NOV 13 2016

Sea Change Church · Adam Stadtmiller · November 13, 2016
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Church, are you on here? Chettington, here we go. Right on. Jim doesn't really need much. Is that a baritone? Sort of. Which means no. Music is not my thing. Well, I got my voice back this morning after two days of not having a voice. So I will be going to the water here, going to the well on occasion to make sure that we're getting into this. Paul has gone into the belly of the beast.

Mark, did you come here and close the back doors? If you would, my friend. It's right out there. Paul has moved into the belly of the beast, and he now, under his own volition, has gone to a place he probably didn't want to go in his own understanding. Paul has gone to Jerusalem, and Jerusalem is where the hierarchy of Israeli politics happens.

It's also where the Romans are embedded, and it's also where he knows that Jesus was sent to be crucified, and people have told him to stay away from Jerusalem. It's okay if your message is in the outer parts of the diaspora, the diaspora is a word, meaning people that have left Jerusalem, and they've taken it as spread out to the four corners of the earth.

That is what we encourage you to do. But Paul has decided to go there for one reason, because God has called him to go there. One of the things that I said last week in the message is we don't always have to like or agree with the things that God calls us to obey. Now, I think Paul had a choice in the matter here, but Paul made a statement, we've brought it up a couple of times in the last couple of weeks as we look, where he says, I count my life as worth nothing to me.

The thing that he counted on what was worth most to him was the life of Christ within him, because there are two lives that we can follow. There is the life that you follow that is based upon your own opinions, that is based upon your own desires and your own wants, and God does say that he will give us the desires of our heart. If you want to look at that scripture, I believe that that is when we have a heart that is aligned with his deepest desires.

But it says that Paul wanted to have a life where he understood what God was calling him to, because he understood that the safest place to be was next to Jesus, no matter where that is. And so for him, it would be called to go somewhere. I had someone talk to me recently and said, you know, for me, that is meant to stay in my marriage. They said that it's, you know, one of the most difficult places that I don't want to be.

I don't want to be in this marriage anymore. And, but I feel that God is going to stay in this marriage. I would say that that probably is a modern day example. That's, I think, real understandable. Probably what Paul was dealing with. That obedience, when you know that God is telling you, not that the pastor said you need to do this or you need to do that, but where you have an understanding that God has told you to do this.

Whether it be giving, whether it be going out and quitting your job and becoming a missionary. Whatever that thing is that God has spoken to you. And then you have this answer of obedience to Jesus. I don't know. How many, raise your hand after my sermon last week if you tried to practice a little bit better obedience this week. Anyone? Right on.

Yeah. Okay. Right on. Right on. Let me give you my story. And it was really helpful for me. I preached about obedience last week and how we just want to obey God. And then I got out of here and I drove a panicking to get a cup of coffee. And there was a little red zone that was hidden where you could park your car. I thought, you know, you know, you talk about rationalizing your darkness.

And I was like, you know, four feet of my car is going to be in the red zone. So I parked there. I was just going to be, there's nobody in line. It's going to be quick. I'm going to run in. I got out of the car, closed the door, and something said, move the car. And I'm like, no, but there's no other parking spots. You know, and I have to have my coffee, right?

God wants me to have that coffee. I won't tell you what I actually did, whether it's an obedient or not. Actually, I was not. I went in and got my coffee. And then I was driving home. I'm like, I can't even get 20 minutes after my sermon and get into this idea of obedience. Well, there was other things in the week that I committed to. And I began to feel, I won't ask you to raise your hands again, but I began to feel as I stepped into obedience this week, this peace of God.

And I actually had to feel some of the things of the flesh that pull off me on a regular basis start to diminish. I don't know if anybody else experienced that. But it's kind of like when you eat healthy. You're eating healthy for a while. And then, like, within a week, you're like, I just want to eat healthy. Remember, I got into, we were doing the Daniel Fast.

And I had a cheat day on my Daniel Fast where I had, you know, one day a week where I just had a cheat day. I had a salad from my Daniel Fast. And I was driving back down the coast. And I was like, oh, God, don't worry about it. Judge me, no judging. Hashtag. I'm driving down the coast. And I thought, I'm going to stop at In-N-Out Burger. And I was like, yeah.

And I got to look at the side. I thought, I'll go to the next one. I'm not really feeling In-N-Out Burger. Well, I feel there's a lot of In-N-Out burgers down the coast. You're a lot of these down. I guess every single In-N-Out Burger. I went home and ate a little quinoa. And I was like, really? Like, what happened there in a hundred years? I never found when you start leaning into it.

It's exercise. It doesn't take too long. Whatever that thing is where you start wanting that thing. I found myself wanting obedience this week. It was really a surprise to me. Paul is a guy who wants obedience at all costs. And there's many biblical heroes. Whether it be Ruth, whether it be Mary. Biblical heroes. So I don't know who would like that word.

But biblical examples of Christ. So my question is, is where are you? I want to keep on this side to have obedience. And obedience leading to holiness. Here's the main course of it, your notes for today. We're going to be talking about Paul. And he gets to this place of obedience. But beforehand, Paul was a broken individual who was actually not only persecuting the church, or was actually persecuting Jesus himself.

He was a bad guy. He was no better than that you would say Judas or some of the worst persecutors in. He might even have been, you know, he called himself the greatest sinner. But he might have been one of the worst characters in the Bible. You look at all the bad people in the Bible. Paul was in that camp. It's easy to forget that. When we see that he read, I mean, excuse me, not read.

He wrote so much in the Bible that he died for Jesus. It was a story of redemption. This is a radical, radical story of redemption. If you think of all the phariahs in the world today. All the people that we want to dehumanize. I call them a monster or whatever it is. Paul was there. That was Paul. We'll talk about that in a moment. But here's the main course for today.

As we begin to consume what our culture is pumping out at the moment. The desire to marginalize people into categories and dehumanize them. And to make them into either a hashtag. Or to turn them into a toxic word. Or whatever it is. That God is on the move trying to recognize and change people's hearts. And we need to be careful to not dehumanize people.

We'll talk about this. And here's the main course. There is no one beyond God's grace. Can you repeat that with me? Let's say it again. There is no one beyond God's grace. I think it's important to verbalize things off. It actually re-solidifies it. When you get angry at someone. When you look at a certain person that runs an organization or a corporation.

Or whatever it is. The media is really good at showing you who the evil people in the world are. If you look at that and say that person. No matter how you feel about them. There is no one beyond God's grace. No one beyond redemption. To say that there is. Means that someone's sin is greater than the cross. Can I say that again? To believe that someone is beyond redemption.

No matter how evil or vilified. Or actually bad that person is. To say that they are beyond redemption. Is to say that human beings sin. That what mankind does in sin. Is a greater. Is greater than what Christ did on the cross. Is greater than Christ's grace. And we do not believe that. That is basic discipleship. One. Oh. One. There is no one. Not even you.

Beyond the grace of God. The things that you might have done. And maybe you need to forgive yourself. For some things. Or allow God. Or receive God's forgiveness. To receive God's forgiveness. Not for yourself. It is God's gentle kindness. That leads us to repentance. Here look at a radical verse that I love. About God's. It is his kindness. That leads us to repentance.

It isn't a splintered ruler. It isn't a whooping behind the shed. That leads you to repentance. It says in the scripture. That kindness. Is what leads us to repentance. My question is. Is when you share the gospel. Do you do so with kindness. We're going to consume three verses here. We're going to chew on them. Verse 7. Verse 9. And verse 10. You can circle those in the notes.

And they're going to come on three points. And the first verse we're going to continue. Is verse 7. With the point being this. There is no one beyond the redemptive reach of God's grace. Number two. Verse 9 will show us that many will see the light. But never understand or accept the message of God's love. We need you to understand. That many people will see the light.

And never accept the light. And we never stop shedding. Sharing that light. And number three. Verse 10. Paul was committed to obedience to the light. From the very beginning. Paul was committed to being obedient to the light that God revealed. Here's point one. There's no one beyond the redemptive reach of God's grace. I've already kind of stepped into death.

One of the things that has really been bothering me over this toxicity of culture. I just felt like there was a big yuck on the congregation. I just felt like on the world it was just like this yuck. And it has nothing to do with which way the vote went. There's just like a, ugh. It's just like this toxic cesspool of opinion. And it's like, everyone take a bath in that.

You know? And I just, one of the things I have to do is really protect myself from that. And make sure that I'm spending more time receiving my grace, my peace, my joy, my opinions, and my direction from a vertical view. That we're looking vertically before we live horizontally. I want to say, just like you, it's very easy for me to look horizontally and to live horizontally.

Okay, this person believes that, that person says that, this is changing, and boy, I like that that's changing, boy, I don't like that that's changing. Now, how am I going to react to that? Let's say, God will surprise you with the way in which he will have you relate on the ground, who's on the ground horizontally, if you begin to look up vertically.

I have some, some friends that own a store. And I went into the store, and they were very disappointed on my thing. Very disappointed. So I moved to the store with the mess, and it was just, and then, I won't say what store it is, but I went into the store, and I have a really good friendship with them. We were, we were talking, and I was going home, and I just felt like the Lord said, hey, I want you to go to Bridget's Bloons.

And like, Bridget's Bloons has a nice water bottle. I don't know, I just got to say, I got some ice bottles. Not cheating, it's got some ice bottles. So, they said, the Lord said, go get a bouquet, and like, just bring it back. Just go take them a bouquet of wildflowers. I said, I'll take my wildflowers right now. You know, and so, you get all this extra when you come here, all right?

I talk about wildflowers. I bought some thistle, you know. And I just, I was in a hurry. I had things to do. I didn't want to do it. I thought, you know what? I'm not going to preach to the congregation and not try to do that. It was a wrap. I don't want to do it the whole story, but I just went back, you know, dropped a little bit of money, brought this killer bouquet.

And it wasn't like, oh, you're upset about the election. You know, it was just like, no. Hey, like, I just, you guys are awesome. Can I just say you guys are awesome? They're so stoked. They've got buzz and bass. I don't know if you want to say it. And it was just wrap. It was wrapped into a little act of love, a little act of kindness, where God is just like, hey, I want you to go bless people.

I want you to go make a difference and make a change. You know, one of the things that I see in this cycle, like I was saying, is become toxic in that the key is to dehumanize people. It's to turn people into a hashtag. It's to turn people into a setting. It's to take away their humanity and turn them into a noun or a verb of some kind or to change them, to take their humanity away and to see them as anything but human.

I remember one of the things that bothered me was I was, there was a, Jimmy Fallon did a interview with one of the candidates. And I saw the next day, everyone's angry because it says Jimmy Fallon brought humanity to the point of the candidates. And I thought to myself, no matter anything, people are still human. Like, what do you mean? You made them more human.

I understand that the goal is to dehumanize people. That's why I say as believers, we've got to see people as the creation of God. No matter what they believe, I don't, I really don't think there's many people in this country on one or what side of the aisle they're on who think, I'm just trying to destroy the country. I actually think the majority of people think that they do that.

I really do believe that. To get me on and to say that these are people that are created in the image of God. And you know what, I have a feeling that if you were to ask Jesus, hey, what's your opinion of this person? What is it? I have a feeling that you can look at who they are and say, I created them. Let me tell you my hope for them. Let me tell you what they would look like if they understood my love.

Let me just show you this beautiful thing. I have a feeling you would be really hesitant to talk against his creation. Scripture talks about that. There's no one beyond, there's no one beyond redemption. And do we see somebody as the enemy? Or do we see them as a candidate for the love of God? Not as a product. We've got to get away from seeing people as a product.

We've got 12 people that accepted Christ. I win. Okay? So we're keeping numbers. We're setting goals. We're going to have 22 people accepted Christ. People are not a product. Individual people. The love of God reaches out for them. That's the deal. Paul was a terrorist. Paul was a terrorist. An absolute terrorist. Taking people out of their homes. Taking people out of their homes.

Killing them in the streets. Taking them. Putting them in jail. If you were to read the headlines about terrorism around the world today. Paul was one of them. We cannot forget that he was the pariah. That all of a sudden God said, you know, he's a pariah, but he matters to me. And I'm going to reach out for him with my love. When I say that really, that really is.

I thank God for the scripture because all of a sudden, my view as I studied for this, I wanted to bring it to you and surrender it to you as an option for your week ahead. Was to take my eyes off of getting involved in all this dehumanizing of people to look up and God say, look what I did in his life. Now, if you begin to look at people with a soft heartache.

I want to say one of the things Pastor Mark of all churches says, we've got to keep baby skin. We've got to be as gentle as it does. We've got to keep our hearts soft. It is so hard to build walls and barriers around our hearts and to have anger or whatever it is. We don't want to dehumanize people. There's a couple of verses in verse 7. It says, I fell to the ground and I heard a boy say to me, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?

Saul was a person who was actually persecuting Jesus Christ. He was giving, he was, he was actually persecuting Christ the Savior, but Christ still reached out for him. Romans 5a says this. These are some key verses that you probably would not already memorize them in regards to building a collection of verses that you live your life according to.

This is one I have, one I do personally, I memorize. Romans 5a. But God demonstrates what? His own what for us. His own love for us. You see the word love for us in this? While we were what? Still sinners. What did Christ do? He died for us. He didn't wait until he got their act together. He didn't wait until he got everything cleaned up. He didn't wait until he had a bunch of good work.

While we were in the midst of our depravity and our sin, Jesus died for us. Romans 2. Romans 2.4. It says, Our view shall be contempt for the rich, though, as kindness and forbearance and patience. Not realizing that God's what? Kindness. Kindness leads you to repentance or is intended to lead you to repentance. All I want to say is we're sharing the message of Jesus.

Kindness. Understand what God calls us. We're going to truly understand God. And we have people that act like God. And we will speak to people with kindness. We will speak to people. And we've seen that beyond what they do and that they are a creation. And God is dying. God dying that they might know him. To bring the love of God to those people. Let's go.

It says, So my final question is this with this first point as we're consuming this verse 7 is this. Who would be placed outside of God's redemptive reach of grace? Let's ask. Who would be placed outside of God's redemptive reach of grace? Is there a political candidate? That, you know, they're not. We're diminishing the power of the cross. Or if they run an organization.

Maybe it's a neighbor. Maybe it's a family. There's just somebody that you don't even pray for anymore. Because they're so far out there. Or you're so angry at them. That you let your anger get in the way of your prayers. And maybe it's going to take a while. To ask God to soften your heart. Maybe you just say, God, give me your heart to want to pray for him.

You give God. Just give me your time. Maybe that's the 1% of your God. Let's talk about giving 1% more than you're giving at the moment. 1% more grace. Because then you're in supernatural territory. As long as you give grace according to what you can give, then who needs God? Who needs God? As long as you're giving, you're sacrificing to the edge of your own understanding of sacrificial giving, or sacrificial whatever it is, then you're doing it within your own power.

What does it take to go beyond to that next step? That next step to maybe begin to pray for that person. Who have you placed outside of God's redemptive reach of grace? I just want to encourage you to make a list of 10 people. Do you think they're maybe too far out? Some might be high flyers on the world political scene, on the world entertainment scene.

You know, you look at some of the entertainers around, and they're just seen so enmeshed in darkness. I mean, just stuff that is being peddled as light. It's counterfeited darkness. It has been counterfeited as light. You see, so far, I've only looked at you, I've decided to pray for those people. I have a pro-server I've been praying for for over 10 years.

I've seen God work in his life on a regular basis. Ran into him 10 years ago. Ran into him in an airport. I started praying for him. I never knew we ran into each other in an airport. I had to talk to him in an airport. I've been praying for him. All of a sudden, God interwoved me into his life. Another guy, Andy Irons, was a professional server that died of drugs, of an overdose.

And I remember I was at a certain pole, and I'd been praying for him for about three or four years. And I said, tonight, Lord, if you want to give me an opportunity to speak to him, let me. And I want to share the gospel with him. And I was leading the event, and it was a huge event. And I was standing there, and all of a sudden, this limousine pulls up in front of me, and the door opens, and there was a guy named Rocky.

He was a real champ at one time. And he opens the door of the limousine, and he pushes this guy out, and then slams the door as a joke, and drives away. And the guy who stands up in front of me is Andy Irons. He's in the parking lot. Boom, there's me and Andy. And I was like, oh, hey, what's up? Oh. And I'm like, hey, how you doing? And he was feeling it that night.

And I said, Andy, I'll have some help. I'll have a little bit. God's got his hand on him. And I just feel like, I'm a friend with your cousin, and I feel like God has him. I pray for you all the time, and I think God really has a hand, and has a purpose for your life. And he said, man, thanks so much. I just really appreciate it. And the car lifts you back to the door opens.

A guy named Marco, Joel Parkinson, pulls it in. The car drives away. And I'm like, they're in the parking lot, by myself. God just delivered this dude to me. Oh. Oh. No, it's a true story. Ran into the Coolio one time. Do you know who Coolio is? To share Christ with Coolio at the airport in London. Coolio is wearing a, this is off the top of my train, but it's a good story.

You know, Coolio, he's got the transic car on the top of his hair. And so we're standing until he can't find his luggage because he's in first place. And they've delivered his luggage behind me. He's right behind me. He's looking at him saying, eventually, we have another conversation. I'm like, you're in first class right there. I said, well, you're like, he's probably there because they've delivered to you.

I said, you don't have to wait for the meeting. Well, the president's down here. So he's wearing this, this, this, this Cincinnati hat. Um, you know, it's with a C on it. And I said, oh, you're a Cincinnati fan? He goes, no. He goes, no, dog, that's Coolio homes. And I said, well, sorry, my bad. I like the Padres, actually, which was surprising. But I thought I want to get an Atlanta hat so it has an A on.

I thought that was so cool to get a baseball team that's super good. Nonetheless. There's all these people that are out there and it's like, you know what's so interesting? Like, you just start praying for them. Maybe God will just put them on your front doorstep. I started praying for Andy. Boom. Started praying for a big fan and, oh, ran into him at the airport in an airport.

Just, they just stand there just talking to these guys, you know, these people in the circle maybe you haven't heard them. Who's the person who put me on the mansion? Maybe it's a political candidate and that's kind of the thing. Maybe it's somebody who runs one of these organizations. Maybe it's a Christian. Maybe it's a pastor who's like you who are going in the wrong direction.

We're all talking about this and this is not the right. What is it? Begin to pray for people and see how God just here weaves it into your story. The journey of all of Christ is pretty exciting when you start in a certain prayer. And trust me, the ride gets way cool when you start in a certain prayer. And give it your name or whatever the thing is. Let's go to verse.

We've got two more points. The second point is this, they will see the light but never understand the message of God's love. Verse 9, it said, my companions saw the light but they did not understand the voice of him who was speaking to me. I've got to say that God shines, that we shine the light. The scripture says that we have the light and ultimately they have to hear the voice of God.

We will not convince people. It's the Holy Spirit that opens up the doors. Your job is to bring them. You cannot convince them that you follow Jesus. No matter how many arguments you give, no matter what you do, no matter how much you pray, ultimately, God has to have a one-on-one with them and their heart has to be open. Our job is to share the light. Look at two verses that show about that.

Matthew 5.13, Jesus himself makes a radical statement about you. He says, you are the light of the world. Now, if you're God, would you say that to a bunch of uncreated followers that you would make? No, you would say, I am the light of the world, which he did say, but you definitely wouldn't say that they're the light. But see, he is so self-confident. He doesn't mind sharing the title of bearers of light because he is living here.

Matthew 5.13, you are the light of the world. Then it says in Matthew 5.16, let your light be what? What does it say? Shine before men and women in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. How's your light? How's your light? Is it that bulb that's just kind of flickering? It's barely shining anymore? Is it so bright and lighting people?

Like, I don't know if everybody behind you is behind you. They hate that. Like, you know, there are Christians. I think you can just shine people to death. You know? Seriously. It's like, figure out a little balance. What is the appropriate amount of light? This is one thing Paul did in this book of Acts regularly. He knew the appropriate amount of light to share in each situation.

What does God? Some people have, are called to be a spotlight. I talked about this last year. Some people have, like a chandelier. They're real elaborate and they're real, you know, they're real vivacious. God has called you to be a light. Are you shedding your light? And in verse, in part three, it says, Paul was committed to obedience to the light for the beginning.

I love verse 10. What does verse 10 say? What does it say? What shall I do, Lord? After Paul saw the light, the very first thing he said, the very first, and this shows the character of Paul, because while Paul was persecuting Jesus, I believe he was doing it in a righteous way. I believe he was trying to fall apart. I believe he thought he was doing the right thing.

Jesus spoke to him, shown a light to him, and Paul's immediate response isn't like, let me go get it figured out. Let me just wait a moment. Let me just show you. Paul committed an act of instant obedience. Say that again. Paul committed an act of instant obedience. I say that is not something we hear about the church today. Instantly obey. When you know, just instant obedience.

Is it always, well, let me think, let me figure it out, let me pencil it out a little bit. There are things that need to be prayed over. It doesn't need to be going to jump off a cliff. There are things that take wisdom and we need to seek counsel. But there's other things that you already know. I don't feel that I need to tell you what's right and wrong all the time.

I feel I need to tell you how that you're from the Holy Spirit and that you will know in your heart that God speaks to you. And to commit an act of instant obedience. What would it look like when your spirit is just whispering, no, no, it's time to leave. Maybe you're single and you're on that date and it's like, hey, you want to come in? You're like, something your spirit's like, no.

What does that look like to say no instead of obedience? or it's like taxes or whatever you think it is. You just know. All of God's commands are meant to bless you. He wants to bless you. There's a blessing in every single command. Paul convinced an act of obedience. Instant obedience as we close releases a measurable flow of God's consolation into you. He said instant obedience will open up a flow, a flow, eternal flow, overwhelming flow of God's consolation and joy and power into you.

Amen? Amen. We're going to take the communion together and we're going to ask the worship team to come forward and we get to share the communion as a church today. Ask the worship team to come forward to share the elements today. It's one of our favorite times of the month is about the broken body of Jesus as a congregation taken together. We're going to have four stations here.