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Father, I thank you so much for Point Community Church. And I thank you for what you've been doing in our lives over the last four and a half, five years as we've been here in South Austin and seeing uh growth and seeing uh you take us uh from uh just uh a a vision that you put in our hearts to seeing this come together and and this great group of people who are participating in your mission in our region. God, thank you so much that we have the opportunity to to help people know Jesus and to make disciples of the people who live around us. God, I praise you that you are uh sending teams out like this team that's headed to Mexico. We know we don't take you to Mexico, but you're already there at work. Thank you that we get to join you in your work there. Thank you that they will get to share the gospel boldly and clearly this week. May you encourage them, may you keep them healthy, may you use this time to grow their trust and their faith in you, and may many people come to know Jesus through the efforts this week. God, we thank you that this church is growing and that we see a need to expand our teams and we even uh potentially in the future will see a need to expand the amount of seats in this gathering place. We just pray that you would give us wisdom and discernment and guidance as we move forward. We want to seek your plan, not our own. And we want to create space and compel people to come know Jesus. We pray, God, that you would also just help us as we think about serving, that we would step up to serve and to participate so that we can mature the way you intend us to. And we praise you that you're gonna speak to us this morning. May our hearts be open, our ears ready to hear, and God, may we be ready to apply what you speak to us. We praise in your strong name, Jesus. Amen. All right, so if you guys have your Bibles, if you pull now to Acts chapter 18, and we're gonna we're gonna dig in to the first 17 verses of Acts 18. As you guys are kind of finding your way there, we'll have these verses on the screen as we always do. And if you don't own a Bible, there's actually some Bibles under the seats that you're feel free to take one, uh make it your own. Uh we'd love for you to have that as a gift from us. It's not fancy, but it'll do. And uh it's a great, uh, it's important for you personally to read the Bible yourself and not just hear it on Sundays, okay? Um I don't know about how you process all that's going on in our world, but I mean it seems like we're on a pretty rough streak as of late uh in terms of shootings and and terrorism and just difficulty going on, and and you see it, it's not just in the United States, it's across the globe, and we see all the pain and the suffering and the hardship. And I know that as Christians, we have a specific uh responsibility, call, and response to all these things that are going on. Uh, you know, is it is it that we should just simply kind of ignore these issues? We should ignore racism or we should ignore uh, you know, this terrorism? Should we just ignore it, act like it's not happening, kind of hide our heads in the sand, bury our heads in the sand, and just sort of wait it out? Is that the approach that we as a church should take? Uh is it that we should, you know, really rally around the political system and say if we could get the right political leader, then all these problems will get fixed. If we could just get the right person in office, uh, you know, is that is that what we should do? Um and I'm and I'm asking these questions obviously because this is some of the approach that I see to these issues. Is it that we just freak out? Is it we just stress out, freak out, worry, and just kind of go, the sky's falling, and and just act like wow, this is it's just chaos and crazy, and there's no hope, there's no help, there's no sign of of anything um significant that that could change this, that can make it better? To become just a hopeless people. I actually uh believe that that we do have a plan and we do have a purpose and we do have a mission in the midst of all this mess, in the midst of all this chaos. Uh I think the mission hasn't changed from when Jesus left and he gave it to his disciples. He said, Go make disciples of all nations. He said, Go make disciples of all nations and baptize people in my name, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teach everyone to obey my commands, my instructions. That's the mission, right? And that mission doesn't stop just because our world is in turmoil, just because the world's in chaos. In fact, I hope you guys know this, but the mission that he gave us is time-bound. It's time-bound in a sense that there will be a day when Jesus Christ, according to Scripture, will return, and when that day happens, we will no longer be able to proclaim the gospel. We'll no longer be able to share the good news about Jesus. That day will be done, and those who've received Christ will spend eternity with Christ, and those who've rejected Christ will spend eternity separated from God. And I don't know about you, but that reminds me of the urgency of the mission we've been given. And it reminds me that we have something proactive we can do. We can obviously can pray for the issues that we see. We can comfort those who are hurting, we can mourn with those who mourn. We may have seen that a lot from spiritual leaders lately that are uh they're saying, like, let's mourn and let's weep with those who are hurting. But let's also let's let's pray that God would use these hard circumstances to help people know Jesus. And let's make sure we're proclaiming the gospel, the good news about Christ, that that if we die in this earth, on this earth at which we all eventually will die, it's not the end. There is life after death, and if we know Jesus, we will have eternal life with him forever. And so we have an opportunity. And even uh the Bible teaches us that things are gonna get darker, or things are gonna get harder, things are are going to get more difficult. That's kind of discouraging, isn't it? I mean, when you look around, it feels like things are getting pretty bleak. But the Bible would actually teach us that it's gonna get even worse and that more and more people will turn away, and hearts of people will grow cold towards God. And so as people's hearts grow cold, bad stuff happens because people, the depravity kicks in and people take life, and it means nothing to them. People do evil things, and so there's hardship coming, and there's as it says in Matthew, uh there will be wars and rumors of wars, and there'll be natural disasters, and there'll be all these things that come. So again, do we just hide and just kind of wait it out and try to weather the storm? I would say no, church. Like we are called to respond with grace and compassion and courage and truth and to present the message of Jesus in hopes that someone, hopefully many some ones, will come to know Jesus before their time on earth is done. Because even if God doesn't come back, Jesus doesn't come back for another thousand years, many people's lives will end soon. My life will be over soon. In fact, Psalm 62, I was spending some time with the elders this week, and it's a reminder, as it says in multiple places in the Psalms, that our life is a vapor. It's here and it's gone, it's a breath. For those of you in the room that are older, you know how fast your life has gone. I know with me raising kids, I look up and I've got a 13-year-old, and I'm like, how do we get here? How did that happen? Because life is a vapor, it happens so fast, doesn't it? And the truth is that it won't be long and we turn it around and I will come to the end of my days on this earth. And I will no longer be able to proclaim the gospel. And there are people around me who their life will be over and they will no longer be able to receive the gospel. And so there's a sense of urgency, right, to proclaim this gospel message. So I'm making that point this morning because we are in the midst of a series that probably isn't really a sexy series. I mean, we've got a cool graphic for it, but it's not really a sexy series to talk about how do we live on mission? How do we live as missionaries? I mean, in church, we typically say, as I said a couple weeks ago, uh, there's only a handful of people who are actually missionaries. Everybody else, we're just church attenders. But that's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that anyone who follows Jesus is sent, they're on mission, they have a message to proclaim, and that's the good news about Jesus. To the whole world. To the whole world. You don't have to go to Mexico to do that, right? You don't have to go to the nations, you can go to your backyard, you can go to your neighborhood, you can go to your workplace. And so we've been walking through some of the book of Acts and even some other passages along the way, looking at Paul's missionary journeys and how he lived as a missionary when he was on the earth, how he walked out in faithfulness, uh, this command, this instruction to make disciples of all people, how he went to different locations and he met people there, and he shared the gospel, and some received and some rejected, but he proclaimed the gospel faithfully, right? And so we're trying to learn from Paul. And so we're gonna straight up just look at what he does in the in the city of Corinth today. And before we really dive into the text, um let me tell you a couple things about Corinth. Uh it's it's an interesting place on the scene because last week we were in Athens. Athens was uh an old city, a very ancient city. And uh and in Athens was was very much about the idols and worship to the Greek gods. Uh, this was true of Corinth, but Corinth was actually a newer city. It's only about 100 years old by the time Paul gets there. And it was really uh an important city in the Roman Empire. It was a large city, had two ports, and it was significant to uh the trade of the day. And in that, Paul saw this city as an opportunity to share the gospel in hopes that then as people came through they might hear the good news about Jesus and then they might go. So not only were they exporting goods and services, but they might export the gospel as people came through and experienced life in Christ and then take that out to their places where they were trading their different goods. But Corinth was also a place of incredible immorality. In fact, in their day, if you said someone was being Corinthian, what you said, what you were basically saying is that they were being sexually immoral. So you would call people Corinthian if they were doing sexually immoral things. If you said someone was a Corinthian companion, what you meant is they were a prostitute. So literally they would use Corinthian to describe immorality because that's how screwed up this city was. So if Paul kind of experienced like culture shock when he went to Athens, here he's kind of experiencing uh moral shock. He's kind of overwhelmed by the immorality, the amount of temple prostitution and uh all the things that were going on in that city that were really overwhelming, I'm sure, to him to see the depravity of humanity in this way. And so in this context, Paul goes in, he leaves Athens. They wanted him to stay there, but he knew it was time to leave, and so he leaves and he goes to Corinth. And when we get to uh verse 1 in chapter 18, we pick up the storyline there, and we're just gonna read this together. Uh, so kind of hang with me because I want you to feel the whole uh experience unfold for Paul as he's there in Corinth. And again, remembering this is the uh the author is Luke. He's writing this, and he doesn't give us every detail, but just some of the things that happened while Paul is in Corinth that God wants us to hear. So here's what it says. After this, he, that's Paul, left Athens and went to Corinth, where he found a Jewish man named Aquila, a native Apontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, before Claudius. Isn't that fun? Their names rhyme, rhyme. Aquila and Priscilla. It was match made in heaven, right? Paul came to them and being of the same occupation, stayed with them and worked for the worked, for they were tent makers by trade. He reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and he tried to persuade both Jews and Greeks. When Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with preaching the message, and solemnly testified to the Jews that Jesus is the Messiah. But when they resisted and blasphemed, he shook his robe and he told them, Your blood is on your own heads, I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles. So he left there and he went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God, whose house was next door to the synagogue. That's a great location. Crispus, the leader of the synagogues, believed the Lord along with his whole household. Many of the Corinthians were, uh when they heard, they believed, and they were baptized. Then the Lord said to Paul in a night vision, Don't be afraid, but keep on speaking, and don't be silent, for I am with you, and no one will lay a hand on you to hurt you, because I have many people in this city. And he stayed there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. While Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack against Paul, and they brought him to the judge's bench. This man, they said, persuades people to worship God contrary to the law. As Paul was about to open his mouth, Galio said to the Jews, If it were a matter of crime or of moral evil, it would be reasonable for me to put up with you Jews. But if these are questions about words, names, and your own law, see to it yourselves. I don't want to be a judge of such things. So he drove them from the judge's bench. Then they all seized Sosthenes, the leader of the synagogue, and they beat him in front of the judge's bench. But none of these things concerned Galileo. So there you go. There's the 17 verses in Acts 18 that talk to us a little bit about Corinth. And as I said, I want to just make some observations about how Paul operated as a missionary, because if you and I are going to be effective missionaries, and again, if you're a Christ's follower, if you're a Jesus follower, then you are a missionary. We should continually grow. We should continually increase our aptitude at being a missionary. We should learn from those who've done a good job at that, and Paul is one of those. So, in fact, he may be one of the best missionaries that ever walked the planet. And so when you look at this first three verses in this section, you'll notice that Paul does something very important when he gets to Corinth. He looks around as he's praying, and he sees a Jewish man named Aquila and his wife, Priscilla, and they are there as refugees because they've been forced out of Rome because of persecution and the pressure from the Roman government. And they're forced out of Rome and they end up in Corinth, which, by the way, is unique that God uses hardship to push them to a divine intersection with Paul, right? Sometimes God uses hard circumstances to push us into places which end up being really good for us. But in the moment we're like, God, what's going on here, right? And so in this situation, Paul he sees Priscilla and Aquila. He sees that they are tent makers, and Paul apparently had an aptitude for this as well, and he connects with them. Now we don't know if Priscilla and Aquila are believers or not at this time, but we do know that Paul has this connection with them through tent making, and he partners up with them, and they become really significant to his ministry from this point forward. So, what's the point that we can learn from Paul? Well, I just want to say that a principle I've learned in my own life, even as we moved to South Austin five years ago to try to plant a church in this part of the city, is to look for people of peace. Anybody ever heard that terminology before? People of peace, a person of peace? It actually comes straight from Jesus' words in Luke chapter 9 and 10 and in Matthew chapter 10, where Jesus sends out disciples and he says, I want you to go out and I want you to go tell the gospel, tell people about me. He's actually not used the word gospel there, but used to tell people that the kingdom of God is near. And so as he tells them and sends them out, he says, When you go to a place, you go to doors of homes or to different places of business, and if people receive you, then you stay there. You connect with them and you stay there. But if they don't receive you, you leave. And so what we learn from Paul here is that he sees Priscilla and Aquila again, who they were on the run, but he instantly makes a partnership with them, a friendship with them, and he connects with them, and they become integral to the ministry there in Corinth. So, what does this look like for us practically if we're gonna be an effective missionary? Well, let me try to bring this home for you. Uh, as Jade and I move to South Austin, and we begin to say, okay, God, we've got this little core team, and we're gonna meet on Sundays in our home, and we're gonna connect as a core group, and we're gonna start praying for opportunities to share the gospel with those around us. Uh, we ask God to show us who in our neighborhood are people of peace. And a simple way to describe a person of peace is someone who's open to you. I mean, just simply someone who's open to you, someone who will receive you, someone who's who's friendly towards you, right? And we noticed pretty fast that there were some neighbors that were like not open to us. They didn't want to hear about God. They didn't want to, as soon as they heard that I was a pastor, I mentioned this a couple weeks ago, it's like they shut down. Right? No more. Uh they would quickly dodge into their garages. They would quickly run into their houses with their kids. Let's go inside when they saw us coming. Now, it wasn't that bad, but it seemed like it at times that there was people, there were people who didn't want to talk with us or engage with us, and I'm sure there's lots of reasons for that, but there were people who were open to us. And some of them were believers and some of them weren't believers. Some of them knew Jesus and some of them didn't know Jesus or the gospel. And the point is that a person of peace might know Jesus and they might not. But they are open to you. And the reason this is important is because a lot of times in communities, specifically like our neighborhood, we found that when you pursue the people who are open to you, they might be the key to seeing other people in that neighborhood because of their relational networks, other people or in that workplace, or in that different setting you might find yourself come to know Christ. And so you look for them. Now, I've done some training overseas with pastors in Kazakhstan and pastors in China and even pastors and leaders in Indonesia. And as we've been over there, this is one of the principles that's used fairly often in planting churches in villages and cities in places around the world. And they they know that you're gonna experience some resistance to the gospel message, some resistance to sharing the hope about Christ, uh, some resistance to Christianity. And so what they do is they pray intently and look for people who are open, look for people of peace. In fact, one of my friends here in town, he was a missionary for 14 years in Indonesia, and it's part of the reason we've started serving in Indonesia. And as they were working in different villages, the first seven years, they saw zero people put their faith in Christ. Zero. Okay? They'd been trained in the United States to just go and to try to meet people and tell people about Jesus. They saw zero people come to Christ. They were praying, they were crying, they were like, God, we've given our lives to come over here and to share the gospel, and no one's listening. Are you listening, God? Like, is anything good gonna come out of this? And they said that they they realized that in many ways they were trying to reach people who were resistant and not willing to hear. And so they began to pray, God, would you open up doors with people of peace? And they found that as they would go out, God would open their eyes and they would find people of peace. In one particular village, they found, which was the equivalent of basically the witch doctor. And for whatever reason, he was a witch doctor, but he was open to them. And through this witch doctor, they shared the gospel with him over a series of days and even weeks. He was open, but he wasn't ready to receive the message on the front end, but he was open. He kept welcoming them back, and he eventually came to faith in Christ. And as a result, the whole village ended up coming to faith in Christ. How cool is that? So you don't have to go to Indonesia to a remote village and deal with a witch doctor to find a person of peace, just so you know. They're in your workplace, they're in your neighborhood, they're in the places that you live and do life in your everyday rhythms. There are people around you, and you, if you're a Christ follower, did you guys know that where you are, that's your mission field? Wherever you are in your daily life, that's your mission field. And there are people of peace, people that are open to you. And I'm just saying that as we learn from Paul, we should look for people of peace, people who are willing to talk with us, people who are willing to engage with us, even if they don't believe what we believe. Start there. It's a great principle from Paul in this text. The next thing that we see from Paul, and maybe this one will make us feel a little uncomfortable, is notice what Paul does when he gets to Corinth. After he meets Priscilla and Aquila, he clearly begins to work with them, making tents and providing for himself as he's doing ministry. But in verse 4, it says what he did specifically to start to share the gospel and spread the gospel. It says he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and he tried to, everybody say that, persuade both Jews and Greeks. Now, how many of you guys, uh, if you're honest, when you hear the word persuade, it kind of makes you uncomfortable. Uh, when I hear the word persuade, uh, in this culture, that doesn't seem like a very popular idea. Because we have this concept that persuading people means forcing my beliefs on them. Like forcing them to believe what I believe. And a lot of times we think persuading, I'm just, because of the Christians that I interact with, they're very cautious about this issue. They assume that not only is it forcing my beliefs on them, but I'm actually trying to be the moral police in people's lives. Well, if that's what we think about persuading, then we've completely missed the point, all right? Because first off, you know this. Uh we are not the moral police as Christians. We shouldn't expect people who don't know Christ to uh seek to honor Jesus, to seek to honor God, or to follow his ways. And we also aren't here to be the Holy Spirit, nor can we save anybody. I'm not capable of saving my neighbor. In fact, uh we learn from Paul exactly how he persuaded them over in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. And I'm just going to draw your attention to this because this is really significant. 1 Corinthians chapter 2 is one of my favorite passages in scripture uh as a pastor, especially because I can resonate with how. Paul articulates what he does. In 1 Corinthians chapter 2, it says this When I came to you, brothers, this is in his letter to Corinth, he says, When I came to you, brothers, announcing the testimony of God to you, I did not come with brilliance of speech or wisdom. One of the things that I hear from a lot of people who are Christians, Christ followers, who don't ever share the gospel, I say, like, okay, so what's what's your big hang up? What's your barrier? And you know what they tell me? I don't know enough. Notice what Paul says. He says, I didn't come with brilliance of speech or wisdom, for I didn't think it was a good idea to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. You catching that? What's the core of his message? Jesus Christ and him crucified. He didn't say, I'm going to resolve your issues about evolution. Right? He didn't say, I'm going to resolve your issues about knowing the ark, and did the flood happen? He didn't say we're going to resolve your issues about whether Jesus was born of a virgin. He says, Christ and him crucified. That's the crux of the message, right? That's the point. That's the centerpiece. That's where we have to land and locate the message that we are to proclaim. Notice what he goes on to say. He says, I came to you in weakness. Anybody ever feel weak when you're proclaiming the gospel? In fear? Anybody have fear when you proclaim the gospel? He says, and in much trembling. Anybody felt like you're literally your heart's pounding in your chest? You know you're supposed to tell someone, and your heart's pounding in your chest, and you feel like incapable of doing the work of sharing the gospel? He says, My speech and my proclamation were not with persuasive words of wisdom. Wait, didn't he say he was trying to persuade them? Why not persuasive words? Not in the way that the world tries to persuade. The idea here was that he didn't just try to use debate tactics to get people to follow Jesus in a typical format. No, he relied what? Go on in the verse it says there words of wisdom, but with a powerful demonstration by the Spirit. So that your faith might not be based on men's wisdom, but on what? God's power. That's good stuff right there, guys. And you want to know how we really tap into seeing God's power displayed in our gospel proclamation, we actually preach Jesus and Him crucified. If you preach something else, you're not going to experience the power of God on it. But when you preach Jesus and Him crucified for our salvation, the Spirit breathes life onto that. Now that might all sound like really different or new or maybe even, again, uncomfortable for us, but I can tell you that this is what the scripture shows us time and time again. When Jesus is preached, he says even about himself, when he is lifted up, what? So my job, your job, is not to convince everybody with these eloquent speeches, or it's not because I have it all figured out. It's that we proclaim Jesus and Him crucified and we let the Spirit do the work of saving people. In fact, it goes on to that passage in 1 Corinthians 2 that says that we need the Spirit to open our minds to the gospel, or we can't receive it. That the spiritually mind it can receive. And in fact, Paul even says there, he says that the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. And for some of you, maybe you're here today as an unbeliever, kind of seeker. Maybe somebody drug you along to church, and you're like, we're going to church today, and you're kind of here along for the ride, but you don't really believe this whole Christian thing. And to you, the cross sounds utterly foolish. And my prayers that the Spirit would show you that it's not foolishness but wisdom. Because I believe with all my heart that the only way that that can happen is by the Spirit's power at work in your mind and in your heart. And by the way, if you are here as an unbeliever, we always say, we're glad that you would even consider coming into this place, and you're welcome here. And we we hope that you can wrestle with questions and doubts and struggles with what the Bible says and about Jesus. It's a safe place to do that. But we're going to keep preaching Jesus and Him crucified because that is the power of God into salvation for all who believe. That's where salvation is found. I've noticed when I've taught different people or tried to share the gospel, whether it be in the United States or other parts of the world, a lot of the people that I interact with when it comes to sharing the gospel, they want to get onto the side conversations. They want to take it to places about, well, let's talk about those issues I brought up earlier, like, well, did God create the world in seven days? Because that's crazy, right? They want to talk about those other things, and we've got to keep bringing it back to Christ alone. That God loves humanity, that Jesus Christ died for humanity on the cross, he paid the penalty for our sins, and that he rose again from the grave, and that changes everything. That's our message. We must avoid getting sidetracked by all the other messages. And one word, other word on this. I realize that for some of us, and I'm and I'm just speaking, I know myself included in this, I still get nervous when I share the gospel with other people. You know that? Sometimes you're like, well, the pastor he never gets nervous. He never worries about it, he never stresses. No, I do because I still wrestle sometimes with what people think about me. Still wrestle with what people think and how they perceive me. But I've been reminded increasingly that that is not obviously where I want to spend my life is worrying about what other people think about me. I want to spend my life knowing that I am loved and forgiven in Christ, redeemed in Christ. I have a message to share, and there are many, many people who are dying going to hell that need to hear it. I thought this was interesting this week. I was reminded of an interview they did with a guy named Pen Gillette. You guys know Penn and Teller? Ever heard the great musician, uh, magicians? Might be musicians, magicians, Penn and Teller. They uh he's an atheist. He's actually a really well-known atheist, has written about it. And uh I thought it'd be helpful even to thinking about how this atheist sees this issue of gospel proclamation, or at least he uses the word in his in this quote, you'll notice it proselytizing is the word he uses. They asked him what he thought about Christians sharing the gospel with him as an atheist. Notice what he says. He says, I've always said that I don't respect people who don't proselytize. I don't respect that at all. If you believe that there's a heaven and a hell, and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life, and you think that it's not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward? Anybody ever been there? He says, and atheists who think people shouldn't proselytize and who say, just leave me alone and keep your religion to yourself, how much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe everlasting life is possible and not tell them that? This is coming from an atheist, guys. I mean, if I believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that a truck was coming at you and you didn't believe that truck was bearing down on you, there is a certain point where I tackle you. And this is more important than that. Here's the question Is it more offensive to share the gospel with someone, or is it more offensive to not share the gospel with one with someone? Now listen, I'm telling you that because we don't share the gospel because we've we're strong-armed into it, manipulated into it, or even as Alex was saying this morning, that somehow if we share the gospel, God will love us more. We share the gospel because we have been loved, we received loved, and we love others. We share the gospel because we believe that there really is a heaven and a hell, and that people will spend eternity somewhere. That's we share the gospel because Jesus is worthy. We share the gospel because he is worthy of worship. He created every person on this planet to bring him glory. And when people don't know Jesus, they can't do that. The fullest way he intended. And so we we share the gospel message because we believe that Jesus Christ is our hope. He is our salvation, he is the answer to eternal life, redemption, restoration, all those things that salvation brings. We believe that. So this morning, my prayer is that we would be a people who seek to persuade others. And then we're not fearful of that because we are convinced that they need to know Jesus. Who in your life, just practically, who in your life, in your family, who in your friendship groups, who in your workplace doesn't know Jesus Christ? And here's the question: do you care enough about them to share the gospel? I personally don't think that any of us are gonna get to the end of our lives and go, man, I shared the gospel too much. I don't think that's gonna happen. I think, if anything, I know already in my own life, and people that have passed in my life, uh, as in they've they've their life is over, there's no more opportunities to share. I know that for me, I increasingly have felt like, God, I wish I had been more bold. I wish I had been more courageous. I wish I had shared the gospel more with them. I remember two girls when I was in high school, they sat right next to me uh in chemistry class. And I remember having ongoing conversations, and I remember specifically in class one day that we got on this issue of evolution, and and and and they literally started to make fun of me uh because I believed in God and I believed in Jesus as salvation, and they just said that's so closed-minded. And I remember them really uh just kind of laughing about it and teasing me about it, and and and it was the first time I'd ever experienced something that blatant, like from these two junior and high school girls. And I remember in that moment just really shutting down, like just shutting down and shutting them out, and never really came back to that conversation. And three months later, they were out with some friends in our little community there, and they had gotten drunk, and they were playing this game, they were grabbing roadside barrels and throwing them in the back of their truck and driving down the road, and they saw some lights, they thought it was the cops, and they took off 85 miles an hour, ran off the road, hit a little ditch, ramped them into the air, and all, and four out of the five teenagers that were in that truck died immediately. And I've always thought about that moment where I shrunk back, and instead of sharing the gospel, instead of sharing Christ, instead of really loving them and speaking truth, I never did. And I've regretted that. And I'm sure you have your own stories, and I don't know where those girls' hearts are, I don't know whether, but from everything I could tell in those conversations where they they were making light of everything I was saying, uh, they're not with God today. And I didn't give them an opportunity to hear the gospel message and may have been the only one to do that. That may be strong and intense, but I'm just giving you a personal illustration in my life where I've realized, man, I missed an opportunity. I missed a chance to share with Jesus. The third thing, and we're gonna move quickly through the last part of this, but the third thing you'll notice from Paul is that whenever they actually rise up against him, this is the Jews, they actually come against him and they they blaspheme God. They literally blaspheme Jesus. They make fun of it, they reject it, and what does Paul do? He shakes off his robe and he says, I've done my job. Your blood is on your own head now. I I can't save you. He understands that, right? And he walks away. There's a time with people that you need to know when to walk away. When you need to just, it's okay to walk away. Uh Paul's actually quoting from Ezekiel at this point. He's mentioning a passage of scripture where literally uh it says in the in the text that we should have watchmen on the walls and that they should proclaim the message, right? And that if we don't proclaim and protect, that their blood is on our heads. And so Paul is using that language, he's saying, I've done what I can, I've shared the message, now it's up to you. It's on your hand, heads. And he moves on. And sometimes it's time for us to walk on. Sometimes it's time to move. Sometimes it's time to know when to hold them and know when to fold them, right? Just making sure you're awake. That was for the point is this there are some people who are just not ready. There are some people open, some people are not ready. But but also know this don't be afraid to come back to them later. Because sometimes circumstances and situations arise that will cause people to be open, cause people to be aware of their need for God. I've seen sickness and suffering come into people's lives. And someone who was completely disconnected from God and even angry at God, and they got sick, and all of a sudden they're like, we better pray. And then they're open. And you re you reinitiate a conversation with them and you see where they are. And so just be aware that there's times where we can just walk away and we can trust God will take care of that. And Paul acknowledges that. He shakes it his robe, which is interesting because Jesus says that if people don't receive you, you shake the dust off your feet and you move on. And there is a time and a place for that. Sometimes in our neighborhoods, sometimes in our workplaces, we we kind of raise our flag, our gospel flag, and we let people know, and some people just shut it down. It's like, okay, it's okay. I'm not trying to force anything. We're gonna wait. Wait for God's time and wait for God's plan. And you just pray and you wait. Fourth thing you notice that Paul does here in verse 9, it says that then the Lord said to Paul in a night vision, Don't be afraid, but keep on speaking, and don't be silent. For I'm with you, and no one will lay a hand on you to hurt you, because I have many people in this city. Sometimes we get this idea that Paul had no fears, that he never struggled, that he wasn't having difficulty sharing the gospel. But notice that in this he literally has a vision. This is a third vision recorded in Paul's story in the book of Acts, and it says that he was told by Jesus, my words are read in my Bible, from Jesus himself saying, Don't be afraid, but keep on speaking and don't be silent. So it reminds us that even Paul, who's this great missionary, who's done this a lot, who, by the way, in a previous couple towns, he was stoned and left for dead, he still needed to be encouraged and reminded that to not be afraid. So if you're afraid, you're in good company. As in, you're not alone in that. But also, you're not alone because God is with us. And we remember as a missionary, we remember as a Christ followers, we remember as we go out that we are not going alone. And by the way, even when Jesus sent out his disciples, he sent them two by two, he sent them in community together. And you can't accomplish, we can't accomplish the mission God has for us in isolation. We're called to go with others, to go with other people. But also knowing all the while that God is with us. God is with us, and he is for us. Now, now Jesus specifically makes a promise to him. He says in this section of verse 10, I'm with you, and no one will lay a hand on you or hurt you, because I have many people in this city. And sometimes we forget that God has a lot of other people besides us that's working, he's using. And Paul needed to be reminded of that. But then Paul responds by staying there for another year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. Even though he was fearful, even though he was probably fearful that he might lose his life, he stays and he trusts God's word on that. Finally, though, we see that Paul in verse 5, I mean in verse 12, uh, that he appeals to the leadership that is there because these guys actually get so riled up that they take him before Gallio, who's the proconsul of Achaia, and they want to kill him, they want to hurt him, they want him to be punished. And when they come, Gallio, which we don't we don't know if he's a Christian or not, we're assuming he's not, he's a Roman leader. And it says that before Paul can even defend himself, Gallio, this leader, steps up and says, Hey, don't mess with Paul. I don't really care about all this stuff, you guys get out of here. And what's interesting is that Sosthenes, who apparently took the place of Crispus, earlier in the text, it said Crispus was the leader of the synagogue. Sosthenes is taking his place, and now he's the one who ends up getting beat in front of the Gallio. What's the point there? Well, again, Luke's just describing what happens, but I do think this: we can appeal to God and we can just leave the results to God. God's going to take care of opposition. He's going to take care of our enemies, he's going to take care of those who oppose his gospel. In fact, one day we know that those who are enemies of the cross will ultimately face justice. But we can let that go and we can leave it in God's hands. We don't have to take vengeance, we don't have to defeat our enemies, we don't have to, even in this sense, Paul was able to just be quiet and let the leadership cover him. Take care of him. And in your life, I don't know how that works for you, but just know that there may be a day in the United States where it's not legal to share the gospel. It's possible. It's already becoming increasingly illegal to speak about particular biblical truths. It's becoming increasingly unpopular and eventually maybe even become illegal for pastors to preach words from the stage that are about God's view on gender or God's view on different things because there's an increasing political unrest and uncorrectness about certain things that we say from the Bible. But here's the deal we have we our pill or our hope is not in ourselves, it's in God, and we let God take care of that. Remember on the front end today, I said, what is our posture? What is our position? What is our hope? What do we do with this? If you're a believer in Christ, God has called you to live on mission. God's called you to that. It may make you feel uncomfortable, it may make you feel a little bit uneasy, but you're you're called to live on mission. And Paul shows us some practical ways that we can do that. He shows us some practical ways that we can live as an effective missionary to our city. God needs people in Butta and Kyle and Austin. He calls us, invites us to come and to share the gospel of this whole region. We have an opportunity in front of us. And my prayer is that we would actively participate. We would actively go and tell. We would not just sit by the sides, uh by the side, uh, on the sidelines, and not participate in the mission that God's called us to. Um it's kind of a cool story for me today, or cool, cool thing. You guys don't know this, but one of my friends from college is here, and uh I've watched his life from a distance through Facebook. You guys have anybody like that? You like know people, but you don't get to interact with them very much, you just kind of see from Facebook. He's actually here today, and he's spent some time in Africa, and he currently lives in New York City, working among people that are there, sharing the gospel. And I mean, I'm so deeply encouraged by him and his mission and the work that God's done through him and his family. And he's had some incredible health problems through the years. He's dealt with a lot of hardship through that. But God is using him because he's faithfully said, I will be a part of your mission, God, I'll step up. But you don't have to go to Africa or move to New York City to be on mission, right? But right here in your own neighborhood, God has called you. And the question I have for you today is, are you praying for your neighbors? Are you praying for them? Have you prayed for any of your neighbors to know Jesus? Or are you just in your life doing your own thing? Have you prayed for your family members that don't know Jesus? Have you prayed for them? I'm not even asking you to go open your mouth yet. I'm just saying, have you even prayed for them? Have you do you care about where they're gonna spend eternity? Have you prayed for your coworkers? Do you care? Because if you don't, we need Jesus' love to penetrate our hearts in a fresh way today. We need his spirit to come on us in a fresh way to give us a heart because this life is gonna be gone. Your cars, your houses, your clothes, all the things in this life, they're gonna be gone. You know what's gonna last? The Bible says that his word and his people are gonna last. That's it. That's right. And so we know, guys, that we get to participate in the mission that God has called us to. And so I encourage you this morning to join. My goal is not to beat us up with this. My goal is to say, we've been invited to participate. Let's do it. Let's participate. Let's not just become better people. Let's not just raise good kids, let's raise kids on mission. Let's not just get people who are educated better and have better jobs and bigger houses. Let's actually do something that's going to last for eternity. How about that? Let's do that. Can we do that? Let me pray and ask God to help us do that. God, thank you so much that you're a faithful God. Thank you so much that you care deeply about your people. God, we know that it would be really tempting to just be good moral people and just to bid our time until you come back. I mean, the truth is that for the most part, Christians in the United States, myself included, we're apathetic. We're complacent. We care more about what food we're gonna eat than whether our neighbors, our coworkers, our friends know Jesus. We are, as the scripture would say in Revelation, we are lukewarm. We are lukewarm. We know a lot about the Bible. We sing great worship songs that give us warm fuzzies, but we don't actually share the gospel with anyone. We don't proclaim the message, and God, I just repent of that. I confess that I am weak and that I am fearful, and that is not from you. And I confess that I don't care about people around me like you care about them. And my compassion level is not where it should be, but I'm praying, would you stir in me a fresh desire to help people know Jesus? To be willing to offend with the cross, not with behavior modification, not with a bumper sticker, not with a political agenda, but to offend with the cross so that people might find life. I pray for that, God. I pray that Point Community Church would not just be a church of people who are trying to be these just good families. Just people who go to church and enjoy good worship services, but that we would be on your mission to make disciples of all nations. Please, God, help us. Please rescue us from our small view of the church. Rescue us from the small view of our lives. You create us for your glory. Use us, God, please. I plead with you. So I thank you so much for this the group of people in this room, and I thank you so much for what you're going to do in their lives. I thank you for those who are faithfully proclaiming the message of the cross. Christ crucified, resurrected. The hope of glory. Praise in your name, Jesus. Amen.