Gospel Resolve

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

Let's pray, Lord, we thank you for this time. We thank you for your word. We thank you for the ability to meet together. We thank you for all that you're gonna do and say in our hearts. Lord, we ask for strength as we listen. We ask for understanding. We ask for clarity. I mention in your name that we pray, amen. Amen. We are gonna be in Acts chapter 21 today. We're gonna be hitting all of Acts 21.

In a relatively short amount of time. But really, to kind of get where we are in Acts 21, we actually need to look at one verse from a couple of chapters ago and you can either look up here or you can turn to it. It's just Acts 19, chapter 21. And it just says, now after these events, Paul resolved in the spirit, I just want you to focus on that phrase, he resolved in the spirit to do what? To pass through Macedonia and Achaia and go to Jerusalem. Saying, after I have been there, I must also see Rome.

We are covering Acts 21, but we need to say that it all started with one verse. We're not getting to Acts 21 unless we are starting with Acts 19, verse 21. We spoke last week of Paul's farewell tour, right? So he's going through Macedonia and Achaia. That's where we just were. That's what we were talking about last week. That's the beginning of our series. This is Paul's farewell tour. He is passing the torch. He is helping people that are now leading churches. He's kind of helping them figure out what next steps are. And we read of it whenever he was in Troas and he was speaking to the Ephesian elders. Paul is resolved in the spirit to go back to Jerusalem and then to go to Rome. And it's interesting that it uses this phrase because it doesn't say, for example, that he received a word from the Lord. It doesn't say that an angel came to him. It doesn't say, it just simply says

that he was resolved in the spirit. And what we read in Acts 21, we find Paul following through on this verse, on what he is resolved to do. He is still resolved to go to Jerusalem and then on to Rome. But there comes a question, a serious question, as to whether the Holy Spirit is leading him or not. It's interesting. So in Acts 21, we find Paul's resolve to go to Jerusalem and then to Rome. We find that being tested severely. And what we get is, from that testing, we get this profound illustration, this profound encouragement, that following the Holy Spirit is not always made up of clear pathways and 100%, we're totally sure that we need to do that. In fact, oftentimes, whenever we are following the Holy Spirit, whenever we are doing what the Lord's called us to do, we will find many, many, many occasions where our resolve to do what we know we should do is tested.

Our resolve is tested. We begin following Jesus, many of us, with very great plans, maybe even whenever you started following Jesus, you had this calling, this great sense of how things would turn out. And eventually, eventually, either you will or you have, reckon that with what is. You have negotiated that with where you find yourself right now. And all along the way, you are passing through these different crossroads. You're saying, okay, here's the plan for my life, here's where I'm going, but we come to these crossroads and we need to answer, do I go here, do I go here, do I stay, do I see this through, do I move on?

And our lives, as we look back, we can see it's the series of crossroads, of decisions that we made, of places where our resolve was tested and either our resolve stuck and stood up, right? Or we caved. And we made a decision on either one of those things. Either our resolve stayed and held us up or our resolve melted and we didn't do what we knew that we should do. Today, we're gonna see Paul's resolve tested. And here early in the chapter, we see maybe, like the first and second test, kind of back to back. The first, Paul's first test is in the city of Tyre, T-Y-R-E, Tyre, where he meets disciples. And it is important to know, before we read this verse, we're gonna be starting at verse four, Acts 21, verse four, it's important to know that Paul has likely never met these people, okay? He's been through here, but he probably didn't start the church here.

We have no record of him ministering here exactly, and so this is probably people that he has never met. And so in Acts 21, so they get to Tyre and Paul is seeking out the disciples. So he said, having sought out the disciples, we stayed there for seven days. We would be Luke, the guy who was writing the book of Acts, Luke and Paul, we. Luke, Paul and every other person is with him. We stayed there for seven days and through the spirit, listen, through the spirit, they, these new Christians that he just met, they were telling Paul not to go to Jerusalem. Interesting, interesting. Paul has never met these, these Christians, and they are saying to him through the Holy Spirit, do not go to Jerusalem. If you were buying a house and you prayed and you were sure and you were pumped, you had this vision of like the ministry that was gonna happen through this house, right?

Like you were, you were ready to go. And then a Christian that you had just met tells you, hey, Drew, you know what? I've been praying about you in this house and I feel like the Holy Spirit's telling me to tell you, don't buy that house. Now that's weird, okay? That's weird. I don't know if that's ever happened to you. I don't know if that's actual, like a testimony for some of you. I don't imagine that it is. However, it is kind of Paul's, right? He's resolved to go somewhere. He's resolved to go to Jerusalem, but now these Christians that he's just met, it's like, hey, we've been praying about this and we don't think you should go. At the very least, it would make you think twice about buying the house, right? At the very least, you're going, you're double checking your sources at that point. You're thinking it through maybe differently. You're talking to some friends.

You're getting wisdom from somewhere because it's confusing when it seems like it's Holy Spirit versus Holy Spirit, right? It's confusing when we feel like we've prayed about something and we're sure about something and then we receive information that seems to contradict that, right? And Paul is right there. Paul is resolved in the Holy Spirit to go to Jerusalem and the Tyrian Christians now are saying, don't go there and they're saying it through the Spirit. It gets even more confusing, okay? Just in case you thought this was Paul's only dilemma, it gets more confusing. His second test is kind of coming right here, verse eight. Okay, so let's skip to verse eight. It says, on the next day, we departed and came to Caesarea and we entered the house of Philip the Evangelist who was one of the seven and stayed with him. Now, one of the seven, you can kind of see this test,

this second test is coming through Philip the Evangelist who was one of the seven. Now, that, if you've read, maybe if you've read the book of Acts, if you were here more near the beginning of the year when we were talking about the book of Acts, Philip the Evangelist is one of the seven deacons chosen in Acts chapter six. And when the church is scattered in Acts chapter eight, Philip the Evangelist goes to Samaria. This is the same Philip, this is the same Philip who saw, saw when he was saw, stone Stephen.

Saul was there taking coats when Philip's best friend, Stephen, was being stoned to death. Same Philip, Philip was there whenever he had to flee his home in Jerusalem because all the Christians were scattered because of Paul, right? Their relationship is complicated, to say the very least. Philip the Evangelist has known Paul for 20 years. Think about all the people that you've known for 20 years, I got a really short list of that, right? That you still kind of keep up with, right? That you still know really well, like it's not a long list. He's staying with Philip, it's been 20 years and he is staying with Paul and Luke are staying with Philip, Paul, Luke and all of their friends staying with Philip and not only that, it's not only Philip that is there, another person emerges from 20 years ago, verse 10. This is, while we were staying for many days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea.

This is the same Agabus that came in Acts chapter eight, I believe, who said, he came to the church and said there's gonna be this really great famine in the whole land, okay? Might've been in Acts 11, I'm fuzzy on the chapter of Acts. But it's somebody that Paul knew from roughly 20 years ago, right? These aren't Christians that he just met, these aren't people that he has reasons to mistrust, these are seasoned, cagey veterans. They've been through things, they've lost friends, they've lost homes, right? They've been at this for a long time and here's what Agabus says, look what he says. And coming to us, Agabus took Paul's belt and bound his own feet and hands and said, this is how the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. Man, this guy is coming straight out of the Old Testament right here, right?

He sounds like Elijah right now, he's just like the owner of this belt. It's so kind of ominous and heavy, right? But what he's saying is that Paul, when you go to Jerusalem, you're going to be bound and chained. He doesn't tell him not to go, actually. He just tells him he's going to be bound and delivered into the hands of the Gentiles. And then verse 12 says, when we heard this, we and the people there urged him not to go up to Jerusalem. We and the people there would include Philip, 20-year, K. du Vette, Agabus, prophet, all the people that we met at the very beginning of Acts chapter 20, all these like Sopater and Trophimus and Tychicus and all these guys that have begun to follow him as he's kind of gone around his missionary journeys. It's guys that have been with him for a while, some maybe more than a few months, but most of them probably a few years.

They know Paul. Luke knows Paul. Philip, Paul trusts him. Agabus, Paul trusts him. All of these people, we and the people there, urged Paul not to go up to Jerusalem. These are people that Paul dearly loved and respected and Paul's resolve is being tested right here by very convincing spiritual appeals. Very convincing spiritual appeals. Remember, remember, just so you can have it in your head. The Holy Spirit is the one who is speaking to the Tyrian Christians.

The Holy Spirit is speaking to them. Scripture makes that really clear. The Holy Spirit is the one who is sending Agabus with a message to Paul. Either that or we're calling the Tyrian Christians and Agabus liars. We're not. Scripture doesn't. Scripture doesn't say we're doing it falsely. The Holy Spirit is the one doing this. And this kind of testing, this kind of testing, even for us here, can look and feel like the Holy Spirit is trying to trick you. This feels like a trap. Where's Admiral Ackbar when you need him? Nobody, okay, I'm disappointed. Disappointed.

This kind of testing can feel like the Holy Spirit is trying to trick you. We can answer that simply, but I also wanna bring you through the logic of it. The simple answer is no. The Holy Spirit is not trying to trick you. In James chapter one verse 13 it says, let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one, okay? So the Holy Spirit is not tempted people to evil, right? Not trying to trick you, not trying to get you to stumble, not trying to trap you and go like, ah, I knew you'd screw it up. That's not what he's saying. What is happening though? What is that? That's not happening, what's happening? Well, testing is happening. And this kind of testing is there to make us inspect our hearts and to make the call. That kind of testing, the Holy Spirit is bringing all this to Paul so that he can inspect his heart

and he can make the call. It could be that you are in a position, maybe sometime soon, maybe you've come out of this, where the Holy Spirit's asking you to do something that looks very unwise. Holy Spirit might call you into something that makes you look silly or crazy or rude or selfish or some kind of label that you don't want, right? It might call you to put your job in jeopardy or to lose your job.

Holy Spirit might call you to say no to something that you've been waiting for for years. Holy Spirit might ask you to give something up that is very precious to you. Holy Spirit might do that, right? And to people from the outside, it's gonna look a little crazy and weird. When we left our church in southwest Fort Worth and we were kind of migrating here, there were many very well-meaning people who said, do they not have more churches in Burleson? Do you need to go to Burleson to help a church out there? What are you doing? Why are you leaving this sure-handed job that you have?

I didn't leave a sinking ship, man. That church is doing just fine now. It's doing just fine then. Me and my family were very well-loved, very well-received, like no animosity. Everything was great. And so people really were, people who knew me very well were looking at me like, are you nuts? That's crazy. I know some of you came here from other established churches like whenever we were looking, we were in partnership with First Baptist Burleson and First Baptist asked their people. It's like, hey, we need people to kind of help this church get off the ground and start. And I'm sure that some of you made a decision to leave First Baptist Burleson and come here and people were looking at you like you had three heads. Like, why would you leave that? Why would you leave kind of the comforts there, right? And it's not that the rocks at First Baptist Burleson, it's a great church.

It's just simply to say, when people look at you, they don't think it's wise. They don't think your decision is smart. You look a little silly. And in between receiving that call and obeying that call, your resolve is going to be tested. It could also be, so it could be that the Holy Spirit is calling you to do something that just looks unwise and it's calling you to follow through on that. It could also be that the Holy Spirit is intending to stop you in your tracks.

And the Holy Spirit is gonna be using the wisdom of other people to give you some wisdom and say, look, you gotta stop. You gotta stop. The Holy Spirit's trying to give you this big stop sign. Like, don't do it, don't go. Don't give your money to this person. Don't step forward on that. It feels like you're stepping forward in faith, but it's not, you don't need to do it. You need to trust me and say no to this thing. Say, well, how do you tell the difference? I don't know.

Right? That's the crazy part of it, right? Like, somebody's gonna tell you, like, no, no, no, I know for sure what the Holy Spirit's telling you, and be like, okay, I mean, just slowly back away and smile, you know, like, okay. Either way, either way, we need to inspect our hearts and we need to make the call. We need to sit with our own motives. We need to seek out Jesus Christ. We need to pray and then we need to decide. And it's extremely difficult. It's extremely difficult. In fact, it is because it is extremely difficult to choose between listening to friends and following what you are convinced the Holy Spirit's asking you to do, because it is, it is not beyond a shadow of a doubt. If you have the Holy Spirit and I have the Holy Spirit and we're saying different things, it's not beyond a shadow of a doubt. There's no scripture contradicting it. You just have one side saying,

I prayed and I heard this, and the other side saying, well, I prayed and I heard this. This is exactly why the Holy Spirit uses it to test us. Because it's impossible. None of you are trying to decide between studying the Bible and smoking crack cocaine. That's not your decisions. If it is, we can talk. I mean, we have couches and chairs back there. It's fine. I mean, if that really are, that's really what you're deciding between. But most of the time, 99% of the time for you, you're not making those kind of decisions. You're making other kinds of decisions. Do I go here? Do I do this? Do I endeavor this? Do I quit this? Do I say yes to this? Do I say no to this? This is exactly why the Holy Spirit uses it to test us. Because this kind of testing actually matures us. It actually grows us into the people that the Lord is calling us to be. And without this kind of testing, without real stakes,

without it having substance in our life, meaning in our life, without us actually caring about it, it's not going to form us. It's not going to mature us. You're just playing games. 1 Chronicles 29, 17. It says, I know my God that you test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness. 1 Peter 1, 6 and 7, the end of 6. It says, you have been grieved by various trials so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire, the tested genuineness of your faith may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. What are these verses telling us? These verses are telling us that the Holy Spirit tests us so that the genuineness of our faith can rise to the top. So that we can, to put it in a different way, we can see what we're made of.

We can see what comes out whenever we are shaken. And it's not to discourage you, it's to encourage you. It's to say these confusing things that are happening, these decisions that you're having to make, it's not just so that you can make decisions, it's so that you can grow in Christ like this, it's so that you can depend on the Lord. This kind of testing matures us. This process, this process of inspecting and deciding,

it builds what we see here, gospel resolve. This process of inspecting and deciding builds gospel resolve. If you've been following the Lord for any amount of time, you know that you've come to these crossroads and you've had to make decisions, and those decisions have made you. Those decisions have determined the course of your life. Those decisions have formed you into a different person. Those decisions have helped you

make different decisions moving forward. They've allowed you to be wise. We talk about being once bitten twice shy. We talk about it, that's great. Once bitten twice shy, for those of you who do not know what that means, it means that if you trust something to not hurt you and then you get hurt, you're gonna be reluctant the next time to trust that thing. That's what once bitten twice shy is.

We're talking about a couple steps beyond that where it's not just that you're once bitten twice shy. It's not that just you're wary of things. It's that whenever you see things coming at you, you can recognize that this trial that I'm about to experience or that I'm in the middle of is actually something that the Lord is using in my life to make me more like Him. This disappointment that I have is something that the Lord is calling me to trust Him with. This opportunity that I think I really want is something that I need to set before the Lord and ask Him yes or no on this and be okay with that answer. It's not just once bitten twice shy. It's learning to anticipate and interact with the Lord even with maybe what someone would call a small decision. We see this in Paul's response to these convincing spiritual appeals. Look at verse 13, Acts 21-13. It says, then Paul answered, great line,

what are you doing weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be in prison but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. What are you doing? Quit sobbing. You're breaking my heart. Except he means it. He's not being sarcastic with him here. What you see here is that Paul settles the matter with a decision. He settles the matter with his calling. He inspects his heart, he weighs out their words, and he makes a decision, I'm still going to Jerusalem and then I'm gonna go to Rome. It's still happening. We can't see it from these verses but as you keep reading, you will learn. That's the end of the matter entirely. Nobody else is coming up to him and saying, well you really shouldn't go to Jerusalem. Nobody. You really shouldn't go on to Rome. Nobody's saying it. Nobody's saying, well you know, I told you. When this would happen, I told you,

you shouldn't have, nobody's second guessing it. Nothing. Paul isn't second guessing it. It's the end of the matter. The Holy Spirit is testing his resolve. The answer was seemingly for him to continue to go on to Jerusalem and that's what he's doing. Sometimes the answer, what you're struggling through, what you're trying to decide, what you're trying to navigate, sometimes that involves you simply picking an option. Man, that's it. It's just you picking something. It doesn't, if you're waiting for the sign in the sky and a rumbling your tummy, you're gonna be waiting a little bit because you're praying to the Holy Spirit and you're saying, Holy Spirit, I really need to know. Option A and option B. Option A and option B. And the Holy Spirit's looking right back at you going, pick one. I don't know. You figure it out. This is what this whole thing is for. I'm not saying the Lord doesn't know.

I'm just saying like the Holy Spirit's looking back at you saying, make a decision. That's what it's about. It's not about, and again, you know, if one of those decisions is in clear opposition of Scripture and totally walks away from Jesus, yes, obviously, don't make that decision. But again, whenever you are bringing the decision before the Lord, and there are two options that could give God all the glory, right? Option one gives God all this glory. Option two, God, all this glory. It's all, you know, it's within your gifting. It's within your calling. It makes sense. It honors your parents. It does all these things, right? It does all these things. What are you gonna do? Man, just make a decision.

That's okay. And have resolve. Know that the Holy Spirit's calling you to make this decision and make it, and stick with it. Quickly, I wanna cover Paul's last two tests of his resolve, because he does finally get to Jerusalem, but when he gets there, there's this weird interaction that he has with these church elders. So the church elders in Jerusalem are kind of big deals, right, these church elders are Jewish church leaders, and so all this stuff that, if you've kind of been here and listened to some of our sermon series about it, there's a big problem with, you know, following Mosaic law, Jewish law, and still following the Lord, and kind of there's, what does that look like? So there's a lot of kind of inherent drama at the Jerusalem church. So he gets to the Jerusalem church, and he gives them a full account of what the Holy Spirit's doing, and he's excited, and they're excited, right?

And so skip down to verse 20, okay? Here's their response. This is the Jerusalem church elders. This is James, the guy who wrote the book of James. It's him and several other people, okay. It says, and when they heard it, Paul's report, they glorified God, and they said to him, you see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed. They are zealous for the law, okay. The way this is written, it's kind of strange, but it's almost like they're telling Paul, that's great, but we got a problem. We got something for you to figure out. And they're setting the groundwork, they're driving at something, and they're saying, you see, there's a lot of Jews, thousands of them who've believed, and they're zealous for the law, meaning the law of Moses, all their Jewish customs, right? Okay, so the setup, got all these Jewish Christians. Look at the next verse, 21.

And they have been told, all these Jewish Christians have been told about you that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, not follow the law, telling them not to circumcise their children or walk according to our customs, okay. So they're like, great, Paul, real excited, the Holy Spirit's moving, we've got a problem here. We got a real problem, we're trying to lead these Jewish Christians, but you, hometown hero, right, Paul, you're so great, you're coming back, everybody's real excited, you're the hometown hero, but you have a reputation for teaching that people should not follow the law. That's a problem. And to this Jewish church, that was a big problem. And really, truly, this is Paul's problem, too, because he's coming to this church and he's bound by honor to help this church, to love this church, right? He wants to do that, and Paul himself,

in other places in the New Testament, said to the Jew I became as a Jew, right? So he's okay with following Jewish customs to a point, right, or in a specific way. Paul is not against Jewish customs like his reputation says. So then they get to their idea. Look at verses 22 and 23. This is still them talking to Paul. What then is to be done? Something's gotta happen. They will certainly hear that you've come. Do therefore what we tell you. We have four men who are under a vow, okay, and that is how the beginning of a really terrible plan starts. We got these four guys, they're under a vow, it's gonna be great, okay? It's a bad plan, right? They're saying, Paul, you gotta help us make this right. Here's our plan, and when they tell him their plan, in the middle of that plan is Paul's third test, because Paul, his resolve has to build when he has to trust the process.

Your gospel resolve builds when you trust the process. And we see Paul trust the process with a plan that's likely going to put him in prison. Like Paul ain't dumb. He said all these people tell him, you're gonna be bound and imprisoned when you go to Jerusalem. You're gonna be carried away to the Gentiles when you are put in prison in Jerusalem. I'm pretty sure Paul sees this coming 1,000 miles away. I'm sure he sees them and say, okay, yeah, this plan's gonna be terrible, but Paul doesn't say anything against the plan. In fact, Paul stays the course. He stays the course, and he suffers the consequences. He follows their plan to a T, and this is something that takes a week. He's gotta go under a vow. He's gotta pay these things. He's gotta, I mean, it's a lot of hoops to jump through. He's following Mosaic law, okay?

And yet, in the whole time, Paul, they're not a peep from Paul. Paul's not frustrated, at least we don't hear him be frustrated or disappointed, or anything like that. He's just following the plan that he knows will imprison him, and he's doing it, he's doing it at the behest of very, very well-meaning church leaders, right? And I think this is its own sermon, but there are some well-meaning church leaders who can end up putting you in the crosshairs of things, unintentionally so, through their own ignorance, through their own blind optimism. Sometimes church leaders don't do the right thing. Sometimes they have ill-conceived plans in, not just our church, but in our church, in our home groups, in our life groups.

When you are working with Christians to share ministry, when you are working with people, spoiler alert, your interests are not always gonna line up 100%, okay? So Clay and Robin Rickard, they are our student ministry team leaders, they're doing a great job, and every other week, we kinda just do a little check-in thing, right? And I'm like serving them, and trying to help them kinda do what they need to, and there's times whenever they tell me they wanna do something, and I'm like, great, and I roll with it, and there's times I tell them, hey, our church, this is a big initiative, we're pushing, and they're like, okay, we'll roll with that, right? But it's not like we come together and magically have the same agenda, okay? That's not what happens, and we get along really well, or at least I get along with them.

We get along really well, so we're friends, like we enjoy one another's company, we see life pretty similarly even, but when we come together, we still have to work out priorities, we still have to work out what's gonna happen next and what isn't. We still have to work out logistics. Sometimes it's not even fun, sometimes it's hard, but what's happening? Well, what's happening is the Holy Spirit uses that process, not just there, but also in home groups and life groups, and family meeting, we're gonna have a family meeting tonight, right? And these aren't, nobody's throwing hands, it's not weird, but it is to say that not all of us are coming into the room in 100% agreement. That's just not happening, that's life, that's adulthood, okay? What's happening in that process, though? The Holy Spirit's using that process to refine us, to teach us, and to grow us, to sometimes trust the process,

even when we think it's a bad plan. And as he does that, there's this thing, right? If you try to wait until everybody agrees for everything, you'll never get anything done. So by the time you do something, most of the people are excited about it, and some people aren't. And sometimes you're part of the most, and sometimes you're part of the some. Sometimes I'm part of the most, and sometimes I'm part of the some, and I'm the pastor, right? Daniel and I talk, and he's like, hey, we're doing this, this is happening, and I'm just like, I don't love it, but let's just push on, let's just do it. We have those conversations, okay? This is what it is. This is what it is to move forward together. This is what it is to stay the course. What happens to Paul whenever he stays the course? Look at verse 27. When the seven days of Paul following this Mosaic law, when the seven days were almost completed,

the Jews from Asia, seeing him in the temple, stirred up the whole crowd and laid hands on him. So despite the Jewish church leaders' best intentions, Paul is still arrested immediately upon entering the synagogue. Look at verse 30, skip down to 30. Says, then all the city was stirred up, and the people ran together, and they seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple, and at once the gates were shut, AKA, the mob is forming. People are getting their pitchforks and they are lighting their torches, okay? That is what is happening. Paul is getting into some dangerous territory. Look at the next verse, verse 31. It says, and as they were seeking to kill him, let's just pause there for a minute. As they were figuring out ways to end his life, word came to the tribune of the cohort. Tribune of the cohort is a title, so a tribune would be like a governor or a proconsul,

or he's a military leader who has jurisdiction over that area. He's a tribune. We're gonna meet him more later. His name is Lysias. Says, word came to the tribune of the cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion, okay? So the mob was forming, they're planning to kill him. Look at the next verse. He, the tribune, he at once took soldiers and sent Jews to the charians and ran down to them, and when they saw the tribune and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. Let's get a timeline for just a minute.

Mob forms, people see that, they run to the tribune. Let's say that takes 20 minutes. Let's say it's real close and they run fast, and it's 20 minutes. Tribune has to hear that, compute that. Mustard troops, then they go over to where Paul is. We'll call that 30 minutes, okay? So how long has Paul been beaten for? I mean, we're just gonna graciously say an hour, okay? Paul has been, you ever been beaten for an hour? No, me neither, all right? I've not been beaten for an hour. I imagine that it would be pretty painful. I imagine that I would have a few thoughts run through my head as I was being beaten for an hour, especially after I was being beaten for an hour,

because I followed a bad plan. I've been beaten for an hour, because I did what these Jewish church leaders wanted me to do, what's running through Paul's mind as the punches are landing, because if the government doesn't intervene at that point, then Paul's dead in the street. Paul just gives up his life, because he's been beaten to death, and the crowd just moves on. That's the end of that story, right? But the Tribune comes in and stops it, and when the Tribune gets there, they stopped beating Paul. Sometimes, there's a lot of information in a four-sentence, in a four-word little phrase there, they stopped beating Paul. When that happened, they stopped beating Paul. How many people were beating Paul? I don't know.

It's at least more than one, probably more than two. People beating, because it's a they, right? So there's plural, people beating Paul. Have you ever been beaten up by more than one person at a time? There's a lot that we're kind of taking for granted, or just glossing over, just as we read this, like, oh yeah, Paul was being beaten by several people. But it probably took an hour for them to get there. So what's going through his mind as the punches are landing? What's going through your mind as you are sharing your testimony, as you're sharing the gospel with somebody, and then you get snubbed for it, or you get mocked for it? What's going through your mind then? What about when you don't comply with company policy on moral grounds, and then you get passed over for the promotion because of it?

What's going through your mind? Are you thinking about how you're following this cockamamie plan? That's costing you dollars? It's costing you cred? What about if you're at school, and you talk about how you've been praying about something, and then you get made fun of for it? Maybe you don't sit at the same lunch table. Look, that doesn't sound like much to adults, but that's kind of huge for somebody who's in seventh grade, right? I mean, that's big. Like, let's not sit here and just pat them on the head. That's a big deal. That's a big risk to take. There will be moments when your resolve will be tested. There will be moments when the Lord Jesus is asking you to do something that will be social, socially costly.

That will be, career-wise, it will be costly. Relationship-wise, it will be costly. It will hurt. It will cost you something. You might not ever be the same after that. I imagine that Paul, who was definitely in his 40s at this time, right? So I'm 47 right now, almost. I'm 46, almost 47. I can imagine if I was beaten by several people for an hour. I probably wouldn't walk the same for the next year and a half. I don't know, maybe the rest of my life. I mean, it depends on the kind of injuries I'm sustaining at this point, but that's his life, man. It is altered because he's following a plan. And when you follow the Spirit, things will go awry. People that you respect will disappoint you, Christians in your church.

They will not see it your way. Leaders will pass you over, and your opinions will go ignored. It will happen. Hopefully it doesn't happen often, but it will happen. And what you need to know is before that happens, what is your hope in the middle of that? Don't wait until you're dealing with disappointment to know what your hope is. If your hope is that everybody's gonna be nice and friendly, well, that's not a good hope. That's not a good plan.

If your hope, though, is in something deeper. If your hope is in the fact that the Holy Spirit has called you from death to life. If your hope is in the fact that Jesus is rescuing you into an abundant life now, if that's what your hope is, then even when the punches are landing, even when the punches are landing, your hope will not be shaken. You can take a beating and know that God is still good. The Holy Spirit has a plan to make you into the likeness of Jesus, to bring you joy and maturity and a gritty hope that can survive a beating, that can sacrifice and maybe never ever be the same because of it, but your hope is in something deeper. If you want that kind of life, my encouragement is that Jesus is waiting. He wants to give you that kind of life. He's calling you. You know, I'll end with just the reference to the story of Peter in the boat, right? Peter's in the boat and Jesus calls him out of the boat.

And my question is like, what does Peter, what does Peter have to risk as he gets out of the boat and starts to walk on the water? What does he have to risk? Not just what he has to believe, because what he has to believe is pretty big too, but what does he have to risk? What does he have to know? What does he have to understand to be able to put a foot out of the boat and onto the water? And I think for you, that question, it might not be walking on water out of a boat, but it might just be following Jesus into something that looks just as crazy, right? My encouragement to you is, look, Jesus wants that kind of life for you, with you, but it's gonna take you getting out of a boat. And it's probably gonna take you suffering a beating of some kind. It's not all sunshine and rainbows, but it is good and it is worth it. If you want that kind of life, I'm gonna be back there where those two chairs

and that couch are on those lamps. I'm just gonna be sitting down just waiting. If you wanna come talk, great, man, I'd love to talk to you. If you wanna just receive some prayer, we had a lot of people receive prayer, great, that's good. And that's my encouragement to you, is if you wanna make that decision, you're gonna have to get out of a boat. You're gonna have to go back to couches and chairs. You're gonna have to make some kind of action on that. Let's pray. Jesus, thank you for your word. Thank you for the sacrifice that you call us up to. Thank you for the ways that you are bringing us into something good and something new, that you would help us to trust you to see that

and even to suffer for it. That's your name that we pray, amen.