Good morning, Grace. In our time of worship this morning, we come to the ministry of the Word. So I do invite you all to take your Bibles this morning. And let's begin our time in the ministry of the Word with a prayer for illumination. So I ask you to bow your heads with me and join me in prayer. Father God, we thank you that you brought us to this place this morning. I thank you for all the rich words that we have sung this morning that have spoken of your grace, that have spoken of your condescension in the person and work of your Son, Jesus Christ, that have spoken of your continual presence with your people in the person of your Spirit. Father, you are a good and gracious God, and it is our privilege as a people to worship You, Father, in spirit and in truth. And so, we pray this morning, Father, as we come before the ministry of the Word, that there would be a different kind of whirlwind that would converge. It would be that whirlwind convergence of the Word and Spirit, Father, to create a groundswell within our hearts that would ignite and remind us, if you will, of our responsibility and privilege to serve Your people Father, not just to serve your people, but also as we look outside of these four walls to serve our neighbor out in the culture. For so often, Father, it's not the words that we speak that draw people to yourself, but sometimes, Father, it's the actions or even inactions that speak of a Christ That is to be desired among all men. So Father, I pray this morning that through the ministry of the Word, you would help your servant to unpack this Word faithfully, pastorally, compassionately, and with zeal. And that Father, in this place, we would be exhorted to greater service, to depth and breadth and quality and quantity, that we would be a people, Father, that exemplify the servanthood of your Son and our Lord Jesus Christ. For it is in his name we pray. Amen. Well, in case you were providentially hindered from our business meeting last week, our emergency business meeting, I want to remind everybody that it was in that business meeting, at least in the beginning, that I announced to everyone Three of our men in this place are being considered for the office of deacon, Mr. Nick Velarde, Mr. David Woodbury, and Mr. Jeremy Bailey. And so we put those men before you and asked you over the course of the next four weeks to be praying about their induction into the diaconate, but also I put before you an exhortation to go to these men if you had any questions about their qualifications laid out in 1 Timothy chapter 3, any questions about their character, any questions about their doctrine, any questions about their philosophy of ministry. And if I could just connect two things for us this morning, I remind you that last week as we met together and exercised the keys of the kingdom, not the elders exercising the keys of the kingdom, but the congregation exercising the keys of the kingdom, in the context of church discipline, that was a corporate effort. And it once again reminds us as a congregation of our solemn duty and responsibility, and might I add privilege, as a congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, to take our membership seriously. To be reminded that we have a voice, to be reminded that our, if you want to put it this way, our opinion counts. Well, this also carries over to the selection and confirmation of office bearers. You know, the elders don't see everything. We don't have a crystal ball. We don't have a wand that we can wave over a man's heart that tells us exactly where they're at. And so we, in many respects, depend on your input on these men's lives. So I do want to encourage you and exhort you to go to these men. If you have something, if you think that these men are well-suited for the position, there's no need for you to waste your time or their time and go to them. But we do encourage you and exhort you to be in prayer and to consider these men's qualification. Now, toward that end in our October business meeting of putting before the congregation a vote to receive these men into the diaconate, I thought it would be the better part of wisdom for the next few Sundays to think through the biblical idea of a deacon. Now, I want to submit something to you this morning that may come as a surprise to some of you. It will not come as a surprise to all of you. But when you consider the qualifications for the elder and the deacon in 1 Timothy 3, I would submit to you that this is not some set of qualifications for a super spiritual Christian, the next level Christian, the spiritual Christian as opposed to the carnal Christian, whatever that means. I would submit to you that this is really what all Christians should be striving for. All Christians should be striving for the qualifications that are laid out for both elder and deacon in 1 Timothy 3. Now, I would make a caveat with respect to the requirement for elders that they be able to teach. This may not mean that you as a Christian should be able to teach as well as an R.C. Sproul, but it does mean that you should be able to explain from the Bible your convictions. I'm always struck by what Jude says in his little epistle, that the faith was once for all delivered to the who. the saints, not to the academics, not to the professors in the seminary setting, not to the pastors, but to the saints. And I'll never forget what a pastor told me. It's always stuck with me. He said that when he gets done preparing his sermon by Thursday and he's got a manuscript, one of the things that he would always do is he would give that manuscript to his secretary and he would ask his secretary to read that manuscript and give him some feedback because She didn't have a seminary education. She didn't have a Bible education. She was an everyday garden variety faithful Christian, a daughter of Christ. And he wanted to hear from her what her thoughts are. Well, in the same way, all Christians are called to know their Bible. All Christians are called to know the faith once for all delivered to the saints. And so I come back to this declaration that 1 Timothy 3, the qualifications for elders and deacons, they're really something that all of us as Christians are called to, which leads me to my next conclusion. When we think about the office of deacon, I would submit to you that what the deacons do at the formal level in the context of the local church is really what all of us as Christians are called to do, if I could put it this way, at the informal level. We are all called to serve. We are all called to put the needs of others before our own. We're all called to be servants, faithful servants. So this morning, what I'd like to do is I'd like to just start our consideration of the office of deacon over the next number of weeks by considering what I'm calling the heart and priority of a servant in the church of Christ. And you might note that I'm really not going to spend a lot of time on the official role of deacon. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to spend some time from select biblical passages on what every single one of us as Christians are called to be. We're called to be servants. So let's consider three thoughts this morning. And the first one is this. I want you to consider the varied use of servant in the New Testament. Now, what is the definition of a deacon? Boys and girls, teenagers, I want to give you a very simple definition of what a deacon is because you're going to be hearing a lot about that in the next few weeks. A deacon very simply is a servant. In the Greek, diakonos, it simply means servant, one who serves. And if we were to expand that usage in the New Testament, we could define it more specifically with two descriptions. One of them would be this, a deacon is one who serves as an intermediary in a transaction. You might gloss that as an agent or an intermediary or even a courier, one who takes a message to another. But a second way we could unpack this term servant a little bit more is to say that it is one who gets something done at the behest of a superior. So in many respects, children, you are servants. You are ones that get something done at the behest of your superior. You know who your superior is? Your mommy and your daddy. You know who many of our superiors are as your mommies and daddies? Our bosses. And we get things done at the behest of our superiors. Now, the Greek word deacon, interestingly enough, is used about 35 times in the whole Bible. I'm thinking specifically of the Greek term, but there's also a Hebrew equivalent, the word eved, which is often used as a synonymous use of the Greek word diakonos in the Bible. And that word, eved, the Hebrew word is used a total of 1099 times just in the Hebrew Bible alone. But coming back to this Greek word of deacon or servant, its uses and applications are both broad and narrow depending on the context. So specifically, the use of servant in the New Testament goes to show that Christianity, listen to me, Christianity is a religion of service. It is a religion of service. I think in our little neck of the woods, the kind of reformed ghetto, if you will, of evangelicalism, reformed ghetto of Protestantism, what are we big on? Everybody's big on something in their respective denominations and traditions. Well, we're big on doctrine, right? We love rich, pure doctrine, and that's wonderful, that's great. But I have lost count of the number of doctrinal blockheads that I've run across in the church. And one of the main ones is the guy that I look at in the mirror every single morning. What is the definition of a theological blockhead? One who so focuses and fixates on doctrine that he or she forgets that that doctrine is supposed to translate into what? Service. Service. Serving your brother, serving your sister, serving your neighbor. And to use the words of one of those great Reformed luminaries, Martin Luther, he said, you know, God doesn't need your works, justifications by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone, but you know who needs your works? Your neighbor. God doesn't need your words, but your neighbor does. Your neighbor needs service. So Christianity is a religion of service. I would submit to you, secondly, that Christianity, in conjunction with this, is a religion of humility. It is a religion of humility. Christianity is not about the pomp and circumstance or grandstanding or one-upsmanship that so often we see in the Church of Christ. Christianity is primarily about faith, but the frequent uses of the service motifs in the Bible remind us, listen, that faith works. Let me say that again. Faith works. James committed a whole chapter in his epistle making this very statement. He put it another way. He said, faith without works is what? Dead. Faith is a working religion and conviction. And may I submit to you that the most vivid example of this is that of Jesus. Matthew reminds us in Matthew 20, verse 28, that the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many. You think about that for a second. I know some of you are thinking in your mind, well, it's not totally true that He didn't come to be served, because yes, He did come to be served. Don't overthink it. Certainly Jesus should be served. Jesus is the Son of God, God, very God, Light of Light. He is to be served. But He came intentionally and specifically in His first coming to serve. He came to lay His life down as a ransom. I remember one time when I was in my internship in a small church in San Diego, one of the ministries that my wife and I headed up was the ministry to the retirement home where they had a dementia unit. And every Sunday we would get together with these sweet and precious old folks, and some of whom had lost their minds, some of whom didn't really know what was going on, some of whom were, you know, I was encouraged because I was able to give them some time of sleep whenever I preached because during the sermon they would just sleep. And I'd just be like, quiet, quiet, quiet. I'll talk a little bit quieter. But one of the things that, I'm sorry, I lost my thought. I was going in a different direction here. Why did I bring that up? Well, we're talking about servants, so it'll come back to me later, but Christianity is a religion of service, and this is where a consideration of the concept of a servant in the household of God should begin. Service is the natural consequence of faith. But now I want you to also notice under this heading, both the broad use of servant in the New Testament. I want you to consider very quickly six broad uses of servant in the New Testament. Six broad uses of servant in the New Testament. And what I'm doing is I'm taking you through the different uses of the Greek word diakonos in the Bible and trying to show you that it is not limited to the diakon. It's not limited to the deacon. In fact, you may be surprised of whom it speaks of. Number one, Christ is referred to as a servant. Romans 15.8, Paul refers to Christ as a servant, or you might even say deacon, to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs. Now, this is incredibly fascinating to me, because Jesus' ministry basically consisted of two overarching roles. He was teacher and servant. His service involved feeding thousands, healing, resurrecting, and correcting. So he very much had a hands-on ministry to the people to whom he ministered. But on the other hand, what was the other dimension of his service? He was also a teacher. He was a teacher, he was a preacher, he was a herald. And what's interesting is those two roles, teaching, preaching, declaring, and heralding, and meeting the physical needs of the people, those two roles get enshrined into the context of the church with the office of elder and the office of deacon. The elders are primarily given over to teaching and preaching and heralding, and the deacons are primarily given over to serving. But I would include thirdly that the members also serve and encourage one another. So the first use of this word of diakonos we see is that Christ was a servant. I know, it came back to me now, okay? The reason I brought up that illustration of the retirement home is because one particular Sunday when I was preaching to these sweet saints, I was tasked with the passage of Philippians chapter two. And if any of you know your Bible, you know that Philippians chapter two is that mysterious and high and holy text that speaks of Jesus's incarnation. It's interesting, in the West, we make much of the resurrection, rightfully so. Easter is a big deal to us. But the Church in the East, you know what they make much of? The Incarnation. Christmas is everything to them. This idea, this mystery, this mind-blowing concept that God became man. And I just remember saying at the beginning of that sermon, to be honest with you, I don't feel worthy to preach this sermon. Sometimes I don't even feel worthy to read Philippians 2 before a group of people. Why? It is just so mind-boggling that the Lord of glory, the Lord of salvation, the second member of the Trinity humbled himself and became a what? A servant. And I would submit to you, dear congregation, that that is the principal thing that a Christian should be mindful of, is that I, in following my Lord, in calling myself a Christian, a little Christ, in having the sign of baptism upon me, what I am primarily is a servant. I want to give myself to others as Christ gave himself. to the masses. I am a servant. That is the essence, I would say, with respect to the hands-on, brass-tacks, rubber-meeting-the-road dimension of Christianity, is that we, as the children of God, are servants. So Christ is a servant. Secondly, it's interesting to note in 1 Corinthians 3.5 that the apostles are referred to as servants. Paul in 1 Corinthians 3.5 says, what is Apollos? What is Paul? But servants, there's that Greek word diakonos, through whom you believed as the Lord assigned to each. Thirdly, pastors are referred to as servants. Paul exhorted a young pastor named Timothy to execute his role as an elder in the church. And he said that as he does so, he will prove to be a good servant, diakonos, of Jesus Christ, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. So I want you to get a big snapshot here of these three considerations that we've looked at. When we consider both the apostles and the elders and even Jesus referred to as servants, it helps us to remember that though the official deacons of the church are to take up the bulk of the hands on physical needs of the saints, that doesn't mean that the elders don't also do something like that. It may not be the primary goal and the primary responsibility of the elders to engage in diaconal tasks, but Paul reminds us here that we ourselves are also, as elders, servants. We ourselves are also to be given over to serving. And that's why you may note that in our Constitution, we regard our elders as de facto deacons. They are both elders and deacons. Fourthly, I want you to notice that the civil magistrate is a servant. Paul says this in Romans 13, verse 4. Whether the civil magistrate, I'm talking about the police or army or military or whatever the case may be, whoever bears the sword to punish the wicked and to protect the innocent, Paul calls them servants, whether they're believers or unbelievers. I have a brother-in-law who's an officer and a SWAT team member. And, you know, I always thank him for his service because he is carrying out the judicious retribution of God on the earth in this intermediate kingdom that we call this age. So civil magistrates are servants of God for justice sake. Fifthly, in Romans 16, 1, it's interesting to note that Paul refers to a woman named Phoebe as a servant of the church at Centuria. Now, we'll come back to this idea of a female deaconess, maybe, or is it referring simply to a servant? We'll touch on that next week when we look at the qualifications for deacons in 1 Timothy 3. And then finally, the sixth category, Christians as servants. The servant we see in the thought and teaching of Jesus Christ comes to us in Matthew 20, 25, and 26. You remember that the disciples are arguing with one another about who's greatest in the kingdom of heaven. They were good about putting their foot in their mouth. They were good about causing awkward moments. And in the midst of this awkward moment, they're fighting about who's greatest. Jesus says in Matthew 20, 25, and 26, You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you, but whoever would be great among you must be your servant." What does Jesus do? Jesus turns the modern, at that time, conception of greatness on its head. You want to be great? Serve your brother, serve your sister, serve your fellow man. Don't expect everybody to just come and pay you homage for how great and wise you are. But also, he speaks not specifically to the apostles, but to anybody who would follow him, i.e. a Christian, in John 12, 26. And he says, if anyone serves me, he must follow me. And where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. So what Jesus conveys to us again, and I've made much of this in this point, is that Christians are servants. But now secondly, I want you to consider, the second head, the witness of a servant's heart. The witness of a servant's heart. A life of service to your neighbor serves as a witness to the life of Christ. This obviously holds true in our everyday lives. I've often met people for the first time, either in person or on the phone, of whom I knew nothing about. And yet, I've noticed something peculiar about them. They seem to go out of their way to genuinely serve me. They seem to be genuinely concerned for my well-being. And just from that, I start to suspect, I wonder if this person is a child of God. And then either by me specifically asking them or it just naturally coming up in the conversation, lo and behold, what do I find out? They're a Christian. I don't think that that is a coincidence. I think that what is par for the course in being a Christian is that you, listen, are intentional about serving the needs of others. So do you see how something as simple as service, something as simple as putting the needs of others before your own, can serve as a witness to Christ? Now, I was a Christian when I experienced that, but what about the non-Christians who experienced that? Do you think that they think, like I did, there's something odd, curiously odd, there's something different about this person, and does it not instill in them some semblance of curiosity? And, you know, in that curiosity, they may ask a line of questions to try to find out why is it that you are so different? And why does this service-oriented way of life stick out? Why does it stick out to us? When we experience good service, a Chick-fil-A or whatever the case may be, why is it that it sticks out to us? Well, I would submit to you because I'm sure that you've had the opposite experience of what I've just described. I'm not a handyman. I can do things in the house, but whereas it would take Matt Charlton 15 minutes, it would take me three hours. So I can do it, but what I need is to watch a battery of YouTube videos, and I need to go to Home Depot, like I did one time where I was working at a project in my house, and I need to ask them, how do I do this? So one day I went to Home Depot and I did exactly that. And this was back in California, so this is no, you know, knock to Virginia Home Depots. But I was in Home Depot, and I'm looking all over for those people in the orange aprons. And I can't find anybody. I can't find anybody to help me. And I'm like, what in the world is going on? I mean, they're obviously open because the lights are on, the doors are open. So I'm going all throughout. And you know Home Depot, it's a large, it's a large building. So finally, I make my way all the way back to the back corner of the store. And as I turn the corner, to my surprise, what I find is seven Home Depot employees standing in a circle, laughing, drinking coffee, and carrying a belt. And as soon as my eyes met with their eyes and I said, Poof, they just dispersed. And I literally had to chase one of them, begging them to come help me. And finally, following some semblance of obligation that he has by virtue of being an employee at Home Depot, he decided to help me. But when you come upon somebody like that, and then you contrast it with the wonderful experiences you had, those wonderful experiences stand out, do they not? And I think that that's exactly what Jesus is getting at in Matthew 5, 16, and speaking of his people when he says, in the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. You see, dear congregation, people don't simply give glory to our Father in heaven. Nonbelievers, they don't give glory to our Father in heaven just because our doctrine's right. They give glory to our Father in heaven when as a result of our doctrine being right, it trickles down to our heart and into our hands and into our feet, and they see the light of Christ shining through us. So consider thirdly then, we've looked at how our service as a Christian can be a witness to those outside the church, but now thirdly, I want you to consider what the priority of a servant's heart should be. what the priority of a servant's heart should be. Without taking anything back that I've said about our general service in everyday lives, let me hasten to add that for Christians, listen to me very carefully, the priority and the predominance of service will be to the church. It will be to the church. The priority of your serving, whatever that looks like, whatever the quantity is, whatever the quality is, the primary trajectory, if you will, of your service will be to the church. And this is what Paul says in Galatians 6.10, an often overlooked verse when it comes to the very controversial and ongoing discussions right now of what the church is to be to society. But Paul says this in Galatians 6.10, he says, so then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone. Wonderful, that's a wonderful verse. But Paul continues, especially to those of the household of faith. Do you see that Paul puts a premium and a priority on the household of God? Paul is not some reformed curmudgeon that thinks that all that matters is what goes on on the inside of these four walls of the church. He's not that guy. He very much wants to reach out to the community, whatever that looks like. But for him, it's a family matter. And the family that is central and near and dear to his heart is the family of the Church of Christ. You know, we currently find ourselves in a chapter of the church where a heavy emphasis is being placed on serving those outside the church, serving the city, serving the community. And as I said, this is a great thing. At the same time, in all of our efforts to serve the community, we should never lose sight of the needs in our own congregation. Let me tell you something. This is very interesting. For a short time, My wife and I, as we were trying to figure out, when I was in the middle of my PhD program, trying to figure out what we were gonna do. Are we gonna do missions? Are we gonna go to a local church? What is it that we're gonna do? Am I gonna work for UPS for the rest of my life? We were trying to figure out what we wanted to do. And at one point, I sat down with an IMB representative, that is the International Mission Board. They are that arm of the Southern Baptist Convention that sends out missionaries, and really, it's an amazing operation. But what I found in speaking to them, and this is a good thing, is that they had a very specific and rigorous vetting process for their missionaries. You see, if you become a missionary with the IMB, they comp everything. They give you a decent salary, all the outfitting costs that it takes you to get to Timbuktu or wherever you're going. They pay for all of that. They pay for all the training. They pay for everything. So naturally, you would imagine that many people, at least in the Southern Baptist circles, would desire to be missionaries. But here's something that's interesting that I noted. In their vetting process, here's one of the things that they do. They ask you questions like, have you ever, has the Lord ever used you to bring somebody to the Lord? Now, don't overanalyze that. All that means is that through your proclamation of the gospel, sharing the gospel evangelism, was the Lord pleased in his sovereignty to bring somebody to the Lord through that interaction or a series of those interactions, okay? They wanna know if you're sharing the gospel. You know what else they want to know? They want to know if that's currently what you are doing. Are you in a habit of sharing the gospel with people in your community? Why? Why do they ask that question? Because if they pick you, they're going to send you 3,000 miles across the world to go do what? Share the gospel with people. Yes, it's in a different country, and yes, perhaps it'll be in a different language, but here's the thing. Sometimes they come across people who are like, no, I've never won anybody to the Lord, I don't share the gospel, but you should send me 3,000 miles across the globe to share the gospel. And you just, you know, that leaves me scratching my bald head thinking, why in the world would we do that if you're not even doing it here? Well, that carries over to service. It carries over to service, you see, We do find many people, especially in the current milieu of the evangelical church today, who are doing all these things outside in soup kitchens, and saving the city, and reforming the city, and working in parks. And all of those things are great. I don't want to detract from that. But here's the thing. Listen to me. If in all your efforts to reach out to the community and help them, there is a widow in your congregation has a broken AC and that need has gone unmet, you've missed the point. You've missed the point. Jesus talks about one of the churches in Revelation forgetting their first what? Their first love. What is our first love as Christians? Our first love as Christians is the church. So don't misunderstand me. If you have a broad and deep heart to go help the community, I say yes and amen. The only thing I would like to give as a caveat is Galatians 6.10. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially those of the household of faith. It is in the church where service begins. It's in the church where we cut our teeth on service. That's where we get our feet wet. So we need to keep the first things first. But you know what's also interesting? I've talked about this a lot. There is a fascinating scene. You don't need to turn there, but there's a fascinating scene in Matthew chapter 25, verses 31 to 46. where Jesus talks about how he's gonna come back on the last day and he's gonna judge the living and the dead. We often refer to this passage as the sheep-goat judgment. And as everybody is resurrected, Jesus has the sheep on the right hand and the goats on the left hand. And what I would have you notice about the order of this is that they're already resurrected. They're already resurrected on the last day and the sheep have a particular resurrection that is fit for heaven and the goats have another particular resurrection that is fit for eternal destruction. And as the sheep look over at the goats and the goats look over to the sheep, they know that's a sheep and that's a goat. I can tell by how they look. They look like one of those dancers on Michael Jackson's thriller video, okay? The zombies that, yes, they're alive, but they're really dead and they're going to hell. So everybody's already resurrected. In a sense, judgment has already taken place. But now what Jesus does is he begins to look at those on his right, the sheep, and he says this, I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was stranger, and you welcomed me. I was naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came to me." Beautiful, beautiful picture of a work and a life of service. But you know what's interesting? So many times people look at this pastor and they say, oh, what Jesus is talking about is how the Christians served everybody in the world. Not so. Listen to what he says in verses 37 to 40. Then the righteous will answer him saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you to drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you? And the king will answer them. Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers, you did it to me. You know what Jesus is highlighting on the Day of Judgment? The works of the saints. Not, again, for salvation. They're already judged in the resurrection. The resurrection has already established what kind of eternality of life they are going to have. But then as he proceeds to talk about what characterized the life of the sheep and what characterized the life of the goats, it was this. The sheep were constantly giving over to serving the least of these, my brethren. They were giving over to their people. I get so tired sometimes, with all due respect, of some pontificators in the evangelical world that want to talk about our identity as evangelicals as my racial identity, my socioeconomic identity, my gender identity. Folks, the Bible has one predominant thing to say about our identity, and it is our union with Christ. My union with Christ is my primary identity, and when I look around to see who is my family, I don't look to my blood, I don't look to my skin, I don't look to my socioeconomic demographic, I look to who professes faith in Jesus Christ. Because they are my brothers, they are my sisters, they are my mothers and my fathers. The Bible very clearly puts forth that the priority of the heart of the child of God in their service is the people of God. And then notice, the goats, they get told the other thing. You didn't feed me when I was hungry, you didn't give me to drink when I was thirsty, and oh, when did we not do this? When you didn't do it to the least of these, my brethren. And so may I just submit to you very summarily that the church is given over to serving her brethren primarily, and then from that, as that platform is laid out in the context of a local church, then we go outside these four walls and serve the rest. So I want you to take a moment this morning, I know I've given you a lot to think about, but from time to time we as office bearers need to stir up through the work of the Spirit and the proclamation of the Word of God our hearts as a congregation to ask this question, how am I serving Grace Covenant Church? How are you currently, where you find yourself serving Grace Covenant Church as a member of this place? Now, some of you, can I just say this? Some of you are phenomenal servants. I mean phenomenal servants. I don't want to name names because I don't want to embarrass people. You know who you are. You get praise heaped on you quite often, but if there's something to be done, you're on it. God bless you. You're doing well. Keep doing it. But you know, I have a dream. I have a dream, and in my dream, Grace Covenant Church breaks the stereotype of the typical statistic which tells us that 20% of the people do what? 80% of the work. I have a dream where Grace Covenant Church is so given over to service. that that is a statistical anomaly for us. Because so many of us, as busy as we are, as much as we have on our plates, are intentional in trying to find and carve out time in our schedules to give ourselves for the people of the church. In the same dream, as soon as a need is put out on the listserv, The person who asked for it has to send out another email saying, stop responding. I got enough responses. I got 14 people here presently looking at my AC because it's broken. So stop giving me offers. That's what I see in my dream, is that Grace Covenant Church is eager to serve one another. So we have that category of people in our church, that they're servants, they're given over to service, but there's another category. Others of you are new, you just came into membership, you're trying to find your place, and maybe you want to serve, but you don't know where to start. You don't know where to start. Well, above and beyond everything I've said this morning, let me just say, if you don't know where to start, Go talk to a deacon. I guarantee you a deacon will have something for you to do. And if a deacon doesn't have something for you to do, which is in a parallel universe, go talk to one of our nursery coordinators, Erica Whitus or Stephanie Carl. We always have need to serve the little children that the Lord has commended to us in this community, not only watching them, but even as young as one, two, three years old, speaking the gospel to them. Okay, don't be so baptistic that you say something like, well, I don't start sharing the gospel with kids until they're 10 years old. Good grief. Come on. I mean, the psalmist talks about I want to be careful with this, but the psalmist talks about the faith that he had while on the knee of his mother. And I think what it's getting at is that there are some in this congregation who, when they share their testimony as they come into membership, it's not like, I was a drug dealing, cartel running, this, that, and Grand Theft Auto, and then I got saved. It's like, I've never known a time that I haven't known the Lord. My parents have been faithful to catechize me. My parents have been faithful to put me under the means of grace morning and evening. And I've always loved the Lord. That's the testimonies that we want. And you know what? You as a member in this church can contribute to the panoply of means that the Lord uses to bring about such a testimony as you serve in that nursery. Okay? Some of you men that love doctrine, that love rich theology, bless you. Here's a challenge for you. Take that theology and put it on the bottom shelf for a two-year-old to understand. Okay? Go do that. If you can do that, that's impressive. It's not impressive to talk to another adult and just kind of bang heads and go back and forth and quote Spurgeon, quote Calvin, quote Luther. Okay, go talk to an infant and speak the gospel to them. Go talk to Tara Schultz, our children's discipleship coordinator. So many of you, so many of you have. accepted the call to teach our children. Before I became a pastor, I would often, my wife and I would serve in the nursery or in the classroom, and I loved and relished the opportunity to preach the gospel to these young children. You know what I would often find? I would often find that in the interactions that I would have and the dialogical conversation that I would have with these children about the gospel, they would often shame me in how much they loved and trusted the Lord. Their faith was commendable. There's a reason why Jesus said, if you have faith like a child, right? Because a child instinctively trusts his father no matter what. Okay, no fear if he's in the lap of his father. And so often these children, they shame us in our doubting faith, in our weak faith. And I think, you know what? If you were to get into those classrooms, it would not only be a service to the children, it would be a service to you. You would get blessed by the faith of our children. But also, go talk to Miss Alma Altamirum. who sets up or oversees the fellowship meal coordinating. I think that's one of the best places to start as a member in this place who wants to serve. Help set up for fellowship meal. Help tear down for fellowship meal. Go talk to Ms. Elma. Get on that list. Who's going to set up the food table? Who's going to tear down? Don't think that these things are under you. If you think that these things are under you, you need to go back and read Philippians 2. Everything that Jesus did was under him, literally, and yet he did it. Finally, there's a third category of you in this congregation. Some of you have been here a while and you still do not serve in any way. May I just humbly encourage you this morning to remember our Lord, who came not to be served, but to serve. This is our Lord. This is the person of whom we sing in our hymns. This is the person of whom we confess in our confession. This is the person whom, together with the Father and the Spirit, we worship, and he was a servant. And he is the one that all of us should be striving to be like. So may the character of Jesus Christ and his sacrifice spur every single one of us on to find a place to serve in this church. And may the Lord use the collective service that we as saints put together in this church to make this a better place, to give a break to some of our nursery workers. to give a break to some of our teachers, to give a break to many of the saints in this place who for years and years and years have faithfully served. I have one last thing to say this morning, and I want to talk to the youth. It's always a relative term. Junior hires, high schoolers, listen to me, okay? Poke your heads up. One of the questions I often ask this congregation is, who will be the pastor of your grandchildren? Who will be the pastor? It's a question I give to the adults, but junior highers and high schoolers, I want you to listen to me. The next pastor, the next main preaching pastor of this place does not grow on trees. And certainly, when I'm gone from this place, the Lord calls me home, or whatever the case may be, we can get a committee together, a pastoral search committee, and we can look for somebody outside the four walls of this church. But you know what? That's not ideal. You know what's ideal? What's ideal is that the next minister of word and sacrament comes from these pews. comes from the young men, junior highers, high schoolers, who week in and week out as they receive and sit under the means of grace. There's something of a call crying out in their heart that says, I want to do that. I want to preach the Word of God to the people of God. I want to see my theology fleshed out in the life of a people. I don't want it to be theoretical and just ethereal. I want to see God's glory fleshed out in the ministry of word, sacrament, and prayer. Teenagers and junior highers, I just want to challenge you. Maybe that's you. Maybe that's you, keep the door open to that possibility. And not just as pastors, but as missionaries. Wouldn't it be wonderful if in this place, we didn't just support missionaries that none of us have hardly ever met and that came from other churches, but we supported a missionary that came from this place. Little Johnny, little Susie, who grew up from knee high to a grasshopper, and when they were of age said, I want to be sent out into the harvest. I want to be sent out to Timbuktu, to Ireland, to Zimbabwe, to wherever it is that the Lord would have me go, because I've been fed and cultivated through word and sacrament in this place, and I have something to say. I have a gospel to preach. I have a desire to see souls saved and sanctified under the covenant lordship of our Lord Jesus Christ. Boys and girls, that may be you. That may be you. And it's not just men. You know what, girls? Ladies, little ladies, maybe the Lord's calling you to be a Bible translator. Maybe the Lord's calling you to be a pastor's wife. Maybe the Lord's calling you to be a counselor. Maybe the Lord's calling you to something in his kingdom, whether it is in this local outpost or in another, but leave the door open to that possibility. Can I just say that riches are deceitful? So often we're born and bred in this culture to think, I want to get a job, I want to get a career that's going to give me the most money. Let me tell you, you can go to the most rich people in this age and other ages, and they will tell you that rich is deceived. They will tell you that whereas they thought that they were going to get so much happiness and so much joy in the accumulation of their bank account and portfolio, they were sorely deceived. And you know what? Jesus tells us this. This is not news. But the eternal consequences of saved souls through the efforts of pastors and missionaries and counselors and even deacons will be of eternal consequence. So children, teens, teenagers, think about that. I can tell you that your elders and even your deacons pray that the Lord would raise up in this place men and women to serve the Lord in the broader Kingdom of God efforts and even in local efforts. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you that your son was sent as a servant for his people. And Father, I just very simply pray as we round off this ministry of the word that you would ignite within each and every one of our hearts, especially the hearts of those who perhaps haven't found a place, either by circumstance or by intention, that you would exhort each and every one of us, Father, to find a place to serve in this church. Yes, we are a small church, but we're a growing church, and there are plenty of opportunities. So Father, convict, move, lead, guide, encourage, and cause all of the saints to find their place as a member in the body where your glory is perpetually shining through the collective whole. We ask all these things in your son's name. Amen. Let's stand for