Make Room | Part 2: Don't Make It Difficult | Chris Vaught

Go ahead, give it to him. I have filled the hands that bear the scars. Reach down and rescue me. I have known the love of the Father's heart. A prodigal, now redeemed, from where I was. To where I'm now, it's all the way I mean. The more and more, I see and more, all around me. Oh, I can't help but praise him, praise you Lord. And I can't help but leave the chance of joy. Who when I think about good and bad, faithful now I'll fill it. Oh, I can't help but praise him, praise you Lord. For the blood you spilled to save my life, that I cannot repay. For the cross you bore in open arms, a salvation that called my name, from where I was. To where I'm now, it's all the way I mean. The more and more, I see and more, all around me. Oh, I can't help but praise him, praise you Lord. Oh, I can't help but leave the chance of joy. Who when I think about good and bad, faithful now I'll fill the end. Oh, I can't help but praise him, praise you Lord. Oh, I can't help but leave cause I'm free. Got no chains on me, I'm healed and redeemed. Oh, I can't help but call on the name. I buried my chain, who opened my grave. Oh, I can't help but leave cause I'm free. Got no chains on me, I'm healed and redeemed. Oh, I can't help but call on the name. I buried my chain, who opened my grave. I can't help but praise him, praise you Lord.

And I can't help but leave the chance of joy. Who when I think about good and bad, faithful now I'll fill the end. Oh, I can't help but praise him, praise you Lord. Oh, I can't help but praise him, praise you Lord. Oh, I can't help but praise you, praise you Lord. Oh, I can't help but praise him, praise you Lord. And I can't help but leave the chance of joy. Who when I think about good and bad, faithful now I'll fill the end. Oh, I can't help but praise him, praise you Lord. I am an instrument of exaltation. And I was born to lift your name above all names. You hear the melody of all creation. But there's a song of praise that only I can bring. Come on, who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? Come on tell him today church, there is no one only you Jesus. Who else is worthy? There is no one, only you, Jesus. 'Cause you are the infinite God of the ages. And yet you chose to make my heart your dwelling place. You healed my brokenness, showed me your glory. So I have songs of things not even angels say. Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There's no one, there is no one, only you, Jesus. Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one, only you, Jesus. Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy?

There is no one, only you, Jesus. Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one, only you, Jesus. The Lamb of God, anointed one, who was and is and is to come. You're seated on. Come on church, let them hear you praise. Only, come on, all right, just one. You shed His blood. You prove to us that Father's love. Oh Jesus Christ, be lifted up. You're holy, holy. And Lamb of God, anointed one, who was and is and is to come. You're seated on the throne above, holy, holy. And right, just one, who shed His blood. You prove to us that Father's love. Oh Jesus Christ, be lifted up. You're holy, holy. You are, you are, the Lamb of God, anointed one, who was and is and is to come. You're seated on the throne above, holy, holy, and right, just one. You shed His blood. You prove to us that Father's love. Oh Jesus Christ, be lifted up. Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one, only you. Only you Jesus who else is worthy. Or who else is worthy? There is no one, only you Jesus. There is no one, only you Jesus.

There is no one, only you Jesus. Come on, let your praise today, Church. Oh, there's no one more worthy than you, Lord. Now it's a good day, it's a good day, and this is the day that the Lord has made. What a time to gather, amen, Church. For joining us online, I want to welcome you today. I want to welcome all of us in the room as well. And especially those that are new here. I want to say thank you for joining us, if you could. Scan the QR code on the screen or text the word guest at 573-340-4037. We just want to connect with you, get to know who you are, let you know who we are. Amen, today as you pulled on to the campus, even if it was your first time, you became a part of the CPC family. So we welcome you. It's a good day to gather in the house of the Lord as the body of Christ and as the bride of Christ. To lift our voices and praise to Him, to hear a word, it's just a good day. It's just a good day. We continue in our worship here in a moment, but as we have been doing, we're going to We believe here at CPC in the power of prayer. We've sang the name of Jesus, right? He's holy. He's worthy of all praise. But we also believe that there's power in that name. There's power to heal, power to restore. Amen. James 5 says that if you have a need, come and ask the church to pray for you. If you are sick, come and ask the elders to pray over you and anointing your head with oil in the name of Jesus. It says that a prayer of faith can heal. It goes on to say that a prayer of a righteous person

has great power as it is working. We're a church that believes in the power of prayer. And we believe that healing can happen today, that restoration can happen today. We believe that the miracles that we find in Scripture are not confined to those pages. But if God is willing today to do a work that only he can do, let it be done, amen. Amen. Here in just a moment, we're going to continue in our worship. Our prayer workers are going to lie in the stage. If you have a need today, if you walked in the doors in pain and you are believing that God can heal you today, which he can, I encourage you to come forward. If you have an ailment of the mind, come forward. We would love to agree in prayer with you today, church. Amen. Amen. Let's continue in worship. ♪ I will lift up a song ♪ ♪ A hallelujah to the Lord of hosts ♪ ♪ At all mine ♪ ♪ A great formality ♪ ♪ In adoration to the mighty one ♪ ♪ Eshadai ♪ ♪ I'm lifting up my hands ♪ ♪ In full surrender to creator God ♪ ♪ Elohim ♪ ♪ No greater joy than this ♪ ♪ To pour out every breath and worship Him ♪

♪ The great I am ♪ ♪ Breathe you in, I breathe you out ♪ ♪ Your way, your way ♪ ♪ Before I am ♪ ♪ With all I have ♪ ♪ Your way, your way ♪ ♪ The name of all the names ♪ ♪ I give you highest praise ♪ ♪ Breathe you in, I breathe you out ♪ ♪ Your way, your way ♪ ♪ I'm lifting up my hands ♪ ♪ In full surrender to creator God ♪ ♪ Elohim ♪ ♪ No greater joy than this ♪ ♪ To pour out every breath and worship Him ♪ ♪ The great I am ♪ ♪ Breathe you in, I breathe you out ♪ ♪ Your way, your way ♪ ♪ All I am, we all I have ♪ ♪ Your way, your way ♪ ♪ The name of all the names ♪ ♪ I give the highest praise ♪ ♪ Breathe you in, I breathe you out ♪ ♪ Your way, your way ♪ ♪ Breathe in your presence ♪ ♪ The great that you'll bring ♪ ♪ All your way ♪ ♪ All your way ♪ ♪ The reason I'm lifting ♪ ♪ The reason I'm breathing ♪

# Is to give you all the praise # # The reason I'm living # # The reason I'm breathing # # Is to give you all the praise # # Is to give you all the praise # # The reason I'm living # # The reason I'm breathing # # Is to give you all the praise # # Is to give you all my praise # # The reason I'm living # # The reason I'm breathing # # Is to sing your way # # Is to sing your way # # Breathe your name # # I breathe your mouth # # Your way # # Your way # # All I am # # With all I have # # Your way # # Your way # # The name of the morning # # For I give the highest praise # # Breathe your wind # # I breathe your mouth # # Your way # # Your way # # The reason I'm living # # The reason I'm breathing # ♪ Is to give you all the praise ♪

♪ Is to give you all the praise ♪ ♪ The reason I'm breathing ♪ ♪ The reason I'm breathing ♪ ♪ Is to sing now way ♪ ♪ Is to sing now way ♪ ♪ One more ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ Believe before only your way ♪ ♪ Your way ♪ ♪ Your way ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ Believe you and I'll breathe you out ♪ ♪ Your way ♪ ♪ I'll always think of you ♪ ♪ Only your ♪ ♪ The name of the Lord ♪ ♪ Give the highest praise ♪ ♪ I'll breathe you out ♪ ♪ Your way ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ This is the air I breathe ♪ ♪ This is the air I breathe ♪ ♪ Your holy presence ♪ ♪ Living in me ♪ ♪ This is my daily bread ♪ ♪ This is my daily bread ♪ ♪ Your very word ♪ ♪ Spoken to me ♪ ♪ And I ♪ ♪ I'm desperate for you ♪

(upbeat music) ♪ And I ♪ ♪ I'm lost without you ♪ ♪ And I ♪ ♪ I'm desperate for you ♪ ♪ And I ♪ ♪ I'm lost without you ♪ Lord, we need you. Apart from you, we can do nothing. But with you, we can do all things. Your word says that I can do all things through Christ, who gives me strength. So Lord, we pray that you would strengthen us, that you would give us the ability to be more like you, the way that we care for one another, the way that we love one another, the way that we serve our community. God help us be lights in dark places. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen, y'all may be seated. Welcome. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Jeremy. I'm the young adults pastor here at Connection Point. You guys could have been anywhere this morning and you chose to be with us. So we're so glad that you're here today. I will be out at the red tent in between services with my wife, Haley. And so if you are between the ages of 18 and 30,

we are desperately trying to get rid of 400 popsicles. And so we need your help. You can bring some of the kids too, trying to get rid of those things and would love to shake your hand and get to know you a little bit. You're also welcome to join us tonight. We have a young adults get together here at the church, opening doors at 530 and it starts at six. We're gonna have hamburgers and hot dogs and yard games and the works. And so would love for you guys to join us for that as well. Here at CPC, we believe that every person has a next step. And so if you're trying to figure out what your next step is, whether it's learning more about baptism or getting involved in a group of some kind or volunteering for the church, make sure you register for starting point. You can find that at your CPC.church/events. So you can learn more about us there and also your next step to growing closer to Jesus. We're gonna enter into a time of worshiping the Lord with our giving. Giving is an incredible opportunity for you to see God be faithful in your life. When we're faithful to trust the Lord with our finances, he's faithful to show up in big and powerful ways. And as a church, CPC has done a wonderful job of trusting the Lord with their finances.

This week, we were able to feed over 100 football players and 50 coaches from the Jackson High School football team. We had a dinner for them. Those boys are hungry. That's a big football team, y'all. That's a big team. I guess they got a win as well. So that's always nice. It's because they were coming to CPC and being prayed over before the game. I'm a firm believer in that. Yeah, that can only happen with your guys' generous giving. So thank you for that. There's lots of different ways that you can give. You can give by texting give to the number that you see on the screen, or you can go to your CPC.church/give. And then for all of us that are in the, what do we call this place, building sanctuary. Thank you. We have the drop-off boxes in the back so you can give there as well. Before we pray for the offering, I just want to mention there's giving with your finances, but also with your time and your talent. And we have a big need here at CPC. Our kids' church is growing and growing and growing and growing. And that is awesome. We also have in our kids' church this really cool part

where we are able to minister to special needs students. And so we need special needs buddies to be able to assist them during their time here at church. And so if you're a Jesus-loving, kid-loving adult and you have the ability to be able to be a part of that program, we would love to have you talk to Pastor Dee and his team about getting involved. So think about that as well, okay? Let's go ahead and pray for our offering. Father God, thank you so much for providing for us. Lord, you meet every single one of our needs. And Lord, we're so grateful that we have the opportunity to partner with you in making your mission come on earth as it is in heaven, your kingdom coming. And Lord, we pray that you would take the finances that are given today and that you would bless them and allow them to grow your kingdom. And Father, we pray for the students that are in kids' church. Lord, we pray that you would surround them with adults who love them, tell them about the hope of Christ, pray that they would be discipled, to become ambassadors of the gospel, that they would be lights and dark places, that they would reach their friends and their teachers, Alright. we just pray blessings over them and that you protect them. And Father, God, I pray for our time together today. Lord, I pray for Pastor Chris as he gives us this message, Lord, that you prepare our hearts

to be able to receive the truth that we have in Jesus' name. Amen. - Amen. Well, if you love the Lord and what a beautiful time of prayer this morning and worship, if you're as thankful to be in God's house or watching online, can we give Jesus like seven seconds of our best praise this morning? Come on. (congregation cheering) Come on. (congregation cheering) There we go. There we go. Amen. Super excited to see you all. Give someone beside you, around you, a fist bump this morning. Say good morning. Glad to see you here today. Glad to have you at CPC. Super excited you're here. We are into a reading plan. If you're new to the church, we're into this reading plan guys, that I'd love for you to pick up and start reading with us this week if you're bringing you to the church. You can get a download, a copy of it off our website or pick up a hard copy there at the next step station.

But here's how it works. Right, we're reading the New Testament this year and the book of Psalms. And it's one chapter a day, five days a week, so easy, small section of Psalms every day. And we're just reading through this. Then when we come together on Sundays, I'm preaching from somewhere that you read this week. So this week, our church read Acts chapter 10 to Acts chapter 15. Today, I'm gonna preach a message from Acts chapter 15. So get your Bibles, your journals, whatever you like, take notes with. We do encourage that. And in a moment, we're gonna go to Acts chapter 15 together. While we're doing that, I'm super excited you're here. Yesterday I was doing a lot of traveling. I was preaching to a funeral in Kentucky. And I met a lot of folks. Seemed like everywhere I went yesterday, people was coming up to me going, "Hey, I watched CPC online." And people are like, I have one dude come up to me and show me a picture on his phone and say, "Hey bro, every Sunday you're on my 100 inch TV in my house." I say, "Bro, here's what you do. You start inviting people into your house to watch it on that 100 inch TV. We'll call you a campus." Come on, so I got, we got to start five

and 10 years ago, no one thought about it. Hey, would you in-house right now let our online campus know how much we do love and appreciate you for watching? Come on, we love you guys. Thank you. Wherever you are, thank you. (laughing) And if it is your first time being here today, right after the service, I'm gonna be out in the lobby, right outside these sets of doors. Please come by and say hello. I love chance just to meet you. And thank you for being here. Few things I wanna share with you real quickly. One of them, we're in this initiative. So we're preaching through the reading plan, so it's hard to do a series. But because we're in the book of Acts, it's a little easier for four weeks at least. We're doing this little initiative in-house. We're calling make room. And so last week we talked about Acts chapter eight about sometimes God has to make room in our heart to share the gospel with other people, especially people that we may normally not hang out with. And we learned that through Philip in the Ethiopian. Today we're gonna go to chapter 15. And we're gonna address something else that's very important for us as we go forward making room in our hearts for others to meet Jesus.

And so please listen in carefully today, maybe you're here and you're not even a Christian yet. And you may have felt like there were walls put up between you and getting to God. Today we're gonna talk about that. And I pray those walls come tumbling down. And for us who shared Jesus, I pray we don't put up walls for anyone else. The title of this today is Don't Make This Difficult. And one of the things we never wanna lose in our church is this invite culture. We wanna be able to invite people to come to church. And last week a part of the make room and only in 10 o'clock because we're like 90% to capacity and people in overflow. By the way, let's give it up to people in overflow this morning. Hi guys, we love you. You're rock stars over there. But anyway, we challenged 150 of you to scan this QR code. And to say I'm willing to move to the 1145 service where we have a few seats left. And that way we can keep this invite culture so that you have a place to invite someone to come and sit. I know that you see there are a few little patches of seats here this morning. That's because out of the 150, when we came into this service this morning, 147 people have already registered to go to 1145.

They're rock stars, let's give it up for them. Come on, they're making room so you can keep inviting people to come to church. And listen, we're gonna allow this sign up for one more, for today's the last day. If you wanna pray about moving to the 1145, so you can keep inviting people. And it also opens up room in here. Please take advantage of that today. What you'll get is a free make room t-shirt and a make room bracelet that we're giving to you. If we're never gonna sell those from the store, that's just us saying thank you for being willing And on top of that, as you know, we've bought the car lot across from the roundabout. It's been renovated to a next-gen building. We talked to you about that last week. And when it's up and going, here's a beautiful thing it's going to do for this campus is we can run simultaneous services with live worship over there, the LED wall that used to be behind me here. We'll be on the stage over there. And so when I'm preaching here, I'm preaching on that stage as well. And we'll be able to run those services so we can keep inviting people at either spot here in Jackson. That's pretty cool, right? On top of that, I couldn't say this from the stage last week because they were announcing it at BOCO. But I can say it now because it's out there.

BOCO announced last Sunday because God's blessing that campus as well. They're going to three services in the middle of October. Come on, somebody. Amen. They won't even be two years old until November. And they're already going to three services. To God be the glory. Great things He is doing. Amen. And here's the thing, we just don't want to hinder that. We want to continue going on. I let the cat out of the bag a few weeks ago on this. But this week, the newest edition of Outreach Magazine hit the new stands. It's their annual 100 largest churches, fastest growing churches in America. And for the third year running connection point church is in this, there's even an article that talks about connection point church in this edition this year. We are number 79 in the country right here out of South East Missouri. Come on, somebody. That's what God is doing. Now, if you think this is about numbers, you're totally wrong. This is all about us being on mission to tell as many people as possible between now and the return of Jesus how to meet Jesus. And that means people, right? And we want to reach people.

And you're like, aren't you never satisfied until Jesus comes? Because there's always someone who's yet to hear the gospel. And today what my title is this is don't make it hard for them. And that's what I want to dive into. Last thing I'm going to do, and then we're going to pray and get into the Word. And I'm only going to do this today. I'm not going to bring it back up after today. And I'm only doing this because we grew a few hundred people this summer. And maybe you don't know about this. It's just a little blur for you because registrations are getting ready to end in a couple of weeks. And that is, Lisa and I, we enjoy taking people on tours to biblical sites around the world about every 15, 16 months. We've been to Turkey, the seven churches of Revelation. We've been to Greece last year. In February, we're going to take a group to Egypt. And we're going to start on Cairo. We're going to do three days down the Nile River. We're going to end at the Red Sea and at Mount Sinai. And if that's something you're interested in, you can go to our website. On the events page and you learn all about it or stop at next step station. That's the last shameless plug you're going to hear about. I just want some of you new folks to know we do this. And if it's something you're interested in,

we have an incredible time. And it really makes the Bible come alive when you actually are walking in these places where you're reading about and staying about every week in church, amen? So shameless plug there, last time. Here we go. Let's pray and get into the scripture. We're in Acts chapter 15 today. If, Father, it is our heart's desire that as we open our eyes to these scriptures, that you allow us to see great truth, that our ears are able to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, that our hearts can grab a hold of what you want to say to us today and our minds can comprehend it. 'Cause God, our desire is to look more like you and less like us. So Jesus, we pray through your word today and through the Holy Spirit, you give us minds built on truth, that we may have voices full of hope, that we may live lives with hearts of compassion, working with hands of service as we live out with feet of purpose. 'Cause God, our desires to be more like you and less like us go be salt and light in a world that desperately needs us to go and to shine and to show them who you are. So God, we ask this and we pray at all in Jesus' mighty name and all God's people said, amen, amen, amen. - Well, some of you have studied this, read about it

in history, the Berlin Wall. For three decades, the Berlin Wall separated east from West Germany, but it did more than just create a boundary line, it was actually put in place to prevent people from crossing from one side over to the other. This was a horrendous act in the life of Germany. It actually separated families, families who were one day eating dinner together the next day as concrete barriers and bobbed wire and guards were put into place. Wasn't welcoming anymore on to the other side of the street and for three decades Families and friends and a whole country was divided against one another This was a horrible time in Germany's history, but then something happened on November the 9th 1989 a confusing Announcement went out about new travel arrangement laws throughout Germany and it created hysteria So what once was binding people up and folks couldn't get over to the other side all of a sudden now They rushed to the checkpoints They overwhelmed the guards and people climbed up on the wall the Berlin Wall and with whatever they could they began to just Chip at it and chip at it and chip at it until they were able to break the wall down And for the first time in 30 years the East and the West were able to come back together Families were restored and reunited and the whole world celebrated I don't know if you if you're my age or up you remember Ronald Reagan with one of his most famous quote Standing at this wall and calling out govert chef and saying mr Govert chef, please tear down this wall and what I love about the story is it wasn't the government that tore it down It was the people It was the people who stood up and said this wall that has divided us must come down Here's something I want us to think about as we open our Bibles today And that is this the difference between showing someone the way and there's a difference between showing them away or standing in their way

when you open your Bibles to Acts chapter 15 The church of Jesus Christ is growing Persecution ran Christians out of Jerusalem last week. We're in Acts chapter 8 We looked at Philip a deacon of the church in Jerusalem And when the persecution came he ran off to Samaria and started sharing the gospel And now the gospel spread to Samaria and then we saw how the Holy Spirit led him to a person that he would have never even Associated with an Ethiopian unit after you leave from that you start seeing Peter goes in Acts chapter 10 You read it this week. He goes that he goes to the house of a Roman Centurion Named Cornelius and it's the first time the gospel is shared with a Roman Soldier and his whole household Comes to faith in Jesus and so now all of a sudden the gospel is hitting into Gentile communities and by the time you come to Acts chapter 15 Paul and Barbus have started their missionary journeys and now the gospel is spreading It's about to go into Macedonia to Greece and to Europe and it's just spreading everywhere and people are coming to faith in Jesus How many of you in this room and watching online still believe today that Jesus is the hope of the world That he is the greatest message ever heard or preached How many others salvation and no one else other than Jesus? I don't care what the bumper stickers say in traffic There is no other way unto the Father except through the Sun. We believe that we preach that here and When that message gets preached around the world people start finding hope in Jesus And that's what was happening in the early church people these Gentiles Non-Jews that's all that means if you're like what's a Gentile a non-Jewish civilian, right? So it's not Jewish born he is now here in the gospel and they're coming to faith in Jesus And when they start coming to faith in Jesus all of a sudden the early church is faced with something that I want us to address this Morning as God continues to bless connection point church as God continues to give us opportunities To share the gospel with others. We're gonna at times in our personal lives and as a church We're gonna be faced are you listening John listen with the same universal issue But the early church found themselves facing in Acts chapter 15 And this is the question the early church had to answer as Gentiles are now coming to Jesus

And it's the same one you and I are going to have to grapple with as we share the gospel with more and more people The early church had to answer this question Can we as Christians? Make it difficult for people to come to Jesus And you've got a wrestle with that a little bit is it possible for us who love Jesus? Maybe even unintentionally Make it more difficult for other people to come to Jesus based off of whatever temple or traditions, or the value systems that we were raised with, can we add that to the gospel and make it harder for other people to meet Jesus? That's exactly what the early church was having to wrestle with in Acts chapter 15. So here's what we're gonna do today. We're gonna look at the problem, the process, and the practice that the early church followed so we can learn from them so we help people find their way to Jesus without us getting in their way. I want God to do something. We got a model here at CPC. We wanna see Jesus do a work here that only Jesus can get the credit for, amen? How many know if that's doing to be the case, and we all pray this, right? We all pray this. How many of you have ever prayed? God send revival. God move through the power of your whole, God draw all people everywhere to Jesus. God move in our land.

God bless our country. God bless our nation. God bless our world. God draw people. Here's what Jesus said one time. Watch this. This is why we wrestle with this, right? Jesus one time prayed or said. He said about the Holy Spirit. He says he comes in at times like the wind. You don't know where the wind comes from. You don't know where the wind's going. You just feel the essence or the presence of the wind. How many know sometimes God moves, and he moves on people in ways that we just, he's like, well, I didn't see that coming, amen? Here's the thing, here's the thing, church. And here's where the early church was at. God was doing exactly what they prayed for. God, we want you to move. God, we want people to be saved. We want lives to be changed. We want marriages to be restored. We want our young people to find their purpose in you. And when God started to do that, all of a sudden people started getting nervous because it's moving, the wind's blowing, and you can't control it. And what is the temptation of humanity? We got to control it.

We got to make sure we can make sure it stays and makes sense. And so we start putting our hands on it. Look up here, congregation, let me tell you something. The moment we pray and ask the Holy Spirit to work and do a work only, Jesus can get the Creator for him once he starts doing it. And we feel tempted to put our hands on it and try to control it. It's the moment we begin to quench what the Holy Spirit's trying to do. We can actually become the hindrance in the name of Jesus. And so this is what the church had to face. And listen, I promise you, there's times in our church and in your own individual life, as you want God to move, you're gonna have to wrestle with this a little bit. So what is the problem and the process and the practice? Number one, let's look at the problem and write this down. We have to make sure we don't make faith harder than it needs to be because it's so easy to do. But we can't make faith harder than what it needs to be. So remember, I told you that in Acts chapter 15, the early church, they're going out, they're spreading the gospel, they're just preaching Jesus, crucified, risen from the dead, all who call in the name of the Lord shall be saved, Cornelius and his household just got saved. I mean, just God's moving. Look at what happens in Acts 15. Some men came down from Judea and began to teach the brothers,

look at what they said, "Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom prescribed by who? Moses, you can't read the last line 'cause this is the one that's hard to swallow. You cannot be saved." Now, let's get the context of this. Who are these men coming down from Judea? These are Jews who've converted to Christ. These are Jewish Christians and where are they going? They're not going to a Jewish community, they're going to where Gentiles, non-Jews, have just received the gospel. They even call them brothers. They've been recognized. These are men and women who have said yes to Jesus, they've given their lives to Jesus. But then these Jewish Christians, who by the way, grew up under very strict Jewish lols. They grew up with dietary restrictions. You cannot eat catfish in the Jewish dietary lols. How many of you would just like fall over right there? No lobster, no crawfish, no crawfish boys for you anymore, right? I mean, that's a bad day. Come on, somebody. No crab, no shrimp, you can't have it. But they also grew up having to observe certain festivals and watching the new moon and different festivals that went with that and all these Jewish traditions. Nothing wrong with any of them.

Most of all of them, as you study them in the Old Testament, pointed to the coming of Jesus. Jesus said, I didn't come to destroy the law, I came to fulfill it. Here's the deal. Jesus fulfilled the law, but early Jewish Christians were can turned to continue the law with Jesus. Instead of letting him fulfill it, saying how everything pointed to him, They thought you had to be Jewish and Christian together. And so here's what they did. They came into this church that didn't look Jewish at all. They're not looking like Jews, they're not eating like Jews, they're not acting like Jews. And they said, unless you are according to the custom prescribed by Moses, you cannot be saved. Is that the gospel? No, it was an addition. Now you may read that and say they were malicious. These are just wolves in sheep's clothing and probably some of them were, but I don't believe they all were. I believe some of them were sincere. They just thought that the same, watch this, the same template by which they came to faith was a prescribed template everyone else had to follow to come to faith. And I want to tell you something, even in our world today, even in our generation, that is easy to fall into if we're not careful.

We will say Jesus, and if you truly come to Jesus, this is what it'll look like for you, or this is how you will respond to it. And sometimes we bring in additional requirements on everyone else. Listen, the gospel isn't difficult and it usually doesn't mess people up. It's what we add to the gospel. Does anybody want to say amen? I know there's some of you in this room and watching a lot, you may have been hindered from coming to faith, not because of the gospel, but because of what was added to the gospel by whatever tradition you grew up around. Someone may have told you it's Jesus and, see not all walls are made out of concrete, ladies and gentlemen, like the Berlin Wall. Some walls are built up by traditions and preferences and culture and language and expectations. Here's the thing you need to understand. Jesus didn't add any of the Jewish traditions onto the people who were coming to him in faith. He didn't add to the gospel, we do. And that's the reason why we need to read Acts chapter 15, pull back for a moment and ask ourselves a question, is there anything we're doing today that's making it hard for people to come to Jesus? Are we adding anything to the gospel? And just set back for a moment and make sure that as we go forward in the name of Jesus,

we preach the gospel and we don't add to it. See, here's something I want you to write down on your notes somewhere. It's rarely the cross that trips someone up on the way to Jesus. It's usually us. We're the ones that usually kind of make it a little more difficult. Let me give you a great illustration. Today, he's looked at as one of the greatest missionaries in the last couple of hundred years, right? I mean, like mission works, like looked at this guy, like he's a role model, Hudson Taylor. Hudson Taylor in the mid-1800s was a missionary to China. But if you were in 1865, 1866 and the name Hudson Taylor came up, you wouldn't have said role model for missionaries if you were in the church, if you were in the church, you would have said scandalous because that's how he was viewed. Here's the reason why. In 1865, 1866, Hudson Taylor realized he was a British missionary in China with little to no success. And he made a conscious decision. I need to quit adding Western attire and Western traditions into the presentation of the gospel to the Chinese who know nothing about my British traditions. And so he did something. He changed the way he dressed every day. And he started dressing in Chinese attire.

He changed his hair and he started wearing the Chinese cue. And all of a sudden, scandal broke out around him, but the problem and the heat didn't come from the Chinese. It came from other British missionaries. And this is what Hudson Taylor looked like when he made the change in his dress code and the way he wore his hair. And all of a sudden, he started coming down on the level of the Chinese. In fact, he and the missionaries adopted the teacher wardrobe because that was middle class and he could speak to the elite and he could speak to the poor and he was right there in the middle and he could fit in among the Chinese. And they were open now to hear this man who was understanding their culture and then telling them the gospel. Here's what the Western missionaries got upset about. They believe that their Western suits that they wanted all their preachers to wear. Thank God y'all don't make me wear a suit. (audience laughs) I'm happy being known as the T-shirt preacher. Today I dressed up for you. I put on a golf shirt, right? There's a polo, so listen. I did a funeral yesterday in Kentucky wearing a full suit in the heat. Yeah, I was drenched in sweat. I got in a car, I told my wife, I love CPC.

I said, "Can I take this off now?" She said, "Yeah, baby." I was like, "I love you." He was like, "I'm burning up." What's this? They believed that wearing Western suits gave them the protection, the prestige, and the power of the flag. What Chinese national caret anything about the British flag? No one. In fact, it went deeper than that. British missionaries listened to this, believed and expected that converts should adopt Western dress and manners as evidence. Watch this, watch this, watch this. That they had truly become Christian. So they judged the Chinese by if they were truly Christian now or not, not by living out the gospel, but by whether or not they looked and dressed British. And I know what you're thinking, some of you're thinking, how silly. Look up here and let me tell you something. If we're not careful, we do the same thing in our culture today. You know, we want you to look this way or act this. Listen, let me tell you something. We're not the Holy Spirit. If we truly get people to Jesus,

I know what some people are afraid of. They're afraid. Oh, well, if we lead people to Jesus and we don't give them all this extra stuff, then they'll never change and they'll just have Jesus and they'll still live in their sin. Look at me. If Jesus is truly Lord of all, not just someone you think that will get you out of hell, but when you surrender your life and receive true salvation, you're receiving Him as Lord and Master of your life. Then you're going to bring Him your whole life. And the Holy Spirit knows how to get inside our hearts and do the work of conviction and put His finger on things and where we need to change. And the Holy Spirit's a really good clean master. Can I get an amen from somebody? Amen. How many of you have had Him put His finger on some areas of your life? - Yes. - And how many think God, He chose one area at one at a time and when He worked on that, then He moved to the other and He didn't do it all at one time.

'Cause if He'd done them all at one time, look at your neighbor and say, "You would have went poof." (congregation laughing) Amen. How about you online? We wouldn't have been around home. How many shall He steal working on me? Sanctification is not a one time moment, it is a lifetime process. Salvation is instant. Sanctification takes a life. Amen. Watch this. This was the problem. They were looking at these early Gentile Christians and they're saying, "Man, I'm glad you accepted Jesus, but you don't look like we look." And so they had this problem they had to deal with and we're gonna have that from time to time. And this wasn't just a one time occurrence either. You go read Galatians chapter five and in Galatians chapter five, some Judaizers came into Galatia and that's Turkey and did the same thing. They told these Turkish Christians, you don't look like Jewish Christians. And Paul writes in Galatians chapter five verse one, listen to this, "For freedom Christ sets us free." Stand firm then in and don't submit again

to a yoke of slavery. The word yoke there means a teaching. And what Paul was saying was, is if Christ has set you free, don't add some other teaching on you that is Jesus plus that just ties you up and draws you back into the very slavery, Jesus just set the Jews free from. We all got traditions and cultures and preferences and none of that's wrong unless you add it as a prerequisite of salvation and you add it to the gospel. Don't make it Jesus and. So how did the early church deal with this? Here's the problem, we got to face the same problem. They learned to wrestle with the hard questions and this is okay and I believe this is important. I'm beloved Dr. Luke put this in here because we need to be able to wrestle with these questions when we're struggling with Jesus and for whatever it is, we need to be able to pull back and face it. You don't just wipe it away. You don't just push it off to the side. You don't get arguments over it and you don't separate or divide the family over it. You discuss it and you go back to scripture and you let the scriptures decide it for you. That's what we see in this early church. Look at how they responded, verse two. After Paul and Barnabas, I love this, I love this. Paul and Barnabas had engaged with them

and let's all read it out loud 'cause it's just fun to read in scripture. Serious argument and debate. How many believe Paul and Barnabas was a little upset? You're telling them they got to look like you to have Jesus? Come on, bro, let's have this conversation, right? And it got a little heated and Paul and Barnabas and some others, watch this, watch this. Here's the wisdom of the early church. They appointed them to go up to the apostles and elders in Jerusalem about this issue. Now, the beautiful thing about this is this shows you that even in a missionary planted church apostles here to help give them guidance, not to control or rule over them, but to give them some wisdom and guidance. And so they send to them, hey, can you give us some counsel on this topic? The apostles and the elders gathered together and considered a matter. Watch this. After there had been, read it with me, much debate. Peter stood up. Now, watch this. This is beautiful. Peter stands up and says, he gives a testimony, "Brothers, you're aware that in the early days God made a choice among you that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the gospel message and believe in God who knows the heart, bore witness to them by watches, watches, watches, giving them the Holy Spirit just like he did to us." Now, how many of you know if God is going to save and the Holy Spirit is going to feel believers, it's kind of hard for us to argue that it'll work of God. Amen? And he said, "He made no distinction between us and them." Watch this. Watch this. Read this last time. Read it with me. "Clensing their hearts by faith, not by faith and the Jewish restrictions or the new moons or the love Moses." Watch this. After they stopped speaking, James. Everybody shout, James? This is not Peter, James, and John. That James, this is James, the half brother of Jesus who's the pastor of the church in Jerusalem who history will tell you is probably the most traditional Jewish traditionalist of the group. But I love his heart and wisdom. Watch this. James responded, "Brothers, listen to me. Simon has reported how God first intervened to take from the Gentiles a people for his name

and the words of the prophets agree with this as it is written." And here's what James does. He goes back to Amos, chapter 9, Isaiah, chapter 45, and he quotes Old Testament prophets who declared there was coming a day that Jesus, that God would do his Messiah, would bring salvation to the Gentiles. And here's what I want us to gather church at times when we're in our own personal lives or as a church and we're reaching people with the good news of God's gospel. And we're seeing God change lives. And all of a sudden we're like, "Yeah, but this looks differently than what I'm accustomed to or I'm used to. It's okay to have that discussion." But here's where the finality must come to bring us to a conclusion. Are you ready for this? We must go back and see what the testimony is. This is what the early church did. They heard testimonies from Peter. Peter says, "Listen, I preached in Cornelius' house. You read that in Acts chapter 10. And that man and his whole family were saved and filled with the Holy Spirit." Paul and Barnabas said, "We're going all over Turkey and people are being saved and lives are being changed." And then James gets up and says, "Plus the Old Testament scriptures tells us this is exactly what God will do." And when you have testimony and scripture together, this is how the early church always told the difference. Watch this between what's cultural tradition and what is divine truth. So here's where we're at. We have to be careful not to let our preferences become doctoring, but understand what doctrine is. What is the truth of Scripture? What is the true gospel wrestle with it and come down? So how do we do that? We listen honestly. We watch where God is working, see where the Spirit of God is moving, and then we go back to Scripture and we test everything against the Scriptures. Not against our preferences against Scripture, amen? And then what did the early church do? Number three, they made the wise decision. Let's remove the barriers. Let's remove anything that is going to hinder someone from coming to Jesus. And this is what James stands up and says in Acts 15 verse 19, look at it with me. Let's read it out loud in house online, ready to go. Therefore, in my judgment, and I love that. You know what this is? This is James saying, "Mike, drop right here, boys and girls." This, I'm putting my foot down on this one. This is my judgment. Therefore in my judgment, we should not read it with me. Regal, cause difficulties for those among the Gentiles who turn to God. How many of you in this room and online are thankful? Someone told you a simple gospel about a wonderful Savior who was born, who lived, who died, and who rose again, who said, "All who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." How many of you in the room and watching online can give God praise that someone told you a simple gospel, you with simple

faith. You didn't know everything. You didn't know what you didn't know that you didn't know, but you knew that. And you put your faith in Jesus and he radically changed your life. Amen? Remove the barriers. Now, But they may not look just like you at first either Because there is a a spectrum of lifetime of sanctification process. It's got to take place We don't all get start the same place We don't all get to the end at the same time either amen come on somebody lose your neighbor and tell him you're still in process Aren't you that's all you got to say to them you're still right? Yeah, they're looking at you and saying yeah, and so are you bro? And I'm ahead of you right now amen We're all still in process amen But here's what James does James doesn't and it's a lot of wisdom and I want you to capture this James doesn't say just all right But now let's leave let's Jews do it or Gentiles do whatever they want They actually did give three let pieces of instruction Three things for the early Gentile church to abstain from and there's a reason for it. I'm gonna show it to you real fast First thing he says is let's tell them to abstain from food offered to idols Let's tell them not to eat meat strangled in blood and don't be involved in sexual immorality You say why are those three? Verse 21 gives us the answer and they says this letter was going out to all these Gentile churches That were in areas where the gospel or the message of Moses had already been preached That means there's always already Jewish synagogues and a Jewish representation in these cities where the gospel was going and These Jews were coming to faith in Christ just like the Gentiles were and here's the beautiful thing What used to be a dividing wall? has now been broken down and now Jews and Gentiles are worshiping Jesus in the same church and The three pieces of advice that James and the apostles give them all deal with three very strongly and Somewhat cultural issues that brought division between Jews and Gentiles in those communities The Gentiles offered meat to false gods on idols and then after they'd offer it They take the meat back up take it to the marketplace sell it cook it and eat it and The Jews said oh, I can't do that because it hurts my conscience Because it was offered to a false God also strangled with blood And that went against Jewish restrictions and then the whole issue of sexual immorality that I even need to explain that one

That's like cross-cultural right and and and the Jews were like it's hard for me to worship with someone who is offensive Toward me in matters. They know bothers me and what Romans chapter 14 was written for and Acts chapter 15 Right these restrictions are theirs. Look at me. Look at me. Look at me. We are one another's keeper and Though there's nothing added to the gospel We do need to look for those cultural things that we may be okay with but may be very offensive or hard for someone else To accept and it could literally divide the family of God. And so watch this watch this You don't add to the gospel But at the same time we are to address those things that are cultural and unnecessary And that way we can keep what is moral and unifying in the body of Christ And so you have to be able to have discussions to be able to figure those pieces out That's what I love about this church. That's what I love about what how then their practice was is to remove the barriers That didn't need to be there to keep the church unified See here's the thing we got to remember not everything that feels sacred to us actually is Not everything that we might like is like gospel. We need to be able to focus on what is gospel and As we're reaching people the gospel and sharing our testimonies Let's get them to Jesus and let Jesus do the rest of work We want everyone to have a testimony like CS Lewis who wrote mere Christianity and the chronicles of Narnia He said the Christian does not think God will love us because we are good If you get if you add anything to the gospel We're saying God will accept me if I receive Jesus and and the gospel is not Jesus and it's God doesn't love us because we're good God makes us good because he already loves us can I get an amen from somebody? How many are thankful to God for that? So here's the challenge Let's focus. Let's let us hold the gospel as a non-negotiable and in this church. Here's what I can promise you We're not gonna ever water down the gospel. We're gonna preach on sin. We're gonna preach on holiness We're gonna preach on heaven and hell and we're gonna call people to put their faith and trust in the one true God through his son Jesus Christ and we're never gonna back down from that and we're never gonna be ashamed of that. We're never gonna be ashamed of the gospel But we're going to work really, really hard to make sure we don't. We're going to hold our preferences loosely.

And I would challenge you as a Christian, as you're sharing the gospel with folks, make sure that you hold the gospel prominent and your personal preference is very loose. Don't be a wall that keeps someone from meeting Jesus. John Newton wrote Amazing Grace. How many know that song? Oh him, Amazing Grace, you love it? Beautiful, right? Did you know that before he became a Christian, he was a slave trader? And one day he was reflecting on the crazy transformation God made in his life. And he started writing a letter. And in the letter, here's what John Newton stated. He said, I'm not what I ought to be. I mean, he knew he knew that he was still in the process of sanctification, right? I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I want to be. Anybody want to be more like Jesus? But lo is this line, "But still I am not what I want used to be." Can I get a testimony? Everybody read this last line with me. "But by the grace of God, I am what I am." Amen? Amen. Jesus meets us right where we are and he can bring us salvation. And then he begins the process of growing us in our faith.

So here's your big takeaway, just write this down, get us in your heart and your spirit. Let's be a church, let's be a people that doesn't guard the door. We don't make it hard for people to come to Jesus. In fact, let's clear the path to Jesus. Let's just bring people to Jesus and let the Holy Spirit do the rest of the work because he will. He's an expert at it, amen? But let's bring them to Jesus. Let's point the way, let's clear the path to Jesus. Let's be like Paul who in Romans chapter one verse 16 said this, let's say it out loud together. Ready for I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes first to the Jew, also to the Greek in this house and online. Can I ask you CPC? How many of you are not ashamed of the gospel? It is not, we're not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God. It's what led us to Jesus. And this one can save our next door neighbor. Some of you went to school this week and you've got classmates. Let me encourage you. When God opens the door for you, don't be ashamed to tell your new friends about Jesus or invite them to church.

Some of you just moved in a new neighborhood. Don't be ashamed to go meet your neighbors. Let them know you go to church, invite them, or even tell them your God's story, how Jesus saved your life. Some of you go to work tomorrow. Don't be ashamed if God opens the door for you. Don't ever be ashamed of the God's. Don't add anything to it. Just tell them the simple gospel. Jesus lived, Jesus died, Jesus rose again. And all who call the name of the Lord can receive eternal life. He'll change your life. He'll change your mind. How about you? - Amen. - Amen. Let's stand together. Let's go to the Lord in prayer as a family. Father in Jesus' name, thank you for this morning. Thank you for the simple gospel. But God, thank you that once we come to faith, and it doesn't stop there, it just begins there. Then we have this whole lifetime of you molding us and maturing us, sanctifying us, growing us to become more like you. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, God. Father, today, as individuals and as a church, let us never make it hard for people to get to Jesus. God, let it be the cross, only the cross

that causes someone to stumble. Let it not be us. Let us point them to you, and if they climb over the cross and get you, let them receive eternal life, and then Holy Spirit do the work only you can do in their lives. So Father, help us to love you, to be more like you, to live out the hearts of compassion with voices of hope as we do our service and live out our purpose, because our minds have been made new through the Word of God. Father, we love you in Jesus. Name, head, stay bow. Maybe you're in the room or watching online. Today, you've never given your heart to Jesus. You've heard me talk about this simple gospel. And there's a shimini wall is to keep you from Jesus. I'm telling you, my friend, there's no wall today to keep you from Jesus, but the wall you put up in your own heart. If you'll tear that down and realize Jesus loves you, he knows you, he brought you here, he tuned you in today on purpose. I'm telling you today, you can be forgiven of sin, you can have eternal life, you can begin a relationship with Almighty God. Jesus loves you and there's nothing holding you back. Will you say yes to him today?

Heads bow, no one's looking around. I can't do it for you, I can guide you. But this is a sincere prayer from your own heart. You may say, I don't know a whole lot. Listen, if you believe in Jesus, and today you wanna invite him to be the Lord of your life, that's where you start, that's all you need. He'll take you from there. Would you pray this prayer with me right where you're at in this room online? Lord Jesus, I believe you are the Son of God. I believe you died on the cross and rose from a grave. I believe you love me. And today you're inviting me into your family. Jesus forgive me of all my sin. The best I know how I receive you right now is my own Lord and savior. I surrender my life to following after you. Fill me with your Holy Spirit. Take over my life, Jesus. From this day forward, I'm gonna follow you. And I receive you now in Jesus' name. All God's people said. Come on, let's give God a praise this morning. (congregation clapping) Bye. You