue, I'm putting them kind of together in this note here, it basically means the elder deacon must be a man that others take seriously. He's grave, meaning that he's a serious person. He can be funny, he can be a joy to be around, but he's serious. He's not a goofball. You know, how many people you know that they are, they act funny, they try to be funny and everything, but they're just not serious even when you talk about serious things. That's what it means. To be grave is to be somebody that you can talk to and you can take them seriously. And of course, you can kind of tell with people like that when they're joking and when they're not, you know. And also not double-tongued, meaning, let's come back to that. I forgot I had these little notes but it's synonymous with what we saw under the qualifications for Bishop being sober. It's more than just not being drunk because there's another phrase about not being given too much wine which would refer to being drunk. Sober meant The similar, I guess you could call those synonyms too. Cinnamons. Grave and sober. It's somebody who you can take seriously. Just like I can say things that make you laugh, sometimes not even on purpose, doesn't matter, but you know that you can talk to me about things and you can take me seriously. And if you don't know that, I shouldn't be your pastor. And the same thing's true with a deacon or elder. and then also being double-tongued. And this is something that being self-contradictory and given to exaggeration or misstatements that must constantly retract. I should have put in the word constantly, because all of us say things from time to time. I mean, again, this isn't talking about perfection. All of us can say something and have to retract it. Once in a while, you might, you know, in the past, I had to really work on something, because I would say, all the church is this, and all the Christian's that. And then somebody would say, well, is it all? And I'd say, no, Jenny, actually it's not. But it was before I met her, but even since we met and I've been teaching, there's times where I've said things and I'm thinking, well, I need to tweak that a little bit. We shouldn't be painting with brooms. It's just weird how many people you run into as you're out there walking around, door to door, just talking to people, and they don't go to church. You can ask them why. Well, because all the, everybody's a hypocrite. Churches are filled with hypocrites. Everybody, you're like, really? Is it really that bad? See, when you talk like that, you actually start to think like that and it's not true. So you're really not thinking honestly. And if you are talking in those kind of terms, people hear you talking that way, they're not gonna take you seriously. And that's why I changed doctors so many times over the years. Because they would tell me things and either I already knew or I'd look it up and be like, that's not true. It's hard for me to trust somebody when they exaggerate or talk in terms that I know aren't true. Like COVID, go back to that. The number of people who died, nowhere near the numbers they were claiming. Because they were lying about people, they would die of a heart attack, and then if they tested positive for COVID, they counted them as a COVID death. Then they lied about the injuries to the vaccine. We knew they were up here and they were pretending they were down here. So what's that do? I just saw a news bit last week about how they were telling how people don't trust doctors and the pharmaceutical companies anymore. Good, because you shouldn't. They have earned that distrust. And as pastors, deacons, we should not earn that distrust. Yes, Johnny? Is that the same thing we're seeing with the identity politics thing? They'll try to paint all of one group a certain way, whether it's all men, or all women, or all people of a certain race, or all people of a certain political party. And it's both positive and negative. Like the Democrat Party right now is trying to paint all the black men not voting for Kamala a certain way, like they're all supposed to be thinking exactly the same. You know, yeah, that's the same. So when we see two things repeated from the list that we first saw two that weren't repeated, now we see two things repeated from the list, and that is not given to much wine, not greedy, a filthy lucre. Now, I'm just going to say it again. If it was a sin to ever drink wine, it wouldn't say not given to much wine. It would say doesn't touch wine. And if wine is grape juice, then what does it even mean? Not given to much grape juice. Why would that be? I mean, unless you're a diabetic, the only bad effect of that is you're going to get up in the middle of the night to pee. I'm speaking from experience. But as you get older, that becomes a thing. But the deacon should not be a drunk or a lush. Because there's some people who get to where they drink every day and they're not actually really drunk, but they're always kind of under the influence to an extent, and people kind of get used to it. I don't know of any pastors like that, but I know, well, that was kind of Dean Martin's act. They said a lot of times he's just drinking tea, but he'd be like, yeah, yeah. And his family said he didn't sit around drunk all the time like that, but that was part of his act. So you shouldn't have a pastor like that, you know? Hey, everybody. It's good to see you. Everybody loves somebody sometimes. but he also should not be fleshly or a money-driven man. All this speaks of the flesh. You don't want a pastor like that. You don't want a deacon or elder that is obviously drinking to excess in any way, shape, or form, or fleshly or money-driven. Now, I haven't seen, as I said, many drunks on deacon boards. I'm sure it's happened. but I haven't seen many drunks on deacon boards, but many are packed with businessmen who then turn the church into a money-driven outfit. And a lot of guys, pastors, and some guy hasn't even stayed very long, professing Christian, and he comes in, he finds out the guy's in real estate or a CEO somewhere or something like that. Next thing you know, he's on the board. Well, he knows how to deal with money. Well, make him treasurer or something, but don't put him on the deacon board. And then what happens? You'll see that church become driven by numbers and income and folks, most all the denominations, if they have a headquarters and they have like a bishop or a archbishop or a superintendent, almost every one of those is run like a business. and they encourage their boards to be filled with businessmen. Now listen, if you got a businessman who is a real Christian and you see the demonstration of the Spirit in his life, by all means. But if I got a guy who doesn't know business very well and can't hardly even handle his checkbook, But he doesn't bounce checks. He shouldn't bounce checks. But you're not bouncing checks. You're not stealing or crooking people. And I see the demonstration of the spirit. I don't care that you're not a businessman. That's the kind of guy you want on your board. Doug, did you have your hand up? Yeah, some people that are just going to, they stick him on the board because he's a businessman or something like that. Yeah, kind of like our president. The deacon elder is to have a full grasp of biblical faith and fully committed to living it out. If he's a businessman, that's great. But don't get the businessman cart before the spirit filled horse, so to speak. So that's what verse nine, it's a short verse, but it says, holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. Holding the mystery of the faith, there are three points that I will just run through real quick. Holding the mystery of the faith. That the is very important. First of all, it refers to the revelation of the gospel of Christ. It's not about like, unsolved mysteries, you know, that's not the word mystery isn't used in that sense. It's a, well, come back to that in a second. And it says the faith refers to fundamental doctrines of the faith, not faith in general. There are some people who have faith in a general sense. They believe God, they believe in the power of prayer, and they're committed to the extent they can be without, then you talk to them, it's without a real, depth of understanding of the faith. The faith is fundamental doctrine. The faith includes the creation, the Trinity, the doctrine of God specifically, the doctrines of Jesus Christ, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, the doctrine of salvation and eternal security, and I believe dispensations, the rapture, Israel in the church, eternal things, heaven and hell, and the millennial kingdom, at least in a general understanding of that, a general basic understanding at least of what's coming in the great tribulation, and so that they can then discern the times as they're seeing it. That's the kind of thing we're talking about when it comes to leadership. And number three, it's called the mystery because it was not revealed in the Old Testament, which was all folks had as this epistle was being written. When this was being written and sent out, there was no New Testament. You had the Old Testament, and you could only get that by going to the synagogue and having the scrolls rolled out for you. They didn't have a Bible, even an Old Testament like this. It wasn't accessible. And you couldn't, didn't have phone apps or DVD with Alexander Scorby reading to you or anything like that. You think about it, how spoiled we are. And back then, and this is being written, man, it was a mystery. The Bible itself was a mystery to most people because they didn't have access to it the way we do. And even when they went to the synagogue, by this time especially, but even by the time Jesus came, they already had a veil. So the teachers really didn't understand a lot of what they were teaching. So that's why it says, holding the mystery. of the faith. And just in case someone thinks I made all this up and that it's Gregology, I'll go out and check the elders, the other teachers have been around for years, just to see what they had to say about it. And it's almost what I said verbatim. J. Lerner McGee said this, the mystery of the faith means the revelation of the gospel of Christ. When Paul says the faith, he is not speaking of the abstract quality of faith, but of the doctrines of the faith. He speaks of it as a mystery because these doctrines were not revealed in the Old Testament, but are now revealed in the New Testament, end quote. I just like it when I'm thinking and putting my thoughts together, and then I go out and read one of the great teachers of the past, and it's like, yes. Not that I have to, if they contradict me, but I think what I'm seeing is biblical, that's where I stay. Anyway, verse nine goes on to say, in a pure conscience. That's something we can only see, as far as us, when we're looking at a deacon or elder, we're looking at anybody else, we can only see as it is revealed in their actions. This is something that only the deacon or the elder in question has to look at himself in the mirror and say, he has a pure conscience. The rest of us will find out in action. And that leads us then to the fact that the deacon elder is to demonstrate the above that we've all talked about so far, coming down to the last point. He has to demonstrate that in his life. He has to be proven and blameless. Look at verse 10. Read that with me. And let these also first be proved, then let them use the office of a deacon being found blameless. Now, I've had people say, well, I don't believe there's anything such thing as an office of deacons or elders. Everybody loves to think. Well, if you're thinking biblically, that's great, but if you're not, that's bad. And if something comes out of your mouth, and I'm telling you, I've had that conversation, and I take them right here and say, what is Paul talking about then when he says let them use the office of a deacon? It says office of a deacon. It's an office. There's nothing bad, there's nothing wrong with that. Just because a lot of denominations have set the office up and made it something it shouldn't be doesn't mean that the real thing isn't there. So this relates to the idea of a bishop, as we talked about related to the bishop, not being a novice and having a good report. See the similarity there? It says, let these also be proved. They shouldn't be novices, they shouldn't be inexperienced, and they should have a good report. Among Christians, the good report is that he's faithful, he's loyal, he's of sound-minded doctrine, and so forth. Of the world, it should be, oh, I hate that guy. He's a nice guy, but he's a hater. He hates my sin. Amen. And then it says, then let them use the office of a deacon being found blameless. So you notice a man must be a deacon or elder by his acts or actions before you can then use the office of a deacon. You don't go find a man and make him a deacon and then expect him to act like a deacon unless he was acting like a deacon before you put him in the position. That's a good rule. You don't go find a friend and hope that they become a good friend if you don't see evidence that they're already a good friend. The same thing's true with husband and wife. The same thing's true with churches and pastors. I know people who go to churches and sit under pastors and they don't have any evidence that this church is doing anything biblically and that the pastor's doing anything biblically, but hey, they got, you know, nice, they got good coffee and the chairs are much more comfortable than those pews down at BBF and that kind of thing. You have to have your priorities right, but you also have to know what you're looking for. And it should be demonstrated. And I've told young people this. Don't wait for someone to come along. Be the person you should be so that when they come along, you're ready. And they want to be with you. And too many people, I'm trying very hard not to name names. but too many people I have known who were lazy and didn't have the kind of relationship with the Lord that they should have, and then when that person came along, they didn't want anything to do with them. And they tried real hard to make up lost time. That's not the way to do it. But of course, it's not just relationships. There's gonna be people come in your life that you're gonna need to talk to about things, things that we've taught here, And if you weren't paying attention and you weren't preparing, they'll come across your path. And I've seen this so many times and someone says, oh, I remember when the pastor taught on that. But if they were honest, they'd finish by saying, but I paid no attention. And then they have to go back and try to find it online or call me or text me. What was it you said about that? Now, I'm trying to be very careful with that because I know some of us are forgetful. I'm not talking about the natural lack of recall that we all have, but I'm saying that, you know, there's a way to learn, there's a way to prepare so that when people come along, you're ready to deal with that. That's where all the above. The deacon is that kind of guy. The elder, he's that kind of guy. He's preparing even before anybody even suggests he should hold an office. And we should remember to understand all of these things in the context of the local church congregation. Again, somebody posted something, and I think it was on Rumble. I clicked on it when I watched it. After that short video went off, another video came on. And it's some guy sitting in his house all alone, telling everybody why they shouldn't go to a local church congregation. And in his view, all the churches are apostate. They're painting with the broom again. And it's dangerous to go to a local church because you're probably going to be deceived. Well, I didn't have time to look at all the stuff he believed, but he's probably a heretic. And that's why all the churches look apostate to him. You either got a lot of guys out there who think that dispensationalism is false, Israel is wicked, the rapture isn't going to happen any moment, and so on. They got all these doctrines that they hold. And so that's why they think all the churches that they go to are apostate, even when they come someplace like this. But you can't get away from the fact we're reading an epistle to a man who was placed as the head of the Church of Ephesus. and that his church was given an epistle called Ephesians. These are all local church connected and based. And so that's what, when we think about all these things, you have to think about it in the terms of the local congregation, the local church. God didn't save anybody to be a Lone Ranger. Amen? And so Philippians 1, I wanna close there. Philippians 1 gives us, I think a little bit of a picture of this mentality that I'm pitching here at the end, as we think about all these things you've been studying the last three or four weeks. Philippians chapter one, verses one through six. Read the even with me. I'll start with verse one. Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus, which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons. Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all, making request with joy for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ, amen? And we have some people right now watching online, but there'll be people listening to this and watch this in the weeks and months and years of the Lord Terry's. And they can't find a local church within driving distance. And God does not expect people to drive two or three hours and, you know, that kind of thing. And a lot of people, we can't just pack up and move, especially these days, it's almost impossible to move. Finding a house you can afford and a job and everything. So God has, it's just so, isn't it kind of strange? It's almost like God allowed the internet to come about at just the right time when so many churches went into apostasy. So few churches are out there for people that believe the Bible and teach sound doctrine, and here we got this internet thing. And so I just wanted to say that there are those who can't go physically to a local church. But if you, anyone here finds yourself at some point for some reason living out away from any good local church, then you should connect in whatever way you can with a local church. And you connect with that church and you, not only do you give your tithes and offerings to help support it so that you have that local church online and on the radio and such, but we have people who get their own tracks and get a stamp with our web address on it and stamp it and hand out tracks. and you can help the work of the Lord in that way. And there's a number of things you can do, including on social media, sharing links to our messages and everything. And you say, well, you're just promoting your ministry. Well, if this isn't it, find it. I'm just saying, find a local church. Doesn't have to be this one, that's between you and God. but you need to find a local church and really connect with that local church and think in terms of God is dealing with you as an individual, but he wants you in fellowship. What does verse five says? For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. The fellowship is, what's the tie that binds? Our salvation in Jesus Christ. We're all saved by the same Savior. We have the same Holy Spirit in each of us. And then we come together as one body and we work together for whose glory? For BBF, no. For Pastor Greg, no. We work together for the glory of Jesus Christ. And we're like a lighthouse right here in this part of this neck of the woods. And because of the internet and radio, we're shining in places we never dreamed we would, but there's still a lot of dark spots out there. So we need a bunch of other little lighthouses like this when they're out there, they're out there. Little churches just like this all over the place, doing the same kind of work we're doing here. And that's how God's work is being done throughout the entire world. There are places where what we're doing is against the law. So they're meeting in houses and in garages and in caves and out in the woods. But however, wherever you're at, whatever your situation, you do what you can, but you do it as a body. You do it through the local church. Amen. So in the meantime, aspire to grow, always ready to serve. Amen. By the way, thank you Lord for this time in your word and. Just pray that your word really finds lodging in our hearts and minds. Your Holy Spirit stirs us to do what we can. And as each one of us. Do what we can. A lot gets done. And without our names even attached to it. All for your glory. We want people to know Jesus. We want people to hear that gospel. Even if every single one of them reject you, we want them to reject you having heard the pure, biblical, simple gospel message. At least to have had the opportunity to hear it clearly. Use us, we ask. Help us to be the vessel that you use for your honor and your glory. In your name, we pray. In Jesus name, amen. Amen. Let's sing a couple songs in closing here. If you can stand. Feel free to groan and moan as you get up. I can hear it. In my heart, Lord, be glorified, be glorified. In my heart, Lord, be glorified today. In my song, Lord, be glorified. be glorified in my song, Lord, be glorified today. In my life, Lord, be glorified, be glorified. In my life, Lord, be glorified today. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Because He first loved me. Oh, how I thank Jesus. Oh, how I thank Jesus. Oh, how I thank Jesus. Because He died for me. Oh, how I praise Jesus. Oh, how I praise Jesus Oh, how I praise Jesus Because He rose for me Oh, how I love Jesus Oh, how I love Jesus Oh, how I love Jesus because he first loved me. Amen? Amen. All right, let's say goodbye to the online zone three. One, two, three. See you here, there, or in the air. Bye, everybody. Bye, guys.