Luke 24:35-53 And that's the book of Luke!

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We're in Luke 24, verse 35. And we're gonna we're gonna read through, we'll make it through the end of Luke today. And next week we will jump straight into Acts, and you'll see why that's so wildly appropriate. Um, so here we go. We're picking up in Luke in Luke 24, verse 35. And remember from last week's reading, we had the experience of Jesus walking with the men on the road to Emmaus. They didn't recognize him as he taught them about everything spoken in the Old Testament. Their hearts were burning, and then as he broke bread before them, their eyes were open to who it was, and then Jesus disappeared in that moment. So now we're in verse 35. Then the two from Emmaus told their story of how Jesus had appeared to them as they were walking along the road. And now they had recognized him as he was breaking the bread. As Jesus was, excuse me, and just as they were telling about it, Jesus himself was suddenly standing there among them. Peace be with you, he said. But the whole group was startled and frightened, thinking they were seeing a ghost. This has got to be one of my favorite passages in scripture because this is the realest thing you're gonna read. They were frightened. Jesus shows up, they're all hanging out together, they're heartbroken, they're wondering what's been going on. Like there's rumors that Jesus isn't in the tomb anymore. Some of the guys have gone and looked, the reports of the women, like all these things are happening, it's bubbling up, and it's almost like hard to have hope because it's too good to be true. Then the men from Emmaus, Cleopas and his partner, come back. We're gonna call him uh Geoclus. So Cleopas and Geoclus come back, right? And they're like, hey, listen to this story. And they share what goes on. It's like, as Jesus broke the bread, our eyes were open, and then he disappeared. And it's almost as right as they said, and as he disappeared, then Jesus reappears right there. What a great first line. Peace be with you. You think? But the whole group was startled and frightened, thinking they were seeing a ghost. Why are you frightened? He asked. I think when you read this in the English, you're like, well, this is obvious, Jesus. Like, right? You you were dead, you were crucified, you were beaten, you were put in a tomb. We all know the story. We're frightened because there's a dead person in front of us now asking us what we're frightened about. You just suddenly showed up. Like, we don't know if you did a backflip into the room, like we don't know how you end, like we don't, scripture doesn't give that detail. It's just boom, he's there. And it's like, have you ever been talking to somebody or you've been into a task and all of a sudden there's somebody that is right behind you and you didn't realize their presence? Yay, right? And so that's the kind of the image that we get. And it's like, but if you don't understand original language, he says, Why are you frightened? Well, it's not as obvious. He's not saying, Why are you frightened? Like, why have you just become frightened? Oh, did I scare you? Right? He's what he's asking is, why are you in a state of fear? For them, fear isn't a fleeting moment. But this word, this insight of this word gives, fear is like it's rested on them now. It didn't just show up because Jesus surprised them in the room. There was a fear that had encountered them, and now it wasn't just a moment, but they were in this grip of fear, of worry. Right? So Jesus is addressing their situation, not just the his arrival in the room, but where they are at in their current moment in life. And so I appreciate that about the original text. And when you get into it, you can read more. And he says, he asks, Why are your hearts filled with doubt? And for the Jewish people, when they're talking doubt, they're excuse me, talking heart, they're not just talking about like emotions, they're talking everything. Your thoughts, your feelings, like how you're processing the day, how you're processing, everything that's going on in your internal. These guys had a hurricane of emotion, their minds were racing, they couldn't catch up. Everything they couldn't put together, the dots of, listen, the impossible is now standing in front of us. We could have never believed that a man who had been completely brutally beaten and hung on the cross could be raised from the dead and is now standing. The impossible is in front of us. Hope is now breathing the same air that I'm breathing. You with me on that? Like, this is a moment that everything is going on. And it's like, but but I know what I saw a few days ago. I know what I've experienced. I know that death is an end, at least they thought. Right? He says, Why are your hearts filled with doubt? It's obvious, man. Jesus, this is too much to handle. I love Jesus. Look at my hands, look at my feet. You can see that it's really me. Touch me and make sure that I am not a ghost. Because ghosts don't have bodies as you see that I do. Look at my hands and look at my feet. Most people like to hide scars, not Jesus. He's happy to show them because they're proof of his identity. Right? Imagine, imagine he comes back. So there are, there would be certain religions that would say that Jesus didn't actually die on the cross, that they substituted somebody, that there was a switch, and that they hung somebody else on the cross and that he never really died. Well, okay, Jesus, you know, God being God, thinks ahead and he's like, you know what? Like when I return, I'm gonna, the scars are gonna stay. Could he return without scars? Absolutely. He's God, he can do what he wants to do. He comes back with scars in his hands and his feet. He's like, look, feel me, see the scars. Even in the account of Thomas, he's like, put your put your fingers in the in the nail holes, like put them there. I want you to know, I want you to be certain. What is this book of Luke? As we've journeyed through this, Luke has been telling eyewitness accounts that he's compiled so that he could, that Theophilus, the guy he's writing to, could be certain of that which he's been taught. What has he been taught? He's been taught about Jesus, that Jesus is the Messiah. And throughout the book of Luke, we get confirmation after confirmation after confirmation of who Jesus is. And even in this moment, Jesus is loving and saying, Guys, come squeeze my hand. I'm not a ghost. I think God has a sense of humor. Could you imagine? Like, everybody in the room is like, well, how would you be? I know how I would be. I'd be like a cat next to a cucumber, right? Have you ever seen those little it's like where a cat stand there and they're just scared of cucumbers? Nobody's ever seen that. Okay. I'd be like, you know, everybody just looking at Jesus and he's like, guys, I'm not a ghost. Could you imagine if like he just sneezed real loud at that moment, like somebody dies? You know, he's like, he can bring him back, it'd be okay. But like, right? God's got a sense, like you think through the words he's had to say, guys, I'm not a ghost. Right? Right? Like, oh my gosh, that would have been incredible if he'd done that. I I gotta feel like he's smiling. Fellas, I'm not a ghost. That's what they're thinking. Are we seeing? Are we seeing some kind of like, he's like, no, touch me. Look at me. You can see me right here. Squeeze my hands. Give me a hug, right? And wouldn't, isn't that what you would want? I would want to go up and just be like, just hug him, right? I don't know. Would would you do that? Or would you fall at his feet and just be like, man, I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna, I'm gonna, I'm just gonna hold on to your feet for a minute, Jesus. What would your response be? And he's just like, guys, I'm not a ghost. Jesus was not replaced on the cross as some false religion state. Man, but the scars from wounds that were meant to cause pain and humiliate are now bringing healing and fullness of joy. The intent, think about the intent of those scars. The enemies of this world and Satan himself mentions that this would be shame upon you. The cross was shame upon anybody who would hang from it. But now we hang it up as a hope that Jesus overcame death, hell, and the grave, and he was our sacrifice, right? And so I look at this moment and he's not ashamed of these scars. He's like, man, look at these. And these things that were meant to bring shame are now bringing hope into the room. Yeah? I'm not a ghost, fellas. So as he spoke, he showed him his hands and his feet. And still, verse 41, they stood there in disbelief. But check this out filled with joy and wonder. Disbelief and filled with joy and wonder. How does that even go together? I love how complex like we are as people. Did you be like, I can't believe this. This is amazing. I can't wrap my head around this. This is incredible. Like, there's this, like, they can't even process what's going on, yet there's this awe and there's this wonder. And can I just say right now, I believe in this place, God is wanting to restore an awe and a wonder to you that he sees you, that he is for you, and he's not against you, and that his scars were for you. He had you in mind when he took those scars, right? And that there would even to our hearts today be from the words of Luke, who we look back all the way a year and a half ago. We read about one historian who set out to try to disprove that Luke was an accurate historian, and he walked away with this fact that he was one of the most reliable, credible historians to ever live. Right? And we see this like that. Nobody's debating that Luke was not a good historian. And now we can look at this, and with our hearts, maybe in this place, even today, we can close our eyes and just in our minds, I begin to see his scars on his wrists, his scars on his feet, and we can say, Man, you did not hide your scars from me. But you've revealed them so that I could have hope in my heart. Thank you that you are not a ghost. It's not, listen, some some people would say, Well, the spirit, the essence of Jesus lived on. No, the body of Jesus lived on. Yeah? That's not, it's not, it wasn't his essence that his disciples were carrying, not his spirit that they were carrying on. They recognized his body was made alive. This is huge. Don't let anybody shake you or try to poke holes in this because they can't poke holes in that. They stood there in disbelief with joy and wonder. Then he asked him, check this out, do you have anything here to eat? Does God need to eat? No. So listen, why would he eat? Somebody in the room could see him, could feel him, but were still in a state of, how can this be? Somebody needed to see him eat for belief to enter their heart. I love the links that Jesus goes to make sure that those that are pursuing him, that he is pursuing them back. And even in the seasons where we get faithless, he remains faithful. That there's seasons, maybe you're in a time in life, you're like, I'm having trouble believing this about you, Jesus. And I believe there's still moments where Jesus is like, You got any fish for me? You got any food for me? And this is what they do. They come and it says, Do you have anything here to eat? And they gave him a piece of broiled fish. And he ate it. Check this out, as they watched. It's feel weird, right? That had to be mad awkward. Have you ever had anybody sit and watch you eat? Imagine. Just like a group of people just standing there, and they're just he's like, Jesus' like, y'all got any little salt? Right? Like, dishes under seasoned. I'm not trying to, right? I remember I have this dear loved one in my life. I'm not gonna say who it is, father-in-law, and he probably not gonna hear this message, but we all we'd have this favorite place we'd go and get these cheesesteaks from, and he would get his, and we'd sit down for dinner, and he would uh, as he's eating the cheesesteak, because there would be a sauce and all the things, and he would eat it like this. Like he would like kind of like slurp in the sandwich. I love you, Mike, if you ever hear this. And he would kind of, and I'd be like, oh my goodness. I'm like, I'm gonna have to leave the room. Anyone else, like food noises mess with them? Yeah? Have you ever had a cold so bad that you're eating and you have to stop eating because the sounds you're making mess with you? Oh, that's the worst. Like, I'm so hungry, but I sound disgusting. Right? Like, what is going on? And everybody in the room sitting, a pin can drop, you can hear it, and they're watching Jesus and right, what is going on? And somebody, listen to me, somebody in that wildly awkward moment is being healed. Jesus is not afraid of awkward moments. You come into a service, listen, I'm telling you right now, as we go in full heart into wherever the Holy Spirit wants to go, the Holy Spirit is not always going to take us to places that make sense to us. There'll be moments of silence and it might feel awkward, but let it get awkward if that's where the Holy Spirit wants to go. Because it's not origin. It's I pray every Sunday, Holy Spirit, wherever you want to go, whatever you want to do, that's where we want to go, and that's what we want to do. And when it gets awkward, we just have to be cool with that. Because God's not nervous about awkward, but he knows what he's doing. So he ate it as they watched. Sheesh. Then he said, When I was with you before, could you imagine that he's eating the fish, just the bones laying there, he's wiping his mouth off. He said, Then when I was with you before, I told you that everything written about me and the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. There was nothing that prophesied over the Messiah. So listen, in the Old Testament, we see that there'd be prophet uh prophesying of a coming prophet, a coming priest, a coming Messiah. Right? And I don't think anybody recognized that they would be three in one. That Jesus would be the prophet, that he would be the priest, that he would be the Messiah. And he is all those things in one. And he didn't leave any loose laces. He tied up every knot that needed to be tied up to every prophecy from the Old Testament into the New Testament. And he said, guys, remember I told you about Moses, and I told you about the prophets, and I told you about everything that was said about me, and I was gonna fulfill every single one of them. I wasn't gonna leave any of it undone so that you wouldn't have any doubt of who I am and what I can do. And when you recognize that over 300 prophecies get fulfilled from the Old Testament to Jesus' life, there's sometimes we hit some days where, can I just say in the last week, a little car trouble in our life. And when I think about this, listen to me. I think about this, you, Jesus, you fulfilled all these things in the Old Testament. You lived in 30 some years, got it all done. Prophecy that he was going to be born of a virgin birth. Boom. Happens, right? Can I like? Are we there? He's prophesied that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. He didn't live, his family didn't live in Bethlehem, lived in Nazareth. And we remember the story. He had said, go to Bethlehem because of the census. Prophecies fulfilled. We go through all these prophecies that he would be betrayed, that they would cast, they would cast dice for his clothes while he was on the cross. The fact that he'd be hung on a cross, the fact that he'd be betrayed, the fact that he'd be surrounded by Gentiles. Like all these things confirmed, confirmed, confirmed, confirmed, fulfilled, fulfilled, fulfilled. And listen, can I just tell you for real? There's moments I still get in life and I get stressed out and I forget. Man, God, if you fulfilled all these things, how much more are you gonna take care of me? If you take care of the birds of the air, you're gonna take care of me. Right? If you clothe in the flowers in the field, you're gonna take care of me. Why am I gonna get stressed out if God's not stressed out? There's a battle that we wage and fight all the time, every day almost, and the less time we spend in this, the more likely we are to air into worry. And the more time we spend in this, the more time we are into his presence and a strong foundation. Right? One that when the waves come or when the flood comes, my foundation's not gonna sweep out from under me. Can I tell you when your foundation is gonna sweep out from under you? It's when your security comes from a political office. When your security comes from just people or regular people around you, because they're gonna fail you and they're gonna get it wrong. But when your security is in Jesus, when your security is in God the Father, sent his son to die for you, and he was raised again on the third day, and he's paid the price for your sins. And then he says, we'll read in just a minute, I've got to go so that I can send the Holy Spirit to you, and he's going to help you. There's a firm foundation on that. Our world needs a church standing on a firm foundation, not a fluid one. When the foundation gets fluid, then we start trying to come up with the answers in our own mind and our own intellect. That's scary. That's how you end up with a secret sensitive church that's more worried about how many people can I get to attend rather than the presence of God attending. Jesus didn't miss one prophecy. Verse 45. Then he opened their minds. So this is our prayer. Lord, we pray you open our mind to the scriptures. Open our mind to the scriptures. And he said, Yes, it was written long ago that the Messiah would suffer and die and rise from the dead on the third day. It was also written that this message would be proclaimed. Check this out in the authority of his name to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem, there is forgiveness of sins for all who repent. I love that it says, it was also written in that this message would be proclaimed in the, check this out, highlight this, underline this, in the authority of his name. The authority of his name. Jewish culture, the name was more than the identifier of a person. It was their character, their reputation, and in this case, delegated power. So it's under the authority of Jesus' delegated power, character, and reputation that we share who he is with this world. I need to say that again. It's with the authority of his delegated power that when you're sharing Jesus to somebody, it's like Jesus sharing himself with somebody. When you lay hands on somebody that's sick, it's as if the hand of Jesus showed up in the room and was put on somebody. We don't think in that context. We don't think in those terms. That when you walk into a workplace that's all kinds of just messed up and toxic and drama, when you walk in, you walk in as the embodiment of Jesus into that place with his authority and delegated what? Power. When we have a powerless life, it doesn't speak to a cross that's redeemed us. Well, let me say it like this: when we have a powerless life, it doesn't show that we've submitted to that cross that's redeemed us in the king that was on it. When I'm submitted to the king and I'm walking obediently before him, the power of God will show up in my life. Because I'm operating on his mission that he's called me to. Does this make sense? So there should be power encounters on the regular. Man, I the whole week I read the authority of his name. What if you wake up tomorrow and you say, God, I'm walking into this day and the authority of your name? Listen, listen, I'm gonna say this. I'm gonna get some booze from a younger crowd. School's coming soon. I gotta cheer. Woo-hoo! Send them back. Praise God. Warm up the buses. The kids were like, boo. Listen, school's gonna start, and there are students in your school that need you to enter your school in the authority of Jesus, in the authority of his name. It was written that this message would be proclaimed in the authority of his name. When you proclaim the gospel, stop getting so nervous on how good your words are and start standing firm on how strong his power is. Can I say it the right way? What if I fumble my words? What if I sound stupid? I'm just thankful that I'm saying these things in the power of his name, in the character of his heart. It was also written that the message would be proclaimed in the authority of his name. Check this out to all the nations beginning in Jerusalem. To all the nations beginning in Jerusalem. Two things I want to say about this really quickly. This is the love of Jesus that the gospel begins by spreading in the place that called for his death. The gospel begins to spread starting in Jerusalem. Now, if you wanted to make up a lie, it would be better to start it up in a different location than where the truth went down. Let me put it to you like this. If Jesus didn't really come back, you wouldn't start that sort of story in the place where he died. Because there's going to be a lot of people there to refute that he came back if he didn't come back. You're going to let sort of the story build up in other areas. But what happens? Is this making sense? I'm trying to try to, I can see my wife giving me the you better figure this out, Joey. Like say it better. If I'm going to tell a story, so I'll give you this illustration. One of my kids, I won't say their name, Ella. She was, it was her birthday and she was young, and Ashley made a chocolate cake and it had the frosting on there. And she comes out of the kitchen and she has chocolate frosting on her face and her hands behind her back. Ella, did you get into the cake? Nope. Could I see your hands? She pulls out both hands at the cake. So that's my girl. Cake on her hands, cake on her face. And uh man, Papa did it to me. This is rite of passage, baby. I'm sorry. So right, like my dad was a pastor too. So she couldn't lie. She was at the scene of the crime. Right? Girl, you can't tell me you didn't eat the cake, it's on your face. Right? You look at this, you look at the scene where it all goes down, where Jesus is beaten, where he's crucified, where he's buried, and where he rises again. If he didn't rise again there, and you start there with this story that he did, and nobody's seen him, nobody's seen his body, nobody's seen his his wrists, his feet, nobody's heard him eat the food. If these things didn't occur, like is it making sense to you now? He starts there, but I love that he starts there because his love is for everybody. He's actively dying on the cross for the people that are killing him in that moment. We actively reject people before they ever even complete the pain in our life. This is not the love of Jesus. He's actively forgiving them as he's dying for the people that are killing him, right? In that moment. Lord, be with those people and bless the rescue workers in Jesus' name. Now, his death on the cross, the price he pays, extended a grace that went even beyond that, praise God, to those that are Gentiles and not Jewish. But he never love, his love never left the Jewish people, and he begins right there. The revolution begins right there. You with me on that? Okay. All right. To all the nations beginning in Jerusalem, check this out. There is forgiveness of sins for all who repent. Check that outline out. There is, this is highlightable, underlinable. There is forgiveness of sins for all who repent. So let's run this in reverse. Repent is key. Repent's the key word, right? Repent is not I'm sorry. Because that's a lot of times how we think about I gotta repent. I'm so sorry. So let's put it in this context. When it's raining and somebody's got an umbrella, repenting is not I'm so sorry that I've got caught in the in the rain. Repenting is I'm going under the place of covering. I'm changing my mind and I'm going, God, I'm coming under your covering. I'm not just sorry that I got wet by the rain because of my choices, but I am changing my mind and I'm going, I'm just changing my lifestyle to move and live under your covering. This is repentance. What does it require? It requires a change of life. It requires a change of thought. It requires a change of direction. I was going this way, now I'm going this other way. We cannot preach the gospel without understanding that repentance requires change. There is no gospel that doesn't require change. It doesn't require shifting. Joey had to shift his direction in life. I've had to lay down anger. I've had to lay down idolatry. I've had to lay down all these things. I've shifted my direction saying, God, I'm going to worship you and you alone. And there's times where I get it wrong in life, and then I get corrected by the Holy Spirit, and my heart is convicted. I'm going to shift. I'm going to repent. I'm coming and I'm staying under your covering, God. But the gospel does not come without repentance. But do you know what comes with repentance? Forgiveness. When I repent, when I change direction, I come back under the covering, then there is forgiveness. And that forgiveness is a full payment of everything that I got wrong. It's a full payment, it's paid in full. Everything that I owe because of my sin, and all the times I miss the mark, all of it is stand boom, paid in full. And I get to stand under that protection. I get to stand under that covenant. There is forgiveness for sins for all who repent. This word all is important as we've looked through Luke. I just want to remind you of it one more time because Jesus shifted so much of the narrative because he ministered not to the religious elite, the marginalized, the outcast, the rejected, the alone, the sick, the evil. We see him ministering to people who are demon-possessed. Remember Legion? We see him ministering to people that that wish him harm. We see him ministering to people that are, nobody wants to have anything to do with him. Lord, if you will, I've got this leprosy and I can't be around my family. I can't be around anybody. I'm rejected by society. But would you heal me? And with his hand reaching out, he touches them. When a word would have done, he uses his hand to embrace them, be healed. He's shifting the narrative of this. So who is all? All is everybody. And when we live, when you go out your door tomorrow, don't only start your day with this idea, I'm starting this day in the authority of his name, but I'm going to treat everybody like Jesus died for them. I'm going to say that again because I'm not sure that that caught everybody. I'm going to treat the people that are in front of me with the understanding that the God of the universe came brutally beaten, died on the cross for them, the person in front of me. Regardless of what I see, regardless of what faults or flaws or whatever you see about them. Everybody you see tomorrow was died for by Jesus. May I treat them like they were so valuable that God sent his son to die for them. May I treat them with that care. May I treat them with that love. May I pray for them with that heart. Like the Pharisees saying, like, praise God, I'm not like them. Praise God, I'm not, I didn't make so many mistakes that I look like that or I'm acting like that. No, God, you the value you have for them, help me grasp the value that heaven has for that person in front of me. Help me grasp the value of heaven that it has for that person right there standing on the corner. Help me grasp the value of that person that's sinning differently than me, but I'm not gonna judge them and make myself feel better because my sin doesn't look like theirs. That's what a lot of church services look like, is it's like let's pacify the sin that we have in our life by shifting our direction away from it onto the sin that we don't have in our life. And we can leave them like, ah, I'm not that bad. There is forgiveness of sins for all who repent. Verse forty eight. This is the king in Luke. What does it say? You are witnesses of all these things. This is lived out flesh and blood, life on life. You are witnesses of all these things. Here we go. And now I will send the Holy Spirit just as my Father promised. But stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from heaven. I'll say this really quickly. Obedience is key in receiving the Holy Spirit. They couldn't just do and live however they wanted to do and live. He said, What? Stay here in the city until. So there's a staying and then there's an until. Stay here until the Holy Spirit fills you, but then there's a mission you're gonna be on. And as we get into Acts, we're gonna we're gonna dive headfirst in that mission. So here's if I can look at it, if we can look at it like this, Luke has been about getting a certainty for that which we've been taught. And now Acts is I'm risking to believe that everything I'm certain of is true. I'm gonna risk it and live like it. I'm gonna risk to believe that what I read in Acts really did happen. And I'm gonna risk to believe that it's still happening. So that's huge, right? That it did happen and that it is still happening. Did the Holy Spirit move then and the Holy Spirit is moving now? That the Holy Spirit filled them then and He's filling us now. And if you've never been filled with the Spirit, it's an opportunity for you to come and say, Jesus, would you baptize me in the Holy Spirit, immerse me in the Holy Spirit so that I can have the power to be your witness to this world? And now I will send the Holy Spirit. He said, just as my Father promised, I love that God always fulfills his promises. But stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from heaven. There's gotta be something in our life. Ashley, would you come up for me? There's gotta be something in our life. I want to say this like rightly. Because as I live as a follower of Jesus, power is going to accompany me as I minister to people. It's unnatural for there never to be a moment where I see healing flow in and through my life. It's unnatural for there to be moments where I don't see laying hands on the sick and they recover. That's unnatural as a follower of Jesus. See, we see the supernatural in the church world today and say, whoo, they are extreme over there. But somehow being obedient has made them extremists. That they would pray for demons to leave bodies and to stop afflicting people and believe that there is an authority that we've been given to be the hands and the feet of Jesus and receive power from the Holy Spirit so that these people that are tormented can be free and receive his hope and his love. So that we could be in a service like this and recognize that we, as even believers, could have opened doorways in our life or opened areas in our life where the enemy is influencing us, and we can come and we can speak life and cast out that demon and shut the door to the influence we've allowed into our own lives. Now I will send the Holy Spirit just as my Father promised, but stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from heaven. If you look at your life and you don't recognize any of the power of God in your life, now let me say this: you don't have to be like levitating when you pray. Adam's like, I can see Adam now, he's just picturing it. But but I've gotta say, it should come as a red flag or be marked as abnormal if I don't see the power of God working in and through my life. It should be a red flag. It should be a correction if we don't see the power of God working in and through our church. There's gonna be times when, as you function in this way, that you're gonna get phone calls. People say, I didn't know who else to call, but I knew I could call you. Would you pray with me? And you're not gonna pray any kind of weak, soft prayer. You're not gonna, you're not gonna pray prayers of authority. You're gonna walk into situations that intimidate other people, and you're gonna go in recognizing that you're called to this moment, that you were born for this moment to restore hope to families. It was a moment I had to repent as we're talking about repentance. Walking down the street, we lived in Montana, and I saw a father pulling a little red wagon of sorts. And I was like, I was a couple blocks off, and I couldn't see what he was pulling. And as I got closer, I realized, oh my gosh, I could see like an IV bag, and it was it was it was a little bed in this cart, and he was just taking his daughter, who was laying in the bed on a walk through their neighborhood. And I know I heard the Holy Spirit say, stop and pray for them. And I did not. And I'm like, Lord, I repent. Because that is not who you've called me, created me, or shaped me to be. I thank you for your love and for your forgiveness. But Lord, may I be on mission. That when your Holy Spirit nudges me, that I would move. Whether I look ridiculous, foolish, or not, I would move. That I would be, I would rather risk obedience and look foolish. Verse 50, then Jesus led them to Bethany and lifted his hands to heaven, and he blessed them. And while he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up to heaven. So they worshiped him and then returned to Jerusalem, filled with great joy, and they spent all their time in the temple praising God. They spent all their time in the temple praising God. This was what they knew church to be. Like, listen, persecution comes in acts, and we see churches have to go flee to the home. But when it first started, they went to the temple, gathered together, they spent all their time. Is Luke blowing smoke? I don't think so. And they spent all their time in the temple praising God. Now that doesn't mean you can probably quit your job and just show up here tomorrow and be like, woo-hoo! I don't have to work anymore. But I think what you can do is you can show up at your workplace and let your work be as worship to the Lord and let all things that you do be as unto Christ and let it be an offering to him. That you can go take the worship service into your place of work. You can take the worship service into your school, you can take the worship service wherever it is that you're going. And I love that these guys, like, I just I we're gonna jump into Acts next week, so I don't want to get into it. But could you just like, could you wrap your head around all the things that happened in these many days with Jesus? And he's just like, he's just now like floating up into heaven. He doesn't disappear like before, like they watch him, it's just like and they're just like leaning back. For me, it hits two things. I'm close with this. May we be a people that stand in awe and wonder of who God is, and may we be obedient with how we honor Him with our lives. Yeah, uh and that's the book of Luke. Cool? All right, amen. Praise God. Let's let's respond. I would love to I'd love to pray over you. Would you stand with me? Lord, thank you that you know what you're doing. Thank you that you know what you're doing in our lives, thank you that you see us. Thank you, God, that um that you proved over and over that you fulfilled everything that was written about you. Thank you that you reach the marginalized, thank you that you reached the outcast, thank you that you reach me. Thank you that you reached us, and thank you that you're not done reaching. Thank you that you empower us. Thank you that you've given us the authority in your name to preach your gospel to this world, a gospel that's not a blind faith, but a certain faith. A gospel that is that which the hopeless can take refuge in and find hope. Lord, I thank you right now for everybody in this room that they would be on mission as your disciples, leaving this place, a royal priesthood, a holy nation that declares your goodness wherever they go and whatever they do, and they do it recognizing it's not in the fluidity of their words or in the cleverness of their speech, but it's in the power of your name that they share your good news with this world. That this is not a gospel that stands still, but it's a gospel that has feet. Thank you that it's a gospel that is not a weak, but it's a gospel that moves in power. Thank you that it is a gospel that has the ability to open blind eyes, open deaf ears, let the tongues of the mute speak and sing. God, bring up those that have cancer and heal them of all kinds of infirmities that can be healed of every kind. God, I thank you right now that your gospel, that your good news is for all who would repent and praise God, be forgiven. I just want to offer you an opportunity in this moment. If there's something that you're like, man, I I need to repent of some things. A lot of times we repent over things that we've done. I'm sorry that I've done this, I'm sorry that I've done that. But we know that repentance isn't just sorry, but it's a change of mind and a change of movement. But Lord, I also thank you that we can repent of what we have not done. We can repent of not being your hands and feet. I could repent that day when I did not stop and pray. Thank you, God, that if there's anybody in this room right now, and there's some, this is not shame, but this is conviction. If there's anything you need to repent of not doing, something you've not been doing that you know now, reading through the word that you should be doing, repent, come under the covering, and operate in the authority been given to you. No shame, no guilt, but freedom to live obedient before Him. Lord, we love you. We bless your name. Thank you for all you have done through this and all that you're going to do. May your face shine upon these, your sons and daughters. Bless them, and they're coming, and they're going, they're lying down, they're rising up. Be their front, their rear guard. James 1 says, if we ask for wisdom, you'd give it abundantly without reproach. So we pray for that kind of wisdom in our lives. And opportunity to be your hands, your feet, your voice to this city, to this county, to this state, to this world. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.