Acts: Life Princples For Church Family

If you have your Bible, it's turning with me to

Acts eighteen this morning. We'll start in just a few

minutes in verse eighteen, So eighteen eighteen. That kind of

keeps it simple for us this morning, eighteen eighteen. It's

good to see you again. I'm pastor Johnathan, glad that

you're here. You know, we have these different ways that

we say no. Do you ever say no? Like? That

word comes very quickly. I have a my nephew has

a new baby and he learning words, new words, and

one of the first words he learned is learning is

no because why because he hears no a lot, right,

And so we learned that word pretty quick, and we

learned to say that word pretty quick. And then we'll

have different ways variations that we say no. Right. We

might say not me, not me. That means like somebody

else may do that, but not me. Right. We may

say I'm out. That means like no, somebody else can

do that but not me. It may just simple like emphatically,

We may say it three times no, no, no, no, no,

no no. You know, that's just saying like, oh, okay,

somebody else may be not me. You know, It's it's

funny because we really, you know, there's there's things that

just through life we could say no too, and that's okay,

it's acceptable. Right. The other week I told you that me,

Tanner and Devin and and Emanuel went to Indian Buffet

and and you know one thing, I'm just gonna like,

queue you in on Tanner, right, give you a little

bit inside and scoop on Tanner. So Tanner has this

defense that he wants everybody to believe that he's not

a picky eater. But let me tell you the truth.

He's picky, right, he says, I'm not picky, but he's picky.

And we win this Indian Buffet and he was going

to try expand his his horizons on his eating and

we got this really it was really one of my

favorite things. And it was this goat rice and it

was good. I liked it. I actually went and got seconds.

But Tanner he was going to try it and and

he took one bite. I'm out. I'm out, I'm out.

You know, he can't do it right. You know for me,

you know, if I'm the same way, I pick on him.

But I like, I mean, I like about anything. But

if you and I like chicken salad. But if I

go eat chicken salad, the first question I will have

is cellery in that. If Celery's in that, I'm out.

I'm out. No no, no, no, no, no, not me, right,

And so we can do that. We can even have

things that like even in our marriages, right. I remember,

growing early on our marriage, I told you Brandy was

out when it came to a mouse, right, not me.

I'm not doing anything with that. Also, another one for

us is when our girls were little and they would

get sick and have the stomach bug and they would

throw up all over everything. Brady says, not me, I

ain't cleaning that. I can't handle it. Oh. I thought

he was coming to discipline me. I was like, whoa,

this is a getting serious. Not me. But I learned

very quickly that like she couldn't handle it would make

her sick cleaning up throw up. So you could say,

you know, and but for me, you know, in our marriage,

I hate dusty. All right, I'll clean up throw up.

And I know that sounds crazy to you, but I

don't ask me to dust a house. I cannot stand

to do that. I don't know why, but that's not

me I'm out, and so we you know, we can

say these things in our life. And there's certain foods.

I can say no to certain things. You can go

buy something electronically. They're gonna ask you if you wanted

to send a warrant and you can say no, not me,

not me. I don't need that. We can turn down

different things, opportunities, We can turn down different foods, we

can turn down different responsibilities in our home, but we

could at workplace in different But there's things when it

comes to the Christian life that really are not optional,

and we can't look at the Lord and say not me.

I mean, I know other people do that, but as

a Christian, that's not just really for me. I just

really don't like the way that feels. I don't really

like doing that. So therefore Lord, not me. As we

go to this fastest of scripture, it's a beautiful pastive scripture.

So it's a narrative. It's it's Luke accounting for the

travels of Paul and Aquila and Priscilla. And also we

see a new care Orge cripture this morning, call a

paulis they travel through four different cities we see, I

mean four different people in this passage several different cities

that five different cities that he talks about, five different churches,

four different people. And the beautiful thing about this passage

is Loot chronicles this journey for Paul is you get

to see different things that are present in the life

of the church. This president in the life of church

in Ephesus, it's present in the Church of Cesaia's present

in the Church of Serene. It's present in different places.

You see not only just it's in this church, but

you all see see Paul, does it see a quilt facila?

Do you see a Paulus, this young leader, They're all

living these principles. And so I pray as we come

to this passage of Scripture and we see what principles

were evident in the life of the church family abroad.

These were things that were present in the church, things

that were present, principles that were present in the life

of individuals. And this is I want to ask you

today as you as we look through this, it's a

pretty hefty list this morning. So we looked through this,

I wan't you ask yourself a question, is this do

I find this in my life as a believer or

am I or have I come to a place where

I've said, not me. Somebody else can do that, but

not me. And I would challenge you today, according to

the word of God, to say, today, you know what, Lord,

how can I make these present in me? Let's stand

together and read God's word It's acts eighteen, starting in

verse eighteen that says after this, Paul stayed many days longer,

and he took leave with the brothers and set itself

for Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila. And it

came Serene or Sincree, sorry, and he had cut his

hair for his under avowal. And it came to Ephesus,

and he left there. But he himself went into the

syn of God any reason with the Jews, and when

they asked him to stay for a longer period, he declined,

But taking on leave of them, he said, I will

return to you if God wills. And he set south

for Ephesis. And when he landed in cesarea, he went

up and greeted the church, and he went up to

down to Antioch, and after spending some time there, departed

and went from one place to the next through regions

of Glacia and Frigia, strengthening all the disciples disciples, and

now a Jew named Apaulus and native of Alexandria, came

to Ephesus. And he was an eloquent man, competent in scriptures,

and he'd been instructed in the way of the Lord,

and being further than the Spirit, he spoke and taught

accurately the things of concerning Jesus he knew, though he

knew only the Baptism of John. He began to speak

boldly in the syn of God. And when briscilionicqu heard him,

they took him and explained to him, splaind to him

the way of God more accurately. And when he wished

to cross to Ika, the brothers encouraged him and wrote

to the disciples to welcome him. And when he arrived,

he greatly helped those who, through the grace believed, and

for he was powerfully refuted the Jews and publicly showing

by the scriptures that Christ was Jesus. Let's pray together, Lord,

we come to you this morning, and Lord, I pray

for a spirit of surrender this morning, that Lord, that

we would surrender Lord to your work. Lord, as these

early church believers lived a life Lord that was pleasing

Lord to you, they lived out these principles. Lord, I

pray today we would we surrender this next thirty minutes

or more, Lord to you. We surrender our hearts, our minds,

our life to you. Today. We surrender our life in

submission to your word and your authority over our life.

Are our plans, of our desires, of our wants, of

our wills. So Lord, I pray today, may you speak. Lord,

we come to get together united as the body believers,

and Lord, we recognize today we need you. We need

you to speak, we need you to lead, we need

you to convict. Lord, I need you. So Lord, I

pray that you would fill this room, feel me pour

out your word and God, may we surrender to you

in your name, We pray. Amen. You maybe see them

as you come through this passage of scripture, as you

look at the very beginning of today life principles for

church family, and the first is a life of commitment.

As you look at this verse eighteen, tell Paul tells

us that Paul's in Corinth. And that's what we looked

at last week, and there was they brought in before

the per counsel there and we see ed thatches this

verse eighteen attaches to verse seventeen that they after they

brought him before the per council, the per council turned

them away, and then they took Sothenes and beat him.

And scripture says verse eighteens after this, this is after

the trial, after Soothenes had been beaten before the tribunal,

Paul state, Paul state in the carnth that tells us

for a few days, and then the Bible says after

that he took a leave and he sets out for Syria.

So antiox Syria was where Paul began his missionary journey.

That's way back when we've been in the study for

a while, but that's where that's antiox Syria is what

sent out Paul and Barnabas for missions. And so Paul

always as he finishes up his missionary journey, he kind

of he goes back to Antioxyria and he gives a report.

So Luke is telling us that he's he's finishing up

his second missionary journey. He's only his way back to

antiox Syria. As he does that, he the Bible says

he leaves Carinth, and there in Carinth he met Priscilla

and Aquilla. We looked at them a little bit. We're

talking about them a little bit more this morning. And

there the Bible says, he leaves there and he goes

to this this little This was the first time we

hear about this place. It's called Sincri. Sincree was this

place that Paul stops on his way to antiox Syria

in the Travels, and the Bible says, when he stops there,

Look what the passage says, at Sincrete, he had cut

his hair for he was under a vowel. Now there's

four and I'm not gonna give them for you today,

but there's four different debates about what vow Paul must

have taken. But we understand that there was a Jewish

custom that when someone would make a vow, they would

signify this vow by growing out their hair, and when

they could, when they finished their commitment to this vow,

they would shave their head. So it's believe that Paul,

when he gets into Sincree, he there he shaves his head,

and he shaves his head, demonstrating that he had fulfilled

the commitment the vow that he made to the Lord.

Now we don't know what it says. The other instance

we can see if someone cutting their hair and had

a vow was the story in the Bible, the Old

Testament Judges thirteen of a man named Sampson. You remember Samson.

Sampson's parents made a vow to the Lord that they

would give their son to the Lord, and it was

a vowt called the Nazarite vow. The Nazarite vow was

a vow of abstinence, abstinence from alcohol and anything unclean.

It was a vowel of holiness that this individual will

live their life holy to the Lord. No alcohol, no touching,

nothing unclean. And Sampson lived to his life committed to that.

And to demonstrate his commitment to the Nazarite vow what

he did, he grew out his hair. You remember Delilah.

He meets this woman and she's trying to find out

where did his strength come from? Where did his strength

come from? His strength came from keeping the vow of

God that he has, which that's a whole another word,

isn't it? Meantimes we find strength in the Lord when

we keep our vows him. So but she's realized that

he had this abnormal, amazing strength, and what was the

way to get him to lose his strength break his vow.

He finally confesses to her one day, if I cut

my hair, what it I will lose my strength? And

why she lures him to sleep and why he's asleep.

They shave his head and his vow is broken and

he loses the power of God. As you look at

this passage of scripture, you see the apostle Paul and

he's made a vow to the Lord and he comes

to sin Crey and he completes the vowel God. What

I promised to you, I completed And he demonstrates that

to us, and Luke wants us to see this. Paul

is not this one person who makes a decision for

the Lord at one time in his life and lives

his life independent of that decision. No living a Christian

faith is continuing to make promises God, commitments to God,

God and vows to God. And when we make those commitments,

those vows to God, we are to keep them. And

Paul kept his vows to the Lord. You know, we

all make vows to the Lord, we make commitments. I wonder,

what have you committed to the Lord? What there's different

times of life, we make different commitments. I remember as

a young teenager committing to purity, saving myself for my

wedding day. I remember as a teenager making that God,

I'm gonna I'm going to vow to purity I make.

We make other commitments as we go on. We commit

to reading our Bibles devotionally. Have you're if you're married

here today, you've made a commitment to love your husband's

to love your wife as Christ, love the church to

wives that love your husband, and to encourage and support him.

I ask you today, how are you doing in your commitments.

I remember a friend of ours one time he had

a they had two little boys, and I distinctly remember

this vow he the babies were born, they were primies,

and I remember him. I was a friend and he was.

He didn't go to the church where we were at.

I was in South Carolina at the time, but we

were close friends, and he reached out to us and said,

would you pray for my boys? They were born prematurely.

They were like less than two pounds in size, both

of them, and they were struggling to whether they were

going to make it. And I remember, you send me

a picture and he I can't get my wedding ring off.

But he had his wedding ring, and the wedding ring

fit around the arm of his is a little baby.

And he said, pray for And I remember calling him

and checking on him. Never forget what he said. He says,

Joathab made a vow to the Lord. The Lord will

save my boys ill livery. I've not been doing that.

I'll commit and he made that. I'll never get him

making that vowel. You know, sometimes we make vows when

we're in crisis. Sometimes we make vowels to commit to

holdin us of purity, or make vows to read our Bibles.

We make vows to our relationships. Today, you've committed something

to the Lord. How are you doing? As a principle

of church, family is that we are to commit to

the Lord and we are to keep our house. Secondly,

I want you to see there was There was not

only a life of commitment, there was a life of evangelism.

You come to this passage nineteen that says that from

Cincri they go to Ephesus. First time there Paul had

been into Ephesus. The Bible says when that came he

left there, but he himself he went into the Synagod.

Any reason with him? What is that? What's Paul doing?

He goes to Ephicy, goes in this new city, like

every city he's been on in this missionary journey. He

doesn't say, you know what, I'm tired, I'm on my

way home. I just need a break, I need a breather. No,

Paul goes into Ephesus, he goes into Synda Good and

he goes to share the gospel. We see Priscilla Equila

with him. And Priscilla Aquilla are lay people. They're not pastors,

they're not church leaders, they're not they're not professionally trained

pastors or a members. They're church members and they're by

trade their tent makers. And we know as we looked

that two weeks ago that Paul, Priscilla and Aquila came

from Rome, and in Rome they were believers. And I

told you a few weeks ago that Claudius did a

ruling that all Christians have to leave Rome. Why because

the Christians were not getting along with the Jews and

they were fighting, so he drove them all out. And

we asked the question two weeks ago, how did the

Christians get to Rome. We have no record of Paul

or any apostle ever going to wrong. You know how

the Christians got to Rome because lay people like Priscilla

and Aquila used their trade to take the Gospel to

the ends of the earth. And see we see pastors

Paul sharing the Gospel's apostles sharing the gospel. We see

Priscilla and Aquila sharing the gospel. Paul would even say

in Romans, in Romans sixty three, Greek, Priscilla and Aquila

my fellow workers in Christ. They were committed to evangelism.

We see and as we continue to go and Act sixteen,

we see appall us this young leader and he's where's

he at? He's in the synagog and his scripture says

he begins boldly speaking in the synagod. What is he doing?

He's sharing the gospel. We see four characters in this pastorism,

and all four characters where there's apostle, our young pastor

or a lady leader in the church, they're all sharing

the Gospel too many times. And I know it sounds

like a broken record. Pastor, you tell me every Sunday

about sharing the Gospel and imports of me sharing the gospel.

And I will continue to the day I die, continue

to employ every believer. God did not save you for

you to keep it to yourself. God saved you that

you might share it. It is a life principle of

a church family that we all are to be sharing

Jesus with others. And we see that. I love Last

week we were I think it was last week, I

can't remember. We were out prayer walking and we always

go through and practice and Tony and Kathy are there

and and there Tony's a deacon here and and they're

just members and we were talking about sharing the gospel.

And uh, Tony and Kathy told us about how when

that goes, heare the Gospel. And as they go away

and Kathy they have a little they have a little system.

Kathy kind of opens up the conversation and she'll say,

what's your story, and and she'll have someone share, and

then she'll talk about her story about Jesus and then

Tony comes in with the gospel. But I love that, Hey,

they're not pastors, and they're not on staff. They don't

do it for a job. No, they just actively look

for opportunities to share Jesus. Man May we be believers.

May we be a church who says, Lord, I want

to be a church. I want to be a believer

that keeps my commitments to your God, and wanted to

be a believer that tells others about Jesus. It's the

life of evangelism is a life of surrender, the Bible says.

In verse twenty, we see Paul in the synd of God.

In verse twenty, it says they asked him, when they

asked him to stay for a longer period, he declined.

This is what Paul says here. In verse twenty one,

he says, but taking but on taking leave of them,

he says, I will return to you if God wills.

And he sets ouf for Ephesus. You know, I think

it's interesting Paul goes in Ephesus the first time he's

been there, you know, is Matra. Everywhere he goes, he

takes the Gospel and to send to God. He preached

the gospel, he leads believers, he starts a church, and

it's just he does that time after time. We see

that here Paul goes in this the scend of God.

He's preaching the gospel. They're receptive of it. They don't

running him out. They're not sending him to the governor official.

They're open to it and to even go to ask

him to stay. So not only is he being received there,

they're hearing there, listening. He's effective. They're they're even asking

him to stay longer. But Paul says, listen, I must go.

Paul, Paul had a We we know that Paul, I

think probably even wanted to maybe stay longer, but God,

but Paul knew God had him a plan to go

back to Aniok.

Syria, to report there, to to take an offering. We

know that through other reasons. First Corinthians and Paul lived

his life in surrender to not what he wants, not

whether he was effective, of where he was. He was

lived his life surrendered to God. Lord, you hold my

future and our surrender my plans to you. Lord. It's

not about what I want, It's not what I like.

It doesn't matter whether I feel like I'm effective where

I am God, I live my life surrender. I even

love the imagery of this passage and verse twenty one,

he declares that to them, I will return to you.

What if God wills surrender? You know, something's precious to you,

you hold on to it. Right, something precious to you,

you've got to safe in your house and you put

in your fire safe. If something's precious to you, you

hold it tight. And many times in our life we

hold precious to us our desires, our wants, our plans,

our family. And let's be honest, let's be honest. Many

times with those things in our lives that are precious,

we hold them tight. We may not put them in

physical safe, but we put them in the safe of

our heart. And we say to the Lord, Lord, I

know that you know things, and your way is better

than my way. But God, God, I really want what

I want. I really want what I desire. I really

want my plans, and Lord, I really want my family.

And Lord, I don't know. Listen to me, Lord, I

don't know if it's safe to surrender them to you

and to say, Lord, my plans. I'll surrender them to you. Lord,

I'll surrender my desires to you. I surrender my wants. Now,

listen to me, we will preacher, be careful here. Lord,

I'll surrender my family yours. And I trust you. You're

a good God, and you'll take care of them. You Remember,

I told you about Brian, the young man that had

two babies that said, Lord, I'll surrender to you. Go.

I tell you, surrender those little boys to the Lord. Today,

those two boys that he vowed to the Lord that

they're yours both are in the are going in in

the ministry. Those two boys are at North Greenwell University,

is both starting to be pastors. And two years ago

one of his boys, one of them babies, there's precious,

precious babies, said mom and daddy don't want to give

up my whole six months to go live on missions.

I'm going to travel the world share in the Gospel

of Jesus. And that mom and that daddy said, he's yours,

Lord taking and they allowed that boy to follow the

Lord and live a life a surrender to the Lord. Listen,

I tell you you and I we see in this

passage of Scripture we see a life committed. We see

a life committed to evangelism, and we see a life

that's surrendered to the Lord. My plans, my desires, my wants,

my families, my will. I surrender to you Lord, not

your will, not my will, but your will be done, Lord,

and not what Jesus, our Lord prayed in the garden.

May we echo our savior surrender. See a life of surrender.

We also see a life of discipleship. The Bible says

in verse twenty two, let's pick up there. When he

landed in Cesarea, he went up and greeted. This is

Paul again. He's making this journey from Corinth to different

places Sincri. He comes now to Cesarea, that's on the

border of the Mediterranean Sea, right there in the north

of Israel. Comes into Cesarea. There, the Bible says, he

went and greeted the church, and then he goes down

to Antioch, that's Antiox Syria, and after spending some time there,

he departed. He went from one place to the next,

the regions of Glacia and Frigia. Disciple, I mean strengthening

all the disciples. Paul goes church after church, right, strengthening

the disciples, discipling, encouraging believers. You go to verse twenty

six and we see this young Apollos and he's preaching

the gospel, and he's teaching, and he's speaking boldly. And

Priscilla and Quilla find out we're go looking about this

a little bit. Find out something. He's a little off phone.

And what is the Priscillian group that correct him? What

are they doing? They're discipling him. We see not only

does is he disciples and it's Equila and Priscilla discipling him.

We see the church encouraging Apolos. In verse twenty seven,

it says that and when he wished across the Ika,

the brothers encouraged him. We see then Apollos go to

Ikea in verse twenty seven, and when he goes to Okaa,

and he greatly helped those who those through who grace

had belief. Listen, you see Paul discipling, You see a

Quilla Priscilla discipling. You see the church in Ephesus discipling,

You see Apoulus discipling. Listen. It was not only the

role of every believer to share Jesus, but it was

the role of every believer disciple of one another. And

it's your role as a church family to not only

live a life of commitment, of evangelism, of surrender, but

also a life of discipling. Of how are you discipling

one another? And throughout all my life, God's bless me

with men who would disciple me. My first pastor I

mean I would say, first the story of my grandpa

who would disciple me. I remember so many times I

was not living as teenager and just everywhere, here, there

and everywhere in Grandpa pulling me aside and put his

arm around me and says, I love you, but you

know this is not what this is not honoring God.

I remember, God will give me a youth pastor Clay

Slatin who discipled me. I remember Preacher Jerry disciple me

as a pastor, MARII Simpson disciple in me as a mentor,

Jim Niel, a friend, pastor on staff, disciple with me

every step, every area in my life. God's given me

someone who's discipled me. And in turn, I have sought

to disciple young men, young men in our church, our staff.

Today I seek the disciple. We are called to disciple

one another. Can I tell you family, Mom's dads today,

God's called you to disciple your children, grandparents. God's called

you disciple your grandchildren, church family. God's called you disciple

one another. Can you will I encourage you today be

a disciple and disciple others which you see in only

a life of discipleship. I think this goes hand in

hand with the next one. The next one we see

in verse twenty four is a life of teaching. Verse

twenty four or says now a Jew name of Paulus,

a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus, and he was

an eloquent man, competent in scriptures, and he'd been destructed

in the way of the Lord, and being fervent in

the spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus.

He was a teacher. He taught the word of God.

We see Paul in Acts eighteen nineteen this passage when

he goes into when he goes into Ephesus, he's reasoning

as a term for arguing the scripture. He's teaching. We

see a Paulis teaching. We see Priscilla and Aquila teaching.

A Paulis teaching is a primary role of every individual.

You say, pastor, I'm not trained in Bible. I've not

been to seminary, I've not been to college, I've not

been a Christian studies major. How can I teach the Bible?

Or just yesterday my nephew came and he was cooking

a large amount of food, and he was one of

my help. And so I have a big blackstone and

if you're familiar with this flat top grill, and so

I could cook a lot of food at one time.

So he came over the house and we went outside

and we got the food, and I was just teaching

the basics of cooking bacon and sausage, when to flip

it right, how high it hit the grill on and

all that, Just showing him this is ready, this is

when you need to turn.

Just showing them the basics, you know. That's that's something

that we all do. You teach people the basics of life.

You teach them the basis of cooking. You teach them

the basis of riding a bike. You teach them the

basics of us sport. You teach them the basics of

the English. You teach them to the basics of banners.

You teach them the basics of hygiene, how to brush

your teeth. You do these things with your children, with

your grandchildren, different people in your life.

If we can teach people the basics of life, why

can we not also teach them the basics of Christianity,

the basics of faith, the basics of the Bible. Too

many times we have had this attitude. That's the church's job.

That's what we paid the staff to do. That's what

we paid the pastor to do. That's when we send

them to youth group. That's when we send them to

a venture club. That's when we send them to b

c A. Can I tell you we all have a

role of teaching the Word of God. Whether it's the

elementary levels of the initial stages or the advanced levels.

We're all called to teach the Word of God. It

was the principle of the church. It should be a

principle of every believer here today. A life of discipleship,

a life of teaching which you see, a life of correction. Oh,

this is a tough one. The Bible says that in

verse twenty four, Pauls comes and he's preaching. The Bible

describes this man the eloquent man very. It shows he

had a lot of talent. Loskill shows that he was

competent in scripture. It's also shows that he was of

spirit filled. He was not just a man who was

ability to have teaching, but the spirit of God was

upon him. He was not teaching out of head knowledge,

he was teaching out of heart knowledge. He was a believer,

but the Bible says that he spoke he taught accurately.

But concerning the things of Jesus, he knew only the

baptism of the John. Look what happens in verse twenty six.

And he began to speak boldly in the syn of God.

But when Priscilla and Quilla heard him, they took him

explained to him the way of God more accurately. There

was some gaps in Apause's theological understanding. When a Priscilla

and Aquilla heard him, they realized, although he was very

confident and he was accurate, there were some things that

he was missing. And so therefore Priscilla and Aquila, again

not pastors, lay people, there were tent makers. They brought

him aside and say, hey, brother, let me help you

with this. Let me show you something a little bit

more detailed. Let me give you a better knowledge, a

deeper knowledge of this. They careated him, they strengthened him.

They saw something missing in him, and they strengthened they

corrected him, and as a result, by corrected him and

giving him more knowledge than that, they strengthened him. Can

I tell you life is part of the life of

their church is teaching disciples, but sometimes that also means correction. Hey,

you're missing something here or or you're off somewhere, and

it's important for us as a church. I love people

enough that when they're missing something or they're off a

little bit, they come alongside of them and say, hey,

I love you, but I love you say that you've

got to fix this. That's difficult. I tell you, that's

probably the hardest thing to do as a pastor. But

can I tell you, not only as a pastor, but

also as a son, as a dad, as a husband.

It's difficult. I'll never get and my mom probably killed me.

She watches this online today. I remember being a young believer.

I was living for the Lord. I think I was

seventeen or eighteen years old. My parents had separated. My

mom was struggling after the divorce, and she was finding

hopeing the wrong things. I remember coming in the house

one day and opened up the fridge and of two

coronas in the fridge, and I knew she was running too,

something that was trying to find, something would never feel

the void of ipleness and hurt that was in her heart.

You know what I did, No joke. I took those coronas,

I put them in the sink and poured them out,

and I thought, she's probably gonna kill me when she

gets home. She when I told her she came home,

I said, listen, you don't need that. That's not going

to feel what you need. You need the Lord. It's

the hardest thing. Is one of the hardest things I

ever did. Ano the hardest thing that ever did is

look at my dad as a grown man, and I

was a grown man, said Daddy, right now, I love you,

But right now what's in your life is not honoring God.

That's hard. But I love him enough to tell him

the truth. And listen, not only do we love our

family enough to tell them the truth, but we got

to love church family enough to tell them the truth

and stand on what God's word says and say, I

love you enough, but listen, I love you enough to

correct you. And I tell you, if you correct this,

you'll be stronger. And so we see this in the church,

and this we can't we can't bypass. We can't say

not me, not me, Oh no, no, preacher evangelism, I'm

a wreck on that one. I work on some of

my commitments, but not correction. No, I'm not. I can't

do that. How many times if God use a subtle

rebuke in your life to grow you and be in

the man of God or the woman of God that

you are today? So how much more can we in

others around us when we're faithful to correct when there's

something missing. I want you see, Oh, I gotta keep going,

all right. Next we see the life of correction. But

next we see a life of commissioning. Lastly, here we

see the Bible says in verse twenty six, let's pick

up there, and the Bible says, Therefore, I testify I'm wrong.

I'm in chapter twenty went way too far, the Bible says,

And he began to speak boldly in the sin of God.

But when priscillic Will have heard him, that took him

and explained to him the way of God more accurately.

And when he wished the cross, said kaya, the brothers

encouraged him the road to disciples and welcomed him. Listen.

This shows you they corrected something that even something missing.

I don't think this was a sin for him. Sometimes

it's sin. Sometimes it's not just theological misstep. They corrected

him and it strengthened him. And you see him being

used here. They're encouraging him. He wishes to go to Ikea.

A kaya is an area. He's wishing to go there

to take the gospel there. Young man, talented, frivn in

the spirit, faithful in teaching the word of God, got

God's hand on who's got spirit on him. They see that,

they encourage him. He wants to go. Listen what they do.

The Bible says, they wrote to disciples to welcome. You

know what they did. We know record what Luke is

telling us. What churches would do is they would write

a letter of recommendation. And they wrote a letter of

recommendation and gave it to A Paulus. So when he

went into ephis I mean Ikaa, he had a letter

from the Church of Ephesus said, hey, we commend this

brother to you. God's got his hand on amusing listen

to him. And the Bible says, listen, A Paulus goes,

listen what it says, keep falling with me. When he arrived,

he greatly helped those through the grace had believed. He

powerfully refuted the Jews and publicly showing him by scripture

that Christ was Jesus. What happened. They corrected him, He

was strengthened. They sent him off. And the beautiful thing

is about this passage. So here's this young pastor. He

had some skills, but he needed a little smoothing out.

Priscilla and Quila came and they corrected him. They smoothed

out the response of rough spots or the gaps, if

you will. He responded. The church encouraged him. It grows.

He surrendered to the He's surrendered to a life of evangelism.

So as a result, what did they do? They put

their hands upon him. They surrendered him. You know, it

could have been very easy to say, you know what,

man Paul left and we wanted him to stay here,

and he was getted. You know, God brought us this

a Paulus man. He's gifted. We don't really have a

pastor here. Paul is left, just Priscilla toquill us here. Man,

our church sure could use a man like this. No, no, no, no.

They surrendered this young man to the Lord and says,

you know what, he has everything that we've seen, and

we're going to surrender him to the Lord, and we're

going to commission him to go live out for Jesus.

You know what, that would be my vision for us,

that we as a church, every believer here would live

a life of evangelism. And as a result of doing that,

maybe one of you will lead a child, a teenager,

a student, or an adult to the Lord, and that

young adult will teach how to also share the gospel,

will teach them also how to teach the word of God.

We also teach them how to disciple. And in that

we will say, God, this, this young man, this young girl,

this child, this whoever it may be, is yours Lord,

and we'll surrender listen to this, and we'll surrender them

to the youth. And my vision would be God would

one day would put on their heart. God. I want

to take the Gospel to Japan. I want to be

one who takes to be the light in the darkness

and one can say, you know what, Oh, we love her.

We love them man that grew up in our church.

We saw them in BBS, We saw them in Bitchuer Club.

I remember when they went to camp. I remember when

they came back and testify. We see the hand of God.

Oh man, how could they could be a growth leader here. Oh,

how God could use them here? No, no, no, no,

we can say God, they're yours. And if God put

a heart calling on them to go to Japan, we

get behind them and says God, you've got your hand

on them, and God, we're going to send them out

for the glory of God. And they now can go

to Japan and the very life that they found here

will be the very life that they can establish in Japan.

And we can be a church that then multiplies, not

just in but that'sda not just in Durham, not just

in North Carolina, but to the ends of the yearth

may people see the glory of God that radiates from

but that's the Baptist Church. Amen. Can I tell you

you are valuable? You know I told you a few

weeks ago and I'm close here. He's being if you

want to make your way. I told you a few

weeks ago that I want a small, little basketball team

here at Bethesda Church League basketball team. We're the Bumblebees. Hey,

don't let the name fool you. We're pretty good tie

for first place. I just want to say, you know,

one thing I've really learned about our basketball team, and

just remind me. It's been a while since I played

on a competitive team, and like this, probably since I

was really really young. But well, I guess I put

church a few years ago. When we get on the court,

we all have different roles, we all play different positions,

we all have different skills. They just bring me along.

They didn't a whole lot of skill left in this preacher.

But when we're on that court, everybody has to play

to their ability. There's not one time that we can

If we're going to be successful as a team, we

can't look at each other say's not me, I'm out. No, no, no, no,

I'm not going to do that. When you get on

that court. We all need each other and listen to

me today, Church, every one of you here. This church

needs you. It needs you. We can't be the church

that God's called us to be without you. You can't

say no, no, no, not me. I'm going to set

this one out or I'm out. We need you. And

if we're ever going to be disciples that make disciples

for are going to be a church that leads people

the Lord, we all got to rise up. We all

got to play our part. We're all going to live

like Christ has called us to live. Would you just

say today, as we end today, Lord, whatter than my life?

How are these principles in me? How am I faithful

to these things? What are the places where I've said

not me? Lord? Hm? Maybe you say today Lord, I will,

I'll be faithful. Maybe you say today, Lord, what what

airs your life that you're holding on to? And the

Lord says, hey, give it to me, surrender it to

me today. Ever the Lord leads, will you respond to him?

Let's pray every about everybody, every hit about every I close. Lord,

I thank you for this morning. Lord. We're all guilty

of of wanting to side staff, wanting.

To take place offer, or say Lord, not me, or

I can't do that, or God, I must hold on

to that, or I forgot about that commitment.

Lord. We're all guilty of those things. Lord. I pray

today that as you have enlightened our hearts and our

minds today, Lord, today we would surrender Lord to your word,

your spirit, your conviction. Lord, May we see today that

being who you want us to be as a church body,

as a whole body, effort, whole believers on board. So Lord,

I pray that we, as a church we rise up. Lord,

May you lead us to you today to respond to

how you lead us to step in the areas where

step up in the ears where we failed, fallen short

or taken off or we love you lead us to

this time, Lord, I pray Amen Jesus pain

All to him.