ACTS 6 A SPIRIT FILLED SERVANT2020 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Acts 6 A Spirit Filled Servant

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2020. Amen. Well, as we look at Acts chapter 6 this evening, I've titled the message, A Spirit-Filled Servant.

A spirit-filled servant. Here in the book of Acts, we're seeing the beginning of the church. And we saw in the reading this past week, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the church and the birth of the church and the Holy Spirit filling and empowering the church to accomplish the work of God and to be the church of God. And so here in chapter six, we see a situation where there is a need to set aside some particular people for roles of service.

And the qualification for it, of course, one of them is that they be filled with the Spirit. And so here we get a great real insight about what servants look like and what needs to be factored in and what needs to be considered. And I would encourage you to consider yourself this evening and perhaps allow yourself to consider, am I a Spirit-filled servant?

Being a servant and having a servant's heart, that's one thing. Being filled with the Holy Spirit and empowered by the Spirit to enable you to fulfill your role that God has given to you, that's another thing. And so there's some important lessons to learn here as we look at the examples of these men that are set apart for service here in Acts chapter 6. And so we're going to look at five things.

as we work our way through the passage, to help us think about a Spirit-filled servant and answer the question or ask the question of ourselves if we are Spirit-filled servants. And so the first thing we'll look at is found here in verse 1. Here's point number 1 for this evening. A Spirit-filled servant serves to meet a need in the body.

We serve, if we're spirit-filled servants, we serve to meet a need within the body of Christ. In verse 1 again, it says, Here as we kind of jump into the beginnings still of the church in Acts chapter 6, we see that things are going good.

In those days, it says, the number of the disciples was multiplying. There was growth happening. People were getting saved. The evangelism, you know, was happening there within Jerusalem and Judea and the surrounding areas. And there was this movement of God that was happening. And so people were turning to Jesus and they were believing in Jesus. And the church was being built up and edified and added to consistently, right?

But as usually, you know, what happens in those kinds of situations where God is working, there is still opportunity for the enemy to try to bring division and destruction and sorrow and put a stop to those things. And along with, you know, that, the

growing of people, there just comes some natural difficulties and conflicts and things that happen. And so as they're going along, doing well, things are going great, now all of a sudden there's a complaint.

And the complaint centers around the distribution to the widows. The church was really involved in providing for the widows, and it was part of the Jewish culture to make sure that would happen. One of the reasons was because it was hard for widows to be able to make ends meet for themselves. There was not much opportunity for them to be able to provide for themselves. And so in the Jewish culture, they would provide for the widows.

But for widows who turned to Christ, they were cast out of Jewish society and cast out many times from their families. And so there was a need for the church to step in and fill that role. And so they were providing for the widows amongst the church.

We don't really know how many widows we're talking about, how many people were involved in the church at this point. Many people estimate as much as 25,000 were Christians at this time as a result of the ministry of the disciples. And so there's some number of widows, but there's two different kinds of widows that we see here. There was the Hebrews and there was the Hellenists. Now, both of these groups were Jewish widows.

But the Hebrews and the Hellenists were different in their culture, in their upbringing. The Hebrews were more traditional to Jewish culture and spoke Hebrew or Aramaic. The Hellenists were kind of more adopting the Greek culture and maybe even came from Greek, you know, other locations and moved back to Jerusalem. And so the Hellenists and the Hebrews, there was often some conflict and some tension between them.

Sometimes, you know, they looked down upon each other. There was some, you know, derogatory remarks made and there was conflict between them. As I'm sure it's not hard for you to imagine, you know, that kind of thing happening, even as we see those kinds of things happen all around us. And so there comes this complaint now. They just say, you know, the Hebrew widows are benefiting greater from the daily distribution, right?

We're all being helped, but the Hebrew widows, they're getting helped more than we are, the Hellenists would say. And so there's this favoritism that's happening perhaps. It says that their widows were neglected in the daily distribution. And we don't really know. It's not really clear if the favoritism was real or imagined, that that can happen. Either way, this complaint revealed this need within the body.

And so however you want to take it, and you can kind of wrestle with those things, the end result is there was now this awareness of there's some attention that needs to be paid here. There's some work that needs to be done. And the complaint was really used by the Lord to bring this situation to light, but also to raise up people to be able to be involved in the work of the ministry. You know, sometimes needs are not met necessarily.

simply because they're not brought to light. Sometimes for various reasons, you know, we have different ideas or conflict within about whether or not we should bring things up. Sometimes needs are not met simply because we don't bring the complaint. And not that we're to be complainers and point out everything that's wrong or, you know, anything like that. And that's one of the things that we battle with internally. But I would just encourage you to pause and consider for a moment that

You know, if you were in their shoes, perhaps the Lord would want to use you to bring about a situation where a need is made known so that the Lord might work to meet that need and involve the people of the body of Christ to help address it. And it's something we need to continue to grasp hold of as a church, to have the mentality that we are the body of Christ.

It's the picture that God uses consistently throughout the scriptures for us. We are the body of Christ, which means we're attached. And we're in this together, whether we're present or apart, we're attached and connected to one another as members of the body of Christ. And so there is an appropriate place for needs to be made known and for complaints to be brought forth. Again, not with an intention of being divisive or causing problems, but with an intention

But to bring awareness to things that, hey, we all have blind spots. We all have things that we just don't see. We just are not aware of until it's brought to our attention. And as a body, we are to gather together and seek to provide for those things. Now, it does not mean that we can always provide for or resolve every issue. But even when we can't, we can suffer with you.

That doesn't sound that exciting, but it is really important and helpful for us. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 that God composed the body, giving greater honor to the part which lacks it, so that there would be no schism, but that the members would have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. And if one member is honored, then all the members rejoice with it.

And so we are seeing here this need for the recognition and the understanding that we are the body of Christ. And we are joined together. We are united together in a way that, well, God reveals needs. And then there are those who are filled with the Holy Spirit and empowered to meet those needs within the body of Christ. And so a Spirit-filled servant serves to meet a need here.

Now the primary focus, as we consider that, of course, is spiritual. And at the same time, we should not neglect that there are many practical and even financial needs that the Lord would use us to meet in one another. And so there's opportunity for us to be filled with the Holy Spirit. You are part of God's solution to the people around you. Well, moving on to verses 2 through 4, we get the second point for this evening, which

Point number two is that a spirit-filled servant is faithful with their role in the body. And I just noticed that some of my slides are not on here, so I'm going to just grab these real quick and redo that. See if that'll work. No, that didn't work. There we go. All right.

So a spirit-filled servant is faithful with their role in the body, unlike the tech guy here on stage. Verse 2,

So here the need is brought to light. The situation is, you know, made known. And it's now understood that there is a situation. And so the 12, now the 12 apostles, they gather the church together and they say, okay, we need to address this. There is a need here. But they also make it clear it's not for us to meet this need. They say it's not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables, right?

And instead they say, you should seek out from among yourselves. There is a need. There is someone who is going to fill that need. It's not us, but it's someone from amongst you.

And again, as we consider this picture of a body, every believer has a role in the body of Christ. And so the way that this need is going to be met is not from something external, not from go hire somebody or let's go, you know, bring someone from the outside, but from within, there is going to be a raising up and empowering of someone to fill this role.

Now, as the apostles say this, it's not that they're opposed to serving. Jesus taught them very clearly back in John chapter 13 with the washing of their feet. The role of a servant is the role of a minister. That is their role. And it's not that they're opposed to the idea of handling this need, but what they're opposed to is the neglecting of their role.

that they need to make sure and protect that they have a responsibility, a role, and they can't allow things to creep in and to take away from the role or the work that they are called to do. And so there's someone else then who is going to fill this role, they say, someone within the body, because every believer has a role in the body of Christ. Now,

There's a lot of things that we could explore along this idea, and I'm not going to get into all of the details here, but I think, you know, it's good for us to stop and consider the concept of spiritual gifts. And there's some passages that talk about spiritual gifts in various places, in Romans chapter 12, in Ephesians chapter 4, and also in 1 Corinthians chapter 12.

But as we think about those passages, and as you might consider them a little bit, I would encourage you to think about them differently. Maybe it's time to rethink a little bit spiritual gifts. Because a lot of times what happens is people look at these passages. Oh, that's the wrong one. People look at these passages and... I'm making a mess of things tonight here. Let's try that again. Boom. Boom.

So often what happens is people will look at all of these different passages. They'll add up all the numbers and say, all right, so there's this many gifts in that passage, this many gifts in that passage, this many gifts in that passage. That gives us a total of 21 gifts of the Spirit. And it's one approach for sure, and you're welcome to take that approach if you'd like. But I would encourage you to think of spiritual gifts in a different way, and that is...

each passage is talking about different types of things that God gives. And even the triune nature is involved here in gifting you with different things. And so Romans chapter 12, I would encourage you to look through that passage later on and think about it in the idea of, in the light of roles within the body of Christ.

That it's not so much gifts that come and go or in the moment, but this is a general direction that God gives you within the body. And then 1 Corinthians chapter 12, I like to look at those and consider those as the toolbox.

And so here you are, you're on this path, you're on this role that God has given to you, and now the Holy Spirit gives you a toolbox, and you're able to pull out a word of wisdom, or a word of knowledge, or a word of prophecy. You're able to have extra faith for the situation at hand. And all of those tools that you see there in 1 Corinthians 12,

are available to you as a believer. As you serve the Lord, the Holy Spirit can put any of those tools in your hand and say, here's the tool for the job that's at hand and you can accomplish this task. And so you have a role, you're gifted by the Holy Spirit to have the tools to fulfill that role. And then Ephesians chapter four is not really focused on gifts given to you directly, but leaders that are given to the church directly.

And so it highlights there the leadership that is given in Ephesians chapter 4. And that's given, it's your gift from Jesus to you, these leaders and these authorities within the body of Christ to help you and grow you and build you up to help you fulfill your role and use your gifts and be able to serve the Lord in the way that he's called you to. So that's a quick look at Ephesians.

spiritual gifts. Again, not in depth at all, but hopefully enough to help you just stop to consider a little bit about what perhaps the Lord might have for you and what is your role. And you don't have to figure out how to accomplish it all because the Holy Spirit will give you the tools that you need as you go. But continuing to consider this picture of a body or this idea of a body, I like this picture of these gears that work together. Because you can look at these and I would encourage you to ask, well, which one is most important?

If you take any one of these out, then others around it stop working, right? If these are rotating, you take out the middle one, you take out a little one, you take out a big one, it affects all of the gears around it. That's a really good picture for us, that there's not a more important role. There's not, you know, ones that are essential and ones that are not.

Paul is very clear in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, we're all essential. And God has designed the body of Christ so that there is no insignificant parts, but that we are all essential and important as we serve the Lord together. And so every believer has a role in the body of Christ. You're one of the gears. You're one of the members of the body. You're a player on the team, however you want to illustrate that in your head.

And every believer has that role and should be working to fulfill that role. But that also means that every believer must guard against distractions that would take away from their role. And that's what the apostles are doing here. They're saying it's not desirable for us to take away from the Word of God in prayer to fulfill this role and to meet this need. It's a legitimate need, and someone needs to fill it, but...

That's not our place. That would take us away from what God has primarily called us to do. And so here they say in verse 3, seek out from among you.

Seven men of good reputation. There is somebody who does have that role. There's a gear that fits that, you know, spot. There's a player that has, you know, the right groupings of talents and anointing by the Holy Spirit to fill that need and to accomplish what it is that the Lord wants them to accomplish. And so a Spirit-filled servant is faithful with their role.

Faithful to fulfill their role and also faithful to guard themselves against being distracted from. And there is endless opportunities. There's endless good things that we can be doing

that will distract us from the main thing that God wants us to do. And so we have to be careful and be faithful with the role and be conscious of what it is that God has called us to. And so are you a spirit-filled servant? You're part of God's solution to the people around you. Make sure that you're looking for and finding your role and fulfilling it

Also make sure that you're protecting yourself against things that would creep in and prevent you from doing that and fulfilling the things that God has called you to. Well, moving on to the third point to consider this evening, a spirit-filled servant has qualities needed for serving.

And so looking still at verse 3, which we looked at briefly, verse 3 says, So there is someone with the role, and now the apostles give them guidelines, some things to consider as they seek out who it is that the Lord wants to use to meet this need.

And as you look at these things, they're not complicated. They're pretty simple. These qualities that are listed here, they're not so much talents or abilities. They didn't say, make sure he has a math degree so that they can count the monies correctly to be able to distribute them fairly. Make sure they can do long division. There wasn't those kinds of things.

The things that they list are really about character and maturity, not so much talents or abilities. And so these qualities that they require is that, first of all, that there would be a good reputation. Then that the person would be filled with the Holy Spirit. That they would be a person who is full of wisdom and then also faithful or capable of handling the responsibility that this task is going to require.

And so here these qualities are listed. Now you can look at more details. There's additional requirements or qualifications or qualities, however you might want to say them, in 1 Timothy chapter 3, where Paul outlines the qualifications there for overseers and for deacons. And this is another area where, you know, sometimes we can get kind of a little bit too formal in our looking at these things. But

Acts chapter 6 is often looked at and understood as this is, you know, where the role of the deacon was instituted. And yes, but also sometimes we think too much of like office, you know, classic church liturgy type things. The word deacon, it just means a servant, right?

And so these were roles of service. It wasn't some super official capacity that has to be in place. In the same way, in 1 Timothy 3, as you look at the overseer and the deacon, I would simplify that. Instead of looking at specific high roles, formal roles that we might think about in the church, I would call an overseer anybody who has responsibility over people.

And so if people are charged to you and you're going to give an account for them, you're an overseer. And so those are the qualities and qualifications that are applicable to you. And then a deacon is a servant. It's one who is charged with tasks and responsibilities that are not primarily oversight of people, but taking care of different kinds of things, practical things. And so...

these roles I think are a little bit simplified as you look at them to understand they apply to all of us in many ways, that we are all to be servants. These qualities that he mentions here, these are not like some strange qualities that only the select few have.

are going to have. These are qualities that every believer should have, right? These aren't so like outlandish, like, whoa, a good reputation. Like, how are we going to find someone like that, right? Well, yes, it can be hard to find someone with a good reputation in, you know, lots of circumstances. But for us as Christians, that should be the standard. That should be pretty normal for us. How are we going to find someone who's full of the Holy Spirit?

We've mentioned this, I've mentioned this several times over the past few weeks. Anybody who is in Christ has the Holy Spirit. So you have the opportunity, and J. Oswald Sanders, in his book on spiritual leadership, tells us that each of us is as filled with the Holy Spirit as we choose to be. That it's not a question of capability, it's just a question of willingness. Like, am I willing to be

Presenting myself to God in a way to be filled with the Holy Spirit, it's a quality that is available to all of us, filled with wisdom. Again, we have the opportunity through the Word of God, through the understanding of God, to have wisdom and faithfulness. It's not a strange quality that, you know, can only be found amongst the few. This is qualities that speak to maturity as a believer. And if you're lacking these qualities, then really serving shouldn't be your primary focus.

what should be your primary focus is drawing near to God and loving God and walking with God and hearing from God and learning what his plan is for you and living out that plan in your relationship with him and developing that. And then as you strengthen your relationship with God, then you'll have opportunities to serve because, well, these qualities will become evident in your life as you spend time with God and allow him to transform you.

And so these are the qualities that they list. Again, not strange, rare qualities, really standard qualities. Now, as you look at these qualities, always in looking at these passages, it's important to strike a balance. That, you know, you can...

use this in a way where you set too high of a standard and you're looking for perfection. So, you know, the apostles were not requiring sinless people here to fill this role, right? They weren't requiring people that, you know, always had a good reputation or that, you know, never had issues or never, you know, were foolish or anything like that. It's not that we need to take it to that degree, right?

because we can easily talk ourselves out of serving altogether. And as a general reminder for leaders within the church, we need to be careful that we don't set the standards so high that we wouldn't have qualified when we started, right? Like, that's a temptation. We get in, we're serving the Lord. Okay, now everybody behind us has to reach a higher level. And that's just not the way that God works.

And so, yes, there's going to be still sin and room for maturity and growth. At the same time, we need to not take it to the other extreme and have the standards so low that now it's meaningless.

That now, you know, so what if they have a bad reputation? You know, they can fill the need and the need's there, so let's just put them to work. That's not the right way either. There needs to be a balance between these. In understanding these qualities, having wisdom from the Lord, and then going forward. Now, the apostles, as they instruct the congregation to seek out those who would fill these needs, then the apostles confirm it in verse 5 and 6. It says this,

And so the congregation does their seeking out.

They are led by the Lord. They're identifying these seven guys, and they bring them to the apostles, and they say, all right, we believe these seven guys are the guys that God has anointed for this task. And so it tells us then that the apostles prayed and then laid hands. Now, when we read this verse, typically you might think in your head, you know, like a laying hands, a laying on of hands and praying type of service. But the idea really conveyed here is that the apostles prayed and

Seeking the Lord for confirmation, seeking the Lord to agree with this set of guys that had been chosen. And then having received that confirmation from the Lord, then they laid hands on them. And the idea of laying on of hands is, hey, we're joining together. We're commissioning you. You are now officially charged with this responsibility.

And so they have this now confirmation from the apostles and from the Lord. These are the guys that the Lord has chosen to meet this need and to serve in this capacity. Now, again, as we consider these things, I would encourage you to consider that these qualities that are presented have more to do with character than anything else.

And that really needs to be our focus. Because if you're seeking the Lord and walking with him, God's able to do in you whatever he needs to do to equip you to fulfill the role. It reminded me as I was thinking about this of Moses in Exodus chapter 4. In Exodus chapter 4, the Lord commissions Moses, right, to go and stand before Pharaoh and say, let my people go. And Moses says, you know, could you send somebody else? Exodus 4.10, Moses said to the Lord, oh my Lord, I'm not eloquent.

Neither before nor since you have spoken to your servant, I am slow of speech and slow of tongue. I'm not really good at speaking, God, and you're wanting me to go and speak for you. So can we skip that? Can I just not do that? I'm not really good at speaking. And what's interesting is God then responds in Exodus 4.11, and the Lord says to him, who's made man's mouth? You're worried about your mouth. I'm not worried about your mouth. I made your mouth.

He says, who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, and the blind? Have not I? Now, therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say. This is an important part of understanding the roles that we have within the body of Christ. It's not up to us to generate all that we need to fulfill that role. It's up to us to stay connected to the Lord, to walk with the Lord, to stay close to the Lord, to

And as he calls us, as he moves us forward, as he sets us in situations and gives us opportunities, God says, I'll work with your mouth. Notice he doesn't deny, he doesn't dispute what Moses says. Moses says, I'm slow of speech and slow of tongue. And God doesn't say, no, you're not. Why are you trying to make up lies and excuses? He doesn't say that. He says, yeah, so what? I agree. So what? I'm with you. I'll be with you. Go. I will teach you.

And so the qualities that are needed for serving are more important than the talents or abilities. It's that maturity, that real connection to the Lord and relationship with the Lord. And so a spirit-filled servant has qualities that are needed for serving. Well, moving on to verse 7, we get the fourth point to consider this evening, and that is a spirit-filled servant contributes to the growth of the body.

A spirit-filled servant contributes to the growth of the body. In verse 7, it says, I think this verse is amazing in the way that it's placed. Because in verse 7, it says, So here are these servants in this new role,

And then as they got to work, then the word of God spread, the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith. I mean, in a lot of ways, it's similar to verse 1, which is just talking about generally how well things were going. The church was growing. Again, in verse 1, in those days, the number of the disciples was multiplying. So God was doing the work, people were getting saved, right? But at the same time, here the Lord inserts this verse in a way that demands that it be connected to

to this initiation for these guys to serve in the role that the Lord had called them to, to meet the need that had just been brought up and made available for them to serve in. It wasn't that God couldn't do a work until these guys came along, right? We know that. God was already doing a work. And here we see that God now gives these guys a chance to be part of it.

They get to be some of the gears. And as they serve in their role, as they're taking care of the widows, they're not going on missionary journeys. They're not, you know, reaching out in amazing ways. They will. We'll see that in the next verse. But as they get started, they're just fulfilling their role. They're ministering to the widows and making sure that things are fairly divided up and given out and taken care of in a way that makes sense and then is fair.

And so as they begin to spin, here they are, this gear, and it begins to spin the gears around them. It begins to fuel the body of Christ around them and fan into flame the work that is going on, and then the word of God spread. And so you see that they got to have a meaningful impact, a meaningful part of the work of God,

as they began to serve in this role, that you wouldn't directly connect the word of God spreading to distributing needs to widows, right? Like, you wouldn't directly connect those things. The number of disciples multiplying, that wouldn't be, you know, a direct one-to-one correlation that we might make. Priests being obedient to the faith. Priests weren't widows, right? They were not part of this direct ministry. But as a result...

As they continue to go forward in the plan of God, all of these things are happening. It's the work of God unfolding, and these guys get to be part of it with their role in ministering to the widows and making sure that things are handled fairly. The Apostle Paul tells us in Ephesians 4, verse 16. I know I quote this verse a lot, but it's a good one to remember.

Ephesians 4, 16 says, The body grows while all the parts do their share.

Not while the main parts do their share, not while the important parts do their share, right? But while every part does its share. And there's each joint and each connection and each member. And as they all come together, as we all come together, we all grow and we all benefit from the gifts, the service, the ministry that God has charged us with. A spirit-filled servant contributes to the growth of the body. We have a chance to impact the body of Christ.

to have a meaningful part of his work. And it might be hard for us. Sometimes these things have to be taken by faith because there's not always a direct connection. Like, you know, how does me vacuuming, you know, multiply the word of God or multiply the disciples? How does that take place? Or how does me, you know, greeting or teaching a Bible study with a few people in the service, how does that really make a difference? How does that really make an impact? And we have to believe God at his word, but here we have this great encouragement here.

In verse 7, here is these seven guys got to work. It was a part of God's plan and it contributed to the growth of the body. Well, we're going to finish it up in verses 8 through 10 to consider the fifth point for this evening. Point number five, a spirit-filled servant is led to serve in new ways. It tells us in verse 8, "...and Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people."

Stephen was one of the seven, and we're going to now focus on Stephen here in chapter 6, and then as we read on into chapter 7 tomorrow, it's going to be really focused on Stephen, who becomes the first martyr as a disciple of Jesus Christ.

And so he has a prominent role in the work of the Lord in the church and is going to be instrumental in spreading the church really to the ends of the earth as it's his martyrdom which prompts a great persecution that happens upon the church. And you'll see that as you head into chapter 7 and 8 here of Acts.

But so just to kind of zero in on Stephen for a little bit, it says that he was full of faith and power. He did great wonders and signs among the people. And so here was Stephen. He is initially summoned, pulled up to fulfill this need where there was this complaint and dispute between the Hellenistic and the Hebrew widows. He begins to serve in this role. And as he's serving in this role,

Well, the Lord leads him in other ways to serve as well. And pretty soon there's miracles that are taking place and God is using him to do great wonders and signs among the people. He's not just counting out, okay, here's your portion for today. And one, two, three, four, five. Okay, here's your portion for today. One, two, three, four, five. Here's your portion for today. That's part of what he did. And that's where he started.

And it was an important part. And God was magnifying his name and establishing the church as he was doing that. But at the same time, while he was doing that, the Lord was building him up in a way that he would have some new roles and there would be signs and wonders that would take place at his hand. And then, as a result, there's some attention on him. It tells us in verse 9 and 10, now there's some

opposition. And so there's Jews who are coming against him strongly and trying to defeat him in debate. But it tells us in verse 10, they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke. He was filled with the Holy Spirit. He was filled with wisdom. And so as much as they tried to take him down, he was there standing strong and defending the faith.

Pastor Warren Wiersbe says, Remember Jesus said, the Holy Spirit will come upon you. You'll be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and Judea and then to the uttermost parts of the earth, right? The uttermost parts of the earth hadn't happened yet. They were still there in Jerusalem.

But through this, through this testimony of Stephen and the martyrdom of Stephen, the next phase is going to happen. And it's kind of like, you know, a dispersing by the Holy Spirit to the ends of the earth. All of these disciples that were walking with the Lord there in Jerusalem. And the Lord triggers that. The Lord accomplishes that through this guy, Stephen, who initially was a

brought to light because he was a good candidate for helping to resolve this need of ministering to the widows. Stephen becomes the first martyr for Jesus. Not Peter, not James, not John, Stephen. Again, the point is, the point I'm seeking to make is that it's not about, you know, the really important people like Peter. It's

He was just as much a member of the body of Christ and an important part of the body of Christ and used by the Lord as those that we might think of as more prominent or more substantial. Serving Jesus in the opportunity at hand leads us to serve Jesus in new ways. It gives us opportunity. It opens doors. This illustration was shared one time when I was young.

trying to figure out what the Lord's will for me was and what the Lord's plan for me was. I remember a pastor sharing about a car that is parked. And it's really difficult to get a car that's parked to turn to a different direction. But if the car is moving, that's an easy car to change direction, to point it in a different direction, to get it going in a different way. If it's moving, it's much more easy to turn and to get it to go a different way or to get it in a different lane or to put it in a different spot.

And the encouragement through that illustration was start serving somewhere. Start serving the Lord in whatever capacity you can, whatever degree you can. Just start doing something. And it will be much easier for the Lord to direct you and redirect you as you go

than for you to just sit there and wait like a parked car, and you're like, I don't know, I don't have direction, I don't know which way I'm supposed to go. And so you're just kind of stuck there and park with no real movement happening. Now that doesn't mean we just go commit our life to things, right? That we don't pray about them. But serving God,

in some roles is not a lifetime commitment. And there are roles that God might call you to that is a lifetime commitment. And so you need to be prepared for that. But at the same time, there's a lot of roles that we can serve the Lord in that's not like, I'm going to do this for the rest of my life, right? Like you could just start to serve, right?

And it doesn't have to be a major big deal that's wrote in lights or put in the newspaper or anything like that. It could just be you seeking the Lord and finding ways to serve him within the body of Christ. And then he'll lead you as you take steps, as you learn, as you grow. He'll lead you. Roles within the body of Christ change with seasons. And sometimes God has us in a role for a season. Right?

And it might be a big role, it might be an important role, it might be a fun role, and then he's going to change up that role and give us a different role and move us on to something different. I always consider the example of Paul and Barnabas. As you follow them, and we'll get to them in a little bit with Acts chapter 13, as they're sent out on the first missionary journey, it's Barnabas leading the journey. It's Barnabas who's, you know, the lead missionary in that missionary party.

But then you get halfway through the missionary journey, as they get to the other side of the island of Cyprus, the roles reverse. And it's now Paul and his missionary team being referred to. And you see the roles changed. They were one way for a season, and then they were a different way for a season. But it's as you serve the Lord in the role that he's given to you now that it trains you and prepares you for the next season. A servant filled with the Holy Spirit.

is led to serve in new ways. God has some new things. He'll have some fresh things. And sometimes we have in our minds, well, I want to serve the Lord. And we have an idea in our minds of what that is. And maybe even God's given you a vision of how he wants you to serve him. But I would encourage you to consider that even if you have this vision, or you have this desire, you have this idea in your head, that may not be where you start. The Lord might have you start in a different capacity.

And then lead you to that role that he's put upon your heart as he's trained you in the days ahead in the serving that took place. Think about Joseph and all that he went through, right? In the captivity and all that he went through.

all of the things being sold into slavery, falsely accused, and the Lord was with him that whole time, training him, shaping him, preparing him for that time that he would be second in command next to Pharaoh in Egypt to provide salvation and wisdom for the nation and for his family. But you can't skip the journey. You can't just jump to, this is the place that I have in my mind. This is a place that the Lord showed me. And maybe it is. Great. Awesome. But

But look right now at the roles that are there. Look at the needs that are there. And maybe it's not the need or the role that you had in mind, but there's needs that are available. You are part of God's solution to people around you. You're part of the work that he wants to do. And so our part is to be filled with the Holy Spirit, to be walking with the Lord, to be close to the Lord, to be willing to serve God.

in those needs and in those roles, protecting the role that God has given to us so that we don't distract ourselves with things that take us away from what God has for us, but at the same time looking for those new opportunities that God will present and desires to accomplish in us and through us. And as we do that, as we serve him, we get to be part of his work. We get to have a meaningful impact and the church grows. The word of God is growing.

multiplied. God is magnified as we serve him in whatever roles he has appointed to us. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the opportunity to be part of your work. We thank you, God, that you aren't limited by our talents and abilities, but Lord, that you are able, like you said with Moses, to

Cause us to speak. You're able, Lord, to give us wisdom beyond our ability naturally to understand and think and come up with ideas. You're able to speak through us and work through us in ways, Lord, we can't even understand or imagine right now. And so, Lord, we pray that you would help us not to limit ourselves, but to help us to

Lord, not to disqualify ourselves, not to consider ourselves as insignificant and not even try or seek to serve you, but I pray, God, that you would stir up within us, Lord, a realization and an understanding. We are members of your body and you have a place for us. You have a way for us to serve you and honor you and make a meaningful and significant impact on the body of Christ around us.

And so, God, I pray that you would bring to light the needs that are there. Lord, would you reveal and show us. And Lord, even if it's maybe not how we would prefer, we'd prefer a want ad or something like that. But if it's through a complaint or an issue or a dispute or a battle, Lord, I pray that you would help us to recognize the situation for what it is. It's you revealing a need. And I pray that you would enable us and equip us to see that need and

to seek you for those that should fill that need, fill that role. Lord, may we be like Samuel as a young man saying, here I am, Lord, send me. Your servant listens. I'm ready. What do you want to do? What do you want to say? May we be your willing servants to accomplish your purposes. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.