A Day in the Life of God's People

And lots is going on. The apostles are very busy preaching and praying and doing all the things. But these widows are starting to be overlooked in the daily distribution and they recognized how important that was. And so we get the first glimpse of what most people would call deacons in Acts chapter six, where it says they wanted to pick out from among you seven men of good repute, and I love this, full of the spirit. Because organizational tasks and administration needs people full of the spirit just as much as song leaders need to be full of the spirit. [00:35:53] (33 seconds)  #SpiritFilledService

Where we are today is playing a part in something much bigger than ourselves, much longer than we will live or have lived, and is part of this divine eternal relay race. I wanna run my leg well. I hope you do too. [00:51:04] (18 seconds)  #EternalRelayRace

You know, sometimes church can feel like a spectator event, something we go watch. But church is something we're part of. The church is something we are part of, something we do, something God calls us into. I love how Peter puts it in first Peter four. He says, as each has received a gift, which is all of us, use it. Use it to serve one another. This little snapshot that we get in Nehemiah 12 that God sovereignly gives us when everything seems to be operating as God intended at the time is such a cool connection. It jives with what God has called the church to be and do. [00:53:08] (42 seconds)  #ServeWithYourGift

And I love that about the Bible because it gives some like validity and some believability about the Bible. Because we all know it's not perfect in life, And when you read the mess in scripture, you're like, that's relatable. Like, that makes sense to me. Read other religious texts. It's all glossed over and perfect. Read God's word, and it's real. And I love that about it. But there are passages like today's that when you read them, you're like, that's [00:27:44] (34 seconds)  #RealScripture

Some people are wired to, like, sing on top of the walls, and other people are wired to lead the systems that hold it all together. Some people love the spotlight, and some people love spreadsheets. Some of your people are like, he said spreadsheets at church. Some of you are crying. Some of you are really happy. You know, I get it. Right? Because what good is it if we sing at the top of our lungs on the wall, but everything falls apart around us? [00:34:49] (29 seconds)  #SpotlightAndSpreadsheets

What this means is for Christians who have confessed Jesus as Lord, God already looks at you and calls you holy because whenever he cleanses us up our sin, he clothes us with Jesus' righteousness. So when he sees you, he sees Jesus and then he calls you, second Corinthians is saying, to live into that holiness. A simple way to say it, he calls you holy and then invites you to be holy. One of the most impactful books I read in college, I don't give a ton of book recommendations other than the Bible, but one of the most life changing books I ever read, I read in college, my wife did as well, called the pursuit of holiness by Jerry Bridges. [00:45:45] (42 seconds)  #CalledToBeHoly

You could read this passage and much like those day in the life videos, walk away in shame or with a list of to dos and stuff you need to do better in order to have a glossed up life too. You can read Nehemiah 12 and feel the same, but that's not the message. The message is that this is an outflow of being part of God's family. And what he calls us into is he invites us as John ten says, to experience real life that only he gives. [00:54:29] (30 seconds)  #RealLifeInChrist

We need people full of the spirit who can organize this stuff, and we will appoint them to this duty. The apostles weren't saying this task was unimportant, and they couldn't do it. They were saying it is so important. We need people with great reputations. We need people full of the spirit to continue this important task that might not get done, but it needs to get done. It's that important. First Corinthians 12 says, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable. I mean, it's pretty clear. Right? [00:36:27] (35 seconds)  #SpiritFilledOrganizers