Worth Dying For: Is Jesus Enough?

Acts, Chapter twenty, verse twenty two says, and now, compelled by

the Spirit, I'm going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me.

I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison

and hardships are facing me. However, I consider my life worth nothing to

me. My only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the

Lord Jesus has given me, the task of testifying to the good news of

God's grace. I want to ask everyone to buy your heads, close your

eyes. I want you to repeat this prayer after me. Everyone say,

Dear Jesus, speak to my heart, change my life in Jesus name.

Amen. Over the next sixth week, we are going to finish our journey

through the Book of Acts. We started it in September. We divided it

up into three parts. The first part was Unstoppable, where we talked about

the birth of the Church, where the Holy Spirit fell on the church,

and we started telling you how the Gospel is unstoppable when it's shared by people

that are filled with the Holy Spirit. We ended that first volume with a

guy by the name of Paul, who was public enemy number one for the

church, gets radically saved. And then volume two was the ministry of this

guy Paul Man on Fire, and we went through three of his different missionary

journeys where he would go to regions and he would start and establish churches,

and then he would move on and start another church. And now we begin

our final volume through the book of Acts called Worth Dying For, and it

begins right where I was. That was the trip to Turkey that I was

just at last month. That is in the town of my Leadis. It

was in my LDUs where Paul called all of the leaders of the church in

Ephesus, and the leaders to the church and my lead Us together and he

shared with them that he was going to Jerusalem and that he would eventually end

up in Rome. What we know through church history, we know what happened

in Rome. It was in Rome where Paul was imprisoned twice and the end

of his second imprisonment ended with Nero beheading him. So we are beginning a

journey that ends in Paul dying. All I'm gonna do today is ask you

a bunch of questions, because when we view the Gospel through our mindset twenty

twenty three in America, the way we view life, the church, our

relationship with Jesus. Nothing Paul does make sense. So all I'm gonna do

is ask you a bunch of questions, and I'm really curious how you would

answer them. And the first question I have is why did Paul go to

Rome? Why did he go? I have an honest confession for you this

morning. If your new to venture, I will occasionally do this. I

will occasionally stand up in front of you and I will confess something. You

were my support group. When I'm feeling guilty about something, I tell you

it makes me feel better. The very first time I did this, it

was about the third year into the church. I made this huge deal about

come on Sunday, Brandon's gonna confess something. So the whole church packed Jackson

High School, wondering what is this dude gonna say? And I admitted for

those of you that there you remember, I admitted that I'm obsessed with shoes.

I have lots of shoes. I like shoes. We my wife and

I we own a place in Las Vegas, and we also own a place

our home in mucle TiO. I have about fifty pairs of shoes and Las

Vegas probably another hundred in my house and mucle Teo, and I'm not ashamed

of it. I have accepted that I like shoes. I have also confessed

things like I did several weeks ago, where I've been honest and open about

my wrestles and challenges with anxiety and so everything in Tween I've confessed in front

of you. I have another confession to make right here, right now.

If it was me instead of Paul, acts would have ended here. Acts

would have ended in chapter twenty. Did you know that Paul knew back when

he was in Ephesis. We know he was an Ephesis for about two and

a half years. Paul knew then that he would eventually go to Jerusalem and

that he would eventually go to Rome. Quick picture Die and I again.

On our Turkey trip, we went to Ehesis. So the excavations and Ephesis

are amazing. When our church does a Turkey trip, you need to go.

You will see Ehesis. This is the library in Ephesis. It's pretty

pretty amazing. But it was in Ephesis where Paul wrote this. He said,

I have decided to go to Jerusalem, and after I've been there,

I must visit Rome. Also. All I want to share it with you

today is the five reasons why if I was Paul, I would not have

gone to Rome. Five reasons. Reason Number one, he knew it was

going to be bad from the very beginning. Paul knew what he was going

to face. So Paul is in My Leaders, where that video that I

showed at the very beginning was he has ordered the church leaders in ephesis,

the church leaders and my leaders to meet and he shares this with them,

he says, and now compelled by the spirit, what does that mean?

To be compelled by the spirit, It means you were led by the Holy

Spirit. The Holy Spirit is guiding you to do something. Many people that

are here today right now in this service, there's been moments in your life

you have known, beyond a shadow of doubt, the Holy Spirit is leading

me to do this. There's others of you you have felt that maybe God

is steering you to do something, but you're not sure, and you're wrestling

through what is God's will for me? What direction does God want me to

go? In July, we are doing a series called Wanderlust, and what

we're going to talk about is how you hear God's voice, how you determine

what God's will is for your life, and how you navigate through all the

different voices that are shouting in your life to understand which is the Holy Spirit

leading me. So this was Paul. Paul said, I was compelled by

the Holy Spirit to go to Jerusalem, but I don't know what's going to

happen to me there, he said. I only know that in every spirit,

the Holy Spirit, or when every city the Holy Spirit warns me that

prison and hardships are facing me. What is Paul saying? He said,

all I know is that God leads me places, and every time he leads

me places, it's bad. He doesn't lead me to something easy. He

always leads me to something hard. And then he says, however, I

consider my life word nothing to me. My only aim is to finish the

race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me the task of testifying

to the good news of God's grace. Why wouldn't I have gone to Rome?

Because Paul already knew at the very beginning it's gonna be bad. Paul,

when he is describing to the leaders and Ephesis and my leaders how bad

it's gonna be, He's telling them, I view my life this way,

he said, I view it as a race that must be run. And

he said, and I also view it as if I have a ministry that

must be accomplish. So those two analogies, those two images, Paul throughout

all of his letters, he uses those imagery over and over again. He

talks about a race that he must run, in a ministry that he must

accomplish, and over and over again he talks about this race in this ministry

that's mine. He said, it's worth dying for. So my question,

would God lead you somewhere that was gonna end badly? Would God knowingly call

you to something that from the moment you got there, it was difficult and

it never got better? Would God ever do that? Second reason I don't

think Paul should have went to Rome is when he was in my leadist it

is very clear how much they loved him. Listen to this. So Paul

gathers these two churches together, shares with them that he's going to Jerusalem eventually.

Rome. He doesn't know how bad it's gonna be. It could be

really bad, and in all likelihood he would never see them again. Here's

what happens Verse twenty six thirty six says. When Paul had finished speaking,

he knelt down with all of them and prayed. I mean, that would

be normal. Like if we have a staff member who's taking a job at

another place, we would bring them up, we would lay hands on them,

we would pray for them. We gather around missionaries, we'd pray for

them, send them out. So they gathered around Paul, they prayed for

them, They all wept, embraced him, and kissed him. What grieved

them the most was this statement that they would never see his face again.

The leaders of the church, and Ephesus and the Church and my leaders loved

Paul. Ministry is interesting. So you get called into ministry, you get

called somewhere, and oftentimes it's as a major sacrifice to your personal finances.

It's a sacrifice to your family, it's a sacrifice to your health, it's

a sacrifice to your relationships. So when you do ministry, you sacrifice and

you give everything. Oftentimes you do all of it for zero appreciation from the

people that you're ministering to. You know, parents sometimes, like you,

you give your life to your kids, and it's like all your kids do

is complain. I mean, you know what I'm talking about, and this

is the way that ministry is, is that a minister will s grifice everything,

oftentimes wondering if anyone even noticed. That is why the average senior pastor,

this is the current statistic, stays at a church for three years.

Three Do you know how long the average associate pastor stays at a church?

A year and a half. So church planting is really kind of all the

rage in ministry circles right now, church planning. Did you know that the

average church plant in fact, you can see stats that will be as high

as seventy percent of them fail within three years. For those that actually survive

past the three years, the vast majority, it's like eighty percent of the

founding pastors resign and leave the church they started after year five. Okay,

let's keep going on all the things that we have been different about. Number

one, our church survived. Number two, I still pastor at eighteen years

later. Number three, we've had no staff turnover for at least two years.

I got people like Morgan and Nicole. I think they've been here for

like thirty years. I think they were here before me. Tony, I

mean we knew Tony Winnie at hair, So like, these guys have been

here for a long time, so we're already breaking all of these trends.

Then we built a building. Did you know fifty percent of pastors leave their

church within one year after they build a building because of the amounts of stress

and strain it is to raise the money to rally the people. The tension

that comes whenever you do a fundraising campaign of that magnitude, and all of

the challenges that come, all of those things happen been by the way,

that's not I'm not saying this so you feel bad for me. I'm just

telling you that this is the life of a minister, and ministers oftentimes do

this with zero appreciation. So Paul has, like the church in Ephesus,

and the Church and might lead us, love him so much that the thought

of never seeing him again crushes them. They're hugging him, kissing him,

showing how much they love him. I don't need you to hug and kiss

me. Just buy me some shoes. That's it. Like, but these

people knew that Paul. Paul knew that these people loved him. Do you

know how hard it would be to leave people that love you that much?

Would God really call you to leave somewhere where you love that much. Would

God really call you to leave your friends and family and take you someplace that's

just hard? Would you really do that? Here's the third reason. If

I was Paul, I wouldn't have gone to Rome. Eventually, they accompanied

him to the ship, and after he'd torn himselves away from him, he

set out to see He eventually ends up entire Lets's on his journey to Jerusalem,

and the people of Tire begged him not to go. Okay, Chapter

twenty one, verse three, It says, we landed it Tire, where

our ship was to unload its cargo. We sought out the disciples there,

so there was a church entire. Paul gathered the people together the church,

and he stayed with them for seven days. Through the spirit, they urged

Paul not to go on to Jerusalem. So here's an entire church full of

people. The Holy Spirit is speaking to them, and the thought of Paul

going to Jerusalem and Rome is filled with doom. Like they see nothing good

out of this, Like they start praying for Paul in his journey to Rome,

and they're filled with dread. Parents, your kids ever told you they're

doing something, and you knew from the moment they told you about it that

it was going to be bad. And you have this sense of dread,

this sense of doom for what your kids were about to do. That was

what was happening in the church. They're saying, Paul, this is gonna

be bad. Don't go. Paul, I was thinking about this and church

in America today, Ministers today, we struggled to say yes to Jesus if

it might lower our standard of living. We struggled to say yes to Jesus

if our kids have to change schools. We struggled to say yes to Jesus

if we have to leave our buddies. Well, Paul has said yes,

and everyone is saying don't go. Would you go somewhere if you knew it

was gonna end badly? Would you? I wouldn't four threeson if I was

Paul, I wouldn't have gone to Rome. Eventually he ends up in Cesarea.

Here's a quick picture of Cesarea from one of our Israel trips. This

is the aqueduct in Cesarea. When you I'm speaking, when you go and

join us on an Israel trip, We're going again next June. We will

go to Cesarea by the sea, and you will stand on top of this

aqueduct. So I want you to imagine Paul is now journeying went to Tire.

He's now landed in Cesarea. This aqueduct was built during the time of

Paul, so he would have seen this same aqueduct that you're seen. So

I wouldn't have gone because once he got to Cesarea, the prophet Agabus warned

him how bad it was going to be. You'd say, who is Agabas?

Agabus was a famous man of God, a famous spokesman of God in

that region. They all knew of him. It would have been the equivalent

of like if Billy Graham was still alive, and Billy Graham had shown up

here and he had a word for us, like we'd have paid attention.

Paul knew who Agabus was. We read about Agabas in Acts eleven because Agabus

prophesied that there would be a famine in a region and it happened. So

he was a respected leader, a respected man of God. And Agabis warned

Paul not to go listen to this Acts twenty one, verse ten after we

had been there a number of days. So Cesarea they've stopped there. They've

been there a few days. A prophet named Agabus came down from Judea.

So Agabas heard, okay, Paul's in cesarea. The Holy Spirit speaks to

him, thinks about Paul in Jerusalem. He's overwhelmed with a sense of dread.

And he said, I gotta go Warren Paul. So this is what

he does coming over to us. He took Paul's belt, tied up his

own hand, hands, and his own feet, and he said, the

Holy Spirit says that in this way, the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem will bind

the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles. So

what would this be like? So be like Billy Graham showing up at venture.

We'd all stop, we'd watch everything he does. And if Billy Graham

walks right over to Morgan Butcher takes off Morgan Butcher's belt, we'd all watch

Morgan pull up his pants. And then if he tied up his own wrists

in his own ankle, and he looks at Paul and he says, the

Jews in Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt, and we'll turn him

over to the Romans. A couple of things I want to say here.

Agabus was not telling Paul to not go. He was just warning Paul what

he was going to face. Ultimately, whether he went or not, the

choice was Paul's. Would God send you down a path that ended in something

really difficult? Would God send you down a path there might be a death

sentence? Would you go knowing what you were inevitably going to faith? Would

you the most interesting thing about this? Have you noticed that Paul makes the

decision and acts nineteen And as he gets closer to ending up in Jerusalem,

the warnings get greater, The revelation of what he's gonna face gets more clear.

As he gets closer to Jerusalem, he sees bigger and bigger and bigger

what he's about to face here is one of the things that I teach all

the time. I teach this. I always say, we are often misled

by thinking peace is the sign of God's will, so we will not do

something unless we have peace, right, And I tell people all the time

I counter this by saying, do you really think Jesus had peace when he

was being whipped? Do you really think Jesus had peace when he is being

crucified? No? The peace did not come until the resurrection. So I

tell people all the time, this is how the will of God works.

You take a step of faith and sometimes you question it the entire time,

you take more steps than eventually in the process the peace comes. Well,

this was the opposite of what happened to Paul. Closer he got to Jerusalem,

the worse it got. Everybody starts saying, don't go. We love

you, don't go. It's gonna be bad. Prophets are coming from out

of nowhere to tie belts around risks and say don't go. And then finally,

the fifth reason, if I was Paul, Acts would have ended right

here is because Luke, the author of Acts, and the rest of the

church in cesarea pleaded with all to not go. Listen to this verse twelve

of Acts twenty one. When we heard this, so that we as Luke

in the church. What did they hear? They saw and heard what Agabus

said to Paul. We and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go

up to Jerusalem. They saw and they heard what Agabus had to say,

and they said, Paul, run away. Don't do it. If you

have the people that loved you begging you to not go if you knew it

was going to be bad, If it would have been me, acts would

be over. Paul's response to Luke and the church Incessarea is followed up and

Paul answers by saying, why are you weeping and breaking my heart? He

said, I'm not only ready to be bound, but also to die in

Jerusalem for the name of Jesus. He would not be dissuaded, so we

gave up and said the Lord's will be done. Have you noticed that today

we define God's will based upon the ease of something? In other words of

God. We feel like the Lord's leading us to go back to school and

homework's difficult. Must not be God. We go back to school and we

struggle with the finances of it. Must not be God. We step out

in faith and we do something and it's lonely. We're like, must not

be God. Because today we define God's will based upon how easy something is.

I'm telling you, if you're someone I don't know your background, I

don't know where you came from. Maybe you came from a church that had

prosperity theology. If you think when you serve Jesus immediately you were supposed to

be healthy and wealthy, and nothing would go wrong for you. I don't

know if you've ever read Past Acts twenty Why did Paul go? The thing

that I wrestled with as I studied that this this week is it was clear

the choice was his. He couldn't knock gone. He could have just said,

you know what, I'm gonna spend the rest of my life pastoring those

people in my leaders that love me. I mean, I have been a

great life. No one he had known any different. Probably to build a

huge building, had a big church. Who knows, Maybe that amphitheater.

Paul would have been preaching in there to fifteen thousand people. Who knows.

It was Paul's decision that decided he would eventually be in prison. Imprisonment only

happens if he goes. I mean, would God call you down a path

that is this difficult? Would God call you down something that might cost you

your life because in the end, something extraordinary is going to come out of

it. Honestly, how do you personally reconcile this? How do you reconcile

why did Paul go? I think you reconcile it by the answer to another

question, and how it applies to you. And here's the question, is

Jesus really enough? Now? Legitimately is he really enough? I've said oftentimes

that the number one time that Christians lie. When Christians lie is when they

sing, because they sing these extravagant love songs to Jesus talking about how Jesus

is there everything. Jesus is their life and there you know everything they desire

and everything they want and their hope. And they're all of the words that

we sing. But then when we get a chance to live difficulty, we're

out. Jesus really enough. Acts twenty one to twenty three talks about Paul

being in Jerusalem. You can read it on your own. I would love

to tell you that Paul finally got there and it was awesome. Now,

it was way worse than anybody had warned him. I mean, it got

so bad that it caused a riot in Jerusalem, like so intense. He

ends up imprisoned twice. The second time he gets imprisoned was simply because the

Romans were trying to protect him. Listen, listen to this Acts twenty three,

verse nine. It says, verse ten, the dispute became so violent,

so there was such an uprising in Jerusalem because Paul was there that the

people became so violent that the commander, who was the commander, this is

the head of the Roman soldiers, he was afraid that Paul would be torn

to pieces by them. They were so enraged the community by Paul that they

were gonna tear him apart. So the head of the Roman soldiers concludes,

we need to put him in our Roman prison to protect him. So he

ends up in this Roman cell for two days. Have you ever have you

ever done something? I thought you were stepping out in God's will and everything

went wrong, and then the whole time, as soon as your finances fell

apart, you're like, I made a mistake. I miss God. Anybody

any of you like stepped out in faith and done something and it's just like

you're constantly sick, and you thought, did I miss God? If you,

against all the warnings of everyone, were convinced you're to go to Jerusalem,

you end up in Jerusalem, it causes the entire city to riot.

They want to rip you apart. You end up being thrown into a prison

cell to protect you. We know that he's in that cell for a couple

of days. I wonder if it was in that prison cell. Paul thought

I should have listened to aga Us. I wonder if he is in that

prison cell, and thought, why didn't I just pastor the church and emphasis.

So the second ninety was there, this happens. I mean, would

you thought I'd missed God? The following night, this is in that cell,

the Lord Jesus stood near Paul. So the resurrected ascended into heaven.

Jesus comes down to Earth and meets Paul in that prison cell, stands next

to him. I mean, you are in a spot where all the Christians

around the world world or thinking he shouldn't have gone, And Paul's like,

I was convinced I was to be here, and probably that hint of did

I make a mistake happened. And the next thing he looks over and Jesus

is standing there. He says, Paul, take courage. Just as you've

testified in Jerusalem, I need you to testify in Rome. Jesus enough acts

helps to study the historical narrative of Paul's life and his journey and his ministry,

but we actually get insight into what was going on in his head,

like his psyche through letters that he'd written to churches that he had started that

Paulina pistoles. Over half of the New Testament are letters that Paul had wrote

to these churches. It was in prison in Rome, so eventually goes from

this cell. Those Roman soldiers order him to Rome. It was in prison

in Rome that Paul wrote Ephesians. Was in prison in Rome. Paul wrote

Colossians, He wrote Phi Lehman, he wrote Philippians in prison in Rome.

Did you know many of you you've quoted Philippians for seven. We love this

verse. In fact, this is like when he talked about I call this

one of the verses that gives you staying power, like when you're struggling,

quote Philippians for seven. Here it is Paul wrote this in prison in Rome,

said don't be anxious about anything. The peace of God, which passes,

which transcends, which doesn't make sense all understanding, will guard your hearts

and minds in Christ Jesus. I bet when Paul was thinking I need to

encourage the church in PHILIPPI I bet he was remembering what it was like to

be in prison in Jerusalem, when he was at his lowest point, questioning

everything and Jesus showed up in his prison cell, and he said, don't

worry about this life. Paul, when he was in Corinth establishing the church

there, had heard about a group of believers in Rome. He hadn't quite

got to Rome yet, so this is five years before he ended up in

Rome. He wrote Romans to the church there, a letter to that church,

and this is what he wrote. So I want you to think you've

now gone on this journey that's leading Paul to Rome, where he's eventually gonna

get killed. And Paul said this Romans eight thirty five. Are you still

with me? Paul said, who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall trouble or hardship, or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or

sword? For it is written for your sake we face death all day long.

We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these

things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. I mean,

how prophetic was this? Paul said, For I am convinced that neither death

nor life, angels, demons, neither the present nor the future, nor

any powers, neither hype nor depth nor anything else in all of creation will

be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ.

Jesus, our Lord. Is Jesus enough. I wonder what God is calling

you too. That's got you a little bit nervous. I always tell people,

because everybody always says, I'm trying to figure out what God's will is,

and I haven't heard God's voice for a while. And I always ask

him this. I said, tell me the last thing you know, beyond

a shadow of a doubt, God said to you. And they can always

do that, and sometimes it was like three or four years ago, and

I'll say, as he said anything to you since then, and they're like,

nothing that I'm sure about. And I said, go back to the

last thing God said, and do that, the last thing God said taking

you to Rome, guardless how much the people love you, regardless what Agabus

says, go to the last thing Jesus said, and do that. Paul

ended up in prison in Rome twice. The second time he was in prison

in Rome, it was days before he was to be executed, he wrote

Second Timothy. Second Timothy was a letter to Timothy, who was a young

man who'd gotten saved in Paul's ministry that Paul was mentoring and Timothy was now

a minister. And Paul, days before he was to be executed, wrote

Second Timothy four seven, and he said Timothy, I have fought the good

fight. I finished the race. I've kept the faith. Said I had

a race to run, I finished it. I had a ministry to be

accomplished. I didn't. It was Paul telling Timothy Timothy, man, it's

hard, but it's worth it. I never quit. Why did Paul go?

Because he felt Jesus was worth dying for