One-Star Review | Pastor Eric Morris

What's up, men of God? Pastor Eric here, and I am so excited to bring this message to you. I want you to feel encouraged. I want you to feel hopeful. I want you to know that God is still working in your story. Our mission here at Victory City is to help every person take a step closer to Jesus. And can I tell you, man, as you're growing in the Lord, you're taking a step. So let's lean in, let's see what God has for us this week, and I know you'll be blessed for it, and I love you. Hey, get your Bibles out, and we're gonna go to Acts chapter six. We're gonna start with the first seven verses in Acts chapter six. I wanna welcome our Bartlett Innovation Unit guys. Man, I love you. I'm so grateful for you. Thanks for going through the Word with us. For those of you who are joining us mid-series, or those of you who slept since last week, let me catch you up really quick. The book of Acts is a historical narrative of the first century church. It's the very beginning, it's the story of how the church was launched. It's the origin story of what we're doing here today. And at the very outset, you see the book of Acts, the church, begin to bump against things

that would hinder its growth. And so there are external factors that sometimes stop the church's growth, and then there are internal factors. And the first three weeks, we talked about two external things, right? They were trying to threaten them to stop witnessing and preaching about Jesus, and we talked about boldness and the spirit. And last week, we saw Peter and John flogged. They were whipped, but they didn't stop preaching the gospel, and the church began to grow. We talked about Ananias and Sapphira, and in their deception, the Lord judged them, and that could've ended the church, but it actually continued to blossom the church. Today is a much more practical, very practical message around what do you do when a church begins to grow, and in that growth, challenges arise, and having to manage a large population of people, serving those people, making sure that they're taken care of, they're loved, they're a part of the family. And so today, we're gonna bump into when the church has a logistic challenge, and how do we solve that? And so this isn't necessarily gonna be a message where maybe you might remember for the rest of your life,

unless the Holy Spirit taps you on the shoulder at the end of the service, but let's read the scripture, and let's lean into it. It says, now in these days when the disciples were increasing, now I wanna pause here. Disciple is very important. It's not attendees. Churches can be full of attenders and not be full of disciples. Our goal here at Victory City Church is to create disciples. What is a disciple? It is someone who believes the words of Jesus and behaves like Jesus. You see, there's one thing to believe the word of Jesus and not behave like Jesus. Come on, somebody. Has that ever been your life? Let's not talk to other people. Let's just look at the man in the mirror. Has there been moments when you have believed like Jesus, but have not behaved like Jesus? So a disciple is someone who believes the words of Jesus and then is action-oriented with their life around the behaviors and life of Jesus. And it says that they were increasing, and a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected

in the daily distribution. There was no social net in Jerusalem. There was no EBT carts. There was no Section 8 housing. There was not a welfare system in the city of Jerusalem, and the church was actually filling the gaps of this welfare system. But what was happening, every day, they would come to a designated place and because of the generosity of the church, the church was then able to buy food and they were to feed these widows every day, which historians say most likely would have been their only meal. Because a widow in ancient Jerusalem had no support network. They couldn't own property. It was very difficult for them to get a job. So when their husband died, they had nothing, and the church was filling that. And it says, hey, we're neglecting the Hellenists. So you have the Hebrews and the Hellenists, more on that later, and the 12 were summoned in full number of the disciples and said, it is not right that we should give up the preaching of the word to serve tables. Now, when problems happen in churches today, oftentimes what it is is, Pastor Eric, I need you to fix this. I need you to fix that.

I need you to fix this. I need you to fix that. And I did a little fun thing about like, what are the actual expectations of a pastor? And there's a lot, I'm not gonna go into that. I don't wanna be self-serving here, but a lot of times, modern people think that pastors should do everything. But I got a family too. And it says, therefore, brothers, pick out from among you. Look what the disciples do. No, no, no, we gotta prioritize the word. So let me name this right from the beginning. This is not a church growth strategy. This is, we've got to protect the word because the word is what creates disciples. The word is what sets people free. The word is the gospel that changes lives. So Peter and John are saying, hey, it's not that this isn't important. It's this, we have to prioritize the word and there's other people in the body that need to prioritize this. And look what it says. It says, therefore, my brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the spirit and of wisdom, who we will appoint this duty and we will devote ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the word.

And when they said it, it pleased the whole gathering and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit and Philip, who would later become a missionary to Ethiopia and Procurus and Nicanor and Timon and Parmesan and Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch. Just seeing if you're listening. These, they are set before the apostle. Look what they did. They prayed, they laid hands on them and I want you to see what happens. I want to give you the end goal at the beginning so you can know why we're having this. And look what it says in verse seven. And it says, in verse seven, and the word of God continued to increase and the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem and great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. I'm gonna title today's message One Star Review. One Star Review. This word complaint, if you'll go back to Acts chapter six, verse one, if you have your Bibles and if you'll just point to the word complaint. In Greek, that is the word gongosimos. It's a weird word, gongosimos, which literally means to grumble. Have you ever known someone who just kind of grumbles? Kind of murmurs, kind of complains? Can I tell you, that's one of the most destructive things

in a church, is when grumbling and complaining begins. In fact, it's what got the children of Israel in trouble when God was providing them. God was angry. He was like, man, I'm giving you manna every day, I'm supplying your needs, and all you guys keep doing is grumbling and complaining. So I'm gonna have a little poetic license here this morning and have a little fun. And I wonder if this moment right here was the first time in church history someone gave the early church a One Star Review. They're overlooking us. Oh yeah, that's our Google. We got some One Star Reviews. Jessica said, don't expect much, you won't be disappointed. Soma said, didn't give a reason, and neither did Underground602, and it looks like two sisters, Amy and Amaka gave us One Star. Let's go to the next one. We got another one here. Joe Francis, he said, I would give this church a 2.5 star rating, and that's because the atmosphere is good, praise God, the worship is good, good job worship team. The community of people is good. Come on, give yourselves a hand, you guys are good. The speaking of the word is not bad.

Okay, well, it's kind of mid. It's so much about tithing. Well, it was a month ago, we were in a giving series. I'm sorry, Jesus talks about money more than anything, but it's okay, it's okay. Hey, hey, Joe has his opinion. Not a bad place to worship, just needs to be more Bible speaking and teaching. Okay, Bible speaking and teaching. But Joe, he has six other reviews, so I clicked on Joe's, and he gave Popeyes a One Star. And then he has one of his other reviews, let's go to that one, he gave Hooters a One Star. Hey, we're doing better than Popeyes and Hooters, praise God, everybody. And then I went and looked at one more, let's show one more, we've got Chase. Chase was four years ago, he said he's new to the area, and he was reading the reviews to find a local church. The condescending review replied, we replied to a review of someone who was unhappy with our church, and we said we were so sorry, we would be happy to help you find another church in the area, but he thought that was mean. He said this, tells me everything I need to know about people leading this church. He didn't even come to our church, just saw a review and said One Star. One Star, can I tell you something really quick,

and why this passage encourages me? Because I went on, I was like, well, we're 4.6, I wonder what Celebration is, and Celebration's not five stars, so good job, Joe, keep it up, come on, get your game up. And I started to look at all the other churches in our area, and I was like, man, every church has some One Star reviews. You know what that tells me is this, and even from here, the very early church, because a lot of times critics of the church will go, man, we just need to get back to the purity. of the church, that first century feel, and I'm like, yeah, but here's the deal, like you had the OGs leading your church. Like Peter and John, like literally the first pope, if you're Catholic. Peter, on this rock I will build my church, and they don't always get it right. Here's what I'm gonna encourage us this morning, perfect churches don't exist. Healthy churches do, and even healthy churches encounter problems. I think it's really important for us to name that, especially if you're new with us, this one's kinda gonna be an internal message, we're so glad you're here, come back next week because we're gonna talk about how Stephen gets killed, so that's gonna be an encouraging one. Be a martyr!

We've grown, and God bless, man, the word has grown, and I think our church is, year over year, just from 2025 to 2026, it's up like 25 to 30%, which praise God for that, guys, look, praise God, hear me on that. Like I get on my knees all the time, and I'm just like, thank you, Lord, for what you're doing, but hey, guess what, as we've grown, guess what we encounter, we encounter a situation like this, it says, as the days were growing, the cycles were increasing, actually what begins to happen is an oversight, and Proverbs actually gives us some wisdom about this, in Proverbs chapter 14, he says, hey, listen, where there's no oxen, the manger stays clean, no messes happen, there's no problems, but listen, oxen are there to create fruit and abundant crops, and so here's the deal, as we become more fruitful, there's gonna be messes, there's gonna be misses, there's gonna be challenges, but again, Acts chapter six, verse seven, we want the word to increase, and when the word increases, churches grow, and disciples are made, which is what we want, because why, here's the deal, as believers, we want people reconciled with God, and then reconciled with one another, our primary prayer as a believer, and as kingdom-minded people,

is we want the world to be reconciled with God, and then in that reconciliation with God, we can actually be reconciled with one another, and I wonder if the ache and the pain of our culture today, where it feels like everybody is at war with one another, and opinions, and the comments, and the terribleness you see in our culture, where it feels like nobody's getting along, and I wonder, it's because it's like, man, how do we reconcile with God, so we can reconcile with one another? And that's the end, so how do they fix this? How do they deal with that? How does this first century church, well, let's name the problem, and really try to understand it for a little bit. You see, the Hellenists were ethnically Jewish people who, through what's called a diaspora, a spreading, people that grew up and ethnically Jewish, they began to move around the Mediterranean Rim, because the Roman kind of culture and civilization had made mobility easier. You guys have ever heard the Roman road system? Right, so now people in the Roman kind of area of influence, began to move, and so some people in Jerusalem, Jewish people, began to immigrate to other parts of the Roman world. But they would come back into the city during the holy days, and so Passover, different festivals, they would travel back.

And many of you in this room, you understand what it's like to immigrate from another country. And so here what we have is ethnically the same people, but culturally different. One was culturally Hebrew, and another was culturally Greek. It's kind of like Alex Espinosa. Alex Espinosa is Hispanic, but he's a white boy, right? I mean, he's... He might be ethnically Mexican, but he's culturally white. Love you, bro. Love you, dog. You know I gotta have some fun with you. All right. But you know this, right? So we've got a lot of Africans in our church, and so you might be ethnically Nigerian, but if you're the second or third generation, culturally, you might still have some cultural practices, but you're slowly moving towards the place that you live. You understand this? Even if I'm second or third generation Hispanic, right? My grandparents or my parents or even I, like I'm ethnically that, but culturally I'm different. And this is the first hurdle that the church is having to get through. And in fact, here's what I want you to see. The problem wasn't even maliciousness. It wasn't like the Hebrew Jews were going,

we don't like the Hellenist Jews. Here's what you have to see. They had no ability to know. It was a purely relational network, and the Hellenists, because they were literally immigrants, meaning this, they didn't know the community, and so the early church had no idea who they were. That's why the solution was to name seven men with Greek names. Hey, you know who the widows are in your culture, in your community, so you're going to serve them. Can we name something really quick that sometimes in the church is really easy to do? Is anytime we see the church missing it, the first assumption is of a malicious nature. Oh, well, they just don't like me. Oh, well, they hate these type of people. Oh, well, I don't feel accepted. The church doesn't do, right? The church has no, and we go to that immediately, and then we begin to grumble sideways, and then it fractures the church. Sometimes it's fun to complain, but see, here at the very beginning, you have a language barrier and a culture barrier, and what does the New Testament church do? The New Testament church begins to enlist people from the body. Hey, we have to solve this. We have to solve this.

Now, let me just name something that's a real challenge in modernity. The Google review is a primary example of our whole framework, which we exist, and that's this. Everything in our life we view as a consumer. What is this doing for me? Was it an experience for me? Did I like the chicken? Did I like the songs? You saw that in the review. The music was good. The community was good. The preaching was mid. He needs to use the Bible more. What are we doing? We are viewing the church as a consumer good, not as a place where actually I go to contribute, not just consume. Let me just name something really quick, and I'm gonna say it with as much love as possible. If I have spent years consuming in the church, and I've never contributed to the church, are you part of the problem? I love you, I love you, I love you. Okay, I promise I really do. I love you. Because you see, God doesn't view the church as just this consumer good. He views it as a new citizenry. He views it as a new population,

a new people to belong to. That's why he says you're a nation within a nation. You are citizens of heaven, but yet you still exist in the nations you live in, and that's why it says that you shall go make disciples of all nations. He views us as a body, a population, a group, not just a service we attend. And so as the church encounters some of these problems, the solution is this. Hey, I'm now enlisting leaders within the church. Now, we have to name something really quick, because Peter and John actually create the first division of labor within the church. Peter and John and the disciples go, hey guys, we have a priority, and we have to focus on the word, but then there's other people which just as important, they have to focus on the serving of tables. And look what it does. He doesn't give them a task, he gives them responsibility. Do you know the difference between a task and a responsibility? A task is hey, I need you to do this for me one time. A responsibility is hey, I need you to be in charge of this and make sure it happens all the time. Come on, let's name some things. There are people in the church that would love to help out with tasks, and then that's where we start.

But what if I was like, hey, you are now responsible for this population to make sure they're cared for? How many of you guys would be like, let me pray about that? Let me pray, consider, gotta ask the Lord on that. Can I just say though, a warning for that? Is the message you say saved you is the message your absence is slowing down? Because you see, when leaders rise up, what happens to the church? Remember Acts chapter six, verse seven. The word grows and disciples are multiplied. So what's the mechanism? How do they do that? You see, Peter and John and the disciples, they don't disregard the complaint. They take it, they listen to it. They pray over it, they gather the people. They go, okay, we gotta figure out what to do. And they begin to name people within the body. Okay, who in the body, who in the body, can begin to rise up and take leadership and to care for this? Now let's talk about the daily. Distribution this was real authority real weight you see because as the church gave their money Then the disciples who were in charge of this they would distribute the money for different things and so literally What the disciples are saying is hey, we are going to give you real authority real money And then you're going to lead this daily distribution daily

So every day at noon you are in charge of feeding widows So where's my dream team at make some noise? So dream team not just Sunday Every day now how many of you guys would immediately be like listen, I can't do that But these men rearrange their lives to serve the church now Here's the thing I'm not saying that every single one of you have to rearrange your life But you have to be willing to if God asked you Like if God tapped you on the shoulder and said I need you to solve this problem Would your career be the block that says nah? Would your time Would your comfort You see that's what's really at stake here Because there's there's lives on the other side and look what happens if these widows don't eat they die There is nothing else If these widows don't eat they die and really the point of this passage is just show hey There is real human consequence on the other side If something does not happen, so that's why you see in Acts chapter 2. It says the 12 summon the full member It's not right that we should give up. We got to focus on the word But God has equipped the church With people that can serve in other layers. So what are they doing? They're actually broadening the leadership They're broadening the organization So for my logistical people my administrative people who love org charts and all that kind of stuff, what are they doing? They're expanding it. They're again. Hey for us to be more effective in the leadership of this church It can't just be the 12. We've got to now expand. We've got to give authority away. I Remember a great leader. His name is Craig Rochelle. He talks about this. He goes you can have control Or you can have growth But you can't have both So the church at some point has to release some control, okay, you're in charge of that But Peter gives us a lens

He says but before you give away control before you empower people the disciples show us what it requires And it's found in verse 3 and let's read it again. It says therefore brothers pick out from among you Seven men and here it is good reputation full of the Spirit and Wisdom who we will appoint on this duty. So we're going to talk about this this morning Because I want to go here is the thing that that the disciples said is the standard You got to have a good reputation You got to be full of the Spirit And you got to have wisdom so let's just name something really quick here a Reputation is not something that I can create. It's something that other people say about me other people say about me and Both of these things are going hey, it's connected because if someone is full of the Spirit and they're wise guess what they'll have a good reputation Good reputation The scripture here is pointing us to see that there was a space in where okay Other people are seeing the fruit of your life Do you know that every staff member that we have on staff here at Victory City Church at one point Started as just an attender in this church every staff member So I'm not saying that that is our hiring policy from here on out What I'm saying is look at how the Lord and the Spirit of God in All the growth that we've seen at Victory City Church has found people within the body to begin to rise up so much So that now they're actually on full-time staff. They're helping build this church They're helping meet the needs of our church, right? How many of you guys are thankful that we got a good team leading our church? Amen There's also people in our church that they were they volunteer they have other jobs They do their thing, but they are leading in spaces of our church How many connect group leaders do I have in the room today? Right connect group leaders raise your hand Come on, how many team leaders do I have in the house? You're you lead a team. You're on the dream team. Praise God

How many people do I have that go to Bartlett to help out with the prison ministry? Come on Yeah, so many people right you see there are people in the church Right now that's going man. Hey, I want to I want to fill this gap Full of the Spirit. What does that mean? See, full of the Spirit is not just a momentary, okay, man, the Lord fills me. He does that. You see that in the moment where Peter's standing before the council. He doesn't want to know what to say. You know, he's this fisherman, and he's standing before these political powers that could kill him, and it says the Spirit of God filled him for that moment, and he spoke with boldness. But then there's another state of being full of the Spirit, and that's just this. On Tuesday, I'm full of the Spirit. I'm spiritually-minded. I'm kingdom-minded. I want to walk with the Spirit every day so that, and here's the thing, when I'm full of the Spirit, there's room for nothing else. But how many of us, we try to kind of cohabitate at times with the Spirit and with self, Spirit and with self, Spirit and with self.

What do I want? What does the Spirit want? What do I want? What does the Spirit want? And have you ever noticed that you and the Spirit disagree? In fact, if you and the Spirit are always agreeing, I would almost say it's probably not the Spirit, it's just you. But there's moments, right, in our life where I want to walk by the Spirit. And here's what the point they're saying is that when you are full of the Spirit, your life begins to produce the fruit of the Spirit. You know people in your life that are kind and generous and patient and self-control. What is that? That's products of the Spirit, and what does that lead to? That leads to a good reputation. But let me name something in a church of our size. You can stay hidden in a church of our size. You can come in, move out, do your thing, get your word, go home and get some brunch. We have this thing called VC Track, and I'm not trying to sell it here.

VC Track, I love VC Track. VC Track is kind of like our front door assimilation. And what it does, and the heart behind it is literally just to get you around, get you connected to the body. Like how do we take you as a guest who's been coming and how do we actually connect? How do we start to partner together? How do you get on team with what we're doing here at Victory City Church? And for many of you, maybe it's like a time thing, maybe it's a desire thing. Here's my point. If you stay hidden, so does your life. And then when there's problems that the church encounters, we then don't have people to fill in the gaps who are godly people, full of the Spirit, full of wisdom. So why? So that the word of God can grow. So that disciples can be multiplied.

See, I told you it's a practical message. But what could God do through us? How could God transform a city? How could God continue to cause this church to flourish and the word to grow? Then there's wisdom. Wisdom, actually this term is referring back to the Old Testament in Exodus chapter 31. Exodus chapter 31 is the story of how God begins to equip his people to build the temple. And what it means is that there's a spirit of wisdom that God can cause the Spirit to create things in you. In fact, can you guys throw that scripture up of Bezalel? It says, see I have called by name, Bezalel, listen, by the way, hey, fun fact, if you kind of like this kind of stuff, this is the first person in biblical history to be filled with the Spirit. And look what it does. The son of Uri, son of Hur, the tribe of Judah, verse three gives us insight.

And I have filled him with the Spirit of God with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship. I think a lot of people, leave that on the screen. A lot of people believe that the Spirit of God just fills you to preach or sing or witness. But actually, here the Spirit of God is filling a craftsman, an artisan to create, to paint, to carve. And there's a lot of people in here that you have certain abilities that you don't even know could connect with our church. There's a man in our church, his name is Adewale, and he's a AI kind of guru, and he's doing all this cool stuff. And he has ability in a space we don't, and we're actually having him help build right now an interface that uses AI to begin to help disciple people here in our church. That's an ability that he didn't go to Bible school for, but the Lord has given him wisdom

in that space that then's gonna help the church. Some of you are incredibly administrative. Some of you are gifted teachers. Some of you are incredible coders. Some of you are incredible artisans and craftsmen. Some of you, you know how to talk to people. Some of you, how many of you guys are salespeople in the place, right? How many of you guys are salespeople? You know how to connect with people, and God can use that ability to sell. Jesus my point is this you gotta have both gotta have both so let me just name what happens when we don't have both because there's a lot of people man you are God loving spirit filled I have no doubt that you love Jesus but you lack some wisdom but you don't know how to do much okay can that change yes then there's others of you who have a lot of wisdom you got ability you're brilliant you're a genius you just don't got much of the spirit you see and when you elevate people who have a lot of wisdom a lot of ability a lot of intelligence what does that do that scripture says actually knowledge puffs up and then all of a sudden you think yeah I'm good at this I'm smart I'm a brilliant person all that kind of stuff but then you lack the spirit and what happens that's dangerous so the scriptures actually saying you need both you need the spirit of wisdom knowledge know-how and some of you you are incredible crafts people like you create you build you think you dream you have ability that you're gonna go on I mean I don't know how this connects to the church but what God is saying today is this he is creating ways as we begin to kind of go okay how do we keep reaching people how do we keep serving people how do we make sure no one's overlooked I think about the maybe the spaces and again I don't know I'm taking a stab at this the core demographic of our church is families

right the families that come whether it's early stage families late stage families and so like the shoulders of our church is I would look at like me in the 60-plus how are we making sure the needs of our 60-plus audience isn't being overlooked like we need some grandparents in the house right we need their wisdom we need their experience we need their energy we need their life right and so we have to make sure their needs aren't overlooked but then I also look at the pre-family people like some young adults like is there a space for them to feel connected and go man I I want to know that the church sees my needs and sees what I'm going through I look at a situation right now where I'm going like as right now our church does not have the ability to help serve special needs families on a Sunday and that's one of the biggest requests we get is hey my child has some special needs and he's overstimulated she's overstimulated we literally don't have the space but how do we serve those families to make sure they're loved and connected you see the expectation normally is Pastor Eric I need you to do that Pastor Eric I need you to do a 60s and up breakfast Pastor Eric I need you to do a young adults ministry to talk about dating Pastor Eric I need you to do a special needs ministry and I'm going homie I can't do it all you see a lot of times it's thinking well Pastor Eric thinks he's better than no I don't I'm I'm limited I'm saying I can't actually do that much I've got to focus on a few things and then I've got to go okay how does the church begin to be empowered and you know the funny thing about Stephen and Philip Stephen starts serving tables but Stephen ends up preaching the longest sermon recorded in the book of Acts he started at tables but then God elevated him Philip started serving tables and he became the first missionary to Ethiopia like you never know what God is going to do in your life the scripture actually just says are you willing to help shoulder responsibility so that the church can continue to love its community and you know what I'm so thankful for as a church we don't have to be everything and do everything why because our city is actually full of great churches but what we have to do is take care of our community who are our people who in the

body right now is being overlooked and guess what if you name it watch out because you might be asked to lead it you're like I'm keeping my thoughts to myself why is this important now it's gonna sound dry but I need you to think of the ramifications of this thing you see this was the first hurdle for the church because guys buckle up in the next few weeks we're gonna see how the church begins to expand in fact in Acts chapter 8 Saul begins to ravage the church and the church literally has to spread and if the church cannot handle a situation where ethnically we're the same but culturally we're different we've got to make sure we're taking care of people it's never going to flourish beyond the walls of Jerusalem The church is about to go to Rome, the church is about to go to Ephesus, the church is about to go to Corinth, the church is about to go to Cyprus, the church is about to spread all over the world and be interacting with different cultures and ethnicities. And this is the thing that helps the church jump over boundaries that normally would keep them separated. Like I look at our church. All different cultures, all different ethnicities, and by the way, not engineered. We don't have a little dial back there with a camera going, all right, we're like 28% this and we're 30%, like we're just like, let's love people, let's believe in people, let's ask the Holy Spirit to fill it, and then the Lord will actually build a church that looks like heaven.

But he might tap you on the shoulder. He might go, hey, you've got a good reputation, but you're sitting in your chair. Hey, you're full of the Spirit, but you're sitting in your chair. Hey, you've got some wisdom that the kingdom of God could use, but you're sitting in your chair. Young person, you're full of the Spirit, but you lack a little wisdom right now. Proverbs literally says, wisdom is like a woman in the street calling out, if anyone needs wisdom, come to me and I will give you wisdom. In fact, just a little practical help, if you're somebody who's going, man, I wanna grow in my wisdom, here's a Bible reading plan for you. Can I give you a Bible reading plan? Whatever day of the week it is, read that chapter in Proverbs. There's 31 chapters in Proverbs, most months there's 31 days. Whatever day of the week it is, it's the 23rd. Today, I'm gonna read Proverbs 23. Why, I wanna grow in wisdom. Tomorrow, what are you gonna do? It's the 24th, what are you gonna read? 24. I want you to see what happens. This is like the runway, right? The church is building up steam,

it's building up steam, it's in Jerusalem, it continues to grow, it continues to multiply. The disciples are coming, and it's building and building and building, and suddenly it's about to take off. The church moves forward, expanding, growing, establishing, what are we doing? We're reconciling people to God, and we're reconciling with one another. And that's how a population, that's how a polis, a people, a citizenry. So I'm American, I love my country. I personally think it's the greatest country in the world, I really do. It's got its flaws, it's not perfect, but can I tell you, I'm a citizen of a greater country. I'm a citizen of the kingdom of heaven, and my population, although I love America, I love it, I truly do, I pray for our country, I pray that God continues to establish it, I pray that we are still free to preach the gospel, and praise God, and I pray that God gives us wisdom on how to deal with the challenges in our country, but we are a people. And how we love one another, how we serve one another, how we believe in one another is a testimony to the world. But if this early church does not begin to expand and set up leaders who take real responsibility, of good reputation, full of the spirit, full of wisdom, the church stalls.

And can I tell you, that's the easiest way to solve this problem, is just go, hey, we're gonna stop growing, we're gonna manage who we have. Gonna manage who we have. Let me tell you something, there's growing problems, and then there's dying problems. There's growing problems, and then there's managing something that is stalling problems. Just ask any world economy how to manage a stagnating economy. Ooh, a stagnating economy begins to create a lot of problems. Same thing goes in the economy of the world, or excuse me, the kingdom of God. So let's read Acts chapter six, verse seven. One more time. Guys, throw it up, Acts chapter six, six, verse seven. Acts chapter six, verse seven. I'm gonna pull it up. Here's why. And listen, I'm not gonna try to like, emotionally hype you up, motivate you, because this, I'm talking to insiders right now. This is what all of you should want. Like, no, honestly, this is what you signed up for. The word saved you. You're a disciple of Jesus, our prayer, our passion, our life's call should be this. God, I want your word to continue to increase.

But let's just be honest. Where on your list is this? Like, really, honestly. Is it seventh? Is it even on? on your list, or are you kind of like, okay, I'm good, I got in, I got my ticket? So that what? Disciples have to be made. We don't like hand out a disciple sticker. You are now a disciple. And disciples have to follow someone. Who's following you? It's literally the most vulnerable thing in the world because Paul says this, follow me as I follow Christ. That's the goal. There are people in this church that they need you to go, follow me as I follow Christ. And when you invite someone to follow Jesus with you, what are you doing? You are making a what? Follow me. Let's get in a group message. Let's read the Bible together. Let's serve together. Let's sit at the church together. Let's go on the outreach together. And what does that happen? All of a sudden, all the overlooked people start to have someone they can connect to,

someone that will love them, someone that will lead them, and guess what that word does? The word increases and disciples multiply. So I guess my call to action this week is this right here. God, is Acts chapter six, verse seven, a desire of my heart and a priority in my life. God, I want your word to increase. God, I want your disciples to multiply. Because we understand what happens if they don't. Hell is real. It's a real place. It's a real thing. And we have been reconciled with God. So let's believe that God has equipped the body. Equipped you and I, amen? Hey, let's pray. Dear heavenly Father, I pray in Jesus' name. Father, I pray that this word sinks into their heart. Father, I pray that the spirit of God takes this word and cause it to come alive and take root in our church's hearts. God, I pray over the individuals right now who, they've got a reputation. God, they walk by the spirit. They've got wisdom. But maybe they're not, maybe they're not involved. Maybe they're not stepping up. Maybe they're going, hey, how can you use me? How can I help? And Father, I pray that we would mobilize a church,

activate a church to be at its full potential so that no one is overlooked. In Jesus' name we pray. Everybody said, amen.