Welcome to the Lansdale Life Church podcast.
If you're seeking a closer relationship with Jesus Christ, this podcast is for you.
Thank you for joining us today.
Yeah, Lord, we thank you that you are the great physician.
You know our bodies better than we do, better than the doctors do.
And, Lord, you can heal anything and everything.
So, Lord, we do pray for complete healing.
Lord, we thank you for all the times you've done miracles in our lives to this point
and trust you for even more.
Lord, you're not finished with us, Lord.
You're going to do more and more great things in our lives.
And, Lord, we pray for Kat.
Lord, thank you that she's such a steadfast worker and shows up.
And, you know, right now she's watching, Lord.
And, Lord, we just ask you to bless her and know that she is loved
and that her shoulder is going to heal quickly.
And, also, Dottie, Lord God, we just pray for clarity,
that you would give her equilibrium back
and that you would clear anything that's going on in her body
and repair anything that's happening.
And we cherish them, Lord God.
So, we thank you and we love you in Jesus' name.
Amen.
And, you know what? Let's pray for me, too.
Father God, please help me right now.
Just present Acts chapter 6 in a clear way, Lord.
Just take away any distractions.
And, Lord God, I ask that your Spirit would use your Word
to do your work in each one of our hearts and minds, Lord.
And I would get out of the way, Lord.
Thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.
I like to think of myself as like a waiter, okay?
Bringing food that the Lord prepared
and all my job is not to spill it, okay?
Not to trip.
And that's not easy because I don't have the best balance.
So, thank you, Lord, for doing that.
Today, we're looking at Acts chapter 6.
Give you a minute to look that up.
I don't know about you, but throughout school,
I always missed the announcement.
I don't know if any of you can relate to that.
They would say where to turn and I'd always miss it
every time.
And then I'm peeking over somewhere else.
And I still do it today.
I turn to Jill.
I'm like, where did they say to turn?
Because I just don't listen.
So, it's Acts chapter 6.
Amen to that.
And so, we're just going to thank the Lord
and we're looking at Acts chapter 6.
And it's about Stephen.
And it's an introduction to Stephen.
So, we're not going to go all through it today.
Just Acts chapter 6.
And, you know, I noticed that whenever you buy something online,
let's say Amazon, okay?
And, you know, it used to be that it was typically a blue van
that would pull up, right, and deliver a package.
But are you noticing more and more vehicles
of all different shapes, sizes, colors,
everything just showing up?
And I don't know about you, but we live on a busy road.
And so, anybody could just pull up on our driveway real easy.
And so many times, I'm like, who's that?
And now, I realize it's just a delivery.
It's just a delivery.
What else did you buy, Jill?
But what are we buying now?
I turn out for me for some reason.
But anyway.
And it's because, like, they're just getting anyone
to be able to distribute what is being purchased.
I know the other day, actually a couple weeks back,
I bought bill code doors on a project I'm working on from Lowe's.
And I order it, and it says it'll be there
by the end of the day.
And they didn't even have them in stock.
I'm like, how is that possible, right?
And so, there I am thinking, I'll believe that when I see it.
There it is, almost 5 p.m.
in this little Subaru station wagon,
pulls up, backs in.
I'm thinking, is that it?
This thing looked like it had been through a battle, okay?
I mean, the fenders are multicolored,
and it had, you know, it's seen a thing or two, right?
And it's backing up, and I'm like,
could that be delivering bill code doors?
I mean, they're big, and they're heavy, right?
And so, and then I see one guy get out of the car.
I'm like, he's gonna carry bill code doors
out of this little car?
Are you kidding me?
So I go out, I'm like, are you the bill code door guy?
Yeah, yeah, that's me, you know?
And so, he opens up the thing, and I'm like,
how'd you get it in there?
Well, I had help, and I'm thinking,
well, how was he planning to get it out of there?
Good thing I'm here.
So we got it out, we put it in my SUV,
and then, you know, he drives away,
but I was just thinking, like, it's interesting,
like, these packages are being delivered
from, like, anyone, everywhere, right?
In fact, sometimes I've actually seen groceries
delivered in BMWs, you know?
Because, hey, everyone's getting in on the act, right?
There's money there, but why?
It's because companies have the supply,
and there is a demand for the supply,
but they lack distributors.
They need to distribute the supply to the demand, right?
And so, they're like, all hands on deck,
anyone they can find, you have four wheels,
we need you, you know?
Soon, they're gonna have bicycles delivering this stuff.
I don't know, they'll have to be electric bikes,
but anyway, and I liken that really to the gospel,
because, you know, there is an endless supply of God's grace,
an endless supply of forgiveness, of salvation.
I mean, God doesn't run out of grace.
He wants his heaven filled with humanity.
He wants to fill up heaven with the body of Christ.
That's what he's trying to do.
So, there's tons of supply, okay?
And I believe there's a lot of demand, pent up demand,
but they just don't know what they need yet.
What we're lacking is distributors,
people to deliver the grace of God to those who need it, amen?
And as I'm thinking about this, that's us, that's us.
And even Jesus said in Matthew chapter nine, verses 37, 38,
he said, the fields are ripe for the harvest.
Pray to the Lord of the harvest that he would send out workers.
Amen.
You know, and he said, because it's an endless supply.
Do you remember that parable when he was,
he likened the Lord to a landowner,
and Jesus was saying, you know, the kingdom of heaven
is like a landowner who, you know,
it was ripe for harvest, the fields, right?
And he went out in the morning,
hired somebody in the beginning of the day,
the third hour, sixth hour, ninth hour, even the 11th hour,
he's still looking for anyone to reap the harvest
because that's what he's looking for.
People who are willing to say yes.
We're gonna read today about Stephen who said yes.
He said yes to something that would seem so insignificant,
serving tables, something that is not a prestigious position.
It's not a glamorous role.
And yet they wanted someone who was close with God,
who would feed the early church,
the widows of the early church.
And we're gonna read about him and the six others
and what the Lord did to them because they said yes.
You know, sometimes things start off with humble beginnings,
but they have glorious endings, glorious results, amen.
So let's dive in and we're gonna read Acts chapter six,
I think just straight through.
And why am I in John?
Okay, there we go, okay.
And let's dive in.
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.
And then the 12 summoned the multitude of the disciples
and said, it is not desirable that we should leave
the word of God and serve tables.
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
that we will give ourselves continually to prayer
and to the ministry of the word.
Verse five, and the saying, please the whole multitude.
And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith
and the Holy Spirit and Philip and Prakuris,
as well as Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas,
and Nicholas, a proselyte from Antioch,
whom they set before the apostles
and when they had prayed, they laid hands on them.
By the way, this is to serve tables, right?
And 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.
We're talking about the priests,
the Jewish priests were actually converted.
Verse eight, and Stephen, full of faith and power,
did great wonders and signs among the people.
And then there arose some from what is called
the synagogue of the freed men,
Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and those from Cecelia and Asia,
disputing with Stephen,
and they were not able to resist the wisdom
and the spirit by which he spoke.
Did you hear that?
Yeah.
And then they secretly induced men to say,
we have heard him speak blasphemous words
against Moses and God.
And they stirred up the people and the elders
and the scribes and they came upon him, seized him,
and brought him to the council.
They also set up a false witnesses who said,
this man does not cease to speak blasphemous words
against this holy place and the law.
For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth
will destroy this place and change the customs
which Moses delivered to us.
And all who sat in the council looking steadfastly at him
saw his face as the face of an angel.
Now we're gonna talk about the face of an angel next week
because it ties in with what goes on
from there in chapter seven.
And so we see here a lot of great things are happening, right?
People are getting saved.
People are getting healed signs, wonders, miracles.
People are getting delivered from evil spirits.
I mean, it's glorious, right?
And yet there's problems.
There's trouble.
And so today I would like us to consider three realities,
three realities of church growth.
One, growth creates opportunity,
like we just saw in Stephen, okay?
Yeah, I'll serve tables.
And next he knew it, he's doing signs and wonders.
And then he's engaged in disputes
and talking about the wisdom of God.
Growth activates opposition, which we just saw, okay?
We have a problem.
They have a problem with him.
Growth activates opposition.
And finally, growth requires order.
We're gonna look at all three of those things in detail
because we have experienced all of these things
in this church over the 12 years we've existed.
I've experienced these things personally in my life,
and you probably have too.
So as we think about these three realities,
we're not just talking about a church body,
we're talking about each one of us.
Because I promise you, the more you grow in Christ,
you're going to realize that there's more
and more opportunities opening up to you.
Because the Lord, you know, remember,
we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus
for good works, which God prepared
in advance for us to walk in.
So that means the Lord already had silos
full of good works that he has planned
for each one of us to do.
And the closer we get with God,
the more we realize what he's calling us to do.
But they usually start in small places,
just like with Stephen, serving tables.
It starts small, and then it just grows.
So I've noticed this in my own life.
And so let's start with growth creates opportunity.
I think I have a little slider, yeah, of growth.
And really, that's what happens.
Like the more we get close with God,
we suddenly see opportunities.
Have you experienced that?
Suddenly, you know, we see things
or are asked to do things.
And we're like, well, it really wasn't,
I couldn't see myself doing this, but okay.
And then all of a sudden it leads to something else.
And then to something else.
And before you know it,
well, I never thought I'd see myself doing these things.
But we have to start with,
why was Stephen chosen to serve tables?
Like you think it's such a, just grab anybody, okay?
I mean, they're widows and they take anything.
No, no, it doesn't go that way, right?
They want someone spirit-filled.
Why was Stephen and the other six chosen?
Well, it says, first of all,
he is full of faith and the Holy Spirit, you know?
And later it says he was full of faith and power.
The more you say yes to God, the more you are empowered.
Did you ever notice that?
Like, you know, when you say yes to the small things,
all of a sudden you realize that the Lord
is really upon me right now.
He's anointing me for even this little task.
And suddenly there's another task,
and then there's another task, you know?
And he's growing you.
In fact, you know, it's true that, you know,
when you do a good job, you're asked to do more jobs, okay?
That's why when Jill asked me to do the dishes,
I make sure I don't fully clean.
No, I'm kidding.
I do that.
No, I'm a good cleaner, aren't I?
I do, I'm a good cleaner.
But, no, really, but, you know,
because they say that's the,
you know what I've actually seen this is,
I'm just saying, in a lot of churches, what happens,
and I'm so glad it's not this church.
I've been in churches that there's like phenomenal people
that are just great at everything, okay?
And they're just, they're asked to do more and more
and more and more and more and more.
And before you know it,
all the jobs are being taken by a few.
Like, they say 10%, 90% of the work is done
by 10% of the people.
I think that's in every, in every, in every sector,
but especially in the church because they do it well.
But what happens is they're not leaving room
for other people to step into roles
and say, you know, I'll try that.
I won't do it as good as that person, but I'll try it.
And that's what happens when you start saying yes,
you mess up, but guess what?
All of a sudden you learn
and you get better for the next time.
You know, we've all been through these things.
Anything you do for the first time, you're never good at,
let's face it, right?
Even if you're exceptional, you still mess up.
And so that's the idea is we've all experienced these things.
So he was full of faith and just said, yes,
I will serve tables.
These Hellenists, widows, you know,
and by the way, I'll just explain.
Hellenists, they were Greek speaking Jews, okay?
As opposed to Hebrew speaking Jews.
So there was probably a little kind of vibe of,
I can't really figure you out yet, you know?
They weren't from around Jerusalem, perhaps.
So, you know, they didn't really understand each other fully.
So naturally there would be this cultural rub, you know?
And you see that in churches all the time today, right?
There's rubs.
You came from this background, I came from this background.
You know, there's a little rub, but you know what?
Don't you love that we're living stones, okay?
You ever hear this comparison, this analogy,
where the church, we're each living stones
and we all have jagged edges, okay?
But for us to fit in together and build the church,
we got to rub off on each other, all right?
We got to sand each other's rough edges down
so that we become smooth, so that we fit in to the walls,
the building of the church.
But anyway, so he was filled with the Spirit.
If you don't mind putting that up again,
thank you so much.
And the next thing, he is open to God's leading.
You know, the door was opening and he said,
all right, I'll do it, okay?
There's an opportunity.
He was open to God's leading.
And the next thing is he says yes to small things.
I love in Zechariah, it actually says that, you know,
don't be grudged, don't despise small beginnings.
You know, everything starts small.
I mean, think about it.
Like the Lord didn't choose Moses
when he was the prince of Egypt.
He had to get him out of there
and he chose him when he was a shepherd in the desert
for a bunch of sheep, right?
And so he chooses, David was not the first, the oldest son.
He was the youngest son
and he wasn't even considered by his dad.
That's what the Lord loves to do.
He loves to choose those that you would never consider.
He's like, yeah, that's the one.
That's the one for me.
Because watch what I do through them.
And that's what boggles everyone's mind.
I love what Paul says.
None of you were fantastic when you were chosen, okay?
You all had a lot of problems
and yet that's to prove how glorious God is,
that he would actually choose broken vessels,
clay vessels to carry his wonderful, glorious power, amen?
And so this is the first thing,
is that growth creates opportunity
and it's really, I've seen it in my life.
I've shared this, I'll just say it real quick,
a short testimony of how I ended up here.
I mean, first of all, you know, I wasn't ever a teacher,
didn't go to seminary back then.
And I just was in worship at our church,
at our previous church and the last church.
And all of a sudden opening,
Jesse was in fifth and sixth grade youth group.
And so I wanted to be around him,
Zach already moved on.
And so they said, you know,
we need a helper in fifth and sixth grade.
And I'm like, all right, I want to be around Jesse,
I'll do that, okay?
And so before you know it,
the leader of fifth and sixth grade,
he stepped down for kinds of different reasons.
And he said, you should ask Chris
because he teaches sometimes, he'll be good.
They asked me, I'm like, okay.
And all of a sudden I'm doing that.
And I went on a couple junior high missions trips.
And all of a sudden the junior high pastor stepped down.
You should ask Chris, okay.
I mean, it was just, I was just asked.
I'm like, okay.
I just kept saying yes, senior high, yes.
Before I knew it, it was like getting carried away
because I was asked to like oversee children's and youth.
And I'm like, this isn't really my thing.
And I'm not an administrator, it's too much.
And that's when we realized the Lord was moving us out.
And our pastor was so gracious about it.
He says, okay, we don't want to see you go.
But if that's what the Lord's saying,
we're going to lay hands on you and send you out.
And that's what he did.
But we all have stories like this,
that when you say yes to little things,
before you know it, you're like, how did I get here?
Oh, how did I get here?
You know, I haven't shared this with many of you,
but I'll just share it now because it's kind of interesting.
But I'm going for my doctorate in ministry, my D-men.
That's a bad word to say.
I'm going for my D-men.
No, my D-men, doctorate ministry.
But you know, and I only say it not to say,
it's really because a lot of people say,
why are you doing that?
Like at this point in your life, what's the point?
Because I love, I love learning.
I love the challenge.
And, you know, I don't always love working that much,
but it's a challenge.
It's growth.
It's personal growth.
You know, it's refining me.
And it's like, we're never done in this life, right?
Until the Lord calls us home.
Why not press on and grow more and learn more?
It's a good thing to grow, right?
And so, you know, that's just an encouragement to everyone
that just never say never.
It's funny.
You know who actually encouraged me to go on to one of the voices,
but PB, Bill Devlin, Pastor Bill Devlin.
He got his doctorate at, I think, like 72.
And he says, I'm the longest student they've ever had.
I think he said, I think it took him like 10 years or so,
just because he's so busy.
He's in Nigeria.
He's in Cuba.
He's all over the place, right?
Serving the Lord.
He finally finished.
But he said, you know, go for it.
You know what I'm like?
So, but it's, it's, we just, it's all about growth.
Amen.
And the more you just say yes, suddenly more opportunities.
I found some interesting quotes.
I figured that we'd post up here is one opportunity.
Thomas Edison said this, it's funny.
And it definitely was in my life.
He said, opportunity is missed by most people because it is
dressed in overalls and looks like work.
Can you relate to that?
I don't know about you, but that's a lot of the time.
Like you want me to do what?
Oh, you know, I don't know.
That doesn't look like fun.
Okay.
The next is luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
I believe that your Steven was prayed up.
He was filled with the Holy Spirit.
He was loaded with faith opportunity.
Just the door opens.
The next one is opportunities often found at the intersection of God's
calling and our availability.
Isn't that true?
God is not always looking for the most talented person.
That's certainly with me.
He is often looking for the most available person.
Just I'm here.
I'll do it.
Right.
And then finally, when opportunity knocks,
God frequently uses those who are already standing near the door,
you know, and that's all of us.
He's trying to recruit anyone that will come.
Just like that guy who is standing there on the 11th hour of the harvest
saying, what are you doing standing there?
I don't know.
Nobody invited me.
Well, get on in here and start working.
Right.
And that's what he wants.
All of us all hands on deck.
He's just calling all of us to serve.
So, again, you know, growth definitely creates opportunity.
Next thing I'd like to share is growth activates opposition.
Okay.
And that's certainly the case, isn't it?
Because when good things, we've seen it so far several times.
Right.
People are getting saved.
There's people getting healed.
There's people getting delivered from demonic oppression,
which by the way, still exists today.
We might call it other things like they have this syndrome.
They have this condition.
Just give them more pills or give them this.
I'm not saying there's mental, you know, there are mental illnesses
and all that, but I'm saying there is still the, you know,
Jesus Christ is the same today, same yesterday, today and forever.
You know who also is?
The devil, but he's not forever.
He has the same tactics he's always done.
He loves, he loves stealing, killing and destroying.
He loves separating you from your calling.
He loves blocking you from saying yes.
He wants it to be a no.
Well, you keep saying no or maybe, guess what?
You never step in to that sweet spot of your life
that God has already planned for you in advance.
Like we read in Ephesians chapter two verse 10,
like the workmanship that he created you to be,
when you're listening to the enemy,
you never actually step into that
because you're saying no or maybe,
but he's always yes and amen, right?
When we do things in Christ,
the answer is yes and amen, the enemy.
And you know, this is for each one of us.
The enemy loves to have his way with our thoughts, our heart.
He loves penetrating those things to separate us.
You know, you see in the back, and what?
He will flee. He's going to run from you.
That means like, no, no, I'm over here devil.
I'm with, I'm in my spot with the Lord.
I'm carrying out my calling.
You can't touch me.
I'm right where I'm meant to be.
You can't, you know, Jesus said,
the enemy has nothing in me and we are in Christ, right?
So he can't do anything to us
unless we let him or invite him in.
And so, you know, the enemy often is within
playing with our thoughts and minds.
He's often in the church.
He penetrates the church.
We just saw this, you know,
this trauma started in the church
Think about it.
So people were getting saved, healed, delivered,
all these things leading up to this point.
What happens every time something great happens?
Problems, problems, right?
The enemy starts stoking the Sadducees,
the Pharisees, the scribes, and all.
It's like into envy, into all these things, right?
And they arrest them, okay?
They beat them.
Soon they're gonna kill them.
We're gonna read in Stephen in a week or two
that he actually gets stoned to death.
They're gonna ramp up more and more division
for the church.
But it's sad when it happens in the church.
And it does.
This happened in the church
because our widows aren't getting fed properly, okay?
All right, well, let's work it out.
Well, then Stephen comes on the scene.
Why is Stephen trying to teach us, okay?
Who says he's our teacher?
And maybe I am paraphrasing or surmising some things,
but certainly there's some envy going on in here.
Stephen, you're a waiter.
Why are you teaching us?
Who gives you the right?
You know, wisdom comes from anyone
who's spending time with the Lord.
We're all wise, you know?
That's what's great.
Wednesday nights, when you come on Wednesday night,
we hear the word most Wednesday nights
and then we break into small groups
and we talk about the word.
And it's amazing how enlightened you can be
just from someone you're sitting next to
as they're sharing their perspective
and what they've learned and their journey with the Lord
because iron sharpens iron, right?
Faith feeds faith and we empower one another.
We encourage one another in all this.
And so, yeah, we really want to be careful
of what the enemy is trying to do.
In fact, we're worn quite often in Scripture.
And I have a bunch of verses lined up together,
but it's reminding us how if I have unforgiveness,
the enemy can get in there.
If I am bitter with someone, the enemy can get in there.
If I am disappointed and hold a grudge,
the enemy can get in there.
That's what happens inside the church.
Oh, I wasn't given that opportunity.
I wasn't given that position.
I'm not being noticed.
I'm not being appreciated, you know, whatever it is.
And there's so much bitterness.
And then all of a sudden the...
You know, I don't know.
That's gossip, by the way.
It doesn't make any sense to me,
but that's what it's supposed to be.
You know, did you notice?
This is probably better, okay?
I didn't think this through too much.
Did you notice that?
And all of a sudden, it's the murmuring,
the murmuring, the gossiping.
In fact, the word says it's like tasty morsels.
It's like fondue.
You're dipping it in the chocolate or whatever.
It's like, you know, we can get high on gossip.
We can get high on like, oh, really?
Yeah, yeah, you know.
In fact, be honest, when people come from other churches
and they're like, oh, the problem, like,
you know, I would rather just be naive.
And unless it has an impact on,
like, I don't need to hear, you know, what's going on there,
I'd rather just stay out of it, you know,
unless I can help.
But like, just hearing things, what does that accomplish, really?
And by the way, there's always three stories, okay?
Mine, my paradigm, your paradigm, and God's paradigm.
The real one.
We're probably both a little wrong.
And he's always right, right?
So no matter how we're both seeing it,
it's probably not the accurate way to see it anyway, right?
But anyway, this division.
And then before you know it, this is what's really sad.
It doesn't end in the church.
They go outside the church and start telling on Stephen
and going to unbelievers and saying, he's saying this,
he's saying that, he's blaspheming Moses and the temple
and all that.
He's going outside the church.
I mean, that is like, we're told, why would you go
to a court of unbelievers to settle a matter with believers?
Like, that is just, that's foolish.
You're asking the world to solve your spiritual solution.
And they can't, right?
Now, I will say, just because I think I should,
when it comes to anything in children's ministry
or anything that could result in harm of anyone,
I just want to let you know, we don't handle anything interior.
If we hear anything about a child situation,
which we've never, praise the Lord.
We've never had any problem with anything that is,
I don't even know what you're going to call it,
abuse or whatever in this church.
Praise the Lord.
We have such great background checks.
We fully, like, we don't trust anybody.
They don't trust me.
I'm just saying.
No, we really, trust but verify.
We all have background checks.
We all have like, because we need to be fully sure
who we're employing in this church body to take care
of the saints and especially children are okay.
Okay?
Or are supposed to be there, right?
And if we've ever, we've been trained that if anything
ever happens that you hear about,
you call the authorities like that.
Because so many churches have foolishly believed
what someone's side of the story is
and allowed things to go on.
And we don't do that here.
And we were trained at our old church
by really tremendous ministers of all this.
In fact, it's actually Billy Graham's nephew
has a whole ministry about protecting youth
from abuse in churches, right?
So anyway, I wanted to say that because it's important,
you know, but most of the time, you know,
we shouldn't be going out.
It's like social media.
Like, they're going on social media
and broadcasting it into the internet
all the negative things about Christians.
I'm like, like, dude, come on, just solve it in house.
Like talk to the person directly.
Do you have to like tell unbelievers
how screwed up Christians are?
Like, really?
Is that what you want to do?
From your perspective, by the way, right?
Why can't we just walk through these things together
and say, yeah, I totally disagree with that,
but love you anyway,
but let's not put it out on the internet
and demonstrate to the world how we're not unified
in the Spirit of God because they can't grasp
that there's disparities.
I don't know, does that make sense?
But let's move on.
So the final thing, so we, you know,
we realize that there is an apposer,
there is someone coming against us.
And you know what?
Let me just stick on that another minute
because it's important, you know,
we are down visiting Tevin and Morgan
and our two grandsons in Florida,
Orlando, Florida, we just got back yesterday
and we were at a wedding down there.
But while we were there, you know,
Kingston and Coase, these two grandsons of ours,
I mean, they are tight.
They're tight.
They're less than two years apart.
They're probably, what are they, 18 months?
Something like that.
But they're always together.
They're always doing everything together.
And it's so just adorable.
I mean, they actually, when they're walking down the street
next to their mom, they're holding hands.
Like, it's just so cute, right?
And they're just, you know,
but if Coase tries to play with one of Kingston's toys,
it's go time.
Just like that, right?
Or if Kingston starts to bully Coase,
he's not putting up with it.
So it's all of a sudden before you go,
it's mayhem.
We stayed in their house for five days.
We know, right?
And it's like, but it's fun.
Isn't that every child?
But, you know, some of those traits we don't grow out of,
it just looks differently, okay?
We may not scream to our mommy or go hit the person,
but we still hold these grudges and like,
ah, they took my this, they took my that.
You know, and we could just hold on to things, you know?
And really, the Lord's just saying,
look, love others better than yourself.
If you put them first,
it's easy to get over the fact that they stole your hot wheel.
Okay?
It's, you know, it's okay.
You can move on and love them in spite of that, you know?
Because resistance always comes when good things are happening.
Did you ever notice that?
Because the enemy wants to stop what God is doing.
I was actually thinking about, for some reason,
recently, SpaceX shot off a rocket into space, the Falcon 9,
and it shot off, I think, 29 satellites into space and all this,
and it actually landed again.
That's for the 35th time.
So this is really a good pattern of recyclable rockets, you know?
But anyway, as I was thinking about this,
I saw this picture of it,
and you ever notice, like, a rocket when it's taking off all the resistance?
I mean, it's like an explosion, right?
It's surprising it even leaves the ground and just doesn't blow up.
But all that, because it's trying to push through the atmosphere
and penetrate the atmosphere and leave gravity behind, you know?
And as I was thinking about all that resistance,
a lot of that is just like the church,
when the church is really starting to get to new levels,
like this early church was.
You know, thousands of salvations,
you know, thousands of healings, of deliverances, amazing things.
They're hitting new levels, right?
They're no longer held to the natural realm.
It's a spiritual realm.
They're experiencing kingdom results here on earth.
What do you think is going to happen?
Resistance. Resistance.
It's kind of like the plane we took off on to come back home.
You ever notice right before you're taking off?
I'm thinking, is this thing even going to stay together?
But, you know, once it lifts off, it's like, oh, okay, we got this.
But a lot of times, just before you're going to get to new levels,
the enemy is causing a great deal of resistance.
I found that in my own life so often,
sometimes you just have to keep pushing through.
Winston Churchill said, if you're going through hell, keep going, okay?
There's a light at the end of the tunnel.
But anyway, let's move on.
So finally, the third thing we're looking at is growth requires order.
And, you know, we could say it was kind of like,
it's only people getting served food.
Well, it was important to the widows.
It was important to the Hellenistic Jews.
It was important to the church to keep unity.
I mean, it's important, right?
And it's important to do things right.
And the Lord loves organization.
Yes, the spirit moves, and he said, you know,
you don't know which way it's going to go when the spirit moves.
But he still operates in a sense that is organized.
It's orderly, you know?
And just to remind you of 1 Corinthians 14, 33, and 40,
it says, for God is not a God of confusion but of peace,
as in all the churches of the saints.
But all things should be done decently and in order.
When Paul was setting up all the churches,
he wrote to Titus, and he said, this is why I left you in Crete
so that you might not, I'm sorry, so that you might put
what remained in order and appoint elders
in every town as I directed you.
In other words, order is good.
You know, I plan a lot for messages.
You might say you should have planned longer today.
But, you know, I plan.
But then, I really, once I'm done, I'm done.
And I just come here and whatever the spirit's going to do.
But I still plan enough to have an order in my head.
And if the Lord wants to do something else, he does something else.
But I don't just fall off the tracks and go anywhere
because I plan.
Like, the Lord loves plans.
In fact, you remember when Moses was out in the desert,
and he's judging hundreds and hundreds of disputes per day.
And finally, his father-in-law was really,
must have been hit with some Godly wisdom
because he had his mixed religious background,
but he came out and he honored God
after he saw everything that was happening.
And he said, what are you doing? You're going to kill yourself.
And you're going to kill these people,
trying to judge hundreds of cases per day.
And it's at that point they set up a whole judicial system
of having others also in charge.
Because the Lord realizes it's good to delegate,
it's good to have order and structure in church.
And also, remember when Moses was like,
I can't take these people anymore
when he's leading them in the wilderness.
And what did the Lord do?
He gave the spirit of Moses to 70 other elders
and said, they'll help you.
You can now delegate things.
The Lord loves structure and systems
so that the Holy Spirit can move efficiently.
If we're always trying to relearn things like,
all right, so what are we going to do here today?
You know, like, what's the plan again?
When are we doing worship?
When are we going to do an announcement?
When are we going to, it's mayhem.
And the Holy Spirit can't move through mayhem, right?
Because he likes order.
And in the same way of congregational order,
in an individual's life,
we, I need order.
Like, I can't be up all hours watching weird shows
and getting my mind twisted
and, you know, stuff that is just, you know,
not just bad, just weird, you know,
things that get my mind off track of things.
And then all of a sudden try to go to sleep, right,
and not be thinking about those weird shows.
And then get up early in the morning
and go down and pray and study the Word
and be right, you know.
I mean, we have to have ordered lives.
In fact, the Lord said, you know,
He gave us a spirit of power, love, and self-discipline,
or a sound mind, depending on the version.
But that's the idea, having self-discipline.
You know, that's a fruit of the Spirit
and it's a gift of the Spirit, is self-discipline, you know.
He wants us to have structure in our lives
so that the Holy Spirit can move.
If we always have clutter, how can the Spirit move?
Think about how specific He was
when He was designing the tabernacle and the temple.
I mean, down to every little thing.
He had it perfectly designed. Why?
Because the Holy Spirit was gonna be there.
The Holy Spirit wants a clean house.
He wants a house that's ready for Him.
Now, we all have clutter.
Okay, if you look at my office at home,
that's a cluttered office.
I mean, it's a mess, okay.
I'm just admitting, don't tell anyone.
I'm confessing right now.
Confess your sins one to another.
Everything that Jill, every room she's in, that's clear.
Anything I touch is a mess.
That's just the way to the garage, you know.
But, so, but I'm talking about in your heart,
in your mind, in your lifestyle, you know.
Having a clear heart and mind.
Not cluttering it with things, you know.
Because the Lord can't move through clutter.
You know, He can't.
But He'd rather have a clear vessel.
You know, just think about plumbing.
If there's a clog in there, the plumbing doesn't get through.
You know, if we have clogs in our conduit,
the Holy Spirit can't just flush right through.
But when we just say, Lord, I wanna be cleaned out,
that was Stephen, he was clean.
He was ready to be used, amen.
As the worship team comes up,
I just wanna repeat.
Our three things that we talked about today
is that growth creates opportunity.
Growth creates opportunity.
The next thing is, if you have that slide,
there you go, creates opportunity.
The next thing is growth activates opposition.
And growth requires order.
So, when we're thinking about this
for each one of our lives,
if you're walking with the Lord,
He's going to be opening up opportunities.
Because He wants to use your life.
You know, your life has eternal significance.
Now, I don't know about you,
but sometimes that gets me like pretty sober-minded
and wow, like, you know,
at least the mistakes don't get carried into heaven, amen.
Sin does not follow us into heaven, okay?
Neither do possessions, all right?
But, so those will be washed away
and they are washed away.
So we don't carry that with us, right?
And we don't want to.
But the things we do for the Lord,
they pay out eternally, eternal dividends.
That's what they pay out.
And the Lord is saying, look, you are created.
You are my workmanship created.
And if you walk in me,
I will show you the things that I have called you to do.
They might start small and little and insignificant,
but they're going to get more and more challenging.
You're going to have to trust me more and more.
But eventually you're going to say, wow, this is actually fun.
Looking back and saying,
I don't even know who that person was.
I mean, that's why I feel sometimes like, who was that person?
I don't even know who that person was.
Think about maybe what I'll be in another 10 years.
I'll be looking back at today and say,
why did they sit there and listen to me?
I've come a long way since then.
And we're all being refined and transformed.
Growth activates opposition.
Don't be surprised when the devil's coming at you.
That means you're doing something right for the Lord.
Well, I can.
It can mean that.
If you're loaded up with all kinds of sinful behavior,
then that's not why.
It's because you're letting the enemy in.
But if you're serving the Lord, expect opposition.
It's just going to happen.
It's a way of life.
You're like that rocket ship taking off.
You know, it's like for you to distribute those 29 satellites,
you're going to have some friction.
OK.
And then finally, growth requires order.
Get the clutter out of your life.
It's not worth keeping there.
You know, the Lord wants to organize us, you know,
so that we can flow with the Holy Spirit,
that we're not bogged down with the chaos of the world.
Amen.
Let's pray.
Father God, we thank you.
We thank you, Lord God, that you've called us for great things,
that you want us to grow in you, Lord.
We ask you, Lord, to just help us
see the opportunities that are opening up to us
so that we could step into them and say yes, Lord.
And Lord, when we are opposed by the devil, Lord God,
may we see who it is, why it's happening, Lord,
and press on, knowing that greater is he who is in us
than he who is in the world.
The enemy cannot separate us from your love
or your workmanship, Lord.
Thank you for that.
And then finally, Lord, we thank you, Lord,
that you've called us to order
so that we can live self-disciplined lives,
casting out any of the things of our old life
and embracing everything that's new,
because we are new creations created in Christ Jesus
for these things, Lord God, to walk in the newness of life.
So we thank you, Lord.
We worship you in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Let's all stand up and let's give the Lord a round of applause.
Thank you.