Welcome to Books of the Book
where we are studying the book
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of Acts. My name is Jim Howard
and I'm here with my brother
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Mark. We are pastors in the
Michigan Conference of Seventh
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day Adventists who have the
privilege of studying with you
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today about this wonderful
narrative of the early church.
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Now, Mark, last time in our
last episode we left off at the
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end of chapter 7 and in Acts
chapter 7 we saw the stoning of
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that powerful missionary for
Christ, Stephen. Stephen was one
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of those deacons who was
appointed to assist with so many
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things that were needed in the
church that the apostles didn't
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have time to get to, but yet he
still had this great mission of
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preaching the word and that
was just a powerful lesson we
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learned last time. But as we
come to the close of chapter 7,
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and prepare for chapter 8, I'd
like to review just briefly the
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last few verses of chapter 7.
So if you are watching at home
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and you have a Bible, we'd
invite you to take that now and
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open it. But before we begin
to dive into the Word we want to
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take a moment and just ask the
Lord to bless our understanding.
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So let's bow our heads together.
Father in heaven, we're so
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grateful for the privilege
of studying your word which is
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living and powerful and
can change our lives. Bless our
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study now we pray.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
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All right. I'll be picking up
in verse 57, right here at the
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conclusion of chapter 7 in the
story of Stephen. It says, Then
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they cried out with a loud voice
after Stephen's appeal, stopped
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their ears and ran at him with
one accord and they cast him out
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of the city and stoned him. So
here we have the Sanhedrin and
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the leaders of the nation
of Israel, in some ways sealing
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their fate with what they
accomplished here. And the
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witnesses laid down their
clothes at the feet of a young
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man named Saul. And they stoned
Stephen as he was calling on God
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and saying, Lord Jesus receive
my spirit. Then he knelt down
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and cried out with a loud voice
Lord, do not charge them with
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this sin. And when he had said
this he fell asleep, that is he
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died. And then it says, Now Saul
was consenting to his death.
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Now I can imagine that as
Stephen is feeling the weight of
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these stones and surrounded
by so many who had stopped their
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ears and who were grinding their
teeth and just looking at him
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with venom in their eyes, that
he had to wonder what the value
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of that sermon was that he gave
and what the outcome would be,
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but I think he's going to be
pleased one day to find out that
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his words, Lord, do not charge
them with this sin, had to have
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pierced the heart of Saul the
persecutor. Saul was right there
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and I believe that Stephen's
death and the words surrounding
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it planted a seed in the heart
of Saul and Stephen's death in
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some ways gave birth to the
life of the apostle Paul. Now
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that doesn't happen yet, but
that conviction has begun and as
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a result of that conviction
some incredible things begin to
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happen in chapter 8. Why don't
you take us down that path?
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Well you know we are going
to hear more about Saul and what
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the impact is on Saul, but
Stephen is such a great example
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of the power of the laity or lay
people. Maybe that's not a word
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that our viewers may use as
much It's kind of fallen out of
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practice with some but it
just means those who aren't the
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pastors or the clergy; the
common church members and they
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are anything but common. Here
we see in the book of Acts that
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Stephen is working his mighty
work for God and it's almost in
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a way of beginning of what we're
going to see here in chapter 8.
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As Stephen lays down his life,
we find that he doesn't just
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give birth in the life of Paul,
but we see the Lord brings about
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a revival. In chapter 8, it says
that at that time, after Saul
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was consenting to Stephen's
death, a great persecution arose
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against the church which was
at Jerusalem and they were all
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scattered throughout the regions
of Judea and Samaria, except the
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apostles. So you have to picture
the church is growing, growing
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3000 and then 5000 and the Bible
says we're counting 5000 men
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not counting women and children.
So the church is really having
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this exponential growth. You
know, it feels good to be a part
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of a church like that. You don't
really want to leave a church
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like that. I mean, they're
fellowshipping and we've talked
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quite a bit about this
rich experience that they've all
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shared together and I imagine
that there was probably quite a
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tendency among the believers now
to congregate and forget their
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responsibility to push the
gospel message into regions
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where it hadn't reached yet.
So at this point in time, once
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Stephen is stoned the Jewish
leaders now look at this as an
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opportunity to start ridding the
church of others and the Bible
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says this great persecution
arose and as a result the
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believers now, as much as they
might have wanted to stay there
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in Jerusalem, were scattered for
safety. It's interesting that it
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tells us there that everybody
was scattered except the
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apostles. The reason that's
important is as we go on here
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verses 2 and 3 talk about
how Stephen was carried to his
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burial and Saul continued to
make havoc of the church it says
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in verse 3 entering every house
and dragging off men and women
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and committing them to prison.
So he's trying to stamp out the
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faith. Then verse 4 says
something powerful. It says,
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Therefore those who were
scattered went everywhere
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preaching the word. Oftentimes
when we hear that preaching and
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we think of preaching in the
New Testament church, who do we
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think of. The apostles right
away. I mean so many of us would
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say, Oh the apostles did the
preaching in the New Testament.
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But what's unique here and maybe
not so unique but kind of an
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eyeopener to us is that it tells
us in verse 4 that the ones who
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were scattered are the ones who
did the preaching. But in verse
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one it tells us that the
ones who were scattered was
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everybody except the apostles.
So the ones who did the
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preaching here were not the
apostles but everyone but the
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apostles were scattered and
preaching. I might add here that
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that word preaching comes from
a Greek word, Caruso, which does
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not mean to necessarily stand in
some pulpit or podium and give a
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like address but to tell or to
communicate or to share. So not
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everybody here was necessarily
giving a sermon, but they were
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vocally, verbally proclaiming
the gospel message and it wasn't
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just a few. This was the church,
the laity of the church, the
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members of the church now were
each and every one out sharing
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gospel message. You
know I can't help but think
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when I hear you speak about
the church members going out and
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sharing their faith about what
must have happened because as we
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look through history there was a
change that came over the church
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Gradually there began to be more
and more of a protective element
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Perhaps they were trying to
protect the purity of doctrine
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or whatever the case might
be but it seems that the clergy
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took on more and more of a role
of being the expositors of truth
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It even got to the point during
the middle ages where the common
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lay person as it is, the church
members, were not the ones that
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had the Bible and explained the
Bible and persuaded others to
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accept Bible truth, because it
was almost as if they were not
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qualified to do so and only the
clergy could do that. So you've
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got this mindset that the
clergy were paid to do that.
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They were especially called to
do that and gifted to do that.
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Very much so. So something had
to happen and I believe during
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the time of the protestant
reformation we see this picture
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begin to shift back to
the biblical model where the
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priesthood of all the believers
in the sense that every believer
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was called as a disciple
of Christ to bear witness for
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Christ and to share the truth
that they had found. That began
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to shift the model of church.
But I think that we're somewhere
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caught in the middle now. We
have a situation in many of our
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churches here where we
live in North America. It's very
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prominent that for some reason
pastors are looked upon as and
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those who are in official
positions as being the primarily
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qualified to share the truth. It
almost has gotten to the point
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where the environment makes
it so that a lay person doesn't
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feel comfortable doing it
because they might mess up.
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That is hardly what we see in
the early church. In the early
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church we see not a structure
that ultimately is full of busy
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activity but doesn't include the
sharing of the word. But we see
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the sharing of the word that
happens throughout the whole
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region and that causes a
need for structure and this
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particular biblical model of
church where every disciple of
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Christ is a witness
for Christ and by witness,
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I don't mean silent witness,
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merely a representative
which is a very important aspect
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of witnessing but I mean also
giving voice to that which has
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won their heart through
literature, through their own
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confession. These are the things
that the early church had that
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I believe we need to recapture.
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That's right and so when you
even bring up the idea of the
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silent witness, that word
preaching, while it may not be
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standing in a pulpit certainly
isn't silent. It's verbally,
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it's vocally communicated, it's
audibly communicated and so here
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we have the church proclaiming.
The question would be, and you
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touched on this, this mindset
that we've now come into in our
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day that has this idea that
those who are preaching the word
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are specially gifted. I mention
that specifically because
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sometimes when I talk to people
about witnessing and sharing
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their faith the response that
I hear a lot, Jim, is well that
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isn't my gift. That's fallen
into vogue today in the church
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but it's not at all biblical.
There are four spiritual gifts
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lists in the Bible and not
one of them contains witnessing
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and I tell people this because
witnessing is standard equipment
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in the church and I'm going
to look at a text for that in a
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moment. But I tell people when
I bought my car I had options;
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I could get a GPS built in,
I could get air conditioning,
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power windows, but it came
with a steering wheel and tires.
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Right? Those are standard
equipment and what we find in
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scripture and what we're seeing
here in the book of Acts in the
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experience of the early church
is that that power to witness
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was standard equipment for the
Christian and Jesus spoke of it
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in John Chapter 4 when he was
talking to the woman at Jacob's
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well. I'm not going to go
through the whole passage, but
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he's telling her of living water
which is an offer for her to
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receive the gospel. He says
in John 4 and verse 13, Whoever
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drinks of this water will thirst
again, speaking of the water in
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the well, but then he says, but
whoever drinks of the water that
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I shall give him will never
thirst but the water that I
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shall give will become in him,
in that person that drinks it,
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a fountain of water springing up
into everlasting life. Now what
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he's saying is everyone who
takes the living water, that is,
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anyone who receives Jesus
for salvation, that experience
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become a fountain of water
that then gives the water to
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others and so Jesus made it very
clear that anyone who becomes a
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consumer of his grace
immediately becomes a producer
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of it. I want to
interject also on that
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point of the spiritual
gifts. You know, we've used in
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different churches spiritual
gift inventories that have
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talked about different people's
characteristics and then they
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determine where their gifts are,
whether it's administration or
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teaching or helps or whatever it
might be based on this inventory
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and while there's value to that
and it can help to give us a
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sense of where we may be able
to fit into the ministries of
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the church, I wonder what would
have happened if these fishermen
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had taken spiritual inventory
tests. I mean when you really
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think about it why was it that
they needed to pray for boldness
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why was it that they needed this
external, supernatural power to
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help them to overcome the fears
that they would have naturally
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had. Now what we have to
remember is that naturally very
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few of us are really wanting to
say things that can be ridiculed
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or looked at in negative light.
So it takes power from God for
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any of us to be able to preach
and witness and we can't just
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look at what comes naturally
and say that what God is calling
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me to do. We have to
say what can God do for me
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supernaturally? That's
right. Well we've got to
00:14:16.93\00:14:19.90
take a break but when we come
back we're going to dive back
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into the book of
Acts so stay tuned.
00:14:22.97\00:14:24.87