"Dealing With Problems in the Church" (Acts 6:1-15)

turning your Bibles to Acts chapter 6 Acts chapter 6 we're continuing our study of the book of Acts seeing the history of the church really in the first century has the message spreads from Jerusalem through Judea Samaria into what's known as the rest of the world or the known world at that time as we get into chapter 6 we once again see problems in the body and the questions are where the problems where the problems in the church come from and we realize they come from two places they come from within and from without and we saw this in the last few weeks we saw it from within a couple by the name of Ananias and Sapphira lied not only to God they lied to Peter but they lied to God the Holy Spirit and they died that was a problem within that was handled then their problem from without where these religious leaders had come and arrested the Apostles well God is working through all of these things and this morning once again we're gonna see this issues again we're gonna see problems within food with with the food we're supposed to be food for the widows or food with the widows how they gonna deal with this how they gonna give the food out to these widows there's more and more people there and we see the issue and then without the arrest of Stephen we'll find out who Stephen is why there's the the the persecution what is going on and so once again the same thing as we look at this passage let me give you some things to think about first of all we want to see ministry in the church who does ministry how does it work we're gonna talk about leadership within the body because we'll see it in this passage we talked about dealing with widows and and how do we minister to widows and then finally the product the persecution in the church we'll see it with Stephen we'll see how all that ties together so this morning but it's gonna be a number of things we'll see well go fairly quickly there's only 15 verses there's just so much there let's think about the local church for just a minute and Stillwater Bible we we believe that we have a ministry that's based on God's Word think about this we have a purposeful plan in a process we have a purpose as a church and that is to make disciples that goes back to Matthew 28:18 through 20 that the the purpose of our church is to make disciples that's evangelism and training leading people to Christ and training equip them we have a plan that is based off of evens 4 11 through 16 but 4:12 is the one that says equip the believers to do the work of the ministry for the building up of the body of Christ that's our plan we have a process we call gathered and scattered we gather together to worship our Savior to be trained and then we scatter to evangelize and to serve so that's our purpose planning process the Ministry of the body is done by the believers in the body in fact it's number all of the believers in the body each one of you using your gifts talents and abilities to touch lies for Christ but how does it all function how does it function there has to be structure for the church to function there must be leaders in leadership and from God's Word we see that there are really two offices to two responsibilities or offices in a local body they are and most of you know about them elders and deacons elders that is the Greek word for pastor point main elder is the wordpress butor ox which means an older person overseer is the word sometimes translated bishop it's the word of a person who oversees things of a mature man overseen things then the word deacon literally is the word decanas which means servant so the two offices elder which were older men that were mature and to oversee and then deacons were men that were to serve that's the two offices and they help leave the body and service now the whole issue and the responsibility of leadership is servanthood in fact that's the whole responsibility in the body of Christ as all the believers serve mark chapter 10 jesus said he didn't if you want to be great if you want to be great for God you'd be a servant this morning we're gonna see the leaders step forward the leaders of the Apostles right now there aren't any elders and deacons in the church at this time we're still very early in the beginning of the church the message is spreading out over 8,000 people have trusted in Christ in Jerusalem and we see things begin to happen and they're gonna have to make some issues and make some decisions we'd see some issues and some men are picked to carry out certain functions and we'll see that as we go through the passage this morning let me remind you of some areas we'll touch on the ministry of local church dealing with issues in the church what about widows and persecution comes again well this morning with in food for the widows conflict without the arrest of stephen persecution let me break down the passage for you let's just look and see how it breaks down we're only gonna look at the chapter 6 and it's only 15 verses but the problems with the end at verses 1 through 7 we see the dispute among the widows we see see some mature men are needed and the men are appointed then we see the problems without and Stephen does amazing things wonders and there's disputes and charges and everything else and then he stands before the rulers and what we see and we'll talk about it right at the end of the passage this is not a very long passage but next the next lesson or the next chapter is is 60 verses it's where Stephen actually gives a history the what we call the Old Testament history so if you've always said I would really like to understand the Old Testament but I don't think I can put the whole thing together it's in one chapter chapter 7 Stephen gives the Old Testament we'll see how it fits together well let's see the problems within the body why does this happen why are there problems well there is a good reason for this happening the church is growing so fast that people are trusting Christ as Savior people are being added to the church and up to this time we've had nothing but great unity if we've seen it in this passage there but leaders are one mind and one soul and they're ministering each other and other than Ananias and Sapphira which problem was handled very quickly we've had no problems in this but now certainly there are more problems and the truth is this when a church grows I mean you don't have more people if you have more people you have one more problems but if you want more people you also have more solutions okay more people to serve so it's it's a great thing let's watch what happens chapter 6 look at verse 1 now at this time while the disciples were increasing in number of complaint arose on the part of the Hellenistic Jews against the native ebro's because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food now let's think about what's happening it says the disciples were increasing it means more and more people were trust in Christ we already know at least 8,000 people have trusted Christ and more than that and it's continuing to spread out and there's more and more people and it says the disciples were increasing and it doesn't say well ago when you have more people you actually have more problems and when you have more people you have more solutions to those problems so the more people is not a bad thing it's just happening so fast in this church in the church in Jerusalem that they're saying what are we going to do with all these people we got all these widows coming we've got all these people that need help the church was growing then notice what happened at this time all the disciples were increasing in number a complaint arose on the part of the Hellenistic Jews against the negative Hebrews now the word complaint means a grumbling it's a it's a Greek word that sounds like what it means it's the word gun unless mas it's like Mars because that's what it means it was grumbling you know we line up for food and and those those widows get food ahead of us and we go tell somebody they're getting food we're not getting food why go tell somebody and before you know what people are grumbling it says there arose a complaint on the part of the Hellenistic Jews against the native Jews well what are we talking about aren't Jews Jews most of the church in the first century artists very start were Jewish people who had believed in Jesus well I want you understand that there actually were two aspects of Jewish people there were those who who lived in Israel lived in Jerusalem lived in the Land of Israel and and they were one type and then there were a lot of Jewish people who had been scattered out the ones had been scattered I would call Hellenistic Jews and they came from land other than Israel they spoke Greek primarily and they use what's called the Septuagint that's lxx means seventy but that was that that's the abbreviation for the term Septuagint which is the Old Testament written in Greek now primarily the Old Testament was written in Hebrew but because people quit speaking Hebrew they put the Old Testament in Greek these Jewish people were more Greek type people than they were Hebrew type people so they spoke Greek they used the Septuagint but they're Jewish people they have come to Israel they've come to Jerusalem usually for the feast and they've stayed there then there are Hebrews what they call the Hebrews they lived in Palestine they lived in the land they primarily spoke Hebrew or Aramaic and they use what we call the Hebrew Bible so you've got Jewish people some of them are speaking Greek a lot more than they're speaking Hebrew and they use sort of a different Bible and then you've got the what we call a regular Jewish people and they got they got the Bible and they say well are different from us but we're all Jews and we all love one another and we're all in the body of Christ but when they were given out the food because there was some need for some widows to have food so they set up a big table most likely and they said now every day if you're a widow we're gonna talk more about it later if you Widow you can come get food well the Hebrew widows got up there first and the complaint is those Hellenistic widows they're getting in the back and they're not getting food so they're beginning to complaint so they've got a problem in the body and the word spreads and they say you know the Hellenistic Jews aren't getting the same food as the as the Hebrew Jews and they're mad about it and it's not right and see up to this point everybody's been what one heart one soul loving one another giving everything out and all of a sudden there's a problem now the reason there's a problem is cuz there's so many people the reason there's a problem is that growing so fast and sometimes in churches that get to be problems because we grow so fast they're things that's happened in our church because we've grown so fast we go I don't what are we gonna do about that because there's so many people there or there's this or you know if we'd say we'd say we would like to have four or five adult classes we don't have a place to put four or five adult classes when we meet on Wednesday nights at the community center we have four classes this semester for SBI we would like to have six or seven there are no other rooms there we've already filled the whole place up so sometimes when you grow there are issues they're issues here now we see a number of things that the church has given out food and meeting needs and there's a hold of diverse group of people Jews but from all over the body is seeking to meet needs there's a problem well who's going to solve this problem well this is where the leadership comes now let me talk to you something for just a minute about widows okay because there are a lot of widows there's widows in our church is it the church's responsibility to take care of widows the answer is yes and no okay let me show you what I mean there are two kinds of widows there's widows and what the Bible calls widows and widows indeed listen to this this is first anything you don't turn there honor widows who are widows indeed but if any widow has children or nephews or family let them show piety at home now here's what they say if there was a widow who was a widow indeed and I think the widow indeed means no husband and a widow has husband no husband but family but Widow indeed has no husband or family so there were some widows who had lost their husband but they still had family the family was to take care of those widows but there were widows who had no husbands or no family nobody to take care of them and so does the church's responsibility to take care of them now let me say one other thing if you turn to first Timothy 5 don't turn there it says that if a widow was going to be take it taken care of by the church if she was a widow indeed that's ok yeah if she was a widow indeed she had to meet certain qualifications and one of them was that she was a godly woman that she it actually says let a widow be taken in if she has brought up children if she's lodged strangers if she's washed the Saints feet if she has relieved the affected if she has done good works so just because a woman was a widow indeed didn't mean she was taken care of by the church if she hadn't been a faithful woman so the next life a local the local church is to take care of a godly widow indeed that's what we find from the scripture so there are a whole bunch of widow in deeds obviously in the first century there and they're trying to give out food and they can't get it done because there's too many of them and some of them are feeling left out and the word is spreading out and so we got this problem how they gonna solve it watch 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 now the 12 the 12 of the Apostles I want you to understand the Apostles are those men you can leave that off right they were not to that one yet but that the apostles were men sent out by Jesus Christ that had the authority of Christ Peter and James and John those twelve men and they were amazing because when they spoke they spoke the word about when they wrote they wrote down the Word of God so these men have great Authority and so it says the twelve some of the congregation of the disciples and they said yes listen it's not desirable for us to neglect the Word of God in order to serve tables people came to the Apostles the Apostles responsibility was to study the Bible understand it teach it and train people their job making sure the message was spreading and people being trained but they said listen we got to do something but these widows and the apostles said listen we don't really have the time to hand out the food to the widows and it's not that that's a bad thing we we just don't have that time it's not desirable for us to neglect the Word of God in order to serve tables there's nothing wrong with handing out the food to the widows but that's not that what the apostles were for 8,000 people see in the body every believer is to have a part and so it wasn't gonna feed the Apostles job to feed the widows they said let's find somebody else to feed the widows and let's find something else to do this in fact when you think about our church there are people who take down the chairs and set up this and bring other things in and do these kind of things I don't usually get to do that I I get to teach so every one of us have different things to do look what it says therefore brethren select select from it says therefore brother select from among you seven men of good reputation full of the Spirit and of wisdom whom they may put in charge of this test now they said let's get seven men to put that you don't get me in that are godly men and put them in this position he's saying you find within the body seven men who can be raised up to handle this area because the Apostles have a different job now look how they're described he said pick them from among you they have to be men from among you you know when you talk about leadership in the body they come from the men within the body they have to be men they had to be have a good reputation that meant be above reproach that means when people said their name they didn't go oh yeah they went oh yeah he's a good person above reproach full of the Holy Spirit to have to be men who lived a godly life full of those spirit and full of wisdom that's application you've got to pick out some wise godly men to handle this issue this is how the church functions the ministry is done by people the ministry is done by people with their different gifts talents and abilities and so here's a question for you where where are you serving in this body think about it what are you serving how are you using your gifts talents and abilities how are how are you being used by God to say okay I get to do this and somebody else gets to do this and somebody else gets to do this it's a powerful truth look what the Apostles say verse four we will devote ourselves to prayer into the Ministry of the word see the Apostles job was prayer and Ministry of the word their job was to pray and to teach the Bible and to help evangelize and do all the things because they were the representatives of Jesus Christ they were set apart that's one of the things all of us supposed to do but think about this in the local church one of the key roles of the pastor in the local church is to teach the Word of God it's not sermons it's not stories it's to proclaim and teach the Bible the Word of God so that you can know it and understand it I've got this quote I thought it's a good quote Donal Greg Barnhouse was a great pastor years and years ago he said no man could fill the pulpit adequately unless he spends thousands of hours year by year in the Word of God I just sat down just this week and I said okay in this last year about how many hours have I either studied or taught it's about 1,400 average about 30 hours a week just in the study or the teaching study or teaching about 30 hours a week you have to if you're gonna know the Bible and proclaim the Bible that's not responsibility and so the parcel said we must devote ourselves we must devote ourselves to prayer and the Ministry of the word now I want you to see something that in at this time in the church there are no elders or deacons we're going to see later on as we study and as I've already mentioned that the offices in the church are elders and deacons it seems to me that the forerunners of elders were the apostles and the forerunner of deacons are going to be these men who are chosen they're never called deacons and the Apostles never called elders but as you can see that as the Apostles died off that became these responsibilities men raised up to be elders and men raised up to be deacons and we'll see that later on notice what happened verse five the statement found approval with the whole congregation and they chose stephen a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit and Philip and victorious and knockanure and timon and parmenas and nicolas a proselyte from antioch now they listed seven men let me show you first of all the first of all there Stephen you're gonna see him at the end of this chapter and you're gonna see him next week and then he's gonna be killed he's the first martyr the what we call the first martyr of the church he's a great leader okay second there's another man named Phillip that you see and he's called the Evangelist we will see him again as well in fact you'll see him in the book of Acts as he goes to a place called Gaza which most of you've heard of Gaza if you've heard of the Gaza Strip which is nowadays and the Palestinians and the G and the Jewish people and all of the issues that are there a lot of it deals with the Gaza Strip this is where Philip goes he goes to the Gaza Strip we'll see that but I want you to notice something about these names if you notice that Philip and fyke aureus and non-core and Timman and premiers and Nicholas those are not Jewish names the Hellenistic names now these are Jewish people except one so they chose men from the party that were Hellenistic Jews to help hand out the food because what was the issue they were saying Hellenistic women the widow's aren't getting anything they said okay let's pick some Hellenistic Jews to hand it out so nobody can say we're overlooking them they were wise and they picked these people out by the way the last person nicolas a proselyte from any op that means he was a Gentile he wasn't even Jewish it was a proselyte that was a Gentile who had who had started off by worshiping the God of Israel and then he trusted Jesus Christ as Savior watch what they did verse 6 they brought them before the Apostles and after praying they laid their hands on them now laying hands on somebody is a sign of identification if we ordained someone we bring that person up and say this person is going to represent our church and we are attaining them for ministry and we have our men lay hands on that person that's identification notice it says they brought them before the Apostles after praying they laid their hands on them and they're saying we are setting you men apart to do this ministry once again they handle the problem from within now let me tell you this and we've seen it over and over problems from without outside the body rarely hurt the body fact I saw last night I had on television and there were two women who were from Iran who because they had become Christians living in Iran and they were giving out Bibles to Iranians and telling about Jesus they got arrested and put in prison and given the death sentence and because of the uproar in the world and a lot of governments wrote Iran and said these women should not die because they're Christians after two hundred and I forgot how many days 86 days or something they were in prison in Iran they were released they've come to the United States they now live in the United States and they wrote a book but they they stood for Christ and they said the only thing that mattered to us whether we lived or died they told us all you have to do is say you're a Muslim and you'll be released from prison they said we can't do that because we love Jesus because it makes us feel like we somebody looks at us wrong when we go I'm sorry and they get thrown into prison but let me tell you problem from without they not gonna hurt us you can't hurt the body from without but you can trick the body from within and when there are issues within the body if they are not dealt with they will destroy the body and so these guys are wise they said we got an issue inside the body widows are griping people our own man somebody okay we're gonna solve it we gonna pick seven men they're gonna oversee it we even gonna pick seven elders stick tight men we're gonna let them run everything and everything's going to be fine and they brought them before the apostles and after praying they laid hands on them look at the results verse seven the Word of God kept on spreading and the number disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem and a great meeting of priests becoming obedient to the faith now let me tell you after they saw the problem it just kept growing more and more and more if you deal with issues within you're gonna be okay issues without we just stand strong issues within must be dealt with it says the Word of God kept spreading and kept going and the Word of God is the key and when it says the Word of God they were teaching that salvation was by faith and the Bible is God's Word and you need to grow in the Grace and knowledge of Christ and all of those things and the numbers kept increasing and that there's one statement I want you to look at the very end of verse seven says and a great many of the priests were coming obedient to the faith the priests do you remember that in the religious leaders those the high priestly family were opposed to Christianity opposed to the believers but the regular priests who weren't part of that they served in the temple every day do you remember when Jesus died on the cross what happened in the temple did he might remember the veil was torn in the temple from where from the top to the bottom who saw that the priests there were priests that said he died on a cross thing was torn top to bottom and it never happened before he must be gone and so a number of priests were beginning to believe in Jesus our Savior look what it says a great many of the priests become obedient to the faith the beat of the faith means they were believing in Jesus Christ and Savior there has to be leadership to handle issues in the problem and in the body let me remind you this the two officers and this is why it's so important our elders and deacons and I think the next slide I guess not the elders from older and mature men to oversee the Deacons were the servants and so we see that that we got to have those men now by the grace of God we have elders and deacons in this church and we've got great men that God has raised up to take the places of leadership and let me tell you let me tell you the the two things that stand out about these men number one they're servants of Jesus Christ and number two they're men of humility not one of them if you go up to them and say so you an elder your deacon they'll go he have like grace of God all the way for me none of them think they're anything which means they're great for God because if you want to be great for God you'd be a servant that's what we have by the grace of God well let's see the problem yeah go ahead to the next one I think problems from without let's see what happens and we're gonna see one of these men one of the seven men which is named Steven look what happens first eight and Steven full of grace and power was performing great wonders and signs among the people listen he didn't just hand out food he was a man on fire for Christ and notice it says that he was a man of grace and power and he's performing wonders and science listen he was doing miracles he went out and did miracles and and notice he is he is a leader he's become well known leader in the church and people are saying there's that man named Steven boy he knows some stuff he's doing all kind of things but a problem develops watch this is from without but some men from what was called the synagogue of the freedmen including Cyrenians and Alexandrians and some from Sola see and Asia rose up and argued with Stephen let me tell you about a synagogue the synagogue or actually comes from two words together synagogue a and it means to come together a coming together when the Jewish people were taken into captivity into Babylon they were without a temple and so they met in small groups so they could keep their faith when they came back to Israel after the captivity they kept these small groups called sin ago gays synagogues so a synagogue was where Jewish people would meet together and they would read scripture and somebody would speak and all of those kind of things well there was a synagogue called the synagogue of the freedmen which most people think that means there were some Jewish people who were in that synagogue that used to be slaves and they were also some people from from Cyrene and Alexander and Cilicia and from Asia and they started to argue with Stephen Oh Stephen went around speaking and doing miracles and so they didn't like it so they came up to him and said who do you think you are anyway we don't believe like you we don't believe in Jesus we don't who do you think you aren't they begin to argue but Stephen was so well versed in the and he was filled with the Holy Spirit look what it says but they were unable to cope with the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking they would raise things and Stephen would answer him have you ever talked with somebody who knew the Bible so well that when you'd say you know the Bible doesn't say that and they said yeah that's right here if you noticed that huh I've never seen that you know and so every time they would say something Stephen would answer it and he would answer it from the scripture and they were getting the wind going just was not right and by the way siliceous is the hometown of a man by the name of Saul who we know him as Paul he may be involved in this now if you remember Saul who is also called Paul he was the top student as Pharisees he studied under Gamaliel he he was the sharpest one he's probably in these debates with Stephen we don't know for sure but probably is and every time Paul says something because he thinks he's the smartest one there is and he was Stephen would answer it and I guarantee you Paul said who is this guy like this guy this guy's answered everything and I said I said this he said that that doesn't act right and so they weren't able to cope with the wisdom in the spirit which is speaking so here's what they decided to do because they can't stop him they secretly introduced me and the same we have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God so they couldn't stop him so they said let's duel is let's lie about him so they had some people come in and say that guy Stephen he's he's doing blasphemous guy he thinks he he's saying bad things about God really yeah that Stephen guy oh yeah he said he said bland things about Moses he said bad things about God everything you know when you stand for Christ they're gonna be people against you it says here they secretly introduced men to say we've heard blasphemous things westeros words about Moses about God literally the word it means under the rug when it says secretly they they they hid things and they made lies up about him ever been lied about let it make you man it makes you mad because people lie about you and you go that's not true well they said all kind of things they said Stephen is saying bad things about Moses Stephen wouldn't say bad things about Stephen says bad things about the temple Stephen says all kind of bad things by the way in the Jewish mind blasphemy for big areas if you had an idol of blasphemy if you didn't keep the Sabbath that's blasphemy if you didn't get circumcised Jewish that was blasphemy if you cursed if you use God's name in vain that was blasphemy well of course if you spoke against the law if he spoke against Moses that was blasphemy look what happened and they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes and they came up to him and they dragged him away and brought him before the council now the council is the same he drew they came up to him one day and when they were arguing with him and they just grabbed him and they dragged him off and they put him before the religious leaders now we've already seen that the Apostles have been before the religious leaders at least twice and both times of religious leaders said you're not to talk about Jesus and the Apostle said whether it's right in the sight of God to obey you or God we're gonna always obey God rather than me and we're gonna talk about Jesus now they got Stephen there what are they gonna do look in verse 13 they put forward false witnesses who said this man incessantly speaks against this holy place in the law we heard him say that this Nazarene Jesus will destroy this place that's the temple and altar the customs which Moses had that ended down to us now what they say is two things they said this man says Jesus are going to destroy the temple Jesus didn't say he would destroy the temple he said the temple would be destroyed he didn't say he's gonna destroy it and Jesus never said he was gonna change the law in fact he said I'm gonna fulfill the law now Stephen has not done anything wrong but they said you're against Moses you're against the law you're against the temple you're against God you deserve to die and they got him in the room and they said you're against God you're against Moses you're against the law you're against the temple you're gonna die look what it said and fixing their gaze on him all who were sitting in the council saw his face like the face of an angel what do you think that meant do you think you've just had a smiling face I'm just happy to be here no you're not happy to be there face like an angel may amend that he begin to glow give me when those of the come down off the mountain after being with God face to face what did they do is face glowed and people I went your face is glowing did you know your face was going right and now they look at Stephen and he looks like the face of an angel what this is saying is God is working in Stephens life what's going to happen but the next two weeks is gonna take us two weeks to go through Chapter seven because if you notice it's sixty verses and it's an entire history of the Old Testament people so if you've ever wanted a crash course in the Old Testament instead of saying I don't have time to read every book in the Old Testament and how it flows for the next two weeks I'm gonna give you from Stephen an overview of the Old Testament and how it fits together why does he do that he answers their charges and we'll see that what are we saying problems with in disputes with the widows the solution they appoint motor men and they handle it problems without Stephen is arrested they live give false witnesses against him they say he's against the temple and against the wall but Stephen is going to have divine help and we'll see what happens let me let me just say this to you when the Apostles got arrested they wanted to kill him but they didn't the second time the Apostles got arrested they want to kill him but they didn't this time they've arrested even and they want to kill him and guess what they are gonna kick him when it's all over they're gonna kill him because he stood for his faith and let me tell you something if he wants a TV show I saw last night and those two girls from Iran those two women from Iran who were willing to die for Jesus Christ because they said Huckabee said to them and just said why why wouldn't you and then what what kept you from announcing your faith in Christ to save your life they said because we love Jesus and he's everything to us is Jesus everything to us let me give you some applications servant leadership is needed to carry on the Ministry of the local body you've got to have men raised up in leadership now let me talk about this first of all just all of you servant leadership every one of you have areas that you serve in that you can oversee and if you're going to do that if you're going to oversee and serve it's got to be servant leadership you've got to do that but there also has to be men raised up in a local body to serve within that body servant leadership so they go back to the characteristics of first Timothy 3 and Titus chapter 1 and it that the key characteristic is servanthood and humility and by the grace of God the men that you have elected that God has raised up in this body are men who are servants and men of humility so gotta be needed second the ministry is always done in the power of the Holy Spirit that's what Stephen did when he went out and did all the ministry he was in the power of the Holy Spirit and and when he argued in a sense for those people being controlled by the Holy Spirit they couldn't answer him we need to live our lives in the power of the Holy Spirit there's a third application and that is this expect persecution when you stand for Christ you might as well expect it if you say I'm going to live for Jesus Christ I'm going to stand for Christ you can expect in this fallen world is gonna be persecution if you lived in Iran they might kill you you live in the United States they're gonna make fun of you they're gonna say that you're an idiot because you believe this stuff you must be uneducated idiot to believe this stuff we say no now I believe the Word of God problems without never hurt us progress within destroy us deal with the problems within last but not least pray for the leadership of Stillwater Bible Church we've got great men been raised up pray that God will continue to raise up men to take leadership positions we've got some incredible men who are doing some great things and I just thank God for them I don't know where I'd be without him and I thank God for you and your hearts for Jesus Christ and your heart to serve so remember write down as an application pray for the man that you may not know them call the church service will give you there and you can pray specifically for the people that God has put that for the people that God has placed in leadership may we learn from God's Word now we see the importance of godly leadership may we serve within the body and may we expect persecution when we stand for Christ you

Channel: Stillwater Bible Church

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Length: 36min 56sec (2216 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 18 2013