Good afternoon. I know you probably wonder why I moved that. I'm not going to attempt to do any kind of rituals. I'm just allergic to certain things in it, so it had to go. Take your Bible, turn with me, if you will, to Acts chapter 6. Acts chapter 6 this afternoon. very familiar passage, very classic passage on the subject of deacons. Acts chapter 6, as Luke is writing this narrative for us under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he directs our attention to this very important role within the church. And obviously time does not allow me to to expound on this very important teaching or every aspect of it this afternoon. But in the short time that we do have together, it is my goal to give you a bird's eye view of the office of deacon and just briefly touch on its importance to the church. So Acts chapter 6, I will be reading verses 1 through 7 today. Acts chapter 6, verses 1 through 7. And as is the custom of our fellowship, if you are able, I would ask that you would stand in honor of the reading of God's word this afternoon with me. Acts chapter 6. Acts chapter 6, beginning in verse 1, inspired by the Holy Spirit, Luke writes, Now in those days when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenists, because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution. Then the twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, It is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word. And the saying pleased the whole multitude, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith in the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Pecurus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicholas, a proselyte from Antioch, whom they set before the apostles. And when they had prayed, they laid hands on them. then the word of God spread and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith. Let us pray. Father, we thank you for this opportunity to gather today to celebrate Lord in the church. the raising up of a young man that has been gifted by you in order to provide a service that is so necessary. And I pray today, Lord God, that you would minister in a very special way to this body of believers as we dig into your word to seek out a better understanding of this role. I pray, Lord, that you would take this word and cultivate it to our lives, that you would hide me behind a cross, that you and you alone will be honored, exalted and glorified in Christ's name. Amen. You may be seated. One of the reasons Luke writes the book of Acts is to describe the incredible growth that the church had experienced at its inception. In Acts chapter 1 and verse 8, Jesus tells his people that he will empower them to do ministry. And as they are doing ministry, he will bless their work by bringing people into the kingdom. And that is exactly what happens as we come to our text this morning. God's people were empowered to do ministry, and this new institution explodes with great power. And this is evident as we read through the book of Acts. For instance, we read in chapter 2 and verse 41 that those who gladly received Peter's words were baptized, and that day about 3,000 souls were added to the church. And this wasn't just a one-time instance. We read in verse 47 that the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. We read again in chapter 4 and verse 4 that many of those who had heard the word believed and the number of the men came to about 5,000. so if you are keeping count we are up to about at least 7,000 people at this point being added to the Church. And that number doesn't even include those who are being added on a daily basis, nor does it include the women and the children. And if you continue on in through the book of Acts in chapter 5 and verse 14 you read that, believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women. And throughout the rest of the book of Acts it is recorded for us that The Lord continued to add believers to the church on a daily basis. So you can see almost immediately the kind of challenge that this must have been for the first century church. I mean, here God is adding people to church on a daily basis, multitudes, sometimes thousands a day. You can only imagine the struggles that this might have caused. And by the way, might I point out here before we go any further that God is the one building this church, not man. It was not man's creativity that was building the church. It was not man's ingenuity that was building the church. It wasn't a show that man was putting on. It wasn't fancy lighting that was flashing across the ceilings. It wasn't fogging machines that were overpowering the people. It was not seeker-sensitive, make-people-feel-good preaching. It was the unadulterated Word of God being preached by the people of God who God initiated in that position to build his church. He was building it through the unadulterated preaching and through the teaching of the word of God, through faithful preachers and apostles. And as you can imagine, as the church is growing at this kind of rate, it only goes to say that problems will arise. Imagine the problems in your own home when there's only three or four or five of you being added in a couple years worth of rate. Imagine the kind of problems that are going on at the growth of this rate in the church. John Piper of Desiring God Ministries comments that it was an amazing movement full of supernatural vigor, but it was not pure. We must not idolize the early church and then use purist criteria to judge the true work of God in our day. It was like a net thrown into the sea of the world, Jesus said, and it was drawing into its powers good fish and bad. In other words, just because God was building this church and adding people to the kingdom in crazy-like fashion, it does not rule out the possibility that there were many who would creep into the church and create problems. For instance, you remember Ananias and Sapphira in Acts chapter 5 who lied to the Holy Spirit when they sold some property and lied about the profit they were giving to the church and how God had to discipline them. Later in Acts chapter 8, Simon the magician thought he could purchase the power of the Holy Spirit to provide for his own popularity and for his own gain, not much unlike the charlatans of today's modern healing movement. In Acts chapter 19, you can read of professing Christians in Ephesus who concealed black magic, holding on to their pagan past. And of course, as we come to our text this afternoon, we see that there has been yet another problem that has arisen within the body of believers. And the problem we find is not necessarily a problem of holding on to past sins or having greedy desires. The problem was that the church had grown so big so fast that many of the needs of the people, specifically the widows in our text, were not being met in a physical sense. Isn't that an amazing problem to have? Wouldn't that be a glorious thing for us to be able to look out over our fellowship and not see any room in the church and see situations arise because there's too many of you. Time obviously does not permit for me this morning to give the full details of why this problem arose. Some commentators suggest that there was dissension among the brethren. Other commentators mentioned it was a problem of ethnic differences that was beginning to surface. Doesn't matter why, regardless of why the problem existed for our purpose this afternoon, we just need to know there was a problem. The church had grown faster than weeds and freshly planted grass. and trouble was upon them, so they needed to figure out how to fix it. And so they scratch their heads and they say, what's the solution? How do we tackle something of this magnitude? Because quite frankly, this was a serious problem, and if not dealt with, it could very well begin to destroy the foundation of the church. So how do we fix it? How do we make it right? Well, let's take a look this afternoon. When I read passages like the one before us, it always makes me thankful for godly leaders within the church. What a blessing it is to have godly men who have a heart for people in leadership. Because you see, when God builds the church, he also appoints his people to lead the church. That is why it is so important to have the right men as elders and shepherds of the church. And had God not built this church and equipped this church with godly leaders, that would have had the wisdom necessary to come up with a viable solution. This could have very well gone in a very bad direction. And so these godly men, after spending, I believe, much time in prayer, came up with a solution that was to create a committee of men who would be able to wisely have oversight of the physical needs of these widows. Thus, we have the first official mention of deacons in the church. Now understand, this concept of deacons is not original to the First Church. The concept of deacons really has its roots in the Old Testament Scriptures. Pastor Tim read for us the incident in the narrative of Jethro this morning and how he was encouraged to bring about other men to come alongside of him and help him, and in much the same way we see this laced throughout the Old Testament Scriptures. I know a wise pastor who once stated, when we trace the function of the diakonok to its most fundamental source, We see that it is rooted in the loving and benevolent heart of God himself. God cares for his creatures. He cares for all mankind. He cares for his chosen people, and he especially cares for the weak and defenseless among them. Men who serve as deacons have been given as God's special agents to minister benevolence to the poor and needy. The God of the Bible is especially delighted to defend the defenseless and to act on behalf of those who have no protection or provider. So as we move forward in our time together this afternoon, we dare not take the office of deacon lightly. For the office of deacon is an express imitation of God himself. So, let's dig into the text a little and behold the glory of God as it was designed to be seen through the people of God. And by the way, the underlying and overarching purpose of a deacon is to express in physical actions God's glory. And they do this by the very nature of caring for the needs of others. Aside from giving one's life for another in a physical context, providing for the needs of others is probably one of the grandest displays of love that we can demonstrate within the church. So as we begin to explore Luke's narrative in Acts chapter 6, he is pointing out for us two specific roles within the fellowship of the church. And it's interesting that he makes very clear two distinctions between these two roles. The first rule we are introduced to is the rule of elders. Now Luke does not specifically or identify this rule using the specific term of elders as we'll find later on in Paul's letters in the scriptures, but the very implication that he is referring to the spiritual leaders of the church as the twelve there in verse two, we can infer from this that he is beginning to shift our minds to understand them as the specific spiritual leaders. You can look at them as the elders of the church. The second specific role he identifies are the deacons in verse three, where the elders are instructing the disciples to seek out seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business of serving tables. In other words, the seven men are to be servants to the people. They are appointed for the specific task of serving. We derive our English word serve there in verse two from the Greek term diakoneo, which literally means to serve and to wait upon with the emphasis on the work to be done. This term is not used to describe the relationship between the believer and Christ. And so in a very narrow sense of the idea, this term means to do anyone a service or to care for someone's needs. Now, the reason I point this out is to clarify the responsibility of these two roles. These two distinct roles have two very distinct responsibilities within this body of believers. The 12 are the spiritual leaders of the church. There are those who had walked with Jesus during his earthly ministry. They were specifically chosen and trained by Jesus to take on the role of oversight within what will become known as the local church. The 12 represent what will be later referred to in scriptures as the elders or the overseers or the pastors. That term is used interchangeably consistently throughout the scriptures. The 12 are the direct leaders of the church under the authority and the submission to Jesus Christ and Christ alone. Period. They are responsible to lead the life of the church in the direction they believe God is guiding them. The 12 are those men who have been marked out by God to direct and lead the people of God. We know this because in our text we see how God blessed the work of the 12. In verse 7, the word of God spread and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem. and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith." In other words, the faithful preaching and teaching of the Word of God by the Twelve is what brought about such exponential growth within the church. That's what builds a church. not entertainment, not sensuality, not some crazy clown up front dressed like some character out of a boob tube cartoon that makes no sense. The unadulterated preaching of the word of God is what builds the church. This is critical to understand because this is how the church today is to pattern their leadership. In the here and now, it is the responsibility of the elders to lead and to direct all of the aspects of the life of the church. The elders are called to make decisions within the local body of believers that will be most conducive to the spiritual growth of that church. Every decision the elders make should be made considering how that decision will affect the people of God as they learn and grow and are sanctified in their spiritual lives. This is a direct mandate from God. This cannot be deviated from. Paul lays this very foundation to the church at Ephesus when the Holy Spirit influenced him to write that he himself, he being Jesus, he himself gave some to the apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. And according to the scripture, every aspect of those leadership responsibilities is for the equipping of the Saints for the work of ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ so that the church would come to the unity of faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God and may grow up in all things into him who is the head Christ Jesus. That is what an elder is called to do. They are to be the spiritual leaders of this church. In contrast to this, the deacons are those who are called to care for the physical needs of the church. I think it's important to note that the New Testament does not provide much information containing the role of a deacon. Interestingly enough, scripture doesn't describe the specific work of deacons, at least not as in greater detail as it does the specific work of elders. Benjamin Merkle, Benjamin Merkle was a professor of New Testament and Greek at Southern, Southeastern Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina. And he points out in an article that deacons must manage their house and children well, but when referring to deacons, and he's referring to 1 Timothy 3, Paul omits the section where he compares managing one's household to taking care of God's church. And he says the reason for this omission is most likely due to the fact that deacons are not given a ruling or leading position in the church, that function belongs to the elder. Merkel asserts that the role of the deacon is mainly to be a servant. The church needs deacons to provide logistical and material support so that the elders can focus on the Word of God and prayer. And although the scripture gives us the spiritual qualifications of being a deacon, not much insight is really given to this rule specifically. It is noticeable for us to take notice this morning that the main difference between the deacons and the elders is the deacon does not need to be able to teach as prescribed by Timothy when he is dealing with the elders in chapter three of first Timothy. And again, Merkel writes that deacons are called to hold to the faith with a clear conscience, but they're not called to teach that faith. This suggests that the deacons do not have an official teaching role in the church. Now, don't get me wrong, I appreciate what Merkel is saying, but that is not to say a deacon cannot teach. That is only to point out that a man does not have to have the gift of teaching in order to fulfill the role of deacon. And so that only leads to a logical conclusion that deacons are called to submit along with the rest of the body of the church to the authority of the elders who have been assigned the role of directing the life of the church. However, That is not to say that deacons have no viable connection to the life of the church. Quite contrary, deacons serve a very important role in the life of the church. When scripture takes time to point out that deacons are necessary, we need to take time out to discern how important they are. Take note, beginning in verse two, that the 12, the apostles, the elders, the shepherds, the 12 summoned the multitude of the disciples, now the disciples are the people of the fellowship. The 12 summoned, in other words, the leaders of this fellowship, they called the people to come together. There was a problem, as I had mentioned, there was a crisis that arose within the church, something needed to be done about it. So the spiritual leaders of the church were tasked with the duty of seeking out a resolution. when they began to consider the task at hand they determined it was not possible for them to deal with the situation personally. Why not? Well because they called, they were called to do the preaching and the teaching. It says there, and they said to them, it is not desirable that we should leave the Word of God and serve tables. Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation. full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business, but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word. You see, for the apostles to be successful in their ministry, and don't take that term wrong, I use the term successful considering a biblical definition of success, not a worldly idea of success. For the apostles to be successful in the ministry, their primary focus must be on prayer, must be on the ministry of the word. They were commissioned by Christ and given a mandate that that was their duty. The effectiveness of their ministry was dependent on that devotion. It was of urgency that they devote to prayer. It was of urgency that they devote themselves to the Word of God. And so the diakonok, the position of deacons, now becomes an invaluable ministry within the church to serve. Just to give you an idea of the value of a deacon within the church, according to a recent study, it has been statistically shown that more than 1,500 ministers of the word leave the ministry each month. That's astounding. That equates to more than 18,000 pastors leaving the pulpit a year. Why? I wanted to know why. So I dug a little further and turns out R.C. Sproul of Ligonier Ministries, he had the same question. Why? Because the numbers weren't much different when he did his study. And so he studied the topic and during his ministry this is what he concluded. That one of the main reasons, excuse me, one of the main reasons that ministers are leaving the ministry is that ministers are not encouraged, equipped, able, or allowed in the modern church to devote themselves to preaching and teaching the Word of God. Rather, Sproul contended, a minister is often expected to be the CEO of a corporation. He is expected to do the administration, the development work, and to be an expert in counseling and pastoral care. We have raised up a generation of pastors who are jacks of all trades and masters of none. One of the reasons they do not break down the word of God for the congregation on Sunday morning is because they do not know how. They have spent their time learning everything but the text of scripture. So as we consider this information and in keeping in context with the text of our passage this afternoon, the role of the deacon is very necessary within the life of the church and should be carefully considered by anyone who senses God's calling into this aspect of the ministry. And although the role of the deacon is not specifically tied to direct leadership within the church, the deacons are tasked with the responsibility of assisting the elders to be the leaders that they have been called to be. Now, I know I stress pretty firmly the specific role of leadership and where the responsibilities lie within the structure of the offices. However, I don't want you to misunderstand me. I am not saying that deacons are not leaders in at least the broadest sense of the word leading. As believers, as Christians, as members of this local church, we are all called to be leaders. Paul wrote to the church at Corinth saying, imitate me just as I imitate Christ. In other words, as pointed out by one commentator, God has designed the Christian life so that much of one's progress comes through imitating other Christians. It is a command to every believer to lead others into the presence of Christ. And it all starts at home. As husbands, we are to lead our families into the presence of God on a daily basis. When we go into the communities, we should live our lives in such a way that leaves our co-workers and those in whom we come in contact with into the presence of God on a daily basis. As we come to this place here in church, We should be leading by example and leading others into the presence of God every time we get together. And so that's what a deacon is called to do, to assist the pastor in the life of the church as they lead by example through a servant's heart to care for the physical needs of the fellowship. So that begs the question then, what does a deacon do? What is their calling? This is where the rubber really meets the road. What are the specific duties of a deacon? And again, scripture is vague when it comes to answering this question. But to sum it up again, Markle asserts that deacons could be responsible for anything that's not related to teaching and shepherding the church. So in very simplistic terms, a deacon should be responsible for the benevolence or the goodwill, if I may, of the people. And we see this being demonstrated in our text here in chapter six, there was a need within the church, specifically among the widows of the church. And the 12 summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, seek out from a menu, seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. What business? The business of taking care of the physical needs of the widows. So in other words, the position of deacons was established and they were commissioned to attend the needs to the widows. Very simple. Now, This commission wasn't necessarily restricted to just the widows. As the church grew and time moved on, that position expanded to further than just widows. And time doesn't permit me to explore the scriptures in great detail, but know that this is a service that should be provided to anyone within a fellowship who needs assistance. Anyone within the context of the local church should be considered a recipient of this benevolence. For instance, we live in a culture that is very demanding when it comes to financial needs. We have people, I'm sure, in this very church that could be struggling to make ends meet or may be concerned about where their next meal might be coming from. And so this opens up an opportunity to minister to those families in a very real and a very tangible way. This is how we show these families that we care for them. This is how we show them we're here to assist in meeting their daily needs. And by assisting in their physical needs, we are also assisting in spiritual needs. You remember the words of James? James quotes in chapter 2, starting in verse 15, If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, Depart in peace, be warmed and filled, but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, you have faith and I have works. Show me your faith without your works and I will show you my faith by my works. In other words, it does not do any good to just be spiritual when there's an obvious need for physical assistance. You can be as spiritual as you want, and you should be, as spiritual as you can that's not fake, but that doesn't make a hill of beans worth of difference to somebody who's cool and doesn't have a coat to wear, right? Common sense, just makes sense. Keep in mind, when Jesus was on the earth during his earthly ministry, He not only dealt with the spiritual issues of the people but He also concerned Himself with the physical needs of the people. Rarely will you find in Scripture where Jesus ignored an obvious physical need and only focused on the spiritual darkness of people. Jesus always impacted the lives of people by meeting their physical needs. I'm not saying we should just hand out food and mind anyone to ask for it. And one of the qualities of a deacon is to have a very discerning spirit. A deacon should be in much prayer as to how they should assist in each situation that arises within a fellowship. I personally have a very difficult time giving money to people who are only looking for handouts and have no desire in assisting with the church. But again, this is where a deacon needs to be very discernible. I don't consider an elderly woman who is widowed and doesn't have the resources or the ability to do certain things as someone who is only looking for a handout because they're lazy. That's where a deacon can step in and say, hey, we need to do something. And remember, as difficult as this is for many of us to process, God has been so good to, I think, everybody in this fellowship, but we do live in difficult days. We live in a falling economy and many people just need help. So deacons, they should be responsible for physical needs of people within the church. Another task that a deacon could be responsible for is the management and the care of the church building. This could include such things as making sure the church is clean, ensuring that the heat or the AC functions properly when it is needed. I think the heat's working fine right now. This could include the care and maintenance of the outside of the building, such as suggesting necessary repairs or making sure walkways are clear, or anything of that nature needs taken care of, or putting bathrooms in the back, or however that looks. A deacon can take care of those kinds of situations. Another task could be assisting with finances in the church. Now this is where elders need to be very discerning. This is where elders need to be very responsible. Scripture mandates that the elders have the final authority and more importantly responsibility to oversee the church finances. But that does not mean that the elder has to have his hand tied to the finances. For instance, a deacon could be responsible for collecting and counting the offerings each week. They could be responsible for keeping accurate records of those finances. Deacons should be trusted to handle the day-to-day financial needs of the church and how to appropriate those funds as needed. And by the way, From what I can see, this detail is handled very meticulously by our deacons in this church, and that is a very admirable testimony to the outside world. The way a church handles their finances has much to say about the integrity and accountability of that church. I would caution you to become extremely worried if Pastor Tim parks a private jet out back on this lot. I see no reason whatsoever in the world for any pastor of any church to have their own private airliner to jet around the world in. But, if he does get one, I will get my pilot's license And I will also learn navigations because I have a feeling there are places you're going to need to go. That's just a plug for my own physical need. Another area deacons could be responsible for the ushering responsibilities within the church. Someone needs to hand out bulletins, right? Helping prepare the communion elements, assisting people in finding their seats, especially visitors who might be unfamiliar with our seating arrangements. Just a side note. always amazes me how possessive people are of their pews. Sometimes it takes a deacon to separate the pew mongers out from among us. And just in case you're wondering, my pew is the fifth one right back there from the back. I'm getting a sign made just so you don't miss it. I think you're getting the point, right? A deacon can very well be a very valuable role by helping in a variety of ways that can free up the elders to focus on prayer and to focus on the preaching of the word. The role of the deacon is really very simple. The deacon's role is service oriented. Deacons are to care for the physical or temporal concerns of the church. And by handling those matters, deacons can free up the elders to focus on shepherding the spiritual needs of the congregation. Now, before I bring this to a close this afternoon, I'd like to spend just a few minutes discussing the character of a deacon. Even though deacons are not the spiritual leaders of the church per se, their character is of utmost importance. Deacons, in much the same way, are to be evaluated and examined and held to the biblical qualifications that we learn of from Paul in his letter to Timothy. And Pastor Tim read it for me for us earlier, but I'll read it again. In chapter three, Paul identifies nine qualifications for deacons. And I'm not going to go over those nine qualifications. You can you can leave your breath out. I just want to bring them to your attention again. And I just want to make a couple quick closing comments on that passage. Excuse me. Under the inspiration and guidance of the Holy Spirit, Paul writes likewise. These qualifications are very similar to that of the elders that he just described for us in the first seven verses of 1 Timothy chapter 3. 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 as deacons, being found blameless. Likewise, their wives must be reverent." Tim, eventually this will apply to you even more so. not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things. In other words, keep her down. Let deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children in their own house as well. As we ponder that passage this afternoon, the most interesting thing I think that stands out to us is that Paul wasn't concerned about what the deacon could do. He was more concerned with the character of the deacon. You see, the character is who you are. Character defines how and what you will do, so your character will ultimately produce physical acts of obedience according to who you are. Your character as a deacon will ultimately determine how you respond to the needs of the people under your care. So then, a deacon needs to be discerning and have foresight. As a deacon, you should be skilled at spotting practical needs and then taking the initiative to meet them specifically and efficiently. As a deacon, you should not just react to present problems, you should anticipate future ones that are coming. As a deacon, you should love to brainstorm creative solutions to anything that might potentially impede the work of the pastors and the flourishing and the nurturing of the Word of God. Biblical deacons, they love solutions and not drama. Biblical deacons, they're mature believers. One commentator once wrote, biblical deacons are mature where suspicion and gossip go to die. Biblical deacons should have a knack for solving problems and safeguarding the unity of the church. Matt Smethurst, Matt Smethurst is the lead pastor of River City Baptist Church of Roanoke, Virginia. He also co-hosts the Everyday Pastors podcast from the Gospel Coalition, and he describes a deacon as such. He says, biblical deacons are like a congregation's offensive linemen. whose job is to protect the quarterback. They rarely get attention, much less credit, but their laborers are utterly indispensable for guarding and advancing Ward ministry. Without effective deacons, pastors will suffer incessant distraction and get sacked by an onrush of practical demands. Smethurst contends, show me a church with distracted pastors and a derailed mission, and I'll show you a church without effective deacons. Did you catch that? Show me a church with a distracted pastor and a derailed mission, and I will show you a church without effective deacons. Tim, I'll close by saying this as a charge, but not to you alone. Because just like in football, deacons are not called to serve alone. Deacons are called to serve as a unified, cohesive team. And so my charge to you and your fellow deacons in this room is to guard the church, care for the needs of the people, love your service with joy, Assist the pastors of this church in protecting the integrity of the Word of God and prayer. And most importantly, this is paramount, exalt Jesus Christ in your ministry so as to bring absolute glory and honor to God and God alone. As Paul reminds us, therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all for the glory of God. Give no offense, either to the Jews or to the Greeks, or to the church of God, just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved. Let us pray. Father, we thank you today for your word again for the opportunity to celebrate in the life of this church as we continue to add to the office of the Diakonok. Pray, Lord, that you would bless mightily this church through their service. And it is to you we'll give all the praise, all the honor, and all the glory in Christ's name.