Pioneer Spirit

i loved how sean started us tonight because all we have to do is open up our phone start scrolling through instagram or whatever social media platform you use and all we have to see in everything that we see is scorched earth it just feels like that we are living in an unprecedented time now we're not living in an unprecedented time there have been other seasons in our history that have been bad and we've come out of those by god's grace but we are living in a moment right now that for this generation is unprecedented there's not a week that goes by in my own life when i don't have the story of a friend or an acquaintance that's dealing with covet in the worst way a good friend of mine from high school has been on a ventilator for 27 days young people are suffering with depression and anxiety in unprecedented ways families are breaking apart our political system and dialogue is just a mess it feels like and and i just love the way sean started us tonight just helping set our gaze toward jesus setting our gaze heavenward because frankly he is the only thing that will get us through he is the only thing that will sustain us we have this idea around passion city church we we love this thought of being pioneers and not settlers we love this idea of being a pioneer and not a settler we love this idea that we can alter the atmosphere of the room that we go into and i know the second that i start talking about altering the atmosphere that we can alter the atmosphere all of a sudden it starts to feel like hey we're going to have a self-help talk tonight we're going to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps we're going to we're going to just get really excited we're going to go out and change the world but the reality is we cannot do it on our own and so when we talk about being a pioneer here at passion city church we realize there's a foundation to our pioneering and that's what we want to look at tonight but i know that when we think of the word pioneer we typically think about somebody famous we typically think about a thomas edison or a rosa parks or a elon musk and these are all legendary people who have trailblazed and they've they've paved a path for something new and they're famous for it but tonight i want to submit to us as that pioneers don't have to be famous and in fact god through the power of jesus has given us all the ability to be pioneers in our own right he's given us all the ability to to strike out a course to change the atmosphere to change the tone in the environments that we come into and so when we talk about being a pioneer here at passion city church that's what we are talking about a pioneer is simply this a pioneer is someone who prepares the way for something new they prepare the way for something new or one of the ways we say it around here is that they set the tone they set the tone here's this idea kind of played out and how we talk about it around here because we carry the light of jesus we want to lift lift the atmosphere everywhere we go we may not be in control of every environment but we want to inject positivity and life into every situation we believe in more than hype we want to keep it real yet if jesus is alive from the dead nothing is more real than that we rise above feelings we choose joy and lead from a source greater than ourselves let me say that one more time we lead from a source that is greater than ourselves we refuse to adjust to the current climate but we believe we are catalysts who raise the tone shift the mood and call people around us to more i've been married to my wife carmen for 23 years we've got four kids one in high school and then all the way down to a third grader in elementary school and a couple years ago my wife and i were on a trip out in california we'd gone to an event in san francisco and after the event we decided to drive up to sonoma county so we got in the car and started driving up to wine country and as we started to drive up there we were reminded of how beautiful wine country is but then as we drove a little bit further we started to see some devastation you see in 2017 just two years before we got there the tubbs fire had gone through sonoma county and had wreaked havoc on thousands and thousands and thousands of acres many of those acres were beautiful vineyards we went to one particular vineyard it was the hansfadden vineyard and we listened to one of hans fawden's relatives who literally got on a bulldozer and drove the bulldozer around their vineyard striking a path all around the vineyard hoping that the fire wouldn't jump from outside to inside their property save their property but story after story that we heard while we were on this trip was absolute devastation and destruction thousands and thousands of acres but the longer that we were there we started to look a little closer we started to observe the landscape a little more in detail and as we looked a little bit closer we saw in the midst of the char in the midst of the ruin in the midst of the rubble we started seeing these what looked like to me little green saplings poking up out of the ash and kind of dotting all over the landscape with just these little green saplings starting to pop up just like this kind of dotting the landscape i would learn later that there's a biological term for these little green saplings do you know what the biological term is this is a pioneer species it's a pioneer species they root themselves in the destruction they root themselves in the destruction and they bring about new life they bring about new life they're hearty enough to survive their surroundings and they are the initial catalysts that are eventually going to spring and bring new life they're there serving as a picture of a hope for the future it's a reminder that things will one day return to the way they were it's a reminder that our former glory can be achieved again that's what the pioneer does that's what the pioneer species does and that's what we can do as pioneers but we have to understand what our role looks like and how do we play this role because if we adapt ourselves to the culture around us we cannot pioneer if the atmosphere of the world around us brings us down then we're not pioneering anything we're just settling for the status quo we're just doing what everybody else is doing and i want to submit to us tonight that if you want to get what you already have then do what you're already doing if you want to get what you already have whether that be in your personal life in your relational life in your professional life if you want to get what you already have just keep doing what you're already doing that's called the status quo but if for some reason you want something different if for some reason you want things to change in the world around you then guess what god has placed you god has gifted you god has put you in that place for such a time as this just like you did with esther he's put you there to change the atmosphere and that's what we're going to look at tonight in acts chapter 17 if you have your copy of the scripture that's where we're going to be and we're just going to walk through this scripture the apostle paul was probably one of the greatest pioneers of the early church after jesus he was the greatest pioneer in the early church most of the new testament after the gospels is either written by paul or about paul so anytime that's true about you you ought to pay attention and it's true about paul so we pay attention to paul paul was the early church planter he was the one going from town to town city to city city to city village a village preaching the gospel people were responding to the gospel getting saved and churches were planted we are living in the wake of what paul planted 2000 years ago this same church passion city church is a part of a long lineage of churches that started with that early first century church that paul started and so i think we might have some things to learn from paul tonight so in acts chapter 17 paul has been preaching all over the place and he's gone to places like thessalonica and he's gone to places like berea and now he's landed in athens in athens greece and he's preaching the gospel there he's been in the synagogue the scripture tells us he's also been in the village he's been all over the place preaching now people have heard about him and now the intellectual elite of the city have invited him to come and speak to him this would be like the leaders at harvard or yale inviting you to come and speak because they've heard what you've been talking about it's piqued their interest it stirred their interest and now they want to know more and that's what paul has been invited into this intellectual elite of athens was called the areopagus or in other translations you might see it referred to as mars hill but it was just a gathering of the intellect the intelligentsia and they would debate ideas in this place and now they've invited paul in to help dissect these strange ideas that he's out spreading around about this jesus who supposedly has been resurrected from the dead and they want to hear more our first point tonight i don't even have to read the scripture to give the first point because we see it in the setup and that is pioneers are proactive the fact that paul was in athens and not in his hometown of tarsus which was a long way away from athens the fact that paul was there tells us that pioneers have to be proactive they are proactive now it doesn't mean every pioneer has to travel around the world or go to some far-off place but it does mean that they are proactive it does mean that they don't settle for what already is we had a tragedy happen in our home back in the month of august our air conditioning went out in our house now if you aren't from georgia or don't live in georgia some of the people that are watching online today i kind of had to break this down for them but in georgia in august the last thing you want that happens for your air conditioning to go out i know these are first world problems but let's just be vulnerable for a second so the air goes out it's 86 degrees in our house the only reason it's 86 is because it's decently insulated and it's kept the temperature down 10 degrees because it's 95 outside in 86 inside but i can't handle sleeping in that kind of heat so again just being vulnerable with you just being honest tonight i mean we're just family we're in here tight i i at night i'll kind of sneak in when my wife carmen's not looking and i'll hit that little button and it'll go down down down down to 68 degrees that's where i like it again proactive if you want to change the atmosphere just hit the button well on this particular night in this particular time the button wasn't working so what i do i called up the air conditioner repairman what do you think he told me it's gonna be a week before i can bring the part to fix your air conditioner which by the way the air conditioner repairman was at trillit this morning he came up and said something to me this morning i didn't share this story there though i should have he said it's going to be a week we got to wait for the part to come in i was like that ain't going to cut it so i got in my truck got my son i said we're going to home depot i said i don't care what the hoa says we're going to get the temperature down so i bought an air conditioner a window air conditioner unit for this end of the house and i bought one for this end of the house i popped those things down to 60 degrees got that wind blowing just like this and it was absolutely amazing here's the deal if i hadn't have been proactive gotten in the truck and gone to home depot the temperature would have stayed the same in the house and for most of us we fall prey to just accepting the temperature as it is we fall prey to just kind of letting it happen the way it is and then we just want to get in our little groups over here and we want to complain about the fact that it's hot instead of just getting in the car and going over here to home depot and buying the air conditioner and just letting those things go and just tell your hoa so listen we'll fix it later are proactive now we'll get to the scripture pioneers are also reasonable pioneers are reasonable we're going to see this in paul so paul stood up in a meeting of the areopagus and he said people of athens i see that in every way you are very religious i want you to pay attention and underline that word see in your scripture i see in every way that your religion very religious for as i walked around and looked carefully underlined those two words looked carefully i saw i see and i looked carefully at your objects of worship i even found an altar with this inscription to an unknown god paul understood where the people of athens were coming from far before he ever told them the truth of the gospel paul decided i'm going to go in here and i'm going to i'm going to understand their point of view i'm going to understand their worldview i'm going to understand how they think about life and even though the way they think about life is probably far different than the way i think about life i'm just going to let them tell me all about it and what paul discovered as he looked at them and as he observed the culture around him he said listen well at least you guys are very religious i see all kinds of religious earnestness in your culture and this is amazing it's awesome he goes i know you're religious because as i look around i see all these idols i see all these objects of worship in your culture and so you guys must be very devoted you must be open to the idea that there's some kind of higher power there's some kind of higher purpose in life and so he observed this and so as he observed it he gained trust with his audience because he was seeking to understand their point of view but the other thing and this is the most important part for us is that paul by listening he was able to leverage off of their cultural world view and pivot to the truth of the gospel he didn't have to start over here with hey this is what you need to believe this is the way i think this is the way it is no no he said listen i see that you're very religious i see that you have religious devotion he goes but i also see that you've left this this one idol over here within the inscription to an unknown god and that was paul's ticket this ticket you're open to the fact that you may not be right about how these idols can benefit you that there may be this unknown god there there's something else that we may not have figured out yet so hey we're kind of open to that and paul's like that's my end if we're not willing to listen to other people and their point of view they will never hear our point of view our launching pad into helping people see the truth of who jesus is starts with understanding where they're coming from paul says later in the book of galatians he says let your reasonableness be known among them and i would say that if there was one word that i could put over our discourse right now is that we are unreasonable people we're unreasonable we're settled in our own world view we're settled in our way of doing things our way of thinking and we're just going to let everybody know it i remember my grandmother would just say just tell them just tell them this is the way it is like i don't know that that works exactly but it's when we're reasonable and listen that gives us a launching pad but but here's the other thing and and don't go too far down that trail because oh the preacher said hey we can be reasonable we can just be accepting we can just understand everybody's world view and we can fit in and everybody will like us no that's not what the preacher said tonight because watch what paul does here it says at the beginning of verse 22 what did what's it say paul did what paul stood up paul stood up and then it goes on to say that what you were once ignorable ignorant about in your worship i'm now going to proclaim to you so he didn't just stand over here and make friends and lets us all play nice and kumbaya he eventually once they had the kumbaya moment they went over here and said now i'm going to stand up and tell you something and you say you're open to this unknown god well let me tell you about who he is and so paul stood up and he stood out and he stood for what was true he stood for what jesus had done for him renee brown the great psychologist she says this she says clarity is kindness clarity is kindness we kid ourselves something sometimes when we think this sort of passive aggressive sort of behavior where we just kind of try to fit in with everybody and try to feel out hey what are you thinking how do you have let's we just kind of think that that's helping people but the reality is if we love people we'll get to a point where we're clear with them and if they're going down a path of destruction if they're going down a path that doesn't lead to life well eventually we're going to speak up and say something about it and that's what paul did he seized the moment he built the relationship he but then he stood up and he was clear which leads to the next point that pioneers have a clear distinction pioneers have a clear distinction they're not like everybody else there's something that they have to say there's something that they want to point out there's something that they want to differentiate between what everybody else is saying and that's what paul did in this moment here's what he here's what he told this gathering of the intellectual elite he says in verse 24 the god who made the world and everything in it is the lord of heaven and earth and guess what he does not dwell in the in the temples built by human hands he does not live in temples built by human hands and so right off the jump paul's helping this group understand that if you're seeking your affection if you're placing your affection in something that's built and something that's been created then you're never going to find satisfaction in that what he says is like listen there's a creator of the world his name is god and he created the creation and if you're looking for your satisfaction in the creation that's a fool's errand you need to redirect your affections to the creator of the creation and that's where you're going to find your ultimate purpose in life there's nothing in what we've created that's ultimately going to satisfy now i know that as we drive around atlanta georgia we don't see a lot of little idols and figurines that we would think of as idols but the reality is an idol is anything that we put in place of god and i tell you today we have all kinds of idols that we worship there's all kinds of things that we're hoping will bring satisfaction there's all kinds of things that we're hoping will ease the pain just a little bit and we worship those things and paul's telling us tonight no no set your eyes heavenward set your gaze heavenward set your set your affections up to something higher because that's where you're going to find satisfaction skipping down to verse 26 he says from one man he made all nations that they should inhabit the whole earth and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands god did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him though he is not far away from any of us what paul was saying is listen this god of the universe this one who's created everything he has put you here he controls every aspect of your life he is aligning all the details of your life and he's just asking you to put your eyes on him even if you don't know what to do even if you're you're lost just put your eyes on him and trust him and he will help navigate the scripture says that he works all things together for the good of those who love him and who are called according to his purpose that what that means is like listen when we set our affections heavenward he starts to direct our path proverbs 3 5 and 6 says trust in the lord with all your heart and lean not into your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your path it doesn't say hey go get the latest self-help book it says it doesn't say go get a strategy and a plan for your life don't you know it doesn't say go get a life coach and try to figure it out though all those things can be helpful no no it says trust in me seek me and i will direct your path and paul stood up in this meeting and help these men understand where the real purpose of life was so pioneers have a clear distinction and then the last thing that we see is that pioneers know where life comes from they know where life comes from verse 28 it says for in him we live and move and have our being we are his offspring for in him we live and move and have our being and we are his offspring you see i told you at the beginning this isn't going to be a self-help talk everything that i've just described about being reasonable or about having clear distinction in what you talk about all those things are things that we cannot do in our own power we can't go into a a meeting at work or we can't go into relationships and have it all figured out no no we can't do that in our own power and the beautiful thing about the gospel is is that we don't have to do it in our own power it's in christ we have our life and we have our breath and the offer is on the table for us to live in that abundant life scripture says christ in you is the hope of glory doesn't say christ and you it's not a conjunction there it's christ in you so on that same trip out to california two years ago we went to another winery and we got there and we pulled up half of the grapevines were missing and they weren't gone they were not gone because of the fire it just looked like they had been ripped out over here on one side perfectly good grapevines over here they're gone so our tour guide took us over and of course somebody asked the question they said hey what's what's going on here and the tour guide went and knelt down on the ground kind of got low to the ground and he said listen every 30 years or so we have to replace these grapevines so that they can continue to produce in abundance we have to replace them and so we don't want to replace them all at one time so we do one half one year and we do another half the next year and so we get there and they're all gone but then as we get closer and as he knelt down we started to notice though actually there's a little something happening down there and so he this is i took a picture of that and you're like what in the world is that so i just want you to look at that as i talk so the top of that is a french grape vine a french grapevine so what's the deal with that he says well french grapes make the best wine we tried it the other way and the wine wasn't very good and nobody bought it so we need french grapes okay so that's a french grapevine on the top so what's the deal on the bottom it's like well that's an american grapevine root it's like well why is that important he says well if we were to plant the french grapevine directly into american soil it would die it's not conditioned to take on diseases and other things that are found in american soil it's conditioned for french soil you bring it here it can't live so what do they do they take an american root fuse it together with a french grape vine they plant the american root in the ground so that the american root can take on all the disease can take on all the devastation can take on all the death so that the french grapes can grow and mature into abundance and can reap a harvest that's the life that we're promised in jesus when the scripture says christ in you the hope of glory the reason there's any hope of glory at all is because christ came and took the sin and death and destruction upon himself that's exactly what happened at the cross it's a word called propitiation where the weight of the world came upon jesus in that moment and every sin of humanity was brought on him so that we could have new life if you're wondering like how do i do this you can't you can't you can't physically be surrounded by anxiety and depression and all the things you can't be surrounded by all that and go into that moment and not be impacted by it it's only through the power of christ that you can have a different outlook in that place you can't walk in to a place that's full of negativity and destruction and have a positive outlook without christ you cannot physically get a stage four cancer diagnosis and have a peace that passes all understanding without christ and so what jesus is inviting us into tonight before we ever think about our neighbors and our friends and people around us and how can we have a positive impact in their life what jesus is inviting us into tonight is into a relationship with him and say listen if you're trying to live your life on your own if you're trying to live it on your own power if you're just trying to kind of get up the courage to make it through another day then that ultimately will be a fool's errand but i'm inviting you to come and rest in who i am i i'm inviting you to come and live your life through me and so tonight we're going to do something that might be a little bit awkward because we're not going to bow our head and close our eyes this is typically where we would say that we're going to keep our eyes open but i want to ask a question how many of you tonight would just say man i am just running the rat race of life trying to figure it out all on my own and at best jesus is an afterthought at best i just kind of call on him when i get in deep trouble how many of you just say tonight listen i just i i spend way too much time trying to figure it out on my own so let's just be honest let's just lift our hands all over the room tonight you just you just say listen more often than not i'm just trying to figure it out on my we've got hands raised right here just say i'll just try to figure it out on my own well for you and for the rest of us jesus is inviting us to just rest in him and stop tonight and just place our faith in him set our eyes on him as the old testament prophet says listen i don't know what to do but my eyes are on you that's what jesus is inviting us into tonight the second thing that he's calling us all to do is to raise the temperature he's calling us to set the tone in the world that we live in he's calling us to go into places tomorrow and next week and the next month because we're there as a witness to the grace of jesus we're there just like those little saplings and what may be what may feel like a barren wasteland there we are just poking our head up saying listen i just want to be a sign of the kingdom i it's going to be a sign that jesus is alive and that he's true and he's right and he's changed my life i may feel like i'm outnumbered in here because it does feel really black and discouraging but i'm just kind of poking up right here saying that jesus is worth it so as you came in tonight you've seen that jesus's life wall out there and that's not just an interior design aesthetic thing we have one of those walls at all of our locations because each one of those light bulbs they represent people they represent names of real people and that particular wall here at 5 15 that's been up for a long time and there were people that took light bulbs years and years and years ago and they wrote a name of a friend or a family member that when they wrote that name probably if they were honest they would have said there is no way god's going to be able to work in their life but they took the light bulb anyway they took the step they wrote their name on there they started praying they invited this house to pray and then one day they came in climbed up the ladder and put that light bulb in the wall and there's story after story after story after story out there just like that and so tonight one of the best things we could probably do to start to change the atmosphere of the world around us is just start praying for people quit talking about them just pray for them and so i bet you you've got a family member you've got a friend that's far away from jesus and tonight all we're asking you to do is just go out there and grab a light bulb and just write their name on it stick in your pocket stick in your purse put it in your car somewhere where you can be reminded and just pray for them and then just watch god work and we can all join in together i mean there are 2 000 names out there in that wall of lives that have been changed we started another one and maybe that next wall will be the one where your friend your family member comes in says my life has been changed by jesus [Music] god has put us where we are to be rooted to be a light for him to change the atmosphere to be a sign of things to come for the people around us he's called us to pioneer and not settle for the status quo

Channel: Passion City Church

Views: 2,201

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: aaron coe, passion city church, passion city, sunday sermon

Id: ptGRQp1wozI

Length: 35min 0sec (2100 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 27 2021