Skip to content Realignment Before Revival Nov 3 · 52 min ...more
Realignment Before Revival
November 3, 2025 · 52 min
Pastor Jeff unveils this delicate balance through Acts 6, where early church leaders faced their own "growing pains" with wisdom.
Series Unstoppable November 3, 2025 · 52 min · Unstoppable
Pastor Jeff unveils this delicate balance through Acts 6, where early church leaders faced their own "growing pains" with wisdom. ...more Show the full description Show less Pastor Jeff unveils this delicate balance through Acts 6, where early church leaders faced their own "growing pains" with wisdom.
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Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub serves as president of Pastor Jeff Ministries, a national and global ministry designed to equip believers and challenge them to take
139K followers
In this video 0:00 Faithfulness in Challenges and the Call to Serve
Faithfulness in Challenges and the Call to Serve 0:01 Well, good morning. Would you help me welcome all of our campuses that are worshiping with us today? So good to have all of you. For those of you that don't know, next Sunday is a very special Sunday for us. Next0:13 Sunday is our 15 year anniversary, since we started our church. Amen? So it'll be a special day for us, and so excited just to talk about God's faithfulness and all that he's been0:25 doing over the years. Also, you may have been watching the news. You may be aware of what's going on in our country with the government shutdown. We've been helping out at the prisons, taking food, to some of those0:35 government employees, making sure things are taken care of that way. But with some of the benefits that potentially are going away, right now, we wanna be the church. So I'm just encouraging you, let's help. Here at0:46 Brave, we just follow God's word. In Matthew 25 35, it says, when I was hungry, you gave me something to eat. And there's a number of people, number of children in our country, right here in our state, right here in our0:57 city, that may not be able to eat coming up. So I'm asking for your help if you'd like to participate, to bring in non perishable goods, cans, all those kind of things, so that we can distribute those to different1:09 food banks throughout the month of November. It's something you can do here on Sunday through Thursday, just drop things off. Or if you're so inclined, I would encourage you do it through your cadre. It's a great thing1:20 to do as a cadre. You collect those, you take them to whatever food bank you want, but let's help do our part. For those of you that would say, hey, I I can't shop, I can't do, but I'd love to participate. There's a
1:30 benevolence drop down in our menu, on our website if you'd like to just give to that. Just asking you for the month of November. Let's just be as generous as we can as a congregation to the extent that the Lord would
1:40 lead you to do that, and let's trust that we as a church can play our part in taking care of some of the needs that people are gonna have for hunger in our culture. Okay? So that's an opportunity that we have. And with
1:50 that, let's continue our worship today as we go before the Lord and get ready to hear his living and active word among us. Will you pray with me? Our father in heaven, we give you all the glory, honor, and praise. And
2:00 Lord, we love you and we thank you for who you are. Lord, we do pray for our nation. We do pray for those who are hungry. Lord, that they would be able to eat. Lord, your word says that you will provide
2:12 according to your glorious riches in Christ Jesus. Lord, as we've been prompted, Lord, help us to do our part in what we can do. And Lord, we just trust you to take care of those needs. And Lord, I just tell you in
2:23 advance as we finish this service today that we've completed 15 years as a church. It's a it's an amazing, amazing testimony to your faithfulness that you're gonna build your church and the gates of hell will not prevail
2:34 against it. And Lord, a big reason for that has been your word. Lord, we as a people believe that every time your word is faithfully and accurately proclaimed that you are speaking. And so our prayer this morning is,
2:45 speak Lord, for we are ready to hear. And so now for all those who have gathered who desire to hear the Lord Jesus Christ speak directly to you, who will believe what he tells you, and who will by faith put into practice
2:56 what he shows you, will you agree with me very loudly this morning by saying the word, amen. Amen. How many of you know when God answers your prayers, it doesn't remove problems,
3:08 it oftentimes creates new ones? Right? I mean, for some of you that are single, you're praying for your spouse, which is a great thing to pray for because he who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from
3:19 the Lord. But when you go from single to marriage, there's a whole new set of challenges that you're gonna face. And then some of you, when you get married and you're praying to have a child, and God blesses you with a
3:28 child, and you're so excited that that child comes, and God's answered that prayer, all of a sudden now there's even new challenges that you didn't expect. And when you have that first child, you feel overwhelmed. You're
3:37 like, I don't even know how we're gonna get through this. And then you have a few more, and you realize it was so easy back then. I mean, isn't it interesting no matter where we are, no matter what we're talking about in
3:46 life, that when we ask God to answer our prayers and sometimes he chooses to answer them the way we've been praying, that it doesn't remove the problems, it just creates new ones? I mean, for some of you, you remember
3:55 what you made in your very first job, and you are thankful for it, but you were praying, Lord, if I could just make a little more than that someday. And now you make a little more than that. But when you made a little
4:02 more than that, you realize there's other responsibilities that I have, and there's other places this money goes, and it's it doesn't just sit around and bank for me. There's other new challenges. There's always new
4:13 challenges when God answers prayer. And those aren't bad things, they're just things that we need to focus on for what God wants to do. And this is true in the church. We pray a lot
4:25 that God would do according to his will, that people would hear his word proclaimed, that people would get saved, that people would continue to grow in Christ. And we do that because the great commission in our bibles
4:36 tell us to go into all the world and make disciples. And so if I was asking like I've asked before, who wants to see more disciples? Who who who wants to see revival in our city? All of us would say, I'm in. But even an
4:47 answer to that prayer creates all sorts of new challenges, because now there's more people to take care of, and there's more things to deal with, and there's more challenges that arrive. And so it's not that we don't
4:58 want God to answer our prayers, but oftentimes when we do it creates new challenges. And this is what's happening in the book of Acts in this section that we're in today in chapter 6 verses 1 through 7. Because what's
5:09 been happening is the church was launched through a prayer meeting, and then Peter proclaimed the word, and on the day of Pentecost, 3000 people got saved. And then the next time we read about what they're doing, the I
5:20 mean, they're trying to get they're they're trying to arrest the apostles and do all sorts of things, and they won't keep quiet. Now there's 5000 men alone that know Christ. And then it says it stops keeping numbers. It
5:30 says, and it continued to multiply greatly. Now it's multiplying. Now it's 15, 20, 25000. But guess what? Just because God was answering their prayers didn't mean that the early church didn't face problems. And when we
5:42 face problems in the church, when you face challenges in your family, or when you face challenges in the workplace, and you're doing what God wants you to do, and you're seeking the Lord, and God's moving in that way,
5:53 but now there's new challenges. What do we do? How how do we answer that challenge? What does God want us to focus on? If you ever wanted to know the answer to that, I believe God has a word for you today. So I invite
6:03 you to open up your Bible to Acts chapter 6. Acts chapter 6. We're gonna be in verses 1 through 7. So I'll read those to you, and you'll realize this comes right off the part where,
6:16 Gamaliel, the the leader of the Sanhedrin said, hey, pay close attention. You know, I'd be careful to stop these guys because if it's not of the Lord, it's gonna die. But if it's of the Lord, you might realize that
6:27 you're fighting against God. So they warned the apostles, they flogged the apostles, and the apostles rejoiced that they were worthy of getting beat for the name of the Lord, and they kept right on preaching and teaching
6:37 the name of Jesus. Everything's going great, but there's some challenges. Notice what it says. It says, now this time, while the apostles were increasing in number, a complaint arose on the part of the Hellenistic Jews
6:49 against the native Hebrews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food. So the 12 summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, it is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in
7:00 order to serve tables. Therefore, brethren, select from among you 7 men of good reputation, full of the spirit and of wisdom whom we may put in charge of this task, but we
7:12 will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. That statement found approval with the whole congregation and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip,
7:24 Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmaeus, and Nicholas, a proselyte from Antioch. And these they brought before the apostles and after praying, they laid hands on them. The word of
7:36 God kept on spreading and the number of disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith. And here in that section, what we see is
7:48 the first challenge in the early church. God is answering their prayers. Revivals breaking out all over the place. People are getting saved in mass numbers. There's so many people that they can't take care of
8:00 all the challenges that are gonna come upon them. And so I'm gonna give you 4 truths from the word of God this morning, that when you face a challenge in your life, whether it's in your family, whether it's in your
8:10 community, whether it's in your job, whether it's in the church, when you're following the Lord and God is moving mightily, but it creates new challenges, what are you called to do? And the first truth I'm gonna give you
8:20 this morning is this, recognize the distraction. Recognize the distraction. Notice what it says. It says, now at this time, while the disciples were increasing
8:32 in number Let me just stop right there. They were increasing in number. Now, while they're increasing in number means this, while God's doing everything God said he was going to do, while revival is still breaking out,
8:43 while everything is still going well, that's when the challenge is created. Sometimes, we have this false idea in our head that there's this plateau that we can get to in life where all the problems go away, or a lot of
8:54 them will go away. If I could just get here, then I'll be fine. There is no place like that anywhere on this side of heaven. That place takes place when Jesus Christ returns to the earth. For those of us who are
9:05 believers and earnestly awaiting him, then all your problems go away. He'll wipe every tear from your eye. Joy will be yours forever. You won't know how to sin anymore. Every Christian will get along. It's gonna be
9:15 glorious. And until that time, that's not happening. And so it's while they were doing what they were supposed to do. Right? And we get thrown by this sometimes. Singles,
9:26 you're dating that person. You've been praying to the Lord. I want to marry a Christian spouse. And all of a sudden, God brings them in. And they're they're a Christian and you're a Christian. You love the Lord. You go
9:34 to church together. You got it. And then you get married, and guess what? There's all these challenges you didn't even know that you had. Now what do you do? Or you're getting along just well and you have that child, and
9:43 now I got these challenges, and what's up with this? Or Or now we got some money issues that we didn't have before. Now what are we gonna do about this? Oh, now we got some extended family issues, mother in law's,
9:52 father-in-law. We didn't even know about that before. Now we gotta deal with this. Oh, we got some health issues. I mean, do you understand how life works? Right at the time you think, we're through it. You're
10:04 not. I remember when we started this church and people would ask me, how's it going? And I would tell some story about the challenge we were facing at that time. And I always ended by saying this, as soon as we get
10:15 through this, man, it is gonna be smooth sailing. And I said that over and over for about 3 years. And finally caught myself 1 day, and I'm like, no, it's not gonna be smooth sailing. There'll be something else.
10:27 Because there's always something else. Because that something else is a prompting from God to seek his face even more. Did you know that? It's him getting your attention. So you have to recognize the distraction.
10:38 Everything's going well. The disciples were increasing in number, but guess what happened? A complaint arose on the part of the Hellenistic Jews against the native Hebrews because their widows were being overlooked
10:50 in the daily serving of food. So here's what you have. You have widows who are being served food. You had Hebraic Jews, the Jewish Jews that were there. Their women were being served.
11:01 But the Gentile or Greek widows were not getting the same kind of treatment. And so there's a problem. And the problem is a food distribution problem in the church. The problem is a care problem in the church.
11:13 Not everybody that's a part of the church is getting cared for in the same way. And it's not fair that the the the Hellenistic Jews aren't being taken care of and it's just the Hebraic Jews that are. I mean, this is a
11:24 problem. Right? And what's really easy to do when a problem arises is to go 1 of 2 extremes. 1 is neglect. Like, it's a food problem. Like, figure
11:36 it out. Like, hey, if your ma if your family if your grandma is a widow, like, feed her. Like, take care of her. Why are you stopping us from the most important work we can be doing? Just deal with it. And we abdicate
11:47 responsibility. Or we can go to the other side and we can go full on structure business model of we're gonna do this this this this this this while we neglect the very thing that we're supposed to be focusing on.
11:59 Just because problems arise doesn't mean you drop everything you're doing and only focus on the problem. It means if you're married, you're still focused on your marriage. It means if you have kids, you're still focused
12:10 on your kids and your family. It means if you have a job, you're still focused on your job. So how do you keep the main thing the main thing while dealing with the other things? And that's what we're gonna see here.
12:20 Invitation. You're gonna see it further in the text. I'll bring it right out of the text. That when you recognize the distraction, what's the distraction from? The distraction is always from keeping you focused on Jesus
12:30 and what he wants done in the moment. Distraction or a bad distraction, whatever kind of thing you want to call it, if it's to take away from your relationship with Jesus, the distraction
12:42 is a way for you to recognize that. You need to recognize that's a distraction because your time needs to be about him. Now listen to me. No matter who you are, no matter why you're here,
12:54 no matter what challenge you're facing in your life, can I tell you it's an invitation to seek the Lord in prayer? It's an invitation to get to know him better. Why? Because it's interesting to me that in the early
13:06 church, it wasn't the persecution that stopped them. That actually helped them grow. It was the distraction. And what you see is growth creates gaps.
13:18 When when you when you grow, when you develop, it creates gaps. There's neglect. The widows aren't being looked for. And so what begin as a spiritual movement is now in the process of becoming this
13:30 logistical nightmare for the apostles. Like, how are we gonna deal with all this? And what's it look like? Now keep in mind, all of this is happening because they're doing exactly what God wants them to do. They're
13:40 ministering the word of God. They're praying. They're seeking his face. They're seeing God do all this. Now there's a distraction, but this distraction is not a bad thing because these widows need to be taken care of by
13:49 the church, and they need to come up with a solution to do that, but they can't stop taking care of what's most important. And what's most important is time with Jesus. Now what you're gonna see in the solution is
14:00 nothing new to the New Testament. If you have your Bibles with you, I encourage you to flip back to Exodus chapter 18. You'll remember when Moses delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt and got to Sinai. Moses's
14:11 father-in-law, Jethro, comes to him, and Moses's father-in-law notices what Moses is doing all day. All day long from morning to night, he's he's representing the people before God. He's teaching them all the law. He's
14:22 doing all these different things, and he's gonna get worn out. And so when Jethro sees him, and sees what he's doing, and sees that Moses is doing all the work, in Exodus chapter 18 verses
14:33 17, Moses's father-in-law said to him, the thing that you are doing is not good. You will surely wear out both yourself and these people who are with you, for the task is too heavy for
14:45 you. You cannot do it alone. And so he's gonna give him some instructions. Now, what was Moses' call? God spoke directly to Moses, told him what to do. God told him where to go. God directed all the plagues through him.
14:56 God parted the Red Sea. God provided water through, Moses' staff. God provided quail in the wilderness and manna and all that stuff. So Moses has been God's representative on the earth to do what God wants to do. And
15:07 Moses' father-in-law is like, you're doing too much, man. You're gonna burn out. This is not good for you or for the people of Israel. So he tells him 3 things he can do. Verse 19, he says this, now listen to me. I will
15:19 give you counsel and God be with you. You be the people's representative before God and you bring the disputes to God. What is being the representative of the people before God mean? It means you talk to God on behalf of
15:30 the people. It means this, you pray for them. That's your job. Your job is to pray for the people. So do that, represent them before God. Then he tells him to do a second thing in the next verse,
15:42 verse 19 or verse 20. Then teach them the statutes and the laws and make known to them the way in which they are to walk and the work they are to do. So instead of you being the only 1 to do it,
15:54 you teach everybody what God wants them to do so that everybody who is in the nation of Israel will know what God says. Right? So you pray for the people, then you teach the people so that they're well equipped to do all
16:05 of that. And then he asked for a third thing in verse 21. He says, Furthermore, you shall select out of the people able men who fear God, men of truth, those who hate dishonest gain, and
16:17 you shall place these leaders of over a thousands, over a hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. So what's he say? You pray for the people. You teach all the peoples God God's word, and then
16:29 select solid spiritual men to deal with groups of people with thousands of them, hundreds of them, fifties. Put them into groups so that everybody gets taken care of. Because you yourself can't do everything.
16:41 And it's a hard lesson for a leader to hear, because when you start something from the beginning, it's hard to let go of it. When we started the church, it was me and my wife. That's all we had. We
16:53 grew it to 12, then I was 1 of 12. Right? Then we grew it to a couple hundred. But do you know when we had a couple hundred people, we used to have these things we would pass out to you every morning when you came into
17:03 church. They were called bulletins. It was pre COVID. You used to get a bulletin. And when you got a bulletin, guess who designed the bulletin? Guess who chose the font size of the bulletin, and the colors of the fonts,
17:14 and the pictures that we were gonna have there, and whether it was good. Guess who spent their Friday morning looking at that, which was an absolute waste of his time. It was me. Because if I didn't do it, it wasn't
17:24 gonna get done. Right? And there are all sorts of things that I never wanted to do, but you kind of have to do. And then as you get people around you that are better at it than you, which doesn't take long, you have to
17:34 start delegating those things out to people. But here's what you need to realize. You need to recognize the distractions in your life. Right? You need to recognize what's trying to pull you away from what God's called
17:45 you to do and what God's called you to be. You need to recognize it for what it is. And this is the biggest, application I can think of. You know, when it comes to Brave Church, our
17:57 biggest our biggest threat is not the government. It's not our culture. It's not critics. It's really distraction from doing what God's called us to do as a church. It's the internal things that we need to stay focused
18:08 on so that we can do the things God wants us to do. Now think about this, in Jesus Christ's ministry, it says in Mark 1 35, very early in the morning while it was still dark, Jesus got up and went to solitary places
18:18 where there he prayed. His whole life was centered on prayer. He woke up in the morning looking for prayer. After he fed the 5000, he went up on a mountainside to pray all night. Before he selected his apostles, he
18:27 prayed all night. He was always in constant prayer with his father. Even the night he was betrayed, he was 3 hours in the Garden of Gethsemane praying to his father. Even on the cross, father forgive them. They don't
18:37 know what they do. He was always talking to his father. So much so, that the 1 thing the disciples want to be taught is, Lord, teach us to Pray. Pray. Can I tell you this? I think the hardest spiritual discipline
18:49 there is in the world is prayer. There there's none harder. I mean, I've known the Lord for almost 35 years. I it's still difficult to pray. It's not like you have a really good Saturday night prayer time, and then you
19:00 get rollover minutes on Sunday where you just pick up where you left off and it was just awesome. I mean, every time that you decide to go before the Lord, it's like starting fresh. And you start to pray and your phone's
19:10 right next to you, it starts beeping. Or you start thinking about all the things you gotta do that day, or you start thinking about the responsibilities, or just that God feels distance so you don't know if you're really
19:19 praying right, or then you start reading the word, and it is you're just distracted all over the place. Why? Because the enemy hates you spending time with God. I used to wonder when I was a new believer why it is I
19:30 could read any sports magazine, any newspaper, any book, any anything, it'd be great. But the second I opened up my Bible and started reading, that'd get real tired. Because the enemy hates it.
19:42 It's a discipline to seek the face of the Lord, and I wish I could tell you it gets so much easier. I wish I could tell you now after 35 years, I wake up in the morning and I can almost hear angels singing as I roll out
19:53 of bed, And, I just have my, you know, spiritual life flowing, and I can't wait to just talk to the Lord. And we sit down, and I hear him so clearly, and he tells me every step I need to take. It doesn't work that way.
20:05 It takes me time to engage my mind and my thoughts on the things of the Lord, and I have to cut out distractions in my life before I can even focus on him. Sometimes it takes minutes. Sometimes it takes longer than
20:15 minutes just to get the distractions out so I can clearly hear what the Lord wants me to hear. See. I mean, in Revelation 2 4, Jesus talks about
20:27 that church, you have lost and left your first love. What's our priority in the church? It's Jesus. It's Jesus. Right? Taking care of the widows who are hungry,
20:39 that's a ministry that should come from the overflow of spending time with Jesus. And here's the reality, if we don't spend time in devotion with Jesus, everything we're called to do
20:51 will feel like a duty. Meaning what God wants is your devotion. If you're devoted to him, the bible says streams of living water will flow from you. If you're not devoted to him, if you're not spending time with him,
21:03 everything you do for him will feel like, well, I'm just doing it for Jesus. I have to. I have to. It's not gonna be a delight. It will be a duty. But I want you to see this. When things got difficult,
21:15 the apostles didn't panic. They prayed. They prayed. Don't panic when things are out of control. Don't panic when you see distress. Pray. Hey, Lord. This is a new season. What should I do?
21:27 Never been here before. I don't understand. And yes, it is okay to seek counsel from those wiser who have lived longer than you. It's great. But there's no substitute for seeking the face of Jesus. And can I just
21:37 challenge you this way? And you'll hear me challenge you a couple times today. I'll challenge you. If you don't believe me, set a time tomorrow that you're gonna pray to the Lord. Just put that on your calendar. Whatever
21:47 time you put, whether you're gonna do it for 5 minutes or whatever, I promise you at that time, you will have more distraction in your life than you have any other time during the day. And I don't care whether you put 5
21:57 in the morning, 9 in the morning, noon, 3 in the afternoon. You pick the time and I promise you at that time, there will be so many distractions in your life, you won't be able to count them. K? Why? Because the devil
22:08 doesn't want you to spend any time with Jesus. Amen? So you have to recognize the distractions so that you can stay focused. And number 2 is this, you gotta refocus the priorities. You gotta refocus the priorities. So
22:19 what do they do? So the 12 summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, it is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables. K? Here's what they're not saying. They're not saying
22:31 serving food to widows is beneath us. And we don't really desire that. That doesn't sound fun. And so we don't want to do that. That's not what they're saying. They're saying it's not the priority as to why God gifted us
22:42 or put us in this church to do. And so it wouldn't be right for us to rob somebody else who has the gifting to do it and do it ourselves when we neglect the very thing God's called us to do. It wouldn't be right. It
22:53 wouldn't be desirable. We've been called to something else. And what they've been called to, if you look at verse 4, but we will devote ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the word. What was the apostles number 1
23:04 job? To continue to pray on behalf of the people, and to do what? To teach them the word of God. It's exactly what Jethro was telling Moses in Exodus 18. You represent the people before God. You pray for them,
23:16 teach them the word. They're saying the same thing here. Can I tell you what's the number 1 job as a pastor? What's the number 1 job as a pastor? It's to pray for his congregation. It's to be a man of prayer. Right? Go
23:28 somewhere where you know that the senior pastor spends time alone with God. And number 2 is this, to preach the word, to present the word of God so that the congregation can clearly hear a
23:40 word from the Lord. So that when people are hearing the word taught, they hear God speaking to them. That's where you wanna go and that's where you wanna be. So this is what we have to do. They have to refocus the
23:51 priorities. They weren't saying we're too important to serve. They were saying we cannot neglect our calling. And here's what I would say. In a church, I would say, if you think about
24:02 church like a car, prayer would be the engine, and the word of God would be the steering wheel. And if you don't have prayer and you don't have the word, you have a vehicle that has no engine and no steering wheel. So it
24:14 doesn't matter what the rest of the car looks like, you're going nowhere. The 2 most important ministries in any church anywhere is prayer and the ministry of the word. And I can tell you this from being a senior pastor,
24:26 the place I get distracted the most is to take me offline from doing those 2 things. Hey. You need to get involved in that leadership decision. Hey. You need to do this. Hey. You can go do this. Hey. You can go do this.
24:36 You don't need to read the word today. You don't need prayer and the ministry of the word are the most important thing that a pastor can do for his people if he loves God and if he loves his people. And if you're in a
24:46 place where prayer is central and the word of God is being taught and you've experienced that, you'll never be able to settle for something less than that. Because everywhere else you go, it'll feel like a TED talk and a
24:56 show, and you'll be like, I don't need that. I need Jesus. I need to hear him. I need God speaking directly to me. And so what they were doing is they were they were guarding the fire. I mean, you you you see
25:08 all this played out. Remember Jesus? I mean, Lazarus' sisters, Mary and Martha. I mean, there's stories about them and it seemed like every time Jesus got together, Martha was serving.
25:20 She's running around serving, serving, serving, serving, serving, serving, or complaining that her sister Mary is not serving. Because Mary was just like parked at the feet of Jesus. And what would Jesus say? Mary chose
25:31 the more noble thing. What's he saying? She wants to be with me. She wants me. She's not here trying to serve me. She's not trying to get points. She wants to be with me. And that's even
25:43 more important. What does God want from your life? He doesn't need you to run out and serve for him. He wants you. He wants to be with you. He wants your dedication to him. The greatest ministry you
25:55 can have is your personal devotion to Christ through your prayers, through the reading of the word. And the reality is this, if you spend time with Jesus alone in prayer, and if you spend time with Jesus in the word, you
26:06 can't help but wanna serve. The word of God will grip you in such a way that you have to use your gift. The word of God will grip you in such a way like, how can I not serve? But if you don't have devotion with Jesus,
26:18 you're not in prayer with him, and you're not spending time in his word, then when you get invited to serve, it's gonna feel like I have to. It's gonna feel like I'm too busy for that or that's really hard or I don't
26:28 want to. But when Jesus is filling you and controlling your life and moving you around, you can't help but do that. What's he looking for you to do this week? Spend time with him. Again, I'm challenging you. Set a timer.
26:38 I'm just telling you. A timer. I'm just telling you. Just trust me. Just so you can see how much the enemy doesn't want you to spend time with. You'll have stories you can tell
26:50 all sorts of people. I did it for 3 in the afternoon. That was the 1 time I knew my kids were gonna be out of the house, and the 1 time I knew my husband wasn't and I could totally devote my you watch. You watch what
27:00 happens. It's not by accident. I've done this for years and I see it all the time. It still works the exact same way. Why? Because here's what God wants from you. He wants your heart. He wants your
27:11 full dedication and devotion. He wants you to pursue him. Amen? And so that's what the disciples are doing. They're they're they're renewing their resolve. This is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order
27:23 to serve tables. The word of God is primary and God's put us here to teach the word. So we've got to do that, but we've also got to do this other. Therefore brethren, select from among you verse 3, 7 men of good
27:34 reputation, full of the spirit and of wisdom whom we may put in charge of this task. Same thing you saw Jethro say to Moses. You represent the people before God. You teach in the word and choose qualified men. We'll come
27:45 back to that. But notice verse 4. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. If you look at certain churches that are not doing very well, or you're looking at whole denominations that are
27:56 closing down, this is what left. Prayer and the ministry of the word. Because when prayer and the ministry of the word is central, Jesus Christ is being exalted. And
28:08 wherever Jesus Christ is being exalted, great things happen all the time. But it's not just like, well, I already read the Bible. I've heard people say this. I don't go to church. I already read through the Bible once. I
28:18 already know it. Come on. The word of God is living and active. I don't know how many times I've read through the bi I don't know. I don't really read it through like that. I have a few times, but I don't know how many
28:29 times I've read. But every time I read it, it's living and active. They're I'm not reading it to remember. It's like it's like food. Like, I've been eating for almost 55 years now, but I
28:41 don't remember every meal that I've had. But I can tell you it's been pretty regular that I've eaten over those 55 years. Right? I don't remember every single thing that the Lord has shared with me through his word over
28:52 the But but So it's not like I gotta remember it. I gotta remember it. I got, oh, I read this today and I forgot. It doesn't matter. You're fueling yourself spiritually. And it's interesting that if you do that, even the
29:02 thing that you quote forgot that day, you'll be in a conversation 6 months from now and all of a sudden that'll come out of your mouth because it's in you. Right? And so at the end of the day, that's what we're talking
29:13 about. It's like, how do you refocus your priorities to stay focused on the word? Second Timothy 4 2, my favorite New Testament verse, my call verse, preach the word. What a
29:25 pastor supposed to do? Preach the word. Tell people what God says. Don't hold back, Right? I mean, from Genesis to Revelation, anything is free to preach from and teach from. You don't need to come up with all these new
29:35 ideas and cool series that everybody's gonna be like, oh, man. That's so cool. I mean, it's just all right here. If every Christian knew this book backwards and forwards, I can't even imagine where we'd be as a culture.
29:46 Right? Teach the word. Preach the word. Colossians 4 2, devote yourselves to prayer. Devote yourself. Make make prayer a primary ministry in your own life. Friends, I know this with my whole heart. I
29:58 know it with my whole heart. If you know how to seek the face of the Lord and you can hear him through his word, it's gonna solve a lot of challenges that you face going forward forever and ever. Just will. But if you
30:07 don't know how to seek the face of the Lord and you don't know how to hear God through his word, there's not a lot people can help you with. And the challenge in the church is too often we wanna go to people rather than
30:16 go to God first. And there's nothing wrong with going to other people who are godly. My wife and I have been blessed by people that have are more seasoned in the faith than us that have poured into our that's great. I
30:25 love that. We wanna be that to other people too. Right? But first and foremost, seek Jesus. When distractions come, I've told you this many times, but God's not doing it to you. He's doing it for you.
30:38 He's putting you in a season. You thought you knew, you don't know. And it's cool that you don't know because it it shows humility to posture yourself before God and say, I didn't know it was gonna go like this. I didn't
30:47 think it was gonna be like this. I really don't know exactly what to do. And so that's what we do. So they're gonna devote themselves to prayer in the Ministry of the Word. Friends, no matter where you go, if you don't
30:58 end up living in Denver for the rest of your life or Brave Church isn't your place, always pick a church where prayer and the Ministry of the Word are central to wherever you go. If you do that, you will grow in your
31:10 appetite for the word. Listen, I've had people say, is it wrong for me to wanna be fed? No. You have to eat. If you go somewhere where you're not being fed, you're spiritually malnourished, you're starving, you're dying,
31:21 and you don't even know it. Right? Go somewhere where the word of God is taught. Go somewhere where the word of God is prayed over. Go somewhere where people are praying for and with you. And if you'll do that, when
31:31 distractions come and you recognize the distraction and you refocus your priority, then he tells us what we've been talking about. Then release the faithful. Release the faithful. Have other people who can help you with
31:42 that problem. Now go back to verse 3. Notice who we wanna release. He says, therefore, brethren, select from among you 7 men of good reputation, filled with the spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this
31:53 task. So there's at least 7 things in that or 5 things rather in that short verse that he's telling them they must do. This is who you're looking for in the church. Notice what he says first. Select where? From
32:05 among you. That's number 1. People that are going to help out in the church are actually born again. You actually know Christ. It's hard to
32:16 serve the Lord when you don't know who the Lord is. So the the baseline is they have to know the Lord. Number 2, what does he say? Therefore, select from among you
32:28 7 what? What's your text say? Yes. Says men. Why? Because men have been delegated spiritual authority in the church.
32:40 That's why. It's interesting. This is a widow food distribution problem. This would be really easy to say, who's the women's director? Fix it. Throw some money at it. And that's not what they're doing
32:52 because every problem in the church is a spiritual problem so it should be led by a man because spiritual authority is given to a man just like it is in the church and in the home. Which means this men, it's okay for
33:04 you to notice challenges and distractions in the church, but you can't complain about them. You're called to fix them. Amen? You don't need to be quiet. I'm just I'm talking to you.
33:16 I'm just telling you that's the challenge in the church. Sometimes we think it's the woman's problem. That's what our first father Adam said. It's why for those of us even in our home, right? We we know our
33:27 responsibility to provide and protect, but we don't like that responsibility. What do we want? We want our wives to support us, and we want our wives to take care of the kids, and we just wanna come home and sit on the
33:37 couch and scroll through social media and all those different things. Right? And I wish I could tell you my flesh is not a fellow struggler. It is. Because I know the good I'm supposed to do, and sometimes I don't do it.
33:48 Right? It's hard to do what the Lord wants you to do as a man because it goes against the grain of your flesh. But in the church, it doesn't mean women can't play a significant role in the church and lead in a lot of
33:59 areas, but spiritual authority in the church is given to men. And where God is really at work is where you see godly men that want to elevate and bless women and children, not be an authority
34:11 figure. That's stupid. I'm talking about men that want to elevate others. That's a godly man because that's exactly what Jesus did. That's exactly what the Apostle Paul did. That's why they had all sorts of women serving
34:21 in their ministry in a generation where women didn't serve in ministry, and they were elevating them all because they were being godly men. Right? Men, it's your job to serve. Whose job is it for children's
34:33 ministry? Men. What about youth? Men. Right? What about the challenges you see around men? What about the food distribution problem and are called men? Where are the men? Like
34:44 where you have godly men that are stepping forward, all women flourish everywhere. We'll help with that. We'll do that. We'll do that. We'll help with it. Right? Where are the men? So they're gonna get 7 men from among
34:54 you. And what these men have to have, they have to have a good reputation. It's number 3. That means they have trusted character. Trusted character. Character is only seen over time. You can't meet someone and say, oh,
35:06 they got great character. You don't know that. You may have been told that, but you'll see it over time. You spend time with the person, then you can see, oh, yeah. They have character. They're always gonna choose
35:16 integrity. They're gonna choose the right thing. When they don't choose the right thing, they're gonna be the first to apologize for it. They're gonna say, I was wrong. You were right. I mean, that's trusted character.
35:26 So that's the kind of men you wanna look for. You don't wanna find a man that's a good business guy. You you don't wanna find a man that dresses well. You don't wanna find a man that's all about himself and can give you
35:35 his resume. No. No. No. You wanna find a man that has trusted character and has a good reputation. It means you see this kind of man, you're like, that's a godly man. That man loves his wife. That man loves his kids.
35:47 That man will submit to Jesus. That man's humble. That man will build others up. That man wants others to succeed. That man's not about him. So that's what you wanna see. And then what else do you wanna see? You wanna
35:57 see that he's full of the spirit. What does that mean? It doesn't mean that he's charismatic. It doesn't mean he's swinging from the chandeliers. It doesn't mean he's speaking in tongues. It means he's yielded to the
36:07 Holy Spirit's work in his life. It means that when he's reading the word and spending time with Jesus, and Jesus says, I want you to do this and I want you to stop doing that. He does this and he stops doing that. And
36:17 he's got a track record over time of continually staying yielded to the Lord. He's not about himself, he's about Jesus. You'll see it in him. And so he's filled with the spirit. He's empowered by the spirit.
36:29 He's controlled by the spirit. And then finally, what's the final 1? End of wisdom. Wisdom is a track record of choosing God's best. Wisdom is the ability to know what to do in certainShow more
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