Speaker 1: The other one's going to just welcome Austin as he preaches.
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1: It's only formal and this is what you do when you speak at someone else's church.
Speaker 1: After they say thank you for coming, then you turn around and you say, hey, church, can we give it up for your pastor this morning?
Speaker 1: I think that's what I'm supposed to do.
Speaker 1: I think so.
Speaker 1: Aside from being just a great friend, nate is probably the strongest pastor in Solano County.
Speaker 1: He can probably squat the most weight.
Speaker 1: And I'm jealous.
Speaker 1: I will say I was not going to wear my coat, and then Nate came up in his t-shirt and I said let me put this thing on because, man, sheesh, I'm here with my wife Mercy, who is absolutely incredible.
Speaker 1: My kids are in your kids' ministry right now.
Speaker 1: I got three boys right there Micah Hendricks and Kyle Micah's nine.
Speaker 1: He plays hockey.
Speaker 1: I had him watch Mighty Ducks one day and he was like I want to do that.
Speaker 1: I said, great, let's try it, hendricks.
Speaker 1: And that is Hendricks, like Jimmy Hendricks.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1: He plays soccer and probably has the most infectious laugh that you'll ever witness in your life.
Speaker 1: Our youngest Kyle, not Kyle, kyle, he's four years old.
Speaker 1: Kyle is Portuguese.
Speaker 1: For rejoice, we're not Portuguese.
Speaker 1: You guys know, when you name your kids, it just sounded good in the moment, so much pressure.
Speaker 1: They're like give your kid a name, they're just going to carry it for the rest of their lives.
Speaker 1: No pressure, but make sure you pick the right one.
Speaker 1: And so we say Kyle, rejoice.
Speaker 1: We're not Portuguese, but hey, I'm grateful to be here.
Speaker 1: Number one, let me say this there's a lot of churches that you could be at today in Solano County and you're here, and that's important that you guys are here.
Speaker 1: When I walked in, I would tell you this you guys probably have the biggest.
Speaker 1: In church language you would call it like first impressions team or hospitality team.
Speaker 1: You guys probably have the biggest team I've ever seen at a church.
Speaker 1: I walked in and I think just about every person smiled and said good morning, even if you weren't scheduled to serve on the team.
Speaker 1: I felt like I was being hosted well and you guys have some pretty good coffee back there.
Speaker 1: So thank you guys for just for hosting me and my family well today.
Speaker 1: Here's my hope.
Speaker 1: My hope is today that you would know that God is not looking for perfect people.
Speaker 1: God can move through perfect people, but God is not looking for perfect people.
Speaker 1: He's looking for everyday, ordinary people like you and me to go out and to proclaim the gospel and to affect change in Sassoon and Solano County.
Speaker 1: He's looking for a group of people who would show up on New Year's Eve at church at 10.30AM, who would gather here in this place to worship God, when most of the other churches are mine included are at home.
Speaker 1: Because we did church online, you know we're like staying in your pajamas, but God is looking for a group of people who would just come.
Speaker 1: He's not looking for your, your accolades or your degrees.
Speaker 1: He's not looking for your Bible knowledge or how many years of seminary you went through.
Speaker 1: He's looking for people, just everyday, ordinary people.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like if you've read the Bible at all, you know Jesus.
Speaker 1: He picks like 12 people, just ordinary people.
Speaker 1: They didn't know which way to go.
Speaker 1: They're just ordinary people.
Speaker 1: Maybe they should take it slow.
Speaker 1: Take it no John Legend fans.
Speaker 1: Okay, we're going to be reading today from the book of Acts, acts 4.
Speaker 1: Acts is in the New Testament.
Speaker 1: The Bible is split into two parts, the old and the new.
Speaker 1: The Old Testament speaks to our need of a Savior and gives us all of the prophecy, to kind of frame what happens in the New Testament, which is Jesus coming and fulfilling that prophecy.
Speaker 1: And so Acts 4 finds us in the place after Jesus has already ascended to heaven, and now the disciples and everyone else has gathered in what we would call today church.
Speaker 1: This is kind of like the first experience of modern day church as we get into the book of Acts after Jesus has ascended, and so we're going to do a little bit of reading today, acts 4.
Speaker 1: 1 through 12.
Speaker 1: And it reads as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them.
Speaker 1: This is Peter and John.
Speaker 1: After Jesus ascends to heaven, they go out and they just do the stuff that Jesus told them to do they heal someone, and now they're in trouble because they've healed someone.
Speaker 1: The Sadducees were greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead, and they arrested Peter and John and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening, but many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about 5000.
Speaker 1: I think it's so cool, passenet, that you were just talking about numbers, because you'll hear a lot in churches today.
Speaker 1: It's not about the numbers.
Speaker 1: It's not about the numbers and while I agree it also is about the numbers.
Speaker 1: 5000 people were saved.
Speaker 1: If it wasn't about the numbers, we wouldn't pay attention to that.
Speaker 1: We wouldn't care that 5000 people repented of their sin and turned to Jesus as their Savior.
Speaker 1: If it wasn't about the numbers, we wouldn't care that 5000 people experienced freedom and liberty.
Speaker 1: If it wasn't about the numbers, we wouldn't care that 5000 people, instead of going to hell, which is a very real place, have now decided, and made a conscious decision, to go to heaven.
Speaker 1: If it wasn't about the numbers, we wouldn't even read about this Verse five.
Speaker 1: On the next day, the rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem with Annas, the High Priest, and Caiaphas, and John and Alexander and all who were of the High Priestly family, and when they had set them in the midst, they inquired by what power or by what name did you do this?
Speaker 1: I love this.
Speaker 1: Peter is one of my favorite people in the Bible, verse eight.
Speaker 1: The Bible says then Peter filled with the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: We're just going to stop there and pray really quick, and I know we've prayed like 14 times, but that's okay.
Speaker 1: By the end of today we'll probably pray 22 times.
Speaker 1: So let's just pray for the word and what we receive today.
Speaker 1: Father, we thank you today that your word is alive and active, that it is not dead, but it wields power to transform lives.
Speaker 1: We pray today, god, that you would open the eyes of our hearts to see the revelation that we can find in this book, that it is not just a book, but it is revelation of God's heart for his sons and daughters and the pointing to Jesus, our Savior.
Speaker 1: And so we pray today.
Speaker 1: Would you speak to us, would you penetrate the layers and the depths of our hearts?
Speaker 1: Would you soften our hearts to receive your word, to know that, god, you can move through every day, ordinary people and God.
Speaker 1: Would you be glorified today?
Speaker 1: Would you receive this?
Speaker 1: Coming to church as worship to you In Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 1: I heard a commentator once say this no one attribute is more needful today for Christ witness than Holy Spirit boldness.
Speaker 1: Due to Holy Spirit fullness, there's nothing more necessary today in the church than Holy Spirit boldness, because we've been so filled with the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: But I know the temptation.
Speaker 1: The temptation is to think no, the thing that we actually need is my seminary degree.
Speaker 1: I know the temptation in church.
Speaker 1: In order for me to make a difference for the kingdom of God, what you need is my church attendance.
Speaker 1: Man, I'm going to do something for God.
Speaker 1: Okay, I know what God needs for me to make an impact.
Speaker 1: He needs my 401K.
Speaker 1: God needs my middle class suburban family with the perfect smiles, engaged in all the community activities on the board of the PTA at my school.
Speaker 1: This is the temptation that we have, but here's the reality.
Speaker 1: What God needs from you is not any of those things, although they're great.
Speaker 1: What God needs from you is to be so filled with the Holy Spirit that it overflows and shows as boldness and courage in the eyes of everyone else.
Speaker 1: It is not about a degree or what you've achieved or accomplished.
Speaker 1: It is about a heart yielded to Jesus, our King, and a spirit inside of us that says send me, I'll go, and whatever you ask of me, lord, I'll do it.
Speaker 1: This is what the world needs.
Speaker 1: The world doesn't need your good character and being a kind person, although it's good it's good to wave to people and say good morning.
Speaker 1: The world doesn't need your doing of good deeds and community service, although it's good and it looks good on social media when you post about it too.
Speaker 1: The world doesn't need any of that.
Speaker 1: What the world needs is for you to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: The world needs you coming to Jesus with a broken and contrite heart.
Speaker 1: The world needs you coming to Jesus with a poor spirit that says yet, not as I will, but as you will.
Speaker 1: What the world actually needs is not for you to sing all the words that were on the screen, although there's some great words that we just sang together.
Speaker 1: The world actually needs you knowing that without Jesus we can do nothing, but with Him we can do all things.
Speaker 1: I love what Paul says.
Speaker 1: There's this prayer that he prays for the Church of Ephesus in Ephesians 3.
Speaker 1: He says that you would have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.
Speaker 1: That you would be filled with all of the fullness of God.
Speaker 1: I want you to pause as we look at that verse that you would be filled with all the fullness of God.
Speaker 1: What I like to do when I read the Bible is it's actually pretty challenging for me.
Speaker 1: At the same time, I like to ask questions.
Speaker 1: And when you read the Bible, it's important to ask questions because not everything's black and white.
Speaker 1: I wish it was.
Speaker 1: I wish it would just be like hey, do this, don't do that, go this way, don't go that way.
Speaker 1: You know, the kind of gray area of the Bible where I have to interpret what it actually means is kind of hard and challenging for me.
Speaker 1: But this is very clear.
Speaker 1: Paul says my prayer is that you would be strengthened to be filled with all of the fullness of God.
Speaker 1: Well, if that's the case, paul, that means that there's some things that I might not be filled with.
Speaker 1: There might be some of God that I've yet to experience.
Speaker 1: Let me convince you for a second, because some of you are like well, I'm pretty sure I'm full and filled with all of God.
Speaker 1: Mark five there's a story where Jesus is coming.
Speaker 1: They bring a child to heal.
Speaker 1: They bring a child to Jesus to heal.
Speaker 1: The child is almost dead and they say hey, why bother the teacher?
Speaker 1: Isn't it interesting that they didn't say hey, why bother the healer?
Speaker 1: They said why bother the teacher?
Speaker 1: Isn't it interesting that they didn't say why bother the redeemer?
Speaker 1: They said why bother the teacher.
Speaker 1: Isn't it interesting that they said why bother the teacher instead of why bother the savior?
Speaker 1: Here's what I found in my life.
Speaker 1: Many of us have experienced a part of God.
Speaker 1: You may know God today as comforter, but you've yet to experience him as healer.
Speaker 1: You may know God today as provider, but you've yet to experience him as hope.
Speaker 1: You may know God today as friend, and that's great, but you've yet to experience him as redeemer.
Speaker 1: There is a fullness of God that we ought to experience.
Speaker 1: I told God at the beginning of this year.
Speaker 1: We were at our prayer.
Speaker 1: We do a prayer conference every year in the city.
Speaker 1: I said God, I don't just want to know a part of you, I don't just want a piece of you, I want the whole thing.
Speaker 1: I said God, I'm not coming for just the forgiveness, I'm coming for the whole bag.
Speaker 1: Give me everything, god.
Speaker 1: I don't want to just know you on Sunday morning at 1030 in Sassoon City at First Christian Church, I want to know you Monday through Saturday.
Speaker 1: I want to know every part of you.
Speaker 1: And this is the vision that I think we ought to have as Christians.
Speaker 1: What a vision for your life of knowing who God is and receiving revelation of who God is for eternity.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine this?
Speaker 1: A life where every day you wake up and you experience something new from God?
Speaker 1: Can you just imagine every day I get to wake up and he reveals something to me that I'd never known about him?
Speaker 1: No matter how many years I've been in church, no matter how many Bible studies I've been a part of, no matter how many Sunday services I've served in?
Speaker 1: Can you imagine that every morning you can wake up and experience something new from him?
Speaker 1: New Lamentations 3 says his mercies are new Every morning.
Speaker 1: Every morning, that means the revelation of mercy I get from him today is going to be different from the revelation of mercy I get from him tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Every morning that was my surprised voice.
Speaker 1: Every morning.
Speaker 1: What Every morning, acts 4 goes on to read the members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and this is what I love.
Speaker 1: We love to talk about the boldness of Peter and John because, especially as we're in a church, we love to talk about how can we preach the good news outside of this building, and then oftentimes our prayers are something like this God give me boldness to be a good witness at work.
Speaker 1: God, give me courage to say something and to preach the good news.
Speaker 1: And when I say preach, we're not saying that you would stand on a pulpit with a microphone and preach, but you would proclaim the good work of Jesus.
Speaker 1: And so our prayers oftentimes revolve around make me bold and give me courage, and those are great things.
Speaker 1: But I want you to see what it says.
Speaker 1: When they saw the boldness of Peter and John for they could see that they were ordinary people with no special training and they recognized that they had been with Jesus they saw their boldness and courage.
Speaker 1: And here's what they noted these were ordinary people with no special training and they had been with Jesus.
Speaker 1: I remember when I first started going to church I was 17 years old.
Speaker 1: A senior in high school Went to a Southern Baptist church.
Speaker 1: Because he lives.
Speaker 1: I can face tomorrow, come on, I know there's someone in here.
Speaker 1: You know the song Where's my piano at?
Speaker 1: Because he lives.
Speaker 1: Oh, I love that song.
Speaker 1: Southern Baptist Church.
Speaker 1: I remember I would go there and the pastor was like he would say things like this God can use regular, ordinary, everyday people.
Speaker 1: My thought was always but you don't know me, I get it.
Speaker 1: I get it, pastor.
Speaker 1: You're up there.
Speaker 1: You're supposed to say things like this.
Speaker 1: You're supposed to tell me that God can use everyday, ordinary people, but you don't know what I did, you don't know what I've experienced, you don't know what I've been through.
Speaker 1: And maybe you're saying the same thing today.
Speaker 1: Hey, you don't know.
Speaker 1: 2023 was the hardest year of my life.
Speaker 1: Don't tell me that God can use me.
Speaker 1: You're in the room today and you're like man.
Speaker 1: I feel the weight and the heaviness of this last year and you want me to come in and expect God to use me.
Speaker 1: I barely got out of bed this morning and here's what I would say You're right, I don't know what you've been through.
Speaker 1: I don't know the challenges, I don't know the grief, I don't know the pain, I don't know the confusion.
Speaker 1: I don't know any of it and I would never make light of those things either.
Speaker 1: And I would also say this and God is all powerful.
Speaker 1: I think we can come into a setting like this and say I've been through all of these things and this year has been hard, and then we use the word but, but God is all powerful, and that kind of.
Speaker 1: That kind of says, like everything you just said before, I said but doesn't actually matter.
Speaker 1: But all that stuff does matter.
Speaker 1: This is our very lives and the things that we've experienced and what we've been through, and so I would never say, but I would say and Because all those things could have been hard and challenging and God is still powerful.
Speaker 1: Those things have been difficult and God is yet sovereign.
Speaker 1: Those things have been challenging and he still sits on the throne.
Speaker 1: I love this verse.
Speaker 1: This has been something that I've been reading all year and what's kind of helped me Negotiate and reconcile how a holy and perfect God can use me in the midst of all of the stuff that I've been through Relations, forces and because you are sons, god has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, crying Abba, father, let me explain what that means Inside of you, inside of your heart, in the church, in the Pentecostal church.
Speaker 1: My grandfather was a pastor of a Pentecostal church for like 30 years, so in the Pentecostal church I think I found my crew.
Speaker 1: You guys started laughing.
Speaker 1: Okay, let me, let me just test it.
Speaker 1: God is good.
Speaker 1: Oh, come on.
Speaker 1: And all the time hey, nate, you got a good church here.
Speaker 1: Man, here's that.
Speaker 1: Here's what that means in Galatians four.
Speaker 1: The Bible says that in our inner man, which is our spirit inside of us, the spirit inside of us longs to cry out Abba, father.
Speaker 1: So there's this longing on the inside of us that longs to seek out God, and then there's all the stuff that's happened to the outside of us.
Speaker 1: Here's my encouragement for you.
Speaker 1: One of the biggest battles and challenges that we'll have as Christians is to get the exterior of who we are to line up with what the interior already wants to do.
Speaker 1: Listen, the inside of you already wants to cry out to God.
Speaker 1: The inside of you, always, it already wants to worship him.
Speaker 1: On the inside of you, god is set on the inside of you something that longs to know the father more, and our greatest challenge is to get this thing on the outside of us to do what our spirit already wants to do.
Speaker 1: On the inside of you, god has wired you to affect change in this city and in this community, and one of the greatest challenges you'll have is to get the exterior of you to line up with what God already wants to do on the inside of you.
Speaker 1: Listen, there are dreams and prayers that you have prayed and you have thought of.
Speaker 1: There are things that God has set in your heart to do and it's probably been discouraging because you haven't seen those things actually come to fruition.
Speaker 1: But there's a longing on the inside of you that God has placed in your heart to do something for the gospel in this community.
Speaker 1: It's already on the inside of you and we just have to get our bodies to line up with what the inside of us wants to do.
Speaker 1: I love this story in Acts 4 because what it shows us is that God can take the most ordinary of people and do something extraordinary through us.
Speaker 1: All you have to do is bring your ordinariness to him and watch what he does with that.
Speaker 1: You guys remember the story where Jesus and the disciples are on the hillside and there's like crowds and crowds of people and they're like where are we going to feed them?
Speaker 1: And Peter steals this little boy's lunchables and he says here, jesus, take this.
Speaker 1: Jesus can take the most ordinary thing and make it absolutely extraordinary.
Speaker 1: Jesus can take the most ordinary people and do something significant through them.
Speaker 1: Here's what Jesus has done.
Speaker 1: I just want to praise him today.
Speaker 1: Jesus took this Filipino kid out of the middle of the Pacific Ocean who grew up in Hawaii, all the way to the Bay Area from a house that was used to drug abuse and violence and alcoholism.
Speaker 1: He took this little boy out of the Pacific Ocean and brought him here, who endured losing his mom, his sister and grandfather all within 18 months, and called him to come in front of a church and preach the good news of Jesus.
Speaker 1: And all it took was this guy to bring his ordinariness to Jesus and say do something with this.
Speaker 1: And so here's my call to you First Christian Church in Sassoon.
Speaker 1: I know you've been through stuff, I know it's been challenging and I know that he's still seated on a throne and I know he can take all of those things that you've experienced and he can put them in a big slow cooker like some man.
Speaker 1: He puts it in a big slow cooker and just makes it all up and makes something extraordinary out of what you would deem the most challenging and difficult times of your life if you would bring your ordinary to him.
Speaker 1: We're not asking as pastors, we're not asking for you to do everything.
Speaker 1: We're not asking that you be the most educated person on the Bible and you bring your eschatology to the church.
Speaker 1: What we're asking is that you bring your ordinariness in light of a holy and perfect God who can do all things, and you let Him mold you and shape you.
Speaker 1: You want to see the gospel preached in this city.
Speaker 1: You come and you bring yourself as plain as can be Nothing shiny, nothing fancy about us, just us and you watch what God can do with your ordinariness.
Speaker 1: I was praying last night y'all better have a timer up there.
Speaker 1: I told you I went to a Pentecostal church.
Speaker 1: I'll go all day.
Speaker 1: I might keep going.
Speaker 1: I was that's one of my Pentecostal people back there.
Speaker 1: Hey, just in prayer last night and what we were going to be talking about today, I just had this feeling and I could be way off, and that's okay if I am.
Speaker 1: But you know, with Jesus I feel like you just got to shoot your shot and see if it hits.
Speaker 1: And so, in prayer, and I felt like God would say to someone today who's maybe had a really heavy 2023 that in the midst of all of that, that you can still find freedom and liberty, that none of that has gone to waste, that God can use that to create something beautiful.
Speaker 1: There's actually a story in Genesis 27 with Jacob and Esau.
Speaker 1: You guys remember the story.
Speaker 1: Jacob was kind of shady Took his brother's stuff.
Speaker 1: Jacob was shady Stole his brother's blessing.
Speaker 1: And if you read Genesis, you'll see this tension that Esau has.
Speaker 1: He's like kind of trying to move on but he's still holding on to what was supposed to be his.
Speaker 1: But he knows he should move forward but he's still like this was supposed to be mine.
Speaker 1: And the word comes in Genesis 27, verse 40, speaking to Esau when you decide to break free, you will shake this yoke from your neck.
Speaker 1: The word comes to Esau when you decide to break free, you will shake this yoke from your neck.
Speaker 1: And what that speaks to is the weight.
Speaker 1: The yoke was a weight that would be on the neck of the oxen.
Speaker 1: And maybe you're here at the end of 2023 and you feel like man.
Speaker 1: I've just been carrying weight this whole year.
Speaker 1: It's been heavy, pastor.
Speaker 1: You don't understand what I've experienced this year.
Speaker 1: It's been hard, I'm tired.
Speaker 1: And Genesis 27, verse 40, I think, is a word for someone today that when you decide to break free, you will shake off the weight that you've been carrying.
Speaker 1: That freedom is available to be received, but is also a decision that you have to make that you will possess this freedom.
Speaker 1: If I was in the Pentecostal Church today, I would say come on, turn your neighbor, tell him to shake it off, and I would have everyone do this.
Speaker 1: But we're not there today.
Speaker 1: We're not there today, and so I'll tell you this you ought to make a decision to receive freedom.
Speaker 1: You ought to make a decision today that it is for freedom that he has set us free, not so that you can carry that same weight into 2024, but so that you can shake it off today.
Speaker 1: In Jesus name, come on, there were ordinary people who had no special training.
Speaker 1: There's some things that we say in church that I feel like we don't, we don't know that we really mean them, we just kind of say them Like.
Speaker 1: When we say like, like, god can use regular, everyday, ordinary people, and it doesn't matter what you've accomplished or achieved or what you learned, or what college or how much money is in your retirement account, and it can almost sound like God can't use educated, well-offy you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Like it would make it such a big deal that God uses the least likely and the overlooked.
Speaker 1: Well, god, what about the other people?
Speaker 1: They're people too.
Speaker 1: Like, can he use it?
Speaker 1: It's so weird that we say stuff like this because God did use educated people.
Speaker 1: He used Moses, daniel, paul, st Augustine, martin Luther, billy Graham.
Speaker 1: Like God does use educated and uneducated people, and here's what I want you to know today it's just as wrong to think that formal education disqualifies someone from being effective for the gospel as it is to think that it automatically qualifies someone.
Speaker 1: And so it's not that God overlooks the people who did get their degree and maybe have their finances in order, but that God can use both and he can use them both equally, and that there's actually no prerequisite or requirement in order for God to use you, that he can work through your ordinariness.
Speaker 1: I love what Mark Batterson says.
Speaker 1: If you've ever read the book the Circle Maker, he says God doesn't call the qualified, he qualifies the called.
Speaker 1: And guess what?
Speaker 1: We've all been called, and so what that means is God's qualified you, and so, as you sit in this seat today, without anything extra, you are qualified to go out and proclaim the good news.
Speaker 1: If you've witnessed anything that God has done, is there anyone in this room who's experienced the goodness of God?
Speaker 1: Raise your hand.
Speaker 1: You are qualified.
Speaker 1: You are qualified to proclaim the good news.
Speaker 1: But here's what we do.
Speaker 1: It's Sunday, right tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Maybe some of us have to go to work Tuesday.
Speaker 1: For sure, everyone's gonna be at work.
Speaker 1: Here's what's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: I already know it happens every week.
Speaker 1: You're gonna go to work.
Speaker 1: You're gonna go in your break room, because that's where everyone goes to hide from work.
Speaker 1: You're gonna get coffee.
Speaker 1: Your co-workers are gonna say oh, how was your weekend?
Speaker 1: And you're gonna say it was cool, it was okay.
Speaker 1: You do anything exciting?
Speaker 1: No, hold on, oh girl, you better preach.
Speaker 1: Like, as Christians, can we be honest?
Speaker 1: Like, can we be honest when people say, hey, anything exciting happened over the weekend?
Speaker 1: Can we say you know what?
Speaker 1: I got together with my church family.
Speaker 1: We got to worship the Lord, we encountered Him, we got to hear an encouraging and an edifying word for us to go out and proclaim the God.
Speaker 1: Can we be honest?
Speaker 1: Instead of no, nothing happened.
Speaker 1: Now, it was actually boring, it was a terrible weekend.
Speaker 1: We just got to be honest.
Speaker 1: Listen, we have all been qualified to proclaim the good news because we've witnessed and experienced the Lord in some way.
Speaker 1: And so the call is not to go out there and the call is not and I'm sure Pastor Nate can appreciate this the call is not to go out there and every single person you meet you say hi, my name is Austin.
Speaker 1: The Lord has been so good, I hope that you worship Him with me.
Speaker 1: Like that's not the call, but the call is to be honest hey, how was your weekend, man?
Speaker 1: I got to worship the Lord, I got to encounter Him.
Speaker 1: It was great.
Speaker 1: They had no special training but they were recognized as people who had been with Jesus.
Speaker 1: I remember earlier this year, pastor Nate, you started posting a bunch of videos and pictures of you hiking what was the most difficult hike.
Speaker 1: You did Nothing.
Speaker 1: Did you see his legs?
Speaker 1: Nothing's too difficult for Most difficult one Tilden Park.
Speaker 1: Pastor Nate went to Tilden Park, he experienced it and he went to the top and he walked the whole thing to Tilden Park.
Speaker 1: I've never done it, but I saw a YouTube video on it.
Speaker 1: If Pastor Nate and I were to say, hey, we're going to take groups of people on a tour to Tilden Park and he has been there, he has evidence, pictures, or it didn't happen, he's got the pictures.
Speaker 1: I've never been there.
Speaker 1: I saw a YouTube video.
Speaker 1: Who would you rather follow?
Speaker 1: Because he had been there, because he had experienced it?
Speaker 1: They recognized that they were bold, but they also noted that there were ordinary people with no special training who had been with Jesus.
Speaker 1: You know what's really hard to do.
Speaker 1: It's really hard to proclaim the good news when you've never experienced it.
Speaker 1: You know it's really challenging to tell people how good Jesus is when you've never encountered Him.
Speaker 1: They recognized that they had been with Jesus and, in the same way that Pastor Nate has already been, he's experienced it.
Speaker 1: What he's saying is guys, I've been to the peak, come with me is the same thing that Peter and John are doing right here in Acts 4.
Speaker 1: Them healing someone wasn't because of their courage or boldness.
Speaker 1: Their healing of someone was because they had been with Jesus.
Speaker 1: Their courage and boldness wasn't because they just prayed all day.
Speaker 1: God make me bold.
Speaker 1: God, give me courage.
Speaker 1: God make me bold.
Speaker 1: God, give me courage.
Speaker 1: It was because they had been with Jesus.
Speaker 1: We can talk all we want about evangelism and proclaiming the good news and sharing the gospel, but if we do not talk about Jesus, we will wield no power for the kingdom of God.
Speaker 1: Here's, here's.
Speaker 1: I'm going to slow down.
Speaker 1: You should have gave me a stool to sit down on.
Speaker 1: What's most important when we talk about the good news is that we share our encounter with Jesus.
Speaker 1: If it's not about encountering Jesus, then what are we even doing?
Speaker 1: It's not that Peter and John had been to experienced church or first Christian church.
Speaker 1: It's that Peter and John had been with Jesus.
Speaker 1: It's not that they had been with good people who have good character and are kind.
Speaker 1: It's that they had been with Jesus.
Speaker 1: It's not that they found a good community with a great youth group and an excellent kids ministry program.
Speaker 1: It's that they had been with Jesus.
Speaker 1: If it's not Jesus, then what is it?
Speaker 1: If we're not going to depend on Jesus, then what are we depending on Our programs?
Speaker 1: If it's not Jesus, then who is it Us, our good deeds, our working up of courage and our self righteousness to try to get people to understand who Jesus is?
Speaker 1: Or can it just be Jesus?
Speaker 1: Nothing replaces him.
Speaker 1: Listen, you can read all the books you want, you can listen to all the sermons, you can pray all the prayers, you can go to all the VBSs, but nothing will replace encountering Jesus.
Speaker 1: There's nothing like it.
Speaker 1: I've only been a Christian since I was 17 years old.
Speaker 1: That's 18 years of walking with God, and I will tell you in this year I've encountered him more in this one year than I have in the previous 18 years combined.
Speaker 1: There's nothing like encountering Jesus.
Speaker 1: You can come to a great church service and not encounter Jesus.
Speaker 1: You can be a part of a great community service event and not encounter Jesus.
Speaker 1: You can recite all kinds of liturgy and not experience or encounter Jesus.
Speaker 1: But the moment you encounter Him, there's something inside of you that says I've got to let everyone know.
Speaker 1: There's nothing like it.
Speaker 1: We're going to be closing here in a moment, but I want to speak to this idea.
Speaker 1: I want to speak to all the people in the room who would consider themselves having been churched.
Speaker 1: Like you've been in church for a while, like you get it.
Speaker 1: You can tell me all 66 names of the Bible by memorization.
Speaker 1: You can tell me where each book of the Bible is found.
Speaker 1: You can recite scripture and you can lead us in prayer and all of that is great.
Speaker 1: But I want to speak to that demographic graphic really quick, because there's a temptation for us to believe that when you've experienced Jesus and you've confessed your sin and you've received Him as Lord and Savior, that that's all you'll ever experience of Jesus for the rest of your life.
Speaker 1: There's a lie and a temptation to believe that because I've encountered Him once, I've encountered Him in His entirety.
Speaker 1: I remember my wife and I got married.
Speaker 1: This upcoming year we'll be celebrating 11 years.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 1: I keep count, I memorized, and what they don't, people don't tell you.
Speaker 1: When you get married, I want to make sure I don't get in trouble.
Speaker 1: So let me think about what I'm going to say.
Speaker 1: First, I'm looking to all the more experienced gentlemen in the crowd for some support here today.
Speaker 1: I'll say it like this when my wife and I stood at the altar and they said, you know, they had us recite all these things, and then I said I do, what I was saying was I'm committing to all those things and I love you, based on what I know to be true about you up until this point.
Speaker 1: Now, hold on, you might have to start a new marriage coaching course in the new year.
Speaker 1: What I was saying was I do love you, based on everything I've known and experienced about you up until this point, because there's going to be more to experience and there's going to be more to fall in love with.
Speaker 1: Y'all trying to get me in trouble today.
Speaker 1: Y'all trying to get me in trouble.
Speaker 1: Uh-uh, I'm going to be in trouble.
Speaker 1: I'm going to be in trouble.
Speaker 1: Y'all trying to get me in trouble?
Speaker 1: Uh-uh, not today.
Speaker 1: There's more to experience.
Speaker 1: Every day I get to wake up to my wife and experience something new about her.
Speaker 1: I learn new things every day.
Speaker 1: I learned that there's different nuances of how she laughs or when she laughs.
Speaker 1: I learned about the different quirks that she has and the things that interest her and don't interest her.
Speaker 1: Every day we've been married for 11 years.
Speaker 1: We've been together for 15 years Like every day, I get to learn new things about her, and the more I learn about her, the more I fall in love with her.
Speaker 1: Here's the temptation for us as Christians.
Speaker 1: The temptation is to believe that, because I've encountered the Lord once, that there's nothing else that I'm going to learn from him, that there's no more of him to discover, that I've already discovered him.
Speaker 1: But when Paul says to the Church of Ephesians that you would be filled with all of the fullness of who God is, he's saying guys, there's more that you can learn.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like there's this word in the Greek kardagazemi.
Speaker 1: I know it sounds like a Pokemon, kardagazemi.
Speaker 1: It's an actual word in the Greek and what it means is to work fully.
Speaker 1: It's the verse where Paul says to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.
Speaker 1: It's the implication that it's not yet complete, but I have to work it to its entirety.
Speaker 1: When we were growing up in Hawaii, we grew up on every kind of government program you could think of.
Speaker 1: When you grew up in Hawaii, everyone was poor, so it wasn't a big deal.
Speaker 1: It was like you're not wearing shoes to school, me neither.
Speaker 1: You're wearing the same clothes from five years ago, me too.
Speaker 1: It wasn't a big deal.
Speaker 1: Today everyone's like oh, what, jays, did you get for Christmas?
Speaker 1: Everyone wants to know what pair of Jordans you're wearing.
Speaker 1: But when I was growing up, man, we were so poor.
Speaker 1: We were so poor.
Speaker 1: We were so poor that we would have a when we would start running out of ketchup and I'd be like Mom, we need more ketchup.
Speaker 1: And she would say, no, we don't.
Speaker 1: I said, mom, yes, we do, we need more ketchup.
Speaker 1: And so she would take the ketchup bottle and she would open it up and she would walk in the kitchen and she'd turn on the water and pour water in the ketchup bottle.
Speaker 1: Then she would close it and shake the bottle up and she would say there, more ketchup.
Speaker 1: What my mom was telling me was Austin, you may have thought that you'd run out of ketchup, but there's more in the bottle.
Speaker 1: Church, here's what I would tell you.
Speaker 1: You may think you've experienced all of salvation, but there's more in the bottle.
Speaker 1: My mama caught her gauze in my that ketchup bottle when my wife and I first got married.
Speaker 1: Man, you learn all kinds of things about your spouse when you first move in together.
Speaker 1: And so I'm in the bathroom and I'm like babe, we ran out of toothpaste.
Speaker 1: She's like no, we didn't.
Speaker 1: I said we ran out of.
Speaker 1: We got to go to Costco get that jumbo pack so we don't have this problem again.
Speaker 1: We ran out of toothpaste.
Speaker 1: She's like no, we didn't Give me that toothpaste.
Speaker 1: So I gave her the toothpaste.
Speaker 1: I said what is she doing?
Speaker 1: She put this toothpaste on the counter, started rolling it centimeter by centimeter by centimeter, and then you ain't never seen this before she got a binder clip and clipped the back of that toothpaste tube.
Speaker 1: She said you may have thought we run out, but there's more in the tube.
Speaker 1: She caught, her, guzzamized the toothpaste tube, and so I don't know about you, but I got like dry, ashy skin and I remember the first time we started running out of a vino, because a vino's the one, a vino's the one.
Speaker 1: We started running out of a vino.
Speaker 1: I said, babe, there's no more lotion.
Speaker 1: We got to go to Costco Get a jumbo pack of this a vino, so we never run into this problem again.
Speaker 1: She said, no, we didn't run out.
Speaker 1: I said, yes, we did.
Speaker 1: Look, she took the bottle from me.
Speaker 1: She unscrewed the top, took the nozzle out.
Speaker 1: You never seen this before.
Speaker 1: She went in the drawer and got some scissors and she cut the top of that bottle open as to show me that there was more lotion in the bottle.
Speaker 1: She caught a God's amide, that lotion bottle.
Speaker 1: Here's what I would say to you today church Preaching the good news is great, proclaiming the good news is great, all of those things are great, but not at the expense of not encountering Jesus.
Speaker 1: You may come in today and you feel like I've encountered everything there is to know.
Speaker 1: I've received every revelation there is to receive about Jesus.
Speaker 1: I've been doing this longer than you've been alive, young man, and I get it.
Speaker 1: But what if I told you that there was more to Jesus than you've experienced?
Speaker 1: What if I told you today that there's more in the bottle that you just got to shake some things up sometimes to experience all of who God is, that there's parts of God's heart in the little nooks and crannies and the corners that you've yet to experience, and if you would just slow down and spend time trying to encounter the Lord, he would show you that there's more.
Speaker 1: You want to know why Christians get bored of church?
Speaker 1: Because they think they've experienced all of who Jesus is.
Speaker 1: They had one encounter with him and they think that's it.
Speaker 1: I'm good, but there is something new every day to experience from Jesus, and if we're going to talk about evangelism and going out and affecting change in our neighborhood, we ought to know that there is something significant for us to experience when we encounter him.
Speaker 1: That there's more left in the bottle, that there's more left in the tube.
Speaker 1: What we accomplish for God can never come at the expense of not encountering him.
Speaker 1: All of the things that we want to do, all of the things that Pastor Nate speaks to you guys about doing, all of the things that this city needs you to do, starts with encountering Jesus.
Speaker 1: Unless we encounter him, none of this will yield fruit, and so the challenge today for the church is that you would spend time in prayer encountering Jesus.
Speaker 1: I want to pray, and we're going to spend some time reflecting and considering what we talked about, but I want to pray with you today.
Speaker 1: I want to pray for two different people.
Speaker 1: The first person I want to pray for is those who have been in church for a long time.
Speaker 1: Maybe you've been in church, you've done all the things.
Speaker 1: You got all the Bible bucks in Sunday school, you've been a part of Royal Rangers, you've done it all but you feel like you haven't encountered him in a long time.
Speaker 1: I want to pray for you.
Speaker 1: The first person I want to pray for is those who have yet to encounter Jesus, and so if that's you, in that first kind of bucket you've been in church for a while and you just haven't encountered the tangible presence of the Lord in a long time I'm going to ask that you take a really bold step and raise your hand.
Speaker 1: That's it.
Speaker 1: Thank you for your hand there.
Speaker 1: I've got a couple of hands.
Speaker 1: It's okay.
Speaker 1: We're all shy.
Speaker 1: We're like, oh my gosh, they're going to find out.
Speaker 1: It's like we're in church.
Speaker 1: This is what we do.
Speaker 1: We pray for God to reveal something to us so we can draw closer to Him.
Speaker 1: So it's actually okay, it's actually healthy for you to have the humility inside of you and rid yourself of pride and say, yeah, that's me, I actually need to encounter the Lord.
Speaker 1: I haven't encountered him in a long time and I need to.
Speaker 1: I remember going to youth camps and encountering the Lord, and it's been decades since I've experienced that.
Speaker 1: So if that's you, would you raise your hand?
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you to the people in the congregation.