JUL 3 2016 | Acts 13:1-3

Sea Change Church · "Acts 13:1-3" · Adam Stadtmiller · July 3, 2016
Acts 13:1-3
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Lord that Adam is going to be preaching on. Now, in the church at Antioch, there were prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon, called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manain, who had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.

So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off. This is the word of the Lord. One more time. This is the word of the Lord. All right. All right. Thanks, Joe. Let's thank Joe. Yeah. We can thank him better than that. Let me pray. Jesus, your word is good. Love the Bible. Love the word of God. What a blessing that you would give us a written word.

A written word that speaks of the truth of God. What a blessing. And that we're in a place where we can read that word. And even if we weren't in a place where we could read that word, I will still read that word. For God is good. For there is a kingdom that we represent. And we will not be silent about the truth of the gospel. So we love you in Jesus' name.

Amen. Open your cell phones. Your mobile phones. There's no cell anymore, is there? 2 Acts 13, 1 through 3. Let me read through this again. And understanding the key for today. And as we read this. As I read through this again. I want you to think about how you process the voice of God. This is a New Testament understanding of how God speaks. And I believe he still speaks in this way today.

In the Old Testament we see a lot of really powerful ways in which God speaks. But you have to realize that the New Testament believers have a little bit of a one-up on Old Testament prophets, teachers, and leaders. Does anybody know what that one-up is or that advantage is? The Holy Spirit. That's right. And where does that Holy Spirit dwell? Does it dwell in temples made by men?

Dwells within our heart. And so we have a Holy Spirit that is also called the what? Counselor. And so we have a Holy Spirit that speaks to us. So we are a church. And we are believers that hold to the value that God speaks to us as individuals. But also as a community. So as we read through this again. And see if you can put a check by any of the things that point to the way in which they heard the message.

Because at the end of this time, Paul and Barnabas, in this little passage, just maybe 150 words, 100 words, go from being at a church in Antioch. Paul had been there. It said he stayed. Does anybody remember how long he had stayed? About a year he stayed there. Remember before he was down. Remember just a few weeks ago. He was down in Jerusalem.

And he had heard that the gospel was received by the Gentiles. And so Barnabas rolls on down. I think he might have been in Tarsus actually. He might not have been in Jerusalem. But he goes down and he finds Saul and brings him up. And Saul goes up to Antioch and spends a year there. Well then in the midst of these few words here, they get a calling to leave Antioch.

Their time is done. And it's time to move on. So let's look at how the Lord speaks. Now in the church at Antioch, there were prophets and teachers. Circle prophets and teachers. Some powerful names coming here. Barnabas. Simeon. Called Niger. Lucius of Cyrene. Now remember, they had people that were sent from Cyrene up to Antioch. We read that a few weeks ago.

That these people were going only to the Jews. But then some Gentile believers, some from Cyrene, probably Lucius here, was sent. And they went up to Antioch. My question is, where is God calling you to go? In the midst of reading this. Where is God calling you to go? It might be to the cubicle next to you. It says, Simon. Then there was Manan. Really powerful.

Now this is interesting. You could easily miss this. And we'll talk about it in a moment. Manan. Who had been brought up with who? Herod the Tetrarch. Let me read that again. You can easily miss that. I had missed it for... Let me see. I came to know Christ when I was 13. And I read it this week. So a while. I'd been missing it. So if you missed that, you're in good company.

Because many have. Manan. Who had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch. Meaning they played ball together. Or played chariot together. Whatever they did. Play gladiator. Let's play gladiator again, Herod. And then the final one was Saul. What a powerful group in this church at Antioch. Wow. What a powerful group in these pews right now here in La Jolla.

Just normal people. Filled with the Holy Spirit. Just like you. Just like Stephen. Remember? We preached not too long ago. Just a guy sitting in the pews. What was his job before he ended up being a martyr that would be spoken of for eternity? Well, you say yes. I did preach that. What did he do? Yeah. No. That was Saul that held the coach while he was stoned.

But what did... What... Anybody know what Stephen did? Stephen? He was a busboy. Right? He was... He had been serving the tables. He was a busboy. And then God just used him. Sometimes I just want to be a busboy for Jesus. Right? And see where that leads. Start out. If you feel like I'm only a busboy for Jesus. Or a door girl. Or whatever it is. Or you're cleaning houses for a living.

Or whatever you're doing. And I'm not doing anything important. Just remember. It's not always the end of the story. And God loves to take people like David. Who was out in the flocks. And raise them up for his purposes. Once again, is it your purpose you're called to? If you've been here long enough, you should know. Yes or no? No. Whose purpose is it?

God's. In the Bible, it always says we're called according to whose purpose? His purpose. So if you've wasted a week thinking about your purpose again. And stressing out about it. Let's get back to realizing that it's his purpose. And he has called you unto good things. He has called you unto works. And it's our job, with the freedom that we have, to step into those and to say yes.

Now I'm preaching. Verse 2. While we were worshiping the Lord and fasting. Why? Just because. This is what they did. Just part of their lifestyle as spiritual believers. The Holy Spirit said. Interesting. Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work for which. Who's called them to? I have called them to. Let's detoxify ourself from our personal purpose.

So after they had fasted and prayed. They placed their hands on them and sent them off. Hopefully you saw some very interesting things about hearing from God. And let me ask you this. What's your process for hearing from God? One thing that I have found is that hearing from God. The majority of the time for me is a process. A lot of times I'm looking for a key to the golden key to the one door.

For that one word of the Lord. I have this Old Testament understanding where I want the God of the universe to show up at a burning bush. And speak to me. And then to go out from that place. But what I have found is that God speaks to us in process. He speaks to us through the small still voice in our hearts. Which leads us to peace. And then he also speaks to us in community.

That's a big one. Write that one down. God speaks to us in community. When I married my wife. There was a community of people around me. Who said this is the right woman for you. And they were godly people. And I began and made that decision. We haven't looked back. And the week after next we'll be going to celebrate 19 years of marriage. Which I'm excited about.

Yay. Yay. Fun. More in love than we've ever been. Now you know we celebrated our 20th anniversary last year. On our 18th. I'm dead serious. We didn't want to wait. So we just went. Why not? So we've already pre-celebrated that one. I did. We did. I wore a kilt and everything. Some of you remember. Not even Scottish. Key for today. Understanding and following the voice of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit has a voice. Jesus has a voice. Jesus is the spirit of truth that says there is an intermingling of the Trinity when the Holy Spirit speaks. It's going to be when he speaks. It's going to be in alignment with the scripture. What God has said. It's never going to be outside of what we find in scripture. The love of Jesus is going to be intermingled.

Think about a you know some kind of poultice that has been mixed together. That is healing and speaks to you. The Holy Spirit speaks. And it says the sheep know the shepherd's voice. The sheep know his voice. Here we see hearing his God as a process. As you'll see in your notes. Rather than what we saw happen with Peter's miraculous escape from prison.

Now we don't want to throw out the baby with the bath water. And say that God doesn't ever come and give a moment. Where he says do this now. There is no process. Peter was in prison we remember not too long ago. And a Holy Spirit came. And Peter because remember he had been changed. We believe that you can be changed. No matter what has happened to you to this point.

You can be changed. And Peter was completely revolutionary change in his life. Recently had someone come tell me that you know we're never going to change. We're just going to get better at dealing with our personal demons. And I don't believe that. I believe that that might be the case if God chooses it. But I believe that the scripture says that he demolishes what?

Strongholds. That when Jesus comes if we have a thing in our life that is this huge thing. He loves to demolish things. So that you can be a changed person. And not changed because once again I said a few weeks ago God doesn't want to change you. He wants you to be you. Say that again. God doesn't want to change you. He wants you to be you. The perfected version of you that we will find in heaven.

He wants to get you as close to that as he can in this life. It's not about changing. It's about being the true you. One of the things I say with my wife is you know that was the old Adam. And I say this is the new Adam. I've changed that now. I say that was the old Adam and this is the true Adam. Because I'm beginning to learn to live within the skin that God has created for me.

And it's nice when God introduces you to yourself. Isn't that great? When you find out who you really are. You know you'll really like yourself. Trust me. I am serious. I'm just I really you know before it was a lot of negative self-talk. But I feel like God has begun to introduce me to myself. And I really like I really like the true version who he created because he doesn't create junk.

I like being happy. I like being less you know of you know the negative things or less you know impatient or whatever it is. I like it. And you'll like yourself as well. And the best way to get to know you is to get to know him. Jesus will introduce you to yourself. Spend time with him. You spend time with him and he'll introduce you to who you really are.

And it's great to be that person. So here we see this process. And it's different in this instance. And we see Peter. Peter had a word. And sometimes God will give you a word quickly in the moment. And he says you have to do this now right now. Like you ever drive by somewhere and someone is on the side of the road. You get a strong impression right now.

Pull over. Go help those people. And that happens. And knowing the voice of the Lord to follow those things. The one thing I will say is when we are following the Lord in a very quick moment. That the leading of the Holy Spirit never supersedes wisdom. Because if you look in the book of Proverbs when it speaks about the Holy Spirit calling to you.

The voice of wisdom in the Holy Spirit. The voice of wisdom is the Holy Spirit. And so that always has to go together. The Holy Spirit doesn't say you know. You know don't think before you jump. We need it. It needs to go into that. And so if you know. Sometimes you just need to follow that. Mother Teresa was good at that. And put herself into some very difficult places.

But you look at we need to have wisdom when hearing. So here we see though the process of hearing in community. And hearing in process. Time is your friend with decisions. One of the things we say on staff in a regular time. And I stole this from my former pastor. And I learned it from him. Pastor Mark Foreman. He would always say time is our friend.

And the more time you can get to make a decision often the better. Now there are some people that will never make a decision. And I'm not talking about those people. Where more and more we can never cross our Jordan. I'm just going to hang out here in the wilderness a little bit longer. And take some more time to think about it. Need to have the ability to act.

Because in Psalm 1 it says that the tree that is planted by the nourishing river. Bears its fruit in. Anybody know the word? Season. And so there comes a time where fruit falls off a tree and rots. Does that make sense? So we need to know when the moment to strike is. But once again using wisdom. The voice the leading of the Holy Spirit will never contradict wisdom.

It might not pencil out. Because I have found that the Holy Spirit's leading doesn't always pencil out. In my giving decisions. In different things where God has called us to sign up for something that we can't afford. Or whatever it is. It doesn't always pencil out. But if we commit our ways to the Lord. He will cause them to prosper. Succeed. Are the two different words.

Prosper and succeed. I feel like Alex Trebek right now. Succeed. Yes. Yes. He does that. He responds. Let's look at the church of Antioch. First thing we see in verse 1. Verse 1. Now the church at Antioch. There were prophets and teachers. Circle those again. Because this is very important. In using other people's gifts. To process what God is saying to your heart.

Once again the prophets and the teachers need to correspond with the peace that was in your heart. Somebody called me this week and they said I don't know what decision to make. And I said I usually try to make the decision that leads to the most peace. I said that doesn't mean that I'm a yes man. Or that I'm not willing to have conflict if conflict is necessary.

But I want to make a decision that leads to the most peace. They said well the most peace would be not to go into this business decision. That I have been thinking about with them. But they will be disappointed with me. And I'll have guilt because they want me to do it. And I said okay. Well I understand that. Well I said well you're going to have angst either way.

So why not take the decision that leads to peace. And have the angst with it. At least have the peace and not be in a bad business deal. They said it sounds like a good idea. I try to go with peace. I have found that the Holy Spirit. Just when it comes to the end of the day. When all the sand is sifted out. Of the you know the strainer. Think of a kid at the beach sifting it out.

There's some shells there. I just want to find the one that says peace. And at the end of the day when I sit down. I almost. I would say. Oh I think the Lord's been faithful every time. But I don't want to say every time. But the majority of the time. I'll just feel peace with the right decision. Now I've found that God will later on. That decision.

I you know make a different decision. He leads me. But it's about. It's not about the way. It's about what? The way maker. And in the midst of that. But I just did the best I could to make that decision. But we'll talk about hearing. And having prophets and teachers in a moment. Let's look at the church in Antioch. Founded due to the persecution of Jerusalem.

This church was founded because of suffering. This church was founded because of Herod the Tetrarch. And Pilate. And these others that were oppressing the church. And their close friends. Because Herod had a close friend named Manan. Who he grew up with. We see that in Acts chapter 11. We see that Nicholas is here. Nicholas is pretty cool. He's one of the deacons of Jerusalem.

Once again. What was Nicholas's original job. Along with Stephen. Stephen. However you want to say it. He was a bus boy. Now he is leading in a church. And when Paul. Paul's pretty important. When Paul gets sent out. When Paul gets sent out. He lays hands. He's the one that does the sending. How powerful is that? When Paul. Imagine if Billy Graham came. And you're the person that comes up and says yes.

We agree. We send you. That's a big deal. So Nicholas. Who started as a bus boy. Just as a basically. That's what he was. Serving tables for widows and orphans. But God says in James. That true religion is what? Joe would know this one. To look after widows and orphans. I tend to trust people. That look after widows and orphans. Because God. We hire. You know.

And we want to surround ourselves with character. Before talent. I want character and talent. When we're building the church staff. But character always trumps talent. And so we see people that said. I'm willing. I'm cool. If I'm. I'm willing to serve widows and orphans. And to clean the tables. Just imagine Stephen. And Nicholas. These guys. Now Stephen ends up being a martyr.

Imagine them on their hands and knees. After a fellowship offering. Cleaning up. And wiping tables. And cleaning the windows. And closing up. You know. Jack Taylor. Is one of our. You know. He's been an elder at the church. But one of the guys. Like Dave Peterson. And all of our elders. Are willing to go. And I see him locking up the church. And taking out trash.

And all these different things. Tell you what. If you're not willing to take out the trash. At a church. You're probably not. You know. Eligible. Probably. In I think God's opinion. To be an elder. That make sense? These are people that were willing to take out the trash. To be just doorkeepers. In the house of the Lord. And God loves that. He just. It is spiritual currency.

Of the highest order. You know. Just practice it. Walk down the street. You see trash. Just pick it up. Bust your own tables. At a restaurant. Teach my girls to do that all the time. You know. Oh you don't have to do that. No problem. I'll still give you a 20% tip. But we're going to take. You know. We're. Rubio's. I'm going to go put it away. Or whatever it is.

Just practice the art of humility. It's awesome. It is high spiritual currency. And God just says. Pow. And that's what he does. He's in heaven. And he says. Pow. When he. No he doesn't say that. If I was God. I would do that. Let's bless them. Jesus. You want to bless them? Yeah. Pow. Yeah. Did you see that blessing? Shazam. My daughter always says. Hoop. Hoop.

Hoop. I don't know what Hoop. Hoop. Hoop. Hoop. Hoop. Hoop. Hoop. Hoop. Hoop. Hoop. Hoop. Hoop. Hoop. Hoop. Hoop. Hoop. Hoop. Hoop. Hoop. Hoop. Hoop. Hoop. Hoop. Hoop. Hoop. Hoop. Hoop. Hoop. Hoop. Hoop. Hoop. Hoop. Hoop. Hoop. Hoop. Hoop. Hoop. Hoop. Hoop. this church. Perhaps the first church established primarily to Gentile audience. They said the gospel is expanding beyond what we thought. This church was full of people, and I love this, who knew who they were and what they were called to. I love it. Prophets and teachers, it immediately mentions spiritual gifts. This is why you're going to regularly in the fall, we're going to be doing strength finders again. We're going to be doing spiritual gifts again, and we're going to be giving you an opportunity to serve or to go somewhere else beyond the church and serve in your giftings, to know who God has created the true you to be. It is exciting to be in your gifting and to serve and to give of yourself. God loves generosity, and so we see this as a church of people who knew what they were and what they were called to. This is discipleship. We really want to get, now we're a small church, but we're slowly growing to be a church that equips you to know who you are in Jesus. And you know, you guys are the product, and you are the program. We're going to do our best to create some systems that allow you to easily grab a hold of who God has called you to be. But who is that? Do you know? And so we're going to keep on doing that. Joe and others, and Kai, and Pastor Jim and I, we're going to continue to work on allowing you, especially in the fall, we'll be giving you some more of that in about a month or two, we'll start unveiling what we're going to do in the fall to get you to know who you are in Christ and get you a deeper discipling. But this is a characteristic of a powerful church, that they knew who they were and who they were called to. And that's what we want you to know. We want you to know who you are, who you are in Jesus, the true you. C.S. Lewis says, if you saw a person in their glorified state in heaven, once they had passed away, you would be tempted to bow down and worship at their feet.

That's true. That's you if you know Christ, if you end up in glory with Christ. In order to end up in glory, we have to ask Jesus to save us from our sins through his blood on the cross. And if you haven't done that, we'll give you an opportunity at the end of the service to step into someone who is the true you and start that journey. Church, very full, very full. We're going to be doing some classes this year coming up on knowing who you are in the fall. So be ready for those.

Now let's look at this real quick because I said the prophets and teachers are brought into the light here. Why did they mention? Now the scripture just doesn't mention things willy-nilly because it's 1932 and I'm going to use the word willy-nilly. They don't just throw things out there. I believe, and through the study I did this week, that the reason it mentioned prophets and teachers is because the prophecies that Paul and Barnabas were given and the teaching that they were sitting under, now Paul was sitting under teaching because there was other teachers besides him, were some of the major tools God used to give them direction in their life. That while they were listening to teaching, their future began to become clear to them. God began to speak to them.

We know that prophets like Agabus, one of my favorite prophets, Agabus, so cool. Agabus comes and he says to Paul at one point, he puts a belt around him. Remember, we're going to see this and he ties himself up with his belt and a cloak and he basically says, Paul, if you go to Jerusalem, you're going to be, you know, it's not going to be good. You're going to be tied up and you're going to be taken away. And he said, it's not going to be a good outcome. There were prophets that came and spoke about his personal life to him. Now I want to take just a moment because prophecy has an ability to cause a lot of division. And I think we need to be really careful with prophecy. I do believe that it really needs to be shepherded by wisdom. But let me tell you the difference. I think prophecy with a capital P, like we see with John, the disciple of Jesus, that is prophecy in the book of Revelations with a capital P. He has told you about the end of the world. He has told you about heaven.

He has said things that the entire church is law. And if you go against them, to go against these things that we find in the book of Revelations would be heretical, capital P. I would say that the season of the capital P prophecy in the large sense has ended in my opinion. I believe that with the capital P prophecy in where there's not going to be somebody who coming, who comes like we have seen with some American religions and said, wait a second, there's another testament. And I just want to tell you that it's not going to happen the way the Bible says it. It's actually, there's a new revelation and Jesus isn't who we said he was. He's someone else. And this is prophecy. And we're just going to, and everyone has to follow this now. That's where we get in trouble. I believe that that age has ended. I believe that God has given us all the revelation for that we need to make it to heaven.

The end of the story. I believe that that is done. Now, with that said, I do believe that there are still prophets and there is room for God to tell us about the future. Let me tell you what, what, what I wrote, what I wrote here was this is prophecy with a small P connotes the giving of direction. Do we, do you believe that God still gives you direction about your future? I think the majority of believers, even believers who don't believe in any of the supernatural giftings would say that God gives you promptings about your future. I would say that no matter how you get that, even if it's through preaching, and a lot of people, they just feel safer when their direction comes to a scripture verse. Now, I was in churches in the past that did not believe in someone coming up and saying, I felt like God put this on my heart and I wanted to share this prophecy with you. Or I had a dream and I wanted to share this with you. Um, a lot of people are very, um, um, leery of that and it makes sense.

But if somebody were to walk up to them and say, Hey, I was reading my Bible the other day and I had this verse and I just wanted to give it to you because I know you're getting married and I think that this speaks to you. They receive that and they're like, yeah, oh, that's amazing. That verse really spoke to me. What I found is that prophecy is still working, but it's being allowed in the, in teaching as a scripture because it's being given in scripture and it just feels a lot safer.

I would say it's the same thing. And we see it here in the scripture that God is connoting direction. And so for me, prophecy today, I've had many people give words and I often do give words where I will say, I believe that God is doing this now. I believe that God is doing this in our nation. I believe that God is doing this or that. Um, I also believe that prophecy is different because in the, in the new Testament, it says, when we prophesy, we only see in what does anybody know what the scripture says? Part. We only see in part, which means prophecy today means God gives us some direction, but it isn't like old Testament. If an old Testament prophet only saw in part, what would it prove? They weren't, they were a false prophet, right? And I do believe that there are false prophets today. All that to say, and I'm just going to close it in here because this is a bigger teaching is to say, we believe in prophecy, but with a small P somebody came up to me yesterday and they said, um, I was going to do this thing. And I feel that God gave me a dream and I'm not, we're not supposed to do this now. And I was, it was something that we were going to do together.

And because of that dream, I feel like we were not supposed to do this. And they told me what the dream was. And I said, you know what? That resonates with me. That gives me a lot. I felt peace about it. And I thought, yeah, I'll receive that as a word from the Lord. That seems prophetic to me. Now it didn't tell me to go jump off a bridge. It didn't tell me to go do something crazy. It didn't go against scripture. It just said this thing that we were going to do together, we are no longer going to do. And I received it as a word of prophecy from the Lord. Does that make sense? Because it tested with scripture. We will talk more about prophecy in the future, but I just want to let you know, I'm not afraid of prophecy. Why? Because God's given me the Bible and God's given me wisdom. So we are a church that has prophecy. I will tell you one thing though.

When I used to share prophecy with people, I would come up to them and I would say, God has said to me this about you. That didn't quite work for a long time. I mean, it works. Some people really want that. What I have come now is sometimes I feel like if there's a word from the Lord, I don't have to tell them God told me. I can go up and I can just share a word from the Lord. A lot of times I will, if God tells me prophecy, I will just share it with somebody and be like, you know, have you ever thought about this? And they'll be like, I've never thought about that. Because I'd pray, usually I get a word and I pray about it and I'll share it with them and I will see them receive that word and go off. And it depends on where they are on their face. Sometimes I'll say to them, I feel, you know, some of my close friends, I'll say, I feel like God told me to say this because they know, I know that they know how to filter that. But all that to say they heard in community. And that's the thing. Who are, who are, who are the people that you process decisions with? You know, I, sometimes people tell me who they process decision with. And I think those are some of the biggest crazy makers I've ever seen in my life. Those are your, that's your council. Like that's Gandalf for you. You know, that's your Gandalf. You're going to go to them. This crazy making. I hate crazy making. You'll find on this staff and in the leadership team and the things that we're doing here, we want peace. Rather have the scriptures. I live by this scripture. Rather one handful with peace than two fistfuls with what? Striving. That's right. Every, I will take one handful with peace every single time than two fistfuls of striving. When you hear from the Lord, it's a great verse to process. And so they had prophets, but they also had teachers. Teachers, who are the teachers you're sitting under? Are you using scripture? I want to say that probably the primary Bible teacher in your life, besides the Holy Spirit, should be who? You. Let me say that again. The primary Bible teacher in your life, like this should just be icing on the cake what you get from me. Some people, this is their entire, their, their, their teacher that they send her every Sunday is their entire like diet of food. Okay. Basically what you end up doing is living your pastor's spiritual life. You're not called to live my spirit. I'm called to give direction, but what I'm doing up here should be confirming what you've been in all week. Like this is the, this is the, you know, it's the first day of the week, but it's actually, you know, either it's starting your week and God's going to confirm it, but I should be saying things right now that if you were spending time with the Holy Spirit, because we work in together, you're just like, check. Oh, God already said that to me. Check, check. Yep. Oh, exactly. I was reading that verse today. Check, check, check. Like that's how it's supposed to work. I want to say you're the, you're your primary Bible teacher. Now check, check it out.

Google's a great resource, you know, other, bring it up to other Bible teachers, but get into the word, know who they are. Let's move on. Paul and Barnabas, some really interesting points here as we come, we're circling the tower and then we'll land. This is the first circle and then we're going to land. These two key players in the biblical narrative are mentioned right along the lesser knowns, showing the biblical value of equality and calling. Let me read that again. These two key players, Barnabas and Saul. I mean, really raise your hand if you'd heard of Manan before today.

Okay. Bruce. Good job. Bruce knew about him because Bruce did a word study on Manan back in the day, but it doesn't surprise me because he is a Bible scholar, but right. You've never heard of Manan, right? I hadn't really, maybe I'd heard of him, but he hadn't crossed my mind. He's being mentioned right along with Paul and Silas. Raise your hand if you've heard of Paul.

Right? I mean, if you get mentioned in the Bible, it's either for a really good reason or a really bad reason. Well, you know, there's not too many people that just get, you know, on occasion they get mentioned. They're mentioned for a reason. I think to see a quality of calling. God, you know what? Paul doesn't impress God. Does it make sense? You know what he's impressed by? He's impressed by holiness. He's impressed by humility. He's impressed by his own character. And when we get in alignment with God's character, whether it be holiness or righteousness, I meet with married couples all the time right now, our premarital couples, and they're like, hey, we want to be holy in our relationship before we get married. I mean, these are the things that God just, you know why? Because it's, he's impressed with his character because it's impressive. And so we want to step into the nature of God, the holiness of God. And so we see them mentioned. And you know what? He doesn't think any more highly of Paul than he thinks of you. You have to get, you have to understand that is, that is truth in Christianity. That God, you know, he has, he doesn't play favorites with the people he's created. He loves you as his creation with an equality of being. And that's why I'm bringing this point up. That whether it's Saul or whoever it is, that Jesus, he loves you enough to send his own son to die on the cross for you. That's how much he loves you. And if you were the only one, he would have done it. Guaranteed. He would have sent Jesus. If you were the only one and everyone else turned away, he would have sent him for you. And so there's equality. Think of yourself in a higher, in a higher way. Let's look at Manan really quickly. Many scholars believe that this was either a foster brother of Herod the Tetrarch or a very close friend. Now who's Herod the Tetrarch? Well, this is the same Herod responsible for the death of John the Baptist. Cut off John the Baptist's head.

Okay. As well as the crucifixion of Jesus. Remember Pilate sends Jesus to who? Herod the Tetrarch. And it's interesting because it's so easy to look at what's happening in a governmental system and miss that behind the scenes that God is having his way. That there is this one of the close, grew up with him, you know, with Manan. And in the midst of that, he becomes a believer and probably has to flee. He probably fleed because of the persecution. And so now Herod not only spent time and met Jesus, but it says also Herod's one of his closest friends, or maybe even his half brother has become part of the way. He is deeply being affected by the message of Christ. And so we see that. And so when you begin to lose hope because you see one major political figure or one decision from a group of courts or whatever it is happened, we have to continue to realize that God is having his way and that Jesus, it says, leads his church in a what? Triumphal what? Anybody know the word? Procession is correct. That we are on the march. That the church of God is not falling back.

That he is moving. And if America doesn't want to continue to accept the values of God in the way that they lead their country or lead their people, he will find nations that will. Just like he found us. And you begin to see different places in the world where God is beginning to touch and move his spirit. The amount of people in Africa that are coming to know Christ. You know, as things that are, actually a lot of things, good things are really happening in Europe again right now. Many people are coming back to Christ in Europe. It's very interesting that this huge influx of Islamic believers, people of Islam and refugees are moving into a place where the church is beginning to awaken in many ways. And I'm beginning to see that because I have many friends in Europe where that's happening.

So it's interesting to see that Manan was this amazing believer who ends up being a major part of the church. Last thing it says here, as you read your notes, it says the Holy Spirit said. We've talked a lot about that already, but what does that exactly mean? Well, while the text, as you'll see in your notes, does not tell us the exact manner in which the Holy Spirit spoke, do you see that it didn't do that? It didn't say, like it has in some other parts, that a voice or a hand came, you know, back in the book of Daniel and wrote on the wall. It doesn't say that, but it gives a lot of clues to how the Holy Spirit spoke. And so we're going to see that some of those clues, and if you want to increase hearing God's voice in your life, and hearing God's voice isn't always like it's going to be where you hear a voice of God. You might hear the voice of God, but a lot of times it's a process because God wants you to come to know him. You see, following God is about a relationship.

It's not about the way, it's about the way maker, that he wants to know you, and he wants you to know each other in the body of Christ. So let's just look at this quickly. It says it doesn't give us the exact manner in which the Holy Spirit spoke, but it does give us some clues to safely, circle that, safely interpreting the Holy Spirit's voice. They heard individual direction within the confines of community. I love that. They heard individual direction within the confines of community, and look at the people who it mentions in the community, that they were people you could trust that knew the Spirit. They didn't just go to anybody. There was solid believers. Let me say, in this fellowship here, you have more than a wealth. You have riches of wisdom and God followers in this congregation. There are men and women in this congregation, dozens, I mean, we only, we have about 350 that go to the church now on a regular basis, we think, somewhere around there, maybe up to 400 that would say this is where they regularly attend. In that, we have dozens, if not hundreds, or close to it, I just know dozens upon dozens of believers that you could surround yourself with to help get good wisdom and counsel. And you know what? They stick out, and they're not hard to find.

So look around in the pews beside you and go find some of them and say, hey, can we go to coffee? Can we go to dinner? I know that Drea right now is setting up women's mentoring with 10 or 12 of our women, and she just had a need and decided it wasn't even on her job description. I'm just going to do it. And she started doing it and set that up. I'm coming in for a landing now. The wheels are touching the ground. Here within community, if you've got a big decision right now, read the word of God here within community. And then how's this? I'm not even sure they were seeking the Lord. It just said while they were worshiping in the Lord and fasting. It was just part of their spiritual DNA. What's yours? What do you do spiritually? Do you meditate?

On scripture, David had a whole three weeks on that. Phenomenal, amazing, great time. Do you worship the Lord? Or is it Fox News, CNN, NPR? Is that it? Is that your deal? I mean, we all have a spirit, a thing that affects our emotions and our spirit. What's yours? I got to say, turning off the news for a month, detox, begin to switch over. So they were worshiping and fasting. And in the midst of that, that obedience, the Holy Spirit spoke. Love it. Set apart for me, Barnabas and Saul for the work I've called them to. I'll just read straight through this and we're done. The mentioning of the prophets and the teachers leads us to believe that Paul and Barnabas received a word from the Holy Spirit as a result of another perfect person prophesying over them and was confirmed in the teaching they were sitting under. You're looking for confirmation, but in the end, you always just got to make the decision because you're never going to know often until you already step, step out. You see, God says, go to the place that I will send you. And you know what the scripture says? Commit all your ways to the Lord. If you commit them to the Lord, he will cause them to succeed. And your backup plan, Romans 8, 28 and 29, for all things work together for good for those that love God and are called according to his purpose. It is always going to work out in your favor. Always, no matter what. You can't cheat a Christian. It'll always work out in your favor. Know that in your business deals and in your life that if you just go for the peace and dedicate it to God and do it with his nature, it'll always work out in your favor. Worship and fasting pave the way to hearing from God. I love that. How much is your worship? And God's been talking to me. Let's work a little fasting in there. Don't like that. So, um, like binging. Okay. Why can't it be worship and binging?

Easy. Binge watch TV, binge watch on a plate of brownies, binge watch some cookies. They confirm the Holy Spirit's leading by bookmarking it with fasting and prayer. Once they heard from the Lord, you know what they did again? They fasted and they prayed. You got work. They got worship and fasting. God speaks. Then they worship and they pray some more just to make sure that they feel it in their spirit. They feel the peace. And then what happens? The community gathers around them and says, yes, and sends them on. You know, we should check within with our community probably more often before we just run out and go get that thing that we want or do that thing or jump into that relationship. You know, sometimes we start these relationships and then you hear someone's been in a relationship for three weeks, but you've never spoken to anybody godly or any of your closest friends about it. It's like, hey, they show up on your Facebook page. You know what I mean? Like, woo, new relationship. Use the counsel of God. Let's do that. I do that with my elders all the time. The community agreed and in the sending and then they supported their work.

We're going to be praying for Carmen next week before she goes out with the team. We want to lay hands on her and just show you how this is done and do our best to support her as she goes out with that team. And we want to see you go out as well. Amen? Amen. Well, hey, it is time for our communion. I'm going to ask Pastor Jim, come up in the worship team.