Viola Solid Rock Assembly
Acts 6
let's get into it. We're back in the book of Acts. We've been talking about this and I've been here on Sunday nights. I've got a couple more Sunday nights that I won't be here. I am going to be in church so I'm not skipping church. I just have some more churches that we have to go and take care of business meetings for them. But we're back in the book of Acts and we're going to be in Acts chapter 6 tonight. And you know I look at Acts and I think about how the church launched and when it launched in a period of time and the church launched the Jesus launched the very first church ever in a crazy culture in a difficult season in a time of political and social turmoil. But you know it encourages me. It encourages me because it encourages me that if the early church was able to be launched in that type of error when political craziness and social turmoil was at a height then God can revive churches today in our time. But we're in Acts chapter 6 and Acts chapter 6 is the very first time that we see the pain that comes with church growth. You know there's pain that comes with church growth. There's challenges that comes when a church begins to grow rapidly and it comes that there's challenges that come from reaching new people and reaching people far from God and not a part of the church. There's growing pains of a healthy church and we want a church where anyone can come, right? Where anyone can come and meet the Lord and we want to be a church where people from all backgrounds and all belief systems and all lifestyles can come here and meet Jesus, right? And that Jesus can transform their lives. Being a church like that is not without challenge though. Samuel Chan said that growth requires change and change requires pain so growth equals pain. And if we are committed to being a church that embraces growth and reaching all sorts of people for the sake of the gospel then we have to be open to change because there's going to be some growing pains. If we read Acts chapter 6 beginning in verse 1 it says but as the believers rapidly multiplied there were rumblings of discontent. The Greek speaking believers complained about the Hebrew speaking believers saying that their widows are being discriminated against in the daily distribution of food. So the 12 called a meeting of all the believers and they said we apostles should spend our time teaching the word of God not running a food program. And so brothers select seven men who are well respected and are full of the spirit and wisdom and we will give them this responsibility and then we apostles can spend our time in prayer and teaching of the word. Everyone liked this idea and they chose the following. Stephen, a man full of faith in the Holy Spirit, Philip, Nickina, Timon and Nicholas of Antioch and early covert to the Jewish faith. These seven were presented to the apostles who prayed for them as they laid their hands on them. So God's message continued to spread. The number of believers greatly increased in Jerusalem and many of the Jewish priests were converted as well. But there were some growing pains. Growing pains are a good sign of health. But as leavers it says in verse 1 but as believers rapidly multiplied there were rumblings of discontent. The Greek speaking believers complained about the Hebrew speaking believers saying their widows were being discriminated against in the daily distribution of food. The church is growing and it's great. But if you remember early on in the book of Acts there was a commonality among the new Christians. They shared all things in common. They devoted resources, shared finances, served one another completely. They prayed and worshipped every day, devoted to each other financially even to the point that they sold their possessions and shared all their money and assets. Now the church is growing beyond the Jewish converts and beyond just Jerusalem growth is happening. The disciples are increasing in number which means the church is growing. New people are becoming Christians, getting saved and new outsiders and non-Jewish people are converting to faith in Jesus specifically. The Hellenist or the Greek speaking people, those who are from outside of Jerusalem, Gentiles and non-Judean Jews, here's why this matters. As Jesus said in Acts chapter 1, the gospel would reach first in Jerusalem then Judea and Samaria and ultimately the ends of the earth. In other words the gospel is reaching people beyond the first group. The gospel is changing lives beyond the comfort zone of Jerusalem. That's pretty exciting right? It's exciting to reach more people for Jesus. The Greek speakers were the outsiders and the growth is reaching them. Praise the Lord. But with growth there's pressure to minister to them, to care for them, to serve them and all of a sudden the very people we are celebrating that we are reaching, they are the reason that we are stressing out. The Greek speaking Jews are actually complaining that their needs aren't being met. Now that we've reached them we have to be ready to serve them. And this stresses some people out. And in the church world it's actually a reason a lot of churches don't want to reach more people because it requires more work, they're happy with therefore and no more. There are churches across the state that are dying because they've been happy and content with the 12 or 20 people that they have and now that 12 or 20 people are over the age of 75 and they're dying and the church is dying. It's a sad place to be. It's a sad place to be. We have to have a heart to reach people but as we have the heart to reach people they're going to be growing pains. But I believe with all my heart that these types of growing pains are a sign of health. I will never apologize for reaching more people for Jesus. I will never apologize. I will not apologize on Wednesday nights for the youth taking over the sanctuary because we are reaching more teenagers and that means the possibility of more people being saved and as more people become saved and they become witnesses to their friends then there's more growth there. So if you've been coming on Wednesday night or you haven't been in a while adults here in the gym or you can come in here and join the youth for worship and worship within. But there was a the leaders responded to the problem in verse two it says so the 12 called a meeting of all the believers and they said we apostles should spend our time teaching the word of God not running a food program. The 12 apostles who were who were the group of the 12 disciples under Jesus now are the postolic leaders of the church movement and they met and communicated with everyone we need to have a structure change. We can't keep doing everything. We need to evolve in our leadership. We need to to make some changes to how we do ministry and how we reach and serve people. Previously the 12 apostles were overly involved in the handling of ministry and in fundraising baptizing people overseeing communion just doing the ministry activities in this startup enterprise we call the early church but now they're realizing that the growth will require them to do what only they do well. They weren't unwilling to serve tables or feed the widows but they needed to develop a system to serve them and to raise up leaders to help out and that would allow them to focus on their primary responsibility to study and preach to minister as the leaders of the church. Now it could come across harsh if you're used to the pastor doing everything but it's unhealthy to expect the pastor or the preacher to do all the ministry especially at the neglecting of focusing on preaching and communicating God's word. They said that pastors and leaders shouldn't be doing all the serving roles. They were right but they needed to be focusing on preaching and communicating the word of God. That's true and just as it was true then it's true now. It's important to make room for people that we keep serving new people that we ensure that we are all serving in the right place in the church. If you are breathing you have a purpose and your purpose is not to sit on the pew and do nothing. As we grow we must change and so brothers they said in verse three and so brothers select seven men who are well respected and are full of the spirit and wisdom and we will give them this responsibility. Sometimes we tend we tend especially in the United States in the church we tend to be consumer Christians. We either are taking from others or letting others do all the work and we expect the pastor to do everything. In fact most churches have an accepted the Peridot principle that is the old principle that suggests that 80 percent of consequences come from about 20 percent of causes. The other way to translate it is that 20 percent of the people do 80 percent of the work and we find that pretty true in the church many times but just because it's what others are doing does not mean it's what we should do as the church. We all belong to God and we all have gifts to offer to the body of Christ right? It's not enough to expect the pastor or the staff to do all the work or the ministry. It's also not not good or not healthy to say to yourself well I've done that I've served my time I'm too old for this someone else can take it. If you're too old to serve then you might as well just go to the grave. Because you're still alive. If you're breathing you have a purpose. We all have gifts to offer the body of Christ. It's not enough to expect everyone else to do the gift that God has given us to give. The Apostle Paul the early church leader wrote that the role of the pastors and teachers and ministry leaders is to equip Christians to do the work of ministry. I want to celebrate and challenge everyone. I want to celebrate everyone who has already taken the time to giving up energy to serve others in our church. Thank you. We do appreciate it. We do appreciate it more than you know. But I also want to challenge everyone else who is either taking a break from serving or has never served others in the church. I challenge you to correct that reality. Let us help you discover and activate your God given gifts to the church and serve others. Can I ask you can I plead with you that come on Wednesday nights that don't that are retired that that aren't working full-time jobs. Can you come a little bit early? The kids get off the bus here at 430 every Wednesday night. In the last two Wednesday nights we've had over 65 people before any of you show up. Two weeks ago we had 78. And do you know how many adults that it consists of? Seven. Maybe eight. We need help. There is absolutely no way for us to keep an eye on every single kid with seven or eight people and 75 kids. We need help. You could come and just sit in a room. We're sitting up stations where we can rotate some kids around and do stuff. There are things that we have vision to do but we can't do it without more help. Sit in a room. Talk to the kids. Sit at a table. Talk to them. Go outside and sit outside and watch them play out there on the playground. All right. I'll get off my box. First four and five said then we apostles can spend our time in prayer and teaching the word everyone like that idea. My role as the pastor must stay committed to the vision and leadership and to prayer and ministry in the Word of God. There's not much in this church that I'm not willing to do. In fact there's probably nothing that I'm not willing to do but there are very few things that only I can or should do. And I'll be very honest that tonight's message is challenging me just as much as anything. This isn't just a message for you. It's a message for me as well. Verse five and six says and they chose the following. Stephen a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit. They chose Philip and Timon and Nicholas and they chose these men and presented them to the apostles who prayed for them as they laid their hands on them. But all of the names that they presented all of the names that they brought to the disciples were Greek names. That means they were new converts. They were engaging in the work of the ministry. It wasn't just the Jewish leaders but they made room for those who were being saved who were new to the church family to engage and to help make a difference. That's exactly what we want for you. I'm telling you if this church has been a blessing to you then I believe you get to be a blessing to your church. It doesn't matter if you're new or you've been here a long time we want your help. We need your help. We want to help you identify your gifts. We want to pray over you and we as you lead in ministry serve others in ministry sing on the worship team rock some babies in the nursery help with kids or youth on Sunday mornings or Wednesday nights or both. However God has blessed and gifted you we want to celebrate that and encourage you as we grow and change as a church. Amen. You know the one one of the reasons that I feel like we need more help is because I don't want people to never be able to be fed. I don't want ever ever I don't want people to be back in the back serving kids all the time that they're not able to be served themselves but we need more help to be able to do those things. Health plus growth plus change equals changed lives. Verse 7 says so God's message continue to spread the number of believers greatly increased in Jerusalem and many of the Jewish priests were converted to where converted to. This this is a result of a healthy church who is on a mission and serving correctly. The word will go forward. People will continue to come and give their lives to Jesus and people will get saved. People will be disciplined and developed and even the hardest of hearts will come to Jesus. You know why? Because the church is the organization that is meant to represent God's kingdom to this world and just like though these Jewish priests giving their lives to Jesus there will be people who see you and watch your lives change and listen to sermons here and worship with us and God will transform their hearts because we live like we intended like he intended us to live. I want to challenge you. I want to challenge you. Will you embrace? Will you embrace serving? Will you allow the church in the book of Acts to serve as a model for us? When it comes to serving and stewarding our individual gifts? Will you let it be a model? You have a purpose. You have a purpose and God can use you and you might be thinking, God can't use me. I promise you he can and I promise you he will if you will allow him. But you got to be open to it. You got to be willing. You got to be willing. You got to be willing to say okay. Okay. I'll come and sit and watch kids on Wednesday night. I mean I promise you he'll eat good. We feed him every Wednesday. What if we believed that God would model our church this way? Where leaders lead and the pastor's pastor. What if we collectively commit to serving in our part getting on the team where God has gifted us and doing our part so that his word will continue to increase and where people can come to know the Lord. Will you commit to that with me? I want to ask everyone that would just stand to your feet. Lord I thank you. I thank you for laying out a model for us in Acts chapter 6. Lord I pray that you help us that you help us to take on this type of role where we allow where people lead where people pick up and serve where it's not just 20% of the people serving but that where we see 100% participation. Lord we want to see you move. We want to see you do incredible things. We want to see this church grow. We want to see growth in our kids and our youth. We want to see growth in the adults. But Lord as we grow we know that they're going to be growing. We're going to be growing pains and help us to be able to roll and change God. Help us to be moldable. We just thank you Lord. I truly believe that everyone has a role in a place that they they can serve. And so tonight I want to ask everyone to just find a place. I don't care if it's up here. I don't care if it's at your seat. But I just want you to pray and ask God where He would have you to serve. I don't care how young you are or how old you are. I just want you to ask God and truly mean it. And let's seek God and see where He would have us to do. I believe that new ministries could be birthing in this place tonight. But we've got to ask God what He would have us to do. So we find a place tonight we ask God where He would have you to serve. If you need specific prayer for something just come and find me down here. We'll pray with you about specifically. But let's ask God where He would have us to serve tonight.