Called Christians | Tyrone P. Jones | Book Of Acts | Full service

(upbeat music) - Good morning, CTC family. Happy Sunday. What a beautiful morning in the house today. We are so excited that you could gather with us, especially if it is your first time. We would love to get to know you, help answer any questions you might have, and help you make CTC your home. So please be sure to stop by the connect table and the lobby on your way out, or you can tap the digital connect card on the seat in front of you. We're gonna be starting this morning in scripture. We'll be reading from Jeremiah 29. It says, "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope in a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." And this is the Lord talking. And I don't know about you, but I feel like that's just such a beautiful encouragement to come into this morning that when you seek the Lord with all your heart, He is there, He's available, and He is ready to listen to you and ready to work with you.

So let's just go ahead and let's start our morning in prayer. Lord, we thank you so much for just another Sunday where we get to be in your house. We get to worship you and be with your people. God, we thank you so much that when we seek you, Lord, no matter how far we may feel, God, you are right there with us. And so Jesus, we just open up our hearts, our minds and our ears to you today. We say yes in amen to whatever it is you have for us. We love you and we pray this in your name. Amen. All right, let's get ready to worship together. (gentle music) ♪ No longer are you in ♪ ♪ The Christ in me ♪ ♪ For what I've been born again ♪ ♪ Your heart is free ♪ ♪ The hope of heaven before ♪ ♪ The grave behind ♪ ♪ All of you ♪ ♪ You brought me back tonight ♪ ♪ Don't forget the hope ♪ ♪ I heard you call my name ♪ ♪ And what is the grip of darkness ♪ ♪ Into the light of praise ♪ ♪ Or just like Lazarus ♪ ♪ Oh, you brought me back tonight ♪ ♪ Oh, there is still religion ♪ ♪ Now there is living faith ♪ ♪ And all of my hope and freedom ♪

♪ Are found in Jesus' name ♪ ♪ Or just like Lazarus ♪ ♪ Oh, you brought me back tonight ♪ ♪ No longer are you in ♪ ♪ The Christ in me ♪ ♪ For I've been born again ♪ ♪ My heart is free ♪ ♪ The hope of heaven before ♪ ♪ 'Til the grave behind ♪ ♪ Holy million ♪ ♪ You brought me back tonight ♪ ♪ When something says I am guilty ♪ ♪ I'll put to the Christ in vain ♪ ♪ When something says I'm not worthy ♪ ♪ I'll put to that empty grave ♪ ♪ Just like Lazarus ♪ ♪ Oh, you brought me back tonight ♪ ♪ No longer are you in ♪ ♪ The Christ in me ♪ ♪ For I've been born again ♪ ♪ My heart is free ♪ ♪ The hope of heaven before me ♪ ♪ The faith behind ♪ ♪ I'll give you ♪ ♪ You brought me back tonight ♪ ♪ Won't you let up begin to thank you ♪ Oh Jesus to fully praise you Oh it would take all eternity Oh just like Lazarus Oh you brought me back to love

Oh you brought me back to love Oh you brought me back to love Oh you brought me back to love No longer are you and the Christ in me For I've been born again My heart is free and won't go ahead in before me The baby I'm calling you in You brought me back to life No longer are you and the Christ in me For I've been born again My heart is free and won't go ahead in before me The baby I'm calling you in You brought me back to love No longer are you and the Christ in me Oh you brought me back to love So he hired me But Jesus said, "Come on, church, sing it out!" So he hired me But Jesus said, "You are mine!" And the enemy thought, "He hired me!" But Jesus said, "You are mine!" He heard me thought, "He hired me!" But Jesus said, "You are mine!" The enemy thought, "He hired me!" But Jesus said, "You are mine!" And the enemy thought, "He hired me!" But Jesus said, "You are mine!" And the enemy thought, "He hired me!" But Jesus said, "You are mine!" But the enemy thought, "He hired me!"

But Jesus said, "You are mine!" And the enemy thought, "He hired me!" But Jesus said, "You are mine!" But the enemy thought, "He hired me!" But Jesus said, "No longer are you and the Christ!" But the enemy thought, "He hired me!" But the enemy thought, "He hired me!" But the enemy thought, "He hired me!" But the enemy thought, "He hired me!" But the enemy thought, "He hired me!" But the enemy thought, "He hired me!" But the enemy thought, "He hired me!" But the enemy thought, "He hired me!" But the enemy thought, "He hired me!" But the enemy thought, "He hired me!" But the enemy thought, "He hired me!" But the enemy thought, "He hired me!" But the enemy thought, "He hired me!" But the enemy thought, "He hired me!" But the enemy thought, "He hired me!" But the enemy thought, "He hired me!" But the enemy thought, "He hired me!" But the enemy thought, "He hired me!" But the enemy thought, "He hired me!" But the enemy thought, "He hired me!" But the enemy thought, "He hired me!" But the enemy thought, "He hired me!" But the enemy thought, "He hired me!" But the enemy thought, "He hired me!" But the enemy thought, "He hired me!"

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'Cause we all see you, you're kingdom You are all that matters You're all I'm chasing after All the wealth and power King Good boy, can ever satisfy my heart So make him down my titles I'm surrendering my castle The only throne I seek is where you'll be I'm casting all these crowns at your feet I will give my life to the cause of rise Jesus is my only God All my strength is going on I'm sure there'll be your ways of where I've been You are all that matters You're all I'm chasing after All my dreams in all my seeking 'Cause we all see you, you're kingdom You are all that matters You're all I'm chasing after All the wealth and power King, good boy, can ever satisfy my heart So make him down my titles I'm surrendering my castle 'Cause now there's an open door How could I meet you here and steal one more? I'm in awe of you, I'm in awe of you In all your majesty No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no How could I meet you here and steal one more? I'm in awe of you, I'm in awe of you In all your majesty I'm in awe of you, I'm in awe of you I'm in awe of you In all your majesty All my dreams in all your dreams You're all that matters You're all I'm chasing after All my dreams in all my seeking

'Cause we all see you, you're kingdom You are all that matters You're all I'm chasing after All the wealth and power King, good boy, can ever satisfy my heart So make him down my titles I'm surrendering my castle So make him down my titles I'm surrendering my castle You are all I'm chasing after All my dreams in all your dreams But I love to you, I won't be overwhelmed Give me vision, just see things like you Give me wisdom, 'cause you know just what to do God, I look to you, I won't be overwhelmed Give me vision, to see things like you do God, I look to you, you're where my help comes from Give me wisdom, 'cause you know just what to do And I will love you, Lord my strength Sing it out, I will love you, Lord my shield And I will love you, Lord my rod For ever all my dreams, I will love you God Oh, I love you Jesus, yeah, yeah God, I look to you, I won't be overwhelmed Give me vision, to see things like you do God, I look to you, you're where my help comes from Give me wisdom, 'cause you know just what to do And I will love you, Lord my strength I will love you, Lord my shield Yes, I will love you, Lord my rod For ever all my dreams, I will love you God And I will love you, Lord my strength Oh, I will love you, Lord my shield Yes, I will love you, Lord my rod

For ever all my dreams, I will love you God Let's celebrate somebody going public with their faith in them Friends that led me further from the glory I became addicted to nicotine, I had a lot of emotions And I didn't know how to deal with them I felt like I was trapped in a dark hole that I couldn't escape I was very rude to my family, which led to broken relationships with them I was owned on an emotional roller coaster I would be happy for a month or so before I fell back into depression When I moved back to Yuma, I reconnected with friends that I met Last time I lived here, Elliot encouraged me to go to the church for the city and you While listening to baptism testimonies, I saw what God had done in their lives And it sunk into me, I began reflecting on everything I was doing I decided I didn't want to live like that anymore In that moment, I surrendered my life to Jesus Since giving my life to Jesus, I am now clean from all evictions I have the peace and joy of the Lord, God has healed me And I have grown into a new person through Him I have an understanding of the Bible through reading and studying the Word I feel like I can breathe again, I am free Today, I am going public with my faith Ava, Jesus said every disciple should be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit And because of your confession of faith today, it baptized you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ For the remission of your sins, and according to scripture, you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit You are God raised, hallelujah are God raised Hallelujah are God raised, hallelujah (music) [Music] [Music] [Music]

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[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Someone gave their life for you, given to the church. Considering that you have life because Christ gave his life for you. And when you hit that tap disc, if you want to get started doing that, you can do that today. You hit that tap disc. It takes about 15 seconds for you to be able to give. And once you start giving, you see how the Lord blesses. You know, we do a 90 day challenge here. And I guess it still stands if you tie for 90 days and you don't see any difference in your finances. After 90 days, Lady V give you all your money back. She'll give it all back to you. But I'm telling you, it's true. I should have hundreds of witnesses here that can say the reason that I, the amen, the reason that I know that God is good is because of how the Scripture says, "Test me and see, test me and see." And I'm telling you, He's faithful. So if you want to start giving, you'll get a personal card from you thanking you. Just tap that disc and follow that, follow the link there, take you about 15 seconds.

And you'll begin doing what the Lord has asked us to do for the work of the ministry. Now, this time, I do actually need everyone that brought a phone to pull your phone out. Can you pull your phone out and show it to me, everyone that brought a phone? Everyone that brought a phone. Some of y'all carry two, hold them both up. But this is what I need you to do. We need to update our information on everyone. In front of you is that tap disc. If you tap that disc, it's going to take you about 30, maybe a minute to update your information. And I'm going to pause to give you time to do it. We really need our information updated so we have the correct information on you. So if you would please take that phone, tap that disc. Those of you that are in the front, you'll have to hit the QR code. That's in front of you. There you go. There you go. Yeah, just there you go. Don't be ashamed. Let me get out of the way. But hit that, hit that disc and we're going to give you some time to do that. It's very important that we update all of our records and so we need your help to do that. So we'll give you some time to do it. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC]

[MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] All right. Those of you that did so, thank you, thank you, thank you so much. Those of you that didn't, I'm going to ask you again. So we really do would like to get you information updated. But thank you for those of you who did so right now. I'm going to pray and then we're going to go into Acts, Chapter 11. Of course, we'll be praying for those that are affected by East IE. He says the hurricane there in the south, because we partner with Convoy of Hope. We will be sending funds to Convoy to help those families that are there in the south. That's because of your generosity also. So even here from Umar, Arizona, though we won't be on the ground there. We work with an agency that will be so thank you again for your giving. It allows those people to help recover. another reason on why your generosity is important because of our partnering with convoive hope. So thank you, thank you for for doing that. We'll be praying for them and I'll pray for a few local churches and we'll we'll go on from there. Let's go before the Lord. Father I want to thank you now for this opportunity to be in your house. Lord I thank you for just yeah just the time and in the worship. We look forward to the word of course Lord I ask that I may decrease that you might increase that Lord that what you want to speak to everyone in the house is heard clearly and Lord they can apply to their life. May there be an understanding of the text but also an application of life. So give grace Lord doing this time. Grace for the preaching and grace for the hearing of the word of God. Father we pray for the victims that are affected by the hurricane, the tropical storm. I pray Lord that you're there to comfort people. Some have lost their lives. Many may lose a home, a business or the very things that they have trusted in. So we pray for comfort. We pray for ministry to them that they may realize that there is yet hope in the God that we serve who works us through the challenges and tragedies of life and brings

about his goodness and his mercy to us. I pray Lord for convoy of hope and maybe some Americans purse maybe on the ground soon also. Pray for these agencies as they as they go in and not only take care of the physical things but also the ministry, the spiritual application. Lord I pray for families that are among us today that are mourning the loss, that are grieving the loss of a of a loved one. Those that may have a loved one in the hospital. Maybe even some among us Lord who are carrying some news of a medical condition that they may have that maybe obviously will cause some concern. We pray Lord you are the healer and you are the comforter. And so we pray Lord you'll be very present in the lives of these individuals. We pray for the leadership of our country that our administration will make good solid decisions, righteous decisions, moral decisions, decisions that are good for the welfare of our nation. We pray for military personnel, home and abroad and all first responders and border protection. Lord we pray for local churches. We want every church in our county to grow. I pray specifically for relevant life in Pastor Ron Wood and real life Pastor Brent that you would be with them. Lord as they lead their church in this and they're part of the venue. Lord I pray for our men's conference, the speakers, Pastor Jeff, Pastor Matt, Lord may they bring wonderful words, may the worship team lead us in some glorious times of worship. Lord may all that we do bring glory to your name. It's in Christ name we pray. May the people of God say amen. Amen. I'm going to talk and I'll read in just a moment but I want to, the title of this message is called Christians, called Christians. Some of you may know that in the late 1920s there was a Scottish scientist that he was actually doing some research in London and he, it was just accidental that he discovered that there was a particular mold that was keeping some bacteria from growing that they had identified there in the land. Well that, that particular thing, he wanted to do more research and find out what was in this mold that was doing it and he shared it with others and out of that experiment is what came penicillin. That's how penicillin was, was created. They first just started using it in Britain just among their own citizens there and then until World War II broke out they realized how effective this was and started using it for military people, those that were serving in the war in 1944 and then from there of course penicillin is still used worldwide. It would have been interesting to think what if somebody would have said no man we got something really good here let's just keep it among us. Let's not,

let's not tell anybody else about it or if they saw that it was helping military people and they made a decision let's just use this for the military but no they made a decision that we're going to do this because this was good for everyone and I think all of us would agree when you have something that can You don't wanna keep that to yourself. You don't wanna keep that to yourself. It's unfortunate, but this is kind of what is still a bit happening here with the early church. Persecution is noted, it might have started earlier, but it's noted in chapter seven when Stephen was killed, when he was martyred. Acts chapter eight, of course, some of them went down to Samaria because of the persecution. But we get to chapter number 11, and we see now that this Christianity was designed to be spread, but it took persecution to do that. It was never the intent of God for Christianity to be just a local religion or be limited to just a region. Even though the Jews had that mindset, they had that mindset, you know, it was God first came to the Jews and go all the way back to Abraham, Moses on down. God first came to the Jews, made himself known, gave them his word, and then of course, we come through the lineage and through David, and we got to Messiah, and Jesus was born a Jew and was raised in Israel. The disciples were first Jewish, and Christianity was birthed right there in Jerusalem. And for all intents of purposes, it would have stayed there if the folks

who had received the gospel hadn't had in their way. They became comfortable, but the Lord knew better. And there was enemies of Christianity, which came about and started persecuting the Christians. And because of that, people had to begin to scatter. Chapter 11 tells us that some of them went to Antioch, which is up above about 300 miles from Jerusalem. And something remarkable happened. They started to realize that it wasn't just Jewish people. They had the experience with Cornelius, who was noted as a God fear. But now we're talking about people who were real heathens, real pagans, was coming to the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. So they were realizing and recognizing that this gospel truly is for all people. And it was right there in Antioch, that people were first called Christian, was there in Antioch. They were called other things before, but then they were called Christian. And I wanna talk about that just briefly, what it is, what it means to be called a Christian. I want you, if you would, to stand with me, go to Acts chapter 11. We're gonna read verses 19 through 26. Acts chapter 11, if you have your Bible, let's take that up. We're gonna read verses 19 through 26 of Acts chapter 11. Here's the word of the Lord. Now those who were scattered because of the persecution

that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews. But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists. Some translators may say Greeks, some translators may say Gentiles, but they're not Christ followers indeed. And came to Antioch and spoke to the Hellenists, also preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord. The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful in the Lord, with steadfast purpose, for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. A great many people were added to the Lord. So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and we had found him and brought him to Antioch. For a whole year, they met with the church and taught a great many people. In Antioch, the disciples were first called Christian. Can you say, "Man, man, you may be seated." And thank you for listening and reading, along with the word. Well, what we know is that people, thank you, Alex, people have a, all of us have a problem that we can't solve ourself, every one of us do.

And the life-saving answer, of course, is that we can, you can say it's a person, Jesus. You can certainly say it's the gospel message. And there's a trans, a progression, I would say, that you see in Acts, in Acts chapter one, verse eight, he says to go out and be, Judea and the uttermost parts of the earth, they're informed to do that in Acts chapter 1. Acts chapter 8, because of persecution, then they started heading over to Samaria. And now in chapter 11, they're scattered and they started bringing the gospel to Antioch, which are actually, absolutely Greek-speaking people. Samaria, some of the people were Jews, many of the people were Jews, but not Antioch. They were primarily Greeks, Gentiles, indeed. And so the trajectory of what the Lord wanted done in Acts chapter 1 is now starting to happen. But it took pressure. It took persecution. It took some things to come into their life that they were not hoping for or looking for. And this is the thing that I know. Oftentimes, pressure is what produces purpose. Pressure produces purpose. Sometimes God direction is because there's some pressure that's put on us. Or being God's intent is done because there's something that takes place in our life that reaches a pressure point in which we've got to make decisions. These folks was not leaving Jerusalem because they were just looking for another place to live. They were leaving Jerusalem because of the persecution that was coming up on them. And the pressure was up on them. Think about it. Most of you, any of you that move, you know how traumatic moving can be. It don't matter if you move it from one end of the city to the other. It's traumatic. Think about folks, though, who have to move for a cause. Think about if you've ever been in a place where you had to evacuate your home because of a fire or you had to evacuate your home because of a flood or evacuate your home because of what we're seeing down in Florida. Think about that. If you ever had to go through that, you're in a panic because you don't know what to take. You don't know if you're ever going to walk back into that house again or not. You don't know if you'll ever see those pictures on the wall. You don't know those books that you cherish. You don't know those things that you spent your time to earn and to put in that house. You don't know what you'll ever see again. So you got to make quick decisions. Do I

get the pictures or do I get the laptop? Do I take the pick up or do I take the Tesla? What is it that you do in that kind of situation? Nobody leaves and goes into that kind of situation willingly. Pressure is what puts you there. And that's what we see happening with them here in Jerusalem. The pressure led them there. But I'm telling you, there's a real principle to this. We could talk about diamonds. You understand what happens with diamond that carbon comes under the pressure and the heat and the next thing that comes out of that over a period of time is something that many of us admire because of the pressure. But I think there's a real God principle in this. There's a whole lot of things that God could not have done in our life if he didn't put us through situations where we had to make decisions because of the pressure. I really believe that some of God's purposes in our life is done because of what he's put us through. Things that we may consider bad circumstances. Some of you might have never started that business if you didn't get fired. That's a bad circumstance. Bad situation. But because of that, you ended up doing something that you really enjoy doing. Some of you wouldn't have never married the person you married that you love. I'll sit next to and enjoy. You wouldn't have never had that relationship if you wouldn't have went through that breakup. Wouldn't have never met that person. I could tell you some of the seeds from me starting the church is when my grandfather passed. It caused me to go before the Lord to find out, okay God, what is it that you have for me this season of my life? Are you following me on this? You just can't assume that when something is going bad in your life that it is absolutely the worst experience and the end of it all. I'm encouraging you if you look up, ask God, seek God as tough as it is. And there's nothing wrong with being honest with God. There's times I tell God this stinks. Sorry. I don't like this at all. But I'm here. I don't know if it's me that got me here. I don't know if it's the devil that got me here. Or I don't know if it's you. But I need you to let me know what to do. Whatever the situation is. You're doing all right. So sometimes it's those kinds of circumstances that allow God to show us what is real purpose and intent is. When they did this to the church in Jerusalem, They were setting the church up for a breakthrough. They ended up in Antioch. Antioch was like the third largest city in the Roman Empire. There was Rome and then there was Alexandria down in Egypt and then Antioch. So Antioch would be kind of like the Chicago of the U.S.

And it was a port city. So people were there, a lot of them were there for wealth because of the money that was coming in and out of the city and the businesses that can be set up. Some people were there because it was on the shore and a lot of the Romans who had retired went there for the luxury of the city. There's so much I could say about Antioch, the beauty of it, how it was built, what the purpose of it was. It's now the city. At Tulay, Turkey is what modern day Antioch is now. But a lot of things that, a lot of reasons people went there is because of the wealth and the influence and the culture. It attracted all kinds of people, people from all kinds of backgrounds. If you've ever read Ben Her or saw the movie Ben Her, the famous chariot scene took place in Antioch. It was a place of religion, but it was a lot of false religion, idolatry. Temple of Daphne was there, which was a sex temple and just all kinds of things that would happen there. Just a normal, large city. When you go to a city, you know there's anything you want to do that you shouldn't do can be done in a city. And that's what Antioch was. But these people didn't go there when they got to Antioch. They didn't just say, "Okay, well, we're here somewhere where we don't want to be. Let's just kind of hunker down and get through life." No, they did the one thing that was so much a part of them that they didn't have to think about it. It's not a place that they wanted to be. They had to leave where they were as traumatic as that was to leave their home. But what did they do while they were there? They did what every Christian should do wherever they are. Share their faith. Share their faith. So even though they weren't around normal, people who they would be very comfortable talking about faith with because in Jerusalem it's real easy to talk about faith because the whole community is raised in faith. But they go to a place where that wasn't the most comfortable thing that they did. Among people who didn't have the same faith or background as them and yet they still carried their faith into that community. Which is what Christians do. Do you know you are... I'm a Christian before I'm a pastor. I'm a Christian before I'm a coach. Are you hearing me? And so what we do wherever we are is be who we are. Whether you're on the field, whether you're in the boardroom, whether you're in the emergency room, no matter what you do, no matter where you are, whether you're out directing traffic, whether you're protecting a border, you carry who you are. And who you are is a child of God. And so the first thing people ought to see about you once they get through all the formalities is this is someone

who is absolutely confident in who they are in Christ Jesus. Am I talking to the right church? And so they go there and they share the gospel. Why? Because the gospel is the only thing that can change people's life. It's the sole catalyst for true spiritual conversion. Romans 1 16 says this, "For I'm not ashamed of the gospel. For it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek." We're not ashamed of it. Why are we not ashamed? Because it's the power of God. We know that that what changes people's life. So listen, hear me on this. If you want to see transformation in people's life, there's only one thing that'll do it. You can bake them a cake. You can go next door and introduce yourself and give them cookies. Do all that. You can decide I'm going to just go cut the old lady's yard. Do all that. But if you want to see transformation, the only way to change is people is the gospel. It is the power of God unto salvation. We cannot recreate what God has already determined is the manner of people getting saved. So I hear you. Now catch this. I hear you when you say, "I'm just going to love on them so they'll know Jesus." Love on them, but just your love alone doesn't transform them. Man, And so they knew that if they want these people to be changed, sure, they'll be good neighbors, but they're also gonna share their faith. Because we're not, we just people having an intellectual faith is not enough. It's not enough. Conversion, life being transformed. Practically, their life changing. Having a mere intellectual belief in dogmen and pass an emotion and all of that is so spurge and said this, he said, the church's objective is not merely to moralize, educate, or entertain society, but to see people completely transformed in their relationship to God. That right there, if you don't have a personal mission statement, I just gave you one.

My mission is to see other people that are far from God, find life in Christ. Now, can I just challenge you on something real quick? I was trying to find a sweet word 'cause I had something else in my head. But can I just challenge you on something? When we see people give their testimony on that screen and give their life to Christ and their share in their faith, can I just tell you this? They're more worthy than a... (audience applauds) They're more worthy than a golf clap. Do you know how much courage it takes to be on that screen and tell people what your life was like and you've heard some stuff just like me. There's some of these testimonies. I don't know 'em 'til I hear 'em, all of 'em, I don't know. And I've cringed here and something, I'm like, oh my goodness. And then they say what Jesus done. And then they say they're part of the faith community. And they do all that with courage. And we sit in the audience and... (claps) I think a life thank you. People's life ought to be celebrated when they give their life to Jesus Christ. It ought to be celebrated. (audience applauds) And all it takes is what you're doing right now.

You take your right hand, you take your left hand, and you bring 'em together. Can we practice that? Let's celebrate people's life when they give their life to Jesus because I'm telling you, hopefully somebody's celebrated your life change. And can I go one step further and I'll get back to the message. Many of you have asked me to pray for your daughter, your son, your mother, your grandmother, your whatever, that they come to Jesus, which I take serious. And by the way, when people tell me to pray for something, I'll write it down as soon as I possibly can so I don't forget. And so it's on my prayer list for the next day. I'd have been to too many experiences when somebody told me to pray for something. Sure, sure. And then 10 days later they come. Pastor, thank you for praying. (audience chattering) Yeah, sure, how did it go? So no, I'll write it down. Listen, when one of your family members that you wanna come to Jesus or friends come to Jesus, when you tell me that they have, you think I'm gonna sit in my office and just say, "Oh, good news." No, no, I'm celebrating with you.

We need to celebrate when people give their life to Jesus Christ and share about it. Y'all right? I move on with the message. And here's what we know is the power to produce people's life change comes from the hand of the Lord. That's what we see in verse number 21. It says the Lord's hand was with him. This word, "hand" here, of course, it's an anthropomorphic term. It's a human term to express an activity of God. And so the word is using God's hand to express God's power. It's God's controlling influence. God is using his instrument of authority to work with us. That's what he did with those that was in Antioch. It was his hand up on them, God's power, in which he used them to be able to witness of Christ that a great number of people came to the Lord. The NLT says that this way, the power of the Lord was with him and a large number of these Gentiles believed and turned to the Lord. It was that. And so we know this, that listen, numerical growth or spiritual growth in the church, that doesn't come from human eloquence or our cleverness or some kind of sophisticated machinery. No, not at all.

It comes from God's hand. So much so that they saw what was going on. Jerusalem gets report that there's people down in Antioch getting saved and so they wanna do something about this. Okay, let's check this out. First of all, it was a little bit like, oh, aha. You mean besides Cornelius, now we're going even more beyond Israel and people are receiving Jesus. So they send somebody down, they send Barnabas to go down there and check things out for Barnabas to see. Tell us what's really happening down there in Antioch. And there's so much I could say about Barnabas and why they use Barnabas, the connection that he had. He came from Cyprus, so he was very familiar with the Greeks and the Hellenus community. He was also part of the brothers there in Jerusalem. We see him Acts chapter four. I'm actually gonna, my message for the men is about Barnabas on Saturday. But so I won't say a lot about him. The scripture does say he was a good man. He was full of the Holy Spirit and was full of faith. And I actually look forward to sharing that with the men on Saturday. But he goes down there and he sees what's happening. And he begins to encourage them. He realizes, man, these folks really are making a commitment to Jesus. They're just as real, just as serious as we are. Coming to Christ, he encourages them.

There's a word here where he encourages people to cleave to the Lord. He wasn't telling them that you gotta keep yourself guarded, but he would certainly tell them that if you hold on to the Lord, you would remain strong in the faith. These Christians took that encouragement. They took that inspiration. And scripture tells us, in the community, they started doing things which set them apart from the other folks in the city, from the other people who had settled there. And this is why the scripture tells us in Acts 26 that the disciples were called Christians in Antioch for the first time. For the first time, they were called Christians. Now, they use that term kind of just to label them. Of course, it comes from Christ, but I-A-N-E-N. It means party of. So when people were saying, well, who are these people? Where they're the party of Christ. They're the party of Christ. It would be like saying, well, they're the Republicans, you know. They're the party of, party of Christ. That's who the Christians are. But it was the first time that they were known that, which as you now know, has sustained us for many years. They were called saints, they were called believers, they were called brothers, they were called witnesses. But this label stuck.

They belong to the party of Christ, they're Christians. Now, I'm going to say this, unfortunately, I think the word Christian now has been watered down quite a bit. I think now people call themselves Christian that would know Jesus if he walked in the room, slapped him upside of the head and put him in headlock. Would know Jesus, would know what Jesus was all about. You know people that way who call themselves Christian and life is in the manner that it is, no reflection of Christ at all. True Christianity absolutely is one who's turned from sin, trusted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and received the grace of salvation. That's a Christian. Not someone that was just born in a Christian home. Not someone that just checked Christian off the form because they asked you what religion you are. Not someone that calls themselves Christian because they're American. A Christian is someone who's turned from sin, who's surrendered their life to Jesus Christ, where he is now Lord and Savior. And I'm telling you, that's the tough part because I can tell you right now that number one sin every one of us have. If somebody asks you, maybe not now, hopefully not now, but if somebody would ask you at any given time before your relationship with Jesus, what is your number one sin? I can tell you what everybody's is, it's pride.

All of us, all sin comes from pride. That's the hardest thing for us is to receive Jesus. We want the fact it sounds really good to have a Savior. It's okay, it's beautiful. Of course, I'll tell people that Jesus is my Savior. But I'm telling you, it's a bigger challenge to say Jesus is my Lord. Because Lord means you no longer have control of your life. Lord means you've surrendered all. Lord means you committed to God. Y'all doing all right out there? Lord means just that. Christianity is not defined by a confession of faith or a profession of faith. Christianity is defined by lordship. Lordship, I'm turning from a life of sin. I'm receiving Christ as my Lord and Savior, and I've surrendered my life to Him. Now at the same time, I will clearly say this when I still tell people I'm Christian, I don't let somebody, somebody who jacked up the word, you know, calls me to change my definition. We got a lot of that going on in culture now. Certain words you can't say because the meaning of it's been all messed up. I don't do that. I'm still a Christian. Shoot black folks didn't mess up, black folks name, but I'm still black. I don't know what y'all laughing,

that Mexican's done the same thing. But anyway, the point is, you are who you are. I am who I am. I'm still a Christian. But when we say it, we mean it. I am a Christian, why? Because Christ is my Lord and Savior. Lord and Savior. And what's been identified, what was identified in that community was things I'll give you three things. I got six minutes, three things to give you that identified them. Why would they call Christians? Number one, because they cared for the people in their city. They cared for those folks. They didn't just go to Antioch and hunker down and say, I don't wanna be around these folks. I don't like these people. These ain't my people. I hope we can get back to Jerusalem. Hopefully all this persecution will stop and we'll go back home. No, they went into Antioch and they had this mindset. If this is where we are, I wanna care for this city. I wanna care for the people in our city. You know that's the heart of us at CTC, is that we love our city. Most folks when they ask me where I'm from,

they, when I tell them our church is in Yuma, Arizona, they always follow up with, well, where are you from? I'm from Yuma, really, really, yeah, I'm from Yuma. And you like your city? No, I don't like my city. I love my city, what you talking about? I love my city, because why? This is where God has planted me. And wherever God plants us, that's where we are to love and love the people in the city where we're planted. We get this out of Jeremiah 29-7, when the people of Israel was in exile, they went down to Babylon, which is our modern day Iraq. They didn't wanna be there, they stopped singing songs, they stopped doing the stuff that they normally do. And the Lord came to them through Jeremiah, Jeremiah 29-7. Pursue the well-being of the city that I have deported you to, pray to the Lord on its behalf or when it thrives, you will thrive. I just, I don't think that any church can love its city or any Christian in the church can love its city and we remain silent about Jesus. We remain silent about truth or morality and justice. Christians care for the people in our city so much so we want their life to be transformed. Here's the second thing, Christians are willing servants. Team, you can come.

Christians are willing servants. Again, I wanna spend more time on Barnabas, but you see it in verse 25 and 26. He went down there, he saw what was needed. He encouraged him, but he went to get Saul for teaching. Now chapter 11 of Acts, by the way, is about 10 years beyond chapter nine, about 10 years. So Saul has been in Tarsus. Well, he's been in a few places, but Tarsus is where he was now. Barnabas had to literally go look for him because it's been almost 10 years from Acts chapter nine. And he goes and gets him because he knows he's a good teacher. And what we need down in Antioch now is a teacher. And Saul was willing to go because he recognized the need that was there. Every one of us that are Christians ought to be willing servants. When we see the needs, we use our gifts. We are people that's available. We volunteer. I'm telling you, I'm so excited. We got our service summit coming up in November. For CTC to operate day after day, week after week, it takes over 400 volunteers. I'm telling you, this is Tyrone P. Jones to all of you volunteers. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you so much. Thank you so much. The scripture tells us this,

that all of us receive gifts. Those gifts are to be used in the community. The community of faith. First Peter tells encourage believers that are received their gifts to be faithful. Romans 12 tells us that all of us have different gifts and functions. It could be teaching. those gifts for the good of the body of Christ." Ephesians 4, 11 tells us how God has equipped us that we may build up the church. Ephesians 2, 10 says we've been born and prepared for good work. Christians are willing servants. They look for opportunities to serve the community. They look for opportunities to serve their church. They look for opportunities to motivate people through love and service, and others are the beneficiaries of them. And here's the last thing that we see in this text, "Christians encourage other believers." I love this. Verse 23, it says, "When Barnabas arrived, he saw the evidence of their life. He was filled with joy, and he encouraged them to stay true to the Lord." Christians didn't simply celebrate what was going on. He encouraged them. He modeled to them, "Hey, this is what we do. I'm not always going to be here, but this is what we do as Christians. We encourage one another, and we do just that." The Ephesians 5, 11 says, "Therefore, encourage one another, and build one another up." That's part of what we do as Christians. We thank the volunteers. When we know that someone is going through something, we pray for them, but maybe we send them a note. Maybe you send them a text.

Maybe you make a phone call. You give them words of hope. You remind them of God's promises. You encourage them to stay true to the faith because we've seen many people who go through trials and things that they go through in life, and it takes them right out of the faith. But what if we can encourage people to hold on, to hang in there? God is faithful. He keeps his promises. I hope that most of you as Christians, I hope you have more good days than you do bad days. Can I tell you, as a believer who's been a believer a long time, you're going to have some tough days, and it's nothing more wonderful than for someone to come along and just give a word of encouragement. I'll tell you some of the best texts, and this is no lie. Virginia can tell you. I'll probably get 70 to 75 text messages a day, and yeah, I'll just leave that where it's at. But I tell you the ones that are the best in the midst of all of it. Pastor, I was just thinking about you, man, I'm praying for you. I hope you're having a good day. Yesterday, I had a wedding, and I don't know if John is here, DeRaza. I had a wedding yesterday, and it was raining, as most of you know, so we had to make all kinds of adjustments, the wedding was outside. So I knew going, okay, this is, we're going to, there's going to have to be some changes made before I get there. Lady V had called me before I left to go to the wedding. Her flights, she had three flights canceled trying to get home, so that was on my mind trying to communicate how to get through this with American. I get in my car, I get a phone call from my mom's caregiver that my mom is being rushed to the hot to the ER, so I'm wanting Lady V home, my mom's on the way to the ER, I get to the wedding, and that's a challenge getting everything, doing what we can to still have

the wedding in spite of all the things, and so when I got there and went over the things that we need to do, I told the groom, hey man, I really hate to do this, but as soon as I finish these vows, I got to head out, I got to get to the hospital to be with my mom, and I didn't know this, but John DeRaza who goes here, which again, I don't know if he's here, he must have heard me, because when I'm leaving out and getting to my Bronco, he comes over and he says, "Pastor, can I pray for you? Can I tell you how much that done for me?" Just a word like that, "Can I pray for you?" That's encouraging. That gives hope. We want people to continue in the faith and not get knocked out of this with some mental trauma, emotional trauma, physical stuff, trials and tribulations that go on in my life, Dr. Tibet, I see, I need you to check on my mom, sorry about that, but we need that. That's what Christians do. We want to keep the team together. We want to keep the family together. We don't want to be concerned about people who didn't make it through. When we know that the power of God is strong enough to keep us and maintain us all, can we just encourage them to hang in there? Can we just be Christian? Can we stand if you would, prayer team, you can come and pray for you? They'll close us out with worship if you need prayer. You're in the right place. Father, I want to thank you right now for this opportunity that we have, Lord God, to just hear the word together. Lord, I pray that we indeed will be... to remain in the faith. Father, give us the grace and the strength to do so. In Christ's name we pray, may the people of God say amen. Hey God bless you, have a great day. (Music)

Hallelujah, are God red. Hallelujah, are God red. Oh, hallelujah, are God red. Forever all high. Hallelujah, are God red. Hallelujah, are God red. Hallelujah, are God red. Forever all high. Hallelujah, are God red. Hallelujah, are God red. Hallelujah, are God red. Hallelujah, are God red. Forever all high. Hallelujah. We love you, Church, we pray that you have a blessed week and we'll see you in a big second.