The early church in Acts 6 faced complaints about neglected widows as it grew rapidly. The speaker uses "growing pains" to show how discomfort is inevitable when a community multiplies, and warns that discontent can blind you to the good already happening. He asks what one concrete action you can take to support the church's mission.
Blessings everyone and welcome to— guess what day it is? It's day 34. It's day 34 of our Lent devotional and I'm super excited to be here on day 34, especially after a great day of fellowship, fun, and just being able to celebrate God as we go. And we just left off of a, a, a great revival, so just still in the moment of worship and just glorifying God. But on today Day 34, we're going to be multiplying your growth, and the word is going to be coming from Acts 6:1, and this is going to be in the New King James Version. Now in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenists because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution. In this scripture, Luke is speaking to the disciples regarding a complaint lodged against them from a group of non-Jewish believers who felt their widows were slighted from daily provisions. It was not intentional, but because the disciples were focused on spreading the word, the gospel, there was not enough of them to accommodate the additional daily provision for everyone. Therefore, Luke commissioned disciples to select men who were full of faith and the Holy Spirit to perform this duty. Through the chosen men, the number of disciples increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith. Acts 6 records the ordination of the first 7 deacons. And the work of them. Growing pains is the term used to describe the deep cramping or aching pain children between the age of 3 to 12 feel in their legs, experience in their legs, and the result of bone growth. Growth can cause physical as well as emotional pain. We see this in growing families. Often a younger child experiences emotional distress or anxiety when their parents' attention is suddenly devoted to a new baby. They feel neglected or may even believe the new baby is favored over them. We also see this in our text. Why does Luke show us the early Christian church? Or even the early church's first growing pains of internal conflict and church hurt. We see one reason in Acts 6:2. He shows leaders how to manage growth. Luke's solution was to appoint deacons, aka ministry helpers, for the disciples. However, Luke's story also highlights our natural tendency to overlook all the good being done for us because of discontentment. What good in your life has discontent blinded you from seeing? What is one thing you would do today to support your church mission to multiplying, helping as many people as possible change their lives so that they can change the world? That's a great one. I'm Prayer. Thank you, Jesus. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for forgiving us and forgiving us and forgiving us— not forgiving, but for giving us the wisdom to manage success and growth. Help me to see opportunities to serve as a way of supporting your growing kingdom, and please help me to recognize the unique ways others are serving me. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. I thank everyone for their help, their support. And when it comes to the church mission to multiply, we are helping as many people as possible. And as I call myself a, a standing disciple, I stand on the word. And so it— we all have that natural tendency to overlook all the good being done for us. Be, you know, when you feeling that, that feeling of discontentment, just take it as a time to multiply in your growth. So these are growing pains. Understand, when we go through growing pains, it is for our good, um, so that God can multiply us and not necessarily just multiply others, but in our discipline. So we want to stay disciplined and Allow the Holy Spirit to just come in and have his way and let his will be done. So I thank you guys for joining me on this day 34 Multiply devotional, and go out and multiply in your growth.
