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Prepare our hearts to worship you. You are a great and mighty God. We thank you for this body. We thank you for the opportunity, to worship you today. Be with Ray as he preaches out of your word.
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May it cut to the heart today. We thank you and we love you in Jesus name. Amen. Give you that one back. Yeah.
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Put your hands together. Again, we're gonna sing hymn number six fifty five. Six. Page six fifty five. I don't have to worry.
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Great great song to prepare our hearts for worship. The words of these songs are really the purpose, the point is to say those things and to sing them out of your soul it kinda brings you in alignment with your your savior this morning. Amen? Amen. Your hearts this morning?
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Are you opening up your mind and your heart to receive God's word this morning? That's that's a great worship song. It's a good time to do that. This song is about that too. Number 91.
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Hymn number 91. In moments like these. I'd like to pray we take that from Lord God thank you for all that you've given us this week for the beauty for the significance of every every day Lord Lord, it's the day that you can make decisions, huge decisions, life altering decisions in moments like these. It's a day when we can sing a song out to you, Lord. We've come to the time.
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It's our tradition. This is the way we it. That we wanna give back a little portion of what you've given to us, Lord. We recognize that it all belongs to you, and we wanna live our lives that way, Lord. So, God, I pray that you take these tithes and offerings that we're laying at your feet right now, lord and do your kingdoms work with it.
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May the gospel advance. As we're capable to give. In Jesus name, amen. I've got a couple of other announcements kind of like breaking news, some of them. And I wanna mention one of them is not like breaking the planet for a long time.
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Gillian App is marrying Kirkland Broadwell this coming Friday here at the church at 02:30 in the afternoon and you're all invited. So that'll be, I'll be doing the opening session of that little wedding but there's a pastor coming in from Virginia that will do the rest of it so Julie Knapp and Kirkland Broadwell's wedding will be here Friday at 02:30 and you're welcome to come to that and Trish is gonna come forward and talk to you about the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life. This is that's been planned for a good while too.
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Thank you. Celebrate, remember, and fight back. That is the theme, the unknowingly united theme for our Relate Your Life, which starts August 2 and runs through August 3 at the Jackson Hole High School. Everybody has heard someone hear those words, you have cancer. But we are now celebrating more and more birthdays through the efforts of Relay For Life, and we remember those that have lost their fight, but their legacy still continues on.
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And fight back, that we do well. Through your efforts, how can you fight back? You can donate online. You can see me in the back to also purchase one of my favorite, the little binaria bags that line and track, and we fill the night with hope lighting the way through the darkness. You can also join us for dinner.
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Local restaurants provide food that night. And I have to say that this church in 2010 was the number one team that year, raising a loan for $8,500, and it also is the largest representation of these Lumenaria bags for only $10. You can honor or remember, but for whatever reason you relay, whether you come and walk with us for a couple of laps or you stay the night remember to continue celebrating remember and fight back until cancer is no more.
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Thank you. She left a packet of free sunscreen for the schedule of everything that's going on. Well, you all know that we've been going through the ones that you've been here, those are you're welcome to, but those of you who've been here now we've been going through a study of past. In Acts up through chapter six, we've seen a lot of different schemes. Last week's sermon was about the schemes of the evil one, schemes of the adversary, Satan, and devil, and there were three of those.
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Y'all remember what they were? Just wondering because I don't know, I'm just kidding. The first one was first one was persecution and that's an external pressure that we really can't control. That comes upon us if we're doing God's will, sometimes it comes upon us whether we like it or not, it's an external pressure that we don't control. The other one is hypocrisy, that is something that we all have within us, a capacity for self deception and trying to make ourselves look better than we are.
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It's not wanting to look bad and so it's a form of pride. So there's persecution and then there is hypocrisy, we saw that in Ananias and Sapphira. And then there is what we talked about last week, murmuring. Murmuring is always, it's potentially very destructive because whenever someone starts murmuring there's a chance for division. So that's what we talked about last week, that leads into this.
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Last week I said I'm laying the groundwork for next week's sermon six:eight through 15 for the last part of chapter six is leading into this. I said what is it that the devil does when he's tried persecution, he's tried hypocrisy, and he's tried division murmuring? He starts to list over. Eight through 15 is about the persecution of Stephen. He is unjustly accused.
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He the lying witnesses said, this man is always speaking against the holy temple and against the law of Moses. We heard him say that Jesus of Nazareth will destroy the temple and change the customs that Moses handed down to him. And they accused him of speaking against God or blaspheming against God and blaspheming against Moses. So this week is his defense. Stephen's defense is all of chapter seven.
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This is the longest continual speech in the whole book of Acts and I think it's really important. Luke recognizes that it was important and I have done a lot of study. I've read everything in the whole study about this verse this week and people range on this from thinking that this is an incoherent mess of God to believe you to me and this is the most genius speech ever uttered before any authorities. So y'all probably fall somewhere between those two but I guarantee it's not gobbledygook. I'll try to point out the linear line and then I did want to mention something else first though before we start talking about Stephen and his specific events.
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What is the locus of your religion? What is the location for your religion? We know that all of the major religions have holy cities and so you could say Jerusalem, you might say Mecca, Medina, Bodh Gaya or whatever the Buddhist place of enlightenment. You might choose Rome. There are places that people feel to be holy places.
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And so I just want you to think about what's the locus of your religion. Is it the Acropolis on top of Mount Olympus in Athens, Greece or is it Sanford Stadium in Athens, Georgia? There is a location of your religion or is there? We sang a song a little while ago I'll bring it back up hopefully if I remember. Tanya, if I don't remember tell me I'm not remembering okay.
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She says that I do that sometimes I'll come back to that and I don't. What do we know about Stephen? From his name and from the context of the previous chapter we know that he is a Hellenistic Jewish believer. That means that culturally he is Greek speaking probably of Greek of Greek speaking parents but definitely of Jewish parents. So he is Jewish from the time he was born, was Jewish but he's a Greek speaker by name and context, that's what we believe.
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He culturally identifies more with Greek than with the Hebrew speaking Jews. This is important. Have any been keeping up with, the Trayvon Martin racial case whether you want to or not, you probably have been. There is always going to be a cultural and racial tension from the time of the Tower Of Babylon, God splitting the languages until Jesus comes back. There will always be some sort of enmity, some sort of strife between but that's something to think about it.
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This is a Greek speaking believer addressing the council. He's well respected on the community. Chapter six tells us he's full of the Holy Spirit, he's full of wisdom, very skilled in debate such that no one could come close, we'll see that. He's full of God's grace and power and God has recently used him to do amazing miracles and signs among the people. So that's what we know about him.
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And what was the accusation against him? I've already mentioned this. Blasphemed against Moses and even God. We think of blasphemy primarily as just being against God. If you speak against someone that's not as big a deal to us but you can actually blaspheme against someone and especially against Moses.
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I don't know if any of you have been in the fellowship hall today but there are three continuous sheets of there are 25 sheets of paper that are taped together hanging on the wall. It's the six thirteen laws that the Jews attempted to follow each day. That was the the law, the law of Moses and they're hanging up in there just kind of as a visual image for Carl's sermon Monday night. To speak against the law of Moses is one of the things on that list either to speak against the law of Moses or speaking against God is blasphemy. And I already read the other parts specifically, he said Jesus would destroy the temple and change the customs.
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That's that was a big offense for them. And the punishment had found guilty for blasphemy against God. It didn't matter if all the other charges could be proven. If that one could be proven, death. Death by stoning into people.
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So the nature of Stephen's sermon, this is more like clustering right now for some reason. The the nature of Stephen's sermon is not really a defense. He does not answer the question on the charge of I did not do this or I did do this or this is why I did that. He doesn't do that. He gives a sermon instead of a defense.
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It reminds me of Peter because Peter whenever he had the opportunity, in fact one of the couple chapters back, Peter recognizing the opportunity stood up and began to preach and then a few verses later said and he went on for a long time. This is not like Peter's sermon at Pentecost. He does not mention Jesus by name. He doesn't mention him at all until the end. When he mentions him, he calls him the righteous one and he mentions the Messiah, but he does not call him by name.
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There's no mention of the resurrection throughout the speech. The guys who are in charge, you remember me standing over here and said they're far to the left. They are the Sanhedrin. They are mostly sadducees. They're mostly liberal theologians and they don't believe in the resurrection.
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They don't believe in a personal God that intervenes and lies. So since they believe that and they're the ones that are in charge religiously speaking, they don't wanna have anything, any talk of the resurrection. That's why they blogged and beat and jailed Peter and John. God's still seven three. It's not a verse by verse exegesis to drawing out the drawing out of scripture, drawing out the truth.
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It's not a verse by verse one, it was a big picture sermon. So the verse by verse exegesis say in Acts two where Peter says, the guy goes, these people are drunk after the coming of the Holy Spirit because no no no, they're not drunk. Joel two says this is gonna happen and then he shows exactly how it is happening. It's verse by verse. This one is a big picture and it's a long monologue.
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He has all of the good points of a sermon, a good introduction, four points, and then summation and application. Introduction, verse one, the four points, three people in a place, that's what he'd do, maybe alliterative like the Baptist preachers usually do, three people one place and then his summation and application and that's it and it is a long passage. As I go through I'm gonna read a section and then kind of expound just what he's brought to light and then go through. I want you to concentrate though on the three people in the one place and see if you can see the things that he's tying all together especially in front of the people he's in front of the Sanhedrin. So first of all, he starts off well, me start with his introduction.
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I didn't include it in there, but his introduction is great. At a preaching professor, he said, introduction should take more no more than one tenth of your sermon. He doesn't even take that. He takes one sentence and he the the high priest asked Stephen, are these accusations true? Verse one.
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And verse two, this was Stephen's reply. Brothers and fathers, listen to me. Isn't that great? That's his introduction right there. It's respectful brothers and fathers.
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He considers himself a part of that group. He considers himself a part. He is a Jew and he considers them as part of who he is as a religious people. Brothers and fathers, with respect he says, listen to me. I now have the floor.
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You've given me the opportunity. I want to say this. And then he goes into the calling of Abraham. Our glorious God. Now, he's saying our.
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Notice that. Our glorious God. He's including himself with them. Our glorious God appeared to our our ancestor Abraham in Mesopotamia before he settled in Haram. God told him, leave your native land and your relatives and come into the land that I will show you.
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So Abraham left the land of the Chaldeans, lived in Haram until his father died. Then God brought him here to the land where you now live. But God gave him no inheritance here, not even one square foot of land. God did promise, however, that eventually the whole land would belong to Abraham and his descendants even though he had no children yet. God also told him that his descendants would live in a foreign land where they would be oppressed as slaves for four hundred years.
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But I will punish the nation that enslaved when God said, by the way, please pray for Egypt. Right now, they're going through I've I've got some missionary friends who have been in Egypt and they're now in England because it's so dangerous being right there right now. That's where the oppressed land. But I'll punish the nation and enslaves them, God said, and in the end, they will come out and worship me here in this place. God also gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision at that time so when Abraham became the father of Isaac he circumcised him on the eighth day and that practice was continued when Isaac became the father of Jacob and when Jacob became the father of the 12 patriarchs of the Israelite nation.
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So has he said anything so far that anybody in that group would disagree with? No. It's orthodox Jewish history. It is exactly as the old testament says. He brings out certain points though.
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What are the points he brings out? First of all, that God appeared to Abraham where? Was it in Jerusalem? Was it in Israel? Was in Mesopotamia, fourth grade social studies student to know that that's the land between the rivers.
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Titus in the Euphrates, the Fertile Crescent, that's Iraq. It's not Israel. God appeared to him in Mesopotamia. It was not their holy place. God himself appeared to him.
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God himself, his glory appeared to Abraham and Paul tells us later that Abraham believed God and that was what was counted unto him as righteousness and that the just will live by faith. It was meeting with God, not expecting it. God came to him where he was and he told them, leave this place and go to a place that I'll show you himself. And then he makes a point that after he got to Canaan, he remained a pilgrim there. He was just a pilgrim in Canaan.
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He never owned even one square foot there. It would belong to his descendants, but when he was there, was a pilgrim. So he didn't set up shop is what Stephen is saying and that's it. He goes from there, he's made a point, they don't know what it is yet, he's swirling, his debate skills are wonderful, he's getting everybody in agreement, he's making sure that they know I'm following an orthodox line from our father Abraham. So then he goes from there verses nine through 16 says, nine says, these patriarchs were jealous of their brother Joseph and they sold him to be a slave in Egypt but God was with him and rescued him from all his troubles and God gave him favor from, Pharaoh, king of Egypt.
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God also gave Joseph unusual wisdom so that the Pharaoh appointed him governor over all of Egypt and put him in charge of the palace. But famine came upon Egypt and came in. There was great misery and our ancestors, he's still doing it, our ancestors ran out of food. Jacob heard that there was still grain in Egypt, so he sent his sons, our ancestors, our ancestors to buy some. The second time they went, Joseph revealed his identity to his brothers and they were introduced to pharaoh.
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Then Joseph sent for his father Jacob and all of his relatives to come to Egypt, 75 persons in all. So Jacob went into Egypt and he died there. Did he die in the holy place? Did he die in their holy city? Israel?
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Not even in the surrounding area? Judea? No. He died there. Their bodies were taken to Shechem and buried in the tomb Abraham had bought for a certain price for Hammer's sons in Shechem.
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As the time drew near when God would fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of people in Egypt greatly increased. Oh, I'm getting ahead of myself. The abuse of Joseph we see and we see this brought up over and over and over again, the abuse of Joseph. What's he bringing out of this? Joseph found favor with his father.
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I should have a capital f. He found favor with God. He did also find father favor with his earthly father and that's what made his siblings jealous. So he was rejected by his brothers out of jealousy, he was sold into slavery and ultimately through God's design, remember the phrase what you meant for evil God has meant for good. Joseph recognized that ultimately and through God's design, he, Joseph, became their life giving deliverer, their savior.
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Now what is Stephen pointing out about this? He was rejected. He's their life giving savior but he was rejected. This is the path that God has chosen. Next one, see this is not hard to follow.
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Abraham, Joseph, next is Moses. Now this is a long passage 17 through 43. It's scripture and what this says is more important than anything I say about it so I'm going to read it, But it's a long passage and just bear with me. I'll try to interject from here to there to break up the monotony of reading, but seven seventeen through 43 says, as the time drew near when God would fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt greatly increased. Did God say that that would happen?
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Yes. He had already forecast that to Abraham years and years and years before. The number of our people in Egypt increased, but then a new king to the throne of Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph. This king exploited our people and oppressed them, forcing parents to abandon their newborn babies so that they would die. At that time, Moses was born.
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Now who was he accused of speaking against? Moses. The law of Moses. Is he showing respect for Moses so far? It's all orthodox Jewish history.
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He hasn't said anything about. At that time, Moses was born. If he were gonna blaspheme him, now is a good time. But what he says is a beautiful child in God's eyes. His parents cared for him at home for three months and when they had to abandon him, you remember that story from Sunday school?
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The little reed basket covered in pitch set out afloat along the Nile, Pharaoh's daughter sees him and she takes compassion on him. It says, when they had to abandon him, Pharaoh's daughter adopted him and raised him as her own son. Moses was taught all the wisdom of the Egyptians and he was powerful in both speech and action. Is he speaking against Moses? No.
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All the Sanhedrin sitting there. One day when Moses was 40 years old, he decided to visit his relatives, the people of Israel. He saw an Egyptian mistreating an Israelite. So Moses came to the man's defense and avenged him, killing the Egyptian. Moses assumed, this is a very key verse, Moses assumed his fellow Israelites would realize that God had sent him to rescue them, but they didn't.
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Are you getting Stephen's point? The next day he visited them again and saw two men of Israel fighting. He tried to be a peacemaker. Man, he said, your brothers, why aren't you fighting each other? But the man in the wrong, not the man in the right, the man in the wrong pushed Moses aside.
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Who made you a ruler and judge over us? He asked, are you gonna kill me like you did the Egyptian yesterday? When Moses heard that, he fled the country and lived as a foreigner in the land of Midian. And think about this, this was before the thou shalt not kill. This was before the law had been given to Moses.
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You're gonna kill me like that you did the addiction yesterday? And Moses was stricken by it. Can't believe I did that. And so he runs away from the situation which is by God's design. He lived how?
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As a foreigner in the land of Midian. He left one place that's outside of Israel to go to a different place that's outside of Israel. There his two sons were born. Forty years later in the desert near Mount Sinai, an angel appeared to Moses in the flame of a burning bush. And when Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight.
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As he went to take a closer look, the voice of the Lord called out to him. I'm the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Moses shook with terror and did not dare to look. Then the Lord said to him, take off your sandals for you're standing on holy ground. I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt and have heard their groans and have come down to rescue them.
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Now go for I'm sending you back to Egypt. So God sent back the same man as people have previous rejected and they demanded, who made you a ruler and judge over us? Through the angel who appeared to him in the burning bush, through the angel that had appeared to him in the burning bush, God sent Moses to be their ruler and their savior. And by means of many wonders and miraculous signs, what has Stephen just been doing? What got him into this particular situation in the first place?
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He had been doing miraculous signs and wonders. He was doing them in Jesus name. But he was doing miraculous signs and wonders and he was being persecuted for that very fact and he's calling attention right now to the fact that by many means and wonders and miraculous signs, he led them out of Egypt through the Red Sea and through the wilderness for forty years. Moses himself told the people of Israel, God will raise up a prophet like me, capital p, prophet, that's pointing towards the Messiah. Like me, from among your own people.
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Moses was with our ancestors, the assembly of God's people in the wilderness. When the angel spoke to him at Sinai and there Moses received life given words to pass on to us. And this, he's starting to tighten the noose a little bit in his debate. But our ancestors refused to listen to Moses. They rejected him.
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He's still saying our. Our ancestors refused. They rejected him and wanted to return to Egypt. They told Aaron, make us some gods who can lead us but we don't know what has become of this Moses who brought us out of Egypt. So they made an idol shaped like a calf and they sacrificed to him, celebrated over everything that they've made.
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Is there anything he said so far that's not something that they would have agreed with? Nothing. Can they see a pattern of what he's pointing towards? I think they're starting to see it. The calling and rejection of Moses.
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Let's go on. Big God turned away from them and abandoned them to serve the stars of heaven as their gods in the book of the prophets is written. This is the first scripture quotation that he does. It's from the book of Amos. Was it to me you were bringing sacrifices and offerings during those forty years in the wilderness, Israel?
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No. You carried your pagan gods, the shrine of Molech, the star of your God, Raphan, and the images you made to worship them. So I will send you into exile as far away as Babylon. He makes a modification there about the Babylon part because of who he's speaking to. Our ancestors, this is the next part, the carrying of the tabernacle, that'll be the next slide, that's the place.
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So the three people, it's a long section about Moses, what does he bring out? Seeking to help them, Moses was rejected by the Israelites. Does that sound like anybody else we know? Yes. Appeared to Moses when he was in Mideon, not in Israel, not in Jerusalem, not in that temple.
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Moses did become their deliverer and he led them out of Egypt and then he was rejected again and again. So where's God's house? We've had the three people. We've got Abraham, we've got Joseph, we've got Moses. He's kind of answering the charges that he has great respect for Moses but he's pointing out some things along the way about Israel as a people.
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44 through 50, Says David found favor hold on a second, 44. Our ancestors carried the tabernacle with them through the wilderness. It was constructed according to the plan God had shown to Moses. Still giving honor to Moses. Years later, when Joshua led our ancestors into battle against the nations, our ancestors, that God drove out of this land, the tabernacle was taken with them into their new territory and it stayed there until the time of King David.
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God's symbolic presence was in the tabernacle and they carried it with them wherever they went. That's significant. David found favor with God and asked the privilege of building a permanent temple for the God of Jacob. Y'all remember that? He didn't allow him to do it because he said he was a man of war and had blood on his hands.
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He did allow for Solomon to build it. It was Solomon who actually built it. However, Steven points out, the most high doesn't live in temples made by human hands and he uses scriptural backing as the prophet Isaiah sixty six one and two says, heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. Can you build me a temple as good as that? Asked the Lord.
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Could you build me such a resting place? Didn't my hands make both heaven and earth? So does he have God's house When I asked you at the beginning, what is the location of your religion? Where is it that God lives? The tabernacle was his portable home, but it was symbolic.
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It was to be taken with God's people everywhere they went. When they were carrying that tabernacle, they had a pillar of smoke also or a column of fire to follow. It was taken with them wherever they went. It was with them in their desert wanderings. It was with them throughout all the way up to David's time.
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And then Solomon built that temple. Now Solomon built the temple and it was destroyed and it was rebuilt and then Herod had added to it and added a layer of gold over it and it became their cultural place. Their the locus of Judaism in the first century was all about the temple. It had gotten to the point where it wasn't about the presence of God, it was about the place. What is your place?
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What is the place that you've got set up in such a strong way in your mind right now that that's the place you have to do it? That's the place that you meet God. Is it this cross? Is it this building? Is there something that you tie the presence of God to?
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Stephen is going from there. His summation and application now he's got been saying things that all of them would have to agree with so far and then when he gets to the very end of this section it is a razor sharp application. Great preacher, able to just put it to you and say this is it right here. If you hadn't gotten it so far tied up where it actually touches your heart, razor sharp. He moved at that point from shared history into you people mode.
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You all know what you people mode is? We were talking on the way back last night somewhere between Cody and the park or somewhere when we were riding back from Montana and Tanya and I were saying and Aaron will say that when you live in a foreign land a lot of times you wanna I'm thinking in Spanish. You wanna get yourself into the place. You wanna be culturally like those people and that's the way that you want God to carry the gospel to them is by you being a bridge and you get there and it's our people. Oh yeah, we love the models, we love all this, we get really into it.
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When we were in Mexico we did this boat but I think the most specific example. The way culturally that animals are treated in Mexico is very different than the way it is on this side of the Rio Grande. And Tanya, before she moved down was a veterinary technician, she has a great respect for animals not to the point of the being the worship of them, but she definitely loves animals and wants to take care of dominion like God intended it. But a lot of people just don't care and the poverty is so great that they don't take care of the animals very well in the neighborhood where we live. And so one day when we were tired and frustrated I'm sure Tanya says she slipped into you people mother where you go, you people, these people.
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It's the place where Adam says this woman you gave me instead of saying my lovely wife, it's part of me. This helpmate, this woman, you people, these people. When you slip into you people mode, usually it's a time where you need to go on a missionary retreat. You people mode is a dangerous place, But in this particular case, I mean, he's pointing the finger at you people. He is gonna stop saying our ancestors because the just will walk by faith.
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When he looks back at Abraham, he identifies with Abraham. He identifies with Joseph. He identifies with Moses. And so in his application, these are all gonna come up at once because he's hit them all at once. You people are resisting the Holy Spirit.
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Listen to this. You stubborn people. Actually, the Greek says stiff necked. Stiff necked is what Moses always called those Israelites that were not listening. You stiff necked people.
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You are heathen at heart, uncircumcised in your heart literally and deaf to the truth. Must you forever resist the Holy Spirit? That's what your ancestors did and so do you. Tell us what you really feel, Steven. Name one prophet your ancestors didn't persecute.
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They even killed the ones who predicted the coming of the righteous one, the messiah whom you betrayed and murdered. You deliberately disobeyed God's law even though you received it from the hands of angels. You people are resisting the Holy Spirit. You people persecuting the prophets like you always have. You people are breaking the law of Moses just like you always have.
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And then there's an aftermath that follows. And most of the time when we think of Stephen, we think of his martyrdom and we think of this part. Oh yes, Stephen. He was stoned. We don't think about that impassioned sermon, not really a defense.
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He didn't care what happened, the aftermath. So the aftermath for the leaders of the Sanhedrin, that infuriated leaders, the Jewish leaders were infuriated by Steven's accusation. They shook their fist at him in range. That's a very dynamic translation. That's not what it says.
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It says, they ground their teeth at him. They gnashed their teeth. It is like mister Wilson and Dennis the Minutes. Anger. The infuriated leaders mashed their teeth against Stephen.
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They shook their fist at him but Stephen, let's go on and just read this, they wail and cover their ears, They rush him. They drag him out of the city and they stoned him and they took off their coats and they laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul. This will be very important over the next couple of chapters. It does not say that Saul took part and threw a stone at him. It says that all these guys in their athleticism took the stone and started throwing them and they laid their feet at laid it at their feet, the coats feet of Saul.
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And it says, the next chapter says, and Saul was approving of their actions that he didn't throw anything. So that's the aftermath for the leaders. They kill him. They're angry. They wail and cover theirs.
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Can you imagine gnashing your teeth and screaming all the through the shit of her ears so you can't hear? They're doing all of those things at the same time and then they're rushing. This is not the measured response of a Sanhedrin political body where they're sitting there and they're thinking, well, he didn't mention lives. And do They're to The aftermath for Stephen, he was full of the Holy Spirit. Listen to this.
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The Jewish leaders were infuriated by Stephen's accusation and they shook their fist at him in rage. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed steadily into heaven and saw the glory of God. He saw Jesus standing in the place of honor at God's right hand. I told you I read everything about this and that I could get my hands on in the commentaries. There are lots of disagreement about why Jesus was standing up instead of seated at the right hand of God.
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I prefer to believe that I think that this is reasonable that he was standing up to welcome Stephen home. And he told them, look, I see the heavens opened up and the son of man is standing in the place of honor at God's right hand. And they put their hands over their ears and they began shouting. They rushed him, dragged him out of the city began to stone him his accusers took off their coats and laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul and they stoned him but this is for Stephen he recites a Jewish bedtime prayer y'all know now I lay me down to sleep I clothe, pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to death.
40:57
That's a it's our adaptation of an old Jewish bedtime prayer. And the one in Judaism is that entrusting their soul to father God. God is one. Steven, while he's being stoned, makes his final point. He recites that old Jewish bedtime prayer with one modification.
41:17
Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And then just like a savior, he prays for God's mercy upon all those who were stoned in him. That's wonderful. If you look back at Moses when he came down from Sinai, he'd been given God's law and he finds the people doing what they've been doing. His face shown like an angel.
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Chapter six verse 15 says, and all of the Sanhedrin were looking at him intently because his face shown like that of an angel. The aftermath for the leaders was anger and then cover up as best they could but this is the unleashing. For Stephen, he saw the glory of God and he got to go home that day to be with Jesus. That's it. That's that's the end.
42:04
The first service, we ended the song with a song called enough. That's enough. God is good. That's a long long speech, but he went through all of their history that they could not deny to point out that they're still not walking the walk of faith. It is an act of conscious will.
42:20
You can know all of this and still deny. So Scott I want to invite you back up. We're gonna sing one more hymn, I surrender all page five ninety six and the altar is open if you'd like to come forward. I know that that was pretty, classroom today but I want you to look at everything that he said and then I want you to consider this, God does not live in a specific place. He does not live in this building because this cross is here.
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He does not live in just in Rome, just in Mecca, just in the den. He lives everywhere. He is omnipresent and you as a Christian are able to take him with you like that tabernacle with a lot less trouble. Everywhere you go, living in your heart. He's writing his law on your heart.
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So let's sing five ninety six. Would you stand with us, please? Amen. I said I would come back to this. I'm coming back to it for the benediction.
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Lord, prepare me to be a sanctuary. Pure and holy, tried and true. With thanksgiving, I'll be a living sanctuary for you. That's where God lives. He is in the sanctuary of our heart.
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In Jesus name, bless you and have a good week. Amen. And you? Well, Okay. You have to get it.
58:37
Ray?
1:23:31
Pascal, I'm sorry you're moping. I was not I was not upset with you. I thought that you did listen. I thought you did a great job when I told you that. I realized that that was an engineering thing, and it looked really good, but it was dangerous for somebody else that would come along later.
1:23:44
It was. You don't understand it. Have you ever fallen off of anything like that? I have. If someone falls out there, the Boy Scouts tent, that little Boy Scouts hut, it belongs to the Boy Scouts, not the church.
1:23:59
The one that belongs to us and then those things stacked between, that is dangerous. It's not your stuff to deal with. It's the Boy Scouts. All those things that y'all drag out and never put back, all those things belong to the Boy Scouts, not to us. It's fun for y'all.
1:24:15
If you put them back, then that's okay. You put that up there, it's dangerous. I can't say it enough times. You cannot leave it like that, and that's why I took it down. If it weren't dangerous and didn't belong to anyone, I would not have moved it.
1:24:36
But I made the decision to move it, and I did. Period. That's the decision. There it goes. When you brought your computer in the other day, did you bring the computer back?
1:25:15
Where did you bring it? I've got it right here. It was in but I didn't have your computer back. I don't know where it is.
1:25:22
It was right here. Nope.
1:25:24
It wasn't right here.
1:25:25
Yes. It was.
1:25:26
No. It wasn't. I put this in my purse right here. It it wasn't. And I don't have the keys to get into the closet right now.
1:25:37
Well, I didn't put it in the closet.
1:25:49
Where when is the Polo match? And is it the stomping the divots for the Jackson Hole therapeutic riding? Is that what it is? Examine why you're angry. And then think about, I don't know, Aria or maybe Anika or Kaya.
1:26:25
Somebody tempts them to take that ladder and get on top of that building when nobody's paying attention, and they do. And then they try to walk across that bridge, and then they fall and they break their arm. Or they land on their face, and they have scars for the rest of their life right there on their face because you wanted to just play that game and not listen to your daddy. Hello? Hey.
1:26:59
You need some help? Okay.
1:27:08
Oh, I I didn't, but I still have some stuff in
1:27:11
the van and everything. So how long are you gonna be out of the truck before you head out?
1:27:24
Okay. Alright. Okay. Alright. Well, I was I was hoping to yeah.
1:27:32
I was hoping to get my I was hoping to
1:27:34
get my bike. I wanted to ride a little bit.
1:27:39
Yep. Yeah. Well, I was I'll I'll get
1:27:54
it back in probably this evening when Tanya goes out to work. I'd probably do that. So alrighty. Well, thank you. I'll just see you out at the chauffeur.
1:28:01
Or if not, I'll give you a call and you'll know not to expect me. Okay? Alright. Thank you. Alright.
1:28:07
Bye bye.
1:28:11
I just I wanna get the car back sooner rather than later. You do or you don't? Yes. I do. Hope I put that thing in there.
