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If you have your Bibles, we're going to be in Acts chapter seven today. Acts chapter seven, we'll be starting in verse one. In just a moment. We've come to the part in Acts as we've been going verse by verse all throughout this series where we encounter the longest recorded sermon or the longest recorded speech given throughout the entire book. And so I hope that you brought a sack lunch today, because it may take us through lunchtime to get all the way through it. I mean, there are 60 verses here, and it's hard to break them up because it's one consistent message. And so we need to jump into all of them today. And so that's why we're we're going to just kind of jump right in in just a a moment, but before we do so, we've got to understand the context, because what we learned in chapter six really leads us into what's happening here in chapter seven. And if you were here, you may remember that we were introduced to a man named Stephen. He wasn't an apostle. He was just a regular guy in the church. He had put his faith and trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of his sins. The Holy Spirit had come to dwell in him, and he was being carried along by the power of the Spirit, so much so that you may remember Luke describes him as being full of the Spirit, carried along by the Spirit full of grace, Full of Wisdom, full of power and full of faith as he began to follow and live life in the Spirit, telling other people about Jesus, he encountered some opposition, so much so that it was from these powerful religious leaders of the day who had accused him of some pretty serious things. And just to kind of sum up from the last section, what he was accused of was blasphemy against God Himself, blasphemy against Moses, blasphemy against the temple and blasphemy against the law. So they accused these things. They even rounded up false witnesses to kind of spur this testimony on of things that he had said or taken out of context, and just to try to prove that he was wrong, to try to shut him up, like they were doing with the majority of the apostles. So they seized Stephen and they put him on trial before the Sanhedrin, which is kind of like the Jewish Supreme Court, if you will. These are religious powerful leaders, and he's now standing before them, and so when we see in verse one, they ask him a question. Then the high priest asked, Stephen, are these charges true? People have accused you of the charges of blasphemy against God Moses, the temple and the law. Is it true? Because if it's true, they're punishable by death. Now as we get ready to see his reply, which starts in verse two, it's helpful for us to go ahead and know up front what it is that Stephen is doing. He's basically going to recount a long history of Israel to a bunch of people who already know everything that he's going to say. He's not going to say anything new to this group. They understand their history, and they understand it very well. But what Stephen is trying to do here is trying to use that history, first and foremost, to kind of prove that he wasn't blaspheming God and Moses and the law in the temple. But then also he kind of, rather than staying on the defense, he goes on the attack. He he becomes kind of like the prosecutor, if you will, he puts them on trial. And you'll, you'll see that as we go through it. And the main way that he does that, what he's really trying to get across are these two things throughout all of what we're going to read. Keep this in mind number one, God's presence and His blessings are not limited to the land of Israel and the temple area. The religious leaders had made it way more than that was intended to be. They put all the focus on the land of Israel and the temple this over emphasis. And Stephen, of course, knew that God was up to something so much bigger than the temple, so much bigger than the land of Israel. He knew that Jesus had come to replace the temple, to make the ultimate sacrifice for the sins of the people, so that people everywhere could be in a relationship with God. They taught that you had to go to the temple to be in a relationship with God. And Stephen is saying people everywhere can be in a relationship with God through the power of the Holy Spirit, because we even become the temple of God. We're told when the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us. And so it's it's not the land of Israel. It's not the temple area where God's presence is located. It's not where all of his blessings are bestowed. And Stephen is going to show how that was true, even before Jesus ever showed up on the scene, that that was true even of the history that they dwell a. Upon so much and the blasphemy that they were charging him with. But secondly, Stephen knows that Israel, the people of Israel, have a history of rejecting God's plan over and over and over again, the things that he was doing throughout their history, they have a history of rejecting his representatives, the people that God had sent to tell them about the plan and make them aware of the things that he was doing. And so all throughout this, he's going to show them how in the past, people in Israel have a history of rejecting what God's been up to. And could it be that you guys, the Sanhedrin, are also missing what God is doing right now through his representative, Jesus, and through the plan, the sovereign plan of God that he's had all along. And so keep in mind, as we go through this, and we read all of it and we make some short comments about it, that these are the things he's trying to highlight and get across and kind of prove to them, to prove Christianity is true, that this is the activity of God, what he was up to as part of his plan. So are these charges true? Verse two to this, he replied, brothers and fathers, listen to me, the God of glory appeared to our father, Abraham, while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran. Now, where did God appear to Abraham? Mesopotamia.That's what it says, right here, right? Is this the promised land? No, is this? Is the temple even been built yet? No. But where was God? He was there. So right off the bat, we're seeing one of the two things that we said he was going to do all throughout this message, trying to remind them or renew their mind, or show them, if they haven't seen it for the first time, that God was at work outside of the temple. Religious leaders were all about making it about that and about the law. He goes on in verses three and four and says, leave your country and your people. God said, and go to the land. I will show you. So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. Now, where is God heron? He's with Abraham in Haran after the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now living. The other thing to kind of take notice of, even just right off the bat, is this reminder of, gosh, the trust that Abraham showed, hey, go to this land far away from you, where you are and just just trust me that everything's going to be okay, and this is what it is that I'm up to. And so listen, the religious leaders had charged him with blasphemy against Moses and the law that God gave to Moses and through Moses. But where does Where does Stephen start Abraham. He takes them further back to Abraham, and we see why. As he continues verse five, he gave him no inheritance there, here, not even enough ground to set his foot on, but God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land, even though, at that time, Abraham had no child. God spoke to him in this way for 400 years, your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated, but I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, God said, and afterward, they will come out of that country and worship me in this place. Then he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision, and Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him eight days after his birth. Later, Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the 12 patriarchs. So he brings up this covenant, this covenant, he calls it the covenant of circumcision, but really the circumcision was a symbol of the Covenant, a promise that God had made to Abraham to do what to bless all nations through him. That through this nation that he was going to build, and all these people that would would come, he's going to build a great nation and bless all nations through them. And so he takes them to the Abrahamic covenant, even though he's been in charge to blasphemy, to the what Mosaic Covenant to show there was a covenant even before the one that you guys are accusing me of, with Moses and the law. And put so much emphasis on that that you neglect because this covenant supersedes that covenant. The law wasn't even given at the time that he said he was going to just do these things. And so this is what he's kind of highlighting and pointing them the the law was given to reveal our sin, to to reveal that we needed a Savior. We couldn't follow the law. We couldn't save i. Ourselves through being good enough to ever be in God's presence. And we're rescued by our Savior, Jesus Christ, who has sent into this world to die for our sins through his work. And we put our faith in his work, not on our own, not through the law. So Stephen brings us up, takes them back to the Abrahamic covenant. But now that he's brought up Isaac and his son, Jacob and and the father of the 12 patriarchs, then now he begins to move on from Abraham, Abraham, and continue the history here, verse nine. Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt, but God was with him, where in Egypt, still not in the Promised Land, but yet God was there providing blessings. How? Because he rescued him from all of his troubles, he gave Joseph wisdom and enabled him to gain the goodwill of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. So Pharaoh made him ruler over Egypt and all of his palace so so God was with Joseph in Egypt. He provided blessings for him outside of the Promised Land, outside of the temple. God is at work, and his presence is far beyond just the promised land and the temple, and he is aboutthat as well. Notice that it says the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph,this group, that he was standing in front of the Sanhedrin the patriarchs were, were their esteemed leaders, forefathers, ones that they highlighted above so many other people, and he highlights, again, right off the bat, that those patriarchs that you love so much. Guess what? They rejected Joseph, God's chosen representative to be at work through his sovereign plan to rescue and redeem and do all things. And those guys, they rejected him. Remember, that's the other thing that we said he was going to be up to. He's going to show them that Israel has a history of rejecting what God was up to, and the people that he sent and the ones that they loved so much. Oh yeah, even they were at work. So could you be missing it today? This is what he's again, kind of, kind of getting at verse 11. Then a famine, after Joseph highlighted he rescued him, all of those things. Then a famine struck all of Egypt and Canaan, bringing great suffering, and our ancestors could not find food. When Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our forefathers on their first visit. On their second visit, Joseph told his brothers who he was and Pharaoh learned about Joseph's family. After this, Joseph sent for his father, Jacob and his whole family, 75 in all. Then Jacob went down to Egypt, where he and our ancestors died. Their bodies were brought back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor at Shechem for a certain sum of money. Now, throughout all of this, again, where was God at work Egypt? He was doing all of this through Egypt. Again, we're not seeing it in Israel the temple, but in Egypt, and Stephen is showing them again that God's plan is to be at work wherever he is, wherever he wants to be at work in moving things along, doing things in unexpected ways. His ways are not our ways. He doesn't just focus on one isolated area here, Stephen goes on. As the time drew near for God to fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of people in Egypt had greatly increased. Then a new king, whom Joseph meant nothing, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt, he dealt treacherously with our people. Notice he keeps saying our he puts himself in with them and oppressed our ancestors by forcing them to throw out their newborn babies so that they would die. Now we get to Moses. He transitions into Moses at at that time, Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child. For three months, he was cared for by his family when he was placed outside, Pharaoh's daughter took him and brought him up as their own son. Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action. Again, God is at work in Egypt. He was even using who the Egyptians, not the Israelites. He was using the Egyptians to be a part of his work to rescue and to raise up Moses, who would be a huge part of his work to rescue and deliver his. People the Sanhedrin had brought up Moses. They said Stephen was blaspheming against him, andMoses was their hero.But watch how Israel responds to Moses at first verse 23 when Moses was 40 years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites. He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian verse 25 Moses thought his that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not the next day, Moses came upon two Israelites who were fighting. He tried to reconcile them by saying, men, you're brothers. Why do you want to hurt each other? But the man who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said, Who made you ruler and judge over us? They rejected him. Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday? When Moses heard this, he fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and had two sons. So you see the rejection. You see the rejection of Moses by the Israelite people who made you Moses ruler andjudge over us?Guess what? The Sanhedrin, the religious leaders standing before Stephen, were doing the exact same thing with Jesus, who who made you ruler and judge over us. He's pointing them to the rejection of their leaders, their esteemed leaders, this Moses that he was being accused of, of blaspheming, right? And he's revealing and reminding and showing them that even Moses was rejected, same way you guys are rejecting what God is up to and once again, to continue what it is that we've been saying all along.Now, where is God at work? AtMidian, all these places the hour outside of the promised land. Now he's with Moses, and he's in Midian, working there as well. Verse 30, after 40 years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai. When he saw this, he was amazed at the sight. As he went over to get a closer look, he heard the Lord say, I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Moses trembled with fear and did not dare look. Then the Lord said to him, take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. I have indeed seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. Now come I will send you back to Egypt. Now, where's Moses now, not in Midian anymore. He's out in the middle of the desert near Mount Sinai. And guess who was there? Too. God's even there in the middle of nowhere. God was found so much so that he was in appearing in this this burning bush. And where it gets really interesting is that Moses, or God, tells Moses to take off his sandals because he was standing on what holy ground? Where is this holy ground in the desert, in Mount Sinai, near Mount Sinai. Now, their focus was on the land of Israel. Their focus was on the temple, what is also that referred to asthe holy land.This area, the land of Israel, is referred to as the Holy Land. Is he in the Holy Land right now? According to that no, but he's standing on holy ground, on Holy Land. Why? Because God's presence was there. Apparently, wherever God is is where people are standing in holiness, not in a certain geographical area that is made holy. Things are made holy because God is present there. He's prosecuting them. He's putting them on trial, even though he's the one on trial. You guys are putting too much emphasis on the land of Israel and the temple as the Holy Land. Remember, Moses was standing on holy ground outside of Israel before the temple was ever built. And now, as he continues, he brings up the rejection again, just hammering them. How many times the people rejected what God was up to. This is the same Moses they had rejected with the words who made you ruler and judge he was. Sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God Himself, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush, he led them out of Egypt and performed wonders and signs in Egypt at the Red Sea and 40 for 40 years in the wilderness, same Moses that encountered God in a burning bush that had shown up to deliver the people that was rejected by the very people that he had shown upto rescue to deliver,same way that God had sent Jesus to deliver and rescue, and they were rejecting and missing him there and now he reminds them that they even did this, that these ancestors, the people that they loved in the past, this law that they said he people even rejected Moses after they received their beloved law that was given at that time before he says that, though He says this is the Moses who told the Israelites, God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your own people, reminds them that one day, God's going to send another one who's like me, another rescuer, another deliverer. One day, and again, they were missing it He sent Jesus the same way that he sent Moses to be a rescuer, a deliverer. Now it didn't fit their mold, their description of what they thought he was going to rescue them from, and so that's why they were rejecting him. It was going to rescue them from their slavery to sin and to death that he was there to set them free. And rejecting God's activity the same way they had done in the past. Now we talk about him giving the law here and the rejection even there. Verse 38 he was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel. This is Moses who spoke to him on Mount Sinai and with our ancestors and received living words the law that was given, the 10 Commandments to pass on to us. But our ancestors refused to obey Him. Instead, they rejected him. There it is again, and in their hearts turned back to Egypt. You remember all the grumbling, all the complaining? Let's just go back to Egypt. It was better for us over there, when we were slaves, right? They were rejecting God's work in their lives, verse 40, they told Aaron, and then moved on and did this. I mean, make us Gods who will go before us, as for this fellow, Moses who led us out of Egypt, we don't even know what's happened to him, that was when he was up on the mountain receiving they became impatient. That was the time they made an idol in the form of a calf. They brought sacrifices to it and reveled in what their own hands had made, once again, their beloved hero of the law was rejected by the Israelites, who told them they wanted to go back to Egypt. They didn't want to be a part of what it is they were doing. These are the same ones. They accuse Stephen of blaspheming God. Points them back to the Israelites. You talk about blaspheming God, let's make idols. Let's make these so called other gods and reject the God who just delivered us through Moses out of slavery. Right here. You have a history of doing this. Could it be that this is what you're doing right now, trying to get their attention through all the things that have happened at that point in time, and now the Sanhedrin is rejecting what God is up to and what he's up to through Jesus. But God turned away from them. After this, he turned his back on them and gave them over to the worship of the sun. They blasphemed God. So give them over to the worship of the sun, the moon and the stars. This agrees with what is written in the book of the prophets. Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings 40 years in the wilderness, people of Israel, you have taken up the tabernacle of Molech and the star of your God, raphan and the idols you made to worship. Therefore, I will send you into exile beyond Babylon. They had rejected God and blasphemed him so much that he had to send them away from the very land that he was taking them to and exile them to Babylon. This is how bad things had gotten at that particular time, rejection over and over. So now that he's pointed out all of these places that God had been with his people, I mean, how many have we seen so far, the desert Mount Sinai and all throughout the Midian and these other places that Moses and Abraham and all the activity and the activity of God outside of the temple in the land of Israel? But again, they had accused him of. Blasphemy of the temple, and so now he finally transitions into even that part of their history. Our ancestors had the tabernacle of the Covenant law with them in the wilderness. It had been made as God directed Moses according to the pattern he had seen. And after receiving the tabernacle, our ancestor, under Joshua, brought it with them. When they took the land from the nations, God drove out before them. So the tabernacle was was given to be the dwelling place of God, as he would go with them throughout the desert. Once again, God was with them, met with them, met with Moses in the tabernacle outside of the land, and they even took it into the land. It remained in the land until the time of David, who enjoyed God's favor and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. But it was Solomon who built a house for him. You know, David had been blessed and and was a man after his own heart. And all of this victory and man, God, you've given me all these blessings, and I'm this great place, and you have a tabernacle, a little tent, let me build you a great place and a temple and and, okay, well, you're not the one that's going to build it. Your son's going to do it, and he allowed them to build it. God had purpose in that. But again, the Israelites and the Sanhedrin had carried that way too far. This is the dwelling place of God. This is where you got to go. This is where you got to be if you're going to be in relationship with God. And that's why Stephen says what he does next. However, the Most High does not live in houses made by human hands, as the Prophet says, Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me? Says the LORD? Or where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all these things? God is omnipresent. He's present every where you can't confine him to a temple, to houses made by men. You can't confine him to the land of Israel. He had purpose in it. There was activity that God was up to in it, but it was way beyond that, and they missed that. It was going to go further and beyond, and a part of what he was doing has even bigger plans than that. And so again, these religious leaders had missed it. They've got this history of rejecting God's representatives. They've got this history of rejecting his plans and his activity in all of these places, and they are doing it again right now, the time of Jesus, and what God was up to in and through him, in the sending of the Spirit. And so since he's made them aware of all this history, maybe there's some mumbling and murmuring. We don't really know, but all of a sudden, everything just begins to shift. He's highlighted it all and brought it all up, so now he just calls them out and declares the truth about what they're doing. Verse 51 you stiff necked people. Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like who your ancestors, all these things that I just pointed out, you're like them, always resisting the Holy Spirit God and his activity and work in the world. Was there ever a prophet? Your ancestors did not persecute they even killed the ones who predicted the coming of the Righteous One, a reference to Jesus, and now you've betrayed and murdered him. You who have received the law that was given through angels, but have not obeyed it. You accuse me of blasphemy, of the law. Stephen says, how about you guys? You don't even obey the very law that you so highly esteem. In this way, you're rejecting the one that your God has sent to deliver you. Trying to get their attention again, you need to see the truth. The apostles, in any of their sermons and speeches that they've given have declared the truth. They've told the truth. They've spoken the truth in love to help their people see the need to repent, the need to change their mind, the need to recognize they've missed the truth, and now turn to the one that came to rescue them. Turn to the one that came to deliver them, that saved them. He's here, be rescued, be delivered and saved. But rather than doing that, they remain closed off to the truth, and they react violently beyond violent. When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious. They gnashed their teeth at him, but Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Why was Jesus standing? A lot of times we hear about Jesus sitting, you know, and he's sitting at the right hand of God in a place of his works finished right. He's sitting in a place of authority. Well, a lot of commentators can't prove this or say it, but Jesus is standing to receive Stephen.He knows he's about to be killed. He knows he's about to be martyred for standing up and speaking the truth in this way. And so he is giving him this vision to be able to see that he's standing up about to welcome His beloved Son into His presence, who's about to go through so much suffering, an incredible grace to give him that vision of being able to see that even through what was about to happen to him, I've got you. I'm about to welcome you home. You don't have to suffer anymore through those things. Look, he said, I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. Well, at this, they covered their ears and yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul, who will learn all about when we pick this back up at the after the new year, while they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Then he fell on his knees and cried out, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. He diedwhen Jesuswas hanging on the cross and suffering incredible amount of pain.They were torturing him. They were killing him.We hear Jesus say the exact same things, so we shouldn't really be surprised when Stephen utters the exact same words while he's going through almost the very same thing.Why? Because Stephen was full of the Spirit,the same spirit that dwelt in Jesus, union with the Father and the Holy Spirit, the Trinity, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. That same spirit is now at work in Stephen, who led Jesus to say, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they do. And so in the same way, the Spirit leads Stephen to say the same things, because that's part of who Jesus is. He empowered Stephen to live the same way Jesus lived. Stephen is not the hero here, the Holy Spirit God is the hero. He's the one who gets the glory. He is the one who empowered Stephen to have the grace to go through what he went through, and then to utter even these very words before those who were treating him in this way, and that same Holy Spirit that was in him lives in you. You. So as we see the Holy Spirit, life in the Spirit for Stephen leading him to to forgive those who were persecuting him. When we talk about the application for us today, if the same Spirit lives in us, and that's what this holy, this, this whole series is about, what is life in the Spirit look like in the early church. Therefore, what does life in the Spirit look like us for today? Well, if the Holy Spirit led Stephen to forgive those who were persecuting him, then life in the Spirit today means that he will lead us to forgive those who persecute us.It's not easy to do whenwe're walking in our flesh, we won't act this way. But if we're trusting in the Holy Spirit, living in us, and walking in his guidance and his power, in his strength, he will act in this way. Lead us to act, empower us to act in this way. Now this will happen even just in general. I mean, this is what the Spirit does, is he leads us to forgive in even much smaller cases. It's just all the time, and so we always look for him to lead us to forgive other people when we've been wronged in small ways and in big ways. What we see is that he will even lead us to forgive in almost the mostimpossible of situations.Some of you have been faced with some of those, maybe not in the same way that Stephen was. Maybe, I don't know, maybe you've been rejected for your faith in front of others in similar ways and were really persecuted. But maybe. See in a similar way, you've just suffered some really difficultsituations, circumstances,some kind of abuse from someone, maybe even in your own family.Whatever it is, it's almost one of those the most impossible situations to forgive someone who did that to you. But if the Holy Spirit led and empowered Stephen to forgive in the most impossible of situations he can and he will lead you to do the exact same thing in similar situations today. And so if there's someone that he's leading you to forgive, trust him with that and allow him to do that in and through you today. Quickly. The next two things that we see is that life in the Spirit means that he will empower us to share the gospel and stand up to opposition, even in the face of death. This is what he did in Stephen's life. He could have ducked and ran, but But the God give him the grace the Holy Spirit gave him what it is that he to stand up in the face of persecution. And I know we don't really always face that same kind of persecution as other parts of the world, but there have been people throughout history who have, even in our area, been gunmen, who have entered some of our schools and our teenagers, and they've, empowered by the Holy Spirit, stood up to that opposition. Said, no, no, no, I am a Christian, and I believe in Jesus, so do whatever you want to do to me, but I will not deny him before you. It's just what the Holy Spirit does in the most impossible of situations, even when we are persecuted to that degree, he will lead us to share the gospel and stand up for that truth, and he may be at work in that to do something in and around the lives of people there, but it may be something to go way beyond whatever it is that happens in that moment today. We're still talking about it. We're still impacted by what the Spirit did in and through Stephen. It grows our faith sometimes when we have doubts about if this thing's even real or not, and is all this kind of well, Is he really going to stand up in the face of opposition? If this was all just some lie, it was all just some lie that people made up, and we're just trying to, you know, make people believe that Jesus really did raise from the dead at that point, then people don't die for that kind of thing. So he's at work in a number of ways, in and through these to encourage us in that situation and other people, but even go far beyond and sometimes he may be at work in and through us. And then the final thing, as we get ready to close is for applications. Just don't reject life in the Spirit the way that the religious leaders did, if we're going to really see what was going on in this passage, that is what was highlighted over and over and over again, the rejection of what God was up to. And so for some of us, that can be true of us, even as believers, we're in dwelt with the Holy Spirit, we have him to be our guide and to highlight and illuminate the truth of what it is that he's up to and empower us to carry those out. But sometimes we walk in our flesh and we just choose to ignore what it is that he's doing and showing and we reject what the Spirit is doing in our lives. The same way that the religious leaders just rejected over and over was right in front of their faces. Don't miss out and reject the Holy Spirit if he's leading you into certain things and you have him dwelling in you, then for those of you who maybe haven't put your faith and trust in Jesus yet, hopefully this is one of those things where you go, oh, there were so many people that had that right in front of their face, and they were still so opposed to what it is that he was doing. And maybe the Holy Spirit has been at work in your life to reveal himself and who Jesus is and what he really did for you, and you've just pushed him to the side and rejected him over and over and over again, and today, he's leading you to see the truth who Jesus really is, what it is that he came to do, and how you can receive His forgiveness and eternal Life and be a part of what he is doing in this world. And so if that's you, don't reject him any longer. Receive His love, receive His grace, receive His forgiveness and eternal life today.

Acts 7:1-60 (Week 13 – Life in the Spirit)