Gospel Grace: Grace to Seekers

Gregg Marutzky: And today it just so happens I love preaching series

because you end up preaching the perfect topic for the perfect day.

You do.

What are we gonna talk about today?

We're gonna talk about Peter going to Cornelius's House.

The slide says Grace to, to the pagans.

I'm sorry I didn't give you the last version.

I changed that.

That's what they thought of corn and his household in the first century.

A bunch of pagans, but now I changed it to grace to the seekers, those that don't

know the whole truth yet, but are seeking.

I like that title better.

It goes with my prayer a little bit better too.

Of being a peacemaker.

Amen.

And so we're going to dive into Acts chapter six.

Please turn your Bible there with me.

And, uh, I, uh, always bring my Bible.

I have the, the slides up on, uh, the screen.

And yet we believe in the book, don't we?

Amen.

Amen.

And I also do not use my phone to preach, if you notice that.

All right.

Because it's small.

And they taught me at Toastmasters, and they taught me at preaching

school to project and not look at the little bitty screen and not hold

the screen in front of my mouth.

And so that's why I use a big, big, beautiful iPad.

Amen.

But I also get the black covering so it's not distracting to you.

All right.

And wouldn't that be a bummer if I was reflecting it off of the lights?

Yeah, that wouldn't be any fun.

All right, let's go here.

So first, what does a seeker look like?

A seeker is somebody who prays to God, someone who gives to the poor.

That's what Cornelius was doing.

Someone who helps their neighbor, someone that goes to church, probably

who obeys the law, who maintains their home, and you wanna live by 'em.

They work hard at their job and they carry their weight.

They read their Bible, they probably pay their taxes.

They're faithful to their spouse.

They care for their parents.

They love their kids.

This is a good one for us.

Motorcycle rider riders, they're defensive drivers.

They're looking out for us.

They love their animals.

I have to imagine.

That's what Cornelius, I think, was probably like just a good guy.

And sometimes Christians are so self-righteous.

If you don't believe exactly what I believe, then you're lost.

You're going to hell.

You're a pagan.

And I'll try not to be overly exuberant.

I I, I trigger some people with my loud voice, so I, excuse me in advance.

All right?

But we've gotta, we've gotta have our first move towards people Love.

Our first move.

Acceptance.

First move, unconditional.

Love our first move.

This is a safe place.

I won't yell at you.

Alright, we'll make this secure and safe.

You know, today I'm gonna tell you where we're going before we even get there.

Greg, why are you doing that?

Well, because sometimes I fly around.

I wanna make sure we land in the right place.

All right.

But this is exciting.

This is the morals of this story that we're getting ready to read.

So if you know the structure of it, if you know the threads that are running through

it, you'll get so much more out of it.

All right?

Seven things because seven's the perfect number.

Number one, God does new things, new things.

Things he is never done.

You can't put God in a box.

You can't describe him according to a formula.

Hermeneutics have tried to do that, that this is a way God always is.

God is not always, he is always good, always faithful and always

changing and meeting the needs.

So God does new things.

God shows no favoritism.

That's why we're gonna be a church that shows no favoritism.

Can I get Amen.

Amen.

We're gonna love everybody.

We don't care what you look like.

We don't care what you believe.

We don't care where you're coming from.

We don't care your accent.

We don't care your dress.

We don't care your socioeconomic status.

We want to be like Jesus.

Amen.

So God chose no Favoritisms three.

God will surprise you just when you think you got him figured out.

He's gonna trick you.

He's gonna have to show you.

No, you don't know as much as you think you do, Greg.

Yeah.

You know God will surprise you.

Number four, God includes untouchables.

Do we need to hear that this morning?

Yes.

And if you've ever felt like you're an untouchable, you're gonna

get excited about this sermon.

Amen.

And, and you.

If you think God doesn't care for Untouchables mercy,

you need this sermon too.

All right.

See how my voice rises when I'm pleading?

Amen.

Number five, God speaks spiritually.

Number six, God opens new doors and seven God wants at times to shift the paradigm.

The whole world beneath our feet shifts.

Let's look at this story together, beginning in Acts chapter

Acts 10 · chapter mention

10, beginning in verse 27.

While talking with them, Peter went inside and found a large gathering of people.

He said to them, you are well aware that this is against our

law for a Jew to associate or to visit a Gentile, but God has shown

me that I should not call anyone.

Impure or unclean.

You can still ca call some food.

Not good.

All right.

Wanted to add that.

All right.

The murky version, verse 29.

So when I was sent for, I came without raising any objection.

May I ask why you sent for me corn's answer.

Three days ago I was in my house praying at this hour.

You know this story, but we need to reread it at three in the afternoon.

Suddenly a man in shining clothes.

Stood before him.

Was it Jesus?

Was it Michael?

Was it Gabriel?

Who was it?

I don't know.

Verse 31 and said, Cornelius, God has heard your prayer.

Wow.

Pharisees didn't think God heard anybody's prayer, but a Jew and a

very faithful, devout Jew, and he has remembered your gifts to the poor.

Send a JOA for Simon, who is called Peter.

He is a guest in the home of Simon the Tanner who lives by the sea.

So I sent for you immediately and it was good of you to come.

Now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the

Lord has commanded you to tell us.

Then Peter began to speak this a great sermon.

In, uh, academic terms, this is called one of the primas of

the Bible, one of the preaching lessons, the sermons of the Bible.

He says, I now realize how true it is that God does not show.

What favor, favoritism.

Let's say it again.

God does not show sistance.

Let that sink in.

We've gotta relax things.

Create bias in us and prejudice in us and withdrawal.

We gotta be very careful what we post on social media.

We need to represent Jesus always.

You know?

I mean, I read some things this week.

Would Jesus have said that?

Would he have said that?

Mercy.

Mercy.

Let's always be like Jesus.

Amen.

I now realize God shows no favoritism.

Verse 35, buddy accepts every nation, the one from every nation, the one

who fears him and does what is right.

Amen.

So let's keep going in the story,

my screen.

Died on me.

Sorry.

They'll get it back.

You know the message God sent to the people of Israel

announcing the good news of what?

Peace.

Sorry,

that's not what it says.

I get a little excited sometimes.

It says peace.

Peace.

Announcing the Good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who

is our Lord, the Lord of all.

You know what has happened throughout the province of Judea, beginning in G Galilee

after the baptism that John preached, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with

the Holy Spirit and with power, and how he went around doing good and healing

all who were under the power of who?

The devil, the devil is at work.

Love people hate the devil.

Love people hate sin because God was with him.

We are witnesses in everything he did in the country and in Jerusalem and what they

do, this is what the world always does.

They killed him by hanging him on a cross.

Verse 44, okay, it says God raised him from the dead.

Okay, let's see here.

Raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen.

He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God has already

chosen by us, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.

Spirits don't eat and drink.

You can't touch 'em.

Jesus asked them to touch him to know it was real.

He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he was the one whom

God appointed as judge, not you and me, but him of the living and the dead.

All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes receives

forgiveness of sins through his what?

Name.

There's power in the name.

That's why we pray in his name.

Ooh, don't take the shortcut at the end of the prayer.

Amen.

Say in Jesus' name, in the power of the holy one.

Amen.

In the power of the resurrected one.

Amen.

Don't pray.

You just pray into God.

Pray knowing it will be answered because the mediator is going

before you and sharing it for you.

Amen.

Amen.

Oh yeah.

Verse 44, while Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all.

Who heard the message?

What?

Holy Spirit wasn't for them yet?

That's not according to the formula.

They're supposed to get baptized first.

All right?

But God was doing a new thing to show he had opened the door.

He built a bridge.

To the Gentiles.

Praise God for that.

I don't know if you have any Jewish blood in you, but I

don't think there's any in me.

All right.

Except for way, way back to Adam and Eve.

All right.

I mean, praise God that Gentiles are saved.

Most of you look like Gentiles to me.

All right?

I don't want to judge, but I think we're gentiles.

Okay.

Yes, so praise God for this.

Are you with me?

Yes.

Verse 45.

He go.

Going on here, he says, the circumcised believers who came with Peter were

astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit have been poured out even, even on

Gentiles, the Untouchables at that time.

For, they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.

Then Peter said, surely no one can stand in the way of their

being baptized with water.

They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.

So he ordered them to be baptized in what the name again?

The importance of invoking the spiritual cosmic power of the

universe, the name of Jesus Christ.

Then they ask Peter, stay with them for a few days.

Verse 27.

Let's go back.

Let's learn some things from this story.

Are you with me?

I think you are, because this is a good story.

This is a paradigm shifter.

This is one of the most important stories in all the New Testament.

Guys, we gotta have this one down and we learn first.

Let the Holy Spirit lead.

You wait on the Spirit.

They told them at the beginning of Acts to wait on the Spirit, and then the

Spirit came, and then Acts two happened.

They prayed for boldness in Acts chapter five.

The Spirit moved them and scattered them.

The spirit should always be leading the church.

We don't want men leading the church.

We want the spirit leading the church.

Amen.

Because all of us men are fallible.

All of us are men are finite.

We're limited.

We can be filled with the Holy Spirit.

We can hear the spirit.

We can go the right direction.

But we gotta let the spirit lead.

Amen.

And the Spirit led Peter to this house and he walked in.

He thought, whoa, I thought it was just gonna be Cornelius.

There's a lot of witnesses here.

I'm gonna get cooked for this.

I'm not supposed to be eating with these people.

I'm not supposed to be.

I thought I could do this undercover.

You can't be undercover for the Lord.

All right.

There's a power in crowds.

It's a good thing.

It's an all right thing.

And then verse 28 says, well, I, uh, you know the law, you know I'm breaking it.

I am a barrier crosser.

We got any barrier crossers in here?

Yeah, we got some innovators.

I mean, we got, I mean, I'm always, at least once a week

gonna get a new idea from Kyle.

Yeah, I mean, he's, he's got the pulse of you young people, and

you've got a better new perspective.

You're the spiritual life of, uh, uh, for the future.

And he's always saying, Dr.

Greg, why don't we do this?

Well, that's pretty good idea.

I wished I'd have thought of it myself.

Right?

And we talk about it and we refine it, and we usually do it all right.

It's good to have barrier breakers.

It's good to have innovators.

It's good to have young people that have new ideas and creativity and imagination.

And then it's good to have guardians, you know?

And who did God use to break the barrier?

A guardian.

Peter was one of the old dudes.

I mean, he was one of the guys that learned everything the hard way, even.

But he'd learned to listen to the spirit.

And so he did.

Was willing to risk.

He was willing to risk, and he went and he crossed the spirit.

Verse 29, let's keep going here.

What are we gonna learn from this?

You've got to have a curiosity to learn anything new.

You've gotta have a curiosity to see what God is doing.

That is new.

Right.

Don't be stuck into old patterns.

You gotta constantly be refreshing your mind rebooting, learning new programs.

I'm gonna learn ai.

Can you believe it?

Right?

I mean, for years I was saying there's nothing in this sermon from AI and

there's nothing in this sermon from ai 'cause I haven't learned it yet.

But I saw this week what a AI program could do to my slides.

I thought, Hey, in three seconds it did that.

Okay, I think I'll learn that in, in five seconds.

It made a study guide for a whole book.

All right.

I think I, I'm, I'm in.

I'm in.

But unless you're curious, you won't learn anything new.

And you're gonna miss what God does.

That's new.

We don't wanna miss it, do we?

We we want to be on the boat when it leaves.

We want to be on the train, headed up the mountain.

We want to do it right.

And so now verse 29 is, so when he was sent for, what did he do?

He came, this needs to be the year of Yes.

Too many churches are saying no.

You can't do that?

No.

Don't have the money for that.

Nope.

Nobody.

I volunteered for that.

Nope.

That's never worked.

Nope.

We tried that once.

Nope.

You know, you wanna be my friend.

Say yes.

Say yes.

Our home.

I shouldn't even tell you this, but I'm going to just don't tell anybody else.

Okay.

Our home password is the year of yes.

Just to remind us that God is good.

All God's promises come true in Christ.

The answer's yes in Jesus Christ.

Amen.

There's a little more to that in my son-in-law would not want me

to tell you the rest of the code.

All right.

Amen.

In verse 30.

Cornelius answered.

Three days ago.

I was at my house praying, and then I got this vision, the power of prayer.

Have you got any visions lately?

I mean, it will transcend you.

I am an engineer.

I'm so practical.

I'm nuts and bolts.

I was a civil engineer.

All we did is work in in the dirt and rocks and cement and steel.

You know, I wasn't into electrical engineering.

My brother was 10 times smarter than me, and he was an electrical engineer.

I said, I think I'll stay in the dirt.

Never could get the right hand rule right until my senior year.

And then somebody said, it's just like water fluid flowing through a pipe.

Oh, okay.

I can get that.

All right.

Some things you just need a good teacher, you know.

Anyway, that's an aside.

Let's get back to the verse.

All right, next point, verse 31, prayer for guidance.

Guys, we all have opinions, don't we?

And we all have opinions about the thing we love the most, the church.

But you know what?

We all just need to pray for guidance.

I've been doing this a long time.

I have two doctorates in leadership in organizational structure, and guess what?

I don't have all the answers.

We need God for the answers, don't we?

We've never been this way before.

That was a theme of my high school prom.

Never been this way before or never going this way again, or I don't.

It was so long ago.

All right.

Shouldn't have gone there.

But Cornelius was hurt because he was humble.

Look at all these verses, John.

Nine.

We know that God doesn't listen to sinners.

Psalm 66, if I had cherry sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened to me.

But look at Jeremiah 29 13.

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

Psalms 34 15.

The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his eyes are attentive to their cry.

Why did God answer Cornelius's cry?

Because he gives grace to the seekers.

All you gotta do is be seeking God.

Lead me God.

Teach me God.

I will obey God.

Yes.

God, yes I will.

No, I don't know if I want to do that.

God.

Don't debate God, don't bargain with God.

You won't win bargaining with God.

God, let's make a deal.

No, that ain't gonna work.

I tried that a few times in my life.

He always says, no,

I am serious.

He always says no until I just say yes.

Whatever you want, God.

I'm on the altar for you.

Jesus is my Lord.

Whatever you want.

And then yes.

Becomes yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Amen.

You can live a no life if you want.

This can be your year of, no,

no.

I'm gonna be grumpy.

Nope.

I'm not gonna try anything new.

Nope.

I like my steak and potato.

Nope.

How about the year?

Yes.

Are you with me there?

Yes.

Prayer of sincerity.

That's why he was heard.

And then verse 32, let's keep going.

Wrap this up.

Sin to Jo of for Simon.

He's called Peter.

Now, that's a story, isn't it?

And he went, he, he was obedience.

He asked for Peter.

Peter came, there's a lesson there.

Obey your calling.

Next verse 33.

So even, even Peter had to find more truth.

So he goes to Cornelius's house and he is surrendered.

He goes into the house.

He shouldn't do it, but he breaks that barrier.

And then Peter, all of a sudden.

Graphs, the lesson that we need, our world needs right now,

that there's power in learning.

I now realize what's true, that God chose no favoritism.

See, the truth is before that, Peter thought only Jews could

be saved and only really, really legalistic Jews could be said.

Saved only people on the Sanhedrin, only people that were Pharisees.

Only people that had memorized all of the Talmud and the Torah.

Those were the only ones that could be saved.

Nope.

Even a sinner like me.

Even a sinner like you.

Amen.

The power of learning.

This is, this is good stuff.

This is a paradigm shift, verse 35, but he accepts people from every nation.

This is the power of inclusion.

What if, because Ashley hadn't, uh, was, was struggling and she, she,

uh, hadn't become a Christian yet.

What if her parents said, Ashley.

We're a good Christian family and you don't have the faith yet.

Maybe you should live with one of your cousins or something

until you become a Christian.

Her parents, I know her parents, you know Jordan and Terry would've never done that.

They love their kids.

They love all you.

Including older people.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Aren't you glad that I include younger people?

Yeah.

Amen.

Aren't you glad that we include those other people, not old or young?

Right?

We're having a little fun.

That's all we're doing here.

All right.

The power of good news, verse 36, the Power of Good News.

Since God shows no favoritism, I can worship a God like that.

I can worship a God that includes everybody.

I don't wanna worship a God that only takes Indians, Russians, Africans,

Asians, Americans.

I can, I can love and worship and trust a God that shows no.

Favoritism.

Amen.

If you get nothing out of the sermon, but that, that's worth the price of admission.

'cause it was free to come on in.

Right?

And then verse 37, Paul, I mean, Peter looks back and he says, there's there

we gotta learn from history here.

We gotta learn this lesson and not make this mistake ever again.

And there's power and insight.

And so it says that, uh, he starts preaching about Jesus.

And then verse 38, how God anointed Jesus and, you know, and he gave us all free

will, free will choices, and then faces the fact that, you know, the Jews hung

him on the cross and, and Peter's a Jew.

And so that's pretty humble right there, saying that it's

us who killed the Messiah.

And then he, they, he, he starts sharing his own story about being

a witness of the resurrection.

You know, and, and Peter, I mean, he, he, he was so changed by the resurrection.

He was just a brash, cruel, harsh, misogynistic old dude.

And then he was converted and he just became a lover of people.

And all of a sudden, at Pentecost, even learned about 15 languages with the

power of the spirit, all of a sudden too.

That's pretty cool.

He had, he had a willingness to change.

Amen.

And then talk.

It's all about reconciliation and forgiveness.

See how this is so applicable today?

Instead of stoking the fires of hate and anger and discord and division,

we're gonna be the people of peace and kindness and love and mercy.

Are you with me there, sir?

Amen.

So read the signs.

That's what Peter's saying.

Anybody gonna stop these people from being baptized?

Read your sign.

I mean, this is a sign from heaven.

God is telling us we need to do something different.

Let's listen to God.

Read your sign.

And then verse 40, I'm, I'm moving right along.

Verse 45, the power of a paradigm shift.

This is the power of conversion, is the power of a.

Paradigm shift.

And boy, when Peter thought about that, he didn't back down in Acts

11, he tells this same story.

His mindset changed because of his encounter with Cornelius.

Your encounter with the one non-Christian could change your whole outlook.

Wow.

You sitting down and cheering your faith and opening up

your life and they opening up.

Their life can change your whole outlook.

That's why we have testimonies.

I hope it changed you this morning.

What Ashley said, she came from a great family.

That doesn't mean Satan didn't get in there.

Through the internet and through social media and through her mind

and through school and through other things, there's so much bullying.

There's so much meanness.

There's so much evil, isn't there?

Wow.

Do we need to love each other and open up and help each other?

And then the next thought, the power of transformation

evidence, demands a, a response.

And they started speaking in tongues.

And so they accepted this new thing.

They got baptized and the power of his, his name in Jesus' name.

And so what do we do with all of this?

You're always gonna hear me say, God,

what should we do with this sermon?

This story, it's not a myth.

It really happened, and this is one of 'em that God wants us to learn.

And so what do we get out of the message from God this morning?

God does new things get on board.

Number two, God shows no favoritism.

Praise God to that.

Number three, God will surprise us.

God includes us and all untouchables.

God speaks spiritually.

We just have to listen and God opens new doors and we can have

our paradigm shifted if we need to.

Amen.

Amen.

So what do I want us to do?

I want us to open our hearts to a new thing.

I don't want to hear a lot of nos.

Now you can fill in the blanks, Greg.

That's a great big idea, but we gotta do all these things.

That's fair.

Okay.

Just say yes first, and then tell me all the hurdles.

Okay?

All the challenges.

I don't mind, but I want to hear.

Yes.

First, I want to hear faith first.

Amen.

And then give yourself grace.

And give it to others.

Amen.

You're gonna, you, you, the world's gonna make you hard and mean, and angry

and cynical if you don't fight it.

And the only way to stay soft is to take grace from God

and give it to other people.

Amen.

Embrace the unity of the Orange County Church.

I'm naming the, the elephant in the room.

All right, let's get United.

All right.

Let's have the spirit that we have, and let's build on it.

Speak life with positive words of faith.

Amen.

Renew your commitment to the basic building block of this ministry,

and it's our family groups.

All right?

They're geographic.

They're local.

We need 'em.

We need each other.

Recommit yourself to 'em and help your friends heal.

Amen.

There's people that have been hurt.

And church hurt hurts the most.

So let's help people heal and please be a bridge builder and a peacemaker.

Don't stoke the chaos.

All right?

Be a peacemaker like our Lord.

And then finally, I'm gonna ask you to go outside after this sermon, and

we got some tables set up, and I want you to sign your name, put your name.

Your phone number and your email address, we're not gonna make you put your address.

We're not gonna come by, all right?

Just gonna connect electronically, okay?

But we want you to do that 'cause we've got a lot of work to do in the

next few months, a hundred some days before we move back in our building.

And we all need to get to work, put our hand to the plow.

Amen.

So we're gonna have signups, so please.

Sign up.

There's a lot of different things you can do.

I'm sure you can help us somewhere.

Uh, and let's close for now with giving Grace to one another.

Amen.