Are You Serving Jesus or Just Attending Church?

What does the Bible say about deacons, servant leadership, and the kind of people God uses in His church?

At River Oak Church, we are a welcoming family of imperfect people who share a passion for God, a passion for others, and a passion for graciously sharing the good news of Jesus Christ.  We enjoy an informal environment and Christ-exalting modern worship, and we are committed to following the truth of God’s Word.  We welcome you to come as you are, from wherever you’ve been, and join us!

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Transcript

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Well, good morning. My name is Caleb. I am one of the pastors here. Hey, this morning we are in 1 Timothy chapter 3, starting in verse 8 to 14. So 1 Timothy chapter 3, 8 to 14, if you want to begin to turn there. It is a powerful Texas morning. Man, what a cool morning as you turn there to see people baptized, right? Following Jesus in obedience. How cool is that? Makes you want to smile, which is convenient because today is National Smile Day. That's your fun fact. It's also National Speaking Complete Sentences Day. And some of you are in trouble. Hey, so in 1 Timothy, 1 Timothy is the book, just if you're unfamiliar first week here, want to recap, is the book that Paul, it's a letter Paul writes to this guy, Timothy, who's in the city of Ephesus, who is beginning to unify the church. There are believers there, there are people following Jesus there, there's not a pastor there, and there's not a healthy leadership structure within this church. And so Paul sends Timothy, a guy he's been walking with, teaching, showing how to be a pastor, sends Timothy, writes in this letter and says, Hey, in this church, Timothy, if it's going to be healthy, here's how it needs to be structured. Here's what it needs to look like. It says, here's how it should look. And then starting in chapter three, he transitions from here's how it should look to here's who you should continue to equip and call to bear the burden of leadership within the church alongside of you. He says, here's who those people are. And in this, he describes two offices. He describes elders and he describes deacons. And last week we looked at what elders looked like and what that meant and who those people should be. And then today we're going to look at what deacons are and how that plays out even in our church. And so if you found your place in reverence of reading God's word, will you stand with me as we read it together? It's 1 Timothy chapter 3, starting in verse 8. He says, Deacons likewise should be worthy of respect, not hypocritical, not drinking a lot of wine, not greedy for money, holding the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. They must also be tested first if they prove blameless. Then they can serve as deacons. Wives, too, must be worthy of respect, not slanderous, self-control, faithful in everything. Deacons are to be husbands of one wife, managing their children and their own households competently. For those who have served well as deacons acquire a good standing for themselves, and great boldness in the faith that is in Christ Jesus. I write these things to you, hoping to come to you soon. But verse 15 But if I should be delayed, I have written so that you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God's household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and the foundation of the truth. And most certainly the mystery of godliness is great. He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated in the spirit, seen by angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory. Will you pray with me? God, we love you. We thank you for your word. God, would you use it to speak to our hearts and minds? Lord, would we understand the truth and will we live by the truth and all that we say and all that we do? In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You can take a seat or you can stay standing. Do whatever you want. I don't care. Do whatever. It'd be weird, but all right, so there's these two offices outlined in the Bible. Like I said, there's elders, and then there's the office of deacon. And in the Bible, here's what you need to know elders are a must. Anytime you see the church in the Bible clearly outlined, it outlines that elders are a necessity, that elders are needed, that they are essential to the healthy church functioning. And what an elder is, just in really short, it's a it's qualified men who possess a level of wisdom, a level of calling, a level of character, and a level of skill who will step up to lead the church. They are men who are elected by the church and then who are called to lead the church. And deacons are a group of people similarly that are recognized by the church to supervise the material affairs of the church. And so you would you would employ these elders to help with the ministry of the church. They would help with the preaching and the teaching and the leading of the church, and then you would employ deacons to help with the material affairs of the church. Now here's the thing: the difference is elders are essential. Deacons are not required, as we see in the formation of the church. Rather, what you see is that deacons were always appointed on a needs basis within the church. They're always like, when there was a need that the ministry went beyond the capabilities of the elders, they would employ deacons to come up and take over the ministry affairs of the church. Now, here's what you need to know about River Oak Church. At River Oak, we don't have deacons. And it's not because we don't like them or we don't believe in them, but truly the need has not arisen yet in this season to employ a group of deacons. However, where our constitution is helpful, if it became necessary, we could easily employ deacons and we would look for people who matched this description to fill the formal position of a deacon within our church. Now, here's the encouraging part. Here's the encouraging part of why we don't need deacons in this season. It's because in this moment we've been operating with men and women who love the Lord, who love people, and serve well in such a way they're already fulfilling the ministry that a deacon might do. They're already coming alongside us, the elders of the church, to fulfill the material affairs of the church. They're leading in different ministries, from the parking lot to the children's ministry, to the coffee bar, to the tech team, to the safety team, to our first impressions. They're leading all over to adult discipleship, to student ministry, that you have people who are stepping up, who largely fulfill and fit the description found in chapter 3, who are serving throughout our church. That these are men and women who are fulfilling this role in such a way that right now to formally employ them, it's unneeded. And they fit this description found in 1 Timothy 3, 8 through 16. And so here's what I want you to do. Even as we read this scripture, you may be saying, I don't think I'm ever going to be a person that needs to be a deacon or an elder at a church. And that may very well be true. The Lord does not need everyone to serve in a formal place of leadership in the church because the Lord also uses and sends us into formal places, into our workplaces and into our neighborhoods and all over the world to be gospel representatives. However, what you should understand is the characteristics found about a deacon should be the characteristics that all of us, should be the bar that all of us are saying, hey, this is what the Lord desires for men and women to do and to be as they walk with him. So, so it's not like, well, I should pay attention if I want to be a deacon. No, rather, the characteristics of a deacon are characteristics of people who've been changed by Jesus. And they should be a mirror that we reflect against, that we put up against, and we say, Do I match that reflection? Or are there things that I need to go to the Lord and ask him to change and sanctify in me that I need to be shooting for in my own life? And so here's a description. He says, Deacons, verse 3, likewise should be worthy of respect. Now, this word worthy of respect, there's actually the Greek word, there's no accurate single English word that translates it uh fully. The most accurate English kind of translation would be this is someone who's serious in purpose and in self-control in their conduct. So someone who is who is worthy of respect, just someone who says, no, they're very serious in their purpose where the Lord has called them, and they're also very serious in how they conduct themselves as they achieve and accomplish this purpose. The deacon, someone you're looking for, should be worthy of respect. This is not someone who does not have humor, this is someone who just takes God's word really seriously. Also, it says they should not be hypocritical, meaning, if you're not a hypocrite, it's because you do what you say and you say what you do. Now, this is really important, especially as a deacon, because you're in a place of leadership in the church. And I don't know about you guys, but like my algorithm always gives me like church drama all around the country. I don't know what your algorithm's giving you. I don't know how it knows that about me. And here's what I always see if there's like church drama and someone does something crazy, and then it would be like like Johnny did something nuts and he was a deacon at his church. And they use that as like, oh, Andy was in a place of leadership. And he was trusted, and he victimized many, and it's usually some terrible crime. He says, No, the people that you should employ, that you should put in this position, should be people of good character, that you know what they do because they say what they do and they do what they say, that they're not hypocritical. It says he also should not be drinking a lot of wine, not greedy for money, but holding the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. He says these people should not be running to a bottle or a substance, should not be running to fame, things, a career for their satisfaction, but should be holding the mystery of faith with a clear conscience. Here's what this is called. If someone is running to other things and saying, I want to run to Jesus, what's that? That's called is having divided affection. That you have an affection for two things. Another way of saying it is you have one foot in the world and one foot in a relationship with Christ. It's divided affection. And now, any of our military people understand this is that that person who goes to war and it gets onto the battlefield where other people are depending on them and they have a divided affection. Meaning they have this great desire to and great fear of death and great desire to be home in that moment. Also, but they're they're on the battlefield, ready to fight the battle. What they would say is that person is a hazard to the mission. That person is dangerous because their mind's not fully on the mission in front of them. They have a divided affection. And divided affections don't make you good at two things, they make you fail twice. That in that scenario, you're you're gonna get killed, you may get someone else killed, and you're definitely not going home either. He says, the person that is a deacon that is following Jesus that should be appointed to this leadership is not someone with divided affections. They're not someone who has a love for the world and a love for God's word. Revelation says that person is lukewarm, they're neither hot nor cold. He says, and I spit them out of my mouth, that they are no good to me. That there may be people right here in this room right now, that that's your life. Man, a couple of those guys that that I just baptized, that was a little bit of their life. Man, I was in church, and I was in the world. And I know that some of you sit here in this room in that place because I want set here in this room, in this place, saying, Man, in the church, sitting in the seat, listening to a preacher preach, and I have one foot in the world and one foot in my relationship with Jesus. That I would I would be with my friends and and we'd be at the parties and doing all the things that the world would say is satisfying and good. And then I'd be showing up at church on Sunday morning trying to praise God. And my personal experience is that you just fail twice. That I I didn't really enjoy this. I definitely wasn't loving the Lord well in a way that would bring my friends to know Jesus. He says, You can't you can't be people of divided affection, it just causes you to fail twice. He says, rather, this man doesn't divide his affections, he holds the confession of a commitment to Christ with a clear conscience. He says, No, no, I actually my full affection is for Jesus. This isn't a perfect man. This isn't someone who who never messes up. This is a person just who lives in a life of repentance, in a state of repentance, where it says, when I mess up, I quickly turn back to Jesus because you know what? I'm doing the things I don't want to do. The Lord has killed that affection, I've died to that affection, I'm running from that affection because I want to run to the place in the things of Jesus. This is the kind of men you you should look for, the kind of people you should look for to be deacons in our church. This is the kind of people we should be. That we should not be hypocritical. That we should not have divided affections, but we should we should uh understand, we should gird up the loins of our mind and we should turn to Jesus. That he should be the full gather our full affection. And it says you should be looking for people like that, that they can come to the gospel, that they can present the gospel, that they can share the gospel, that they can live out the gospel, they can come in here and they can worship with a clear conscience because they know they're not living another way in another place, that they don't have their church face and their church language and their church clothes, and then they have their world face and their world language and their world clothes. It's people who say, No, my church face and my church language and my church clothes is just me in the world or in the church. And then he says, How do you know? How do you know if someone has divided affection or not? Well, look at verse 10. It says, they must also be tested first. And if they prove blameless, then they can serve as deacons. He says, Man, they must be proved. Well, how do you test them? You give them opportunity to serve in different capacities and places. You get to know them, you have a relationship with one another. You look for people who have been tested in good times and in bad times, and where and how do they serve Jesus in those moments? Do they have a genuine affection for the Lord that's not based on their circumstances? Do they have a heart for Jesus that's not based on the person they're serving? Do they love people well? Do they serve out of a motive to want Jesus to be known and not out of a motive to want to be known? He says they should be tested in this, to be proven blameless. Now, in Acts 6, verses 1 through 7, here's why this is important. It's because deacons uh were the first to, that was the first place where deacons were appointed to serve. See, in the book of Acts, uh the disciples who had followed Jesus in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John as they came to know Jesus, then Jesus ascended into heaven. He says, Hey, go and start the church. It says that uh they received the Holy Spirit and they began to speak with a boldness about the gospel of Jesus in a way that they did not do previously. Right? If you saw the disciples and the apostles in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you would see a bunch of weak men who are following a very strong king. And you would see Jesus almost kind of hand holding them through life, and then Jesus goes into heaven and they lock themselves in a room and they begin to pray. It says the Holy Spirit comes on them and out of those walls. Little boys went in and men came out, and they were emboldened with the gospel, and they began to share the truth of Jesus, not because they had sudden suddenly were all powerful, they weren't doing like some crazy workout routine in that room. No, but the Holy Spirit entered them and they began to preach the gospel, and it says people came to know Jesus in mass amounts, that it grew, the church began to grow and grow to the point where they couldn't also serve the people and preach and teach the gospel. It says that the Hellenistic Jews rose up and were like, hey, complaining, we've been forgotten. We're not being well taken care of. And so the apostles gathered together and they appointed deacons as needed to go and handle the material affairs of the ministry and serve the people well. Now there's a lot riding on these deacons. Their exposure to the church and to the leadership of the church came through the deacons as they began to serve. But there was a lot of responsibility entrusted to these people. And if they were corrupt, if they were drunkards, if they were hypocrites, there was a lot of people who would suffer as a result. That it was crucial that they could be trusted. He says, so make sure they are tested. That I can come up here and I can tell you, like, hey, the culture of our church is that we're gonna love people, we're gonna be generous, we're gonna be kind, we're gonna welcome people. Like, if you catch me in the lobby and you walk by me, like there's a good chance I said, good morning, how you doing? I try to welcome as many people as I possibly can. And like maybe I welcome a hundred, maybe, right? Like, I don't change the culture. I can preach about a changed culture, but really it's the church that you are who are in this household, you change the culture. You determine what people experience in here. Do they turn do they experience the love and grace of Christ? Or do they experience the coldness that they experience everywhere else in the world? Right? He says, No, these people should be trusted because they represent the household of God to many people. And then he goes on, he says, and wives likewise, they should be worthy of respect, not slanderous, not self-controlled or self-controlled, faithful in everything. Now, this is a very debated verse because that word wives could be translated to wives or to women, which means that it could either mean wives of the deacons or it could mean women who are also deacons. Right? And because this is not a teaching role to the mass church, many believe women can actually fulfill this role as deacons because they are a crucial part of the church. Now, regardless of your interpretation, here's what you should understand. Paul is continuing to point to the value of women in our lives. And the character expectation, you should understand, is the same for men and for women. He says, be of good character. But here's what he also says your ministry effectiveness is greater with the support of the women around you. So listen to this men. Your ministry effectiveness is greater with the support of the women around you. I've met many pastors who've tried to get into ministry, and their wives were not okay with the pastoral ministry, were not supporting it, did not like the schedule, did not like the things that it required, they did not believe in it the same way. And that person, those pastors, are no longer in ministry. And then I think about my own wife and my own ministry. And I often, when I first got married, would ask myself, how did I do ministry before I was married? Like, I don't know how that happens because my ministry effectiveness increased greatly with the support of a loving wife who loved Jesus first and then loved me second. Men, in your ministry, you need to be loving your wives well, encouraging them, and women and men, you will do ministry better together than you can do. On your own. It's the whole picture in Ephesians 5, where he says, here's the role of a husband, here's the role of a wife. And what he's saying is, you need one another, and you do ministry better when you do it together than you could possibly do it just on your own. And this is the picture of what Paul is saying. It is a super important role. He goes on to verse 12 and he says, And deacons are to be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their own households completely. This is similar to elders. Here's what he's saying, then. Your first priority is your present loving leadership in your home. That's your first priority. Is your present loving leadership in your home. Hear that word present. Your first priority is not that your family would receive a big paycheck from you. Your first priority is not that your family would have all the worldly comforts and your kids would have all the things you didn't have and wouldn't have to struggle in all the ways that you struggled. That's not your first priority. Your first priority is that God has given you a position in your home that only you can fill as husband and as father. And your first priority is that you would be present in that position. And that you would love your wife well and care for her needs, and that you would love your children well. What your children need is not your big paycheck. What they need is you modeling repentance in front of them. What they need is you modeling a deep relationship with Jesus in front of them. What they need is you on your knees reading scripture broken about the word of the Lord in front of them. What they need is your transparency about your sin and your struggle and your need for a holy savior. What they need is your presence as you guide them and disciple them and walk with them and teach them to be men and women. If you don't, the world will. Should not be the everyday thing. And then he goes on. He says, and here's the result, though, of this obedience. Here's the result. And I believe this is not only the result for deacons, but I think this is the result of any follower of Jesus who would live this way. He says, For those who serve well as deacons acquire a good standing for themselves. And great boldness in the faith that is in Christ Jesus. He says two things. He says, you require a good standing for yourself. That when you live in love like this, it's hard for people to say negative things about you. It's hard for people to slander you. It's hard for people to slander the gospel because you give them no ammunition to do so. He says you acquire a good standing. Right? Like I don't believe in karma. I think it's stupid. But here's what I do know it's if you're mean to enough people, somebody will punch you in the face. That's gonna, and people be like, that's karma. No, you're just mean to enough people, man. And if you're nice to people, people will be nice to you. Like it's just generally, now not everyone, but generally. It's not karma, it's just logic. He says, and this is what happens. If you would serve the Lord well in many places and spaces, you would develop a good standing, people would see something different about you. But then he says the other thing. He says, and you would have a great boldness in the faith that is in Christ Jesus, that you'd be given this great boldness. Now, see, I I think there's a lot of people in here who love the gospel, know the gospel, and want the gospel to be known, yet we don't share the gospel. Well, why is that? If we love it, we want it to be known, we believe in it, why don't we share it? It's because we're scared. We don't have a great boldness for the gospel. We either don't have a great burden for the lost, or we don't have a great boldness for the gospel. Like we're like, ah, but I don't know how to share it well. And here's what's interesting: he says, if you would walk this out, you would be given a boldness for the gospel. I believe it ties into John 10 10. John 10 10, Jesus is speaking to people and he says, Hey, a thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. Satan himself comes to steal, to kill, and destroy. He says, But I have come that you may have life and have it in abundance. Well, where is the abundant life of Christ found? I'll tell you where it's not found. It's not found on your couch scrolling Netflix. That's not it. It's not found doom scrolling all day at work. Like, that's not the abundant life of Christ. You may be thinking, like, well, I trusted Jesus. Why? This is no different now. Yeah, because you're not living different. The abundant life of Christ is found in obedience to the mission of Christ. When you would step out and be obedient, when you would step out and use the things that God has given you, place on your life, and then walk it out, you would experience the abundant life of Christ in that. Here's what I mean. If you've ever had a gospel conversation with somebody and you saw them come from death to life where they came to trust Jesus, if you've ever seen an ordained moment where you prayed for somebody and God healed them, if you've ever been like, man, I feel like the God, I feel like God is calling me to do this, I feel like God is calling me to have this conversation, and you stepped down in boldness, despite your fear, despite the anxiety, despite the ability to like actually answer all the questions they may ask, yet you still did it. And you saw God provide and you saw God answer prayer and you saw God do something powerful. What you walked away from that moment saying, not was like, hmm, that was all right. You walked away from that moment pumped. You walked away saying, that was amazing. God is so good, that is abundant life. That is powerful, that is more thrilling than any roller coaster, any drug anything could ever give me. That is more fulfilling than anything the world has. That is abundant life. It's found in the mission of Christ. You may not know anything else that happened that year, but you remember that conversation. You remember that moment. You remember that life-giving thing. Man, I remember sitting in staff meeting and or with a group of the staff, and we asked one prayer, hey, if God could answer any prayer requests, what would you pray? And one of the men stood up and he said, I would pray that God would heal my wife of leukemia. She had like a slow-growing leukemia, just gonna have it for the rest of her life. She comes to our church. They come to our church, it might be any other service. She's healed from leukemia. She went to the doctor, and the doctor was like, Looks like you don't have leukemia. We need to do some other tests. Like, this is not real. She doesn't have leukemia. Like, healed, like amazing, right? Can I can I be honest with you? I prayed like that the Lord would heal her from leukemia so half-heartedly. So, like, okay, that's impossible. Like, oh Lord, all right. Not believing that He would, and yet God is so good, that that is the abundant life of Christ, right? When it's found in the work and in the mission of Christ, when we see God do powerful things that are so beyond us because we've been obedient to it. That this is where it's found, that the baptized today, right, they get to experience a peace of Christ's abundance. Right? They get to experience the presence of the Lord as they go follow him in obedience and get to use their testimony as a part of his kingdom work. For those serving throughout our church, on our spiritual response team, or the people that gather up here every service in our children's ministry, they experience the abundant provisions as they minister to our children every Sunday. They experience the hope of Christ as God gives them the words to say in moments where kids ask questions and they don't have the answer. All throughout, in these different moments and places, as people follow Jesus in obedience, they get to experience the provision and the power of Jesus at work in their life. He says, Man, for the deacon that would serve, for the person that would stand up and say, I want to put the mission of Christ first, I want to be divided affection, I want to, he says, man, there's a boldness for the gospel that grows in that person. Right? That there's a boldness for the gospel as you live it out and experience God's provision. That when the provisions of God are realized, the boldness for the gospel should be actualized. But it's also important that these are people of character. Because as you are bold for the gospel, you stand on the front line against the enemy. You stand on the front line against our world, you stand on the front line against people who would who would want nothing to do with you. That you better be a person of good character, of right affection. You know, the very first person martyred in the Bible that's recorded in the Bible for the gospel in the New Testament was not an elder, it was not an apostle, it was not some wild evangelist, it was a deacon. If you continue reading in Acts chapter 6 and chapter 7, it would be Stephen, who would begin to serve, and he'd end up being stoned to death. And in the whole time, he's praying for the people. He's talking to God, he's not acting out in anger or in fear. How can you do that? Because he's experiencing the abundant life of Christ that goes beyond this world. And he had a boldness for the gospel. And in verse 14, Paul kind of wraps up. He says, And I write these things to you, hoping to come to you soon. That's chapters two and three. I've written these things, hoping to come to you soon. He says, But if I should be delayed, I've written that you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God's household. That's an important word. You should highlight that. He says, This is how you are to act in the family of God. Now, this is different than in God's house. Many of you treat this place like I'm gonna come into God's house, and right, and you're the person or maybe a person around you, right, where you say a bad word and then they're like, Oh, I can't believe you said that in God's house. Or you like lied and you're like, oh man, you lied in God's house. Like, uh what you don't know is God is all present. That means he goes outside of these walls, and he's all knowing. And that means there's not some special magnifying glass here where we say something and God's like, oh, I saw it. No, God is everywhere, that he's all over. And here's the thing is God doesn't just want you in his house, God wants you in his household. That God wants you to understand that you are being grafted into his household, that you shouldn't just act different because you're in his house. You should act different because he is making you different. That it should go far beyond these walls in this place. That, like I just said, there shouldn't be a Sunday clothes and a Sunday language and a Sunday action and a Sunday face. There should be just a face and a action and a clothes that represent who you are in Christ, whether you're in his house or just a part of his household in the world. He says, You should remember this is how you should conduct yourself in God's household, a part of his family, that you are the church. And what is the church? The church is the church of the living God, the pillar and the foundation of the truth, that you are the local church, not the building, not the address, the people who make it up are the household of God, and the household of God is the pillar and the truth, and the foundation of the truth that is God. That the local church has been given power to be this pillar and this foundation of the truth of God and his word to a lost and hurting community, that we, as the household of God, are to be an anchor point, a lighthouse, a storm shelter to the waves and the wind of chaos in this community, that this community may enter into this house, but be introduced to this household, that they may understand and hear the character of Jesus and the truth of Jesus, that they may find it, find truth in love as they come into this household. And he says, and here's the foundation of the truth. And he lays the gospel out in like five sections. He says, and most certainly, beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is great. The mystery of godliness is great. He says, He, Christ, was manifested in the flesh. Here's what this means he was manifested in the flesh. That Jesus Christ, the one we read about, the one we know about, was seen, experienced, historically recorded, present in this world. He says, here's the mystery of godliness. Jesus, this man, Jesus, came, existed, really was on earth. And not only was he here and present, he was vindicated in the spirit. Meaning he was God affirmed. His deity by the power of the Spirit was affirmed, enabling him to do miracles and to be raised from the dead, paying for sin. So not only did he physically exist, but then he also was affirmed by miracles, by the Spirit of God in his life in this place. And it says, and then he was seen by angels. That he was not only known among man as some good person, he was known among angels as deity, as being God, not just a good person, but a fully God, fully man, person of the triune God. And then he was taken up in glory, which means that he is still alive, that he did not live a ripe old age of wisdom and truth and then die some death like the rest of us in some grave, but rather he ascended into heaven with the promise that he will return again to do away with sin and with death to be reunited with those who are his children who are a part of his household. He said the mystery of this godliness is great, that Jesus lived, historically present, that he was affirmed by God, he did what the Bible says he did. He was not only seen by man, he was seen by angels as being holy and mighty in the perfect sacrifice for sinful creation. That he was known, and he was preached among the nations, and he was believed on in the world, that many have heard him, and many have believed, and then he was taken up in glory. He says, This is the gospel, this is why we do all of this. That Jesus really came, he really saw your sin, he really lived the life you should have lived, he really died for your sin and rose again. And if you believe that you are a sinner in need of a savior and that his salvation counted for you, he says, Man, you can have new life through him. And that he will return. And so there's two responses as we close. For those who you've been living with divided affections, you've heard the gospel but never truly believed the gospel, that you can't rip that foot out of the world because uh because it's it's there's so much love there. The response would be that you would turn away from your sin, your wisdom, and that you would trust in Jesus for new life, that you would enter his household, that you would repent, and you'd follow Jesus in baptism, that you would follow him in obedience, that you would turn and acknowledge your sin, that you would believe he saved you, and that you'd commit your life to him. And then the other response is if you're a follower of Jesus, that you would begin to live the gospel out. That you would live it out in your family, that you would live it out in this household, that you would live it out in our community. And maybe a not so soft way of saying this, that you wouldn't be dead weight. You wouldn't, you wouldn't just be someone who's like, I'm a part of the household, I'm just the guy that takes everything. You would say, no, actually, the Lord has called you, He's gifted you, He's equipped you to serve, to be a part of the church family, to experience a boldness in the gospel as you step out in faith. You would be a part of what Jesus is doing. And maybe as we sing right now, that this would be just your prayer. That if you need to know Jesus' Savior, we're gonna have people down here that would love to pray with you and talk with you through that. And if you're in here, you're like, man, I I've just been a part, I'm just hanging out. Maybe. Maybe you'd say, God, where do you want us? Where do you want to call me to serve? Where do you want to call me to be an active part of this household? That I may minister to those around me and grow in a boldness for the gospel. Well, you pray with me, God, we love you and we thank you for all you do and all you are. We thank you for your hand on our lives, we thank you for your mercy and your grace. Lord, as we worship now, would you help us to respond appropriately? Lord, would you call us deeper into different ministry areas, whether that's in our workplace, whether that's in this church, whether that's in our neighborhoods or our communities. And God, would you go before us in that? Well, we love you and we thank you for your mercy and your patience. But Lord, let us not lean into that, let us not just uh rest thinking you'll be patient forever. But God, let us respond with an urgency and an obedience. God, would you continue to protect your church and grow your church? In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Good morning, everyone. We are glad you were able to join us, and we pray that it was encouraging for you this morning. We ask you to subscribe, that way you can see all of the sermons. But we hope to see you in person next week. God bless.