How to Turn Problems into Possibilities

Pastor, teacher, and author Adrian Rogers has introduced people all over the world to the love of Jesus Christ and has impacted untold numbers of lives by presenting profound truth, simply stated. Thanks for joining us for this message.

Here's Adrian Rogers. We're thinking about that old time religion and we're finding out how they did it in the book of Acts, so that the power and the victory and the revival that was in the book of Acts can be reproduced in our hearts and in our lives today. Because we believe that God is going to give us all of the power and the victory and the revival that was in the book of Acts can be reproduced in our hearts and in our lives today. We believe that if we believed and behaved as they believe and behaved, then we would achieve what they achieved.

So, we're going to be looking here in the book of Acts. And today I want to be talking to you about how to turn your problems into possibilities. Now, I know that sounds like a little bit of pop psychology, but I believe you're going to find it to be more than that. You're going to find it to be biblical truth.

Now, you know there are always these pessimists. And they see a difficulty in every opportunity. But a Bible Christian sees an opportunity in every difficulty. And we're going to see today that difficulties are just opportunities in reverse if we see them through the eyes of God. And you're going to find out that every difficulty that came to that early church was used of God as a springboard just to cause them to grow all the more for the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, let's look here in God's Word. And I'm going to begin reading in chapter 6 and verse 1. among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost, and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word. And the saying pleased the whole multitude, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith, and the Holy Ghost, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch, whom they set before the apostles. And when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them. And the word of God increased, and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly.

And a great number of the priests were obedient to the faith. Now, what was the problem? Well, very succinctly, the problem was growing pains. Do you know what growing pains are? Do you remember when you were a child and you grew up trying to learn how to walk and try to please your parents? And when you got to be a teenager, you got so awkward. You had two left feet, and you had pimples, and you had buck teeth, and you couldn't get your hair to do right, and your voice was changing.

Oh, you just felt terrible. But you were in a process of maturing and growing. We call that growing pains. And as a Christian, when you try to grow in the Lord, and you think at first you've been saved, and it's just so wonderful, and you'll never have another problem. But then the Bible says, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. And you'll learn that you have those same kind of growing pains in the spiritual world that you have in the physical world. And any new Christian knows what it is to have growing pains. To stumble, to hurt, to have spiritual indigestion, to colic, everything else spiritually that you have physically as you're growing. And you know those of you who have families that are growing. A growing family has growing pains.

Amen? Well, I'll tell you, my dad used to say, you can have kids, or you can have things, but you can't have both. And that was true. And you know, we break, mess up spots on the rug, and all of these problems. But thank God for growing families.

They're so fun. But a growing family has growing pains. And a growing church has growing pains. Now, that's what happened to this early church. It was growing.

I mean, it was growing like it was shot out of a gun. There was great growth, and as a result, there were some problems. Now, I want to give you four basic facts today. Now, this can apply to almost anything. I'm going to apply it to the church, but it can apply to your personal life.

It can apply to your family. All right, number one, where there is life, there's growth. Now, look, if you will, in chapter 6 and verse 1. And in those days, what were those days? They were days of revival.

They were days of life. In those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied. Now, there was growth. There was a multiplication.

Now, in the early book of Acts, the Bible says, the Lord added to the church daily, such as should be saved. But no longer is it addition. Now, it is multiplication. They are growing by quantum leaps. They're growing by thousands. And that's wonderful, because I believe that every church that's surrounded by lost people ought to be a growing church, don't you? Now, there's nothing wrong with a small church. And there's nothing so necessarily great about a big church. Some of the greatest churches on this earth are small churches.

But I'll tell you something. There's something wrong with a church, big or small, that's not growing. If it's surrounded by lost people, because our mandate, our mission is to reach souls for the Lord Jesus Christ.

If we're not reaching them, we're not doing what we're told to do. I heard of an artist who was commissioned to paint a picture of a dead church. They thought that he would show a church with the roof sagging and with weeds in the yard. They thought he would show a church with the upholstery tattered and the carpet raveled.

But he didn't. He showed a gorgeous building, fresh paint, sparkling windows, wonderful carpet, elegant looking, moderate sized crowd. It looked so well fed, so well healed, everything was just right. And the person said, why, that doesn't look like a dead church to me. He said, look closer at the picture. And he looked more closely and he could see cobwebs in the baptistry. That, my friend, is the portrait of a dead church, a church that is not multiplying. Listen, a church will glow and grow or it will dry and die.

It will evangelize or it will fossilize, but it will not stand still. And I want to be a part of a growing church. Now, growth is not easy. Growth is not automatic. You have to plan for it, you have to pray for it, you have to work for it, you have to cultivate and water something if you want it to grow, but still, God must give the increase. Spiritual growth is the product of spiritual life and numerical growth is the product of spiritual growth. And so I believe that God's plan to this church, any church, is to be fruitful and multiply. In those days, you know, there are people, they're so spiritual, they say, I just don't believe in numbers. Well, God is interested in numbers. Verse 1, in those days when the number of the disciples was multiplied. Where there is healthy life, there's growth.

You got that in your heart? Okay, now let's move on to the second point. Now, where there is growth, there are problems. Look in verse 1 again, the Bible says, and in those days when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring, murmuring following multiplication. Now, murmuring is a terrible thing. What were these people murmuring about? Well, what had happened is this, there were some who felt neglected in the church, and indeed may have been neglected. There were two categories of widows in the church. There were Grecian widows and Hebrew widows. Now, even the Grecian widows were Hebrews. They were what we call Hellenist Jews.

They were Jews who spoke the Greek language, and then there were the Hebrew Jews there in the church. And these people who were Greek speaking Jews felt that they had been overlooked. They had been neglected.

They were being taken care of by the church, and there was no other way to take care of them, and unless the church took care of them, they wouldn't be taken care of. But they had their feelings hurt. Now, there was nothing wrong with their seeking to have their needs met. I don't believe it was a planned problem. I believe it happened by just the fact that they got so busy, they were growing so fast and so forth, it just happened. But nobody intentionally meant to do harm, I don't believe, but there was a problem.

Now, the problem was real, but the way they went about to handle the problem was terrible. They began to murmur. There arose a murmuring. I want to tell you, friend, when God sets out to multiply, the devil sets out to divide.

Now, you just keep that in your mind. When God wants to multiply, the devil wants to divide. The devil, when he sees a growing church, will try to divide that church any way he can, and here he began to try to divide the church by murmuring. Now, listen, I want to give you one word of advice about murmuring. Don't do it.

Don't do it. Now, here's what the Bible says, Philippians 2, verse 14, do all things without murmuring and disputings. Murmurings lead to disputings, and disputings lead to division. So do all things without murmuring. I want to tell you, dear friend, that murmuring is a horrible sin. If you murmur, you're really speaking against God, because the Bible says in everything we are to give thanks. Now, you can't murmur and give thanks at the same time.

The Bible says his praise is to be continually in our lips. Murmurers and praisers are not made of the same thing. What is murmuring anyway? Murmuring is a half-uttered, half-concealed complaint. It's not that a person comes out and out and says to the right person at the right time in the right spirit for the right reason something needs to be done. Well, that's always acceptable.

That's always good, where a person comes in the right spirit at the right time to the right person for the right motive. But murmuring, you know what murmuring is. Now, the Bible says do all things without murmuring. When you murmur, listen, you're really murmuring against God.

Let me give you a verse for your margin, Exodus chapter 16 and verse 8. The people had been murmuring in Moses' time. You see, murmuring goes way, way back. And here's what Moses said in the last part of that verse, for that the Lord heareth your murmurings.

Now, that ought to be enough to scare us to death right there. The Lord heareth your murmurings, which he murmur against him. For what are we? Your murmurings are not against us, but against the Lord. Now, kids, if you murmur against your parents, you're really murmuring against God. You murmur against your employee, you're murmuring against God. You murmur against your teachers, you're murmuring against God. You murmur against your pastor, you're murmuring against God.

That doesn't mean that any of those are perfect. It just simply means that murmuring is never a way to address a problem. It is the devil's way. And the Bible says let all things be done without murmuring. Just don't do it. Why, in the Bible, if you would read in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verses 7 through 10, you're going to find out that God ranks murmuring with idolatry, fornication, tempting God.

Listen to it. Neither be ye idolaters as some of them, as it is written the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication as some of them committed and fell in one day three in 20,000. Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of serpents.

Neither murmur ye as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now here are the big four with God. Idolatry, you say, well, I wouldn't be an idolater. Fornication, oh, you say, I wouldn't do that.

Tempting God, you say, I wouldn't dare. Murmuring, murmuring. In the same context, the Bible says God destroyed them for murmuring. That's not to say these people might not have had a legitimate complaint, but oh my soul, how the devil used them to try to do a right thing in the wrong way. Just don't murmur.

Do all things without murmuring. But what I'm trying to say is where there is growth, there are problems. When you put people and progress together, you're going to have problems. Now, the problem here wasn't doctrinal, it was functional. It wasn't primary, it was over a petty thing. Not that it wasn't important, but it wasn't one of those basic important things. No, no, you're going to find out that the devil can get us divided sometimes more over incidental than fundamental things.

And so here it was just over who was getting served the best and the first and all of that and who's being neglected and who wasn't. All right, so point number one, are you listening? Where there is healthy life, there's growth. Point number two, where there is growth, there are problems. Anything that moves makes friction and anything that grows has pains.

No pain, no gain, okay? Where there's growth, there are problems. Now, that's all right.

Brother, I'll tell you what. I'd rather be a part of a growing church with problems than a dead church that has none. I mean, their great big problem is that they are just simply dead. Now, sometimes people don't understand that a church doesn't have any real difficulties because it's D-E-A-D dead. All right, now, the third thing, the third thing. Where there are problems, there are solutions.

Now, we always need to remember this. It doesn't mean because we have problems that we just fold up, but God always has a solution for every problem. Notice in verse 2, Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason, just underscore the word reason, that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.

Now, I want to say that the solution here was a reasonable solution. You don't have to check your brains at the door to be a Christian. As a matter of fact, you're going to find out that a man who is a real good Christian is going to be two things. He's going to be deeply spiritual and intensely practical.

Don't you like that? Deeply spiritual and intensely practical. Here were very spiritual men saying, Hey, this doesn't make sense the way we've been doing this. Now, up until this time, I believe the apostles had been spending time ministering to these widows and waiting on these tables and distributing the food and all that, and they said, Hey, this doesn't make sense. We're getting behind in our Bible study. We're getting behind in our sermon preparation. We're getting behind in our prayer life. We're getting behind in our soul winning. We're getting behind in the ministry of the word of God, and we're standing up sometimes trying to preach, and we're not even ready to preach because we've been so busy doing good things, we've neglected the best thing.

And by the way, in life, the choice is not between good and bad. It's between good and best, and that's what had happened to these apostles, and they simply said, That doesn't make sense. We've got to get a plan, and God gave them a plan, and it was a wonderful plan. Now, let me say this, that the plan was to get better organized.

Now, there's some people who don't believe in organization, but let me tell you something, friend. A lack of organization and disorder is carnality. Paul told the Corinthian church, Let everything be done decently and in order.

Now, the reason there was disorder in that Corinthian church was because of their carnality. When you see the Holy Spirit of God move, you're going to see things function with order. As a matter of fact, the first time you see the Holy Spirit in the Bible, what's he doing?

Moving upon the face of the deep, out of disorder, he is turning a chaos into a cosmos. The Holy Spirit of God is the one who engineers the church machinery, and he's the one who oils the church machinery. Now, so the Holy Spirit of God just told them something reasonable to do, and it was twofold.

I want you to pay attention. Number one, there was to be a scriptural ministry, and number two, there was to be a practical ministry. Now, what was the scriptural ministry?

Well, look again in verse 2. Then the Twelve called a multitude of the disciples unto them and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. Now, it's not that they were too good to do it. As a matter of fact, I believe they'd been doing it up till now. It wasn't that they wanted to be freed from work.

They wanted to be freed to work. And so notice in verse 4, But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word. I've learned a long time ago that the very best thing I can do for my people here at this church is be prepared to preach. And if I'm not that, you know, a lot of other things will ultimately not matter very much. A wise man said a long time ago, A preacher who's always available isn't worth much when he is available. I agree with that, that a man has to be alone with God, in the word of God, studying and pouring out his heart to God in prayer for his people and getting a word from God for his people. I know there are ministers.

They have all kinds of programs and their people are doing all of these things, but they're not being fed. I heard a silly story about a man went into a pet store and bought a parakeet. They had two parakeets. The man said, I've got one for $100 and one for $25. He said, They look alike to me.

What's the difference? He said, Well, the $100 parakeet can sing and talk real well. The $25 parakeet doesn't sing that much, but he will sing. He'll talk a little. The man said, I'll take the $25 parakeet.

I want to save some money. After a week he went back to the pet store and said he hasn't said a word. The man said, Well, did he peck the little bell? He said, Well, you didn't say anything about a little bell. Oh, he said he has to peck a little bell before he talks. He said, Well, do you have any? He said, I've got one for $5. So he bought a little bell and put it in there.

A week later he came back. He said he still hadn't said a word. Oh, he said, Well, did he run up and down the little ladder? He said, Well, you didn't say anything about a little ladder. Oh, he said, He's got to have a little ladder. And he said, Well, how much is a little ladder? He said, I've got one for $10. So he bought a little ladder.

Then he came back the third week and said, Hey, that bird still hadn't said a word. Ah, he said, Did he look in the little mirror? I said, You've got to have a little mirror.

I've got one here for $15. He sold him a little mirror. He came back the next week. He said, Listen, that bird is not under the peep. I said, Did he swing in the little swing? He said, How much is a swing?

He said, I've got a swing for you for $30. And he bought the little swing. Then he came back the last week and said, Well, let me tell you about that bird. I said, That bird pecked the bell. Then he ran up and down the ladder. Then that little bird looked in the mirror. Then he got in the swing and went back and forth.

And then he shuddered and shivered and fell over backward and stuck his little feet in the air and looked over at me and said, Don't they sell any bird seed in that store that you go to? And I heard that. I thought about so many churches. The pastor has the people pecking bells and running up and down ladders and swinging swings.

I want to tell you something, friend. Activity is no substitute for the Word of God. Amen?

I mean, you have to feed people. Now, there were people over here talking about physical food, and the wit is being neglected, but the apostle said, We are going to give ourselves continually to the ministry of the Word of God. We are going to be serving square meals from the pulpit. We are going to be preaching the Word of God, for the Bible says, Desire the sincere milk of the Word that you may grow thereby. Now, I'll tell you, this church or any church will be strong to the degree that we maximize and emphasize the ministry of the Word of God, not only from the pulpit, but in our classrooms and in our homes.

We need to do that. But now, not only was there the scriptural ministry of feeding the Word, but there was also the practical ministry of feeding the widows. And so they had to get a plan now how to feed these widows.

And so they chose some men to do this. And I want you to notice now, the job is to wait on tables. What requirement do you need to wait on tables? You tell me. To wait on tables for Jesus, what are the qualifications that it takes?

Well, let's see here. All right, verse 3, Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost, and wisdom whom we may appoint over this business. You know what it took to wait on tables? Number one, they had to be men of honest report. That is, they had to have an impeccable character.

I mean, there had to be something said about these men that nobody could point blame at these men. As the Bible says in another place, deacons are to be blameless. These may have been the first deacons.

The word ministry is used over and over again in this passage, and the Greek word is diakonio. And so these may have been the first deacons. We don't know for certain that they were, but certainly they were men of service. Now, they didn't choose just anyone. They didn't say, oh, well, we can get just anybody to do this. Not inferior men, but superior men to wait on tables.

Now, let's go on down a little bit. Not only that, they were to be men filled with the Holy Ghost. Well, you say, I believe a preacher ought to be filled with the Holy Ghost when he preaches. I do, too. You say, well, I believe a song leader ought to be filled with the Holy Ghost when he directs worship. I do, too. Say, I believe that musicians ought to be filled with the Holy Spirit when they sing.

I do, too. I want to tell you something else. You ought to be filled with the Holy Ghost when you work in the kitchen downstairs. You ought to be filled with the Holy Ghost when you stand at the door and hand out bulletins. You ought to be filled with the Holy Ghost when you do anything for Jesus.

Understand what I'm saying, dear friend? Don't you think that there's any ministry that you can do in your own power? Jesus said, without me ye can do nothing. And the problem is that we have so many people who are thinking that this job is so small I can do it by myself. I don't need the Holy Spirit of God in me to do it.

And my dear friend, whether you're typing a letter or whether you are delivering a parcel, whether you're vacuuming a floor, whether you're teaching a class, I don't care what you do. You do it in the power of the Spirit of God. Do it with the Holy Ghost. Now, you see, these had to be men full of the Holy Ghost, and they had to be full of wisdom.

Wisdom is not knowledge. Sometimes when people get deacons, they say, well, let's get a deacon who's a doctor, a deacon who's a lawyer, a deacon who's a banker, a deacon who's a financier, a deacon who's an entrepreneur. He'll make a good deacon. He'll show us how to run the church. He might show us how to ruin the church.

He might try to administrate the church as he would a business and say, well, after all, this is business, but it's God's business, friend, and it's different from any other business. Now, he may be a banker and filled with wisdom. He may be a lawyer and filled with wisdom, but if he's not, he'll do more damage than good.

You see, dear friend, let me tell you something. There's a difference between knowledge and wisdom, and wisdom is the ability to use knowledge from God's point of view. Knowledge may be proud that it knows so much. Wisdom is humble that it knows no more, but listen, dear friend, not everybody can have knowledge, but everybody can have wisdom, for if any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him, only let him ask in faith, nothing wavering, for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven of the wind and tossed.

A double-minded man is unstable in all of his ways. Let not that man think he shall receive anything of the Lord. Oh, but listen, this was not just a standard for these men.

It's a standard for all servants. You want to serve the Lord? An impeccable character. Be filled with the Holy Spirit and have wisdom. Now, when they chose these, if you look in verse 5, among those that they chose were two people. One was named Stephen and another was named Philip. And later on, we're going to study in our book of Acts about Stephen.

Stephen preached one of the greatest sermons ever heard in the Bible. And listen, that was the kind of guy that they got to wait on tables. Why, he was a miracle worker, and yet he was waiting on tables. And then they chose Philip. Listen, Philip was that man that won the Ethiopian eunuch to Christ and opened up all North Africa to the Gospel. Of these deacons, if they were deacons, the first one was the first martyr and the second one was the first missionary. And they were chosen to wait on tables.

The first Christian martyr and the first Christian missionary. Hey, do you think there's something too small for you to do, mister? Do you think you're so important that you couldn't wait on tables? You're too big for God to use then. Thank God that God took some high-powered men, I mean some great men, high-powered men, and these men showed that they were like the Lord Jesus Christ because they were willing to minister in the small things and the mundane things.

How wonderful. You can understand why this church went on for the Lord Jesus Christ, because there was the spiritual ministry of the Word to feed the Word, and then there was the practical ministry to feed the widows, and everybody did what God had called them to do. And it wasn't that some were inferior and others were superior. It wasn't that some were too good to do what the other would not do, but each did what God assigned him to do, and the church began to grow and the murmuring stopped.

Now, let's review. Where there is healthy life, there is growth. Where there is healthy growth, there are problems. Where there are problems, there are God-given solutions. And where there is a God-given solution, there is even greater growth.

That's the last thing. There is even greater growth. Now look, if you will, in verse 7 and see what happened to this. The Word of God increased, and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly. Now, in verse 1 it says they were multiplied. Now it says they were multiplied greatly.

Do you know what that means? They're growing faster. They are growing now even greater than they grew before.

Why? Because they met a problem and they solved that problem in the name of Jesus. And listen, the problem was caused by growth, but when it was solved, there was even greater growth. That's the reason I told you that problems are opportunities in reverse. David said in Psalm 4, verse 1, thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress. Listen, you want to be enlarged? You want to grow?

Then you're going to be in distress. God's going to stretch you. There's no easy growth, but that's all right. Every problem that is met in the name of Jesus and solved in the power of God causes you to grow. I've met problems. I've had to carry them to the Lord. I've had to obey the Lord. Sometimes I've had to learn. Sometimes I've had to repent.

Sometimes I've had to adjust. But every time I've grown, thank God for the problems. If I never had a problem, I wouldn't know He could solve them. But then when the problems come and we meet those problems in the power of the Holy Spirit, it'll be true in your family. It'll be true in your spiritual life, your personal life.

It doesn't matter where it is, dear friend. When those problems come, because you're a growing Christian, carry it to the Lord, get a solution, get the answer, and while you're in distress, God is going to cause you to grow. Don't be pessimistic.

Don't let problems cause you to cave in. Thomas Alva Edison was a great man when he was almost 80 years old. He had a tremendous fire in his plant in New Jersey. I mean, it caused everything to burn down. It was underinsured, and he lost $2 million. I mean, that was $2 million in 1914.

That's when $2 million were $2 million. He lost $2 million. All of his experiments and everything were in there. He lost all that research.

His son was 24 years of age, and Edison was an old, old man. His son said, I hated to come out there to see my dad because I knew what was all in that factory. He said, it just broke my heart. He said, I went out there, and the old man was out there with the wind blowing in his white hair, and his face was all red from watching the fire.

It was just glowing. Said, I didn't know what he was going to say. He said to me, Son, go get your mother.

She's never seen anything like this. And he went and got his mother to see the fire. Then he said the next day, he was out there poking around in the rubble, all of it gone. He said, you know, there's something wonderful about a fire like this. It just seems to wipe out all our mistakes and give us a fresh start.

Three months later, his company presented to the world the first phonograph. Here was a man who was not defeated by his problems, but just simply used them as a springboard. I'm using that just as on the human level. How much more those of us who know the Lord. Do you know why this early church bounded and grew as it did? Because every time the devil attacked, they went to God and God counterattacked, and their problems became a springboard for greater growth.

Listen, friend, all hell can't stop a church that'll keep its eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank God for a growing church. Now, I know where there's life, there's growth. Where there's growth, there are problems. Where there are problems, there are solutions.

And where there are solutions, there's greater growth, and I'm glad to be right in the middle of it. If you would like to learn more about how you can know Jesus or deepen your relationship with Him, simply click the Discover Jesus link on our website, lwf.org. For a copy of this message or additional resources, visit our online store at lwf.org, or call 1-800-274-5683. Thank you.