The Book Of Acts | What Should I Expect? (November 22nd, 2020) - Mike Armstrong

All right, well, let's open our Bibles now to the book of Acts, to Acts chapter uh nine.

Acts chapter nine.

Now, one of the things in ministry that I have had the pleasure of doing over the years is uh is premarital counseling with uh with couples who are engaged.

Okay, a lot of fun.

I really enjoy being able to do this, and and maybe even some of you watching uh have been uh ones that we have met with, my wife and I have met with.

Um but I think one of the um one of the uh assignments that we go through, that I go through with couples, and and really one of the most important questions that that we ask and unpack is is about expectations.

Okay, what what do you expect marriage to look like?

You think that's an important question?

I I sure do.

Okay, like what do you expect, for example, of your spouse in the day-to-day tasks around the house?

Well, I expect my wife to have dinner for ready for me every single day at five, and I expect that he cleaned the bathroom, and I expect that she cleaned up the mouse traps in the basement, and you it's it's really important that we talk through what those expectations are.

We talk through what are your expectations when it comes to your in-laws?

Well, I expect that we would go to my my parents' house every Sunday after church for a meal, just like we did growing up all the time.

Whereas the other one might be thinking, I expect that we see the in-laws like maybe at Christmas, and that's about it.

Okay?

How about uh what do you expect when it comes to money?

Right?

How money is spent, how money is saved?

What do you expect when it comes to starting a family and having kids and how many kids and what is discipline gonna look like?

What do you expect your church involvement to be?

Okay, what do you expect, maybe most importantly, what do you expect of God's involvement in your marriage?

Now, the point of that exercise, and I mean we talked through all kinds of different things there, but the point of the exercise is to first identify what the expectations even are.

Right?

I think that's key, because every couple has expectations.

Every individual entering into marriage has expectations, whether they realize it or not.

Okay, so we've got to identify those, and then it becomes about identifying whether those expectations are even reasonable.

Are they reasonable?

Are they are they biblical?

Are they good and right?

And so the goal of this exercise in these conversations is to help the couple begin their marriage off uh on the right foot, right?

In a strong and healthy way.

With with uh, I think at first just an awareness of what their soon-to-be spouse's expectations uh are, and then uh you know have a conversation about readjusting those if necessary.

Because when expectations are clear and they're they're defined and they're realistic and they're godly, then I think a couple can can bypass a lot of the conflicts that can very easily arise in a new marriage and instead make sure that they get get going in a proper way in the right direction.

Now, if it's important for for us to, you know, or for for couples to figure out what what your expectations are for marriage, then I think it just makes sense that we would want to know what to expect of something as important as the Christian life.

Okay, what should you and I expect the Christian life to look like once Jesus saves us?

You ever asked that question?

You ever thought about that?

What expectations do you have about it?

What do you think it should look like?

Are they realistic expectations?

Are they the right ones?

Well, in today's uh passages, we're gonna look at this in Acts, we're really given a glimpse into the first few years of Saul's Christian life.

We see what happens, we see what he does, we see what other people do, we see what the Lord does.

And in this, I think we get a really great snapshot, if you will, uh of what you and I can and should expect of our Christian lives as well.

Do our expectations line up with what we see it's all about here?

And so I want to just read this passage for us, and we can begin to unpack this in just a moment, but let's read, starting in uh verse 19b, start of the new section there.

It says, For some days he was with, this is Saul, he was with the disciples at Damascus, and immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, He is the Son of God.

And all who heard him were amazed, and said, Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon his name?

And has he not come here for this purpose to bring them bound before the chief priests?

But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ.

When many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, but their plot became known to Saul.

They were watching the gates day and night in order to kill him.

But the disciples took him by night and led him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket.

And when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples, and they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple.

But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus.

So he went in and out from among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord.

And they spoke and disputed against, and he spoke and disputed against the Hellenists, but they were seeking to kill him.

And when the brothers learned this, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.

So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up.

And walking in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.

God, we thank you for this passage, Lord, and for what it shows us, God.

It shows us the first uh few years of Saul who had come to be known as Paul, his Christian walk with you, Lord, and we see so many things that I think we can look at and say, you know what, that's what our Christian life should be about as well.

And it helps us set proper, realistic, and godly expectations on ourselves and even on others around us.

And so, God, as we unpack some of these verses here today, I pray that you would teach us and help us kind of readjust if our expectations are unrealistic or aren't right.

Lord, I pray that you would give us a fire and a passion and a joy for serving you, for serving others, for for growing in our own walk.

Lord, I pray that you continue to build uh your church now as you were doing it back then.

Father, as we think about just the opportunity that we've had to even uh talk about this morning uh giving and the blessing that it is to be able to give, Lord, I pray that you would uh you would take the offerings that are given uh today and this week and bless it in your church, Lord.

Give us wisdom on using it well.

God, I pray that uh you would make us a generous people who truly love to be generous and and uh and and serve you, love you, and love others.

And so, God, as we um meet today, as we watch from home, God, I pray that you would stir in our hearts and show us the greatness and the glory of Jesus Christ.

Lord, fill this place with your glory.

We pray it in your name.

Amen.

Amen.

All right.

So, question here today: what should I expect of the Christian life?

What should we expect?

Well, three three things as we see it here in the text.

First one, uh personal transformation, as well as ministry to others.

Those are some things that we can absolutely expect the Christian life to look like.

Now, you might remember from last week in the passage of Paul's salvation, we know that he uh was converted.

He came to know Jesus Christ when Jesus showed up to him on the road to Damascus.

Okay, after that, Ananias uh appeared and was led by God to go and meet him and lay his hands on him so that he would regain his sight.

We know that he was baptized, we know that he began to eat food and found strength again, and all of that really brings us to this verse now, 19B, again, the start of that news section, and it says this.

It says, For some days he was with the disciples.

Okay, so he's with the other believers there in Damascus.

It says, Immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, He is the Son of God.

And all who heard him were amazed, they were blown away, right?

And they said, Is this not the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name?

And has he not come here for this purpose to bring them bound before the chief priests?

But Saul increased all the more in strength and confounded the Jews.

That is the Jews who oppose Christ, of course.

He confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was in fact the Christ.

Okay, so again, we're given just a kind of a window here into the life of a brand new believer as he begins his journey as a Christ follower.

And what we see in Paul's life here serves as a really great model and a standard, even generally speaking, of what you and I can expect our Christian life to look like as well after we get saved.

Okay, first of all, I think we can't help but be struck by just the profound personal transformation that takes place in Paul himself.

Right?

It says there that the Jews in Damascus, they were they were amazed at what they were seeing.

This Saul guy who they knew was just like so driven, so focused and zealous to wreak havoc.

I love how it uses that word there, to wreak havoc on the church.

And he was sent there to bring Christians bound to the chief priests, and now he was fired up.

Now he was so passionate, so zealous for the very things that he once sought to exterminate.

The very thing that he was against, he was now like at the forefront of promoting and leading forward.

It says there that now he proclaimed that Jesus is the Son of God.

Of course, it was just like days earlier that he believed the exact opposite of that.

He thought the whole thing was a joke, he thought it was a threat to Judaism, he thought it went against God, and now he's realizing quite the opposite, and so he's all about it.

It says that he increased all the more in strength.

Okay, we know that earlier he had eaten food to regain physical strength, but this here is talking about how he's growing in spiritual strength.

So he's being transformed.

Right?

It says that he confounded or baffled the Jews in that area in Damascus by proving, by giving this rock solid evidence that Jesus Christ was in fact, or Jesus was the Christ.

Right?

He was the Messiah, the promised Messiah.

Okay, so through all of this, we see that there's this massive change of heart now in Saul because of Christ within him.

He's growing in knowledge very rapidly, very quickly.

He's growing in spiritual strength.

His enthusiasm, which was once obviously for evil, is now being used for good, which leads him and thrusts him into this thriving ministry to others, in other people's lives.

Okay, notice how verse 20 says that that it was immediately, okay, immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues.

He does it like right away.

Sometimes I think that we that we kind of assume that we can't really be effective in ministry uh uh immediately, right away.

Right?

We conclude that there must be some certain amount of knowledge base that I have to have.

You know, I there's a certain amount of wisdom.

There are there are Bible college or seminary classes that I must take.

There's a certain seasoning that has to happen in me first before I can go and get involved in ministering to people.

Once that happens, we all kind of maybe define that differently inside of what that might look like.

But once that happens, then maybe we'll take up the mission.

Okay, but you see here that that Paul, Paul just gets after it immediately.

He he gets saved, he understands the gospel, and he's like, that that very simple message, that is what I want to take into the synagogues as I meet and uh influence people.

Okay, so you look at all of this, and and while Saul's transformation and ministry certainly caught people off guard, you'll also notice that no one's putting the brakes on it either.

He was growing and and he's serving, and he's even in on the front lines as though that's just simply what's expected of Christ's followers.

Which means that you and I should have those same exact expectations for ourselves or or anybody else who gets saved.

That's simply what the what the Christian life involves.

Okay, 1 Thessalonians uh 4, 3.

You can write that down if you like, but I love this.

This is what it says, for this is the will of God.

Okay, so this is what God's will is for you, and then it says this your sanctification.

Okay, so your your growth, your your your transformation, you that is all God's will for you.

Okay, so so it's only right that you and I should expect to see that occur in our lives, in our in our hearts, right?

In what we believe, in our attitudes and in our desires, our our our motivations, which of course inform our behavior and our actions.

Or we used to think and believe and desire and behave in ways that were contrary to Christ, but because of Jesus within us, because of the Holy Spirit, we we all of that's beginning to revamp and again transform.

Okay, but let's also understand here that our personal transformation doesn't just mean that we all kind of lock into this me-focused life of self-betterment as though that's the end goal.

Okay, because it's it's certainly not, right?

Our personal transformation is to propel us into ministry uh with other people.

And that's something that can begin right away.

Right?

That's something that can begin immediately, as we see it here in Paul's life, where we simply serve other people based on our even our simple understanding of the gospel.

That's that's really all we need to get going.

Right?

We serve other people according to the spiritual gifts that God has given us, right?

We're not all gonna have the same ministry as Paul.

It's not gonna look the exact same as his.

Some of us haven't been, you know, we don't necessarily have the gift of teaching.

Maybe you have a gift of of serving or hospitality or helping.

Awesome.

Right?

God gives us all different gifts.

We're all parts, all different parts of one body, as 1 Corinthians 12 talks us when it talks about spiritual gifts, right?

And and the church, the body of Christ, not to mention, you know, the the outside world, is best served when we're all playing our part.

Okay, so as you think about these things, okay, and you're sort of assessing your own outlook and all of it, can you say that it's your conscious expectation as a believer that you continually be transformed into the image of Christ and that be spurring you into ministry to others?

Okay, or or do you sense that, you know what, that's that's not really what my expectation has been.

Uh, maybe even just recently.

Like perhaps you did have those expectations on yourself and on others.

Maybe you used to be hungry for the Lord to transform you.

You can think back to a time in your walk with the Lord, where you're like, man, this is amazing.

The Lord is doing so many things in me.

He's he's convicting me, but he's bringing me new joy, he's giving me desires that I never really had before, and and all of this is changing in a way that's that's thrilling and exciting, and he's he's propelling me into ministry, and I'm interacting with people in a way that I never have before.

And wow, look at all of this.

This is this is incredible.

Okay, maybe that was was your past though, and you're sensing that that maybe these days things have kind of changed for you.

Your expectations aren't really for those things anymore.

They've shifted maybe to something else, something less.

Now, typically when that's happening, the issue for us is idolatry.

Right?

It's other desires, it's other expectations that have taken over our life.

So let's just take a peek again, if we if we can at that source idol chart.

Remember, we've talked about this a number of times before, and we're gonna continue uh to show that to you as a church as this kind of gets ingrained in us.

We've got this on the screen now for you, right?

If we should expect the Christian life to be full of personal transformation as well as ministry to others, but we can tell that that's not really where we're at right now.

It's because one or more of these things have come to be what our heart expects.

Okay, so any idol that you might have in your life can ultimately be traced back or sourced back to one of these four that you see on the left side of the screen.

So for you, if you're if your idol is comfort, it means that you, deep down, you expect that that that is what your life should be about.

My life should be about comfort, my life should be about entertainment or pleasure or ease.

And so that's why I'm not as fired up or as intense about personal transformation in my life.

Because some of that those things in my life that need to change, they're uncomfortable, right?

And deep down I want comfort, and so I kind of sweep those under the rug and kind of like don't look at them very much because I expect now something else, my comfort, not the discomfort of transformation.

Perhaps for you it's again, it's the approval piece.

That's what you expect.

I expect that that people would approve of me, but you're you're also aware that that ministry to others means that sometimes you've you've got to say a hard thing or a challenging word to somebody, and and that might mean that you lose their approval.

And so, because of that, I expect approval.

I'm I'm no longer going to expect that I would serve people no matter what, according to the truth.

Right?

For you, again, it could be the idols of control or power.

I expect that I would get a sense of this, and and these things chafe against the transformation that I want to see in my life.

It chafes against the the ministry to serve other people, and so because of that, my expectations have all shifted now.

Okay, so obviously these are these are things to be repented of, certainly.

And then from there, we're to step into what's actually true.

Right?

The truth of who we are and and and what we're to be about.

And what and what's the truth that just destroys all of these idols?

The truth is that we're we're I'm a child of God, right?

That's what I am, that's what you are.

We've been we've been set free through the gospel to these idols, right?

From slavery to them.

And so I can embrace who God has called me to be and what God has called me to do.

You can do that too.

And we're called to be transformed, right?

We're called to minister to other people.

That's what the expectation is.

And so you and I now we can work to set our the expectation of our heart on the truth of those things and then and then joyfully go after them.

Right?

Joyfully pursue them to the glory of God.

Here's the second thing.

Which I expect of the Christian life.

How about this?

Lots of highs and lows with the support of my community.

Okay, starting with uh verse 23 now, notice just the ups and downs and the and the sheer amount of them in this one passage alone.

Okay, it's the highs and lows that Paul experiences on even just the early days of his adventure that the Christian life is for him.

Okay?

Take a look.

It says, when many days had passed, okay, so you're seeing that time has gone by, okay, time is marching on.

It says, when many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him.

Okay, it's safe to say that that was probably a low point, right?

Not uh not something he was real excited about.

Okay, and it also shows us that when people cannot contend with the wisdom and the evidence for Christianity, they'll resort to violence, even all kinds of things, personal attacks, and it can even escalate to this kind of hatred.

Alright, so they plotted to kill him.

Now, verse 24, but their plot became known to Saul.

God was gracious to reveal it to him.

Says that they were watching the gates day and night in order to kill him.

But look at this, verse 25 but his disciples, okay, so the community of Of believers that were around Saul, okay, look what they do.

They have his back.

It says that they took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket.

Okay, so kind of like Tom Cruise style.

Okay, it's kind of that's a Mission Impossible 1 reference.

Okay, but what do they do?

They help him escape, right?

They lower him down.

Not sure Tom Cruise had a basket, but that's what happens for Saul.

Verse 26.

Okay, when they had come to Jerusalem, pause right there for a second.

Okay, so Galatians chapter 1 tells us, uh Paul tells us actually that this was now three years after his conversion.

Galatians 1 · chapter mention

So he spent time in Damascus for about three years.

Now he's going to Jerusalem.

Okay, when he'd come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples.

Okay, so the community of believers there now, the church.

But look at this.

And they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was truly a disciple.

Okay, so his former reputation as a tyrant, as a menace, uh had preceded him, okay, which was, as you can only imagine, probably another low point for uh for Saul.

Right?

He's got to deal with the consequences of his former life.

And and again, communication, information didn't travel as quickly and as easily back then as it as it does now.

Uh but we see here that people aren't too quick to trust him.

Okay, but then verse 27, take a look, Barnabas to the rescue.

It says, But Barnabas, which back in chapter four tells us his name means son of encouragement.

Okay, that comes into play here.

But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus.

Okay, so he, this is Saul, went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord.

Okay, so here's another high point in the life of Saul, in his Christian life.

Right?

The disciples recognize through the through the support of Barnabas, through his encouragement, remember his name means that literally, they recognize the validity of his conversion.

They hear the stories of what he has done, that that the way that he is living his life and is now in line with someone who claims to be a Christian, and so they, because of that, they throw their support behind them all the way.

Right?

They're all about it.

That was an awesome moment.

Now, verse 29.

And he, this is Saul, spoke and disputed against the Hellenists, but they were seeking to kill him.

Okay, so we're back to another low.

Okay, you might remember that the Hellenists, they were they were Greek-speaking uh Jews, okay, and these ones obviously antagonistic towards the gospel.

Now it's actually possible here as a side note that some of these Hellenists that sought to kill him could have been some of the very ones who had participated in the execution of Stephen.

And you remember that Saul was like the leader, uh, you know, giving oversight to all of that.

So some of these people, it's possible anyways, that some of these people actually knew Saul uh intimately and were like, man, you used to be our leader, and now you're against us, so we're against you.

We're gonna kill you, just like we did Stephen again.

It's certainly possible.

But notice yet another great showing of community support for Saul here, another high point for him.

We see it in verse 30.

It says, And when the brothers learned this, this is Christian brothers and sisters around him, they they rescued him again, right?

They brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus, which is actually where he is from.

Right?

So his brothers come behind him, they rescue him, they support him, and they help him escape once more.

And so what you and I see from all of this is that the Christian life is gonna be filled with highs and lows.

And so I think a question we've got to ask ourselves is is do we expect that?

Do you expect this of the Christian life?

Do you do you have a good understanding and a good belief locked down inside of you that there will be ups and downs along the way?

You're gonna have plenty of moments where there's gonna be immense joys and mountaintop experiences and incredible seasons of life and ministry and personally for you.

And there will also be heavy burdens.

There will also be sacrifice, there's gonna be valley lows, there are gonna be challenging seasons for us as well.

Now, I think probably generally speaking, if you've been a Christian for a while, you have a concept of this in your mind at the very least, but but I think sometimes deep down our expectations can kind of tell a different story.

Like maybe for you, you tend to lean one way or the other with all of that.

You tend to expect that maybe the Christian life should be just constant highs and excitement and passion all the time.

And you remember back to the early days where all of this was new and it was it was striking your heart for the first time, and you were fired up, and you couldn't wait to come to church, you couldn't wait to talk to your friends about the Lord, you couldn't wait to open the Bible and read it and pray and all of that stuff.

And and now as time has growing, gone on, and and you're sensing some of that maybe is dimming for you, and you're like, man, it should be just like full octane, fun, awesome, exciting all the time.

Some of us lean, I think, towards that kind of expectation.

That's what we want, that's what we think it should be.

Here, perhaps you're more at the other end of the spectrum, and you're a little more pessimistic about things, and maybe even jaded, and you've been a Christian long enough, and now you think that the Christian life will just be lows.

It's gonna be continual disappointment.

There's gonna be hurt, there's gonna be pain, there's gonna be trials, and for you it's like James 1, there's gonna be trials, it's 1 Peter, fiery trials.

To the point that even when the good times come, you're sort of like just kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop a little bit.

Well, there's pain around the corner.

Can't even really enjoy this good, this season of blessing and peace now.

Well, listen, it's it's really important to lock down real ex uh realistic expectation that there will be both highs and lows.

There will be ups, there will be downs, but listen, in all of it, even in the downs, okay, God is good.

God doesn't stop being good just because the circumstances of our lives have shifted and have become much maybe much more challenging than they once were.

We we know that that those experiences, those trials, those those difficulties, the sufferings, some of that kind of stuff, God wants to use it for good.

He wants to build up endurance.

Remember, we just read in the worship uh part today, we read that Romans chapter 5.

Romans 5 · chapter mention

Build up endurance in you, perseverance in you.

God is always good in this, he's good to use the the difficulty for our good and for his glory.

And all of it, not as God, not only is God good, he's in control.

He's in control every step of the way.

Your life might seem like it's spiraling, it might seem like it's one bad thing after the next, but it doesn't mean that God has been bumped off his throne.

Doesn't it doesn't mean that God isn't still in control, he's in control of all of it.

He really is.

And so in all of this, we can trust him.

We can draw near to him.

And of course, we do all of this within community.

And the other thing that we can expect is that God has has graciously given us a community of believers to support us through all of it, right?

Through the highs and the lows.

Like Barnabas and the disciples here in in Damascus and in Jerusalem, like they do with Saul.

So listen, if you're struggling and and you're having a hard go of things right now, we want to know it.

We want to be able to come alongside you and pray with you and support you maybe in tangible ways as well.

I mean, it's just one simple reason.

We have the the online prayer request where we can fill that out so that we can know and we can be in touch with you about all of that.

We want to we want to encourage you, we want to be there for you.

When you're experiencing the mountaintops and it's it's the good times and it's and it's God's blessing, and and and it's all coming to you like that.

Well, I mean, we want to know that kind of stuff too.

We don't just want to know the hard stuff, we want to know the good things.

We can rejoice with you, we can glorify Him together.

And if the expectation is that our Christian life should should have the support of the of the church community for for us as individuals, then it just makes sense that as that as part of that same church community, you'll expect yourself to be there to support others through the ups and downs of their Christian life as well.

That we would be there for them in the highs and the lows.

Personally, I'm just really thinking about this for myself these days and how I can be, I think, a better pastor to you and to care for you.

And I know we're really talking and thinking about this as a staff and as a leadership.

Because I think we have some things to learn and some areas to grow in this.

We really do.

But let's all let's all really think about this for ourselves here and how we can do this for each other.

This should be our expectation.

We expect to do these things.

All right, what else should we expect of the Christian life?

Well, here's the final thing.

We should expect the Lord to do what he promises, and that is to build his church.

You should absolutely expect that.

Verse 31, final verse today.

It says, So the church, notice, the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria, so that that whole region of Palestine, what happened?

It had peace.

It had peace.

It said that it was it was being built up and walking in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it it multiplied.

Okay, this is simply the fulfillment of Christ's promise in Matthew chapter 16, verse 18.

Matthew 16:18

And we know those words very well where Jesus said, I will build my church.

Right?

I will build my church, the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

As the church is built up, as the church multiplies and grows and expands, as the church moves forward into the culture and the gospel starts to take over hearts and souls, the gates of hell will not be able to hold the church back.

The gates of hell will fold flat because the Lord is building his church and sending us out.

That you and I should absolutely believe and expect that in our lifetime the Lord will continue to do this very thing.

He is still doing it.

You and I can and should expect that the Christian life that we've been saved into will experience this same thing that we see happening here in Acts chapter 9.

Acts 9 · chapter mention

Listen, I know that we can be very tempted at times to feel like the church in general is crumbling and failing.

It's way easier to see the negatives, it's way easier to see to spot the things that are worthy of criticism.

It can feel like the whole thing is maybe falling apart and not being what it should be, whether it's something like COVID and the effects on the church, or whether it's the stories of failed pastors or or or lethargic spiritually lethargic congregations where it just feels like where's the passion?

Where's the joy?

Okay, but listen, the truth is, we have to remember this.

The truth is that God is always at work somehow, some way.

So expect it.

Set your expectation on that.

You may not see it with your eyes, but God is always working.

He's working so much behind the scenes, and I mean, look how he's building them up here.

Right?

The Lord brings these believers into a season of peace, it says.

How awesome is that?

The persecution had been ramping up, it had been so intense, and the Lord like kind of withholds all of that, and they had this season of time, it doesn't say how long, where they experienced general peace.

Persecution was at a low.

It says that they walked in in the fear of the Lord, the church did.

This holy awe, this reverence, this wonder fills their hearts and their souls as they marvel at who God is, at his majesty, at what he's done in them, and what he's doing in others.

It says there, this is all verse 31, right?

That they're filled with the comfort of the Holy Spirit.

Man, I could use a dose of that these days, couldn't you?

Right?

Where fears, you see it here, their fears and their those doubts that they would have, the difficulties that they aren't paralyzing them.

It's not, those things aren't hindering them having any major effect whatsoever, impact on their ministry to other people.

Right?

This is all God's grace.

This is what he gives his church to build them up and to multiply the making of disciples.

Right?

This is the Great Commission.

In effect, we've been talking about that over the last number of weeks.

This is God fulfilling it.

And he's doing it today.

So, hey, listen, the question really is do we expect him to?

Do we expect not that maybe someday God will get up off his throne and finally do something?

No, do we expect that he's actually doing it?

He is doing it now, he will continue to do it in us, in our individual personal lives, in our families.

He will do it in our church, he will do it in this town, right?

He will do it in the communities that we live in.

He certainly promises to.

So listen, church, let's find new hope today.

Let's find new new encouragement in this.

If, or more likely when, you're discouraged about these things on a personal level, or when you survey the landscape of Christendom around you, remind yourself.

Remind yourself that what God has promised to do, He will accomplish it.

He is doing it, He will do it, He's gonna bring it through to completion.

Listen, I want to I want to pray for us in these things.

I pray that we would take joy.

I pray that we will take passion in this, that we'll be reminded of maybe our pessimistic attitudes or our lethargy will will turn to joy and turn to passion.

Our expectations will align with all of this.

So why don't you join me as we pray?

God, we thank you for this time together.

We thank you for your word.

We thank you for the time we've had to worship.

God, I pray that as we all have expectations, Lord, the question really is, are they biblical ones?

What we expect the Christian life to look like, is it about what you have laid out for us in your in your word?

Or if we have we morphed that?

Have we polluted that and turned the Christian life into expectations that are really just selfish?

Really just about us, really about our kingdom, about our will, our desires.

So, God, would you not only bring conviction in these areas, but Lord, new joy and new motivation to follow you and get on board with your mission, to make disciples, Lord?

The Great Commission is being rolled out, Lord.

I pray that we would see it.

I pray that we'd be passionate about it.

We'd be we'd be eager to join you in this, Lord.

So, God, I pray that you would fill us with joy in these things and spur us onwards, Lord.

And we pray that you would do all of this to the glory of your Son.

It's in his name we pray it.

Amen.