Latest / Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast / #24479 - Doing Life and Ministry Together - Acts 20:1-12

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#24479 - Doing Life and Ministry Together - Acts 20:1-12 · Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast

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Welcome to the study of God's Word with pastor and author Ed
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Taylor, recorded live at Calvary Church in Aurora, Co.
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To learn more about the many resources available through
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Abounding Grace Media or to tune into our live stream services,
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visit us online at Calvary Co dot Church or download our free
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Calvary Church app. Now.
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Here's Pastor Ed to take us into our study.
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Amen. Take your Bibles.
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Open them to Acts chapter 20. Acts chapter 20.
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I've entitled our Bible study today.
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Doing life and ministry together.
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We need to remember that we get to do things together that you,
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when you and I were born again, we were born again and adopted
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into the family of God. We've been part of a family.
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There's, there's even this new relationship you can have with
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God where you can refer to him now as ABBA or, or that's the
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Hebrew word for daddy. You're a part of a new family
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that even if you didn't have the best example of a dad on the
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earth, you have the best example of a Father in heaven.
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And you can look to him. He's your strength and he's put
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us in a family. In a new family.
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A community is the more popular word that's being used today to
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describe the church, a community of friends, a community of other
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believers, the family of God. It's such a blessing for me to
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be a part of this fellowship family.
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This is God's will for my life to be a part of what He's doing
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in this church. This is the church where my kids
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grew up. This is the church where we grew
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up together and where I've been discipled and grown for the last
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25 years by the Lord. And by interacting with you, I
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have. This is the place where I get to
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serve, the place where I get to exercise my gifts, just like
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you. But as a pastor, I want you to
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know I love you guys and I love serving you, and I love serving
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Jesus. There's so much that God is
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doing in and through US. It's almost like we're in a
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season right now of reset where we're in a season where God is
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doing things. He's undoing things so that he
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might redo things. A lot of spiritual warfare
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happening on our team right now. A lot of things happening in the
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church, a lot of confusion. It has all the marks of the
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enemy, all the marks of the enemy wanting to stop the
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progress even though we've been here and we'll celebrate 25
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years, like God has so much more to do through the US and the
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city until he returns and we get to be a part of it.
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But it is hard work. We need to remember the work of
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the ministry is often used by God to humble us.
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If we'll allow it. We can always respond with pride
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and arrogance and put up a fight.
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But God wants us to remain humble, to walk with humility to
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Him. You'll recall in First Timothy
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chapter 3, the Bible says this is a faithful saying.
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If a man desires the position of a Bishop, and that word can also
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be translated overseer, we might refer to that as a spiritual
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leader, spiritual servant, pastor, anyone that wants a
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place of leadership and commitment, responsibility in
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the church. It says he desires a good work.
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And the word work is exactly what you think.
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It's work, it's labor. There's physical work, there's
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mental work, there's spiritual work.
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And with spiritual work always comes spiritual warfare and
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challenges. And for the pastor, for the
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servant, for every spiritual leader when he or she tries to
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do everything themselves, it's a danger.
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There's a great danger for every pastor and spiritual leader and
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servant to try to do things by themselves, because as the
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church grows and as your ministry grows, so do the needs
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and the amount of work that is required.
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Remember this church from the lips of Jesus.
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The reward for faithfulness in the work that you have, the
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reward for faithfulness in the work that you have is always
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more work. It's not work like to drive us
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into the ground or to exhaust us or to do more than what God
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wants us to do. But remember, if you're
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faithful, God's going to entrust you with more.
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It's to the unfaithful. It's to the unfaithful, They get
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less. And you say, Ed, well, why are
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you sharing this? Well, listen, it's very
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important you listen to me this morning and grasp this, even
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though I think in some respects I have to, I have to talk about
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the significance of pastor, but it might even sound a little
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self-serving. So forgive me if it sounds
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self-serving. I can assure you that it's not.
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But I do want to talk to you about the pastors and their
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families of our church because you may not realize or
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understand the value of your pastoral team, the men that God
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has called to serve the church here and their wives if they're
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married, and their children, if their parents, their families.
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God has blessed us as a church with many men and women, boys
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and girls that have completely sold out their lives to serve us
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in this church. Now you have to understand their
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primary service is not to us. So if they, if you and I, if I
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like it as I look at you in my own life, I can speak for myself
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as a pastor. My primary responsibility is not
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to serve you. You are not first on my list.
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And you go. What do you mean?
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What kind of church? Honey?
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I think we're out of here, man. I don't know if we want to stay
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here. No, no, hear me out.
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My primary responsibility is to please the Lord #1 no doubt my
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eyes need to be firmly fixed. I serve Jesus, He's my leader.
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That's my primary responsibility.
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Secondly, I need to take care of my family, need to lead my
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family. I need to take care of them in
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the Lord, raise them, serve them, be there.
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And then finally, I have the privilege of serving you and
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it's all-encompassing with the priority of serving Jesus.
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He'll lead me, He'll guide me, but my primary responsibility,
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like yours, is to seek the Lord. But we do it together.
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We do it together. I mean, I was thinking of
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sports, you know, I was thinking of of the superstars in sports.
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And we know they have names, superstars.
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I mean, when you're thinking of superstars in sports, how can
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you not think of the Dodgers just filled with superstars?
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I did not ask for anybody to Boo here, Boo you.
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But I think of, you know, they just signed a superstar, Ohtani
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Otani, he is, he is a best of the best in baseball.
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I was watching a game a couple days ago and he struck out three
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times. I'm talking to the TV.
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What's your problem, man? What's your problem?
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But he struck out three times. But he did get a key hit in that
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game. I'll take you back into the
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Bible from the Dodger game. But if you ever want to watch a
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good game, watch a Dodger game. But I was thinking about Otani.
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He would never be a superstar without a team.
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He couldn't do that by himself. There's no way in the world that
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he, whether you're playing basketball, you know, you're the
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three-point shooter in the WNBA, or you're playing baseball, or
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you're in the NFL, any superstar is never a superstar by
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themselves. It's always a team.
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And I would say some of the most valuable parts of a team are
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often the ones that get no attention, but faithfully serve
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behind the scenes in the role that God had given them on a
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team for sports, it works, but also on a team in the church.
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And I want to talk to you a moment about pastors, especially
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the pastors that serve on staff here, but not exclusively.
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We also have pastors and key leaders and key servants.
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And, and really I would say all servants that work a full time
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job like Paul tent making. Remember, he would make tent, he
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would make tents and serve after he was done with work.
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That serve full time in the church to some capacity, served
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full time in the world. I want you to remember how
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important they are and how blessed we are to have them.
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Some are single, some are married, some are young, some
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are not so young. Choosing my words very
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carefully. Some have families, the young
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families, some are praying about families, some have raised their
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kids, but collectively they serve us.
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But pastors are under a lot of pressure and they do surveys
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asking pastors and, you know, you know, discerning what's
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going on in their lives. And they share a few numbers
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with you, as I have before. But it's worth reviewing today.
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80%, eight, zero, 80% of pastors they survey said that pastoral
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work negatively impacted their family in some way or another.
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Very difficult. Many pastors kids in that same
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survey don't go to church now because of how the congregation
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treated their parents or even worse, how they treated them.
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You know the phrase pastors kids.
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And I for years have said, don't treat the kids here, the pastors
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kids as pastors kids. You want to know why?
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They're just kids. They're just as rotten as your
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kids. We're just kids.
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They go around and they live like kids.
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They act like kids. But please, church, this might
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be the first time you're hearing it, but please do not lay some
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heavy trip on them just because their parents are in the
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ministry. They're just kids and there is
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no greater expectation on them than any other kids.
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And I think over the years there's been a great grace in
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this church, but there's also been times where pastors, kids,
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even including mine from time to times, were treated differently
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because of the family that were born into.
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And it really jacks with kids heads, you know, that.
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Don't do it. Encourage them, bless them, help
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them. And you know, you can't go
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around disciplining kids either. Sometimes people in the church
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think they can discipline the pastor's kids.
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You can't discipline anybody's kids but your own.
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Did you know that? And so the best thing to do when
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you encounter some difficulty that might need help with a
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pastor's kids or anyone else's kids is find their parents and
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have a private conversation with their parents.
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Maybe their parents don't know, maybe they don't understand,
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like stay away from assumptions and such.
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But, you know, pastors are struggling because their kids, I
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mean, their kids are not, don't want anything to do with the
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church anymore, partially because of how they were treated
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or how their parents were treated.
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How about this one? 40% of pastors they surveyed
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report serious conflict with a parishioner at least once a
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month. Wow.
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Sometimes around here it's once a day.
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It's difficulty with technology. Now you get it every day.
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You get it on Twitter, you get on Instagram, you get on
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Facebook, you get on e-mail, you get it on nasty voicemails.
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I mean, if I save the things that end up on my phone, you
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wouldn't believe like some of you like, I don't believe it's
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that hard and you should read my e-mail.
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Sometimes people are cruel. People that say they follow
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Christ, say some of the meanest hurtful things.
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I don't understand why. So I understand this.
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Another number I have here is 55.
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Zero percent of pastors have considered leaving the ministry
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in the last few months. I can understand that one as
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well. I've had serious episodes in the
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last 25 years myself thinking, you know, I don't want to do
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this anymore. I had a life in the corporate
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world way before I was a pastor. I can just go back and and then
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the enemy lies to me. It's like, you know, it was
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easier back. You know, if you just go away,
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it'll be much easier. But then I remember easier.
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It was rough. It's going to be rough anywhere.
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But for pastors, it's a very special, unique calling upon
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their lives that brings a very unique, special difficulties.
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And within the body of Christ, we need to take care of one
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another. We're a family, we're A-Team
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church. We need to take care of the men
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and women that God has given to us that serve us.
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I mentioned this, I did a couple Bible studies not too long ago
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on this very topic, how to treat your pastors.
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The Bible has a lot to say on how to treat your pastors, but
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let me just summarize those studies very simply for you.
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The best thing you can do to bless and encourage your pastors
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is to live a life that pleases the Lord.
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That's the best thing you can do.
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Just abide in Christ, enjoy him, obey him, and in the body of
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Christ together, we'll all be moving forward together.
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And so, you know, one of the other things that in that in one
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of the surveys I found is that the profession of pastor quote
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and UN quote is near the bottom of a survey of the most least
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respected professions. And no offense to any car
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salesman, but they're one notch above car salesman.
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That's just what the survey is. And so now pastors are no longer
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valued or respected in our culture today.
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And we certainly see that's why when you're driving around town
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and you pass a legitimate church that preaches a legitimate
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gospel, you need to pray for them.
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You need to pray for the pastor, pray for the leadership there.
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That church is a part of the broader, bigger body of Christ.
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And we want them to thrive and we want them to succeed and we
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want them to reach the people that God has called them to
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reach. But it's hard.
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It's hard. I know some of you would say,
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well, you know what? My life's hard too.
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And in no way am I minimizing your hard life.
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That's not the point I'm trying to make here.
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Like all of a sudden we have a harder life and don't, don't,
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don't get into that mode because then you won't receive what God
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has for you. I recognize life is hard in
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general. And I recognize as we weave in
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and out of your lives all week, every day, the difficulties you
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face. You know, I was thinking of the
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first responders, you know, officers, paramedics, doctors,
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those that are on the frontline, those that run the crisis
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instead of run away from crisis. You know, they deal with people
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on their worst day. And I think pastors should also
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be brought into that, to that same category as first
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responders, but in a different way spiritually because often
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the difficulties that we face are meeting people on their
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worst day. That's what caused them to ask
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for help. That's why they walked in the
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door. That's why they called us
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because it was their worst day. And so we need to be praying for
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those that God has given to us to serve us, to love us, to
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teach us. And, and I think here at
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Calvary, you know, over the years, we, we are unique.
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We don't really fit and haven't fit in these numbers, although
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along the way we've seen some of this stuff in the last 25 years.
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But God has been very gracious to us.
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He's been very gracious to help our team just get through the
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difficult times. To humble themselves under the
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mighty hand of God. To remember their calling.
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To remember why God called them in the 1st place.
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To remember why God called them to serve here.
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To remember that what matters the most is that God is honored
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and people are loved, that we shepherd the flock of God that's
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among us. And then behind the scenes,
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behind and closed doors in the offices, we do all the hard
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work. We work all the difficulties
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out. Why?
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So that you can be blessed in your worship of God in your
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fellowship family. So none of us do it alone.
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And you say, well, why the big introduction in chapter 20?
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And I'll tell you in chapter 20, we get the inside of Pastor
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Paul. Pastor Paul, because we often
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think of Paul as the apostle, and he was, and we think of Paul
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as the author and he was, and we think of Paul as the missionary,
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and he was. But by this time in Acts chapter
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20, we see Paul stayed in a few places for a very extended
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amount of time, which gave him the opportunity to exercise his
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pastoral calling. Says he's ministering in Corinth
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and he's ministering in Ephesus and he's still apostle and he's
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still a missionary. He's still an author, but he
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also is a pastor and God is using him in great ways on this
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third missionary journey. So notice with me verse one,
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chapter 20, it says in the uproar had after the uproar had
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ceased, Paul called the disciples to him and embraced
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them and departed to go to Macedonia.
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If you like to write in your Bibles, you can just circle
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Macedonia. This would be northern Greece,
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the area of Greece. And then in verse two, when he
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had gone over that region and encouraged them, so he went from
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house church to house church. He encouraged them with many
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words. He came to Greece.
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Again, if you like to write in your Bible, so you you'll
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probably forget it, but you can write it right next to Greece.
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You can say Corinth because that's where he landed.
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Corinth is in that area of Greece, and he landed in Corinth
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and it says he stayed there three months.
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Verse 3. And when the Jews plotted
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against him as he was about to sail to Syria, he decided to
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return through Macedonia. Remember, where is Paul headed?
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He's headed to Jerusalem. He wants to make it there for
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the feast. And it says in verse one that
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after the uproar ceased, now when you're reading through the
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Bible and you want to do a little bit of study, you ask the
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text questions. One of the questions you can ask
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here is, well, what uproar? What's he talking about?
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If you just dropped into the Bible on chapter 20, you go,
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what uproar is he talking about? Well, when you ask that
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question, then you just go back to what's before because it
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reads an order. And we know what uproar it was
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the uproar that happened in Ephesus.
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Remember when Paul came to Ephesus and preached the gospel,
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there was a great outpouring, a revival.
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It was an amazing revival, so much so that those that were
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involved in rich craft and magic in the dark arts, they go, we
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don't want anything to do with that anymore.
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We're going to embrace Jesus Christ.
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And remember, they brought their books together and they burned
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them. It was a a great demonstration.
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It was an amazing demonstration of the fruits of repentance.
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And it was an it was, it was just amazing, wonderful what
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happened in the city. But then there was Demetrius.
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Demetrius was making money off everyone that was into idolatry
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and witchcraft and magic. And remember this, We learned
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this in our last study. The people that make money off
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of sin do not like the church. You could even say it this way.
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People that make money off of sinful behavior do not like
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believers because believers bring the gospel and when the
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gospel changes a life, sinful behavior stops.
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You bring your books and you burn them.
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You're not going to be a part of the evil witchcraft and darkness
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anymore. There's going to be a demon
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demonstrative change in your life.
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So Demetrius, he stirs up the city.
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Can't believe it. He gets all his fellow idol
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makers together. Hey, you guys, we're we're not
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going to make any money anymore. Let's take this guy out.
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And then Paul's life was saved by an anonymous city clerk.
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The God didn't send in the forces and the angels and leave.
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It was a city clerk that said, slow down here.
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You don't want Rome coming to town.
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They have a real legitimate issue.
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Take it to the courts. But calm down here.
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Remember, Paul was so excited he was going to run back into the
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riot. I'll take care of this.
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But then they said, no, no, no, no.
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You're more valuable alive, Paul, than you are in that riot.
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And he moved on. This is what chapter 20 is.
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To uproar in Ephesus ceased. Paul calls the disciples verse
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one to himself gave him a big hug and he took off.
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He's on his way to Jerusalem and at this time the Jerusalem
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church is suffering financially. It is quite stunning at this
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stage in the early church that the Gentile churches were far
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more healthy and strong and financially stable than their
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mother church in Jerusalem, the Jerusalem church where it all
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started. They have Pentecost, outpouring,
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the Holy Spirit, baptism of the Holy Spirit.
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Believers are together, thousands are getting saved and
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baptized. And then they just stayed there.
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They didn't move. They didn't obey the rest of
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what Jesus promised. But because of persecution, they
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took off. And when they took off, a new
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hub was created. And we studied all this in Acts,
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in Antioch, and Antioch became the church that started the
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whole missionary movement of the church.
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And now all these little churches and home groups, Paul
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is taking a collection from them so he can deliver it to the
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church in Jerusalem. And by the way, this is
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something that you as a church are involved in countless and I
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would put it well into the hundreds, multiple hundreds of
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churches have been blessed by your faithful ties and offerings
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here in this church, bills being paid, helping them with rent,
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taking care of pastors when they have a need, taking care of
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widows, whatever it may be. God has used this church just
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your faithful. We don't we don't announce it
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every week. We don't put a list of because
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we want God to get all the glory.
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We want you to know that as we pray in the usefulness of your
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resources, other churches are blessed because God has blessed
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this church and we believe that it's our responsibility.
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Like you think of a few little things when we put on a a
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conference, church underwrites a big part of it.
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When we have a gathering for pastors, the church pays for
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that completely. So we can bring pastors
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together, we can feed them, we can create an environment, bring
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a teacher for them. Like you do a lot of that on top
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of, you know, helping churches in Ukraine.
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And we have sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to help
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churches in Ukraine. We've sent hundreds of thousands
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of dollars to help churches in in Israel and on and on and on.
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The list goes through. You're faithful.
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You sometimes you think, you know, I don't have much to give
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or I don't really give much. I wonder what difference it
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makes. You know, The thing is, is that
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when you're faithful and what God has called you to do, it
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always comes together. And together we're a lot
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stronger. That's what we're learning with
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Paul. You're not going to be able to
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do it alone. You've got to be surrounded by
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men and women that will help you on this journey following
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Christ. If there's one thing we learn is
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that Paul is not a Lone Ranger. So there he is.
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He ends up landing in Greece in verse 2, taking this collection.
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He's there for three months. He's in Corinth.
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And again, you Bible students, this is where people that study
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these things place the writing of the book of Romans during
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this three months in Corinth, which I can see of all the
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evidence, one of the pieces of evidence of him writing the book
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of Romans in Corinth is chapter one of Romans.
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If you remember, chapter one of Romans is heavy.
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It's just sin after sin after sin after sin.
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And it makes sense because he's in this capital of sin in
23:41
Corinth, and he's watching and he's seeing and he's talking
23:45
about the depravity of man and the lostness of man because he's
23:49
living it out in Corinth. I love this too, because when
23:53
Paul is facing all these difficulties, one after another
23:56
after another, he doesn't quit. He gets up, give somebody a hug,
24:02
and then he takes off. They go, OK, maybe God doesn't
24:04
want to use me in Ephesus anymore.
24:06
I'll move on, I'll move on, I'll move forward.
24:10
And it's important, church, that you realize it's always too soon
24:13
to quit, even though it is hard and even though it is
24:18
challenging, and even though I don't know if I want to do this
24:21
and I don't really like, I know, but it's always too soon to
24:25
quit. How careful we need to be not to
24:28
react in our emotion, but learn to follow the leading of the
24:34
Holy Spirit because our emotions will go all up and down.
24:38
But the leading of the Spirit is so often just steady and
24:40
straight, just steady and straight, just difficulty.
24:45
But we're moving forward and Paul, he gets up and he keeps
24:48
going. He's going to help the church
24:49
in. They don't want me in Ephesians
24:51
anymore. I'm going to help the church in
24:53
Corinth. But then when he's in Corinth
24:56
and on his way to Jerusalem, it says that there are other people
24:59
there in verse three, that now the Jews, those who are anti
25:02
gospel plotted against him. So he takes off to Syria, which
25:07
is where he would have caught a ship, a Pilgrim ship to head to
25:10
Jerusalem. And he decided to return instead
25:13
to Macedonia, which would have been by land.
25:15
Verse four. And Sopeter of Berea
25:18
accompanying him to Asia. Also Aristarchus and Secundus of
25:22
the Thessalonians and Gaius of Derby and Timothy, Antichikis
25:27
and Trophymus of Asia. These men going ahead waited for
25:32
us at true as now this is really interesting.
25:38
He's got a lot of people supporting him.
25:40
He's not alone. Yes, he had Timothy.
25:44
Yes, he had Luke. And at the end of verse five, it
25:47
says waited for us and you have to pay attention to these words
25:51
because waited for us. Well, then who's us?
25:53
Well, who's writing the book of of Acts?
25:56
Luke. So now Luke is saying, OK, I'm a
25:59
part of this too. And he's surrounded by all these
26:02
people and you think, well, where did Sopeter come from?
26:05
Verse four? Well, it says he's from Berea.
26:08
So where did he come from? From the ministry to Berean.
26:11
We know the we know Berea. This is where we learn about the
26:14
Bereans. And what was it about those that
26:17
were in Berea that they heard what Paul taught, but they
26:20
tested it by the Scriptures? Well, there was a brother that
26:23
said, hey, Paul, I want to come with you.
26:24
And Paul said, come on. Or it could have been the
26:27
opposite. Paul said, you come with me.
26:28
And he said, sure, I'll come with you.
26:30
And then notice he's surrounded by these guys, Aristarchus and
26:34
Secundus. Who are these guys?
26:36
Well, we don't quite know who they are, but we do know this.
26:39
They're from Thessalonica, and we know that Paul was in
26:41
Thessalonica, so he picked up a couple guys there.
26:44
Then Gaius of Derby and Timothy. We know about Tichikus and
26:49
Trophemus of Asia. You see Paul, he always or often
26:56
looked at someone and brought them along to disciple them, to
27:01
pour himself into, to reproduce himself.
27:04
He following the motto of Jesus. When you are focused only on
27:11
yourself, you don't really think of others.
27:15
And part of what was part of what was taken care of here,
27:19
part of what was changed in Paul's life was that these
27:22
trials got him outward thinking. And the more he thought
27:27
outwardly, the more that he drew people with him.
27:31
And I want you to see this in these very simple.
27:34
I mean, basically it's like a a travel log.
27:37
And you think, what can, what can I learn out of a travel log?
27:40
We'll learn this. Paul did not do anything alone.
27:44
He didn't do anything alone. He truly understood the value of
27:49
others. Now with that in mind, we have
27:52
another episode here in the chapter that I want to cover,
27:56
verse six. We sailed away from Philippi
27:59
after the Days of Unleavened Bread and in five days join them
28:03
at Troas where we stayed seven days.
28:06
Now on the first day of the week, let's pause there.
28:09
Say out loud with me, what is the first day of the week?
28:12
Sunday we're on Sunday, Sunday, Sunday, Sunday that's where we
28:16
are verse seven on Sunday when the disciples came together to
28:22
break bread, Paul was ready to depart the next day spoke to
28:25
them, continued his message or his teaching until midnight.
28:29
The early church gathered for worship on the first day of the
28:33
week and church the first day of the week is Sunday.
28:37
Would you please not let anybody come and tell you that you can't
28:40
worship on Sunday? The early church worshipped on
28:43
Sunday. Why would they choose to worship
28:46
on Sunday? What's so important about the
28:48
first day of the week? The resurrection of Jesus
28:52
Christ. To gather together on the first
28:55
day of the week is to gather together in memory of the new
28:59
life that you and I have in Jesus, the resurrection.
29:04
Now, there are those that would go well.
29:05
I still don't believe that, pastor.
29:07
And I think we only should worship on Saturday.
29:09
And I will not go to church and I'll never go to your church
29:12
unless there's a Saturday night service.
29:14
Really, we just happen to have a Saturday service just for you.
29:21
We don't need to argue out of it, although I've done very
29:25
thorough Bible studies on this, not just a quick statement on a
29:28
verse, although that should be enough.
29:30
But I've done very thorough Bible studies on the legalism
29:33
surrounding this Sabbath only worship and what's been twisted.
29:38
But nonetheless, we have Saturday night service.
29:41
The Bible says that we can worship on any day of the week.
29:45
We can worship on any day of the week.
29:47
The Bible actually instructs us that we should worship on every
29:50
day of the week. And so whether you want to join
29:53
us on Saturday, you want to join us on Sunday, We even have a
29:56
Wednesday night Bible study midweek where we sing together,
30:01
we pray together, we have communion together, and we also
30:05
have a Bible study. And so when you start walking
30:09
down the road of legalism, it takes you away from the
30:12
simplicity of Christ where you can just worship him and enjoy
30:16
him. The early church was worshipping
30:18
already here in Acts 20. We're not even done with the
30:21
book of Acts yet and they're already gathering on the first
30:23
day of the week. And you see, they came together
30:26
to break bread. This can mean one of two things.
30:28
I think it means both, but it can mean one of two things.
30:31
Number one, that remember at the church at this time were more
30:34
smaller gatherings, house churches.
30:36
Think life group. Think of a life group where you
30:39
have 1020 people in a home where you're worshiping together.
30:42
The church was not large as it was around the Gentile, as large
30:46
as it could be and they would get, they didn't have large
30:48
buildings at this time. They just meant house to house
30:51
and they broke bread. It can mean one of two things.
30:53
Number one, it can mean the breaking of bread in communion
30:57
where you would break bread and remember the body and the blood
31:01
of Jesus Christ breaking bread. Secondly, it could also mean
31:04
that they shared a meal together.
31:06
The early church would gather together and share a meal
31:09
together as a part of their worship service.
31:11
Sometimes, sometimes we might refer to that today as a potluck
31:16
where you bring a meal and we all share food together.
31:18
Even some churches have changed because they don't like the word
31:21
luck, so they called it pot blessing.
31:23
I don't understand all that stuff.
31:24
But you bring your food and we all eat each other's food
31:27
together because there's something to be done said about
31:30
having food and sharing a meal together.
31:32
There's a one that's in the Hebrew mind.
31:34
You're literally sharing one another.
31:37
You're you're communing, you're fellowshipping, you're having
31:39
what the New Testament would call is Koinonia.
31:43
I believe it's both. I think they're sharing a meal,
31:45
which we know they were doing that in Corinth because Paul
31:48
addresses that. He called it the agape feast or
31:51
the love feast. It was just a meal they shared
31:53
together and they had communion together and they taught the
31:56
Bible. Paul was teaching them a message
32:00
and notice at verse seven it says he continued his message
32:04
until midnight. I don't want you guys upset with
32:07
me anymore for going over on time.
32:10
He continued till midnight. Why?
32:13
Because the early church then and this church right now.
32:16
I can speak for our church and our church alone.
32:19
We place a significantly high value on the teaching of God's
32:24
Word. That is the kind of church you
32:27
want. We will teach you the Bible.
32:29
This is important for you to understand because there are
32:32
different backgrounds that you may have come from.
32:34
Perhaps you came from a church where they used the Bible.
32:38
They had it on the pulpit right here, but never really gave you
32:41
the meat of the Bible. So they might take a verse and
32:45
launch off into something and talk about something.
32:47
But here we not only have a Bible, but we're going to use it
32:52
and teach it to you verse by verse and sometimes word by word
32:55
through the Bible. Maybe you came from a church
32:58
that was very entertainment driven, so there was a lot of
33:01
pomp and circumstance and a lot of activity, very little Bible.
33:05
That's not going to happen here. We are committed.
33:08
Maybe you came from a church that had a strong preaching
33:11
presence, but not a strong teaching presence.
33:15
Now let me say there is a difference between the two.
33:18
Preaching is the proclamation of the gospel.
33:21
If you came from a church that preached a lot, then you felt
33:24
guilty a lot. It was a very guilt driven
33:27
thing. And so you're just wanting to
33:29
rededicate all the time. And I'm so horrible and I'm so
33:31
bad because you keep hearing the gospel preach to you.
33:35
And of course, by the end, you can always find something to
33:38
repent from. And that's kind of how that
33:41
preaching is necessary. But preaching is primarily for
33:44
the lost. What believers need is teaching.
33:50
And so if you came from a church that preached a lot, then it
33:53
will be different here because we're committed to teach you the
33:55
Bible and we'll go through it and, and, and with the gifting
33:59
of pastor teacher, we not only want to give you the sense of
34:02
what it says, but we want to teach you how to do the Bible.
34:04
We want you to how to live it in your life, how your life can be
34:08
transformed. However, the gathering is not
34:13
just to be fed. And that's a phrase that's been
34:17
used around Calvary Chapel a lot and other churches too, but
34:19
especially about Calvary Chapel. I just come to church to be fed,
34:22
pastor, to be fed pastor or or somebody might leave and go, I'm
34:25
not being fed there anymore. Listen, listen.
34:28
Our time at church is not just to be fed the word, although we
34:32
will, but it's also to befriend other believers.
34:37
It's to interact with one another.
34:40
It's to connect with one another.
34:42
It is to serve with one another. It is to serve one another, not
34:46
just with each other, but to truly give of yourself to
34:50
others. So not just to be fed, we need
34:52
to be gather, not we need to be together, not just in large
34:55
gatherings, but also in smaller ones so we can encourage one
34:58
another, pray for one another, strengthen one another, help one
35:02
another, share with one another. And as we look at a fellowship
35:05
like ours, it's a cooperative effort.
35:08
It's collaborative. The phrase that I like to use
35:11
around our church is that we is the language of ministry.
35:15
It's not just I nobody does anything on their own.
35:20
We do it together. We celebrate the victories
35:23
together and we also deal with the difficulties together.
35:26
It's we. It's we.
35:28
That's the place of maturity. So here he is teaching to
35:31
midnight. And it says in verse eight,
35:33
there were many lamps in the upper room where they were
35:35
gathered together. And in a window sat a certain
35:38
young man named Eudicus who was sinking into a deep sleep.
35:44
Very interesting. Teaching the Bible and people
35:47
falling asleep happened in the 1st century.
35:52
Does it happen today? Oh yes it does.
35:57
I can see every single person in this room.
36:00
And that's why I move around because I know you try to hide
36:03
behind people and I get the right angle.
36:05
I see it all. I see it all and people, people
36:10
fall asleep during teaching. I remember when I first started
36:14
teaching as I took on the responsibility of regularly
36:17
teaching at our singles ministry under the leadership of my
36:20
pastor and teaching there. And, and it was Thursday night.
36:23
So tail end of the week we started at 7 teaching, you know,
36:27
of all the fellowship and everything.
36:29
I probably started teaching at 8 and as I'm teaching a couple 100
36:32
people we started with and they're out there and people
36:35
were falling asleep. And then I was taking it
36:37
personal like what is your and what's your problem, man?
36:40
Wake up. I got a good bottles.
36:42
Do you know how much time I spent on this?
36:43
And that was my inside voice, my inside voice, my outside voice
36:46
says, oh, brother, are you all right?
36:50
Are you OK? And I learn, I learned something
36:53
God was teaching me. And that is if you're tired, go
36:57
to sleep. I'm glad you're here.
37:01
I'd rather have you fall asleep here than in front of a
37:03
television because when you're asleep, we can mess with you.
37:10
No, I mean, you're, you're wanting like Thursday nights
37:12
especially, man, they wanted to be there.
37:15
It's not that they came and said it's my perfect Pew to take a
37:17
nap. They wanted to be there.
37:19
They wanted to worship. They wanted to have a Thursday
37:21
night gathering. They wanted to be in fellowship.
37:24
But they were tired. It was a hard week or a hard
37:27
day. And certainly, you know, they
37:29
weren't falling asleep every week.
37:31
And I mean, if you fall asleep here and there in our Bible
37:33
studies, that's great. I mean, if you're falling asleep
37:36
every service, we probably need to talk to you.
37:38
But like, you're tired, like it happens.
37:41
And even while you're sleeping, I can get to you subliminally,
37:44
you know, however you say that I can get right through you, man.
37:47
I can like, you're in the atmosphere where the Holy Spirit
37:51
works and the Holy Spirit can work even while you're asleep.
37:54
And so it's better to go toward the Lord than to go away from
37:57
the Lord. And you know, maybe you need to
37:59
go to bed a little bit earlier, whatever it might be.
38:01
But here, you know, there's Bible study, there's long Bible
38:06
study, and they're sleeping. So let's just leave it at that,
38:10
OK? It happens.
38:11
He says in the end of half of verse nine, he was overcome by
38:15
sleep. So I must mean deep sleep.
38:18
And as Paul continued teaching, he fell out the window and was
38:22
taken up dead. Just a warning.
38:25
I don't know, just a, just a warning for these sleepers.
38:29
You know, when we built this building in the sanctuary, we
38:31
made sure that no windows open. I just want you to know and if
38:35
you even fell out one of those windows, you're only falling
38:37
about a foot to the ground. So don't worry about it.
38:39
You'll be fine. But it reminded me before, if
38:42
you weren't here long ago, before this side of the building
38:45
was built, this whole wall had windows here all along this wall
38:49
stunning the The problem with these windows was not falling
38:52
asleep. It was the exact opposite.
38:54
The view of the Rocky Mountains on a good day through these
38:57
windows was stunning. From this hilltop up here, it
39:01
was stunning. So I was competing not with
39:03
sleeping, but everybody was being distracted by the view out
39:06
the window. And you're just like, hey, come
39:09
on, guys, come on. The Bible's better than the
39:11
Rocky Mountains, you know, kind of thing.
39:12
And whether you're sleeping, whether you're distracted, just
39:16
look, God, he wants the word of God to be, to be deposited in
39:20
your life because it is. And only the word of God that
39:23
has the power to transform your life, the power to build your
39:27
faith, the power to change your mind, the power to change the
39:31
trajectory of your life. This is an interesting, unusual
39:35
situation. You know, they're in the upper
39:38
room. It's probably pretty warm there.
39:40
They've got a lot of candles burning.
39:41
So you got all the chemicals and everything going.
39:44
The brother falls asleep, he falls out the window.
39:47
He's taken up for dead. And it says in verse 10, Paul
39:50
went down and fell on him and bracing him.
39:53
Do not trouble yourselves for his life is in him.
39:57
Now there is debate on whether he really died or and this was a
40:00
healing or he was sort of dead and wasn't a healing.
40:04
I kind of fall that he did die and that Paul did heal him
40:07
because it then solidified through signs and wonders once
40:10
again, the calling of God upon Paul and he went down.
40:13
He laid on him kind of like in Second Kings chapter 4 with
40:17
Elisha when he took this his staff and just laid it on him
40:20
and God did a healing. Notice verse 11.
40:23
When he had come up and broken bread and eaten, talked a long
40:27
while and I'll, you know, Paul continued teaching till
40:30
Daybreak. You want to talk about a long
40:31
Bible study? He departed and they brought the
40:34
young man in alive and they were not a little comforted.
40:38
You know, I love Luke here. He always writes from the
40:39
diminutive like, oh, they're not a little comforted.
40:42
Can you imagine how they were like talking about dude and the
40:45
rest of his life? Eauticus is known as hey, you're
40:48
the dude that fell out the window, huh?
40:49
Ha ha, ha, ha. You shouldn't have fall asleep.
40:51
Did you ever fall out? You know, like he's the guy that
40:54
has the reputation, man. And you know, it's again, you
40:57
can choose whatever way you want to go, right?
40:59
You can call him the guy that fell out the window, or you can
41:02
say you're the dude that God healed and brought back to life.
41:06
It's like, man, tell me the story.
41:08
What did you see? What did you experience?
41:10
And I can almost think Utica's going, Nah, you know what?
41:12
What I saw, it's too much. I can't repeat it, man.
41:15
It was just too glorious. That's what Paul does later.
41:18
So I got taken up into heaven, but I can't even tell you what I
41:21
saw. It was too amazing, too
41:23
glorious. So here we are in this section.
41:26
We just see that people, even Uticus, had friends.
41:29
The church had friends. And I don't mean friends
41:32
necessarily in the world concept of friendships.
41:36
Like, you know, sometimes people will come to church and go, you
41:38
know, I'm just coming to church to have friends.
41:40
You're going to be disappointed. Your motive has to be to please
41:44
the Lord. And the Bible even talks to us a
41:47
different perspective of friendship in the world, where
41:50
friendship in the church is a spiritual connection.
41:53
And if you're to have friends, the Bible says you must first
41:56
show yourself to be friendly, friendly.
42:01
And one of the excuses that's in the room today is like, well,
42:03
you know, I'm not going to serve.
42:04
I'm not going to be friends because you don't understand,
42:06
pastor, I'm an introvert. And all the introverts just
42:10
bowed their heads. But I'm asking you to stop using
42:14
that as an excuse. And I'm asking you to come with
42:18
your introvert personality and serve the Lord.
42:21
I'm asking you to come with your introvert personality and just
42:24
take a step of faith and stop using that as an excuse.
42:28
You have to interact with other people in the world.
42:30
You do just fine. You have to go to work.
42:31
You got to go to the market. You, you interact with other
42:33
people. How much more does the church
42:36
need you? And really, I'm not advocating
42:37
like a recruitment for the church.
42:39
And oh, we need all these servants.
42:41
We don't have the servants. We just won't do it.
42:43
I'm not going to beg anybody to serve.
42:45
I'm going to beg you to seek the Lord.
42:46
He'll tell you to serve. But I mean, think about as we
42:49
leave here, why would setting up chairs be that important?
42:52
That was the first thing on our list today.
42:54
Why would I don't want to be setting up chairs?
42:56
That's been emailed. Setting up chairs?
42:57
What? What kind of service is that?
42:59
Oh, I'm not called to set up chairs.
43:02
All right, bro, I guess you got a better calling than the rest
43:05
of us. Like all of us, set up chairs is
43:07
not that big a deal. But what's the big deal about
43:09
chairs? Is it chairs?
43:11
No, the actually the big deal is not about chairs at all.
43:14
It's who sits on them that's the big deal.
43:18
Not only that, why would you step in and answer one of these
43:21
calls for service? I want you to remember this word
43:24
proximity. Proximity.
43:28
Proximity to who? Ed or to what?
43:31
Well, I'm glad you asked. When you choose to serve in the
43:34
church, you are closer to people, and that's ministry.
43:42
When you come here, you're a lot closer to people here than you
43:44
are on your couch at home. Can I get an Amen on that?
43:48
OK. I just want to make sure you're
43:49
with me because I feel, and I feel that some are unconvinced,
43:55
but I want to convince you that it's worth stepping into the
43:58
life of your church. It's worth making yourself
44:01
available. It's worth praying over and
44:03
going. I think I would want to join
44:05
that team and I want to be close to the leader, Kenny, and I want
44:08
to serve and I want to learn. I want to be like, I'll just
44:11
follow Paul, even if he never talks to me, even if he know
44:15
I'll just want to be close to him because I got a lot to learn
44:17
if I watch him. I got a lot to learn if he if
44:20
I'm available. And I can make his ministry so
44:22
much more if I serve him. And so I can be like Sopitor or
44:26
I can be like Aristarchus or I can be like Gaius, where it is a
44:30
togetherness in the church. And as I shared the title of our
44:33
message today is doing life and ministry together.
44:37
And that's how you impact the city.
44:39
That's how you impact the state. And that's how the gospel goes
44:41
from a little church on the corner of Hampton and Biscay,
44:45
how the gospel goes through from this little church literally
44:48
around the world. It's unbelievable what God has
44:51
done through what used to be just a mound of dirt.
44:55
That's where we are right now, just a mound of dirt and
44:58
tumbleweeds. God had a plan and purpose.
45:01
And how much more does God have a plan and purpose for you as
45:06
clay in his hands? So Lord, thank you for your word
45:10
and being encourage your church. God, as we know that we can't do
45:14
this alone, that we are in a family.
45:16
We are a part of a church team. I thank you for our pastors and
45:20
their wives and their children. I pray right now even for the
45:23
children we talked about pastors kids, but also I pray for the
45:27
kids of pastors that they would rise to the occasion of the
45:30
calling that you have upon their lives.
45:33
They would see the value of supporting their parents and
45:35
serving in the church and yielding themselves to you and
45:38
having a real walk with you. Lord, I pray that over their
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lives right now, even as I pray that the church would treat them
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as the kids or the young people they are not just because of
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their pastors kids. And so we have a lot to learn,
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Lord. We want to learn it.
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We want to grow in your grace. So God teach us and lead us and
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guide us today in Jesus name, Amen.
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We pray that you've been encouraged by this Bible study
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delivered live from the sanctuary of Calvary Church for
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prayer. Call us at 87730 grace that's
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877-304-7223. To listen to this message in its
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integrity or to join us for our live stream services, visit us
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online at Calvary Co dot Church or download our free Calvary
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Church app. Be blessed as you worship Jesus
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this week.