Living Examples - Stephen - God’s Star Witness

Pray – (1/2 minute)

Read – (2 1/2 minutes) – “ ‘Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and wil give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the Word.’ This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; . . .” (Acts 6:3-5a)
      Passage: Psalm 131:1-3

        As the early church grew, the Jewish leaders became kept looking for ways to stop people from confessing Jesus as Messiah and joining the growing movement. One thing they did was to stop providing any help to Jewish widows who believed in Jesus. The early church took up that responsibility, but as they did a problem arose. The believers who whose backgrounds were Greek speaking, felt that their widows were being neglected in favor of the widows whose backgrounds were Hebrew speaking. The apostles proposed choosing seven men to take the responsibility of ministry service to the widows and Stephen was one of those men. God used Stephen and the others to help restore harmony to the church and demonstrate the love of Christ to the world.

When you believed in Christ, you became a part of God’s forever family. He designed the local church to be a local family for believers to be a place to do life together and fulfill His purposes. God wants His family to live in harmony and be united. Satan wants to cause the church to be divided. Stephen is a living example of a man who served Christ and promoted harmony. His example is one for every believer to follow.

Apply - (2 1/2 minutes)
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Pray - (1 1/2 minutes)