Antioch Fellowship Church | Bible Study | Church 101 (pt. 18)

fill it with love from you heavenly father we just pray that you continue to go with us daily heavenly father we pray that you breath all of those that came out today heavenly father study your word and that we may know more about you and be able to do the things that you have commanded us to do heavenly father we just pray for each family that's represented here we pray for each home that you make them home for prayer peace and love heavenly father we just pray for pastor chris wesley today that you bless him and that you give him the word to give to us and that it will that you will open our ears hearts and minds to what is being teached today and that we will not leave it here but take it out into a dying world father and tell them that you live heavenly father and that you live in us heavenly father we pray that you go with us be with us and keep us it's in the name of jesus we pray and ask it all i am on the battlefield for my law for my lord i am on the battlefield for my law through my law and i promised him that i i would serve him till i die i am all better for you for my lord i once was lost and i and i was a sinner too and i heard a voice from heaven did their work to do i took my master's hand and i joined the christian band i am all that i am for my lord through my lord and i promised him that i i would serve him till i die i am all better for you for my lord amen that song is older than just most of us in this room back there's a youngster flying back in your day i didn't understand that [Music] that song then but now i understand it boy that's a daily battlefield but you're on it for the lord and every time i hear it and saying it now there's something come over me because i remember yeah yeah can y'all go back about 50 60 years ago hello somebody some of some of y'all here can't remember yesterday but but every day you ought to get up with a song on your heart and on your lips and on your mind my lord i'm out in the park every morning but i quit saying they told me to shut up out there but on my walker up there i could sing as loud and ugly as i want to ain't got nobody to tell me to set up fun god good thank you for your grace thank you for your mercy i see pastor chris coming in earlier all about the tune up [Laughter] god bless you i heard you start singing i said all right let me make my way down it's uh good afternoon everybody so glad you all are here with us in the building and those who are joining us virtually as we continue um our bible study series as we've been walking through from the book of acts it has is this has this been been a blessing to anybody we've been walking through some of you guys know we've been kind of um in a great sense walking through this book be it being on sunday mornings first and then on wednesdays since the beginning of the year um so it's been a it's been a joy for me to get to walk through um one of one of my personal favorite books of the bible we're going to conclude acts chapter 14 today and then we're going to um we're going to jump into chapter 15 as well so my hope is to get through um a narrative that takes place one of the first narratives that takes place in acts chapter 15. i'm gonna tell y'all now beginning of acts chapter 15 is gonna be a very interesting conversation i'm gonna tell y'all up front and some of y'all are gonna say here he go with this again i'm i'm just going to tell you what the bible says and y'all do with it what you will here hear this young preacher go with this conversation well whatever the bible says it so that's what we're going to talk about amen but let let's let's let's conclude uh chapter 14. so y'all remember um that paul is and and barnabas are kind of on this um first missionary journey but there's this interesting thing that keeps happening every time they show up to a place they show up to a place they start preaching in the synagogues there is a positive response on one end and a negative response on another the negative tries to raise up and threaten them and be violent toward them or whatever the case may be and they end up moving to the next place to get to the next place there's this positive and this negative response when we when they get to uh lystra those they they see the miraculous signs and think they're you know greek gods and and start to kind of misappropriate um what they had seen and give credit to gods that aren't the one true god and there's this tension but the same people that celebrated them then tried to stone them because they were convinced by other people to do that so so let's let's just kind of pick up at verse number 19. this is kind of where we concluded last week in acts chapter number 14. we'll try to you know pick up here in verse number 19 just as a refresher jews from antioch and iconium came there meaning to lystra and having persuaded the multitudes the same multitudes that just caught them gods and were trying to pour out offerings on them they stoned paul and dragged him out of the city supposing he had been dead however when the disciples gathered around him he rose up and went into the city the next day he departed with barnabas to dearbe when they had preached the gospel to that city made many disciples they returned to lystra iconium and antioch strengthening the souls of the disciples exhorting them to continue in the faith saying we must go through many tribulations to enter the kingdom of god a couple things i want to hit on here number one i want you to note that it was the preaching of the gospel that brought opposition the opposition that actually led paul to be stoned yet the very next thing we read he gets up goes back into the city preach the gospel in that city the same city he got stoned and drugged out of he goes back into that same space preaches the gospel and made many disciples i can't help but wonder what made his ministry so effective in that space i would like to suggest it was the ministry of his scars he was stoned in that city they thought he was dead they drug him out of the city he gets up and goes back to the city preaching the same message but now he made many disciples there before when he preached the gospel he had made a whole lot of disciples there they thought he was some god himself it wasn't until they saw him scarred that they realized he wasn't a god it wasn't until they saw him scarred that his ministry had more effectiveness in that place here's what i want you to hear do not miss the opportunity to minister through your scars a lot of times we want to bandage up ourselves and present ourselves as these perfect people to other people but what the text is actually seeking to reveal to us is those who have been beaten and bloodied actually make the best ministers your scars can testify further than your words can are you seeing what i'm saying we we we don't want people to see our wounds but i think the people that thought he was dead saw him preaching bloodied and bruised and then they believed some people won't believe until they realize that you're able to be wounded too but the god who can pick you up from death is somebody that they'll believe in am i making this to you he goes back into the same city he was drugged out of and preached the same message but he made many disciples there because there is a ministry to your wounds your wounds can preach don't be afraid to let people know what you've gone through and i know in church we don't want people to know certain things that we've had to overcome and endure because we want people to have a certain perception and idea of us but can you see the picture of this man that was just stoned preaching again look get the image in your mind bruised and still bloodied but preaching jesus again what a powerful testimony they need to see your wounds stop trying to cover up everything that's hurt you stop trying to hide everything that's cut you oh y'all hear what i'm saying to you stop trying to put your put your religious identity over the stuff that makes you human we're making sense to you he goes back into that same place he preaches he makes many disciples there then he returns to lystra iconium antioch that's verse 21. look at verse 19. the jews maniac and iconium came to deerby or they i'm sorry they came to lystra they came to lystra to stone you know but when he finishes preaching in lystra they depart to dearbe they preach in derby and he goes back to the same places where the people who broke him were to preach one particular message you ready you see what it is verse 22 here's how he strengthened the disciples get the picture bruised still scarred his sermon is we must go through many tribulations into the kingdom that doesn't sound very encouraging it doesn't sound like something i would be encouraged by but the premise of the statement is actually you don't suffer for nothing that that's actually what the message is all of the suffering we endure here is work that dr king said unearned suffering is redemptive it is it is this idea that what we go through pays off down here is some suffering but the suffering down here he is preparing for you an eternal weight of glory that's how we get in i know it hurts let's let's stop trying to um churchify our wounds can we be honest and say that it hurt they hurt you the circumstances hurt you the struggle hurt you the betrayal hurt you the financial situation hurt you stop trying to be so sanctified that you become a liar nothing bothers me i got jesus you're a liar it hurts knowing people talk about you hurts knowing you do right by people who do wrong to you hurts it hurts but there is um redemption there's a redemptive quality to suffering we got to go through this we have to go through it all right so text says verse 23 they go back to these churches they appoint elders in every church um pray with fasting commended them to the lord in whom they have believed want to pause here and say this paul and barnabas understood that their role was not to run the church but to help build the churches so they establish a leadership structure that did not necessarily include them this is this is actually a selfless thing they go they preach they they make disciples they bring the disciples into this community of faith and then out of this they say okay we're going to appoint elders or pastors essentially leaders to to shepherd these flocks here it is now y'all do it cause we got other things to do they they didn't say well we gonna run this because this is our church and we built it and you know they understood that leadership requires other people do with that what you will past and pray commended them to the lord whom they believe uh what else do i need to hit on in this particular passage of scripture oh let's jump to verse 26 real quick from there they sailed to antioch where they had been commended to the grace of god for the work which they had completed now when they had come and gathered the church together they reported all that god had done with them and that he had opened the door of faith to the gentiles so they stayed there for a long time with the disciples look at what happens they go out they do this work and they come back to the home base they come back to the church that sent them out auntie remember antioch is the place where they were commissioned ordained sent out they do the work they come back with the testimony yo look at what the lord has done in this season of our ministry here's the point even when you're called to the nations you're also still called to be faithful to your home base god will never call you to be um a rogue believer paul is going to be known as the greatest missionary in the history of the world but he still goes home to submit to his leadership there are a couple other things that happen at home you get rejuvenated at home you don't just get commissioned from home you get rejuvenated at home they they go back they gather they stay for a long time they rest there they recover there they recuperate there because home is a place where you can charge your batteries y'all go into the world you know you go into the world and do the work of the ministry that the lord has assigned to your hands be it on your job with your family in your community home is the place where you come to get refueled for what's next for you this is an interesting statement i can't linger here long but this is an interesting um statement about the importance of church membership sure you can do the work that god has assigned to you outside of the four walls but you need to be inside of the four walls to get what you need to go do it making sense to you all right guys let's flip to chapter 15. god help us today um one of the things you're going to discover about chapter 15 is you can follow jesus and let me try to say it another way following jesus does not ex exempt you from conflict within the church there are two major conflicts that take place in chapter 15. we're going to try to deal with one of them today and one of them next week one of them is a conflict concerning doctrine the one we're going to deal with today the other one you'll see in chapter 15 is a conflict concerning individuals preference in partnership one of them is handled in a way that allows for some unity the other one is handled in a way that creates some some conflict and unresolved issues and division the moral of the story is following jesus does not mean you won't have conflict in the church and i need i need y'all to know that peace is not the absence of conflict peace is not the absence of conflict you're gonna have conflict with believers what why do you think jesus tells the disciples that before there's even the beginning of a church do y'all remember when jesus in matthew chapter 18 tells them if you have an issue with your brother here's what you do and then take them to the church at the end of the at the end of that you do know there wasn't a church yet the first time they heard the word church was in matthew chapter 16. before the church is even established which happens in acts chapter 1 he tells them how to handle conflict in the church in matthew 18 before there is a church because jesus understood there would be conflict he started to teach them how to handle conflict before they even knew it was coming so if you think you're gonna love jesus so much that you never gonna have to deal with some conflict with your brother and your sister you are living some sort of fairy tale christianity acts chapter 15 bring some conflict to us now well let's read um i love y'all okay certain men came down from judea and taught the brethren unless you are circumcised according to the custom of moses you cannot be saved here is the uh well let's reverse two and then they will therefore when paul and barnabas had no small dissension and dispute with them they determined that paul and barnabas and certain others them should go up to jerusalem to the apostles and elders about this question so so verses one and two of chapter 15 frame this this argument or this conflict for us there are these believers who come down and say if you're not circumcised you're not saved the issue with circumcision is y'all ready an issue of religious custom it is you you gotta jesus is cool but jesus alone isn't enough is jesus and moses what moses taught and what jesus did moses moses taught us that we have to be circumcised so what moses taught plus what jesus did equals salvation not jesus alone jesus and watch this not jesus alone but jesus and tradition that if you don't follow the tradition your salvation is invalid oh it's gonna get tight in here today i feel it in the holy ghost jesus and what we've always done jesus and our customs jesus and our traditions buckle up jesus and our song choices jesus and our suits no it's in the bible dean read with me jesus and what we what we're accustomed to jesus and our history now here's the context i got to frame it in some more context for you remember that when the gospel starts to be spread it starts from a particular people group who have the same customs so in the upper it's a bunch of people who are ascribed to these jewish ideologies and philosophies right but then the gospel starts to spread to people that don't believe like they do when it comes to custom and religion and history and and ideology right so now the gospel has gone from the jews to the greeks and the gentiles and the samaritan who don't hold fast to those traditions and now they're saying if you're going to come into our church you got to do our traditions initially they were all the same it was the same generation it was the same ideology they all thought the same about life and the customs and the laws but now the gospel has spread to a new group of people who don't hold fast to their traditions and those traditions are seeped in religion not not not relationship jesus never said all that stuff was required their customs did and now they're saying if you gonna come and be a part of this you gotta do what we said because our customs make you save not jesus alone jesus and our stuff do y'all see it but paul and barnabas said no no no no we will fight against it because tradition isn't necessarily right we will literally fight for for what we believe is truth some conflict is required because if you're not careful you will submit to stuff that ain't right it's just what you're accustomed to and somebody got to have the boldness to say no no we're not going to do it because that's what you've always done you can have your preference but the moment you try to make your preference truth and gospel i got to stand against it i told i knew it was going to be that kind of day today i told y'all i'm in acts chapter 15. so there's this group that says tradition plus jesus equals salvation there's another group that says no jesus alone there's nothing wrong with your tradition but you can't force your tradition on somebody else and say that has to happen in order for it to be right now check it out here's the interesting thing neither one of them would budge the traditional group says no it is this way and the the newer group says no it is this way to the point that the bible says this was not a small dispute this wasn't uh oh well you know we'll figure it out everybody no this this was not a small conflict this this is this this this was a war between traditionalism and modernism between what was and what was becoming whoo feels kind of timely to me what you think can we be honest there was a time where everybody had the same ideas about what church was supposed to look like and how you were supposed to dress coming to church and what you supposed to sing come in the church there was a time where everybody carried the same ideology of philosophy so it became tradition even though it wasn't necessarily biblical biblically mandated it's just what was because everybody had the same ideas and then more people started showing up who viewed life differently who but trusted in jesus for salvation but didn't dress like you dress or talk like you talk or look how you look and there was a conflict that says i mean we're glad you're here but since you're here you have to conform to what we say is right even though what we say is right in the biblical truth sheesh i'm trying not to bring examples because i'm not trying to be offensive but the reality is what has taken place is now we've made golden images out of tradition it gotta look like this where where show it to me show me in the bible where it says this is what you got to look like show me in the scriptures where it says this is what you got to dress like show me in the scriptures where it says this is what you have to say show me in the scriptures where it says this is who gets to sing show me a description where it says what you prefer is biblical truth we can do this all day long because i don't necessarily have preference to give you all i got is bible to give you it's all i got that's it and we will battle over stuff that ain't biblical now let's talk circumcision briefly because it is there god did give moses a particular mandate but why wha what was the point of circumcision in that time it was so that they would know they were separated from the rest of the world during a time where the lord was literally laying a foundation for the people by which he would bring salvation through what's what's the purpose of the law old testament what is the purpose of the law so that there would be a separation between the children of israel and the rest of the pagan nations in the world so that there would be a clear difference between them and the rest of the world from the way they wear their hair to what they ate to what they wore these things were meant to be identifiable markers to say you are my people in the earth and the rest of the world is pagan until when jesus because jesus is to come into the earth through this separated people group and then bring salvation to the world salvation was not in the law you want to know why because they couldn't keep the law we're about to argue that in a minute because because there's going to be an interesting point made in chapter 15 that's going to rub y'all some of y'all the wrong way and i'm just going to read it and exegete it and let y'all take it for what it is but the people can keep the law jesus came to fulfill the law because the people could not salvation was never meant to be in the law salvation was meant to be fulfilled by jesus who would fulfill the law so that he could be the sacrifice that would bring us into salvation not so that we would have to live according to the law anymore am i making sense to you so what's interesting to me is watch this they pick and chose the parts of the law that they were most comfortable with because you chose the traditions you liked the most you don't want to hold on to all tradition just the ones you favor y'all y'all want to have this conversation with me so they fighting they're fighting to the point and say you know what y'all feel how you feel we feel how we feel but this is creating dissension in the church it's not just the argument now we're being ripped apart at the seams because we can't agree on this we're being ripped apart at the seams because we can't agree i need y'all to hear me whenever there's doctrinal dispute in the church it will whip the church apart at the same time so what does wisdom say let's go to jerusalem let's talk to the apostles let's let's let's go to jerusalem the apostles some other church leaders some other pastors are in jerusalem let's go to jerusalem and let's talk now y'all remember um acts chapter 8 after there's this great scattering of the church the bible says that the apostles stay in jerusalem everybody else kind of scatters so jerusalem has become this kind of home base so when philip is preaching in samaria do you remember that then peter comes down to from jerusalem to see what's going on and then after peter has some stuff take place in samaria and then deals with the road issue he goes back to jerusalem to report what's taking place after he leaves cornelius's house right because the home base for the apostles and the early church leaders is in jerusalem so they've stayed in jerusalem the church has grown by leaps and bounds outside of jerusalem because of the people who left jerusalem preaching jesus they say let's go back to jerusalem let's talk to people who got a little bit more experience a little bit more wisdom than us let's go present our case to the elders and to the to the um to the leaders this is this is the other reason i need y'all to see this and put a pin here something we might discuss in october during vision week this is why it's important for churches not to operate um as individual entities this is why fellowship with churches is important because when there's an issue of dissension in the church the church needs to know where to go to get wisdom to submit to does that make sense that's why i have a pastor because if i got an issue i got to be able to go to somebody who can give me directive that i'll submit to there's an issue that exists in our church where do we go for wisdom we don't have as it currently exists today if in a if an issue of doctrine exists in our church and threatens to rip our church apart at the same where do we go for wisdom that we can submit to today yeah you take it to the lord but but here's the thing if i if i go to the lord and i got a conviction and you go to the lord and you got another conviction which is what happens in the text everybody's still doing what they want to do but i agree with that but the spirit is subject to the prophet according to the bible so the issue is everybody think they follow in the spirit that's why people fighting in church all the time and considering themselves just it's the wrong spirit i agree with that but that's what people do people will y'all do know y'all do know that the people who put jesus on the cross thought they were following god i can tell you that many of the oh lord most of the attacks that have happened to my life and ministry have taken place by people who thought they were doing god a favor um uh-huh uh-huh for sure for sure but see i think that's i agree but the issue is god is not a man the thing that the thing that creates conflict in the church is not god not speaking a unified message it is us in our interpretation of god's message does that make sense that's why that's why we can follow the same jesus and have a hundred different denominations that believe a hundred different things we still believe in jesus but our interpretation can sometimes be based on our preferences that's really what the text is about those who who say circumcision are not saying that they don't believe jesus is lord it is their interpretation of what they think the scriptures mean and then there are those who say no that's not what it means it's not that either of them is less saved than the other conflict doesn't exist because you love jesus more than i or you love jesus less than i that's not why conflict exists conflict exists because this is what i see and this is what i believe this is my interpretation and here's my interpretation who's right and how do we determine who's right without leadership that is outside of the place where we occupy does that make sense to you when there are issues of conflict like this where does the church go because y'all y'all want the truth i don't care what i say is the pastor some people are not going to agree and won't submit to it so it has to i don't care what the i've been in the deacon's meetings they don't agree and then when i make when i hear the deacons disagree and i make a judgment call based on what they say some of the ones that don't agree about this they ain't gonna agree with me either and you would think that they just well the pastor said so we gonna submit that hey how it go because y'all know y'all know this when you are dug in on an opinion i don't care what it it don't matter what you see in the back i said this my mama did it this way if it was good enough for my mama it's good enough for me that's what we gonna do well do you see that in the scripture that ain't what that mean but it is no no it's not let's keep reading because i only got like 19 minutes so being sent on their way by the church they passed through phineas and samaria describing the conversion of the gentiles and they caused great joy to all the brethren so on their way back they get to talk through the fact that the gospel had moved beyond the jews to the gentiles and it caused joy it was like we're happy to see the church growing with different people they just need to be more like us when they get here when they come to jerusalem they were received by the church of the apostles and the elders and had reported all the things that god had done with them now i want y'all to see something interested in verse number five but some of the sect of the pharisees who believed rose up saying it is necessary to circumcise them and command them to keep the law of moses do you see the real issue is that people were converted on both sides of the aisle that when when the gospel was being preached it wasn't just converting the gentiles and those that the jews consider pagan it was actually also converting the pharisees and those who were considered overly religious the gospel was reaching everybody but everybody showed up with their own ideologies ideas and identities do you see it from the pharisees who kept the law but denied the power thereof who knew who knew the law but didn't know jesus to the pagans who didn't know either and when jesus saves them they come from different backgrounds and now the one group is saying now y'all need to be like us to me to the law of moses now the apostles verse six the apostles and the elders came together to consider this matter and when there had been much dispute because there was much dispute peter rose up i oh y'all i can't wait to okay peter rolls up and says to the men and brethren you know that a good while ago god chose among us that by my mouth the gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe so god who knows the heart acknowledged them by giving them the holy spirit just as he did to us he made no distinction between us and them purifying their hearts by faith watch this verse 10. now therefore why do you test god by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear let me pause here this is good so after they hear the argument from both sides peter stands up now y'all do know peter's background yes peter is a jews jew peter is is a traditional type of guy he would typically lean toward tradition peter would circumcise he would lean toward the group of circumcision what changed peter acts chapter 10. y'all remember what happened in acts chapter 10 peter chillin if uh at the time at simon the tanner's house gets word through a vision that what the lord has called clean he don't get the call coming rise peter kill and eat no not me i'm i i'm i'm a jew i don't do that i follow the law and the law say i can't eat that i can't touch that what i've cleaned you can't call coming it doesn't need to change you need to change he gets his vision and he wakes up and he ends up down at cornelius house he's in a home with gentiles and it starts to preach and sees the holy spirit following these uncircumcised gentiles because the lord don't have to change the outside to change the inside your traditions don't bring transformation oh write that down i know y'all i know i know tradition doesn't bring transformation the holy spirit at work on the inside brings transformation peter says what i saw at cornelius house was not them be changed by circumcision or tradition but the lord changed their hearts based on the gospel and that's enough if they never wear a suit they still say if they don't grow to like quartet music they're saying [Music] yeah now here's my favorite part of the text peter says and why would you put a yoke on them put a burden on them when we preach freedom in jesus why would you put a burden on them that you couldn't keep yourself y'all want to talk about it let's talk about it the longer you've been saved you started putting stipulations on people that you couldn't even keep oh think back y'all want to play this game with me i'm young but i know this every generation goes through it there were some traditions that you hated growing up in church that you fought against oh oh oh but now you've been in church and now you want everybody to follow your traditions when you couldn't stand your mom in them traditions y'all was fighting for them to put some drums in the church they said when y'all start doing that music with them guitars that was the devil's music you think i don't know look at y'all so many some of you ladies in here don't got on no skirt couldn't wear no pants in in the lord's house y'all couldn't even wear pants to school [Applause] [Music] y'all gonna come in here and play them games like now your traditions are godly but your mamas weren't in your mind [Music] oh y'all gonna y'all gonna play me this morning that's all right that's all right you can't say hey man say ouch and now you got the nerd to be mad that somebody won't keep your traditions do you mean to tell me now you got to wear a suit to do a thing when half y'all couldn't afford to buy suits growing up and the one you had you owe every week why would you tie a yoke on somebody that you know you couldn't carry when it was your turn i know i'm talking about what the bible says y'all ain't fooling me but we believe that through through the grace of the lord jesus christ we shall be saved in the same manner as day this is the good news none of you keep the law good enough to be saved that's why jesus came and if you're saved today it's not because of your obedience to the law it's by grace you couldn't keep it on your own if you could jesus didn't need to come but because of grace we're all saved the same way here's the truth some of us got saved in suits some of us got saved in jeans some of us got saved wearing less but the lord saved us all by grace y'all like to sing it but i don't know if we believe it because it reaches to the highest mountain and it flows to the lowest valley [Applause] some of y'all were up and out some of us were down and out we were still out all right now i need y'all to hear this next part verse 12 then all the multitude kept silent and listen to barnabas and paul declaring how many miracles and wonders god had worked through them among the gentiles this means not only did paul and barnabas preach the right doctrine but they were able to affirm that by seeing the power of god at work through them to people who did not hold to tradition do you see it so the power of god wasn't dampered because of the lack of traditional ideologies of the gentiles they preached the right doctrine and then they said and we saw the gospel priest in power here's fruit of it here's evidence of it listen to the miracles that we saw look at look at the blessings that we saw god is in this right here's the fruit or here's the proof that god is in this now watch this i'm saying real quiet they had to be quiet to hear it sometimes we don't see or get to experience the testimony because we're too busy talking trying to prove our point the people who were against it had to be quiet to listen to what god had done and maybe the reason they hadn't submitted to it earlier is because they were so busy yelling at each other trying to prove a point they didn't stop to be quiet so they could see the fruit sometimes if you would stop trying to prove your point and open your eyes to see what god is doing you would stop arguing over trivial stuff do you see how many people are being saved you see how many people are coming do you see the lord restoring a generation that left and you sitting here arguing over ties and and and why my choir not singing this sunday that's what that that's what we're going to argue about seeing the lord move in power and people bringing testimonies of miracles and we're going to sit up here and argue about why my choir and i sing it on a sunday no more that's what y'all gonna bring to my office that's what y'all want to email me somebody sent me an anonymous email saying you turning this into a young people's church i said didn't cha weren't y'all complaining to me about not having young people anymore amongst other nasty things in the email i won't tell you all the things they said about me this is what we're arguing about everybody want to grow until growth don't look the way they want it to look it's 12 55 i got the hurry to a close here um trying to decide if i have enough time to bite to bite this off i don't um never confuse tradition with truth now leave us five minutes to spare uh deacons let's go ahead and make ready to take up the offering on our way out of here if you are um if you are here streaming or in the building um we want to go ahead and um give you an opportunity to to sew and showing it to good ground let's go ahead and give on our way out um trying to yeah i don't know this new text to give number by heart so i'm trying to find it in my messages for those who are streaming online here we go here it is if you if you're streaming online um you can text afnbc to 833-371-5123 if you want to give online um text afnbc to 833-371-5123 if you're here we're passing plates now um tonight is our last night of our um antioch dna bible study series please make plans to join us both on the um teaching at 7 p.m and then on the zoom afterwards where i'll be i'm talking to you live just answering questions about who we are as it relates to that dna um if you've been streaming so far i hope you've been blessed i hope you you're able now to quickly kind of articulate and identify who we are as a family of faith um we we are people of prayer people of fellowship people of teaching people of worship and tonight we're going to conclude by talking about being people of service so make sure you join us join us for that um that tonight and and we mentioned this sunday but now is a great time to purchase tickets for our first ever legacy luncheon we're going to conclude our celebration of 35 years in october uh we'll conclude the whole celebration with this event in october we're going to honor some of the trailblazers of our house we've put together some really special awards named after some really special people over the history of our family of faith we revealed it to our staff the award um names and recipients to our staff yesterday during staff meeting so they're really excited about it trust me you don't want to miss that time so you can go online and purchase your tickets to that to be at the hyatt regency um downtown and we have our friend beverly crawford here with us to share during that time and then on sunday morning so make sure you purchase tickets for that if there's nothing else let's pray and be dismissed lord thank you for your word thank you for what you seek to do us do in us through your word um help us to submit to your word even above our preferences and our traditions um do do your work in us through your word i pray for traveling grace and mercy as we leave this place bless it bless the offering that was given uh let it be multiplied um to the to the sower and into the ground so that ministry is able to stretch but then that you will grant provision to those who gave thank you that we can't out give you we love you we bless you in jesus name amen have a great week

Channel: Antioch Fellowship Church

Views: 277

Rating: 4.5555553 out of 5

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Id: WpWTvvjhVdk

Length: 59min 35sec (3575 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 08 2021