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- It’s possible to deeply desire God’s power, and yet forfeit it by stubbornly preserving sin.

- People full of themselves promote themselves; those filled with the Spirit promote Jesus.

- We’re saved by grace - not perfect understanding; we all have to grow to recognize and release sin after the new birth.

- Spiritual power is the ability to accomplish God’s purposes, and His primary purpose is to make us righteous servants, not religious celebrities.

- The Holy Spirit is given that we might render effective service to God and others, not to help us accomplish our sinful agendas.

- If we insist on preserving our sin, we will not possess power. The Spirit cannot fill what is already full!

- We don’t need more power; we need more brokenness. The locked doors of our hearts are the very ones through which the Spirit must pass.

· God often moves us towards His intent in ways we barely comprehend – or overlook altogether.

· The Church won’t always know where it’s being led, but it can trust the Lord who is leading.

· God’s work is never dependent upon one person or group of people.

· God raises up leaders, but no leader will lead everything, for God wants to make it clear the work is His doing.

1. When our vision clouds – when we don’t know what God’s up to – God may be reminding us who’s in charge.

· Disciples need some mystery in order to remain dependent.

2. When our vision clouds we need confidence and commitment.

· Persecution - and the uncertainty it brought – didn’t remove confidence in Christ or commitment to Him; it revealed it!

3. When our vision clouds something new is often in the making.

· “Relying on God has to begin all over again every day as if nothing yet had been done. “(C.S. Lewis)

4. When our vision clouds - and it will at times - faith confidently keeps on serving.

· We walk by faith, not vision.

- Past answers to prayer don’t determine future answers; we must look for God to do what is best today, not what was best yesterday.

- God always answers the prayers of His people. But some answers appear wrong at first glance, because we don’t comprehend His loving purposes.

- Stephen was willing to die because he understood the supreme reality of the spiritual, and valued it more than temporal considerations.

- The ultimate goal of prayer isn’t self-preservation, but God’s work in others.

- Two loving objectives:

The persecution instigated by Stephen’s death thrust the church out into the world.

Right-answered prayer is often God’s means of moving us out in mission.

Faith isn’t just about us; it’s about lost people!

Stephen’s death fostered the conversion of God’s foremost missionary spokesman.

Saul would become Paul, the great missionary to the gentile world.

- When God answers prayer, it is God's gift, even if he answers differently to what we ask for, it protects us from ourselves and leads us towards our destiny.

- God hardwired human beings for worship.

- When we fail to worship God, we worship something else, and things He intended as servants become destructive masters.

- God’s truth may be hijacked to serve man’s sinful desires. The resulting corrupt application of Scripture becomes a substitute for loving God, and invariably leads to hatred of God.

- Refusal to change breeds antagonism towards those who speak of freedom.

- We sometimes revere things of God that we ourselves resist.

1. To Embrace change we must be Willing to Experience the Ignorance of faith.

Faith doesn’t need to know where it’s going if it knows God set the course.

We often want to know the fruit of obedience before we obey.

2. To Embrace change we must be Willing to Experience the Pain of faith.

Some changes only occur in the aftermath of pain and apparent loss.

3. To Embrace change we must be Willing to Embrace the

Values of faith.

We must learn to cherish the eternal more than the temporary.

- Stephen’s sermon isn’t intended for anti-Semitism but for anti-sinfulness.

- It offers lenses for scrutinising our own failures.

- Jesus died to set us free; transformation is not an option for disciples!

The first mark of a true and living church is love, the second is suffering.

A willingness to suffer proves the genuineness of love. (John Stott).

1. Mature faith trusts God even when evil appears to be winning the day.

- Jesus is described 12 times in the New Testament as “seated” at the right hand of God.

- God accepted Jesus’ death on our behalf; we’re forgiven and accepted in Him.

- When one member of the body of Christ suffers, all suffer.

As Jesus is head of the body, when we suffer, He knows our pain, and comes to our aid.

2. Mature faith is rewarded by the priestly presence of Jesus.

- If you will trust when evil appears to be winning the day, Jesus will stand with you.

· You can stand, when you know Jesus stands with you.

- There is often a gap between the ideals that we cherish in our hearts and the actions that flow out of them.

Incredible generosity was the rule of the day in that early church.

Satan always attacks where the church is successful; he doesn’t need to attack where it’s failing!

- The issue was a functional problem, complicated by cultural tensions.

1. Both the complaint and the response arose from love for God.

Man’s only hope of genuine, loving community flows from love for God.

To neglect the preaching of God’s Word is to remove the path to unity, the passion for unity, the power to protect unity.

2. The problem was functional, not spiritual, and the Apostles discerned the difference.

They realised that, people who love God sometimes need better systems of expressing that love!

- It’s vital we recognise the nature of our problems!

- We must not treat functional problems as spiritual problems!

- If we do that, we’ll overlook our answer, doubt God’s goodness, and frustrate both ourselves and the church.

- Jesus faced stiff opposition, because then, as now, other kingdoms, other power structures, had usurped God’s rule.

- God’s kingdom has been planted and will one day remove all pretenders.

- The church cannot carry out God’s mission in this world, without a force greater than human power, we need the power of God's Spirit!

- The power of God frustrates the power and plans of evil.

- Disciples order their lives around one non-negotiable principle – love for God, expressed in obedience.

- Obedience is the doorway to spiritual power.

- The Holy Spirit cannot empower us if He cannot command us.

- Disobedience puts our wisdom in the place of God's wisdom, leaving us weak and unreliable in mission.

- The power the Spirit gives, that you need, and that the church needs, only flows through obedient pipelines.

· Spiritual power is often disguised as weakness, humility, and sacrifice.

- Authentic disciples order their lives around one non-negotiable principle – the love of God expressed in obedience (Jn 14:15).

- Obedience is the doorway to freedom.

- God’s call for obedience, seen correctly, is more invitation than ultimatum.

- The alternative to obedience isn’t independence - but slavery to sin.

- Obedience doesn’t destroy individuality.

- Obedience opens the door for God to reveal and restore your

unique personality and purpose.

- To obey God is to grow in knowledge of Him.

6 Keys to learn obedience:

1. Study the Word (Ps 1:1-3).

2. Learn to wait upon God in prayer (Is 40:31).

3. Understand obedience often means a head-on collision. (Prov 1:7).

4. God will occasionally allow us to walk in the dark. (Prov 3:5-6).

5. Expect struggles (Rom 7:15-25).

6. Learn to leave the consequences of obedience to God (Prov 16:3).

- His commands are not burdensome (1 Jn 5:3).

In keeping of them there is great reward (Ps 19:11).

· Obedience rightly understood is the road to freedom.

- Mature believers often receive the church’s admiration, but it is never their motivation.

- The desire for recognition, stems from weak faith.

- Ananias and Sapphira were spiritual posers; they wanted to be seen as devoted when they were not.

Three things to learn and why God has this account in Acts:

1. God reminds us, that Satan hates the witness of a Spirit filled church, and he will always seek to dilute its integrity.

2. God is passionate about protecting the purity of his church.

3. The sin of pretence is never far from us, and if we pursue it, something within us will die.

- Freedom and power as believers, does not grow out of pretended affection, it comes from honest submission.