Summary

In his sermon titled Assist the Mission, Pastor Dave continues the church's series through 1 Timothy, arriving at chapter 3, verses 8 through 13. The broader theme of the series — Reclaim the Truth — is that churches constantly need to return to the core gospel of Jesus as their only hope, and then build healthy structures around that message. This week, the focus turns to those structures: specifically, the servant leaders who assist the elders and pastors in carrying out the mission of helping people meet Jesus and follow Jesus.

Pastor Dave opens by noting that the Greek word translated "deacon" simply means servant, and that while the Bible sometimes uses it as an official title, it also functions as a broad term for any kind of ministry. His big idea is that we are all called to assist with the mission — whether or not we have a name tag. He frames his message around three movements: assistance starts with character, assistance includes women, and assistance expands influence.

Assistance Starts with Character. Just as 1 Timothy 3:1-7 laid out character qualifications for elders and overseers, verses 8 through 11 apply the same standard to servant leaders of every kind. Pastor Dave walks through each qualification: being dignified, not double-tongued (or two-faced), not addicted to wine or anything else, and not greedy for dishonest gain. He is pastoral and direct about addiction in particular, reminding the congregation that shame should have no place in the body of Christ, since "we're all at the foot of the cross, sinners that need forgiveness." He points people toward Celebrate Recovery, AA, and small groups as places to seek help. Servant leaders must also "hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience" (1 Tim. 3:9) — meaning they should be gospel-centered believers who obey their conscience rather than compromising like the false teachers Paul warned about. Pastor Dave also emphasizes that servant leaders should be tested before being placed in positions of responsibility, comparing it to the rocket industry, where testing and even failure are necessary before a launch can succeed.

Assistance Includes Women. Pastor Dave revisits the ongoing conversation in 1 Timothy about men and women in the church. He focuses on verse 11, where the Greek word gune can mean either "wives" or "women," and notes that translators must make a call based on context. Whether it refers to the wives of deacons or to women serving alongside deacons, the point is the same: women are held to the same character qualifications and are called to share in the work. Pastor Dave makes a strong case for robust female participation in ministry, pointing to the women who were the first witnesses of the resurrection, the description in 1 Corinthians 11 of women praying and prophesying in the local church, the teaching ministry of Priscilla and Aquila, and Phoebe being identified as a deacon in Romans. He holds what he calls a "middle position" — affirming male eldership while insisting that women are essential, equal partners in the mission. He notes that the average church is statistically dominated by women doing all the serving, and expresses gratitude for the women at Grace Bible Church while also celebrating that men and women are working together there.

Assistance Expands Influence. Verses 12 and 13 bring the passage home. The requirement that deacons manage their households well is not a barrier for singles — Pastor Dave is clear that Paul blessed singleness in 1 Corinthians 7 and that Jesus himself was single — but rather a reminder that faithfulness at home is the training ground for faithfulness in ministry. Then comes the promise of verse 13: those who serve well gain a "good standing" — the Greek word bathmos, meaning a stepping stone or platform — and "great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus" (1 Tim. 3:13). Pastor Dave is careful to clarify that this is not salvation by works. Rather, it is the well-documented reality that serving Jesus deepens your faith and expands your credibility. The more faithfully you serve, the more people will want to hear what you have to say about Jesus, and the more desperately you will find yourself depending on him. After 35 years of ministry, Pastor Dave says, he still runs out of his own strength and must cry out to God — and that is exactly the point.

Pastor Dave closes by grounding everything in the example and work of Jesus himself. In John 13, Jesus washed his disciples' feet and told them to do likewise. In Philippians 2, believers are called to have the same servant mindset as Christ, who humbled himself even to death. And in Matthew 20, after the disciples argued about who would be greatest, Jesus said, "Whoever would be great among you must be your servant... For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." That word ransom echoes earlier in 1 Timothy — it means Jesus died the death we deserved, lived the life we couldn't live, and rose again to prove he had conquered sin and death on our behalf. Because Jesus served us so completely, we are freed and compelled to serve one another and assist with the mission of the local church.