Effectiveness 12/26

Sermon Series: Acts – Faith Explosion
Title: Effectiveness
Text: Acts 6:8-15
“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 Freedmen (as it was called), and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen. 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 this 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.” (Acts 6:8-15, ESV)
Introduction: I am always amazed at the manner in which God uses people to accomplish His will. He almost never picks the people that we would expect Him to choose.
- To unite His broken, enslaved people, He uses an 80 year old shepherd who has dropped out of society.
- To lead His people as the eternal type of Christ He chooses a shepherd boy who is impetuous and selfish.
- To save His people in exile from death He picks a young Jewish girl, named Hadassah, and makes her a queen.
- To takes God’s message of reconciliation and Grace to the entire world He chooses.
o Backwater fishermen from an obscure fishing village on a tiny lake in the middle of nowhere.
o A drop out Jewish theological student.

Transition: As we stand at this place which is the precipice of the end of the year before and the mountain which is the year ahead we have an opportunity to reevaluate the mission which God has given us here in Chariton County.
As we study God’s work with that infant congregation in Jerusalem and the way in which He worked with people in that place and time we can begin to see the backdrop of our own mission which God has invested with us at this place and time.
The passage which we are looking at today marks a brand new way in which God is moving the Church forward and out of its narrow beginnings.
For the first time someone other than Jesus or one of the Apostles is the driving force of movement in the Church.