SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Fort St.
SPEAKER_01: John Alliance Church Sermon Podcast.
SPEAKER_01: I'm Aaron Peters, the Executive Ministry Director.
SPEAKER_01: We're so glad you've decided to join us today.
SPEAKER_01: Our desire is to become a community of people who practice the way of Jesus together and through the empowering of the Holy Spirit live on mission to meet the social and spiritual needs of the world around us.
SPEAKER_01: Each week we gather as a community to worship, learn from God's Word, and be encouraged in our walk with Christ.
SPEAKER_01: In this podcast, you'll hear the latest message from our Sunday service.
SPEAKER_01: Whether you're listening from right here in Fort St.
SPEAKER_01: John or from afar, our prayer is that God will speak to your heart and strengthen your faith.
SPEAKER_01: Let's lean in together as we hear today's sermon.
SPEAKER_00: Good morning, everybody.
SPEAKER_00: My name is Dara, and I have the privilege of serving as a youth leader here as well as on the worship team and in the next step center sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: And um you guys are already standing, so nice.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna read the scripture together today.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and it's Acts chapter 6, verses 8 to 15.
SPEAKER_00: Now, Stephen, a manful of God's grace and power, performed a g performed great wonders and signs among the people.
SPEAKER_00: Opposition arose, however, from members of the synagogue of the freedmen, as it was called.
SPEAKER_00: Jews of the Cyrene and Alexandria, as well as the provinces of Cilicia and Asia, who began to argue with Stephen, but they could not stand against the wisdom the Spirit gave him as he spoke.
SPEAKER_00: Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, We have heard Stephen speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.
SPEAKER_00: So they stirred up the people and elders and the teachers of the law.
SPEAKER_00: They seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin.
SPEAKER_00: They produced false witnesses who testified that this fellow never stopped speaking against the holy place and against the word of the law.
SPEAKER_00: For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs Moses handed down to us.
SPEAKER_00: All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was the face of an angel.
SPEAKER_00: This is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_03: Well, good morning, everybody.
SPEAKER_03: Joy to be with you on this rainy weekend.
SPEAKER_03: Uh so good to see you grads get up and just uh, I mean, uh love on you guys and celebrate you.
SPEAKER_03: What a fun season of life.
SPEAKER_03: Uh I cannot remember uh any highlights from grad.
SPEAKER_03: I I think I said to the guys in front here, uh, I was just also happy to be done, Sarah.
SPEAKER_03: So it was it was good.
SPEAKER_03: It felt like a good thing.
SPEAKER_03: Uh just quickly here before we get into the word here this morning, uh I just want to give you an update on the project on the back lot.
SPEAKER_03: Uh you may have noticed that the work is done.
SPEAKER_03: Uh the guys actually were out there like a few weeks ago, uh, and they just did a fantastic job on the little.
SPEAKER_03: I actually just want to just just though for a moment, though, just totally.
SPEAKER_03: Give them a hand.
SPEAKER_03: Um there were a number of folks involved in this.
SPEAKER_03: Uh Ed Schroeder, Mike Clark, Bob Bunram, uh Dave Laterno, um, Elliot Salman, um, Hans Hansen, uh, Brian Clark, uh, Jim Bell by the Scravel Shrek, uh, Ryan Cohen did some work as well with fuel.
SPEAKER_03: Uh, and uh Mary Zimmer brought food every day to this crew so they could stay well fed.
SPEAKER_03: So thanks so much, you guys, just for all the work there.
SPEAKER_03: Um I think the last I checked, I'm gonna get the number a little bit wrong, but we are almost at the total of$30,000.
SPEAKER_03: So also to the rest of you, thank you for the ways in which you are giving.
SPEAKER_03: It matters to Jesus and it matters to the kingdom.
SPEAKER_03: And so it's just so fun just to watch a church say, hey, how can we serve?
SPEAKER_03: How can we help?
SPEAKER_03: And everybody plays a part, is actually really encouraging.
SPEAKER_03: It's so fun to watch.
SPEAKER_03: So, anyway, thank you, church, for that.
SPEAKER_03: So appreciate you all.
SPEAKER_03: Uh, I have a question for you as we get going.
SPEAKER_03: Have you ever had to live with a stranger before?
SPEAKER_03: Someone you've never met before?
SPEAKER_03: This is Bible College in a nutshell.
SPEAKER_03: You have to live with a stranger, someone that you have never met before.
SPEAKER_03: And so this was my experience at Bible College.
SPEAKER_03: Um, I was a uh second uh semester uh student, and so when I showed up, this guy was already there, he literally was the first semester.
SPEAKER_03: Uh his uh his uh first roommate had to leave early, and so and so um on the first day I get there, I walk in, and his name is Josh.
SPEAKER_03: I know a lot of Josh's, most of my stories are Josh's, um and really nice guy, like fun guy.
SPEAKER_03: Uh he uh was uh from the island, um, excellent, just MNES student.
SPEAKER_03: Like he was really, really, really great at schoolwork, loved to read, like, really, really knowledgeable, just a smart guy all the way around.
SPEAKER_03: And that first day, I remember asking just lots of questions about him.
SPEAKER_03: Oh, okay, like I'm gonna be sleeping in the same room with you.
SPEAKER_03: I kind of want to get an idea of who you are, because this could go a couple different ways, right?
SPEAKER_03: So you're asking questions, you're asking lots of questions, and there are questions that you should ask when you move in with a stranger.
SPEAKER_03: Like, I should have asked him any chance that you sleepwalk should have been a question that I asked Josh day one.
SPEAKER_03: I did not ask him that.
SPEAKER_03: But what I found out is that Josh indeed does sleepwalk.
SPEAKER_03: I found it on my very first night.
SPEAKER_03: Of course, you know, you're not really settled, right?
SPEAKER_03: You're you know, kind of lying in bed.
SPEAKER_03: It's probably like 3 a.m.
SPEAKER_03: I'm not sleeping yet.
SPEAKER_03: I'm you know feeling somewhat nervous about the next day of classes, right?
SPEAKER_03: All these things.
SPEAKER_03: And it's like super quiet.
SPEAKER_03: And all of a sudden, all I hear is Josh just starts to kind of mumble.
SPEAKER_03: He's just ugh.
SPEAKER_03: I'm okay, that's fine.
SPEAKER_03: He just talks.
SPEAKER_03: Like I can deal with talking, especially that kind of low rumble.
SPEAKER_03: It's almost like white noise.
SPEAKER_03: I could fall asleep to that, you know, thinking of myself.
SPEAKER_03: But then it's but then it starts to get louder.
SPEAKER_03: Ugh.
SPEAKER_03: Oh boy.
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
SPEAKER_03: And I'm thinking, man, he is in the middle of a nightmare or something.
SPEAKER_03: Like, maybe I should wake him up.
SPEAKER_03: Like, I don't know if you should do that kind of thing when someone's doing that.
SPEAKER_03: It gets louder.
SPEAKER_03: And then eventually he just sits up straight in his bed, and I'm like, hey, buddy.
SPEAKER_03: You okay?
SPEAKER_03: And he's not even acknowledging me.
SPEAKER_03: Like, he's not even with me at all.
SPEAKER_03: Josh turns to me, swings his legs out of bed, gets up, like walks over to my side of the room, points at me, and begins to yell at me in gibberish.
SPEAKER_03: Just I did not sleep the rest of the night.
SPEAKER_03: I was so nervous, this is gonna happen all night long.
SPEAKER_03: The next morning, when we wake up, he has the audacity to tell me he had such a great sleep.
SPEAKER_03: The nerve of this guy.
SPEAKER_03: And so I say to him, I said, Josh, is there anything you might want to tell me about yourself that I don't already know?
SPEAKER_03: And he says, I don't think so.
SPEAKER_03: I said, Well, that's interesting because 3 a.m., you were out of your bed yelling at me.
SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah, no, yeah, I do that.
SPEAKER_03: Why couldn't you say so?
SPEAKER_03: Like, why did you have to wait for me to have this panic heart attack?
SPEAKER_03: Like, I'm thinking to myself, should I find another room down the hall?
SPEAKER_03: I don't know if I could do this.
SPEAKER_03: Long story short, he was an awesome, awesome roommate.
SPEAKER_03: We made it through that year.
SPEAKER_03: It was okay.
SPEAKER_03: I had a lot of long nights, but it was fun.
SPEAKER_03: Um, but Josh had this other habit, though, that I really appreciated about him, that I loved to see.
SPEAKER_03: It was a practice that I would come to see in his life every day, like moment to moment, and it was prayer in the word.
SPEAKER_03: I saw this in Josh more than I saw anything else out of him.
SPEAKER_03: I remember multiple mornings getting up around 6 a.m.
SPEAKER_03: and already finding Josh wide awake on his knees next to his bed in prayer.
SPEAKER_03: Multiple times a week, he'd be up doing that, just a rhythm, just a practice that he had.
SPEAKER_03: Or late at night I would come back to the dorm room and I would find Josh reading the word, not for anything he has to do for an assignment or any kind of paper or anything like that, but just diving into the word of God, just reading it for him at a place like that where it's actually hard to read it just for you because you have to do all these things for just right to get yet, it is challenging.
SPEAKER_03: I would see him go off on his own for walks around town where he would just pray over the town, he would pray over our school, pray over students.
SPEAKER_03: I saw this out of Josh all the time.
SPEAKER_03: No matter where Josh went, he carried God's presence with him.
SPEAKER_03: It was just on his mind, it was on his heart, it was how he saw the world.
SPEAKER_03: Here's a quote from um uh uh um uh A.W.
SPEAKER_03: Tozer.
SPEAKER_03: He says, the heart that knows God can find God anywhere.
SPEAKER_03: I often think about Josh when I think of this quote.
SPEAKER_03: The heart that knows God can find God anywhere.
SPEAKER_03: You know, if you're like me and you've grown up in the church, you have a lot of moments with God that feel attached to a space or a place.
SPEAKER_03: Don't you?
SPEAKER_03: Like it's all these spaces.
SPEAKER_03: I I can think back to camp during the summer.
SPEAKER_03: I experienced God at camp, or I think back to a conference or a retreat as a student or as a young adult that I would attend, and I would say, I could experience God there in that place, or even right here on a Sunday morning where I can experience God.
SPEAKER_03: And we spend a lot of time in our faith journey with Jesus, trying to get back to those spaces so we can experience him again, because somewhere in our minds we think that where he is is attached to a building or a location or a moment in time.
SPEAKER_03: Even as kids, we start to believe early on that God lives at the church building.
SPEAKER_03: I've heard my kids say this as they were growing up.
SPEAKER_03: I think I said this as a kid growing up, that God lives here, right?
SPEAKER_03: He has a bed in the back, that kind of thing.
SPEAKER_03: Right?
SPEAKER_03: That this is where you go to experience him.
SPEAKER_03: And because we have these awakening experiences with Jesus, because we have these moments with the Holy Spirit where he grabs our heart, everywhere else can feel like a dry desert until we get back to those spaces again.
SPEAKER_03: We're just longing to get back to that place where we heard God speak to us in a real and radical way.
SPEAKER_03: And so we're just dying to find ourselves there again.
SPEAKER_03: But God's presence isn't limited to a location, it's not limited to a building.
SPEAKER_03: Did you know that?
SPEAKER_03: And you may know that, but the other question is do you live like that?
SPEAKER_03: Do you live with that knowledge of knowing that you can experience God anywhere?
SPEAKER_03: That it doesn't have to be in this space, it doesn't have to be at a summer camp, it doesn't have to be at a retreat.
SPEAKER_03: But we are invited to experience God wherever we find ourselves.
SPEAKER_03: In John 4, we see this moment of Jesus, the woman at the well.
SPEAKER_03: Jesus tells this woman who at the time knew that God only dwells in the temple.
SPEAKER_03: That's where you go, or you go to the mountain where he used to meet Moses there at Sinai.
SPEAKER_03: But instead, though, this is what it says from Jesus is what he tells her, yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.
SPEAKER_03: For they are the kind of worshipers that the Father seeks.
SPEAKER_03: God is spirit and his worshipers must worship in spirit and truth.
SPEAKER_03: Jesus says that a time is coming when worship won't be limited to a location, to a temple.
SPEAKER_03: It's not limited to a church building.
SPEAKER_03: That God is doing a new thing.
SPEAKER_03: He's creating something new.
SPEAKER_03: And so this morning, here's what I want you to know.
SPEAKER_03: Some of you wait all week to get back here thinking that this is where you experience Jesus the most.
SPEAKER_03: You live for the Sunday morning expression and don't hear me say Sunday morning doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_03: Sunday morning is important because as the church we gather together corporately, we worship together corporately.
SPEAKER_03: This is an important part of what it means to follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: It is key in many regards.
SPEAKER_03: But many of us wait until we're back here until we can experience God again.
SPEAKER_03: Or you're holding on to this idea that once you're back at your summer retreat space, you know, you have this great spot that's just having picked up for holidays, then you'll be able to finally experience God once you're sitting on a beach and you're able just to shut out all the noise, then you can finally do it.
SPEAKER_03: And meanwhile, it's like you're marching through the deserts until you can find water again.
SPEAKER_03: Everywhere else feels dry until you get to those spaces.
SPEAKER_03: But here's the thing the heart that truly knows God can experience God anywhere.
SPEAKER_03: The heart that truly knows God can experience God anywhere.
SPEAKER_03: That at any point you can find yourself caught up in the presence of God, no matter where you find yourself.
SPEAKER_03: Anywhere.
SPEAKER_03: And so this morning we're gonna look at the first end of the first stage of the book of Acts here.
SPEAKER_03: We're gonna be looking at the life of Stephen, whom most of the church knows as the first martyr of the church, the first person in the early church to die for his faith.
SPEAKER_03: But I don't think that Luke wrote this story out or wrote his story simply to show how he died.
SPEAKER_03: In fact, I don't believe that's why he wrote it at all.
SPEAKER_03: But rather, we have the story of Stephen so that we might see how he lived.
SPEAKER_03: This is far less about how he died, and far more about how he lives.
SPEAKER_03: And so that's what we're gonna spend our time this morning focusing on.
SPEAKER_03: That you and I might step more fully into the invitation to experience the presence of God no matter where we find ourselves, just as we read here from Stephen.
SPEAKER_03: Okay?
SPEAKER_03: So that's where we're gonna head.
SPEAKER_03: So you can turn to Acts chapter six.
SPEAKER_03: We're gonna start in verse eight.
SPEAKER_03: As we kind of look back on where we've been, Jesus' words that he shared to the woman at the well have been realized.
SPEAKER_03: The Spirit of God is now on the move.
SPEAKER_03: He is no longer set in one space, but he dwells within his people.
SPEAKER_03: The spirit is moving in powerful ways.
SPEAKER_03: The church is growing, and his people who are now fully empowered by God, by the Spirit, are bringing that presence wherever they go.
SPEAKER_03: They find themselves on the streets, in the temple, in homes, wherever they are, they are experiencing the presence of God.
SPEAKER_03: They're engaging with his heart wherever they are.
SPEAKER_03: And one of the folks of the early church that Luke wants to highlight is Stephen.
SPEAKER_03: That we would look at his life.
SPEAKER_03: Stephen is only measured in this part of scripture all throughout the Bible, in these two chapters, six and seven.
SPEAKER_03: It's the only time we read about him.
SPEAKER_03: And just to recap of what we know of Stephen so far, we looked at him just a little bit last week.
SPEAKER_03: He's a man who is full of the Spirit, full of faith, picked to serve widows because he knows them, he loves them, he cares for them.
SPEAKER_03: And so he's entrusted with such a high calling that he would serve God's people.
SPEAKER_03: He is seen as someone that others can look to and affirm.
SPEAKER_03: But in this next chapter, we're gonna get a fuller picture of Stephen, a beautiful picture of who he was and the life he lived.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_03: And so again, that's what we're gonna notice is not so much how he died, but how he lived.
SPEAKER_03: Okay?
SPEAKER_03: Okay, so verse 8, this is what it says.
SPEAKER_03: Now, Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power, did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people.
SPEAKER_03: I love how Luke thinks.
SPEAKER_03: I love how he writes, right?
SPEAKER_03: Before I say anything else about Stephen, this is what he says.
SPEAKER_03: He says, You need to know.
SPEAKER_03: This is key about Stephen.
SPEAKER_03: He says, he is full of grace and power.
SPEAKER_03: Anything else comes secondary to that for Luke in this moment, full of grace and power.
SPEAKER_03: There's another way to think about this: sweetness and strength.
SPEAKER_03: I love how that's tied together, merged into one personality.
SPEAKER_03: Stephen carries this kindness, this gentleness, this sweetness about him.
SPEAKER_03: He's the kind of guy that you would want serving tables.
SPEAKER_03: He's the kind of guy that you'd want to be gentle with widows, who would just be confident, though, at the same time and bold, and this huge faith to see God move.
SPEAKER_03: And the Spirit is using him.
SPEAKER_03: He's using Stephen.
SPEAKER_03: God is showing his power through this gentle, grace-filled, servant heart of Stephen.
SPEAKER_03: This gentle guy.
SPEAKER_03: And Stephen is causing a stir because of who he is.
SPEAKER_03: He finds himself being accused of blasphemy.
SPEAKER_03: And so he's dragged into court to face the religious leaders, and they produce these people who just start to lie about Stephen and say what he's saying is that what we see in the temple that's gonna come down one day, that the law doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_03: And they're starting to lie about Stephen, and everyone's starting to believe it.
SPEAKER_03: That Stephen is actually speaking against what we read in the law.
SPEAKER_03: That the temple is going to be destroyed.
SPEAKER_03: Which, for those people in that day, keep in mind, this is where they meet God, right?
SPEAKER_03: They meet him at the temple.
SPEAKER_03: So if we can't meet God there, then where do we meet him?
SPEAKER_03: Right?
SPEAKER_03: Like this is heresy to them.
SPEAKER_03: This is blasphemy.
SPEAKER_03: But notice this about Stephen in verse 15.
SPEAKER_03: We're gonna kind of jump down a little bit here.
SPEAKER_03: This is a big passage, so we're gonna kind of take it in little pieces here.
SPEAKER_03: So, uh, verse 15.
SPEAKER_03: All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.
SPEAKER_03: Now understand something.
SPEAKER_03: Luke's description of Stephen is only mentioned just one other time in scripture, and that's Moses.
SPEAKER_03: Moses has the same description because Moses saw God face to face.
SPEAKER_03: Moses brought down the law from the mountain.
SPEAKER_03: It says this in Exodus 34.
SPEAKER_03: When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the testimonies of his hand, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord.
SPEAKER_03: This is the same language in the Greek and in the Hebrew, if you transfer over.
SPEAKER_03: That radiance of being in God's presence, that face-to-face relationship.
SPEAKER_03: Stephen has that.
SPEAKER_03: That face-to-face relationship.
SPEAKER_03: Moses would meet with God face to face, just like he would with a friend.
SPEAKER_03: And Stephen, who is full of the Spirit, full of grace, full of power, full of wisdom, all these things are mentioned about him because he meets with God face to face.
SPEAKER_03: He didn't just wake up one morning and those things were true of him.
SPEAKER_03: But he spent time with the Lord.
SPEAKER_03: He was in his space.
SPEAKER_03: He was close to him.
SPEAKER_03: He met him like a friend meets a friend.
SPEAKER_03: Stephen is becoming the person that he spends the most time with.
SPEAKER_03: Stephen is being formed this way.
SPEAKER_03: He knows God deeply.
SPEAKER_03: He's the kind of guy like my roommate that you would find on his knees in prayer in your dorm room before the sun comes up.
SPEAKER_03: Being with God before anything else.
SPEAKER_03: He's the kind of guy like my roommate who would be pouring over the word not for a paper, but for the soul.
SPEAKER_03: The kind of guy like my roommate that would be cleaning tables in the dining hall and wouldn't miss an opportunity to pray over people sitting at them.
SPEAKER_03: The people who often look like Jesus the most spend the most time with Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: They spend the most time with him.
SPEAKER_03: And this is Stephen.
SPEAKER_03: This is my just, I mean your roommate as I look back, cultivating this deeply formed inner life that is felt and seen by the world around them.
SPEAKER_03: We are looking at Stephen's life as a byproduct of all the time he spent with the Lord.
SPEAKER_03: It's just pouring out of him.
SPEAKER_03: And in Stephen's case, he has to defend his way of being.
SPEAKER_03: He has to defend himself now against the lies that are being thrown at him.
SPEAKER_03: The lies that are being told will get him killed, actually.
SPEAKER_03: They have the power to do that in that time in Rome.
SPEAKER_03: If they could accuse somebody of blasphemy and if there were lies that were said enough about them, if they were found to be true, then those in charge then could have them killed without going to Rome.
SPEAKER_03: And so he is facing court.
SPEAKER_03: This is a do-or-di moment for Stephen.
SPEAKER_03: This is important.
SPEAKER_03: And Stephen then, when he's asked about all these things, he goes on this masterclass of preaching over the next 60 verses and just starts to share these beautiful expressions of faith and just starts to lay out the word from the beginning to end.
SPEAKER_03: He's going to address their claims first that the temple is not that that in their minds that the temple is the only place that you can experience the presence of God.
SPEAKER_03: That's what he says.
SPEAKER_03: But he looks back to scripture and he says, that's actually not true.
SPEAKER_03: We don't read that.
SPEAKER_03: He looks all the way back to Abraham and he says, God sent him and he met him in a land that wasn't Israel, right?
SPEAKER_03: He got sent off somewhere that was not Israel and he experienced God there.
SPEAKER_03: Joseph, who experienced God in Egypt, this pagan land, and God even calls his own nation there to experience him there.
SPEAKER_03: Moses, who did not meet God in the land of Canaan, but on the side of a mountain through a burning bush, where God told him, Take off your sandals, because this place where I am is holy ground.
SPEAKER_03: Not where you are, Moses, where I am, is holy ground.
SPEAKER_03: Stephen is painting this picture that God is a God who's on the move, and where his people are, that's where he is.
SPEAKER_03: Do we understand that, church?
SPEAKER_03: That where we are, that's where God is.
SPEAKER_03: It's not about a location, it's not about a building, it's not about anything like that.
SPEAKER_03: Where we are, no matter what it looks like, we carry his presence with us.
SPEAKER_03: It's a beautiful thing, church.
SPEAKER_03: It's beautiful.
SPEAKER_03: But all throughout this defense of who God is and exactly where you can find him, he says, every time though that God does a new thing, every time that he invites us in, and he's talking to the Sanhedrin, he's talking to the people, every time he has invited us in, all throughout history, he says, the people and you, Sanhedrin, you who are in charge, you reject it.
SPEAKER_03: Every time you ignore it.
SPEAKER_03: Every time it's like it's well, no, but that's not what we do, that's not enough.
SPEAKER_03: And every time that God invites his people in, you ignore him, he says.
SPEAKER_03: You have your own way of doing it.
SPEAKER_03: God meets you in Egypt and you grumble, God meets you at the mountain, you complain.
SPEAKER_03: God meets you in the desert and you whine.
SPEAKER_03: God just continually invites you in.
SPEAKER_03: And it's never been enough.
SPEAKER_03: And Stephen says, just like our ancestors, you are missing it.
SPEAKER_03: You are missing it.
SPEAKER_03: The new thing that God is doing.
SPEAKER_03: That Jesus did not come to destroy the temple or to abolish the law.
SPEAKER_03: But that true worship isn't done on a mountain or in a temple or in a church building or at a camp or at a retreat site.
SPEAKER_03: All those places are good, and there's nothing inherently wrong with any of them.
SPEAKER_03: But the presence of God happens and is experienced wherever you find yourself.
SPEAKER_03: You do not have to wait to get somewhere to experience the fullness of the presence of God.
SPEAKER_03: You can experience it right where you are.
SPEAKER_03: And in verse 49, he even uses the words of Isaiah.
SPEAKER_03: He says this, heaven is my throne, this is God talking, and the earth is my footstool.
SPEAKER_03: What kind of house would you, or another way to put it, could you build for me?
SPEAKER_03: says the Lord.
SPEAKER_03: Or where will be my resting place?
SPEAKER_03: Has not my hands made all of these things?
SPEAKER_03: And then he goes on to say this in 51.
SPEAKER_03: He says, You stiff-necked people, meaning you are stubborn.
SPEAKER_03: You stubborn people with uncircumcised hearts and ears.
SPEAKER_03: You are just like your fathers.
SPEAKER_03: You always resist the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_03: Was there ever a prophet that your fathers did not persecute?
SPEAKER_03: They even killed those who predicted the coming of the righteous one.
SPEAKER_03: And now you have betrayed and murdered him.
SPEAKER_03: You have received the law that was put into effect through the angels, and you haven't obeyed it.
SPEAKER_03: Man.
SPEAKER_03: He says, You have missed it.
SPEAKER_03: You missed it.
SPEAKER_03: You haven't seen this whole time what God has been saying, that my presence is not limited to a building.
SPEAKER_03: It's not limited based on what we think it always should be, but my presence, he says, is where my people are.
SPEAKER_03: God has been sojourning with his people since the beginning of time.
SPEAKER_03: He's been moving with them.
SPEAKER_03: We are a transient people, and God moves with us wherever we go.
SPEAKER_03: And he says, and you've missed Jesus, God's manifest presence, Emmanuel, among us.
SPEAKER_03: You missed it.
SPEAKER_03: He was here.
SPEAKER_03: God incarnate.
SPEAKER_03: And Stephen is just, he is, his life is all about this because he is experiencing God wherever he finds himself.
SPEAKER_03: He is proof of that.
SPEAKER_03: There he is facing trial, his life on the line, about to suffer a terrible death.
SPEAKER_03: A horrible death.
SPEAKER_03: And yet his face is shining like somebody who just spent time with God in the secret place face to face.
SPEAKER_03: Overjoyed, peaceful, full of faith, full of power, sweet and strong.
SPEAKER_03: He stands there.
SPEAKER_03: But unlike Moses, who had to put a veil on his face after he spent time with God, the people can now fully see and experience someone who meets with God.
SPEAKER_03: We see it this way.
SPEAKER_03: Even for Paul, he actually says this in 2 Corinthians 3, though, to speaking of Moses and what's it, what is now to be for us.
SPEAKER_03: Therefore, since we have such hope, we are very bold.
SPEAKER_03: We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away.
SPEAKER_03: But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read.
SPEAKER_03: It has not been removed because only when Christ is, it is taken away.
SPEAKER_03: Even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts.
SPEAKER_03: But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, this is the good news of the new covenant.
SPEAKER_03: The veil is taken away.
SPEAKER_03: It no longer is there.
SPEAKER_03: Now the Lord is spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
SPEAKER_03: Jesus said that same thing.
SPEAKER_03: And we who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory.
SPEAKER_03: Isn't that Stephen here?
SPEAKER_03: With an unveiled face, reflecting the glory of Christ.
SPEAKER_03: We are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory.
SPEAKER_03: I love that, ever-increasing.
SPEAKER_03: It just builds, it keeps going, which comes from the Lord who is spirit.
SPEAKER_03: You see, this is Stephen being transformed into the likeness of Christ, being shaped and changed.
SPEAKER_03: This story is not about how he dies, it is about how he lived.
SPEAKER_03: It's a beautiful picture.
SPEAKER_03: And it's not happening in certain spaces and places where he's experiencing God.
SPEAKER_03: But the Spirit of God goes with him, dwells in him in the same way that for those of us in Christ, he dwells within you and I.
SPEAKER_03: And the inner radiance is being seen.
SPEAKER_03: It is coming out of him in such a beautiful way.
SPEAKER_03: Stephen knows God, he can experience him anywhere.
SPEAKER_03: And his whole preach to this point is not just about getting things right in the law, understanding just good there, right?
SPEAKER_03: But but Stephen is living this because he knows God, he experiences God everywhere, even in his suffering, as we see at the end in verse 54.
SPEAKER_03: When they heard this, meaning the rulers who were listening, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him.
SPEAKER_03: But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God.
SPEAKER_03: And Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
SPEAKER_03: Look, he said, I see heaven open, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.
SPEAKER_03: At this they covered their ears.
SPEAKER_03: That is profound because they've been doing that for centuries.
SPEAKER_03: Covering their ears.
SPEAKER_03: And yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, dragged him out of the city, and began to stone him.
SPEAKER_03: Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their cloths at the feet of a young man named Saul.
SPEAKER_03: While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
SPEAKER_03: And he fell on his knees and cried out, Lord, do not hold this sin against them.
SPEAKER_03: And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
SPEAKER_03: You see, even in his death, Stephen is experiencing the presence of Jesus all the way to the end because a heart that knows God can experience him anywhere.
SPEAKER_03: A heart that knows God can experience him anywhere.
SPEAKER_03: His death isn't marked by panic or anything like that.
SPEAKER_03: It is marked by peace.
SPEAKER_03: It is marked by this deep assurance that he will be with the same God that he has been with all of this time.
SPEAKER_03: It's now just gonna feel way more real than it did before.
SPEAKER_03: But he just knows, he's like, I have been in this space, I'm not afraid.
SPEAKER_03: So much of what he says, even at the end, is similar to the words of Jesus when he died on the cross, forgive them, Lord.
SPEAKER_03: He echoes the heart of Christ to the people that are most against him in that moment.
SPEAKER_03: You see, Stephen didn't suddenly become peaceful in front of the Sanhedrin, but this kind of courage is formed long before the crisis arrives.
SPEAKER_03: Long before it gets there.
SPEAKER_03: The courtroom simply revealed what the secret place where he met with Jesus had already produced.
SPEAKER_03: We just see the evidence of it.
SPEAKER_03: Stephen is one of many, all throughout just church history, that modeled that no matter the circumstance, no matter where you find yourself, you can experience the presence of God no matter where you are.
SPEAKER_03: We look all the way back in church history, years and years ago, to the uh uh desert father and mothers who were tired of just how the church was becoming just so like an organization and just just not what the church was meant to be.
SPEAKER_03: And so they move out of the cities into the wilderness and they found the presence of God in lonely places.
SPEAKER_03: They inspired many, just they inspired many of the monastic movements all throughout history, men and women living lives of solitude and poverty, who modeled that God's presence isn't limited to a place, but it can be experienced anywhere you are.
SPEAKER_03: Even in suffering and hard times, God's presence shows up throughout church history.
SPEAKER_03: Remember the name of uh uh uh Richard uh Rembrandt.
SPEAKER_03: He was a prisoner in uh Romania for 14 years for leading the underground church in that country.
SPEAKER_03: For three of those years, he was kept completely alone in a tiny cell 12 feet underground, no light, no sound, and almost no human contact.
SPEAKER_03: You'd expect him to look back in those years with nothing but pain, but years later he would describe that his prison cell was one of the most beautiful places he had ever been.
SPEAKER_03: One of the most beautiful places.
SPEAKER_03: Because it was there in the darkness that he encountered the presence and love of God in ways that he could not have experienced outside of that.
SPEAKER_03: He referred to it as the he had said it was so beautiful, and yet there was nothing.
SPEAKER_03: Where he had unbroken relationship with God.
SPEAKER_03: Or someone just like um uh uh uh Mother Teresa, who gave her life to the poor in India, and she said this during her time in ministry.
SPEAKER_03: She said, When I walk through the slums or I enter the dark spaces or dark holes, there our Lord is always really present.
SPEAKER_03: She experienced Jesus in some of the hardest places in the world.
SPEAKER_03: Let me share something with us, Church.
SPEAKER_03: If Christ's presence can be experienced in a prison or in a slum, what about your workplace?
SPEAKER_03: Or on the car ride over here, or on a walk in the evening, or while you're mowing your lawn, or later this evening when you have to put your kids to bed, or in the midst of a hospital room.
SPEAKER_03: You see, the heart that meets with God in this secret place learns to recognize God in every place.
SPEAKER_03: It learns to recognize God in every place, that inner life that you form in that secret place, that deep times of prayer, reading of the word, solitude, just time with Jesus, sitting with him, being in his presence for nothing more sometimes than just simply being with him, right?
SPEAKER_03: Without agenda, without saying, God, this is all the things I need.
SPEAKER_03: What if we just said, I just need you?
SPEAKER_03: I just need your presence, I just need your grace, I just need your peace and your rest.
SPEAKER_03: What if that is more what he's invited us into sometimes over time?
SPEAKER_03: That forms something in you.
SPEAKER_03: Spending time with Jesus isn't about just being ready for just, I mean, crisis moments, but it's about being continually in his presence no matter where you find yourself.
SPEAKER_03: I have a book that I think everybody should read.
SPEAKER_03: I want to just, I mean, and so if you have time over the summer, which I know most of you do, I recommend this book, just a short book.
SPEAKER_03: It's called The Um Uh Practice of the Presence of God by uh uh uh uh Brother Lawrence.
SPEAKER_03: It's such a short book.
SPEAKER_03: It'll maybe take you a couple days.
SPEAKER_03: It's such a beautiful book.
SPEAKER_03: It's all about how to experience the presence of God everywhere.
SPEAKER_03: No matter what you're doing, no matter what work you're up to, no matter what you're doing at home, no matter what you're doing in the car, that you can actually be with God all the time.
SPEAKER_03: That it's actually fully possible.
SPEAKER_03: It's such a beautiful letter.
SPEAKER_03: It's just a it's it's a series of interviews and letters describing how this 18th uh uh century monk, no matter what he was doing or where he was, how he experienced God's presence all the time.
SPEAKER_03: I love how he describes it.
SPEAKER_03: And actually, one of the letters he wrote, he says, the time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer.
SPEAKER_03: And in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon my knees at the Blessed Sacrament.
SPEAKER_03: Even in a noisy kitchen where everyone's demanding things of me, he says, I am at perfect peace as if I was in a deep place of rest with Jesus somewhere else.
SPEAKER_03: Isn't that what we all want, actually, deep inside of our own hearts, if we're honest with ourselves, that deep sense of peace, no matter where you find yourself, you can be in the presence of God.
SPEAKER_03: See, the heart that knows God can experience him anywhere.
SPEAKER_03: Can experience him anywhere.
SPEAKER_03: So, how do we respond to Stephen's life to the ask here in the Word?
SPEAKER_03: This is what I was thinking about this week.
SPEAKER_03: I don't want you to add another hour to your Bible reading.
SPEAKER_03: I don't want you to feel guilty because you didn't spend enough time in prayer.
SPEAKER_03: But rather, what I ask of you as your pastor, I simply want you to practice becoming more aware of the presence of God no matter where you find yourself.
SPEAKER_03: That you would start to put this into practice.
SPEAKER_03: That you become more aware that God is where you already are.
SPEAKER_03: And so here's just a simple practice that, you know, over the last probably year or two, I have started to adopt and I've really enjoyed it.
SPEAKER_03: Three or four times a day.
SPEAKER_03: So that might sound like a lot, but it's actually not.
SPEAKER_03: Three or four times a day, each day, just stop for one minute.
SPEAKER_03: Just pause for a minute.
SPEAKER_03: Set it on your phone just for a moment.
SPEAKER_03: That's it.
SPEAKER_03: Maybe it's just before you get out of bed, maybe it's as you're in your vehicle before you go to work, maybe it's while you're at the sink washing dishes, maybe it's on a walk, maybe it's before you walk into a meeting, maybe it's before you put the kids to bed, whatever it is you find yourself doing, just pause.
SPEAKER_03: Take a slow breath in and out, and then just remind yourself that God is here.
SPEAKER_03: That you carry the presence of God wherever you go.
SPEAKER_03: Not because you suddenly invited him to come, but because he's already been with you.
SPEAKER_03: Do you know that?
SPEAKER_03: And then just to pray a simple prayer, Jesus, have your way and have your say.
SPEAKER_03: Jesus, have your way and have your say.
SPEAKER_03: And then don't rush.
SPEAKER_03: We are a rushed people.
SPEAKER_03: We tend to move so quickly out of moments in which Jesus just invited you just to pause and just to breathe deeply, just that you wouldn't move too quick.
SPEAKER_03: We rush far too often.
SPEAKER_03: And you don't have to hear a voice, you don't have to have some incredible moment with Jesus every time.
SPEAKER_03: That's not what it's about.
SPEAKER_03: You're simply practicing awareness.
SPEAKER_03: You're just becoming aware of that he is with you wherever you go.
SPEAKER_03: Some days it might simply be coming more aware of his peace.
SPEAKER_03: Some days there's a verse you've read that might all of a sudden pop to mind.
SPEAKER_03: Some days you may feel more prompted to pray for someone as you're sitting there.
SPEAKER_03: Some days you may notice your anxiety begin to settle.
SPEAKER_03: And some days you might not feel much of anything.
SPEAKER_03: You might wonder if it's working.
SPEAKER_03: The goal is not to manufacture an experience, right?
SPEAKER_03: So just I'm gonna hear my heart on that.
SPEAKER_03: That's not it at all.
SPEAKER_03: The goal is to become the kind of person who naturally remembers that God is with you wherever you go, that there is a raging river of the Holy Spirit within you that you can dive in at any moment.
SPEAKER_03: You don't have to wait till you're back here.
SPEAKER_03: You don't have to wait till you're at retreats, you don't have to wait till you're at those special places where you feel that's only where God talks.
SPEAKER_03: Because here's what I believe the heart that meets with God in the secret place learns to recognize God in every place.
SPEAKER_03: The heart that meets with God in the secret place learns to recognize God in every place.
SPEAKER_03: You know, I wonder what would happen if a hundred people tomorrow morning walked into work already aware that Jesus was there, already aware that he was at your job site, that he was in your office, that he was in the lunchroom, already aware that he's gonna be with you in the grocery store when you show up later that evening, or that he's going to be in your home later that night.
SPEAKER_03: I wonder what would happen if we began to live that and practice that.
SPEAKER_03: Or if we walked into a hospital already aware that Jesus was there.
SPEAKER_03: Maybe the greatest thing that God wants to do this week isn't changing where you are, but it's opening your eyes to the fact that he has been there with you all along.
SPEAKER_03: Because the heart knows, because the heart that knows God can find God anywhere.
SPEAKER_03: I want to invite the band up at this time.
SPEAKER_03: And what we're gonna do to pray here, I'm actually gonna lead us through just a moment to pause.
SPEAKER_03: A full minute of silence.
SPEAKER_03: Now, to some of you think, man, I don't know if I could do a minute of silence.
SPEAKER_03: And it's true, some of us it's hard to do a minute of where you where you just become quiet and you just, I mean, in the center of your heart just to become attentive around Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: You listen to it, but I think there's such a beautiful practice in nothing.
SPEAKER_03: There's such a beautiful expression of that, right?
SPEAKER_03: So without any music going on here, let's pray, and then I'm gonna invite you in just to pause.
SPEAKER_03: So, Lord Jesus, thank you that the invitation from you is so much sweeter than what we see on the surface.
SPEAKER_03: Jesus, I know in my own heart, Lord, I confess when I read the story of Stephen, there have been many times in my life where I have just looked to how he died.
SPEAKER_03: Lord, and I know somewhere in here there's a sermon about what it means to be bold and to be strong, and I totally understand that.
SPEAKER_03: But Lord, I I firmly believe that his story is here because it's a reflection of just this life that he lived.
SPEAKER_03: This deep contemplation, this deep space of knowing who you were, and then bringing that wherever he went, that it was so evident that his face shone like Moses did, but now in such a different way, being filled with the Holy Spirit in such a radical way.
SPEAKER_03: Lord Jesus, I know for each one in this room there is something within the depths of our souls that longs for that, whether we know it or not.
SPEAKER_03: That we would be fully known by God, that there would be nothing hidden from him, that we would know what it is to be loved and approved of because we haven't done anything at all, but just because of Lord Jesus who you are and what you've done.
SPEAKER_03: Jesus, that every space we walk into, every every time we walk into work, every time we walk home, that Lord Jesus, we might experience your presence, your love, your grace, there would be a sweetness in the air.
SPEAKER_03: That even in a busy kitchen where people are demanding us of things, that we would be one so tranquil and so calm.
SPEAKER_03: So, Lord Jesus, just for a moment here, I just want us to pause.
SPEAKER_03: That we just might become attentive the fact that you are here with us now.
SPEAKER_03: And so I just invite each one of you now, with your heads bowed, just take a deep breath in and out.
SPEAKER_03: And just slow yourself down.
SPEAKER_03: And just become attentive to the truth that Jesus is present with you, that God is here.
SPEAKER_03: And now, just over the next minute, we're just gonna sit with that and just allow the Lord to bring to mind whatever he wants to talk about, whatever he wants to do.
SPEAKER_03: And Lord, just as we were sitting here listening to you, I know my heart has just been stirred as I think about how above everything else in my life that I could be doing, how the invitation is to be with you first and foremost, that I might presence myself with you more and more, that I would say no to good things so I can say yes to the best thing.
SPEAKER_03: Lord Jesus, I pray that for each one in this room this week, that Lord, in moments where they feel like their heart is being torn, where their attention is shifting somewhere else, Jesus, would you gently by your spirit call them back and just say, I have something for you.
SPEAKER_03: Time is what he has.
SPEAKER_03: So, Lord Jesus, I pray that we might become the kind of people that would practice the presence of God, that would find ourselves swimming in the river of life, caught up in the Holy Spirit, no matter what is happening around us.
SPEAKER_03: That Lord, whether it's at work, whether it's at home, whether it's in this room where maybe you feel all alone and isolated, Lord, I just pray that we may become the kinds of people that would seek your face above anything else, and that it would shine to the world around us.
SPEAKER_03: So, Lord Jesus, thank you for your word.
SPEAKER_03: Thank you for the story of Acts, thank you for the early church.
SPEAKER_03: And Jesus, we look forward to reading the next part of their story and our story, and we ask these things in your name.
SPEAKER_03: Amen.