Keep Your Eyes On Jesus

Lord, we are grateful for Your Word, and the ways that you speak to us. We're grateful for your presence and the ways that you don't just speak from the past, but are speaking in the presence Lord, we're grateful for a community, a family in which to hear Your word together and put it into action. And we pray, Lord, that all of this would happen today, that we would hear from you in the present together, and be changed. We love you. And we thank you. Amen. My friends, one last chapter of Acts. I know, I know, crazy, isn't it, there's mixed reviews in the room on that one, some people are sad, some people are excited. It's been a journey. Here's how this is gonna work. I'm going to talk about x 28. Today, we're going to read it together. Once we finish reading it, we will have read the entire book of acts out loud in this room, which is fantastic. We'll talk a little bit about it. And then we're going to spend the next two weeks beyond this. So the next two Sundays, talking about what it means like the so what so because the worst thing in the world would be to have this almost two year journey through the book of Acts and kind of close the book and say, that was great. The point of this is not to be a was sort of thing. The point of this is to be an is sort of thing we set out on this journey to become a certain type of church to act. There's there's something happening there's no there's God is speaking. Oh, it's speaking through Vicki. Okay, perfect, wonderful. Anyway, we set out on this journey to discover what a church actually is. And we've seen this beautiful and compelling church and we don't want to walk away from it and say it wasn't that fascinating. Isn't it so cool, what they did, we want to do what they did, and more. We want to see what God has for us in this community and beyond. So the next two weeks after this, we're going to recap the book of Acts not like recap, like, here's what happens, but walk through and say what did we learn? It's gonna be really, really important for anybody, whether you've been here for the entire journey, or you're just stepping in this week, you're not gonna want to miss the next couple of weeks as we finish up the book of Acts. Just asking kind of the sowhat questions right? For today. X 28. Here we go. I'm going to read it. This is the most important part of the message as I always say what is written here is more important than anything I have to say about it. So here we go. Once safely onshore, we found out to the island was called Malta. The islanders showed us unusual kindness they built a fire and welcome to Sol because it was raining and cold. Paul gathered a pile of brushwood and he, as he put it on the fire a viper driven out by the heat fastened itself on his hand. When the islanders saw the snake hanging from his hand, vivid they said to each other, this man must be a murderer. For though he escaped from the sea that goddess justice has not allowed him to live. But Paul shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill effects. The people expected him to swell up or suddenly fall dead. But after waiting a long time, and seeing nothing unusual happen, they changed their minds and said he was a god. There was an estate nearby that belonged to Publius, the chief official of the island. He welcomed us into his home and showed us generous hospitality for three days. His father was ill in bed suffering from fever and dysentery. Paul went in to see him and after prayer, placed his hands on him and healed him. When this had happened, the rest of those on the island who were ill came and were cured. They honored us in many ways, and we were ready to sail they furnished us with the supplies we needed. After three months we put out to sea in a ship that had wintered in the island. It was an Alexandrian ship with a twin figureheads with the figureheads of the twin Gods Castor and Pollux. We put in at Syracuse and stay there three days. From there we set sail and arrived or legume the next day the south wind came up and on the following day we reached patolli. There we found some brothers and sisters who invited us to spend a week with them. And so we came to Rome. And so we came to Rome, the brothers and sisters there heard that we were coming, and they traveled as far as the form of happiness and the Three Taverns to meet with us. At the sight of these people, Paul Thanks God and was encouraged. When they got to Rome, Paul was allowed to live by himself with a soldier to garden. Three days later, he called together the local Jewish leaders when they had assembled Paul said to them my brother's, although I've done nothing against our people are against the customs of our ancestors. I was arrested in Jerusalem and handed over to the Romans. They examined me and wanted to release me because I wasn't guilty of any crime deserving death. But the Jews objected. So I was compelled to make an appeal to Caesar. I certainly did not intend to bring any charge against my own people. For this reason, I've asked to see you and to talk with you. It's because of the hope of Israel that I am bound with this chain. They replied, we've not received any letters from Judea concerning you. And none of our people who've come here, or from there has reported or said anything bad about you, but we want to hear what your views are. For we know that people everywhere are talking against this sect. They arranged to meet with Paul on a certain day and came in even larger numbers to the place where he was staying. He witnessed to them from morning until the evening explaining about the Kingdom of God. And from the law of Moses and from the prophets, he tried to persuade them about Jesus. Some were convinced by what he said. But others would not believe. They disagreed among themselves and began to leave. After Paul made his final statement. The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to our ancestors. When he said through the Isaiah the prophet, go to this people and say you will be ever hearing but never understanding you will be ever seen but never perceiving For this people's heart has become calloused. And they hardly hear with their ears and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise, they might see with their eyes, and hear with their ears and understand what their hearts in turn, and I would heal them. Therefore, I want you to know that God's salvation has been sent to the Gentiles and they will listen. For two whole years, Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him, he proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness, and without hindrance. And thus ends the book of Acts. When I was when I was in school, I was talking to a religion professor, I was an English major, talking to a religion professor who was trying to persuade me to do a master's degree in Biblical Studies. And I said to him, you got the wrong guy, like I know the Bible. I've been around the church, but I'm an English major at the time, I thought that I had to be a Bible major to to get a master's degree in Biblical Studies. And his eyes lit up when he heard that I was an English major. He said, that means you know how to read. And I said, Yes, I do. And he goes, No, what I mean by that is like, you understand how literature works, right? And I said, Yeah, and he goes, perfect. What do you think the Bible is? And he said, it's important that we read the Bible as a story. And there are certain rules to stories that you English majors understand. Today, I want to talk to you about one of the most important parts of every story, which is the characters. So in this particular story, we run across four characters that we've seen throughout the book of Acts, they're more character types, than anything else that we've seen in almost every passage in the book of Acts. And I don't want to tell you about these characters, just so we can emulate them or or try to not be like them. But so we can see what they have to say to us about the Kingdom of God and what it means to be His people. So the four characters these, the main character, the supporting cast, the ends, the outsiders and the insiders, okay. Main Character supporting cast outsiders insiders, we're gonna start with the main character who in this story is played by a guy named the Apostle Paul. And we see him in some pretty remarkable settings. I mean, last week, you heard about the shipwreck that Paul sort of saw the entire crew through, you know, there was this, this storm came up, they weren't going to make it, they shouldn't have been out in the first place. He had warned them, he predicted the storm, he saved them from the storm, all this stuff happens, Paul shows this remarkable poise in the face of danger. And then he shows up on this island and a snake bites him on the hand, he shakes it in the fire. I mean, this crazy, remarkable guy. And we look at that, and many of us might say, I want to be like that, and that's okay. But that's not the point. What is it that we can learn about the Kingdom of God? From the way Paul lives his life? Okay, here we go, we're gonna have a bunch of points. So they're gonna come up on the screen one at a time. First thing here that we can learn from Paul, about the Kingdom of God is that in the kingdom of God, storms are roads. Storms are roads. What do I mean by this? I mean, in the previous chapter, Paul, and his companions were on a on a on a path somewhere important, right? They're on their way to Rome. And it's not the way Paul would have anticipated getting to Rome. He's under arrest after all, but this had been his ambition. Since he started ministry, Jesus told them, I want you to be my witnesses and preach the gospel in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. And at this point, Rome is the end of the earth. It is the center of the Roman Empire. It's the belly of the beast. It's like the darkest place on the planet. And Paul, this like driven pioneer missionary wants to get there more than anything else. And he's finally on his way, not the way he intended, not the way he wanted. But he's going and there has to be the sense of eagerness, the sense of excitement, the sense of like, here we go. I mean, there's a chance he'd appealed to Caesar, there's a chance that Paul gets to preach the gospel to Nero. I mean, this is in the back of his mind, you have to think he's like, on the edge of his seat, get me there, get me there, and then what happens? A shipwreck. And you got to be thinking like, seriously, Lord. I was on my way, somewhere really important. You couldn't have calm this storm to anybody been there before? Seriously. This is not the first time incidentally that that God has somebody in a leaky boat in the middle of the season. Remember, Jonah puts them out in the middle of the sea. Well, Jonah put himself in the middle of the sea, and God sent a storm to send them in a different direction. Remember, Mark chapter four, one of my favorite stories you've heard me talk about before where Jesus puts the disciples in a boat in the middle of a storm. And through the storm takes them somewhere they never enter. is a bit of going in here again, the same sort of thing, Paul is on his way somewhere. And because of a storm is forced to detour and what we find in every situation, when there's a storm in the life of someone in the Bible is the storm is not an obstacle, but a road to somewhere they wouldn't have gone otherwise. In other words, detours are purposeful. Okay, see, because here's here's our problem is we tend to think of, of storms as obstacles that get in the way of what God is doing. And I think the reason we tend to think of this is because we often confuse what we're doing for what God is doing. Anybody? Does that hurt anybody else? But me. I wrote that sentence. And then I like, like, like, winced a little bit. Just because I'm doing it doesn't mean God is but But oftentimes, when we're going about our lives, we hit the storm. And we think, Oh, no, there's something in the way of what I'm supposed to be doing. It needs to get moved, when in fact, that thing might be the way we get to what we're supposed to be doing. So it makes sense. Those for those who have eyes to see storms are not obstacles, their roads, their paths, and two things happen every time there's a storm. The first thing is we get a fresh revelation of who God is. Jonah saw God's compassion. The disciples saw the power of Jesus over the wind in the waves. And here, in this particular situation, the Roman soldiers saw the might of God to rescue them from the Mediterranean Sea. We get a fresh revelation of God and we get an opportunity to take that revelation to somebody who wouldn't have gotten it otherwise. And join his situation. He was going somewhere that he desperately wanted to be in God said, I've got a different plan for you. Go here and it led to revival in Assyria. You guys. If you read the Old Testament, you know what the odds of revival in Assyria were. It led to a revival in Assyria, the book of market led to, to witnessing to a demon possessed man who was literally cutting himself with stones and rocks and living in chains naked. And he's transformed by this process, and not just transformed personally. But then when he asked to go with Jesus, Jesus said, No, go back and tell everyone what God has done for you. And this demon possessed man and Mark chapter four becomes the first missionary to the Gentiles before the apostle Paul, because of a storm, and here, Paul preaches the gospel on the island of Malta, that they would have just passed by and waved. But instead, if you go to Malta today, everything is named after the apostle Paul, there's a church on every corner. Storms are not obstacles. They're roads, to what God is doing. So the moral of the story is this if you're going somewhere really important. And then suddenly you wake up and find yourself on an island and think, What on earth am I doing here? Open your eyes. Because God's at work. He's at work in the day to where he's at work on the island, and he has by virtue of putting you there, giving you an opportunity to join him in that work. And if you're so fixated on where you're going where you want to go, that important place you will miss what he's doing right here. The storm is not an obstacle for him. What's the point of mark for Jesus calming the storm? It's the he's the Lord of the storm. The storm bends to His will. If you wanted to call it he would. Why didn't he call him this one? Because he figured Paul could swim better than the disciples. For him, it's not an obstacle. It's an opportunity. I'm not saying he caused it. Understand. I'm not saying he caused the storm. But I'm saying he's in control. And he can take even the storm and bend to his will. Storms or detours and the kingdom of God second thing victory is certain in the kingdom of God victory is certain so they survived this storm in remarkable ways every single person on the boat makes it to shore amazing amazing they get there they're there they're exhausted probably from paddling all the way in in the Mediterranean in winter exhausted freezing when they're finally greeted by an abnormally like kind and welcoming islanders fantastic the people of Malta super hospitable apparently sounds like a wonderful place. They greet them things are starting to look up they make a nice fire they're gonna have a celebration when all the sudden a venomous snake comes out and bites Paul on the hand. Are you kidding me? And it's a funny story. I mean, Paul just shakes the thing off it's like he this guy is a bad guy right like he's, he's a real he's something else but anyway shakes it off in the fire the islands or the islanders are looking at and waiting for something to happen. They know this kind of snake they know what's about to happen. And when nothing happens, they decide this guy must be a God. And the whole thing is kind of comical until you think about what's actually happening. What's going on here. You remember, like the very beginning of this book that we're reading, not x, but the Bible, how it starts out, starts out with a snake right? Guys remember that? Who comes to be the embodiment of temptation and evil, the powers of darkness in this world. And he causes this disastrous effect, that all of us still suffer under, on a daily basis. But as he causes this disastrous effect, that as God is explaining to Adam and Eve what's just happened, he promises that one day though the snake will strike, he'll be crushed. Now what happens in this story? What happens in this story is a spirit filled follower of Jesus shows up on an island is bitten on the hand by a snake. And rather than die, he shakes it off into the fire. If that's not a prophetic picture, I don't know what is. Sin and death have been defeated. What's the point of this is that victory is certain and there is nothing, let me repeat, there is nothing on earth that will prevent everything that God wants to happen from happening. That's what's happening here. He shakes hell into the fire. He shakes death into the fire. The moral of the story is Paul is going to get to Rome. Paul is going to get to Rome, he's gonna preach the gospel in the belly of the beast, the world will be transformed and nothing will stop it. Jesus will do everything he wants to do come hell, or high water, literally. See that? Now, that doesn't mean that bad stuffs Not gonna happen. Right? Because sometimes there are storms. And sometimes he doesn't calm them. And sometimes the boat just sinks. And sometimes you're just going about your business. And sin and death, just come out and bite you right in the hand. But they've been defeated. The kingdom of God is breaking into the kingdoms of this world. His Church is being built. And hell itself will not stand against it. And you get to be a part of it. And this is what it means. When Paul writes in Romans, that all things work together for the good of those who love God, and are called according to His purpose, it means that there's nothing that can stop you. There's nothing that can stop him from doing everything he wants to do in you. So Romans eight says, doesn't it? What then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave him up for us? How will he not also along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It's God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns no one. Christ Jesus, who died more than that, who was raised to life is that the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ Shall trouble or hardship, or persecution, or famine or nakedness or danger or the sword as it's written, for your sake, we faced death all day long were considered as sheep to be slaughtered. But no in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor demons, neither the presence nor the future, nor any powers, neither height, nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. And the kingdom of God victory is certain. And we walk in it by His Spirit. What else we learned from Paul, is that in the kingdom of God ordinary is extraordinary, because here's the worst part of the story. You already have the shipwreck, got to swim in the ocean, gnarly thing, get to this island, have the snake bite you on the hand, all this awful stuff happens. But you know what the worst thing that happens to Paul is boredom. When he finally makes it to Roma get stuck in a house for two years. Just going about a routine. Got to feel like his dreams were a little bit deferred, you know, like it was a little bit of a letdown. And he gets there. He's finally there. And he's stuck in a house and it's almost like you can hear. I mean, if you're a guy like Paul, you just want to preach the gospel. It's all you care about. You can hear the people passing by. And here he is stuck chained to this guard in this house. dreams on hold and what famous theologian calls The Waiting Place okay know how far this is gonna reach without a mic rather than stay on the stage Okay, here we go. Um, yeah, that's about as far as we got. All right, I am. I'm tethered to this spot for the time being. This is gonna be hard. What's that? Yeah, you're kind of like Paul. There you go. Wow, what a prophetic image okay. Anyway, famous theologian you guys have all heard of he says something like this. He says, you're on this big journey and you can get so confused that you'll start to race down long wiggled roads at a breakneck pace and grind on for miles cross weirdest wild space headed I fear toward the most useless place. The Waiting Place. For people just waiting, waiting for a train to go or a bus to come or a plane to go where the mail to come or the rain to go or the phone to ring. Or the snow to snow or waiting around for a yes or no or waiting around for their hair to grow. Everyone's just waiting. Waiting for the fish to bite or waiting for the wind to fly a kite or waiting around for Friday night or waiting perhaps for their Uncle Jake or a pot to boil or a better break. Or a string of pearls or a pair of pants. I don't know what to do with that one. Or a week with curls or Another Chance Everyone is just waiting. Dr. Seuss, you're wondering. Yeah, Paul finds himself in this waiting place uncertain about the future dreams deferred dreams on hold. This is the worst, isn't it? Anybody would much rather have a shipwreck and snake bites and all this sort of stuff than just be stuck in routine. No, nobody wants to Vicki doesn't want the snake bites but everything else. All right. You can almost hear I'm thinking God, there's Kingdom more to do. Like there's important stuff I could be doing. And you got me stuck here. Here we go. Thank you. All right. If only I could get out the door. If only I could get out of these chains and do some real kingdom work. So a few years back, many of you have heard this story. Forgive me if I've told it before but few years back I was I was in ministry at a university I was doing kind of a missions pastor doing discipleship through short term missions of Vanguard just up the street and Vanguard students in the house. The lions in the house. There we go. All right. I like it. I like it. There we go. Pastor Mike is roaring in the corner. All right, fantastic. And after four years of this, I felt like it was time to go I looked around for another job in ministry. I couldn't find one. I ended up getting a job at a church but doing it work. Because many of you have heard this story. Urahara that's where I met Mike. We met through that. see good things happen. Yeah. But it was hard for me, I stepped out of a job that I consider to be deeply Kingdom focus, discipleship, preaching, all that sort of stuff into a job that I wasn't really sure. I mean, I was at this church and I got to hear every week I got to hear stories of how people got to be a part of awesome ministry, you know, how many baptisms the pastors did or how the service went, and all this sort of stuff? And I was like, Yeah, this week, like I like I backed up all your hard drives. And like you, like I crawled on your desk and plugged in your keyboard. It was sweet, you should have seen it. And I remember I really struggled with it. I remember driving home after my first day of work and telling God that he had ruined my ministry. Yeah, yeah, just direct, you know, you have screwed up my life, you really mess this thing up. And I remember getting home that night, going to bed pretty early, because that's what you do when you can't cope with your motions anybody else. And when you go to bed at six o'clock, you wake up at four in the morning. And so I did to this like voice in my head that said, clearly your significance comes from newness to me. And I asked God, what does that mean? And over the course of that year and a half that I was doing that job, I asked him over and over and over again to give me a word, and he kept saying the same thing over and over and over again. And what I came to understand he was saying was that the kingdom of God is wherever the king is, and anything done with the king is Kingdom work. So you can crawl under that desk and plug in that keyboard with me. And in a way you'll never understand it'll have meaning. Or you can stand on the stage and preach to 1000s Without me and it won't mean a thing. And it's not the same thing. I'm not trying to compare myself to the Apostle Paul. But I do want to tell you that we're not for that year and a half and it none of us would be here today, this church would not exist, God used that process, a long meandering process to bring us all together here. Okay. And God use Paul's time in the waiting place. This time of boredom, this time of frustration, this time probably just aching to get on with life. As I said a couple weeks ago to write the books of Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon on and on and on the list goes. In other words, to change the world, you guys, these books still when you read them will transform your life. He could have preached the gospel to 1000s in Rome, maybe even to Nero himself. But instead, he wrote books that have reached billions have transformed kings, nations, families, churches. And by the way, God just brought him a whole bunch of people along the way. Those people who are walking by he just brought him in Paul was the first like work from home guy, you know, we thought we invented it during COVID. Like I have to go out, they'll just come to me this is great. Sometimes being a part of the Kingdom of God looks like adventure on the high seas. Sometimes it looks like shipwrecks and snakes and exotic locations, and seeing God move in miraculous ways. And other times it looks like routine, and normal, and missing out on excitement. And honestly, the first audience he preached to hear in his house didn't want to listen. Sometimes that's what kingdom work is to. But you can trust that if you are seeking first the kingdom of God, and this is your genuine heart's desire, and that you are with the king that any work done in his name, no matter how boring or how mundane can change the world. And with all due respect to Dr. Seuss, and the kingdom of God, there are no useless places, The Waiting Place is not useless. All good things come through the productivity of the waiting place. If you find yourself in a waiting place right now hold on something good is growing. Next character, the anonymous we the supporting cast. Throughout the book of Acts, we've seen them pop up time and time again. And we did this we did that which tells us that the author of the book of Acts, Luke is part of these parts of the story. In other words, Luke was on the boat with Paul, Luke swam the ocean with Paul and others. They're not alone on this. And we learned from this anonymous we that it pops up a couple different things. The first one is in the kingdom of God Family is mandatory. You know, we tend to think of the apostle Paul like he's this lone wolf character, this pioneer like frontier guy that's charging off into spaces by himself. But the truth is everything Paul does in the book of Acts is done in community. He's saved into community, he's commissioned out of community, he travels with community and everywhere he goes, what does he do? builds community. This guy is the last the farthest thing from from this frontier, like, like solo person on on the on the fringes. He is constantly surrounding himself with people, with friends with family, who can do the kingdom work alongside him. What does we do in this story? Everything Paul does. That's literally I mean, Luke doesn't give me descriptions of I went off and did this. He's telling the story of Paul the main character, but he says we were there. Everything he does, were there. I mean, how cool is it to have that kind of friendship, that soul friend that walks alongside you that Paul says, Hey, guys, I got an idea. Let's hike across the mountains to Turkey and preach the gospel. And we say we're in it guys, I got an idea. Let's Let's get in a boat, and go to Greece and preach the gospel in Greece. We're in guys, I got this idea let's let's collect an offering from around the entire world and then carry this massive sum of money across the high seas with bandits and pirates and all this sort of stuff back to Jerusalem where by the way, when we get there, they're probably going to arrest us. Anybody you want to go, we're in Hey guys, I just got arrested in Rome or in Jerusalem and they're going to ship me back to Rome and the leaky boat in winter. You might want to go and they do. Because family is essential. At no point in the story is Paul by himself. And nothing in the book of Acts happens in isolation. Everything happens in community. This is not the story of an extraordinary individual. It's a story of an extraordinary family. That just happens to have sort of a spokesman, you know, it's kind of like when we say things like LeBron James, and the Lakers. We all know that if it were just LeBron out there playing the other team, it wouldn't be much of a game right? Now, come on, come on, maybe back in the day, but not anymore. Mike, come on. You get the idea, though, right. This is a family that's doing this together. This is a community and all of it happens in community and without the community, it doesn't happen. And it makes me wonder why so many of us don't have community. When it's clearly not possible. To follow Jesus well, and to be a part of what he's doing in the world without community. It's essential. Family is mandatory. In the kingdom of God. And we learned something else from this anonymous we the supporting cast, that everyone gets to play. Did you hear what I said a second ago? What did the we do in the story? Everything Paul did, Paul gets highlighted, he gets called out, but they were there. They were doing ministry alongside him, I guarantee that they're not just sitting on the sidelines, I guarantee that they're in it with him day in and day out that they saw miraculous stuff happen in their hands as well, because I know that they're part of the body of Christ, too. This is not about an extraordinary individual. This is about an extraordinary community where everyone gets to be a part of the work that Jesus is doing. And why do I say this? It's because if we make it about extraordinary individuals than most of us don't make the cut. We either disqualify ourselves, or we let ourselves off the hook. And the fact of the matter is, the Church is the Body of Christ. And everybody not only gets to play but has to play if this is going to work, right? You are a part of the body of Christ. And if canopy is your home church, you are part of this local expression of the Body of Christ. And if you don't play your part, we're worse for it. This isn't a spectator sport. This isn't about me, or Mike or Kiana or anybody else. This is about all of us coming, and bringing what we have to the family and seeing what God does. Everybody plays in the kingdom of God. All right, next, gotta move. Here we go. Next character is the outsiders. Outsiders in the story of played by the Roman soldiers, one of them a guy named Julius. And what do we learn from the outsiders really quick? Is that outsiders are awestruck. Can you imagine watching this whole thing go down? Like you're a Roman soldier, you're you're a hardened kind of guy. You're given the task of escorting this, this kind of low level prisoner from Jerusalem to Rome on this long journey, you gotta imagine, they're not super excited about this assignment. This is not fighting a war. This is nothing exotic. It's literally riding a boat with a guy who's just gonna sit there and sing hymns the whole time, okay. And they go, and they're expecting next to nothing. And then all of a sudden, like the wildest stuff starts happening. They end up in this like massive storm that one of them predicted that one of the the hem guy predicted was going to happen, assuming Paul sang hymns, by the way, because he did it in prison, right? That's what he did. Anyway, he predicted the storm was going to happen, and then he ended up saving all of them from the storm by telling them not to get on the life rafts. Okay. saves him from the storm by telling him not to use the lifeboats. And then after he did that, did you guys notice last week what he did, he led them in communion during the storm. Says he broke bread and gave thanks while like, anybody ever been in a ship and a storm. I mean, either, but sounds terrifying. But he's like leading communion in the middle of the storm is waves. And this is a storm, it's gonna sink the ship. This isn't a little bit of rocking back and forth, you guys. Then after this, he ends up actually being right, they all stay together, they all get to land, everybody survives. And then a snake bites him on the hand and he shakes it off into the fire. And then for dessert, he goes and heals a bunch of people. What I'm trying to say is there's no way that by the end of this story, these outsiders weren't insiders. There's no way that they didn't come to know Jesus after all of this. Guys know what I mean? Because you just you don't see that kind of stuff without saying what is going on here. And when you ask a guy like Paul, what's going on here? He's not gonna say Oh, I'm so great. He's gonna say, Guys I was on this road to Damascus. And this light came down and Jesus said, Hey, it's me, and you need to knock it off, and you need to go this direction and everything was different. I don't know what to tell you. But it's different now. And I guarantee that Julius and his friends came to know Jesus. And do you know why I guarantee that? At least Julius? Because we have his name. Think about this for a second, why would Luke give us not just his name, but also his regiment? If you read X 27 because Luke is trying to write an eyewitness account, and he says at the beginning of it, that I'm doing this so you can know the certainty of what you've been taught. In other words, he gives the name and the regiment. So when you get to Rome, you can look him up and ask him yourself. That's why people include these details. That's why, you know, in, in, in the gospels, when it says that Simon of Cyrene carry the cross for Jesus. And Luke says, say, you know, Simon of Cyrene is the father of Rufus Alexander. And we're all like, Who the heck are Rufus and Alexander, they were known to the community. This is his way of saying, Go check with them. And when he says, Julius in this regiment, go check with him. Because he'd become family, I guarantee you guys, you don't see this stuff without it. And why do I call this out? Why do I say that outsiders are awestruck, because man, I feel like we don't talk about the gospel in those terms, outsiders often enough. You know, we talk about it, like we're selling them life insurance. Like we're trying to beg something out of them, like, Oh, you guys, like please, like, please understand, like, you really need this. Otherwise, something bad's gonna happen to you. I'm sorry. But that's not what's happening. And that's not how these guys presented the gospel, what they said was, come on the biggest adventure of your life, the kingdom of God is literally breaking into the kingdom of this world, and you get to be a part of it. King Jesus has invited into His kingdom, he will empower you with His Spirit, and you will be a part of the transformation of the planet, the restoration and renewal of all things. Do you want it or not? My friends, we don't beg people to come to know Jesus, we offer the journey of a lifetime. The greatest thing ever, is happening right now. And these guys saw it, outsiders are awestruck. Let our evangelism from here on out, be not begging or convincing or persuading or shaming or guilting. But extending the greatest offer anybody could imagine. And if we don't do that, it's because we don't grasp it ourselves. Because we're not awestruck ourselves. And this is the last point the insiders, the Jewish leaders who come to visit Paul, insiders are disturbed. They come to visit Paul. And he spends an entire day walking them through the Scripture, showing them Jesus telling them stories about what he'd experienced what God had been doing in the world. And act says that many of them walked away and said, That's not for me. These are people who should know better by the way, they had spent their entire lives praying for Messiah to show up had been searching the scriptures. years upon years, experts in all things God. There me I mean, I've been in church since I was this big. And they missed him entirely. And we can be just like this, can't we? We can come to a place like this. And we can see God doing amazing things. We can see people around us experiencing His presence and newness. We can hear stories of transformation, we can hear the gospel preached, and can walk away and say that's not for me or man, I just didn't like that song today. Or that guy just talks so much. Or was she really wearing that? I mean, this stuff, honestly, like we I know it sounds dumb, but this is what we do in church, or where am I going for lunch afterwards? Or do you guys understand that the gospel is being preached in this place? Like we're worshiping the living God in this place, and we get so like accustomed, so numb, so like, inoculated against the wonder of the gospel that we no longer have our jaws on the floor. And when you do that you have become an insider and insiders are not the place to be. Jesus is routinely in the business of disturbing insiders. Remember, I called this out a few weeks ago in the book of Acts, whenever God moves, two things happen. One is the wrong kind of people start to show up to the party. And two is the right kind of people get nervous that the wrong kind of people are showing up to the party. Friends, let's not lose the wonder of the gospel and what God is doing. Let's not become so institutionalized. That we're not awestruck anymore. Let's not become insiders. How do you do it? How do you how do you avoid being an insider? Listen to the gospel a lot. Read it, pray through it. Be in situations where it's preached, think about it, meditate on what God has done. And that's both through the Scripture, and through people who are doing it, living it. I mean, Kelly, I come back from Tanzania so inspired because the work you're doing is gospel work. Like we got to experience the gospel in Tanzania through grace for your project, like, like, be in situations like that, where you're hearing the stories of what happens when the gospel encounters the real world, you can't stay numb or apathetic when that's happening. So first thing to avoid being an institutionalized insider is hear the Gospel regularly. Second thing is don't spend all your time at church. Now, some of you got too excited when I just said that. For goodness sake, do spend some time at church, okay? The gathering of God's people is vitally important than Jesus. To be honest, Jesus loves sanctuaries like these. And he routinely shows up here, but he doesn't live here. When we leave this place, and go out into the streets, into our homes and our workplaces, where do you think he is? Do you think he's just camping out here waiting for us to get back next Sunday? No, but if this is the only place where we are looking for Jesus we're an insider. The gospel is happening outside the walls of this church. Don't spend all your time with Christians. Be attentive when you're out and about to what he might be up to. And finally, stay as close to Jesus as possible. This is how we stay away from being an insider stay close to him because he's on the move. He's on the move. He's not camped out in this place. He's moving and if you're with him, you'll be moving to. And that comes to the moral of this whole story. Okay, I just walked you through four characters that are actually really important and significant and all that but are not the thing at all. I lied to you. Paul is not the main character Jesus is. That's been clear throughout the book of Acts, look, here's this, here's the deal, Paul's poise, his passion, his power. Everything he has in this story and beyond is a result of Jesus working in him. It's a result of the Holy Spirit. And nothing that happens in the book of Acts would be possible without the Spirit of Jesus working through the church. That's it. I mean, Jesus gave them an impossible commission, an impossible task. He said, You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria and to the ends of the earth when he said that there were 12 of them, who didn't have the charisma that Jesus had. And he was sending them into hostile territory. There was no way that should have worked. Yet, within 30 years, there were churches across the entire world. And Paul was preaching the gospel in the heart of the Roman Empire. Within 30 years, they accomplished the mission that he gave them, because he was with them, because they were empowered and enlivened by the Spirit of Jesus. He's the main character, he's the one who's advancing the kingdom who makes this book of X stuff a reality. And here's the good news, my friends, he still doing it. He wants to do it here. He's the real leader of the Wii. Paul's not the head of the story. Jesus is I don't know what Paul was a finger, a foot. I don't know what he was, but he was something in the body of Christ. But the one directing it, the one animating it, the one making it all happen is Jesus. He is the Great Adventure himself. Why these outsiders are so awestruck is because they saw His power work in the storm. They saw His power crashing and burning the serpent. And he is the disturber and a flicker of the comfortable on the Insider. See, that's the story that's that's the thing about it's so beautiful. It's Jesus. And so we land where we should guys if we want to be this kind of a church, and I desperately want to be this kind of a church and here's the secret keep your eyes on Jesus to pray with me. Jesus we, I mean, I get to the end of what I prepared and what I feel like you put on my heart and It was always in your hands, but it's in your hands. When you come into this space and do whatever you want to do to show up in our lives in ways that we need and are asking, and in ways that we can't even imagine can't begin to understand we need would you? Would you meet with my brothers and sisters here personally? individually? Would you heal our wounds? Would you refresh our souls? Would you disturb our comfort? Would you grant new dreams in this place in visions of what it looks like for your kingdom to come in our lives as in heaven. Jesus, which is come and do whatever you want to do in this space, by your Spirit, Holy Spirit, come, I know you're already here. But come and meet with us as we worship. Gonna get you all to stand. We're just going to enter into a time of worship as we respond to what God is doing. And I don't have much of a plan. Let's just Let's just sing songs that are true about him with all of our hearts to Him and not to the people around us, but to him. And then do whatever He tells you to do. If he tells you to come down and pray you want to come and like kneel at the front. Somebody will come and pray with you. If he tells you to go pray with somebody else. Go ahead and do that. If he tells you to get on your knees or to fall on your face then you can do that too. But let's just let's just turn our eyes to him and see what happens.