Redemption Story: Acts

Welcome message. Good morning church family. It's such an honor for me to stand here today. I'll be teaching on the whole book of Acts today so you can go ahead and turn there in your bibles now. I'll just be reading the first several verses of Chapter 1 but I think the verses I'll be reading will serve as a good summary of the message for today. As you turn there I want to tell you how exciting this is for me to stand here today. Some of you that know me and my family know the incredible way that God has worked through our lives to bring me here today. If you would have asked me 2 years ago if I would have ever thought I would be standing here today, I would have said you were crazy. But this is so often the way God works - he does things in His own way and in His own timing and the results are so often more strange and beautiful than our preconceived expectations. The fact that the elders of this church are trusting me to deliver this message to you blows me away. This is one of the reasons I'm so excited to preach specifically on the book of Acts today. I believe that all of our lives are microcosms of the incredible redemptive plan of God that we see played out in scripture over and over. We are lost, we try to get to God our own way, we fail, and then God crashes in and does a miraculous work inside of us. This is what we see in the book of Acts, God's miraculous work of bringing his kingdom into this world, so with that let me pray and jump into our text. Prayer Grateful Wisdom Prepare my heart and their hearts to receive the TREASURE of your word! Scripture 1 In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, 2 until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. 3 He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. 4 And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” The Ascension 6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” 9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Ac 1:1–11). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles. Purpose of the message and Scripture (What's the Big Idea). Now, before I go into the book of Acts, I want to take a few minutes a quickly recap what has happened thus far in the redemption story. This is important because Acts describes the launching of God's heavenly Kingdom on earth, which is what all of redemptive history has been about. So to really understand the Incredible significance of Acts we need to understand what led up to this point. Like I said earlier, I believe we can see the larger redemptive plan for mankind played out in each of our lives individually. God makes a covenant with us, we fail to keep our end of the bargain, God has mercy, and agrees to a new covenant with us and we fail again and so on. We can also see this throughout the entire Old Testament. Adam has a covenant with God not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Sounds simple enough, and yet he failed. God had every right to destroy Adam and Eve on the spot, but He didn’t. Despite this mercy, the world continues to devolve so God destroys the whole earth by flood except Noah and his family. But then his descendants rebel at Babel so God confuses their languages and scatters them through the world. Despite mankind's continued evil, God chooses Abraham from a family of idol worshipers to be the father of his people. After suffering under Pharaoh for hundreds of years as slaves in Egypt, God uses Moses a murderer to lead His people out and into the promised land. They are given 10 simple commandments to follow - but disobeyed over and over again ultimately resulting in the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of the Jews to Babylon. It should be obvious to anyone at this point that something drastic needs to happen. There needs to be a fundamental change in the people of God, we don't seem to have it in us to do anything that we agree to do. So despite the evil of His people, God makes a New Covenant with them. He promises to write his law on their hearts, bring complete forgivenessof sin, put his Spiritin them to empower them to love and obey his commands, raise up a faithful Davidic king to rule over them, bring them back into the land to reunify them into one people of God, and cause them to be a light to the nations. The New Testament presents Jesus as the offspring of Abraham who trusted his Father, even to the point of death, and so became a blessing to all nations. He is the obedient Israelite who perfectly kept, fulfilled, and thus transcended the law of God. He is the royal son of David who inaugurated God’s kingdom in his life, death, and resurrection, and now sits at God’s right hand reigning as shepherd-king over the earth and will continue to reign forever over the new creation. This is the Gospel - the good news! Our sins were so horrible and our very natures so ruined by sin, that the only solution was for God to send His OWN Son to suffer His wrath on our behalf AND give us new natures so we can break the "cycle of apostasy" we read over and over in the Old Testament and if we are honest, can CLEARLY see in our own lives. As you sit here today, ask yourself - how does this good news make you feel in your heart? Do you simply acknowledge that this is true and agree with the facts? Even the demons know the truth conceptually. The question is, does this gospel ASTONISH you? Are you cut to your heart? Do you now or can you remember a specific instance in time where you, broken and on your knees in tears - "what must I do to be saved?" If not, then friend, I'm here to warn you - if this Gospel does not blow you away with a crushing realization of your own sinfulness and need for a savior - then please look into your life seriously and ask yourself: "where in my life am I struggling to believe the gospel?" If you are sitting there and feeling crushed under the weight of your sin and find yourself crying out in your heart, "what must I do to be saved?" then don't wait one more second - right there in your seat confess your sinfulness and RUN to the father and ask Him to save you - and then you can experience the freedom that only comes from new life in Jesus. But for those of you who are sitting in your seats right now who are filled with joy and awestruck wonder and can say: "I am a child of God" then that leads us to our text for today. Now that sin and death have been defeated and Jesus is reigning - what is next for the Disciples and us? Let's look at verse 6 from our reading today: 6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” The disciples still don't quite understand everything that Jesus has been teaching them for all these years. They are still expecting a conquering King. But Jesus has a different plan: 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Jesus is saying to them - YOU will be the ones who advance my Kingdom on Earth. How is this possible? These people are just regular folks how will they accomplish this? Jesus promises that His very Spirit will come and immerse them in His PERSONAL presence. This fulfills one of the often repeated promises in the Old Testament that in the Messianic Kingdom God's presence would take up residence in a new temple, transforming their hearts and giving them new spirits. (Isaiah 32:15, Ezekiel 36:26-27, and Joel 2:28-32) And after this we read in verse 9: 9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. This is an image from Daniel Chapter 7: 13 “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. 14 And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Da 7:13–14). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles. So just as was foretold so long ago, Jesus is now taken up and glorified and enthroned next to the Father to reign forever. 10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” Here we see the disciples' response to the incredible fulfillment of all the prophecies they have been taught their whole lives. They are so blown away they are literally standing there staring into heaven. I imagine them with their mouths open just like dumbfounded…. Angels literally had to come and snap them out of it. "What are you doing here?" "Stop just staring up and get to work!" I think this is something the modern church really struggles with. We are spending all of our time looking up and waiting for God and forgetting that we have a mission. So the angels are admonishing the disciples to get busy and we can see in the rest of the book of Acts that they do just that. The book of Acts is all about Jesus leading His people through the Spirit to go out into the world and invite all nations to live under His reign. The story will begin in Jerusalem (Chap 2-7) in the neighboring regions of Judea and Samaria full of non-Jewish people (Chap 8-12) and from there out to the nations and the ends of the earth (Chap 13-28) So let's look at some of the major events from the rest of the book. In Chapter 2 we read about Pentecost. When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Ac 2:1–4). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles. There are several things Luke is trying to show from these verses: The wind and fire are direct allusion to the stories about God's glorious, fiery presence filling the tabernacle and temple (Ex 40:38 and 2 Chron 7:1-3) and also to the promises in the prophets that God would come live through His Spirit in the new temple of the Messianic Kingdom (Ez 43 and Hag 2) But in a surprising turn of events that almost no one expected, God's Spirit does NOT come to dwell in a physical temple, but in His people - Luke is telling us that the new temple is Jesus' new covenant family - the Church. Let's look at verses 5 and 6 now in Chapter 2: 5 Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. 6 And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Ac 2:5–6). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles. This is another point that Luke is trying to make. Through the Prophets, God promised that when he came to dwell in the New Temple (the Church) he would re-unify the tribes of Israel under the Messianic King and this would be when the good news of God's reign would be announced to all nations (Is 11 and Ez 37) So here we see the start of the fulfilling of that promise. The apostles start calling Israelites to acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah and thousands do forming new communities of generosity, worship and celebration. As this new community of believers begins to grow we immediately see opposition beginning to pop up. In chapters 3-5 Luke describes a "Tale of Two Temples" where you can see that the believers are gathering every day from house to house and in the temple preaching the word, healing the sick and donating their property to a common fund to help the poor. Two times in this passage Peter is arrested and each time gives a speech telling the religious leaders how Jesus is the true King of Israel and how Peter must preach the truth. What a far cry this is from the Peter who only a few months ago denied he even knew Jesus. The power of the Holy Spirit has radically transformed Peter into an unstoppable witness for Christ. Something that is key that I want to call out here. In the law of the Torah, collections for the poor were supposed to be getting taken and managed by the religious leaders in the temple. Luke's point here is that the new temple of Jesus' community is fulfilling the purpose God always intended for the for the Jerusalem temple - to act as the place where heaven and earth meet and where people encounter God's generosity and healing presence. In fact, the new community of believers is growing so quickly that the Apostles aren't able to manage all of the work that needs to be done so we can see in Chapters 6 and 7 how a new generation of leaders are appointed - called the first Deacons which simply means "Servants". Stephen is one of these first deacons and he is a bold witness for Christ. How do the religious leaders and those in power respond to the loving generosity of the people of God? By killing Stephen in the street with stones. As we continue to read through the book of acts we see what happens next: "And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles" acts 8:1 The persecution of the church was the catalyst for the church to go and fulfill the second part of Jesus’ commandment. He told them to be witnesses in Jerusalem, and then Judea and Samaria. So often throughout Scripture we see God using what seems to be horrible circumstances to achieve His perfect end. In fact Romans 8:28 we read: And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Ro 8:28). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles. So God uses this persecution to drive His people out into the world transforming this mostly Jewish, Jerusalem based group of believers into a multi-ethnic, international movement. In Chapters 8-12 we see the story of Philip who goes to Samaria - the hated enemies of the Jews, the radical conversion of Saul - who was literally murdering Christians and now after his conversion will be one of the most effective missionaries for Christ in history. In Chapters 9-11 we see the story of Peter who is led by the spirit to the house of a Roman soldier which further solidifies the truth that salvation is not just for the Jews but for all humanity. These stories all culminate with the founding of the Church at Antioch, the first large multi-ethnic church in History in one of the largest most cosmopolitan cities in that part of the Roman Empire. I'd like to take just a second here to contrast this model of church planting with what we so often see in modern Christianity. In Acts we see missionaries going out into the world and making disciples where the Spirit leads them, after a sufficient number of believers are converted, small gatherings begin, and ultimately culminate with the founding of a large gathering. Contrast this to the common model we see in the modern church where we take a more businesslike approach. We do "market research" and then build big fancy buildings and then aggressively market our offerings to draw in "seekers". Somehow along the way, we have completely flipped the Biblical model of church planting on its head. Fortunately, our elders have chosen to follow the Biblical model of church planting. It may be slower and less flashy, but I for one am grateful to be a part of it and I hope you are too. As we move into the second half of the Book of Acts, we see that this new church plant at Antioch, IMMEDIATELY gets on mission itself and becomes the launching place for multiple international mission trips through Asia Minor and Ancient Greece. Several key themes from this section of the book are: Throughout the international mission work, the mission to Israel is not ever forgotten, Paul always visits the synagogues in each city he goes through and returns to Jerusalem. The Jerusalem council in Acts 15 confirms that you don't have to be Ethnically Jewish or follow the ceremonial laws in the Torah to be a Christian. There is no distinction between men and women, free or slave, rich or poor in God's kingdom all are treated as equals. It is possible to be loyal to King Jesus alone AND not be a threat to the governments God has placed over us in this life. The last section of the Book, chapters 21-28 describe Paul's imprisonment. Now again, we would think this would be terrible. Why would God call Paul to be an international missionary, only to have him be imprisoned for years? Well as we have already seen time and again, God uses these circumstances to advance His purposes. Specifically, this time in prison allowed Paul time to write his most important Apostolic letters: namely: Ephesians Phillipians Collosians Philemon Finally Paul is sent to Rome where right under Caesar's nose, he: 30 He lived there two whole years at his own expense, and welcomed all who came to him, 31 proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Ac 28:30–31). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles. So, in summary, the book of Acts describes the pivotal moment in redemptive history where God's heavenly kingdom breaks into the earth through the spirit empowered work of God's people who are now the New Temple here on earth - making disciples and blessing the whole world, just as God always promised would happen throughout the entire Old Testament. Even today we are Spirit Led and Empowered to continue the mission of making disciples of all nations knowing that Jesus is reigning on his throne and is with us even to the end of the age. APPLICATION So then how should we live our lives as members of this New Covenant community? I'd like to give you a sentence you can use to help you remember my application points from today: Feel free to write this down somewhere, so if someone asks you later today what my message was about you can tell them: As Christians in the Church Age, how should we relate to God, to each other, and to the world around us? REPEAT As Christians in the Church Age, How should we relate to God? Believe repent and be baptized This should be foundational, but it needs to be said, because without this, nothing else matters. If you are lost, you cannot enter the kingdom of God and you cannot be a part of this incredible plan of Redemption that God has made for us. One of the first things I talked about in my message today was the effect the Good news should have on you. When Peter preached in Acts 2 it says the people were "cut to the heart" because they knew they were responsible for the death of Jesus. I have to say it again. Jesus was NOT crucified by the religious leaders in Israel 2000 years ago, he was NOT crucified by Roman soldiers. He was crucified by all of us. REPEAT Our sins nailed him to that cross - BUT GOD in his mercy has chosen to save some of us from His wrath. If you are an unbeliever, the only thing keeping you from eternal hell right now is God's hand, and make no mistake - he is ANGRY with sinners. We love to talk about God's love and put it on flowery painted wooden signs we hang in our entry ways, but we like to hide from the very real wrath of God toward sinners. So I say again, if you are not blown away by the mercy of God in light of your own wickedness, then do you really believe this message today? Someone may say, I understand my sinfulness, and I need to clean up my act before God will accept me. This is a lie from the devil. You know as well as I do from looking at our own lives and from the entire testimony of scripture, that we CANNOT clean up our acts. We need God to change us - so acknowledge your sinfulness, but don't run away - run TO the father - for he is merciful! If this isn't you, if you are filled with an overwhelming sense of sorrow for your sin, but also joy in knowing you are forgiven, then this leads me to my next point. How should We relate to God: Obey His commands The entire book of Acts describes the Church doing what Jesus commanded them to do - 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Mt 28:19–20). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles. If we truly love God and understand the awesome debt we owe Him, how could we not live lives of self-sacrifice in His service? Gratefully doing whatever he asked us to do? It seems impossible and in ourselves it absolutely is. As we saw throughout the book of Acts, the followers of Jesus endured terrible persecution for their obedience to God even though they posed no real threat to anyone. All they did was not conform and challenge the status quo. Are we willing to be obedient to God no matter the cost? As Christians in the Church Age, how should we relate to God, to each other, 42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Ac 2:42). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles. The early church may have been more, but they were definitely not any less than devoted to: Teaching Fellowship Breaking of Bread Prayers Christian - are you under the authority of a teacher? Are you supplementing that teaching with your own devotional study? Do you know how long it takes to read the entire Bible through in one year? 15 minutes per day. 15 minutes per day is all it takes to consume God's very words to you every year. I checked my iPhone while I was preparing this message and you know how much time I spend looking at my iPhone each day? 2 hours and 40 minutes. That was really sobering for me, because God's word is so life giving and my phone is so life draining. This realization really caused me to resolve to spend a little more time in God's word and a little less time on my phone. Are you finding it hard to do this? Then here is a simple tip. Set an alarm for 30 minutes earlier than you normally wake up and get in God's word at the beginning of the day. If you wait, something will inevitably come up to stop you. Remember this is a WAR and the devil wants to take away your sword any way he can. Christian are you meeting regularly with other believers? That doesn't just mean on Sunday mornings, are you meeting regularly with others outside of this place? Do you share meals? Are you part of a DNA group and a Missional Community? If not, then you are not only being disobedient, but you are missing out on incredibly rich relationships. Someone might say, I don't have any extra time to meet with people outside of Sunday mornings. Really? Are you sure? So you don't have any friends that you meet with ever? Not even for 30 minutes per week? If that is true and all you do every single day is wake up, go to work, come home and go to bed every single day, then we need to discuss your priorities. But I highly doubt that is true of anyone here. You are meeting with a group of friends regularly right now - why are you unwilling to connect to other believers in this body? Get together with other believers, share a meal and do life together - this life was not meant to be lived alone. Fellowship also does not just mean: hanging out with friends. The Acts Church was also multi-ethnic and international. And that was because the disciples were INTENTIONAL about including people who were different than they were. What does your friend circle look like? Do you all think and look alike? Have you surrounded yourself in an echo chamber that never challenges you? According to a LifeWay study, More than half (57 percent) of Protestant churchgoers under 50 say they prefer to go to church with people who share their political views. And few adult Protestant churchgoers say they attend services with people of a different political persuasion. Not only do we prefer to hang out with people just like us, but we as the church seem to have alo jumped on the bandwagon of the rest of our hyper-politicized partisan nation we live in now. All you have to do is scroll through your social media feed to see professing Christians trashing each other for their political opinions. In our little church I know that there are Republicans, Democrats, and people who fall outside of both of those camps. That is something we should be proud of, but Do we ever seek to listen to and understand someone whose politics may be different than ours? Or do we allow politics to divide us - even in our little church? What did Jesus pray for us in His "High Priestly Prayer"? Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Jn 17:11). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles. Church - are we one? Or have we allowed the temporary issues of this world to divide us? Finally, what's your prayer life look like? Charles Spurgeon said: “I know of no better thermometer to your spiritual temperature than this, the measure of the intensity of your prayer.” Again you may say - I don't have time for prayer or you may say - "what's the point of prayer if God is sovereign and does whatever he pleases anyway?" Now although I'd love to, I don't have enough time to preach on the necessity and privilege of prayer, however, I'd ask this question: Do you have time to talk to your spouse or significant other or best friend? You probably make time for that. What's the difference? Maybe talking to your friend is a priority in your life. God has given us this privilege of being a part of his redemptive plan and part of that is our earnest prayers. My son Joshua is 3 and I ask him to "help" me in the garage when I am working on stuff. He even has a little tool belt. Is he actually helping me? Not really, sometimes, but usually not. The reason I ask is because I want to include him in my life, intimacy with him is more important to me than his usefulness. So if God desires to have that intimacy with you, maybe you should ask yourself, why you DON’T desire that intimacy with him? Finally, As Christians in the Church Age, how should we relate to God, to each other, and to the world around us? Now this last point has some overlap with how we relate to each other, because increasingly, and unfortunately I might add, how we relate to each other has a direct impact on our ability to influence the world. Let me give a disclaimer. I've been looking forward to saying what I'm about to say to you for some time so I'm pretty fired up. That being said, I also want to preface everything I am about to say by saying that I believe that we meaning The Crossing Church do a MUCH better job of conducting ourselves like Christians in this fallen world than the average professing Christian in America. So although what im about to say will definitely apply to each and every one of us in varying degrees (me included) I want to affirm that I am VERY proud to be a part of this body of believers who although not perfect - seem to GET this more than the majority. All that being said, I'd like to read three passages of Scripture: 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Mt 28:18–20). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles. 7 But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Je 29:7). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles. 8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Mic 6:8). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles. So I'd like to call out three commands: Make Disciples Seek the welfare of your city Do Justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God There is an unfortunate division in the church today between those who emphasize Social Justice at the expense of preaching the gospel and making disciples, and those who condemn Social Justice saying that all that is needed is to preach the Gospel. But we just read that this is a false dichotomy - God commands us to do BOTH. And I am going to argue that the modern church and the American Church in particular has utterly failed to do EITHER which has resulted in the world being in the shape that it is currently in. Let's look to the book of Acts to see how the early church approached their mission. We saw in Chapters 3-5 the "tale of two temples" how the "New Temple" (the church) was preaching and teaching the Gospel AND serving the poor and needy in their midst. We also learn from this passage that this was ALWAYS God's plan. In fact in 4:34 there was not a needy person among them. The church was able to COMPLETELY eliminate poverty. It has always been God's intention that the Church be the driving force for positive change in the world. REPEAT Instead, what do we see when we scroll through our social media feeds? Professing Christians trashing our leaders and other professing Christians for their social and political opinions. No Christian can vote for the democrat party. No Christian can vote for Donald Trump. Those things are easy to say especially on social media behind the safety of your iphone screen. It's hard to reach out to someone you know who thinks differently than you and ask them to explain their beliefs to you - and then close your mouth and LISTEN rather than simply waiting for them to stop talking so you can respond. It's easy to say Black Lives Matterand post a black square as your profile picture - it's hard to foster a black baby not with the intention of taking that child away from their parents but with the intention of discipling that parent to help them overcome whatever it is they are dealing with and reunite them to their child. It's easy to condemn the Black Lives Matter Organization - its HARD to reach out to a black friend and ask them to tell you about their experiences with racism and injustice - and listen to them tell you that they feel like their lives don’t matter. Its easy to condemn police - its HARD to reach out to a police officer and listen to them or go on a ride along and experience first hand what they have to deal with on a daily basis - or listen to their spouses describe the agony they feel every day their loved on steps out the door and into harms way. It's easy to say you are pro-life- it's HARD to volunteer at a crisis pregnancy center and share the gospel with young girls who are almost ALWAYS being coerced into an abortion they don't want - and try to encourage them to keep their baby and equip them with resources to do so. Or to give money or time to organizations that provide relief to refugees and immigrants. Being pro-life is more than just being anti-abortion. I've heard former youth pastors call certain groups of people in America "animals" I've heard all sorts of name calling - "Sleepy Joe" "Orange Man" you name it from professing Christians. Why is there so much anger and frustration? Church - it is because we - meaning the modern church and particularly the American Church have utterly failed to: Make Disciples Seek the welfare of your city Do Justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God Instead we have chosen to place all our hopes in someone else to do what God has commanded US to do. We have abdicated our responsibility to the state and other organizations to do what WE should be doing ourselves. That is why we are so stressed out about who gets elected President on Tuesday - because we have failed to understand that it SHOULDN’T MATTER. The only reason it DOES MATTER is because we as the Church have ALLOWED it to MATTER. We as the Church CANNOT sit on the sidelines and say we are "making a difference" if all we do is try to get the government or someone else to do the work God has commanded us to do. Someone might ask - well why not? The answer is simple. Because the government or other non-church organizations aren't doing it for the Glory of God And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Col 3:17 From <https://biblehub.com/colossians/3-17.htm> What does it matter if all the poor get money, all the babies get saved, and all the racism stops if everyone goes to hell in the end? Is that actually helping? We just saw in Acts 4 that the early church had COMPLETELY ELIMINATED POVERTY among them. Are you hearing that? The Roman Empire - which ruled the WHOLE WORLD at the time didn't do it, a lowly band of Christians did it. America is the richest nation in the history of the world - and when I say rich its really easy to immediately think of someone else right? According to a Gallup poll - the median household income globally is just under $10,000 per year. Median household income in the US is over $40,000 per year and yet, we can't be troubled to tithe 10%? So, in closing I'd like to offer both a warning and some hope. The Bible is filled with stories about God's punishment on wicked nations and on His people in particular. Is it possible that America could be destroyed by civil unrest, the invasion of an enemy nation, or simply the collapse of our society into some form of totalitarian regime? You bet it is. And if it does it will not be because of Joe Biden or Donald Trump. It will be because God has ordained it for His purposes. But, we can see from the book of Acts that God can use even terrible circumstances to advance His kingdom. David Platt in his recent book: Before you Vote said this: “Even if we lose every freedom and protection we have as followers of Jesus in the United States, and even if our government were to become a completely totalitarian regime, we could still live in abundant life as long as we didn’t look to political leaders, platforms, or policies for our ultimate security and satisfaction.” As I said before I am proud to be a part of this body that takes this seriously, but we are few and we need to do everything we can to lead this world not to a political ideology, but like the church in the book of Acts to lives of spirit empowered ministry and world changing self-sacrifice. And in the end WE WIN! Jesus is now and will be forever more reigning on His throne - by His very name, One Little Word, all the forces of darkness WILL BOW to Him and proclaim He is Lord. According to the words of Martin Luther: And though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure One little word shall fell him From <https://sovereigngracemusic.org/music/songs/a-mighty-fortress-is-our-god/> Prayer Father - we praise you for your sovereignty and your goodness. We can rest knowing that whatever happens in the coming days is EXACTLY what you have ordained to happen. No matter how the enemy attacks us we know that one little word the name of Jesus will defeat him. Help us to shift our focus away from the cares of this world and the distractions of the devil and focus back on how you want us to relate to you, to each other, and to the world around us. Will you not revive us again so your people may rejoice in you? Wake us up O Lord and get us back on mission. Unite us despite our differences toward the call you have for us. Make us a radical, diverse, world changing movement that this world must contend with - not the other way around. In Jesus' name we pray - amen.