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Amen. Acts chapter six. So it's a shorter chapter, so we're going to get through the whole chapter this evening. But it's interesting, something, you know, if the sermon had a title tonight, I think I would title it Growing Pains. You know, when you look at the chapters one, two, three, four, and five so far, all we've seen is just all these people just being added to the church, there's thousands of people, hundreds of people getting saved. And we just kept seeing this over and over and over again, these, these words, one accord, they were together, everybody was in one accord, they were just giving all their, their money to the church and pooling all their resources. And everything was just going really well. And the first time we see some actual growing pains in the church is in Acts chapter six here amongst I mean, look, they were already having problems outside the church. They had been arrested two or three times at this point, at least put in prison overnight. But at this point, look at verse number one of Acts chapter six, there starts to be some trouble inside the church itself. And the Bible says in Acts chapter six, in verse number one, it says, And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, so that's what's been happening in the first five chapters, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. So here we have, here we see the first, you know, church culture problems, I guess you could say in the book of Acts. So we saw, you know, Paul actually in his ministry, you know, Paul's not on the scene yet, but Paul in his ministry, he dedicates a lot of his time to church culture issues, you know, First Corinthians, the book of First Corinthians is dealing a lot with church culture issues. And here we kind of see the beginning of that. And with these people, with these people, it was the Grecians against the Hebrews, what we're really looking at here is, is kind of the, the Gentiles versus the Jews, right? So that's Paul was dealing with that a lot throughout his ministry, just kind of talking about how people need to, they need to put aside their culture and come together as a church because we're all one in Christ Jesus. I mean, Paul, he discusses things like things you should eat, he discusses things like First Corinthians chapter 11, we talked about the Lord's Supper. What did we have? We had a cultural shift, a cultural split in that church over people that had money and people that didn't have money. So look, these are all things that every church is going to experience. And he was just saying like, look, it shouldn't be where people come in and you know, of course, they were just like missing the whole point of the Lord's Supper. But here you had all these people that had money and were just drinking till they were drunk until they were, you know, they were feasting and gorging themselves. And then you had other people that were just left with nothing. Okay, so Paul spends a lot of his time in his ministry discussing these cultural, you know, problems. And look, every church is going to go through that because we're all from different backgrounds. We're all from different cultures, as you can see it. Look, that's going to cause, you know, that's going to cause divisions. I mean, people in general, people in general, and this is one thing that as a church, we always have to remember, people in general, they want to kind of gravitate towards people that are like them, you know, towards people that kind of came from the same background as them. I've joked around with some friends of mine from Verity, like, you know, we've joked over the years, like, I can't believe we're friends. I said, I can't believe that you and I, look, they've said it to me. And I've said it to them, like, they grew up in a completely different world than I grew up in, you know, whether that be the inner city or whatever. And then they look at how I grew up. And they're just like, it's completely foreign. But the point is, none of that matters. Because all the bad things that I have from my culture, I'm supposed to throw away and just adopt the culture of the Bible. And the same thing with anybody else, that we're just supposed to throw away anything bad from our culture. I mean, keep good things, keep work ethic or things that you may have been brought up with. But anything that is against the Bible, just throw that away and adopt the Bible. And you know, get out of your comfort zone. This is this is what makes a this is what makes a friendly church, by the way. This is what makes a friendly church is when when people come into the church, visitors come into the church, look, it's easier to just hang out with all your friends. But the people that you know, it's hard to go up to people that are new, it's hard to go and, and like, because it's kind of like work to make conversation with new people. But this is what makes a friendly church is to just get out of your comfort zone. And to always, you know, just be we are one culture here. That's why racism is such a stupid fake thing. Because it's not. It's not about race. It's about nations in the Bible. And what were those nations, those nations were cultures. And that's what we're seeing here. We're seeing the Grecians, and the Hebrews, they were two different nations. And they were they were having a cultural problem. I mean, look, there was a specific issue with widows here. But the Grecians were like, Oh, these, these Hebrews, they think they're better than us. Can't you just hear it? Can't you just see they think they're better than us. And we're not getting the attention that we want. So look, we should be a friendly church, we should all just reach, we have to kind of remind ourselves all the time, that whatever our culture, we whatever culture we came from, we all have the same culture now, which is the culture of the Bible, which is which is like every sermon you hear, every time you read the Bible, you're you're you're gaining culture, you're gaining what your culture should be. And look, that is how you should, that's how you'll have lifelong friendships. You know, that's why, you know, one of the advertisements of our churches, lifelong friendships, that's how you'll have lifelong friendships, because you all adopt the culture of the Bible. That's how it works. Okay, that becomes our culture. Alright, so that's how look, that's how you can have lifelong friendships. That's how we're going to be a friendly church. But every church is going to go through these types of growing pains is what I'm trying to say. I mean, like, that's how I define my friends now. I mean, if you ask like, even even like pastor friends, how do you define if you ask me like, how do I define which friends of mine that are past which which pastors will be my friends? It's really two things. It's, first of all, of course, it's doctrine, which is, you know, culture, our culture. And I mean, it's not even, it's like, it's like the gospel King James only. And, you know, basic doctrine. I mean, it's not that I don't even have slight maybe differences on things that don't really matter in the Bible with other pastors, but it's really, it's really doctrine. It's really the gospel. That's the root of it. It's the Bible. And then it just comes down to character. Like, it's super important to me that my my friends that I have, whether they're pastors or not pastors have good character, meaning that they're just, they're honest people. They're good people. They're trying to do the right thing. You know, nobody's perfect, obviously. But that's how we should all be. Okay, and they were having problems in this church, and we will have the same problem. So Paul spends a lot of time on this. He's like, going into things people eat, right? So we shouldn't, we shouldn't nitpick things. I mean, if somebody brings bugs into church and says, this is my culture, you should eat the bugs. Okay. And I'm glad I was not here that day. That's the only reason I was glad I was not here that day. But I would have eaten a bug. No problem. Okay. So let's just remember that. Okay. Remember that our culture is one culture. They were having some growing pains here. Look at verse number two. So they're trying to solve this problem. So they were murmuring against the Hebrews because their widows were neglected. They, you know, they're better than us and people aren't taking care of us. Because you know, the Jews are God's people and you know, they're more important or whatever. I'm sure I can hear the whole thing. Look at verse number two. Then the 12 called the multitude of the disciples unto them and said, it's not reason that we should leave the Word of God and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look out among ye seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom ye may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word. I was just talking with a couple of the young men out soul winning today. So here we see, this is here, we see science in the Bible right here. Okay. You say what? We see the science of economics right here in the Bible. Okay. Economics is a science. All right. So what do we see here? Like 1700 years before Adam Smith wrote, you know, the Wealth of Nations and talked about division of labor. What do we see? We see division of labor in the Bible right here. This is division of labor. Division of labor. You say, what is division of labor? First of all, it's exactly what's happening right here. And why do we have division of labor? To explain what that is, is it's why you have different trades. Why do you have different trades? Why do you have plumbers and electricians and carpenters and all these different trades out there? Why doesn't everyone just know how to do those things? Why, why, why doesn't everyone in America today just know how to fix their own plumbing, know how to fix their own electrical stuff, know how to fix their sprinkler system in their yard, know how to fix their car, know how to fix everything, their fence, their yard, their lawn. Why doesn't every, because it's not efficient. That's why. So this is what, you know, every society for hundreds, yay, thousands of years have figured this out. There's people that get specialized into certain things, which is what the apostles are saying here. They're saying, we should specialize in the ministry of the word of God, is what the apostles are saying. They're saying, this ministry will be, you're seeing the science of division of labor before any book was ever written on it, is what you're seeing. They're saying, we should stay in, you know, we should not leave the word of God, verse number two. And we should have somebody else take care of these details. That way, this ministry, they're saying, can be more efficient. Okay, it can be more efficient. People can get, when people get specialized, a society, a business, whatever organization it is, will get much more efficient. It's proven science. Okay, and that's what you're seeing here in the Bible. Look at verse number five. It says, and the saying, please the whole multitude. Look, even these people knew that it would be more efficient. And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith, and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Procurus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch. So here they said, we need to find men that are full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom. And I like how it points out specifically about the man we're going to read about next week in Acts chapter seven. It points out specifically that Stephen was a man who was full of faith and of the Holy Ghost. So it says he was full of faith and of the Holy Ghost. Now it's implied that they're all full of that, but it specifically points it out for Stephen. And we ran into some Pentecostals today. So go to Ephesians chapter five. Go to Ephesians chapter five. What does this mean to be full of the Holy Ghost? Go to Ephesians chapter five. Ephesians chapter five. Because people make some really weird stuff out of being full of the Holy Ghost. Ephesians chapter five, and look at verse, go to Ephesians chapter five, and look at verse number 18. Ephesians five, look at verse number 18. Look what the Bible says here. It says, and be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. So it's talking about in Ephesians chapter five, 18, what does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? Does it mean that you become possessed and you start freaking out and saying weird stuff? No, it's saying when you get out of sin, when you stop walking in the flesh, you'll be filled with the Spirit. Then look at verse number 19. Speaking to yourselves in complete gobbledygook garbage. No, it says speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. So we see in verse 18 and verse 19, we see the difference. Now turn to Galatians chapter five. Galatians chapter five. We see the difference or the dichotomy between being drunk and being in the flesh with being spiritual and saying and singing spiritual things. Now look at verse number 16 of Galatians chapter five. It says, this I say then, it says, walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. We see the same methodology here. It's saying walking in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. That drunkenness that was the example in Ephesians chapter five. It says, but if you be led of the Spirit, it says, sorry verse 17 for the flesh lust against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary one to another. Exactly what we saw in Ephesians chapter five. The Spirit and the flesh are warring against each other. So to be filled with the Spirit, look, we're all sealed with that earnest, that down payment of the Holy Spirit. But to be filled with the Spirit, you can't be walking in the flesh. That's what Ephesians chapter five is saying. And look at verse number 18 says, but if you be led of the Spirit, you're not under the law. So basically we see this difference here that if you want to be filled with the Spirit, this is why they made this a requirement for these seven men. So this means that Stephen, if he was filled with the Spirit, we can assume that he was not in sin. He was walking. He was being led of the Spirit and he was going there because look, the Spirit, the Holy Spirit inside you as a saved person is trying to lead you. The Holy Spirit is trying to lead you and you can follow it or you can resist it and go and be drunken and be in the flesh. You're going to be just as saved as you were if you're following the Holy Spirit, but you're not going to be filled with the Spirit. You see what I'm saying? So the Bible is saying here that if you're filled with the Holy Ghost, you're going to say things that are spiritual and we're going to find that out in Acts chapter seven. You're going to say things that are spiritual. That's a sign that you're filled with the Holy Ghost. You're going to say spiritual things. You're going to say Psalms and hymns. You're going to be singing these things and you're going to be saying spiritual things. You're not going to be rambling junk that nobody understands. You're going to be literally saying spiritual things for a reason and in order to get to that point, you can't be in the flesh. That's what the Bible teaches us. It's not talking about salvation. It's just talking about how to be filled with the Holy Ghost. So you want to be filled with the Holy Ghost? You can be filled with the Holy Ghost. How? Get the sin out of your life. Start listening. Start not only reading the Bible, but actually doing what the Bible says. I was just talking to my wife about this two days ago. I don't know what it is. One of the things that I've noticed since I've become a pastor in the short few months that I've become a pastor, it hasn't even been a year yet, is for some reason ever since I became a pastor, people really want to tell me how much they know about the Bible. I've just noticed that. I'm not even talking about people in this church. It's like people that randomly call me. People randomly call me and just ask me questions or whatever, but they always want to tell me how much they know about the Bible. But here's the thing. You could know so much about the Bible and you could do none of it and you could still be a baby Christian. Go read the Bible 50 times. Go memorize the New Testament and then do none of it. What in the world good is that going to do for you? But you, you could not know much of the Bible and just be like, you know what, I'm just going to start learning the Bible and doing it as I learn it and you'll be filled with the Holy Ghost. You'll say and be able to accomplish great things in your Christian life. So it's important that we not just know the Bible, not just read the Bible, but we do the Bible. We actually make it our culture. Okay. All right. Go back to Acts chapter six. So they take these men. So they're like, hey, this isn't efficient. This isn't efficient. Look, same thing is true here by the way. The same thing is true here. Think about all the things that people do around here. Think about just the church service that you just saw started. Now what if I had to do everything? What if I had to get up here, lead every song, I had to quick jump down and like get all the offering plates and I'd run in the office, get them and I had to like hand it to Mrs. Perry and then I'd run around and grab it from Ms. Chelsea and then go to the next row and I had to do everything myself. Look, I would never be able to survive at all. There's no way I would have to do, I mean, clean the church, all the bulletins, all the prayer sheets, all the communication cards. I can't even think of everything that has to go into making this ministry work from day to day to day. I've kind of just kind of reserved myself to the fact that we're never going to be like ahead of it. We're just always like just kind of like just kind of chewing it up as it comes but there's a lot of different people that are involved, not just me. Okay, I mean, you know, going picking people up and dropping people off and there's so many people that help with so many different things in this church. There's no way the pastor could do everything. There's no way. Look, I mean, I would, I'll do whatever I can but there's just no way and if I did all those things then I would have to leave other things. Like I'd only be able to preach two sermons a week or, you know, whatever. I'd have to leave other things if people didn't help with these things. These men in the church, the ladies in the church, it's the same thing. Look at verse number six of Acts chapter six. So everybody was happy. They applied, they hired these guys and look what they did in verse number six. It says, whom they set before the apostles and when they had prayed they laid their hands on them. So they ordained these men. These were the first deacons right here. This is an ordained ministry of the church. Turn to 1 Timothy chapter three. So what are deacons? This is what, you know, this is what you saw created in these seven men. So 1 Timothy chapter three we see the qualifications of a pastor at the beginning of the chapter but in verse number eight we see the qualifications of a deacon of these men. Look at verse number eight of 1 Timothy chapter three. It says, likewise must the deacons be grave, not double tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre. I mean, that's a big one for the pastor as well. Holding the mystery of the faith in pure conscience. Let these also first be proved. That's a big one right there. Then let them use the office of a deacon being found blameless. Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things. Let the deacons be the husband of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well. For that they have used the office of a deacon well, purchased to themselves a good degree and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus. So it's basically the same qualifications as a pastor to be a deacon. So these men that they laid hands on and ordained to help out in the church, they had to be, you know, they were pretty spiritual men. They were not walking in the flesh. They had the same basic qualifications as the pastor and in addition it says in verse number 10, it says and let these also first be proved. So these weren't men, these weren't men and this is similar to a pastor as well but these weren't men that just showed up. They just showed up like a week ago and then they're like, hey, he seems like a nice guy. No, they were first proved. And you'll see that, look, you'll see that in any good church and any smart biblical pastor and you see that with, you know, that have church employees. You know, not even deacons but just a church employee. So when I think about who would be a church employee here and look, we could use one but when I think about who would be a church employee or even a deacon, you know, down the road, the point is they would be a volunteer for a long time at the church. Why? Because they must be proven. They must be proven. Before getting that job, you can't just like throw people in leadership positions that aren't proven. That's what the Bible is, you know, is basically saying here. I mean that was kind of the satellite ministry for me. That was like two years. Two years of being a satellite leader, you know, basically coming in and just running the church. Why? Why was that? Why was that necessary? Why wasn't I just ordained right away and just sent out to be a pastor? Look, because I was, it was proving the leader. That's why. It was proving, you know, I mean, can you handle it? Can you handle the workload? You know, I mean, can you do it? Can you do the job? Are you an honest person? I mean, these men, the pastor, including these deacons, they must be proven. All right, so look, that's another thing you need to think about, you know, guys when you're thinking about starting jobs, you know, another thing my wife and I were talking about, you think about just like a lot of young men will start jobs and they will start jobs and they will just get the worst jobs. They'll just like, I remember when I started my first job, I worked construction summers in high school and summers in college, I worked construction for this steel building company and I was the lowest man at the company and I had the worst jobs. I mean, like the worst jobs, like every single hole, I dug the hole. Every single insulation piece that was put in, I had like 100 degree days with fiberglass insulation wrapped around my face all day long. That's just, it was, it was the most terrible thing ever. I mean, they were the worst jobs, but that's the thing. You got to prove yourself. You have to prove yourself. If you want to go anywhere, if you want to become the deacon, you want to become the pastor, if you want to become just the not the lowest man on the ladder at work, you have to prove yourself. It's very biblical and any boss that's worth his salt, he's going to prove you. So you're like, man, this is, this is, this is horrible digging all these holes for this concrete foundation. Every single time we pour concrete, I got to dig every hole. So just see how fast you can dig every hole. Because you need, because you're being proven is what's happening. You're being proven. All right, look at verse number six of Acts chapter six, one more time. So they do something here for these men. They do something. He says, whom they set before the apostles, when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them. Turn to first Timothy chapter five, turn to first Timothy chapter five. So they laid their hands on them and look at first Timothy chapter five and look at verse number 19. First Timothy chapter five, look at verse number 19. It says, against an elder received not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses. Then the sin rebuked before all. He's, he's giving Timothy advice here that others may also fear. He says, I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels that they'll observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality. He's like, don't have favorites. Like don't have favorites. Don't, don't like, like, you know, if you're Grecian, don't like the Grecians more than you like the Hebrews. Don't have favorites. You shouldn't have favorites with your children or people in church. He's talking about a, I mean, how terrible would it be for a pastor to just have like favorites in the church? Just like treat certain people different because they're from North Dakota or something like that. I mean, it would be terrible. People would like, that would really upset people. Okay. But then look what it says in verse 22. It says, lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men's sins. Keep thyself pure. So he's saying like this, this thing that they did with these seven men in Acts chapter six, this was a, this was a serious thing. This ordination of these deacons. It was, it was a seal of approval. It was a seal of approval. That's why it was so important for me. That's why it was so important for me to be ordained by pastor Jimenez. That was a huge thing for me. Why? Because that meant I had his, it was him giving his seal of approval. He, that it was, it was proof to the world that, that pastor Jimenez approved of me being proven to run the church and look, that's important to me. Why? Because I have great respect for him. That's why, because you know, it's, that's how it should work is, you know, we should lay hands suddenly on no man. They should prove themselves first and then they can become ordained to be deacons or ordained to be pastors or whatever. But the point is this, if you want to serve in the ministry anywhere that, you know, cause look, I mean, we need this here. We need this here. I mean, every church that is out there that has grown big and is doing great things, it has faithful men like this that are helping the pastor. Look, not everybody needs to be a pastor. These men are just as important as the pastor because they're helping free the apostles to go out and, and do the work of the ministry of the word of God. Otherwise they would just have to be stopping and doing this and stopping and doing this. It's huge. Every church needs men like this. Every church needs this. Every church that is able to do great things already has this. And I know you can think about it right now. You think about Faithful Word, you think about Verity Baptist Church, really big churches. You can think of the names of the men that are doing the, I mean, they may not be deacons, but they're doing the work of the ministry that frees the pastor to go and be a great blessing to other churches. Think about that. It's, it's not just the pastor that goes around and is being a blessing to other churches. It's the men that are there serving and the people that are there serving and helping, you know, that ministry keep going. So it's, it's a big deal. Turn to Ephesians chapter 4. Turn to Ephesians chapter 4. It's not just the pastor. It's not just the pastor. There's so much more that goes into the ministry. And look, I mean, if you want to be in the ministry, it is a lot of work. And look, you have to be somebody that likes work to be in the ministry. That is for sure. Look at Ephesians chapter 4, verse number 11. The Bible says, and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and some teachers. Look, not everybody's a pastor in this, in this verse. Other people are doing other things. Why? For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. So look, the person that cleans this church is edifying the body of Christ. The person that does the smallest task at this church is edifying the body of Christ because not everybody has to be the pastor. But the pastor needs help. I mean, just think about the Old Testament. Nothing in the Old Testament is on accident. So when you read the Old Testament, you think about it, and when I sit there and I read about the priests in Leviticus, and I read Leviticus chapter 1 through chapter 7, and you hear about all these sacrifices and growing up on a farm and having to butcher animals and all this, I'm just looking at this and I'm just like, it stresses me out just like reading that. Like all these animals, like they're, they're killing the ceremonial sacrifices for the feast, and then they have to do the daily sacrifices. I'm like, they're just constantly working and cleaning up and working and just, just burning and sacrificing just from the sacrifices. I mean, just all the work. I believe that that's, you know, that's preparing New Testament pastors, New Testament ministries for just the constant work of the ministry. I believe that's a symbol of that. It's just, it's just constant work. You're never ahead of it. And look, if you think you're ahead of it, it means you should be doing something else. If you ever get to the point where you're on cruise control in the ministry, then you think of other things that you could do. Like, oh, but we could also be doing this. We could also be doing this. Because look, there's never ending things that we could do here to get this seed out of the barn. Never ending things. And resources. We talked, you know, a couple, a couple weeks ago about resources, about tithes. It's not just money. It's hours. It's people. It's, it's labor. It's work, as the Bible says. Look at 1 Timothy chapter 3. And look, the deacons, here's the last thing about the deacons. And you're going to see this with Stephen. And I won't get into too, too much detail about Stephen, but the last thing with the deacons that the Bible points out is if you look at 1 Timothy chapter 3 and go back to verse, look at verse 13. 1 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 13, it says, For they that have used the office of a deacon well purchased to themselves a good degree and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus. Look, the deacons will be under the same scrutiny as the pastor. And the Bible is quick to point that out. The ministries need these men as much as a pastor. It's like a ministry without people helping would be like a car without wheels or with square wheels or something like that. But the point is, is that these deacons are going to be under as much scrutiny from the public, from other people, from people that hate God as the pastor is. And that's what the Bible is saying here. Go back to Acts chapter 6. Back to Acts. Actually, you turn to Titus chapter 1. So the point is this. These seven men, these seven men that were ordained into this division of labor so that the apostles could stay with the ministry of the word of God, it freed up the apostles for bigger things, is what it did. Now look at Titus chapter 1. I mean, it freed up the apostles for the big picture stuff. For the really big picture stuff. Look at this. Because this is what they're going to be dealing with. Look at Titus chapter 1 and look at verse, look at verse number 8. So we see more, we see more, in verse number 5 we see, for this cause let thee I increase, thou shalt set in order things that are wanting and ordain elders in every city. He's telling, go ordain pastors. And then look at verse number 8. You know, it talks about, you know, there to be a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate. But then look at number 9. This is what the pastor is supposed to be doing. It says, holding fast the faithful word as he had been taught that he may be by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. That verse right there, that big picture stuff right there. It's for the pastor to be holding fast the word of God. It's to be, just, what's his main big picture thing? It's to never back away from the Bible. To never back away from one word in the Bible and then by sound doctrine, that's why doctrine is so important for your friends, by sound doctrine to exhort. Exhort and then what? Convince the gainsayers. The gainsayers are the ones that are like arguing with you. The ones that don't agree with you. The ones that are saying that's not true. You should be able to convince those people. And then look at verse number 10. For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they have the circumcision. Look, pastors today are dealing with the same thing. Vain talkers and deceivers. That's 99% of the pastors in America today. They're just vain talkers and deceivers. They just back away from everything that's controversial just so they can have people just love them. Why? For their own vanity. Because they're vain talkers. They're vain talkers. They just want people to love them. Look, I think all the time. I think about this all the time. This is why we win by the way. This is why we win. I think about this all the time. Just this idea that I think like I'm optimistic about people in general. Like the general public. Like I'm optimistic about them. Maybe too optimistic. But I'm optimistic that we can convince people. Especially as things get stupider and stupider and stupider like every single week that goes by. Because here's the thing. I'm an engineer. I like to solve problems. I like to solve problems. This is a really big problem people have. They're putting their kids in these schools that are teaching them all these things that they hate. Like people don't like this. People like normal unsaved normal people do not like their kids being taught all this perversion. They do not like their kids having story hour with a drag queen. Nobody likes that. Nobody likes that. You've got to ask yourself by the way. Just as a side note. What do these people want to come into the school for? They don't have any kids. You ever think about that? You know what? Other people think about that too. And they know it's just to abuse and to corrupt children. They know that. Normal good people know this. And guess what? We have the answer. We have the answer. I mean I think about this all the time. If I wasn't a pastor. If I wasn't a pastor and I just didn't care about anybody else's kids. Just think about this for a second. If I wasn't a pastor and I didn't care about anybody else's kids. What do I care about any of that? I'm in a good church. My kids are separated from all this. They don't see this junk. By the way you shouldn't show them this stuff either. When the news comes on and you see the health and human services secretary whatever that is shut it off. Because the Bible says when you see a man dressed like a woman it's abomination in Deuteronomy chapter 22. Don't you know but that's what they're trying to do. They're trying to expose, expose, expose. Just constantly put it in front of your face and in front of the face of the kids. But here's the thing. If I wasn't a pastor and I didn't care about anybody else I'm good. I'm living a perversion free life with my family. We're in a good church. We're out. We're soul winning. We're doing the right thing. But here's the thing. As a pastor it is my job to preach the whole Bible. It is my job to have the ministry of the word. And here's the thing. I actually personally actually care about people. I actually care about people's kids because look I love this country and I love people. That's why I personally go soul winning. Because I actually care about people. And I care about their kids and you know what I know they're concerned about this. I know they're concerned about this stuff and we have the answer. We have the solution. That's that just being in a good church that one thing by itself is more important than anywhere in the country you could ever live. See everybody thinks, everybody thinks that it's all about living in Tennessee or something. No it's all there too. North Dakota it's all there too. There's the homos and the perversion and the same garbage is going on in the schools there as is going on here. It's the same thing. It's exactly the same thing. Guess what? We're living in California and we're living a perversion free life right here. We're living a godly biblical life right here. And you know what? People just don't know that. People don't know that's available to them. People don't know it's right here in their own town. People don't know that hey I don't like this stuff. What's the answer though? They just don't know. So what we got to do is we got to get them before they get desensitized to it. We got to knock on their door and we got to tell them the answer. We got to get them saved and we got to tell them the answer before they've seen the images so many times that they think it's normal. That's what we got to do. And you know what? That's how we save this country. That's how we save Fresno and that's how we save, like that's the work of the ministry as I see it. That's the work of the ministry. It's just we got to get, we got to not leave the word of God, get this seed out of the barn and we got to like save as many people as we can. We got to go out as 2 Corinthians chapter 5 says we got to go out and we got to persuade men because look they want to be persuaded. They want to be persuaded. They just don't know. They're just like this is crazy. Everybody, look everybody's like this is crazy or a vast majority of people in this country I still believe are like this is nuts. What's going on here? And we have the answer to it. That's the work of the ministry and that is how important so you think that okay you know you're not in the big picture stuff but look every single thing you do for the ministry it helps that big picture. I'm telling you. I'm telling you it helps that big picture. I wish I had 2, 3, 5 young men just men that were just like what can we do? We want to just volunteer. I would put them all to work full time no matter what. I mean on a volunteer basis obviously at this point but the point is like there is no shortage of things to do because it's not just it's not just physical resources it's manpower. It's manpower and lady power. I mean the ladies do a ton of work at this church as well. Go back to Acts chapter 6. So now we see how important these men are. It's all about look they don't want to leave the ministry of the Word of God. They're about getting this seed out of the barn as well but now that they had things in order look what happens in Acts chapter 6 and verse number 7. Look what happens. The Bible says and the Word of God increased. I don't think that's an accident that just like as soon as they got this thing in order and they took care of these cultural problems and they got the division of labor set up the Word of God increased the very next verse. Just like we knew what happened and the numbers of disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith. There's the remnant right there by the way. You look at Romans chapter 11 talks about you know I mean the whole book of Romans. The whole book of Romans is talking about the Gentiles coming in and you know the vine and you know the Jews are cut off and it's like well what about the Jews and then in Romans chapter 11 he said no there will be a remnant. There will be a remnant. Just turn there. Let's go turn there. Look at I think it's Romans. Romans 11. Romans 11. Just go ahead and turn there but this is what it's talking about when it says and a great company of the priests. Look the greater, the greater, the majority leadership of the Jews and the majority of the opinions of the Jewish nation rejected Christ but look there was a remnant. There was a remnant. Look at verse, look at verse number 1. I say then have God cast away his people? I mean Paul's just sitting here ripping you know them saying you know not all Israel is Israel anymore. Look if you believe on Christ you are Israel. This is what he's explaining. He said had God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, the seed of Abraham, the tribe of Benjamin. Look at verse 4. But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. Referring to the showdown that Ezekiel had in the Old Testament. Look at verse number 5. Even so then at this present time also there's a remnant according to the election of grace. That's who we're talking about in Acts chapter 6 and verse number 7. He's talking about that remnant that he brought up, that Paul brought up. We're seeing that remnant that Paul later brings up in Romans. Look at verse number 8. Look at verse number 8. So now we get into Stephen specifically. Stephen specifically. Look at verse number 8. It says Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles amongst the people. So he was filled with the spirit and he was just doing great things. Then there arose certain of the synagogue which is called the synagogue of the Libertines and the Cyrenians and the Alexandrians and them of Cilicia and of Asia disputing with Stephen. So here's those people that are arguing with him and they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake. We'll talk about that spirit by which he spake next week. Then they suborned men which said we have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and of God. So they hired men to lie about Stephen. Look at verse 12. 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 sees it not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law. Turn to Matthew chapter 5. In verse 14 they said, for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us. Is that true? Turn to Matthew chapter 5. Turn to Matthew chapter 5. So they're obviously lying about Stephen but now they're even lying about Jesus. You know it's funny because this is exactly the same lies that you hear about Jesus today. Look at Matthew chapter 5 and verse 17. Matthew chapter 5 verse 17. Let's just put this one to bed and then I'll explain to you how it's the exact same thing. Look there's nothing new under the sun. We see the exact same thing happening today as these men are saying about Stephen. Look at verse number 17 of Matthew chapter 5. The Bible says, if you have a red letter Bible these words are read. This is Jesus speaking. It says, think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy but to fulfill. That's the opposite of destroy by the way. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot nor one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Jesus said, I didn't come here to change the rules. This is the people today that we see that they say the Old Testament was mean God and the New Testament is sheep Jesus. The Jesus holding a sheep. The Bible says, for I am the Lord I change not. It's the same God. If you read the Bible it's the same attitude, it's the same mindset, it's the same everything from Genesis all the way to Revelation. Jesus did not come to destroy anything. So people that are coming out and saying, this is the Old Testament and God was different back then, look they're lying to you. Just like they were saying, look it is nothing new under the sun because that's exactly what they said when they accused Stephen. They said, oh no, he's coming here and he's saying he's going to change our religion. It's like no, Jesus came and he fulfilled everything in their religion. That's why Jesus himself said that if you would have believed Moses you would have believed me. But they didn't believe, they didn't believe or they didn't know their own scriptures. Because Jesus came and he fulfilled everything. He fit into that and he said the exact same things. So next week, next week we'll look at Stephen's sermon. Look at what Stephen says as he's filled with the Holy Ghost. And guess what? Let me just say this, and I don't want to give away the sermon next week, but as you listen to the great words that Stephen speaks, look these were not great men. Don't get me wrong when I say that. These were not great powerful men. These were fishermen. These were lay people. These were tax collectors. These were, yeah, one was a doctor. But these were normal blue color working men that said these great words. How did they say these great words? Because they were filled with the Holy Ghost. And God actually makes us that promise that if we get in a situation like that and we're filled with the Holy Ghost that he will give us the words to say in those situations. That's a great promise because a lot of people think like, man, if I ever get in a situation where someone's threatening me or they want to hurt me or something like that, maybe I'll cry like a baby or something. But God says, no, I'll give you the words to say. And that's what we'll look at next week with Stephen. So we see the ordination of the deacons. We see the division of labor. We see a growing church that had some problems, that had some divisions amongst themselves. All normal things that every church is going to go through as they grow. But as we listen to the Bible and we follow what the Bible says, we just follow the model that's laid out before us and everything will work as it's supposed to.