Crossridge Church - June 27, 2021

hey there my name's tim welcome to crossrage if you're joining us on the live stream be sure to let us know you're here with us today in the chat it's great seeing your names and it's great to know you're here with us if you are new with us a really warm welcome to you we'd love to get to know you and answer any questions you might have and help you to get plugged in stop by the connect desk in our lobby on your way out or head over to crossridge.church connect fill out a connect card share prayer requests sign up for the weekly and find other ways to stay in touch with us well summer is here and it is not messing around but with the warmer drier weather comes some great opportunities for us to get outside and reconnect with those we've been apart from for so long on july 11th and august 15th we're headed out to don christian park in cloverdale for this year's community if you've been around crossridge for a while you really don't need an explanation but if you're new-ish community is just a time for us to hang out with each other at a park bring a picnic dinner play some games get to know some people it's a really good time no registration is required and specifics like times and location can be found at crossridge.church or on the church center app another set of summer get-togethers are the park play dates on thursday mornings 10 to noon starting on july 8th we'll be hitting a wide variety of parks throughout surrey and langley for hangouts while our kids make some new friends there's no need to register and dates and locations and other info can be found at crossridge.church playdates or again on the church center app and lastly this summer we're inviting kids going into grade 6 in september to join cru for a couple of great events so you can get a bit of a taste of what's to come in the fall i'm really looking forward to hanging out and getting to know all of you we'll be sending out emails to parents in the coming weeks with all the details you can also reach out to me personally at sam crossridge.church with any questions you might have well that's it for now hope you're finding ways to stay cool it's so great to have you here with us today and we'll see you next time all right good morning crossridge would you stand with me for the call to worship this morning in the book of revelation the book right at the end of our bible is the apostle john he's he's imprisoned he's probably sitting on a hot day on a dusty pile of rocks on this island in the aegean sea and he's given a vision and in the midst of what might have felt like a hopeless situation john has given this picture this vision ultimately a vision of jesus as he is right now and listen to what he describes in in revelation chapter 7 he says after this i looked and behold a great multitude that no one could number from every nation from all tribes and peoples and languages standing before the throne and before the lamb clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice salvation belongs to our god who sits on the throne and to the lamb so this morning crossroads church you are invited to join in that cry you're invited to join in that song in the midst of whatever circumstance you find yourself in god is calling you to himself he invites you to to worship to respond to his greatness with your voice and with your whole [Music] heart if i had a thousand tons to sing your glories one by one it would be a ceaseless song there is a depth of riches here the saints have mine throughout the years oh my lord how wonderful you are praise the lord [Music] praise the lord o my soul praise the lord praise the lord o my soul when my ears first heard your voice the wonder made my heart rejoice to god so holy love someone like me free me from my empty praise sing the triumphs of your grace this is my song and will forever be [Music] praise the lord praise the lord o my soul praise the lord praise the lord o my soul praise the lord the lord praise the lord o my soul praise the lord praise the lord on my soul [Music] all your people sing the god of our salvation we praise your holy name of all the heavens all creation that goes the glory of your name and all your people sing god of our salvation we praise your holy name [Music] the glory of your name praise the lord praise the lord o my soul praise the lord praise the lord o my soul praise the lord praise the lord o my soul praise the lord praise the lord o my soul [Music] i am a sinner your blameless lord my sins against you can't be ignored they will be punished i know they must your law demands it before you are just if you were count everything that i've done wrong who could stand but there's forgiveness with you god have mercy on me have mercy on me a broken and a contract heart you won't turn away have mercy on me have mercy on me because [Music] father of mercy you gave your son [Music] to make atonement for wrongs i have done what you require what you require jesus don't deserve it and i don't deserve it [Music] who could stand but there's forgiveness with you god have mercy on me have mercy on me to broken and a contract heart you won't turn away have mercy on me have mercy on me because of your steadfast [Music] have mercy on me have mercy on me a broken and a contrite heart you won't turn away have mercy on me have mercy on me [Music] because of your stand fast love [Music] hear the good news who is in a position to condemn only christ and christ died for us christ rose for us christ reigns in power for us christ prays for us anyone who is in christ is a new creation the old life is gone a new life has begun know that you are forgiven and be at peace with god with each other and with yourself amen [Music] [Music] i came in the world where once the darkness rained the light that shines for all hear more [Music] are things life through jesus righteous name by the darkened world the life was not received but to everyone who in his name believes jesus gives the right to be a child of god [Music] jesus all things were made in jesus the light of men is jesus our life is we have seen his glory through the son of man he came as flesh and blood so we could understand full of grace and truth this glory has no end jesus all things were made in jesus jesus you came to save us the light of life we sing your praises god of grace your mighty name is jesus all things were made in jesus jesus all things were made in jesus the light of man is jesus our life is found in him yes lord we thank you that our our life is found in you that you have made all things you've made us and you are remaking us in your image so lord we just pray as we we turn our attention to your word this morning that you would move among us that you'd work in our hearts work in our minds to show us more of yourself we pray this in jesus name amen amen well thank you to sean and the team for leading us in worship this morning i just uh want to highlight one further announcement for you each week we do take time to pray for different concerns in our church different things that are going on uh and usually once a month we'd like to have a missions focus just highlight for you one of our local missionaries he serves with child evangelism fellowship here locally but also oversees this uh across our province and uh just been talking been in contact with andrew around some of the ways that we can be praying for him in this ministry this is a great time for child evangelism fellowship they run backyard bible clubs all through the summer uh taking the good news of jesus and helping kids understand it in their neighborhoods so andrew has asked that we would pray for a couple of things they've got training happening this friday for their leaders and then clubs will be beginning uh in july uh for five weeks they start july the 12th so we want to be praying for those uh clubs that as kids hear the gospel they would respond to the holy spirit that they would receive this as in fact good news uh for other christian kids who do invite their friends and so on they'd be encouraged and challenged to a deeper walk with jesus uh and then really for the staff it's a busy season these this next stretch here july and august so we want to be praying for andrew and the team at child evangelism fellowship if you would join me in doing that now that would be great heavenly father we do want to thank you for your goodness thank you for the different ministries that are going on around us some of the things that we don't often think about uh some of just the conversations that take place and we think especially of children we think of jesus saying let the little children come to me and god we pray there would be many children that come to you through this ministry even this summer it's been such a different kind of year but i pray for the team at child evangelism fellowship that as they invite as they encourage others to come that there'll be many kids who come into a relationship with you something that transforms them for the rest of their lives and that you would save entire families through this ministry so we pray for your protection and your grace over andrew and kim and pray for your blessing on them as well we pray in jesus name amen well if you've got a bible with you this morning i do want to invite you to open it to the book of acts and locate chapter 14 in that great book just to let you know that next week we are returning to our study in the book of first corinthians some of you may have joined us after the fact we haven't been in first corinthians for about a year and a half now when we left off we left off at the end of chapter 11 so throughout the summer months throughout july and august we're going to be looking at chapters 12 to 14 in the book of first corinthians focusing on spiritual gifts looking forward to a great series of doing that together but for the past few weeks we've been taking a look at why it is that we do what we do when we gather as a church in a series we call the primer on worship this message today doesn't quite fit into that category it's a little bit more about what we do when we scatter as a church not so much about what we do when we gather as a church but this really is connected to the dna of our church to the dna of crossridge the mission of crossroads church is to know jesus and to make him known and we're going to as we look at acts chapter 14 we're going to focus on the second part of that what does it look like to make jesus known and really what i want to focus on is a particular aspect of that mission of making jesus known and that question is what does it look like to be committed to the mission that god has given to us and i want to set this up for you by telling you a story that tim bowden tells in a book called one crowded hour the book is about cameraman neil davis and his experiences on the front lines of battlefields all over the world and bowden tells about one incident that happened in borneo during the conflict between malaysia and indonesia back in 1964. there was a group of gurkhas that's trained soldiers from nepal who were asked if they would be willing to jump from combat planes into combat against the indonesians if the need arose for them now the gurkhas had the right to turn down any request uh because they and this one especially because they had not been trained as paratroopers but bowden quotes neil davis's account of the story and he said this now the gurkhas usually agreed to anything but on this occasion they provisionally rejected the plan but the next day one of their commanders sought out the british officer who had made the request and said you know what we've discussed this matter further we would be prepared to jump under certain conditions what are they ask the british officer the gurkhas told him they would jump if the land was marshy or reasonably soft with no rocky outcrops because they were inexperienced and falling british officer considered this he said look the dropping area would almost certainly be over jungle there'd be no rocky outcrops so that seemed right and it was agreeable was there anything else yes the gurkha leader said they wanted the plane to fly as slowly as possible and no more than a hundred feet high british officer pointed out the planes always did fly as slowly as possible when they were dropping troops but to jump from a hundred feet was impossible because the parachutes would not open from that height oh parachutes said the gurkhas well in that case we will take the assignment you didn't mention the parachutes before see that's commitment right i mean they were prepared for this mission prepared even to jump from a height of 100 feet with or without parachutes and i tell you that story because the passage we're looking at in acts chapter 14 shows us what kind of commitment the early church had to the mission that god had given them so we're in acts chapter 14 i'm going to read verses 1 to 21 and i do invite you to stand for the reading of god's word and it says this now at iconium they entered together into the jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of both jews and greeks believed but the unbelieving jews stirred up the gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers so they remained for a long time speaking boldly for the lord who bore witness to the word of his grace granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands but the people of the city were divided some sided with the jews and some with the apostles when an attempt was made by both gentiles and jews with their rulers to mistreat them and to stone them they learned of it and fled to lystra and derby cities of lyconia and to the surrounding country and there they continued to preach the gospel now at lystra there was a man sitting who could not use his feet he was crippled from birth and had never walked he listened to paul speaking and paul looking intently at him seeing that he had faith to be made well said in a loud voice stand upright on your feet and he sprang up and began walking and when the crowd saw what paul had done they lifted up their voices saying in lyconian the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men barnabas they called zeus and paul hermes because he was the chief speaker and the priest of zeus whose temple was at the entrance to the city brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds but when the apostles barnabas and paul heard of it they tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd crying out men why are you doing these things we also are men of like nature with you we bring you good news you should turn from these vain things to a living god who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them in past generations he allowed all the nations to walk in their ways yet he did not leave himself without witness for he did good by giving you reigns from heaven in fruitful seasons satisfying your hearts with food and gladness even with these words they scarcely restrained the people from offering sacrifice to them verse 19 but jews came from antioch and iconium and having persuaded the crowds they stoned paul and dragged him out of the city supposing that he was dead but when the disciples gathered about him he rose up and entered the city and on the next day he went on with barnabas to derby when they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples they returned to lystra and to iconium and to antioch strengthening the souls of the disciples and encouraging them to continue in the faith and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of god and when they had appointed elders for them in every church with prayer and fasting they committed them to the lord in whom they had believed you can be seated well it's really a fascinating passage what happens here in acts chapter 14. there's a lot that we can glean from it i want to focus our attention on the ways it demonstrates for us what commitment to mission looks like and i want to highlight four things it means to be committed to the mission the first one is simply a commitment to preach the gospel now i know that sounds like the captain obvious thing to say but it needs to be sent verse 1 talks about the fact that as they go into iconium they enter into the jewish synagogue and there's many jews and many gentiles who believe but there's others who are trying to persuade the crowds against them verse 4 then talks about the division that arose in the city of iconium and it says but the people of the city were divided some sided with the jews and some with the apostles verse six then tells us that there was a a plot that was hatched to try to kill paul and barnabas they move on to the cities of lyconia and then verse 7 says this and there they continued to preach the gospel see the preaching of the gospel is like the big e on the eye chart if we miss this there is no way we can fulfill the mission that god has given to us and part of the reason i even need to stop here and say that we need a commitment to preach the gospel is because the preaching of the gospel has fallen out of favor in recent times i don't just mean what happens on sunday mornings from pulpits though i think that's true as well what i mean is that we are less likely to share the message of the gospel with those we come in contact with than earlier generations were i was interested to read the studies or the findings of a study that was recently published by the barna group they did a massive survey on behalf of alpha about the attitudes of christians towards evangelism they interviewed those who identify themselves as practicing christians those who were active in their faith those who attended church regularly here were some of the study's findings now this survey was conducted across all generational groups and it found that 94 to 97 of christians across the board said that the best thing that could ever happen to someone would be for them to come to know jesus almost all practicing christians ranging from 86 to 92 percent said they also know how to respond when someone raises questions about their fate they can answer those questions a majority of each generational group ranging from 56 percent to 73 percent believe that they were gifted in sharing their faith with other people so those are somewhat encouraging stats that's the good news yet despite recognizing the importance of telling people about jesus claiming to know how to share their faith a significant portion of practicing christians say it's wrong to share one's personal beliefs with someone of a different faith in hopes that they will one day share the same faith and here's where it gets interesting almost half of millennials so those aged roughly 20 to 34 say it's wrong to share one's beliefs as do one in four or 20 percent of 27 percent of gen xers ages 35 to 53 and one in five baby boomers age about 54 to 72 and elders age 73 and older say it's wrong to share your faith with someone in the hopes that they will come to faith so what are we supposed to make of that why has this fallen on such hard times some point maybe you've seen the magician duo of penn and teller penn gillette is one half of that act he's also a very outspoken atheist and he said this he said i've always said that i don't respect people who don't proselytize he went on to say i don't respect that at all if you believe that there's a heaven and a hell and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life and you think that it's not really worth telling them because this would make it socially awkward how much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize see he seems to understand that far better than many christians do this is the task we've been given to go and proclaim the good news of the gospel to all nations the apostle paul said it this way he said i'm not ashamed of the gospel of jesus christ for it is the power of god for everyone who believes and i think until we come to terms with the fact that no person whether a first century pagan like we meet in acts chapter 14 or a 21st century materialist like we might meet around us until we come to to terms with the truth that none of them can be saved by any means other than by calling on the name of the lord jesus we will never come to grips with the importance of the gospel or be mo motivated to proclaim it as we should people are desperately lost without the gospel and we need to be committed to sharing the good news that we've been entrusted with like paul and barnabas we need to continue to preach the gospel second characteristic of what it looks like to be committed to the mission is a commitment to preach the gospel to all kinds of people in all kinds of ways so the first thing that happens in the city of lystra is a miraculous healing there's a man who's been crippled from birth who gets healed now we know the gospels don't record all the miracles that jesus did in the same way the book of acts does not record all the miracles that the apostles did but have you ever just stopped to wonder why is it that certain miracles get recorded for us why are these the ones that are highlighted i mean apart from the fact that this healing was a sight to behold why is this miracle recorded and highlighted for us and i wonder if at least part of the reason is because of the parallels with a similar miracle that's recorded earlier in the book of acts so i want you to listen again to what happens here in verses 8 to 10. it says now at lystra there was a man sitting who could not use his feet he was crippled from birth he had never walked he listened to paul speaking and paul looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well said in a loud voice stand upright on your feet and he sprang up and began walking now listen to the opening verses of acts chapter 3 and just note the similarities now peter and john were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer the ninth hour and a man lame from birth was being carried whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the beautiful gate to ask alms of those entering the temple seeing peter and john about to go into the temple he asked to receive alms and peter directed his gaze at him as did john and said look at us and he fixed his attention on them expecting to receive something from them but peter said i have no silver and gold but what i do have i give to you in the name of jesus christ of nazareth rise up and walk and he took him by the right hand and raised him up and immediately his feet and his ankles were made strong so both of those accounts demonstrate the healing of a man who was lame or crippled from birth both accounts record the apostle or the apostles fixing their gaze or looking intently at the individual and both accounts record the reaction of the crowd but there's a key difference between those two accounts and the difference is in where those miracles took place the first event took place in jerusalem at the temple in fact and the second one took place in gentile territory and if you read through the book of acts you will find that this is the movement of the book of acts the outline of the book of acts is given to us in chapter 1 in chapter 1 verse 8 it says but you will receive power when the holy spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in jerusalem and in all judea and samaria and to the ends of the earth so the book of acts tells us how the gospel spread from jerusalem to judea and samaria and in fact to the very ends of the earth this miracle is part of that taking place and this story then is a reminder of the universal nature of the gospel it is good news for all people and it's good for us to be reminded of this in the first century the church needed to know that the gospel wasn't just good news for the jews but for all people they needed to know that the gospel wasn't just for the religious types but it was for sinners and tax collectors and prostitutes and in our context we need to be reminded that the gospel is not just for middle class suburban dwellers the gospel is good news for all people it's good news for all kinds of people do we believe that so i've had a vehicle sitting on my driveway for the past three years or so i i wanted to get it back on the road so i had to get it towed to a neighborhood mechanic and i had an interesting interaction with the tow truck driver when he came to our place we chatted for a bit and at one point he asked me what i did for a living and i said oh i'm a pastor of a church now at that point it's either a conversation killer or it leads to an interesting conversation that's just what i've found over the years in this case he said wow i'm not expletive religious but i've got a question for you in fact he had several questions he had a question about israel what was happening in israel and about religious wars he had a question about you know how is it how do pastors get paid maybe it was the 2001 acura he was towing i don't know something prompted that and then he had another question and he said you probably don't have people like me in your church do you and he kind of pointed to his tattoos he was a rougher guy tatted up i said well i mean we actually have one on staff you're welcome to come we had a good chat he used to attend movies here at the clover back in the day now i haven't seen him in person yet but the gospel is good news for all kinds of people and we need to remember that so i said we need a commitment to preach the gospel to all kinds of people in all kinds of ways so let me just touch on that second part for a minute now we're going to come back and take a look at the healing itself and the response to it in a few minutes but first i want you to notice something about paul's missional methodology in this chapter he heals the man the crowd see it and immediately they start trying to worship paul and barnabas this is what they know of religion if someone has the ability to heal he must be a god that's what they know and listen again to paul's mini sermon in response to that you see it in verses 15 to 18. paul says man why are you doing these things we also are men of like nature with you and we bring you good news that you should turn from these vain things to a living god who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them in past generations he allowed the nations to walk in their own ways yet he did not leave himself without witness for he did good by giving you reigns from heaven and fruitful seasons satisfying your hearts with food and gladness notice where paul begins now i'm not meaning to sound harsh in my assessment of the lyconians but these were illiterate pagans and so paul begins with the idea of god as creator he's the one who made all things he's the one who provides all things the reigns in their season the fruit that you enjoy this is the world the people knew and so paul begins on a place of common ground that's how he engages them in a gospel conversation and you can note the contrast with the way the chapter began back in verse 1 it said now at iconium they entered together into the jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of both jews and greeks believed see note the difference in strategy right when he goes to the synagogue he reasons with them from the scriptures when he's dealing with those with a pagan background he engages with them where they're at and you actually see this thing all through the book of acts when paul wanted to reach the jews of his day he would go into the synagogue he would open the scriptures and he would debate them or reason with them that was their place of commonality when paul wanted to reach those who weren't jews or or those who weren't familiar with the old testament he took a different tact entirely and we need to learn to do the same thing we need to learn to engage our world with the gospel in a way that begins from a place of common ground so we need to be students of our culture we need to know what people's longings are what their frustrations are what questions they have and then we bring the gospel to bear on those things we need to learn to contextualize our presentation of the gospel and why is it so important that we understand that why is it so important that we understand that a cookie-cutter approach to evangelism won't work in his book everyday church steve timmins cites a recent study from great britain in which 70 percent of brits declare they have no attempt no intention of ever attending a church service for any reason not easter not for marriages not for funerals or christmas eve services far more than two-thirds of the people in great britain for them nothing will carry them naturally into a church so in light of that he comments this means new styles of worship will not reach them fresh expressions of church will not reach them alpha and christianity explored will not reach them great first impressions will not reach them churches meeting in pubs will not reach them the vast majority of unchurched and de-churched people would not turn to church even if faced with difficult personal circumstances or in the event of national tragedies it's not a question of improving the product of church meetings and evangelistic events it means reaching people apart from meetings and events see this is paul's strategy go where the people are that's where you begin commenting on the way paul engaged the lyconians here in acts 14 john stott said this he said but we have to begin where people are to find a point of contact with them with secularized people today this might be what constitutes authentic humanness the universal quest for transcendence the hunger for love and community the search for freedom or the longing for personal significance wherever we begin however we shall end with jesus christ who is himself the good news and who alone can fulfill all human aspirations this is what we do we go where people are we engage them with the questions they're asking and we bring the gospel to bear on those things now i think it's important that we don't misunderstand this this doesn't mean the church is not part of what it means to reach people with the gospel all of those statistics about people not coming into church are true is for those who have not been invited or those who have no relationship with anyone who is a christian so we have our kids camp coming up in just a couple of weeks and this year we have more kids who are coming to kids camp from outside the church than we've ever had in the years we've been doing this and the reason for that is because two years ago we started building a relationship with one of the local housing co-ops some of you have been part of those efforts now we could have just you know done mail outs right just send a bunch of flyers out we could have went and hung door hangers we started building a relationship it's far more effective to meet people where they are and then start to build bridges and it might take time but this is what we do this is what i mean by saying that we need to be committed to preaching the gospel to all kinds of people in all kinds of ways we need to find the ways that are effective for us to do it the gospel does not change but the way we go about sharing it does third thing we need to be committed to the mission is a commitment to make much of jesus and make little of ourselves and this is what we learned from how paul and barnabas handled the response to the miracle listen again to verses 11 to 14. and when the crowd saw what paul had done they lifted up their voices saying in lyconian the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men barnabas they called zeus and paul hermes because he was the chief speaker and the priest of zeus whose temple was at the entrance to the city brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifices with the crowds but when the apostles barnabas and paul heard of it they tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd told them to stop now look i've had the opportunity to speak in lots of different places i've never had anything like that happen no one's ever sort of rushed me after and said you must be a god paul and barnabas didn't really understand what was happening at first because as the text says the people were lifting up their voices in the lyconian language but as soon as they understood what was happening they tore their clothes they rushed out and stopped the ground now that's a pretty extreme example i know we might be tempted just to dismiss it it's not going to happen to us this isn't the kind of thing that happens usually when we share the gospel with someone but i think there's a more subtle form of this that happens all the time in ministry now next week we're returning to the book of first corinthians if you've forgotten it was a pretty messed up church in chapter one of that book paul describes the problem like this or at least part of the problem like this he says what i mean is that each one of you says i follow paul or i follow apollos or i follow cephas or i follow christ is christ divided was paul crucified for you or were you baptized in the name of paul i thank god that i baptized none of you except crispus and gaius so that no one may say you were baptized in my name i did baptize also the household of stephanus beyond that i do not know whether i baptized anyone else for christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel and not with words of eloquent wisdom lest the cross of christ be emptied of its power what paul is saying is the gospel is not about us paul says i wasn't crucified for you you weren't baptized into my name and i think this is important to remember in the day of celebrity pastors the moment the gospel becomes about us is the moment the cross is emptied of its power the gospel is not about us and what we have done the gospel is about jesus and what he has done i think there's a great picture of what it looks like to make little of ourselves and make much of jesus in the ministry of john the baptist in john chapter 3 it says what was happening to john it says and they came to john and said to him rabbi he who was with you that's jesus across the jordan to whom you bore witness look he's baptizing and all are going to him john answered a person cannot receive even one thing unless it has given him from heaven you yourselves bear me witness that i said i am not the christ but i've been sent before him the one who has the bride is the bridegroom the friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice therefore this joy of mine is now complete he must increase but i must decrease that's an amazing statement from john his own disciples come to him and they say hey john your popularity is slipping the crowds that used to flock to you are now flocking to jesus what should we do pr campaign john says he couldn't be happier he's like it's not about me john identifies himself as the friend of the bridegroom it's actually a great analogy i mean picture a wedding what would you think if you went to a wedding and one of the groomsmen or one of the bridesman is doing everything they can to draw attention to themselves and divert that attention from the bride or the groom see that's what it looks like when we make much of ourselves and little of jesus it's ridiculous all of the focus all that we can we deflect towards jesus i mean your job as a bride as a groomsman or as a bridesmaid is just to stand there and smile isn't it if only more of us understood and lived like this was true if we didn't need to be the hero of our own stories if more of us even in our difficulties simply said he must increase and i must decrease it's a powerful testimony what's better for the kingdom that people would look at us and say wow that guy or that girl has everything together or wow i can't actually explain that person's life apart from the work of god in this passage the people marvel at the miracle paul and barnabas performed their first instinct is to focus their attention on paul and barnabas and paul's response is now look i've got a bunch more tricks i can do what he says is we're just ordinary people like you but our god is amazing and that ought to be the story that we tell as well let's make much of jesus let's make little of ourselves final thing i want to highlight for you in terms of what commitment to the mission looks like is that it means a commitment to keep preaching the gospel regardless of the response [Music] you know the difference between what happens in verse 18 and what happens in verse 19 is staggering just listen to those verses again even with these words they scarcely restrain the people from offering sacrifice to them and then verse 19. but jews came from antioch and iconium and having persuaded the crowds they stoned paul and dragged him out of the city supposing that he was dead so one group wanted to worship paul the other one wanted to kill him and thought they did and i would just say we can expect a varied response to our sharing of the gospel elsewhere paul tells us that very thing he says that to one we are the aroma of christ and to the other we're basically the stench of death the way luke actually tells this to us is almost comical in light of what happened to paul and barnabas or in light of what happened to paul listen now to verses 20 and 21 after paul has been stoned and dragged out of the city but when the disciples gathered about him he rose up and entered the city and on the next day he went on with barnabas to derby when they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples they returned to lystra into iconium and to antioch they continued to preach the gospel regardless of their response just another average day in ministry for paul right lauded in one city hated in another and paul just kind of dusts himself off goes on to the next city and does exactly the same thing that's actually the nature of mission paul's protege in ministry was timothy timothy ended up pastoring the church in the city of ephesus listen to what paul said to timothy he said i charge you in the presence of god and christ jesus who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing in his kingdom preach the word be ready in season and out of season reprove rebuke and exhort with complete patience and teaching for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths as for you always be sober minded endure suffering do the work of an evangelist fulfill your ministry what paul says to timothy is look be prepared to preach the word in season and out of season when it's popular for you to do so and when it's unpopular for you to do so that same thing is true for us when it comes to sharing the gospel we need to do it in season and out of season we need to do it regardless of if the response is favorable or someone says look i reject that altogether i think sometimes we have this mistaken notion that we just need to get the formula right right if we use this track use this program ask these questions then it will work out and then we get discouraged or we give up when we don't get the response we were hoping for and we're told that one of the definitions of crazy is just to continue to do the same thing expecting different results but i would say there are times where doing the same thing will produce different results you know the most famous sermon that was ever preached in north america is the one preached by jonathan edwards in enfield connecticut on july 9 1741 his sermon title was sinners in the hands of an angry god it was a message on the horrors of hell now part of the reason that sermon became famous is because of what happened as a result of it as the people sitting in the pews listened to edward's sermon many of them began weeping crying out how can i be saved and what happened afterwards can only be described as the outpouring of god's spirit a revival started in that little town that eventually spread all over new england it became one of the greatest revivals in the united states it came to be known as the great awakening it began with jonathan edwards preaching that sermon in enfield connecticut on july 9 1741. so many people have at least heard of jonathan edwards famous sermon what most people don't know is that july 9 1941 was not the first time he had preached that sermon he preached that exact same sermon a month earlier in his home church in northampton connecticut and you know what the response was nothing there was no weeping there was no crying out no one said how can i be saved there was no repentance no revival and i share that with you because we do not know what will happen when we share the good news of the gospel with someone the response might be favorable it might be that someone says it's the best news i've ever heard the response might be unfavorable someone might say look i want nothing to do with you our task is just to be faithful in sharing the good news that christ has given to us so our desire as a church is to be on mission can i just encourage you that your experience you will experience different seasons of fruitfulness as you engage in that mission your task is just to be faithful our task is just to be faithful to the mission and whether the seed you sow lands on the path on rocky soil on shallow soil or in good soil that produces an abundant harvest the task before us the commitment we make is just to be faithful let's pray together father we thank you today for the good news of the gospel the only thing that can solve the issues we experience in our world the only thing that can satisfy the longings of the human heart lord sometimes we are reticent to share it sometimes we think it's awkward so god would you give us the boldness that we need would you give us the love that we need for the people around us help open our eyes to see those needs and god we pray as a church that we would be faithful to the task that you have given us that we would look back years from now and say we were faithful in knowing jesus and making him known we pray this in jesus name amen so amen would you stand with us [Music] there is a foundation filled with blood for those who stand condemned worth saying god will not defend [Music] but jesus died to save you his death has paid it [Music] come to the fountain stand by the fall come and be clean come come to the fountain [Music] there's mercy for each day the wellspring of our joy and hope the current of his grace it floods our hearts with [Music] kindness over love such mercy in that fountain filled with love come to the fountain stand by the fall come and be clean come come to the fountain [Music] oh the blood of jesus precious of jesus no other fountain it washes white as snow oh the blood of [Music] the precious blood of jesus no other it fountains white as snow oh the blood of jesus [Music] precious [Music] [Music] so come [Music] [Music] you can go ahead and grab a seat for those of you watching on our live stream been great to have you join us this morning that way we are hoping our expectation is that next week those capacity limits that we have the 50 people will be changed and we hope to see many more of you here i know that this week in particular only doing two gatherings lots of people who could not get in we're hoping that will be changed for next week looking forward to that looking forward to having air conditioning in here at some point as well uh as it is super hot but great to have you here hope you have a great week and we will see you back here next week you

Channel: Crossridge

Views: 185

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: 52Lyq6-e0QY

Length: 62min 46sec (3766 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 27 2021