NOV 14 2021 | Takin’ It to the Streets S1E7 | Ready, Willing & Able

Sea Change Church · Takin' It to the Streets · "Ready, Willing & Able" Pastor Adam Stadtmiller · November 14, 2021
Acts 28:23-31
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Good morning. Isn't it wonderful to be in the presence of the Lord with one another? Amen. My name is Gerard. I have the privilege of coordinating the homeless ministry and also the prayer team with Noelle. And then the thing that I really love is I facilitate a small group on Monday night. And I'll just give you a shout out. If you're not part of a small group, that's where it happens, I think. That's where really transformation happens. So with that little plug, we're going to be reading.

If you'd like to follow along with me in the bulletin, we'll be reading from Acts chapter 28, starting in verse 23. They arranged to meet Paul on a certain day and came in even larger numbers to the place where he was staying. He witnessed to them from morning till evening, explaining about the kingdom of God and from the law of Moses and from the prophets. He tried to persuade them about Jesus. They were convinced by what he said.

Some were convinced, but others would not believe. They disagreed among themselves and began to leave after Paul made this final statement. The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your ancestors when he said through Isaiah the prophet, Go to this people and say, you will be ever hearing, but never understanding. You will be ever seeing, but never perceiving. For this people's heart has become calloused. They hardly hear with their ears and they have closed their eyes.

Otherwise, they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and turn. And I would heal them. Therefore, I want you to know that God's salvation has been sent to the Gentiles. And they will listen. For two whole years, Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him. He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.

This is the word of the Lord. Thank you. Take this message to my brother. You will find him everywhere. Oh, no. Oh, no. Taking it to the streets. Taking it. Taking it. Taking it. Taking it. Taking it. Taking it. Oh, yeah. Now. Taking it. Do this. Taking it. Into the streets. Do this. Oh, no. We'll find him. Makes me so happy. It just makes me happy. I got a text. It said, you're probably not watching. You're probably not getting texts right now, but hello from Scotland.

And they love the first song. So, friends in Scotland, Tim, I think you're probably having curry with Elspeth right now in the kitchen. And good to see you. And if you're enjoying that right now, hello to our friends in Scotland. I just got back, which was a great trip with our sister church over there and lots to learn and share with you as we go. But what we're going to share today is episode seven in the Taken to the Streets series.

This series about how do we take our faith to the actual streets, to the places that you live, to the cubicles that you indwell, to the markets that you go to, to the soccer team that you're a part of. How do we take the gospel? And that's what this entire series has been about. And we're going to be looking at that today and looking at Paul, who actually was no longer on the streets, but was under Roman confinement in a house that he rented for himself under house arrest for having preached the gospel and going to being taken to Rome.

And he was put under house arrest there. And here we see Paul in this first passage talking about something that's super crucial in regard to a readiness to not only preach the gospel, but for people that are willing to receive the gospel. And in that little passage where he drops back into the prophetic, there he says, you know, and he basically preaches, he has it by memory, preaches a scripture to the Jews. He juxtaposes the gospel going to people who are no longer willing to receive it and those that are willing.

The Gentiles, he says, are willing. And we have to get it out of our head that no one wants to hear the gospel and everyone you talk to is going to be offended by the gospel. The gospel and the Bible are very clear that there are people that are hungry and God has prepared them and they're waiting for a messenger to come share the word with them. And so Paul juxtaposes this and he says to the Jewish leaders that it was a prophetic utterance from the Old Testament that you're no longer willing, but we will go to the Gentiles and we will listen.

And what is so interesting is Paul, even though he's under house arrest, becomes a magnet for people who want truth. Whether you know it or not, there are people in this world who are seeking truth, that feel unhinged, that feel unanchored, and they are looking for truth. And Paul was someone who was willing to give it. Now, this sermon series is called, excuse me, this sermon title is called Ready, Willing, and Able.

And so when it comes to taking the gospel to the streets, one of the things, or in your life, is the question of willingness. Are you willing? And are you able or are you prepared? Third, I want to say that when it comes to gifts, I think that two of the most underrated gifts are willingness and preparation. Willingness, when it comes to anything you're involved in, even if you're a basketball player, you're in business, or you're trying to, you know, prepare a loan or a presentation, talent goes a long way.

But talent will only go to the level of its ability if there is no preparation and if there is no willingness. Give me a hundred willing people as opposed to a hundred talented people who aren't willing every single time. I was a soccer coach for my daughter's eight-year-old team. The Pink Fluffy Cobras is the name of the team. I just wanted to be called Cobras, but they wanted to add pink and fluffy, and so we did. And I've always built my athletics ability, which is B average.

It's like a, the grade for my average would be like an 83%. That's all I have. So I knew that I had to build my athletic gifting on something besides my talent because I'm just not that talented. I can't shoot that well and whatever, basketball, and I kick the ball in the wrong direction and whatever. So I knew I had to be, if I was going to play, I had to build it on something. And I wanted to build it on determination, willingness, preparation, and heart.

And what I found is every team needs that guy or gal. Every team needs someone who is going to dive on the court for the ball when it's concrete and it's an afternoon pickup game. And I have many people come to me and go, why are you diving for the ball? This is an afternoon pickup game. I'm like, because of heart, man. It's because of heart. So you can imagine my chagrin when my eight-year-old daughter during the playoff game runs to the sideline and says, dad, in the middle of the game, game, soccer game going on, kick, kick, ball, ball, ball, kick, kick.

Dad, when's the game over? I'm like, why? I want to go home. Why? I don't like soccer. Oh, you're killing me. We're in the playoffs. I got you in the fullback position. She goes, I don't like to run. I was like, oh. So I gave up. I gave up. I just let her do her thing. She's done art and all these things. Now, you can imagine how surprised I was when five weeks ago I get a after church. I go home and my daughter says, hey, can we go shoot baskets at the court?

And I said, yeah. It's been 14 years. Like, why? She goes, well, I'm trying out for the basketball team tomorrow at the high school. And I was like, it would have been nice to know this. You know, a little, you know. And she goes, okay. I said, okay. So we went and shot baskets. I've been gone for a little while. For the last four to five weeks, she went to every single practice. She stays up at night. She watches videos.

Last night, she's like, dad, you want to watch some basketball? So we watched the end of the Philadelphia game this week. And I'm like, this is amazing. She made the JV team. And I was like, wow. I watched her shoot. I know. She's going to be on the La Jolla JV team. She's 5'10 now. I think that had something to do with it. Beautiful shot. But you know, here's the difference. Willingness. Actually, she ends up having some talent.

Actually, she has way more talent. I'm watching her shoot. Willingness and then preparation for five or six weeks. And I told her, just hustle. Just hustle and be tall. Do that and it'll work. Hustle and be tall. I want to say willingness as we start and preparation are underrated talents. When it comes to sharing the gospel, why do I tell you all that? Two things for you that's going to level the playing field. It absolutely levels the playing field.

Because willingness and preparation are equal to every single person. And talent can raise above. And maybe you'll never have the same talent. But you can always have more preparation. You can always have more willingness. As we look into the scripture today, we see Paul, he's incredibly willing. He's willing even when he's under house arrest. He's willing when people come at all times of the day. He's willing no matter what his circumstances.

He is willing. And not only is he willing, he's prepared. He knows what he's talking about. He's lived what he's talking about. His life has become the preparation for it. But not only that, he is dug deep. And he has heroes of the faith like Isaiah, a prophet who was called by God. You'll see the scripture on the screen. And I want to frame this entire call. Because this is a call. I'm serving it into your court, to use another sports analogy, to ask you, are you willing?

Are you willing to every day wake up ready and willing to share the gospel, no matter what the circumstance, no matter where you are? Isaiah, a hero of Paul in Isaiah 6, 8, said this, Then I heard a voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? God is looking to send envoys. That's an exciting call. He's looking to send you. He's looking for someone that he might send. And I said, this is so key.

Here am I. Send me. Here am I. Send me. I want us to be a here am I, send me church. I want us to be a here am I, send me people. When there's a need. I want us, when people think about La Jolla Christian Fellowship, and the gatherer and the people of faith that are here, that they see a congregation that is willing, that is engaged, and that is able. Go to verse 23. Willingness. They arranged to meet Paul on a certain day, and even came in larger numbers to the place where he was staying.

He witnessed to them from morning until evening. Now imagine that. I want to put you in the scene. You're under house arrest. You've been falsely accused. And he knew that. He actually appealed to Caesar. His whole deal was to try to get in front of Caesar so that the entire Roman Empire might become Christian. And he was willing to die to do it. So it doesn't surprise me that Paul was willing to have people come to his door morning and evening, no matter what time, and if they knocked, Paul was ready, willing, and able to invite them.

Why? That he might share the gospel with them. Now there's two things that we're going to speak about today. The first is that ability of willingness. On a scale of 1 to 10, don't say it out loud, but how willing are you to be interrupted? How much do you like at 7 o'clock when... But I have a sign that says no solicitors. Paul actually had a sign that said, please, all solicitors welcome. Please come here. Willingness.

What is willingness? When it comes to preaching the gospel, when it comes to evangelism, people are going to see the willingness in your body language. They're going to see the willingness in your language. They're going to see if you're impatient. They're going to see if you look them in the eyes. They're going to see that if you care about their story, if you're willing to be inconvenienced for them, or if people become an inconvenience.

You see, the gospel is people-centric. And Paul knew this. The gospel is people-centric. It is about a God, a Father God, who loves his children and wants to be known to them. And Paul knew this. His whole life was about making Jesus known. It was his number one priority. I was even reading in Corinthians, just in my own private quiet time today, where Paul was like, hey, it's better if you don't get married and if you don't do all these other things, the time's short.

If you can just share Jesus all the time. And this is the space that he was at. And then he gives a nice caveat to people that are married like me. But if you need to get married, go ahead, we'll let you. But this was the space that he was in. And I realized when I was in Edinburgh, Scotland, that sometimes living in the machine of ministry and the strategy of ministry, you can sometimes lose a passion for the people.

And we were out on the streets a lot. I was working with ministries that were out, talking to people as we would go out to the streets and witness and share. And all of a sudden, I felt like that began to come back, that feeling of realizing that the gospel is people-centric. The gospel is absolutely people-centric. So willingness is a cheerful readiness to do something. Is there a cheerful readiness? Verse 23 showed us with Paul that his house, every place he went, was a place of hospitality.

It was a place of welcome. The second is preparation, the action or process of making something ready for use or service. Now, what I thought was interesting about this passage, as I read about Paul, his overall posture was people-centric. One of the things my mom always says is a smile goes a long way. She said a great attitude and a smile and you'll succeed in life. A great attitude and a smile and you'll succeed in life.

That's a simplistic way to look at it, but I found it incredibly true. When we step out to meet people, are we showing a willingness and a hospitality? Paul, one of the reasons why we don't have willingness is because of our circumstances, right? Oh, I got this boss. Oh, I have this thing. Oh, I'm down because I'm worried about this or whatever the reason is. We let our circumstances define our willingness. As the world has become more compacted, as you have more opportunities now because of social networking and being connected to more people than we were probably meant to be connected to as a people, we end up letting that overwhelmed feeling define our willingness to God.

But Paul did not have let his circumstances define his witness. He was under house arrest. Imagine this. Under house arrest, falsely accused, could have easily said, God, why did this happen to me? I'm angry with you. I'm going to shipwreck my faith because you haven't done the things that I thought you should have done. And so because of my circumstances or when my circumstances change or when this happens, Paul was not willing to let his circumstances define his willingness.

Once again, are you a person you would say you're willing? Or are we becoming more protected? I feel like we're becoming a more and more protected society. My mom said when she grew up as a kid, everyone was on their front porch at night. Everybody walked by. It was a front porch street life where you talked to people. She said, as I got older, the walls got bigger and bigger. Then we had garages. We pulled into the garage, closed the door, and we became a backyard society where we no longer were having community.

We no longer were having hospitality. Paul did not let his circumstances define his willingness. Question, do you feel like you're willing? And I think this goes to so many, not just evangelism, are you willing in regard to forgiveness? Are you willing to be in relationship? Where is your willingness? Willingness will level the playing field in your life. Are we willing to grow? Willingness to the call of God, another thing I put, and I put this this morning, willingness to the call of God is not restrained by doing things on our terms.

It's funny, I was flying back, and I had been in Edinburgh with our church, and was walking around, and I was going to all these meetings about evangelism, and we were meeting people on the streets and evangelizing, and it just became natural. And then I got on the plane. And I was on the plane, I was tired, and I love being in planes, because no one can text you, there's just a movie screen, you know, a little bit of leg room, and I'm there, and I actually prayed, I caught myself praying this, Lord, I pray no one sits beside me that I have to witness to.

I literally prayed that, like after, like, God, you know, I'm clocking off, by the way, okay, God? Like, I've been, you know, just killing it with Sean, running around, doing all this ministry, and I just, I caught myself, and at the end of the prayer, I was like, oh, you're awesome, good pastor. Like, God, would you please not let anybody sit beside me? And then when somebody sat beside me, I was like, oh, I hope they don't talk to me.

I ended up, I ended up not having a ton of conversation with them, but I realized how often, like, my willingness is on my terms. My willingness to give, my willingness to sit in God's presence, my, like, it's all on my terms. I want, I just want to say, that's not willingness. That's not the definite of willingness. Willingness to do something on your terms is not as much, maybe it is a form of willingness, but it's not the purity of willingness.

Cheerful willingness is being ready whenever God says, I need someone on the team, who can I send? And you say, here I am, send me. Paul, even in prison, house arrest at this time, even with a guard outside his door, was like, God, wherever they are, send them to me, I am willing, and I am ready. So this is a willingness check. How's your willingness? And his willingness have the ability, and I want to tell you it has the ability, to raise your game above your talent.

Because God doesn't need talent. God's not looking for talent. He is all, he is all talented. He is all having, all knowing, all doing. He's not looking for A plus players. Look at the disciples he chose. He's looking for people that are willing to be crucified with him. Willing to die. Willing to give their lives away, not on their terms, but on his terms. And that is the cost of discipleship. And so willingness. Are we a willing person?

Paul did not let his circumstances define his witness. The other thing that was interesting is, just quickly in verse 30, before we go to preparation. It says, Paul stayed there, in verse 30, for two whole years, in his own rented house. Imagine them sending you to prison, and then house arrest, and you can't leave, but then you have to use your own money to pay for it. You see, not only was Paul not, you know, arguing with God about the state of his life at the moment, he was willing to give of his own money in order to make this happen.

Matter of fact, he was willing to give up his freedom that he might share Christ with all. Willingness, I would say also, the final thing, is willingness begets opportunity. When God knows you're willing, God will give you open doors. Willing, if you want to open doors, talent can open some doors, I suppose. But one of the things I feel like that God has said to me recently is stop leading strategically, lead spiritually.

The keys to heaven are not often opened, the doors, through strategy. Sometimes they are, through wisdom and strategy. The counsel of many brings victory, it says. But through prayer, through fasting, and through these other things. And so willingness is one of the keys that opens up heaven. I want to say, if you want to open heaven, be willing. Sit before the Lord and ask, Lord, what do you want from me? Or perhaps you already have a sense of what he wants from you, but you've been unwilling.

If you want to rise above your talent, which God really doesn't need, he's looking for open hearts and willing hearts. He's looking for people that are willing to give everything and to follow him. Would you rather a hundred talented people that are unwilling or five semi-talented people who are willing? Give me the five every single time. In verse 28, willingness begets opportunity. When Paul was willing, in verse 28 it says, therefore I want you to know that God's salvation has been sent to the Gentiles and they will listen.

And Paul welcomed all who came to see him. You see, Paul could have said, how am I going to preach the gospel? How am I going to take it to the streets when I'm stuck in a house? But you see, willingness was a magnet for the call of God, the blessing of God, and the commission of God upon Paul's life. It was a magnet. And people for two years streamed to his house and he did what? He shared the gospel. I want to say, as we move into preparation, one of the things that I have learned is if I'm going to be successful, I'm going to have to depend on preparation and I'm going to have to depend on willingness as opposed to my own talent.

One of the things I like about Chris Harrow, our worship leader, is not only, I mean, it's nice when you have talent, like if you're Kobe or Michael, talent, and you also have the preparation. But if you work on her team, she is ruthless in regard to her preparation. She is ruthless when it comes to a willingness to go to that next level. As a youth pastor, I used to take kids skiing all the time. And one of the things I love about skiing with kids is how often they want to get off the mountain.

No, I hate that. You go skiing with a 13-year-old and they immediately want to get off the mountain because they're cold or they need an extra glove. It's like 20 below, but who cares? It's, you know. And one of the things I began to do is ski with a backpack. Now, why did I ski with a backpack? Because if you're a youth pastor and you want to actually spend more than five minutes on the hill when you have 30 kids with you, is actually prepare for every single situation that you can in order that when that situation comes about, you might be there.

So I would have extra gloves. I would even have that little thing that comes off of the ski pole before they were snowboarding. I would have that. I could fix that. I would have pliers. I would have food. I would have the hand warmers. I would have everything. Why? Because I wanted to be prepared and I wanted to stay on the hill. One of the things we found out about Paul here is not only was Paul willing, Paul was prepared.

He was ultimately prepared. I think oftentimes when it comes to sharing the gospel, we might have willingness, but do we actually have preparation that goes with it? Go to verse, if you would. Go to verse 23. B. He witnessed to them from morning till evening explaining about the kingdom of God and from the law of Moses and the prophets, he tried to persuade them about Jesus. Why was Paul able to do that? Why was Paul able to take the Bible, the scriptures that he had?

Why was he able to take them, to decipher them, and to have them make sense to other people? Now, there are scriptures that say, like in Matthew 10, 19, but when they arrest you, don't worry what you have to say or how you're going to say it. At that time, I'll just give you what you're going to say. And a lot of us, that's our entire witnessing strategy, sharing our faith strategy. I guess he'll just tell me what to say when we say it, but we have no clue of actually how to answer some very difficult questions.

One of the things I ask people regularly is, could you give me five scriptures, just five, five, well, make it five, five scriptures that if someone said, tell me about Jesus, tell me why I need Jesus and how I can go to heaven, do you just have five scriptures that you know without your Bible that you could actually just say, yeah, you know, Romans 3, 23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Or Romans 5, 8, 8, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

You know, John 3, we all have to John 3, 16, so that's a give me. The question is, are we prepared? Why was Paul able to do that? Paul was able to do it because Paul took his faith seriously and he actually prepared to have an answer to share. And so, as we move forward as a congregation, and I think especially in a world that is asking question after question, is one, are we willing? And second of all, are we prepared?

Paul there was able to share of the prophets. He understood. What did that take? It took a willingness to learn. It took a willingness to be discipled. It took a willingness to study the scripture. It took a willingness to actually memorize the scripture. They would actually memorize the scriptures, you know, as many as they could so that they would be able to have these discussions. And so we see this in verse 28. I'll go to verse 31 if you would.

He proclaimed then the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ with what? With all boldness and without hindrance. I want to say when we have a willingness to say, God, send me. Here am I. Send me. Wherever it is. And each of you, he's prepared a place for you. And not only a willingness, but you back up that willingness with a preparation. So you find somebody who's gone before you. My preparation, it's happened many times, but I've mentioned it many times, was with a mechanic when I was 19 years old and I met with him for about a year in his kitchen and he took me through the scriptures with a book.

This is why we're saved. This is what atonement means. Why Jesus was able to pay for my sin. Understanding atonement. All that just didn't happen. I was a literature major. I wasn't going to go into ministry, but I just wanted to know the word of God. I was hungry for it. And I wanted to share the word of God with others in a way that made sense to them. Not so I could win arguments, but that they could know the living God.

And so the question to you is, maybe you're willing, but are you prepared? Are you prepared to answer questions about who Jesus is and why you know God and why others should know God? Are you prepared? And if you're not prepared, then I guess we go back to the first one. Are you willing? I want to say that we have set up incredible resources here. We have a next steps table. And if you feel unprepared, I want to encourage you after the service to go to the next steps table and look into discipleship.

Discipleship means we have somebody who will meet with you regularly and go through for 28 weeks. It's 28 weeks. I know. It's commitment. 28 weeks, what it means to know Jesus, why it matters, why baptism matters. Or if you don't want to do that, we have Pastor Jim's class. We have Elliot's class. We have all these places where you can come and be equipped. Why? That others might know who Jesus is and be led to salvation.

It says in Ephesians 2.10. I think they have this on the scripture. For what? We are God's handiwork. Created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do. There's that word preparation. Even God himself is preparing. And he's looking for those that are willing. And those that are willing, willingness begets opportunity. You'll be surprised when you begin to memorize scripture how that scripture will be reminded to you.

For those of you that said, well the Holy Spirit will remind me or the Holy Spirit will give me the words, he also says in John 14.26, but the advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name will do what? He will teach you all things and then he will remind you of everything that I have said. So interesting. The Holy Spirit wants to teach you and then the Holy Spirit wants to remind you. Why? So that we can be in the business, in a people-centric business of bringing life to people.

If you're not prepared, this whole message is, we have one more week next week, this whole series is ending on the question of willingness and preparation. We want to be a church that prepares you. We want to be a church that gives you all the resources. If you go to the next step table and say, hey, I need to be prepared here. I need this here. We want to get you plugged in and like Gerard said, that's where it happens in the connection, in the connectivity.

God has prepared works. He goes before you and he has prepared works for each of you to step into that you might have life and might have it more abundantly. Let's stand if you would. I want to ask you to bow your heads and each of you, just as we take a moment, think of the place where God might be calling you to. Think of the relationships, see the faces, hear the voices, and then begin to look at your willingness and see if you would be willing to say, God, here am I, send me.

And so right now, in that moment, if you would just say to yourself, not aloud, just in your own heart, God, here am I, send me. And then also, if you want to receive a blessing and that God would lead you and make it aware of if this message touched you in any way that you need to be prepared in a different way, that God would lead you and you would ask him to prepare you for such good works. If you want to extend your hand, I want to pray a blessing on you, a blessing of preparation and sending for those especially who said, here am I, send me.

Lord Jesus, I thank you, Lord God, for this congregation, these people, God, who want to be equipped to love others. God, there's people that are, lives are being shipwrecked right now, God, and would you send us out, each of us, to the faces that they saw. Some of them saw people at Trader Joe's, some of them saw people at their work, at their schools, Lord God. And God, you were calling us to go out and you were sending us out, Lord Jesus, to be a rescue to this world, God, with the love of God.

And I pray that you would be blessed that we send you right now with God's commission, with his passion, with his love, and his favor. And God, for those that need your heart to bless them right now, Lord Jesus, that they just need you in this moment, may you be with them now in this moment. Give them compassion and grace. The prayer team will be up forward, up front, if you need to pray afterwards, please go forward.

If you want to get connected in our next steps, please do. We bless you. We send you out in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. See you guys next week. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.