string(7) "m-66998" Burnt Hickory Baptist Church

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Oct 05, 2025

The Secret to a Healthy, Growing Church | His Word, His Plan, His People

The Secret to a Healthy, Growing Church | His Word, His Plan, His People

Speaker: Marty Godfrey

Series: His Word, His Plan, His People

Category: Sunday Sermons

Keywords: marty godfrey, how to grow a healthy church according to acts 6, biblical principles for church growth, dealing with distractions in church leadership, church roles and responsibilities in ministry, how prayer and the word shape a growing church, getting involved in church ministry, creating unity in a large church, marty godfrey sermon

In this week’s message, we dive into Acts 6 and discover what it means to be a healthy, growing church. The early church faced significant challenges, including cultural tensions, unmet needs, and rapid growth. But instead of falling apart, they leaned into prayer, the Word, and shared responsibility. You’ll learn how the same principles apply today, and how God uses everyday people to build a thriving, unified faith family. Whether you're new or you've been attending for years, this is a message that calls each of us to step forward and be part of something eternal.

Well, good morning, Burnt Hickory. Hey, hey.

We were studying the book of Acts, which I just love. It goes with the beginning of the church, and just watch as it grow, watch as what they deal with. And so I just got to thinking about Burnt Hickory. And 52 years ago there were seven people who gathered together in the old Dew West Hardware store. Now, you may know that as the Brass Monkey, which is no longer there either. But Minute Savor is, and I'd recommend their gravy biscuits there if you haven't had them.

Anyway. Seven people just came together. They had a burden for the community, and they began to pray. They began to pray for this community. And those seven people started a church. Buddy Crowder was the pastor that started that little group, and we actually have a recording of him, it's so cool, saying that, "This church is going to be founded on the word of God, the inerrant, infallible word of God." And those folks started praying. And within 20 years, we had not only built the campus, which is back in the hole behind Dew West Methodist Church, but after 20 years of God working, they, we, I guess, opened up an 800 seat sanctuary. And that was big time.

And it was like, "Yes, God has been so faithful." Then within 10 years, we moved in to this campus, and we opened this 1200-seat worship center gymnasium, if you would, and we went from one service to two services. And then there was the day that I got to go visit the young pastor Matt, who was our student pastor at that time. And I had to have go chat with him to tell him that I was commandeering his Radiate Auditorium, the much beloved Radiate Auditorium. And Matt took it like a man like he always does. And so he's always been a team player.

And so that's why today I answer to him and say, "Yes, Mr. Petty." Because that day I took over his Radiate Auditorium and we started the third service, and then the fourth service. And then we added the fifth service. And then you've got, like last Sunday, we had 600 more worshiping than we did just a year ago. It's incredible growth that we've never seen. Amazing. And then so after moving here, then you fast-forward almost 10 years, and we open up because of God's blessings this massive children's building that we thought we would never fill, but we did decide we were going to put a playground on there that would beat out the local Chick-fil-A. And we did it. We did it. To show that kids were important to us. And lo and behold, if you go over there this morning, which many of you may have been in there already, you'll see every room used. It's absolutely amazing the number of young families that we are reaching. It's the number one group that we're reaching right now.

And the soothsayers of our time that said, "Oh, this younger generation of adults, I think we may be losing them." And we have found studies, have come out now and they say that they are more faithful attending church than the older generations are. And they don't want to just come to church to come to church and check a box, they want to know what the truth of God's word is, that they can put in their lives, and that they can pass on to their kids. Because the culture has changed, and they have a realization that the word of God doesn't change. And so here we are within 10 years of that. And then last week we overwhelmingly decided to move forward with another move that would make room for more people at our campus. And beyond. And beyond.

And we said that the first million of that would go toward an internship residency program that would train young pastors, that we could begin a church planning strategy and a church revitalization strategy. And so I'm pleased to announce that we have three young men who are called to ministry, who are starting our residency program this week. And so amen. So God is up to. And then not to mention starting ministry centers at our mission partners internationally. Now, let me tell you, God is on the move at Burnt Hickory. Let's give him a hand. Let's do it.

We see the prayers and the foundation that those seven people started because of the desire to please God. And so what's so cool is that, as Matt has been preaching on the book of Acts, and we see the birth of the New Testament church, and we're going to catch up with them today. You can go on to Acts chapter six, if you would look there in your scriptures. We want to catch up with what's going on with them, because it's been months since Pentecost. So, that's when the church started, and we have seen tremendous growth. We've seen diversity increase. What happened was there were a lot of Jews scattered throughout the Roman Empire. And so they spoke Greek, they embraced the culture, and so they came into Pentecost for the festival. They were there when the Holy Spirit was poured out, when the church began, and they were so blown away by what God was doing among these people that they stayed there in Jerusalem and became part of that church.

So, here you are, and the 12 Apostles are preaching every day God's word to these people. And now what happens though, and this is where we can learn, God is so good in giving us these passages because we can see the opportunities, the challenges that took place, how they responded to those. And so as a result, we see, and we want to ask the question this morning, how do we stay healthy as a church? How do we make sure that we don't lose sight of what matters the most? Which can happen in a growth situation.

So when we look at Acts chapter six, we're going to look at the secret to a healthy growing church. Okay? So let's just take a look. Simple principles, but profound. Beginning in verse one. "In those days, the number of disciples were increasing, the Hellenistic Jews..." Those that were Greek speaking, Greek culture who had come into Jerusalem. Well, they complained. It is a church, right? Change is happening, growth is happening. That tells you there can be a propensity toward that. Our church has been incredible, though. They complained against the Hebraic Jews, the home folks there, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food, which was a big deal.

So, "The Twelve," referring to the Apostles, "... gathered all the disciples together and they said, 'Hey, it would not be right for us to neglect what the ministry of the word of God...'" Can't neglect that, "'... in order to wait on tables. Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the spirit and wisdom, and we will turn this responsibility over to them, and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.'" Well, verse five, "This proposal please, that whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas..." I'm not Greek, so hang with me. "... Parmenas, and Nicholas," they emphasize different parts of the word, "... Nicholas from Antioch..." Who was a convert to Judaism, and, "They presented these men to the Apostles who prayed and laid hands on them for that ministry. So the word of God spread."

And, "The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased..." Not just increased, but, "... increased rapidly, and a large number of priests..." Who are those? Those are the Jewish priests who had been focusing in on the Old Testament. A number of them became obedient to the faith and the understanding that Jesus was indeed the Messiah. It became real to them.

All right. Well, here, let's go to the Lord in prayer, and let's jump in and look at some things. Father God, we come to you. Thank you for the word of God that is so reliable. And here we are 2000 years after you began the church, and we can read about exactly what was going on in it. And we can learn, we can see, and we can examine ourselves. And we have application because your word is living and active, still today. And we are so grateful for it. Speak through me the words you want me to say, as we focus in on what this means for Burnt Hickory this morning. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Well, hey, one of the reasons I believe that God put this in his word is because anytime there's a healthy growing church, well, you give God absolute credit and you rejoice, because 90% of the churches in America are not healthy growing churches, unfortunately. Either they have succumbed to the culture, they have been wayward in the faith, they've not kept the main thing the main thing, whatever the reason is. So, because of those churches who are kingdom focused and are reaching people for Christ, they tend to get the attention of Satan more than the dead churches. The dead churches actually help him out tremendously. They make Christianity look like it's dead and there's nothing to follow in Jesus.

However, those who are reaching people will get Satan's attention, which means church that we need to have our guards up. Means that we need to have our guards up. So we see here, and we're going to look at just three practices that the church at Jerusalem did that we need to learn from and make sure that Burnt Hickory learns from that and that we put those in place if we don't already. Okay?

So, the first practice was they had to guard against distractions. One of the things Satan had rather bring distractions and disunity from within rather than persecution from without. Although he does both, persecution oftentimes results in the church being stronger and moving faster within is more destructive. So church, what we are called to do, and this is a good time to preach this message, that's what I love about preaching through scriptures, you don't have to just pick a section for something going on today. So it is good that we are able to do this preventatively rather in the middle of some type of thing happening.

I've been here 21 years as your executive pastor, and in those 21 years I have never seen a church like Burnt Hickory. Never. Now, I've got to give a lot of credit to our beloved Pastor Mike, if you were here for him, because he didn't put up with a lot. In fact, my fear was doing discover Burnt Hickory and saying, "Pastor Mike is going to say something and just remember his blood sugar has dropped low. And he doesn't have much of a filter on his mouth anyway, so be careful." All right, Mike, you're ready. I love him. I still miss him greatly.

So, he would tell him, he said, "Listen, if you're coming here and you're bringing an agenda with you, we don't want it. You can either leave it at the door or go somewhere else." I mean, we got enough going on here. Unless your name is written in the book, which it's not, we don't want to hear from you, in telling us and complaining and what's right, wrong, and how you want things run. Well, I mean, I may not put it that way when I talk to people. I was always the softer side of Mike Stevens. Betty perhaps too, I don't know.

But anyway. In fact, he ascribed to the theology of Barney Fife, the great theologian. Barney Fife, if you've ever seen the earlier ones, guys, I don't know students if your parents have entrusted those to you or not, but Barney's theological perspective was, "Nip it." "Nip it in the bud." And that was Pastor Mike. And really that's biblical. So what happens is we are ministers of reconciliation. You are to have your spiritual antennas up when you are not well in life in general. But if you see anything within the life of our church that is distracting, that is not unifying the body, unifying the body, Jesus, in John chapter 17, the high priestly prayer, he prayed for the disciples, but he also prayed for us, those who were yet to come.

Our prayers are timeless, okay? There's no expiration date on them. We are still benefiting from Jesus's prayers then and on our behalf today, obviously. But the unity of the church was major to Jesus. If it's major to Jesus, it is major to us. So, anyone who brings distraction or disunity, we need to deal with that. And Matthew 18 has principles that we can use.

So church, let me just encourage us together, what Matthew 18 those principles call for is, if somebody comes to you and they've got a complaint, let's say here, like the widows, the Greeks are upset and they're murmuring, and in the south we do it in the form of prayer requests. Yeah, I've got a prayer request. It seems to me that the Hebraic widows are getting a lot of attention, and we need to pray for those poor Greek widows, because they're not getting any attention from this church. You know what that means? And then you have conversation going to the bathroom afterwards and stuff. That's where the gossip starts flying.

Well, here's the deal. Matthew 18 says, hey, listen, I can't be part of that solution. Let's take that to someone who can. And take it offline, go one-on-one, in private. Don't blast it out on social media, "Can I get an amen from that?" Listen, if you got something going on in your life, I don't care, with us, whomever, don't blast it on social media. Man, that's straight from Satan's playbook there, that makes the church look like it's stupid, and there's no unity in the body of Christ. It should be just the opposite. So, let's practice Matthew 18 by going in private one-on-one. You know what? 90% of things would be solved if we would go talk to a person calmly in the power of the Holy Spirit, one-on-one in private. I see it all the time. I mean, have somebody come to me and they're like, "Oh, I don't know what to do," da, da, da. It's like, "Wait, have you talked to him?" "That's a good idea." "Yeah, that's a good idea. How about go talk to him?" "Yeah, that's a good idea."

So let's be ministers of reconciliation, let's handle things the right way, because a healthy church doesn't get distracted, it stays on mission. Stays on mission. Keeps the important things important, okay?

The second thing, step that the church at Jerusalem did was they gave themselves, or this is prescriptive for us, we need to give ourselves to the word and to prayer. Okay, guys? Not real fancy. I mean, you hear this a lot, but here's what happened. They brought this to the Apostles, which was a good thing. The Apostles responded, "It wouldn't be right for us to neglect the word of God to wait on tables." Now, were they dissing the Greeks for complaining? No, what they were doing, they weren't dismissing the needs that existed that were identified, but they were protecting the priorities of the church. Hang with me, guys. There's 101 things that we can deal with.

And we have a lot of folks who have a lot of passions, but we as pastors, teachers, leaders, have to protect the priorities of our church. Does that mean we don't deal with the other things? No. That means that's why the body of Christ each has their own passions, spiritual giftedness, so that they can be, and we can be active in our culture and in our community. There is no question about it.

So, at the heart of every healthy church is prayer and the ministry of the word. What we're called to do, each of us will stand before Christ. If you are a believer, accepted Christ, you don't have to stand at the great throne judgment. That's where those who are lost stand. It says in Revelation 20:21 that, "The books will be opened," which they'll see their works. And they know that there's no righteousness in themselves. They know they're deserving of not being in the presence of God for all eternity. And then they look at the lamb's book of life. They're not in there.

Listen, when you came to know Christ, here's what salvation is about. When God convicts you, the Holy Spirit convicts you, and you come before him, and what you do is you're saying, you're preempting the white throne judgment with the cross. And you're saying, "I'm guilty. I'll tell you right now, God: I'm guilty. I'm not worthy. There's nothing within myself, no righteousness within myself. The only thing that I am deserving of is death and punishment from you." Well, that's where Jesus steps in and says, "No, I paid the price for you. I paid the penalty. I have paid it. And I take that on myself." That's what salvation is about, so that you don't have to stand before him in that great white throne judgment.

But scriptures do explain the Bema Seat of Christ. Now, the Bema Seat, if you've gone with us to Paul's missionary journeys, which is incredible, I'm going to do that again man, if you can figure that out. But you can see in the auditoriums, the coliseums, the stadiums, this place where the ruler set and the Bema was actually where the victor of the games came, and stood, and received the laurel branches, the wreath upon their head. So we're told that we're going to come before him, our works will be tested. Now, guys, this is noteworthy, which means that the things that you did here on Earth, we're told they're going to be tested as with fire, so that the wood, hay stubble is going to be burned up and only things that remain were those things that'll be rewarded. Yet those are the things that really counted out of everything you did in this short earthly life. Only those things. Those other things that burned up. Those were the temporary things that we put our lives into.

Well, that begs the question then, what is it on this Earth right now that will last forever and won't pass away? There are three things. Number one, the word of God will never pass away. Number two, the souls of people last forever. And number three, the prayers of saints will continue. We're told in Revelation, there's a couple of places in chapter five, in chapter eight, where the prayers of the saints, they were in the presence of God as in a golden bowl of incense, they were sweet to him and they are precious to him. And so we know that even what happens. You know what? You have ancestors you may not even know of. Beyond parents, grandparents, and you're experiencing the results, the answers to their prayers on your behalf.

Now, write this down. And parents, grandparents, parents, of course, I've been praying for my kids' spouses just about before they were born, at least when they were babies. And I would walk in the room and pray for them and I began praying then for their spouses. I'm still looking for Stephanie's, just a heads-up, okay? She's going to be a catch for somebody. And I told her, I said, "I can't wait. I've been praying for this guy a long time. God is doing some amazing things in this young man. I can't wait to meet him."

But I got grandkids now. I'm praying for them and I'm finding out that in this season of life, man, the most courageous thing I can do is to pray for not just my grandkids, but their futures, their spouses, and beyond, generationally, I can impact them. So when I'm gone, my prayers can continue forth. That's powerful. That's powerful. And so as a church, when we look at what to focus in on, it only makes sense that we would focus in on those things that are eternal, which means that we focus in on praying, that we focus in on the ministry of God's word.

What we do first we got to equip people with the word, which we, guys, listen, man, that's who we are. Our goal this morning in these three hours, whether it's through preaching, whether it's through life groups, whatever it may be, we are doing the ministry of the word in helping press that into people, and in talking about how to live it out. Our Wednesday nights are all about the word of God, because you can't argue with the value of the word of God, and it will last forever. So prayer, the ministry of the word, and how those impact people's lives, their souls, for eternity. So, let's focus for that. A key principle is that we voted on buildings and budgets. And unfortunately, those are necessary. But prayer and the ministry of God's word to reach people's souls, that's the real foundation of the church right there, okay? It doesn't matter how pretty a building is, or how big a budget is, if you're not focusing in on the ministry of God's word and impacting people's soul, it's all for naught.

So, a healthy church devotes itself to what matters most. Prayer and the ministry of the word that touches souls. The third practice that they did was to get everyone involved in the mission of the church. If you look at verses five and six, the Apostles called on the church to choose seven Spirit-filled men to serve. Now, these were not, this is not the Deacons, the title, the Office of Deacon had not come along yet. But what's clear is the principle. The principle is that ministry is not just for a few leaders. Every believer has a role.

It is clear in Ephesians 4:11-13, and I found it interesting when I went from being a Christian businessman to being a vocational minister pastor, that the ministry that I loved as a lay leader in the church, and was passionate about God, was calling me now to not just do ministry, although it sounds like it, I'll meet with people and they're like, "Hey, Marty, I know that you went into full-time ministry. I feel like I'm being called there." And I'm like, "Okay, well, tell me first, what are you doing now? What are you doing in your church? What are you doing in your home, in your neighborhood, in your marketplace?" "Well, that's the problem. I just don't have time right now. If I go into ministry, then I can do that."

And I'm like, "Listen, brother, God is calling you to be a minister where you are first. Now, he may get to the vocational part, but he's calling you to surrender to him, and to live it out where you are." A little known fact is once you go into ministry, then according to Ephesians 4, my goal now is to equip you to do the ministry. It's not quite as fun from this perspective, to be honest with you. But actually, when you start leading out in ministry, as we have hundreds of lay leaders, your goal is likewise to equip the members, the saints for the work of ministry. That's what it's all about. That's called disciple making. And if you recall, the great commission is, "Go make disciples." So that's what it's about.

Okay, so Romans 12 says, point of salvation, you received spiritual gift. You have certain passion skills that God wants you to use. He says that we all have different ones. And he says, that's what makes it so cool, because Jesus is the head of the church, and we are the body. And so he says, "Listen, I made it this way so that each one of you have a role, you come together, and you're the complete body of Christ to live it out here on Earth." Isn't that genius? You don't have to tell God that it's genius, but it's like, "Wow, that's pretty cool."

So, we have to understand that the church is not a place we go. It is the people we are. Oh, deep thought there. This week, if somebody asks you, "Hey, where's Burnt Hickory?" Don't tell them 5145 Dew West Road. Tell them, "I am Burnt Hickory. I am the church." Okay? It's because this week Burnt Hickory is going to be all over this globe. Man, we're going to be all over the community, we're going to be all over the marketplaces, all over the schools. We're going to be everywhere where life is happening. That's the church, okay? And we are all part of the mission.

One of the greatest compliments that we receive here is that Burnt Hickory is a big church with a small church fill, okay? It's one of the greatest compliments we get. I mean, I grew up in a church. I lead Bible studies and life groups larger than the church I grew up in the country. I mean, we ran a hundred on a pretty good Sunday. And so I get what they're saying.

So, what makes Burnt Hickory a big church with a little church fill? Well, now listen. I mean, the pastors, we'll do what we can, you'll find, whether it's Matt, myself, and Mike Winn running around out here between services and stuff, and getting to meet people and all, we're going to be accessible. We're not going to be stuffed in a green room with a bodyguard and brought out on the platform just to be able to deliver something to you guys. Pastor Mike did a tremendous job. Once again, Hey, Mike, you hear us at all? I'm giving you a heads-up.

Okay. So of being who he is, transparent, accessible, and that's who we are today. Okay? It's who we are. But what makes us a big church or a small church for you, is you. It's not us. That's the deal. Somebody drives on campus this morning and it's like, "Oh, that's a big place." Well, guess what? It's you that's helping them in the parking lot; it's you that's helping them find where to go to come in the building; it's you greeting them at the doors. It's you at the welcome center kind of explaining the scope of things. It's you taking them to where their kids go; it's you who's greeting their students; it's you who's teaching and pouring in and shaping the next generation. It's you.

When like my younger son, Christopher and Ashley, they got married a little bit later. So I have Braden, my grandson, went to church for the first time. And I got to live it all over again with his mama, taking poor Braden to where the babies stay. It's you who deals with my daughter-in-law and the young moms who've never let go of them before, and afraid something's going to happen to him. It's you that loves up on them and encourages and says, "It's okay. We're going to love them and take care of them. We're going to show them God's love." It's you that follows up with people. It's you and the adult life groups that welcome them, that make refreshments for them, and make them feel welcome, and you make the follow-up call with them.

You get together outside of church on Sunday morning. It's you that are the care groups. The larger we grow, the smaller we have to become. So, our goal is that every church, every church member, every person who worships with us, be in a Sunday morning life group, we have to continue to make new life groups. And then from there, the life group should have care groups. That was Becky's in my first ministry position as an adult. And you can ask her, that's back in her shy days, scared her to death, because a teacher asked us to be care group leaders like, "What is that?" It's like, well, it's where you have four to six couples and just get in touch with them, get with them, see if anything's going on in their lives; be their prayer partner, if something's going. They have a baby, help us to coordinate the meals. Those things.

I remember Becky and I were talking about it this week, that's why I can mention it in public, she said, "I still remember that I was scared to death just to call somebody I didn't know and check on them and see how they were doing." Well, that's a good thing. She didn't know it at the time that was preparing her to be a pastor's wife, right? It doesn't mean if you're a care group leader, you're going to have to be a pastor's wife or a pastor. Okay?

But listen, every little thing... I did mention when we built the children's building, did I not? I did. Okay. But listen, Becky teaches four-year-old preschool, she said this week she was so tickled. One of the moms came in and said, "I don't know what you're teaching the kids, but my child came in and said we need to pray more together at home." And it's like, yeah, a four-year-old, yeah. So listen, I mean, hey, listen, somebody who's working with four-year-olds this morning, they're not babysitting. I mean, they're loving up in God's love, and they're teaching laying foundational things, not just for those children but for their families.

I mean, I met a couple, sharp couple this morning, and because I said something the last hour, which was that now you have the kids dragging the parents to church. When we were little, our parents drug us to church. That was our drug problem back then. We got drugged to church. Now we got the kids, and that's a great thing, man. You know what that means? The people that are working with those kids, the students, they're impacting the whole families. And as you impact the whole families, you're impacting this community.

Some people say, "Hey, we're large enough." Well, guess what? Let's say we have maybe 3000 on campus today. That's huge. That's huge. I thought, man, Mike and I used to talk, I said, "Mike, if we ever hit 3000 and 2000 in life group, that's great." But I look, and within five miles of us, and we're pulling greater than five miles, if you just like it five miles, you know how many people we have out here? 100,000 people, within five miles of us. 100,000 people. So as big as we are, we've reached 3% of those people. And these people, let's say you throw in the other churches, we've got some great churches around us. I mean, we're at max reaching 10% of 100,000 people. And these are people that need God's word. They need to know God's love and acceptance in their life, and they need the transforming power in their lives and in their family's lives. And that's what our community needs, and that's what we've got to provide to them.

All right?. Just about broke out in tears there. Guys, listen. You need to understand that you are the church. God has equipped you. And this principle, is that we will never be what God wants us to be as a body of Christ until every one of you is involved in the mission. Okay? Now, if that seems scary, don't let it. I think God has put a spiritual gift in you, passion. We have great resources with place that you can take an assessment, we can coach you of how God shaped you, what kind of things we have here. In today's worship, God, we mentioned three easy areas that are significant. One is pumpkin fast coming up. I mean, how hard can that be? But we're going to reach at least a hundred unchurched families through that. At least. And that's the whole purpose. We do it. We don't do it for our entertainment, or for the entertainment of Christian families. We're doing this for the gospel's sake, for the kingdom of God.

We have D now, that you could help lead. You're shaping those generations. Remember, generational, you're hitting generations. You could make a difference in our special needs community by helping with a night to shine, that we started last year. Not to mention the other things that would be second nature to you, really, but you got to set aside the temporal to do the eternal, okay?

Now, I've served my time in Oregon parks, concession stand, and all the other stuff that we've done over the years. And those are cool and they're needed, but those things are temporal. What do you do in that's eternal, God has teed you up here to be able to have something of eternity. Will you step into it? Because a healthy church is not a crowd of spectators, but it is a body of servants. Okay? Amen.

Look at verse seven with me. "When the church stays healthy, God brings the increase." It says the word of God spread, the number of disciples increase rapidly, and many priests were becoming obedient to the faith. The promise is that if we guard against distractions, keep prayer in the word of God, and when everybody steps into that mission, God will multiply his work.

So when I look back at 21 years, I cannot imagine this door of opportunity we have right now. We thought culture was shut out and God uses tragedies like Charlie Kirk's assassination. We've seen a new openness to spiritual things, that we can step into church. There's a window of opportunity open.

You know what? One day, when you stand before Jesus, you could look back and say, "Hey, that's when God used our church in a mighty way, and I got to be part of it." Don't let that pass. He's put you here for such a time as this. It's not by accident that you are here today or in this season. He has a plan for us. And for us doesn't mean the organization of Burnt Hickory, it doesn't mean the pastors, it means the people because you are the church.

So today we look at Acts chapter six, and it's not just about our church, it's really about you. It's about you. Church is not building, it's not programs, it's people. And for us to stay healthy and growing, then every one of you needs to take a step of obedience. In scriptures, God is always calling believers to deeper water. Deeper water means he's going to stretch you one step. Do you have the faith for one step? He gives you the faith to take that step. We talk a lot about next steps, whether that is to accept Christ. Some of you may be here today and you're not sure. You need to be sure.

Some of you, and we look in Acts, they believed and were baptized, believed and were baptized, always like that. We saw in our earlier service another college student. That's three straight weeks with college students. Got another one going to be baptized next week. If you're an adult, it doesn't matter. Most of the adults that were baptized in scriptures, almost all of them were adults. Pride aside, be a believer in him, demonstrate the death, burial, resurrection in which you place your faith. You haven't, you're still a spectator perhaps, and you haven't leaned into connecting with a life group. You need to. That's where you'll grow in your faith. That's where you'll be surrounded by others in your season of life walking the walk as well. Or some of you have never put the staking in the ground. I'll talk to folks they've been visiting here five years. Typically, it's the dad that's holding you up. "Dad, don't let that be so. You ought to be leading charge."

Next week, as we mentioned earlier, I'll be leading a group of discover Burnt Hickory. Try a stake in the ground on behalf your family and say, "Man, we're going to do something with our family life. We need that." We've added one, which is to explore, serve opportunities. We realize, man, that's a key part of your discipleship, a key part of you growing. We say, "Well, I come every Sunday to worship and then I go to life group." I mean, are you doing anything? Or are you just sitting? You've heard those sayings, "Sit, soak and sour." Like, well, good, you're a kudos to you. You're a faithful Sunday School attender.

Growing up, I got my 13-year perfect attendance pin. When we used to give though, those were really cool for the Pharisees of the group. Although I did enjoy, I did enjoy it. It kept me in church. Yeah, it kept me in church. But listen, that's not the end of the story. Use the gifts that God's given you. Step into them. Take one, see what kind of enjoyment you can get out of it. See how God causes you to grow, and to reach other people. Don't just watch what God's doing here step into it.

 

Follow Along with the Message

The Secret to a Healthy, Growing Church

 

October 5, 2025

QUESTION: How do we stay ? How do we make sure we don’t lose sight of what most?

Acts 6:1–7
1 In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. 2 So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. 3 Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them 4 and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.” 5 This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. 6 They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them. 7 So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.
To Continue Being a Healthy, Growing Church, We Must…

1. Guard against .

Acts 6:1
In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.
2 Corinthians 5:18
All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation…
Matthew 18:15
“If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over.”

2. Give ourselves to the and .

Acts 6:2–4
2 So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. 3 Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them 4 and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”

PRINCIPLE: Buildings and budgets are tools, but prayer and the ministry of God’s Word to reach people’s souls are the .

3. Get everyone involved in the .

Acts 6:1–7
5 This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. 6 They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.

PRINCIPLE: Ministry is not just for a few leaders; every believer has a .

Ephesians 4:11–13
11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Romans 12:3–6
3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. 4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith.

PRINCIPLE: The church is not a we go; it is the we are.

RESULT: When the Church stays , God brings the increase.

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