"His lord said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.'

He that [is] faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he that is unjust in what is least is also unjust in much.

And if you were not faithful in what belongs to another, who will give to you what is yours?

And he said to him, 'Well [done], good servant; because you were faithful in a very little, have authority over ten cities.'

just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life [as] a ransom for many."

whether ministry, [let us use it] in our ministry; whether teaching; in the teaching;

whether exhorting, in the exhortation; whether sharing, with simplicity; whether leading, with diligence; whether showing mercy, with cheerfulness.

I urge you, brothers (you know the household of Stephanas, that it is the firstfruits of Achaia, and that they have devoted themselves to the ministry of the saints)

For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister.

As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

If anyone speaks, [let him speak] as the utterances of God. If anyone serves, [let him serve] as from strength, as God supplies, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom is the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.

But when he arrived at the stairs, he had to be carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the crowd.

And the word was pleasing before all the congregation, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch,

And Stephen, full of faith and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people.

And looking intently at him, all those who sat in the council saw his face like [the] face of an angel.

Then the high priest said, "Are these things so?"

and said to him, 'Go out from your land and from your relatives, and come to a land which I will show you.'

And He gave him no inheritance in it, not even a place to put his foot on, and He promised to give it to him for a possession, and to his descendants after him, though he had no child.

'And the nation which they will serve, I will judge,' said God, 'and after these things they will come out and serve Me in this place.'

"And the patriarchs, being jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt; and God was with him,

And a famine came over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction, and our fathers could find no provisions..

And the second [visit] Joseph was made known to his brothers, and Joseph's family became known to Pharaoh.

So Jacob went down to Egypt; and he died, he and our fathers.

Now when the time of the promise drew near which God swore to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt,

This [king] took advantage of our race, and oppressed our fathers, to make their babies exposed, in order that they might not preserve their lives.

But when he was exposed, the daughter of Pharaoh took him up, and brought him up for herself as a son.

Now when he had turned forty years old, it came into his heart to look upon his brothers, the sons of Israel.

For he supposed that his brothers understood that God was giving to them deliverance by his hand, but they did not understand.

"But the one wronging his neighbor pushed him away, saying, 'Who appointed you a ruler and a judge over us?

Now Moses, at this saying, fled and became a stranger in the land of Midian, where he begot two sons.

And Moses, seeing it, marveled at the sight; and as he approached it to observe closely, the voice of the Lord came to him,

'Then the LORD said to him, "Remove your sandal from your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground.

This Moses whom they denied, saying, 'Who appointed you a ruler and a judge?' This man God sent as a ruler and redeemer by the hand of the Angel who appeared to him in the bush.

"This is that Moses who said to the sons of Israel, 'The LORD our God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brothers.

whom our fathers did not desire to be obedient, but they rejected [him] and returned in their heart back to Egypt,

And they made a calf in those days, offered a sacrifice to the idol, and were rejoicing in the works of their hands.

Indeed you carried up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, the images which you made to worship them; and I will relocate you beyond Babylon.'

which also our fathers, having received in turn, also brought in with Joshua into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers until the days of David,

But Solomon built Him a house.

'Heaven is My throne, and earth a footstool for My feet. What kind of house will you build for Me? says the LORD, or what is the place of My rest?

"You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, you also do.

who have received the law as [the] ordinances of angels and you did not keep it."

and most of the brothers in the Lord, having been persuaded by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word fearlessly.

But suffering before and being spitefully treated at Philippi, just as you know, we were bold in our God to speak to you the gospel of God with much conflict.

You therefore, my child, be empowered by the grace which is in Christ Jesus.