9/6/26 - Acts 11:19-26 - Acts 13:1-3- Kyle York

Good morning.

If you've got a Bible as Marcia just read from Acts chapter 11, I'd invite you to turn to Acts 11 with me this morning.

Acts 11 · chapter mention

My name is Kyle York.

I'm one of the pastors of Harvest Church, and I want to say thank you for having us.

Both of our churches made a significant announcement last week.

And just by way of introduction, I want to tell y'all the two most important things about me.

Slater already spoiled the surprise a little bit, but I am Jennifer's husband and I'm Mason and Caleb's dad.

And so I hope to get a chance to meet y'all this morning.

I really hope you get to meet them, even more importantly.

As we turn to Acts 11 this morning.

Back in my early 20s, I was a youth pastor, and periodically I would go to our local high school to help out with Fellowship of Christian athletes.

It met early in the morning before the first bell.

Well, the first bell would ring, all the kids would shuffle out to class, and I would walk out with them through the halls and then out to my car.

Well, one morning I'm walking through the halls after the bell has rung, and I feel this hand reach out and grab me by the elbow.

It was a teacher pulling me into her classroom.

And she says very sternly, What are you doing?

Tuck in your shirt.

You know the rules.

I was so confused.

I didn't know what was going on.

And she said, Who's your homeroom teacher?

She thinks I'm a student.

How flattering.

Only it wasn't flattering.

It was terrifying.

I kid you not, she was actively tucking my shirt in for me.

If you've never had a total stranger tuck your shirt in against your will, it's not great.

And I was, I was so flustered by the whole situation, I didn't know what to say.

Eventually I was able to blurt out, I'm a man.

I had to show her my driver's license.

I still see that teacher from time to time in my nightmares.

I took my shirt in this morning on the off chance that she goes to this church.

But to be fair, to be fair to her, I was the one who was out of place.

I was somewhere I didn't belong.

And as funny as that story is to me now, it really taps into one of my great fears, the fear of being outside of my comfort zone, finding myself somewhere where I don't belong, or even worse, maybe where I don't feel welcome.

I think you probably know what I mean.

Well, as we look at Acts 11, and really it's Acts chapters 10 and 11 this morning, there's a central question being asked, not just about social norms, where do we belong socially, but it's the question being asked at the absolute deepest level, the most important question there is.

Acts 10 · chapter mention

Who really belongs to God?

Who is welcome to come to God and be saved?

Now we might instinctively say anybody can come to God.

Everybody's welcome to come to Him and be saved, and that's right.

Yes and amen.

But that was not at all the prevailing assumption among the early church.

If we read the first nine chapters of the book of Acts, basically all of the ministry of the gospel at that time was centered in Jerusalem, and it was assumed that salvation was a blessing uniquely given to the Jews.

I mean, after all, Jesus is the Jewish Messiah, he is the hope of Israel.

And so there was an assumption very strongly held among the Jewish Christians that some people are in and some are out.

We're in, and the rest of the world is not part of what Jesus came to accomplish.

But then all of a sudden, in Acts chapter 10, very famously, Peter has a vision on top of the roof of a man named Simon's house, a sheet coming down out of heaven with all the unclean animals, pigs and lobsters, all the things that in Leviticus the Jews were told not to eat because they were unclean.

Acts 10 · chapter mention

And God says, Peter, I want you to kill and eat.

And Peter says, No, by no means.

I've never eaten anything unclean.

And the Lord says, What I have made clean, you no longer consider unholy.

And he sends Peter to the home of a man named Cornelius, a Gentile man, and Peter preaches the gospel to the Gentiles, and they receive the Spirit and are saved.

And it's God's declaration first to Peter and by extension to the whole Jewish nation and now the world, that Jesus came to be Lord and Savior of everybody.

Everyone who would turn to him in faith, both Jew and Gentile.

That's us.

Now, to us, that may seem like an obvious thing.

We have the whole Bible in our hands, but for the earliest Christians, this was like an atomic bomb.

They had no category for this kind of inclusion.

Everybody can come in at the same level ground.

Well, with that background, it helps us to understand the beginnings, the origin of the Church of Antioch, which we read about here in Acts 11.

I want just to start in verse 19 as Marcia read for us.

Luke says, 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 were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists also, preaching the Lord Jesus.

It was persecution that caused the early Christians to leave Jerusalem and scatter abroad.

But you notice they don't run and hide.

Everywhere they go, they take the gospel with them, now to new and unreached places.

And this is exactly what Jesus had commanded at the beginning of Acts, you will be my witnesses, he says.

Here in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth.

And so here they go.

But Luke gives us a really important detail.

He says, as they went out, they spent their time sharing the gospel with only one group of people.

Did you see it?

With the Jews only.

This seems to be something agreed upon and understood.

We're only going to share with our fellow Jews.

But then in verse 20, the plan seems to unravel a bit.

There are men from Cyprus and Cyrene who go into Antioch and they begin to share Jesus with the Greeks, the Hellenists, the Gentiles, the non-Jews.

Now we might read that as a minor detail, but that would have been a major scandal.

A scandal.

Because remember, the prevailing assumption is that the gospel, the message of the good news of Jesus, belongs only to certain people, only these people and not them.

Only us, not the Gentiles.

And so these guys are entering into Antioch.

They're not just defying orders.

Some would say they're defying God.

But now look at what happens in verse 21.

And the hand of the Lord was with them.

And a great number who believed turned to the Lord.

The hand of the Lord was with them.

All throughout the Bible, the Old Testament specifically, there are events that are attributed to the hand of God.

If you go onto Biblegateway.com or maybe even a Google search, you can find every instance of this where the hand of the Lord is credited with something.

In Deuteronomy, we're told that it was God's mighty hand that rescued Israel out of their slavery to Egypt.

The idea is that God's hand is his active and powerful involvement in the world.

When God acts in powerful ways, his hand is at work.

So if we ask, is it a happy accident that these men just so happened to go into Antioch and maybe they didn't get the memo?

Or maybe they just got a wild hair and they said, you know what, let's just share with the Greeks also.

Why not?

Was it an accident?

Was it a coincidence?

Only from a human perspective.

But we're meant to see in this narrative God's hand, his fingerprints are now everywhere.

The same divine hand that rescued Israel out of Egypt is now at work in Antioch, rescuing sinners, reconciling them to God, no longer the outsiders, the Gentiles, but now God's beliefs.

This is the miracle presently at work right here, right now.

I mean, think about it.

How are any of us here right now?

One of my favorite movies is called That Thing You Do, early 90s, about a young group of guys who form a band in their garage, and they end up with a hit single and they travel the nation and everybody now knows their name.

And at one point late in the movie, they're performing on national television, and the guitarist turns around to the drummer and he says, Hey, how did we get here?

He can't believe it.

We ought to ask ourselves that question routinely.

When we enter into the church, how do we get here?

How is it that you and I belong in this building in the presence of God?

It's not owing to our own goodness or our own righteousness.

We don't belong because of anything good in ourselves.

We're here because Jesus loved us and he gave himself for us.

Which means Redemption Church is living, breathing evidence of God's hand at work.

So is Harvest Church.

We're here because God is gracious, because He's powerful to save.

We belong to Him because His heart wills it so.

He loves us enough to send His Son for us.

But the story is just beginning here.

We see how Antioch begins, but now look at verse 22.

Look at the building up of the church.

It says in verse 22, the report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem.

Uh oh.

And so they sent Barnabas to Antioch.

Well, when he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad.

And he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose.

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

And a great many people were added to the Lord.

So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul.

That's the Apostle Paul.

And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch.

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

And in Antioch, the disciples were first called Christians.

Now Luke brings the church of Jerusalem into this story here.

The church which is led by the apostles, the home church, the mothership.

They get word that something big is happening in Antioch.

The Gentiles are hearing the gospel and turning to Christ.

Scandal, potentially.

Is this legit?

Well, there's only one way to find out.

They're going to send a delegate over to Antioch, somebody who is strong and faithful.

They send Barnabas.

And y'all, I want to encourage us to fix our eyes back on verse 23 here for just a moment.

A wonderful verse.

In verse 23, when Barnabas came and saw the grace of God, he was glad.

He rejoiced.

And he began to exhort them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose.

When Barnabas came, he witnessed the grace of God.

And he was so overjoyed with what he saw that he jumps in with both feet.

Do you see this?

Barnabas joins in the good work that God is doing there.

How could he do otherwise?

Now we don't know what Barnabas intended to do initially in Antioch.

What did the church in Jerusalem task him to do?

My guess is, hey, go make sure this is on the up and up.

Go make sure this is orderly and legitimate.

Maybe Barnabas just intended to come for a weekend.

Maybe he didn't even pack a bag.

But Luke tells us that he was so engaged in the ministry happening there that he never left.

He never left.

He became more than a witness of God's grace, he became a participant, a helper, a builder.

In fact, he goes out in search of more help.

Barnabas goes to Tarsus to find who we know is the Apostle Paul.

At that time, he was still known as Saul.

If you recall back just a few chapters earlier, it was Barnabas who vouches for Saul.

When everyone was terrified of Saul, thinking he must be spying us out.

Surely he's not a real Christian.

Barnabas takes Saul with him and vouches for him and helps him to establish a reputation now as an apostle.

Barnabas goes and finds Paul and says, You've got to come and see what's happening in Antioch.

You've got to come and help.

And so they spend a whole year there, Luke tells us, meeting and teaching and sharing and building up.

Now we see what's happening here.

It's God's gracious hand, Him by faith.

But we see also in this narrative, it's the same grace, it's God's grace that now builds us up as those who belong to each other.

We're not just scattered individuals saved by grace, and God sends us, you know, out to figure it out on our own.

No, he builds a church, a community, a family of people now who share the common bond of Jesus.

And so we're meant to look at this story as admirable.

I hope we admire Barnabas.

But moreover, we're meant to imitate his example.

I think Barnabas is meant to serve as an example for us.

If we consider what the church is and what our place is in it, do you belong here?

It's more than just do I belong.

One of the great privileges of being the church is that every single one of us has a gift, a unique blessing, an ability to encourage and strengthen and build up what God is doing among his people.

Every single one of us is called to that ultimate task.

And we see it when we read the book of Acts, y'all, the book of Acts is full of miracles, unmistakable divine graces.

Clearly, God is the one causing the growth here.

It's his hand, it's his grace causing all this salvation.

But none of it ever happens in the abstract.

It's very rare in Acts that we see blessings just sprinkled down from heaven.

So much of the miraculous and gracious work of God in his church is through people.

And often it comes through unlikely people, people that we wouldn't even know to celebrate, who feet on the ground stand in the gap between those who are saved and those who are lost, and they bring the gospel to bear so that others may come to Christ.

And when the church is planted, it's then built up through people.

We are the instruments of God's gracious work.

There is no plan B.

We're his plan A.

He loves to work through people.

Fallible, sinful as we are, ignorant as we may be, we're the people who make up his body, and that delights him.

And so the building up of the church happens through you and me.

I don't know if you recognize this, but I want you to see it.

When you serve, when you serve, even in ways that no one else sees, when you share, when you show hospitality, when you bear the burdens of someone who is suffering, when you encourage, as Barnabas did, you are acting out God's grace to the building up of his church.

That's our privilege that we share together.

God brings us in so that he may build us up.

And we get to put our hands to the task.

Now, Luke gives a really interesting detail in verse 26.

There at the end of this paragraph, Luke says something that is easy to miss.

He says, it's in Antioch that these disciples were first called Christians.

Now, I learned this at some time ago that this word Christian was initially coined as an insult.

It was a derogatory term given to the church by those who opposed the faith.

It was intended to mock the disciples of Jesus by calling them Christians, which means Christ people, or it could even mean little Christs.

And when we phrase it like that, little Christ, you can see the derogatory nature that was intended in it.

But think about this with me.

Isn't it amazing that even the enemies of the church thought to call them Christ people?

I mean, how dramatic, how radical must the transformation have been that even their enemies saw them in this way as so as so tied in to the person and work of Jesus that you could no longer separate them apart anymore.

They're Christ people.

Now, sadly, the term Christian has gotten so generic and so flat over time that it doesn't carry that kind of force like it used to.

But the point remains that we as God's church are that there's something Christ-like that's meant to be present and obvious in how we live and how we speak and how we love each other and how we love the world.

That both within the church and to the watching world, there's something of the reflection of Jesus that's unmistakable in us.

We're not just playing church, we are the church.

We are Christ people.

And with that in mind, I want us to see there's a third act here to this narrative.

We see the church being brought in, Jews and Gentiles.

We see the church being built up through the ministry of Barnabas and Saul, but there's a third act here.

Luke actually leaves the narrative in chapter 12 and returns to Antioch again in chapter 13.

So if you cheat with me, maybe just one page over to the right, Acts chapter 13, he returns now to this church a year later.

Acts 13 · chapter mention

He says, Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon, who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Menae, a lifelong friend of Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul.

There's Paul again.

While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.

Then after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

This is the beginning of the first great missionary journey, which really covers the rest of the book of Acts, the missionary journeys of Paul.

I mean, this is the spread of the gospel that came to change the world.

You and I are sitting here in large measure because of this journey, first undertaken from the church in Antioch.

And the reason I wanted us to see this part of the story is because it really reveals something of God's heart, not just for them, but for us, for his church, wherever his church is named.

So think about what we've said so far.

God in his grace brings us in that we may belong to him.

By his grace, he builds us up as those who belong to each other, the church.

But now we see the third act.

God delights to send us out.

Because we belong to his kingdom mission.

We belong to him by his grace.

We belong to one another as his church, and we belong to the mission to which he's now called us outward.

When the Spirit says, set apart for me.

Barnabas and Saul, for the work to which I've called them.

God is speaking in very personal terms about his heart's purpose, his mission, something that he desires to do through this church now for the sake of the world.

It's deep in the heart of God to extend and expand the reach of his grace.

The church in Antioch becomes the perfect picture of this, really from beginning to end.

We see it.

People came to this city, Antioch, in chapter 11, when it was yet an unreached place.

Jesus had never been named there until men came and brought the gospel.

And by God's grace, we see that considerable numbers of people are saved, and then a church is planted.

And then that same church is built up.

And now that same church is being stretched and called outward.

Now I want to be totally honest right here.

This is where the scripture starts making me really nervous.

Think about what God is saying right here to this church.

Set apart for me, Paul and Barnabas, and send them out.

Y'all, the Spirit is saying, I want you to send out your two best guys, your two strongest teachers and leaders, your rocks.

I mean, that the men that you couldn't possibly doing this, couldn't even imagine doing this without them.

Paul and Barnabas?

I mean, as a pastor, I'm not so sure about this plan of action that God is giving to the church here.

You want us to send out our very best.

And from a human perspective, I think it makes sense that we would be concerned with the plan here.

I mean, why take such a risk?

Why risk such a cost?

Why not instead try to preserve and hold on to the good things that God has done here, the good things he's doing?

I mean, all sorts of wonderful things have been happening in Antioch.

God, why would you ruin it now?

I mean, it might be in the heart of the church here to balk and say, wait a minute, or at least bargain with God.

Don't take the A-team.

We've got guys we can send.

Just not Paul and Barnabas.

Now I'm reading between the lines here.

I'm not sure Antioch had even a moment's thought about this, but for me, it's a challenge because what is happening in Acts 13 is the abrasion of this scripture is that it challenges my sense of comfort.

When I think about God acting in this way, see, I like things to be manageable and predictable.

We finally got it up and running just the way we want it.

I mean, I want God to bless us.

I want God to do all sorts of great things, but can we please keep it within the lines?

I mean, can we keep it, God, within the boundaries that I'm most comfortable with?

But see, this is the place where Antioch maybe serves its best example.

I think maybe they have the most to offer us here in chapter 13.

Go back with me for just a minute and look at verse 2 again.

Let's revisit verse 2.

Important question.

What was the church doing when the Spirit broke in and spoke to them?

Did the Spirit wake them up from sleep in the middle of the night?

What was the church doing while they were worshiping God and fasting?

The Spirit spoke.

This was their posture before the Lord.

They were already seeking God's heart and God's will when the Spirit speaks.

And so it should be no surprise to us that when the Spirit does reveal God's will, the church is ready to obey.

It's like they've already got their bags packed.

I'm sure it was difficult for them.

It had to be.

They loved Saul and Barnabas.

But they were so eager to obey God from the start.

They were already engaged in the great work so that when the Spirit speaks, of course.

The answer was already yes before God even gave them their directive.

Why?

Because God's heart is their heart.

God's heart is their heart.

That explains this little detail.

Y'all, I've missed this for years.

I saw it recently.

In verse 3, it says, They fasted and they prayed and they laid hands on Barnabas and Saul and sent them out.

Now peek down one verse to verse four.

Luke says, so when they were sent out by the Holy Spirit.

Now wait a minute.

Which is it?

Is it verse 3 or is it verse 4?

Who sent them out?

Did the church send them?

Or did the Spirit send them?

One and the same.

Isn't that wonderful?

One and the same.

No contradiction.

The church is acting in perfect accord with the Spirit of God.

Now I used a moment ago a word that I've been using with our church routinely for like the last eight weeks.

I'm sure they're glad I'm gone this Sunday.

Because I've been using this word a lot.

It's the word posture.

What is my posture in relationship to the things that we're looking at here in the scripture today?

That is to say, what is the disposition of my heart and my life when it comes to God bringing us in to build us up to ultimately send us out?

It violates my sense of comfort to think that God would do such great things only to call me outward, to call me outside of what's easier, what's more comfortable, what's more natural to me.

But of course, that's the point.

That's the point.

Y'all, so much of my life I spend, I feel like, on my heels, praying for God's blessing, I toes, praying more for his mission for my life.

And I don't have to choose.

See, that's the thing about it.

We don't have to sacrifice blessing for mission.

There's a great verse, the Apostle Paul wrote this in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, where Paul gives us a sense of what Jesus has done and what our lives now look like in response.

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

This is a great gospel verse.

2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 15.

2 Corinthians 5:15

Paul says, He, Jesus, died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him, who for their sake died and was raised.

Isn't that amazing?

Friends, Jesus died for us.

He died for you.

And he was raised again, Paul says, for your sake, for your salvation.

The message of the scriptures is that Jesus loved us and his love propelled him to give himself up for us.

He died so that we may live, so that by his gracious hand you and I might be brought out of our sins and forgiven, brought out of death and into eternal life with God.

Everyone who turns to him, this goes back to our original question: who may belong to God?

Is it Jew?

Is it Gentile?

Are there any such boundaries or barriers on God's grace?

Everyone who turns to Jesus Christ in faith will be gladly received into the heart of God.

The free gift of his saving grace is yours by faith and not by your own works, by trusting in Christ and not in yourself.

But notice also what his grace produces.

Y'all, eternal life is not an abstract idea.

Eternal life is feet on the ground today, so that we who live might no longer live for ourselves, but for him who died and was raised for our sake.

To have life in Christ, abundant eternal spiritual life, has a profound and immediate impact on life now.

Think about why the church in Antioch was called Christian.

Little Christs.

It's because their salvation was not something personal and private that no one else could see or discern.

Their lives were radically transformed.

They were Christ people, and so are we.

That we no longer live for ourselves.

I no longer live pursuing my own comforts merely, keeping God within my own confined boundaries.

God bless the things that I do, and please don't call me outside of what's comfortable.

No, I don't live for myself anymore if I'm alive in Christ.

I live for Him because He died for me.

Y'all, when we belong to Jesus Christ by faith, He brings us into His church to build us up.

He does not leave us as we were.

He makes something great out of us.

He uses us to that end.

We get to play a part in each other's lives for the building up of the body of Christ.

And from that vantage point now, we get to see the world in a different light.

We are no longer of the world, but we now exist for the world.

Just as Jesus came for the sake of the lost.

We now see the world with his heart so that we might enter in as his ambassadors.

We belong to him, we belong to each other, and we belong to his mission for the sake of those who don't yet know him.

I keep coming back to this because it helps me to be simple-minded.

Jesus brings us in, he builds us up so that he might send us out.

The worst thing a church can do is delight in God's grace and hold it in.

And we become an incubator for the good things that God is doing, but we lose our sense of the radiator nature of what we're called to be.

We're meant to extend his grace outward so that others may know him too.

Now, if you're like me, this all sounds so wonderful, but really intimidating, and maybe even out of reach.

There's so much baked into what it means to be Christ's people in the world that is beyond us.

The apostle Paul felt this.

He writes to the Corinthians, who is adequate for these things?

He's speaking of himself.

I'm not adequate to be an apostle.

If Paul felt that way, then surely we will.

And so if we can, let's close with what I think is a great encouragement.

It sure is to me.

I realize Barnabas and Paul are getting all the publicity here in this scripture.

Their names are coming up more than anybody else.

But think back with me to chapter 11.

Can you recall the names of the men who first brought the gospel to Antioch?

The first guys to come and bring the message of Jesus.

The guys who started it all.

Do you remember their names?

Can I save you the trouble of going back and trying to find them?

They're not in there.

Luke doesn't tell us.

Which means the first people who brought the good news of Jesus to this city were ordinary men.

Nameless men.

We'll meet them in heaven.

We'll know their names perhaps then.

Ordinary people whose heart was simply to make much of Jesus wherever God sent them.

Where God should lead.

They lived with a posture of faith and obedience and courage, trusting that the Lord would give them the grace they needed for whatever he called them to do.

That his hand would be with them, just as Luke tells us, because that's who he is, in relationship to the ordinary people, he delights to bless and call and send.

Y'all, nothing about that has changed.

The hand of the Lord is just as strong today as it ever was.

He has not ceased to build his church, and he still boldly calls us outward as his witnesses, his ambassadors, as Christ's people for the sake of a world in need of his grace.

The sweetness of this narrative, I hope you see it.

What we see in Antioch is a precious reminder of what we are, the same as them.

We are trophies of God's grace.

There's nothing in me owing to my belonging here.

I don't belong here because of anything in me, it's all Jesus.

Antioch serves as a picture of that, and so do we, right where we sit.

But I hope we're challenged by this.

That Antioch is also for us the model of what we ought to aspire to become.

A people gladly brought in, joyfully built up, and eagerly sent out.

All by his grace and for his glory.

Would you pray with me?

Lord, I pray this morning that we would be encouraged and challenged.

Lord, it may be in our hearts at some deep level we just don't know, or we had no, we can't feel confident that we really belong to you.

I know my own heart.

I know my sin.

I know, and Lord, you surely know where I've been and what I've done.

Lord, you know how I have failed you this morning.

How is it that I could belong in your presence and among your people?

Lord, remind us and I pray refresh us in the grace of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We belong because you, Jesus, have loved us.

Because you died and you were raised for our sake.

We belong not on our own merits, but on yours and on your mercies.

I pray, Lord, even this morning, perhaps, somebody who struggles to feel that you really love them, that they're really secure in your grace, Lord, I pray that this would feel, Lord, like a thousand pounds lifted off their shoulders.

That you would encourage them to see, Lord, not what's in the mirror.

That's not where our hope is found.

But that we would look to the cross.

I pray also, Lord, that we would be greatly challenged together as I am.

That, Lord, where this scripture makes me uncomfortable, the thought of, Lord, you calling us into places that are that are risky or insecure or uncertain.

Lord, help us to see that the Spirit of God takes no risks.

Lord, for you there are no uncertainties.

You hold all things together by the word of your power.

Lord, you prepare our good works in advance.

I pray, Lord, that we would have enough faith and confidence in Jesus this morning to say we don't know what the future holds, but we're gonna hold open hands in front of us.

We're gonna do what Antioch did.

We're gonna take on a posture of faith, worshiping the Lord and fasting, saying yes up front, Lord, to whatever it is you desire for us to do.

So that when you speak a word, our bags are packed and ready.

We are committed to your mission.

I'm not committed first to my comfort or my own boundaries.

Lord, I pray that we would see that, Lord, not as something to fear, not as a threat, but as the most glorious thing in the world.

Because we are your church.

We belong to you by faith.

We belong to the church, one another by your grace, and we belong to your mission as those whom you call to be your witnesses.

Lord, drive this down like a nail deep into my heart this morning.

I need it.

I want to live on my toes, Lord, ready for whatever you choose to do, ready for however you should lead.

Father, I do pray, as silly as it sounds to us to hear it, I pray, Lord, that the world might look at us and think, look at those little Christs.

Look at those Christ people.

And that there might be no other explanation for us, Lord.

It's not us.

Who are we?

But Christ in us, the hope of glory.

Lord, let that light shine from this place, Lord, into everywhere you might lead us.

We ask in Jesus' name.

Amen.