Episode Transcript
[00:00:10] We're in the Book of Acts. We're in Acts, chapter six. So if you've been with us for a little while, this is how we do things. Typically here, we just take a book of the Bible and we just. We teach through it verse by verse. Okay? So the book of Acts. And I'm going to have you repeat some things. I don't typically do this with adults. It actually is kind of a pet peeve when preachers do this, when they have you repeat things back to them. But I'm going to have you do it for the sake of the kids today. All right? So I want you to repeat this after me. Okay? The Book of Acts is about the rule and reign of King Jesus.
[00:00:42] Okay. We sometimes mistakenly think that the Book of Acts is about the apostles or that the Book of Acts is primarily about the work of the Holy Spirit through the apostles. But here's the beautiful thing about the Holy Spirit. Everything that the person of the Holy Spirit, who is God, everything that the Holy Spirit does is about the Son, the Holy Spirit. If you want to know what the Holy Spirit's about, the Holy Spirit is about exalting Jesus. That's what he's about. That's what he's doing in our life. That's what he's doing in our church. That's what he's doing in the world. He's exalting Jesus. Just like when Jesus was on earth, everything he was about was exalting the Father. And everything that the Father's about is exalting the Son. This is how God operates within himself. This is why when we say that the thing God is about is God, doesn't make him a megalomaniac.
[00:01:34] God is about the glory of his name. The Father loving the Son, the Son loving the Father in the Spirit, the Spirit exalting the Son. So the Book of Acts takes place right after Jesus has been crucified on the cross for sin, raised from the dead on the third day, and then ascended back to the right hand of God in heaven. And so the Book of Acts is the continuation of Jesus reign from heaven.
[00:02:02] Who's the one healing people in the Book of Acts? Jesus.
[00:02:07] Through the person of the Holy Spirit, through the church. Jesus is the one healing. Who's the one saving people? Jesus. It's all about the rule and reign of King Jesus, by which today, by the way, you and I are a part of this extended story.
[00:02:22] So we're living in God's story that one day he will accomplish fully when Jesus returns from heaven. To earth one last time to set up his kingdom here. So this is what the book of Acts is about. Okay? We're in Acts chapter six today, and I'm gonna try to be more brief than I typically am again for the sake of the kids.
[00:02:42] So, Sidney.
[00:02:48] Sidney is my best friend.
[00:02:51] She is, under Jesus, the greatest joy of my life.
[00:02:56] Okay? I love her. I would die for her. She is an amazing human. I love her.
[00:03:02] I remember not however, but. And I remember a time in our marriage early on, right after we got married, and everything was very exciting and fresh, and we're like, oh, we're newly married. This is amazing.
[00:03:13] Not long after that moment, which was our wedding ceremony, her and I getting into a significant conflict and, like, staring out the window and just feeling this very common overused phrase like, the honeymoon is over.
[00:03:31] Now we have to figure out, by the grace of God how to live together, because marriage is forever.
[00:03:40] This is how God designed marriage to be. Forever.
[00:03:44] Okay? And there are some in the room who have experienced the trauma and tragedy of divorce. And the grace of God is sufficient for you.
[00:03:53] For those of us who are married, it is. You make a commitment to a person for the rest of your life, and this reflects the gospel Jesus who commits to us for the entirety of our life and forever after that. Okay, so I'm staring out the window and I'm thinking, like, man, there's so many things about this that I wasn't expecting. And that's kind of where we find the church in Acts chapter six.
[00:04:17] So Sean brought this up with Ananias and Sapphira in Acts chapter 5.
[00:04:23] One theologian says this. When the devil can't attack from without, he attacks from within.
[00:04:30] So when the devil can't attack the church and be successful against attacking the church from outside the church through the agency of non Christians, he. He attacks from within the body. And so If Acts chapter 5 tells us of the first instance of these people, Ananias and Sapphira, who lie to the Holy Spirit, which is what that was about, okay? They lied to the Holy Spirit by lying to the apostles. Premeditated thing, if that's the first instance of that. And then later on in Acts chapter five, we get the first instance of persecution happening from outside the church. The government or the Sadducees tell the church, stop preaching in the name of Jesus, and they say no. And so they get flogged for that. That's 40 lashes. Minus 139 lashes is what we talked about on the back. And then it says that they leave. Rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer for the name.
[00:05:22] Today we get the first instance of church division.
[00:05:27] So actually a faction happening within the church, a group of Christians, and getting angry with another group of Christians because their needs, whether it's real or perceived, we don't know that from the text. But their needs not being met according to their expectations.
[00:05:43] So they get angry about it and then they come to the apostles. And that's what we're going to pick up in Acts, chapter six. So if you're, if you have the Bible, your Bible, open it up, we'll just look at it verse by verse.
[00:05:54] And I want to just answer three questions. Okay? So I'm going to give you what the questions are from the passage and then we'll go by verse by verse answering the questions. So the first question is, what was the problem leading to the division?
[00:06:06] It's question number one, what was the problem leading to the division?
[00:06:10] Question two is, how did Jesus lead the church to respond?
[00:06:16] Because remember, Jesus is the one orchestrating the events here. How did Jesus lead the church to respond? And then number three, what was the result of that response? So in other words, what did God do? What was the problem? What was the solution? And, and then what did God do as a result of that solution? Everybody following? Kids, can you repeat what I just said?
[00:06:36] All good. Okay. All right. What was the problem leading to the division? Is the first question. Look at verse one says, in those days, as the disciples were increasing in number, there arose a complaint by the Hellenistic Jews against the Hebraic Jews, that their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution. So this is the problem.
[00:07:03] The problem is that this group of Christians, this group of Jewish Christians called the Hellenists. Can you guys say Hellenists?
[00:07:09] Nice job.
[00:07:12] The Hellenists were Greek speaking Jews.
[00:07:15] They were Jews that for a long time had been dispersed from Jerusalem. They had been influenced by Roman culture and they had come back to Jerusalem. They had traveled back to what they considered to be the holy city in Jerusalem.
[00:07:29] And the Hebrews, the Hebraic Jews historically did not care much for the Hellenistic Jews. Okay? They kind of saw them as like less than themselves because they had left and come back and weren't full blooded, so to speak. So there was a faction happening within the church at the time. And, and then this thing called Pentecost happens which we talked about several weeks ago. Can you guys say Pentecost?
[00:07:55] Pentecost. At Pentecost.
[00:07:58] Jesus sends the Holy Spirit from heaven to live in the hearts of all who believe upon him to change them from the inside out. And at Pentecost, the Hellenistic Jews and the Hebraic Jews become one family united under the same Savior, with the same father, and dwelt by the same spirit.
[00:08:19] The church is a crazy thing.
[00:08:21] I mean, look around the room.
[00:08:24] Like, isn't there a great diversity of people from within, like, in this room? Isn't that awesome?
[00:08:30] It's amazing.
[00:08:32] There's no other religion in the world that can do that, because that's what Jesus does. And so he unites differing peoples into one family.
[00:08:41] But that's not easy, is it? Like, it's not easy when you have different peoples and people, groups and ethnicities and backgrounds come into the same house together and begin to try to worship God together. It's not an easy thing. And so as the church grows, going from just a small group of followers of Jesus called the way to 3,000 people come to faith in Jesus at Pentecost, and then 2,000 more people come to faith in Jesus following that. You've got a mega church with a totally mixed crowd of people coming in.
[00:09:13] And as the church is growing, as is typically the case, we've seen this at Redemption Hill, it is easy for practical needs to get missed.
[00:09:22] And so the practical needs that were being missed in the eyes of the Hellenists were that their widows, those women who had lost husbands, were being neglected in the daily distribution. So as food was distributed, as needs were distributed, they felt like their widows were being neglected, and it made them frustrated.
[00:09:40] Okay? And so to their credit, this complaint didn't lead to just. At least we don't know this. We can assume this. Maybe a ton of gossip.
[00:09:49] Those apostles, man, those guys, all they want to do is just sit around and preach all the time.
[00:09:55] Like they're not. What are they even doing? You know? It didn't lead to that. They came to the apostles and they said, here's our complaint.
[00:10:03] Our widows are being neglected in the daily distribution.
[00:10:07] So this is the problem. This is the problem that leads to the division within the church. So what does Jesus lead the apostles to do? Okay, so look with me at verse.
[00:10:17] At verse two, it says, the twelve summoned the whole company of the disciples and said it would not be right for us to give up preaching the word of God to wait on tables.
[00:10:31] Brothers and sisters, select from among you seven men of good repute or reputation, full of the spirit and wisdom, whom we can appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.
[00:10:50] So.
[00:10:55] I remember reading a book, a While ago called the imperfect pastor. And he has this quote that's always stuck with me. I always thought it was helpful. And some of us in the room need to hear this. Anytime I say something, I'm always aware that, like, some people in the room need to hear it and some people need to not hear it. Okay? But some of you in the room need to hear it. And here's what he says. He says something along the lines of, when we pray a prayer, that's along the lines of, God, unlimit me now.
[00:11:23] We're not the first ones to pray it. It was a similar prayer that Adam and Eve prayed in the garden.
[00:11:28] Unlimit me now. Right?
[00:11:30] And he goes on to say that we were never called to repent for not being everything to everyone.
[00:11:38] Or we were never called to repent for trying to be everything to everyone. We were called to repent for trying to be. I just totally butchered that. Okay? But here's the idea behind it. Some of us in the room try to be everything for everyone.
[00:11:50] Okay? And whether it's driven by insecurity or it's driven by fear of man or a combination of both, we have this tendency to think every single time a need arises in somebody's life, we're to be the ones to meet it.
[00:12:03] We kind of, because of our insecurity, see ourselves maybe as little saviors, and we forget the fact that there is a savior of the world and it's not you.
[00:12:13] And so the apostles had the opportunity to do that.
[00:12:17] There's this need in the church. The widows have been neglected, and you need to step up and do something was essentially what was being requested of the apostles.
[00:12:27] Rather than succumbing to that temptation, the apostles do something very, very wise. They delegate.
[00:12:35] Delegation isn't just about getting something off of your chest. It's about discipling another person.
[00:12:39] Giving other people who are gifted in ways that you're not gifted the opportunity to grow in their relationship with Jesus through the avenue of serving. This is also where we see, I think, the birth of elders and deacons and the differentiation. So I could talk for the next few minutes about all of those things that here at Redemption Hill, we say deacons lead by serving and elders serve by leading. The elders are primarily focused on the ministry of the Word and prayer, and deacons are primarily focused on practical ministries of the church. We could talk about all those things. Okay. But here's what I feel compelled to talk to you about today is the word. Men.
[00:13:14] Men. Men of good reputation. I messaged the elders, as we'll often do in our group thread. Like, mostly it's Matt doing it with us at like 12am, sending us a message, which is when his brain flips on to do ministry stuff.
[00:13:30] I don't typically do that, but there was a particular night I was very restless in bed thinking about the men of Redemption Hill and just thinking, like, I look at my own life and I'm like, God, I want in these few years you give me, I don't know when my final day is. I want to be the man God created me to be.
[00:13:50] I just want to live into that.
[00:13:53] But not only me, I want the other men of Redemption Hill to be the men that God created them to be. Because here's the thing, culture, whether you disagree or agree with this statement, I think statistically I can prove it. Culture rises and falls on behalf of how the men of that culture are doing.
[00:14:12] That doesn't negate the responsibility of women in any way.
[00:14:16] But it is to say that God has created us in such a way by which the culture rises and falls on the back of its men.
[00:14:26] And as I was thinking about all of these things, I just wanted to encourage you. I just wanted to encourage the men because all of us, if you were saved into the expression of Christianity that I was saved into, which was, and I'll just name drop for a moment, like, Mark Driscoll type Christianity, he was like the first preacher I ever heard that. I was like, that's good preaching. Like, never heard a man preach like that before, okay.
[00:14:50] And so. But the shadow side of that expression of Christianity was oftentimes men, in an attempt to encourage, were actually berated.
[00:15:03] It was, you're really stinking it up in all these ways.
[00:15:07] Be a better husband, be a better friend, be a better worker, be a better father. Like, come on. Like, pull yourself together and get up and do better. That's not what I want to do.
[00:15:16] Because here's what we as men need. We need grace.
[00:15:21] We need life changing, life transforming, refreshing grace.
[00:15:29] And so when the apostles look at the Hellenists and say, here's the solution for the problem.
[00:15:38] I want you to choose among you seven men.
[00:15:43] But not just any man.
[00:15:45] Here's the kind of man that I want you to choose among you. And he gives us a few things in this. And this, by the way. And this is what I want to encourage you with guys like, and for the women in the room, for those who are married, for those who are single, like, to pray for the men of Redemption Hill, man What I want to encourage you with is this is not primarily about holding an office in the church.
[00:16:11] Some of you who are not currently holding an office in the church might end up holding an office in the church, whether it be a deacon or an elder. That'd be amazing. But don't think of it like that. Think about what he goes on to say as being normal Christian life.
[00:16:25] These are normal Christian things that he's going to tell the apostles, that the apostles are going to tell the Hellenist to look for in these men. So here's what it is.
[00:16:34] Kids, are you still with me?
[00:16:37] Excellent. Say seven men.
[00:16:40] Awesome. All right, you're still with me. Okay, here's what he tells them to look for. He doesn't say, I want you to find the seven most theologically educated men.
[00:16:50] It's not a bad thing. But that's not what he tells them. He doesn't say, I want you to find the men who are the best debaters, who are going to prove themselves to be right in every situation. He doesn't say, I want you to go find online rage baiters.
[00:17:06] On the flip side, he doesn't say, I want you to go find passive men who aren't willing to fight when it's necessary.
[00:17:12] He doesn't say, I want you to find indifferent men who just really don't care about the evil going on in the world.
[00:17:18] He doesn't say that.
[00:17:20] The first thing that he says is, I want you to find seven men of good reputation.
[00:17:29] Of good reputation.
[00:17:31] This isn't just good reputation, as it says in First Timothy 3, 7, which is about elders, but it applies to this as well. I believe this isn't just about men who have good reputation with people within the church, but this is men who have a good reputation with people outside of the church.
[00:17:49] Okay, this is like what Proverbs 31:23 says of the God fearing woman.
[00:17:56] Says this of her husband. Her husband is known at the gates when he sits among the elders of the land.
[00:18:06] Good reputation.
[00:18:08] He's known that the people around him, the people that are closest to him, they don't see a perfect man because none of us are Praise God for the Cross.
[00:18:18] None of us are that. But they see a man of noble character, a man of integrity, a man who by the grace of God seeks to do the things that he says he's going to do.
[00:18:28] A man who's serious about fighting his sin by the power of the Spirit because it's already been crucified at the cross.
[00:18:38] A man of noble character. The second thing. So this is a man who is both simultaneously light and substantive.
[00:18:48] It's a good thing to be light, especially with kids, to get on the floor with your kids and laugh with them and enjoy them and do all of those things. But not to be a silly person.
[00:18:59] You can be both light and substantive, to have substance. Like, people want to come to you. You're a followable person. People want to come to you and say, I'm struggling with this and I need you to pray. Like, man of good reputation is the first thing.
[00:19:17] The second, and I think this is the most important. I think this one fuels the other ones. As he says, a man who is full of the spirit.
[00:19:27] Okay, so what does it mean to be a man who's full of the spirit? In essence, it means to be a redeemed man.
[00:19:38] To be full of the spirit means that you know Jesus, means that at some point in your life, you've come to the end of yourself. You've recognized by the grace of God that you can't be your own Savior, that you make a lousy Lord.
[00:19:55] And you have looked upon the Son of God who was and is the perfect man.
[00:20:02] You're not that. I'm not that Jesus was and is the perfect man. God, man, you've looked upon him and his death on the cross. And you said that death is mine.
[00:20:15] The only sin Jesus ever knew, ever will know, is, is yours, brother, and mine.
[00:20:23] And in exchange, the righteousness that you and I have is his.
[00:20:30] He's given us his righteousness. So to be a man who's full of the spirit means that you're a man who knows Jesus.
[00:20:39] You're a Christian.
[00:20:43] You can check all the boxes that you think are necessary to be checked to qualify as a masculine man in and miss everything because you don't know Jesus.
[00:20:55] To be full of the Spirit is to be full of Christ.
[00:21:00] It's to be a Christian. Jesus says in John 7:37, 38, and this is a wonderful.
[00:21:07] This is just wonderful.
[00:21:09] John 7:37, 38 says, on the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me.
[00:21:20] So if you're sitting in the pew and maybe you're not a Christian and you're thinking like noble character, godly man, all these things, and you're just feeling the weight of how short you fall of that man, there's good news for you. Jesus came for you.
[00:21:41] That's what Jesus came for.
[00:21:43] That weakness that all of us have and are is why Jesus came. And so his invitation is to everybody if Are you thirsty?
[00:21:53] Are you thirsty for more than the world can provide for you? Come to me.
[00:21:58] Are you hungry?
[00:22:00] Are you hungry for righteousness? Are you hungry for life? Are you hungry for a second chance? Are you hungry for forgiveness? Come to me.
[00:22:09] And this is what he says he'll do.
[00:22:11] Come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.
[00:22:20] This is what it means to be full of the Spirit, to come to Jesus, embrace him as your Savior and your Lord, and to be filled with his Spirit. And so the apostles say, good reputation, full of the Spirit.
[00:22:36] And then the third thing that these men are to be is, are men of wisdom, full of the Spirit and of wisdom. So what is wisdom? I would kind of like summarize it in the statement that you need to be. And again, this applies to women as well.
[00:22:55] A fearful man.
[00:22:58] Okay. Wisdom is about fear, which you're like, that sounds. I'm not supposed to be a fearful man. I'm not supposed to be a scaredy cat. You're not supposed to be a scaredy cat.
[00:23:05] You're supposed to, by the grace of God. This is something that the Spirit does in us. Reorder your fears so that your fear is of God alone and not of his creation.
[00:23:16] The only thing that will truly drive out the fear of man in our life, the fear of circumstances and what ifs and all of these things, is the fear of God.
[00:23:25] And the fear of God isn't one of terror for the Christian. It's not one of. Like Sean talked about several weeks ago. It's not one that makes us want to turn away like God's some kind of abusive dad.
[00:23:37] The fear of God is rejoicing and trembling.
[00:23:42] It's a movement toward God because of the blood of Jesus and recognizing all that God is, how magisterial he is and how beautiful he is, and how sovereign and strong and powerful he is, and being in awe of who he is in such a way that all of the things of life are put into the right order.
[00:24:02] And so these are to be men who are of good reputation with both Christians and non Christians. They're to be men who are full of the spirit, meaning that they believed upon Jesus Christ for the salvation of their sins. And there are to be men filled with wisdom.
[00:24:20] Wisdom, Proverbs 1 says, is the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
[00:24:28] And so they're to be wise men.
[00:24:32] And again, wisdom and knowledge are not the same.
[00:24:36] Knowledge is necessary. It's necessary to study theology and study history and study the Bible, but it doesn't equate to wisdom.
[00:24:45] Okay? Like, people say this all the time, and it's true. There are lots of brilliant fools in the world.
[00:24:52] They're brilliant in the books, foolish in life.
[00:24:56] So men of good reputation, filled with the spirit, meaning they know Jesus and full of wisdom. Many years ago, I was in a counselor's office, and I've shared this with some of you guys, so I'll be transparent from the stage, I have no shame.
[00:25:14] There was a time in my life when I would walk into a room with one of my former pastors, and every time I walked into the room, my palms would literally sweat.
[00:25:27] I wanted his approval so badly that I would have physiological responses to it.
[00:25:34] And so I'm in this counselor's office and I'm having a conversation, and he kind of. I start to share my life with him and my experience with various men in my life.
[00:25:45] And here's. Kind of. Here's what he says. So my biological dad left my mom before I was born. Wanted nothing to do with me, still wants nothing to do with me. I've tried to reach out, will not respond.
[00:25:56] My stepdad, who my mom married when I was two, was neglectful, unprotective, didn't really seem to care a whole lot when my grandparents adopted me at age 13 from him, didn't fight for me.
[00:26:13] And then my grandfather at age 16, took his life.
[00:26:18] And so he's looking at these situations, and he says, man, it just seems like the men in your life have checked out on you.
[00:26:26] And I was like, yeah, it's kind of how it feels like. It just feels like they checked out.
[00:26:33] That's an overly simplistic way to think about it all, but that's the feeling of it, right?
[00:26:39] And many years after that, I'm at a conference, and the conference speaker gets up, and he preaches this amazing sermon about legacy. And at the end of the sermon, he looks out at all of us. There's a room full of men.
[00:26:52] He looks out at all of us, and he says, some of you didn't come from a godly legacy.
[00:26:59] And I'm sitting there in the front row thinking, like, yeah, I didn't come from godly legacy.
[00:27:03] And he says, here's my advice to you. Start one.
[00:27:09] And I was like, praise God.
[00:27:12] Like, there are men in the room this morning who do come from a godly legacy. You come from a family of Christ following Men praise God for that. What a gift that is.
[00:27:23] But there are others of you who did not come from that. And God in His grace redeemed you.
[00:27:29] He called you by name, he forgave you of your sins, he clothed you in his righteousness and filled you with his spirit. And now by his grace, you have the opportunity to start the thing that you didn't come from.
[00:27:42] So my application question for you brothers is what kind of legacy do you want to leave?
[00:27:50] Are you?
[00:27:51] It's a morbid question, but it's a good one. Are you ready for death today?
[00:27:57] Like, are you ready for the possibility of that today?
[00:28:02] Leading a legacy, I'm trying to learn this myself. Is not about how much influence you can have in the world because most of us are not going to have just a wide audience of influence.
[00:28:15] But what will the people closest to you say about you?
[00:28:20] And by the grace of God, might they say wonderful reputation, imperfect man.
[00:28:30] But in the midst of his imperfections, in the midst of his sin, in the midst of his suffering, in the midst of him falling on his face from time to time, which we all do, Jesus grace was evident in his life and he would repent and he'd get back up and continue to follow Jesus.
[00:28:46] Well, they say he was a man who was filled with the Spirit, a man who sought to be a man of wisdom, not just a man of knowledge.
[00:28:59] This is what I want for us.
[00:29:02] And brothers, that's not a challenge. Do more.
[00:29:06] This is an opportunity for you to turn your gaze away from yourself and put it upon Christ.
[00:29:11] And as you put it upon Christ, experiencing the transforming, renewing, life changing power that only his Spirit, so that you, by the grace of God would live into the fullness of potential that God put you on earth to live into.
[00:29:28] Seven men, good reputation, full of the Spirit, full of wisdom was their response.
[00:29:36] And so in conclusion, what was the result of this response?
[00:29:42] So let's see.
[00:29:46] I'm going to start in verse four. I'm sorry, Verse five says this proposal pleased the whole company. So they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip Procurus. I'm not going to read these as well as Tavri did. Nicanor Timon Parmenaeus Nicolaus, a convert from Antioch, they had them stand before the apostles who prayed and laid their hands on them. You know what's fascinating about that list of men?
[00:30:11] We only know anything about two of them.
[00:30:15] We know about Stephen, who we'll read about next week or two weeks from now. We'll read about him next week, but he'll get killed two weeks from now. First martyr of the church.
[00:30:24] Sorry, Sky.
[00:30:29] So we'll know about Stephen and we'll know about Philip, but we won't know anything about any of the other ones. You know why?
[00:30:37] Because their names are never brought up in the New Testament again.
[00:30:41] It is not about you having the biggest platform you can have.
[00:30:46] That's not how God defines success. What a great gift that is.
[00:30:50] You are free from that. You don't have to live for that to be.
[00:30:58] To be this man.
[00:30:59] We don't know anything about these guys, but this is who they appoint. They appoint these seven guys.
[00:31:04] And it says that the apostles lay their hands on them, they pray over them, they install them, as many would say are the first deacons of the church.
[00:31:12] And then this is the result. So this is the final question. What was the result of their response? Verse 7. The word of God spread. Can you say the word of God spread?
[00:31:23] The word of God spread. The disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly in number, and a large group of priests became obedient to the faith. This is what happens when the church lives in unity with one another by the power of the Spirit. When the men that God has called to by the grace of God and the Spirit of Christ submit their lives to Jesus and follow Jesus in service to the church. This is the result of that, that the word of God spreads like the word of God spreads. People are saved, the church is grown to. Disciples are multiplied. And the greatest thing of all is that the kingdom of God itself spreads throughout the darkness of the kingdoms of the earth. And God is glorified.
[00:32:05] I had the opportunity. I'm gonna close on this. I had the opportunity over the last two weeks to sit in on a handful of reconciling conversations with different members of our church.
[00:32:18] So situations where people in the church were hurt and or frustrated by other members of the church who by their own volition, not because the pastor was like, you have to do this. Or else by their own volition, by prompting of the Spirit, came together with those other Christians and had a reconciling conversation. And I'll tell you what. And I said this to them after those meetings, like, those were holy moments when the church lives in unity, fights for unity, operates the way God intended for us to operate. Elders doing what elders do, deacons doing what deacons do. Men being enthralled by Jesus again and filled with the Spirit, leading out in the various ways that God has gifted them to lead and live. And the Same with women serving in the various capacities that God has called you to serve. When the church is doing that, not losing sight of its mission, then the kingdom of God advances through that.
[00:33:20] And so, as we.
[00:33:24] As we pray, this is the direction I want us to pray that we at Redemption Hill, by the grace of God, would be a church unified in doctrine, unified in love, both for God and for one another, and unified in mission. It is not uncommon that I hear guests, after they visit Redemption Hill, and I take them out to coffee, say, man, you guys really seem to love one another.
[00:33:48] Like, may that always be said of us, by the grace of God. Let's pray together.
[00:33:54] Father, we love you and God, we thank you for your word, thank you for the cross, the resurrection.
[00:34:00] I pray, Father, that nothing I said today would be interpreted by any of the men of the room as shaming or degrading or. We all desperately need your grace.
[00:34:12] None of us have arrived, none of us on our own, apart from you, are good men.
[00:34:22] And so, Jesus, we rejoice in your perfection, in your righteousness, in your life, in your death, in your resurrection. I pray for my sisters in the room, those who are married, those who are not married, of all ages, that in this moment you wouldn't allow the enemy to in any way instill within their mind that they are of less value to the men in the room, but that you would encourage them, God, all the more of their calling and their giftedness to use these gifts boldly, courageously, filled by the spirit, for the building up of the body and to love their husbands, for those who are married, for the other women in the room to pray for the men of Redemption Hill, that we, by the grace of God, would be men who are all the more dependent on you, who. Who are quick to repent, who hold faith in the Lord Jesus, who live humbly, who live courageously, who live boldly for the sake of your kingdom. So, God, we love you, we praise you, and we pray all of this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
[00:35:30] Sam.
[00:35:56] Sa.
