Leftovers - Acts 21

Happy Monday, we are live right now.

Right now. Right now, I mean, we are.

Listening to it, we are live. Yeah.

Straight from Duet Iowa, the Sunday Leftovers podcast.

I'm Pastor Matt along with Pastor Chris.

Man, you, you went, you went for the heartstrings yesterday and I

know that was your was it 1 heart to love them all?

What was what was the last line? 1 heart.

Yeah, oh gosh, now. Oh my gosh.

One heart was love for them all that I think.

I think that was the third line and it was very it touched on

your nerddom a little bit. I wasn't sure.

Yeah, it was very. Close to the One Ring to rule

them all from Lord of the Rings. It really was 01 heart to heal

them all. One heart to heal them all.

That's. Because, you know, and that

comes out of like, maybe the the line that affected me most out

of the text that we used was, you know, Paul obviously saying,

what are you doing? You're, you're breaking my

heart. And I instantly kind of thought

through that. And I was like, yeah, but

there's also one heart to heal them all.

And I again, you're right, Lord of the Rings is right there.

But I don't know if anybody picked up on that yesterday.

If they did, they didn't say it to me.

That was like the first that you, you said I'm going to show

you. I'm going to show you where

we're going next. And I was all right, All right.

I see you. Well, I did.

I did notice, you know, and I mentioned it like, I didn't mean

to make the points of my sermon like rhyme, but it did that and

it was. Nice little yeah.

And it and it and it was also, yeah, a very, very quiet nod to

Lord of the Rings because. But it fits.

It fits. I didn't have to force that.

I liked it. No thanks for holding things

down this weekend. Got away with the family to

Cincinnati for a for a quick concert.

So thanks for preaching. I mean, I know it's just it's

your job. Thank you for doing your job.

But yeah, you, you flew solo. Natalie led the worship team

this weekend and that and that was good.

Caught that on the live stream and looked like you had a good

gathering on Sunday. So it's nice to have have the

community here. It's always good to be with

God's people and even if you're a person who comes to ERC and

you're like, I don't actually know about this whole

Christianity thing, but I like, I like being there honestly.

Like, that's where I started what you might call my faith

journey. Like, I came to this church when

it was Lutheran fellowship so many years ago.

And yeah, I didn't know if I totally believed everything that

was being said and sang, but I was like, no, I like it here.

This is this is nice. Yeah.

So continuing that on, but no, it was it's also just fulfilling

to be able to to be able to leave and leave the gathering

here in in your capable hands and and our other leaders as

well. So we got a way to Cincinnati,

Brandon Lake and Phil Wickham, who we do many of their songs in

worship here at ERC and feel pretty good about the theology

and truth that's rooted in the lyrics that they write and bring

to the global church. But they also brought along

Josiah, Queen. Oh, real young up and coming

guy. Really good stuff.

Yes, so they did. I think it's 12, maybe 18

cities, something like that. Just kind of a short tour.

They started in Pittsburgh on Friday night.

Cincinnati was second night of the tour.

And they just have a few other cities that they're going to in

the next couple weeks. But for us, that was like for us

and for our kids, like this was a trifecta of the three of these

guys at 1:00 concert. It's it's perfect right now.

We're into all of their meet. They all have hits right now.

We're into all their music right now.

I don't know it'll ever happen again.

Like the three of them are in the same spot other than other

than kind of a festival. So we Cincinnati was the closest

they got to here, believe it or not, like and that's still 6 1/2

hours it was to drive there. But we planned planned the

weekend to see this lineup first big sort of arena concert for

the kids. And we mostly found out that

they were too young to to go to. It's tough to find that out in

real time. In real time, it was, it was

hard, but it was, it was long. I mean, they were they were

there for they made it through about two hours and at that

point it was we're done. We we can, we've seen enough and

that was fine. It worked out.

We had a couple other families with us too, and we we figured

out facilitating and coordinating.

But it got me thinking for this week outside of the would you

rather, but what's what sort of concert lineup would you put out

there? Like just and just three names

and maybe we even need to do categories like this would be

this would be Christian concert category for it would be would

be these three. There's some others that I could

kind of flex in there for Canadian country is a really

good. Oh, they put on such a good

show. Yeah, and there are a couple

other depending on how much you want to flex into the Christians

like need to breathe is very spiritual.

They don't write a whole lot of there aren't like Christian

virtues laced through all of their songs, but they are

Christians who make music Switchfoot similarly like they

do. They do a really nice crossover.

I love both of those bands, but I don't know for for like this,

for like a Christian worship night thing.

I I I couldn't pick three better.

I don't I don't think like Hillsong Beth.

Well, Josh Baldwin. I I know there's others out

there. This would be like the three.

If I could custom do a show right now.

It's the three that I would put in this.

So that's why we went. So for you, I don't know,

Christian show, otherwise just summer festival show.

Maybe a couple different options here.

What? What are the perfect concerts

that Pastor Chris would put together right now?

If I if I had to go Christian music only and this is going to

hit some different timelines a little bit, Oh boy.

But, and I don't, I don't know who's opening and closing yet,

but. So this is like Hall of Fame,

OK. This is like this is like the.

Timeline This is not the year 2025, this is the.

Like Chris, could be, it could be, I don't know.

They're all still touring, they're all still doing things.

But I, I think if I could put together a show that like by the

end of the night, I would just probably be on the floor because

it's so much. It would have to be for King and

Country, David Crowder and Brandon Lake, like all three of

those, you know, they all put on ridiculous performances.

They're all so high engine, they're so good.

And so, yeah, I don't know, I think those three would be tops,

tops for, for that. That would be an amazing show.

I'm sorry, I wasn't sure how far you're going to wind back.

I thought you were going to throw out like DC Talk or movies

boys or like some of the like, All right.

Are we going back 30 years? I wasn't a Christian when those

guys were a thing, so I don't I don't really know a lot about

them. Nope.

Those three, Crowder, Brandon Lake, obviously, and then for

King and Country, that would still be a really fun show.

That's a show they could put together.

That's a show they could definitely do.

It would, it would be a lot of dollars behind that if you

could, if you could pull that off.

Yeah, there was a different conversation I had this weekend.

It was brought up there was a festival in Wisconsin Creed

touring still, still doing things.

They were supposed to have 3 Doors Down on tour with them

this summer and some medical thing.

Lead singer is dealing with some medical issues, cancer actually,

and opted out of the tour. Daughtry jumped in to replace 3

Doors Down on the tour and someone brought up, brought up

that tour that that show was happening.

And my immediate response was, I'll just throw a Nickelback in

there. And we just got we just got the

show. I mean, mostly the same, but

still like all, all fun to hear, right?

So what about what about that? Would you?

Would you go? OK, I'm, I'm curious because if

I've, if I've caught this right about you over the last couple

years, like you're more of like a, a punk like kind of guy like

Creed would not necessarily be your thing.

Like am I, am I correct in saying if, if it was Creed or

like a band like 182, you would probably learn more towards like

Blink 182? Is that correct?

Yes, I'm much more like punk rock emo is is my yeah is is my

main vein. But so I will say, however, was

really 15-O gosh, it's 2025. So that is 20 years ago.

That's unfortunate. 20 years ago, really in the Nickelback

really Daughtry, I stopped watching American Idol the year

that Daughtry didn't win American Idol, which I mean,

maybe it sounds weird. I whatever, I probably could

have stopped watching long before that.

But I also think it was something that like pretty sure

my family just like sat down and followed American Idol and

whatever else. But I remember being like just

appalled that he didn't get further than he did.

And I loved listening to his his early career too.

So Creed I missed like the heydays of Creed.

So it's not it's not even like that style of music that I have

an aversion to. I just kind of missed Creed on.

Well, you would have had to have been.

Yeah, That was like, I mean, they were starting to hit in

like, what, like 199697 and then blew up by 2000.

They were just, like, all over the world at that point and

maybe being played on the radio too much.

And then, you know, Scott Stapp and his vocal intonations became

kind of a meme of sorts. And so then, you know, and we go

off from there. Yeah, so, so nothing against I,

I just missed Creed. Like I don't, I, I listen to

others in that musical genre and for whatever reason, I just, I

just don't have them in my musical catalog.

So I'd go see him, I'd go watch him, and nothing, nothing

against that genre. I mean, they put on a pretty

incredible show. Me and some others caught them

last summer at the Jackson County Fair, not so far away

from here. And I was like, oh, man, this

guy is the grandpa now. And he's, he's still going out

and going hard every night. So.

And I think, I think actually I read that they had their best

ticket sales of their entire band career last summer.

What? Yeah.

Like, they were just selling out places left and right.

It was crazy. Man, that's OK.

So, but that's got to be unless it was in number.

Was that figure like in numbers, number of tickets not?

Just like no, no, like dollars. So maybe it's inflation.

Thing right? It's an inflation issue.

But yeah, 20 years. Ago, but they.

Were sold the same amount. Of tickets.

So SEC for secular bands. OK, who if if you were going to

see 3 bands on the same night, what would that look like for

you? OK, so I already mentioned a

couple of those crossovers Need to Breathe and Switch foot.

I still those are just two of my favorite bands ever, so it would

be hard to exclude them from that.

But in the whatever, if you want to take him out for the the the

Christian aspect, if you want to go secular and just rock band,

go radio. Oh man, I don't I don't know

that I could put it so go radio. Jimmy Eat World is probably my

top secular seen them. I've seen them more times than

any other band. They went through 1st Ave. in

Minneapolis every year. I think they still do, but high

school, college, I went there every year to see to see them go

radio. I'm not surprised that most of

you don't know who that. Is I actually don't you say that

and I'm like, I don't know who that is.

If you know the band Mayday Parade, he was the second singer

in the original band Mayday Parade and they had a falling

out and he's Jason Lancaster is his name.

And he started this other band called Go Radio with a group

group of his friends in Florida. And they kind of had this tiff

going on throughout their rock careers.

And I actually, I like them more than Mayday Parade.

But Mayday Parade is also like in the conversation for me.

Then you get really like, I really like Fall Out Boy.

I don't I don't know that I could.

I've never been to a concert. I don't know that I would want

to go to a Fall Out Boy concert, but I just, I don't know some of

some of that punk, punk rock, emo.

So I would say, oh man, Third Eye Blind is in there too.

Oh, really? OK.

Motorcycle Drive By I still think is just one of one of the

best songs ever. Man, I was.

I should have been ready for you to throw this back on me.

I did. I threw it right back.

I volleed back. Sir and this isn't even punker

like I still I really enjoy Coldplay and that's a different.

Genre you can't bring up Coldplay now without the

Internet has been losing its mind for the last four days.

That's a whole different topic. Maybe I shouldn't bring that up,

but anyway. OK, so I guess if I had to pick

three that I would want to see right now over OK, you know, I'm

just just across genres. If I had to put three together,

they would never play a show together, but it would be it

would be need to breathe, Switchfoot and Jimmy Eat World

would be like. Wow.

My perfect non worship night concert that should be those

three. They would never play together.

They I doubt I need to breathe and switch, but it probably

played together. But Jimmy?

I don't know. Maybe Jimmy.

And maybe you would. Maybe.

You would. They could be close anyway.

That would be the three. OK, I'm going to put together a

couple bands that definitely would never see the light of day

on the same stage. Let's let's put together start

with we'll, we'll, we'll run Dave Matthews Band and Creed

together. Yep, I said it.

Summer. Concert band.

I know, right? Well, but the problem with Dave

Matthews Band is they're going to play a 3 1/2 hour set by

themselves. So let's put those two bands in

there. And then the third one is much

more difficult for me. I, I guess I don't know.

Oh gosh, I'm not sure who my third band would be, really.

I really don't know. There is one band that I've

listened to a ton, but I've seen them twice and it's a band that

most people have never heard of. It's called Tantric.

They're also in that like late 90s thing, but they've been

making albums ever since then too.

And the only thing that stayed steady about the band is the

lead singer. Everybody else has changed about

10 times over. But yeah, put on a great show.

I actually went to a show with one of my seminary friends when

I was in seminary not so many years ago.

And it was at this, I don't know, you know, bar restaurant

in Fargo. And about 30 people showed up.

They played outside. About 30 people showed up.

So like, it was a little awkward, but like after the show

totally went and got to talk to the guys in the band because

there was no one there. Wow, worked out for you then.

I guess, but I felt bad for him. I was like, man, this guy's

pretty talented and for 30 people to show up, that's just a

bad booking. Like you booked him in a space

where obviously they weren't very popular.

Yikes so OK Creed and Dave Matthews Band?

I feel like you should just throw like Goo Goo Dolls in

there or something. I mean, you know what?

Why? Why don't we do this?

Why don't we make it really interesting?

We'll do, you know, Creed and Dave Matthews Band and Red Hot

Chili Peppers? There you go.

That's a heck of a night. Wow.

Yeah, you'd you'd cover all your bases.

I feel you really would. That's all the things you really

would. I love that, actually.

That's great. Oh, man.

OK, so let us know if you want to delineate between like

Christian worship night concert and yeah, otherwise festival

night concert. You can let us know in the

comments here in the show section or or on Facebook.

You know what your ideal concerts would be.

What would also be fun is if like time was not an issue, so

could you pull together like, you know, The Beatles and The

Rolling Stones and whoever you know that would that would be

awesome whole. Other can of war like.

That's yeah, that's a lot. To go through the years, that

would be fascinating. It would because I feel like we

kept it sort of present day, like right right now.

Who could we go see right now? But so that would be interesting

too. What's your what's your all time

lineup? Whoa, that'd be a lot.

I can't even think about that right now.

You guys know all my brain. About it than I do but all

right, let us know your ideal concert lineup to think about

that and tell us what it is. So Acts 21, we were in this week

a lot talk. You were preaching, talking a

lot about I, I used that. I don't know that you even

necessarily said the term the cost of discipleship.

But that's, that's what was impressed upon me from your

message. And you told a story towards the

end about your your departure, your call, you're leaving to

seminary and what was involved in that, the cost or the the

weight, the feeling that that was on you.

I remember feeling that similarly, especially when my

dad went off to seminary. I was born in, I was born in

eastern Pennsylvania, and when I was 10 years old, we moved

across the country to Minnesota for my dad to go to seminary.

And that was that was a lot. We don't have a whole lot of

believers in our extended family.

And the ones who were not believers, I still like that

left scars to this day in, in our family.

There are still some of them that don't understand why, why

my dad did that or from my mom's side, like why my mom would have

been OK with my dad doing that to our family or in some ways

like bringing taking their grandchildren or or cousins away

from family or whatever else. So that's been a real felt

brokenness, I guess, in in our family from that.

And even to a lesser degree, we're not that far away from

Wisconsin, but like moving, moving here to Iowa was

interesting. And I think I think a lot less

so, at least at least for me, a lot of Emily's family is still

up there. Most of my family have moved

around by then and by now. But we were also this community

that we came to. You talked about leaving this

community and now you're now you're back, obviously, but from

day one, really for us, I, I remember how we were accepted in

and brought in and really welcomed with.

I know what stood out to us most was the, the initiative that

people took. It wasn't even just asking what

do you need? It was it was people offering

very specific solutions and, and helps to us.

I know even in the in the early days of Amanda and and others,

Stephanie and the other other other ladies and even students

in the congregation offering to watch children.

I know even especially for Emily to participate on worship team

like in that. And that was that was the

initial reason to ask was, Hey, I can do this so you can do

that. Can can I help you?

And I know that was a lasting impression that was, I don't

know that way. That was our initial experience

with this congregation. I think that's still, that

really rings true today. There's something innate here

about our community and about our culture.

People take the initiative to meet specific needs.

They're not just there's plenty that are willing to jump in and

do whatever and help in whatever way.

There's also a lot of individuals here that see a need

and are like, I can do that. Let me do that.

Let me let me serve you in this way.

And I and I think that's really cool.

So that was in a lot of ways we didn't feel, I don't think

coming here, we didn't feel that hurt as much because we were

almost instantaneously like on a family level, Lynn, Dehaan, Lynn

and Hank too. I started, I started naming

names. There's a lot of, there's lots

of you here that have had different impacts and, and

supports for our family throughout the years and, and

still do. But I I remember even a lot of

ladies, Lindsay Cagle and some of the other ladies helping us

unload unload the moving van. And we're just ready to ready to

set up the house, ready to unpack the kitchen, helping

helping Emily just like make her home that day.

Like we're moving in. We want your first night here.

Like let's just set your house up and do it.

Yeah. The the kin raids and and pay

Emily's first time eating. Bam.

I know it was unpacking boxes at our house and things.

So I know that lessened that hurt for us moving here.

Did you have any sort of experience like that in in

Fergus? Because that's that's a

different animal up there to all together the seminary in life in

Fergus like you get you get sucked into circles there too

because of the call that you have.

Right. Yeah, when we it's it's

interesting is, you know, I, I had to think about it a little

bit more. And coming off the heels of that

short version of the story I shared yesterday, like leaving

DeWitt, when I pulled into the house in Fergus Falls, you know,

some eight and a half, nine hours later, there was just a

group of people waiting in the front yard, you know, and they

were just waiting to move boxes because they kind of known like,

OK, and he should be arriving around this time and whatever.

And so, I mean, that was really neat.

I I don't know that it had the lasting effect that, you know, a

place like Emmaus Rd. Church has, you know, for

example, but like still you show up and there's all these people

ready, you know, that they want to do something to help you.

And I do think the Christian community in that way is really

unique ERC for all the great things that it is that you've

just mentioned there there. There's just something about

like, you know, the authentic did you get?

It I got the fly, I meant to bring that up.

Earlier we've been working on this fly for.

This episode he needed to go and I got him.

He's been. Good deal, because he's buzzed

my tower a few times. Yeah.

But anyway, like, as far as like Christianity goes, I I think

that's, you know, that's the point, right?

It's one of the points of Christianity is that like you,

you're just there, whether you know them well or not, whether

you plan on making a long term relationship with them or not.

Like you need to just be there because that represents who you

believe in. Like that action alone, that

action of caring represents who you believe in.

And so that is really in some ways just one of the core calls

of a Christian is go live it out, even if it looks like

helping somebody moving boxes or watching a kid, like go live it

out, you know, be, be the hands and feet that are needed in any

given space. And I know, I know there are

secular people who are very, you know, willing to help whoever.

And I've seen that too. But to the extent that like

Christianity allows you to organize that so much faster and

easier and in it, it's happened a lot.

And so I'm, I'm incredibly grateful for Christian

communities that have been a part of.

And but yeah, this one in particular was hard to leave

because I, I did have a sense, even though I hadn't traveled

much at that point, I had a sense that there was something

different here. And you know, and I wasn't

wrong, no offense to any place else I've been, but this place

is really pretty unique. And to what you're saying about

even just the time and moment or season that that action is.

We talked about it a little bit last week, I think too, of just

what's what's in front of you, what's what's there for you

today? Not not even that you're

committing to being on this journey, this Christian journey

with someone else for forever for the longevity of their faith

or their walk in preaching about Philip and the Ethiopian too.

Thinking back to that from a few weeks ago, that was he was

instantly transported away by by the Holy Spirit once the word

was preached and once the Ethiopian was baptized, he was

he was gone. We would assume that he never

again came across that man, but had an amazing impact in his

life, right? Had it affected his eternity?

For eternity? So yeah, it's.

It's a incredibly cool thing. And I actually, now that you

bring that up, I wanted to bring up something else maybe for a

moment, which was, you know, I've heard people in various

Christian circles say, well, you know, if you evangelize and

baptize somebody and then you instantly walk away like, what

are you doing? You're not really doing them any

justice. I think that story would fill it

with Philip would speak otherwise.

Like you brought it up. I think it was last week like.

I commend you to God and to the word of His grace.

Like that's enough. God's not the one who's not in a

hurry, like you said, right? And I mean, I, I think that's

the point, like when the opportunity to give the gospel

and, and to share that, whether that's through baptism or

whatever other means, like when that presents itself, don't

quench the Spirit. Yeah, yeah, God will.

God will work out the rest of the path.

But just because we can't stay there with them and follow up

with them for the next 6 months and say, OK, how's it going?

That doesn't mean we shouldn't act.

We absolutely should. Right, because I think we can

romanticize kind of the long term relationship of this too.

I'm not saying I'm not saying we should I, I think it's we, we do

have long term friendships and friendships and even

relationships, Christian relationships that last through

generations and last for a long time.

But also we're called to just be faithful in that moment too.

And even if that moment isn't followed up by subsequent

moments or subsequent years worth of relationship in there,

we're still called to, to faithfully proclaim and and live

out the gospel in that moment. So that what what you were kind

of talking about with with struggle and even just Paul

relaying his experiences here, thinking back to my message last

week and, and what you talked about this week and what will be

in store for us too. Of course, he has a long term

future view of like what's happening and where's, where

it's going. But I also hear a lot of him

just being present and faithful in in the moment.

And yes, there is seemingly momentary pain here and and many

of you may be in a place of that where your faith is a struggle.

It feel it feels like this choice to follow Jesus is a

burden is is a detriment to your life right now.

And Paul acknowledges that, but he also he also I think has his

eyes on the next moment has has his eyes on the next thing that

he's called to has his eyes on on the rearview of the of the

trials that God has brought him through and the lives that have

been touched and and affected and changed with the gospel in

that. So he's not a lot of you at at

church that like to use the phrase this too shall pass.

I I think that's maybe said in just sometimes and it and it

works both ways that the not to get caught up too much in the

good times because that will also at some point there will be

struggles, but also not to get mired down in the struggles that

it's always going to be that way.

This this too shall pass. So that's also an attitude that

I just I hear from him here as he's reflecting on the journey

of where he's been, what is still in store for him.

But I also think it's encouraging to us as as a

Christian to not, we don't need to road map the rest of someone

else's journey like in that moment of evangelizing to them,

right? Absolutely.

We don't need to plan out this is where you should be two years

from now and this is how close you should be to God 10 years

from now. And that because honestly, like

we're still, we're still walking stumbling through that ourselves

to some degree. So anyway, that was different

than where we're going, but just a.

Couple no. That makes sense though.

Reflective thoughts from from me on on your message from

yesterday. And yeah, thanks for sharing

your heart and a tender story at the end too.

It was a lot. I wasn't sure if I was going to

do that, you know, honestly, because like I, I, well, because

here's the one thing, you know, peek behind the curtain.

Here's the one thing that can happen.

And I was warned of this during seminary, which is, you know,

it's OK to share personal moments that, that directly

connect with the text. But there's, there's potentially

2 problems #1 it feels like it's all about you.

And then that pulls your audience away from like being

able to connect with that because, well, this is just

about you, right? So, and I know some pastors have

gone too far with that. And every week it's a story

about me and me and me and me and me and you know, and, and

that can be too much. So that was one of the reasons

why I was concerned with sharing that.

But the bigger reason why I was concerned with sharing that was

because sometimes you can share a moment or a story that is so

like, like you, I think you said poles at the heartstrings in

such a real way that now we can't recover.

We just stay there. And, you know, so I had some

level of concern that like, I know that this is like, you

know, especially for me and the number of people who are

familiar with this moment in my life because they were there and

they were present through those months.

It could have been, and I don't know if it was, I have no idea,

but it could have been too much. It could have just left us right

there. And that's what we walk away

with, was this moment was really sad and really difficult, you

know, and so I didn't want to do that.

But again, you know, I, I can't say anything else.

But like, I felt prompted in that moment.

It felt like the right moment to share that, to share that story.

And so, yeah, I debated about that all the way up until the

moment I did it. So on any given Sunday, yeah,

please know that like, you know, there's there's notes and

there's ideas and there's things that you absolutely want to put

out there because I know they're good for our people to hear.

But sometimes you have something in your head and like, I don't

know if I'm going to do this or not.

And then in that moment you just decide to learn to not do that.

And that was one of those moments for me, so.

No. And I'm glad you did, I think.

Yeah, I think it was a good sincere expression of your

experience and and the calling that is there, but the cost that

it can come along with like it's it's fair warning.

And it's also maybe a little oxymoronic.

I I put it out there back when we did back when we did LBF

schools Sunday at the end of April too.

I remember preaching on Acts and it sounds weird, but like when

you, when you preach on a message that the the punchline

is to send, like is to, is to truly proclaim to the people

here at your church, go and make disciples.

Like you have to be able to say that with sincerity that some of

them are going to leave, right? And that's and that's painful

and and that's there's cost in that.

But if we believe what we're saying, like that's part of it

and it's, it's to build up and send out, not to just preach and

preach and keep them here, right.

So no, I, I appreciated that you were real about about the cost

that, that, that it was. But also for any of you

listening for any of you here on Sunday that maybe are

considering whatever that might be a call to a call to

pastoring, a call to, to being a missionary, maybe even just

going to school up at Hillcrest or serving a summer at

inspiration Point. And and you've let maybe the the

threat and we're going to talk about the passage here in Acts

21. Quick, right, jumping right into

the threat that face Paul in Jerusalem.

But the idea of that discomfort or the idea of that cost or pain

that might come in that some of those might be real.

Some of those might be a a hard stop.

No, don't do this. These are the reasons to not do

this, but there's also just a natural cost of discipleship

that is is going to involve some sacrifice or so discernment in

that. And really, as we've been

saying, familiarity with God's Word, familiarity with how his

voice sounds to be able to discern his voice in this call.

Is this something God would have me do?

Is this something that sounds like the voice of God calling me

to this thing that's that's of the utmost importance in in

these considerations? And actually it's, it's

interesting right as we were preparing like, you know,

because we didn't actually leave for seminary until like 7-8

months after we had made that decision, because I obviously

had to stop an entire career and tell this school district, OK,

I'm not coming back all the things, right?

But during that time, you know, you go back to a story where

Jesus gives this great illustration with the camel in

the needle and the rich man who walks way all sad and all this

kind of stuff. And in Luke 1829, Jesus goes on

to say towards the end of that section, truly I tell you, no

one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents

or children for the sake of the Kingdom of God will not be

repaid 100 times. You know, and so like, and we

don't know exactly what that looks like, but we do hear it

straight from Jesus's mouth that hey, if you're willing to go to

the ends of the earth with me, if you're willing to be bound by

the Spirit, I've got something in store for you that maybe you

could have never imagined. Maybe you could have.

You didn't you're not thinking of right now.

But man, I, I had and if you're not into tattoos, I'm sorry, but

I had that verse tattooed on my body before we even left because

I was like, this is the kind of strength I need.

I need AI need a guarantee from my God that one way or another,

whether through hardship, whether through whatever, like

he is going to make this worth this.

Not not that like, you know, the world can make it worth it, but

he is going to make it worth it for me, you know, and I have to

be able to trust him in that. And so like, yeah, that is like

on my body for the rest of my life.

And that's how personal that is to me.

And I didn't share that yesterday, but it's true.

Like that's incredibly personal to me because it's not just me

too. Like there have been other

people who I've known, who I've cared about a lot, who they just

go somewhere else because that's where God is leaving them.

And, and that's really difficult.

And I don't think we have to downplay the difficulty of that.

We can lean into that a little bit and say, yeah, this is

really hard. But again, kind of like what I

was saying yesterday, like to whatever degree that we can

believe that God has a plan for us and even when it's

uncomfortable, he'll do it then, then what do we have to fear?

What do we have to worry about? He's got our, he's got our backs

and he knows what's best for us. And even if we can't see it down

the line in 151020 years, like he knows it.

And so as long as we're willing to lean into that and trust him

in that process, we're going to be OK.

I mean, I can't help but think about the number of people who

have done way more extreme moves than my family.

And I have like imagine feeling called to Africa or Taiwan, you

know, or anywhere else in the planet that God is saying, Hey,

I, I need you here because I need you to speak into these

people's lives. I need you to make new

relationships. I need you to make new inroads

with the gospel. And if you feel that and you

respond to that, that I mean, come on, that's huge.

That's, you know, from a mile standpoint and from a distance

from your what you know and what you're comfortable with and your

family and all this kind of stuff that's way bigger.

You're going back to Luke there. Also just reminded me of Jesus's

words in the Sermon on the Mount and Matthew chapter 6.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

Therefore don't be anxious asking what shall we eat or what

shall we drink or what shall we wear?

For even the Gentiles seek after these things and your heavenly

Father knows that you need them all, but seek first the Kingdom

of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added

to you. That's that idea has since my

jar sermon has, I mean has been really ringing around in my

head. There's a there's a song that's

been hit on the radio all the time lately too.

I feel like I'm catching it every time I'm in the car.

The Lord will provide and it's basically those lyrics from from

Matthew or those verses from Matthew 6 seek first the Kingdom

and its treasures and everything else it will be added.

I know the Lord will provide like it's so backwards.

It's, it's so countercultural to what we would think, but it's

that, it's that first box mentality.

It's that this is the one thing this, this, this Jesus matters

above all. And even even those words in, in

Matthew 6, God knows it's not God.

God calls you to something and your response is, but where am I

going to live or what am I going to work?

And God's not going to be like, Oh my goodness, I didn't realize

you needed all these things. Had I known, I would have.

Had I known you needed these things in your life, I wouldn't

have asked you to do this. Look, that's right.

We're laughing. It's absurd.

It is absurd. But that's what we do, we we

justify it by by saying, oh, where's this going to come from?

Or how, how many, how am I going to care for this or, or what?

And and that's not the ask. The ask isn't to figure that

out. The ask is to seek first the

Kingdom and all these things will be added unto you the the

the Lord will provide. And it's hard.

That's that's where, that's where faith steps in, right?

It's ridiculous. And anybody and anybody who

stepped out, I'm not even saying you have to like move away.

I'm just saying like just stepping outside your comfort

zone and saying, I man, Lord, I don't, I don't know about this,

but I, I know you're calling me to it.

So let me, let me give it a go. And that could be anything from

like, you know, I don't know if I should gosh.

And it's going to sound like I'm promoting something I don't mean

to, but like, I don't even know if I should volunteer for this

thing. I'm not I'm not sure about that.

Like, is that a question of? Cost, right?

Yeah, Yeah. Yeah.

Like I don't know if I can really give the time to that and

all this kind of stuff and am I really going to fit in?

Am I going to you know, or am I just going?

To be in November, am I going to feel good about it?

Is it going to fulfil me? Is it, is it going to like, and

that's probably not how we should enter into volunteering.

We should just be serving to serve.

But we we ask ourselves those cost questions.

We do, we do. And God is always there on the

other side saying oh come on, you know I got this right.

Come on man. Yeah, but we oh man, we we so

easily and I'm not perfect. I'm not claiming to be perfect

at it. You I know you are definitely

not. It's it's a struggle and it's

hard. I'm just relaying those

experience, like those experiences of how we process,

how we justify or even how we ask.

And it's really, it's all absurd.

We present them to God as if he didn't consider those things he

did. And he's also said, but I don't,

I don't care. Not that he doesn't care, but

I'm not thinking about those things.

I'm I'm thinking about my Kingdom.

I'm thinking about these people who need to hear about my gospel

from you and and I'm having it like that's what he's doing.

And along the way, as we walk in faithful obedience to those

things. Yeah, OK.

Seek first the Kingdom and these treasures and all these others

will be added for who can add like you can't, you can't gain

more time about worrying about the cost of of things, whether

it's whether it's relationship, whether it's time, whether it's

reputation, whatever it might be for the sake of the gospel.

Going back to Paul's words, it's all it's all counted as loss.

Like my my own life. I, I consider the loss for the

sake of Christ, right. So wow, OK, we haven't even got.

No, we haven't even started that.

That's OK, but it brings us into kind of what I was what we were

talking about with the the call and discerning God's voice.

You bring up this contradiction right in verse 4 of chapter 21,

and through the Spirit they were telling Paul not to go on to

Jerusalem. Now remember last week he said

the only thing he was convinced he had to go to Jerusalem and

the only thing was the word of God and the Spirit like that.

Those were the only reasons that he would go there.

For he knew that everything else was a threat.

Everything else was was persecution and imprisonment and

all of that. Now we come back in chapter 21

and through the Spirit, the same Spirit that Paul was compelled

by, the disciples were telling Paul not to go on to Jerusalem.

How can that be? Yeah.

And we didn't read verses one through 6 yesterday, but it's

well because mostly if you check out those first 6 verses like

they're what you might just call travel or history kind of verses

primarily and then you. Get a little context.

Yeah, and then you get this thing stuck right in verse 4.

Now, if they're telling him that the Spirit said don't go, that's

a different thing. But if we read this correctly,

they're they're knowing through the Spirit of God exactly what

Paul already knows, which is man, this is not going to go

well for my life on earth in terms of like continuing to live

and be free. They're not saying the Spirit

said don't go. They're saying they know what

the Spirit says. They know that they're, they're

can they affirm what Paul already knows?

And they're saying, hey, don't do this.

And you know, The funny thing about Paul's farewell tour, and

I think you kind of coined that maybe a couple weeks ago as, as

we're coming into this kind of phase of the book of Acts is

like every turn he makes, every time he sees some friends that

he hasn't seen in a couple years, they're like, hey, guess

what? You shouldn't do that.

You shouldn't do that. Please don't go, Please don't do

that. Man, how difficult.

By the time we got to our text yesterday, he's probably heard

this from three or four different groups of like, hey,

man, we'd really rather not have you go to Jerusalem.

I mean, but, yeah, no wonder by the time he gets to these

people, he's like, oh, come on, guys, you know what you're doing

to me. Like, do you realize, like, how

difficult you're making this thing that has already been

decided by God? You're just, you're you're

piling this thing on, man. Like you don't, you should not

do that to me, that's so hurtful.

And so I mean, like, yeah. And, and so it's not a

contradiction, you know, ultimately, but the.

Spirit has the same understanding.

Of they know their. Response was why would you do

that? Why?

Why are you going to follow this?

Doesn't sound like this is going to be good for you.

And it's it's so strange. And maybe that's just this.

Poor guy. How, how the leader?

How the the example of of a follower after Christ is

different. They both received the same

message. Paul's heart though was and for

the sake of Christ. OK, I'll I'll step into the

threat. I'll I'll step into the

persecution. These other maybe I wanted to

use the word lesser. That's that's maybe harsh, but

OK, less mature. Can I can I say that they saw

they both heard the same message, right.

And Paul's response is OK, my God goes with me.

I'm good. These other ones were yeah,

God's going with you. But you're going to die.

So don't and it's yeah, just strikes me how they they could

get to the different conclusion. They could hear the same word.

They could hear the same explanation and purpose from

God. But I have two vastly different

reactions to what To what he should do.

Well, I mean, and you know, it's it seems super obvious and I

can't remember if we brought this up on this show, but

obviously Peter, you know, once he figures out, oh, Jesus made

it very clear that he's got to go and die, he's like, oh, no,

you don't, no, you don't. To which Jesus falls up with get

behind me saying, yeah, you know, Jesus doesn't cry and say,

oh, Peter, you're breaking my heart.

Come on, man. He doesn't.

He's just. You know what?

You're right. I shouldn't do this.

You've convinced me. You convinced me, Peter.

And so because you've convinced me, now you get to wallow in the

pit of hell. Congratulations for convincing

me not to do the thing that you need me to do.

Like. Yeah.

And And to some extent, of course, like these followers in

some way, not obviously at the same level of Christ who

forgives sins, but like they need Paul to do this because by

Paul doing this, if you look down the road a little bit of

ways and you know, if you haven't read this, I'm sorry,

this is kind of kind of blow this for you.

But like, yeah, eventually by him going to Jerusalem, he'll

get captured and then they're going to send him to Rome

because guess what he's going to claim?

He's going to claim his Roman citizenship, which means they

can't touch him and he has to go to trial in Rome.

And so therefore, this is really cool, man.

It's like a goosebumps moment when God tells Paul out of the

gate, you're going to preach to kings.

How do you think he ever preaches to a king?

He has to go to Jerusalem and get arrested, claim his Roman

citizenship, and then get sent off to Rome to preach to Caesar.

Like that's how he gets there. It all comes through this hard

persecution. It doesn't come through like,

well, you know, I made a bunch of money and I've got all this

influence. Yeah, I'm at the banquet now.

And so there's Caesar. Let me tell Caesar about Jesus.

No, it's going to come through persecution and hardship.

And Paul knew that the entire way, man.

It's amazing. It's amazing.

Later a few verses after this, we come upon Philip the

Evangelist verse verse 8 of chapter 21.

And this is the same the the aforementioned Philip and the

Ethiopian. This is now so 13 chapters in

Acts after that story. And it's been like 20 years.

2025 years somewhere in the timeline there of Phillips

experience with the Ethiopian now labeled as Philip the

evangelist subtext one of the seven stayed with him.

So this is another sort of big meet up here, kind of a farewell

tour moment of Paul checking in on one of the ones who has

faithfully followed, right? He last week we were in Ephesus,

the the seeds that he sowed there, leaving Timothy and the

elders in the word of God and, and his grace and his spirit

there. And now we have Philip and

Caesarea. We're told that he has four

dollars, $4.00, four daughters, four daughters who all had the

gift of prophecy, who all prophesied.

And we get to see this picture again, kind of just the family

tree, I guess of, of discipleship that's trickle down

from Paul, from the early church now into the next generation of,

of this disciples family. Yeah, it's, it's a really neat

thing. And if you want to do, there's

not a lot of research that can be done on his daughters.

There's not a lot, there's really no writing about them

outside of this moment. But what we do know, of course,

is that it just means that they were unmarried, but it also

means that man, God had touched that family in a really special

and unique way. And they had the word of God all

over their mouths like they knew it.

And they were willing and ready to speak in in the environments

that they were clearly asked to speak into.

Now, one of the interesting things that commentators talk

about is like, so Luke notes the fact that they have this gift of

prophecy, but they're not the ones who prophecy in this

moment. It's this guy Agabus who comes

along, who we actually, we saw him earlier in Acts 11, but he's

the one who comes along and he gives this really crazy visual

illustration. And I mentioned it yesterday.

I didn't think about it, but like, OK, so I mentioned I

practice kind of binding myself just in case I wanted to do it

on stage. That was one of those things

too, where it's like, I don't know if I'm going to do this or

not. I guess I have to decide in the

moment. I'm not going to plan this part.

I just ultimately I decided not to.

I had several people go like, aw, dude, you should have done

it. Well, but here's The funny

thing. So as I was practicing doing

this in my office, I did have this thought as I'm bent over my

chair and I'm, you know, bound. I was like, what if somebody

walks in right now? He just walks in and I'm bent

over my chair with my belt around my my feet and my hands.

So it'd have been like, oh man, you're into some.

I don't know what you're doing, bastard Chris, but like, I'll

just leave a. Person would never visit you

for. All time ever again, Yeah.

So by the way, if you ever come in and I'm by myself and you

know, apparently if I'm bound, I, I hope you don't find that

too strange because that totally could have happened last week.

Which is what happens when I leave town.

Good, good. Trying to tie yourself up in the

office? It was a weird moment.

It was a weird moment. And I was like, I don't know,

can I actually do this? You know, I don't know.

Anyway. Oh, my goodness.

So this is. Yeah, he prophesied about a

great famine back in Acts 11, right.

And here we have you. You talked about the the other

message that he proclaims here, right, let the will of the Lord

be done. That's still the conclusion

here, right. Verse 14 brings out and after

these days we got ready and went up to Jerusalem.

So that's still after all this, the threat is reiterated.

We have these figures from from the past and and from I mean,

not the past. They're they're still in the

present, but that Paul has already like sowed seeds and

encouraged and discipled these believers.

And now the conclusion is it's it's reinforced for Paul, right?

He had he has this other response that isn't a we hear,

we hear the Lord loud and clear. Don't do that.

Now it's a Nope. This is this is affirmation.

This is on the same page. Yes, you're right that there is

threat. Yes, you're right that there's

Vadnais for you, but it's fulfilling the plan that God has

for you, and it's still keeping Christ first.

Yep. And that's the that's the only

response we should give. Now, I don't think again, if you

go back, I don't think it's wrong for people to care deeply

about Paul and to say, hey, like, you know, they would.

Yeah. I mean, if they were just like

if, if I mean, think about this other scenario, if Paul came

along and said, well, I think I need to go to Jerusalem and I'm

pretty sure they're going to arrest me and maybe kill me and,

and all this kind of stuff. And they were like, oh cool bro.

See you later. That would have been terrible,

right? So, you know, I mean, they

responded appropriately knowing that like, man, no, we love this

guy like he is. He's not just been useful to us

as a human being, but like, no, we, we love this man like he is

one of our brothers. And like, we don't want to see

him go through this. But at the end of the day,

proverbial or otherwise, that should always be our response.

Let the will of God be done. Because I mean, think about it

like I brought it up yesterday, like Jesus Christ in the in the

garden. He didn't want to die.

There was nothing in him that was like, Oh, I can't wait to

take on the cross. But OK, your will be done.

You know, and, and we hear that all over God's word by his

faithful people who they look at danger, they look at threat,

they look at maybe loss of finances or loss of

relationship. And they looked at in the face

and they say, you know what, This relationship, this moving

the gospel forward is absolutely worth it.

Yeah, absolutely. And that's that's the response I

think we ultimately would hope to see as conflicting as it is.

And it seems like there's no win here really.

Because yes, Paul's asking them why are you, why are you

responding like this? Well, it's it's because they

care for him and he ultimately, I think would want them to care

for him. But even in that moment, he

wants them to realize this is greater even than your

relationship with me, right? This is this is this is carrying

this out. So I don't know.

I don't know if there's a way, a perfect way for it to come

about, but we hear some of the struggle, we hear some of the

the relationship there and, and ultimately that's good that

they're caring about that, about him.

Yeah, Now one of the things that I didn't get to talk about

yesterday, and this will kind of probably bring us to the end of

this show too. OK, so I didn't get to talk

about the fact that James, so the half brother of Jesus and

the other elders who were there with Paul right before he's

going to actually go into Jerusalem, they say we've got

thousands of believers. OK, don't misread that.

Like he is actually saying there are thousands of people who have

received the name of Jesus Christ for their salvation, but

they are so zealous for the law. Like we're not talking about

just the Pharisees and whoever who like persecuted Jesus in the

1st place. Like they are talking about

people who hear Jesus and say, Yep, but they also take their

Jewish customs and their law and they hold that at clearly in

unhealthy, in unhealthy high level.

And so, you know, they're not, they're not because here's the

thing that you have to catch, you have to catch.

They're not mad that Paul is preaching Jesus.

They're mad that they think Paul has said, you know what, throw

Moses away, throw all the customs away.

And that's not what he said at all.

What we're really getting to here is we're getting that OK,

so if you were a non Jew at this time in history and you wanted

to become Jewish, OK, there's a way to do that.

But you're going to go through all the customs and you're going

to go through all this stuff and then you know, but we will graft

you in is the way the Bible might say that.

Well, Paul having been hanging out primarily with non Jewish

people for the last 20 years, you know, he's gone through

country after country and he's been working on, hey, how do I

bring them Jesus? Well, Paul realizes that they

don't need to follow every Jewish custom in order to

believe in Jesus. And those in Jerusalem who do,

at least on the surface, speak the name of Jesus, they're also

still holding Moses and the customs maybe above Jesus.

And so, yeah, you don't. You don't hear about them upset

about Jesus being proclaimed. You hear about them upset

because their customs are being ignored.

And that's wrong. That's a problem.

And that's where even today we have this tension and it's

really why, it's why there's different denominations of even

of Christianity, Lutheran and Baptist and Presbyterian and all

the, all the other facets. At some point or another, there

were lines of thought that put a custom or a tradition or or a

value above the important things, right?

Like it's what we see here that obviously you don't need to

become Jewish to be a Christian, right?

Like that's at no point did Jesus come and proclaim that.

At no point is Paul suggesting that it's more of a more of a

cultural thing, but they're holding it as you can't.

We're better Christians because we're all so Jewish, right Like

that. That's what's coming out here.

And to some degree that's the that's the factions among among

denominations sometimes is we're better Christians because we're

Baptist or we're better Christians because we're

Lutherans or we're better Christians because we're non

denominational, which. Yeah, all you guys fighting over

these silly things. We don't have a name at all.

Right. So we, we see that played out

and it's really it's, it's sad a little bit that history does

repeat itself, that the brokenness of humanity is just

the same as as it was 2000 years ago.

But that's why I can't, I don't want to just be patting

ourselves on the back all, all the time here.

But I think we do earnestly try to keep the main thing, the main

thing, the the non salvific issues like this, like, like

whether or not we're following a tradition from who knows where

or who knows when or, or this. We don't really have like a

cultural custom. I don't think that we're that

we're trying to adhere to it. That's something that you have

to conform to, to be quote UN quote, part of our club.

I mean, we try to make this a club at all at all really.

But I think that is of utmost importance in a church community

to keep the main things that we should, we should not have

markers of custom or tradition that set us apart.

We should be set apart in the word of God.

We should, we should hold to and maintain that there shouldn't be

extra things that we have to add to that in order to become

attractional, in order to become appealing to the world around

us, that it's not natural for the word of God to be appealing

to the world around us, right? Like that's.

That's not that's not how it is. We don't desire the things of

God in in our brokenness, right? That's true.

I was, you know what, honestly, I was, I've been so encouraged

by, well, I'll just call them the Saints.

I've been so encouraged by the Saints here who I know who you

know what, quite honestly, if they're being really transparent

and I've heard them, they've, they've been honest with me and

they've said, you know what, man?

Would, would, would I like it if we were singing traditional

hymns? Sure, I would.

I would. That would be great for me

because that's the music I grew up with.

That's that's the custom with which we did worship when I was

in my 20s, thirties, 40s. Well, now these, some of these,

some of our good friends are 7080 years old and they look at

the quote UN quote customs of how we do worship now on a

Sunday. And maybe it's not their ideal,

but they see that because they've allowed the quote UN

quote custom to change inside their church on any given Sunday

and it still fits the gospel. But because they've allowed that

to change without squabbling, without trying to throw a fit

about, hey, you got to keep doing it this way because,

because, because of that, they've seen their church over

the last 40 something years continue to grow and expand and

meet people right where they are with the name of Jesus Christ.

And so that's, that's what it is, right?

Like if you keep the main thing, the main thing, which is the

gospel of Jesus Christ, these customs, these behaviors are

habits. As that word is defined, those

things are allowed to change and shift a little bit.

As long as the gospel, the Word of God is still at the center of

everything we do, and we're still honestly preaching and

teaching that as it sits. We're not changing it.

We're not altering it. This is what it is.

The other customs can flex, but that doesn't change.

And so I'm so thankful for our Saints here who have allowed

that and who haven't thrown a fit because I have been in other

places. And I think, oh, my goodness.

You know, we joke about, oh, you can't change the carpet color

without an argument. And, you know, we, we throw that

around. But like, that's real.

That happens in places. And so I'm so incredibly

thankful that we have not had those arguments here.

Yeah. So that's Acts 21.

If you haven't caught the sermon from Pastor Chris, you can check

that out on the ERC Sundays podcast feed as well.

Let us know about your ideal concert line.

Oh, that was great. Earlier part of the discussion

from the first part of this episode.

And we'll be back. You've got Part 2.

Sermon Part 2. This message, yeah.

It's absolutely Part 2. The story just continues right

where we left off and I and I did, I did promo this.

We have to talk about how do we deal with the fear that's

involved with following the Holy Spirit.

And I didn't really touch on that yesterday, but there is a

practical way to deal with that and we are definitely getting

into that this upcoming Sunday. OK, that sounds great.

Part 2 of this sermon this Sunday, the 27th.

We'd encourage you to come out This Saturday the 26th.

Worship Ministry Band is playing at the Bix.

It's 100 Kirkland Blvd. The main Salvation Army office

down there will be lifting up the name of Jesus for close to

three hours there 8:00 to 11:00 Saturday morning, 100 Kirkland

Blvd. there in Davenport. Come on out and enjoy some time

with some people from your church community here and some

good songs and encouraging the runners on SO.

It's going to be a great time. I went last year again.

I can't play an instrument sing to save my life, but man it is a

ton of fun. Yeah, it'll be a great day.

So hope you come out and join us for that.

Until then, have a blessed week Church.