Empowered To Serve | Ryan Whitton | Book of Acts

I've been here for a couple of years on the team as staff and also as a volunteer and served in a couple of different capacities. More recently, I've been able to oversee the new marketplace ministry. Pretty cool. I think it's pretty cool for business leaders. It's very exciting and really honestly, I love this church. I love being here. It's so much fun to be on the team and a part of this body. My wife and I, she's right here, she's beautiful and amazing. I wouldn't know what to do without her, but she has her little baby there, James, who I got to name after my dad, which is a pretty cool, pretty cool thing. Totally God, if you know that story. If you guys will please just rise to your feet, we're going to open the Word of God. We're going to be in Acts 6 this morning. Specifically for now, we're just going to read verses 1 through 7 together. We'll provide most of the basis for what we're going to learn. If you'll just turn to Acts 6 verses 1 through 7 and read along with me. Now, in those days, when the disciples were increasing a number, a complaint by the Helliness arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. The 12-some in the full number of disciples said, "It's not right that we should give up preaching the Word of God to serve tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word. And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip and Procrus, Nichenor, Timon and Permanis and Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch. These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them, and the Word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

So for the reading of the Word of God, you may be seated. So the goal of this message this morning is that by the time that we're done here, we should understand why layers of leadership in the church exist, who we should be promoting as those leaders, and how we ourselves are empowered as members of the body to serve. Now I want to just give you a heads up. This is going to be a lot of teaching, and some preaching here at the end, so just bear with me. We're going to be really kind of breaking open something that we call ecclesiology, which is the study of the church and how it works, okay? So we're going to take a look into Acts 6, and right away, there's a few key events that are taking place. Number one, the apostles are prompted by disunity to re-prioritize the ministry of the Word and prayer. Secondly, the first official non-apostolic that is non-apostal church leaders are appointed, and lastly, we're introduced to one of the most significant characters in the early church, and perhaps of all church history, Stephen, the martyr, who arrives on the scene. But how do we get here, right? The context is important. The church is only a few short years in, and they already have to re-prioritize, which kind of sounds like us after we come to Jesus, right? We have a couple of years to marinate in the gospel, and then we're like, "Yeah, we probably got to change our priorities a little bit," right? Now it wasn't that they needed to change anything, but that they needed to maintain the important stuff, right? Focus on the main thing. But why was that happening so soon, while I'll tell you the answer, growth. The church was growing. It says in Acts 6, "Now in these days, one of the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenist arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution."

Now we'll get to the issue of the complaint itself, but I want to notice something with you just right away, all right? This is a really diverse church. This church in Acts 6 was very diverse. We're looking at Hellenist Jews and Hebrew Jews. The Hellenist Jews spoke Greek, and it was a primary language, and they integrated elements of Greek culture with Jewish tradition, which would have been totally contrary to the more kind of proper Hebrew teaching, Aramaic speaking Jews. So the gathering of Christians here in this church would have consisted of people who looked different, dressed differently, spoke different dialects with different accents, prioritized different things, different family dynamics. I mean, you name it, right? Revelation 7, 9 says that, "Believers of every nation from all tribes and peoples and languages will stand before the throne and before the Lamb." So this church is a picture of heaven. It's a great picture of heaven. Do you want another example? Look around. Look at our church. A healthy church is a diverse church. Yeah, I think it's a great thing. Great thing. A healthy church is a sanctuary for people of all tribes, nations, and tongues. First one says the church was growing and it was in that context of growth that the complaint was formed to begin with. When church growth happens, systems break, things that work before, don't work anymore, and there are natural oversights. It's a normal thing.

Engineers, for example, I don't know if we have any engineers in the room and hopefully I know what I'm talking about here, but engineers do something called a tensile test to see how far something can stretch before it's broken to measure its reliability and the church is similar in that sense. You know, if you're not being stretched, I'm not so sure that you're growing at all. So the church is being stretched and these, you know, they're growing and so this issue arises, but the widows were almost certainly not intentionally overlooked by the apostles. This was probably just like a, an administrative oversight at most. It wasn't neglect of the heart. They weren't lacking empathy or anything like that. You know, sometimes we are quick to jump to conclusions about these things, you know, when ministries have gaps, we just assume it's from, you know, apathy or neglect or just not, you know, the church isn't concerned about our needs or, you know, whatever it may be, but the reality is, is that administration's not easy. Administration's not easy in any organization. It's certainly not easy in the church, right? Ministry's hard work, it's hard work that requires that those that are doing the work rely solely on the strength of the Lord and the Holy Spirit. Otherwise, we have a whole lot of great systems for a church with people in it that don't know Jesus.

Because the first thing to go when a church grows can be the dilution of discipleship if the Holy Spirit's not involved. So here's a real tension that does exist in the modern day, right? A church will add hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of members, and as a result, the pastors just can't call every single person, personally, anymore. Anytime they need something or, you know, they can't, the pastors of the church can't just jump into, you know, one-on-one meetings anytime somebody wants it and so on and so forth, but, you know, it's just not at all reasonable that a church of 300 and a church of 3,000 would do things the same way. It's just not gonna happen, right? So a church will grow as a result of the power of the Holy Spirit, hopefully, and complaints will arise, and maybe you've heard these before. Complaints such as, you know, I just wish things were more personal. I just wish things were more personal. I feel like I used to be able to go and talk to the pastor whenever I wanted, and now, man, it just seems like he's so busy and where is he and what is he doing, and I just don't understand. You know, I don't wanna fill out forms, and I didn't have to use technology back then,

and, you know, what is Calendly, you know, I don't understand that, and, look, I understand that, that notion, I really do, and I think that while a church is able to sustainably practice administration in that manner, it's great, it's a great thing. It's really nice to have that personability, but when churches grow, it just doesn't become reasonable to do that all the same way, and so my question to that person is, would you rather the church not grow so your preferences are still met? (audience murmurs) We have to remember, and it's so easy to forget the simple detail, that, you know, most of the New Testament is Paul's letters. Why did he have to send letters? He wasn't there. He wasn't there. He had things to do, ministry to do, the Holy Spirit was leading him elsewhere, so he sent these letters, and he had to trust that the leaders that were appointed at each church would love, disciple, and shepherd the body without him, because it's not the church of the apostle Paul, this is not the church of pastor Tyrone P. Jones, it's the church of Jesus Christ, right? (audience applauds) And we are the family of God, and family takes care of one another.

So coming back to the text, the word for complaint that's used here in verse one is going gizmos, it means like grumbling, murmuring, or a secret complaint. It's a very strong and unpleasant word, it sounds unpleasant, doesn't really roll off the tongue, it's coincidentally the same word that the Jews used in the wilderness when they grumbled against Moses. So you can probably infer that things are getting pretty intense at the church, right? They're getting quite frustrated, and so they're grumbling and complaining against the apostles because their widows are being overlooked, okay? So a risk of a church split is very real, perhaps one of the first church splits was at risk in the early church at this point. With the Hellenist Jews on one side, the Hebrew Jews on the other, but I don't want you to miss this important detail. The way that the complaint was formed and arose, presupposes that the Hellenist Jews felt their time on. And here's how the apostles respond. Verse 2 it says, "And the twelve summoned the full number of disciples and said, 'It's not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables.'" Which brings us to our first key idea here. Pastors are to preach and pray. We can become guilty of doing this thing where we become so attached to the personalities of particular leaders that somewhere along the line we forget that we all share the same Holy Spirit.

And we all stand on equal footing. When you come and you get prayer at the altars, it doesn't matter who prays for you. It doesn't matter who it is, because they're all praying to the same God, all relying on the same Holy Spirit. And they all love you as they should. So I have to assume though that in the early church, there were probably times where they felt similarly. Maybe when James and John just didn't have the availability perhaps to go and visit grandma and have lunch with her and so on and so forth or spend time with the homies or whatever it may have been. I guess I just have a hard time understanding why it's any different when instead of James and John going to visit it's Stephen and Philip. I don't really see the problem there, right? They're all leaders and again they all share the same Holy Spirit and they're all equal in the house of God. And isn't it also the job of the church to care for the church? It doesn't even have to be a church staff or a volunteer that goes and visits you like we should be caring for each other. In terms of growing churches are often criticized for being removed from the day to day or overlooking people or what have you. But when we scan the New Testament all the way from Acts to Revelation, you know what we see? Very preoccupied apostles, very preoccupied, very busy doing ministry all over the world. They had to get the gospel to where it needed to go. And so as a result of that, their priorities, what you see them primarily doing was planting churches, preaching, praying, shepherding and appointing leaders, which a pastor's responsibilities mirror just that, right? And I will be honest, I've sat in sanctuary chairs before, you know, at different churches and even here in the past years ago. And I sat there and I thought to myself, man I just think that the pastor should be doing

this and they should be doing that or the church should be doing more of this or more of that or they shouldn't be doing this. And then I walked out and I didn't do any of those things either. So here's a thought, instead of holding on to criticisms about what the church should be doing more of, you do it. The conviction is the call. If you can meet the need, just meet the need. We like to talk about it and not be about it, but our responsibility to the great commission doesn't stop at tithing. It doesn't stop at volunteering on Sundays. We are the church day in and day out from Monday to Sunday. Our pastor is the shepherd of this flock, but we're the body of Christ and he is the head. So you guys want just a floating head? That's weird and ineffective, right? We can't just have a floating head. We have the arms and the legs and the hands and the feet and that's us. So what authority are we waiting on to respond to the great commission? You know, I don't need Pastor Tyrone's permission to love my neighbor as myself. You know what Proverbs 3.27 does not say, "Don't withhold good from those to whom it is due when it's in your power to do it, but before you do, get permission from your pastor." Nothing forbids you and I from meeting the basic needs of our community. Nothing forbids you and I from praying for the cashier at the grocery store because God gave us a word and she needs to hear it or he needs to hear it. And at the very least, I mean, we can just take care of the basic needs of those around us with the resources that God gave us to do so. 1 John 3.17 says, "If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother and sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?" Some of the most critical Christians I have ever met were some of the most inactive players on the roster. You get real critical when you're sitting on the bench.

With that in mind, we need to get really clear on some doctrine, okay? The emphasis of the church should do more good in the world and focus on the welfare of others that came up with the Hellenist, but we still hear that today, right? And the church should be doing this and it should be doing that and as if its priorities are misaligned or backwards and it's just simply incorrect. It is the ministry of the Word of God in prayer. Okay, in Acts 2, 42, through 47, the believers were committed to the apostles' teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayers, and here's the result of that ministry. All came upon every soul. Wonders and signs were being performed. Needs were met, and possessions were sold and distributed. So charity was the overflow of the primary ministry, not a replacement. It was the apostles intentionally forming and shaping the souls of the flock through the spirit and the Word and prayer. That's what inspired and exhorted and equipped people to go on and care for one another, and not be selfish, but be selfless. A church built on anything other than prayer and the ministry of the Word is not a church, nor should it be referred to as a church. If you look at the New Testament, any church that had different priorities than this got a letter from Paul correcting them. Those are the only examples we have of that because when a church gets away from the main things, it begins to decay.

Verse 4 says that we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word. You'll notice that prayer actually sits before the ministry of the Word and the verse. Perhaps because prayer is a prerequisite to effective ministry. Our pastor prays every Sunday. You see him pray every Sunday. Prays for each of you we praise for our church as a whole. He prays for the community, praise for other pastors, which I had never seen anyone do before. I'm not saying they don't, I had just never seen that. In fact, it's one of the reasons I stayed at this church years ago. I was so impressed by it that somebody would have the selflessness and love for God to get up here and not pray for authority in a platform, but pray for the actual kingdom to expand, regardless of who's leading. (congregation applauding) I've heard it said before that the oil that the flame of effective ministry burns on is prayer. Prayer invites the real powerful sovereign presence of God into everything. It moves setbacks to supernatural successes. By prayer, our mothers, fathers, children, siblings, and friends are healed, saved, and set free. That's the power of prayer. And the apostles made it clear that they were devoted to just that, to prayer and the ministry of the word,

and their devotion to such was entirely essential. The growing charity ministry that the church was conducting became distracting from the original purpose of their leadership. So, distracting their apostolic authority with a different ministry area just wouldn't have been appropriate. But they don't just ignore the problem, they solve the problem, and how? By adding layers of leadership in the church, recognizing it didn't need to be a one-man band. Which brings us to our second key idea. There is a difference between anointing and aptitude. Verse three says, "Pick out from among you "seven men of good repute, full of the spirit and of wisdom." Now, a popular thought by theologians here is that these would have been congregation-elevated leaders. It would be as if you guys elevated the leaders that were then appointed into authority. Hence, to pick out from among you framing. It suggests that church nominated the leaders, and from among them, they fit the requirements, which the requirements were to have a good reputation, be full of the spirit, full of wisdom. And the apostles chose from the group who to appoint. And it's kind of crazy to think about because these seven men would have been chosen from at least hundreds, if not thousands, of people. And that's the kind of godliness I just think we should have. I just think it should be so glaringly obvious

that we love Jesus, that it were an easy choice. When people are like, "Yep, they can lead. "I can trust them. "I can trust them with authority. "I'm not worried about them hurting the people "that they lead because they have authority. "I'm not worried about giving them influence "because they're a godly person." What's fascinating is the requirements though, right? It's not like it's a laundry list of skills and qualifications. It's three things. It's three things. No, number one, to have a good reputation. In other words, be well-respected, above reproach. Number two, to be full of the spirit, which means they were able to minister through the Holy Spirit and be discerning. And lastly, number three, they were full of wisdom. They shepherded souls well, and those they discipled also became wise, okay? None of the three are of skill. Not one of them is a skill. So there's an important nuance here. While these new leaders weren't referred to as deacons, like we see in First Timothy, this is actually where the idea first began. The Greek word used for distribution in verse one is diocania. The Greek word used for deacon is diocanos.

So this is what started the idea that they needed other leaders. And it's relevant because when we look at the difference between deacons and overseers, And first and second Timothy, there are no skill requirements for deacons. For overseers, not only are there twice as many total requirements, but there's one skill requirement, and that is to be able to teach, okay? Philip and Stephen, however, were a little unique in that they performed miracles and wonders and preached and evangelized and did all these things, and so a more perhaps appropriate way to refer to these seven for now would just be as ministers, which perhaps that's which you and I are. Perhaps we're just ministers of the gospel, right? Now you'll notice that the ratio of anointing to aptitude requirements for deacons and overseers is also vastly skewed. The world promotes based on aptitude, on your skill set. The Lord promotes based on his anointing on your life that comes from him. The thing is, is that you can be extremely articulate, but if you have a questionable reputation, you have no business being in church leadership. And likewise, you can have a great overall reputation, but lack the wisdom to counsel and to shepherd. You can be wise, but lack the power of the Spirit, and so because you're so disengaged from the work of ministry, you're never invited into anything greater than your current circumstances. So all that to say, here's what the apostles say in verse 5. It says, "What they, the apostles said, please the whole gathering," and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith in of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Procrus, and Niconor, and Timon, and Parmenis, and Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch. Now I probably just damaged all of their names beyond repair, but I dare any of you to try to say them correctly, okay? I don't think any of us probably can. They'd have to be there and they're not, but we got to give them their flowers, right? So thankfully, the situation here from verse 1 is resolved by the apostles, by the development of leadership. They pick people, the congregation approves of, and is proud of as leaders, and these people become the first non-apostolic church leaders. So I

also believe that this demonstrates the notion that if there's great discipleship in a church, there are plenty of leaders to pick from when the time comes. Because if the apostles had become really complacent and comfortable in their, you know, authority and influence and roles, they would have not developed other people. They wouldn't have invested in the next generation, so when this issue would have happened, the church would have fell apart. But because of discipleship, they were able to drive on. Now, regarding the seven, all of these men appear to be Hellenists, being that they're from the community and they have Greek names. For example, Stephen's name means crown in Greek, which certainly is no coincidence if you see how his ministry plays out in Acts chapter 7, which Pastor Tyel will preach on next week. Additionally, Stephen's the only person whom we see specific attributes credited to, which is kind of interesting. It says he was a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. Again, neither are skills, rather their evidence of anointing. Okay? So this guy, Stephen, is a foreign Jew who's elected minister to foreign Jews. His anointing determined his appointing, his aptitude determined his assignment. His anointing determined his appointing, his aptitude determined his assignment. Why? He would have been homegrown, spoke the language, and shared cultural values with those he was appointed to serve. It's the difference between you having a Yuma leader doing these things and someone from somewhere else. It feels different, it's received differently, they understand you, they understand your needs. Does that make sense? So that's a little bit about Stephen. Now additionally, he had extremely old, an extremely deep Old Testament mastery, which becomes evidence in Acts 7. So he could have taught effectively in and outside of synagogues. He's basically like that guy, okay? Stephen's him. He was a well-rounded minister and he was exactly what the Hellenist Jews needed when they were feeling overlooked. Now another interesting detail about Stephen. I heard in a sermon by John MacArthur, so I can't take credit, is that Stephen is actually a bridge to the eventual Gentile ministry. Here's how. Peter, the apostle, was appointed to minister to the Jews. Peter then appoints Stephen as a minister to the

foreign Jews. Stephen is martyred in chapter seven, sorry, I just wrote a ending. Stephen is martyred in chapter seven and his robes are laid at the feet of who? Saul, who is appointed to minister to the foreign nurse, the Gentiles. Pretty interesting, the Bible is cool, right? So what's also really So verse seven says, the word of God continued to increase and the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. So first the church explodes. The solution is strong, there's unity behind it and the church explodes with growth. It doesn't say that there were disciples added. Okay, it says that the disciples multiplied, meaning if five to 10 people per week on average were coming new people, now they're looking at 15, 30, 60 new people a week. That's insane. Can you imagine what that would look like here? Right, they'd be like, oh, we're out of room, we need a new building. Sound familiar? It's amazing, it's supernatural. And also when it says that the word of God increased, what it means is that not only were more people added to the gathering, but the effects of the scriptures became more evident in the lives of the believers. So the church grew without being watered down. Discipleship was retained and fruit blossomed. And lastly, this might be the most impressive

accomplishment of it all. Verse seven says that a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. You guys remember who the priests are? They're the ones that crucified Jesus. These guys who hated Jesus, they would have been his most bitter, most vile, most vehement opponents and here they are receiving salvation from whom? Jesus. Total change of heart. This kind of transformation would have been the most impactful transformation people would have seen in this time period. You know, they had heard the priests, had heard the gospel countless times. They didn't lack intellectual understanding, they lacked obedience. James 2 19 says, "Even the demons believe and shudder." So mental understanding alone, just knowing God is real alone doesn't make you a Christian. It actually just puts us on common ground with demons. The hardest people to get through are the ones that think they're good people and they don't need any help. They're the hardest ones to get to. That's why Jesus said, "I came for the sick, not for the healthy." You don't think you need a cure. Pastor Ty said last week,

you know, you can play church every Sunday. But the thing is, is you won't bear any fruit, right? At that point, you're just full of impulses and opinions in the world and none of those are evidence of salvation. Or on the flip side of that, you know, maybe you are really committed emotionally. You know, you come here and you bring your emotions and you get really worked up during worship and you feel so many things and that's just not evidence that you're a Christian either. You know, Jesus is a moving person. His story is moving. It moves unbelievers. What do you hear him say out there? Oh, he's a good guy. He's a great teacher. Wow, what a great life. They write books about him that aren't the Bible, you know? People read about Jesus and not from the Bible and then they don't surrender to him, right? He's a moving figure in history, but the thing is, just being moved by Jesus doesn't mean you're saved by Jesus, okay? Because anybody can turn on a Drake song and turn the lights off and get all in their feelings. And, you know, at that point, you're just doing the same thing with worship music. Our worship team will tell you that the way the songs are composed,

it makes you feel. But if that's all you do, then that's all you do, is just have feelings. Martin Lloyd Jones once said, "An emotional connection to Jesus "without obedience to him as king is not Christianity, "it's sentimentality." Obedience has to capture your whole personality, your character, your motivations, your beliefs, your relationships, because you're a new creation, you're not the same person anymore. That person's gone, they're gone, leave them in the past. So, the priests are fighting this battle of being saved by good works, right? They were perfect on paper, they never broke the law, they were never unclean, they never murdered, they never cheated, stole, they weren't drunk in disorderly, you wouldn't find them at the crest, just, you know, having a while and out, having a great time. But doing all the right things doesn't get you to see that the table either. Because news flash, it's not your goodness that saves you, it's Jesus's goodness that saves you. (audience applauding) But we're gonna get practical, okay, I know I've been teaching for a little bit. You guys doing okay?

Okay, all right, let's get practical. So, point three, when you embrace the call, you embrace the crucible. And some of you already know exactly what that's all about. Verse six, eight says, "And Stephen, "full of grace and power was doing great wonders "and signs among the people." So, our boy Stephen is out here doing apostolic level ministry without apostolic authority. Previous to this, like in Acts chapter five, And what's unique about it is he's just a guy. He's not a prophet, he's not a pastor per se, he's not an apostle, he's just a guy like you and like me, and he's out here doing wonders and miracles. Full of grace and power, which by the way, those characteristics sit on opposite ends of the spectrum, to have both means he was completely bridled by Christ, completely mastered by the Holy Spirit, not by his feelings, wasn't led by feelings, he was led by the Lord. He could speak against sin, correct, teach, and lead, but listen closely here, okay, Stephen being appointed didn't change him, it just magnified who he already was. This is who Stephen already was, now you don't need to be Stephen, you don't need to be a deacon, you don't need to be a pastor to do the things he was doing, you just need to be born again, that's it, you just need to be born again. And when you go out and you do these things, here's what you can expect, yes, people will be healed, restored, saved, reconciled, you'll watch the heavens open up before you, you will never lack, you will live abundantly, and the devil will gun for your life like nothing you've ever seen, like nothing you've ever experienced. Somebody in the room just needs to hear that you are full of the power of the Holy Spirit, and if you just had faith in how great that God is, not how great you are, it's okay, you don't have to be great 'cause he is, you don't have to worry about all that. You have the greatness of God inside of you, and if you knew that, you'd go and you'd change the atmosphere of your workplace, you'd go and you'd change the atmosphere of your

home, you'd go and you'd pray for people, you'd preach the word of God to yourself and those around you, like they're gonna go to hell if you don't 'cause they will. You'd go out there and you'd attempt great, great, scary things for the Lord and stop second guessing how great he is. Verse 9-10 says, "Then some of those who belong to the synagogue of the freedmen as it was called, and of the Cyreneans and Alexandrians and those from Cilicia and Asia rose up and disputed with Stephen, but they couldn't withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking. The opposition comes against Stephen and it's gonna come against you. It's not flesh and blood, it's not just people, it's the principalities of darkness that wage war against your soul, and it gets the calling that God has placed on your life. You know it's ironic about these people, you see it's called the synagogue of the freedmen, it's because these people had been slaves, got their freedom and returned to the synagogue to worship, and now they diametrically oppose the exact freedom that Stephen's preaching, which by the way would have been, you're saved by grace. I think that makes sense to me, right? And yet we do the same thing. We think we're free because we have license to sin but we're really enslaved to the passions of our heart. But it's not like they get really upset and they start to come against Stephen, but you know it wasn't the serving that they had an issue with. The devil, I don't know if you mind so much when you serve. I don't think he likes it, but I don't think he's not worried about it. He's serving, he's doing miracles, he's doing all kinds of things. You know when it really tips them over? When he starts preaching Jesus and Jesus crucified. And how many know that when you go back out into that world and you're not here anymore, people don't want to hear. People have all kinds of things to say about the name Jesus, you bring it up and people get uncomfortable.

It's the reality, the truth hurts, it also sets you free. We have to understand that our sin is really too great for us to bear. That we as sinners will go to hell without Jesus. We're out there, we try to live figuring out all these solutions and looking for something to make the pain inside go away, chasing these fleeting feelings of happiness and what the influencers say you need to do and this thing and that meditation and this and that and none of it works. You know why? And it's not ever going to be good enough. He died on that cross thinking of me and of you. He was picturing you as they stabbed, beat and bruised him and thought to himself, I'm still going to do this. I love you so much I'm willing to do anything for you even to death so that we may have life and have it abundantly and not just eternally but right now. He's got his hand extended right now and it's right in front of you and all you got to do is reach out and accept the help. That's all you got to do. And Christian, you need to hear. It is not, you're not the one that's going to be the reason why you do effective ministry. You're not the reason you're going to be successful in the ministry that you do. You know what the reason for your success will be? The grace and power of the Holy Spirit upon your life. You know, Jesus didn't come to bring peace, but a sword. And there's no better time than right now to proclaim the good news to the captives of the world. Doesn't matter what it costs us. Guess what, it's gonna be uncomfortable to talk about Jesus at work. It's gonna be uncomfortable to talk about Jesus with your family that doesn't want to hear about it.

It's gonna be uncomfortable. And I'm willing to bet that the cost of comfortability is a whole lot less than what it costs to Jesus Christ. It's never going to cost us what it cost to him. These guys brought a knife to a gunfight, man. They brought a knife to a gunfight. They showed up to throw down with a man named Stephen and they ended up fighting against the Holy Spirit of God himself. Because it wasn't Stephen talking, it was God, the Holy Spirit speaking through him. It says, "I will fill your mouth with the words "at the proper time." It is not you. You don't have to have it all figured out. You don't have to be smart. You don't have to be this, all that. You just have to believe that God is good and he'll take care of you and he'll speak through you. And that's enough. So let's wrap this up. Verses 6, 11 through 15. Then they secretly instigated men who said, "We've heard him speak blasphemous words "against Moses and God." And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes and they came upon him and seized them and brought him before the council. Does this sound familiar? Sounds a whole lot like what they did to Jesus.

And they set up false witnesses who said, "This man never ceases to speak words "against this holy place in the law." For we've heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us. And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like that of an angel. But why were the deceivers successful in indicting Stephen? Because those that they deceived didn't know the word well enough to tell the truth from a lie. Ephesians 4, 14 says that when you are not well equipped, you're like a child, tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, human cutting and craftiness into deceitful schemes. So don't be a part of the opposition. Don't be so easily fooled. If your first instinct when you hear slander is to take it and run with it, then you lack discernment and you lack wisdom. But the word is ready to provide just that to you and your father is ready to give you all that you need in abundance. We're gonna be slander. Your brothers and sisters in Christ are gonna be slandered. It's not a question of if it's a question of when. And when you are, remember, it is not you that's being slandered.

It's the righteousness of Christ himself. People don't have a problem with you. They have a problem with Jesus. People are gonna talk. They're gonna talk about the way you live. They're gonna talk about your priorities. It's what people do, right? Christ said, they mocked Christ. He said that you're gonna be hated by all nations from my namesake. But God, God's not dethroned by the opinions of men. God is not mocked by the opinions of men. And let me just remind you who this Jesus is that the world has so much to say about. Revelation 19, 12 through 16. His eyes are like a flame of fire and on his head are many diadems. And he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He's clothed in a robe dipped in blood and the name by which he's called is a word of God. And the armies of heaven, a raid in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. And from his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to stripe down the nations. And he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God, the Almighty. And on his robes and on his thigh, he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. Doesn't sound like a guy I wanna mess with.

And somehow that's the same guy that came down as a man and died on a cross for us, same guy. So when you go out and when you serve, verse 15 says, "engazing at him all who sat "in the council saw that his face "was like the face of an angel." When you go out and when you serve, when you choose to pick up your cross and go to war against the enemy, and you begin to feel the pressure, your at your wit's end, you feel spent, you don't know what to do, why me, why gone, why now. What do people see of you? What do you reflect, exhaustion, fear, pride, anger, regret, guilt? It says that Stephen's face was like that of an angel. We should cling so closely to our savior that no matter the circumstance, all people see reflected in us is Christ. A reflection of the glory of God. Will you stand in just a moment we're gonna take communion together? Communion is a holy representation. for us so we may have life in Him, but for those of you that haven't yet made the decision to make Jesus your Savior and you're ready to surrender your life to Him today, I want to give you an opportunity to do so. You're ready to lay it all down and let the burdens go and give them to somebody who can handle them. And today's that day with all eyes closed, please, and all heads bowed, all I'm going to ask you to do is Jesus is your Savior if you would just raise your hand.

If you were just to raise your hand, if you were ready to surrender to Christ, just raise your hand. Amen, amen, I see you, I see you, I see you, I see you, I see you, I see you. Amazing. Well, let's celebrate all of those that just made that decision. Come on. It's the best decision that you'll ever make in your life. Now if you're under the lordship of Christ today, will you just grab the elements and begining with the bread? The Lord Jesus said on the night when He was betrayed, He took bread and when He had given thanks, He broke it and He said, "This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me, take the bread." In the same way also, He took the cup after supper saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me." Alleluia, "For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes." Now, for those of you that just made that decision for Jesus, we're just going to pray together and you're all welcome to pray along with us in the room and as we pray and you repeat after me, I don't want you to just think this is some kind of formula. The Bible says that if you believe in your heart that God raised them from the dead and you profess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, you will be saved. You will be saved. So let's just pray, "Jesus, I no longer want to live a life apart from you. I believe that you died and were resurrected for me so that I may have new life. Lord, forgive me of my sins. I surrender my life to you and ask that you be my Lord from this day forward and forever more. Amen. I will prayer to you if you guys will just come up right now.

If you need prayer, the altars are open, they're ready to pray for you. They'd be honored to speak with you and to pray for you or your family or your friends or whatever it is that you need and thank you for being here. Jesus loves you. So do we. Hope you have a wonderful Sunday. Take care. [MUSIC PLAYING]