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Starts as Conrad turns to Acts 6, with his opening prayer. Ends before the closing prayer. Words that could not be made out are marked [unclear].
Chapter 6 is where we will be this morning. Book of Acts, Chapter 6. And we'll look at the span of verses, verses 1 through 7. Pretty short little narrative this morning. And as we flip there and as we're settling in, I want you to think with me about something. Think with me about these three things. It's really one thing. Think with me about your first job. Think with me about your worst job. Hopefully it's not the same job for all of you, but we have strange jobs.
We have many jobs over our lives where we work that we engage with. Let me just run you through a brief history of some of the things that I've done. One, my dad was a financial consultant, so I tended his business for a little bit. Got to learn about numbers and that you don't just balance the scale but you actually balance numbers right and so he taught me about balancing numbers and i got to temp with him and learn a little bit more about what he did but my first like real job i guess was a summer camp counselor when i was like in high school and i was a summer camp counselor and i put on fun events for kids activities games
We had a man-made lagoon, we had a pool, so we would spend a lot of time out in the sun. We would craft and curate a lot of games. We'd play volleyball or jailbreak, I think it was called, or whatever. We played all these games. It was a fun experience. And because I was one of the only male camp counselors, whenever the kids got rowdy, they decided to attack me, right? And the counselor role that I had, I realize now, prepared me for my life as a boy dad, as three boys.
Because when they get feisty, they'll come after me. After that, I was a swim instructor for a few moments and got to teach kids how to swim, how to have water safety in the pool. After that, all part of the same association. I was a facility inspector. Sounds more important than it is. They gave me a truck and I drove around to like 40 different pools and parks and you know we had that kind of an association so I checked IDs that if there was some vandalism or graffiti that was a really good day for me so I'm calling it in.
And if I found something broken I didn't fix it but I called somebody who could. I was just cruising around. I did all those things. You know, we hold so many different jobs. Over the last 15 years or so, I've been involved in church and in pastoral ministries as well. So I've learned Hebrew. I've learned Greek. And as a college pastor, I got really wicked good at cornhole. So if anyone wants to accept the challenge, challenge accepted.
You know, we learn and we do so many different things. There are so many different occupations represented in this room right now. You know, I know that some of us are retired, and that's a beautiful thing, and you look back on a long career. Some of you are actively working right now, and that's a beautiful thing. Some of you might be unemployed, looking for the next thing or wondering what's next.
But regardless, regardless of our employment status or our employment history, we all have a calling. We all have a calling and that is important for us to understand. Now our calling and our job, they can overlap. We'll talk about that in a little bit. However, regardless of our employment status, we have a calling. And some callings, you know, we might look at with a little bit more prestige, some we might not.
However, what I'm here to share this morning is there is no small calling. There is no such thing as a small calling. There's only your calling and your calling and my calling and our calling. There is no small calling. And that's what I titled this message this morning. No small calling. As we look at the book of Acts, chapter 6, 1 through 7, we're going to see a couple of groups of people and the callings that were placed on their lives.
Before we jump into that text, before we go out and eat hot dogs and hamburgers, let's pray once more. Heavenly Father, Thank you so much for all of the incredible gifts, talents, abilities in this room right this very moment. Thank you for the gifts, talents, and abilities of those who are watching online as well. Lord, we understand that you give gifts to the church, a diverse church. That we might be able to live according to the way that you called us to live.
So Lord, I just pray that you would encourage us this morning, that you would convict us this morning, that you would move us forward in the call that you have placed [unclear]. Going forward, tell us to have a path of clarity, and I pray that you would guide us forward. So Lord, we thank you and praise you. In Jesus' name, Amen. Alright, we're just going to parachute straight in. We'll talk about the context after.
Acts chapter 6, verse 1. Only verse 1 says this. Now in these days, when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. Food distribution, right? So there's... There was this happening at the time. There was a conflict that had arose. So let's just talk about verse 1 for just a moment.
The first line says, Now in these days, the disciples were increasing in number. And everybody here knows, with more people, there's more problems, right? More people, more problems. And I'm not saying that people were the problem. I'm just saying that as the population increases, The needs also increases work. I was thinking to myself, well, how are jobs created? Where do jobs come from? Just kind of a basic question, but a job is formed essentially when there's a higher level of demand.
If there's a higher demand for a good or a service or a food item, if there's a higher demand for something, You need to increase because you need to have more jobs to sustain that business, to sustain that goods, to sustain that service. Jobs are part of a need, and there are certainly needs. We talked about the Hellenists and the Hebrews. So we talked about these groups of people just really reading.
One, the Hellenists, it's a word for Greek-speaking Jews, Greek speakers. They were Greek in nature. They had a Greek culture. They had a Greek background. They had a Greek way of thinking. Then on the other hand, there was the Hebrews, traditional, you know, the probably spoke Aramaic for the most part. And so you have these two different groups of people kind of complaining against one another. And the complaint was that the Greek speaking widows were being neglected during a food distribution.
So there was a problem. The problem is presented in verse one, and that's kind of the context that we see being employed here. Two things I want us to think about when we're talking about the gospel message. One, The exponential nature of the gospel. Pastor Austin, I shared last week as well that we have circles, right? And when we've been thinking about the book of Acts, we've been saying identify your circle.
Engage with your circle. Your circle being your sphere of influence. There might be a few of you. Your family, your community, your job, you know, your church is certainly a part of your circle. So there's circles and spheres of influence, but what's happening here is the gospel is expanding to different circles. It's not just an Aramaic-speaking gospel. It's also a Greek-speaking gospel. And as you look around the world, you know many people in many different languages, every tribe, nation, and tongue will be proclaiming that Jesus is Lord.
So the circles are expanding, but in there, there's a conflict, right? As the church grows, it grows to other cultures, and there's more demand. The second thing I want us to consider is there's a practical nature to the gospel. Track with me on this. There is a practical nature to the gospel. The gospel isn't only to the spiritual needs, although certainly that is the bare standard, right? We live...
And we serve a spiritual God, so we also want to cultivate our spiritual lives. However, the gospel is entirely practical. If you don't agree with me yet, let me just talk to you about the life of Jesus. When Jesus was with people and he was teaching people, the people were hungry. So what did Jesus do? Practically gave them food. The people were tired. And you know what Jesus said on one occasion?
Now, There's an exponential nature of it all. It's increasing in number and expanding in circles, but it's also practical. And as it grows, as it expands, there's a need. There's a need for more people to jump in and help out. So the problem we just encountered in verse 1 will be solved now in verses 2 through 6. This is where we're going to spend the majority of our time together in verses 2 through 6.
So I'll read all of those verses here, and then we'll unpack it and apply it to [unclear] this morning. So let's read it. It says this, And the twelve, that's after the complaint arose, and the twelve summoned the full number of disciples and said, It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. Okay. Therefore, brothers, take out from among you seven men.
of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom whom we will appoint to this duty. Verse 4, but we will devote ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the word. And what they said, the twelve, pleased the whole gathering and they chose these men. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.
Okay, so what we have going on here, what I want us to remember as the message title that we have is there is no small calling. What I want to share is once again, there is your calling. There is only your calling. [unclear] I was reflecting on this as I was reading this this week and I was thinking to myself, you know, we live in such a beautiful place, we live in an incredible environment, and yet I think we have this almost toxic disease to some degree that we all kind of carry on our shoulders.
And that is comparison, right? Comparison, you look around, you see the things around you, you say, I have that, I don't have that, or I want that and this I don't want. We compare so many different things. We compare cars, we compare jobs. We even compare intelligence. We have IQ scores, right? We compare so many different things. I look at my sons and the arguments they get into is because they're comparing their Lego builds and comparing what's better or worse, comparing their preferences.
Sometimes we compare things that are small to things that are big. Sometimes we compare things that are expensive to things that are cheap. We all have that culture of comparison. But when it comes to calling, we should never compare. In fact, in many of those situations, we probably shouldn't compare. It's not good for our own hearts and souls. I'm sure I'm not right, but oftentimes we take this culture mindset of comparison and say,
So here in this text, we're going to make this make sense because there's two different groups of people here that are fully called. We'll call them two things. We'll call them the 12 and we'll call them the 7. So first let's talk about the calling of the 12. They were straight up and said, it is not right. That we abandon our preaching. It is not right that we abandon our teaching to serve tables.
And then verse 4, we must devote ourselves to the preaching and the prayer and the ministry of the word. So where did this calling come from? Last week, we talked about Acts 5. And in Acts 5.20, the apostles were in jail. And an angel came and freed them. And you know what the angel told them? He said, go to the temple and preach. Preach to the people all the words of this life. And then in Acts 5, 42, kind of a summary of the whole section, and every day in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that Christ is Jesus.
So they were told, go speak, go teach, go proclaim, and you know what they did every single day? They taught, they preached, they proclaimed. Now in Acts chapter 6 verse 1 and 2, we see the first obstacle to derail them from preaching, teaching, and proclaiming. It's a practical need, an important need. So the twelve, they were called to preach and to teach and they said, you know what? We need to have a one-track mind.
We need to pursue this. We need to teach. We need to preach and proclaim. We can't stop. So what are we going to do? Well, Enter the next group. Enter the next important group of people who are then to be called. And we will call them the seven. So we have the twelve, and then we have the seven. And then, you know, there's no language in the text that we just read that said these men were called. However, in the English Standard Version, here are the words that are employed, and you'll see that on the next slide.
In verse 3, it says, pick out. Also in verse 3 it says, who we will appoint. And then in verse 5 it says, and they chose. For all intents and purposes, these seven were called. They were called to a specific task. What was the task? Well, there was a problem, remember? There were widows that were being overlooked. The apostle said it's not right for us to serve tables, so there's some sort of practical element about food distribution and taking care of the widows.
It's unique because these people were called to serve a specific task. They didn't all remain serving that task. Next week you'll learn a little bit more about Stephen. But these men were selected for a particular task for such a time as this. A couple things that I want us to talk about here. I've used the word calling a few times. So I just want to clarify our terms. And there's a great book by a man named Gordon T.
Smith called Courage and Calling. And when he writes about it, he wants to think about calling or vocation in these terms. He says this. Don't think of calling or vocation not as an occupation or line of work. But something that nevertheless speaks of our engagement with the world in response to God. So as I mentioned earlier, a calling isn't necessarily an occupation. A calling isn't necessarily something that you do for money, although it certainly could overlap with that.
A calling is deeper. A calling is your response, your engagement in the world in response to your calling. and how he has designed and created you to be. We'll talk about maybe how to assess that calling in a few moments, but this is a great reminder to us that just because you have a job doesn't mean it's necessarily only your calling. You know, one other quote that I really enjoy that I read years ago and was resurfaced to me this week is the importance, once again, of...
...living out your calling well, doing it to the best of your abilities. Martin Luther King Jr. maybe you'll recognize this quote, maybe not, but he says this, if a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived the great street sweeper who did his job well.
I like that quote. I like that quote. You know what? Because it reminds us there is no small calling. There's only your calling, and your calling, and my calling, and our calling. Whether you're a president or a pastor, whether you are a policeman or a businessman, whether you're a mother or a father, whatever it is, that calling is incredibly important. So important that we must not neglect it. We pour our time, our energy, our resources into living it out as well.
I think it's a great reminder. Once again, there's no small calling. There's only your calling. Gordon T. Smith, that guy who had that first quote about calling and vocation, talks about three different things. And there'll be a line up on the screen. General calling, a specific calling, and then your daily responsibilities. We're not really talking about daily responsibilities here today. But we are talking about the general call and the specific.
And I'll talk broad brush about those two, and then I'll connect it to the text because I think we can see that in here as well. The general calling is simple. The general calling applies to each and every one of us. So pay attention because I'm speaking to everyone in this room. The general call is our calling as Christians. Right? So it applies to every single person in here. We are to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Amen. Alright, very good. So general calling. Husbands, talking to every single one of you. We are to Amen. And then we are to do all of these things to a point because they are the way that we live out our faith. We are to be conformed into the image of Jesus Christ. We are to be pursuing him, growing and transforming ourselves and lives and character into who he is. This is a general call for each and every one of us.
However, there's also specific calls. There's specific moments. I'm seeing out here specific faces and specific backgrounds, specific talents and abilities that were given to you, but not to you, and you, but not to you. If you look at the text, if you look at the scripture, you see that same thing. The apostles, the 12 apostles, were called to preach and to teach for that specific moment. If you think about Jonah, the story of Jonah,
The word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amittai, not just once but twice, and said, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it. I don't think that's anyone's call here today. But it was for Jonah in that specific time. Abraham, the word of the Lord came to Abraham and said, Abraham, follow me. And Abraham left his land and followed Yahweh. That was a specific call for Abraham in that specific time.
Esther. Esther. It was called for a specific purpose, to protect and save the Jews in Media and Persia. That was a specific call for a specific time. So we have general and we have specific. Let's talk about this as it relates to our text. So verse 12, you can take that slide off. So verse 12, I'm sorry, the 12 said to the multitude in verse 3, here's the criteria of selection. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of three things.
One, good repute. Two, full of the Spirit. Three, and of wisdom, who we will appoint to this duty. Good repute, full of the Spirit, and wise. Does that sound like a general call or a specific call? Specific? I can say it could be specific. However, do you think that we are all to be a good repute? Are we to all be full of the Spirit? Are we to all grow in our wisdom? Not the wisdom from the world, but the wisdom from above?
I think this is a general call. And the criteria is not like you can see on a regular job description. This isn't the other duties as assigned, right? This isn't the, you must have excellent written and communication skills. Or you might not have, you know, works well in a fast-paced environment. You never see slow pace on a job description. So you see here, these seven men are called based on their general characteristics.
And this is a reminder to us, the general call is so important, we must encourage one another onwards. Yes, we're going to get to the specifics in a few moments because I think there is a key indicator here about their specific call. So generally speaking, good repute, full of the Holy Spirit, and wise, those are general. And we want to grow in that collective way together. It doesn't say, it just says those things.
And we will appoint them to this duty. What about specific, though? I think there's a unique specific moment in here as well. Because as these seven men were chosen, In verse 6, 5-6, they're all named. I mean, it doesn't take a lot of time, but in one section of seven verses, I mean, if you think about it, a huge portion of our passage is just a list of names. That list of names, guess what? They're essentially all Greek names.
They're all Greek names. Which got me thinking. Hmm. A complaint arose from the Hellenists, the Greeks, to the Hebrews. So the general call was, hey, be of good repute, full of the Holy Spirit, wise. But there's interesting specific qualities here too. These men were probably closer to the problem than hiring an outside firm. These men were probably closer to the problem than, oh, let's delegate to the Hebrews to help out.
They selected men, seemingly speaking, from whom they would maybe know these widows' names, who would know the problem, who would know the culture, who would know the background. There were some specific calling requirements, maybe not requirements, but there were some specific things happening here, and that we can pick up only from their names. Such a unique situation. So Stephen and Philip and Prochorus and Nicanor and Timon and Parmenas, and I'm forgetting one, but let's not forget that one.
You know, he's in scripture. But all those names, I wonder if they were specifically selected because of their proximity to the problem. So for us here, I want us to consider how do we, just for a few moments, how do we unpack our calling? How do we receive it? Not that we've not received it, but how do we figure out what it is? I read a lot of books on the subject. There's a lot of Venn diagrams that say, like, at the intersection of your passions and where you see it's broken in the world and what others affirm you, like, right there, that's your calling.
And I'm like, that's cool, but that's hard to digest right now. So I'm going to make it real simple. and real practical. This is how I've boiled it down and how we might be able to discern our calling. It's not in our passage. It doesn't tell you our calling. I'm trying to think of a scripture that would tell us how we would discern our calling other than the general. We know the general. It's clear to us.
But specifically for our own lives, how do we discern it? And I just got two words. Be attentive. Be attentive. Be attentive. And you can fact check this on me. You can wrestle with this with me. I would be curious. This is just a thought that I have. It's just be attentive. I'll list a few things that you can be attentive to. One, be attentive to your background. Where do you go to work? Be attentive to your skills, your talents, your ability.
Be attentive to your temperament. Are you hot? Are you cold? Are you an extrovert or are you an introvert? Be attentive to where you see the brokenness in the world around you. Be attentive to your reputation. Be attentive to your community. Be attentive to your environment. Be attentive to your life experiences. Be attentive to your traumas. Be attentive to the world around you, but most importantly,
Be attentive to the Lord Jesus Christ who gives gifts to his people and his church for the equipping of the saints, for building up the believers. Be attentive. That's all I have. Be attentive because as you're asking these questions, you'll begin to maybe see these threads of need, these threads that you can step into, these threads of you look back on your life and you're like, of course. I was thinking about Moses.
You guys know the story of Moses? Moses, in a real simple, high-level summary. Moses was a Hebrew. Moses was a Hebrew. He was never among God's people. You know what? There was a lot of things going on in Egypt where Moses was born. And Moses was basically put in a basket, sailed down, and he grew up. in Pharaoh's household. After some circumstances, you all can fill in the blanks and know the story.
You know what? He had to run away and he ran away. And he lived in the wilderness, I believe, for 40 years. Three things. Grew up in the Hebrew. Lived in Pharaoh's household, so knew Egyptian culture very well. And fled to the wilderness. So what was God's call? Go to free the Hebrews, God's people. Egypt, a place he knew very well, and we've been through the wilderness, a place that was his second home.
I'm sure that there's so many places in scripture where you look at the life of somebody and you go, oh, that totally tracks. That totally makes sense. That's a specific call for a specific purpose. I'm not called to lead the Hebrews out of Egypt. I don't think there is that need right now. But there certainly was when Moses was here. There's so many unique calls in this room. There is a general call.
We all want to grow in the image and likeness of Jesus Christ. However, at the same time, each and every one of you is unique. There is no small calling. There's only your calling and your calling and my calling and our calling. We're about to wrap this up here for a few moments. So what I want to walk away with is You need to know that every believer is a minister with a ministry. Every believer is called with a calling.
Every believer is a servant with a service. We're all called to do something. The apostles were preaching and teaching the word of God. The seven came in to serve a practical need, and I'm sure there were so many because of the result. And let's see what the result is. We're going to conclude here just for a few moments, just seeing the result of what was going on in the early church at that time. Acts 6, verse 7, just one verse.
And the word of God continued to what? Increase. So it was increasing in verse 1, and it continued to increase in verse 7. And the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem. And a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. You know, there was conflict in the early church. There was conflict with the early church and those who were outside the church. They tried to put them in jail.
Next week we're going to see a martyrdom. There was conflict outside of the church. However, there was conflict and complaints inside the church too. There was practical needs that were expanding and still needed to be met. And yet at that time, the church still began to grow. We see this being employed here, and as we kind of conclude, we see three results. One, the Word of God continued to increase.
That, the number began to grow still. That priests became obedient to the faith as well. And I love what one commentator says. I'll read it. It's not up on the screen. One commentator says, church growth continued. We give the word of God at a free course among the believers and outsiders who are being able to witness its practical effect, its practical effect in a loving, united community, as well as hears its challenge from the lips of the apostles.
It's a beautiful reminder that there is no small calling. There's your calling, and we need to live it out, because if we don't, There could be a piece that's missing, a piece of practical help or a piece of practical need. There could be a word or something said that isn't said. There could be a person helped that's not helped. We're all to be reminded that we are to pursue these things in a beautiful way.
You know what this reminds me of? Well, actually, I have a statement here. It'll be up on the screens, and it says this. I was thinking about this as I put this together. Our calling makes a contribution, but it's not comprehensive. Right? It makes a contribution, but what I do isn't all that there is. And what you do is a massive part of the whole. But we need each other. The church needs each other.
We need each other to step up and step in and to share our gifts. It reminds me of 1 Corinthians chapter 12. I got 14 and then 19 to 20 on the screen, but simplistically put, the body does not consist of one member, but what? Many. And then in verse 19, if all were a single member, that is, if we were all comprehensive, where would the body be? The body. And then verse 20, as it is, there are many parts, yet one body.
There's no small part. I need this pinky here. And I need this index finger. Rock on. You know, we need these things. We need the small parts. We need these moments, and we need to all come together so that we can serve the gospel of Jesus Christ, not just in a spiritual way, but in a practical, a deeply practical way. This is the message here, that we... There is no small calling. There's your calling, your calling, my calling, our calling as a church.
We need each other, and we need to continue to serve the Lord in spirit and in truth. So two things. One, the general call for all believers. Let us encourage one another to love and good deeds. The general call. Let us stir one another up to good works. Let us continue to pursue Jesus Christ. Generally speaking, because that is what God has called us to do. And yet, look out to your own lives and be attentive.
If you're retired or if you've never worked a job in your life or you're between jobs or you're in a steady job, you have a calling. Be attentive to what that is. It could come with a paycheck, but it might not. And so be thinking to yourself, hmm, how has God wired me? What is my background? What am I passionate about? Where do I see brokenness in the world around me? I mean, you know what? Talk to us.
Talk to me. Talk to your neighbors. Talk to your friends and family members. You start to think and you start to see, oh man, how can you make a mark? Let's just say, if we can all make a mark together, there'll be a massive mark on our community, the Conejo Valley, Ventura County, Southern California, and the world. The apostles, the 12 and the 7, They made a mark. The twelve were teaching and preaching and the word of God was increasing.
But there needed to be more. So there was a calling, an appointment, a picking out, a choosing of seven to making mark in their community as well. One couldn't function without the other. They needed each other and the church needed each other. For as there is one body, the many parts. Our mission at Living Oaks Church is to know Jesus and make him known. And the way we do that is generally speaking pursuing Christ, but also specifically speaking living out the way that God has designed and called you to be.
Amen?