God Is Bigger Than the Box You Put Him In
First B Jackson
2025-01-05

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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You know how you do it? Just know that you do it.

Oh,

man. You guys probably wondered what

did we get ourselves into? Check. Check. Alright. Good morning, everybody.

Happy New Year. How are we doing this morning? How about this? Would you stand with me? I'd love to worship together in song, an encouraging room, word from Psalm 84 this morning to lead us into worship.

It's for the Lord God is our son, and he is our shield. He gives grace, and he gives glory. Would you join us in singing? This is amazing grace.

Amen. We've got a few announcements. Y'all can have a seat and let's see what they are. New spate, Teton Valley, Idaho. Teton Valley, Idaho fellowship starting up Friday of the month, starting in January.

So second Friday of the month. For any details, would you talk to Emily? Would you stand for just a second? Wave your hand around. That's Emily Anderson if you wanna know more.

If you're coming across the hill or if you wanna go across the hill to go to this fellowship, you are welcome. Teton Valley Idaho fellowship. Jackson Hole Men's Alliance meets the first Wednesday of the month at 06:30 in the morning. It's meeting January 8, which is this Wednesday morning. Right?

Early in the morning. Yeah. January 8. That's great. So that's happening.

Jackson Hole Men's Alliance, 06:30AM. It'll be breakfast and then some sort of testimony speaking up. That's good. JH Women's Community Bible Study is starting up also on January 8. It won't be meeting here this time around.

It's gonna be meeting at Gateway Church, ten to twelve, so 10AM to twelve noon. Nehemiah Rebuilding Together is the way and there is if you wanna register JH Women's Bible Study. And I think that that's

We got one more too.

We got one.

Iwana is back on tomorrow.

Iwana is on tomorrow.

Iwana 05:45. It's PJ night.

Pajama night. Oh, fantastic.

Wear your comfiest pajamas.

That's right.

And Mike's making chicken tacos for for leaders.

That sounds good. Glad to have you back. Carl, would you all stand with us and we'll continue worshiping in song.

His son not sparing, sent him to die. I spears continue. Let on that cross, my burden gladly bearing be

And God, we want to not just sing it, but say it. Lord, you are truly great and wonderful. And could we just for a moment quiet our hearts and our minds and just think on the the greatness and the grandeur of you? Lord, it doesn't take much around here. We can actually stand on that lofty mountain grandeur and look down and say, wow.

That's your handiwork. We're just in awe of you, God. We want to sing it. We want to say it, and sing God with gratitude this morning. In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Daily, daily, surrender. Daily, I surrender. Grace for today is all that I need. Surprised by a mercy that's new every morning. Awaken my soul the same.

Awaken my soul the same. And I will trust where you lead. And I will trust I

Good news from the song here and this is what God does. It says, I'll instruct you and teach you in the way that you should go. If you're wondering this morning, I don't know which way to go. I don't know where to go from here. Well, let's look up.

He's saying, will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go, and I'll counsel you with what? My loving eye on you. God, thank you for your counsel and for your instruction, and God, thank you most for your loving eye on us. Lord, would we see that today, God, your great love, mercy and compassion for us Lord and that we would look to you in Jesus name. Amen.

A thousand generations falling down worship, sing a song of ages to the man. And all have gone before us, and all who will believe, sing a song of ages

Amen. And

you can have a seat here for a

moment.

This is the worship through giving part of the service. I'll invite our ushers to come on forward. We're gonna sing a new song to us called Honey in the Rock. If you're going, what does that mean? From Psalm 81, this is God speaking to Israel as their provider and their deliverer in spite of their wanderings.

And he says this, but I would feed you from the finest wheat, and I would satisfy you with the wild honey from the rock. It's a metaphor about the abundance and sweetness of God's blessing. So that's where it comes from. That's why we're singing it. And before we sing, Ray, may I ask you to pray?

Sure. God, thank you. That there is such sweetness. Taste and see that the Lord is good. For those of us, Lord, who have tasted of it, I pray that you'd give us the ability to comprehend and articulate it.

I think oftentimes of to teach in a university, you just have to be one degree ahead of your students, Lord. Being someone who has been redeemed and knowing what that tastes like, knowing what that feels like, knowing what that feels like, Lord. We're just one step ahead. Would you use us to share your word to a world that still is without hope? They don't know you.

God, would you use us to advance your good gospel in the way that we live our lives, the way we use our words. I pray, Lord, that you'd impress it upon us that you are as we have sung over and over today, good, that you are so good. Lord, would you show us the way forward? We we cast all upon you. Would you take these offerings, Lord, and use them to do your will and your way among us, Lord, but through us to to those who do not yet know, Jesus.

It's in his name, that we pray, and we're thankful to gather as a body. Amen.

Living world. Only you can satisfy. Sweetness at the mercy seat. Now with taste

for children's church down stairs. Starting up right now. Alright. Last week last week, I admitted to just limping into this new year and I feel so much better. Thank you all for praying.

I appreciate it so much. We're gonna be picking up right where we left off. Actually, I introduced I read through the end of chapter six last week, but I'll use the end of chapter six to ramp up. We're gonna cover a whole chapter of Acts. This is the longest speech.

It's the longest sermon in Acts from anybody. And it's from Stephen who was one of the deacons, probably the most prominent we'd say of the deacons. And so here we go. Stephen, this is what we know about him. A man full of God's grace.

He was full of God's grace. He had received from God's unmerited favor, and he was so full of it. He was spilling over onto other people. He was full of God's grace, unmerited favor, and it was spilling onto people in the form of power, and he performed many amazing miracles and signs among the people. But because of that, have I how many times have I mentioned?

Anytime you undertake to do something great for the kingdom of God and God begins to use you, you will receive opposition. It happens. So one day, some men from the Synagogue of Freed Slaves, as it was called, started to debate with him. Now, were Jews, and they were from Cyrene, and from Alexandria, and Cilicia. Cilicia is kind of I think it's important here, because Cilicia is where Tarsus is, and it's where Paul was from.

And so chances that Paul is not just present, and we're going to see in this next chapter, but maybe even present right here, is is quite possible. They were Jews devout from Cyrene, Alexandria, Cilicia, and the province of Asia. That clicker is not clicking. There it goes. And none of them could stand against the wisdom and the spirit with which Stephen spoke.

Now, when you hit that place with somebody, like, goodness gracious, nothing we say phases this guy. He's able to get through it. He's able to get over it. He's able to get around it. He's debated enough that we just don't hold a candle to him.

None of them could stand against the wisdom and the spirit with which Stephen spoke. So what do we know about him? Well, from his name, it's a Greek name. Chances are, your mom and daddy give you the name of the culture that you're in usually. So he's a Hellenistic Jewish believer.

He was chosen when last week we saw that the apostles considered the merits of the murmuring among the Hellenistic believers that their widows had been overlooked in the distribution. And so, you all choose from among yourself, they chose seven people, the deacons, seven men, Greek names. He's Hellenistic Jewish believer. Born Jewish, but probably identified more culturally as Greek. We'll see that come up, I think, multiple times today.

He's well respected in the community. He's full of the Holy Spirit, it says that twice. He's full of wisdom and skilled in debate. It's already said that a couple times. He's full of God's grace, unmerited favor, and his power, which is both authority.

In English, it's authority and the ability to get something done. Dunamis is what it is here. So he's displaying God's power, and God has recently used him to do amazing miracles and signs among the people in the temple, like in the outskirts of the temple, Solomon's colonnade all around Jerusalem. And so, when they couldn't best him in debate, they persuaded some men to lie about him saying, we have heard him blaspheme Moses and even God. Now, he may have been challenging their idea of Moses and he may have been challenging their ideas about God, but was he blaspheming?

Well, this roused the people. It says not just the leaders. So this time around, we've seen the apostles brought in before the Sanhedrin a couple of different times, and we've seen how the people were on their side. But this says, in Stephen's case, the people are against him, the elders and the teachers of the religious law. So they arrested Stephen, they brought him before the high council, same scene, Sanhedrin, 71 folks, they're gathered and before this panel, the lying witnesses said, this man is always speaking against the holy temple, which is where they were.

Okay? And they had developed a certain religious awe for the temple that probably needed challenging. It was a sacred I don't wanna say sacred cow, but it was a sacred issue for them. The lying witnesses said, this man's always speaking against the holy temple. He's always against the law of Moses.

We've heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy the temple and change the customs that Moses handed down to us. Did Jesus say he was gonna destroy the temple? No. He did say it would be brought down. He didn't say he was gonna do it.

He didn't say his followers were gonna do it. In fact, his followers didn't do it. But it did come down. We've heard him say this. So two things, against the holy temple, against the law of Moses, it's a kind of a parallelism here.

It says, to destroy the temple, he speaks against it and he's talking about destroying it, and to change the customs that Moses handed down to us. We have our traditions and can you all hear the Fiddler on the Roof song? Tradition. It comes up so often. We don't want for anybody change the way we do things.

We just don't want for that to be the case. So what was the accusation against Stephen that he blasphemed against Moses and even God? It says that earlier that he blasphemed against Moses and even God. It says so in the text, that's what they said about him, and that he continually speaks against the holy temple and against the law of Moses, and more specifically said that Jesus will destroy this temple and he didn't say that. Jesus didn't say that.

We don't I don't believe that Stephen ever said that either. But what was the punishment if he was found guilty? Of those charges, just on the charge of blasphemy alone, the the sentence is death. And so something it's it's a big deal. It's not like he's gonna get a few lashes, be thrown in jail, even the public jail for a little while.

No. It's death and he knows it and they know it. And at this point, it says, everyone in the high council stared at Stephen. Every eye in the place was on him. And you might go, well, it's a heightened courtroom type scene, but it says in the next line why they were all staring at him.

Because his face became as bright as an angel's. I being Baptist most of my life, hit this place and I just think, I'm gonna skip that. But think for just a moment, if I were standing up here and I'm and then all of a sudden my face began to glow, like we've all seen movies, we've all seen stuff. This is not they had not been to IMAX Theater. They had not seen the glowing CGI of explosions and all this sort of stuff.

But when somebody's face begins to become as bright as an angel's, I think you stare at them. And I think you pay attention to them, especially when what they're saying is he's it's already harkened back to Moses three different times. And what was Moses' main thing that we all know about Moses when he came down from the mountain? His face shone as bright as an angel when you see Renaissance depictions of Moses. Usually, you see things coming out of his forehead.

They're not horns. Okay? They're beams. It's to show that there are beams of light shining from this guy's face, and you should listen to him. Okay.

I just didn't want to skip it because his face became as bright as an angel's. Every eye in the place is zoomed in on him. And the high priest, Caiaphas probably, he served till '36. This is well within that time period. Caiaphas, the high priest asked Stephen, are these accusations true?

That's what he wants to know. Because if true, then you deserve death. If they're not true, then we need to do a little bit more study and figure out what's going on. We need to come together. So are these accusations true?

And this was Stephen's reply, brothers and fathers. That's showing them respect. It's not stomping your foot and saying, y'all don't know what you're talking about. Brothers and fathers, it's an appeal saying, we're on we are supposed to be on the same side. Brothers and fathers, here we are together.

Listen to me, and the listen to me is emphatic. Pay attention. I've got something to say. Listen to me. And to answer the charges, our glorious God appeared to our ancestor, Abraham in Mesopotamia.

It wasn't here. This holy hill, and this holy temple, and this holy place where you've built up, this is the absolute center of everything. He appeared to Abraham in Mesopotamia, a foreign land. Before Abraham ever settled in Haran, which was nearer to them. And God told him, you Abraham, leave your native land, leave your relatives and come into the land that I will show you.

Trust me basically is what God was saying. And we see in Paul that Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. Well, God told him leave your native land and your relatives and come into the land that I'll show you and so Abraham left. He believed God and he trusted him and he left the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. It actually, Stephen could have gone on further and said, he even went into a Hittite treaty with him.

He settled the covenant promise with something that Abraham would have understand from the land of Chaldees, from his land. God chose him inexplicably, we don't even know why, but Abraham believed God. And we do know why it was counted to him as righteousness because he trusted him, he believed him. So Abraham left the land of the Chaldeans, he lived in Haran until his father died and then God brought him here to the land where you now live. But he's saying, God is bigger.

Can you hear that already? God is bigger than you have put him in a box, a literal box you call the temple. Right? Abraham left the land of the Chaldeans, lived in Haran until his father died. Then God brought him here to the land where you now live.

Now, his defense so far is not, no I didn't say any of that stuff. It's not a defense in the same way that Peter's defense was a defense for the charges. Twice now, we've already seen it. Stephen's is more of, I'm gonna show you how orthodox I am. We agree on these things and he starts with father Abraham.

That's a good place to start. God gave him no inheritance here though. Did you recognize that Abraham is sacred as you think this place is? God didn't give him an inheritance here, not even one square foot of land. God did promise him however that eventually the whole land would belong to Abraham and to his descendants even though he didn't even have any children yet.

God had made a promise to Abraham and Abraham believed it, but he didn't immediately just get this place. God also told him that his descendants would live in a foreign land where they would be oppressed as slaves for four hundred years. But, I will punish the nation that enslaves them, God said, and in the end, they'll come out and they'll worship me back here in this place. So God has prophesied through he's directly spoke to Abraham, actually the way he presents this. He just met him where he was in Mesopotamia and said, trust me, come with me, I'll take you to this place.

And as he was going in Genesis 15, you're gonna be enslaved. Your people are gonna be enslaved for four hundred years. It's it's a long time. So God also gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision at that time. He gave him the covenant before he even had kids.

So when Abraham became the father of Isaac, he circumcised him on the eighth day and if you were someone who was in disagreement about the law of Moses, this might be a place where you would differ. But Stephen says, I'm fine with that. I'm good with that. I I know the sign of the covenant and it started with Abraham before he had kids, and he circumcised Isaac, the child of promise on the eighth day, and the practice was continued when Isaac became the father of Jacob. Oh, your God and my God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

He's demonstrating that he understands and he's right there. The practice was continued when Isaac became the father of Jacob, and when Jacob became the father of the 12 patriarchs of Israelite nation, these patriarchs were jealous of their brother Joseph. Okay. He's gonna go through three people in one place. Okay?

Three people in one place in his defense or in his sermon, the longest sermon in the book of Acts. These patriarchs were jealous of their brother Joseph. Now, he's already talked about Abraham being called when he was outside of this place. It's not specifically, this is the only holy place that there is. There were some holy places.

The patriarchs were jealous of their brother Joseph, and they sold him to be a slave in Egypt, but God was with him and God rescued him from all of his troubles. Oh, what a beautiful statement that what they meant for evil, God meant for good and God gave him favor even before Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. And God also gave Joseph unusual wisdom, full of grace, full of wisdom. Such that Pharaoh appointed Joseph to be governor over all of Egypt and put him in charge of the palace. Now, is one of your forebears, this is one of your fathers, this is one of our ancestors together and look at that, he was rejected.

He was the one that was favored by God in many ways, and yet his brothers rejected him out of hand. So Abraham received from God a direct message while he was in Mesopotamia, outsider. Joseph sold into slavery, but becomes as an outsider. He's raised up by God within, well, pagan place. He never forgets.

But a famine came upon Egypt and upon Canaan and there was great misery and our ancestors ran out of food. And Jacob heard that there was still grain in Egypt, so he sent his sons, our ancestors, mind you, to buy some. They were going outside of this place, this little holy place. They're going outside of here to go buy some. The second time they went, Joseph revealed his identity to his brothers and they were introduced to pharaoh.

Wow. So far, I I was trying to think of how to present this. Basically, Stephen's message is like one side of a telephone conversation, and he's saying things, and then on the other side of the line, everybody's sitting there staring at his bright face going, uh-huh. Uh-huh. He has said nothing disagreeable so far.

Yep. We're with you. Yes. We know that. Uh-huh.

Second time they went, Joseph revealed his identity to his brothers and they were introduced to pharaoh, and then Joseph sent for his father Jacob. I don't want to do this without his whole family. So all of his relatives come to Egypt, 75 persons in all. So Jacob went to Egypt and he died there. He didn't die in this little holy place.

This this was Okay. Before the law. Okay. This is before the law of Moses. He's going transcendent.

He's going bigger picture than what he was accused of. So Jacob went to Egypt. He died there as did our ancestors, and their bodies were taken to Shechem. Shechem, where is Shechem? Okay.

Little bitty map. It's a little bigger. Shechem is in basically Samaria. It's between Jerusalem and Galilee. You know the place where these guys, when they came from the feast, they're up here above Capernaum, Sea Of Galilee, they would walk the whole of the Jordan River and then walk uphill like walking up the pass at the bottom instead of walking through Samaria because it's an unholy place.

Shechem. Shechem is a holy place because Abraham's buried there, but it's not in Jerusalem. It's not right here in the temple. As the time drew near when God would fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt greatly increased. But then, a new king came to the throne of Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph.

Isn't that sad? All of that clout he had built up and then a new administration comes on and it's just chucked out the window. Here it is, Exodus 18 Exodus one eight, I'm sorry. Now a new king rose over Egypt who did not know Joseph. And he said to his people, behold, the people of the sons of Israel more and mightier than we.

They have grown so much in this captivity. Come, let us deal wisely with them or else they'll multiply in the event of war, they would overtake us. They will join themselves to those who hate us and fight against us and depart from the land. So they appointed taskmasters over them to afflict them on purpose with hard labor and they built pharaoh's storage cities, Pithom and Ramses. Yeah.

It's confirmed his speech and acts are saying, uh-huh. Uh-huh. Yeah. We're with you still. This king exploited our people.

They sure did. We've always been exploited. Yep. And oppressed them. Yep.

Forcing parents to abandon their newborn babies so that they would die. Yeah. That's horrible. Actually, God of Molech, which is going to be mentioned in the text was about that, child sacrifice and not worrying too much about killing babies. At that time Moses was born.

Uh-huh. He was a beautiful child in God's eyes. That he was. His parents cared for him at home for three months, and when they had to abandon him because it was the law of the land, Pharaoh's daughter adopted him and raised him as her own son. Now, downstairs, miss Crystal may be teaching this very lesson.

We all know this is the story about Moses, know. Moses was taught all the wisdom of the Egyptians, worldly wisdom but wisdom, and he was powerful in both speech and action. Is that what you think of when you think of Moses? I think of him stammering at the at the burning bush. But he was fairly full of confidence that this place had been raised in the royal court and they're all like in agreement with that still.

Yeah. One day when Moses was 40 years old, wow. He decided to visit his relatives, the people of Israel. He knew that he was of Hebrew blood by this point apparently, and he had been sensing that he was supposed to do something, and he saw an Egyptian that was mistreating an Israelite, and so that was kind of the normal course actually, but he saw it happening and so Moses came to the man's defense and avenged him, killing the Egyptian. Moses assumed his fellow Israelites would realize that God had sent him to rescue them.

He'd already been telling him that, but they didn't. Are you hearing this? They're all in agreement with this story. They've had plenty of years to get used to Moses' story. Abraham's called as an outsider, Joseph is an outsider, Moses is called on by God and though he goes in and saves the life of one of his countrymen, that does not cause revolution, that does not cause anybody to say, yeah, lead us out of here Moses.

Nope. They didn't want him. The next day, he visited them again and he saw two men of Israel fighting and he tried to be a peacemaker. Oh, blessed are the peacemakers. Men, he said, y'all are brothers.

Why are you fighting each other? But the man in the wrong pushed Moses aside. Who made you a ruler and judge over us? He asked. Are you going to kill me like you did that Egyptian yesterday?

And upon hearing that, Moses heard that and he fled to the country, and he lived as a foreigner in the land of many. He's rejected by his people and sent away, and it was a long time that he was sent away. That's where he met his wife, that's where he had his kids. Two of his sons were born. Forty years on the backside of Midian.

All of them know this. He hasn't said anything controversial yet. Forty years later in the desert near Mount Sinai. So now, he's 80 years old and God speaks. An angel appeared to Moses in the flame of a burning bush and when Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight and as he went to take a closer look, the voice of the Lord called out to him and said, I'm the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

And Moses shook with terror and did not dare look. His confidence was dashed when what he thought he was supposed to do was not accepted. He was not reject he was rejected and standing before God, he shook with terror. And the Lord said to him, you take off your sandals for where you are standing is on holy ground. Was that in Jerusalem?

It wasn't. It was still an outside place. For you're standing on holy ground, wherever God is, is holy ground. I've certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. It's been forty years since you were there.

I know what it's like. It hadn't gotten any better in forty years. I have heard their groans and I've come down to rescue them. Now you go, for I'm sending you back into Egypt. So God sent back the same man his people had previously rejected when they demanded, who made you a ruler and a judge over us?

Through the angel who appeared to him in the burning bush, God sent Moses to be their ruler and their savior and it says savior to save them from their troubles. And by means of many wonders and miraculous signs, he led them out of Egypt through the Red Sea and through the wilderness for forty years. How many times had Stephen heard that as a Jewish boy growing up? How many times had those leaders led those services that talked so much about the Exodus, the plagues, everything else, the many wonders, the Red Sea? He said, nothing controversial.

Moses himself told the people of Israel, God will raise up for you a capital p prophet like me from among your own people. Deuteronomy eighteen fifteen. The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you. This is in Moses' speech before they enter into the promised land. He says, be looking for this one, the prophet like me from among you, from among your countrymen.

To him, you need to be listening to him. We've already covered this one times in Acts. Peter said the same thing, for Moses said, the Lord your God will raise up for you, a prophet like me from among your own people and y'all must listen to everything he tells you and anyone who does not listen from him will be completely cut off from God's covenant people. This is the second time we've heard this quoted in Acts. Moses was with our ancestors, the assembly of God's people in the wilderness when the angel spoke to him at Mount Sinai.

It was not here in Jerusalem. It wasn't here at this temple. And there, Moses received life giving words to pass on to us. Oh, Torah. We haven't even gotten to the law till just now.

So is he speaking against the law of Moses? He went big picture, and he went way back beyond. Two thousand years to Abraham, and then four hundred years in Egypt, and then in the wilderness is where God gives the law, but our ancestors refused to listen to Moses. He's still saying our ancestors. He's saying this is the way we are.

Do you can you all see that this is the way we are? Our ancestors refused to listen to Moses. They rejected him, and they wanted to return to Egypt. Oh, this food is pitiful. The food was honey in the rock.

The food was manna from heaven they did not have to work for. They didn't even have store it. Thank God, they didn't have to store it. This time of year, storage is the most aggravating thing. Putting the Christmas presents back up.

Oh Lord, could you just provide it when we need it next year? Not presents, the stuff, the decorations. Our ancestors refused to listen to Moses. They rejected him. They wanted to return to Egypt.

They told Aaron, make us some gods while Moses is up on Sinai. They told Aaron, make us some gods who can lead us for we don't know what has become of this Moses. We can't see him. The guy who brought us out of Egypt, we had food in Egypt. You were also slaves in Egypt.

So they made an idol shaped like a calf and they sacrificed to it and they celebrated over this thing that they had made. And then God turned away from them and abandoned them to serve the stars of heaven as their gods. He gave them what they wanted. Oh my goodness. Can you hear echoes in Romans?

Yep. They did not want the leader that God sent, they did not want to follow after him, they complained against him and as soon as he went up to receive a word from God, they rebelled against. In the book of the prophets it's written, was it to me you were bringing sacrifices and offerings during these forty years in the wilderness Israel? Was it to me really? Are you looking back and saying, no, were faithful the whole time.

No. You carried your pagan gods, the shrine of Molech, the star of your God, Ripham, and the images that you made to worship them. You made something with your own hands and you got really excited about it. So I'm going to send you into exile, so far away as Babylon. That's from Isaiah by the way.

And ancestors carried the tabernacle with them through the wilderness. You all remember this? Yeah. Still nothing. Still nothing that they would disagree with.

So our ancestors carried the tabernacle with them through the wilderness and it was constructed according to plan that God had shown to Moses. Years later, when Joshua led our ancestors into battle across the nations, God drove them out of the land, the tabernacle was taken in with him to the new territory and it stayed there until the time of King David, that's a thousand years before Christ. We've deified so much. David found favor with God, was a man after God's own heart. He asked for the privilege of building a permanent temple for the God of Jacob, and God said, no, you're a man of war.

It really shouldn't be you. But it was Solomon who actually built it. However, the most high doesn't live in temples made by human hands. That was acknowledged by Solomon in his speech when he was consecrating the temple. As the prophet says, heaven is my throne, earth is my footstool.

Could you build me a temple as good as that? Ask the Lord, could you build me such a resting place? Didn't my hands make both heaven and earth? Isaiah sixty six one and two, which too goes on to say, I the Lord have spoken and I will bless those who have humble and contrite hearts, those who tremble at my word. That is significant.

He's saying that God is transcendent above all of your religious stuff. You have put so many things ahead of the transcendent God. You have hoarded the blessing. You have rejected just like we always do. We reject the help that God has sent in it.

He's saying it like they were my ancestors too. But will God really live on earth? Solomon says, why? Even the highest heavens can get cannot contain you. How much less this temple that I built?

Even at heart and you're deaf to the truth, you're paying no attention. Must you forever resist the Holy Spirit? That's what your ancestor did and that's what you do. Name one prophet your ancestors didn't persecute, they even killed the ones who predicted the coming of the righteous one. It wasn't just that they killed Messiah Jesus, he says next, the Messiah whom you betrayed and you murdered specifically, everybody ahead of you, all of your forebears resisted every attempt that God made to save them.

You deliberately disobeyed God's law even though you know you received it from the hands of the angels. So his summation application basically is this, you are resisting the Holy Spirit like you always have. You are persecuting the prophets. In his case, that was Stephen. Right?

He's saying this like you always have. You're still breaking the law of Moses. You're trying me right now for this charge and you're doing it right now. So the Jewish leaders were what? Infuriated.

Of course, they were by Stephen's accusation and they shook their fist at him in rage. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, it says again, gazed steadily into heaven. He just gave this the longest speech in the book of Acts and it was pointing out all the ways that God was transcendent and bigger than they had claimed him to be. Stephen full of the Holy Spirit, gaze steadily into heaven. He saw the glory of God and he saw Jesus standing in the place of honor at God's right hand.

It's the only place that we see the resurrected Jesus who is seated at the right hand of God stand up in the New Testament. He stands up and he told them, look, I see the heavens opened up and I see the son of man standing in the place of honor at God's right hand. They all would have known Daniel. They all would have known Daniel's prophecies about the son of man. And he's saying, I've said all of this stuff that I've said and now, I see Jesus standing.

And then, they put their hands over their ears and they began shouting, and they rushed him. They did not want to hear anything else that he had to say, and they dragged him out of the city, and they began to stone him. His accusers took off their coats. They laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul. We'll see him a lot.

And they stoned him. And as they stoned him, Stephen prayed, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. This is actually Most people see this and go, oh, this is a bedtime prayer. It's a bedtime prayer that the Jewish children say before they go to bed. It's now I lay me down to sleep sorta.

I entrust my spirit into your hand, rescue me Lord for you are a faithful God. Now, what he said was Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. It sounds a lot like Jesus on the cross too, doesn't it? Sounds a lot like Jesus on the cross that says, Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit. Same quote from the same Psalm.

And he fell to his knees shouting, Lord, don't charge them with this sin. Doesn't that sound like Jesus too? Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. And with that, Stephen died and Saul, it says was one of the witnesses and he agreed completely with the killing of Stephen. And a great wave of persecution began that day, sweeping over the church in Jerusalem and all of the believers except the apostles were scattered.

They were scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria and didn't it say that that was what was gonna happen. Jesus himself had said, you're gonna be my witnesses and you're gonna do this here and in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and even to the uttermost parts and that is coming to pass but it came to pass after they had clumped up for quite some time, the stoning of Stephen and the diaspora of the Greek speaking Jews. Now, the apostles were all Hebrew speaking Jews and they were probably able to be alright in the midst. But these Greek speaking outsiders, Stephen just made the case as God is a God of the outsiders. God is reaching out to the outsiders.

He's constantly doing that. We're supposed to be a light to the nations. We're supposed to be that. So I'm I'm standing up here, think that I've hit the last slide and we're gonna go into a time of communion right here in the time of the Lord's Supper. And as I know that most of you came here this morning, you came because you're already believers.

I know some of you came because you're still here after college. You hadn't headed back yet. Not really with it but wanna be with mama, whatever. Can we pray? I'll ask the ushers to come forward.

God, would you let us see that you go before us, that you're bigger than our religiosity, that you're bigger than our denominational ties or our specific theological affiliations that we think make sense to us. Will you show us Lord that you are still in the business of saving, that you are all about saving and sanctifying and providing. God, would you allow us the humility to accept the grace that you've offered? Would you allow us the humility to not stand up and say, I've got this all figured out in the face of what you're trying to do with us today? Lord, would you show us your way?

Would you show us your way? Would you allow that? That we would just bend the knee and and like Stephen, able to speak all orthodoxy, but then connect it to Jesus. May we no longer resist your Holy Spirit, Lord. You manage our steps, you manage our stops, you know what you want for us to do from this place forward.

Would you show us Lord what that is? In Jesus name, as we distribute this little cracker as a representation of the body of Christ. I pray Lord that you'd bless everyone that partakes and for those who do not yet trust in you Lord, I pray that you would impress upon them the goodness of God and the gracious gift in Jesus. At the next time, they would. In Jesus name we pray, amen.

I've got one note on communion. These little plastic cups have g f on them. That does not mean girlfriend. It means gluten free. And so the gluten free are plastic cups that have the juice and the wafer in there with them.

If you are gluten free, take one of those and wait for us for the juice part.

Amen. The way said Jesus is gone. How may come to the end of yourself? Do you thirst for and drink from the world? Christ.

Lord, I pray that we see the transcendence in this. For the life that you walked out in absolute submission to the spirit and what you walked out without sin. Lord though, you were insulted and reviled, you did not revile in return. Lord God Almighty, thank you. Jesus on the same night that he was betrayed, he took bread after supper and after you're giving thanks, he broke it and he said, this is my body which is given for you.

Take this and eat of it and do it as often as you will in remembrance of me. Thank you Jesus for fulfilling the law. Thank you Jesus for your willingness to come. Thank you Jesus for your example, and thank you, Jesus, for your innocent voluntarily sacrificed atoning blood. And now as we distribute this little plastic cup of grape juice representative of that blood, I pray Lord that you would in a fresh and new and different way, let us recognize Lord all that that means.

In Jesus name and by his blood, amen.

Where mercy reigns and never dies. There's a place

This is the new covenant in my blood. Take this. Take it in. Drink it. Do it as often as you will in remembrance of me.

Paul tells us later that as often as we do this, we proclaim his death, his sacrificial atoning death until he comes again. Would you stand with us and we're gonna sing what it is that we believe?

God almighty. Through your Holy Spirit, conceiving Christ the son, Jesus

is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy. I dwell in the high and holy place and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit. To revive the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the contrite. God is with those who are humble and God resists those who are proud. Lord, would you use us this week in walking in humility that others may come to know who you are, how you are.

In Jesus name, amen.