Don't Waste Your Where

And if you don't know, T-ball is amazingly hilarious. Like it really is. Most of the coaching is you're just kind of running around trying to get kids to pay attention, to stop playing in the dirt, to stop chasing the butterflies, to quit picking their nose, to quit picking their friends' nose, right? It's like, it's just nothing but chaos. It is a lot of patience and a lot of chaos. And I remember thinking, how are we supposed to teach baseball in this environment? It is nothing but interruptions. Interruption after interruption. But over time, you start to realize. And I'm spending hours every single week with the same kids. Hours every single week with the same families, with the same coaches. And then over time, it's just year after year, spending all this time. And maybe volunteering to coach T-ball isn't interrupting anything. Maybe it's just part of a larger opportunity. A more important mission than just trying to coach four-year-olds. But this doesn't just show up on the ball fields. Think about your own life. How often do we get frustrated and we ask God to get us somewhere else? Or we ask God if you could just do that thing? God, if you could just get me through college,

if you could just get me into college, if you could just get me that internship, if you could just get me that job or that next job, if you could just get me that relationship, if you could just God get me there, whatever that there is, if you could just do that, then I can finally start living for you. Or I can finally walk in what I feel like you've called me to do. We want God to get us somewhere else. And when we do that, we completely miss what He wants to do with us, in us, and through us, where we currently are. Wanting there, it makes us waste our current wear. And if you brought your Bibles, hopefully you did. We're gonna be in the book of Acts. So you can go and go there. If you didn't bring a Bible and you want a Bible, we'll give you one for free. If you didn't know this, just go to the Welcome Center. When you walk out there to the right, if you're at South Gainesville campus, when you walk out to the right, say, hey, I want one of those free Bibles that they ever talking about, we'll give you a Bible. If for some reason we run out, don't worry, we order more every week, we'll give you another one next week. So stop by again, get a Bible. But we're gonna be in the book of Acts, mainly in Acts chapter one. And then we're gonna hop over to Acts chapter nine. But before we read it, let's give a little context,

because right here in Acts one, we're getting the stage set for what is gonna happen in the early life of the church after Jesus' resurrection. So Acts, the book of Acts, was written by a guy named Luke. Luke, this is the same Luke who wrote the Gospel of Luke. So side note here, if you ever read the Gospel of Luke, if you skip right over and start reading the book of Acts, it's like the story never ends. He kinda picks up right where he left off. And in the book of Luke, Luke tells us what Jesus began to do. And then in Acts it shows us what Jesus continued to do through his spirit and word and powered church. And right here in Acts one, this is post-resurrection. Okay, so Jesus died, he was buried, and he rose from the dead. Then he appears to the apostles, post-resurrection for 40 days, 40 days. He's walking around after he rose from the dead, and he's telling them about the kingdom of God. And we pick up in verse four of Acts one, it says this. And while staying with them, he, so there's talking about Jesus, during those 40 days. While staying with them, he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, you heard from me, for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. Okay, so he's hanging out with them for those 40 days,

and he tells them to wait for the promise of the Father, which is the Holy Spirit. So a couple of quick things on the Holy Spirit, because depending on your church background or no church background, if you hear the Holy Spirit, you might get like, oh, I just saw a video on like Instagram and some people going crazy, and it was all Holy Spirit, or you might be like, that sounds terrifying, or is that a good, like, depending on your church background, there's a lot of different things you can think there. So let's kind of define the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. Okay, it's God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, three in one, the third person, the indwelling presence, living within believers. The Holy Spirit points people to Christ, puts the spotlight on him. Scripture tells that God's gift to the believer, providing peace and courage and truth and conviction and guidance is comfort or counselor, power to live out faith and actually be a witness in the world. So Jesus is telling them, I'm gonna ascend back to heaven and I'm gonna leave you with the Spirit. This is amazing that he's gonna dwell in believers because Jesus, God the Son, in that huge sense, But God, the Spirit dwells in all believers at all time, and we receive that Spirit when we put our faith, we put our trust in Christ, believe that what He did on the cross was for us. Let's keep reading in verse eight,

Acts one verse eight, it says, "Jesus tells them, 'You will receive power "when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, "and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, "and in all Judea, and Samaria, "and to the end of the earth, "and boom, choo,' He ascends back to heaven." This is important here though, because we are in this like in-between moment of time, where Jesus, He ascended back to heaven, but He has not returned yet. So just like them, 2,000 years ago, when this happened, over 2,000 years ago, when this happened, where Jesus ascended back to heaven, He still has not returned. So we are in this in-between. So when He says, I'm gonna give you the Spirit, that's gonna give you the power to be my witnesses, it's like He's telling us those exact same words today. So what do we do? 'Cause Jesus calls and empowers them to be witnesses, and this word witness, be His witness. It is not an activity to just check off of a to-do list. This is an identity that we become the evidence of Christ to the world. Why? Because Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, no one can come to the Father except through Him. And He's leaving us with this mission to go and live this out to the world,

because we are the way people see Christ. And in Matthew, Jesus says that we are to go and make disciples to live on mission, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, teaching them the Word of God, and He tells us there that He will be with us. So how do we do this? Where do we do this? Jesus tells us right here in the scripture in verse 80, He tells us He gives us the how, He gives us the where. How do we witness, where do we witness, how do we live on mission, where do we live on mission? So first, let's look at how we do this, because Jesus said you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses. So that implies being a witness, showing people Christ through our life, it requires some power, it requires some strength. And anytime we need to do something that requires strength, what do we do? Naturally, you know what we do? We rely on our own strength. If there's a need, I'm like, okay, how can I do this thing? The groceries need to get in the house, I'm gonna load up both arms and my legs, and I'm gonna walk in with all the groceries, right? How can I and my strength do this thing that's in front of me?

So when it comes to relying on strength, there's two ways we can do this, we can rely on our strength and our power, or we can rely on the Holy Spirit strength and the Holy Spirit's power. And there's a difference there. You know what happens when we rely on our own strength to be a witness of Christ to the world? You know what happens? We try to force our faith on other people, and that never works. You can't force faith on anybody. It's Gator football season. Praise God, we won last night. We're back, baby. At least for the first three games, we're back. If you ever been to a Gator game though, where you're about to go in and you see this guy and he has a literal bullhorn condemning people, telling them why they're going to hell. I remember when I went to UF walking through Turlington, like the free speech area, there was a person literally there with a bullhorn calling people out what they were wearing and why that was sending them straight. He's just doing all this stuff. And I remember seeing that being like, "Oh my gosh, what are you doing?" Now, let's give the guy the benefit of the doubt. Great intentions, right?

We can agree on that. He does not want people to go to hell. The best intention possible. But he's going about it all the wrong way. He's trying to force his faith onto somebody and you cannot do that. When we rely on our own strength, when we rely on our own power to be a witness, it never works because we only try to force faith. So the other option Jesus tells us is to rely on the Holy Spirit. That we receive the Spirit in his strength and his power. Do you know what happens when we rely on the Holy Spirit strength? We start living out a modeled life. We live that out. You know how that shows up? That the Holy Spirit leads us and guides us in how we parent and how we are a spouse and how we're a friend and how we're a student and how we're a co-worker and how we're a boss and how we steward our time, our talent, our treasure. All these different things in our life start to, it's like Christ is revealed in those things because we are relying on his strength and not our own. So we ask ourselves this question. Maybe this is a good one for you to ask yourself. Do I live my life like Christ if he were the one living my life?

Do I live my life like Christ if he were the one living my life? This is hard to do. And really, again, in our own strength, this is impossible to do. But what Jesus is saying here is that he will give us strength. That Greek word for power there is the word dunamis. It actually means physical strength. So the question immediately becomes, okay, how do we rely on the spirit for that strength? How do we rely on the spirit? If I need to make sure I'm relying on the spirit's power and not my own, how do I do that? It's very simple, very simple. It's just three words, just three words. You know what those words are? Time with God. It's that simple. Time with God. And I'll be honest with you guys. When I was working on this, I had like two pages worth of stuff of like a five step process on how do we rely on the spirit. And it was five steps and man, it was good. Like it would have made me look good and I gotta be honest with you. And I'm reading back over it and I'm like, ah, this just doesn't, I don't know. Why does this feel so complicated?

Why is this so complicated? I'm like asking God, like, man do I just need to scrap this whole thing? Like this, why is it so complicated? It's like the Holy Spirit said, because you made it complicated. Like, oh, oh, a message like, how do I listen to the spirit? Maybe I should listen to the spirit here, right? I just over complicated. It really is simple though. Time with God. You know how I know that's true? You know how I know that's true? You become who you are around. Whoever you're around, that's who you become. Think about your friends, your closest friends. You know what starts to happen? You start dressing like your friends. You start talking like your friends. You're into the same stuff your friends are into. My friends are into really weird coffee. So you know what I'm into? Really weird coffee. Really weird ways of making coffee that if I try to explain it, it'd be like, it's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. I don't know what tell you. My friends are into it, so I got into it. You are into whatever the people you spend time with

are into. Time with God, are you spending time with God? Are you in his word? Are you in his word? 'Cause if you feel like the Holy Spirit is leading you to do something, he will never lead you to do something that contradicts his written word. So how do you know if it's really God leading you if you're not in his word or if it's just some bad pizza you ate the night before, right? How do you know? Well, it's gonna line up with his word. So you have to be in God's word. It is truth for us to hold onto. It is the life-giving power for us in the word of God. It tells us the difference between what I'm just feeling and what is actually true God's word tells us that. Are you around God's people, time with God, with God's people, worshiping him in church? You know, there's new studies coming out that are saying that the average person is only going to church once every four to six weeks. Let's just give you the benefit of the doubt and say it's once every four, once a month. Okay, once a month you're in church, once a month. And you would say, yeah, I attend church. You know what that means? You're only in the house of God with the people of God worshiping God 12 times a year.

Not even 12 days a year, 12 hours a year. Think about how many hours you're in the world being discipled by the world. And we're only in the house of God 12 hours a year on average, what? Time with God through his word, through his people, through prayer. Do you spend time with God through prayer? Yes, he says to bring him things like we should ask God for things, thank him for things. But do we build in time to just try to listen for God? What's God trying to say to me? Not just what am I trying to get God to do? Spend time with God through worship. That when we do gather, we would sing, we would worship, we would lift our hands as a sign of surrender. So while we lift our hands in surrender, spend time with God through serving others. Time with God. And you wanna know, there's a way you can see if you're actually spending time with God and relying on the strength of the Spirit. You know what happens? The fruit of your life becomes evidence. 'Cause there's something in scripture called the fruit of the Spirit. That when we rely on the dudomus of God, that his physical strength, his spirit, that supernatural peace and patience and kindness start to overflow from our lives.

the more these things are overflowing out of our lives. So ask yourself, maybe you don't ask yourself. Maybe ask somebody the closest person to you if you're married, ask your spouse. Say, hey, would you consider me a patient person? And they're gonna go, have you seen yourself driving lately? You'll say, okay, let's skip that one. Would you consider me a kind person? And just go down the little, what, do you see the fruit of the spirit in my life? And this isn't a thing where we just gotta be these perfect people, but there should be evidence in our life of time spent with God. And it should, at all times, we're never gonna be these amazing people out of it, but we should be like, okay, okay God, when we pray, when I pray next, I'm bringing this to you because I need to work on this. Jesus gives us the power to witness. He tells us how time with God, rely on the spirit, but he doesn't just tell us how he also gives us the where. Let's go back to verse eight, let's read it again. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, we just unpack that. But let's look at the second part. You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. And when Jesus said this to the apostles, they immediately knew these as physical places, but it goes so much deeper than just physical places.

Because this is not saying we have to move to Jerusalem, we have to move to Judea or Samaria and all over the world before we can live this out. What these four areas represent are actually different spheres in a widening circle of living on mission. Each location represents a different sphere of our lives. Let's call this the progression of our witness. Let's break down each one. So first, Jesus says Jerusalem, Jerusalem. This would have been the apostles home base, so to speak, where they lived, where they worked. This represents the sphere of the familiar in our lives, our home. This is your family, your neighbors, your coworkers. This is where you spend the majority of your time. This is the closest sphere and it's where your witness, you showing Jesus to others through your life, is seen best because this is where people know you the best. It's seen best here because you're known best here. Your spouse and your kids, if you're married or if you have kids, they see you at your best and they see you at your worst. They see you when you're tired and cranky and then they see you when you're well rested and energetic. Are you consistent? Not perfect, but are you pursuing Christ with your life or just your words? Do your kids see you in church with hands lifted, singing the songs, taking notes, reading your Bible and then you walk out the door and you treat their mom like garbage on the way home?

What do they actually see? Because you know more is caught than taught, right? Man, this happened to me two days ago, Friday. My daughter makes this comment. I won't tell you what she said, but she makes this comment and I look at her, I'm like, where did you hear that? And she, without it, she goes, Daddy, I heard you say it and I'm like, ooh, okay, note to self, more is caught than taught. They see our actions. Don't waste your wear, even if your wear is your own house. Your witness starts there in Jerusalem, home. Then number two, Jesus says Judea, Judea. So the sphere broadens here. Judea was a region. For us, think about this representing our local community, being salt and light in our culture, school, city, community, Alachua, high springs, Newberry, Gainesville, Lake City, Lake Butler, Ocala, fill in the blank, wherever it is you live. How are you a witness in your community? Practically, my mind goes back to coaching rec ball here. This is a huge way this shows up. Coach is showing up to coach little league teams. Kids that they can help shape and mold to show what it means to live like Jesus if he were living that life. Areas to not force faith, remember, we're not forcing faith, we are modeling it. It also shows up very practically here at Canvas through the outreaches we do.

In our communities, we try to find organizations that are doing amazing things and in through the community. And you know what we do? We don't start the same thing they're already doing. We partner with them. Like, hey, what do you need? Do you need money? Do you need people? Let us help you. Do you need us to do a food drive for Bread of the Mighty? We're in. Let's do it. That's why we do these things. The ball field might be your mission field. And then the sphere, it takes a different look. So Jesus says Jerusalem, Judea, and then he says Samaria. When Jesus said Samaria in the first century, it carried weight because Samaritans and Jews hated each other. It was deep hatred. Jews and Samaritans, they had a shared history, but centuries of religious and ethnic and cultural division created this deep, deep hostility. So when Jesus says Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, they heard our home, our people, and then wait, wait, hold up. Those people? You mentioned, I'm sure you didn't mean to say that, right? Today, this sphere shows up in people that we naturally avoid. Who do you naturally avoid? Who's the person in your life, the people in your life? You know where this shows up a lot if you can't think of anybody? I guarantee it's somebody that has a different political view than you do. You avoid them, or worse, you just fight with them online. That's going to do you a lot of good. That's going to be really good for our witness. The people we avoid, people that rub you the wrong way, not saying you have to be besties with them, but can you rely on the spirit, that that dunum is that strength from the spirit to love and pray for them like Christ loves you? To actually love your enemy like Christ calls us to do, your enemy. When we hear that word enemy, a lot of times we think, oh, that's like the person across the world that we're at war with. No, no, no, no, let's make it personal. You know who your

enemy is? Somebody that has hurt you. Someone that you personally consider your enemy for them to be an enemy, it means they did something that required them to be an enemy. The last person that I want to truly forgive and love is somebody that has hurt me deeply. Somebody that has hurt my family deeply. I don't want to love my enemy, forgive my enemy, pray for things for them that I'm praying for my own family. That's the last thing I want to do. Jesus says go to Samaria. Pray for them to don't waste your wear. Even when your wear includes people you would not have chosen. Jerusalem's our home. Judea is our community. Samaria is the uncomfortable. And then he says to the ends of the earth, to the end of the earth, this is actually taking the gospel to every part of the world, to every people group, planning churches, going on mission trips, supporting mission, supporting missionaries here and there, here and globally, not just globally, but here as well. Maybe for you that shows up sponsoring a compassion child. I love it through our church. We sponsor hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of compassion children. That's amazing. We have so many opportunities here at Canvas to live this out. Because not everyone may be able to take a mission trip or it's called to be a missionary. But when you give here at Canvas a portion of that goes to do this exact thing, you may not realize it, but we help support an orphanage in Guatemala every single month. You may not realize it, but we help support missionaries and churches in Haiti every single month. We help church planners in the US every single month. Just this last week there was a church that planted in South Florida that we were able to help out. And they had their first service this last Sunday. They had over 600 people show up, 20-something salvation, like 20 baptisms. It's amazing. And guess what? If you give here at Canvas, you played a role in that. You played a role in that. Because yes, we worship God through our giving because he deserves everything. We give him our first and our best. But then we trust the church to use that to further God's work and further God's kingdom so that more people can come to know him. There are also ways for you to go on mission trips here. And I want a lot of time to really explain it, but go to canvasville.com/events, scroll down. We've got two mission trips coming up in the next year. If you want more info about that. The point is this, it has never been easier to be a witness to the end of the earth than it is today. The progression of our witness. What Jesus lays out here shows us that being on mission is both here and there. And what I love about this, what I love about what Acts shows us, is that you don't need to quit your job, completely change your schedule, or add some new category into your life in order to live

on mission, in order to be a witness. We simply start by leveraging where we already are and what we are already doing with those closest to us, our friends, our family. Do you pray for them? daily for them? Not just the impasseing God, I pray you do something in their life. No, man, go to war for them. Do we do that? Do we invite people to come and see and sit with me and invite people into environments where they can encounter Jesus? I love if you keep reading Acts, which I highly encourage you to do. You get to Acts 9 eventually and it gives us this perfect example of what living on mission looks like. Because Acts 9 is actually Acts chapter 1 in motion. And it's what we've been saying that living on mission isn't something we add to our lives, it's how we live the life that we already have. And Acts 9 shows us that. We're going to look at it quickly. In verse 32 of Acts 9 it says this, "Now as Peter went here and there among them all, he came down also to the saints who lived at Litta. And there he found a man named Aeneas, bedridden for eight years, who was paralyzed. And Peter said to him, "Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you, rise, and make your bed, and immediately he rose, and all the residents of Litta and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord." This is amazing. Dude could not walk, and now he can walk. That's for eight years and now he is walking, miracle, but that's the obvious thing going on here. That's the first thing we see, but we can't miss the other things. It started off saying Peter went here and there. That means he was living what Jesus said. He was going through those spheres. Jerusalem, Judea of Samaria, to the ends of the, he was doing the thing.

He was living that out. He was moving toward people, not simply waiting for people to come to him. He was having those conversations. Then the second thing we can't miss is that, yes, Aeneas is healed, but that wasn't really the point because it says all of the residents of Litta and Sharon saw him healed and they turned to the Lord. They turned away from themselves and they turned to God. The miracle wasn't about anything more than the advancement of the gospel. And practically living on mission, we go where people are and we point them to Jesus through our lives. That's what Peter is showing us. Let's keep reading though. The very next verse, verse 36, it says this, "Now there was in Japa a disciple named Tabitha, which translated means dorkus. She was full of good works and acts of charity. And in those days she became ill and died. And when they had washed her, they laid her in an upper room. And since Litta was near Japa, the disciples hearing that Peter was there sent two men to him urging him, 'Please come to us without delay.' So Peter rose and he went with them. And when he arrived, they took him to the upper room. All the widows stood beside him weeping and showing tunics and other garments that dorkus made while she was with them. But Peter put them all outside, knelt down and prayed and turning to the body said, 'Tabitha, arise.' She opened her eyes and when she saw Peter, she sat up and he gave her his hand and he raised her up. Then calling the saints and the widows, he presented her alive and it became known throughout all Japa and many believed in the Lord. Again, Tabitha raised from the dead, unbelievable miracle, oh my goodness, she was dead for

a while. They already washed her, they were ready to bury her, she's dead. And then she was alive. But again, let's not miss the other things happening here because it describes Tabitha as being full of good works, full of acts of charity. Remember the widows, they were weeping and they're showing the things that Tabitha made. She made us these different things. She used her gifts, she used her talents, she created a relational impact before the miracle of being raised from the dead actually happened. And then there was again, different person, different miracles, same outcome. It said, 'Many believed in the Lord.' Many believed in the Lord because being on mission, being a witness for Christ, that's the goal that many would believe in the Lord. And Peter shows us to go where people are and Tabitha shows us to use whatever we have. Go where they are, use whatever we have. You know what is amazing about that? That means wherever you are, you can use what you've got. Where you're at, you can use what you've got. When you're with your family, when you're with your friends, when you're with your co-workers, when you're at school, where does God have you? And all those correctional facilities, wherever God has you, He can use you right where you are. Don't waste your where. Don't waste where God has you. Don't waste who He has you around. Acts 1 gives us the assignment. so where does God have you? Because with Christ we are not only brought to salvation we're also being sent on mission as a witness or to say it another way if you're taking notes Jesus does not only save us from something he sends us into something Jesus he doesn't just save us from something he sends us into something don't waste your where God has people in your life

he has you in certain areas for a reason people he's placed on your heart for a reason people that don't know Jesus that have not made him the Lord of their life and you are around that person for a reason not to force your faith on them but to model it to pray for them to simply say hey you want to come to church with me I can't make Sundays no problem man we got Thursday nights who is it in your life don't waste your where Jesus does not only save us from something he sends us into something but we also can't miss that first part because Jesus does save us he does save us everything we've talked about today receiving the Holy Spirit living with that power being a witness living on mission it starts with knowing Jesus because being a believer Christianity it's it's not ultimately about trying harder to live like Jesus it begins by recognizing that we could never save ourselves so Jesus came for us he lived the life that we couldn't live he died the death that our sin deserved for us a gift freely given grace just handed to us what is that that's the love of the Father and he gives that to us and he rose from the dead so that we could have a new life in him and all we have to do is just accept that make him the Lord of our life which means we're putting him on all every single one of us have this throne in our hearts that we sit on and it's us removing ourselves and we're saying Jesus I want you to sit there on that throne you are the Lord of my life and maybe for you today you're now what moment your first step is to surrender your life to Jesus because you cannot live sent until you surrender to the one who actually sends