Don't Murmur—Be a Minister | Acts 6

Wow, good job. Wow, the U -Bank girls are growing

up, and she did an excellent, excellent, excellent

job, and praise the Lord, and that's good. Miss

Stapleton, have you been teaching her? Good job,

and praise God for the investment in the next

generation. Sister U -Banks, have you heard that

song before? There's a few times in your house

right there, you know, with their practice, they

play it over. Take your Bibles, turn with me

into the book of Acts chapter, Acts chapter number

six, if you will, Acts chapter number six. And

I'm excited to be in church tonight, and I know

you are, excited to be about a part of a Bible

-believing church. And I've been in church now

for over 30 years, and I think about the 30 years

I've been in church, really three churches I've

been. A member of one for seven months, one for

14 years, and now here almost next month will

be 17 years. Wow, the years go by fast. But wow,

in the church, my life, I have honestly solved

very, very, very few church problems. What I

mean, big problems. I hear these stories about

church splits and churches where they're fighting.

In my history of 30 years, I've never really

seen that. I've never seen a church split. I

haven't seen a lot of fighting. No, there's been

problems. Churches have problems. But here's

where we're going tonight. Church problems do

not have to stop the work of God. Amen. Problems

in the church don't have to stop the work of

God. Every church has problems. But this message

is about the problems, but it's not really a

message about the problems, but it's gonna start

with problems, okay? Doesn't make sense to you.

I was reading a book and I finished it this week.

Victory from Vic, don't see, that's problems

over here. The third section right there. They're

problem people. Ethan, you oughta be careful

you hang around right there. Your mama is trouble

and so praise the Lord. But church problems.

A good man, I finished this book on G .B. Vic.

and pastored the largest church in the world

at one time in Detroit, and the church grew.

But in the early 60s, the demographics of Detroit

began to change. They'd have a Sunday night service,

parking lots full, and there would be people

that would come in and break the windows of the

cars. and steal things out of the people's cars.

And it became very, very obnoxious where people

were scared and the attendants began to plummet

in the church. And it was a problem. People began

to be scared. And so G .B. Vick was getting older

and all of a sudden he decided, you know, I just

believe that the Lord wants us to do something.

And what do we do? And so what they end up doing

is he led the church to purchase a property in

a different area that had acres of land and then

build a brand new building. And you work through

that biography, what it was was a problem, but

he worked through the problems. Now, here's the

thought. Sometimes people have problems and you

can murmur about the problems. You can be one

that murmurs, spreads the problems. or you could

be like a GB Vic, you work through the problems,

okay? Let's do this, let's read the scriptures,

if you will. We're gonna read Acts chapter number

six, and we're gonna read all together in unison,

verses one through seven, and try your best to

lift up your voice with me, starting in verse

number one, ready? And in those days, when the

number of the disciples was multiplied. there

arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the

Hebrews because those widows were neglected in

daily ministration. Now stop right there. Understand

the context. The church exploding in growth.

The day of Pentecost came, 3 ,000 people saved

and baptized. A couple chapters later, there

was 5 ,000 and it was just an explosion of growth.

But the growth began to cause problems. There

were these Grecian widows. And you would think

of it like this. Grecian widows were Jewish ladies

that came from a different culture. They spoke

Greek. It would be like us. Inside of our church,

we have some people from Texas. And then you

have some people from New Jersey. And you have

some people from other places, amen. from the

moon, amen. But all of a sudden you have different

cultures come in and these cultures begin to

clash right there and it was a problem. Read

verse two with me. Then the 12 called the multitude

of the disciples unto them and said, it is not

reason that we should leave the word of God and

serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out

among you seven men of honest report. full of

the Holy Ghost 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 whole multitude,

and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and

of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Procurus,

and Nicanor, and Tymon, and Parmenas, and Nicholas,

a proselyte of Antioch. Good job. Good job, and

good job. Verse number six, ready? Whom they

set before the apostles, and when they had prayed,

they laid their hands on them. And the word of

God increased, and the number of the disciples

multiplied in Jerusalem greatly, and a great

company of the priests were obedient to the faith.

Oh, problems, problems. And there's gonna be

two sides that you begin to go towards. You can

become a part, of the problem, murmur, murmur,

murmur, or you can become a solution. And there's

two sides. It's gonna be awesome. I really learned

something here, and it's helped me, and I believe

it'll help our church. Let's do this. Let's bow

our heads, go to the Lord in prayer one more

time. Dear Father in heaven, help us on this

Wednesday night to stop, open up our hearts,

open up our minds, and learn some things. I do

believe if, we as a church learn this truth or

be reminded of this truth, our church will be

stronger and really the word of God will increase.

And I pray that you help us, help me to decrease,

help all of us to decrease, and you to increase

in a great way. We need you Lord, and I need

you Lord tonight, in Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

You may be seated. The first part is problems

in the church. And I don't want to spend a lot

of time here, but in verse one, you notice the

murmuring, the Grecian widows. You begin to see

that they were neglected in daily ministration,

and there was murmuring. There was murmuring.

Say that word with me. Murmuring, murmuring.

Say it one more time. Murmuring. And I don't

know if you can growl when you do it, but sort

of murmuring. And this murmuring is like spiritual.

grumbling under your breath. It's loud enough

for people to hear it, but quiet enough to pretend

you weren't saying anything. Okay. Here's another

definition. We're trying to get the definition

of murmuring. Murmuring is like the church committee

that never officially meets, it never has an

agenda, never takes minutes, never solves anything,

but somehow everybody knows what was discussed

in the parking lot. Okay. Okay, some of you,

okay, we're going a little farther. You didn't

get that one, okay. Murmuring is when someone

says, now I'm not trying to cause any trouble,

but, then they immediately begin to cause trouble,

okay. Here's another one. Murmuring is like a

leaky faucet. You know, drip, drip. and at first

it doesn't seem like much, but after a while

you get the water bill, you get it on everybody's

nerves, you waste a lot and nobody deals with

it, that drippy faucet can cause a lot of damage.

Another way to look at it, okay? Think about

this, some people give the church weather report

every week, cloudy with a chance of complaining,

winds of criticism coming from the back hallway,

possible storm forming near the coffee pot. Okay,

murmuring, I don't know if that's a good definition

right there, but the church was multiplying.

There was a problem and it was a serious problem.

The Grecian widows, they were neglected and there

all of a sudden became this murmuring and it

begins to grow and it begins to build and it's

not necessarily, it's bad, that's wrong, but

it's not necessarily bad. Problems are not really

problems, they're opportunities. And I really

think this is an important part of our church

right there. When you see problems in the church,

now listen, when you see problems in a church,

problems in a church, what do you do with those

problems? Okay, this is where we're getting to

the sermon, right? Miss Debbie, you said something

right there. Here's what I said. You said you

probably. are part of the solution, not the problem.

And I appreciate that, Miss Debbie. You're absolutely

a godly, wonderful woman. But look at this. When

you see a problem in the church, what do you

do with that problem? Do you talk to people who

cannot fix it? Do you begin to stir the pot a

little bit? Do you assume the worst? or do you

become suspicious, critical, distant, or how

do you handle that? How do you handle that? By

the way, before we get to how you handle it,

look at verse number two, if you will. Look at

verse number two. Then the 12th called the multitude

of the who? Undo them and said, it is not reason

that we should leave the what? Word of God and

serve tables. Okay, look at verse number four.

But we will give ourselves continually to prayer

and to the ministry of the Word. Now, this is

a side note, side part of this right there. There's

problems. There's big problems in the church.

There's murmuring going on. But next thing you

know, we find the apostles. The apostles, they

never denied that there was a problem. They understood

there was a problem, but they didn't say, they

didn't say that does not matter because problems

do matter. How many admit problems matter? Okay,

problems matter, okay. These widows, they didn't

say, the widows, you know, they're not important.

Of course widows are important. Widows are important.

Serving tables was not beneath the apostles,

but listen to this. The church could not solve,

they understood the church could not solve one

problem by creating another, a greater problem,

okay? I'm gonna explain this. but they realize

the apostles said we can't solve one problem,

put all of our attention on one problem and create

a bigger problem by doing that. In other words,

they're saying the apostles said if we were to

leave prayer and the study of God's word and

the ministering of the word to take care of some

of these problems, we're gonna create a bigger

problem. Okay, we're gonna create a bigger problem,

okay. Serving tables is important. Caring for

the widows is important. Solving a complaint,

it was important, but the Word of God, the Word

of God had to remain central in the apostles'

life. They had to stay steadfast, unmovable,

right there in the Word of God. You know, it

is not reason, and we use that term, it is not

reason. It said, it wouldn't be right, it wouldn't

be wise, it wouldn't be spiritually healthy for

the church for us to leave. prayer to leave the

Word of God and serve tables. It's not that they

were beneath serving tables. It's just saying

there was a priority. They said, we have to handle

this a little bit differently. The church needed

prayer. The church needed the preaching of God's

Word. The church needed a pastor that would get

up and have a message that was from on high.

You need to prepare for the preaching of the

Word of God. And all of a sudden, and this is

important, for example, Sunday school teachers.

You have to teach Sunday school class, teach

the Word of God. But if you get so busy, so busy,

so busy, so busy, so busy that you never take

time to study the Word of God, to be spiritual,

to pray, to dedicate your heart and your mind

to the Word of God, you're not gonna help anybody

on Sunday. And so there has to be an understanding.

The apostles say we can't neglect this. The devil

would love for a church to become so consumed

with problems that all of a sudden the study

of God's word and prayer becomes secondary or

never happens. You understand that? He'd love

for his church to think that activity could replace

the apostles' spiritual walk with God. And you've

got to be careful. Moms and dads, Sunday school

teachers, workers, church people, we just got

to be careful that we don't get so busy that

we forget to do our duty. You might say duty,

but have a walk with God. Okay, okay. So let's

go on a little bit further here and get to this.

This is where we get to sort of the sermon. How

did they handle the problem without leaving the

Word of God? How did they handle it? They didn't

ignore the problem, but how did they handle the

problem without it? Okay, I want you to think

with me about the workers in the church, okay?

We're gonna look at this verse. Let's read it,

look at verse number three. Wherefore, brethren,

look at those first two words, verse three. Wherefore

what? Okay, looky out among you. seven men of

honest report, full of the what? Holy Ghost and

wisdom whom we may appoint over this business

right there. And we think about the sermon becomes

very practical. Look out among you. The answer

was not outside the church, the answer is actually

inside the church. Okay, and I really we're gonna

make application. I'm not trying to get the application

We will get there eventually, but this is so

applicable to Chesapeake Baptist Church In our

church problems arise parking lot park parking

on Sunday recently people have been coming into

our church and they've been Leaving our church

before they ever attend our church because they

can't find a parking spot. That's good, but it's

bad You know what I'm saying? We can ignore that.

Okay, pastor could go out there and be a parking

lot attendant. We could, but something has to

happen. So there has to be workers in the church.

There has to be something where we notice that,

we make a plan to solve the problem. That's exactly

what they're doing here. They're making a plan,

and it's a powerful plan. Church problems are

not solved only by preaching about them. Okay,

I can preach about church problems, but they're

not just solved by me preaching. There's a problem.

There has to be a plan. There has to be an attack.

There has to be some thought about how do we

meet the need of the people? How do we carry

this burden? How do we help these Grecian widows?

How do we help the murmuring, the conflict, and

what do they do? They chose men. And they chose

these men to be a blessing. By the way, this

is not a sermon necessarily about men, just only

because in reality, the workers in the church

are men and women. We're gonna get to that in

a minute. But these men were chosen to work.

These men were chosen to help. These men were

chosen to solve a problem. These men were chosen.

Now can you imagine? Hey Grant, I'm choosing

you. and I got a job for you. That means you're

gonna have to sacrifice some time, some effort,

some energy, you're gonna have to get here early,

you're gonna have to talk to some people, you're

gonna have to deal with some people that are

upset and angry, and all of a sudden you're chosen.

By the way, it's work. It's work. Workers, work,

labor. But I want to before I go any further,

the work of the ministry is a blessing. You know,

to be able to work for the Lord. Can you imagine

the list of those men right there? We listed

them. Look at verse five. They're saying please

the whole multitude, and they chose Stephen,

and that's a great name, Stephen. Yeah, your

wife's smiling and she's nodding her head. That's

a great name. Stephen, a man full of faith and

a Holy Ghost, and Philip. And Procurus, we need

one of those. We need those. Connor, Connor,

one day. Nicanor and Tymon and Parmesian. And

Nicholas the proselyte. I don't think it's Parmesian,

but it's something like that. You said it confidently

like Brother Reynolds said. And you got that

right there. But the point, don't miss this.

It's a blessing to work for the Lord. It's a

blessing to work for the Lord. It's a blessing

to work for the Lord. G .B. Vick. Their Wednesday

night service for the Temple Baptist Church in

Detroit, their Wednesday night, he preached to

the work, he called it the workers meeting, is

the workers meeting basically. And the Wednesday

night was filled with the workers of the church,

which was thousands of people. And it was amazing.

But the workers of the church, they had a labor,

it was sacrifice, it was, oh, oh, oh, yesterday.

I got a text from a pastor friend of mine named

John Wilkerson last night. And all of a sudden,

he said, you know, brother Mike Goodall, and

he's got cancer, and Mike Goodall. And he said,

if you would, make sure you give him a call for

me. And so anyways, I said, yes, sir. And I called

brother Mike Goodall, Mike Goodall, Mike and

Ann Goodall. amazing people, he would do a paper

route during the weekends where he'd get up at

like three, two, three in the morning, deliver

papers, and then he'd spend all day on Saturday

where they'd go up to the naval base, and they

would bring sailors back, we would play sports,

they'd preach to us, then we'd go over to his

house, they'd let us sleep there. On Sunday morning,

he gets back up at two in the morning, then in

the morning, Miss Anne Goodall picked. fixed

us breakfast. Then we went to church. Then on

Sunday afternoon, we came back over the house

and ate with them. Brother Mike Goodall, Miss

Anne Goodall changed my life. And I talked to

him and I rejoiced with him. He's got cancer.

He's not taking treatments for it. Miss Anne

has stage four colon cancer. And I got to chat

with them last night. They're about to enter

into glory. Okay, they're entering into the reward,

and I wanna let them know, listen, your labor's

not in vain. I told them about the souls that

got saved this last week, and I said the people

being changed here, and I said, you have a part

in that, because I would not be here if it wasn't

for Mike and Ann Goodall. Why they sacrificed

so much, why they worked so much, you know, I'm

thankful they did. I'm thankful they did. The

work of the Lord right there. Now, I'm not trying

to get ahead of myself, but God uses, now listen

to this. Oh, okay. Can you imagine? Grant, okay,

and I wanna mark this, and I love you, Brother

Grant, okay? Who are we gonna choose for the

work of the Lord? We're gonna choose the man

with the biggest mouth. Okay, no, no, no, no,

no. We're gonna choose seven men with the strongest

opinions. No, no, just say no, no, no, no. Help

me out, Grant, say no, no, no. Let's figure it,

okay, okay. We're gonna choose seven men who

know how to stir the pot. No, we're gonna find

the seven men with the biggest bank accounts

or we're gonna find the seven men with the biggest

personalities. That's no, no, no, no, no, no,

no. We're gonna choose the seven men who are

the loudest, who complain the most. No, you begin

to look at they were chosen because they were

qualified. And I like this list, I like this

list. God was going to use the right kind of

people to make a difference in the church, but

there's a qualification. Look with me at verse

number three. Look at verse number three. Wherefore,

brethren, look ye out among you seven men of

what? Honest report, full of the Holy Ghost,

and wisdom. Now, before we go any further, we

have here at our church a worker's agreement.

And I have one printed over there, but a workers

agreement. Can two walk together except they'd

be agreed? If you want to be a Sunday school

teacher, there's some qualifications to be a

Sunday school teacher, okay? And I think they're

good. They're very, very good. But we can almost

simplify our servants agreement down to these

three things. Okay, and just to simplify the

first one the first one when we look you out

among you seven men They're chosen because they're

called the first qualification for the worker

was that they were of honest report So those

two words with they were of what honest report.

They were honest report What does that mean?

That means these men you could trust them They

were trustworthy The people knew what kind of

men they were. Their lives that they lived right

there carried away. Their words could be trusted.

The contact that they had gave you confidence.

No matter what the church problem was, these

were people that you could trust. Hey, Grant,

I got a job for you. I need your help. It would

be a blessing. And all of a sudden, when I passed

the baton to him to take care of that, I could

trust him that he was going to follow through

and do what needed to be done. He wasn't gonna

say, oh, Pastor, got a little bit too late last

night. I know you want it done, but I forgot.

They had character. They had character. They

weren't characters, they had character. And that's

vitally important. Seems like a simple truth,

but we need men and women of character. you can

trust them. And a man may have ability, but if

he doesn't have honesty and humility and a good

report, he may make the problem worse. And the

first qualification they had was a man who had

character. People who helped the church are people

that are trustworthy. Now, I'm saying this to

all of us because by the time the end of the

sermon, we all should be workers in the church.

We all ought to find an area, but in order, you

have to ask yourself, are you somebody who is

of honest report? Do you have character? We live

in a world that minimizes character in some form

or fashion or people are not taught to have character.

You can't rely on anybody. You know, you have

to beg and plead and hope and bribe almost people

to, you know, Bible says, let your yay be yay

and your nay be nay. And you understand that.

So character matters, character matters, character

matters. And we're gonna get to the end of this

because all of us need to work and make sure

we have character, character. Okay, number two,

and yeah, I could elongate this. We know Paul

said this. I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who

hath enabled me for that he counted me faithful.

He counted me faithful putting me into the ministry.

When we look at apostle Paul, he said, man, I

thank God. that he allowed me to minister, he

counted me faithful. He had character. It says

like this in First Corinthians chapter four,

verse two. More of it is required in stewards

that a man be found faithful. Character matters,

character matters. Just say that with me. Character

matters. Okay, okay. Character matters, character

matters. Character matters, okay? We'll try it

one more time, okay? Here we go. If you just

say it, we'll move on. Because in workers, character

matters. Character matters, character matters,

character matters. Okay, we can move on, okay.

Thank you, Lord. Verse three again. Wherefore,

brethren, look ye out among you seven men of

honest report, number two, full of the what?

Full of the Holy Ghost, full of the Holy Ghost.

This is a theme throughout the Bible. Be not

drunk with wine wearing his excess, but be ye

filled with the Spirit, the Bible says. And this

is worthy to slow down here a little bit. Oh

yeah, Travis. Travis, you are just like your

grandpa. He's always whining. So sorry about

that. That's my grandson right there. They were

spiritual. Number one, they had character. Number

two, they were spiritual. And the issue is involving

what? Food distribution, okay? It involved tables,

it involved widows, it involved what you might

say daily ministration. And someone say, well,

that's just administration. And it is administration.

It is making a plan. It is dealing with a problem.

But God said the men needed to be full of the

Holy Ghost. You know, when you're doing God's

work, you need to have character, but you also

need to live spiritual lives. even practical

ministry required for spirit, or requirement

with spiritual people. Carnal people may be able

to organize something, but they can't handle

the word of God in God's spirit, you might say.

A carnal person may get a task done, but may

hurt people while doing it. You understand, a

carnal person may solve a problem on the surface,

but they miss out on things spiritual. It's so

important, spiritual matters, spiritual lives

matter. And we're talking about the workers,

they had to have character, but they needed to

have a walk with God. They need to be filled

with the Spirit. Cardinal people cannot fix church

problems in a spiritual way. And listen, to sum

this up, a church with problems, that's us, by

the way, we need Spirit -filled people in more

places than just the pulpit. By the way, you

need it in the pulpit. I need to make sure that

I'm spiritual, to have a walk with God. Shame

on me if I don't, right? You don't want a pastor

that doesn't walk with God, do you? And so none

of us are perfect, but we all have to humble

ourselves and have a walk with God. Spirit -filled

deacons, we desperately, Sunday school teachers,

I don't want you to watch my baby in the nursery

if you're not a spirit -filled nursery worker.

What are you doing up in the choir if you're

singing for the Lord? How can you sing to the

Lord if you're not spiritual? And it sounds like

I'm angry tonight. I am! I'm not really angry,

but you understand, there is an important part.

First part, they required somebody with character.

Number two, they required, number two, a spirit

-filled person right there. Number three, look

at this. Well, look at verse three again. Wherefore,

brethren, look ye out among you, seven men of

honest report, full of the Holy Ghost, and what?

Wisdom, wisdom. Now, this is important, and I

think this character, You're spirit -filled,

but we desperately need to have wisdom. Wisdom

is the ability to handle people, pressure, details,

and difficulty, difficult situations in a way

that please the Lord. And when you deal with

people, you desperately need wisdom. Okay, just

do you get him you get in the middle of that

Grecian widow and those non Grecian You don't

want to get in front of any of those ladies.

It's dangerous Okay, but you certainly don't

want to get in between those ladies without wisdom

So I want to say this the phrase one more time

wisdom is the ability to handle people pressure

details and Difficulties in a way that that please

God sometimes if you're not careful without wisdom

you make things that are molehills into big mountains

And I'll tell you, when you don't have wisdom,

you make things worse. Okay, somebody say amen.

When you don't have wisdom in dealing with people,

you can make small situations huge. How do you

know pastor? Been there, done that, wrote the

book several times. Okay, anybody else ever been

there? Okay, okay, we all have in some form or

fashion. Okay, look, that they needed wisdom.

They needed to listen without becoming partial.

They needed to care. They needed to care for

the people without stirring things up. You ever

gone to somebody, I wanna help you, but rather

than help you begin to stir things up a little

bit, and you sort of enjoy stirring the pot a

little bit, oh yeah. What were they thinking

doing that to you? That was wrong. You understand

stirring the pot? You understand how many of

you know what stirring the pot is? You know that?

Yeah, yeah, okay. They need to solve the issue

without magnifying, you might say, the conflict.

They needed to meet the need without making those,

like I said, those mole hills into mountains,

okay? So we get that right there. Every church

needs wise servants. We need church servants

in here, workers in here, that don't make or

inflame or make every issue bigger than. And

it is. We need people who don't assume the worst.

And I have a whole list right here. But we need

wisdom, we need wisdom, and we need what? Wisdom.

Okay, so those are the three requirements. Three

requirements, character, spiritual, and wisdom.

Character, spiritual, wisdom. The three worker

requirements. What is it? Character, spiritual,

and wisdom. Now the end result, we love the end

result. Look at the end result, Ruth here, if

you will. Look at this next one. Oh, oh, oh,

and I hate shortening the sermon. How many times

have I blown it? Okay, don't answer that, okay?

Actually, I don't want you to answer that. And

you know, when preparing for this, I realize

how many times I've blown it, okay? Pastor Cantrell,

you ever blown it? Okay, we pastors, we're pretty

good at that, okay? But especially me. And I

got a nice story about how I blew it, but I'm

not gonna tell you it tonight, okay? I'm gonna

skip that. Time's sake, okay? Wisdom, time's

sake. But look at this next verse, verse number

seven. What's the result? And the word of God

what? Word of God increased. Because these problems,

yes, but because they had spiritual people. people

with character, people that had wisdom, all of

a sudden they were able to move on and the result

was the word of God increased. The result was

the murmuring did not define the church. You

know, what defines your church? We're a murmuring

church, no. We're a divided church, no. We're

a church that's stuck, no. We're a church where

God has spiritual people. People with character,

men and women with character, teenagers with

character, Sunday school teachers with character

that are spiritual, that have wisdom. Man, that

would be great. Imagine that. Teenagers? Man,

you think about teenagers, right? Teenagers with

character, spiritual teenagers, and not only

that, but they're spiritual and they have what?

Wisdom, okay. So now, this is... what I want

for our church. This is what I want for Chesapeake

Baptist Church. We're almost there, but we're

not really. I don't want a church without problems.

I don't want a church without problems. There's

not such a thing. There's no such thing as a

church without problems. Just say amen. We want

a church where problems do not stop the word

of God. We want a church where needs are met.

We want a church where murmuring's not allowed

to spread. We want a church where servants step

up. We need help. We need workers. We need them

to step up. It's awesome, I'll tell you. It's

awesome. I mentioned one need over there about

Sister Sini. During handshaking, a dear lady

came up and said, Pastor, I'll take care of it

until somebody else can maybe volunteer. You

know how awesome that was? That's but that's

our church and it would be great to have another

lady come up and say hey pastor They don't need

to do that every week. Well, we'll get on a rotation.

I'll take care of the rotation and main line

That's awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Okay Don't

this is the sermon. Don't murmur Be a minister

Okay, okay How do I get to this? Okay, cuz I

got seven pages left Okay, we can be a part of

the remembering or we can be a part of the ministry.

I can complain about the long sermons or I can

say amen in the sermons. Okay, thank you. Perfect

right there. Okay, good. Okay. Okay, this is

where we're at. This is where we get it. It's

simple, I find. Do I, Matt Nettesheim, have character?

Am I a spiritual person? Do I have wisdom? Now,

when I ask me those questions, how am I doing

with my character? Do I have character or are

there things I need to work on? Probably in reality,

we all have something to work on in our character,

right? So the spiritual side, we all should be

spiritual. We know that, should we work on it?

What about wisdom? Wisdom, we all say yes, we

need wisdom, but how many say we need to work

on that? So in each of these areas, this is gonna

be really, really slow, okay? Number one, work

on your character. Men of honest report, we should

be people that can be trusted. So what can I

do to work on my character? Here's some things,

and just think with them. I'm gonna go slow with

this, but work on your character. Number one,

tell the truth. Somebody who has character or

has honest report, they tell the truth. You tell

the truth. And there's a lot of verses I could

have put right here, wherefore put away lying,

and speak every man truth. Number two, keep your

word. If you say you're gonna do something, do

it. Let your yay be yay and your nay may. Tell

the truth, keep your word. Be faithful in the

little things. There's a Bible verse that, he

that is faithful in that which is least is faithful

also in much. So be faithful in the little things.

Then this one, refuse gossip and half -truths.

Just refuse it, refuse it. Don't carry stories

or stir things up. Just refuse to stir things

up. Refuse it. And do not repeat what does not

help. Number five, the last one, live the same

in public and in private. Be a Christian. Okay,

be, I mean, at church. Be the same at home and

at church, amen? Vitally important, those five

things. That's character, character, character.

How many say I can work on those things? Okay,

I'm gonna read through that really, really, really,

really, really, really quick. Tell the truth,

keep your word, faithful in little things, refuse

gospel and have truths, live the same in public

and private. Number two, work on being spiritual.

There were people of the Holy Ghost right there.

What do you mean by that? What we can work on?

Be filled with the Spirit. Read Galatians chapter

five. Just say that with me. Read Galatians chapter

five. Say it like you mean it. Read Galatians

chapter five. Some of you would be some mean

preachers, okay? You'd be nice preachers, okay?

Walk with God daily. Walk with God daily. Not

once a week, not once a month, but somehow learn

to walk with God daily. Do not try to work for

God publicly and neglect God privately. Okay,

number three, read your Bible. Please, please

read your Bible. Number four, be faithful to

church. It's not a sermon on that, but church

is good for me, for me. It's good for me. It's

a reset button. And I like Wednesday night church.

I like Sunday morning church. I like Sunday night

church so much the more as you see the day approaching.

and go to church, re -faithfully. Then tell people

about Jesus. Go into all the world and preach

the gospel. I tell you, it helps you and it challenges

you when you go into the community and tell people

about Jesus. Number three, not only be spiritual,

not only have character, but work on having wisdom.

Work on having what? Okay, one more time and

I'm gonna say it. Work on having what? Wisdom.

Good, good, good, good, good, good. So how do

we do that? Ask God for wisdom? If any of you

lack wisdom, let him ask of God. Give it to all

men liberally and in the brain of God and it

shall be given him. It shall be given him. But

if you need wisdom and you do wisdom to deal

with people, ask God for wisdom. Two, read the

Proverbs. That's God's book of wisdom. There

are 31 chapters in Proverbs. Read a Proverb a

day. Let God teach you how to think, how to speak,

how to work, how to listen, how to handle situations.

Proverbs is absolutely amazing. Okay, good. So

ask God for wisdom, read Proverbs, learn to listen.

I don't know how many times I have not listened

to somebody and I open my big mouth before I

even listen to what they say. I have to work

on that. How many else have to work on that?

Okay, but we have to learn to listen. Learn to

listen, be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow

to rap. Number four. Get the facts before you

form an opinion. Get the facts. You know, sometimes

we come to a conclusion, ah! And we lay the hammer

down before we know what we're hitting. How do

you know? I'm good at it, okay? But stop and

get the facts, then last this. Ask this, will

this help the work of God move forward? Not this,

can I say this? You're not doing. Am I technically

right? Do I feel better after saying it? But

will this help God's work move on? Is this what

God wants me to do? Okay, we're done. We're done,

we're done, we're done, we're done, we're done.

Ah! And I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I just think this

is one of the most powerful truths ever. Because

God has a special plan for Chesapeake Baptist

Church. He's using us in a great way. And God

is adding to our church. There's a lot of good

going on. And I could spend the next 20 minutes

doing that. I'm not going to. But what is a danger

is we begin to murmur. And if we all, us, us,

we work on having character, we work on living

a spiritual life, and we work on having wisdom,

man alive, the word of God will increase. Let's

pray. Dear Father in heaven, we love you. Thank

you for being good to us. And thank you for Acts

chapter number six. And I pray that you help

all of us, all of us, all of us work on those

things, me included. I have much to work on,

Lord. And I pray that you continue to bless our

church. I pray that the word of God increases

in a mighty way, Lord. We sure do love you. In

Jesus' name, amen. Stand with me if you will.

Good good turn around shake somebody's hand shake

somebody's hand shake somebody's hands. I'm glad

you came glad you came glad