Prophecy & A Multi-Ethnic Faith - Acts 11

Welcome back to the Bible study podcast.

It's been a long time for us.

Yeah, for the recording.

Correct.

It's been what, three weeks or so?

Something like that?

Well, we were five ahead, and then we got we're we're now like contemporaneous.

Well, one time we had we couldn't because of an event here at the church.

And one time I literally called you right before and was like, can we get a different time?

Gotta do a different time.

And so here we are.

Yeah.

Here we are.

So we're back.

We're back, but for the average person who's been following along, it's we didn't go anywhere.

We didn't miss this.

We're right on time.

Yep.

We're filming this live.

Welcome back to the we're in the sense that we're live.

We are live.

And it's being filmed.

And it will be edited.

It'll be shown later, but it's being filmed live.

Right?

Yeah, that way if anything crazy happens, we can short thing before we jump into Acts 11 is like during COVID, when churches were for it's the first time we'd ever done anything like online at all, camera stuff.

So I started paying attention to what other churches did and really hated most of it.

And the thing that bothered me the most were churches that faked live.

So, you know, the way it worked on Facebook is you could like go live.

Right.

You know what I mean?

Or on YouTube, you could go live, but you could actually you can go live and feed a pre-recorded thing as live.

Didn't we do this?

So hold on, hold on.

So sort of.

I don't know.

Yeah.

No, no, this is where it all came about.

Like we would so YouTube would do like premieres and it would seem like it was live.

Right.

Because it'd have the little live icon.

Have the live icon, and that's just built in.

Right.

But then what some churches started to do is they like added their own live iconic and talked like we're coming to you live.

And it was clearly prerecorded.

It wasn't even being being premiered or anything.

No, it's just like it's just like it's a pre-recorded thing.

It's obviously prerecorded.

There's very like But it's But they're they're actually saying and then they would put on the thing, join us live at this time.

And it just bothered me.

And that meant probably where I was just being too religious.

I'm like, just that it's touched on here in Acts chapter 11.

Acts 11 · chapter mention

It is actually, we that's actually, you know, this is like for the people that tie their shoes too tight.

Yeah.

You were going to go through that story right now.

I would love to, actually.

That's one of the funniest things.

All right, let's get it.

All right, let's go.

Acts chapter 11.

Acts 11 · chapter mention

Oh, I meant the shoes tied too tight because I know there's no concept for that.

You went to the doctor and they told you.

I was gonna save it to when we were talking about it.

I didn't here we go.

Acts eleven.

I am gonna tell the story in the context of the scripture we're about to read.

Everyone's on the edge of their seats now.

They're just like, I can't wait.

Just a little teaser.

What happened?

Acts chapter 11.

Acts 11 · chapter mention

Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the Word of God.

So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him.

That's it.

Does it say the Jews in yours?

Yeah, it just says the Jewish believers criticized him.

Yours says the circumcision.

Those that were circumcised.

I don't know what you've got your computer out.

What's the Greek?

Well, there is there is actually a reference.

Those of the circumcision.

Those of the circumcision.

Those of the circumcision.

But the circumcision party is vote for us.

That is a that's the next series that I'm going to start.

They went to him saying, You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.

But Peter began and explained to it them in order.

I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision, something like a great sheet descending, being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to me.

Looking at it closely, I observed animals and beasts of prey, and reptiles and birds of the air, and I heard a voice saying to me, Rise, Peter, kill and eat.

But I said, By no means, Lord, for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth.

But the voice answered a second time from heaven, saying, What God has made clean, do not call common.

This happened three times, and all was drawn up again into heaven.

And behold, at the very moment at that very moment, three men arrived at the house in which we were in which we were, sent to me from Caesarea.

And the Spirit of God, or the Spirit told me to go to them, making no distinction.

These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man's house.

And he told us how he had seen an angel stand in his house and say, Send to Joppa and bring Simon, who is called Peter.

He will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household.

As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them as on us at the beginning.

And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way?

When they heard these things they fell silent, and they glorified God, saying, Then to Gentile the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.

They changed parties.

They changed parties.

No, actually, this was um when I read this, I was really struck by how quickly they changed their minds, and how it isn't this like it's they're like, Hey, you shouldn't have done that, and he's like, Let me say what God did, and like, well, that's good then.

Yeah.

And there isn't this giant schism that happens.

They just sort of go, new information, this makes sense, God is in this, we're good.

And it isn't this giant back and forth.

I was just I think that sometimes in my experience, people um tend to hold on to things they hold dear really tightly, and having like holding those things with a loose hand when the Lord's involved, I think, is really unique and and uncommon.

Yeah, and I I think even our joking around about calling it some political party where it is like this deeply held belief of how you're welcomed into God's family.

Yeah, I mean it's yeah, we we can we Gentiles can laugh about it, right?

Right.

But no, I mean this was identity.

This was the identity of the Jewish people.

And they've suffered so much, they've been oppressed by all these other nations, and it's been centuries of oppression and freedom for a little bit, and then oppression and all that kind of stuff.

And I mean, for them, their identity, they're so proud of this.

And this is what God had they they it is impossible for them to separate it from obedience to God.

Like obedience to God for them is is a it isn't just what you do, it's who you are.

And so it yeah, we can make we can be flippant about it, because from our perspective in history and our background and whatever.

But for these guys, yeah, the fact that you know you're not yeah, it's a big deal.

And they're living at the same time that like what will eventually come out as the Mishnah is being written.

And so What is the Mishnah?

Mishnah is uh it's a in our culture, it would be like imagine if the Jewish law got a new update and this is now version 2.0, and all of it's sort of designed around making extra sure that you couldn't break the laws.

So it's kind of like it adds a lot to the law, but all of it's derived from the original law.

So a great example of this would be, and it gets pretty crazy.

In the Mishnah, and this was viewed at the time, this is like what you see Jesus fighting against with the hand washing rituals.

That's not actually the Jewish law.

Right.

But that's the Mishnah as it's been tradition, as it's been codified tradition.

And it's and it's in the process of that, and then eventually it's going to be written down and really really codified.

So um, but one example is in the Mishnah, you are not allowed, if you're a Jewish midwife, unless it is a crisis of like life and death, you are not allowed to help a Gentile woman deliver a child.

Because Gentiles are idol worshipers.

The law says you must not worship idols, and to bring an idol worshiper into the world is to contribute to idol worship.

So if you're a Jewish, you can't do it.

Right.

You're breaking the not the there's no law in the Old Testament about that, but it was their way of extrapolating, well, the law says this, therefore that.

Um, and that's what we see Jesus fighting against.

But point is there in this culture that is like obsessed with the law and is even like uh, you know, currently in their lives adding more to it.

So for for Peter to go eat with Gentiles is like a huge deal.

Huge deal.

Scandalous.

Yes.

And I think the I think the pointing out the fact that they do change their minds quickly, because we've had moments like this, is very similar sounding to the moments that lead up to Jesus' crucifixion.

It's like, oh, this is all the same kind of thing that was like, no, you can't do this, no, you can't do this.

Okay, we just have to kill you.

But in this context, it's like, oh, no, you can't do that.

It's like, well, here's what here's what I saw, here's what God did in front of me, here's the proofs for whatever it was.

And they changed their mind in a really cool way.

I know, that's my favorite part of it.

It's just there's it just he gives an explanation and they go, yep.

Yeah, and we're in the middle of the series called Jesus Not Religion, kind of exploring the idea that you're seeking after what God wants for you rather than the things that are built around the structure of the thing.

And so you mentioned that I tied my shoes too tight a while back.

I had a like concern.

I'm a runner, and so I have lots of like random feet things where I'm like, my toes are going numb.

Like, that's probably not a good idea.

And you Google like what happens with your toes.

It's like you've got diabetes or aneurysm, or you know, right, all sorts of things.

And so I went to the doctor and he watched me take my boots off, and he's like, I think you're just tying your shoes too tight.

And lo and behold, I was just tying my twos too shoes too tight and ended up, you know, holding on to that loosely and was able to loosen up my shoes.

It's funny, I had a similar thing like that with my teeth.

So I have really bad gum recession.

And that's often linked to like gum disease.

All sorts of different and I've always had like paranoia about heart stuff because of just family history.

And then you, you know, I've I've had I had like an incident a couple years ago and whatever, and I'm fine.

Uh I had a lot of tests.

But, you know, gum disease, there's a connection to heart disease and gum disease, and I was like, ah, so I went to the dentist and I'm thinking, like, you know, and this lady's like, Yeah, you're just brushing your teeth too hard.

And so I basically have brushed my gums off.

Right.

And she's like, Yeah, you don't really want to think about it more like brushing your teeth.

It's more like massaging your.

I was like, well, then you guys should change how you what you call it.

I've grown up my no one's ever said that to me.

And I'm 43 and I've always been told, brush your teeth.

I've brushed them rigorously.

Gently massage.

Yeah.

And I was, you know, I was similar, like, you know, you gotta change your teeth.

Yeah.

But I was joking around about how the shoes too tight is a little bit of a metaphor for me where I get uptight about stuff and let it be uh too much in the way.

But then when I realize it, hopefully I have that ability to change.

Yeah.

And that's what I was seeing playing out here.

And I the connection, that's why I was like, let's save it for this, is like this connection could have been like, no, there's nothing wrong with my shoes.

Or no, there's nothing wrong with, you know, we're gonna hold to circumcision, don't, don't eat with them.

They eat unclean foods, they're unclean people because of it.

But they have that heart change or that openness to say, when I am proven wrong, I'm willing to change, which I think is a really cool place.

So I tie my shoes less tight now, even though I still don't prefer it.

I feel like my shoes are gonna fall off.

Not that they're falling off, I just feel like they feel like wobble, like yeah, too loose.

I don't know.

That would be an interesting thing to adjust to, you know.

Um the tightness of your shoes or Gentiles.

Both.

Yeah, both.

But like, no, I I I can see that where yeah.

Um no, and and I think that it's just it's it's so important to appreciate the fact as you read through the book of Acts, like um they never thought about it ever going beyond their their culture.

Right?

And Jesus had given them lots of hints.

There's little moments, you know, he goes into Samaria early in his ministry, and they're like, Why are we going in Samaria?

Right.

Why are you talking to a Samaritan woman?

Like, this isn't they should have gone, they all went around Samaria to avoid the Samaritans because they were like, whatever.

Um, there's the good Samaritan, Jesus says this.

Uh there's a time where some some Greeks come to uh, I believe it's Philip and Andrew, and they have questions, and and then Andrew's like, well, let's take him to Jesus.

You know what I mean?

But it's almost like, can we go to Jesus?

Because we're not Jewish.

So there's hints, and then Jesus says when he ascends, go to the whole world.

Right.

But you can tell that even still hasn't quite penetrated yet that this is not just a Jewish thing.

Well, yeah, this is beyond that.

There is an idea that the Israelite nation, you know, the tribes coming from Abraham will end up blessing the nations, and there's some sort of, you know, pointing forward to this in inclusion of the world in this.

Right.

But that's it's yeah.

But they haven't seen how that's gonna happen yet.

And it's just it's settled into the family.

Yeah, and what seems so normal to us is like I've said this uh on the stage before, and I'm not the one who I did it this is not originate originate for me.

This is something I heard in a I don't even know where I heard it, read it, heard it in a message, somebody whatever.

Heard it from Reddit?

Yeah, I'm on Reddit all the time.

There's a commenter that just left this year.

Yeah.

No, I was I read it.

Uh somewhere or heard it.

But it basically that the movement of Jesus is the first ever um multinational, multi-ethnic, multi-socioeconomic movement in history.

That there's never before this been a movement where it does not matter where you're from, your nationality, your ethnicity, male, female, how much how wealthy you are, none of that matters.

You know, this has never happened before.

Right.

And so for us, the gospel going to all nations and what that's done and created this international community.

Um, we live in a very like international world.

You know, we live in a nation that's like a actually is an international nation, you know, it's like the melting pot thing.

But for them, that cuts against everything they've ever thought, believed, experienced.

There's a conservative or like a preservationist, you know, we need to be us in the midst of all of this.

Yeah, and there's times some of that in Christianity, but it's not for the sake of that.

It's for the sake of honoring the Lord so that you can go out to the nations.

Yeah, the thing now is like it's not about where you come from.

Now it's about what you believe.

Right?

Like that's why heresy is such a big deal, because we're believers.

The only thing that actually defines us now is w who we believe in and what we believe, not how we were born or whatever.

So it's that is why what you believe does matter.

Right.

Um But yeah, it's just it's it's easy to take that for granted, I guess, is what I'm saying, because that's so normal to us, but for them this is revolutionary.

All right, so let's let's keep moving.

Verse 19.

Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen travelled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus in 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.

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

The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch.

When they came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with a steadfast purpose, for he 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, and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch.

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 in these days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch, and one of them, named Agabus, stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world.

This took place in the days of Claudius.

So the disciples determined, every one of them according to his ability, to send relief to the brothers living in Judea.

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

Persecution.

Barnabas chosen.

Mm-hmm.

And the persecution always leads to like the spread.

It's kind of like uh it always backfires.

Like every time they're gonna squash this, and then boom, they go elsewhere, and then the gospel just spreads.

Um yeah, but again, Gentiles are now turning to the Lord and they start sending their they send the big guns in.

They send Barnabas, they you know, they send Paul.

Yeah, and I I like this idea that they met there for a year in Antioch, teaching many people.

And I I don't know why, but maybe my modern like business podcast brain thinks that things should explode faster and you should move quicker to to make it saturate the market.

You know what I mean?

Like this message that no one's heard before, like you gotta go.

But the the time that they took together and the groundwork that that you know would provide for Antioch, but also provides like Paul uh Paul and Barnabas end up working together for a long time.

Like they need that time to do the ministry together.

So that patience to spend the year there, I think, is a very interesting interesting thing.

And then sorry, also um the call out of Barnabas being a good man full of Holy Spirit and of faith, is the same language that's used in Acts chapter six when it they're choosing the seven that Stephen is part of.

Yeah, okay.

And it's like, hey, choose seven.

We need to see the criteria have a good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit, and a full of faith.

And so he's like one of those like Is it was it it names them, right?

It names them, yeah.

He's is he named in that?

I don't know.

Let me see.

Actually, um I can check.

I wonder.

Um, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parminaeus, Nicholas, and that's it.

Okay.

All right.

So he's not but either way, he's in that same vein of that's the type of man that they were exactly looking for.

Trusting and looking for.

No, I mean, I think what it does show is a few things, and then we'll get to like the little last part, which I think is pretty cool.

Um there's a huge priority in the early church on discipleship and and helping make sure people understand what they believe, and you know what I mean?

And it's a slow process.

One of the most um gosh, one of the most profound I don't know if you've ever had like someone say something to you that's so profound, but it's in an unexpected place, and you don't like whatever.

So I had this happen with my my uh brother-in-law, sort of.

So it's my what would your sister-in-law's husband be?

Is that your brother-in-law?

My sister-in-law's husband is my brother, but I'm trying to like make them I'm trying to make my my family make sense.

My sister-in-law?

If you have a sister-in-law, her husband is wait.

Oh, sorry.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So it's my Well, you're you're married, you're married to an only child.

My only sister-in-law, so I say brother-in-law, but he's not really my brother-in-law, because that would be my sister's.

Yeah, he's just nobody.

He's a nobody, but he's, you know.

He's a nobody.

He's who is he?

Even his name's Jeff.

He's great.

He's my brother-in-law-in-law.

And so uh we're hanging out at my uh in-law's house, and there's all these kids, and they have a swimming pool.

They put that in.

I think they put that in, right?

When we started having kids to like win grandparent battles, essentially.

Um come to our house.

Yeah, we have a pool.

So we're in the pool, you know, and just two dads in a pool, toddlers, and and we're having a conversation about life.

Got the floaties on, you know what I mean?

And uh talking about the the church came up and I was talking about it, and this is years ago.

And I think at the time I was actually frustrated that we weren't growing really fast.

And uh I had a different mentality when we were younger, when I was younger.

Um, and he goes, Well, things that grow slow tend to grow strong.

And then he just kind of like floated off.

And that line has stayed in my mind ever since.

Things that grow slow tend to grow strong.

And you can see this in the early church.

There is a focus on maturity, there's a focus on depth of knowledge and teaching.

Yeah.

And they're not as concerned with it exploding as they are with the people that Yeah, and they're intentional with choosing the right people.

The right people and all that in certain things.

And it still does explode, you know, historically, but it's not like it is viral, but it's viral like over the course of years.

Yes.

Because even here, the full year goes by, you know.

So there you go.

Um, and then the last part, let's let's deal with that, verse 27.

They they they get all generous, they hear that there's gonna be a famine, and so they decide we gotta send relief to the people who are gonna be affected by that, to our brothers and sisters in Judea.

So you the generosity is what uh jumps out to you.

For me, the prophecy is what jumped out jumped out to me.

Like this is a post-Jesus specific prophecy that I don't feel like we see a lot of.

We see a lot of that in the Old Testament.

It's there's gonna be a famine, there's you know, the story of Joseph, or there's gonna be um this uh these the Assyrians are coming, and we have like the very specific, like, hey, the Lord told me that this thing, this event is about to happen, yeah.

So prepare for it.

And they yeah, our context for that in modern culture is like a bunch of crazies, you know.

It's like I've never seen a specific uh prophecy that's actually specific about world events come true.

Right.

I mean, there have been like well, that's kind of the whole knock on the Jehovah's Witness movement because you know, the guy who started that he predicted the end of the world on a very specific place in time, and then it didn't happen.

You know what I mean?

And so it's like, well, what about that?

Because the Bible actually says you should test prophets and correct.

If they make predictions that are not true, you know, there you go.

Um, yeah, no, I you're right.

There we don't have a lot of examples.

I mean, obviously there's There's lots of prophetic statements in the epistles where Paul says, you know, there will come a day when people will reject the truth.

And day of the Lord, sort of.

But that's not like a specific.

There's going it's going to rain on this.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's like there's a famine coming.

There's I I don't think in the New Testament, I I mean, I can't think of any.

Yeah.

I can't think of any other than this that it's in my Bible knowledge is not complete, where it's a specific, detailed prophecy that comes true and requires action.

And that's true.

It has, I mean, it has a lot of like callbacks, obviously, to the story of Joseph in the Old Testament.

And hey, you guys need to be prepared for this.

Um, because if you s if someone came up to you and was like, hey, economy's about to crash and it's gonna happen in six weeks, and you and then you went on the stage and said, Hey guys, just so you know, prophet came to me, said this, the the result probably would not be like, Well, we're all gonna be like really generous with our money.

We're building up, we're storing canned goods, you know, for the inevitable right.

And so I just wanted, I wondered like for prophecy and that spiritual gift, because we've talked about tongues a lot as we've seen those moments.

Is there like a measuring stick for prophecy and a discernment like tool set that comes when someone's like, hey, I had a word or I had you know, God impressed upon me this?

What are the things that are going through your mind as a pastor or just even as a Christian to discern whether or not that is something that you should like listen to or just tuck away or completely ignore or correct them?

Or I know it's a rabbit hole.

No, no, no, it's a good one.

I mean, I I haven't had I'll be honest, most of the the Lord told me statements are kind of like that I'm supposed to do something important.

That's generally my category of like, hey, I just want you to know God told me that I I'm supposed to have the microphone.

Of some some kind.

You know what I mean?

Like, so I usually have, and that's a huge by the way, that's a huge red flag, right?

Like the nice thing about knowing scripture is that, well, no, the Lord didn't tell you that.

Because Jesus actually said that you should wait until you're invited up into a place of honor, sure, not seek it out.

Right.

So I have like that.

I haven't had a lot of I have had some, I've had a couple dudes that are legit crazy that were like end times obsessed.

And I had one guy, it's the only time I've ever actually had to have a restraining order filed against someone.

I've done it one time.

And this guy who who was here, he wasn't here for long, but he got my number and he began sending me dude, I'm talking like hundreds of texts a day, just like rapid fire, links to articles.

That to for to read half of it would have taken, I mean, he's like and it was like, you have to warn the church, this is happening, and da da da.

Um so but it was he was clearly uh off.

I mean, it wasn't even like in any person that would talk to him be like, that guy is is he okay?

You know what I mean?

So I've had that, but I've never actually had someone come up and say, Hey Justin, especially someone who is I think understood to be and and respected to be in a a person of full of faith and wisdom and has a good track record.

I will say probably the closest I can get to that is dreams.

Like I do, like I don't know how this person got their prediction.

If it, you know, we don't we're not told they had a vision, they it was in a dream.

I'm not sure how that happened.

Um but there have been some prophetic dreams that I have had.

I've had one that I would I've two that I can say have been fulfilled, right?

Like, oh, I had a dream.

I woke up, I very much understood this is not well.

The first time I didn't know it was a god dream.

That's the language I would use now.

But I told Susan, who was on staff back in the day, uh about the I was like I had the craziest dream.

And she's like, write that down, because I think that's a different kind of dream.

And I was like, You think?

She's like, Yes.

She and so I did.

I wrote it all down, I shared it with her, and then there was something very specific in it that very specific that did come to pass.

And it was not acted as a confirmation.

Yes, yeah.

But then I had a dream in December of 2019, and I got up and I had the, you know, being a little older, I like woke up and this was something significant.

I wrote the whole thing down, went back to sleep, and it very much had to do with COVID and all that kind of stuff.

Like it was so like I was on stage, the big room was empty, there was no one in it.

Uh, the guy at the time who was in charge of our kind of tech was setting up new equipment, and there were all kinds of other little details.

But like I was like, Why where is everybody?

Why is this room empty?

And man, when we filmed the first Sunday without people because of all that, I mean, I remember sitting on a stage, it was crazy.

So I've I've experienced prophetic things that are I have a I'm not instantly cynical of all of that, but I've just never had that'd be like a dream or a vision that prepared you in some way for something that was gonna happen.

And yeah, almost like God saying, Hey, like you're gonna, it's fine.

I knew this was coming, but I've never had the We never had we don't have a lot of like spoken prophecy as like a as a different gift than us.

I mean and there's a whole this is what's tough too, is there's a whole like cottage industry among Christianity of frauds and people out there that do it, and they're people who have been really hurt and abused because this person's hey, God told me that you're supposed to this.

Right.

And so sell all your stuff and this is it, and they'll do it because they're they have faith in that person and in the Lord, and then Yeah, and that's where my brain goes to just like you brought up that verse from Thessalonians that says, Don't despise prophecy, but test everything, test every spirit and hold on to what is good.

Um I think that there's this idea that if something's prophetic, it should be testable.

And I think that's the biggest one of the bigger red flags when someone's giving a prophecy, it's like this uh this vague thing that might be you could apply it in anything in hindsight.

It's like the Lord is is uh setting out to harvest.

It's like, well, that's kind of a prophecy, but it's like what does that mean?

Yeah, yeah.

In like hindsight, you could be like, well, he was.

That's what that was when we were when we found that thing or whatever.

It's like, well, that kind of okay.

And so I guess it has to be testable.

And then I I also think, too, like what you see in this passage is that it was extremely helpful for the church.

Yeah, it was absolutely helpful.

It was yeah, I mean, the the just like in the the book of of Genesis, whenever Joseph has this dream, like this is a a grace of God being like, hey, I don't want you all to starve to death.

Right.

This will this is what you need.

And there's no other means by which to to do that.

I mean, we live in droughts and famines now, and we just don't even know it because we have so many other agriculture around the world.

Around the world, and it's like, well, you know.

And so I think it has to be helpful, but and and it doesn't necessarily have to be like nice.

Like it can be like, oh, this was a warning or I need to repent, and that repentance leads to the hopefulness that it that it is.

But let's also give a shout out as we close to Barnabas and Saul and how much the people trusted them because they basically say, Hey, here's all the money that we've raised.

We trust that you guys will uh we'll do what's right.

We'll take this to Jerusalem and not go go off with all this, you know, all this money.

And um and Saul's big on that.

Like there's already a moment earlier, we read it I think last time around, where Saul was like, We only we only required this, or maybe I read that in um a message I was doing.

Yeah, I think it's actually something later that's gonna happen where Saul's go uh gonna go to meet with his, I think it's Acts chapter 15.

Acts 15 · chapter mention

Anyway, where they're gonna say, Hey, just make sure you're focused on caring for the poor.

And he's like, That's what I was already excited about doing.

Uh, there's other times where we have from letters of Paul that he was very big on.

He would deliver oftentimes he would deliver a letter to a church with funds that have been raised to help them.

And so this is a big part of Paul's ministry is raising funds to help people in need.

But especially back in Jerusalem, because the Christians in Jerusalem are very poor.

Like that's actually a pretty known that pops up in other places that they were really struggling financially.

So um There you go.

There you go.

There we go.

Generous, generous, responding to what the Lord is doing.

Yeah, we got starting the church, not being super religious, being willing to let go of of things and when God has obviously moved, which the Pharisees didn't do.

I mean, it's like Exactly.

The Pharisees should have been like this.

Well, this goes against what we've kind of thought, but I mean, clearly, that guy must be divine.

Because look, instead they they decided, no, we're gonna hold on even tighter and fight this harder, but they don't have that, which is really great.

Oh, and then another thing of first being called Christians.

Yep, little little Christs.

Little Christs.

Little Christs.

Yeah.

And that was actually I've always heard this, and I don't know where I got this from, but I've heard that that was actually originally intended as like a put down.

Yeah.

You know what I mean?

Christians.

But I don't know where I don't know if it's Jesus.

It's kind of like Jesus freaks.

Yeah.

Like that became like an insult that then got co-opted as like a well, I'm cool being a Jesus freak.

What would people think if they knew that I'm a Jesus freak?

DC talk or Toby Mack?

It's DC talk.

Well, on that note, play us out.

Mr.

Talk?

Yeah, I don't know.

Do we have the licensing rights for I don't know.

Yep.

No.

Nope, we don't.

And that's Acts chapter 11.

Acts 11 · chapter mention

Boom.