Filled with the Spirit: Stephen's Forgiveness and Faith

The creator of the universe, your heavenly father, has put Holy Spirit inside of you. And when he put the holy spirit in you, he also put the love of God in you. That's why we talk about in wedding ceremonies, when we talk about love, joy I mean, we talk about love is patient, love is kind, love love, all the things that love does for each other. The truth is that you and I don't have the ability inside of us to love others like God does, but he fills us with his love. [01:10:27] (30 seconds)  #FilledWithGodsLove

Your savior is not sitting up in heaven going, well, they'll make it through. Once they die, bring them to heaven. We'll be fine. That's not our savior. Our savior is walking with you every minute of every day and he is on your side. He is there with you when you say, man, I need to share the gospel with that guy over there, but I don't know how. And Jesus is with you. Holy Spirit is empowering you. You're not alone. And Steven sees it in a way that my friend Jeff would say, man, Jesus is standing up, giving him a standing ovation for who he is and what he's done and how he's lived his life. [00:58:45] (32 seconds)  #JesusIsWithYou

See, in our lives, our struggles our struggles, our trials, our tribulations, our our all the things that we walk through, They're not what makes us strong. They're what reveals our strength. And we wanna be a martyr for Christ. What our god calls us to do is die daily, put ourselves on a cross, and die for Jesus. And then one day, we may get to die physically for him and prove that relationship. So understanding this is that Stephen didn't become the martyr because they killed him. They killed him because he had already become a martyr for the father. [01:17:00] (40 seconds)  #TrialsRevealStrength

Said a minute ago, Saul becomes Paul. Saul Paul writes many letters. He writes a a chunk of the New Testament that you and I follow. He becomes the biggest evangelist that you and I have ever seen in our lives and in scripture and all the things. And he is the one standing there condemning Stephen to death. And Stephen says, god, don't hold it against him. Now we we need we need to see that because here's why. Here's why. Because Augustine said many many years ago, he said, if Stephen had not prayed, the church would not have had Paul. [01:11:30] (41 seconds)  #PrayerChangedHistory

And when you have that type of love, you can be in Stephen's situation where he is being stoned to death, having people probably spit stuff on him, say stuff to him, throw rocks at him, they're trying to kill him as quick as possible. And he loves them so much only because of the Holy Spirit inside of him and the love of God in him. He says, father, forgive him. And then you have to pay attention to this. One of the people standing in that circle at that point was named Saul. [01:10:57] (32 seconds)  #ForgiveLikeStephen

That courage that you have, that comes out when it's needed. But it doesn't become courage when you need it. It it becomes courage, and then you get to need it, and God uses it to show people what's inside of you. So as we as we hear that, if we wanna live for Christ, if we wanna be those people that would say, man, I would I would die for him. If you're not willing to die for him to yourself on a daily basis, you won't die for him physically on the cross anywhere else. But when we go through this the tough times, the struggles, the loss, It reveals what's god's doing already in our lives. [01:18:14] (38 seconds)  #CourageIsRevealed

If Stephen doesn't throw out that prayer, we believe, and you can look it up and say, we believe that God actually answered the prayer of Stephen. Okay. I'm not gonna hold it against him. And Paul gets to meet Jesus. It changes his life, changes our lives forever because of what we get to read. And my thought for you in that is this, you do not know the history or the future of the person that has offended you. You don't know. [01:12:11] (30 seconds)  #YouDontKnowTheirStory

How does that relate to me and you at all? This is what this is what I think it says. What's this statement? What is happening inside of you is revealed by the life going on around you. If you have a strength inside of you that comes from the father, that is revealed when things get crazy and bring pressure, and your strength is revealed. And when you go through that strike that struggle, that trial, that that tough time, that difficulty, that loss, God uses that to reveal that strength to those around you. [01:17:40] (34 seconds)  #StrengthRevealedUnderPressure