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Thank you, Mark.

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I invite you to open your Bible with me to 1 Timothy chapter 3 for our study today in

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the Word of God.

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We conclude this chapter that tells us something about the qualifications for those who serve

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in the offices of the church, the office of elder and deacon.

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Paul is reminding Timothy here and all of us as well that we must maintain standards

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for those who are in leadership.

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The concern about character is one that is not only present in the church, but it is

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present in our world as well.

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Because of the declining moral standards, the loss of our Judeo-Christian cultural base

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in America, there is a tremendous decline in the character of our population.

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This is recognized not only by spiritual leaders, but by many in civic organizations.

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The Roosevelt Rotary Club, for example, is spearheading an effort to establish in our

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community a movement called Character Counts.

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The idea is to come to a conclusion together as a community as to what standards of character

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are important to us.

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Character seems to fly in the face of the relativism that is at the root of our decline.

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And now people are beginning to say we need some standards.

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We need to define what character is.

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This movement defines a person of character as one who is trustworthy, one who treats

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people with respect, one who is responsible, one who is fair, one who is caring, and one

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who is a good citizen.

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These are further broken down in their information.

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I commend them for their efforts.

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I wish that they would acknowledge that there is an objective standard of right and wrong

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and of character that is found in the Word of God.

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They're not willing to do that.

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But at least they're pointing out that character counts and they're defining at this point

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some of the important aspects of what character is.

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Character is what you are when no one is watching.

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It's easier kept than it is recovered.

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Character is the one thing that we build in this world that we will carry with us into

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the next.

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When we die we leave behind all we have and we carry forward with us all that we are.

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And that's what character is.

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Effective leadership in any organization, be it the church or the Rotary Club, depends

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upon character.

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It is the integrity of leaders that authenticates their work.

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Lee Iacocca, the guru behind the Chrysler revival, acknowledges this in his autobiography.

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He says, leadership means setting an example.

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When you find yourself in a position of leadership, people follow your every move.

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So you have to be careful about everything you say and everything you do.

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Now if that is true at Chrysler, it is all the more true in the Lord's church.

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Servant leaders must be principled people committed to the integrity of character.

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A character is rooted in the inward invisible part of us, but inevitably it is exposed in

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the way that we choose to live.

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It shows in our conduct, it shows in our treatment of others.

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What the apostle is saying here in 1 Timothy 3 is that those who serve as elders and as

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deacons in the church must be people of character.

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The elder is the one responsible for the oversight and the management of God's church.

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One who is an elder must have a heart desire for it.

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There has to be an aspiration for the work of an elder, of leadership.

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And he must have character, character qualities that provide leadership's example to the flock.

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Now in today's text, as we begin in verse 8, he is talking to deacons.

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The word deacon means servant.

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It comes from a verb that means to wait on tables.

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It means to work with the elders as assistants in the work of management in the church.

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Elders manage and oversee and assign tasks to deacons to carry out.

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Now what kind of people ought to be deacons?

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Well he tells us, deacons likewise must be men of dignity, not double-tongued or addicted

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to much wine or fond of sordid gain, but holding to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience.

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And let these also first be tested.

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Then let them serve as deacons if they are beyond reproach.

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Women must likewise be dignified, not malicious gossips, but temperate, faithful in all things.

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Let deacons be husbands of only one wife and good managers of their children and their

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own households.

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For those who have served well as deacons obtain for themselves a high standing and

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great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.

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We have in Acts chapter 6 what I think is the appointment of the first deacons, although

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that word is not used of them.

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I invite you to go back there and look at the context of the appointment of the first deacons.

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Acts chapter 6.

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This of course is very early after the church had come to be.

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And it says in the first verse of chapter 6, now at this time while the disciples were

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increasing in number, a complaint arose.

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Now can you imagine that?

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A church where there is a complaint.

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It's hard to believe isn't it?

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A complaint arose on the part of the Hellenistic Jews against the native Hebrews because their

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widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food.

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And the twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, it is not desirable

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for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables.

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But select from among you, brethren, seven men of good reputation, full of the spirit

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and of wisdom whom we may put in charge of this task.

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But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.

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Now the apostles were not saying that they were above the menial work that was necessary

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here.

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But what they are recognizing is that in their office they had certain responsibility.

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And they had to keep the priorities that God had given to them.

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And so instead of getting involved in the management of the church here, they appointed

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seven men, it says, to oversee that.

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These are the deacons, the first deacons of the church.

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And it says the statement found approval with the whole congregation.

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Here's another miracle.

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And it says they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip,

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Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenes, and Nicholas, a proselyte from Antioch.

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And these they brought before the apostles and after praying they laid their hands on

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them.

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And it was a way of setting them apart for their work of deacons.

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And the word of God kept on spreading.

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Why?

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Well, because here the apostles were given wisdom by God to keep their priorities and

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to broaden the base of leadership.

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I am crashing.

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Oh, here we go.

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Okay.

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We'll use this one.

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Is this where we are?

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We're at one or the other.

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We'll keep going.

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And so the apostles kept the priorities.

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And because they did, the word of God kept on spreading.

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I believe that had they lost their priorities at this point, something would have happened

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in evangelism.

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That the word of God would not have spread as quickly.

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But because the leadership was organized, there was a broad base of leadership, a broader

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base of leadership now, therefore God was blessing the preaching of His word.

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Now being a deacon means doing good for others.

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That's the work of a deacon.

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And while it is demanding, it is also a work that pays and pays well as we will see in

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our study today.

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We need to think first about the prerequisites for serving as a deacon.

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First he tells us in verse 10 that those holding this office must be tested.

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We're going back now to 1 Timothy 3.

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He says, and let these also first be tested.

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The word test here means to examine so as to approve.

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It is a word that was used of the saying of metals in that day.

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He is saying that we need to tell the worth of people before they are appointed to leadership.

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To establish their reliability by testing.

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Now this is not the kind of a test you kids have in school.

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This is the kind of test that we all have every day in the kind of people we are.

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The reactions that we have to circumstances and to others.

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The way that we conduct ourselves, the way that we treat others.

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That is a test.

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And so he says that those who are to be deacons are to be tested.

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Now what should be found in a person who is thought to be reliable and worthy of this

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kind of service?

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Well he gives us again as he did with the elders a list of qualifications.

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He says first they must be dignified.

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Not petrified notice, dignified.

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There's a difference.

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To be dignified means to be worthy of respect.

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One who inspires reverence and awe is one who is dignified.

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It is a person on whom the hand of God has come.

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It is a man or a woman of God.

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And when you are around them you sense that God is in them.

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That God is at work in their lives dignified.

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Worthy of respect.

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Secondly they must not be double-tongued.

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That is they must be consistent in speech.

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The thought seems to be that they should not be guilty of saying one thing to one person

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and something else to another person.

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Or it may also mean that they should say what is truly on their minds.

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They shouldn't say one thing but be thinking something else.

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The point is consistency in speech, not double-tongued.

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Third not addicted to wine.

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Similar thought to what was said about elders.

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They must be temperate and controlled.

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Number four not fond of sordid gain.

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The idea is that they must mark as the aim of their lives the glory of God and not the

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gaining of material things.

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Their motives have to be right.

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They must hold the mystery of faith, he says, in a pure conscience.

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In other words there must be a consistency between what they profess to believe and how

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they live it out.

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Then he says blameless.

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The idea here is irreproachable, unchargeable, free from any legal accusation.

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A deacon must be a one-woman man, we talked about that last week, and similar to elders,

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be good managers of their household for similar reasons.

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Now you will notice in verse 11 the word women is used.

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This brings us to one of the disputed points of this text.

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Who are these women?

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There are some who believe the women are the wives of deacons.

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That he broadens the qualifications to say that a deacon's wife must also be known by

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these things.

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Now if that's the case it seems a little strange to me that he doesn't do the same thing for

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elders and say that their wives too have to have certain qualifications.

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So the word women here probably is taken not in the sense of the wives of the deacons but

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in the sense of deaconesses, women who serve as deacons.

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And we have examples of that in the New Testament of women who were called deaconesses like

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Phoebe in Romans chapter 16.

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They were servants of the church.

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Of these women he gives additional qualifications to supplement.

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He says they must not be malicious gossips.

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Now this isn't because women are the only ones who gossip.

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Any of us can gossip but he says here regarding women they must not be malicious gossips.

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The word here really is diabolos.

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How many of you took Spanish in high school?

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The word diabolos, what does that mean?

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The devil.

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The devil.

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It comes from this Greek word diabolos.

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So what he's saying is that they must not be she-devils.

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The word devil means slanderer.

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The devil is a slanderer.

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He slanders God.

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He slanders God's people.

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And he says that we ought to have nothing to do with the devil's work.

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Then temperate is another word.

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It means sober, clear-headed.

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And finally faithful in all things, trustworthy.

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And so those who have proven themselves to be of this kind of character may be appointed

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to the office of deacon.

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Now it doesn't mean that only those interested in that office should be concerned about these

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qualities as in the earlier list these are marvelous motivations for all of us.

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It tells us how God measures character.

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And that's really my point this morning.

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God is here telling us what Christian character is like.

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He says it's essential that leaders be people of character.

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But is it not the goal of all of us?

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To be men and women of character.

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God has neat ways of giving character tests, doesn't he?

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For all of us.

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Putting us in situations where we are proven.

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David Augsburger tells the true story of Lieutenant John Blanchard, a young soldier in basic training

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in Florida in World War II.

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One evening he wandered into the Army Library and found a book to read.

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As he worked his way through the book he became quite impressed, not with the content of the

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book so much, as with the notes penciled in the margins.

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The feminine handwriting showed insight and understanding as well as a touch of tenderness.

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He flipped to the front of the book and found the name of the previous owner, a Miss Molly

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Maynall.

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John Blanchard was a young bachelor and did some research and found out her address was

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up in New York State.

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And so he wrote a letter to her and the day after that was shipped overseas.

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For 13 months the two of them corresponded and during that time they began to open their

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hearts to each other.

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It soon became apparent that they were falling in love.

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One time he asked her to send him a picture but she refused saying that if he really loved

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her it didn't matter what she looked like.

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Finally the day came when they were to meet.

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They arranged to meet each other in Grand Central Station in New York City at 7 p.m.

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on a particular night.

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She told him, you'll recognize me by the red rose I'll be wearing on my lapel.

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After one minute till seven the soldier straightened his uniform as people walked toward him off

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the train.

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His heart pumping with anxiety and anticipation for this long awaited moment.

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Now the story continues in Blanchard's own words.

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A young woman was coming toward me.

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Her figure was tall and slim.

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Her blonde hair lay back in curls from her delicate ears.

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Her eyes were blue as flowers.

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Her lips and chin had a gentle firmness.

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In her pale green suit she was like springtime come alive.

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I started toward her entirely failing to notice that she was not wearing a rose.

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And as I moved in her direction a small provocation smile curved her lips and she murmured, going

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my way soldier?

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Most uncontrollably I took another step closer to her and then I saw Hollis Maynall.

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She was standing almost directly behind the girl.

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A woman well past forty, she had graying hair tucked under a worn hat.

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She was more than plump.

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Her thick ankle feet were thrust into low heel shoes.

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So she wore a red rose on the rumpled brown lapel of her coat.

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The girl in the green suit was walking quickly away.

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I felt as though I was being split in two.

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So keen was my desire to follow her and yet so deep was my longing for the woman whose

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spirit had truly companioned me and upheld me during the long months overseas.

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And there she stood.

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Her pale plump face was gentle and sensible.

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Her gray eyes had a warm and kindly twinkle.

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I did not hesitate.

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My fingers gripped a small worn blue leather copy of the book which was to identify me

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to her.

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This would not be love but it would be something precious, something perhaps even better than

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love, a friendship for which I had been and must ever be grateful.

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I squared my shoulders and saluted and held out the book to the woman even though while

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I spoke I felt choked by the bitterness of my disappointment.

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I'm Lieutenant John Blanchard and you must be Miss Maynall.

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I'm so glad you could meet me here.

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May I take you to dinner?

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The woman's face broadened in a tolerant smile.

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I don't know what this is all about son, she answered, but the young lady in the green

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suit who just went by, she begged me to wear this rose on my coat.

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And she said if you were to ask me out to dinner I should tell you that she is waiting

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for you in the big restaurant across the street.

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She said it was some kind of a test.

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Isn't that great?

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What a story.

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And you know something?

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God is just that clever at putting all of us in situations that test what we really

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are.

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He really does.

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God gives us character tests.

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Those who serve Him need to be people of character.

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And all of us serve the Lord somewhere and all of us are leaders in some context and

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so we need to be concerned about being people of character because Iacocca is right.

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When we have leadership there are people, some people, somebody somewhere is watching

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everything we do and everything we say.

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Well God promises something very special for those who serve as deacons in verse 13.

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He says those who serve well as deacons obtain for themselves a high standing and great confidence.

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A high standing refers to a place of reputation and influence in the congregation.

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We need to honor those who serve well, especially those who are not noted out in front.

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We need to say thank you to those who behind the scenes are faithful in their deaconing

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even though they may not have the office.

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High standing and great confidence belongs to those who serve God well.

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This word confidence is the same word used elsewhere in the New Testament of the freedom

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of speech that is ours when we come into the presence of God.

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It's the boldness, the assurance that we have that we are accepted by God.

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And what he seems to suggest here is that when one serves the Lord well there is assurance

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about his own faith relationship to God.

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It builds us up spiritually when we are faithful in our service.

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There are a couple of questions that we need to ask ourselves.

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The first is must I have the office of deacon before doing a deacon's work?

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And the answer obviously is no.

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We don't have to have that title or that position.

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All of us can do the work of deaconing because doing the work of a deacon is doing good for

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others.

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It's serving them in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

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So that brings me to the second question.

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What is there in my character that commends me for doing this work?

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You see that brings our focus inward where it's good for us to look occasionally.

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Some of us tend to believe too much of our own press releases.

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We appreciate it when people say kind things about us, but we've got to be careful not

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to put too much faith in those things.

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You see the most important thing about us is not what people say, it's what God knows.

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And so it's good for us to look inside and say what is there in my character that commends

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me to the work of serving as a deacon to the Lord?

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You can change your character, you know, but to change your character you have to begin

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at control center.

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You have to go inside to the deepest part of you and say I turn over the controls here

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00:25:18,000 --> 00:25:21,800
to Jesus Christ.

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Because you see our character is formed by him.

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When an iron worker beats on a piece of hot iron, he puts it into a mold or on an anvil

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that shapes it in a certain way.

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Jesus Christ is like that mold or that anvil.

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And we are that hot steel.

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And the circumstances of life God allows to pound against us.

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The purpose is not to hurt us but to form us in the shape of Jesus Christ.

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Because you see these character qualities are what he's like.

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It's him that we're looking at here and it's him that we want to see in our own characters.

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To say it a different way, I remember as a child watching my mother iron clothes.

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She had an old fashioned washing machine, the kind that churned, and when you were finished

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you picked the clothes out and you put them through the wringer.

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You've probably seen those in museums, right?

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And they came through the wringer on the other side and you sort of guided them out with

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your hands and they went into a basket or a tub perhaps.

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They were pressed wet and wrinkled.

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Then she would take them out to the line and shake them out and with some clothespins hang

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them up on the line to dry in the hot Kansas sun.

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Then she would come back out and gather the clothes and before she could iron them she

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had to prepare them.

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So she would again sprinkle them with water.

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She had a little pop bottle with a sprinkler head in it and she would sprinkle the clothes

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and get them damp and then she would roll them up and put them in a basket.

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Then one by one she would bring out those wet clothes and begin to iron them.

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You know that's what God is doing in your life and mine.

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We feel that water hissing.

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What are you doing Lord?

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We feel the pressure of the hot iron of circumstances in our lives and we say God that doesn't feel

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too good.

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But what's He doing?

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He's simply ironing out the wrinkles.

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And oh we've all got lots of wrinkles don't we?

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I do at least.

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So God just has to keep working at those wrinkles, ironing them out that we might be like His

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Son.

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There was a man who lived by the name of James Lewis Pettigrew.

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He was a man whose character was exemplary as the community knew him and so the citizens

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00:28:05,840 --> 00:28:11,240
of the town got together and put up a tombstone and this is what they chose to put on there

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as his epitaph.

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Unawed by opinion, unseduced by flattery, undismayed by disaster, he confronted life

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with courage and death with Christian hope.

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Wow.

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That's quite a statement to make about anybody.

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It's the kind of a statement that all of us would desire on our tombstones.

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And yet we tend to try to take shortcuts don't we?

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We want to skimp along the way.

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A poor building contractor was good friends with a wealthy businessman and one day the

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00:28:52,160 --> 00:28:55,440
businessman came to the contractor and said I want you to build a house.

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And so they sat down together, they planned it out, settled on the costs and the contractor

371
00:28:59,920 --> 00:29:01,860
went to work.

372
00:29:01,860 --> 00:29:06,320
He thought this was a good opportunity to make some extra money.

373
00:29:06,320 --> 00:29:11,140
And so he began to skimp on both the quality of the materials as well as the workmanship

374
00:29:11,140 --> 00:29:12,560
he was putting into the house.

375
00:29:12,560 --> 00:29:15,160
It wasn't too obvious.

376
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But he knew that he was skimping along the way.

377
00:29:18,360 --> 00:29:24,080
After several months the house was finished and it was turned over to the wealthy friend.

378
00:29:24,080 --> 00:29:29,880
At that point the executive turned to his contractor friend and said John I've always

379
00:29:29,880 --> 00:29:35,560
wanted to do something for you and I figured this was a good as way as any to do it.

380
00:29:35,560 --> 00:29:40,900
You've built this house especially for me but now I know you've poured yourself into

381
00:29:40,900 --> 00:29:46,920
it and I'm giving it back to you free and clear.

382
00:29:46,920 --> 00:29:49,360
What did he get back?

383
00:29:49,360 --> 00:29:52,800
The house he had skimped on?

384
00:29:52,800 --> 00:29:57,200
We can't skimp on this matter of character building.

385
00:29:57,200 --> 00:29:59,920
We have to give ourselves fully to it.

386
00:29:59,920 --> 00:30:05,680
To open our hearts completely to the Lordship of Christ, let him have his way.

387
00:30:05,680 --> 00:30:08,440
Be willing to give up what he wants us to give up.

388
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To change where we need to change.

389
00:30:10,960 --> 00:30:14,960
To add to ourselves what we need to add.

390
00:30:14,960 --> 00:30:22,640
I close with the story of a young boy in a balloon cellar as told by a South African

391
00:30:22,640 --> 00:30:24,440
preacher.

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00:30:24,440 --> 00:30:30,880
The boy was intrigued as he watched the balloons float up into the sky as the balloon man occasionally

393
00:30:30,880 --> 00:30:32,920
would release one.

394
00:30:32,920 --> 00:30:40,640
Excuse me, he said to the balloon man, how come when you let go of the balloons, the

395
00:30:40,640 --> 00:30:46,640
green ones, the white ones, the red ones, and even the black balloons, they always seem

396
00:30:46,640 --> 00:30:51,200
to float up into the sky?

397
00:30:51,200 --> 00:30:58,400
The man replied to the boy, son, you see it's not the color of the balloon that matters,

398
00:30:58,400 --> 00:31:03,040
it's what's on the inside.

399
00:31:03,040 --> 00:31:06,480
Let's pray.

400
00:31:06,480 --> 00:31:14,280
Doesn't make any difference what color you are, how others view you, what they see externally.

401
00:31:14,280 --> 00:31:19,360
The most important thing is what's on the inside.

402
00:31:19,360 --> 00:31:23,480
What does God see?

403
00:31:23,480 --> 00:31:29,840
Young man, young woman in high school and junior high, college student, mom, dad, grandparent,

404
00:31:29,840 --> 00:31:33,960
what does God see?

405
00:31:33,960 --> 00:31:35,720
What does God know?

406
00:31:35,720 --> 00:31:38,080
What are the secret things?

407
00:31:38,080 --> 00:31:43,640
I know they're there, we all have them.

408
00:31:43,640 --> 00:31:49,760
Those are the things that the Lord Jesus wants us to give to him so that he can work on them

409
00:31:49,760 --> 00:31:54,280
and change us, to make us the people that he wants us to be.

410
00:31:54,280 --> 00:32:01,360
Will you open your heart to him right now, declaring him to be the Lord of control center?

411
00:32:01,360 --> 00:32:11,960
Let him make you, a man, a woman of character, Christ-like character.

412
00:32:11,960 --> 00:32:13,920
Will you let him pound on you?

413
00:32:13,920 --> 00:32:22,160
Will you let him sprinkle you, bring the pressures on in order to change you without complaining

414
00:32:22,160 --> 00:32:26,880
and disputing with him?

415
00:32:26,880 --> 00:32:31,560
Tell him so right now that that's your choice.

416
00:32:31,560 --> 00:32:33,920
And don't skimp.

417
00:32:33,920 --> 00:32:40,240
You only cheat yourself in the end.

418
00:32:40,240 --> 00:32:45,320
And if you've never trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, my friend, you can't change

419
00:32:45,320 --> 00:32:47,320
your character on your own.

420
00:32:47,320 --> 00:32:52,220
You can change your reputation, but you can't change your character.

421
00:32:52,220 --> 00:32:53,800
That's spiritually based.

422
00:32:53,800 --> 00:33:00,780
What you need first is Jesus Christ in your heart as the Savior of your life.

423
00:33:00,780 --> 00:33:05,480
He died for you and rose again and knocks on the door of your heart.

424
00:33:05,480 --> 00:33:08,120
Will you invite him to come in as an act of faith?

425
00:33:08,120 --> 00:33:14,680
Will you say, Lord Jesus Christ, come into my life, come into my heart?

426
00:33:14,680 --> 00:33:20,820
Forgive me of my sins.

427
00:33:20,820 --> 00:33:28,160
Take control of me and make me the kind of person and character that you want me to be.

428
00:33:28,160 --> 00:33:30,980
When you do that, it changes everything.

429
00:33:30,980 --> 00:33:33,940
It changes everything.

430
00:33:33,940 --> 00:33:38,480
I hope you'll do it this morning.

431
00:33:38,480 --> 00:33:49,200
Father may there not be one of us who would try to skimp, one of us who would say no to

432
00:33:49,200 --> 00:33:58,720
you but all of us yield and confess with our hearts and with our mouths that Jesus Christ

433
00:33:58,720 --> 00:34:09,240
is my Lord and my Savior and is on the throne of my life at control central today.

434
00:34:09,240 --> 00:34:13,400
In Jesus' name, amen.

435
00:34:13,400 --> 00:34:23,040
We're going to sing together a little chorus in your hymnal.

436
00:34:23,040 --> 00:34:25,280
I think it's 473.

437
00:34:25,280 --> 00:34:28,280
No, it's not.

438
00:34:28,280 --> 00:34:38,480
In his time, in his time, 465.

439
00:34:38,480 --> 00:34:40,760
I almost had it.

440
00:34:40,760 --> 00:34:43,760
God makes all things beautiful in his time.

441
00:34:43,760 --> 00:34:49,400
Then the prayer, Lord, please show me every day as you're teaching me your way that you

442
00:34:49,400 --> 00:34:52,800
do just what you say in your time.

443
00:34:52,800 --> 00:34:55,920
Don't be impatient with God.

444
00:34:55,920 --> 00:35:01,160
And don't be slow either to yield to him, to let him have his way.

445
00:35:01,160 --> 00:35:13,880
Let's stand together and sing these two verses of 465.

446
00:35:13,880 --> 00:35:32,880
In his time, in his time, he makes all things beautiful in his time.

447
00:35:32,880 --> 00:35:44,400
In his time, in his time, 465.

448
00:35:44,400 --> 00:36:03,880
I almost had it.

449
00:36:03,880 --> 00:36:18,440
God makes all things beautiful in your time.

450
00:36:18,440 --> 00:36:19,440
Lord, my life to you I bring.

451
00:36:19,440 --> 00:36:33,760
May each song I have to sing be to you a lovely thing in your time.

452
00:36:33,760 --> 00:36:38,000
Aren't you glad that God allows U-turns in life?

453
00:36:38,000 --> 00:36:45,360
He allows us to make U-turns at major intersections, and if you're at one today, make that turn.

454
00:36:45,360 --> 00:36:47,240
Let him have control.

455
00:36:47,240 --> 00:36:55,900
Somebody has said your reputation can be damaged by others, but only you can damage your character

456
00:36:55,900 --> 00:36:59,160
and only you can build it.

457
00:36:59,160 --> 00:37:04,840
By the grace that Jesus Christ gives us this week, let's be at work building our character

458
00:37:04,840 --> 00:37:07,040
that we may serve him well.

459
00:37:07,040 --> 00:37:08,040
God bless you.

460
00:37:08,040 --> 00:37:29,760
God bless you, too.