Made for a Glorious Purpose

Good morning, church! Man, it is great to be in the downtown region this morning. Amen?

Can we please give a round of applause to our incredible teens who’ve served us this morning in this worship service? You know, we got to hear some powerful thoughts and convictions, and it’s an inspiring thing to see the next generation raising up among us. Amen?

My name is Chaz Zenteno, as Stuart said, and along with my beautiful wife Olivia, we lead the teen ministry in the central region of the Boston church. I want to give a special shout out to our central region teens and families who came down to encourage at this teen service here. It’s an amazing thing.

We also minister here in the downtown teen ministry as well as in the Spanish teen ministry, so we’re kind of hopping all over the place a little bit. But it’s a great and beautiful thing to be able to serve the younger generation.

Next slide, please. This is a picture — I believe this is my family right here. So, my wife Olivia, my three daughters — I’m from Los Angeles and I went the way of Kobe and just became a girl dad. From your left: my oldest daughter Emily is seven, my middle daughter Hadley is four, and my youngest, the little pudding pop, is Diana, and she is two. They are just an incredible joy in my life.

My wife and I moved to Boston in October 2021 from Los Angeles. We actually served in ministry with Stuart Ashley — Stewart is my brother-in-law, which is an amazing privilege and joy — in the Los Angeles church. Then we came to Boston to take a job leading the teen ministry, which has just been a dream for us to work alongside Phil and Chris, Arsenal, Mike and Kristen Lamb, and so many others really serving the teens.

This morning, we’re going to be in the book of Acts, chapter 6. If you want to turn there with me, we’ll be talking about purpose — the purpose we’re called to in Christ Jesus.

You know, this is a topic that I really love. I love the topic of purpose because it resonates — it’s what resonates most deeply and strongly with me ever since I studied the Bible and became a Christian. I didn’t grow up in the church. I was met and converted in the campus ministry. Are there campus ministries in here? Amen?

I came out of high school as an athlete and went into college thinking that sports, school, partying, and relationships with women were going to be my purpose — that was my mission. I was so fired up to go to college and dive headlong into those things, and very quickly realized the emptiness of those things.

It was just the right time when I was reached out to because I was searching for purpose. One of the biggest things I’d been feeling was this incredible lack of value — that my life literally added up to nothing. Every avenue I searched, every effort I wholeheartedly gave, was just coming up with this meaningless emptiness.

I was searching for something bigger. I was searching for something to give my life to.

I remember sitting outside of my English creative writing class my freshman year when a brother walked up to me and invited me to study the Bible. I gave a hard pass. I said, "I am not interested in that." He said, "No, no, come on. Let’s just sit down and read a scripture together." I said, "That sounds even less appealing than what you said to me at first." He goes, "Well, I’ll buy you a cup of coffee." I said, "Sold!" I’ll do a lot of things for caffeine, especially my freshman year.

So, we sat down, and little did this brother know I was wrestling with tremendous loneliness and suicidal ideations. I was in a pit of discouragement and despair trying to figure out how to get out — going in every direction, the darkest of directions. He sat down with me, and I’ll never forget exactly where we sat on campus, the table, the time of day, the day of the week.

He opened the scriptures, and I remember two things very quickly. He said, "Turn with me to the book of Jeremiah." I didn’t even know Jeremiah was a book of the Bible — I’d been going to church my whole life and realized I knew nothing. He said, "Turn with me to Jeremiah 29:11."

Jeremiah 29:11 is a passage many of us are familiar with. It says:

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."

This moment is burned into my brain because this was the moment that changed my eternal trajectory forever. Every line of this passage felt like an arrow straight to the heart of everything I’d been wondering — every question I had, every quest I felt my heart was searching for was answered in this passage.

In the word of God, I found my purpose. Two weeks later, I became a disciple.

This idea of men and women with purpose is not new. We’ve seen men and women with purpose change history all throughout human history and scriptural history. That’s what we’re looking at this morning in Acts chapter 6.

The title of my lesson is Made for Glorious Purpose.

In Acts chapter 6, we see the early church already going through tumultuous things — there’s been persecution, there’s been conviction that needed to be laid down in Acts 5 about offering, which resulted in the death of two members because they were deceitful about their offering. Take from that what you will.

In Acts 6, we pick up with a new passage. It says in verse 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."

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. 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, and we will give our attention to prayer and to the ministry of the word."

This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism.

They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them. 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.

Now, Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power, performed wonders and signs among the people. Opposition arose, however, from members of the synagogue of the Freedmen — as it was called — Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria, as well as the provinces of Cilicia and Asia.

They began to argue with Stephen but could not stand up to the wisdom the Spirit gave him as he spoke. Then they secretly persuaded some men to say:

"We’ve heard Stephen speak blasphemous words against Moses and God."

So they stirred up the people, the elders, and the teachers of the law. They seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin. They produced false witnesses who testified:

"This fellow never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law. For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs Moses handed down to us."

All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

This is an amazing passage — an amazing chapter.

If you’ve never read the book of Acts, I’m going to spoil it for you: the entire book of Acts is a little bit like this. Every chapter is kind of one barn burner after the next. Something crazy is happening, some persecution is going on, and it’s how the disciples processed it with the Holy Spirit, living out their purpose in an unbelievable way.

It starts ultimately with a great need. The Hellenistic Jews are coming and going:

"Man, we’ve got this great need in the church — our widows are being overlooked, we’re missing something, the widows are not being taken care of."

So they bring it to the apostles, and they ask:

"What do we do? How do we fix this?"

My first point this morning is: We must be prepared for purpose.

I don’t know if you knew this — if you’ve been visiting with us for a couple of weeks, if this is your first time, or if you’ve been a member of the church for 40 or 50 years — I’m going to break something to you that may be shocking, and I’m really sorry:

The church is not a perfect place.

Ah, what? The church isn’t the magical, conflict-free utopia on earth that we always imagined it would be. It’s not. I’m really sorry. It’s not that way.

And do you know why? Because you are in the church. It’s because I am in the church. It’s because we are the church — a bunch of flawed men and women who, without Jesus, are dysfunctional up and down. We bring our dysfunction in, and that dysfunction clashes with other people’s dysfunction.

Our strength is not in perfection. Our strength is that we have a perfect God who melds our dysfunction together and mends it and makes it whole. Amen?

The church, in all of that, has incredible needs — it really does. But God doesn’t look at the church and see just an ocean of overwhelming needs — like, "Oh my gosh, this is a train wreck."

God looks at the church and sees an ocean of solutions.

God looks at the church and sees men and women filled with His Spirit — specifically, men and women who are spiritually ready to answer when the call comes.

I’m a huge nerd. For all my love of sports and exercise and athleticism, I’m a massive nerd. One of my favorite books and movies is Dune.

In the book Dune, the main character is Paul. He has prophetic visions and is very introspective. There’s a line early on in chapter one, page 19, that has stuck with me since I read it. It says:

"Paul felt that he had been infected with terrible purpose."

That resonated with me.

In the story, “terrible” is ambiguous — it could mean something awful or something great, like terrible might.

Paul is wrestling with who he is and what purpose he’s been called to. It resonates because we haven’t been infected with terrible purpose — God has built in us the DNA of glorious purpose. He’s built in us the DNA of His own purpose.

There’s a big difference between being spiritual and being spiritually prepared to answer the call of God — someone who expects God to call on them one day for glorious purpose, someone who expects God to call on them to do something great.

It’s not prideful. It’s a faithful recognition that if the scriptures are true — if Genesis 1 is true, and I have been made in the image of God, the God who created the universe, the God who breathed stars out of His mouth, the God who tells lightning bolts where to go — then I have to have been made for more than this.

I have to have been made for something greater. That’s my DNA.

Then what this world has to offer is not enough. What I’m living with today is not enough, because I’ve been called to something better — purpose in God’s design.

God made you singular, apart from the entire human race. There has never been you and there never will be you again. God, in His perfect architecture, designed a purpose for you that’s been waiting since before the creation of the world for you to come and fulfill it — a glorious purpose.

This feeling of "Is this it?" — many of us have felt it before becoming disciples. That’s that scratch in the back of your brain that’s hardwired in there because you carry the DNA of God.

Unfortunately, many of us who are in Christ as disciples feel it too — "Is this it?" That’s not a problem with your glorious purpose. That’s a problem with your heart.

That’s a heart issue we’ve got to wrestle with.

Am I prepared? Is the reason I’m not fulfilling this glorious purpose, or haven’t recognized it, because I’m simply not prepared?

We have to go back to the truth that no matter where you are in your relationship with God, no matter how many years or not you have under your spiritual belt, you were made for this.

The question becomes, will you be prepared for it when it comes?

Do you live like it?

What have I been doing to spiritually prepare for what God might be waiting to call me for?

Do you dig deep into God’s Word in your personal time with Him, or do you meander aimlessly?

Are you open and humble with the men and women God has handpicked to be in your life at this time to help you grow, or do you live on a spiritual island?

Are you studying the Bible right now with the person who brought you out so you can become a disciple of Jesus, or are you living in spiritual cruise control because you expect God to call on everyone but you?

For some of us, it’s okay to sit back and say, "I’ll let the ministry staff do it. I’ll let so-and-so, the family group leader, or this elder do it." But the same DNA lives in you spiritually to be those things.

The reality is, you take your relationship with God differently when you expect one day the King of Kings will call you to great purpose.

You live your relationship with God differently.

This is what we see in Acts chapter 6.

The apostles get this incredible need brought before them — the care of widows.

From the Old Testament, from Deuteronomy and Leviticus, we know the care of widows is very near and dear to the heart of God. This is something He takes seriously, and the apostles took it appropriately and seriously.

They realize, "We need men and women who take their relationship with God differently in order to meet this need."

Men and women full of faith, full of the Spirit, and full of wisdom — who we can hand this responsibility to so the widows will be cared for to God’s honor and glory.

Then we can get back to meeting the needs we were designed to meet.

These seven brothers were prepared.

I like that it doesn’t say they had a great council or deliberation that took days. It says they chose seven men — like it was obvious — they had a surplus of spiritually qualified men fit to handle this.

These brothers were prepared.

Interestingly, these seven men don’t appear before or after Acts 6 and Acts 7 and Acts 22. They don’t appear in the rest of the Bible.

If we don’t go beyond what’s written, that means they were members of the congregation, members whose relationship with God was different, such that they could be handed such great responsibility.

The truth is, our fellowship is full of men and women who have been and are spiritually preparing themselves for great purpose.

When we consider what it takes to run a service like this — the band, the worship team, the AV team, the ushers, the welcoming team, the men and women who serve tirelessly in children’s ministry — there are so many.

When the call goes out, people raise their hand and say, "I’m ready. I want to take that on."

It is commendable. It is encouraging. It is inspiring when we get to see men and women rise to the call and the needs God is putting out there.

We need to do it more and more.

But we also need to recognize that when you’ve prepared yourself spiritually to answer God’s call.

You're putting yourself in something of a dangerous predicament as well, because when you've prepared yourself to answer God's call, you don't know where God's call is going to take you.

Which leads me to my second point this morning: An Eternity-Changing Purpose — Opposition.

In verse 8 it says,
"Now Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power, performed great wonders and signs among the people. Opposition arose, however, from members of the synagogue of the Freedmen, as it was called — Jews of Sirene and Alexandria, as well as the provinces of Cyssia and Asia — who began to argue with Stephen. But they could not stand up against the wisdom the Spirit gave him as he spoke. They secretly persuaded some men to say, 'We've heard Stephen speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.' "

And the rest of the story — I'm going to give you a spoiler for Acts chapter 7 — which, if you haven’t read it, go home and read it right after this. They pull some of the same tricks. They single out Stephen among these seven guys and go,
"Okay, we're going to start persecuting this guy. We're going to get him to fold."
So they publicly debate him — can't win — then they reach into their old bag of tricks, the same bag of tricks they used against Jesus: false witnesses, false testimony, polluting and corrupting everyone, turning people against him, trying to make him cave.

In Acts 7, after being seen with the face of an angel, Stephen stands up and preaches the word. He walks them through the entire history of the Jewish nation — all the patriarchs, all the spiritual decisions, how they followed God faithfully. He does this so honestly and truthfully that everyone is completely silent. They agree with everything he says — until the very end, when he drops the hammer:
"Your ancestors, was there ever a prophet they didn’t kill? You stiff-necked people who resist the Holy Spirit!"

They're stunned and furious. They have a mob mentality fit of rage. They drag him out into the streets and stone him to death. Stephen becomes the first martyr of the first century.

It’s important to note — Stephen was not in the ministry in the way we might expect. The scriptures don’t say he was an amazing public speaker, or that he was signed up for apologetics or preaching. He agreed to take care of the widows — that’s what he said yes to. And yet when God called him to that moment, Stephen did not back down.

He could have said, "Whoa, this is way above my pay grade. Let me go get Peter." He could have passed the buck. But he didn’t.

When he heard what they said about Jesus and about God, Stephen did not back down.

If you think about the short list of people you’d expect to be martyred first — maybe Peter, full of zeal but sometimes foolish; Paul, going around preaching and stirring up trouble; James, Jesus' brother — Stephen wasn’t on that list.

But Stephen was spiritually ready to meet the need.

How could this be, if he wasn’t formally trained or famous? His daily relationship with God was different. Where did he get the wisdom to recount Jewish history on the spot? He must have spent time in the scriptures, in the temple, reading the Old Testament. He had to have been full of faith, walking with Jesus, powerful in prayer.

He couldn’t have known when he raised his hand to take care of the widows what God would ask of him — that saying yes to a simple church need was saying yes to a greater purpose than he ever imagined.

And it’s not just about martyrdom or honor. As Stephen was being stoned, he prayed, “Lord, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Jesus himself stood to welcome him in heaven.

But who was there when Stephen was stoned? One little line says,
"A young man named Saul was there, holding the coats of those throwing stones and giving approval."

This is the same Saul who would later be blinded by Jesus and become the apostle Paul, writing most of the New Testament, planting churches all across Europe and the Mediterranean.

Did God call Stephen to meet the needs of widows to ultimately give up his life so Paul could become a disciple? Would Paul have had the same zeal if Stephen had cowered in that moment?

In Acts 22, Paul recounts his conversion, saying, “I was there when the blood of the martyr Stephen was shed; I was holding their coats.”

Imagine what that did to Paul’s heart.

Would we all be here today if Stephen hadn’t said yes to taking care of those widows? Would the New Testament be what it is? Would the church have been planted?

We can never know when we step out in faith what God is doing behind the scenes, what our decisions will lead to.

If I boil down how I’m standing here today preaching in 2025, it started when I said yes to leading a Bible discussion on campus because someone was sick. I didn’t know where it would lead. I might have said no — it felt like a lot.

Sometimes faith takes a leap: moving across the country, saying yes to the unknown.

Second Peter 1:3 says,
"His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these, he has given us his very great and precious promises so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires."

For this reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection, and love.

If you possess these qualities in increasing measure, you will not be ineffective or unproductive.

So the question is: what small decision of faith has God been putting on your heart? What is He nagging you about? What have you been passing off, hoping someone else will say yes?

You don’t know the eternal ripples your yes might cause.

If we can have a spirit like Stephen — prepared for purpose — we can embrace God’s eternity-changing call. God can take our small acts of faith and turn them into life-changing, transformative things.

Amen, amen.