How God Vindicates You When You've Been Falsely Accused

Okay, so Jesus is giving us an illustration of what it's like to build on something strong. And so, you know what? I went and decided, you know, I'm going to build my own house because and I'm going to do it right and I'm going to pour a foundation. You see that there? That is it's not very nice. I it was 102° and I didn't I wasn't able to get it perfectly flat, but it's strong. It's Well, there's lots of rock in it. It's going to be very strong. It's going to be a good foundation. Yeah, there you go. You can see it. Nothing special, but you know, Jesus Jesus says something here and he gives us a really good picture. When you build on solid rock, your house will stand. When you build on sand or ground that is not stable and when the storms come, it's going to fall apart. But you know what Jesus is getting at here? He's really getting at something even more important than a house. He's getting at the words, his words of life. And he's saying anybody who obeys my words will have a strong life. He will be secure. He will not be tossed to and fro

When hard things come. And you guys know something. Know this. Hard things will come in your life. And you will be tested and you will be tried and you will be tempted to sin. And you will be tempted to walk away from the things that you know is true. That happens. That happens to all of us. And so we need to hold fast to Jesus's words. And so if you want to know what Jesus's words are, go home and ask your mom and dad to show you the sermon on the mount and to read through that maybe at lunch or at supper or before bed. And then you will hear the words that Jesus has. And he has the words of life that are sure. Now to help you guys remember this lesson, I'm going to take some inspiration from Mr. Larry. Do you know Mr. Larry? Remember he came up here a while back and he sang a song. I thought that was so nice. I'm going to teach you a song and Miss Amelia is going to do the actions. Okay. How does it go again? All right. Here we go. Okay. All right. I'm going to sing you do the actions. Okay. You ready? Okay. Oh, when I say strong, you guys go like this. I want to say splat. You guys smack your hands together. Okay. All right. Here we go. The wise man built his house upon the rock. The wise man built his house upon the rock. The wise man built his house upon the rock and the rains came tumbling down. The rains came down and the floods came up. The rains came down and the floods came up. The rains came down and the floods came up and the house on the rock stood strong. Now the foolish man built his house upon the sand. The foolish man built his house upon the sand. The foolish man built his house upon the sand. And the rains came tumbling down. The rains came down and the floods came up. The rains came down and the floods came up. The rains came down and the floods came up and the house on the sand went splat. Now, now build your life on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, build your life on

The Lord Jesus Christ. Now, build your life on the Lord Jesus Christ. And the blessings will come down. The blessings will come down as your prayers go up. The blessings will come down as your prayers go up. The blessings will come down as your prayers go up. So build your house on the Lord. Good job, guys. Good job. [applause] All right, let's pray. Dear heavenly father, Lord, we thank you so much for these little ones. And thank you for your word that is sure and true and full of life. And Lord, we just ask that you would give us hearts to receive it and give us strength to obey it. And we pray all these things in Jesus name. Amen. >> Well, if you have your Bible, and I hope that you do, please turn with me over to Acts chapter 6. Are the Are the lights at max? Can we like bring them all the way up? It's just kind of like a weird hazy kind of thing. >> There we go. Ah, >> kind of felt like I was in like a solar eclipse just kind of woozy, you know, >> joking. >> all right. So, we have been going through the book of Acts and we are in chapter 6 today and we're looking at this guy named Stephen as he finds himself in a little bit of hot water. And today we're talking about what grace does when truth costs us something. And in 2014, I was a youth pastor at a church down in Texas. It's no secret for those of you that know me that I'm a Calvinist. Gasp. It's the worst kept secret ever. But I also don't broadcast it from the rooftops. In this church I was at, someone was going through their cage stage. Do y'all are y'all familiar with that term cage stage? It's when someone discovers Calvinism and they get really into Calvinism and that's all that they ever

Want to talk about and so they just need to be put in a cage for a while just to cool off. And so this guy who was in that stage and he's arguing, he's talking about stuff being really contentious and divisive and it wound up actually splitting a class. He left and four other families went with him and that was a deep wound in this church and what happened was because he was a really bad just follower of Christ just don't don't be an idiot right like I mean just you know we all have the things that we like to talk about right some of you really love talking about the nephilim right some of you really love talking about whatever your theological taste is of the Okay. [clears throat] esquetology, whatever. But we can't allow those things to divide us. And, because I was, a Calvinism and that became a bad word, I discovered that my mere presence within the church was divisive. It even got to the point where some people said, "Well, he's not even a Christian." All because of my doctrinal views. And I'm like, "This is not a good place for me to be." And I want you to notice what happened is that no one said, "Hey, Cody, can I talk to you about your beliefs?" no one no one asked me about what I believed about the sovereignty of God or election or salvation or anything like that. It was just a label and the label did all the work. My actual beliefs never act entered the conversation. Has that ever happened to you where everyone just makes assumptions? They just jump right in. People lie about you and it stinks. And it hurts when a church family does that. It hurts really bad. It took me over a year before I felt comfortable enough really

Kind of letting my guard down. It hurts when you're reading God's word and you see like the one another statements and you kind of feel like you're never on the receiving end of that one anothering. And today we're going to see Stephen who is maligned and vilified and dragged before counsel. And we're going to see what grace looks like in a believer when he faces that. And so with that in mind, if y'all would stand with me in honor of God's word as we read Acts 6:es 8 through15. God's word, it says this. And Stephen full of grace and power was doing great wonders and signs among the people. Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the freed men as it was called and of the Sirenians and of the Alexandrians and of those from Cissia and Asia rose up and disputed with Steven. But they could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking. Then they secretly instigated men who said, "We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God." And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes. And they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council. And they set up false witnesses who said, "This man never ceases to speak words against the holy place and the law. For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us. And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel. So let's pray. Our gracious Lord, we do thank you for your word and we thank you for its timeliness and we just pray that we would be people of grace filled with truth and love power, your spirit. We want everything, God, that you have to give to us, Father. But Lord, so oftentimes we're filled with

So many other things. So many times I look at my own cup and I'm so full of myself. And so Lord, I pray that you would empty me out, clean me out, fill me with your spirit, God. And I pray that for each person that's under the sound of my voice, that today that they would hear clearly from you about how we are to conduct ourselves, especially in the face of accusers. Give us listening ears and help us, Father, to understand what you have to say to us today. We are your people. You are our God. And so we humbly submit ourselves to you. Do what you have would have to do in our hearts. Regardless of how hard it might be for us to hear move among us, Lord. We submit ourselves to you. In Jesus precious name we pray. Amen. Y'all can be seated. Last week we met this man Stephen. He is a Helenist Jew. And he is described as being full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. And the church, they put him in charge of the distribution to the widows, making sure that the widows that were among them, both the Helenist Jews and the Hebrew Jews were being taken care of and fed. And this week, that same man is being described as full of grace and power and doing great wonders and signs among all the people. And notice what Luke does not do here. He does not go into like what those signs and wonders are. Because that's not the point. It's like a it's almost like it's a footnote. What he wants us to look at is Steven's ability to stand on the truth of the Gospel. And I want you to look at this and look at his ministry to the widows. He's he's preaching the Gospel. He is out in public. He is sharing about the faith and the knowledge that is in Jesus Christ. He's also been entrusted with ministry to widows. One of the things that you should know is that God never compartmentalizes ministry into

Practical and spiritual categories. For you Christian, your service to the Lord is service. Period. When I preach, it's service to the Lord. Period. Everything that a Christian does that is for the sake of others is ministry. And it's not categorized into preachings up here and greetings down here. It's ministry and it's done for the Lord. And if it's done well for the Lord, then it's for the glory and the praise of God. Amen. >> Everything that you do, dear Christian, is worth the cost and it's important to the Lord Jesus Christ. He uses this word grace, cherish, and power, damis. And they are the same words that Luke has already used to describe the apostles ministry. And he uses those wonders and signs, which is the same phrase that Luke, he used back in Acts 2:22 to describe Jesus's own ministry. So Stephen, he's not graduating into a higher spiritual realm here, a more gifted spiritual level. He's just simply abiding in the Holy Spirit and he's continuing to abide in the spirit. So whether it's food distribution to widows or he's out sharing the Gospel, he's just doing it for the praise and glory of God. And a church is blessed when you have men and women that are doing that. The call of ministry is all-encompassing. It's one of the things that I learned very early in my ministry is that ministry is not something that we're called to do. It's something that we're called to be. Not that we find our identity in ministry and what we do. But as a Christian, we're all called to be ministers. As a Christian, we're all called to be missionaries. That's part of the Christian call is that you were not primarily saved just

To, you know, sit in a pew. You were saved to serve. You were saved for the glory of God and for others to be blessed as well. Christ, he commanded every believer throughout all the ages to go forth and share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That's something that each of us are called to do. And you put those together and you get something that's for every person in this room. You are called and you are equipped to be a minister and a missionary right where you're at. In your home, at your job, in your social circles, wherever your sphere of influence is, in your families, you are called to make an impact for the kingdom of God right where he has you. But there were some men who rose up and they disputed with him. Let's look at some of these guys in verse 9. And then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the freemen as it was called and of the Sirenians and of the Alexandrians and of those from Cissia and Asia rose up and disputed with Stephen. Now these were men that were commonly referred to as being a part of the diaspora which is that Jewish dispersion and those are Jews who lived outside of Israel, Hellenists. Okay. Luke, he gives us these freed men, Sirenians, ex Alex al Alex al Alex al Alex al Alex al Alex al Alex al Alex al Alex al Alex alexandrians on and on and on and what it is that these are just different Jewish groups different Jewish communities from all over the world at this time and yet they were in Jerusalem. They were used to worshiping in their own synagogues. They were participating in their own little Jewish communities in their areas. And yet they are here in Jerusalem probably to make offerings, probably to make atonement, making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. And when these men heard another hellist preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, what happened is that they would

Started disputing with him. This is a man that is a Hellenist as well, a Greekeaking Jew, who is not a local in Jerusalem or Israel. That's not where Steven was from. He has a Greek name. And so they see themselves as, well, this is one of our people at this point. He's an hellist. And as we saw last week, there was a division that was cropping up within the church. And what happened? The Lord, he by the will of the congregation there appointed Helenist to overcome that. You see, the Gospel has a way of unifying people. If you don't have the Gospel, you don't have any basis for unity. We have to find our commonality in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But let's look at verse verse 10 here. It says but they could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking. Now Luke's exact phrase there is the wisdom and the spirit. This is Jesus's own promise that he gave to his disciples coming true in real time. Here's what Jesus said. I will give you a mouth and wisdom which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. Now, that's not coincidence. That's not Luke carefully selecting his vocabulary. Jesus said it and Luke is just reporting it. He wants you to understand Christ's promises are real for every believer. And so here's the first point that I want you to write down if you're taking notes. The witness they couldn't answer. The witness that they couldn't answer. Spurgeon, he said that the deacon Stephen became Stephen the preacher. And these men for all of their combined arguments and all their cultural weight, I mean the these were guys that had were influenced by Greek culture, a culture that greatly valued the mind and argumentation and mentalities

Like that. They could not withstand what one man was saying. And so what are they actually trying to do? Why are they arguing? They're not arguing to understand. They're arguing because they're trying to get them to be quiet about the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a real heated [snorts] intense debate and Christians have got to be tougher. Christians have got to be okay with passionate disagreement over the truth. But these men they lost the because their arguments they couldn't unw withstand the wisdom with which he was speaking or the spirit of God with which Stephen spoke. They could not stand in opposition. In Christianity we have to be okay with people disagreeing with us. We have to be okay with that. We need to set forth the arguments that we find in the Scriptures and be okay with them wrestling with the arguments. I can't tell you how many times I've seen it. Dozens of times when people first hear the Gospel, they react with almost a vitriolic rejection of the truth. But the Holy Spirit of God is the one that brings about regeneration. He's the one that opens their eyes and opens their hearts to what the word of God has to say. And as they wrestle and as they consider the argumentation, God changes the heart. >> Amen. >> We're not called to change people's hearts. We can't change people's hearts. None of us can't or can't. None of us can. We have to pray and we have to share the Gospel and we have to ask the spirit to move and to work. And so we don't run from hard questions and we don't compromise the truth just because people get angry with us. Stephen doesn't win the argument by

Getting louder or by manipulating the crowds that are around him. He simply speaks the truth in the wisdom of the spirit. And when they cannot answer and they can't can't give a good answer, what do they do? They change their tactics. I want you to understand something here because I think this is very important for us is that we can't look at these guys as like these cartoon villains who are just trying to oppose the Gospel. Okay, it's very easy to do that. I want you to think for a moment. These are men that made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. They traveled for weeks or months in order to get here. And so they take their Judaism very seriously. And so when they are opposing the preaching of the Gospel, they think that they're doing the right thing. They actually think that they are defending God. They think that they are standing up for truth. They feel like they have the right motives, but they're self-deceived. They don't know. They didn't wake up today going, "I'm going to be evil and I'm going to oppose God." No, they genuinely thought that they were defending something sacred and truthful. And that's an important warning for us. It is still possible to be sincere and be sincerely wrong. It is possible to think that you are being zealous for God while actually opposing what God is doing. It is so possible to be so attached to our traditions, to our heritage, to our reputation, to our understanding of how things ought to be that we begin resisting Christ himself. But let's take a look at these guys and what happens when they begin to lose the argument. Look at verse 11 with me. Then they secretly instigated men who said, "We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and

God." They couldn't answer Steven's wisdom. And so what they did was they changed their tactics. They changed the battlefield. They changed argumentation from public debate to secret accusations. Look at what else they do. They begin to stir up the people and the elders and the scribes and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council and they set up false witnesses who said, "This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place in the law. For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place or change the customs that Moses delivered to us." Doesn't this sound exactly like what they said about Jesus? In Matthew 26 verses 59-61, it says, "Now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put him to death, but they found none, though many witnesses came forward. At last, two came forward and said, "This man said, I am able to destroy the temple of God and to rebuild it in three days." a few things that the Lord hates. What are they? You read in Proverbs, if you read in Proverbs 6, it tells us that one of the things that the Lord hates is false witness. When people can't win honestly, this is the pattern. Work in secret. Stir up a crowd. Prop up false witnesses. Create a case. In Luke, he is deliberately setting up the stage for Stephen's martyrdom by showing Jesus's own trial happening again. Stephen, he is following the in the footsteps of our Lord. And that leads us to point number two is the witnesses they invented. You look at what they were creating in the situation they were stirring up. You see what they did was they moved from very vague accusations to

Very [snorts] concrete things. God in verse 11 becomes a holy place in verse 12 and in verse 14 it becomes destroy this place. Well, we can't let that happen. The temple's the dwelling place of God. Not anymore because our dwell like Jesus is the true temple. Amen. >> Amen. Moses in verse 11 becomes the law in verse 12 and in verse 14 it becomes there is going to destroy these customs and that is just it's very deliberate. It's just take the label make the accusations let it be something more tangible that everyone can oppose. They're just constructing a case against Stephen. And this is exactly what happened to Jesus. Stephen is accused just like Jesus. He's brought before the same council just like Jesus. He's about to suffer the same for the Gospel message. They even set up their own false witnesses. And this is what's insane. Here's the crazy part is that they think that they are defending God. They believe with all their heart that they're defending Moses, their customs. But Moses, what did Moses promise? He said this. The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you. It is to him you shall listen. Who is Moses talking about in Deuteronomy 18? He's talking about Jesus. Jesus is the prophet that the Lord raised up. Jesus is the one that is the true and greater prophet than Moses. He's way better. And yet they rejected him. They rejected the prophet. They rejected the one that the Lord raised up. They rejected the Christ, the one that was promised. They rejected the true and greater Moses in their hastiness to defend Moses and to defend God himself. And Stephen, he's going to put this exact verse as we look at it next week as he begins to speak and share the

Gospel, which is just mind-boggling to me. They couldn't win an honest argument, so they started a gossip campaign. And what gossip does is it always distorts. It takes what was actually said and turns it into worse than what was said. You guys know in our culture the media and everyone in the media, let's just be honest, every everyone's terrible. When it when it comes to anyone that's on TV, you know, it used to be my dad would say, believe none of what you hear and half of what you see. And now you just don't trust anything. That's just that's just where we got to land. But he used to say believe none of what you hear, half of what you see. You can't even believe what you see anymore, can you? But you see today people taking sound bites and that sound bite becomes the story and that story gets repeated until people start to believe that story and eventually that accusation that little sound bite becomes common knowledge and that's how reputations get destroyed and we've seen it play out over and over and over Again, you know, the Bible does not tell us to dismiss every criticism as persecution. This is where we have to be careful. Sometimes an accusation is true. Sometimes it is. Sometimes someone tells us something about ourselves that we desperately need to hear. That's true of me. Need to hear it. Sometimes God's grace comes to you through a brother or a sister when they confront our sin. And we give glory to God when brothers lovingly do that. So when someone comes against you and accuses you, don't ask where they're wrong. Try to seek out where they're right. Is there something that I need to make right? That's part of walking in grace, too. But when we have examined ourselves honestly and the accusation is

False like what happens here with Stephen like he's not opposing God. He's not trying to you know replace Moses and the customs or anything there. What does Stephen show us to do? Like how does he show us how we are to behave? He there's no retaliation. There's no slandering. We don't have to destroy someone's reputation just because they tried to destroy ours. What we do is we speak the truth. We remain faithful and we entrust ourselves to God. Sometimes you cannot control what some people believe about you. There's still people out at that church that probably think that, you know, every Calvinist is going to hell. Well, okay. I can't do anything about that. What I what I have to do is I have to worry about what God thinks about me. That's ultimately the goal of the believer. Amen. And you can't make anyone hear the truth. Sometimes you can't repair a reputation. And that's where grace becomes visible because grace doesn't mean that truth stops mattering. Grace just simply means that you don't sinned in order to defend that truth. Stephen is being falsely accused. But look at him. What is his face like? It's like the face of an angel. I don't mean that it's covered with eyes everywhere. Okay? He's radiating the glory of the presence of God in his life. Now, I want you to look at this is that this last point here is the witness that God gave. Before the council ever pronounces a judgment on Stephen, Luke gives us a glimpse into what God's perspective is on Stephen. That's the important part. Stephven's face is like the face of an angel. Remember, we've been kind of

Contrasting this with Moses a little bit and trying to figure out, okay, is he is he opposed to Moses? Is he not? He's clearly not. And what happens here is we see this kind of parallel between Stephen and Moses. Because in Exodus 34 it tells us that Moses's face was radiant from being in the very presence of God. He spoke he spoke with God and his face exhibited the presence of Christ so much that Moses had to cover it up. He had to put a veil over his face. In Luke, what he does here is he gives us a picture of a man who reflects that he is in God's presence. Matthew Henry, he said it beautifully that there is in Steven's face not the least sign either of fear for himself or anger at his persecutors. In fact, Matthew Henry, he goes on to say this. He says it looks as if he had never been better pleased in his life than he was now. And he was called to bear his testimony to the Gospel of Christ. Man, that is grace. That is grace upon grace upon grace. And I pray, Lord, give me that grace, too. When someone is filled with the spirit, what comes out is not overwhelming self-defense or a fleshly need to be proven right. What RC Sproul said is that the grace, loveliness, and the sweetness of God pours forth from Stephen. And look what Stephen isn't doing. He's not being defiant. He's not putting on a performance. He's not he's not pretending to be calm while seething underneath. There's no plotting revenge. He just simply stands there as peaceful, faithful, a steady servant of the Lord. And his peace is itself a testimony. And I don't have to look very far to see this played out. You know, I've seen men and women in the church that have been publicly and unfairly spoken about

The elders in particular who are accused of being silent, indifferent, manipulative. In a season when the truth was the exact opposite, they slowly absorbed hit after hit. And still they showed up showing genuine love and care with a clear conscience, even refusing to defend themselves loudly when they had every right to do so. But they exhibited the grace and the peace of Jesus Christ. And I'm thankful for you men. Look, Stephen, he isn't showing us how to deal with difficult people here. What he's showing us is what it looks like to follow Jesus. Jesus was falsely accused. He did not answer with sinful retaliation. Stephen, he was falsely accused and he wasn't going to answer in that way either. Jesus, he entrusted himself to the father. And Stephen, he ultimately entrusts himself to Christ. Stephen is not the Savior. He's a disciple, a follower of Jesus Christ. And that matters because the point of this passage is not be more like Stephen. The point is look at what Christ produces in people when they suffer for his name. The glory on Jesus on Steven's face was not the composure that he talked himself into. It is the reflection of trust in Jesus. That same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is the same Holy Spirit that abided in Steven's heart. And it poured itself out even in his facial expressions, even in the way that he carried himself, even when he was maligned and dragged before a council. The peace and presence of Christ radiated forth from him.

Even when people were lying, he didn't show fear and he didn't show rage. Stephen, he already knew the verdict that mattered. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And so when you are faced and you are confronted with whatever situation, you can know based on your position in Christ, you are not condemned. Who cares if other people condemn you? Who cares what other people think about you? What does your master say about And once that verdict is settled, man, you're talking about peace. Doesn't even matter what how unjust it might be. And there's something worth knowing about this word witness here that we've been talking about. The Greek word that Luke uses is martis, which is where we get our word martyr from. A martyr is a witness whose testimony costs him something, specifically his life. But here's what has to be true for any of us. Is that Steven's story, it only makes sense if the Gospel is real. If Jesus did not actually die on the cross, if Jesus did not actually rise again on the third day, what does it matter? The truth is that Jesus actually did come as very God and very man. He came together those those two divine that those two natures abiding in one person named Jesus born of a virgin living a perfect sinless life fulfilling all of those prophecies and he went to the cross to pay that penalty of sin for whoever would believe because those things are true and he actually died and he actually rose again on the third day and he actually ascended into heaven and he actually is there right now seated at the right hand of God actually interceding for us before the father because every one of those things are true. The Gospel is true and that gives you Christian

Confidence to live with abandon for his glory in this world today. >> Amen. The same grace that filled Stephen here is available to you. It's available to you when you look to Jesus and you come to him and you say, "God, can you take me a sinner and make me new? Can you wash me clean?" God, he accepts that prayer. And he says, "Yes, yes. That's why I came and I sent my son was to redeem you. The big question we have to ask is, have I trusted the one who was infinitely treated unfairly in my place? If there's anyone that did not get who what he deserved did not get what he deserved, it was Jesus. Grace doesn't mean that we're less committed to the truth. Grace teaches us how to stand for truth without becoming ungracious when truth actually costs us something. Stephen doesn't just speak about Christ. He bears witness of Christ and the radical transformation that Jesus made in his heart and his life. So examine yourself. If you're wrong, repent. Make it right. But if you've been faithful to Christ and the accusation against you is false. We don't go around with slander. There may be times when you don't get to correct every single lie. Not everyone's going to know the whole story. Even those that are involved don't get to know all of that. But God does. And the peace that we have is that we can leave all of those verdicts in his hands. God's word always gives us exactly what we need, doesn't it? Amen. Head, heart, hand. Now, I know that you guys are used to me going head, heart, hand. It's what we what we know about the Scripture, right? How that should impact our

Knowledge. The heart, how that should change what we believe based on what we've learned. And then hand how we live that out. One of the things that you should know is that this is just an application. Okay? An application means that there's a lot of different ways to apply a passage to your life. It's why when we go to God's word, it's always different for us at whatever stage of life that we're in. And so, this is the way that I've applied it. And so, I would ask for you to study the passage and write out your own head, hand, heart head. God wants you to know that his truth is worth standing for when standing for it becomes costly. Truth can be costly and Steven's wisdom didn't protect him from the opposition. In fact, it's what provoked it. And the same may be true for you if you grow in God's grace and truth heart. This is how it should change what we believe. God wants you to believe that you can trust him with your reputation completely. You're not in control of what people think or believe about you, but you are responsible for being faithful and walking with character before Christ. Hand what God wants you to know or what God wants you to do. Speak the truth. Four things. Speak the truth. Examine yourself honestly. Refuse to retaliate. And entrust the outcome to God. At this time, as is our custom, every Sunday, first Sunday of the month, we observe the Lord's supper, and it's a time for you to reflect, on where you're at with the Lord and walking faithfully. And I want to invite, PJ to come forward as he leads us in the Lord's supper, as well as Jim, Steve. Let's pray before we get started. Father, I thank you for these symbols that remind us of your body that was broken and pierced for our

Sin. I pray that father you would speak to us now through this time as we worship you through celebrating this supper. We ask this in your name. Amen. Please can go ahead. While the bread is being passed, I wanted to reflect on Genesis 22. In Genesis 22, God asked Abraham to do the unthinkable and that was to offer his beloved son who he had waited decades for. And as he off he asked him to offer him as a sacrifice. Isaac was the child of promise that Abraham so deeply loved. Yet Abraham obeyed and he trusted that God would somehow provide. And as the father and son climbed that mountain, Isaac asked his dad, "Where's the lamb for the burnt offering?" And Abraham replied, "God himself will provide that lamb." And at the last moment, God stopped Abraham and provided a ram in Isaac's place. Abraham did not have to sacrifice his son. Centuries later on a different hill, God the Father did what he did not require Abraham to do. And he gave his only son Jesus Christ as a sacrifice for our sin. There was no substitute. Jesus. There was no substitute for Jesus, his son, because Jesus was the substitute. He willingly took our place so that we could be forgiven and reconciled to God. This morning, as we take the bread and the cup, I invite us to remember the love of a father who gave his son and the obedience of a son who gave his life. And let's rejoice that God indeed provided the lamb. John 1 29 says, "Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." This is the Savior that we celebrate

This morning. [snorts] And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Guys can go ahead with a cup. In the same way, He took the cup also after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me." Father, I thank you for your presence with us this morning. I thank you for the testimony of Stephen. And I pray that Father as we disperse that we would keep in mind as we walk moment by moment with you that very same gaze that he had reflecting the image of your son. We have that same ability. And I pray that we would keep that in mind. Help us not to be distracted or to [snorts] be given the temptation to think that there's still outstanding debt, but that we would remember that this blood that we just celebrated and took together paid the price in full. There is no outstanding debt. And I pray that truth, that reality would permeate every part of us as we go out and faithfully walk with you this week. We ask this in your name. Amen. >> Let's let's close by singing the duxology. Blessings flow. Praise him all creatures [singing] here. Praise him above the heaven. Praise father and holy host.