Speaker 1: Welcome to DeSoto Hills Baptist Church.
Speaker 1: Our Sunday morning services are weekly at 9 and 10 30 am.
Speaker 1: You're listening to an audio recast of this past week's service.
Speaker 1: We hope you enjoy.
Speaker 1: God bless.
Speaker 2: Okay, bibles.
Speaker 2: This morning we're going to be in the book of Acts, acts chapter 7.
Speaker 2: And if you've looked at the worship guides, you're already worried because we're basically going through the whole chapter.
Speaker 2: This morning I even got the question are we going to read the whole chapter at one time?
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, we are.
Speaker 2: You know, when I was in high school I had a buddy of mine who he?
Speaker 2: He had his life all figured out.
Speaker 2: He was raised in a family of farmers and so he had his life plan.
Speaker 2: One day he told me he said, grant, I'm going to graduate, I'm going to go work on the farm until I'm old enough to retire and then I'm going to buy an RV and I'm going to travel to NASCAR races and live life the way it's supposed to be lived.
Speaker 2: While I admire his knowing what he wanted to do and, honestly, I admire the simplicity of his life, I'm not real sure that he was hitting it.
Speaker 2: I'm afraid he was missing the point.
Speaker 2: See, don't get me wrong.
Speaker 2: There's nothing wrong with being a farmer.
Speaker 2: We need farmers.
Speaker 2: Thank goodness we have farmers.
Speaker 2: I am thankful for them and, honestly, if you like, going and watching cars drive really fast, making left turns for 500 miles, good on you, great.
Speaker 2: The problem that I wonder about his ambitions in life is focusing on ourselves, and what we want Is that living life the way it should be lived.
Speaker 2: You know, I think what the Bible tells us and what scripture tells us is life the way it should be lived.
Speaker 2: You know, I think what the Bible tells us and what Scripture tells us is life the way it should be lived, and life the way it should be is not a life focused on ourselves, but it is a life focused on Christ.
Speaker 2: Today, as we even come to our passage, there's a group of people here, the Sanhedrin.
Speaker 2: It's made up of Sadducees and Pharisees that, I'm afraid maybe not for the same reasons as my friend in high school, but at the same time were in the same place.
Speaker 2: They were missing the boat on life.
Speaker 2: Before we judge them too harshly, let's understand about the Pharisees.
Speaker 2: They began as a good thing.
Speaker 2: Their sect began as a good thing.
Speaker 2: What this sect began as is it was a call for the people of Israel.
Speaker 2: It was a call for them to turn back to the law of Moses, and this was a good thing because at that point, at that moment in history, that is how God's people were to be in relationship with God was by keeping the law of Moses, and they began, kind of out of a sense of practicality, trying to define and help people understand what it meant to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy, what it meant to keep the law of God.
Speaker 2: They were trying to put some practicality into it so that people could keep the law and thus be in relationship with Jesus.
Speaker 2: Over the years, through their leadership, though, I'm afraid what happened is they lost focus on what the law was supposed to do.
Speaker 2: It was supposed to bring them into relationship with God, and, instead of focusing on the relationship aspect that the law was supposed to bring them into, what they began to do was begin to focus on their own self-righteousness and their own worth, and they were missing the point, and I would argue that they were missing life.
Speaker 2: See, as we come to chapter 7, as we come here today, we saw last week Stephen, one of the seven who was chosen to take care of the widows of Israel.
Speaker 2: He was arrested and accused of blasphemy and today, as he in chapter 7, what we are going to see is not really his defense of himself, but we are going to see his witness for Jesus Christ, as he is giving an opportunity and a platform to speak.
Speaker 2: And what we're going to find in his speech is that Stephen illustrated how Israel often rejected its leaders sent by God who were supposed to guide them to life in God.
Speaker 2: They would reject those leaders and reject the lessons that were coming from them.
Speaker 2: Today, for us, we need to understand that we find real life when we trust in the one who was sent by God to give us life, that's Jesus.
Speaker 2: When we focus on our relationship with him and we focus on who he is, then that is when we find life the way it was supposed to be lived.
Speaker 2: So our challenge today is if we are going to live life that way, the way that it's supposed to be lived, we must trust in Christ.
Speaker 2: So the question that we're going to answer today is how did Stephen illustrate Israel's rejection?
Speaker 2: How did Stephen illustrate this in this great sermon that he preached, in this great witness that he proclaimed for christ?
Speaker 2: So let's read that this morning in acts, chapter 7, if you are able.
Speaker 2: I understand it's a longer passage.
Speaker 2: If you are able, I invite you to stand with us this morning as we give honor to the reading of god's word acts, chapter 7, and the high priest said Are these things so?
Speaker 2: Stephen said, brothers and fathers, hear me.
Speaker 2: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, and said to him Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.
Speaker 2: Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran, and God said to him as a possession, and to his offspring after him, though he had no child, and God spoke to this effect that his offspring will be sojourners in a land belonging to others who would enslave them and afflict them for 400 years.
Speaker 2: But I will judge the nation that they serve, said God, and after that they shall come out and worship me in this place.
Speaker 2: And he gave him the covenant of circumcision.
Speaker 2: And so Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day.
Speaker 2: And Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.
Speaker 2: And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt, but God was with him, rescued him out of his affliction and gave him favor and wisdom before pharaoh, the king of egypt, who made him ruler over egypt and over all his household.
Speaker 2: Now there came a famine throughout all egypt and canaan and great affliction, and our fathers could find no food.
Speaker 2: But when jacob heard that there was grain in egypt, he sent out our fathers on their first visit and on the second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers and Joseph's family became known to Pharaoh, and Joseph sent and summoned Jacob, his father and all his kindred, seventy-five persons in all, and Jacob went down into Egypt and he died, he and our fathers, and they were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamar in Shechem.
Speaker 2: But as the time of the promise drew near which God had granted to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt until there arose over Egypt another king who did not know Joseph.
Speaker 2: He dealt shrewdly with our race and forced our fathers to expose their infants so that they would not be kept alive.
Speaker 2: At this time Moses was born and he was beautiful in God's sight and he was brought up for three months in his father's house.
Speaker 2: And when he was exposed, pharaoh's daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son.
Speaker 2: Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and he was mighty in his words and deeds.
Speaker 2: When he was 40 years old, he came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel, and seeing one of them being wrong, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian.
Speaker 2: He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand.
Speaker 2: But they did not understand.
Speaker 2: And on the following day he appeared to them as they were quarreling and tried to reconcile them, saying Men, you are brothers, why do you wrong each other?
Speaker 2: But the man who was wronging his neighbor thrust him aside, saying who made you ruler and judge over us?
Speaker 2: Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?
Speaker 2: At this retort, moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.
Speaker 2: Now, when 40 years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire, in a bush.
Speaker 2: When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight.
Speaker 2: And as he draw near to look, there came the voice of the Lord I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob.
Speaker 2: And Moses trembled and did not dare to look.
Speaker 2: Then the Lord said to him take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.
Speaker 2: I have surely seen the affliction of my people, who are in Egypt and have heard their groaning, and have come down to deliver them.
Speaker 2: And now, come, I will send you to Egypt.
Speaker 2: This Moses whom they rejected, saying who made you ruler and a judge.
Speaker 2: This man God sent as both our ruler and redeemer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.
Speaker 2: This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for 40 years.
Speaker 2: This is the Moses who said to the Israelites God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.
Speaker 2: This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai and with our fathers.
Speaker 2: He received living oracles to give to us.
Speaker 2: Our fathers refused to obey him, but thrust him aside, and in their hearts they turned to Egypt, saying to Aaron Make for us gods who will go before us.
Speaker 2: As for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.
Speaker 2: And as they made a calf in those days and offered a sacrifice to the idol, they were rejoicing in the works of their hands, but God turned away and gave them over to the worship.
Speaker 2: They were rejoicing in the works of their hands, but God turned away, gave them over to the worship of the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets.
Speaker 2: Did you not bring me slain beasts and sacrifices during the 40 years in the wilderness?
Speaker 2: O house of Israel, you took up the tent of Moloch and the star of your God.
Speaker 2: Rephan the images that you made to worship, and I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.
Speaker 2: Our fathers had a tent of witness in the wilderness, just as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make according to the pattern that he had seen.
Speaker 2: Our fathers in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our fathers.
Speaker 2: So it was until the days of David, who found favor in the sight of God and asked to find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.
Speaker 2: But it was Solomon who built the house for him.
Speaker 2: Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands.
Speaker 2: As the prophet says, heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool.
Speaker 2: What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is this place of my rest?
Speaker 2: Did not my hand make all these things?
Speaker 2: You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in your hearts and ears.
Speaker 2: You always resist the Holy Spirit, as your fathers did, so do you?
Speaker 2: Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?
Speaker 2: And they killed?
Speaker 2: Those who announced beforehand the coming of the righteous one whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.
Speaker 2: Let's pray together.
Speaker 2: God, we are so thankful for your word.
Speaker 2: God, we are so thankful for Stephen who, inspired by the Holy Spirit, proclaimed this message that we have just read.
Speaker 2: We are thankful for the opportunity to hear it.
Speaker 2: We are thankful for the opportunity that we have to dig in and understand more what he is saying to us.
Speaker 2: And, god, we pray.
Speaker 2: I pray that through our engagement with your word, you will change our lives for all eternity.
Speaker 2: Our engagement with your word, you will change our lives for all eternity.
Speaker 2: You will lead us to live life the way it is supposed to be lived in relationship with you, thank you for who you are, thank you for what you're doing.
Speaker 2: Jesus, it's in your name we pray Amen.
Speaker 2: We pray Amen.
Speaker 2: So, again, the question that we are seeking to answer is how did Stephen illustrate Israel's rejection in this sermon?
Speaker 2: Well, he begins and really just brings them to a place of remembrance.
Speaker 2: He starts with the promises of Abraham, or the promises that God made to Abraham.
Speaker 2: We know this story and we know most of the stories that we talked about.
Speaker 2: We remember Abraham, who was Abram at the time, and God coming to him and saying Abram, I want you to go to a land that I will show you.
Speaker 2: And we know what Abraham did.
Speaker 2: He believed God and he packed up all of his things and his wife and his nephew and they moved into this land.
Speaker 2: They moved into this place that God had shown him.
Speaker 2: But it's very interesting to see what happens as he has called him to this place and entered into this covenant relationship with Abraham.
Speaker 2: You remember the covenant that God made with Abraham.
Speaker 2: There were three parts to this covenant.
Speaker 2: He told Abraham that he would make him the father of a great nation, that he would give him descendants, descendants that outnumbered the stars, descendants that outnumbered the sand in the sea, he would give him descendants.
Speaker 2: He also promised that he would give him land in which they would dwell.
Speaker 2: And then, third, he promised that his descendants would be a blessing to the nations, to those around them and we so.
Speaker 2: So we see abraham enter into this, this covenant relationship.
Speaker 2: But it is interesting what we see and how stephen, how stephen proclaims it in verse six and seven this, this covenant, doesn't, doesn't immediately take and take effect.
Speaker 2: Look that.
Speaker 2: Look back at verse 6 and 7, this covenant doesn't immediately take effect.
Speaker 2: Look back at verse 6 and 7 and what he says.
Speaker 2: He says and God spoke to this effect that his offspring would be sojourners in a land belonging to others who would enslave them and afflict them 400 years.
Speaker 2: But I will judge the nation that they serve, said god, and after that they shall come out and worship me in this place.
Speaker 2: We see this prophecy taking place.
Speaker 2: Abraham has isaac.
Speaker 2: Isaac has jacob and esau.
Speaker 2: Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel, has 12 sons.
Speaker 2: Those 12 sons reject their brother Joseph, who we're going to get to in just a moment.
Speaker 2: They reject him and they go to Egypt.
Speaker 2: I mean this prophecy.
Speaker 2: We see it come true.
Speaker 2: But back to Abraham what we need to understand and what we see about Abraham while he entered into this covenant relationship with God and God promised him these things that would take place in his life.
Speaker 2: We don't really see them taking place in his life.
Speaker 2: He never actually possesses the land.
Speaker 2: Abraham only had two sons, one of them, only one of them being the son of promise.
Speaker 2: We don't see this, this, taking place.
Speaker 2: But if you turn to hebrews, in hebrews, chapter 11, what we find here is we call it the faith hall of fame how people, by faith, followed and trusted god.
Speaker 2: And if you go to Hebrews, chapter 11, start reading in verse 13.
Speaker 2: Here's what it says and these all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on earth.
Speaker 2: For people who spoke must make it clear that they were seeking a homeland.
Speaker 2: If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return, but as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one.
Speaker 2: Therefore, god is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
Speaker 2: See, god promised Abraham this land.
Speaker 2: That what Stephen tells us is not one foot was ever his.
Speaker 2: He promised him descendants and Abraham trusted God, even though he didn't see that take place.
Speaker 2: How is that so?
Speaker 2: Well, hebrews tells us.
Speaker 2: What Hebrews tells us is he trusted God and believed these things would take place, not because he trusted in the promises of God, but because he trusted the God who made the promises.
Speaker 2: Abraham entered into a relationship with God.
Speaker 2: He trusted God and it is that relationship that allowed him to believe and not just seek land on this earth, but seek a heavenly home that he knew and trusted would be given to him one day.
Speaker 2: See, the lessons we see in Abraham.
Speaker 2: Here is that, first of all, is that God is everywhere.
Speaker 2: When God called Abraham, he was not in Israel.
Speaker 2: There wasn't an Israel.
Speaker 2: He was in Mesopotamia, yet God still spoke to Abraham.
Speaker 2: We also see in this that, again, he did not seek the promises of God.
Speaker 2: He sought the God who made the promises and entered into a relationship with him.
Speaker 2: And see, these people have come against Stephen and they are accusing him of blaspheming God and saying this temple was going to be destroyed and they were accusing him of all of these things.
Speaker 2: And what Stephen is telling them is hey look, you guys are missing it.
Speaker 2: The temple should not be the center.
Speaker 2: This building should not be the center of our worship.
Speaker 2: It should be the one, the God who allowed us to build this temple.
Speaker 2: That is where worship should go, and he cannot be confined in a building.
Speaker 2: We see Stephen pointing these lessons out to them in Abraham's promise.
Speaker 2: We see their rejection of God through the promises of Abraham, but we also see their rejection of God through the promises of Abraham.
Speaker 2: But we also see their rejection as Joseph was rejected.
Speaker 2: As you come down to verses 9 through 16 in Acts, chapter 7, god moves on to Joseph.
Speaker 2: You know the story of Joseph.
Speaker 2: Joseph was his father's favorite son and Joseph, honestly, during his lifetime, was shown that he was going to be a leader.
Speaker 2: Through dreams and visions that God gave him.
Speaker 2: Joseph knew that God was preparing him for something greater.
Speaker 2: Now we can make the argument that Joseph probably didn't handle that the best way with his brothers.
Speaker 2: He might could have gone about that differently.
Speaker 2: At the same time, if God is giving Joseph these dreams and visions, they could have, and probably should have, noticed that God was working and moving in Joseph's life.
Speaker 2: Yet they did not.
Speaker 2: But they rejected him, they sold him and he went to Egypt.
Speaker 2: Yet in Egypt, while he was rejected by his brothers, god still used him.
Speaker 2: God brought him up and it wasn't immediately, but he went through even trials and afflictions in Egypt until he reached the place where he was made second in command in.
Speaker 2: Only Pharaoh was higher than him and God used him.
Speaker 2: And after years of coming to a place, after years of going through this, at the end of Joseph's life, in chapter 50 of Genesis, when his father had died and they took his father back to be buried, his brothers came to Joseph out of fear that Joseph would retaliate finally against them.
Speaker 2: But in Genesis, chapter 50, verse 20.
Speaker 2: Joseph said this as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant for good To bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
Speaker 2: See, even in their rejection, god was at work and he was moving.
Speaker 2: And Joseph recognized this.
Speaker 2: And while it may have been later in his life that he recognized this, he recognized God's movement and God's work in his life.
Speaker 2: And he could only do that because he didn't focus on the rejection of his brothers, but he focused on his relationship with God Lessons we see here that Stephen is making again to those who are about to put him to death, as he makes this witness, is this Joseph was yet another rejected leader by Israel, by his own brothers, but God used Joseph.
Speaker 2: He used him because Joseph was in a relationship and relied and depended upon him.
Speaker 2: Not only do we see the rejection of Joseph in Stephen's sermon, but we see the rejection of Moses as well.
Speaker 2: Again, you know this story Moses, god sent away and he brought up a Pharaoh who didn't know Joseph and his family and Israel had multiplied greatly and they were taking over the land of Egypt.
Speaker 2: Sent away and he brought up a pharaoh who didn't know.
Speaker 2: Joseph and his family and israel had multiplied greatly and they were taken over the land of egypt, and the pharaoh didn't like this, and so what he began to do is enslave israel, and his way to hold them down is he was putting to death the sons, all the sons that were being born.
Speaker 2: But here's moses's Moses, who was beautiful in the eyes of God is what scripture tells us.
Speaker 2: He was beautiful, and so God protected him and saved him, and when he was finally exposed to be a male child of the Hebrews, he was adopted by Pharaoh's daughter and he was brought up in Pharaoh's court.
Speaker 2: And what we see is that what we see still here is God is still moving.
Speaker 2: Look with me in verse 22.
Speaker 2: I think this is an interesting verse.
Speaker 2: He says this and Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and he was mighty in words and deeds.
Speaker 2: See, understand that if Moses had been brought up just as a hebrew, he would not have had the opportunity for the education and the knowledge that was given him, because he grew up in pharaoh's car court.
Speaker 2: He grew up with wisdom and knowledge to know of how, when, later, when he was going to lead israel out, god had given him gifts and talents and abilities that he wouldn't have gotten if he would have just been raised as a normal child.
Speaker 2: But here he is.
Speaker 2: Moses, who was brought up in pharaoh's court, was mighty in word and deed.
Speaker 2: Then stephen tells us when he was about 40 he went and went to to view his people.
Speaker 2: Because again, what stephen is insinuating here is moses knew that God was calling him to a greater purpose.
Speaker 2: So he went out to see the people and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew and he murdered the Egyptian and again.
Speaker 2: He thought this would be.
Speaker 2: Maybe Israel would see him as a leader at this point.
Speaker 2: But the very next day when he goes out, finds two Israelites arguing.
Speaker 2: He steps in between and they reject Moses.
Speaker 2: They reject him.
Speaker 2: So he flees to Midian and in Midian he has this encounter with God and God moves in his life and he goes back and I love what it tells us here towards the end, that that he came and look.
Speaker 2: If you look in, verses 35 says this Moses, who they rejected saying, who made you a ruler and judge, this man God sent as both our ruler and redeemer, who, by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush, this man, led them out, performing wonders and signs in egypt and at the red sea and in the wilderness for 40 years.
Speaker 2: Moses led them out even though he was rejected by the people.
Speaker 2: Now because because he wasn't dependent upon the people, but because he had a relationship with God Almighty, whom he encountered at that burning bush.
Speaker 2: He trusted him and he followed him.
Speaker 2: But Israel, they didn't.
Speaker 2: We see even in the wilderness how they rejected God.
Speaker 2: They rejected him early on, when they built the golden calf, and then throughout their time in the wilderness.
Speaker 2: What Stephen tells us and what these prophets prophesy is even in their times, in the wilderness, there were moments where they turned away from God and they worshiped other false idols.
Speaker 2: Israel has had a history of rejection for them.
Speaker 2: Then stephen moves on to david's attempt, talks about how, in the wilderness, god gave moses an example of how to build a tabernacle, and that tabernacle was to represent, among israel, god's presence.
Speaker 2: The tabernacle didn't house God.
Speaker 2: They knew he couldn't be housed in a tent.
Speaker 2: He represented the presence of God among the people.
Speaker 2: And how?
Speaker 2: They came to Israel and David decided hey, I want to build a more permanent structure to represent the presence of God.
Speaker 2: And he went before God and God told him he couldn't.
Speaker 2: But he allowed Solomon to to build this, this temple.
Speaker 2: But again, the temple only represented the presence of God.
Speaker 2: Here Stephen quoted Isaiah, chapter 66, when he's talking about how God cannot be housed in a temple.
Speaker 2: In verse 49 it says heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool.
Speaker 2: What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest?
Speaker 2: Did my hand not make all these things?
Speaker 2: What Stephen is pointing out to these religious leaders is, again, they were so focused on their own self-righteousness and they were so focused on the temple that they were missing the one who gave them the law to be in a relationship and they were missing the one who the temple represented.
Speaker 2: The temple was never to be the object of worship, although that's what it had become.
Speaker 2: The temple represented the presence of God, because God is so much greater and he cannot be put in any box.
Speaker 2: And what they had tried to do is box God up in a neat, tidy package so they could carry out their own wills and live life the way they wanted to live.
Speaker 2: But finally, at the end we see Stephen's accusation of them.
Speaker 2: He has some pretty harsh language.
Speaker 2: In verse 50, he says this you stiff-necked people.
Speaker 2: You stiff-necked people.
Speaker 2: They were obstinate.
Speaker 2: They were so caught up in what they wanted that they were missing the bigger picture.
Speaker 2: They were missing.
Speaker 2: He even talked about it back in Moses.
Speaker 2: We read part of it in verses 35, when he said this Moses, whom they rejected.
Speaker 2: Part of it in verses 35, when he said this Moses, whom they rejected, saying Whom made you judge and ruler?
Speaker 2: This man God sent as both ruler and redeemer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.
Speaker 2: This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for 40 years.
Speaker 2: This is the Moses who said to the Israelite Listen to this.
Speaker 2: God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.
Speaker 2: Moses told them A prophet like him was coming and what we find is just like.
Speaker 2: Israel had rejected leader after leader because they were so obstinate, because they were so stiff-necked, because they were focused on what they wanted and the way they thought life should be lived.
Speaker 2: They were so focused on that that they were missing God.
Speaker 2: They were missing this relationship that Christ was coming to bring them into with God.
Speaker 2: They had even rejected the great leaders, joseph and Moses, whom they now held in high regard.
Speaker 2: We've seen them be rejected.
Speaker 2: He calls them a stiff-necked people and he says that they are uncircumcised in heart and ears.
Speaker 2: Remember we talked about way back in the covenant, in this relationship that God began with Abraham.
Speaker 2: The sign of this covenant, that they had come into relationship with God, was circumcision.
Speaker 2: Stephen even said it in his sermon that Abraham, the sign of this covenant was circumcision, but they had become so focused on the wrong things, and what Stephen is telling them is their focus should be on their relationship with God.
Speaker 2: It doesn't matter about the physical sign of circumcision.
Speaker 2: What matters is their heart and ears, and their heart and ears were rejecting God.
Speaker 2: And Jesus had come to bring them into relationship with God.
Speaker 2: He had come to give them life, to give them life as it was meant to be, and they had rejected him so greatly.
Speaker 2: Verse 52 he says which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute and they killed?
Speaker 2: Those who announced beforehand the coming of the righteous, one Whom you now have betrayed and murdered, one whom you now have betrayed and murdered.
Speaker 2: The very thing that they were accusing Stephen of was the thing of which they were guilty in their, in their obstinance.
Speaker 2: They had rejected God.
Speaker 2: With their uncircumcised hearts and their uncircumcised ears, they had rejected God.
Speaker 2: Oh, church, today, may we not do the very same thing.
Speaker 2: May we not do the very same thing.
Speaker 2: May we not reject God Because, listen, we can.
Speaker 2: We are on the verge of doing it so often Because, listen, we want to live the life we want to live.
Speaker 2: We have our life all planned out.
Speaker 2: We have the way we want it to go.
Speaker 2: We want to live the life the way I want to live.
Speaker 2: But what Scripture teaches and what Stephen is showing us here is that's not real life.
Speaker 2: Real life is found in relationship with God.
Speaker 2: We want to live our best life now, when real life is not living our best life now.
Speaker 2: Our real life is found when we are completely dependent upon the one who gives life.
Speaker 2: Understand that God is the life giver.
Speaker 2: He's the one who created it, he's the one who made it and it is only in him that we find life.
Speaker 2: It is only in him that we find life, and he loved us so much that he sent his one and only son that whosoever believes in him will not perish, but will have everlasting life.
Speaker 2: Don't miss life the way it's supposed to be lived.
Speaker 2: It is offered to us as a gift this morning.
Speaker 2: If you have never trusted Christ as your Savior, you are missing life.
Speaker 2: You may think you know life.
Speaker 2: You are missing life.
Speaker 2: You may think you know life.
Speaker 2: You don't.
Speaker 2: Real life only comes from the true life giver, and we find real life when we are in relationship with the true life giver, and that only comes when we have trusted in Christ as our Savior.
Speaker 2: If you've never done that, I pray that today will be the day of your salvation comes when we have trusted in Christ as our Savior.
Speaker 2: If you've never done that, I pray that today will be the day of your salvation and you will find life.
Speaker 2: Or, if you have, if you've trusted Christ.
Speaker 2: But lately you have been so dependent upon yourself.
Speaker 2: You've been so caught up in the world and the chaos going on around you and listen, believe me, I know I've been there in the middle of it.
Speaker 2: Life gets so crazy around us that we just want this to happen or this to happen, or this and this, and we say it's so caught up if I can just do this, or if I can just get to this point, or if I can just make it here and in all of those things and all of those focuses.
Speaker 2: So often what I do is I lose sight on the life giver and I start trying to figure life out on my own.
Speaker 2: Listen, if that's you this morning, you don't have to do that.
Speaker 2: Trust the life giver, depend upon him, fall in his arms.
Speaker 2: Maybe this morning you've been trying to do life on your own, you've trusted him, but you're trying to take that back over.
Speaker 2: Maybe this morning you just need to repent.
Speaker 2: While you can do that at your seat, we invite you to come.
Speaker 2: Hey, these steps can be an altar where you cry out to God.
Speaker 2: We would love to pray with you.
Speaker 2: Maybe this morning you need to repent.
Speaker 2: Listen, however, god is leading you this morning.
Speaker 2: We're about to sing a hymn of invitation and we invite you to come.
Speaker 2: If you need to trust Christ as your Savior, we invite you to come.
Speaker 2: I'd love trust christ as your savior.
Speaker 2: We invite you to come.
Speaker 2: I'd love to pray with you.
Speaker 2: There'll be counselors who can take you out and share with you how you can trust christ.
Speaker 2: Maybe this morning you just need to come and repent.
Speaker 2: And while I said you can do that at your seat or you can do that at this altar, we would love to pray with you.
Speaker 2: Maybe this morning, god's leading you to a church home and a church family where, together, we can do life together.
Speaker 2: That's the blessing of the church.
Speaker 2: You don't have to do it on your own, you don't have to figure it out on your own.
Speaker 2: Look, god has given us each other so together we can do life.
Speaker 2: Together, we can seek him together.
Speaker 2: We can depend upon him together.
Speaker 2: We can walk through this together with him.
Speaker 2: Maybe this morning you need a church home.
Speaker 2: We would love to have you here at DeSoto Hills.
Speaker 2: Whatever God's calling you to, I'm going to pray, we're going to stand and sing.
Speaker 2: As we sing, we invite you to come, make any decision God is calling you to make.
Speaker 2: Let's pray together, god.
Speaker 2: I thank you for today.
Speaker 2: Let's pray together, god.
Speaker 2: I thank you for today.
Speaker 2: God, I thank you for this opportunity that we have had this morning To encounter you, the life giver.
Speaker 2: I pray for those who are here this morning who have never trusted in you and don't know life, god.
Speaker 2: God, I pray that you will give them the faith that they need to find life, real life that only comes in you.
Speaker 2: May they trust you, god.
Speaker 2: For those who are here who have trusted you but God, who are trying to take that back over, god, I pray that you will work in their lives.
Speaker 2: Call them to repentance.
Speaker 2: Give them the faith that they need to repent.
Speaker 2: God, whatever you are leading us to this morning, help us to follow and trust you.
Speaker 2: Jesus, it's in your wonderful name that we pray.
Speaker 2: Amen.
Speaker 2: Stand with us this morning as we sing this hymn of invitation If you have a decision to make, now is the time.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to this week's sermon.
Speaker 1: If you have any questions for our pastor, feel free to reach out at desotohillscom.