Latest / 100% Maybe / Ep. 47 - Welcome Home: The Great Connector

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Ep. 47 - Welcome Home: The Great Connector · 100% Maybe

0:00
SPEAKER_01: Waiting for you to talk about my new uh yard sale find.
0:04
SPEAKER_04: Well, that is the elephant in the room.
0:07
SPEAKER_04: So let's go ahead and start there.
0:08
SPEAKER_04: Is it an elephant or is it a deer?
0:10
SPEAKER_04: What it okay.
0:12
SPEAKER_04: For those of you if you're just joining us in the audio format only, I would recommend you head straight over to YouTube right now at CLC Goldfreeze.
0:24
SPEAKER_04: And feast your eyes on our newest member of the 100% maybe set here.
0:31
unknown: Ow.
0:33
SPEAKER_04: That thing is solid brass.
0:35
SPEAKER_04: Brass, yeah.
0:38
SPEAKER_04: It's pretty solid.
0:39
SPEAKER_01: Now, what is what is this?
0:42
SPEAKER_01: This, as when we went on vacation, as the other very important artifacts are the lion.
0:50
SPEAKER_01: This is a lion.
0:52
SPEAKER_01: Um, the ba bab tree on the back.
0:54
SPEAKER_01: And now, I don't we're gonna name it.
0:56
SPEAKER_01: And that and that oh yeah, I mean that that archaeological find that we found in Colorado at a church that was clearing out all their stuff.
1:05
SPEAKER_01: I said, Oh, that is that is something.
1:07
SPEAKER_04: An abandoned church.
1:08
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what it is, but it's it is folk art.
1:11
SPEAKER_04: Nothing good ever starts from an abandoned church.
1:13
SPEAKER_01: I mean, there was a church that was cleaning out their cellars, and so it it was abandoned at a church in the mountains.
1:20
SPEAKER_01: Very interesting.
1:21
SPEAKER_01: But Tammy and I were in um oh man, I just uh uh uh Bryson City, maybe.
1:28
SPEAKER_01: Bryson City.
1:29
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
1:30
SPEAKER_01: In North Carolina, and uh is that's not Tennessee, it can't be Tennessee.
1:34
SPEAKER_01: Um and we went into a shop and they had uh multiple of these cool brass sculptures.
1:41
SPEAKER_04: There's more than one of these.
1:42
SPEAKER_01: Oh, there's a there's a a moose.
1:44
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
1:45
SPEAKER_01: There are a there's a fox.
1:47
SPEAKER_01: There's some that are life size, like huge wall mount brass things, and I was like, that's I can't be too much.
1:53
SPEAKER_01: It's not coming into 100%.
1:55
SPEAKER_01: But this one is fantastic.
1:56
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I know you questioned he he has a pipe in his mouth, and you're like, I don't know if that's sending the wrong message.
2:01
SPEAKER_01: And I thought, how do you jump past the sunglasses to be worried about whatever message?
2:05
SPEAKER_04: But it's you know, there's nothing it looks like he's wearing like 3D movie glasses back in the day.
2:11
SPEAKER_01: He does.
2:12
SPEAKER_01: Yep, they're just hanging on his nose, and uh it's just one of those things that spoke to me.
2:16
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what it said, yeah, but I figured it needed to be a part of the set.
2:21
SPEAKER_01: It's not a golden idol.
2:22
SPEAKER_01: Don't let anybody get too excited, it's none of that stuff.
2:25
SPEAKER_04: It's not gold, it's brass.
2:26
SPEAKER_01: It's brass, it's just a cool thing that I had to have.
2:30
SPEAKER_04: Do we feel like this is like a candle holder, right?
2:33
SPEAKER_01: I think it by purpose and design, it has candle holder things.
2:38
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
2:38
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if we'll ever use it for that purpose.
2:41
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if that's better or worse.
2:43
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
2:44
SPEAKER_01: But if I was an interior direct decorator, I would I would theme my entire house around that thing.
2:48
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
2:48
SPEAKER_01: I would.
2:50
SPEAKER_04: You really if if I don't have this version if since you threw it out there, if I'm an interior decorator, I might have a hard time trying to figure out your style.
3:02
SPEAKER_01: Look at this eclectic.
3:04
SPEAKER_01: It's a shoehorn and a and an oil can.
3:08
SPEAKER_01: Signed.
3:08
SPEAKER_04: Assigned.
3:09
SPEAKER_01: A very well-known author that somebody knew.
3:12
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
3:13
SPEAKER_01: There you go.
3:14
SPEAKER_01: Well this is where all the magic the magic, this is where the all the spirit happens.
3:18
SPEAKER_01: Right here.
3:20
SPEAKER_04: No?
3:20
SPEAKER_04: This is where all something happens.
3:22
unknown: Yeah.
3:24
SPEAKER_04: So that's that's that's where we're at today.
3:27
SPEAKER_04: That's our newest, our newest thing here.
3:30
SPEAKER_01: Artifact.
3:31
SPEAKER_01: That's what I'm putting on it.
3:33
SPEAKER_04: Another great find.
3:34
SPEAKER_01: Another great find for the yard sale pastor, flea market.
3:37
SPEAKER_01: Flea market flea market pastor.
3:38
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so if you're looking to redecorate your house, maybe, you know, side business.
3:43
SPEAKER_01: I won't do it, but I will find the one piece that you can work around.
3:47
SPEAKER_01: That's what I'm saying.
3:48
SPEAKER_04: I think people make a good living doing that.
3:50
SPEAKER_04: I they're like, I need something to tie this whole room together.
3:54
SPEAKER_04: And that might be the statement piece.
3:56
SPEAKER_04: You search abandoned churches in the mountains to find that one one piece.
4:00
SPEAKER_04: I do.
4:01
SPEAKER_04: That brings it all together.
4:02
SPEAKER_01: That many multiple pieces.
4:03
SPEAKER_01: I just I come out of a state with a thing.
4:06
SPEAKER_01: It's not over.
4:07
SPEAKER_01: Search still continues.
4:08
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
4:09
SPEAKER_04: Well, good.
4:10
SPEAKER_04: Speaking of the search continuing, I really am searching for connection.
4:16
SPEAKER_04: Can you help me?
4:17
SPEAKER_04: I am.
4:17
SPEAKER_04: That's right.
4:17
SPEAKER_01: This week this week, uh, we are can we continue on in our series called Um Welcome Home.
4:24
SPEAKER_01: It's the Welcome Home series.
4:26
SPEAKER_01: Everybody's getting back on track.
4:27
SPEAKER_01: Sunday was awesome.
4:28
SPEAKER_01: It was amazing.
4:29
SPEAKER_01: Sunday morning, there were more children than are allowed by law.
4:33
SPEAKER_01: They were everywhere.
4:35
SPEAKER_01: We blessed backpacks.
4:36
SPEAKER_01: We got everybody off into school.
4:39
SPEAKER_01: Um, and and then the message, the idea of splitting the crowd and sinners and and scribes and Pharisees was um, I mean, I had so much fun preaching that message that I kind of went over maybe a little bit.
4:51
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
4:52
SPEAKER_01: By like 10 minutes in the last year.
4:53
SPEAKER_04: Well, there was a lot, there was announcements, there was the blessing of the back.
4:56
SPEAKER_01: Just Kyle, interviewing Kyle, all that stuff.
4:58
SPEAKER_01: So, so today we move into this the second stated value that we have.
5:01
SPEAKER_01: So, first one is we value people because God values people, and then intersermon there.
5:07
SPEAKER_01: Um, today we value what we would say is we value connection because God is the great connector.
5:13
SPEAKER_01: And and I believe that.
5:14
SPEAKER_01: Um, you you if we look at scripture, Genesis 1, 2, and 3, we have a beautiful connection.
5:21
SPEAKER_01: God, God creates the heavens and the earth, humanity, and then um, and and is in fellowship with us.
5:27
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 3, we break that connection because of our desire to to be like God.
5:34
SPEAKER_01: And then the rest of the book is God uh uh doing everything necessary to reconnect or to reconcile, whatever, whatever church word that you'd like to use there.
5:44
SPEAKER_01: But the word I think the word is connect.
5:46
SPEAKER_01: And you you know, you hear phrases like he's the god of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
5:51
SPEAKER_01: That's not just a lineage, that's a connection that goes through the God of Israel, but misunderstood in context, it'd be easy to think that Israel was the end all be all.
6:01
SPEAKER_01: And we're gonna have a text that we can look at today.
6:02
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
6:03
SPEAKER_01: That is not the case.
6:04
SPEAKER_01: Israel was the nation that God chose to reveal himself through, that they would be the stewards of the connection, that they would be the ones that would understand the heart of God and then show up in the world to reveal God to the world.
6:17
SPEAKER_01: That didn't go great.
6:18
SPEAKER_01: That didn't go very well.
6:19
SPEAKER_01: Um, and but uh God knew that.
6:21
SPEAKER_01: None of that surprises God until ultimately Jesus shows up and reveals the heart of the Father and provides us the connection by his sacrifice.
6:30
SPEAKER_01: Um, he he gives us the ability to believe in our hearts and to ask for forgiveness and to be forgiven and to be reconciled back to the heart of God.
6:37
SPEAKER_01: So in that message, there is the God who is the great connector that wants to connect.
6:43
SPEAKER_01: There's the there is the ability to believe and to reconnect, and then we become stewards of the connection.
6:49
SPEAKER_01: I believe that with my whole heart.
6:51
SPEAKER_01: And this scripture scriptures that we're gonna look at today kind of puts that into perspective.
6:56
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
6:56
SPEAKER_04: The way you just describe that to you, is it more of a connection this way?
7:06
SPEAKER_04: Uh vertically, is there do you think it bears explanation connection horizontally as well?
7:14
SPEAKER_04: Because there's the impact that was felt going back to Genesis between man and God, between man and woman, and even man and creation.
7:22
SPEAKER_04: All of those chains got great question.
7:25
SPEAKER_01: I would say yes.
7:26
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think it's that's where we become the stewards of the connection.
7:29
SPEAKER_01: So there's an ultimate connection that we pray everybody makes in their life to God, and then you take and you steward that connection.
7:36
SPEAKER_01: God uses people to reach people, and so we take and we we reach out to, we love, we care.
7:41
SPEAKER_01: We we are the ones that help to reveal God in this world and the way that we and the way that we show up.
7:47
SPEAKER_01: The way that we show up doesn't earn us anything.
7:50
SPEAKER_01: The way that we show up is is how we reveal God, hopefully allowing other to transform our lives so that when people see us, they're not going to see a perfect reflection of God, but they should see the residue or the vestiges that that are there that are transforming and doing that in our lives.
8:05
SPEAKER_01: So, yes, horizontal, vertical, it splits on the, I mean, just think of the Ten Commandments, right?
8:10
SPEAKER_01: I mean, so even in that, there's the vertical connection and the the requirements we have to the heart of God, and then there's requirements we have to our neighbor.
8:17
SPEAKER_01: So all of the way that our faith breaks down is gonna be not just a vertical connection, it's also a horizontal connection.
8:22
SPEAKER_04: How important is it for us to first have that connection back before we are that helpful to others?
8:31
SPEAKER_01: Uh I mean, if you're gonna base it on helpful, I'd say it's pretty important, but but sometimes it works in reverse.
8:36
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes there's a connection of people that then connect you back to the heart of God, which is clearly how it often oftentimes works.
8:42
SPEAKER_01: So I I I think God gets us there.
8:45
SPEAKER_01: He draws people into our lives.
8:46
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we see a sunset and we're connected, but it doesn't often work like that.
8:50
SPEAKER_01: There are people that that will show up in your life that'll speak truth that will help you to navigate through and then maybe reveal some truth to you about God.
8:56
SPEAKER_01: Um, so the the both hand, I would say if you want to show up in this world and be helpful, you should understand the one who who offers the most help.
9:04
SPEAKER_04: Right.
9:05
SPEAKER_04: And who brought it all to be.
9:06
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
9:07
SPEAKER_04: So last question, then we can jump into the scripture and the verses that will be in what to you is if I know what I'm connected to, I'm feeling connected, what to you is the flip side of that?
9:21
SPEAKER_04: If I'm not a connected to people, I'm not connected to my creator, I'm not connected to this reconciliatory love.
9:32
SPEAKER_01: Now that's a that's a great question, Jeff.
9:35
SPEAKER_01: And I'm trying to figure out where you're going with that.
9:36
SPEAKER_01: Are you just are you just poking the bear?
9:38
SPEAKER_01: Just asking questions.
9:39
SPEAKER_01: Just asking questions.
9:40
SPEAKER_01: I I would say, well, I mean, but there's a and I don't have an agenda either, but I think you could answer that based that could form an agenda.
9:47
SPEAKER_01: Um I I think without sounding like a preacher, I would say if you're not connected, you're lost.
9:54
SPEAKER_01: So just go back into last week's last week's things.
9:57
SPEAKER_01: And what I mean by that is if we're designed to be in relationship with God, if we have been created in the image of God, and so therefore, as the image bearers, the hope is to be connected to the one who gave us that image so we could best live the life that we've been called to live.
10:10
SPEAKER_01: If you are not connected to God, then you are lost from your connection.
10:15
SPEAKER_01: So therefore, you're you're floating.
10:17
SPEAKER_01: You can you can be whoever you want to be.
10:19
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't mean that you are that.
10:21
SPEAKER_01: Right.
10:21
SPEAKER_01: Right?
10:21
SPEAKER_01: But I mean, you can chase, you can go, you can do all those things.
10:24
SPEAKER_01: But if the origin of your connection was designed to be back to the heart of God, then you're lost in so many ways.
10:31
SPEAKER_01: And and and and the neat thing is that I don't, even though the last week in the parable of the the prodigal, the father was waiting for the son to return, I I believe God is pursuing us, he's looking for us, he's putting those things there.
10:43
SPEAKER_01: But there isn't there is an element where God is God will never force himself upon you.
10:48
SPEAKER_01: He's he's gonna welcome, he's gonna wait for you to to come back um and and return and and make that connection.
10:54
SPEAKER_04: That's good.
10:54
SPEAKER_04: And it even in the first story, the shepherd goes to pursue the sheep in that way.
11:00
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
11:00
SPEAKER_04: So different circumstance in the in the prodigal son story, but yeah.
11:07
SPEAKER_04: Both truths you see that the heart of God, which is which is the the main thing.
11:13
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
11:13
SPEAKER_04: Um Okay, cool.
11:14
SPEAKER_04: Well tell us where we're gonna be this week.
11:16
SPEAKER_01: So we're um whenever pastors talk about connection, they love to go to Acts 2.
11:22
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
11:22
SPEAKER_01: And they love to talk about the works of the early church, how the early church showed up in our and if if this series next year, if you tie, if you dial into the Welcome Home series, it's going to be on the things that we invite our church to do, which is to gather, group, give, and serve.
11:37
SPEAKER_01: General collection terms for what the early church did.
11:41
SPEAKER_01: They gathered together, they they would give, um, they gathered and they grouped.
11:46
SPEAKER_01: So they gathered, think of services, I gotta get together.
11:48
SPEAKER_01: Services, rows, sitting in a church, hearing the apostles' teaching.
11:52
SPEAKER_01: And then they grouped, they shared life together, they broke bread, they do all those things.
11:55
SPEAKER_01: They would give.
11:56
SPEAKER_01: There was a shared economy where if somebody had a need, they would meet that need.
12:00
SPEAKER_01: And if somebody had the ability to do that, they would they would move in and about.
12:03
SPEAKER_01: That's how they took care of one another.
12:04
SPEAKER_01: And then they would serve.
12:05
SPEAKER_01: You find them walking alongside, doing the things that someone else couldn't do, but but that's how they took care of it.
12:11
SPEAKER_01: Those are the verses that you see there.
12:13
SPEAKER_01: So when we talk about God is a great connector, it's easy for a preacher to drop right into that and say, and here's our connection.
12:20
SPEAKER_01: What I want to do in this sermon is to show you how you get to that connection.
12:24
SPEAKER_01: It's backwards for me to start with the connection without understanding the connector and what the design is and how Jesus lived, walked, and then called the 12, poured into them, and then sent them out.
12:36
SPEAKER_01: Um, and it was so much larger than just what they could have even possibly imagined.
12:40
SPEAKER_01: But somehow that story made it from there all the way to Gulf Breeze.
12:43
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
12:44
SPEAKER_01: So that, so, so you have that tension.
12:46
SPEAKER_01: So what I did is I took the original text we're going to look at and I backed into Acts 1 and pulled in uh really the front side of the ascension where Jesus is talking and repairing the disciples uh reveals their hearts a little bit, and then we go into it.
13:01
SPEAKER_01: So I don't know how much you want to talk about it.
13:03
SPEAKER_04: Man, there's a lot to talk about here.
13:05
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot to talk about here.
13:06
SPEAKER_01: So what go ahead.
13:07
SPEAKER_01: What do you want to do, man?
13:08
SPEAKER_04: Well, the biggest piece, yeah, the Holy Spirit.
13:13
SPEAKER_04: Okay, the promise of the Holy Spirit.
13:15
SPEAKER_04: Yep.
13:15
SPEAKER_04: So this is post-resurrection.
13:16
SPEAKER_04: This is within the 40 days of after the resurrection, before the ascension.
13:21
SPEAKER_04: Jesus is returns back.
13:23
SPEAKER_01: Some people don't know that he, after the resurrection, for 40 days, Jesus walked around, spent time with the disciples, revealed himself to in if in some of the books in Acts later on, thousands of people.
13:34
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
13:35
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
13:36
SPEAKER_02: Teaching them.
13:37
SPEAKER_02: Right.
13:39
SPEAKER_02: What do you want to know?
13:41
SPEAKER_04: Um well I I don't know.
13:44
SPEAKER_04: That's just interesting.
13:45
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's it's interesting, and I I don't you probably can't say a lot about it because we don't have a lot about it.
13:50
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
13:51
SPEAKER_01: You can back into um, you know, when when you look at the teachings that the early church had from the uh from the from the apostles or the disciples, whatever, same same folks, into Paul, they they started to put together truths about Jesus that they would not have derived from necessarily the messages that Jesus taught.
14:16
SPEAKER_01: So at the end of the Gospel of Luke, there's a there's a one or two sentences where it says that Jesus opened up the scriptures to them and taught them all that the scripture had to say about him or revealed to him.
14:32
SPEAKER_01: So when we think that, he's talking about Old Testament, what we would call the Old Testament.
14:36
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus opened up the Old Testament and showed them where either he was prophesied or what scripture had to say about him.
14:44
SPEAKER_01: So they didn't just come up with that on their own, and it wasn't just the Holy Spirit dropped it, deposited in their brain, it was Jesus who gave them the baseline of all of that.
14:52
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
14:53
SPEAKER_04: And then pretty good source.
14:55
SPEAKER_04: What if you're gonna learn?
14:56
SPEAKER_04: That's a pretty good source to learn from it.
14:57
SPEAKER_01: For 40 days, he was data dumping, helping them, bringing them along.
15:02
SPEAKER_01: So when you get into the scripture and you think the you start to hear these beautiful truths, they weren't just making this stuff up.
15:08
SPEAKER_01: And although they had the Holy Spirit, they they were working with what Jesus probably gave them.
15:12
SPEAKER_01: And then the Holy Spirit was refining and then revealing as they wrote it down into text.
15:17
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
15:17
SPEAKER_01: So that that was going on for those 40 days.
15:21
SPEAKER_04: And it shows you the because post during the resurrection, the disciples scatter, they flee, they're scared.
15:31
SPEAKER_04: Then during this almost restorative time, Jesus is meeting with during the crucifixion, yeah.
15:36
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
15:36
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah, sorry.
15:37
SPEAKER_04: That's right.
15:39
SPEAKER_04: Strengthening them, teaching them, and giving them a promise, which we'll talk about here.
15:44
SPEAKER_04: And it shows you then how the church and the early church became what it became, and the the confidence that they now had to step into what what we know the result of is the gospel spread to the ends of the earth, yeah, as he says.
15:58
SPEAKER_04: And um, so it it does show you it it it paints a bigger picture of how do they go from that to to this, to what happened, and you s you can see that.
16:08
SPEAKER_01: And it's sad that we don't have better documentation on all of the disciples.
16:11
SPEAKER_01: What you do have is you have Acts, Luke wrote this, and and and so not that you need all this history, but I'll give it to you.
16:18
SPEAKER_01: You know, Luke was Luke joined Paul in one of his missionary journeys, and so then subsequently, when he kind of was folded into the faith, he then went back, took the gospel of Mark, fleshed it out with information and eyewitness accounts that he got, wrote that for Theophilus.
16:36
SPEAKER_01: You can go read the first chapter of Luke, wrote either for a person Theophilus, or that's a general term to say believers of God, lovers of God.
16:45
SPEAKER_01: Um, so one one or the other.
16:47
SPEAKER_01: We don't know if that's a code word or if that's to a specific person, but then he broke it after that, and then he went into the Acts of the Apostles.
16:53
SPEAKER_01: But the Acts of the Apostles, although it in the early chapters it includes the history of the church and its very infant stages, so you'll get more of the names of the disciples, it really starts to narrow down and starts to focus on Peter, John, some of James, and then Paul, largely Paul, and then as he would circle back to Jerusalem, how they would have those connections.
17:17
SPEAKER_01: So you don't get the benefit of how those other disciples really because if you read extra canonical or books that are outside of text, they all have a story.
17:28
SPEAKER_01: You don't know if it's all true, but so-and-so went here, so-and-so went there, and then you start to find these histories of entire civilizations and other countries that have a Christian faith anchored in them, but they might be an entirely Muslim country.
17:46
SPEAKER_01: So, where did that come from?
17:47
SPEAKER_01: It can't it came from a disciple that landed there years ago that planted all of those seeds, and you could see those beginnings.
17:53
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
17:54
SPEAKER_01: So why I said all that, other than to say that the disciples, after receiving the Holy Spirit and having the training from Jesus and then receiving the Holy Spirit, they got busy planting the early church.
18:03
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
18:04
SPEAKER_01: They got after it.
18:05
SPEAKER_04: Let's talk about the Holy Spirit.
18:06
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
18:07
SPEAKER_04: Because entire theologies have been built around these first couple chapters.
18:12
SPEAKER_04: The coming of the Holy Spirit, what that means.
18:16
SPEAKER_04: He gives them further instructions through the Holy Spirit after giving his apostles further instructions through the Holy Spirit, uh, during the 40 days he appeared.
18:27
SPEAKER_04: Talked to them in many ways.
18:28
SPEAKER_04: He talked to them about the kingdom of God.
18:31
SPEAKER_04: But what's striking to me here is the Holy Spirit, the idea of that would have been probably completely new to them.
18:42
SPEAKER_04: There was the term I mean, the Spirit of God is a term you see throughout scripture from the beginning.
18:49
SPEAKER_04: But I think this idea of, hey, I'm actually you guys are gonna have this Holy Spirit within you had to be a completely new idea.
18:59
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, I mean he tried.
19:01
SPEAKER_01: Right?
19:01
SPEAKER_01: So at the end of John, he was there's one that's gonna come after me.
19:04
SPEAKER_01: There's I mean, so he it wasn't that he wasn't talking about it.
19:07
SPEAKER_01: I don't think they could have ever fully understood it.
19:10
SPEAKER_01: And and then you have the the breakover of the the physical temple and the presence of God versus the the our bodies becoming the temple and the work that Christ does and then the the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of us versus what you read about prior to this, which is the Holy Spirit would settle on someone for a particular stated purpose.
19:32
SPEAKER_01: But after belief in Christ now and the sacrifice of Christ, Christ, because of our because of our belief and because of our faith, we've now been forgiven because of his righteousness, which then cleanses us to be able to have the Holy Spirit.
19:48
SPEAKER_01: So so this changed everything.
19:50
SPEAKER_01: Now there's your theologies, right?
19:52
SPEAKER_01: And and that can you there's for all the 30 denominations or 50,000 denominations that we have in our church, people are gonna have a little bit of a different insight as to as to what that looks like when we get into the day of Pentecost, as we're gonna talk about here in a second.
20:04
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's another whole spin out as we talk about foreign languages.
20:08
SPEAKER_01: But what what I I think we need to know in in the simplest forms of even if it's just for this message, or maybe this is the greater point, is that Jesus was the connector.
20:18
SPEAKER_01: He was the connection that reestablished the ability for us to connect back to the heart of the Father because of his sacrifice.
20:25
SPEAKER_01: He came, he visited, he did the work that Jesus needed to do, and then he ascended.
20:29
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Hold on, because the Holy Spirit's gonna come.
20:31
SPEAKER_01: Then the Holy Spirit is the one that then is present among us, that then helps us to steward that connection by leading and guiding.
20:39
SPEAKER_01: And it's the Holy Spirit that I believe does the work in the hearts of people that ultimately brings the transformation.
20:44
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
20:46
SPEAKER_02: That's good.
20:47
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
20:48
SPEAKER_02: I like a lot.
20:48
SPEAKER_02: I was talking a lot.
20:49
SPEAKER_02: Well, it is a lot, there's a lot here.
20:52
SPEAKER_04: Even just the what we now to be understand like fruits of the spirit.
20:57
SPEAKER_04: Here's what the Holy Spirit brings about.
21:00
SPEAKER_04: I don't you don't know.
21:01
SPEAKER_04: It's an inside of language, right?
21:02
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah, right.
21:03
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, fruits of the spirit.
21:04
SPEAKER_04: What are you talking about?
21:05
SPEAKER_04: Right?
21:05
SPEAKER_04: It's just, but it's this promise of this is this this power for this reason.
21:11
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, not power, so you can then do whatever you want.
21:15
SPEAKER_04: And in fact, I think it's an interesting insight into what they were still thinking when they say, Okay, cool, are you gonna restore the kingdom of Israel?
21:24
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's my favorite part, is is when Jesus is like, Okay, I'm gonna go, and I want you to go wait and you know, get ready until you receive the promise.
21:30
SPEAKER_01: And they're like, Is now the time?
21:32
SPEAKER_01: Is now the time that you're gonna do what everybody thought you were gonna do when you came into Jerusalem?
21:36
SPEAKER_01: They're still missing the main point.
21:37
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
21:38
SPEAKER_01: He's like, No, I'm sending you to the world.
21:40
SPEAKER_01: You're going to the world.
21:42
SPEAKER_04: Um Can you imagine a collective wait, what?
21:45
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
21:45
SPEAKER_01: Another, oh we get to travel.
21:48
SPEAKER_04: So why do you think it's important for us to understand the differences about the kingdom of God versus the world?
22:00
SPEAKER_04: Because they're thinking, hey, world, Rome, Israel, powerful, like, let's get back to that.
22:06
SPEAKER_04: That's what you came to do here.
22:07
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
22:07
SPEAKER_04: And he's like, actually that's a great question.
22:09
SPEAKER_04: You're getting this so that you can take my message like out.
22:12
SPEAKER_01: I appreciate you answering it.
22:13
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
22:14
SPEAKER_01: So I I think there's a delineation between because the world had separated itself from God, right?
22:18
SPEAKER_01: So the so the world is not the kingdom.
22:20
SPEAKER_01: Although God will roll back the world and he will re-establish the kingdom.
22:24
SPEAKER_01: So there's that ultimate, but but the world that they're looking at that was full of brokenness and death and murder and all of the things, they were hoping that Jesus was going to reconcile and fix their natural world.
22:34
SPEAKER_01: Right.
22:34
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, bigger world, bigger kingdom.
22:36
SPEAKER_01: So they're still in that world where they're trying to fix the world.
22:39
SPEAKER_01: They're still in that space where they're trying to figure it out.
22:41
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
22:41
SPEAKER_01: So he's once again reminding them, I'm going to send you out into the natural world so that you can proclaim and and bring about the kingdom.
22:49
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
22:50
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
22:50
SPEAKER_04: So where do we go?
22:51
SPEAKER_04: So Jesus ascends.
22:53
SPEAKER_04: Uh you're going to talk about the when the Holy Spirit comes.
22:55
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
22:56
SPEAKER_01: Jesus ascends, and then you have then the disciples get together, they have a committee meeting, and they elect a roll some dice.
23:02
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
23:02
SPEAKER_01: They roll some dice, they cast lots to elect a dis a disciple or an apostle to replace Judas.
23:09
SPEAKER_01: They do that.
23:10
SPEAKER_01: And then we get to chapter two.
23:11
SPEAKER_01: And then this is known as the day of Pentecost.
23:13
SPEAKER_01: Um, and I I tell you, so when as a preacher, I've got lots of faith, faith backgrounds in me.
23:20
SPEAKER_01: I'm a I'm a spiritual mutt.
23:22
SPEAKER_01: Probably can say that.
23:23
SPEAKER_01: Do you say that?
23:23
SPEAKER_01: Is that deeply offensive?
23:25
SPEAKER_01: No, but I am.
23:26
SPEAKER_01: So I can say that.
23:27
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
23:27
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
23:27
SPEAKER_01: So I mean I've been in multiple, multiple faith systems that I have worked in, but also attended in.
23:32
SPEAKER_01: So everything from being raised in Catholicism to being in a non-denominational church which was Pentecostal to Church of God of Prophecy to all of them, to being a Methodist pastor to name it.
23:44
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
23:46
SPEAKER_01: I've been in so many different expressions of faith.
23:48
SPEAKER_01: So I can be in a lot of conversations.
23:50
SPEAKER_01: Whenever you get to the day of Pentecost, the spidey senses start to rise up in me because I think about how we have as a church, not our church, but the church, is so afraid to talk about the miracle of the day of Pentecost.
24:04
SPEAKER_01: And if you're in the Pentecostal lane, you're like, yeah, let's go.
24:08
SPEAKER_01: Let's talk about tongues.
24:09
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
24:09
SPEAKER_01: And I understand that because as a I've we've had this conversation before, as a person who has a prayer language that I pray, I also understand the purpose, the design, and the timing of when I use that in a way that doesn't cause confusion.
24:21
SPEAKER_01: This story is not that.
24:23
SPEAKER_01: This story is God giving the disciples the ability to one of two things.
24:29
SPEAKER_01: Either speak in a foreign language that the people could understand, or giving people the ability to hear the deeds of God in their own language.
24:41
SPEAKER_01: One of those two things happens.
24:43
SPEAKER_01: So I'm not discounting somebody who believes in speaking in tongues and holds that lane.
24:48
SPEAKER_01: I'm just saying this is not that.
24:50
SPEAKER_01: This is a miracle of God wanting to connect and cutting through the barrier of languages.
24:56
SPEAKER_01: Yesterday in our worship planning, there was a there was a great thought on the Tower of Babel and how these two things relate.
25:02
SPEAKER_01: So Old Testament Tower of Babel, God confuses the languages because uh the modern man, the people, humanity during the time of the Tower of Babel had assembled themselves in such a way that they were achieving a level that God said, This is not good for them to be at this place.
25:20
SPEAKER_01: They are they are becoming their own gods.
25:22
SPEAKER_01: They're getting to a place to where it's not gonna be right.
25:25
SPEAKER_01: So what did he do?
25:26
SPEAKER_01: He confused their language.
25:27
SPEAKER_01: And when they all started speaking a different language, they scattered.
25:30
SPEAKER_01: Here, you have a common language coming back, and it's the language of God, that God is speaking in a language that everybody can understand, so they can be back on the same sheet of music.
25:41
SPEAKER_01: So if we're gonna talk about the connector, you have to you have to take that narrative and understand that God is speaking to the people in a way that they themselves can hear the deeds of God, the deeds of power.
25:55
SPEAKER_01: It's incredible.
25:57
SPEAKER_01: It is a beautiful, amazing miracle.
25:59
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, definitely.
26:02
SPEAKER_01: That's what happens on the day of Pentecost.
26:04
SPEAKER_01: And and and then it continues on because they start to do this, and people that are on the outside looking in, they're going, what is going on?
26:11
SPEAKER_01: These people are speaking the deeds of God, the power and the power of God in a language that I can understand.
26:16
SPEAKER_01: And they're like, Well, who are these are these are just fishermen?
26:20
SPEAKER_01: They're from Galilee.
26:21
SPEAKER_01: Like they're always getting the shade thrown on them.
26:23
SPEAKER_01: They're from Galilee, they they barely speak Greek, they they're speaking Aramaic.
26:28
SPEAKER_01: There's no way they're speaking my language.
26:31
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
26:32
SPEAKER_04: People from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, a bunch of other stuff.
26:40
SPEAKER_04: All the things, yeah.
26:41
SPEAKER_04: Cyrene, Rome, Cretans, Arabs.
26:44
SPEAKER_01: All of a sudden, these 12 guys who are largely fishermen and and largely uneducated, man, they're spouting out French or whatever.
26:52
SPEAKER_01: Whatever the whatever that wasn't no French step.
26:53
SPEAKER_01: But whatever language was spoken at the time.
26:55
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
26:56
SPEAKER_01: Um, and causing some people to go, no, they're just drunk.
27:00
SPEAKER_01: Just drunk.
27:01
SPEAKER_01: They're drunk.
27:02
SPEAKER_01: So Peter steps up and preaches the best sermon of all time, the best gospel message.
27:09
SPEAKER_01: Gotta be.
27:09
SPEAKER_01: He gets up and he goes, No, they're not drunk.
27:12
SPEAKER_01: It's only three o'clock, which is a hilarious start to a to a thing.
27:15
SPEAKER_01: He's like, it was nine o'clock.
27:16
SPEAKER_01: Nine o'clock, whatever it was.
27:18
SPEAKER_01: Um, pretty early.
27:19
SPEAKER_01: Almost as if he's saying, come back later.
27:21
SPEAKER_01: They'll definitely be drunk by then.
27:22
SPEAKER_01: But right now, I'm sorry if that's offensive, but but he he has this great entrance into a sermon.
27:28
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
27:28
SPEAKER_01: Then he preaches the gospel.
27:29
SPEAKER_01: He said, There was this Jesus.
27:31
SPEAKER_01: God sent him.
27:32
SPEAKER_01: We know God sent him because we saw the miracles.
27:34
SPEAKER_01: You killed him, but God brought him back.
27:36
SPEAKER_01: God raised him from the dead, and we know he did because we saw him and we saw all the things that he did.
27:41
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
27:42
SPEAKER_01: And then he then he preaches how the repentance message, to which then gets us to the other part of the connection piece, and and we can come back and talk about any of that in a second.
27:50
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
27:51
SPEAKER_01: Where at that point the crowd goes, Scripture, uh, Luke tells us they were cut to the heart and they ask the question, Well, okay, what do we do?
27:59
SPEAKER_01: Repent, be baptized, every one of you in the name of Christ, and for the forgiveness of your sins, and ask ask for forgiveness.
28:05
SPEAKER_01: Um, and and that's what they do.
28:07
SPEAKER_01: And and he said, and you will receive this promise, referring to the Holy Spirit, but I believe promise means something larger than that.
28:13
SPEAKER_01: But the Holy Spirit, even if you went to it just being the Holy Spirit as the promise, it's it's the gift of God.
28:21
SPEAKER_01: It's the reconnection.
28:22
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit is not wholly different than God.
28:24
SPEAKER_01: Holy Spirit is God.
28:26
SPEAKER_01: So you will receive this gift.
28:28
SPEAKER_01: This is my relationship with you.
28:30
SPEAKER_01: This is my connection to you.
28:31
SPEAKER_01: You'll be reconnected back to the heart of God, and you will have the Holy Spirit.
28:36
SPEAKER_01: That's the promise.
28:37
SPEAKER_01: Then, as the verses continue on, then it gives you the description of them stewarding the connection.
28:43
SPEAKER_01: So that they got together, they prayed, they started to study the apostles' teaching that looked like the early church doing that.
28:49
SPEAKER_01: Then the next chapter has them going out into the world and feeding and taking care of the communities that were there.
28:54
SPEAKER_01: So you have the connector surrounding himself with twelve, connecting to them, and then empowering them to go out and be that connection.
29:02
SPEAKER_01: And then you have a picture of the early church doing what the early church did then, really what the modern church does today.
29:08
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
29:08
SPEAKER_01: Or or hopefully you have a modern church that does this today.
29:12
SPEAKER_04: Can I tell you a cool thought?
29:14
SPEAKER_04: Please.
29:14
SPEAKER_04: I had when you look at Peter's sermon, and even now what you just said about Jesus teaching them and showing them in the scripture, hey, this is this is me, me also, also me.
29:28
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
29:29
SPEAKER_04: The the connection points.
29:30
SPEAKER_04: When Peter s preaches his message, he goes back, he connects back to Joel and Psalms.
29:37
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and David, yeah.
29:38
SPEAKER_04: And he is connecting those pieces because if you read Joel, is it Joel?
29:44
SPEAKER_04: Joel?
29:44
SPEAKER_04: Joel?
29:45
SPEAKER_04: I would say Joel.
29:46
SPEAKER_04: Joel.
29:46
SPEAKER_04: Either way.
29:47
SPEAKER_04: That's right.
29:48
SPEAKER_04: Hoel, maybe.
29:50
SPEAKER_04: I don't know.
29:52
SPEAKER_04: Maybe not.
29:53
SPEAKER_03: We just offended it.
29:54
SPEAKER_03: Joel.
29:55
SPEAKER_04: So it's only three chapters.
29:56
SPEAKER_04: It's awesome though.
29:59
SPEAKER_04: I'm not a scholar.
30:01
SPEAKER_04: Um but just a pro a promise of future restoration.
30:08
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
30:08
SPEAKER_04: And and Joel, Joel too, is is it's it's cool.
30:12
SPEAKER_04: So it's it's uh it's interesting to imagine, hey, maybe Jesus is is pointing them out to these scriptures, and now Peter is taking that connection and and realizing, and clearly the spirit is at work and his words are are doing work, and there's a a major response here.
30:31
SPEAKER_01: Joel Amos uh in the last days I'll pour out my spirit on all flesh, right?
30:34
SPEAKER_01: So that's referencing Holy Spirit, but but that's what he's doing.
30:37
SPEAKER_01: So now it's going out.
30:39
SPEAKER_01: So it's not just Israel, right?
30:41
SPEAKER_01: So he's opening it up.
30:43
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, This is gonna be bigger, greater, but he's preaching that message to him.
30:47
SPEAKER_01: It's it's truly the gospel message.
30:49
SPEAKER_04: It's interesting too.
30:50
SPEAKER_04: You say that so the 39, uh, this promises to you and to your children, and even to the Gentiles, uh, all who have been called.
30:59
SPEAKER_04: And some some I think in that translation is either it means far from God or future.
31:05
SPEAKER_04: So there's even some understanding of they don't know if it does that mean people weigh into the future, or does that mean people weigh far from God currently, which would be Gentiles, but I would say yes, both and it's both, right?
31:18
SPEAKER_04: I would say both, but you see that promise now comes to all what was I guess presented through this nation and now as God's plan was from all along is is to reveal Himself to all to all.
31:32
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
31:32
SPEAKER_01: He preaches this sermon and three thousand people join.
31:36
SPEAKER_04: Is it is it interesting to you that their response is what should we do?
31:44
SPEAKER_01: That's a that's a that's a great get, Jeff.
31:46
SPEAKER_01: You've been sitting on that one over there?
31:48
SPEAKER_01: I but I I do I mean, but uh what else would you say?
31:51
SPEAKER_01: What should we think?
31:53
SPEAKER_01: When have we ever said that?
31:54
SPEAKER_01: Or how should we think differently?
31:56
SPEAKER_01: I think the doing in our mind is is it was we're a we're a responsive people, so uh that's probably the human nature.
32:03
SPEAKER_01: Because the repent is not a do.
32:05
SPEAKER_01: It is, but it's not.
32:06
SPEAKER_01: It's a um it is a shift, it's a transformation that happens.
32:10
SPEAKER_01: So so Peter he rings the bell.
32:15
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
32:16
SPEAKER_01: So what should we do?
32:17
SPEAKER_01: I I I think that's probably a um what do what do you want me to do?
32:20
SPEAKER_01: It's a response, right?
32:21
SPEAKER_01: It's a response, yeah.
32:22
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean that what it is is if they were moved.
32:25
SPEAKER_01: Um if I'm going to stand on stage and say God is the great connector and we steward the connection, that point is the point of connection.
32:35
SPEAKER_01: So that's what you're inviting people to be.
32:37
SPEAKER_01: When you hear me say, Um, we love God, we love our neighbor, we connect people to Jesus.
32:42
SPEAKER_01: Our hope is that you that you we believe Jesus is a source of life, and our hope is that you believe in Jesus as a source for your life.
32:47
SPEAKER_01: That that's that's the point of connection.
32:49
SPEAKER_01: And then that you take Jesus and share him with everybody else in your life, that's the stewarding of the connection.
32:53
SPEAKER_01: That's the peace that goes out.
32:54
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
32:56
SPEAKER_04: There is something that uh I think can be uh taken to even just with the response about, hey, what do I do?
33:07
SPEAKER_04: There is then that thing in you that thinks, so I need I need to be doing things to be able to earn this or to be able to do something with this.
33:18
SPEAKER_04: So I think it is what you mentioned that it has to be it goes beyond just action.
33:23
SPEAKER_04: It's it's something, it's the transformation of the heart, which only God can do.
33:27
SPEAKER_04: But it's leaning into that when he says, repent and turn to God.
33:31
SPEAKER_04: So turn away from whatever it is you're chasing and turn to God and his spirit and his ways and his kingdom.
33:38
SPEAKER_04: So you see it so much deeper than you know, do this, this, this, and this.
33:43
SPEAKER_04: But we we do fall I've I do that myself.
33:46
SPEAKER_04: Like you fall into that mindset of what have I done today?
33:50
SPEAKER_04: What am I doing?
33:50
SPEAKER_04: You know, you almost try to earn your place rather than just accepting what has been done for you.
33:56
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I I don't know that we should be surprised that a that a group of Israelites are asking what they should do, because what they've been taught is that what you do is how you get to what what you're supposed to be rather than being, rather than in the reverse side of that, right?
34:11
SPEAKER_01: So, so if you're gonna think about the people that are sitting in front of him, they have been brought up in a theology that is all about doing, every single aspect of it.
34:20
SPEAKER_01: Back to the story of Nicodemus, right?
34:22
SPEAKER_01: Everything is about doing.
34:23
SPEAKER_01: But man, we still feel that way today.
34:25
SPEAKER_01: What have you done for me lately?
34:26
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
34:27
SPEAKER_04: Um What are you doing with your life?
34:29
SPEAKER_01: So when Paul comes out and he starts to teach and he starts talking about the transformation of the heart and those messages, those are hard messages because that it railed against everything that they had believed at that point.
34:39
SPEAKER_01: It for them, it was the outs outward appearance.
34:42
SPEAKER_01: Um, even even to the place of he says, repent and be baptized.
34:48
SPEAKER_01: Do we have to be baptized?
34:49
SPEAKER_01: Like, first question that comes out, and like give me the qualifications.
34:52
SPEAKER_01: I need the list.
34:53
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, which still that same way today, but then we have examples of thief on the cross.
34:56
SPEAKER_01: There's no way that guy was baptized, but Jesus gave him the promise that he'd be in eternity.
35:00
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
35:00
SPEAKER_01: Um, so yeah, what what shall I do?
35:03
SPEAKER_01: I think that's in this setting at this time.
35:05
SPEAKER_01: That was probably the expected question.
35:07
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
35:08
SPEAKER_01: Any and he told me.
35:09
SPEAKER_04: Make sense.
35:09
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
35:10
SPEAKER_04: Uh can I tell you the best part of this?
35:12
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, sure.
35:13
SPEAKER_04: Verse 40.
35:14
SPEAKER_04: Oh boy.
35:15
SPEAKER_04: Then Peter continued preaching for a long time.
35:19
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
35:20
SPEAKER_04: Some things never changed.
35:21
SPEAKER_01: I said it was his first sermon.
35:23
SPEAKER_01: And probably his best, but he is not a good closer.
35:26
SPEAKER_01: He had a lot to say.
35:27
SPEAKER_01: He had a lot to say, and he continued to.
35:28
SPEAKER_04: He did pretty well.
35:29
SPEAKER_04: He already got this response.
35:30
SPEAKER_04: 3,000 people believe, and then he continued to preach.
35:33
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he said, you know what?
35:34
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna give him some more.
35:35
SPEAKER_01: And he just went up there and kept going.
35:37
SPEAKER_01: Notice that uh Luke didn't write that down.
35:40
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, he's like, I can't, yeah, we're just gonna that's enough.
35:43
SPEAKER_04: That first part is really good.
35:44
SPEAKER_04: Right.
35:45
SPEAKER_04: That's what got captured.
35:46
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, didn't write it down.
35:48
SPEAKER_01: Those are fun things that you see in scripture that you wonder.
35:50
SPEAKER_01: But um, but but he did capture it.
35:52
SPEAKER_01: He here was his one, he he put it in a phrase, save yourselves from this corrupt generation.
35:58
SPEAKER_01: That message still rings.
36:00
SPEAKER_01: Still rings, man.
36:01
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you know, so what Luke was looking at, he's like, oh my gosh, he just said a lot.
36:04
SPEAKER_01: He continued on.
36:05
SPEAKER_01: Basically, what he said was save yourself from this corrupt generation.
36:08
SPEAKER_04: Luke is like, we gotta get the kids' ministry team out.
36:10
SPEAKER_04: Like, we gotta wrap this up, Peter.
36:12
SPEAKER_01: We gotta go baptize a lot of people.
36:14
SPEAKER_01: So I want you to try and I mean, if you're a believer and you believe this is true, they went from 12 to 3,000.
36:23
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
36:23
SPEAKER_01: Now more than 12, probably 50 to 100, but 3,000.
36:29
SPEAKER_01: 3,000 on one day.
36:33
SPEAKER_02: That's big growth.
36:34
SPEAKER_01: That's big growth.
36:35
SPEAKER_01: Um, some might say unsustainable, but it continues to happen.
36:39
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
36:40
SPEAKER_01: So what they did, and you know what you don't know is you don't know what was you don't know what was said that wasn't captured in writing.
36:49
SPEAKER_01: Because they establish a structure, an organization, right?
36:53
SPEAKER_01: I mean, as a preacher, I would be the first to tell you I don't I I do not do well in committee meetings.
36:59
SPEAKER_01: I love committee meetings because I love talking about the stuff and Karen, I am not a good chair, I'm not a good those things because I just don't think in that mindset.
37:06
SPEAKER_01: But if the world was full of Sundays, I'd be awesome.
37:10
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I love it.
37:11
SPEAKER_01: I love being able to interact and talk scripture and be in those certain settings.
37:15
SPEAKER_01: But they put structure and form to the early church so much so that as you start to eek through the books, you find out that some of the things they put in place weren't working.
37:25
SPEAKER_01: And they had to then appoint a deacons that would go out and feed the widows and the orphans.
37:30
SPEAKER_01: And so they start to adjust because 3,000 pour in, and then three thousands of people start to show up.
37:35
SPEAKER_01: Right.
37:35
SPEAKER_01: And the 12 are like, they went from, oh, we just lost our best friend, to, we gotta get busy.
37:42
SPEAKER_04: Right.
37:42
SPEAKER_04: Like this is this is growing.
37:44
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, they're able to meet in the upstairs upper room, just them have these beautiful conversations, and now it's it's something different.
37:53
SPEAKER_04: A lot different.
37:54
SPEAKER_01: I mean, boom, just like that.
37:56
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
37:57
SPEAKER_01: And and then they started to be martyred, and you know, and it's and that's over a period of time.
38:01
SPEAKER_01: Boy, for the life of me, I don't I can't I I don't know how many years it is from the beginning of Acts till the end of Acts.
38:08
SPEAKER_01: Uh, it'd be nice to know that number.
38:10
SPEAKER_01: I I think I were in a sermon I just heard here a few, maybe 20-ish years, but it but that's could be completely wrong.
38:16
SPEAKER_01: So you get it it feels like there's miracles spilling out everywhere, and all this stuff has happened.
38:21
SPEAKER_01: But if you take it and you extend it out over the time, you know, by the time you get to the conversations of Peter going out to the Gentiles, that's years later.
38:29
SPEAKER_01: That's like 10 or 12 years later.
38:31
SPEAKER_01: Right.
38:31
SPEAKER_01: So we miss the snapshots of the actual time frame that's going on in between.
38:35
SPEAKER_01: There are miracles are happening, there's amazing things that are happening, but the church is being built.
38:39
SPEAKER_01: Right.
38:40
SPEAKER_01: It's being built, it's being established, they're making adjustments, they're finding leadership, they're raising up leaders, they're starting ministries, they're empowering people all over the place.
38:47
SPEAKER_01: And then Paul comes along and he's like, you know what?
38:49
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to the world, and they they they send them out.
38:52
SPEAKER_01: That's what happens is, and whether God does it or whether the church does it, God does it.
38:58
SPEAKER_01: God does it.
38:59
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to confirm that for you.
39:01
SPEAKER_01: The uh the the for the for a decade, the Jew, the Israel, the Israelites, the apostles are still in Jerusalem.
39:10
SPEAKER_01: They're still there, man.
39:12
SPEAKER_01: You know, and and if God's heart is to go to the ends of the world, he's got to get them out of there.
39:16
SPEAKER_01: A great persecution breaks out and they start establishing churches in um Antioch, which is north of Jerusalem.
39:24
SPEAKER_01: They become station churches, but Antioch ultimately becomes the sending church.
39:29
SPEAKER_01: So outside of Israel or north of Israel, that becomes the hub of the missionaries that would then launch out Barnabas, Paul.
39:37
SPEAKER_01: They go out on their first missionary journey together, but then they split.
39:40
SPEAKER_01: They're just sending teams out to the world.
39:42
SPEAKER_01: So that's kind of where it goes.
39:44
SPEAKER_01: And if you're gonna read this phrase about go to the ends of the world, I'm telling you, the United States is the end of the world from their perspective.
39:50
SPEAKER_01: It's literally the other side of the world.
39:52
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
39:52
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
39:53
SPEAKER_01: So I I don't know.
39:54
SPEAKER_01: It's go it's gonna be fun.
39:56
SPEAKER_01: It's not as it's not as exciting as last week was being able to engage in the sinners and the tax collectors.
40:01
SPEAKER_01: But to realize that we steward the connection and to look at every single conversation, every person, and realize that it may not it may not hang on the balance of life or death, but there is a responsibility to those connections.
40:14
SPEAKER_01: How we treat people, how we love people.
40:18
SPEAKER_04: Maybe you can split the room.
40:19
SPEAKER_04: People from you're from Mesopotamia, you're from Crete.
40:25
SPEAKER_04: You're yeah beautiful island.
40:27
SPEAKER_04: Probably don't do that.
40:28
SPEAKER_01: No, but yeah, uh yeah, probably don't do that.
40:31
SPEAKER_01: We had a cool thought about that in uh um in terms of languages, that that being a a broader context for today, you know, when when uh when we introduce Kyle and the and all of you start applauding like crazy.
40:46
SPEAKER_01: Do you know Kyle in youth ministry and middle school ministry?
40:48
SPEAKER_01: He speaks a language that I cannot speak.
40:50
SPEAKER_01: Because he's speaking a that's a for that's a forbidden language, middle school language.
40:54
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
40:54
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I can hear the words, I don't know what they mean.
40:57
SPEAKER_01: And I'm sure there was a time when I felt the word I used I and we all use it now, awesome, all whatever.
41:02
SPEAKER_01: But uh doctors can speak to doctors in a different language, preachers can speak to preachers in a different language.
41:08
SPEAKER_01: Uh it may not, it may still be English, but an understanding and a connectability that you may have in a world that Scott's not ever gonna have, that the Holy Spirit can use you to speak life into those areas because you can speak that language.
41:23
SPEAKER_01: Right.
41:24
SPEAKER_01: That that's the that's the call and the design for us to be connected.
41:27
SPEAKER_01: It's to look back and say, who who do I have influence with?
41:31
SPEAKER_01: What abilities do I have to be able to speak into those spaces?
41:33
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
41:34
SPEAKER_04: And not not discounting that, because that's a miracle in and of itself.
41:38
SPEAKER_04: Oh man.
41:38
SPEAKER_04: Right?
41:39
SPEAKER_04: A hundred percent.
41:40
SPEAKER_04: We j we think sometimes, oh, it's gotta be big and flashy and has to have all this explosion of growth.
41:46
SPEAKER_04: I mean, there's miracles every day.
41:48
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
41:49
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
41:49
SPEAKER_04: In the in the smallest of things of just being faithful to those things.
41:53
SPEAKER_01: I think about the recovery ministry and how, man, if you're not authentic in that world, you're out.
41:57
SPEAKER_01: That people can just see right through that.
41:59
SPEAKER_01: And so people that find their place in that ministry are called to it in such a beautiful way that they can navigate through some of the most devastating moments in life and just offer truth because they speak a language.
42:11
SPEAKER_01: Um so whatever, pick our disability ministry.
42:15
SPEAKER_01: The families that are living with the challenges of what it's what it's like to either have a disability or have a family member that does.
42:22
SPEAKER_01: Um, how do you navigate through that?
42:24
SPEAKER_01: The pain of trying to get the resources that are there.
42:28
SPEAKER_01: There are people that speak that language, and we have them here at this church, and they're walking alongside and they're loving it.
42:33
SPEAKER_01: Um so hopefully as a church we're showing up in in ways that are speaking people's language.
42:39
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
42:42
unknown: Yeah.
42:45
SPEAKER_03: Awesome, man.
42:47
SPEAKER_03: I appreciate the time.
42:48
SPEAKER_03: Looking forward to Sunday.
42:49
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it'll be a blast.
42:50
SPEAKER_03: Awesome.
42:51
SPEAKER_03: Yep.
42:51
SPEAKER_03: Love ya.
42:52
SPEAKER_03: See you guys.