Let's sing this one more time.
Praise him, praise him,
Jesus our God and Savior.
Sing the wordless,
wonderful and holy.
Hail him, hail him,
highest and most holy.
Strength and honor
here to his holy name.
Like a shepherd,
Jesus our God and Savior.
In his arms,
he will carry them
on their own.
Praise him, praise him,
that all who share something
praise him.
Praise him, praise him,
ever rejoice your Son.
Praise him, praise him,
Jesus our blessed believer.
Oh, God saves Jesus
from heaven and earth and high.
We are one,
one with eternal salvation.
Hail him, hail him,
Jesus the crucified.
Sound his praises,
Jesus the Lord of Storms.
Oh, one mountain,
wonderful, deep and strong.
Praise him, praise him,
that all who share something
praise him.
Praise him, praise him,
ever rejoice your Son.
Praise him, praise him,
Jesus the blessed believer.
Hail him,
hail him,
God of heaven and earth.
Jesus, Savior,
we will never give up.
Hail him, hail him,
God of heaven and earth.
Praise him, praise him,
Jesus the Lord of Storms.
Oh, God saves Jesus,
that all who share something
praise him.
Praise him, praise him,
the world is next to him.
Praise him, praise him,
ever rejoice your Son.
Amen.
Pray for us.
Amen.
Thank you, brother.
And song number 303.
Song number 303,
my faith looks up to me.
Song number 303.
My faith looks up to me,
the land of Galilee.
Sing, O Jesus,
my faith looks up to me,
the land of Galilee.
Sing, O Jesus,
my faith looks up to me,
the land of Galilee.
Sing, O Lord,
give me
all that
means no mercy.
Please, Lord,
give me
all that
means no mercy.
Pray, O Jesus,
my faith looks up to me,
the land of Galilee.
Sing, O Jesus,
my faith looks up to me,
the land of Galilee.
Come, Lord,
give me
all that
means no mercy.
My heart's full
please, Lord,
pray,
every
son of man
will say,
be thou my God.
Please, Lord,
give me
all that
means no mercy.
Pray, O Jesus,
my faith looks up to me,
the land of Galilee.
Sing, O Jesus,
my faith looks up to me,
the land of Galilee.
Shall
the
Lord be
known?
Blessed
in
heaven
the
holy
friend
is
once
renewed.
O
give
me
strength
above
all
that
means
no
mercy.
Amen.
It's time to go over to the announcements.
We'll be completely following.
We'll be doing the song number 200 and 45.
All right.
If you'd like a bulletin,
just go ahead and slip up your hand.
If you haven't,
I'll bring you one.
As always,
the service times are there.
In the upper left-hand side will be in
Acts chapter number six tonight.
And then we've got the salvation and
baptisms.
Below that,
as well as the upcoming song schedule
for this Sunday.
Of course,
the announcement regarding brother
Pendleton having passed
and gone to bed with the Lord.
There will be a funeral service
on Tuesday at 10 a.m.
at San Ten Memorial Gardens.
Will be the graveside service.
And then there'll be a memorial service
at the Tempe church building
at noon.
And so 12 o'clock.
And then we'll have
probably about half hour, 45 minutes
service.
And then we'll have a lunch after that
catered in.
And people can just kind of mingle.
And it's really no set time to leave.
I know it's kind of a middle of the week
Tuesday.
These things obviously are never
convenient.
But if anyone wants to go,
I might have a couple seats in our
van.
I know my family's going up,
obviously.
And if someone wants to hop in early,
we're going to be leaving at like 730
in the morning.
So that's an option.
I'm just throwing that out there in case
anybody wants to take me up on that.
And otherwise,
if you can make it up,
great.
But of course not.
We understand.
But continue to pray regardless for
Mrs.
Martin and their family.
And of course all the people that are
probably going to be hearing the gospel
as a result of brother Matthew's
testimony.
And we praise God that he saved and in
heaven.
On the back,
don't forget this Sunday,
is the birthday donuts in honor of
everybody celebrating in June.
That's going to be at 10 a.m.
So if you want to come out and get that
first pick,
be here early.
And then there's the mega conference,
as well the expectant ladies list,
and a couple of soul winning events
below that.
That's going to do it for announcements.
We'll just go ahead and quickly
count up the soul winning going back to
Monday,
if anybody has anything for Monday or
Tuesday,
or Wednesday,
or today.
Okay.
All right,
we'll go ahead and sing one more song
before we get into the preaching
tonight.
So number 245,
on the old count of seven.
Two hundred and forty-five.
One hundred and forty-five.
Acts, chapter six.
Verse one of the Bible reads,
In those days, as the number of the disciples multiplied,
there arose a murmuring and preaching against the Hebrews,
because their widows were neglected and gave ministration.
Then the twelve told the multitude that the disciples unto them,
and said,
There is not reason that we should be the word of God,
but serve tables.
Wherefore, brethren,
put ye out among these seven men of honest report,
the will of the Holy Ghost and the wisdom,
whom we may appoint over this business.
For we will give ourselves continually to prayer,
as the ministry of the Word,
and the saying,
Please the whole multitude.
And they chose Stephen,
the man full of faith,
as the Holy Ghost,
and Philip,
and Prothels,
and Agnes,
and Timon,
and Parmenas,
and Nicholas,
and Prosema,
and Anzalem,
whom they set before the apostles.
And when they had prayed,
they laid their hands on them.
And where the word of God had increased,
the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly,
and the great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.
And Stephen, full of faith and power,
drew great wonders and miracles among the people.
Then there arose the synagogue,
which is called the synagogue of the liberties,
and Cyrenius,
and Alexandria,
and Odysseus,
and Aeschylus,
and Stephen.
And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit of which is faith.
Then they subverted men,
which said,
We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.
And they stirred up the people, the elders, the scribes,
and came upon him and got him,
and brought him to the council.
And said of false witnesses,
which said,
This man ceases not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place,
or the law.
We have heard him say,
That this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place,
and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us.
And all that sat on the council,
who had been steadfastly honored,
saw his face as if in the face of an angel.
All right. Amen.
So in Acts chapter number six,
didn't say two this time.
I know I got up last week and said two and gave everybody heart attacks,
but not again.
But,
Acts chapter number six,
a real short chapter,
but we see here a couple things.
And really I think when we kind of look at this chapter as a whole,
what we really see is the importance of serving those that are weak
and taking care of those that are weak,
of course in that first half.
And in the latter half,
you know,
the willingness to take a stand and to,
you know,
be counted as faithful to Christ.
Okay,
that's kind of obviously two major themes right here in this chapter.
But,
beginning of verse one it says,
And in those days,
when the number of disciples was multiplied,
there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews,
because their widows were neglected in the daily administration.
You know,
we might just kind of gloss over that,
but obviously no church is perfect.
And especially when they're first starting out,
they probably have to kind of figure out,
you know,
how they're going to do things and set up some rules.
But,
you know,
it's kind of a,
it's kind of a good reminder here,
you know,
after we've read all these other chapters,
just all these great things are taking place.
All these powerful things are taking place.
All this preaching and people are getting saved and baptized by the
thousands.
And there's all these miracles taking place.
It's nice to be reminded that,
you know,
even back then they were just like anybody else and things slipped through
the cracks and no church is perfect.
Even this great church early on here,
they had this flaw here where,
and it was a flaw in my opinion,
where the widows are being neglected.
You know,
when you're starting to neglect certain widows and not neglect others,
you know,
that's being partial.
You know,
we're not to,
we're not to do anything by partiality.
We're not to be respectors of persons within the local church.
People should be treated equally.
And obviously this is kind of something that they missed here,
right?
It was the Hebrew widows were being taken care of,
therefore the Grecians,
they were getting upset and rightly so.
So we don't want to be respectful of persons in the local church.
That's a good principle that we can take from that.
Make sure we're not,
you know,
preferring one person above another.
Everyone needs to be treated with the same level of respect.
And obviously,
you know,
when it comes specifically to widows,
there's the qualifications in 1st Timothy 5,
where if a widow is going to be taken into the number,
she has to be under,
you know,
three score years old and the wife of one man,
well reported of good works,
having brought up children and all those things.
You can go read that.
And we could definitely preach about that,
but really there's this broader principle here that we could talk about
where we should be taking care of those that are weak and needy.
You know,
that's part of what we do as a church.
Okay.
And obviously that's something that's maybe not as needful today in the day
and age that we're living in,
where a lot of people have a lot of other support networks.
You know,
people are living longer.
They have,
you know,
young children or older children that could take care of them.
They have,
you know,
made plans financially so people in their older age can be taken care of and
not have to rely upon a church or even family in some instances.
But that doesn't mean we're never going to run into people like back then
where there's going to be whole groups of people that are going to be need to
be taken care of.
And when it says there that they were neglected in the daily ministration,
I believe what it's referring to is making sure that they were fed because
you remember in the chapters leading up to this,
people are selling lands and possessions and they're kind of pooling their
resources together and they're giving to every man as they have need.
And obviously that would include widows.
Right.
So widows have gotten saved and come into the church.
You know,
part of that ministration would have been to take care of them.
Right.
As you see in the chapter,
the,
you know,
the,
the apostles say,
God and do what?
Wait tables.
Right.
And he means that quite literally.
Like,
so they were literally waiting tables,
clearing tables,
setting tables,
feeding people.
That was kind of what's going on.
That's how I understand it anyway.
So the principle here is that we should not,
you know,
neglect the weak and the needy amongst us.
And we're going to run into people like this if we're,
you know,
going to be a church that reaches people,
you're going to run into people who have,
you know,
very serious needs in life.
They're going to have to have,
sometimes even just to be physically waited upon,
you know,
and there's nothing wrong with that.
In fact,
you know,
the Bible says we ought to do good unto all men,
you know,
as we therefore have opportunity,
especially to be the household of faith.
Right.
In Romans 15,
you know,
we then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to
please ourselves.
That is part of our Christian duty.
You know,
if we see our brother or sister have need and shut up our bowels compassion,
you know,
how dwell in us,
the love of God.
Okay.
So when we,
we should,
we should be concerned about the people in our church.
We should,
you know,
take coming to church seriously,
develop those relationships and look for opportunity to bless other people in
the church and not to just please ourselves.
That's kind of the broader principle that you can get here from just this
first verse where this situation's playing out.
They have these widows who obviously would be falling in that category of
somebody who is maybe,
you know,
more reliant on other people.
Those type of people should not be neglected in the local church.
And obviously when it comes into,
you know,
more specifically,
you know,
providing financially for certain individuals,
certain qualifications have to be met for,
you know,
widows are no exception,
but let's move along here in the story and kind of with that theme,
you'll see in the first half about service as just kind of what it's dealing
with, right?
How to serve in the local church,
whose job it is to do what and how to be a servant in local church.
If you look at verse two,
it says,
then the 12 called the multitude of disciples unto them and said,
it is not reason that we should leave the word of God and serve tables
wherefore,
brethren,
look ye out among you seven men of honest report full of the Holy Ghost and
wisdom whom we appoint over this business,
but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the
ministry of the