In Peter Allison's sermon titled 'Division in the Church,' he explores the early Church's challenges as depicted in Acts 6. The Church in Jerusalem faced rapid growth and cultural diversity, leading to conflict between the Hebrews and Hellenists. The apostles proposed a solution involving the congregation in appointing seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit, to oversee the distribution to widows. This marked the establishment of a new office, akin to modern deacons, focused on mercy ministry. Allison emphasizes the importance of recognizing and addressing sin within the Church, advocating for biblical responses that foster healing and growth. The sermon highlights that true Christianity involves meeting physical needs alongside spiritual ones, and that mercy ministry is as vital as preaching and prayer. The sermon also underscores the necessity of the division of labor within the Church to efficiently handle its diverse needs.

Well, please turn to Acts chapter 6. We have finished Acts 5 at last. Acts 6 verse 1 Now in those days when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenists, because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution. Then the Twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, It is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and Wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business, but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word.

And the saying pleased the multitude, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Procureus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicholas, a proselytite from Antioch, whom they set before the apostles, and when they had prayed they laid hands on them. Then the Word of God spread, and the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith." The entrance of His Word gives light and understanding to the simple. Heavenly Father, we ask that Your Word might give us light this morning and that You might give us understanding. We ask that You may be exalted this morning in the proclamation of Your Gospel. And I ask that You would sanctify my sinful lips to proclaim Your grace.

In Jesus' name, Amen. Well, in a prior life I had a job growing diamonds. One of the requirements in growing a good diamond was that it would grow slowly in a stable environment. If a diamond, which is just a crystal, it's a crystal like a salt crystal or a sugar crystal, maybe you grew salt crystals or sugar crystals in your chemistry class in school. But it's just a crystal, except it's made out of carbon.

And if a crystal grows too quickly, it gets disordered. And one of the key criteria of a good crystal is that it's very ordered structure. Every atom is in its proper place and well ordered. And to do that, it has to grow slowly. It has to grow in a stable environment.

And so it would take to grow the kind of diamond you might want to wear on, a lady might want to wear on her finger, it might take a week to very slowly grow that diamond. And if you tried to rush the process, you could grow it faster, but you'd have what the gemologist would tell you are defects in it, occlusions. And the same is true about other things that grow, about other organisms that grow. And the church here in Acts was growing very rapidly. And in light of this rapid growth of the church following Pentecost, there were undoubtedly some chaotic situations, some growing pains from just a massive exponential growth that was occurring in this church.

And just like in growing a diamond, when you have somewhat chaotic situations, there are some irregularities that develop. There are some occlusions, some defects that creep in to this structure. And so we want to look at what happened in this church and what was the solution to this problem as it was recognized. But before we look at that, let's look first at the circumstances of this church. Let's just step back and think about this context, the greater context of this church.

What was this church like? What was happening in this church? What were the circumstances in the church in Jerusalem in Acts chapter 6? So if we look in this greater context, we see that this is a spiritually prosperous church. This is a spiritually prosperous church.

There is powerful preaching and teaching going on. In verse 42 in the last chapter, there was powerful preaching and teaching, evangelism continually from house to house. Christ was being preached and taught. We see that there was active church discipline. This was a church, secondly, where sins were not covered over, they weren't ignored, they weren't even worse condoned, as sometimes happens.

Rather, there was church discipline. Sins were dealt with such that the church was filled with a godly fear, a good fear, such that there were many who did not dare to join the believers in Solomon's porch. In other words, the people that were in this church were those who were willing to be publicly identified with Christ. Because it could be dangerous to be publicly identified with Christ. Those that wanted to harbor secret sins didn't dare to join them.

So this church was composed of Christians willing to risk their lives and willing to risk their freedom to publicly worship the Lord together. So these we see are the marks, two of the three marks of a true church. The third one being the sacraments, which were being administered, because the disciples continued daily in the breaking of bread, in the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and the prayers. The breaking of bread is the Lord's Supper. And when it says that disciples were being added daily, there's your baptisms are happening.

So this is a spiritually prosperous church. It's also, as a spiritually prosperous church, it is a generous and compassionate church. There were those who had possessed great wealth were sharing it with those who had nothing. Those who had lands and houses, they were selling those extra lands and selling the extra houses because there was a great need that needed to be met. The Bible says in chapter 4 that there was no lack.

Despite there being great needs, despite there being widows, despite there being a number of widows, despite there being people who were there from out of town, who had come from far away, there was no lack because of the compassion and generosity of the church. And here, even in this passage, the widows are being provided for on a daily basis through the gifts of other saints. This was a spiritually prosperous church in that it was a church that rejoiced to be kind of worthy, to suffer shame for the name of Christ. These are all marks of a strong and prosperous church. Not only was this a spiritually prosperous church, this was a numerically prosperous church.

You know, those two are not necessarily the same. There are churches in the book of Revelation that God addresses and He recognizes that they were small, but that He commends them for their spiritual strength, even though they were small in numbers. But this was not only a spiritually prosperous church, but it was a numerically prosperous church. The church was growing rapidly. The number of disciples was multiplying, Acts tells us.

In Acts 2, 3, 000 are added to the number. In Acts 4, the church numbers 5, 000 men, and it's multiplying daily. We don't know exactly how many there are at this time, but many estimate there were easily 10, 000 to 20, 000 believers in Jerusalem at this time. Think about that kind of growth, starting from 120 people on the day of Pentecost, to 10, 000 to 20, 000 people. I mean, we'd be overrun if we had 50 people show up one Sunday morning for a service.

A mere 50 people, let alone hundreds of people. So This is a numerically prosperous church. This is also a church of great cultural diversity. Remember the list of nations, cultures that were represented at Pentecost? Parthians, Medes, they're starting way over in the east.

Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontius, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, parts of Libya, adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, Cretans, Arabs. There is a very, very diverse, culturally diverse group of people in this church. There were Grecians, this text says. There were Grecians. Those are Jews who lived outside of Israel and spoke Greek predominantly.

They would have read the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament. And they were probably looked down on by the Hebrew Jews who lived in Palestine. They may have been the Hebrew Jews who lived in Palestine and read the Bible in Hebrew. And so the act six calls them the the the Hebrews. The Hebrews and the Hellenists are the Grecians.

They're Jews. These are all Jews but they're coming from these vastly different cultures different ways of living different ways of doing things. We have all been in other people's homes, and even from home to home, even from my home to your home, There's probably vastly different ways of doing things. And when we're there for just a short time, those aren't so noticeable. But if we were to try and live together in the same home, all these differences would become readily apparent.

And now just expand that out to people coming from different cultures. Far East, Medes, Persians, to Rome, to Egypt, to Arabs, Cretans. These were people who were different. Different culture. And whenever there are different cultures like this, there is the potential for conflict, for misunderstanding, and even unrighteous judging.

Whether that's in the civil realm or within the family or the church. You think about when two people get married, there are two different cultures that have to be assimilated, isn't there? Two different people that have different ways of doing things. And they have to work out a new way, how their home is going to be, and how things are going to happen in their home. And that happens when there's a conflict that arises, then you sit down and you talk about how to resolve that conflict.

How is this home going to operate? How are you going to assimilate these two different backgrounds? When there's mass migration, There are cultural differences that have the potential to easily create civil tension. We've experienced a large influx of Hispanics in our neighborhood and they like to play loud music for the whole neighborhood to enjoy into the wee hours of the morning. That's part of their culture and they do it regularly but especially on holidays.

And so you see there's all these little ways of doing things. In their view, they're probably something that they're happy. Look at our neighbors providing music for us. But in other cultures, it's not so well received. And so there's this potential for conflicts when you have vastly different cultures living in close proximity to us.

There's also another great diversity here. There's a great financial diversity. You had very wealthy people, like Barnabas, who had lands that he could sell, lands and houses. People that own multiple houses are wealthy people, by definition, in any culture. You have the scale from the homeless who don't have a house to those who have a house barely to those who have Great houses and many houses.

And so there was a great diversity financial diversity and that's another potential source of conflict because because The it's a temptation for those who are poor to complain against those or to be envious or to complain against those who have much, to think that they ought to have some of that. So that's another potential source of conflict. So this is the church. It's a prosperous church, but there are these diversities, these cultural, these financial diversities that create a potential for conflict. And indeed, a conflict arises.

There arose a complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenists because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution. Some of the Grecian widows are not getting helped the way others in the church are being helped. Some of these widows who are Jews that are from these other cultures that speak Greek are getting slighted in some way. This may have risen somewhat inadvertently, in this massive exponential growth. There is chaos for sure.

Chaotic situations. Administrative processes are being stretched and stressed. So it's possible that this may have risen inadvertently or it may have been the result of some prejudice by the Hebrews against the Grecian Jews, the Hellenists. We know that is the case, has been the case, the whole Acts 15 council was over a division between those Jews who thought that the Gentiles had to become exactly like them and keep the law just like them. We know that Peter was carried away with hypocrisy in one case over this matter.

So these different practices we know were a factor. They were a big factor in this church. And it may have been that there was some prejudice. At best, there were administrative problems that worse judgments were being made against other saints. The apostles were all Hebrews.

They were all Hebrew Jews from Palestine. And there may have been some partiality toward the Hebrew widows. Maybe the Hebrew widows were those who met the, they thought more fully met the criteria given in Timothy for which widows could receive distributions from the church. There are requirements laid out in Timothy for which widows can. Maybe there was some judgments made along those lines.

It doesn't say for sure. But even at best, there are oversights here. And the apostles recognized that they had failed in an important part of the church's ministry. But the second thing we have here is complaining by the Grecians against the Hebrews. This word for complaint.

There arose a complaint against the Hebrews. It refers to talk that's made in low tone of voice, behind the scenes talk, or talk silently behind someone's back. That's the literal meaning of the word. But it's generally always in a sinful context in the Bible. It's used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament.

It's used when the Israelites complain against Moses about God's provision. And we know that God considered that a sin. It's used in 1 Corinthians 10, 10 to refer to that. It says, Paul says, Don't complain as some of them also complained and were destroyed by the destroyer. That's the same word.

Philippians 2, 14 says, do all things without complaining or disputing. And 1 Peter 4, 9 says, be hospitable to one another without grumbling. Those are all the same words that are used here to say that there was a complaint. So this is a sin. There was a sinful complaining against this inequity in the distribution.

So there appears to be a sin on both sides of this division, of this conflict. There was possible oversight and possibly even prejudices, and then there was a complaining about that. You see, that is a wrong response to a sin. And that is typically when sins become big problems. If there is a sin, and then the rest of the church responds properly to that sin, it doesn't become a problem.

Things become a problem when there is a sin that is sinfully responded to. And that's what we see here. A sin that was sinfully responded to. There was a complaining, a grumbling. Instead of going to the apostles and laying out their case or making known the issue, there was apparently a grumbling and complaining, a talking behind the backs and behind the scenes instead of properly addressing that problem.

So what's the solution? That's the division. What's the solution? Before we look at what they did do, let's look for just a minute at what they didn't do. Nothing is said about the sin of murmuring.

They didn't have a sermon series on the sins of murmuring to beat the people back that were murmuring. Because it wasn't an appropriate time for that. There are teaching moments, and there are acting moments. And this was not a teaching moment. There was some basis for the complaint.

That doesn't excuse the complaining, but it does alter the context and it does alter what is the appropriate response. And the appropriate response in this case was not a lecture, was not sermons, was not teaching the people that they shouldn't be complaining. We don't see any record of discipline being brought against these complainers. The apostles respond very differently. The solution the apostles bring is first of all involves the congregation.

The congregation has a part to play along with the apostles. So first we see the apostles propose the plan for the people to choose qualified men. The apostles bring that plan. They say, therefore, let the brethren seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit. The apostles proposed a plan for the people to choose qualified men.

They were to choose men who were filled with the Holy Spirit for the ministry of mercy. The Apostles secondly provided the qualifications for these men that they were to choose. They had to be men. They had to have a good reputation. The men had to be filled with the Holy Spirit and wisdom.

Those were musts. They must have these things. In other words, they were to choose men who were already doing the work of deacons. To be of good reputation means that they were known. They were known for good works.

They were known for this ministry of mercy among the people and among outsiders. They were men in whom it was obvious they were filled with the Holy Spirit. And of course, they were men too. The apostles even provide the number of men to be chosen. They were to seek out seven men.

And seven does have significance in the Bible as a number of completeness. Numbers do seem to be important. It was important for there to be 12 apostles, because this was the foundation of the Old New Testament Church, and it was important here that there be seven men chosen for this office. So that's what the apostles did, but the people also had a role to play. The people do the actual choosing of the men.

And this is a very significant point, and this is something that we will see again later on, that the people have the responsibility to make the choice. The apostles did not pick the men. The people did. The congregation or their representatives picked the men who would be ordained. The apostles laid out the qualifications.

They laid out the plan and the process, they laid out the number. But it's the people that made the choice, not the apostles. You see, this is an important principle of Presbyterian and we would say biblical church government. Ultimate authority does not reside in the special office. In the Episcopalian or hierarchical view of church government, the ultimate authority resides in the special office.

They're the ones who appoint the officers. They're the ones who send the bishops out to the churches. Ultimate authority in the Bible does not reside in the special office. It doesn't also either reside in the general office. It is not the congregation that has the ultimate authority.

And in congregational governments, That's what you see. It's the congregation that votes on everything. The ultimate authority in the church resides with the congregation. And we don't see that here either. Both the ultimate authority in the church is in Jesus Christ.

He is the King of the church. It is not in the special office, and it is not in the general office. And I use that word general office, not laity. As my dad used to say facetiously, God doesn't have anybody laying around in His church. We have an office.

There is a general office of believer, of New Testament saint. We are royal priesthoods. We believe in the priesthood of every believer. And there is the special office. And the ultimate authority isn't in either of those.

But they both, Both the general office and the special office have a voice in the selection of elders and deacons and officers. They, congregation, did the selection. They chose seven Grecians. Based on the names of the people they chose, it seems that they chose seven Grecians. So they brought these Grecian Jews into the church leadership.

They brought Grecian representation into the officers of the church. And possibly to balance the Hebrew Jews who were all the apostles or Hebrew Jews. So this solution involves the establishment of a new office. Now this is not something that we would continue today. These were apostles.

They were laying the foundation of the New Testament Church. They spoke by apostolic authority. These prophets were the ones who wrote the Scriptures. And so, we see them exercising their apostolic authority to establish a new office in the church. Now, some might dispute that this is the establishment of the office of the deacon, and okay, we don't have to be too dogmatic, but I would point out that one of their reasons is because they say the word deacon is never used in this text.

But actually, it is used in this text. The word for distribution in verse 1, The widows were neglected in the daily distribution. The word for distribution there refers to, where it's daily distribution, that word is diakonia. Diakonia. The daily service or ministry of providing for the needs of these widows.

Diakonia, that's the word that's used there. And the word for serving in verse 2. It is not good that we should leave the Word of God and serve tables. Serve tables. The word there where apostles say they shouldn't leave the Word of God and serve tables is diakonene.

The verb form. One's a noun and one's a verb. And that is the exact same word that is translated serve as deacon in 1st Timothy 3. The exact same word. It reads, verse 3, verse 10 reads, but let these also first be tested, then let them serve as deacons.

That's the word. The exact same word. They could have translated this here as, it is not desirable that we should leave the Word of God and serve tables as deacons. It's the same word used in 1 Timothy 3, verse 13, 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. Those who have served as deacons.

That's the same word. That serve as deacons is one word. Now it's true that this word is also used, these two words is now known in the verb, are used many other times to refer to serving or ministering in many different contexts by many different people. For example, in John 12, verse 2, there they made Him a supper and Martha served. That's the same word.

Or in verse 26, if anyone serves Me, The same word, ministry. Let Him follow me in where I am, there my servant will also be. But see, that's the nature of the words used for office in the New Testament. The same thing is true of the word for elder. It's actually an adjective that means older man.

That's all it means, older man. And sometimes it's used that way. Titus says, let older men. That's what that word is, older. So both of these offices in the New Testament come from ordinary words.

And that's something we have to, It's good to keep in mind, in English, deacon is a word that's only used in the context of the church. Deacon. It's just a transliteration of this Greek word. But to a Greek-speaking Christian in the New Testament age, deacon was just the word for serving tables or ministering to the physical needs of someone. It's just an ordinary word that means to minister, to serve, to meet the needs of others, to meet the physical needs of others, to show mercy, to wait on tables, to serve food to people.

That's all the word means. And it's that ordinary word that is then used to describe what these servants of God are going to do. And it's this ordinary word that has been transliterated out of the Greek that we get our word deacon from. Remember, as we read the New Testament, this is an ordinary word for serving. So it's a very appropriate word to use to describe this office.

And we do the same thing. We call people by what they do. Many examples of that in our language. So what makes this example different from the other times this word is used? Like Martha serving, or Paul speaking of people serving him.

What makes this instance different? What makes this an office and these other examples not an office? And the difference is the qualifications to serve and the ordination. That's what sets this apart from other examples of service. There were qualifications these people had to meet.

They had to be men, they had to be filled with the Holy Spirit, they had to be full of wisdom, and they had to have a good reputation. See, Martha didn't need to be a man, She didn't need to be full of wisdom and Holy Spirit to do what she did. She just did it. But here there's a requirement. And secondly, there's qualifications, but secondly, there's an ordination.

They laid hands on them. They chose these men, and when they had prayed, they laid hands on them. That's an ordination. To ordain is to set someone apart for something. And these men were being set apart to serve in this way, to serve tables, to perform this mercy ministry, to meet the physical needs of the saints in the church.

They're being set apart by prayer and the laying on of hands. That's by definition an ordination. So these men are ordained to this. All these other examples of service did not involve ordination. It didn't involve the laying on of hands and the setting apart by prayer.

And so this I would submit is the establishment of what we call the office of deacon. Those are the words that are used in this text. And there is also the ordination of the officers. Now notice that this solution involves a division of labor. You see, one person can't do all that needs to be done.

And that's always been the case in the Old Testament, God provided the Levites, who were also descendants of Aaron, to help the priests because there was more work than what the priests could do in the service of the tabernacle. So there were those who could attend to the physical needs of the tabernacle in the Old Testament. And this is an analogous situation. There's more work than what one person can do. And it's not just more work, but it's a different kind of work that takes a different skill.

You see, when we as humans do things on a regular and daily basis, we develop, if we're diligent, we will develop skills to do those works better. And we can't, some people are more gifted than others, but even the most gifted person can't develop skills to do everything equally well, because we're finite, we're limited. And so we see a division of labor here. The apostles were to focus on the ministry of the Word and prayer. And they said it's not desirable.

We shouldn't leave that work to do this other work. We can't do both. We can't become good at both of these things. And so they established this other office. See, there's a benefit to having specialization.

This division of labor is what makes wealth in an economy. If we had to do everything ourselves, we'd barely get breakfast done by the time the sun goes down. It's the division of labor that creates wealth. And even in the church, it's the division of labor that is a blessing to God's people as specific skills are developed in these offices and for these specific callings. And I can tell you from my own experience being in a church that had exceptionally gifted deacons and being in a church that did not.

Exact same demographics in both cases, all the way down the line, even to the kinds of cities they were in, the demographics of the church and so on, the size of the church, the age, everything, almost virtually identical, same denomination, everything. And yet, one church had a building 20 years, almost 20 years before the other church did. Why? Because one church was blessed with gifted deacons. And the other church didn't.

Not that they didn't have deacons, they just didn't have the same level of gifting. So this gifting is very important to the church, and it can be a great blessing to the church that men who are qualified and filled with the Holy Spirit are enabled to specialize and to focus in an area. But this division of labor does not denigrate either of these labors. Do not think for a minute that the apostles are saying it's more important, the ministry of the Word is more important and a higher office than this other one. This is not denigrating the office of mercy ministry.

This is an important office. That's why these men had to be full of wisdom and filled with the Holy Spirit and men of good reputation. They didn't have to know how to teach the scriptures. It didn't say they had to be apt to teach like an elder. So it's a different focus.

But both of these labors are critical. They're very critical. And in the early stages, they were both done by the apostles. They did all those duties. But then as the church grew and became established, you have this division of labor.

Now these men, these deacons, also exercised other gifts. Philip was an evangelist. It's called Philip the evangelist. That's a gift. Evangelism is a gift.

It's always presented as a gift in the scriptures. And Stephen preached. That's another gift. And these gifts should not be confused with offices. There are gifts that commonly are connected with offices, but a gift is not the same as an office.

Preaching, teaching, ruling, These are presented as gifts. The offices are deacons and elders. And there can be a mix of gifts. In this case, Stephen was recognized as having the gift of preaching. Philip had the gift of evangelism.

Being a pastor, a shepherd, is a gifting. So what do we learn from this passage? What lessons can we take away? One, we should not be surprised, discouraged, or disheartened by sin in the church. Jesus came to save sinners, not the righteous.

The church is filled with sinners who are being sanctified, who are in the process of being sanctified. And that's a day-by-day thing. The church is filled with sinners who are being made more and more to die into sin and enabled more and more to live unto righteousness. But don't forget that that means the church is filled with sinners. And what do sinners do?

They sin. And so we shouldn't be discouraged or defeated or disheartened by the sin. Rather, we should respond in biblical ways to that sin, to bring healing, to bring restoration, to bring growth and sanctification. The scriptures are quite open about the sins of the church. It doesn't hide sin.

The scriptures never hide sin in the church, whether it's King David or the Apostle Peter, whether it's King Hezekiah or the Apostle Paul, whether it's Abraham or the Corinthian Church. The Bible is very plain and explicit about the sins in the church. And it tells us how we ought to deal with sins in the church. And when we do that, then the healing of the Gospel is brought to bear. Secondly, true Christianity is not just spiritual.

It is physical. True Christianity is not just Bible study and prayer. It's not just Lord's Day worship and sacraments. This is just one day out of our week of seven days. True Christianity consists in meeting of physical needs.

James says that pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their trouble and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. Visiting widows and orphans in their trouble is ministering to physical needs of widows and orphans and anyone else who has physical needs. God's mercy, you see, extends to the healing of our bodies and to the physical needs of our bodies. Romans 8 speaks about that, right? That we are saved in a hope that our bodies will be healed, that our bodies will be restored.

And a church that is prosperous, spiritually prosperous, will be meeting physical needs as they arise. Remember, we are to love not in word only, but in deed. And that means where there is a need, that we meet that need. We don't just pray about it. We don't just say, I hope your need is met, but that we actually take physical steps to meet those needs.

If we just say, be warmed, be clothed, that doesn't warm and clothe anybody. There needs to be a physical action. So true Christianity is physical, not just spiritual. And thirdly, as I've said, mercy ministry is an important work of the church alongside of preaching and prayer, alongside the ministry of the Word and prayer. This ministry of mercy is so important and so vital that there is an entire office that has been established for this work.

And it's a work that is something that we should aspire to. In 1 Timothy 3, Those who have served well as deacons obtain for themselves a good standing and boldness in the faith, which is in Jesus Christ. Those who serve as deacons, who serve well as deacons, obtain for themselves a good standing in the eyes of the Lord. The Lord is pleased. And He gives great boldness in the faith to those who serve well as deacons.

This is a calling. And it's a separate calling from the work of an elder. But it's not any less important from that work. It's necessary. It's a necessary work for a healthy church.

So may the Lord give to us men who have a desire and the gifting to serve us in this role as deacons, men filled with the Holy Spirit, men of wisdom, and men of good reputation. Let's pray. Almighty Heavenly Father, we thank You that You look out and look after and meet all of our needs. That You have not just given us Your Word, but You feed us, You close us, You strengthen us, You bless us, Lord, with wealth. It is from You that comes the power to get wealth.

And we ask, Father, that You would raise up in our midst such men as these, men upon whom you have given the desire to serve in this ministry of mercy. That we might have a greater and fuller portion of the gifts that you have given to your church. That we, Lord, may be better equipped for the meeting of these needs. We thank you Lord for the abundance and the provision that you have given to us. And we ask that we might be faithful in ministering the resources and using the resources that you have with which you