WEBVTT 00:07.019 --> 00:11.484 [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the Sermon podcast from Church at the Well and Telsin Merlin. 00:11.884 --> 00:18.771 [SPEAKER_00]: To learn more about Church at the well, visit our website, thewellballtimore.com. 00:19.412 --> 00:24.797 [SPEAKER_00]: And now, here's today's Sermon from our pastor, Dan Carreway. 00:30.871 --> 00:32.573 [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so we have been in our series in a couple weeks. 00:33.454 --> 00:35.936 [SPEAKER_01]: Big shout out to Mr. Leon last week for speaking. 00:37.137 --> 00:42.042 [SPEAKER_01]: I want to share with you that the last time we were in our study, we were in Acts chapter thirteen. 00:42.502 --> 00:43.423 [SPEAKER_01]: We were looking at 00:47.287 --> 00:47.767 [SPEAKER_01]: Oh my goodness. 00:48.267 --> 00:48.548 [SPEAKER_01]: Sorry. 00:48.928 --> 00:52.111 [SPEAKER_01]: We're looking at Paul and part of this is first missionary journey. 00:52.151 --> 00:55.534 [SPEAKER_01]: We talked about how you start to follow Jesus. 00:55.574 --> 00:57.215 [SPEAKER_01]: This was their first time out. 00:57.255 --> 00:58.136 [SPEAKER_01]: This was new to them. 00:58.156 --> 01:00.798 [SPEAKER_01]: This was their first ministry experience. 01:01.258 --> 01:04.681 [SPEAKER_01]: And we said that really the goal of when you start something is to start. 01:05.802 --> 01:07.343 [SPEAKER_01]: Like you have to start doing it. 01:08.043 --> 01:28.512 [SPEAKER_01]: You know, in Bella talked about this, like the idea that if you're going to be a follower of Jesus, if you're going to be on mission for Jesus, like it's not about, you know, having this great theological reading all the books, like having it all downloaded in your brain so that you can go and argue people to Jesus, you got to go, you got to start, you got to do something, it's got to be your willingness to do it. 01:29.592 --> 01:34.093 [SPEAKER_01]: I was watching a baseball YouTube video in the coach. 01:34.553 --> 01:37.714 [SPEAKER_01]: He had a kid come to him and say, how do I become a better hitter? 01:38.014 --> 01:39.894 [SPEAKER_01]: And the coach said, you got to start swinging the bat. 01:40.334 --> 01:42.455 [SPEAKER_01]: You keep striking out because you don't swing the bat. 01:43.555 --> 01:47.136 [SPEAKER_01]: If you're going to be better at something, if you're going to do something, you got to start. 01:47.156 --> 01:49.096 [SPEAKER_01]: You have to begin to do it. 01:49.497 --> 01:52.997 [SPEAKER_01]: So that was their first time out, Paul and Barnabes, as they start their ministry. 01:53.878 --> 01:55.078 [SPEAKER_01]: What we're after this morning, 01:56.098 --> 02:02.744 [SPEAKER_01]: We're going to be in chapter fourteen and it's going to start with this idea of what does it mean to be human? 02:03.785 --> 02:09.870 [SPEAKER_01]: And actually bigger than that, as you as a follower of Jesus, as you as someone who loves Jesus, is it okay for you to be human? 02:11.311 --> 02:14.354 [SPEAKER_01]: Is it okay for you to be just who you are? 02:15.395 --> 02:17.837 [SPEAKER_01]: Now, now hear me, this is, and this is a distinctive. 02:17.897 --> 02:20.319 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not talking about you being human stuck in your sin. 02:20.739 --> 02:22.581 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm talking about you being regular. 02:23.670 --> 02:27.433 [SPEAKER_01]: Do you think you got to be a better version of yourself? 02:27.493 --> 02:31.816 [SPEAKER_01]: Do you need to be the super version of yourself in order to reach people for the kingdom? 02:33.357 --> 02:34.437 [SPEAKER_01]: What do you have to turn into? 02:34.497 --> 02:38.900 [SPEAKER_01]: I think that there's a lot of folks that they come and approach Jesus. 02:39.101 --> 02:43.203 [SPEAKER_01]: I know believers that maybe they don't say this, believe this, but they believe this. 02:43.764 --> 02:49.608 [SPEAKER_01]: That there is a difference between, I am a Christian, I accepted Jesus, but I'm not a disciple. 02:51.271 --> 02:52.971 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not a disciple of Jesus. 02:53.431 --> 02:54.892 [SPEAKER_01]: I've been taking the class yet. 02:56.252 --> 02:59.013 [SPEAKER_01]: You go pull a couple churches and there's a discipleship class. 02:59.093 --> 02:59.833 [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, you come to church. 02:59.873 --> 03:00.713 [SPEAKER_01]: You're a churchgoer. 03:01.353 --> 03:02.433 [SPEAKER_01]: But you're not a disciple yet. 03:02.993 --> 03:05.134 [SPEAKER_01]: You haven't been trained in evangelism. 03:06.034 --> 03:06.774 [SPEAKER_01]: You know what I mean? 03:06.974 --> 03:07.734 [SPEAKER_01]: Like there's a level. 03:08.695 --> 03:09.155 [SPEAKER_01]: You know what I mean? 03:09.395 --> 03:10.895 [SPEAKER_01]: Hey, you stay around long enough. 03:10.935 --> 03:11.875 [SPEAKER_01]: You serve long enough. 03:12.135 --> 03:13.275 [SPEAKER_01]: You go to the class long enough. 03:13.315 --> 03:16.396 [SPEAKER_01]: You listen to this preacher enough. 03:16.476 --> 03:17.956 [SPEAKER_01]: You read these books enough. 03:18.457 --> 03:20.177 [SPEAKER_01]: And then you're here. 03:22.439 --> 03:26.141 [SPEAKER_01]: I don't think this is the gospel in a sure isn't showing up in the book of Acts. 03:26.921 --> 03:28.201 [SPEAKER_01]: You remember who Paul was, right? 03:29.902 --> 03:33.804 [SPEAKER_01]: Paul would say later in the letters, I was the chief of sinners. 03:36.142 --> 03:37.723 [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, Paul spent time with the apostles. 03:38.243 --> 03:39.083 [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, they trained them. 03:39.103 --> 03:41.064 [SPEAKER_01]: They put their hands on their blessed humanist ministry. 03:41.104 --> 03:46.886 [SPEAKER_01]: And someone would retort me and say, they don't dumb down the training that Paul got. 03:47.186 --> 03:47.466 [SPEAKER_01]: Fair. 03:48.227 --> 03:49.127 [SPEAKER_01]: He spent time in his word. 03:49.447 --> 03:50.288 [SPEAKER_01]: He did those things. 03:50.608 --> 03:51.708 [SPEAKER_01]: He saw Peter. 03:51.728 --> 03:52.688 [SPEAKER_01]: He would have listened to Peter. 03:52.909 --> 03:54.129 [SPEAKER_01]: He would have spent time in Jerusalem. 03:54.609 --> 03:56.410 [SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely before he won his first mission during journey. 03:56.490 --> 04:01.192 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not going to pretend that he went from killing to saving in one weekend. 04:02.298 --> 04:07.923 [SPEAKER_01]: But I think that sometimes we make way too big of a to do of a title. 04:10.065 --> 04:16.971 [SPEAKER_01]: You've heard me say this from the front of this room that I actually think that I have the worst vantage point to reach people from the gospel. 04:18.192 --> 04:20.895 [SPEAKER_01]: Reason why, I talk to Christians most of the time. 04:22.882 --> 04:41.980 [SPEAKER_01]: Like, just this summer, this summer, it was the first time in the last three years that I've been able to really make it to move the needle from like, from like, seventy to thirty percent from the, I'm around, Christian, seventy percent in the time to thirty percent in the time, to maybe like, sixty forty. 04:43.058 --> 04:44.179 [SPEAKER_01]: because your boy's back in the gym. 04:44.579 --> 04:49.824 [SPEAKER_01]: And there'd be some sinners in the gym to skin it. 04:50.044 --> 04:51.885 [SPEAKER_01]: It was driving me crazy. 04:52.506 --> 04:54.668 [SPEAKER_01]: I can't spend my time with Christians all the time. 04:56.126 --> 05:02.952 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm back coaching, soccer again after this past season, I'm like, I'm miss like, this is weird to say. 05:02.972 --> 05:07.035 [SPEAKER_01]: I miss coaching kids that cuss on the field because I can disciple that. 05:07.916 --> 05:14.521 [SPEAKER_01]: These guys are knocking people down and encouraging one another, praying for one another, saying God first before the game's like, I need me some unsafe people. 05:14.541 --> 05:15.182 [SPEAKER_01]: I gotta move the needle. 05:15.382 --> 05:15.942 [SPEAKER_01]: I gotta be around that. 05:19.504 --> 05:20.365 [SPEAKER_01]: I love my soccer team. 05:20.405 --> 05:20.805 [SPEAKER_01]: They're great. 05:21.025 --> 05:25.109 [SPEAKER_01]: I have been great. 05:25.269 --> 05:36.199 [SPEAKER_01]: But as we think about our church and as we think about who we are, I think it can't be that I'm the chief evangelist because I'm around you guys most of the time. 05:37.440 --> 05:40.543 [SPEAKER_01]: And I have to work extra to get outside of them. 05:41.641 --> 05:58.472 [SPEAKER_01]: So for the same thing, as we're gonna see here, I wonder if you're in your mind, being human is enough, being you, yes, you're somebody who's trying to throw off the sin that easily entangles as we read in Hebrews chapter twelve. 05:59.012 --> 06:09.059 [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, you're somebody that would say like, yes, I confess my sins to the Lord and I'm not perfect and I have a recognition that God is eminent and God is above me and I can't compare to him. 06:12.131 --> 06:18.417 [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you have that, but there's got to be a sense of that, I don't know, God seeks to use you in the way that you are. 06:19.918 --> 06:33.712 [SPEAKER_01]: God seeks, like, in your humility, in your, even in your depravity, there's a recognition that, like, the God of the universe would see you and who you are and what to use that. 06:35.098 --> 06:45.462 [SPEAKER_01]: Has there been one testimony from the Apostle John, from Peter, from Paul, from any of the ones, the speeches that you've heard in the book of Acts as we read, that have not pointed to that. 06:45.482 --> 06:46.302 [SPEAKER_01]: They're not perfect. 06:47.582 --> 06:49.683 [SPEAKER_01]: Nobody says, you need to get like me. 06:51.784 --> 06:52.604 [SPEAKER_01]: That hasn't happened. 06:53.264 --> 06:55.445 [SPEAKER_01]: No one pointed to themselves and said that. 06:55.485 --> 06:57.786 [SPEAKER_01]: So we're going to read into chapters of fourteen. 06:59.122 --> 07:05.447 [SPEAKER_01]: And we're going to get this sense of that idea that how God meets us in the very skin that we're in. 07:05.487 --> 07:07.789 [SPEAKER_01]: Our big idea is this, that being human is enough. 07:09.130 --> 07:09.351 [SPEAKER_01]: All right. 07:09.371 --> 07:10.412 [SPEAKER_01]: So we're going to talk to Fourteen. 07:10.432 --> 07:12.493 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to start in verse eight. 07:12.754 --> 07:17.738 [SPEAKER_01]: While they were in Lystra, Paul and Barnabes came upon a man with crippled feet. 07:18.706 --> 07:21.387 [SPEAKER_01]: He had been that way from birth, so he had never walked. 07:21.927 --> 07:28.668 [SPEAKER_01]: He was sitting and listening as Paul preached, looking straight at him, Paul realized he had faith to be healed. 07:29.349 --> 07:35.130 [SPEAKER_01]: So Paul called to him and allowed voice stand up in the man jumped to his feet and started walking. 07:35.550 --> 07:46.733 [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so we've seen this story before that the Holy Spirit had been dwelled in some of his, some of his apostles, some of his, you know, guys that were working on his behalf and the Holy Spirit enables them to do God stuff. 07:47.832 --> 07:48.012 [SPEAKER_01]: Right? 07:48.212 --> 07:58.196 [SPEAKER_01]: Now that he's able, like, like, for the purpose of preaching of the kingdom, for the purpose of bringing people to himself, he had enabled folks to do things outside of the ordinary, to do the supernatural. 07:58.757 --> 08:05.620 [SPEAKER_01]: So Paul looks at this guy in the word, the very specific, and it's different from what you've seen before in talking about healing, to things like this. 08:05.960 --> 08:08.821 [SPEAKER_01]: It says that this guy had faith to be healed. 08:09.721 --> 08:10.822 [SPEAKER_01]: So there's some different about that guy. 08:11.768 --> 08:13.549 [SPEAKER_01]: There's some different about this Paul and Barnabas. 08:14.249 --> 08:16.390 [SPEAKER_01]: There's some deity connected with them. 08:16.450 --> 08:22.973 [SPEAKER_01]: And I believe that like, you know, there's something that I sense about them that they could help me with stuff. 08:23.993 --> 08:28.435 [SPEAKER_01]: See, God sets appointments for his humans and humans in need. 08:29.595 --> 08:32.557 [SPEAKER_01]: This is true, and you've seen this in life. 08:33.337 --> 08:38.079 [SPEAKER_01]: It's not by mistake that people in your life, if you're a believer, go through stuff. 08:39.379 --> 08:40.740 [SPEAKER_01]: Probably those are God set appointments. 08:41.927 --> 08:45.128 [SPEAKER_01]: You follow Jesus long enough, you're going to realize that God puts an eighty people around you. 08:46.628 --> 08:55.111 [SPEAKER_01]: You have family members that go through stuff, and you seem like the only person who has the heart for it, has the position for it. 08:55.491 --> 08:57.331 [SPEAKER_01]: And sometimes it's out of your way. 08:58.151 --> 08:59.232 [SPEAKER_01]: It is inconvenient. 08:59.792 --> 09:03.213 [SPEAKER_01]: But you're looking around like, how come nobody else cares about this? 09:04.283 --> 09:06.704 [SPEAKER_01]: How come no one else seems to think about this? 09:06.884 --> 09:30.577 [SPEAKER_01]: When we first started to start, well, be more, it was with this idea, it was the idea that we can't say that we love the people that we live around and see a huge problem with kids dropping out of school in this idea that like, you know, the majority, when we first started to start, it would be more, it was the idea of this that, ninety percent of the students in Baltimore City and County drop out of school by the end of school year, they didn't have the school supplies to start at the beginning of the year. 09:31.644 --> 09:33.445 [SPEAKER_01]: And we were early on this thing, honor wasn't lying. 09:34.005 --> 09:36.666 [SPEAKER_01]: We were early on that trend. 09:37.146 --> 09:40.827 [SPEAKER_01]: And then we've seen the last three or four years that everybody's kind of caught up to that. 09:41.848 --> 09:50.351 [SPEAKER_01]: And the same idea, like, in the next couple of weeks, that we'll have, like, more statistics about kids with bedlets in this and not getting proper sleep at night. 09:50.391 --> 09:54.212 [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm sure some of the folks in this room, they can say, yeah, they're telling the truth. 09:54.853 --> 10:00.775 [SPEAKER_01]: But it's the idea that if you're a believer, it's hard for you not to see people the same way that God does. 10:02.891 --> 10:10.980 [SPEAKER_01]: And part of our, if you were someone who would say, well, God doesn't love the world because why would there be so many issues? 10:11.020 --> 10:11.961 [SPEAKER_01]: Why would people suffer? 10:11.981 --> 10:17.627 [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, God's kind of giving you the lay-up to take care of those things. 10:18.745 --> 10:24.892 [SPEAKER_01]: Like we've seen that God's answer for the depravity and some of the terrible things in the world is the church. 10:25.774 --> 10:29.158 [SPEAKER_01]: The church was been here to provide relief. 10:29.638 --> 10:37.568 [SPEAKER_01]: Remember a couple chapters back, there was a famine and it was on the church to provide resources to help with the famine that was happening in another part of the world. 10:39.188 --> 10:51.360 [SPEAKER_01]: that one of the ways that God seeks to build community between people is they're being troubles, they're being heartache and especially when it's done in view of the gospel. 10:52.742 --> 10:54.844 [SPEAKER_01]: That's what he's called us too. 10:55.324 --> 10:58.567 [SPEAKER_01]: God sets appointments for his humans and other humans in need. 10:59.268 --> 11:02.931 [SPEAKER_01]: People recognize followers of Jesus, they can help fix their issues. 11:04.085 --> 11:09.208 [SPEAKER_01]: You know, like, you will have, you want people to come to your church, have the food pantry connected to it. 11:10.929 --> 11:11.810 [SPEAKER_01]: Well, we were joking together. 11:11.890 --> 11:15.893 [SPEAKER_01]: I was listening, I don't know if you guys have heard the comedian, you ever heard a comedian, oh man, I'm gonna mess it up. 11:15.953 --> 11:18.634 [SPEAKER_01]: John Christ, is it Christ or is it Christ? 11:19.215 --> 11:20.475 [SPEAKER_01]: I don't wanna say Christ would be wrong. 11:20.535 --> 11:22.337 [SPEAKER_01]: It's Christ, okay. 11:23.217 --> 11:31.963 [SPEAKER_01]: He was talking about, he said, in the summertime, like, he's only went to a non-nomination on church, but in the summertime, they were every denomination because every church in the neighborhood 11:32.543 --> 11:36.445 [SPEAKER_01]: had a VBS and their mom was like, you guys are homeschooled, you're going to every VBS. 11:36.825 --> 11:47.169 [SPEAKER_01]: You could be Christian scientists this week, you could be Baptist next week, you could be, look, you could be Buddhists if they got a, if they got a vacation Bible school, you know? 11:47.190 --> 11:51.832 [SPEAKER_01]: And it's the idea that like the world recognized that Christian's, we're gonna serve some stuff. 11:52.712 --> 12:01.496 [SPEAKER_01]: We're gonna be available to you because most of what we think like we will be willing to serve you if it meant that you coming and be on part of us. 12:02.800 --> 12:06.603 [SPEAKER_01]: And while that's hard for us, because sometimes you're like, they're only using us for our VBS. 12:07.804 --> 12:16.691 [SPEAKER_01]: I tell you what, like, they're like when, um, back when I was in, uh, in youth ministry, we did a fish fry and chicken, like dinner for, uh, as a fundraiser for momentum. 12:17.131 --> 12:18.913 [SPEAKER_01]: There'd be people in church I never seen before. 12:19.053 --> 12:20.935 [SPEAKER_01]: You would think it's like, I was like, is it Easter? 12:21.737 --> 12:24.339 [SPEAKER_01]: But they were coming about four plates, and I didn't mind. 12:26.461 --> 12:34.447 [SPEAKER_01]: People will recognize that believers that we are supposed to be a helping hand, and we could be upset about it, or we could use it for the glory of God. 12:35.688 --> 12:41.152 [SPEAKER_01]: We go towards people not so they can be humanly healed, but also saved. 12:41.192 --> 12:47.297 [SPEAKER_01]: Remember what it says here in the passage that the guy, he looked at Paul and he had faith to be healed, but he's only thinking about his feet. 12:48.322 --> 12:56.608 [SPEAKER_01]: He's only thinking about maybe what he had heard or maybe he had, what Paul and Barnabes and the ministry that they already talked about. 12:56.668 --> 13:01.131 [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe he had heard about other stories of folks and he had thought maybe these guys can help me. 13:01.811 --> 13:03.412 [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe they can fix my situation. 13:03.852 --> 13:05.974 [SPEAKER_01]: So we had faith that he can be healed. 13:06.494 --> 13:15.540 [SPEAKER_01]: And I don't know about you but in my life, if people would look at me and be like, that's somebody who cares about me, that's somebody who can help me in my situation. 13:16.281 --> 13:17.842 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not gonna let that be the end of the discussion. 13:19.105 --> 13:20.906 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not gonna let that be the end of it. 13:21.306 --> 13:28.971 [SPEAKER_01]: We can't live in a silo to where it's like, I'm only going to talk to you about salvation and not care anything else about your life. 13:31.073 --> 13:34.235 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not gonna be interested in anything else. 13:35.796 --> 13:41.039 [SPEAKER_01]: Because you realize that you don't really care about that person, you care about another number on the board. 13:42.180 --> 13:45.542 [SPEAKER_01]: You care about conversion, not if they actually wanna follow Jesus. 13:46.463 --> 13:47.904 [SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes we get too locked in on the mission. 13:49.368 --> 13:56.052 [SPEAKER_01]: And I think that what God would have us do is lovingly walk people towards, yeah, meet needs if you can. 13:58.214 --> 13:59.695 [SPEAKER_01]: But don't let that be the end of the conversation. 14:00.035 --> 14:02.777 [SPEAKER_01]: I fall into this habit too much. 14:04.638 --> 14:08.140 [SPEAKER_01]: This past week, we had Alex and Alex stay with us. 14:08.941 --> 14:11.643 [SPEAKER_01]: And Alex said, would you guys like to go out on a date? 14:13.228 --> 14:16.970 [SPEAKER_01]: And we went out in the daytime, which I'm like, are we even allowed to do that? 14:16.990 --> 14:18.511 [SPEAKER_01]: You allowed to go out on dates in the daytime? 14:19.131 --> 14:20.452 [SPEAKER_01]: And I was like, let's go to the farmer's market. 14:20.472 --> 14:22.934 [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like, sweet, we're the cutest. 14:23.334 --> 14:24.074 [SPEAKER_01]: We're at at the farm. 14:24.354 --> 14:25.535 [SPEAKER_01]: It's at the farmer's market together. 14:25.555 --> 14:26.275 [SPEAKER_01]: You're always beautiful. 14:27.656 --> 14:29.357 [SPEAKER_01]: And we were walking down the street. 14:29.417 --> 14:30.378 [SPEAKER_01]: And there was a guy on the street. 14:30.398 --> 14:32.139 [SPEAKER_01]: And he's like, ask me for some money. 14:32.659 --> 14:36.221 [SPEAKER_01]: And I was in the middle of just saying the most romantic thing to my wife possible. 14:36.401 --> 14:39.243 [SPEAKER_01]: You know, I was given her a nice silhouette, sing some Maxwell tour. 14:41.425 --> 14:44.748 [SPEAKER_01]: And the guy here's like, he's like, Abraham, I don't mean interrupt. 14:44.788 --> 14:47.051 [SPEAKER_01]: Do you talk to your lady, but can I have a couple dollars? 14:47.852 --> 14:50.475 [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like, Fred, don't you see I'm trying to woo my lady? 14:50.915 --> 14:53.057 [SPEAKER_01]: It's like, this is daytime love, you know what I mean? 14:53.578 --> 14:53.938 [SPEAKER_01]: And like, 14:54.819 --> 15:07.322 [SPEAKER_01]: So then I reached out to my pocket and I like give a money and I just like I just like I don't even know if I looked at him I just like handed money handed it over to him and we just keep walking and The conviction later is I don't know this guy's name. 15:07.702 --> 15:08.682 [SPEAKER_01]: I didn't bite him to church. 15:08.982 --> 15:09.982 [SPEAKER_01]: I didn't ask to pray for him. 15:10.082 --> 15:11.663 [SPEAKER_01]: I had nothing to do with it. 15:11.743 --> 15:14.743 [SPEAKER_01]: I just met his need He asked me for money. 15:14.783 --> 15:17.764 [SPEAKER_01]: He got money because I'm focused on what I got going on over here 15:18.743 --> 15:19.183 [SPEAKER_01]: You know what I mean? 15:19.203 --> 15:20.804 [SPEAKER_01]: And like, silly example fine. 15:21.324 --> 15:25.806 [SPEAKER_01]: But at the same time, like, we are made for this. 15:27.046 --> 15:32.909 [SPEAKER_01]: Last time I checked there aren't like thousands of people begging to get down into the church at the well Sunday room. 15:34.449 --> 15:36.570 [SPEAKER_01]: We only have so many opportunities. 15:37.551 --> 15:45.414 [SPEAKER_01]: And if somebody's in need, if somebody's going through something, if there's somebody, like, that's one to say, like, I'm looking at you and I have faith that you can help me meet my needs. 15:46.320 --> 15:47.401 [SPEAKER_01]: Man, that's a real we got to take. 15:48.141 --> 15:50.522 [SPEAKER_01]: That's not an on ramp that we got to walk down. 15:51.763 --> 15:54.785 [SPEAKER_01]: So God sets his appointments for humans and humans in need. 15:55.325 --> 16:03.450 [SPEAKER_01]: Verse eleven reads like this, when the crowds saw what Paul has done that they shot it and their local dialect, these men are God's and human form. 16:04.211 --> 16:07.653 [SPEAKER_01]: They decided that Barnabas was the Greek God Zeus 16:08.793 --> 16:10.474 [SPEAKER_01]: and that Paul was Hermes. 16:10.774 --> 16:11.874 [SPEAKER_01]: It's Hercules over again. 16:12.774 --> 16:25.398 [SPEAKER_01]: Since he was the chief speaker, now the Temple of Zeus was located just outside the town, so the priest of the temple and the crowd brought bulls and reefs of flowers to the town gates, and they prepared to offer sacrifice to the apostles. 16:25.658 --> 16:28.339 [SPEAKER_01]: Now here's the thing like, you got to understand about this area. 16:28.599 --> 16:36.722 [SPEAKER_01]: There was a legend that Zeus and some of these Greek gods had come down into this area before, 16:37.402 --> 16:43.347 [SPEAKER_01]: and that people were welcoming to them and that they brought them into their home and that they turned that home into a temple. 16:44.008 --> 16:53.996 [SPEAKER_01]: So like all the people of this town, they were gonna remember like what Jesus had like, I'd be like, you know, be careful how you treat some people who are in need. 16:54.336 --> 16:55.897 [SPEAKER_01]: You may have entertained angels. 16:56.298 --> 16:58.780 [SPEAKER_01]: It's almost the same idea, but Greek gods. 16:59.804 --> 17:03.627 [SPEAKER_01]: They're like, whoa, that guy just healed the crippled guy that everybody knew. 17:04.488 --> 17:06.210 [SPEAKER_01]: Clearly this is one of the gods that we worship. 17:06.630 --> 17:09.953 [SPEAKER_01]: That guy's Zeus and that guy's Hermes because he's a good taco. 17:10.874 --> 17:18.160 [SPEAKER_01]: So they were ready to like sacrifice all of them and here's the truth of it. 17:18.680 --> 17:20.522 [SPEAKER_01]: It's hard to not be the hero human. 17:22.264 --> 17:25.907 [SPEAKER_01]: It's really hard for you to not be the super Christian. 17:27.165 --> 17:29.407 [SPEAKER_01]: It's really hard to not get the accolades. 17:29.707 --> 17:32.850 [SPEAKER_01]: Have you ever done something really kind for somebody or done something? 17:32.890 --> 17:35.552 [SPEAKER_01]: And people would be like, wow, you're great. 17:38.235 --> 17:39.596 [SPEAKER_01]: Youth group kids get this all the time. 17:39.656 --> 17:44.501 [SPEAKER_01]: Like I heard this all week from the staff at the campus we were on at momentum. 17:44.861 --> 17:47.003 [SPEAKER_01]: Most of them aren't saying they just work for a Christian university. 17:47.323 --> 17:49.385 [SPEAKER_01]: They get their checks on time so it makes sense to work there. 17:50.206 --> 17:54.690 [SPEAKER_01]: Or even like the people in town, they're like, those are some really nice young people. 17:55.451 --> 18:00.595 [SPEAKER_01]: Man, they took time out of their summer to come out here to Indiana and they did all this great work. 18:01.576 --> 18:04.138 [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, they're building beds for so people won't have beds. 18:04.934 --> 18:07.555 [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, those are some really good parents. 18:07.795 --> 18:10.015 [SPEAKER_01]: They just do some fantastic work. 18:11.295 --> 18:12.856 [SPEAKER_01]: It's really good to get to accolades. 18:14.316 --> 18:16.997 [SPEAKER_01]: It's really good to let that be the end of the discussion. 18:17.937 --> 18:27.759 [SPEAKER_01]: Because how many of us are going to be the people that when we do something that the world would deem is kind and generous and nice, well, we're going to be like, no, no, you understand. 18:28.039 --> 18:29.500 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm a really horrible person. 18:29.720 --> 18:30.780 [SPEAKER_01]: I just really love Jesus. 18:31.793 --> 18:37.118 [SPEAKER_01]: Like, like, like, hey, listen, um, if it wasn't for this God that I serve, I would have nothing to do with you. 18:39.300 --> 18:39.761 [SPEAKER_01]: You know what I mean? 18:39.781 --> 18:48.909 [SPEAKER_01]: Like, like, like, like, like, you know, like, like, we, I don't know how many of us are like Paul, remember I said, Paul, like later in his letter, he's like, you guys can understand, I was the chief of sinners. 18:50.571 --> 18:55.776 [SPEAKER_01]: If I was still who I was before I met Jesus, most of you would either be in jail or dead. 18:57.358 --> 19:04.103 [SPEAKER_01]: A lot of us don't have the boldness to be able to have a clear view of who we once were outside of our faith. 19:05.485 --> 19:10.388 [SPEAKER_01]: So it's hard for us to not be the hero human, to be the hero Christian. 19:12.110 --> 19:16.754 [SPEAKER_01]: I think, let me ask you a question for the, do you have skeptics in your life? 19:17.794 --> 19:24.337 [SPEAKER_01]: Do you have people that are still trying to figure out if it's real, what they really think about the Bible, what they really think about Jesus? 19:25.057 --> 19:34.741 [SPEAKER_01]: So for them, it's not that this is who we are because of who Jesus is, but more so that you're just one of the few good ones. 19:37.862 --> 19:42.244 [SPEAKER_01]: I think that we're living in a time now where the majority of the world would say, 19:45.759 --> 19:47.120 [SPEAKER_01]: No Christians are terrible people. 19:47.980 --> 19:50.221 [SPEAKER_01]: They use their God and they use their Jesus. 19:50.261 --> 19:53.302 [SPEAKER_01]: They use their Bible to do a lot of horrible things. 19:53.703 --> 19:54.923 [SPEAKER_01]: There's just a few good ones. 19:58.265 --> 19:59.785 [SPEAKER_01]: I wonder the people in your jobs would say this. 20:01.066 --> 20:02.326 [SPEAKER_01]: It's not that Christians are good. 20:02.346 --> 20:03.307 [SPEAKER_01]: It's just that Brian's nice. 20:05.787 --> 20:07.348 [SPEAKER_01]: Like, like, he's the anomaly. 20:07.388 --> 20:15.852 [SPEAKER_01]: He actually, like, he actually, like, remember what Gandhi said, he was like, you know, I can't, I can't trust your Jesus because the people that follow your Jesus don't act like your Jesus. 20:17.993 --> 20:24.796 [SPEAKER_01]: It's not that like, this is who we are and that there's some people that are abusers of the cross, human. 20:25.136 --> 20:27.357 [SPEAKER_01]: It's said that we are the anomaly. 20:28.798 --> 20:30.219 [SPEAKER_01]: It's hard to not be the hero human. 20:31.335 --> 20:35.959 [SPEAKER_01]: I think people would point to you and just say, I mean, that person is really like, it's just really generous. 20:36.560 --> 20:37.941 [SPEAKER_01]: Is that how we talk about Mother Teresa? 20:37.961 --> 20:40.404 [SPEAKER_01]: And that one is just special. 20:41.565 --> 20:45.709 [SPEAKER_01]: She just loved people at a different capacity than most people would. 20:47.201 --> 20:49.161 [SPEAKER_01]: anybody I would win a Nobel Peace Prize. 20:49.181 --> 20:52.882 [SPEAKER_01]: It wouldn't be that man, like, the goddess has done, like, amazing work in their life. 20:52.902 --> 20:54.223 [SPEAKER_01]: And all these people are Christians, right? 20:54.263 --> 20:56.303 [SPEAKER_01]: Like, like, but that's how they were talking about us. 20:56.343 --> 20:59.204 [SPEAKER_01]: Like, they were like, man, these people are just generous in another way. 20:59.244 --> 21:01.464 [SPEAKER_01]: If somebody would look at you and say, like, they've changed my life. 21:01.504 --> 21:02.265 [SPEAKER_01]: They were helpful. 21:02.505 --> 21:03.805 [SPEAKER_01]: They did a great things in my life. 21:04.165 --> 21:05.705 [SPEAKER_01]: Are they pointing to the Jesus in you? 21:05.765 --> 21:08.126 [SPEAKER_01]: Or they just say, like, you're just awesome. 21:09.026 --> 21:09.626 [SPEAKER_01]: It was really nice. 21:10.787 --> 21:12.007 [SPEAKER_01]: You're just, you're just different. 21:14.451 --> 21:22.717 [SPEAKER_01]: When you make an impact on people's life, I wonder if people are able to see that you're empowered by the spirit of God in it. 21:23.717 --> 21:27.820 [SPEAKER_01]: And by the way, sometimes you're not going to be able to help it. 21:29.061 --> 21:31.943 [SPEAKER_01]: This is like Paul didn't do this in his name. 21:32.763 --> 21:34.284 [SPEAKER_01]: God enabled it to do this. 21:34.304 --> 21:35.725 [SPEAKER_01]: God enabled him to do this. 21:36.306 --> 21:37.847 [SPEAKER_01]: Knowing that they were going to turn a worship him. 21:39.334 --> 21:41.215 [SPEAKER_01]: It's hard to serve and love on people. 21:41.576 --> 21:45.518 [SPEAKER_01]: It's even hard to do it and not take any credit or accolades while pointing to Jesus. 21:47.860 --> 21:48.340 [SPEAKER_01]: It's hard. 21:49.541 --> 22:05.733 [SPEAKER_01]: But even in this messy circumstance, God uses it, verse one, but when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard what was happening, they tore their clothing and dismay and ran out among the people shouting, friends, why are you doing this? 22:07.141 --> 22:09.584 [SPEAKER_01]: We are merely human beings just like you. 22:10.004 --> 22:18.414 [SPEAKER_01]: We have come to bring you the good news that you should turn from these worthless things and turn to the living God who made heaven and earth, the sea and everything in them. 22:18.875 --> 22:25.503 [SPEAKER_01]: In the past, he permitted all the nations to go their own ways, but he never left them without evidence of himself. 22:26.063 --> 22:26.743 [SPEAKER_01]: and his goodness. 22:27.204 --> 22:38.709 [SPEAKER_01]: For instance, he sends you rain and good crops and gives you food and joyful hearts, but even with these words, Paul and Barnabas could scarcely restrain the people from sacrificing to them. 22:39.129 --> 22:43.171 [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, here's the truth, and this is a really interesting situation. 22:43.491 --> 22:48.393 [SPEAKER_01]: Now, this is a much different sermon that you've heard from Paul and Barnabas, namely because of one thing. 22:49.653 --> 22:50.814 [SPEAKER_01]: The focus is in on Jesus. 22:52.858 --> 22:56.480 [SPEAKER_01]: Now, I'm not going to write a script sure that's not there. 22:57.060 --> 22:59.141 [SPEAKER_01]: It does not say that God condemns them for it. 22:59.661 --> 23:01.962 [SPEAKER_01]: It does not say that the Spirit was angry with them for it. 23:02.422 --> 23:03.623 [SPEAKER_01]: But I want you to point to two things. 23:03.903 --> 23:06.204 [SPEAKER_01]: One, they go back to the beginning. 23:07.185 --> 23:09.106 [SPEAKER_01]: They go back to the God of the universe. 23:09.166 --> 23:09.466 [SPEAKER_01]: Why? 23:10.026 --> 23:11.307 [SPEAKER_01]: They're not talking to a Jewish crowd. 23:12.367 --> 23:20.151 [SPEAKER_01]: They're not like every other message follows the same format that we see in Acts because they're talking to mostly Jewish crowds. 23:20.993 --> 23:25.435 [SPEAKER_01]: They're talking like, the God of our ancestors and the prophets and things like this. 23:25.635 --> 23:28.016 [SPEAKER_01]: Isn't this the format of everyone that we've read so far? 23:29.636 --> 23:30.337 [SPEAKER_01]: This is at them. 23:31.317 --> 23:34.338 [SPEAKER_01]: He's saying, no, there's a God in heaven. 23:35.539 --> 23:38.660 [SPEAKER_01]: He sends you reigns and he provides for you and we aren't them. 23:40.200 --> 23:42.741 [SPEAKER_01]: But a disconnect is had. 23:45.628 --> 23:46.909 [SPEAKER_01]: It's not satisfying. 23:47.909 --> 23:52.672 [SPEAKER_01]: It says that they could scarcely restrain the people from sacrificing to them. 23:54.293 --> 23:57.554 [SPEAKER_01]: They're inability to connect the dots all the way to Jesus. 24:00.076 --> 24:03.577 [SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't help the people who see it have a better view of what they're trying to do and what their mission is. 24:04.598 --> 24:07.119 [SPEAKER_01]: Pointing humans to Jesus sometimes means starting at the beginning. 24:07.479 --> 24:09.260 [SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes you gotta take a little bit longer. 24:10.421 --> 24:12.942 [SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes you gotta walk people through and it's a human thing. 24:14.738 --> 24:18.700 [SPEAKER_01]: I don't think that someone reaches salvation in one conversation. 24:19.901 --> 24:23.183 [SPEAKER_01]: I don't think like helping someone follow Jesus' two conversations. 24:24.603 --> 24:28.325 [SPEAKER_01]: I don't think it's one person that helps somebody follow Jesus. 24:29.626 --> 24:38.271 [SPEAKER_01]: I think it's multiple people in its multiple instances over a period of time that would help somebody go from the beginning to the actual following of Jesus. 24:40.946 --> 24:47.328 [SPEAKER_01]: Even in the story of Paul, oh yeah, he met Jesus in the middle of the road, but the next person he met was Ananias. 24:48.668 --> 24:54.430 [SPEAKER_01]: And then after meeting Ananias, he went and spent time with Peter and Barnabes and the others as he learned. 24:55.671 --> 24:57.771 [SPEAKER_01]: So you tell me who helped Paul follow Jesus? 24:57.791 --> 24:58.932 [SPEAKER_01]: Was it just Jesus himself? 24:59.432 --> 25:00.672 [SPEAKER_01]: Or Jesus got his attention? 25:01.512 --> 25:05.314 [SPEAKER_01]: Jesus brought him to repentance, but who helped him follow? 25:05.354 --> 25:07.354 [SPEAKER_01]: And who helped him become an apostle? 25:08.174 --> 25:09.595 [SPEAKER_01]: Well, Jesus used other people to do that. 25:10.657 --> 25:13.719 [SPEAKER_01]: I wonder if for some of us, I think here's the thing. 25:14.180 --> 25:23.727 [SPEAKER_01]: When we think about what it means to be human and being human, being human, being enough to help us follow Jesus. 25:24.778 --> 25:29.080 [SPEAKER_01]: A lot of times, we got to just be patient and just understand it's the long game. 25:29.100 --> 25:33.242 [SPEAKER_01]: We're going to talk about this in a couple of weeks, so I'll give you a preview of it now. 25:33.723 --> 25:45.189 [SPEAKER_01]: One of the things that we did at Momentum, that I was hoping Bella would talk about on just kidding, is that one morning or night, we had the kids do these cards. 25:45.709 --> 25:52.853 [SPEAKER_01]: And on one side of the card, it's asked who it gave you a bunch of different examples of people of connections in your life. 25:53.613 --> 25:56.775 [SPEAKER_01]: of people that you would know and that you know need Jesus. 25:57.475 --> 26:09.481 [SPEAKER_01]: And on the backside it asked you the who what when it asked you to pick three people from the other side and ask you like what is your connection with them and ask you when are you going to be intentional about sharing Jesus with them. 26:10.302 --> 26:15.845 [SPEAKER_01]: And I and I filled up my card and you know one of the things that I realized was 26:17.286 --> 26:25.348 [SPEAKER_01]: for all of the people under my three, and no matter what my connection was with them, for all of the wins, none of them are one conversations. 26:27.088 --> 26:28.029 [SPEAKER_01]: None of them would have been easy. 26:30.969 --> 26:41.212 [SPEAKER_01]: I was in my car the other day, and I was sharing with them, I said, one of the folks that I feel strongly about is guys that may be on my soccer team this year, that I don't want to just be a soccer coach. 26:42.288 --> 26:48.092 [SPEAKER_01]: I want to be intentional about helping the guys in our team follow Jesus if there are any that don't. 26:49.453 --> 26:53.075 [SPEAKER_01]: And I realize that that's not like a a preseason thing. 26:53.695 --> 27:05.723 [SPEAKER_01]: I wouldn't want to do except Jesus or you can't be on my team like you know like what is that like what happens there like but like it's it's about taking somebody that'll be crazy it's about taking somebody on a journey is about like walking them that way. 27:07.749 --> 27:13.430 [SPEAKER_01]: I wonder if like for us like the humanity of it all is that we don't want it to take long. 27:14.371 --> 27:15.951 [SPEAKER_01]: Some of you guys has already taken too long. 27:18.011 --> 27:33.655 [SPEAKER_01]: Somebody in your family, somebody that you've been no one in your whole life, somebody that you spent time with, sometimes like the humanity of it is that like, I've been trying to be Jesus to this person for the majority of my life and I don't know if I felt that if I've moved the needle at all. 27:35.056 --> 27:36.376 [SPEAKER_01]: It was never for you to move the needle. 27:38.231 --> 27:44.977 [SPEAKER_01]: It was for you to always be in the background or be next to somebody as they're figuring this out. 27:45.837 --> 27:47.779 [SPEAKER_01]: And you're probably doing more than you think. 27:50.601 --> 27:55.565 [SPEAKER_01]: If somebody calls you when tragedy happens, you're doing very well. 27:57.366 --> 28:01.670 [SPEAKER_01]: If somebody is leaning on you as they go through tough things, you're doing well. 28:03.240 --> 28:12.143 [SPEAKER_01]: If somebody, like, even if they push on you and they try to get a reaction of you in a negative way, just to see how you react, that means your opinion matters. 28:14.983 --> 28:19.205 [SPEAKER_01]: The point of human disease is sometimes starting at the beginning. 28:20.305 --> 28:21.665 [SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes going back to the beginning. 28:22.425 --> 28:24.066 [SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes having to revisit things. 28:27.433 --> 28:33.667 [SPEAKER_01]: And I think while it's a hard position to page, you're doing exactly what God's called you, too. 28:34.635 --> 28:41.179 [SPEAKER_01]: Verse nineteen, then some Jews arrived from Annie at in Iconium in one of the crowds to their side. 28:41.720 --> 28:45.362 [SPEAKER_01]: They stone Paul and dragged him out of the town thinking he was dead. 28:45.422 --> 28:46.763 [SPEAKER_01]: Now I want to paint this picture for you. 28:46.803 --> 28:48.084 [SPEAKER_01]: This is this is insane. 28:49.185 --> 28:51.706 [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so this is this is a Greek city. 28:52.647 --> 28:54.288 [SPEAKER_01]: These people have nothing to do with the Jews. 28:54.768 --> 28:56.890 [SPEAKER_01]: Remember, Jews and Gentiles had nothing to do with each other. 28:57.570 --> 29:13.549 [SPEAKER_01]: So Jews literally came from another town and show up to stop Paul and Barnabes from sharing what they didn't believe in either but salvation to a group of people that they would have had nothing to do with anyways. 29:15.812 --> 29:16.173 [SPEAKER_01]: You hear me? 29:17.329 --> 29:18.430 [SPEAKER_01]: They don't believe in Jesus. 29:18.770 --> 29:19.771 [SPEAKER_01]: These are Jews. 29:20.091 --> 29:30.220 [SPEAKER_01]: These are folks that like, you know, like the Jewish leaders, religious leaders, they're coming to, you know, out of towners saying, hey, we know about these guys. 29:30.300 --> 29:39.968 [SPEAKER_01]: They're sharing a false, they're starting about this false Messiah about Jesus and they start up the crowds to the point where they stone Paul. 29:41.862 --> 29:47.769 [SPEAKER_01]: How much do you have to hate somebody to tell them to stop them from hearing about a salvation that you don't even believe in? 29:49.191 --> 29:50.393 [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, wait, this is the world right now. 29:53.436 --> 29:58.443 [SPEAKER_01]: These Jews traveled more than a hundred miles to oppose the missionaries. 30:00.858 --> 30:01.538 [SPEAKER_01]: They literally do. 30:02.479 --> 30:06.823 [SPEAKER_01]: They traveled over a hundred miles to share this, like, to share this report to them. 30:07.743 --> 30:13.748 [SPEAKER_01]: But as the believers, this verse twenty, but as believers around them, he got up and went back into the town the next day. 30:14.529 --> 30:16.150 [SPEAKER_01]: He left with Barnabes for Derby. 30:19.233 --> 30:21.895 [SPEAKER_01]: Being human may mean mortal consequences. 30:24.357 --> 30:24.877 [SPEAKER_01]: When you're human, 30:27.667 --> 30:28.588 [SPEAKER_01]: And you accept that. 30:28.728 --> 30:29.909 [SPEAKER_01]: And this is all that you can be. 30:30.730 --> 30:34.353 [SPEAKER_01]: You're not the super Christian, but you're just who you are. 30:34.573 --> 30:36.074 [SPEAKER_01]: It may mean that you're going to have to go through stuff. 30:37.475 --> 30:38.316 [SPEAKER_01]: Part of just being 30:39.978 --> 30:43.042 [SPEAKER_01]: means that I can only defend day. 30:43.882 --> 30:44.864 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm only going to be mean. 30:45.644 --> 30:49.088 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm only going to be able to defend what I can defend. 30:49.108 --> 30:50.930 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm only going to be able to do what God's called me to be. 30:50.990 --> 30:52.472 [SPEAKER_01]: I can't do anything outside of it. 30:52.993 --> 31:00.561 [SPEAKER_01]: The worst part about that and sharing our faith is that I'm only going to be limited to my own abilities. 31:01.742 --> 31:03.284 [SPEAKER_01]: And sometimes it's going to be embarrassment. 31:03.604 --> 31:05.946 [SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes it's going to be like being shut out by people. 31:06.006 --> 31:09.649 [SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes it's going to be that like, I'm going to be lonely. 31:10.350 --> 31:14.633 [SPEAKER_01]: Whatever the more realistic consequences that I've faced because of the faith that I have. 31:16.114 --> 31:17.015 [SPEAKER_01]: But these are consequences. 31:19.217 --> 31:24.702 [SPEAKER_01]: For Paul and Barnabes, Paul was stoned to the point where they thought he was dead. 31:28.133 --> 31:38.064 [SPEAKER_01]: In the city where all he'd done is heal somebody, try to share about the god of the universe, and claim that he wasn't deity. 31:39.645 --> 31:42.549 [SPEAKER_01]: And I still know him as if he was committing blasphemy. 31:47.325 --> 31:59.249 [SPEAKER_01]: For us, the problem with being human is that we don't have the defense mechanisms to face supernatural persecution. 32:00.529 --> 32:09.952 [SPEAKER_01]: All you realize that you don't have the upper hand or you don't have the popular ideologies of the people around you. 32:10.833 --> 32:12.113 [SPEAKER_01]: So I was going to work out for you. 32:13.878 --> 32:16.371 [SPEAKER_01]: within being human means makes you vulnerable. 32:17.560 --> 32:20.162 [SPEAKER_01]: I think Momentum kind of gives a great picture of this. 32:20.302 --> 32:26.626 [SPEAKER_01]: I love it because I think it's fair that teenagers get out, I have an on earth experience. 32:27.707 --> 32:30.628 [SPEAKER_01]: It's not an easier place than the world to be a Christian than I'm Momentum Youth Conference. 32:31.349 --> 32:33.851 [SPEAKER_01]: There's two, twenty-six hundred of them youngens there. 32:34.411 --> 32:35.011 [SPEAKER_01]: It's a lot of them. 32:35.772 --> 32:38.994 [SPEAKER_01]: And they smell, you know. 32:39.054 --> 32:43.537 [SPEAKER_01]: Like, Christians, like when they sing, it sounds like heaven, but it doesn't smell like heaven. 32:43.617 --> 32:43.837 [SPEAKER_01]: You know? 32:47.254 --> 32:48.995 [SPEAKER_01]: But it's a safe place to be safe. 32:51.356 --> 32:55.178 [SPEAKER_01]: I was worried about the kids that have to go back by themselves. 32:55.939 --> 32:56.639 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm in a young lady. 32:57.740 --> 33:03.143 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm a woman in this past week that she's like past your day when you pray for me. 33:04.164 --> 33:04.784 [SPEAKER_01]: And I told her, sure. 33:04.824 --> 33:05.905 [SPEAKER_01]: And I said, what, what, what? 33:05.925 --> 33:06.845 [SPEAKER_01]: We just like made prayer for you about it. 33:06.865 --> 33:14.950 [SPEAKER_01]: She said, I'm praying that some of the kids from my youth group change what school they go to next year. 33:16.232 --> 33:17.793 [SPEAKER_01]: I got to her where she lives. 33:17.813 --> 33:18.353 [SPEAKER_01]: She's from Indiana. 33:18.373 --> 33:19.474 [SPEAKER_01]: They're about to do a red district. 33:19.494 --> 33:21.435 [SPEAKER_01]: They built a new school and stuff like that. 33:22.235 --> 33:29.479 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm praying that the new district that makes some of the kids from our youth group go to my school because I'm the only one in my youth group that goes to my school. 33:30.699 --> 33:32.960 [SPEAKER_01]: So I'll be the only Christian that I know at my school. 33:35.081 --> 33:41.605 [SPEAKER_01]: And man, I part of me wouldn't be like, yeah, let's pray about that. 33:41.625 --> 33:42.205 [SPEAKER_01]: That's hard. 33:42.685 --> 33:43.646 [SPEAKER_01]: I don't need to try to like, 33:44.905 --> 33:47.547 [SPEAKER_01]: You can do it, go make, you know, like, to have that talk. 33:48.048 --> 34:00.038 [SPEAKER_01]: But could you just imagine, like, you're like, tenth grade, maybe, like, and this is like, you're coming off with this awesome week, learned everything that Bella learned and, you know, stuff, and you're like, I really want to be bold for my faith. 34:00.818 --> 34:01.279 [SPEAKER_01]: But it's it. 34:02.600 --> 34:04.561 [SPEAKER_01]: And there's just, there's just consequences for that. 34:05.562 --> 34:08.565 [SPEAKER_01]: Like, there's just, it's just like, like, there's a lonely consequence for that. 34:09.543 --> 34:16.068 [SPEAKER_01]: And she's not praying to have the faith of an evangelist. 34:16.108 --> 34:18.090 [SPEAKER_01]: She's like, I just don't want to have to do it alone. 34:18.110 --> 34:22.533 [SPEAKER_01]: I don't want to have to be the only one who believes in this. 34:22.694 --> 34:27.277 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm just praying that God would change the districts of somebody else comes with me. 34:27.397 --> 34:29.139 [SPEAKER_01]: There's worse prayers, guys. 34:30.099 --> 34:32.241 [SPEAKER_01]: My kids still pray for Pokemon cards. 34:33.262 --> 34:34.383 [SPEAKER_01]: There's worse things to pray for. 34:36.483 --> 34:39.945 [SPEAKER_01]: And I did share with her, I'm like, hey, listen, the best. 34:41.325 --> 34:42.766 [SPEAKER_01]: Pray for that. 34:42.846 --> 34:44.787 [SPEAKER_01]: Hopefully, God will make that happen in your favor. 34:46.888 --> 34:53.111 [SPEAKER_01]: At the same time, I believe that the Holy Spirit will empower you to make more Christians at your school. 34:53.671 --> 34:55.372 [SPEAKER_01]: And it's going to come by the word of your testimony. 34:55.412 --> 34:57.653 [SPEAKER_01]: And that'll be a legacy that you'll leave with that place. 34:59.554 --> 35:01.014 [SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes it just has consequences. 35:01.715 --> 35:03.856 [SPEAKER_01]: And I wish there was a better way to put a button on it than that. 35:05.077 --> 35:24.831 [SPEAKER_01]: First twenty one I'll close with this after preaching a good news in Derb and making many disciples Paul and Barnabits return to Leicester Iconium and Anciac of Pesidia so they actually went back through there so the same place where he gets stoned and left for dead on his way back he goes back through there first twenty two where they strengthened the believers 35:25.798 --> 35:26.938 [SPEAKER_01]: So his work was not in vain. 35:27.459 --> 35:32.821 [SPEAKER_01]: There's now believers in these towns that once worshiped him as if he was a Greek God, there's believers here now. 35:33.701 --> 35:41.344 [SPEAKER_01]: They encouraged them to continue in their faith, reminding them that we must suffer many hardships to enter the kingdom of God. 35:41.804 --> 35:45.666 [SPEAKER_01]: Paul and Barnabas also appointed elders in every church with parents fasting. 35:46.006 --> 35:50.808 [SPEAKER_01]: They turned to the elders over to the care of the Lord and whom they put their trust. 35:51.887 --> 35:54.828 [SPEAKER_01]: Then they traveled back through Pasadia to Pamphelia. 35:56.268 --> 35:59.689 [SPEAKER_01]: They preached toward Empurga, then went down to Atalia. 36:00.469 --> 36:04.289 [SPEAKER_01]: Finally, they returned by ship to Antioch of Syria where their journey had begun. 36:04.650 --> 36:08.970 [SPEAKER_01]: The believers there had entrusted them to the grace of God to do the work they had now completed. 36:09.471 --> 36:17.232 [SPEAKER_01]: Upon arriving in Antioch, they called the church together and reported everything God had done through them and how He had opened the door faith to the Gentiles too. 36:17.792 --> 36:20.253 [SPEAKER_01]: And they stayed there with the believers for a long time. 36:20.913 --> 36:21.293 [SPEAKER_01]: Here's the deal. 36:22.233 --> 36:26.257 [SPEAKER_01]: Being human means you have to lean on and lean into the other human's Father in Jesus. 36:27.118 --> 36:32.564 [SPEAKER_01]: So we hear this story about Paul going to this place where he was not favored. 36:32.884 --> 36:35.006 [SPEAKER_01]: They thought he was a great God. 36:35.387 --> 36:37.068 [SPEAKER_01]: They stone him and leave him for dead. 36:37.489 --> 36:42.033 [SPEAKER_01]: And the next verse we read is that he was surrounded by the believers. 36:44.276 --> 36:44.736 [SPEAKER_01]: And he comes to. 36:45.802 --> 36:46.962 [SPEAKER_01]: So Paul, knock them conscious. 36:47.602 --> 37:00.766 [SPEAKER_01]: UFC knock out, you know, you ever see, you ever see the UFC fights where like, you're like, oh, I just watched a death on TV and a guy's like knocked out and then like the, the doctors are there and they're giving him the smell and salt. 37:01.026 --> 37:03.507 [SPEAKER_01]: They're like waving a towel and his face, trying to give him to come to. 37:04.207 --> 37:07.868 [SPEAKER_01]: This was Paul, but it's, it's the church that's surrounding him. 37:09.688 --> 37:11.629 [SPEAKER_01]: It's all the people who leave in the same Jesus that he does. 37:13.492 --> 37:17.939 [SPEAKER_01]: He goes through it, he gets knocked down and believers come to his aid. 37:20.122 --> 37:26.593 [SPEAKER_01]: I wonder if this is the experience that one that we are looking for 37:28.182 --> 37:31.265 [SPEAKER_01]: or we're also that we're that we're willing to give. 37:32.806 --> 37:48.378 [SPEAKER_01]: One of my pictures for what I wanted community circles to be is, and I've started, man, there's been times that I've wrote this down on a community circle question, and I thought maybe this should just be like before we pray type of situation. 37:49.119 --> 37:53.683 [SPEAKER_01]: I've literally thought about putting on our community circle questions, maybe this is me saying it, so I can actually do it. 37:54.203 --> 37:56.085 [SPEAKER_01]: Has anyone faced persecution this week? 37:56.825 --> 37:58.406 [SPEAKER_01]: And can we pray that God would encourage you? 37:58.426 --> 38:06.951 [SPEAKER_01]: And I thought was literally like, if somebody would walk in and say, I tried to share my faith with the long-time coworker this week. 38:07.732 --> 38:20.119 [SPEAKER_01]: And they told me that like, they told me that it was very offensive or yada yada, like just like kind of like our church would kind of be a place where people can kind of take their hits and be encouraged with it. 38:21.514 --> 38:25.956 [SPEAKER_01]: had offered our next or neighbor to make dinner for them just because I loved them. 38:25.976 --> 38:27.137 [SPEAKER_01]: I want them to know that God loved them. 38:27.177 --> 38:29.798 [SPEAKER_01]: And I feel like I put up a wall between us. 38:31.999 --> 38:35.861 [SPEAKER_01]: And just like, I think that's part of what this is. 38:37.261 --> 38:43.664 [SPEAKER_01]: Oh yeah, probably it was a nice getting a concussions by way of rocks from the apostle Paul. 38:44.344 --> 38:49.647 [SPEAKER_01]: Because you imagine coming to after going through something horrible and you're surrounded 38:51.099 --> 38:58.363 [SPEAKER_01]: You're surrounded by the church, being the apostle Paul who would have orchestrated stonings. 38:59.824 --> 39:02.006 [SPEAKER_01]: He was like the originator of this, of stoning Christians. 39:02.946 --> 39:07.369 [SPEAKER_01]: And now you're being comforted from the same thing happening that you had to happen to other people. 39:10.791 --> 39:14.213 [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know about you, but it is hard to be lonely. 39:14.353 --> 39:17.315 [SPEAKER_01]: It is hard to deal with the toughness of our faith, the way that we do. 39:18.699 --> 39:21.220 [SPEAKER_01]: and makes it a little bit more worth it when we're able to do it together. 39:21.240 --> 39:21.920 [SPEAKER_01]: Amen? 39:23.661 --> 39:29.543 [SPEAKER_00]: You just listened to a message from Dane Carreway, the pastor of church at the Well and Telsen, Maryland. 39:29.883 --> 39:38.886 [SPEAKER_00]: To learn more about our church and to support what we're doing in the greater Baltimore area, visit our website, thewellbaltimore.com. 39:39.426 --> 39:43.147 [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for tuning in to the sermon podcast from church at the Well. 39:43.727 --> 39:44.988 [SPEAKER_00]: May God bless you.