Purpose Full: It's Complicated | Part 2

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

Welcome to Awakening.

My name's Ryan.

We're thrilled to have you join us today, and we're in part two of our series Purpose Full.

Last week we said this: that you are an unceasing spiritual being with an eternal destiny in God's great universe.

Meaning that first, that you were made on purpose, that you're not an accident, that you're not a mistake, you're not a waste of time.

You were made on purpose and you were made for a purpose.

Like there is a design and intention and there's meaning for you to fulfill.

And so the question we've been asking is like, how do you live this purposeful life?

In fact, last week we talked about uh really how do you discover God's calling on your life?

Like, how do you really understand his plan for who he's made and designed you to be?

Now, for many, I think after the last year and hearing last week's sermon, you probably are going like, yeah, but that's nice, Ryan, but but the last year of pandemic has deeply shaped us, hasn't it?

The last year as a pandemic has deeply scarred us.

And it's even deeply scared us, hasn't it?

And when we're thinking about purpose, when we're thinking about calling, we're wrestling deeper, more along the lines here of how do you live a purposeful life in a post-pandemic world?

Is that even possible?

Like all the stuff we've just gone through, the uncertainty, the unknown, uh all the chaos and heartache and injustices and the things that we're constantly reeling from, and we're just trying to keep our heads above water and just get through.

How do you live a purposeful life in a post-pandemic world?

Or maybe even can you live a purposeful life in a post-pandemic world?

Today, I want to give you three key thoughts for living a purpose-filled life in a post-pandemic world.

Uh, last week we left off uh Barnabas and Saul with their calling and their commissioning, Acts chapter 13.

Acts 13 · chapter mention

If you want to study the entire scripture that we're gonna be in, it's Acts 13 through 15.

They're called to go and share the gospel with uh the nations, and then they are commissioned and sent out.

And so I want to give you a map of what's known as their first missionary journey.

And so here they are in Antioch.

This is where they're called and commissioned.

And so then they go out, they go to the city or town of Seleucia, grab a boat, uh, sail to this island of Cyprus.

They land here in Salmus, they preach the gospel there, it's received, and many people come to know Christ.

Then they travel through the interior of the island, sharing the gospel.

And they brought along, Barnabas brought along a relative named John Mark at the beginning of the journey with him.

And so they're traveling, the three of them together, sharing the gospel.

In Paphos, they experience some opposition, a sorcerer who uh was opposing them fiercely.

It's a kind of wild story in the presence of the procouncil there.

Paul actually declares in the name of Jesus he's blinded for a season as he's tried to blind others.

He goes blind to the pro-council, and everyone sees this, they're amazed, and they give their life to Christ.

And so they spend some time there and then they catch a boat and they sail all the way up to Perga.

Now, in Perga, John Mark, who is traveling with them, he's he's a he can't handle the intense opposition they've been facing.

And so he deserts them and travels all the way back down to Jerusalem.

That's important for next week as we talk about uh, you know, when when godly people disagree.

That's a really important message.

I don't want you to miss it.

Well, in Perga, they preach the gospel, it's well received, then they travel up to the interior.

This whole region is known as Galatia.

Uh, and they travel to Antioch, a different Antioch than here.

This is Antioch Syria, this is Antioch Pisidia.

Antioch here, Paul preaches his longest sermon.

Lots and lots of people, specifically Gentile people, come to know Jesus.

Well, this rubbed Jewish people very badly.

And so, as they travel to Iconium, some Jewish leaders come here and begin to uh incite and try to disrupt their teaching.

And people come to know Christ in Lystra.

Uh, they uh Paul actually gets stoned here because of the trouble that was caused for them.

He doesn't die, he gets back up, he traveled, comes back into the city, dust himself off.

Then they travel to Derby, preach the gospel, and then they go back through all the cities they just went through, and they appoint elders or leaders to guide the churches to Lystra iconium, Antioch, Perga.

And from here they sell all the way back to Antioch and they spend time um just sharing and celebrating all that God had done and how he's opened the doors now to the Gentile people.

And here's where the plot thickens in such a way that it leads them all the way to Jerusalem.

And so I want to catch you up to what led them to Jerusalem.

It's where it gets complicated, it's where it gets messy, it's where things actually forever change for the church in some of the most incredible ways possible.

And it begins this way: if you have your Bibles, Acts chapter 15, verse 1, says that certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers.

Acts 15:1

Well, what are they teaching?

Unless you are circumcised according to the customs taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.

And so what they're teaching is you it's not just believing in Jesus, you have to become Jewish.

If you're a man, you have to become circumcised.

You need to live by the ceremonial law and uh all the food rights and all these other areas.

Unless you do this, you can't be saved or part of the fellowship of believers.

Well, you can imagine what happens.

This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute.

This is an intense debate with them.

So Paul and Barnabas, notice what happens next, were appointed along with some other believers to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and the elders about this question.

And so there's an argument in Antioch.

You have what would later be known as Judaizers, those who wanted to make Christian Gentiles become Jewish in order to be saved.

This is the reason Paul wrote his letter to those churches in Galatia against other Judaizers of this same uh reason here, or what they're teaching.

And so the church in Antioch says, hey, okay, this is important, this is a big deal.

These are places that we haven't, you know, necessarily defined yet.

Instead of the two of you arguing, go to Jerusalem, go to the apostles, go to the elders, and let's figure out once and for all what is reality, how, what does it mean to be saved?

And as they travel down, Paul and Barnabas can't help as they're traveling uh up to Jerusalem to share all that God has done along the way.

Well, when they get to Jerusalem, they gather together and there's a large group of the church of leaders all together.

And it says this that then some of the believers who belong to the party of Pharisees stood up and said, The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.

Now you gotta imagine what's happening in the ancient world has never happened before.

Jews and Gentiles now becoming one family, the family of God.

And now they're trying to figure out what does that look like?

What does that mean?

I mean, prior to this point, a strict Jew would not interact with a Gentile, would not eat with a Gentile, would not enter the house of a Gentile afraid of being defiled.

And so they're trying to figure out okay, how do we now act as one family?

And their reasoning was make them Jewish.

Well, it says the apostles and the elders met uh to consider this question.

Does someone have to become Jewish to be saved?

Now notice this after much discussion, this wasn't flippant, this wasn't quick, this wasn't, you know, for some of us we feel like, oh, this is so clear-cut.

After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them.

Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips.

That some time ago was 10 years ago when Cornelius first heard.

Hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe.

God knows the hearts, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them just as he did to us.

There was no restriction of the Spirit of God based on circumcision or any outward behavior.

You cannot earn your way to God, is what he's saying.

Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the next of the Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to hear, uh bear?

No, we believe it is through grace our Lord Jesus that we are saved just as they are, that they're saved, not by any outward acts or performance, but simply by their faith in Jesus.

Well, then Paul and Barnabas get up and they begin to share all that God had done.

Now you got to think about the shift because as they began to spread the gospel, and this was Jesus' vision all the way at the beginning, that you'd be my witnesses in Judea, Samaria, uh uh, and to the ends of the earth.

Now the church is less a Jewish movement, it still is, and now it is a worldwide movement, and there's more Gentile believers than there are Jewish believers, and they're sharing how God was working in their midst.

And then James, the brother of Jesus, known as James the Just, known for his his following the strict uh letter of the law of the Hebrew scriptures.

So when he spoke into this matter, he spoke authoritatively, and everybody listened up.

And he said this, it's my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for Gentiles who are turning to God.

How do you make it difficult?

Well, if you're gonna enter the family of God first, get circumcised, ouch.

Follow the ceremonial laws and dietary restrictions.

He says, let's not make it difficult.

Isn't that amazing?

Isn't that a word for us?

Let's not make it difficult for people who are turning to God.

Instead, we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted to idols, from sexual immorality, from meat strangled from animals and from blood.

For the law of Moses had been preached in every city from the earliest times.

And his point here is instead of becoming Jewish, the moral law of God of the universe applies to all of humanity across all cultures.

This is incredible.

In this moment, instead of having every other culture step into Jewish culture, says, no, no, no.

It's Jesus and faith in him that transcends every culture and meets every culture.

And it says, There there are things that you have to say no to, like the worshiping of your idols.

That's what was the part of what he was saying no to, and and living a life of integrity here.

And here we see, and they send out a letter uh to the churches with other, you know, people in authority with them to go out and share this news.

This brought incredible joy back to Antioch and to all the other Gentile believers that all they had to do was believe in the Lord Jesus and they were saved.

And this transformed the entire church as we know it and expanded the scope from a Jewish movement to a Jesus movement for the entire world.

Now you're thinking, okay, what in the world?

How do I live a purposeful life in a post-pandemic world?

Throughout the text that we just read, I want to just draw your attention to three observations.

Three key observations and how we live a purpose-filled life and we live in a world that scarred and scared us recently.

In a world of defined by the religion of me, would you anchor yourself in the house and family of Jesus?

In a world defined by the religion of me, would you anchor yourself in the house and family of Jesus?

I want you to notice the first thing.

Paul and Barnabas, uh, and they have this sharp dispute, right?

And the first thing as they're discussing it wasn't like, hey, we're doing our own thing.

We're, you know what?

We know we're right, we know you're wrong, you can go do whatever, we're doing our own thing, whatever.

The first thing that they do is then they return to the source, go to the apostles, go to the elders, and say, hey, we're submitting under your authority and your leadership.

You tell us.

You tell us, because we're part of the family all together, we're part of this house and community.

You know, in a post-pandemic world, the predominant religion is the religion of me.

Well, what do I mean by that?

It's individual freedom and happiness, self-def definition, self-expression is the highest and greatest thing.

Mark Sayers in his book Reappearing Church, great book, by the way.

I'd encourage you to uh pick it up.

The only authority is found with the individual, he writes.

Thus, there is no possibility of sacred order.

All authority that challenges and restricts the autonomy of the individual must be leveled.

With no sacred order, the third culture is in constant flux as new authorities and rules appear, but are soon deconstructed.

And so you feel in this sense of individual freedom is the highest and good, but there's this constant flux, this constant pullback, and you're never sure exactly where you stand.

This is why French philosopher uh Gils Lecsky, I probably said his name wrong, said accompanying our increasing autonomy and freedom is a greater personal fragility.

And we've experienced that this last year, haven't we?

When the world revolves around me and my needs and my freedoms and my wants, autonomy is the god of our age.

Upsteski writes, hence the individual appears more and more open up and mobile, fluid and socially independent.

But the volatility signifies much more a destabilizing stabilization of the self than a triumph triumphant affirmation of a subject endowed with self-mastery.

Witnessing the rising tide of psychosomatic symptoms and obsessive compulsive behavior, depression, anxiety, and suicide attempts, not to mention the growing sense of inadequacy and self-deprecation, the more socially mobile the individual is, the more we witness signs of exhaustion and subjective breakdowns, the more freely and tensely people wish to live, the more we hear them saying how difficult life can be.

See, it's easy to say, I'm just gonna do me.

But it comes at a cost.

Rising anxiety, rising depression, sense of instability.

See, in a world defined by the religion of me, you are rudderless, you are anchorless, you are adrift.

And it says, anchor yourself in the house and family of Jesus.

What does it mean to be in the house?

I would say most of us feel like who are listening or watching today, hey, I'm a part of the family of God.

I'm a part of the family of God, but are you a part of the house of God?

There's a big difference between being a house, like being part of the household or a guest, right?

When you're part of the house, household, uh, like you are have a deep responsibility in that whole household.

Like my kids hanging out together, you know, there's chores that we have to do in there, you know, whether it's cleaning or cooking or some of these sort of things, there's responsibility, but but there's a deep level of relationship, isn't there?

There's a family sense that we're together, traveling.

There's different roles that each of us fill.

And that sense of autonomy struggles against that sense of wanting to be a part of the house.

And some of you experienced that.

Remember that first time that you um came home from college after extended time away, and your parents are like going, um, you know, I know you've had a lot of fun, but but in our house, this is kind of how we need to do things here.

And if you want to go off and live on your own, that's okay.

But but in our house, why?

Because there's a way of going about things in our house, in God's house, in the house of Jesus.

And we can struggle with some of those things until we have the roommate that is so constantly uh messy and disorganized that all of a sudden we become the one going like, no, there's there's gotta be some rules to our house.

See, there's a difference of being a guest.

And I would say most of us, most of us believe and feel like we're in the family of God, but we're more guests in the houses of Jesus or in the houses of worship.

We're we're we show up and we kind of partake, and it's like, hey, nice, I got this meal, but but some of the accessibility, some some of the responsibility, some of the just going like where Paul and Barnabas are going, like, we're not doing our own thing.

We're a part of a greater thing, and so we're gonna bring this before you, and whatever you say, we're gonna do.

See, it anchors us.

It anchors us into community, it anchors us into the ways of Jesus.

I just think of um some of the things that we do to help you know.

Like, are you gonna be a part of our house?

We we do a thing called intro.

It's just to discern, it is awakening the house for us.

Like where I want to be more than a guest.

We talk about, you know, from the front door to family.

We want you to be part of the family here, but don't be drifting through and life revolving around you.

Join, join the family and then get engaged in the house of Jesus.

It might be awakening, it might be another church where you go, No, I'm a part.

I'm coming into this community.

I I'm gonna be responsible uh for certain things.

I I'm a be I'm a participant.

I'm I'm not just showing up and taking, I'm I'm someone who's bringing to the table.

I'm coming, recognizing okay, I'm a learner as well.

In a world defined by By religion of me, anchor yourself in the house and family of God.

You may be part of the family, but are you a part of the house?

Many of us have operated simply as guests.

The second thing in a post-pandemic world is in a world of soundbite theology.

Think deeply in refining Jesus-centered community.

In a world of soundbite theology, I mean, what we have today is can you tweet it?

Can you repost it?

And it becomes the framework for our theological or our ideological or philosophical understanding.

In a world of soundbite theology, of what we see, would you think deeply in refining Jesus-centered community?

You notice that in the text it said, after much discussion, this was a big issue.

It was urgent.

There was already a lot of misteaching that came out of this.

It's like, man, let's just get on this really quick.

And they took their time and they thought deeply and well in examining the scriptures and what God's saying and how He's worked to come to where they landed.

We live in an age of information overload where we're constantly barraged by so much information, it's hard or impossible to take it in.

So we actually abdicate our thinking to other people.

What do they think?

What do they say?

Whatever they said, then that's what I believe.

And whatever they posted, whatever they posted, and you never go behind and look at what they really believe or what they really view or understand.

We live in information overload and then in a culture where almost demands instant reaction to something.

And so it's not only that the like I am barraged by all this information, but I have to respond immediately.

I have to repost immediately.

I have to show other people, you know, what I really believe and what I really think on something that happened 10 seconds ago, 10 minutes ago, one day ago.

We live in a world of soundbite theology.

And yet the calling, if we're going to live a purpose-filled life, is to think deeply in refining Jesus-centered community.

After much discussion, we're losing the ability to think deeply and dialogue about important and even controversial things.

I don't know if this is true for you, but I found over the pandemic that I just would like to check the news feed nonstop.

I I just I would wake up in the morning and check it, then I'd go check it again, and I'd go check it again.

Then maybe you're so tired at the end of the night, then you just desk scroll, you know, um Instagram.

And what I found was I was unable to concentrate.

Deeply distracted.

Anytime I began to focus and even unmotivated.

Like I loved to read.

And there was a good chunk of time I just felt like I couldn't read at all.

Except little sound bites.

See, the calling to a perfect sealed life is not to react to all that's up there, but to sink deeply into the word of God, to read deeply, uh, real classic works and what others have thought, and to engage in a community that's centered on Jesus?

I keep getting back to this because I keep seeing us not centered on Jesus.

Like at the end of our conversation, what was Jesus the focal points?

Was he the one, like would he be honored by the conversation?

We may have disagreed with it, but would he be honored by the conversation, not simply centered on our preferences or our opinions?

Ted Turneau notes that most people are not driven by well-understood and articulated philosophical worldviews.

He says more typically, people express their life philosophy in what we could call a street philosophy, which is held intuitively, unexamined, but that powerfully captures the gist of one's perspective on reality.

And if we're gonna live purposely in a post-pandemic world, first we have to anchor our lives into the house of Jesus and in the family of Jesus.

Then we have to be a people who are who are not gonna live on the surface level of things, but we're going to think deeply in refining Jesus-centered community.

Meaning, refining means that there's gonna be some friction, that other people and you are going to grow together and help each other grow.

That's why Proverbs says, as iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.

That sharpening effect that that comes with friction.

But when you have committed to the house of God, like this is my household, this is my family, these are my people, I'm not running away the minute there's friction, I'm leaning in because we're family.

Refining Jesus-centered community.

What does this mean?

It means we have to intentionally and systematically mute the noise with your phone.

Do you have a day where it's just turned off?

I can't do that, Ryan.

By the way, you can.

None of us are that important.

Do you have a time when you shut off all the alerts on your phone or you set it aside at night?

You know, Tim Ferris, he has this quote, uh, he says, Win the morning, win the day.

That's been so challenging to me because I would wake up in the morning so distracted, and I'd be checking that news feed, and I'd be, you know, all of a sudden then on Instagram, and I'm just zoned out, and I get up super early, and sometimes I'm super tired, and then I look up, an hour went by, and I did nothing.

I'm like, why am I up early doing this?

And so I just started leaving my phone in the other room, leaving my computer in the other room, sitting with God's word, my journal, some books that are deeply challenging to me.

When's the last time you read a book that was deeply challenging to you?

When's the last time maybe you read a Christian classic where you asked one of your pastors, hey, what's one of the um most formational books you've ever read?

What's one of the books that you go back and reread over and over again?

And then begin to discuss with other believers what you're learning and how you're growing.

In a world of soundbite theology, we must become a people who think deeply in refining Jesus-centered community in order to have a purpose-filled life post-pandemic.

Finally, in a world paralyzed by chronic uncertainty.

Like you can't even plan.

You don't even know what's gonna happen next.

Chronic.

And I think that might be our norm for a while.

I think we used to feel like there was a lot of certainty, and you could plan, and you never gave thought about it, and then all of a sudden it's been completely disrupted, and it's chronic uncertainty, and it's disrupted, and we don't know what to do, and what it does is it paralyzes us, doesn't it?

In a world paralyzed by chronic uncertainty, do the next right thing in front of you.

Here's what I love, right?

So, Paul and Barnabas, they instead of doing their own thing, they bring it down to the leaders of the church.

There's much discussion.

Where they landed, they didn't answer all the questions.

There's so many things.

So think about this.

Jews and Gentiles now worshiping together under the banner of Jesus, now one family.

How in the world does that work?

What in the world does that look like in on the island of Cyprus?

What does that look like in Laconium and Lystra and where they're at as opposed to Jerusalem?

And it looks so different.

And how do you figure out all these different things?

And here's what they did.

Here's what was amazing.

They simply move forward on what they were absolutely clear on.

What they were absolutely clear on is there is nothing more to be saved other than placing your faith and trust in Jesus.

What they're absolutely clear on is in following in the ways of Jesus, you got to say no to sexual immorality.

You got to say no to your old life when it comes to idolatry and your worshiping and say yes to Jesus.

Other than that, go figure it out.

And there's a lot of letters in the New Testament that help us go figure it out.

They just did the next right thing they knew to do.

They wrote a letter and let them know.

They didn't wait until they had the perfect plan.

And so many of us in the world paralyzed by chronic uncertainty, we're waiting for perfect.

Wait until we have it figured out.

And your call and fulfilling your purpose, my call, fulfilling my purpose.

Just do the next right thing in front of you today.

What is the next right thing?

It's really not that hard.

Dallas Willard said it this way, I totally ripped it off from him, by the way.

He says, simply do the next right thing you know you ought to do.

That's basically the crux of falling in the ways of Jesus, of loving your neighbor as yourself.

Like, what does that look like?

For some, the next right thing in front of you is getting deeply into God's word, having a conversation, extending forgiveness, deleting your social media posts, confessing, you know, a struggle to someone who's going to help you walk along the way, loving your neighbor.

There are so many next right things you know to do that just come up and just go, God, what's the next right thing?

I don't need step three or step four or step five, but what is the next right thing for me to do and then do it?

Don't delay, do it.

Friends, how do we live a purpose-filled life in this post-pandemic world?

It's possible.

It's anchored, it's anchored in the house and family of Jesus.

Anchor your life in a house of worship.

Okay, family moving together.

Think deeply.

Think deeply in refining Jesus-centered community, and then just simply do the next right thing you know to do.

And in that, you'll discover we'll discover we are a purpose-filled and a purpose-full community of Jesus.

God, thanks so much for your grace and your work in our lives.

And I know this time has been so hard, filled with anxieties and fears, and so much that's gone on that felt like, can we even move forward in life?

Father, I pray right now that your Holy Spirit would come alongside as the great comforter to comfort those that are wrestling right now, the great uh guide who says, Yes, these are the next steps, and you would cause us to be a people that lean in for your name's sake so that other people might experience your goodness and grace.

In Jesus' name, amen.

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