Make your way with me, if you would, to the New Testament book of 1 Timothy. 1 Timothy. And in particular, in 1 Timothy, we're going to be in 1 Timothy chapter number 3. 1 Timothy chapter number 3. We're going to read verses 8 through 12 in 1st Timothy chapter number 3. So we'll pick up reading in verse number 8 and read down through verse number 12. 1st Timothy 3 verse 8. Likewise must the deacons be gray, not double-tongued, not given 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. Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things. Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well." We are back in a mini-series that we started a few weeks back entitled, Servants to the Church, The Office of Deacon. Today we move into part two of our study. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the opportunity to come into your house on the first day of the week to worship you. Lord, we thank you for the songs that we've already been able to sing that glorify you and glorify the work of thy dear son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We're thankful that we can reflect on the work that Jesus accomplished on the cross, to know that it was for us that he did that, and that because of what he did, we can stand right in your sight. We thank you for that. Lord, today as we continue to consider the office of deacon as it pertains to the New Testament church, help us to be serious, about our study, that we might know what your word has to say about the office of deacon, and that we might apply ourselves as a New Testament church to behave appropriately and in accordance with your word. May you receive all honor and glory. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Servants to the church, the office of deacon. Paul placed an extreme amount of importance on the office of deacon. Obviously he did. Because in 1st Timothy chapter 3 in our text verses, we read the qualifications that Paul sets forth by the movement of the Holy Spirit. And I will have you note, and we mentioned this during the first message in this series, that the qualifications of the deacon follow the qualifications of a bishop, elder, or pastor. And they are many of the same qualifications. And so there's no doubt that Paul placed an extreme amount of importance and emphasis on the office of deacon. Now, if Paul thought that the office of deacon was so important, should we not also? We should. Now, weeks ago, as I mentioned, we started this mini-series, Servants to the Church, The Office of Deacon. And I mentioned in our first message that we would bring out, I trust, and I believe that we did this in the first and we continue to do so today and then Lord willing next week, we bring out three actions that a church should engage in when a church considers the office of deacon. Now each of these actions build upon the previous one and the last time that we got together we looked at the first action that a church should take. The church should ponder the designation of a deacon. What is a deacon? Do we need a deacon? How do we go about selecting a deacon? And so we laid the groundwork for what we would study today and then of course next week. Today we are shifting our attention to the church actually selecting a deacon. How does the church select a deacon? How do they go about that? What goes into that decision that the church collectively makes? Well today, in considering that, we want to bring out that there are three elements, three elements that are instrumental a church selecting a deacon. And as we think about what we're going to cover today, this would be the second action. This is the second action that a church should take. A church should practice discretion in the selection of a deacon. So the first action, the church would ponder the designation of a deacon. The second action, the church should practice discretion in the selection of a deacon. And in that, there are three elements that are instrumental in the church practicing discretion in selecting a deacon. First of all, the church should have a correct attitude. Secondly, the second element, we see the criteria that is to be applied. And then the third element, we consider the candidate's assessment, or a church considering the candidate's qualifications and thus engaging in a candidate's assessment. And so we begin this morning by considering this first element, We're talking about the second action that the church is taking, practicing discretion in the selection of a deacon. We note this first element that is instrumental in a church practicing discretion in selecting a deacon. The church must have a correct attitude, a correct attitude. What is the responsibility of a church in selecting a deacon? Well, they have to have a right and proper attitude according to the Word of God. They must not take their responsibility flippantly. They must not devalue the office of deacon and devalue their role in the selection for someone to fill the office of a deacon. And so when we talk about having a correct attitude, we first of all want to state emphatically that the church, and really this is true in every area of the church's business, but the church should conduct her affairs with discretion. The church should conduct her affairs with discretion. That means that she is, first of all, taking the selection for someone to fill the office of a deacon seriously. Now, the word discretion is a Bible word. It is a Bible term and you'll find it mentioned in the book of Proverbs multiple times. According to Webster's 1828 dictionary the word discretion is knowledge and prudence. It is that discernment which enables a person to judge critically what is correct and proper. It is united with caution It is a discernment and judgment that is directed by circumspection or caution, if you will. And so I believe the definition of discretion as given to us by Webster fits what the church's attitude should be. The church should have a serious attitude. They should conduct the selection of a deacon with discretion. They should operate based on knowledge and prudence and ask the Lord to give them the discernment to judge critically as to what is correct and proper. Now as I said, that is generally true of any area of business that the church engages in, but especially so when the church is selecting someone to fill the office of a deacon. We're talking about this first element. They have to have a correct attitude, the church has to have a correct attitude, to conduct their affairs with discretion, but secondly, to complete her activities with diligence. It is not enough to just have a right attitude. You know, many people have a right attitude about exercising. I know it's important. I know I should do it. I know it will help my health. But then they lack the follow through. They don't actually ever engage in a exercise program or any type of activity to take care of the bodies that the Lord has lent them here on this earth. We ought to follow through as churches. We ought to complete the activity of selecting a deacon with diligence. Now the word diligent or diligence is another Bible term. In fact, this term appears 63 times in Holy Scripture, 38 times in the Old Testament, and 25 times in the New Testament. We have previously defined the character quality of diligence this way. It is identifying each task as a special assignment from the Lord and directing all of our energy and resources to finish it. Now again, that generally should be true of every member of the Lord's church and of the church as a whole. But how much more so when we're taking seriously and trying to move forward with discretion in the selection of someone to fill the office of a deacon. Now, the first time that we got together and looked at this topic, we used Acts chapter number six as our text verses. And you recall in Acts chapter number six, there was a problem that arose, the Greek Jews were claiming that their widows were being neglected in the daily ministration of their necessary, should I say, necessities for living and life. And so what did the apostles and the leaders of the Church of Jerusalem do? They said, hey, we're not going to leave the work of God. the ministry of the Word of God and prayer to wait on tables and so they said to the church what well here's what they said in Acts chapter 6 and verse number 3 Acts chapter 6 verse number 3 wherefore brethren look ye out look ye out among you seven men of honest report full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom whom we whom we may appoint over this business and Now, the importance of this verse as it relates to what we're talking about today is contained in those three words, look ye out. Look ye out. The apostles are saying to the church in Jerusalem, take some diligence in doing what we're asking you to do. There's a problem here. We can't fulfill the needs to take care of the problem because we're too busy doing what God called us to do. And so we're asking you to complete your activity with diligence in doing what? Look ye out among you seven men. And you'll notice that when they say to the church, look ye out, they also give the criteria that the church was to consider in looking out for these seven men or selecting these seven men. They were to be men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom. Now the term, look ye out, It is three words in our English Bible, it is one Greek word. I gave you the meaning of this Greek word in the first message, I'll give it to you again and then I'll add to that meaning by using other sources, right? The words look ye out literally mean inspect to select. Now how can you inspect to select if you're not doing it with diligence and you're not using discretion? You know, I have seen my wife at the grocery store, particularly in the meat section, okay? And ladies, tell me if you don't do this. Do you go to the meat section, whatever kind of meat it is, and do you go, and let's say Tina, Jim's with you, and you go to the meat section and Jim says, hey Tina, and you turn around and you're just grabbing stuff out of the freezer. Do you do that? What do you do to the meat? You inspect the meat. Hey, let me take a look at this. Is this what we want? Is this the right stuff? That's something as simple as what we put in our body to sustain us temporally for a period of time. You inspect to select. How much more so should we be diligent as the apostles told the Jerusalem church to look you out, inspect to select. But you know what else that word means? It also means go to see. Go to see. In other words, get up and take action. Get up and do something. Apply yourself by taking initiative in dealing with this problem that we told you that the church has. It also means to visit or to seek. And so, we as a church and any New Testament church has a responsibility to consider the office of deacon. Do we need a deacon? Do we need multiple deacons? How do we select a deacon? We ought to practice discretion in the selection of a deacon and that means we have to have a proper and a correct attitude. We follow the example and the advice that's given in the Word of God. We take it seriously and we do our due diligence and we actually labor to make sure that what we're doing is in accordance with God's Word and God's will. The first element in practicing discretion in the selection of a deacon is to have a correct attitude. The second element is going to take us a little bit more time to look at and this involves our text verses. Because the second element is the criteria applied. The criteria applied. Now who should fill the office of deacon? Who should fill the office of deacon? I'm not asking you by name who should fill the office of deacon, but I'll tell you who should fill the office of deacon. Somebody who meets the criteria that's outlined in verses 8 through 12 of 1st Timothy chapter 3 and also Acts chapter 6 in verse number 3. Somebody who does not meet this criteria is not fit or qualified to serve in the office of deacon. That does not mean spirited That is not favoritism. That is just simply announcing what the Word of God has to say. And so, when the church is determined to practice discretion in the selection of a deacon, she has to make sure that the criteria that is outlined in the Bible is actually applied. Does this person meet the criteria? Now, there are four different categories criteria that Paul outlines in 1st Timothy chapter number 3 and and by the way this is not going to be an exhaustive study of each of these qualifications because we could spend multiple weeks on that but we just want to mention them and give a cursory overview of them there are four different categories first of all Paul addresses marital qualifications marital qualifications And we're going to do something a little bit odd, but we're going to skip verses 8 through 11, and we're going to go right down, first of all, to verse number 12. And when we talk about marital qualifications, we're talking about, first of all, and ladies, hold your seats and don't get upset with me. If you get upset, you'll have to get upset at the way that the Bible is written. Because the first qualification or criteria that is to be applied as it relates to marital qualifications is that this person must be of the male gender. Now why do I say that? Well, in verse number 12 the Bible says, let the deacons be the husbands of one wife. That's not talking about modern definitions of marriage today. And I think, if I'm not mistaken, that even those that believe in same-sex marriage, they kind of twist the terminology as well. We're talking about what the Lord says in His Word. Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife. There is no scriptural evidence of women serving in the office of deacon. The word deaconess like the word prophetess prophetess appears in scripture the word deaconess never appears in scripture now I want to ask you this if you believe that women should serve in the office of deacon okay what Bible are you using and I was talking with Jim and Steve about this a little bit earlier this week I was listening to a message when I was out for a run A guy from a Baptist Church that was preaching on the office of deacon and guess what? He's using something called the legacy standard Bible the legacy the LSB the LSB was released in 2021 and it is it is an update to the new American Standard Bible which was updated in 1995 and Now, from 1611 to 1995, What Bible did we have? I realize that there were other Bibles, but did we not have the authorized version of Scripture? And that was good enough, and then in 1881 you get the revised version, and all these other different perversions of Scripture that are translated from corrupt manuscripts, and the corrupt manuscript produces a corrupt text, and you have a Bible that is no Bible at all. It is not a holy book, and you can't rely upon it. Well, guess what this guy said when he was preaching? He read 1st Timothy chapter number 3 and verse number 12 from the LSB, and you know what the LSB says now? Let's read verse 12 again. Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife, right? You know what the Bible says, the LSB Bible says? Women must likewise be dignified. Women. takes the word wife completely out. This guy goes through a bunch of machinations where he says well now the Greek word that is translated wife can be translated women and it's clear that this guy is trying to convince his church that they ought to ordain women as deacons. And he even said in the message, and I'll share it with you who it is, I won't mention it on this message, but he even says, now I know this is shocking to some of you and I don't want to push this on you, so I want to teach you on this and convince you on this. Hey, read the context of 1 Timothy chapter number 3. There is no allowance for a woman to serve in the office of deacon. There's no allowance for a woman to serve in the office of pastor. That isn't Mel Kimberlin's view. That's what the Word of God has to say. And you know what? From 1611 to 1995, That's what the scriptures now all of a sudden in 1995 and in 2021 We have a new Bible that gives us a new light as to how the office of deacon is to be filled Well, I say we're not doing that and you know church can do what they want I won't be a part of that because I don't believe that's what God intended. So the first category of criterias marital qualifications a male to fill the office. And then secondly, the marital status. The marital status. Not divorced. Not divorced. Notice verse 12 again. Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife. It doesn't mean one wife at a time. It means one wife. How can a guy meet the other criteria that we're going to go through if he's on his third wife, but he's only got one at a time? Needless to say, again, I told you we were just going to make cursory mentions of this, and so we're not going to go in depth and answer all the arguments and so forth. But his marital status is to be that he's not divorced. And then the third Point that we miss mention as it relates to marital qualifications is that he is to maintain leadership in the home Look at verse 12 again. Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife Ruling their children and their own houses. Well, I'm not going to debate the Ordained headship in a marriage. I'm not going to debate that God has made it clear right and so I'm not going to debate that but it is the males Responsibility to lead he is to practice servant leadership. He is to be a in coordination and communication with his wife. They're to be united together. But you know what? When the husband makes a bad decision, it's his decision. He owns that decision. Hopefully he's consulted with his wife and they've arrived at a decision that they both believe the Lord is leading them. But the Word of God says that a deacon is to rule their children and their own house as well. He's to maintain leadership in the home. So we have, first of all, marital qualifications. Notice secondly, moral qualifications. And here is the most lengthy portion of the qualifications that Paul writes to Timothy. Now these moral qualifications I believe that we can further subdivide into two different areas. First of all, the deacon's relationship with the church. The deacon's relationship with the church. Now, when we're talking about the qualifications or the criteria that is to be applied, we are talking about what the deacon is to demonstrate as to who he is. These qualifications are more about who he is. Now, through the years I have preached on character and conduct. How do we define character? It's who you are. How do we define conduct? It's what you do. And what you do, you do because of who you are. And so we're talking in these qualifications about what the candidate or the deacon is to demonstrate as to who he is. Now first of all, we go back up to verse number 8. He is to be sincere. He's to be sincere. He's not to be a phony, right? Look at verse 8. Likewise must the deacons, and the word likewise means that the deacons are supposed to meet qualifications just like the bishops, pastors, and elders with the preceding verses give the qualifications that they're to meet, right? And so notice verse number 8. Likewise must the deacons be grave. The word grave in the Greek literally means honorable. venerable, deserving honor and respect, and it also means honor. They are to be sincere in that they are great. They are worthy of honor in that they are respected because they are honest. Their lives are honest. What do we read in Acts chapter number 6, in verse number 3, and we read that verse to you just a few minutes ago, and so you don't have to turn back, I'll read it to you again. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of what? Honest report. the deacon above all has to be honest that word on it those two words honest report in Acts chapter 6 there are two words in our Bibles one Greek word it means good testimony that have a good testimony when somebody thinks about Pastor Kimberlin other than people that would be my enemies obviously Somebody thinks to me. They should think my character is high They should think the same thing about a deacon that the deacon is sincere when he says something. It's not a half-truth It's not skirting the issue. He's telling the truth. He's an honest individual so he's sincere and then notice And this falls in line with what we just talked about this second area. He's not shifty. He's not shifty. Look at verse 8. Likewise must the deacons be grave, not double-tongued. The word double-tongued literally means telling a different story. Again, he's not one way with these people and one way with these people. He is not shifty. He is thirdly, self-controlled. Notice that he is not given too much wine. Now listen, we could have discussion after discussion about those that would take the view that, well it says not given a much wine, so that means that he can drink some intoxicating beverage. Well, man, listen, when we studied the subject of social drinking, you know, the wine that they had back in those days was not anywhere comparable in its alcoholic content to the wine that we have today. And in fact, you know from studying the Bible with all of the different Hebrew words, 11, and all the different Greek words, four, which total 15 different words in the Old New Testament for the word wine, that doesn't always mean intoxicating. What Paul is addressing here is that the deacon is to be self-controlled. And I've said this before, and I'm going to get in trouble again. I don't understand how a guy that weighs 400 pounds can pastor. Now, you can cast stones at me, but how do you preach on self-control When people are looking at you and you have no self-control in that particular area of your life. Now if you got some kind of health issue, I completely get it. But the deacon is to live a life that is marked by what? Self-control. And then notice, he's not to be stingy. Notice verse number 8. Not greedy of filthy lucre. Now let's stop first of all with the two words not greedy. You cannot have a deacon who is greedy. You cannot have somebody who is ministering in the church's financial affairs and holds on to it like Judas Iscariot. Remember when Mary wanted to pour the ointment anoint the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ with that spikenard and and it was Judas who said oh well we could have used that for this and then all the others said that as well and what does the Bible say why Judas said that because he was a thief and he held the bag you can't have somebody who's in charge of the finances when I say in charge the finances I'm not talking about determining how the money is spent but in administering the finances and giving advice and counsel to the pastor in the church who's stingy. He has to be liberal in his giving and he ought to set the standard for giving. Now nobody knows what other people give but he knows and he ought to set the standard before others that you know what this is a man who is not only willing to walk the walk or excuse me, talk to talk, but he's willing to walk the walk. He's not greedy, and he's not greedy of filthy lucre. That means that he's not going to steal from the church. He's not going to bilk the church at every chance that he can get. He's willing to suffer some loss, even financially, in the service of the Lord. And then notice he's spotless. And by the way, keep in mind again, I want to stress to you, these are qualifications that the pastor is supposed to meet as well, right? These are the two offices of the New Testament church, pastor and deacon. He's to be spotless. That word literally means blameless. Look at verse number 10. Look at verse number 10. Verse number 10 says, And let these also first be proved, then let them use the office of a deacon, being found blameless. They are to be blameless. The word blameless means unaccused or irreproachable. Brother J.M. Pendleton, I mentioned him a few weeks back, the old Baptist, lived in the 1800s. He wrote a book entitled Church Manual. And Brother Pendleton writes, concerning deacons, they were men of unblemished reputation, ardent piety, and good common sense. These qualifications should be sought in all who are appointed to the office of deacon. And so it is. That somebody that's going to serve in the office of deacon, you know, you can't, look, I'm going to use an illustration. Can't be a guy who went to prison And then came out and repented, now he's got things right. He back slid and did some things, then he went to prison, he got back out, now we're gonna put him in the office of deacon. He's not blameless, I'm sorry. You can only be blameless one time. you know some guys look at people that fill the office of pastor they say well you know he made a mistake but he's corrected that you know yeah yeah he ran off with the church pianist okay we get that but he's corrected that and he's repentant of that and why should we prohibit him from preaching well here's why he's not blameless You get one chance to be blameless. You get one chance to be spotless, and the deacon must fulfill that requirement. So there are moral qualifications in his relationship with the church. There are moral qualifications in his relationship, secondly, with Christ. And we see this mainly affirmed in Acts chapter 6. Now let's think first of all in his relationship with Christ. He is to be spiritually minded. Spiritually minded. Notice in Acts chapter 6 and verse number 3, these seven men that the church was to look out and recommend and then be voted on to serve in the office of deacon, they were to be men of honest report. We've already talked about that. But they were also to be men of what? full of the Holy Ghost. Full of the Holy Ghost. This means that they were to be led, directed, guided, and controlled by the Holy Ghost. They were not self-willed. They did not say, well, you know, I know that I'm living here, and I know that I'm in a good church, but goodness, my job is going to take me over here, and you know, we'll just have to settle for second best. No, they're led by the Holy Spirit. They make their decisions based upon what the Word of God says and how the Lord leads them in accordance with the Word of God. Now, by the way, do you notice anything so far about these qualifications? Is there anything that I have mentioned that Paul writes about or that Luke wrote about in Acts chapter 6 that should not apply to every believer? These are not extraordinary qualifications. These are qualifications that we should all strive to meet in our lives. We all are to, according to Paul in Ephesians chapter number 5, be filled with the Spirit, right? And so the deacon is to be spiritually minded, he's full of the Holy Ghost, and he's to be spiritually mature. Because in Acts chapter number six and verse number three, I'll read it to you again. These seven men were to be full of the Holy Ghost, what? And wisdom. What is wisdom? Wisdom is the proper application of knowledge. The proper application of knowledge. These men needed to be spiritually mature. They needed to be full of wisdom. You know who the pastor should go to? for counsel and advice, you should go see what his deacons think. And I say his deacons, they don't belong to the pastor, but the relationship, we'll talk more about that in the third message in this mini-series, but they should be men that are full of wisdom, that know how to give counsel and to rightly and properly apply knowledge. Now think about this, why was this important to the church at Jerusalem in Acts chapter number 6? Well here's why, okay? For all that we know, this was a legitimate situation that the church was facing, that the Grecians were legitimately being neglected. For all we know, that's true. But what if it wasn't true? What if people were trying to just cause strife and stir things up? Don't you think that there should be some wisdom in this? In other words, when these seven men went to tend to the Grecian widows and they find out that, wait a minute, you're not being neglected at all. I'm not saying that that happened. I'm saying that they needed to possess wisdom should that have happened. To rightly look at a situation and diagnose a problem and know how to deal with that situation. These are areas that are instrumental in the welfare and right operation of a church. And so the deacon should be spiritually mature. So he's got marital qualifications. He's got moral qualifications. And then thirdly, and this kind of ties in with what we just talked about, but he has maturity qualifications. Maturity qualifications. This relates to his walk before the Lord, right? He's to be sound and stable in doctrine. Look at verse 9. Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. That means that he has studied the Word of God. That he is in a church that he believes is walking properly and rightly. He agrees with the doctrine and practice of the church, because the doctrine and the practice of the church is what the Bible reveals and teaches. So he is sound and stable in doctrine. And by the way, we're talking about the Gospel. the reality of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in all of the doctrines that the Lord teaches us in His Word. He is to be established. Look at verse 10. And let these also first be proved. He's to be established. He is not to be a novice. We're going to talk about this more in the last point that we make. But the deacon is not somebody who we have not observed the qualifications in. I mean, he's in essence filling the office of a deacon even though he's not been designated as a deacon. He's not a novice, he has proven, he has walked for the Lord demonstrating these maturity qualifications. And then notice the last category, and this relates to his mate's qualifications. his mate's qualifications. What we're talking about here are the qualifications for a deacon's wife. Look at verse 11. Even so must their wives, not their women, even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things. It is interesting to me that Paul takes time to give qualifications for the deacon's wife. Obviously, he thought that her role in this man filling the office of a deacon was very important such that it could harm his ability to complete his office. You know, I have known of pastors whose ministry has been hindered. by the lack of support of their wife, or things that perhaps maybe their wives engaged in that hurt their ministry. Hey, they're to be united as one together in fulfilling the office, even though it's the husband that fills the office, the wife is to support him in filling that office so that the Lord is glorified. Now what are the qualifications for his mate, for his wife? First of all, spotless. Look at verse 11. Even so must their wives be grave. That word grave means honorable, honest, or venerable. It means spotless. She's to be spotless. Secondly, not a slanderer. Not a slanderer. It says just following the word grave. Not slanderers. Now, anybody care to guess based upon a previous message that we preached this year as to what the Greek word for slanderer is there? Anybody want to venture a guess? It's Diabolos. It's Diabolos. What is the devil? The devil is literally, it's translated, slanderer. He is a slanderer. She is not to be a Diabolos. She is not to be a false accuser. She's not to slander. She is to conduct herself in accordance with what the Word of God has to say. She's to be sober. Now, notice in verse 11, sober. This doesn't mean that she's abstaining from alcohol, even though we would argue that that certainly would be the case. But the word sober here means serious. She is to be serious. And then lastly, she is to be sold out to the Lord. Because the Bible says, faithful in all things. You can't be faithful in all things if you are not sold out to the Lord. Now think about this. She is to be reliable and trustworthy. She's to be reliable, and now think about this. Is she only to be reliable and trustworthy to her husband? Or is she to be reliable and trustworthy to every member of the church? I mean, I would venture to say that she's to be reliable and trustworthy to every member of the church. Every member of the church should be able to say, of the deacon's wife, yeah, you know what, I can trust her. She's got my back. She's reliable. I know that she's going to do what she said she was going to do. These are qualifications that Paul makes it a point to mention. The mate's qualifications. Now, these are Again, criteria that I believe every member of the church should strive to meet, but they are certainly criteria that should be applied when the church seeks to practice discretion in the selection of a deacon. In other words, let's just be point blank, no man should serve in the office of deacon if he doesn't meet this criteria. It doesn't have to be perfect. He doesn't have to be walking on water and spiritually, you know, better than everyone else. He's still a sinner. He's still got the flesh that dwells within him, but he should meet the criteria. The criteria should be applied. And then finally and quickly, we move to the third element. In a church practicing discretion in the selection of a deacon, this involves the candidate's assessment. We compare the candidate against the criteria. In other words, hey, we believe we should have a deacon. Okay, where do we start? Well, here's the criteria, Acts chapter 6, 1 Timothy chapter number 3. Do we have men that meet that criteria? They have to meet the criteria. We compare the candidate against the criteria. There is a candidate assessment. R.B.C. Howe, the old Baptist, I mentioned the book that he wrote entitled The Deaconship. He wrote in 1846, he writes this concerning Deacons. Simply that none be elected until as private members of the church and otherwise They have given full proof of their character religion Orthodoxy wisdom and ability as well as their readiness to do the work of the deacon. So what's he talking about? You're looking at the candidate and seeing whether or not the candidate Demonstrates that they meet the criteria now two cautions. I want to give here okay two cautions first of all It is the candidate's credentials, not cronyism. It is the candidate's credentials, not cronyism. Deacons are to be selected based on how well they measure up to the criteria or the qualifications that are mentioned in the Word of God. They are not to be selected based on popularity, prestige, family relationship, or any other factor. There is no DEI hire when it comes to the office of deacon. There is no affirmative action. Well, you know that this guy, boy, he sure would be a good deacon. Now, it doesn't meet all the qualifications, but you know he comes from good stock. and his family's very very you know they're very preferential in the area they hold a lot of weight and you know they they have some credibility and some reputation so even though he doesn't meet all the criteria maybe we should go ahead and select him that's a disgrace in the sight of the lord and family members are not to Take the side of another family member for the office just because they're a family member now I want to just quickly mention this even we're running out of time so you can research this on your own time, but I want to ask you this do you remember an instance in the Bible when Zebedee's wife who was the mother of James and John. I preached on Zebedee for Father's Day, right? Her name was what? Does anybody remember her name? Salome. Salome, okay? She came to Jesus, and she asked Jesus, she said, basically, Lord, I have a request. And Jesus said, well, what is that request? When you're in your kingdom, I want you to take my two sons, James and John, and I want you to put one on the right and one on the left. What is that? That's cronyism. That's, hey, they're my kids! Do something special for my kids. Now, you'll find that in Matthew 20, verse 21. And you know what happened when the others heard about it? The Bible literally says in Mark, that when the ten heard it, they began to be much displeased with James and John. You know what cronyism causes? It causes problems. Oh you have to elect my son because I've been in this church for 40 years and I'm a deacon in the church and you got my son's not faithful but you got to elect my son because he's my son. That's cronyism. It's a disgrace in the sight of God. I'll mention this lastly as it relates to this warning of the candidates credentials not cronyism. It is interesting to note in Acts chapter number 6 That when the church selected these seven men that met the criteria that the apostles outlined in verse 3, do you know who these seven men were as it relates to their background? Are you ready for this? You setting down? They were Grecian Jews. Now who was being neglected? The Grecian widows. They're Hellenistic Greek Jews. wisdom in that church to say now the Greek widow the the Greek Jewish Hellenistic widows are the ones that they're saying that they're being neglected let's not stack the deck and appoint the Hebrew Jews you know that after all are the real Jews from Judea let's not appoint them let's let's appoint seven Grecian And I think that's just incredible and says so much about the wisdom and prudence that the church exercised in the selection of these deacons so first warning The candidates credentials not cronyism and secondly and I've already alluded to this and so I'll mention it briefly the candidates performance Not potential the candidates performance not potential now. I've already said this, but I'll say it again. I What is the easiest, best way to find a deacon? You look to somebody who is already doing the work of a deacon. They're already doing it. They're already serving. They already meet the criteria. That's the person who is to be selected, I believe, for the office of a deacon. Someone is not to be selected based upon their future ability to serve. Well, you know, this guy's got some problems in his family, but he's, boy, he sure can speak well. And if we elect him as a deacon, then he can fill in on Wednesday nights and so forth. But you know, he's got that problem. He's not ruling his house well. Well, guess what? Doesn't meet the criteria. Cannot be selected. It is the candidate's performance, not potential. You don't appoint somebody to the office of deacon in hopes of the person growing into the position. You know, sometimes in the business world, that's done, isn't it? well we know we know they're not there yet but we think they'll grow into the position so we'll hire them in that position we don't do that in the Lord's work they must perform and not be a novice they must be proven and so a church should practice discretion in selecting a deacon. We ought not to take it lightly. We ought to do our due diligence and review the criteria and make sure that we know what the criteria is and then we assess somebody against the criteria and we're looking for people that are already doing the work of a deacon. This is our second message in this short series. Servants to the church, the office of a deacon. There were three elements that we considered today. The church should have a correct attitude. Their criteria must be applied and we should conduct a candidate assessment. If we do this properly, if any church does this properly on the side of God, I believe the Lord will bless the church with faithful, wise, serving deacons. Let's pray.