Heavenly Father, we thank you that we can be gathered around your word now. We thank you that we have your word. We thank you that we have your word in our language. Lord God, sometimes your word can be hard to understand. And sometimes what you call us to do isn't what we want to do. And sometimes we don't like what we hear. Forgive us. Help us, oh Lord God, through the enabling of the Holy Spirit to truly understand your word and what you're saying to us today. Give us right hearts, give us humble attitudes, give us listening ears. Bless us, oh Lord God, with a sense of your presence as we come around your word. Enable me to communicate what you'd have us to hear this morning. May you touch our hearts and our minds. And may you bless us richly as we are gathered in your word. May you speak to us. May you meet each one of us at our point of need. May your name be glorified. Heavenly Father, may your spirit help me and help each one of us. And may your name be lifted on high. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So like I said, as a church family, we are looking to appoint deacons, and we wanted to do this in a way that is in God's word. We didn't want to just invent this. We wanted to do what God is telling us from his word, and that's why we've been having this series, looking at God's word, looking at what God's word tells us about deacons. And so three times ago, we looked from the book of Acts 6, and in that first part, we saw that Today's church and the church then needed deacons. The church then needed deacons to make sure that the elders were freed up to look after the spiritual needs of the church. And that's why we need deacons now. They needed it for serving tables. They needed it for unity. They needed it because there was a disagreement. But we need deacons here in this church, we need deacons in the churches in general, so that the elders, so that the pastors can concentrate on the spiritual needs, can concentrate on prayer and teaching the Word. We also saw from Acts and chapter 6 that these were men of God. They were men of God and they were full of the Spirit and of wisdom. And we noted from there that God cares more about character than gifting. It doesn't talk about their gifts, it talks about their character, full of the Spirit, full of wisdom, of good repute. And then the next week after that we looked in and we wanted to see the Lord Jesus Christ in this. We wanted to see Jesus and his take and his situation with regard to being a deacon and what that means. And we said that Jesus is the ultimate example of a deacon. Jesus is the ultimate example of a servant. Matthew 20 and 28 says, even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve. We thought of this amazing, amazing happening that was going on there. Here is the Lord Jesus Christ, God Himself incarnate as a man on this earth. God leaves the glory of heaven, God leaves the glory of angels who would serve Him and angels who would glorify the God, God himself, and here he is, and he's not being served anymore, but he came to serve. And his ultimate act of service was to give his life as a ransom for many. Jesus' death on the cross wasn't just to show that he was a good man, not to show that he was humble, not to show that he was submitting to his father. He died on the cross and all those things were true about him, but he died on the cross and he went through what he went through then, the wrath of God being upon him so that he could pay the price of the sins of his people. so that He could ransom, so that He could pay the price for many. And we praise God for that. The fact that there are many gives us hope. The fact that there are many means that we are part of that. And we praise God for that. And we know from God's Word that anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. God's gift of His Son is enough to save all who call on His name. And so Jesus told his disciples to be servants. And he tells us to be servants. And Jesus showed his disciples and shows us how to be servants. And so although we realize that this role of deacon is a servant role, we're also seeing very, very clearly that serving is a role of all of us within the church family. It's something we should all be taking serious. Jesus is our ultimate example. We should be Christ-like, and being Christ-like is being servant-like. And that great example of Christ taking the role of the slave of the servant and washing the feet of his disciples shows us what sort of attitude and heart that we should have. And last week we were in 1 Timothy 3, particularly looking at the qualifications. What should a deacon be like? We've got to choose deacons. We want to choose people, men, who will lead us and will deacon us and will serve the church practically and serve the elders, freeing them up to do the spiritual side, the praying and the teaching. What are these people to be like? And again, as I said in the beginning, it is character more than qualification. And these guys should be faithful in what they say, how they talk. They should be faithful in their appetite and in temptations. And the particular reference in that scripture was to alcohol, but we could broaden that out to all the vices that are there. If someone's got a problem in those areas, it's not right for them at that stage to become a deacon. You'd be faithful in money matters, faithful to the mystery of the gospel. They need to know God's Word. They need to be able to stand up for God's Word. They need to be able to contend for it. They don't need to be a teacher, they don't need to be a preacher, but they need to know what God's Word is. The mystery, the wonder that Jesus came to this world to save people from their sins, the wonder that Jesus is now sitting on the right hand of God and the Holy Spirit is ministering to us. These mysteries, these wonders, these men should be faithful in that. They should be tested and proven. Not a novice, not someone who's just come to church and looks interesting and is very full of energy and excited. No, they need to be tested and proven. That doesn't mean they have to sit a deacon's exam. We're not going to have every six months a deacon's exam and those that want to come along can sit down and they can study the deacon's manual and then they can pass the exam and we can give them a little badge. That's not the testing we're thinking about here. But there are people within the church family who just get on with serving and they're proving themselves. And there are people within the church family that when someone asks them to do something, they just get on and do it faithfully. And then they see something else that he's doing, and they get on and do that, and they are tested and proven. They're faithful in family life. That's not saying that a deacon has to be married, but if he is married and he has a family, you need to see that that family is conducting themselves well, that there is a good witness, that there is a good testimony there. That the children are being obedient and responsible. Not that the children are perfect angels and they shine and they glow and they've got a little halo and they sit there and they never say anything. No, that's not realistic. But their children should respect their parents. Their children should listen to their parents as children should do. Their husbands and wives should be seen to be a loving couple. They should be seen to be doing well together. You need to be faithful in a family life. And if a prophetic deacon or deacon hasn't got a wife and haven't got a family around them in that sense, how are they getting on with those around them? How are they getting on in the dorm that they're in? How are they getting on in their household situation? How do they cope in those things? But as we went through these qualifications last week, I kept coming up with the chorus. And the chorus was, but this is not just for deacons. Just as that passage in 1 Timothy 3 was clearly speaking into the lives and the qualifications of deacons, we went on into Ephesians, to the church that Timothy was a pastor of at that time, Ephesus. And we see there Paul saying exactly the same thing. We all should be watching what we say. with God's help, having self-control over our appetites and temptations. We should all be faithful in money matters. We should all be striving to be faithful in the mystery of God's Word. We should all be faithful in our family lives. And so now we move on. And we move on to the last in the series. And as a church family at LPC, as we gather here this morning, we come from many different countries, we come from many different cultures, we come from many different backgrounds, we come from many different churches and traditions. And the question we're asking ourselves this morning is, what about the ladies? What does the lady's role function within the diaconate? Is there a deaconess? And my intention this morning with God's help is not to pass judgment. I'm not wanting to pass judgment and I want you to realize that. I want to explain the position at LPC and why we hold that, yeah? But at the same time, I don't want the question to dominate. I want us to leave here giving thanks that we are part of a wonderfully diverse church, giving thanks that we are part of a body of Christ made up of lots of different parts. wonderfully and fearfully put together by the Savior. I want us to be leaving rejoicing that yes we are male and female and yes we are from different languages and different homelands and yes we're from different backgrounds but we are here and we are one in Christ and we are serving the Lord and we're serving one another to His glory. And so often, often, often when you come to LPC, and you've heard it today already, is Tibetan was introducing the church to you, to those of you that are new here. And he said, this is a Bible-believing church. It's a church where God's word is central. God's word is our ultimate, our final authority. And as a church, to help us, we have something that we call a statement of faith. And our statement of faith is based on the Bible, and we call it our beliefs, and you can find it on our website, you can find it on social media, and anyone who comes into membership of the church here does in agreement and committing to this document. So our statement of faith is around our core beliefs that we get from God's Word. And if someone's not willing to agree with this doctrine, LPC is not the right church for them. Yeah. And so we all here, as we come into membership, agree to that statement. Now, friends, listen very, very carefully. That document, our statement of faith, says nothing about deacons. That core document, our beliefs, doesn't say anything about male or female within the daconate. Deacons are not mentioned there. And so friends, if you come to a different opinion about female deacons to our formal position, it is not a problem. Yeah? It's not a problem. Unless you make it a problem. Yeah? And so friends, if you come to a different conclusion to where we're at as a church, that shouldn't stop you from worshipping freely with us. It shouldn't stop you from being part of the membership with us. It shouldn't do that. And if it does, that saddens me because that's not what this is about. I just want to set out where we're at and why. And take a step back and say, you need to be persuaded of where you are and why in regard to that. If you come up with differences of opinion to our statement of faith, which is here from God's Word, you will have a fight. I can assure you that, because they're things I will die for. But I'm not going to die over female deacons or male deacons or whatever they are. But I do want to clarify for us the position, because I know that we're all from different backgrounds. Now, I think you've had this slide up in front of you, so for those of you that haven't seen it before, the thunder has been stolen. This is our Constitution. Our Constitution guides us, yeah? Our statement of faith is what we hold and we all have to agree to. Our constitution guides us. And in section four, which is all about deacons, point two talks about the qualifications. And it says they shall be men, qualified by the Holy Spirit in character, practically able and experienced. See Acts 6, 3, and 1 Timothy 3, 8, and 11. Now the giveaway here is and they shall be men. So the position of LPC currently is that men are the ones that hold the position of deacon, and ladies don't, as we see it here. Now, as with every part of our constitution, we want to back that up with God's word. Now I realize that as different people look at God's Word, different people come to different conclusions. And I don't want to start a slagging match. I don't want to start an argument. So I'm not going to go into all the different nuances of this. I just want to say why we at LPC have stated that they shall be men. And so I want to make a few comments as to why we believe that Acts 6, 3 and 1 Timothy 3, 8-13 teach that the role of deacons is for men only. Now Acts 3, as we've been here before, and I mentioned this when we were there originally and didn't make too much of it and said we would come back to it and we've been faithful and we have come back to it and here we are now, reads, Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. Now this example, and we've said this before, that Acts 3 is the example, and 1 Timothy 3 is the theory and the practice. So the theory and the practice, and that is there in Timothy, and here in Acts we have an example of it. So in this example, we see that men were chosen for that role. Now as I've said before, we need to take care about an application we apply from narrative. This is narrative, this is history, yeah? And so why do I think, why do we think at LPC that we think that men are chosen for this task and we're not getting stressy about there being seven? Because the passage says that, doesn't it? There were men, and there were seven. So why are we saying as a church there should be men, and why are we not saying as a church, and there has to be seven? Because some people could say, well, that's been inconsistent. Why does our Constitution say we should appoint men only, and it doesn't say that we should appoint seven? Well, the parallel passage, the passage that guides us here in 1 Timothy 3, clearly talks about men, and it doesn't talk about number. There's no mention to how many deacons there are there, and I think the deacon's amount needs to be in keeping with the task there. At that moment in time, to be able to look after the situation, to look after the challenging time that they were in there, the elders, the apostles, thought we need seven. And so now as a church, we need to think how many people do we need to help us? What different areas are there that deacons could be taking tasks and allowing the elders to get on? And so each church is at liberty to decide how many deacons they think is appropriate for their situation. Now, I think the other point that we need to note here is that these brothers were appointed to do this duty by the elders, by the apostles. So the church chooses, but the apostles appoint. And there's a connection that the apostles were giving them a responsibility. They were delegating an authority to them to do this work. And so we believe that a deacon is an office bearer of the church. And this office bearing of the church comes with an element of authority. Now, it's a different authority to the direct authority that the elder has within the church, for sure. There's a spiritual element and there's an oversight element. But with the oversight element, there's a practical area of church life that the elders delegate to the deacons and the deacons take on board this responsibility and they are given the authority to do this and they're given the appointment to do this by the eldership through the church. And so I think 1 Timothy 3.12 has a bearing on this. I do not permit woman to teach or exercise authority over man. Rather, she's to remain quiet. Now, this is a huge one to unpack, and I'm just going to skate over it quite quickly. But at this stage, I want to say that there is this exercising of authority that the deacon's role has, as it is conducted here in LPC. And because of that, we're saying that role is a male role. because of the fact that males were appointed in that first situation, we say that it is a male role. Going on to Timothy 3 in verses 8 to 13, the passage clearly talks about deacons being men. The passage moves from elders, which are clearly men, and clearly a male role, and it starts in verse 18, and likewise referring to deacons. And the word diachonous, which is used there, is masculine. Now there's some ambiguity, and we'll come onto that in a moment, but verse 11 then reads, their wives likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things. And it'd be easy to say, well, the discussion ends here. It finishes because deacons are to have wives, that means they have to be men. Now, I know that in America and the UK, things are getting very strange, yes? But that's not the point here at all, yes? Deacons, as we see here, have wives, so they clearly have to be men. But there's a challenge, and we need to be aware of this. And I want to just address it a little here. This verse has given rise to much debate. Sometimes it's been very heated. And sadly, often, it's been less than godly. I don't mention this to pick a fight. I don't mention this to cause problems. I don't want this to cause problems. But some would argue that this verse should read more like how the New King James reads. Sorry, not the New King James, the New NIV. The NIV has got about three different translations of it. The original was much more like what we read there in the ESV about wives. Now it has changed to this. In the same way, the woman had to be worthy of respect not malicious talkers, but temperate and trustworthy in everything." And this makes quite a change. If you believe that that is right, then it changes the question from wives to woman, and these women are to be worthy of respect. And some people would argue from that perspective, it means, well, actually, this is saying that within the deacons, there were men, and then there were women, and then there were men. Because that's how the passage runs through. Now, those that advocate this second translation say that the word there, which we see in the ESV Their Wives, has been added. And the word woman works much better. And others say that throughout the passage, the word is being translated wife, and it's not translated as woman. And so it's disingenuous to suddenly change it to being woman when all the rest of the times it's been used as wife, and that's clearly what Paul meant. And if Paul had meant to refer to female deacons, that's exactly what he would have said. He would have said female deacons. There's a Greek word that could have been used for that, or he could have used two words, a female servant, but he didn't. Some say that because the elders' qualifications do not make reference to the qualities of a wife, it makes more sense that this second one, this woman, is the right way of translating it, because surely elders' wives need to be more qualified than deacons' wives need to be. Others state that the passage states that deacons, and it carries on, must be a man of one wife. And there's no mention of the woman's marital relationship. And so that means it must be a wife. And I could go on, probably for the rest of this sermon, into the communion service, into the Turkish service, then on into the Zoom service, saying of what some people have said, and saying what others have said. And that's not really very helpful to us. Now, for us to make a definitive case, and this is us as a church, to make a definitive case for ladies to be deacons, I would want to see, we would want to see a much, much clearer biblical argument that's there. I can see how some people come to it, but I don't see it clearly. There is some ambiguity there, and to me, that the whole case makes much more sense in the context of the whole Bible of being an exclusively male role. And that's what we've come to the conclusion as a church. And then that's where we're at. And that's why our constitution reads as it is. But this position is becoming culturally harder and harder. And I think, sadly, rather than God's Word driving many decisions we make nowadays, we let culture drive decisions. And whatever decision we come to, friends, let it not be driven by culture, but let it be driven by God's Word. Now, there are some practical comments I just want to make sort of outside of this. And Genesis teaches us, and the rest of God's Word underlines, that male and female are equal in the sense that they're made in the image of God. And we have equal value before God, and we have equal representation before God, and we are equal, we are made in the image of God. But Genesis and the rest of God's Word teaches that men and women have been made differently. We've been made differently. And it grieves me to think that people think of that nowadays and say, that's not important what you think or what you see. What we see biologically is differences. What we experience when we interrelate with one another is differences. As one writer put it a while back, men are from Mars and women are from Venus. We are just poles and poles and poles apart. We are really, really different. But at the same time, we complement each other perfectly. Marriages work because God made male and female in his image, and he made them to complement each other. And God, the perfect designer, gave men and women their own uniqueness. And he also gave them their own unique roles. And they're God-given. And God at the very, very beginning gave Adam a role to protect and care and be the spiritual leader of his wife. And he gave Eve that role to be the one who would bear children and the one who would be a helpmate to her husband. And the two of them complement each other. Adam was lost without Eve. And Eve couldn't have been there without Adam, and it's just the way it works, and it's the way it is, and it's the way God has put it together. And we have to serve God and His church as a team, male and female, beautifully put together. And we have to serve God as a church, as a team, in the way that He designed us to, and not by the way the world tells us to. Not by the way our own imaginations tell us to. We have to go to God's Word, and we have to anchor on His Word, because this is where He, the Designer, the Creator, the Almighty, the I AM, speaks to us and tells us. And the notions that I have in here are frankly worthless. And what I gain from culture may be of interest, but it has no bearing on God's Word, because God's Word is God's Word. And that's what we need to be there. And so friends, we may be going contrary to culture, but we need to hold on to what we're convicted to from God's word. And I also want to make this comment, as deacons, they have to work closely together. And it's far, far safer for single sex groups to work closer together. How much infidelity, how much adultery, how much fornication has come out of the fact of males and females working together and forming relationships on committees and in work situations and they've been led astray. We don't want that in the church. We can't have that in the church. And I see God's wisdom in this church of protecting us as deacons, protecting the deacons and protecting the elders in that they have that role together and that intimacy in that role together as single sex. And that temptation that destroys churches is taken out of the equation by a loving heavenly father who knows how we are because he made us. And it'd be totally, totally inappropriate for men to undertake some practical areas of service. And so ladies, as you sit here, I do not want you to think that you are second class within the church. You are not. You're of vital importance to us as a church. The deacon's wives and the ladies within the church are to serve in a very special and very, very real way. And I want us to think about this. Ladies, I want to speak to you just for a second, and then gents, I want to speak to you in just a moment. But ladies, if you were to be looked after by somebody, looked after by someone regarding a personal issue, a sensitive issue, maybe you've just lost your husband. Maybe you've just gone through a delicate female operation. Maybe you're grieving the breakup of a boyfriend. Maybe you're in some financial situation and you just can't see your way out of it. What sort of person would you want to do that? Well, you'd want someone who is sensitive. You'd want someone who is caring. You'd want someone who is not a gossip. You'd want all those things, but you'd want a lady, wouldn't you? You'd need a lady for that role. And so the ladies need to minister to the ladies and gentlemen. How would you want your wife, your mother, your daughter, your sister to be treated in a difficult situation like I've just explained? And I'm sure, exactly the same, you wouldn't want some well-meaning elder or deacon to muscle in there on your wife or your girlfriend and tell them advice and tell them what to do. No, you would not want that, would you? But you'd be very happy for mummy Daphne to come alongside them, wouldn't you? And then that's what's being said here. This is what church is about. We compliment each other, we can serve each other, and we have to be realistic to the problems and the challenges that are there. And so we see these ladies, we see these wives, and we want people who are dignified. not slanderers, sober-minded, faithful in all things, worthy of respect, not malicious, not gossipers, self-controlled, trustworthy. This is the charge particularly to you ladies. This is the standards that you are to be at because the church desperately needs faithful females. That the church needs females that are faithful in all things. Females that are dignified. The world is not dignified. I think the most undignified thing I want to say now is Kardashian. Kardashian is not dignified. And yet that's what the world aspires to. That's not what the ladies of LPC or any church should be aspiring to. That's undignified. And the whole rigmarole around that whole social media piece, it is slandering. And that's not what you should be. You should be sober-minded, self-controlled. Ladies who serve in the church, serve in many, many different areas. Back in the late 90s, I heard this skit, and it was of this very pompous, well-spoken English gentleman giving the address of appreciation at the end of a service. And he went through this long, long list of all these mighty men that did all these wonderful things, right down to the chap who parked the cars, and he just said, and we thank you, Lord, for the ladies that fed us, amen. And that's what they're relegated to, in his mind, and that is so wrong. So wrong, and it's got us into the mess where we are now because what has happened with the culture of feminism is taking it to a degree that it shouldn't be at. There's extremes we shouldn't go to. But ladies are a vital part of church, and they're desperately needed, and they can do many, many, many things that us men cannot do and should not do. And there's things that us men can do that women cannot do and should not do. And I know that's politically incorrect, but I don't care. Because God is my politics. And this is what he says in his word. We're different. He made us different. He put us together different. And we compliment each other. And so we need ladies who are mature in the faith to counsel, to teach, to get alongside each other. Those who are young and growing in the faith. Titus two, verse three. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine, like the deacons, yeah. Too much wine is a problem for males and females, as is pornography, as is drugs, as is social media, as is all those vices there. They're to teach what is good. And so train the young woman to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. Friends, we've let culture take us and we're reviling God's word. And we need ladies that can get alongside ladies. And we need ladies that can care for ladies. We need ladies that can get involved in people's lives and help and care, to do Bible study, to do life together, to help in all these practical ways. And the Bible is full of examples of faithful ladies, full of them. And I want to just run through them, a few of them, because we need our ladies within LPC with the obedience and the faithfulness of Mary, the mother of Jesus, who said, behold, I am the servant of the Lord. Ladies, that's the standard. That's what we want you to be achieving. That's what we need you to be achieving. That's what God's kingdom needs. Let it be to me according to your word. Mary put God and his word above her own comfort, above her own reputation, and she went forward in that way. The faithfulness of Mary the Magdalene, who was at the cross and who was at the tomb. The care and the love and the hard-working, faithful nature of Ruth. She didn't leave her mother-in-law hanging. She stood alongside her. She didn't leave her mother-in-law hungry. She went out and worked. She was there and she was helping and she was faithful. We need ladies with the prayerfulness of Hannah. There she was, praying her heart out, and the Lord answered. We need ladies with the bravery and the courage of Deborah. Because even when the men go AWOL, the ladies can stand firm, and they did in God's Word. And God didn't back down from it. He didn't hide this. He didn't say, well, that's a bit embarrassing for my agenda. He lays it out and he says it as it is. It's all part of his plan and his purpose. We need ladies with the willingness to put others before their own safety like Esther. Esther was there and she had it all. She was beyond the Kardashians. She was there at the top of the tree. She was the queen of the greatest king of the time. And her people's lives were at stake. And her uncle said, maybe this is the time and this is the purpose for why you're here. And she says in Esther 4 verse 16, then I will go to the king, though it's against the law. And if I perish, I perish. That's the kind of lady we need in church. That's the kind of lady we need at LPC. That's the kind of lady that would set the world on fire and save people through God's grace. We need ladies with the ability to support the leadership and the worship, like Miriam. She's taken second fiddle to Moses. We all know Moses, don't we? We don't speak about him much, but she was there. She was there in the beginning. She's there, as I said in the children's talk, hiding her brother, putting her own life at risk. She's there supporting the leadership, doing the worship, and involving herself in that. The knowledge to teach, open bracket, in the right context, closed bracket, you know where I'm going there with that. Like Priscilla, Priscilla taught. Priscilla was a blessing to the church, blessing to the ladies, blessing to those that her and her husband came alongside as they worked together as a team, complementing each other perfectly. Yes, of course we have Martha in her cooking and serving skills. And we have the wisdom of Abigail, Abigail was married to a desperate man, Nabal. And then there was Abigail, and this woman, as it's told in 1 Samuel 25, was discerning and beautiful. Let's have LPC full of beautiful, discerning ladies. And beauty is, as we know, the inward heart and the inward beauty. The bravery of Jehoshaphat, who would not kill, let Jehoshaphat be killed. She stood up, she hid him. The bravery of Shapira and Pura, the midwives who we're talking about, who did not do what Pharaoh commanded. The faith and the bravery of Rahab. Rahab with that sinful past. And yet she's there in the lineage of Christ. And she put her trust in God, the God of Israel. And her bravery and faithfulness allowed the children of Israel to go in. And her bravery and faithfulness saved her and her family. And her bravery and faithfulness put her into the lineage of Christ, humanly speaking. We need ladies with the face and the bravery of Rahab. And if you had the past of Rahab, it doesn't matter, because the grace and the blood of Christ washes it clean. In the servant heart of Phoebe, Romans 6, verse 1, I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church. He goes on and says, welcome her in the way of the Lord, a way worthy of the saints, and help her in whatever she needs from you, for she's been a patron of many and of myself. Now, again, some translations have translated the word there, servant, as deacon. And my personal opinion, for what it's worth, I think that's a bit disingenuous. I think servant is far better. That's what she was about. That's what she's doing. She's serving the church. And let's see her as a servant here. She has a servant-like attitude. And the servant-like attitude is a saint-like attitude because it says she is worthy of the saints. It doesn't say she was worthy of the deacons. She was worthy of the saints. That transcends it all. This is what she was worthy of. She was worthy of her position in Christ because of her faithfulness and her serving the church. And we need a church of Phoebes. faithfully, faithfully following in the footsteps of her. Faithfully, faithfully following in the footsteps of Christ, who was a servant king. And so friends, throughout the history of the church, from the Old Testament to the New, God had his faithful females serving and bringing the kingdom forward. The Bible is full of these examples, and we praise God for them, and we celebrate them, and we should do so more. And the church needs faithful females, and LPC needs faithful females. And I would that all the members of LPC, all the female members of LPC, will like Phoebe. Just in the same way as I pray that all the male members of LPC would qualify as deacons in their character and in their service. Because that's what LPC needs. And that's what God has called us to be. And that's what's more important. God has called us to be his children. And his children, he tells us, we're to be Christ-like. And Christ is the servant king. And he demands us to be like him. And we should be walking in his way. And so as I close, I just have two questions. And I know that we've got guests and visitors from afar, so you can make it relevant to your own situation. The first question is, are you a church member? If you're not from this part, are you a member of your church where you're from? Because if you're trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior, you should be part of a local church. But if you are not part of a local church, it means one of two things. You're in disobedience to God's word, or you don't know Jesus is your savior. And I would plead with you now that you come to Christ. You come to him. And you lay your sins, and even if you've got the sins like Rahab's, you can lay them at his feet and he can wash them clean because of what Christ did on the cross as the servant king. He came as a ransom for many. But if you are a church member here at LPC or wherever you come from, the second question is, are you a faithful church member? Are you a faithful church member? Are you serving? Are you laying yourself out for your church community, for your Savior? Or are you a bit of a passenger? Tragically, nowadays, church has become like so much, we consume it. We go along and participate in the experience. We judge it by what we get from it. And what Christ has called to us is to be like himself, committed to it, serving it, even willing to lay your life down for it, because that's what Christ has done for us. Amen.