SUNDAY - MAY 18, 2025 "Kingdom Service" Acts 6:1-7

Welcome to DeSoto Hills Baptist Church.

Our Sunday morning services are weekly at 9 and 10 30 am.

You're listening to an audio recast of this past week's service.

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God bless.

If you have your Bibles this morning, we'll be in Acts, chapter 6.

Acts 6 · chapter mention

If it wasn't hard enough to stay awake during my preaching, now you got rain on the tin roof.

Look, I'm not opposed to coming down off this thing and waking you up if you need it too.

So before we, uh, look at our passage today, there's some things that I want us to to remember about.

About Acts remember, the book of Acts is set up.

It is.

It is about the advancement of the kingdom of God through the acts of Christ, through the church and the apostles, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

We know this if you go back to Acts, chapter 1, verse 3.

Acts 1:3

In Acts, chapter 1, verse 3, luke told us this.

Acts 1:3

He said he, that's jesus, presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during the 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of god.

Understand what's happening.

Jesus, is it he?

He died on the cross, he, and now he is back, appearing to the apostles, appearing to the disciples.

They are seeing Him and he is not telling them.

This is how you do signs.

If you do these steps, you can perform signs.

He's not telling them.

Look, when you preach, it's three points and a poem.

He's not telling them how to preach.

He's not telling them how to use parables effectively.

He is not teaching them about those things.

Here's what Jesus is doing when he has come back and appeared to his disciples, he is telling them about the kingdom of God.

Now we need to understand some things, also about when we say advancing the kingdom of God, because so often when we hear advancing a kingdom, what we think of maybe you're not this way.

What I think of is I think of a king and his army on the battlefield advancing his kingdom and taking over more land and gaining more power.

But that's not what we're talking about when we talk about advancing the kingdom of God.

The kingdom of God is not a geopolitical entity that is looking to expand its power.

Why do we know that?

Because the king of the kingdom of God already has all the power.

He doesn't need to expand his.

What we're talking about when we say advancing the kingdom of God the kingdom of God refers to the reign of God in the lives of his people, in the lives of believers.

So when we are talking about advancing the kingdom of God, what we're talking about is sharing the kingdom of God, so people who are not part of the kingdom can become part of the kingdom.

And then also, as they become part of the kingdom, we grow and we learn so that God rules and reigns in our lives more and more and more.

We're talking about sharing the gospel in such a way that God's rule and reign grows in the lives of the believers and in his church.

When we talk about advancing the kingdom of God, that's what we're talking about and we've seen that happening throughout the book of Acts.

In our passage today, we even see it at the end, in verse 7.

He says and the word of God continued to increase and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

This is the kingdom of God advancing in the book of Acts and what we're going to see in our passage today.

We're going to see the kingdom of God advancing in another way In this passage today that we see men were chosen to advance the kingdom of God by serving the body, by taking care of the body.

So for us, as we look today and as we hopefully understand in this passage today, we can also advance the kingdom as we serve the body, because as we serve the body, we are serving the king and we are advancing his kingdom.

So our challenge today is this that we must be ready and willing to serve in his kingdom.

So the question that we want to answer is this how were they ready, these seven men that are going to be chosen?

How were they ready, how was this church ready to serve the kingdom?

So let's read this morning from Acts, chapter 6, verses 1 through 7.

Acts 6:1–7

If you're able this morning, I invite you to stand with us as we give honor to the reading of God's Word, acts, chapter 6, verse 1.

Acts 6:1

Now, in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.

And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said it is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables.

Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty, but we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word.

And what they said pleased the whole gathering.

And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip and Prochorus and Nicanor and Timon and Parmenas and Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch.

These they set before the apostles and they prayed and laid their hands on them and the word of God continued to increase and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

Let's pray together.

God, we thank you for today and we thank you for how you love us.

God, we thank you for all you've done for us.

And, god, we come and we ask now, as we engage with your word, god, as we engage with this story about the advancement of the kingdom in the New Testament church God, I pray that you will teach us and you will inspire us and you will move us to advance the kingdom here.

We love you.

Thank you for all you've done for us.

Jesus, it's in your wonderful name we pray.

Amen, you may be seated.

Amen, you may be seated.

So again, the question is how were they ready?

How were they ready to serve?

Well, about four things here that we see.

First of all, we see this they were ready to serve as they recognized a need.

They saw a need.

They saw a need.

See again, what's happening here is in the New Testament church.

There is a group of people the widows who had a need.

Now we understand that the church was all about.

We've seen throughout Acts.

They were about taking care of one another, and here was a group of people who needed extra care.

We know that ladies, in New Testament times, in the first century, they did not have a whole lot of political rights and so, especially when their husbands passed away and they were left alone, they had extra needs and they needed extra help to take care and to fulfill their needs.

And so the church saw this need, and we've seen God challenging his people throughout the Bible.

Even way back in Exodus, chapter 22, verse 22, he writes this you shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child.

Exodus 22:22

So so the New Testament church is recognizing what the word of god says to take care of widows.

They're seeing this, they see this need, and so they responded with a distribution of food.

They go and they, they take care of this need by distributing food.

But during this distribution of food, something another need arose, and here's what's happening the food that was being distributed among the widows was being distributed disproportionately.

There's a group of Hellenists.

It says these are Greek-speaking widows that we're not getting the same amount of care, maybe even being overlooked, opposed to the Hebrew-speaking widows.

Now, these Hellenists were people who probably had been taken out of Jerusalem during the Diaspora.

When one of the countries came in and conquered the Jews, they were taken out throughout the world, and so now what we see happening a lot in the new testament is, in the twilight of their years, these, these couples, who had had maybe not even lived in jerusalem at all, maybe not even been in israel at all, but but kept their jewish faith.

They had been, they'd been influenced by the Greek culture because they spoke Greek, but in the twilight of their years, they came back so that they could die in the city of the temple.

Then, when their husbands died, these widows were left and no one to take care of them, and the church and their distribution of food was overlooking them.

The apostles recognized this because someone spoke up.

The apostles recognized this, and so they set about to meet this need.

Now let's understand, though, that when they said in verse 2, the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said it is not right that we should give up the preaching of the word to serve tables.

The apostles are not saying, hey, we're too good to serve tables, we know better than that.

Look at all the things the apostles have done.

We know that that's not their attitude.

Their attitude is and we'll get to this momentarily their attitude is they knew what they were called to do.

They knew what the focus of what they were called to do should be doing.

And so now they're giving this new church who is growing by leaping back leaps and bounds.

They're giving them opportunities to advance the kingdom of God through their service.

They've recognized several needs here.

They recognize the need one, to take care of widows.

Two, they recognize the need that they really need to.

Two, take care of the Hellenistic widows.

The apostles, I think, also recognize the need that God has called his people to serve, and so they need they were giving them opportunities to serve.

First, they recognize the need.

Second we see this they recognize the servant qualities.

Now listen, if this were me and I saw this need that they were having, here's what I would do.

I would go and I would find somebody with a gift of administration who could figure this out in their sleep and say have at it, take off.

It's not what the apostles did.

They didn't look for those qualities among the people.

It tells us right there in verse 3, that he said that they say hey, go and find, pick out among yourselves seven men.

And here's the qualities they look for of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom.

Here's the qualities that the apostles tell them to seek out among the people.

Not once did they say a gift of administration, good repute, full of the Spirit, full of wisdom.

So what is he saying here?

What does this mean?

Let's quickly break this down he to be of good repute.

You understand this now.

So, so many times, and and and if I'm honest with you, I'll tell you I've even sought this that that this was possibly the first seven deacons, but that word's never used in this passage.

So let's don't assume that this was a group of deacons.

This was a group of men who were chosen to serve.

They were chosen to meet a need, but they were to be of good repute.

Now, while they may not be talking about being the first deacons or the first elders, paul, when he is talking to Timothy and describing deacons and elders, there's some things he says about them.

In 1 Timothy 3, verse 2,.

1 Timothy 3:2

He says this about elders and overseers.

He says, therefore, an overseer must be above reproach.

This is what it means to be of good repute.

You have a reputation, not that you're're perfect, but that you are above reproach.

That that, when, when things happen, you handle them in the right way.

And when you handle things in the wrong way, guess what you do?

You admit it, you make it right and we move forward.

The same thing.

He said not the same thing, but but when you go down to verse 10, and he's talking about qualifications for deacons, he says in verse 10, and let them also be tested first.

Then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless.

Now, I don't know about you.

I'm not blameless, never have been, never will be.

So what does he mean when he says blameless to be of good repute?

Here's what I think he means when we mess up, we don't run away from God, but we run to God.

Think about David, think about King David.

King David, the Bible tells us, was a man after God's own heart.

But have you ever read about his life?

He couldn't rebuild the temple because he had shed too much blood.

Then there's this whole ordeal with Bathsheba and her husband.

He was not blameless, he was not perfect.

So why does Scripture call him a man after God's own heart?

Here's what I think Because he was a man that ran to God.

When he messed up, he ran to God.

When things were going well, he ran to God.

When things were going well, he ran to God.

And if we are going to be of good reputation, of good repute, it's not that we are perfect, but it's that when we mess up, we run to God and when we things are going well, we are running to God.

We are always going to God.

First he says be people of good.

They need to be people of good repute.

Then he says this people full of the Holy Spirit.

What does he mean here when he says that they are full of the Holy Spirit?

Here's what I think he's talking about.

He is talking about someone who hears the commands of the Spirit, who feels the guidance of the Spirit in their life, and they respond in the appropriate way of the Spirit's leading.

They do what the Spirit calls them to do.

Now they're not in here, so I'll use them as an illustration.

I have some kids, sometimes my kids.

I'll say hey, I need you to do this?

Yes, sir, but no, there's no, but there's no, but I need you to do this.

Can I first?

A person that's full of the Holy Spirit does this.

When God calls them, they respond appropriately.

Think about this.

Here you have these seven guys who are called to advance the kingdom of God through service, through taking care of people, and they responded appropriately Because they set about the task of taking care of people.

They were full of the Holy Spirit, directed by the Holy Spirit, and they were full of wisdom.

What do we mean when we say wisdom?

Last week we looked at a godly woman who was full of wisdom.

Wisdom is more than just having a knowledge about something.

Wisdom is having knowledge about something and then having the common sense to put that knowledge to use.

Back in Deuteron and 1 Chronicles, chapter 12.

1 Chronicles 12 · chapter mention

Here's what's happening in 1 Chronicles 12.

David has been anointed as king, and so the people are coming and the tribes are coming to David Acknowledging him as king.

And in chapter 12, verse 32, the tribe of Issachar.

Here's what it says about this tribe Of Issachar men who had understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do.

That's wisdom, john MacArthur.

He defines wisdom as this.

Wisdom is somebody who has biblical and theological knowledge and the practical wisdom to apply biblical truth to the situations of everyday life.

Wisdom is knowing what God's Word says and applying it to our everyday lives, and what he is calling these men to do is to have these traits of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and full of wisdom.

What we're going to find about these people is these people are dependent upon God.

See, listen I don't know if you've heard this said.

I've heard it said.

I've probably even said it God is more worried about your availability than he is your ability.

Can I change that a little bit, though?

Listen ability, can I change that a little bit, though, listen?

Ability is one thing, and if God has given you ability, you need to use that.

But listen, when they chose these men, they didn't look at ability.

If they had of one of the one of the things that they would have given was somebody with the gift of administration.

He's not looking for ability here, and he's not even really looking for availability.

Listen, you can be available to do nothing.

What God is looking for is dependence.

He is looking for someone who is totally dependent upon him, and if we're going to be ready to serve, as these men were.

All of these qualities that we have point us to men who were dependent upon the Holy Spirit, and we need to be those people.

So they were ready because they recognized the need.

They were ready because they recognized the servant qualities in these men.

Third, they recognized the most important thing.

Look at verse 4.

In verse 4 he says this but we will devote ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the word.

Now, we've already said it, the apostles did not feel like they were above serving tables.

That's not the point.

The apostles recognized what they had been called to do.

The apostles recognized that they had been called to bear witness to the things that Jesus said and the things that Jesus did, and they were going to do that through prayer and ministry of the word.

And so they had to do those things.

They had to keep those things the most important thing, and so the congregation had to step in and help.

Now listen, let's put that here, verse you do not need a pastor who is a CEO.

That is not a biblical term.

The word that we get pastor from, from Scripture, is the word for shepherd.

Your pastor needs to be a shepherd of the flock and he does that through ministering the ministry of the word and prayer.

Now, listen, I understand.

I understand that in the church setting today as the pastor, there are administrative roles that I have to fulfill.

There are administrative duties that fall on the pastor, and I get that and I'm not stepping away from that.

But hear me, when those things take priority over the ministry of the word and prayer, we are in trouble.

No matter if you're at DeSoto Hills or any other church, if that is taking place, we are in trouble.

The pastor is supposed to lead through shepherding, not through being a ceo and listen, the subtle hills.

We, we have things set up to do that.

We, we have, we have a, you have the pastor, but then you have people like stewardship teams who come in and help, and personnel teams who come in and help, and you have other things, other other committees and teams who come in and help and help serve and they help go through this administrative process.

That's a good thing.

We need to celebrate those things.

But we must keep the main thing, the main thing, and that's the prayer and the ministry of the word.

But hear me, for you, you must keep the main thing, the main thing as well, and this is the main thing prayer and ministry of the word In the next chapter.

In the next chapter, we're going to see one of these men that they called Stephen, one of these men who were called to take care of the widows.

Here's what's going to happen he's going to be arrested and he is going to preach such a sermon that the religious leadership is going to be so enraged by it that they are not only going to arrest him, they are going to stone him.

I guarantee you, the main thing in Stephen's life was prayer and ministry of the word.

In the next chapter, in chapter 8, one of these guys, philip.

He is going to preach and he's going to proclaim the gospel to an Ethiopian unit who is going to be miraculously saved and baptized.

Why did Philip do that?

Because he kept the main thing, the main thing, which was prayer and ministry of the word.

Was he serving?

I'm sure he was, but he kept the main thing, the main thing, and he didn't pass up opportunities to pray or ministered with the word of God in his life.

If he would have, guess what he'd say God, you know what?

I see that Ethiopian eunuch, but I'm just called to serve tables.

Stephen would have said, hey, you know what sure I'm just called to serve tables, though it's not what they.

They did.

They kept the main thing, the main thing, and if we are going to be ready to serve, we all must keep the main thing, the main thing, and our lives must be focused on so.

They recognize the need, they recognize these servant qualities, and then they recognize these men.

Don't pass up verses 5 and 6.

It goes and says they pleased the whole gathering of faith and the Holy Spirit.

They pleased the whole gathering and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip and Prochorus and Nicanor and Timon and Parmenas and Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch, and they sat before the apostles, they prayed and laid their hands on them.

Now again, I'm going to say this Not once is the word deacon used in this passage.

So let's just not make assumptions that this is the first deacons.

But what we can see from this is that service was of utmost importance.

It was so important to the church that they didn't just say, hey, I need you to go serve.

They recognized these men, they prayed over these men, they laid their hands on these men because they were going to advance the kingdom through their service.

We so often, we so often think that service.

We so underrate service, not necessarily here at DeSoto Hills, but in our culture.

The New Testament church did not underrate service.

They recognized this need.

They found these men who were of good repute, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom to perform this service, who kept the main things, the main things, and they set them aside To serve by praying over them and laying hands over them, recognizing the significance Of the matter.

What does this mean for us?

Here's what it means we can advance the kingdom of God through our service.

God has called us to serve.

Advancing the kingdom of God is not just about standing up and preaching.

Is it about standing up and preaching Absolutely?

Is it about the preacher standing up in the pulpit and preaching Absolutely?

But it is also about believers.

It's about believers who minister through prayer and the word of God, who prepare themselves to serve by running to Jesus, being people of good repute, of the Holy Spirit and full of wisdom, who recognize needs and seek to meet them.

See, listen, here's what I'm convinced of church.

When you are walking with God and you have a relationship with Him, you might see some needs that I don't, and you know what God's calling you to do.

If he has allowed you to recognize a need and made you passionate about it, you know what I'm convinced of he's calling you to service.

You need to run to Jesus.

He's calling us to serve.

We need to serve, we need to serve.

Listen, I don't know where you are today, listen, and I understand that this message, this message is to the church.

It's a message to believers, and if you are not a believer out there this morning, you go.

This isn't about me.

Yes, it is, because, hear me, god has created you to serve Him, and when you are not, when you are not, when you are not serving Him in the way he calls you to serve Him, your life is incomplete and you're lost and you're looking.

But God has made a way for you to be in relationship with Him.

He sent His Son to come and to die and to arise so that you can be in a relationship with God, and it's only through that relationship with God that we can be people of good repute who are called to serve him.

This morning, if you don't know Jesus and you are looking for meaning and purpose in your life.

The only place to find that is in Jesus, run to Him.

Or maybe this morning, maybe God has called you but you are not fulfilling that role of advancing the kingdom of God through our service.

I challenge you this morning, challenge you this morning.

I challenge you this morning to become people of good repute who run to Jesus, to become people who are full of the Holy Spirit, so that we obey the Holy Spirit when he calls us.

To become people of wisdom who look out and see the world and see how that we should respond to those needs.

Because we have wisdom, the Holy Spirit and we are running to Jesus.

Let's make ourselves ready to serve.

So, when God has called us to serve, we're not just able, we don't just have the ability and we don't just have the availability, but we have the dependence that we need upon Him to serve and advance the kingdom.

Let me pray for us God.

We love you.

We thank you for today and thank you for how much you love us God.

We thank you for all you've done for us, jesus.

We thank you for coming, for living, for dying, for rising so that we can have faith, so that we can have a relationship with God so that we can run to God.

We recognize that the only way that we can do that is through Jesus.

So this morning I pray for those who are here this morning who have never trusted you, god.

I pray that you will give them the faith they need this morning to follow you.

God, for those of us who Spirit you are moving in because you are showing us opportunities to serve, or at least you are recognizing, you are helping us to recognize that in our lives that we should be serving you.

God, help us Give us the faith that we need to trust you and to run to you.

God, we love you.

Move as only you can this morning.

Jesus, it's in your name we pray, amen.

Thanks for listening to this week's sermon.

If you have any questions for our pastor, feel free to reach out at desotohillscom.