A Daily Walk

Guest (Male): If you're struggling with an addiction today, Pastor John Randall says there's deliverance to be found in Jesus.

John Randall: If today you are addicted to something, alcohol, drugs, gambling, pornography, something's got a hold on you, a grip on your life that is controlling you and that you are in bondage to. I want you to know something. Listen carefully. There's power through the blood of Jesus to deliver you from every addiction. God can do in your life what you can't do in and of yourself, what no program can provide, the son of God can provide. You can be free. Whom the son sets free is free indeed, no matter what it is.

Guest (Male): Hi there. Thanks for tuning our way. Today on the Daily Walk, we get right back into our study of 1st Timothy. Now, recently we've been talking about leadership in the church, and today the focus is on the deacons or those who serve in the church. They are to serve out of a motivation of love for the Lord and have certain characteristics in their lives. The first we'll look at has to do with the consumption of alcohol. Here is Pastor John Randall in chapter 3.

John Randall: Now, you may recall from a previous study in looking at the qualifications for the elders in verse 3, it says that the elder is not given to wine, which I believe means that the wine or any other intoxicating drink is not to be a part of their life or ministry, just have no place. In fact, I find it interesting that Paul had to tell Timothy to take a little wine for his frequent infirmities, for his stomach. The water was so polluted in those days, full of parasites, that they would mix wine within it. It's very watered down in order to be able to have nourishment lest they become dehydrated.

But Timothy, I believe, was so concerned about not stumbling anybody in the process that Paul had to actually say to him, Timothy, listen, take a little wine for your frequent infirmities. I mean, you got to you can't just be keep drinking the water. It's not good for you. So so add a little bit of wine to it. But for the elder, not to have anything to do with it. But here, for the deacon, it says not to be given to much wine. Now, for some, based upon that qualification difference alone, they would rather be a deacon than an elder.

But the word much wine means to be addicted to much wine. It means to turn one's mind toward, to occupy oneself or to be preoccupied with drink. You cannot have a person in a trusted position or area of ministry that is addicted to wine, to drugs, to pornography, to gambling, to whatever, lest it cloud their judgment, affect their decisions, cause harm to themselves and to other people. Being addicted to these things disqualifies you from serving in that capacity. It disqualifies you. In fact, Paul said in 1st Corinthians chapter 9 verse 27, he said, I discipline my body and I bring it into subjection lest when I have preached to others, I myself would be disqualified.

Paul was saying, I I don't want to do anything that would disqualify me, and therefore I have to be disciplined in this area. I don't want to be addicted to anything. I don't want something to take control of my life. The only thing I want to take control of my life is the spirit of God. I want to be continually being filled with the spirit, guided, directed by the Holy Spirit and to be addicted to anything else would disqualify me from serving in that capacity. In fact, Paul would write to Titus in his other pastoral epistle chapter 1 verse 16 and he he would say that there are those who profess, listen, they profess to know God, but in works they deny him and they are abominable, disobedient, and disqualified from every good work.

Listen. If today you are addicted to something, alcohol, drugs, prescription drugs, gambling, pornography, and eating disorder, something's got a hold on you, a grip on your life that is controlling you and that you are in bondage to. I want you to know something. Listen carefully. There is power through the blood of Jesus to deliver you from every addiction. There's power in the name of Jesus. God can deliver you. God can do in your life what you can't do in and of yourself, what no program can provide, the son of God can provide. You can be free.

Whom the son sets free is free indeed, no matter what it is. You say, well, how can that happen to me? How can I be free? I'm so tired of of living with shame. I don't like being this way. I don't want to keep doing this. What do I do? You have to cry out to God. You cry out to God and you plead for his help and you repent of your sin and you turn from it. And you will find the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome that which has so easily beset you for maybe so many years of your life that has disqualified you.

You will find deliverance. There is deliverance through Jesus Christ and we have seen multitudes of people who were strung out, hung over, addicted be delivered through Jesus Christ, never the same. And that can be your story too if you cry out to the Lord. That's going to mean you're going to need to make some decisions. You got stuff at home you just kind of keep it in the cabinet for a bad day. Throw it away. But I spent so much. I don't care. Oh, but I need to no. Get rid of it. Block the number of your provider, the guy that you call and say, hey dude, I'm going to be over oh okay, 7-Eleven.

What time? All right, I'll meet you in the back. Cut him off. Change your subscription. Cancel it. Get something on your computer that blocks it. Give your wife your password, whatever it is. Get help, get accountability through Christ and watch what God will do. Opens up a whole another life in Christ to be able to serve the Lord. Listen, there's only one person that wants to keep you disqualified and keep you in bondage. That's the devil. Just wants to keep you beat down and shame and and Jesus wants to deliver you, his blood cleanse you, make you whole.

Listen, Paul wrote to the Corinthians and he said to them very carefully, he said this, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? He said, don't be deceived, neither fornicators, that's sex outside of marriage, idolaters, adulterers, homosexuals, sodomites, thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And then he says, and such were some of you. But you were washed. You were sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God. We could say that to ourselves, such were some of us.

But we've been washed by the blood of Jesus. We've been justified just as if we never sinned because of the work of Christ, sanctified by the spirit of God. Listen, friend, that can be your testimony today. You don't have to be given over to those things anymore. You can be delivered from those things forevermore through Christ. Not to be given to much wine. Number four, he says not greedy for money. Now, a deacon would often receive the offerings and be in charge of distributing the financial resources to those who are in need. Therefore, if you have a man who's greedy, that is it's just more and more money.

His life is all about money and you put him in a position of serving in this way, they could easily take advantage of a trusted position. Jesus warned his disciples in Luke 12, he said to them, take heed and beware of covetousness or the other another word is greed. For one's life does not consist in the abundance of things he possesses. Watch out for that, Jesus said to his disciples. Paul will say to Timothy later on in 1st Timothy, the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Two of my friends in the ministry who have pastored rather large churches had men in trusted positions who cared for the finances, who oversaw that part of the ministry, and they both embezzled money from the church.

In other words, another way to put it, they robbed Jesus. That's the wrong person to rob. In fact, one man, this is a good friend of mine who was on the East Coast, had a man in a trusted position for many years and when he finally was caught and prosecuted and put behind bars, praise the Lord, they came to find out that he had taken over a million dollars over a 10-year period of time. I mean, robbed Jesus 10 years, no thought showing up at church, ripping God's people off. That's a frightening thing. You cannot put a person who's greedy for money into a position like that because they will take advantage of that trusted position.

They can't be greedy for money. They have to be people of integrity. And then he says number five that they have to be or it is implied at least doctrinally sound. It says holding the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience. Now, although one who serves as a deacon doesn't necessarily have to have the gift of teaching or be able to prepare a Bible study or maybe to preach some evangelistic message, they still need to know their Bible. They need to be a person of the book. If you're a servant of the Lord, the best way to be equipped to serve the Lord is to know what the Bible says, to be able to receive from the Lord and then be able to give out what it is that you have received.

And that comes through the scriptures. Spending time, every servant of the Lord should have a time set aside in your personal life of devotion spent with Jesus. I would exhort you, I would encourage you to make it the first part of your day, the first part of your morning. When you get up, set your alarm early. Get up. Early will I seek you. Get up early, have your Bible and just read and pray. Even if it's 15 minutes to start your day and just and just read your Bible, say God speak to me. And start out that way.

Be a person of the word of God. That's when he talks about being able to hold the mystery of the faith. That's an interesting word. Paul uses it many times throughout his epistles. And the word mystery is the Greek word mysterion and it's not a mystery as if you could figure it out, if you have clue this clue and you I got this clue and I got this clue. I solved the mystery. It's not that kind of a mystery. This word mystery in the New Testament means something that can only be revealed through divine revelation.

There are mysteries in the Old Testament that were revealed in the New Testament. For example, the incarnation of Christ, that is God becoming a man being born and coming into this world to redeem it. That was a mystery that was hidden in the Old Testament but revealed in the New Testament. You say where? Go back to Genesis chapter 3. Genesis chapter 3 after Adam and Eve fell in the garden, the Lord said that the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent. The woman doesn't carry the seed, the man does. Therefore, what was it in reference to?

It's talking about the virgin birth. The virgin birth, the protoevangelium is what it's referred to in a theological sense. There in Genesis chapter 3 all the way back there a mystery. Later on the prophet said, a virgin shall conceive and give birth to a son. When's that going to happen? New Testament revelation, the mystery revealed, the incarnation of Christ. How about the mystery of Jews and Gentiles being one body? If you read through the Old Testament, you'll find that there are times when the Lord is ministering to the Jewish people, focused upon the Jewish people, but in between intermittenly you'll find mention of Gentiles.

And then you get to the New Testament and you see neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, all are one in Christ. The mystery is revealed. How about the rapture of the church? Paul says in 1st Corinthians, I tell you a mystery and not all shall sleep, but we shall all be changed. A mystery revealed. And so the person who is serving in a position, especially as it relates to the church, needs to study the word of God. Doesn't mean you have all the answers to every single question concerning eschatology or or these things, numerology and everything else, but you do have an understanding of the word of God and you're a person of the book.

It's the best way to be equipped to serve the Lord when you know the word of God. And so those who serve as deacons, those who serve within the church, listen, it's great that you know procedures, it's great that you know where the you know the closet is and where the trash bags are. We we appreciate that. And where the dumpster is, by the way, it's out here in the back. But if you you know all of these things, that's great. But we really want you to know the word so that you can actually use those things that God's imparting to you and share with others.

And then he says, actually I want to just mention that one of those who who really was a gifted deacon in this way was Stephen. Stephen, one of the first the seven that we mentioned in Acts 6. You know that Stephen knew the word of God. If you've ever read the longest address in the book of Acts, Acts chapter 7, just read Stephen's one and only sermon. There was one sermon. He died at the end of it. I mean, they killed him. But but it was a powerful sermon. And it started I mean, he's in the Old Testament.

It's like the he just goes through the history. Here's a deacon waiting tables, but he knew the word. And his message that he preached was used to convict even the heart of the apostle Paul who at that time was Saul of Tarsus because he knew the word. Also, it says number six, we're almost through. It says in verse 10, but let these begin of the deacons of the servants, let these also be tested and then let them serve as deacons being found blameless. If someone was to serve in a position, an official position of a deacon, there has to be a time of observation in order to establish a clear track record concerning their life and their ministry that they are blameless.

You watch their life at church, outside of church, with their kids, with their wife, amidst the church body. You never place a person in a position so that they'll come to church more. You know, he just never comes to church, but I was thinking if we get him to do this, they don't have to come. That's the wrong reason to put somebody in leadership. You want the people who are already doing the work and and are just have a heart, those are the people you want to recognize. You don't put a person in their just to get them to come to church more.

You don't give a person a position to see if they're faithful. You see that they are faithful and then you place them in the right position to be able to serve the Lord. Jesus said this in Matthew 25. He said, you have been faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things. Sometimes people say, I just want to be ruler over many things. Is there any many things available? Because I'm definitely ruler many things. Those things just kind of go well with me as opposed to being faithful in the little things.

Sometimes we despise the day of small things. The Bible says do not despise the day of small things. Whatever it is that you and I have been entrusted with, just know this, it's more than we deserve and we're going to be held accountable whether or not we've been faithful with it. Have I been faithful with what God's entrusted me? What has he given to me? What has he put in in my place into my care? Am I handling that? Your kids, your marriage, your church family. I mean, how what what have we been entrusted with?

How are we serving the Lord? And so we need to watch the life to see whether or not it's genuine. And then as you observe, you see, man, look what God's doing in their life. You recognize it. It's not hard to recognize, but you need to give it time. Someone said that an untested Christian is an unprepared Christian. So many of God's servants throughout the Bible went through seasons of preparation and testing before they were raised up into a particular position of service. Number seven, the servant's home life needs to be in order, much like the elder in verse 11.

Likewise, their wives. The wives of the servants and the wives that are serving need to be reverent, not slanderers, temperate or content, faithful in all things. And let the deacons be the husband of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well. Now, it speaks of the wife of the servant who also is a servant. How is she supposed to live? She's supposed to be reverent just like her husband. Let me say there have been men who I've known over the years who have been disqualified from ministry because of their wife. This is true.

Guys that maybe felt called to something but their wife wanted nothing to do with it and they were disqualified because of that. The wife also needs to have a reverence concerning the ministry of God. This isn't some joke. Well, my husband he just got to go and he you know gets to wear an orange vest and he tells people where to park and all whatever. No, this is serious. This is serious, man. This is ministry for the kingdom of God. Be reverent toward it. It's important. But it also says they're not to be slanderers. Another translation would be a malicious gossip.

Gossip is going from one person to the next, taking stories and passing them on and and sometimes they're not even the accurate story. Ever played that game when you're a child called telephone? Maybe you haven't. It's it's an interesting game. You get a line of people and and you start out and you whisper to this person's ear, you know, Sally rode a bicycle. And by the time you get to the end of it, you know, James got sat on by an elephant. I mean, nothing something missed out. You know, in between something got convoluted in the process.

Typically when I'm playing that game, I will say something opposite just to be funny. That just if you play that game with me, I tend to do that. But none none the I'm but I'm honest about it before you. But gossip, you know, you get a message here and then by the time it gets around, you know, it's just oh this and it's twisted and it's but you're doing it to divide people. By the way, the Bible says God hates gossip and backbiting. He despises it. By the way, if somebody ever comes to you and like, oh I need to I need to tell you about this.

Just say this, can I quote you? Is it cool if I quote Oh no, you can't quote me. It didn't come from me. Okay, then maybe you shouldn't tell me. Is it profitable? Is it edifying? Is it true? If it's not, this I don't I don't necessarily need to hear that. So they can't be slanderers. Interesting, the word malicious gossip or slanderer is often associated with Satan. It describes the devil. He's the accuser of the brethren. He's a slanderer and therefore we don't want to be like the enemy in that way. But also the deacon's marriage, he's to be the husband of one wife.

He is a as the elder a one woman man. He loves his wife. He has a good relationship with his wife because let's face it. When you're serving in ministry in any capacity, you're you're one with your spouse. I mean, you're one. So if if it's part of your life, it's part of their life because we're one in this. And there's nothing I think more of a blessing to observe than a husband and wife who share that vision of serving Jesus together. And I believe it does wonders for your marriage. You're serving the Lord together.

You're sharing that experience together. It's something marvelous. And I encourage you, husbands, wives, pray about how you can serve the Lord together. Now, maybe you serve in separate capacities or different capacities in different ministries, but then there are opportunities when you get to serve the Lord together. And it's a blessing.

Guest (Male): You're listening to a Daily Walk with Pastor John Randall and he'll be right back. We've been in 1st Timothy 3 considering what God has to say to deacons and those who serve in the church. Would you like to hear the study again or maybe share it with someone who might benefit by hearing this? Just drop by a dailywalk.org or oneplace.com and you'll find our app when you search for Calvary South OC. Today we'd like to make special mention of a newly released book from our friend in the ministry, Jack Hibbs. It's called to take a bold stand.

You can be sure that bold faith is necessary in this troubled world and this book will urge you to be courageous, effective, and to make every moment count. You can order it today for the cost of $11 by going to a dailywalk.org or call 877 242 0828. And please remember us in your giving to the Lord. It's not only appreciated but will be responsibly used. We want this ministry to please God and help as many people as possible in their daily walk. And your gift, whatever the size, will help us accomplish that goal. Make a donation online at a dailywalk.org or again call 877 242 0828.

If you find these studies helpful to your daily walk, Pastor John would like to know. He reads your emails and is so encouraged by what you have to say. Write to him by email at a dailywalk at gmail.com. That's a dailywalk at gmail.com. And let us know the station you'll listen to. We also want to tell you about the a dailywalk devotional. Watch the video and be encouraged each day. You'll find it at a dailywalk.org. Here to finish things up is Pastor John once again.

John Randall: There's a great reward for faithful service in verse 13. This is where we will conclude for it says for those who have served well as deacons obtain for themselves, look at this, a good standing and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus. Certainly that would apply to both Stephen and Philip who were part of the first deacons in the early church. Philip, the Bible tells us, went on down to Samaria and preached Jesus to them and a revival broke out. Guy used to just serve Is that Philip, the guy that used to serve tables over in Jerusalem?

Yep. God used him to spark a revival. He raised four daughters and says they prophesied. They had the gift of prophecy. He had a solid home and and he led a revival. Ministered to to somebody who was in power in Ethiopia. I mean, God used this guy's life. Stephen again, another example, good standing, great boldness in the faith. Their ministry didn't stop there, but that's where it started. And as they were faithful, God continued to use them. In what way are you serving the Lord today? What is your motivation for serving the Lord? Maybe you're asking the question, well, how can I begin serving the Lord?

You just you pray. You pray. Say, Lord, would you put something on my heart? Now, if you're a person that's waiting for God to write it in the sky, serving this way, you know, and you look at oh look at it's a it's a cloud. I think I'm supposed to serve. Don't don't look at it that way. It's not it's not that confusing. If you're waiting for your Cheerios to line up and give you a message of what your gift is, you you don't have to wait for something, you know, like that. It's it's written right here.

This it's right here. Serve the Lord. Serve the Lord. You ask, you pray, and then you step out in faith. And I'm going to tell you it does take faith because sometimes we only want to step out in the areas where we feel that it's a strength. I'll serve the Lord. This is this box right here, I serve in that capacity. I don't go beyond that. These are my strengths. How many times do you find in scripture that God likes to use weakness so that he can get glory when he actually uses us? Be willing to step outside what you're comfortable with and what I feel I'm gifted.

Not that God can't use those things, but God might want to surprise you and stretch you. If you're never stretched, you'll never grow.

Guest (Male): Next time on a Daily Walk, Pastor John Randall observes the importance of the church as we return to 1st Timothy. This program is brought to you by Calvary South OC and made possible through your generous support.