Acts 7 Stephen

We've been walking through Acts as a church family.

And we are in Acts chapter 7 today.

Acts 7 · chapter mention

And so without trying to get through all of chapters 1 through 6, what you need to know is what we're focusing on right now is a guy named Stephen.

Theologians are going to guess that he's in his low 20s.

He's not an old wrinkly guy, though there's nothing wrong with that.

But he's probably a younger man.

And uh he is the head, along with six other guys, of the food ministry for the church.

He has been put in charge of the soup kitchen, if you will, to make sure that the widows are being fed, because that was an area where the ball was getting dropped.

And so he's in a food ministry, but we recognize scripture says that he was full of the spirit and full of power, and that signs, wonders, and miracles were being performed through him.

And the church was in awe.

Like, man, check out.

Did you hear how God moved through Stephen the other day?

Can you imagine like what the church is seeing in miracles?

What is a miracle?

A miracle is something that even as hard as you would want to try on your own, you couldn't perform it.

You with me on that?

Okay, I don't want to just throw around the word miracle, like, oh, that's a cool word.

Outside of the supernatural power of God, it would not be able to occur if God didn't intervene and work through his sons and daughters.

And the way that he loves to do that is through his Holy Spirit, yeah?

So Stephen has been having a conversation with some people in the temple, and they don't like Stephen, but they can't debate, they can't hang with him.

The Spirit of God's so on them, the wisdom of God's so upon them, they cannot hang in a debate and they get mad with Stephen.

So they lie about him as one does when you're losing an argument, right?

Not that you would do that, but we hear about people that do that.

And so people are lying about him, saying that he's trying to upend the law of Moses, that Jesus is saying, uh, that Jesus said that he was going to mess up the temple and that the law is going to get changed and all this stuff, and they're coming after Stephen saying he's trying to change everything, and he's he's being blasphemous.

He's being blasphemous against Moses, he's being blasphemous against God, he's being blasphemous against the temple.

Right?

Like he, if there's something to blaspheme, he's done it all.

In baseball, we call that hitting for the cycle, right?

You got you got the single, the double, the triple, and you hit a home run.

Stephen's getting all the bases in blasphemy.

That's what they're saying.

We ended last week with an incredible moment because as they're lying about him, Stephen's face begins to glow, shine like an angel.

And we recall, we remember that by the way, that's what happened to Moses when he came down from the mountain with the law.

They had to put a veil over his face because it was glowing so crazy, right?

It's not like he just had a nice skincare routine, right?

He didn't he didn't get some Botox and, like, wow, you look glorious today, right?

Like something uh supernatural was going on.

And the face of Stephen is so shining that everybody shuts up and looks at him.

It's like God speaks through a sign in that moment.

It's like you're saying that he is he's he's speaking against Moses.

God is declaring, no, no, no, he is in the line of Moses, right?

And that he's honoring me by honoring Moses, who honors Jesus, right?

So, okay.

So here's what we're gonna do.

This is one of the longest chapters in all of Acts, and we're gonna get through the whole thing today.

And I know you're excited, and I know you're thrilled.

I have worked through about 56 different ways to do this, and we're gonna see which one comes to the surface right now.

So, God, I ask for favor that we would hear what you want us to hear, Holy Spirit.

Guide this time.

Lord, I know that there are people in this place that are holding on by a thread, that they are tapped out, that they're exhausted, that they are spent and they've got a smile on, anyways.

But under the surface, it's torment, it's torture, it's pain, it's fatigue, it's hurt, it's loss, it's grief.

Meet with your sons and daughters in their area of deepest need, I pray this morning.

If you got to take the words and catch them in midair and turn them to what they need to hear, please miraculously do that because you love us like that in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Then the high priest, this is verse one, you ready?

Then the high priest asked Stephen, Are these accusations true?

This was Stephen's reply.

So this was like a yes or no question.

Stephen doesn't give a yes or no answer.

This was Stephen's reply, brothers and fathers, listen to me.

Our glorious God.

Stop.

All right, I know I got 60 verses to get through, but this is very significant.

This is highly significant.

Uh, a a better translation of this would be um our God of glory.

God of glory, right?

God of glory is only referenced to one other place in the entire Bible, and they would have known it.

It comes out of Psalm 29.

Psalm 29, Psalm 29, uh, verse 3 actually is where it's where it's mentioned.

And the way Psalm 29, 1 goes, honor the Lord, your heavenly beings, you heavenly beings, honor the Lord for his glory and strength, honor the Lord for the glory of his name, worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness, the voice of the Lord echoes above the sea.

Check this out.

The God of glory thunders.

This is what Stephen's referencing.

The Lord thunders over the mighty sea.

So he's like, in that time, you could reference like the verse of a song, and everybody would get it.

You with me on that?

Right?

Like, whoa, halfway there.

Oh sinners, listen to you.

Listen to secular.

That was a that was a test.

Now we know how to pray.

So he mentions a bit of Psalm 29, and they know exactly.

So what he's saying is, I know the God I'm talking about, and I want you to know that we're on the same page with the God we're talking about.

We're just landing in a different spot, right?

So this is what he says our glorious God appeared to our ancestors, Abraham, in Mesopotamia before he settled in Haran.

God told him, Leave your native land and your relatives and come into the land that I will show you.

Stop.

Okay, so right there we have a moment where we see God speaking to Abraham.

And where is Abraham not?

He's not in the temple.

He's not in even in Israel, by the way.

Israel didn't even exist yet, by the way.

He's in Mesopotamia, which is modern-day Iraq.

That's where he's at when God speaks to him.

So this is significant, just a heads up.

Okay.

So Abraham left the land.

Oh, excuse me, it says verse 3.

God told him, Leave your native land and your relatives and come into the land that I will show you.

So Abraham left the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran until his fired father died.

Then God brought him here to the land where you now live.

But God gave him no inheritance there, not even one square foot of land.

God did promise, however, that eventually the whole land would belong to Abraham and his descendants, even though he had no children yet.

Verse 5, I love the start of that.

But God gave him no inheritance there, not even one square foot of land.

But God did give him a promise.

Abraham wasn't living on a possession, he was living on a promise.

And there's some seasons in life where you may not be living on a possession, but you're living on a promise of God.

You haven't seen it fulfilled yet, but that's where you're standing, that's where your faith is that God is always true to his word, that he can't be a liar.

So if he says something, he's gonna do that.

And if you don't know what the promises of God are for you, I encourage you to get into scripture and find out because there are seasons where you will have to stand on the promise before you have the possession.

Yeah?

And when you if you wait to have the possession before you have security, you're gonna miss out on a lot God has for you because a lot of our growing and development happens while we stand on the promise.

Okay?

All right.

But God gave him no inheritance there.

This is verse six.

Now let's jump to verse six.

God also told him that his descendants would live in a foreign land where they would be oppressed as slaves for 400 years.

But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, God said.

And in the end they will come out and worship me here in this place.

God also gave Abraham this covenant of circumcision at that time.

Stop.

We're not gonna talk about circumcision today.

We don't have time, so we're gonna forego the foreskins.

Here we go.

Listen, I had to, this that joke was just too easy.

Too easy.

Okay, sorry.

So when Abraham became the father of Isaac, he circumcised him on the eighth day, and the practice was continued when Isaac became the father of Jacob, when Jacob became the father of the 12 patriarchs of the Israelite nation.

These patriarchs were jealous of their brother Joseph, and they sold him in to be a slave in Egypt.

But God was with him and rescued him from all his troubles.

I I that's highlightable really quick.

God was with him in a foreign land.

By the way, remember, he's not in Israel.

Joseph's in a foreign land, in a foreign land, and not only was he with Joseph, but he gave Joseph profound favor, yeah?

So God was with him and rescued him from all his troubles, and God gave him favor before Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

God also gave Joseph unusual wisdom, so that Pharaoh appointed him governor over all of Egypt and put him in charge of the palace.

But a famine came upon Egypt and Canaan.

There was great misery, and our ancestors ran out of food.

Jacob heard that there was still grain in Egypt, so he sent his sons, our ancestors, to buy some.

The second time they went, Joseph revealed his identity to his brothers, and they were introduced to Pharaoh.

Then Joseph sent for his father, Jacob, and all his relatives to come to Egypt, seventy-five persons and all.

So Jacob went to Egypt.

He died there, as did our ancestors.

Their bodies were taken to Shechem and buried in the tomb Abraham had bought for a certain price from Hamor's sons in Shechem.

Really quickly, we see that Joseph, if you remember that story, he shares dreams about what God's going to do.

He shares dreams with his brothers.

They hate him for it.

They sell him into slavery.

They reject Joseph.

Okay?

This is a big deal.

Rejection.

As you look through this, I want you to see if anybody else gets rejected.

I want you to have an insight too.

Are you seeing other any other lands getting mentioned here?

Because Stephen, he's preaching a monumental sermon right now.

Okay?

Joseph gets rejected the first time, but the second time he's received by his brothers.

He's rejected, but he becomes the savior of his family.

Okay, just in case.

All right, all right, so we're going somewhere.

Verse 17, we are a portion of the way there.

As the time drew near when God would fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt greatly increased.

But then a new king came on the throne of Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph.

This king exploited our people and oppressed them, forcing parents to abandon their newborn babies so they would die.

At that time, Moses was born, a beautiful child in God's eyes.

It's great that Moses in the Old Testament he writes it in the story that he's beautiful.

I would do the same, you know.

Could you imagine?

Like, I was such an ugly baby.

No, I was like, I was a beautiful child.

His parents cared for him at home for three months.

When they had to abandon him, Pharaoh's daughter adopted him and raised him as her own son.

Moses was taught all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was powerful in both speech and action.

One day when Moses was 40 years old, he decided to visit his relatives, the people of Israel.

He saw an Egyptian mistreating an Israelite.

So Moses came to the man's defense and avenged him, killing the Egyptian.

Moses assumed his fellow Israelites would realize that God had sent him to rescue them, but they didn't.

The next day he visited them again and saw two men of Israel fighting.

He tried to be a peacemaker.

Many said, You are brothers, and why are you fighting each other?

But the man in the wrong pushed Moses aside.

Who made you our ruler and judge over us?

He asked.

Are you going to kill me as you killed that Egyptian yesterday?

And when Moses heard that, he fled the country and lived as a foreigner in the land of Midian.

There were two sons.

There, his two sons were born.

Forty years later, that's a big deal.

His first 40 years, he's in Egypt.

His next 40 years, he's in Midian, which is the desert.

He's getting a doctorate on the desert for 40 years.

Like you imagine this.

He was, it's some theologians think that he was in line to be the next Pharaoh because that Pharaoh didn't have a son.

So he goes from the palace to the backside of the desert where God keeps him there for 40 years because he's preparing him.

He's giving him an education on how to live in the desert so that he knows how to lead in the desert, so that the people that he's going to lead can get to the promised land that God asked for them.

So you might be in a desert moment right now, but there's lessons to educate you in this season so that you can lead others through the desert to get them to the promised land.

Our issues and our frustrations aren't always because we've done something wrong.

Oftentimes the desert is about preparation.

Frustrations are about preparation.

So I'm asking you right now, is there anything going on in your life where God might be wanting to use it to prepare you for the next season?

Just a thought to have on the days that are highly frustrating.

When you feel forgotten, when you feel not seen, when you're like, how long am I going to be in this desert doing this menial task?

Now is not always, but be faithful with now.

Okay?

Forty years later, in the desert near Mount Sinai, Mount Sinai's not in Israel, an angel appeared to Moses in the flame of a burning bush.

When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight.

As he went to take a closer look, the voice of the Lord called out to him, I'm the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Moses shook with terror and did not dare look.

Then the Lord said to him, Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground.

I have certainly seen the oppression of my people, excuse me, I've seen the oppression of my people in Egypt.

I have heard their groans and have come down to rescue them.

Now go, for I am sending you back to Egypt.

So God sent back the same man his people had what?

Previously rejected.

Okay, so God sent back the man his people had previously rejected when they demanded, Who made you ruler to judge over us?

Through the angel who appeared to him in the burning bush, God sent Moses to be their ruler and savior, and by means of many wonders and miraculous signs, he led them out of Egypt through the Red Sea and through the wilderness for forty years.

Moses himself told the people of Israel, God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people.

Moses was with our was with our ancestors, the assembly of God's people in the wilderness, when the angels spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and there Moses received life-giving words to pass on to us.

But our ancestors refused to listen to Moses.

Again, rejection.

They rejected him and wanted to return to Egypt.

They told Aaron, Make us some gods who can lead us, for we don't know what has become of this Moses who brought us out of Egypt.

So they made an idol shaped like a calf, and they sacrificed to it and celebrated over this thing they had made.

Then God turned away from them and abandoned them to serve the stars of heaven as their gods.

In the book of the prophets, it is written, Was it me?

You were bringing sacrifices and offerings during those forty years in the wilderness of Israel.

Excuse me, in the wilderness, Israel?

No, you carried your pagan gods, the shrine of Molech, the star of your God Rephan, and the images you made to worship them.

So I will send you into exile as far away as Babylon.

Our ancestors carried the tabernacle with them through the wilderness.

What was the tabernacle?

It's where the presence of God would rest, a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night.

Where were they when God was resting with them?

They were in the desert, they weren't in Israel.

Okay, I'm just this is gonna make sense in a minute.

We are two-thirds there.

Our ancestors carried the tabernacle with them through the wilderness.

It was constructed according to the plan God had shown to Moses.

Years later, when Joshua led our ancestors in battle against the nations that God drove out of this land, the tabernacle was taken with them into their new territory, and it stayed there until the time of King David.

David found favor with God and asked for the privilege of building a permanent temple for the God of Jacob.

But it was Solomon who actually built it.

However, the Most High, check this out, the Most High doesn't live in temples made by human hands, as the prophet says, heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool.

Could you build me a temple as good as that?

asked the Lord.

Could you build me such a resting place?

Didn't my hands make both heaven and earth?

All right.

Up to this point, everybody is probably tracking with Stephen.

Because what he's just done is he's just off the cuff, off the rip, he's gone through an 1100-year history of Israel.

He's basically recited the Old Testament to everybody there.

And by the way, they knew the story.

They were not unaware of the story.

So they're tracking.

They're like, okay, he's not crazy about what he's saying about Moses.

He's not crazy about what he's saying about Abraham.

He's not making stuff up.

He is giving the word of God even as it is written.

And the tide's about to turn.

You stubborn people, you are heathen at heart and deaf to the truth.

This is not how you win friends.

Right?

You stubborn people, you are wicked.

In fact, the original text says you are uncircumcised at heart.

You've got the physical sign of covenant, but you don't have the heart of covenant.

You don't have a real relationship with God.

You do the acts, you do the performances, but you don't have a real relationship because when he tries to speak, you kill his prophets.

You stubborn people at heart, must you forever resist the Holy Spirit?

That's what your ancestors did, and so do you.

Name one prophet your ancestors didn't persecute.

They even killed the ones who predicted the coming of the righteous one.

The Messiah whom you betrayed and murdered.

Check this out.

He's saying, Listen, to you people, God sends prophets to speak his words to you, but for you all, the only safe prophet is a dead one.

So every time a prophet raises up, you kill him because that keeps it safe.

You don't have to change.

You want to do what you want to do.

You want to do it your way, you want to have it your way.

And he is he is cutting to the heart of everything that's going on in that place.

He's cutting, check this out, listen to me.

He is dealing with a religious spirit that's in that place.

We say the right things, we dress the right way, we we we we act the right way, but our heart is not changed.

The outside of the cup is clean, but the inside is filthy.

I just want to tell you something about this church.

We might be flawed in a lot of ways, and we might have a homecoming service where the lights don't work, but we are at the very least gonna be honest that we have flaws and we invite God into those areas to clean our heart, and we're not gonna try to perpetrate or act like we've got it all figured out or perfect.

Listen to me long enough, you will find this out.

Right?

Like that guy preaching right now has got issues.

Let's pray for him.

And so he's dealing with the religious spirit, and a religious spirit tries to separate people from God and make them think that they're really close to him.

It's like if you can act good enough, then you're close to God.

But then when you realize you can't act good enough, so you have to find people that act worse than you so you feel better about you.

That's how you come up with the hypocritical, bitter religion that people don't want to show up to church because they're like, the last time I was there, I got judged rather than got freed.

There are churches meeting right now today, and I have to pray because my wife checked me on this.

She's like, sometimes, Joey, you say some harsh things.

And so I went on a walk and I prayed, God, I need you to search my heart because we don't want to act like we've got it figured out.

But one of the things I do want to recognize is when there's a religious spirit in the place, that it gets crushed immediately and outright without any hesitation or out any apology, yeah?

Because we want the Spirit of God to work in our lives and work in this house.

Man, we are actually gonna get through all 60 verses.

This is incredible.

Sheila said you hope.

That's crazy.

What an encouragement.

Yes.

Verse 53, you deliberately disobeyed God's laws, even though you received it from the hands of angels.

Verse 54, the Jewish leaders were infuriated by Stephen's accusation, and they shook their fists at him in rage.

But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed steadily into heaven and saw the glory of God.

And he saw Jesus standing, the place of honor at God's right hand.

This starts off with what?

He talks about the God of glory.

He's at the end of his sermon, and he gets to see the glory of God.

Everybody has an allotted time in your life.

And I don't know how much time you have, you don't know how much time I have.

But the clock's going down on all of us.

And every day, if time was liquid, you're pouring into something.

What are you pouring into?

Does it matter?

Is it of consequence?

Because I look at Stephen and what Stephen's pouring his life into is saying, I'm going to serve the God of glory.

I'm going to give everything I have to the God of glory.

And I'm going to tell you something.

When you do that for your life and you pour out your time and you give it to God and say, My life is poured out as a drink offering to you, the thing that you'll find is at some point in your life, as you serve the God of glory, you'll see the glory of God.

Scripture says, No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind can conceive of the good things that He has for us.

I can't eloquently enough describe to you how great God is, how amazing He is, and what He has in store for you when you breathe your last and step into eternal presence with Him.

Like I can't, I there's not any way that I can give it to you in such a way that would do it any justice because no eye has seen, no ear has heard.

I can't do it.

But what we do have to believe is that His word is true, and so I have to trust, man, my life will never be a waste if I put it and pour it into the God of glory.

That's the place to make the sacrifice, that's the place to make the investment.

Do I get it right every day?

No, I don't.

There's some days where I'm pouring time into trivial things.

And the grace of God is that He corrects me and He loves me anyways.

And He loves you anyways.

Maybe you've been spending weeks pouring into trivial things or years pouring into trivial things.

And the days of day where you say, No, no, no.

With the time I have left, I'm gonna pour it all out before God.

My life, God, is yours.

It's not mine.

What I own is not my own, it's yours.

Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed steadily into heaven and saw the glory of God.

And he saw Jesus ending the place of honor at God's right hand.

And he told them, Look, I see the heavens open.

Can you imagine?

Nowhere in chapter 7 does it say his face stopped glowing.

Imagine he preached this whole sermon and his face is beaming.

And then he says, Look, I can see him.

And everybody's tripping because they don't see what he sees.

And the God, and he told them, Look, I see the heavens open and the Son of Man standing in the place of honor at God's right hand.

Check this out.

Then they put their hands over their ears and begin shouting.

It's like la la la la la.

We don't hear you.

We don't like what you have to say.

There are people that will still receive the word of God the same way, even today.

Go to church, put their hands over their ears and leave and feel good about themselves because they went to church but never received anything that was given.

They put their hands over their ears and begin shouting.

They rushed at him and dragged him out of the city and began to stone him.

Normally, what a what a stoning would look like is they would find like uh at least a 10-foot drop-off, shove somebody over the side, and then they're trying to throw rocks at their chest to crush their chest.

And then they're gonna keep hurling stones until the person stops moving and they're dead.

This isn't a rebuke, this is we want to end you now.

They rushed him and dragged him out of the city and began to stone him.

And his accusers took off their coats and they laid him, laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul.

As they stoned him, Stephen prayed, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

He fell to his knees, shouting, Lord, don't charge them with this sin.

And with that, he died.

Can I just say I love the New Living Translation for a lot of reasons?

It's easier to read, but sometimes it doesn't get a translation very good.

That word, and then he died.

What the word is actually better used is he fell asleep.

Because the Jewish mindset would be it's too heavy to say that he died because the reality is that in Christ you might fall asleep, but you're gonna wake back up.

That this is not the end.

That my last breath in my physical body is not my last thing that I will ever do.

Doesn't it sound familiar, Lord?

Don't charge them with this sin.

It feels like somebody said that once before somewhere.

Maybe, maybe his savior who hung on the cross and said, God, don't put this, like if you have in a bank, like if you if you have an invoice coming from a company and you ordered all these things and now you've got to pay the price for it.

What they're saying is, don't put this on their account, God.

Keep their account clear, keep their account clean.

You with me on that?

He's like, God, what they are doing to me right now made them not have to make a payment for it.

Listen, when you are so poured out for the God of glory, you are going to see his glory, and when you do, you can give mercy to those that don't really deserve it because you never did.

You can live in a way that's saying, listen, man, his enemy is stoning him to death, and he is so future focused, so eternity focused, so seeing the God of glory and the glory of God that he's like, God, forgive them because I want them to experience what I'm experiencing now.

I'm so listening, he's so overwhelmed by what he's going through in that moment that the stones would only make him shout louder, forgive them.

Are you with me on that?

Let me push it a bit further.

I'm gonna read 61 verses a day, and the 61st verse isn't on here.

It's the start of chapter 8.

We just read in verse 59, and they stoned him.

Excuse me, in verse 50, uh, verse the eight, they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him.

His accusers took off their coats.

Ashley, would you come up for me?

And laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul.

Chapter 8, verse 1 says, Saul was one of the witnesses, and he agreed completely with the killing of Stephen.

We know, spoilers, as we go through Acts, Saul is going to come to know Jesus.

And Jesus is going to change his name from Saul to Paul.

And Paul is going to go on to become one of the most incredible missionaries the world has ever known.

He's going to go on to write the majority of the New Testament, a lion share, a huge portion of the New Testament.

He's going to go on and say incredible things about helping people understand the love of God and how God sees them and how Jesus loves them and the price that he's paid for them.

He's going to go into the Greek world and make sure that the cross doesn't just stay in Jerusalem, but it begins to make it to the ends of the earth.

And yet, check this out.

They laid their coats at his feet while they stoned Stephen and he gave his approval.

Check this out.

Stephen.

Imagine this day in your life.

Imagine this day where you wake up, a couple miracles happen before lunch.

You make your way to the temple, you're talking with some people, you're debating them, trying to show the love of God.

They get frustrated with that.

This day is progressing, right?

And maybe not the traduction thought.

Imagine your face starts glowing.

Everybody's like, man, what is up?

It's just beaming.

If there's a Mount Rushmore of sermons, this is on it.

You preach off the cuff under the power of the Holy Spirit, one of the greatest sermons that would ever be given.

While your face is glowing.

And listen, and not one person says yes to Jesus that day.

And we're like, we we pray for the favor of God and we and we think that the favor of God is always going to give us the result that we want.

Man, maybe you're trying to serve God right now.

Maybe you're trying to get close to Him.

You're like, I'm not getting the results I want out of this.

I've been there.

Like, God, don't you see me?

I sure am trying.

The whole week I prayed, Lord, could you move the rain away?

85% chance.

Oh.

God, pretty please.

We've invited a lot of people.

There is a Velcro wall coming.

Please.

90% chance.

Right?

Like, but then there's other areas.

I'm talking about trivial stuff with the Velcro wall, but there's other areas where you're praying for somebody's life and you don't see a change.

Maybe for them to come to know Jesus and they keep running the other direction.

Maybe you're praying for healing and you don't see the healing happen.

When we become a results-oriented people, we'll miss out on being obedient a whole lot.

I'm guilty of it.

I'm guilty of it.

I look at Stephen and I'm just like, I'm I'm I'm just mind-blown.

Peter preaches.

You remember when Peter first preaches in Acts?

3,000 people get saved that day.

Stephen, zero.

Right?

But it's incredible.

Is it like?

Is it it's incredible to me that you could be moving under the power.

We're clear, he's moving under the power of the Holy Spirit.

He's moving under the favor of God, and yet not, there was no result in that moment that seemed to shift eternity yet.

And so there might not be the result that you want to see yet, but keep being obedient because as you're faithful to God, he will be faithful to you.

And even the times when you're faithless, he'll stay faithful.

But what I want to say is us as a church, may we not grow weary, as we as Jesus followers, not grow weary of being obedient.

May we not just make the results be the thing that keep us obedient.

Well, if you do this for me, then I'll do that for you, God.

I'm not gonna twist his arm because then here's what happens: I become a religious person where I'm like, I'm gonna do these right things, so then that you have to do something for me.

Or I'm gonna put on a show so that people think that I have it together.

Man, may we be a people that I uh come on.

So, Holy Spirit, I just need to help land in this plane right now.

So, in my heart, all I all I feel right now, all I sense in my spirit is God just asking, will you give him your yes?

And you say, Well, well, well, yes to what?

That depends.

Right?

Listen, there was a there was a time, he was a young man, I was wanting to follow God.

I got scared.

I'm like, if I say, God, whatever you want me to do, I was sure I was gonna be sent to a country where they ate like raccoons or bats or something, right?

Like I'm gonna get sent somewhere and it's gonna be like it's gonna be the worst.

We're gonna have to eat grubs from the ground.

And and I was like so afraid.

So, God, could you could you tell me everything you want me to do?

And then I know if I I want to say yes, and God just says, Man, I'm the God of glory.

Will you give me your yes before you know what I'm gonna ask?

I'm the God of glory.

I don't I don't fit in a temple, I don't fit in a temple made by human hands.

My temple it are are the people that I created, right?

So scripture says that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Man, I love that that Stephen's sermon is like, man, God was speaking before Ezrael ever existed.

He was he was he was speaking in Mesopotamia, he was speaking on Mount Sinai, he was speaking in Egypt, he was speaking in all these places, and listen, he's still speaking today.

But before you hear him say anything else, I hear him asking, would you just give me your yes?

And I also sense this in my spirit.

You can trust me with it.

You can trust me with it.

How do you give God your yes?

It's more than a word, it's a lifestyle.

And there's just some weeks you will not get it right.

I didn't say some days because for me it turns into weeks.

I'll do better tomorrow.

But it's a lifestyle.

It's a decision saying, God, I want to I want to serve you.

I want to be intentional about pouring out my life to you.

My time, I want to give it to you.

So I'm gonna pray for those that don't really like me.

I'm gonna ask God that I wouldn't be a thermometer in my workplace, but I'd be the thermostat of my workplace.

That I would change the atmosphere of the rooms I walk into, not just take the temperature.

That I would be in my family one that is a redeemer, that I would be in my family one that's a reconciler, I'd be in my family one that heals and doesn't hurt, that I'd be in my church somebody that builds connection, that is a communicator, that is a is one that would just join together and say, let's let's run after him together.

This is not about the name of a church, this is about the name of the king, and so let's just chase the king as hard as we can.

Let us together give him our yes to see what he wants to do.

So I'm not gonna pray right now and say, here's a prayer, repeat after me, yes.

But I'm gonna pray.

I am gonna pray that you would have courage to live, yes.

Because it will take courage, and the enemy tries to use fear to deter us.

And that's why scripture says, but God's not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind.

And it wouldn't have said it if we didn't need it.

So maybe you've given God your yes, but you're in a moment right now where you're like, I said yes, but I feel the fear.

I'm gonna pray over you right now, because let's just close our eyes.

Just you're not worried about anybody around you.

Lord, for those that are sitting in a seat where they feel the weight of fear, Lord, may they feel right now that be gone in the name of Jesus.

By your Holy Spirit, that the other spirit is allowed in this place.

We thank you, God, that it there would be a courage to give you our yes.

That we would that we would be people that we would say, man, when an opportunity comes with a yes or no question, that we would have the word in our heart that we'd be able to give an answer to the questions that people are asking.

Lord, that we live a life that is invested in pouring out into the God of glory.

Lord, I pray that you would give people in this place courage right now.

Some of you, you need courage because the last church you went to, you just got destroyed.

And this might not be the church at that you're at forever, but today God is wanting to impart to you a supernatural courage that you would step back into the fellowship of the saints because there is something he's put in your DNA to help build the body of Christ.

There's something he's put in your DNA to help lift up and raise up other believers, other brothers, other sisters.

There is nobody that's inconsequential in the family of God.

So Lord, I pray for courage for those that are that have walked through seasons of hurt are feeling taken advantage of.

God, place them in the right spots.

And Lord, move move mightily through them, work mightily through them.

And Lord, I thank you that we would be a church and we would be a people and we'd be Jesus lovers.

Say with our heart and declare with our life that we will not be results based.

We will be obedient intentionally, we'll be obedient relentlessly, we'll be obedient lovingly, and Lord, in all of this, I pray over your sons and daughters over the day when they say, Look, I see the glory of God.

My eyes haven't seen anything like this.

That you would that you would hear what it is to be in his presence.

My ears haven't heard anything like this.

You can't wrap your mind, my mind hasn't conceived anything like this.

But I pray for courage in this family right now.

For visitors that have stepped in this place, and maybe this is just a stepping stone on their path.

May they be encouraged as you order their steps to the right spot.

And Lord, for those that are looking for a family to connect with, Lord, if this is the place, Lord, I thank you for encouraged as they step into this, that we can love you and love each other well.

But God, we thank you for the opportunity to have come today to connect with you, to connect with each other.

And we ask your grace over our family and over our time together.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.