The Face of an Angel | Pastor Daniel Gouveia

[Music] happy sabbath everyone today we'll start off song service by singing 181 does jesus care number 181 [Music] does jesus [Music] is [Music] is [Music] his heart is [Music] is [Music] as the days [Music] is is [Music] does jesus [Music] is [Music] is is [Music] our next song is number 495 near to the heart of god number 495. okay yes all three verses [Music] there is a place [Music] a place [Music] there is [Music] lord jesus god [Music] there is a place [Music] a place [Music] our next song is number 251 he lives number 251. [Music] is [Music] is christ jesus [Music] is [Music] i never will [Music] christ jesus is [Music] is [Music] next let's sing 5 24 524 tis so sweet to trust in jesus 5 24 5 24. yes 524 and let's sing only is [Music] jesus jesus [Music] jesus jesus precious jesus oh just to trust this [Music] jesus [Music] and for opening song let's all stand up as we sing 6 20 on jordan's stormy banks number 620 let's all stand up and we will sing all persons yes oh [Music] lord [Applause] [Music] those the sun forever [Music] for the promised land [Music] where shall i reach that happy place [Music] when shall i see my father's face [Music] filled with delight my rapture [Music] [Applause] promised [Music] thank you you may be seated and happy sabbath good morning and happy sabbath are we bound for the promised land just have a few announcements most of you probably had an opportunity to read the announcements up on the screen so i'm not going to go over everything because we have more announcements after i sit down this morning so just want to highlight a few areas our new conference pastor elder daniel cerns will be on duty his first day in the office will be on monday so excited to have him in our conference on monday and he will start his ministry as he supports the minister in the central california conference and also a number of you went to the union constituency meeting that we had in arizona in august and we have a new union president and we're excited to have our new union president with us at this point and appreciate everything that's taking place with the officers and uh just want to highlight a few things in the conference at this point is that we'll have 40 days of listening that elder cerns would like to start and he's going to be going around to the various areas throughout the conference starting a week from now up until october and our first get together as an area group of churches will be on october the 3rd at the clovis symphony adventist church at 3 o'clock in the afternoon it's going to be called a listening session where elder stearns wants to make sure that we get together and listen to the spirit and listen to god's calling as we continue our ministry as we have entered into the last days we have a number of uh other uh situations we need to remember like i mentioned with the union office with their new officers i was down there in fact on thursday meeting with some of the union officials as we're talking about education ministry in the pacific union and dr brad newton who's our new union uh president was the executive secretary it's good to have him with us and continue his ministry we're so happy to know that a number of our precious members are back at home and uh we have suleian governor pastor's wife it's good to have her back at home right pastor amen and we also miss her because she's a key role in the conference office working education uh working in the human resources and working with the education department so we want her to come back soon soon we do have some individuals that we need to point out we need to remember david rincon his father recently passed away so please remember him in prayer and also let's remember the various ministries in our church we have the pathfinder club that just started up and that's just a wonderful opportunity for young people and never forget when i had an opportunity as a pathfinder in the church a few years ago to participate in pathfinders great situation we'll have an announcement later on about fresno avenues academy but we're very excited about the new school year at fresno academy with a growing enrollment and with the ministry that's taking place right then and there and also we need to remember our young people in a very special way whether they're in an adventist school or they're being homeschooled or in public school we still have a number of our young people in our church that will be headed off to adventist colleges and state colleges and uni universities that will be starting up very soon so let's remember them prayer at this time i'd like to start off with prayer right before we invite the deacons to come forward with tithes and offerings let's pray together our heavenly father thank you so much for partnering with us on a daily basis at this time dear father as we remember the tithes and offerings especially today the local church budget that we will remain faithful as we have a number of ministries that you have upheld in this church to continue to spread the gospel be with us that will be faithful to you in all we do in jesus name i pray amen i'd like to invite the deacons at this time to please serve the congregation [Music] so [Music] thank you norma that was beautiful before we have a morning prayer i'd like to share a thought with you and this is taken from james chapter 3 verses 17 and 18. james chapter 3 verses 17 and 18. this talks about wisdom i don't know about you i need greater wisdom every day and wisdom can only come from whom god and especially in today's world as we're trying to navigate what's taking place around us all the time we didn't need to make sure that we're prayerfully understanding god's will for us so let me share the text with you but the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure then peace loving considerate submissive full of mercy and good fruit impartial and sincere peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness so let us as the members of the cynthia evans church strive to always be peacemakers and partnership with god i'd like to invite all of you are able to please kneel with me in prayer our precious and loving father thank you for bringing us into your house this morning be with us in a very special way as we commune with you be with all the individuals whether they're online or in person today that will be receptive to the message of elder gover thank you so much for his ministry for the ministry of this church in a variety of ways whether it's through sabbath school through adult sabbath school through community service to the pathfinder club and also through the ministry of fresno avenues academy we asked in a very special way to continue to bless faa be with our principal gail norton be with his team of teachers be with the students there that every day they have an opportunity to draw closer to you at this time too we're thankful that we're going to be in a position to welcome a new conference president elder cerns we ask you to bless him to stay close to him as he guides and directs and partners with you and with this constituency also we know that there's many loved ones that have passed on through this congregation recently and there's individuals are still hurting right now through loss of loved ones also individuals that recovering we ask you to be with all those precious souls that you will stay close to them give them the encouragement that they need and return them back to us as soon as possible and also dear father too help us as we read in the passage this morning about being peacemakers dear father for such a time as this help people to witness and to understand who we are and help us to reach out and to be able to take time with others that maybe are going through trials and tribulations to give them that word of encouragement take time to pray with one another that we can encourage each other and build each other up and their father thank you for loving us and for taking care of us and we leave our thoughts and our cares upon you this morning and bless us throughout this service in jesus name i pray amen [Music] good morning and happy sabbath for those of you who don't know me i'm pam medella i'm the church clerk and i'm also the pathfinder director so next sabbath afternoon pathfinders are going to meet at the pathfinder build building on the faa campus we're going to have our induction service how many of you have been to an induction service or been a part of an induction service so for those of you who don't and haven't and for those of you who have this is a very special ceremony and very important ceremony for the pathfinders our pathfinder group also has several churches involved and so i would like to invite you to be part of our induction service so if you will come and join us next sabbath afternoon faa campus in the pathfinder buildings it's in the very back of the campus and we will start promptly at three o'clock so please come and support our pathfinder groups show the other churches that our church does support our pathfinders also i would like to welcome there are many faces that i haven't seen for a while and we're happy to see you this afternoon we are having our potluck and so we would like to invite you to our potluck and we will need help so if you are willing to be a server we would appreciate that thank you good morning and happy sabbath to those who are not here for the sabbath school here in the sanctuary so nice to see you i have with me here amy butler she is the secretary of the nominating committee for many months we have met with the nominating committee i was in portugal so i missed four sessions four meetings and i want to thank our head elder john berg who chaired the meetings while i was gone but then i shared the rest and there was one or two meetings that i chaired before i went to portugal on vacation and i want to before amy reads the report i want to remind you that we are human beings and human beings can make mistakes and they make a lot of mistakes okay mispronunciation and mispronunciations that's true i know that there is at least one um misspelling in the list that you are receiving and that probably will see projected we forgot the letter d in verda lindsay's name verda if you're hearing this forgive us okay now there's other people who also when you read your name or your last name maybe it's not pronounced as it should be please forgive us okay please also we've done our best to reach out to every single person that you will be hearing the names of but if anyone if we miss to call you and we assume that somebody else calls you and you're you see your name up there and nobody has called you please forgive us come to us we can still fix things please know also that not every single department is ready to go there's at least one department that our church board will have to decide later on and there's probably other names that we will have to add by the turk via the church board proposing it to the church so with all of that in mind please remember that you are christians that you love jesus and you love your brothers and sisters even the ones at the nominating committee i'm going to let amy go ahead and read it thank you amy thank you thank you and happy sabbath church family thank you for all that are coming and attending into our visitors we look forward to visiting with you this is a long list i'm told to read it as quickly as i can and you will get a handout okay for our elders melvin blue head elder john berg assistant elder elders belvin lewin david giograndi randall concepcion peter nicholas melton teske cosman ayanita jack hilton gary krister dallas celias pastor stephen bohr pastor gary jensen frank sanders pending transfer deacons peter nicholas head chris cervantes as our assistant associate deacons scott cornwell john edwardson gene gradias mark madola chris morazan carl franquito frank novieli key some john cervantes john cox wade messer carlos medina jose alcazar pending transfer juan rizzo valentino ruiz safety emergency and ham radio carl kramer as our head peter nicholas gerald reynolds deaconesses queenie knoblin as our head becky berg as our assistant darlena franquito as an assistant deaconesses mary melton jan reynolds christiane issa deborah holland verta lindsey delilah king julie novieli shelley teske michelle santoyo nelly melanie chick ceta pearson mary nicholas cheryl davis joanne banks rachel richelle barbara sanders pending transfer fellowship dinners are deaconesses will be in charge of those floral committee our deaconesses will be in charge of those as well prayer ministries director mary melton greeter's directory director trudy muscat treasurer john berg church clerk pam medulla music coordinator crinston joe as our head pam medalla as our assistant evangelism melvin blue under evangelism will also be personal ministries frank sanders pending transfer interest coordinator amy butler literature booth juan rizzo as our head mary de leon as our assistant communications daniela giogrande is our head pam medalla assistant adventist community services furman jones is our head christian christina scott recruitment assistant under adventist services will also be community outreach keith and christina scott stewardship ministries bevan lewin head karen weila as an assistant amy butler as assistant family ministries gil lourdes and valentino ruiz as heads frank and julie novelli assistance men ministries pastor gary jensen as our head frank sanders assistant pending transfer women's ministries josie barone singles ministries karen walla children's ministries josie barron children's stories carolyn calhoun youth ministries to be determined to be determined by our church board health ministries jack hilton faa school board pasty gear pastor gary jensen is our lead delegate vanessa greer alex and amy merriam kisom and michael burke pathfinders pamidala religious liberty pastor gary jensen as our head frank sanders assistant pending transfer deaf ministries director robert pluvell armenian ministries pastor sarkis kenoblien ukrainian ministries paxtor malnuchik library nadine owen as our head cynthia lemaster althea huffman social committee director pastor gary jensen funerals and weddings deacons and deaconesses will be responsible for these plant committee director terry duran finance committee gerald reynolds as our head john berg deborah branch helen inns jean olagi bevan lewin key scott and john oyen video department scott cornwell as our head melvin blues steve boar jr nancy cornwell dan and terry lutz chris morrison and denzel morrison as well as keith soam adio mark medulla head steve defalco kristen jones carl kramer gerald reynolds jonathan schlitz kison sabbas school bosenya sega superintendent jose alcazar assistant pending transfer sabbath school secretaries helen inns as our head of thea huffman is our assistant cynthia lee master trudy mascond nadine oyen jan reynolds and michelle santoyo cradle roll carl jones as our head terry duran as assistant kindergarten joyce tyra as our head mary nicholas assistant primary tanya concepcion as our head loopy olagi as assistant juniors lorisa keller as our head amy butler assistant youth sabbath school will um will be determined by church board church board members pastor daniel gouveia melvin blue john berg belvin lewin david giograndi rendell concepcion peter nicholas melton teske cosman ayanita jack hilton gary crister dallas salias pastor stephen bohr pastor gary jensen frank sanders pending transfer queenie kanoblin mary melton pam medala fuhrman jones gil ruiz jose barron princeton joe daniel giograndi daniela giogrande robert flubel pastor sarkis knoblin pastor melon chuck gerald reynolds terry duron scott cornwell bosenya sega and mark madola and again i know i mispronunciated some names my apologies thank you all and happy sabbath thank you amy she did a great job didn't she like five minutes i don't know how she read so many names in five minutes like i said in the beginning we make mistakes and we made a mistake this morning i was sending to the all the nominating committee members another updated list i've sent him like a hundred and we forgot there's a name that we voted and we forgot to put it in the list of our elders he's right here praise the lord that he was on duty today ken bollington we i know we voted his name and his name is not on the list please forgive us so i'm adding that name publicly the list you have of elders is missing one name ken bullington next sabbath that name will be on the list god willing okay thank you now i want to call michael berg as you saw that he was reelected to be one of our delegates for the faa he's going to share something with you he has started to share that last week there's an initiative being led by lay members at faa and here at our church we've asked michael to kind of head the this project and i'm going to give him all the time that he needs thank you um so last week we heard a video that was presented by our newly elected board chairman fa bud dickerson um calling to help support the children that are [Music] unable to continue at faa because of financial reasons and so we're here to raise some money for those students our goal is 50 to 100 000 starting off and we generally hold a gala every year that funds this this project that we have this last year with kovid that was put on hold and so we haven't received those funds through our normal pathways so today i just want to give you a synopsis of my time that i spent at faa i was a third generation attendee from faa my grandfather his couple of his children and myself have been there and now my son goes there uh i started in first grade and it was a new school and new people and i was very shy i still hold that to be true sometimes but i was opened welcomed with open arms as some of you may know terry garcia's son hank he was the first uh kid to come up to me and and welcomed me to the classroom and um that butted a lifetime lifetime friendship that we still hold today henry garcia yes yeah and um so these uh kids that go to fa they they make lifetime uh friendships and um we want to support that as much as possible by bringing in as many kids as we can to our school whether they have the financial ability to be there or not if they want to be part of the faa family we want to help them to achieve that goal we have these cards that have been circulated around and it's a fa commitment card i have plenty of these in in my hand and we have them out in the foyer as well there's also opportunities to give online and we are requesting anyone that is able to either make a one-time pledge or donation or also we have monthly installment options as well any little bit does help these kids it's an ongoing payment process for them to get through a full year of school and so again any little bit does help these kids and it helps our school to grow as well we've had varying numbers of enrollment over the years i remember at one point in time we were over 300 um we have shrunk some in the time since but we're on the path to growing again enrollment is up this year and we're very excited to see more people coming to our school and interested in learning about god and the fellowship that the faa offers it's part of being at that school is understanding how god fits into all aspects of education and what makes it so special being there uh in in that atmosphere is learning from your not just your religious teachers but your english teachers your science teachers your math teachers how god fits into that equation of life and education um so if you have any questions please feel free to reach out to me i'm here uh most sabbaths as many as i possibly can be and um uh always available to anyone that has questions um and i'll be in the foyer today after church thank you [Music] it's time for a children's story um whoever's a kid let me come up and we're gonna i guess here on the stairs okay so if you wanna hear what i my story come on up [Music] anybody else don't all right okay here they come here they come there uh [Music] good morning how you guys doing i'm zeke i'm a chaplain at a hospital and i have the children's story today and i am so glad to be here because i get to be myself i like being a kid you know a week ago i took an elderly lady that needs help with buying groceries i took her to uh what's that grocery outlet have you been to grocery outlet supposedly they sell groceries there for less or cheaper and uh while i was pushing the card for her i i saw these grapes a bag of a bag of grapes you like grapes yeah they're coming out now but these bags of crazy they said cotton candy grapes i said no what this is the second time i see them and then i'm like i wonder how much they cost and then i i looked at the price and it said three dollars and ninety-nine cents four dollars basically that's right as i gotta buy those i gotta buy those and so i took it to the to the front and and i paid well actually i didn't pay yet i mean i saw the price i went and you know what it wasn't four dollars it was 3.99 per pound so it was like 12 dollars were great it's like for every little ball was like a dollar i'm like man these are expensive and i bought them for my kids of course i bought them for my kids yeah and so um but they're good oh they taste like cotton candy they have a lot more sugar but but they're good they're good i want to share a story with you about a a little girl that wanted some grapes and it was already late it was like nine o'clock at night and she's like mama i feel like eating grapes and mama said no no no you can't eat grapes because it's too late you need to go to bed but mama please you want to eat some grape just one nope go to bed because if you want you get one eat one you're gonna want two and so she went to bed the little girl i don't know we'll call her sally she went to bed she went to bed but she did not go to sleep she was waiting for mama waiting for mama after 10 15 minutes she didn't hear anything downstairs so she decides to get up get out of bed she walks on the uh floor and and she opens the door and she goes i don't want to wake up mama i don't want to wake up mama then she squeezes to the door and she walks out to where the stairs are at she walks down and little by little she goes down finally where she's at the kitchen and there on the kitchen table where what grapes she looks to the left looks to the right she sticks out her hand who said that she looked around no maybe it's just my mind who is that but i wonder i want to have that grape i want a piece of it [Music] she throws the grape down and there in the living room looking in the dark was mama she saw her but it wasn't mama that was saying it was someone else her angel mama saw her getting frustrated she saw sally getting frustrated but she didn't know why but once she stopped and said no i'm not going to eat that grape mama run to her she says i'm so proud of you sally i'm so proud of you you listened to me you obeyed me you see there will be times in our lives that that we're going to have to choose and we know what mama and daddy tell us you know don't go this way or don't do that and you're gonna be like oh but they're not here oh i don't oh but but god is watching right god is watching so always make the right choice because when you make the right choice god gets excited just like the mama did god bless you guys thank you for listening [Music] so [Music] i guess this has been one of the periods of time in our life here in the united states with this covid and the title of this hymn is rise and be healed and the covet is bad enough you all know all the terrible stories but all the other things that come along with it like fear and depression and sadness separation losses those all affect our spiritual growth and jesus inspired this person to write rise and be healed all of those things i could heal them all and our salvation he could fix that too because heaven is just around the corner and i want to rise and be healed completely to have the character of christ so that i can enter in and be with all of you for ages and ages throughout eternity [Music] has fear and doubt come against your mind has your faith lift up your eyes here cometh your help it is jesus for you he hath died rise and be healed in the name of jesus [Music] arise in your soul rise and be healed in the name of jesus [Music] if by faith you reach out to him he will meet [Music] he will respond to the cry of your [Music] heart he will touch you and set you free [Music] in the name of jesus let faith [Music] your arise rise on me healed in the name of jesus he will make you everywhere he will make you [Music] every with [Music] hey amen wasn't that beautiful praise the lord thank you norma thank you pastor zeke for that wonderful children's story every time i hear zeke telling a children's story i'm so blessed and i am hoping to have him here preaching at our church soon and very soon amen also i want to share with you a text that i just got from our dear sister terry duran she cannot be here this morning her daughter jennifer and two of her children tested and are ill and tested positive for covid they are three and 18 months old so please please pray for jennifer and her two children and you know there's many more you've seen the names on the screen every week we share pamidala has been sharing emails with names the list keeps growing it's not only covet it's a lot of other things so i want to pray that you i want to ask you that you may pray for the people in our church that are experiencing suffering physical suffering mental suffering so how about i know i know we had a long uh program and i know i'm supposed to preach and i will by god's grace but how about we take a few moments to pray we need prayer more than ever i am blessed every day knowing that this church is praying for me and we need to pray there's a lot in our midst that are sick i want to invite you to turn to the person that is right beside you and because probably that will be a member of your family so you don't have to put a mask on if it is not a member of your family that you're praying with if you feel more comfortable put on your mask and in groups of two or three let's take a moment to pray to god for healing for many people in our church that are going through pain just a moment i many times i ask you to pray for other things today i am pray i'm asking you to pray for the members of our church that are going through sickness and pain i we all have people that we know that are going through some sort of pain so please let's do that those who are at home i invite you to do the same thing if you are alone jesus is there with you talk to him if you are with your family pray with your family let us pray yes for the outpouring of the holy spirit but also in a very special way for the healing upon those who are sick who are suffering right now let's do that [Music] it is good to pray father in heaven please hear these prayers of your people there are so many among us who are suffering not only with covet but with other things some things we can do something about some things only you can fix and we put our bodies in the bodies of our loved ones our hearts and the hearts of our loved ones in your hands this morning thank you that we have a good powerful and merciful god who said fear not for i am with you do not be dismayed for i am your god i will strengthen you yes i will help you i will sustain you with my righteous victorious hand so we claim your promise this morning and i pray that as we open your word your holy spirit may minister to our hearts in the name of jesus amen please open your bibles with me to acts chapter 6 acts chapter 6 verse 15 says in all who said in the counsel looking steadfastly at him saw his face as the face of an angel that's the title of my sermon this morning the face of an angel would you like to have the face of an angel yes or no would you like your would you like your face to shine like the face of an angel you know there's a lot of people that spend a lot of money on their face really especially here in the united states i i read an article on the groupon merchant website saying this was written by chelsea haney's august the 3rd 2017 uh one and i'm quoting her article her article one poll on behalf of groupon has recently released results from a timely commissioned survey titled the true cost of beauty disclosing how americans routinely spend money on their appearance and although these survey results are coming out in a tandem with the summertime released about five weeks ago this was august when she wrote they reflect the habits of 2 000 american men and women year-round in fact and surprisingly women who invest regularly in their appearance spend an average of three thousand seven hundred and fifty six dollars a year just narrowly surpassing their male counterparts who spend the comparative 2928 dollars a year respectively that's two hundred thousand twenty five three hundred and sixty dollars for women in a lifetime and 175 000 for men in a lifetime you could buy a house right or several cars good cars with this money but no people invest in their the bible tells us that we are to focus in our inward beauty not in our outward beauty in acts chapter 6 and chapter 7. tell us about a man tell us about several people but especially a man that at one point in his life had his face shining like the face of an angel why and what principles can we learn from the story of this man from the experience and faith of this man that will help us also to have this super human beauty and appearance well acts chapter 6 starts with a problem now in those days when the number of the disciples was multiplying this is verse 1 there arose a complaint against the hebrews by the hellenists because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution see satan knew that as long as the early church as long as those people who were the first ones to hear the gospel from the apostles as long as they received the gospel in their hearts and would allow the gospel to change their hearts to an extent that people who were enemies were now living in close communion while they were so united satan knew that he could not prevail over the church so he made him believe we are not told that discrimination was happening we are told there was a complaint so satan made them believe to some of them that they were being discriminated see sometimes you think that people are against you and they are not hear me sometimes i'm not saying all the time sometimes people are against you okay satan is always against you his angels want to kill you but sometimes you think that people hate you and they don't see there's a a text in the bible that you should know first corinthians 13 verse 5 the niv says this true love does not dishonor others is not self-seeking it is not easily angered true love the love of god that god wants to put in your heart is not easily angered because he said this because he told me this oh he forgot this he forgot that come on come on you cannot always be thinking that people are against you that's not godly that is not biblical that's not true christianity true love is not easily angered it keeps no record of wrongs oh remember the other time you also come on i experienced it this morning several times right here you you don't know the conversations that go in the back right here in the front view i experienced grace from people that could be offended with me and they were so graceful so merciful so forgiving that was the face of an angel right there right this is what god wants in your in your heart my friend you should not always think that people are discriminating against you however if discrimination happens in the church that is a big sin right the apostle paul wrote to timothy and said first timothy 5 21 i charge you before god and the lord jesus christ in the elect angels that you observe these things without prejudice doing nothing with partiality nothing with partiality you know in the nominating committee we had many discussions we prayed a lot and one of the things that since the beginning some of the principles that we shared was we're not here to elect our buddies right it's not because this person is my friend that i think and he or she thinks like i think that i think she he or she should do the job in the church we cannot do things out of partiality so when the apostles heard that there was this complaint we are not told if it was true or not but when they heard that this could break the spirit that they were partaking of they took action immediately immediately and the action they took is a biblical principle you have it in the old testament you have it in the new testament and that principle is when god is blessing the leadership should focus on certain things and we should multiply people in the church that are willing to serve willing to serve remember these two words okay willing to serve look at this verse two then the twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said it is not desirable that we should leave the word of god and serve tables therefore brethren seek out from among you seven men have good reputation now i was preparing this sermon this week and going through the nominating committee list like a hundred times and i was like lord why do we have like 200 people they only had seven and you were blessing them so much they have five thousand people in their church five thousand in jerusalem at this point at least five thousand men plus women and children and they only elect seven deacons and we are like like so many i i think there's something wrong with our i'm not saying that i don't like you know our our organization i love our organization we need organization but maybe we just care too much about position right they elect seven men these men were would coordinate ask others to help and everybody was willing to serve amen they didn't need to have their name up in the screen they were willing to serve amen willing to serve seven men of good reputation full of the holy spirit and wisdom whom we may appoint over this business but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and the ministry of the word what you what should you want your pastor to do what should you want your pastor and your elders to be doing in the church praying and ministering in the word praying and ministering the word of god amen see if there's one thing you can pray for me is god help him not to do administration help him to preach the word and pray amen now god will need to do a great miracle for that okay but but i'm asking you to pray because the temptation today is to look at the pastor as the ceo and if anything is not right at the church if we don't like the color of this or what the deacon said or what or the way the deacon collected the offering what are you going to do you call the pastor right so the pastor can spend all his time dealing with all of this and neglect the word in the prayer so they elect seven men good reputation men who are willing to serve look at verse five and the saints pleased the whole multitude and they chose stephen a man full of faith in the holy spirit it's not the not the first time that we are told that these men were full of the holy spirit now stephen specifically the foremost of the seven deacons is said to be full of faith and the holy spirit and then philip procrastinator timon parmeneus and nicholas approached light from antioch whom they set before the apostles and when they had prayed they laid hands on them then the word of god spread and the number of the disciples multiplied multiplied greatly in jerusalem and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith do you did you get everything in these verses it says that a great name of priests were obedient to the faith like people were multiplying the church was multiplying people were coming and they were ministering and preaching the word to the priests not the main priests certainly not because we know they rejected but many of the priests possibly many of the ones who had been antagonistic to the gospel who had been enemies to the gospel in the past were now embracing because there were people willing to serve you want to have the face of an angel you know what the bible says about angels in hebrews chapter 1 verse 14. you remember right remember that text it says are they not all what are they not all ministering spirits you know what it means to be to minister today we look at the minister oh he's very important because he is a minister but the word means to serve right we should the ones that are upfront leading should have this in mind we are the first ones that are to humble ourselves and to serve and not be afraid to get our getting our hands dirty right we are called to serve they were serving even people that they did not like sometimes they think okay i'm i'm willing to wash the feet of my wife of my husband of the deacon of the elder of the pastor but not that person right but the the spirit of the early church was to serve even those and especially those that were against you if you have this spirit in you your your inner beauty is being perfected in a way that it will come out in a way or another amen be willing to serve and you will have the face of an angel now verse 8 says in stephen again full of faith and power we know he was full of the faith that christ gave to his church and he was full of the power of the holy spirit when you have the holy spirit in you galatians chapter 5 verse 22 one of the things that is manifested is faith and faithfulness right in greek is the same word hear us uh 2000 years later preaching in english in many churches we talk about faith as something very you know very sentimental and ethereal but in reality faith beasties in greek is the same word that sometimes you find in the bible translated as faithfulness so when you read that a man is full of faith he is full of faith meaning trust in god and he is full of faith meaning obedience to god amen so he was full of faith this kind of faith and he was full of power because he cannot be full of faith without the holy spirit so when you pray every morning if you want to have the faith of an angel you should pray god give me a heart full of faith full of trust in you no matter whether it's happening around me no matter what is happening in me no matter what is happening in my church no matter what is happening in my work no matter what is happening everywhere in the world help me to be full of trust in you and full of faithfulness to you full of obedience to you no matter what amen and as you are full of faith and full of the holy spirit oh your face one day will shine like an angel look stefan full of faith in power did great wonders and signs among the people sometimes we think that you know deacons are supposed to collect offerings give the towels to people when they are get getting baptized and do all those you know little stuff but peter but stephen was a deacon was great doing great wonders and signs among the people i know i knew deacons uh in france while in switzerland actually i was in france but i had some friends from switzerland i i knew deacons that would visit most of the members of the church in a quarter they would have schedules they would put things together they would organize themselves and they would visit every single member of the church in three months deacons who knew the bible deacons who taught the bible look at what ellen white says in the book acts of the apostles page 89 the fact that these brethren had been ordained for the special work of looking after the needs of the poor did not exclude them from teaching the faith on the contrary they were fully qualified to instruct others in the truth and they engaged in the work with great earnestness and success i thank god that there are women and men here today sitting in this church that are not an elder are not the pastor and they are teaching the bible amen isn't that a wonderful thing you don't need to be a pastor you don't need to be an elder if you read your bible every day you pray every day you know the word you are to share it with others amen now if you want to have the face of an angel ask the lord to give you a heart full of faith full of power full of the holy spirit and be ready for opposition his face shined when people were hating him in a very in a way that was very manifested manifest look says verse nine verse nine then then there arose some from what is called the synagogue of the free men sirenians alexandrians and those of from cilicia in asia disputing with stephen and they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke now in stephen was being fulfilled partly the promise that you find in luke chapter 21 when jesus told the disciples about the dangers of the last days he said that they would be taken to councils they would be inter interrogated they would be beaten and they would be questioned but they should not worry about what they were going to say verse 15 this is luke 21 15. for i will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist my friend if you truly study the bible if you know the word and this is what you say it is written your friends can have a lot of ideas a lot of data a lot of scientific records but it's all meaningless if you have the power of the word do you know your bible you have the power of the word you know what is written you are reading with the guidance of the holy spirit then my friend jesus will give you a wisdom and a power that nobody is able to contradict nobody can say that this that the bible says that you are to go to church on sunday nobody can say that because the bible does not say that amen nobody can say that you are saved by your own works you cannot nobody can say that because the bible says that you are saved by the works of christ amen and all the good works that you do if you are truly in christ those are works of faith and of love that god is doing through you amen so if you know your word if you know the bible the word of god he gives you wisdom that nobody can contradict now they secretly verse 11 induced men to say we have heard him speak blasphemous words against moses and god see they do the same thing they did with jesus and they will do the same thing with you if you are truly following christ in the path of the cross you are loving god with all your heart you are loving people with all your heart satan hates you and he will lead people to say lies to tell lies about you and to accuse you of things that you did not do and twist your words and they stirred up the people the elders and the scribes and they came upon him seized him and brought him to the council they also set up false witnesses who said this man does not cease to speak blasphemous words against this holy place in the law for we have heard him say that this jesus of nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs which moses delivered to us and all who sat in the counsel looking steadfastly at him saw his face as the face of what as the face of an angel wow look at what ellen white wrote acts of the apostles page 99 as stephen stood face to face with his judges to answer to the charge of blasphemy a holy radiance shown upon his countenance and all that sat in the council looking steadfastly on him saw his face as it had been the face of an angel many who beheld this light trembled and veiled their faces but stubborn unbelief and prejudice of the rulers did not waver wow they see the face of stephen shining like the face of an angel they have the testimony that the holy spirit is speaking through him that god is with him and still they shun the conviction they shun away they resist they push away the conviction of the holy spirit well stephen did not was not affected by that stephen starts to speak and he speaks powerfully if you read the discourse you read the whole chapter we're not going to read the whole chapter but you read acts chapter 7. and he speaks powerfully okay he speaks basically of the main events of the jewish history starting with the patriarch starting with abraham and if you study the discourse of stephen carefully you will see that he is highlighting sacred history and interpreting sacred history showing that it had its fulfillment in christ jesus i'm going to give you a few hints okay look at abraham he says about abraham that god gave him no inheritance in the promised land not even to set his foot but promise to give it to him for a possession does jesus have the promise from the father that he will have this world completely to him yes or no he will be the lord over the whole earth yes or no he came down he sacrificed himself for us he was sacrificed in a world he rejected to be an earthly king but this world belonged to him not only by the promise of the father but because he created this world but the hearts of the men and women of this world needed more time to respond to the grace of god and by promise this world belonged to jesus well you may say pastor that's a little bit shady okay look at joseph he talks about joseph and he explains how the troubles of joseph the betrayal by his brothers and the fact that he goes to egypt and then becomes the governor of egypt is used by god to save the holy people the people of israel the descendants of jacob and jacob himself he was saved his wife was saved even though he was already old but he came to egypt he came down to egypt right right g god used jesus even though he was betrayed in the house of his friends even though he was betrayed by his own people killed by the influence of the jewish people god used jesus to save all of his family jesus is not ashamed of calling the sinners that repent brothers and sisters right well you can say meh yeah but he didn't say that clearly well then you get to moses and that's very clear right moses was mighty in words and deeds verse 22 but they reject him they say verse 27 who made you a ruler and a judge over us the rejection of the leader that god appointed you see stephen is preaching the old testament at the light of the cross ellen white said it this this way he connected jesus christ with all the jewish history act the apostles page 99 if you want to be full of faith in the holy spirit if you want your face to shine like the face of an angel you need to look at the things that the angels like to look do you have in the bible evidence of what the angels like to dwell upon yes or no oh yes you do come with me to first peter chapter 1 verses 10 through 12. first peter chapter 1 verses 10 through 12 of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully who prophesied of the grace that would come to you searching what or what manner of time the spirit of christ who was in them was indicating when he testified beforehand the sufferings of christ and the glories that would follow then to them it was revealed that not to themselves but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the holy spirit sent from heaven things which angels desire to look into friends get this the angels that never committed any sin is talking about the unfallen angels the angels of heaven the angels that never committed any sin they desire they like to look into the story of the cross the gospel the sufferings of christ what that has accomplished for you and me they are actually being blessed by looking at a sacrifice that was done for us for you and me and sometimes we forget about it we read our bible without connecting everything to the cross of jesus christ but the truth is that the greatest theologian after jesus that wrote most of the new testament said this to the corinthians i came from athens i tried to preach philosophy i tried to preach with big words but now i have determined not to know anything among you except jesus christ and him crucified all those big ideas that are very true they can't convert anyone only the love of jesus can break the hearts melt the souls how are you sharing the word of god are you sharing your ideas or are you sharing jesus christ through the bible without leaving anything aside but making jesus and his sacrifice the love of god the main thing because it is the main thing amen you want to have the face of an angel look at that cross because that's what angels desire to look into to understand the mysteries of the sacrifice of jesus for us look upon that cross every day we are told that we should spend an hour every day thinking about the sacrifice of jesus thinking about his humiliation thinking about the scenes of his earthly ministry thinking about especially the scenes of his passion that blood shed for you those nails driven through those hands thinking that it was for you thinking that god loves you so much that he will do everything even sacrifice his own son to save you because satan wants to make you believe that you are too bad for god to save but jesus thinks different jesus thinks you are worthy of his blood and you should be thinking about that when you read your bible amen you want to have the face of an angel be brave to call sin by its right name stephen was preaching talking about moses talking about the prophet that moses prophesied about christ that would come like him and that the people were supposed to hear and they rejected him and he talks about the sanctuary the tabernacle that moses did according to a pattern that's verse 44. and when he does that verse 48 he's going to say something that's going to get the jewish leadership very mad however the most high does not dwell in temples made with hands as the prophet says heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool what house will you build for me says the lord or what is the place of my rest as has has my hand not made all these things something happened when stephen said these words have you noticed have you read acts chapter 7 read it at home stephen is preaching about christ through the jewish history stephen is is is just addressing this last appeal of mercy to those men who killed jesus and all of a sudden his stone changes dramatically why because when he speaks about the temple right the temple that they were so proud of they cannot endure it anymore he sees their expressions changing and he knows that that will be his last day on earth he knows that so he says you stiff-necked and in circumcising heart and ears you always resist the holy spirit as your fathers did so to you which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute and they killed those who foretold the coming of the just one of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it friends we received we seven they haven't this people i'm sorry i'm going to jump very fast to what i'm to what what i want to say we seventh day adventist we received so much light about the heavenly sanctuary and sometimes sometimes we kind of worry too much we discuss too much we fight too much among ourselves about exactly what jesus is doing in the heavenly sanctuary and we forget that we also each one of you each one of us is supposed to be a temple we are supposed to be a sanctuary and no matter what jesus does for you in heaven if you don't let him do what he wants to do in your heart here down below you cannot enter the sanctuary in heaven what he is doing in heaven enables you to have the power to have your sanctuary cleanse today are you willing to let god cleanse your sanctuary today the blood of jesus wants to cleanse your sins today give you the assurance that you are embraced by god today give you power to overcome sin today amen this is what jesus wants to do for you my friend and this is very important i'm not saying anything it goes against the heavenly sanctuary i believe this message i preached this message i believe that judgment has started in 1844 i believe that jesus has entered the most holy place the thrones of the father and the son according to daniel chapter 7 were put in a place of judgment i believe that but i also believe that jesus is still interceding for us and he needs you to give your heart to him completely today because that's the sanctuary that he is most interested in now of course you know they stoned stephen and as they were dragging him he was being full of the holy spirit still gazed into heaven verse 56 he says look i see the heavens opened and the son of man standing at the right hand of god and they cried out with a loud voice stopped their ears and ran at him with one accord and they cast him out of the city and stoned him and the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named saul very interesting for the future sermons that saul is first mentioned here when stephen is stoned and they stoned stephen as he was calling on god and saying lord jesus receive my spirit then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice lord do not charge them with this sin and when he had said this he fell asleep friends do you want your face to shine as the face of an angel yes or no do you want to have this power to shine for jesus well you need these things be willing to serve and don't seek to be served be filled with faith in the holy spirit study your bible at the light of the cross be brave to call sin by its right name like stephen did lastly be willing to forgive even those who kill you amen stephen was looking at the cross we know that because he did exactly what jesus did when he was being crucified and killed i read an article this week it's actually an old news but they republished it the title is evidence of super human immunity to covet 19. would you like to have superhuman immunity to covet 19 evidence of super human immunity to covet 19. you can find it online just type this and it's by reuters but it's in several other websites as well now it says this it's from thursday september 16 this particular article it's being dubbed superhuman immunity new research shows some people may have a significantly higher level of humidity to covet 19 that could even protect them from future pandemics wow amazing okay scientists studied individuals who have recovered from the virus and then later received an mrna vaccine such as pfizer or moderna now paul bieni benny benny ice i don't know how to spell how to pronounce his last name paul a virologist at the rockefeller university he prefers the term hybrid rather than superhuman immunity so he says this this is a phenomenon that we and others have uncovered in people who were infected by sars covet 2 early in the pandemic and then some months later when vaccines became available they were vaccinated their antibodies were not only capable of neutralizing all of the sarskovit ii variants that we have seen thus far they were also capable of neutralizing viruses that are very much more diverse including the original sars coronavirus which is really quite different to the current ones viruses that are currently circulating in bats and pangolins pangolins pangolins bats and pangolins have viruses that these people are immune to because they have the covid 19 virus and then they were vaccinated and some of them developed this immunity that is being called superhuman immunity the scientist calls it a hybrid immunity dear friends i wish that you are all immune to the covet 19 virus i wish however there is a virus that is more deadly that is the virus of sin and the only thing that can take away the sin from your heart is the blood of jesus you want to have the face of an angel look at jesus look at his cross like stephen was looking he looked at the cross so much that when they were killing him he said lord do not impute to them this sin forgive them he did exactly what jesus was doing he forgave the people that were killing him dear friends i want to have that faith i want to have that love i want to have that forgiveness in my heart i want to have that vaccine that is greater than any vaccine i want to have the love of jesus and the blood of jesus covering me amen if that is your desire to pray with me today dear father in heaven thank you for hearing our prayers thank you for blessing this church thank you for pouring out your holy spirit upon us thank you for the miracles that the holy spirit is doing maybe we would like him to do other miracles but i thank you for the miracles that you know that we need father please help us to look unto jesus as we see that sin surrounds us and even is in us we want to tell you this morning that we want nothing to do with satan and his angels we want nothing to do with sin we want nothing to do with rebellion against you we just want the word of god in our hearts we want jesus living in us through the holy spirit we want to look unto his life and sacrifice to the extent that we will be able to reflect that life and that sacrifice thank you for hearing us and for giving to our church the face of an angel in the name of jesus amen [Music] for a closing song let's all stand as we sing savior teach me number 193 savior teach me 193. savior teach me day by love sweetness [Music] may me teach me [Music] is is teach me [Music] you may be seated [Music]

Channel: Fresno Central Seventh-day Adventist Church

Views: 285

Keywords:

Id: SMwA-nmfSD0

Length: 105min 23sec (6323 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 19 2021