WEBVTT 00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:03.279 Before Eastern Lint, we're studying our way through the book of Acts. 00:00:03.359 --> 00:00:04.799 We are up to Acts chapter 10. 00:00:04.879 --> 00:00:08.880 I'm excited to share with y'all the story of Cornelius in Acts chapter 10. 00:00:09.039 --> 00:00:11.039 Nathan read the beginning of Acts 10. 00:00:11.119 --> 00:00:12.560 We're going to jump into verse 29. 00:00:12.640 --> 00:00:17.519 It's after Peter has arrived here at Cornelius who had sent for him. 00:00:17.600 --> 00:00:23.920 And so verse 29, Acts 10, 29, so when I was sent for, as Peter speaking, I came without objection. 00:00:24.079 --> 00:00:26.399 I asked then why you sent for me. 00:00:26.640 --> 00:00:39.920 And Cornelius said, Four days ago, about this hour, I was praying my house at the ninth hour, and behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing and said, Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, and your alms have been remembered before God. 00:00:40.159 --> 00:00:43.520 Send therefore to Joppa and ask for Simon, who is called Peter. 00:00:43.679 --> 00:00:46.479 He is lodging in the house of Simon, a tanner by the sea. 00:00:46.560 --> 00:00:47.920 So I sent for you at once. 00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:50.240 And you have been kind enough to come. 00:00:50.399 --> 00:00:57.520 Now therefore we are all here in the presence of God to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord. 00:00:57.840 --> 00:01:01.280 So a few points to make sense of this, Acts 10, as we go through it. 00:01:01.439 --> 00:01:03.439 Point number one, gospel conversion. 00:01:03.520 --> 00:01:10.480 And that's what we're seeing in Acts 9, the conversion of Paul, and then now Acts 10, the conversion of Cornelius is conversions. 00:01:10.640 --> 00:01:21.840 Point number one, gospel conversion comes through God's pursuit, God's pursuit of our lost and weary hearts. 00:01:22.400 --> 00:01:27.200 In 2018, Kim Kardashian, she was at New York Met Gala, I'm sure you remember it. 00:01:27.280 --> 00:01:28.319 She took this picture. 00:01:28.480 --> 00:01:30.799 She was wearing a gold Versace dress. 00:01:30.959 --> 00:01:33.840 She took this picture next to a gold Egyptian coffin. 00:01:34.000 --> 00:01:35.920 Didn't think it was that big of a deal when she took the picture. 00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:36.879 She put it out there on the internet. 00:01:37.120 --> 00:01:38.560 The thing goes viral. 00:01:38.719 --> 00:01:53.439 Now what the Met did not know, the Met who owned the Egyptian, they sort of thought they owned the Egyptian coffin, was that this first century, first century BC coffin had been stolen and belonged to Egypt. 00:01:53.840 --> 00:02:08.159 So, but this picture goes viral, and one of the thieves sitting in the Middle East, who never got paid for being in that gang of people who dug it up out of the ground during the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, he never got paid. 00:02:08.240 --> 00:02:14.319 And so he sees this picture and he's mad because he never got paid, and so he tips off the New York DA who oversees art theft. 00:02:14.400 --> 00:02:28.000 And sure enough, this coffin had been dug out of the ground, smuggled to the UAE, then to Germany, fake documents drawn up to make it look like it had been exported legally in 1971 out of Egypt. 00:02:28.159 --> 00:02:31.120 And then the coffin goes to an art dealer in France. 00:02:31.199 --> 00:02:34.800 The art dealer sells it to the Met for$4 million. 00:02:35.360 --> 00:02:36.800 The thief never got anything. 00:02:36.879 --> 00:02:37.599 He's upset. 00:02:37.680 --> 00:02:43.680 And so, sure enough, the story comes out, and the Met, kind enough, sends it back to Egypt. 00:02:43.759 --> 00:02:52.080 And here it is now in Cairo, this gold coffin, which a priest, I'm sure his shirt was tucked in, is inside the coffin. 00:02:52.560 --> 00:02:56.240 Now, what I love about this story is it's interesting, right? 00:02:56.319 --> 00:02:57.360 It's kind of an interesting story. 00:02:57.439 --> 00:03:02.560 But what I love about it is just like the many conversions that this coffin goes through, right? 00:03:02.879 --> 00:03:16.560 It's a forgotten coffin in the ground, and then it becomes a smuggled good, and then it becomes expensive artwork, and then finally it becomes priceless cultural artifact, right? 00:03:16.719 --> 00:03:20.719 Converting from one thing to another thing. 00:03:20.879 --> 00:03:24.080 And yet it's still sort of who it was. 00:03:24.479 --> 00:03:27.840 So Peter says to Cornelius, why did you sin for me? 00:03:28.000 --> 00:03:28.960 Why did you sin for me? 00:03:29.120 --> 00:03:31.439 Cornelius says, Well, I had a vision, so I sent for you. 00:03:31.680 --> 00:03:32.560 Pretty simple. 00:03:32.879 --> 00:03:36.000 In other words, God sparked in me, right? 00:03:36.159 --> 00:03:38.479 Cornelius had the vision and then he sent, right? 00:03:38.639 --> 00:03:41.840 So God sparked in me the desire to seek. 00:03:42.080 --> 00:03:43.599 And that's profound. 00:03:44.400 --> 00:03:55.360 See, your desire to seek and my desire to seek God, or even our wrestling with God's absence, is a sign of God's pursuit of us. 00:03:57.039 --> 00:04:05.680 Pastor and author Tim Keller says even a sense of God's absence is a sense of God's presence. 00:04:06.639 --> 00:04:07.919 You can just chew on that. 00:04:08.639 --> 00:04:09.759 Let me know what you think about that. 00:04:09.919 --> 00:04:14.479 Even a sense of God's absence is a sense of God's presence. 00:04:16.399 --> 00:04:25.040 See, God's on a mission to bring Cornelius home, to convert him, to have a conversion, to move him from one thing to another thing. 00:04:25.519 --> 00:04:34.240 British pastor Martin Lloyd Jones, we looked at this definition and thought about conversion when we studied Acts 9 weeks ago before Lent. 00:04:36.240 --> 00:04:43.600 Conversion is the first exercise of the new nature in ceasing from old forms of life and starting a new life. 00:04:43.839 --> 00:04:51.439 It is the first action of the regenerate soul in moving from something to something. 00:04:52.480 --> 00:05:08.399 As we mature in the Christian faith, probably what you're discovering, or you will soon, is that so much of that big decision making you were making about you're going to give your life to God and walk the aisle and give your life to Christ, all of which is really important, maybe huge marking moments for you, right? 00:05:08.639 --> 00:05:12.560 All of that is by God's grace and mercy to us. 00:05:13.040 --> 00:05:17.680 See, the activity of God's grace through the Holy Spirit reveals our need of Christ. 00:05:18.720 --> 00:05:21.199 Our seeking is a result of his seeking. 00:05:21.600 --> 00:05:26.160 Here's what we said when we studied Acts 9, to get a little technical, nerd out, just a little bit. 00:05:26.399 --> 00:05:31.199 Regeneration, God's grace to us, our soul being regenerated. 00:05:31.439 --> 00:05:38.240 Regeneration is the implantation by the Holy Spirit of new life in the soul. 00:05:39.360 --> 00:05:43.759 Conversion, many of you maybe have a conversion experience. 00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:49.600 Conversion is the experience of that regeneration as repentance and faith. 00:05:49.920 --> 00:06:02.000 And what that means is it means our pursuit of Him is always rooted in His pursuit of us, which is amazing good news because it pulls out pride and it pulls out anxiety. 00:06:02.879 --> 00:06:06.319 I heard this 18th-century Lutheran hymn this week. 00:06:06.639 --> 00:06:18.800 Lord, 'tis not that I did choose thee, that I know could never be, for this heart would still refuse thee, had thy grace not chosen me. 00:06:20.160 --> 00:06:29.360 Now back to verse 31, Acts 10, the angel said, Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, and your alms have been remembered before God. 00:06:29.519 --> 00:06:33.680 Send therefore to Joppa and ask Simon for Simon, who is called Peter. 00:06:33.839 --> 00:06:42.480 So point number two is gospel conversion is a transformation out of moral merit and religiosity. 00:06:43.600 --> 00:06:44.720 And here's how we see this. 00:06:44.879 --> 00:06:51.680 Cornelius, he's praying, he's giving money away, he's doing everything right. 00:06:52.399 --> 00:06:57.920 And God says to this guy who has the righteousness report, he has it. 00:06:58.480 --> 00:07:14.399 He's like Paul in chapter 9, and now he's the Gentile in chapter 10, but he still is doing everything right, and to him, God says, Yeah, you, even the good, moral, religious person, you need a conversion. 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:19.279 Here's how we can think about it morality, which we're all for. 00:07:19.360 --> 00:07:20.560 We are all for morality. 00:07:20.800 --> 00:07:21.600 Morality, right? 00:07:21.839 --> 00:07:24.800 Keeps us from destruction, keeps society going forward. 00:07:25.040 --> 00:07:29.120 Morality is the goodness of what is true and right. 00:07:30.240 --> 00:07:31.360 We are moral people. 00:07:31.519 --> 00:07:33.040 We are for morality. 00:07:33.680 --> 00:07:36.879 But moralism, that's something different. 00:07:37.279 --> 00:07:47.439 Moralism is trying to be loved and accepted by God or worthy as a person by the record of your own morals. 00:07:48.399 --> 00:07:53.199 So some call this works righteousness, some people call this a performance-oriented life. 00:07:53.360 --> 00:08:10.639 It's the long list of moral expectations, the to-do list piled onto you once you become a Christian, as if if you do all of it, keep all of it, maintain all of it, then on a Tuesday morning, then you're okay with God. 00:08:10.800 --> 00:08:16.319 Then God can love you or keep loving you, and you're making him happy. 00:08:17.439 --> 00:08:24.800 And in this way, moralism is all over churches, and it is exhausting. 00:08:26.160 --> 00:08:39.200 Moralism usually turns us prideful, judgmental, self-righteous, lacking compassion, and ultimately exhausted because we are not perfect. 00:08:40.320 --> 00:08:42.000 We're not always moral. 00:08:42.879 --> 00:08:48.799 And in this way we see that both the rebel and the religious need a conversion. 00:08:49.039 --> 00:08:56.000 Both of us are burdened, exhausted, and in need of Christ's full forgiveness and full righteousness to us. 00:08:56.399 --> 00:09:02.399 As we say, he who knew no sin became sin, that we might become the righteousness of God. 00:09:02.799 --> 00:09:09.279 Now, if we jump back to when Peter arrives at Cornelius' house, now remember Cornelius is a Gentile. 00:09:09.440 --> 00:09:10.799 I don't want to skip over that. 00:09:10.879 --> 00:09:20.240 This is quite the moment in the book of Acts where the gospel is extending beyond the Jewish people, extending to people that the Jewish people actually despised. 00:09:20.559 --> 00:09:25.600 They thought Gentiles, non-Jews, were dogs that were despise, lesser than, to be avoided. 00:09:25.840 --> 00:09:32.879 And God is just leading this revolution out in the book of Acts to welcome the outsider. 00:09:33.840 --> 00:09:35.759 Point number three is that. 00:09:41.919 --> 00:09:48.399 When Peter walks into that house, Cornelius bows down, almost worshiping Peter. 00:09:48.480 --> 00:09:50.159 And Peter said, No, no, no, no, no, get up. 00:09:50.240 --> 00:09:52.000 You know, like don't worship me. 00:09:52.159 --> 00:09:53.519 Don't misread this. 00:09:53.840 --> 00:09:55.279 Acts 10, 26. 00:09:55.440 --> 00:09:59.039 But Peter lifted him up, saying, Stand up, I too am a man. 00:09:59.360 --> 00:10:11.279 And as he talked with him, he went in and found many persons gathered, and he said to them, You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation. 00:10:11.600 --> 00:10:11.919 Right? 00:10:12.080 --> 00:10:14.559 So there's the cultural reality. 00:10:15.600 --> 00:10:21.840 And Peter says, But God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean. 00:10:22.399 --> 00:10:24.960 So when I was sent for, I came without objection. 00:10:25.200 --> 00:10:27.840 I asked then why you sent for me. 00:10:28.960 --> 00:10:34.639 Theologian John Stott, he wrote this about this passage, these exact verses. 00:10:34.879 --> 00:10:46.000 Says, Peter had just now repudiated both extreme and opposite attitudes which human beings have sometimes adopted towards one another. 00:10:46.240 --> 00:11:00.000 He had come to see that it was entirely inappropriate either to worship somebody as divine, which Cornelius had tried to do to him, or to reject somebody as if unclean, which he would previously have done to Cornelius. 00:11:00.399 --> 00:11:08.159 Peter refused both to be treated by Cornelius as if he were God and to treat Cornelius as if he were a dog. 00:11:09.519 --> 00:11:10.559 That's amazing. 00:11:10.720 --> 00:11:16.240 That's an amazing revolution of how we view the other and the next person. 00:11:18.240 --> 00:11:25.759 When Peter began to tell Cornelius about God's love for him, provision of Jesus as the final sacrifice. 00:11:26.080 --> 00:11:34.559 Peter began that by saying in Acts 10, 34, so Peter opened his mouth and said, Truly, I understand that God shows no partiality. 00:11:35.519 --> 00:11:38.240 Now that word partiality is a very long Greek word. 00:11:38.320 --> 00:11:40.320 I'm not going to attempt to impress you with. 00:11:40.879 --> 00:11:42.720 It means favoritism. 00:11:43.200 --> 00:11:44.799 It means favoritism. 00:11:45.679 --> 00:11:50.879 Last Sunday we celebrated Easter and the other wonderful holiday of Master Sunday. 00:11:50.960 --> 00:11:53.600 It was a double holy day, wasn't it? 00:11:53.840 --> 00:11:57.279 It was a praise God day all day. 00:11:57.600 --> 00:12:01.519 Years ago, Christy and I went to the Masters, amazing grass, right? 00:12:01.600 --> 00:12:03.759 It's just all perfect, every little blade. 00:12:04.000 --> 00:12:05.120 Just so beautiful. 00:12:05.200 --> 00:12:08.240 It's amazing, amazing pimento cheese sandwich. 00:12:08.480 --> 00:12:10.960 A lot of walking in crowds. 00:12:12.799 --> 00:12:14.320 But a lot of like limitations. 00:12:14.480 --> 00:12:18.000 Like I was like roped and herded and like limited. 00:12:18.159 --> 00:12:20.480 Like there's whole areas I couldn't go in. 00:12:20.559 --> 00:12:24.879 I had a lanyard on, which makes me feel very powerful, but lots of people had lanyards on. 00:12:25.279 --> 00:12:27.679 There's a whole other group of people who had on green jackets. 00:12:27.919 --> 00:12:28.879 That was different. 00:12:29.120 --> 00:12:29.759 That was different. 00:12:30.480 --> 00:12:34.240 Only the winners and the members have on a green jacket. 00:12:34.320 --> 00:12:35.600 They go wherever they want. 00:12:35.679 --> 00:12:37.519 They're not roped off behind the robes. 00:12:38.000 --> 00:12:39.600 I don't like being roped off. 00:12:39.919 --> 00:12:43.360 Augusta is one of the most exclusive clubs in the world. 00:12:43.600 --> 00:12:46.000 There are only about 300 members. 00:12:46.320 --> 00:12:47.519 So just 300. 00:12:47.679 --> 00:12:49.200 It's not for everyone. 00:12:49.440 --> 00:12:52.080 And all these people, they've all done something. 00:12:52.320 --> 00:12:53.840 They're impressive people. 00:12:54.000 --> 00:12:57.840 You don't get into this small group of 300 just in any way. 00:12:57.919 --> 00:12:59.840 I mean, these are impressive people. 00:13:01.039 --> 00:13:09.679 So in that way, Augusta is designed perfectly and properly as a private golf club. 00:13:10.720 --> 00:13:14.320 It's exclusive, it's limited, it's designed properly. 00:13:14.480 --> 00:13:19.759 But in that way, it's also the antithesis of God's heart. 00:13:21.200 --> 00:13:25.200 And operates completely the opposite of how a church operates. 00:13:26.720 --> 00:13:32.559 Which around the world, this morning, this is the insanity of church, just opens its doors. 00:13:33.279 --> 00:13:34.159 Anybody can come. 00:13:34.399 --> 00:13:46.480 We're going to provide all sorts of services and ministry and counseling, and there's no invoices being sent out, and just somehow it's going to get paid for by the generosity of the people, and anybody can come. 00:13:46.639 --> 00:13:50.639 Not a gathering of the impressive, it's a gathering of the weary and the thirsty. 00:13:51.440 --> 00:13:56.639 See, in God's economy, your need is all that's required. 00:13:57.600 --> 00:14:03.440 Which is great because it turns out that even Augusta members, maybe there's one here. 00:14:03.600 --> 00:14:04.080 I don't know. 00:14:04.159 --> 00:14:05.440 You can invite me next year. 00:14:06.000 --> 00:14:09.679 Go into the other areas, the mystery of those other areas. 00:14:10.799 --> 00:14:13.360 Even Augusta members are human beings. 00:14:14.240 --> 00:14:16.720 Which means that they feel guilty. 00:14:17.120 --> 00:14:18.240 They feel shame. 00:14:18.399 --> 00:14:19.360 They lack peace. 00:14:19.519 --> 00:14:21.200 They feel like they're never enough. 00:14:21.440 --> 00:14:27.679 They need some sort of wholeness and joy and contentment outside of themselves. 00:14:28.559 --> 00:14:28.879 Right? 00:14:29.039 --> 00:14:36.159 They too are exhausted, just like me and you, just all people, from either our rebellion or our moralism. 00:14:36.240 --> 00:14:36.559 Right? 00:14:36.639 --> 00:14:39.679 We're either the criminal or we are Cornelius. 00:14:40.799 --> 00:14:42.879 We all need a conversion. 00:14:43.440 --> 00:14:45.120 Everybody needs a conversion. 00:14:45.279 --> 00:14:50.480 We all need to hear Jesus say, Come to me, all you are weary, and I will give you rest. 00:14:50.720 --> 00:14:52.720 Acts 10, verse 44. 00:14:53.360 --> 00:14:58.799 While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. 00:15:01.120 --> 00:15:08.000 And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit was being poured out even on Gentiles. 00:15:08.080 --> 00:15:12.399 There's that revolution of the gospel extending out of the Jewish people to all people. 00:15:12.639 --> 00:15:16.879 Verse 46, for they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God. 00:15:17.039 --> 00:15:23.039 Then Peter declared, Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have? 00:15:23.120 --> 00:15:26.399 And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. 00:15:27.039 --> 00:15:29.679 Then they asked him to remain for some days. 00:15:29.919 --> 00:15:32.879 Point number four, a little bit of a long point here, kind of a summary point. 00:15:33.039 --> 00:15:33.679 Point number four. 00:15:33.919 --> 00:15:47.679 Conversion is by God's initiative, like we talked about at the beginning, with the gift of the Holy Spirit, verse 44, in the hearing of the word, verse 44, resulting in praise to God, there in verse 46. 00:15:48.559 --> 00:15:51.840 Now we covered speaking in tongues back in Acts chapter 2. 00:15:52.000 --> 00:15:54.720 I'm not going to redo that for another 15 minutes. 00:15:54.960 --> 00:16:08.320 But tongues here is combined with praise, teaching us that there's no language, there's no culture, there's no people that is God's preference. 00:16:09.200 --> 00:16:16.960 Which means God is for us and all of our preferences, and we have a ton of them, and they're in full operation this morning right now. 00:16:17.600 --> 00:16:24.960 And God is also for that culture and that person and that people group, of which is the opposite of our culture. 00:16:25.759 --> 00:16:26.960 And he's for them. 00:16:27.120 --> 00:16:28.320 Isn't that amazing? 00:16:28.480 --> 00:16:29.600 That is amazing. 00:16:29.759 --> 00:16:40.080 Now, the implication of our conversion, as we see here, these people are converted, not of themselves, but of God's converting power in them. 00:16:40.480 --> 00:16:43.360 And out of that comes praise. 00:16:44.320 --> 00:16:49.840 Because we all find something for our ultimate joy, our ultimate value, a saving. 00:16:49.919 --> 00:16:52.799 We're all, we're all, we all have a savior. 00:16:53.600 --> 00:16:58.320 And they understand Jesus, God's grace to them, to be their Savior, and they praise, right? 00:16:58.480 --> 00:17:01.679 The heart of the converted agrees with Psalm 63, 3. 00:17:02.320 --> 00:17:08.640 Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. 00:17:10.000 --> 00:17:12.559 I grew up hearing conversion stories all the time. 00:17:12.640 --> 00:17:14.799 In the church I grew up in, we had testimonies. 00:17:14.960 --> 00:17:16.240 Did you have testimonies in church? 00:17:16.400 --> 00:17:18.240 Maybe in the church you grew up in, you had testimonies. 00:17:18.319 --> 00:17:19.200 That was just part of the service. 00:17:19.279 --> 00:17:22.559 You had a testimony kind of every week, and testimonies all over. 00:17:23.039 --> 00:17:24.799 Every club I went to, we had testimonies. 00:17:24.880 --> 00:17:28.880 I was an FCA in high school, fellowship of Christian athletes, and we always had testimonies. 00:17:28.960 --> 00:17:32.640 And this one week a guy from the Mafia came. 00:17:32.799 --> 00:17:34.240 You know, really good testimony. 00:17:35.119 --> 00:17:37.279 Powerful, mafia minister is what it was called. 00:17:37.440 --> 00:17:44.880 Anybody ever hear the mafia minister testimony, map, good pastor stuff, you know, like the mafia minister. 00:17:45.200 --> 00:17:45.759 I still remember it. 00:17:45.839 --> 00:17:48.480 It's been 25 years or so since I heard the mafia minister. 00:17:48.720 --> 00:17:50.319 He was in the mafia in New York. 00:17:51.279 --> 00:17:52.880 And then he gets converted. 00:17:52.960 --> 00:17:58.559 He becomes a Christian, gives his life to Jesus, and he realizes, well, I probably shouldn't keep doing all this. 00:17:58.720 --> 00:18:03.440 And so he goes to his boss and he says to his boss, I went out. 00:18:03.599 --> 00:18:04.799 I went out of the mafia. 00:18:04.960 --> 00:18:07.519 Well, apparently you can't just get out of the mafia. 00:18:07.599 --> 00:18:10.720 And so the boss puts a hit out on him. 00:18:11.039 --> 00:18:13.519 That's like that's the kill him, by the way. 00:18:13.759 --> 00:18:14.480 The kill him. 00:18:14.880 --> 00:18:19.039 But before the hit can happen, somebody kills the boss. 00:18:19.279 --> 00:18:22.960 Which means now the hit put on him is void and he's set free. 00:18:23.039 --> 00:18:24.160 You know, give your life to Jesus. 00:18:24.319 --> 00:18:26.400 And like we all are like, I'll give my life to Jesus again. 00:18:26.559 --> 00:18:27.119 We all did it. 00:18:27.200 --> 00:18:28.000 It's all over again. 00:18:28.160 --> 00:18:30.000 It was an amazing conversion story. 00:18:30.160 --> 00:18:35.839 Now, just a short time after that, I was in church, and we had testimony time in church, and somebody came up. 00:18:36.000 --> 00:18:44.160 This 40-year-old guy, you know, I thought he was so old, a real old guy, he got up, sharing his testimony, and boy, whoo, it was a doozy. 00:18:44.319 --> 00:18:50.319 And he goes into it, and it's like he's a horrible addict and thief and affairs. 00:18:50.400 --> 00:18:52.880 I mean, it was quite the tale of debauchery. 00:18:53.039 --> 00:18:54.400 He is really getting us going. 00:18:54.559 --> 00:18:58.400 We're like, you know, wow, God has really done something here. 00:18:58.640 --> 00:19:01.920 And just about, you know, he really has us going, he just sort of stops. 00:19:02.079 --> 00:19:03.119 I mean, it's been a long time ago. 00:19:03.200 --> 00:19:05.200 I still remember this testimony, just like the mafia minister. 00:19:05.279 --> 00:19:07.920 And he just looks down and he goes, I'm I'm just kidding. 00:19:08.079 --> 00:19:09.279 None of that's true. 00:19:09.839 --> 00:19:16.960 And he's like, I was I'm just like a really normal, boring, like upbringing, just like a good kid. 00:19:17.200 --> 00:19:20.480 Like it, and he said, I'm just a good kid and I needed Jesus. 00:19:20.720 --> 00:19:23.839 And uh, yeah, I still gave my life to Jesus. 00:19:24.079 --> 00:19:25.359 And that was it. 00:19:26.000 --> 00:19:29.279 I still remember that, that testimony, also. 00:19:30.240 --> 00:19:33.920 And he just sort of sort of smiled and prayed, and that was it. 00:19:34.079 --> 00:19:38.240 It was kind of awkward, just like this moment is, and but it was it was what it was. 00:19:39.119 --> 00:19:41.680 Still remember it, 25 years. 00:19:43.440 --> 00:19:50.079 Now it's possible you're the mafia guy, like you're the criminal, you're the rebel, you've ran and gone off to foreign countries. 00:19:50.240 --> 00:19:54.559 Now it's also possible you're the boring guy who gave his testimony in church. 00:19:54.799 --> 00:19:55.759 You're Cornelius. 00:19:55.920 --> 00:19:57.440 Like you're a good person. 00:19:57.920 --> 00:19:59.279 Like you're really good. 00:19:59.680 --> 00:20:00.960 You're a good person. 00:20:02.000 --> 00:20:06.240 And the point is we all need a conversion. 00:20:07.920 --> 00:20:12.880 The criminal is using his escapism and his rebellion to try to save himself. 00:20:13.279 --> 00:20:19.839 Cornelius is using his goodness to try to save himself, and none of it works. 00:20:20.400 --> 00:20:27.680 We're all still left, not quite able to secure forgiveness or joy or wholeness. 00:20:28.480 --> 00:20:33.839 Can't ever secure that relationship with God except for God's grace to us. 00:20:34.000 --> 00:20:36.400 And so we all need a conversion. 00:20:37.119 --> 00:20:47.119 And the good news is that our conversion is the fruit of God's gracious, regenerative power to us, outside of us, given to us. 00:20:47.279 --> 00:20:52.480 Our pursuit of Him is always rooted in His pursuit of us. 00:20:52.720 --> 00:20:54.079 Let's pray together. 00:20:54.559 --> 00:21:01.119 God, thank you for your grace and mercy to us that you love and save both the criminal and the religious. 00:21:01.839 --> 00:21:04.319 And many of us have conversion stories. 00:21:04.480 --> 00:21:09.119 Some of us like a criminal, and then many of us like Cornelius. 00:21:09.519 --> 00:21:17.440 And many of us have converted from the criminal to be Cornelius, and we are in need of a gospel conversion. 00:21:19.200 --> 00:21:37.279 A saving and a power, a security that is outside of us, given to us by God's grace to us, that we are your children, fully forgiven, fully righteous, secure in you with an identity beyond our performance by your grace to us. 00:21:39.200 --> 00:21:42.240 And would you this morning call your children home? 00:21:43.519 --> 00:21:50.400 Help us to remember more that we are more than our performance, and we are more than our rebellion. 00:21:51.279 --> 00:21:57.200 That in Jesus we are the full forgiven, fully righteous children of God. 00:21:57.440 --> 00:21:59.039 I pray this in Jesus' name. 00:21:59.359 --> 00:22:00.000 Amen.