Full of Faith (Pastor Greg Hudson, 03/23/24)

Dear God, we do thank you for all that you have done for us so that we can say

it is well with my soul and Lord as that song says, oh Lord haste the day

when we can see you coming in the clouds of glory and Lord continue each and

every day to take our hand because we recognize that you are our precious Lord.

Guide us and bless us. In your name we pray, amen.

It's good to be back here. Like I said, it's been a couple weeks since I've been

here. So as we're getting started here, question is, are you easily distracted?

Anybody easily distracted? Are you distracted by a screen over here that says

loading? Have you ever gone into the kitchen and you find yourself in the

kitchen and then you look around the kitchen and you're like, why am I in

here? I know I came in here for some reason but I cannot recall, I cannot

remember why I am in here. Or maybe you recognize that there's more and more

different laws, there's different things that want to keep us safe and so so many

laws that about distracted driving do not be texting or talking when you're

driving down the road because there's so many accidents that take place and maybe

you've seen people as you're driving down the interstate you look over and

there's some person and they're looking at their phone and you're like, let me go

a little quicker to get past this person because I'm not sure that they

recognize that I'm here because they're obsessed with their phone that's going

on here. Anybody experienced that or recognize that? Sometimes we see that

because we are easily distracted and sometimes those distractions can be

dangerous, sometimes those distractions can even be deadly in the case of

driving. I'm going to try one more time and then we're not going to try anymore.

Let me try one more time, cast, church roving TV available. There we go, all

right. So we are kind of to a new segment in the in the book of Acts that we've

been studying about. We've been looking through the the early chapters of Acts

and in those early chapters we've seen the church is on fire, the church is

growing rapidly, that many people are being baptized and lots of cool things

are happening with the church. It's growing and as we move into the next

little segment of the book of Acts, I'm gonna throw out a word here and

sometimes this word can be good and sometimes the word may not be good and

it's the word viral. Viral, that means something that's passed from person to

person, something that spreads rapidly, something that goes beyond where you are

and goes to other people and I don't know about four years or so we were

reminded that if something is going viral can be very negative and it can

cause sickness and different things like that but still today in the in the

internet world if something goes viral that's a good thing. That means it's

popular, that means people are looking at it, that means people are sharing it with

someone else and saying look at this picture that I saw, look at this video

that I saw. Well in these next few sections of the book of Acts, the church,

the gospel is going viral. It's spreading from person to person, it's moving

rapidly throughout the territory, throughout the segment. The church is

going viral because individuals are passing it to someone else because

they're excited about it and they're like let me share with you what I have

learned. The church went viral and I'm gonna say guess what, it needs to go

viral again, the gospel needs to spread from person to person and you can help.

In Acts chapter 5 and 6 the church has exploded. We've talked about these

Acts 5 · chapter mention

numbers before but the church went from 120 people and then there was a 3,000

people on the day of Pentecost and then the next number that's thrown out

there's 5,000 men and then it talks about in Acts 6 verse 1 it says in those

Acts 6:1

days when the number of disciples was multiplying so no longer are they

adding people to the church but now they're multiplying which goes faster

it's exponential. How many people are there and yet there's these Christians

that are being baptized, they're caring for each other, they're caring for the

poor and needy but you know whenever the church is successful God is happy, church

members are happy but the devil is not happy and in the book of Acts we

immediately begin to see this great controversy taking place because we see

that the devil can't stand to see lives revived and as people are baptized as

the church is growing there are attacks and there's friction. I would say even

today we could anticipate that as this church grows as it expands as the gospel

goes viral as more people come we're glad visitors are here with us today that we

could expect some attacks from different things we could expect some some

friction we could expect some distractions so please as in your prayer

time be praying for our church be praying for the unity of our church

because what are distractions that we have in our world in our in our church

today you know sometimes we may not like the person who's preaching from time to

time and that can be a distraction or the computer may not work that can be a

distraction or we may be upset about decorations or music or so many

different things colors of carpet or walls or whatever and we can allow those

things to be distractions from what is most important that spreading of the

gospel so in the book of Acts what were some distractions that took place we're

not going to dig into it too much but in Acts chapter 5 there was a couple

Acts 5 · chapter mention

Ananias and Sapphira who were distracted because in Acts chapter 4 it talks about

Acts 4 · chapter mention

a man named Barnabas who sold some land and he brought the money and he gave it

to the church and he got a nickname they called him the son of encouragement

and in Acts chapter 5 this couple Ananias and Sapphira they sold some land

Acts 5 · chapter mention

and they brought some money to the church which was a good thing they were

doing something good but they maybe they didn't do it for the right reason we

don't know all the details but for whatever reason they kind of lied they

told some untruths they said oh yes this is all the money that we received maybe

they saw the popularity that Barnabas had gotten or the you know the the cool

nickname that Barnabas had received and they were asked several times was this

all the money and they didn't have to give all the money they could have said

no this is a portion this is a segment of the money we just want to help the

church but over and over they kept saying yes this is all of it they were

lying to the Holy Spirit and there was a drastic event that took place for

Ananias and Sapphira as they actually died and because there was this

distraction there was this negative thing that was happening to this early

church in its infancy and then we come to chapter 6 where we're gonna look at

today and we see another distraction as we go back to Acts 6 verse 1 and it

Acts 6:1

says now in those days when the number of the disciples was multiplying growing

quickly there was a distraction there arose a complaint against the Hebrews by

the Hellenists because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution so

what's happening here the church is caring for those in need the church is

doing something good the church has grown rapidly and for whatever reason we

don't know exactly what the reason was but there were some people who needed

help but they were not being helped they were falling through the cracks it could

have been that the church grew so fast they they lost track of people that

could have been the reason or you notice some nationalities there it could have

had something to do with people being from different backgrounds different

nationalities that shows up later in Acts chapter 10 and we recognize that in

Acts 10 · chapter mention

in our world today people are still treated differently because of different

backgrounds whether it's different economic levels different education

levels different racial backgrounds whatever it is people are sometimes

treated differently because of their backgrounds and that has no place in our

world and especially that has no place in the church I don't know if that's

what's happening here but unfortunately it still happens sometimes in our world

today but whatever was happening there were people that were not being helped

that needed help and so there was a distraction as this church was growing

so there's two different things that could have happened there was a job not

getting done so that was a distraction that was taking place and the second

part of this distraction was how are we going to deal with this situation what

are we going to do about this and so it says in verse 2 then the 12 the 12

disciples the Apostles summoned the multitude of the disciples and said it

is not desirable that we should leave the Word of God and serve tables there

was a job that needed to be done but the Apostles recognized that it was not

their role to do it when there's wrong attitudes as was happening here the

solution to that is finding the right people to do the right thing the

Apostles knew something needed to be done but they knew it was not their

place to do it and so they came up with a solution it says therefore brethren

seek out from among you seven men of good reputation full of the Holy Spirit

and wisdom whom we may appoint over this business we need to find the right

people to do the right thing in this circumstance we need people who have a

good reputation who are full of the Holy Spirit who are wise who are able to take

care of this solution of this situation we need to find the right people to do

the right thing the Apostles said we're not those people but we will give

ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word those 12 they

knew that they had a particular role of proclaiming and preaching and reaching

the world and that was everybody's role but they had it in a particular way and

so they wanted to find the right people to do the right thing and believe it or

not this is the pattern that is laid out throughout scripture you can go back to

the Old Testament what was the name of the person who led the children of

Israel out of Egypt Moses now Moses led the people out there the ten plagues

happened they came through the Red Sea and as they were in the wilderness

somewhere close to Mount Sinai Moses's father-in-law whose name was Jethro you

guys are really good with these quizzes Jethro came to visit Moses and his

daughter and he wanted to see you know spend some time with his their family as

they were traveling through perhaps close to where they were from and as

Jethro came to where Moses was he recognized that he could not even see

Moses because there were so many people who were lined up at Moses's tent who

wanted a piece of Moses they wanted to ask a question they wanted help solving

a situation we don't know what the questions were you know what do I do my

my sheep has a has a sore on his foot what do I do do you have any more

recipes for manna we're kind of getting tired of the recipes that we have I'm

having an argument about you know this brother of mine ripped my tent and he

won't fix it we don't know what the issues were but we know that the line

was so long the papa-in-law Jethro didn't even get a chance to talk to his

son and so he pulls Moses aside and he gives some wisdom he says this thing is

too much for you you are not able to perform it by yourself and then in the

verse 21 he says moreover you shall select from all the people able men such

as fear God men of truth hating covetousness and place such over them to

be rulers of thousands rulers of hundreds rulers of 50s and rulers of

tens you've got to divide up you have hundreds of thousands of people in this

group you've got to break them down into smaller segments and let these people

judge the people at all times then it will be that every great matter they

shall bring to you but every small matter they themselves shall judge so it will

be easier for you for they will bear the burden with you divide these people up

into smaller groups put people over these small segments and if someone has

a small problem you got a new recipe for manna somebody can take care of that if

there's a bigger issue you can push it up to the next bigger level and the next

bigger level and finally if there's a major issue that needs to be dealt with

well Moses that's the issues that you need to deal with because you're the

leader you don't have time to take care of all the little things we got to

divide and conquer and Moses said that that is wise wisdom and that is what has

happened so that was in the Old Testament that's one example you can

look in the New Testament and you can find other examples for instance 1st

Corinthians 12 is a great example if you were to read 1st Corinthians 12 it talks

about the body of Christ and it says the head is Jesus he's the head of the

church which is the body of Christ and it says each part of the body each

member of the church is a part of the body and each person has received

skills and talents and gifts and you know each person each part of the body

is important you probably know people I know people who are maybe missing a part

of their body missing a limb or an eye or a finger or whatever it is and

because of the beauty of our created bodies we're able to adapt to different

things we're able to wear glasses or a hearing aid or whatever it might be but

when we have all parts of the body working in the most efficient way that's

when the body is in peak condition in the same way in the church you're a part

of the body you're a part of the church God has placed in you some sort of gift

some sort of talent some sort of circle of influence that only you can reach you

know people that I don't know you have gifts and skills that I don't have but

God has placed that in you and yes the church can adapt the body of Christ can

adapt and we can function even if you choose not to use what God has placed in

you but if we want to be the most efficient in working for God then each

one of us needs to recognize what skill do I have what talent do I have what can

I do for God what can I do for the body of Christ and there's different ways to

to do that you can someone may come alongside you and say you know what I've

noticed you are really good at playing the clarinet he wouldn't say that to me

no one would say that to me people may come along or maybe you will participate

in something and you're like I really enjoyed that I enjoyed knocking on some

doors around the neighborhood a few weeks ago I can do that again or maybe

you said I hated doing that role and that's a sign you know what that's not

what God placed in your heart but praise the Lord you just learned one thing

you're not supposed to do and so you can then continue to experiment and find

what God wants you to do but the early church and the church we are seeking to

find the right person to do the right thing I'm gonna tell you right now you

are the right person for something have you discovered what your role is yet I

wanted to look back at verse 4 just one more time because it says we the

Apostles say we Peter James and John and the others we will give ourselves

continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word think about that if

those people who wrote the scripture much of the scripture those people who

spent time with Jesus those people who empowered by Jesus and the Holy Spirit

worked miracles if those people needed to give themselves to prayer needed to

give themselves to the study of God's Word how much more do we need that are

you spending time in God's Word during the day during the week are you spending

time in prayer during the day during the week come join us Wednesday evening as

we were reading about revival reading about the spirit we're talking about

prayer join us if you have time at 630 on Sunday evenings because if these

people needed prayer how much more do we need prayer let's look on at verse 5 it

says and this this shows me that God is truly at work this shows me that a

miracle has taken place because it says the same pleased the whole multitude

have you ever been in a group of people whether it's at your place of employment

or at the church where something is done where something is said and it pleased

everyone that that tells me a miracle took place because even in the church

when decisions are made sometimes somebody's not happy about something but

in this case it says the same pleased the whole multitude and they chose seven

people Stephen a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit and Philip procures my

canner Timon Parmenus and Nicholas a proselyte from Antioch and I'm gonna

guess that there's a good chance that there's probably only two of those

people that you've really heard of except for reading that verse Philip

shows up in a in chapter 8 and Stephen shows up later in this chapter and in

chapter 7 but those other guys guess what we don't know very much about them

except that one verse and that tells me that even if someone is unknown even if

someone is not famous even if someone is a common person just like us that we can

make a difference that God can work through us to make a difference when you

are the right person doing the right thing well guess what these guys were

particularly Stephen it says whom they set before the Apostles and when they

had prayed they laid hands on them and notice what happened in verse 7 the word

of God what it do spread and the number of the disciples there's that word again

multiplied greatly in Jerusalem not only are people being added to the church not

only are the disciples or the believers multiplying but it says a great many of

the priests were obedient to the faith even those who seemingly were against

this newfound faith in Jesus we're beginning to see something different and

we're believing and we're following through these were the right people

doing the right thing and it made a huge difference but guess what that cycle

continues that cycle repeats there's a controversy at work and the church is at

attack and so we see Stephen the right man doing the right thing full of faith

and power he did great wonders and signs among the people verse 10 they were not

able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke they tried to shut him

down they tried to debate but they couldn't because he was guided by the

spirit and finally they were tired of it verse 12 they stirred up the people the

elders and the scribes and they came upon him and seized him and brought him

to the council so they brought him to a trial to a place of a court and they

wanted to shut this down they attacked him they accused him of talking about

Jesus of working with Jesus and it says in verse 15 that as they he was in this

court setting that he looked like an angel truly the right person doing the

right thing but then they made a mistake because they asked him a question they

they were shutting him down they were fighting against him but then they asked

him a question and it's an open-ended question almost he made it an open-ended

they said are these things so and for the majority of the rest of chapter 7 is

Stephen's reply to that one question we're not going to have time to read it

but if you're looking for something to do on Sabbath afternoon read through

that response of Stephen because Stephen recites the history of the children of

Israel and he recites how over and over God led them somewhere or raised up a

leader and the children of Israel rejected it and turned away and allowed

this to be a distraction from what was really happening Stephen was the right

person and he began to proclaim the story of God the story of God's people

and the story of God's guidance but over and over they rejected it and finally

this group of religious leaders could not stand this truth anymore and so we

come down to verse 51 and Stephen calls them stubborn and he calls them out and

he says you stiff-necked and uncircumcised people you always resist

the Holy Spirit just as your fathers did and he says you resisted and killed the

just one you even killed Jesus and in verse 53 it says you have received the

law by the direction of angels and you haven't kept it you even rejected this

thing and the people were so mad the people were so upset that they had to

shut him down and it says let me get there they cried out with a loud voice

and stopped up their ears so they're Stephen is talking Stephen is preaching

and they are yelling and trying to shut it down and every time I read this I

think of a story when I was a child we were sitting at the table one morning

probably at breakfast probably having biscuits and gravy Sunday morning or

something and my brother and I were talking about something that my mom

didn't want to hear any more about if I recall correctly it was might have been

snakes that we'd seen some snakes and they were slithering around and my mom

kind of shivered and oh and so of course we had to talk more about snakes and how

slithery these these little things were now I don't I do not like snakes but my

mom really did not like snakes and so this is what she did I'll never forget

it as we were talking about this thing that she didn't want to hear she put her

fingers over her ears and she just started making a noise to drown out

what we were saying something kind of like and the reason I remember that is

not because of what she did but because of what the dog did when my mom started

to do that the dog thought well it's time to howl and this dog that we had it

never barked it never howled and for the very first time this dog started howling

away under the table and from that time on if we wanted the dog to howl we could

make a noise and the dog would join in the choir but that's what I think of

when I see this story because they did not want to listen to Stephen anymore

they didn't want to hear another word to come out of his mouth they didn't want

to hear anything else that he said and it says they stopped up their ears and

they gnashed their teeth at him and they drug him out of the city and they shut

him down and they shut him up by throwing rocks at him have you ever been

hit with a rock have you ever been hit maybe with a baseball or a softball or

even a soccer ball those hurt when you're hit by it and Stephen was not hit

accidentally but was hit on purpose and was hit with the purpose of killing him

and notice back just a verse it says Stephen full of the Holy Spirit gazed

into heaven and saw the glory of God and he saw Jesus standing at the right hand

of God and he said look I see Jesus there and he could say it is well with

my soul and he could say precious Lord take my hand even in this challenging

situation even as so many people are against me so many people are upset so

many people are trying to shut me down as they're throwing rocks at him and it

says in verse 59 they stone Stephen as he was calling on God and he begins to

echo the words of Jesus upon the cross he says Lord Jesus receive my spirit and

Jesus said into your hands father I commit my spirit and it says then he

knelt down and cried out with a loud voice Lord do not charge them with this

sin and when he said this he fell asleep he was standing for God he was the right

person doing the right thing and it cost him his life in this situation there was

a story just the beginning of March you may have heard it it was in Louisville

Kentucky and there's a bridge that goes across that massive Ohio River the Clark

Memorial Bridge or the second Street Bridge in Louisville and I believe it

was March 1st there was a accident on that bridge it was a four-vehicle

accident and before everything had stopped one of those vehicles an 18

wheeler a tractor-trailer was hanging over the side of the bridge you may see

that they're barely hanging on I'm not sure how it's not going all the way over

now down on the other side of that tractor-trailer that's hanging down was

the cab and inside the cab was the driver of the truck and she was in there

suspended you know on the edge of this bridge and then the pictures you know

almost look like an action movie or a superhero because it seems it's a

spider-man himself comes dangling down on ropes hanging down off the edge of

the ladder of the fire truck but it is not spider-man instead it is firefighter

Bryce Carden and he lowers himself down off these ropes and he comes down by the

cab of the truck and he's able to open the door and he's able to hook up the

driver of the vehicle and the story said that the driver she was a military

veteran and this is how they described the driver she was cool as a cucumber

as they were being pulled back up now firefighter Carden he specializes in

high-angle rescues so this is what he was quoted as saying he said like I was

telling the chief it all goes back to the training we've done we've probably

done this a hundred times so we have good leaders that have taught us how to

take care of a situation like this he this was a crazy situation but he was

the right person doing the right thing because he had been trained for that and

he knew how to come down the ropes he knew how to hook up the driver he knew

how to reassure that driver and it said they eventually made it back up to the

bridge after a few prayers and help from the other first responders and this is

what the firefighter said she was just praying she was praying a lot so I prayed

with her he'd done it before he was experienced he was the right person

doing the right thing and look at the difference it made in this situation

Stephen was the right person doing the right thing and yet he ended up being

stoned he ended up dying and you could say what a tragic end to that story and

yet and yet in that story there's a hint of something to come there's a hint of

the gospel about ready to go even more viral I forgot that picture there they

are coming up because in Acts 6 verse 58 there's a hint there and it says the

witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul and that

is a hint of what is to come because in Acts chapter 9 we see Saul again and in

Acts 9 · chapter mention

Acts chapter 9 we see the Holy Spirit showing up in Saul's life so that at

Acts 9 · chapter mention

that time he is the right person to do the right thing to help the gospel to

blow up to spread throughout the the Roman Empire to go throughout the entire

world so you are the right person God has something for you to do Jesus laid

down his life on the cross Jesus died so that each one of us could be part of the

family of God each one of us could have some role could have some aspect to play

in bringing other people to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior you are the

right person the question is have you found what the right thing is for you to

do that's my challenge for you this week say God what is it that you want me to

do what can I do as in my part as the family of God let's bow our heads for a

word of prayer dear God we thank you you have laid down your life for us and we

read here in Scripture about how sometimes there's distractions that Satan

wants to send our way and the way to to push through those distractions is to

unite and and being the right people doing the right things for you and Lord

help each one of us here to find something that you would have us to do

to find someone that you would have us to talk to to find a talent or a skill

that we can put to use for your kingdom and Lord may each and every day we do

the right thing for you in your name we pray amen