Real Life Community Church Richmond, KY

Acts | Part 41 | Make Your Life Count Make His Name Known

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Acts 21:1–14 recounts Paul’s journey toward Jerusalem, marked by repeated warnings that suffering awaits him. Believers in Tyre, prompted by the Spirit, urge Paul not to go, and later the prophet Agabus dramatically foretells Paul’s arrest. Despite the pleas and tears of his companions, Paul remains resolved to go, declaring his readiness not only to be bound but to die for the name of the Lord Jesus. The passage ends with the church entrusting Paul to God’s will, saying, “The Lord’s will be done.”

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SPEAKER_00:

All right, uh, let's open God's word, Acts chapter 21. How many of you earned a degree in a field that has nothing to do with your current job? Listen, uh, I just read a story uh in the Business Insider uh about a man who was 40 years old. His name is Kenneth Farrow. When he he's 46 now, when he was 40, he quit his truck driving job. He had driven a truck for about 20 years. It was wearing him out. So he thought, you know what? I'm gonna go back to school. And so he enrolled at New York University, where he was pursuing a degree in political science. He he had a dream to work in public relations. So he spent several years studying, did very well, obtained his degree, had incurred what$140,000 of school debt. And he gets out with these high hopes, and he cannot find a job. Can find a job. And I mean, he applied for everything, and they were cutting back on these governmental jobs to which he was applying. And so, guess what he had to do? He had to drive a truck, so he took a job again, making$30 an hour, which is comparable to what he was making pre-college, now with$140,000 in debt. Now, wasting four years on a degree you will never use is a tragedy. Can I get a witness? But let me share with you a greater tragedy this morning, and that is this to waste your life. To live in such a way in which all of your labor and striving and wealth in the end about amount to little or nothing. They are of no eternal significance. Here's my aim today. I want to help you avoid that tragedy. I can think of a few things that would be worse than that. Here's what I want to help you do. I want to help you understand how to make your life count. So we're in this study. We're going through the book of Acts. We've been, I'd hope to end to finish by the end of December. Uh didn't happen, but here we are. And we're continuing right now to follow the ministry, the mission work of the Apostle Paul. You know, Paul, he's now on his third missionary journey. He's been throughout Europe and Asia Minor, and he has planted churches from city to city. He has seen thousands of men and women come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ through his ministry. And now, getting up in years, as we saw last week, Paul is now done planting the churches in Asia Minor, and the Holy Spirit is leading him to go back to Jerusalem. And so last week in chapter 20, we saw that part that Paul ports in a city about 30 miles south of Ephesus called Miletus. And there in Miletus, he calls the Ephesian elders or pastors to come to him. They have a plurality of elders there, like we do here. And he calls these pastors, teachers to Miletus, and he gives them his farewell address and final instructions. And here's what Paul tells them. He says, Listen, he says, I want you to know uh I'm called to Jerusalem. These Ephesian believers, they're in your hands. And he said, the Holy Spirit's leading me to Jerusalem. And here's what he says to them He says, I have no idea what awaits me there, except the Holy Spirit has revealed to me that I'm gonna be in, I'm gonna suffer greatly. That's it. Now again, remember, just imagine the Holy Spirit leads you to do something and you know, to go somewhere, to move somewhere and do ministry, and he reveals nothing to you except it's gonna be pretty hurtful, pretty painful. There's gonna be some suffering. But here's how Paul responds in verse 24 of chapter 20. By the way, I'm sorry I don't have a PowerPoint this morning, but he says, I do not account my life of any value, nor is precious to myself, if only I may finish the course and the ministry that Jesus that I received from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of grace of God. Paul's aim here, listen, he's been through it, he's been through this time and time again. His aim is not to retire and put his feet up on a beach somewhere. No, it's not it. Paul wants to finish his course, he doesn't want to waste even an iota, even one moment of his life. Let me tell you how Paul makes his life count. He makes his life count precisely by refusing to count his own life as anything. So we talked last week, and and I'm recapping this because it's going to help us understand where we're going today. We talked last week that God has a distinct course or will for every one of our lives. So he has a particular plan for your life, but then God has a general will for all believers. Like in our text, when Paul's going to Jerusalem, he's speaking to the Ephesian elders. He does not say to them, Hey, you all need to go with me. He's taking a ministry team, but he doesn't tell those elders, go with me, because God is not calling them to go there. He's calling them the pastor in Ephesus. Simply, I want to say to you, I don't know what your individual call from the Lord is, but I do know in part what God's general will is for all of our lives. And we see it in verse 24 of chapter 20, same verse. Paul says, I want to finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus and listen to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. That's his aim, not just in Jerusalem. This is Paul's aim everywhere. And this is God's will for all of our lives that we would proclaim the gospel everywhere to every creature. Isn't that the great commission? In Mark 16, 15, go into the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. It's the theme of the book of Acts. Uh Acts 1, verse 8. What's it say? It's the theme. It gives us the outline for the entire book. Jesus talking to the uh apostles, he says this. He says, uh, when the Holy Spirit's spirit comes upon you, you will receive power and you will be my witnesses. You will proclaim my name first in Jerusalem and then to the Judea, uh Judea, and then to Samaria and to the ends of the earth. And then we see it's not just the apostles in the book of Acts who partake in this, but ordinary believers. Particularly, you can see this as the believers, thousands of believers are scattered, they're chased out of Jerusalem, and they preach the gospel throughout Samaria. And there's a great revival that happens. Beloved, it is incumbent upon every one of us to share Christ with everyone. So, how do you make your life count? Well, I'm gonna I'm gonna borrow uh the theme from a conference, conference my son Dylan and I attended this past week. Here it is. Make your life count by making his name known. It's that simple. And you ask, well, what does that look like for me to make his name known? Well, one, that means first and foremost that you share Christ amongst those within your circle of influence. You share Christ with the lost. It might be a mom or a dad or a brother or a sister or a cousin or an in-law. You need your in-laws to be saved. Come on, somebody. I have great in-laws, by the way. But um, you your friends, your co-workers, your uh fellow student. We ought to be sharing the gospel with everybody, making Jesus known, making the gospel known to the lost. But then the call of the Bible, the call of Acts is to take the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth. And we're all to participate in this. Again, 3.5 billion people today haven't just rejected the gospel, they haven't heard the gospel, and they have virtually no access to the gospel, and they are hopeless, and they will perish without the gospel. That's why God has called us to take the gospel to the nations. So that means one of two things for each of us. Either we are a goer or we are a sender. Some of you this morning, I really feel convinced in my heart that there's somebody in this church who's called to go reach the unreached. And if that's you, wow, what a call. And I would encourage you if the spirit's leading you to do it, to go, go. But most of us are not called to go to those places, but we are called then to be a sender, to give radically and generously to help the gospel get to the nations. Make your life count, make his name known. Now, as I put that admonition before you today, I would ask you, don't take it lightly. There's three things I want you to know, and but before you buy into what I'm telling you, three things that you need to know about making your life count. You ready? Okay, you're not, but I'm gonna start anyways. Number one, if you're a note taker, making your life count is countercultural. In verses 21, one through or chapter 21, verses 1 through 3, Luke gives a travel log recording the places that Paul and his team, and by the way, Luke was part of that team. That's why he uses the pronoun we, but but he records all the city cities that they visit uh during their journey to Jerusalem. And so after porting for short periods through many cities, uh they board a cargo ship. That sounds nice, doesn't it? It's not carnival cruise lines, I promise you. And they finally arrive in a city called Tyre, where they spend seven days. And Paul, I love what he does, he immediately connects with other believers. He seeks them out. And then um later on you'll read that after seven days, when Paul and his team depart and they uh continue their journey to Jerusalem, this beautiful picture. All these believers, along with Paul and his team, they kneel down on the beach and they just pray together. Just a reminder, as a side note again, of how beautiful and wonderful and glorious that the church community is. Imperfect as it is, we need one another. Paul needs this encouragement before he faces what he's gonna face in Jerusalem. Now, I want to point your attention to verses four in chapter 21. So look at verse 4 with me. And having sought out the disciples, that's other Christians, we stayed with them, Luke says, for seven days. And through the Spirit, they were telling Paul not to go to Jerusalem. Now that's interesting because you might remember from last week in Acts 20, verse 22. Here's what Luke says about Paul. Paul says this, now behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, the Holy Spirit. So Paul has already claimed that the Holy Spirit is leading him to go to Jerusalem. And now the the believers in uh Tyre, they they say, uh, listen, Luke says by the Spirit, they tell Paul, don't go to Jerusalem. What's going on here? And someone might say, Well, see you, the Bible has contradictions. I doubt it. Luke is a physician and a historian. This is, you know, you turn one page. He didn't miss this mistake. I promise you. It's not a mistake. Here's what I think is happening. I think the Christians entire hear the same word that Paul heard. That there was going to be suffering for him in Jerusalem and imprisonment. And then I think they took that word of the Lord and they made their own assumptions. So they hear that word and they go, listen, the Lord must be telling us to warn Paul not to go there. It's an assumption that a lot of people make. Why? Why would they say this? Because living to make Jesus known at any cost is very countercultural. Because many Christians don't think much about following Christ on a road that might lead to suffering. They want here's what most church people want: they want to go to church, they want to read their Bible, they even want to live holy lives and they want to make it to heaven, but they want their lives, their Christian lives, to be as comfortable as possible. That's quiet. So when God is leading them, this is probably people in the room today. If God's leading you to do something that might cause pain or suffering, you might be tempted to think, well, this can't be God. It must be bad pizza. Right? It's like it can't be God telling me to give up a secure job and paycheck to go into the mission field. All right, it can't be God telling me to give up that much money to the church to support missions. Or it can't be God telling me to leave my extended family to go into a third world country and even take my family. And I would say to you, don't be so sure. Thousands, and just to go back to this conference Dylan and I went to this week. Thousands, so wonderful. Like I'm charged up. Thousands of 18 to 25 year olds gathered to learn how to make their lives count by making Jesus' name known. They knew the theme of the conference before they signed up. It's an annual conference, it's so big now that they've had to split it into two weeks. It's amazing. We showed up Monday night. Dylan goes every year. He he really wanted me to go and oh, I'm so glad I did. Because we showed up Monday night to hear one of my top, one of my favorite preachers in the top three for sure, John Piper. John Piper is turning 80 years old this weekend. And do you know these 18 to 25 year olds showed up on a Monday night, Bibles open on their laps, pens and hands on the edge of their seat to hear an 80-year-old man in a suit jacket preach God's word. See, in a lot of conferences for young people, it's like, who's the coolest person we can get in? We can't have expository preaching. We got to spiritualize the text, and we got to sing, you know, songs that's really gonna draw them and work them up. No, no, no. They sang here. I mean, they were really good. Shane and Shane was there, but they were such theologically rich, wordy songs, which people warn me about all the time, but they sang them with their whole hearts, and I was so encouraged. There wasn't emotionalism, it was pure Bible, gospel, affection, true affection for Jesus. People say to me, Well, well, Pastor, if you want to gain young people here, you got you got to do this music. Well, if that's the case, I'm not so sure that's the people we're going after. I visited a church here when I was on sabbatical, and they they sang such theologically rich songs, old and new, and that place was packed out with college students. I was so encouraged to see that these weren't consumers. Give me what I want. They're there to say, I just want to give my life for Jesus. It's beautiful. And at the end, I actually had to leave early, but Dylan was still there. And on that last afternoon, David Platt preached. Some of you are wanting to go to this conference, aren't you? David Platt preached, and at the end he called after giving story after story of martyrs and people who've given everything to go to the ends of the earth. He called any of you students feeling led. And Dylan, would you say there's hundreds of students that stood up and said, I want to go? I mean, their lives are just getting started. Many of them have just graduated high school, many of them have just graduated college. The whole life's ahead of them. And they say, I want to give it all for Jesus. Teach your kids. Oh, I know we want them to marry the right person and be educated and all of that. But parents, you you know what your highest aim should be as a parent? It's to raise them as a uh in the admonition of the Lord and tell them beyond all things, make your life count by following Jesus with everything. That's it. These students at this conference, they are not normal, they are radical and they are living counter-culturally. And so, my plea to each of you today is to live in a counter-cultural way. Make your life count by being gripped by the gospel rather than the American dream. Know how we have to fight that every day, myself included. If you've ever had on your heart to go to a dangerous place to be a missionary, don't think it can't be God. And by the way, when you take that call, you can expect, like in the story, well-meaning Christians to say, Oh, come on, you don't need to do that. God's not calling you there. You can do ministry here. We're called to live counterculturally. That's how we make our life count counterculturally. Let me say that word better. Secondly, making your life count is costly. Like those believers are right. Paul is right, the Holy Spirit is right. This is not just perception, this is reality. Making your life count is costly. Verses seven through nine, Paul and his Tim again and his team board a ship. And ultimately, this time they arrive in Caesarea, where they spend several days, and they say stay in the home of Philip the evangelist. Remember Philip? And he has four daughters, they're unmarried, and they all prophesy. In Acts 21, now I want to read verses 10 through 12. Look at those verses with me. Luke says, While we were staying for many days, a prophet named Agabus, I love this. He came down from Judea and coming to us, he took Paul's belt. Imagine if I just come to one of you, just remove your belt today. Okay, don't think about that. All right. And uh I'd be kicked. You probably whip me with it, right? And um, so he bound his own feet and hands and said, This thus says the Holy Spirit, this is how the Jews at Jerusalem will buy the man who owns this belt and delivers him into the hands of the Gentiles. And when we heard this, Luke himself, amongst with the others, he says, We and the people then urged him not to go to Jerusalem. So you have this prophet Agabas. He comes from Judea and he he joins with the Old Testament prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and he gives an illustrated, demonstrative prophecy, thus saith the Lord, and here's the belt, and he ties us, he binds his hands and his feet. And he says, This is what's going to happen to the man. Doesn't even say Paul, the man who's going to Jerusalem. Now, I think these believers, and maybe Agatha himself, was thinking, you know, Paul's not getting the message. Maybe he's a visual learner, right? How many of you just need somebody to tell you something a few times and like you need to see it before you catch on? No, Paul is quite aware, he's heard the message of suffering. He knows the cost of reaching the nations, but he's willing to take the risk. In August of last year, I'm going to mention Piper a few times in this in honor of his uh 80th birthday. But in August of last year, Piper preached a funeral of a 12-year-old girl. She had been with her parents in an unreached people group where they served for over 20, or excuse me, over 10 years as missionaries. Far from medical care, this 12-year-old contracted malaria. And from that and other complications, she died. And caused massive grief, understandably. It was a massive loss. And so her parents brought her back to the states to be buried. And the parents, though deeply grieved, amazingly, not bitter, they requested at the funeral service that they would close it out with it as well with my soul. Why? Because they knew the potential risks that came with making their life count by making his name known. See, I want you to know what you're signing up for to make your life count. Sharing Jesus in your circle of influence can be costly. Can cost you relationships and cost you your job, cost you your popularity. Being a missionary can be very dangerous. Supporting missionaries financially, there's great cost to us. But Jesus was very honest about this. He wasn't a used car salesman trying to sell you a car without telling you the things that were wrong with it. Jesus is honest. He says this in Luke 21, 16 and 17. He says, You'll be delivered up. He's talking to his disciples, even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you, they'll put to death. And you will be hated by all for my name's sake. I'm not so sure Jesus was the best salesman. The question that I want to ask you is if making your life count in this way is so countercultural, and if in fact it is so costly, why would anyone do it? Because finally, making your life count is compelling. Wonderful. Look at verses 13 and 14 there in chapter 21. And Paul answered those who were trying to persuade him not to go to Jerusalem. He says, What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? You just picture, like, you know, maybe it's a dad who's getting ready to go off to a business trip and the the child is cleaning to his leg. Don't go, daddy, don't go. These people, these Christians, they love Paul. Paul, don't do it. And Paul says, You're breaking my heart. Why are you doing this? And listen to what he says. Oh, I love this. For I am ready not only to be imprisoned, but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. And since he would not be persuaded, Luke says, Well, we just see ceased and said, Well, let the will of the Lord be done. Paul treasures Jesus so much that he is willing gladly to give up anything, to go anywhere to serve him and to make his name known. He loves people so much, the loss so much, that he does not want them to perish, no matter what it costs them. Let me tell you the rest of the story of that 12-year-old girl. Just months after their daughter's tragic death, they boarded an airplane. Those parents took more of their children. They had many. They took a few more kids with them, and they went back to that same unreached people group. From December the 18th of this past year, just a few weeks ago, until December the 20th, for 10 hours a day. They sat on a green mat with some peanuts and some water. And they shared the gospel with a multitude of Muslims who came to pay their respects. Respects. You preach the gospel. Those missionaries who give it all, their feet are beautiful. Dude, even the feet, the grossest part of your body, perhaps, beautiful. In that day, they were dirty. You know, they didn't wear shoes, they wore sandals or went barefoot. And to clean the feet, that was the job of the lowest servant. And Paul is saying, those who go and proclaim the gospel, even those dirty, smelly, fungus, fungus-infected feet, they are beautiful. You want to be seen as beautiful? Make your life count by making his name known. Jesus is not asking us something to do something that he himself was not willing to do. Matthew 20, 28, the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. What Paul is asking of us, what the Bible is asking of us is to just follow Jesus, follow in his footsteps. Jesus knew the rejection that would happen to him. He knew the mockings and the scornings that would come upon him. He knew that what would happen at Calvary. He knew what it would feel like to bear the wrath of God and be forsaken. But he did it. Following Christ's example, it's countercultural, it's costly, but I hope you see it as compelling. John and Betty Stam served as missionaries in China. In 1934, they were captured by Chinese communists. They were arrested. And the soldiers announced publicly to the whole town that this missionary couple, who had an infant daughter, by the way, that they would be executed. The daughter was miraculously rescued by Chinese Christians as it was left behind just to thend for itself. So amidst a crowd of people, the soldiers had John and Betty kneel down and took a sword and they severed John's head, and his body fell upon his bride. They told her, get back up. They took the sword and gave her the same fate. Is that a tragedy? Let me share with you another story of another couple. Final time I'll quite quote Piper here. But in May of 2000, Piper preached a prophetic message to about 40,000 students at a passion conference. Five minutes into his message, this is a viral clip. Millions of people have seen it, and he wrote a book about it. He read an expert, an excerpt from an article published in the Reader's Digest years ago. Here's the excerpt. Bob and Penny took early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast five years ago when he was 59 and she was 51. Now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida, where they cruise on their 30-foot trawler, play softball, and collect shells. The question that John Piper would pose, and the one that I would put before you today, is which one of those stories is a tragedy? Is it a tragedy to be beheaded with your wife for the sake of the gospel? To one day hear from the Lord how beautiful are your feet who preach the gospel. To hear from the Lord one day, well done, good and faithful servant, beloved, I would submit to you today that is not a tragedy. That is glorious. So after reading the excerpt from that reader's digest, here's what Pythra said. He said, Imagine this as the last chapter before you stand before the creator of the universe to give an account for what you did. Here it is, Lord, my shell collection. And I've got a really good swing. And look at my boat. He said, That, my friends, is a tragedy. Don't live for the American dream. Live for the kingdom. If you're called to be a goer, come pray with us. If you're called, if you feel that tug to go reach the nations, come pray with us today. If you're called to be a sinner, if you're not called to be a goer, you are called to be a center. Please ask the Lord, Lord, what are you calling me to give up so I can get the gospel to the lost to make the name of Jesus known? There's a famous line contained in a poem by missionary CT C. T. Studd. Only one life twill soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last. Don't waste your life. Make it count. Make his name known.