Availability Over Ability

Well, good morning, Church at the Grove.

I've been waiting a few weeks to say that.

Glad to be back with my church family.

And uh and it uh yeah, maybe you're glad too.

I don't know.

I've heard that the sermons have been shorter, um except for last week when Nathan preached.

Um uh just kidding.

Um but anyway, if you if I hadn't had a chance to meet you, my name is Russ, and I'm one of the pastors here at Church at the Grove, and uh and so good to be with my church family.

Uh had surgery tomorrow, it'll be four weeks ago, and uh had overall it's gone pretty well.

Uh a couple couple uh speed bumps along the way, uh, but so good to be back and be with you.

So thankful for our team and our leadership uh for stepping in and so excited about what God has in store for us as we move into this fall season.

And so, speaking of fall, you know, I'm excited.

This is probably my favorite time of the year.

I love the fall season, I love the weather, it gets a little cooler, I love the beauty of God's creation in this season, and I love college football.

Yeah, so and I just want to tell all my Georgia Tech friends, man, congratulations! Congratulations! I didn't know there was that many of you.

I thought we were mostly a dog church.

So, y'all enjoy that win.

Y'all enjoy it.

Man, enjoy it as much as you can.

Listen, I was I found myself rooting, very unusual for me, but I found myself rooting for the jackets.

I think just being the hometown, being an underdog, I'm a I'm a big fan of uh of underdogs and watching them uh you know pave their way to success.

I love I love the coach at Georgia Tech.

And I I did a little bit of reading this week.

I've had a little extra time on my hands.

And so I read an article about what goes in to a game like the game that was played yesterday in Dublin, Ireland.

So you had Georgia Tech and you had Florida State, two major college programs, and it's a it's uh you're talking about major operations.

I mean, we think about the 11 players that are on the field during the game, but behind those 11 players are a hundred to a hundred and twenty other players that are investing their time and energy to prepare their team for success.

You've got a coaching staff, 10 on-the-field coaches, plus a whole slew of other coaches that are that are working during the week on the game plan.

You have an army of trainers and equipment managers and you know doctors and physical therapists.

You just you have an army of people behind those 11 players that are making sure everything goes well.

And to take that many, I think it was 300, they estimated in the article that Tech and Florida State would probably have 300 people that were part of their travel community to Ireland.

You think, man, the cost, passports, all the details of packing for a trip, and you know if you've ever traveled, you always forget something.

And we, if you're in Dublin, Ireland, you can't you can't call somebody and say, hey, I know you're coming Friday, so would you bring something with you?

You just can't do that on a trip like this.

And so um, anyway, so I was so excited I was excited and proud of our home state, and um, but was reminded, hey, it's not just the kids on the field, it's not these, just these young men, it's an army of people that are making it possible for these players to carry out a game plan.

And that's it's the same way with with a lot of things in our life.

Um I live in a neighborhood called Ansley Lakes, and and you probably have heard of the quarries uh that are associated with Ansley Lakes, and we we have a lot of film companies that come in and film movies and television shows using the quarries as a background uh for their productions.

And so it's it's interesting to look at the army of people that that these companies bring in, these production companies bring in to produce a movie.

And we get to see the final project, we get to see the final uh what is what is the final produced film if you go to the movies or if you watch it at home, you stream it, whatever it is, and and you don't you don't see all the people that are behind the scenes.

For example, uh the movie Infinity War.

I don't know any Marvel fans in here?

Any Marvel fans?

Um the movie Infinity War, there were nearly 5,000 people that were credited with helping make that movie a success.

That's a lot of people.

Now, all most production companies don't have that many people behind the scenes.

But with a movie like that, huge production company, huge project, um, and if you've ever been to one of their movies, you know that there's always a special clip after the credits roll.

And so if you go to the theater when the movie's done, you don't leave when the movie's over for a Marvel movie.

You stay in your seat, and as the credits are rolling, instead of people walking out, everybody's waiting for the teaser clip that's gonna come after the credits.

And so you just sit there and watch all the credits, all the people.

5,000 names.

Here's how it's divvied out.

142 were part of the cast, actual cast that you would see on screen.

92 were in charge of location management, 128 makeup artists, 103 costume and wardrobe uh personnel, and then about 3,000 people that all contributed to the special effects and technology visual effects that you see in the final product, and then 90, 90 individuals responsible for transportation and making sure supplies get out to where they're gonna film.

Now, you don't see those people.

They're not on the screen.

You don't think about them.

But there's always an army of people behind the scenes that are making sure that you get to watch, you get to be entertained, you get to be drawn in to a story that hopefully uh will grip you and get you excited.

And it's we see this in our culture, in all different areas.

Our culture tends to gravitate to valuing the people who are in the spotlight.

Our culture tends to value the people who are in the spotlight.

And we forget about the people who are behind the scenes, but it's those people that are behind the scenes that are equally, if not more, important than the people on screen.

We see that in this political season.

We're in a campaign season.

We've got a fairly significant election coming up in November.

Now, I get I'm I'm done with it by now.

You know, by this point, I'm done.

We've had two uh conventions, uh Republican convention, democratic convention, and um, and we see we see the faces of the campaign.

You see the candidates.

They're on the stage, they've got the spotlight on them.

They're the ones doing interviews, they're the ones speaking, um, giving speeches and stump speeches and traveling around the country.

But it's an army behind them that you'll never see their faces.

Army of people that are that are the grassroots, boots on the ground, pounding the pavement, getting out and campaigning, making sure that the rallies are organized, prepared, ready, making sure that the security is in place so nobody gets hurt or shot.

I mean, you think of all the details that go into a campaign, production of a movie in professional or college athletics.

We focus on the stars, we focus on what, who is under the lights.

But there's hundreds of people working behind the scenes.

We see this in uh in pro sports, trades, payroll, uh, you know, stadium personnel.

You see it at all levels of sports.

And it's no different in the kingdom of God, it's no different in the local church.

Sometimes there's an unusual amount of attention placed on people that speak or sing or are on the platform.

But in reality, God has called every single one of us to contribute to his mission, which is to go and make disciples of all nations and glorify Jesus Christ.

And so today we're in this series, we're coming down to the end of this series, everyday heroes.

Everyday heroes.

So we've been walking through the book of Acts and looking at stories and individual characters in the story where the church is born and the movement of Jesus is beginning to spread outside of Jerusalem to the uttermost parts of the earth.

And so our goal through this series is for us to understand, all of us are called to serve.

All of us are called to belong in community, all of us are called to share our faith.

Every one of us, not professionals, not just the gifted, not those who can speak, not those who have certain types of personalities, but every single person has a place in the kingdom of God and the body of Christ to contribute with their gifts and their and their spiritual gifting to advancing the gospel and sharing the message of Jesus Christ.

And so here's the big idea for today.

God is not looking for ability, he's looking for availability.

God is not looking for ability, he's looking for availability.

So let's pray together.

Let's just pray.

Would you join me?

Let's just ask the Lord to use this time to speak to us, encourage us, position us to be receptive to the leadership of the Holy Spirit.

Father, we just ask you to speak to us, lead us, and guide us.

Lord, may we all understand that we all, every single one of us, can be a part of God's plan and purpose for spreading the gospel.

God, for bringing glory to Jesus, to making Jesus known.

And so I pray for this morning.

I pray for the Holy Spirit to come to pierce our souls, to pierce our hearts, to bring us to a place where we will be open and available and obedient to what He's called us to.

God, I pray that you'd speak, and God, I pray that we would respond in obedience.

It's in Jesus' name we pray.

And everybody said together.

Amen.

So if you've got your Bibles, Acts chapter 9.

Acts 9 · chapter mention

Acts chapter 9, we're looking at uh a story with two main characters.

Acts 9 · chapter mention

We're gonna really focus on one, but but Paul and Ananias are the two main characters in this story, and and a lot of us would would look at at some of these stories and we we we're drawn to the heroes, the the kind of the people that are out front.

We think about the apostle Paul.

We've heard most of us have heard of the Apostle Paul.

He was one of the great leaders of the early church, and and he was a church planter.

He went and started a church, and then he would raise up a young pastor or another pastor to follow in leadership, and he would move on to another place, another location, another city, and he would plant a church, start a Bible study, begin to preach, begin to spend time in prayer, and to make disciples.

And so Paul, we know Paul is an apostle of Jesus Christ.

He is a disciple who carries out the mission of Jesus Christ.

We know that he wrote most of the New Testament.

Um, he, you know, most of what we read in the New Testament, he's an author of a lot of the letters in the New Testament.

But what we don't think about is who was Paul before he was Paul.

He was who?

Saul.

He was Saul.

And so who was Saul?

Saul was a persecutor of the church.

Saul had this mission.

His mission was not to take the message of Jesus to the world.

His mission was to do whatever he could to prohibit the message of Jesus, advancing the gospel.

And he he did this through going from place to place and literally killing as many Christians as he could with the goal and purpose to extinguish the movement of the early church.

You see him in Acts 8 holding the coats of people while they stone Stephen.

Stephen was a deacon and a leader in the local church.

He had preached the gospel, uh, stood up for um widows and orphans, and and they were uh they were stoning, they were going to stone Stephen.

They dragged him outside of the city, and they were getting prepared to stone him.

And Paul is in that scene in Acts 8, and they all come and ask him to hold their cloaks while they throw stones at Stephen.

And so Paul is there holding their coats as Stephen is being stoned to death.

And so Paul has Saul at that time, Saul has authority from the high priest to go town to town to exterminate as many Christians as possible.

And so this particular story that we see in Acts chapter 9, he's left Jerusalem, he's headed north to Damascus.

Acts 9 · chapter mention

And if you don't, if you want to know a little bit about Middle Eastern significant history, uh I got out this morning uh or last night, depending on how you look at it, and and saw a headline, you know, where Hezbollah had launched a massive attack of rockets against Israel.

So, so Damascus was part of the story of the Bible a couple thousand years ago, and it's still a significant place in the story as we still as we move toward the end of this age when Jesus comes back to return and establish his kingdom on this earth as it is in heaven.

And so what you see there is is Paul heading to Damascus to continue his persecution of the church, and all of a sudden, he um a voice comes with a bright light from heaven.

And the voice speaks out and says, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

Now who's talking there?

It's Jesus.

It's Jesus.

Why are you persecuting me?

The voice of Jesus.

Saul falls to the ground, he's blinded by the light, he's led into the city of Damascus, to the home of a man named Judas, and this is where we pick up the story.

Acts chapter 9, verse 10.

Acts 9:10

If you want to read along with me, it says, It says, There was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias.

And the Lord said to him in a vision, Ananias, Ananias.

He says, Here I am, Lord, here I am, Lord, and Ananias is a disciple of Jesus.

Now we know he's not an apostle, he's not part of the original twelve.

He might have been part of the 70 that was sent out by Jesus.

He could have been part of the 120 that was praying in the upper room.

We're not sure exactly where he crossed paths, where he heard the gospel, how he responded to the gospel, but we know he has responded, and he is a follower of Jesus, and he is on mission with Jesus.

And so the this bright light has blinded Paul, and Paul hears the voice of the Lord, and then also at the same time, the Holy Spirit is speaking to Ananias, and he is sensitive.

Listen to this.

He is sensitive to the Holy Spirit.

I mean, he's he's probably doing all the things that all of us do in life: work, family, you know, travel, responsibility, all the things he has, but he has responded and been sensitive to the Holy Spirit, how the Holy Spirit has called him.

Hey, come follow me, but also join me as we take the gospel to the world.

And so, who what is and who is a disciple of Jesus?

It's somebody that says yes to Jesus.

It's somebody that is willing to bring a blank contract, they're willing to sign their name before they see all the conditions, and they're willing to say, yes, Lord, here I am.

The Greek in that phrase, here I am, where Ananias says, Here I am, Lord, the literal translation could also be read as yes, Lord.

Yes, Lord.

And so Ananias puts his yes on the table, which is really the responsibility of all of us as disciples.

Even though we don't know every detail that God has called us to live out, how he's called us to live out our faith, he's called us to follow him by putting our yes on the table.

And so that's what Ananias says.

He says, yes to Jesus.

Here I am, Lord.

I've got my ear tuned in to your voice, and I want to know your will and your leadership.

Speak to me, Holy Spirit, lead me and guide me.

So what is it, what are some of the characteristics of a disciple that puts their yes on the table?

What are the characteristics of a disciple who has said, I don't want to just be, I don't want to just focus on ability, but I want to focus on my availability.

Somebody who says yes puts their yes on the table to the Lord Jesus.

Here's, I want to look at three specific characteristics of a disciple like Ananias.

And the first one is this available people listen to God's voice.

Available people listen to God's voice.

Listen to what John 10 says.

Jesus says this.

He says, The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice.

He calls his own sheep by name, and he leads them out.

When he's brought all of his own outside, he goes ahead of them.

The sheep follow him because they know his voice.

So available people, listen for the voice of God.

So we might ask the question, how do I hear the voice of God?

That's a big question.

How do I hear the voice of God?

So let's bring that down to a few specific practical ways that you can position yourself to hear the voice of God.

The first one is this: you immerse yourself in the Word of God.

Immerse yourself in Scripture.

You want to hear the voice of the Lord?

Immerse yourself in Scripture.

Read the Word.

You say, Russ, I've never read the Bible.

I would be willing to bet there's a number of us in this room that probably have a desire to read the Bible, but get a little overwhelmed with all the content.

And the question that we might ask is, where do I start?

Where do I start?

Let me just tell you the simple place to start.

Start in the Gospels.

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Start with the Gospels.

And a guy that I follow on Instagram, his name is Dave Dave Adamson, and he's an Australian minister.

And he's got a great ministry on Instagram where he shares devotions.

And so he writes specifically about how to read the Bible, how to start reading the Bible.

He says, Man, start with the Gospels.

Take one month.

First week, read all of Matthew.

Second week, read all of Mark.

Third week, read all of Luke.

Fourth week of the month, read all the Gospel of John.

Okay, that's the first month.

What I do the next month?

Go back to Matthew.

Read the Gospel of Matthew the first week.

Read the Gospel of Mark the second week.

Read the Gospel of Luke the third week.

Read the Gospel of John the fourth week.

You know what?

If you spent a whole year reading through the Gospels of Jesus every month by the end, I promise you, by the end of that calendar year, your Spirit of God living inside of you would be tuned in to the voice of God like never before.

Like never before.

And when you're tuned into the voice of God, it's more likely that you're going to hear his voice and obey what he commands for you to do.

So the first way to begin to hear and to become acquainted with the voice of God, immerse yourself in the Word of God and Scripture.

The second thing is contemplative prayer.

You position yourself to hear God.

You position yourself so you're not too far away from the truth of God.

Contemplative prayer puts you in a position, you've immerse yourself in Scripture, and then you say, God, speak to me.

Speak to me.

My wife is a saint.

Jill is a saint.

She's taken such good care of me.

And I will tell you, she's been mean to me.

She's been a little bit rough on me.

So four weeks ago tomorrow, I had surgery on my shoulder.

And uh and then we had, you know, first two weeks kind of went by, probably like we thought they would.

And then last weekend, not yesterday, but a week ago, uh, it was actually the Friday, so it's been a week and two days.

My mom, my mom fell for the second time after I had surgery.

So I had surgery on July 29th, which was a Monday.

Wednesday, she comes to my house to bring me ice cream bars, and I which I feel really, I guess it's my fault.

She she can't, she fell, she fell at my house.

That was Wednesday.

So Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, Jill is taking care of me and my mom.

So you pray for my saint over here.

Um and then she gets to go home.

But last Friday she fell for a second time at her house, broke her hip.

Saturday morning she has surgery to re to do a hip replacement.

And so this past week she's been she got moved to a rehab facility.

She's doing so much better.

Praise God, thank you, Lord.

Um, but I mean it's it's been crazy.

In the middle of all that, I'm trying to recover and get back to some sense of normalcy, and my wife's taking care of me.

Um, and so I get I get my hand slapped by the doctor, I get my hand slapped by my wife, because I I on Friday and Saturday I spent too much time up at the hospital with my mom, and it took a little bit of toll on my recovery.

So that's that was when my wife, I f I, you know, I'm at home in pain, and I I open my eyes and she's shaking her finger in my face.

I hear something about medicine, rest, sleep, and she says, turn off.

So my habit, one of my habits, and I talk about this openly, we all I think struggle with this.

When we don't, when we can't do what we normally do, and normal patterns, and I'm trying to, you know, part of my part of what I'm supposed to do is to get rest and sleep, which is hard after you're recovering from surgery, um is to is to sit quietly and deal with the silence and the quietness and spending time in contemplative prayer.

So instead of reaching for a screen, instead of reaching for an iPad, instead of reaching to watch a video, instead of reaching to read an article or a book, I leave everything off, sit in the dark, and just enjoy.

Learn how to reconnect in contemplative prayer with the Lord.

So immerse yourself in scripture, contemplative prayer, this posture of listening.

And then thirdly, is to live in obedience.

You want to you want to be tuned into the voice of God, then you must first obey what He's already made clear to you as a disciple of Jesus, how you are to walk, how you are to live, how you're to love God, how you're to love other people, how you love people in the church, how you love people outside the church, how we share our faith, how we invite people to be a part of what God is doing, how we open ourselves up and pray and encourage people to listen and respond to the gospel.

And so God will entrust more to the people that have been faithful to what God has already spoken to them, the way that they should live and share their faith.

And part of that's just being devoted.

Being devoted.

Charles Spurgeon says this, the great um uh British preacher from the 1800s, he says this the Spirit of God dwells with the devout man and fits him for the Lord's service.

I believe that God loves to send, God loves to send as his special messengers those who ordinarily dwell near him.

Let us aim to abide with God that we may be employed by him.

Every Christian man cannot be a talented man, but every Christian should be a devout man.

Every man cannot be eloquent, but every man who loves the Lord may be devout.

And in that devotion lies a main qualification for service.

Remember, we said God's not looking for people who are have ability, but rather people who are available.

Availability.

He has, he that has power with God will not fail to have power with men.

And so Ananias was someone like that.

He was devout.

He had prioritized his direction in life.

He had prioritized prayer in his life.

He had prioritized the mission of Jesus in his life.

And so the Lord comes to him.

Here's what Jesus says to him.

Verse 11, Acts 9, verse 11, get up and go to the street called straight.

Acts 9:11

The Lord said to him, To the house of Judas and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, since he is praying there.

In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias coming in and placing his hands on him, so that he may regain his sight.

Verse 13, Lord Ananias answered, I've heard from many people about this man, how much harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem, and he has authority here from the chief priest to arrest all who call on your name.

So look, God calls Ananias.

Ananias, I've got something for you.

Ananias is a devout disciple.

He loves Jesus.

He has positioned himself where he can tune in to the Spirit of God speaking to him.

He has experienced and practiced the discipline of contemplative prayer.

That's not, just so you know, contemplative prayer is sitting in the quiet or sitting, not even just reading God's word, but it's just saying, God, speak to me, speak to me.

Praying with the Lord.

And so Ananias was devout.

He was on mission.

And he also had been obedient to what God had called him to do.

But then Jesus speaks to him and says, Go find Saul.

Jesus.

You're kidding.

This guy is a murderer.

This guy, this, this is his reputation precedes him.

What a difficult request.

What a difficult task that Jesus gives Ananias.

And so Ananias' response isn't necessarily a response of doubt or lack of faith, but it's a response of really just asking for clarification.

Lord, I want to make sure that I'm hearing you correctly.

I've heard that this man is hunting down followers of you, and I want to make sure I've got clear directions.

And I love this part because it gives us our next characteristic of a devout, faithful disciple who is on mission with Jesus.

And so Ananias is showing his heart, showing how he wants to be obedient.

And so available people not only position themselves to listen for God's voice, available people bring their concerns to the Lord.

Available people bring their concerns to the Lord.

And God is a patient, heavenly Father who walks alongside his children.

You know, he doesn't want to push us out to obedience and leave us there.

He's with us.

He's leading us, he's guiding us, speaking to us.

1 Peter 5, 6 and 7 speaks, Peter is writing here, speaking of about what it's like to turn our hearts in humble obedience to the Lord.

He said in 1 Peter 5, 6 and 7, humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your cares on him because he cares for you.

And so God is calling us to lay our yes on the table, like he does with Ananias.

But we can identify with Ananias in the sense that sometimes we're just challenged by stepping out of our comfort zone to go out of our kind of areas that we feel comfortable in to serve.

For some of us, that might be how we get to know the Lord.

Or it might be how we connect and minister to other people inside the church.

Certainly, sometimes the command to share our faith can be a little bit daunting.

It can be a little bit overwhelming.

Especially if you are a person who doesn't want to talk or doesn't is not an extrovert.

And then look how it affects us.

And so Ananias, you know, he's had to step out of his comfort zone, and he's learned how to be obedient to the commands of Jesus.

Jesus is calling him to go share with Paul, to go minister to Paul.

And so sometimes God calls us to connect with others in the body of Christ, to minister to our brothers and sisters.

And then God also calls us to serve.

And so here at Church at the Grove, we would say it like this is God calls us all to our own personal ministry.

He gives you spiritual gifting.

He might give you a passion for a people group or for a country or for a ministry somewhere else in the world.

And so for some of us, God has called us to connect with other believers in a group, not to sit in a row and stare at the backs of somebody's head, at the back of somebody's head, but to sit in a circle and to build relationships with other believers, to open ourselves up and to share a bit of vulnerability or transparency.

And we could keep going through that list of things that God calls us to do, praying with people, sharing with people the gospel.

Look at verse 15.

But the Lord said to him, the Lord said to him, Go, for this man is my chosen instrument.

He's talking about Paul, Saul at this point.

This man is my chosen instrument to take my name to Gentiles, kings, and Israelites.

I will show him how much how much he must suffer for my name.

Now, the Lord doesn't necessarily promise that Ananias, hey, nothing bad is ever going to happen to you.

That's not the promise that Jesus gives us.

He doesn't promise us a cozy, comfortable existence.

What he promises us is he says, I will never leave you nor forsake you.

He promises to be with you.

He promises to lead you and guide you.

He promises to fill you with his spirit if you open your heart up to him.

Verse 17, Ananias went and entered the house.

He placed his hands on him and said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road you were traveling, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

And so Ananias ultimately responds in obedience.

He's not hard-hearted.

He's not like Jonah.

You know, if you go back to the Old Testament book of Jonah, God calls Jonah to go share his faith, to share the good news, to share the message of God with the people of Nineveh.

Godless, hateful, mistreating people around them in their culture of that day.

The Ninevehes were a sinful, hard, harsh people.

And so Jonah goes the other way.

He said, I don't want to go to those Ninevites, those godless people.

I don't want to hang around those people.

And sometimes we have the same mindset.

We think everybody in the church has got it together inside the walls.

We're all the good people.

And all the people outside that aren't here on a regular basis on Sunday morning, those are the bad people.

Well, let me tell you something.

It's not good or bad.

Everybody's broken.

All of us are broken.

And we need to go to the Lord for healing.

We need to go to the Lord for salvation.

We need to go to the Lord for reconciliation and restoration.

And so Ananias responds in obedience.

He says yes to the Lord, even though he's questioning.

He's asking for clarification.

And here's the final characteristic: available people believe they are sent by God.

Available people believe they're sent by God.

God has placed you in this community as a sent disciple of Jesus.

And so what are we called to do as sent people?

We're called to live as sent people.

We're called to see everything in our life through the lens of whether we are sent to share the gospel.

And so you think that you chose to live in Walton County.

You think that God, you know, that you chose to take a job in Walton County and move to Walton County, or you might live in Rockdale County, or you might live in Newton County or Morgan County or one of our adjoining counties, Barra County.

No, God sent you here.

God sent you.

You think you chose to come to church at the grove?

No, God sent you here.

And that's how we need to change our perspective.

Not from I chose to be here to God chose to send me here.

Do you see the difference?

And so a disciple of Jesus, three simple things for a disciple of Jesus.

Hey, we're called to love God.

We're called, secondly, to love people.

And then thirdly, we're called to live our lives as being sent by Jesus.

We're all on a mission.

Like your neighborhood, where you live.

We like the playground.

We like the pool.

We like this or that.

No, God sent you there because there's people in that neighborhood that need to experience the love of Jesus.

God has sent you there.

He sent you there.

If he calls you to go somewhere else, he calls you to go live somewhere else, he's going to send you to where he wants you to be.

We're sent wherever we go.

We're all missionaries.

All of us are missionaries.

All of us are called to live our lives sent.

And see, it's the people, we don't know the, we may not know the names of some of the everyday heroes that have been significant in expanding and advancing the kingdom of God.

We're familiar with names like Billy Graham.

We're familiar with famous pastors like Charles Stanley.

We're familiar with certain churches, but behind those people of God and the ministers that are ministering the word of God are some other heroes who at some point heard the voice of God and obeyed the voice of God in sharing the good news of Jesus.

Let me give you some examples.

John Staufitz.

You ever heard of the name John Staufitz?

He is the man who helped lead Martin Luther to Christ.

I always make sure you understand, not Martin Luther King, Jr.

I'm talking about Martin Luther.

Martin Luther lived back during the 400s and into the 1500s, and he was one of the architects of what we call the Reformation, the Great Reformation of the Church.

And so you think Martin Luther, man, he wrote, he wrote and he preached the gospel.

He was a significant contributor to the church and how he wrote and preached and taught and obeyed the Lord.

But somebody had to share Jesus with him.

John Stolpitz is the everyday hero that shared his faith with Martin Luther.

And I'm telling you, we wouldn't be here.

We wouldn't be in this room, in this county, and we wouldn't be living in a country that has as its foundation a Judeo-Christian ethic.

And you may not have heard the gospel of Jesus without somebody like Martin Luther that was willing to stand up and say, hey, you know what?

We've gotten off track.

We need to bring reformation and come back to the Word of God, to the person of Jesus Christ, to the Spirit of God, faith alone, in the Word of God alone, saved by grace alone.

Amen.

John Eglin is another everyday hero.

Who is John Eglin?

He was instrumental in the conversion of Charles Spurgeon.

You hear me quote Charles Spurgeon a lot.

He's one of my heroes.

And he was a mega church pastor before mega churches were known as mega churches.

And I've been to his Metropolitan Tabernacle in London.

It's a massive place.

They didn't have electricity.

They didn't have sound.

And I think, how did he preach to this many people in a room like that?

Thousands of people.

Tens of thousands of people.

He must have been a loud-mouthed like me.

Edward Kimball.

You ever heard of Edward Kimball?

Edward Kimball was a shoe salesman in Chicago.

He happened to end up becoming the mentor of D.L.

Moody.

I don't know if you've ever heard of D.L.

Moody, but there's a college in in Chicago, Moody Bible Institute.

And D.L.

Moody was one of the great preachers in our country early on.

But how did he come to know Christ?

Because a simple shoe salesman was willing to share his faith and mentor a young preacher man in following Jesus.

Mordecai Ham.

You ever heard of Mordecai Ham?

Probably not.

He's a little known evangelist who preached the night that Billy Graham turned his life over to Jesus.

Now we know who Billy Graham.

And if you don't know who Billy Graham is, which I'm learning, like my kids are Billy Graham, they don't hear about Billy Graham every day like I did, you know, as a young adult in the ministry in the United States.

I got to actually go and hear Billy Graham when he came to Atlanta to do a crusade back in the 90s.

And so Billy Graham had to come to know Christ.

He's probably shared the gospel with more people in a short amount of time than anybody else that's ever lived via television and radio and technology.

Billy Graham was the man at one point in the history of our world that was preaching all over the world and sharing the gospel, willing to go behind the iron curtain, willing to go to places like the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries to share the gospel, even despite their atheistic and socialistic political leanings.

Here's the lesson with this.

We never know how God might use each one of us to touch somebody's life who will in turn use their life to share the gospel with others.

You never know.

There's probably some, there's a young person that's going to come out of church at the grove that will go and plant a church or go and pastor a church, and they will reach far more than any of us have been able to reach.

But because somebody was willing to say yes, you know, along with the 15 families that came with Jill and I, you know, there were 15 families that put their yes on the table.

And so we are hopefully we are willing to be devoted and obedient.

God is not looking for ability, but availability.

God could use anybody in any way to share his message, but he's chosen to use everyday heroes like you and me to make Jesus known to the people around us.

James 5 and 6 says this.

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed.

The prayer of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect.

And why would I read that verse?

Because I'm going to close by emphasizing that we become everyday heroes as we do life together in the body of Christ.

We find healing, we find reconciliation, we find wholeness when we obey what God's called us to.

Pastor Rich Viotas is a pastor at a church in uh in Manhattan, New York.

Um he writes significantly, and he's a guy that I follow on Instagram.

And here's what he writes about the significance of community in developing us as people who are devoted disciples.

He says, we are wounded in community and we are healed in community.

No way around it.

Healing might not come from the community where the wounding took place, but community is needed for healing nonetheless.

And so God, God wants to use every single one of us, not just those that are on the platform.

He wants to use all of us to bring healing to the rest of us.

And so we find healing in community, not just in our contemplative prayer, not just in the Word of God.

We find healing in community.

We find that we we discover God's will more significantly in the context of community.

And that's kind of what I want to emphasize just the last couple of minutes as our team comes to help us close this time of our service.

Um it's a time for us to stop for a second.

I want to ask you to think about how Jesus might be calling you to take a step of obedience today.

It could be a step into service, a step understanding that God's gifted you and called you to serve.

It might be a step into community life.

We have community groups where people can come and and and and find relationships and friendship in our community groups, or it might be God wants to use you to share your faith with people where you work or go to school with, or people that that live in your neighborhood.

People that you work with.

Our approach to community isn't just for us.

We don't just start with us.

That'd be a bit selfish.

It'd be a bit selfish to benefit from the grace that God provides us and not be willing to share it with somebody that hasn't heard it yet.

One of our couples that's down in social circle, Holly and Trey, they had a child.

Holly and Trey had a baby a few months back.

And they were through the through the gift of technology, they were able to find out before the baby was born that the baby had an issue with his heart.

And so they knew before he was born what his need was going to be.

And so as soon as he was born, they took him to surgery.

And so I know he's been through at least one, maybe more than one surgery already, and will probably have multiple surgeries still left.

But God has used the power of community to minister to Holly and Trey.

And here's what Holly said and Trey.

They said, we could not imagine walking through what we're having to walk through without our community.

If this would have happened to us five years ago, we would not have been able to survive.

They said, but thank God he brought us into the community of faith.

And as we journey through this season with their new baby boy, they're having to lean on the strength and the support of their church family.

One of the things we say about Church at the Grove a lot is that we're not like a family.

The church is not like a family.

The church is a family.

We're called to be a family to one another.

We're called to support one another.

We're called to pray for one another.

We're called to spur one another on in good deeds and good works.

That's what he's called us to.

What's the end of the, what's the purpose of that?

Is to make Jesus known, to lift up the name of Jesus, to glorify the name of Jesus.

Amen.

And so here's what I want to ask you to consider this morning as we come to the close of this service.

Man, that went fast, didn't it?

Maybe not for you.

I've got a lot more I could say.

I've got four weeks worth.

Here's what I'm going to ask you to do.

What is it that you might need to listen for from the voice of God?

What is he calling you to do?

Is he calling you to step out and maybe join one of our serve teams?

Is he calling you to step out and join one of our community groups?

Is he calling you to step out in faith and to share your faith with a neighbor or a classmate or somebody you work with?

Whatever that is, it's a simple step of faith.

God has so much more for you.

He's given you an inheritance of riches to look forward to.

He doesn't just want you to survive, he wants you to flourish.

He wants you to have this abundant life.

But I've come that you might have life and have it abundantly.

Amen.

And so here's what I want you to do.

Bow your heads for a second.

Bow your heads.

And maybe, maybe if you want to humor me a little bit, just hold out, hold out your hands in front of you.

Just hold out your hands, open, and say, Here I am, Lord.

Just you, right where you are, in your own words, just tell the Lord, here I am.

I am making myself available.

Just take a second and you pray in your own words that prayer to Jesus.

Is to say yes to Jesus when it comes to community.

We've got groups, groups that'll be cranking back up as we move into this fall.

I love hearing about how groups do life together, they eat together, they share life together.

God's called us to live in community.

And so part of your prayer might be saying, you know, I'm comfortable where I am, but I know that God, you don't want me to stay where I am.

You want me to step out in faith.

God, lead me to a group or a group of people that I can connect with and do life with as I seek to follow Jesus devoted to Him.

Just pray that prayer in your own words to the Lord.

And then thirdly, as you consider just making yourself available, dear Jesus, who is it that you want me to share my faith with?

Who is it that you want me to invite into the life of our church?

Who is it that you want me to reach out to and to serve and to minister to them?

Who is it, God?

Make it clear.

Make it clear.

Father, we love you.

We thank you for your goodness and your grace.

I know that you are calling us into obedience for a purpose that is so much beyond our own life.

May we be unselfish in how we share our faith.

Faith that has given us hope, given us purpose, given us significance, identity.

You've called us to make that same faith available to other people.

Father, would you take this time as we close this time?

God, to make it clear, evident.

Give us a heart to obey, give us a courage to step out in obedience.

And God, may we see you continue to work and move in a powerful way in the life of our church.

It's in Jesus' name.

I pray.

And everybody said together.

Amen.