No Sanity Required

14 Lessons From Paul in the Book of Acts

April 01, 2024 Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters Season 5 Episode 35
14 Lessons From Paul in the Book of Acts
No Sanity Required
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No Sanity Required
14 Lessons From Paul in the Book of Acts
Apr 01, 2024 Season 5 Episode 35
Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters

What does the resurrection of Jesus mean for our lives?

As we just celebrated Resurrection Sunday, Brody focused on the life of Paul in the book of Acts by walking through 14 lessons Paul teaches us.

Paul points again and again to the living hope we have through the resurrected Jesus. We are called to live lives worthy of our Savior, who is eternal in his existence and grace. Paul showed us what it looks like to preach unapologetically and with authority that is from the Lord.

Let’s live lives for the Gospel. We hope this episode leaves you encouraged and renewed in your resolve to walk with Jesus. 

View Brody's notes

Resources:

Read the full article on Paul in Acts:
14 Lessons Paul Teaches Us in Acts

Please leave a review on Apple or Spotify to help improve No Sanity Required and help others grow in their faith.

Click here to get our Colossians Bible study.

Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

What does the resurrection of Jesus mean for our lives?

As we just celebrated Resurrection Sunday, Brody focused on the life of Paul in the book of Acts by walking through 14 lessons Paul teaches us.

Paul points again and again to the living hope we have through the resurrected Jesus. We are called to live lives worthy of our Savior, who is eternal in his existence and grace. Paul showed us what it looks like to preach unapologetically and with authority that is from the Lord.

Let’s live lives for the Gospel. We hope this episode leaves you encouraged and renewed in your resolve to walk with Jesus. 

View Brody's notes

Resources:

Read the full article on Paul in Acts:
14 Lessons Paul Teaches Us in Acts

Please leave a review on Apple or Spotify to help improve No Sanity Required and help others grow in their faith.

Click here to get our Colossians Bible study.

Speaker 1:

Hope everybody had an awesome Resurrection Sunday and a Resurrection weekend that you celebrated the victory that our Lord has proclaimed and declared over death and sin, and hell and the grave. I want to start off this episode this week by reading one of my favorite passages of Scripture as it relates to the resurrection of Jesus, the conquest of the grave. I tell you this, brothers flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery we shall not sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed, for this perishable body must put on the imperishable and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written death is swallowed up in victory. Oh death, where is your victory? Oh death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord, jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord, your labor is not in vain.

Speaker 1:

I want to key in on that, verse 58, uh, this week, as we reflect back on resurrection Sunday and what should be a celebration for believers every day of our lives that Jesus has conquered sin and death and hell in the grave.

Speaker 1:

And I want to go to the man that wrote those words under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Those words were penned in a letter to the Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians 15. That man's name is the Apostle Paul, and I want to walk through 14 things that Paul teaches us as a result of the resurrection and the power of the gospel, 14 things that if you jot these down, pin these down, we'll link this all up. We're going to have good notes for you on this episode, and these are 14 things that can drive your life, change your life, motivate you day to day, give you purpose, depth, girth and, I think, make you a person who who makes an impact in this world with and for the gospel of Jesus Christ. So let's celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, not just yesterday, but let's celebrate it all week, all month, all year and for the rest of our lives. Thanks for listening to.

Speaker 2:

No Sanity Required welcome to no sanity required from the ministry of snowbird wilderness outfitters. A podcast about the bible culture and stories from around the globe.

Speaker 1:

All right, we're going to jump right into this. I'm going to come back next week and we'll have an episode we just we just came out of um two we just came out of. Two weekends ago, we came out of our men's conference and I want to come back and follow up with some content angled at that. And then the following week we're going to look at Snowbird staff stuff because we'll be having our staff orientation weekend. I want to highlight some things about the way that we select staff, how we train them, methodology, mindset, strategy, the way that we select and train and equip and prepare our staff to run the summer program that we run here at SWO. And then, when we get to the end of April, we've got the Respond Women's Conference coming up, so we're going to have some content that relates to that. So I'm excited about the lineup for the end of April. We've got the Respond Women's Conference coming up, so we're going to have some content that relates to that. So I'm excited about the lineup for the month of April. It's going to be good and hopefully very practical.

Speaker 1:

But today I want to get into the effects of the resurrection on the life of the Apostle Paul. I'm not going to read. I thought about starting off reading the story of Paul's conversion. I'm not going to read. I thought about starting off reading the story of Paul's conversion. I'm not going to do that. I want to dive into these 14 things, or 14 lessons that we learn from Paul when we study through the book of Acts.

Speaker 1:

The book of Acts follows the book of Luke. If you're looking at a chronological reading of the Scripture, if you look at the Bible, the way we have received it and have it in our hands, it goes Matthew, mark, luke, then John, then acts. But uh, the, the guy that wrote the gospel of Luke, that is a doctor who was a personal associate of Paul's. His name was Luke. He did it as sort of an investigative report. He says at the beginning of the gospel of Luke that he's written these things as a report to give evidence. They're based on eyewitness accounts and he's reporting on what he has learned to be true about the life and ministry of Jesus. He then writes the book of Acts, which is a follow-up to Luke, which is a walk through the impact of the first generation church after Jesus's ascension and exaltation. So Paul writes to the Philippians that Jesus has been highly exalted and is seated in a position of authority over all things, all principalities and dominions and powers, and that from that position he has commissioned the church, his followers, to build his kingdom on earth, to do the work on earth to build his kingdom. That will be a heavenly kingdom that will never end and we're called into that work and the book of Acts is an accounting and recording of what the initial phase of that work looked like.

Speaker 1:

At the center of the book of Acts we have a man named the Apostle Paul. There's a lot of people in the book of Acts, a lot of folks in the early church doing work, but there's a lot of concentration on the apostle Paul, who went on to write many of the new Testament um letters. And I want to go through 14 things that we learned from Paul here as we reflect on celebration of the resurrection of Jesus, what it means for our lives, and I want to be motivated to live lives that are impactful for the gospel. Here's number one. Number one we learned from Paul and the early church in the book of Acts, those who were eyewitnesses to the resurrection of Jesus. Their spirit was inconquerable. Their spirit was inconquerable or unconquerable.

Speaker 1:

Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is the execution of the mission and the calling and responsibility given by God, even in the presence of fear. Think about Joshua going into the land to assault Jericho and the Lord three times in Joshua 1 says I've commanded you this, don't be afraid, have courage. So courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is when you embrace the calling and the mission, even with the fear that comes with it, and you move forward.

Speaker 1:

Paul had been stoned at Lystra and left. They presumed that he was dead, stoned him, left him dead. He got up, recovered, you know, kind of got his wits about him and went right back into Lystra when God revived him and continued the work he withstood in Acts 13,. He withstood a guy named Elymas or Elymas. This dude was a sorcerer. Paul withstood him face to face. This was when Paul was still called Saul. He was with a guy named Barnabas, early missionary work with Paul and with great courage he withstands this sorcerer to his face.

Speaker 1:

At Philippi, paul was beaten. At Athens he stood toe to toe with the intellectuals of the day. In Corinth he faced depression, ministry, burnout, loneliness, the realization of the weightiness and fallenness of the city of Corinth. In Ephesus he survived a huge riot and when he came to Jerusalem and Caesarea later in his ministry or Caesarea is what most of us would call that Caesarea Caesarea later in his ministry to face Roman governors, jewish kings, not once did he ever shrink back.

Speaker 1:

What we learn from Paul is not to be without fear but to have confidence in the calling of God on our lives, a confidence that overrides any fear that we face. Paul showed us that when you're confident in your calling and purpose, you have the energy, the strength and the stamina, that you have the courage and the tenacity to press on even in the most difficult situations. So the first thing we learn from Paul and the believers in Acts as a result of the resurrection of Jesus, we see what it looks like to have an unconquerable spirit. Number two Paul's vision for ministry was clear and it was strategic. His vision for ministry was clear and strategic. What is your vision for ministry? What is your vision for this week? Is it to show up and teach those elementary school kids or those middle schoolers? Is it to show up and teach those high schoolers? Is it to show up and do your rounds at the hospital as a nurse? Is it to show up and sermon prep rounds at the hospital as a nurse. Is it to show up and sermon prep so you have something in the hopper come next Sunday? Is it just to go through those motions or is it to do those things with a clear strategic path towards advancing the gospel and growing in personal holiness and impacting those around you and honoring the Lord and giving glory to God and being a person who empowers others?

Speaker 1:

Paul worked so hard. He had a high view of the sovereignty of God, but he understood that as men and women we have great responsibility to carry out the calling and plans and purposes of the Lord. Sometimes there seems to be the misconception that if I hold to a higher view of the sovereignty of God, then I don't have much work to do. Let me explain what I mean by that. I was talking to a guy yesterday. He said if you hold to reformed theology or you believe a certain way about the doctrine of election or biblical idea of predestination, then you're not going to do ministry. You're going to be like well, if God's going to do it, he's going to do it. He's already predetermined or whatever predestined, so why bother? That's that's. There's a misconception that that someone would say well, if I hold a high view of the sovereignty of God, then I don't have much work to do. Paul shows us that God is sovereign. Paul teaches. Listen to what Paul says about the sovereignty of God, over and over and over again in scripture. Just do read through the Pauline, or Pauline letters.

Speaker 1:

Paul, over and over and over, says God is sovereign. God is the author of salvation. He's the one that's finishing the work, doing the work, completing the work. He's the one that called you out of darkness and into light. He's the one that raised you from spiritual death. He's the one doing the work. Paul would say to the Romans in Romans 3, you're not good, there's no righteousness in you. All you're seeking is death and destruction. But God Ephesians 2, also written by Paul being rich in mercy and kindness, raised us together with Christ. So God is sovereign in the work of salvation. Paul believes that, he teaches that. But he demands everything of himself and his followers and hearers. He demands everything from us in our pursuit of personal holiness. The execution of the Great Commission. The execution of the great commission and the building of the church. God had given Paul a clear calling to plant churches throughout the Roman world. God had repeatedly reaffirmed that calling. Paul had confidence in it. So his vision for ministry was clear and strategic. He believed in the sovereignty of God, but he believed he had a great responsibility to execute the mission of the Lord.

Speaker 1:

Number three their faith was deeply rooted Paul's faith and the faith of the early church deeply rooted in what God had done and revealed to them through the risen Lord. Faith was deeply rooted in what God had done and revealed to them through the risen Lord. We learn from Paul the importance of a constant and daily reflection on the gospel. We learned from Paul the importance of a constant and daily reflection on the gospel. 1 Corinthians. We just read 1 Corinthians 15, from 1 Corinthians 15. If you go to the first couple of verses of that chapter, paul reminds the Christians in Corinth of the gospel. He's like. I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel. We too should be reminded of the gospel daily. So their faith was deeply rooted in what God had done and revealed to them through the risen Lord.

Speaker 1:

Number four no one worked alone. They understood the need for a team. We got to work together to carry out the vision and mission God has called us to. This is why I think it's so important that you be part of a church that's on mission, working together in teams and with strategies, where people are working together to reach their community and reach their world, for the global and historical church triumphant. We must know what Jesus has laid out in Scripture as our mission of making disciples of all people. Missionaries need to work under support. They need to also be under the authority of the church for security and accountability of their mission and to their calling. Locally. We need to know who we are and that our responsibility is first to the Lord, but then to our communities and our families. So we don't work alone. You're not in this alone. There's no rogue warriors, there's no lone rangers. We are a team, we are a body of believers, a family united under the headship of Christ, and so we need to understand how to work together as a team, our gifts complimenting one another and working together, strengths and weaknesses offsetting. That's important.

Speaker 1:

Number five Paul and the early church believed in and practiced personal mentorship. It goes right on the heels of number four. We believe in a team. There needs to be mentorship. Paul invested deeply in the development of young pastors like Timothy and Titus and John Mark. He would even say to them imitate me, as I imitate Christ.

Speaker 1:

At this stage in my life, being in my 50s now and having served in ministry for 30 years, I know the value of investing in younger dudes and I'll tell you, I don't get to invest in as many as I'd like to. There's, at any given time, 30 to 40 guys here, 25 to 30 anyway, guys here on staff at SWO that are younger than me. There's no way you can mentor or invest in 25 to 30 dudes. But you can take two or three younger guys and really be intentional. Two or three younger ladies and really be intentional. And if you're younger, if you're younger, seek mentorship and don't be weird about it. Don't go up to somebody and say, hey, will you mentor me? And then just expect them to somehow, like, make you a better Christian. One of the most important things I ever learned in my life is the importance of learning from someone else's example.

Speaker 1:

Mentorship doesn't always and only mean that someone's taking you by the hand and week to week you're meeting and having coffee and you're doing life together. Look, most people don't have time for that Between kids and sports and school and ministry and church, and like to sit down with somebody for an hour every week. I do not have a one hour block of time to sit down with somebody every week, but we can invest in one another's lives and the way that we interact day to day, the way we learn from one another, and then, maybe once a month, there's somebody that you're investing in. Uh, maybe once a week for a stretch. You know, one of the things I like to do is take two or three guys, four or five guys, and and invest a day into their lives once a quarter, once every, you know, three, four months and take them with me on a trip or something like that. Um, and it's crazy, some people want it, some people don't.

Speaker 1:

I recently invited one of our young preachers I'm not going to say names, I'm not going to say names but I invited him to go on a trip with me, a preaching trip, where I was going to be preaching at a pretty large event and it was going to be in a venue that I was unfamiliar with. I didn't know the people at this event, it was going to be new to me, and he turned me down. I was like, hey, man, I know you got the weekend off, but I'm going to be traveling. It's going to be a 36-hour trip. I'm going to leave here, go speak Friday night a couple times Saturday. I'll be home Saturday afternoon. I'll be gone a little over 24 hours.

Speaker 1:

If you want to tag along just kind of see what that looks like. To do ministry in a context, that's not at SWO, it's with people I don't know, meeting new pastors and leaders, and I'll buy you a good meal going and a good meal coming and it'll be a life experience for you. And he said I'll get back with you and then he told me no, that you had other plans. So sometimes you can try to mentor somebody. They got to want to be mentored. You know what I mean. I love that that young man and I think he's going to do great. But uh, that that just was a good reminder to me that mentorship is something that you know. I don't know what what you might think it looks like, but it might be more casual or it could be more strategic. One extreme or the other just be created.

Speaker 1:

The main thing is be intentional in relationships and practice mentorship, both learning from somebody else and teaching and investing in others who are younger. You know, if you're a 20, 22 year old person, mentor some 15, 16 year olds. You know what I mean. If you're a 40 year old dude, learn from a granddad that's that's been faithful to the Lord, so we can all be learning and we can all be investing. Um, that 40 year old guy that's learning from a 60 year old dude could also be investing in a 25 year old guy, you know 40 year old guy that's got teenagers and a couple of kids already out of the house. Maybe man turn around and invest in a guy that's got a young family, um, or in some young single dudes, whatever. Just let's do this together. Paul taught us and showed us what that looked like, and so did the early church Number six. Um, paul loved the church. He loved the body of Christ. There's something um that that's just unsettling.

Speaker 1:

A lot of times people have a negative outlook toward the church. It's easy to find what's wrong with the church and identify things we don't like with the church, and people have had church hurt and they've seen hypocrisy. But the church is the bride of Christ man. It's Jesus's bride. It would be unhealthy for one man to talk about the things he doesn't like about another man's wife. You criticize a woman, openly, complain about her to your friends. You talk ugly about her, you say things about her that you know you. You say, well, she's a hypocrite, she's been ugly to me before and I don't like her. That husband of the woman would, I'd say that guy, be compelled to defend his wife's honor, you know, and her name. And so Jesus has told us that he has a bride and his bride is the church.

Speaker 1:

Paul loved the church. It's evident in the greetings and the greetings I'm sorry and salutations that he would send in his letters to the various churches and cities. He loved the church. Now, he was. He was scathing in the way he would. He would come at those folks. You read the words he says to the church at Ephesus or the church at Laodicea that John says, or even Jesus writing to John saying, hey, say this to the church at Laodicea and he rips them. Paul writing to churches in 1 Corinthians and Galatians and he says, look, I love you and I'm for you, not against you, but you got some stuff all wrong, patience. And he says, look, I love you and I'm for you, not against you, but I mean you got some stuff all wrong. And he comes in on them. You know he goes at them and so there's a healthy tension sometimes. But he loves the church and I think a lot of people are just put off with and turned off to the church and the church is Jesus' bride. So Paul knew the church was not without her issues. He had, he had conviction and he had a genuine desire to see the church grow and become stronger. So we need to love the church and instead of complaining about the church, what, what can we do to make the church better? You know, number seven, the uh, the apostles.

Speaker 1:

And Paul, as an apostle, preached with authority that which was not his own message. It came from God. Learn from Paul what it looks like to speak with authority. Speak unapologetically, speak with conviction. Don't you dare be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul said I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew and to the Greek. Don't be ashamed of the gospel. It's not your gospel. You preach with an authority that is not your own, because you're proclaiming a gospel that is not your own. It is a gift of God. The power that drove Paul's preaching was from the Lord. Paul didn't speak from his own authority. He knew that the Spirit of God dwelled in him. He knew that the spirit of God dwelled in him richly, whether he was preaching or debating on the largest and greatest stages of the day or in a, you know, one-on-one gospel conversation. He was unapologetic. He was unwavering in his commitment to Jesus and to Jesus's gospel.

Speaker 1:

Let me give you some things, and this is going to be its own episode. I've mentioned this, I think two or three episodes back that we're going to be doing some more pastoral stuff. We're going to be talking, we're going to do an episode where I'm working up, put together an episode on preaching and deciding, just praying, about how we, how we approach that episode. But if I, if I just walk through it or if I bring in some other pastors and get some different um input, um, here's some things we've learned about preaching, and it's placed in the local church that that Paul teaches us in the book of acts, as, remember, all this is in response to the resurrection of Jesus and the exaltation of Jesus.

Speaker 1:

In terms of preaching, the authority doesn't come from the preacher, but it's important that we recognize it comes from the Lord, and so, then preaching must be in response to what God expects preaching to be. So, number one Paul understood the primacy of preaching. What do I mean by that? It means it was the primary function of the church. Let me reword that it was primary to the function of the church. For the church to function effectively and appropriately, preaching was critical.

Speaker 1:

Um number two Paul understood the persistence of preaching. We don't need to change it up. You don't need to do something different. It's not like preach a sermon 40 straight Sundays and then Sundays 41 through 45. Oh, let's do something a little different. Let's watch a movie or let's use some YouTube clips.

Speaker 1:

It's easy to get in the habit, not of the habit, let me think I don't want to say this. The danger and the temptation might be to do something different. There's never a reason in the church to not preach. There's a persistence to preaching. Maybe we change up music, we do different songs, we change up maybe the order of not preach. So there's a persistence to preaching. Maybe we change up music, we do different songs, we change up maybe the order of some things, but at the center of the worship service, we preach the gospel.

Speaker 1:

We preach faithfully, which brings us to the third thing, which is proper preaching, which is expository preaching. What does that mean? Well, proper preaching is expository preaching, which means preaching is always to be done in a way that we take the Scripture and we say what the Scripture means. So, like when the Word of God is given to us, the job of the preacher is then to say what it means to the people. Whatever the main point of a text is, that needs to be the main point of a sermon, so we don't ever shrink back from preaching the truth of God's word and saying what the scripture says. Number four we practice the pervasiveness of preaching. The pervasiveness, the need to spread the gospel throughout the world by preaching. It's for all people, all people in all places, for all times. And then, lastly, paul understood the power of the gospel, gospel-driven, gospel-centered, gospel-focused, christ-exalting. The power of preaching lay in the gospel. So we preach, but we preach Jesus Christ and him crucified. So preaching is critical.

Speaker 1:

The apostle preached with authority that was not his own, but that came from God. Number eight he lived by faith. He wrote to the Galatians the life I live, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Paul would write to one of his like. In one of his letters he wrote this we walk by faith, not by sight, and he would remind us that the righteous shall live by faith. So he lived by faith and he preached that. Walk by faith, not by faith. So he lived by faith and he preached to that. Walk by faith, not by sight. There's, there's, a need to like to to understand things and dig deep and to get to the bottom of things and to grow in our knowledge of things. But, like, at the end of the day, we live by faith. Everybody lives by some kind of faith. We live by faith in Jesus.

Speaker 1:

Number nine Paul believed in the power of prayer. So did the rest of the early church after the resurrection of Jesus. This was true personally, like these guys would pray personally. It was personal to them to pray. But then also for ministry growth and for the mission of the church, they prayed. So they believed in the power of prayer.

Speaker 1:

Number 10, each man and each woman in the early church after the ascension of Jesus. After the resurrection of Jesus, they knew their own limitations. Sometimes they'd get off base, get out of line, but they knew their own limitations, the need to fully depend on the Lord and to depend on one another. We've got to know our limitations. Paul understood that and Peter understood that there's a need to depend on and rely on others. We got to lean into others. We don't do it our own. We're not, we're not, we're not flying solo. This goes back to earlier. We're talking about the importance of being part of the local church. It's so important, it's so valuable.

Speaker 1:

Number 11, they believe that to be absent from the body was to be present with the Lord, to be absent from the body. So Paul wasn't afraid of dying. He said if I die, good, I'll go be with the Lord, and if I continue to live, that's good. Lord, that drove an urgency to do the work with fearlessness, fearlessness of what man might do to them. Paul wasn't afraid of what people would do. What would mortal man do to me? Was he going to kill me? I'm not afraid of the one. Jesus writes in the Gospel of Luke. Don't be afraid of the one that can throw you into prison. Be afraid of the one that can throw you into hell. Paul wasn't afraid of Jesus in terms of condemnation, he wrote there's therefore now no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus, but you better believe. He feared the Lord and he served and labored in fear and trembling. Because of that. He did not fear man and he did not fear death. To be absent from the body was to be present with the Lord. Number 12, we're winding down here.

Speaker 1:

They believed that this world is temporal. Paul knew he was not long for this world, that one day Jesus is returning to make all things new. He's going to judge every deed, he's going to judge every word. He's going to call into account every thought. He's going to establish an eternal kingdom and in that eternal kingdom we will reign forever and ever and ever. We'll reign forever and ever and ever. This is the fact that this world is temporal. This is so helpful as we studied last week the grace of God that forgives and sets us free and fills us up and restores us. We studied the life of Isaac. It's so good to remember that the world is temporal and that when we make mistakes, we just need to continue moving forward and working unto the Lord. One day we're going to give an account for how we live our lives. Sometimes that scares me, man, sometimes that freaks me out, because I'm going to give an account for some thoughts and words and actions that I'm not proud of, and Paul would be able to say the same thing, because we know he wasn't perfect. This world is temporal and that needs to motivate us that we're going to face the Lord and come into his eternal kingdom sooner rather than later, and once that happens, because we're in Christ, we'll reign forever and ever and ever. So what that does is that frees us up to live, to live wild and to live aggressive and to live with passion and compassion.

Speaker 1:

Number 13, the apostles, led by the apostle Paul, showed us how to engage hostility, and that goes back to before Paul even became a believer. And Peter and and the earliest apostles were willing to endure horrible scrutiny and and imprisonment and whoopings and beatings in the city of Jerusalem. That they were willing to endure hostility and engage in it. In other words, when I say engage in it, they're willing to take a beating and go right back into the street and keep preaching. There's a time for confrontation, there's a time to avoid confrontation. Paul was unafraid of confrontation. When he needed to confront something, he'd do it, but he was not argumentative and contrary just for the sake of being difficult. When the purity of the gospel. When the purity or the unity of the church was at stake, paul would always stand for and fight for that purity and that unity. The word of God has laid out for us in very clear and plain order how we are to confront conflict in the church, how we are to defend purity against the attacks of the enemy.

Speaker 1:

And number 14, last thing, the Apostle Paul, the Apostle Peter, james, john, these men and women, the Marys, joanna, priscilla, lydia they had a living hope and that hope was Jesus. We wake up tomorrow and we have a living hope. We don't wake up with a hope that is futile or fading. We wake up with a living hope. You'll never be alone and I would say that we can pray for one another, visit one another, talk about the Lord to one another and sharpen one another, encourage one another, grow in community and find a home church and plug into it. No, it's not perfect, but but we do all of that, even in the imperfection, because we know that we have a living hope and that hope is Jesus. We rest in that with a surety, insurance, assurance. So we have a living hope and that hope is Jesus. We live according to our Lord and Savior, who is eternal in all of his sovereign power. He's eternal in his existence. He's eternal in his grace and his faith that he is providing for us and to us. He's the author of that faith and he's eternal. He's given us faith from an eternal source. He's given us a future. He's given us healing and forgiveness. So we have hope in that. So I hope these 14 things will motivate and encourage you, coming out of Resurrection Weekend and Resurrection Sunday, that we'll be refreshed and renewed in our resolve to to walk with Jesus and to to live as those who have been sent out and called by the gospel.

Speaker 1:

Well, we're going to wrap it up right here and, like I said, next week we're going to jump into um, uh, we got, we got a big lineup over the next few weeks. Um, some manhood stuff, just biblical masculinity, calling dads and husbands to, and young single men to, to do and be what God's called us to do and be. We'll be talking about some stuff as we get close to the respond conference. As it relates to late the ladies. Um, gonna drill a little deeper into those five points of preaching that we talked about today. That'll be coming up as we get closer to summer, actually, and we're preparing our sermon series A lot going on.

Speaker 1:

I did want to make you aware of a few things that we have coming up, as this coming weekend will be our orientation weekend, so we're going to be talking again about going a little more in depth on what it looks like to staff and train our summer program and then also how that how that leads into our year round Institute program. We've had an incredible group of young men and young women over the last year. So thankful for them. They've put so much effort and work into what we've done and just it's been a blessing to be a part of that team and we're going to highlight the upcoming Element program. Very excited about that program. It's such a good program, such a good opportunity.

Speaker 1:

If you're a mom or a dad and you've got teenage sons and daughters, um, in that age, like really 17 and 18 well, I'd say 16 to 18 a cool way to serve in the summer is to come be on the element team. That stands for leadership, mentorship, next generation team and, uh, we're going to be unpacking, going a little deeper into what that looks like, um, after orientation. So I'm excited to to talk a little bit about that. We're going to be unpacking and going a little deeper into what that looks like after orientation. So I'm excited to talk a little bit about that. We're going to bring some folks in. We're going to have some management from that program, some directors over the program and then some folks that have served in that program in the past.

Speaker 1:

How effective it has been. We're really excited about the direction that that program is headed in. So we'll be talking about that program's headed in. So we'll be talking about that in the coming weeks. Have an awesome week and look forward to updating you. Next. Let's see next Monday about the staff orientation weekend I will be on vacation for the next week after after next week I'll be on vacation. The next week after next week I'll be on vacation, but we'll prerecord some content, have that ready to go and then we'll wrap up our vacation by driving up to Blacksburg, virginia, to watch the.

Speaker 1:

Virginia Tech spring football game. I'm looking forward to that and hanging out with my son Tuck, and our whole family and also looking forward to the week leading up to that.

Speaker 1:

We're going to take a little trip and get out of town and we've just rented an Airbnb and we're just going to unplug, kind of tune out for, I don't know, maybe five days, maybe four. It'll be good, though. So much needed and prayers appreciated. I hope you guys again have an awesome week. It's going to be an awesome week and an awesome weekend and I'm excited about where we're going this spring and I appreciate you so much. Thanks for listening in to no Sanity Required Every week. It means a lot and we're real grateful. So we'll see you next week.

Speaker 2:

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