Fully Yielded

- Well, happy Mother's Day to all the mothers that are here today. Also, just would you do me a favor this morning? Would you help them help me welcome all our campuses who are worshiping with us today? (audience applauding) Ladies, I know yesterday was a special day at the Women's Brunch. I heard all about it and know it was fantastic. And again, happy Mother's Day to all of you for all of the wonderful things that you do. Every single one of us in here has been touched in some way by our moms or a special woman who has stepped into our lives and helped us so thank you for all that you do. Amen, thank you. (audience applauding) With that, let's continue our worship this morning as we go before the Lord and get ready to hear his living and his active word among us. Would you pray with me? Our Father in heaven, we do give you all glory, honor and praise today and Lord, we seek your face because you and you alone have the answers to life. Lord, what a privilege it is to gather with your saints, to sing praises to you, to seek your face and Lord, to get ready to hear your living and active word. And Lord, we're always encouraged to hear your word because we as a people believe that every time your word is faithfully and accurately proclaimed

that it is you who are speaking. So our prayer this morning 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. All of you are here today because at some point in your life there was a faithful believer fully yielded to the spirit that's had an impact on you. Even if you're here and you say I don't know that that's ever been me. There's been somebody somewhere that's been a faithful believer you may not know that's been praying for you. Some of you are here as a result of prayers of your mom or dad or a grandma or somebody that's gone on to be with the Lord. But every single one of you while it may not be somebody that anybody knows you know the person or people who have made an impact in your life. And when you think about them there are people that have been fully yielded to the Lord Jesus Christ. People that have let Jesus be paramount in their life that when you spend time with them you know this person spent time with Jesus. They're just different. They don't just talk religion.

They don't just talk about things. They actually have an impact. They spend time listening to the Lord. They spend time in His Word. They know how to operate. Their lives are constantly changing. And when you get around people like that there's a hunger to want to spend more time with them. I remember even being at seminary with some of the men that taught my classes that had studied the Word for 50 plus years. And you would think well they know the Bible. They know everything about the Bible. But it was always incredible for me to see somebody who is in their 80s or 90s who had been studying the Bible for 60 or 70 years get tears in their eyes because they saw something new about the Lord they hadn't seen before. And that's when you knew it wasn't just an academic exercise for them. It was truly something that they wanted to have on the inside of them which is what we all desire. And oftentimes we're looking for that person in our life. Oftentimes what we say is where's the person that's going to disciple me? I've never really been discipled. I mean majority of Christians today would say if somebody would have just come alongside me or if right now somebody would just come alongside me and they teach me how to be a single.

They teach me how to do my marriage. They teach me how to do parenting. They teach me how to study the Word. I'd have everything I need. And the reality is you have the Holy Spirit inside of you and guess what? He not only wants to help you with those things but he wants you to become that for somebody else. And we make excuses all the time. Say I'm not ready yet. I can't do that yet when God says if you have me in you you're ready. And so today we want to talk about what does it look like to be fully yielded to the Holy Spirit? What does it look like? What are evidences that when we're yielded to the Holy Spirit that our life reflects and looks like? And today we're going to be in Acts chapter 20 to answer that question. And in Acts chapter 20 I'm going to give you five truths about what it looks like to be fully yielded to the Spirit of God. Like what evidence is that you're going to see when you're yielded to Christ that come through. And it's important for us to know what those things are because if you know what God is trying to do then you can align with him because all of these things are things that God is trying to do inside the heart of every single believer. For those of you that have been journeying with us

you'll know that we left off in Acts chapter 19 last week when there was a huge riot in Ephesus because the tradesmen were afraid that when Paul came in with his evangelist they were going to share the gospel and everybody'd start worshiping Jesus instead of Artemis and they'd be out of business because they made Artemis shrines as a trade and so in uproar occurred. And Paul wanted to go into the assembly and they wouldn't let him go in. Like you're not going in there it's going to be crazy. And so they kept them out and finally it calmed down today." And this is where the story picks up in Acts chapter 20. He says, "After the uproar had ceased, Paul sent for the disciples, and when he had exhorted them and taken his leave of them, he left to go to Macedonia. When he had gone through those districts and had given them much exhortation, he came to Greece, and there spent three months, and when a plot was formed against him by the Jews, he was about to set sail for Syria. He decided to return through Macedonium. Now, when you talk about someone who is fully yielded, a fully yielded Christian, first and foremost, strengthens others relentlessly. If you're filled with the Spirit, you will strengthen others relentlessly. There'll be something inside of you that can't help but encourage people in Christ. Now, here's Paul. There's been a massive riot. Everybody's been up in arms. The whole city is in chaos, and when it calms a little bit, after the uproar, what does Paul do immediately? I need to get the disciples together. We need to exhort them. Exhort means to urge strongly. Picture somebody saying, "Let's go. Let's get moving. Let's quit letting grass grow under our feet." What does he do as soon as the uprising is over? He doesn't take it as an opportunity to say, "Wow, what a tough day. It was so busy. I just need to go put my feet up and watch support center." That's not what he does. As soon as he's got an opportunity, what's he do? Let's gather the disciples together, and let's encourage them to keep doing what we're doing. Do you see the results we're having? We're turning cities upside down for Jesus.

Let's keep going. When he'd gone through all these different districts, it's that he had given them much exhortation. Everywhere he's going, he's not just talking to his disciples, everywhere he's going, he's encouraging all the disciples. Everything that's on the forefront of his mind is to strengthen disciples. When the Holy Spirit takes resident in your life, you're going to love other Christians. When the Holy Spirit takes up residence in your life, you're going to want to encourage other Christians. You're going to want to serve other Christians. You're going to want to build other Christians up. You can't help but want to help others. It's inside of you. The reason that's in you is the Holy Spirit sent you and says, "Now that you belong to Christ, I want to show the world what Christ's love looks like through you." There's a compelling nature. Paul says, "For Christ's love compels us." The reason we do what we do is, "I have to serve others. I have to strengthen others. I want to help them grow." And he continued to do that. Notice when he goes to a place, sometimes he spends a year and a half, sometimes he spent two years like he did in Ephesus. At this point in time in verse 3, when he comes to Greece, he spends three months until what? Until a plot was formed against him. We don't know what that plot was. Chances are it was to drag him off into prison or have him killed. I mean, there was a plot against him because everywhere he went, he was so about making disciples of Jesus that they wanted to stop it. But what you see is fully yielded believers pour into others instead of living for themselves. You don't see Paul first and foremost living for himself. Jesus did not live first and foremost for himself. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Amen? And notice this. I mean, you see who he's strengthening. And there's a lot of history in these first 16 verses which we're going to go through fairly quickly. But look at verse 4, "And he was accompanied by soapatter of Berea, the son of Pyrrhus, and Aristarchus, and Sagundis of the Thessalonians, and Gaius of Derby, and Timothy, and Tychaeus, and Trophimus of Asia." And here there's seven men listed there and we're like, "Okay, let's move on to the next point and we can and I won't spend too much time." But this soapatter could be the same as soapatter that's listed in Romans 1621 that Paul refers to as Mike Kinsman. Aristarchus is referred to as his fellow worker in Philemon 24 and his fellow prisoner in Colossians 4,10. So they're going to serve time in prison together. Sagundis is only mentioned here. Gaius is a very popular name, probably not the same Gaius that went into the arena in Acts 19 because this Gaius is from Derby and not Macedonia. Timothy, we see everywhere in

Scripture. Paul says, "I have no one like him. Like he's my guy." You see, Tychaeus, who's called a beloved brother in Ephesians 6 and Colossians 4, you see Trophimus who we're going to see next in Acts 21, who the Jews falsely assume Paul brought into the temple. Paul leaves him sick in Miletus, but here's what I want you to see. There's seven guys that Paul's traveling with. He knows them intimately. They've spent time together. If you want to do a fun study sometime, go read Romans 16. It's greet this person and greet this person and greet this person and greet this person and greet this person. And I dirty as greet you in the name of the Lord. All they're doing is greeting. Why? Because they love each other. They wanted to spend time together. The body of Christ, if nothing else, is relationship with one another. Everybody Paul traveled with it. It wasn't their title. They weren't wearing pastor badges, apostle badges. They were friends who were serving the Lord Jesus Christ together. They were going to prison together. They were causing cities to be an uproar together. And when you live out that mission together, friendships form like no other, amen? And that's what was going on here. And he's strengthening them relentlessly. It's not that Paul ever does his ministry alone. We have this idea that if we're good at what we do, we'll just do our ministry and leave it on the side. If you do your ministry well, you're also bringing other people with you who can do what you do. You're also building other people up.

You're also encouraging them and their gifts to do what they do well. And if you're truly discipling people, some of the people you disciple will be able to do certain things in the body of Christ much better than you're able to do it. And when you're discipling people, it's not just getting them to be like you. You want them to follow you as you're following Christ. But they have different gifts, different abilities, different temperaments, different personalities. We turn all of that loose so they can be the fullness of what Jesus wants them to be, amen? But strengthen others relentlessly. This is what you see here. Let's continue. But these had gone ahead and were waiting for us at Troas. Chances are Luke's writing this saying they're waiting for Paul and I, and he's telling what they did. We sailed from Philippi after the days of the unleavened bread and came to them at Troas within five days. And there we stayed seven days. So he's telling the history of where they were and I notice this in verse seven on the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, which is what their custom was, which was to celebrate the Lord's supper and then have a love feast. They called it a meal together where the body of Christ ate and served and did all these things so they could really get to know one another. Paul began talking to them, intending to leave the next day. So Paul starts exhorting them, talking to them, preaching to them, intending to leave the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight. That's my favorite verse in the entire New Testament. I mean, he's just talking to me, spending time with them and he keeps rolling and he keeps rambling and he keeps going. It's midnight. It's not as if these people didn't have anything else to do, but they didn't have, they couldn't

go online and catch all of his latest sermons. They couldn't go watch other pastors preach. It was like, Paul's here, this is all we're going to get. We need everything we have and what were they? They were hungry for truth. So Paul's preaching on and he's preaching on and he's preaching on and there's a lot of people that are hungry there, but not everybody's as hungry. Notice this, it says in verse eight, there were many lamps in the upper room where they were gathered. Now, you may say, well, why include that in the Scripture? You're going to see here in a moment, perhaps it got really stuffy up in there, perhaps there's many lamps in this upper room, it's, you know, Paul's been going until midnight. Notice what happened. And there was a young man named Uticus sitting on the windowsill, sinking into a deep sleep. So even Paul put people to sleep when he preached. You understand that? So that's what he's doing because it's midnight now and there's some kid there named Uticus that's saying, man, I've had enough of this. I mean, he's being taught Scripture by the apostle Paul and he can't even stay awake. Jesus had 12 disciples, they couldn't stay awake to pray with Jesus. I mean, hearing the word of God and praying are hard disciplines because the disciples couldn't do it with Jesus and the first century Christians couldn't do it with Paul. So understand, hearing the word and praying are very difficult disciplines. And so he was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul kept on talking. He was overcome by sleep and fell down from the third floor and was picked up dead. Now you talk about an abbreviation and a service. And when you fall out up with the upper deck and fall down here dead, it changes the service a bit. I mean, Paul's talking and talking and talking. Uticus is in the windowsill.

His parents have probably told him, hey, sit still, just it won't be much longer. And he's dozing off and he falls out of the window and he falls down and they pick him up and he's dead. Now make sure you know he's dead. I mean, the text said that he's dead, but notice what Paul did. Paul went down and fell upon him. He really laid his body over him, much like some of the Old Testament prophets would do. And after embracing him, he said, do not be troubled for his life is in him. The Holy Spirit used Paul to raise him from the dead. The Holy Spirit raised this young boy. Praise the Lord. Let's just talk about that. Let's go out and tell everybody that. That's not what happens. When he had gone back up and broken bread and eaten, he talked with them a long while until daybreak and then he left. So what happens? This kid falls out of the window and dies. Paul goes and lays his body over him. He's like, "He's not dead. He's alive. Don't worry. Let's go get something to eat." So they go break bread. And Paul's like, "Now, I was in the middle of my message and was disturbed, so let me keep on talking." And Paul keeps going until daybreak. I don't know if that was five, six, or seven in the morning, but until the sun comes up, Paul's still going to talk to them. And guess what? They still want to hear. They still want to hear. So what do you see? You do see the miraculous power of Jesus. You do see all that, but what you see in the story is that in spite of the miraculous power of Jesus, what the saints in the first century were most impressed with was the word of God being spoken to him. Amen? I mean, and that's what you see. And so Paul spins the night with them, teaches them, and then gets up and he's going to leave in the morning. And then it says they took the boy alive and they were greatly comforted. Amen? I mean, talk about a crazy story that happens, right? And so notice what happens next in verses 13 through 16, you're going to see some of the history and what's going on, and you're going to see Paul's intentionality to get to Jerusalem as quick as he can. It says, "But as we were going ahead to the ship, we set sail for Assos, intending from there to take Paul on board, for he had arranged it, intending himself to go by land." We don't know why Paul went by land and not the ship. I mean, we can make some assumptions, but that's all they are. The biblical text doesn't tell us, perhaps because of all that he did and all the ministry that he had just done,

just needed some time alone to walk and pray. Perhaps he had some intentionality on the ministry to meet certain people. We don't know. The text doesn't say, but they're going to go by ship. He's going to go by land. They're going to meet up later. In verse 14, it says, "And when he met us at Assos, we took him on board and came to middling. Sailing from there, we arrived the following day, opposite Chios, and the next day we crossed over to Samos and the day following, we came to Miletus." For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, so he would not have to spend time in Asia, for he was hurrying to Jerusalem if possible on the day of Pentecost. So, Myletus is about 36 miles south of Ephesus, and Paul's trying to get to Jerusalem. And Paul knows, if he goes to Ephesus where he spent two years, everybody knows he's coming, he's going to get delayed. He's not going to make it to Jerusalem when he needs to make it to Jerusalem. So, he goes to these different places, but he sails all the way around Ephesus and they come down to Miletus because he wants to make sure that he makes it to Jerusalem on time. But here's what you see. I want you to see this. No matter where Paul goes, he is always strengthening others relentlessly. You don't see him get a day off. Now, what I mean by that is, I think it's good to take time to rest. I do. I think it's good to refresh in the Lord. I think it's good. It's okay to take vacations. But notice this about Paul. Everywhere he goes, he's still on mission. He's not taking time away from Jesus. He may take time away to refresh, but he's not taking time away from Jesus. He's always about others. I mean, you think about it. When people are really good at what they do, they're really about others. I mean, you wouldn't see a great coach at halftime going to the locker room and talk to his team about all the things going on in his life. I know you had tough first half, but let me tell you about my life. I mean, before I left today, I had this argument with my wife and my kids are doing this and here's what's going on. Financially, I just don't know that I'm going to make it. That's not what a halftime talk looks like because a good coach is focused on others. And all of us in the body of Christ need to be focused on others. And yeah, there's time to take ground and yeah, there's time to advance. But even in the military, there's what are called medics and their responsibility while everybody's advancing is to look for those that are hurting and come service them. So no matter what your role is in the kingdom, no matter what your role is in the Lord, what do you want to do? You want to find others to serve them relentlessly. Amen. I mean, think about it. I mean, today is Mother's Day. Today's Mother's Day. I mean, you think about all the relentless work that mothers do,

cleaning, praying, packing lunches, encouraging everyone, sometimes get to sleep, accept mom, all the different things that go on. And when moms do what moms do, they don't live stream it. You know, it's like, hey, it's one in the morning and I'm here changing a diaper and it's really late. That's not what they do because it's not about them. It's about what they're doing. And even they're doing it anonymously and nobody sees it and nobody's giving them thanks. That's what it to serve anonymously, to serve relentlessly, to help other people grow, even when nobody else but the Lord sees it. And the Lord who sees it, rewards it, amen. Amen, so if you're gonna be fully yielded to the Lord, one of the things that the Holy Spirit wants to do in your life is to get you to strengthen others relentlessly. Amen? Second thing is this, when the Holy Spirit is in your life and you're fully yielded to the Holy Spirit, you will desire to serve faithfully with humility. Fully yielded disciples serve faithfully with humility. Notice this in verse 17. From my leadist, when he went around Ephesus, 36 miles south, he sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church. And when they had come to him, when they had come to him, he said to them, "You yourselves know, from the first day I set foot in Asia, "how I was with you the whole time." So when Paul gets there, he's like, "I don't have time to see everybody in Ephesus, "but I definitely want to talk to the leaders of the church. "I definitely want to talk to those men "who are faithfully serving Christ's body.

"I need to see them before I go to Jerusalem "because I'm never gonna see them again, "and I need to give them some final exhortations." So it would have taken some time to go the 36 miles up and call for them and come 36 miles back. So Paul's gonna be in my leadist for a little while. And while he's there, he's waiting for them to come. And when they come, he begins to give his testimony. And his testimony is not, "I'm awesome, "and don't you wish you could be like me." His testimony is, "Think about the way that I served you." You yourselves know, from the first day I set foot in Asia, how I was with you the whole time. That means we spent our lives together. I didn't leave, I didn't go somewhere else. You knew this is where I was called. You knew this is what I wanted to do. And what does he say? Serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials, which came upon me through the plot of the Jews. Here's what he was saying. He was like, "You know that it wasn't just "lollipops and skipping through the roses when I was there. "You know it was difficult when I was there. "You know that I not only labored with you, "we wept together, we cried together." I mean, this was hard. We went through trials together. You know that.

I mean, my whole life has been the testimony that the reason I'm with you is because of Jesus. And he said this, "Those things came upon me "through the plot of the Jews." And he goes, "How I did not shrink from declaring to you "anything that was profitable in teaching you publicly "and from house to house." Solently testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul's saying, "I served the Lord faithfully "and I did it with humility." And here's the truth. The spirit works through believers whose life matches their message. Right? Don't, don't, just do as I say, not as I do. Not as a fully yielded disciple. Do as I say and as I do. That's what Paul would say. And where we fall short as Christians sometimes is we wanna tell people this, we wanna lead with, well, don't follow me 'cause I don't have it right. You know, don't look at my life. It's not very good, but follow Jesus. That's not what the Bible would say. The Bible would say, you wanna live in such a way where you can tell people, just do what I'm doing. Just seek the Lord the way I'm seeking the Lord. Just study the word the way I'm studying the word. Just give to the church the way I'm giving to the church.

Serve in the way that you see me serving and what you see in me and hearing me and go put that into practice. A piece of God will be with you. That's what a disciple looks like. And for many of us, we're all about, let's go evangelize the law, so let's get them in. But we're not nearly as about, hey, just follow me and do what I'm doing. Do you understand? It's why we can put on a crusade and see hundreds of people come to Christ. But if those same hundreds of people came to Christ and I said, now, I'm gonna give each of you one of those people and in the next six months, I wanna see them walking with Christ, studying the word, praying, giving to the church, finding a place to serve. And it's your responsibility to do that. Many of you, although you've been in the church for 30 plus years would say, I'm not ready for that yet. I don't know how to do that. That's called being a disciple. That's like 101. And here's the place. If people can't look at your life and follow what you're doing, that's a great place in your life to confess to the Lord, repent of,

and allow Him to change you. Amen? And it doesn't mean that, hey, once you get all those things out of your life and once you're a real disciple and once there's no sin anymore, then you'll be ready to disciple somebody. You'll meet Jesus first. Because Jesus that follow me, I'll make you fishers of men. Paul said something different. types of men. When Jesus was leading his disciples, he never had to say these words. I'm sorry I was wrong. Paul would have. Do you understand? You will have to. Some of the ways that other people grow in Christ is theme the ways in which you repent. Theme the ways in which you were wrong. Theme the ways in which you need to change. Some of the ways my kids have learned about what a good marriage is is not because I'm the perfect husband 100% of the time. It's more like 93. But for where I've fallen short, there's plenty of times where they've seen me go publicly, apologize to their mom for the way in which I acted so they can see me tell her I was wrong and they know I was wrong because they watched it. Do you understand what I'm saying? Don't wait until everything in your life's perfect. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying when you're yielded to the Holy Spirit, he can use you to grow other people and there's reality. Listen, listen, listen. This is a key truth in the Christian world that nobody seems to understand. If you'll begin to serve others, if you'll begin to pour into them, God will pour into you what you need to help them. So if you really want to grow in Christ, it never happens by passively sitting and listening. It happens by actively doing it. Don't wait until you're ready to make disciples or you're really pausing or stunting your growth. Hold up your hand if you know for sure you're born again in Christ this morning. You know you're bleeding. Okay. There's all the people that God's wanting to use to make disciples. Every single person. Now, I didn't ask it with every hand. Are there still some things you're struggling with? Yes. Are there still some areas you need to grow in?

Of course. Are there still some things that don't reflect the glory of Christ? We understand that. That's true of me. But if you raise your hand, then God is saying you're my chosen instrument to pour into other people. So find one or two others that you can pour into. And if you'll take the focus off yourself and put it on them, I promise you the Spirit will help you grow in what you need. Amen? I mean, 1 Timothy 4, 16 says, "Pay close attention to your life and your teaching so you may persevere in them both." Like so many times we're looking for this big invitation so that everybody knows like we're doing ministry and everybody knows what we're about. I mean, if you think about it, when you go see a concert, everybody that goes into a concert and enjoys the concert, it's never been where I've left a concert and somebody said, "Man, that stage crew was awesome." Like the only time you're going to be aware that there was even a stage crew is if there's a problem with what they did. Like if they didn't set up the technology ride, if they didn't have the screens ride, if the sound goes out, then you'll know the stage crew didn't do their job. But if the stage crew does their job, you won't even know that they existed. And you'll enjoy all the benefits of that concert, but you're not going to thank the stage crew. But if it weren't for the stage crew, there would have been no concert. You understand what I'm saying? In the same way, what is God looking for? He's looking for anonymous saints that don't care whether they get the credit, but just want to serve him and be part of his stage crew so that other people can experience the benefits and the glories of Christ. So God can say, "Through that church, I can pour out the full measure of my spirit." So everybody's experiencing it. And who's getting the credit? God is. And who's serving? Everybody is. And who knows who you are? Nobody. Because they don't care. They didn't come here for you. They came here for Christ. Amen? Right? That's what's going on here. And did the first century do it perfectly? No. That's why we have all the letters to what they were doing wrong. There's no generation of the church that has cornered the market on discipleship. We've gotten really good at knowing how to use smoke machines, dim the lights, get people to feel something, move, tell a story. We're okay at that, which you don't need any of that to share the gospel just so you know. But we're not so good at doing the mission God called us to, which is making disciples. And we think, like I said at the beginning, that's somebody else's job. When somebody pours into me, then I'll be ready. Don't wait for somebody to pour into you. Let Jesus pour into you and then go pour into others and he will grow you. Amen? And I'll tell you how I know it was my personal experience when I was in college. I got praying

for the Lord. Lord, bring me somebody in my life that's like evangelistically bold, that knows the word, that can teach me the Bible, that can show me how to share my faith, that can teach me how to walk in all your ways and can teach me how to do this because I don't know how to do anything. And I have this great long prayer request and I sense the Lord in my spirit saying, Just be that guy, I don't want to do it, I just want. 'Cause that's really what we're saying when it comes to discipleship. Even when we're saying, I really want to know how to have a good marriage. What you're saying is I want somebody to teach me what it looks like, but I don't plan on applying anything they're teaching me, right? Like if you want to have a good marriage, here's how you have a good marriage. You work at your marriage, right? And all the truth is there, even if you don't have somebody telling you, here's what a great marriage looks like. If you have the scriptures, I mean husbands, I mean scriptures replete with how to love your wife and elevate your wife and bless your wife and lay down your life for your wife. And it doesn't matter how she treats you, the Bible seems to be care less about how she treats you. It cares about guys how you treat her. Yeah, but she's, it doesn't matter. You still love her anyway. And the same for a wife, an impossible task. Submit to your husband and everything. But he's this, he's, yeah, I don't care.

Just do it, right? I mean, if you really want to work on the things God wants you to work on, you're going to have ample opportunity to grow in your faith, right? And so what I'm encouraging you is to serve faithfully with humility, amen? I mean, even Jesus, the night that he's betrayed, he knows within a day, he's going to go to the cross, he's going to lay down his life, he's God in flesh, he's going to make a way for every human being that would repent and place their trust in him to have eternal life. I mean, he's worthy of being celebrated. I mean, he's worthy of everybody saying, they're going to bow and fall on their face and tell them that he's awesome. If there's anybody who's ever lived that can do that, it's him and what does he do? Well, they're eating dinner, he takes a towel off his waist and he gets down and he washes his disciples' stinky feet. And then he says, what you've seen me do, you go do that. So what's he doing on the night where he should be getting all the praise? He's serving all the way to the end. So you're saying, I want to be like Jesus, here's the thing. You may not ever find a platform, but you can always find a place to serve. There's always a place. You want to be like Jesus, there's a place for it right now.

You don't need a title, you don't need a badge, you don't need a platform, you don't need a place. Just look for somebody. And the world, everybody you look in the eye has a need to be more encouraged or to feel more important or to realize they're struggling. And if you'll open your eyes and take your attention off of you and put your attention on somebody else, you will grow as a disciple by serving faithfully with humility. And that's what Paul says. He shrinks back from declaring anything to you. I told you everything that was profitable. I never told you something that wasn't. And I wasn't afraid to tell you the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. 'Cause that's who my God is, amen? And I solemnly testified about repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Two sides of the same coin. One, turning from your sin, two, turning to Christ. They're both necessary. You can't just trust Jesus and live in your sin. You can't just turn from your sin and think everything's gonna be okay. It's turning from your sin and turning to Christ. They go together. I'm turning away from the world. I'm turning to Jesus. I'm turning away from God's wrath.

I'm turning towards His love. I want His forgiveness. And He goes, I didn't stop telling you that all the time. That was the main thrust of my message, amen? So serve faithfully and Paul's serving faithfully, but he's doing it with humility. Let me give you a third that the Holy Spirit does. A fully yielded disciple obeys courageously without compromise. They obey courageously without compromise. And verse 22, he says, "And now behold, bound in spirit, "I am on my way to Jerusalem, "not knowing what will happen to me there." I love that. So many of us, because of the culture that we grew up in here in America, we think we need to be able to describe to everybody what's about ready to happen next, when you don't even know what's gonna happen this afternoon. Well, I'm going here and here's what's gonna happen. And here's where I'm going. Here's God's plans for my life. No, this is where I'm heading and I have no idea what's gonna happen. That's spiritual, that's Christian. 'Cause even when you think you know it all, let me just tell you. You don't know. You don't know. Like, rewind the clock for some of you that are my age.

When you were 16 and people were asking you, what are you gonna do with your life? Are you doing exactly what you said you were gonna do when you were 16? Has life worked out just the way you thought without any hiccups? Have you gone the direction you've wanted to go every time? I mean, that's just silliness, amen? So what does Paul say? I'm bound by the spirit to head to Jerusalem. I seem to know the direction God wants me to head and I have no idea what's gonna happen when I get there. That sounds very, very Christian, right? And here's what he says, I love this. No idea what's gonna happen, not knowing what's happening first 23, except that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city saying that bonds and afflictions await me. I don't know what's gonna happen, but everywhere I go, it sure seems like the spirit confirms I'm gonna be bound in chains, That's what's sure. And here's the reality. Anyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. If you want to live fully for Jesus, here's a certainty. You will go through trials. Here's a certainty. Tribulations are in your future. Uncertainties are coming your way. Places that you have to catch your breath and be like, "I can't believe I'm living in

a world like this where that happened. How did that happen?" That's a guarantee, prosperity, blessing, hope, money, health, not necessarily, maybe. Right? But even if you have all those things, they're all temporary anyway. You can't hold on to any of them. So anybody that promises you a blissful life is a flat out liar from the Scriptures. They're lying because Paul even says, "Jesus came to be crucified. All of his apostles were killed. Paul says, 'I don't know what's going to happen except the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies that in every city saying that bonds and afflictions await me.' I'm either going to prison, I'm going to be bound, I'm going to be beat, something bad is about ready to happen." But notice what he says in verse 24, "But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself." Who does Paul not think about? Him. Who's the toughest person to not think about? Myself. Me, myself, and I, those are my favorite pronouns. Sorry. I'm just picking up on the laughter. I didn't know I had pronouns, but now I do. My point is, my point is this. You think about your daytime or you think about your phone, you think about what you put in. Now maybe if you're a mom and maybe your dad, you put some other people's schedule in that party, your family, because that affects you, but you don't put anybody else's priorities in your calendar that don't affect you. You don't put down my priorities in your calendar.

You don't put down your neighbor's priorities in your calendar. Why? Because you don't care. You care about yourself. Here's what Paul was saying. I don't care about me. I don't care about what I'm doing. It's of little concern to me what happens to me. So long as Christ is preached in this average voice, I don't care. I mean, even when Paul was being questioned by the Corinthians, this has been one of my favorite scriptures in the last year, first Corinthians 4-3, but to me, it is a very small thing that I may be examined by you. Like what was Paul saying? I don't really care what you think. It's not a big concern of mine. I'm not living for your approval. I'm living to serve the Lord and to serve other people that want to grow in Christ, amen? So you obey courageously without compromise. It means before these things happened, you've already settled it in your mind. I'm going to go in at all costs. It means yielded believers settle obedience before suffering arises because I can tell you if you're a believer, you're going to suffer. I can't tell you how. I can't tell you when. I can't tell you the extent, but I can tell you that you will. And yielded believers are like, okay, I'm not looking forward to that. I'm not just waiting for the other shoe to drop. But if and when it does, I've already resolved in my mind that Jesus, you're still my Lord and I'm going to cling on to you even tighter when suffering happens. That's what it means to obey courageously.

Courageously is not in the moment. The moment just reveals how courageous you've been, right? The moment doesn't reveal your character or the moment rather, the moment just reveals your character doesn't prepare you for it. You've been preparing all along, amen? And this is what Paul was saying. He's like, I did not consider my life of any account as dear to me so that I may finish my course in the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus to testify solemnly of the gospel and of the grace of God. And now behold, I know that all of you among whom I went about preaching the kingdom will no longer see my face. Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God. What's he saying? He's like, in my ministry, if you didn't listen to it, that's on your head because I told you about Jesus. I told you about his love. I told you about his justice. I told you he's the way, the truth and the life. I told you the only way to experience the fullness of God is to repent of your sins and trust Jesus. There's no possible way under my ministry you didn't get that. And if you didn't, that's on you because I was not afraid to tell you the whole counsel of God. He's getting that from Ezekiel and Jeremiah. I'm telling you, those are my motivations because I know when I stand before the Lord, I'm held doing a higher account because I teach and may it never be that someone that ever came to brave said, "I didn't know that Jeff was serious about Jesus." I didn't know he believed that Jesus was the only way to heaven? No.

He's the only way. he's the god-man who had always in your place, to save you from the wrath of God, who rose from the dead, who offers life to anyone who will turn from their sin and turn to Him. And that is the only way anybody anywhere can ever be saved. It's clear, amen? And that was what Paul was saying, and he was saying, with tears in his eyes, like this is what's happening, right? And why is this important? Well, here's the reality. It takes risk sometimes to do the very thing God asks you to do, to preach the word, to be faithful, to love your spouse, to grow your kids, to honor your employer, to honor your employees, to do the very things that God wants you to do. But, you know, nobody admires firefighters for standing outside of the building discussing the risk, "Man, that's a real hot fire in there." Nobody admires that. They admire when they enter, right? Or like your marriage vows, you don't negotiate fidelity after the honeymoon. Like, "Hey, now that we're married, what do you think about just being with each other?" You see any leeway, no, you decide those things long before you get married, do you know what I'm saying? Or I've heard about missionaries that have gone out that pack all their things in a casket because they know they're going to die where God sent them to go. I mean, that's what we're talking about here. When you obey courageously without compromise, it means that long before you get into the situation where you could be compromised, you've already made the decision so you don't put yourself in that situation. Single people I got talked to you right now because it just came to my mind. You don't navigate while you're on the date, in the back of the car, in the basement, what you're going to do and not do.

That decision gets made long before you get there, so you don't even find yourself in that situation. If you love the Lord Jesus Christ and know that He's inside of you and coming along on all your dates, amen? It's not just young people, it's older people. It's whatever you are and whatever you do, you make the decision before you get there. That's what integrity looks like. You obey courageously and go all in without compromise. A fourth one is this, and this is super important, a fully yielded disciple guards the church vigilantly, guards the church vigilantly. Notice what Paul says. He says, "Be on guard for yourselves." He's talking to the elders of the church of Ephesus and for all the flock. He's saying, "Look out. When you serve the Lord, I just want you to know something. When you serve the Lord, like if you're attending church and you're like, "Okay, I'm feeling compelled to serve the Lord and I'm going to serve the Lord. I'm going to go through pathways. I'm going to learn about my gifts. I'm going to learn about what I can do. I'm going to go serve the Lord." Then you do it as if you put a bullseye on the front and back of you, a bigger target. The greater your service, the greater target you have on you, and you can't escape it. Right? Here's what Paul was saying, "Be on guard for yourselves and for who? The flock. Who's the flock? The church." Specifically there, the church of Ephesus, "Be on guard." Why?

Among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. Now I know when people talk about things, they'll say, "Well, that's Pastor Jeff's church," or they'll say, "Somebody's church." I get what they're saying, what they mean is that's the guy that's preaching a majority of time at the church, but whose church is it? It's Jesus Christ's church. He purchased this church with his own blood. I haven't shed any blood for this church, and if I did, it wouldn't matter. His blood is pure blood. It's his church, amen? We're his people. We don't belong to any human being. For God's people, amen? And here's what Paul wants to do. He's telling me, "Be on the lookout." You overseers. In the word overseers, bishop, presvedters, pastors, elders, they're all used interchangeably in the New Testament. Those of you who are leading in the church, look out. Be on the alert for yourselves, because the more you serve, the more you're going to be attacked, and be on alert for the flock. Why? I know that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. From among your own selves, men will arise, speaking perverse things to draw the disciples after them. What's he most concerned about? Is he most concerned about who's going to be the next Roman emperor? Is he most concerned about the school system? Is he most concerned about the financial crisis and gas prices?

No. Here's what he's concerned with. He's concerned there's going to be people from within the church that are going to allow people that don't know the Lord to come in and guide people away. He's saying some are going to even rise up from your own myths and say perverse things about Jesus. What's he concerned about? He's more concerned about what's going to happen inside the church than what's going on outside. Judgment always begins at the house of God. If the church is fully aligned with Jesus, And the enemy knows that, so where's he go do some of his greatest work in the church? Against who? You! So be on guard against that. Watch that you don't get bitter. Watch that you don't get unforgiving. Watch that you're not upset about what's going on. Watch, watch, watch, because the enemy will use everything in your life to start showing you things in the church that are wrong to get you upset so you'll leave and go to another church to do what? Find out what they're doing wrong. So you can leave that church and go to another church. There's no perfect church. And what's he want? Be careful. Just be careful. Well, I've seen this and this. If one more thing happens at brave, I'm out of here. Be careful. Those things are real.

Watch your soul. Keep short accounts. Be positioned with the Lord rightly. He was telling them, look out for this. Verse 31, "Therefore be on the alert remembering that night and day for a period of three years, I did not cease to admonish each one of you with tears." He's like, "I've been telling you this. I'm telling you, I'm gone now. I've handed it over to you. You're leading the church. You're doing this. Be careful. Here's the danger. The danger is not what's happening outside. The danger is when the church allows it inside." Do you know at one point in time the United Methodist Church was a firestorm of revival? I went to a Methodist seminary for one year and I remember I took a class on John Wesley and at the middle of the class I told the Bishop of South Africa if John Wesley was alive today there's no way he would be a Methodist to which the Bishop of South Africa agreed with me because when I read about John Wesley I'm like, they wouldn't even let him in the Methodist Church. I can say that. I grew up Methodist. They wouldn't even let him in because he called himself a Bible bigot because he called himself one who studied the Word. Do you know that his lay preachers that he trained? He would tell them this, "If you're not willing to wake up at four in the morning and spend an hour in the Word and another hour in prayer and be willing to preach in the streets, even when my violence comes out and they come and attack you, you're not worthy to be a preacher." In all Methodist movement, boom, now what?

Now you can be transsexual, you can be whatever and just love people and that's where it is. Where did all that happen? It happened from within. It wasn't outside. It was when you bring outside in we have to guard the holiness of Christ. We have to and how do we guard it? Not just by standing around the holiness of Christ but by being holy and the way you grow in holiness is not being a spectator, it's being a soldier that is engaged with people helping them grow and as you help people grow, guess what the byproduct is? You're going to grow. Parents, you that do a good job with your children, you know you grow from how you invest in your children because you see things in them that you don't like because they're just like you and then you start to shepherd that and you're like, "If I'm going to shepherd that, I've got to change." You know what I'm saying? I mean that's all of us. So get in the game and guard the church vigilantly, right? He says savage wolves are coming in. No good shepherd says, "Hey, let's be inclusive towards the wolves." Now kick him out, don't let him be here. If they're taking people an opposite way and in the church when those things happen they're like, "Oh, but he was such a nice guy, oh, but she helped so much." Yeah, but she was taking people away from Jesus. So we ask her to leave, right? That's what we're talking about. Guard the church vigilantly. Don't let people say bad things about the church, don't ever say bad things about the church, don't talk bad about pastors, don't talk bad about church, all that kind of stuff. It doesn't mean that pastors can't be confronted. It doesn't mean that pastors are above the law.

It doesn't mean that pastors get everything right. It doesn't mean that churches are always doing their best. That's not what I'm talking about. There are times where we need to confront and there are times we need to admonish and there are times we need to say what you said wasn't true or how you're doing this, your attitudes. That's totally fine. I'm talking about the genuine bitterness of some people that talk bad about pastors and churches all the time and you need to know when you do that, you're talking bad about Jesus and what he loves the most. Stop it. Even if you never come back to brave again, don't talk bad about the pastor or the church that you go to. Love your church in all of its imperfections. Why? Because Jesus loves you in spite of all of your imperfections. Like if you really want to focus on something that's not perfect, just buy a mirror and then criticize that. You should thank God that he doesn't see all the gross things you see because it's covered by the blood of Jesus. Amen? All right, enough on that. So guard the church vigilantly, and then finally is this. One who's fully yielded to Christ gives generously and praise fervently. He says, "And now I commend you to God in the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified." He says, "I have coveted no one, silver, or gold, or clothes." What's he saying? "I haven't wanted what you have. I'm glad that you have it, but I don't need it. I'm not coveting it.

I'm not asking you to give it to me. I haven't done any of this. I've agreed." He says, "You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my own needs and to the men who were with me." He said, "I took care of all the things I needed to take care of. I took care of my own needs. I was making tents. I did all that. I didn't ask you guys to pay me so I would help you. In everything, I showed you that by working hard in this matter, you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus that He Himself said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." Friends, here's the truth. If you're looking to become more like Jesus, find a way where you can give more of yourself, give more of your time, give more of your money, give more of your gifts, and there's always a way you can do all of those things. You want to be more like Jesus, just find a way to be more generous with the things that He's entrusted to you. And there's always ways that you can give more. There's always ways that if you bring it before the Lord, and I'm not saying, "Do so everything you have." That was a specific call to one specific guy. But if you know that everything the Lord has is His, everything you have is His. All the gifts you have, all the resources you have, all the friendships you have, all the influence you have. It's all Jesus' and you ask Him, "Hey Lord, everything I have is yours. How can I steward these things better so that when I meet you, I'll know that the things that you entrusted to me were used for your glory? Is there anything I could use better?"

He'll show you. He'll show you. Some of you may need to sell stuff, some of you may need to use some of the stuff that you have to bless others. I mean, He'll show you what it looks like. And the reason we don't pray that way is we like our life the way it is. And we don't want to change. But if you really want to grow, you give generously. And here's the thing. No matter how much you give, there's nobody who'll be like, "I'm giving more than Jesus ever gave me." I mean, you can't say that. He left heaven and came and gave His life free. Like, no matter how much you give, it's infinitesimally small compared to all that Christ has given you. So, so give generously. And notice what it says, "When He had said these things, He knelt down and prayed with them all." Now you do not have to kneel to pray. There's different expressions of prayer in the Bible. Sometimes you raise your hand, sometimes you're standing, sometimes you're walking, sometimes you're kneeling. But kneeling is a posture of respect. Kneeling is a posture of respect. I love it when I walk to my house and sometimes I'm looking for my wife and all of a sudden I'm like, "Oh, she's probably praying." And I go behind the counter of our kitchen. She's on her knees. And I know I'm not going to interrupt her while she's doing that. Right?

I mean, when there's something powerful about positioning yourself on your knees, if you don't, don't pray in your knees, I'd encourage you to try if you're physically able to do that, to try it sometime, because just the posture of being able to lay before the Lord is powerful. So when he said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all, and they, the elders of Ephesus, these men, they all begin to weep aloud and embrace Paul and repeatedly kissed him. Culturally men would kiss each other on the cheek. They still do that in Eastern European cultures. I mean, they loved this man for what he had given them. And they're hugging and they're entrusting themselves to him, grieving especially over the word which he had spoken that they would not see his face again. And they were accompanying him to the ship. Over the most sad for it. They don't see you again till we get to heaven. They knew they'd never see him again. They didn't have email. They didn't have text. They didn't have ways of communicating. They'd never hear from him or see him again until they got into heaven. And they'd spent so much time with them. They just wept. They just wept. Friends, God wants you and me to give generously and to pray fervently because you'll believers live with open hands and they live with bent knees. And here's what I encourage you, no matter how much you pray, there's ways you can grow in your prayer life. No matter how much you give, there's ways you can grow in your generosity. I mean, the great thing about being a disciple of Jesus Christ is on this side of heaven. We will never arrive.

We will never get to a place where we're like, I'm there. Like if I never grow again, there's nobody that will touch this. I mean, that's never going to happen. And so for us, and the reason God's showing you this is that by being fully yielded to him, if you'll get involved in the game and you don't have to have this big platform, just find one or two people or say, say this prayer, hey, Lord, just show me some people that really need to be served. They will pop into your life. They won't be the people you expect. They won't be the way you expect it, but it'll be like, okay, I guess it's them. If you'll step into that, I promise you, not only will they be blessed, but you will I just want to honor you and I want to love other people and I want you to use my life because I don't consider my life worthy of Anything, but I consider your life worthy of everything and I just want to know that when I live that my life speaks the name of Jesus That's what I want and I know that's you. I know that's why you come to brave. I know that's why you're here This is not a rebuke. This is an exhortation like wherever we are. Let's just take the next step and let's grow in the grace and knowledge Of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Would you stand with me our Father in heaven? We do give you praise and glory and honor for who you are and Lord we ask That you would just help us to become more fully yielded to your spirit that you would help us to grow more in you That you would help us to serve generously and to pray and to be faithful and to give Lord not because we have to but out of the compelling love that you place in our hearts Lord We love you. We give you all the praise glory and honor in Jesus name amen and amen. Could you have got praise for his word this morning? (audience clapping)