Holding the Line

You don't know who's watching, do you? You don't know what God is going to do. Stephen never saw that. He died not knowing what his yes, what his faithfulness would ever produce. He didn't know. He died not knowing that Saul would become the most significant missionary in the history of the church. What feels like rejection to you, hear me on this, might actually be construction to God. We cannot see things and go, I'm I'm too afraid to be rejected. I'm too afraid to fail. I won't speak. You have no idea. We're not called to success. We're called to faithfulness. [00:38:08] (39 seconds)  #FaithfulNotSuccessful

And Jesus' response isn't it's alright. Well, just remember these four truths. They all start with the same letter or something like that. That's not what Jesus says. It's not abstract. It's not philosophical. You know what Jesus says back to that? That human longing, you've been looking at him. You wanna see God? Look at me. John fourteen nine, whoever has seen me has seen the father. You wanna know truth? It's a person. It's a person. His name is Jesus. [00:21:58] (31 seconds)  #JesusIsTheTruth

It's amazing what Jesus will do with that one yes and you go, alright. I trust you a little You were who you you are who you say you are, Jesus. You did what you came what you came to do. You took my sin. You died on the cross, took my punishment, and you rose again so that I could have access to a relationship with you, with God, the father, now and forever. When you say, yes, that's a yes that Jesus takes and he go he stands. He sees it and goes, alright. Let's go. We can use that with power. [00:25:38] (36 seconds)  #OneYesPower

The people standing around didn't matter. The person that was standing up did to him. And you'll always find you'll always find people, Paradox, that are sitting in judgment. But when you stand on truth, you find Jesus standing with you. K? And that makes all the difference. Who you're watching determines whether or not you speak. Who you're watching, I'll say it again, determines whether or not you speak and how God will use that. We all have people, places where we've gone quiet. Who are you watching? [00:14:56] (29 seconds)  #WhoYouWatchMatters

But there's three different people, three postures here before we get there. Jesus is standing up. There's a crowd that's standing by, and there's Saul who's standing against. He's standing against Stephen and Stephen is looking at Jesus. He's not looking at the crowd. He's not looking at Saul. He's looking at Jesus. He's looking at Jesus. The enemy can't stand people who look up instead of looking around. [00:12:33] (35 seconds)  #ThreePosturesLookUp

Let let's just get let's get the record straight. He's standing in front of the people who hold his fate in their hands. They're the most powerful people in the land. And what does he do? He calls them murderers to their face. Ever been in one of those social media things where you're like, say it to my face. You know? It's a lot harder to say something to people's face. Not for Steven. He's full of grace, full of the full of the spirit, full of power. [00:08:40] (28 seconds)  #SayItToMyFace

Our silence shaped us shapes us. Every time we choose to be quiet instead of doing the costly thing, it gets a little bit easier the next time. And we start to become the kind of people that choose our own comfort over someone else's eternity, over someone else's choices and the consequences of it both now and forever. And after a while, you've decided on a very deep level. You've you've become very comfortable with the fact that your comfort is the most important thing there is. It must be protected at all costs even if it costs them something. [00:02:49] (38 seconds)  #SilenceShapesUs

But here's the thing. Yeah. We we could go round and round and it's exhausting. It might not go anywhere, but I could also tell her tell you about her. Who she is, what she's like, what she's done, most importantly, what she means to me. And and then I could bring evidence that would support all those things, but they're not the most important or most powerful things. My relationship with her, knowing her, that's the point. I would love for you to actually meet her, not just talk about her, not just have information about her. And that is the point of every one of our conversations about Jesus. [00:20:39] (41 seconds)  #RelationshipOverInformation