SPEAKER_00: Pastor here, and I'm excited about today and uh and what we've got going on.
SPEAKER_00: What a powerful song.
SPEAKER_00: Um I know you felt the subwoofers.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody feel the subwoofers?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, some of y'all had to reattach your dentures, and that's okay.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm I've I've always imagined like what was it like in the upper room when there was a rushing wind and the subwolfers hummed uncontrollably.
SPEAKER_00: How many of us would have been like, uh, can you turn that down?
SPEAKER_00: Or how many of us would have been like, what is happening?
SPEAKER_00: Who am I?
SPEAKER_00: God is here.
SPEAKER_00: What is he doing?
SPEAKER_00: What is he up to?
SPEAKER_00: What is he inviting me into?
SPEAKER_00: Where can I see him?
SPEAKER_00: How do I follow him?
SPEAKER_00: I don't have what it takes.
SPEAKER_00: But God, wherever you are, and wherever you're taking me, I want to go.
SPEAKER_00: I want to go.
SPEAKER_00: What a powerful song.
SPEAKER_00: Lord have your way.
SPEAKER_00: Man, what a dangerous prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody feel that?
SPEAKER_00: Lord, have your way.
SPEAKER_00: As long as you tell me beforehand what it's going to look like.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, have your way as long as it fits within the way I'm wired, and maybe some preferences I have.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to be used of you in the best way, God.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, have your way.
SPEAKER_00: Just unfettered, unhindered.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, have your way.
SPEAKER_00: What would he do?
SPEAKER_00: What would he do in our midst?
SPEAKER_00: What would he do in our lives?
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I think that I've got, every day I wake up and I've got these five things.
SPEAKER_00: That's an arbitrary number.
SPEAKER_00: It's just a random number.
SPEAKER_00: But five things, God, I need you to do in my life.
SPEAKER_00: And he's saying, Tim, I got some things going on that I want to I want to show you.
SPEAKER_00: I want to invite you into.
SPEAKER_00: I see those five things that you're asking for.
SPEAKER_00: I see you.
SPEAKER_00: I see the life that you, I see the circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: But I've got some other things that are going on, and I don't want you to be distracted.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to see them.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to experience them.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want you to miss them.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't want you to be so distracted that you don't get to partake of them.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, have your way.
SPEAKER_00: Come like a mighty rushing wind.
SPEAKER_00: It sounds cute, but what would happen if we yielded our spirits to his spirit and saw him do things in an incredible, powerful way?
SPEAKER_00: God, today you've given us this day.
SPEAKER_00: You've given us life.
SPEAKER_00: You've given us breath in our lungs.
SPEAKER_00: You've given us eyes to see and ears to hear.
SPEAKER_00: What do you want to show us?
SPEAKER_00: What do you want us to see?
SPEAKER_00: What do you want us to hear?
SPEAKER_00: What are you doing?
SPEAKER_00: What do you want to show us today?
SPEAKER_00: God, I believe you want to show us something today.
SPEAKER_00: God, show us.
SPEAKER_00: It's in Christ's name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna go through the chapter Acts 11.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 11 of Acts.
SPEAKER_00: And chapter 10, last week, Kyle shared with us as Cornelius encountered Peter or invited Peter or sought out Peter because the Spirit of the Lord, angel, was speaking to Cornelius.
SPEAKER_00: God was working on both sides in Cornelius and Peter.
SPEAKER_00: And God gave Peter a vision that challenged his assumptions about clean and unclean.
SPEAKER_00: If you didn't get a chance to look at Acts 10, uh go back to last sermons last week and look at it, because it's a powerful moment in the book of Acts where all of a sudden we're talking about the gospel going out, and now it has gone to Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: It is no longer just birth in the church at Jerusalem among Jewish people, but now it has gone beyond the Jewish culture.
SPEAKER_00: And we have included Gentiles in this.
SPEAKER_00: And now the scriptures tell us that God is fulfilling his purpose and his mission.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter obeyed God's leading.
SPEAKER_00: He traveled to Caesarea and entered the home of Cornelius.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter preached the life, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And he proclaimed forgiveness of sins through faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And God confirmed his work.
SPEAKER_00: And while Peter was still speaking to those Gentiles, to Cornelius and the people with him, the Holy Spirit fell on those people.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't like Peter said, and we want to invite the Holy Spirit to you guys, or, hey, and we want to introduce you to the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Peter was proclaiming Christ and telling the message that the angel had told Cornelius he needed to hear, and the Holy Spirit, on his own account, fell on them.
SPEAKER_00: He fell on them in such a way that Peter saw it.
SPEAKER_00: Peter didn't see it coming.
SPEAKER_00: Peter was just doing what he was faithfully told to do, and all of a sudden the Holy Spirit falls on them.
SPEAKER_00: The Gentiles received the same Holy Spirit that has been given to Jewish believers, and God made it unmistakably clear that Gentiles were fully welcomed into his family through faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God.
SPEAKER_00: And so the question of Acts 11 is not, did this really happen?
SPEAKER_00: The question is, how will the church respond to what God is doing?
SPEAKER_00: Because God's people are called to recognize, join, and support what God is doing in the world.
SPEAKER_00: And when God moves in ways that we don't expect, we have a choice.
SPEAKER_00: We can ignore Him or we can cooperate with Him.
SPEAKER_00: Now let's look in Acts 11.
SPEAKER_00: Acts 11.
SPEAKER_00: Excuse me.
SPEAKER_00: Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of the God.
SPEAKER_00: So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him, saying, You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.
SPEAKER_00: But Peter began and explained it to them in order.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision, something like a great sheet descending, being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to me, and looking at it closely, I observed animals and beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air.
SPEAKER_00: And I heard a voice saying to me, Rise, Peter, kill and eat.
SPEAKER_00: But I said, By no means, Lord, for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth.
SPEAKER_00: But the voice answered a second time from heaven, What God has made clean, do not call common.
SPEAKER_00: And this happened three times, and all was drawn up again into heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And behold, at the very same moment, three men arrived at the house in which we were, sent to me from Caesarea.
SPEAKER_00: And the Spirit told me to go with them, making no distinction.
SPEAKER_00: And these six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man's house, and he told us how he had seen the angel stand in his house, and said, Send to Joppa and bring Simon, who is called Peter, and he will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and your whole household.
SPEAKER_00: And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them, just as on all of us at the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And then God gave the same gifts to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Who was I that I could stand in God's way?
SPEAKER_00: And when they heard these things, they fell silent and they glorified God, saying, Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.
SPEAKER_00: So in Acts 11, Peter has to go back to Jerusalem and explain what has happened.
SPEAKER_00: This is like a big cultural faux pas that Peter has been a part of, and he has to explain to the leaders of the Jewish church what has happened.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a circumcision party, this party that is committed to the Jewish ways, committed to the Jewish customs, who are criticizing Peter.
SPEAKER_00: Almost as if to say, Peter, who are you to make these decisions on your own?
SPEAKER_00: Who are you to go off and change what we have always known and what God has revealed to us by himself, from himself?
SPEAKER_00: Who are you?
SPEAKER_00: And Peter doesn't defend himself.
SPEAKER_00: Peter stands in their midst and says, Hey, can I just explain what happened?
SPEAKER_00: Can I tell the story of what happened?
SPEAKER_00: I was just praying.
SPEAKER_00: I was minding my own business.
SPEAKER_00: I wasn't looking for a strategy to reach the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: I was doing my thing, fellowshipping with God, and then all of a sudden, this vision happens.
SPEAKER_00: And then, while this vision is happening, three men show up and knock at my door and say, Is Peter here?
SPEAKER_00: That's more than a coincidence.
SPEAKER_00: Something's going on.
SPEAKER_00: And as they begin to hear it, they fell silent.
SPEAKER_00: They said, they realized God's work is in the midst of them.
SPEAKER_00: God was doing something different.
SPEAKER_00: God was doing something new.
SPEAKER_00: Peter doesn't defend himself.
SPEAKER_00: Let me explain my decision.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Let me show you what God did.
SPEAKER_00: And he wants to see, he wants the church to see the bigger picture.
SPEAKER_00: This is not Peter's story.
SPEAKER_00: This is God's story.
SPEAKER_00: And God initiated the conversation.
SPEAKER_00: Peter was not looking for something new.
SPEAKER_00: God challenged Peter's assumptions and he prepared his heart to respond.
SPEAKER_00: And when the messenger showed up, Peter was ready to respond in the way that God wanted.
SPEAKER_00: And so he goes and he eats in a home of Gentiles, with Gentiles, which is what he wasn't supposed to do according to Jewish culture.
SPEAKER_00: But God had something bigger.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, He proclaimed Christ, and as the Holy Spirit fell on them, Peter realized what was happening.
SPEAKER_00: And that this wasn't a contradiction to what God had said.
SPEAKER_00: This is actually a fulfillment of what Jesus was saying.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Who was I that I could stand in God's way?
SPEAKER_00: And God gave the Spirit before anyone in Jerusalem approved it.
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Jerusalem was the birth of the church.
SPEAKER_00: And there were leaders.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe they were supposed to come together and say, okay, it sounds like Jesus was saying this, and it sounds like God wants to take the gospel to the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: How do you think this should play out?
SPEAKER_00: Let's all have a conversation about this.
SPEAKER_00: Let's have a constructive dialogue about how we think this should play out.
SPEAKER_00: No, God wasn't waiting on approval from Jerusalem for the gospel to go forth to the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: He had it happen.
SPEAKER_00: By the power of his Holy Spirit, the gospel goes forth to the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: And God invites us into his mission.
SPEAKER_00: Will we cooperate?
SPEAKER_00: We may not know how it'll all work out.
SPEAKER_00: We may not go, it may not go the way we think.
SPEAKER_00: And spiritual maturity is recognizing where God is at work and following his spirit according to his word.
SPEAKER_00: Where do you see the Holy Spirit working?
SPEAKER_00: I think that's an honest question.
SPEAKER_00: If you were to just pause for a moment and just think back on your on your last week, or even as you come into this room, where do you see the Holy Spirit working?
SPEAKER_00: Where do you see the Holy Spirit working in your life?
SPEAKER_00: Where do you see the Holy Spirit working around you?
SPEAKER_00: Are there people around you that are asking questions or seem hungry or thirsty for something more than what they're just experiencing?
SPEAKER_00: Are there people looking for a way out of their brokenness or their circumstance?
SPEAKER_00: Are there people looking for, does anybody see me?
SPEAKER_00: Does anybody notice?
SPEAKER_00: Does anybody care?
SPEAKER_00: Where is the Holy Spirit working around you?
SPEAKER_00: Hey, I confess there are broken things in my life.
SPEAKER_00: I need the Holy Spirit to help me fix, heal, mend.
SPEAKER_00: And he's inviting me into this.
SPEAKER_00: But there's also a realization that the Holy Spirit is at work around me.
SPEAKER_00: Do I have eyes to see?
SPEAKER_00: Do I have ears to hear?
SPEAKER_00: Am I ready?
SPEAKER_00: Am I praying?
SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit, what are you showing me today?
SPEAKER_00: The first step in cooperating with God is recognizing what He is doing.
SPEAKER_00: Recognizing what He is doing.
SPEAKER_00: Once the church recognizes God's work among the Gentiles, they were ready to participate in God's mission.
SPEAKER_00: Let's read Acts 11, 19 through 26.
SPEAKER_00: It says, now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews.
SPEAKER_00: But there were those, there were some of them, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists also, preaching the Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And the hand of the Lord was on them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And the report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch.
SPEAKER_00: And when he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad.
SPEAKER_00: And he exhorted them to all remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose.
SPEAKER_00: For he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.
SPEAKER_00: And a great many people were added to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul.
SPEAKER_00: And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch.
SPEAKER_00: And for a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people.
SPEAKER_00: And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.
SPEAKER_00: First called Christians.
SPEAKER_00: Stephen's persecution that we see back in Acts 7 scattered believers.
SPEAKER_00: And what looks like a setback actually became a catalyst for the gospel moving forward.
SPEAKER_00: And God used suffering to spread the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Because God often works through our interruptions, our disappointments, and our hardships.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes our scattering becomes God's sending.
SPEAKER_00: Are you going through something right now?
SPEAKER_00: You want to be delivered from it?
SPEAKER_00: I get that.
SPEAKER_00: That's real.
SPEAKER_00: Mourn with those who mourn.
SPEAKER_00: I get it.
SPEAKER_00: But is it also not an opportunity by which God wants to show his faithfulness to you?
SPEAKER_00: His nearness to you?
SPEAKER_00: His power to you?
SPEAKER_00: Is it also not an opportunity by which you get to take the mission of God forward?
SPEAKER_00: I remember when I had a partial knee replacement back in 2021, about three months into physical therapy, my physical therapist became my emotional therapist because I would show up and I wasn't crying because it hurt.
SPEAKER_00: I was crying because why is this taking so long?
SPEAKER_00: I can't even step up on a curb yet.
SPEAKER_00: When is this going to change?
SPEAKER_00: And I remember crying, which is no surprise to you guys, but it's my physical therapist.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't know me yet.
SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden, we're having like this one-on-one conversation that extends far beyond the healing and therapy of my knee.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder if God was inviting me into his life to take the message of Jesus to him, to help him understand that there is brokenness he's experiencing in life, and through Christ, he can experience healing, restoration, reconciliation.
SPEAKER_00: He can know a God who loves him.
SPEAKER_00: I wonder in our own lives, in our own circumstances, when our lives feel scattered, it's actually God sending us.
SPEAKER_00: Or God using our scattering.
SPEAKER_00: What was meant for evil or bad, God is using for good, that we may be part of his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: And then I love this.
SPEAKER_00: In verses 20 and 21, it says, But there were some of them, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists, the Greeks, also, preaching the Lord Jesus, and the hand of the Lord was on them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: What I love about this is he doesn't give any names.
SPEAKER_00: Antioch is one of the most important churches started in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to see that in the coming weeks and the coming chapters of the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_00: This is a powerhouse of a church, and we don't even know the names of the people who started it.
SPEAKER_00: Well, can we go on?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we've got to have a name.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because we got to put them on a podcast.
SPEAKER_00: We got to get them to write a book and start a conference.
SPEAKER_00: They got to tell us how to do it.
SPEAKER_00: And God doesn't even give us the name of the people who helped start the very first church.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't Peter.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't Paul.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't Barnabas.
SPEAKER_00: He was sent after.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't any of the big titles.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because the Holy Spirit started the church.
SPEAKER_00: I think sometimes we get so wrapped up in earthly names.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to respect those that God uses.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to respect those that have an opportunity, a platform by which to reach millions and Thousands.
SPEAKER_00: But let us not ignore that the Holy Spirit is reaching billions and is powerful.
SPEAKER_00: And if we have the Holy Spirit, then we don't have to go to the leaders in Jerusalem and say, hey, we want to start a church in Acts.
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to need one of you headliners to come help us because we're not going to have any relational credibility.
SPEAKER_00: They're not going to know who we are if we show up in Acts and try to start a church.
SPEAKER_00: We need the big dogs to come in and help us start a church in Acts.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit said, No, I just want you to go and I'm going to empower you.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to open your mouth.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to proclaim Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to save people.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to do the work of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Not your persuasion, not your giftedness that I gave you.
SPEAKER_00: You're just going to be faithful.
SPEAKER_00: You're just going to be obedient.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you, I'm calling, you may actually not be that gifted, be honest with you.
SPEAKER_00: And that's okay.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to use you anyway.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to use you to do my work because my work is going to go forth.
SPEAKER_00: And my church is going to go forth.
SPEAKER_00: God's hand was upon them, and a great many people were added to their number.
SPEAKER_00: God does some of his greatest work through ordinary people.
SPEAKER_00: Faithfulness matters more than fame.
SPEAKER_00: And when you have the hand of the Lord, you have all that you need.
SPEAKER_00: Antioch is the third largest city in the Roman Empire, behind Rome and Alexandria.
SPEAKER_00: It was a major commercial center, a major political center.
SPEAKER_00: Highly diverse city with Jews and Greeks, famous for wealth and culture and religious diversity.
SPEAKER_00: And now the gospel is reaching the Gentiles here.
SPEAKER_00: And it's the first place the disciples were called Christians.
SPEAKER_00: FIFA World Cup is happening.
SPEAKER_00: And I look at all the different groups that are there.
SPEAKER_00: I noticed the other day in Vancouver the stands were filled with Egyptians, Egyptian fans.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, wow, this is crazy.
SPEAKER_00: Egyptian, like I lived in Vancouver.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't know there were that many Egyptians around or in close proximity.
SPEAKER_00: And real quick, I'm telling a FIFA illustration that I'm going to tell also later.
SPEAKER_00: So, band, if you want to wait till later, I apologize.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to go later to that call.
SPEAKER_00: I apologize.
SPEAKER_00: That's just back of the house, real quick, letting you know.
SPEAKER_00: But right now I'm looking at all these different people in the stands, and I'm thinking, wow, this is just crazy.
SPEAKER_00: Or the Colombian fans, or the U.S.
SPEAKER_00: fans, or the Canadian fans, I'm looking at all these stadiums that are filled with people.
SPEAKER_00: And in here, this church of Antioch, they were known as little Christs.
SPEAKER_00: They were of their culture, they were of their nationalities, but they weren't recognized by that first.
SPEAKER_00: They were recognized by being Christians.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, those ones, those ones belong to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Those ones over there, let me not describe them by their nationality or their political party.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to describe them by those ones belong to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: When we walk the earth and our spheres of life and influence, how many of us are recognized as belonging to Christ?
SPEAKER_00: How many people would say that of us?
SPEAKER_00: Beyond our ethnicity, beyond our race, beyond our culture, beyond our nationality.
SPEAKER_00: But that one, that one belongs to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And that one over there, they belong to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And you know that one over there?
SPEAKER_00: There's something different about.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because they belong to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: They were Christians.
SPEAKER_00: They were first called Christians.
SPEAKER_00: They had a new identity that was more than culture, more than nationality, more than ethnicity.
SPEAKER_00: And the Antioch Church became this future missionary sending church.
SPEAKER_00: If Jerusalem was where the church was born, Antioch was where the church began to reach the world.
SPEAKER_00: Antioch became the launching point for Paul's missionary journeys.
SPEAKER_00: Much of the rest of Acts flows out of what God began in Antioch.
SPEAKER_00: Now I also loved because once the Jerusalem church heard about the church in Antioch, they said, hey, let's send Barnabas.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to go check things out.
SPEAKER_00: And Barnabas, he's a recognized leader of the church.
SPEAKER_00: It describes him as a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.
SPEAKER_00: And Barnabas arrived and saw the grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: It says he arrived and saw the grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: Many people would have looked for problems.
SPEAKER_00: Barnabas looked for grace.
SPEAKER_00: I can't imagine what Barnabas saw when he showed up.
SPEAKER_00: People from different nationalities, different cultures, different ethnicities, different languages, and they're all coming together to try to do something together?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, what time are we going to start?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if we start at 9 o'clock, there's going to be a culture that shows up at 8.45 so that we go to 9.
SPEAKER_00: Then there's going to be a culture that shows up at 9 o'clock.
SPEAKER_00: Then there's going to be a culture that shows up at 9.15.
SPEAKER_00: Then there's going to be a culture that shows up at 11 for the 9 o'clock service, wondering, why'd you start without us?
SPEAKER_00: Can you see the mix-up?
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine the the challenge of the food of all these cultures?
SPEAKER_00: Wow, I've never smelt that before.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about that.
SPEAKER_00: What is in this?
SPEAKER_00: Am I going to like this?
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not going to lie, I have the spiritual gift of criticism.
SPEAKER_00: And so when I show up, I'm looking at all the things that are going to go wrong.
SPEAKER_00: And we got to mitigate this.
SPEAKER_00: We got to figure out how to make sure this doesn't go awry.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Who's with me?
SPEAKER_00: Let's form a team.
SPEAKER_00: And Barnabas shows up and saw the grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: That was the first thing he saw.
SPEAKER_00: I read this passage and I just repented.
SPEAKER_00: Because that's not the first thing I always see.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the first thing that my mind is trained to see the grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: And it said, Barnabas was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith.
SPEAKER_00: And I read that and I know this passage.
SPEAKER_00: Hear me out.
SPEAKER_00: I know this passage applies to both men and women.
SPEAKER_00: But men.
SPEAKER_00: Can I just speak to you for a moment?
SPEAKER_00: This world tells us a lot of what we're supposed to be.
SPEAKER_00: We're supposed to be macho.
SPEAKER_00: We're supposed to be successful.
SPEAKER_00: We're supposed to be high achievers and high earners.
SPEAKER_00: We're supposed to have our stuff together, and we're supposed to lead with boldness.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what God did when he described Barnabas?
SPEAKER_00: He described him as a man full of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: What if we were men and people described us as men who were full of the Holy Spirit?
SPEAKER_00: And women.
SPEAKER_00: What if when we were described by others, we were described as women full of the Holy Spirit?
SPEAKER_00: Let that be our aim and our goal for what we need to be and become.
SPEAKER_00: Not successful, not impressive, not powerful, but full of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Are we critics or encouragers when we see God at work?
SPEAKER_00: And Barnabas teaches us to celebrate grace.
SPEAKER_00: And then Barnabas goes and he recruits Saul.
SPEAKER_00: And they teach for a year and then make disciples.
SPEAKER_00: Because healthy churches don't just make converts.
SPEAKER_00: We are churches that make disciples.
SPEAKER_00: The other day I was in the lobby.
SPEAKER_00: I was about to walk into the worship center.
SPEAKER_00: I was of the culture that was coming in probably about 20 minutes after the service.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: So give me some grace there.
SPEAKER_00: I was coming in.
SPEAKER_00: And Stephen Henson's wife, Valerie Henson, she meets me out in the lobby and she says, Tim, what are you doing right now?
SPEAKER_00: I said, What do you need?
SPEAKER_00: She says, I need you to come with me and hold some infants.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, I do not have the spiritual gift of holding infants.
SPEAKER_00: And in the name of Jesus, she slapped me and said, Cut that out.
SPEAKER_00: And so I went with her to the infant room.
SPEAKER_00: And as I got into the infant room, there's about 10 infants and babies.
SPEAKER_00: Only three of them were settled.
SPEAKER_00: The other seven were crying.
SPEAKER_00: And they don't know, some of them knew why they were crying, and the rest didn't know why they were crying.
SPEAKER_00: And we're in there.
SPEAKER_00: And I walk in and I see other leaders.
SPEAKER_00: James and Kelsey and Kyle and Valerie was in there, and Kelly Sergiff have jumped in there.
SPEAKER_00: It was an all call.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm walking in there and they're like, here, here's Santiago.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, Santiago, here we are.
SPEAKER_00: Can you just hold him?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, what do you want me to do with him?
SPEAKER_00: Just try to calm him down.
SPEAKER_00: He's okay.
SPEAKER_00: He just needs a little bit more calm.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, Santiago.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, am I supposed to hold him facing me or am I supposed to turn him around?
SPEAKER_00: Like, how to?
SPEAKER_00: It's been 20 years.
SPEAKER_00: Am I supposed to bounce?
SPEAKER_00: Is this swaying?
SPEAKER_00: Is this, are we doing the hokey pokey?
SPEAKER_00: What are we doing?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, here is here's a rocker.
SPEAKER_00: Let's sit.
SPEAKER_00: And I sit with Santiago, and he's staring at me for five minutes straight, wondering who is this man?
SPEAKER_00: And I thought, if I can stay calm, then I will convince Santiago that I got, I'm okay.
SPEAKER_00: We got this.
SPEAKER_00: If I can just be calm, I can convince him I know what I'm doing.
SPEAKER_00: And before long, he settled down.
SPEAKER_00: And he just hung out and he chilled.
SPEAKER_00: And next thing I know, Stephen Henson's on the ground playing with some kids, trying to get them settled.
SPEAKER_00: And before long, everything kind of calmed down.
SPEAKER_00: Where's the Holy Spirit working in our church?
SPEAKER_00: I think the Holy Spirit's working in our early childhood education.
SPEAKER_00: I think the Holy Spirit was over there waiting to invite Tim to come see what he's up to.
SPEAKER_00: And though I couldn't sit down with a really long theological conversation with Santiago, one day when Santiago is going through a hard time, I want him to know there's a God whose lap he can sit in, whose arms will hold him steady and will be calm in the midst of whatever storm he's going through.
SPEAKER_00: Because we're making disciples over there.
SPEAKER_00: And we're making disciples in our kids' area.
SPEAKER_00: And we're making disciples in our youth.
SPEAKER_00: And God is at work.
SPEAKER_00: And as I say, Spirit, where are you?
SPEAKER_00: Where are you working?
SPEAKER_00: And the Spirit says, I'm over here.
SPEAKER_00: And the Spirit says, and I'm also over here.
SPEAKER_00: And the Spirit says, I'm over here walking as you walk in the doors.
SPEAKER_00: I'm here and I'm in the midst of people.
SPEAKER_00: And I say, God, would you show me?
SPEAKER_00: And He's like, I am showing you.
SPEAKER_00: This time last year, we averaged 89 kids in early childhood education.
SPEAKER_00: Now we're averaging 110.
SPEAKER_00: If we keep asking the Holy Spirit, where are you?
SPEAKER_00: And we can't see him, I don't know why he would show up somewhere else.
SPEAKER_00: So, God, would you let us join you?
SPEAKER_00: Would you let us join you with those kids who are dancing around and singing songs about you and their life?
SPEAKER_00: And in many ways, they're, man, they're discipling me because they're doing this unhindered, and I'm so much more reserved in my worship.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I love you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You know?
SPEAKER_00: And they're not.
SPEAKER_00: We're making disciples, and the Holy Spirit is doing his thing.
SPEAKER_00: Do we see him?
SPEAKER_00: And are we joining him?
SPEAKER_00: And the chapter ends with a snapshot of what happens when a church is transformed by God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: And in Acts 11, 27 through 30, it goes on to say, now in these days, prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch.
SPEAKER_00: And one of them, named Agabus, stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world.
SPEAKER_00: And this took place in the days of Claudius.
SPEAKER_00: So the disciples determined, every one according to his ability, to send relief to the brothers living in Judea.
SPEAKER_00: And they did so, sending it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.
SPEAKER_00: How cool is that?
SPEAKER_00: Prophet Agabus comes up, he has a prophetic warning, opportunity for the church to respond, and Antioch responded, every person gives according to their ability.
SPEAKER_00: What is your ability that God's given you?
SPEAKER_00: To give, to support, to be generous with.
SPEAKER_00: And I love this because the Gentile church that was started by the Jewish church is now supporting the Jewish church.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because we're one family.
SPEAKER_00: There is neither Jew nor Gentile.
SPEAKER_00: There is neither Jew nor Greek.
SPEAKER_00: We are one family.
SPEAKER_00: And the gospel is created one family.
SPEAKER_00: And the Holy Spirit doesn't simply move us toward worship, but he moves us toward generosity.
SPEAKER_00: And gospel-centered churches are generous churches.
SPEAKER_00: Mission and compassion belong together.
SPEAKER_00: And when God is at work, we support what he is doing through generosity and service.
SPEAKER_00: I believe we're a generous church.
SPEAKER_00: I believe there are many of you who are generous and you're looking for opportunities to give according to your abilities and praise God.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're looking for a way to experience God, this is a really quick way to experience God by giving according to your own ability and seeing the need and seeing where God is at work.
SPEAKER_00: I had a crazy thought this week.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to join with me in this illustration.
SPEAKER_00: It may be heretical, so just give me some space real quick.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He decided, hey, I know my second coming is one day, but before then, I just want to walk among them another time.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to go in the flesh and be among them.
SPEAKER_00: And we discover, we discover that Jesus comes to us, not his official second coming where he judges all things and sets things new.
SPEAKER_00: But he comes back and we discover it by watching one of the very first FIFA World Cup matches.
SPEAKER_00: We're all settled down watching the match on TV, and the TV's paying to, we have a special guest today.
SPEAKER_00: His name is Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He may be sitting with the dignitaries, or he may just be sitting in the crowd.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: But all of a sudden we'd be like, is that Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Is that Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: And we're looking and we're like, man, Jesus has come back.
SPEAKER_00: He's walking among us.
SPEAKER_00: What is gonna happen?
SPEAKER_00: What's gonna take place?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is here.
SPEAKER_00: And then like maybe a day or two later, we watch another match and it pans again to Jesus and he's in the crowd, and we're all like, come, come quick.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, Jesus, we get a glimpse of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We see him.
SPEAKER_00: He's there, he's hanging out, he's with the people, he's ministering to people.
SPEAKER_00: How incredible is this?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, at some point, we wouldn't even care who's playing the match.
SPEAKER_00: If someone scores a goal, we're like, Go, I believe that we will win.
SPEAKER_00: I believe that we will win.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is back.
SPEAKER_00: How incredible is that?
SPEAKER_00: Now, what if I said on a Sunday morning, ladies and gentlemen, we have a special guest, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, and he comes out here.
SPEAKER_00: You guys would go, ape! You would go wild.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, I believe that we will win.
SPEAKER_00: I believe that we will win.
SPEAKER_00: You're just chanting.
SPEAKER_00: Some of the most reserved of you would be jumping up and down, holding one another, saying, He's here.
SPEAKER_00: How incredible is this?
SPEAKER_00: I would have to turn to some of you and say, Hey, can you act like you've been somewhere?
SPEAKER_00: I know that's Jesus, but he's here with us.
SPEAKER_00: And so you're here and you're experiencing Jesus and this boldness.
SPEAKER_00: How would that impact how you wake up the next morning?
SPEAKER_00: Would that impact how you lead your family?
SPEAKER_00: Would that impact how you walk into work?
SPEAKER_00: Would that impact how you walk across the street?
SPEAKER_00: I think there would be people that are like, hey, Jesus is here.
SPEAKER_00: There's a boldness that has come upon me because he's here.
SPEAKER_00: And I see him, and he's with us, and he's among us.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna take this message of his wherever he leads me, wherever he directs me.
SPEAKER_00: I want to follow him.
SPEAKER_00: Now here's what's crazy.
SPEAKER_00: Hang with me.
SPEAKER_00: I think when Jesus was sitting with the disciples, and he said, Hey guys, I'm gonna go away.
SPEAKER_00: But it's to your advantage that I go away, because I'm gonna send, the Father's gonna send God, the Holy Spirit, to be with you, to live in you, to dwell in you.
SPEAKER_00: You now have a you know, you no longer have to look for me.
SPEAKER_00: God, Him very self is with you in you every day, every moment.
SPEAKER_00: What kind of boldness would come upon us if we knew that the Holy Spirit lived with us?
SPEAKER_00: God Himself was with us.
SPEAKER_00: We would cheer every moment, we would be pumped every moment.
SPEAKER_00: I believe that we will win every moment.
SPEAKER_00: We would have a pep in our step because no circumstance could could hit us, because God is with us.
SPEAKER_00: And I think the Father and the Son want to convey that to us so much that I don't I don't fully, I don't even fully get it.
SPEAKER_00: But I need to.
SPEAKER_00: This week, there's a simple prayer to pray.
SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit, what do you want to show me?
SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit, what do you want to show me today?
SPEAKER_00: Let me have eyes to see and ears to hear, to recognize what God is doing, to join what God is doing, and to support what God is doing.
SPEAKER_00: Will we join Him?
SPEAKER_00: What you pray with me.
SPEAKER_00: God, I think you are in our midst.
SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit, you are here, and there are things that you're showing us, just like you showed the believers who were scattered, and they followed you, and they listened to you.
SPEAKER_00: God, you were revealing yourself to Cornelius, you were revealing yourself to Peter, you were revealing yourself to Barnabas and Saul.
SPEAKER_00: You're revealing yourself to these unnamed people that were part of starting this incredible church in Antioch.
SPEAKER_00: God, you're revealing yourself to us.
SPEAKER_00: Because it's been your plan from the very beginning to be a blessing to the nations.
SPEAKER_00: And so, God, as we respond to you, let us respond in faith and lives of surrender.
SPEAKER_00: Because God, you are faithful.
SPEAKER_00: You have been faithful, you are faithful, and you will be faithful.
SPEAKER_00: And God, that gives us a boldness to live life.
SPEAKER_00: I believe that we will win.
SPEAKER_00: Not a I hope we will win, but I believe we will win.
SPEAKER_00: And we know that we win.
SPEAKER_00: Because Christ, you have won.
SPEAKER_00: So, God, whatever you're doing in each one of our lives, but God, what are you doing in our church's life?
SPEAKER_00: What are you inviting us into?
SPEAKER_00: Does some of us need to serve in hospitality and greeting and making coffee on Sunday mornings?
SPEAKER_00: Some of us need to serve in next gen.
SPEAKER_00: Does some of us need to see how you're working and answer the call?