Good Standing and Bold Faith Through Serving - 1 Timothy 3:8-13

For the second week, we'll be in first Timothy chapter 3.

1 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

And as we get into the word today, it's it's I'm mindful of

something I am often aware of just in the church setting.

There's, there's probably some of you who are visiting our

church maybe for the first time this morning and you might even

be visiting our city. I won't have you raise your

hands. But no doubt week by week people

are just visiting our city and, and often times in, in, in that

kind of reconnaissance mission for our city or our church.

There's a couple questions that people are trying to get

answered. And that is, where can I find a

good church and where can I find a good restaurant?

That's like the survey of Boise. And I mentioned that because

oddly enough, those two categories are very similar and

there's some some real overlap that exists.

Listen to this in a recent survey of restaurant reviews.

So we'll start with restaurants. An interesting trend emerge

people. People often cared more about

the service than the food itself.

Of course, good food is what usually brings people in the

door, but it's not always what determines whether they return.

The biggest complaints weren't about under seasoned dishes or

overcooked steaks. They were about how they were

served, the attitude of the server, how much time they had

to wait. The weight problems were

handled. And more often than not, people

walked away dissatisfied, not because of what was on their

plate, but because of the people who put it there.

And so I listen to that, I hear that, and I can't help but think

now of the categories overlapping.

I think about the people who are not at church this morning or

some of the ways that we've had to study.

First Timothy is a renewed vision for the trustworthiness

of church. And often times it's not about

what is actually on the plate, the word of God, your hunger to

meet God, have the eyes of your heart open to know Him

personally and to know His word. It's not about what's on the

plate. It's about what the people who

put it there and last week we looked at one of the categories

of the people that will will interact with those pursuing God

in the gathering as we look at the qualifications of the

leaders or the overseers. But just as important with with

no undertones of of this second part of this chapter being less

important. Paul will now write to Timothy

as he puts his church in order that it's very important to

qualify the servants as well. And So what is it like when you

come into the gathering, when you interact with those who

represent the name of Jesus, not from a stage, but from the way

that they serve? Are they welcoming?

Are they warm? Do they help you resolve

problems? Do they wash feet?

Do they show you the love of God?

And so today I want you to keep that in mind as we look now at

the qualifications, not of the overseers, but as the word we'll

use today, the deacons, the servants.

And as we read today's passage of Scripture, I'll just frame it

in, in the outline that it unfolds just to give you a, a

guideline for the, the text we're going to read.

First, we're going to see the example of the servants.

And then we're going to see an examination of the sermon, the

the servants, and then we'll see the exchange.

What what happens when you're willing to not only come to be

served and to fill out the survey of you know, the Yelp

review of a church, but what happens when when you hear the

word of God opening the eyes of your heart to actually be a

servant. So read along with me.

We'll we'll be in chapter 3 where we left off Now in verse

8, transitioning from the qualifications of the overseer

to qualification of the servant says in verse 8.

Likewise, deacons must be reverent, not double tongue, 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 or servants, being found

blameless. Likewise, their wives must be

reverent, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all

things. Let deacons be the husbands of

one wife, ruling their children and their own house well for

those who have served with well as deacons obtain for themselves

a good standing and a great boldness in the faith which is

in Christ Jesus. So what we see in this, if you

were here last week, almost an overlay of some of the

guidelines for how to raise up leaders lay hands on on men who

will oversee the church. Now we see guidelines for just

as important, those who represent the church in serving

and we we started with the kind of unpacking of scripture.

We're going to look at the example before we get to the

example as what we see in in this persons character.

I want to take just a second to look at the historical example

of how we have both leaders who oversee and deacons simply the

term means to serve deacons who are are taking care of really

the, the, the ministry services of the gathering.

And for that historical example, we actually get a picture of

this that's given to us in the first church in Acts chapter 6.

Acts 6 · chapter mention

So you can read there, but I'm going to, I'm going to walk you

through the moment where this, this early church, the

gathering, the Holy Spirit's poured out.

They're growing and there came a need for more than just

overseers and it's in Acts chapter 6.

Acts 6 · chapter mention

We'll start in verse one says now in those days when the

number of the disciples was multiplying.

So we've got rapid growth happening in the church and and

with rapid growth comes a need for more than a one man show or

a small group of people doing everything.

And that that need is just as true when a church starts to

grow and multiply now as it was then.

And often times the rapid growth will reveal tensions or areas of

the church that are actually going to find themselves exposed

as problems that need to get addressed.

So the overseers are going to address a problem by giving us a

historical moment where the Deacon ministry start.

So it's got, so we have rapid growth and there rose a

complaint. I don't know how they got the

complaint in, if it was in a comment card or if it was just

catching the, the, the apostles in the lobby, but a complaint

comes up and, and here's essentially what was happening.

The complaint happens against the Hebrews.

So we've got, you know, the, the, the, the Hebrew culture,

they've, they've studied the, the, the law and they know all

of the traditions in the feast and they speak Aramaic, Aramaic

and you've got the Hellenist. So these are new converts.

They're, they have a Hellenistic culture.

And there's a little bit of a culture clash happening inside

of the church. And what's happening, it says

that the Hellenists or the Greek speaking, the Greek culture is

having their widows being somewhat neglected and there's

favoritism shown to the Hebrew widows.

It says the complaint happens against the Hebrews by the

Hellenist because their widows were neglected in the daily

distribution. So very early on, the church is

seen as a, a, a, a pillar of sound doctrine and also meeting

the needs of the community. And in that day, there was a

great need for widows who essentially had no one to care

for them. The church said, hey, we're

going to take on that ministry. We're going to care for them.

And as they grew, that ministry needed some attention because it

wasn't being cared for perfectly.

So then the 12 summoned the multitude of the disciples and

said it is not desirable that we should leave the Word of God and

serve tables. They have their ministry as

overseers. We looked at that.

They're they're taking care of the sound doctrine and they're

praying for the church. And they don't want to neglect

that to serve in the ministry. So they say, therefore,

brethren, seek out from among you 7 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 the ministry of the Word.

So the overseers committed to preaching and praying and the

deacons are going to be over the business of the ministry.

And through that we have this beautiful model where they say,

find some people that are in the ministry with you and let's

qualify them through. Listen to what it says.

Good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom.

And so immediately we see not only the need for deacons, we

also see the qualifications in that form.

Good reputation full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom.

And they're going to find men that qualify and they're going

to lay hands on them. And through this we get some

amazing heroes of the faith. We get our first martyr,

Stephen. We get this evangelist and

Philip. So the Deacon role in no way is

supposed to be a second class role.

And this is now we look at this through the lens of our examples

in First Timothy, Paul is saying in a sense, remember when that

need was happening in the very first church?

It's still happening now. And I'll say to you, it still

exists all over the place that the church grows.

Ministry shows itself as something that needs attention

and people have to rise up from within the church and become

qualified. So we said it last week, make

being a man doesn't make you an elder if be qualified and and

just being a warm body in a seat doesn't make you a Deacon or a

servant. There's all sorts of ways.

Now we we need to look at the example that Paul will set

forth. So what does Paul say to

Timothy? That gives some extra detail for

what we saw in the book of Acts. He says likewise, deacons must

be reverent, not double tongue, not given to much wine and not

greedy for money. So last week we did a whole

expose on on point by point, the 15 point sermon of all of the

details of qualifying leaders. And some of these are similar,

but not all of them. This one says, Reverend, the

same idea worthy of respect. These are people that if they're

appointed as leaders, no one would be like, I can't believe

that person is wearing the name badge of a servant at that

church. They're they're dignified,

they're respectable people. We would see that in Acts

Acts 6 · chapter mention

chapter 6, good reputation, not double tongued.

This is actually unique to the Deacon.

I don't think it's saying that overseers and and leaders can

can be double tongued, but it's essentially saying what they

say. They mean they're sincere

people. They're people that you can

trust their word. If they say they're going to

help, they're going to help. If they say they're going to be

there, they're going to be there.

Their yes is yes and their no is no.

What we saw in the Overseer that could be similar to this.

They're above reproach. They're sincere people that have

that have no double life hidden in the shadows of their life.

And then it says, once again, not given to much wine.

And we cover this again, it's not a prohibition as long as

it's not a problem. And deacons, they're, they're

under the same obligation to be a good example to the people

you're serving. And I would say this would also

give us an access act 6 reference points that says

filled with the Holy Spirit. Well, Paul will later say be

filled with the Holy Spirit and not filled with wine.

Our our influence as leaders and servants is that we love to be

filled with the Holy Spirit so we can overflow and serve

people. And then we see once again, not

greedy for money. The the King James Version I

found help helpful here. Not greedy for filthy lucre.

That's a word you don't hear often anymore.

So it means money acquired by dishonesty.

It's too bad we got rid of the word lucre because just having

money and acquiring it and then and then trying to, you know,

live a dignified life. The Bible is very clear.

Money acquired by dishonest gain is not good.

And a Deacon, as we just saw, is going to be asked to care for

the business matters of many ministries.

And so you don't want to appoint someone who's going to serve the

widows and then think, well, if we just gave them a little less

than we'd have a little more. They need to be responsible,

good stewards of the resources. And that goes both ways.

Remember the disciples when Jesus was being anointed and we

just talked about Holy Week anointed for his triumphal

entry. And some of the disciples said,

you know, we could have used that expensive oil in a better

way. We could have, you know, sold it

and give it to the poor. And I think the the servant must

not be greedy for himself and he also must be liberal and

generous that, you know, the money is God's and we can use it

as God, as God gives us wisdom and direction to use it.

So these are examples that Paul is going to lift up and say

don't just put anyone at the tables of your church and and

serve in such a way that is honorable as though you were

standing on the stage. Your life as servants should be

dignified and respectable. And and those are the

qualifications of kind of your character.

But he also says there's something really important.

And sadly, this is often left off the list when churches are

saying, hey, we got a big, you know, orientation or we got a

big serve Saturday or we'd like to get you guys plugged in

because we got a lot of needs and not a lot of bodies.

Now listen to what he says in verse 9.

Let's not forget the importance of this, he says, holding the

mystery of the faith with a pure conscience.

So it's an interesting phrase. What is Paul getting at?

Mystery of the faith. As we know from our entire study

in Hebrews, you can also get a reminder of the mystery of the

faith as we study Leviticus and we see that it's saying more

than it's saying is there was all sorts of previews and

shadows of things to come. The mystery of what it actually

meant to be in covenant relationship with God is

revealed through the gospel of Christ.

And what we're looking for is not just volunteers for our

humanitarian efforts. We're looking for genuine

believers in Jesus. It is not.

We never trust the church that gives you a name badges.

As long as you'll help out, you can be a servant.

We want to be people who meet all of the qualifications of

character, but the biggest qualification is Christ.

We want people who love Jesus, who will not be tempted to to

get into legalism or go back to the law or struggle with all of

the ways that living by faith requires you to trust God.

Servants. They may not have to teach the

word, but they have to trust it implicitly with their lives.

So they have a pure conscience. They're doing that genuinely.

They're people that can come and serve and follow Jesus and

invite people to follow them as they follow Christ.

So we have in this a, a grand example of what a trustworthy

church looks like. And going back to the example,

it's, it's someone comes in and before they get to the sermon,

they get to the servant. And so often we, we measure

things by the sermon and the, the outside world is measuring

the servant. And so I'm going to invite you

guys to consider the exchange of what it means to qualify and

actually jump into this role, because I think there is such a

beautiful offering in the passage that we just read as to

what happens when you don't come to be served, but you listen to

this and you say, wow, what if I did this?

What if I did this with my life? But first we have the exam and

see the apostle Paul is, is giving Timothy clear orders what

to look for and how to test it. And, and in verse 10, he says,

but let these also first be tested, let them serve as

deacons being found blameless. Actually like the ordering of

the the NIV, it says they must first be tested and then if

there is nothing against them, that's the word blameless, let

them serve as deacons. So test them, find out if they

qualify and then put them in a position of serving and, and how

important it is for you as a follower of Jesus to know that

you are someone that will be maturing and equipped.

And you will go through the journey of following Jesus

through all sorts of tests. And following Jesus is a number

of tests that that show us what we really believe, show us how

to endure and, and show us that to really know God, you have to

actually put it into real life. And it's something that you need

to know as a follower of Jesus wherever he has you serving.

But it's also important to know that to, to have sound

leadership and oversight and servants who bring people closer

to Jesus and don't push them away.

They're they're servants who are willing to patiently go through

the test of qualification. So let me share a couple of ways

that there is the test. First, simply the test of

whether or not your character matches what's described in the

list that we just read. And we got that once again,

remember what we read in Acts, They're men of good reputation.

And there was a, there was a section that we read in Acts

that actually gave us a very good bit of wisdom on how you

find the good reputation. The apostles said to those in

the ministry that raised the complaint, find amongst

yourselves. We're not just, you know,

putting an ad out in the paper for people who have a heart to

serve, you know, the tables of widows.

We're we're looking for people who are already doing something

to be known within the community of believers.

That's why the apostle says, look around.

Who's already helping? Let's give them an official

title. And that is a great way to go

through the test. Just start helping out.

Start in little ways that you can showing yourself to the

people around you and and then it will be more obvious if you

follow or if your life matches the qualifications listed.

And I love that, you know, the example of the history, Steven

was one of the examples. Stephen, it says he's a man full

of faith and the Holy Spirit. And if you know your church

history, you know, he's the very first martyr.

He gets stoned for preaching the gospel with such power and

trusting God through all of it. And how did he get his start?

This man that we would look at and say, OK, we got to put you

in some sort of crusade to tell people about Jesus, You are

amazing. The apostles looked at him and

said, this is when we pass out the food to the widows.

Show up to that and we'll see what happens.

If Steven was willing to humble himself and serve tables, how

much more should any one of us who look at the life of in the

example of Steven be willing to say, Lord, I'm here.

Use me in any way that you want. So and 1st you have to see if if

they're humble and I think that is a test to the heart of

humility. In fact, as I think through the

just the team of people we have, I think almost every one of our

pastors has been qualified by some sort of life before the

calling that was janitor or dishwasher.

And I think that's kind of a good test for someone who, you

know, feels the call to stand behind a pulpit and and preach

the word of God. I'm very leery of someone who

comes to me and I've never met them before.

And they say, listen, I've got a vision or a dream that I'm

supposed to be the next Billy Graham.

All I need is your pulpit on a given Sunday.

And I think the answer to them is cool.

Let's start with why don't you help take out the trash for a

couple weeks? And I think some of the the, the

heroes of the faith among us, we will all be surprised when we

get to Eternity Shore at how wrong we get the status of the

believers that surround us. I stand on stage and you know

you can know my name if you've been around our church, but

there are heroes of the faith among us that you probably have

never heard of that make sure the coffee is warm and

everybody's got food to eat. Who's serving to make sure that

the church is opened up so when we all get here, we can all get

to our chairs. I've seen people cleaning the

chairs 1 by 1, fixing the holes in our ceiling.

And these people may not be seen by us, but they're seen by God,

and they're going through the beautiful test of what it means

to know who you're serving. And so be willing to go through

the test. Of humility, Jesus says one who

is faithful and very little is also faithful and much, and one

who is dishonest and very little is also dishonest and much.

And I think the test also has to include your ability to endure.

You know, I think sometimes we get the idea we're going to come

out of the baptism waters and just start serving.

And we're going to, you know, preach the kids and they're all

going to get saved. Or we're going to, you know, do

a some sort of like a missionary venture and there's going to be

a revival. And often times serving takes a

long time before you actually see some returns on it.

And if you're not willing to go through hard and difficult and

moments where maybe nobody's thanking you or nobody's

noticing you, you know you, you did everything on the list I

just described. And then and then you just came

to church and someone said, you're in my seat.

And it's like, OK, can you endure?

Can you endure the challenges that every servant should have

the character to, no matter what happens in your heart to serve

Jesus, You can make sure that your character is consistent to

the tests of how you serve. You know, say the, the the

minister is known by or the tree is known by their fruit.

And I've also heard that the, the fruit is known when you

shake the tree. And so sometimes that has to

happen to really know who you are as a servant.

You have to endure the times where you get, you get shook a

little bit. And so it goes on to say, and

this is where, you know, if you've noticed in our study in

first Timothy, it's been, I've sensed there's been like a

question of the week, like what is Paul saying here?

So let's do our question of the week really quick and it'll be

in verse 11. He says likewise their wives

must be reverent. Did anybody when I was reading

say, wait a minute, So it's only the wives of the deacons have to

be qualified as wives, not slanders, temperate, faithful in

all things. And so here's your question of

the week, if you haven't already asked it, it's is Paul talking

about the wives of the deacons or is he saying that there's

also women that are serving that need to have qualifications?

And so like all of the questions in First Timothy, they're

debated and contentious because you can find passionate people

on both sides of the answers. What I'll say for the purposes

of our church to inform our answer is starting with why I

think it's a bit odd that Paul would be talking specifically

and only to wives of deacons, as though deacons need to have, you

know, wives that are qualified but not serving because he

doesn't say anything about the wives of elders or overseers.

That seems to be just a as important a role that those who

oversee the church also need to have wives that would be in

conjunction with the qualification.

So if he's not mentioning it to overseers, why is he mentioning

it to deacons? And I think that brings us to

the better question, which is once again found in the

limitations of language, is that there was no word until later

when the church had to develop a word for women who were serving

in this way. The the word that is used for

servant did not have a feminine form.

And so some translations like the NIV just use the word women

here. They don't use the word

deaconess in the feminine. They just say women.

And some translators like the one we're reading out of have

taken that to mean, well, he must be talking about the women

of the deacons. And and I don't think that's the

case. I think it's very clear that

what he's doing, he's saying now women who serve also must be

qualified. And then he gives a list they

they've got to be reverent. If you're serving as a woman,

you you can't be a slander, you can't gossip.

If you're serving as a woman, you also have to be temperate,

just like the guys have to be temperate and they can't, they

can't, they also have to be faithful in all things.

And so I think what Paul is doing is saying, hey, man,

you're like this. And then women who are serving,

you're like this. And I say all of that belabor

the question of the week to tell you why we have women who are

serving all over our church. And I think they're doing it

according to Scripture into the glory of God, because if they're

qualified in their character, I think that God calls all sorts

of of women to serve the gathering in the body of Christ.

Well. And so if you are women, a woman

serving in our church, just thank you.

I want to thank all of the servants of our church.

But I, I see the door greeters and I, I know the, the, the

nursery through the, through the elementary is just full of men

and women serving our church. And the qualification is not

gender. The qualification is character.

And I see that when we read this.

And so we also, I can point you, unlike looking for overseers,

it's very difficult to find a biblical example of an overseer.

But when you look for a woman Deacon, you can actually find

Paul writing to to different areas of the church where women

are serving. So Romans 16 verse one says, I

commend you, Phoebe, our sister who is a servant, same word for

Deacon of the church. So we've got examples where

Paul's saying you're a servant, you're a woman, you're serving

and and he gives the qualification.

So so women, you read all of this and you say, Lord work in

me, the character that would qualify me to serve your church.

And so all of that list, I think is, is qualifying the women just

as the previous list was qualifying the men.

Then it says in verse 12, let deacons be the husbands of one

wife ruling their children in their own house as well.

And so once again, like last week, we see that the household

and the health of the household is at the heart of the exam.

So rather than just take someone's word or, or even their

internal reputation within the community, there's a great test

for every single one of us about how we would serve Jesus based

off how we're serving in the offices of our family.

How do you serve as father, mother, sister, brother?

And for for Paul, he's saying, look at the household and you

can get an idea of the resume. And, and for that, I will say,

you know, to all of our elders and pastors and now anyone who's

serving that the family should never die at the altar of

ministry. There should be no children who

despise when you leave to go, you know, do the extra biblical,

you know, studies and all of the things you're doing.

And, and if it's coming at the expense of the health of your

family, then then on behalf of your family, serve our church

community less until the Lord changes those dynamics.

And so I think that's what Paul is getting that both for

qualifications and just for health checks.

If you're serving our church, how's your family doing?

Make sure that they feel as loved as the people who are

walking in the door when you're greeting them at our church.

And so, you know, you hear a lot about pastor kids and sometimes

they they, they wind up a little bit crazy.

And so you can pray for my kids now.

You know, I'm doing my best, but I think deacons kids can have

the same trajectory only, you know, less known and less, you

know, less cared for in that sense.

And so let us not have the servant kids of our church grow

up to say I would never step foot in that church because I

was always competing for my parents a love and affection

with that place. And so if you serve, make sure

your household is in order and that they, they love that you

serve and that that you can do it while you serve them.

And so, so there's our examination.

And now I want to get to the point that I think is the point

for, for any of us who have come in that the point of the sermon

was not to, you know, improve our Yelp reviews, You know, so

don't be confused by by that little moment where we're

comparing how people come. And often times the servants

are, are are measured above the sermons.

The point of the, the, the emphasis here is to give this

amazing, amazing reward and and this incredible vision for why

serving the church is this beautiful way that God brings

you in to the trustworthy. The beautiful design of the

church is to to have people who are serving be so blessed by the

way they're laying down their life to the Lord.

So let let's read now the last verse of our passage in verse

13. It says for those who have

served well, you're qualified. Your your your household is

taken care of and the people you're serving are blessed by

you. It says for those who've served

well as deacons obtain or, or they receive for themselves good

standing and great boldness in the faith, which is in Christ

Jesus. And so first let's let's point

out what it's not saying. And I'll say it again.

Serving the church does not mean you obtain for yourself.

You know, a, a brick on the wall with your name on it or you

know, a, a, a countless amount of people thanking you and, and

sending you cards for how much you've blessed their children or

how much you meant to them. You might get those.

And if you do cherish them, it's great to to have people see you

representing God well. But that's not the reward that

Paul is is telling Timothy to encourage these servants in the

reward you'll see is a couple things.

One, you're going to have good standing within this experiment,

this project of God using people to give himself glory.

And let me just say that to get good standing within your church

community is is maybe a need. You didn't know you had to to

find your footing to find a place where within the the

membership of the body of Christ.

So it's like a body. There's many members and there's

one body to to find your belonging.

Is is such a gift that you get when you start to serve and many

people look for their church or even where they fit into the

church with all of the wrong things on the list.

It's like if you were here with us today and you're thinking,

OK, I'm going to listen to the music and measure the volume and

listen to the sermon and see if it speaks to me.

And and then, you know, the parking's on the list.

And that really won't give you standing with the church.

Now, you can feel free to look for churches that do all those

things well, But the way that you actually belong to a church

is the way you belong to any community.

You actually start to serve it. You know, you want to come to

Boise and you want to belong. Find somewhere where you can

offer the community something to just be a blessing.

And it's the same with a church. If you're if you're new to our

church and think, I wish I got to know people, we do little

things to help with that. There's a new to the fellowship.

We do some, you know, meet and greet in between the song and

the sermon. But the best way you'll ever

find your belonging is to say, how can I help?

How can I be someone who's not coming to be served, but like

Jesus, I'm coming to just see where the gifts of the Holy

Spirit in me can find their membership in the body of

Christ. And if you do that, you find

what you're actually needing, which is the community of

believers that know you, that know who you are, that times

they'll know what you're going through.

We'll know how to pray for you. The people in this church that I

know that I know who you are and you know who I am, then the ones

I know who the best are the ones that I'm just serving alongside.

And that's true for any of you who are known at this church.

It's because at some point you went from visitor parking to

serving. And I just encourage you to do

that. That is not a recruitment by the

way, that you can if you're visiting, it doesn't have to be

this church, but it has to be a church.

And if you're, if you did on your list, find a reason to go

to another church, that's OK. Just keep following Jesus.

But when you are thinking you're going to land at a church, land

there because you found a place to serve.

And I'll say to those of you who maybe aren't in visitor parking,

but you're, you're kind of just part of the congregation because

you like the sermons. I want to know you.

I want the church to know you. And the best way for that to

happen is for you to find a place to say, here's my

spiritual gift and here's the way I want to encourage the

body. And that's how you're going to

have the good standing in the community.

And I'll just extend that amazing principle to how you're

going to have good standing with other important offices of your

life. You want to have good standing

with your kids, help them with their homework.

They will appreciate it later in life.

You want to have good standing with your neighbor once in a

while. See if you can take out their

trash, see where it leads. They would probably have more

needs that you can meet. You want to have good standing.

Husband and wife serve one another.

You'll have good standing with one another.

You want to lose good standing, become selfish and neglectful.

And so it works beyond the church.

But right now we're saying this is how the community of

believers will thrive together. OK, so it's that you'll have

good standing and you'll have great boldness in the faith.

And I think there's two ways that because you're serving, you

get amazing boldness. And and and I'll put this again,

this is something you need, you may not think of to be bold in

your faith is the point of following Jesus.

And and it's the reward of the journey.

You know, it's not that fun to follow Jesus just with the

systematic theology. It's not that fun to follow

Jesus just by showing up and hearing about him.

It's fun when you get the faith and the faith is really where

you get the stories and the testimonies and you get this

amazing trust in God. That's faith.

And how does that come? Well, faith comes in serving for

two ways. One, when you're serving, you're

practicing. And just like anything, when you

start practicing, you start understanding how the whole

thing works. And so I think of a small

example, it's maybe a good entry point into serving, but that the

ministry of prayer, and this is something that is such a great

starting point because you get to serve people by talking to

God. And you'll see as you become

someone who serves an intercessory prayer more as you

serve by reading those prayer requests more and you start

praying as you serve. You say, how can I pray for

people? How can I get qualified to pray

for people in a more public way? What you'll find in practice is

that your prayers become more bold and your faith becomes more

bold because God responds to prayer.

You actually get to see God work.

You get to see God move. Practice turns into power, and

that is the second way where when you're actually serving,

you get this beautiful benefit of the boldness of faith because

you see the power of God on display.

Now when you're in this setting right now, you're going to hear

about the power of God because we're studying His Word.

It's full of the power of God. You may even hear testimonies of

the power of God is is the sermon or or other people come

up and share about a God providing or God healing or you

get to see examples of of people walking in the power of God as

they step out to do missions and return with the reports.

But if you want to experience the power of God, you got to get

in the game. And the best way to do that is

to follow Jesus. He says he didn't come to be

served, but to serve. Know the power of God by

allowing him to use your life. And this is where we can, you

know, finish where we started because if you keep reading in

in Acts chapter 6, you're going to see how Stephen humbled

Acts 6 · chapter mention

himself full of the Holy Spirit. He started with serving tables.

If you just read to the very next chapter, you're going to go

through this amazing sermon that that Stephen would preach to the

Pharisees and those who are hard hearted against Christ.

But with boldness, he preached and it says in Acts Chapter 7

Acts 7:59

verse 59. And then they stoned Stephen.

I told you this is not recruitment.

This is encouragement. OK, so the servants, there's no

promise on how the people respond.

But it says as he was calling on God and saying, Lord Jesus

receive my spirit, he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice,

Lord, do not charge them with this sin.

And he when he said this, he fell asleep.

This is maybe the most powerful way you'll ever experience the

the likeness of Christ in your own journey is when you can

preach the gospel with such power that when people reject

you to the point of death, like Jesus, you can say forgive them,

forgive them. And it comes because Stephen is

this shining example of someone who humbled himself to be a

servant of the church. And this is the beautiful reward

for anyone of you who come to church and you say, you know,

I'm this close to not being part of it.

Thank you for the trustworthy sermon because I'm, I'm at least

getting a case made on behalf of the the church having some sort

of a position in my life. But this is really the sermon

you need because no one will convince you to keep going to

church. No one can just have the right

graphics and the the catchiest sermon.

What what keeps you in the plan of God for your life, which is

to be part of the community of God is when you say yes to the

way that God has empowered you to be part of his church and

that comes through serving and then we'll end with this says

you get boldness in the faith. You can't miss this which is in

Jesus Christ and we have this. I feel like this is the way that

every sermon in our Timothy series has ended.

The faith has to be in Christ Jesus.

Servants, you get this blessing that your faith is not in the

people on the stage. You know them too well.

Now you've served alongside them.

You rub shoulders. So the more you get to know me,

the more I want you to have faith in Jesus.

As servants, you know that your faith is not in the brand of our

church. It can't be because you know the

the brand is fading away. But you know that the person

you're actually serving is the Lord and he has to be the Lord

of the the body of Christ. He's the head of the church and

you know that the people are not your reward you you get boldness

in in your faith because you've realized that when you serve,

when you step out and you start loving your enemies and caring

for your neighbor, you realize that you're actually serving

Jesus and not people. So I want to end with just the

the the the glory of of this reminder for any sermon we ever

preach on on serving. It says in Colossians chapter 3

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

And whatever you do, do it hardly as to the Lord and not to

men, knowing that from the Lord you will see the reward of the

inheritance, for you serve the Lord Jesus Christ.

And when you hear all of this, not from a pastor trying to

build a brand or a church or, you know, increased numbers, but

you hear all of this as the Lord wanting you to know the beauty

of the life that he has planned for you with good works that

he's prepared that you would walk in.

You get the joy of good standing and you get the amazing faith,

not in a church that can hurt you or a pastor that will fail

you, but in Christ who will never let you down.

So as we prepare our hearts for communion, remember the words of

Jesus. For even the Son of Man did not

come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom

for many. Let us refocus the whole mission

of the way we offer our lives to God, the way we serve one

another, the way that we, each member in the body of Christ,

desire to give God glory, and the way we serve one another as

we take the body and the cup with the shining example of

Jesus as the ultimate example of servanthood.