Have you ever felt underprepared or overwhelmed or maybe you felt really good, but you walk into a room, you're like this, this isn't good enough. If you're a parent of, of kiddos in club sports, you understand this? Uh you're feeling good, you've been practicing with your kid and it's like an elementary or middle school tournament and you show up and there is a man child on the other team with a full beard and you're like, I think you drove and parked next to my car. Um, right. And you go like, wait, hold on a sec. Why is their team a, an entire foot taller than our team? Right. You understand where sometimes you're like, hm. And you just find yourself saying? Yeah. Nope. You know, I, I remember, uh, you know, when you, you think you're athletic and then you run into people who are really athletic, right? And it just feels like not great. I had a roommate, uh in college who he thought he could just be the quarterback for Michigan. Uh I was like, man, I could, I was, I could be the quarterback for Michigan. You know, I was like, buddy you, bro, you can't even throw 10 yards. Like, and then I thought, well, actually, maybe you could be the quarterback for Michigan. I gotta give you a hard time. Ok, because you've beat us the last couple of years and it's very frustrating as a Buckeye fan. Um, anyway, no, um, I remember one time out of college, uh, I was playing golf. Um, I'm tall guy. Hit it a good ways. Um, not always straight but far. And, uh, and so I was like, oh, and in Ohio there's this, uh, regional qualifying tournament for what's called the Remax World Long Drive. Cool. I hit it the farthest you win. I was like, that sounds fun. And so I, I was like, I, I can do this and I showed up with my one driver and, uh right ahead of me was this massive human named Jeff. I know his name was Jeff because it was like engraved on his bag of 15 drivers as he was sponsored for this. And he gets up there in Ohio, not thin air and first tee shot carries it over 400 yards. And I was like, yeah, nope, I'm not ready for that. Uh, you know, it doesn't just happen in sports too. I remember as a kid. Um, if you're like a churchy church kid, if you're with me with that, like you got the Father Abraham. That means, ok, you're with me. Um, and, uh I was part of a fun program called Ian. And, uh, and Ian, you got this vest super cool, by the way. Um And, uh we had this something called the Ianna Grand Prix where you got this little piece of wood and you were supposed to carve it and erase it. And if you haven't done that in church, maybe you've done that in boy scouts or something similar. Right. And so I tend to procrastinate on things and so I put it fully on myself. Dad, I'm taking ownership of this. Uh I did not bring it to his attention at all. Um And I was just like, what even is this? Right? Is it just like, let's just fun and race. Like I wanted to play games and stuff. And so the night before I didn't do anything for this box. And so I just put the wheels on, put, glued the weight on and then said, cool, I'm good to go. So I showed up to the race with a block and wheels and the guy next to me's dad was uh as an engineer and a carpenter. His car looks like an actual running indie race car. And it ran like one too and I was just like, yeah. Nope, it's not good enough. I remember um, another time in school. Um, just fairly smart, got, got some degrees to my name and I was feeling pretty good about myself going to a doctorate class and I don't know, and, uh, how seminaries work is when you're in a doctoral program, sometimes you have people that fly in for certain classes or certain professors. And so you don't necessarily know all your classmates. Um, and so we're going around the first day giving introductions and, uh, and I'm like, joking around just like, ha ha ha. You know, uh, my name is John and I like the color blue and everyone kind of chuckles and I'm like, oh, this is great. Everyone's just we're, we're connecting, right? And uh and then the next guy, the very next guy goes, hi. My name is like, Steve. I forget what his name was. And he goes, and I was on the team that translated the ESV Bible. I was like, I, I wish you would have gone first Steve. I wouldn't have gone with the color blue as my fun fact. So when I sat in class and like the teacher would say something and I would literally open my mind. And like, so what did you mean when you put this word there, Steve? So like, I gotta turn in a paper next to this guy. It's not fair. Um look wherever you are and at whatever stage and in whatever area it's easy to feel overwhelmed, right? Like you show up and like, I'm, I'm not like, fill in the blank. Well, today I wanna encourage you because today's message is entitled Ordinary Man, extraordinary Life. And we're gonna take a look at a character who wasn't one of the 12 disciples. But actually all of church history ended up hinging on his faith moment. And so an everyday person, an ordinary life who God called to make an eternal difference. So if you're taking notes, I want you to write this down that you can make an eternal difference with your everyday life, you can make an eternal difference with your everyday life to catch us up here. We're walking through the book of Acts OK? And we, we find ourselves in acts chapter six and chapter seven today. These are longer or especially chapter seven is actually the longest chapter in acts. So we're not gonna read the entire thing for time's sake. So I do encourage you to go, we're gonna pick some high points and some verses throughout these two chapters, but I really encourage you to read it. So you can see the full context of the story that we're talking about today. But what's happening here is that the church is growing and it's growing so quickly that there are some people that get frustrated. And so they were called the Hellenistic Jews. And so there was the Hebrew Jews and hellenistic is kind of a fun word for Greek basically. Um And so you had the Hebrew Jews and you had the Greek Jews and uh and they were trying to meet the needs of the people in the community. But the hellenistic Jews were getting overlooked a little bit uh because they weren't like the Jewish Jewish people. And so um they were just kind of Jewish and so they were getting overlooked and they weren't getting um their needs met. And so the disciples were the ones trying to do the feeding and the serving and the helping. And so people came to them, look, this, this is scaled beyond your reach. And so they are humble enough to, to recognize that and say, you know, we can't forsake the ministry of the prayer and the word for the distribution of food. So it's not saying that distribution of food uh was, was not valuable. But he's saying we can't give up who God's called us to be and what God's called us to do just to be busy, right? Have you ever felt just so busy with your schedule that you're like, man, I didn't, you get to the end of your day and like, I didn't get done what I actually needed to get done. But yet I, I'm tired. You, you track in with them. So the disciples had that moment too. And so they said, you know what, let's, let's add more people to the team, let's empower, let's equip some other people. And so they added um seven guys to the team. They had high character. We're gonna focus in on one guy named Steven. Uh just because the rest of the chapter kind of centers around his life. And so an an everyday person, an ordinary person, not one of the original 12 disciples. And they, and then the when they distributed and, and spread ministry and involved volunteers involved your everyday people. Uh The church started to grow rapidly. And throughout acts, there are several verses that just kind of summarize sections. And so acts chapter six verse seven is one of those summary statements that says, and the word of God continued to increase and the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem. And a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. And so from here on out it transitions. And so acts 18, we said, it's the theme verse for the book says, you will receive the power of the Holy Spirit and that you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem. Then it expands into Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. So right here in acts chapter six, it starts to transition out from Jerusalem and what's gonna happen in today's message. And then it's gonna, the gospel is now going to expand and go to Judea Samaria. And ultimately, it ends the book, they're going to the Roman Empire, which at that time represented kind of the ends of the earth. And so we have this man Stephen everyday person and we're gonna walk through him and uh his life and he ends up just to kind of foreshadow here. Uh doesn't quote unquote, end up great for him. Uh He actually gets killed. He gets seen as the first martyr. Uh I do want Christians by the way to take the word martyr back. And here's why I say that is because to be martyred for the faith, because the, the early disciples were, is to be killed for your faith. Um Not to kill for your faith. Does that make sense? Because in modern day, when you hear in other religions and cultures, someone was a martyr. A lot of times what they mean is they were like a suicide bomber or something, they attack and they did something, some act that we would describe actually as evil in the name of their God. But in reality, what I uh that's called murder. And uh what we're talking about here is being a martyr, which is being killed for what you believe and not forsaking what you believe. And so the very first person to do this actually ends up being Stevens, not one of the disciples, but again, an everyday ordinary person. So we have five characteristics. We're gonna walk through the story. It's gonna give our framework for today. Um It does spell the word faith for those that like acronyms. Great. Uh I had to get a little native on a word or two. You'll, you'll pick which ones um here to, to make this work. But I was so close, you know, like when you get three or four things to fit and you need one more. It's like, so just, just track with me and if you don't like acronyms, it's OK. We got some other stories in here too. So uh the first characteristic of Steven spells the word faith, everyday person, we can reflect these same characteristics today. 2000 years later, as believers is this is that Stephen was faithful, Stephen was faithful and I would describe being faithful a little bit different than just having faith. Because in layman's terms, Stephen just kept showing up. Probably one of the strongest characteristics of Steven was that he kept showing up. Mark Batterson. Put it this way, author and pastor, he said that if you continue to show up, God will continue to show off, right? But the reverse is also dangerous if you keep trying to show off, I don't know if God's gonna keep showing up, right? And so Steven just keeps showing up, keeps showing up. Here's a couple of passages here in acts six verses three through five. And then we're gonna also highlight verse eight because it talks about him specifically. He says, therefore, brothers pick out from among you seven men of good repute, so good reputation full of the spirit and of wisdom whom we will appoint to this duty says we will devote ourselves to prayer in the ministry of the word and what they said, pleased the whole gathering and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith in the Holy Spirit. And then he continues to list the other six of their names. Again, read the whole story. But today we're gonna focus just on Stephen. And then a couple of verses later, verse eight, it says in Stephen full of grace and power was doing great wonders and signs among the people. So here the, the early they actually is where they get our word deacon. By the way, for those that like to figure these things out. It's the first time these words are used. But anyway, uh Steven was seen as a man of high character, full of wisdom and the Holy Spirit, full of grace and of power. What I like here is that he was faithful, even when he was unknown, we learn about Stephen in acts chapter six, but the church knew about Steven. Well, before then, why? Because they were looking when they were looking for leaders, they were looking for people who were already serving where they were, they were faithful already, they were faithful already some of us in our workplaces know of people that are full of something. But Stephen here was full of wisdom, full of the Holy Spirit, full of grace and of power, meaning he kept showing up every day that when the question arose, who is somebody that we can rely on? Steven's name comes up first. OK? In other words, Steven's actions were consistent with his beliefs, right? We talked before about uh really the the sadness that comes when someone gets labeled a hypocrite, right? Who says one thing but then does another Stephen is the opposite. Stephen is someone of integrity, a a man of character. And so he was faithful, meaning what he said, he was gonna do what he said. He believed he actually lived out. That's why they could say that he was full, full of grace, full of power, full of the Holy Spirit, full of wisdom. We need some people that we can count on. He said, hey, how about Steven? You know, uh this idea of developing character really runs all throughout scripture. Just one small example of this is that David and Goliath when David who was overlooked by his own family, that when Samuel said, hey, God's calling the next king out of your family, lines up all of your kids and then his own dad doesn't include him in the kid count to where the prophet its was like, hey, do you have any more kids? He's like, well, I have David but he's just watching sheep. Like, can you imagine if someone came to you and said, we're gonna pick someone from your family to be the next leader? You're gonna get everybody like talk about like dressing nice for church or Christmas photos like you're gonna get everybody lined up, right? For that selection. Imagine going through that process and thinking so little of one of your kids that you're like, well, he's not getting chosen. Some of you had a name come to mind by the way and I'm gonna pray for you. Yes. And so David later then goes to visit his brothers who are in battle, who all the Israelites are afraid of this giant of a man, literally Goliath. And he's like, what are you guys doing? Why are you scared of this guy? And so he's gonna a teenager, I think maybe he's like sixteenish at this time. OK? And that's based off the fact that you had to be a certain age to go to war. And he was like so many years younger than his brothers. And so that's why they can and he wasn't at war. And so they, you know, he's, he's a teenager most likely. He says, wait, why is nobody challenging this guy? And then the king at the time goes, what, what gives you the confidence? He said, well, the Lord delivered me from the hand or the paw of a lion or paw of a bear in the mouth of a lion. And so this Philistine is gonna be just like that. In other words, he was faithful when no one was watching so that when everybody was watching it wasn't a new action, he just continued, he was faithful just as David was faithful. Stephen was faithful, we're gonna see he has his Goliath moment, a cultural moment where God calls him to step into something that shapes history, but he was faithful in the little things so that in the big things came, he just had to show up. OK. Second thing here, we see that Steven was astute. I told you there's some unique words here. OK. But I had to make the acronym work. So he was astute. And in other words, he was wise even more simple term. He was aware, he was aware of his surroundings. He knew what was going on, he knew what was going on. He understood his context, he understood his culture, his audience, he understood who he was gonna be talking to and who he was gonna be helping. You. See here in acts chapter three, we see this um that he was wise. We already said that it was full of wisdom. But then in verse nine and verse 10, it says, and then some of those who belong to the synagogue of the Freedman as it was called of the Syrians and of the Alexandrians. And of those from Cecilia and Asia rose up and disputed with Stephen. They came at him, OK, debate style here coming after him, but they could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking, right? They would come at him with questions. He'd come back and say I came from a middle class family and I'm just kidding. Just kidding. Calm down. Just kidding. So I don't know if I call her answers. Awesome. But anyway, we're praying for our nation, whoever comes in. Ok. So I'm getting myself in trouble today. All right, we're having fun. We're having fun. People come at Steven with all kinds of questions and they list out people from the different areas and they're coming at him and he, and he's responding to them. Why? Because he's knowledgeable but like, not just knowledgeable, he's wise. And it says in scripture for us to have the same posture, that's why I say it's still an everyday thing that we can take hold of that. We can be aware of our surroundings in our context. OK. Colossians two verse eight. So see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition, uh according to elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ that we have to be aware, OK, we have to be aware and in all of our political ads and look, this is on both sides, right? Let's just be real. Like candidates on both sides are not saying the nicest things to each other is that fair to say like you can turn on any channel and like you're like, you're just trying to watch like a sporting event in my case. And then like an ad comes up, this candidate is the worst human being alive, right? And you're like, oh man, just, I'm ready for those commercials to be done anybody else anyway. Um, and we're just trying to operate. Well, Steven here is ready to respond to anything. And anyone at any time, uh, Charles Burgeon put it this way. Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. It is the right use of knowledge. In other words, it is knowledge plus action just because you know, the right thing to do doesn't mean you end up doing the right thing. Does it? How many times if we're being honest with ourselves? Have we gotten into trouble? And on the other side of trouble, I knew better. I knew better because it's not just knowledge, it's knowledge plus action, wisdom is being aware, understanding, taking it in. But then then allowing that knowledge to shape right action. And Steven was faithful and he was astute meaning he was wise, he was aware, he could respond to people and he did so in a smart way. So you don't have to be a smart person, but you do want to respond in a smart way, right? Even the early disciples were a lot of them were uneducated fishermen. We talked about them being described that way in acts chapter four. The difference though was that they acted differently. They might not have been seen as smart, but they were definitely wise. Does that make sense? So Steven was faithful. He kept showing up, Stephen was astute, he was aware, he was wise. Third. We see here that Stephen was insightful. In other words, he was, he knew his Bible, he knew his Bible. The religious council are gonna challenge him. They tried to challenge Peter didn't work so great. Now we're gonna challenge one of the everyday folks. And as soon as that door opens, Steven goes through a master class here of how to respond because he knew his scripture. And in this case, it was the Old Testament. And that's why Acts chapter seven is actually the longest chapter in Acts. And it's the longest recorded sermon in Acts. And he, he walks through about 1100 years of history highlighting all these different names. He ends up highlighting Abraham. He goes back uh to Joseph. He, he talks about Moses, he talks about the, the, the kings and the patriarchs. He talks about the prophets, he talks about the formation of the temple. And so he starts walking through, he says, don't challenge me on Old Testament history. Folks. I know that you're these religious leaders, but I'm gonna show you how I know I've read the Bible too, like I've, I've read it and understood it and, and actually, that was all pointing towards Jesus. And so we're not gonna read all of it, encourage you to do so. But notice how this conversation starts here. It says, and the high priest said, are these things. So because they just challenged and said, hey, uh we think Stephen is blaspheming God. We think that he's blaspheming Moses and that he's blaspheming the temple and, and, and what the temple is. And so that's the accusation against Stephen. He says, are these things true and all that's all Stephen needed to go into this. He says, Stephen said, brothers and fathers hear me, the God of glory appeared to our father Abraham and he goes, and he was with Abraham, he was with Joseph. He was with Moses. He starts walking, he was with David. He starts walking through these guys and said over and over and over again. People rejected. The messenger of God, Joseph was rejected. Moses was rejected at first, right? All these guys are going through in here and he starts listening over and over and over again. When God sends someone with a message, the tendency of the people is to reject it. And so he walks all the way through and lives and lists out this incredible defense, but you can do that. Why? Because he knew the word in the New Testament for you. And I, we see here in first Peter 315, he says, but in your hearts honor Christ, the Lord is holy. Always being prepared to make a defense. This is actually where we get our word apologetics um to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you yet do it with gentleness and respect like don't be a jerk about it, ok? Um We could add this verse into politics would be great by the way, right? That last little part. Um But if we have to be ready to give an answer for our faith, what does that assume? It assumes that we actually have to live in a way that begs the question, doesn't it says be ready to answer the question of why you live differently. So we have to ask ourselves, are we living differently? And then do we read the Bible enough to know what it says? I love that you're here on a Sunday morning. I love that you're watching along online or listening later wherever you're consuming this. But I wanna encourage you that just listening to a pastor preach or listening to a single podcast is not enough to fill and change your soul that you have access to the word directly. This is actually one of the things that launched the protestant reformations was along with the invention of the printing press, was giving people access to scripture to where more people can respond to the greatness and the goodness of God, right? You have access to that. This is why it's for everyday people that you have access to the same power that conquered death itself. And that when we study it, when we read it for ourselves, it can be simple. We don't have to be scholars, but we should be knowledgeable and insightful for what God's word says. So when the world tries to come at us. We are ready with an answer. Ok, John Piper put it this way and I love this quote, especially the last couple of lines. He says, if you don't see the greatness of God, then all things that money can buy become very exciting. If you can't see the sun, then you'll be impressed with the street light. If you've never felt thunder and lightning, then you'll be impressed with fireworks. Now, notice this last phrase here and if you turn your back on the greatness and majesty of God, you'll fall in love with a world of shadows and short lived pleas. I wonder if we are settling for the shadows of the world, right? I wonder if we think and we get so focused on these temporary worldly things like fame and popularity and materials and we miss the goodness and the greatness of God that we have access to. Ok. Steven understood that he wasn't one of the original disciples yet. He was willing to challenge the high priest. Why? Because he was faithful, kept showing up. He was consistent, what he said, what he did consistent. He was faithful. He was astute. In other words, he, he was wise, he was aware of what's going on. Are our eyes open for this cultural moment right now? OK. The third, he was insightful, not simply because of what somebody else told him to believe, but he understood the word of God. And that's something that we have access to today. Don't settle for a street lamp when we have access to the sun. Don't settle for the shadow when we have access to the real thing. Don't settle for the trinket. The key chain. When we have access to the goodness and greatness of God, I say that because like when you go to a theme park or you go to some place, right? You come back with what like a refrigerator magnet or like a postcard or a keychain like and if you got a key chain of the Eiffel Tower, that's fun. Also, that's not the actual Eiffel Tower. Some of us have a little keychain with the cross. And that's, that's what we view Jesus as not against the keychain. Get it. But understand we're not worshiping the key chain. We're worshiping the key to life here. Right? Fourth thing we find here in Stephen is that Stephen was tenacious. He was bold. He got after it. He was not afraid. He was not timid. Second Timothy 17 for God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and self control. I love this. He preaches this long sermon. He gets to the end here and watch what he challenges these religious leaders starting in verse 44 says, our fathers had the tent of witness in the wilderness, but just as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it according to the pattern that he had seen said that our fathers in turn brought it in with Joshua when they disposed the nations that God drove out before the fathers. So it was until the days of David. So he's walking through all these things about the temple who found favor in the sight of God was asked to find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob, Jacob, but it was Solomon who built the house for him. So again, we're liv they're living in a time where there is a physical temple that the religious leaders said, this is where you have to worship. And so Steven comes and says, well, here's where the temple came from, by the way. But in notices verse verse 48 yet the most high does not dwell in houses made by hands. Oh, I'll preach right there. As the prophet says, God does not dwell in buildings. God now dwells in his people. OK? He continues on now in verse 51. And he says, oh, you stiff necked people. And this is like a smart slam. Why? Because the only other place you see this slam is Moses slamming the people of Israel. And so he's, he's going old testament joke on them. OK? And uh he's literally going yo mama, meaning like your mama's mama's mama's mama's back in the way day like you stiff necked people. You're just like the Israelites. When Moses got mad, says, uncircumcised in heart and ears and you always resist the Holy Spirit as your fathers did. So do you says, which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the righteous one whom you've now betrayed and murdered for you received the law as it was delivered by angels and you did not keep it when it came to his moment. Stephen was bold. He wasn't afraid to stand up. I love this quote from a w Tozer. He says a scared world needs a fearless church. Church. I get that our times are dark and it's a little scary. But now more than ever, we need to be fearless. We need to be bold, but we need to be bold for the right things. We need to be bold for the spiritual kingdom that we are called to and that God that we worship and that we need to be bold and not afraid of what darkness and shadows come our way. Look copiers and office places are great, but we should not be afraid of a copier because at best, what is it producing photocopies? Like our world is a photocopied. It is a smaller picture. It is, it is a small case. It is a shadow. It is not the real things. We have access to the real God who really created us on purpose with a purpose sent his son Jesus Christ to really live here on earth. Lived a perfect life, died on the cross as payment for our sins with the leaders of that world thinking that and really driven by Satan himself to put aside this movement. But then three days later rises, again, defeats death covers sins and launches the largest movement in history known as the church. Amen. So we need to be bold like Stephen. See if Peter's bold. You're like, oh, that's Peter though, right? I mean, he walked on water. He, he was given a new name by Jesus, which is kind of fun. By the way, it means little rock or little Pebble. It sounds like a we should start referring to Peter as little Pebble. Great. And uh but he says on this rock, I will build my church but really referring to the rock of Jesus, the cornerstone. But he uses Peter to launch the movement. So if Peter does this, you're like, OK, but it's Peter like I'm not Peter. You know what I mean? Like II I can't go like that. I can't hit the ball that far. I can't make that. I, I'm not, I'm not smart enough, I'm not strong enough. I don't make enough money. I don't fill in whatever blank you have. But now if Stevens the one doing this, like hold up, Steven just came onto the scene. Steven's one of us, Steven was faithful. He just kept showing up. Stephen was astute. He was aware of his surroundings. He was wise for his moment. He was insightful, not just with earthly wisdom, but no, knew the word of God for himself. He was tenacious that when he was challenged, he was able to stand up to the face of adversity and be bold for his faith. And the last thing here we gotta see here is that Stephen was humble. Stephen was humble. He gets to the end and what we see. Yes, he is bold, but more than anything, he has a heart for people. He's empathetic. So he's coming out strong. He's going you stiff necked people, you jerks. You killed Jesus like ah well, they didn't like that. They're about to take his life. But I want you to see what he does in the very last moments of his life. Verse 54 says now when they heard these things, they were enraged and they grounded their teeth at him, but he full of the Holy Spirit gazed in the heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God and he said, behold, I see the heavens open and the son of man standing the right hand of God, they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him and they cast him out of the city. It was likely off the hill, literally pushed him off the rocks if you will and he didn't die yet. So they started throwing rocks down until he dies because the witnesses laid down their garments, they laid, they took off their jackets so that they could throw harder and they lay their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. And as they were stoning Stephen, he cried out, Lord Jesus receive my spirit and falling to his knees. He cried out with a loud voice. Lord do not hold this sin against them. Mm We had said this. He fell asleep and passed away. Steven's last act was one of forgiveness. Stephen's last act was to say it's not about me. Lord, forgive them. You know who that sounds like in that moment. Sounds like Jesus. I want to encourage you to know that your pain can have a purpose. Steven did everything right? Ended up losing his life doesn't end the way you think it's gonna be. And so whatever you're walking through this morning, I want you to know that even if you didn't choose it, right? Even if you didn't choose whatever health thing or financial thing or relational thing that you find yourself in. Even if you didn't choose it this morning, I want you to know that God can use it this morning because life is bigger than you. God might have you walking through pain for you, but God also might have you walking through pain for the people around you. How do we know this? Because what happened after Stephen's death? Three things. Number one, the church multiplied. Now with ordinary people, see, when Steven stepped up, the church stepped out and it really took off because now anybody can step in. The other thing, what happened is when they tried to squash the movement, what they did was they actually spread the movement. And all the people that were gathered in Jerusalem took off back to their home villages, but they took with them the boldness and the faith and the example of Stephen and the gospel spread like never before. It went from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria and now to the ends of the earth. 2000 years later, we are still spreading the gospel because of the courage of Stephen because it wasn't about Peter. It wasn't about John is about God working through everyday ordinary people. And the last thing there, did you catch that verse there? It's like a Netflix movie. It's like the end of a Marvel movie where like there, there's a scene Steven is losing his life and, and it was like, wait, where did the jackets go? And they pan to the feet and they come up and then it's this guy named Saul, right? It's to be continued because see Saul becomes Paul who becomes a majority writer of the New Testament. And it was at that moment that God plants a seed to where a few chapters later when he has an interaction with God on the road to Damascus in acts chapter nine, that Paul or Saul becomes Paul gives his life to Jesus and becomes the greatest champion of all. I don't think that happens without Steven's testimony. So at a macro level, like the church spread at a micro level, Steven's faithfulness changed the life of Paul. You might not think you can change the world, but I'm here to tell you, you can change somebody's world with your example. What was Steven Steven? He was faithful. Stephen was a student. He was aware, he was wise, he was insightful. He knew the word of God and what it meant for him and for others, he was tenacious. He was bold. He stood up when he needed to. But lastly, he was humble. His last act was one of forgiveness. I want you to look at these areas today and is there one? You know what John, I need to look at it more this week. I wanna be more like Steven because the world is filled with Stevens, the world is filled with ordinary people who serve an extraordinary God. And understand that if you just keep showing up, God can show off because you can make an eternal difference with your everyday life. That wasn't in Steven's strategy or plan for his life, but he was as faithful and growing and bold and loving and his consistent example of faith. At the right moment, God used to change all of history and that's an ordinary person with an extraordinary God. Let's pray dear God. Thank you for who you are and what you've done. Yeah, we trust you. God, help us to be more faithful in our daily actions. Even when no one sees God, help us to be more astute and wise and apply our knowledge to rightful action. God help us to be insightful, to know the word of God, to know what this culture brings at us. To know the difference between a truth and a lie, help us to be tenacious and to be bold to stand up for our faith. Then lastly, God may we also be humble with who you are and what you've done, we can forgive others because God has forgiven us. May we be like Steven and just be men and women of faith. Today, we love you God as soon says, and we pray amen.