SPEAKER_00: Bud Creek, I've known him for a long time.
SPEAKER_00: And one thing I'll tell you is that he cannot fail.
SPEAKER_00: He cannot quit.
SPEAKER_00: He will not lie.
SPEAKER_00: And he is not going to change.
SPEAKER_00: And just as he came through then, he'll come through now.
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad I came to church today, aren't you?
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: For those of you that may not know me, my name is Jesse.
SPEAKER_00: I'm blessed to be the lead pastor here at Mud Creek, which, among other things, means that you're going to hear me yell at you about Jesus for the next few minutes.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to do that from the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_00: So if you have your Bible, I'm going to invite you to turn with me to the sixth chapter of the book of Acts, Acts chapter number six.
SPEAKER_00: We are going to resume this morning our study of this great, great book in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: So we will consider today Acts chapter 6 and verses 1 through 7.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 6, verses 1 through 7.
SPEAKER_00: And as we have seen over the past few months studying the book of Acts, this book records for us the story of the explosive growth of the early Christian movement.
SPEAKER_00: The problem is that when things explode, people get hurt.
SPEAKER_00: When things explode, things also get messy.
SPEAKER_00: And here in Acts chapter number six, we see how that explosive growth in the church hurts some people.
SPEAKER_00: And we see how things start to get messy.
SPEAKER_00: You can see right there in verse number one that this is a Bible verse about complaining Christians.
SPEAKER_00: My favorite kind, a complaining Christian.
SPEAKER_00: That's true.
SPEAKER_00: That's not Acts 6, but that's true.
SPEAKER_00: I'm about to be a complaining Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless, in this passage, complaints are bubbling to the surface, fuses are short, temperatures are running high, and you can feel the tension in the room.
SPEAKER_00: And it happens that way in churches sometimes, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to pick at anybody's scabs today, but some of you know what it's like to be in a church that's full of conflict.
SPEAKER_00: So if you know what it's like to be in a church that's divided, you know what it's like to be in a church where people are complaining.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you maybe have survived church fights in your past about such delicate theological issues as the color of the carpet.
SPEAKER_00: My granddaddy was not a deacon in this church for 50 years for us to pick Hunter Green.
SPEAKER_00: He would want us to pick forest green.
SPEAKER_00: Cannot paint the fellowship hall eggshell.
SPEAKER_00: Need to go with off-white.
SPEAKER_00: That's the way we do things.
SPEAKER_00: That's not uncommon in the life of churches.
SPEAKER_00: And when that happens in churches, often we respond the way we might respond to running across a brown bear in the woods.
SPEAKER_00: Our nervous system reacts, we're dumped with adrenaline, and we choose: do I stand and fight?
SPEAKER_00: Or do I just run away?
SPEAKER_00: Do I fight for what I think is best or do I just run away to a different church?
SPEAKER_00: Get out of harm's way.
SPEAKER_00: Or run away from the church altogether.
SPEAKER_00: This passage of scripture shows us that there is actually a different option for the people of God.
SPEAKER_00: And that option is Christ-like service.
SPEAKER_00: What I want to show you in this passage of Scripture today is how in a moment of crisis in the church, faithful servants step up to solve the challenges and to meet the needs.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to make the case for you this morning that our church has no problem that servants cannot solve.
SPEAKER_00: Our church has no problem that servants cannot solve.
SPEAKER_00: Let's read together Acts chapter 6, verses 1 through 7.
SPEAKER_00: The Word of God says, Now in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a complaint, a complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenists, because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution.
SPEAKER_00: Then the twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, It is not desirable that we should leave the Word of God and serve tables.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, who we may appoint over this business.
SPEAKER_00: But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word, and to saying, please the whole multitude.
SPEAKER_00: And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And Philip, Procorus, Nicanar, Timon, Parmonus, and Nicholas, a proselyte from Antioch, whom they set before the apostles.
SPEAKER_00: And when they had prayed, they laid hands on them.
SPEAKER_00: Then the word of God spread, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.
SPEAKER_00: The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of the Lord abideth forever.
SPEAKER_00: I think for every true follower of Jesus, when we read the book of Acts, there is something here that at once is familiar, and yet some things that are also foreign.
SPEAKER_00: This is familiar to us because we see people worshiping Jesus, we see people loving Jesus, we see people serving Jesus, and yet some of this feels like a brand new world, a strange new world that has such people in it that are experiencing such remarkable unity, that are seeing such divine and miraculous power, that are seeing the incredible fruitfulness of the Spirit's blessings on their ministry.
SPEAKER_00: There are things here that are familiar, and there are things here that are foreign.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps we read the book of Acts and think, man, I wish we could go back.
SPEAKER_00: I wish we could experience this.
SPEAKER_00: Begins, of course, at Acts chapter number one with the Lord Jesus Himself before he ascends back to his Father in heaven, telling his disciples that far from his ministry being over, his ministry and his mission will expand through them continuing on his work.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter two shows that after Jesus ascends, the Holy Spirit descends, empowers the people of God to proclaim the gospel and break new boundaries for the message of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 2, verse 42 through 47, the chapter ends with this amazing portrait of the early church, the kind of community that forms when the gospel is proclaimed and believed.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 3 shows that church reaching out to those in need, doing literal miracles of healing for those that are destitute.
SPEAKER_00: But in Acts chapter 4, you begin to see some pressure coming from outside forces.
SPEAKER_00: The church has to bear up under persecution.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 5 begins with a story of internal pressure.
SPEAKER_00: Hypocrisy is in the church.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, through the internal threats and the external persecution, the church bears up under it well, so much so that in Acts chapter 5 and verse 42, the last verse of that passage says that daily in the temple and in every house they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.
SPEAKER_00: This church would not quit.
SPEAKER_00: They did not have any quit in them.
SPEAKER_00: But now there's a new challenge that's going to pop up in Acts chapter number six.
SPEAKER_00: Challenges that come uniquely at a season when the church is growing exponentially.
SPEAKER_00: Problems and complaints that we'll look at in just a minute start to rise to the surface in Acts chapter number six.
SPEAKER_00: Now I have really good news for you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Whether you're a regular here at Mud Creek, whether you are a visitor here today, I am glad to say to you that you have not come to a church that is full of complainers.
SPEAKER_00: You have not come to a church that is divided.
SPEAKER_00: You have not come to a church where people play politics.
SPEAKER_00: You have not come to a church where people have to referee fights between one another.
SPEAKER_00: You have not come to that kind of church this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Thank God for the unity that we have here at Mud Creek.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: To God be the glory.
SPEAKER_00: I'm also proud to report today that you have come to a growing church.
SPEAKER_00: You have come to a church where there are new people.
SPEAKER_00: You have come to a church where there are new faces.
SPEAKER_00: You have come to a church where God is blessing us in ways that only He can get the glory for.
SPEAKER_00: The bad news is that sometimes growing churches have problems that are unique to their growth.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what happens here in this passage of Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, as the growth creates problems, God provides a solution, and the solution comes from faithful servants.
SPEAKER_00: And what I want to say to you today is that in this clarifying passage of Scripture, that I think clarifies this moment in the life of our church in three really, really important ways, we learn that our church has no problem that servants cannot solve.
SPEAKER_00: Our church has no problem that servants cannot solve.
SPEAKER_00: So first, this passage I want to show you clarifies the problems of a growing church.
SPEAKER_00: This church clarifies the problems of a growing church.
SPEAKER_00: We know from verse number one that there are people in the church that are complaining.
SPEAKER_00: But if you look a little bit earlier in that sentence in Acts chapter 6 and verse number 1, you see that the complaint rose in those days.
SPEAKER_00: This is important.
SPEAKER_00: In those days when the church is growing.
SPEAKER_00: In those days when so many people are being saved that they're losing count.
SPEAKER_00: In those days when the number of the church is described not as a handful, not as a crowd, but as a multitude.
SPEAKER_00: In those days when God's Spirit is blessing in such a remarkable way that the divine mathematics have become a matter of multiplication.
SPEAKER_00: That the church is multiplying.
SPEAKER_00: In those days, there arose a complaint.
SPEAKER_00: In days of growth and excitement and fun and joy and worship, there arose a complaint.
SPEAKER_00: And the complaint comes because the church is growing.
SPEAKER_00: And so I just want to stop here for a moment and say to you that growing churches do have problems.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I do not want to disappoint you today.
SPEAKER_00: The Mud Creek Baptist Church is not perfect.
SPEAKER_00: There is no perfect church.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes the problems that churches have come because people are trying to navigate the incredible blessings of God that they can't plan for and they can't control.
SPEAKER_00: For instance, you come to church and somebody's in your parking place.
SPEAKER_00: Parking gets tight.
SPEAKER_00: And then you walk inside and somebody's in your seat.
SPEAKER_00: Those may be small problems, but they are problems that happen in a growing church.
SPEAKER_00: A problem that we're having at Mud Creek right now is that we have new Sunday school classes that we feel led to launch and we have nowhere to put them.
SPEAKER_00: That's a good problem.
SPEAKER_00: But it is a problem.
SPEAKER_00: So we don't want to put them in the parking lot because we already know you're mad that somebody took your space.
SPEAKER_00: The problem of a children's ministry that a year ago had 25 kids and now has 50 kids.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God.
SPEAKER_00: But that creates a problem when you need people to help referee children and wrangle children.
SPEAKER_00: Those are good problems to have, and yet they are problems.
SPEAKER_00: What was the problem here in Acts chapter number six?
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says that the complaint comes from a group of widows that some of the widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food.
SPEAKER_00: Evidently, the early church had determined to establish a primitive meals on wheels ministry that they were going to make sure that the older ladies, the widows in the church, had plenty to eat.
SPEAKER_00: Now, in the world of the first century, oftentimes to be a widow meant you would lose your social standing because your husband was dead.
SPEAKER_00: It meant that you would lose your ability to provide for yourself as your husband who had worked for you was gone.
SPEAKER_00: And many times, widowhood, unlike our world, widowhood meant economic deprivation, and it meant that these ladies would be cast into a life of extreme poverty.
SPEAKER_00: Well, the church sees this crisis and they respond the way they should have responded.
SPEAKER_00: They echo the heart of God to the poor and the heart of God to the lonely and the widows, and they say, we're going to do everything we can to care for these widows.
SPEAKER_00: We are not going to let these ladies go hungry on our watch.
SPEAKER_00: God bless them for that.
SPEAKER_00: But understand this.
SPEAKER_00: In Acts chapter number one, the church was about 120 people.
SPEAKER_00: How many widows would you have in a crowd of 120?
SPEAKER_00: 10, 12.
SPEAKER_00: Now the church is perhaps tens of thousands.
SPEAKER_00: How many widows do you have in that crowd?
SPEAKER_00: And so what's happened in this passage of scripture is that the ministry has simply outgrown the ability of the 12 apostles to manage it.
SPEAKER_00: They were feeding these ladies, probably hundreds of them, and they were doing it every single day.
SPEAKER_00: But they couldn't do it.
SPEAKER_00: They just could not keep up.
SPEAKER_00: There was, to use an expression that I like to use, there was too much toast and not enough butter.
SPEAKER_00: They just could not manage the workload and could not manage the expectations.
SPEAKER_00: But please remember that these are men that were incredibly gifted.
SPEAKER_00: These are men that loved Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: These are men that knew Jesus personally and walked with him.
SPEAKER_00: These are men that wrote your New Testament and told you everything you know about Jesus and about the life of the church.
SPEAKER_00: And yet they could not manage.
SPEAKER_00: To the point, the text says that some of the widows were neglected.
SPEAKER_00: And so you can just hear the phone calls, can't you?
SPEAKER_00: I haven't seen those apostles in two weeks.
SPEAKER_00: I haven't seen a casserole.
SPEAKER_00: I haven't seen a cake.
SPEAKER_00: And they know I'm gluten-free.
SPEAKER_00: The last time, that macaroni they brought me messed me up for a week.
SPEAKER_00: I just don't even know if they care.
SPEAKER_00: I don't even know if they notice.
SPEAKER_00: You can hear that, right?
SPEAKER_00: But the text says, the text says that they not the text does not say, listen, the text does not say they felt neglected.
SPEAKER_00: The text says they were neglected.
SPEAKER_00: They had fallen through the cracks.
SPEAKER_00: They have a legitimate complaint.
SPEAKER_00: The ministry had outgrown the ability of the leaders to manage it, and people were falling through the cracks.
SPEAKER_00: But it's important to understand that while this is a real problem, the word neglect that seems to have such ominous overtones comes from a compound Greek word that simply means to overlook.
SPEAKER_00: Just overlooked it.
SPEAKER_00: They just could not manage it.
SPEAKER_00: Was it intentional?
SPEAKER_00: It was spiteful.
SPEAKER_00: There's no meanness involved here.
SPEAKER_00: It's just an honest mistake.
SPEAKER_00: Now I know that sometimes, friends, some of you maybe are neglected in our church.
SPEAKER_00: I understand that sometimes maybe you go through a crisis and you don't feel as if your leadership is there for you, or you feel like there's an urgent need that maybe does not get met.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to say, if you felt that lately, that I will offer you an apology on behalf of our pastoral team and our church staff.
SPEAKER_00: But I also want to say to you, on behalf of our pastoral team, our staff, our deacons, you have leaders in this church that love you, that want to care for you, and want to do the very, very best that they can to serve you.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to recognize today that while we do make mistakes, the Bible does tell us in 1 Corinthians chapter 13 and verse number 8, this great passage about Christian love, that love thinks no evil.
SPEAKER_00: We never have the right to assume sinful motives of those who are doing their best.
SPEAKER_00: Amen, Pastor.
SPEAKER_00: We never have the right to assume sinful motives of those who are doing their best.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, what were the apostles up to anyway?
SPEAKER_00: Where were they?
SPEAKER_00: Why were they too busy to care for these old ladies that need to eat?
SPEAKER_00: Well, in Acts chapter 5, they've been in jail for preaching Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That kind of sucks up a lot of your time when you're doing time.
SPEAKER_00: But there is a complaint, and yet this complaint that is understandable and explainable in the mind of the apostles, it is inexcusable.
SPEAKER_00: They recognize this not as people that just have hurt feelings or people that are immature.
SPEAKER_00: They recognize this as a legitimate crisis and they move to put the fire out.
SPEAKER_00: Why do they do that?
SPEAKER_00: Well, notice how the complaint is phrased there in verse number one.
SPEAKER_00: The complaint rises from the Hellenistic widows against the Hebrew widows.
SPEAKER_00: The Hellenists were, all these widows were very much Jewish, but the Hellenistic widows were widows that were raised outside of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And they were widows that had moved back into the city of Jerusalem, but were naturally Greek speakers that had a different language that had maybe looked a little bit differently, maybe that had a different way of living their lives, different cultures and different ways of approaching the world.
SPEAKER_00: And yet those widows were the ones being neglected.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because the apostles themselves were Hebrews.
SPEAKER_00: They spoke the language, they saw the needs of those that were closest to them before they saw the needs of those that were furthest away from them.
SPEAKER_00: And that's life, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: But the apostles recognize that if we communicate that our church is only for one ethnic group, then we communicate that the gospel is only for one ethnic group.
SPEAKER_00: Mud Creek, I want to tell you today that if we communicate that our ministries are only for one ethnic group, or only for one ability range, or only for one age, then we communicate that the gospel is only for them.
SPEAKER_00: And we need to be careful that we are making sure that we serve the needs of everybody that Jesus serves.
SPEAKER_00: So this clarifies, I think, the problems of a growing church, but it also clarifies the priorities of a growing church.
SPEAKER_00: The disciples see the problem, and the disciples say, All right, we're gonna have a church meeting.
SPEAKER_00: There's one item on the agenda.
SPEAKER_00: We've got widows with empty stomachs, and we're gonna fix it.
SPEAKER_00: But, but in the process of coming to a solution, the apostles reveal their deepest convictions about their own ministries.
SPEAKER_00: Notice verse number two.
SPEAKER_00: They say at the end of the verse, it is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables.
SPEAKER_00: They said, We cannot put a halt on the ministry of the word, the ministry of preaching, to go and fix this problem.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the word that's translated as leave the word of God is another Greek word that can be translated as neglect, but it's a totally different word than the word in verse number one.
SPEAKER_00: In verse number one, it's sort of a benign term that just means to overlook.
SPEAKER_00: This is intentional neglect.
SPEAKER_00: The apostles say it would be pastoral malpractice for us to stop preaching the word of God and to go and feed widows.
SPEAKER_00: And so I wonder how that conviction from the apostles lands in your heart this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Does it sound to you like the apostles maybe are saying, you know, we're just too important to do that?
SPEAKER_00: This menial stuff.
SPEAKER_00: That's not for us.
SPEAKER_00: We're preachers, we're leaders.
SPEAKER_00: We're not gonna get our hands dirty, unclogging toilets and painting the fellowship hall.
SPEAKER_00: And we're not, what, no, we're we're gonna do ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all deal with the problems.
SPEAKER_00: I want to say to you, that is not at all their attitude in this passage.
SPEAKER_00: Rather, the apostles recognize that if the ministry of the church to feed widows is a response to the word and the heart of God who declares his heart for widows, like those verses that Sister Bonnie read in Isaiah chapter 1, like other verses, Psalm 68, if the ministry to feed the widows is a reflection to the word and the heart of God to care for the least of these, then the apostles wisely recognize that if they lose the ministry of proclamation, then they will lose the gospel and they will lose service in the name of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: They recognize that if they stop preaching the word, then the fuel source for service will dry up completely.
SPEAKER_00: And they say we have to have a clear proclamation of the gospel because that's what Jesus put us here to do.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus had told them in Acts chapter 1 and verse number 8 that they would be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the uttermost parts of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: They said, this is our first and great commission, and we cannot stop that.
SPEAKER_00: And so they say we are going to be clear about the ministry of the word.
SPEAKER_00: Mud Creek, we want to be a family of believers that glorify a never-changing God by impacting an ever-changing world through sharing the life-changing message of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: But we will never impact this world without the message of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And if we lose the proclamation of the word, we lose everything.
SPEAKER_00: We lose everything.
SPEAKER_00: And so I will say to you today, candidly, that as your lead pastor, there are a lot of things that come across my desk over the course of the week.
SPEAKER_00: There are problems to be solved, complaints to be addressed, needs from our staff, opportunities to go minister, to make visits, and do a number of things.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to do everything I can to throw myself as much as I can and as much as is possible.
SPEAKER_00: However, the greatest priority that I have the calling that God has given me, the calling that you have given me as a congregation, is to be prepared to come before you on Sundays and Wednesdays to proclaim the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And if saying yes to that means saying no to other very, very good things, I want to say yes to the best thing and the first thing which drives everything.
SPEAKER_00: This is their priority.
SPEAKER_00: But let me move quickly now.
SPEAKER_00: I want to get really down to the heart of what I want to talk to you about.
SPEAKER_00: All of that was just preface.
SPEAKER_00: Now we're going to get to chapter one.
SPEAKER_00: So take a deep breath and stretch real good.
SPEAKER_00: Because by the time this service is over, you're going to be feeling the hunger of these widows.
SPEAKER_00: This passage clarifies the problems of a growing church.
SPEAKER_00: It clarifies the priorities of a growing church.
SPEAKER_00: But I believe it also clarifies the potential of a growing church.
SPEAKER_00: The disciples, the apostles, the leaders of the church, they reach a conclusion that verse number five says, pleased everybody.
SPEAKER_00: This is the greatest miracle in the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_00: It's the only time in the history of Christianity that anybody's ever made a decision that everybody was happy with.
SPEAKER_00: But it happened here.
SPEAKER_00: So what was the decision that made everybody so happy?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it goes like this.
SPEAKER_00: It's remarkable.
SPEAKER_00: The apostles do not come before their church and say, we've got a problem and we'll fix it.
SPEAKER_00: They don't come before the church and say, we've got a problem and we'll figure out a solution.
SPEAKER_00: Rather, they come to the church from the pulpit, as it were, and they say to the people in the pews, there's a problem, and God has given you the ability to fix it.
SPEAKER_00: What a moment in the life of the church.
SPEAKER_00: Where now the burden of ministry comes off of the professionals, if you will, and it's placed on the shoulders of the congregation.
SPEAKER_00: And this is a clarifying moment in the history of the church that affects the way that we do ministry here at Mud Creek today and the way we need to think about future ministry at Mud Creek.
SPEAKER_00: On the one hand, most of us believe that this is the passage where the office of deacon first rises to the surface in the life of the church.
SPEAKER_00: We still have deacons in our church today because of complaining women in a church 2,000 years ago.
SPEAKER_00: What is a deacon?
SPEAKER_00: A deacon is a servant, somebody officially recognized by the church for their servant's heart and their willingness to embody the values of the gospel and the values of the church.
SPEAKER_00: But as importantly, friends, I think this should affect the way that we think about church ministry today because it echoes what will come later in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: This is sort of a prefiguring of the way the Bible talks about ministry.
SPEAKER_00: And so I want to take you in your Bible, if you will, quickly to Ephesians chapter 4.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to show you that the Apostle Paul, who's not even a Christian when Acts chapter 6 is written, when these events hurt, rather when these events occurred, but who will write about church life in Ephesians chapter 4, beginning in verse number 7.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 4, 7, and I pray that God would ingrain this in our hearts this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 4, 7.
SPEAKER_00: Paul writes to the church of Ephesus, but to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, there are many things that believers have in common, but we do not have spiritual gifts in common.
SPEAKER_00: We're all uniquely wired up and gifted to serve the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, he says, and the Apostle Paul's quoting from the book of Psalms, when he ascended on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men.
SPEAKER_00: The ascension is fresh on the minds of the apostles in Acts chapter 6, and it's on the mind of the Apostle Paul here in Ephesians chapter number 4.
SPEAKER_00: And he says that when Jesus ascended, he ascends back to heaven like a conquering king, giving the gifts of his victory to his people.
SPEAKER_00: Verse number nine, now this he ascended, what does it mean?
SPEAKER_00: But that he also first descended in the lower parts of the earth, he who descended, the one who ascended far above all the heavens that he might fill all things.
SPEAKER_00: Now, verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: What are the gifts that the ascended Lord has given to his people?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 11, and he gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers.
SPEAKER_00: For the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man of the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we're no longer children tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine.
SPEAKER_00: And he goes on to say about, talk about maturity in the Bible as Christ-likeness.
SPEAKER_00: What the Apostle Paul's getting to there in Ephesians chapter number four is what I want to say to you this morning is that God has put the work of ministry in your hands.
SPEAKER_00: God has put the work of caring for the body in the body.
SPEAKER_00: God has put the work of service in your hands.
SPEAKER_00: And so here in this passage of scripture, it's people who embrace the need, embrace the opportunity, embrace the responsibility, and embrace the privilege that step up seven men.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says, of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit, full of wisdom, who step into that role as the church's servants and say, We will serve.
SPEAKER_00: And so, church, I want to say to you today that we do not have any problem that servants cannot fix.
SPEAKER_00: We do not have any need that servants cannot fulfill.
SPEAKER_00: We do not have any obstacle that servants cannot transform into opportunity.
SPEAKER_00: But so many of us have been discipled to think about the life of the church as if what we do when we have a problem is we hire a staff member and we get pay them as little as possible to do as much as possible.
SPEAKER_00: And so they solve everything and fix it while we sit back and watch.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm calling us today as a church to a radically different approach to the life of our body.
SPEAKER_00: To say that, yes, while we need qualified, gifted leaders in their place.
SPEAKER_00: What we need in our church and in our world is servants.
SPEAKER_00: We need people who say, I see a need, and I'm going to run to it, and I want to solve it and I want to help.
SPEAKER_00: I do not believe this morning that God is necessarily expecting a handful to do more.
SPEAKER_00: I believe that God wants more of us to do.
SPEAKER_00: And that happens in this passage of Scripture as they live out the values Jesus talked about back in Mark chapter number 10, which Brother Paul read for us this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And in Mark chapter number 10, Jesus is talking about greatness and the drive inside of his disciples to be somebody and to be important and to matter.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus calls them to himself and he says, Listen, you know how the lords and the rulers of the Gentiles work.
SPEAKER_00: You know how power works in our world.
SPEAKER_00: Power is snapping your fingers and people respond.
SPEAKER_00: Power is controlling others' lives.
SPEAKER_00: Power is exercising and executing your will without obstacle.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus says in verse number 43, it will not be that way among you.
SPEAKER_00: As my people, your desire should not be to lead.
SPEAKER_00: Your desire first should be to serve.
SPEAKER_00: Why verse 44?
SPEAKER_00: Because whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to be first, Jesus says, you will end up being last.
SPEAKER_00: Then he says, For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.
SPEAKER_00: Now look, I know leadership is exciting.
SPEAKER_00: I know leadership is thrilling.
SPEAKER_00: And I know that many of us have never been given opportunities to lead anywhere else.
SPEAKER_00: And at church they feel bad for us, and so they vote us into something and let us lead.
SPEAKER_00: And I know it's exciting to have your name on the bulletin.
SPEAKER_00: And I know it's exciting to have your picture on the website.
SPEAKER_00: But friends, I want to say there's something better than being at the top for the people of God, and that is being at the bottom.
SPEAKER_00: There's something better than being in charge, and that is being last carrying the burdens of other people around you.
SPEAKER_00: You think, well, how in the world could that possibly be true?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says it is true because he is the one who embodies it.
SPEAKER_00: He says, even the Son of Man, he's referring to himself in Mark 10, 45, even the Son of Man did not come to be served.
SPEAKER_00: If anybody who has ever lived in this world had the right to be served, had a right to make slaves of us all, had the right to demand and execute his will without any obstacle, it was the Lord Jesus, the Prince of Glory.
SPEAKER_00: And yet when the Son of God came into our world, he did not come to be served, but he came taking upon himself the form of a servant to see our need and to respond.
SPEAKER_00: And the word of God says that our Lord has saved us by serving us.
SPEAKER_00: And listen, if I have been saved by a God who serves me, then I should recognize my opportunity, like Jesus, to serve others.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's what happens in this church.
SPEAKER_00: People say, we will get to work over this business, over this task.
SPEAKER_00: And they do.
SPEAKER_00: But don't think this is menial.
SPEAKER_00: Don't think this is menial because there are several times in this text, verse number two, when the disciples talk about serving tables, when they talk about their ministry of the word.
SPEAKER_00: The word ministry or the word serve there is a Greek, different forms of the Greek word diakonos, which we get our word deacon from.
SPEAKER_00: And they're talking about their ministry, the apostles, the ministry of preaching the word, and they're talking about the ministry of feeding widows.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the thing, though it's all ministry.
SPEAKER_00: They're all participating in the same work of the life of the church.
SPEAKER_00: So that when other people step into places of service, what happens in verse number seven?
SPEAKER_00: The word of God is multiplied.
SPEAKER_00: So I want you to consider this passage as a whole.
SPEAKER_00: Verse number one starts with people complaining.
SPEAKER_00: The sound coming from the church is not a course of praise about the leadership.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a course of praise even directed at how good God is.
SPEAKER_00: It's complaints.
SPEAKER_00: Complaining opens the passage.
SPEAKER_00: But the word of God going forth in power closes this story in Acts chapter 6 and verse number 7.
SPEAKER_00: What made the difference?
SPEAKER_00: What is it that moved the church from griping to glory, from misery to ministry?
SPEAKER_00: What happened?
SPEAKER_00: Servants happened.
SPEAKER_00: Servants! People who said, we'll jump in.
SPEAKER_00: And we're willing to do what we can to help those in our church family that have a need.
SPEAKER_00: And when we do that, brothers and sisters, the word of God goes forth in power.
SPEAKER_00: As we serve, echoing the gospel, we are given platform to proclaim the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: So let me tell you a quick story of how this happened in my life, literally, just a few weeks ago, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, my calling, my ministry, my job, all those things, my task before God and before you is to proclaim the word of God to you, to proclaim the gospel to you.
SPEAKER_00: I do my best to do that, try to do it, all that good stuff.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm surrounded by so many people here at Mud Creek that serve.
SPEAKER_00: Man, there's so many hard workers.
SPEAKER_00: If you were here yesterday for Carpenter's Hands, whether you're buying or selling or willing and dealing, whatever you were doing, you saw the army of people through Carpenter's Hands Ministry that worked so hard.
SPEAKER_00: Blown, I'm blown away by that.
SPEAKER_00: There are people that serve in our choir that were here at choir practice this morning before any of us rolled out of bed.
SPEAKER_00: There are right now brothers on our security team with like real anger issues and a love for the Second Amendment that are walking around our halls to keep you safe.
SPEAKER_00: What are they doing?
SPEAKER_00: They're serving you.
SPEAKER_00: They're serving you at this moment.
SPEAKER_00: And if you have eyes to see, you can look around everywhere and see this.
SPEAKER_00: But here's how this happened to me.
SPEAKER_00: A couple of weeks ago, I was walking into Ingalls, and I was probably going to get ice cream.
SPEAKER_00: That's how I medicate myself and treat all of my psychological issues.
SPEAKER_00: It's cheaper than therapy and better for you than crack.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm going in there to buy my ice cream, and as I literally, as I'm walking in the doors, this gentleman, this older gentleman I did not recognize, is walking out.
SPEAKER_00: And as we pass, he locks eyes with me.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, Ain't you that preacher at Mud Creek?
SPEAKER_00: And typically, when a stranger asks me that, aren't you that pastor over somewhere?
SPEAKER_00: I typically say something like, I do not speak the English.
SPEAKER_00: This is not me.
SPEAKER_00: Something like that.
SPEAKER_00: But I was happy that day because I was going to buy ice cream.
SPEAKER_00: And so I said to him, I said, Yes, sir, my name's Jesse.
SPEAKER_00: I'm the pastor at Mud Creek.
SPEAKER_00: Shook his hand.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, I just want you to know.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I attend, uh, and he called the name of his church, this other church off somewhere else in the county.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I worship there.
SPEAKER_00: He said, but I watch a lot of your sermons online.
SPEAKER_00: I love what you're doing, and he encouraged me, and it was very, very kind, very, very thoughtful, just this precious, precious, sweet moment.
SPEAKER_00: And I told him then, I said, listen, I said, I appreciate that.
SPEAKER_00: But I said, I want you to know that there are people in our church that actually make all that happen that has nothing to do with me.
SPEAKER_00: Because my responsibility here, my act of service, is to fill the pulpit.
SPEAKER_00: But there are servants in our church that can take what I say into this Miley Cyrus-looking contraption.
SPEAKER_00: And they can record that, they can broadcast it, they can stream it, and somehow they can take all of this stuff from those folks that are in our sound booth right now that you cannot see, that we don't even know are there because they do such an incredible job of making everything appear effortless.
SPEAKER_00: But they serve, and the word of God is broadcast.
SPEAKER_00: Literally.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all, that's what's happening here in Acts chapter 6.
SPEAKER_00: People serve, and the word of God goes out.
SPEAKER_00: And the Great Commission itself is being fulfilled.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 7 says the number of the disciples was multiplied greatly.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Jesus had told them in Matthew chapter 28 and verse number 18.
SPEAKER_00: You will go into all the world, you will proclaim the gospel, and you will make disciples.
SPEAKER_00: You will make disciples.
SPEAKER_00: Teach people to obey what I've commanded you.
SPEAKER_00: That's what's happening here.
SPEAKER_00: The great commission is being fulfilled.
SPEAKER_00: How did they go from great complaining to the great commission?
SPEAKER_00: Servants, servants move them into this moment of gospel opportunity.
SPEAKER_00: And what's even most remarkable is the last little clause of verse number seven.
SPEAKER_00: When the word of God says right here, look at this, that a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you remember from weeks ago, when we're preaching through Acts 3 and 4 and 5, who were the people that were most hostile to the preaching of the gospel?
SPEAKER_00: The priests at the temple.
SPEAKER_00: Those that were employed by institutional Judaism to make the sacrifices and say the prayers.
SPEAKER_00: They were the ones most threatened.
SPEAKER_00: They were the ones that were most violent towards the church, and yet now they've seen something in the life of the church that has captivated them, that has drawn them and caused them to recognize these people worship the true God and we want what they have.
SPEAKER_00: What is it that moved these priests from detractors to disciples?
SPEAKER_00: Servants.
SPEAKER_00: Servants created an opportunity for the most unlikely to come into the household of faith and to find new life in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: This passage, I think, puts before us the reality that God has put us here to serve together.
SPEAKER_00: God has put us here to serve together.
SPEAKER_00: And the disciples lead in that direction, and the church is better for it.
SPEAKER_00: Because I think the disciples, without ever reading a single church growth book, understood intuitively that a church will never outgrow its hardest workers.