Wow, good job. Wow, the U -Bank girls are growing
up, and she did an excellent, excellent, excellent
job, and praise the Lord, and that's good. Miss
Stapleton, have you been teaching her? Good job,
and praise God for the investment in the next
generation. Sister U -Banks, have you heard that
song before? There's a few times in your house
right there, you know, with their practice, they
play it over. Take your Bibles, turn with me
into the book of Acts chapter, Acts chapter number
six, if you will, Acts chapter number six. And
I'm excited to be in church tonight, and I know
you are, excited to be about a part of a Bible
-believing church. And I've been in church now
for over 30 years, and I think about the 30 years
I've been in church, really three churches I've
been. A member of one for seven months, one for
14 years, and now here almost next month will
be 17 years. Wow, the years go by fast. But wow,
in the church, my life, I have honestly solved
very, very, very few church problems. What I
mean, big problems. I hear these stories about
church splits and churches where they're fighting.
In my history of 30 years, I've never really
seen that. I've never seen a church split. I
haven't seen a lot of fighting. No, there's been
problems. Churches have problems. But here's
where we're going tonight. Church problems do
not have to stop the work of God. Amen. Problems
in the church don't have to stop the work of
God. Every church has problems. But this message
is about the problems, but it's not really a
message about the problems, but it's gonna start
with problems, okay? Doesn't make sense to you.
I was reading a book and I finished it this week.
Victory from Vic, don't see, that's problems
over here. The third section right there. They're
problem people. Ethan, you oughta be careful
you hang around right there. Your mama is trouble
and so praise the Lord. But church problems.
A good man, I finished this book on G .B. Vic.
and pastored the largest church in the world
at one time in Detroit, and the church grew.
But in the early 60s, the demographics of Detroit
began to change. They'd have a Sunday night service,
parking lots full, and there would be people
that would come in and break the windows of the
cars. and steal things out of the people's cars.
And it became very, very obnoxious where people
were scared and the attendants began to plummet
in the church. And it was a problem. People began
to be scared. And so G .B. Vick was getting older
and all of a sudden he decided, you know, I just
believe that the Lord wants us to do something.
And what do we do? And so what they end up doing
is he led the church to purchase a property in
a different area that had acres of land and then
build a brand new building. And you work through
that biography, what it was was a problem, but
he worked through the problems. Now, here's the
thought. Sometimes people have problems and you
can murmur about the problems. You can be one
that murmurs, spreads the problems. or you could
be like a GB Vic, you work through the problems,
okay? Let's do this, let's read the scriptures,
if you will. We're gonna read Acts chapter number
six, and we're gonna read all together in unison,
verses one through seven, and try your best to
lift up your voice with me, starting in verse
number one, ready? And in those days, when the
number of the disciples was multiplied. there
arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the
Hebrews because those widows were neglected in
daily ministration. Now stop right there. Understand
the context. The church exploding in growth.
The day of Pentecost came, 3 ,000 people saved
and baptized. A couple chapters later, there
was 5 ,000 and it was just an explosion of growth.
But the growth began to cause problems. There
were these Grecian widows. And you would think
of it like this. Grecian widows were Jewish ladies
that came from a different culture. They spoke
Greek. It would be like us. Inside of our church,
we have some people from Texas. And then you
have some people from New Jersey. And you have
some people from other places, amen. from the
moon, amen. But all of a sudden you have different
cultures come in and these cultures begin to
clash right there and it was a problem. Read
verse two with me. Then the 12 called the multitude
of the disciples unto them and said, it is not
reason that we should leave the word of God and
serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out
among you seven men of honest report. full of
the Holy Ghost and wisdom whom we may appoint
over this business. But we will give ourselves
continually to prayer and to the ministry of
the Word. And the saying pleased the whole multitude,
and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and
of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Procurus,
and Nicanor, and Tymon, and Parmenas, and Nicholas,
a proselyte of Antioch. Good job. Good job, and
good job. Verse number six, ready? Whom they
set before the apostles, and when they had prayed,
they laid their hands on them. And the word of
God increased, and the number of the disciples
multiplied in Jerusalem greatly, and a great
company of the priests were obedient to the faith.
Oh, problems, problems. And there's gonna be
two sides that you begin to go towards. You can
become a part, of the problem, murmur, murmur,
murmur, or you can become a solution. And there's
two sides. It's gonna be awesome. I really learned
something here, and it's helped me, and I believe
it'll help our church. Let's do this. Let's bow
our heads, go to the Lord in prayer one more
time. Dear Father in heaven, help us on this
Wednesday night to stop, open up our hearts,
open up our minds, and learn some things. I do
believe if, we as a church learn this truth or
be reminded of this truth, our church will be
stronger and really the word of God will increase.
And I pray that you help us, help me to decrease,
help all of us to decrease, and you to increase
in a great way. We need you Lord, and I need
you Lord tonight, in Jesus' name, amen. Amen.
You may be seated. The first part is problems
in the church. And I don't want to spend a lot
of time here, but in verse one, you notice the
murmuring, the Grecian widows. You begin to see
that they were neglected in daily ministration,
and there was murmuring. There was murmuring.
Say that word with me. Murmuring, murmuring.
Say it one more time. Murmuring. And I don't
know if you can growl when you do it, but sort
of murmuring. And this murmuring is like spiritual.
grumbling under your breath. It's loud enough
for people to hear it, but quiet enough to pretend
you weren't saying anything. Okay. Here's another
definition. We're trying to get the definition
of murmuring. Murmuring is like the church committee
that never officially meets, it never has an
agenda, never takes minutes, never solves anything,
but somehow everybody knows what was discussed
in the parking lot. Okay. Okay, some of you,
okay, we're going a little farther. You didn't
get that one, okay. Murmuring is when someone
says, now I'm not trying to cause any trouble,
but, then they immediately begin to cause trouble,
okay. Here's another one. Murmuring is like a
leaky faucet. You know, drip, drip. and at first
it doesn't seem like much, but after a while
you get the water bill, you get it on everybody's
nerves, you waste a lot and nobody deals with
it, that drippy faucet can cause a lot of damage.
Another way to look at it, okay? Think about
this, some people give the church weather report
every week, cloudy with a chance of complaining,
winds of criticism coming from the back hallway,
possible storm forming near the coffee pot. Okay,
murmuring, I don't know if that's a good definition
right there, but the church was multiplying.
There was a problem and it was a serious problem.
The Grecian widows, they were neglected and there
all of a sudden became this murmuring and it
begins to grow and it begins to build and it's
not necessarily, it's bad, that's wrong, but
it's not necessarily bad. Problems are not really
problems, they're opportunities. And I really
think this is an important part of our church
right there. When you see problems in the church,
now listen, when you see problems in a church,
problems in a church, what do you do with those
problems? Okay, this is where we're getting to
the sermon, right? Miss Debbie, you said something
right there. Here's what I said. You said you
probably. are part of the solution, not the problem.
And I appreciate that, Miss Debbie. You're absolutely
a godly, wonderful woman. But look at this. When
you see a problem in the church, what do you
do with that problem? Do you talk to people who
cannot fix it? Do you begin to stir the pot a
little bit? Do you assume the worst? or do you
become suspicious, critical, distant, or how
do you handle that? How do you handle that? By
the way, before we get to how you handle it,
look at verse number two, if you will. Look at
verse number two. Then the 12th called the multitude
of the who? Undo them and said, it is not reason
that we should leave the what? Word of God and
serve tables. Okay, look at verse number four.
But we will give ourselves continually to prayer
and to the ministry of the Word. Now, this is
a side note, side part of this right there. There's
problems. There's big problems in the church.
There's murmuring going on. But next thing you
know, we find the apostles. The apostles, they
never denied that there was a problem. They understood
there was a problem, but they didn't say, they
didn't say that does not matter because problems
do matter. How many admit problems matter? Okay,
problems matter, okay. These widows, they didn't
say, the widows, you know, they're not important.
Of course widows are important. Widows are important.
Serving tables was not beneath the apostles,
but listen to this. The church could not solve,
they understood the church could not solve one
problem by creating another, a greater problem,
okay? I'm gonna explain this. but they realize
the apostles said we can't solve one problem,
put all of our attention on one problem and create
a bigger problem by doing that. In other words,
they're saying the apostles said if we were to
leave prayer and the study of God's word and
the ministering of the word to take care of some
of these problems, we're gonna create a bigger
problem. Okay, we're gonna create a bigger problem,
okay. Serving tables is important. Caring for
the widows is important. Solving a complaint,
it was important, but the Word of God, the Word
of God had to remain central in the apostles'
life. They had to stay steadfast, unmovable,
right there in the Word of God. You know, it
is not reason, and we use that term, it is not
reason. It said, it wouldn't be right, it wouldn't
be wise, it wouldn't be spiritually healthy for
the church for us to leave. prayer to leave the
Word of God and serve tables. It's not that they
were beneath serving tables. It's just saying
there was a priority. They said, we have to handle
this a little bit differently. The church needed
prayer. The church needed the preaching of God's
Word. The church needed a pastor that would get
up and have a message that was from on high.
You need to prepare for the preaching of the
Word of God. And all of a sudden, and this is
important, for example, Sunday school teachers.
You have to teach Sunday school class, teach
the Word of God. But if you get so busy, so busy,
so busy, so busy, so busy that you never take
time to study the Word of God, to be spiritual,
to pray, to dedicate your heart and your mind
to the Word of God, you're not gonna help anybody
on Sunday. And so there has to be an understanding.
The apostles say we can't neglect this. The devil
would love for a church to become so consumed
with problems that all of a sudden the study
of God's word and prayer becomes secondary or
never happens. You understand that? He'd love
for his church to think that activity could replace
the apostles' spiritual walk with God. And you've
got to be careful. Moms and dads, Sunday school
teachers, workers, church people, we just got
to be careful that we don't get so busy that
we forget to do our duty. You might say duty,
but have a walk with God. Okay, okay. So let's
go on a little bit further here and get to this.
This is where we get to sort of the sermon. How
did they handle the problem without leaving the
Word of God? How did they handle it? They didn't
ignore the problem, but how did they handle the
problem without it? Okay, I want you to think
with me about the workers in the church, okay?
We're gonna look at this verse. Let's read it,
look at verse number three. Wherefore, brethren,
look at those first two words, verse three. Wherefore
what? Okay, looky out among you. seven men of
honest report, full of the what? Holy Ghost and
wisdom whom we may appoint over this business
right there. And we think about the sermon becomes
very practical. Look out among you. The answer
was not outside the church, the answer is actually
inside the church. Okay, and I really we're gonna
make application. I'm not trying to get the application
We will get there eventually, but this is so
applicable to Chesapeake Baptist Church In our
church problems arise parking lot park parking
on Sunday recently people have been coming into
our church and they've been Leaving our church
before they ever attend our church because they
can't find a parking spot. That's good, but it's
bad You know what I'm saying? We can ignore that.
Okay, pastor could go out there and be a parking
lot attendant. We could, but something has to
happen. So there has to be workers in the church.
There has to be something where we notice that,
we make a plan to solve the problem. That's exactly
what they're doing here. They're making a plan,
and it's a powerful plan. Church problems are
not solved only by preaching about them. Okay,
I can preach about church problems, but they're
not just solved by me preaching. There's a problem.
There has to be a plan. There has to be an attack.
There has to be some thought about how do we
meet the need of the people? How do we carry
this burden? How do we help these Grecian widows?
How do we help the murmuring, the conflict, and
what do they do? They chose men. And they chose
these men to be a blessing. By the way, this
is not a sermon necessarily about men, just only
because in reality, the workers in the church
are men and women. We're gonna get to that in
a minute. But these men were chosen to work.
These men were chosen to help. These men were
chosen to solve a problem. These men were chosen.
Now can you imagine? Hey Grant, I'm choosing
you. and I got a job for you. That means you're
gonna have to sacrifice some time, some effort,
some energy, you're gonna have to get here early,
you're gonna have to talk to some people, you're
gonna have to deal with some people that are
upset and angry, and all of a sudden you're chosen.
By the way, it's work. It's work. Workers, work,
labor. But I want to before I go any further,
the work of the ministry is a blessing. You know,
to be able to work for the Lord. Can you imagine
the list of those men right there? We listed
them. Look at verse five. They're saying please
the whole multitude, and they chose Stephen,
and that's a great name, Stephen. Yeah, your
wife's smiling and she's nodding her head. That's
a great name. Stephen, a man full of faith and
a Holy Ghost, and Philip. And Procurus, we need
one of those. We need those. Connor, Connor,
one day. Nicanor and Tymon and Parmesian. And
Nicholas the proselyte. I don't think it's Parmesian,
but it's something like that. You said it confidently
like Brother Reynolds said. And you got that
right there. But the point, don't miss this.
It's a blessing to work for the Lord. It's a
blessing to work for the Lord. It's a blessing
to work for the Lord. G .B. Vick. Their Wednesday
night service for the Temple Baptist Church in
Detroit, their Wednesday night, he preached to
the work, he called it the workers meeting, is
the workers meeting basically. And the Wednesday
night was filled with the workers of the church,
which was thousands of people. And it was amazing.
But the workers of the church, they had a labor,
it was sacrifice, it was, oh, oh, oh, yesterday.
I got a text from a pastor friend of mine named
John Wilkerson last night. And all of a sudden,
he said, you know, brother Mike Goodall, and
he's got cancer, and Mike Goodall. And he said,
if you would, make sure you give him a call for
me. And so anyways, I said, yes, sir. And I called
brother Mike Goodall, Mike Goodall, Mike and
Ann Goodall. amazing people, he would do a paper
route during the weekends where he'd get up at
like three, two, three in the morning, deliver
papers, and then he'd spend all day on Saturday
where they'd go up to the naval base, and they
would bring sailors back, we would play sports,
they'd preach to us, then we'd go over to his
house, they'd let us sleep there. On Sunday morning,
he gets back up at two in the morning, then in
the morning, Miss Anne Goodall picked. fixed
us breakfast. Then we went to church. Then on
Sunday afternoon, we came back over the house
and ate with them. Brother Mike Goodall, Miss
Anne Goodall changed my life. And I talked to
him and I rejoiced with him. He's got cancer.
He's not taking treatments for it. Miss Anne
has stage four colon cancer. And I got to chat
with them last night. They're about to enter
into glory. Okay, they're entering into the reward,
and I wanna let them know, listen, your labor's
not in vain. I told them about the souls that
got saved this last week, and I said the people
being changed here, and I said, you have a part
in that, because I would not be here if it wasn't
for Mike and Ann Goodall. Why they sacrificed
so much, why they worked so much, you know, I'm
thankful they did. I'm thankful they did. The
work of the Lord right there. Now, I'm not trying
to get ahead of myself, but God uses, now listen
to this. Oh, okay. Can you imagine? Grant, okay,
and I wanna mark this, and I love you, Brother
Grant, okay? Who are we gonna choose for the
work of the Lord? We're gonna choose the man
with the biggest mouth. Okay, no, no, no, no,
no. We're gonna choose seven men with the strongest
opinions. No, no, just say no, no, no, no. Help
me out, Grant, say no, no, no. Let's figure it,
okay, okay. We're gonna choose seven men who
know how to stir the pot. No, we're gonna find
the seven men with the biggest bank accounts
or we're gonna find the seven men with the biggest
personalities. That's no, no, no, no, no, no,
no. We're gonna choose the seven men who are
the loudest, who complain the most. No, you begin
to look at they were chosen because they were
qualified. And I like this list, I like this
list. God was going to use the right kind of
people to make a difference in the church, but
there's a qualification. Look with me at verse
number three. Look at verse number three. Wherefore,
brethren, look ye out among you seven men of
what? Honest report, full of the Holy Ghost,
and wisdom. Now, before we go any further, we
have here at our church a worker's agreement.
And I have one printed over there, but a workers
agreement. Can two walk together except they'd
be agreed? If you want to be a Sunday school
teacher, there's some qualifications to be a
Sunday school teacher, okay? And I think they're
good. They're very, very good. But we can almost
simplify our servants agreement down to these
three things. Okay, and just to simplify the
first one the first one when we look you out
among you seven men They're chosen because they're
called the first qualification for the worker
was that they were of honest report So those
two words with they were of what honest report.
They were honest report What does that mean?
That means these men you could trust them They
were trustworthy The people knew what kind of
men they were. Their lives that they lived right
there carried away. Their words could be trusted.
The contact that they had gave you confidence.
No matter what the church problem was, these
were people that you could trust. Hey, Grant,
I got a job for you. I need your help. It would
be a blessing. And all of a sudden, when I passed
the baton to him to take care of that, I could
trust him that he was going to follow through
and do what needed to be done. He wasn't gonna
say, oh, Pastor, got a little bit too late last
night. I know you want it done, but I forgot.
They had character. They had character. They
weren't characters, they had character. And that's
vitally important. Seems like a simple truth,
but we need men and women of character. you can
trust them. And a man may have ability, but if
he doesn't have honesty and humility and a good
report, he may make the problem worse. And the
first qualification they had was a man who had
character. People who helped the church are people
that are trustworthy. Now, I'm saying this to
all of us because by the time the end of the
sermon, we all should be workers in the church.
We all ought to find an area, but in order, you
have to ask yourself, are you somebody who is
of honest report? Do you have character? We live
in a world that minimizes character in some form
or fashion or people are not taught to have character.
You can't rely on anybody. You know, you have
to beg and plead and hope and bribe almost people
to, you know, Bible says, let your yay be yay
and your nay be nay. And you understand that.
So character matters, character matters, character
matters. And we're gonna get to the end of this
because all of us need to work and make sure
we have character, character. Okay, number two,
and yeah, I could elongate this. We know Paul
said this. I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who
hath enabled me for that he counted me faithful.
He counted me faithful putting me into the ministry.
When we look at apostle Paul, he said, man, I
thank God. that he allowed me to minister, he
counted me faithful. He had character. It says
like this in First Corinthians chapter four,
verse two. More of it is required in stewards
that a man be found faithful. Character matters,
character matters. Just say that with me. Character
matters. Okay, okay. Character matters, character
matters. Character matters, okay? We'll try it
one more time, okay? Here we go. If you just
say it, we'll move on. Because in workers, character
matters. Character matters, character matters,
character matters. Okay, we can move on, okay.
Thank you, Lord. Verse three again. Wherefore,
brethren, look ye out among you seven men of
honest report, number two, full of the what?
Full of the Holy Ghost, full of the Holy Ghost.
This is a theme throughout the Bible. Be not
drunk with wine wearing his excess, but be ye
filled with the Spirit, the Bible says. And this
is worthy to slow down here a little bit. Oh
yeah, Travis. Travis, you are just like your
grandpa. He's always whining. So sorry about
that. That's my grandson right there. They were
spiritual. Number one, they had character. Number
two, they were spiritual. And the issue is involving
what? Food distribution, okay? It involved tables,
it involved widows, it involved what you might
say daily ministration. And someone say, well,
that's just administration. And it is administration.
It is making a plan. It is dealing with a problem.
But God said the men needed to be full of the
Holy Ghost. You know, when you're doing God's
work, you need to have character, but you also
need to live spiritual lives. even practical
ministry required for spirit, or requirement
with spiritual people. Carnal people may be able
to organize something, but they can't handle
the word of God in God's spirit, you might say.
A carnal person may get a task done, but may
hurt people while doing it. You understand, a
carnal person may solve a problem on the surface,
but they miss out on things spiritual. It's so
important, spiritual matters, spiritual lives
matter. And we're talking about the workers,
they had to have character, but they needed to
have a walk with God. They need to be filled
with the Spirit. Cardinal people cannot fix church
problems in a spiritual way. And listen, to sum
this up, a church with problems, that's us, by
the way, we need Spirit -filled people in more
places than just the pulpit. By the way, you
need it in the pulpit. I need to make sure that
I'm spiritual, to have a walk with God. Shame
on me if I don't, right? You don't want a pastor
that doesn't walk with God, do you? And so none
of us are perfect, but we all have to humble
ourselves and have a walk with God. Spirit -filled
deacons, we desperately, Sunday school teachers,
I don't want you to watch my baby in the nursery
if you're not a spirit -filled nursery worker.
What are you doing up in the choir if you're
singing for the Lord? How can you sing to the
Lord if you're not spiritual? And it sounds like
I'm angry tonight. I am! I'm not really angry,
but you understand, there is an important part.
First part, they required somebody with character.
Number two, they required, number two, a spirit
-filled person right there. Number three, look
at this. Well, look at verse three again. Wherefore,
brethren, look ye out among you, seven men of
honest report, full of the Holy Ghost, and what?
Wisdom, wisdom. Now, this is important, and I
think this character, You're spirit -filled,
but we desperately need to have wisdom. Wisdom
is the ability to handle people, pressure, details,
and difficulty, difficult situations in a way
that please the Lord. And when you deal with
people, you desperately need wisdom. Okay, just
do you get him you get in the middle of that
Grecian widow and those non Grecian You don't
want to get in front of any of those ladies.
It's dangerous Okay, but you certainly don't
want to get in between those ladies without wisdom
So I want to say this the phrase one more time
wisdom is the ability to handle people pressure
details and Difficulties in a way that that please
God sometimes if you're not careful without wisdom
you make things that are molehills into big mountains
And I'll tell you, when you don't have wisdom,
you make things worse. Okay, somebody say amen.
When you don't have wisdom in dealing with people,
you can make small situations huge. How do you
know pastor? Been there, done that, wrote the
book several times. Okay, anybody else ever been
there? Okay, okay, we all have in some form or
fashion. Okay, look, that they needed wisdom.
They needed to listen without becoming partial.
They needed to care. They needed to care for
the people without stirring things up. You ever
gone to somebody, I wanna help you, but rather
than help you begin to stir things up a little
bit, and you sort of enjoy stirring the pot a
little bit, oh yeah. What were they thinking
doing that to you? That was wrong. You understand
stirring the pot? You understand how many of
you know what stirring the pot is? You know that?
Yeah, yeah, okay. They need to solve the issue
without magnifying, you might say, the conflict.
They needed to meet the need without making those,
like I said, those mole hills into mountains,
okay? So we get that right there. Every church
needs wise servants. We need church servants
in here, workers in here, that don't make or
inflame or make every issue bigger than. And
it is. We need people who don't assume the worst.
And I have a whole list right here. But we need
wisdom, we need wisdom, and we need what? Wisdom.
Okay, so those are the three requirements. Three
requirements, character, spiritual, and wisdom.
Character, spiritual, wisdom. The three worker
requirements. What is it? Character, spiritual,
and wisdom. Now the end result, we love the end
result. Look at the end result, Ruth here, if
you will. Look at this next one. Oh, oh, oh,
and I hate shortening the sermon. How many times
have I blown it? Okay, don't answer that, okay?
Actually, I don't want you to answer that. And
you know, when preparing for this, I realize
how many times I've blown it, okay? Pastor Cantrell,
you ever blown it? Okay, we pastors, we're pretty
good at that, okay? But especially me. And I
got a nice story about how I blew it, but I'm
not gonna tell you it tonight, okay? I'm gonna
skip that. Time's sake, okay? Wisdom, time's
sake. But look at this next verse, verse number
seven. What's the result? And the word of God
what? Word of God increased. Because these problems,
yes, but because they had spiritual people. people
with character, people that had wisdom, all of
a sudden they were able to move on and the result
was the word of God increased. The result was
the murmuring did not define the church. You
know, what defines your church? We're a murmuring
church, no. We're a divided church, no. We're
a church that's stuck, no. We're a church where
God has spiritual people. People with character,
men and women with character, teenagers with
character, Sunday school teachers with character
that are spiritual, that have wisdom. Man, that
would be great. Imagine that. Teenagers? Man,
you think about teenagers, right? Teenagers with
character, spiritual teenagers, and not only
that, but they're spiritual and they have what?
Wisdom, okay. So now, this is... what I want
for our church. This is what I want for Chesapeake
Baptist Church. We're almost there, but we're
not really. I don't want a church without problems.
I don't want a church without problems. There's
not such a thing. There's no such thing as a
church without problems. Just say amen. We want
a church where problems do not stop the word
of God. We want a church where needs are met.
We want a church where murmuring's not allowed
to spread. We want a church where servants step
up. We need help. We need workers. We need them
to step up. It's awesome, I'll tell you. It's
awesome. I mentioned one need over there about
Sister Sini. During handshaking, a dear lady
came up and said, Pastor, I'll take care of it
until somebody else can maybe volunteer. You
know how awesome that was? That's but that's
our church and it would be great to have another
lady come up and say hey pastor They don't need
to do that every week. Well, we'll get on a rotation.
I'll take care of the rotation and main line
That's awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Okay Don't
this is the sermon. Don't murmur Be a minister
Okay, okay How do I get to this? Okay, cuz I
got seven pages left Okay, we can be a part of
the remembering or we can be a part of the ministry.
I can complain about the long sermons or I can
say amen in the sermons. Okay, thank you. Perfect
right there. Okay, good. Okay. Okay, this is
where we're at. This is where we get it. It's
simple, I find. Do I, Matt Nettesheim, have character?
Am I a spiritual person? Do I have wisdom? Now,
when I ask me those questions, how am I doing
with my character? Do I have character or are
there things I need to work on? Probably in reality,
we all have something to work on in our character,
right? So the spiritual side, we all should be
spiritual. We know that, should we work on it?
What about wisdom? Wisdom, we all say yes, we
need wisdom, but how many say we need to work
on that? So in each of these areas, this is gonna
be really, really slow, okay? Number one, work
on your character. Men of honest report, we should
be people that can be trusted. So what can I
do to work on my character? Here's some things,
and just think with them. I'm gonna go slow with
this, but work on your character. Number one,
tell the truth. Somebody who has character or
has honest report, they tell the truth. You tell
the truth. And there's a lot of verses I could
have put right here, wherefore put away lying,
and speak every man truth. Number two, keep your
word. If you say you're gonna do something, do
it. Let your yay be yay and your nay may. Tell
the truth, keep your word. Be faithful in the
little things. There's a Bible verse that, he
that is faithful in that which is least is faithful
also in much. So be faithful in the little things.
Then this one, refuse gossip and half -truths.
Just refuse it, refuse it. Don't carry stories
or stir things up. Just refuse to stir things
up. Refuse it. And do not repeat what does not
help. Number five, the last one, live the same
in public and in private. Be a Christian. Okay,
be, I mean, at church. Be the same at home and
at church, amen? Vitally important, those five
things. That's character, character, character.
How many say I can work on those things? Okay,
I'm gonna read through that really, really, really,
really, really, really quick. Tell the truth,
keep your word, faithful in little things, refuse
gospel and have truths, live the same in public
and private. Number two, work on being spiritual.
There were people of the Holy Ghost right there.
What do you mean by that? What we can work on?
Be filled with the Spirit. Read Galatians chapter
five. Just say that with me. Read Galatians chapter
five. Say it like you mean it. Read Galatians
chapter five. Some of you would be some mean
preachers, okay? You'd be nice preachers, okay?
Walk with God daily. Walk with God daily. Not
once a week, not once a month, but somehow learn
to walk with God daily. Do not try to work for
God publicly and neglect God privately. Okay,
number three, read your Bible. Please, please
read your Bible. Number four, be faithful to
church. It's not a sermon on that, but church
is good for me, for me. It's good for me. It's
a reset button. And I like Wednesday night church.
I like Sunday morning church. I like Sunday night
church so much the more as you see the day approaching.
and go to church, re -faithfully. Then tell people
about Jesus. Go into all the world and preach
the gospel. I tell you, it helps you and it challenges
you when you go into the community and tell people
about Jesus. Number three, not only be spiritual,
not only have character, but work on having wisdom.
Work on having what? Okay, one more time and
I'm gonna say it. Work on having what? Wisdom.
Good, good, good, good, good, good. So how do
we do that? Ask God for wisdom? If any of you
lack wisdom, let him ask of God. Give it to all
men liberally and in the brain of God and it
shall be given him. It shall be given him. But
if you need wisdom and you do wisdom to deal
with people, ask God for wisdom. Two, read the
Proverbs. That's God's book of wisdom. There
are 31 chapters in Proverbs. Read a Proverb a
day. Let God teach you how to think, how to speak,
how to work, how to listen, how to handle situations.
Proverbs is absolutely amazing. Okay, good. So
ask God for wisdom, read Proverbs, learn to listen.
I don't know how many times I have not listened
to somebody and I open my big mouth before I
even listen to what they say. I have to work
on that. How many else have to work on that?
Okay, but we have to learn to listen. Learn to
listen, be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow
to rap. Number four. Get the facts before you
form an opinion. Get the facts. You know, sometimes
we come to a conclusion, ah! And we lay the hammer
down before we know what we're hitting. How do
you know? I'm good at it, okay? But stop and
get the facts, then last this. Ask this, will
this help the work of God move forward? Not this,
can I say this? You're not doing. Am I technically
right? Do I feel better after saying it? But
will this help God's work move on? Is this what
God wants me to do? Okay, we're done. We're done,
we're done, we're done, we're done, we're done.
Ah! And I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I just think this
is one of the most powerful truths ever. Because
God has a special plan for Chesapeake Baptist
Church. He's using us in a great way. And God
is adding to our church. There's a lot of good
going on. And I could spend the next 20 minutes
doing that. I'm not going to. But what is a danger
is we begin to murmur. And if we all, us, us,
we work on having character, we work on living
a spiritual life, and we work on having wisdom,
man alive, the word of God will increase. Let's
pray. Dear Father in heaven, we love you. Thank
you for being good to us. And thank you for Acts
chapter number six. And I pray that you help
all of us, all of us, all of us work on those
things, me included. I have much to work on,
Lord. And I pray that you continue to bless our
church. I pray that the word of God increases
in a mighty way, Lord. We sure do love you. In
Jesus' name, amen. Stand with me if you will.
Good good turn around shake somebody's hand shake
somebody's hand shake somebody's hands. I'm glad
you came glad you came glad