For All People: First Called Christians | Part 4

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.

Thanks so much for being here.

If we haven't met yet, my name's Chris.

I'm one of the pastors here, and I'm just excited to preach today as we continue our For All People series.

This has been a series in the midst of the book of Acts of the Apostles, which is a book in your New Testament that tells the story of the movement of Jesus after Jesus had risen from the dead, his followers starting the church and moving uh Jesus' word and message forward.

And so we find ourselves really right in the middle, sort of of the book of Acts in Acts chapter 11.

Acts 11 · chapter mention

If you have a Bible, you can go there as we start.

Well, you know, it's interesting.

Ryan mentioned we're going to be going to two services, and we haven't hosted two services in over a year.

And there's so many things that we're getting used to again as a church.

And there's so many things that maybe you are getting used to again about regular life.

The pandemic is certainly not over, but Lord willing is really shifting and changing towards a positive direction.

And I've found myself, my wife, and I, we've been married for 10 plus years, and for the first time in a year, we're starting to make plans.

You remember plans?

Remember them?

Remember when you used to have something on Friday nights?

Uh for those of us with kids, you used to get a babysitter.

Do you remember someone would actually come over and act and watch your kid for you?

Um, so Allie and I are starting to make future plans as we're getting our family is getting the vaccine and just really cool, exciting things happening.

But I'm I'm remembering, even coming to church through these in-person services we do in the last couple of months, it's like habits that I've formed over this year that I have to now correct because I'm I'm I'm now actually living a life again, you know?

Um, like you guys know, you guys know, right, there's a difference between being Zoom presentable and like presentable.

You know, like actually like you're gonna see someone in real life versus you're gonna show up on a screen.

Like you just gotta get like hear up good on Zoom.

And there's some details about your appearance that you can neglect, uh, that you just can't neglect anymore now that we're seeing each other in real life.

Um, there's just all these habits that we form that are just different, and we now have to find ourselves correcting them.

Like, you can't just log off of one meeting at 259 to go to your meeting at three o'clock.

You know, that's something I'm also remembering.

Oh, I need to drive somewhere, and then I need to, I forgot to, like, you have to park sometimes.

And like then you park and you have to walk from your parking spot.

Like, it's just it's just life again, you know?

And and I think too, as we start two services and we start kind of, you know, Lord willing, coming back really in in-person things as a church, it's it's interesting the spiritual habits that we've developed too, right?

The the ways in which we've engaged with church over the last year and how that has shaped how we view God and how we view one another.

There are things we just haven't done in a whole year, and there are things spiritually we haven't engaged in in the same way.

Like maybe some of you who are showing up to this in-person gathering, you weren't as consistent through this last year online as you used to be when we were in person every week.

You know, or maybe you kind of dropped off of attending one of our midweek groups because like you just kind of wanted, you you kind of lost the accountability of showing up in person.

There's people, some of you guys I've talked to, right?

Like over the year, it's like, yeah, I haven't done that.

I haven't served in a year, right?

We talked about serving.

Like, yeah, I think it's been about a year since I've served.

And I think there's some healthy, like, you know, come to reality moments we're gonna have right now as we think through the habits that have shaped us and that we've changed.

See, what we're interested in looking at in this series for all people is we said the gospel message, the message of Jesus is for everyone.

It is for all people.

The question we come to today as we look, as we continue our journey through the book of Acts, is we come to this question.

How can a community of all people, if the gospel's for all people, how can a community of all people last for all time?

Because I think in 2020, there's been some pruning in the church, there and the church at large, not just awakening, but just the church in America, the church in this world, because people have fallen out of rhythms of the church.

I think the church that comes out of this pandemic is different than the one that comes, came into the pandemic.

And the question this story is gonna answer is how can we as a church last?

How can we together go the distance as Christians in church community together?

How can we last for all time?

The story is going to give us three ingredients, it's not the only things, uh, but three ingredients that might be included in a in lasting spiritual growth and community.

And the story, again, I said, is in Acts 11, and it starts like this.

Acts 11, verse 19.

Acts 11:19

If you got a Bible, open it up.

Um, if you're on your phone, um, open the app.

Acts 11, 19.

Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews.

But there was a there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists, also preaching the Lord Jesus.

And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.

Let's pause the story right there.

There's more to come, but let's look at this real fast.

This little story, it have its set in the midst of persecution.

We've said this as we've studied Acts.

Actually, persecution or oppression of the gospel tends to help it spread more.

Through the book of Acts, you'll see like harsh political opposition, you'll see cultural opposition, but that opposition and persecution that is pressed on the church tends to spread the message faster and quicker.

It can't really be contained.

It's true throughout church history when you study church history that the gospel flourishes when it's in trouble.

The gospel spreads when the gospel's in trouble.

It's just something about it.

It's happening today, by the way, too.

If you look at countries that are structured around certain politics and governments that are less uh uh you know favorable towards Christianity, uh, countries in Asia, countries in Africa, in the Middle East, the gospel is spreading at remarkable rates right now in the places where it is most in trouble.

And it's just something about the gospel that makes it powerful, mysterious, and I believe deeply true is that the gospel, when it's in trouble, it spreads.

Um so you'll see in this in the context of this story, there's this persecution that arises and the gospel starts to spread to unknown territories, to these places Cyprus and Cyrene and Antioch, which I know you're all very familiar with first century geography, so I won't need to explain it.

But no, it's very simple.

It's kind of going to the ends of the earth, right?

When Jesus originally uh sent his messengers out, he said, You're gonna go to Jerusalem, the current city that we're in, but you're gonna go to the ends of the earth.

And Cyprus and Cyrene and Antioch is really getting towards that place.

As you read the book of Acts, it starts to move towards um the ends of the earth.

And here we are in this story, pushing further out to foreign lands where there are people called Hellenists who would be Greek-speaking Jews or Greek culturally, maybe ethnically uh mixed or something like that.

These people uh would be speaking Greek, but would be Jewish believers.

This is starting to get more and more towards the edges of the territories of uh where the gospel will go, of the known world.

And here, again, we'll see three ingredients for lasting spiritual growth in this little church that's going to be planted and grow in a place called Antioch.

The first, though, is an ingredient I want to mention just off of the so much of the story we've read so far.

How do we have lasting spiritual growth?

How are we a church that of all people that will last for all time?

You must have this first ingredient.

It's faith.

Faith.

It's following the Holy Spirit into uncharted territories.

This story is set up and should not be taken for granted that the gospel is moving and the Holy Spirit, God Himself, is moving the message forward.

God Himself is pushing his message beyond the normal territories, and his disciples and followers are following that spirit.

Notice in that phrase up there, it says, follow the Holy Spirit into uncharted territories.

As we examine this story, we're confronted with the reality that Christianity is a reactive sport.

Doesn't mean that you're passive, but Christianity is always essentially reactive.

You are reacting to the work of God in your life, to the Holy Spirit working.

You see, a reactive sport is something like tennis.

An active sport might be something like basketball.

You're actively pursuing a goal or something like that.

But tennis works on reacting from the other player, much like baseball, right?

Baseball also is a reactive sport.

You are adjusting your defense in order to capitalize on the errors or mistakes of the other person, right?

You're constantly adjusting your position based off the action of the other, right?

Tennis, baseball, it's that kind of thing.

Spirituality in Christian life is like this: that constantly the Holy Spirit is moving and we are adjusting our position and trying to place ourselves into the places that He's leading us to.

And if you want to have lasting spiritual growth, you have to see that the disciples were following the movement of God and reacting to the work of the Holy Spirit.

Look at this section of what I just read, Acts 11, 20 through 22.

Couple of phrases on the screen that'll be highlighted.

It says that there were some of them who spoke to the Hellenists, and it says that the hand of the Lord was on them, the hand of the Lord was with them.

And there was a report that came to the church.

The report came to the church, and they decided to send someone named Barnabas to Antioch.

Okay, so you see, people start preaching the gospel.

And by the way, those who are spreading the message, it's not the apostles.

The apostles would be the 12 main leaders of the church, the ones in charge, the ones who have been given the apostolic authority from Jesus Christ Himself.

The ones on the forefront of the mission are not the professional Christians or the top Christian leaders or somebody like myself, a pastor.

It's actually just disciples, in other words, literally the word student or apprentices of Jesus that are moving the gospel forward.

The report comes to the leaders, and the leaders do the reactive repositioning and decide we need to send Barnabas down there.

They're reacting to the Holy Spirit.

One of the ways that you and I are going to grow in our lives over a long time is not missing the ingredient of faith, is not missing the ingredient of following the Holy Spirit and reacting to what he says.

The report comes to Jerusalem and Jerusalem moves.

They react.

Your spiritual growth will be stagnant if you are not listening and following to what God is asking of you.

And that leads me to ask you this question.

Do you have ears tuned to what the Spirit of God is speaking to you?

Does is God's voice a voice that you consider in your life?

Do you wake up, open your phone, and see the barrage of neurological assaults that your phone gives you and respond to those, the news items, the emails, the calendar updates, and you react and respond to those?

Or do you listen to what God is telling you and reacting based off of that?

The apostles, see, they react in wisdom.

They don't just hear this and go, we gotta do something and move.

They actually, if you look carefully at the scripture, they react with great wisdom.

They hear, okay, the gospel's going forward, now let's act wisely about this.

And I want to give you four questions to consider as you think about your faith and following the Spirit into uncharted territories.

What does that mean?

What does that look like?

Four questions to consider that I see kind of buried in this text a little bit.

Number one is a question of what is your story?

When you're considering what is God leading me into, it's important to know where has God led me from.

If I'm thinking about what God is doing in my future, I must understand what God has done in my past.

Understanding what God has done in my past helps me live faithfully to the future I do not know.

They do this, they actually recruit Barnabas.

And you might be thinking, how is that have anything to do with this question?

What's my story?

Well, Barnabas is introduced way back in Acts 4, verse 36.

Acts 4:36

We preached that chapter before, and you remember his name was Son of Encouragement.

That's literally the translation of his name.

And it says in Acts 4, 36 that Barnabas was, quote, a native of Cyprus.

Now, where's the gospel moving right now?

Cyprus, Cyrene, and Antioch.

So they look at their leadership and they go, who can we send who has a background with the culture where he wouldn't be intimidated by Greek-speaking Jews?

Barnabas is perfect.

Barnabas's story was a part of what God had done in his life, and it was about to be what God was going to do in his life.

You see, many of the things God has prepared and worked in you through are the very things he will use to take you to the next season.

A lot of times in Christian spirituality, we think we receive victories or walk through seasons of suffering and difficulty, and we get to the end of that and we go, good, that's it.

I learned that lesson.

But God always gives you victory, not for a time of peace.

He gives you the victory for the next battle.

He gives you assuredness that you will win, that he will win in your life again.

He's giving you assuredness that he will equip you with what you need for what's next, because he's done it with what has passed.

You see, God's work in your life, sometimes when you're from Cyprus, he's gonna send you back.

Like it's funny, I grew up in Catholic education.

I grew up around the Catholic Church.

And constantly, you guys, I find the Holy Spirit leading me towards people who come from Catholic backgrounds.

I don't have a ministry that's like to ex-Catholics or people kind of questioning the Catholic Church or anything like that, but I constantly find myself reacting to the Holy Spirit just because that was a part of my life.

The same as I've walked through my parents got a divorce, right?

So when I was a youth pastor, I found so often that when kids were going through a divorce, God was using something in my past to lead me into the future through youth ministry.

So what has God done in your life?

Have you catalogued what God has done in your life so that God, you know that God is going to use you for this moment at this time?

The second question is, what's my gift?

I told you Barnabas' name was Son of Encouragement.

And in just a couple verses, you're gonna read what Barnabas does in the church in Antioch.

It says, he encouraged and exhorted the church.

His name was Son of Encouragement.

He was obviously gifted in exhortation and encouragement to come and tell them, guys, I'm urging you to remain faithful.

Barnabas was obviously gifted in that, so they knew Barnabas was perfect.

Here's a guy who's gifted in exhortation and encouragement.

He's from Cyprus and Cyrene.

He will not be intimidated by Greek-speaking Jews.

We'll send him down that way.

What is your gift?

Let me actually rephrase that a little bit.

What have others said that your gift is, which is probably more important?

I've found that the ways in which your gifts are most pronounced and known is when other people name it.

It has to be a question you need to ask your community, you need to ask your group, you need to ask your leaders in your life.

Who's your leader in your life that you can ask and say, what do you see me gifted in?

Because that might be the place God is calling to you into your future.

Thirdly, I'm gonna put questions three and four up on the same time because it's kind of two sides of the same coin.

I think we have to ask, what am I burdened for, and where is the kingdom need?

What am I burdened for, and what is the kingdom need?

When Barnabas gets down there, it says that he was glad when he showed up at the church in Antioch.

It's that almost God was preparing Barnabas to show up to a place that he had been burdened to encourage.

Sometimes the best question in Christian life is like, what are the things that have weighed heavy on my heart that match with question number four, the kingdom need?

So there's some things you're burdened about, like the success of the Portland Trailblazers is something I'm burdened about, okay?

That's not really a kingdom need.

I mean, I could make a strong argument, but it's probably gonna fall flat, you know?

Um, I can twist some Bible verses, okay?

But um, it's just not gonna work, okay?

What are you burdened for that is also on the heart of God?

What do you deeply care about?

A lot of times we want other people, particularly leaders, to care about the things that God has burdened us for so that they can take the step of faith and we won't have to.

Like, I want the church to care about X.

Well, God gave you that burden, and maybe He's leading you out in faith to take on and to go to that space, and we'll follow you and we'll support you and we'll encourage you.

This great story over the last year and a half or two years has been our homeless outreach team.

It actually came out of these kinds of questions.

Angie Chang and Stephen Chung, they recently got married.

Um, they were in the our care team led by Annie Chang, and Annie asked them to pray around some of these questions.

What are you burdened for?

And Angie, she's like, I'm I've just been burdened for the homeless community.

And I think there's a kingdom need in this neighborhood to walk and to pray.

And many other team members not knowing had the same burden.

And so other people started to assemble, and many of you are a part of this amazing team that goes out every Saturday and walks and prays and gives to the needy and prays for the most vulnerable in this community.

All because Angie and Stephen and the rest of the team grew in a burden for a kingdom need, and it was easy for us as awakening to go, how do we support?

How do we come alongside, and how do we grow this ministry?

You see, ministry and church, it's not about generating activities for spiritually interested people.

Like, oh, we're just gonna do all these programs.

Like at Awakening, we don't just do programs to do programs.

We are reacting to the Holy Spirit and we are following and partnering with what God is doing.

And so I I want to I want to know which question do you need to kind of answer today?

And how might God move in you to create and generate faith?

Because here's the deal when you answer these questions, there's so many unknowns still.

But they should equip you with a type of emboldenedness that says, God is working in my life, I can follow him.

Now, maybe you don't have the answers to these questions, right?

How do we know the answers?

And maybe you're like, I need help formulating some of these answers.

Well, faith is just one ingredient to lasting spiritual growth.

The second we'll find in the story is formation.

Formation.

That we not only need to follow the Holy Spirit into uncharted territories, but as we do that, we need to commit to learn the faith in a healthy church.

Now, notice I did not say a perfect church.

You won't find one of those.

They do not exist.

A church that is growing in health, like I believe we are at awakening.

We are not a perfect church.

We are growing in health as a church together.

Formation.

You need faith.

You also need to commit to learning what the faith is in the community.

Now, look at this.

All right, let's continue the story.

Acts 11, 23.

When he, Barnabas, came, he sent down towards Antioch, he saw the grace of God.

He saw the power, the gift of God, and he was glad and he exhorted them.

There's that word, he uses his own gift to exhort and encourage them to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose.

For he, Barnabas was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit, and he was full of faith.

And a great many people were added to the Lord, so that Barnabas, look at this, he went to Tarsus to look for Saul, who we heard about a couple chapters ago.

He would become Paul and write three-quarters of the New Testament.

He finds Saul or Paul, and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch from Tarsus.

And look at this, for a whole year, they met with the church and taught a great many people.

And it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians.

These apostles did not just see conversion and baptism, the movement of God, as a thing to celebrate and leave there.

Hey, there's some people becoming Christians down in Antioch.

Let's just take pictures of them and post it on social media.

You know?

They saw it not as the end, but the beginning.

They saw the start of Of new life in Jesus as the start of new life in Jesus that leads you onto a trajectory that is completely different from the old.

In other words, they saw conversion as the beginning of spiritual formation.

A formative process that all of us, as we trust Jesus, embark on for the rest of our lives.

Spiritual formation, point number one, I want to give you three thoughts on spiritual formation.

Spiritual formation begins at conversion.

Here's a definition of spiritual formation from Dallas Willard.

Spiritual formation for the Christian basically refers to the spirit-driven process.

Again, we are reacting to the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit is driving us into a direction.

Spirit-driven process of forming the inner world of the human self in such a way that it becomes like the inner being of Christ Himself.

Spiritual formation is the process of you and I forming our inner being to look just like Jesus' inner being.

The inside of who we are, our desires, what we want, our thoughts, what we think about changes.

The dreams that we have for the future start to be reshaped in a formation process.

Formation is so essential to Christian life.

In fact, it was so important for Barnabas.

He knew he was like, this church in Antioch is not gonna survive unless I form it.

And I'm gonna need Saul or Paul.

And he goes to Tarsus.

I read this one commentary this week studying this passage that said Tarsus was a hundred miles away.

This would have taken, depending on the travel routes, uh Barnabas' own access to resources, weather conditions, everything like that in the ancient world, could have taken a month to a month and a half to go to Tarsus and come back.

How important was it for Barnabas to form that church?

So much so that he actually gave them a temporary need.

He left them for a month and a half so that he could join with Paul.

And it says, if you look back at the text, for a whole year.

For a whole year.

We have a few letters from Paul.

Could you imagine learning from him and Barnabas for an entire year?

Being shaped.

Formation is essential.

Formation is the start of everything.

It was so important to Barnabas that he brought, he took a long trip to bring another leader.

And that's point number two, spiritual formation.

It actually requires leadership and community.

You will not form your spiritual life in isolation.

You will form a selfish life in isolation.

That actually, if you desire formation, you must submit yourselves to community and to leadership.

Barnabas understood, he was like, I'm gonna pour into you guys for a whole year and just teach you.

And this church is going to be shaped in a particular way before we leave.

What communities are you being shaped by right now?

Who is shaping you?

You know, institutions in this country, institutions like churches, universities, political parties, they are now seen in the modern world as things that we use to affirm our individual identities.

So I go to a certain college because I want you to think this about me.

You don't go to a certain college anymore to be shaped by that certain community.

It's seen as the reverse.

In a hyper-individualized, selfish culture that we live in here in the West, we move towards institutions that affirm the feelings that we have about ourselves.

And we go to certain churches because we want people to think that we're this kind of person.

And when the church starts to act in a way that does not affirm our individualistic identity and singular perspective, we go find another one to match and suit our needs.

But friends, the church is not here primarily to put a stamp on everything that you do.

The church that God has given me and to you and for us to submit to together is a church that does not affirm everything we do, but shapes us into a kind of person, forms us, that generates a kind of character within us.

Does the church exist to shape you?

Are you being shaped?

Because point number three, spiritual formation is the vast majority of your life in Jesus Christ.

If you became a Christian or are a Christian, conversion is sometimes one day.

Conversion is sometimes one month or one year.

But spiritual formation, shaping your inner life to look like Jesus', your character, who you really are, shaping into the likeness of Jesus in humility and generosity and courage, that takes your whole life.

And so it's so important for us to submit ourselves to what we in the theological world call sanctification.

The stripping off of selfish desires and forming into the likeness of Jesus.

Formation is your life.

Make no mistake, Christianity, you guys, it is about conforming.

I know that's a negative word in this culture, but the question needs to be conforming to what?

If I'm conforming to the likeness of a man who died for his enemies and forgave his executioners, I would love to be conformed.

If conforming means to lazily fall into the cultural streams of this world and to become another hyper-individualist, that will lead to destruction and to a chaotic world.

Christianity is about conforming into the image and likeness of God Himself in Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.

We are led into such a captivating vision that as my own unique individual, I can actually give my unique individual self to Jesus to be shaped in the process of community.

Church is certainly a place to be seen, to be loved.

Our care team's mission is to see you and to love you and to make sure that you feel the love of Jesus when you walk in.

But friends, I personally don't want to be seen the same way I came into awakening as the time I stay with awakening.

I don't want to stay the same, right?

I actually don't want to be like I was when I was 18.

Okay?

I actually currently am 33.

When I'm 43, I actually don't want to be like I am right now.

I got a lot of problems in my life.

I've got a lot of selfish desires.

I want to be on a trajectory towards Christ-likeness and to be formed.

The church exists to help us in that process.

And so, you know, Dallas Willard, he's a master in spiritual formation.

Um, and he says, you know, your soul is being formed right now.

It's just a question of like by who and to what?

Because you can't think you can't be so proud to think that you can exclude yourself from any formation process and just become your own unique individual.

That just cannot be true.

That something is shaping you right now.

And the question is, what is it and to what image are you being shaped towards?

Because as much as we want to think we are our own powerful person, we really are weak and in need of shaping to become like the humility of Jesus Christ Himself, which the gospel promises us.

And so if you desire formation, you know, it's a huge part of what we do here at Awakening.

Huge part of what we do.

Pastor Felicia, her title is Pastor of Spiritual Formation.

She and I lead Protege Together, a nine-month journey into leadership development and character formation.

Many of you are a part of it.

Our proteges are coming to their year end right now.

It's a nine-month process.

They're coming to the end.

I am so proud of the people they are being shaped into.

Not because of anything necessarily we as leaders are doing, but the Holy Spirit is shaping them to become like Jesus Christ more and more every single week as we meet with them.

I'm watching them become more like Jesus.

Maybe you need to consider protege next year.

It we're gonna be, you know, talking about it, signing up for that in the next month.

Maybe you're not even in a group.

Groups are the primary place where we experience the formative process of Jesus Christ, the power of the Holy Spirit.

We have school of faith, our core classes.

Intro is a perfect place to begin the formation process.

You know, in intro, our big heart is like we want to teach you what it's like, like how to select a church and what a good church is.

And we'll tell you about who we are, but we also want to teach you what you should think about when you're selecting a church.

It's a formation process.

Maybe you need to walk over there right now and change your lunch plans and be a part of intro.

These are formative processes that we have so much more.

Marriage mentoring and care team, all these other things happening at awakening, beautiful, beautiful things.

But let me close with this.

Look, if we have faith, and that faith is shaped through formation, we're following the Spirit into uncharted territories, we're being shaped into the image of Jesus.

What's the result?

How will we know we're on the right path?

Well, the result is the final point, it's mission.

We need to give and serve faithfully as needs arise and change.

Mission.

Mission.

We have something to do, somewhere to go, that we're not just being formed for the sake of being formed.

We're being formed to be a great gift to this world.

Acts 11.

This is the end of the story, which tacks on a little story at the end of the story of Antioch.

Look at this.

All right.

Now, in these days, prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch.

So Antioch's growing, the church is being shaped, and they send more leaders from Jerusalem to Antioch.

And one of them was named Agabas.

He stood up and he foretold by the Spirit, again, we're always reacting to the Spirit.

By the Spirit, he foretold that there was going to be this great famine all over the world, took place in the days of Claudius.

So look, the disciples, the followers of Jesus, determined everyone according to his ability to send relief to the brothers living in Judea.

And they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul.

I want you to notice this.

That story I just read to you is one sentence after the moment the disciples are first called Christians.

In verse 26, if you look in your Bible, it says, the disciples are first called Christians in Antioch.

And in verse 27, a need arises and the disciples meet the need.

Why?

Because they had been formed to the point that other people started calling them little Christ.

Little Christs.

You know that's what Christian literally means?

Christ's people, the Jesus people.

Little little Christs, those guys who are acting in small ways like the ways that Jesus acted.

And these disciples are being called Christians, by the way, by outside by outsiders.

They weren't like, call me Christian.

They weren't like call me a Christian.

They were like started to be called Christians.

It's a passive voice sentence structure.

They start to be called Christians by other people that just look at them and they go, that looks like Jesus to me.

That looks like what Jesus would have done.

Needs arise and change and they meet the needs.

They are Christ's people.

They are a little Christ.

You may have problems with that word today.

You know, you're like, I try to avoid that at all costs.

At work, people ask me if I'm spiritual, and I say, yes.

People say, Are you religious?

You say, sort of, you know?

Hedge your bets.

But notice, in this, in this original sense of the term, it is literally about outside people looking at the Jesus people and saying, they just look like him.

They've been formed in such a way that when a need arises, it is a no-brainer for them to contribute to it.

This is what Jesus' people do.

They're just following his way.

In fact, they're doing the same thing every other church in the book of Acts did.

This should not be, but if you're reading, you did the Acts reading plan with us, maybe, where we read this whole book together over March, um, February and March.

If you're reading the book of Acts, by the time you get here and you read about disciples giving to a need, it's like, yeah, it's not a shock.

You're like, yeah, that's what every church has done.

So it makes sense that Antioch would do it too.

They weren't disrupting the religious landscape, they weren't innovating on the edges of spiritual life.

No, they were doing the things that Jesus himself did.

Jesus gave his life and served instead of being served.

And therefore, the little Christians, the little Christ people, they would do the same thing.

They would lay down their lives and chains.

Jesus provided for something that we could not provide for ourselves through the cross, giving his life so that we could now be in his place and receive the favor of the Father.

He provided that which we could not provide for ourselves.

Why wouldn't we do the same for others?

When others have need, when others need provision, we will be the first to provide for them because we have been provided for by the gospel.

And you, awakening, are Christ's people.

You are Jesus' people.

You are little Christ's.

And you have done this exact thing.

Do you know this?

This last year, have the needs arisen and changed?

Yes, needs have arisen and changed.

And you have stepped up.

Our above and beyond campaign is closing in on$1.5 million raised so we can be more radically generous than ever before and more committed to our mission than ever before.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's worth clapping.

It's incredible.

Because we saw the needs arise and change and you responded to that.

When there were wildfires, you responded and gave.

And we were able to meet needs we never anticipated that we would need to meet through generous gifts.

Right?

Haiti, the ways in which that country has needed support over the years, you consistently and faithfully give to this mission so that we can be generous and be Jesus' people.

Well, now, friends, there are new challenges.

There are new needs.

You have been faithful.

God has worked in your past.

How will he lead you in faith into the future?

What will he do by his spirit to lead you into what's next?

You heard it.

We've got two services coming up.

Two services at the beginning of May that will double so many of our efforts and our team needs here.

And we need you to serve.

We need you to give, yes, and we need you to serve.

To give and serve faithfully as needs change and arise.

So our space team shows up here hours before some of you and sets up.

And maybe you're like, I can lift things for Jesus.

Put that on your connection card.

Because we need to grow our space team because our space team's gonna have to change how we set up now that we're gonna have a 9:30 service and not just this one at 1115.

And we're gonna need teardown, right?

After this service is over, we all tear this down, we pack it up, we put it in there.

Nick leads our space team.

We need you on space team.

What about our connections team?

As we move to two services, you're not just getting greeted once on your way in and once on your way out, but we're doubling that.

Because now that we have another service, we're gonna need another set of people greeting and connecting new people as people come in to help them feel seen and loved and known as they walk into the church.

And so maybe you can have that gift of giving that first impression of awakening.

Put that on your connection card, that black card.

Put, I wanna be a part of connection team.

I wanna be a part of space team.

One of these needs, or how about our kids?

Ryan said one of the main reasons we want to do a second service is so that we can have our kids' ministry volunteers sit in service.

So could you attend a service and could you serve in our children's ministry where we're teaching young people about Jesus?

We need help in the classrooms.

We're gonna need help at check-in, because now you're not gonna just check-in kids once, but for two services.

Do you see?

It multiplies the needs.

But here's the here's the vision: it also multiplies the possibilities.

It also multiplies the possibilities of us growing in selflessness.

I can grow in selflessness and serve more.

And it also opens us up, as Ryan shared, to two services that can impact double the amount of people right here.

And so, friends, how are you demonstrating the formation Jesus has done in your life?

Because we need you.

We are a church, and we do this together as a family of brothers and sisters.

If we want spiritual growth to last for all time, for all people, we're gonna need faith.

We don't know what's coming, but we're following the Spirit.

We need the formation of Jesus' work in our life, and we need to give and serve as needs change and rise.

We gotta be on mission together.

Lasting spiritual growth requires these things.

And so let's take just one step together as a church.

Let me pray.

Heavenly Father, we need you.

We confess, God, that we don't have what it takes.

We confess we don't know the future.

We confess our own anxieties about the future.

But in faith, we trust you to provide and lead us to spaces we've never been.

Help us, God, be the church that you desire us to be.

Through the power of your spirit, God, shape us and help us.

We pray that you would grow us in these ways.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

We hope you are blessed by this message.

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And hey, we'd love to connect with you.

Take a next step by filling out our virtual connection cards at awakeningchurch.comslash cards.