Growing Pain

I dont know if any of you have kept up with the US world cup, but last week while we were in church the women’s team was competing in the world cup, and they actually won it.

You know I had this dream as a child where I would love to swim

and if you have been following them in general you know that they US team was the team to beat each week.

but if you have been following the womens world cup

because they won last years world cup and their was a very good chance they were going to win again which they did.

But whenever their in a team that is winning non-stop a lot of people start wanting to see that team loose.

and maybe your not a soccer fan and are not connecting to this at all, so look at football.

because the Patriots always seem to be a great team year after year.

And year after year people like me and probably many of you can’t stand them because they are great! (my teams the ravens so I never have to worry about that happening to them).

But if you look at any sport you will almost always notice the dominate team that is always winning is the team that everyone wants to fail

and all of the other teams that they face are going to give everything they can to stop the team that is winning.

And are you ready for the tie in here because what is so crazy is you can see this in the church.

because whenever God’s church is thriving Satan is right there rooting against the church.

And whenever something good is happening for God (whether that be in your life or in the church) Satan will do whatever He can to steel, kill, and destroy whatever is happening.

and today we are going to be in and in this passage we see the early church thriving but in the midst of this Satan is trying to destroy what God is doing through the church by creating problems and distractions.

and this is the second week of our series “Tribe” where really we have been talking about who we are as Christ church.

And today we are going to be talking about how we handle these distractions and problems.

So turn with me to because it says:

Acts 6:1–7 NIV

In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.” This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them. So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.

So if you were with us last week we were talking about what the church should look like

and we got this beautiful image of this mismatched group of people from different cultures, and backgrounds coming together and devoting themselves to the mission of Christ.

and because of this you see lives being transformed for Christ.

But like I said whenever God is doing something amazing Satan is going to do whatever he can to stop it.

because as you continue to read through Acts issues start popping up and the first issue that comes up is the church starts to face persecution.

But the church grows through it

And then there is a couple in the church that is lying which causes issues

and then we get to our passage and the very first thing the passage says is even with these issues it says the number of new believers were rapidly increasing.

Lives were being transfromed for Christ!

But in the midst of this another problem occurs, where it says two of the groups got into an argument.

and on one hand you have these g

because

because there were Greek speaking Jews and and then Jews that spoke Hebrew \

and it wasn't uncommon for these two groups to butt heads because these groups had different mind sets.

it would be like the people who like a traditional service fighting against those who like more of a contemporary service .

and the issue really is the greek speaking Jews are accusing the Hebrew speaking jews of neglecting their widows when food is being distributed to those who are in need.

And so this issue gets brought to the Apostles or leaders of the early church and the leaders have to decide how do we handle this issue?

Because like I said whenever God is doing something Satan wants to kill, steel and destroy whatever that is.

and I truly believe God is up to something great in our churches soon to be church.

and Satan wants to see that destroyed.

So today we are going to look at how the early church responded to these issues that were coming up and really this is how we should respond to an issue that comes up in our church.

So are you ready for the very first thing this passage tells us to do?

because it says they throw a meeting to discuss this issue and they basically say its not our job to run a food pantry we should be preaching and teaching the word of God!

which if you are like me you read this and go those jerks! they are saying they are to good to help with something like that!

But thats actually not the case.

But

Because the very first principle I want you to get is they were focused on what God has called them to do.

and we should be too

Because one tool Satan uses to try and tear apart what God is doing through the church or even our life is He gets us distracted from what God desires in our life.

Do we have anyone here who has a problem with saying yes? (Now I know who to ask to help with things… Just kidding I am in this group)

but if your in this group you have probably had a time where you are so spread thin that

you end up being misearable,

You end up doing a mediocre job on everything.

and thats why in this passage its saying stay focused on where God is calling you and keep it in front of you

because if you are doing everything chances are you can’t do the things God has called you too do in the way He has called you to do it.

Well look at verses 4 and 5 because the leaders of the early church look at this issue and say look this isn’t what God has called us to do.

so what we are going to do is find people who God has called to do this and get them to do it.

and these are not just whoever is willing to do the job, but these are people who God has gifted to solve the issue that was occuring.

and this is the second point I want you to get. Because God calls all of us to do something.

A lot of us are probably called to do a job in the church or some type of ministry.

But we need to affirm that what we are doing is really what God has called us to do, and really this happens often times through seeing where God has equipped us.

You know if God has gifted you with a great voice maybe you should be leading worship songs on Sunday morning

If your voice is awful their is a good chance that this is not where God is calling you.

If you are a great smile and love to talk to new people then maybe you should be a greeter

but if you look angry or upset and don’t like talking to people maybe its not a great option.

But we need to know where God has called you and then once you know where He is calling you, you need to stay focused on that call.

And then look at the final point, because the final point is found in verse 6 because they end up choosing 7 people who are called to fix this issue.

but and then they go right into solving the problem right? NO

because before anything they pray for this group.

and thats the key, because if God has called us to do something and has gifted us to do it, thats great!

But if we are planning to do it on our own we are going to fail.

Because we need God. And when we decide that we can do whatever it is without God we are going to fail.

because God is the one who is going to fuel us.

Imagine if you tried to drive a car without any gas.

chances are the car is not going to get very far.

but for some reason we try to do things on are own instead of doing what God is asking of us.

And thats why the first thing that happens before they even attempt to solve the problem is they pray for this group.

Because they know if that this group is going to fall apart unless God is part of the group.

Imagine if you

And I love how this passage ends because it ends the same way last weeks passage ended and it says “the word of God spread”

Lives were being transformed for Christ.

You know I mentioned this last week but in the near future we are going to be one church, and I really believe that we have the ability to change lives for Christ.

And Satan is going to do whatever he can to stop that.

But here is the good news we may be facing battles with him, but Christ has already won the war

He won the war when He died on the cross for the forgiveness of not just my sins but all of ours and really because He has changed our lives we have the ability to change that lives around us.

and maybe this morning you want to change lives for Christ, but your realizing you need to change your life first.

He is calling us to change the lives around us.

But we cant do it alone

You might be living a life where you rely on yourself, when you need to rely on God.

You might just need to transform the way you have been acting.

Maybe you just need to fully commit or recommit yourself to God.

But we have a God who is greater.

He is greater then your sin

He is greater then any issues that can come up in our life or in our church

and he is greater… PERIOD

And I want to end today by us just reflecting during the last song because if we are in God’s will and if God is for us what can stand against what we are doing as a church

Will you pray with me?