Wallula Christian Church Lance Coffman

Do you love the amusement park? What is your favorite ride? Are you all about the roller coaster or the carousel? No matter your excitement level limit, you can’t have an adventure if you don’t get on the ride. Following Jesus can be a wild ride.

In some ways, the Book of Acts is a collection of sermons. At least 18 different sermons by several different preachers are recorded for us in Acts. Stephen’s message is twice as long as the next longest sermon. With so much attention paid to this message, we should probably try to learn what we can from this suffering preacher.

The story at the beginning of Acts 6 gives us three lessons to learn when it comes to serving in the church.

Life is full of challenges. In athletics coaches will often talk about the need for a team or competitor to overcome adversity. In order to encourage this trait, coaches will talk to athletes about “controlling the controlables.” The idea is to control your response to challenges. Even followers of Jesus will face adversity. How will you respond?

Have you ever ignored a warning? Have you ever had a “check engine” light on in your car and you thought, “I checked, and it's still there!", so you just kept going! There are some things in life with consequences that we should take more seriously than we do.

Fueled by the work of the Holy Spirit, the believers in Acts are empowered to continue preaching the good news of Jesus. They also demonstrate a couple disciplines we can practice in our lives.