Acts Chapter 6<\/p>\n
This chapter gives us the selection of the first deacons.\u00a0 The apostles did not want to leave the Word of God for serving tables.\u00a0 Most pastors would be fired today for this response.\u00a0 The people where okay with this because now their physical needs and spiritual needs where being met.\u00a0 We must understand that the church should be helping people grow both physically and spiritually.\u00a0 My job as pastor is to have been with God enough that I can speak God into your life.\u00a0 When I spend too much time doing the physical work the church will suffer spiritually.\u00a0 I need to spend as much time as possible with God so that when I speak His Word\u00a0on Sunday\u00a0it is the Spirit that has worked in my mind and heart so your heart and mind can receive it as truth.\u00a0 What I do is significantly important for your walk with the Lord.\u00a0 I say that to remind me and you.\u00a0 Can I caution you church?\u00a0 I know I am \u201cJoe\u201d and humanly I am just as you are.\u00a0 But I have been placed by God with the task and authority to be the Pastor, who is the shepherd of the church.\u00a0 I do not take this responsibility lightly and neither should you.\u00a0 I have been a pastor for nearly 20 years and I have a hard time remembering I have a divine position appointed by God.\u00a0 Because I know I am Joe.\u00a0 This is why I spend time praying for God to work and move in me so that I can be the pastor he called me to be.\u00a0 When I am doing spiritually what I should, the church as a whole benefits from that.<\/p>\n
In verse 5 deacons had to have a good reputation, be full of the Holy Ghost, (the sign of the Holy Ghost so far has been boldness to share Christ) and a person of wisdom.\u00a0 They chose seven, and churches choose the number of deacons based on the needs that must be met.<\/p>\n
Verse 7, the Word of God spread, the disciples multiplied, and the priest came to Christ.\u00a0 The keepers of the Old Testament started to see Christ throughout the Bible and followed.<\/p>\n
When we do church right it will grow as a work of God.\u00a0 When we use \u201cmethods\u201d we will always have to adjust.\u00a0 When the church is spiritually minded (spending time in God\u2019s Word), and physically minded (helping those in need), people will come to Christ.\u00a0 When we become about anything other than sharing and living out the gospel we are weakened.\u00a0 The Holy Spirit\u2019s power will rest on a church that does these two simple tasks.\u00a0 It also takes the Holy Spirits power to stay focused on these two tasks.<\/p>\n
I love being your pastor and I am thankful for our body of Godly deacons.\u00a0 May God, though His Spirit make us focused on these two tasks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"excerpt","protected":false},"author":1167,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","filesize_raw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-reading"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1167"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1158"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1159,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1158\/revisions\/1159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbcnewhaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}