[SPEAKER_00]: This is Dr. Darrell Hall pastor of the Wake Community Church.
[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to our podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're excited to study the origin of the Christian Church today.
[SPEAKER_00]: As we consider the fact that Jesus launched his church with gifted people in a spiritual movement.
[SPEAKER_00]: Minister Adrian Robinson is stepping in today to teach God's Word, so let's grab our Bibles, or you can join us on the Bible app, or you can follow along in the transcription of this podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's study God's Word together.
[SPEAKER_01]: We love you, Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: Where do you are?
[SPEAKER_01]: Every praise that could come from us, Father God.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're worthy because you treat us better than we deserve.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're worthy, because you treat us better than we treat ourselves.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're worthy, because you pour grace out on us that we don't deserve.
[SPEAKER_01]: We thank you for your worthy, Nyslored.
[SPEAKER_01]: May we be worthy to call you Father.
[SPEAKER_01]: May we comport ourselves as those who have been called out from the world.
[SPEAKER_01]: from the darkness into your marvelous light.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now as I stand up and claim your word, Lord, I just ask that you speak to me and through me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Move age and not the way they don't need to hear from him.
[SPEAKER_01]: They need to hear from you, Father God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Have your way here today.
[SPEAKER_01]: In the words of my mouth, I'm gonna taste it some my heart, be pleasing and use your sightfather, you when you alone are our rocket redeemer Made the spirit of the living God fall fresh and new this day In Jesus' name we pray that if you hard out there say, hey man, hey man, hey man Can we give the Lord a handclap of praise my friends?
[SPEAKER_01]: Hallelujah
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks this morning, please join me in the book of Acts.
[SPEAKER_01]: Chapter 13, verses 1-5, I'm going to be reading this from the New American Standard Bible Version, and a word of the Lord reads his follows.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now there were prophets and teachers at Antionk in the church that was there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Barnabas, Simeon, who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, a man who had been brought up with Herod to Tetra, and Saul.
[SPEAKER_01]: While they were serving the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, set Barnabas, and Saul apart for me, for the work to which I have called them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then, when they had fasted prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Solution, and from there they sailed to Cyprus.
[SPEAKER_01]: When they reached Salamis, they began to proclaim the Word of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: You may be seated in the Lord's presence.
[SPEAKER_01]: Friends, as we bring this way, find our series to a close next week,
[SPEAKER_01]: I pray that it has both blessed and informed you in some tangible way.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, by way of review, we've seen in this series, how to be way finders based on the biblical examples that Dr. Hall pointed out to us.
[SPEAKER_01]: First, we saw John Baptist who was showing people the way to Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then we saw the woman at the well who told others to come see for yourself, what the man told me.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then last week, Dr. Hall started.
[SPEAKER_01]: the message about Jesus as our hero.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Jesus being a hero maker.
[SPEAKER_01]: In other words, Him being our hero and we emulate Him and follow Him and everything He does, He creates the heroism in us, turns us into heroes and then we, therefore go out and make more heroes.
[SPEAKER_01]: replication process.
[SPEAKER_01]: This morning, my friends, I want to continue the Wayfinder series by speaking from this subject, we are a movement, we are a movement, everybody say movement, move something.
[SPEAKER_01]: And friends, we want to kick off our discussion this morning by looking at the contrast between
[SPEAKER_01]: The contrast between an institution and a movement.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is, we want to compare the nature of an institution versus the nature of a movement.
[SPEAKER_01]: So an institution is a place.
[SPEAKER_01]: Normally, a building, though metaphorically, it can be other things.
[SPEAKER_01]: But it's usually a place where all the people there agree
[SPEAKER_01]: upon the same principles, upon the same ideals.
[SPEAKER_01]: And their format has worked for so many years that the place has become well established for what they do.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think about a place like Yale University, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: It's very well known for turning out scholars in the fields of law, medicine, and science, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: their commitment to top tier academics, and their state of the art facilities, make Yale one of the more prominent places in the nation.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the fact that it is so prominent means that it's pretty prestigious.
[SPEAKER_01]: In other words, can't just anybody get in the Yale.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then when you do get into Yale, it's kind of a major accomplishment when that happens because of how difficult it is to get into Yale.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Yale is a well-organized, well-recognized educational institution, okay?
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, by contrast, a movement is a collective effort meant to bring about widespread change
[SPEAKER_01]: and perhaps the most famous movement that comes to mind in this respect is the civil rights movement, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Of the 1960s, it was a movement to affect change in the way that this nation was thinking and operating.
[SPEAKER_01]: See how the definition fit in there?
[SPEAKER_01]: For movement?
[SPEAKER_01]: And friends, churches can often be seen as institutions.
[SPEAKER_01]: Take the Roman Catholic Church, for example, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: This is a complex and ancient institution.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it functions as the largest and one of the oldest organizations in existence.
[SPEAKER_01]: But states of God, here we are, Niz.
[SPEAKER_01]: a church was never intended to simply be just an institution or just a building that you go to down the street.
[SPEAKER_01]: Christ started his church as a movement intended to bring about widespread change against the then current ways of thinking and operating.
[SPEAKER_01]: Movement definition, pure and simple.
[SPEAKER_01]: The point I'm making here is that even if a church stands in consideration as an institution, whether it's the Catholic Church or a church that's been in some neighborhood in some community for 40, 50 years, everybody didn't go in there and they're well known in that community.
[SPEAKER_01]: We must never forget that we're all just sinners
[SPEAKER_01]: And we're all equal at the foot of the cross, y'all, and the blood of Jesus cleanses us all from the sin of the world, and delivers us all unto salvation.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because that right there, that should help serve as a reminder to us that, yes, we are still a movement
[SPEAKER_01]: It's still a community of people resigned to follow the ways and teachings of that Savior.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: The way is not just a place.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a way of life.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a way of living.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you see it right in our very own churches, guiding verse, gospel of John, chapter 14, verse six, y'all know it well.
[SPEAKER_01]: I am the way, the truth and the life.
[SPEAKER_01]: No one comes to the Father except through me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Beloved states of God, the church cannot rest on being an institution.
[SPEAKER_01]: We got a return to that spirit embracing that spirit of being a movement for change.
[SPEAKER_01]: The way of the Lord is still a movement.
[SPEAKER_01]: The movement itself didn't die just because some men decided to declare that the church was more important, that the building was more important.
[SPEAKER_01]: Peter Tardis, hope we're going to listen to you and we're going to listen to God.
[SPEAKER_01]: The church has to equip its people within the movement to go out in effect change in the world on behalf of the movement.
[SPEAKER_01]: You cannot sustain a movement without people who are properly trained and equipped to carry it out and take it further.
[SPEAKER_01]: And friends, that's the central idea behind our text this morning at chapter 13 versus one of five.
[SPEAKER_01]: that the church was more of a training and sending place for a growing movement than merely just being a gathering place where saints get together once a week and know how to
[SPEAKER_01]: and the church in our text joe, the ancient church of Antioch, it played a vital role in the spread of the movement known as the way.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because the truth is, Antioch as a church served as the original launch point for the planting and growth of all the churches in the region.
[SPEAKER_01]: Remember, our text says that the church in Antioch
[SPEAKER_01]: When they went out, what did they do?
[SPEAKER_01]: When planned charges, when found a charges.
[SPEAKER_01]: So in a very real sense, Antigoc was the launch point for the planning of charges in that region.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was a special place.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that leads us to our big idea for the series, y'all know it well.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you don't get anything else out of this series, please get this.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is our big idea.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's say it together as it appears on the screen by the count of three, one, two, three.
[SPEAKER_01]: There is more to church and there is more to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's more to church and there's more to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's more to each of us.
[SPEAKER_01]: to help the church become all that it's supposed to be under Christ's train and rule.
[SPEAKER_01]: So when we examine our text, we see three things, just train, we don't ya.
[SPEAKER_01]: Three things that the church in Antiaide did to bolster the movement that was the way which became Christianity or being a follower of Christ or believer or whatever you wanna say.
[SPEAKER_01]: Each of these three ways that we brought to look at are associated with how the church in Antioch dealt with its own people, those inside its walls, in order for those people to be properly prepared and there to be said outside those walls.
[SPEAKER_01]: So first from the text show, we see that spiritual gifts are nurtured inside the church.
[SPEAKER_01]: But they're shared outside the church.
[SPEAKER_01]: Spiritual gifts are nurtured inside the church, but they're shared outside the church.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm right out of the text.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at verse one.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now there were prophets and teachers at Antioch in the church.
[SPEAKER_01]: This verse right here is telling us about those in the church in Antioch who held all the says based on their spiritual gifts.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, this is a true story.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't believe me, ask my wife afterwards, okay?
[SPEAKER_01]: When we left in charge of we used to work in Philly every day, take to train over to Philly, in the city.
[SPEAKER_01]: And every day I would see this gentleman out on the corner, preach to the gospel.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now a lot of people thought it was homeless, but when you checked him out, my man had him in a brand new suit every day, brand new shippo hat, shiny shoes.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was just out there preaching the word.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was not homeless at all.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so every time I would see him every day, I would give him a word of encouragement.
[SPEAKER_01]: Keep preaching the word, brother.
[SPEAKER_01]: Keep up the good work, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: This went on for all the years we worked there.
[SPEAKER_01]: I saw him on the street.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, I want you to get a good visual of this man.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm going to give this to you.
[SPEAKER_01]: How many people have ever seen the movie Candyman?
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what?
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like, hey, I just want to say thank you for all the evangelizing I've seen you do on this corner man.
[SPEAKER_01]: You've been putting in work for years and you looked at me and he said, hey, I appreciate it.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're going to have your own church and I was like, oh, what that's great, because that the time I was a praise and worship singer.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's like, what that's great, because me and my wife are moving, we're looking for church in Georgia.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's great to hear you say that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I was like, okay, because at that time, y'all, I wasn't preaching, I wasn't teaching, I wasn't doing any of that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I wasn't even interested in it.
[SPEAKER_01]: What's my point in telling the story?
[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes God will send people to let you know the assignment that you're going to have.
[SPEAKER_01]: to you to believe it.
[SPEAKER_01]: God will send angels.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes you can entertain angels.
[SPEAKER_01]: Be careful who you speak to.
[SPEAKER_01]: Be careful what you speak about.
[SPEAKER_01]: But then, sometimes people can be misguided when others tell them what they're supposed to be.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like me.
[SPEAKER_01]: That man told me I was gonna have my own church.
[SPEAKER_01]: Y'all, I was not even remotely interested in preaching or teaching or nothing.
[SPEAKER_01]: All I wanted to do was get my sing on.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's all I wanted to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he was like, I got different plans for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: God had not told me yet what he had clearly told this man.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because the moral of the story is, we now do have our own church.
[SPEAKER_01]: It has 1,400 members around the world.
[SPEAKER_01]: It has five or six different countries that are a part of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I had no idea how that even came about.
[SPEAKER_01]: This man saw it because God told him five years before it happened.
[SPEAKER_01]: Be careful who you entertain.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes God has a plan for you, but he has not said it to you yet.
[SPEAKER_01]: and he speaks to somebody else.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't pay attention to missing.
[SPEAKER_01]: It'll go right by you.
[SPEAKER_01]: The goal is to see what God is doing in someone and nurture that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not to try to speak up into the spiritual gift that they don't have.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, you know what our kids a lot, don't we?
[SPEAKER_01]: You'll see that a lot with parents who's kids play sports.
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't we?
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, he's stepping on toes now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because sometimes there's parents who never achieved what they want in sports, so they live like, carelessly through their children.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not realizing that, their kids don't even want to play that sport.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is a fact, Andre Aguicy.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's a very famous tennis player.
[SPEAKER_01]: Same as all over the world, one mini titles.
[SPEAKER_01]: He hated tennis, because his dad made him play.
[SPEAKER_01]: You cannot force gifts upon someone.
[SPEAKER_01]: Only God can give people gifts.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you know why it's dangerous to want a gift that you don't have?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because you'll be too sad to recognize and appreciate the gift that you do have.
[SPEAKER_01]: I appreciate what God gave you and utilize that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't try to be like the next man.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna be very clear, and I think we all know this.
[SPEAKER_01]: We all can't sing like us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right?
[SPEAKER_01]: But I think Kelsey would also admit she came priests like Darrell Hall.
[SPEAKER_01]: Amen?
[SPEAKER_01]: We all have our own gifts to Marshall.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at a text.
[SPEAKER_01]: First one says, the two spiritual offices, prophets and teachers.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what's interesting about these two offices?
[SPEAKER_01]: is that not only are they two of the five offices necessary for spiritual leadership that we see outlined in Ephesians chapter four of verses 11 and 12, go look that up.
[SPEAKER_01]: But also, each of the spiritual gifts flows into these spiritual offices.
[SPEAKER_01]: So whoever is assigned to those offices,
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a result of them having the gifts necessary to keep those offices.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, how do you know that?
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, we had a chart up and I'm gonna explain it to you because I don't think it's in the notes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Imagine, one column says spiritual gifts.
[SPEAKER_01]: The other column says spiritual offices.
[SPEAKER_01]: Under the spiritual gift column is every last skill and gift that God gives to people.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you're reading for your real quick, administration, apostleship, discernment, evangelism,
[SPEAKER_01]: exhortation, faith, giving healing, helps, hospitality, interpretation of tongues.
[SPEAKER_01]: Knowledge, leadership, mercy, prophecy, serving, shepherding, speaking, in tongues, teaching, and wisdom.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's go to the Roth spiritual gifts.
[SPEAKER_01]: And those are all you can be found.
[SPEAKER_01]: It can be found in Romans chapter 12, verses 3 and 8, and in 1st Corinthians 12.
[SPEAKER_01]: God, we don't just pull stuff out.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everything is based in the word, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: So those spiritual gifts are based in the word.
[SPEAKER_01]: The five spiritual offices also based in the word, Ephesians 4 and 11 and 12.
[SPEAKER_01]: What are those five offices?
[SPEAKER_01]: Apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd, or pastor, and teacher?
[SPEAKER_01]: Now y'all see that?
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm here to tell you whether you want to believe it or not, every last person in this room, every last person watching right now, you all have a spiritual gift, every last one of you.
[SPEAKER_01]: All those gifts I read, you have at least one of them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Your job is to get close to Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that you can then figure out what it is, and then use that gift for his glory.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because the main reason we have gifts is not for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't have gifts so we can come up off ourselves, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: We have gifts so that others can be blessed by the gift that we have.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then they discover their own gifts, and then they go out of blessed others as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: Replication, that's how the movement sustained itself.
[SPEAKER_01]: of thinking that if you don't hold an office in the church, then you're not gifted.
[SPEAKER_01]: That ain't true, y'all.
[SPEAKER_01]: Every child of God has at least one gift.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some of us have many gifts.
[SPEAKER_01]: Matter of fact, how many people in this room, right now, know what your spiritual gifts are, raising them.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you know what your spiritual gifts are, amen.
[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_01]: A couple of months ago, we did a whole series on this, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Spiritual gift assessment, we did a whole church wide, gifts assessment.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can still take that assessment, just go to our website, thewacc.minline.
[SPEAKER_01]: Find where it says, connect with us, click on that, and then click on Spiritual Gift Assessment, and take the test, find out what your gifts are.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, it doesn't work if you don't take it honestly.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, remember, you're trying to find out about yourself, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: You're not trying to lie to yourself to make yourself look better.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do that even make sense, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, let me just go ahead and say this about me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I ain't foolin' nobody with me.
[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't make sense to lie, doesn't make sense to embellish.
[SPEAKER_01]: Tell the truth, so you can figure out what your skills are.
[SPEAKER_01]: Gaining clarity on how God has gifted you is a key step to know and where you're supposed to be serving.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this is precisely what the church and any idea it for Paul and Barnabas y'all.
[SPEAKER_01]: They were nurtured to grow internally so that they can then go out and share with others externally.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look, it is right in the text, X13, 4 and 5.
[SPEAKER_01]: So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Solution from there, they sailed to Cyprus.
[SPEAKER_01]: When they reached the Llamis, they began to proclaim the Word of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the function of the movement that is the church, all.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are nurtured inside so we can share outside.
[SPEAKER_01]: How tragic would it be for Dr. Haudestan here and preach all these great messages that we're learning from the world and everything and then we get up at the end of service and go home and don't nobody ever say nothing about it ever again.
[SPEAKER_01]: How tragic is that?
[SPEAKER_01]: If we seclude ourselves to question ourselves to be like, well we saved in here, we'll know about the rest of the world.
[SPEAKER_01]: That doesn't make us a church that makes us a country club.
[SPEAKER_01]: We might as well have a golf course in the back.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure it's saying what like that, but friends, we have to understand if we don't go out and impact the world as opposed to just impacting each other in here, all it works for not.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's how the movement sustains itself.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at a text of Colossians chapter four verses five to six.
[SPEAKER_01]: Talking about being nurtured inside but taking it outside.
[SPEAKER_01]: Conduct yourselves with wisdom towards outsiders, making the most of the opportunity.
[SPEAKER_01]: Your speech must always be with grace as though seasoned with salt.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that you will know how you should respond to each person.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's like, man, it needs salt, it's some peppercorns, some lard, he's a sultan.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, I'm not an old-bay person, so I would never say that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sumi, I'm sorry.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the fact that a matter is, the world is flavorless.
[SPEAKER_01]: It needs the salt that we can provide.
[SPEAKER_01]: But if we don't provide that salt, it's home-stay flavorless.
[SPEAKER_01]: How you eat something that ain't got no flavor?
[SPEAKER_01]: You like, oh, this ain't got no flavor.
[SPEAKER_01]: If it's flavorless, you leave it alone, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: A flavorless Christian, the world leaves alone, because they're like, they just like us.
[SPEAKER_01]: They ain't all threatened.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let you be a Christian with some salt.
[SPEAKER_01]: You might influence somebody, you might make somebody bad.
[SPEAKER_01]: The point is, you're being salt, and you're doing what you're supposed to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the function of the movement.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at First Timothy 37, and he, the pastor, must have a good reputation with those outside the church so that he will not fall into disgrace and the snare of the devil.
[SPEAKER_01]: How many churches do we know of?
[SPEAKER_01]: What a pastor does not have a good name.
[SPEAKER_01]: But people still go.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, the word tells us that those who are teachers and instructors, we will be
[SPEAKER_01]: how to a higher standard than others because we supposed to know better.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we go to a church where we know the pastor's trifling, what does that say about us?
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm being real, y'all.
[SPEAKER_01]: If your pastor is always in a nose for something bad, how do you walk up in there on Sunday?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I'm so glad to be here because the Lord might not be there.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just saying, so we've seen that spiritual gifts are nurtured inside the church, but shared outside.
[SPEAKER_01]: Next, let's see how anointed people are commissioned inside the church, but shared or sent outside.
[SPEAKER_01]: Adointed people are commissioned inside the church, but sent outside.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right back to our text, Acts 13, look at verses 2 and 3.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Holy Spirit said, set Barnabas and Saul apart for me for the work to which I have called them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then when they had fasted prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.
[SPEAKER_01]: The issue we have when we hear this phrase anointed people is that we only think of certain type of gifts, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Clearly, this woman is anointed with our singing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Clearly, the pastor of this church is anointed in his preaching.
[SPEAKER_01]: And sometimes we think that's the only type of anointing there could be.
[SPEAKER_01]: We never associate anointing with ourselves if we think we don't have the gifts that they do.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I'm not anointed.
[SPEAKER_01]: So this is where people get anointing twist it, okay?
[SPEAKER_01]: To be anointed is basically to be chosen by God for something specific and then divinely enabled to do that they will.
[SPEAKER_01]: That means God chose you to do something that he gave you the skills to do it.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're the back of the book of Exodus when you were putting together the Ark of the Covenant.
[SPEAKER_01]: It said that God gave Bezelil the knowledge for construction and craft and working with his hands and working with tools in order to create the art.
[SPEAKER_01]: God gave him those skills specifically so that he could build the art to all of its specifications.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what it makes me think about?
[SPEAKER_01]: I was wonder.
[SPEAKER_01]: Did Bezelil have that knowledge before God said that?
[SPEAKER_01]: Did he know how to do it?
[SPEAKER_01]: Or was it like the Matrix?
[SPEAKER_01]: Remember when Trinity was like,
[SPEAKER_01]: I knew the motorcycle, and he was like, she was like, the rips, let's go.
[SPEAKER_01]: And she knew how to drive motorcycle immediately.
[SPEAKER_01]: What if it was like that for him?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because that's how God can work.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can go from nothing to something like that because it was God that empowered you.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, there's no question whether or not we're all anointed, that's the given.
[SPEAKER_01]: The question is, where does my anointing lie?
[SPEAKER_01]: Where do I find it?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: See, our problem is that sometimes, we need a reminder about our need to get some accurate.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, like, uh, meaning sometimes we don't appreciate or recognize the gifts we've been blessed with because we too be as he wanted to gift that somebody else got.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is being completely unappreciative of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: God, like I gave this, this and this, and I want you to use this for my glory.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, but I don't want that God.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna do this over here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now you wanna do what you wanna do and not what God wants you to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you all will over here?
[SPEAKER_01]: Let me know how that turns out.
[SPEAKER_01]: The body of Christ is called for different types of gifts
[SPEAKER_01]: based on our abilities.
[SPEAKER_01]: Think of it from a sports analogy, perspective.
[SPEAKER_01]: Different arenas call for different abilities.
[SPEAKER_01]: So let me talk about basketball, or tennis, or gymnastics, okay?
[SPEAKER_01]: You got Steph Curry.
[SPEAKER_01]: You got Cocoa Golf.
[SPEAKER_01]: You got Simone Biles.
[SPEAKER_01]: each of them excelled on their own stages, but they would struggle on each others.
[SPEAKER_01]: Imagine Steph Curry at the Olympics trying to do the balance being, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: You're like, boy, you better get back on that court.
[SPEAKER_01]: You are out of place.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are some who are specifically anointed for an office or role.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some are, Dr. Hall was anointed to be a pastor.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's clear as day, but you know what?
[SPEAKER_01]: Acts is full of people who passionately and faithfully serve the Lord's kingdom without being commissioned by the church.
[SPEAKER_01]: Remember we talked about Paul and Barnabas, they were commissioned by the church in Antioch.
[SPEAKER_01]: There was a lot of people that worked in the church, glorified God did great things for the kingdom, and we may never know what they are.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some of them, we only get cursory glances at them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Perfect example of that is the woman known as Tabata or Dorkis, okay?
[SPEAKER_01]: And I told my sister, I'm gonna start calling her Dorks now one.
[SPEAKER_01]: So listen to this, we're talking about Tabata, X9 verse 36.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now in Java, there was a disciple named Tabata, which when translated means dorkus.
[SPEAKER_01]: This woman was excelling in acts of kindness and charity, which she did habitually.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we'd say a couple of things from this example of Tabata,
[SPEAKER_01]: as the type of person who did great works for the Kingdom, even though it's you wasn't commissioned by the church.
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's the first thing we see.
[SPEAKER_01]: From Tabitha's example, that's that we each have a platform.
[SPEAKER_01]: We each have a platform.
[SPEAKER_01]: That means that wherever you are, wherever you function, that's where you'd be a wayfinder.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's where you make disciples for Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: Is it on your job?
[SPEAKER_01]: Is it in your kid's school?
[SPEAKER_01]: Is it in your kid's, literally, team?
[SPEAKER_01]: Wherever your platform is, that is where you utilize your gifts.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, how many people were part of us when we were still EBC Coniors?
[SPEAKER_01]: You all remember doing the more study?
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to tell you, the more study changed my life.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everything I told you about about the Ministry of the Society here I really don't really talk about, came from the more study.
[SPEAKER_01]: period.
[SPEAKER_01]: None of that would exist without the more study.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was a light changing study for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: And in that study, the author of a Todd Wilson, when we talk about a platform, he refers to it as, quote, the sweet spot.
[SPEAKER_01]: I remember that?
[SPEAKER_01]: Listen to what he says.
[SPEAKER_01]: When something functions within its sweet spot,
[SPEAKER_01]: The effort applied appears natural, smooth, and frictionless.
[SPEAKER_01]: There is joint in harmony.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sweet spots are multipliers of an input to produce an even greater output.
[SPEAKER_01]: Fruitfulness results from my properly functioning sweet spot.
[SPEAKER_01]: Can I tell you all for Dr. Darrell Hall?
[SPEAKER_01]: This is his sweet spot.
[UNKNOWN]: Man.
[SPEAKER_01]: Can I tell you for a great Kirkland or for a Kelsey Broughton?
[SPEAKER_01]: This.
[SPEAKER_01]: is their sweet spot.
[SPEAKER_01]: We all have a sweet spot.
[SPEAKER_01]: The key is to find it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So where's your platform?
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the question.
[SPEAKER_01]: Is it speaking to the youth?
[SPEAKER_01]: Is it a podcast?
[SPEAKER_01]: Is it a journal?
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe you write poetry.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe it's that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe you are a screenwriter.
[SPEAKER_01]: Got a couple of good ideas.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hollywood need to come up with that.
[SPEAKER_01]: God has endupted each of us with skills and knowledge in something, something we do effortlessly and which brings us joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Think about what that is.
[SPEAKER_01]: Something you do really really good without even thinking about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you might not think, ah, nothing.
[SPEAKER_01]: God gifted you with that talent.
[SPEAKER_01]: The question is, how can you use that talent for his glory?
[SPEAKER_01]: That's your task to figure out.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's how the movement keeps going.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when you discover what that is, your duty is then to promote it to the rest of the world.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we see we each have a platform, Mario up here.
[SPEAKER_01]: We also each have a purpose.
[SPEAKER_01]: We see three things that Tabitha, three questions she had to have answered.
[SPEAKER_01]: in this situation that applies to us as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: First and foremost, who am I created to be?
[SPEAKER_01]: Who am I created to be?
[SPEAKER_01]: The text says there are prophets and teachers, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Tableto was created to be generous.
[SPEAKER_01]: How do I do that?
[SPEAKER_01]: Acts 9, Acts 9, Acts 9, verse 36.
[SPEAKER_01]: Excellent and Acts of kindness and charity, which she did habitually.
[SPEAKER_01]: She was a habitual line stepper in a good way.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then, who am I created to be?
[SPEAKER_01]: How about what am I created to do?
[SPEAKER_01]: What am I created to do?
[SPEAKER_01]: What is my purpose?
[SPEAKER_01]: I remember that study, what on earth am I here for?
[SPEAKER_01]: Let me remember that.
[SPEAKER_01]: What is my purpose?
[SPEAKER_01]: What am I created to do?
[SPEAKER_01]: Acts 195, two pro claim, the word of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what Paul and Barnes was wishing how to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: What about Tabitha?
[SPEAKER_01]: She would make clothes.
[SPEAKER_01]: That was her gift.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at Acts 9, 39, showing all the 2dics and garments that Dorcus used to make while she was with them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Tabitha was a facet designer.
[SPEAKER_01]: OK?
[SPEAKER_01]: So who am I creating to be?
[SPEAKER_01]: What am I creating to do?
[SPEAKER_01]: Thirdly, where am I created to go?
[SPEAKER_01]: Where am I created to go?
[SPEAKER_01]: We know what Paul did, Bartibus, Acts 13, 4 and 5.
[SPEAKER_01]: They went down to Solution, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: and then from there they sailed to Cyprus, and then they reached the llamas.
[SPEAKER_01]: Tab of this place was job, but that's where she was from.
[SPEAKER_01]: Acts 9, 39.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now in job, but there was a disciple named Tabata.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we each have a platform, we each have a purpose.
[SPEAKER_01]: But we also each have a people, we each have a people, Tab of this people were with us.
[SPEAKER_01]: X9, 39, and all the widdles stood beside.
[SPEAKER_01]: Tablet this gift was making clothes and taking care of widdles.
[SPEAKER_01]: That was her gift that she learned inside the church and got nurtured and then went outside the church and impact the world.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the question is, when you ask yourself those three questions, who are my creative to be?
[SPEAKER_01]: What am I created to do?
[SPEAKER_01]: Where am I created to go?
[SPEAKER_01]: Then you'll find your answers the same way she did.
[SPEAKER_01]: But again, it starts with you knowing what your gift is.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you don't know what your gift is, you're never going to be able to impact the world for it, correct?
[SPEAKER_01]: And you gotta know the people that you need to reach.
[SPEAKER_01]: Your people might likely be the person that you work three to five years ago.
[SPEAKER_01]: is that friend that you don't hang out with the board because you're safe and they're not.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they can't really deal with your new habits.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't want to do a lot of old stuff that they're still doing.
[SPEAKER_01]: So they don't want to hang around with you.
[SPEAKER_01]: But that's the person that needs you the most for discipleship.
[SPEAKER_01]: So they can end up changing the way that you did.
[SPEAKER_01]: It might be your people, it might be people
[SPEAKER_01]: were you before Christ saved you?
[SPEAKER_01]: And you know that person because you used to be that person.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so you know the same way Christ saved you.
[SPEAKER_01]: He will save them.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the people that you need to go to.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we've seen that we each have spiritual gifts nurtured inside the church and shared outside and that a limited people are commissioned inside the church but sent outside.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lastly, I'm done y'all because Piccadilly's is called a bane.
[SPEAKER_01]: From our text, we see that God's love is experienced inside the church but spreads outside.
[SPEAKER_01]: God loves experience inside the church, but it spreads outside.
[SPEAKER_01]: Back to our text, look at our 26th.
[SPEAKER_01]: And for an entire year, they met with the church and taught considerable numbers of people and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.
[SPEAKER_01]: You ought to church to end up with a special place.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not only as we've seen, the disservice, the launching point for the planting and growth of churches in the region, but before Antioch, believers of Christ, they were just simply called followers of the way.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was at Antioch where they were first referred to as Christians.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now what you wanna think about this, okay?
[SPEAKER_01]: Cause it had to have been some type of special love or unique behavior on display in order for them to be named after Christ because the world saw how Christ got down when he was here.
[SPEAKER_01]: They saw how kind and general and compassionate he was and how miraculous he acted.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so now these people in his absence are trying to act like him and treat people well and love it on each other.
[SPEAKER_01]: Clearly it made a difference because it caused the rest of the community to look at them and go, oh, they're going to go followers of that Christ guy.
[SPEAKER_01]: So they're their Christians.
[SPEAKER_01]: They had to have been demonstrating Christ's like qualities in order to be so closely associated with him.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the love that they experienced in the church, it wasn't supposed to just stay in the church.
[SPEAKER_01]: That was part of the movement.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was designed to spread outside the church to people who went, needed to hear and receive the gospel.
[SPEAKER_01]: People who needed to be baptized, people who needed to experience an authentic community with believers.
[SPEAKER_01]: This was necessary during this time,
[SPEAKER_01]: and they had to stick together.
[SPEAKER_01]: Imagine the police being able to run up in here and arrest every single one of us.
[SPEAKER_01]: And nobody says anything, no government official, anything.
[SPEAKER_01]: They just got full authority to come in here and start cracking skulls and kick us out of here.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what they were facing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Quite as kept, that's what a lot of Christians are facing in other countries right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: And worse.
[SPEAKER_01]: Think of how the values of a good family impact the world as the members of that family go out and live their respective lives.
[SPEAKER_01]: A perfect example of this is Warren Buffett.
[SPEAKER_01]: Y'all Warren Buffett's one of Richest Men in the World and he told his kids, whenever growing up, Y'all ain't getting naked.
[SPEAKER_01]: He raised his kids to live like they didn't have any money.
[SPEAKER_01]: And as a result, all three of his children is daughter Susie, his son, Howard, and his son Peter.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're all highly active philanthropists in their own right who each managed their own foundations.
[SPEAKER_01]: Friends, this is the type of replication process that the church has to actively engage in as a movement.
[SPEAKER_01]: just like the values of a good family, impacting the world as the members of that family go out into their respective lives.
[SPEAKER_01]: You learn something here.
[SPEAKER_01]: You retain it.
[SPEAKER_01]: You go out live your life and encounter people and tell them about what you learn here.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they go, huh, that's interesting.
[SPEAKER_01]: Next week, you come back.
[SPEAKER_01]: You tell them about what you learn here.
[SPEAKER_01]: They go, fuck, I like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Third week, what happens?
[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, I'm about to come to church with you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, God, God, because of the salt that you laid out, it is important, friends, that what we take in here we take out there, otherwise we are wasting our time and we're wasting God's time.
[SPEAKER_01]: So as I close this morning, if we look around and examine the state of the world, I don't gotta tell y'all that the world is dark, y'all know that, y'all see the news?
[SPEAKER_01]: But because it is dark, that just makes it all the more critical that we as the people of God be salt and light.
[SPEAKER_01]: The world needs it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Already said about the flavor of the state.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now imagine the darkness.
[SPEAKER_01]: The world is in darkness.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're a way in a room and like slick the lighter or a little match, that little bit of light permeates all the darkness in the room.
[SPEAKER_01]: to where nothing can be hidden at that point.
[SPEAKER_01]: You are the light in the world.
[SPEAKER_01]: If people want to see better from Christians, if they want to look to Christians as an example for how to live, they need to look to us.
[SPEAKER_01]: They don't need to look to the fake.
[SPEAKER_01]: When they look to the fake, what they're gonna say?
[SPEAKER_01]: See, that's why I don't go to church.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right?
[SPEAKER_01]: How many times have you heard that?
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't be the person that forces somebody to say, that's why I don't blow the church.
[SPEAKER_01]: Be the person that forces somebody to say, dang, I need to go to church.
[SPEAKER_01]: I need to get some of that blessing.
[SPEAKER_01]: None of that's gonna happen, though, y'all, until we see ourselves as leading a movement of God's people, a movement that needs to be brought back,
[SPEAKER_01]: And the way community charts seeks to revive the spirit of the church, operating as a movement, y'all.
[SPEAKER_01]: That starts with each individual, every one of us, taking stock in our own spiritual growth and maturity, so that the movement can flourish.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, last quote, Todd Wilson, from the more quote, more study, here to another great quote, about people who can disregard their true roles in the church and their relationship with the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: Check this out and see if this applies to you.
[SPEAKER_01]: The problem isn't that we want too much, it's that we want too little.
[SPEAKER_01]: Instead of experiencing an adventurous journey with God and gaining an ever-increasing clarity on who we made us to be, we've become stuck in today.
[SPEAKER_01]: We fall, but we fail to embrace and step into the story, God has uniquely designed for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: God got your whole plan written not already.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know why you haven't such a tough time?
[SPEAKER_01]: Cause his plan goes this way, you all over here with yours.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're not following his plan.
[SPEAKER_01]: When you align yourself with God's plan, that's the sweet spot.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everything seems easy and fluid because you're aligned with God.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's your household's rule when your kids listen and do what they supposed to do, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Go do that, they go do it.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're like, oh, peace in harmony in the house.
[SPEAKER_01]: You say, go do that, they're like, nah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, we got a problem, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the same way in the Kingdom y'all.
[SPEAKER_01]: uniformity, all of us moving together on the same page so that when people look at this place, it just radiates power.
[SPEAKER_01]: It looks amazing.
[SPEAKER_01]: I heard that for many people who've come here before.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's some different about this place.
[SPEAKER_01]: Have you heard that about the way?
[SPEAKER_01]: It's true.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because we serve a pastor who believes that this is still a movement and not just a place, not just an institution.
[SPEAKER_01]: So please, take heart to the big idea for the entire series.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's read it together again if it will pop up on the screen.
[SPEAKER_01]: On the count of three.
[SPEAKER_01]: On the count of four.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's just say it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Ready?
[SPEAKER_01]: One, two, three.
[SPEAKER_01]: There is more to church.
[SPEAKER_01]: And there is more to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hallelujah for y'all knowing that.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're meant to become more, and we encourage all get signed up for WayFinders.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's our ask and action item, ask.
[SPEAKER_01]: How can I use the gift God gave me to become more involved in what God is doing in the church?
[SPEAKER_01]: How can you become more involved?
[SPEAKER_01]: And then once you answer that question, next is the action item.
[SPEAKER_01]: Get signed up for WayFinders today.
[SPEAKER_01]: As four classes is this fall, you go through those four classes.
[SPEAKER_01]: January comes, third Sunday, in January, we're gonna be celebrating our third anniversary here's a church, and we're gonna be commissioning those wayfinders.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a marvelous time of celebration in the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: We encourage you to be a part of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's nothing like impacting God's kingdom for His glory.
[SPEAKER_01]: because we all just trying to get to have it in the air.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well done.
[SPEAKER_01]: My good and faithful servant.
[SPEAKER_01]: Pay a man.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll never do that unless we embrace the fact that what?
[SPEAKER_01]: We are a movement.
[SPEAKER_01]: Pay a man.
[SPEAKER_01]: Get a load of hands.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm praise my friends.