Pastor Mac v.22 "Don't Miss God, While Doing Church!" Acts 7:45-53

words of encouragement and inspiration

"A Few Minutes with Pastor Mac"
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Transcript

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So we're glad that God has kept us, brought us and maintained us, and sustained us and comforted us and all of that. Uh so we'll thank you, God, for all his many blessings and and what he's done for us and through us. And I hope we have a happy Mother's Day to all mothers out there understanding my voice and those throughout the day at church and wherever. Oh God blesses the mothers real good. They celebrate, celebrate this mother's day. Uh let us pray. Oh God, we thank you for the chance to dig in your word and hear something from you. Respond, Lord, not resist. Make sure we possess the energy, Lord, to follow your word and your will. Protect us and keep us and use us for the king. And let us not fall to the to the wayside, Lord. We keep our minds on you. And our focus on the kingdom. We love you, we thank you, we ask for your blessings today, the days and weeks to come. We know you're working it out for our good and your glory. Let the words of my mouth and meditation of my heart be accepted by that. Oh my Savior, my Redeemer, in Jesus the Christ. In holy name we pray. Amen. Well, we've been throughout last Sunday, we've been celebrating for our church anniversary. Uh church Dallas. And uh but I gave you the two weeks prior, uh two weeks prior. Um I gave you the text of Acts 7, 45 through 53. And uh that will be where we put our temple today this morning. Next Sunday, Lord, is the same. Acts 7, 54 through 60. We finish the seventh chapter with Stephen as well. But 754 through 60. Next Sunday, we ask you to go ahead and read that study. Uh, it helps to enhance the hearing of the word when you study the word before the Sunday. So I try to make sure that's available so that you may have a chance to to add it to your devotion and your personal reading time the text. But um, Acts 7, 45 through 53, reading the Am translation. After receiving the tabernacle, our ancestors under Joshua brought it with them when they took the land from the nations God drove out before them. It remained a land until the time of David, who enjoyed God's favor and asked that he may provide a dwelling place for the house of Jacob. But it was Solomon who built a house for him. However, the most high does not live in houses made by man's hands, human hands. As the prophet says, heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord? Uh where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all these things, you stiff-necked people? Your hearts and ears are not uncircumcised, or are circumcised. You are just like your ancestors. You always resist the Holy Spirit. Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the righteous one, and now you have betrayed and murdered him. You have received the law that was given through angels, but what have not obeyed the word of God for the people of God for the edifying of God? Um tag this Femus Pastor Matt Podcast. Um, don't miss God while doing church. Don't miss God while doing church. Have you ever had been busy doing something and completely miss what really mattered? Uh you can be in the room but not present. You can hear but not listen, and tragically you can be in church and still miss God. And that's what Stephen confronts in Acts chapter 7. He is standing before the religious leaders, men who knew the scripture, who practiced religion, men who held authority in the church. But Stephen reveals a staggering truth. They had church, but they missed God. I'm gonna stay in this text. That's what the text said. And I came to ask us this morning: is it possible that we are doing church but missing God? I know we're busy doing church work, but are we doing church and missing God? And this is a dangerous place you get to in church where you know how to lift your hands, you know how to do work for the Lord, sing the songs, quote the scripture, do ministry, be active in church, but your heart is nowhere near God. I'm in a text. That's what it says. You can be around God and still not be with God. Everything else is important, but God and God's word. Stephen stands in front of religious people, people who knew church, and says, You got the structure, but you missed the savior. A. W. Toza once said that if the Holy Spirit were withdrawn from the church today, most of what we would go on, most of what we do would go on, and no one would know the difference. Uh-oh. And that's the tension of this text. Stephen stands up and says, Y'all kept the structure, but rejected the Savior. Um, first, let's look at we can't put God in a box. Stephen reminds them. He takes them through a history lesson. Uh uh, God does not live in houses made by hands. He walks them through the history and says uh that God worked through the tabernacle and later allowed Solomon to build the temple. David desired a house for God. The temple was consecrated, but God was never confined in it. From the wilderness to David to Solomon, then he flips and said, The most high does not dwell in temples made with hands. The building was sacred, but God was never stuck. The place was blessed, but God was never boxed in it. And and God is too big. Uh uh He'll use a place, but he refuses to be limited by it. That's the problem with humans. Uh, the problem was not that they love the temple, the problem is that they made the temple too small for God. Can I tell somebody to preach it while I teach it, teach it while I preach it? Uh some of us have made God too small. Our problems have become what we main focus on instead of what God can do. And when we make God fit only what we prefer, we are not worshiping him, we are limiting him. Uh we sign we love the sound, the flow, the vibe, but do we seek his presence? You can sing songs but not surrender, attend services but not be transformed. Protect tradition, but but reject the truth and tell somebody sitting next to you, God is bigger than the box. Some of you trust your problem more than God because you worry about the problem and never give it to God. That's how we know what's going on. But he's bigger than my problem. That's why the history of your mind should roll back through your history and say, you remember when you were sick, God was bigger than your sickness. You remember when you had financial difficulties, your back was against the wall. God is bigger than your financial difficulties. You remember when your family was acting cray, cray relationships upside down. God is bigger than your all your issues that you can come up with that you experienced in your life. The church is not a place to go, but a people to be. That's what John Stotch said. And since we are the church, yeah, we should have him dwell in his tabernacle. Yeah, yeah, that's that's why, that's why we must be uh what we say we are. We are the church. It's not just we come here, we bring the church to church. You get that on the way home. You are the church. Then number two, he said, a stiff heart blocks a moving God. Look at the text. He said, You stiff-necked people. Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors. You always resist the Holy Spirit. He turned and said, You stiff neck, folks. Define it, stiff neck. You won't bend, you won't yield, you won't change. And that is the heart of the indictment this morning that God had been speaking through prophet, scripture signs, and not through Jesus Christ, the righteous one. But instead of receiving revelation, they resisted it. Yeah, God revealed the truth, but they rejected it. God sent prophets, but they persecuted them. God sent Jesus, but they betrayed and murdered him.

unknown 9:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:06

Look at your dame and say, don't fight what God is showing you. This isn't atheists. These are the monotheistic people. These are not uh uh folk who are dabbing in believing God. This is church folk. And what resistance looks like, God nudges you, you ignore it, God convicts you, you justify it, God leads, you delay it. Holding on to stuff God said release, that's resistance. That's that's resistance. Uh uh God speaks in moments like in this in this service, doing worship, doing the word in conviction and how you responding. You come here to worship. Don't sit there while God is putting on, pull it on you. Don't hear the word and shut your heart down. Don't feel conviction and call it coincidence. Don't resist God while sitting in his presence. We're here to worship him. You can't worship him, and he done told you to release some stuff. You can't worship him holding on to some stuff. You can't keep rejecting God, reject God's voice. They Joseph was rejected, Moses resisted, prophets killed, Jesus crucified, and now Stephen rejected too. So don't feel bad when folk reject you. Jesus the Christ was rejected. Jesus the Christ was put aside and overlooked and looked down on. Don't you feel bad? No, don't feel bad. Don't feel bad. Can I tell somebody? Don't feel bad. You just keep on doing the mission. You keep on plying what God has given you to give to somebody else. When hearts are hard, truth feels offensive. That's why some folks don't receive it. Because when your heart heart stiff-necked, yeah, the truth seems to get on your nerves. You come to church, and I try not to be uh the guy that gives you always the preacher who gives you uh you only want encouraging word. You avoid correction. You say amen, but don't apply. The word you avoid is the one you need. Sometimes the truth you don't like is the one sent to grow you. You can't shout over what you refuse to leave. I think that's right. The preach Pastor Mac, I'm doing the best I can. Uh, don't reject what God is using to change you. God is speaking, but you keep scrolling on your phone. God is calling, but you keep delaying. God is convicting you, but you keep negotiating. Lord, just give me one more time. Just just give me one more chance. That's awfully hard. Well, don't put them in a box. Stiff-necked folk rejecting, and lastly, rejecting God has always been the pattern. Told you earlier, he said, You that cycle you already done. He said, 52. Uh, was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? He said, That's in your family, that's your DNA. Uh, they even killed Jesus, predicted the righteous one, and you betrayed and murdered him. Received the law, but didn't know. He said, You killed the prophets. Received the law, didn't keep it. And this is this is a new behavior. That's what Steve said, this is not new behavior. Anybody hadn't persecuted? This is a repeated cycle. God, since truth, people reject it. Yeah, that's what we are in for. We keep rejecting the word of God. That's the pattern. That's why some of us don't make it because we go to a reprobate in mind because we keep refusing the Holy Spirit. I don't know about you today, but I I just want to stand and proclaim that Jesus is Lord. Yes, I don't want to miss God by doing church. I want to make sure God is why I come to church. He's made me the church. That's why I can stand and proclaim with a loud voice that Jesus is Lord. And the Bible says that every knee shall bow. Yes, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus is the Lord. And I stand with firm confidence that he is the one. Stephen reminded them that you can't keep on doing what you're doing, and expect God to just let that go on. Because God is all powerful. God can do what he pleases. He's able to turn your situation around because he is God. And I don't know about you today, but uh I couldn't serve a God that I had to take out of my pocket and shine and step, put down on a step. That's not a God. I couldn't serve a God that I couldn't not understand why he does what he does, and it's explainable. I don't I don't need a God, but I need a God when I look up in the sky and I see white clouds hung on a blue background. Don't understand how he did that, but that's what a God does. Don't understand how the composite of the universe made with solar systems and other universes and stars in the sky and sun and moon and how we rotate on the axis, but the slightest move of the earth, and we could burn up like a crisp. I don't understand it, but that lets me know that there is a God who can take a black cow, eat green grass, and give white milk and yellow butter, and bluebell ice cream. There is a God who can do anything but fail. And I'm so glad this morning that uh you sent his darling son, Jesus. Jesus, his only begotten son. You don't mind if I talk about him. You know I do it all the time because he's worthy for that. Born in Bethlehem, raised in Nazareth, baptized in the Jordan, walked the streets of Jerusalem, healed the shaken, raised the dead, and one Friday on a hill called Calvary, he died, didn't he die? Die till the sun stopped shining, die till the moon dripped away in land, die till the earth shook like a drunk man. But that's not all that happened because on the third day morning he rose with all power in his hell and now I don't take church for granted because I am the church. He walks with me, talks with me, and he tells me I am his own and all the joy that we share as he tells me keep on keeping on keep on for the kingdom some folk may look at you funny, but I don't care about shouting I don't care about being loud because he's been that good and he's been so awesome. I gotta give him praise and glory for all he's done. Can't you give him glory? Won't he do say yes he will make a way Won't he will he Won't he won't he won't he won't he won't he do will say yes