Acts 6:1-15 Glowing

We're going to go through a whole entire chapter today.

Let your mind be blown.

We're in Acts chapter six.

Some of you they're visiting, like, I don't get the joke.

You will, if you come long enough, you'll get it.

Um, we are here.

I'm trying to give a recap.

We are here.

The church is growing rapidly.

Signs, wonders, and miracles are going on.

The church is being persecuted.

We just saw last week the apostles preaching the gospel.

They get thrown in jail.

An angel shows up in the middle of the night, breaks them out of jail, says, Hey, now that you're out of jail, go back to the place where you were first convicted and thrown in jail.

So go back to the temple, keep preaching.

They start preaching.

Everybody shows up for the trial and they send for the apostles, and the jailer comes back and it's like, yeah, we locked the door, but they're not there anymore.

And then somebody else runs in and goes, Hey, I found them.

They're still preaching, right?

And so they come at them and they're like, Y'all got to stop preaching in the name of Jesus.

You're turning all Jerusalem knows about what you're teaching.

They're like, just zip it.

And they're like, who are we going to obey?

You or God?

And to discredit them and to disgrace them, they have them flogged.

We talked about that, remember?

They're beat with leather uh whips.

And uh and the apostles leave, rejoicing that they've been counted worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus Christ.

The church is growing.

Yep.

So we're in chapter six now.

Here we go.

But as the believers rapidly multiplied, there were rumblings of discontent.

The Greek-speaking believers complained about the Hebrew-speaking believers, saying their widows were being discriminated against in the daily distribution of food.

So the twelve called a meeting of all the believers.

They said, We apostles should spend our time teaching the word of God, not running a food program.

And so, brothers, select seven men who are well respected and are full of spirit and wisdom.

We will give them this responsibility.

Then we apostles can spend our time in prayer and teaching the word.

Everyone liked this idea, and they chose the following: Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, Philip, Prochorus, Nikonor, Timon.

You're like Joey, these names aren't saying right.

Just go with me.

Forgive me.

Parmonas, Nicholas of Antioch, an earlier convert to the Jewish faith.

Verse 6 says, These seven were presented to the apostles who prayed for them as they laid their hands on them.

Verse 7, so God's message continued to spread.

Verse 8 says, Stephen, a man of a man full of God's grace and power, performed amazing miracles and signs among the people.

But one day some of the men from the synagogue of the freed slaves, as it was called, started to debate with him.

They were Jews from Cyrene, Alexandria, Sicilia, and the province of Asia.

None of them could stand against the wisdom and the spirit with which Stephen spoke.

So they persuaded some men to lie about Stephen, saying, We heard him blaspheme Moses and even God.

This roused the people, the elders, and the teachers of religious law, so they arrested Stephen and brought him before the High Council.

The lying witnesses said, This man is always speaking against the holy temple and against the law of Moses.

We have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy the temple and change the customs Moses handed down to us.

At this point, everyone in the High Council stared at Stephen because his face became as bright as an angel's.

Let's jump back to verse one.

Got a lot to unpack.

Pray for me, okay?

This is incredible.

The church are seeing incredible miracles on the regular.

Angels are breaking people out of prison.

This is not everyday circumstance.

Can we just capture the awe of what's going on here?

Right?

Angel showed up in the night, breaking people out of prison.

People are getting like radically healed, radically free.

Demons are being cast out of people.

Yeah, we understand that that probably still needs to happen today.

Okay.

So so amazing things are going on.

God is moving.

The church is increasing and increasing rapidly, but as the believers rapidly multiplied, there were rumblings of discontent.

It could be at first glance shocking to think that the power of God could be so incredible, the move of God could be so incredible.

What in the world would there be to be upset about?

But can I just tell you this?

People are always people.

If the church is rapidly growing, what does that mean?

That many of the new believers are what?

New believers.

And so listen, wherever you go, there you are, right?

And so people are the same everywhere.

And there is a process in our relationship with the Lord where we are sanctified.

He transforms our mind, our thinking, the way we live.

But you look at this group, and there's a group that we're saying, man, all these amazing things are happening, but we have some issue.

And the issue is not even one that's wrong.

Look at this.

It says the Greek-speaking believers, so this would be known as the Hellenistic believers.

These were believers that were a part of what we call the Dysporia.

They were uh the displaced when Babylon came in, and uh and they were from other Greek-speaking areas and communities and have come now back to Jerusalem.

So they're primarily Greek-speaking Jews.

They're fully Jews, but they primary language is Greek.

And you got Hebrew-speaking believers.

So these are the people that grew up there, right?

They're saying their widows, the Greek-speaking believers say their widows are being discriminated against in the daily distribution of food.

Let me just put it to you like this.

If you grew up somewhere, you normally have more connection than somebody else that is not growing up in that location.

Does this make sense?

So you probably, if you have a need, you probably know who to talk to to help get that need met more than somebody who's not from that community.

So what's happening is the ball is dropping and there being some widows that are not being taken care of.

And it's not that they're not cared for, but the system is not in place to be able to care for them properly because of how rapidly the church is growing.

Two things I just want to notice real quickly about this.

Um the presence of problems does not equal the absence of the Holy Spirit.

This is important to understand, because that as a body of Christ, as a body of believers, there will be times where there are issues that arise in the body, but that does not mean the absence of the Holy Spirit.

There's an idea called triumphalism, right?

Triumphalism.

The thought is that the spiritual church will have no tension, unfairness, or organizational breakdown.

If the Holy Spirit's truly involved, then you're not going to have any issues.

That's the idea of it.

The other idea that's out there is cynicism.

It's the thought that the presence of a problem proves that the church has lost its spiritual vitality.

Oh, your church has issues.

You must not really be serious about God, or the Holy Spirit must not be there working in your midst.

And if you hold to either of these things, you're going to miss out on the opportunity to mature as a believer.

Because there will be problems that arise in the body of the church, but as we submit to the Holy Spirit, seek after the heart of the Father, He gives us opportunity as a body to mature and grow together.

Yeah?

Because I don't know if you know this or not.

When I got saved, I was not immediately mature.

It's shocking.

Right?

If you were here last week, I had to repent because I made a bong joke.

I shouldn't have done that.

I went there, probably shouldn't have said that, but it's out now, right?

So I I'm maturing still.

You're you can mature along with me.

So so this is what I recognize like everybody is in process.

And the Holy Spirit is going to give us opportunities to be in process together.

This was a real issue, but it was also what a real opportunity.

Yeah?

Don't ever look at the problems in your life as things that you are just terrible at, but opportunities that God can move in to progress you and mature you in who He wants you to be.

Oftentimes we look at problems like, why am I going through this?

Why am I struggling with this?

Praise God, there's an opportunity, right?

Opportunity to rejoice, opportunity to learn, opportunity to be humble, opportunity to grow, right?

Cool.

I love that you guys are so excited today.

Reliance on the Holy Spirit is in all things.

It's not just in times of service together.

Not just for an hour and 15 minutes.

We come together on a Sunday morning.

Is that the time when we're saying, hey, we're fully dependent on the Holy Spirit?

And then we leave and we're like, no, I'm good now.

I got the rest, I've got the rest of the 99% of the week.

No, we're Holy Spirit dependent all the time.

You can be Holy Spirit dependent in your workplace.

You can be Holy Spirit dependent in your school.

You can be Holy Spirit dependent as the holiday comes and you're going to be around family.

Okay, right?

So good, good, good, good.

So we can be Holy Spirit dependent in all these areas, and we should be, yeah?

We don't relegate Holy Spirit to just one compartmentalized section of our life.

That's how we end up living a hypocritical lifestyle, right?

All right, awesome.

Cool.

So the 12 called together a meeting of all the believers.

They said, we apostles should spend our time teaching the word and not running a food program.

If you read that off the rip, it can sound like we're too good to run a soup kitchen.

That's not what they're saying.

How do we know that?

I don't know if you know this or not, or remember this or not from when we went through the Luke.

But food means a lot to the Jewish people.

It is when you're breaking bread with somebody, you're growing with them.

You're getting it's community.

You're getting to know them.

It's not just a necessity to meet nutritional needs, but it's a necessity of community.

And so the apostles aren't just saying, like, this is a lesser work than what we are called to do.

We're called to preach big, exciting messages.

We're called to spend time praying.

And this is it's not less than, it's important, or they wouldn't have dealt with it at all, right?

And they would not have dealt with it the way that they did.

Because what do they say?

And so, brothers, select seven men who are well respected and full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom.

The standard was high.

They're not just finding people with a pulse that can serve a plate of food.

They're finding people that have a heart for Jesus, have a high standard of living before him, a high standard of character.

And that people can look around and notice.

Man, these people love Jesus and follow him.

Yeah?

They're not just trying to find a warm body to take care of a situation.

They're looking at somebody that could be Holy Spirit gifted to meet a need that's honestly there.

Right?

Okay.

Then we apostles, verse 4, can spend our time in prayer and teaching the word.

I want to just kind of side note, this is just real quick.

Prayer is always an essential.

We don't ever assume I've prayed enough.

Right?

There's people that want to, and even in this room right now, there's some of you that might end up in vocational ministry or like a full-time ministry, but there's a lot of you that there are recognizing that you're in ministry where you are right now.

Prayer is not to be removed from where you are right now simply because you don't have the title apostle.

Prayer is an essential, it's not an extra.

It's an essential in our life.

You're like, Joey, well, how do I pray longer?

How do I pray more often?

Sometimes the longer we pray, did you realize you can read the word and be praying?

Why?

Because it's God's word and he's speaking to you.

When I spend time in the words, I come at it in a heart and a desire to pray.

God, what do you want to say to me today?

As I read your word, I'm praying.

And listen, I also recognize this as some of the hardest prayers to pray are ones where your mouth is not moving.

That your ears are open and you're attuned to say, God, what do you want to be speaking to me?

Right?

Because I need to hear what God has to say, not what Joey has to say, right?

And so I believe the apostles are praying and putting so much time into this because they don't have the wisdom to navigate what's going on in that community.

Imagine a church growing by thousands upon thousands upon thousands on the daily.

You need God-inspired wisdom how to navigate that, yeah?

It's not the wisdom of man that's going to be help stewarding that situation.

You've got to have authority and wisdom from on high.

And the only way to get that is get into the prayer closet, get quiet, and let God speak to you.

And so, listen, I sometimes I feel like this um uh conflict because you don't want to guilt trip people and say, hey, listen, if you were a better Christian and you weren't a horrible person, you would pray more.

Right?

That's not that's not the approach.

But the the understanding is this I love my wife, so I communicate with my wife.

When she calls, remember back before there was caller ID?

Some of y'all are like, what is caller ID, right?

Back before there was caller ID, you could pick up the phone, and if you knew the voice, you're like, hey, what's going on?

Like the people that you knew well, they didn't have to say, Hey, this is Joey.

I go, what up?

Anybody remember that?

What up?

And they're like, What up, Joey, right?

You remember that?

So, yeah, bring it back.

Bring it back.

That'd be incredible.

Could you imagine?

We come to homecoming Sunday and you're greeted at the door, what uh fantastic.

I recognize her voice because I'm familiar with it, because I spend time with it and I hear it on the regular.

What does God sound like?

Listen, can I just tell you, this is just fun insight in what's going on in the life of the church?

Throughout October, every Wednesday, we're gonna take an hour and a half from uh from 6 o'clock to 7:30.

You'll show up.

There'll be food here, and we're gonna do a four-week series on hearing the voice of God.

Uh, Angela Nat, who is gifted by God to teach, uh, especially in this area and has taught it before it, she sent me the curriculum and I read through, I'm excited.

I can't wait to get into this.

She's gonna be walking with us through these four weeks.

We're gonna gather together, we're gonna eat food.

There'll be child care for the littles, right?

So you don't have a two-year-old climbing up your leg as you're trying to hear from God, although he can speak that way.

But we're trying to create an environment.

But if you're like, man, I have trouble hearing from God, God is gonna speak to you and you're gonna get practical tools over the four Wednesdays of October to be able to recognize his voice and hear his voice in a couple of different ways.

Praise God on that.

Because I love that we are called to be a church where not only the people that get to hear from God are the pastors, but every single person.

Because God doesn't want to have a surrogate relationship with you through me.

I know this because he died for you as well as me.

All right, sweet.

So I can't even remember what we were talking about.

Yeah, we're talking about the Bible, we're in Acts, and we're in we're in verse five.

Oh, can you imagine you you you propose an idea that's Holy Spirit inspired, and it says, everyone like this idea.

Wow, yes, a miracle.

Yeah, that isn't that there's a miracle, right?

Sometimes we need to recognize that this is a miracle.

Everyone like this idea, and they chose the following.

So they start off with Stephen, and I want to get into him in a minute because next week's gonna be a lot about him.

They choose these seven guys, and they were the seven were presented to the apostles who prayed for them as they laid their hands on them.

There was an anointing and an appointing to operate in this needed area.

Yeah.

This was not, can I just say again, this was not a throwaway, this isn't important.

Twelve men that spent time with Jesus, have been trained by Jesus, lay hands on seven men that are now going to have this singular focus of helping people be taken care of.

We would call that a mercy ministry.

People that don't have the ability to take care of themselves, it's a mercy ministry.

Mercy ministry is a spiritual thing.

Preaching is a spiritual thing.

We recognize that both of these things, how we flow the love of Jesus in the practical is spiritual as it is preparing for a sermon or having a time in prayer.

Yeah?

These are spiritual things.

So the seven get prayed for, that they laid hands on them.

Verse 7.

So God's message continued to spread.

The problem presented an opportunity that caused everybody to run to Jesus, the Holy Spirit, pray for wisdom, get it, impart it, and then what happened?

The church grew more.

A problem brought an opportunity for the church to grow more.

I'll say it one more time.

A problem brought an opportunity for the church to grow more, to get closer to Jesus, for more people to come.

So listen, we don't ever have to stress if a problem comes our way as Hope City or as believers, because as we push into Him, He's gonna give us direction.

Oh, and by the way, an opportunity for His glory to advance, to His glory to be more known, yeah?

So it's not the it's not the uh the disappearance of all problems that means we're getting close to Jesus.

It means in the presence of problems, as we push close to Him, He's gonna be more glorified in it, yeah?

So let's not live lives trying to dodge every problem.

Let's not be creating them by like making bong jokes, right?

Let's not be but let but when they come, let's say, okay, how can we draw closer to you, Lord?

So the gospel message spread, the number of believers increased in Jerusalem.

Check this out, and many of the Jewish priests were converted too.

This is important because uh as we walk through Luke prior to Acts, we saw the marginalized being ministered to.

The people that nobody wanted around are the people that Jesus is ministering to.

We see those on the outskirts, the outcast, those the kingdom of heaven is for them, right?

We see this, and those are the people we see being touched.

But check this out this is a marking moment.

Many of the Jewish priests were converted too.

So now the spiritual elite are having enough time seeing these testimonies, hearing this teaching, hearing this preaching of the apostles, and now they are recognizing Jesus, whom we crucified, is actually, in fact, the Messiah.

Oh, and by the way, his death and the pouring out of his blood is enough to cover my sin of crucifying him.

Let that be crazy.

Let that blow your mind.

These are the people that say, Yeah, put him on the cross.

And now they realize, oh, he was the Messiah.

And his blood that he spilt while I was shouting, crucify him, was enough for my repentance when I came back later and said, I got it wrong.

God, would you forgive me?

Is that bananas?

And I read this and it's kind of it looks like a throwaway sentence.

Let me tell you something.

There, when Luke is writing Acts, there are no throwaway sentences.

Okay?

Alright.

So many of the Jewish priests converted too.

Check this out.

I had a I had a note in here, I'm trying to find it.

Because it was worthwhile.

Oh, here we go.

Um, Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power.

I would say grace and power is highlightable, it's underlinable.

Grace and power.

Stephen was not one of the 12 apostles, right?

Are we on the same page?

But what do we see?

He's performing amazing miracles and signs among the people.

He's not one of the apostles.

I'm not just being obnoxious and resating this.

He's not one of the apostles.

So I'm not trying to be dumb when I keep saying this.

He's not one of the apostles.

But miracles are happening.

Let me ask you, are you am you one of the apostles?

Are you?

You're not, right?

You're you're not an apostle.

I'm not an apostle, but Stephen wasn't an apostle.

Yet Jesus still worked in and through him to minister to the community.

Check this out.

You don't have to be an apostle for a miracle sign and a wonder for God to use you and you be effective in his name in your community.

So right now, you as you breathe are a vessel that can be used by God in signs, wonders, and miracles for his glory if you would just surrender and be saying, God, however you want to use me.

Because, oh, by the way, the guy that leads up the soup kitchen is the guy that is seeing signs, wonders, and miracles all around him.

Why?

Because there's not less than jobs in the kingdom.

Preaching is not a greater than, serving food is not a less than, washing a toilet is not a less than, greeting at the front door is not a less than, changing a diaper is not a less than.

Why?

Because all of those are in service to one king.

See, check this out.

The American church likes to platform pastors, but the original church liked to declare the glory of the king.

So it's like this is who God is.

God, there's nothing below me.

I can, any way that you want me to serve, I'll serve as long as you get the glory.

And your willingness to say, I will serve in imperfect situations.

Check this out.

They didn't get called into, Stephen didn't get called into a job where it was all put together and things were right and rosy.

It was a mess.

They needed help.

They didn't have it figured out.

That's why he was needed there.

Him and the six other guys, right?

If you wait for a perfect circumstance before you serve, the reality is you probably don't have a heart to serve.

You have a heart for a title.

Okay, so so that was well received.

I gotta say it like this.

There's some times when it's like, man, give me the perfect place to serve.

What if it's not about the place but the one you're serving?

What if the place doesn't have anything to do?

Man, I believe, I believe there's gonna be people so close to the throne of God in heaven with like stacks of treasures in heaven, like mounds of treasures in heaven.

And and and they'll be the names of people we've never even heard of in our life.

They only they only ever preached one message, and it was the life they lived in service.

The life they lived was the message they preached.

They never they never got on a pulpit, they never got on a stage, they never let a Bible say it's like their service to God in whatever capacity.

There was a sweet lady that I got to meet when we pastored in Charlottesville, Miss May.

Miss May was like 80 years old and she was feisty.

I remember pulling up in the driveway.

We had a the the church had like a house for offices right next to her house.

I pulled in one day and Miss May, 80 years old, was on her roof cleaning the gutters.

I had a mild heart attack, got out of my car.

Miss May, what are you doing?

I'm not afraid to climb.

My daddy taught me to climb when I was five years old, the cherry trees.

I'm like, well, Miss May, I don't know if you know, but it's been a few years that passed since your dad taught you to climb.

But Miss May was a prayer, and uh she believed that the Holy Spirit Spirit was involved in the life of believers today and was moving in dynamic and powerful ways today, yet God called her to go to a church that did not believe that the Holy Spirit was for today.

And the and the direction of God was pray for that pastor.

She showed up for 20 years and would pray every Sunday at a church where she didn't enjoy the sermons, where she wasn't feeling like they were theologically in a different place, but God said, Go and pray.

So she went and prayed.

And listen, everybody knew the pastor knew she was praying for him, and she was faithful in that.

Like, Miss May, do you ever want to do something different?

She's like, all the time.

But he didn't say do something different, so I go and pray.

That's incredible.

Listen, I don't know if I'll get to see her in heaven because she's gonna be so close to the throne.

That big that big pile of treasure, man.

Look at how God has honored Miss May, right?

As she has honored him.

If conditions have to be perfect before I serve, then I discovered an area that I can still surrender.

God plugs us into imperfect places so he can move in and through us in grace and empower.

Grace and power.

Grace is the manifest favor and character of God in our lives.

So this is a different aspect of grace, right?

Grace is the manifest favor and character of God.

Grace, Stephen moving in grace and power is um the character of Jesus being revealed through his life.

Can I put it like that?

People could see that there's something different about the way that he lived, the way that he operated.

You remember that one time when it says uh that they were debating with some of the apostles, and they could tell they were men that had been with Jesus.

Why?

Because there was a grace on their life that was flowing through who they were, how they treated people, how they act, how they responded to situations.

Yeah?

Grace is on his life.

Hostility is about to escalate for Stephen, but his grace remains intact.

We're going to get into all the hostility he faces next week.

Let me ask you this.

How hard does Satan have to work before your character looks like those that don't know Jesus?

How hard does Satan have to work in?

What button does he have to press in your life?

What buttons I need to ask, what button does he have to press in my life before my character looks like those that don't know him?

Because the issue is like sometimes we look at people making bad decisions in life that don't know Jesus.

Like, what were they supposed to do?

They don't know Jesus.

But I know him, and yet the enemy can still press buttons in my life and get me to a spot where my character looks a lot like the world and not like him.

And so that's an area that needs to be surrendered in my life.

You with me on that?

But may there be a day where somebody can say about you, they look at you and like the the grace and power of God is evident in their life.

Then when the heat gets turned up, the grace is still there.

The character is still there.

When the eyes turn towards you and there's signs, wonders, and miracles and all those things, the character is still there.

Yeah?

I look at Stephen only, man, look at this grace that's on his life.

The more secure I am in the love of Jesus, the less power my enemies have to make me feel insecure.

The more I'm secure in the love of Jesus, the less power my enemies have to make me feel insecure.

Your enemy wants you to feel insecure about who you are, who you belong to, what you're capable of.

But the more I recognize the love of Jesus in my life, the less insecure people can make me.

Because they can talk mess about me, but they don't get to determine my value, my character.

They don't get to determine those things about me.

Yeah?

So how secure am I in the love of Jesus?

I can tell I need to spend more time asking him about how he sees me and about his love.

Listen, if you forget how much Jesus loves you, just take a minute, just a brief minute and turn and look at the cross.

That's how much.

Let that wrap and wash over you, right?

Let that let that just yeah, let it mess with you.

There's grace, there's character in the life, and there is power.

It's the spirit's effective enablement for signs to be a witness.

It's the spirit's enablement for courage.

Check this out for endurance.

When there is pushback from the enemy, you will need endurance.

Anybody ever gotten a season?

You're like, I feel tired all the time.

Now, some of that's because y'all be playing Angry Birds.

Y'all remember that game?

It's 1 a.m., just one more round.

I am dating myself today.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So you you brainiacs are staying up late playing Sudoku, right?

So something like sometimes it's it's the way we live that makes us tired, but sometimes it's what we're facing that exhausts us.

And when there's consistent pushback from the enemy in your life, it can be exhausting.

But the grace of God and the Holy Spirit is that I can be supernaturally empowered to have an endurance for this season and the test that I'm facing in this time in my life, yeah?

So that I won't grow weary in well-doing.

That's what scripture says, don't grow weary in well-doing.

How can I not grow weary?

I gotta lean on the Holy Spirit.

I don't know if there's anybody in here, but I felt like there was somebody in here today that you are weary and well-doing.

And I just feel like Holy Spirit, may He just pour out on you right now in a fresh way that you would just have the endurance to go through whatever season that you're in right now.

Grace and power.

Stephen was a man full of God's grace and power to perform amazing miracles, signs, and wonders among the people.

So these guys show up from the synagogue of the freed slaves, and uh they start picking a fight, and they start to debate with them.

Verse 10 none of them could stand against the wisdom and what the capital S spirit, none of them can stand against the wisdom and the capital S spirit with which Stephen spoke.

So they persuaded some men to lie about him.

I feel like that's what happened to Jesus.

They couldn't trip Jesus up, they're like, hey, we're gonna lie about him.

Consider yourself in great company when somebody lies about you.

Why would they do that?

I'm so persecuted, they've lied.

It hurt like it hurt the people that should not have been lying about me, like I've been lied about.

But when there's a pursuit of the things of God, and when you will walk in in a character that's according to the calling and a grace, the enemy has to lie because you're standing on truth.

He can't come at you in that way.

So he's got a lie about you.

Now, check this out.

Actually, would you come up for me?

It says verse 11, so they persuaded some men to lie about Stephen.

Now check out what they are attacking him on.

We heard him blaspheme Moses.

I don't know if you know this, but Moses is kind of a big deal to the Jewish people.

Okay.

He's kind of a goat of the faith, if you would, right?

So we hear him blaspheme Moses and even God.

This roused the people, the elders and the teachers of religious law.

So they arrested Stephen.

A lot of people, a lot of people in the church getting arrested back then.

Can you imagine the bail bonds, right?

Like, so, anyways, they arrest Stephen, they brought him before the high council.

The lying witnesses, that is the craziest phrase ever.

What is a witness supposed to do?

I saw this.

This is what happened.

I was a witness.

This wreck, this woman pulled out in front of this guy.

She went when she wasn't supposed to, and the guy ran into her.

That's what happened.

The witness is supposed to tell the truth.

The lying witness, what's that called?

An oxymoron, right?

The lying witness said, This man is always speaking against the holy temple.

Check this out.

And what?

And against the law of Moses.

There's that name again.

I feel like this is important.

We have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy the temple and change the customs of Moses handed down to us.

At this point, everyone in the high council started, excuse me, everyone in the high council stared at Stephen.

Why?

Because his face became as bright as an angel's.

What lumen does your face have to get to before you're everybody's like, right?

You're just talking and you're like, is he?

Right?

Like his face is kind of glowing.

And then it keeps getting brighter.

And then everybody's like, right?

You ever do a big heavy blink to make sure you see what you're seeing?

The big heavy blink.

He's standing, he's not saying a thing.

He's standing in grace and in power.

They're lying about him.

You're trying to change the ways of Moses.

You're trying to change everything Moses set up.

You're blaspheming God.

You're trying to work all this around, and they're just lying and they're lying.

And what he's doing is he's talking about Jesus who fulfilled the law of Moses because we couldn't do it.

Right?

That's what he's doing.

That's what he's saying.

And he's standing there and they're lying about what he's saying about Moses.

Moses.

We're talking about Moses, right?

Moses is.

Do you remember?

You remember when Moses gets the law and he comes down the mountain?

Okay.

If you don't, it's alright.

It's alright.

We're gonna we're gonna read it.

Because it's still in the Bible.

When Moses came down, this is Exodus 34, verse 29.

Exodus 34:29

When Moses came down Mount Sinai carrying the two stone tablets inscribed with the terms of the covenant, he wasn't aware that his face had become radiant because he had spoken to the Lord.

So when Aaron and the people of Israel saw the radiance of Moses' face, they were afraid to come near him.

They're lying about Stephen with what he's trying to do to the law of Moses.

And what does God do?

The same sign that was with Moses that he had been with God comes upon Stephen.

You can't listen, you can't grit your teeth to get your face to glow.

You can't boop, it does not work.

Only the way that that happens is God says, they're lying about you, and I'm gonna shut them up.

They cannot, none of them can deny, hey, his face isn't glowing, it's clearly beaming.

And what would they all know?

They're talking actively about Moses, and yet the man you're condemning, his face is glowing.

And who does that remind you of?

Moses.

Can I just say something right now?

I believe that many of us in this place feel like the enemy is gonna win in our certain areas of our life, and God is your vindicator.

God is the one who will do the things that you can't do.

You can't make your face glow.

He made Stephen's glow.

He vindicated Stephen in front of that crowd.

They shut up and he didn't have to say a word yet.

We're gonna read the words next week.

Boy Sadoozy.

You better pray because it's like a fillion verses in that chapter, and we're gonna read the whole chapter.

It's like two felillion verses in chapter seven.

We're gonna read all of them next week.

You tell your friends to hydrate when you bring them.

We'll feed them afterwards.

We're gonna make it through all these verses.

Yes.

We'll feed before and after.

We got the little gel packs, you just squirt in like you're in a race.

We're gonna endure, we're gonna read all these verses.

Before he speaks, God speaks for him.

Yeah, like I just I read through this, I'm like, God, I would even anybody even know how to pray for that.

God just did it.

Is anybody in the room right now?

You're in a place in life, you're like, I don't really quite even know how to pray in this moment.

I just feel like the enemy's against me.

And God, I may not be perfect, but I I'm trying to draw closer to you.

God, I might not have it all figured out, but I I'm I want to honor you and how I live.

And I don't even know how to pray.

God, I thank you.

In your goodness, when Stephen, your servant, was being attacked, you cause your face to shine upon his and reflect the glory of who you are.

Man, God, I feel like there's people in this room right now.

They need your face to shine upon theirs, to reveal the glory of who you are.

God, I don't know if it's they need you to show up in their bank account.

They're being faithful to give, they're being is doing their best to honor you with finances.

Lord, if it's showing up in the bank account, if it's showing up in the workplace, if it's showing up in the school, if it's showing up on the sports team, if it's showing up wherever it is.

God, I thank you right now.

I don't know if this resonates with anybody, but man, you just like, I don't know how to pray.

And I don't even think that it wasn't that Stephen even, I don't think it's anything about him not knowing how to pray.

He says, Man, God knew what he needed when he needed it.

And as much as he was there for Stephen, he's here for you because he is not a favorites player of people.

But I just want to say right now, and some of you feel like, man, God does things for other people, but he doesn't do them for me.

I just want to say this God's timing is always right, but it's almost always frustrating.

It's always right, it has never been wrong in my life.

And I've also discovered the only thing harder than waiting on God is wishing that you would have.

You make a move before he makes the move.

I don't know how he needs to shine in your life today or this week, but I believe he loves you in a way that's so deep that you can't imagine, and he will shine.

But you just say, God, I'm just gonna trust you.

Man, some of the most powerful prayer that you could ever pray.

God, I choose.

I don't feel it, I don't feel it at all, but I choose to say, I trust you.

I trust you.

Can we pray that together?

Would you just close your eyes for a moment?

Whatever the situation is that has you heavy right now.

Can we just say together, Father?

Just say it out loud with me, Father.

We choose, yeah, say it again, we choose with our will to declare we trust you.

We trust you with our family, with our work, with our school, with our children, with our relationships.

We choose to declare we trust you because you are worthy of our trust.

Thank you, God.

Thank you, God.

Lord, I thank you that you see your sons and your daughters.

Pray encouragement for the ones that are going through problems right now.

And Lord, I thank you that you're gonna bring the solution.

Lord, I pray for the ones being lied about right now.

I thank you that you're gonna bring the solution.

Lord, I pray for the weary right now.

I thank you that you're gonna bring the endurance, that you're gonna bring the rest, and you're gonna bring the wisdom.

We trust you, God.

We honor you, we love you.

We celebrate that you have the answers before we even know about them.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

I want to ask you to stand real quick, and I do want to speak a blessing over you before you go.

I had the honor yesterday, I just want to tell you this real quick, and maybe you can implement this into your life sometime this week because I'd never done this before.

I went to uh um a messianic Jewish church yesterday, and they were celebrating what's called uh Sukkot or the Festival of Tabernacles.

I never celebrated that before.

And God still loves me.

It's okay, but I, you know, you don't know what you don't know, right?

And it was a special service because in the service, every so often they bring out and they do what's called a Torah reading.

The Torah is the first five books of the Bible, right?

So, and it's in these scrolls, huge scrolls, and they're they're they're they're they're uh sheepskin and a scribe, a person physically goes through and and rewrites in Hebrew those books.

And if they make a if they make a mistake, they have a knife and they can kind of scrape gently the mistake away, and then they fix that, right?

If they make too many mistakes on that piece uh of parchment, what they do is it will be taken and removed and they'll start over again.

There's like that fidelity to it.

So the time the service came where they were going to read from the Torah, and a gentleman went over and picked it up and he placed it on his shoulders and and he got up and he began to walk.

He was on that side of the room, began to walk past the front row.

And um I thought a guy was ushering to my seat and he wasn't, and I ended up on the second row, and uh I was a little nervous because I had never been in that service before.

Right?

And I heard somebody that they said, listen, as the Torah comes out, if you want to, if you want to dance and clap as it's brought out, let's do that.

We invite you to.

There's this little lady on the front row, and she's been clapping with everything.

The slow songs, the fast songs.

She was she was game for anything.

And so this the Torah passes by her, and she boom, she pops up and boom, boom, and they're playing like an up tempo song, and she's clapping, and then the rabbi of the church like sees me.

I'm on the second row, right?

And he's and I look at him like, you know, like we're here, let's do this.

And I start walking behind her, just clapping.

Can I tell you?

Man, the seat started emptying.

It was like some kind of Holy Spirit congo line.

Bro, they were clapping.

Celebrating the word of God, that it is true and that it's right.

Man, some of you today today, maybe, before you go to bed tonight, you you're just struggling.

You need to, and you need to just pick this up.

You don't got a tour, you got the Bible.

It's okay.

Just maybe walk through your living room.

Okay, God, I thank you.

You've got everything figured out.

You've got the answers, you know what I need, you know how that you're gonna do this, the wisdom I need, and you just start clapping and you start going.

And I don't care if you feel stupid, praise Him because it's not about how you feel.

I felt wildly stupid and in the most perfect spot that I should ever be in my life, just saying, God, I thank you that your word is true, and we're about to hear about it.

That's what everybody was doing.

And somebody, and some people were more vibey, right?

They were more on beat, and some people were completely offbeat.

And it didn't, the beat didn't matter.

It's just like the word of God is coming out, the word of God is true, and we're gonna hear about the word of God and what he's spoken over us.

They weren't worshiping the scrolls, they were worshiping what was written on it.

It's the word of God, and it is true, and every word that he speaks will not return void.

You with me on that?

So if I can give you some spiritual homework today that's practical in nature, grab your kids, turn off a worship song in the house, let it get thumping.

God, your word is true.

And after you've worked up a sweat, let's open it up.

Read a passage over your family, over yourself.

Yeah.

Lord, I pray, Lord, thank you that your face shines upon us.

And Lord, I pray that your face shine upon these, your sons and your daughters.

May your face shine upon them.

Bless them, and they're coming and they're going, they're lying down, they're rising up.

Be their front, their rear guard.

Give them the mind of Christ and wisdom of God.

Lord, I pray everything they touch their hands to let it prosper.

Lord, I thank you, James 1 says, if we ask for wisdom, you give it abundantly without reproach.

Lord, we pray for James 1 wisdom.

And Lord, we also understand that James 1 says, when we encounter various trials to rejoice.

Because the testing of our faith produces endurance.

Thank you, God, that you are with us, that you are for us, and that you are not against us.

Lord, we pray for divine appointments this week to share your word, your love, your hope, your mercy to our community, to our city, and may you get the glory and the honor and praise in it all.

In Jesus' name we pray.