God is Always Working - Acts 4:1-31

Morning, Southeast family. How are you?

We're good.

Thanks for joining us. I get to talk about giving tithes and offerings today. Really excited about that. Because we have found all of the money that we need to finance all of God's work in this area. Which is really exciting. The bad news about that is it's in your pockets.

Reach into your neighbor's pocket and give the way you always wanted to. No, when you exit today, there's black boxes hanging on the walls out at every exit out of here. Or if you're joining us online, or if you would choose to even in the room, you can jump online and give at southeastcc.org/Give. Or you can give on our app as well.

Connected to that, we need to have a pseudo family meeting. One of my pet peeves, is when churches fudge numbers to make themselves look better. I'm just like, "You don't got to do that. God's work should be able to stand on its own."

When we did our report, our year end video, you guys that watched that. We had one particular number that was accurate and inaccurate. And so I want to explain to you what I mean by of that. Just so that I can stand before you in integrity.

I wouldn't have to say anything about this, because it's not that big of a deal. But it's important to me. Because I want you to know that we're going to treat this stuff seriously.

We've reported, that our missions partners had 10,700,000 people come to Christ. That number is actually about 40,000 people short. That's the good news. The bad news is, we reported it as if that happened in 2021. And that was an honest mistake. That was a misunderstanding of that.

That number is accurate, but it's over the lifespan of our missions partners. That has actually happened, but it took a little bit longer time. And again, that's not a big deal. But it is a big deal to me. I just want to share that with you. And now I can sleep.

We are in week five of the Book of Acts. And today we're going to kick a hornet's nest. Are you guys ready?

Yeah.

I have been praying about this. And the thing about it is, we're doing such long, big passages that there's just so much in there that we could talk about. And so part of the sifting process of spending time with the passage is like, "Lord, what do you want to say to me?"

And then Lord, "What do you want to say to our church?" Like, "What's relevant for us right now in this space?" And then, "Lord, just what do you want to say?" And so there's a picking and a choosing. And I really believe that this passage in particular, God has led me to something that I think is an important conversation for us in this period in history.

And so we're going to work our way, similar pattern as what we've been doing. We'll work our way through the chapter. Making some passing comments. And then we'll pull out a couple of lessons. And we'll see what we can do.

I do want to say this as we get rolling. Just because I know that what we're going to talk about is potentially a little bit unsettling for people. I hope it's not. But I potentially it is. What I'm going to do, is just ask some really poignant questions of the church. Rather than just go, "I don't like that, so I'm going to disregard everything that he says."

What I want to ask you to do, is to just take it in and sit with it. Maybe this week would be between you and the Lord. Like, "God, what would you have me do with that?"

Here's the deal. I believe that a good sermon, every week somebody should be raising their eyebrows. Like, "What?" I'm not preaching well if I'm only telling you stuff you already agree with. If I'm only telling you stuff you already agree with, then why are you here? You already know it.

What I want us to do is, to wrestle. I want us to consider, and again, I'm not even going to tell us necessarily where to land on all of this. I'm just going to say, "Here's some things that we need to be considering as we move forward as a church."

Because here's the reality. The church in America is failing. It's failing. And we've got to be honest about that. Now there are pockets where the church is doing okay. But it's failing. And if we're not honest about that, then we don't know how to be a part of the solution. I'm not trying to be a jerk. I want to be part of the solution. I love the church. I think for all of her warts, she's still the bride of Christ.

And when we start talking poorly about the bride, if you talk poorly about my bride, I'll punch you. It just, we got to be so careful with that. And so I want us to walk into this just in sacred reverence to what we're talking about.

Chapter four, verse one, here we go. Now, remember Acts 3, Peter and John are on the way to the temple. They heal a lame man. And he, walking and leaping and praising God. He's advanced walking. And he is so excited about the miracle that happens, that he starts to create a ruckus in the Temple Mount area, in the Solomon's Colony area.

So, that's where we left the story. Peter preaches a sermon. And now, we're going to pick up the same story, in Acts 4. It says, "And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus, the resurrection from the dead."

Now, why is that's a big deal? Because the Sadducees don't believe in a resurrection of the dead. They think that's from false doctrine. Now think about this, Sadducees run the temple. Jewish Society is theocratic, God centered. And the temple, is the single access point to God.

And people who don't believe in an afterlife, are controlling it. So they have all the privileges of being the conduit between God and man. And none of the responsibility. There's no eternal consequence. You can imagine how corrupt that might get. And if you would take that and multiply it by a factor of 10, you would be getting close to how corrupt it actually got.

It was bad. So they don't want for this "resurrection talk", to actually take root. Because then they're going to be held accountable for how they're treating people. Which they're literally starving the people that they should be carrying for.

"And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day for it was already evening. But many of those who had heard the word believed the number of men came to about 5,000."

Now the Holy Spirit, forget the number. Or is there something else going on there? The answer is yes. And that's another sermon for another day. And I only pointed out, just because I hope that, as we do these kinds of studies together, that when you see some weird detail like that, you don't just go, "Oh, that's odd. Let's move on." But that you let it capture you. And chase it. Because you're going to start pulling threads that are going to be really interesting.

"On the next day, the rulers and elders and scribes, gathered together in Jerusalem with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas, and John and Alexander and all who are part of the high priestly family."

Now here's a side note. It's really odd that somebody from the high priestly family is named Alexander. That's a Greek name. That's not Jewish. And that matters in Jewish Society. For us, we're like, "Whatever, we have people that have whatever names." They don't. So it's evidence that it's a paradigm shifting that's not good. They're allowing that Western egocentrism to bleed into their culture and it's not good.

"And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired by what power or by what name did you do this? And then Peter, filled the Holy Spirit said to them..."

Okay, Peter's going to preach a sermon. Let's see if he holds true to pattern. You guys like, "I don't remember anything else about Acts. But blah, blah, blah. Jesus was God. And you killed him."

"Then Peter filled the Holy Spirit said to them, "Ruler of the people and elders! If we're being examined today, concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, then let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel: That by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified..."

Boom Peter!

"Whom God raised from the dead, by him this man is standing before you well."

Blah, blah, blah. Jesus is God. And you killed him.

"This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you."

Now, remember when Jesus claims this verse for himself. The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. Cause we're going to actually come back to that passage.

By the way that contextually, is the most misquoted verse in the Bible. I'll leave you hanging with that, we'll come back to it.

"And there is salvation in no one else, for there was no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."

That's actually really significant. Because there's this push to find, "Well, all the world religions they are similar. And let's find the places we can all stand." Well, we all have maybe some similar themes in execution. But the problem is, Jesus is the only name to get saved by. And that doesn't change. That's just true. And we don't get to be elitist about that. But it's just true.

"Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated common men..."

Here's what that means. This is the Aaron Couch paraphrase version. They looked at them and said, "Okay, Peter. We've heard three of your sermons. You're literally a moron. I can't believe you're being so bold with us."

They were astonished. And they recognized, that they had been with Jesus. And this is where a lot of people preach a great sermon because it's actually significant. God doesn't need you to be qualified. He needs you to be faithful. God doesn't need you to be qualified. He needs you to be faithful. For some of us, that ought to be like, "Okay, I can do it."

"But seeing the man who was healed standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition. But when they had commanded them to leave the council, they conferred with one another saying, 'What shall we do with these men. For a notable sign has been performed through them is evident to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem and we cannot deny it.'"

"But in order that it may spread no further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in his name."

Their answer is, "We can't deny that a miracle was done. We just want you to shut up about it." Here's the problem with being a long time in a religious circle. You can be right in the middle of a miracle, and completely miss it. You ought to be like, "Oh, have I missed any miracles?"

In the name of defending my religious position, have I missed a move of God? Because that's what's happening here. These aren't people who are jerks. These are people who are trying to uphold what God has done for 2000 years. They're trying to uphold the traditions that God gave them in Torah. 2000 years, they've been doing this. And now, something new comes along and they're like, "I don't know what to do with that."

Have you ever been in a position where God did something and you were like, "I didn't see that coming. That one doesn't jive with where I thought God was headed."

"So they called them and charged them not to speak or to teach at all in the name of Jesus.

But Peter and John answered them, "Whether it's right in the side of God to listen to you, rather than God, you misjudge. For we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.

I love this because they're like, "You can't tell me to shut up about my faith." There's this conversation in the Christian world today. Like, "My faith is a personal matter. It's a personal matter."

Listen, if I had a truckload of that, my garden would grow better. Your faith is not, it should be the most natural part of who we are. That should be, because, here's the thing. Even if I've never talked to you before, I can spend 15 minutes with you and know what you care about right now. Why? Because you talk about it.

I'm going to know if you like to hunt or golf or fish or shop or whatever. Whatever you're passionate about. We're going to talk about it. Why? Because I want to get to know you. And getting to know you, means that I get to know the things you care about. If you say you have faith, how in the world is that not part of the conversation? That's a secret. Satan hopes you keep it right there.

"And when they had further threatened them, they let them go. Finding no way to punish them because of the people for all were praising God for what had happened. For the man on whom this sign of healing was performed, was more than 40 years at old."

There's a point to that, but it's not a big point. I'm going to move on.

"When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, 'Sovereign Lord, who made heaven and the Earth and the sea and everything in them. Who through the mouth of our father, David, your servant said by the Holy Spirit, "Why do the Gentiles rage and the people's plot in vain; the Kings of the Earth set themselves and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his anointed in this city that were gathered together against your holy servant, Jesus. Whom you anointed both Herold and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel to do whatever your hand and your plan of predestined to take place. Now Lord look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness. While you stretch out your hand to heal and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant. Jesus."'"

"When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken."

I want to be a part of that prayer service. By the way, we have one coming up. Prayer Night. On February 6th. Let's see what we can do.

"And they were filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness."

Now, by the way, filled with the Holy Spirit's important. We're going to talk about that. But this is the only recorded prayer service that we have in the New Testament. We have, where they were told that they did pray together. But we don't know what they prayed together. This is the only one that we have where we're like, "We know what they prayed together."

And what's interesting is, at least at a very high level, it follows a pattern of the Lord's prayer. Which is, we had Daniel Henderson in this last week. Which by the way, let me say this to you. The book Transforming Prayer, by Daniel Henderson is in our bookstore. I would really recommend that you grab it and read it.

As we're going to talk more about prayer here in a little bit. But it's going to be, it's important. But one of the things that Daniel was saying was, Jesus has this pattern in the Lord's prayer. Which basically starts with he's worthy and then moves to where needy.

Usually when we pray, we either pray, We start with, "Thank you God. Thank you God. Thank you God." Which isn't bad. That's not bad. But it's not. You're worthy. This is your character, God. Or, we skip that all entirely and we just jump into our shopping list.

Here's what I would offer. Maybe we ought to try beginning by acknowledging who God is, in our time with him. Before we try to ask what he can do. Another thing that Daniel Henderson says, you are going to hear me saying that a lot. And I'll tell you why later.

But another thing that he says is, "We're so worried about trying to find God's hands that we miss his face. And if we seek his face, then we'll have his hands too." That's the thing. The prayer in Acts 4, actually follows this very similar pattern. At least at this high level, he's worthy, we're needy. They don't begin with, "Here's what we need, Lord." They begin with, "Sovereign, God."

They begin with, "He's worthy." I'll say this, when we're tempted, we're supposed to pray. And here's the thing. In my life, when I'm tempted to do something and I pray, "Lord, take away the temptation." The temptation doesn't really go away.

But when I'm tempted to do something and I pray, "God, you are worthy. God, you are good. God, you work all things in my benefit. God, you are trustworthy. You're worthy to be worshiped. God, you are sovereign. God, you are faithful."

All of a sudden, I'm not thinking about the temptation anymore. It's weird. Try it. It works for me. Couple of lessons that I want to pull out of this Passage. Here's number one. What gets in the way, when God wants to do something new? What gets in the way, when God wants to do something new? And it's probably, we could point to a lot of different things specifically. But at a high level, what's going on.

Here's the thing. I'm just curious, why we hold so hard in the church. To try to get people back to, "When I was a kid, the church was good." And that's a genuine, like I found Jesus in a church that looked like this. Therefore, everybody should be able to find Jesus in a church that look like this. And it's hard for us to consider the fact that we might need to let go of some of those things.

I don't know if you know this. If you have kids, they're different. They're different. And even in my kids, the span of my kids is, 25 years old to 16 years old. Yeah, that's right. 25 years old to 16 years old. Even in that range they're different. And as culture accelerates, the different. And I just wonder, they just literally see the world differently.

And that doesn't mean that we abandon those concrete based truths. But we do need to consider how we convey them in a way is relevant to the people we're speaking to. We keep trying to get people back. "We got to get back. Give me that old time religion." I don't need old time religion. I need the presence of God today.

And so, what does that look like for us? And I'm not saying we throw the baby out with bath water. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying we need to at least think about, "What are we holding onto too tightly that God's trying to get us to let go of?" What gets in the way, when God wants to do something new.

Now I want to read a passage out of Mark 15. And this is going to feel like it's disconnected, but it isn't. This is part of the trial of Jesus. And this is the section of the story where Pilate is trying to actually get Jesus released to the crowd. So he brings Barabbas out. Okay. I want to read this section story. Here we go.

"Not the feast. He used to release for them one prisoner for whom they asked. And among the rebels in prison who had committed murder in insurrection, there was a man called Barabbas."

Now, let's just set the stage here. We know he is a murderer. And he's part of, he's a Zealot. Barabbas is a Zealot name. He's a Zealot so he is part of the rebellion. And he's killed people. So he was arrested for it. By the way, Barabbas means son of the father. And there's a really cool play there. That the Son of the Father stepped in and took the place of the Son of the Father.

That's fun. But why would they pick him?

"The crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do as he usually did for them. And he answered them saying, 'Do you want me to release for you, The King of the Jews?' For he perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priest had delivered him up. But the chief priest stirred up to the crowd to have him release for them. Barabbas instead. And Pilate said to them, 'Then what shall I do with the man? You call King of the Jews?' And they cried out again, 'Crucify him!' And Pilate said to them, 'Why? What evil has he done?' But they shouted all the more, 'Crucify him!' So Pilate wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas and having been scourge Jesus, they delivered him to be crucified."

Now here's a question. Why? Why Did they release Barabbas? Because here's the thing. If Barabbas is a Zealot, and we know that he's already been in riots, they're going to release him. What's he going to do? He's going to go right back to what he was doing before. He's not magically reformed because its religious Zealotry. He's doing it in the name of his God.

So he's going to continue to cause problems. And what happens is, when you cause those kinds of problems in Rome, they don't just punish you. They punish you and your family and your whole village. And so everyone that's around him is choosing, they're choosing to bring pain into their life. Why would they do that?

Jesus, claimed that he was a king. And He claimed that His kingdom was going to do some things. My question is, What it going to do?"

Matthew 11, John the Baptist sends some of his disciples to Jesus.

And it says, "Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of Christ, he sent word to by his disciples and said to him, 'Are you the one who's to come or shall we look for another?'.

By the way, this is not John the Baptist doubting Jesus' Messiahship. That's another sermon for another day. But that's not what's going on here. This is soap opera worthy. What's going on here.

"Jesus answered them, 'Go and tell John what you hear and see. The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, and lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up and the poor have good news preached to them. Blessed is the one who's not offended by me.'"

Which by the way, we look at that and go "These are the things that the Messiah's supposed to do. His kingdom is supposed to bring these things." Here's what's interesting. In that verse that he's quoting, which is Isaiah 61. He leaves out a really important phrase. Did you catch it?

Because when a rabbi leaves a phrase out, that's the one he wants you to pay attention to. Here. Let's read it out of Isaiah 61.

Here's what it says, "The spirit of the Lord God is a upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim Liberty or freedom to the captives, and the opening of the prison those who are bound, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God..."

By the way, did you catch the one he left out. To proclaim freedom for the captives. Why does Jesus want John to pay attention to that one? Where's John?

He is in jail.

He's in jail. Quick bonus material. Bonus singlet if you will. John's not doubting Jesus. He sends his disciples to say, "Hey, get on with it. Are you the Messiah or should we be waiting for somebody else? What the heck are you doing? Get on with your business."

Jesus says, "Hey, go tell him he is not getting out of prison" But they did it rabbinically. Let's keep reading in Isaiah 61 because this is important.

"To proclaim that your Lord's favor the day of the vengeance of our Lord, and to comfort all who mourn to grant to those who mourn in Zion to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit."

By the way, if you find yourself with a faint spirit, put on the garment of praise. Worship your way through it. When we're struggling in our lives, here's the thing. When I read this verse for the first time, I was angry. You know why? Because nobody ever told me that.

Here's what I was told growing up in church. When you're having a bad day, suck it up, buttercup. You grit your teeth and step into it. Here's the deal. That sounds real tough. But here's the problem. Satan will break you. I don't care how tough you are. Satan will break you.

How do you get through those times? You put on the garment of praise. Worship your way through it. And I know for a lot of us, by the way, what is one of the reasons why we should come to church? One of the reasons why we should come to church, especially when we don't feel it. "I don't feel like worshiping."

I got to hear you say those words. I got to hear you worship. I got to hear, I got to see you shout it. So when we come in here and we're like (singing). You don't want revival.

You don't want revival. Because if you want revival, we got to get desperate. This is the difference between what's happening in the first part of chapter four and the back half of chapter four. In the first half of chapter four, you have this group of religious leaders who are trying to protect the truth. They're trying to protect the truth as they see it.

Now we would look at it from, but again, we're looking at it 2000 years removed with a bunch of context and that's not really fair. Because we're not in the heat of the moment. They're like, "This is...No. This! This! We got to protect this!. Why? Because they don't want to go back into slavery. They're not being evil men. They don't want to let go of this. Because if they do, they're going to go back into slavery.

Now that's not right thinking. But that's how they thought. They're trying to protect the truth. They're trying to protect God. In the back half of chapter four. They're like, "We don't have anything, God. But we're desperate for Your presence."

My question is, which one did God choose? Where does God show up? See, here's my thing. We got to wrestle with, what is the purpose of the church?

Jesus is king. John 8 says this, "Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, 'If you abide my word and you're truly my disciples, you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.'"

So this is really important. Jesus's message, freedom to the captives. Truth sets you free. You don't get to follow Jesus and do whatever you want. You don't get to say you're a Christian and then live however you want to. You got to live according to the truth. Because the truth is the only thing that will set you free.

So when we're talking about this, we're not talking about abandoning truth. But the problem is most of us lead in our conversations with other people about truth as we understand it. And I think a better conversation will be around this. The King came to set us free. The King came to set us free.

"If the son sets you free, you're free indeed." He'll go on to say in John 8. And that raises this question. Why'd they go after Barabbas? Barabbas promises pain, Jesus promises freedom. Why do they choose Barabbas?

Here's why. This is true for us. Because sometimes the pain that we know is more comfortable than the freedom that we don't know. And we choose to stay stuck and protect what we know, rather than to open ourselves up to the potential that the spirit of God might want to do something new. I don't know what that is. I have some really good ideas. I think I know where he is going.

My experience is to not share that. So, that you don't know how wrong I can be. Based on what I'm seeing, I think I know where God's taking us. At least generally speaking. But we've got to wrestle with this. What is the purpose of the church? In the interest of time, I'm going to paraphrase 1 John 5: 1-12. Here's what it says.

We know that we love God or we love God's people, if we love God in obey His commands. We know that we love God, when we obey His commands and they're not burdensome. And we read that and go, "Some of his commands are really burdensome. They're hard." I don't think that, that's what he's talking about there. Because some of his commands are hard to follow. They are.

But what he's saying here is, we know that we love God, when obeying his commands isn't a burden to us. It's not a burden to do it. And we know that we love God's people when we do that. And then he says, he starts talking about these things that testify. The blood, the water and the spirit. These three are testimonies. They testify to the truth. Then he says, "The spirit is truth."

Now, blood, water and the spirit. Blood and water. We have this big debate going on about that. Is that natural birth or is that baptism? The answer to that is yes. And, it's the concrete things that we can do. I know if you're baptized or not, I see it. You can show me your certificate. Here's the thing. It's a lot harder to know if you have the in dwelling presence of the spirit. That's a lot harder to measure.

And so, what we do, is we try to measure people's Christianity by what we can see. Which number one isn't safe. And number two, we're missing the mark. We're missing the mark on all of that. What 1 John 5 says is, we got to obey God. But the spirit is going to be there, to help us to have life in the son. Who's Jesus.

Now, let me explain to you something. How do we know that we have the Holy Spirit? How do we know that? Well, I'm a fruit tree. Do I look like a fruit tree? Okay. Here's my branches. Here's my trunk. And then my roots. Okay. How do you know that I'm a fruit tree? Because fruit. Where's the fruit? It's out here on the branches. You can see that. What you can't see, is all the processes that go into producing that fruit.

Because that's going on in the trunk. Like the sap moving up and down the trunk, the root system. All the different things that go into creating this fruit, you can't see it. But you can see that there's fruit there. And you can know whether or not those processes are functioning correctly. You know how I know?

Good fruit. That's the way I know. I know that a fruit tree is healthy in its trunk because of what I see out here. Even though I never see what's going on in here. Are you with me on that? So when we talk about the fruit of the spirit, the evidence that the spirit is working here, is what we see out here. That's why Galatians 5: 22,23 is so important. "Love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control."

This is the proof that you have the Holy Spirit. Then he is going to go on to say, "The fruits of the flesh are envy and anger and lust and jealousy." All that. You can't reflect you, if that's your fruit. The problem is what's going on in here. And what happens in the church, is because we want to measure the concrete things that we can see. And we don't want to look for the Spirit's fruit.

What we wind up doing is creating a space where people can be mentally correct, but they're jerks. And what we want to do then is, protect the system that allows us to stay comfortable because we're not measuring our relationship by the presence of God in my life. We're measuring our relationship by ticking the boxes.

"I read my Bible, check. Now I'm going to go be angry to everybody today. But I read my Bible." "I went to church, check."

Now are those things important? Of course, they are. Those things are important. What you have to understand though, is that the church that God chose, the group of religious people that God chose to be a part of, just were desperate for his presence. And here's the thing. Let me just share vulnerably with you.

Maybe six or eight months ago, I was trying to figure this out. I don't remember exactly when. The Lord spoke to me real clear about some things. Because I was like, "Lord, the world's a mess. We're in trouble. I'm deeply concerned." What the Lord began to show me was, and let me say this. You'll hear me say the Lord told me less than five times in the next 30 years.

I'm not a God told me to tell you this trump card person. So when I say this, I want to say that I'm speaking from my heart. I believe that what God shared with me is that the church of even three years ago, as fast as culture is shifting, won't be here in three years.

And that doesn't mean that we crumple everything up and throw it away and nuke the building and start over from scratch. But what that means is, we've got to begin to wrestle with what are the real spiritual motivational drivers that are going to make the church something that invites God's presence. Because the world doesn't need a really cool church. The world needs the presence of God.

Now, I hope we are a really cool church. But we're only going to be as cool as we are reflective of the presence of God. See, here's the thing. If we stand around and we protect, God doesn't need to be protected. God is the protector. He needs to be reflected. That's tweetable. God doesn't need to be protected. He needs to be reflected.

We need to be mirrors of the heart of God, rather than shields standing around his presence ready to do war. God doesn't need that. He's plenty capable of taking care of himself. Better than I am. What he needs is people who are willing to be desperate for his presence. And so I was like, "Okay, God. So what's the answer to that? What's the answer?

He said, "Well, the answer is in the Book of Acts. And then inviting my presence more." I was like, "Well that's vague. It's not helpful at all?" So, We're doing a series through the Book of Acts. Because somewhere in here, is the value system that we got to make decisions by going forward.

Daniel Henderson who we've talked about already. I hired him as my personal coach for 2022. We will become a church of prayer that is desperate for his presence. So that God shows up. Because the only way that we're going to be here in 10 years, is if he comes and changes things. There is no great church girl strategy that we're going to come up with that will change the world outside of the presence of God.

So we will be desperate for him. And that's why February 6th, we have a Prayer Night. And you should probably be there. We're going to pray. We're going to be intentional about seeking the presence of God. Because that's what we're left with. But here's the great news for the record. It's all we ever really had anyway. I have some implications for us. Number one is that sometimes it's hard to see God at work in our circumstances.

Remember that most misquoted verse in the Bible comment, Psalms 118: 21-24, here's what that says, "I thank you that you've answered me and have become my salvation. The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone." So this is the verse that Jesus claims is referencing him being killed and raising from the dead and becoming the cornerstone of the church.

"This is the Lord's doing and it's marvelous in our eyes. This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it."

Listen to me. We so misquote that verse. We're like, "Here, this the day the Lord's made. And because he made it and I'm in it, I might as well rejoice and be glad." Okay, you can apply it that way. But that's not what that versus talking about. What that verse talking about is this. The day Jesus died and all hell broke loose. And the tragedy and the trauma and the awfulness of all of that. This is the day the Lord's made. And we'll rejoice and be glad in it.

Why? Because you became my salvation. It's hard when things are hard. Sometimes when God's working, it's hard for us to see him at work. Leads me to my second implication. God is always working, but it's not always easy to follow him. It's not always easy to follow him.

In John 5, the Jews are trying to get at Jesus. And it says, "This is why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him. Because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father. Making himself equal to God."

So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly I say to you. The Son could do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. In greater works than these, he will show him so that you may marvel."

I want to be so tight to God that the only thing I ever do is what I see God already doing. In order to do that, we got to live our whole life with an open hand. So that God can take whatever he chooses to replace it with whatever he wants. We got to be willing to lay all that stuff down. And the longer we've held to it, the harder it is to let it go. But there's nothing in the pain that we know that's worth the freedom that's promised us. If we'll go there.

The third implication, and this is the last one. The purpose of the church is to invite people into a life full of the spirit of God. And that should look like love and joy and peace and patience and kindness. Because that's the fruit of a spirit filled life. People use that spirit filled term and they're either like, "The Holy Spirit only works through the word." Or they're so mystical and air fairy-unicorny. They're like, "Spirit of God."

You're like, "Hey, stop smoking. You've had too many." The spirit filled life is full of love and joy and peace. That's the fruit of the spirit filled life. So I would ask you, would the average person on the average street, in the average town in America define the church that way? Or would they define it by other things?

See, I think for some, we've become so worried about being right, that we forgot how to be Godly. I would just invite us that maybe the problem in our culture isn't culture. Maybe the problem is that it's time for the church to stand up and be counted for. But we've got to do it God's way. We've got to do it God's way.

So we're going to move into our Communion Time. Which we do every week. And we take it all together. So if you're new, you want to hold those elements for just a second. But you can start working on those cellophane rappers, because they're hard to get off. Here's the thing that I'd like for us to rest with for just a second between you and the Lord. What am I holding onto too tightly?

What am I holding onto too tightly that I can't let go of so that God's presence can be more. And here's the deal, nothing. I don't believe that's true. Because I think if we're honest. If we explore deep enough. If we're honest enough with ourself, everybody's holding something too tightly. I'm deeply convicted in my own life of things that I'm holding too tightly. Things that I want.

I want this to go my way. What is that for you? And how can we respond appropriately in light of what Communion reminds us of? Let's talk to the Lord about that. (Silence)

On the night Jesus was betrayed, he took bread and he broke it and he said, "This is my body which is given for you. So whenever you eat this bread, do it in remembrance of me." Let's remember him.

And then, after the dinner he took a cup and he said, "This cup, this is blood of the covenant which is shed for you. So whenever you drink this cup, do it in remembrance of me."

Let's pray. Lord, thank you for the invitation to your presence. And Lord, thank you that the next steps of where the church to go and what we should do are already solved. We just need to stay in your hip pocket.

Lord, may we walk so closely behind you that when you kick up dust, we get dirty. God, thank you that you give us grace, as we navigate the things that we've held to too tightly. Lord through your spirit, give us wisdom to know how to let those things go in Jesus' name. Amen.