What it Takes to Share the Truth

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Good morning, Springhouse.

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Man, you guys look good.

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Look at your neighbor and say, "You look good."

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And if you're joining us live stream, I know I look good, but I can't see you.

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You're probably on your couch in your robe, but I'm glad you're joining us today.

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I wish you were here.

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It's a good day to be in the house of the Lord, but it's always a good day when God

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is on the throne.

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And he is on the throne today, and I'm glad that he's in control.

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Before we get rolling here, I'm gonna give the same two announcements that I gave last

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week.

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I'm gonna give them for the last time.

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Next week, not next week, September 8th, two weeks from now, there is a special luncheon

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for those who are newcomers to Springhouse.

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If you have been here, maybe started in the last six months, and you're just interested

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in meeting our pastor team, we'd like to meet you, tell you about our ministries, tell you

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about how you can get plugged in.

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But we are going to have a luncheon that day right after this gathering, and if you'll

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scan that QR code there and sign up, that would be helpful so that we ensure that we

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have enough food for everybody.

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So if you'll do that, and then out in the foyer, there's also placards out there that

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you can sign up for and register through the app.

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And then, as I said last week, I'm announcing this super early, half of the spots are already

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gone for our marriage retreat.

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So if you wanna sign up for the marriage retreat, you might wanna go ahead and do that and get

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in on there.

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You can register for that through the app as well.

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That's coming up in January.

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All right, we're gonna continue our series, His Church today.

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We've been in the book of Acts.

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I pray that you are reading along with us.

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I pray that you are making it a daily habit to be in the Word of God.

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We had a devotional, a reading plan rather, that we ended out the beginning of the year.

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I pray that you are continuing to go through that, or if you have your own Bible reading

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plan that you are in the Word every day.

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But we are in the book of Acts, and it really is helpful.

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It's kinda like when you go to school.

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Some of you have not been in school in a very long time.

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But if you remember going to school and there was a test, you would go and you would feel

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much better about that test had you already done some of the homework and research yourself.

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It really helps if you want to read along with us.

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So we're giving you a heads up of where we are.

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We are in the book of Acts, and we're gonna be traveling through.

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And I'm actually gonna do a quick, before we get started, a quick review of where we

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have, where we've been.

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Okay, so in Acts chapter two, Acts chapter two, the Holy Spirit falls on the people,

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and people receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

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And we had a service in here where we talked about the gifts of the Spirit.

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And so many of you received the gifts of the Spirit that day, baptism of the Holy Spirit

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that day.

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And I pray that you are continuing to lean in to listening and being obedient to the

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Holy Spirit, because He has some things for us.

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He has some things for you.

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And remember, I drew kind of a door here, and I said the door is open.

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The door has always been open, but some of you needed to be told again that the door

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is open, that we allow the move of the Holy Spirit here at Springhouse.

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And so listen to His voice.

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It's not just during our hour of worship together.

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It is throughout the whole week, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.

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And I find, you know, not that I don't need to listen to the Holy Spirit while I'm here

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with all of you guys, I find that I really need to pay attention to His voice when I'm

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isolated and alone.

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So listen to His Holy Spirit.

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So the Holy Spirit falls in, it says at the end of chapter 2, "They devoted themselves,"

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they being the believers, "to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship and to the breaking

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of bread and to prayer."

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And we want to pair along with the early church.

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And so we should be a people who are paying attention to teaching, fellowship, breaking

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of bread, and prayer.

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We should make that an active part of our lives.

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All the believers were together and had everything in common, everything in common.

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Acts chapter 3, Peter and John heal a beggar at the gate called Beautiful, and he preaches

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the gospel.

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And as he heals this beggar, people go and say, "Look what Peter and John did."

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But you know, Peter and John are just the vessel.

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The one who heals is God Almighty.

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The one who heals is God Almighty.

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And so it's a pathway in order to give the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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And the word tells us that 5,000 were added to the church that day.

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If we had 5,000 members here at Springhouse, we would be considered a megachurch.

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So really, lots of people are being added to the kingdom, not because of signs and wonders,

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but because of the gospel of Jesus Christ being preached, because of the gospel being

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preached, because of the good news of Jesus Christ.

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And so in Acts chapter 4, Peter and John have to stand before the Sanhedrin who do not like

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what Peter and John have been preaching.

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They do not like this, "The way," they say.

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They call it "the way."

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We don't want you preaching the way.

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And so they stand before the Sanhedrin.

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And in Acts chapter 4, 12, we learned of Peter's response to their accusations.

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And he says this, "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no name under heaven

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given to mankind by which we must be saved."

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Which name is he talking about?

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Jesus.

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There is no other name but the name of Jesus.

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And so they let them go because so many people were rejoicing at the fact that the beggar

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was healed.

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Let me tell you, if we have somebody, I mean, do we not rejoice that Craig is in the house

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today?

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Okay?

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We rejoice when God moves.

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We rejoice when God chooses to show mercy and grace and moves on our behalf.

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We should lean into God's mighty move in that way.

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And so it tells us, it goes on to tell us that the believers share everything.

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They share everything.

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All the believers were of one heart and mind.

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No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything

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they had.

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That they would be a people that would share the blessings God has given us.

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That when we're sitting next to somebody on a Sunday and we know that they are actually

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in need, that we would not just be hoarding the blessings and the things, the resources

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God's given us, but that we would hold them like this and be willing to listen to the

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Holy Spirit say, "Use this, give this, give this."

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And my experience has been is when I give it, he returns it multiples.

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Not in maybe the same way, but he returns it in his own great glorious way.

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And it is wonderful.

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Why?

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Because then you'll have the opportunity to share it again.

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I have opportunity to share it, share it again.

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And so at the end of chapter four, we're introduced to a man named Barnabas.

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Now Barnabas is a very important, one of my favorite characters in scripture.

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And we're going to learn about him in a few weeks.

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But Barnabas, we're introduced to him and he says he sold a field.

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He sells this field and guess what he does with the money?

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He lays it at the apostles feet so that the apostles might use it for the glory of God

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and providing the needs for the people.

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But in stark contrast in chapter five, we learned about a man named Ananias and his

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wife Sapphira.

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And they lied to the Holy Spirit.

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You see, they had also a field that they could sell.

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They didn't have to sell it, but they were convinced in their heart and their mind that

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they were to sell this field.

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They sell it and they get the money for it.

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But instead of bringing all of it to the apostles feet, they hold back some of it for themselves.

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And in doing so, they lied to the Holy Spirit.

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They grieved the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit of God took them out.

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Both of them, Ananias and Sapphira dead.

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That sent shockwaves through the church.

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It would send shockwaves through our church if that happened.

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And people, just their eyes opened.

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I'm sure their jaws dropped, but you know what the word tells us?

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Remember 5,000 at the beautiful gate, 3,000 at the day of Pentecost.

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Hey, listen, guess what?

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More than ever, more than ever, people were added to the kingdom because of the purification

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of the church.

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Oh, that we would be a people seeking to live in righteous ways, to live honoring a holy

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God.

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Guys, you can't do it on your own.

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There's no, I can't do this on my own.

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For somebody to say, "Kevin, live righteously."

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I can't do that without the help of a powerful God.

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And guess what?

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God wants to help us.

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Jesus left and ascended to heaven and gave us the precious gift of the Holy Spirit, God

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Almighty.

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The person of the Holy Spirit is walking with us to help us, to comfort us, to convict us,

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to lead us, to guide us, to give you the answers that you seek, to tell you what it is that

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you need to do in that circumstance or that situation.

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Or when the circumstance and situation does not turn out the way that you hope it did,

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He stands beside you and says, "I got you.

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I'm comforting you because I have a plan and a purpose in it and you can trust Him.

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You lean in to the Holy Spirit."

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And so afterward, after the deaths, the apostles were arrested because of all of the commotion

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and all these things.

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And the Sadducees we learned about last week who do not believe in the resurrection or

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afterlife or angels or anything like that, they bring them in and they say, "We do not

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like you preaching this gospel because we do not believe it's true and we believe that

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you are blaspheming what we know to be the Word of God."

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And so glory to glory, I love how God weaves Himself in and out of our stories.

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Amen.

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He weaves His way in and so He gets in there and these apostles are in jail and overnight

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an angel of the Lord comes and lets them walk out to go and He says, "I want you to go and

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preach the same gospel that got you in this jail."

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Wouldn't it be like God to use an angel so that the people who don't believe in angels

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have to see an angel came and set them free.

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That's just, the Lord just blows my mind.

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So they go and they preach and then they come back out and they bring them back in and they

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question the apostles.

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And so the apostles are there and Peter says this, he says, "We must obey God rather than

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human beings."

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Do you know that you need to obey God rather than human beings?

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You must obey God more than human beings.

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And so they wanted to kill them.

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They wanted to kill them.

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They wanted to hold them.

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They were so upset about this, but God does another wonderful thing.

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He raises up a Pharisee named Gamaliel and guess what?

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Gamaliel is a Pharisee.

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Pharisees believe in the resurrection of Jesus.

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And so Pharisee, he's raised up and he says, "Hey, hey, hey, listen.

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Let's let these men go because if this is man's plan, then it's going to fail.

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But if this is God's plan, you can't do anything about it anyway.

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So let's just let them go and see what happens."

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Isn't it crazy that God would raise up a Pharisee in the midst of that?

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I just love if you pay attention to God, he's always there weaving in and out of our story.

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I love that he can take ashy situations and make them beautiful.

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He is such a great, great God.

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And so the apostles after this Pharisee gets them out of it, guess what?

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Because the Sadducees beat, they beat the apostles.

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I don't mean in a race, but they beat them physically.

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And you know what the apostles said?

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Bless the Lord that we were counted worthy enough to suffer for the cause of the gospel.

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When was the last time you actually suffered for the cause of Jesus Christ?

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I mean, we love to come in and talk about how God needs to bless us.

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God's supposed to bless you.

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God's supposed to make you feel good and comfortable and cushy and give you an abundant life.

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When was the last time that you chose to undergo suffering for the cause of Christ?

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And so we pick up here in chapter six.

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And chapter six, the church was having some issues with manpower.

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And some churches that happens manpower is an issue.

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Okay, guess what?

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We need more workers in our children's and youth ministries.

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Okay, here at Springhouse, we could use people that would help with greeting and communion

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and serve in various places.

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I commission and I charge every single one of you under the sound of my voice, if you're

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choosing Springhouse to be your church, you should be serving somewhere.

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You should be serving somewhere.

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Why?

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Because it's not about you coming and Kevin just pointing out to you, we are supposed

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to be building each other up and God has given you specific gifts and specific ways to serve.

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Don't rob the kingdom of God from your gift.

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And so they were starving for manpower for the food distribution to the widows.

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And so they identified the apostles get together and say, listen, we've got these assignments

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over here, but we are busy doing this distribution.

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This can't continue.

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So we need to raise up seven, let's raise up seven people filled with the Spirit and

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we will identify them and they will take over that ministry.

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And one man in particular, they identify is a man named Stephen, who we're gonna spend

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a lot of time talking about today.

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The word tells us that they chose a man named Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy

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Spirit, full of faith and the Holy Spirit.

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They chose six other men as well, but Stephen was especially identified because what we're

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going to look at today.

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So we're about to read scripture and let me kind of tell you what we're gonna do here.

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Okay.

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Cause there's a lot of scripture today.

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So what we're gonna do is we're going to look at the beginning of Stephen's charge from

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the St. Hedron and then we're going to skip over Stephen's response until the very end

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of his response.

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And we're gonna pick up the end of his response to the end of that chapter.

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Now I'm gonna go back and I'm gonna be talking about Stephen's response and we're gonna go

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through it, but I'm just not gonna have you guys read it.

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Okay.

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Does that sound good?

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All right.

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So we're gonna start with Stephen's charge and then we're going to go to the end of Stephen's

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response into the end of the chapter and what happens.

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Let's stand together, Springhouse.

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Let's read like football's about to start.

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Here we go.

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Now Stephen, a man of God's grace and power performed great wonders and signs among the

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people.

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Opposition arose, however, from the members of the synagogue of the freedmen, as it was

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called, Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria, as well as the provinces of Cilicia and Asia who

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began to argue with Stephen.

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But they could not stand up against the wisdom the spirit gave as he spoke.

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Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, "We have heard Stephen speak blasphemous words

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against Moses and against God."

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So they stirred up the people and the elders and the teachers of the law.

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They seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin.

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They produced false witnesses who testified, "This fellow never stops speaking against

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the holy place and against the law.

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For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this palace and change

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the customs Moses handed down to us."

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All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen and they saw that his

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face was like the face of an angel.

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And at this point, Stephen responds.

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And at the end of his response, he says this, "You stiff-necked people, your hearts and

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ears are still uncircumcised.

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You are just like your ancestors.

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You always resist the Holy Spirit.

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Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute?

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They even killed those who predicted the coming of the righteous one.

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And now you have betrayed and murdered him, you who have received the law that was given

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through the angels but have not obeyed it."

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When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth

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at him.

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But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God and

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Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

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"Look," he said, "I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."

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At this, they covered their ears and yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed

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at him, dragged him out of the city and began to stone him.

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Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of the young man named Saul.

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While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."

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Then he fell on his knees and cried out, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them."

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When he had said this, he fell asleep.

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Father, thank you for your word.

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Thank you that we believe the entirety of the word.

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I pray that you would speak to us and let our hearts be changed today.

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In Jesus' name, amen.

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This is my brother.

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Anybody have siblings?

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Anybody have siblings?

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I love my brother.

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We used to fight when we were little, all of the time.

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We would fight over the dumbest things.

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You remember?

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We fight over the dumbest things.

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I don't remember the things we fought over.

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I just knew that we fought.

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But here's the thing.

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When it comes to sibling fights, there's no fair way to do it.

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You just do it, right?

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And so my brother and I, we would fight.

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I don't know.

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Like we never, I don't remember a time.

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Joey could correct me and he probably will if I'm wrong.

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But I don't remember a time when we stood in his place and we just like had it out and

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fought.

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What happened with us is like I would go grab a lamp and I would throw it at his head and

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then I would run.

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And then he would like go get a bat and then he would chase me with the bat and beat me

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down and then he would run.

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And then I would go grab a knife and I would chuck it at his face and it would basically

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like, you know, right in front of his face.

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Then he would go grab another object and throw it.

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I mean, we were just brutal and it's just a wonder that we are alive today.

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And so we just, we thought like it escalated to level 10, like out of the gate.

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There was not, and it was always over.

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I probably touched like his shoe and I wasn't supposed to, or he, he came in my room.

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It was dumb, just dumb things.

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But we would fight and siblings do fight and that happens.

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And thankfully we don't fight anymore.

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We're good.

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We haven't thrown anything at you in a very long time.

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I do have a big stone up here, but no, but I, but here's the thing of all the fights

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that we had.

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I never one time remember, never once do I remember him ever falsely accusing me of something

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that I actually didn't do or say.

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We've thought over frivolous things, but I never remember one time him making an actual

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false accusation against me.

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False accusations sting.

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False accusations, they sting.

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It's one thing to fight about something you feel you're right about.

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It's another thing to fight against something you've been falsely accused of doing or saying.

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There's nothing that will quite get under your skin like a false accusation.

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And in fact, we probably will remember more so when we are falsely accused than anything

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else because there's something that hits you at your core.

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Listen, you might fight me and hey, I may have been wrong and I may know that I'm wrong

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and I'm not willing to admit it, but don't peg me for something that I actually didn't

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say, didn't come out of my mouth and try to fight me for that.

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I remember being in high school.

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There was this girl in high school and she had gotten pregnant.

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And when you're pregnant in high school, that's not a good thing.

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And I was accused of telling people that she had gotten pregnant.

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And I remember being so upset because I did not even know she was pregnant to begin with,

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but I was the one pegged as the one who released that information and people came against me.

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But you know what was more hurtful?

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It wasn't just hurtful that I had a false accusation.

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What was hurtful is that the people who knew me well believed the accusation.

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Have you ever had people around you believe a false accusation against you, ones that

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love you, ones that are close to you, finding a hard time?

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You need to have people in your corner in your life who love you enough and trust you

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enough and believe you enough that you can look them square in the eye and say, I didn't

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do it.

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And they say, I got you.

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I got you.

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False accusations, man, they sting.

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We want to be a people.

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We want to be a church who believes the best in others.

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We believe the best in the people around us.

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And so Stephen, the word tells us was a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.

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This man Stephen, we read about, he's full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.

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And there's many of you that I could say you are full of faith and full of the Holy Spirit.

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And they begin to argue with Stephen.

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Now it's hard to argue with somebody who's full of faith and full of the Holy Spirit.

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It's hard because when you've got the God of the universe on your side, it's a losing

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battle going in.

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He was full of faith and full of the Holy Spirit.

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And it says they could not stand up against the wisdom the Spirit gave him as he spoke.

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So they would say something, he'd knock it out.

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He'd say, they'd say something, he'd knock it out.

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He'd just respond to it with such wisdom.

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And so what they decided to do is they said, let's make up a lie.

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Let's make up a lie.

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This fellow never stopped speaking against this holy place and against the law for we

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have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs

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Moses handed down to us.

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Let's convince the teachers and the leaders of the law that this is what this man is doing.

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And so they bring Stephen in and they accuse him.

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And it says, all who were sitting in the Sanhedrin, guys, I find this to be funny.

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All who were standing in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen and they saw that his

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face was like the face of an angel.

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I find that funny because if Justin and I are in an argument and his face starts to

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glow, I'm probably going to take a beat.

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Okay, wait a second.

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You know what I mean?

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I mean, it doesn't say they just looked, they said they looked intently.

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Is your face on fire?

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Like I mean, how many know that your anger and your selfishness and your pride can blind

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you from seeing everything that's right in front of you?

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They were looking intently at him.

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They saw that his face was like an angel, yet we're still going to have this argument.

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We're still going to do.

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Guys, have you ever met somebody who's never wrong?

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I'm sitting next to them, pastor.

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Wait a minute.

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When you're angry, when you're selfish, when you're prideful and you're not allowing the

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Holy Spirit to be infused into the conversation, when you're not leaning into the Holy Spirit,

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it's hard to see anybody else's point of view but yours.

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So they bring him in front of the Sanhedrin and they don't just bring him in.

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This is interesting.

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They don't just bring him in.

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He's in front of the Sanhedrin.

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They're all around him.

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They're all looking at him intently and he is there alone.

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Where's Peter?

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Where's John?

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Where are the apostles that identified him as a man full of faith in the Holy Spirit?

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Like where, like if I have to stand before the Sanhedrin, I hope I got a buddy with me

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who's going to come and hold my arms up and say, "Hey, listen, I can vouch for this person."

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Right?

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And they drug Stephen and Stephen is there alone having to defend a false accusation

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amongst the people who don't like him.

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Can you imagine, put yourself in those shoes for a minute.

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What type of emotions would you be feeling?

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What type of things would you, I mean, would you be angry, frustrated?

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They drug this person.

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He's completely innocent and they're hurling these false accusations against him.

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So nobody's with him.

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Yet Stephen, filled with faith in the Holy Spirit, begins his response with this, "Brothers

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and fathers, listen to me."

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When you are filled with the Holy Spirit, it doesn't matter what comes your way.

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You will always respond in keeping with the Holy Spirit.

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I want you to understand that this is a respectful introduction to Stephen's response.

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He says two things.

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He says, "Brothers," meaning we're on the same page here.

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We're on the same, we're in the same level.

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We're one another.

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But at the same time, he says, "Fathers, and I recognize and respect the position that

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you all hold."

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Listen to my response.

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Many of us would have just gone in and wouldn't have given them, we would have had a mouthful

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of garbage to say, and then we would have posted it on Facebook.

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It would have been glorious.

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He starts with respect and honor.

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Stephen had the Holy Spirit and he responded with confidence, wisdom, and kindness.

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Christians, let me tell you something.

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We should always respond with confidence, wisdom, and kindness, not just one.

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If we're overly confident, we're overly bold, then we become arrogant.

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If we just lean into wisdom only, then we might do it without being kind.

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If we're just kind, we may be shallow.

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We need confidence, wisdom, and kindness when we are responding to people with regard to

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the gospel.

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And he basically says we are the same.

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Can I tell you that sometimes we hold on to our point of view so hard that our point of

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view becomes our God?

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Pastor Justin was talking about this a few weeks ago where we hold on to our beliefs

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so tight that we don't allow any, the Lord to come in and to transform us.

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I can tell you I am a much different evolved believer today than I was 20 years ago.

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God is constantly transforming me.

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It doesn't mean that the truth of God changes.

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What it means is that my evolution of understanding what God's word is saying and how it applies

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to my life will evolve.

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And it does evolve.

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And when we hold on to it like this and we get into these fights, these righteous arguments,

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and we hold so tightly to our point of view, we're not leaning into the Holy Spirit, but

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I'm holding on to this is what I know.

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And we come at it using the world's tactics to fight a righteous battle we will lose every

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time.

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Stephen was able to give them the opportunity to state their case, albeit it was completely

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bogus.

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Some of us need to give an opportunity for the non-believers to tell us what they think

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and how they feel before we open our mouth.

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And sometimes the Holy Spirit will say, "Shut your mouth to you.

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Be quiet."

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So he's got, we're gonna look at the two big charges that they give him, these lies.

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They say first, "You blasphemed against Moses."

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Why is Moses important?

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Well, Moses is central, central to the faith, central to the story of everything that these

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people believe.

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Moses was like in their mind, like God, little g, but they, I mean, they elevated Moses high.

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They had such high regard for Moses, such high respect for Moses that if you said anything

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against Moses, you could face a real serious consequence.

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And so Stephen is going to use the truth to defend his faith here.

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And so we're gonna go through this.

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So the first accusation is you blaspheme against Moses.

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Let's watch how Stephen under the influence of the Holy Spirit responds to him.

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He says this, "When Moses was 40 years old," I want you to understand that Stephen is going

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to actually use the scripture against them.

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The same scriptures they're using toward him, he's gonna use against them, okay?

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"When Moses was 40 years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites.

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He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged

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him by killing the Egyptian.

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Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them."

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But what does it say?

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But they did not.

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The next day, "Moses came upon two Israelites who were fighting.

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He tried to reconcile them by saying, 'Men, you are brothers.

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Why do you want to hurt each other?'

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But the man who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside."

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We're gonna see a common theme here.

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Pushed Moses aside and said, "Who made you ruler and judge over us?

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Are you thinking of killing me as you did the Egyptian the other day?

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When Moses heard this, he fled to Midian where he settled as a foreigner and had two sons.

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After 40 years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses."

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An angel appears to Moses.

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Remember who he's talking to here.

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"In the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai.

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When he saw this, he was amazed at the sight.

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As he went over to get a closer look, he heard the Lord say, 'I am the God of your fathers,

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the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.'

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Then the Lord said to him, 'Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing

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is holy ground.

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I have indeed seen the impression of my people in Egypt.

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I have heard their groaning and now have come down to set them free.

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Now come, says the Lord, I will send you back to Egypt.'"

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This is the same Moses, look at this, they had rejected with words.

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Who made you ruler?

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With the words, who made you ruler and judge?

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He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself through the angel who appeared

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to him in the bush.

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He led them out of Egypt and performed wonders and signs in Egypt.

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At the Red Sea for 40 years in the wilderness.

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This is Moses who told the Israelites, "God will raise you up, raise up for you a prophet

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like me from your own people."

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I'm gonna read that again.

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God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your own people.

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He was in the assembly of the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai,

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and with our ancestors he received living words to pass on to us.

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But our ancestors did what?

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Refused to obey him.

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Instead they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.

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They told Aaron, "Make us gods who will go before us as this fellow Moses who led us

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out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him."

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That was the time they made an idol in the form of a calf.

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They brought sacrifices to it and reveled in what their own hands had made.

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But God turned away from them and gave them over to the worship of the sun, moon, and

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the stars.

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In other words, here's what he's doing.

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This is what Stephen's doing.

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He is drawing a line between Moses and Jesus and he's saying, "You are charging me with

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blaspheming Moses, but all throughout history, all our people did was blaspheme Moses.

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Reject Moses.

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Push him aside.

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Every time he went up the mountain, we turned away from him and made a calf.

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Every single time.

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So the argument that you're saying to me, the degree of accountability you're holding

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me to in regard to blaspheming Moses, you can't even hold that standard for yourself.

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In the midst of all of that, in the midst of all of that, what he's saying is God is

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going to send somebody great.

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Moses is saying, "God's going to send somebody greater than me in the future."

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Moses is not pointing to himself and saying, "Look at me, God has a master plan.

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God has somebody better."

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The reason that I highlighted signs and wonders is because who is most of the Sanhedrin made

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up of?

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Sadducees who don't believe in signs and wonders or angels.

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And here we are, you are charging me with blaspheming the exact same thing.

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You are a hypocrite.

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In other words, you're charging me.

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But here's the thing, Moses was raised up to display the glory of God.

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Moses was raised up to perform signs and wonders.

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Moses was raised up to set the people of God free.

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Does that sound like anyone else we know?

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The man that you just crucified was raised up to display the glory of God.

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He showed signs and wonders and he was raised up to set the people of God free.

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And he says to them, "You rejected both."

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Man's got a good argument.

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We know in John 14, it says, "I am," Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth and the life.

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No one comes to the Father except through me."

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It's not through a man.

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I was a Catholic at one time.

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I had to go to a priest and say, "Would you please go on my behalf to God to forgive my

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sin?"

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Do you know you don't have to go before man to get to God?

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Jesus gave us the pathway to go confidently and boldly before the throne of grace.

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The second accusation, the lie, the blaspheme against the temple and the law.

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The blaspheme against the temple and the law.

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Let's look at this.

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Stephen continues, "Our ancestors had the tabernacle of the covenant law with them in

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the wilderness.

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It had been made as God directed Moses according to the pattern he had seen."

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So they had a tabernacle that was built and carried around that harnessed the presence

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of God.

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Okay?

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"After receiving the tabernacle, our ancestors under Joshua brought it with them when they

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took the land from the nations God drove out before them."

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So Joshua leads the Israelites over the Jordan into the promised land with the tabernacle

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containing the presence of God.

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It remained in the land until the time of David who enjoyed God's favor and asked that

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he might provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.

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So King David had a desire to build a place, a temple for God almighty's presence to reside.

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But because of David's sin, he didn't get to build the temple.

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So Solomon did.

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But it was Solomon who built a house for him.

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However, read this line with me.

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"The most high does not live in houses made by human hands.

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As the prophet says, 'Heaven is my throne and the earth my stupful.'"

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Stupful.

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Footstool.

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I'm reading a lot today.

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"'What kind of house will you build for me?'

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says the Lord.

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'Or will my resting place be?

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Has not my hand made all these things?'

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The prophet said, 'Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool.'"

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God's presence, friends, cannot be contained.

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So he's drawing a line between the temple and rules and God's presence and his grace.

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I'm so glad that God's presence cannot be contained to one spot.

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Boy, that would be a lot of hassle for us to have to travel to one spot to get to the

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presence of God.

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The presence of God, he is omnipresent.

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He is everywhere at one time.

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That means in that dark moment of your life where you're isolated alone, God almighty

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can be right there.

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He's there.

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He's there.

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In every situation and every moment, he is there.

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This is what Hebrews 9 says regarding that temple.

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But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that are now already here, he

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went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands.

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That is to say, is not a part of this creation.

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He did not enter by means of blood of goats and calves, but he entered the most holy place

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once and for all by his own blood.

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By his blood obtaining eternal redemption.

Speaker: 00:36:30

And what does it say about the law in Romans 7?

Speaker: 00:36:34

But now by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we

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serve in a new way of the spirit and not the old way of the written code.

Speaker: 00:36:49

So Stephen has refuted both claims, both lies simply by retorting and responding just the

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truth that they have been speaking and teaching themselves.

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In other words, you are hypocritical by charging me with this claim because you cannot hold

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the standard that you're charging me with.

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That one has come that was able to fulfill the entire law and you missed him.

Speaker: 00:37:21

And so now this is how Stephen concludes his sermon.

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You stiff necked people.

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What if I concluded our messages?

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You people, you know.

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No, he says you stiff necked people.

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Their hearts and ears are still uncircumcised.

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They were circumcised in the flesh, but their hearts and ears were not circumcised.

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You are just like your ancestors.

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And he says this, you always resist the Holy Spirit.

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I think the most dangerous thing that we can do as believers is resist the Holy Spirit.

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Resisting the Holy Spirit will send you right back to the pit that you got saved from.

Speaker: 00:38:17

The Holy Spirit, he says, why is this important?

Speaker: 00:38:19

I think this is one of the most important lines in Stephen's retort, his response, because

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it is the Holy Spirit that opens your, he's the one who opens your eyes to see what you

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need to see.

Speaker: 00:38:32

He is the one who, he is the one that would have allowed those people who actually believed

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the majority of the story to see you're Jesus.

Speaker: 00:38:43

You're the one who's fulfilling these scriptures.

Speaker: 00:38:45

You are who you say, or it would have been the Holy Spirit, but he says the charge back

Speaker: 00:38:49

to them is you resist.

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You always resist the Holy Spirit.

Speaker: 00:38:55

And the Holy Spirit is the one who allows you to see the reality in every situation.

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Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute?

Speaker: 00:39:03

They even killed the ones who predicted the coming of the righteous one.

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And now you have betrayed, and here's where it gets real dicey.

Speaker: 00:39:12

He's talking to the religious leaders, and now you have betrayed and murdered him.

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You who have received the law that was given through angels, but have not obeyed it.

Speaker: 00:39:25

Then the word says this, when the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious

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and gnashed their teeth.

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I wish we'd bring back gnashing of teeth.

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You know, if you got mad at somebody, you know, I imagine that's what it was, you know,

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but gnashing of teeth, you know.

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But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven

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and saw the glory of God, and Jesus stand at the right hand of God.

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And here's the thing, truth will always offend the one who believes the lie.

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The truth will always offend the one who believes the lie.

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The leaders were so angry that they decided to kill him.

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They decided to take stones and hurl stones at them.

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Here's some truths that I want us to gain, and this is something that the Lord revealed

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to me on the back end of this passage that I want us to get today.

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First of all, the Sanhedrin did not have the authority to kill Stephen.

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That's why they had to take Jesus to Pilate.

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So yet again, in the accusation, you are blaspheming against the law, we're gonna, we are so focused

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on wanting to get your voice out of the mix that we are willing to do whatever it takes.

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And I want to let you know that there is an enemy and a world out there that wants to

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kill, steal, and destroy, and will do anything it takes to kill you.

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And these people, these religious leaders were willing to go grab stones to which they

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did not have the authority to do, and kill this man because they were so furious at his

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point of view, which his point of view was actual truth.

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And the word tells us that they took their cloaks off, and they threw it at a young man

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named Saul, who we're gonna be talking a whole lot about here in the coming weeks.

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And this man Saul, who had become Paul, I believe with every cloak that dropped, I could just

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hear him dropping, it just mustered fury inside him.

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And he said, "I'm gonna go kill me some people that believe in the way."

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And they go out, and they're going to go kill Stephen.

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And so they're going out there to stone him, and what I want you to see today, friends,

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is Stephen is there, and he's before the Sanhedrin.

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He's been accused of lies that were not true.

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He's done nothing wrong.

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He was a man full of faith in the Holy Spirit, and he was standing there alone, fighting

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for righteousness.

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But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God and

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Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

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What do you notice about Jesus' position?

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Everything we have read is that Jesus is sitting at the right hand of God, except for in this

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instance.

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Stephen, there alone, looks up and sees Jesus Christ standing.

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And I want to let you know, no matter who is accused, no matter what your circumstances,

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no matter what your problems are, Jesus will stand with you.

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You are not alone.

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You are not alone in the fight.

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And I believe when Stephen looked up and he saw Jesus standing, I think he was waiting

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for that moment for Jesus to say, "Come on, well done, good and faithful servant."

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Guys, there are places in your life where you need to know that while you are trying

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to make the right choice, this was me in so many years, I say this with such humility,

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so many times in my life where the crowd wanted me to go left and I chose to go right.

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And man, I was so massacred where I was made fun of for it.

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I was all of these things, and sometimes it grew weary on me.

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I just wanted to throw in the towel and go with the crowd because it would be so much

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easier.

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And I believe in those moments.

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Jesus Christ is standing with you.

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He's standing with you in the circumstance where you think you are all alone and everybody's

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turned their back on you.

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When everybody's around you and you're like, "Where are my friends?

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Where's Peter and John?

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Like I feel like I'm all alone in this fight.

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Why are you not here to help me lift my arms up?"

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I believe that Jesus will stand with you.

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He has given us the precious gift of the Holy Spirit.

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And so he's looking at him and Jesus is standing there at the right hand of God.

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And I just believe that as he went down and they started to stone him, he was in the front

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presence of the Lord, immediately in the presence of God Almighty.

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Who are you looking at in the middle of your fight?

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Who are your eyes fixed on in the midst of false accusations?

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And I love this at the very end.

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I probably be like, "Lord, smite them all."

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But Stephen says, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."

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He fell on his knees and cried out, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them."

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Do you know somebody else who said those two statements?

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Jesus, the night he died.

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But I want you to understand the posture of Stephen.

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He was looking at Jesus.

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And when you're looking at Jesus, then your responses are always gonna be like him.

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Your response, whatever comes out of your mouth's gonna be what he says.

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Because you can't see the circumstances or the hatred around you.

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You see the glory of Jesus, the strength of Jesus, the power of Jesus, the freedom of

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Jesus.

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And you're able to respond accordingly when Jesus is standing with you.

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How do you need to respond today to your accusers, to your circumstance, to the world around

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you?

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Do you feel alone?

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Are you isolated?

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Have you been believing God for something and you just feel like, "I wanna throw in

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the towel?"

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Well, church, I want you to know today, you never have to fight alone.

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Jesus stands with you.

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Would you stand with me this morning?

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For those who are gonna minister and pray with people, would you come forward?

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He is a holy God forever.

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A holy, righteous King forever.

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And today, you can be reminded that Jesus stands with you.

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Some of you need to come forward and you need to bring to the altar space.

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You need to drag out into the light the thing you've been carrying and holding onto, the

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thing you feel alone in, the thing that you're fighting for, the people that you're fighting

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for.

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Maybe your responses were not the right responses, but you need God to help you in your responses.

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Jesus is standing with you.

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So as we worship, you come and pray and do business with an almighty God who breathes

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stars.