Whenever we talk about Legacy, why do people remember about
you? Well, these women God takes time
and the book of Hebrews is full of people.
God says, I want you to remember their faith.
Yes. But we also have scriptures that
talk about remembering somebody's Disobedience to
remember the children of Israel. God, takes time to point out in
the scriptures. He says, now listen, I want you
to remember the children of Israel, how they were
disobedient? It's in the Old Testament as
well and says don't fall like they fell thousands of them in
the wilderness. So now what will be our Legacy?
What will be ours and my legacy tonight?
When people remember us, are they going to be re encouraged?
Are they going to be may be stimulated to Greater devotion?
Or are they going to say, you know, they had so much potential
but they never Taste it. What is going to be said about
us? It's maybe we'll be remembered
for our humor. Maybe we will be remembered for
our cooking. Maybe we want to be remembered
for helping others. Maybe we'll be remembered for
helping our self. You see everything.
We do in this life is creating a memory in someone about us.
And often at funeral services, people will recall.
What is that person? What was really important to
that person. Now, why do I bring this all up
in the Book of Proverbs? And like I said, I am trying to
Skip Along tonight pretty quickly.
So I'm going to ignore some of my notes, but I will tell you to
look at a phrase that's found in the Book of Proverbs often.
The Bible says, in the Book of Proverbs that an unwise person
does not consider the path. Of their feet.
They don't consider their decisions, they don't consider
the impact. Their decisions are going to
have, they don't consider the consequences of their behavior.
And the Bible says that's a sign of an unwise person and unwise
person, a harlot. Even it says in that does not
Ponder the path of their feet but it says it goes on and other
passages to say the righteous do Ponder the path of their feet.
Now that's what they're talking about.
In other words, Those who are wise and I'm taking that
tonight, that's everybody young and old.
That we need to ponder what kind of consequences are decisions
are going to have, you know, whatever I was in school being
young. And sometimes being a little
naive, we talked about careers. And, and whether we could be
Christians and have certain types of careers.
I was really into music in school and I pondered the fact
of whether I could be a musician and be a successful Christian,
in fact, I knew I could be that Was one of my things.
I was going to be a successful musician and a Christian at that
time, I had organized several bands.
I had organized music. I knew how to run a recording
studio and I really enjoyed music and that's it.
Now, listen, Glenn, you need to consider that.
Not many people in this field are Christians.
And many of the parameters they have and in the end their
Lifestyles, a lot of things they promote are not going to be
supportive of the Christian lifestyle.
You need to consider that. You know what, I'm thankful that
my father had that conversation with me because it did help it
helped me and making a decision. I realized it wasn't about
everything. I wanted that I had to consider
whether I was going to have a family and whether this was
going to support me having a strong family, whether it was
going to support. Me and my attended Services
which are so important. Whether it was going to in
somehow inhibit or be a weight, which does pull me back.
Always pulling me back in the world and never letting me be
all that. I could be for God's glory.
So young people, whenever your parents sit down and talk to you
and they want you to consider your careers that you're
thinking about and you're talking about college and you're
talking about what you want to be.
When you grow up, I want you to know that the Bible says your.
A wise if you Ponder the path of your feet that you need to have
those conversations, you need to ask yourself if this is a wise
choice and a good decision and what it's going to cost me later
down the line. It may cost you your family.
It may cost you like lat, it may cost you all of your wealth if
you make wrong choices or unwise choices in the future.
So this issue is often brought up in the scriptures and he
says, for us to consider this idea of Legacy, what kind of
impact are you going to have on your wife, on your children on
the church on yourself? And most of all I'm God you we
need to think about those kinds of things, whenever we make
career choices. We choose someone to marry.
We need to consider those choices as well.
Whether this person is going to help me be a successful
Christian or do they just look good?
Whether this person is going to help me make wise decisions,
whether they're going to be a good father and a good mother.
You know, I've done a lot of family counseling in the last
and the last few years and, you know, I've talked during those
sessions. Sometimes I'll woman will say,
you know, I just don't want any children at all.
I just want to have just me and my husband and that's it.
I don't want to have any children at all.
And I'll ask the men, have you considered, whether you wanted
to be a father or just a husband, and he'll say, I've
considered it. And I want to be a father, you
know what that's called that. That help that young man had to
choose someone else to marry. Because his wife obviously did
not want children, but he wanted to be a father.
You know, those things are important whenever you choose
someone to marry. And about the impact, it's going
to have. What it before I married Reba.
I said, Reba, I want to be an evangelist.
I want to travel all over the world.
Have you ever considered going to Africa will know.
I've never considered leaving Texas.
You know. That's it.
And I said, well, I want you to think about that.
You know what, she's talked about that.
She said, you know, I had to think about that.
I had to think about being drugged all over the world, some
people don't like to travel. Some people love to travel.
You see who you married to can have an impact on your choices
in your life. So whenever you're making
choices, the Bible says, Ponder the path, the direction, the
consequences of your choices and decisions notice.
Also the Bible tells us that there will either be praised or
shame brought up later on in Proverbs the 27th chapter and
verse 21. Listen to the scriptures.
The Crucible is for silver and the furnace for gold each man.
But each is tested by the praise accorded to him.
He just tested by the prays. According to him whether we
accomplish our goal at Legacy or not is very very important in
Hebrews 11. Verse for verse, we already read
Abel had a testimony that he was pleasing to God and even though
he was dead, he still spoke. He still stood for something,
you know, all of us here. I'm sure.
Can think of someone who may probably be dead.
But had an impact on our spirituality.
Think about that for a moment. I know my grandfather Grandpa
Otis Osborne And he had an impact, he made a choice to
follow the lord. He made choices that had impact
on my father. My father had impacts on us
children and we'd have impact on others for generations for
Generations. There's impact perhaps, you have
those in your life as well. You can think of those
significant people that were really there at particular times
that encouraged you to make certain choices and certain
decisions. Now the question is, is not only
is this parade of accorded to others.
Let's talk about what message you're sending out.
What's going to be the message whenever you're dead.
And yet you still speak? What is your guy Fizz going to
say, what in your life is going to say?
This is important, or that is important.
This is something significant. I want this message to go on.
You know, I thought about that. I've really thought about that
and I've told my wife, I've told my kids and everything else.
I said, listen, I do not want an expensive funeral that to me is
the most foolish waste of money in the world.
I said, if you guys get money together, tell everybody that I
want Reba to be helped out. You know, I don't want are
killing me to cash out on the insurance policy, but the whole
point is, is it's foolish to spend something, I can't smell
any of those flowers. And to me, that's not even
really in one sense. Honorable, I told her I said,
kids, mom's going to bury me in cardboard and I don't want you
giving her one Flack about it at all.
I don't want any flaking off. I want the cheapest funeral that
money can buy and if you could skip the funeral, that's fine.
You know, I just want it cheap because death is not the
important point about If that's not it you know it's not
honoring to me to be buried in something that's going to
continue to send her bills. That is the dumbest thing in the
world. It really is it really?
I didn't get no honor from that. In fact, it's irritating to even
think Somebody might make money off of my death, just to
irritates me. But I'll tell you what, it would
be a real blow, if my death didn't send a message about what
was important in my life. I want to make sure everyone
understands that message before I'm silent and can no longer
repeat it. Don't you don't, you want a
legacy, don't you want some kind of message?
Don't you want people to say this was important to him or
her? I'll tell you what, don't wait
till you're dead for people to discover it in your will.
It's got to be something that's plain and understood before you
ever bite the dust as they say. It's got to be plain and that's
what the Bible says to us. Each is tested by the praise
accorded to him. It is important that we consider
our Legacy Lewis. Carroll whenever he wrote Alice
in Wonderland, He made a point about Legacy and people not
going anywhere. He said this, he says, when you
don't know where you're going, any road will take you there and
I think that's a real important point.
I hope you caught his real message.
In other words if you're not going anywhere, it doesn't
matter what road you choose, but if you're going to heaven,
you're going to have to choose a road.
You're going to have to take the path and it leads you in a
certain direction. And that's what we need to tell
our kids. It's not, we're not supposed to
have a Aimless slides as Christians, we have gold.
We have aspirations and the Bible tell us if we have this
hope fixed on him, it has an impact in our life.
It purifies our life, we have as our ambition, whether alive or
dead to be pleasing to him and to have Heaven as our home
forever. That is our hope that is our
expectation and our joy. We have something that we want
to say by our life, I'm going to heaven and I want you to To come
to, I'd like you to travel this path.
I want you to go in this direction.
The Bible says, we're not as those who aim.
In fact, the King James is, its kind of difficult the way it
puts it. But he says they're in First
Corinthians 13. Excuse me.
We're not those who box as beating the air.
And what does that mean? He's saying a boxer, whenever he
gets into the ring, His point is not just to beat are it's not to
aim at nothing and hit nothing whenever a boxer Ames.
He wants to hit something, doesn't he?
You want to hit the other guy's jaw?
I want to hit the other guy stomach.
He wants to make contact with the person in the opposition.
That's what a boxer does. If a boxer just got out there
and danced, you think what in the world?
You would think he's not a good boxer, he's a great dancer but
he's a poor boxer. This is where not boxers who be
there. What is the point of that little
verse aim? Not without aim, we are not
supposed to be aimless people. We're supposed to have a Target.
We're supposed to be going somewhere with our life and that
needs to be spelled out. Really clearly businesses have
purpose statements and sometimes we need purpose statements for
our life as well. We need to say to people.
Here's what I want to do with my life.
I want to accomplish something hmm.
Well, when you don't know where you're going, any road will take
you there, and there's a lot of people that never go anywhere in
their life, because they've never made a decision to go down
a road. They've never made a decision to
go in any direction. Sometimes we have too many
options and we need to narrow down our options.
If you will, and recognize that once we make a decision that our
narrow, our choices are going to be more limited.
We're a people who love all the options in the world, but
sometimes we have so many options.
We never pick any options and that is a vast mistake.
That's a vast mistake. We need to pick some options
now. Yes, that limit us in our life,
but that's not necessarily bad. When you choose to become a
Christian, you are making a choice.
You're saying, I'm going to be a Christian.
And I'm going to have a job that falls within the parameters of
morality that falls within the parameter of Christian ethics.
That means, I can't do a lot of things that would violate, the
will of God. You can't pick jobs that violate
the world world word and the will of God in your life.
Now, we've talked about this before, we can't be, you can't
be Hit Men, you can't do a lot of things, if you can't be a
constant liar, you can't be something that the collect your
home, or neglects the worship of the church.
You're eliminating. A lot of those professions that
would call you to compromise your morality.
And yes, whenever you become a Christian, you may have to
change your jobs, we've talked Out that before but you're also
limiting yourself in some other ways as well.
You have to ask yourself, is this job going to take up?
Sometimes you have to ask, is this Scott going to take up too
much of my time, one of the greatest challenges facing the
church in this generation. Not the next one in.
This generation is the fact that we have so much time.
We're not spending it doing evil and being Wicked.
We have so many options of things to do.
That we are. So busy doing the urgent that we
fail to do the important and the real challenge of the church in
this generation is limiting the things we choose to do during
our days and evenings. So that we will get the
important things done, it's not wrong that we have so many
things to do in our life. The thing that becomes wrong is
when our life is filled with. So many good things.
So many, okay things that we never get the important things
done. Now church, do you, we all do?
We all agree that there's a lot of church members that aren't
doing wrong, things, wicked, and, evil things.
They're doing good things. A lot of good things that are
okay to do. But their life is so full of
good things. That they sometimes miss the
important things, they get choked out by the cares and
concerns of this world and we forget what our Legacy is.
Do you want people to say at your funeral, you know?
They were into everything. They were busy to the hilt but
you know, for the life of me, none of it last past the grave
Is that what you want somebody to say about you?
They were good at sports. They were good at Recreation.
They were good. They had a good time, but
they're dead. They can't do everything.
They enjoyed any longer. But nothing of what they did,
outlasted death. Nothing was important.
And other words, once they died that was it.
There wasn't anything important that lasted past it Emerson once
said, who was a good poet and writer?
He said the great use of life is to spend it for something that
outlasts it. There's the key, I want to do
something that last past my death, don't you?
And that's what we're talking about when we say Legacy.
That helps us make decisions about how busy we need to be.
Sometimes we need to set maybe cut down on things that are so
busy in our life. So many options, so many things
that are good and have a Bible study with our family.
Sometimes we just need to stop and pray with our children
because even though, they may be learning a lot of athletic
skills, maybe they're learning a lot of academic skills.
Maybe they're learning a lot of skills, but my friends, if they
don't know, God whenever they die, you failed and I failed,
because that's what's really important.
All you can teach your children math and hire a tutor.
But how about spending your time, teaching your child to
pray to God, to read their Bible habitually?
That's what I'm talking about. It's not that we're doing evil
Church. It's that we're so busy taking
care of the urgent that we leave out the important.
And so that's why we need to come back and ask ourselves.
Let's Ponder the path of my feet.
So what if my child knows how to play every game in the book?
So what if my child knows every TV character in the book?
Sometimes I need to turn it off and spend time making sure he
knows the characters in the Bible that he knows what
happened and why Moses happened. What?
Happened with the children of Israel.
What Noah was all about why these people were important and
that person was made note of in the scriptures.
Do your children? Know, Bible characters.
Let's just ask yourself. You might say I would like to do
that but I don't spend enough time doing that.
That's whenever you Ponder, the path of your feet, you may have
to change your schedule, you may have to change your schedule.
And bring it back to that, which is truly important.
We talked about how the need for prioritizing prioritizing.
Our time is so very, very important.
If we're going to serve God, Jesus came to do, the will of
his father and my friends, he set some priorities.
There were times whenever he spent time alone in prayer, he
went to a mountain to spend time alone.
You know, there's some people that get things unbalanced in
their life so much and they don't spend time to regenerate
time at speaking. To God one-on-one, spend time
reading their Bible. My friends, you need time alone
with God. You need time with the
scriptures. You need to carve out time for
Spiritual Pursuits or they will never get there.
They're not going to demand that.
You have to demand it. David says teach me Lord to
number my days teach myself. You can't always put it off you,
their rules coming today whenever you have lost the
opportunity to teach your children to, memorize scriptures
a day will come, when you would have lost those opportunities.
He's to pray with your husband and with your wife and to talk
with your neighbors and to talk with your mother.
And father, there's kind of come at a a day whenever the
opportunity is just flat lost. So I want to talk a little bit
about an example in scriptures. I've got to go on, I want to
talk about, please turn to Acts. 26 chapter.
What is the name martyr mean to you?
Well probably what we're going to go talk about today.
This evening in axis, 6 chapter, we're going to talk about Steven
for a little bit. Steven is called the first
Christian martyr, the word martyr, Denotes somebody who
died for a purpose. Now somebody who just died, you
don't really call them a murder unless they died for I, excuse
me. They don't really call them
water unless they died for a cause we only usually reserve
the word martyr to talk about. Somebody who died with a purpose
in mind, either they martyred themselves for Islam or they
martyred themselves for Christ or they were a martyr for this
or that or the other. Usually people who are Martyrs,
are people who Die with a cause in mind and that's what we're
talking about tonight. We want to be a martyr.
In fact, we are Ramada where we're dying for a cause and that
cause is going to become evident by the prays.
According to us, we're going to be tested by that.
What is that? Martyrdom going to be 4?
Is it going to be pleasure? Is it going to be family?
Is it going to be Christ? Is it going to be?
What's it going to be? What's it going to be?
We're going to send a message, what's it going to be?
Well, in the book of Acts, we find Stephen being brought to
mind. And in the book of Acts chapter
6, there's some reasons and there's some things that
happened that I want us to look at and maybe just take a step
back. And, and realize this is a real
story. That happened to real people and
sometimes we read too fast. You know, people ask me
sometimes if I've seen the passion the movie, the passion
and you know, I got to where I got into this Reddit
letter-writing thing before the passion came out.
People said you know this one guy wrote an article, it was
horrible. This one got wrote an article
that got published in the paper. He said I don't know why Mel
Gibson had to spend 15 minutes talking about the scourging of
Jesus Christ in his film. He said in the Bible, it's only
in one of the gospels and it's only in two verses he says, but
Mel Gibson spend 15 minutes on it.
And I went, that is such a short-sighted observation of
what the Bible is trying to say. But you know what, after I
watched the movie, yes, I watched it after I watched the
movie. There was something to hit me.
Sometimes I read the Bible too fast because I'll read that
where it says and they scourged him and go on.
And literally all it took was a few seconds to read that verse
when in reality what that verse meant was 15 minutes of pain and
suffering. And so what the movie did, if
out, if it was going to have any impact on me, that was the
impact it had, was it made me realize I read too fast
sometimes. And so I want to read this about
what happened to Steven little bit, and I want us to slow it
down enough to realize that we're not talking about
something that just went, just real fast that this happened
over a span of time. And what happened?
And let's look at what happened to Steve and for just a moment
starting reverse one. In fact, six, there's a problem
in the early church here. Now, at this time, while the
disciples were increasing and number a complaint arose on the
part of the Hellenistic Jews against the native Hebrews,
because Their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving
of food. The church, you know, it's just
getting going. It's just going.
Oh, and by the way, you'll notice this is an axe 6.
What what does that mean? Well, it isn't until acts 10 and
11 that the Gentiles come into the church.
So, who are these hellenists? What is this talking about here?
That somebody group was being? What he's saying?
Is they were all of Jewish, lineage in the church.
CH. But there were two cultures.
There were two cultures in the church.
All these people were of the same race, but they were two
different cultures. Notice on the, the Hellenistic
Jews against the native. Hebrews, there was a popular
movement among the Jews at this time.
The hell, excuse me the native Hebrews, who venerated, the
Hebrew language, and they spoke Hebrew.
And they wore Hebrew traditional clothing and they were if you
will the conservatives in their culture.
And then you add the hellenists, we would call them the Liberals
because the hellenists adopted some of the clothing of the
Hellenistic Greeks they adopted some of their clothing, some of
their culture. Even some of their architecture
in the land though, it was adopted from the cult.
Will these other people fought against that culture and they
were they had a culture clash. And what he's saying is in the
early church, this was a culture class and one of them was being
overlooked by The other over by the others on the part of the
Hellenistic Jews against the native Hebrews, because their
widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food back
then, they didn't have a lot of government programs for widows.
And widows were not part of the mainstream business at that
time. There were women like Lydia who
so purple and others, but we're not talking about them.
Most of the time with the widows were dependent upon the man for
their income and whenever they were destitute, they had to be
fed. So they the church, they've
contributed to the needs and these widows were being fed to
Acts 2, you'll find that contribution happening.
So now what happened? What's going on here?
There's a complaint, there's a problem.
Somebody's being neglected verse 2.
So the 12, some of the congregation of the disciples
and said it's not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in
order to serve tables and other words, he's saying there, we've
got some what priorities here. He said, it's not that we're too
good to serve tables, that's not the point.
It's that we've got a more important task.
It is important for us who are inspired by the Holy Spirit to
write and teach what God is giving us.
We are messengers and these and this other task needs to be
performed by someone who will serve.
And so whenever he says it is not desirable for us to neglect
the word of God in order to serve tables.
Therefore, verse 3, therefore Brethren, select from among you
seven. Men full of good reputation Full
of the spirit and a wisdom whom we may put in charge of this
task. But we will devote ourselves to
prayer and to the ministry of the word.
Now what kind of response did this solution have proposed
solution have will notice what it says verse 5 and the
statement found approval with the whole congregation and they
chose Stephen. One of the first names mentioned
Stephen, A Man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit and Phillip
and pro, curious and neck. Now, And Tim Ian and parmenas,
and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch.
And these they brought before the apostles, and after praying,
they laid their hands on them. There was a problem, there was a
neglect and so, what did they have to do?
We want you. Here's the qualifications we
want. Men full of with a good
reputation verse 3. Good reputation verse 3 full of
the spirit and the wisdom whom we may put in charge of this
task. What was the task?
Feeding widows. as one woman said in Oklahoma City Meals on
Wheels, you know, most people would say the amendment.
Men serving tables. Isn't that a woman's?
Let's let the women do it. No, he said we want men men.
Men of good reputation full of the Holy Spirit and of wisdom.
Why? Why?
Because there was a problem there and they wanted the
problem stop. They wanted this culture Clash
to be ceased. They wanted this seemingly
problem of which food was merely a symptom.
They wanted the division in the church healed.
And so we're going to have to pick guys that know that that's
more than just about given somebody food.
It's making sure that this Rift is healed in the church so we
want somebody with wisdom. We want somebody with some good
judgment. We want somebody with a good
reputation. Somebody who's trusted somebody
who's trusted And they pick Stephen.
Stephen A Man full of grace. Don't despair.
This guy was fit for great works and God needs him at this
moment. To give a widow.
A plate of food. He might have got upset about
it. You know, I have studied long
and hard. I have given myself to know
wisdom, I've read all the good books and you want me to what?
Spend my time carton lunch to a bunch of old ladies.
Yeah. That's what we want you to do.
Stephen must have been wiser and understand the task at hand
because he took it, he took this job because it was serving God,
that's what it was and he recognized that this was an
important task for him to take that.
There was more to it than just making sure somebody got the
meal. That there was some healing that
needed to be. Brought that there was some
wisdom here there were and they people were trusting him to make
good decisions. And so they picked Steven, they
picked Steven Steven had a good Mutation, this is the first we
hear about him and yet he had a good reputation.
What, you know, this man was prepared for that work, wasn't
he? It's amazing, what you'll do.
If you can prepare yourself for a work, you may not know what
God has in store for you. But if you will develop a good
reputation, if you could be considered trustworthy then
sooner or later, the Lord is going to be able to use you to
accomplish something great in the church.
And that's what happened. This man had fulfilled had
fulfilled this qualification, he was a good man, notice they?
I brought them before the apostles, they let it Hands-On.
What was the impact? What was the, what happened?
Because of this decision verse 7, and the word of God kept on
spreading, and the number of the disciples continued to increase
greatly in Jerusalem. And a great, many of the priests
were becoming obedient to the faith.
Wow. What a great impact, this, this
seemingly beginning of a division in the church, not only
seem to be stopped in its tracks, but it led led to the
growth of the church. There was praise given to God
and Priests were being converted.
Oh the Bible. They were the toughest crowd to
convert in. The Bible says, they were being
converted. They saw what Christianity could
do. Christianity could heal a
culture crack clash in the other culture, but in Christ, there
was peace. Many other passages were to
extol this virtue of Christianity throughout the
world. Jew and Gentile, was later going
to become one in Christ Jesus. All they could see the Christ
was indeed, the Great Peacemaker.
And they were being converted verse eight.
It picks up on Stephen, excuse me.
Mmm, and Stephen Full of Grace and power the word Grace here.
Sometimes the the translators have a difficulty knowing which
way to translate the word. This word here probably beans
ability or empowerment. And so probably what it's saying
here is, Stephen A Man full of ability or Grace and power was
performing, great wonders, and signs among the people.
Well, now Steven evidently had some spiritual gifts, he had the
ability to perform powerful signs and wonders full of the
Holy Spirit. He evidently had more than just
the ability to deliver food. He was able to perform signs and
wonders. and he was doing it but verse 9, here's the impact of
some of the things that were happening but some of them in
from which is called the synagogue of the freedmen,
including both Creech, Oh, I had this down before Karin
Corinthians, sorry, and alexandrians.
And some from cilicia, and Asia, rose up and argued with Stephen.
In other words, evidently, Stephen was preaching to, and
the word argued here means debated.
In other words, they were exchanging ideas and and
information. So, here's what's happening,
Steven is not only doing his daily task of delivering food.
He's evidently getting into religious discussions, along the
way and India's religious Discussions.
He's attracting the attention of those who Advocate other ideas
and they're debating with him. They're debating with him and
getting this debate, really going and notice verse 10 but
what happened? But when they were unable to
cope with the wisdom and spirit with which he was speaking, but
with which he was speaking, then we're unable evidently, this man
has a great mind, he had a great ability of being a public
speaker. They were unable to refute what
he was saying that to cope with the wisdom and the spirit.
With which he was speaking. So what did these men do?
This was going to be the beginning of his downfall
because he was being successful, and now what's happened?
You know, there's nothing good attracts attention.
More than being successful in Australia, they call it the
tall, poppy syndrome. And other words, they say they
have a tendency to cut down. People who Excel.
They call it the tall poppy syndrome because if you stick
out you often get clipped off. And that's what was happening
here. Stephen was making a name for
himself that he was having an impact.
He had developed a good reputation.
He had developed a good reputation as a good debater and
now what was happening, they decided they could not deal with
him and a straightforward manner verse 11.
And then they, secretly introduced meant to say induced
meant to say. We have heard him speak
Blasphemous words against Moses and against God, and they
stirred up, the people they will.
Ripped up the people, if you will, and the elders and the
scribes and they came up to him and dragged him away and brought
him before the council. Now, here's what they were going
to do now. This was a half-truth, but it
was a whole lie. Steven wasn't speaking against
Moses, and against the law, he was probably telling them that
the rock. The law ended was nailed to the
cross. He was probably tell them that
Jesus was the Fulfillment of the law.
He's probably telling them that Moses law, stood until Christ,
but when Christ came, the law was done away, but the point is
that, that wasn't the message. They weren't wanting to explain
the doctrine that Stephen was teaching.
They were want to putting it in the worst possible light.
They were intentionally saying he speaking against Sniffs
speaking against the law and there's of course made Stephen
defensive. He had to defend himself but he
was already crucified. He was already spoken bad, he'd
already, they say speaking against these things they didn't
care about the truth. They told a half-truth and it
made it a whole life. Yeah, that's what happened.
Hey, stirred up the people because of this, and the elders
and the scribes and they came up to him and dragged him away and
brought him before, the council notice verse 13.
And they put forward false Witnesses who said this This man
incessantly speaks against the holy place and the law for we
have heard him say that this Nazarene Jesus will destroy this
place and alter the Customs which Moses had died down to us.
Oh, what a horrible thing to change the Customs that Moses
had to down to us. All they weren't talking about.
What was pleasing to God. That wasn't the point.
They were talking about the changes that Jesus was bringing
to their culture and they said, Jesus is a rabble-rouser.
He's a subculture, he's going to change the way we live and the
and the traditions of our race. And so they will lying Jesus.
You know, you can't really find a lie there but they were using
it to incite. The crowds into National fervor
against, you know what that still going on today in the
Middle East to this very night. The same things are going on,
isn't it ironic? The same problem still exists
but notice what was going on here.
They had said this, Jesus Will Destroy This Place verse 15 and
fixing their Gaze on him, those who are Being in the council,
saw his face like the face of an angel.
Now we don't necessarily know what the angel of a faith face
of an angel looks like, but probably what was happening is
Steven's face was merely content.
As a messenger of God, he was just saying You know, they were
accusing him all this and was it upsetting to him?
Stephen was it really bugging him?
Does does the chapter 7 and Stevens defense show that he was
all upset and everything that no he just starts out.
The beginning says here's the explanation.
Starts out starts, explain evidently he was pretty Serene
about the whole thing. You know, whenever you're
pleasing to God, you can be Serene, like, Stephen, he knew
what he was doing was right, even though bat malicious things
were being said, even though false reports were Given the
people were whipped up into a frenzy evidently Stephen was
not. That's why the Holy Spirit takes
time to point out to him. That he wasn't that upset about
it. But now to swat going on here,
what is going on? Well, we're not going to take
time to go through all of what happened here, but I will tell
you, Steven starts making a very logical defense of his hold the
whole point, tied to bring him down to Jesus.
And then he gets to verse 50 and 51.
There's a break here. Most of you who have studied the
book of Acts know that, something most commentators say
something happened, but they don't know what it is.
They don't know what happened, but evidently the train of
thought was interrupted here. We don't know if the if the
audience finally saw where he was going.
And they finally decided to put an end to this this sermon or
what went happened, but something changed because the
tone changed drastically between verses 50 and 51 and notice what
happens in verse 51. You men who are stiff-necked and
uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting.
The holy spirit's you're doing just as your father's did.
He's been telling them about their fathers before and all of
their fathers had done. And they said, oh yeah, but if
we were there, we wouldn't have done that, we don't have time to
go into that, but they would have said, yeah, that's Grandpa
did that. But, you know, if we'd have been
there, we would have done that we'd to learn better.
And what what Stephen is saying is you're doing it now, you're
doing it today, you're always resisting the Holy Spirit,
you're doing just as your father's did verse 52 which one
of the prophets did your father's?
Not persecute. They killed those who had
previously announced the coming of the righteous one, whose
betrayers and murderers you have now.
Now, become you who received the law as ordained by angels, and
yet did not keep it in verse 54. Here's the response.
Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the quick and they
began gnashing their teeth at him.
Oh, they were mad. You might say Stephen, you're
cutting your own throat here. Why don't you be as to be nice
with the audience? Just be nice.
You know, don't say the truth here, not Steven, Steven says,
here's your problem, you missed the Messiah, you killed the
Messiah, You need to repent, need to repent notice.
They began gnashing their teeth at him.
Oh, they were angry verse 55, but being full of the Holy
Spirit, he gazed intently to the heaven and saw the glory of God
and Jesus standing at the right hand of God and he said, behold,
I see, he told him what he saw, behold, I see the heavens opened
up and the son of man standing at the right hand of God.
In other words, this Jesus whom you've just killed.
I see God, the Father honoring him He has been honored by the
father. He is at the father's right
hand. Notice, but they cried out verse
57 with a loud voice and cover there is and rushed at him with
one impulse. In other words, this was mob
mentality at its finest. They were so angry that this
statement just motivated them, they all just rushed upon Him
notice. And when they had driven him out
of the city, they began stoning. Him stoning was a form of death
of execution that took a while. It's not like the guillotine,
it's not like shooting. Somebody stoning takes a while
to kill somebody first. You injure them in some way they
had a method about it. They would throw somebody into a
pit where the Stoners would stand around the top of this
pit. And they would all throw from
all sides. So there would be no escape and
they would break the person's bones in their feet, where they
couldn't crawl up, the sides of this, they would break their
arms, they would sometimes break them and flicked head injuries.
All kinds of wounds, but this would take a while.
And they, the Bible uses this term and they began stoning him.
In other words, you had to take a while this takes a while when
you think to pick up a rock and throw it at someone and then I
go back for another one, you've got to at some point.
Consider what you're doing and why.
But these guys were just mad and they began stoning, him and the
witnesses laid their robes. At the feet of a young man, same
thing. same name, Saul verse 59 and they went on stoning,
Stephen as he called on the Lord and said, Lord Jesus receive my
spirit And they went on stoning him they just kept on evidently
they kept on and now Stephens having to take the opportunity
to pray to his father. He realized that he's going to
die. And they while he's praying to
God, that continue to Stone continue to Stone him.
You know, I am so glad that detects doesn't end right there.
Because in the next verse, we get an insight into what was in
the heart of Stephen upon this occasion.
Not only is he praying that something all you and I would
do. But we might not think of the
next thing that the Bible records You know, I'm sure he
was thinking about what had been said about Jesus who had just
been crucified not that long ago and the statements of Jesus on
the cross were still on his mind and what happened, listen to
what he says and then falling on his knees verse 60.
He cried out with a loud voice saying, Lord, do not hold this
sin against them. And having said this, he fell
asleep. The words of Jesus were, what
was on his mind. And in his heart, he was a
follower of disciple of Jesus Christ.
And he asked himself, what did Jesus do in this situation?
When he was about to be killed, he said, father, hold this shit,
do not lay this sin against them?
Forgive them for they know, not what they do.
And you know what he said? That's something that I ought to
think about. And so he prayed for the
Forgiveness of those who were stoning him in Imitation of
Jesus Christ, there's nothing. I think that speaks more to the
character of Stephen than that one, little insight into what
was going on in Stephens, mind, while he was being stoned.
He was not hurling curses, may you, and your children be cursed
forever. He wasn't hurling abuses at
them. He wasn't wishing their demise.
He knew they were ignorant of what was really going on and he
said they were mad because they didn't Understand the truth.
And so he prayed, father, forgive them?
What an amazing character, Steven had he was worthy of
being, the first Christian martyr, he died for the cause of
Jesus Christ. but when Stephen started out that day, do you
think he had on his to-do list? Go feed sister so and so go make
sure that the older men are fired and that that older couple
over there, taking care of make sure this person.
And then oh and take lunch over there and oh about that time.
Go start a debate, get hauled into court and become a martyred
about 2:15. Do you think that was on his
list that day? No.
When he started out his day, he did not realize that he wasn't
coming home that evening but he knew what he was going to do.
Whenever he went out, he was going to serve God that day.
He was going to serve God, he had made up his mind, he was
going to serve God that day and he was serving God, whenever he
was delivering it, he was serving God when he was
teaching, he was serving God when he was defending himself.
He was serving God preaching this sermon and it cost him his
life. He was a martyr that day, you
know, not very many people in the world get to choose to be a
martyr. It often happens to them.
It often just happens. When we became a Christian.
Did we consider the fact? That we were choosing to be a
martyr that very day. Isn't the fact, whatever we
become a Christian that we die to self and we live for him.
Isn't the essence of becoming a Christian, the decision that the
rest of our life is the Lord's, whether we live or die.
It is the Lord's. The decision about Stevens.
Martyrdom, have been made long before the day that day that it
happened. He had already given his life
for the Lord, and that was the moment that he was going to give
it to the very end. He was going to give it all that
day. He chose to be a martyr long
before the event happened. And that was pondering the path
of his feet. He knew that whenever he stepped
up and said I Will Follow You Jesus, I Will Follow You into
death. I will be buried with you in the
lightness of your death and raised in the lightness of your
Resurrection. Just a following your steps.
And wherever those steps go there, I will go.
But my life is no longer mine. My life is hidden with Christ in
God, Paul later and Jen in the book of Galatians and Galatians
2:20. He was to make this very plain
that this was considered part of his thinking.
He says, I am crucified with Christ.
Nevertheless, I live yet not I but Christ lives in me.
You see Paul had it right? Paul got it.
Whenever you become a Christian, you say it is no longer I who
live but Christ who lives in me, I am crucified with Christ Paul
died a long time before he stopped living.
He died long before he stopped living.
I hope you haven't, there's a lot of people who stopped living
before they die. Have you stopped living before
you die? As long as you have life, my
friends, you can serve the Lord. You can serve him every day.
Every day you wake up, you can say, Lord, what do you want me
to do today? I'm breathe, and I Live For Your
Glory. How can I serve you today?
And God may want you to serve meals to widows.
He may want you to go help out someone who is in need of help.
The Bible says be zealous for good works.
I don't know what you can do, but as long as you have life,
you can serve the Lord or you might be called upon to die for
the Lord that day. Oh Glenn, those are nice
stories. But Christians today don't die
for the Lord. Really Really.
Interesting. Cassie Bernal. 17 years old.
Columbine High School. God, our homework went to
Columbine senior, high school, Tuesday morning, April 20th.
1999 was doing the homework in the library.
When a young man came up to her and said, do you believe in God?
Do you believe in God? Like the book that was written
about the event says, She said, yes.
The young man pulled the trigger and killed her.
All Christians, don't die today or those who are martyred for
Christ. She may not have been a
Christian. My friend.
She became a martyr for her faith anyway.
A 17 year old girl. Doing her homework in a library.
At a high school. April 20th, 1999.
She said, yes. She died.
What would you say? You would say, Lord.
I know, I would say yes. You know, you don't know if you
were put in that situation, but you can hope you could pray that
you could say, yes. As one writer who wrote a song
about that event said, she passed a test that no one wants
to take. I don't want to take that test
today. But maybe I am required today to
make an answer to give an answer.
Do I believe in God today? Now at this moment Somebody may
walk up and it may require my very life.
Doug Edwards told me about a preacher in India that got beat
up for preaching to Hindus. I've heard stories about
brother, and who may have been shot in the Philippines for
believing in the name of Jesus Christ.
There's all kinds of things that go on in the world, you know?
We don't know whether there's a brunches congregations of people
in them. The hidden Realms of China.
They've got the word of God there.
And the Bible says, the pure. See the kingdom will bring forth
fruit just because they don't know, me doesn't mean they don't
exist, there may be all kinds and we may not know the stories
of brothers and sisters throughout history that we may
never know. It may never be recording a
book, what they did for the cause of Jesus Christ, but don't
tell me that people don't die for the cause of Christ today.
They Bang. They have a legacy.
What's your legacy tonight?
What is your legacy? Have you already died in your
life is hid with Christ in God. Make up your mind that if that
situation before it ever comes, what your answer will be.
When for the time is robbed from you before the abilities have
been sucked from you before time, takes away your memory.
Before God, before the world erases some of your energy.
Your life needs to stand for something.
While it is day work, while it is day for the Night.
Comes when no man can work, you need to take time and
opportunity. While you have and stand up and
stand for something, and say it loud and say, it often about why
you live in what you're living for.
You need to make a difference. All your name.
May never be on the side of a hospital room or wing.
It may never be recorded in history but I'll guarantee you
somebody whose soul is saved. May point to what you said or
did as making an eternal difference in their life.
There's one song that has encouraged me greatly.
A song called, Thank you for giving to the Lord.
Have you all in any of heard that song.
Thank you for giving to the Lord.
It talks about a man who went to heaven.
And someone came up to him and said, you know, that quarter you
put in the collection, will it paid for a preacher to come to
my Village? And I heard the gospel and I
want to thank you for giving to the Lord. because that's why I'm
here today and it says, one by one, they came And they said,
thank you for giving to the Lord.
And then Jesus turned them around.
And saw all the people that this person had affected and said,
great is your reward. My grandfather's not around to
see the baptism my children. But I'll guarantee you that's
part of his legacy. Now, what's yours?
What's yours? I challenge you tonight to make
a difference. For the cause of Jesus Christ.
Don't waste the days, don't waste all of the time.
If you have Ambitions, grab them do something work.
While it is day, make a difference.
Don't continue to just have regrets every New Year saying,
you know, I'm going to use the same resolution again.
No, say, I'm going to talk to that person.
I'm going to make a list of my friends.
I'm going to make a currents today.
Steven. And his legacy is recorded for
us. What about your legacy?
I know of significant people
who've helped me. I'm so thankful my father made
every vacation. He only had a few weeks vacation
every year and he hauled us back to Sulfur, Oklahoma and camped.
So that we could go to a meeting and meet other Christian kids
and my dad was poor and he didn't have a lot of vacation
time and he could have easily spent it on himself but he was
investing the future in us and us boys.
And we all thank my dad for that, we never realize how
expensive it was for him, knowing that he only had those
two weeks and he spin him and it is with his kids in a car in
Sulphur. Oklahoma!
Give me a break. Somebody needs an award for
that. Whenever you want to go on
vacation, you want to go to Sulfur, Oklahoma with a bunch of
kids and a car. He wasn't thinking about having
a great physical time. He was thinking of the spiritual
welfare of us kids, That's what I miss saying.
I want your kids to remember that.
You took time not doing necessarily what you want to do
because you thought something else was more important.
And that is where you get. Your legacy.
Because regardless of what you want your legacy to be, it may
not be what you want it to be. But it will be truthful.
And it will be, what is really? Really was important to you.
So mom's be the best mom, you can be husband's be the best
husband. You can be wives, be the best
life. You can be brothers and sisters
in the church. Let it be known that you were
someone who put the cause of Christ first and that you love
the Brethren and that you love the lost and that you spent time
doing the important things, and you spent time, healing riffs,
and you spent time investing in Eternal things and what was
known about you was that you wanted to go to heaven, you want
To please God, you are laying up.
Treasures in Heaven. You wanted to make sure you're a
legacy was eternal and not temporal my friends in two
generations. They're not gonna care how much
money you had. How, what kind of car you drove
or anything else? But if people are obeying the
lord, it's going to be make a difference.
So tonight, won't you start your spiritual Legacy this evening?
Have you thought about it that today could be the day young
people. Have you thought about the
today? Could be the day that sometime
in the future of God. Allows generations to happen
that there was one night somewhere when somebody decided
to give their life to Jesus Christ.
And because of that, it affected my mother.
It affected my father, it affected my brother, and
affected my sister, it affected my family in affected me.
Affected me. So tonight, you can make it
tight and eternal difference tonight.
If you will give your life to Jesus Christ in your faith,
repent of your sins, Luke 13:3, the best, the name of Jesus
Christ before men Matthew 10:32 and be baptized for the
remission of your past sins, Acts 2 and verse 38.
And then upon that moment that you're raised from, the watery
grave of baptism you can go on and that life no matter how.
Long or short, it might be, you can go on with that life walking
in newness of life and awaiting the resurrection.
And there you will receive your reward.
But tonight it's got to start somewhere.
Let today be the day of salvation for you and for all
those upon whom your legacy will affect.
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