We've been talking about deacons and last time we were together we were in Acts chapter 6 verses 1 through 7 and we saw that the church at Jerusalem was dealing with a problem. They were dealing with a problem that was really centered around how were the widows being treated. There were two different ethnic groups of widows, and the Hellenists were being neglected in the daily distribution, and so the apostles came up with a solution. They said, it's not desirable for us to leave the ministry of the Word and to take care of this, so they told the church to select seven men to be appointed to this ministry so that they could serve the church as deacons. This week we're going to be looking at the qualifications for deacons. What kind of things should we be looking for as a church as we look for deacons? The world would tell us to find deacons who are really good with money. The world would tell us to find deacons who can make a dollar go really far. The world would tell us to find deacons who are good at business. The world would tell us to find deacons who are influential in the community. but God is not concerned that we find deacons necessarily with those qualities. God is concerned first and foremost that whoever we appoint as deacons over the church are godly men of character. In 394 AD, Jerome wrote a letter to a young pastor And even in their day, there was a problem with appointing men to the church offices who had all the things the world was looking for, but who lacked godly character. And in this letter, Jerome wrote, Yet to their choice of Christ's ministers, no heed is paid. What a sad thing to say about the church. They have fancy walls, they have fancy altars, they have nice gold ceilings, but they don't care who leads them. Unfortunately, not much has changed. Churches today are often led by men, and even in many cases women, who lack the godly character requirements necessary in scripture to lead the church. And as we select deacons, we want the mind of God. We want to know, who does God want to serve us as deacons? And we will know the mind of God by looking at the characteristics and the godly qualities that are given to us in 1 Timothy 3, 8-13. 1 Timothy 3, verses 8-13. If you have a Bible follow along with me, I'll read those and then we'll pray. 1 Timothy 3, 8-13. Likewise, deacons must be reverent. not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy for money, holding the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience, but let these also first be tested. Then let them serve his deacons, being found blameless. Likewise, their wives must be reverent, not slanders, temperate, faithful in all things. Let deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well. for those who have served well as deacons, obtained for themselves a good standing, and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your kindness to us as a church. Lord, you sustain us day by day with mercies that are new every morning. You provide every week for us the preaching and the teaching of your word. You provide for us many people who serve and labor for the growth of the body. Lord, you are really, truly kind to us, and so we thank you. Lord, we also lift up the people that are not with us this morning because they're ill. Lord, we think of Bobby and Addie and Heidi and anyone else that's not well today. We pray that you would bless them, that you would strengthen their bodies, that you'd heal them, and that even today you would minister to their souls. And Father, in the weeks ahead as we seek out from amongst ourselves deacons, we pray that we would know your mind with clarity, with unity, with unanimity. Lord, we do want your church to function the way that you designed it to with the men that you desire in leadership. So Father, we need wisdom, we need grace, we need strength. We pray that you would give us those things as we seek to follow your will. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In 1 Timothy 3, Paul gives us nine qualifications for deacons, nine things that need to be present in the life of a deacon, and I thought about doing this in two sermons. I think we're going to be able to do it in one. It's going to be a longer sermon today, but Lord willing, we're going to look at all nine of those qualifications. The first thing I want to draw your attention to is the first phrase that a deacon must be. Likewise, a deacon must be. Paul's giving us the qualifications for deacons and he tells us that each of these nine things that he's going to talk about must be present. These aren't optional. It's not a 75% pass. Each of these things must be present. Sometimes if you read the newspaper and you see people advertising for job openings, you see five years experience required. And then they undo what they did with that. And they say, or we're willing to train the right person. The life and the ministry of a deacon isn't like that. Each of these nine things must be present. They're not optional. That doesn't mean they'll be present in perfection. but they will be present in some degree, in some measure. You'll be able to look at the life of a qualified deacon, and you'll be able to see these nine things are there because God has grown this person, matured this person, and brought this person to be ready for this ministry. The first qualification Paul gives us is in verse 8, and he tells us a deacon must be dignified. The word dignified is really an overarching characteristic that summarizes everything he's going to tell us about the deacon. And really you could summarize it by saying that the deacon is a person whose actions, attitudes, and character are worthy of admiration and imitation. That's the idea behind dignified. When we think of dignified, we think of a really well-dressed businessman who's always serious and never has any fun. That's not the biblical idea of what it means to be dignified. The biblical idea of being dignified is that it's a person who lives their life before God in such a way that the rest of God's people should be able to look at them and say, that's someone who, by the way they live before God, has my respect, and I also view them as someone worthy of imitation. It was that same qualification that was given to the church at Jerusalem in Acts 6, in verse 3, where the apostles told the church, brethren, seek out from among yourselves seven men of good reputation. There's the same qualification. And that's essential in the life of a deacon, because deacons are officers in the church. They are public figures in the church. They'll be in official leadership positions, and their testimony in the church and in the world will greatly help or greatly hinder, or will greatly be helped or greatly hindered by their reputation. Alexander Strauch says, in the Lord's work, a leader's moral character and public reputation are essential to the tasks of leading God's people. As highly visible officers or officials in the church, deacons are expected to be role models of Christian character and living. Candidates for the office must demonstrate a respectable lifestyle so that upon examination by the church and its leaders, they are found to be blameless. So that's the first qualification. It's that a deacon must be dignified. That's an overarching qualification that hangs over the entirety of the deacon's life and identifies him as a man of character, a man of Christian virtue, and a man who has earned the respect and the imitation of God's people. But the second qualification Paul gives is that a deacon must not be double-tongued. There's some disagreement about what Paul means by double-tongued. It may be that he's saying he's a person who does what he says and says what he does. In other words, his life and his words match. If that's what Paul means, the idea is that he's a man of his word. He does what he says and he says what he does. It may be that Paul is saying that this person does not say one thing to one person and another thing to another person. If that's what Paul means, the idea is that a deacon is a man who has enough integrity in the way that he speaks that you don't have to ask him the right question in front of the right person to get the right answer. He's going to give you the right answer and the same answer in whatever context you speak to him. Whatever, whichever one of those Paul has in mind, the idea is the same. A deacon is a man who controls his tongue. A deacon is a man who speaks the truth, is committed to the truth, and he is consistent in his speech. Ephesians tells us that kind of speech is essential. to the growth and the maturity of the church. Ephesians 4.15 says, I mean, you could just imagine how much destruction would take place in the church and how much it would undermine the work of the gospel to have a double-tongued deacon. Imagine one of the deacons saying, in the privacy of a leadership meeting, imagine one of the deacons saying, you know, that widow is just a stuck-up lazy snob who needs to get off of her backside and get a job. And then, two days later, he's meeting with that same widow and he says, you know, the church loves you, we're here to serve you, we want to help you, and whatever needs you have, we want to meet them. That's a double-tongued deacon, and you can imagine the kind of destruction and undermining of the work of the gospel that man could do. It would have negative effects on the ministry and the work of the gospel. So Proverbs 12, 22 tells us lying lips are an abomination to the Lord. And as you look at the men in the church, find us men who are men of their word. Find us men who say what they mean and mean what they say. Find us men whose tongues are marked by integrity. The third qualification Paul gives us for deacons is in verse eight. And it says that they're not given too much wine. Of course, the Bible doesn't forbid drinking alcohol. Jesus himself drank alcohol. He even drank alcohol in public in Luke 7, 34. Paul told Timothy to take a little wine for his stomach's sake in 1 Timothy 5, 23. Psalm 104, 15 shows us the blessings of wine and the kind gift that it is from God when it says, and wine that makes the heart glad, and oil to make the face shine, and bread which strengthens men's heart. God does not forbid the consumption of alcohol, even in the leaders of His church. He actually considers alcohol to be a blessing that He has given us to enjoy. But like all of God's gifts, it can be abused. It can be used wrongly. And so scripture also gives us some very strong warnings. about consuming alcohol to excess, to the point of intoxication, or even in a way that would be unloving to our brothers and sisters who have differing convictions. Proverbs 20 verse one tells us, wine is a mocker, strong drink is a brawler, and whoever is led astray by these things is not wise. So as it pertains to deacons in the church, what Paul is telling us is that a deacon can't be a person who's given over to wine. The idea of not being given over is that a deacon can't be a person who is controlled by wine. He controls his use of wine. He's the master over it. He's not a person who consumes to the point of intoxication or excess. He's not a person who consumes in a way that fails to give preferential treatment to his brothers and sisters in Christ, he has a godly self-control in his relationship to alcohol. And a man who's qualified to be a deacon knows how to drink, when to drink, where to drink, when to abstain, how to abstain, and why to abstain. He knows how much to drink. He knows when to stop. He knows that a love for the people in the church that he serves is far more important than his liberty. And he's not so given to wine that he's willing to use his liberty as a means of offending or causing people to stumble. Of course, that kind of abuse, a deacon who is not controlled in his use of alcohol, is the opposite of what it means to be controlled by the Spirit. Remember in Acts 6, 3, the apostles told the church at Jerusalem, Find us men who are filled with the Spirit. And notice how Ephesians 5.18 contrasts an abusive view of alcohol to being filled with the spirit. Ephesians 5.18 says, don't be drunk with wine, which is excess, but be filled with the spirit. The issue in Ephesians 5.18 is what controls a person? Is he controlled by the spirit or is he controlled by alcohol? And Paul's saying in Ephesians 5, you can't be controlled by both. A spirit-filled, a spirit-controlled person will be a person who has control, self-control over his use of alcohol. And so a deacon in the church does not have to totally abstain from the consumption of alcohol, but if they're filled with the spirit, their use of alcohol or their abstinence from alcohol will be out of a spirit of self-control and deference to their brothers and sisters in Christ. So as you examine the lives of the men in the church, look for qualified men. Find men who you believe in their public life, as well as in the privacy of their homes, demonstrate that they're not controlled, they're not mastered by alcohol, but they have spirit-led self-control and love for their brothers. The fourth qualification Paul gives us is that a deacon must not be greedy for money. We can see that also in verse eight. Just like alcohol, the Bible doesn't condemn money in and of itself. Money is not in and of itself a sinful thing. In fact, there's been many in biblical history who were rich with material goods because God blessed them. We could think of David, we could think of Abraham, we could think of Solomon, and many others. So riches in and of themselves are not sinful. Neither is the pursuit of wealth. Proverbs 6 verses 6 through 8 say, In Proverbs 6, it's commending to us the wisdom of ants. Something as small and insignificant as an ant, what does it do? It spends all summer and all harvest building up reserves for the wintertime when ants can't go outside. She's building wealth. That's the idea. So there's nothing sinful about pursuing and building wealth. But the Bible does give us strong warnings about the dangers of a life that is given over to the pursuit of wealth. In fact, 1 Timothy 6, 9 tells us, It doesn't take long to survey the entirety of scripture and realize many men have ruined their souls by greed. It was greedy Judas who betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. It was greedy Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5 who lied to Peter and to the Holy Spirit about the amount of money they received from a sale. It was greedy Achan in Joshua 7 who jeopardized the entire safety of the nation Israel by hoarding and taking wealth that was not his. There are dangers associated with the desire to be rich. And 1 Timothy 3 is telling us to look at the men in the church and see if they have fallen into the snare of greed. The snare of living with a stingy, tight-fisted hand towards money that says, I want more, I want more, I want more, and I am always looking for more and I am unwilling to give. A greedy man makes a horrible deacon. Of course, the office of deacon would present all sorts of temptations to a greedy deacon, and a greedy deacon would create many problems in the life and ministry of the church. Think of the original situation in Acts 6. The situation in Acts 6, where they appointed deacons, the church at Jerusalem had a bunch of widows who needed to be cared for. So they appointed seven deacons over them. And imagine what would have happened if they were greedy. They would have been denying legitimate benefits to the widow so that they could keep skimming off the top for themselves. But not all greed in the life of a deacon shows itself in a desire for personal wealth. often greed in the life of a deacon, can present itself by hoarding the Lord's money in the church with a tight fist that is always building reserves and contingency funds to protect those reserves and contingency funds to protect those contingency funds to protect those reserves. A godly deacon recognizes there's wisdom in saving, but God has also given the church his money to be a steward over for the sake of using it in the ministry. A year or so ago, I was talking to another pastor, and he was telling me that he started pastoring this church, and he went to one of the meetings, and they were like, we have $100,000 in our general fund, and he said, well, what are we doing with it? And the deacons said, well, nothing. We've spent years building that reserve. And he said, well, are we going to allocate it anywhere? Are we going to assimilate it into the rest of the budget? And they said, no, we worked hard to get that kind of money. And he met great opposition when he asked the deacons to begin using that money for the Lord's work. The deacons were stingy, they were tight-fisted with God's money, and they thought they needed $100,000 in the bank, and for the next 500 years they had no plan of what they were going to do with it except keep building this nest egg. Men who don't understand biblical generosity, men who are hoarders, men who are never content with what they have, men who are always looking for another way to make and save a buck, those are not men that God has qualified to lead his church. So look at the men in the church and look at their personal checkbooks. You might have to snatch them from their back pocket, but look at how they spend their money. Look at how they view money. Look at their worldview in relationship to their money. I was joking about stealing their wallets. But to the best of your ability, look at their actions and their attitudes towards money and see if their heart reflects a biblical view of money that is both generous as well as wise, recognizing that the money I have isn't my money. It's God's money and he's given it to me to be a steward over. The fifth qualification Paul gives us is that a deacon must hold the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience. We can see that in verse nine. What does it mean to hold the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience? There's really two parts to this. On the one hand, to hold the mystery of the faith means that a deacon must have a sufficient grasp and ability to defend the major doctrines of Scripture. The word mystery is a word that Paul often uses in scripture to talk about biblical truths that were formerly unknown, but God has made them known through revelation. But here Paul defines, he helps us understand a little more what he means, and he puts the definite article, the, in front of the word mystery. Whenever Paul does that, he's telling us that he has the whole of Christian doctrine in mind. The mystery, the faith, that's the idea. It's the entire body of spiritual truth that God has revealed to his church. Paul's telling us that even though a deacon doesn't have to have a master's in theology degree, he doesn't even have to have any degree, he's not even required to teach, he still has to have a sufficient grasp on the essential truths of the Christian faith. He knows the doctrine of substitution. He knows the doctrine of sanctification. He knows the doctrine of the inspiration of scripture. He knows and understands the important doctrines surrounding salvation. He has a general, well-grounded grasp and ability to defend the essential Christian truths. But Paul not only tells us the deacon must hold the mystery of the faith, he tells us he must do so with a pure conscience. Here Paul's telling us that the Christian faith, the body of God's revealed truth, is not just something the deacon has to believe, it also impacts his life. He recognizes that there's not only a belief in the Christian faith, there's also an ethic. And a godly deacon, a man who's qualified to be a deacon, doesn't just have good orthodoxy, he also has good orthopraxy. He lives out a life that is consistent with the truth. As you look at the life of a man who's qualified to be a deacon, there won't be any major disconnect. He won't be perfect, he won't be blameless in every way, but there won't be any major disconnect between what he believes and how he lives his life. The sixth qualification Paul gives us is that deacons must be tested. We see that in verse 10. Let these also first be tested, then let them serve as deacons being found blameless. How will we as a church recognize and know that God is calling a man to be a deacon? How do we know when someone has a servant's heart? How do we know when someone is a man of faith who will come alongside the ministry and propel it further into greater service? How do we know when a man is holding the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience? How do we know when a man is reverent or dignified, not given to wine, not greedy for money, the husband of one wife? How do we know these things? The next qualification Paul gives us isn't really a qualification. Rather, it's a mandate for a period of time where we examine and vet a diaconal candidate. Verse 10 tells us he must first be tested. The Greek word that gets translated tested literally means to examine something to see the genuineness of it. The idea when it comes to selecting deacons is that a deacon should be examined. The church body as a whole, and the elders in particular, should examine the life of a prospective candidate to see if their walk and their talk are consistent with the faith. They should examine them to see if they're the kinds of men like in Acts 6. who not only meet the qualifications of deacons, but they also have the heart of a deacon towards the ministry and service of the church. But notice the word first. He must also be tested first, or let these also first be tested. The idea behind the word first is that a prospective deacon should be examined, watched, and vetted before and not after he's appointed to the office. The idea is clearly that the belief, the ethic, the heart of a deacon must be present and examinable, tangible, testable before he's put into the office of a deacon. There's a church model that would say we could take one of the ways to build people's commitment in the church, one of the ways to strengthen people's spiritual maturity is to give them offices. Paul says don't do that. Don't put unqualified men into the office hoping they will become qualified by giving them a title. Paul says, no, test them. Examine them. See if they are deacons. See if they have the qualities and the characteristics that are necessary. So I would suggest a deacon is a deacon before he's a deacon. A deacon is a man who meets the qualifications and demonstrates that he has the heart of a deacon because it's been proven and tested over a period of time before he is recognized and given the title of deacon. So that's why last week, or two weeks ago, I read from our church's constitution. That's why our church's constitution is written the way it is. In our church's constitution it says that whenever the congregation believes a man to be qualified for the office of deacon, they can make a recommendation to the elders. and then the elders can examine that person's life, and when the elders believe that person is qualified, they then bring the name of that person to the church, and the church has a minimum of four weeks to examine that person's life, character, and ministry. That's because 1 Timothy tells us a deacon must first be tested. The seventh qualification Paul gives us relates to the deacon's wives. Verse 11, Paul gives us another qualification. He says, likewise their wives must be reverent, not slanderous, temperate, and faithful in all things. You're going to have to engage your brains just a little more than you have so far. Verse 11 is a little tricky because Paul could be saying, grammatically, he could be saying that a woman who is being examined for the office of deacon should be reverent, not slanderous, temperate, and faithful. Or he could be saying that a deacon, if he is married, his wife must also possess these characteristics because his qualifications are contingent on these things being present in his wife. Both of those are legitimate grammatical translations of what's actually written in the verse. Many of our English Bibles make the decision for us, but in Greek it could be interpreted either way. Paul simply uses a feminine word that means woman. It could mean woman, it could mean wife, but because it doesn't have the possessive pronoun in front of it, it doesn't say the woman or his woman or his wife. It simply says woman in Greek. And so we have to ask, which one does Paul mean? I think the New American Standard is one of the better translations because it leaves the interpretation up to us. It says, women must likewise be dignified, not malicious gossips, but temperate and faithful in all things. I'm gonna show you why I believe Paul is talking about deacons' wives in a minute. But before we do that, we need to be reminded that even though the Bible does not give the formal offices of the church to women, Women do have vital serving roles in the church. We focused in Sunday school on that very thing. Mike reminded us last week of Titus 2, 4, and 5, that the older women are to admonish the younger women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, to be chaste, to be homemakers, to be good, obedient to their husbands. so that the word of God might not be blasphemed." So while scripture does not give women the leadership roles in a church, it gives them ample opportunities to serve and to labor in the body of Christ. Having said that, I think if we are going to look at 1 Timothy 3 and be faithful to what's written, we have to uphold that Paul is not talking about women deacons. He's talking about if a man is married, and he's going to serve as a deacon, his wife's character also factors into his own qualifications. Whenever this word for woman or wife is used, the context of how it's used determines whether we're talking about a wife or a woman in general. And as you look at verse 12 right after this, Paul's obviously talking not about deacons in general, not about women deacons, he's talking about men. So he starts by talking about deacons, he then inserts this chunk about women, either married or not, and then he comes back and he picks up about men. It would seem very strange to be teaching on the qualifications of male deacons and in the middle of it with no other reason to say, now here's the qualifications for women deacons, now let's get back to the qualifications of men deacons. That would not be a logical way to write. It would be out of place to write that way. If Paul was teaching there were women deacons, we would expect him to say, here's the qualifications for male deacons, here's the qualifications for male deacons. And actually, as we see, there's so much crossover and similarities between what he says about the deacon's wife and what he says about the rest of the deacons, that everything he's saying would be redundant if he views men and women as deacons. In other words, the qualifications for women deacons would be no different than the qualifications for men. If he's teaching that there's different qualifications for male deacons and women deacons, we'd have to ask the question, does Paul believe that women deacons can be drunks? Of course not. That would be such an obvious disqualifying sin in the life of a woman deacon, it would be really weird for him to make two separate lists. So all of that's to say, I don't believe verse 11 is teaching us the qualifications for women deacons. Rather, it's continuing to teach us the qualifications for male deacons, and the godly quality of their wives contributes to the qualifications of the husband. And so if a man is married, his wife must be reverent. That's the same word Paul used in verse 8, which means worthy of respect or imitation. A deacon's wife must be well thought of. She must have a good reputation. She must be the kind of person that the other women in the church could look to and say, sure, she has her remaining flaws. She's not perfect. But in general, she is a woman who is worthy of our respect and our imitation. Paul also tells us she must not be slanderous or given to gossip. Like a deacon, a deacon's wife must be someone who controls her speech. She's not out there gossiping and slandering. The word that Paul uses for slanderous or malicious gossip is an adjective form of the word for devil. The idea is that she doesn't use her tongue like the devil. She doesn't use her tongue to cause destruction and damage and deceit and slander and gossip. And I think that's important because of the ministry of the church, the way that the church functions. A deacon's wife will know many of the intimate details in the church. She will know much of the sensitive information in the church. She will be present with her husband while he has meetings. And what damage could she do with her tongue if she does not have the ability to control it? I had a lady I once knew, this wasn't here, she was in Minnesota, but she was talking about a Bible study she went to at her church. And she summarized the Bible study by saying, we don't actually study the Bible, we just really get together and we complain and we gossip. That's almost word for word what she said. I don't care if her husband is the Apostle Paul, her husband is not qualified to be a deacon. Because the sins of his wife's tongue disqualifies that man from being in leadership in the church. And verse 11 is telling us that as we look at the men in the church, we must also look at the tongues of their wives. Are they slanderous? Are they gossiping? Are they using their tongues for destruction? Verse 11 also tells us a deacon's wife must be temperate or sober-minded. We would say she's stable. She has a clear head. She's balanced and reasonable. She's not a person given to extremes. Alexander Strauch again says a deacon's wife must be level-headed and balanced because of her strong influence on her husband. Furthermore, because husbands and wives often talk about such sensitive matters, a deacon's wife will sometimes know information about people in the church and their problems. If a deacon's wife lacks self-control and balanced judgment, she may adversely influence her husband's judgment and work. She will probably undermine her husband's reputation in the congregation, too. And the final thing Paul says about deacons' wives is that they must be faithful in all things. The word faithful means reliable or trustworthy. And he doesn't tell us where she's faithful. He doesn't say she has to be faithful in this sphere of her life. She's faithful in all things. She's faithful as a wife. She's faithful as a mother. She's faithful in the community. She's faithful in the church. She's faithful to Christ. She's faithful to his word. In all of her life, she could be marked and characterized as a faithful person. Those are the kinds of wives who are worthy of the church's respect. also the kinds of wives that so adorn their husband that they actually add to his qualifications for the office of a deacon? Why is it so important that a deacon's wife would also meet certain qualifications? Certainly an ungodly, obnoxious, rebellious wife would reflect poorly on her husband as well as his qualifications for the ministry. But I think that the reason Paul includes this here is more than just she reflects poorly on her husband. The nature of the office is that a deacon will also often be working closely with single women, single younger women, widows. Remember the situation in Acts 6 that caused the church to decide, we need deacons. There's all these widows in the church and they need to be cared for. It would make sense that Paul envisions, although women do not have official diaconal roles, they're working alongside of their husband and they're helping him in his ministry for the sake of propriety and for the sake of wisdom. So as we examine the men in the church, part of that examination process includes examining their wives. Because in order for a man to be qualified for the office of a deacon, his wife must also. Be reverent, not slanderous, temperate, and faithful in all things. The eighth qualification Paul gives us for a deacon is that he must be a one woman man or the husband of one wife. Verse 12, let deacons be the husbands of one wife. Of all the qualifications Paul gives us for deacons, this is the one that has caused the most discussion and disagreement of all of them. What does it mean to be the husband of one wife? Does that mean that a man only has a marriage certificate with one woman at one time? It seemed to be saying more than that. Because a man could technically be married to only one woman, but he could have a hundred mistresses. Somehow I don't believe that's what Paul has in mind because that would obviously disqualify him. The phrase husband of one wife is an idiom from Paul's day that literally meant a one-woman man. And that, that idiom really encapsulates the entire Christian sexual ethic. On the one hand, it means he's committed to his wife. He is a man of and for his wife. His affections are for his wife. His love is for his wife. His time is for his wife. His marriage is in order because he is a man of and for his wife. But it also negatively tells us he's not a flirtatious man. He's not a man whose affections are divided between his wife and other women. He's not a lustful man. He's not a man who has his attentions and his loves and his affections divided between a number of women. He's a man who's characterized by faithfulness and fidelity in his relationships with women, specifically towards his wife. This is vitally important for a deacon. Remember, remember in Acts 6, who are the deacons ministering to? They're ministering to widows. They're ministering to physically and emotionally needy women who have lost their husbands, who have lost their source of income, and now these men are stepping into that role to serve. And when you have men serving in roles like that, you need men whose marriages are solid. You need men whose commitment to the purity and the celibacy and their faithfulness to their wife, who that commitment is rock solid. The ninth qualification Paul gives us is that their households must be in order. We see that at the end of verse 12. Ruling their children and their own houses well. Just like the elders in verse 4, Paul comes now and he tells us deacons must also rule over their children and their households well. Paul envisions the household, the home, as really being the proving ground, the testing ground for Christian leadership. Because however a man rules his house is how he's going to rule the church. However a man exercises his authority in his home over his wife and his children is how he's going to lead in the church. So Paul says, look at his household. Look at his family. Look at his kids. A deacon is a man who is capable of taking his God-given role in the home and exercising it in such a way that there's a sense of order in the home. There's not chaos and dysfunction due to his lack of leadership. He's not a man who negates his duties at home, but he leads and shepherds his family for their good. He's a man who takes his God-given role as a husband, as a father, as the leader, the administrator of his home seriously. He's discipling, he's disciplining, he's instructing, he's forming, he's encouraging, he's nurturing, and he's guiding his children. And he's doing so in a biblically balanced, loving way. He's leading his family in the Word. He's leading his family in decision-making. He's leading his family in a way that seeks to win the heart of his child, not merely control their behavior through oppression, but in a godly, Christ-like, loving leadership, he is moving his family towards Christ. He's a man who has sufficient grace in his leadership that if you could be a fly on the wall in his home, you would say, he's not perfect. but he's seeking to lead his family in a godly manner. Then there's one final thing Paul tells us about deacons in this passage, and we see it in verse 13. Notice verse 13. It says, Verse 13 is answering the question, why is it so important that we find godly, qualified men to serve as deacons? It says it's important to have qualified men in the office of deacon because those who serve well as deacons will obtain a good standing and great boldness in the faith. Notice first that there's a direct correlation between a deacon's qualification and his ability to do ministry well. Deacons must have these qualifications. Why? Why does a deacon have to have all nine of these qualifications? Because those who serve well You see what Paul's doing. He's saying that to the extent that a man has these nine qualifications, he will be able to serve well. To the extent that he does not have these qualifications, he will not serve well. I've seen a number of deacons over the years who have either fallen into sin after becoming deacons, or who are living long periods of time as deacons in secret private sin, and when it was exposed, they were removed from the office. But one of the things most of those people that I've observed have had in common is that because they were not qualified, because they were not faithful husbands, because they were addicted to wine, because they were greedy for money, their lack of qualifications was dramatically affecting their willingness and their ability to lead. And so Paul tells us, find men who are qualified because. Because those are the men who will lead well. but for those who are qualified to serve well, those who faithfully lead with a servant's heart, Paul tells us there's two rewards that they will receive. The first reward they'll receive is a good standing. It literally means a step on a staircase. The idea is that a good deacon who works hard and diligently and faithfully, a deacon who has this godly quality about him, who he ministers to the needs of the church, he will gain a step in the church. The idea is that he will rise to a place of respect and prominence in the church. The church will grow in their appreciation and love of this deacon. As they see he's a godly man who's committed to faithful, diligent service, the church will respond by elevating this man and giving him honor. Alexander Strauch again says, to gain a good standing is to be held in high regard by the believing community and to be appreciated by the church family. But not only do they receive a good standing, they will also receive the benefit of a great confidence or boldness in the faith of Jesus. So the deacon who serves well through his diligent service will also be growing. The idea that Paul's giving us is that he's growing and he's increasing in his faith. In other words, as he's serving the Lord faithfully and diligently in the office of a deacon, what God is doing through that service is he is increasing his faith. I think the deacons in Powell are a good example of this. Right now, our sister church in Powell has four deacons, and it's been interesting to watch them over the years. Because there were times in the life of the deacons of the church up there where their faith and their ministry was small. They had a very small vision for the ministry. They were doing very few things as deacons. But as they have taken purposeful steps to say, we're going to serve God in this area. We don't know where the money's coming from, we don't know where the people are coming from, but we believe God wants us to serve here, and so we're gonna take a step in faith. And then what has God done? He supplied the need for money, He supplied the need for people, and as He's done that, as He's met the need for the things that they have said are priorities in the church, what has God done in their faith? Wow, look what God did, He met this need. Next time it comes to make a decision, what happens? Hey, remember last time we didn't have the money, we didn't have the people, but we had the word of God telling us we need to serve here. And now our faith has been built and as they continue to serve in new areas, their faith is increasing. That's what Paul is telling us will happen in the life of a deacon. Paul's telling us that as he serves, as he labors, as he takes steps of faith in his service, God will also use those steps of service to increase and to build his faith in Jesus. Why does Paul tell us this at the end of the qualifications for deacons? Why does Paul tell us that a deacon who serves well will receive the honor and the respect of the church and he will also grow in his faith? He tells us those things because he wants to encourage the people who are already deacons and he wants to encourage people that are aspiring to be deacons. He's telling us that God is promising that if we have deacons who will serve the church well, He will bless them. He will honor them. He will give them a place of prominence and honor in the church, and He will also increase their faith. So, those are the nine qualifications that God gives us for the deacons of the church. So two weeks ago I passed out an evaluation form and I asked all of the members to take one, to pray about it, to read through it, to evaluate the lives of the men in the church in light of those qualifications. Two weeks ago I preached on the role of deacons in the church. What should deacons be doing? Why does the church need deacons? This week we've preached on the qualifications for deacons. Now what I'm asking you to do is to take those forms that you took two weeks ago and to fill them out this week. Look at the men in the church, look at their lives, look at their wives, look at their checkbooks, look at their use of alcohol, look at their marriages, look at their homes, look at their hearts of service. Evaluate the lives of the men in the church and bring those forms back to me next week. Once you've brought those back to me, I'm going to begin going through them prayerfully, interviewing the diaconal candidates, evaluating their lives more intensely than I have been already. And let's continue to pray that God will use this process to give us deacons. Deacons who will be qualified and who will serve in such a way that they'll gain the respect of the church and will also grow in their faith. Father, we pray that you would guide this process. We pray that we would not rush ahead of you or lag behind you, but that we would be right behind you as you lead the way. Father, we do desire as a church to serve you more faithfully, more diligently, with greater measures of faith. And Lord, I believe deacons are one of the key steps in that process. And so Lord, would you please give us everything we need as a church. Father, we pray that you would bless this church, that you would grow this church, that you would strengthen the influence of this church in our communities. We pray, Lord, that through this church the name of Jesus would be spread wide and far. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.