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[ Silence ] [MUSIC PLAYING] ♪ Lord, let me walk this way with Thee ♪ ♪ Lead me, O Lord, lead me ♪

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♪ Lead me, guide me, guide me ♪ ♪ By me along the way ♪ ♪ Oh, if you leave me I cannot stay ♪ ♪ Oh, let me walk this day ♪

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♪ He's taking me ♪ ♪ In the unknown ♪ ♪ In the unknown ♪ ♪ In the unknown ♪

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♪ He ♪ [music] Amen. Amen. Let's all say amen again. Amen. The subject of the message, a happy ending. A happy ending.

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And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God and saying, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." And he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge." And when he had said this, he fell asleep. These words give us a vivid description of the end of the earthly existence of Stephen,

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chairman of deacons of the First Baptist Church in Jerusalem. It all happens in the first century. It's at a time when the church is young, in the days of the dawn of her infancy. Stephen's end was a happy ending.

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It is well for us to consider his life as we face the end of another year, to meditate upon what it means to have a happy ending. Each of us is engaged in endeavors in which we expect to experience a happy ending. Those that are attending school expect to graduate.

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Those who have positions in the world of work look forward to the time of retirement. Every day has a beginning and ending. So does each year. So does each life.

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We are so in the custom of hearing the kind of storybook version of life where Prince Prince Charming meets his lady fair and there is a budding romance that blossoms into marriage and they live happily ever after. But the truth of the matter is it doesn't always turn out that way.

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Prince Charming does not prove to be so charming. And the Lady Fair does not prove to be so fair as time goes on. But there is something in us that always reaches out for the comedy where they live happily ever after, a good ending. And when I was a lad, we would go to the movies

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and there was a good ending sometime, we would stay in there and see that movie time and time again 'cause you liked the ending. So life has its comedy.

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It's a happy ending. And then, of course, there is the tragedy. The ending is not so pleasant. We consider it a terrible ending.

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And as we look at the life of Stephen, it would seem that what we are looking at is a tragedy. And how is it that this scene, which appears to use the modern language to be that of a lynching scene, is a happy ending? It is said of Napoleon that his mother said to him on one occasion when he was basking in his success, "Remember you have an anxious

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mother who is concerned about how you will end up." Whoever is concerned about endings. illustrates what it means to have a happy ending. And several things stand out in his life which we ought to consider as we look at life. One person put it, you know, we are born and we grow up, we attend school, and then if we're fortunate we go and we have

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graduation exercises in college. We get one degree, some get more, and then get married. And the fellow said, "What then? Have children. What then? Send them to school and see them graduate and then what then? So then you die. And it goes on and on in that way. But it's a good thing to look at one's endings and it seems to me that there's a message that

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is involved in how one ends. Let's look first of all a little closer at Stephen. He's a deacon. A deacon is a helper and every one of us in a sense seeks to help. That's what life is all about learning how not only to help ourselves but how to help other people. And this man Stephen is known for his dedication to service.

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Here's a person who, according to the qualifications and the like, he was richly endowed and he was prepared to render praiseworthy service to his comrades. And he recognized his role in life. And that's very important, to recognize what is the niche into which one fits.

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You know, sometimes one can waste a great deal of time trying to find out where you fit. And you can change your major several times. well I don't I think out one one starts out in dance well I'll change my major from dance to

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to education and then later from education or something else really trying trying to find out where you fit and it takes some time for some people really to find that out but it's important to know. Stephen knew that. He knew his role. He knew his place. And his role was that of a helper. He was God's helper. God's helper. In other words, he was seeking in every way

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to be a channel of grace, of divine grace, reaching out to others. And one of the most honorable things that an individual can do in life

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is to serve with distinction. The entire process of education is designed to equip us to serve, to serve well in family as well as in society, to serve God and country. Stephen the deacon is a servant.

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He is engaged in what is called the dichotomic ministry, that of a servant. He is, to use the Latin phrase, servus servorum dei. He is a servant of the servants of God. All of us are servants, but here is a man who is a servant of the servants of God.

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Stephen. He accepts his responsibilities as a servant and performs them in such a manner that he carves for himself a special niche in history. He is a servant from the Hellenist wing of the church, the Greek-speaking Jews, well,

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part of the church, as well as the Hebrew-speaking Jews. And Stephen comes from the Greek-speaking group, the Hellenist wing of the church that has certain needs that must be met and he aggressively pursues the tasks which is assigned to him.

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And he majors in that which is major. The main task that is His is to be a servant of God, to proclaim God's will and way, to proclaim the message of salvation, of peace, of wholeness. That's His task, and to be an instrument used by God in bringing about the day when the

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kingdom of God will come on earth as it is in heaven. You know, sometimes a person mages in minors. Some students do that. of really doing what is assigned and taking it seriously, there are some who major in

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minors. It's important to have leisure, but I've known a number of students who were so much concerned about leisure that they spent their time getting up in the morning and all during the day going out socializing. I can remember when I was in college they would be out under the tree romancing in the morning rather than getting their studies and some

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of them didn't last long doing that. They were majoring in that which was minor at the time rather than majoring in that which was major. Majoring, he majored in being God's helper. He majored in being a servant of goodness, a servant of justice, a servant of truth.

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He majored in that. And there were a lot of other things that were there to guide him or to lead him or to tempt him to go in another direction, but he majored in that. He majored in that which was of major concern.

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He was a servant. My stepfather was a deacon. And I remember that when I was a boy, some of them came by the pastor.

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Had one of the few cars in our church, and some of the people stayed a good distance from the church. And there was one young lady, Sister Barlow, who was very active in the church.

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And the pastor would pick her up. He and his wife would pick up Sister Barlow and bring her to church and take her back from church. Sometimes the pastor's wife didn't feel well.

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She didn't go along and the pastor would be with Sister Barlow alone. And one of the deacons said, as he came by the house, he said, "You know, why is the pastor

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"carrying Sister Barlow home?" And so my father, in the next deacon meeting, He mentioned to the pastor, "Why is it Sister Barlow is seen in your car so often?" And so the pastor said, "Now that's my car, and if it's my car, I can ride whomever I

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want to in my car as long as my wife has nothing to say about it. I don't see why you need to be concerned about it." Well, that went all over the neighborhood about what was said in the deacon's meeting about the pastor and Sister Barlow in his car.

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That was far more said about Sister Barlow riding in the pastor's car than I ever heard anybody talk about what souls would come into the kingdom. concerned about the lost, but the great focus was who's in the pastor's car. That's possible for one to become tripped up or tripped by trivialities.

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Stephen didn't do that. He majored in that which was major. He was concerned about being a witness for Jesus Christ. He was concerned about demonstrating his discipleship.

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He was a true helper. You know, sometimes you can have a helper who doesn't know what he's doing and really is more of a hindrance than a help. I remember a cartoon of a church on a vehicle that was being pushed up a hill and there

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was some that were just pushing and pushing and pushing and the one others were just pulling and trying to hold it back while others were on one side pushing the other were trying to hold it back. was a true helper. And so every person in this life can somehow profit from his

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example by seeking to be a servant of goodness and to really be a servant is to engage courageously in the struggle and the conflicts of life. In fact here Here he is as we see him, he's pointing out the faults that have been so true of the elders before whom he appears.

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But they don't listen to him because they're diehard traditionalists. They don't listen. So here he is, he has given himself to be a helper and because he gives himself to be a helper, he finds himself engaged in conflict.

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The person who would prepare himself or herself to live abundantly by being a helper, and it's possible to be one or the other, one either is a part of the problem or a part of the solution. Stephen was a part of the solution, but becoming a part of the solution means that he has to

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also engage in conflict if he would carry out his duty. So the man who is called to be a helper, if we find him getting hurt as he stands now before the Sanhedrin and he proclaims that which is right, as he stands there and makes his witness, we notice that they begin to cast stones at him. He's bruised and

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beaten, the rocks are thrown by his persecutors. And often in the struggle of life, those whom we seem to help hurt us most. They fight against us, those we try to help. I remember one lady who was struggling she would often get out of the house and she would run down the street and the children would have to go

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and get her and many times they would have to wrestle with her because if if she were let alone she would run away and get lost and she thought that they were working against her when she was really being helped by them and often that's the case in life. And everybody who is going to serve courageously in

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the role of a helper needs to have the courage of his convictions to be willing to suffer and die if necessary for what we believe. Martin Luther King said that a person needs to have found something that he's willing to die for or he's not fit to live. Stephen is standing, making his witness, and he is

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stoned by an angry mob. They cast their stones and he cries out to God. He cries out to God. You know, so it's a wonderful thing to have received all of the preparation that we think of in an academic way, but the significant thing is to have not only the letter but the spirit and here we find the life of the

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spirit evident in Stephen. Reinhold Niebuhr has given us this prayer, "God give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be changed, and wisdom to distinguish the one from the other. He's hurt, he's stoned because he fulfills his mission as a helper.

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But the thing that is of most concern to us here is that as he is stoned, he is looking up to heaven and the heavens are open and he sees God. With a bruised and beaten body, blood-stained garments. With his life ebbing away,

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Stephen is full of the Holy Spirit. He is happy. He's rightly related to the eternal. And though he dies, he dies with a prayer on his lips.

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And some of us who would look at this according to the world's standards would say, look, this man died the death of a criminal. Yes, this man was lynched.

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He died in disgrace. But what is really happening here is an experience that is somehow related to the eternal. So that Stephen is called Saint Stephen.

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Churches are named in his honor because he lived and died in such a way that we can say of him that he had a happy ending. Beaten, yes.

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Bodies bruised, yes. Saw as it was, yes. But he died in a noble way. He had a happy ending.

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I remember when Earl Campbell was here playing with the University of Texas team. And he would often say that he'd be sore on Sunday morning after the game on Saturday.

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His body would be sore. But there was happiness because they had gained a victory. But in the end, that somehow when one embraces the eternal, even though one may get beaten and bruised in the struggle,

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that there is happiness. [ Pause ] [inaudible] [ Inaudible ]

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Be secure in God. It's the faith that enables us to be secure. [inaudible] (indistinct) of the struggle if somehow you are able to see God,

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if you can see the goodness of God, no matter how heavy the burden is. If you can see the goodness of God and see that God is still on His throne, that's enough.

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That's enough. God comes to be with us in Jesus Christ, no matter what may be the condition and circumstances that God sends us to be with us.

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[ Pause ] The world around him was covered with darkness. It was Sojourner Truth who said to him, after he had made the speech and he was so downcast,

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she said to him-- [AUDIO OUT] [inaudible] [inaudible]

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[inaudible] [inaudible] Somehow he fell on his throne, and he rose with power. And that power enabled him to hold that form of command.

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[inaudible] [INAUDIBLE] [ Silence ] [ Silence ]

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[laughter] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible]

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[inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible]

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(indistinct) [inaudible] [ Silence ] [ Silence ]

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[ Silence ] [ Silence ] [ Silence ] [ Silence ]

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[ Silence ] [ Silence ] [ Silence ] (singing)

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[Music] (soft music) [Music] ♪ To those who are listening and who answer prayer ♪

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♪ I'm glad I know he lives ♪ ♪ He lives, he lives, he lives, he lives, he lives ♪ ♪ He lives, he lives, he lives ♪ ♪ If God is dead ♪

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♪ Who mends a broken heart ♪ ♪ If God is dead ♪ ♪ Who keeps night and day apart ♪ ♪ If God is dead ♪

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♪ Who can show me where his mind is ♪ ♪ I'm glad I know he lives ♪ ♪ He lives, he lives, he lives ♪ ♪ I cannot feel him moving through my heart ♪

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♪ I cannot feel him moving through the trees ♪ ♪ In the wind and the breeze ♪ ♪ I cannot see him shining through the night ♪ ♪ In the stars that shine through the night ♪

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[MUSIC] [Music] [ Music ] [MUSIC]

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♪ And the wind and the breeze ♪ ♪ I cannot see him as he shines through the night ♪ ♪ In the stars that glow, that shine, that ♪ ♪ That shine, that ♪

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[BLANK_AUDIO]