Latest / iRefresh Podcast / What Are You Passionate About to Sacrifice Your All?

Transcript

What Are You Passionate About to Sacrifice Your All? · iRefresh Podcast

0:00
And I thought, Lord, I want that.
0:03
I want that in your glory.
0:06
It changes us when we are in
0:08
His presence.
0:11
Our lives are forever moved.
0:13
Welcome to the iRefresh podcast where every conversation points to the life-changing power
0:18
of God's living Word.
0:20
Let's pursue God together one conversation at a time.
0:24
Every one of us has something in our life that motivates us to get up every day,
0:30
to be able to have a purpose in our life.
0:33
Something ignites a passion, and what that does, it causes us that we'll be willing to do whatever it takes
0:41
to fulfill a dream, to pursue a goal in our life.
0:45
You know, some of us, it might be something like with our family and our loved ones.
0:48
I know as a mother, there was nothing I wouldn't want to do for my sons to be able to sacrifice my time and my resources so that I could set them up well.
0:59
Maybe for you, too, there's loved ones in your, that you'll work hard.
1:04
Or, you know, other things that we can find that we might give a place that we will give everything in our lives towards, and that might be our values.
1:16
you know as women of God
1:19
is we've learned that
1:21
the life of Christ
1:23
and how he saved us has changed us
1:25
and where we're willing
1:27
to go and do whatever God
1:29
calls us to right to be obedient
1:31
to him to fulfill that
1:33
calling in our lives and so
1:35
we will work hard
1:37
towards how we can even give to others
1:38
some of you have a heart to help those
1:40
who have needs we'll go and we'll
1:42
serve and we'll sacrifice
1:45
whatever it takes from us, that we'll give whatever time and our resources
1:48
so that for the betterment, to make someone happy, to provide for someone.
1:54
We also have values, even in our country, that people will go sign up
1:58
in order to protect our freedoms.
2:01
That here in us gathering together today allows us to realize
2:06
we have the freedom to be able to worship the Lord.
2:09
What a great value.
2:10
and that someone has made an incredible sacrifice
2:15
so that you and I can be together.
2:18
And so we find that in our purpose in life,
2:20
sometimes it will change over time
2:23
as maybe our roles change,
2:25
as we go into different places in our life and we serve,
2:30
as we grow and we meet new people in our lives.
2:33
It will cause us to maybe shift our focus.
2:39
But I want us to go into the book of Acts, and I want us to discover a man who was very inspiring.
2:45
His name was Stephen, and he was very motivated.
2:49
And I'm going to share some glimpses of a passage in chapter 6 about the character of Stephen and what it took.
3:00
Because for him to be motivated reminds me of what it takes for even someone, let's say, who's an athlete.
3:07
Like an athlete, whatever it takes for them to succeed and do well in their life,
3:11
you know that they had to do a lot of preparation.
3:13
They had to be consistent.
3:15
They had to get up.
3:16
They had to move.
3:17
They had to constantly work to perfect their skills in order for them to achieve something.
3:23
A musician, you know, the practicing and everything it took for them to compete
3:29
or for the musician to play for us to enjoy,
3:32
the sacrifices and what they would do in order for them to perform for us to enjoy.
3:39
And those continual sacrifices, we'll see that.
3:42
Now, if we look at Stephen, there's something he had to have done
3:46
way before what we begin to see him show up in Acts 6.
3:50
And we'll find it.
3:51
It says in verse 1,
3:54
Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number,
3:56
a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews
3:59
because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.
4:03
And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said,
4:06
It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables.
4:10
Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute,
4:15
full of the spirit and of wisdom, and whom we will appoint to this duty.
4:19
All right.
4:21
So we're looking at Acts as where we have the transition.
4:25
Jesus is now, he is up in heaven, the Holy Spirit has come down.
4:29
He's baptizing and lives are getting saved.
4:32
The church is giving birth.
4:35
And now we have all these people that are getting saved.
4:38
And Stephen's a part of that.
4:40
So now we have the 12 disciples that they're now overwhelmed.
4:44
Because as the growing of the church, there is a structure that's beginning to take place.
4:50
Now from the 12, there's like, okay, now amongst you,
4:52
who are they that will come and help us to be able to distribute to help those that are in need, like the widows?
5:00
And what is interesting in that is that they pick out one particular man out of the seven that they distinguish him.
5:10
And we'll see that if we skip into the next couple of verses.
5:14
We go into verse 5.
5:16
It says, And what they said pleased the whole gathering.
5:20
And they chose Stephen, a man of full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.
5:25
Now we're going to pause.
5:28
we will see the listing of the rest of the six,
5:31
but Stephen was separated as the first one,
5:34
and what was he known as?
5:36
What was his character?
5:39
Full of faith.
5:40
Full of the Holy Spirit.
5:43
Okay, so think about it.
5:45
Just like a musician or an athlete,
5:49
they had to do a whole lot
5:51
to when we get to see them.
5:52
Something like the WNBA is Caitlin Clark.
5:58
She is something that people will go and to watch and admire.
6:03
But it was because why?
6:04
She made a lot of sacrifices.
6:06
She was by herself.
6:07
She was doing the work so that her influence today and how people admire that,
6:14
it is because she did something before.
6:16
She sacrificed.
6:17
She gave and she used a God-given gift to position her to where now she has an influence and able to inspire young girls and many others, right?
6:28
Well, Stephen, there's something that was different.
6:31
Because it said the criteria actually of the seven of men, it said that they had to have what?
6:36
A good reputation, full of the spirit, and wisdom.
6:41
It doesn't come on us instantly, does it?
6:43
You had to do the work.
6:46
you have to go to the places
6:47
where no one's watching, no one's seeing
6:49
anything to be able to
6:51
have that kind of an influence
6:54
to where he would be separated
6:56
not only as one of the seven
6:57
he would be the first
6:59
and it would distinguish him not just that he
7:02
has wisdom and had a reputation
7:04
that he was also
7:05
a man of faith
7:08
so in my
7:09
mind's eye I consider that Stephen
7:11
had to have done a lot of work
7:13
and knew the word of God
7:16
and to understand what's going on here
7:18
we have a whole group of different Jewish people
7:20
we also have Gentiles that are getting saved as well
7:23
and now the dynamics are so vast
7:26
we're going to begin to look at it
7:27
as we begin to see down here in the passages
7:31
that as people were getting saved
7:34
there was something happening that was changing
7:36
because when Jesus came as the Messiah
7:40
the Jews realized that they were to protect the law of Moses
7:44
that was the one main thing
7:45
And also the temple.
7:47
Why the temple?
7:48
Where God dwelled, where they would come to worship him,
7:51
where they would make the sacrifices.
7:53
Two main things.
7:53
And then the prophecies.
7:55
The prophecies about where their Messiah would come.
7:59
So all the different Jewish sects, they were always, that was their mission.
8:03
Those three different, three main things was to protect
8:07
and to make sure they protected the holy place
8:11
and then watch for how the prophecies would be fulfilled.
8:15
now many had already gotten the revelation Stephen was one of them because he was full of the Holy
8:22
Spirit so they knew that he had experienced that encounter with God that changed his life now let's
8:30
go on now into where we go into chapter and six verse eight says now what happens so Stephen was
8:38
now what is he full of?
8:40
Grace and power.
8:43
He was doing great wonders and signs among the people.
8:47
Now, I don't think with that resume, I don't know about you, but if I had part of his resume,
8:52
I would like, I'm feeling good.
8:54
I am in the graces and the mercy and the goodness of God.
8:58
I feel so blessed.
9:01
But he had a lot on his plate.
9:04
And I just want us to think about it.
9:06
even as great and how studious and whatever he had done to prepare for this moment,
9:12
for him to have an influence to speak to many people.
9:16
What happens when you are equipped and you have done all you know to do?
9:22
The very next thing he finds out with all that he's done,
9:25
he has done miracles in the name of the Lord.
9:28
It says in verse 9,
9:29
Then there are some who belong to the synagogue of the freedmen.
9:35
Now let me explain the freedmen.
9:36
There's another word for it.
9:38
It's libertum.
9:39
And that is a Latin word that means freedom.
9:43
And what that was is,
9:45
here's those groups of people we were talking about,
9:47
the Jewish people.
9:49
At one point with the Roman Empire,
9:50
when they were in charge,
9:52
there was this great young ruler
9:54
that had demolished and taken captivity
9:58
over a lot of territory.
9:59
And he captured a lot of Jews and put them in prison.
10:01
So they were enslaved.
10:04
so at a different point in time
10:06
they were released and they became free
10:09
and the other thing was interesting
10:11
of this synagogue which was a diverse
10:14
group of people, they came from Libya
10:17
today which was North Africa, they came from Egypt
10:20
and they came from modern day Turkey
10:23
so in this verse when it begins to talk about the synagogue
10:26
of the freedmen of the Cyrenians, the Alexandrians
10:29
Indians, the Sicily and Asia, all of them together began to rise up against Stephen.
10:39
Now, isn't that amazing?
10:41
Think about it.
10:42
How many times do we feel like no matter what
10:45
we do, you get opposition?
10:49
Right?
10:49
I mean, is it not just feel like no matter how hard
10:52
we try to exceed and do our very best, there's always a critic in the crowd.
10:57
It's like you
10:58
You can never perfect yourself.
11:01
I have to always talk down myself of like, okay, perfection is not what God calls me to.
11:07
He calls me obedience.
11:09
And sometimes we just have got to recognize if I just follow his voice.
11:15
And this is what we're seeing what Stephen's going to do.
11:18
If we follow his voice, we receive his anointing, his direction, his wisdom, then we can counteract all the opposition.
11:27
And that's why you have to know and spend that time in the Word all the time so we know the heartbeat of God.
11:34
We know His voice.
11:35
So that when we have opposition coming at us, look what happens.
11:41
We are prepared.
11:43
Because it says for Stephen in verse 10, it says,
11:46
But they could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking.
11:54
I marvel at that when I realize such a goodness of our God to give him everything he needed to counteract what they were trying to throw at him.
12:07
That's who our God is.
12:09
whatever is a coming against you
12:13
recognize today
12:15
who our God is
12:17
that he has equipped you
12:19
with every tool that you need
12:21
that you can counter attack
12:24
the works of the enemy
12:28
the thing which is sad is
12:30
Stephen had received the revelation
12:32
of who Jesus was
12:34
his Messiah
12:37
and the fact that the reason
12:38
why they were opposing him.
12:39
It's because they hadn't quite gotten it.
12:41
So as he's speaking the wisdom of the Lord,
12:46
they just can't get in their mind.
12:48
Why?
12:48
There is such a mindset within them.
12:51
They're like tradition.
12:53
We are used to,
12:54
this is what we've known for centuries.
12:57
We can't change.
12:59
We are to protect the law of Moses,
13:01
protect the prophecies,
13:02
protect the temple.
13:04
That is our mission.
13:06
And when we get so stubborn
13:07
and so caught in a place where we're at,
13:10
we get settled and comfortable in our comfort here of,
13:14
this is what I've always known,
13:16
and I don't want to move outside of that.
13:18
It's outside of my place of comfort and ease,
13:22
but that's not what God calls us to.
13:25
He really doesn't, does he?
13:27
And so here's our challengers trying to come at Stephen.
13:30
And the wild thing about it is we find out what else are they going to,
13:34
So they try to give an honest debate, and they can't win.
13:38
So what do they do next in verse 11?
13:40
Then they secretly instigated men who said,
13:44
we have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.
13:48
All right, now we're stirring the pot.
13:50
We're going to create, what, a lie.
13:55
We're going to literally lie because the truth was not setting them free.
13:59
They couldn't win.
14:01
And they stirred up the people and the elders.
14:04
Okay, now we've got more people involved.
14:06
And the scribes.
14:06
And they came upon him and they seized him and brought him before the council.
14:11
And that is the Sanhedrin council.
14:13
Who are they?
14:14
Okay.
14:15
It's the highest ranking of the priests that they have the ability,
14:19
when there would be something very serious, like in a potential death penalty,
14:25
that they were the ones that would hear it.
14:27
now I'm going to also put a little thing in here for you
14:31
because we don't have time to go through Acts 7 and 8 and 9
14:35
but one of the people that was present with the Sanhedrin
14:39
was a man by the name of Saul
14:44
so now we have stirred everybody up
14:47
everybody in the synagogue, even the tensions among themselves
14:50
they were united for this point, we have got to take this guy out because he is
14:54
blaspheming everything and trying to come against everything that we know.
14:59
And so he's trying to
15:00
change.
15:00
And it says now, we have heard in verse 14, him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will
15:08
destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us.
15:14
He is trying to
15:15
literally destroy everything that we know.
15:19
And yet, what is that?
15:21
So the blasphemy of Moses,
15:24
they perceived
15:26
that they were saying Jesus is greater than Moses
15:31
yeah but he was
15:34
they're blaspheming God
15:35
they're trying to make him
15:37
wait a minute, God doesn't change
15:40
this is what God set in motion
15:42
these are the principles, we added a few laws
15:45
as priests we added a few laws along the way
15:47
we just didn't have enough laws, we created more
15:51
And this one guy is telling us that that Jesus of Nazareth is going to try to destroy even the temple, the place where we dwell and worship with him.
16:01
And what is it in our lives?
16:03
It's the same thing that was happening here is they felt threatened.
16:09
Have you ever said something and you're like, you didn't know, like, whoa, people would get offended so easily.
16:13
You're like, that was not the intent because they don't hear the heart, the love behind the message.
16:21
Well, Stephen was misunderstood, and they began to twist his words, and they started lying.
16:27
They didn't understand when they were talking about the point where Jesus was going to, remember when he said, I will destroy this temple and rebuild it?
16:37
They didn't understand that when the Holy Spirit was going to come,
16:40
Now, God was opening up a place where now the Holy Spirit was allowing us to have access to worship Him, not just in the temple, but everywhere.
16:50
And that was the great news.
16:52
It was not only in one place.
16:55
And they just couldn't grasp.
16:57
They didn't get the revelation.
17:00
And so the issue for us now is Christ came with the new covenant.
17:06
He was fulfilling the law of Moses.
17:09
the prophecies.
17:11
And now he's making a new covenant with us,
17:13
one of grace, of forgiveness.
17:16
No longer the sacrificial lamb.
17:17
He became the lamb for them.
17:22
But what happened for them
17:23
is they were not willing to change.
17:27
Let it be a reminder for us is
17:29
are we willing to change
17:31
when God wants us to be conformed
17:33
into his likeness?
17:35
If he wants to cause us to surrender
17:37
more things in our life.
17:40
There's times where I say yes
17:41
and they want to get in the middle,
17:42
but I'm like, oh my goodness,
17:43
what did I just commit myself to?
17:46
And I start to challenge it
17:47
and I go back and I'm like,
17:48
Lord, did you really,
17:49
did you really tell me that?
17:51
I've said that in the last 48 hours.
17:54
Really?
17:55
Is this really what you want me to do?
17:57
Because I feel inept to do that.
18:00
I still feel like I can never achieve
18:04
what God calls me to.
18:06
And it's a struggle.
18:07
And that's what we do.
18:08
We struggle with, Lord, I must doubt.
18:11
Doubt and unbelief comes into play,
18:12
and we have to go back and to know what our weapons are.
18:16
We've got to go back to what the Word says.
18:19
We've got to hear it clearly
18:22
and be able to understand that sometimes that means we have to change.
18:26
Sometimes we may have to sacrifice.
18:29
And the fear of the unknown,
18:31
the fear of how it will come off,
18:33
even what I do right here of teaching is I am not comfortable.
18:37
and sometimes I'm like
18:38
the Lord just knows
18:39
I have to struggle
18:41
to do what I feel like
18:42
he told me to do
18:43
I'm like Lord
18:44
I'm not the one
18:47
there's so much better
18:48
out there
18:50
nobody really cares
18:52
they don't know me
18:54
they don't need to know me
18:55
but God
18:58
I'm just going to obey
18:58
but it sure is hard
19:01
and there's times
19:02
where you're like
19:02
I'm not going to do that again
19:04
because I don't want to fail
19:07
voice of the Lord, right?
19:09
But his heartbeat is for us just to flow with his Holy Spirit.
19:13
And he gives us wisdom.
19:15
And he leads us.
19:17
And there's nothing better than being when you're in a place
19:20
where he dwells and you flow with him.
19:24
I mean, when we can pray together in our ministry,
19:26
there's nothing better when we know
19:30
that we are flowing with him
19:31
and we get to see his handiwork.
19:33
It's incredible.
19:36
And so it causes us, we have to be willing to change
19:40
because the sacrifices can be so great.
19:44
And so one of the things I want us to look at in here is so impactful to me
19:48
is what happened with Stephen in verse 15.
19:54
And gazing at him, all who sat in the council,
19:58
they saw that his face was like that of the face of an angel.
20:03
I'm like, wow.
20:06
he was a carrier of his glory now when's another time that we saw that outward
20:14
glowing in the Old Testament Moses right so we know in what Exodus 33 and 34
20:22
Moses said I want to see your glory yeah right and and God said I will honor you
20:28
but I'm gonna have to place you I'm gonna position you in the crevice of the
20:31
rock and so it won't destroy you.
20:33
And so Moses on the outward began to reflect the glory
20:39
of God.
20:41
We also see another man, another prophet who also saw his glory.
20:45
Who was that?
20:48
Elijah
20:50
in 1 Kings.
20:51
In 1 Kings we see that Elijah in chapter 19, that the Lord passes by Elijah
20:57
and he displays God's glory.
21:01
Now let's go to the New Testament.
21:03
Where do we see the manifestation of the glory of God?
21:06
Jesus in the transfiguration.
21:09
We can see it in Matthew 17 as one of the references.
21:12
That here is the amazing thing is
21:15
we knew that Jesus came incarnate.
21:17
So we knew him in his human form.
21:20
All right?
21:20
And so when the transfiguration happened,
21:22
he brought his three amigos, James, right?
21:26
Peter and John.
21:28
and they go to the great mountain.
21:29
And in that place, Jesus has been able to reveal his divine glory.
21:38
So the human part they always knew,
21:40
but now all of a sudden they get to see the glow of the Spirit.
21:44
And here's the difference.
21:45
Moses saw the outward reflecting.
21:48
Elijah experienced it outwardly reflected.
21:51
But Jesus came from the inside, began to reveal the divine glory.
21:57
out from him.
22:00
That's the difference.
22:01
And who was there to see it along with the disciples?
22:06
Moses, who had seen the glory, and Elijah, who saw the glory.
22:11
I'm like, wow, full circle coming
22:13
about.
22:13
There's a passing on where we have Moses to Elijah to Jesus.
22:19
What happens now?
22:20
We just see
22:20
in this passage in Acts 6,
22:23
Stephen has also encountered
22:26
the glory of God,
22:27
so much so that all these
22:30
beating eyes,
22:31
the Sanhedrin council,
22:33
they're all staring at him.
22:35
Think about that.
22:37
Like, okay,
22:37
who wants to be stared at?
22:39
I don't know about you,
22:40
but even like,
22:40
have you ever walked down,
22:42
just walked somewhere,
22:43
and depending on your personality,
22:44
you might be able to walk
22:45
and you're like,
22:46
you kind of keep your eyes,
22:47
and then at the last minute
22:48
you pop your eyes out
22:49
and you look at the person
22:50
to see if they'll smile back at you.
22:52
Or maybe you're one of those people,
22:53
you're going to be waving around and like,
22:56
hey, how you doing?
22:57
And then you're like, they're not smiling back at me.
23:01
So you get a little bit louder about it.
23:03
We used to do that, my boys and I,
23:05
we would drive through a neighborhood to take them to school
23:07
and there was this pouty person,
23:09
when they were walking their dog,
23:10
I'm like, they wouldn't even look up,
23:12
they would just give us that mean look.
23:14
And I'm like, boys, as we'd pray,
23:16
I'm like, we're going to get that person to smile
23:17
before the end of the school year.
23:18
We're going to get them to smile.
23:20
And so I was just like, nothing.
23:22
I'm like, okay, fine.
23:24
But we were tenacious.
23:25
We didn't give up, right?
23:27
We were going to get a smile out of them.
23:29
And then one day, lo and behold, it was a long time it happened.
23:34
But it happened.
23:36
It was that gaze.
23:37
We just kept gazing at that person until they took hold of it,
23:41
and we got a wave and a smile back.
23:43
And the boys were all like, woo, come on.
23:47
You just never know.
23:48
If you are tenacious to keep pressing through, look what happens.
23:54
Well, he is now, Stephen is reflecting.
23:57
He is protected.
23:58
The glory of God is over him.
24:00
He is defending who he knows, who Jesus is as the Messiah.
24:06
And here's the council that are ready to pass judgment on him.
24:10
The ones who can call his death.
24:13
And they're gazing at him.
24:15
But what does God do?
24:16
Right back at him.
24:17
He gives him his glory.
24:21
It is something that is so significant that it's life-changing.
24:27
Now, for me, the reason why iRefresh has come about is because I got to see a whole glimpse of God's glory as well.
24:38
You see, for those of you who know that when I was working with my mother and her health issues,
24:43
that she had Parkinson's and rheumatoid arthritis and began to have a little bit of dementia,
24:49
it was really challenging to keep upbeat and caring for her when I'd go and visit her.
24:55
And one of the things I was so moved by was when she was a singer, played the piano,
25:03
led worship over the years, and I was a part of the different choirs
25:06
that my parents were involved in doing, leading.
25:11
But during that time, when she would again just sing worship to the Lord,
25:16
where she would pray in the spirit.
25:19
And when she would pray,
25:21
the shaking would quiet down.
25:25
There would be a glow on her face.
25:29
And she would be so moved and captivated
25:33
by something she was seeing.
25:35
I'm like, she was beholding him.
25:39
And it transformed her.
25:43
I'm like wow
25:45
his glory is there
25:48
because in these moments
25:50
there was like this shelter that we see in Stephen
25:52
that nothing was going to harm her in that moment
25:55
because she was in his arms and hands
25:59
on this side of heaven
26:01
she saw his glory
26:03
and then she would slip back into that place
26:06
I'm like for moments I had my mom
26:10
And I thought, Lord, I want that.
26:13
I want that in your glory.
26:15
It changes us.
26:17
When we are in his presence, our lives are forever moved.
26:23
And when we have that, I know that I can face the oppositions and the challenges, just like Stephen.
26:32
And the part here for us to recognize is in his glory that he fills us with everything that we would need.
26:44
Because the very next chapter in 7, he is going to go into a place where he begins to give a testimony
26:52
and tells everything about the whole history of Israel.
26:56
And he's able to share that to an incredible audience of spectators.
27:02
And lives are going to be changed as a result of it.
27:05
Now, at the end, you're like, okay.
27:08
But we all know the bad story is what we think.
27:12
We call it a bad story because, what, he ended up being stoned to death.
27:16
Right?
27:16
So, you know, sorry about that.
27:18
Maybe I should have, like.
27:20
So you're like, what good is that story?
27:25
You said he protected.
27:26
He sure did.
27:27
Because he was able to share the whole story in chapter 7 in Acts.
27:32
You've got to read it.
27:33
We're not going to get to that part.
27:34
But I want you to understand also who was also in the audience.
27:40
The Sanhedrin.
27:42
Okay, the council had Saul was in that audience.
27:47
He was the one who actually approved the stoning.
27:51
How do I know that?
27:53
because it says in Acts 8, it says, and Saul approved of his execution.
27:59
And you're like, well, why did he die?
28:01
Isn't he better alive?
28:03
I said that about my mother.
28:04
Mom, you're a prayer warrior.
28:07
Grandma was a prayer warrior.
28:08
You taught the word.
28:10
My great-grandma was a prayer warrior.
28:12
What good are they dead in heaven when they're here praying and touching and reaching lives?
28:20
But I have to believe when we look at that he gave a profound statement that touched many people's lives, he was also speaking to a man named Saul.
28:30
And he planted a seed into his future.
28:33
Because you will find out when he gives a speech, chapter 8, he has been approved to be condemned by Saul.
28:42
but it would be the next chapter in 9
28:44
that Saul would have his conversion
28:46
and he would have an encounter
28:48
of the glory of God
28:50
that would then reach all the Gentiles
28:54
now that's the wow
28:56
sometimes our sacrifices
28:58
in our life we don't understand
29:00
sometimes the cost
29:01
and what we do
29:03
for the sake of our family or our loved ones
29:05
and sometimes the responses are that way
29:07
you're like wow
29:09
you do good and you get opposition
29:12
Yes, you do.
29:13
But that doesn't mean you stop.
29:15
It doesn't, right?
29:17
We don't stop just because someone's, you know, being ugly about something.
29:22
We're faithful to what God's called you.
29:24
Because you are women that are full of faith, full of grace, full of the Spirit of God, full of the wisdom of the Holy Spirit.
29:32
And because when we will allow Him to permeate through us, the Holy Spirit now flows through us and out.
29:41
And that glory that he gives us is to be shared.
29:47
And Stephen shared it.
29:50
He had all those eyes looking at him, and the glory was able to radiate out of him
29:55
and gave him a place where he could testify of who our God is,
30:00
to give him an opportunity of the hope that lies within him
30:03
so that others would have that same hope of redemption.
30:07
The sacrifice was great.
30:10
you think it cost his life
30:11
it did however he was going to be in glory
30:14
and he was being a setup
30:16
for someone else to take the mantle
30:18
and also
30:19
to receive the glory and to testify
30:23
what is it that
30:23
you may be sacrificing
30:26
just like Stephen
30:27
for you to be inspired the opposition
30:29
is always going to be there no matter how
30:31
great and perfect things might be
30:33
how great you do something
30:36
even in the midst
30:37
knowing who God's called you to be,
30:40
being faithful to that,
30:41
and watch and trust God
30:43
that He waters,
30:45
He blesses the seeds that you sow.
30:47
He's the one that will encourage you
30:50
to glow and to flow with Him
30:54
so that whatever your purpose is in life
30:56
is so important.
30:58
If you don't obey Him,
31:01
who's going to miss out
31:03
on the seeds that you were to plant?
31:06
Our obedience to Him, our time to worship to Him, to experience His glory so that we can then in turn share it.
31:14
It was not for us to hold it.
31:16
It was to share it.
31:18
And when we can do that and that obedience, how many lives will never know that we individually will touch for His glory?
31:27
Amen.
31:29
If this episode encouraged you, don't let it end here.
31:32
open your Bible, seek God's heart, and discover the life-changing power of His promises for yourself.
31:38
Until next time, keep pursuing the God who changes everything.