Tearful Obedience
Notes
Transcript
Intro: Theme/Topic (What’s the problem, the question, etc.)
Have you ever had a moment where you knew what you needed to do…
but the people you love most begged you not to?
Not because they were trying to stop you from obeying God.
Not because they were evil or malicious.
But because they were concerned about you.
Because they loved you.
And suddenly, obedience gets complicated—not because you don’t know what God wants, but because you can feel the weight of their voices:
“Please don’t do this.”
“This is too risky.”
“Is this really worth it?”
“Can’t you serve God some other way?”
This is so difficult because the pressure isn’t coming from enemies… it’s coming from family. Friends. People who know and love you.
That tension isn’t new.
Over 500 years ago, a Catholic monk and professor named Martin Luther faced one of those moments.
Luther had been teaching that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone—and that God’s Word stands above popes, councils, and tradition.
And for saying that, he was declared a threat and his books were outlawed.
In March of 1521, Luther was summoned to appear before the most powerful authorities in the world at the Diet of Worms.
His friends knew what that meant.
They remembered what happened to another reformer a century earlier—John Hus—who was arrested… and burned alive.
So as Luther traveled toward the city where he had been ordered to appear, a messenger caught up to him with an urgent warning from one of his closest friends:
“Do not go.”
“Turn back.”
“If you go to Worms, you may not come out alive.”
And you can imagine the emotion in it—because these were not words of hate.
It was love.
It was a friend thinking: “I can’t lose him.”
“God can use him somewhere else.”
“Surely there’s another way.”
But Luther assured his fearful friends saying…
“Though Hus was burned, the truth was not burned, and Christ still lives!”
And then he sent this message:
“I shall go to Worms, though there were as many devils as tiles on the roofs.”
In other words:
“Even if the whole world rises against me… I’m going.”
Now, this is important for us to hear today. Because sometimes the hardest part of obeying God isn’t the danger “out there.”
It’s the pleading “in here.”
It’s when the voices urging you to take the easier road…
are the voices you love the most.
So that raises the question I want us to wrestle with today:
What do you do when the voices that discourage obedience to God are the voices you love most?
And that’s exactly the kind of moment we find in Acts 21.
Let’s turn there now to see what Paul does when love becomes pressure, and affection becomes discouragement?
Scripture
Grab your Bibles and turn with me to Acts 21:1-16. If you need to use a pew Bible, you’ll find today’s text on page 1105. Once you’re there, please stand with me if you are able and follow along with me as I read...
And when we had parted from them and set sail, we came by a straight course to Cos, and the next day to Rhodes, and from there to Patara.
And having found a ship crossing to Phoenicia, we went aboard and set sail.
When we had come in sight of Cyprus, leaving it on the left we sailed to Syria and landed at Tyre, for there the ship was to unload its cargo.
And having sought out the disciples, we stayed there for seven days. And through the Spirit they were telling Paul not to go on to Jerusalem.
When our days there were ended, we departed and went on our journey, and they all, with wives and children, accompanied us until we were outside the city. And kneeling down on the beach, we prayed
and said farewell to one another. Then we went on board the ship, and they returned home.
When we had finished the voyage from Tyre, we arrived at Ptolemais, and we greeted the brothers and stayed with them for one day.
On the next day we departed and came to Caesarea, and we entered the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him.
He had four unmarried daughters, who prophesied.
While we were staying for many days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea.
And coming to us, he took Paul’s belt and bound his own feet and hands and said, “Thus says the Holy Spirit, ‘This is how the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’ ”
When we heard this, we and the people there urged him not to go up to Jerusalem.
Then Paul answered, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”
And since he would not be persuaded, we ceased and said, “Let the will of the Lord be done.”
After these days we got ready and went up to Jerusalem.
And some of the disciples from Caesarea went with us, bringing us to the house of Mnason of Cyprus, an early disciple, with whom we should lodge.
This God’s Word!
Prayer
Father, may Your word bring conviction and courage today as look to it as our highest authority. We ask this in Christ’s name — AMEN!
Intro: Formal (give context to passage, setting the scene, big idea)
As we come to this passage in Acts, we’re now in the final stretch of Paul’s 3rd and final missionary journey. He’s been traveling for years—planting churches, preaching Christ, strengthening believers. But now everything in the story is narrowing to one place: Jerusalem.
And Paul isn’t walking into Jerusalem with naïve optimism. He already knows what’s waiting for him. The Holy Spirit has repeatedly made clear that suffering is ahead—chains, opposition, and affliction.
But, what makes Acts 21 so striking is that the main conflict in the passage isn’t persecution from pagans or threats from enemies.
It’s something far more personal.
It’s the pleas of Christian brothers and sisters…
It’s the tears of friends…
It’s the well-meaning counsel of people who love Paul deeply.
Again and again in this text, Paul is urged, begged, pleaded with:
“Don’t go.”
“Turn back.”
“Surely there’s another way.”
And that brings us right back into the tension we looked at earlier:
What do you do when the voices that discourage obedience to God are the voices you love most?
Because if we’re honest, those are the hardest voices to withstand.
It’s one thing to resist a stranger.
It’s another thing to resist your spouse.
Your parents.
Your close friends.
Your church family.
And yet this passage shows us that faithful obedience will almost always be tested—not only by hardship, but by pressure… that comes wrapped in love.
So here’s the main thing I want you to see from this text:
Even loving voices can plead for comfort over calling, but Spirit-led faith endures by surrendering to the Lord’s will.
That’s the answer this passage gives to our Big Question.
But how does that play out in Acts 21—and what does it look like in our lives today?
This text teaches us three important lessons, and they’ll guide us through the sermon this morning:
Expect Resistance
Obedience to God should not surprise us with obstacles—even emotional ones.
Evaluate Loving Counsel
Sometimes the most sincere discouragement comes from people who genuinely love us, but love is not the same thing as wisdom.
Endure by Surrender
Faith doesn’t endure by hardheaded stubbornness—it endures by yielding everything to God and saying, “Let the will of the Lord be done.”
So let’s start with the first…
Expect Resistance
Expect Resistance
Before we even step into Acts 21, we need to remember this: Paul is not walking toward Jerusalem in the dark.
He is not naïve. He is not guessing. He is not making this up as he goes.
He has already been made painfully aware—by the Holy Spirit Himself—that suffering is waiting for him there.
Listen again to what he said to the Ephesian elders:
And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there,
except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me.
Just let that settle for a moment.
In every city…
Not once. Not twice. Not just one ominous warning.
Every city. Over and over. Like a drumbeat.
The Holy Spirit keeps telling Paul: Chains are coming. Pain is coming. Suffering is coming.
And here’s the first lesson for us:
Faithful obedience should expect resistance.
Often, faithful obedience invites it.
Sometimes the resistance comes from within us.
Sometimes it’s fear. Sometimes it’s self-preservation. Sometimes it’s the temptation to compromise.
But Paul isn’t the first to face that kind of pressure.
Daniel’s three friends refused to bow to Nebuchadnezzar’s image—and were thrown into the fiery furnace.
Daniel himself refused to stop praying to the living God—and was thrown into the lion’s den.
And church, sometimes that’s how the enemy attacks: with threats and intimidation and open hostility.
But sometimes… he changes tactics.
Sometimes he doesn’t come with a sword.
Sometimes he comes with tears.
Sometimes the enemy doesn’t use enemies at all—
he uses people we love.
That’s what happened to Jesus.
Peter—one of His closest friends—tried to turn Him away from the cross.
From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.
And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.”
But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”
Peter loved Jesus.
Peter didn’t want Jesus to suffer.
Peter was speaking from loyalty and affection.
And now in Acts 21, that same pressure shows up—not toward Jesus—but toward Paul.
As Paul makes his way back toward Jerusalem, he stops for seven days with believers in Tyre.
And Luke tells us in verse 4:
“They were telling Paul not to go on to Jerusalem.”
And that word “telling” is actually stronger than it sounds in English.
Some translations say they “urged” him.
But the sense in the Greek is that of repetition: they kept on urging him.
Not one gentle suggestion.
Not a casual word of caution.
But again and again… “Paul don’t go.”
“Paul please don’t do this.”
“Paul turn back.”
“Paul there has to be another way.”
And yet Paul remains steadfast.
And then Luke paints this incredibly tender moment: the believers in Tyre—men, women, even children—walk with Paul to the ship, kneel down on the beach, and pray with him before saying goodbye.
So don’t miss what’s happening here.
This isn’t hostility.
This isn’t opposition.
This is the church weeping.
This is love pleading.
And then in Caesarea, Paul stays with Philip the evangelist. And a prophet named Agabus arrives.
In Old Testament fashion, Agabus acts out the prophecy. He takes Paul’s belt and binds his own hands and feet and says:
“The owner of this belt will be bound… and delivered… into the hands of the Gentiles.”
After hearing this the believers there—including Luke himself—begin to plead with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem.
They’re begging him.
And finally Paul says what any of us might say in that moment:
“What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart?”
In other words:
“I love you. And I know you love me. But you’re making obedience harder. You’re putting a weight on my soul.”
Church, this is what we must remember here:
When you pursue faithful obedience, expect resistance.
And sometimes the sharpest resistance doesn’t come from enemies—
it comes from the people you love most.
And there may be no more gut-wrenching example of this than at the turn of the third century.
The Roman Emperor Septimius Severus wanted to snuff out the vibrant and growing Christian community in North Africa.
Among the first to be arrested were five new believers in Carthage who were taking classes to prepare for baptism.
One of them was a young woman named Perpetua.
Her pagan father came to visit her in prison and urged her to save herself—simply deny you’re a Christian. Just say the words.
And Perpetua responded with this remarkable calm.
She said, “Father, do you see this vase here? Could it be called by any other name than what it is?”
“No,” her father replied.
“Well, neither can I be called anything other than what I am: a Christian.”
As her trial drew closer, her father returned again and again. And each time, the plea became more passionate.
“Have pity on my gray head,” he said.
“Have pity on your father who raised you and favored you above all your brothers.”
And then he threw himself down before her, kissing her hands.
“Do not abandon me. Think of your brothers and mother. Think of your child who is still nursing and will not survive if you die. Give up your pride!”
Can you feel that?
This isn’t hatred.
This is the agony of love.
This is a father begging his daughter to live.
Perpetua was emotionally moved—how could she not be?—and yet her resolve did not bend.
Then the day of her trial came.
As she was being questioned, her father burst into the courtroom. And he wasn’t alone.
He held her infant son in his arms.
And he begged her—have pity on your baby.
Save yourself. Save your child.
And even the Roman governor was moved. He even began to urge her: “Have pity on your father and your child.”
One last chance. Renounce Christ—and walk free.
And Perpetua answered with a sentence that has echoed through church history:
“I will not. — I am a Christian.”
Her father erupted in agony.
The governor ordered her father beaten into silence.
Then Perpetua and the other Christians were condemned to die in the arena—where wild beasts and gladiators awaited them.
(Application)
Now it’s possible—but unlikely—that most of us will face a life-or-death decision like Perpetua.
So, it’s worth asking:
What kind of pressures do we face today that tempt us to compromise obedience to God?
It probably won’t be death in an arena…
It’s more likely to be a death to comfort.
A death to ease.
A death to the life you imagined for yourself.
I remember when I first sensed God’s calling on my life toward vocational ministry. I remember my father expressing concern—because in his mind, I was giving up a lifelong dream of becoming an architect… and along with it, what likely would’ve been a more comfortable life.
And I love my dad. (Dad, if you’re watching this sermon—I love you.)
And over time he did come to the place where he told me he was proud of me.
But the point is this:
Sometimes the pressure to turn back comes from love.
Sometimes it sounds like wisdom.
Sometimes it comes from people who sincerely want what’s best for us.
But what feels safest is not always what is most faithful.
I spoke with a young man in his twenties recently who’s seriously considering long-term missions work. And he told me he wrestled for a season with this question:
“What will I be missing out on if I go into missions?”
And he said that over time God changed his heart and his question became:
“What will I be missing out on if I don’t go?”
I love that.
That’s the kind of heart Acts 21 is pressing us toward.
So let me ask you:
What pressures are on you right now?
Not from enemies.
Not from persecution.
But from your own thoughts…
or from people who love you…
voices pleading for your comfort, your safety, your ease…
And the real temptation is to say:
“Maybe God’s will shouldn’t be this hard.”
“Maybe obedience shouldn’t cost this much.”
“Maybe there’s another road.”
Church, Acts 21 teaches us the opposite.
Expect resistance.
Because the road of obedience is often paved with pressure—
and sometimes the most painful pressure comes wrapped in love.
Church, sometimes the enemy doesn’t need to threaten you.
He just needs someone you trust to say, “Are you sure this is really worth it?”
So here’s what we can learn from this:
Not all counsel is godly counsel, even when it comes from godly people.
Which means we must learn to…
Evaluate Loving Counsel
Evaluate Loving Counsel
If we’re going to evaluate loving counsel, we first need a standard.
Because you can’t evaluate advice if you don’t know what you’re evaluating it against.
Before we can ask,
“Is this counsel right?”
we have to ask,
“What is God’s will?”
So let me give you a simple, time-tested framework Christians have used for centuries. Think of these as four councils, in order of priority.
1) God’s Revealed Will in Scripture
The first and highest authority is always: What does God’s Word say?
Is there a clear command to obey?
Is there a clear prohibition to avoid?
If not, what principles does Scripture reveal about what God loves, values, and calls wise?
And this is why spending regular time reading the Bible matters—not just during big life decisions.
Paul says in Romans 12:2
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
The more your mind is saturated with the Scriptures,
the more your instincts we be shaped by the Scriptures.
Let me ask a diagnostic question question here:
Is your mind being shaped more by FOX News and CNN…
more by social media…
more by podcasts…
or more by God’s Word?
Because whatever shapes your mind will shape your sense of God’s will.
This is the first and most important council. The second is…
2) The Leading of the Holy Spirit
We are not promised audible voices.
We are not told to chase signs.
But Scripture does teach that the Spirit can impress desires, bring conviction, and burdens upon our hearts.
When that happens:
Pray.
Test it against Scripture (the first council).
Then wait.
And remember: The Holy Spirit will never contradict the Word He inspired.
That’s the second council. The third is…
3) Your Conscience
God also works through a believer’s conscience. But consciences are not infallible.
They must be tested.
So again:
Bring your conscience back to Scripture.
Bring your conscience to prayer.
And be honest:
Because God’s will is not always what you naturally want.
And the fourth council is…
4) The Counsel of Others
Scripture affirms this strongly.
The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.
Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom in the future.
Taken together, these four councils are a reliable way to discern God’s will.
———————————————————-
But sometimes… You come to a fork in the road.
This college or that college.
This job or that job.
This opportunity or that opportunity.
Neither option violates Scripture.
No strong inner leading.
Your conscience is clear.
Wise believers affirm both.
In situations like that, Augustine’s counsel is helpful:
“Love God, and do what you want.”
Meaning:
A heart that genuinely loves God and desires to please Him will make decisions in a way that honors Him.
———————————————————-
Now Back to Acts 21
With that framework in mind, notice something fascinating.
Verse 4 says that it was “through the Spirit,” that the believers in Tyre were urging Paul not to go to Jerusalem.
But Paul already told us in Acts 20:23
The Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me.
So is the Spirit contradicting Himself?
No.
John Stott explains it well:
The warning was divine.
The urging that followed was human.
The Spirit revealed what would happen.
The believers concluded what Paul should do.
They confused a divine prophecy with a divine prohibition.
And we’re still prone to making this mistake today.
Because we live in a deeply therapeutic culture many people assume:
“God just wants me to be happy.”
“A loving God would never want me to suffer.”
“If something hurts, it must not be God’s will.”
But Scripture never teaches that.
It is dangerous to make God’s will conditional on our immediate happiness.
The writer of Hebrews tells us:
Jesus endured the cross for the joy set before Him.
The cross was not joyful.
But the outcome was!
And this just shows us how painfully short-sighted we are sometimes.
We can’t see that on the far side of temporary suffering, God may be preparing a depth of joy, fruitfulness, and usefulness we can’t even imagine!
Another wrong assumption we often make is a pragmatic one.
The believers in Acts 21 may also have reasoned like this:
“The church needs Paul.”
“He’s too important.”
“It doesn’t make sense for God to remove him.”
People said similar things to the well known missionary, Jim Elliot:
“You’re too gifted to go to the Auca people.”
And as you may know, Jim Elliot was killed by the Acua people.
But God used his death to bring that very tribe to saving faith in Jesus!
And what about Jesus? Crucified in His prime at roughly 33 years old.
Think of all the good He could have done with a few more years on earth.
But praise God He obeyed the Father and prayed:
“Not my will, but Yours be done.”
———————————————————-
So what’s God’s will for you right now?
Maybe it’s to teach a class.
Maybe it’s to help disciple the next generation in our youth ministry.
Maybe it’s to disciple newer believers.
Maybe it’s to share Christ with a neighbor, a coworker, or classmate.
Maybe it’s to pursue missions or vocational ministry.
But there are also some things God’s will is already crystal clear about.
If you are a Christian:
God’s will is that you publically identify yourself with Christ and His people by being baptized! This may terrify you, getting baptized and being in front of people.
But how scary must it have been for Paul to go to Jerusalem in obedience to God knowing that actual physical suffering awaited him there?!
If you’re a Christian, I believe it’s God’s will that you become a member of a local church like ours.
But before all of that…One thing stands above everything else.
If you haven’t yet trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior…
Then God’s will for you is not mysterious.
[God] desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
If you’re here today and you’re new to church…
new to Christianity…
Or just exploring and wondering where to begin…
Here is where you start:
Not with figuring out God’s plan for your career.
Not with deciphering every life decision.
You start by coming to Jesus.
By admitting you are a sinner.
By believing Jesus lived for you, died for you, and rose for you.
By trusting Him to forgive you and make you new.
That is God’s will for you.
And once you belong to Christ, you will begin to learn, step by step, how to evaluate every other voice in your life—
Even the loving ones—by the greater voice of God.
We’ve seen that loving voices can be mistaken.
But knowing that still doesn’t make obedience easy.
So how do you actually stay the course…
when tears are flowing,
when hearts are breaking,
when pressure is real?
Endure by Surrender
Endure by Surrender
Paul endures.
Paul stays the course.
Paul does not turn back.
Not because he is naturally brave.
Not because he is stubborn.
Not because he enjoys suffering.
Paul endures because his eyes are fixed firmly on Jesus.
The same Jesus who also set His face toward Jerusalem…
The same Jesus who knew suffering awaited Him there…
The same Jesus who walked forward anyway.
That is exactly what Hebrews 12 calls every Christian to do.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.
Did you notice the logic?
Look to Jesus… so that you do not grow weary.
Consider Jesus… so that you do not lose heart.
Paul has taken that to heart.
So when the believers in Caesarea are pleading with him…
When tears are flowing…
When hearts are breaking…
Paul answers with a sentence that sounds a lot like Jesus in Gethsemane:
For I am ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”
Paul is not chasing death. Paul is saying:
“My life already belongs to Someone else.”
Paul can say this because while he loves people deeply…
he loves Jesus supremely.
He settled this issue long before Acts 21 when he wrote this to the Galatian church…
For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.
You cannot please God and live for human approval at the same time.
One will always bow to the other.
Paul bowed to Christ.
And surrender gave him strength.
John G. Paton had served faithfully for ten years as a pastor in Glasgow, Scotland when God began burdening his heart for the people of the New Hebrides Islands in the South Pacific—people who had never heard the gospel.
Almost everyone told him not to go.
Twenty years earlier, two missionaries had been killed and eaten by cannibals there.
Church leaders warned him.
Friends pleaded with him.
The church even offered him more money to stay.
When one older gentleman strongly protested, Paton famously said these words:
Mr. Dixon, you are advanced in years now and your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave there to be eaten by worms. I confess to you if I can but live and die serving and honoring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by cannibals or by worms. And in the great day, my resurrection body will arise as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer.”
Church that is not recklessness.
That is resurrection faith.
That is a man who has already surrendered his life to Christ.
———————————————————
So, church, value godly input.
Seek counsel.
Invite wisdom.
But settle this once and for all:
Your life does not belong to you.
The only thing worse than dying…is never really living.
Life is short. Don’t waste it protecting yourself from every possible risk.
Pour yourself out for the glory of God and the good of others.
Say with the Apostle Paul:
I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
And remember this:
When you follow Jesus into hard places…
When obedience feels costly…
When surrender feels heavy…
You are never alone.
Jesus Himself promises us at the end of Matthew’s gospel:
And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
The One who calls you…walks with you.
The One who went to Jerusalem for you…will never abandon you.
So endure.
Not by gritting your teeth.
Not by trusting yourself.
But by surrendering everything to Christ—
and saying with your life:
“Let the will of the Lord be done.”
Conclusion/Response (Gospel & Repent/Believe)
So we come back to the question we started with:
What do you do when the voices that discourage obedience to God are the voices you love most?
We’ve seen that question before in church history.
On a road toward Worms, Martin Luther received word from a dear friend:
“Do not go. You may die.”
And Luther replied,
“I shall go… though there were as many devils as tiles on the roofs.”
Not because he loved danger.
Not because he despised his friends.
But because he had already surrendered himself to the will of God.
And that is exactly what we’ve seen in Acts 21.
Paul loved the believers who pleaded with him.
Their tears broke his heart. But he loved Jesus more.
So here’s the answer this passage gives us:
Even loving voices can plead for comfort over calling, but Spirit-led faith endures by surrendering to the Lord’s will.
We should not be surprised by resistance.
We must learn to evaluate loving counsel.
And we must endure—not by stubbornness, but by surrender.
Church, the call of Christ on your life will not always feel safe.
It will not always feel easy.
It will not always be affirmed by everyone you love.
But it will always be worth it.
So may we be a people who say with our lips and our lives:
“Let the will of the Lord be done.”
Prayer
Father in heaven,
We confess that obedience is often hard, and surrender does not come naturally to us. Forgive us for the times we have chosen comfort over calling.
Fix our eyes on Jesus, the One who went to Jerusalem for us, the One who endured the cross for our salvation.
Give us hearts that trust You, wills that submit to You, and courage to say, even when it costs us, “Let the will of the Lord be done.”
We ask this for Your glory and our good, in Christ’s Name — AMEN!
Closing Song: The Solid Rock
Closing Words
Church, we’ve just sung that our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
If that is true — and it is — then the most important question any person can answer is this:
Is your hope truly resting on Christ?
If you have never turned from your sin and trusted Jesus as your Savior — if you’ve never placed the full weight of your life on what He accomplished through His death and resurrection — then today is the day to do that.
Not after you clean yourself up.
Not after you become more religious.
But right now, just as you are.
Jesus went to the cross for sinners.
Jesus rose again to give new life.
And Jesus invites you to come.
If you’d like to talk with someone about what it means to follow Christ, there will be people up front here after the service who would love to talk and pray with you.
————————————————
And for those of you who do belong to Christ:
What is the next step of obedience God is calling you to take?
Maybe it’s baptism.
Maybe it’s finally becoming a church member.
Maybe it’s stepping into a ministry.
Maybe it’s sharing the gospel with someone you’ve been avoiding.
Maybe it’s finally saying yes to something God has been pressing on your heart.
————————————————
Don’t settle for comfortable Christianity.
Your life belongs to Jesus.
So go this week with eyes fixed on Christ,
submitted to His will,
and ready to obey — even when it’s costly.
Go as ambassadors of Christ,
carrying the hope of the gospel into your homes, your neighborhoods, your workplaces, and your schools.
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Benediction: Hebrews 13:20–21
“Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.”
