Qualities and Roles of Deacons in the Church

### Quotes for Outreach

1. "We need to know and believe that God ordained his word and that the Holy Spirit knows what he is doing and he inspired the word. And that Paul also, as an intellectual scholar, himself, rightfully in his right mind, inspired by the Holy Spirit, wrote the words that he used. So we can't make him change his words and we can't redefine his words and we can't know his intent. So we have to look at what it actually says." [10:20]( | | )

2. "We need to understand scripture can never say what it never said. And to its original audience. And you can't make scripture say something that doesn't say. These are like two basic good guiding rules for anything. You can't make scripture say something that didn't say to the original audience, nor can you make it say something that does not literally say, right? We have to understand what it really literally says." [08:58]( | | )

3. "We want to properly interpret, properly apply, no misinterpretation or misapplication. We want to properly educate, exegete it. We want to have a proper lexicon. We want to do a word study. What's it really mean? And we want to do cultural analysis. What's the cultural background? How does it apply? What did it say to the original audience? We do all those things and we're consistent, we're holistic, and we're properly interpreting and applying the text." [09:30]( | | )

4. "We need deacons, we need deacons to serve the congregation. They're servants of God. They're there to serve the pastor, support the pastor, serve the congregation, literally waiting on tables, and to bring unity. There's no doubt that's there. So the first opening thing of good reputation in Acts 6 is parallel, I think, to worthy of respect. So, you know, Paul's saying, hey, look, whoever you're going to choose as a deacon, they need to be worthy of respect." [10:20]( | | )

5. "We need to consistently apply all of them the same way. So this is not a principle. This is not a principle. This is not a principle. This is not a principle. This based on your whole life, but it's based on enough evidence that I have that I'm watching you. I'm observing you. I see you're not hypocritical. I can see you're worthy of my respect. I see that you're an honorable person. I see you're not getting drunk. I, you know, I know you're not giving too much wine in that cultural act. You're not, you're not into addictions and abuse and things like that. And you hold this mystery. You, you're not greedy for money and, and you hold the mystery of the gospel. You revere the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I see that in you. Those are all great things, man. And I see it in your present life." [15:51]( | | )

### Quotes for Members

1. "So preached a couple weeks on deacons, selection, qualifications. So let's do a little backtrack. Acts chapter six, the foundation of deacons. There's a need. pastors, apostles, need to do the ministry of the word of God and prayers and leading and guiding and developing the church. They need people to come wait on tables, help support them, serve the body, keep unity, keep things going, right? The deacons are amazing. Are birthed right here. Seven good men are chosen of good reputation, filled with God's spirit, filled with God's wisdom. Those three things. So they're chosen from amongst them. So deacons come from within the body. They're trusted. They have that good reputation. They prove to have good decision-making in their lives. They're wise. And the evidence of the Holy Spirit working in them, that commitment to faith is there. We want to see those three things. Core attributes of a deacon." [06:06]( | | )

2. "So what am I looking for in a pastor? What am I looking for in a deacon? They're similar. If you look, they're similar. There's some differences, but they're similar. But likewise changes down in verse eight. And it says likewise, just like the pastor. Likewise, when you're looking at deacons, this is what I'm looking for. Now, we need to understand a few things here. One, in the Greek, in the Greek, there is no husband or wife. There's only male and female. So it's man or woman. So when we look at this text and we interpret it certain ways, translators or interpreters that are translating to a certain direction are making decisions on the Greek, saying in context, when it says man, it's husband, or in context, when it says woman, it's wife." [07:42]( | | )

3. "So when we look at these attributes of a deacon at 1 Timothy 3, 8 through 13, I think it's important to know, one, a deacon is an important position in the church, no doubt about it. We need deacons, we need deacons to serve the congregation. They're servants of God. They're there to serve the pastor, support the pastor, serve the congregation, literally waiting on tables, and to bring unity. There's no doubt that's there. So the first opening thing of good reputation in Acts 6 is parallel, I think, to worthy of respect. So, you know, Paul's saying, hey, look, whoever you're going to choose as a deacon, they need to be worthy of respect. And I would actually argue that every attribute that Timothy writes here should be in all of our lives, your life, my life, everybody's life, right? So any Christian should strive these attributes." [10:20]( | | )

4. "We must be consistent, must look present day life, must understand that Paul knew what he was doing. The Holy Spirit knew what he was doing, right? So scripture clearly holistically makes an argument that strong drink is wrong. You know, you shouldn't get drunk. So we have warnings, right? So if you're not supposed to be drunk, you're not supposed to be given to a lot of strong drink, you know, beer and wine and certain drinks were, were obviously available in biblical days and today. So now personally, and this is where I go personally, personally, not biblically, personally, then I'll get into biblical on this. Personally, I don't drink. I don't associate with that stuff. I understand the lifestyle that can come with that. I understand what it can be associated with. I understand also that there can be bad things that happen as a result of drinking, even if you aren't getting drunk. So I just, I don't have it in my life. I don't want it in my life. I don't want it in my life. And that's personal. Now, biblical, biblical, can't get drunk. Basically what it's saying is you can't be a drunkard. This does not give the church the right to say a deacon cannot drink. A deacon cannot have a beer in his fridge. A deacon can't have a wine bottle. A deacon can't go out to Olive Garden, just for example, and have a drink with his meal. It's inappropriate for us to cast that upon another man. And if we do that, we need to understand what we've done. We've added to the text. We've added something that's not there, that was not the intent of Paul or the Holy Spirit." [13:13]( | | )

5. "We must be consistent. We must be holistic. And we must properly interpret and apply the text. You can never make it say what it never said to its original audience, and you cannot make it say what it doesn't say. And so I think when we understand that, and we understand that, and we understand that, and we understand those things, it helps us have a greater understanding of this text. I'm not saying it doesn't come with controversy. I'm not saying that it's not a neat, it's not always easy to understand. But when we do the hard work, I think there's some legitimacy to this, that we need to make sure that we're looking at a deacon in their present tense life, how they're serving and how they're, are they found to that good reputation? Are they found filled with the wisdom of God? Are they found filled with the spirit of God? And as a result of that, God's building on that. Then they're worthy of respect. They're not hypocritical. You know, they hold the mystery of the faith, right? And they do so with a clear conscience. And then I would say that they're not greedy for money. They're not taking advantage of people. They're doing all the things that God wants them to do. And they're not, they're not drunkards. They're not, they don't have these abusive lifestyles, addictive stuff going on in their life. They're faithful to the Lord." [25:39]( | | )