SEP 27 2015 | Starting Over

Sea Change Church · "Starting Over" · Adam Stadtmiller · September 27, 2015
Acts 3:1-10
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Open your Bibles, if you would, to Acts chapter 3, verses 1 through 10. Acts chapter 3, verses 1 through 10. Let me set this story up before we talk or go into it, before I read it. And I thought about the word reboot. You know what a reboot is. This last week I got the spinning wheel of death on my computer. Has anybody ever gotten the spinning wheel of death on your computer is? How frustrating is the spinning wheel of death?

I came into work on a Monday. You ever get there and you got these things to get done? And I thought, I'm just going to do a few things on the computer. I'm just going to get a couple little things done and then I can move on with my day. I got in at 7. At noon, okay, I was still trying to sort problem after problem with my computer. You want to know what I did at the end?

I reached around the back of it. What did you do? Pull the plug, right? Spinning wheel of death. I've just had enough. Pulled the plug, put it back in, started it, rebooted everything. It feels so, doesn't it feel good when that boo, boo, boo, and it just comes back up. But remember back in the day when the internet started? If you're in your mid-20s, you won't remember this.

Remember that sound when you would get your email? And by the way, you only check your email twice a week, okay? Anybody remember that? Like, why do I have to check it? Why does it come in constantly? But it would go, beat up, beat up, brr, bong, bong. Everybody remember that? Raise your hand if you remember that. You never had to deal with that. Raise your hand if you've never plugged your phone cord into your computer to get your email.

Come on, Eric, you never plugged your phone cord. You didn't have an AOL account. Don't... Raise your hand if you still have an AOL account. Oh, yeah! Wow. I was an early adapter. This has nothing to do with my sermon. I was an early adapter. I was one of the first 100,000 AOL accounts at RomansRoad at AOL.com. When we all had, like, names, like Silly Fairy and, you know, Green Boy, you know, whatever.

Now it's just your name, right? All right. Start the sermon again. The reboot. How many of you need a reboot in your life? I just want to say that at any point, if you want to pull the plug and get a reboot with Jesus, you can do it. I want to say that the word I got for the congregation was today was you have the opportunity to start over. You can start over every single day. You can change your culture. If you want peace, you can go find it.

A lot of times people think that a reboot or a restart means getting rid of everything that you had before. So, you know, I'm not liking this relationship, so I'm going to get rid of it. I'm just going to reboot. That might be a good idea, but maybe you just need to bring a new culture into the relationship that you have, into the marriage that you have.

Maybe your marriage needs to be rebooted. Maybe you need to reboot your personal life, where you source your peace from. Maybe you just need to reboot, rechange, recharge, re-energize, re-pull the plug, or to pull the plug. One of the things we see here in this scripture, in the book of Acts, is it's a church that's rebooting. It's reset itself with new priorities, new emphasis, new forms and ways of direction, in which they said, we are going to go this way.

We have a rebooting church. We have a rebooting disciples. Peter needed to reboot his life, and we see that Peter, after denying Christ three times, rebooted his life in a powerful way. And then we see the people that they come in contact with also having the opportunity to restart, refocus, and reboot. I want to say that it is up to you if you reboot.

It is up to you if you say, I want to make a culture change in my life. So often we look at the circumstances, we get under the circumstances, we say, you know what, there's too much against me. I have no choice here. I want to say, you are not a victim. You might think you're a victim, but you don't have to be a victim. Jesus, when he was on the cross, was being victimized, but he did not act like a victim.

Have you ever thought about that? Jesus did not allow himself, even though he was being victimized, to take on the identity of a victim. But instead, in the midst of that, he created a culture. And if you read the last seven words of Jesus, you will see that he creates a culture of worship, a culture of moving forward, a culture of renewal of where he was going while being victimized on the cross.

One of the most paralyzing things that you can take on is a culture of victimization. In your own self. A culture that everyone's after me. A culture that this will never be right. This will never work out. I really firmly believe that even in the midst of trials, in the midst of circumstances, that you can have the culture in your life that you want.

If you want peace, then you can source peace. You can find peace. We see that Paul, in prison, with Barnabas, begins to do what? What does he do? Begins to worship and sing. He begins to change the culture of his environment by a choice. I want to say this is a church that knew that they had choices. A church that was under persecution. That the Jews were after them.

The Romans were after them. But they still decided to change the culture. They were a culture-changing organization. A culture-changing people of faith. And they made that difference. So we look at this. Let's look at how the culture began to be changed. Verse 1. Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer. It's about 2 o'clock.

The ninth hour. And a certain man, lame from his mother's womb, was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple, which is called Beautiful, to ask alms from those who entered the temple. Let me just mention that it says that he was lame from his mother's birth, or from birth, because there was a sense back in that day that if you were born with a deformity, it was because there was a curse on your family.

Remember, they asked Jesus in the scriptures one time, who sinned? This man or his parents. Or his parents. So there was a sense that sin was wrapped up in the genealogies. And there is some sense of that as you read through the scriptures, that sin's being passed down, curses being passed down. But Jesus comes and he reboots that. He reframes it and says, well, that is the way that it was, but I am coming with a new covenant.

You understand that God did things in the Old Testament so we could understand his nature, but then Jesus comes and restores and reboots things in the New Testament so that we could understand it further, the nature of God. And so while those things are in scripture, Jesus comes and he turns it upside down. And in that particular story, he said, no, this man didn't sin, nor his parents.

But this happened why? That the glory of God might be shown. So I want to say that perhaps the problems that you are facing and the challenges you are facing right now have more to do with the glory of God wanting to reshape, reframe, change the culture of your life than it does the just being a major problem that's getting you down. That maybe there's some things and some challenges where God's like, hey, I really want to be glorified here.

Do you understand? The reason this is happening because I want to have the glory. You know what, if you want to take that mirror that you have looking at yourself, and I do it often too, we take that mirror, whether it's our job situation, our financial situation, and we're looking at this mirror of ourselves and constantly fixating on ourselves back.

But if you want to take that and turn that mirror, you ever turn the mirror towards the sun and see the reflection that hits you? What happens? That is the exact same thing that happens when we begin to get the focus on God in our life. That I'm going to take this fixation with myself because one of the last things you want to be fixated on is yourself.

It seems to always take me to a place of self-obsession, and it isn't even self-obsession of pride. It's a self-obsession of like, oh, will I ever get this right, or I'm no good, or whatever direction and fork in the road that you choose to take. Because we tend to take a fork in the road about our own self-worth on a regular basis. And so whichever one, if we want to change the direction of that and change the culture of your life, you can reboot and change your life.

You can decide if I want peace. One of the things that I have wanted to change was in our home. I want a home that is beautiful. It doesn't mean you have to spend a lot of money, but every week I buy flowers. That costs me $9 to buy flowers. It's a little bit under $40 a month. I'm growing them in my house to lower the cost there. I just love fresh flowers in my house.

It makes me happy. It makes me happy. I know this is weird sermonizing, but making my bed in the morning makes me happy. Although I only do it half the time. Why? I like walking into my room and having it clean. That's just what I want. I want peace in my house. I want a place that is beautiful. And so we have been working really hard to create a home that creates a sanctuary as opposed to a place of chaos.

Now, you have small kids as well, and we're just going after it. So yesterday, when the pancakes weren't cleaned up, no phones for a day, okay? Because we want peace. Then I had two angry children for the whole day I had to deal with. They laid him daily at the temple, which is called Beautiful, to ask alms for those who entered the temple, who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asking for alms, and fixing his eyes on him, John and Peter said, look at us.

So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. I love that. Put a check by that. We're going to get back to it. Then Peter said, silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Rise up and walk. He took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength.

So leaping up, he stood and walked. And I love that. Leaping up. He stood and walked and entered the temple with them, walking, leaping, and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God. And they knew that it was he who had been begging alms at the beautiful gate of the temple. And they were filled. I love this. They were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

Reboot. Reframe. A change of culture. That the people that saw him for all these years, the entire culture was changed because you had two men that had a focus on someone other than themselves and were willing to share the message and the power of God with someone else. Let's say last week, how many of you remember at the end of the service where I said, I feel like there's some people or a person here with an ankle issue.

I got a call later in the week by someone in the church that said to me that they have been having ankle problems and that they were healed right after that. And I was so excited. I asked them today, how's it going? They said it's going much better. Yeah, we can applaud for that, right? A healing? Super cool. I really believe that the miraculous can happen.

I believe in the supernatural. I think it's more difficult to believe in the non-supernatural, if that's a word, hyphen, non-supernatural, than it is to believe in the supernatural. There is, in our culture, Western culture, there is a scientific understanding to move away from supernatural. It still takes faith to believe that there is nothing beyond what science can prove.

It takes faith to believe that. I think it's harder for me to believe in evolution than it is to believe that there is a God. I just think it takes incredible faith. Hi, Joanna. This is Joanna. She's a friend of ours, and she has some challenges. And we're going to ask, there you go, Maria. Hi, sweetheart. By the way, I forgot to make an announcement.

We are looking for some families or some people that are willing to work with people with challenges. Hey, Joanna. There you go. Let's do this thing. We're trying to get a ministry here to help with Joanna and any others so people can come and be able to, so her mom can come to church on occasion. And so if you'd like to be a part of that or you have any specific ability to help out with special needs kids, that would be amazing.

She's part of our church, and I'm so glad she's here. And while we want to get it sorted out, it doesn't bother me when she comes up. So I just want you to know that because we are a family, and families have things going on. So let us know if you want to be a part of that, if you have any special expertise in special needs kids. Who can tell me where I was?

Reboot. Okay, we'll just start with a reboot. Reboot. Let's start over. Unplug. Right on. Praise God. Right. Right. And they were filled with wonder and amazement. Here it says in the notes, here we see a church and its leaders and those, it or they impacted, getting a chance to restart, reboot, refresh the life that they were living. The title of the book reflects its intention.

The book of Acts. If you look at the name of the book, what does the book say? It says that this is a church that was actually doing things. The question I want to ask you is, what are you actually doing? Now, it doesn't mean that you have to go out and make a huge ruckus. But what are you doing to change your culture? Not only your own personal culture, the culture within the life that you live, but the culture in which you are surrounded by.

I'm a coach of a soccer team. And we lost our third game in a row yesterday. Okay? Yeah. 4-0. 4-0. We've scored one goal to 17. We're struggling. We're struggling. In the middle of the game two weeks ago, I had some parents and I could hear that they got a score. And one of the dads said to the goalie, you're getting no help on defense. Well, the other parents are sitting there, of course.

It's an 8-year-old. They've never played before. Of course they're getting no help on defense. And at the halftime, the kids come in and they're down. Their heads are down. I say, kids, gather around. Gather around. They're getting ready for me to just ball them out. I said, before we go to second half, this is what we've got to do. Let's dance. And they all started going.

And I said, who's going to score a goal? Say, we're going to score a goal. And then I said, who's going to score a goal? They said, now we're going to score a goal. We were down 6-0, okay? I got 10 8-year-olds going, who's going to score a goal? Dancing now, let's dance. The ref blew the whistle. Come on. I said, we're not done dancing. Who's going to score a goal?

Parents mellowed out. Parents mellowed out. Kids mellowed out. I mellowed out. You know what? God knows not to let me win. It would have been worse if we were up 7-0. I'd be like, lower the shoulder. Lower the shoulder. Give them more. Lower the shoulder. That's how you change a culture. You get it? That's how you change a culture. And in that soccer team, I want to change the culture.

We took our team pictures yesterday. And afterwards, there was a snow cone bus. Three bucks a snow cone. Ten kids, 30 bucks. Let's go. Who wants snow cones? We get over there and get snow cones. And one of the moms said, I want to pay for this. I said, you go, girl. So she paid for it. Let me just tell you how simple it is that afterwards we've lost three in a row.

We've lost 17 to one total goals. I'm keeping track. You know, I go to all the other games and watch the other teams. I'm serious. I go to all the other eight-year-old games and scout the teams beforehand. I'm totally into it. That's how you change a culture. And the parents go to me afterwards and they go, hey, our kids are having fun. Thank you so much.

This is the best season we've ever had. We're going to win, though. Pizza Bowl's coming up. So a new way of living, those acts that they were doing and the acts that you were doing, they were infused with a message and they were infused with power. Now, I didn't preach in Acts 2 about the message that Peter had, but Peter stood up, rebooted his life, and said, I'm no longer willing to be afraid.

I'm no longer willing to be killed. And he shared this long message in Acts 2, which I encourage you to read, and it says this. This is what he said. And this is the message that was filled with power because the gospel, it says in Romans, is filled with power. Do you know that if you share the gospel, Romans says, the book of Romans, if you share the story of Jesus, it has an innate power that goes out before it.

I love your testimony, and I think your testimony is powerful, but it needs to be infused with the message of Jesus Christ because it is only in telling that story that the scripture says that there is power infused into that. So it says this in Acts 2. And with many other words, Peter testified and exhorted them, saying, Be saved from this perverse generation.

Then those who gladly received his words were baptized. I love that. That's why we're doing baptism. If you've not been baptized or you need to reboot because the baptism that you had wasn't one that you chose, sign up in the back. We would love to baptize you in this church. Thousands of people have been baptized in this church, become one of them, and into the kingdom.

Then those who gladly received his word, it says, were baptized. And that day about 3,000 souls were added to them. A message infused with power. Are you sharing the message? I met a neighbor yesterday. I said, My name's Adam. He says, I'm not very good at remembering names. I said, Well, it's easy. Adam's the first man in the Bible. Looked at me kind of quirky.

I do that on purpose. Did I pull out the four spiritual laws with him? No. But I just said in the text, I just brought the Bible up. I just brought it up. Just brought it up in conversation so you can remember my name. I mean, was he offended? No. It was just conversation. Changing the culture. Constantly making the most, as it says in Corinthians, of every opportunity.

The world is more full. More full, fuller of opportunities than it has ever been, in my opinion. Full of opportunities. And how are you going to step into those opportunities that allow you another opportunity to step in again? Because sometimes there's opportunities where you take the opportunity and you've turned the person off that you're never going to get a second opportunity with them.

But how do we step into an opportunity where it's like, Oh, that guy brought up the Bible. Yeah, and then he's coaching. Why are they dancing? Why are they acting differently? You know why? Because God has put something in my heart. He's told me I don't have to win. I couldn't have coached that team five years ago. I couldn't have. It would have driven me crazy.

You know what I care about? These eight to ten-year-old girls learning values and having fun and enjoying themselves and learning the game. I went to a, that's why I'm not in the competitive league. We're in the fun league. I went to a website the other day and it said, coaches, if you're coaching eight, it was for, I was Googling, you know, soccer strategy.

And it said, let me just start here. If you're here because you want your teams to win, please come back when you realize why you're coaching eight to ten-year-old soccer. You're coaching them so that they can learn the game, so they can get better and move on, understand it, have fun. And I was like, oh, I need to rethink that. And then it talked about brain development and how it all works.

And now I'm just trying to change the culture of that team, trying to change the culture of my neighborhood, trying to change the culture of this church. I want this church to change the culture. And you are culture changers. We're going to keep talking about that more and more. And he shares this message that said, we are in apostasy. Apostasy.

The word apostasy means when you have a culture that has gone away from God, that has lost its compass, that needs a revival. Revival is what fixes apostasy. It goes on, if you see in this scripture, and I think that we see this today. And this is a hard word, but I'm going to preach it because we're here at church. It says in 1 Timothy, the spirit clearly says that in later times, some will abandon the faith and following deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.

That's a hard word. That's a funky word. If I've never been raised in the church, and I've never read the Bible or any spiritual literature, and then somebody comes to me and says, hey, some of the ideas that are floating about in our culture right now are demonic and being taught by demons. What are you going to do? You're going to, you're going to, let me just say, don't start there.

Okay. Probably not the place to start. But do I firmly believe that there are spiritual forces of good and evil in this world? Yes. You know, I read in the paper, you know, or on the internet, it talks about evil people. You'll see this is evil, that's evil. And I'll ask myself, where do they believe that the source of that evil is coming from? Because we still use the word evil, but we don't believe that there's a devil in culture.

Does that make sense? Or we're over-spiritualized. That's a different message. But Paul comes, Peter comes, and he brings a message. I want to ask you, do you know the message that you're bringing? Do you understand how to present the message that you're bringing, that Jesus Christ died, was crucified, born of the Virgin Mary? Google this. Write this down.

Apostles' Creed. Google the Apostles' Creed and read it. That is the message of power. That is the gospel, the things that we stick to. How are you bringing it? So he had this message that he had just shared with the Jewish leaders, the religious people. But then when he finds a man on the street, he doesn't share that same message in the same way.

Do you get that? When Peter was speaking to the church, when Peter was speaking to Jewish people, and people who thought that they hadn't understood, Peter was very hard in the way that he spoke to them. But when he finds a man on the street that is lost, that is broken, in a culture that if you had a disability, did not allow you to go to church.

Let me just say this. That if you have a hurt ankle or, you know, the person who told me that they had the hurt ankle, back in Jesus' time, they would have to sit outside that door. If you have any, if you had a skin rash, if you had anything going on, back in the Old Testament, they would have to sit outside the church. Now, is God a hater of the disabled?

No. No. But in the Old Testament, God is trying to teach us things that Christ reboots in the New Testament. And the thing he was trying to teach us in the Old Testament is that he is holy. And that because he is perfect, nothing imperfect can be near him. He wanted to say that. But when Christ came and became the perfect sacrifice, after the need for perfection was met, then Jesus reboots and says, all come to me.

No matter how you are, all the broken, all the wounded, all the lepers. And Jesus begins to touch lepers, something that you were not allowed to do in the Old Testament. You see, the Old Testament shows us how God is and who he is in his ultimate perfection, something that we cannot attain. You know, the Old Testament, God understood that it was a system that we could never attain to.

And so he sends Jesus to be the bridge into that new system. And this is the message of power. Not that you are called to be outside of the church anymore. And you constantly see people when they speak online and when they're upset about spirituality, they always mention the Old Testament. Rarely will you see them understand the bridge of Jesus into this new rebooting.

And Peter reboots the church and then he goes over the bridge of Christ and meets a man in his needs. It's powerful. He meets them in his needs. And we are living in a culture right now that has so many opportunities to love people, to care for people. If someone drops something on the, you know, you see somebody drop something on the street, would you pull your car over and say, hey, let me help you?

You know, today that would almost be seen like, you know, terrifying. You know, like smiling at somebody on the road seems a little bit politically incorrect almost, you know, when you see somebody, but what are these opportunities that we can step in and be culture changers? And this is what Peter does. Peter speaks a hard word of the truth of God's word to religious church people, many of them who didn't follow Jesus, but then afterwards, 3,000 of them made a decision to follow him.

And then he goes out and he finds a broken and wounded guy and the message changes. Do you see how his message changed? You see, he spoke to religious people with hard words, but then he spoke with the power and grace to this man and he helped him up. Look at the things that we see here, things to know when sharing God's power-filled love. Actually, that's the notes from last week.

All right. Let's look at number one. First one says this, the culture change was a reflection of their devotion. When you're going to change your culture, it's going to be changed because of the things you're devoted to. Now, last week in Acts chapter 2, I mentioned the things that they were devoted to. And I ask you, what are you devoted to? We see that they were devoted to prayer.

How do we know this in this story? They were on their way to pray. Do you get that? They were on their way to pray. These were people that were committed to prayer. And it was because of their devotion to prayer that the opportunity presented itself. Do you see that? Had they not been committed to communal prayer, and they were still going to temple at this time, still part of the Jewish culture and system, going to synagogue, on the way there, their devotion to the things that fed them is what gave them the opportunity.

They were committed and devoted to prayer. And in the midst of that, they found a man in the midst of going and following that devotion. I want to say your devotion will lead you to the needy. If you want to have a life that is filled with helping others, with caring for others, one of the best things you can do is to be devoted, devoted to things that matter.

What are you devoted to? I talked about a church that was devoted to the fellowship, to coming to church together, to the breaking of bread together. They were devoted to one another. They were devoted to generosity together. They were devoted to the apostles' teaching, and they were devoted to sharing the message of Christ. And the entire culture was changed.

This culture change was a reflection of what they were devoted to. Church, let's get devoted to the right things. Let's get devoted to God's word. You know how you know if you're devoted to God's word? Just like a golfer knows how you're devoted to golf. He golfs. You know, when you see a golfer out, you know, at the street, they wear the funny pants and the hat, you know they're devoted to it.

If you'll dress up like that to go do something, you must be devoted. That was funny. Are you devoted to the word of God? Are you devoted to his worship? Are you devoted to one another? You know what? You can be. And you know when you can start? Right now. You can just make a decision. This moment. This moment. Charlie could say, this moment. I want to be more devoted to God's word.

I'm going to make a decision. I'm going to read a chapter a night. I'm going to listen to the daily audio Bible every day. You can make a decision. I'm going to go find worship. I'm going to go help people. I'm going to go serve the poor. I'm going to have more peace. I'm going to speak with more love. I'm going to try to have more patience. I'm going to pray.

You realize you can have the life you want if you just want to go after it with God's help. The things that they were devoted to affected the change of the culture. And if we become devoted to the right things as a church, this church will change the world. And we will do it together. Number two. Notice the lame man's proximity to God. He was right at the temple steps.

Let me assure you that the people out in the world are perhaps a lot closer to God than you think. We look at the world and we say, oh, it's so far away. It's so far away. You know what? Maybe you're just one conversation. Maybe just one life happening. Maybe just one opportunity of you sharing love to see them enter the kingdom of God. To be baptized and to know him and to know the loving presence of a father.

Look at his proximity. Realize this as you go about. The people are probably closer to God than you think. Number three. It says that, sorry, my notes got messed up here somehow. I apologize to Peter. Next is number three. It says, Peter knew what they possessed and he was willing to share it. Peter had an understanding of the power that dwelt within him.

And he was willing to share it. I want to say one of the biggest problems in the church is having a bunch of believers who don't understand the power that they have. Not understanding that they have eternity set in their hearts. Not understanding the power of the message that they have to share and being willing to share it. Do you understand that God has power within you?

And that eternity is set in your heart and to share it. What are you sharing? What are you sharing? You know, it's funny. I saw a guy yesterday. I was at, I always talk about La Jolla Village or whatever it is. You know, parking issues around here. And I saw this one man start. It was a traffic jam. And the guy, this older gentleman was peeping, laying on the horn.

Laying. Laying on the horn. But there was nowhere anybody could go. And this other guy turns around and just lets into him. He uses hand gestures. He's using coarse language. Very coarse. You know, like 60 grit. You know, just hardcore. Ah! Anger on his face. He turns the corner on the back of his bumper sticker. He has a bumper sticker that says, co-exist.

And I was like, oh, okay, awesome. I get it. This ability to know what you actually have and to share it. This ability to share what's in you. Not just to have an idea of what you think, but to actually possess it within you and to share that. Peter and John knew what they possessed and they were willing to share it. Next thing, this man had come to ask alms.

And this is one of the things that really hit me. The lame man wanted less than he needed. It's an important point. The lame man, do you get this? He wanted less than he needed. You know, we have a whole culture that wants a lot. And it's a lot less than they need. They see people on the internet. They see people with their own reality TV shows. They look at the glitz and the gold and the houses.

And they look at these things. And everybody wants that. And it's so much less than they need. I want to say, Peter said, I don't have silver and gold to offer you. But what I do have, I have eternity in my hand. And I offer it to you in the name of Jesus Christ. Let me ask you first, do you want less than you need? Do you want less than you need?

And if you want to reboot and go after more, you can. The lame man wanted less than he needed. And Peter said, silver and gold, I don't have to have. But what I do have, I give in the name of Jesus Christ. Next, Peter was willing to help the man get up. He reached out to the man. He took his hand. And he was willing to help him stand up. Who are you helping stand up?

Who are you helping to bandage their wounds? Where are you stepping in? I'm not saying you have to be Mother Teresa. But is there anyone, any place that you're pouring yourself out to? Are you the only person you cry about? I had that question asked to me at a sermon one time. Are you the only person that you cry about? When was the last time you cried for someone else?

It's a powerful question. It's a hard question. I get it. It's not meant to make you feel guilty. It's meant to challenge you. Okay? So if you have guilt, reboot your guilt to purpose and joy. Harvest your joy. And go and give that out. But who are you helping out? Who are you making a difference with? And then finally, they offered authentic, love-inspired, empowered-filled lives that changed their culture.

I love here at the end of the verse, in verse 12. It says, And they knew that it was him who had sat begging at the beautiful gate, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. That the entire culture was filled with wonder and amazement. I want to say, our culture is amazed by foolish things. They look at things that are temporal, glitzy, glamorous, and they're amazed.

Somebody walks into a room, and they're amazed. I don't know if anybody else has gotten to the point where there's really, I'm not really impressed by celebrity. It really doesn't matter what celebrity. I'm impressed by certain people that are making a difference in the world, and I would love to spend time and glean from them. But there's probably not a celebrity that can walk by me in La Jolla where I would probably stop and look twice.

It's just, I'm just, I just don't feel like it has anything to offer me. I think our culture is so thin. It's just thin. Have you looked at it? Have you really taken a good look at it? It is so thin. The values of our culture are so thin. What these guys were offering was a fellowship with the God Almighty. A deep, an eternal fellowship. A love that the world cannot offer.

And they knew what they had. And Peter had fallen away from Jesus, and Jesus had met him on the shore and reinstated him and said, Come have fellowship with me. No matter what you've done, I will give you an opportunity to reboot, to reboot the shame, to reboot the fear, and to start over. And Peter took the offer of Jesus. Now, will you? That's the question.

Every single day, Jesus offers you, do you want to restart? Do you want to reboot? Do you want to take my hand? Maybe you're the one that needs help up. And you can reach out. And Jesus, you know what? Here's the thing. If you give him an inch, he'll take an eternity in your life. You decide what you want. If you want peace, you can go after it. There's a fork in every decision, and one leads to peace, and one doesn't.

Which one do you choose? Choose peace. That's what I try to do. Choose peace at every fork in the road. Whenever we have a conflict at the church, I always try to stop. You'll know. I usually take my time. It'll be a while until I get back to you. And I always say, okay, which decision, which one feels good, and which one leads to peace? And we want to have a church.

I want to have a life that leads to peace. A life that changes the culture with wonder and awe. Let's bring our worship team forward. Let's stand up, if you would. Let's stand up. If you need a reboot today, I want to encourage you to come forward at the end. We're going to sing a chorus together, and then I'll release the service. And if you need a reboot, we've been kind of making this a sacred place up here, a sacred space.

I believe the whole world's sacred because God's in it. But this place, we're going to sing the chorus as a community, and then I'm going to bless you, and we're going to have a cool plot look. If you see a thing over there that says spicy legs, I made it, and I entitled it to that on purpose. By the way, did you like the title of the sermon?

Did you see what I did there? Stop being lame. I do have spicy legs, Zach. Thank you very much. I was going to write on it Adam's spicy legs, but I decided just to write spicy legs. So I made some very good chicken legs there over there. Back to sacred space. If you need to, some of you need to reboot. I don't know what you need to reboot. You don't need to tell me.

I'm going to ask some of our trusted prayer people, Bob and some of the others that are here to come forward. Lord, we're going to sing this one song, and then I'm going to come up and bless you all out of this hot box that is a building today. And we're going to go eat and be devoted to one another in that time of meal. Take it away.