Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
"Here as in Heaven."
For more information visit : garden.church
You're listening to the Garden Church podcast. We're in a series called church on fire, a journey through the book of acts. This is a story of ordinary people filled with the spirit, carrying the presence of Jesus into every corner of the world. The same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is alive and in us today. Join us as we step into the call to be people set on fire for his mission.
Darren Rouanzoin:What's up? Trying to stay hydrated today. Just kidding. I Man, I just got back from Costa Mesa. God is doing so much in our church.
Darren Rouanzoin:I'm overwhelmed by God's goodness. What's up buddy? Hey. My son had a had a sleepover so I didn't see him until just now. What's up?
Darren Rouanzoin:So I'm gonna do some philosophy real quick. You ready? Stay stay with me. If Alright. Let's just come over here.
Darren Rouanzoin:Cash. What's up dude? How you doing bro? So if I were to open this,
Intro/outro:what
Darren Rouanzoin:do you think comes out? What comes out of Mountain Dew? Mountain Dew. Great job. First gathering to get it right.
Darren Rouanzoin:The first time. If I were to shake Mountain Dew, what do you expect to come out of Mountain Dew? Great. If I if I shake this, do you expect Pepsi to come out? No.
Darren Rouanzoin:Of course not. Come on. I had to like all these people think I'm gonna trick them. When your life shakes, what comes out? What's inside.
Darren Rouanzoin:Inside? What comes out of you when life shakes? See, crisis doesn't create what's inside of you. It reveals it. Pressure is like an x-ray into your soul.
Darren Rouanzoin:It reveals what's underneath the surface of your life and how many of you are Christians? It's like, alright great. You're like, I don't know if I wanna answer this. Well let me let me quote Matthew. Jesus says, Whoever acknowledges me before man I will acknowledge to my Father in heaven.
Darren Rouanzoin:Whoever disowns me I will disown. How many of you are Christians? Comes out of you when your life is not going the way you want it to go? What comes out of you when you didn't get the job? When you're trying to make it to work and and you have to take the four or five and then it's just hell.
Darren Rouanzoin:What are the thoughts? What are the words? What what are the observable characteristics of your life? What are you full of? This is what I'm after today because I was supposed to preach a lot more of Acts.
Darren Rouanzoin:But I read this one verse and it got wrecked. I knew it was enough. So I'm gonna preach one verse in Acts and I'm gonna go back to share some other things and I'm just gonna define these biblical words that for many of you you have probably read before. You've used but haven't the faintest idea what they really mean. And I just wanna paint a picture of what we're after as a community.
Darren Rouanzoin:As it as as followers of Jesus as Christians. What does the Christian life look like? What's possible? So let's go to Acts chapter six but let me see your your Bibles. Yeah.
Darren Rouanzoin:We're ready. Raise them up. Pull them up. Alright. Well done.
Darren Rouanzoin:You don't win today but that's okay. Just just, I'm just kidding. Like dang it. I just needed one thing. Alright.
Darren Rouanzoin:Here's the word. Let me pray. Jesus. We open the word today. Thank you for the word of God.
Darren Rouanzoin:We open our scriptures. God, may we open our souls to you. Holy Spirit, would you fill us with revelation to know you better? To know your love? But would you give us power Holy Spirit to become what was possible by You in the New Testament.
Darren Rouanzoin:May it be possible today. In Jesus' Name. Amen. Alright. Acts six verse eight.
Darren Rouanzoin:Ready? Now Stephen, his name means crown. A man full of God's grace and power performed great wonders and signs among the people. That was it. I was on a plane to South Georgia.
Darren Rouanzoin:Another country. Just North of Florida. And and I opened the scriptures to prepare the rest of that passage and I couldn't get past eight. Because I was I was overwhelmed because I had already preached last week about the seven. Remember the apostles gathered, there's an administration crisis, there's there's too much need and they need to they need to hand off the crisis of inefficiency of the administrative task of passing out food to widows.
Darren Rouanzoin:And, they don't say, alright let's find the people with good excel spread sheet work. Let's find the administrative helper gifts. They look for men it says in Acts six verse three. They look for men who are full of the spirit and wisdom. Who are known to be full of the spirit of wisdom.
Darren Rouanzoin:And then it lists the seven in verse five and it it introduces this man, Stephen. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit. So, I read verse eight and I was like, man, there are a lot of characteristics that are describing this this hospitality volunteer. We have hospitality volunteers here. Any any ushers?
Darren Rouanzoin:Raise your hand. Me see. Yeah. We see you. This is for you.
Darren Rouanzoin:And I got to eight and I was like, would I qualify to serve as a hospitality volunteer in the New Testament church? That that's the question that stopped me from moving forward in the sermon. Do do my friends, does this community know me, in a way, not because I fill out an application and put, yep, grace, power, faith, check. But because it was observable in my life. Not in the spaces that are liminal like Sunday gatherings where we come together as Christians to worship God.
Darren Rouanzoin:But in the spaces that require those characteristics. The spaces that shake us. Do the characteristics of Jesus naturally flow out? When my kids don't listen the first time. When I'm stressed and hungry.
Darren Rouanzoin:Do those characteristics reveal themselves? That's what I'm after today. Asking the question, what comes out of you? What are you full of? And how do we as a community become the kinds of people that would have qualified for the service of waiting on tables?
Darren Rouanzoin:I wanna build that kind of church. Yeah? Five of us? I lost all of you? Are you already convicted?
Darren Rouanzoin:Because I got convicted. Is this what you feel already? This is what I felt in the last two services. I start with Pepsi or Mountain Dew. And and then I distracted everyone because I was like, how many of you ate, drank Code Red Mountain Dew in your life?
Darren Rouanzoin:I just wanna see. Let's do a poll. So you're gonna die early. It's it's a class one carcinogen or something like that. And pulled it off the shelves.
Darren Rouanzoin:I'm like, the millennials lived on Code Red. Two liters a day. Let's go. My whoop band says your age is 65. Alright.
Darren Rouanzoin:Here are the characteristics. I'm gonna just define these. We're gonna do a bible study. Ready for some deep Greek thinking. Number one, the word is full.
Darren Rouanzoin:This man, Stephen was full of. That word full in the Greek is containing within itself all that it will hold. Lacking nothing. So as we begin to define what Stephen and the seven were full of. What Stephen was full of.
Darren Rouanzoin:He was, he was not lacking any of it. So as we go into the characteristics of these qualities that are in the early church for hospitality volunteers, know that there is a level of being filled to something so that when it's it just spills out of you not lacking anything. The first is they're full of the Holy Spirit. That Greek word is pneuma and it is the third person of the trinity. It is not an it.
Darren Rouanzoin:It is not a force. It is the person of God. And this we have to understand that this is the entire point of Christianity that we as followers Jesus, are not trying to practice our way to become like him. Not just practice our way to become like him. But actually, the whole design is that we get so close with God that he fills us.
Darren Rouanzoin:That when people experience us at work they experience the spillover of the presence of Jesus. Because the Holy Spirit fills us. When we're at school we're not occupying our minds and hearts with trying to fit in or be cool. We're filled with the fact that God, the creator of the universe who we have a relationship with wants to fill us to full capacity lacking nothing. Somehow in that receiving of God's presence now enables a container for all the other stuff.
Darren Rouanzoin:And this is it. I just wanna I wanna I wanna do a quick disclaimer because I I see I see the I see something that's happening in the church right now that's so good and so dangerous at the same time. Okay. Now pay attention. I just wanna bring this to you as a pastor.
Darren Rouanzoin:Because of the movements we're coming out of the the therapy culture, the rise of self, the self improvement, the self help gospel and the practices and spiritual formation which we have practiced it as a church since it began. There is a danger in thinking you can get the fruit of the spirit by practicing the things of Jesus without the presence of the Holy Spirit. There is a danger that you see the characteristics that I'm about to list and think, I just gotta work harder. They are fruit of a life that permeates the presence of God. That is filled with the presence.
Darren Rouanzoin:See, and and and I would I would like to just say, I see it because of something I'm reflecting on it. This last week I I was reading Exodus and I got to the end and and there's a story of Moses, the leader of of Israel. And you know, he lived for forty years in Pharaoh's house. Trained under probably the greatest leader alive at the time. And then he leaves and he becomes a shepherd in obscurity in Midian.
Darren Rouanzoin:And then, God speaks from a bush and calls him. He says he's gonna free Israel through him. He's gonna lead them into the promised land. And he leads the people of God for forty years. And he ascends the mountain and brings the 10 commandments and he leads the people of God.
Darren Rouanzoin:He sees signs and wonders. And then he gets to the end of his life and God shows him the promised land only he doesn't get to go in. And as a leader, I'm like, that sucks. Dang. I would be so disappointed.
Darren Rouanzoin:And as I was reflecting on it, the Lord was like, no. He gave me a different picture and my friend helped me see this last week. What if he saw the promised land? And he realized it's never been about the promised land. He was Moses, a friend of God.
Darren Rouanzoin:He had talked to God face to face as a friend and he realized it's never been about the promise and it's always been about God's presence. See what I'm afraid of right now is that the church gets obsessed with these things that Jesus did rather than Jesus himself. And and it's easier to get really good at prayer. To get really good at reading scripture. To be really good at liturgy and fasting and praying and all the things associated with the lifestyle than it is to be in an intimate loving relationship.
Darren Rouanzoin:And I was reading in John and it says at the end as he's communicating to his disciples what what it is before he goes, he's gotta make sure they get in. He says, greater love has no one than this than to lay down his life for a friend. And I got it in a moment of revelation. Jesus didn't die for disciples. He didn't die for followers.
Darren Rouanzoin:He died for friends. He wants to be your friend. How? Through the presence of the Holy Spirit invading your life. You have to humble yourself to say, I can't do it.
Darren Rouanzoin:I can't possibly practice hard enough to become somebody who's filled to the brim with the presence of God. I need you, God, to fill me in my weakness. I can't be a person that spills over your presence because I I memorized the bible. I need your presence within me. Yes.
Darren Rouanzoin:Read the bible. Yes. Pray. Yes. Fast.
Darren Rouanzoin:Yes. Slow down. Yes. We love liturgy. But we need to love Jesus more than any of those things.
Darren Rouanzoin:And I see a lot of experts in the church right now that are really good at all the peripheral things except for Jesus himself. Because when things happen they don't spill Jesus. Myself included. This is why the spirit's bringing this to you today. Because if I don't qualify as a hospital hospitality volunteer I don't qualify to preach.
Darren Rouanzoin:Church, we need to stop lowering the bar for what it means to be followers of Jesus and friends of God and raise the expectation. This is what God's doing in the world right now. He wants to give his life and attention to you. Why? Because he loves you.
Darren Rouanzoin:He's longing to be with you. He's waited forever for you to be here because he designed you on purpose. You're not an accident. You're not a chance. You're not randomness.
Darren Rouanzoin:You have been designed by the creator of the universe. And he wants you to be the best version of yourself. That doesn't happen through self improvement. It happens through the presence of the holy spirit in your life. Are we there?
Darren Rouanzoin:Eleven fifteen. You're getting something that no other service got so far. I got some other things to preach through. Lord just release your spirit. Release a hunger that won't be satiated by the world anymore.
Darren Rouanzoin:Satiated by ideas about you. We want you God in our life. And if we don't, may we become the kind of people that want to want you. So the other characteristic that is defined by the seven. The apostles say, choose seven men from among you who are full of the spirit and full of wisdom.
Darren Rouanzoin:The Greek word wisdom is Sophia and it is that's the Greek word that means the capacity to understand and function accordingly. Now, what you need to know about wisdom, I talked about this last week. In Hebrew consciousness, it means to master the art of living. In other words, there is a kind of wisdom in the natural world that gives you access to live well with the things of the world. But there's another kind of wisdom.
Darren Rouanzoin:And this is the wisdom that God imparts to those who are close to God. Who are friends of God. There's a kind of wisdom that is a God given capacity to see the world in reality as it is and respond with alignment to God's will. So, it's like Joseph in Egypt discerning the famine before it comes. God given wisdom.
Darren Rouanzoin:It's like Daniel in Babylon navigating his life without losing his holiness, wisdom. Or it's like Stephen before the Sanhedrin speaking in such a way that his opponents, it quotes this, could not stand up against the wisdom the spirit gave him. Biblical wisdom is always practical. It governs our speech and money and sexuality and leadership. It empowers healthy conflict and parenting and friendship and it's it's a power within itself.
Darren Rouanzoin:Biblical wisdom is theology lived skillfully. And here's the key difference between worldly wisdom and godly wisdom. World wisdom trusts the the outcome of the con trust in controlling the outcomes. Godly wisdom trusts in God and acts faithfully. So when Stephen is shaken by the world, by circumstances, it's wisdom that comes out of him.
Darren Rouanzoin:He responds accordingly. And what's fascinating, his first task is to use the God given wisdom for administrating the needs in the church. It's to use what is cultivated through intimacy and being filled with spirit to serve in a thing that could be under beneath him To to help organize the potlucks for the widows. And then we'll see in just a couple of verses later, later. It's gonna be giving an account to the smartest people in the land.
Darren Rouanzoin:And then being confronted by the God given wisdom as he proclaims the gospel from the entire Old Testament. And he attacks the three pillars of Judaism and shows how they're fulfilled in Christ. And then he gets stoned to death. Filled with wisdom. See I think if we were to rely on the presence of God for resources from heaven we might have revelation about the work needs we have.
Darren Rouanzoin:We might have revelation about the issues we're facing in our on our team in our workplace because God gave you wisdom. You need to bring that intimacy into the daily moments that you have. Draw from the resources of heaven because you have intimacy and friendship with God. Does that make sense? Yes.
Darren Rouanzoin:The the other characteristic is faith. Probably the most, one of the most overused words in our in our context that we don't understand. The word faith means to believe. It's connected in the Greek. It's There's a bunch of words come out of this one word.
Darren Rouanzoin:Belief. Trust. It means to put confidence in. It means to have reliance upon. So in western context we think belief is this like disconnected intellectual agreement idea.
Darren Rouanzoin:We have this intellectual understanding about something. God. All right. See if you can get this movie. No, it's me, Mori.
Darren Rouanzoin:Anyone? Anyone wanna guess? Let's go. You know my heart, Zoolander. Let's go people.
Darren Rouanzoin:I'm dating myself. Is that a problem? Like, do we need to do a walk off right now? Let's go. For those that have ears to hear and eyes to see.
Darren Rouanzoin:You're welcome. So so belief and faith and trust is this complex word. It's having confidence and so like if there was a chair here, western philosophy would say, I believe that that chair can hold me. It's an intellectual statement about a reality. Greek and Hebrew philosophy would say, faith is sitting in the chair.
Darren Rouanzoin:That's the difference between biblical faith and the kind of westernized intellectual agreement. That's why by the way, you can have people like Joe Rogan, Jordan Peterson and and Elon Musk saying they believe in the teachings of Jesus but they don't have faith in Jesus. Because there's a difference. Do they put their souls trust in the person of Christ? Not the ideas of Christ.
Darren Rouanzoin:Not the teachings of Jesus. That's not where We believe he died in history and rose from the dead. He's been resurrected. He ascended to heaven and he's coming back. That changes everything.
Darren Rouanzoin:That's a physical historical reality. I'm a sit in that. Yes? Okay. You with me?
Darren Rouanzoin:But it goes deeper. Can we take it one level deeper? I'm gonna do it whether you agree or not. Here we go. Mark chapter nine.
Darren Rouanzoin:I wanna define this a little bit because there's this is really important. Because faith we think exists primarily in these kind of contexts. But this is not where we need faith. This is not where faith should spill out of you. I mean it's obvious because you have it, you're here, some of you.
Darren Rouanzoin:But this is not where it matters most. So in Mark, Jesus comes down the mountain of transfiguration and his disciples are in an argument with some leaders and they they find out Jesus finds out he they couldn't cast out a demon that a father brought to them. So, Jesus asked the boy's father, verse 21 of Mark chapter nine. How long has he been like this? The boy.
Darren Rouanzoin:And the father says, from childhood. It is often thrown him into the fire or water to kill him but if you can do anything, have compassion. Take pity on us and help us. And Jesus' response is not negative. I see it as such compassion.
Darren Rouanzoin:If you can. Something about the request from this desperate father brings about this compassionate response. If you can, everything is possible for the one who believes. Everything is possible for the one that trusts. Everything is possible for the one who relies upon, sits in, stands in the reality of God.
Darren Rouanzoin:And immediately the boy exclaim I'm sorry, the father exclaims, I do believe. Help me overcome my unbelief. And here's the thing about belief. Because we live in this westernized concept where it's intellectualized, it's not helpful. But one of my favorite New Testament commentators, a New Testament scholar named Frederick Del Bruner.
Darren Rouanzoin:In his commentary on the book of John, he has this line, relaxing in Jesus is a good modern translation of trusting in or believing in. The best modern translation for belief or faith or trust is to relax in. That preaches. Yeah? So imagine all those words belief, trust, faith now being reimagined through the word relax in our modern translation.
Darren Rouanzoin:And Jesus says, everything is possible for those who relax in me. Yeah? So faith then is a dynamic active resting, sitting, relaxing, walking, standing and living in the reality of what is true. It is needed in your life. It's recognizing that when things don't go your way, faith is the ability to see God.
Darren Rouanzoin:Right? What's the opposite of faith? Certainty. Or for all y'all that come up. You like come up and you need prayer because you're in transition.
Darren Rouanzoin:You know what the number one prayer request is? I just want clarity. The opposite of faith is also sight. Clarity. So faith is going, no.
Darren Rouanzoin:I will live. I will feel in my body. I will react in my words. I will reinterpret this situation from heaven's perspective. And embody it in the middle of chaos.
Darren Rouanzoin:In the middle of lack. In the middle of uncertainty. Because my faith is not built. My relaxing in is not sitting on the circumstances of my choice. It's on the character of God.
Darren Rouanzoin:That is what comes out of Steven when he shakes. Faith. The other word is probably the most used word in the church and most misunderstood. Because I wanna give you what is a library of definitions for this word right now. Because it is the word.
Darren Rouanzoin:Before we bring it up, my One of my favorite authors is Brendan Manning. He passed away years ago. He wrote a book that I read every year called Abba's Child. It's about identity. But he he was a guy that had one message.
Darren Rouanzoin:Every preacher has one message. He just said it over and over again in like 20 something books. His message was that God loves you as you are and not as you should be. Because you're never gonna be as you should be. This is from a preacher, a priest, a preacher, an author, a writer, an alcoholic who struggled his entire entire life as a preacher and priest with alcoholism.
Darren Rouanzoin:And died because of the substance abuse consequences on his body. And his memoir is called, All Is Grace. And the word I want you to become a master of. I'm a say it again. The word I want you to become a consumer of is grace.
Darren Rouanzoin:Because grace in the word is the definition of the gospel. So grace in the in the he In the Greek is charis and it's the word favor, gift, thanks, joy, care, help. Hawthorne says it's the free spontaneous unmerited favor of God. But Gordon Fee says it this way, it's the sum total of God's activity toward his human creatures found in the word, grace. God has given himself to his people bountifully and mercifully in Christ.
Darren Rouanzoin:Nothing deserved. Nothing can be achieved. Grace is the ability to accomplish what you would never be able to accomplish in your own strength. As one church father says, it's the divine energy working in your soul. So grace is this fascinating concept.
Darren Rouanzoin:In in in first Corinthians 15, Paul will say, first of all Paul uses the word over a 100 times in his letters. He he he is an expert on grace. Because he was a Pharisee who murdered Christians. And he was saved not by works, by grace. And he'll use the word in in first Corinthians 15 as this raw, uncut, power that enables him to work hard in what he does.
Darren Rouanzoin:So for all of you that have jobs, hopefully most of you. It's the power to do the the vocation God gave you as a person. It might not be the job of your choice right now. But he's given you the facilities and capacity. Why don't you consume grace to do it like Jesus would?
Darren Rouanzoin:But, it's not just this raw uncut power, this divine energy working through you. It is also according to first second Corinthians chapters eight and nine. It is the capacity, the ability to share and live generously. Grace enables generosity in the church. God's grace was so powerfully at work in all of them that there were no needs among them.
Darren Rouanzoin:Grace is what enabled that. Grace is the ability to do what you couldn't do on your own strength. Grace. I need grace to parent. I need grace to love my wife the way Christ loves the church.
Darren Rouanzoin:I need grace to read scripture and and preach to you. I need grace for my staff. I need grace to drive in a way that doesn't reflect the world. I need grace when things don't go my way. I need grace when I'm feeling like scarcity is creeping in and I don't have enough to go around.
Darren Rouanzoin:I need the ability to do what I can't do. Does anyone else want to say amen? Amen. For those of you that have have you tried to change something in your life? And you failed to change it.
Darren Rouanzoin:I got one person that raised their hand. Alright. Great. We'll come back to one second. Grace is also, in second Timothy, Paul will say to a young apostle in training.
Darren Rouanzoin:Be strong in the grace God has given you. And he compares grace to an athlete physically training for a competition. Or a farmer working in his field that there's a way we can grow in strength, the strength of grace. Again, once again, it's this mysterious idea that becomes a library in your life. And for me, I hope my memoir would be all his grace.
Darren Rouanzoin:Because I know I was a beggar that found some bread. And I was consumed by it and I consumed it and I was obsessed with Jesus. Because I was a friend of God. The last word is power. I love this one.
Darren Rouanzoin:That the hospitality volunteer. He was full of wisdom and spirit. He was full of grace. He was full of faith. But he was full of power.
Darren Rouanzoin:And that is this Greek word for dynamite and dynamic And it means, Stephen was filled with the ability to do something. He was given capacity from the presence of God to do something. Jesus says, wait for you will be clothed with power from on high. Paul will say, the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk. It's a matter of power.
Darren Rouanzoin:We're talking about a resource and strength to do something. William Barclay said that the days of the early church were obviously were days in which obviously the church seed and surged with power. This is the question. How many of you have tried to change something in your life and failed? Can you just raise your hand?
Darren Rouanzoin:Okay. Let's be honest real quick. How many can Right now the spirit is revealing to you because this is what the Holy Spirit does to the church. Characteristics in your life. Conditions of your heart.
Darren Rouanzoin:Activities. Habits. That are not for the Christian life. And he's revealing the things that need to be sanctified. Anyone experiencing what's called conviction from the Holy Spirit?
Darren Rouanzoin:Like, yeah I wanna change. Raise your hand. You're like, oh no I'm not. Maybe you grieve the Holy Spirit and you can't feel that. You should.
Darren Rouanzoin:Because everyone says they don't sin, they're a liar. First John. I'm just quoting scripture. You see what I've experienced over the last, I don't know, eighteen years of being the pastor of Garden Church Is that we don't rely on his power for transformation. Because to rely on his power requires humility.
Darren Rouanzoin:It re it requires something that AA knows so well that to begin your transformation process you say I have no power over. And I rely upon a higher power to bring the transformation I need. Only we think we can do it by just adding the right practices to our belt. Working at it harder versus recognizing it's the presence of God who gives you power so that lust no longer has a hold on your life. The Holy Spirit wants to give you power so that alcohol is no longer an addiction and then today's the day of sobriety for the next season.
Darren Rouanzoin:Twenty, thirty, forty years of sobriety can start today because you were humble enough to say, I can't do it on my own ability. The power of the Holy Spirit comes upon us to make us witnesses. So first, to transform our lives. And then to help us transform others. Simon Ponsby writes, Those early Christians had no degrees from the best universities.
Darren Rouanzoin:They had been on no MBA management courses. Gone through no psychological Myers Briggs compatibility profiles. They had no financial investment portfolios but they had a revelation of God. A revelation of their inheritance in Christ and Holy Spirit power from on high. With this, God God took a 120 people and shook the world.
Darren Rouanzoin:He goes on to say and I I didn't put this in the up there. This Holy Spirit power was always the mark of men and women of God in scripture. Power to challenge crooked kings. Power to open up seas. Power to stop the rain.
Darren Rouanzoin:Power to raise the dead. Power to overcome one's enemies. Power to establish God's kingdom. Power to witness to Christ. Power to renounce the world, the flesh and the devil.
Darren Rouanzoin:Power to forgive those who sin against us and power to lay down one's life as a martyr. And Stephen was a man full of power. The hospitality volunteer becomes someone who performed in Acts six verse eight, wonders and signs among the people. So, the potluck associate, the hospitality volunteer, miracle worker, prophet, gospel proclaimer, a man full of spirit, wisdom, faith, grace, power. You see what I'm seeing, what I'm so convicted of of the scripture is the church puts people into positions of leadership who are filled with the maturity of Christ.
Darren Rouanzoin:They just happen to set up chairs and tables and serving kids ministry and do coffee hospitality. Yet they're permeating the presence of Jesus while they do it. And then they show up in a crisis and when they're confronted, when they are shaken, when they are shook, what comes out of them is Jesus. And I am wrecked by it. Because what we're gonna read next is the longest speech in the Book of Acts.
Darren Rouanzoin:Stephen will be brought before the He will preach before the Sanhedrin and then then he will be shaken. They'll drag him before the Sanhedrin. They will accuse him falsely. He will be surrounded by a mob and then he will be stoned to death. And what comes out of him?
Darren Rouanzoin:It's not rage. It's not vengeance. It's not self defense. Acts seven verse 59. While they were stoning him it says.
Darren Rouanzoin:While rocks hit his body and he died from being hit by hundreds of rocks. He prayed, Lord receive my spirit. And he fell to his knees and he cried out, do not hold this sin against them. What does that look like? It looks like Jesus on a cross.
Darren Rouanzoin:As they hammer nails into his his wrists and into his his legs. Into his ankles. He will say, Father forgive them. They don't know what they do. He'll say to his mom, John, this is your mom.
Darren Rouanzoin:Mom, this is your son. Making sure that his mama has care and provision. One one thief will say horrible insults and the other thief will say, remember me in your kingdom and say, you'll be with me in paradise today. What comes out of Jesus? Grace.
Darren Rouanzoin:Forgiveness. Inclusion. Care. Help. Power.
Darren Rouanzoin:What comes out of Steven? The same thing. What are you filled with? Been thinking about it all week. How do I teach our church to understand the false indwellings we have?
Darren Rouanzoin:And then it hit me this morning as I did a prayer walk. Ephesians five verse 18. It says, Paul says, Do not get drunk off wine which leads to debauchery. Right. Don't be under the influence of alcohol which leads to a lifestyle of decisions, of thinking, of behaviors that are not appropriate for the Christian life.
Darren Rouanzoin:And a week ago, Yeah, that's why I don't worry about alcohol. But if he was preaching today, don't be under the influence of YouTube. Don't be obsessed with social media or what your peers think of you. Don't be under their influence. It leads to competition.
Darren Rouanzoin:It leads to mindless scrolling. You'll be filled with algorithms algorithms and ideas that produce control, and anger, and resentment, and comparison and self pity and self doubt and self hate. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit. Don't be mindlessly consuming. Don't be obsessed with politics which leads to power and control.
Darren Rouanzoin:Don't be obsessed with news cycle which leads to anxiety and an addiction to the next thing and knowing the right things. Don't be obsessed with what you know. Don't be obsessed with the relationships. Don't be obsessed with your body. Don't be obsessed with sexuality.
Darren Rouanzoin:Don't be under the influence. Instead, in the perfect present tense verb, which is what he says in Be Filled. Keep on being filled with the Holy Spirit. That is the antidote to the crisis. It's not because you got You figured out the master plan of practices to make you a better version of of yourself.
Darren Rouanzoin:No. It's because you humbled yourself. And when you were reminded and when you gathered on Sunday you humbled yourself to say, I don't have what it takes. Come Holy Spirit. Fill me again.
Darren Rouanzoin:Fill me again with your presence. I need more of you. I need more of you for my marriage. I need more of you for this work week. Church, this is how we get full of the kind of people that qualify for hospitality volunteer.
Darren Rouanzoin:Because here's what I've learned. You can spend your whole life walking around the Christian world and never live and have the Christian life. Because I wanna be the one that says it's never been about the promised land. It's always been about your presence. Can we stand?
Intro/outro:For more information, visit us at garden.church.