Acts (Part 2) | What's Most Important? - Acts 18 | October 5

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So we'll have, we'll read Acts 18 in just a minute,

but I had a similar

thought to Bree this week i've never

met anybody famous i don't know have you has any of you

met anybody famous you met some famous people closest

i think was that that jenny's on an airplane ride danny goki drummed on her

seat the entire flight that's about as as close i don't know if he's famous

anymore or if that counts but

that's the the closest that ryan raised your hand you met somebody famous.

That was a good answer. Jesus. That's a great answer.

But last week we talked about, in Acts 17, we talked about more so the places that Paul traveled to.

And then as a result, the responses that were met at those places as he shared the gospel.

So he went to Thessalonica and to Berea and to Athens.

And so he traveled to these places and there were a varied response.

Not everybody's going to respond 100% positively to the presentation of the

gospel, to the message of Jesus, as you share your life and your faith and Jesus with them.

And if you have a 100% success rate, then perhaps you're not sharing it enough

because, as we know, Paul didn't have 100% success rate in Jesus.

You know, he had a wayward disciple, even if we want to call that not 100% success

rate, although Jesus did exactly what he set out to do.

So we're not going to have 100% success rate as we share the gospel,

but our message and our burden is to share faithfully.

So that's what we talked about last week.

As we share, other people are going to respond in various ways.

And then also all of us must respond to Jesus day after day,

week after week. It's not just a decision that we make in our past.

And then we say, I am a Christian because of this thing that I did,

cause that's works righteousness.

But every day we must ask that question. What am I gonna do with Jesus today?

And we talked a little bit about this idea of WWJD. I mentioned that since I've

been wearing this bracelet lately.

And the question we're really asking when we ask that question is what should

I do day after day, moment by moment, what should I be doing?

And that's kind of the question that the response, What response am I going

to make to Jesus? So that was last week in Acts chapter 17.

Acts 17 · chapter mention

And this week, as we enter into Acts 18, we're going to see the focus changes a bit in a sense.

He's going to be in one place. He's going to be in Corinth.

And he is going to be talking to people and people are going to be responding.

But more so, what we get is an introduction to various groups of these people

or individuals who have made a response in some way.

So we're going to meet a few cool people along the way. and it'll be more focused

on, sort of like Bree introduced, this idea of the workers, the agents behind

the sharing of the gospel.

And we get to know Paul a little bit better as well, but we'll get to know these

other characters as well who show up a few times in the New Testament perhaps,

or maybe this is the only time that they show up, or even the unnamed multitude

that is responsible for taking the gospel across the world to the ends of the earth, as Acts says.

So, Elliot, I think if you want to come read. Thank you.

Alright, this is Acts 18. After this, Hall left Athens and went to Corinth.

There, he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come

from Italy with his wife Priscilla.

Because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome, Hall went to see them,

and because he was a tentmaker, as they were, he stayed and worked with them.

Every Sabbath, he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.

When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself exclusively

to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ.

But when the Jews opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes

in protest and said to them, Your blood be on your own heads.

I am clear of my responsibility.

From now on, I will go to the Gentiles.

Then Paul left the synagogue and went next door to the house of Titus Justice, a worshiper of God.

Crispus, the synagogue ruler, and his entire household believed in the Lord,

and many of the Corinthians who heard him believed and were baptized.

One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision, Do not be afraid,

keep on speaking, do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one is going to

attack you or harm you, because I have many people in this city.

So, Paul stayed a year and a half, teaching them the word of God.

When Galileo was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul.

They brought him to court and said, They said, this man is persuading people

to worship God in ways that are contrary to the law.

Just as Paul was about to speak, Galileo said to the Jews, If you Jews were

making a complaint about a misdemeanor or some serious crime,

it would be reasonable for me to listen to you.

But since it involves questions about the words and names of your own law,

settle the matter yourselves.

I will not be a judge of such things.

So he had them ejected from the court.

Then they all turned on Sothians, the synagogue ruler, and beat him in front

of the court, but Gilea showed no concern whatever.

Hall stayed on in Corinth for some time. Then he left the brothers and sailed

for Syria, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila.

Before he sailed, he had his hair cut off at Centuria because of a vow he had taken.

They arrived at Ephesus where Paul left Priscilla and Aquila.

He himself went to the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews.

When they asked him to spend more time with them, he declined.

But as he left, he promised, I will come back if it is God's will.

Then he set sail from Ephesus.

When he landed at caesarea he went up and

greeted the church and then went down to antioch after spending

some time in antioch paul set out and traveled from place to place throughout

the region of galatia and pyrejia strengthening all the disciples meanwhile

a jew named apollos a native of alexandria came to ephesus he was a learned

man and with a thorough knowledge of the scriptures,

He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor,

and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John.

He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him,

they invited him into their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately.

When Apollos wanted to go to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to

the disciples there to welcome him. On arriving, he was a great help to those

who by grace had believed.

For he vigorously refuted the Jews in public debate, proving from the Scriptures

that Jesus was the Christ.

Thank you, Elliot. It seems like you always get all the hard names.

You made it more difficult than it needed to be. Perhaps, perhaps.

Yeah, so sometimes we get to meet sort of the real people behind the spread

of the gospel that happens in the book of Acts and the New Testament to the

ends of the earth, as it says in the beginning.

And we get to see these, we get to be introduced to these people.

We get to know their names and we get to hear a little bit about their stories.

A lot of times these multitudes go unnamed and we don't even get to hear that much.

And Brie brought up the fact that the analogy that behind a play or a film or

any of those kinds of things, there are these people that must be there to have it be a success.

But even the actors that are there, they say not to meet your heroes or not

to meet actors because you'll be disappointed by them.

And maybe that's true, but we get to meet some of these actors,

some of these agents in this chapter who are responsible for living their ordinary lives,

stepping out in faith and believing that Jesus is resurrected,

that Jesus is the son of God and that Jesus is the answer to all that they've

been looking for in life.

And they can't help but to share that with other people.

And so they are just living their ordinary lives doing their thing and spreading

the gospel as they do it, because this has become the most important thing for them.

And we get to meet a few of those today.

We get to meet Priscilla and Aquila and Titius Justice, Paulus, Crispus.

And suddenly, the gospel isn't just this abstract message that Paul comes and

preaches, but we get to see how it takes root in people's lives and we see how it changes a life.

And we see how then it goes out through ordinary people through whom God does

extraordinary things. And that's what chapter 18 is all about.

We meet, like I said, Priscilla and Aquila. These are some characters that will

show up a few other times in the New Testament.

They are tent makers. It's a husband and wife ministry team.

And the reality that we meet them here is that they were kicked out of their home in Italy.

So we read in the Roman historian, Suetonius, notes this as well.

He notes that Emperor Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome due to what he says

is the disturbance at the instigation of Crestus.

And so many scholars interpret this word crestus as a misspelling or a variant

of Christus, suggesting that the disturbance for which these people,

these Jews, are kicked out of Rome and Italy was a result of Jesus spreading throughout the region.

The church in Rome has already started.

Believers have made a commitment. And these are some Jews who had responded to the gospel in Rome.

And now the emperor kicks them out and they find themselves displaced.

They found themselves starting over.

They find themselves sort of in survival mode in a little bit as they are starting

life again, as they are meeting a dead end, as they are encountering their world turned upside down.

And we see that. Last chapter, we read that, that the charge against Paul was

that these are the people who have turned the world upside down and they've come here also.

And we see a result of, obviously not Paul directly, but the gospel turning

the world upside down in Priscilla and Aquila as they are forced from their

home and they find themselves here in Corinth to meet Paul.

And so for them, life looked like it was totally finished.

All that they had known had ceased to exist. They had to start over. They had to rebuild.

They had each other. They had their business. business, but even that,

a business must restart when they move to a new place.

And so they were looking at this dead end for them.

But what God does is He can take the dead ends in our life, and He can make

them into new beginnings.

And so they meet Paul, a fellow tent maker, and Paul encourages them,

that's what he does, but he's also encouraged by them in this mission to make

disciples and to share the gospel. he finds in Priscilla and Aquila partners. And.

What we see in that is God taking what we see as a dead end,

what we see as an ending in itself, and turning it into a new beginning.

And we see this all throughout the Bible, right? We see that as the Jews are

exiled into Babylon, it seems like they are finished as a people,

but God takes that and protects a remnant of his people and brings them back and uses that moment.

We see it in Joseph's life where he's sold into slavery.

And yet at the end of his life, what he said is, is what you meant for harm, God meant for good.

And so God is taking these moments in our lives, these situations,

and he's transforming them.

What we see from Priscilla and Aquila is that they don't let their suffering stop them either.

They don't let a closed door or a disappointment or a personal upheaval in their

lives, slow them down for what they knew they were called to do,

to share the gospel and to share their lives. So they don't waste that suffering.

They take what looked like an ending and they made it a beginning.

And they show up for such a brief moment in the scriptures.

And we can easily just read over that verse that they are forced out of their

home and that's why they end up meeting Paul.

But for us, if we pay attention and if we look deep,

the question arises, are we willing to trust God that what looks like an end

to us can be a beginning and what looks like a hardship or an upheaval for us,

God can use for the spread of the gospel and to build his kingdom.

So we meet Priscilla and Aquila. We also meet, or I guess we continue to get

to know this little man, this small man, Paul.

And I say that because the word Paul means small, and he chose to go by that

name over his other name, Saul.

He chose to go by his Greek name versus his Jewish name. So he went from one

who was asked for, an important person, to being small, humble.

And so we get to continue to meet this small man.

Over the last couple of chapters, I feel like what we've seen from him is some

character points that perhaps don't look like the most admirable character.

Last week, he, in frustration seemingly, cast a demon out of a girl.

This week, he makes a statement in verse 6 that when the Jews opposed him and

reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them, your blood be on your own heads.

I am innocent. From now on, I will go to the Gentiles. And so it seems like

Paul gets to these points of and frustration and anger.

But what we see is a man who is so burdened and so passionate and so compassionate

towards his fellow Jews.

He wants nothing more than for them to respond to the gospel.

That's his burden. And if we look back at Romans 9, when he wrote these words,

we have to think about this as he even says this statement in Acts 18.

But in Romans 9, he says, for I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut

off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, the people of Israel.

Paul is saying in that moment, so even in this frustration,

when he speaks these seemingly harsh words to the Jews in Corinth,

he's heppered with this idea that he would love nothing else and he would give

of his own life and he would spend his eternity separated for Christ if only the Jews would respond.

And this is the passion and the burden that he had for his fellow Jews.

And so even when it seems like he's being short or terse, he has such a compassion

and burden for them to know Jesus.

And like I said, this is a man who is gripped to the heart by the weight of

other people knowing and responding to Jesus.

That is what his life is about. And even though Even though some Jews rejected

this call, the sharing of the good news of Jesus,

Paul's burden did not diminish and it did not vanish.

His burden didn't go away. This is a burden.

This great burden that he has for sharing the gospel is a burden that I pray

that finds its way into the hearts of all of us.

That we would be so burdened to let other people know about God.

As Jeremiah talked about that he had a fire shut up in his bones and he had

to let it out, that we would have a burden that had to come out as we share

our lives with others, that they would hear the gospel through us.

This was Paul's burden. Even for the Jews who continued to reject him and stone

him and kick him out, he still has this burden for them to know Jesus.

But there is a place where this burden ends. Last week, we started talking about

this in a little bit, just a little bit, how everyone must respond to Jesus.

And there will be lots of responses. But the burden ends in the sense that the

person's response and indeed our response is up to us and their response is up to them.

We are not responsible for the way people will respond to Jesus.

There are two things that we must be convinced of. The first is that it is God

who saves. And as a result, it is God who draws near.

And the second is that people must hear. Bible talks about how can they hear unless we speak.

So we must speak, but God saves and God draws near.

And so God is the one who opens heart and we have to recognize at all times

that a person's response is not up to us.

Our response in moving forward in obedience and speaking the words of God,

the gospel to others is our burden, but their response is up to God.

So this is Paul. We get to know him a little bit better.

Beyond Paul, we meet some even lesser known characters. We meet Titius, Justice.

In Acts 18.8, it says, Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue here,

responded favorably to the Lord.

He believed in the Lord together with his entire household.

And many of the Corinthians who heard Paul believed and were baptized.

So we get to know these names that we don't know much about them.

Crispus was the leader of a synagogue. He was a religious Jewish leader and he responded to Jesus.

He saw him as the Christ, the risen God.

And this is the whole point of chapter 18 in a way. And this is the whole point

of the book of Acts in a way.

As we began the book with, you will receive power and the Holy Spirit will come

upon you and you will be my witnesses.

The whole point is that God does extraordinary things.

Through ordinary people, just like you and me.

Even when it seems like these are some pretty standout people,

we have to remember and be reminded that they are ordinary people and we are just like them.

We have this verse in James that talks about Elijah being an ordinary person just like us.

And we read it and we don't believe it because we look at Elijah's life and we see all that he did.

And we think, how could I ever do something like that on the top of Mount Carmel?

But then Elijah cowers in fear right after that.

These are people that were burdened and they responded in obedience,

but they were still afraid and they were still doubting and they were still discouraged.

And even as we get to know Paul a little bit more through the lives of these

lesser known characters, and as I've read through the New Testament this year,

it just becomes more and more obvious how Paul is indeed just an ordinary,

man and an ordinary person like you and me.

Even so that in this chapter, the Lord said to Paul in a vision,

do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent for I am with you

and no one will attack you to harm you for I have many in this city who are my people.

And what that tells us is that God saying to Paul, do not be afraid is that

Paul was afraid and he was discouraged and he wanted nothing more to then to

shut his mouth and live his life without fear and without harm.

But his burden for the gospel was too great and his obedience to God.

So Paul was afraid and God tells him, he meets them in that fear and he tells

them two things. He tells them, don't be afraid.

More importantly, he says, why? Because I am with you.

We know from Paul's letter to the Corinthians, the reality of his situation.

We had just heard about his stoning and his rejection and all of these things

that happened previously in Thessalonica.

And so when he comes to Corinth, he writes to them to remind them later that

I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling.

That this is the moment God comes in, gives him a vision and tells him,

don't be afraid. I am with you. Keep speaking the gospel.

This is the moment where God shows up and tells him, I am with you in all of

your struggles and all of your hurting and all of your fear,

because Paul came in weakness and fear and much trembling. That's how he came into Corinth.

This is how he enters into this chapter that we've set out on.

But the reality is, is that he chooses to live out God's plan for his life,

even when it doesn't benefit him, even when it causes him suffering,

even when it doesn't make sense.

Paul chooses to live out the plan that God has for his life.

So what plan are we living for? What plan are you living for right now?

Do you have a five-year plan, a 10-year plan?

Do you have a goal? Do you have an ideal outcome for your life that you're moving towards?

What plan are you living for?

Is it your plan or is it God's plan?

Only God will sustain us through the difficulty and through the suffering.

Our plans won't. Our plans will come and they'll go. but it's only God who sustains us.

And this idea of fear that Paul was experiencing and weakness and trembling,

God gives him two promises and a command, right? He tells him, do not fear.

I am with you. These are the two kind of promises.

And these are not unfamiliar language.

It's not unfamiliar language throughout the Bible. These are the things that

we see God say time and time again.

God tells us to not fear 365 times in the Bible.

One for each day of our lives, for each day of the year, I guess.

365 times. Ironically, he says 200 times to fear him, fear the Lord.

So there is a healthy, good fear, fear the Lord.

But 365 times, and almost every time that that's mentioned, it's the same that we see with Paul.

In Joshua 1.9, you may be familiar with this. It says, Have I not commanded

you, be strong and courageous, do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed,

for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

I am with you. Don't fear.

And Isaiah 41.10, fear not for I am with you. Be not dismayed for I am your

God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

I am with you. Don't be afraid.

In Hebrews chapter 13, keep your life free from love of money and be content

Hebrews 13 · chapter mention

with what you have for he has said, I will never leave you or forsake you so

that we can confidently say,

the Lord is my helper, I will not fear what can man do to me.

He has said, I will be with you. I am with you.

And as a result, our confidence in him and his hope is that we do not fear.

When hard times come, the promise is I am with you.

But if we run away in our suffering, if we flee, if we push away,

that promise can't be fulfilled anymore because we're running away from the

place of our safety and our protection.

If you, if you ever experienced this with a child, right, where there is some

cause for fear, if they're to run away from you, you can't do anything for them.

You can't protect them. You can't help them.

So when we like children encounter suffering and hardship and we run away from

God, we are rejecting that promise that he is going to be with us and he is going to help us.

It's only when we stay safe, we can only stay safe with God if we trust him and we stay with him.

And these two promises of sorts come with that command for Paul.

Keep speaking. Do not stop speaking the gospel.

This is what we've been talking about from the very beginning of the book of

Acts, how the spirit shows up to empower witness.

The spirit is with you. the Spirit is in you, and those are realities that you

live with every day, but the Spirit shows up for empowered witness in profound ways.

That's the whole point, is the Spirit shows up for His mission, for the mission of God.

It doesn't show up for us to just do whatever we think is right in our lives,

to live our lives the way that we would prefer them to be lived,

that shows up as we are empowered to share him with the world around us.

So are we in a place, I was thinking about this on the way here,

of what is most important?

What is of most importance in this life?

If we believe that Jesus is coming soon, which we are told to believe,

if that is our belief, what is the most important thing that we could ever do in our lives?

This is Paul's burden for the gospel. This is Paul's burden for people to hear about Jesus.

So we in a place where we say, yes, God, this is what you're calling me to.

And the only way I see it happening is if you provide a way for me.

And I'm afraid, I'm scared, I'm discouraged, but I'm trusting you.

And the hardest part about it is when we share the gospel with people that we

know and see every day, rejection can come and it makes it awkward.

It's much easier to walk down the street and just talk to a random person that

you're never going to see again.

It's much more fear inducing to do that with people that we hope to see again,

but we're going to trust in you, God, I'm trusting in you.

And so I don't want to be afraid. I want to lay that aside.

I want to press in knowing that you are with me and that's a promise.

What plan is God calling you to?

Is it to trust Him and to say, I'm going to step out even though I'm afraid

and to invest your time into the life of another person that they would know,

that they would hear, that they would be discipled.

When the Bible talks about sacrifice, when Paul talks about sacrifice,

as these words are from him, if we think about the way he thinks about this,

he sees sacrifice as a pouring out of himself.

In the same way that that sacrifice word would show up in the Old Testament

to invest his time, to invest his energy, to invest his life,

to leave nothing behind, nothing in reserve,

to give it his all.

So Paul later, when he's writing from a Roman prison, he'll write these words

that I am already being poured out as a drink offering.

In Philippians 2, he'll say, But even if I am being poured out like a drink

offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith,

I am glad and rejoice with all of you.

So you too should be glad and rejoice with all of me.

Paul is saying is, if my life is being poured out, the result is your faith, and I rejoice in that.

And then to Corinthians, he will write again later, Thanks be to God who always

leads us as captives in Christ's triumphal procession and uses us to spread

the aroma of the knowledge of Him everywhere.

For we are to God, the pleasing aroma of Christ.

It's this language of sacrifice.

I am being poured out. Sacrifices were consumed in the sacrifice.

And Paul's joy is in the fact that as he invests his time, as he invests his

energy, as he loses his life, the result is faith in those that he encounters.

That Paul's life and ministry spread the fragrance, the aroma of Christ,

even though it costs him greatly.

In a few chapters, in Acts 20, he'll write these words.

I do not account my life of any value, nor as precious to myself,

if only I may finish my course in the ministry that I received from the Lord

Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

He counts his life as nothing except for the one thing that he's been given

a race, he's been given a ministry to testify to the gospel, to the grace of God.

That's the thing he holds onto.

As we finish up our time, the last character we meet in this book is Apollos.

And this is such a clear picture of discipleship. When they meet Apollos,

he is a well-spoken and knowledgeable person of the scriptures.

He's been baptized by John's baptism.

He is there being faithful and replicating what he knows, even though he doesn't

have a complete knowledge and understanding of Jesus.

He's starting with where he's at and he's already sharing. He's already ministering.

He's already sharing the gospel.

And then Apollos meets Paul. He meets Priscilla and Aquila.

And they set aside their time and their lives to make sure that they're filling

in the gaps of where he's at.

So they're investing their time. They're investing their energy.

If you think about it this way, that their life is tent making,

they are stepping away from their livelihood to invest in him.

And so they're sacrificing their livelihood, they're sacrificing their money

to invest into Apollos so that he might more effectively minister and so that

he might have a more complete understanding of who Jesus is.

So in discipleship, God uses ordinary people to equip and prepare gifted leaders.

Apollos will go on to Ephesus or wherever, or Achaia, and he will support the

church in such a strong, profound way.

He is such a well-spoken leader and sharer of the gospel, but he needs someone

to pour into his life as well.

Discipleship requires ordinary, very faithful believers to pour into others' lives.

Discipleship requires sacrifice. As I mentioned, Priscilla and Aquila,

they sacrifice their time, they sacrifice their energy.

They lay down their livelihood for a time. We don't know how long this season

is, how long they spend with him until they send him out to Achaia,

Discipleship requires sacrifice and the fruit is yielded in the faith and the

equipping of the other believer.

The other is that God multiplies our impacts through relationships.

That even as Apollos goes and becomes a powerful voice in the early church,

it's not just one man doing incredible things.

There is a story of support and relationship. There's a story of discipleship.

There's a, there is a legacy of faith that Paul talks about time and time again,

of brothers and sisters, of fathers in Christ.

There's a legacy of faithfulness. There's a legacy of the gospel.

It's not just one person's solo effort.

Discipleship is in a sense about going deep with God, that we might,

that he might through us spread out wide.

It's not just knowledge for the sake of knowledge. It's not just depth for the sake of depth.

It is that we would understand more and more the riches and the wisdom of God.

And that as a result of that going deep, God would spread wide his gospel through the world.

That the gospel came to you because it was headed to somebody else.

That's what we all need to understand as these ordinary believers that God chooses

to do extraordinary things with us.

The gospel has come to you and your response so that it will go to somebody else.

In fact, the gospel came to you because it was already headed to somebody else.

So we have to have this in mind that God builds his kingdom on the blood,

the sweat, and the tears of ordinary everyday believers, just like you and me.

These hidden heroes of faith, we may never know their names,

our names may never be known by the masses, and that's fine.

God builds his kingdom. God builds his church. As we step out in faith and obedience

to be those who are burdened to share the gospel.

The gospel advances throughout the scriptures through these countless nameless heroes.

There's a quote that says how the church is built on the blood of the martyrs,

those whom we may never know their names.

And this is the reality. We may not die for our faith.

There are some of us who may, but as we live faithfully, as we step out in boldness

and trust the Lord in our fervent and our spirit,

this is what God is waiting on and wanting to build his church through.

Ordinary people who recognize that and see this as the most important thing

we could ever pour our lives into.

Sharing the gospel with another person, seeing them meet Jesus,

that you're not an accident in this. You're not a consolation prize.

You're not a second best.

This is God's first choice is that the gospel would travel through you to someone else.

Perhaps through many someone else's. If we would step out and believe,

if we would desire so much that for our lives to be utterly abandoned for the

cause of Christ in the world around us,

that I want to be utterly abandoned to the cause of Christ in this world,

no matter what that means, no matter what that looks like, no matter what that

means, no matter what sacrifices that makes,

no matter what that takes from me, I want to be utterly abandoned to the cause

of Christ in this world, but how about you?

You see this as the most important thing, the mission that God has left us, that others would know.

And how can they know unless we share? This was Paul's burden.

This is the burden of the church. This is our burden.

This is the love and compassion that we have for other people,

that we would share with them the most important thing that they could ever know, Jesus.

So Father, I just pray that this burden would be upon us, not because we can

perform anything for you, not because we could earn our way into heaven,

not because of anything that we could possibly do, but because you loved us

and you love this world in such a powerful way.

And as we respond to you, how can we not, in that same love poured out for other

people, how can we not share?

How can we not speak? How can we remain silent?

As Jesus rode into Jerusalem on that donkey, And the questions as the people

named him as King, as the people worshiped him and praised him,

they said, Hosanna in the highest.

And they questioned Jesus and said, tell them to stop.

And Jesus said, even if I tell them to stop, or if they were to stop,

the very rocks would cry out.

How can we not? How can we not?

How can this not be part of our response to Jesus?

Thank you.

.

Lord, I don't know why we can talk about a billion different things with people that we meet every day,

but it's so terrifying to talk about you because we care so much about the response,

and what that might mean for us, for the relationship.

We convince ourselves with well-meaning encouragement that we need to build those relationships.

Some of these people, we've been building these relationships for six years, five years, four years.

At what point is it enough to share with them Jesus?

But now that relationship might change if we share Jesus with them.

But how can we not? How can we not respond?

I'm asking this for myself. How can I not respond in these moments?

We sing that song sometimes more like Jesus. One of the lines is that the world

is dying to know who you are. Do we believe that?

Are we burdened by that?

God, what's our burden going to be in this life? What's our burden going to be?

Is it a million different noble pursuits or is it that someone else would know you.

What's gonna be most important in our lives?

What is most important.