The Redemptive Church [LIVE] - 05/03/2026

Grace Way, it's so good to see y'all today. How y'all feeling? Y'all feeling all right? Some good, some... Okay, okay. All right. In you, O Lord, we take refuge. Into your hands, we commit our spirit. We are living stones built together on the cornerstone of Christ. Once we were not a people, now we are God's people. So let us worship the God who claims us and calls us by name. We gather in gratitude, belonging to the one who made us his own. Father God, in the name of Jesus, you speak peace to troubled hearts and open the way to the Father. As we gather, steal our anxious minds and turn our eyes toward you. You are the way we walk, the truth we trust, and the life we have been given. Lead us deeper into that life. In Jesus' mighty name, we pray. Amen. Come on, let the church say amen. Come on, say amen. Thank you, Jesus. Whether you're viewing online or in person for the first time, welcome to Grace Way. Come on and sing along with us. I praise in the valley, I praise on the mountain. I praise when I'm sure, I praise when I'm doubting. I praise when I'm numbered, I praise when surrounded. Because praise is the water my enemies drown in. Come on, if you have breath in your body. As long as I'm breathing, I've got a reason to praise the Lord, oh my soul.

Praise the Lord, oh my soul. I'll praise when I'm feeling, I'll praise when I don't. I'll praise when I know you're still in control. Because my praise is a weapon, it's more than a sound. My praise is the shout that brings Jericho down. Come on, make this declaration. As long as I'm breathing, I've got a reason to praise the Lord, oh my soul. I've got a reason to praise the Lord, oh my soul. I won't be quiet, my God is alive. How could I keep it inside? Praise the Lord, oh my soul. Praise the Lord. Come on, turn to your neighbor and say, I've got a reason to praise the Lord. He woke me up this morning, so I've got a reason to praise the Lord. I see you, I see you. I praise because you're silent, praise because you reign. I praise cause you rose and defeated the grave. I praise because you're faithful, praise cause you're true. Praise cause there's nobody greater than you. I praise cause you're silent, praise cause you reign. I praise cause you rose and defeated the grave. I praise cause you're faithful, praise cause you're true. Praise cause there's nobody greater. Praise, praise the Lord of my soul. I've got no reason to pray, praise the Lord of my soul. Praise, praise the Lord of my soul. Praise, praise the Lord of my soul. Say I won't be quiet. I won't be quiet, my God is alive. How could I keep it inside?

I won't be quiet, my God is alive How could I keep it inside? Say I won't be quiet. I won't be quiet, my God is alive. Oh did I keep it inside. Praise, praise God. Come on, find you a little room and praise the Lord! Let everything that has breath praise Jesus Lord in this place! It's entitled Jesus Be The Name. So come on and lift your hands as we worship King Jesus. It's sweeter every time that I call on. There's just something about your name. There's just something about your name. There's just something about your name that makes me cry holy. There is no other name. There is no other name. There is no other name. Jesus, you're worthy. You have been the friend who never left. I won't forget your faithfulness. Jesus be the name ever on my lips. It's sweeter every time that I call on. There's just something about your name. There's just something about your name. There's just something about your name that makes me cry holy. There is no other name. There is no other name. There is no other name. Jesus, you're worthy. There's just something about your name.

There's just something about your name. There's just something about your name that makes me cry holy. There is no other name. There is no other name. There is no other name. Jesus, you're worthy. Yes, you are. You're so worthy. You're so worthy, Jesus. There is no other name, I know. There is no other name that can save and heal and deliver. Jesus, your name is like the morning light. The one the darkness can't deny. The resurrection and the life. Jesus, oh Jesus, your name can save. Your name can make. Your name can make the storm be still. You never fail. You never will. Jesus, Jesus, the bread and life broken for us. The wounded and the worthy one. The first and last and still to come. Jesus, Jesus, the King. The one, the well, the great. The Lord who will forever reign. The name above all other names. Jesus. Oh, Jesus be the name. Oh, Jesus be the name. Be the name.

Jesus be the name. That gets strong. Strong or cruel. Oh, Jesus. Jesus be the name. Oh, Jesus be the name. In the name, in the name Jesus be the Name Let him strike the glory Jesus be the Name Jesus be the Name Jesus be the Name Let him strike the glory Jesus Jesus be the Name Oh, Jesus be the Name Oh, Jesus be the Name Let him strike the glory Yeah, yeah Oh-oh-oh Oh-oh-oh Oh-oh-oh Jesus Oh-oh-oh Oh-oh-oh Oh-oh-oh Jesus, yeah Be the Name, be the Name Yes, Jesus It's me, the Name

There's healing in Your Name There's healing in Your Name There's healing in Your Name It makes me crawl Come on, lift your hands and receive it There's freedom in Your Name There's freedom in Your Name There's freedom in Your Name It makes me crawl There's salvation in Your Name There's salvation in Your Name There's salvation in Your Name It makes me crawl Sing Jesus Oh, Jesus be the Name Oh, Jesus be the Name Oh, Jesus be the Name That can solve the glory Oh-oh-oh Oh-oh-oh Let's just take a minute and go to the Lord in prayer right now. There's some in this room right now that just need to begin to speak the Name of Jesus over their families. Jesus over the, the Name of Jesus over their marriage. The Name of Jesus over their school, over their workplace. The Name of Jesus over their neighborhood. The Name of Jesus over our city. The Name of Jesus over our church. There is no other name by which you may be saved today other than you cry out to the Name of Jesus right now and ask Him to come into your life and to save you.

There is no other name that heals. No other name that transforms every situation you're in because of the Name of Jesus. So, Jesus, we cry out to You today. We lift up Your Name. God, not our names, not who we are, but we exalt You. The Name above all names. God, we thank You that we can cry out to You for anything that we need. And God, that the Name of Jesus sits high above every situation that we're in, Lord. From what seems impossible, the Name of Jesus is over that. We proclaim the Name of Jesus and we thank You for the Name of Jesus today, God. We ask You all these things in Your Name. And all God's people said, Amen. And Amen. Man, so glad you were here in church today. If I haven't met you yet, I'm Pastor Jeremy. And would love to meet you when our services are over. So if you are new here, please just come and say hey to us at Guest Central. If you are, grab that QR code or the Connect card in front of you. We'd love to connect up with you and just share a little bit about what's going on at Graceway. I do want to remind you, next week we're going to be doing baptisms again. Love those Sundays that we get to baptize people. And there's still quite a few of you that I know we've been reaching out to from Easter or maybe you gave your life to Christ recently and just haven't followed in that next step of obedience to be baptized. I would encourage you when we're done with service today, go to the next steps desk and say hey, I need to get baptized. We'll get you signed up, we'll get you baptized next week.

It gives you an opportunity to indict your family and friends and to say to them, hey, come and see what the Lord's done in my life. The thing I'm excited to tell you about is coming up on June the 6th is Serve Day. It's gonna be an absolutely incredible day, yeah. And so as we're going through the Book of Acts and we're talking about what the church is, this is a part of what the church is. In the community, serving our neighbors. And so your opportunity today is when we're done, after you get signed up for baptism, I want you to walk out to the Serve Day table. There are QR codes all over that table and ways for you to get signed up. We have over 25 different partnerships and projects that we're gonna be doing that Saturday morning. And so I wanna get you connected. That's an incredible way for you to just come and be a part of the community and really do what we wanna do, right? Bring the future kingdom right into the present. I'm gonna invite our ushers to make their way down. And as they come down, you can see different ways to give on the screen. And I'm always reminded, but when we give it's us seeking God's kingdom first, right? Maybe you're new to giving, but that's what exactly what it is. It's just your opportunity to say, Lord, I'm gonna seek you first in my finances.

I'm gonna go to the God that will make them right. And that's what we do when we give. Let's go one more time to the Lord in prayer as we prepare to do that. God, I thank you that we can trust you with everything, Lord. And as we've already prayed the name of Jesus, Lord, even over our finances, over the provision that you give to us. And so God, as we prepare our hearts this morning to give, what would you receive our offering, Lord? Just our sacrifice of worship for you, Lord. God, we acknowledge, Lord, you don't need our money, but Lord, it's a way for us to say, God, I'm seeking you first. And so Lord, we ask that you would bless this offering, Lord. Make it a blessing to our church, make it a blessing to our community, to the world. God, we wanna see the gospel spread, not only here in Kansas City, but across the globe. So Lord, thank you for that opportunity. As we continue to sing, Holy Spirit, would you minister to our hearts as we proclaim your name, as we proclaim your truth, as we proclaim who you are, God. Speak to us today. We ask you all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. And one more time, all God's people said, amen. Let's keep singing. ♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh ♪ ♪ Who is the great King of glory ♪

♪ Seated on high in the heavens, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Jesus, you alone ♪ ♪ You are the Lord God Almighty ♪ ♪ Strong in compassion and mercy, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Jesus, you alone ♪ Come on, if you know it. ♪ I've searched the world for a love that could fill my heart ♪ ♪ Nothing compares to the wonder of who you are ♪ ♪ Holy, all the earth's singing ♪ ♪ Holy, all the angels cry ♪ ♪ Holy, Jesus, you alone ♪ ♪ Jesus, you alone ♪ ♪ Jesus, you alone ♪ ♪ You set the stars in the heavens ♪ ♪ You set the world into motion, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Jesus, you alone ♪ ♪ You breathed your life in creation ♪ ♪ You walked among your created, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Jesus, you alone ♪ ♪ I've searched the world, I've searched the world ♪ ♪ For a love that could fill my heart ♪ ♪ Nothing compares to the wonder of who you are ♪ ♪ Holy, all the earth's singing ♪ ♪ I'm singing holy, I'm singing holy, I'm singing holy ♪ All the angels cry, Holy Jesus, You alone You alone are worthy, worthy All creation sings, worthy All the heavens exult in Jesus, You alone Oh, Jesus, You alone Can you declare that today, that it's Jesus, You alone?

You shed Your blood for salvation You broke the curse for our freedom Oh, You tell them, Jesus, You alone You rose from death with the morning You'll come again in Your glory Oh, Jesus, You alone Oh, Jesus, You alone Holy, all the earth sing it Holy, all the angels cry We're joined with the angels cry You alone are worthy, worthy All creation sings, worthy All the heavens exult in Jesus, You alone You alone are holy, You're holy Holy, all the earth sing it Holy, all the angels cry Jesus, You alone Worthy, all creation sing Worthy, all the heavens exult in Jesus Jesus, You alone And holy, I can't help but sing Holy, how am I? Jesus, You alone You alone are worthy, worthy I lift my voice and sing, worthy I count my life today Jesus, You alone Jesus, You alone We exalt Thee We exalt Thee

We exalt Thee Oh, Lord Come on, if you know it, sing it with us We exalt Thee We exalt Thee We exalt Thee Oh, Lord One more time, let's sing it out real big as a choir We exalt Thee We exalt Thee We exalt Thee Oh, Lord We exalt Thee We exalt Thee We exalt Thee We exalt Thee Oh, Lord Yes, thank you Lord, thank you Lord. Father in this moment, in this holy moment of worship God, we just exalt you. We lift you up. We acknowledge that you are God, that we are not. Father thank you throughout this world, across the globe, on Sunday people are exalting the name of Jesus in every nation, in every tongue Lord. That for 2,000 years Lord your church could not be stopped. And we stand here this morning in Kansas City, Missouri exalting your name because of what was done 2,000 years ago in the Middle East. Christ was exalted by first being humiliated on the cross, but he rose again. He rose from the dead. He launched his church in power and here we stand Lord, free. Free from the bondage of sin.

Free from the attack of Satan that can take away our life and our joy. Free to worship you, oh God, I just pray that this morning that we would keep that humble heart Lord, that I would keep that humble heart, that you would be exalted Father. As we lift you up in the preaching of your word Lord, speak to hearts, speak to minds, change destinies like you have been doing faithfully for 2,000 years. It's in Christ's holy name I pray, amen, amen. Please greet your neighbor and have a seat. Welcome this morning. Thank you brother. Well it is so good to be in the house of the Lord, to look out and see my church family, my brothers and sisters in Christ who are, who I love all of you because we are an eternal family that never ends in Christ. Doesn't end here, doesn't end in Kansas City, it's just beginning. It's eternal in heaven. Well many of you know that I was a police officer and a father and am a father of six. And when my kids were young, my wife was a stay-at-home mom and I worked nights. But sometimes she would have to run errands so some of the kids were in school and there would be a couple at home. But my middle son Andrew who was three at the time was, I hope my kids can forgive me for this because I loved them all equally, but he was my favorite to hang out with. Because he's just relaxed and he was chill. So at three years old my wife would be like, hey, I got to run errands. She'd wake me up, you know, after a couple hours of sleep, I'm like, oh, I'm good, just leave Drew. I'll watch him, we're good. So I'd go downstairs, I'd have Drew, he's three years old. And she's like, make sure you have him lunch, give me all the details. I was like, I got it, how could I mess this up? And so she'd drive off and I'd be like, oh, it's on Drew. So we'd go to the fridge, I'd grab the soda, the chips, and the hostess snacks.

I'd line them up. I mean, it was 10 a.m., it's a good breakfast. We'd put in in the VHS, Star Wars. I'd hit play, we're eating chips, drinking soda, eating hostess snacks, and I'm out because I work nights. I wake up an hour later with the credits, there he is right there, he wouldn't even move. So he was an awesome partner. What we really liked to do was play Sega Genesis together. Now what I mean by that is because he's three years old, I would sit him down in front of me and we'd have the game system and we'd plug in controller number two and I'd give it to him and I'd plug in controller number one and I'd begin to play. Well, he's just pounding away at the buttons, looking at the screen. And that went on for like a long time, it was awesome. But at some point, he matured enough to realize maybe I'm not as in control as I think I am. And he looks over his shoulder and there's dad holding the controller. Ultimately I was in control. That's a picture, church, of the Christian walk. We come into the faith and we're making decisions and we're trying to live our lives according to Christ. But at some point, we begin to realize, we look over our shoulder and there's dad holding the controller. What happens or what should happen when we have that peace and security that our Father who loves us and who has called us to truth and salvation in Jesus Christ and has our destiny in His hands is holding the controller, that should enable us to be obedient. to whatever he says and in every situation. And when I think of that, like God's got the controller, my dad's in control and all I have to do is do what he says. When I think of a biblical example of that, I think of Joseph in the Old Testament.

Joseph understood that God was in control, so when he ends up in a pit, he reminds himself, my dad's got that controller, I'll just be obedient. And then he ends up in a prison, he looks over his shoulder, my dad's in control, I'll just be obedient. And what happens because God's in control and because Joseph is obedient, what happens? Joseph becomes the channel, the conduit for God's redemptive power to save Egypt from a famine. He saves his people and surrounding people in Egypt because Joseph understood who was in control and was obedient. That's a picture of the church. See, if we can look back and realize that God's in control of everything we do and then we say, well, there's this big pit in front of me called the culture, American culture, that nobody wants to come to Christ and there's this prison of people trapped in sin and how could we possibly reach them with the message of the gospel? We look over our shoulder, we see that God's in control and we're obedient and when we do that, we become the channel, the conduit for God's redemptive power, bringing people the gospel of Jesus Christ. If you got your Bibles with you, please turn over to Acts 11, 19 through 30. And as you're getting there, let me give you some context

because what we're gonna see is just that in this early church movement in Antioch, that they become the conduit of God's redemptive power through their obedience. But just giving some context to set up our passage today, we've been on this whirlwind church history tour in the book of Acts, right? Luke would just blow your hair back if I had any. It happens so fast. First, we have Jesus' ascension where he goes off into the sky to be seated at the right hand of the Father and says, go and make disciples of everyone. And then there's Pentecost. Peter stands up, the guy who denied Jesus, the guy who's just a fisherman and he preaches in the power of the Holy Spirit and flames emerge over people's heads and they're speaking in tongues and thousands of people are converted and the church takes off in power and it's advancing and things are going well. And then Stephen preaching, just like Peter, is stoned. And the Christians run for their lives because who's standing there? Saul, the arch enemy of the church, condoning the stoning of Stephen. And then Peter has a dream and Pastor Tim talked about it last week, where he realizes, I guess he missed it

when Jesus said, go and make disciples of all nations. Somehow he missed it and God beats him over the head with the ball bat with the dream and then Jerusalem understands, hey, it's the Gentiles too and Cornelius is saved and then Gentiles are saved. The same thing that happened to Pentecost happens to them. And this is what brings us to our text today is that we're gonna move to a city in the Roman Empire called Antioch, a Gentile city. It's the third largest city in the Roman Empire. It's multi-ethnic. It's economically diverse. But don't miss this, it is thoroughly pagan. Even barbaric. It's so sinful that one way that they worship God or gods, depending where you came from, is to go to a temple or a shrine and engage in prostitution. So if you think there's a bad city in the United States and surely there are, can you imagine a city where it's openly condoned that to go worship God, you go into a house of worship and engage in prostitution with male and female prostitutes? What am I saying? This culture, this city is diametrically opposed to the gospel. I don't know that it could be any more hardened to the message that's about to be brought to them.

But as we look at this text, and we're gonna get there in one second, I want you to notice something in the text. I want you to have a theological focus in this text. I want you to see the main character. And the main character is dad holding the controller behind the people doing things in the church. We're gonna see obedient actions by the church, but don't miss the main character. Dad, Father God, by the power of the Holy Spirit is standing behind them with the controller. And Luke is going to almost shout. this in the text. So don't miss it as I read it. But before we read it, let's pray one more time. Father, thank You that we can rest in Your sovereignty. Lord, it's in Your sovereignty and in Your power and the fact that You have the controller that I can rest in preaching this message, Lord. Speak through me. Speak the message that You want Your church, Your people, who You love, who You cherish, who You desire to do the very things that we will see in this text. God, help us to see it, to hear it, to feel it, to embrace it in our hearts and then to go out and do it. I humble myself before You as my brothers and sisters do and we say, speak, Lord, for Your servant heareth. In Jesus' name, amen. Acts 11, 19 through 30, starting in verse 19. Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews. But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists, also preaching, here comes the main character, the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them. And a great number who believed turned to the Lord. The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. And when he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad and exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose. For he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and the faith. And a great many people in this crazy pagan place were added to the Lord. So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul. And when

he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. Don't miss this. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians, became one people. Now in these days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. And one of them named Agabus stood up and foretold by the Spirit, there's that main character again, that there would be a great famine over all the world. This took place in the days of Claudius. So the disciples determined everyone according to his ability to send relief to the brothers living in Judea. And they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul. What an amazing, amazing picture of a church being obedient in the darkest place. And what did we see? This church in Antioch 2,000 years ago became the conduit, the channel of God's redemptive power. And how did they do it? When I look at this text I see three obedient actions that they took to be the conduit of God's redemptive power. Because we at Graceway, here in Kansas City, want to make it hard to go to hell in Kansas City. We want to be the conduit of God's redemptive power. So what do we need to do? Well when we look at this text, here's what I see. I see three things and I'm going to unpack them for you. Number one, evangelize faithfully. Number two, disciple authentically. Number three, give obediently. So evangelize faithfully. How do we evangelize faithfully? Well first, we evangelize right where we are. Look at verse 19. Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen, what happened to them? They had to run from their homeland in Jerusalem. They ran up the coast north as far as to Antioch, running for their lives. And now what do they do? They had to be thinking like, what am I doing here? I don't want to be here. This is not what I thought would happen with my life. This is not where I thought I would be and what do they do? They speak the word to no one except Jews. Now I know you're ready to jump on them and say, why just the Jews? And we'll get to that. But they did speak the word. They did tell people about Jesus. And some of you may resonate with that. I've been in these places in my life. What in the world am I doing here in Kansas City? I'm not saying that, but you may be saying it.

But I've been in places where I said, what in the world am I doing here? Why am I at this job, Lord? Why have you put me in this neighborhood, Lord? And what we see in this text is, as awful as the scattering was that Christians were being persecuted, God's holding the controller. And he's sending people to a city that needed what? The gospel. And he sent people there and they're probably like, look, I don't get it. I don't wanna be here, but you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna point people to Jesus right here where I'm at. Wherever you're at, whatever job you're in, whatever neighborhood you're in. I resonate with maybe like, Lord, why this? But what I do know is, what I can answer in that is, point people to Jesus right where you're at. What else did they do? How else did they evangelize faithfully? Well, they evangelized faithfully and we evangelize faithfully to everyone. Look at verse 20. But there were some of them men of Cyprus and Cyrene. So they're from a little different ethnic background who come to Antioch and so instead of like the Jews only bringing it to Jews, they speak to the Hellenists. Hellenist in this text means anybody essentially who's not a Jew, a Gentile.

So all the other people. They tell everyone, everyone they run into, they point them to Jesus. Tell him who he is. And I think we can resonate with this, right? I must confess that as a police officer, there were times I said, why have you surrounded me in these environments? As they're difficult. And you may be in environments that are difficult around people that are difficult. And you're thinking, Lord, why would you put these people around me, they hate you, they hate the church, they hate Jesus, why would you put me here? For the same reason he put these people in Antioch. To evangelize to whoever is in front of them. So we see that they evangelize faithfully by evangelizing right where they were at, right where God had placed them, and to everyone who was in front of them. God had the controller. They knew it. But what do we tell them? What exactly does it mean to point them to Jesus or evangelize? And this is where it gets tough. I'm gonna be real. We evangelize faithfully in Jesus. Look at the latter part of verse 20. And don't miss, don't miss this. Also preaching the Lord, Lord Jesus.

And here's what we all lament in a sense, or we should, that although the gospel is free and it absolutely is, and it is the only way to be saved, it is by its very nature deeply offensive. It was deeply offensive in Antioch in the first century. It remains deeply offensive in the 21st century in the various cultures today to include our own. Because why? Yes, salvation is a free gift as I grab hold of the cross. But in order to grab hold of the cross, I have to let go of everything else in my life. I have to walk away from sin. In today's society, I have to admit that I'm a sinner. I have to admit that I can't do it. I have to let go. And it's hard to tell people who we genuinely love and care about. You have to let go of all that. In some sense, everything you've pursued in your life is the wrong direction. Unless you grab hold of Jesus, then there's things in your life right now that you just can't keep. And that is a hard message. So what is it to tell them of the Lord Jesus? Well, it's our testimony, that's part of it. But that's the easy part. And don't misunderstand me. I want you to share your testimony with people. It is huge, keep doing it.

So, but hear what I'm saying. But your testimony is not the gospel. It can be something that helps stage the gospel. And it's a powerful part of staging the gospel as you build relationships. with people and tell them what God did for you, it is huge, but it is not the gospel. In a sense, it's really easy to do, to tell people what God did for you, because you're not telling them what they need to do and who he is, and that's when it gets tough. And I see people, and again, don't misunderstand me, keep doing this, I love this, I think it's huge, but they hand them the half-inch Jesus who's seen that. And I think that's a wonderful way to make connection, and it's a wonderful way, again, to set up the gospel. But it is not the gospel, because I might be handing someone a half-inch Jesus, and I haven't answered the question, who is Jesus? I hand them a Jesus, and they say, oh, that's so wonderful. Jesus was a nice guy that said, love everybody, and you can do whatever you want. I love that little Jesus. But that's not who he is. Jesus is one of many ways to heaven. And I'll grab that little Jesus, and that's wonderful. Jesus is the way to get a better job. Jesus is the way to get my marriage right, and in a sense, that's true, but that's not the ultimate reason. And so, when you hand them that half-inch Jesus, and again, I want you to, and I want you to tell your testimony, they still don't know who Jesus is. And this is where we get to the hard part. At some point, hopefully in a loving relationship, hopefully where you've showed them the character of Christ, and showed them how much you love them, and how much they are important to you even more than your own needs. And shown them who you're about to tell explicitly who Jesus is.

He's the one who said before Abraham, I am. He stood up and said, I'm God, I'm not a prophet, I'm not one way to heaven, I am God, the only way. He healed and loved people and wept, but he also told them, stop sinning before something worse happens to you. He spoke more about hell than heaven. He said, fear God who can destroy both body and soul in hell. He said, if you deny me before men, I'll deny you before my Father. These are hard, hard truths. He said, anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. Anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it. That's the hard truth of the love of Christ, the forgiveness of Christ is free. But we have to turn from the very things that enslaved us and we loved before. And that is a hard, hard message for the world. See what I'm talking about here is preaching the cosmic Christ, not the self-help Christ. The Christ who was man and God, who went to a grave, took on the sins of the world because God was angry because of what Dan did. And God loved Dan so much he didn't ever want Dan to stand before a holy God with all that sin in his life. And then it pleased the father to crush his son and the son went to that cross saying, this is what I came for, to redeem and to save. And then he defeated death. He defeated all Dan's shame. He defeated all your shame. He defeated everything you did that separated you from God and said, you can't pay this bill but I'll pay it for you. That's how much I love you.

And then he rose from the dead to defeat every vile thing I ever did. Every vile thought. Every dark corner of my heart. And he's coming back. And it is the greatest day ever for the Christian when he comes back who can rest in the complete and total grace and forgiveness that comes through faith in Jesus Christ. But it is the absolute worst day for anyone who has not bowed the knee and said, Jesus, save me. Save me. Let me be transparent with you and a confession in a sense. That's hard to tell people. It took me ten years as a Christian to tell my dad. Ten years. Because my father was a good man in the world sense. He worked hard at Ford. He took care of me. He loved me. He was an authority in my life. Taught me so many good things. He had wisdom. He was strong. He taught me to be strong. And then I came to Christ and I realized none of those things will save my dad. But how do I tell him this? How do I go to my father? Because he's seen me at my lowest points. And he saw me saved, but for him it was, oh, my son just had some issues and great, that church thing helped him out. It helped him get a better job. It helped him get his marriage right, helped him stay out of the bar.

And while all those things were true, that's not the truth. And at some point I would give my testimony to my dad and I would invite him to church. And by the way, give your testimony, invite people to church. That's huge. Don't misunderstand me. But it came to a point where I had to tell him. I had to say, dad, my greatest fear as you get older is that I will stand over your grave and not know where you are. Or even worse, know that you are not with Jesus. My worst fear, dad, is that you will rely on all the good things you did and stand before God without making Him Jesus Lord. But for 20 years, I've been working on that conversation and it was hard, it was hard to do. But what I know is I have to tell Him. I have to tell Him because I love Him. I have to tell Him because what if nobody else tells Him? But it's not easy, but we evangelize faithfully in Jesus. So how did I go from, I can't tell my dad this, who I respect so much, or I can't tell this person in my life this, they'll get angry at me. How do we go from having the boldness with love and gentleness, with backing it up with love and our testimony in the half-inch Jesus and everything, but getting to the point of saying, I have to tell you who He is and I have to tell you what you have to do. How do we get there? We evangelize faithfully in God's power. Look at the verse, and the hand of the Lord was with them, the hand of the Lord was with them and a great many turned and believed. I don't go to my dad in my power. If I had to do that, I should be afraid. I go to my dad, my earthly father, because my heavenly father's got the controller. And he's sending me to him.

And if I will be obedient, God will use me to preach the gospel to my dad and see him saved. Our boldness to tell them the Lord Jesus Christ, to preach the cosmic Christ, comes when we realize it's not us doing it. It's God doing it. It's the power of the Spirit sending Him. And that's what we see in Antioch. If they would have said, how are we going to tell these crazy people about Jesus and they got to turn from all this stuff? It's not in our power. It's in His. And that's what they understood. And that's what we need to understand. That has sent missionaries across the globe, sacrificing everything to tell a culture who's never heard about Jesus, where they might get killed, that Jesus is Lord. Because they knew they did it in God's power. So we evangelize faithfully. We are the conduit of God's redemptive power when we evangelize faithfully. Secondly, we are the conduit of God's redemptive power when we disciple authentically. How do we disciple authentically? How do we point people on how to follow Jesus? We point them to Jesus, evangelize. We teach them how to follow Jesus, disciple. How do we do that? The first thing we do is we do it through encouraging relationships. Look at verse 22, they sent Barnabas, the son of encouragement, and he saw the grace of God. And what did he say? Keep it up. Keep going.

You guys got this. Discipleship, you need to be surrounded when you're learning how to follow Jesus with people who will encourage you. If you're discipling somebody, you need to encourage them. We need encouragement. How else do we disciple authentically? We disciple authentically through mature believers. Look at verse 24. Barnabas was a good man full of the Holy Spirit. What was he? He was a mature Christian. When you're walking newly in your relationship with the Lord, you need a mature Christian by you. If you're a mature Christian, you didn't get there on your own. You got there because other mature Christians came around you. encouraged you and now you as you've grown in your faith and become strong need to go around other young Christians who are in this struggle who's been there when they're first saved and still there and they need to be encouraged. What else do we do? We disciple authentically through biblical teaching. So Barnabas goes man I'm a mature Christian I can encourage people but we need a d1 book. We need some sound biblical doctrine. Hey I think I'll jog on over 80 miles to Tarsus and find Saul and I'll bring him in and Saul teaches people for a year. Sound biblical teaching. To learn how to follow Jesus well I need sound biblical teaching. And what else do we need? To disciple authentically we need unity. Look at verse 26 and in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians. In this place of absolute diversity where they had every reason to be opposed to one each other and be in factions. Sort of like the world today where we can have identities that separate us whether they're ethnic, racial, political, socioeconomic. We come up with all these identities that tend to separate us and their world was no

different and what's Luke saying but they threw all that aside said we're one family. We're in Christ. We're Christians. We're one people and that's where discipleship takes place. When I was a new Christian I was saved and my life was such a mess and my first mentor was a guy named Art. Art spent I think a couple decades in gangs in Los Angeles. He was a Mexican brother all tatted up. He did a significant amount of time in San Quentin for gang activity, drug activity. He walked with a severe limp because of something that had happened to him when he was in that life but at some point he came to Christ and he moved to the west side of Cleveland in God's sovereignty and went to my church. Art's church. Wasn't a pastor. He was a dream teamer. I know you guys have heard that before. He was a dream teamer but this guy comes around me and begins to help me walk with Christ and I would meet with him once a week. Here I am a new police officer being discipled by an ex-gang member who did time in prison who probably didn't graduate from high school and one day I was driving by. He lived in a men's home where he would bring in drug addict men, get them clean and teach, plug them into the church and teach them how to walk with Christ. Dream teamer. And I was driving by in the police car one day just devastated by my struggle as a new Christian. Not knowing how to walk in grace, I would beat myself up and beat myself up because I didn't understand how to walk in the grace and forgiveness of Jesus Christ. And I drove by and there was Art sitting on the porch and I pulled up in the cruiser and went and sat next to him on the porch and I said, Art, man, I'm ready to quit. I can't do this. I can't get my marriage right. I lose my temper. I can't get any of this right. And I might as well just give up and quit because I am a pathetic excuse for a Christian. See, not understanding the grace of God. Then Art says to me, Brother Dan, because that's what he would always say, if you don't quit, you can never fail. Art, a dream teamer. When I'm in my darkest moments, when I fall still, when I struggle still, when I want to beat myself up, I don't think back to my professors in my undergrad or master's program or my PhD. I don't even think back to my pastors. When my head is hung and I'm like, God, help, I remember the

words of Art. If you don't give up, you can never fail. That man has sustained me, his words, for 20 plus years in my darkest moment. This is the senior service, and I mean senior, senior in the Lord, maturity in the Lord. Where would I be without Art? Where my life would have went? I was ready to throw in the towel. I was ready to start a season of backsliding that probably would have been cataclysmic to my family and my life and my children, and God used Art to step in and stop it. What if he wasn't there? We have people coming to faith in Christ in this church every single week, flooding in. Because they've been told the truth of the gospel and they said, Jesus your Lord, somebody teach me to follow them. And we have a shortage of mentors, but I don't think we have a shortage of mature saints. They need an art, because if you're not there, the cataclysmic backslide is going to happen. So if you're here and you've been through D1, I need you as a mentor. More importantly, they need you as a mentor. Their wife needs you to be a mentor to that young man. His kids, his life is dependent upon God using you. But you have to show up. I pray that God moves on your heart, that you go to the next step's desk and say, I'm a mature saint. I want to be a D1 mentor and you fill out that card. Now if you haven't been through D1, we can get you through D1 and you'll learn through the process how it goes and then we'll get you connected to new believers. We need you to start discipling young people and new Christians in the faith. I need you, I can't do this. My pastor needed art. Without art, I wouldn't be there. So we are the conduits of God's redemptive power when we evangelize faithfully, we disciple authentically, and lastly, we give obediently. Verse 27, the prophets foretold of the Spirit. What's that mean?

We give obediently to what God says. They were a prophet, they were a voice of God, they were led by the Holy Spirit, and they're going to say you need to give here. So giving obediently means we give to God. Secondly, we give obediently together. So the disciples determined everyone according to his ability. Everyone according to his ability. Everyone gives according to their ability. So we give to God and we give together. This is a New Testament, this is a picture of New Testament giving. If you've made Jesus your Lord, and now you're following Jesus, Dan doesn't say you should give into the church, God does. Through his word. Dan doesn't say you should take the generosity jump and work towards tithing, God does. Dan doesn't say everybody should give, God does. That's a tough one for us, I get it. But I would encourage you, if you're here today and you go, you know, I've never made giving regular, then start. Pastor Jeremy constantly encourages us to begin with the generosity jump. Picking them out, make it regular and give. That's what they did, and they were the conduits of God's power. They made it hard to go to hell in Antioch. If you're giving in the generosity jump, I challenge you, get up to that 10%. Me and my wife did it with six kids, and I'm not making myself a saint. We did it with faith because God said it. And I would encourage you to do the same, and I'm closing. We live in insane, crazy culture. It's a pit, just like Joseph was in a pit. We live amongst hardened people. It's a jail, just like Joseph was in jail.

But we can realize the vision of redemption that God has for Kansas City and beyond if we would just be obedient. Church, we are the conduits of God's redemptive power, and we do it through our obedience. We evangelize faithfully where we are to everyone in Jesus by the power of God. Pretty simple. We disciple authentically. We show them how to follow Jesus through encouragement, through mature believers, through biblical teaching and our unity. And then we all give. We give obediently to God. And when you do that, the power of God shows up in a city, nothing fancy. The fundamentals. What if we evangelized faithfully, discipled authentically, and gave obediently? We would continue to see God bring people into this house because we're not doing it. He's got the controller. Just encourage you. God wants to use you just like he used Art, just like he uses me. We're just the vessel. It's time to plug in and get involved if you're not. If you're here today and you're like, well, that was a message really for Christians in the church. I say, yeah, you're right. But we talked about who Jesus is. And if you Here today, because man, these people keep inviting me to church, I'm gonna tell you a secret. We're inviting you to church and we want you here because we want to see you bend your knee before the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved and be redeemed and have peace and have joy

and let go of the world because as hard it is to tell somebody the message of Jesus Christ, there is no better life than surrendering to Jesus Christ. Christians have the joy the world will never ever understand. They have the love of God in a way that you can never understand apart from Christ. Now I don't want to assume that everybody in this room is a Christian. So if you go, this is my day where I go, I want to be part of that family, the Christians. I want to begin to follow Jesus. I can lead you in a prayer. So if that's you, please bow your head and close your eyes. Every head bowed, every eye closed. Jesus, thank you for creating me, for loving me. Even when I've ignored you and gone my own way, I know I need you in my life. I'm sorry for my sins against you and others. I believe you died on the cross for my sins and you rose again. You are God and I am not. I ask you to forgive me as much as I know how. I'm ready to change direction by giving you my life. I'm ready to follow you from now on and do what you want me to do. Please come into my life and make me new on the inside. Help me to grow so that I can be like you. If you said that prayer, please raise your hand so we can put a Bible in your hand

so you can begin to learn how to walk with Jesus. If you're joining us online, please go to the Graceway app and click Salvation. Church, let's celebrate the reality that we are the conduit of God's redemptive power in Kansas City. If you need prayer, if the prayer ministers can please come forward. If you need prayer, if you need a prayer for boldness, encourage and engage, they're here to pray with you. We have growth track going on this morning at 9.30, growth track step one. God bless all of you. Have a great Sunday, I love you, be blessed.