What a Deacon Avoids
1 Timothy 3:8-13
By Pastor Jordan Hines

For our Bible reading this morning, we're going to be reading out of one Timothy, chapter three. We're going to be reading verses eight through 13 together. If you want to follow along in your bibles, I'll give you a second here to find that.

And while you're doing that, if you can stand so for our Bible reading, our respect for the word of God, likewise, deacons must be reverent, not double tongued, not given too much wine, not greedy for money, holding the mystery of faith with a pure conscience. But let these also first be tested. Then let them serve as deacons and being found blameless.

Likewise, their wives must be reverent, not slanderers. Temperate, faithful in all things. Let deacons be the husband of one wife, ruling their children and their own house as well.

For those who have served well as deacons, obtain for themselves a good standing and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus. Let's go ahead and pray. Heavenly Father, we praise you and we thank you for this morning.

We thank you for all the goodness you have shown to us, Lord, from our salvation to the work of the Holy Spirit, which indwells us and guides us and directs us in your truth, to even the hope that we just sang about, about your coming, Lord, and how we will be with you forever, rejoicing and praising you, and just the joy that we'll have serving you as our Lord. Lord, I just thank you for the service this morning. I thank you for the chance to come together as a family, as a group of believers who love you.

Help us to focus on the things of God, help us to put aside the distractions, help us to put aside the thoughts of what else is going on in our life and just solely focus on you and your son, Jesus Christ. We're thankful so much for his death on the cross and his resurrection for our sins, Lord, and we want to give him praise and honor. This morning we pray that as we study your word, as we fellowship together, as we sing to you, as we pray together, that you would be glorified and honored in it.

That is our goal, Lord, to lift you up, to put you first, to make you the most important thing in our life, Lord, just give us that right attitude and the right heart. This morning we pray for Pastor Jordan as he brings your word, that you would give him wisdom and help him to recall the things that he studied, that he may teach your word faithfully and truly to us and help us to be good listeners, Lord, and to take those words and put them in our heart and in our life. Lord, we give you this time.

Now we're thankful for again all your goodness to us, all your good things that you have done for us, all the good things that you have promised to us, knowing that you are faithful and you will accomplish what you said. Lord, may you be honored and glorified in this service. In Jesus name.

Amen. A great singing this morning. I appreciate that.

We paused and took a moment just to reset our minds on worship as we sang. We are not just going through the motions. We are indeed worshiping the king of kings, the Lord of lords.

And it should never, ever, ever be boring. And God forbid anybody ever make the Bible boring because that is a sin. The Bible is exciting.

The Bible is a joyous book that gives hope. And as we come to the word of God, must admit I somewhat feel like a teacher on the first day of class when you have to say you can't do this, this or this. Or like I'm thinking back to college orientation where you hear rules that you think, I'm pretty sure someone did that and that's the reason why the rule exists.

A couple weeks ago we talked about hypocrisy and we're talking about in the context of the office of deacons and how they're supposed to avoid it. Today we're talking about two other sins, addiction and greed. And they're not exactly topics that we want to bring up all the time, but they are topics that are real in our society, are real in our churches.

They're real and we have to deal with them. And we are sort of looking at road signs here of saying, avoid this, avoid this. And I've used this illustration before, but as you go up a mountain road where there's nothing but steep ledges and rocks on either side, you have these signs, stay in the center of your lane, stay on the road.

You need to stay away from these things in order to avoid disaster. And keep in mind, this is all in the context of the office of deacon. As we looked at the office of deacon, the main purpose from acts chapter six was to serve so that the pastor or the apostles in that context could minister the word.

They could be in prayer. And we saw a couple weeks ago we were to avoid hypocrisy. And notice a couple weeks ago we talked about deacons.

We also talked about every single church member here and every single Christian. Because it's not just two pastors or deacons, it is to all. And that's really what I want to do today.

It's not just about talking to the three people who God has called as deacons in this, this church. It is talking to every single person that is a Christian, that is called by God to walk in good works. And by avoiding these things, I think we always sometimes have bad perspective on these negative commands.

We say, don't do this. Don't have greed, don't have addictions. We don't have these things.

We avoid these things so we can experience the joy of the Lord, so we can experience a flourishing walk with God. It's not in a sense that we can. We just have this list of rules we have to follow just because God said so.

We follow these things because God is trying to help us walk with him. By avoiding these things, we are able to have newness of life. We're able to experience the mercies of God every day.

We're able to experience the joy of a close walk with God. So let's have that kind of perspective going into this as we, we think through the idea that we are to avoid addictions and greed in all of our relationships, but especially in the context of the office of deacons. And we're going to see that very simply.

I'm sure the main points are not going to be very complex for you. You can fill them in. Now.

Point one is addictions .2 is greed. We're going to talk about both of those points today.

But before we get into that, let's pray. God, as we come to your word, we come to a passage and a concept that we're going to study that is difficult, and yet we need to hear it. We need to know exactly what your word says about greed and addiction, to know how to walk with you in contrast to this dirty, awful sin that we're looking at today.

God, help us to be humble enough to admit where we are at fault. Help us be humble enough to not point at the sins of others and say that, well, their sins are far worse than mine. Because, God, we all need your grace.

Help us to walk together in this passage by the power of your spirit, in your son's name. Amen. First, I want to get into the idea of addictions here and the context that we're looking at.

We're looking at one Timothy, chapter three, verse eight. And we're just looking at one word at a time. I'll just start in verse eight and I'm going to stop when we get to the word.

Likewise, deacons must be reverent, not double tongued, not given to much wine. That's really where we're parking for now, not given too much wine. And just like a few weeks ago, we're going to start with some very simple definitions about what those phrases actually mean and do some further study and see, in the context of scripture, what does God's word say about being given to wine? And how can we apply biblical principles to this? And then we're going to briefly tackle the problem, the situation that America and America's church is in.

So just briefly, some definitions. So we're on the same page. This idea of given to is really a worship term.

It's to serve. It's to devote yourself to. So when someone who is given to wine, they are devoting their life to alcohol, devoting their life to controlling substance.

It's to pay attention to, to heed. This is in direct contrast to how we are supposed to live our life, right? We're supposed to have our bodies and our minds under the subjection of God so that we can be in service of him. Luther once said, serve the Lord constantly and without hindrance.

We are to serve the Lord constantly and without hindrance. To serve something other than God or to heed, to give our attention to something other than God is idolatry. But notice the amount of wine here.

It says much. It says a quantifier. This is great.

This is a lot. This is not just a little bit. This is a lot.

Do not give yourself too much wine. Now, there's admittedly some controversy among churches, among peoples about exactly where the christian liberties lie on this subject. And I would just say that I'm going to preach what the word of God says about it.

And I think that you're going to find that it is almost never given as a command to drink. The Bible doesn't say to drink, except for in one circumstance with Timothy, and it's really for medicinal purposes. Much wine.

This is an issue of wisdom, of how do I use my body and use my time and use my energies to serve the Lord? Is drinking the best use of my body? Does it help me honor God or does it hinder my walk with God? And there is also the concepts in one Corinthians of the stronger and weaker brother, and you can go through that on your own time. We don't have time to go through that whole text, but the idea is that we don't use our freedoms or what we can do for selfish means. We don't do it because we want to or because we think we can get away with it.

We do it because we want to glorify God. We use our bodies. We use our.

The practices that we do to glorify God. And then the substance itself here is wine. In the context of this day, it would be alcoholic or grape juice, basically fermented grape juice.

And there are many studies, and you can look them up, they're all over the Internet. But you can find the idea that this grape juice was far less fermented because the processes have continued to develop over time. And it would take in a lot more wine and grape juice to become drunk than it would be today if you were to go to a tavern or a bar.

The idea here is that these people, these deacons, are not to be people who are given to or subjecting themselves openly to wine or controlling their body. And the basic simple question to ask then, is why? I think the answer to that question is because their body is to be given for service to the Lord. Just a bit of further study on this.

I would say that there is a positive use of this word to give attention, to understand that in the context of one Timothy, even you're to give attention to the reading, to the exhortation, to the doctrine. One Timothy 413. So I want us to think of this topic as not as much as a black and white.

This is talking about alcohol, but thinking, avoid this. But what else do I give my attention to? If I'm not giving my attention to alcohol, what am I giving my attention to? What does scripture say we should give our attention to? We're to give our attention to the reading, exhortation, and doctrine. Romans 13 six says you should pay taxes.

The idea of paying is literally just attributing it to, or giving time to, giving effort, energies to. I'm paying it. We are to give our attention to things other than controlling substances.

And there, as I mentioned before, there is a permission in scripture to drink wine. It's one, Timothy 523, no longer drink only water, but use a little wine for your stomach's sake and your frequent infirmities. So Paul is talking to Timothy, this younger man in the faith who he has discipled.

He's saying, it's okay. Have this for medicinal purposes. It's not for.

For enjoyment purposes. He's not going out to drink just for fun. He is doing this to take care of his body.

And there is the idea that even we have medicines today that are drugs. That's literally what they're called. They help our bodies maintain their health.

They help our bodies be healthy. So there is the concept of the municipal purpose of it. And I want to apply this broadly to Christians here that we are in Ephesians 518, not to be drunk with wine.

There are very clear passages like Ephesians 5:18, do not be drunk with wine. It doesn't get much more clearer than Paul saying, do not be drunk with wine. Don't do it, in which it dissipation, but be filled with the spirit.

Now it says, do not be drunk. It doesn't say, do not drink. And yet wisdom would say, I believe that it is impossible to get drunk if you do not drink.

And drinking, I don't have any experience with this, but if you do drink, I would imagine that you don't really know where that line is. And as you drink, you become more impaired as far as your judgment goes. I don't know where the line is or where I become impaired, where my judgment lapses.

And you have the really the challenging part of dealing with a sin cursed world, where people indulge in this on a regular basis. And yet I would challenge you even to know that even the world knows this is wrong. Even the world sees alcohol as a danger.

There's a reason why you shouldn't drink and drive. There's a reason why you shouldn't drink if you're underage. Drinking is even seen as a bad thing in society.

This is applied to all Christians. This is in the text of Ephesians five. It's dissipation, it's lavishness, it's the act of spending or using something excessively.

It's too much. Several principles can be applied to this topic to help us really understand how we ought to think through this topic. Romans 1313 says, let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy.

And if you think of the Galatians five, passage of the fruits of the spirit of drunkenness is listed as a work of the flesh. First Peter, chapter four, verse three. For we spend, for we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles.

When we walk in lewdness, lust, drunkenness, reveries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. Notice it's never mentioned in a positive light. It's not mentioned as something.

You should really pursue this so you can share the gospel with people who are also drunk. It's a problem, and self control is always exalted above this indulgence of the flesh. Proverbs 25 28, whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down without walls, we are to be in control of the being that God has blessed us with.

We are to be walking and using our bodies as the temple of the Holy Spirit. That it is understanding that we are Christ's representative on this earth. Being sober here is another concept we need to talk about, because the opposite of being drunk is being sober.

And being sober in scripture is not just applied to your body, it's also applied to your mind first. Thessalonians five, six. Therefore, let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober.

It's to be temperate, to not be given to any extremes, to not be on the left or on the right, but be in control of our being. To be sober is characterized by self control, seriousness, sound moral judgment, to be in your right mind. Because we are to use and take captive every single moment, every single thought, every single opportunity to share the gospel with our lives and with our actions, with everything we say and do.

We need to really consider what it means to be sober minded. It means that nothing is wasted. We use every part of us to glorify God.

If you can think back to perhaps when you were learning how to drive, new drivers are prone to extremes. Usually some of the tendencies people have when they learn to drive is they over-steer, they're turning a corner, and they keep turning and turning and turning, or they don't slow down fast enough, or they slow down too fast, or they don't slow down at all. Or you just have problems.

You have extremes. You're not in control. We ought to be in control of the vessel God has entrusted to us, because we are to take captive every thought, every action for the glory of God, for the good works that he has set us to walk into.

We are to not become short sighted and overreact when we see something coming. As Christians, we are to be able to understand the challenges of sins so that we can avoid them. We are to pursue godliness so that we can glorify God by everything we say and do.

We must learn to be controlled or driven by God. I've been saying self controlled, but the idea here I want to expand upon is that it's not our power that we're using. It's not that I have the willpower to stay self controlled.

Therefore, God's going to use me. It's God is going to use me if I yield myself to him and allow him to use my life, and if I truly allow him to be in control of my life. These problems of addiction of greed.

They will not be as much of a threat to me or as a temptation to me, because I will be abounding in the work of the Lord. These are the principles that we can apply to this text, apply to this idea of addiction, and addiction to wine specifically, but also addiction. I would say in general, there are many addictions.

The addiction problem here in America is alcohol, nicotine, marijuana. I would say screen time is an addiction. I would say laziness is an addiction.

I would say there are a lot of addictions in our life that don't sound like addictions. Addictions are problems because the very nature of being addicted means that you are controlled by it, not by God. It is spiritual adultery to not take captive every thought, every moment for the glory of God.

We are sort of in a place in society where we are desiring to be independent. We're desiring to pursue our addictions, pursue what we find pleasure in, and instead we ought to desire to be controlled by God. It's the opposite of what culture is telling you to do, but we are to be controlled by the spirit of God.

The church must have an answer for these problems. As we've painted the picture of this problem, it's easy to just say, yeah, it's a real big problem, but I don't struggle with it. The church is to minister to people who have all kinds of challenges and addictions and problems.

And just a careful disclaimer here, there is often a physical aspect to addiction. The body is used to doing something. It is prone to do something.

And so to break those habits is a hard thing. So there is a physical aspect. It's not as simple as giving someone a Bible verse to memorize and expecting them to be better the next day.

It takes hard work. It takes time. It takes a heart that is not pursuing bondage in that addiction, but instead is pursuing freedom in Christ and understanding.

It's not going to be easy. If anybody ever tries to tell you, Christianity is easier, walking with God is easier. Walking away from addiction is easy.

They're selling you something, they're wrong. You need to run away from that person because life change is difficult. But fortunately, we're not doing life change on our own.

We have the power of God. We have the community of God, the church of God. And we also, as a church, need to understand that we are just as much sinners as people who have obvious, clear addictions to alcohol, to drugs, to things that are even publicly not acceptable.

Those people need Christ just like we need Christ. We are to avoid giving ourselves over to the controlling power of any addiction, especially alcohol. And as deacons, men are to set examples.

I mentioned this before a couple weeks ago. But as deacons set examples to the flock, they are to be men who are. The term is blameless, meaning if someone tries to pin a sin on that person, it falls right off.

There is nothing to pin pin on. This is what deacons are to be. They're to be men of God who love the church so much that they're willing to first of all be godly men so they can serve in a godly way.

Now another disclaimer. This is not going to be an exhaustive teaching on how to deal with addiction. If you are addicted to a substance, to a pattern of life, to whatever it is, maybe it is wine, you need to seek help.

You need to seek godly counsel. If you need to seek physical counsel, seek physical counsel. But the word of God has to be a part of that counsel.

There is a physical side to this, but understand that no physical change outside of a spiritual heart change will ever be permanent. You may be able to change your behavior, but your heart is something totally, completely different. Secondly, I want us to look at greed.

Greed is the simple idea of shameful or dishonest gain you're seeking after what's next. This is a somewhat overused picture, but years ago, Tom Brady, after he'd won three super bowls, was interviewed and asked, what's next? Or what's his favorite ring? His answer was always the next one. You could talk to millionaires and billionaires and even trillionaires, and you could ask them, do you have enough money? Do you have enough businesses? Do you have enough houses and cars? The answer is no, because greed is never satisfied.

The thirst is never quenched. Greed is selfish. Greed is shameful.

Greed is dishonest. That is what greed is. And it's not something that a believer ought to be indulging in.

Some further study on this is found in proverbs 1527. He who is greedy for gain troubles his house, but he who hates a bribe will live. He who is greedy for gain troubles his own house, but he who hates bribes will live.

And then the text that I automatically thought of when I thought of this idea of greed was this parable, Luke chapter twelve. And I'd invite you to turn there to Luke chapter twelve of the rich fool. And this rich fool is pursuing his own gain, pursuing his own position of power and financial status.

And Jesus teaches about this man who does not desire him. This is Luke, chapter twelve, verses 13 to 21. Luke 12 13 21.

Then one from the crowd said to him, teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. And he said to him, man, who made me a judge or arbiter over you? And he said to them, take heed and beware of covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses. Verse 16 then he spoke a parable to them, saying, the ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully.

And he's thought within himself, saying, what shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops? So he said, I will do this. I will pull down my barns and build greater. And there I will store all my crops and my goods.

And I will say to my soul, soul, you have many goods laid up for many years. Take your ease, eat, drink and be merry. But God said to him, fool, this night your soul will be required of you.

Then those then whose will those things be which you have provided? So he said, so is he who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God. This parable speaks directly at the principles that many Americans and many people in this western world live. Bye.

We all have plans, we all have goals, and we think, I I I want this. And sometimes we just need to stop and remember that all this stuff is not mine, it's God's. So when we're greedy for more things, thinking that we can obtain these things and enjoy these things, we're being greedy for things that aren't even ours.

I think that the notion underneath this argument is that if I gain enough things, I can use this to satisfy my soul. But those things don't satisfy. Only God does.

We are to be rich towards God. We are to be consumed with goddess. This is why you can find a person who is homeless, who has Christ, who has more joy than a millionaire, who has five homes.

This is why you can find someone who has all the things the world can buy, and yet they're unhappy. They're divorced, and they're just entrenched in a wicked lifestyle, and they can never find contentment, yet they have all this stuff. Yet you can find in comparison a man who has relatively nothing compared to that person, who is richly rewarded by God, who has friends and family, who care for him and love him, and he has relationships that he is helping them grow in, and they're helping him grow in.

God is concerned with men being consumed by his glory and pursuing his glory. And the idea of greed flies in the face of our true humility. That we ought to be having.

See, we are not made to honor ourselves or to seek riches for ourselves, but to be vessels for the glory of God. Two Timothy 220 says, but in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from the ladder, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the master, prepared for every good work.

Flee also youthful lust, but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace, and without those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Another similar idea is found in two Corinthians four, five for we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves are ourselves your bondservants for Christ's sake. For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. If we really saw ourselves the way God sees us, we would not have problems with pride. We would not have problems with greed, because we would understand that we're not on this earth to pursue greedy gain or to pursue ourselves.

We are to pursue God. A disturbing survey from years ago asked the question, what would you do for $20 million? What are you willing to do for $20,000,000.02 thirds of Americans polled would agree to at least one.

Some of some agreed to the several. Number one. Would you abandon your entire family? 25% said yes.

Would you abandon your church? 25% said yes. Would you become prostitutes for a week or more? 23% said yes. Would you give up the American citizenship you have? 16% said yes.

Would you leave your spouse? 16% said yes. Would you withhold testimony and let a murderer go free? 10% said yes. Would you kill a stranger? 7% said yes.

Would you put their children up for adoption? 3% said yes. This is an old survey, but I believe it's still accurate. Greed and addiction and a search and hunger for power controls people.

I don't want to come across as an angry person or someone who's just pointing out the sin and not trying to solve it or trying to offer the solution. We need to look on people who are trapped in this cycle of addiction and greed and have pity and mercy and compassion because they don't understand what they're doing. They don't see that what they're throwing their life into and pursuing with everything they are is worthless.

Greed will destroy a person. Understand that. Sometimes we want the stuff that God gives us more than we want God.

We're not immune to this. We want the stuff that God gives us more than we want God. Sometimes.

Sometimes we want to put ourselves in the place of God. Attempting to control what only God can control and freaking out when we don't get what we want and throwing a temper tantrum like a five or six year old that doesn't get what they want. Sometimes we want to elevate our importance in God's plan and thinking that God would never point out the greed and addiction in my life.

God does not need to use any of us. And yet this is where we have hope. God looks at us.

He sees us. He sees the hypocrisy from a few weeks ago, the greed, the addiction. And yet he still chose to love you.

He still gave you breath. This morning you were able to come to church. You were able to fellowship with your brothers and sisters in Christ.

You're able to rejoice that you are a co heir with Christ, that you have the blessing of an eternity in heaven waiting for you. Instead of an eternal judgment and condemnation in hell, you have God. And because of, because we have God, we have a reason for hope.

And we have a reason to share this hope with other people. I want to turn an application to deacons as we conclude here. Deacons, as you hear this message, take these qualifications seriously.

Know that God has granted you a unique opportunity to minister to this church in the right way. So heed the warning. Avoid addiction, avoid greed.

Avoid your life being controlled by something other than the gospel, other than the Holy Spirit working in your life. Recognize the dangers of these moral and character pitfalls and actively avoid them by pursuing Christ. So one thing that should be said here is that it's not as if I'm just going to say in the morning, well, I'm not going to do this, this and this.

It's, I am pursuing something. It's an either or. It's either I am falling closer and closer to the world or I am pursuing Christ.

I'm running this direction. It's like the idea of repentance. When you were converted, when you were saved, you changed your mind about the sin.

You were walking in, you ran to Christ and you said, God, save me. And ever since that day he's been sanctifying you. Allow me to broaden this out to the church.

Know that it is impossible to keep your deacons accountable in these areas. If you are also failing in these areas, it is impossible to hold someone accountable to something that you are not doing yourself. It is like if your personal trainer takes you to the gym and has you on the treadmill and they are just in front of you eating a bag of potato chips and they're just saying, keep going, you got it.

Eat that carrot later. You know, be good. I'm just going to be lazy and eat potato chips.

It's hypocritical, it's not right. So it takes humility as a church member to keep your deacons accountable, to go to your brother with the word of God, to go to each other with the word of God and to keep each other accountable. In this way, the standard for what is right for a deacon and for a church member is not found in your pastor's knowledge or wisdom.

It's found in the word of God. And I want to turn now to unbelievers because they can be somewhat left out of this conversation. And it can probably seem kind of odd for believers to talk about this.

But see that the standards that we're talking about are so high because our God is so great, because our God is righteous, he is holy, he is eternally self existent. He is eternally all knowing and all powerful. He is loving, he is merciful, he is our judge.

Standard that we have is also not something to be mistaken for earning salvation. So it's not to say that if someone doesn't drink, doesn't have hypocrisy and doesn't have greed in their life, apparently, or visually, that they're perfect and that that's why they're going to heaven. It's just the opposite.

Because Jesus has changed their life, because the cross of Calvary paid for the penalty for their salvation and now they've placed their trust in Jesus Christ. And now because their faith is in Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ is the one whose blood was shed. Jesus Christ's blood is the one who was given for those people.

That is why these men are motivated. That's why the church members are motivated to serve God. Because we have been saved, we have been given life, and therefore we give our life to goddess service.

John 14 six says, I am the way. This is Jesus speaking to his disciples. I am the way, the truth and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me. Romans ten, nine and ten says that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes under unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

This church holds deacons accountable because we believe that God is real. We know God is real by faith. This church has a standard for what is right from their pastor, from their deacons, from church members, because God is good.

Because God is the same as he was yesterday, and he will continue to be. And I pray that as a church, as we study these principles, as we study these tasks that deacons have in front of them, that you would also be impacted by these truths, that you would also be changed and be reminded that my life is not to be lived for myself. It is to be avoiding these things so I can pursue Christ in a more effective way, in a way that glorifies him.

Let's pray. God, thank you for giving us a clear standard. As we look at the standard from your word, we understand that it's not based on anything that any man has ever earned outside of Jesus Christ.

He is the one who is the standard. He is the one who saved us and died for us. God help us as a church to repent of sins to if we are struggling.

If someone is struggling with greed or addiction, to pursue physical help, of course, yes. But also see the need for heart change that is in pursuit of Jesus Christ every single moment of their life. In your son's name we pray.

Amen.