WHAT ARE YOU FULL OF?

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

Stephen was a man who was FULL: Full of faith -- he believed without limits in the promises of the Lord; he was Full of grace -- he received the fulfillment of those promises, he was anointed by the Spirit, and experienced the favor of God; and, as a result, he was Full of power -- by which he was enabled to do great wonders and miracles among the people.

Many times we wonder why God doesn't use us -- it's because of what we're full of. Paul, in Romans 1:29-31 gives us a pretty complete list of what we don't want to be filled by: "They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, quarreling, deceit, and viciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, haughty, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to their parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless."

Wait a minute, you say, "I haven't murdered anyone." Isn't it funny how we pick the most extreme from the list to argue about? But what about listening to some juicy talk about a colleague at work (gossip); yelling at someone on the freeway who cut you off (quarreling); showing off your new car for the wrong reason (boastful); ignoring the needs of the family down the street (heartless)?

What do you want to be filled with? The answer for all of us is to be filled like Stephen -- full of God's grace and power. So how do we get there from here? The answer is Jesus -- He has already paid the price (for our sin), there is only one thing we need to do -- have faith (believe) without limits in the promises of the Lord.

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