2025-11-02 - The Gospel Flips My Desire for Fairness to a Commitment to Faithfulness

[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome to the Sermon Podcast from Church at The Well and Telsin, Maryland.

[SPEAKER_01]: To learn more about Church at The Well, visit our website, Thewellboltmore.com.

[SPEAKER_01]: And now, here's today's Sermon from our pastor, Dane Carreway.

[SPEAKER_00]: Amen, everybody.

[SPEAKER_00]: Good morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hope that you were doing well.

[SPEAKER_00]: Um, I hope that, um, you had a great weekend, um, I would like to pick a fight with anyone who fits in this category before I start the show in this morning, and this is not spiritual.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is just Dane's pet peeve.

[SPEAKER_00]: I would like to pick a fight with anybody who gives out full size candy bars on Halloween.

[SPEAKER_00]: What are you doing?

[SPEAKER_00]: That's what it is.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a competition.

[SPEAKER_00]: So there's what happened at my house.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here's what up at my house.

[SPEAKER_00]: I, on and the kids, they, you know, you go all kid, you know, we can, they all went out, trick or treating, just in case anybody would like to raise up some issues, the, the pastor's wife and your children, they were, they were, they were Harry Potter, and they were like the different houses, and you know, it's a big deal, let's vote them out of the church.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just kidding.

[SPEAKER_00]: But they went out, trick or treating, and I stayed on the porch

[SPEAKER_00]: I was not sure stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: I had on my, huh?

[SPEAKER_00]: That's right, Cole.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: I had the same costume every year.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was man watching football.

[SPEAKER_00]: Except this year was different.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was man watching World Series.

[SPEAKER_00]: But here's what would happen.

[SPEAKER_00]: Kids would come up to the steps, and I would say Happy Halloween, and they would say Trick or Treat.

[SPEAKER_00]: It said to teenagers, they would just be like, where's, you know, they just hold out their bag.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I noticed, like kids were like, looking in our basket, like looking around like this.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they're like, oh, and then one kid finally told me, I was like, how's the night going?

[SPEAKER_00]: He's like, yeah, say I'm sorry, but the people across the street, they're given our full size candy bars.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I was like, all right then, and, you know, I'm married to Ana.

[SPEAKER_00]: So there was like, there was candy, but there was also healthy choices, you know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean kids would like to push your past to healthy choices to get the, to get the, to get the, to get the, to get the candy.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we have bunnies next, you know, but so I think like, in order for the kids to love me and be able to invite them to church, I guess next year, I have to get full-size candies.

[SPEAKER_00]: Is that the deal?

[SPEAKER_00]: I just got to conform to this nonsense.

[SPEAKER_00]: Fantastic.

[SPEAKER_00]: Great.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that's why the bone I want to pick.

[SPEAKER_00]: One announcement that I want to tell you about, we're getting into the holiday portion and I want to tell you that we try to have a good balance of our church.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't want to be the church that you have to balance everything you want to do with your family, all of your holiday shopping, all the meals that you have to do, all the things that have to happen before December 31st.

[SPEAKER_00]: that adds a bunch of things to your schedule, just for the sake of adding it to your schedule.

[SPEAKER_00]: Instead, what, me and I have a team of folks that we kind of look at the calendar, we want to make sure that everything that we do between now and December 31st is something that we actually believe that God wants us to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so you're gonna start hearing more announcements about things that we wanna invite you to.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't, like, tradition doesn't mean enough to like put a strain on your family to me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Does that make sense?

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, like, I don't wanna, like, every year we do this and it's nice when we do it's cool.

[SPEAKER_00]: And, but it better always have meaning.

[SPEAKER_00]: It better always be helping people that are always be helping our community.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, what we did this year is that we combined two things that I think is essentially the same thing, but we were doing it like a maybe what we're up in like a month apart, so we wanted to combine it together.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, the way that we started, you know, church was in my living room.

[SPEAKER_00]: It made sense because, you know, we were generation of people who grew up in the show friends that we would have friends giving.

[SPEAKER_00]: And everybody came and brought stuff, one year we did anything but turkey year and things like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was just like, it was community circle, but on steroids.

[SPEAKER_00]: We just had, you know, there was just more food, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: So what we also, one of the things that our churches unique, one of the things that we do is twice, about twice a year, we do something called threefold communion to where, like, if we actually looked at it biblically, when we do the bread and a cup, we did this last week.

[SPEAKER_00]: We kind of run together, guys.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yeah, like I said, that when we take up the bread in the cup, that is not the fullness of what communion is.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible describes communion as three things.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's taking up the bread in the cup.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's also having a meal together, sharing food together, and actually talking, having a mimic the way the love feast will be, we'll have when we unite with Jesus in heaven.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's also what we see at the last supper, what Jesus demonstrated and he told the disciples to do likewise is the washing of feet.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he's like, like, surf one another in this way.

[SPEAKER_00]: So our church, we've done this over the last couple of years where we actually gathered together.

[SPEAKER_00]: We've done it on the evenings on a Sunday like we would do church or maybe we wouldn't do church that morning and then we would come back and we would chair meal together.

[SPEAKER_00]: We were break up, sometimes we've done this friends, we've done it as many women, we've done it as families and we've done the footwashing thing and then we come back together and we do the bread and the cups, sometimes we share testimony that's been, I've never heard of negative reaction to that time, you know, besides like.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, that we're here longer than we wanted to be.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.

[SPEAKER_00]: So what we're going to do this year is we're actually going to do friends giving with threefold communion and we're going to do it on November the 18th.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, Dean.

[SPEAKER_00]: I got it right.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that's a Tuesday night.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to take place right here in this room, and we may borrow some space, especially when we get into the footwashing thing into the main building over there.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we want to invite you out to that.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure we'll get a graphic card around so you can remember.

[SPEAKER_00]: By the way, you can invite people to this.

[SPEAKER_00]: One of the things that I was at a conference this past week.

[SPEAKER_00]: And one of the things that we were challenged with is that there was a time period where churchy things we tried to kind of like keep hidden like in the back rooms of our if you think of the church as a home Is that like hey, we only put stuff out in the living room that we want people who don't who aren't a part of this family to see so all of your like things that are unique to your families

[SPEAKER_00]: don't only have those things out when just families around, when visitors come, you don't need to have this thing, this thing that's only for your culture, that nobody will understand that you'd have to explain.

[SPEAKER_00]: One of the things that we're challenged with is that what people want, especially like this next generation, these Gen Zers, what they want is everything explained, and we do not need to shy away from the things that are essential to our faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: So if you got somebody that's got questions, if you got somebody that they're like, they're far from God, but day and a long time ago when you had this like, do the three, like I'm like right down like, who are the people remember the whole like board that we put up here, the little card, I had to do this, the card, the scan, the QR code.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you have somebody that is like, that they're on my card, there's somebody that I'm still trying to walk towards a saving knowledge of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: I would actually, actually,

[SPEAKER_00]: Um, ask you to invite them, not so that they have to participate, but so that they can see this because this is the unadulterated full big picture of what the gospel is.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is what the disciples would have done with Jesus and he told him to go and do likewise.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's no church yet when this happened

[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus gave them instructions to go and do this to other people.

[SPEAKER_00]: They go and do this so that all the people can know and they can rehearse with the gospel is.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that'll be fun, November 18th.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we'll do it the same way.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure Rob and Aurora will set up a sign-up sheet and people will bring food.

[SPEAKER_00]: It'll be a good time together.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll do that.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that will be in lieu of community circles that week.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sweet, I did all the announcements right, but guys, I need you to know when I do announcements, at least I don't do announcements, I look at like Robin and on to see like if I'm saying everything I'm supposed to say and they're both smiling so I did a good job.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now onto the message.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so last week, we were in Acts chapter 20 and we looked at how the gospel flips ministry from ego to assignment.

Acts 20 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: If you were here, you remember this in from the idea from

[SPEAKER_00]: Right, my only aim is to finish the race.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is what Paul is saying to the elders at Ephesus, like he looks back over his life, and he says, hey, I'm not gonna see you again, but this is my goal.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is my focus that I would finish my assignment.

[SPEAKER_00]: It came left about his ego.

[SPEAKER_00]: Remember, Paul was sitting in a place where he was like, I've done everything that I'm supposed to do here.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now I gotta go to Jerusalem, and I know what's ahead of me and my assignment is way more bigger, is way more of a big deal to me than my resume.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Paul even says at one point he's like, listen, I have poured myself out like I've done everything that I'm supposed to do in a way that like, if anybody does not know Jesus, that I have the opportunity to share with, it's not because I didn't try my best.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not because I didn't do my all.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like there was no, I just can't do it in Paul.

[SPEAKER_00]: There wasn't a give up.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, and I know this is, this is hard for some folks.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, you've been there, like if you've been in school or you've been on your job where you look at the finished product of something and you know that you poured everything out.

[SPEAKER_00]: You've put it all, you put it all out there.

[SPEAKER_00]: You've done what you're supposed to do and for whatever your standards or whoever you thought the measuring stick was or to be fair, whatever the actual like tangible measuring stick for the finish line was, it didn't meet there.

[SPEAKER_00]: Talker just ended, we had some goals that we would want to do this year, and as far as tangibly for me, we didn't get there.

[SPEAKER_00]: We didn't fulfill.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now we got there's more of victories, there's great things that we'll be able to celebrate.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're gonna have a word ceremony on Tuesday.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I've been so gonna get mad because I'm gonna hug most of the seniors, you know, like that's all gonna happen, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: But like, like tangibly in the back of my mind, I wouldn't have been able to be like Paul.

[SPEAKER_00]: right like I wouldn't have been able to to like really like reconcile in my mind like what's there like Paul's like listen I did it I've been on these missionary journeys the journeys are done he's coming off the field he's hanging up the jersey and he's like listen like I've done what I'm supposed to do so Paul finishes

[SPEAKER_00]: And he wasn't chasing for applause, he was chasing assignment.

[SPEAKER_00]: He wasn't chasing comfort, he was chasing the calling.

[SPEAKER_00]: He wasn't trying to build life around what felt easy.

[SPEAKER_00]: He surrendered to what God was calling him to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this week, we're going to continue to follow Paul.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like he said, he was heading to Jerusalem.

[SPEAKER_00]: We see the next flip that God works in a disciples' heart.

[SPEAKER_00]: Somebody who wants to follow after Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: You ready?

[SPEAKER_00]: Here's our big idea.

[SPEAKER_00]: The gospel flips my desire for fairness.

[SPEAKER_00]: to a commitment to faithfulness.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Gospel flips my desire for fairness to a commitment to faithfulness.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we're actually not going to read the whole passage.

[SPEAKER_00]: Please forgive me.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're not going to read everything.

[SPEAKER_00]: As I told you guys a couple of weeks ago, I'm going to be chasing after themes, these last, like 10 chapters that you can have like eight chapters of Acts, because especially in the ones that we're going to read today, Paul is going to refer back to the story that we've already talked about.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, we're going to Paul's going to tell the testimony of what God him here in the first place.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm going to refer back to things, but I'm sure there's going to be a time for you to look at.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I would actually encourage you to spend some time reading this in preparation for community circles this week.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let me give you a quick overview of what's going on in these chapters.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Paul has just wrapped up his missionary journeys.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he feels deeply called by God, remember this?

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, a member who is arguing with the leaders, the elders of Ephesus?

[SPEAKER_00]: He felt that he needed to go to Jerusalem.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have to get to Jerusalem before the festivals.

[SPEAKER_00]: Even though the Holy Spirit warned him that the hardships and imprisonment were waiting there.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, this is maybe a question for some of us, that we're thinking like, if the Holy Spirit is telling Paul, that it's going to be hard, why you going?

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, what we didn't hear is that the Holy Spirit said, Paul don't go.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Holy Spirit is honest with them.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's probably something that we all got to wrestle with sometimes.

[SPEAKER_00]: I wonder if you've ever, like, no, you've had the inclination, you can even point to that this is like the god of the universe, like kind of prepping me for the toughness of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: You ever had a hard conversation that you know that you know you need to have.

[SPEAKER_00]: You ever had like one of those moments, my kids do this to where they're like, I know I have to tell the truth and I know what's going to mean punishment.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know it's going to be grounding, I know I'm going to lose a screen.

[SPEAKER_00]: Has there ever been like something hard that you know you have to deal with?

[SPEAKER_00]: something that like it's just it's it's not going to be great it's going to be something that's you hard to have to go through a tough conversation maybe you have to come clean about something you have to confess something to somebody and there's no other way around it and the whole spirit not only tells you that you have to do it but it's going to be hard that you have to go through.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's this I think that's what's happening with Paul here that the Holy Spirit is not lying to him it's like it's going to be hard you're going to end up in jail again

[SPEAKER_00]: And this isn't like, like, by the way, this isn't Paul's first dent at this.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's like, you're gonna get beat up.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're gonna go in jail.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just like, you deserve to know.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have to end the career.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're, you're LeBron in the 20th season, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, you're, it's at the end of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's gonna be tough.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this is what's happening.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he's wrapping it up.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul isn't walking in the comfort, but he's walking in the calling.

[SPEAKER_00]: When he gets to Jerusalem, some people from out of town, they see him in the temple and they assume, because it's Paul, because of his ministry, that he's brought a Gentile inside the temple.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is forbidden in their culture we've heard about this before, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: This is one of the issues that was with Paul.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they jumped the conclusions.

[SPEAKER_00]: A riot starts and suddenly an entire city is in chaos.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul is grabbed.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's beaten.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's imprisoned.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's nearly killed.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not because he did something wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: But because he was faithful to the calling that got to put on his life.

[SPEAKER_00]: Roman soldier step in and arrest him because

[SPEAKER_00]: not because he's guilty, but because the crowd is out of control.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're like, well, if they're all circling, trying to kill this guy, if we just remove him, everybody will come down, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because they don't want to win with us.

[SPEAKER_00]: And right there before he's taken, Paul does something incredible.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to read this, too.

[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't defend himself.

[SPEAKER_00]: He shares his testimony.

[SPEAKER_00]: He tells one of the guards, you'll read this as you read this week.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, he tells one of the guards, he'll listen.

[SPEAKER_00]: Before you take me into the barracks, let me share with them.

[SPEAKER_00]: When Paul doesn't say his peace, he doesn't retort to their anger.

[SPEAKER_00]: He just says, hey, listen, before they take me inside, let me tell you the story about how I'm at Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is what he does.

[SPEAKER_00]: He literally retells a story about how he was headed to a city to capture disciples.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then instead like Jesus shows up and then he gets taken to Ananias and we'll read that part here in a minute and that's what he does.

[SPEAKER_00]: And before he could finish the story, the crowd erupts again and they have to take him inside the barracks.

[SPEAKER_00]: It changes everything.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now they have to protect them even though they still understand him and Paul has placed before the Jewish Council, the Sanhedrin, and he actually does something really like really wise.

[SPEAKER_00]: He plays the Sadducees and the Pharisees against each other to the point where they're so mad about like who's more mad at Paul?

[SPEAKER_00]: that they're like the Roman soldiers, they've had enough to like listen.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to send you to this other guy.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to send you to another one of our officials way down the road and then we're going to make these guys get themselves together and he will try you down the road, which we'll look at next time.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul is faithful but nothing about this moment feels fair or peaceful.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, the whole reason why he's getting arrested in the first place, or he was even being persecuted first place, was based on a lie.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now if you want to argue that Paul was sharing the gospel that he was preaching against the Jewish like synagogue system would have been fair, but he was accused of taking a Gentile into the synagogue, which this accusation wasn't right.

[SPEAKER_00]: That night,

[SPEAKER_00]: After the uproar, Jesus comes and stands near Paul.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, in angel, Jesus himself, and He tells Paul, take courage, you've testified about me in Jerusalem, and you will enroll too.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul isn't rescued from the trial, but he isn't alone in it.

[SPEAKER_00]: You guys see that, like, he's not alone in the trial.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he doesn't promise fairness, he promises presence.

[SPEAKER_00]: So in these chapters, we see a faithful servant, Miss Red, Miss understood,

[SPEAKER_00]: And we see a savior who stands behind him and every step of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: So sometimes calling, which we talked about last week, leads into situations that don't feel fair.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, you're going to feel called by stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're going to have to deal with things, and you're going to have to face it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the American in you, the human in you, the pride in you, maybe even the ego in you, either one's thing to be in your favorite or at the very least fair.

[SPEAKER_00]: at the very least fair, I was a soccer coach.

[SPEAKER_00]: And at the same time, at the same time, I want the reps to be on my side.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want to be in general over there trying to smooth them.

[SPEAKER_00]: How you doing, Rath?

[SPEAKER_00]: That yellow looks good on your baby.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, like we're trying to be their friend.

[SPEAKER_00]: If we can't be their friend, we at least want it to be fair.

[SPEAKER_00]: We at least want the game to be fair.

[SPEAKER_00]: And look, if the game can't be fair, we want you to be horrible for both teams, you know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: I guess that's fair too, you know, but that's what we want.

[SPEAKER_00]: And, but here's the thing at the very beginning of the season, I settle the guys down on the bench, and I told them, I said, hey guys, the games will never be fair.

[SPEAKER_00]: The rest will always be horrible.

[SPEAKER_00]: Can we all just like deal with that right now?

[SPEAKER_00]: But let's just, it's always gonna be bad.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's always gonna be unfair.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're always gonna have trouble with it.

[SPEAKER_00]: But because we're dealing with it right now, we're never gonna leave a game and say, we'll have to refsadjust this, or are they adjusted this?

[SPEAKER_00]: If they, you know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: And then what happens is we get there.

[SPEAKER_00]: Come on Ravens fans, y'all with me too.

[SPEAKER_00]: We get there and it happens during the game and we forget everything that we already knew to be true.

[SPEAKER_00]: No one has ever watched their favorite sports team or situation in expected the officials of the game to be perfect, but yet we will rely on that.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, we got to be faithful to what we're supposed to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: I would coach our guys saying like, we need to win in such a way that it accounts for all the nonsense that we would get from an official.

[SPEAKER_00]: We need to go buffer just for nonsense.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, just for a missed off-sides call or a missed handball, but we need to account for that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Or else we're not faithful to what we were supposed to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sorry, I'm dealing with pain from soccer.

[SPEAKER_00]: We've got sometimes obedience brings pressure instead of peace and sometimes doing the right things still feels like you lose.

[SPEAKER_00]: And like Paul, we learn that faithfulness is greater than fairness.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus never lets you stand alone when faithfulness costs you something.

[SPEAKER_00]: The question we're out there today is, if I'm going to lean into faithfulness over fairness, what do I need to understand?

[SPEAKER_00]: First thing is this, faithfulness may lead to misunderstanding.

[SPEAKER_00]: Faithfulness may lead and often will lead to misunderstanding.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we got to be okay with it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Acts chapter 21, 27 to 29, I want to read these verses to you.

Acts 21 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: The seven days were almost ended when some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul in the temple and roused a mob against him.

[SPEAKER_00]: They grabbed him yelling, men of Israel, help us.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is the man who approaches against our people everywhere and tells everybody to disobey the Jewish laws.

[SPEAKER_00]: He speaks against the temple and even defiles this holy place by bringing in Gentiles.

[SPEAKER_00]: For earlier that day, they had seen him in the city with a trophimus, a Gentile from Ephesus, and they assumed Paul had taken him into the temple.

[SPEAKER_00]: So they just saw somebody, they saw a Greek man, he's like, oh, he's in the city.

[SPEAKER_00]: He must have come with Paul, and Paul must have taken him into the temple.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's get him.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a nice little stretch.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Paul could have been like, but he's the same fair.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is so outside, like this isn't what it's supposed to be.

[SPEAKER_00]: They assumed Paul defiled the temple, and they were wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul was misjudged, and in this moment he's misunderstood, and he's falsely accused.

[SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes, walk over what Jesus means being misred by people.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, sometimes it's like they see your intentions, and it's misred, they don't get it, they don't understand.

[SPEAKER_00]: Um, sometimes when you follow Jesus, not everyone will understand, and here's the thing that's got to be okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, God's called you to do what you're supposed to do and the mission that you're on, it has to be okay that everybody doesn't understand.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, hear me, this is different.

[SPEAKER_00]: Communication, you have to communicate with people in a way that they have to understand.

[SPEAKER_00]: When you go to share the gospel with somebody, I hope that you would, like, cater it towards them, I hope that you would, you know, organize how you would talk to these people.

[SPEAKER_00]: Remember what Paul said, like, when I go to the Jews, I talk like this to the Jews, when I go to the Greeks, I talk like this to the Greeks.

[SPEAKER_00]: But for this, this is opposition.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is people that have no intention of hearing the message, and that's got to be okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're gonna have family, and you're gonna have people that don't understand why you have organized your life around the person of Jesus Christ in the way that you have, and that's gotta be okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: I talked about this, like in my own family, like I was supposed to be about six other things, and it's gotta be that, it's gotta be okay that people understand.

[SPEAKER_00]: My wife's feeling like probably the same thing, like they're like, why do you and Dan make some of the choices that you do?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's gotta be okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's gotta be okay that unless it's talking about the person of Jesus and unless it's talking about them making a decision to follow Jesus and you're sharing your life about Jesus, it's gotta be okay that people don't understand.

[SPEAKER_00]: If they have no hope or no desire to understand, it's gotta be okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because remember we talked about this before that it is better for somebody to be pushed away from the gospel to be far away and instead of being in that in-between state, it is trying to soften our approach to the gospel just to make it more palatable for somebody else to understand.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, it's okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's okay that they understand.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's okay that it's confusing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Remember how Jesus gave parables at the end of it, people were like, wait, what?

[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus, like, yeah, if you got here, it's let him here.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you understand, you're going to understand.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if you don't want to understand, remember, like, the Pharisees would be leaning into Jesus like, talking about the parables, telling stories, and they would not get it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus, like, come, if you got here, it's let him here.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's go on to the next part.

[SPEAKER_00]: You guys got the fish ready?

[SPEAKER_00]: Or let's roll.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus, be out.

[SPEAKER_00]: When you follow Jesus down everyone will understand and that's got to be okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because the gospel is offensive.

[SPEAKER_00]: Did you know that?

[SPEAKER_00]: That the gospel and its very nature is offensive to who we are as people, to who we are in our sin nature.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's offensive to people.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you are someone who does not have desire to follow Jesus, it's going to rub up against you a little bit.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to bother you a little bit.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have to remember followers of Jesus are often misunderstood because the gospel is offensive.

[SPEAKER_00]: First Corinthians, one 18 says for the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being safe, it is the power of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's why it's going to rub up against the parts that you're not ready to surrender to Jesus yet.

[SPEAKER_00]: or you have a relationship with somebody who's outside of a follow-in Jesus, it's gonna rub up against you a little bit.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know somebody that like you're trying to figure out like, well, how do I manage this?

[SPEAKER_00]: How do I deal with this?

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, and we'll all do this to where they love all the things about you not knowing the parts about you, that they're in love with are the parts that Jesus has, has refined, has made like himself.

[SPEAKER_00]: But then we'll do everything to try to dumb down those parts to make them feel comfortable with the parts that aren't so offensive.

[SPEAKER_00]: Knowing that the gospel that lives inside view in its very nature is offensive so that they can be confronted with it to be rendered back to Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a hard concept, but it's something that we do well to remember.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't go looking for a fence,

[SPEAKER_00]: But when someone has to be told or someone has to deal with the fact that who they are and who they've chosen to be is offensive to the God of the universe.

[SPEAKER_00]: But in that, that they can feel that there's a whole that's only a Jesus ass hole that lives inside of their lives.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's hard.

[SPEAKER_00]: When you can speak into somebody's life with their missing.

[SPEAKER_00]: When they think that they have it all together, that's not going to be easy.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to go looking for a fence, but the truth confronts sin, it confronts pride, and here's one that we don't talk enough about.

[SPEAKER_00]: It confronts self-reliance that you can do it on your own.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can do it on your own for a while, but you're going to get tired.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're going to run out of gas.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, that rubs up against the God of the universe, it's hard to deal with.

[SPEAKER_00]: People will misunderstand you, but faithfulness is greater than faithfulness is greater than fairness.

[SPEAKER_00]: Faithfulness number two may lead to opposition.

[SPEAKER_00]: faithfulness, may and will lead to opposition.

[SPEAKER_00]: Versus 3336 and extra 21, listen to this.

[SPEAKER_00]: The whole city was rocked by these accusations and a great riot followed.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul was grabbed and dragged out of the temple and immediately the gates were closed behind him as they were trying to kill him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not just hurt him, it was it, they were done.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jerusalem, let's get it going.

[SPEAKER_00]: Before the festival starts, let's get Paul out of here.

[SPEAKER_00]: Ward reached the commanders of the Roman regiment that all Jerusalem was in an uproar.

[SPEAKER_00]: He immediately called out his soldiers and officers and ran down among the crowd.

[SPEAKER_00]: When the mob saw the commander in the troops coming, they stopped beating Paul.

[SPEAKER_00]: The commander arrested him and ordered him bound with two chains.

[SPEAKER_00]: He asked the crowd who he was and what he had done, some shot at one thing and some another.

[SPEAKER_00]: Since he couldn't find out the truth in all the uproar and confusion, he ordered that Paul be taken into the fortress.

[SPEAKER_00]: As Paul reached their stairs, the mob group so violent the soldiers had to lift him to their shoulders to protect him in a crowd followed behind, shouting kill him kill him.

[SPEAKER_00]: The whole city erupts violent crowd chaos ensues.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here's what obedience does.

[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't always bring applause.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know like when you're kidding, you do the right thing, your mom does a good job.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, we applaud when our kids like brush your teeth.

[SPEAKER_00]: Good job, where to go, smells great, you know?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, if you're in high school and, you know, I don't know if it's happening, you know?

[SPEAKER_00]: You're an adult, like if you don't do it, it's a problem.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, beatings doesn't always bring applause, but it sometimes brings attack.

[SPEAKER_00]: One's the last time that you're doing what you knew you're supposed to do by direction of the Holy Spirit brought you being attacked.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, we're fortunate in 2025 where we live that we aren't facing the kind of persecution that Paul did.

[SPEAKER_00]: Could it happen?

[SPEAKER_00]: in this generation, maybe not, in our kids generation, maybe a little bit more, two or three generations.

[SPEAKER_00]: We could see how this thing goes, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And like, are we nuts to think that?

[SPEAKER_00]: But I just talk about your faithfulness, your day-to-day faithfulness, are you gonna lose something?

[SPEAKER_00]: What do we, are like to find a tack like that?

[SPEAKER_00]: Are you gonna lose something because of your faithfulness?

[SPEAKER_00]: Is it possible?

[SPEAKER_00]: You can lose an opportunity.

[SPEAKER_00]: Bell is about to graduate high school.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure she has got friends that don't follow Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Her saying, notice something, it's not going to lose like a core memory.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to lose like this opportunity with doing stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: We all do that, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Like when our jobs and opportunities to climb the corporate ladder or opportunities, like if I'm being faithful to something, let's bring you closer at home.

[SPEAKER_00]: Your part of a church and one of the things that we do is if you're a part of a church at the level, we're going to ask of you to carefully give from your finances.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't talk about that obedience and following that means that you lose something.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're going to have less.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're going to have less to spend on what you would want or need to spend it on.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because because you're called to be faithful and you're giving.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, obedience means losing something.

[SPEAKER_00]: If we literally just thought of it like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now a lot of us, like we, I just want to say it like that because a lot of us will like to paint it in the other ways.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I'm just giving back to what the Lord gave me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, no bro, what's in your bank account?

[SPEAKER_00]: I like, like, yes, all that's true.

[SPEAKER_00]: That is the word and I don't want to make it not spiritual, but it's yours.

[SPEAKER_00]: and you have to make a decision to be obedient.

[SPEAKER_00]: And even sometimes I feel like for our family and we auto give, and I like to pretend sometimes that, well, I just want to give it to the Lord, first, no, I want to give it auto pay so that I don't have the opportunity to make another decision.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because Costco is calling, I can spend some money in Costco.

[SPEAKER_00]: I just want to get it out before I have another decision to make.

[SPEAKER_00]: But sometimes, I feel like, no, I should have to do this.

[SPEAKER_00]: I should have to push it through myself.

[SPEAKER_00]: If I could do it, honestly, if I could manipulate this, maybe I'll ask Christina to help her make an app one day.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, where I'm like, I get an alert in my emails, like, hey, this is the day when you would auto give.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do you want to make a decision to give to the Lord today?

[SPEAKER_00]: And then I have to opt in, yes.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because then it's me having to be obedient.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have to deal with this, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, like, as believers as follows for Jesus, like, if am I going to be obedient in this way?

[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes it's that simple.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul doesn't fight back and hit in his opportunity to be obedient.

[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't fight back to his opposition.

[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't quit either.

[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't retreat into self-pity.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's, you see a consistent, a staying faithful.

[SPEAKER_00]: A great mentor of mine, what a scribe, facing opposition like this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now you're willing to take a hit, like are you willing to approach your life in the faithfulness that God calls you to like taking a hit?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's just going to be hard and are you okay with it being hard like are you willing like it's like My wife gets on me when there's too many sports references.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here's one more It's like a running back running through two big old dudes about to get hit by another big old dude and you know the hits come in And it's gonna hurt are you willing to take a hit and keep going?

[SPEAKER_00]: you know what else it's like?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's like knowing how the siblings and the cousins and the uncles and the aunts, the folks and how they feel about you in about the faith that you live and the way that you want them to love Jesus and it's taken the hits and the hey um...

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to ask them if there's anything I could do to pray for them anyways.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, I'm going to invite them to this thing that, like to our community circle, to our Christmas Eve service, to our blah, blah, blah, anyway.

[SPEAKER_00]: And knowing how they might react to it, I'm going to take the hit.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, I'm gonna invite somebody out to a cup of coffee that I know is just having a hard time and the best thing I can do is just share the hope that's within me.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna take the hit.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, you don't, have you ever thought about this?

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, you don't work at the school that you work in teachers because you're a great teacher.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh snap.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sarah doesn't work at the school she works at, Christina doesn't work at the school she works at, like you guys don't work there because that you're like the great teachers that you are.

[SPEAKER_00]: You work there because God loves the kids at that school.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it's thought about like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: The space arena doesn't work at her job because she's the best at her job.

[SPEAKER_00]: And everybody knows what space arena is my favorite church member.

[SPEAKER_00]: She works there because God loves the people that she works with.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've been cleaning in Joe back there.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're not one of the soccer teams out there on because they're a great soccer player.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sorry about it.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're on the teams that they're on because God loves the other kids on that team.

[SPEAKER_00]: Are you able to see it like that?

[SPEAKER_00]: Are you able to see the assignments that God has put in your life in that way?

[SPEAKER_00]: Like you're in the families that you are.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're the brother or the sister to the people around you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not because God said, you know I'm just gonna bless this family with a beautiful baby, like that's cool and all that's great.

[SPEAKER_00]: But you're there on assignment.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're in the friend groups that you're in because of that.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're in the classes that you're in because you're there.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like this is why you're there.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is what you're there for.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you have to be obedient and faithful into the positions that you're in.

[SPEAKER_00]: Or you're always going to feel like you're missing the purpose in it.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're somebody's following Jesus and you get to the point where you're like, I don't know if it's worth taking these hits anymore.

[SPEAKER_00]: I wonder if you're on mission the way you're supposed to.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you start counting down the retirement, or start counting down until the next vacation, or to now, Halloween's over, so everybody's doing this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, counting down the Thanksgiving order or the Christmas, and you've lost it a little bit, you're kind of jaded in the day-to-day.

[SPEAKER_00]: You may have lost the obedience in it.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is why Paul was able to receive the message from the Holy Spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, you're going to Jerusalem, it's going to be hard.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's again, but I gotta go.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's bigger, like, I'm not going to Jerusalem because I'm the Apostle Paul, and there's going to be a statue waiting for me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Remember like the Ephesians, they wanted Paul to kind of like, you got to say here, you've done enough.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's just let you die here, but let's put a statue up over here, everything.

[SPEAKER_00]: There'll be a bunch of St. Paul's churches everywhere.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he's like, you know what, like,

[SPEAKER_00]: I have to be what God's called me to be.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is what faithfulness looks like.

[SPEAKER_00]: Faithfulness looks like being able to take it head and to get up and to keep going.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's what it is.

[SPEAKER_00]: Faithfulness number three is using every opportunity to point to Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's using every opportunity to point to Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: In Acts chapter 22, Paul shares his testimony.

Acts 22 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: You can go back and read it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this is Paul talking about, this is Paul's version.

[SPEAKER_00]: We've heard other people say it, but this is Paul's version of what happens.

[SPEAKER_00]: We heard Luke tell the story earlier in Acts, but this is Paul's version of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: In verse 15, Paul tells you the story of Ananias relaying his assignment from God.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is what Paul is saying.

[SPEAKER_00]: Ananias told me this is what I'm supposed to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: for you are to be His witness telling everyone which you have seen and heard.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's Paul's first assignment.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, we're to track back the last 20 something chapters.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Paul do what he's supposed to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Paul, like it's the simplest job description.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul gets his sight back and the first Christian that he meets says, upon meeting Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Upon meeting Jesus, the next nature's supposed to do Paul is not to go join a Bible study.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hey Paul, you met Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now everything that you learned back in Pharisee school, I want you to relearn it, but just add Jesus into it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hey Paul, you gotta go sit with Peter for a year and learn how to preach.

[SPEAKER_00]: The first thing that Paul gets is an assignment to go and tell everyone.

[SPEAKER_00]: Can I be honest with you?

[SPEAKER_00]: I was charged with this this past week.

[SPEAKER_00]: One of the things is I'm looking description, I'm learning is that we kind of put mission before, we put education before mission, and I don't know if we're doing it right.

[SPEAKER_00]: At the very least, it needs to be equal.

[SPEAKER_00]: Tell me this isn't your story if you grew up in church.

[SPEAKER_00]: You became saved and then you were told to go sit in Sunday school or go sit in youth group.

[SPEAKER_00]: You were given a bunch of books to read.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe there was a discipleship class.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe there was something training.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then maybe if you were good enough.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe if you were Christian enough, maybe if enough people are appointed in a firm to your calling in life, you got given a microphone sometimes.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you got asked to lead a small group, or maybe you went on a mission trip, but it probably had to come with some beefing up a little bit.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some Bible enough.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the more I look through Scripture, people are given the mission first.

[SPEAKER_00]: People are given the mission first.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus says something crazy with the disciples.

[SPEAKER_00]: He makes fish happen on nowhere they bow down like, yeah, you're the Messiah.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus, hey, get up.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going fishing for people.

[SPEAKER_00]: Mission first.

[SPEAKER_00]: And along the way, I'm gonna teach you some stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: Along the way, I'm gonna connect everything from the Old Testament back to me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Verse, so we love around here.

[SPEAKER_00]: John chapter four, woman at the well, meets Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: And she immediately goes back to the town that she came from, mission first.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think we need to be given mission before education.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think education comes with it.

[SPEAKER_00]: The hope that's within you.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then yeah, you're learning and you're able to come, like the bring it back, like Paul would have known that, maybe this isn't a fair example, because Paul would have known the Old Testament.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was in Pharisees school, he would have had all of this stuff that's fine.

[SPEAKER_00]: But upon meeting Jesus, the main message that he had.

[SPEAKER_00]: At first was, I know I was on my way to kill more Christians and then the guy that they all love showed up back from the dead and confronted me and now I serve him.

[SPEAKER_00]: And now my whole life is about connecting everything that I thought was an old testament.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was basically my life doing is really what I'm basing on with Jesus and I'm connecting all those things back to him and I'm inviting other people to do the same.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I was the mission.

[SPEAKER_00]: That was the goal.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's what he was after.

[SPEAKER_00]: Faithfulness is using every opportunity to point to Jesus, Paul doesn't defend himself.

[SPEAKER_00]: He shares a story of how he met Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: I just went like, like, think about this, Paul gets like basically like a hearing in front of the whole town in front of all of Jerusalem.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he doesn't say, please don't kill me.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, I'm gonna use this opportunity while everybody's upset to share my testimony.

[SPEAKER_00]: What?

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, you guys were literally just trying to kill me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, thanks, Roman soldiers for our stop in the first second.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's quiet the crowd down.

[SPEAKER_00]: I gotta test the money you're sharing with you.

[SPEAKER_00]: He just explains his savior.

[SPEAKER_00]: Faithful will look like giving your story, honoring Christ even when you're hurt, and speaking the truth with love.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's what Faithfulness looks like.

[SPEAKER_00]: Are you able to do that?

[SPEAKER_00]: If you are, maybe you're living faithfully.

[SPEAKER_00]: Are you able to give your story on or Jesus, even when it hurts?

[SPEAKER_00]: On or Jesus, he has a mission.

[SPEAKER_00]: Faithfulness isn't just surviving difficulty.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's pointing to Jesus in it.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not just surviving difficulty.

[SPEAKER_00]: You've heard these stories that it was hard for a little bit, but in the midst of it, are you able to point to Jesus to it?

[SPEAKER_00]: Are you able, that's why one of these is like, I love at least claw-wit or so much.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, going through a hard time, it has never been easy for her on her missionary journey.

[SPEAKER_00]: But even in the midst of the ball of it, she's still pointing to Jesus through it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, it's insane to me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, she came here, like, like, it was one of the,

[SPEAKER_00]: It's one of the best missions, presentations, sermons, whatever you want to call it that happened that Sunday, because it didn't end with, and now God made it all better.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, it's actually worse.

[SPEAKER_00]: God read the updates.

[SPEAKER_00]: I hope you're praying for her if you read her newsletter updates.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not good.

[SPEAKER_00]: The cancerous cells and numbers are coming up, and she doesn't boast in her suffering.

[SPEAKER_00]: She boasts in the Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a beautiful picture of something similar to what Paul was going through, except this is happening in her own body.

[SPEAKER_00]: Faithless is in just surviving difficulty.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's pointing to Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: And at next one, Faithless walks and wisdom.

[SPEAKER_00]: Faithfulness walks in wisdom.

[SPEAKER_00]: This number four, how do we need to understand, if I'm going to lean into faithfulness over fairness, what do I need to understand first?

[SPEAKER_00]: It was faithless mainly to understanding faithless mainly the opposition, faithfulness is using every opportunity to point to Jesus and next one, faithfulness walks in wisdom.

[SPEAKER_00]: Acts 22, 25 through 29 says when they tried, when they tied Paul down to Lash and Paul said to the officer standing there, is it legal for you to whip a Roman citizen who hasn't even been tried when the officer heard this, he went to the commander and asked, what are you doing?

[SPEAKER_00]: This man is a Roman citizen, so the commander went over and asked Paul, tell me, are you a Roman citizen?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, I certainly am, Paul replied, I am to the commander muttered and it

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul answered, but I'm a citizen by birth, the soldiers were about to interrogate Paul quickly, the soldiers who were about to interrogate Paul quickly withdrew when they heard he was a Roman citizen and the commander was frightened because he had ordered him bound and whipped.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul uses his Roman citizen, his Roman citizenship.

[SPEAKER_00]: He uses like what we had in common with people in this conversation.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's wisdom.

[SPEAKER_00]: Faithfulness is not roll over passivity.

[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of times we just think like because of because we're Christians that we don't need to be bold.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's not true.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul's like he's using the fact that what God had given him, we're gotta make, he grew up up for such a time as this.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was a Roman citizenship, so at a time like this, that he can use this to his benefit.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just because we're faithful to me that we roll over.

[SPEAKER_00]: God's given you a spirit, a strength, not to midity.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're like, not a fear.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can be bold and you can be wise and strategic in Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: You just gotta be in Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can use all the things that God has given you.

[SPEAKER_00]: But you have to be in good relationship with Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Use your strategy, use the brain that God has given you, use your boldness in wisdom inside of your faithfulness.

[SPEAKER_00]: Faithfulness comes with a promise of presence.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is the last one.

[SPEAKER_00]: X-2311 says this, that night, the Lord appeared to Paul and said, be encouraged, Paul, just as you've been a witness to me here in Jerusalem, you must preach the good news and roam as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: I just love this picture, so there's chaos happening.

[SPEAKER_00]: The same hedron, there's infighting between them.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're trying to decide what they're mad about.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in the midst of the chaos and midst of everything, all the opposition and all that Paul's going through, in his faithfulness, Jesus comes and stands next to him.

[SPEAKER_00]: When was the last time that Paul had an interaction with Jesus?

[SPEAKER_00]: Remember, it was when he was discouraged.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was when he was asleep and Jesus says, hey, bud, keep going.

[SPEAKER_00]: You don't wish you're supposed to be doing.

[SPEAKER_00]: When was the last time before that?

[SPEAKER_00]: It was when Jesus showed up to him on the road.

[SPEAKER_00]: You ever see that like that Jesus is showing up at these key moments?

[SPEAKER_00]: Faithfulness may not make cost you, but he will never leave you to pay it alone.

[SPEAKER_00]: Actually, before I get there, let me go back to that verse.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sorry, Jen, I got you all, I'll get you all mixed up.

[SPEAKER_00]: It comes with the promise of presence.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus is in shoud encouragement from heaven.

[SPEAKER_00]: He comes and says, next to Paul.

[SPEAKER_00]: This isn't the coach that yells from the sideline.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's like, no, I'm in it with you.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm standing with you.

[SPEAKER_00]: He showed up in stood near.

[SPEAKER_00]: Fereness may not always show up, but Jesus always does.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we got to stop looking for one and look for the other.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, do you see the Lord standing with you in scenarios?

[SPEAKER_00]: Where you're going through it?

[SPEAKER_00]: Fereness isn't promised, Jesus is.

[SPEAKER_00]: Fairness is not the goal.

[SPEAKER_00]: Faithfulness is.

[SPEAKER_00]: Faithfulness may cost you, but he will never leave you to pay it alone.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to cost you.

[SPEAKER_00]: I promise you that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul promises is that.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's great, like, well, so if you don't know how this happens, like, so Paul's going to, I'm telling the sort before it happened, Paul is going to get arrested and he's going to be guarded by Roman soldiers and during his imprisonment is where we're going to see a lot of, we're going to see, get all of the letters that we get from him, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And you're going to see, like, him kind of like, you know, promise some of these things.

[SPEAKER_00]: like in Philippians, like he promises you're gonna be persecuted and to live his Christ and to die his gain.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's gonna happen.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this isn't somebody just kind of like given a warning.

[SPEAKER_00]: This somebody's like, now I've been through it, bud.

[SPEAKER_00]: I took a hit and you're gonna have to do too.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you're gonna be faithful, you're gonna have to take a hit and it's not gonna be easy.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you're gonna have to deal with it.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is standing with you.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's so with Paul, he'll stand with you.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's stood for you on the cross.

[SPEAKER_00]: He stands with you on trial and will stand with you in glory.

[SPEAKER_00]: And even that triple is kind of going to refer back to what we'll talk about on that threefold communion that this is the picture is what we celebrate.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is what we rehearse when we do things like communion.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here's what I want you to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: All of us, maybe you're here this morning and you fit in one of these three categories.

[SPEAKER_00]: You go through that at your work, going through that in the relationship, your family is a job.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you feel like you're not being perceived the right way.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you're like Paul and what you're trying to do for somebody, which how you're trying to help somebody even maybe how you're sharing Jesus with them, for any, any, all of the between, maybe some of it, none of it, whatever, maybe feel misunderstood.

[SPEAKER_00]: Number two, you're in a season that feels unfair like just what you're going through like like the heaviness of it the pressure of it Like like all of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: It just it feels like it shouldn't be this way This feels unfair you didn't ask for this Or like you didn't hurt anybody and yet you're suffering

[SPEAKER_00]: You're only trying to do good for people.

[SPEAKER_00]: Or you would just, maybe it just feels a fair because you would just minding your own business.

[SPEAKER_00]: You would just take and care of you and yours.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it just feels unfair.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you look at how you thought your life would be at this point and it just hasn't turned out that way.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it just feels like an unfair season.

[SPEAKER_00]: Number three, or you're just battling with the discouragement and disappointment of life.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's just hard, like this time of year, just reminds you of like, just the discouragement.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you missed something, you dropped the ball on something that you didn't want to drop the ball on.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you've said to yourself, I just can't do it, or I can't get anything right.

[SPEAKER_00]: This didn't happen, like I wanted to.

[SPEAKER_00]: May you feed in one of those categories.

[SPEAKER_00]: The way that we respond to this morning, I want to do this is in a quietness of your heart in mind.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, let's do this.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't do this a lot in our church.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let me get every head bound and every eyes closed.

[SPEAKER_00]: Would you do that?

[SPEAKER_00]: Hopefully, it's not too spiritual for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: The way we respond this morning is this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Did you just pray in the quietness of your heart?

[SPEAKER_00]: Why don't you voice whatever you're dealing with?

[SPEAKER_00]: You feeling misunderstood, you feeling like you're in a season that feels unfair, or you're battle with discouragement or disappointment, would you just voice those?

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, just be honest with God, I'm feeling this way.

[SPEAKER_00]: God, I'm feeling misunderstood.

[SPEAKER_00]: God, this season feels really unfair.

[SPEAKER_00]: God, I constantly embattling with the feeling

[SPEAKER_00]: Just voice those, be honest with them about it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And again, just voice that again, Lord, help me to spathe illness over fairness.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then would you be bold enough to add this?

[SPEAKER_00]: God, would you please stand near me as I stand for you?

[SPEAKER_00]: God, would you please stand near me as I stand for you?

[SPEAKER_00]: So I stand for you and my being misunderstood.

[SPEAKER_00]: I stand for you and the season that feels unfair.

[SPEAKER_00]: Or as I stand for you and the midst of me feeling discouraged are disappointed.

[SPEAKER_00]: Brother God, you are not distant, you are a God who is near to us.

[SPEAKER_00]: God, you are a God who stands beside us in the heart times of life, and when we're going through it, when we're struggling, or for all of us, we will constantly face the

[SPEAKER_00]: Or would you help us to always choose what you want from us?

[SPEAKER_00]: You have to be faithful followers of you.

[SPEAKER_00]: And our pursuit of people and our own ability to take a hit and to deal with the struggles of life.

[SPEAKER_00]: God, may we made the people of the well, may people hear our church, may we continue to live lies like Paul did, that I will end face all that, that he faced in staying on mission and being faithful for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you stand up, praying, amen.

[SPEAKER_01]: You just listen to a message from Dane Care Away, the pastor of Church at the Well and Telsen, Maryland.

[SPEAKER_01]: To learn more about our church and to support what we're doing in the greater Baltimore area, visit our website, TheWelthBaultSomore.com.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for tuning in to this sermon podcast from Church at The Well.

[SPEAKER_01]: May God bless you.