and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people.
Then there rose certain of the synagogue,
which is called the synagogue of the Libertines,
and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia
and of Asia, disputing with Stephen.
And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit
by which he spake.
Then they suborned men, which said,
we have heard him speak blasphemous word against Moses
and against God.
And they stirred up the people and elders and the scribes
and came upon him and caught him and brought him
to the council and set up false witnesses which said,
this man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words
against this holy place and the law.
For 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 in the council, looking steadfastly on him,
saw his face as it had been the face of an angel.
We thank you, Heavenly Father, for the King James Bible,
dear Lord, we thank you for such a wonderful church.
We thank you for our pastor and we ask that you
please bless him with the Holy Spirit
as he preaches your word tonight.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
All right, amen.
We're in Acts chapter number six this evening.
Now Acts chapter six and seven actually are centered
around a specific person and that person is Stephen.
Stephen, according to Acts chapter six,
is one of the seven people or men who are ordained
to be a deacon in order to carry out the ministration
of the widows and we see that here in this very chapter.
He's also the one of whom it is said
that he had a face of an angel, okay?
And I actually wanna talk about that
before we get into the chapter.
Let's go to the very end of Acts chapter number six
and we're gonna look at this concept here.
At this point, Stephen has been doing great signs
and wonders, he's an apostle, he's doing great works
and the Bible says that he's a man
who's full of faith and power, right?
And obviously the power of God is upon his life.
He's filled with the Holy Ghost
and those gainsayers, they don't like it
and the Bible says that but they're not able
to resist the wisdom that is coming from Stephen.
So even though they wanna oppose it,
they wanna resist it as much as possible,
they can't deny that God's hand is on this man, right?
And so we see that, they're not able
to resist the wisdom and power.
Look what it says in verse 15.
And by the way, they suborn men, they hire people
to basically lie about him and bear a false witness
against them to try to turn the multitudes
against this one individual.
So it's this one individual versus everyone else.
And look what it says in verse 15.
All that sat in the council, referring to Jews,
these Pharisees, looking steadfastly on him,
saw his face as it had been the face of an angel.
Now let me explain to you what this means
but actually before I get into that,
let me explain to you what it doesn't mean, okay?
You know, this doesn't mean that Stephen's countenance
was like pale and sickly and just, you know,
this morbid Renaissance type of features
that you often see in art when depicting the Bible.
You know, it doesn't mean that he looked like
some Catholic angelic being, right?
Where you can't really distinguish
whether it's male or female.
You know, you ever see pictures of angels
and it's just like, it looks like a really feminine guy
but it could pass for a woman too.
It's just like, I don't know what this is, you know?
It doesn't mean he looked weak and feeble.
It doesn't even mean that he looked glorious
or he was just bright in his countenance.
What does this mean?
And by the way, the reason people may interpret it as such
is because of the fact that the Catholic church
has had a great influence on Bible imagery, has it not?
You know, a lot of people when they think of Jesus,
when they try to portray Jesus,
they portray him as some, you know, tall, slender,
pale skinned, long haired guy with a dress on, right?
You know, and you see that in movies,
you'll see that in pictures
and unfortunately, Christians, you know,
you'll see on social media, they'll post pictures of Jesus,
which obviously is a sin
because the Bible tells us specifically
in Exodus chapter 20, verse number four,
that no image should be made of the Godhead,
whether in heaven above, earth beneath or in the sea,
but yet they still post these pictures
but even then it's an inaccurate depiction of who he is.
Where are they getting this from?
They're getting it from the Catholic church, okay?
And so, you know, people will read something like this
and think, well, maybe he was just, you know,
Stephen was just this majestic person
and he's just so graceful and man,
he just looked probably was very weak and humble and meek
and, you know, this is what they see
when they read this passage of scripture.
But let me say this is,
why is it saying that he had a face of an angel?
Well, first and foremost,
I want you to take into consideration
that it's the council who's saying
he had the face of an angel, okay?
Now, why are they saying this?
Well, because of the fact that angels throughout the Bible
were just a terrifying sight.
Anytime a man, a human being was confronted
with a physical angelic being, they were frightened,
they were horrified, they were scared, okay?
And so when the Bible's saying here that these Pharisees,
you know, they see the power of God upon Stephen,
they're not saying, oh, look at this weak little,
you know, soy boy guy right over here.
No, what they're saying is like they're scared of him
because he looks as terrifying as an angel would.
Look, you see the angels in the Bible
are completely different than what we see today, right?
You know, you think of the cherubim, for example,
that is a terrifying sight, folks.
When you look at the description of cherubim in Ezekiel
and Revelation chapter five,
you see that it's a creature that has four faces.
You know, it has the face of a man, the face of an ox,
the face of an eagle and the face of a lion.
That is a terrible sight.
It's like something we've just never seen before.
It's a description.
It's a very horrific thing to look upon, right?
And you look at throughout the Bible,
anytime an angel would appear,
people would just fall over as dead.
They'd just be scared, frightened.
They'd just fall on their faces as dead.
They're just completely scared.
And let me say this.
This is exactly what's happening
to these councilmen right here.
They're not looking upon him and saying, yeah, we got him.
No, they're looking at him saying, we're scared of him, okay?
Go to Deuteronomy chapter number two, if you will,
Deuteronomy chapter number two.
You see, when the Bible describes a person with boldness,
it often depicts them as what?
A lion, just like the cherubim, right?
The Bible says that the wicked flee when no man pursueth,
but the righteous are as bold as a lion.
The Bible says of David's mighty men
that they have faces like lions.
But it doesn't mean that they were like butt ugly
or anything like that.
You know, they were just like, just crazy bearded man.
It means that they had such boldness
that they struck fear in the hearts of their enemies.
That's what that's referring to there, okay?
Boldness strikes fear in the heart of the gains here, folks.
Makes haters of God afraid.
And when a man is spirit-filled
and he's preaching the word of God,
it can literally melt the hearts of the wicked.
You know, when you're out there preaching the gospel
to just regular, unsaved people,
it doesn't cause them to fear you.
It causes them to fear hell.
And in turn, they wanna get saved.
They wanna give heed to the message.
But let me say this, when you preach the word of God
and the judgment of God upon the haters of God,
it strikes fear in their hearts.
You know, and by the way, I don't care what any reprobate
or enemy of God says in a comment section.
You're lucky you wouldn't say that to my face.
You're lucky I don't come down there
and kick your you-know-what and do all this.
They're scared.
They're fearful.
So they have to overcompensate by threatening,
by sending lewd photos, by emailing wicked things.
They have to do these things in order to try
to strike fear in our hearts, but here's the reality.
We've struck in fear in theirs,
causing their hearts to melt.
Now, the problem today with pastors
is they want the face of an angel.
But it's like the Catholic version though.
You know, they want the fat little baby
with wings and a harp.
You know, oh, we gotta be wise as serpents
and harmless as doves, and they interpret that
as being just these weakling, just passive,
can't fight back, don't call any names,
please everybody, just be kind to everyone,
don't get into any battles, even though the Bible says
to earnestly contend for the faith,
to fight the good fight of faith, the Bible says.
But this is the kind of angels that they are.
You know, you think of these mega church type of pastors,
they're like the Catholic version of an angel.
You know, they have the faces of angels
because they look so baby skin.
They're not instilling any kind of fear
in the hearts of any man, okay?
We want the face of an angel
where people are just falling over dead, you know?
We want the face of an angel where people are trembling
like they trembled in the presence of Samuel.
When Samuel came into town, the people trembled.
And you know, he had to like verify,
I'm not here to like preach against you guys
or anything like that, I'm coming peaceably, okay?
But you know, you have pastors today who's like,
oh no, that's not the way we're,
you're not gonna reach people like that.
Yeah, of course we're not, we're gonna reach people
by preaching the gospel.
That's how you reach people, okay?
Yeah, but how are you gonna get people into church?
By spirit-filled preaching,
as we're gonna look at in Acts chapter six.
Now with this, you know, fat little baby with wings
and a harp type of mentality where you're just so passive,
you don't wanna fight the homos,
you don't wanna fight the controversies of this world,
you don't wanna fight Satan as like good God,
good devil, good hell, everything's good
and nothing can be bad, nothing can be called out, right?
It's nonsense, you know?
And by the way, God wants, listen to me,
God wants to strike fear in the hearts of his enemies
using his people.
He wants God's enemies to be afraid of us and they are.
Look at Deuteronomy 2.25 says,
"'This day will I begin to put the dread of thee
"'and the fear of thee upon the nations
"'that are under the whole heaven,
"'who shall hear report of thee and shall tremble,'
"'the Bible says, and being anguished because of thee.'"
You see, God, part of God's ministry
when it comes to God's people is instilling fear
in the hearts of his enemies using his people.
He's like, I'm gonna cause them to be afraid of you,
they're gonna be in anguish, their hearts are gonna melt,
they're gonna be scared of you.
That's why folks, you know, it makes no sense
when Christians are scared.
Perfect love casteth out fear, the Bible says.
That did not give us a spirit of fear,
but a power of love and a sound mind.
Go to Joshua chapter two, Joshua chapter number two.
He says, I wanna begin to put the dread of thee
and the fear of thee upon the nations.
I want people to look at you,
I want the haters of God to look at you and just be afraid,
be very afraid, right?
You're like, I don't know, I've heard some pretty bad
comments out there, Pastor, and some people that just,
you know, aren't you scared that they're gonna come
and do something, their butts are chihuahuas.
The enemies of God are like chihuahuas, folks.
They bark a good bark, but not even then.
They can't bite, and one little, huh!
I mean, they go whimpering away and they're just scared.
Why, because they have the dread in their hearts
of us human beings, right?
You know, and by the way, the sodomites are compared
to dogs, you know, so that's a good comparison there.
Look at Joshua chapter two, verse 10.
And for we have heard how the Lord dried up the waters
of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt,
and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites.
And there were on the other side, Jordan, Sihon, and Og,
whom ye utterly destroyed.
As soon as we heard these things, our hearts did melt.
Neither did there remain any more courage in any man
because of you.
For the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above
and in earth beneath.
So look, are they afraid of us because we're just
these crazy Christians, we're just so radical.
No, they fear us because they know God is with us.
It's God whom they fear, and they know if God be for us,
who can be against us?
You know, they can say all manner of evil
and revile our God as much as they want.
They wouldn't say it to his face,
and they wouldn't say it to our face either.
You know, again, I don't, you know, and the reason
I say this is because since we started this church,
you know, there's been a lot of, you know,
enemies of the Lord who have either emailed me,
messaged me, but guess what?
Not one, not one has ever even stepped foot in here
to cause any trouble.
And look, this is not a challenge to anybody to do so.
I'm just saying, no one ever has.
And in fact, I remember, you know, there's this one idiot,
he was this hyper dipstick, and he's like a Charles Lawson
disciple, right?
And he had visited the church like once or twice,
and you know, just kind of trying to spread
his dispensational garbage.
And he never came back, and then he just started
kind of slamming me and slamming Pastor Anderson online.
And I told him, I was like, Charles Lawson's a heretic.
The guy's not even saved.
And you like that guy?
I'm like, man, I don't know about you.
And he was just kind of reviling me online,
saying all manner of evil.
Well, skip forward like a year or so.
They come to church.
He comes to church with his buddy.
And he thinks that like, Pastor Mejia does not have
the memory like an elephant.
But I remember, as soon as I saw this guy,
I knew exactly who he was.
So he's there, and I'm preaching away.
And then, you know, service ends, and I go to the back,
and I'm fellowshiping with the men.
And he comes over, and he kind of looks at me,
and he just looks down, and I just say his name.
He was like, oh, you remember me?
And I'm like, yeah, you're the guy who was talking
all that crap online.
I remember you.
I said, you came to apologize, right?
That's what you came for, right?
That's why you came to church, is to apologize?
He's like, well, you're kind of, you know,
saying stuff against me.
I said, yeah, and here's the thing.
I'll say it to your face right now.
But I'm sure you're here to apologize is what you're doing.
He said, yeah, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
Now, lo and behold, this is the same guy
who called the police on us to try to shut us down.
Little weenie.
The guy was scared, and he was just like,
yeah, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
Yeah, because they talk a big talk, folks,
but at the end of the day, their hearts melt.
They're afraid.
God has instilled fear in their hearts.
That's why the Bible says, but the fearful and unbelieving,
you know, go into the lake of fire.
They're afraid of God.
That's why it's good to be right with God, amen?
You know, it's good to be right with God,
to be on the Lord's side,
because we want the Lord on our side,
and we want God to instill fear in our enemies,
to stay away from us, not hinder us from the work of God,
not because we're trying to get
into some physical altercation, okay?
We're not trying to fight anybody physically.
We know that this is not a physical battle.
We wrestle not against flesh and blood,
but against principalities and powers,
the rules of the darkness of this world.
But here's the thing is, we need God's favor,
and you know what?
The enemies know when we have it,
and they're fearful, because they know.
To them, it's just like, man,
if I step foot in first works Baptist church,
it's not that they're going to beat me up.
It's just that God might just strike me dead.
God might just kill me, you know?
And it's good for them to think that,
because it could happen, amen?
So I just want to share that with you.
That's why Stephen, that's why they say
he had the face of an angel.
It's not because he's just like the Catholic Jesus
with a protruding heart, bleeding out,
and just looking like Caesar Borgia.
That's not Jesus.
You know, when they look upon Stephen,
they're just like, they're afraid.
They're like, how can this guy being one man
be so bold against us?
And they understand, it's like, man,
he must be with Jesus, and therefore,
they're afraid, they're scared, okay?
They're terrified.
All right, now let's get into the chapter.
I want to share that with you, that was good.
Verse number one, it says,
and in those days when the number of the disciples
was multiplied, there arose a murmuring
of the Grecians against the Hebrews,
because their widows were neglected
in the daily ministration.
Now, a couple things I want you to notice
from verse number one, first and foremost,
is that this shows us that a growing church
is not dependent upon fleshly methods, right?
You know, what do I mean by fleshly methods?
Well, you think of, you know, churches,
I mean, I mentioned mega churches, for example.
One of the reasons why they're so mega,
why they're so big, why so many people
attend their services, is because they use
essential means to be able to allure people, okay?
To get people to come to their services,
via the contemporary Christian music,
or lowering the dress standards of the church,
you know, tolerating women wearing pants,
tolerating men looking like queers.
They don't say anything about it,
so they have this very, just compromising
style of a church, and therefore,
the multitudes flock to that congregation.
You know, it's very laid back.
But you know, the Bible tells us that this wisdom
ascendeth not from above, but is earthly,
sensual, devilish.
We never wanna attract people, cause people
to come to our church based upon the flesh,
based upon carnality, sensuality.
We wanna use the Spirit, and the things of the Spirit,
to draw men unto the Lord, okay?
You know, the Bible tells us in Second Peter,
chapter two, that this is the method
that wicked people use, false prophets, right?
That they use great swelling words of vanity,
and they allure through the lust of the flesh.
Why?
Because the Bible tells us that these are
they which separate themselves,
sensual, having not the Spirit.
So if these false prophets and wicked people
don't have the Spirit of God, they can't be bold.
They can't preach with power.
They can't understand the deep things of God.
So they have to use superficial sensuality type methods
in order to get people into the church, okay?
That's what they use.
We never wanted to be that way, man.
You know, we're gonna keep this church old-fashioned,
and by old-fashioned, I mean we're gonna use the hymns,
we're gonna sing the hymns.
We're never gonna bring in the electric guitar,
or using all the drums, or the hoochie mama dancers,
you know, the purple lighting and the fog machine.
This is nonsense.
This is for children, okay?
This is for sensual people.
People, you know, I want people to come
because they're invited by a family member, by a friend,
or they're once to the Lord by a soul winner in our church.
I want them to stay and listen to the preaching
because they enjoy the preaching,
but I want them to remain because they develop friendships
within the church, and that's how it really works.
Sometimes people come because they wanna hear
the preaching of God's word.
They see that there's power in the preaching,
but then they get an extra cherry on top
because then they get some friends in the church.
And they're like, this is great.
I get to fellowship with like-minded believers.
I get to hear preaching.
People are being saved.
This is great, and that's why they stay.
It's not only because, oh yeah,
because I really like singing a song,
you know, a verse seven times over, you know?
It just really touches my feet and my soul and my heart
to be able to just shake my rump or whatever in church
and still go home with a clear conscience.
It's nonsense.
You know, here we see, what do they do?
They multiply disciples.
They didn't have mega church methods back then.
Now, how do they multiply disciples?
Well, look at chapter five and verse 42,
because it says, in those days,
the disciples began to multiply.
Look at verse 42.
And daily in the temple in every house,
they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.
And then it says, in those days
began the disciples to multiply.
So what was the result of sowing and preaching God's word?
The multiplication of disciples.
Amen?
So what do we have to do to grow a church?
We have to make sure that we're not ceasing
to teach and preach Jesus Christ.
And we're not just talking about sowing.
Sowing is an essential aspect
of the local New Testament church.
This is something we're supposed to do on a weekly basis.
But not only that, we're also supposed to teach them
all things whatsoever Christ has commanded us.
So guess what, folks?
The Great Commission applies to you.
And the Great Commission is not just to teach all nations,
but it's also to teach them to observe all things
whatsoever Christ has commanded you.
So part of the Great Commission is getting people saved,
but then also bringing those people
to spiritual maturity as well.
Now, whether that's you bringing them to church
and they get discipled from behind the pulpit right here,
or it's that plus you spending time with them,
developing a relationship with them,
teaching them these doctrines, et cetera, okay?
The natural result of growth, by the way,
is more problems will arise, right?
We wanna grow, amen, and we have been growing
even through this whole coronavirus nonsense.
Most of the church got it,
and I don't mind saying that live, okay?
About like 80% of our church got it,
but we believe in herd immunity here.
We had a coronavirus party up north,
not gonna say where.
And build immunity, amen?
But even in 2020, we've grown.
And look, it's important to grow numerically,
but let me say this,
it's more important to grow spiritually.
Because if you get the spiritual growth,
you will get the numerical growth.
And look, I'm not just talking about growing in grace
and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
learning the Bible,
but how about just growing in your role as a man?
How about young men learning to take responsibility,
becoming a responsible young man,
learning how to get a job, to work hard,
to be able to court a young lady,
learn how to prepare for marriage.
Hey, for the ladies,
learning how to submit to your husband, right?
To reverence your husband as unto the Lord.
Men, to love your wives as Christ loved the church.
How about children learning how to obey your parents?
Or just people in general,
just learning how to be hard workers,
learning how to be soul winners,
fulfilling your God-given role.
This is growth.
And that's important.
You know, if you got a guy who doesn't know
any of those things, but he's a soul winner,
he's not gonna be a soul winner for very long.
How do you guarantee someone preaching the gospel
for the remainder of their life,
they fulfill and learn their God-given role?
But here's the thing, when the church begins to grow,
and it will, and it has, more problems will arise.
They will increase.
More issues will come through the church.
When your church is really small,
you're not really throwing out a lot of people,
you're not really doing church discipline.
Most churches don't even do it anyways,
but I'm saying, you know, like our church,
you know, if our church is really small,
if we're running like 10 people or whatever,
you know, we wouldn't be necessarily
taking a whole lot of people out.
We wouldn't get a whole lot of false prophets coming through
and not a whole lot of marital issues would arise
because it's small.
But the more you grow, the more problems come.
Why? Because people come with problems.
You know, people have issues,
they have problems that they need fixed, et cetera.
And that's what we see.
Verse one says that the disciples was multiplied.
There arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews
because their widows were neglected
in the daily ministration.
So the problem that arises here
is that widows were being neglected.
They weren't being taken care of.
This is in verse number two.
Then the 12 called a multitude of the 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 may appoint over this business.
So what is he saying?
He's not saying that the apostles are above
the responsibility of taking care of the widows.
What he's saying is this, as the church grows,
responsibilities need to be delegated, you know?
And really, the responsibility of a pastor
is to give himself to prayer
and to the study of the word of God.
And if someone else can take care of another responsibility
in order for the church to continue to go forward,
all the better.
And that's what we see here, okay?
Now, specifically, he's referring to widows.
Now, hold your place there.
Go to First Timothy chapter five.
First Timothy chapter five.
Leaders need to focus on that which is most important.
That's reality, you know?
The most important thing for a pastor,
it's sowing, it's studying the word of God,
it's dealing with people, it's helping them grow,
dealing with issues, administration.
But as the church begins to grow,
more of that needs to be delegated to other men.
And guess what?
That means that men in the church need to step it up
and not treat church as a,
well, I just come to hear preaching,
but I'm not necessarily looking to get involved, okay?
That's not the way it works.
You know, don't be a, what do they call it?
Don't be a lake, be a river.
As you're receiving, give out, right?
You know, you need to be the type of a man,
and I'm speaking to the men,
where you should have a goal, right, to strive for.
And you say, well, I'm not really looking to be a leader,
but here's the thing, if you're married,
you better be striving to be a leader.
And I'm not saying be a leader in the church,
I'm talking about leading your home.
I'm talking about leading your wife, leading your children.
And you know what?
The result of that is that you will be
a natural leader in the church as well.
I'm not saying you're gonna be a deacon or an evangelist,
but a leader is someone who has influence, okay?
We need to develop men of influence in our church,
men who have influence over other believers,
new Christians, new converts, their own families, et cetera.
But here we see, specifically referring to widows here.
Look what it says in verse three.
Honor widows that are widows indeed.
Now, a widow is a label given to a female
who basically is loosed from the law of her husband, right?
Her husband passed away.
And here he's saying, look,
you're supposed to honor and take care of those
who are really widows.
You know, we're not talking about someone
who lost their baby daddy.
They weren't even married,
but they say that that's their husband.
By the way, this is common amongst Hispanic homes.
Let me just be honest with you.
Well, they'll say, yeah, we're married,
but it's just like, they just say they're married,
but they're not legally married.
Doesn't count, folks.
You need to be like legally, like go to the courthouse.
Okay?
That's what we recognize.
That's what God recognizes, okay?
But he says widows that are, you know, actual widows,
not some phonies out there who are just,
they spell church ATM.
Right?
They just want to get money out of the church.
And look, folks, there's people out there like that.
Widows are spoken of pretty extensively
throughout the Bible.
And the implication here in 1 Timothy chapter five
is that basically the man is responsible
to take care of his wife and his children.
But if he's no longer there,
then there needs to be basically a line of people
who are supposed to be filtered
as to who's supposed to take care of this woman.
So for example, if she has children,
then her children are supposed to take care of her.
Right?
And here it also says nephews.
Now nephews doesn't necessarily mean here
what we, how we use it today.
Today we use nephews as, you know, my brother's son.
Okay?
But that's not necessarily what a nephew is in the Bible
because up until about like the 1600s,
nephew was referring to grandchildren.
So if a woman had children who had children,
those children, if they're old enough to work
and be able to sustain a life,
they're responsible for taking care of their parents.
Now, if that person wasn't available,
if the husband's not there, the children are not there,
the grandchildren are not there,
the church is literally the last resort.
At that point, we take on the responsibility
to sustain that widow for the rest of her life.
Okay?
It says in verse four,
but if any widow have children or nephews,
let them learn first to show piety at home
and to requite their parents,
for that is good and acceptable before God.
Verse, let me see here.
Okay, so children, nephews, parents, look at verse five.
Now she that is a widow indeed and desolate,
trusted in God and continueth in supplications
and prayers night and day.
But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.
So what is he saying?
We gotta be able to filter who are the widows
who are just godly, you know what I mean?
They're serving the Lord, they're showing piety,
they have good works, they have a good report.
Whereas there's some widows out there that live in pleasure
and they're dead while they live, why?
Because they have faith without works
and therefore they're dead spiritually.
These are not people that the church
should be investing in, okay?
Verse seven says, and these things give in charge
that they may be blameless,
but if any provide not for his own,
especially for those of his own house,
he hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel.
So a son who refuses to take care of his parents,
according to the Bible, they're worse than infidels.
You know, and when it's talking about honoring them,
it's actually referring to providing for them financially.
Obviously you can integrate respecting them
and obeying them, but ultimately really in context
of what this is referring to is actually taking care
of them financially.
And look, this is a good reason to have a lot of kids,
amen, it's good insurance, you know?
My son right there, Bruce, you know,
hey, you better take care of me when I'm old, son, all right?
You gonna take care of me when I'm old?
Yeah, he's like, I better say yes.
You know, he's gonna take care of me and you know what?
If his little brother makes more money than him,
then I'll have him take care of, no, I'm just kidding.
You know, the more kids you have, it's just like,
hey kids, you know, you guys gotta,
this is what the Bible sets forth.
That children are supposed to take care
of their parents financially, make sure that they live
the rest of their days, if they're not able to work
and to be able to sustain their life, okay?
And if you don't, it says that you're worse than an infidel
and infidel is an unbeliever.
Doesn't say you're an unbeliever,
it just says you're just worse than an infidel,
you're worse than an unbeliever, okay?
Says in verse nine, gives us the criteria here,
it says, let not a widow be taken into the number
of under three score years old,
having been the wife of one man.
Well reported of for good works,
if she have brought up children,
if she have lodged strangers,
if she have washed the saints feet,
if she have relieved the afflicted,
if she have diligently followed every good work,
but the younger widows refused for when they have begun
to wax wanton against Christ, well, let me stop there.
So he's saying, look, if a widow under 60 years of age
is well reported of, of good works,
they brought up children, first and foremost,
either their children have to take care of them,
because they have children,
but if the children are too young,
then they should remarry, okay?
They should get married again.
And what I mean by getting married again,
is that they're loose from the law of their husband,
their husband has passed away,
they should marry in order to be taken care of.
But if they're 60 years and up,
the church is responsible if there's no one,
if she's desolate, she has no husband, no children,
no grandchildren to take care of her, et cetera.
Verse 11 says, but the younger widows refuse
for when they have begun to wax wanton against Christ,
they will marry, having damnation,
because they have cast off their first faith.
So in other words, he's saying, look,
if a woman has children,
they have the potential to actually wax wanton
against Christ, not because they had children,
but because later on we'll see they grow what?
Idle, they become busybodies,
going about from house to house,
soap opera to soap opera,
Instagram posts to Instagram posts,
Facebook posts to Facebook posts,
and they're not taking care of their children.
So what happens?
They actually become, just like the child
who refuses to take care of their parents,
they become like an infidel.
They cast off their first faith,
and in fact, the Bible says that they're given over
to Satan.
Why?
Because they become gossipers,
you know, chismosas.
They become just problems.
Look, moms, if you fill your entire day
with taking care of your husband and your children,
you won't have time for anything else.
But if you're constantly on social media,
constantly on YouTube, constantly on Facebook,
constantly on Instagram, you know,
you're not gonna be able to get a whole lot done.
And obviously this is an extreme case
because this lady has children.
She's just completely neglected them
to the point where she's just gone after Satan.
She's just a busybody and a tattler, you know,
and just not taking care of business.
She's not taking care of her children.
And so, you know, having children doesn't fix the problem,
you know, of you being idle.
It's making sure that you take care of the children
that you have.
Homeschooling them, educating them,
teaching them the Bible, you know, et cetera.
Ironing your husband's clothes, washing the dishes,
you know, cleaning the clothes, cleaning the house,
figuring out what's the best, you know, meal
to prepare your husband for when he comes home,
making him happy.
Amen.
Don't be scared, man.
Hey, have a face of an angel, folks.
Amen.
Hey, women,
women should learn their husband's favorite dish
and should seek to perfect that.
Amen.
Look, if you are looking to perfect that dish,
you're not gonna have enough time to go around
and see all the controversy and nonsense
that's going on about there, you know.
Now look, obviously there's an exception to this rule
where some couples are not able to have children
or they just don't have children for whatever reason.
At that point, this is my recommendation,
have your wife start a business under you, you know,
at home where she can, you know, provide income.
I mean, she has the time to do so, right,
to have some sort of business where she's working from home.
I never recommend for a woman to work outside of the home,
by the way.
I believe it's a jungle out there
and it can cause more problems, you know.
But in the home, hey, you can start a family business
and something that your wife is responsible for
and she can give all her time to
up until the point where you have children.
Now, if you don't agree with that, too bad.
I think that's right, you know.
I don't think it's ever right to send your wife
to go work in the world.
I don't think that's right.
I think it's dangerous.
And you say, well, I know someone who has a wife
who worked out in the world and they're fine.
Well, the exception proves the rule, you know,
but the reality is women are the weaker vessel, you know,
and if you have problems in your marriage
where you and your wife are not getting along
and then she has another head,
another boss that she has to answer to,
that's gonna cause friction in the marriage.
You know, if you're bumping heads
and then some Rico Suave employee at her job or whatever
starts hitting on your wife,
yeah, I mean, do you wanna risk that?
You're like, well, no one looks as good as me.
Come on, man, I'm not worried about that.
Look, you don't wanna cause your spouse to stumble.
You know, put them in a position
where they potentially might get involved in adultery.
And look, that happens.
That happens all the time, okay?
I went really far on that,
but it's good to mention that every once in a while.
Verse 13 says, with all they learned to be idle,
wandering about from house to house,
and back in these days, they didn't have social media,
so they literally had to go to the person's house.
It was like house to house.
And they weren't going house to house preaching,
you know, they weren't ceasing not to teach
and preach Jesus Christ.
They were going about house to house gossiping.
And not only idle, but tabular is also a busy body,
speaking things which they are not.
I will therefore that the younger women marry,
bear children, guide the house,
give none occasion to the adversary,
to speak reproachfully,
for some are already turned aside after Satan.
This is why chapter one says
that the woman shall be saved in childbearing.
Saved from what?
From Satan.
From being turned aside after Satan.
If a man or a woman that believeth have widows,
let them relieve them, and let them not,
excuse me, and let not the church be charged
that it may relieve them that are widows.
And you go back to Acts chapter six.
Acts chapter number six.
So that's what we believe here.
You know, we haven't had that issue.
I'm sure it'll come up in years to come,
where there'll be a widow, someone who is a widow indeed.
And you know, she might be desolate,
not have children, grandchildren,
extended families to take care of her.
Okay, at that point, you know, we will.
But the church should always be the last resort, okay?
Not the first one, according to the Bible.
So he received the ordination of the first seven deacons,
says verse number four,
but we will give ourselves continually to prayer
and to the ministry of the word.
And the same pleased the whole multitude,
and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith
and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus,
and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas,
and Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch,
whom they set before the apostles,
and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them,
and the word of God increased,
and the number of the disciples multiplied
in Jerusalem greatly, and a great company of the priests
were obedient to the faith.
So what do we see here?
We see the result of delegation.
What happens when responsibilities are delegated?
More gets done, more work increases, better results.
Amen?
And so you're like, man, I want the church to grow.
Okay, take on more responsibility.
And this is why we have the team leaders, folks.
We have team leaders in our church right now
who are responsible for a group of people
to train them how to sow in,
to basically train them how to mature in the Lord.
I mean, we have Brother Glenn back there,
and he's like fathering these guys here,
you know what I mean?
Helping him to get jobs.
I mean, he didn't give me permission to say this,
but I'm gonna say it anyways.
You know, he even paid more on his insurance
so that some of the single guys can drive his vehicle
so they can get the driver's license.
Solid, you know?
Sorry, you lost your reward, Brother Glenn.
I just gave it away, man, sorry.
You have more opportunities, all right?
Don't worry about it.
I'm just kidding.
Hey, but you know what?
That's great, and that's helping the men,
the young men in our church to mature,
to take responsibility.
It's great, because we not only want them
to be preachers of the gospel.
That's a given.
Be a sower, obviously.
That's like the main thing.
But let's go above and beyond that.
Let's raise men, right?
Let's raise people who fulfill their roles
and are taking responsibility.
And so, you know, I've delegated people
to these men to take care of them, you know?
To watch over them, to follow up with them.
Why?
Because it's necessary.
I can't follow up with everyone.
And here's the thing.
If you're in our church, we're gonna get along
no matter what, right?
But we're not always gonna click.
But here's the thing.
You might click with your leader, though,
better than you click with me.
You might get along with your leader
better than you get along with me,
and that is not offensive to me at all.
I don't care for that.
As long as you're being taken care of,
as long as you have a friend in the church,
as long as when you come to First Works Baptist Church,
you look forward to two things.
The preaching of God's word,
and fellowshipping with your group,
or with your leader, or with that person.
I think that's great, okay?
And so in order to get more done,
this is what needs to be done,
is delegation needs to take place here.
Now, it says in verse number eight,
and Stephen, full of faith and power,
did great wonders and miracles among the people.
This guy, he's standing out.
You know, he's doing a lot of great works,
and in fact, these two chapters are dedicated to Stephen.
So what happens when you're doing
great wonders and miracles?
What does the Bible typically teach us about that?
When there is a great, yeah, of Jews.
I was getting to that, you just see the Jews.
Jews happen.
When there's a great and effectual door open unto us,
there's always adversaries on the other side.
There's always the beast at Ephesus,
and the beast is the Jews, okay?
Because it says, then there arose certain of the synagogue,
which is called the synagogue of the Libertines,
Cyrenians, and Alexanderians,
and then of Cilicia and of Asia,
disputing with Stephen.
You know, they don't like the fact
that Stephen is getting all this attention.
He's getting people saved.
You know, people are glorifying God because of him.
So what do they do?
They want to dispute him.
They want to fight against him.
But what happens, verse 10?
And they were not able to resist the wisdom
and the spirit by which he spake.
Powerful.
No matter how eloquent they could wax,
no matter what great swelling words they had,
they could not resist the wisdom
and the spirit by which he spake.
Why is that?
Because we can do nothing against the truth
before the truth.
Okay?
Now this is interesting because throughout the Book of Acts,
you see Jews and these Pharisees
constantly resisting the Holy Ghost, right?
Constantly resisting the Word of God.
And what does the Bible say in 2 Timothy 3?
Now as Janus and Jambres withstood Moses,
so do these also resist the truth.
Men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith.
You see, someone who resists the truth
is someone who is trying to withstand the truth,
they're trying to stop it.
And the biggest antagonist,
the greatest antagonist of the New Testament is the Jew.
Go to Luke chapter 21,
hold your place there in Acts chapter six,
we're almost done.
And I like Stephen.
You know, Stephen is,
he has a very small window of recognition here
but he did something great.
You know, I wanna be filled with the spirit like Stephen.
I wanna have that wisdom and that same spirit
where people say they can't resist that.
Look at Luke 21 verse 12.
This is prophetic of end times, is it not?
You know, Mark 13, Matthew 24 and Luke 21
are all chapters that talk about end times Bible prophecy
and specifically referring to the beginning of sorrows
and great tribulation.
Of course we know the great tribulation
is where persecution towards Christians ramps up, okay?
And they begin to put Christians to death, et cetera.
So this is instructions, this is basically prophetic
and he's saying what's gonna take place in those days.
But here's the thing,
you can apply it to any time throughout history
because there's nothing new under the sun.
So though he is specifically referring
to the great tribulation,
we're gonna see now how this applies to Stephen as well.
It says in verse number 12,
But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you
and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues
and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers
for my name's sake.
And it shall turn to you for a testimony.
Settle it therefore in your hearts,
not to meditate before what ye shall answer,
for I will give you a mouth and wisdom,
look what it says, which all of your adversaries
shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.
Isn't that what we see with Stephen?
He had such power and was so spirit-filled,
they couldn't withstand what he was saying.
So what do they do instead?
Well, let's just kill him.
We can't resist, can't withstand the truth.
We can't stop it.
We can't hinder it,
but what we can do is just take this guy's life.
But what they don't understand is that
when you kill a Christian,
you just cause the word of God
to permeate that much faster.
It's like when Stephen is preaching,
he's in third gear.
By putting him to death,
you just put the gospel into fourth gear.
And it just goes out that much faster.
More people pay attention, more people get saved.
The work of God is still done
because the truth cannot be stopped.
He says, which all of your adversaries
shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.
Now what does he mean when he says,
I will give you a mouth and wisdom?
He's basically saying, look,
and look, this is not just some magical thing
that happens to you.
You obviously have to have the word of God
abiding richly in you, right?
Dwelling richly in you.
That means you have to have the word of God memorized,
you're reading the word of God.
And when the time comes, when persecution arises
because of the word, you're able to just
preach the word of God, unfiltered,
just spirit-led, spirit-filled,
and your adversaries will not be able to stop you, okay?
But like a multitude of people,
just condemning them,
talking about how they crucified Jesus,
and they, I mean, the people get pissed off.
The Bible says that they gnash at them with their teeth,
they're like, oh, shut up!
And they just couldn't do it, so what did they do?
They just pick up stones and they stone them to death.
We see that, okay?
They can't beat the truth, so they try to twist it, okay?
Go back to Acts chapter six.
So what happens when they can't stop them?
Well, before they actually put him to death,
they resort to what?
Hiring men to just lie about them.
They turn the truth of God into a lie, right?
Look at verse 11.
Then they suborn men, you know, they go the way of,
what's his name?
George Soros, hiring Black Lives Matter, right?
To be able to just cause chaos all over different cities
in America, well, this is George,
this is the spirit of George Soros right here.
This suborn man, you're like, hey, let me pay you off,
and you just lie about this guy,
because we were trying to get this guy to be put to death,
which said, we have heard him speak blasphemous words
against Moses and against God, wrong, lies.
And they stirred up the people and the elders
and the scribes and came upon him and caught him
and brought him to the council and set up false witnesses,
which said, this man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words
against this holy place and the law, lie.
It's all a lie.
You know, he's not trying to condemn the word of God.
He's preaching the word of God, okay?
What they're mad at is the fact that he's under,
he's preaching that new covenant is what it is.
You know, they're all about that old covenant,
which is ready to vanish away.
He's like, no, it's the new covenant.
The New Testament, the better Testament,
established upon better promises with a better mediator,
Jesus Christ.
For we have heard him say that this is Jesus of Nazareth,
that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place
and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us.
Now, they're right about that,
because Jesus was gonna destroy it,
and he did destroy it, right?
And he's gonna destroy it again.
And all that sat on the council looked steadfastly on him
and saw his face as it had been the face of an angel.
So I'm wondering if like,
some of these guys were there in Jerusalem,
and they remember when Jesus said these things,
and they remember how much they feared him because of that.
And then they see this guy preaching just like Jesus,
preaching the same message with the same boldness,
and they're like, oh no, oh no, not this again.
And they're just like, I thought these guys were done.
And they're scared.
So they do to him what they did to Jesus.
Just put him to death, right?
But, you know, putting a Christian to death
only just propagates the word of God so much the more,
because for me to live is Christ and to die is gain.
You don't stop us when we,
you don't stop me when you kill me.
In fact, you do me a favor.
You give me a martyr's crown.
You help me get a better resurrection if you kill me.
I'm winning no matter what.
But these fearful, wicked haters of God,
you know, there's a support man or kill him or do something,
just make him stop, you know?
And really what it does is it causes