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Speaker 1: How do you. Good morning, friends and faithul listeners, and

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Speaker 1: welcome to the Bible Explain podcast on this lovely Tuesday morning.

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Speaker 1: I hope you guys are doing well. We're going to

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Speaker 1: be reading First Timothy three today and finishing up this

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Speaker 1: chapter talking about the qualifications for deacons and deaconesses. All right,

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Speaker 1: faithful listeners, so don't forget that I'm going to be

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Speaker 1: taking Thursday off this week as well as Monday through

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Speaker 1: next Wednesday. But let's go ahead and read First Timothy

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Speaker 1: three eight through sixteen to finish out this chapter. Again.

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Speaker 1: This will be talking about the servants or the deacons

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Speaker 1: of the church and what the qualifications for a deacon

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Speaker 1: should be. And it's very sad to say that many

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Speaker 1: churches are not actually reading through the qualifications of a

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Speaker 1: deacon and they're just kind of choosing whoever they want

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Speaker 1: to be deacons and deaconesses, and it's causing a lot

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Speaker 1: of problems in the American Church. So we'll get into

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Speaker 1: that as well today. And so I'll be reading this

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Speaker 1: today from the w E B. But of course, grab

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Speaker 1: your favorite version of the Bible and also your cup

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Speaker 1: of coffee this morning on this very cold morning, and

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Speaker 1: again let's read the last portion of First Timothy three together.

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Speaker 1: Servants in the same way must be reverent, not double tongued,

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Speaker 1: not addicted to much wine, not greedy for money, holding

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Speaker 1: the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. Let

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Speaker 1: them also first be tested, then let them serve. If

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Speaker 1: they are blameless. Their wives, in the same way, must

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Speaker 1: be reverent, not slanderers, temperate and faithful in all things.

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Speaker 1: Let servants be husbands of one wife, ruling their children

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Speaker 1: and their own house as well. For those who have

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Speaker 1: served well, gain for themselves a good standing and great

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Speaker 1: boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus. These

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Speaker 1: things I write to you, hoping to come to you shortly,

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Speaker 1: but if I wait long, that you may know how

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Speaker 1: men ought to behave themselves in God's house, which is

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Speaker 1: the assembly of the Living God, the pillar and ground

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Speaker 1: of the truth without controversy. The mystery of Godliness is great.

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Speaker 1: God was revealed in the flo, justified in the spirit,

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Speaker 1: seen by angels, preached among the nations, believed on in

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Speaker 1: the world, and received up in glory. So the last

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Speaker 1: thing we discussed in the New Testament was pastors, and

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Speaker 1: how there are certain qualifications that a pastor needs to

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Speaker 1: have and all that is laid out in one Timothy

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Speaker 1: three one through seven. So we discussed that last Tuesday,

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Speaker 1: and so now in first Timothy three, verse eight, it

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Speaker 1: talks about another category of leader, specifically a servant or

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Speaker 1: a deacon. Depending on the version you read, it may

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Speaker 1: say deacon, it may say servant. In the web it

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Speaker 1: says servant because that's actually what deacon or deaconus means.

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Speaker 1: It just means a servant, a servant leader. You could say,

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Speaker 1: so anybody that has a position in the church where

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Speaker 1: they're kind of leading something that would be a deacon

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Speaker 1: or a deaconus role. So it says servants in the

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Speaker 1: same way. In other words, in the same way as

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Speaker 1: the pastors before them, must be reverent, not double tongued,

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Speaker 1: not addicted to much wine, and not greedy for money.

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Speaker 1: So in order for somebody to be qualified to be

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Speaker 1: a deacon or a deaconess, they must be, it says, reverent,

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Speaker 1: just like the pastors are. Now, somebody who is reverent

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Speaker 1: is someone who holds God, I believe in high regard.

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Speaker 1: Is not, you know, disrespectful toward God or disrespectful toward

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Speaker 1: the church or the people of the church, but just

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Speaker 1: is respectful toward everything. They are reverent. That doesn't mean

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Speaker 1: they can't joke around and they can't have fun, but

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Speaker 1: generally holding the church, God and the people of the

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Speaker 1: church in a very high regard, that's what I would

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Speaker 1: consider reverent to be. So they have to be reverent.

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Speaker 1: They must also not be double tongued, So that basically

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Speaker 1: means saying something to somebody and then turning around and

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Speaker 1: saying something totally different to another person, gossiping, not getting

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Speaker 1: your stories right, trying to appease certain people lying That

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Speaker 1: would be considered double tongued. And they also have to

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Speaker 1: be not addicted to much wine. Now, there's nothing in

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Speaker 1: scripture that says you should not drink. In fact, Jesus

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Speaker 1: himself drank wine, but there are many passages that say

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Speaker 1: we should not get drunk with wine because at that

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Speaker 1: point we are no longer in control of our bodies

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Speaker 1: the way that God wants us to be. So deacons

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Speaker 1: shouldn't be drunk with wine, but they also shouldn't be

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Speaker 1: addicted to much wine either, is what it says. I

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Speaker 1: remember many years ago before I started this podcast, when

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Speaker 1: I was first married, I started just enjoying a glass

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Speaker 1: of wine every single night before I went to bed,

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Speaker 1: and there came a point in my life where I

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Speaker 1: actually realized that I became addicted to that wine. Even

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Speaker 1: though I wasn't an alcoholic, I was addicted to alcohol

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Speaker 1: because I needed it at night. If I didn't have

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Speaker 1: a glass of wine to sit down to relax, I

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Speaker 1: felt like I was going stir crazy. I felt like

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Speaker 1: I couldn't sleep at night. I was addicted to the taste.

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Speaker 1: And then on top of that, I started drinking more

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Speaker 1: than one glass. I needed a glass and a half

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Speaker 1: or two glasses for me to feel rested and relaxed.

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Speaker 1: And it took me a lot longer than I want

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Speaker 1: to admit that I had a really serious problem that

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Speaker 1: I needed to fix. And I did, thankfully, thank God,

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Speaker 1: get past that addiction. But it took me about four

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Speaker 1: months for me to fully break that habit and finally

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Speaker 1: let go of that addiction that I realized that I have.

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Speaker 1: The point is that a deacon or a deaconess needs

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Speaker 1: to be in control of themselves, not addicted to substances,

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Speaker 1: and also being careful what they are consuming as well. Really,

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Speaker 1: this all comes down to control. Are you able to

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Speaker 1: control yourself. And you might be like, well, Jen, what

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Speaker 1: about other types of addictions like coffee or video games

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Speaker 1: or something along those lines. Well, I would say that,

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Speaker 1: first and foremost, not all addictions are the same. There

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Speaker 1: are certainly much worse addictions than other addictions, and so

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Speaker 1: we should be mindful of that. You know, the addiction

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Speaker 1: scripture talks about are ones that are vices, like lustfulness

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Speaker 1: and idolatry and wine. You know, those are the things

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Speaker 1: that Scripture talks about, these things that are difficult for

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Speaker 1: us to control and also causes bodily harm to ourselves

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Speaker 1: and to other people, and spiritual harm as well. So

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Speaker 1: let's say something innocuous like coffee. You know, coffee, an

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Speaker 1: addiction to it doesn't really cause spiritual harm most likely,

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Speaker 1: neither would it cause bodily harm because coffee isn't really

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Speaker 1: all that bad for you unless you're like chugging gallons

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Speaker 1: of it every single day. So you have to be

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Speaker 1: aware that not all addictions are the same. There are

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Speaker 1: some that are worse than others. But all of that

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Speaker 1: being said, if you find yourself becoming addicted to something

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Speaker 1: innocuous like coffee or chapstick or social media, then it's

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Speaker 1: probably a very good thing for you to cut back

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Speaker 1: on whatever you're becoming addicted to, because being in control

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Speaker 1: of yourself is a good thing, and that is what

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Speaker 1: scripture tells us to do. We are to take every

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Speaker 1: single thought captive. You know, it says in scripture to

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Speaker 1: focus your minds on things that are good and healthy

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Speaker 1: and beneficial for your spiritual health and your flourishing in general. So, yeah,

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Speaker 1: if you find yourself becoming so addicted to coffee that

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Speaker 1: it's becoming a vice and you can't live without it,

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Speaker 1: you can't function without it, it probably would be a

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Speaker 1: pretty good thing for you to cut back. And that

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Speaker 1: goes across the board for anything you're finding yourself becoming

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Speaker 1: too addicted to. You know, the old saying is too

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Speaker 1: much of a good thing becomes a bad thing. So

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Speaker 1: it's good to take inventory of yourself every once in

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Speaker 1: a while and you know, cut back on things that

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Speaker 1: may becoming addictions for you. But going back to the

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Speaker 1: deacon and deacon is the deacon must also not be

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Speaker 1: greedy for money. And the reason being is because deacons

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Speaker 1: are going to handle a lot of the money. And

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Speaker 1: if you're somebody who is greedy for money, you might

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Speaker 1: mishandle those funds, you know, even if you're not taking

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Speaker 1: them for yourself, which could be part of it. Even

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Speaker 1: if you're not doing that, you're still greedy for money

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Speaker 1: for the church. You want the church to succeed. And

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Speaker 1: so the focus stops becoming how can we disciple more

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Speaker 1: people for Jesus, but rather how can we gain more

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Speaker 1: money for the church. But also, and I've seen this

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Speaker 1: a few times, somebody who's greedy for money might be

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Speaker 1: unwilling to give themselves. They'll give their time, but they're

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Speaker 1: scared to give their own finances and just want the

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Speaker 1: church to pay for everything, every single little thing that

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Speaker 1: they do with their time. They're going to be like, well,

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Speaker 1: is the church going to supply all of the necessary

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Speaker 1: things for this event that I want to put on?

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Speaker 1: Is the church going to pay for this? Pay for

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Speaker 1: the fun food? I don't want to, you know, spend

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Speaker 1: anything out of my own pocket. So that's another way

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Speaker 1: a deacon or deacon is could be greedy with money,

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Speaker 1: is that they're willing to put the work forward, but

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Speaker 1: not willing to give of their own finances to help

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Speaker 1: the church. And either way, a deacon is going to

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Speaker 1: be handling finances in whatever situation they're in, So they

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Speaker 1: need to be givers, and they also need to be

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Speaker 1: smart financially. In verse nine, it says they also need

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Speaker 1: to hold the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.

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Speaker 1: My husband and I were just talking about this term

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Speaker 1: mystery of the faith, and it comes up a lot

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Speaker 1: because there's so many people that are like looking for

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Speaker 1: mystery and looking for revealed secrets and all this special knowledge.

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Speaker 1: But yet Paul keeps saying over and over that the

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Speaker 1: mystery of Jesus has been revealed, the secret knowledge is

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Speaker 1: now known, and he goes on to explain what this

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Speaker 1: secret actually is in verse sixteen. You know, we'll get

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Speaker 1: to that in just a second. But the deacon and

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Speaker 1: the deaconess, for their part, needs to hold the mystery

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Speaker 1: of the faith in a pure conscience, so be reverent

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Speaker 1: toward it, be respectful of it, and know what the

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Speaker 1: mystery of Jesus actually is. In verse ten, it says

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Speaker 1: the deacon also must be first tested, then they can

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Speaker 1: serve if they are blameless. So this is another verse

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Speaker 1: where we should not be putting people in leadership positions

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Speaker 1: without knowing who they are first. Churches have a really

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Speaker 1: bad habit of doing that where they get really excited

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Speaker 1: because someone comes in. They need workers, they need helpers,

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Speaker 1: and they don't actually figure out who these people are,

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Speaker 1: and they just give them all this power, Like right

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Speaker 1: off the bat, they're like, all right, you're gonna be

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Speaker 1: in charge of children's ministry. Now. You know you've only

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Speaker 1: been coming to the church for two months, but I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna put you in charge of children's ministry. And then

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Speaker 1: children's ministry a year later is in complete shambles because

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Speaker 1: that person was not properly vetted and all of these

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Speaker 1: parents are angry, they're leaving the church. Churches have to

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Speaker 1: be really careful of this, and they do it all

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Speaker 1: the time. They're just like, Yeah, this person right here

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Speaker 1: has been coming for three weeks and we're gonna put

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Speaker 1: them in charge of this. No, you should not do that.

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Speaker 1: How many times does Paul say in the New Testament,

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Speaker 1: First let them be tested, figure out who they are,

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Speaker 1: figure out where their faith is, and then if they

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Speaker 1: are blameless, let them serve. This does not mean if

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Speaker 1: they are sinless, because there's not single human being on

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Speaker 1: earth that can possibly be sinless other than Jesus himself.

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Speaker 1: Blameless just means there's no glaring red flags or problems

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Speaker 1: or overt sins that these people are doing. They are

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Speaker 1: living the Christian life in the best possible way that

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Speaker 1: they can do. And then in verse eleven, their wives

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Speaker 1: in the same way must be reverent, not slanderous, temperate,

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Speaker 1: and faithful in all things. Now, there is question, based

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Speaker 1: upon the Greek whether Paul was talking about the wives

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Speaker 1: of male deacons or deaconesses right here, and depending on

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Speaker 1: the version you read, it will either say deaconesses in

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Speaker 1: the same way must be reverent, or in the case

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Speaker 1: of the Web and others, it says their wives in

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Speaker 1: the same way must be reverent. So we do know

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Speaker 1: that women can serve as deaconesses because of Acts chapter fifteen,

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Speaker 1: where Paul actually mentions a deaconess named Phoebe. So women

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Speaker 1: can absolutely be deaconesses. They can serve in all sorts

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Speaker 1: of different capacities and lead certain ministries. But whether or

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Speaker 1: not Paul was talking about female deaconesses here or the

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Speaker 1: wives of the male deacons, it actually makes no difference

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Speaker 1: in the context of this passage. So for sake of argument,

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Speaker 1: let's just say that Paul is talking about the wives

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Speaker 1: of male deacons. In verse eleven, it says their wives

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Speaker 1: in the same way must be reverent, not flanderers, temperate,

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Speaker 1: and faithful in all things. And the reason this is

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Speaker 1: so important is because let's say you have a male

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Speaker 1: deacon who is perfect in like every single capacity, but

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Speaker 1: his wife is unfaithful or she's a slanderer or a gossip.

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Speaker 1: Women have a lot of power over their husbands, and

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Speaker 1: that's going to cause the male deacon to possibly struggle

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Speaker 1: in his role if his wife is not on his side.

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Speaker 1: So the two have to be unified. As what Paul

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Speaker 1: is getting at, the marriage relationship of the deacon has

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Speaker 1: to be pretty solid, where both are members of the faith,

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Speaker 1: both are reverent toward God, both are not speaking behind

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Speaker 1: other people's backs. You know, we've been reading in the

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Speaker 1: Old Testament how Solomon and ray Boham his son, had

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Speaker 1: so many wives, and how these wives were turning their

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Speaker 1: husband's hearts astray. And even in Deuteronomy seventeen, God specifically

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Speaker 1: says that kings should not have have more than one

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Speaker 1: wife because those wives are going to turn their husband's

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Speaker 1: hearts astray. The wife is supposed to be the helper

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Speaker 1: of her husband. So it's very very important specifically for

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Speaker 1: a man to have a believing wife who can help

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Speaker 1: him through everything. That is what the role of the

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Speaker 1: woman is. It's a very important role. And I think

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Speaker 1: that a lot of people don't realize that in scripture

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Speaker 1: that God gave such an important role to the women,

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Speaker 1: specifically in the marriage relationship. I think a lot of

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Speaker 1: people believe that women are you know, mistreated in the

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Speaker 1: Bible or given no value whatsoever. That is absolutely not true.

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Speaker 1: The woman has so much value in the marriage relationship

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Speaker 1: that a man isn't even qualified to be a deacon

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Speaker 1: if his wife is not on board, he is not qualified.

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Speaker 1: The wife has to be faithful as well, because that

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Speaker 1: marriage relationship is special. They are unified. Now on the

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Speaker 1: flip side, if Paul's talking about female deaconesses here, this

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Speaker 1: still makes complete sense in context. Let's just say it

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Speaker 1: says the deaconesses in the same way must be reverent,

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Speaker 1: not slanderers, temperate, and faithful in all things. So in

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Speaker 1: the same way as the male deacons, they have to

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Speaker 1: be all of those things. Also, so the females and

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Speaker 1: the males together have the same qualifications to be a

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Speaker 1: deacon or a deaconess. Then in verse twelve, let the

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Speaker 1: deacons be husbands of one wife, ruling their children and

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Speaker 1: their own houses well. Now, the reason that's specifically a

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Speaker 1: rule for the men and not for the women. It

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Speaker 1: was always in the case of the man having more

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Speaker 1: than one woman. It was never in the case of

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Speaker 1: a woman having more than one man. So Paul wouldn't

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Speaker 1: have even had to talk about the women on that point.

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Speaker 1: They never had more than one husband. It was always

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Speaker 1: the men that had more than one wife, which is

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Speaker 1: why he says polygamy should not be part of the

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Speaker 1: Christian marriage, and especially not part of the deacons and pastors,

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Speaker 1: because it is sinful and it is wrong, and it

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Speaker 1: is against the design that God made at the very beginning,

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Speaker 1: which was one man and one woman in the garden

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Speaker 1: of Eden. Those two people are to be unified. Just

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Speaker 1: as a deacon is not qualified if his wife is

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Speaker 1: not in unity with him, a deacon is also not

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Speaker 1: qualified if he does not have unity with one woman.

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Speaker 1: And lastly, the deacon needs to be able to rule

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Speaker 1: their children and their own houses well, because if they

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Speaker 1: can't control their own households, how are they going to

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Speaker 1: handle the Body of Christ. You know their children, who

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Speaker 1: they love so much. If they can't tell their children, no,

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Speaker 1: how are they going to be able to tell somebody

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Speaker 1: else know who they don't love nearly as much? How

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Speaker 1: are they going to be able to guide somebody else

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Speaker 1: if they can't guide their own children. And so if

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Speaker 1: somebody hits all of these qualifications, that means they can

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Speaker 1: become a deacon or a deaconess verse thirteen. For those

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Speaker 1: who have served well gain for themselves a good standing

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Speaker 1: and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus. So,

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Speaker 1: in other words, deacons and deaconesses are seen by God

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Speaker 1: even though they don't have nearly as an exciting of

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Speaker 1: a role as the pastor of the church does. God

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Speaker 1: sees the deacons because the deacon and the deaconess, as

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Speaker 1: their name says, they are servants, and servants are kind

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Speaker 1: of in a thankless position. So even though the people

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Speaker 1: don't see you for what you're doing for the Body

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Speaker 1: of Christ, God sees you. Then, in verse fourteen, to

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Speaker 1: conclude these things, I write to you, hoping to come

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Speaker 1: to you shortly, but if I wait long, that you

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Speaker 1: may know how men ought to behave themselves in God's House,

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Speaker 1: which is the assembly of the Living God, the pillar

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Speaker 1: and ground of truth. So that's Paul essentially saying why

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Speaker 1: he writes this letter. He's like, Timothy, I'm writing you

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Speaker 1: this letter because I want to come to you shortly,

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Speaker 1: but I don't know if I can, and so if

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Speaker 1: I delay for a long period of time. I just

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Speaker 1: want you to know how people in this church that

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Speaker 1: you are ministering to should behave He says verse sixteen,

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Speaker 1: without controversy, the mystery of Godliness is great, so the

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Speaker 1: church needs to be unified. That is what without controversy means.

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Speaker 1: And Paul goes on to explain what this mystery is

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Speaker 1: in verse sixteen and how the church needs to be

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Speaker 1: unified about this, which unfortunately many churches today, even though

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Speaker 1: they claim to be Christians, are not unified in this

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Speaker 1: very thing. And this is like the basics of Christianity.

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Speaker 1: God was revealed in the flesh, so Jesus came to

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Speaker 1: earth as a man. He was justified in the spirit,

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Speaker 1: so he was made known to be God by the

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Speaker 1: Holy Spirit. He was seen by angels, so heavenly beings

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Speaker 1: were interested in the life of Jesus, which you couldn't

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Speaker 1: say that about anything else on earth. You know, would

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Speaker 1: angels be interested in debates or politics, Probably not. But

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Speaker 1: they were interested in the life of Jesus so much

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Speaker 1: so that they came down to watch. And actually, it

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Speaker 1: says that angels are still watching the church. They are

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Speaker 1: actually attending our church services with us every single week

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Speaker 1: to watch what God is doing. Because the mystery that

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Speaker 1: has been revealed to us wasn't revealed to the angels

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Speaker 1: in the same way. And I'm not exactly sure how

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Speaker 1: that works, but it kind of sounds to me like

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Speaker 1: angels weren't told the mystery of God and somehow don't

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Speaker 1: have access to it, so they have to view the

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Speaker 1: church in order to really understand what God is doing.

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Speaker 1: So Jesus was seen by angels, and he was preached

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Speaker 1: among the nations, believed on in the world, and received

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Speaker 1: up in glory. Every single Christian on earth needs to

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Speaker 1: believe these things. That God was revealed in the flesh,

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Speaker 1: he came down to earth as a man, he was

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Speaker 1: justified in the spirit, he was seen by angels, he

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Speaker 1: was preached among the nations, he was believed on in

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Speaker 1: the world, and was received up in glory, which is

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Speaker 1: where he sits right now at the father's right hand. Well,

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Speaker 1: faithful listeners, thanks for tuning into today's episode. I hope

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Speaker 1: you all enjoyed it. I enjoy talking about deacons and

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Speaker 1: deaconesses and pastors specifically. It's just a really interesting topic

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Speaker 1: to me, especially since my husband is an elder. I've

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Speaker 1: actually done a bit of study in this topic. But,

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Speaker 1: faithful listeners, I hope you all have a fantastic and

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Speaker 1: wonderful rest of your day. I will see you guys

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Speaker 1: tomorrow for an episode from Second Chronicles. Now, I will

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Speaker 1: be taking Thursday off, Friday off for you members, and

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Speaker 1: then next Monday through Wednesday, there will not be an episode.

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Speaker 1: I just wanted to let all of you guys know

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Speaker 1: about that. I will be taking the entire week off

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Speaker 1: because I'm taking a short sabbatical and this is a

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Speaker 1: special one because my husband's actually taking time off as well,

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Speaker 1: and this is the first time in eight years that

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Speaker 1: we have taken an extended period of time off together.

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Speaker 1: So I'm very much looking forward to actually, you know,

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Speaker 1: seeing my husband again. All right, faith for listeners, I'll

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Speaker 1: see you guys tomorrow. Happy listening, and God bless