All right, let's turn in our Bibles tonight. Acts, Book of Acts, the seventh chapter. Book of Acts, the seventh chapter, and I'll tell you a story about the first time I read the Book of Acts all the way through. I was playing music many years ago and traveling, doing so, and before I was a preacher, before God had impressed upon my heart to be a preacher, And I was trying to, I just started going to a good church and hearing some good preaching. And we were in a city somewhere and we had a day off and we're playing music the next day. So we were at a hotel and they had, they had a downstairs area where you could do laundry. Well, we'd been out for about 30 days. So I had a lot of laundry to do. I thought I'm going to take, uh, I'm going to take this laundry downstairs, and I'm going to do my laundry on my day off here, and I'm going to read a book of the Bible. What book should I read? I started reading the book of Acts. I thought, that's a good book to start with. That sounds exciting. And I was reading it, and the more I read it, I'd never read my Bible through. I was saved. I knew and understood the gospel. I understood my sin, but was living my life for myself. So I wasn't real familiar with the word of God. Let me encourage you, if you're saved, keep your nose in the book, because that's where God speaks, and that's where He directs, and that's how He ministers to our hearts, through the Spirit of God, is through the Word of God. But I wasn't familiar with the Bible, and I began to read through there, and the more I read the book of Acts, the more depressed I became, because there's a lot of wild stuff going on in the book of Acts. And I couldn't figure out what was going on, and I finally shut the Bible, and I thought, I don't even know if I'm saved. I mean, there's people getting baptized. There's people getting re-baptized. There's people getting hands laid on them. There's these people get the Spirit of God. These people don't. And these folks are talking in foreign languages, and I never did that, and I struggle enough with English. Amen. let alone a different tongue. And so, I mean, I was confused. And I said, Lord, I don't understand this. It wasn't too much longer after that that I was invited to a good Bible-preaching, Bible-believing church. I went on a Wednesday night, and the pastor was teaching a lesson on the book of Acts and some things that you needed to understand about it. It's a narrative about what happened in the early church. You know, that's what it is. It tells you what went on. It's a history book. When we were in the book of Romans last night, those are the doctrines. Here's where the doctrines are unfolded and told to you. Here's what you believe. The Book of Acts is much like a bridge. It gets you from the Old Testament into the new. It gets you from the nation of Israel into the place where God is dealing with the church. Takes you from law to grace. And I remember playing music one time in a place called Prince Edward Island, and we were on a bus that went across that that bridge. Now, I don't know if you are familiar with it, but it's a it's the longest bridge that connects two land masses in the world. I forget how far it is. It's a few miles across this bridge. So when you're on this bridge, you're looking out, you see water's far. You look out the passenger side window, water. Look out the window in the front, the windshield, water. You look to the left, water. And if you look behind you, it's all water. You can't see land as you're traveling across there. And I remember thinking, I appreciate this bridge. This bridge is safely getting me from one place to another. But I wouldn't want to stop on this bridge and build a house. And you take that for what it's worth. The book of Acts is to get you from one place to the other. And there's some great things in here, and it's all true. But you have to understand what's going on. And so I'll say that before I preach here tonight. We're in the book of Acts, chapter 7. Let's begin reading together. And that is in verse, I want you to read with me, beginning in verse 54. I'm gonna start right here. It's actually, this whole chapter has been what I would call an Old Testament survey. It's one of the longest sermons, if not the longest sermon recorded in the Word of God by a man in the early church, a deacon by the name of Stephen. And Stephen is just finishing up his sermon, and he comes to this place in verse 50. Let's start in verse 50, actually. He says, if not my hands made all these things. He's closing his sermon out, and he says, verse 51, you stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears. You do always resist the Holy Ghost. As your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the just one, of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by the disposition of angels and have not kept it. When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, called conviction, and they gnashed on him with their teeth. I had a man one time, a good man, came to me, wanted to meet with me, and he said, preacher, I love your preaching. I think you, I've never sat under somebody that didn't preach the gospel clearly, as clearly as you preach it. I love all of it, but, he said, I think you need to improve in the area of giving invitations. I said, okay. I said, what do you think needs to happen during the invitation? He said, well, maybe we could sing. Okay. I said, is there anything else? He said, I don't know. He said, it just seems like that you could do more than you're doing. I said, okay. And he's a good friend of mine. I didn't take offense at this. We have that kind of relationship. But I said, can you show me someplace in the Bible that gives me instructions on how to give an invitation? It's not in there. The invitation is wonderful. I'm not against them. And brother, if I get out of line at any point tonight in this message, you got a white hanky, just wave it like this. That means change directions or something, okay? But no, I'm just telling you the truth. I don't know how to give an invitation because the way maybe some independent Baptist would want it to be given, but I'll tell you what we need to do. We need to go back to trusting the Spirit of God to move people and to convict people. And I finally found, hey, here's an invitation. in the Bible that Stephen gives. He says basically your righteousness or your religion is dead. He says your righteousness is dung and your relatives were duds. Every head bowed, every eye closed, nobody looking around. That's what he says. He says your fathers didn't keep the law, you don't either. So your relatives are dung, you don't have any righteousness of your own, you always resist the Holy Spirit. And that's how he closed his message. And so I thought, well, let's see how this goes. So we come to verse 54, when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart and they gnashed on him with their teeth. He says, but he being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God. And he said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God. Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, and cast him out of the city, and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. So if you learn how to give a Holy Ghost-led invitation, it could end up being the death of the preacher. Because these men were mad enough at the close of this sermon that they stormed him, manhandled him, took him outside the city walls there, the city limits, and stoned him with stones until he died. And he's the first martyr of the church. Now, I'm not preaching about invitations tonight, but I am gonna preach on what I would call the difference on display. The difference on display, and you say, what are you talking about? Well, as I mentioned last night, many times Christians seem a little down. They don't fully understand all that God has done for them in Christ. But secondly, I think sometimes we try to live our Christian life in the flesh. In other words, through the energies of what we can bring together. And the reality is, Christianity is lived in the realm of the Spirit, and God has given each born-again believer A person that is called primarily in the New Testament the Holy Ghost. Believers have the Holy Spirit of God. Do not allow Bible terminology such as the Holy Ghost to make you nervous. There was this man, the reason I call it the difference on display is because there is two crowds here. There are natural men that are troubled and angered and they run upon Stephen to kill him. There is another man, however, the main character, Stephen, that the Bible says in verse 55, look at it, When it says in verse 54 that they were cut to the heart, they gnashed on him with their teeth, and you see the anger and the hatred in their heart coming forth, spewing forth. Nevertheless, in verse 55, God records this, but he, speaking of Stephen. You know what the word but is? It's a conjunction, and it's a contrast. It contrasts the two groups of people. It contrasts his murderers with him. But he, and then it says, being full of the Holy Ghost. And everybody can relax because we're not going to get into any kind of craziness tonight. It's just the fact that here's a man filled with the Holy Ghost who's about to die and he doesn't speak in tongues. Right? And there's no great rescue where God comes down and says, you're not going to touch this man. Touch not my anointed. That's not going on. The man is dying, but he's dying in the midst of this crazy thing after preaching one of the greatest messages that God felt like, hey, I'm going to record this whole thing. And in His death, He puts a difference on display. And the difference in the Christian from the world is the Spirit of God that dwells in us. Okay, you have the Spirit of God. He is not a second part of salvation. When you receive Jesus Christ, it says over there in Ephesians 1, that we should be to the praise of His glory who first trusted in Christ. in whom you also trusted after that you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that you believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. And he is the one on the inside of you that's going to direct you and mold you and conform you and transform you from the inside out. He's the one that gave you life and regenerated you. He's the one that made you a new creature. And he is the one that you look to that empowers you to live this new life and put Christ on display to the world. So he's crucial. Don't ignore him, and don't exalt him. He is here to exalt Christ, but he lives in every born-again believer, and he is what makes the difference. Let's pray one more time, and let's get into this tonight. Father, thank you for the privilege of being here. I pray, Lord, that you would use these truths that you've shown me, Lord, that you would reveal it to the hearts of these folks as we look at the Word of God. I pray, Lord, that they would Lord, that their attention would be heavenward tonight, and Lord, I pray that the Spirit of God would help them, and I pray, Lord, they remember these things, and it would help them to magnify you and walk in victory down here in this life right now. Help us all, Lord, to put the difference on display just like Stephen does. Lord, we pray these things in Jesus Christ's name. Amen. O. Vance Havner told a story one time that there was an old time preacher that was preaching the old paths and sticking with the old book and the old hymns and some deacons had come along and decided that, hey, we could really build our church up if we just kind of lightened things up a little bit, compromised here and maybe made a few changes and they'd get business meetings going and give that preacher all kinds of trouble and he wouldn't budge. And one night they said, you know, you're just holding everything back here is what you're doing. And so it didn't go well and he was going home and it was raining that night and he come around a country curve and Havner says that he saw that there were taillights down in a muddy ditch where a car had slid off the road and wrecked into the ditch. And he got out with his flashlight and it was one of the deacons that was giving him a hard time. And he looked down, saw that deacon. He looked up and he says, he goes, man, he goes, I don't know what happened. He goes, just lost control. And car is stuck down there in the mud. He said, you stay right there. He said, I'm going to drive down into that ditch, hook up to you and pull you out. And his deacon said, no, no, no, no, no. Don't do that. He says, why not? He said, you come down here where I'm at. He goes, we'll both be stuck. He said, that's what I've been trying to tell you in these business meetings. You want me to come down there? And if you go down where the world's at, you'd just be stuck in the mud with them. Listen, church, it is not, the church is, quit trying to make the church something that it's not. Quit trying to get your friends to come because we're going to have a theater, we're going to have a restaurant, we're going to have an entertainment center or a bowling alley. We're none of those things. The church doesn't need to try to entertain because I'll tell you who can entertain, that's the world. They know how to do it. The church can't compete with that. And we're not supposed to, but there's this mindset that says, preacher, we gotta make some changes so that we can get the church up to date so we'll get people coming. I'm telling you, people come when they get in love with Jesus Christ. You show them kindness, they'll be attracted, amen, to your lifestyle. You get them down here, you preach to them, and the work of God goes on in their heart and they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Hey, let the church, it's not the similarity of the church to the world that will get a crowd. What really makes the difference is the difference. What really puts Jesus on the display is not us being similar to the world, but the difference that he makes. You're not who you once were. We're changed. And so the Spirit of God wants us to live in such a way. Now, I'm not promoting. Some people think they hear something like this. There are independent Baptists that say, oh, so the more weird I can be, then the more I'll put Jesus on display. No, you're just going to look weird. Stephen doesn't look weird. He looks wonderful, like a follower. A Holy Ghost-filled disciple is what he looks like. And so you say, well, what are you talking about? What's the difference? Well, let's take a look at it. And it's all because of who's in him. And I'll say this. People say, well, you know, the Spirit of God being filled with the Holy Ghost, what's that mean? All I know is this. Sometimes I think we complicate things more than we need to. In Ephesians 5, 18, it says, and be ye filled with the Spirit. And you know what's amazing is right after that, all that's listed has nothing to do with tongues or anything like that. It has everything to do with how a man treats his wife and how a wife responds and respects her husband. That's what you've got to have. That's why you've got to have the Spirit of God working on you and in you in order for you to live the Christian life. There's a power within. The power is not in the list. It's within the living Lord within you. And so there are some differences here. What are the contrasts? Well, first of all, you'll notice this. I want to point out the Spirit of God in the disciple will make a difference in their countenance. And you say, well, where do you get that at? Well, first of all, when in verse 55, when the Bible says, but he, look in your Bible with me, being full of the Holy Ghost, look what it says, he looked up. steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God. So he's looking steadfastly upward. And you know something earlier, at the end of chapter 6, before he started his sermon, he was brought before an angry council of Pharisees and Sadducees and those men. And at the end of chapter 6, if you want to turn back there, it says in verse 15, Acts chapter 6 verse 15, all that sat in the council, these are the men that are going to be killing this man at the close of his sermon. All that sat in the council, looking steadfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel." Now, what is this? Well, they're looking steadfastly on him, but he wasn't looking at them. He's looking steadfastly on the Lord. And there's something about when your heart is freed through the salvation that Christ has so richly provided, and you get your eyes up on him, that will show up, that will fuel you, that'll keep you in tune with the Spirit of God within you, and it'll affect your countenance. Now, I'm not saying you're gonna have a face shining like Stephen's was, but I don't know what that means, a face like an angel. In other words, it was bright with life. And I'm telling you, they were watching him. And by the way, the world is watching you. And so you don't need to be, amen, looking around or looking back or looking ahead. You need to be looking up. Look up for your redemption draweth not. And if you'll keep your eyes, if you will, on Jesus Christ, they're going to see a difference in you. And one of the differences is going to be the face. the countenance. They said, man, look at this man. His face is like that of an angel. Now, I preached a funeral one time here for a man. He was 100 years old, a member of our church, a World War II veteran, and he passed away. Man, the funeral home was packed out. There was a couple hundred people there. It was a small funeral home, but, man, it was full. And my friend came on the fiddle, and he wanted hymns. He loved Brother Andy, and Brother Andy came. Well, it was a small platform, so, you know, we're up there, and there's a chair here and a chair here. So we played some hymns for the funeral, and then I preached the message. And I'll preach at a funeral, because that's the place, amen, the dead know not anything at that funeral, but it says that the living lay it to heart. That means the people setting their listing. Listen, a funeral is not for dead people. It's for the living. And this is a chance. In fact, that's why it says in Ecclesiastes, it's better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting. I've got a note that says you'll learn more at a funeral home than you will at a restaurant. That's what that means. And so I'm up there preaching. Well, my buddy who's used to playing his music in front of people, when we left the funeral home, he said, I have never seen the faces of people during preaching. He said, do you have to look at that every week? I said, well, not in that degree because a lot of those folks were there out of respect for him and they felt trapped. And I said, so he said, did you see the faith? He goes, when I stand up before people, they're smiling. I said, yeah, you're ministering through music. Music rarely makes people angry. But I said, the preaching is a different thing. And he said, there was, now I said, did you notice the difference? There were people sitting there, nodding their head and smiling, their face lit up with joy. There were others, arms crossed, brow furrowed, you know, blood pressure up. And you could see it, frowns. I've seen people, I've had people, while I'm preaching, I try to look around and get eye contact with people, and you'll be doing that, and I've seen people roll their eyes. That's always a blessing. I've seen people shake their head like this. I've seen people pretend to be asleep. I've seen it all. And I told him, I said, that's it. He goes, I couldn't get over the facial expressions. I said, that's why God told Ezekiel, he goes, fear not their faces. because they're going to make some faces. He said, they're not going to touch you, they're just going to talk about you, and they're going to give you an ugly look when they hear the truth. But nevertheless, it's the truth that makes the difference. Well, here is Stephen, he's got his eyes on Jesus Christ. They said, hey, we found out why when they looked steadfastly on him, why they thought he had the face of an angel. It's because he was looking steadfastly into heaven. I read a book about a lady. Her name was Carla Faye Tucker. And there was a book written, I think it's called Forgiven or something like that. And she was just a deep-dyed sinner. She was a prostitute. She was hooked on heroin and a beautiful, beautiful young woman. And she ended up in a drug-induced stupor. She committed double murder and it was of the most, she didn't even remember it, but she certainly did do it and she remembered enough of it. And her mind was blown on drugs. And so she finally gets arrested a few weeks later after it happened. She was being held in the Harris County Jail down in Texas. This was in 1984 when this went on. And while she was there, she's on the yard. She's facing two life sentences. She's facing the death penalty. Possibly it's in Texas. And so she's out on the yard waiting during her trial. And there was a ministry group came in. It was other ladies that came in. They did puppet shows, did Bible stories, and then a couple of women got up and gave their testimony. She said, I had never lived a real childhood and she thought, I'll go and I'll listen. She was 22 years old. She thought, I'll listen to these ladies because at least it'll make me feel normal for a little while. And she said, that woman gave her testimony of having been a converted harlot and hooked on A heroine just like her. And she went up and she said, do you think Jesus Christ could do the same thing for me as he did for you? She gave her a Bible. She says, I know he will. She said she took it back and began to read. Didn't know where to read. And she said, when I came into Exodus and I got to the Ten Commandments, the law, She said, I found myself going, I've broken all of these. And she said, I was on my knees crying. And she goes, talking to the Lord Jesus. She said, when I got up from my knees, my knees and the lower half of my county pajamas were wet. She said, why? Because I had cried until there was a puddle around me. And not the tears that saved, but that just shows you her heart was in tune. And she went to the Savior as a broken sinner. And God saved her gloriously. She immediately called her lawyer. She said, I'm ready to confess. I did this. He goes, you don't want to do that. He goes, if you confess to this in the state of Texas, it'll be the death penalty. She said, that's what it deserves. So she went before the judge. She told the details, confessed it, explained. He said, what happened to you? She told him and he said, I hate to be the one to do this. He goes, I'm so glad that you have met the Lord Jesus Christ. But if I uphold the law and I must, he says, then you you have to be put to death. And she says, I understand. She went. to Huntsville for 15 years, and they put her to death by lethal injection in February of 1998. But buddy, she had an influence, and a lot of those women on death row, she said, when you sentence me to death row, she goes, it's not death row, it's life row. Because when I get to the end of it, I'll meet him who died for me, the only man that ever cared for me, that actually did something for me. And so she was so excited. And so on the cover, I'm telling you all of this, to tell you that on the cover of her book, you can see the razor wire in the background. You can see the guard tower. And there she is on death row in Texas, and she is smiling. And I'm telling you, you just want to look at her face because there is a glow and a joy and a smile that comes from the fact that I am free from my past. I'm free from my sins. Christ has done for me what I could not do for myself. And there is just, I told my buddy, I said, that is called the glow of God, if I've ever seen it. And she was smiling from ear to ear. She wasn't depressed. She wasn't angry. She was just waiting to the time that she would meet her Lord. You say, what is it? It's the countenance. They could tell a difference in Stephen, but he being full of the Holy Ghost, what will the fullness of the Holy Ghost do? It'll brighten your countenance if you spend time with the Lord. And by the looks of some of y'all tonight, y'all need it. Amen. Secondly, he also shows something else. Besides his countenance, I want you to look, if you will, and understand that it says that they cried out with a loud voice. In verse 57, they stopped their ears. They ran upon him with one accord. So there's a mob that comes upon him. And it says in verse 58, they cast him out of the city and stoned him. Now, what do you see here? What's the difference on display being filled with the Holy Ghost? You'll see it in the countenance, but number two, you'll see it in the calm courage that he had. Hysteria solves nothing. It just doesn't. This man's in a serious, serious situation. He's about to meet his end. But he is not panicked. He's not full of emotion. Can I tell you what the Holy Ghost will do? He'll free you from living on your emotions, being controlled by your emotions. That's a problem in America. People are sensitive. People are, they're talking about this word triggered, you know, I triggered so-and-so. Okay. Well, pull the trigger. I don't know. It's like, you know, they're talking about being triggered. What is that? That's people who live, listen, emotions were given to us by God, but that's the shallowest part of a human being. And you say, how do you know? Because your feelings, your emotions can change within minutes. Your blood sugar can drop and your emotions are affected by it. You understand that your body, so you can't live there. The Bible says we don't walk by sight, we walk by faith. And we certainly don't walk by feelings. And I'm gonna tell you something, I understand back when COVID was going on in the year 2020, that's what everybody will remember, was what happened. I'm gonna tell you, I watched how churches and how Christians in particular responded. Now, I know it was serious. I told people, hey, if you've got a grandparent, you've got an elderly person that you're having to wait on, that you have to give care, you're a caregiver, we understand that you can't come in the services. But I'm telling you, people panicked, got fearful, got nasty with preachers, you know, because you're having services, you don't care about anybody. You've got to quit listening to the world telling you how to respond to things. And can I ask you a question? I'm not for anybody dying, but how much control do you really have over any of that stuff? Very little, if anything. Okay, that got, they got in people's heads. You say, how do I know? Because I'd look over at a stoplight and there'd be somebody, uh, you know, with a face diaper on and they're in the car by themselves. I'm just like, you know, that's, are you feeling, are you okay? You might be fevered in a different way. You say, what's the point? The point is stop letting your feelings control you. Stephen is, this is emergency time right here. This is a tragedy that's unfolding on him. They have grabbed him. There's a mob that has manhandled him. He's not fighting back and flipping out and going, put me down, Lord, kill them all. He's totally under control. You know what the Spirit of God will do? He'll put you under control even in emergency situations. Hysteria solves nothing, and the Spirit of God will never lead you to go into hysterics. Amen. That's good doctrine right there. He's got courage. He's totally under control, and he's calm. And you would think, and I'm not mocking death, but you'd think death was the worst thing that could happen to Christians the way some of them acted. It's like if they're saved, guess where they're at? They're where it's far better. So it's like we got to think this stuff through. Boy. So here's Steven. What's he doing? He's totally under control. They're totally out of control. And whatever, listen to me, actions do not tell the whole story in a person's life. You say, well, what tells the story? Here's what tells the story. It's not your actions, but it's your reactions when you get bumped on. Say, what are you talking about? Well, if I had a cup up here, an opaque cup, maybe a styrofoam cup, and I ask you, what's on the inside of this? It's full of something. You could guess. You could say water, coke, coffee. Can't tell, preacher. You know how you'll find out? You hit it one time, and what splashes out is what it was full of. The natural men, when they got bumped on with the preaching and the truth, what bumped out of them was bitter anger. Anger that had them stirred up enough that in the mob mentality, they grabbed this man, and they killed him. That's what spilled out of them. What spilled out of Stephen? Calmness. And can I tell you that your reaction to people? Listen, these are the same men that had a murder in their heart. These are the same men that they didn't outwardly commit adultery. They didn't get drunk. Just ask them. Back here in Luke chapter 18, a Pharisee said, God, I thank thee that I'm not as other men. I tithe twice in the week. I give all of this, and I do this. He says, and I'm glad that I'm not like this guy. I don't commit adultery. I'm not an extortioner. I'm not this. So they could list off all of what they weren't. But the problem is, what was in their heart was what defiled them. And when those Pharisees got bumped on by his sermon full of truth, man, out comes the anger. When Stephen gets bumped on, no hysteria. No emotionally charged outrage, just courage and control in the midst of total chaos. The Spirit of God will help you to get your emotions under control. Thirdly, Stephen, but he being full of the Holy Ghost, they could see the difference and it makes a difference in the life of one of them. We'll talk about it in a minute. But look at verse 58. They cast him out of the city, stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul. And they stoned Stephen. And here's what Stephen was doing, calling upon God, saying, Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down. So while he's being, listen, stoning, When it says that they laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, it's Saul of Tarsus who becomes the Apostle Paul. He said that he held the coats of the men that stoned Stephen. What's he holding their coats for? It's real simple. They're taking their jackets off so they can get a better wind up. Because it takes, they say, historically it would take 10 to 20 minutes to kill a man through stoning. It was a brutal, brutal way to die. It would cut your, it would break bones, knock out teeth, painful. And here's what it says. He kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, verse 60. Here's what he says. Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. Now, when you're filled with the Holy Ghost, you'll be under control. You'll be calm. You'll have a countenance that says you know the Lord Jesus. And you'll also have compassion and concern for others. And here, it's not compassion for his family members, it's not compassion for his friends, it's compassion for his enemies. That is not natural. That is supernatural and can only be drawn up out of the heart of men and women when the Holy Ghost is in charge on the inside and you have yielded yourself to his control. This thing about, I was mentioning about people getting uptight about the doctrine of being filled with the Holy Ghost. Listen to me. I just want the evidence that he's working. I'm not looking for an experience. I just want the evidence. Stephen's got the evidence, and the evidence is he's compassionate toward, just like Jesus Christ was. I read somewhere after they drove the nails through his hands and feet, when he's hanging on the cross, he said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And here's Stephen, a follower, who's got Christ living in him, and he's got his eyes on Christ, and while he's being stoned to death by these angry, out of control men, And all he did was minister the truth to him. While he's being stoned, he says, Lord, don't charge him with this. Have mercy on him. That is a man who's controlled by the Spirit of God. He's got compassion. You know what we lack in our churches? Because here, listen to me. You say, man, you've kind of been bumping on the Baptists all week. Well, amen. Some one time I told a guy, I said, I'm not preaching to Methodists or Catholics or anybody. I've got Baptists in front of me. Ain't going to help you any for us to talk about somebody down the road. And so I said, Baptist, we just, I mean, when the church in America is as prosperous as she is, we're living in a good time. I know you say it's not a good time, brother, I understand, but there's no other country I'd rather be in tonight than this one. That's what I'm saying. Okay. I, we didn't wake up the morning going, I wonder if there's clean water to drink. I didn't think when I turned the shower on that there wasn't going to be hot water. I've got clothes of multiple different kinds of clothes to choose from to wear. We've got vehicles. We've got, you know, climate-controlled buildings. Now, here's what happens when the church gets comfortable. I'm not asking God to send famine. I'm just saying we better be real thankful because it does a number on us. You know what it causes us to do? It causes us to get offended real easy, oh, because we've got everything so picture-perfect. Everything's fine. We've got everything we want more than we need, and therefore, we become sensitive and make up stuff to get offended about. And we get bitter and irritable with other Christians. The Bible says, Ephesians 4, verse 32, he says, and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted. When somebody needs to name a church, tenderhearted Baptist church. And they need to have somehow or another, you can change it, because when a church fight starts, you can go out and put hard-hearted Baptist church. And then when everybody gets right, we go back to tender-hearted. You know, I'm going down to tender-hearted. Why wouldn't they put the new sign up that's hard-hearted? Stay away. It says, be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. One night, we do Bible verses. I get down in front of the communion table, and we got a whole couple of front rows full of little kids. It's a blessing. And so I tell them, ladies first. The little girls get up there, and the boys, and they're all piling right up in there where they're just kind of pushing forward. You know, it's like a domino effect from the back. And there was a little girl, she had been sleeping. It had been Sunday afternoon. She had obviously just got up from her nap. She had a mess of hair, red hair, just all messed up, you know. She's kind of half-sleepy, and her sister's behind her, a couple years older. Jubes was her name. She's about four years old. And she's standing there, you know, and so she gets hit from her sister from behind, because her sister's like, you know, move up, move forward. And she turns around, and she goes, get off me! Now, I mean, it was a tone about like that. And I mean, everybody's laughing, you know, and I got the microphone. She turns around to me, does this, you know, pushes her hair back. And she looks at me and smiles and looks at the congregation and says, be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another. I said, you are a Baptist. You can smack your sister and chew her out, turn around, smile at the preacher and quote scripture. I said, you're definitely, you are a Baptist. You say, what is this? I'm saying that when the Spirit of God fills somebody's heart, you start seeing people as souls for whom Jesus Christ died, and you start praying for your enemies. Most people pray that God get them. Most people, I know people that have acted in an un-Christlike manner and then explain to me that they were done wrong. I said, yeah, but your reaction is just as wrong as what they did to you. And it just keeps this vicious cycle going. But they have the mentality that since you offended me, you've offended God because you offended me. Therefore, God's got his arm around my shoulder saying, let's get them. But that's not New Testament Christianity. New Testament Christianity says, hey, I'm going to be compassionate. I'm going to pray for people. I'm going to forgive people. I mean, most Baptists, Stephen's being killed and he's praying for them. Most Baptists won't pray for you if you take their pew, let alone their life. Jesus Christ, when Judas came up and kissed him to betray him, he said, Betrayest thou the son of man with a kiss, still called him friend. I'm gonna tell you something, if you can't forgive, you're gonna have bitterness take root in your heart. And that bitterness will color everything in your life. And here's the problem, and we don't have time to get into it, but when someone says, brother, I am not forgiving anybody till they come to me. Well, yeah, I understand all that. What you're wanting is reconciliation. You forgiving someone is not the same as reconciliation. Reconciliation takes two people. But you as a person can... Stephen was not reconciled to these men. But you know what he had? He had a clear conscience because he was led by the Spirit of God and he allowed the Spirit of God to lead him. Therefore, he could pray honestly before God, lay not this sin to their charge. He was concerned, had compassion on them. That's supernatural. That only comes from the Spirit of God having full sway in your heart. That's from being yielded to him. And lastly, I'll say this. We're talking about the difference that's on display, because it's not the similarity that you have with the world that's going to get their attention. It's the difference. and the Spirit of God in us when he's allowed to run and rule in our heart. Let the peace of God rule in thy heart. When he's allowed to rule and run your life, you will be different without even trying to be. And Stephen is filled with the Holy Ghost. Remember the contrast, but he being full of the Holy Ghost. So he's got a countenance that's lit up. He's got courage and calmness in the midst of an emergency, a life-threatening situation. And he's got compassion for his murderers. And lastly, look what he says in verse 59. When he's calling upon God, he says, Lord Jesus, he says, receive my spirit. Notice he didn't say receive my body. That's going to be buried. But the inward man, death is departure. The first book in the Bible teaches you what death is. It talks about the lady that was in hard labor, and it says, as her soul was in departing, and then in parentheses, it defines what that means, for she died. Your soul departs at death. And while he's dying, he says, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Well, what is that? That's confidence in death. We preached a little bit about death the other night. Stephen has no panic, no confusion, no frantic fear, but confidence in the face of man's last enemy and one that has been defeated, by the way. This is the ultimate test of the reality of our faith, is how will you face death? Do you have any confidence? Now, death sting has been taken away That's what it says in 1 Corinthians 15. It was Jesus Christ who took the stinger out of death. Dr. B.R. Lakin told a story I heard him tell one time while he was preaching that I thought was pretty good. He said they were going, there was a man with a family going down the road and some kind of, I don't know what kind of bee it was, but it's the kind that can only sting once, but it got in the car and his kids were in the back seat all flipping out and flailing around. And he happened, he reached back to try to grab it and he caught it out of the air and it buried its stinger in his palm. And then it buzzed up out of there and got out of his hands, you know, and he put his hand over there and his wife was looking at it. You could see the stinger stuck down in there and it's swelling up. And the kids, when the bee got in the back and started buzzing around, they started swinging and screaming and flipping out. He goes, no, no, no, no, no. He goes, you don't have to worry about him no more. He says, I done got his stinger. He says, all he can do now is buzz. And so Christian freeing, the death and people are afraid and all of that. And if you're unsaved, you ought to be. But the truth of the matter is, for death, all he can do, amen, Jesus has done God a stinger. And now all death can do is buzz around a little bit, but he can't harm you. That gives you confidence. And listen, it says over there in 1 Corinthians 3 that Paul is talking to born-again believers and he says, listen, all things are yours. God's given you everything. He says, whether it be Cephas or Paul, in other words, he's given you preachers, they're yours. He goes, I've given you, I've given it to every age. I've given preachers to the church. He says, those preachers, that's yours. I've given you everything. He goes, whether it be life, I've given you life to serve me. Then he says something very interesting. He says, I've given you all things. All things are yours. And then he mentions death. It's like, well, time out, Lord. I really don't want that one. But thank you for everything, but why would I want to own death? And then I thought about it, wait a minute, he's a defeated enemy. And you know what death does? He's a servant of our great God. And you know what he does? He's a humbled servant and the Lord says, go get that one and bring him here. So you know what death, you know how, here's how you look at death. He's your Uber driver. He gonna show up and he just does whatever he's dispatched to do. And you know what he does? He's yours because he's gonna usher you in to the physical presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so you can look at him, he is a defeated, he's a disarmed and defeated enemy that has now been made a humbled servant that simply comes in and says, the master has sent for you and I'm gonna take you there. That's how you look at death. Stephen had confidence, confidence. Religion can't give you confidence in the face of death. Religions, world religions and cults, they can give you something to live by, some kind of set of rules, some morality, but the problem is they give you nothing to die by. Religion can't do that. It has no idea what happens to men when they die. They just hope for the best. Friends, you don't have to hope for the best, because I'm telling you, if that's what your hope is, and hoping that it all turns out, hoping for the best, then you're going to hell. The Bible says that Christ has died and tasted death for every man, and when we lay hold of him, he unites us to himself through the Spirit of God, and now we have confidence in the face of death. It's a great servant. God's given this servant to us. He's going to come and get us one day and usher us and depart. When we depart out of this world, he's going to usher us into the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, and you can die with total confidence, just like Stephen did. And here's the thing. I close right here. When this man died, chapter 8 says, Saul was consenting unto his death. Acts chapter 8, verse 1. And at that time, there was a great persecution against the church. Now look at verse 2. And devout men, devout men in the church, carried Stephen to his burial. They carried his body. And it says, they made great lamentation over him. And as for Saul, he made havoc at the church, so he continued on his reign of terror. But if you hadn't already read Acts chapter 9, it looks as though, well, they killed another one, a good one, an important one in the early church, and now they're down there lamenting his death, and Stephen, who held the coach, just went on. But I'm going to tell you something. Stephen had a great, great death, if you will. He died filled with the Holy Ghost. We've looked at four attributes that he had. But listen, the way he died influenced somebody that was there that day. You don't read about it in Acts chapter 8. But all of a sudden in Acts chapter 9, when Saul is knocked down on the road to Damascus and he says, and the Lord deals with him right there, He says, Saul, Saul, it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. In other words, there was something pricking his conscience. There was something working on him, and we're reading between the lines, but there is no doubt that as he watched Stephen die, as he watched how Stephen conducted himself, how Stephen reacted, how Stephen looked, how Stephen prayed, the compassion, the concern that he had, that difference between Stephen, the Holy Ghost-filled believer, and the rest of those, that lost mob of people that murdered him, he knew in his heart, that guy's got something different that I don't have. And that went to work on him. Listen, don't get discouraged about your relatives, your co-workers that seemingly you've prayed for for years and you've talked to them and you've, listen, don't think, you don't understand what the Spirit of God may be tilling them up on the inside. And they won't show it on the outside a lot of times. Stephen doesn't show it. I'm sorry, Saul doesn't show it. But buddy, he was well prepared when he got born again on the road to Damascus. And it made all the difference. And by the way, because Stephen in that moment of time, the man that wrote half our New Testament and ended up being, quote, the pattern for those that would hereafter believe, it was his influence on that man. Stephen's influence on Paul, Saul became Paul, and look at, listen, the Bible says that their works do follow them. Saul, every soul that was saved by the Apostle Paul, every church that's been planted, every church, including this one and all the ones that read anything out of the Apostle Paul's writings, everybody that's had ever been ministered to or helped by the Apostle Paul, that goes on Stephen's account. Have you ever thought about that, the compound interest And you say, what did he do? He was a faithful man in the church, had wisdom. They said, we want this guy to be dealing with these upset women. You know you got to be filled with the Holy Ghost if you're going to deal with women that are upset. So they put Stephen on the job. And he's doing his job and then he has a chance in front of all these religious leaders of the Jews to give, I mean, an overview of the Old Testament and bring them right into the Gospel age where he lifted up Jesus Christ and told them, you're resisting the Holy Ghost just like your daddies did. You guys don't fool me. Your religion's dead. Amen. Your relatives were duds, all that stuff. And they're so upset that they manhandle him and they kill him. And that's all we know about Stephen. But Stephen had a huge influence and even an influence here tonight. And that all goes on Stephen's account. And you know something, when you're a person that walks with God, it's such a blessing to a church that they're hard to replace. And I just want to ask you a question tonight in closing. The Bible says that these devout men made great lamentation over Stephen. They hated to see him gone. In other words, there's gonna be a big hole left in the church in Jerusalem now that this old boy's out of here. He was such a blessing, had such a great spirit about him, could always cheer people up, did such a good job calming those angry widows down in Acts 6. He was just a blessing to everybody. And so the church mourned when he was gone. And my question for you tonight is, will the church be grieved when you leave? or will they be relieved when you're gone?" And you say, well, that's kind of going too far. No, in the Old Testament, there was a king for Israel who died, and it says, he departed without being desired. In other words, everyone's like, phew, thank God in Greyhound, he's gone. You say, are you serious? I'm dead serious. If you're a thorn in a church's side, If you're the one that is always in the middle of the drama, if you're the one that's always stirring it up, you know who you are, because every church has got them. I don't know who I'm preaching to tonight. I just know humanity and what the Bible says. People say, we need to have a friendly church. Yes and no. You got to have a few difficult people in there so you can learn how to have grace. If everybody's friendly all the time, well, that went over big, but no, the truth of the matter is if you're always the one involved in the drama, when people say, well, I'll just take my tithe and leave what you don't, you know, what's bad is a lot of times they don't tell you, but they're glad like, well, okay, you do what you got to do. And if you're always in the middle of the drama and the strife, it's because you're not following the leadership of the Holy Ghost. But if you'll yield yourself up, your mind, your heart, and your body to Him and say, Lord, I don't know what all this means, but I know you said if I'll walk in the Spirit, I'll not fulfill the lust of the flesh. I won't be so sensitive. I won't be so offended. I'll be a minister. I can help people. I can be a blessing. I can make a difference down at that local church and make a difference in people's lives. And in doing so, then when God calls you home and sends your Uber driver, they're going to say, oh, how are we going to ever replace this one? What are we going to do when they're gone? Because you leave a big gap there. People will miss you because spirit-filled people, spirit-led believers, they're fun to be around. Because you can be yourself, and they're their self, and they're not hypercritical. You don't have to walk around on white eggshells. Amen. You say, what is it? That's the difference between a spirit led Christian, carnal Christian or a lost person. Let the spirit of God empower you to live that life that only Christ can live through you. Rachel, if you'd come.