The Always Ever Consequential Word

The gospel doesn't just ask us to do better, it invites us into the only narrative big enough to satisfy our deepest human appetites.

In this sermon on Acts 13:44–52, Lead Pastor Neil McClendon examines the explosive reaction to Paul and Barnabas' preaching in Pisidian Antioch. As almost the entire city gathers to hear the Scriptures, Pastor Neil outlines four foundational truths about the "always ever consequential word of God". Discover how God's Word awakens spiritual hunger, why true Christian joy is forged through hardship rather than superficial approval, and how resting in God's sovereignty frees us to bear faithful witness.

In this episode, we cover:

• Awakening Spiritual Appetites: Why human souls possess deep longings that can only be awakened and filled by Scripture.
• A Story Big Enough to Live In: Contrasting the smallness of self-centered religion with the expansive narrative of redemption.
• Doctrine Informs the Story: Understanding the core message of grace, forgiveness, and freedom found exclusively in Jesus.
• The Doctrine of Election: How recognizing God's sovereign initiative frees believers from manipulative evangelism.
• Experiences That Bring Fullness: How enduring opposition and standing firm in faith cultivates true joy and the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

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Transcript

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This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God. For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.

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Amen, amen. Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, we believe everything that the Bible says about this world. Is it broken? Is it fading? Absolutely. But we don't lose hope, okay? Uh, because what is true of the world is not true of you. Uh, you're not broken, you're not fading, you're not decreasing in value, you don't rise and fall like the stock market. You are ever consistent, ever unchanging, ever always true God. And so, Lord, we uh we come to you because we got to get our head and our heart reoriented. We get out in the world, we get jacked up, we get a little divided, we get a little jaded, we get a little cynical. We let the way people drive inform how we think. And so we come to your word, Lord, because it finds us and unwinds us. And so, Holy Spirit, do that today. Let it find us and unwind us and just remind us of things that we've forgotten, we've neglected, we've covered our ears because we don't want to hear anymore, because the way we live is in direct contradiction to everything we know to be true. You're a God of mercy. And so the Bible says every morning your mercies are new. So let us taste new mercy today from your word and by your spirit. This is our prayer, God. We pray it in Jesus' name, and everyone said, Amen, amen. You can have a C if you've got a Bible. I invite you to take it and open up to Acts chapter 13. Acts chapter 13, if you're our guest. Uh, we're preaching through the book of Acts expositorily, which means verse by verse. It's not license or permission to bore people with a with a religious lecture. We believe this is how you nourish the the people's head and heart and their faith over the long haul. Now, if you're uh a late arriver, you may be thinking, what is the crimson tide over here? People in all these red shirts. This is our student ministry. We had our D now this weekend, and I want to acknowledge two people, Ian and Andy. If you're here, would you stand up? This is our student pastor. Where are you? Yeah, yeah, stand up. Ian, Ian is the blonde, and Annie, no. Where's Ian? Is he over there? There he's back there. Yeah, after getting coffee after a long weekend. Ian, what time did you go to bed last night? 12 30. Man, that's easy. That's easy sleeping right there. You're not working hard enough. Anyway, uh uh Ian and Annie are doing a great job. If you're visiting, you've got students anywhere from 7th to 12th grade, you need to be a part of what God is doing through this student ministry, okay? Uh and so anyway, I want to talk to you from Acts chapter 13, verse 44 about the always ever consequential word of God. Now, let me give you the context, okay? Because last week we had the bearded wonder from Nashville, Chris Brooks here. Uh, and and yeah, you know, I'm like, does that guy smoke or what? He's a little too excited. Uh, but let me just kind of give you the context because Leo preached a couple weeks ago from the early part of Acts chapter 13. Now, here's the context. Paul and Barnabas are visiting a Jewish synagogue, and the leaders of the synagogue see them sitting there, they're like, oh, we didn't know you're here. And they sent them a message and said, Hey, would you guys like to say something? Would you have a do you have a word of encouragement for us? Now, students, that sounds innocuous and innocent and everything, but let me tell you, that's not you inviting Eminem to your grandma's house for Thanksgiving and then asking him to say the blessing, and you're kind of like, uh-oh, and all of a sudden, when you say that, the soundtrack drops. Don't, don't, don't, don't, shh, don't, don't, shh, and somebody's like, we're gonna have a problem here. And uh, because Paul gets up and basically what he does is he summarizes the activity of God all the way through the Old Testament: the life, death, burial, consequential ministry, resurrection of Jesus, and the people lose their mind. This is why I referred to this sermon as the always ever consequential word of God, because the people beg them to come back and talk more the next Sabbath, okay? This is like saying leaving church today, go, oh my gosh, that was so good. I can't get enough. Would you please come back next Sunday? Here's why this was so such a big deal. It was so new to them because they had to hear it more than once because it was a radical shift in their thinking and the basis upon which they relate to God and what it means to have a relationship with God. Here's why it was such a big deal. What they'd been taught all depended on them and their efforts. What Paul was talking about and what Paul was saying depended on God and his accomplishment. Let me say that again. What they'd been taught, so they would come to the synagogue and they'd be like, uh, I stink, I'm not doing enough, I need to try harder, do more, and do more good and stop doing bad. Everything they've been taught, the law, taught them that this all depends on you and your efforts. Paul gets up and it's so life-altering. People are like, oh my gosh, because everything, and you'll see this in the text, okay? Everything that he talked about, it depended on God and what God had already accomplished, okay? And he invites them to have faith in God and not faith in themselves. If you're here today and you have faith in yourself, you probably hate religion, but I would say to you, you're one of the more religious people you know. Because religion puts its faith in man, Christianity puts its faith in God. Does that make sense? Say amen. Let's read the text again. Now we have the context. Let's properly understand the text. Acts chapter 13, verse 44. This was the week before we pick up the next week and the next Sabbath. Verse 44, the next Sabbath. Almost a whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him. And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first, since you thrust it aside and judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life. Behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, I have made you a light for the Gentiles that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth. And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord. And as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region. But the Jews inside of the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of the district. But they shook off the dust from their feet against them and went to Iconium, and the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. Now there's four things I want you to see in the text to understand this always ever consequential word. Did you notice in the text no one praises the preacher? They talk about the word, the word, the word. This is what the word was doing. Four things I want you to see to properly understand this. Number one is this we all have appetites that can only be awakened by the word. Look at verse 44. It says the next Sabbath, almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. Preachers weren't that popular back then, and it was a good thing. They didn't have celebrity preachers, they didn't have preachers in sneakers, they didn't have any of that. They didn't have a cult of personality, none of this. All they had was the word of God, and it was taught and priests and proclaimed. People's souls just kind of opened up like, oh my gosh, this is what I was created for. Why? Because everyone has appetites in them that can only be awakened by the word. Now there's a French proverb that goes with cooking. It says this the appetite grows with the eating. They got a little taste of this, and it only made them want more. See, the church in America is taking on the responsibility of trying to create desire in people with its programming, and then sustaining that desire with even more stimulating programming. And in that environment, the first casualty is the Bible. It gets watered down, it gets divided, it gets apologized for, and eventually it becomes unnecessary. It's super, super stimulating. Ah! And you get to the car and you're like, okay, what do we hear today? What can we build and bank our life on? When life gets hard, what truth are we going to hold on to? What's going to pull us through? What can we look to that's beyond our circumstance or situation? And the answer is, hey, just a pep talk. See, because we all have appetites in us that can only be awakened by the word. And as a church, we are formed by the word, we're focused on the word. It's the reason we turn the lights on, it's what shapes our thoughts, it molds our character, and its truth finds expression in our behavior. Now, it's easy. What we do is we read things like this where almost a whole town showed up. I mean, who wouldn't want that? But we see responses like this to the word and we wonder, hey, what caused that? How'd they do that? What's the formula? Who has the conferences teaching everybody else how to do, get God to do over here what God did in this one place? And the answer is the word caused this. When preached and taught, the Bible creates desire in us for a deeper, fuller understanding of the Bible. Let me say that again. When properly preached and taught, the Bible itself creates desires in us, this deeper desire and hunger for understanding the Bible. I've been a Christian about eight months. Uh, and an older man said, Hey son, has anybody discipled you yet? And I said, I don't think so because I have no idea what that means. Uh and he said, they just meet with you and kind of help you understand what the Bible is and what it says, why it says it. And I said, No, I got nobody. I read the Bible myself about two or three, four hours. Sometimes I get lost in it. I just love it. And he says, Well, let's let's sit down sometime. I'd like to just speak into your life. I said, I'm down for that. One of the first things he did was open up the Bible to Psalm 119, verse 129. And he read these words. This is what I mean when I say, when you hear the Bible, it creates a deeper hunger in you for the Bible. Psalm 119, 129, talking about the word says, Your testimonies are wonderful. Therefore, therefore, my soul keeps them. The unfolding of your words give light. It imparts understanding to the simple. I open my mouth and pant because I long for your commandments. And I looked up and the guy said, What do you think? And I said, That's kind of creepy. He goes, Do you feel that way about the Bible? I said, That made me very uncomfortable. He said, Why? And I said, just pant. It's like, and he turns to Psalm 42, 1, is a deer pants for the water, so my soul pants for thee, oh God. Okay, can we be done with the panting? Okay. I mean, I just don't want to smoke weed, okay? That's why I gotta read the Bible because I know myself. And he said, What did you say? I said, Yeah, I used to smoke a lot of pot, and sometimes I miss smoking pot. Yeah, there's not a discipleship program for that students. And he just kind of smiled and he said, Here's one of the signs that you're maturing near your out Neil, your appetites will begin to change. And I said, What do you mean? He said, You will long for the word of God like you once longed for weed. And I said, Oh, now keep talking about that. I'm strangely drawn to that. Now, before you are affected by the Bible, there's five questions you and I have to answer about the Bible. And here's why: because people that you, anybody you run into, anybody at your school, uh uh is really got these questions in their head. They may ask them in a different way, but they come out in these five forms. Simple questions. Number one, is the Bible divine? Is the Bible divine? Or otherwise, was it just a book written by men? Secondly, is the Bible true? Can we trust it? Is it really true? Thirdly, is the Bible clear? Can we understand it? Fourthly, is the Bible sufficient? Does it speak to our deep needs? And then the last one is is it personally authoritative? Oh, that kind of got wordy right there. What does that mean? Does it alter and affect my daily living? Put a star by that lesson because if you don't have a yes to that, no one wants to hear you talk about the Bible. You're just a fat guy trying to sell them slim fast. They don't believe you, they're polite, they may smile down and go, Well, I appreciate that. That works for you. You got your truth, I got my truth. What they're saying is this book that you talk about doesn't seem to change you. So why should I have faith in it to change me? We all have appetites in us that can be awakened by the word. This is not a formula in Acts 13, okay? For missions or evangelism. This is the power of this ever uh never-changing, always ever consequential word. Here's the second thing you see in the text. The gospel is the only story big enough to live in. The gospel is the only story big enough to live in. This is what happens in verse 45, verse 47. It says the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and begin to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him. Reviling him. Why? Because they saw the crowd, they saw the response, okay? Now, up to this time, the Jews relied on gentile curiosity to get people to come to church. He said, No, what do you mean? They would just like, hey, if you're curious, you know where we are, the synagogue's right down here on first and main. You can come. I got a bumper sticker on the back of my truck that tells the whole city where I go to church. You can follow me to my church, just don't sit in my seat. It was gentile curiosity. But see, here's the difference in Barnabas and Paul and these Jewish people. They relied on people just to be curious, okay? Barnabas and Saul relied on the commands of God. And because of the commands of God, they took very seriously. And when they spoke, they spoke with this weighty, consequential words would come out of their mouth. And people would say, Man, I want to hear you again on this. Oh my gosh, that was incredible. I'm sick of getting religious lectures every time I come. That was life-giving and life-altering. And they begin to realize what I've been living in, the story I've been living in, it's not very big. It's a matter of fact, it's it's too small. It's what Paul and them, they quote down there in about verse 47. They they they reference uh Isaiah 49, is what they're quoting, where because the the Jewish people are like, God, we want you to restore the tribes of Israel. We want you to be our God and everybody else, too bad, so sad. And God says to them in Isaiah 49, it's too small a thing. It's way too small a thing for me just to be your God. I want to be God of all the nations all over the earth. And so, right here in Acts 13, the Jewish people realize that God's not their pet rock. He's not their personal little God that, hey, we've got God on our side. Good luck for you, okay? No, he they realize that wait a minute, wait a minute. The promises that God makes to the Jewish people also extend to the Gentiles? What? I mean, Kansas City and San Francisco can't both win at the same time, can they? Their minds can't get around this because the gospel is the only story big enough to live in. And so what you see here is the smallness of religion and religious people getting jealous at the consequence of the gospel. And I would just say this this applied to them, this applies to every one of us. Not until you hear the gospel and God regenerates your heart, will you see the insufficiency of how you've lived your whole life, and you will hate it. Let me say it again. It's not the church's responsibility to make you feel bad. Preachers shouldn't get up and try to talk to you and go, hey, listen, you shouldn't be doing that, you've been doing this and this and this. How could you do that? You go to church. No, no, no. No, unless and until God regenerates your heart and you see the insufficiency of how you've lived your entire life. And then you have this moment where you're like, oh my gosh, what? It's why the there's a verse in the Bible that says, Hey, the time past that is past is sufficient for doing what the Gentiles, what what what what unchristian, non-Christian people want to do. No one has to tell you to stop doing it, no one has to engage you in behavior modification. You know why? Because at the core of your being, from your regenerated heart, you you realize, oh my gosh, I have wasted so much time. Or as Paul reminds them from Isaiah 49, hey, it's too small of a thing. You can't live for very long in the story that your life has been telling up to now. And so what happens is these people, they got some affection and some attention stirring up in them, and they're like, oh my gosh, you mean to tell me there's more, okay? And so they begin to contradict the Bible says what Paul said. So it's important that we understand what exactly did Paul say that made these people hate on him like this? Now I know many of you over here in the red shirts, some of you go to public school, we're praying for you. Most of you, a lot of you go to private school. And everybody in private school is nice. They're all Christians because they go to a private school. Amen. Yeah, one girl's got her arms filled and she goes, I go because my parents make me. Yeah, well, see, here's the thing. Here's the beauty of this, okay? This is what happens here. But I want I want you to understand, you if you're gonna understand their response, you got to understand what they were responding to. What they were responding to was what Paul said in verses 16 to verse 39. Now we're not gonna read that. Leo preached it a couple weeks ago, okay? But I want you to notice uh uh that the gospel is all about what God has done. Remember, I told you in the beginning when he gets up, they said, Hey, do you have a word of encouragement? Uh Eminem at Thanksgiving. Yes, I'll say the blessing, grandma. Here, hold my mic. And he goes off, okay? Basically, everything he says boils down into four statements. Number one, he says the gospel is a historical fact. It's a historical fact. God has acted over hundreds of years in ways that are historically verifiable. It is a historical fact. Secondly, he says Jesus is God's solution to man's need. That's why he's called a savior. That's why before he was born, this angel appeared and said, And you will name him Jesus. Why? For he will save his people from his sins. See, if you think you can do something about your sins, you can do more good than bad or whatever, then you don't need a savior. But just the fact that Jesus has to leave heaven and come to earth to incarnate, take on flesh, be born to the womb of a virgin, live a sinless life, die on the cross, and be resurrected from the dead, indices every one of us in this room and watching online that we really by nature are sinful, separated from God, people, and we need someone to restore and reconcile us. That's just why he's called a savior, because he comes to save his people from their sin. And so Paul just basically says, Hey, Jesus is God's solution to man's need. That's why they call him a savior. Thirdly, he says Jesus was uh innocent, yet he died for guilty people, and he rose again. Jesus was innocent. You knuckleheads didn't know what you were doing. You, you, you crucified an innocent man. But the reason they kill an innocent man, they think they're kind of stopping this, but no, they're just participating in this narrative of redemption that God's been telling all along. That's why Paul started where he did when he starts talking to these people in the synagogue that day. He says, Hey, you killed an innocent man. He died for guilty people, and yet he rose again. So if you're here today and you have this gnawing, nagging sense of guilt, here's the good news of Christianity Jesus Christ, the innocent, sinless Son of God, died in your place and for your sin. And so you not only can be forgiven, you don't have to feel guilty ever again. This is why they call it good news. And see, the last thing is that only in Jesus can you find forgiveness and freedom. This is the part that made him go crazy. Look at verse 38 of chapter 13. Verse 38, he says, Let it be known to you, therefore, brothers. He's the he he's if he was a gymnast, he's on the uh he's on the uh the uneven parallel bars and he's just cranking it up. Woo, woo, woo! He's getting ready for the dismount, and he's gonna stick the landing. He says this, he says, Hey, let it be known to you, therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him, everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. Uh-oh. Uh-oh, you just came up into the synagogue and just said, Hey, the law can never accomplish for you. Keeping the rules can never accomplish for you what only the gospel can. And so when he says, Only in Jesus can you for God find forgiveness and freedom, religious people can't take that because it points out the insufficiency of everything they've taught up to this point. Here's the third thing you see in the text that doctrine informs how you tell the story. Doctrine informs how you tell the story. It's a verse 48. And when the Gentiles heard this, when they heard this good news, people who hadn't heard it before, it was new to them, okay? These people that go to church every Sunday, like, yeah, yeah, yeah, right, right, right, right, right, right. I'm gonna text. But these people who hadn't heard it before, they heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord. And as many as were appointed to eternal life, believed. And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region. But the Jews inside of the devout women, they had this response, okay? Now, when I say that doctrine informs how you tell a story, here's what I mean. He says, When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as were appointed to eternal life, believed. Hold on to that phrase. And as many as were appointed to eternal life, believed. Doctrine refers to the truth of Christianity as revealed in the Bible. I brought you a definition uh that's a little accessible. Doctrine refers to the entire body of essential theological truths that define and describe the message of Christianity. You say, that's a mouthful. Yes, doctrine refers to the entire body. You can't just focus on one. Well, my God's a God of love. See, doctrine is like holding up a diamond. And every time you turn it and a light hits it, this brilliant light fills the room. Because every facet, every side, every everywhere they cut the diamond is one of the attributes of God. And when doctrine, when you talk about doctrine, see, when you read the Bible, you should you should read the Bible and go, hey, what doctrine is being taught here? What are they saying to me that I need to kind of hold on to? Okay. I love what Kevin Van Hooser says about doctrine. He says, Christians learn doctrine in order to participate more deeply, passionately, and truthfully in the drama of redemption. Hear that again, and I want you to underline truthfully. Christians learn doctrine in order to participate more deeply, passionately, and truthfully, truthfully in the drama of redemption. My concern is all our little evangelicube little gimmicks we come up with at headquarters. Uh, it's not a truthful expression uh of the gospel or of biblical doctrine. And so when you ask yourself in this section right here, hey, what doctrine is being demonstrated here in our text? It's the doctrine of election. And he says, Hey, as many as were appointed to eternal life, believe. Now, let me just pump the brakes right here. You're like, dude, it's Super Bowl Sunday. We've had tea now. I've had 18 10th graders in my house. It smells like puberty and Fritos, okay? Shut up. It's the Super Bowl. I got the pig in the ground and the beer on ice, and all my rowdy friends are coming over tonight. I know, but here's what you're gonna do, students you're gonna go home after this, you're gonna go to our house, eat. A yummy breakfast, go home, take a nap, set an alarm for 5:15, and get up because the game kicks off in 15 minutes. You will not miss anything this afternoon, okay? And so, but just let's just think for a little bit. I know it's Super Bowl Sunday. It's right there in the text. I don't get to choose what's in the what I say and don't say. The text determines what the preacher says. And the Bible says, as many as were appointed to eternal life, believed. You're smart people. Who appointed them? They can't appoint themselves. Now you're like, oh, oh, here's what I hear all the time. People are like, oh, that sounds like you're talking like a Calvinist. I'm not a Calvinist, I'm a Biblicist. I believe the Bible. Even when it glorifies God at the expense of glorifying me, I still believe the Bible. And all those who were appointed to eternal life believe. Now, here's what people say. Oh, when you hear the doctrine of election, oh, that's fatalism. God, if God chooses people, then why do we have to do anything? To that, I would say, no, that's not fatalism. That's freedom. Now, allow me to explain. I am free. Because of the doctrine of election, I am free, and you are free to not turn the gospel into this set of propositional truths about you and Jesus that if you agree with this, get you to heaven. Here's the problem with that praying the prayer doesn't make you a Christian. I think that we've got a religious system that teaches people how to say some words in their heart. God's never revealed himself to them, okay? So that's not what makes you a Christian. What saves you, what changes you is when God reveals himself to you, regenerates your heart, and brings you to repentance, okay? And here's the beauty of this, all right? Uh the doctrine of election reminds me that someone else is at work here. So I don't have to overwork the situation. I don't have to cram it down people's throat. All I have to do is bear witness. That's all I have to do. That's all I have to do is just show up, say what I know to be true, and trust the outcomes to the Holy Spirit. I've heard so many people, well, don't you want to just pray the prayer in case this is your last opportunity? And I just want to put my head down and go, oh, would you stop? Would you just stop? This is how you build a denomination, this is how you build a following. It's not how God converts humanity. And if you've read the Bible, you understand that if you haven't read the Bible and you're holding on to some religious tradition, this is how, have you ever seen anybody that the way they live is directly contrary to what they say they believe? Hello? Yes, yes, this is how it happened. They had this false sense of, well, when I was 14, I prayed the prayer. I've lived like hell ever since. I have no desire. The word of God, are you kidding me? I'm not gonna read that. It's like an old history book. That is so out of date. It's 2024, bro. Come on. Yeah, but I'm a Christian. I come to Christmas Eve and Easter. Now look at me. I'm not mad at anybody. I'm not mad at anybody. I'm sad for you. Because deep inside, you know your heart's never been changed because your desires are still the same. You don't have a desire for the things of God, and you have a lot of desires for things that aren't of God. And look at me. You say, What should I do? Just pray and just ask the Lord, would you just reveal yourself to me? I'm so tired of burning up energy, trying to live this life on one some days and live this life over here on other days. I'm just gonna say, Hey, you know what? I I'm not gonna live that way anymore. That would be a great gift to give yourself and the kingdom. Here's the last thing you see in the text. Experiences bring fullness. Experiences bring fullness. You say, What do you mean? Look at verse 50. Uh, pay careful attention because here's I just laid my cards on the table. My concern is that our problem in America is we look to the wrong experiences to do the right things in us. Look what I mean when I say experiences. Verse 50 says this. He says, But the Jews inside of the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city, they stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of their district, but they shook off the dust from their feet against them, and they went to Iconium, and the disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit, and they got Taylor Swift bumping in the background, going, Shake it off, shake it off. Okay. They're not worried, they're not like, oh my God, they didn't, they're not gonna invite us to their tenth grade girl's sleepover. Oh, what are we gonna do? No, because here's a sign of spiritual maturity. You stop looking to these wrong kinds of experiences to give you what these kinds of experiences can give you. What do you mean experiences bring fullness? I'm not referring to things you have to buy a ticket to. Those are stimulating, but they're not sustaining. What sustains is when you get the experiences, you get to experience the realities of the gospel in your life. And so when I just sat and read the text, verse 44 down to verse 52, here's the experiences that Paul and Barnabas experienced in this chapter: being lied about, being contradicted, being reviled. I'm not even sure I know what that means. Being reviled, being persecuted, and then being driven out of town. These are the experiences that provide this fullness of joy and this fullness of the Holy Spirit. It's listen to what I mean when I say our problem is we look to the wrong experiences to do the right things in us. We want everyone to like us, agree with us, accept us, want to be our friend. So here's my assignment for my friends over here, okay? You who go to a private school. By the way, I love private schools. I think they're great. It's where white guys go to start on the basketball team. Nothing wrong with private schools, okay? Oh, oh, that's all they're gonna remember. I hate Pastor Neal. He's a jerk. Okay, well, let me be a bigger jerk, okay? If you go to Logos, which is a great school, Logos Preparatory Academy, or you go to Fortman Christian, do you have chapel there? Say amen. Hello? They're like, we're not talking to you. We think you're a jerk. I've got shoes older than you. I could care less, okay? But listen to me. If you go to a private school, and I love private schools, go up to your headmaster principal and say, Hey, I want to pray at the next chapel. Just a little brief prayer. And when you get the microphone, just grab the mic, look at your entire student body, and just say, Hey, I want to personally just say, keep slandering me, keep hating me, keep lying about me, keep being mean girls who say one thing and love another, because it fills me with the joy of the Holy Spirit, it fills me with joy and with the Holy Spirit, and it teaches me to rely on God and not to rely on you. So thank you for being despicable people. Amen. And drop the mic. And I will give you a hundred dollar bill, crisp and shiny, right out of my wife's purse. Yes, yes. But see, what you do is you complain about these people, okay? Oh, can you believe she said that? Blah, blah, blah. She's a sinner. That's why she does that. And make sure your response, you don't repay evil for evil by sinning against her because she sinned against you, or sinning against him because he sinned against you. No. Stop looking to acceptance by your peers to be the experience that fills you with joy in the Holy Spirit. No, a lot of times acceptance by your peers, like I told one of your leaders I was talking to yesterday, I said, Yeah, he's talking about, I said, You in a relationship? She said, No, I'd like to be. Listen, if you were willing to sin with boys the way they want to sin with you, you'd been in a relationship. But some of you aren't, and that's a simple fact. Uh-oh. Did you feel that? I don't think there's much pastor kneel love coming from this section. Guess what? Your acceptance doesn't fill me with joy. Or the Holy Spirit. I'll fight every one of you as soon as we say amen. Yeah. And I'll enjoy it. I'll pick up the stand, whapam! We'll have the royal rumble right in here. The vesting, the visiting leaders are going, my pastor doesn't talk like that. I think you have violent tendencies and you need counseling. It's too expensive. Ah, ah. Let me demonstrate for the Bible, okay? Look at me. Shh, we're almost done. You still with me say amen. Let me demonstrate from the Bible what I mean. Nothing has changed my life more. Now, now, by the way, the goal is not to be hated, the goal is not to be disliked, the goal is to stop acting like everyone's got to agree with you, like you, compliment you, blah, blah, blah, for you to be full of joy and the Holy Spirit. You'll get all those things. Here's what happened: you get all those things the world can give you, and it brings you no joy. I watched the Grammys last week. Oh, help me, Jesus. First of all, no one sings anymore. They just I'm just talking about a beat and stuff blows up and it's on fire. And I was like, where is my 40 cal? I want to shoot the TV. This is terrible. Oh, Travis Scott, go away. Anyway. Yes. He offended private schools and Travis Scott. Yeah, yeah. See, here's what I mean by experiences, okay? Let me just say this the worth of Christ, the sufficiency, and the validity of your faith is most on display when you suffer. When you don't get your way, when you don't have the date you wanted to homecoming, or Valentine's. It doesn't mean, oh my gosh, I'm miserable. My life is just gonna be a wreck. I'm gonna die covered with cat hair, which is glitter for lonely people. No, that's not what it means. It means that you could not experience all these things and still have be full of joy and full of the Holy Spirit. You say, What do you mean? Look at me, listen to me. Don't miss this. Job chapter 1. Don't turn there. Job chapter 1. Go to Psalms, hang on left, the book of Job. Got him Job. He's crushing it. He's just, I mean, he's holding it down, stacking paper. He is thick with all he's ever wanted. And one day the angels come before the Lord and Satan comes with them, and God says, Where have you been? He said, I come from walking to and fro about the whole earth. And God says, Have you considered my servant Job? Hey, students, sometimes you suffer because God brings your name up in the conversation. And if you don't want your name to be brought up, then just go be a mediocre kid who says one thing and does another. And God will never bring your name up. Because he doesn't trust you to suffer, adults, and still live out your faith. He says, Have you considered my servant Job? There's no one like him in all the land. He's upright, fears God, shuns evil. And Satan says, Let me have some of him. But no, what he says is, have you ever heard anybody pray this, Lord, put a hedge of protection around them? I've heard people mock, they're like, What's up with a hedge, comedians? This is where it comes from, Job chapter one. Satan knows God's posture towards you and his protection of you. Because Satan says, Oh, listen, touch his stuff. I can't do anything. Not have you blessed him, but you put a hedge around him, you protect him. You take that hedge away, let me touch his stuff, and he will curse you to your face. And God says, Okay. And God removes the hedge of protection. And all hell breaks loose in Job's life. On one day, read it. Job chapter one, on one day, all his kids are killed. He loses all his possessions. And then this guy, Satan, just can't stop. He comes back before God. But Job stays faithful. He doesn't spit the bit. He doesn't go, yeah, yeah, here, here, pass me the Bible. I can't take it anymore. No. So Satan comes back. The angels come for the Lord. Read it for yourself. It's in there. Satan comes with him. God says, Where you been? He said, I come walking to and fro about the whole earth. And God says, Have you considered my servant Job? And Satan goes, skin for skin, bro. I mean, I touched his stuff and he stayed faithful to you, but you let me touch his body. You let me get him just yet. One more diagnosis. Let me let him get cancer and see if he loves you. He will curse you to your face. Let me touch his physical body. And God said, Okay, you can touch his physical body, but you can't kill him. And boils come on his body. And he's sitting down there at the dump with a piece of broken pottery, scraping the sores off of his face. And his skanky, mouthy wife is over here going, curse God and die before the insurance expires. And Job says, Well, I like to sing it. And Job says, Though he smite me, yet will I serve him. Hey, look at me. God brought your name up lately. You want to bear witness when all hell breaks loose in your life? When your best girlfriend's a homie hopper and just hooks up with your ex-boyfriend? You want to love Jesus then? Or you want to turn into the kind of person that sins against you and wounds you? You see, our experiences bring fullness. Not the experience of buying a ticket and going in some antiseptic environment. Yay! Awesome! The experience of all hell breaking loose. And you're setting the kingdom of heaven down in the midst of it and said, Come on, I'm my kind of party right here. They're looking around, going, that is the most joyful cat in the room. Why is he like that? Doesn't he know what's going on? Yes, he knows what's going on at a much deeper level. This is what I mean when I say experiences bring fullness. And so the question I want to end with today is simply this How full are you this morning? How fool are you? How full are you, students? You're gonna bear witness, you better have some fullness. How full are you, adults? Oh, you need everything to go right. You need to get your way. I like a lot of stroke. I preach for affirmation. I just need that. Those kind of preachers don't make it. Because they won't, they don't have the courage to say the fullness of what God's word says. Experiences is what brings fullness. Doctrine informs how you tell tell the story. Speaking of the story, the gospel is the only story big enough to live in. And we all have appetites that can only be awakened by the word. And look at me, once those get awakened, you can't be satisfied by anything else. Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, thank you that you made us for satisfaction that comes from God and God alone. That's why we sang earlier, oh great God of highest heaven, occupy my lowly heart. Because my lowly heart will settle to so much low-hanging fruit, so much just a compliment, just an acknowledgement, just being asked out, or hey man, I'm having a party in my house, I'm just inviting all the cool kids. You get it, you get to come. So, Holy Spirit, brood over us now as we think about these things. Oh, Jesus, that's so good. We set our hope on you, Jesus, because you set your heart on us first. You made the first move. And anybody in here that really knows you, they were appointed to believe. But there's nobody in here that's excluded from the gospel. The gospel's for everybody. Good theology doesn't make us lazy evangelistically, it makes us empowered. So, Holy Spirit, I pray for anybody that's just trying to live the religious life, that they would just get sick of that. Realize this is so small, it's not enjoyable anymore. The gospel is the only story big enough for me to live in. It's the only story where my deepest appetites can be satisfied in a way that glorify God and satisfy me. Lord, thank you that you've structured the world this way. We are better for it, and you get glory because of it. So we say thank you in Jesus' name. And everyone said, Amen. Amen. If you're our guest today, I love private schools. Don't send me emails. Don't send me email. I'm a nice person, okay? I do good things. I just uh anyway. Well, if you're our guest today, just know this you're always welcome. I know finding a church for you and your family is a big important decision. Therefore, we don't pressure you. But if you have any questions about anything you heard today, you could just uh we'll be down front. We'd love to answer any questions or pray with you, or we'd love to buy you lunch or a cup of coffee, and you can just ask us face to face. Any of our pastors are available all the time to meet with you, okay? There's always things going on in the life our church want you to be aware of. And the what the easiest way to make you aware of that is through our video announcement. So check out the screens to see what's going on this week.

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Here's a look at what's happening at Grand Parkway Baptist Church. This Wednesday is Valentine's Day, but more importantly, it's midweek's. Sign up for the midweek meal and look forward to a special Valentine's Day treat. Save the date for Secret Church. Secret Church is a unique one-night event that is streamed each spring to tens of thousands of participants around the world. Encouraged by our persecuted brothers and sisters' example, we meet for six hours on April 19th for an intense study of God's Word and passionate prayer for the persecuted. Finally, spots are filling up for Pine Cove City. So register today. Campers currently in kindergarten through fifth grade will experience Jesus through Bible study, worship, and tons of great activities. For more information or to register for these events, please visit our website at grandparkway.org. If you have any questions or want someone to pray for you, find one of our pastors at the front of the stage at the conclusion of our service.

SPEAKER_01 39:44

Also, ladies, let me remind you that uh the deadline for women's weekend is coming up. If you've not yet registered for women's weekend, you get it, you need to get in on that. It's gonna be a great time with Jen Wilken, Bev Brown, and Colleen Cersei. You can have it right here in this room. There's almost already almost 400 women signed up. Do not miss that weekend. Men, let's prioritize that for our wives. You say, hey, I can take the kids to their game or whatever. You could miss one to let your soul be watered by the word of God. Okay? Does that make sense, men? Say amen. All right, we'd like to conclude our service with spoken blessings. So stand to your feet. Hold your hands out. In this world, you will have tribulation. Not everyone will like you. People will lie about you, stab you in the back, and slander you because they're punks. That's why they do it. They're insecure sinners, just like you used to be. But now, if you know Jesus, you have the light of the world inside of you, and you are the light of the world. You have the gospel, you have a gospel capacity that comes only from the gospel and with the gospel. So in this world, when you experience tribulation, be of good cheer. Your Savior and King has overcome the world. And because of that, so can you. So depart now and overcome the world in the name of the Father and the Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. Bless you.