Antioch Fellowship Church | Bible Study | Church 101 (pt. 12)

and what he had done for me [Music] [Music] oh jesus illegal songs that's good morning good evening and god bless you in french uh we're going to start with an announcement for sister diana samuels where'd she go she's here and then we're gonna start devotion they told me five after now they running me down and uh i won't tell you i was over the boy's room good afternoon to everybody we have an upcoming senior saints event scheduled for august 30th and it is painting with the seniors i will be starting to sign up today and i will be at the information desk for all of you for anybody who wants to sign up thank you everybody understand that brown question we need to repeat it at the end all right everybody sitting there looking no i thought i thought when you get up you're supposed to get up rejoicing i i i thought you supposed to have a smile on your face i'll be a song on your lips and gladness [Applause] 4 35 o'clock every morning i'm up and matter of fact i'm walking away from the house about quarter to six and the am telling god thank you see that's how you get your day started and then when you get here you ought to have a smile and tell god thank you everybody got up this morning and was thankful that's way in your hand that's what i love yeah all right scripture prayer we're gonna have a song about brother bob you're gonna bless us a good name is to be chosen rather than great riches loving favor rather than silver and gold the rich and the poor have this in common the lord is the maker of them all a prudent man foresees evil and hides himself but the simple pass on and are punished by humility and the fear of the lord are riches and honor and life thorns and snares are in the way of the perverse he who guides his soul will be far from them reading to you the first five verses of the 20 of proverbs 22. so no i'm just looking at y'all cause y'all i mean you know oh you're gonna pray for all right because i shall we pray our father in heaven we come once more and again thank you oh god for allowing us to rise and seal another day lord we thank you for the for our health and our strength we thank you to god that you able us to let us raise our hands and use comb our hair and whatever dear god we just want to say thank you dear god for there are so many dear god that don't have the use of their limbs oh god lord we just ask you to have mercy upon each and every one of us oh god we pray for those dear god who are in the hospital dealing with the coronavirus though god we pray for those families who have lost loved ones during the coronavirus oh god and we pray that you might give us strength o god we pray dear god for our country and for our city oh god we pray for our leaders oh god and we continue to pray for pastor chris wesley oh god pray that you might continue to strengthen and guide him o god and lord we pray that that you be in the midst of this bible study today dear god that you open our minds and hearts that we might be receptive to thy holy word oh god under god we pray that we might leave this place better than we arrived oh god and we pray oh god as we leave this place today but never your presence we ask you dear god to guide us safely back to our homes in various places be with us throughout this day dear god in jesus name we pray amen i woke up this morning with my mind [Applause] stand on jesus i woke up this morning with my mind stand on jesus i woke up this morning with my mind stand jesus hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah well it ain't no harm to keep your mind stand on you no no it ain't no harm to keep your mind [Applause] stand on jesus eye it ain't no harm to keep your mind stand on jesus hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah well i'm singing and praying with my mind stand on jesus i'm singing and praying with my mind still on jesus life singing in prayer with my mind stand on jesus hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah well i'm walking in talking with my mind stand on jesus i'm walking and talking with my mind stand on jesus i'm walking and talking with my mind stand on jesus hallelujah [Music] [Applause] now we're here from pastor chris here you come jogging down good afternoon everybody good afternoon so excited to gather together once again to dig into the lord's word i'm glad that you've taken the time out to do so we are going to continue journeying through the book of acts we are going to be in acts chapter 11 today acts chapter 11 so grateful for all those who are joining us online as well thank you all for taking the time out to dig into the lord's word with us acts chapter 11. thematically speaking um one of the things we got to kind of keep in mind and bear in mind as we look at this segment of the book of acts is we we are now at a point where we're looking at the implications of the gospel being spread far further and wider than it has before so acts 2 um acts 3 type of acts 4 really about the spreading of the gospel in jerusalem the the impact or the popularity of the gospel in jerusalem we start to see max you know end of acts 4 top of x5 through acts chapter 7 the growth of the gospel and the opposition that the growth causes right acts 9 we or acts 8 rather we see the the scattering of we see the scattering of the church from jerusalem to other areas now one of the things that we have to consider remember is that at this time there's a lot going on in the world outside of jerusalem um rome is dominating the world greece has you know the roman empire is the the political world power but the culture this this recco this this grecian culture has impacted the way people think so from a philosophical standpoint greece and and these greek gods and these mythological ideas have permeated society rome as an empire is kind of dominating politically so there are a lot of ideas in the world there are a lot of different thought processes and people and religions and spiritual ideologies in the world these these ideas have even infiltrated the way the jewish people even think so so they were born jewish weren't necessarily devout they didn't hold fast to certain traditional things because they've been enlightened if you will by um by the greco-roman world right so there's a lot happening in the world and that that's going to impact us when we look at the second half of chapter number 11. but thematically speaking this is the world that the gospel is going into okay this is this is what's happening so the the events of acts chapter 10 which we're not finished with yet um the events of acts chapter 10 are a part of this big story about how the gospel is going into the world particularly into different cultures right but what happens in acts chapter 10 is different nobody fought against the idea of the gospel moving to samaritan regions on the big deal we don't like them but it is what it is um you know so you look at what philip does starting in acts 8 the different places he goes the different you know philip goes to samaria cool phillip we'll come to samaria too and we'll the apostles show up in samaria and help baptize these samaritans acts 10 is a different story altogether these aren't samaritans or have breed jews these aren't even the jews who were jewish by birth but have been impacted by greco-roman society and philosophies these were gentiles cornelius was a gentile but those who gathered in his home to hear the gospel were gentiles those who were converted and filled with the holy spirit in acts chapter 10 were gentiles it's a different story altogether i want you to see how acts chapter 11 opens now let me let me give a little bit of a disclaimer today parts of this one are going to be tough all right part parts of this one are gonna be tough i love y'all if you're a streamer i love you so much i love you so much this is one of the ones that beat up on me it's gonna beat up on you it's just a gnat the word does that from time to time okay all right i love you i mean it even if it don't change even if you don't walk away and do nothing differently i love you okay acts chapter 11. now the apostles and brethren who are in judea heard that the gentiles had received the word of god and when peter came up to jerusalem those of the circumcision contended with him saying you went into the uncircumcised men and ate with them let's pause i want y'all to see um a couple things number one what does the text say the apostles heard in verse one what did they hear the bible says they heard that the gentiles received the word what do they say when peter finally gets back to jerusalem you ate with them i want to pause briefly because we're about to have to have a conversation about church conflict did this conflict in the church in acts chapter 11. this this is this is the first time we see this real conflict amongst them we've seen discipline we've seen the apostles have to discipline you know ananias safar we've seen things like that what we have not yet seen is conflict at this level we saw you know in acts chapter uh we saw in acts chapter six there was there were needs that came up because one group of people said they didn't have their needs met another group people did and so they figured out with deacons how to make sure everybody got what they needed so they could be okay with each other this is the first time we see at its very core a difference in philosophy about people in the church but i want you to see what it stems from when god does a thing i want you to watch this conversation happens there there's no social media there are no phones so so the folk in caesarea philippi couldn't hop on the phone with the people in judea the people in jerusalem and be like yo peter just came and preached and everybody was filled with the holy spirit and and so word didn't travel like that somehow in the time peter leaves caesarea philippi and gets back to his home base in jerusalem the whole region judea is talking about it judea is the region that jerusalem is in so jerusalem hadn't just heard about it by the time peter gets back everybody's talking about the gentiles receiving the word but when peter shows up to the apostles into the the church at jerusalem those who were devout jews these what the text says the those of the circumcision is speaking to those who have placed their faith and trust in jesus but they are holding on to their devout jewish ideologies and identity right they believe jesus they're part of the church but they have these deep seated jewish philosophies identities and ideologies they knew that the gentiles received the word but when peter shows up you ate with them now before i deal with everything that's wrong with what they did i gotta deal with what's right with what they did you probably see what's right about that i'm gonna tell you they had an issue with peter and they took it straight to peter i told y'all this going it's going to be one of them ones today they had an issue legitimate or not but they didn't talk around peter they talk to peter i wish i could take this mic off the mic stand whether the the we would all contend that their gripe was not a legitimate gripe but what they did not do was cause dissension in the body talking to each other when they had access to peter who they should talk to and let me let me go ahead and start this conversation about church conflict by saying maybe the reason we got issues in the church is because we refuse to talk to the person we actually have an issue with now if you can't say a man say ouch but the reality is we will never deal with conflict if we don't actually talk to the people we got an issue with now i'm gonna talk about their issue but let's start with the fact that at least they weren't messy at least they didn't gossip but y'all know what we do you hear something cause check the text the only information they had was second third or fourth hand uh oh y'all y'all y'all quiet on me they didn't even have the whole story the only thing they had is what somebody heard that somebody heard that somebody ain't it ain't like peter called them it was like yo i'm on my way back from from caesarea philippi and the lord moved mighty at the tip meeting everything they heard was rumor at best so before i deal with my issue with what they heard let's just deal with the fact that they at least had the courage to go to the person that they heard it about but that ain't what we do we get on the phone jack ships t we get on the phone quick to tell what we heard knowing we don't actually know anything don't we do it i told you this one's gonna beat up on us a little bit today i can can i be honest most of the stuff i have to deal with in this seat as it relates to church conflict is all rooted in stuff somebody heard without them knowing the other side of the full story and i find myself having to play referee where people really should be talking to each other can i take it a step further it's a lot of people that got issues with me they don't know about it my deacons got to play referee because people won't actually come talk to me i heard this well you know i heard he doing that and well what the what deacon deacon dean what he got going on well well but then see me every week a whole pastor we just love you so much [Applause] you're doing such a wonderful job girl i heard i told you what the day was gonna be you can't say i didn't tell you buckle up they had an issue even though we would all consider it to be an illegitimate one but at least had the courage to lovingly take it to the person they had an issue with now let's deal with the issue peter went to declare the word they said nothing about the word now acts chapter 2 says that those who came to jesus committed themselves to the apostles teaching i.e the word so they're committed to the word but by the time we get to acts chapter 11 the conversation has nothing to do with the word that has everything to do with preference it has everything to do with ideologies at what point did the word no longer become the priority they were committed to it at one point but the text says all they heard is that peter shared the word watch this you ready they couldn't even say for certain if peter ate with them do y'all a favor let's let's let's rehearse acts chapter 10 shall we and and peter's going to do it too let's rehearse acts chapter 10 real quick as we rehearse acts chapter 10 is there a point where the bible says anything about peter sitting at the table and sharing a meal with him by acts chapter 11 we've heard this story rehearsed three times not once does it say peter and them sit down at the table and share the meal peter went in the house now it's not to say peter didn't is to say we don't know that he did sometimes you got problems with people for stuff you don't even actually know that they did i told y'all it's gonna get dark in here today how foolish is it that you've been holding a girl to somebody that you ain't talked to and you don't even know if they actually did what you think they did well i heard that they said this about me you don't actually know what was done or said and you ain't talk to them so you go and offer third fourth fifth-hand information and what you've been mad about for 10 years ain't even true i don't deal with them because you know i heard that they said i had what and that's why we can't even laugh because of how serious we take stupid stuff there is nothing in acts 10 that says they shared a meal but when rumors get back i know i'm in this book and we need to move past verse two you you sat at the table and shared a meal with them now here's the thing in in in that culture in ancient near east and you know it's important for us to understand sharing a meal was a form of intimacy you didn't just share a meal with any and everybody in there in their home do you you want to know the other interesting thing about this to me jesus sits at the table with sinners tax collectors you know what i mean any and everybody but the gentiles how do we have a problem with the same people that jesus sat down with the very foundation of their problem is rooted in something that we got to deal with some of our issues that we allow certain issues that are cultural preferences or ideological things to make their way into our faith culture they allow their personal preferences their personal ideologies to impact the way they viewed their faith and how they should move in their faith this isn't the only time we'll see those devout jews and traditional jews move that way not quite figure out the fact that coming to jesus sets them free from certain uh legalistic ideas or traditions or this isn't the first time we'll see that that's actually something that that is an undercurrent of the early church that those who had that people come to jesus hear me out people come to jesus with their own life ideologies cultural preferences and things of that nature and when we come to jesus we got to come to jesus with the understanding that that stuff doesn't have any impact on what the word tells us to do and how the word tells us to live right um can i prove it to you in one that might make y'all cringe a little bit in our culture you're taught that when a man walks in a room he's supposed to take his hat off it's just it's just the way culturally we were taught that you don't respect the place if as a man you don't it's disrespectful to have your hat on indoors y'all do know that ain't nowhere in the bible the priest wore hats the priests put hats on to go to church but what have we done we've taken these cultural ideas and teachings and put them on our faith culture to suggest that there's something wrong with your salvation if you got a hat on in the church am i making sense to y'all and that's just an example of how we take stuff that that holds weight in our tradition and force it on our faith i got more i today gonna be hard y'all there is there is not a scripture that says only deacons serve communion you know it ain't in there or that only the preacher can baptize it ain't in there philip baptizes the ethiopian eunuch and he was a newly minted deacon who wasn't even at the church he was a deacon at anymore because he got he like philip don't have no church membership at the time everybody just scattered from his church he just in the wind on assignment but our our culture says if you ain't in a black suit with a black tie with them white gloves on don't you pass me my communion can i tell y'all something that shocked me y'all know i i was i was gone from antioch for the better part of a decade and some of the things i saw really opened my eyes to something i was i was at a church i was serving on staff at a church and uh first sunday came they didn't do communion i said oh my lord what is what what what is this blasphemous culture that i'm i should have asked him when they asked me to come to this church do y'all do communion on first imagine my surprise when the sunday they did communion as a staff pastor i wasn't responsible passing out trades it was just random people that they assigned you ain't a deacon you ain't what in the what is this foolishness so i'm not going to take it because of who passed it out different cultural things that we have forced on our faith stop forcing your cultural preferences on your faith now let me let me let me make something clear because i don't want to get on too slippery or slope here like you were made in the image of god meaning um you'll never hear me say something like i'm i'm christian before i'm black you'll never hear me say something like that because my blackness is in the image of god how god made me is in his very image so there are certain things about who i am and how he made me that are an integral part of what he's called me to do but a lot of that stuff i can't force on my faith y'all understand what i'm saying to you you you ate with them you know jews don't do that i mean yeah y'all didn't but jesus did it's tight in here today i already knew that's all right i also want you to note the end of verse 2. the end of verse 2 says they contended with him they rolled up their sleeves because they were mad about this they didn't question him they contended with him you they put peter on trial peter went and preached folk got saved he got back to the hub of the church and now he's on trial let me tell you why i need you to hear me even when you do things for god even when you're on assignment and being obedient certain people will spin a narrative that you're gonna have to defend yourself for what had peter done obey heard it got a message from god obeyed it the lord said it's a man coming say yes to what he did he goes to do what the lord tells him to do and by the time he gets back he's having to defend his obedience to god i need y'all to hear me there will be moments in your life where you have to defend your obedience to god watch this two fellow believers none of us have a problem defending our actions for people against people who don't believe like we believe you don't expect them to get it but you do expect the people that you worship with that you walk with that you go to bible study with that you sit in sunday school you expect them to get it here's the reality that even good people well-intended people other christian people won't always understand your obedience to god and sometimes you will have to defend yourself to the same people you got to stand by to defend your faith it's one thing when the world wants to oppose you jesus told us don't be surprised when the world hates you that don't get us the the world was against the church from the beginning that didn't bother us it's a different type of pain when the contention comes from the people that you walk with they contended with him and all he did was obey god so when you take that step of faith to do what the lord told you to do just be prepared that you're gonna have to defend yourself to some other church folk that don't get it when you decide to be obedient to god there will be other people that you would expect to get it that won't get it that will come at you sideways they did not come at him lovingly they came at him with contention how do you handle when you know you've done exactly what god told you to do and now you having to deal with people coming at you crazy in the church about it i'll show you verse 4 peter explained it to them in order from the beginning now i got to stop here because i in this little verse in this nuance of verse 4 there are a couple of important things i need you to see number one peter did not respond to them in what one commentator calls apostolic privilege meaning he didn't come back at them in contention saying i did it because i can do what i want to do i'm the pastor i'm the leader and what i say go peter didn't do that just because the lord gave it to you doesn't mean you don't doesn't mean you get the right to respond with aggression when they come at you with aggression i got to say it again they contended with peter peter explained it from the beginning he didn't bow up his chest and say who y'all talking to you know who i am don't don't don't make me remind y'all that i'm the same joker that cut somebody's ear off you can get it too peter did not fight fire with fire do you all see that he explained it to him from the beginning he didn't fight fire with fire but number two peter's about to explain it to them from the beginning watch this which means it's really important for you to remember the details of your story when god does a thing in your life it is your responsibility to remember what he did and remember what he said the the word that was spoken to your heart that sunday morning that made you take the step of faith you probably want to remember that just in case somebody criticizes you for obeying that word this the problem we forget the details of our own story so we're not ready to give a defense or give an account when our story is challenged he remembered what the lord had done it is your responsibility to remember what the lord has spoken when he said it how he said it what's your heart respon how your heart responded when he said it it's your job to remember that because inevitably there will come a point where people don't support you and the only thing you're going to have to hold on to is what god said it's gonna look messy to people but what did god say it's gonna look like conflict to people but what did god say because people can argue with their version of the story they can't argue with what god's saying i hope y'all are hearing me i hope y'all are hearing me number three all this is just right i'm still in verse 4. do you remember in acts chapter 10 the bible says in verse number 23 in the end of verse number 23 that peter had the vision the lord spoke to peter but when it was time to leave joppa to go to caesarea philippi peter did not go by himself some some people went with him some of the some of the fellow disciples from joppa went with them why do you think that is because peter knew that if it's just my word versus theirs they'll argue me all day long but i got people with me that can corroborate how god did what he did i need you to see this the people that accompanied him did not have the vision it was peter's vision but the people that went with him saw it come to pass that's why it's important that the right people go with you now i'm trying to figure out how much i should say well deacon told me i should say all of it can i tell you the danger can i tell you where you better be careful be careful when the people you be careful that the people that go with you are people you can trust to witness and not people that are gonna tell another story when the fire shows up i'ma say it again be careful that the people you trust to be your witnesses can be trusted when adversity comes because some people have changed their story because they don't like conflict bible says it's proverbs a friend loves at all times brother's born in adversity adversity will show you who you can trust to be a true witness the bible says in verse two the people in jerusalem showed up with contention sometimes contention will make people cower because they'll be afraid about how the other side look at them for telling the whole truth but we did go in the house let's change the story a little bit so it don't make us look as bad are y'all hearing what i'm saying to you peter explained it to them in order from the beginning now y'all know the story i'm i'm going what time is it yeah i'm a hurry to a close here because i gotta i gotta i gotta make one more point dad that is um that is impres that the holy spirit is impressed on my heart okay so so y'all know the story if you've been journeying with us over the last couple weeks you've heard the story i'm gonna try to go ahead and read it down peter explained it to them in order from the beginning saying i was in the city of joppa praying in a trance i saw a vision an object descending like a great sheet let down from heaven by four corners and it came to me when i observed it intently i considered i saw four footed animals of the earth wild beasts creeping things and birds of the air and i heard a voice saying to me rise peter kill and eat but i said not so lord but nothing coming or unclean has at any time entered my mouth but the voice answered me again from heaven what god has cleansed you must not call coming now this was done three times and all were drawn up again into heaven let me pause at the end of verse 10 to remind you of a couple things number one this is exactly verbatim what we read in chapter 10. this is exactly what happened including the parts that make peter look like he was willing to disobey god peter told the true version of the story even if it made him look bad to the people who he was telling it to i knew it was gonna get quiet because we want to tell the version of the story that makes us look like the hero we never want to tell the true truest version of the story if in moments of the story we didn't do the right thing peter didn't do the right thing because he did not obey god immediately but when he recounted the story he told the truest version of the story which is to say i didn't get it the first time either and that's why peter can have grace for people who don't get it because he didn't get it the first time either but when we get converted when the lord shows us a new thing when we tell the story we want people to think we got it the first time too we don't want people to know that we didn't listen to god the first time we don't want people to know that it took us a while to get it too but the moment we've come into a new understanding of god we want people to think that we got it the first time because that gives us a reason to not be gracious to them but peter says the reason i can deal with your questions and your contention is because when the lord showed it to me i questioned him too if your version of your testimony makes it look like you always got it right with god every time it's a lie verse 11. that very moment three men stood before the house where i was having been sent to me from caesarea then the spirit told me to go with them doubting nothing watch this verse 12. moreover these six brothers accompanied me and we entered the man's house the witnesses didn't just go with them the job i mean from joppa to caesarea they then went with them from caesarea to jerusalem get witnesses you know are going to stick with you he told us how he had seen an angel standing in his house who said to him send me into joppa call for simon whose surname is peter who will tell you words by which you and all your household will be saved and as i began to speak the holy spirit fell upon them as upon us at the beginning paul's peter says when the lord got a hold to him was no difference between them and us neither jew nor greek slave nor free man nor woman when the spirit get a hold to them ain't no difference but y'all hearing what i'm saying to you all right then i remembered the word of the lord how he said john baptized with water but you will be baptized with the holy spirit if therefore god gave them the same gift as he gave us when we believed on the lord jesus christ who was i that i could withstand god look at what peter says i remember that jesus said he was gone baptized with the holy spirit that we would be baptized with the holy spirit and when i saw it happen i came to realize that i can't argue with god now people are trying to argue with you but a fool can't argue with fruit when when there's fruit of what the lord did and there will always be they'll argue you up and down about the details all you got to do is point and see look what the lord did though so you can have your interpretation of it but when god does what he does from it you can stop arguing with me because that's when i realize you can argue with me but you can't argue with god if you manipulate it people can argue it if you try to make something happen if you try to make an outcome come to pass people can argue too you know what they cannot argue with what god did oh god did it and here's how you know god did it look at how look at how as soon as it happened a door started opening look at how as soon as it happened the holy spirit started moving in a whole new way look as soon as it happened god started opening up the windows of heaven you can't tell me that ain't god verse 17 that therefore god gave them the same gifts he gave us when we believed on lord jesus who was i that i could withstand god verse 18 is what we're going to conclude today and it's not going to take me long but i want to show you a nuance that troubles my spirit when they heard these things they became silent and they glorified god's saying then god has also granted the gentiles repentance to life they listen to peter talk they got silent they didn't have nothing to say i'm i'm troubled by a couple things number one it almost suggests that they didn't get silent until peter got finished meaning watch this they weren't listening to hear they were listening to respond when peter stopped talking so did they because all they wanted to do was interject what they thought was right but when they heard the whole story they get quiet they glorify god but look at what they said and this is this is where i want to anchor down i'm a finish here look at what they said then god has also granted the gentiles repentance of life like all right then god god's word went to the gentiles i tell y'all my problem with it it never says that their hearts were turned toward the gentiles it was if they said all right what that's what the lord is going to do that's what the lord's going to do but we ain't eating with him cool i guess salvation can go to everybody praise the lord for that we'll see him in heaven that is not going to impact how i live on earth i need y'all to hear me and hear me clearly if you're taking notes write this down underline it circle it box it highlight it it is not enough to agree with what god does if you won't align with what he's doing i'ma say it again because y'all need to hear me it is not enough to agree with what god does if you won't align with what he's doing let me explain god don't need you to agree or approve of his movement you don't need to give god the green light to save who he want to save call who he gonna call use who he gonna use or bless who he gonna bless god don't need your help to determine what how and who he's gonna do it through ain't your job all they did was like okay cool god we approve of what god's doing we put our step of approval on what god's doing and god don't need that from you we think it is our job to sit on our seat and determine if we think we can allow god to do that buckle up it's gonna get dark in here well all right i guess god made him the pastor so whatever we'll agree with it oh i guess god called them and is going to use them to sing the song i'll agree with it i guess god's raising them i mean not my prayer okay god whatever but that don't mean i gotta support that person that don't mean i gotta love that person it is not enough to agree with what god does because god does not need your agreement god don't need you to approve what he did nor does he need you to keep watch for eye over what he's doing because we're spending too much time watching what god is doing in somebody else's life so much so that we can't tell our own story because we're interested in theirs god don't need your help overseeing what he already approved i told you i was going to be tough in here today i'm going to let you go god does not need your help to be his oversight committee on what he's doing you know what god wants you to do align with it god help me in here they say i mean cool the lord saved him that's fine we don't got to eat with him actually because he saved them he's now telling you since i'll save them you go be connected to him because now y'all are family we want to approve god we don't want to align with him we want to you and you want to know why we don't do it because we want a spirituality that only impacts our eternity it does not impact our current obedience we want a faith that allows us access to heaven not a faith that changes our our preferences we want a faith that saves us from hell not changing who we are down here we only want jesus to deal with our eternity not our prison so the lord can do that that's his move but what about lord use me to do that can the lord do it without you absolutely but when the lord does it with you he doesn't change them he changes you too but here's the problem we don't want a faith that can change us we just want a faith that can save us lord i'm i'm i'm in my bag today we we don't want a faith that transforms us we just want the faith that gets us out of the line going to hell so we want to come to jesus keep what we like about us keep hating what we hate in other people and then expect the lord to let us keep all that serve lead then go to heaven but one of the things that's going to surprise you when you get to heaven is some of the people you hate it down here going to be there and it's going to be an awkward reality on that great getting up morning when you stand in there next to the person you talk so much cash money about down here and can i tell you something about heaven heaven is a prepared place for prepared people and you ain't prepared for heaven if you still think the lord can't change you miss 12 59 my prayer is not that the lord would do it my prayer is that the lord would allow my heart to align with what he's doing so i can take part in it [Applause] now i conclude this bible study with saying some of y'all in the room or some of y'all in virtual virtual land are gonna hear everything i said and get on the phone and tell your version of it and can i tell you why it's because we've learned how to hear and respond but not change let's pray what deacons y'all go ahead and make ready to take up offering as we leave oh so i conclude this bible study saying do with that what you will you who are streaming today y'all can share this video and make sure you just say run tell that as you share all right y'all be safe don't forget to wear your masks um stay safe do what's necessary to continue to combat this virus we're trying to get back to some sense of normal but the reality is our new normal needs to be making sure we're doing the best we can to take to take care of ourselves so we'll take up offering on our way out of here let's just let's just post up on the on the exits cause i'm gonna let y'all go hit him at the different doors too let's try to do that we you know i don't want everybody to touch on the stuff we ain't you know i want everybody touching on it yeah and you can still give online too matter of fact do that do that for me dang i tell you what yeah y'all y'all get through the room too so people can just drop wherever they go so if you come out those out there you go deacon dixon you come stand over here by this wall then you can stand right over here in the front toward the center and wherever y'all get out y'all can just drop it in there's a deacon somewhere near you on your way out lord thank you so much for your word today thank you for what you want to do in us thank you that is not just about information it's about transformation change us help us to not just be hearers of your word help us to be doers of your word some of us saw ourselves today in some fashions we didn't like but thank you that you can change that about us too bless these gifts uh bless this offer let it be used the way you want it to be used multiply it and thank you that as we so see you are blessing us um as your blessing your kingdom in jesus name amen all right

Channel: Antioch Fellowship Church

Views: 393

Rating: 4.7333331 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: Zszro7ez_1I

Length: 62min 50sec (3770 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 28 2021