TOPIC:‌"Living Life To the Fullest"

                  by Rev. Dr. Reg Dunlap

 

TEXT:‌Acts 6:1-15

 

‌‌"Now Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power, did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people" (Acts 6:8, NIV).

 

‌There are five life-changing descriptions that are mentioned in chapter 6 of Acts that describe this layman Stephen. Two are found in verse 3: "full of the Spirit and wisdom." One is found in verse 5: "full of faith." The final two are given in verse 8: "full of God's grace and power." Let us remember that Stephen was not an apostle like Paul, but was like each one of us - an ordinary man of the ranks. And since he lived life to the fullest, that possibility is available to each one of us. This is what Jesus was talking about when He declared His reason for coming into this world: "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full" (John 10:10).

 

‌Now it is God's plan and God's purpose that each one of us should live life to the fullest. We should be continuously living our lives as Stephen lived his life - out of the overflow. But often this is not the case! What was normal Christian living in the book of Acts has now become abnormal for many of us in the 21st century. Today's crop of Christians seem to be exempt from this kind of Spirit-filled living. Often defeat is the experience of the average believer in the church. We are not as Paul declared in Romans chapter 8 verse 37: "more than conquerors through Him that loved us."

 

‌What do you think would happen today if each one of us would exchange the fullness that characterizes so many in the world - full of bitterness, full of pride, full of jealousy, full of lying, full of self-centeredness, with the glorious fullness which the Apostle Luke uses to describe Stephen's life in the verses before us? Such an experience, I believe, would not only revolutionize our lives, but would energize our churches into becoming what the church of Jerusalem became in that first century when it literally turned the world upside down for Jesus Christ.

 

‌In Acts chapter 6 and 7 Luke the physician presents us with a glorious picture of this man Stephen. Here we get a glimpse of an ordinary man who lived his life to the fullest. And such a life of fullness is possible for all believers. How do I know? Because Stephen did it. Let me speak about his fullness.

 

I.

 

‌Consider, to begin with, that according to Dr. Luke Stephen was full of the HOLY SPIRIT. Notice the words in verse 5: "They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit." We are wise to remember that the secret of Stephen being able to live life to the fullest was because he was full of the Holy Spirit. That fact . . .