It’s not a people problem

Updates:

Updates:

-As I come back and continue to get my bearings we are praying for God's direction to move forward. I'm thankful for our deacons and Joe who serves on our finance team, helping me as we seek the Lord's wisdom on next steps. We are seeking the Lord first because this is His church. Not yours, not mine, His and He will do a great job with it.

-It has been great to see people already stepping in to fill holes. Jessie is continueing as our worship leader and has done wonderfully transitioning into handle more of the back end administratiion.

-Talie White is handling our a/v scheduling if anyone is interested in helpingout on our a/v team you can talk with Jessie or Mrs. Talie.

-Ryan Martel has stepped up to run our sound board. Ryan has years of experience in sound and will be a great asset to our team.

-Levi is stepping into a youth leader role to love and lead our teens to Jesus.

-Some people have offeered to help with the office work. We have been reviewing the secratarial duties and looking forward to some poeple stepping in until we hire someone.

-Some have asked about our finances. As we stated at the beginning of the year at Victory Night, last year was tough. We casted vision for how God has us here to financially support this ministry to reach people with the gospel and wow how well you responded. I haven't had a meeting with our finance team yet, that will be in the enxt couple weeks. Joe has done great communicating with our bookkeeper and the team has been working on a capital imporvement plan to strategically approach the financial needs of the ministry.

-The financial impact we encouvtered over the last couple years slowed down our outreach and ministry. WE stopped all projects and new endeavors. We limited spending to as essential as possible. God knew that was coming didn't He? Then I guess He wanted us to slow down. Now, we are praying to move at His pace.

-We have given Craig and Amy a severance that our bank accounts are able to handle.

-Our missions program has been able to sustain our missionaries but we have not taken on any more. Our deacons and finance team has and will continue to evaluate how we contribute toward missions to be the best stewards of our funds.

-There has been some questions regarding the church constituion recently. In January of 2020 the deacons, Pastor DAavidson and I presented an updated constitution to the church that was vetted by the Christian Law Assocation, based on other ministries of like faith like Lancaster Baptist, Emmanual Baptist, Victory Baptist, and Freedom Baptist. it was presented to the church and made available to everyone in print form. The church was asked to take 30 days to read and pray and then we woudl come back and vote. Multilple people contacted me about the constitution with questions. Some of the conversations led to changes prior to the final vote that were highlighted the night it was presented. In February of 2020 it was presented and passed unanimously by all members present.

-Please remember, if you ever have any questions you may contact me or our deacons and we will get you the ebst answers we can.

Introduction

Introduce self

Dismiss children

Months ago we decided to preach expository through the book of Acts and have varied only once up until this point.

I’m thankful for the men who preached in my absence and grateful for their willingness to continue through Acts.

Thank you to everyone who has remained faithful to Jesus and continued serving in ministries, ministering to people, and doing the work of the ministry.

I know last week was tough as we said goodbye to friends and I addressed some things going on. I’m thankful for the many conversations I’ve had over the last week.

Humble godly people that said PAstor, I couldn’t take the Lord’s supper today because we need to talk with you. People who expressed their disagreement with me but had a conversation and asked questions. People who join in me desiring to see the healing process through.

Healing doesn’t happen over night nore does it happen in the presence of pride.

Proverbs 13:10 “10 Only by pride cometh contention: But with the well advised is wisdom.”

Contention comes from pride but healing comes from humility. Not just humility of one person but humility for all involved.

As we get into our text today it was this thought that the Lord struck me with:

humility and pride are choices. The difference between them is not a person but the choices a person makes.

Most people, especially followers of Jesus, are not always prideful nor are they always humble.

Because the struggle between pride and humilty exists inside of each of us as a spiritual battle being fought between what we would call the flesh and the Spirit of God.

Galatians 5:22–23 “22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”

Gentleness, meekness, goodness, all fruits of the spirit. But the fruit of the spirit can’t grow in the hardened soil of the flesh.

Once we recognize that we are not always right and other people are not always wrong we can begin a discussion.

We are going to look at two people or one person and a group of people today. I believe you will find yoruself in both groups because truth of the matters is we have all been in one group at some time. Wherther intentionalyl or not.

Character-Christians in churches

Let me ask, how many of you have ever had someone gossip about you or talk about you behind your back?

Alright, let’s all be honest now. Ready…you sure? Say ready if your ready…ok…

Raise your hand if you have spoke about someone when they were not around…

Our text today, going through the book of Acts is not one I would have chose to preach but that is the beauty of expository preaching. I’ve submitted the timeline of our messages to the Lord and here we are. Sure, I could have preached something else, and there may be times when we go away from it however right now I want to be fiathful to Jesus so I’m preaching this text.

Acts 6:8-15 after the deacons were nomiated, approved by the apostles, and began serving, we get an insight into the lives of one of them by the name of Stephen.

Stephen was a hellenistic Jew, adn most likely a Roman citizen. He had a good reputation, was full of the spirit, wise, full of grace, and full of power.

How do we know all of this about him?

Acts 6:3 “3 Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.”

Acts 6:8 “8 And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people.”

There is one thing Stephen wasn’t. He wasn’t perfect.

He could be all these things and not be perfect. he could be all these things, and you will see in just a moment there were people who despised him and spoke ill of him.

Then in verse 9 we meet the a group of people that Stephen went to preach to. These were members of the libertine or Freedman’s synagogue.

These men who were in bonadage but at won their freedom from Rome.

Problem-Cliques forming bc of poor choices

It wasn’t uncommon for jews to have synagogues made up of a specific ethnic group or life similiarities. One may call them cliquish.

A Clique is described as a small group of people with shared interests or other features in common who spend time together…now up until this point, there is nothing wrong with this. Right? You have a small group of people that describe that in your life. You may have that in the church right now. Here is where the problem comes in..the rest of the definition…and don’t readily allow others to join them.

That is when a clique is a problem, that is when a small group is a problem. There is that and when the group of people have purposes that are contradictory to the glory of God and the Word of God.

Not every group is worth being apart of.

John wrote for us to try the spirits in 1 john as it relates to the truth of scripture. Can i tell you to apply that to everything you hear and see? Ask yourself if it is aligned with scripture. Don’t immediately distrust someone becuase you don’t think what they are doing is right, that’s what this group did to Stephen. Go to the Lord, go to the Word, and go the person, ask questions, have a conversation. Agree and disagree but do so with honor. And if you have to agree to disagree, do so honorably and refrain from tearing the other person down.

I read a quote yesterday a pastor posted and online I wanted to include today it read:

“one mistake you should never make in this life is to allow yourself to be recruited by someone, to hate another person who hasn’t wronged you. Only a fool inherits other people’s enemies as a sign of Loyally.”

Cliques form not because it’s wrong to be around people that are like you, but becuase people decide if your not like them in everyway then they are wrong or less than the others.

Agitated- Cliques create conflict

Small groups of people that become cliques creates conflict when they become an echo chamber of complaining, gossip, and judgement.

Often times that’s becuase the story is one sided.

Have you ever read something online and been enraged by it only to find out it was false?

Maybe soething like this?

Can i tell you, I never read that script. Not only was that video fake, that was a clone of my voice using an AI generated script.

Now, I know the quality was low, I’m not paying the hundreds of dollars to make it better. However, what if I did?

What about images like these?

All things we can see that can get us in an uproar if we don’t take a moment, think, and ask some questions.

Solution- Try the spirits

Had the jews done this, they might not have ended up arresting stephen. If the people who heard the jews had tried the spirits of what the freedmans one saying, they would have seen what they were doing was against scripture.

The bible says not to bear falste witness, yet as we will see that’s exactly what happened.

Guide- Stephen and Jews

Today I want us to not look at Timothy who is wrongly accused and gosspied about and think “Yea, that’s what those people are doing to me. I’m in the right here.” Yup, we could do that..but that makes us like this guy

Luke 18:9–14 “9 And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: 10 Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. 11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. 12 I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. 13 And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”

That would make us pharsiees…I’d rather be the publican.

Don’t hear me talking about the jews in this story and think “people who do that are awful, how could they.” You may be right but you just admitted to having done this at some point.

Remember, truth is we can unfortunately find ourselves on either side of the situation if we are not careful.

Journey-Acts 6:8-15

Acts 6:8–11 “8 And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people. 9 Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen. 10 And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake. 11 Then they suborned men, which said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses, and against God.”

Acts 6:8–11 CSB

8 Now Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people. 9 Opposition arose, however, from some members of the Freedmen’s Synagogue, composed of both Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and some from Cilicia and Asia, and they began to argue with Stephen. 10 But they were unable to stand up against his wisdom and the Spirit by whom he was speaking. 11 Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, “We heard him speaking blasphemous words against Moses and God.”

As a reminder of the background information here:

Acts was written by Luke to a man named Theopholis around 70-90 AD. It was written to document early church history.

Because we can be either one, I will seek to speak to both the pints we learn from stephen and from the jews.

1. Stephen: Be faithful to reach your people Jews: Be curious, not judgemental

Stephen was an example to us all of evangelism. He being a hellenistic Jew went to his people and began to preach the gospel to them. When we was faithfully obedient to God and God used him.

While being obedient to the Lord a group of people got upset with him.

He was speaking to Jews from All over. The cyrenians were from North Africa, Alexandrians were from Alexandra and were greek, the Cilicias were from modern day turkey, and Asia was the western half of modern day turkey and was a roman province.

After Stephen shared the gospel with them, they were trying to refute his claims of JEsus being the messiah yet they were unable to argue with them. so what did they do?

Ask questions to better understand? Be curious about the information they were being presented?

Nope. They did something I’m guilty of doing. They listened to respond instead of listening to hear.

and when they did that they became judgmental. They began to persuade men to say things that were half truths.

Do you think they did this with Stephen in their presence? Nope,they did it secretly. Most of the time persuading someone to be against another happens behind closed doors. It’s usually secret meetings, private communication of some sorts and it’s full of emotion, one sided perspective, and half truth.

illustration:

Do you know how many sides to the story there are? Let’s say two people are involved. How many sides of the story are there?

3

The two involved, and the whole truth.

Apply:

Being curious and not judgemental is about waiting to cast judgement. It’s about aking questions.

Proverbs 18:15 “15 The heart of the prudent getteth knowledge; And the ear of the wise seeketh knowledge.”

Curiosity acknowledges we don’t have all the information.

Matthew 7:1–2 “1 Judge not, that ye be not judged. 2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.”

Judgemetn is often coming to the conclusion without understanding or empathy. Being Judgemental often lacks grace.

Now, hear me. You have to make judgement calls. We do it every day. The difference between what the jews did and waht should be done, while numerous, boils down to them being judgemental and then proceeding ot sin.

Make judgement calls. Someone wearing all black holding a gun in a dark alley…don’t go down it.

Someone makes you feel inferior every time you speak with them, don’t be around them. Love them, pray for them, but don’t be around them. And don’t talk about them.

Someone begins to tell you about another person… first you can say no, stop, don’t but if they get it, ask questions, be prudent and seek knowledge.

2. Stephen: respond with meekness and humility Jews: Were manipulated and didn’t try the spirits

Acts 6:11–15 “11 Then they suborned men, which said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses, and against God. 12 And they stirred up the people, and the elders, and the scribes, and came upon him, and caught him, and brought him to the council, 13 And set up false witnesses, which said, This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law: 14 For we have heard him say, that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us. 15 And all that sat in the council, looking stedfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel.”

Acts 6:11–15 CSB

11 Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, “We heard him speaking blasphemous words against Moses and God.” 12 They stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes; so they came, seized him, and took him to the Sanhedrin. 13 They also presented false witnesses who said, “This man never stops speaking against this holy place and the law. 14 For we heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs that Moses handed down to us.” 15 And all who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at him and saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

The men who heard stephen then went and spoke to others? Why? to rile them up. Has anyone ever done that ot you? been tlaking to you and you feel yur self getting upset. Maybe becasue you want to defend them or because you are angry with them. Some people are really good at this. Getting people going. There is a time and place for sure however it can also be a manipulation tactic.

how do you know the difference? Try the spirits.

You see, if the men of this synagogue who were spoke to secretly would have read the OT they would have seen these verses:

Leviticus 19:16 "Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people: neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbour: I am the LORD."

Proverbs 6:16-19 "These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren."

Proverbs 10:18 "He that hideth hatred with lying lips, and he that uttereth a slander, is a fool."

Proverbs 11:13 "A talebearer revealeth secrets: but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter."

Proverbs 16:28 "A froward man soweth strife: and a whisperer separateth chief friends."

Proverbs 18:8 "The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly."

Proverbs 20:19 "He that goeth about as a talebearer revealeth secrets: therefore meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips."

Proverbs 26:20 "Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out: so where there is no talebearer, the strife ceaseth."

Psalm 15:1-3 "LORD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour."

Psalm 34:13 "Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile."

Psalm 50:19-20 "Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit. Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; thou slanderest thine own mother's son."

Psalm 101:5 "Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour, him will I cut off: him that hath an high look and a proud heart will not I suffer."

Exodus 23:1 "Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness."

How woudl these verses had helped them?

Had they examined not only what was being said about Jesus as the messiah they wouldhave seen the prophecies fulfilled but if they had tried the actions of these individuals by the Word of God then there would have seen the ahrsh language that God uses against talebearers. gossipers, those who sow discord.

They would have also examined the law that reads

Deuteronomy 19:15 "One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established."

Deuteronomy 19:16-19 "If a false witness rise up against any man to testify against him that which is wrong; Then both the men, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before the LORD, before the priests and the judges, which shall be in those days; And the judges shall make diligent inquisition: and, behold, if the witness be a false witness, and hath testified falsely against his brother; Then shall ye do unto him, as he had thought to have done unto his brother: so shalt thou put the evil away from among you."

Exodus 23:1 "Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness."

Leviticus 19:15 "Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour."

God spoke much about judging a situation. Have you ever had to sit as a judge? I have.

Parents of multiple children, you do it when they come and tell you a story about getting hit. Only to find out the reason tehy got hit is becuase they threw a toy at the others face.

When it’s adults, it’s more stressful. Leviticus says what we should allow make our judgements and that’s righteousness not a respect of persons position, relationship to us, or anything else…righteousness.

Here’s the kicker. No matter who you are, pastor, deacon, part of the lay staff, church attender, or an actual judge in the court system. You are judging someone else becuase of your position that requires it yet you know in your heart that your righteousness is as filthy rags. You know your irghteousness could be judged too. Yet you still have to make the judgement call.

Parents, you have to make a call on what to do when the siblings argue. The judge has to make a judgement call with circumstantial evidence.

When judgement is passed and made it should always be done with humility, grace, and understanding that if you made the judgement to the best of your ability by faith in God, you did the best you could.

If your passing judgement without all of the information or behaving as the jews from the freeman synagogue behaved…please stop.

If you are looking at someone who was forced to make a judgement call, and you disagree with it, have grace. Have a conversation. And realize you probably only have part of the story.

And if you are the person being talked about, if you are the one being judged…model stephen.

the last verse says they saw that his face was like the face of an angel…

Some would say it was glowing with the same Shekaniah glory that mMoses had coming down from the mount. Some would say it was his disposition and face of humble innocense.

Either way, they don’t say he was berating people, he wasn’t lashing out against them, he was sharing all of their secrets he knew or any dirt he had on them…it would appear that other than preaching the gospel up to this point he is being silent.

Next week we will see what he does when he was afforded the opportunity to speak.

What do we take from the text today though:

Resolution-quick to listen, slow to anger, be angry and sin not, respond with grace, love, and compassion

We are not always right in what we think, say, or do. Try the spirits in your own heart and when others come to you. Go to the Word before you speak a Word.

James 1:19 “19 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:”

Ephesians 4:26 “26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:”

IT is not wrong to be angry or experience anger. The quesion is what are you angry at. I said last week i was angry and that Ihad forgiven. Tha’ts becuase my anger is at the sin and not the person. I’ve forgiven the people but I’m angry at any sin, especially my own. As should any follower of JEsus be.

3. Don’t assume the worst in others. They are broken sinners just like you. I ‘m a broken sinner just like you. I need more of Jesus just like you. however, if we will do the opposite of what the jews in this synagogue did, we will find ourselves in a beautiful place. where love for one another can abound through differences and conflicts.

Impact-negative: God dishonored, gospel influence hindered. Positive: Glory to God, unity in purpose, and gospel influence multiplied

If we behave as the men in these verses we cannot honestly say we are of God. We can’t say we are bringing glory to God. We have to examine our hearts and reconcile with our savior.

If we behave like steven, it will be by the grace of God, it will be because we choose to take the high road, the gospel road, and it will be with enemies around us.

The people are not the problem. sin is. The sin of the men in this passage is what lead to the stoning of Steven that we will see enxt week. We will also see what God did through this sinful moment.

Time of Response