Courage for Missional Integrity

who are worshiping with us today. So good to be with you. (audience applauding) Thanks for worshiping with us today. A couple quick announcements. This Saturday is our warrior summit. We're just shy of 2,000 guys, guys. (audience applauding) It's a great time to bring a friend and invite him to come. It's also a prayer request for the entire church. So you'd be praying for our day that God would use the event that we put together, the proclamation of his word to change men, to get them to live more godly, to bless women and children and all the things that God desires us to be as men. Secondly, I want to let you know this. We're going to finish up Paul's missionary journey, his first one today. We'll get back into the book of Acts, but starting next week, I'm going to spend at least two weeks talking about God's plan for Israel. And it's important that we do that because every Christian I'm talking to now and every talking head that I hear has a different opinion. And in talking to Christians, Christians are saying, what am I supposed to believe? This sounds wise, that sounds wise.

As I've told you before, I really don't care about other people's opinions. I care very much about what God has to say. And so if you are here in the next two weeks or you know somebody that wants to hear about Israel, you want to bring them here in the next couple of weeks 'cause we're going to address that very topic. Finally, I just wanted to update you on some things going on here. I got a call from our executive pastor a couple of weeks ago saying, I don't know how you want to handle this. I was at the airport getting ready to get on a plane, but pastor Howie, our prison pastor, had resigned. And he said, hey, what do you want to do with this? And I talked to pastor Howie and we prayed together and he had said that he was going to be moving on. And so I trust his decision in the Lord. And as I prayed, I just began to say, Lord, you had prison on our hearts along before we ever hired anybody. What are you doing? What are you up to? And within 13 days, we hired our next staff person to be a prison pastor, amen? So, I want you to know a couple of things about this guy and then I'll bring him up. I've known him for over five years. We helped plant him in a church in Conifer. He's been pastoring Ignite Fellowship in Conifer.

As a matter of fact, I think he wanted to name it Brave Church and I wouldn't let him at the time. And, but we've been good friends and I called him and we talked on the phone and I asked him what he thought his wife would say and he'll tell you that in a second. But I remember talking to him. I was like, would you even consider doing this? Said, I know you've been in prison. I know chaplain sees something that's important to you. Prison ministry, something that's important to you. And he started crying and he said, Pastor Jeff, if you never ever called me or talked to me again about this opportunity, I want you to know it's been the opportunity of a lifetime just knowing that you would consider me to do that. Amen, really cool. And so, we introduced him to our staff on Tuesday. I want to introduce him to you today, but would you welcome our prison pastor, Brian Elrod to the platform today? (audience applauding) Thanks, Brian. All right, tell him a little bit about yourself and what you're saying. - Yeah, I know I only have a little brief time here, but it is a tremendous honor to be in front of you all, just an honor. I mean, if you just knew the miraculous things

that God is doing, it's incredible. And Pastor Jeff had called me and when he called me, he said, hey, let me tell you, I did 21 days of prayer. And after 21 days of prayer, God put on my heart, I was in prison and you visited me. And if only you knew, since I did serve in prison, if only you knew what it meant for people to visit you, in prison. And I'm so excited because I know a lot of you will pick up that volunteer base and do that. I do want you to know this though, that I was meeting with Ty, the executive pastor in Nick, and I love Nick. I've known Nick ever since. He just encourages me the whole time. But when I met with Ty, I sat with Ty and he says, okay, would you consider it? And I did what every Christian does. I said, yes, I will pray about it. Go home with my wife and pray about it. So I left and I got in my car and I called my wife and I said, hey, Lee, guess what? They want me to do this. And she goes, what'd you tell them? And I said, I was going to pray about it. And she goes, you don't need to pray about it, just do it. So I immediately texted him back saying, my wife said I didn't need to pray about it. I'm going to do it.

And so here I am. So thank you very much, everybody. Sure, I appreciate it. Thank you. [APPLAUSE] We're super excited about what God's doing in our prison ministry. Super excited about Pastor Brian being here. You're going to love meeting him and I know he's going to enjoy meeting you. So let's continue our worship today as we get ready to hear from God's living and active word. Would you pray with me as we prepare our hearts to hear from him? Our Father in Heaven, we do give you all glory, honor, and praise. Lord, what a privilege it is to dedicate so many children to you today. Lord, our prayer is, as Pastor John prayed, that they would come to know you in a personal way at a very young age and walk with you all the days of their life, that we as a church would support. These families and these children, as they continue to grow in grace and with you. And Lord, that you would make kingdom warriors of these young girls and young boys. And Lord, we just ask your blessing and your hand upon them. Lord, we thank you today for your living and active word because we as a people believe that every time your word is faithfully and accurately proclaimed that it is you who are speaking,

and we want to hear to you today. So our prayer is speak Lord for we are ready to hear. And so now for all those who have gathered who desire to hear the Lord Jesus Christ, speak directly to you who will believe what He tells you and who will by faith put into practice what He shows you, will you agree with me very loudly this morning by saying the word, amen, amen. The message of the gospel is so clear that God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten son that whoever believes in Him would not perish, but have eternal life. The message of the gospel is clear that all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and there's no hope that we have. The message is clear that Jesus Christ fulfilled the law. The message is clear that before Jesus left the earth, He died on a cross in our place for all of our sin. The message of the cross is so clear. He rose from the dead. The message of the cross is so clear that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father except through Him. The message of the gospel is so clear that God made Him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. It's clear, it's everywhere. For those of you who have repented of your faith and trusted Jesus, you know the joy that we share 'cause it's so clear.

It's not about your works and it's not about your efforts but it's not about the good things you've done or the bad things you've failed at. It's about Jesus plus nothing. That's the gospel. And it doesn't matter what your religious preferences, your religious background is, if you're irreligious or steeped in religion, the only way to come to faith is through faith in Jesus Christ alone. And even though the Bible teaches that and makes this crystal clear and for those of us who gather in church that would call ourselves by the name of Christ, we get it, we know it, we say let's move on to something else. There are always things that compete for that. There's always a challenge that says, well, yeah, you're a Christian but you need to add this to it if you really wanna be a good Christian. There's some more things that you need to have really to have Christ. It's not just that simple that it's just Jesus in His blood to which I would say yes it is. It's that simple, it's just Jesus in His blood. When I'm trusting, when I die and I stand before the Lord Jesus Christ, I am not trusting anything I've ever done. I'm not trusting being a pastor. I'm not trusting any good works.

I'm trusting the fact that 2,000 years ago on a cross the God-man Jesus Christ died in my place for all my sins and covered them and rose from the dead. And the only reason I have life is because of Jesus Christ in Him alone. Amen? That's it. And the good news of that is it's freeing for the world to hear. You mean, there's nothing I have to do. No, you need to receive the gift that it's by grace through faith in Christ alone for the glory of God alone. That's it. There's nothing else. And if you've been a Christian for a while, there's going to be challenges to that. You're going to meet well-meaning people, some good people, some that are deceptive, but most that are well-meaning that are going to try to get you to add something to your faith, thinking that that will make you more spiritual and you need to guard against that because the Bible makes clear that the gospel is simple and it's Jesus in Him only. It's not Jesus plus religion. It's not Jesus plus your good works. It's not Jesus by how long you've attended church.

It's not Jesus by how much money you give. It's not Jesus plus anything. It's not Jesus plus my marriage is good or Jesus plus I raise good kids or Jesus. It's Jesus. And that's it. Amen. And so today what I want to talk about is how do we have the courage to guard for mission integrity when it comes to the Great Commission and going and sharing the gospel and living it out until we meet Jesus? What's it look like and what are some of the things that are going to come after us and where do we need to place our courage? And today we're going to do that in Acts chapter 15. So I invite you to turn your Bibles to Acts chapter 15. And while you're turning to Acts chapter 15, you'll remember that we're in Antioch at this time, actually we're not there, but Paul and some of the other apostles were there, Paul and Barnabas were there. And as you're turning there, I want you to see what's going on because they've just been sharing the gospel with all sorts of different people. Jews are getting saved. Gentiles that have no religious background are getting saved. Everybody's rejoicing at the simplicity of the gospel.

It's Jesus plus nothing. And this is when this begins to happen. Notice this. It says, "Some men came down from Judea "and begin teaching the brethren "unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses. "You cannot be saved." Now think about that for a minute. Paul and Barnabas have just been teaching them. It's grace alone through faith alone and Christ alone. There's nothing you do, there's nothing you add to it. And now that they've accepted that truth, they've confessed their sin, they've repented, they've submitted to the Lord. They're not telling you the whole story. Unless you're circumcised, here's what they're saying. According to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. They're telling you you're saved, but you can't be saved unless you're circumcised too. Let me tell you something. Here's my first point why courage is necessary. Courage is necessary in the Christian faith because legalism deceives by sounding spiritual. Legalism deceives by sounding spiritual. These are well-meaning people. What they're doing is they're going back to the Old Testament saying Moses taught circumcision. Therefore, if you're really going to be full and really being with God, you need to get circumcised too. Gentiles weren't circumcised. That was a covenant that God had with the Jews. So what they're saying is they're telling the men, "Hey, listen, you think you're saved, but you're not really saved unless you add this to it." And you say, "Well, people haven't told me that, but they've told you other things." Yeah, you're saved, but unless you're baptized too, they're not really saved. There's whole denominations that believe that. That's false. You don't have to be baptized to be saved. It's not salvific. It doesn't keep you outside the camp. Now, let me tell you just for a minute what legalism is not. Legalism is not a desire for holiness. Legalism is not being obedient. Legalness is not Christ-likeness. Legalism is simply this, by adding human requirements to the gospel as necessary for acceptance with God. When there's human elements that people say,

"You've got to do this," or "God won't accept you," right? And here's what's going on here. I mean, can you imagine in the first century, if you're in Antioch and you've been told the gospel and you're saved to the full, and now these guys come in like, "Unless you're circumcised, you're really not saved." Like, what are you going to do? Like, you're listening to well-meaning people. They're going to take you to the Scriptures. They're going to show you this. Like, what would you do? It would start paralyzing you. Well, what's really true? And do I really need to do that? And it feels like a burden to me. And I was told that I was free in Christ and that I was completely forgiven, and now you're telling me I've got to add something to it. Now, in our generation, we don't tend to add circumcision, but we do tell people, but you've got to be baptized. But there's a myriad of other things we do too. Did you know that? After people become Christians, then we make statements like this. Here's when you hear legalists. Here's how they start to talk. They'll start talking like this. They'll start a sentence by saying, "Real Christians don't." And then they have ways to finish the sentence. If you were truly spiritual, you would. Or if you were truly spiritual, you would not. God is more pleased with you if, friends, when Jesus Christ died on the cross and you repented and trusted Him as your Lord and Savior, it is finished, paid in full, completely, past, present, future, washed away. That's the gospel. You don't add to that. It's not Jesus. And if you continue to be a good person, Jesus, if you don't get divorced, Jesus, if you raise good kids, and Jesus, and if you tithe well, and there's no add-ons, it's Jesus Christ and Him alone. Let me tell you what will never happen. Nobody's ever going to stand before Jesus, and He's going to say, "Depart from me, you worker of iniquity, for you were never circumcised." Not going to happen. Depart from me, you were never baptized. I mean, imagine the thief on the cross. He didn't have time to get baptized. And Jesus said, "Truly, truly, I tell you the truth today. You'll be with me in paradise." I mean, imagine if he got there and somebody's like, "Well, have you been baptized?" I don't even know what baptism is. I don't even know what justification is. I don't even know what the Bible is. All I know is that man on the middle cross told me to be here, and here I am. Is Jesus plus nothing? Amen? That's the gospel. That's the gospel. So here's what's going on. So these guys are coming and saying, "Hey, they're infiltrating the church, say, unless you're circumcised too, you're not saved." And when Paul and Barnabas had great dissension and debate with them, the brethren determined that Paul and Barnabas and some others should go up to Jerusalem, to the apostles and elders concerning the issue.

So Paul and Barnabas are like, "This is not true. This is not true. It's only true that it's Jesus." And you're going to see Paul later talk about his resume. If resumes were helpful, Paul says, "I have the best one of anybody that's ever lived." Doesn't matter. What matters is Jesus and faith in him alone. So they're saying, "Hey, we are confused. You should go up to Jerusalem. You should talk to the elders up there and some of the other apostles. Let's get a ruling on this." Verse 3, "Therefore, they, being sent on their way by the church, they were passing through Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles and were bringing great joy to all the brethren." So on the way to Jerusalem, as they're stopping through all these cities, they're telling them all the stories of all the people that are coming to faith in Christ. like any great church rejoices when people get saved. Amen? When they arrived at Jerusalem, verse 4, they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them. So they get to the elders and the apostles in Jerusalem, the church in Jerusalem, they're telling them this is what's happening. We've been on this missionary journey. Jews are coming to Christ. Gentiles are coming to Christ. Signs and wonders are going on. It's amazing because God's spirit is working in all people, but notice this. But some of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed stood up. So these are people who had been Pharisees. Jesus had a hard time with Pharisees because they, quote unquote, "kept the law" or thought they were keeping the law, but they missed the fact that Jesus is the Messiah and they refused to believe. Now these Pharisees have actually been converted now. These Pharisees are ones who, after Jesus' resurrection, they now believe in Jesus, but these Pharisees come and they say it is necessary to circumcise them and direct them to the law of Moses. So that's where we are.

You've got legalism creeping in the church. You've got these people saying, well, this is our background. The Old Testament says this is what we're supposed to do. Are you just going to throw out the whole Old Testament? I mean, these guys need to be circumcised or they're not living out the mandates. Don't you understand that? Now, what do we do in our generation? We do the same thing. There are people today that think certain days are more important than other days. There are a whole denominations made up that believe Saturday is the only day to worship, right? Seventh-day Adventists believe that, okay? Well, isn't Saturday the Sabbath? Absolutely it's the Sabbath. Jews still celebrate the Sabbath from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday. Well, why don't we as the church? Because the Bible says you should remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Well, here's why because when Jesus came, he fulfilled the law. When the early church started to worship, they started worshiping on Sundays because that was the day that Jesus rose from the dead. And they always wanted to be reminded that the resurrection changed everything, amen? Moreover, if you read your Bible, like in Romans 14 and other places, you'll see that some people think certain days are more important than others. And what difference does it make? Whatever day you think is important, use that to worship the Lord in whatever you do. If you're convicted, Saturdays are the day to worship, then worship on Saturday. And if Sundays are, then worship on Sunday, or if you're like me, you can worship any single day of the week that you want and it's all good, amen? But we do this, we add, we have all these add-ons. It's like, have you ever flown an economic airline thinking you got a deal?

Like you saved 100 or 150 bucks per ticket until you start to get your seat, until you get to the airport and pay for your luggage, until you realize how much things cost on the plane, you mean to sit on the chair, actually cost more than just purchasing the chair, you know, amen, that kind of stuff. And all of a sudden, what you were told was free, wasn't free. That's what we do with the gospel all the time. It's free, it's free, it's for freedom that Christ Jesus set you free. But we didn't tell you to find print. Now you got to dress a certain way and look a certain way and go to a certain church and sing a certain way and do songs a certain way. And this is the way you have to do it if you're really going to be Christian. And we do it with everything. It may not even be days of the week that you worship, but what about holidays? Like what holidays can you really worship? Like there's some people that will say Easter's wrong because of the goddess Isthar and it was Roman and it was totally pagan. So you can't do that to which I would say, I'm not worshiping your pagan God, I'm worshiping the resurrection of Jesus Christ on that day. No problem, amen? Some people won't worship Christmas. I mean, there's all these things or let's tick off everybody. Let's talk about Halloween for heaven's sakes. Can you enjoy that holiday? Some would say absolutely not. There's no way. It's a demonic holiday. It's the day of the day. There's no way. I'm not going to be involved in that.

Others would say, call it what you want for us. It's candy and fun. And there's no other time during the year. My neighbors come by my house and ask for something and I get to share with them. I love it. Who's right? They both are. See, legalism happens when we take what God's doing in our life and we make it a mandate for somebody else's. How are you to dress for church? Do I have to wear a suit and tie every week if I'm serious about the Word of God? There are some denominations that would say absolutely. There are other places like here that would say you don't have to. Now I can. I can wear a hoodie or I can wear a suit and I still love the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not dressing for you. I'm dressing for the Lord, amen? We can get excited or upset about all that. Or how about the use of alcohol? Like that's the one the church has a hard time with. If you're over 21, like can you? Like if you're out to eat, can you have a glass of wine with your dinner? Some would say absolutely. Some would say absolutely not. And you're both right. As long as you don't infringe your decisions upon anybody else. It says they don't look at the wine in the glass, don't crave that stuff, it's not great for you. But the Bible nowhere says you can't have it, but the Bible is very clear, you can't be drunk on it.

And so where do you have your liberties and what does that look like? And the question that Christians ask that's the wrong question is, what can I do and have God still love me? Bad question, 'cause he loves you no matter what. Better question is, how do I best honor the Lord and everything I do? That's the question, right? And I have total liberty to live out my mandates for Christ. I don't have liberty to sin. There's nowhere in the Bible gives me liberty to sin because Christ paid for my sins. Sin is what killed me, but I do have liberty under the lordship of Jesus Christ to enjoy him and to worship him. And this is what the whole book of Galatians was about where people were coming in and adding all of this legalistic stuff. Friends, I hate legalism. I hate it when people tell me you have to listen to this and you can't listen to that. And you have to sing like this and you can't sing like that. And there can't be musical instruments. There has to be musical instruments. There can't be this and there has to be that that's all made up earthly stuff, right? What about dancing? Is that you? Oh, okay.

I thought it was my daughter for a second. I'm like, we were at a father daughter dance last night. I'm like, God, that was her. I mean, some Christians, like, you can't. It leads to immorality. Other people are like, yeah, you can. And in the Bible in Luke 15, the reason the older brother knew that the son had come home was 'cause there was music in dancing. Like, I think heaven is gonna be a shock to a lot of people. You know, I think it's gonna be very loud, you know, for the people that are like, I need earplugs in here. I can't even hear God. Well, wait till we get to heaven. It's louder, I promise, right? Or people are like, I don't like the dancing. I mean, I've met our brothers and sisters around the world. They dance better than you. I promise you and worship. We're gonna have a lot of catching up to do. Do you understand? I mean, we make up all these things that we think it's like, and usually what we do is we cherry-pick three of our favorites that we're good at keeping, and we discard all the others. And the reality is, if you let the Lord shape you, he'll show you what he wants you to choose to do and what he doesn't want you to do, and then just honor the Lord with that, but don't make it a mandate for anybody else.

I usually, I was, I said it for service, I was like, I don't have cable in my house. I usually don't, but unfortunately my son invited everybody over to watch the Super Bowl at her house, and I told him, son, we don't even have TV. And so I had to get cable for that day, so it's going away. But the point is, in my life, it's something the Lord doesn't want me to have. I don't think there's anything wrong with it. I would never make a mandate. I don't think it's sinful for you to have cable in your house. I just don't, as long as it's honoring to the Lord. For me, for whatever reason, the Lord has always said, "I don't want you to have it." Probably 'cause I waste too much time watching things if I had it, I don't know why. But you see what I'm saying? It's when God gives you a conviction and you make your conviction a mandate for other people, that's legalism. Or moreover, you tell people God doesn't love you if you continue to do that. Now, if it's specific in the Bible, and I can read it with my own two eyes, that's fine. But if it's a gray area that we as human beings are saying, that's ultra important. And churches are built on this stuff, you know? I mean, there's certain people, I mean, there's about 8 billion people-ish in the world, I haven't counted, I've been told that.

But about 8 billion people in the world, and there's some churches of 300 or 5,000 or 250 that think, we're the only church in the world that's gotten this right. Give me a break. There's no church that gets it all right. There's no place that gets it all right. I'm sure I don't get it all right. So I tell you to study the word and follow what the word says. The word is always right, amen? But legalism creeps in and it deceives you and our flesh loves legalism because our flesh begins to think, I don't want to be so dependent upon Jesus, I want him to know I'm bringing something to the table too. You can't bring anything that's of value. All you do is bring your sin and say, this is all I have to offer. Would you please forgive me? That's it, amen? And that's what God wants. If you have time this week, I'd encourage you to go back to Colossians chapter two. Colossians chapter two versus starting in verse 16 and just read this section 'cause you'll get the gist of what the apostles writing when he writes to the Colossians about this very thing. He said, "Therefore no one is to act as your judge "in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival

"or a new moon or a Sabbath, "things which are mere shadow of what is to come, "but the substance belongs to Christ." Let no one keep defrauding you of the prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of angels, taking his stand on the visions he's seen inflated without cause by his fleshy mind, not holding fast to the head that is Christ, from whom the entire body being supported and held together by the joints and ligaments grows with a growth. Amen? I mean, don't let people pigeonhole you and tell you, here's how you need to live for Jesus. Let God show you, here's how you need to live for Jesus. If people are showing you from the word and discipling you and can clearly demonstrate, this is a biblical principle, then walk in it. But where it's a gray area, here's the question you should be asking, "Lord, how do I best honor you with this?" I wanna know when I stand before you that the way in which I made my decision brought you the greatest glory of every Christian would ask of that. God would lead you in the way that you need to go. Amen? So legalism deceives by sounding spiritual. The opposite is true too,

that grace offends by removing every advantage. Grace offends by removing every advantage. If there's nothing you can do to get to heaven, then how do you get to heaven? Through the grace of God, that's it. That's it, there's no other way. And notice what he goes on to say. He says the apostles and the elders came together to look into this matter. And after there had been much debate, meaning they spent a lot of time and energy on this. Peter stood up, of course he did. And he said to them, "Brethren, you know that "in the early days God made a choice among you "that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear "the word of the gospel and belief." You know this, you remember Acts chapter two, Peter's referring back to that. He's like, "You know what happened, "that God chose me to be His mouthpiece. "I preached and 3,000 people got saved." And God knows the heart, testified to them, giving us the Holy Spirit just as He also did to us. He gave them the Holy Spirit the same way He gave to us. When we saw on Pentecost, and what we've seen since is that people are responding to the gospel, Gentiles are responding to the gospel, there's not a different Holy Spirit they're getting, they're getting the same Holy Spirit that we are. And He made no distinction between us and them,

cleansing their hearts by faith, right? That's the only way someone can be saved is to have their heart cleansed by faith. Now therefore He says, why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus in the same way that they are. He said, why are you guys trying to put this yoke on their neck, this burden upon them? Our fathers couldn't handle it. We clearly couldn't handle it. The only way we're saved is by grace through faith and that's what changed us, that's what's changing them. Why are you adding things to the gospel to burden these brothers and sisters that we have in Christ? That's what He's saying, why? Because the same grace that saves you is the same grace that grows you and it's the only way it works. Salvation is Jesus plus nothing. There is not one person for those of you that are believers that you will ever meet in heaven that will brag about any good work they did that got them there. Not one, there's nothing to say. You'll never hear me saying, well, I did this for God. That's not why I'm there. I'm there because Jesus came from me. I'm there because Jesus died from me. I'm there because Jesus shed His blood for me.

I'm there because Jesus Christ rose from the dead. I'm there because He's the way, the truth and the life. And no one comes to the Father except through Him. It's only Jesus and nothing else. Am I being clear this morning? I'm trying to be as clear as I can 'cause everybody wants to add to that. They wanna say, well, you gotta do this and you gotta do this and you gotta do this. The only thing you need is Jesus. If you got Him, you got everything you need. Amen? And the hard part people have about grace, especially those who have tried hard, is it doesn't seem fair. 'Cause there's two different groups of people. There are some that are kind of middle ground, but then they kind of lean this way where they're religious or they've gone to church or they see themselves as a good person or at least better than others or maybe they've joined a church or maybe they've given money or maybe they've taken communion so many times or maybe they've been in a small group, maybe they've even let a Bible say, they've done a lot of good. And you tell someone like that, it doesn't count for anything. You will go to hell having done all of that.

It offends them because they're gonna say, you mean I have to come to the cross the same way everybody else does. When I'm such a good person, yes, 'cause you're not a good person. You're wicked and you're a sinner in the eyes of the Lord and your sin is killing you and you need it taken care of. In the same way there's others who are born, that the same sin virus, but the way it plays out is in a more immoral way. And there's things that they've gone through or addictions that they have or prison time that they've served or immorality that they've experienced. And they think there's no way that that holy God could ever accept me. Oh yes he does, the same way. You gotta come to the cross and you gotta admit, not only that you're a sinner, which will be easy for you to admit, but you gotta admit that there's a God in heaven I mean, there's only one way. And I hear works-oriented Christians when they hear about somebody in the prison that did something awful or murdered somebody, and they come to Christ. That's not fair. As if they're better than that person and they're not spiritually, they're just not. Anybody anywhere at any time that admits they're a sinner that repents and believes can have Christ. You say, "That's not fair." No, here's what's not fair.

What's not fair is that a holy God would even let one person into heaven. That's not fair. That's scandalous. And yet that's what Jesus is willing to do for anyone who would believe in him. Amen? That's grace. It's grace. And the same grace that saves you is the same grace that grows you. So, well, Pastor Jeff, you've talked about works, yes I have. Works don't save you. But if you've been saved by the love of God, his love will compel you and your works will change over time. It's evidence that you have been saved. I mean, this is why we see in the older brother in Luke chapter 15, we love telling the story of the younger brother that went out and squandered his living wildly and comes home and when he comes home out of the pig pen, the dad loves him, hugs him, squeezes him. Come on in. Hey, put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Put a robe on him. Hey, let's kill the fat and calf and celebrate. My son was dead and now he's alive. And everybody's celebrating and there's music and dancing. It's great. But there's one that won't go into the party. He hears the music and dancing and says, "What's up?" Hey, your younger brother, you know the one that squandered everything? He's back. Your dad is so excited. He threw him a party. And the older brother is like, "Huh, that's not fair.

I'm not going in." So what does the father do? He comes out and pleads with his son. He says, "Son, come in." Your brother was dead and now he's alive. He was lost and now he's fine. Don't you love your brother? Let's celebrate. And he's like, "No, no. This son of yours went away and squandered everything and now you're going to forgive him?" Listen to me. You did this whole time. You didn't even give me a goat and that's son of yours that's been squandered and everything. You celebrate him? I mean, that's ridiculous. I mean, you're killing the fat and calf for him. Who do you think fed that calf? Who do you think's been serving you? I've been slating for you this whole time and you're going to let him in. What does the father say? "Son, everything I have is yours." You could have always had everything but we had to celebrate because your son was dead and now he's alive. But the older brother doesn't realize that he's dead too and he needed to come the same way. You're going to be close in proximity and still misrelationship with God. Friends, your good works doesn't work. It offends every religious person in the world. I don't care whether you're Baptist, Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, non-denominational. If you think there's things you can do to get to heaven, if you're Mormon and you think

there's things you need to do to get to heaven, if you're Buddhist and they're on this path or you're Islam and there's just five pillars and they're all works righteous and they end up in the same place, hell. There's only one who can save. There's no other name given among heaven among men by which we must be saved. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. You too can be saved with Jesus. That's grace. That's grace. That's grace. And here's the thing. When you really begin to... I mean, I was a Christian for a long time. I was a Christian for five, six, seven years before I really learned this because I was a Christian and then I was having a hard time living it out. When I'd go to church and I'd hear the truth, I'm like, "I don't know how to do this." And I was still trying to be that kid that was a good kid because I was the one that was offended when I was 18 because I told my young life leader all the good things I'd done and he was like, "Yeah, it doesn't matter." And I was mad because I thought not only did I go to a Methodist church, I'd go into a Lutheran grade school. So I was like doubly covered, you know? And I was offended. But as I came to Christ, I knew it was only him, but there was still that upbringing I had where you've got to keep the rules and you've got to be good and you've got to do right. And if you don't, God probably doesn't love you anymore. And I always thought I was going to fail him until I got down to my identity and realized hmm, there's nothing I can do to fail God. And if he loves me that much and it's not based upon anything I did before I knew him

and it's not based upon anything now that I do know him, why wouldn't I want to give him everything I have? And that's when my life started to change. Not because I had to be good, but I knew how deeply loved I was in spite of not being good. That's what changed me. It's the love of Christ that compels us. It's the love of Christ that motivates us. It's knowing that he loves you with an unconditional love. Amen? I mean, we see it all throughout the scriptures that we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We see that we're saved by grace through faith. It's not our own doing. It's a gift of God so that no one should boast. I mean, even as I told you earlier, the apostle Paul shares his testimony in Philippians chapter 3 starting in verse 4 and he basically says of all human beings, if anybody has the right to say they're good enough to get to heaven, it'd be me. Notice what he says. He says, "And although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh, if anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh. Here's what Paul is saying. If there's anybody that's going to get to heaven because they did all the Old Testament rules, I'm exhibit A, that's what he's saying. I was circumcised on the eighth day, which by the way, I don't think he had anything to do with, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law of Pharisee, as to zeal a persecutor of the church, as to the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless. What was he saying? I kept all the law in the legal sense that you're supposed to keep it. I did everything, but whatever things were gained to me, these things I have counted

loss for the sake of Christ. Loss is not a strong enough word. In the Greek, that word is scubola. That word is excrement. Here's what he's saying. I had all the resume. I had the earthly resume. I've done all the right things, and now, compared to knowing Christ, I consider everything I did excrement to knowing Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior. I put no trust in what I've done. I put all my trust in Jesus, because it's the grace of God that's changed me. Amen? Isn't that good to know this morning when you come to church? You can't do anything to make God love you more, and you can't do anything to make God love you less? I mean, certainly, as a believer, we can choose immoral things. We can choose things that are wrong. We can disappoint God, but it doesn't change his love for us. Even earthly parents know how to love their kids when their kids are disobedient. How much more your heavenly father? He loves you. He cares for you. And that type of grace offends people that think they have an advantage because of their background. Nobody has an advantage. And even in America, I listen to people sometimes who say, "Well, what about the migrant farmer in Africa that never had a chance?" Friends, it's God's grace there, too. God has given a witness in creation, and God has given a witness in our conscience so that anybody who begins to look for God, he'll meet them.

And oh, by the way, if you're burdened to go to Africa and share the gospel, go. Don't make it this theological go-to-a-class thing, like if you're really burdened for the lost, go share with the lost, because on Judgment Day, you'll see there's only two types of people, people that have repented and trusted Jesus and people that haven't. That's it. Those are the only two groups of people. So understand this, legalism creeps in, it deceives by sounding spiritual grace offends by removing every advantage. You don't have any more advantage being American of getting saved than somebody that's a migrant farmer. The only advantage is the cross of Christ. That's it. Let me give you this third one. You're going to need courage, and it's necessary because Scripture governs what experience and emotion only suggest. Notice verse 12, all the people kept silent because Peter's talking, and they were listening to Barnabas and Paul now as they were relating what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. So Peter said, hey, you saw what happened on Pentecost, you've seen what's happened in Judea and Samaria, God's doing all these things, Peter gets done talking, Paul and Barnabas stand up and say, yeah, let us tell you some more, here's what we've seen on our missionary journeys, we're seeing all the same things. They're both talking about their experiences, they're both talking about what they've witnessed, they're talking about what they've seen, they've talked about what they've touched and looked at and seen the disciples that have come to Christ. But notice this, after they stopped speaking, James answered, saying, brethren, listen to me. This is James, the half brother of Jesus. This is the one that grew up knowing that his older brother was saying that he was the brother was saying that he was the son of God, who he didn't believe in until after

Jesus' resurrection. Now he's the head of the Jerusalem church. And here's what he says, brethren, listen to me, Simeon has related how God first concerned himself about taking from among the Gentiles a people for his name with the words of the prophets, with this, the words of the prophets agree just as it is written. Now he's going to quote Amos chapter 9, verses 11 and 12. So what's he doing? He's like, I'm listening to your stories and I'm hearing your experience and I'm not doubting it, but here's where I'm going to go to see if it's really true. I'm going to go into the Word of God. I'm going to go to the scriptures. And he says, after these things, I will return and I will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen and I will rebuild its ruins and I'll restore it so that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord and all the Gentiles who are called by my name says the Lord who makes these things known from long ago. So what's he saying? He goes, I can see in the Old Testament scriptures where this is exactly what was going to happen. And I see in the Word of God that this is true. He says, therefore, it's my judgment that we do not trouble those who are turning from among the Gentiles, but that we write to them that they abstain from the things contaminated by idols and from fornication and from what is strangled and from blood, from Moses, from ancient generations as in every city, those who preach Him, since He is read in the synagogues every Sabbath. And we'll get to that in a second. He's going to the Word of God. Why is that important? Because in your life, if you're going to hold fast to the gospel, you've got to go to the Word of God to get it. I have people all the times that we don't need the Word of God. You just need a witness of Jesus.

OK. But 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verses 3 and 4, Paul says, I tell you of this at first importance, that Jesus died according to the scriptures and that he was buried and that he was raised according to the scriptures. It's through the Word of God that we know these things are true. Always use scripture as your, as your plumb line. I mean, there's a lot of stories going on right now about revival. I don't necessarily doubt any of them, but what does the scriptures say revival is? I'll tell you what a scripture says, revival is not. It's not just emotional people getting all fired up and singing. Otherwise, I could take any secular concert, take a video of it and say revival. That's not revival. Revival is when a person's heart is changed. Revival is when obedience begins to follow. Revival is when there's a hunger for God that wasn't before. Revival is when there's a desire to worship the God that you are once again. Against, that's revival. And I think there are evidences in our culture at times where we're seeing this happen and it prays God for that. I think there's other times people tweet about things like this was revival and I'm watching, I'm like, ah, I'm not seeing those things. I'm not disclaiming it, but I want to see in the Word that these are the things that are happening as a result of what you're calling revival. It is never wrong ever to go back to the Word and support what you believe from the Word of God. I've said it many times. I'll say it again. You ever hear me say something like that doesn't sound right. I'm doing my best to present the Word.

But if you read the Word differently than what I'm saying, believe the Word, not me. The Word's an authority over me. I'm not an authority on the Word. Do you understand what I'm saying? Don't say Pastor Jeff says, that's not going to be good when you meet Jesus, okay? Say Jesus says, okay, this is why this is important and it's like anything else. You know, if you go to a good doctor that notices some symptoms, he's going to be like, you know what, let's take some further tests and let's confirm this objectively. That's what good doctors do, right? Or if you're lost in the middle of nowhere, you're like, well, I kind of feel like we should go that way. It might be good to get a compass or GPS and say, well, this is where it says we should go. Amen? I mean, pilots know this, real pilots. There's two different ways you can fly. You can fly with visual flight rules via FAR and that's for basic pilots that have to have the sun shining and no clouds and they need to be able to see the horizon and all those things because that's how they're flying by what they see. But skilled pilots fly by IFR instrument flight rules and they can sometimes not even look out of the windows. That's why when you're flying in a plane and you're 30,000 feet up and you're looking out the window and it's totally dark or it's rainy and it's like, how do they even know where to go? They're trusting their instruments because the instruments are telling them, I know it doesn't feel like the wings are steady, but they're actually steady. I know it doesn't feel like you're going the right way, but you're going the right way. That's what the Word of God does for us. When we trust the Word of God, the Word of God takes us where we want to go, even and

oftentimes when it doesn't feel good and when our emotions aren't aligned with it and we haven't had the experience of it yet, he's like, go. Because for us, we like tangible things first and God says, no, trust me by faith and go and then the experience will catch up. So always use the Word of God. You never need to apologize for using the Word of God. When Jesus beat the devil in the wilderness, he used the Word of God. Why? Because the grass withers and the flowers fade, but the Word of our Lord stands forever. And all Scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training and righteousness to the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. You say, well, that's just a man's book. No, no, no. Above all, you must understand that no prophecy had its origin and the will of man, but men removed by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. Jesus said that Word is true. You never go wrong by going back to the Word. You never go wrong by trusting what the Word says. You never go wrong. This is your plumb line. This is truth. Amen? Scripture governs what experience and emotion only suggest. So let's talk about this third one or this fourth one. You need courage because wisdom protects both freedom and fellowship. This is really important. Wisdom protects both freedom and fellowship. You saw the four things they said to take care of is that when you go back to them, I mean, here they're saying it's really interesting because the issues come up because people are coming and tell them, okay, you're not really saved unless you're circumcised.

And then they come up with this, okay, here's the only things you need to worry about. You need to worry about things polluted by idols, sexual immorality, meat strangled from strangled animals and the blood and you're like, what does that have to do with anything? But notice what happens. They said Moses was preached, Moses is being preached in the synagogues. The Jews know the Old Testament really well. So verse 22 says, then it seemed good to the apostles and to the elders with the whole church to choose from among them, to send to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, Judas called Bursabus and Silas leading men of the brethren. So Paul and Barnabas are going to go back with Judas and Silas. And they sent this letter with them, and here's what the letter says. The apostles and the brethren who are elders, to the brethren in Antioch, in Syria, in Silesia, who are from the Gentiles' greetings. Since we have heard that some of our number, to whom we gave no instruction, have disturbed you with their words, unsettling your souls, it seemed good to us, having become of one mind to select men to send to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. So hey, we're sorry that there's some people that have infiltrated the church. We had nothing to do with them. We didn't even know that was going on, but we're aware of it. We realize this disturbed you because you thought you were saved, and now you're wondering if you are saved. And by the way, anytime people are part of legalistic environments, it's why they have altar calls every week, and the same people come forward at the altar call every single week, because they feel like they lost their salvation on Tuesday and they got to get resaved, right? Paul's like, no, no, no, you don't understand. So here's what we're going to send you. Therefore, we have sent Judas and Siles to themselves. We'll also report the same things by word of mouth for it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these essentials. So we don't want to burden you, but here's some essentials and he writes the same things that you abstain from food sacrifice to idols from blood and from things strangled and from fornication. If you keep yourselves free from such things, you will do well. Farewell. Goodbye. That's it. That's all we got. Now, why were these things so important, right? Well, in the first century, it was very common that food was sacrificed to idols in the culture. Corinth was dealing with this. So let's say you worship the god Artemis, and all of a sudden you sacrificed

all your food to Artemis, and now you're a born-again believer. You're being invited in somebody else's house, and you know that when they serve the food, they're going to sacrifice it to Artemis, and Christians are like, "What do we do? Can we eat it or not eat it?" Right? And Paul's writing to them in 1 Corinthians 8, it says, "There really are no idols. It really doesn't matter. If your conscience will allow you to eat it, eat it, it's no big deal. But if your conscience doesn't allow you to eat it, don't eat it." And then he instructs the church in this. He says to him this, "If for the sake of your brother and the fellowship we have, you cause someone else to sear their conscience by following your example, don't do what you need to do." Let me give you a modern-day translation. You have freedom in Christ to drink alcohol if you want to, if you're 21, right? You don't have freedom to get drunk, but you do have freedom to drink alcohol. But if you drinking alcohol causes someone that's younger than you, or someone that's struggled with that, to follow your lead, and now they struggle as a result of watching you, you've sinned. Meaning this, you have freedom to do whatever you want, but you don't have freedom to cause somebody else to stumble. So as you maturing Christ, as you mature, you give up some of your Christian liberties for the sake of those who aren't as strong so that they can grow in Christ. So here's what Paul says, I don't think it's a big deal whether you eat the meat or not, but if it causes my brother to stumble, I'll never eat meat again. I won't do anything to cause somebody who's following my example to stumble, even though I would have the right and the freedom in Christ to do so. And this is really important, Church, listen up, because there's a lot of Christians that fight for their freedom. I'm a Christian. I can do whatever I want. God will forgive me. Yeah, kind of, but that's not the attitude we want. The attitude is how do I best serve the Lord? And it's not even about my freedom and what I can do. It's about how does my freedom help other people grow in Christ? So now it's a twofold question. It's not what brings the greatest glory to you and what helps the church grow. Those are my two questions I'm asking all the time because even if I have freedom to do something that's right, but my freedom causes somebody else to do something that they can't do by faith and they stumble as a result, then I shouldn't do that. So if I'm only going to fight for my individual freedom, I'm not fighting for what God wants, I may have the freedom to do some things I choose not to do because somebody else's faith is not strong enough to follow my lead. And so I'm thinking about the weaker brother. So things polluted by idols, it's idol worship, basically saying, don't serve the Lord Jesus

Christ in Him only. That's really the command. Don't follow other gods. Number two, sexual immorality, a fornication. The word is Pornea. It's just to sum it up in a nutshell, God designed sexuality to be between a husband and a wife. That is a man and a woman in holy matrimony till death do you part. Anything that comes shy of serving one another and that holy covenant is sin. And we can stand here all morning and talk about everything that comes short of that. And all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God in our thought life and our attitudes and interactions. Amen. So he's saying, hey, be free from sexual immorality. And all the church will be like, okay, I get that. That makes sense. Why? Because some of the people that were coming to immorality and they weren't steeped in Old Testament law. They don't know what's right and wrong. Did you know that a lot of people that come to Christ don't know what right and wrong is until the word teaches them? Some of you grew up in the church. You assume certain things that everybody knows they don't know. And so what were they writing to them? Okay, no idol worship and be free from sexual immorality. And then this third and fourth one went together. This meets from strangled animals and the blood. Why? Because Jews believed in Leviticus 17 that the life is in the blood. The life of the flesh is in the blood. So they didn't need anything from strangled animals and they didn't need anything that had the blood in it. And Moses was being taught everywhere. And so this would have been an offense to the Jews if Gentiles were eating with them in fellowship and they were eating meat from strangled animals or they were eating blood that would have been offensive to Jews. So why are those final two there? It's there for this reason. Live in unity with one another. Don't eat this way because it will be offensive to your Jewish brothers and sisters. So really they're boiling this thing down to three things. Don't worship other gods. Be sexually pure and do that which creates unity in the body and doesn't cause dissension. Farewell. That's all they're saying. They're not adding anything to the gospel. They're not saying you have to do all these things or you're not really saved. And notice what the response was after they said farewell. So when they were sent away, they went down to Antioch and having gathered the congregation together, they delivered the letter. When they had read it, they rejoiced because of its encouragement. The people were thinking, oh, I mean, every man in the congregation was like, praise the Lord. You know, I mean, don't have to get circumcised to be saved, right? All I got to do is worship Jesus, be sexually pure and not eat meat strangled from animals that have been strangled, not blood, just so we can have fellowship together. I'm in

because I'm totally in with Jesus and I'm totally in with this fellowship. And after they had spent time there, they were sent away from the brethren and peace to those who had sent out, but it seemed good to Silas to remain there. Your Bible may not have verse 34, if it does, it has it in brackets, which simply means this. The earliest manuscripts don't have that in there, which is totally fine because it doesn't change anything. But Paul and Barnabas stayed in Antioch teaching and preaching with many others, also the word of the Lord. Verse 32 said, Judas and Silas, that kind of skipped over it. They preached a lengthy message, like any good prophet would do, right? They're taking advantage of it. I'm just going to preach along. So that's what's going on. So everything's good. They're freed up to do what they need to do. And here's the truth. Wisdom protects both freedom and fellowship. Wisdom protects both freedom and fellowship. If you're going to make wise decisions, not only needs to protect your freedom, it needs to protect the fellowship of the Lord Jesus Christ. We already talked about strong believers, maybe giving up your freedom to drink for the sake of those who can't handle it or who have struggled with it and our culture struggles with it huge, just so you know, right? Or how about this? I mean, I remember the first time I went to check Republic, my friend told me, when we got to dinner, do not order more than one beverage. They don't ask for a refill. Like why? He goes, because here, what it will signal to everybody there is that you're super rich and you're better than them. I'm like, what? He's like, just don't do it. So I never did. He goes, if you get a coke or you get a sprite, that's yours for the entire meal. Don't ask for anything else. So I didn't. I remember when I was in Mexico City a few years back, I'm getting hungry thinking about it. I had street tacos. Have you ever had street tacos in Mexico City? Unbelievable. And they're like 64 cents a taco. So I remember I had one and I was like, they said, would you like another? I said, yes. I finished that. I said, yes. I finished that. I said, would you like another? I said, yes. And I was thinking, I could probably 20 of these things. It's going to cost me all a seven bucks. But as I was standing there watching the faces of people, I was realizing me cashing up on all that while $7 wouldn't be a really big deal here. It was going to communicate to them. He's got all the money in the world. Look at everything. We can't do that, but he can't. So I stopped at four and I'm ready to go back to Mexico and eat street tacos again. So the point is when when we're aware of what might cause somebody else to stumble, even though you have the freedom to do it, you release it, you let it go so that others

can grow. Now, here's where this text gets twisted. Like if you look at 1 Corinthians 8 and Paul says, you know, if it caused my brother to stumble, I'll never eat meat again. I dealt with this during 2020 when I had a bunch of people leave our church that were mad at me because I wasn't mandating masks for everybody. And they left and like, hey, you know, you don't love us. And Paul said, you know, that you're supposed to help the weaker brother. And I'm like, so you're the weaker brother because you wear your mask. And I'll go, they didn't like that. And then like it's a totally, it's a totally different thing. I mean, think about it like this. I wasn't taking away their freedom. I mean, it's like a peanut allergy. Parents, if your kids have a peanut allergy. I got some advice for you. Don't get in peanuts. peanuts. People still have the freedom to eat peanuts, you know, just you're just not going to eat peanuts. Like I wasn't taking away anybody's liberty. You want to wear a mask? You could wear a mask. Then you can wear a mask to church now. We're fine with that. You can do whatever you want. I wasn't causing someone to sin. And just because what you do makes somebody disagree with you, that doesn't mean you're sinning. If what you're doing causes somebody to roll into sin, then that's sinning. That's a massive difference that you need to, you need to understand. And in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 23, he says this, "All things are lawful." He's basically saying, "I can do whatever I want, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edifier. Build other people up. Let no one seek his own good, but that of his neighbor. Do not fight for your freedoms and liberties. Fight for how your freedoms and liberties can build up other people in the body of Christ." Which means if you're a mature believer, there's times you're going to limit your liberties for the sake of somebody else so they can continue to grow in Christ. Because you not only care about your freedom, you care about the fellowship. In humility, consider others more important than yourselves. Walk in a manner worthy of the gospel. And then this final one that you're going to need to have courage for, and this happens all the time, you're going to need to have courage that's necessary because maturity prioritizes the mission when conflict threatens the calling. Now notice what's going on here. It's been incredible what's taking place. I mean, Paul and

Barnabas are doing great. Silas is going with them. Judas is going with them. The whole church is rejoicing because now we have unity. It's Jesus plus nothing. And so after some time, verse 36, Paul said to Barnabas, "Let us return and visit the brethren in every city in which we proclaim the word of the Lord and see how they are." So that's not like a good thing, right? Paul's like, "Hey, this is so great. Everybody's freed up. Let's go back and visit all the churches and strengthen them." Barnabas wanted to take John called Mark along with them also, but Paul kept insisting that they should not take him along who had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. So you remember in Acts 13, 13? Remember I told you about those eight words when they went to Pamphos and they came to Perga and Pamphylia, but John left them and returned to Jerusalem. So here's what's going on. Paul says, "Hey, let's go to this mission trip and let's go strengthen all the churches." Barnabas is like, "Yes, let's do it. Let's get John Mark and go." And Paul's like, "No way. We're not taking John Mark. The last time we took him, he left us in the middle of our mission trip and went back to Jerusalem. He's not fit for this kind of travel. He's not fit for this kind of mission. We're not taking them." And he kept insisting that they shouldn't. Notice verse 39, "And there occurred such a sharp disagreement that they separated from one another and Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and left being committed by the brethren to the grace of the Lord and he was traveling through Syria and Silesia strengthening the churches." So what do you got? You got two really good friends here. You got Paul and Barnabas and you got two guys with two entirely different sets of gift mixes from the Holy Spirit. You got Paul who is completely missional, who is sold out, who says, "For me to live as Christ to die as gain." I don't care if I'm martyred, I'm gonna preach, I want to be around people that are committed. I'm going after it. That's all I'm gonna do. And then you got his companion Barnabas, who's an encourager, who's an exhorter, who likes taking people that aren't quite mature in Christ and building them up and helping them take their next steps so they can be strong. And so here's what's going on. Paul's

like, "Let's go strengthen the churches." Barnabas, yep, let's go. Let's bring John Mark and go. And Paul's like, "He ain't ever coming with us again." He ran home to his mom in Jerusalem the last time we came. We almost got our lives taken away. I'm not bringing that guy. He's totally unfit. And you got Barnabas saying, "What do you think you were when I met you?" I'm the one that encouraged you. I'm the one that built you up. We got a great opportunity here for John Mark. Who's right? They both are. Because the Scripture doesn't say who was right or wrong. So Barnabas, because of his gift mix, says, "Well, okay, I'm still an encourager. I'm still an exhorter." That's the mission God put me on the earth to do. I see potential in John Mark. I'm taking him and we're gonna go this way. Paul says, "Fine. You take him. I'm taking Silas. We're going this way." God used both for his glory, right? There's gonna be times in your life where not everybody's gonna go with you that are good people. That's okay. I falsely believe when we started our church 15, 16 years ago, everybody we're starting was gonna travel with us for the next 40 years and we're all gonna be best friends and we're not. And that's okay, right? Because God has different seasons and different reasons and different gifts and different callings and different times to go do what the Lord wants you to do. You have to be true to what the Lord wants you to do. And here's what you don't see. Can I tell you what you don't see? You don't see Paul badmouthing Barnabas. You never hear about Paul gossip about Barnabas. You never hear him say, "Look what he did. He did not you know what you also never see? You never see Barnabas talk bad about Paul. You never see Barnabas talk bad about Silas. Both those guys were just like, "I gotta do what God's called me to do, "so I'm going this way, I gotta do what God's called me, "I'm going the," and they were friends. And what you see at the end of Paul's life in 2 Timothy chapter four is he calls for John Mark

and says, "Bring him to me, he's useful for me." So John Mark has clearly been matured by Barnabas at the time and is useful to Paul's service. Different seasons, different times, different reasons. But when you read in the Bible, there was such a sharp disagreement, that means they were completely ticked off at each other. Christians completely ticked off at each other. And God was saying, "Well, I kind of set all that up "so you guys can both go do your own thing "and I can build what I need "'cause each one of you is going to hinder the other." John Mark's not going to grow under Paul the way he needs to, and John Mark can't go with Paul and get to all the churches I need him to go to. And I've read this thing for almost 40 years now, and it's really interesting to me, I think when I was a younger believer, I would have sided with Barnabas. You know why? 'Cause I had a lot of Barnabas in my life 'cause I was still growing and still put together. Now as I read it, I'm like, "Paul was right." So, and they're both right. I mean, that's the whole point. The point is, is that you're going to see this, and you see it in coaching all the time. Two coaches that are great coaches, but they have different philosophies on offense and defense. So one goes and coaches somewhere else,

and does it this way. This one stays here and does it this way, and they both do great work, right? You see it with church plants where people are like, "I want to go plant my own church "'cause God's putting it on my heart to do it this way, "and it's different than what you do." It's totally great. God blesses that, right? Business partnerships do it all the time. And so the key is that maturity prioritizes the mission. It prioritizes the mission of Christ, and it prioritizes what Christ is doing in and through you. And you have to stay true to that, regardless of what anybody else is saying, you know? For encouragers, continue to be an encourager. For missional people, continue to be missional people. Appreciate how God made everybody to do what God's called them to do, and celebrate what God's called them to do, and never, ever, ever, ever let bitterness rule in your heart. Unforgiveness rule in your heart. Or they're doing it wrong. They're not. They're doing it differently. And they can do it differently 'cause we all stand before the Lord Jesus Christ to give an account. This is important for us 'cause as you continue to walk with Christ, people are gonna try to make your life legalistic

and add rules, you don't need 'em. As you continue to walk with Christ, people are gonna tell you grace isn't enough, now there's more. Grace is sufficient, amen? People are gonna tell you the word of God is not as important as our experience. Word of God always trumps experience, right? Word of God's gonna tell you fight for your freedom. God's gonna say use your freedom to build my fellowship. And God's gonna tell you sometimes when you're at odds with people, you know, you need to fight them or tell them, no, no, no, no, you don't need to fight anybody. You just need to stay true to what God's called you to do. Love God and continue to love people and he'll take you in the way you need to go, amen? Would you stand with me, Father in Heaven? We give you all the glory, honor, and praise for who you are. We give you praise for your word. Lord, we ask you to move in such a way that you would glorify yourself. And I know there's some here today who've never trusted Jesus in a personal way. And if that's you and you would say, I know I'd be scared to death to meet Jesus, then here's how you can pray. Lord, save me. I know I'm a sinner. I know you're the only one that can save.

I give you all my sin. Let me receive all your forgiveness. Let me receive all your righteousness. Let me receive all your grace. Save me, Lord. Father, for those of us who know you, Lord, help us continue to take our next steps of faith with you. Lord, you are the King of kings. You are the Lord of lords. We give you all the glory. We give you all the honor. We give you all the praise. Let us walk in your ways. Let us never be divided by legalism or any other thing. Let us stay true to your word, true to the grace you've given us, and we give you all the praise. In Jesus' name, amen and amen. Could we give God praise for his word today? (audience applauding) (audience applauding)