How Do You Break Out of Your Comfort Zone? | Acts 1:1–3 | Kevin Queen

Friends, welcome to Cross Point. Hey, if we haven't met yet, my name is Paul. Super glad you're with us today. As you're coming in, we'd love to invite you to stand. Whether you're in the room, you're watching online, or worshiping with God behind bars, we are so glad that you're with us today. And listen, we believe that we're the church, and we believe that we belong to Jesus. Anybody believe that? Come on, anybody believe that? So today we're gonna worship from that place. We're gonna sing from that place because we are sons and daughters of God. He's in love with us, so let's pour our love on Him. If you've got two hands that are free, come on. Sing with everything you've got. From the place of freedom, hey. We gather here to meet with God. Our one way is through the Son. Praise the One who took our sin away. Praise the One who calls us by His name. Calls us by His name. Lift up your hands, you blood-bought saints. Sweep wide the doors and bless His name. We are His house, His people. This church belongs to Jesus. We build our lives on Christ alone. He is our rock, our cornerstone. So here and now we pray His will be done.

Here and now His kingdom reign in us. Lift up your hands, you blood-bought saints. Sweep wide the doors and bless His name. We are His house, His people. This church belongs to Jesus. Yes we do, yeah. This church belongs to Jesus. All glory, all honor, all power, all authority. All wisdom, dominion forever to our Lord and King. All glory, all honor, all power, all authority. All wisdom, dominion forever to our Lord and King. Your Spirit, Your presence here with us. You are all we need. I say You are heaven. King Jesus, You have everything. Lift up your hands, you blood-bought saints. Sweep wide the doors and bless His name. We are His house, His people. This church belongs to Jesus. Lift up your hands, you blood-bought saints. Sweep wide the doors and bless His name. We are His house, His people. This church belongs to Jesus. Yes we do, yeah. This church belongs to Jesus. We belong, yeah. This church belongs to Jesus. Yes, He's worthy to be praised. Yes sir, He is worthy to be praised. All glory and all honor to Him and to Him alone.

We're gonna continue to lift His name for He is the King of all kings. So we're gonna sing this out together. Everyone leave it till we know it to be true. Come on. When death had claimed its victory, the King of love had given up his life. The darkest day in history, there on a cross they made for sinners. You know you sing, for every curse is blood, but not the end we could have known. Well the earth began to shake, and the veil was torn. What sacrifice was made, as the heavens roared. Come on, we sing! All hail King Jesus, all hail the Lord of heaven and earth. All hail King Jesus, all hail the Savior of the world. Oh, he's our Savior, hallelujah, hallelujah. Come on, we sing, there was a moment. Let's go! There was a moment when the sky lit up, a flash of light breaking through. When all was lost, he crossed eternity, yes, the King of life was on the move, yes. In a dark old tomb, where our Lord was laid. Who a miraculous breath, and we're forever changed, oh, we're changed forever. All hail King Jesus, all hail the Lord of heaven and earth. All hail King Jesus, all hail the Savior of the world. All hail King Jesus, all hail the Lord of heaven and earth. All hail King Jesus, all hail the Savior of the world. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Come on, we sing, let's go! Let every ear compound before the King of kings. Let every tongue confess that he is the Lord. Come on, lift up your shout, let us join with all of heaven singing.

Oh-oh-oh-oh. Oh, we're singing oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh. And we cry out oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh. Every voice sing oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh. All hail King Jesus. Come on, church. All hail the Lord of hairs. All hail King Jesus. All hail the Savior of the world. He is our only Savior, yes All hail the Savior of the world He is our Savior, yeah He is our Savior, yeah And we are excited for today. Before we jump into our teaching, I've got a confession. I need to make this confession. The week of Easter, we had a visitor to our Nashville campus during that week, and I ran him off, and he came back, and I ran him off again. He tried to camp out in front of the church on the lawn that's there, and I tried to run him off. I actually, there was a little red, just a little ball, and I threw it at him, trying to get him to leave, and that didn't work. The police officer was actually posted up in the parking lot, and I went and got the police officer and asked for his help running him off, and I actually took a picture of him. Here he is.

He's a wild goose. I said, good morning, how do you know it's a he? I uploaded the picture to chat GPT and found out that it is a he. And the true story, the police officer that I asked for help said this, I ain't messing with no cobra chicken. I have never heard a goose called a cobra chicken, but you will. It must be a Tennessee thing, I don't know. But I was reading a book by Mark Batterson years ago, and he talks about this. He talks about how the Celtic Christians had a name for the Holy Spirit, ungeia glas, which means the wild goose, the wild goose. And they preferred, in their artwork, they preferred the imagery of the wild goose over the dove because they said the spirit is like a wild goose. It's relentless and unpredictable and untamable and disruptive, and it can't be controlled or manipulated or managed. And the spirit is anything but safe. And you never know where he's gonna take you. You never know what he's gonna do. The question is, are we going to follow? And so I just wanna publicly apologize to that goose. I'm sorry, that's my bad. I didn't know what you represented, but you are welcome here, wild goose. Wild goose, you can stay here as long as you want.

I got some snacks, we got some bread, we can take care of you. I just, as I think about that, leads me to a question. Is there anywhere in our lives where we are knowingly or unknowingly resisting the spirit's work? Is there anywhere where we are intentionally or unintentionally running off the very thing that God wants to do in and through our lives? Is there anywhere where I am or where you are or where we are grieving or hindering the spirit of God? As a church, we say everyone's welcome because we don't wanna hinder anybody from encountering Jesus. But my question is, church, is there anywhere where we are hindering what the Holy Spirit wants to do in us and through us together? And I ask that question because that can happen in a church and it can happen in a small group and it can happen in a family, it can happen in a relationship, it can happen to each one of us personally that we can grieve or we can hinder the work of the spirit in our lives. Let me put it another way. Have you ever thought, man, there's gotta be more than this? You ever thought about that?

Like in your life, man, there's gotta be more than this. Maybe just going through the motions, scrolling through the phone, watching the shows, getting the kids through school, making it to the weekend, hoping the Titans turn this thing around, get to heaven when we die. Like have you ever thought, like there has to be more. more than this. If you've ever thought that, I'm telling you, this next year is for you. This next year is as we go through the book of Acts together. Now, the early church called it the Acts of the Apostles, the Actions of the Apostles. But really it's more than that. It's the actions of the Holy Spirit through the Apostles and through the church. What the Holy Spirit did through the church, it's a wild goose chase. It's the wild goose chase of the early church. It's the early church chasing the wild goose. So normally when we think of that phrase, a wild goose chase, we think of purposelessness. We think of going in circles. We think of going nowhere. I'm gonna tell you that you follow the Spirit. It's anything but purposelessness.

That's where we find purpose. That's where we find meaning. That's where we find fulfillment in life. I'm gonna tell you the times in my life where I followed the Spirit, when I followed the Spirit. That's where my best stories come from. We follow the Spirit, it always leads us to a story. It leads us to fulfillment and satisfaction. But I can tell you that the times in my life where I have been stagnant and I have been most frustrated and most stuck in life have been the times when instead of following the Spirit, I followed my flesh. Or instead of following the Spirit, I followed my feelings. Or instead of following the Spirit, I followed fear. And so the invitation is for us, for all of us to follow, to experience the fullness of the Spirit of God. Life as Jesus promised. He said, I've come that you might have life to the full, that He would fill us up, that we would live a life filled with the Spirit and know the fulfillment and the satisfaction that comes from living that way. So my prayer is that God would take these 28 chapters in this book and that we would be awakened to the life of mission that He has for us. That we'll be awakened to the life that Jesus has made us for. And if you're just, if you're kicking the tires and checking things out and you're not even sure if you believe in Jesus, my prayer for you is that over this next year that you would encounter Jesus

and you'd be captivated by His love for you and that you would discover the plan that God has for you and your life, the God that created all that is has a plan for you and that you would see and you would sense His invitation into life with God. So if you've ever asked the question, God, what is your will for my life? And that you would find that this year is for you. And last year, we looked at the gospel of Mark, which was the mission and message of Jesus. And this year, we look in the book of Acts, which tells us the mission and message of Jesus experienced through the church, through all of us moving together. And so just wanna let you know, kind of elephant in the room, image for this series is a butterfly, not a wild goose. Because a butterfly is much more beautiful than a wild goose. Not a whole lot of people having tattoos a wild goose. Maybe now, maybe now you get a wild goose tat. But the butterfly, I want us to think about this way, is a symbol of change and of transformation. It's a symbol of the process of that we were once something and now we've become something else. And what we're gonna see in the book of Acts is this transformation, this becoming something new. It's the change that takes place. We're gonna see change. And I believe that if you'll stay with us through this year,

if you immerse yourself in this book through the word and the spirit coming together, that we will all finish this year, this year through the book of Acts, someone different, something, because the spirit is in us to make us more like Christ. And isn't that something that you want? Like what people would say, you know what, you remind me more of Jesus, that people would see Christ in us. This is what will take place as we're in this together. And you see this transformation of the early church where they go from this handful of Jesus followers in backwoods Galilee to this global movement in three decades. Acts tells the story how three decades from 33 AD to 64 AD, how the church grows and expands and in turns the Roman empire upside down. And I was just, I've been thinking about this. I'm like, God, if you did that then you can do it again. God, if you changed the world in such a short span of time back then, Lord, you can do it again at a time in our world that can seem so dark and so divided and so polarized and politicized and so unsettled and uncertain. And any historian could tell you that all of those words could be used to describe the Roman empire back then.

And this group of Jesus followers turned the world upside down. And so how did they do it? Well, I'll tell you what they didn't have. They didn't have a budget. They didn't have branding. They didn't have social media. They didn't have staff. They didn't have a 10-year strategic plan. They didn't have political power. What they had was the Spirit of God. And the Spirit of God had them. And so they were filled with the presence and the power of God. And this boldness that came from God turned the world upside down and said, God, if you did it then, you can do it again. Can you imagine what would happen if all of us, if all of us would say, God, you can have my life? God, I've shown you what I can do when I'm in charge and I'm in control and I can make a mess of things. But God, if I just, I give you my life. Lord, fill me with your Spirit. Fill me with your power. God, give me boldness and courage to love like you love. God, give me grace and give me truth and help me live. Like, can you imagine what would happen? I can't. That's why we're going through this book. And if you can't imagine, after all that I just shared

with you, the only God can help you, because that's the best job I can do, is hyphen you up. And so God does want to help. We're going to look at Acts chapter one, verses one through three. We only got time today for the first three verses. Some of y'all are like, if we're only getting through three verses today, we're going to be here a while. Well, we're going to start the first three verses, because here's the deal. I want to, today, I want to have enough time to give you an intro to the book, who wrote it, why they wrote it, who they wrote it to, and why this matters for you. So I'm going to read the first three verses and then we'll pray together. Acts chapter one, verse one, start there. In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven. After giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen, and after his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of 40 days and spoke about the kingdom of God. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for your word. Thank you that you haven't left us

to figure it out on our own. Thank you that you've given us your word, you've given us truth, you've given us Jesus. Jesus, thank you for the Spirit. Thank you for the Holy Spirit. So I pray that just as your Holy Spirit inspired these words, that your Holy Spirit would illuminate them, open up our eyes to see what is true, and open up our hearts to change, to transformation. That you would make us more like you. So as we begin this year, God, I pray that you would bring change to us, each one of us, that you give us the faith and the courage to commit to the journey, and that you would transform our church, transforming our lives, that you would transform our cities, that you would transform the world. We pray in Jesus' name, amen, amen. All right, as we begin, question for you, does anybody know who wrote the book of Acts? Anybody know who wrote the book of Acts? Luke, that's right, Luke wrote the book of Acts. And our clue to that is the first five words, it says, in my former book, Theophilus, in my former book, Theophilus. So what that tells us is that there was a work that went before, this is a sequel. And so there was a prequel, there was a book that was written before,

which the book that was written before was the gospel of Luke. So if you look at the gospel of Luke, you go back and you read Luke chapter one, says, many have undertaken to draw, this is verse one, many have undertaken to draw up an account of these things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught. So this tells us that Luke is writing this as a historian. He's writing this to give a historical account. And so he's doing what any good historian would do. He's gathering the eyewitness accounts. He's carefully investigating them to make sure that they are true and authentic. He's verifying their accuracy. He's putting them in order, in a narrative order, and he's presenting them to Theophilus. Well, who is Theophilus? Well, I'm glad you asked. Theophilus is a wealthy Roman official who is bankrolling the project.

Theophilus is the person who is paying, he's funding for Luke, the historian, to write the account, to go investigate the account. So he sends Luke on a journey and he pays for the research and the documentation of the account. Now, these two books are on two different scrolls. It's the reason that Luke and Acts are about the length that they are because a papyrus scroll, which they would have been written on, you can see that by what Luke writes. It would have filled two papyrus scrolls that which these accounts would have been taken, would have been transferred on these scrolls. And so you could call it Luke one and Luke two, but instead we call it the Acts of the Apostles. So the gospel according to Luke, where Luke wrote these things down and he's writing these things down in Acts, he's writing it to bring it to Theophilus. Well, who was Luke? I'll tell you one thing we know about Luke is that he was a doctor. He was trained as a physician. In fact, Paul writes in Colossians chapter four, he writes, he calls Luke the beloved physician. So Luke is educated. He's an educated Greek. Luke is a Greek name.

And so all these signs and more point to the idea that Luke is a Gentile. A Gentile means a non-Jew. And so he's writing this as an outsider, writing these two historical accounts to outsiders to let them know this. The movement of Jesus is for you too. So if you've ever felt like an outsider, you need to know the movement of Jesus is for you too. And as you read through Luke and you read through Acts, what you're gonna find is that Luke, he tends to notice the people on the fringes of society. The people like the Samaritans and like women who were, well, they were on the fringes and they were marginalized and the poor and tax collectors and sinners and Gentiles. You read through Luke, you see this careful attention to the outsiders. And then we get into Acts and we're gonna see the same thing with the Ethiopian eunuch and with the Roman centurion, with the Antioch church, you see with different Antioch, but like you see that Luke is constantly paying attention to the outside to tell us as outsiders, say you can get in on this movement of Jesus too. It's not just for the Jew, it's for the Gentile, it's for all of us. So you need to know if you've ever felt like an outsider, if you've ever wondered if God loves you, if you ever wonder, does God have a plan for your life? If you ever wonder, have you been invited

and included on this good news message that Jesus came to bring us, that you are loved by God and that he laid his life down for you, that you could be made right with God and that God has a unique plan for your life and for us together. What Luke wants you to know, the gospel is for you. And he also wants us to know it's the gospel is for them, that the gospel is for others, that it's not some individual faith that we just kind of hold onto and hoard, but the gospel is for the world and that we would take it to others. And some of you are like, man, why would we spend a year studying Acts? Because Acts takes us across boundaries to go across boundaries. Man, and probably the closest thing to a thesis statement that we find in the book of Acts is Acts 1.8. And it says, but you will receive power. You will receive what? Power. When the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. So this is, you're gonna see, it's like the strategy in the book of Acts. You see how the movement just continues to cross boundaries. And that word witnesses is a legal term.

It's a legal term where you would say, let me give an account of what I've seen and what I've heard as a witness of what has happened. It's a legal term that would say, yeah, I'm gonna give an account of what I've seen and what I've experienced in my life. They'd experienced the resurrected Christ. And so take it, we're taking this worldwide. You realize that most of these guys have never been more than 70 miles from their home. And Jesus is telling them, we're taking it to the world. Imagine, imagine how they felt in that moment hearing that. And what we see in the book of Acts is that they're constantly going to cross boundaries. They cross ethnic boundaries and geographic boundaries and religious boundaries and moral boundaries and political boundaries and cultural boundaries and linguistic boundaries and boundaries of culture and experience. It is a wild goose chase that will take us across boundaries. And church, what we're gonna find in this next year is that God is going to lead us across boundaries. And what we find is that Acts is gonna take us outside of our comfort zone. How many of you have a comfort zone? Just go ahead and raise your hand. If you see somebody didn't raise their hand it's because it was uncomfortable and they are in their comfort zone right now.

So you just raise their hand for you. We all have comfort zones. But can I tell you something? I have a comfort zone. Can I tell you where my growth zone is? My growth zone is outside of my comfort zone. And if all I do is, I don't know why I keep doing my legs over there, but so you will never forget it. So you will know, your memory is scarred right now. But if we only stay in our comfort zone, we will not grow spiritually. If we only stay in our comfort zone, we will not grow as human beings. We were made and formed to get outside of our comfort zone. In fact, when Jesus is talking to the disciples and John. Chapter 14, he's having a conversation with them in the upper room before he goes to the cross. And he's giving them a theology of the Holy Spirit, telling them about the Holy Spirit that's to come. Now he gives a nickname to the Holy Spirit. And I'm gonna give you, I want you to listen, see if you can figure out what that nickname is. John 14, 16, and I will ask the Father and he will give you another comforter to be with you forever. John 14, 26, but the comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things.

John 15, 26, but when the comforter comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, John 16, 7, it is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the comforter will not come to you. Anybody wanna guess what the nickname is? Comforter. You know why Jesus says I'm gonna send you a comforter? Not so you can stay in bed with that comforter, but so you can get out of bed and get out of your comfort zone. Because if he has sent us a comforter, the expectation is that if we're following Jesus, he will lead us places where we're uncomfortable. Well, we'll go to uncomfortable places and do uncomfortable things and have uncomfortable conversations with uncomfortable people. If we stay in our comfort zone, we don't need a comforter. But it's the only way. And he said, this is for your advantage that I go away. It is better that I go away. Why would he say that? Because Jesus is talking to the disciples. He's like, hey, if I stay with you in this upper room, it's just one on 12 or one on one. But it is to your advantage that I go away because if I go away, then the Father can send the Spirit and now it will be one on one. So he's telling the disciples, it is better to have the Spirit inside you

than to have Jesus beside you. Because if Jesus is beside you, we gotta share him with everybody in the world. He said, I'm gonna send you my Spirit so that you will be empowered for this work. It's for your advantage. So if all we're doing is staying in our comfort zone, we're missing the advantage that Jesus promised. We're missing out on our advantage in life that we have the Spirit. Y'all, it's week one, about to lose my voice. There was a research project years ago, UC Berkeley. They took an amoeba and they constructed the perfect environment. They put the perfect temperature, the perfect moisture, the perfect food supply, constant food supply. There was no stress, no struggle, no problems. Basically, they gave it the kind of life that many of us were all trying to achieve. Anybody wanna guess what happened to that amoeba? It died. See, even a single cell organism needs challenge to survive. And Jesus has given us the Spirit. What we'll see in Acts is He's given us the Spirit so that we'd step outside of our comfort zone. And this is one of the major reasons, like as a church, that we have served the city as an opportunity for us to step outside of our comfort zone so that we can experience the Spirit of God loving others through us,

that they would experience the love of God through us. But in doing so, as we step outside of our comfort zone, we experience more of God and we are made more like Christ. You are never more like Jesus than when you give yourself away. And so when we serve others, other people see Christ and Christ is formed in us. And so He wants to lead us outside of our comfort zone. It's what we see in the book of Acts. Where's the most dangerous place on the planet? I think it may just be your comfort zone. And it's not because of the things that happen there, it's the things that don't happen there. It's the prayers you never pray. It's the miracles that you never receive. It's the lives that have never changed. It's the people who were never served. It's the books that never get written. It's the sermons that are never preached. It's the ministries that never get started. It's the gifts you never use. It's the risks you never take. It's the calling you never pursue. I think the comfort zone is the most dangerous zone because of the way that it kills us slowly and the people that don't get to experience Jesus because we stay there. And my prayer for us is in this series, God, that you would call us outside of our comfort zone. And we need Acts because it's possible.

I'm gonna read this from my notes for you. It's possible in America to construct a life where there is no need of the Holy Spirit and call it Christianity, where it's all about a set of doctrines that we mentally. is sent to a set of rules or moral guidelines that we adhere to like things you do and things you don't do. And that's it. Rather than a life marked by intimacy with God and faith and purpose and courage and guidance. Instead, it's a life marked by safety and comfort and convenience. And that's not the life that Jesus promised. That is a counterfeit Christianity. And we got a problem. Cause somebody keeps putting counterfeit $100 bills in the offering buckets. True story. I don't know who it is. I don't know why. Maybe they're trying to flex. Maybe it was an accident, but it happened two times. I got them right here. And the good news is our finance team is on their toes. Maybe someone's trying to make change in the offer. I've been trying to wrack my brain, think about it. But the reflection that I've had in the revelation is that you don't learn what a counterfeit looks like

by looking for fakes. You learn what a counterfeit looks like by studying the real. The way you know deception, the way you know lies is by studying what's true. You look for the seal. You hold it up to the light. And what's gonna happen, what's gonna happen as we go through the book of Acts is that we will get to see the authentic. We'll get to see the real. If you're taking notes, Acts helps us think rightly about the church. Our ecclesiology, that's just a big word that means the way that we think about church. Comes from the Greek word ecclesia. Ecclesia means the called ones, the sent out ones. It means the gathering. It means the assembly. The word comes from when Jesus, when he uses it actually the first time in the New Testament. Jesus used in Matthew chapter 16, verse 18, when he says, I will build my ecclesia, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not overcome it. Now this verse tells us a couple of things that are important for us to know. The first one is that who the church belongs to. Who does the church belong to?

Jesus, it's his church. It's not my church, not your church, not our church. It's his church. The church belongs to Jesus. Other thing I draw great faith and courage and encouragement from is who's building the church. Who's building the church? Jesus, Jesus says, I will build my church. He's not talking about buildings, he's talking about people. He's like, I will build my church. I will build my ecclesia. And Peter says, he will do it with, we are living stones. That he is building his church with us, that we are the church. The church is not a place that we go, it's the people that we are. And so sometimes, you know, when you see this, when you think about this, it's important for us just grasp even that the church is God's plan A for reaching the world. The church is the only institution on the planet. It's the only institution that's been created by God that is eternal, that has an eternal shelf life, that is forever, that lasts forever. Every other institution, organization, nonprofit, LLC, business, government, country, empire, they all rise and they fall. But the church of God is forever.

The church is forever. God's church, church is God's plan A for reaching the world. So when I hear people say, well, I love Jesus, I'm just not into church. It's just, it's not in scripture. Like Jesus is into the church. Jesus, Jesus came for the church. Jesus loves the church. Jesus gave his life for the church. Jesus was raised to life for the church. Jesus intercedes for the church. He lives to intercede for the church. Jesus is coming back for his church. And his church is the primary way that he moves in the earth. God's plan A for the redemption of the earth. And so when we look at the book of Acts, we just see, we see that it is the primary way that Jesus works in the world today. And it's important that we get our ecclesiology from the Bible and from the book of Acts, not TikTok or some podcast from a political pundit. Or some dude that's on Instagram reels from his mama's basement. So he's fired up about something he saw on Reddit. We wanna go to the word of God to see who is the church and what is the church and what are we here for? And this historical account that Luke wrote to Theophilus at a time when people were dying for their faith. And he's saying, I'm telling you, this is true

and it's worth giving your life for. People are laying down their lives. And I'm telling you, the movement of Jesus is the greatest thing going on the planet. And so you're right, sister. and say, get in, Theophilus, get in on what God is doing. I'm gonna warn you, Acts does not give us a perfect church. There is no perfect church. If you find a perfect church, don't join it because you'll screw it up. Are no perfect people, there is no perfect church. Acts is not perfect, but she is beautiful and alive and full of passion. You see God's glory and his grace and his truth and it's in the wild. Man, when I was in fourth grade, Ms. Hutto gave us an assignment to go and it was for science. We had to go get some insects and part of our project was to get a butterfly and we had to capture a butterfly and put it in a Mason jar and put the lid on, but put a cotton swab with some rubbing alcohol on it in the Mason jar and it kills the butterfly. I don't know if you know that, but kills the butterfly. I don't think they do those projects anymore. So what's wrong with Gen X? They made us, they made us kill the butterfly, but I learned through that project

that there are different ways to study a butterfly. One, you can try to pin it down and another is to watch it in the wild. I would much rather watch it in the wild. And what we do through Acts is we get to see the church in the wild. Church begin to grow and to begin to see that while it's fragile, you get to see this robust life take place of life in the spirit, the church alive in flight and in its glory. And I believe what God's gonna do is he's gonna help us see the real so that we can know the counterfeit and not so that we can spot the counterfeit out there, but so that we can spot the counterfeit in here. To hold our lives up to the light, to look for the seal, to say, is it real? Is this real what's going on in me? Am I surrendered to the spirit of God? Am I living a life in power and in courage and in boldness? Am I making a difference for Christ? Am I a witness for him? And where we see that we're not to surrender to him and experience the work of the spirit and his power in us because Acts, if you're taking notes, why Acts? Because Acts is Jesus continued. In verse one, he says, in my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and teach.

Now, what I love about this is like my first work was about what Jesus began to do and teach, but I'm about to tell you what he continues to do and teach because Acts is Jesus continued. It's the movement of Jesus continued through the church. And here's what this means for us. It means he's not done. He's not done, cross point. He's not done going to the nations. He's not done in your family. He's not done in your marriage. He's not done in your prodigal son or daughter. He's not done at your work. He's not done at your school. He's not done at the Deborah K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center. He is not done. It is Jesus continued, what he continues to do through us, what he continues to do through you, through the Holy Spirit. So I'm gonna leave off today where Luke left off because remember Acts picks up at the end of Luke. So if you've got a Bible, you flip over a few pages to Luke chapter 24. You know how when you're watching a show and you get to the second episode, they go back and do a recap of the first one. I just want us to just, somebody just say, yeah, like they've been the gospel of Netflix. Like, you know how that goes.

I want us to go back and capture and just be captivated and captured by what happens at the end of Luke before we pick up in Acts. Pick up in Luke 24, verse 36. While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, peace be with you. If you need to receive his peace today, you need to know his peace is for you. He says, peace be with you. And they were startled and frightened thinking they saw a ghost. And he said to them, why are you troubled? And why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself, touch me and see. A ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see I have. But when he has said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he said to them, do you have anything here to eat? And they gave him a piece of broiled fish and he took it and he ate it in their presence. And he said to them, this is what I told you while I was still with you. Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the law of Moses. as the prophets and the Psalms.

And then he opened their minds so they could understand the scriptures. Jesus, would you open our minds? He told them, this is what is written. The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. I'm going to send you what my father has promised, but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high. And when he had led them out of the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and they stayed continually at the temple, praising God. And Acts begins where Easter left off. With the resurrected Jesus, our resurrected King, eating tilapia and talking about the great commission. So I'm sending you out. You're going to the world. Remember many of them hadn't been more than 70 miles. He said, we're taking this thing worldwide. The world is going to know and I'm going to use you to do it. They're teenagers. Jesus said, I'm going to do it through you.

But before you do, here's what I want you to do. They're like, what do we do? He's like, I want you to go to Jerusalem and I want you to wait. I want you to wait for power from on high. Because I've got a purpose that's bigger than you and you need a power that's greater than you. Cross point, what we dream of God doing in our church, what we dream of God doing in our city. He's going to take a power that's greater than us. It's not by our intellect or it's not by our clever strategies. It's not by our plans. It's not by our acumen. It's not what we have in the natural. Just ordinary people with extraordinary God who longs to give his extraordinary spirit to his people. That we would be filled by his spirit and empowered for what he has for us. So what do we do? When we see the disciples, they went to Jerusalem and they waited. Some of you are wondering what happens next? Well, you'll have to wait till next week or you can read ahead, that's allowed. And you're going to see what God does. I can't wait for us to see what God does. He keeps his promise. He always keeps his promises. So what do we do?

We wait, we pray, we do what they did. We worship. We're going to worship. We're going to sing a song before we go. It's really our prayer. God fill us with your fullness. And I want you to think about this. The reason we have this book of Acts is because there was somebody who gave God his yes, who followed the spirit. I'm not talking about Luke, I'm talking about Theophilus. Somebody who's pretty much not known aside from this mention of his name, who said, okay, God, he didn't go on a mission trip. He wrote a check. He says, this is a story that I want to capture. This is a story that needs to be told. And because Theophilus said yes, I think about it. We wouldn't have the prodigal. One of my favorite stories is the prodigal son story. One of my favorite stories is the prodigal son story. We wouldn't have that unless Theophilus said yes. We wouldn't have this story that we're about to enter into. Theophilus had no idea what was on the other side of his yes. You have no idea what God could do on the other side of your yes. The invitation is to give him our yes and to go on a journey together,

a wild goose chase together. Because what you'll notice about a wild goose is they tend to not stay in isolation. They always find others and fly in formation. And so the invitation is for us to be in formation together for what God has in store. Let me pray for you and pray for us and then we'll worship together. Father, I thank you. Thank you for what you're doing, what you're beginning. And we just say yes. You just give him your yes. Just that's where your heart is. God, I want the more that you have for me. Father, I pray that even right now you'd fill us with your spirit. Pray for those that don't yet know Christ that today would be the day that they begin to follow. And for all of us who have given you our yes at salvation, will we give you our yes for a filling of the spirit? for the fullness of the spirit. And that God, that this song would be our prayer and a pouring out would be your response. And then our lives would be our obedience to love you and serve you and follow your spirit into the world. In Jesus' name we pray. Let's stand, let's sing together. There's a song that we will be singing today. Oh we're not, just tried to do what was just sung.

Nothing can stop our� Just keep on going in the world. If there'sn one person that's good at what we do then it is you. You are right here in this song. Aim high. This song is to You that we shall be. Here is the beginning. Amen. Amen. ♪ Promise ♪ ♪ Stirring in your sons and daughters ♪ ♪ Earth revealing heaven's wonders ♪ ♪ Spirit come, Spirit come ♪ ♪ What you spoke is now unfolding ♪ ♪ All your children shall behold it ♪ ♪ Dreams awakening and smoldering ♪ ♪ Spirit come, Spirit come ♪ ♪ So pour it out, let your love run cold ♪ ♪ Here and now, let your glory fill this house ♪ ♪ Pour it out, let your love run cold ♪ ♪ Here and now, let your glory fill this house ♪ ♪ Fill this house ♪ ♪ Now the world awaits your presence ♪ ♪ And this power is within us ♪ ♪ We will rise to be your witness ♪ ♪ Spirit come, Spirit come ♪ ♪ Pour it out, let your love run cold ♪ ♪ Here and now, let your glory fill this house ♪ ♪ Pour it out, let your love run cold ♪

♪ Here and now, let your glory fill this house ♪ ♪ Come and fill this house, come and fill our lives ♪ ♪ BCI, God is king! ♪ ♪ Drunk to fire, testifying of the Son, one desire ♪ ♪ Spirit come, Spirit come, speak revival ♪ ♪ Spirit come, Spirit come, drunk to fire ♪ ♪ Testifying of the Son, one desire ♪ ♪ Spirit come, Spirit come, speak revival ♪ ♪ Prophesy like it is done, one desire ♪ ♪ Spirit come, Spirit come, Spirit come, Spirit come ♪ ♪ Spirit come, Spirit come, Spirit come, Spirit come ♪ ♪ So let our hearts continue burning ♪ ♪ For our King is soon returning, as we hold to this assurance ♪ Spirit come, Spirit come, Spirit come, Spirit come.