JUL 10 2016

Sea Change Church · Adam Stadtmiller · July 10, 2016
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Pastor Adam's preaching from a text with two all-stars in it today. If you were going to name a starting team of New Testament saints, there they'd be, among them Paul and Barnabas. But even those have hard days. Even those wrestle with bad hops. So with that, we have a situation, right? Pardon me, I'm a baseball fan. Some of you know, I not only teach church history, but I write baseball history too.

So in fact, Pastor Adam has said I could take just a moment now and then. I've got two passes for FanFest in my pocket. And if anyone after the service, you know, by all means come forward for prayer. But if you say, boy, you know, this is not a promotion for prayer after the service, okay? But maybe the two tickets will be answered to prayer. So with that, come see me behind pillar number four, all right?

Meanwhile, this is the word of the Lord. All right? Paul and Barnabas. The two of them went on their way, sent by the Holy Spirit, went to Seleucia, and sailed from there to Cyprus. They arrived at Salmos. They proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues. John was with them as their helper. And they traveled through the whole island until they came to Paphos.

And there they met a Jewish sorcerer, false prophet named Bar-Jesus, son of Jesus, quote-unquote, who was in attendance of the proconsul Sergius Paulus. The proconsul, an intelligent man, sent for Barnabas and Saul because he wanted to hear the word of God. But Alemus the sorcerer, for that is what his name means, opposed them, tried to turn the proconsul from the faith.

And then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Alemus and said, You are a child of the devil, an enemy of everything that's right. You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord? Now the hand of the Lord is against you. You're going to be blind.

And for a time you will be unable to see the light of the sun. Immediately the mist and the darkness came over him. And he groped about seeking someone to lead him by the hand. And when the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed. For he was amazed at the teaching of the Lord's. This is the word of the Lord. We give thanks to God. Pastor Adam, bless you as you minister, brother.

All right. Bless you all. Good to be with you this morning. And what a great morning we've had already. It's kind of like a TV show. If you miss an episode, you kind of miss a lot, right? A lot happens. I mean, if you weren't here when Dr. Eager was here, you can hear it online. But I mean, it was just sweet. And that moment was an answer to, I believe, prophecy for our church.

And more of that is going to happen. I have a vision of just seeing us have songs that we can give to you and you can take home and that will heal you. We create and the worship team going away and having times together to do that. And just becoming a church that's known for the deep healing that comes from worship. And when we meet the Lord. So that's good stuff.

That's good stuff. Well, hey, I don't know if any of you have ever been to London. My brother lives there. And he's going to be here at the end of the month. Him and his family. So I know you'll embrace them. He's 6'8". He's a big cat. So you'll know him when he comes. His wife has red hair. And they've got a beautiful daughter named Eva. And we are really happy to have them coming.

We try to go every year to go visit them, which is difficult. But you just got to choose your priorities. And so Carrie and I will be going again over. We're leaving on Thanksgiving Day. By the way, 525 round trip if you leave on Thanksgiving Day to London and back. That's solid. Okay, that's like 1994 price. So we got that going on. And we are leaving to go visit them after the turkey will be full.

And one of the things I love when I go. And I don't know if anybody else does this. I love making a soundtrack of like 1980s alternative music. Now you can put in your own type of music there. And then when I go down into London and I get into the subway and walk around London, I play it and I pretend like I'm in a movie. It's like super fun. And I don't know if any of you do that.

But it just all of a sudden, you ever, you don't, Carol's like, no, we don't do that. It's really transcended. It makes me feel like I'm in the 80s because I went there in 1984. My dad took us and I went and I was all, I was a mod and I was really into it. And then the whole deal, I remember being at Piccadilly Circus and all that as a kid. And so when we were there, I used, I just do that.

And so when I get in a subway, I usually get like the Smiths going or the Cure or some other kind of music. There's something you'll notice in the subway when you go. And there's a little phrase that you'll see in the subway. And it's right on the ground. It's really important too. Super important. It's between the platform and the metro. Anybody know what that would say?

Yeah, mind the gap or watch the gap. Mind the gap. And like, so if you're from America, mind the gap. You have no idea what that mind the gap. I mean, mind, okay, there's a, whatever. The whole point is this, and I've seen someone do it before, that you actually make the transition from the platform onto the train or onto the metro. Now, what I've seen someone do before is this.

But they didn't mind the gap and they went down one leg straight down through and they're sitting there doing the splits. It didn't look like they had the ability to do the splits either. So that's always a painful thing. People are ringing the bells. They didn't mind the gap. There was this space. And you know, it's funny. It's only about, about nine inches, 10 inches of space, but super crucial.

Like if you don't make that spot, it's a bad deal. So, you know, what I find often in my spiritual life is there, hey, sweetheart, you need to go back out through that way. You need to go back out through that way. We have one of our friends outside, if somebody wants to, one of our ushers wants to go, would help us. One of the things I have found is that when I am, in my spiritual life, it is very easy.

Thanks, Jim. It's part of being a family church, right? Great. One of the things I have found in my spiritual life is it is very easy to have a gap between knowing what God wants me to do and doing what God wants me to do. Now, we often hear people say, you know, I don't know how to hear from God. I don't know how to hear from God. I don't know how to hear from God.

But if I were to ask them, what do you believe God has told you that you're not doing? They would be able to give me a list of all the things, well, I should be doing, you know, should, and I don't like should. We use the word could in my family. But on occasion, God has told us, I want you to do this. And the thing I would ask them often, and I have to ask myself, is, am I not surprised that I'm not hearing from God when I feel like he's told me to do 25 things that I'm not doing?

That there is a space between knowing and doing. And I would say in our spiritual life, we have to do one thing, mind the gap. Is there a gap right now that you're not clearing? Because so many of us want to live in the gap. When I say it's impossible to live in the gap, because you're going to be doing the spiritual splits here in a moment, and you're probably not ready to do them.

And so there's a transcendent moment. You see, that is called faith, where we are on a platform, where we are secure. But even though it's that small little gap, we have to jump on to something that is solid, like a platform, but it begins to move. You know, you're a lot safer on the platform than you are in the metro. Why? Because it's a moving object.

There's things coming in other directions. You're having faith that this train has stopped so that this train can go through. And when I ask this, is there a platform right now that you're on? Just like Joshua and the Israelites were in the platform of the wilderness. It was safe. We've talked about that. It was safe. There were no enemies there.

The presence of the Lord was there. There was manna every single day that was there. But they had to make a step into that gap. And that gap was called the Jordan. And they stepped over from that gap and into the promised land. And I want to say, unless you are able to clear the gap, you'll never make it into the land of your inheritance. And God has great things in the inheritance.

I want to tell you what, the wilderness can be pretty good. There's a lot of benefits in the wilderness, but we've got to go. In this passage, we see Paul and Barnabas, two men that were willing to clear the gap, to step from the platform, the safety of the platform, and onto a moving target, which was God's will. Because God's will oftentimes is something that changes, not his will, but our understanding of it changes along the way.

You see, it's not about the way. It's about, I've said, the way maker. Let me just read this again, if we can. The two of them, sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus. Here we see Paul. Look into your notes. It says, Paul and Barnabas had confirmed God's leading through spiritual practice and godly community.

That was the point of last week, that when we hear from the Lord, they heard in the midst of spiritual practice. They were fasting and praying. And while they were doing these things, they were immersing themselves in the spiritual DNA of their life. The things that they did regularly, God spoke to them. Let me assure you that if you immerse yourself in your own personal spiritual disciplines, and like we had in the song today, it says, when I humble myself in the ways of your discipline.

Discipline is a root for discipleship. When you put yourself in a place to be discipled from the Lord, don't be surprised if you begin to hear from him. Now the next question is, are you willing to follow him? You see, there's a big difference from hearing and following. And I would imagine that many of us don't want to hear what he has to say.

Let me say that again. Many of us, and it might even be subconsciously, myself included, would rather live in our personal wilderness where we can be in charge than actually hear from God and put ourselves in a way to hear from him. Perhaps, subconsciously or on purpose, we intentionally miss times hearing from the Lord because we really don't want to do or to hear what he might say.

Does that make sense? Anybody else in that boat besides me? You don't need to raise your hand. Paul and Barnabas wanted always to hear what God had to say. And it says that they were sent. Now this is really important because as we see here, there was a hearing, and then there was a sending, and then there was a doing. And that's what we see them happening.

They heard the voice of the Lord, and they were willing to follow that voice. Each of you probably has a platform that you're thinking of right now where you think, in this area in my life, I need to mind the gap and make it on to the metro of God's will. Here's some things we can be assured of. Go to verse 4. It says, verse 4, once again, let me read it again.

It says, the two of them sent on their way by who? The Holy Spirit. I love that. That it is the Holy Spirit. When you get sent, when you hear from the Lord, we have to realize that we do not go alone. Do you realize that? The enemy, the devil, always wants to make you think God's going to send you, and he ain't going with you. He's going to send you to this dry and barren pasture, this dry spiritual place where you're going to be all alone.

That's not the way God does things, ever. When God sends, where God leads, God provides. And so if he's calling you, perhaps it's in an area of generosity, perhaps it's in an area of relationship, perhaps it's in an area of a job, or whatever that platform is that you need to go. I want you to know that if you know that he's called you, faith is knowing that he goes with you.

God never sends you anywhere that he's not willing to go. God never sends you anywhere he's not willing to go. And in faith to believe that when I go, the Spirit of God goes with me. So it says, the two of them, sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus. When we travel, as it says in your notes, with the Holy Spirit, we go with all the characteristics and the nature of his personality.

That's key. That when God goes with you, it isn't like he's just your buddy that comes along and says, I'm just going to give you some company along the way. Now he is a great counselor. But when the Holy Spirit sends you, and we are sent by God, we are sent with all of his power and his personality. The personality of the Spirit. Somebody approached me last week and said, when you spoke about the Holy Spirit last week, you used the word it twice.

The Holy Spirit's not it. He is a personality. And I thought, you know, that's right. Didn't mean to do that, but you're exactly right. And the nature of his characteristics, if we go with him and we continue to tap into what he offers us, you will notice his nature becoming your nature. That when you go and there are places where we can be fearful, we experience peace that goes a little bit or greatly beyond our understanding.

That we go with power. Here's the thing. We often won't ever experience that unless we're going. You see, the more you go, the more you are going to experience. I went to a missions trip in England and took my youth group in 2001, I think, to Manchester, England. And I've told you this story before, but we were going around the city and we were just doing worship in the city.

And we would just go sit in a park in a circle. We wouldn't be out doing a performance. We would just sit in a circle and begin to worship the Lord in key strategic areas in the city. And we began to see God bring people to us and to do amazing things. Not only when we were doing that, because one time a pub actually, it was Sunday and we were sitting in the high street and the high street is closed in Manchester on Sunday.

And we were sitting there, we began to worship about 40 feet from a pub. And within about 20 minutes, everybody that was in the pub had come out and joined us in the circle. Most everyone. 20 to 30 people with their pints of beer and their Guinness. They were sitting there and it was just a good old time. Like, you know, John Wesley would have experienced back in the day.

You know, we didn't stop singing worship. The next thing I knew all the windows had been closed and I noticed windows were beginning to open in the street above us and people had lived in the upper streets and the children were sitting there near the window and people were looking out and pretty soon the whole city was attuned to what God was doing.

We experienced people begin to show up and to be drawn to the attractiveness of God's spirit. We weren't there in the, in the saying, Hey, we're going to start a show. We would just get in a circle and we would just begin to worship the Lord there in that place. That same trip, we were walking home from that. And I remember I was walking and there was this headwind in my face.

I mean, a serious headwind. It was blowing and we were walking and I noticed, and I was thinking there's so much wind blowing. And I was walking, we were walking back to the Metro from this park we had been at. And as I was walking back, a five pound British note passed by me, the opposite in the face of the wind. So the wind is blowing in my face and all of a sudden a five pound British note blows the opposite direction, 30 feet in front of me as if it was being blown by the wind, but the wind was blowing the opposite direction.

I can't explain it. And I remember there's cool Lord, you're blessing me five pounds. That's amazing. It was worth more now than it was since the Brexit. Nonetheless, I'll talk politics with you. It's just going to be British politics. Trust me. And so I walked up and I picked up this five pound note and I was, I was sweet. And as I picked it up, I felt just a voice of the Lord.

I just, sometimes I just feel like I get these thoughts and it feels like it wasn't me. And it said, that's not yours. And I'm like, no, no, it is mine. This is a splash zone. Sorry about that. If you're all listening to the web, I tend to splash the people in the front with when I speak. And this, and I felt this voice say this, that's not yours.

And I'm like, no, it is mine. It's in my hand. God, thank you very much. Because I'm going to go buy some Cadbury chocolate because they have great Cadbury chocolate. And he says, turn around. And I turned around and I saw these two, um, they look like homeless guys were like getting ready to fight. And I walked back to him and I heard the one saying, that's my note, mate.

That's actually, that's Australia. Nonetheless. You still, you stole my $5, my five pounds. No, I didn't. Yes, I did. I sent you in there for beer. You didn't bring it back. I didn't steal it. I lost it. I was holding there having this big thing. And I walk up and I said, is this yours? I just found it on the street. And the one guy says, there it is.

That's it. That's mine. And he grabbed it and he took it and he walked away. And the other guy who was homeless turned to me and he said, I've never, why would you give us money? I said, because it's yours. And he said, well, why would you do, I've never experienced this kind of honesty. And, and, and we just had this conversation. I told him we were having a big rally that night at the, um, they rented out the sports arena there and we had delirious was playing and all these people.

And I told him, he says, I'm going to go home and I'm going to go get my daughter. We're, we're broken apart as our family, but I'm going to go get my whole family. We're going to come tonight. I'm going to dress up and we're going to come and listen and hear the music and come. And whether he did or not, there was 20,000 people that night, but he was just almost in tears as that happened.

I want to say, you know what? I experienced it. And that is one of probably 20 to 30 times. Now, if you ever go on a mission, so I feel like when I go on mission trips, that kind of gets, you know, the throttle on that stuff goes up a little bit higher. Maybe it doesn't need to. But what I've found is when I've gone, I've seen when I've gone, I've seen.

And I want to say, where is God sending you? And are you going? Because we oftentimes miss God when we're tuned into everything, but God, we oftentimes miss God when we're tuned into everything, but God, as a pastor, it's so easy to say, I'm on vacation. You know, when you have your vacation, I'll walk by and the Lord will say, Hey, go help that person or go do this or pull over.

And I'll just get this like, God, I do that for a living. I'm on vacation. Oh, you're on vacation for being a Christian. Okay, great. Way to go, pastor. When we go, we never go alone. Put yourself in a place to experience God's providence. Put yourself in the, beyond the gap. God's only asking for 0.0000000 infinite one at the end. I can't be infinite with a one at the end.

Zero, whatever, one of faith. He just wants a little bit more than you have just to get into the place beyond your understanding and beyond your power. He wants to get you there. Where are you going there? Where is that place where you're saying, God, you have to show up. I'm here and I'm going. Where are you going? And are you going about proclaiming?

Here we see that in verse four again. The two of them sent on their way by the Holy Spirit went down to Seleucia and there they sailed on. And in verse five, it says that they were proclaiming. When they arrived at Salamis, they did what? Proclaimed the word of the Lord. Where? In the Jewish synagogues where they had been sent first. Because the gospel, as the scripture says, goes first to the who?

To the Jew. And then where? To the Gentile. So they went proclaiming as they went. I want to say the purpose in all their goings was the constant proclamation of the gospel. Evangelism isn't, hey, on Saturday we're going to go evangelize. And so we're all going to gather up and you might do that. Let me say it is meant to be a constant proclamation of the gospel.

Carrie and I this week, we'll be back next Sunday. But this week, we're trying to go to, we're going to go camp. And if you know, you ever try to get camp spots on the beach in the summer, it is impossible. We put in Big Sur one night camping. The first available one night of camping in Big Sur gave me October 17th. And it was not going to work for this next week.

So instead, the Lord said, why don't you pray? You wrote a book on praying for things. I asked for five nights at San Alejo. Impossible. Im-possible. Big IM. I put in five nights. This, starting tomorrow through next Saturday morning. Five nights come up. The only five nights in the entire summer. Not one open day. Go look. San Alejo. Recreationgovernment.com.

Went there. These five nights. Booked it. We go tomorrow. Yeah, cool. Yeah, yeah. God's cool. Yeah, yeah. That's not the point, though. When we went last night to look at our spot, I came back out and I told the guy who was working the booth, I said, we got the spot. And I told her, she goes, what? She goes, people book in January. You got five nights.

She works there. I'm like, yeah. And she was going, how did you do that? How did you do that? I said, I prayed about it. She goes, what? I said, yeah, I prayed. I believe in prayer. And I just proclaimed the nature of God's goodness. I said, I feel like God loves me. And we prayed. And she goes, wow, there's power in prayer. And I was like, yes, you're getting it.

Proclaim. Proclaim. Proclaim. Proclaim. Proclaim. Are you proclaiming? Proclaim the gospel. You don't have to go on a mission trip to Syria or England or South America to proclaim. Proclaim. Proclaim. No. Go. Proclaim. The gospel. Share it as ever. You can't share your prayer life with people. Everyone else is out of every other closet in this country. Can we come out of ours?

Let's be Christians. It's true. It's true. I'm tired of hiding. I feel like in the 1990s, that whole like hide your faith thing, seeker sensitive thing would just set us up for such backtracking in the last 10 years. I'm not here to be in people's face. I'm just going to tell them how good my God is. To let them know. You can know I'm a Christian. We pray in public.

I hold my kids' hands as we pray. In public. At restaurants. With people. I ask if I can pray for them. I am bold and ready to go. Let's rock and roll. Let's do this thing. As a church, we want to do that. We grow proclaiming. Are you proclaiming? That's not guilt. But is there any joy? Anything? Like, do you have anything good to talk about? Anything. You know, if you're spending time with the Holy Spirit.

If you're opening yourself up like they did. Regularly as part of your DNA. That I'm going to turn the TV off. Go sit with God. I'm going to worship. Whatever it is. Or I'm going to send. Or live sent. Or ask people if I'm going to pray for Him. You will begin to experience God. And start to see His nature at work. And then you'll have something to talk about.

And I want to say it is like a flooding river. Like Jesus says at the well of everlasting life. When you start doing it, you'll start doing it more. I actually told my campsite story like three or four times to different people. People ask me, oh, how did this happen in your life? I just tell them I prayed about it. Let them know. And so as we go.

It says now in verse 8. It says they were opposed. And met opposition. Let me just assure you of this. That the enemy doesn't like you going out, following God, and proclaiming. Not a fan. He is not a fan of that. You will meet opposition. Once again, like the enemy wants to tell you that when you go, you go alone. He also wants to tell you that when you go, you go empty handed.

Not true. So you go equipped with all the power of heaven and with the Holy Spirit. And when opposition comes, you can deal with it on your own. Or you can let the Holy Spirit, your traveling partner, deal with it. Say, you know what? By the way, this one's a little beyond me. Can you just sort this out for me? No worries. I got this. Okay? Allow the Holy Spirit.

They met opposition with what? Power. Let me say that again. They met opposition with power. And one of the things that I want to disciple you to do, that the Lord is discipling me, is not lay down immediately when any shadow in the valley of death shows up. We live in the valley of death, by the way. It's not just a shadow of the valley of death.

We are living right now, it feels like, the entire culture in the valley of the shadow. But every time there's a shadow, what do we do? Here it comes again. Or a thought. Or whatever it is, we lay down. Or do you meet power? Do you meet opposition with power and presence? It's there if you want it. It's there. Maybe it doesn't go away with a three-second prayer.

Like a lot of times, oh, God, help me. Sometimes maybe it's going to take a little bit of perseverance. Of maybe calling a few friends. Hey, can we pray tonight? It's going to take maybe a little bit more than you've done in the past. But I want to say that the power is there. And God is waiting to mature you and take you to that next place. It says they met opposition.

Expect opposition, but meet opposition with power. 2 Corinthians tells what we meet it with. The weapons. Think of this. You are equipped with weapons. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish what? Strongholds. That doesn't mean that we just leave that tower standing and come back to it because that tower is going to be there again and we're going to have to face it again.

No. We demolish strongholds. Think of the strongholds in your life. Have you just accepted the fact that you believe the ungodly truth that that will always be a tower in your life and you're just going to have to deal with it? Have you accepted that? Or do you believe God's truth that says we have the ability to demolish strongholds down to rubble?

To demolish them. But it takes entering in with the things of God. Finally, we're circling the tower, getting ready to hear the wheels hit the runway here. When Paul stepped out, he knew the weapons that he had. Now, we have to say that Paul was walking in an amazing amount of obedience and presence. And there might be moments where we experience things.

And we could experience things like Paul. But we see that Jesus himself, later on in the scripture when Paul is in prison, shows up in a bodily form to him. And he had done that on the road to Damascus. He was walking and God had chosen to put him in an amazing amount of spiritual connection. I want to say God wants to put you in an amazing amount of spiritual connection.

But it might not be this much. It might be more. I believe there are people today that God wants to speak to that are modern day apostles. They don't have the ability to write the Bible like these apostles with a capital A. But there are modern day apostles because apostleship is a spiritual gift. And the scripture says it is. People that God says, I'm going to give an amazing power, prophetic voice about what is happening in the world.

And all these things. But he wants to use you and take you to another level of deep intimacy with him. And so realize that when Paul steps out, he goes after it. I mean, he basically curses this guy with blindness. I mean, I haven't done that. Okay? I mean, some people annoyed me. Thank God I can't do that. Right? You know what I mean? I get pulled.

You know, somebody pulls in front of me in La Jolla. It's like, you're blind. Wait, but they're still driving. Oh, you can see again. Okay, don't crash. God gave this guy a tremendous amount of power. God wants to give you power as well. The power that you need for his calling on your life. Are you, let me just say, are you even trying to access it?

Or do we immediately turn to our other face of worldly power? Do we turn to food? Do we turn to our addictions? Do we turn to our sexuality? Do we, there's all these things you can access. So when a hard time comes, you have a choice at a crossroads. I will fight this with the ways of the world. Go get a bottle of wine or whatever. And you're just going to, you're going to get lost in that bottle of wine.

I'm not saying, you know, that you can't have a bottle of wine, you know, a glass of wine at dinner or whatever you're doing. What I'm saying is where you're using that to say, I have an issue in my life and this is where I go. This is my power source. Or whatever that, you know what that thing is. Or am I going to say, you know what, I'm going to step away from that and say, Holy Spirit, you've got some other things here and some other power that I can step into.

I want to tell you, when you start stepping into that and waiting and resting in that, you're going to start seeing territory taken in your life. You're going to come to a crossroads this week. Remember this part of the sermon. You're going to come to a crossroads this week. Remember this part of the sermon. And begin to step in. Turn worship on.

Call some friends for prayer. Whatever it is. I have a prayer partner that I pray with on a regular basis. And when I start experiencing it, I would say a majority of the time now, I will call the prayer partner rather than try and find some way of the world for a comfort that is not spiritual but is worldly. So they experience that. And they receive the tangible power and presence of the Spirit with what they needed in that moment.

See, that's the deal. That's what Paul needed in that moment. God has the ability to give you what you need in your moment. And so we see Paul in that moment. And he steps out. What I thought was interesting, what came to me as I read this, is that Paul curses him with something that he had experienced. You see, Paul was able to understand. It was the road that he had walked.

Remember, he was on the road going to persecute Christians when Jesus shows up. And what does Jesus do? Makes him blind. See, Paul basically turned with his own experience and was able, and it was a form of spiritual power. But the spiritual power that he had came from his story. Does that make sense? And oftentimes, if you've experienced evangelism and you were led to Christ by somebody, then what you have experienced will often be a part of how God chooses to use you to manifest his kingdom in the earth.

And so Paul had this story. He could have said a million things. You're going to have leprosy. You're going to do all these things. But for some reason, and I don't know why, other than it was just part of his story, he turned and he said to him the same thing that Christ had said to him. Matter of fact, look at how hardcore what he says to him.

Then Saul, who was called by Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit. Now, does that mean he didn't have the Holy Spirit? Now, we know Paul had the Spirit. So why would it say filled with the Holy Spirit? Because God was giving him a little bit more throttle in a time of need. It doesn't mean that we all know he had the Holy Spirit. What it means when we see that term, filled with the Holy Spirit, it means that God is just throttling it out a little bit.

You ever been on a motorcycle? Why do those guys rev their motorcycle when you don't need to at the stoplight? Nonetheless, sit there and they throttle it out, right? Your cone is covering her ears. Sometimes you're going to be in a time of need where God just says, I'm going to fill you a little bit more. And he throttles it out a little bit more.

That's what that means. And in this moment, Paul experienced full throttle. And it said with the Holy Spirit, and he looked straight at him. And he said, you are a child of the devil. Hardcore. Speak the truth. And that enemy of everything that is right. You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. You will never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord.

Now the hand of the Lord is against you. You're going to be blind for a time. You know, when Paul said that, he has to realize that that's who he was. See, Paul had a very, you know, clear understanding of who he was and what he had been saved from. And he called that guy exactly what he had experienced in his life. It says that the gospel, I love this, that the gospel, they received the supernatural boldness.

Turn over to the next side of your notes. We'll come in for a landing. I think it's interesting that when they went, they always went together. Just before I get to that final point, I love that he had a partner in evangelism. Who are you going with? In October, we're going to be having a time where we gather our church together. We're going to try to get you into communities to reach out to your micro neighborhoods.

If you live in Carmel Valley, Solana Beach, we want to connect you together so you guys can start caring for your neighborhood as a team. That you are ministering as a team. They went in community. Who are you going with? And then the final point is this. Paul's goal was always belief. His goal was always that when he shared the gospel, people would come to believe in who Jesus was.

That was the goal. Obviously, people are not a product. His goal was to care for people in the name of Jesus. But that they would come to believe. And that is something that I have just been focusing on. In all my relationships, I'm trying to lead people to a salvific understanding of who Jesus is. That he's not a good teacher. He's not just a little prophet.

That he is the savior of the world. And if you believe in him, your sins will be forgiven. And you will spend eternity with a loving father. That's the gospel. And that they went going and proclaiming. So I'm asking you this. Are you minding the gap? What is that gap? What is God calling you to? Who is God calling you to? And is there a hesitation? A gap between the calling in your life and the going in your life?

That you're going with somebody. You're going with the power of the Holy Spirit. That you begin to step into opportunities where God needs to show up. Or we're lost. Amen? Amen. Let's have Olin come up. He's going to close the song. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Jo. Thank you. Thank you. attempt you.