WEBVTT 00:00:09.800 --> 00:00:13.300 Hello, and welcome to the Kalamazoo church of Christ podcast. 00:00:13.619 --> 00:00:14.839 Thank you so much for listening. 00:00:15.300 --> 00:00:16.199 We're startup church. 00:00:16.280 --> 00:00:23.480 We just planted in September, 2020 and at the Kalamazoo church, we believe that Christianity is done best when it is done together. 00:00:23.579 --> 00:00:32.299 And so if you live in the Kalamazoo area, we would love to connect, be it coming to a Sunday service, one of our small groups, or even just grabbing coffee with a member to learn more. 00:00:32.679 --> 00:00:36.439 You can visit Kalamazoo.church in order to do that. 00:00:37.039 --> 00:00:40.380 We pray that you are inspired by what you hear today. 00:00:42.119 --> 00:00:44.920 Jaron asked me to talk a little bit about the book of Acts. 00:00:45.020 --> 00:00:49.320 He says he thinks this would be timely for the Kalamazoo church. 00:00:49.539 --> 00:00:54.079 So I'm going to be a good follower of Jaron and give you a few things here. 00:00:55.100 --> 00:00:57.399 It's actually one of my favorite books. 00:00:57.579 --> 00:01:16.120 When Lori and I became Christians in 1982, we started studying a lot about the gospels to become Christians, because that's where you read about Jesus and gathering his followers and disciples following and all of that kind of stuff. 00:01:16.239 --> 00:01:29.640 But then shortly after that, we started studying the book of Acts where you learn about the blueprint for salvation, and you see this duplicated so many times throughout the book of Acts. 00:01:29.819 --> 00:01:31.480 It's where people became Christians. 00:01:31.739 --> 00:01:38.620 But it also gives us about a 35-year history of that first early church. 00:01:38.780 --> 00:01:45.180 Now the New Testament covers a longer period than that, but the book of Acts covers about 35 years. 00:01:45.719 --> 00:02:04.799 And what you see in the book of Acts is a lot of things stay consistent from the start to the end, but then you'll also see the early church go through some ups and some downs where they're focused and distracted, and this kind of mimics what you and I experience on a daily basis. 00:02:05.599 --> 00:02:16.960 You know, all of us that got baptized and we started to follow Jesus, I've never seen anybody come out of the water that was discouraged, depressed, and disoriented. 00:02:17.159 --> 00:02:19.159 Like what am I doing now? 00:02:19.159 --> 00:02:20.879 I guess I just had to do this. 00:02:21.219 --> 00:02:38.099 No, they're all super focused, and you know, they're so excited about this life, and the first time in their lives start to see how they are actually partnering with God, God in them and them with God, and it's a beautiful thing, isn't it? 00:02:38.500 --> 00:02:51.000 But let's also be honest, as we continue to live our lives as Christians, it's easy to get distracted and to forget about that very special moment when God brought us into his family. 00:02:52.020 --> 00:02:55.960 Michigan is notorious for people disappearing during the summer. 00:02:56.659 --> 00:03:17.840 I just got back from the Nordic Conference in Stockholm, Sweden, and then over onto this little island in the middle of the Baltic Sea between Finland and Sweden, and all the disciples were there with their children, and they were focused, but they were having a good time. 00:03:18.099 --> 00:03:26.039 The reason they do it is because over there, it's mandatory that everybody takes two months of vacation in the summer. 00:03:26.340 --> 00:03:31.500 So it's kind of like the whole country's marginally shut down. 00:03:31.599 --> 00:03:40.860 There's still stuff going on, but for the most part, everybody would disappear, and so even their worship services are a little sporadic. 00:03:40.860 --> 00:03:50.259 They meet primarily in house churches during the summer, but it's good, but there's also bad from us being away from each other, right? 00:03:51.099 --> 00:03:57.020 Without adult supervision, including myself, we all get in trouble after a short amount of time. 00:03:59.520 --> 00:04:07.819 You know, students that are going to be coming back, they've had a great time this summer, I'm sure, enjoying a life where they grew up. 00:04:08.300 --> 00:04:22.180 Sometimes they come back struggling because they spent the summer in the place where they probably committed the most sin of their entire lives, and now they're coming back to a spiritual environment. 00:04:22.420 --> 00:04:34.740 Hopefully, most of them were connected with churches in the area where they lived, but let's welcome them back with open arms and be a listening ear and give them opportunities. 00:04:34.939 --> 00:04:35.139 Amen? 00:04:35.139 --> 00:04:35.420 Amen. 00:04:36.300 --> 00:04:55.040 In Acts chapter 2, go ahead and turn there, as God brought people together for this special event, we read in verse 5, Now they were staying in Jerusalem, God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 00:04:55.579 --> 00:05:04.240 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. 00:05:04.240 --> 00:05:11.019 And then it talks about all these people from all these countries that had gathered there that day. 00:05:12.000 --> 00:05:31.959 It was a fulfillment of what God had talked about many, many years, thousands of years before about his kingdom, and when it would come, it would be literally for all nations, all people, all languages, all backgrounds, all skin tones, all intellects, all everything. 00:05:32.560 --> 00:05:38.120 God has this vision that every one of us can participate in that. 00:05:38.910 --> 00:05:50.620 In the Nordics, and also in the Baltics, where Lori and I have worked for Bianca, thank you sister, a true Christian. 00:05:56.689 --> 00:06:05.240 We've worked there for 20 years, nearly 20 years, and one of the things that you notice when you go over there, everybody is white. 00:06:05.639 --> 00:06:07.160 I mean, that's it. 00:06:07.439 --> 00:06:39.139 But if that's all you looked at, you would miss how different all these disciples actually are, because many of them are from their own local country, say Estonia, but then you have people that were, during the Soviet occupation, literally brought into those countries to occupy and actually displace local Estonians, and so they're Russian, but they grew up in Estonia, and so they have a lot of that. 00:06:40.500 --> 00:06:54.100 In all the Baltic churches, especially when the war started in Ukraine, you have a bunch of Ukrainians, well over a hundred now, that have settled in the Baltic churches, but they all look the same. 00:06:54.360 --> 00:07:00.959 But when you talk to them, and you get to know them, you find out they're actually very, very different people. 00:07:01.459 --> 00:07:11.560 And so there's some challenges with that, but also a blessing, because now this all-nations thing is actually being lived out. 00:07:12.319 --> 00:07:14.920 It's a little more noticeable in the US. 00:07:15.259 --> 00:07:18.100 Most of our churches are a mix of people. 00:07:18.100 --> 00:07:26.480 We have Indians, and Africans, and Filipinos, and we even have Spencer. 00:07:26.579 --> 00:07:28.600 I'm not sure what Spencer is. 00:07:31.379 --> 00:07:38.420 I do know I was really glad when I saw him get baptized, because you wouldn't have liked the Spencer before that. 00:07:40.000 --> 00:08:05.639 You know, we have so many different flavors of human beings in the American churches, where it's easy to see that, and sometimes our cultures collide with one another, our opinions clash with one another, but we've got to understand that this is all part of God's plan to bring us together as one, amen? 00:08:05.639 --> 00:08:13.000 And so we see in Acts 2, God actually did this at the very beginning of the church. 00:08:13.560 --> 00:08:20.639 All of those countries that are mentioned in Acts are represented here in this little map. 00:08:21.100 --> 00:08:35.000 So you can see how God brought all these people in for that very special day when Peter would introduce the gospel for the very first time, and he brought them in for a purpose. 00:08:35.639 --> 00:08:37.279 They're not all the same. 00:08:37.558 --> 00:08:41.460 They even practice Judaism differently in some of these places. 00:08:41.860 --> 00:08:44.659 They were different colors or tones. 00:08:44.860 --> 00:08:57.240 They were different languages, different cultures, and yet God brought this unbelievable conglomerate of people together to help them all hear the gospel at the very same time. 00:08:57.820 --> 00:09:14.379 Now it's interesting, because later on in the book of Acts, Acts chapter 8, verses 1-4, after the church had established itself in Jerusalem, it started to grow and spread, and more and more people were becoming disciples, thousands actually. 00:09:14.960 --> 00:09:32.860 All of a sudden, this great persecution breaks out in Acts chapter 8, and it says all except the apostles were scattered, and we can only assume that when they left, they went back to the areas that they came from. 00:09:33.179 --> 00:09:50.460 And so now you have God's unbelievable perfect plan to take this strange group of people that all became Christians at the same time, and then through his divine providence, he allows this persecution to take place, but it's with a purpose. 00:09:50.460 --> 00:09:51.740 It's not to punish. 00:09:52.200 --> 00:10:03.860 It's with the purpose of sending them out, so then they would start to preach the word wherever they settled, and all these little pockets of Christianity started popping up. 00:10:04.440 --> 00:10:12.779 Later on in Acts, we read about how the apostles went around and started churches, strengthened churches, and so on and so forth. 00:10:15.629 --> 00:10:43.029 In the book of Acts, all of these things, if you read, let's turn to Acts chapter 1, in verse 7, he said to them, it's not for you to know the times and dates the Father has set by his own authority, but you'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. 00:10:43.610 --> 00:10:54.909 And so that little section of scripture that Jesus said shortly before he was taken up into heaven, all gets lived out in the book of Acts. 00:10:55.250 --> 00:10:58.850 All that stuff starts to happen in these chapters. 00:10:59.509 --> 00:11:26.769 Chapter 2 through 7, the church begins and grows, the persecution in Acts 8, which sends the church to Judea and Samaria, and then you have this unbelievable thing that happened that blew everybody's mind where Gentiles were allowed to become Christians, God worked it out for this miraculous thing to happen, and from what I'm looking at, we should all be praising the Lord that he allowed this to happen. 00:11:27.129 --> 00:11:35.629 I've known a couple Jews throughout my life that became Christians, amen, but most of the people I know are Gentiles. 00:11:37.009 --> 00:11:42.309 I don't know if you, that's not a derogatory term, it's just a statement of fact, alright? 00:11:42.929 --> 00:11:44.070 Don't get offended Ingrid. 00:11:46.809 --> 00:11:52.190 And then the church goes on from there in Acts chapter 12 through 28. 00:11:52.870 --> 00:11:57.049 I do want us to focus on one thing here for the rest of our message. 00:11:59.570 --> 00:12:11.889 In Acts 5, it says day after day in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stop teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah. 00:12:12.710 --> 00:12:33.129 And then in Acts chapter 20, as Paul's saying his farewell to the elders in Ephesus, he says in verse 20, you know that I've not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you, but have taught you publicly and from house to house. 00:12:33.970 --> 00:12:37.850 This is a pattern that you see in the New Testament. 00:12:38.549 --> 00:12:41.450 We live in a time where there's a lot of technology. 00:12:41.929 --> 00:12:44.110 I've learned how to embrace this stuff. 00:12:44.110 --> 00:12:50.450 I think COVID kind of forced us into using things like social media. 00:12:51.129 --> 00:13:02.590 I remember back in the day it was a big deal if you were serving in Kingdom Kids, you would be given a little cassette tape of whatever the sermon was that day. 00:13:03.029 --> 00:13:08.789 That was the extent, I mean we were cutting edge technology back then when you got a cassette. 00:13:09.470 --> 00:13:11.669 How many of you remember the cassette days? 00:13:13.149 --> 00:13:33.429 This was when Jaron and Bianca and Laurie and I were still in Milwaukee together, but Jaron stumbled across some cassette recording that Laurie and I did a class at a Chicago conference one day and then he bought me a little recorder because you can't find those things anymore. 00:13:33.570 --> 00:13:36.070 Anyway, that's another story I'm getting off task. 00:13:37.629 --> 00:13:57.230 These things are good, but I want to just let you know that technology might be a tool, but it's always going to come down to what it was in the very beginning, people interacting publicly from house to house, face to face. 00:13:58.610 --> 00:14:00.129 This is where it happens. 00:14:00.129 --> 00:14:34.409 The technology and all this kind of stuff might get people's attention and it might get them in the door, but the thing that's going to help people become Christians, just like it did for you, is somebody that you developed a friendship with, there was a level of trust that was established, you saw some credibility that this person is a spiritual man or a spiritual woman, and you knew that because when they shared things with you, they didn't just share opinions, but they opened up the Bible and pointed to scriptures. 00:14:34.909 --> 00:14:41.629 The couple that did that with us was a couple named Dave and Teresa Vaughn, still faithful to this day. 00:14:42.210 --> 00:15:05.250 We met them publicly at a church service, but then we also went to their home and they opened up the Bible with us, and that's how Laurie and I became a Christian, and that's how you became Christians, and it's how everybody in the future will become Christians, by interacting publicly and from house to house. 00:15:05.409 --> 00:15:05.529 Amen? 00:15:08.629 --> 00:15:11.769 These are just some examples of that. 00:15:11.889 --> 00:15:13.230 We'll skip over that one. 00:15:13.750 --> 00:15:17.990 I'll give the PowerPoint to Jaron, so if you want a copy of the PowerPoint, you can have it. 00:15:19.690 --> 00:15:23.850 We've got a party to go to for Andrea after this, so I don't want to go too long. 00:15:24.730 --> 00:15:27.809 And then we see this house to house stuff unfold too. 00:15:29.149 --> 00:15:31.990 Let's turn to Acts chapter 19. 00:15:50.480 --> 00:16:00.179 In this, we read a number of different things, but one of the things that we see is an amazing conversion of some people. 00:16:00.179 --> 00:16:03.240 In verse 19, we'll start in verse 1. 00:16:31.279 --> 00:16:37.100 He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus. 00:16:37.700 --> 00:16:44.799 On hearing this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus, and the story goes on from there. 00:16:45.559 --> 00:16:55.899 Here's an example of Paul out there publicly, and he stumbles across some people that he identified as disciples. 00:16:56.840 --> 00:17:06.059 Now, one of the things that we also have to realize is there's a lot of people in this world that have a great spiritual background. 00:17:06.420 --> 00:17:18.279 Maybe they were brought up that way, or they had some type of conversion experience throughout their life, and they adopted many of the principles of what it means to be a disciple. 00:17:18.618 --> 00:17:20.240 They lived good lives. 00:17:20.240 --> 00:17:32.940 In fact, I've found over the years that some of the people that I've actually studied with and other disciples have studied with live better lives than some of the disciples that are in the church. 00:17:33.140 --> 00:17:34.880 This is convicting. 00:17:35.180 --> 00:17:36.220 It's humbling. 00:17:36.779 --> 00:17:40.839 But it's not to say that this doesn't happen. 00:17:41.380 --> 00:17:49.140 But just living a good life, as you know, is not enough for someone to be welcomed into God's family. 00:17:49.140 --> 00:18:00.539 There is no amount of righteousness that we can do, no amount of lifestyle changes that we can do that make us worthy of receiving salvation. 00:18:01.059 --> 00:18:06.119 Two of the main words in the New Testament are grace and mercy. 00:18:06.779 --> 00:18:08.660 Grace is an unmerited gift. 00:18:08.859 --> 00:18:15.000 So the fact that you've been given salvation, and I've been given that, it is an act of grace. 00:18:15.000 --> 00:18:20.220 Grace, it's not something that I deserve, but God gave that to me, and he gave it to you. 00:18:20.319 --> 00:18:20.460 Amen? 00:18:21.079 --> 00:18:27.380 And then mercy, the simple definition, is withholding due punishment. 00:18:28.279 --> 00:18:40.339 And so when I read that word, I realize that because of the life that I lived, and even the sins that I've committed as a disciple, I don't deserve what God has given me. 00:18:40.339 --> 00:18:45.859 It's only because of his mercy that that is not going to be held against me. 00:18:46.160 --> 00:19:02.900 So when we come across people from a very spiritual background, I would say, let's face it, we live in a very religious part of the world, kind of the Midwest Bible Belt, especially as it runs up through Grand Rapids. 00:19:03.420 --> 00:19:06.359 West Michigan is particularly known for that. 00:19:06.359 --> 00:19:11.359 We're going to come across a lot of people that are very spiritually minded. 00:19:11.539 --> 00:19:21.799 Many of you were just like that before you understood what God expected as far as the plan of salvation and when your sins are forgiven. 00:19:22.779 --> 00:19:49.420 And so Paul, as he interacts with these people publicly, he had the courage, but I would also say the love, to engage this group of people that he did not know, and he started asking them some questions that would lead to the revelation of whether or not these people really are believers as we find out in the Scriptures. 00:19:50.160 --> 00:20:02.240 And so what we find out is they had so many things on straight, but they had a misunderstanding of how baptism actually works and what God's plan is for that. 00:20:03.220 --> 00:20:18.119 I grew up in a, I won't tell you the name of the denomination, but it was a denomination, and there was a lot of things that I learned from my mother that were absolutely good and right, and I still hold on to those things today. 00:20:18.740 --> 00:20:35.599 That there is Jesus, and there is God, and they interact, and Jesus was from God, and he died on the cross, and you know, there's right and wrong, and there's consequences if we choose bad behavior. 00:20:36.079 --> 00:20:57.480 All of these things I learned from my mother growing up, and I still hold on to those today, but there were some things that I was taught growing up that weren't found in Scripture, and in fact, some things that were taught that sounded like Scripture, but actually were nowhere to be found in the pages of the Bible. 00:20:58.420 --> 00:21:21.579 And so there's a lot of good-hearted people in the world that we live in, and when we interact with them, if we just automatically assume that they're all right with God, they could be missing out on the missing piece that they never quite came to grips with, just like these people that Paul interacted with here. 00:21:24.190 --> 00:21:27.160 You and I are human beings. 00:21:27.440 --> 00:21:28.259 Did you know that? 00:21:28.460 --> 00:21:28.900 Yeah. 00:21:29.940 --> 00:21:33.859 We have a lot of strengths in our own personal characters. 00:21:34.240 --> 00:21:37.099 We have a lot of gifts in our own personal characters. 00:21:37.769 --> 00:21:44.519 Some of us are very outgoing and can interact with anybody, anywhere, at any time. 00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:49.619 Some of us are more inward and shy and find that more difficult. 00:21:50.160 --> 00:21:51.319 It doesn't matter. 00:21:53.970 --> 00:21:56.089 God puts us all together. 00:21:57.109 --> 00:21:58.690 Some have some gifts. 00:21:59.150 --> 00:22:00.589 Some have other gifts. 00:22:00.589 --> 00:22:12.690 But what I want to suggest to you is, God wants us to continue to grow in our ability to interact with people in public settings. 00:22:13.450 --> 00:22:24.690 Because without that, there's a whole chunk of the population that may miss out on hearing the plan of salvation as God prescribed it. 00:22:24.809 --> 00:22:25.009 Amen? 00:22:26.329 --> 00:22:28.990 Let's turn back one chapter to Acts chapter 18. 00:22:42.950 --> 00:22:45.670 Let's start in verse 24. 00:22:47.210 --> 00:22:54.470 Meanwhile, a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. 00:22:55.170 --> 00:22:59.109 He was a learned man with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. 00:23:00.029 --> 00:23:12.190 He had been instructed in the way of the Lord and spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately, though he only knew the baptism of John. 00:23:12.849 --> 00:23:14.769 He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. 00:23:16.150 --> 00:23:26.369 When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately. 00:23:27.049 --> 00:23:29.930 Some translations have more accurately. 00:23:30.890 --> 00:23:35.430 So, we saw Paul interact with these people in public. 00:23:35.430 --> 00:23:44.650 Now we see Priscilla and Aquila inviting this man, Apollos, into their home where they interact with him more privately. 00:23:45.130 --> 00:23:54.029 Once again, we find a person that had so much conviction that he was out there publicly teaching about Jesus. 00:23:54.490 --> 00:24:02.549 And let's face it, this was a scary thing to do, depending on what part of that Middle East you were in. 00:24:03.190 --> 00:24:04.890 There was persecution. 00:24:05.029 --> 00:24:09.849 Certainly God brought about great victories, but there was a lot of persecution. 00:24:10.130 --> 00:24:17.750 And so for someone to speak like this, publicly or privately, there was a risk to their own personal safety. 00:24:18.450 --> 00:24:21.109 Lori and I were in Riga, Latvia. 00:24:21.230 --> 00:24:23.670 Actually, we stumbled across Jaron there in Riga. 00:24:23.910 --> 00:24:25.089 We knew he was going to be there. 00:24:25.789 --> 00:24:27.329 But Jaron's easy to stumble over. 00:24:27.390 --> 00:24:28.009 He's so big. 00:24:28.630 --> 00:24:32.089 His feet are like size 37 or something like that. 00:24:33.849 --> 00:24:41.410 But Lori and I were staying at this hotel, and right outside was this little walkway area. 00:24:41.609 --> 00:24:47.329 They had some tables set up, and then these concrete planters spaced along there. 00:24:48.230 --> 00:24:54.670 And we were sitting out there just kind of enjoying a little time before this couple was going to pick us up. 00:24:54.670 --> 00:25:00.569 This young girl walks out of the hotel, and she's standing in front of the door. 00:25:01.490 --> 00:25:06.210 Lori's looking this way, I think, or maybe looking that way. 00:25:06.329 --> 00:25:11.690 Anyway, I have this clear shot of this young gal, and she's holding her laptop. 00:25:12.430 --> 00:25:17.730 And this guy comes up, grabs it, and starts running down the street. 00:25:18.230 --> 00:25:21.630 And I go, hey! And start yelling at him. 00:25:21.630 --> 00:25:31.930 And in my mind, what I wanted to do was jump up, throw out the clothesline, knock this guy down, and stand over him. 00:25:32.329 --> 00:25:33.930 That's what I wanted to do. 00:25:34.609 --> 00:25:41.569 If I was 10 years younger, I might have been able to do that, but I still had to deal with a concrete planter. 00:25:42.170 --> 00:25:44.190 And Lori says, Tom, Tom, what are you doing? 00:25:44.970 --> 00:25:46.910 You saw what happened, didn't you? 00:25:47.349 --> 00:25:49.009 And she says, look over there. 00:25:49.069 --> 00:25:50.369 They're filming a movie. 00:25:51.109 --> 00:25:58.109 And so there were some people with cameras, and yeah. 00:26:06.000 --> 00:26:11.359 Yeah, I'm going to get some royalties from Latvia if they use that scene. 00:26:14.519 --> 00:26:17.460 I saw a portion of that whole scene. 00:26:18.039 --> 00:26:19.680 Lori saw the whole picture. 00:26:20.059 --> 00:26:23.059 And this is where we get tripped up a lot of times. 00:26:23.059 --> 00:26:28.559 We see a little bit of what's going on, but we don't really see the whole picture. 00:26:28.839 --> 00:26:31.339 You may see the consequences. 00:26:31.599 --> 00:26:33.480 Oh, what do I do if I share my faith? 00:26:33.559 --> 00:26:34.359 What's going to happen? 00:26:34.460 --> 00:26:37.240 But God sees the big picture. 00:26:37.579 --> 00:26:41.279 And maybe there's some persecution that'll come that way. 00:26:41.779 --> 00:27:06.839 But isn't it also true that maybe God in his divine wisdom and nature sees that you could be the one connection to this individual that if you would just have a little bit of courage and take a step of faith that they too might become just like you, hear the message, respond, be baptized, and be saved. 00:27:06.980 --> 00:27:07.299 Amen? 00:27:08.740 --> 00:27:21.079 As you think about this, all these conversions were being lived out for the very first time in those 28 chapters of the book of Acts. 00:27:21.279 --> 00:27:26.680 I love Paul's last scene that we have of him. 00:27:26.799 --> 00:27:28.539 Let's turn to Acts chapter 28. 00:27:42.759 --> 00:27:53.539 In this, Paul's under prison guard, being watched, probably not long before he's taken away. 00:27:55.680 --> 00:27:59.359 And then we read in verse 30. 00:28:00.299 --> 00:28:09.420 For two whole years, Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him. 00:28:10.140 --> 00:28:18.240 Boldly and without hindrance, he preached the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:28:19.400 --> 00:28:22.500 He didn't know how much time he had left at this point. 00:28:22.779 --> 00:28:25.859 I don't know for sure how old Paul was at this point. 00:28:26.759 --> 00:28:32.619 But I know I want to be like this when my time on earth is winding down. 00:28:33.119 --> 00:28:36.119 And that could be any time for any of us. 00:28:36.279 --> 00:28:40.960 Nobody knows how many days or weeks or months or years we have. 00:28:41.380 --> 00:28:43.339 But I want to be like this. 00:28:43.619 --> 00:28:47.700 Lori and I have been faithful now for 42 years. 00:28:48.240 --> 00:28:50.259 And we're excited about that. 00:28:50.259 --> 00:29:00.079 But if the Lord allows us to stay alive for an extended period of time, like maybe we meet 90. 00:29:00.200 --> 00:29:02.500 My mom turned 90 this last spring. 00:29:03.019 --> 00:29:03.859 It's in the genes. 00:29:04.039 --> 00:29:10.019 I don't know if those were passed on to me or some of the crazy stuff from my father was passed on. 00:29:10.079 --> 00:29:10.579 I don't know. 00:29:11.960 --> 00:29:19.339 But it means that maybe we're two thirds done living our lives as disciples. 00:29:20.660 --> 00:29:34.839 And for some of you that just got baptized this year, last year, five years ago, you've got a long time to stay faithful. 00:29:34.839 --> 00:29:59.619 I don't mean that to discourage you, but to help you realize that if this is what's in your heart, then you will have the wherewithal and the desire, the love for God to stay faithful no matter what the circumstances, no matter what great things God brings to your life, or what great things of challenge and hardship come to your life. 00:29:59.960 --> 00:30:02.359 You will stay faithful and weather the storm. 00:30:03.200 --> 00:30:06.980 I just want to say this, and I'm just going to be embarrassingly honest. 00:30:07.319 --> 00:30:15.680 It saddens me to see how many young Christians give up so quickly when they haven't fought the fight at all. 00:30:16.059 --> 00:30:30.160 But to be honest with you, what saddens me more is when a lot of people my age, even less than my age, 40, 50, 60, 70 year olds, they say, that's it. 00:30:31.599 --> 00:30:38.319 Like if Lori and I did that now, Lori turned 70 back in May, she's awesome. 00:30:38.680 --> 00:30:39.380 She looks great. 00:30:39.940 --> 00:30:43.039 I'm only 69 and a half. 00:30:46.880 --> 00:30:55.559 But if we cashed it in now, that would have been 42 years of our lives absolutely wasted. 00:30:56.259 --> 00:31:10.900 People that we've helped along the way would still benefit from that, but it would be for us personally a wasted life to cash it all in and quit and go off and do something else with our lives. 00:31:11.420 --> 00:31:20.240 I want to encourage us, especially those of you that are a little bit on the older side, and in the Kalamazoo church this is all relative. 00:31:20.880 --> 00:31:23.440 Like if you're 30, you're on the older side right now. 00:31:24.480 --> 00:31:32.240 But we've got to stay involved in each other's lives. 00:31:33.259 --> 00:31:50.099 When sin grows and builds up and then sin sets up shop and it hardens our heart, then we become susceptible for every challenge that's out there and the likelihood of giving it all up becomes more realistic. 00:31:50.740 --> 00:32:04.160 I think one of the things, and I'll pass this on to Jaron, but we've done, I think in every church that I've ever been in, we've done an exercise for a midweek and it's called writing your conversion story. 00:32:04.980 --> 00:32:13.240 We'll look at a conversion story in the book of Acts, and you'll find out that these conversion stories don't take up chapters. 00:32:13.960 --> 00:32:26.420 They're only little sections of a chapter where Paul or others are explaining how they became Christians, a very concise format, and then this is on our heart. 00:32:26.660 --> 00:32:27.920 We've kind of rehearsed it. 00:32:28.079 --> 00:32:47.339 It's in our mind, and we can share with others how we got involved in this in the first place, and it not only helps them, but it helps remind us continually that God has done amazing things in our lives, and He wants to do them in theirs as well. 00:32:48.599 --> 00:33:04.880 All nations, publicly, from house to house, everything that happened in the book of Acts happened because one person spoke to another people or a group of people, and they in turn did that. 00:33:05.319 --> 00:33:12.940 The Kalamazoo Church will rise or fall depending on how we put these things into practice as well. 00:33:13.440 --> 00:33:24.119 When each one of us, regardless of how weak or how strong you are, share what God has told you to somebody else, you will thrive and it'll be amazing. 00:33:24.400 --> 00:33:24.559 Amen. 00:33:25.079 --> 00:33:29.839 Thank you so much for listening to the Kalamazoo Church of Christ podcast. 00:33:30.039 --> 00:33:33.500 If you're in the Kalamazoo area, we'd love to get connected. 00:33:33.500 --> 00:33:41.140 Please go to kalamazoo.church and fill in your information to come to a Sunday service or any other event that we have going on. 00:33:41.299 --> 00:33:43.759 In any case, you'll be hearing from us next week.