Episode 89 - Building Safety Act (Part 1)

Our lives are not our own. That's what we looked at last week. We represent Jesus, and that's the transition into our new series. We're going to be in it for three weeks. It's called Rep It. It's we represent Jesus. Let me ask you this. Y'all ever heard somebody say this before? Well, my faith is just kind of private. Heard that before? My relationship between me and God, I have one, but it's really I leave that at home. I don't really talk about that too much. It's between me and God. Or maybe you come back from camp like we just came back from a couple months ago, or you get out of conference in a couple weeks, or you get out of an awesome worship time, and you're on fire for Jesus, and you go back to school, and it just kind of fizzles. You have all these plans to go and look like a light and be different and spread the gospel, and then it just fizzles. Or there's this other one where you're like, if you're that kind of Christian, you can share your faith. If you feel like you're that kind of Christian, you can share your faith. If you feel like it, right? Here's the deal with that. That's not part of it. That's not part of the deal. Remember a couple weeks ago we talked about there's no Christian light. There's no Christian zero. If you follow Jesus, you're in or you're out. You're a citizen of heaven or you're a citizen of hell. You're in the light or you're in darkness. You're a sheep or you're a goat. We talked about all those things. If that's the case, if you follow Jesus, we should be changed. We should look different, and we should want others to have what we have. What's it called when you're really interested in someone, okay? You're spending a lot of time on the phone, and you're texting a lot, and you're answering all the calls, and all your thoughts and all your text messages are consumed with this other person that you're interested in, and then all of a sudden, you're not so interested anymore, and then you just don't answer calls anymore. What's that called? Ghosting. Yeah, yeah, ghosting. It's called ghosting. That's a really good one. That's a really bad thing to do. Side note, if you're a Christian, don't do that to people. Let them know. If you're uninterested, let them know you're not interested anymore. That's not a good thing to do to people. Let me ask you this. Who in here has a job? Shane, you don't have a job? Shane's got a job. I knew he did. All right. Who in here has quit a job? Okay. You've quit a job before? When I was 17 years old, probably. So this is millennia ago. It would have been like maybe 2000, something like that. Hey, Scarlett, I knew it would be you above everybody else. No, but I did. I worked at Esplanade Mall in Kenner. I worked at the Wilson's Leather in there. Anybody heard of that? I know some people back here remember Wilson's Leather, probably. But I worked there, and I started working there as holiday work. I was a seasonal employee. I had a friend that worked there, and she got me a job. She got me a job there. And so I started working there, and then I ended up staying past Christmas into like regular employment there. And I didn't like this job. I just didn't like it. And one day, I just didn't go back in. I decided I'm not going to work there anymore. I had another job that kind of would hold me over. I would cut grass, and I just wasn't going back in. I didn't show back in. I ghosted this job. That's not okay. That's not a good thing to do either. It has no integrity. I wasn't living for Jesus then. And so that's a real issue. Not a good thing to do. But for many years, what happened with Wilson's Leather is it went on. Wilson's Leather continued on. The register got worked. The clothes got folded. No one froze to death. People got their leather jackets. It wasn't a big deal in the sense of me representing Wilson's Leather. They were fine. I moved on. Not costly for them. Again, no integrity. But in the end, it didn't really matter. It wasn't that big of a deal. But there's a lot more on the line with Jesus. There's eternity on the line. Jesus saved you from an eternity in hell, and you can't just act interested in Jesus, say he's Lord, and then ghost him. There's responsibility. We have a responsibility. Once you're saved, we don't have a responsibility. We're not gaining salvation by doing things. Once you're saved, you work from salvation. We work from acceptance, not for acceptance. Pastor Tim used to say this. He'd say, the gospel came to you as it was going to someone else. That's not the only reason that the gospel came to you. I mean, it's because God loves you. He wants you to have a relationship with you. Guys, I need y'all to stick with me. We're early on. We got 20 minutes, okay? Y'all with me? All right. He died for you so that can happen. But it also, it came to you as you were going to someone else. I mean, it's been 2,000 years since Jesus walked the earth. It's been 2,000 years since Jesus walked the earth. And since the people we're going to read about in a few minutes in Acts, since they walked the earth and spread the gospel, and the gospel then went to somebody else, and then it went to somebody else, and then it went to somebody else, and then it came to you. It shouldn't just stop with you. Sharing the gospel is not about feeling. It's not about feeling like it. It's not, I'm on fire, so I feel like it. No, we rep it. We rep the gospel of Jesus Christ because of who he is and because of what he's done. It can be nerve-wracking, right? It can be hard to go and tell others about Jesus. What we have to remember is that men and women for 2,000 years risk much more than just being nervous or just being embarrassed. They risk comfort. They risk position. They risk their lives sometimes. They risk all of those things, power, position. But I get it. I get that it can be scary. We're all scared of something. Who's scared of spiders in here? Anybody scared of spiders? Yeah? What about snakes? Where's Tori at? I know Tori's not scared of snakes. She loves her snakes. I get it, though. I'm not a big fan. What about lizards? Anybody scared of lizards? My wife is terrified of lizards. It's unbelievable. I can't believe the scene that goes down when there's a lizard in our house. You know what the number one fear is? Very specific spider there. Yeah, that one's up there. It's not tarantulas. Death? No, it's not death. What'd you say? Black. Those are scary. It's not just about spiders here. What's the number one fear, you think? Rejection. Yeah, that one, too. I got to hear these answers. Okay. Reagan, what's the number one? The devil? Okay. All right. Go ahead, Emma. Okay, that is a scary thought. Landon, come on. A cottonmouth? Yeah, yeah. I'm scared of some cottonmouths, too. All right. Two more. Yeah. The dark? Okay, Pete, what is it? All right. Matt and Neil, what is it? Being alone. Man, y'all are, these are all real fears, but these, this is not the one. One more. And this is it. Peyton. No, not roaches. It's public speaking. The number one fear is public speaking. Y'all don't identify with? You're not scared? You're not scared? I know you're not scared of that. Hold on. Some of y'all are afraid of public speaking, right? Huh? Okay. Like, you have that presentation for class. It's two minutes long. No one's really listening, but you get it? You're nervous about? Yeah. You know, I am. I still don't like public speaking. It's ironic and funny that the Lord called me to preach. He's funny like that. But I remember getting so nervous sometimes. I remember sometimes getting up for pastoral prayer the first time. And I could feel the blood just pulsing in my ears. You know, you feel the heartbeat, like the nerves are going a mile a minute. I remember that. That's the number one fear. Where was I going with that? Ah, yes. I think we could feel that way when we're about to share the gospel, too. I think that could be really scary sometimes. You feel that tugging on your heart. You feel that push to go share Jesus with someone. You're like, no, no, no, no, no. What if I get it all wrong? What if I don't have? What if I don't have the right thing to say? What if I mess it all up? And I think the reason for that is a lot of times we view Jesus as a presentation. Like, you know all the facts. I have to know all the facts so I can convince you that Jesus is the way. We view sharing the gospel as a big, elaborate presentation instead of an invitation. Tonight, I want that to change. So how do we go from treating this as an assignment to loving it, to representing it, to repping it? And so Acts 4. We're going to pick up there. We're picking up in the middle of a story. And here's what's happened in Acts leading up to this point. So Jesus has died. Jesus is resurrected. Jesus has ascended. All the stuff happened on earth before Jesus left. The 40 days he walked. He saw Thomas. Remember that we talked about the wounds in the side and his feet and his hands. What else has happened? Acts 2. Pentecost happens. The Holy Spirit comes. Acts 3. We see Peter and John. They're preaching the gospel. And we pick up here in Acts 4 where they can't help it. Peter and John can't help but share the gospel. They've seen Jesus. They've seen the miracles. They've seen the teaching. They've seen the resurrection. And they have to go and share what they've seen and what they've heard and what they've experienced. And then what's happened is they've just, in this chapter, they've just healed this guy who's been lame for 40 years. And so things are looking pretty good for Peter and John, you'd think. Except this. The religious leaders, the same ones that arrested and crucified Jesus, they've just arrested Peter and John. they don't like jesus they don't like the message and they think the disciples are going to mess things up for them, even though they're doing good works like healing a lame man. So that's where we pick up. Peter and John are in this bad way. These religious leaders are about to decide if we're going to kill them, if we're going to beat them, if we're going to jail them. And what are the disciples going to do? Are they going to keep repping the gospel or are they going to back down? So we pick up in Acts 4. Y'all stick with me, Acts 4. Now, when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated common men, they were astonished and they recognized that they had been with Jesus. But seeing the man who was healed standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition. When they had commanded them to leave the council, they conferred with one another saying, what shall we do with these men? For that a notable sign has been performed through them is evident to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem and we cannot deny it. I love this. I love this passage right here. We read this in D group, remember? I love it. I love it. These guys aren't so smart. They haven't been to school, they haven't been to seminary, haven't been to Fletcher or Nichols, right? They're just normal guys. They're fishermen. But here's what we see. We see that it's their experience that allows them to stand up to these guys. It's their experience with Jesus that makes this all go down. Something about Peter and John. They've spent time with Jesus. These religious leaders might be smarter, they might be able to argue better, but there's something about Peter, and John. That's what we're going to be taking a look at. Here's what I want you to see. When it's our time to share, when it's our time to be bold, our experience with Jesus is what shapes our boldness. It's not how much we know. It's not how many years you've been in church. It's not having all the right answers. It's your experience with Jesus that's going to make the difference. I want to be really careful with this. I want you to know this. We need to know the facts too. We need to know that we're sinners and that, Jesus died to take our place, and he rose, and he ascended into heaven. All those things are of utmost importance. In fact, the facts should inform our experience. Let's define the word experience in the context of what I mean here. Remember last week we talked about worship. We talked about all things being grounded in God's word, and that includes our experience. Our experience should be grounded in God's word. He gives us a picture of who we are without him. He gives us a picture of who we need for him in his word. I know who I used to be, and I know who I am now. My time with Jesus has changed me. And that experience, that experience, knowing that will shape my boldness. It'll shape your boldness. And so what you've got here in this story is you've got two teens, basically, maybe 20 years old. They're basically in high school. They're fishermen, and they're versing. They're going up against them. They're some old guys who know the Old Testament by heart, basically. They can quote it, and these teens are showing them up. They're able to do that because they've been with Jesus. They know who they're talking about, not just what they're talking about. The old guys, they know all the facts. They know the Old Testament, but they totally miss what it's all about. But these kids, they know the who. They know Jesus personally, and they run circles around these old, educated guys. They know the who. If you've been saved and your life is being transformed, if you've spent time with Jesus, you know the who, and you're equipped to represent Jesus. Okay? Who in here likes bonfires? Love some bonfires. We're going to do some bonfires coming up in the fall and in the spring. Yeah, it's going to be fun, for sure. But one thing about bonfires is that when you've been at a bonfire, other people know you've been at a bonfire, right? You smell like the fire for days, right? You've got to wash your hair a couple times. You've got to wash your clothes a few times. In the same way, we need to be spending so much time with Jesus that it's obvious that we know Him. It's obvious that we've been around Him. Remember, it's only been two months here since the crucifixion and Jesus' ascension. These guys knew Jesus. They had been around Him. 2 Corinthians 5.20 says, Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us. We implore you, on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. So if we're going to be a representative, if we're going to be an ambassador for Christ, we've got to know Him, because there's a difference in knowing the facts and knowing Jesus and talking about the experience of a transformed life. Peter and John could speak boldly because they knew Jesus. They spent time with Him, and we can too. Second point is this. Our experience with Jesus drives our motivation. Acts 4. 17 says, But in order that it may spread no further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name. So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered, Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge. For we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard. And when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way to punish them. Because of the people, for all were praising God for what had happened. For the man on whom the sign of healing was performed was more than 40 years old. And so the leaders there, the Sanhedrin leaders, they're like, y'all got to stop talking about Jesus. Y'all got to stop talking about Jesus. See, they had to get them to stop talking because there was this incriminating truth that they had crucified the Messiah that they were talking about. And it was really making them mad. And so they're like, look, we're going to let you go. We're going to let you live. But the deal is you got to stop. You can't talk about Jesus anymore. And the disciples respond back, y'all judge. It's right or wrong for us to listen to you or God, but we can't stop speaking about who we know and what we've seen. We have to, we don't have a choice. We're motivated to our experience with Jesus has motivated us to share the gospel. I love this, but these are some teenagers and their, their life is in the hands of these religious leaders. And they're like, we can't stop. We won't stop talking about it. You know, on, um, on social media, they have these influencers, right? I'm talking about, and they always have the links to something in their bio. They're selling something. You can always tell the ones that are just collecting a paycheck. And you can tell the ones who really believe in the product, the ones who actually have like use the products, the ones who maybe actually have actually made the product. They love it. They can sell that product. Now I realize we're not selling Jesus here. I realize that, but we do want people to understand the experience. The experience of, if you follow Jesus like this, like you need to understand the peace that's offered when I'm going through a trial, that's the experience of it. You need to understand the joy I have in this really difficult season. That's the experience. You need to know this wholeness I experienced when I, when I was nothing and I was broken and he paid my debt. You need to know my savior. He paid my debt. He paid yours too. That's the experience of it. That's the reason that these leaders here, guys show up every week. They have something they've experienced Jesus. It's the reason that they're about to in a couple of weeks, give up their beds and the comforts of home and go and stay overnight and probably sleeping on the floor on an air mattress at Fielder's house, right? That's what's about to happen. They're about to do that because they love you guys. Think about Mindy. Mindy's not here in all the decorations by herself for the conference. She's doing that because it's not because she wants to necessarily. She loves you guys. She wants to give back. I think about Abby and Caleb that they're staying on as elevate leaders. You know why they're staying on as elevate leaders? They love you exactly. And something happened over their years in elevate that they want you to experience too. They love you guys. I think about missionaries. Those are like the heroes of the faith. You know, the guys that give up the comforts of living in the United States and they fly to some impoverished country across the globe and they stay there. They give up everything. They risk all this stuff because they know him. They're making no money. They get no recognition, but they know Jesus. This has to be the motivation every Christian has when things get tough, when life gets hard. I want others to know him because I know him and I know that he is good. There's going to be hard times. I think it's Matthew 16, 33. It might be 630. No, 1633. But it says, in this world, you will have trouble, but take courage. I've overcome the world. Jesus is saying is like right around the corner. If you're not in a season of difficulty right now, you better believe that it's coming for you. What are you going to do in those times? What's going to keep you motivated to follow him? Well, it's your experience and knowing him. Like the moment when the weight of your sin is off of you, when you understand what Jesus paid for you, when you've walked through a tragedy, and Jesus has met you there, and he's shown you compassion, and you felt his presence, when you know the promises that are in his word, and you begin to see those promises fulfilled in your life. At that point, there's no reason to fear when those things have happened. There's no reason to have fear of public speaking, or I'm not going to know the right thing to say. God will give you the courage to share when you recall his faithfulness. That's the reality. What about this fear? TALKED ABOUT IT EARLIER, "SOMEONE SAID THEIR GREATEST FEAR is rejection. What if I get rejected? That's a tough one, right? What if they make fun of me? What if I'm embarrassed? What if they shut me down? What if they're like, no, I'm just not interested in that? What if I share the gospel and God doesn't save them? I don't see the fruit of my sharing. What if that happens? What's going to keep you going in the face of rejection? Well, our experience with Jesus allows us to praise, especially in the trials, especially in the hard times. We're going to look at verse 23 and 24. Where we left off is, remember, they've just kicked Peter and John out, right? They just stopped talking to them. They're telling them, hey, stop talking about Jesus. And they're like, hey, we're going to take our chances. And the leaders are like, just go then. Just go. Because it would have been risky for the council to punish them after what they just saw them do in healing the guy who was lame for 40 years. And so they're like, just get out of here. And they're like, if y'all do it again, though, you're going to be in real trouble next time. And so how do the disciples respond? They're like, I'm going to respond. Acts 4.23 says, when they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and elders had said to them. And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them. I'm stopping there, but if you read on to the next couple of verses, you'll see they continue praying. They're praying for boldness, and they continue praising God for who he is and what he's done. So how do they respond there when their lives are threatened? What's their response when they've been kicked out of society? What do they do? They praise. They worship. You know, for me, apart from Christ, I might have an inclination to complain right there. You know, if that happens to me, I'd be like, can you believe these guys? Like, we just did some good. We just healed this guy, and now we're in trouble for it? They're all mad at us that they want to kill us for it? Or maybe I might get mad at God on it. You know, we were being obedient to what you told me to do. Why are they about to kill me? How did I end up in this situation, ostracized from society? But their response is this. Their response is, thank you, God. Thank you. And so how do you get there? How do you get to that point where you immediately stop worshiping Jesus? Remember, they knew Jesus. They were representatives of Jesus. They weren't going for themselves. They were going for him. When they were fearful about what they were saying, they were told, they were made this promise that the Spirit would give them the words to say. They experienced life change. They walked with him. They experienced him. They knew him. And so when it came time to look back at the end of the day on what God had done, of course, they gave God credit here. What I was thinking about when I was reading through that is that takes so much pressure off of us. You know, I have a lot of family members that I love. There are a lot of people in my life that I love dearly who I know don't know the Lord. And if I wear the weight of having thinking that I have to get them saved somehow, that's a losing battle every time. I'm going to lose in that every time because it's not up to me. But you know what I can do? You know what I can do? I can be obedient. I can go and share. I can do what I'm called to do. I can represent him and share what he's done in my life. Peter and John here are in a bad spot. Things aren't looking great for them. The religious leaders that day, they're basically the police and the pastors of the day. And they're out to get them. But even in the worst season there, even in the worst trials, we see that they praised. That's because they knew the God who doesn't change. The same Jesus that called, the same Jesus that calmed the storm, the same Jesus that raised Lazarus, the same Jesus that raised himself from the dead is still the same Jesus in their trials. He's still the same Jesus in their difficulties when there's a threat of light, a threat against their life. That's why they praise him. They know he's immutable, unchanging. He's the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. And they praised. Here's the deal, though. If you don't know this, Peter later on gets killed for following Jesus. All the other disciples do too, except for John. He's the one that gets exiled to Patmos, right? That's how it ended up for them. That's what they got for following Jesus, at least on this side of eternity. That may not happen to us. We all get killed for following Jesus. We all go through really tough things sometimes. Like I said, Jesus promised that trouble's around the corner, right? We may go through, you know, sickness in our family or a death in our family. Some of us experience divorce in our family, all these difficult things. I know Julie just moved here from another country, right? And that's a tough, that's a tough thing. It's a tough thing to adjust to. But our relationship, our experience with his faithfulness allows us to keep praising the difficulties. Y'all stick with me over here. We're almost done. I promise. But people, they see that. They see that when that's your response and they wonder, how is he walking through this with joy? How's he walking through this with peace? How's he praising him in this difficult time? And the answer is, it's Jesus. That's how he's doing it. I thought about Sophia with this one. I was writing this and Sophia's, you know, she's walking through some difficulty in her family, right? Her dad. And we need to be praying for her dad. I've Sophia and her mom walk through it with such grace, you know, that they're smiling, they're sweet, they're kind, their perspective is so good. They trust the Lord. And I know if I asked Sophia, if I asked her mom, Heather, right now, like, how do y'all do that? They would say, it's Jesus. Jesus sustains us. He gets us through it. If you know Jesus, he's going to put a burden on you to share with others what he's done in your life. He's going to give you a boldness to be able to share it too. He's going to equip you to do what he's called. I love the quote that it's, uh, he doesn't, uh, call the equip, but he equips the call. It's so true. So true. I see that in my life every day. You can do it. You can go and tell others what the Lord has done. In fact, you have to, if you are his, you're not yours anymore. Galatians two 20 says, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me and the life that I now live I live in the flesh, the light that I now live in the flesh. I live by faith and the son of God who gave, who loved me and gave himself for me. I love that verse. You should memorize that verse. It's a good one to know. It is. Our faith is not private. Our relationship with God is not just between us and him. That's not an option guys. It's not. If you're a follower of Christ and you have a responsibility to share, to be a light commanded to, as we walk with Jesus every day, he's going to give you boldness. It's going to be shaped by our experience with him. It's going to be shaped by our time with Jesus. As we walk with Jesus is going to give you the motivation also to go out there and be bold. And no matter how it goes, he's going to, you're going to praise him through it all, whether they accept Christ or not, whether they hear you or not, we praise. So as we close, let's look at the last thing that Jesus says on earth. This is, I said, I said it before. This is just two months prior. This is right before Jesus ascends into heaven. He leaves us with this says Matthew 28 says this 18 through 20. And Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am going to give you the word of the Lord. I am with you always, even to the end of the age. This is pretty important right here, guys. This is the last instructions that we have from Jesus before he leaves. He's saying, if you're my follower, it's your responsibility. It's your calling to go and make disciples. If you're my follower, if you're a student of Jesus, it's your responsibility to go make more followers, to go make more students. Here's the deal. I have people that pour into me, thankfully, and I get to pour into you and it's your job to go pour into others. So look, here's the deal. Some of you are so good at this. You have such a gift in this. Go find someone to disciple, go find someone to disciple, share the gospel this week. This is your youth group guys. You know that like this is your youth group. And like, it's an awesome youth group because of you. That's an awesome thing. But really reach people and bring them here and let them in on what you have here. We got something good here. So go and find someone to disciple and let's, let's reach our city. Let's reach our schools for Christ. Amen. Amen. We're going to go to e-groups in just a second. I'm gonna pray for us. Uh, Lord, we love you. Thank you for our relationship with you, Lord. Thank you that we can know that you're going to meet us and give us everything we need, uh, to, to walk out the calling you have for us. And we're going to walk out the calling you have for us. And we're going to walk out the calling you have for us, Lord, to share the gospel. But I pray, uh, for each one of us in here, Lord, I know there are times where we can shy away from doing the things that you're calling us to do, Lord. We can want our comfort or, uh, our friendships or acceptance more than standing out for you. Lord, I pray that we would each be bold, Lord. Uh, and we would stand out, Lord, and we would represent you well in our schools and our homes and everything that we do, Lord. We love you and we praise you in Jesus name. Amen.