Anointing Stavros as Deacon of the local Church

1. For those of you who are watching, we are at the beach, and it’s a beautiful day, of course, it’s August. People take a little more time in the morning in the summer, because it’s relax time. But, I’m glad that the Lord is always up and ready, to always be with us, to surround us, to love us; Amen. So, we want to thank the Lord, start with a prayer. Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus, we thank you so much for today, how great You are. Lord, we just want to keep our eyes on You, because we know that in You is always what we need, Joy and Peace and Love. Thank You for Your Love that never ends. And Lord, we would ask those that are listening online, and for those that might pass us by here, in the water or on the beach today, they will hear Lord, of Your presence. To know there are people today need to know that there is someone who cares for them all the time, let them hear that.
2. I’m reading from Psalm 76:1-12. Father, we thank You, when many other things are difficult, Lord, You are always sure, Your ways are always sure. We thank You and we love You Lord. Again, for those who have joined us online, we are on the beach, a little more relaxed. Why don’t you say hello to somebody who’s with you and those of you that are online, greet someone near you.
3. Is there one of you that would like to come to the mike and share with the people online something short. Sometimes it’s good to hear from one another. Cecilia takes up the mike: I love that God has promised us, that no matter what you are going through, He will always be there. And that He’ll protect us, when we are sick, He’s there for us, whether He heals us immediately when we pray, or whether He takes us through a journey of healing using doctors and medicine. I’ve experienced that in the last 3 months in my own personal life, where God has allowed me to go through a situation, where I am experiencing His healing, and to be able to share that experience with others. So, God is faithful to keep His promises. Amen.
4. We’re going to get ready for communion. When we have our eyes fixed on the Lord, I have a question; What is the first thing that you think of? Eleni – His authority; Evy – I see how unimportant everything is here; Christina – I think things of late: what does He look like?
5. Well for me, what Christina said, I don’t every day and all the time, but often when I think of Him, putting my eyes on Him, I tend to picture what He looks like, and I get excited when I think what He will look like when we get to see Him face-to-face. The One who has all authority, and the One who made all these things that we can enjoy here today. I think it’s always lovely when we come to the beach, we have our children playing in the sea. I think that sometimes we forget the simple things of worshipping together. Don’t you imagine, that Jesus would often sit down by the roadside with the disciples – I don’t always see Him walking, walking, walking, sometimes I imagine that He sat down, He would grab a handful of figs from a tree, He enjoyed the figs, and He would just start talking about all the wonderful things that Father God had created. And do you know what? That’s Church. That is Church, it’s not the building, but it is wanting to be with the family of God, more than anyone or anything. We are the Church here today, we are His Church, we are His Temple. I’m just going to ask of you for just a few minutes, and those of you online, to think about Him sitting on the throne of your heart, in your temple. You’ll see how wonderful and beautiful He is. Let’s take a few moments.
6. Now, before we take communion, will you turn to someone near you, just real quickly tell them how it feels, having the Lord sitting on the throne of your heart. The weather report said that we would have windy conditions. All of my papers don’t blow away. We going to do something else. Thank you to all of you who are here today, it’s also a great day to be at the beach. Especially for Evy, those of you that don’t like the sunshine. Evy always wants umbrellas, but see what a great day we have today. Evy, could still get sunburned in the shade.
7. The Lord is Good, and for some time, I have felt that the Lord was speaking to me about something, so, I approached this person that was on my heart, about being a deacon in the Church. 1 Samuel 16:1-15, is kind of an Old Testament pattern of anointing, and for choosing people to serve the Lord. You might remember that king Saul was failing the Lord, he was disobedient. So, God told Samuel, there’s another one, who’s going to serve me with all of his heart. That was king David of course. And when he came before Samuel the prophet, Samuel poured oil on him to anoint him. We don’t anoint people to serve God, lightly. It’s going to be Stavros today whom we will anoint. I’m going to apologize to the leader’s because I didn’t ask any of you, your opinion this time, because in reality, Stavros has been serving as a deacon all these years and I wanted it recognized today. None of us are perfect I’m going to tell you that this morning, but when we try our best, God will always reward our service, amen.
8. I remember Stavros was always faithful in coming to church, not always on time, but he would come to church. And one day I said to him, if he would put the Scriptures on Facebook for people to read. I don’t know how many of you see those Scriptures, I don’t even know if you notice what time Stavros puts them on there. He’ll be late at night of early in the morning, Stavros will be posting those Scriptures. He’s being faithful. I actually, don’t know of a day that he ever missed. I don’t think, in all these years, he’s missed a day since he started. And if you haven’t read them, they’re in English, Greek and Farsi, in GCC Facebook page. And after that, we asked Stavros if he would start men’s breakfast and bible fellowship. So Stavros has been leading men’s breakfast and fellowship, for a number of years. And that says nothing about the Farsi families he’s helped. I know about Stavros going out in the middle of the night to help a family that didn’t know what to do, to take them to the doctor, to take groceries to them, to counsel them. I even know people who are not Farsi speakers, that they phone him, “Can you come fix my electricity?” And Stavros goes. And one of these people live very far, but Stavros goes. I believe he has very much the heart of a deacon.
9. In the New Testament Church, as described in the book of Acts, was growing so rapidly and the disciples were trying to serve and cook and they had no time to teach and pray, so the Lord said “Set apart deacons”. I believe it is a very spiritual job. By the way you have to read that portion in the New Testament, you know some of the people were complaining, that not everybody was being taken care of equally. It was the Greeks that were complaining, I always think that’s so funny.
10. So, unless anybody has an objection this morning, we’re going to anoint Stavros this morning to be a deacon in the local church. I believe the Lord is going to anoint him more and more to do the work of the Lord, and it all is the work of the Lord, tending the electricity, taking groceries to people, but who knows what God has in store for Stavros, Amen. I will ask Evy, Brian and Cecilia to come forward, and Lars, I would like you to represent the men and that the Lord will raise up many more men to serve Him. Each one of us will put oil on our hands and if you’ll all pray with us for the Lord to anoint Stavros, through the power of the Holy Spirit for the work of the Lord, Amen.
11. Let’s pray, “Father, in the name of the Lord, we anoint Stavro, we thank you for this servant; we thank you for this man with a servant’s heart. We thank you God for his feet Lord, that they should go in many, many places even more, Lord, that his heart may understand the needs of other people that we don’t always understand. We thank you God, that he speaks many languages, so that he can help people whose language we don’t understand. We thank you for ears to hear God, when no one else will hear, you Stavro. We thank you Lord that you will raise up more and more men to serve you, God, to be about the Master’s work, to know, that only what we do for Jesus is going to last, only what we do for You will count in the end. Oh Holy Spirit, come upon him and anoint him from the top of his head, to the soles of his feet. Lord we thank you, his hands are yours, his feet, his mouth, all that he has belongs to you. In the name of Jesus.” Can we all say “Bless him Lord”. And everybody needs to kiss and bless him, Lord.
12. Now, I have never done this before, but for some reason, when I was in the office to collect things to bring today, I suddenly wanted to bring this candle light – Stavro, it’s yours. The Lord wants to tell you that you are His light. Today, He is setting a flame alight in your life, to shine even brighter, the Lord wants to use you to light the way for others. Amen, praise God, praise the Lord.
13. Well, it’s almost time to finish. On Wednesday, we’ll have online, prayer at 7 o’clock. Let me challenge you. It’s only 30 minutes, please try to be with us, and if you have a request, send it on the WhatsApp group, or to Leto or myself personally, we’ll be praying for you. Next Sunday Leto will be preaching, and before we continue, I want us to pray for Martha. If you don’t know, Martha has a malignant tumor on her lung, and the doctor said that it is urgent. And tomorrow she may know what she has to do before going into the hospital. But we believe that God can heal her even before she goes to hospital. Remember, Arman and other members in our church, but let’s focus today on Martha and Arman.
14. In the name of the Lord, You are the healer, we thank you and praise you for all that You can do, and desire to do. We can praise You for all that You are, because Lord Yor name is Healer, Your name is presence, Your name is the Lord God our Counselor, Your name is the Lord God who loves us, Your name is the way, truth and light. I am the answer. Lord, we come against this malignant tumor, we know that You can heal it even before she goes to the hospital, but if you use the way of the hospital, we know that you will use her to be a light unto others. Lord, we also pray for Arman – “Rise up out of the wheelchair. Amen”