SPEAKER_00: Hello everyone, I'm Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_00: I want to welcome you to the Road Church Podcast.
SPEAKER_00: Each week we go into God's Word.
SPEAKER_00: We teach chapter by chapter and verse by verse.
SPEAKER_00: We are here to build the Kingdom of God revolution through empowering people to change the world.
SPEAKER_00: So we pray this will minister to you at your heart level and change your life.
SPEAKER_00: Today, be encouraged by our guest speaker.
SPEAKER_02: I'm Pastor Josh.
SPEAKER_02: I'm the prayer and worship pastor here at the road.
SPEAKER_02: And we're going to dive into Acts 6 today.
SPEAKER_02: Before we do that, let me pray for us.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, thank you for this church.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you for Kingdom of God Revolution in the Rockies that you're bringing through this church.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, I thank you for the ministry of your word today.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, I ask that as we hear your word and read your word, and as I speak and talk about your word, that it would bring impact and lasting change, that it would bring fruitfulness, that we would be hearers of your word, not merely doers, so that we can see your word prevail, your word multiply, and we can see your kingdom impact our region as a result of this time that we're gathering together.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, would you bring the power of your Holy Spirit on the preaching of your word today so that we can reflect you to Colorado Springs.
SPEAKER_02: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Well, I just want to dive into Acts chapter 6.
SPEAKER_02: This is kind of a fun chapter.
SPEAKER_02: It's kind of a turning point in the early church.
SPEAKER_02: You know, up till this point, most of their issues, most of their pressures have been from the outside.
SPEAKER_02: They haven't had a whole lot of uh things other than Ananias and Sapphira.
SPEAKER_02: That's kind of a big deal, you know.
SPEAKER_02: Uh that was, I'm sure, very shocking, which resulted in multiplication of the church.
SPEAKER_02: But this is the first time that they're kind of dealing with the practical things, the nitty-gritty kind of things.
SPEAKER_02: So I'm excited to talk about some of this practical ministry and uh introduce some new characters to the storyline.
SPEAKER_02: So if you turn to Acts chapter six, I'm gonna start reading these first four verses.
SPEAKER_02: Now, in those days when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenists, because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution.
SPEAKER_02: 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_02: Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business, but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word.
SPEAKER_02: So at this point, the church has been growing rapidly.
SPEAKER_02: Acts 2 records 3,000 added, Acts 4 mentions 5,000 men, and by Acts 6, the numbers of the disciples, the numbers in the church is still increasing.
SPEAKER_02: And there's some historical, interesting historical context here.
SPEAKER_02: We have two groups of Jews because the early church is really mostly made up of Jews.
SPEAKER_02: We have the Hebrews, who would be the Aramaic-speaking Jews that are really native to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_02: They've carried over that culture.
SPEAKER_02: And then we have the Hellenists or the Grecian Jews, and these are Jews that were dispersed out into the Roman Empire, and these are people that are likely speaking Greek as their first language instead of Aramaic.
SPEAKER_02: So there's some cultural difference.
SPEAKER_02: Even though they're Jews ethnically, culturally, they're very Roman.
SPEAKER_02: Culturally, they have a different spin on Judaism than the Hebrews do.
SPEAKER_02: So naturally, as all of us do, unfortunately, they're getting a little neglected.
SPEAKER_02: And we have a group of widows which are very vulnerable during this time.
SPEAKER_02: You know, they if you're a widow during this age, it's very hard for you to even eat.
SPEAKER_02: You know, you don't have a whole lot of uh ways to provide for yourself.
SPEAKER_02: Women were more treated as second-class citizens than equal citizens as men.
SPEAKER_02: So being married was a really good thing for a woman because you could be provided for, but then if your husband passed away, especially if you were older, you were really at the mercy of the people around you.
SPEAKER_02: And we see the early church adopting widows.
SPEAKER_02: This is a common thing in the early church.
SPEAKER_02: Remember, Paul wrote to Timothy about the requirements of being a widow.
SPEAKER_02: Like there were the church had grown so much and spread so much that Paul had to kind of delineate.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, this is really who we should be taking care of.
SPEAKER_02: And uh these other widows, you know, they have family members, they have children, they have other people, or they're young and they should remarry.
SPEAKER_02: And Paul in 2 Timothy has all of these lists of things that qualify as a widow.
SPEAKER_02: And uh, you know, also in the book of James, James talks about pure religion before God, which is to take care of widows and orphans and to keep yourself unstained by the world.
SPEAKER_02: So a big part of the early church, because they've adopted this communal living, was taking care of the helpless.
SPEAKER_02: And we still do that.
SPEAKER_02: We still do that here at the road.
SPEAKER_02: We still have a care ministry, we're still taking care of people in need, we're still looking for opportunities to bless people that are in a hard place.
SPEAKER_02: And that's just part of God's heart.
SPEAKER_02: That's part of how the church is supposed to operate.
SPEAKER_02: But at the beginning of the church, they didn't have all those systems that Paul was explaining.
SPEAKER_02: So they're trying to take care of widows the best that they can.
SPEAKER_02: They don't have a whole lot of organizational structure going on, and now they're starting to see the need for it.
SPEAKER_02: They're like, okay, this makes sense, this complaint makes sense, the Hebraic uh widows are being well taken care of, but the Hellenistic widows are being kind of neglected, being looked over, and that's not a good thing.
SPEAKER_02: So the apostles get together and they go, we really need to keep teaching the word.
SPEAKER_02: Now I think you could read this and you could be like, oh, they think that they're a big deal.
SPEAKER_02: You know, this is this is below them, this type of ministry, serving tables is below me.
SPEAKER_02: But that's really not the situation.
SPEAKER_02: The situation is we've got thousands of people coming to Christ.
SPEAKER_02: We've got to teach them.
SPEAKER_02: We've got to figure out how to organize this church that the Lord is distributing throughout the earth.
SPEAKER_02: We've got to figure out how to disciple nations.
SPEAKER_02: That was the great commission that Jesus gave them.
SPEAKER_02: And so they're thinking about man, if we're taking care of all these issues and we're solving all these practical problems, what is going to happen with the ministry of the word?
SPEAKER_02: Who's going to be teaching?
SPEAKER_02: And the apostles did what every good leader do, and they decided to delegate.
SPEAKER_02: They decided, you know what, we need to identify some people that can take on this task.
SPEAKER_02: And so they say to the people, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation.
SPEAKER_02: That's a very Jewish thing to do.
SPEAKER_02: Seven.
SPEAKER_02: The Jews really like the number seven.
SPEAKER_02: Seven's like the number of completion.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, we need to take care of widows.
SPEAKER_02: Let's create let's pick up seven men to do this task.
SPEAKER_02: It's a very Jewish uh decision.
SPEAKER_02: And they give this really high standard for these seven men.
SPEAKER_02: Now, I don't know about you, but if I was picking somebody for food distribution, I would say, well, they've got to have some background in working in a warehouse.
SPEAKER_02: You know, maybe they worked at Sam's Club or Costco or something like that.
SPEAKER_02: You know, maybe they have some business management experience or a bachelor's degree in organizational leadership or something like that.
SPEAKER_02: But that's not the standards that the apostles gave.
SPEAKER_02: The apostles gave standards of reputation.
SPEAKER_02: So these seven men, if you ask around about them, people are gonna have good things to say.
SPEAKER_02: Well, that's a lot of pressure.
SPEAKER_02: And not only that, but they need to be full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom.
SPEAKER_02: So, what does that mean to be full of the Holy Spirit?
SPEAKER_02: That means that the fruit of the Holy Spirit is evident in your life.
SPEAKER_02: So we need to see love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
SPEAKER_02: The reason I have that memorized is because there's this kid's ministry song, the fruit of the spirit, not a cherry.
SPEAKER_02: The fruit of the spirit's not a cherry.
SPEAKER_02: If you want to be a cherry, you might as well hear it.
SPEAKER_02: You can't be the fruit of the spirit, because those are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, hey, love, gentlemen, you know?
SPEAKER_02: It's a good way to remember.
SPEAKER_02: That's how you know I was a choir teacher.
SPEAKER_02: Because the only verses I have memorized are the ones that they made into songs, unfortunately.
SPEAKER_02: But these guys have to demonstrate all those things just so that they can distribute food.
SPEAKER_02: That puts a different standard on the way that we identify servant leaders.
SPEAKER_02: You know, we're always looking for servant leaders here at the road.
SPEAKER_02: We're always looking for people to serve on the prayer ministry team, on the worship team, as hospitality, as first impressions and greeters, people serving in the children's ministry.
SPEAKER_02: People, I mean, we serve a men's breakfast every Tuesday morning, and it is quite the operation.
SPEAKER_02: And Ricky Bobby does a great job of organizing that.
SPEAKER_02: But yeah, come on.
SPEAKER_02: But those types of tasks that we think are menial and kind of unspiritual, what I want to point out to you is the same word that's used in verse four, ministry of the word, is the same word that's used for serve in verse two for serve tables, and that's diaconia, which is where we get the word deacon from.
SPEAKER_02: It's the same word in 1 Corinthians 12, where Paul says there are a variety of ministries, but one God.
SPEAKER_02: And that word ministries is diaconia.
SPEAKER_02: The word for calling is diaconia, the word for serving is diaconia.
SPEAKER_02: And we in the modern church have separated practical ministry from spiritual ministry.
SPEAKER_02: And God never did that.
SPEAKER_02: He never separated out being full of the Holy Spirit from preaching to being full of the Holy Spirit and serving food.
SPEAKER_02: We need to be full of the Holy Spirit and doing both.
SPEAKER_02: And there's really not a difference between different services other than what it looks like.
SPEAKER_02: Put your finger here and let's go to John chapter 13.
SPEAKER_02: So just turn back.
SPEAKER_02: One book, chapter 13, and I want to point something out about how Jesus operated that I think is going to be really helpful for us.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm not even anywhere close to what I have on my notes.
SPEAKER_02: So forgive me, pray for me.
SPEAKER_02: If you haven't been praying, now's a good time to start, because obviously I need help.
SPEAKER_02: But let's just go John chapter 13, verses 3 through 5.
SPEAKER_02: Are you there?
SPEAKER_02: Great.
SPEAKER_02: Me too.
SPEAKER_02: John chapter 13, verse 3.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, let's just pause there for a second.
SPEAKER_02: If you knew that all things had been given into your hands, what would you do?
SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
SPEAKER_02: I'd probably go to Texas Roadhouse.
SPEAKER_02: You know?
SPEAKER_02: I'd probably have a party.
SPEAKER_02: I'd probably, you know, throw a dance party or something.
SPEAKER_02: I would do something silly.
SPEAKER_02: But let's look at what Jesus does.
SPEAKER_02: Knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper and said, Bow down before me and worship me.
SPEAKER_02: It's not what he did.
SPEAKER_02: He said, Got up from supper and laid aside his garments, took a towel and girded himself.
SPEAKER_02: After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and wipe them with the towel with which he was girded.
SPEAKER_02: That's the example that God gave us as a man who had accomplished his mission.
SPEAKER_02: He knew all things have been given unto me by my Father.
SPEAKER_02: I've come from the Father, I'm going to the Father.
SPEAKER_02: There was a sense of completion to where Jesus was at in his life.
SPEAKER_02: He really had, quote unquote, arrived.
SPEAKER_02: You know, he had accomplished what he was sent to accomplish, and he was ready to receive authority, things on heaven, things in earth.
SPEAKER_02: He knew what it was going to take, but he was at that place.
SPEAKER_02: And his response to knowing that all things had been given up unto him was to serve.
SPEAKER_02: I think a lot of us struggle.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, the very next verse in John 13, Peter fights with him about it.
SPEAKER_02: He's like, You shouldn't wash my feet.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is like, Come on, bro, you gotta let me, you gotta let me serve you if you want to be of service.
SPEAKER_02: And we have this kingdom that is upside down that Christ has modeled.
SPEAKER_02: We lead by serving.
SPEAKER_02: We lead by laying our life down for one another.
SPEAKER_02: The greatest among you will be a servant.
SPEAKER_02: And serving is the same word in the Greek for ministry.
SPEAKER_02: Serving is the same word for calling.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, what's my calling, Lord?
SPEAKER_02: You know, when you're doing a lot of stuff with youth, you could ask Pastor Joey.
SPEAKER_02: Kids are always concerned about what their calling is.
SPEAKER_02: Young adults, what's my calling?
SPEAKER_02: You know, what am I called to?
SPEAKER_02: Well, in the Greek, the difference between calling and service, there isn't one.
SPEAKER_02: The difference between ministry and service, there isn't one.
SPEAKER_02: And God has built his kingdom innately that we should be thinking about how do I serve?
SPEAKER_02: That's the question that we should ask.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, what are you calling me to do in service to you by extension your people?
SPEAKER_02: How can I serve the church?
SPEAKER_02: How can I serve the people around me?
SPEAKER_02: That's just really significant to me.
SPEAKER_02: And so, verse 4, I love this too.
SPEAKER_02: They said, you know, we're gonna have you guys appoint these people.
SPEAKER_02: Here's the requirements, you tell us, bring seven to us, and we're going to give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.
SPEAKER_02: So you've got this massive church, a to-do list longer than you can count, so many things on their hands.
SPEAKER_02: We've got 12 guys that are probably up to their eyeballs in things that need to be fixed and done, and they say, you know what we're gonna do?
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna give ourselves continually to prayer and the ministry of the word.
SPEAKER_02: You know, it reminds me of what Martin Luther said.
SPEAKER_02: He said, I've got so many things to do, I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.
SPEAKER_02: You know, when we have problems, when we need solutions, when we have a to-do list that we're having a hard time keeping up with, the best place to start is prayer.
SPEAKER_02: Every time.
SPEAKER_02: And it's so easy, guys, as a pastor, it's so easy to become a Martha that puts service before prayer.
SPEAKER_02: It's so easy to fall into the trap of, okay, well, I've got this problem to fix, I've got this person to help, all of these people are calling in with prayer requests, I need to take care of all of that stuff, and then if there's time at the end of the day, then maybe I can spend some time in prayer and reading the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: You see how easy it is to fall into that?
SPEAKER_02: But the apostles did the right thing under the influence of the wisdom of God, and they said, you know what, we're not going to take the precedence of prayer and preaching and teaching, discipleship, we're not going to remove that ministry which is really unto Christ for the sake of ministry unto men.
SPEAKER_02: And yes, every cup of cold water, Jesus sees that as ministry unto him.
SPEAKER_02: But our intimacy with Christ in the place of prayer has to be our first priority 100% of the time.
SPEAKER_02: And if you got too many things, if business gets too good that now you don't have time for prayer, you're in trouble.
SPEAKER_02: It's much better.
SPEAKER_02: Let's just take care of the prayer first.
SPEAKER_02: Let's go there first.
SPEAKER_02: Let's give God our first fruits.
SPEAKER_02: Amen?
SPEAKER_02: So let's keep going.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 5.
SPEAKER_02: And the saying pleased the whole multitude.
SPEAKER_02: So that's a good witness, you know.
SPEAKER_02: We don't want to be people pleasers, but it's also a nice thing when you feel like God gave you an idea and everybody's like, wow, that's a great idea.
SPEAKER_02: And that's what they did.
SPEAKER_02: And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip and Prochorus and Nikanor and Timon and Parmenus and Nicholas, a proselyte from Antioch, whom they set before the apostles, and when they had prayed, they laid hands on them.
SPEAKER_02: 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_02: Now, something that is really fun about this is all seven of those men have Greek names.
SPEAKER_02: Do you see the connection?
SPEAKER_02: There was an issue with the Hellenistic Jews, those that had a Greek background, and they were being neglected.
SPEAKER_02: So what did the Holy Spirit do through the apostles and through the congregation is he found seven people that would relate and understand the neglected group, and he appointed the ministry to them.
SPEAKER_02: Genius.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, well, we got this group over here.
SPEAKER_02: I was gonna try to come up with an analogy, but I couldn't think of anything.
SPEAKER_02: We've got the people that grew up in Peyton over here.
SPEAKER_02: I can pick up on myself because I grew up in Peyton, you know.
SPEAKER_02: We have the those country podunks out there on the eastern plains, and then we have the Colorado Springs people, you know, and those people out there, you know, maybe they're missing some teeth.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, you know, they they they spend a lot of time with cattle, and uh some of them kind of talk a little different.
SPEAKER_02: So, man, we're always drawing straws or playing nosegoes on who's gonna bring the food distribution out to them.
SPEAKER_02: Or when they come in, they're a rowdy bunch, and uh they never clean their boots, so we just don't really know, they don't really know how to act right.
SPEAKER_02: So maybe we'll serve them last so that they don't make anyone else feel uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_02: We'll have them meet over wait over here.
SPEAKER_02: See, it's really easy when, especially with people like me that are from Peyton, when when people are different, it's really easy to fall into a trap, even if it's not your intention to mistreat them.
SPEAKER_02: So then you find somebody that can relate to them and you appoint them a position of leadership.
SPEAKER_02: That does something for the whole group.
SPEAKER_02: They go, Well, that guy speaks my language, literally.
SPEAKER_02: That guy looks like me, that guy acts like me, he's gonna take care of me.
SPEAKER_02: You know, I just think about the family dynamics, how different families operate.
SPEAKER_02: If you're from a Hispanic family, you know, you go to grandma's house or your auntie or uncle's house, and everybody's there, and there's a certain way that you do food, there's a certain way that you do prayer, there's a certain way that you greet each other.
SPEAKER_02: You know, those types of cultural differences are really important for people, and they make them feel loved, they make them feel valuable.
SPEAKER_02: And as the church, Jesus loves diversity.
SPEAKER_02: He really loves when the church looks like a whole bunch of different kinds of people because it's a picture of his inheritance.
SPEAKER_02: He's taken an inheritance for himself from every tribe, people, nation, and tongue.
SPEAKER_02: So the more that the church can incorporate every tribe, people, nation, and tongue, the more that we're looking like the church at the end of the age, and the more that we're looking like heaven.
SPEAKER_02: It's really important.
SPEAKER_02: So these seven men, they're pretty interesting guys.
SPEAKER_02: Stephen is kind of the star of the show.
SPEAKER_02: He's really gonna be the star of the show next week because he's gonna do some awesome stuff that Pastor Steve's gonna talk to us about.
SPEAKER_02: It's gonna be awesome.
SPEAKER_02: Pastor Stephen's gonna preach on Stephen next week.
SPEAKER_02: Let's go.
SPEAKER_02: Awesome.
SPEAKER_02: But he's this central figure, kind of in this chapter.
SPEAKER_02: His name means crown or wreath, crown of righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: He becomes the first Christian martyr, next chapter, and he's remembered for wisdom, power, courage, Christ centered preaching, forgiveness toward his killers.
SPEAKER_02: Philip, this is almost.
SPEAKER_02: Most certainly Philip the Evangelist from Acts chapter 8 and chapter 21.
SPEAKER_02: He later preaches in Samaria, ministers deliverance and healing, leads the Ethiopian eunuch to Christ, and then right after that gets teleported somewhere.
SPEAKER_02: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_02: And this guy was just distributing food.
SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
SPEAKER_02: Way to go, Philip.
SPEAKER_02: And then he's got four daughters, and all of them prophesy.
SPEAKER_02: That's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_02: Four prophetess daughters.
SPEAKER_02: That means at least two of the seven, Stephen and Philip, later became powerful public witnesses, but they were first appointed to serve a practical need.
SPEAKER_02: Isn't that just so much like God?
SPEAKER_02: You know, uh, my dad has all of these fun little things that he does to torment pastors like myself.
SPEAKER_02: And uh one of the things that he does is when there's a new pastor on the church or a new leader, he always asks them, Do you know where the leadership training room is?
SPEAKER_02: They were like, No, I didn't know we had one.
SPEAKER_02: He goes, Oh yeah, let me take let me show you.
SPEAKER_02: And he'll literally walk them over to the men's restroom and put a toilet brush in their hand.
SPEAKER_02: Say, this is the leadership training room.
SPEAKER_02: So pray for me.
SPEAKER_02: That's who raised me.
SPEAKER_02: Um I don't twitch anymore, but uh I'm just kidding, he's a great man.
SPEAKER_02: And that's always stuck with me.
SPEAKER_02: He's always said, you know, never be never be above cleaning toilets, never be above menial duties, because God sees that.
SPEAKER_02: You know, when I was down in Pueblo, I was a school teacher and I uh led worship and a lot of prayer meetings at a local church down there.
SPEAKER_02: There was this guy named John Matson, one of my favorite people.
SPEAKER_02: And if if I would come in on a Saturday, you know, to do something for worship or to carry some gear in, or who knows, if I came in somewhere between 9 and 2, chances were I would hear some guy singing, Hallelujah! Thank you, Jesus, out of the bathrooms.
SPEAKER_02: Because he was the guy, he was the janitor.
SPEAKER_02: And he loved cleaning the church.
SPEAKER_02: And he did it for free every Saturday.
SPEAKER_02: He'd clean all the bathrooms, he'd vacuum the floors, he'd organize some stuff, and he'd be in there singing at the top of his lungs, singing in tongues, talking to Jesus, and you'd walk in there and you could feel the presence of God in that building because he was in there serving full of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: And I always thought to myself, I want to be like that.
SPEAKER_02: I want to be like John Matson.
SPEAKER_02: It's a great man.
SPEAKER_02: We have Prochorus.
SPEAKER_02: He's not mentioned again in Scripture.
SPEAKER_02: Later church tradition says he may have been connected with John the Beloved and served as a church leader.
SPEAKER_02: Nikonor isn't mentioned again in Scripture.
SPEAKER_02: Later traditions claim he was martyred.
SPEAKER_02: Uh Timon is not mentioned again in Scripture.
SPEAKER_02: Later traditions associate him with ministry leadership.
SPEAKER_02: Parmenus is not mentioned again in Scripture, but some traditions say he continued faithfully in ministry and was martyred.
SPEAKER_02: And then Nikolaus is described as a proselyte from Antioch.
SPEAKER_02: So that's interesting too because that means he was not even ethnically Jewish.
SPEAKER_02: So this is kind of the first non-Jewish leader in the church in Jerusalem, because a proselyte was a Greek that converted to Judaism later.
SPEAKER_02: That's pretty awesome.
SPEAKER_02: Gentile by birth.
SPEAKER_02: From Antioch, which is a major city in Syria, and later became a major center for Christian mission.
SPEAKER_02: So I'm totally out of order on my pages.
SPEAKER_02: But a couple things that I want to highlight as well is in verse 6, when they had prayed, they laid hands on them.
SPEAKER_02: So these guys were already full of the Spirit, they were already of good reputation, they were already full of wisdom.
SPEAKER_02: That was the prerequisites.
SPEAKER_02: But the apostles still believed that they could appoint them and anoint them and see what was already evident in their life increase through the ministry of impartation and laying on of hands.
SPEAKER_02: Just to distribute food, just to serve tables.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, we really shouldn't neglect the power of the Holy Spirit in every area of our ministry service.
SPEAKER_02: God wants to use you, no matter where you are, to do miracles.
SPEAKER_02: You know, I think one of the common misconceptions with the modern evangelical church is we, you know, we have these spiritual gifting tests, and then we tell people, well, based on your giftings, you should be operating in these types of ministries.
SPEAKER_02: But I don't really think that that's how the Holy Spirit designed it.
SPEAKER_02: I really think that the Holy Spirit was like, okay, this guy's operating in faith.
SPEAKER_02: This guy's operating full of the Spirit, he's got all the fruits, evident, he's got good reputation, he's laying his hands on people and doing miracles.
SPEAKER_02: Let's put him in charge of food distribution.
SPEAKER_02: That doesn't really make a lot of sense.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, we're gonna find out about Stephen's life and Philip's life as we go through this book.
SPEAKER_02: These guys were in charge of serving food.
SPEAKER_02: But one of them got teleported.
SPEAKER_02: I don't even know what ministry at the road requires that spiritual gift.
SPEAKER_02: It's not even listed.
SPEAKER_02: 1 Corinthians 12.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, you can teleport.
SPEAKER_02: Well, let's put you on the worship team.
SPEAKER_02: That way, when Pastor Steve.
SPEAKER_02: Anyway, at the end of service, you can just appear at the keys, you know, we'll say, Glory to God.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
SPEAKER_02: I really think that we're called to operate in all the spiritual gifts, regardless of what our service is.
SPEAKER_02: Regardless of what our ministry is.
SPEAKER_02: You know, we talked about it before we went into Acts, but Paul really told us to earnestly desire the spiritual gifts because you need all of them to serve tables.
SPEAKER_02: You need all of them to pump gas.
SPEAKER_02: You need all of them to go to the grocery store.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: Because God is craving the souls of the people that you meet on a daily basis, and he wants you to be a real witness of who he is to them.
SPEAKER_02: So that when you're serving tables and you see somebody rubbing their neck, you go, Can I pray for you?
SPEAKER_02: And their neck can get healed while you're giving them a meal.
SPEAKER_02: You know, I love Pastor Al has this cool story of a restaurant that he had back in uh, was it in Pennsylvania?
SPEAKER_02: And uh he had this wall called the Wall of God's fame.
SPEAKER_02: Is that right?
SPEAKER_02: Close enough, he said.
SPEAKER_02: And it had wheelchairs and walkers and canes from the people that came into that restaurant and got prayed for by one of his servers and got healed.
SPEAKER_02: Now, isn't that amazing?
SPEAKER_02: That's exactly what we're talking about here.
SPEAKER_02: Because as we read on, in verse 8, oh, I can't go to verse 8 yet, because in verse 7 it says the word of God spread.
SPEAKER_02: That makes no sense.
SPEAKER_02: How could food distribution cause the word of God to spread?
SPEAKER_02: Because when we represent Christ, he represents us.
SPEAKER_02: When we represent Christ well, okay, you're taking care of people well, great.
SPEAKER_02: I can breathe revival on this community now.
SPEAKER_02: Because you're honoring one another, you're serving one another, you're loving one another like I love, and I can validate and put my stamp of approval on that community and cause people, even priests.
SPEAKER_02: This says that priests were obedient to the faith.
SPEAKER_02: Dudes that are serving in the temple, Levites, these guys that know the Bible, these guys that should be really resistant to the word of the Lord as Christians, and they're coming to faith.
SPEAKER_02: As a result, I mean the logical flow here is that's a result of good food distribution.
SPEAKER_02: We're feeding people well on Tuesday morning men's breakfast and serving people and making them feel loved and making them experience the power of God and praying for them when they have needs and causing them to open up their hearts and vulnerability so God can breathe on that, and over a hundred churches can be represented on a weekly basis at six in the morning.
SPEAKER_02: What?
SPEAKER_02: Who even wants to eat green chili at 6 a.m.?
SPEAKER_02: He does.
SPEAKER_02: He does, he does.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, well, it makes sense now.
SPEAKER_02: But that's how God works, he takes the practical things, and when we represent him in practical things, he breathes his grace and his power on those things, and they are natural, practical things become supernatural.
SPEAKER_02: And the word of God spreads and multiplies, and people get saved because they're like, wow, I've never seen anybody so happy about distributing bread to a widow, and they can't even speak the well, in this case they could.
SPEAKER_02: I was gonna say they can't speak the same language, but they were Greeks.
SPEAKER_02: Just amazing to me the things that God uses to build the church.
SPEAKER_02: And I wonder what simple practical things he wants to use at the road to build his church in Colorado Springs.
SPEAKER_02: It's probably not something crazy, something wild.
SPEAKER_02: It's probably something simple.
SPEAKER_02: And us just instead of begrudgingly doing something, doing it with joyful spirit, doing it full of the Holy Spirit, empowered by his grace, believing in him with faith.
SPEAKER_02: So verse 8, Stephen, full of faith and power.
SPEAKER_02: Now I have an unfortunate thing to share with you, is in verse 8, the word there for faith is Keris.
SPEAKER_02: So I'm not telling you what to do, but in my Bible, the word faith is crossed out, and I wrote grace there, because everywhere else that's what Keris is translated.
SPEAKER_02: And I think that's important because Stephen was a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit in verse 5, but now in verse 8, he's a man full of grace and power.
SPEAKER_02: Do you see that transition, that flow?
SPEAKER_02: When you start with faith and fruit, you end up with grace and power.
SPEAKER_02: What is grace?
SPEAKER_02: It's the enabling power of God to do the impossible.
SPEAKER_02: So when we operate in faith, Lord, I'm gonna serve bread by faith.
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna accept this position faithfully.
SPEAKER_02: And when we are faithful and fruitful, we become graceful and powerful.
SPEAKER_02: That's usually how God works.
SPEAKER_02: He goes, now that is a fruitful branch, and I can use him to do some pretty awesome stuff while he's handing out lunch.
SPEAKER_02: You know, I can see it now.
SPEAKER_02: He's in the lunch line, and uh Sister Ethel walks up with a limp and he goes, Oh, Sister Ethel, let's pray for you.
SPEAKER_02: Shakes her hand, God bless her, and she's healed.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, next.
SPEAKER_02: She got a lot more than lunch.
SPEAKER_02: Full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the people.
SPEAKER_02: Then there arose some from what is called the synagogue of the freedmen, Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and those from Cilicia and Asia.
SPEAKER_02: Cilicia is where Tarsus is.
SPEAKER_02: So it's possible that Paul was here in this group of freedmen.
SPEAKER_02: It's possible, it's not necessarily the situation.
SPEAKER_02: And they're disputing with Stephen and this food distribution guy, verse 10, they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke.
SPEAKER_02: So now this guy is arguing with biblical experts, guys that had at least five books of the Bible memorized, some of them maybe more.
SPEAKER_02: And Stephen is making them look like ninnies through wisdom and the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Then they secretly induced men to say, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.
SPEAKER_02: And they stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes, and they came upon him, seized him, and brought him to the council.
SPEAKER_02: They also set up false witnesses who said, This man does not cease to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law.
SPEAKER_02: For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs which Moses delivered to us, which there's a little bit of truth to that.
SPEAKER_02: Even though these people are saying things that aren't true, there's a little bit of truth in their untruths.
SPEAKER_02: That's always how the enemy works, typically.
SPEAKER_02: And all who sat in the council, looking steadfastly at him, saw his face as the face of an angel.
SPEAKER_02: Isn't that interesting?
SPEAKER_02: They're accusing him of blaspheming Moses, but he looks like Moses did when he came off of Mount Sinai.
SPEAKER_02: His face is radiating like an angel under all this accusation.
SPEAKER_02: And we're gonna get to see him go over 1,100 years of Jewish history off the top of his head in a sermon in front of a bunch of people that hate him and are reviling against him in the next chapter.
SPEAKER_02: And this is a food distribution guy.
SPEAKER_02: So that should be a challenge to all of us.
SPEAKER_02: Stephen wasn't an apostle, he wasn't a pastor, he wasn't a teacher, he wasn't an evangelist, he wasn't a prophet, he wasn't the director of yada yada yada.
SPEAKER_02: He was a food distribution guy.
SPEAKER_02: And he knew the Bible really well.
SPEAKER_02: And he knew how to listen to that still small voice and be inspired by him, even in the face of opposition and accusation, and be at peace.
SPEAKER_02: That sounds like a super Christian to me, but he's just a regular guy that they appointed to help with serving tables.
SPEAKER_02: So everyone in this room has the opportunity, and even I would say, the expectation from Jesus to walk as a fruit-bearing branch in faith, in grace, and in the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: I think that there's people here that God wants to activate in spiritual gifts, and that doesn't necessarily mean that he's calling you into full-time vocational ministry.
SPEAKER_02: But he wants you to keep being a truck driver and receive prophetic insight from the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: He wants you to keep being a school teacher and for students to come into your classroom on their lunch break because you carry the spirit of wisdom and revelation, and it's easier for them to do their homework there.
SPEAKER_02: Or maybe you're a police officer, and God wants you to be operating in words of wisdom and words of knowledge so that you can prophetically understand what's going on and be led by the Holy Spirit in your job.
SPEAKER_02: Or maybe you're called to government and he wants you to be operating in gifts of healing and the workings of miracles so that you can be a witness to people in high places and places of influence.
SPEAKER_02: I think everybody here is experiencing less than what God has for you.
SPEAKER_02: And that's not me dogging on you, that's not me pointing a finger at you in a diminutive way, that's me inviting you to a higher reality, which is we can be waiters at tables and know the word of God and be full of wisdom and power and grace.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
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