DEC 18 2015 | Acts 28

Sea Change Church · "Acts 28" · Adam Stadtmiller · December 18, 2015
Acts 28
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Jesus Christ is Lord. We share that confession with millions of people around the world. Isn't that a joy? And many of us are pointing toward December 25th, Christmas Day. If you're in the Eastern Orthodox tradition, as millions of believers are around the world, 25th is wonderful, but it begins the 12 days of Christmas. Because the Orthodox focus on the culmination in early January.

So we still have one Lord, one confession, and that's why the witness that we've been hearing from the book of Acts is so important. The Apostle Paul, in his confession of Christ as Lord to all varieties of different people. This is the concluding message from the book of Acts by Pastor Adam. And it's the book of Acts, as he says, in the rearview mirror.

We're looking back. And the road that has taken the Apostle Paul now to the city of Rome, to the capital, as a prisoner, but free transportation to Rome. And there to proclaim the good news. So with us together, in unity with Christians around the world, many of them will stand for the reading of Scripture. And many will read out loud in the combination of that opportunity today.

And the rearview mirror means I'd like to just step into the aisle, turn, and we'll read from the screen together. Would you read out loud with me the word of the Lord? From Acts chapter 28, shall we stand together? And with our voices, we proclaim the word of the Lord. Join me, please. After three months, we put out to sea in a ship that had wintered in the island.

It was an Alexandrian ship with the figurehead of the twin gods, Castor and Pollux. We put in at Syracuse and stayed there three days. From there, we set sail and arrived at Regium. The next day, the south wind came up. And on the following day, we reached Puteoli. There we found some brothers and sisters who invited us to spend a week with them.

And so we came to Rome. The brothers and sisters there had heard that we were coming. And they traveled as far as the Forum of Appius and the three taverns to meet us. At the sight of these people, Paul thanked God and was encouraged. When we got to Rome, Paul was allowed to live by himself with a soldier to guard him. Three days later, he called together the local Jewish leaders.

When they had assembled, Paul said to them, My brothers, although I have done nothing against our people or against the customs of our ancestors, I was arrested in Jerusalem and handed over to the Romans. They examined me and wanted to release me because I was not guilty of any crime deserving death. The Jews objected, so I was compelled to make an appeal to Caesar.

I certainly did not intend to bring any charge against my own people. For this reason, I have asked to see you and talk with you. It is because of the hope of Israel that I am bound with this chain. And they replied, He 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. Some were convinced by what he said, but others would not believe. They disagreed among themselves and began to leave after Paul had made this final statement. The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your ancestors when he said through Isaiah the prophets, Go to this people and say, You will 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, 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. Lord, our prayer today, thanking you for your word, is that you will touch our eyes and our ears and our hearts and lead us closely to you, especially for your kingdom's sake.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Have a seat, if you would. Welcome to church. Good to have you today. And part of this, the conclusion of the book of Acts. Pretty much a year following the story of God's people. It would be easy to say that we are following the story of Paul, but this story is so much bigger than Paul, and as it always is. And I would say with your life, that your life is so much bigger than your life because you are part of a grand scheme, a grand narrative, a history that is so much more diverse and expansive than we can ever believe.

I think one of the things the enemy, and I think modern culture, wants us to regularly do is to have the historicity of what God is doing in the world get boiled down to your personal life. It's all about your purpose. It's all about the book you want to write, the song you want to sing, the thing you want to do. I've got to say it's much bigger than that.

And this story in the book of Acts is expansive. As a matter of fact, you're living it today. Us being in these pews are an extension of the story of the book of Acts. And so one of the things I wanted to do as we come in for a landing this week before Christmas is to take a 30,000-foot view of the book of Acts, to look at what we've learned, to look at some of the characters, and really see how it has actually really shaped us as a church and shaped our theology, I think, as a church.

Not theology of who Jesus is, but our praxis of how, as a church, we want to change the world and make a difference. And I will say in the first three years when you come into a new work, and this is a 100-year-old church almost, we are going into our final decade before our centennial, starting April. We will celebrate that in April of 100 years here at this church.

But this generation is a new generation of believers, although some of you have been here a long time. We think of Carol Golden, who's not here. She's not feeling well, but she has been a member in this church 73 years. Now, that's solid. That's solid. I mean, she's not church hopping, okay? Let me just say that, you know, it's one of the things. We have others that have been here 30 years, 25 years, 15 years, and then we have this new generation.

And as this new generation, you might be part of this new generation. It's a blending of who we have been and who we are now. And these first three years, and I would say especially as we went through Joshua in the first year, and now this book of Acts has begun to shape who we are. We are a relationally, congregationally-based church, a church that believes, like we had earlier in the book of Acts, the message about Stephen, who was the martyr in the pew.

He was a guy who just sat in the church, who raised his hand when they said, hey, we need some people to wait on the tables and to be a busboy, and ends up stepping into a larger story. C.S. Lewis says, we never know that the smallest act of obedience might lead to God's greatest glorious moment in our life. That's a paraphrase. But the slightest act of obedience, you realize that Stephen was there, and they said, hey, would you, and this isn't a push to get more people working in the food ministry, by the way.

I had it all set up. That Stephen was in the pew, just like you, and the apostles got up, and they said, we need some people to serve widows and orphans. One thing we want to do better in the new year, working with unity for orphans, and continue to work with them and our missions partners. But he just said yes out of obedience, just to go work on the scraps of the table, and to be able to do something small, but then God uses him, and he becomes the martyr in the pew.

We are a congregation-based church, and so we're going to take a 30,000-foot view, looking at this book of Acts, and a larger story for the next 25 minutes or so, and then I also want you to lift off the plane of your life for a moment and to take it beyond your personal problems or your personal successes. We want to be a people that sees the grand narrative of what God's doing in the world far greater than just ourselves.

And I say, I'm really good at making the entire world about me. Like, the whole thing is about me. The stars that are aligning, everything that's happening, climate change, like, I'm the center of that universe. I don't know if anybody else is really good at making yourself the hero of this story, but I'm really good at it. And I want to give you an opportunity now to step back and to say, hey, you know, life's a lot bigger, and what are we trying to do?

There's four things we're going to look at today in the book of Acts. One of them has to do with what we read, and I really appreciate Jim reading the scripture because it does allow it to go to a deeper level, get a little more subterranean in our hearts. And that idea was that it says, I will take the message of the gospel to the Gentiles. Why did it say that it took it to the Gentiles?

Does anybody know? Because they will hear. They will receive it. I want to say we want to start the gospel. The gospel always starts with the Jew, by the way. Scripture says it goes to the Jew first and then to the Gentile. But Paul says, as we end Acts here, that the majority of Jewish people in that time were not receiving the message, although the people that were often bringing the message were Jews, Peter, Jesus, Paul.

Paul was a Jew of Jews. But the gospel begins to expand. Let me just give you a quick narrative and a history timeline of how the gospel was. It started out in a garden in perfection with mankind, men and women, with their father. That got decentralized due to sin. Sin decentralized our relationship with God. It casts them out of that intimate relation, that perfect relationship with God, and into a people that were stained with sin.

We were decentralized from the love of the Father. And when man said this, and mankind said this, I no longer want to be a child of God. I want to be like God. Let me affirm again that I've said multiple times in this series that we cannot be like God and still be his children. The enemy wanted to be, that's the number one sin of when he was kicked out, Satan was kicked out of heaven.

He wanted to be God. And the temptation to Adam and Eve was this, be like God. If you choose to be in control and to be like God, we forfeit our understanding of being the children of God. You can't be God and also be God's children. And so the gospel was decentralized. It went out as a sinful people into the world. And God said, I need to make it exclusive for a while so I can recreate the story of what happened in the beginning in the paradise that will happen.

And so he found a person who was not a Jew. Anybody know who his name was? Abraham. And he finds Abraham, who was a wandering Berber of sorts, wandering, and he brings him back and he says, I want you to be and begin a new people. And so he becomes very exclusive with this people. And out of Abraham comes the Jewish people with set rules and regulations in order to keep them as a people, to put boundaries around them and to begin to re-express who God is.

And through these laws and rituals, he begins to express his divine nature, his character in these things. But the gospel was never meant to be exclusive. And so God had a plan that it would go beyond and that God would, through Jesus Christ, through this people, that they would be set free through Jesus' death on the cross. And that once again decentralizes the gospel because it had become exclusive.

It had become centralized with the Jewish people. And then, that's fine, Tony. Thanks so much, buddy. And it had been centralized. And now the gospel is going back out. It is becoming decentralized. This is one of the points of the message today. You'll see it in point one. The gospel's never meant to be exclusive. I mean that for your life because there is so, I hear, I don't know if you've talked to many believers and heard, Tony, we're okay, buddy.

Well, we can just leave it as it is. I guess we can't. The gospel is meant to be, not meant to be exclusive. And so let me ask you this. How exclusive is the gospel? And how good are you at making Jesus famous? You see, Paul, the mission of his life was to make Jesus famous. I talked to somebody this week and they said, you know, I have a private faith.

And I just have a private faith. I like to kind of, I like to sneak into church. I like to come in late. I like to leave early. And I just have this private faith. I have to say that Christianity, Christ, actually a better word, Christ following is never meant to be private. Now it is intimate, but it's meant to be a faith that is shared. And so pulling out and looking at that and talking about, once again, how you are making a difference in the lives of people around you.

So point number one is gonna be the gospel is not meant to be exclusive. Number, the second thing that we learned from the book of Acts is the gospel's people centric. We talked about Paul and he can so easily be seen as just this hard-nosed guy who's telling the Corinthian church, don't marry your mom, like all this crazy stuff, like he's always on the mission to just do theology, theology, theology.

Gotta say, Paul, if you read between the lines, Paul was an incredible people person. Paul, like Jesus, loved people. And the book of Acts, even though it was written by Luke, has 70 people that is mentioned in relationship with Paul. They are centurions. They were other apostles. They are women who run clothing businesses. They're all through, whether it be Lydia, whether it be Priscilla and Aquila, people that Paul, servants in Roman households.

Paul is so good at building relationships. And we see that when he was going, to follow his calling to Jerusalem, to lead towards his death, that it said that people gathered around him and they begged him not to go. You know, this is kind of the community that he had put himself around and was constantly trying to explain the love of Jesus to those people.

So once again, pulling out, 30,000 foot view from your own life. Who's your community? Who's your 70 people? Who's your 10 people? Who's your five people? Who are your neighbors that you're saying, I am intentionally, they're not a product. They're not a program. But I intentionally am trying to tell them about Jesus and who they are. We want to be a church, you know, that is people-centric.

And the book of Acts is people-centric. Number three, individual lives and purposes are part of a bigger story. And then finally, number four, it's all about him. I got to say, the entire gospel is about Jesus. It's all about him. I was challenged this week with every gift. You know, the reason we give gifts is because gifts were given unto Jesus, but because he gave his gift to us, which was himself.

Do we give every gift? Do I, not we, do I give every gift in the name of Jesus? Every gift I get this Christmas. Am I blessing it in the same way that Jesus did? Is everything in our life, has it become all about us? I want to say, let's detoxify ourselves, me included, from me, from I. I is great when it's this, I am God's beloved. I am loved by God. I want to make a difference in the world.

But when it comes about I, it gets pretty small and pretty shrunken. And it becomes so toxic. I want to say, do you need to detoxify yourself from I in the next new year? I know that I need to. Because oftentimes, it becomes all about I. Let's look at the first point quickly. The gospel's not meant to be exclusive. The book of Acts is the first time we see the gospel become decentralized and move beyond the borders of Asia Minor and the Middle East.

It is moved out. God has a purpose to take the gospel to the entire world. I had a friend tell me that if you watch the gospel, it is moving westward. This is just somebody's opinion. But they said it went from Jerusalem and then it went to, you know, in, forgot the name, Jim, where was the church originally? Antioch. And then beyond, it moves to Turkey. But where they had the centralized church in Turkey, I can't remember the name.

And then to Rome. And then from Rome, you know, America became a huge center of the church. And then you see it in China. The church has been blowing up in China. Right now, the fastest growing church in the world, does anybody know where it is? It's in Iran. The fastest growing church in the world is in Iran. And a friend said, if you want to see Jesus coming back, this is him, this is not me doing, doing end times theology.

But he said, it's going to make its way all the way back to Jerusalem. And we see that actually the scripture, the world and scripture history ends back in that place. That it goes all the way around. I thought that was just an interesting point. But nonetheless, the gospel is decentralizing. It's going to a people that will listen. He said, we spend a lot of time speaking to people that won't listen.

There is so many people that want to listen. You know, in the book of Acts, over and over again, we saw it in this story. Paul shares the gospel. He speaks it. I want to ask you a question. When was the last time you used Jesus in a sentence speaking to somebody when you weren't at church? Like you're at the coffee house or you're talking to somebody. I just challenge you.

One time in a sentence with someone who you don't know if they're a believer or not, use the name Jesus. Just throw it out there. I don't know how you're going to do it. Just do it. Paul was really good at it. Jesus, the name of Jesus is powerful. To say, hey, you know what? I pray to Jesus. Somebody says, I'm sick. Well, you know, I pray to Jesus on a regular basis.

Do you mind if I pray when I go home for you? Tell me what it is. Use Jesus' name. Just try it. Just see what happens. You know, I find that most people like Jesus. They don't like the church so much, but they tend to like Jesus. He's kind of like a bro with a lot of people, you know? They kind of fist bump Jesus. You see the gospel being decentralized.

Decentralized. It's going out to another people that will receive. You know, every time Paul spoke, it says that some people eagerly receive the gospel. I say, there is a lot of people that are eager, that are hungry for this message. We tend to focus, I tend to focus on the people that don't want to hear. If I say it, they're going to hate me. They're not going to want to listen to me.

They're going to reject me. I got to say, there is a huge group of people out there that are desperate to hear this message. Are we doing it? Decentralize the gospel in your life. In Acts 28, 16, if you'll see it on the screen behind me. And when we came to Rome, look at that. The gospel made it to Rome. How exciting. I mean, think about that. The gospel, and who knew what was going to happen to Rome?

You know, 300 years later, they would be up in England. They would have Hadrian's wall. They would be building, you know, Caesar. They would be building the infrastructure. Caesar Augustus had already built the infrastructure for the gospel because Jesus was born at the perfect time when the roads and the security and like Monty Python said, what have the Romans ever done for us?

They've done a lot for us. That's kind of funny for anybody that's seen that. The gospel made it to Rome. I want to say, the gospel's trying to make it perhaps to one of your neighbor's houses. The gospel's trying to make it. You know, there's somebody that's dealing with really dark depression right now. They need hope. You're surrounded by them. Trust me.

In this society, you are surrounded. The emotionally impoverished, we might not have the physically impoverished in La Jolla much. We have a few homeless and things like that, but I'll tell you what, the emotionally impoverished are rife in this area. Those with anxiety, those with bipolar, those with marriages are falling apart, those children that don't have relationships with their father.

On and on, on and on, it is there. And I want to say the gospel is waiting to come to that corner. Decentralize the gospel. Get out there and make a difference. Just living on mission. And first of all, it starts with the first corner of our heart. The more you let God pour the love of his son into your heart, the more you're just going to want to share it.

Begin to speak the name of Jesus. It becomes contagious. Be the light that God has called you to be. So Acts 28, and it says, Paul was allowed to stay by himself. This is, he was a rad prisoner. I mean, he was just a model citizen. They just let him stay by himself with a soldier who guarded him. Guaranteed that soldier became to know Christ. I mean, come on. That guy's guarding him.

Here's what is important in your notes. Important because the scripture had prophesied that it would make its way to every tribe and tongue. This might blow your theology up a little bit, but in Revelations it says that a person, and it's in your notes later on in the scripture, I think it's in the notes later on, it says that somebody from every tribe and tongue will end up in heaven.

Now, I don't know how that's going to happen. Every tribe, every Native American tribe, I mean, every tribe and every tongue. Tongues that have never heard about Jesus. Now, the book of Romans in chapters 1 and 2 talks about how that happens, that the law is written on our hearts. But God will have a person from every single tribe and tongue represented in heaven.

I find that fascinating. His goal is to decentralize the gospel into every people group, into every type of person. As we see, surfers are some of those people at this church. We're trying to reach that tribe as well. It says in, uh, at the next note, the scripture prophesies this and Paul continued to make Jesus famous from his new Roman corner. And that's the thing about Paul.

Paul was committed to making Jesus famous no matter what corner he lived on. And you know what corner he ended up living on? In a cell. By himself, or actually in a little house he was in. He was under Roman guard. And you know what? A lot of people could get into that situation and say, I'm in prison. I'm, you know, I'm going to have to go before Caesar. Paul said, you know what?

I'm in prison. These digs, you know, they're not the best ever. It said he was cold in the winter. He struggled. They needed a cloak sent to him. He was having some hard times. His eyes were getting bad. He was separated from people. And in the midst of that, he said, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to make Jesus famous. And he eventually shared Jesus before Caesar.

He went before Caesar. Make your corner famous for Jesus. Make him famous. Point two, the book of Acts is people centric. The book of Acts is a story of a new church with a storied history reaching the world through the lives of ordinary, everyday people. We're not looking for rock stars at this church. I don't think Jesus is looking for rock stars. He doesn't go weed through people and say, where's the, you know, I need some rock stars.

I need the really good looking people, the ones that are really smart and the rest. You can kind of wait. I'll bring you on a little bit later. He's not that way. Look at the disciple. I mean, literally, the disciples were a bunch of kooks. Like they just, I mean, they just couldn't get anything right. They weren't known, you know, as a rabbi. He picked the lowliest.

I mean, he picked people that were fishermen every day, common, the salt of the earth people. Ones that would be faithful, though, and that would love him. I want to say, you know who Jesus is looking for? He's looking for you. He's looking for somebody that's willing to be humble. He's looking for somebody that doesn't have to be a rock star. Look, as part of the pastoral culture in this country, I just, I want to, I want to come against the celebrity pastor deal.

I want no part of that. I think that we've gone way, we've tried way too hard to make the pulpit the star. We've tried too hard to make the stage the star, to make the worship leader the star. There's one star in this church and it's Jesus Christ. And more than that, it's Jesus Christ in you. You are the multi-campus. You are the one that is going to make a difference.

You know, we're not a menu-driven church because I tell you what, I just don't have the margin to do it. I don't have the margin to organize a softball team. If you want to do a softball team, go do it and have it. But the goal is this, that on your corner, that every one of you goes out here into the diaspora that is La Jolla, UTC, Oceanside, all the places you live and you live intentionally for Jesus, making him famous on your corner.

I got to tell you something's going to happen. I'm going to go to parties at night and they're going to say, I've heard about your church. Why? Because of you. We're not trying to go by promotion. We're trying to go through attraction, that you be attractive, that Jesus shine on you and that you be real with people. And so that's the mission. If you want to come here and be entertained and just go home and not do anything, it's probably not the best church.

There are probably some other places you can find. But if you want to be a place where you're equipped to really experience life change and to change the lives of others, this is a place where we want to see that happen. The church has always been people-centric. Ordinary people, like Stephen, talk about 70 people in the book of Acts. The church has always been a people rather than a place.

I want to say that this building's beautiful. In the 1950s, a church got together, a generation, some of you who are still here, built this amazing building. Before that, in the late 1800s, that building was built. We have some beautiful architecture here. I love it. But it's not about that because when we started here in 1927, we were in a tent two blocks down the street.

And we're still here today. And I love, as they wrote a letter to us and they said, we have letters from the original congregations. We pray and we look forward to what God is going to do from this little tent on this little corner. I want to say, if they could look and see what God is doing now, they would be excited and we're part of that legacy and we want to be part of that legacy.

We want to continually challenge you. I want to continually raise the bar and say, it's not about me, it's not about the message or how many wells we build in Africa, it's about Jesus in you. And we want to see your life change. It's people-centric. We are a body. Look at 1 Corinthians 12, 27. Now you are a body of Christ and each one of you has a part in it.

Every one of you has a part here. Every one of you is important. Every one of you matter. Number three, the book of Acts shows how individual lives play part of a bigger story. I touched on this at the beginning. Acts chronicles the life of Paul as he champions the cause of Christ. I love that. He champions it. He's championing Christ's cause. As we do this rooted study coming up, they said you need to have champions.

Well, we have champions in this church that are excited about different things. Paul was championing the cause of Christ throughout Asia Minor and sets the stage for it to reach the four corners of the world. I want to tell you, when it comes to Paul's purpose, his purpose is still unfolding today because it's never about his purpose. It's about his, capital H, purpose.

The purpose of Christ in you. And Paul was a part of that. Remember, it says, the book of Acts is not about Paul. But Paul was uniquely created to fulfill his part in the grand stage and play that is human history. This is so interesting that Paul was uniquely created for the purpose that God had for him. And I want to say, as we sang earlier, and you know, you're perfect in every way, whenever we sing that song, I've got to remind myself, because there's always a little bit of static in your life, right, that's not going right.

And you look at this and you're like, ah, you know, God, you're messing it up. Can you just, you know, you're messing this, this needs to be fixed. To sing in faith on a regular basis, and we talked about that last week, to sing in faith and to say, God, you know, you're perfect. No matter what I'm going through, you are perfect in every single way. And we see that Paul was created.

He was created as a Jew, but he also had Roman citizenship. God knew, he was born, he was, you know, he didn't buy that. He was born a Jew that had, and a Roman, that had nothing to do with Paul. God just created that, but because of that unique position that God gave him, Paul was able to ask to speak to Rome, and speak to Caesar. No other Jew that didn't have Roman citizenship would be able to have that opportunity.

Let me say, God has uniquely made you, he has perfectly created you to make him famous where he puts you. Where he puts you is his perfect place. And even when we go to places that we shouldn't go, like I was in PB, spent a lot of time there when I was 19 and 20, and the different, you know, bars around the world. And I remember, even in the midst of that, God pursued me to those places.

Has anybody else been pursued to a place they shouldn't have gone? Peter shouldn't have been fishing in John chapter 21, but Jesus came and pursued him there. And I remember I'd be doing drugs, and I'd be in Pacific Beach, I remember, down on Grand Street at a poker party one night. We're there, and just, I don't even remember what I was on, but I was on something.

And as we're doing drugs there at the table, I remember looking up and saying, you know what, I'm a Christian. I want you to know I shouldn't be doing this, and one day I'm not going to, and I'm going to follow, and you need to follow Jesus. I mean, I would do that all, I mean, I've done it multiple times, you know what I mean? It's like in the book of Numbers, the children became shepherds in the wilderness.

It's like, you know, I'm just all blotto, you know, ah, Jesus, ah, you know, try to make it home, stumble home. But in the midst of that, I got to tell you what, I knew who my Jesus was, I knew who my Lord was in the midst of that. I wasn't following him at the time, but he pursued me. And I never went anywhere he wasn't there and wasn't willing to go, and I never went anywhere he wasn't willing to go and come pull me out of, and I got into some messes.

Got pulled a knife point multiple times, just in, I've been in bad places. And I was looking back, it was funny, somebody said, oh, you're doing a great job at the church, and da, da, da. I just look back and I literally, I just laugh. Like, I can't, I don't have the ability to do this, you know? I don't have the, I look back at my life of how I ended up, how I should be dead so many times.

Like, it's a joke. Like, you know, oh, you're doing amazing, they slap me in the back, I'm like, I had a heart attack, I should be dead. Like, I have done nothing. I've absolutely done nothing. Like, you know, I got a good wife that keeps me on track a little bit. I think I've said yes enough times to Jesus. I don't know what's happened. I don't even know how I got here.

I have no idea what I'm doing here, by the way. I should just sit, I have no, seriously, I don't know if anybody else feels that way with Jesus, but I was just, once again, I was laying in bed this morning and I was just, I was just laughing. I was just like, God, you're so good. It's your grace. Your grace is so sufficient. So sufficient. It's part of a bigger story and God's uniquely crafted you.

Ephesians 2.10, this is a beautiful verse and when you feel down, read this. For we are God's handiwork. I love that. You're God's handiwork. You're just, you're just, you're like his hobby. It's like the thing he looks forward to do when he's not running the world. You know what I mean? Like he gets back to you and he's like, oh, what's going on with Rachel here or Eric or, you know, Harry and getting engaged.

He's so excited about running in the fields of life with you. He just loves you and he thinks about Bev and Bruce working with schools and all the way through, you know, and Don and his new job and just crushing it and, you know, he just loves it. He loves to be with you. He loves you. We have to believe that. It's so easy not to believe that but you are his handiwork.

He's so excited. It's like, you know, I ordered, I ordered little figurines. I'm going to start painting figurines. I know I'm a nerd. Or, like, you know, medieval figurines. I'm going to make my own chess set. Okay, that's what I do. And I just love, I want to get home and I want to start painting them and just, I'm really into it and I love it and I love decorating my office with really cool stuff.

I got swords and all kinds of, if you go in there, it's pretty cool. The same way I love, you know, you love getting to your hobbies. Are you a golfer? You like to read or just drink coffee? By the way, that is an acceptable hobby, drinking coffee. Really good at it. God's that way about you. He is. Believe it. He's that way about you. He can't wait to get with you.

And it doesn't always have to just be in a quiet time. Like, He wants to be with you in the midst of your day, you know what I mean? When the Kellys are surfing and swimming or whenever you are. When you go to, you know, was it, not Aquinas, but some famous guy, said, I just, Brother Lawrence, he says, even when I pick up a stick, he says, or a straw, I love to do it in relationship and in the name and love of Jesus.

I love that. That you are, started. It says, you are God's handiwork created in Jesus Christ to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. You see this? The good work, you don't have to go figure them out. I'm going to go figure out what good work I'm going to do today. It's all about me. It's all about me sorting it out. No. These things are already created for you to do.

There's neighbors that you didn't put those neighbors by you, but they're there waiting for you because He's created in advance for you to do. He's perfect in every way. He didn't screw your life up. He didn't mess your life up. You are the right person at the right time with the right message. Dive into love. Fall into love with Jesus again. Learn who the Father is again and step out.

Finally here. It says, For Paul, It says, God prepared in advance for him for God's unique purpose. For Paul is to expand the gospel from a contracted Jewish straight to every type and tongue. And we're just going to go to the end. It's all about him. It's my favorite part. Now, I teased this point like three months ago. Maybe you'll remember. Why wasn't Paul's death mentioned in the book of Acts?

Luke wrote it 15 years after, 10 to 15 years after Paul died. Why wasn't it mentioned? You know, that's a pretty big story. Not to mention. He gets martyred. You know, martyrdom's like pretty gnarly. You know, he gets his head chopped off after being there. And for one reason or another, because of the Christian persecution, why wasn't it mentioned? I got to say, first of all, I think Paul would be really happy that it wasn't mentioned.

And granted, martyrs are mentioned. Martyrs are important. Martyrs are happening all over the world. The book of martyrs, all those things are important. But here's the thing. In the end, it didn't matter. It didn't matter because Paul had one death that he wanted you to remember. One martyr that he wanted you to remember. And he had his name. And his name was Jesus.

You see, Paul was all about Jesus. And I would say, if Paul was never remembered, Paul would have been happy with that as long as the message of Jesus went to the world. Count Zizendorf. And I want to finish the entire book of Acts. I want one of my five favorite quotes in the world. Count Zizendorf started the Moravian Church. You can read about him. He said this, preach the gospel, die, and be forgotten.

Amen. That's what I want. I want to preach the gospel. I want to love my family. There's a few things I want to add in there. I want to love people. Then I'm going to die. I'm going to go spend eternity with Jesus. And I'm going to tap out. And you don't have to remember me. You don't have to read my book. You don't have to have a plaque on the church.

Forget me. Okay? Move on. Because I got to say, if there's one thing I want, it's Jesus. That's all I care about. I got to say, when I was coming up in this game 20 years ago, it wasn't about that. When Rob Bell started coming out with his books, I thought, why haven't my books come out? Why haven't I written a book yet? You know, why hasn't this happened?

When am I going to be a rock star? When am I going to get to be a church leader? When do I get, I should plant a church. I should plant a church. You know, I just felt like it was all about me building this kingdom unto me. I'll tell you, once you start, you don't want to be in this pulpit unless you're called to be here. Trust me. It's not worth it. Tell me about it.

Seriously. It's not worth fame. It's not worth money because there's too much that comes along with it. Preach the gospel, die and be forgotten. That's the message I want to live by. And I've had some great men in my life and that's what they've said to me. Preach the gospel, love people, die and be forgotten. And that's where we're going to end the book of Acts.

Amen? Amen. Amen. Let's stand. Have Chris come up in the worship team. That's hardcore, right? I hate being so edgy. Welcome to my secret sensitive church. We're having cookies afterwards. We're going to sing. Sing a good one, Chris. And then I'm going to bless you. And then we're going to finish and be done. Lord God, we just bless these people. We just thank you for them.

We're going to sing a couple of choruses. I'm going to bless you and then we're going to go out. We got pizza Sunday. You're going to bless our high school as they go to camp and fun stuff. Did I get you up there? Oh yeah. You got a broken hand. You're playing with a broken hand, injured. I do. Like an NFL player. We're going to do the second chorus of What a Wonderful Name It Is.

Ready? What a wonderful name it is. What a wonderful name it is. The name of Jesus Christ, my King. What a wonderful name it is. Nothing compares to this. What a wonderful name it is. The name of... What a wonderful name. What a wonderful name it is. What a wonderful name it is. What a wonderful name it is. The name of Jesus Christ, my King. What a wonderful name it is.

Nothing compares to this. What a wonderful name it is. The name of Jesus Christ, my King. What a wonderful name it is. What a wonderful name it is. What a wonderful name it is. The name of Jesus Christ, my King. What a wonderful name it is. The name of Jesus Christ, my King. What a wonderful name it is. What a wonderful name it is. The name of Jesus Christ, my King.

So the mission this week is to go make Jesus famous. Just make him famous with your neighbors. Don't be annoying. Just make him famous. It's different. We lost that balance in the 80s, I think. It's coming back. His love's so good. He loves you. Maybe you need some love. We're going to ask the band to keep playing. If you put your hands out, if you're new, I'd like to bless the people God has put me alongside.

I want to bless you. Jesus, I want to pray for a blessing of Christmas. Detoxify ourselves from the turkey and the presents. A week of diving into your love and your grace. What a wonderful name it is to celebrate. And every gift, to give it with an intentionality, what you've given us. God, we love you. Some of us had really hard years. If you've had a hard year, I bless you.

And I bless everyone here with 2017, a year of margin, your blessing, spiritual prosperity, the name of Jesus on our lips. And I bless you. And this upcoming week, we bless you for the end of this year to finish strong through the wine, preaching the gospel, loving people, dying and just being forgotten, but being remembered in eternity. We just love you.

And I bless you. In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. If you need prayer... ticked me to change the garden. Let's sing to you. Let's sing to you. Let's sing to you. Let's sing to you. Let's sing to you. Let's sing to you. Let's sing to you. Let's sing to you. Let's sing to you. Let's sing to you. Let's sing to you. Let's sing to you.

Let's sing to you. Let's sing to you. Let's sing to you. Let's sing to you. Let's sing to you. Let's sing to you. Let's sing to you. Let's sing to you. Let's sing to you. Let's sing to you. Let's sing to you. Let's sing to you. Let's sing to you. Let's sing to you.