Living Outside of Limitations
Notes
Transcript
Context
Context
We have been walking verse-by-verse through the book of Acts, and today we have made it to Acts 6:8.
Last week, we were able to see the first ordained men of God, outside of the apostles themselves, chosen and set before the people to serve. Today, we get to pick up with one of those men “Living Outside of Limitations”.
Read Acts 6:8-15
Content
Content
8 And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people.
Stephen was called to serve tables, but this didn’t mean that that was all that he could do. Stephen did not allow the title that other men put on him limit the call of God upon his life.
You don’t have to have a title to do something. You should follow the leadership of God upon your life, whether you have a title to do it or not.
I have found out in ministry that if someone will not do the work without a title, they will not do it once they have the title either.
Giving someone a title in hopes that it will push them further into their faith is futile at best.
We can support this with scripture as well:
Back in vs. 3, Peter told the multitudes to pick out seven men from among them who had already gained a good reputation; men that had proven to be full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom. “These men,” he said, “we may appoint.”
9 Then there arose some from what is called the Synagogue of the Freedmen (Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and those from Cilicia and Asia), disputing with Stephen.
Religious men from the church challenged Stephen’s ministry: his teachings, his miracles, his life.
The hardest battles that you will ever have to fight, will be the ones that come from the people who are closest to you.
If you are not close to someone, if there is no relationship, the deepest wound they can leave is emotional. When someone you do not know cuts in line at the grocery store, steals a parking spot, or says mean things, it takes an emotional toil: Anger, Sadness, anxiety, revenge, or some other emotion, but these feelings will more than likely come and go as quickly as this person came and left in your life.
When it is someone that is close to you though, it goes deeper than emotions. When there is a relationship with an individual, and then something challenges the relationship that you thought had been established with that individual, it affects more than just emotions. It causes one to ponder the validity of the relationship. Did that person really love me the way they said they did? It causes you to question motives, morals, ethics, standards, and even ones biblical precedent.
Was I wrong in how I said something?
Should that have bothered me the way that it did?
Is there something going on that I don’t know about?
Do I need to rethink how I do things, or say things, moving forward?
I thought our relationship was stronger than that?
Most importantly, for a true believer in Christ, it forces them to seek truth. See if someone is not a Christian, or at least they have lost sight of God in their life, they will seek justification in their lifestyle from worldly sources. They will lean on other people’s opinions, ask other people’s advice, compare their lives to the world, and so on.
On the other hand, when someone who really wants to be righteous and Godly, they will seek His truth from His Word. There is a difference in understanding from someone who does not believe and someone who does. Someone who truly wants to be in the will of God will seek His will from His Word, and then stand on what it says no matter what.
10 And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke.
Stephen overcame the religious because of his spiritual wisdom.
Stephen was able to win every debate because he was being led by God. He was full of the Holy Spirit. He wasn’t standing for personal gain, but for the Kingdom of God.
Stephen was able to win every debate because of his wisdom. The religious were approaching the debate from a standpoint of tradition, but Stephen was approaching the debates from a standpoint of truth. Stephen leaned on the Word of God and its righteous standards versus the worldly traditions of unrighteous men.
Acts 7:1-53
Stephen begins to articulate how that from the beginning, nothing has changed. God has always called a man to lead Israel: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, and throughout all of history. Every time God had a man in place to lead the people, the people always condemned them for following God.
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: following God’s promise without seeing fulfillment.
Joseph: For sharing his vision of God’s plan with his brothers.
Moses: For leading Israel into the wilderness and through the red sea.
Joshua: For leading the people against Canaan, where the giants dwelt.
The prophets: For being bold enough to preach the Word of captivity.
Jesus: For teaching the truth of God’s Word and condemning the traditions that defiled it.
Stephen: For upholding the Words of Jesus and proclaiming Him as the Messiah.
He then states that they are no different than all of the people before them who had persecuted God’s leaders. “Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?” he said. (vs. 52)
“You have received the law, but have not kept it”. (vs. 53)
Commitment
Commitment
I want to share with you an outline from my brother’s message today in closing. He had called me yesterday to share with me what God was doing with him in his studies, and he shared with me the outline that he was going to be using in his sermon today. He was preaching from Matthew about the two roads before us. The straight gate and narrow path leads to God and the broad way leads to destruction. He was speaking today on what he titled: The Highway To Hell, and his outline was this:
The Highway To Hell is Inviting
The Highway To Hell is Inclusive
The Highway To Hell is Instinctive
The highway is our natural tendency. Without the grace of God, we would all still be on that road, but thanks be to God that while we were still sinners Christ died for the ungodly!! While we were focused on worldly things, God intervened and gave us a way out. He gave us a better way. He gave us a different path that leads to life everlasting. Thank God for intervening!!!
When Stephen reached the end, right before his death, he was blessed by God to see a glimpse of that pathway. It said in vs. 55:
55 But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God,
He got see what it was all for. It wasn’t Stephen on the throne, it was God and Jesus. He lost his life here, but he gained life everlasting. It is all about eternity!!!
We may lose our jobs, but we cannot compromise the Word of God.
We may be thrown in jail, but we cannot compromise the Word of God.
We may have to stand alone, but we cannot compromise the Word of God.
We may have our names run through the mud, our reputation ruined, and our families shamed, but we cannot compromise the Word of God.
We may suffer persecution to the highest degree, but we cannot compromise the Word of God.
It is the Word of God that created me and it is the Word of God that will call me home. It is the Word of God that I will ultimately be judged by when I stand before Him on that great and wonderful day, and therefore, it must be the Word of God, and His Word alone, that I live by.
Whatever heartache, pain, and suffering must come from it will just have to come. I am no better than those before me who suffered to the utmost for the name of Christ. I am not to good to suffer, but He is too good not be worshipped. He deserves to be worshipped, and His Word deserves to have value in our lives.
We must be faithful. We must be true. We must be obedient to the Word of God. We must.
As we come to a close today, I challenge you to live outside of your limitation. Do not let the world limit you in a way that keeps you from serving God. We are bigger than a limitation. Let us serve God without limits, without boundaries, and without fear!!!