God���s Direction - Acts 13:1-12

Hi, family. So nice to see you all. I can see more of you now that the lights are coming on. I have a couple of things that are just on my heart to share as I was standing backstage. Number one is, I don't know if you saw that sweet little red head of gal that was up here singing. That's my daughter. And every time she worships, I just... I can't. I just weep. In fact, she's singing the closing song this morning and so Tom will be tying down the service because I just can't. Because every time she worships, I watch her and all I can think about is when she said to me, "Dad, I don't know if I believe in God anymore."

And I just say that, because as parents, you guys know that when you have kids, your heart starts walking around outside your body. So if you got kids that are struggling in their faith, please just be faithful. Hang in there, because it's worth it. It's worth it.

Here's the other thing that I want to say. One of the things that I think I'm supposed to do in my Christian life, not as a pastor, but just as a Jesus follower, when I see God at work, I want to call it out. So I got to come over here and talk to my junior high, high school peeps. So you guys have only been in here a few weeks, right? I was standing right over there watching you.

1 Timothy, Paul writes to Timothy who's probably in his mid teenage years and he says, "Don't let anyone look down on you because you're young." Right? Why is this making me emotional? I can talk about my daughter, not this? He says, "But set an example for the believers in faith, life, love, hope and purity." I love watching you worship. And I'm so glad you're in here to teach us to worship.

I don't even want to preach anymore. Okay. So we're going to be in the first half of chapter 13 today. And I want to give you a picture of where we're going. So I want to throw this map up here. And this is Paul's first missionary journey. It's going to start in Antioch over here on the right. He's going to go down to Seleucia, which is a port city. It's the number two port city in the Roman empire at the time. And he's going to sail to Salamis on Cyprus. And then he is going to go to Paphos. And then they're going to make a B line for Pisidian Antioch.

They'll stop. Attalia is the port, then they'll jump over to Perga and catch the road north to Pisidian Antioch. We got to rescue wrestle with why? Why are they going to do that? Then they do Iconium, Lystra Derbe. And then they're going to turn around and come back and go Derbe, Lystra, Iconium, Pisidian Antioch down to Attalia and then they're going to sail back to Seleucia and then to Antioch. And that's the first missionary journey.

Now, here's what's weird, and I can't stress this enough. Paul wants to go to Rome. That's where Paul wants to go. Because remember when Paul is on the road in Acts 9 and he's (singing) right? Remember that? That's where that song came from. You guys didn't know?

You know what I think about that song is so funny is that the next lyric is revved up like a deuce, right? And there are so many variations on what people think that actually says. It's hilarious. When you listen to people say (singing). They don't ever want to say what they're thinking because they're not quite sure it's appropriate.

So Paul is blinded by the light and God Jesus comes and gives him this new calling. His name is repeated, "Saul, Saul." Anytime that happens, you have this new sense of identity emerging. And so Jesus gives him a new call and he says, "You are going to be my apostle to the Gentiles and to their kings, and to the Jews as well. As far as the Gentiles are concerned, Paul, you are the man. I don't know if you know this, but that's a big deal. And he feels it as a big deal.

So Paul all from the very beginning of his ministry, he wants to go to Rome because if he can get to Rome, then he can talk to the emperor. And if he can talk to the emperor and convert the emperor, then the whole empire changes.

Well, that makes real quick work of his ministry and then he can go back to working with tents and textiles and get on with his life, right? So Paul wants to go to Rome. Now, here's the thing. If you go back to this map, if you go up to Antioch and take a left, you can head over to Ephesus. And then when you head to Ephesus, you can catch a boat and head right on over to Rome. And boom, pow, everything is done. And God keeps making him go right.

He wants to go left and God keeps making him go right, which raises a question why? And we're going to talk about that in a couple of weeks. By the way, if you come with me to Turkey, this is our first three days right here. We work with Paul's first missionary journey for the first three days of the tour. He's like, "Why would you go to Turkey?" There's a bit of biblical history there.

So anyway, that's where we go. And I love this because I'm particularly passionate about his first missionary journey. We're going to work on the first 12 verses of chapter 13 today. So we're going to read through it. Then we're going to ask some questions. This might feel a little bit like a college class today, a little more academic than normal. And you guys are, "Oh gosh, that's bad." This one will feel a little more academic, but I hope that the lessons that we out of it are going to be good, and we're setting a stage where there's a lot of background work to be done here that we're going to build on in the next several weeks. And so we just have to do it. Okay?

So you guys ready to go to work? You hate it like, "That was the introduction? I thought we were about ready to tie this down?" Here we go. Now, there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon, who was called Niger, which means most likely that he was a person of color. Lucius of Cyrene. Manahen, a lifelong friend of Herod, the tetrarch and Saul. And while they were worshiping the Lord in fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me, Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them."

What's the work that God had called them to? "You're going to be my apostle to the Gentiles and to their kings, and to the Jews as well." Paul is like, "Finally, it's time to go to Rome." Then after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off. So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia. Why they go to Seleucia? Who sent them there? The Holy Spirit did. By the way, they don't have an itinerary. God is like, "Send them out." They're like, "Where are we going? I don't know." "I'll tell you. I'll tell you, just go." They go, "Okay."

So they pray, and then God shows them where to go, and they go there. Okay? So we're going to have to wrestle with like, "Why are they landing in these places that they're landing?" Because there's reasons for it. So they're sent out by the Holy Spirit. They went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews and they had John to assist him.

Now, this is John Mark. And so what in the world is he doing there? Why do I need to know that he's there? What's going on with that? And remember John Mark, last week we talked about this, John Mark's family lived in Jerusalem. Okay? And they had the house where the upper room was where they had the last supper most likely. And it was where all the people were praying when Peter escaped prison. So that's John Mark's house.

When they had gone through the whole island as us Paphos, they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus. He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus a man of intelligence who summon Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. Now, here's the thing you have to pay attention to. Remember when we've talked about this and we'll keep to about it how a person is introduced is important. How we first see them is important.

So Bar-Jesus, false prophet. Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, which raises a question, what's a man of intelligence doing with a false prophet? I'll let you wrestle with that one. But Elymas the magician, this is another name for Bar-Jesus for that was the meaning of his name opposed them seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. Why? Why does he care if Sergius Paulus is a Christian or not? Here's why. Because if Sergius Paulus becomes a Jesus follower, then he has to get rid of his magician.

Are you with me? This puts him out of work And they don't have unemployment in the Roman empire. They have a go find another job. But Saul, who was also called Paul, and now this is the transition point for Saul becoming Paul. We're going to have to wrestle with why. Filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, "You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, hi, my name is Paul."

Like, "Let me introduce myself, you son of the devil, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? And now behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time." Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him. And he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand. And then the proconsul believed when he saw what had occurred for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord.

Okay. So now let's wrestle with some questions. Number one, why'd they go to Cyprus? Why'd they go to Seleucia? Who sent them to Seleucia? Holy Spirit did. Right? Okay, good. So why'd they go to Cyprus? Probably for the same reason, but there's interesting depth to this one that's kind of fun. In Acts 4:36 and 37 were introduced to Barnabas. Remember this? Thus Joseph, who was called by the Apostle Barnabas, which means son of encouragement, a Levite, a native of Cyprus.

So why would they go to Cyprus? Because that's where Joseph's from. That's where Barnabas is from. They're going to go see his family. And I'm sure that for Barnabas who most likely doesn't live in Jerusalem, he came to Jerusalem for the passover and the Pentecost. He saw everything that happened. He becomes a Jesus follower and he's like, "Oh my goodness, my family and friends have to know about this. I have to go back.

Paul, when we leave, when it's time for us to go back, the first place we got to go is to tell my family about Jesus. That makes sense. Right? Of course, I'm not saying that is, "Thus say it the Lord," but it's a really good reason why they would go there. But then now let's rest wrestle with this other question. Why is John Mark with them? Why is he with... Here's an interesting thing. Colossians 4:10. Paul says this, "Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner greets you and Mark the cousin of Barnabas, concerning whom you have received instructions, if he comes to you, welcome him." So why is John Mark with him? Because he's cousin to Barnabas. He lives in Jerusalem, but John Mark is going to see his family. It's kind of cool.

Now, what's interesting is John Mark is going to leave them after they leave Cyprus almost immediately. The next real place that they stop is Perga, and John Mark goes home and Paul is really upset about it. But what's interesting about that is that he takes the time to make sure that people don't treat him bad just because Paul is feeling abandoned.

Okay. Next question. So why do they go to Cyprus? Holy spirit and Barnabas is from there. Okay? Next question is they run into this guy named Sergius Paulus. So who is Sergius Paulus? Well, I want to show you a picture. Now, he is a Roman proconsul. Think secretary of state. This is not a low level government official. This is somebody who's very high up. He's really important in Roman society.

Now, in their society because it's a cast system, you don't just show up in that position. You have to have certain kinds of money and certain kinds of relationships and you have to be able to bribe. It's just part of the game there. And so for him to be at that level means that his family is of some importance. In fact, this stone right here is what's known as the Paulus inscription stone. It's part of a larger inscription that said that this building was donated by a man named Sergius Paulus.

And so Sergius Paulus, we know where he's from and we know where his family is from. And if you come with me to Turkey, we'll talk more about it. But we know about all that stuff. He's from a place called Pisidian Antioch. Now, wait, did they start in Antioch and then they're going to go to Antioch? Right. There were 11 Antiochs in the... Because there was an emperor named, Antiochus who thought much of himself.

So Sergius Paulus is from Pisidian Antioch and his family's there. That's where this inscription stone is found, which then raises a couple of questions. Number one, why is Paul all of a sudden Paul? He was Saul and then he meets Sergius Paulus and then he becomes Paul for the rest of his time. And the first thing he does is go to the home of the Paulus family.

Why does that matter? By the way, Paul in the Greek is Paulus. But no. Most likely, he always had both names. He had his Hebrew name and his Roman name. Most likely. But why all of a sudden did he change to his Roman name. And then go to the home of a really important Roman official who's really important family lives in this really important city.

Why would he do that? We like to call that leverage. Paul is no dummy, that's why he did. It becomes all things to all men, so that by all means he might win some. He's like if I can leverage this to get myself ahead in a place, of course I'm going to do that.

Second question it raises is why do they go to Pisidian Antioch? So let me show you some more pictures. This stone is there. This is the north-south Cardo, the main north-south road. Every road that's north and south is built off of this. And what they did is they had north and south roads and they had east and west roads. And they built them in a grid called a Hippodamian model. And we're so innovative in our modern building techniques. Rome gave us this, right? Rome gave us this.

This is a Southern look at the Cardo. Next picture. This is the same road looking north. So this is where you come into it and you'll go straight down that road and take a slight left and then go to what's called Capitoline Hill where the Jupiter temple is on it. Now let me show you some things here. Next picture. These symbols are Roman symbols. Here's why that matters. They're not Greek.

Most of Rome was Greek re-imagined. And that's why it becomes known as the Greco-Roman period because Rome wasn't really that innovative. They took mostly what Greece did and then expanded on it. Okay? So it becomes Greco-Roman. This is not Greek. It is Roman. These symbols, the symbol of the God with the fishtail. That's not Medusa. That is a Roman God. Next one.

This is the mark of one of the legions that's stationed in Pisidian Antioch. It's one of only a handful, and I'll give you the number specifically in a minute, but it's one of only a handful of legions that was purely Roman that was stationed here. Most of the legions were a combination of Roman soldiers and mercenaries mixed in from other places in the world. Only about 15 to 18 of the legions were actually truly Roman. Two of those legions were stationed in Pisidian Antioch, all Roman.

Next one. The bull with the garland. This is purely Roman. What I need you to understand about Pisidian Antioch is that it is little Rome. So Paul, Saul meets this guy, Sergius Paulus from a place called Pisidian Antioch means little Rome. It's like Reno to Vegas. Reno is trying to be Vegas. It just isn't it. But Pisidian Antioch is little Rome. Rome is built around seven hills that are divided into seven districts. Pisidian Antioch is built around seven hills that is divided into seven districts.

The Jupiter temple is on Capitoline Hill, which means head hill. Let's go to the next photo. This is the Jupiter temple on the highest hill in the area. This is the temple to the God Jupiter, which is the Roman equivalent of Zeus, the Greek God, Zeus. So he is the chief of the Gods. And this temple is to Jupiter. Let's look at the next photo. Just to give you some perspective, look at the people on top of the cliff there.

This area is really big and all of those, you can see those divots in the wall, all of those things would've been lined with marble. It would've been gleaming in the sun. When you come up, there's a big staircase that it's off to the left of this photo. When you come up the stairs and you hit this platform, you are blown away. It shines, it glimmers when it has that.

Next photo, and you can see here that they extended this around. And even when the rock didn't provide for it, they built a wall to make sure that they could put up enough marble to make this thing just absolutely magnificent that regardless of where the sun was hitting it would just really pop. Why? Because this is Jupiter's temple. "We want to make a statement about who our God is."

By the way, same thing in Rome. It's the same thing in Rome. All the inscription in Pisidian Antioch are Latin. Even though the whole world spoke Greek, there are no Greek descriptions in Pisidian Antioch. None. They're all in the language of Rome. Why? Because there's no Greek here. This, this is Rome. This is Rome transported to middle of Galatia. 334 legions in the Roman army, only 15 to eight of them Roman. Two of them here. We already said that. Both of them were Roman.

Now, here's the interesting thing. There's only about six to 8,000 people who live in Pisidian Antioch. So it's not a big place, but Emperor Tiberius came from here. Emperor Nero came from here and three of Augustus's generals, Cassius, Brutus and Mark Anthony all come from Pisidian Antioch, which is like... Well, that's interesting, but it would be the equivalent of having three presidents of the United States from this little tiny town of a thousand people in the middle of Nebraska.

That's odd. What do they have in the water there? What are they feeding these people? It's odd. And you can imagine how much imperial aid is flowing from Rome back into this place. Super rich, super rich.

This is Pisidian Antioch, and Paul goes there first. He does his first real work there. Why? I can't stress this strongly enough, Because Paul wants to go to Rome. And what better place to train? What better place to prepare himself than little Rome. It's set up the same. The people are the same. The descriptions are the same. The buildings are the same. This is little Rome. What better place to go prepare to go to Rome. And when Paul wants to go left, God keeps making him go right.

Now, here's our lesson. There is a massive gap in Paul's life. Acts 9, where Paul has this Damascus road experience, happens in 33 AD. He comes here in either 47 or 48 AD. That's a 14 or 15 year gap between his calling and the beginning of its fulfillment. What in the world was he doing? More importantly, what's God doing? What's taking so long? And to make matters worse, this isn't where Paul wants to be. He wants to go to Rome, but he keeps getting sent the other direction and he spends all this 15 years, now he spends three years in Arabia being prepared.

Okay. But then he goes back to Tarsus and then Barnabas goes and brings him back to Antioch, to Seleucia and Antioch, Which you're like, "So why was there a church in Antioch?" There was a church in Antioch because of the persecution that broke out in Jerusalem. Who did that? Saul did. Those people are there because Saul killed their family members. And Barnabas goes and gets him and says, "Hey, you're going to be a spiritual leader to these people."

For sure, no. Right? Like, no, that's a terrible idea. On both sides, that's a terrible idea. Paul has to face down and be humiliated by the mistakes that he made. And he does not going to want to do that. But those people actually have to forgive him in order to listen to what he says. They actually have to forgive him.

It's one thing to talk about forgiveness, but those people had to live it and that's not little forgive, that's big. That's capital F, forgive. It's almost like When Jesus talks about the kingdom, these two pillars of the kingdom of generosity and forgiveness that he actually means it, that you actually have to actually forgive actual people of actual hurts that actually happen to you. And not just once, but again and again and again. And I don't like that. I don't want to do that. I love the idea of forgiveness for you.

Feeling me? I want the right to be bitter, because I was hurt and how dare you? The dynamics of what's going on in Antioch that there's even a church there when Paul shows up and yet they bring him into the center and he's there for years. Now, great. Right? Great. But that's not Paul's call. Paul's call is apostle to the Gentiles and their Kings. Where's the Kings? That's his call.

Furthermore, he keeps wanting to go left and God keeps sending him right. Which raises a couple of questions for me, and I think these questions are important for us to consider. Number one, will you be faithful in the gap between your calling and its fulfillment? Most of us drop out. And unfortunately, even in the Book of Acts, it's just a couple of chapters later. That's 15 years.

I don't know about you guys. In my life, I've never lived in one town 15 years. That feels like a really long time to me. My dad was a pastor in an era when pastors moved around a lot. My brother went to four different high schools. We're all in therapy. Don't worry about it. I'm getting healed. 15 years? That's a long time. That's a long gap. Most of us never make it through the gap. We drop out. But there's always a gap between your calling and the fulfillment of your call.

Joseph had one. Joseph was 17 years old when he had a dream that his brothers and his parents were going to bow down to him. He was somewhere between 40 and 42 when that was fulfilled. And he had to go through a lot of junk to get to that point. We're talking years in prison, which isn't like prison in America, it's a dungeon. Abraham got a promise to have a son and went decades without the fulfillment.

So much so that he tried to take matters into his own hands, which became a real problem and is still a problem for you and I today. Every president in the United States is like we're going to bring peace to the Middle East. No, you're not. God said you won't. Paul's no exception. There's a gap between the calling and its fulfillment. By the way, you're not an exception either. There will always be a gap between when God calls you to something and when he fulfills it in you.

Will you be faithful in the gap, or will you bail out? Here's the problem with the Bible, like he says. The Bible is like a God highlight reel. It moves from fulfillment to fulfillment, but we miss the gap. But it's there. We missed the gap. They stayed faithful in the gap. And because of that, they were able to accomplish great things when the fulfillment came.

Number two question that I have. Because there's a gap between your calling and its fulfillment, will you force your way into the fulfillment of your calling unprepared? You cannot run from your calling, but you can't run into your calling unprepared. The problem with that is it's a big assignment and you don't have the character yet. And you got to develop the character. And we see this in the church all the time. We see big assignments and people that are in those big assignments that have small character.

We've seen enough damage to the church. We got to have that gap. It's critical because so many times God takes us to mountain and gives us a call, and then he takes us to the valley to prepare us for it. And sometimes we're in the valley for years. Years. You can't run from your calling, but you also can't run into your calling unprepared. So you got to be willing to stay in it. You got to be willing to stay in it.

I have some implications for us this morning. Implication number one. God's direction is more important than my desire in fulfilling my God-given purpose. Here's the thing. We all want to have an opinion about what God meant when he said to do something. When God says to do something, it's not yours to have an opinion about. So I know that feels very, very un-American. We love our rights. We love our opinions and our ideas. We love that stuff. And that's great. But when it comes to God, his direction is way more important than my desire and fulfilling my God-given purpose. The only thing that I stand to do by trying to press my own agenda with God is get myself into trouble.

Implication number two, before we were born, God created us to accomplish great things. Now here's the deal. I had this conversation between services and it's actually a really good conversation. We have this assumption that every one of us has created for some great assignment and by great, we mean lots of influence and lots of money and lots of prosperity and lots of success, and lots of, lots of.

You're created to accomplish great things through God. It may or may not lead to any of those other things. So what do we do with that? Well, calling comes in a couple of forms. There's a general calling like, "I'm going to be faithful." Wherever I am, whatever I'm doing, I'm called to be just faithful. Right? And then there's a specific calling. And within that general sense of faithfulness God is asking me to accomplish this thing, whatever this thing is. Not by myself. He's asking me partner with him in doing it. He's already doing it. He's asking me to partner with him in doing it.

I would just say maybe in your life group this week, it'd be a great conversation to say, what are the things that God's asking you to accomplish? Where's God called you? And where do you find yourself in the process, right? Where do you find yourself in the process? Because number three implication is wherever we find ourselves, the call, the fulfillment or the gap. There's three parts to a call, right? There's the call. What is God asking me to do? And then there's the gap between the call and the fulfillment.

And then there's the fulfillment of the call. Okay? In this room, we'll have people in all three places. We have enough people in this room. We'll have people in all three places, but the majority of us will be in the gap. The majority of us will sit in or right now where we're at, we're sitting in the gap and we're trying to figure out what to do with that. Our faithfulness to God in the process is critical to our fulfillment. Because if we're not then we're not developing our character.

I'll tell you. So I went to Bible college. You know what I find frustrating and thankful? I'm thankful about, nobody one time has ever asked me my GPA. 1.75. Because D is for diploma. That's a true story. That's a true story. Then I wanted to go to graduate school and they were like, "We don't think you're smart enough." And then I got mad. I may not be smart enough, but I sure am mad. So I got my graduate degree. But nobody's ever once asked me that question.

Bible college was great. It wasn't wrong, it wasn't bad. But nobody's ever asked to read any of my papers. Nobody's ever been like, "Hey, what textbook did you read? You were in this class. What was your textbook like? I'm dying to..." Nobody has ever done that. So I wrestle with like, "What's the purpose of Bible college? What's the purpose of it?"

Because learning, especially with the internet, like you can learn from the best teachers in the world on any topic, anytime you want and probably for free. So why go to college? Here's why, for me. Because it helped me develop the grit to finish something I didn't want to do. And life will give that to you. It'll give you those opportunities to develop a grit, to finish something that you don't want to do. That's the gap. That's what the gap is for. It develops grit, develops fortitude. It develops determination. It develops discipline and focus. That's what the gap is for. It gives me the character to not cave at the first opportunity.

Number four, trying to force God's hand will always lead to problems. I know. We're like, "But God, my timeline actually is really a good one." I'll tell you, just in coming here... I'll just share vulnerably for a minute, and this is bonus material. First service didn't get this. I knew the day that we moved to the place where we were at previously that that would not be the last church that I was a pastor at.

Now, I didn't know how long that was going to go, but I knew that wasn't going to be the last place that I was a pastor at. My parents, my dad and my mom, my dad came on staff and helped plant the church with me. So I was my dad's boss. You ever want to present a weird dynamic. I just assumed that I would be there until mom and dad went home to be with the Lord, and then we would look elsewhere.

The Lord had other plans. But by the way, bonus material. Bonus, bonus material. July 3rd, my dad is going to come and we're going to do the blessing sermon again. So I'm super stoked about. If you haven't seen that, it's so good. So good. So don't go camping on 4th of July weekend. Come to church. It's going to be really good.

I believed that it was time for us to leave there, four years before God actually have released us. I believed that I was done with my ministry. And hanging in a ministry where you feel like there's no... I have no life in it anymore. I have no joy in it anymore. Not that there wasn't good things going on, but there was, but I just didn't have any life. I felt like we had come in and we had accomplished everything that God had asked us to do and we were managing. And I'm not a manager.

I will blow things up just so we can reconstruct it. I'm just not a manager. I'm not good at it. So it was like, "Lord, I'm done. I'm ready to go." And I just feel this increasing sense of release, release, release. But here's the thing. If God had let us go at that time, the position here wouldn't have been available. And I'd have missed out on so much good. God's faithfulness in saying, "Hey, I know you're done, but stay put. Hang in there. Develop yourself, keep growing, keep working," allowed me to really appreciate what God's doing here now. A.

Nd now Easter Sunday next week will be three years that we've been here. Three years. It feels like it's been 30, not because it's been bad, but there's been a couple twists and turns in the last three years. You feel me? It's been crazy to be a pastor in this... And it's getting more complex. I wanted so badly to leave, but if I'd left, I'd have missed out on all the good, the so much good that God has given us here in a place where I don't... You guys may not like this, but Kelly and I love it here.

If you're like, maybe he'll leave us one day. Nope. I'm going to die here. And that's something for me to say. It's just been a great ministry full of God's blessing and goodness and provision and just watching God move exceedingly and abundantly beyond what I ever had imagined. What I love about it is because I had to go through that four years of, "I don't want to be here, but I am going to be faithful," it helps me appreciate the sweetness of what God's doing here now even more.

Trying to force God's hand will always lead to problems. I can't imagine. By the way, even when we were going to leave, we weren't coming here. I had another church in mind. And they had me in mind. We had an agreement that I was going to... And then Doug Crozier side swiped the whole conversation. Now, we can say it was the Holy Spirit, but I think it was just Doug Crozier.

No. God used Doug to really just reroute my whole direction in life, and it was just awesome. And we've been so grateful to be here. We've been so grateful to be a part of all the things that God's doing here. It's so cool. I love it. I think that we get lost trying to force God's hand because his timing isn't ours. And the gap teaches us to have fortitude enough to wait on the Lord's provision, because when we do it's better than anything we could come up with on our own.

It's not just right. It is right, but it's not just right. It's better. It's better than what we can come up with on our own. So we're going to move towards communion. And I just want to ask you to think about that. Where in your life are you trying to force God's hand as you sit in the gap. Where is it that you're like, "God, I thought that you promised this. God, I thought that you were going to give me this. God, I thought that you said this is what we were going to do, or this is what you..." And I've been sitting here. I've been waiting. It's been 10 years, God. I'm waiting. I'm tired of waiting." Whatever it is, why don't you talk with the Lord about that as we prepare our hearts for communion this morning.

On the night Jesus was betrayed, he took bread and he broke it. 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 together. And then after the dinner, he took a cup and he said, "This cup, it's a blood of the covenant, which is shared for you. So whenever you drink this cup, doing it in remembrance of me."

Let's pray. God, thank you that you don't leave us in the gap, that it's not an idle time, it's not wasted time, but that it's time built on understanding what it means to really be a follower of you. Lord, may we be found faithful in the gap, so that we're prepared for the fulfillment. We love you, Lord. In Jesus' name. Amen.