What Now?

If you were in here at the beginning of the service, or if you're here last week, you know, this is a time of transition for our church and for me and my family. As one of our elders. Scott, Kindness was just saying, love it. If you'd write me a note, if you don't like me, please refrain from writing me a note. Got enough of those over the years already.

Appreciate it. And the encouraging ones will always take, though, and always prayer. But I wanted to say, too, as we get started, I want to start on a light note, because I recognize for some of you, this can be heavy. Just looking around this room, I know there are. Some of you, I've been with you in some significant moments.

Some of you, when you first were introduced to Jesus, some of you even knew me before I knew Jesus. Some of you in here traveled internationally with or helped you bury people that you loved and marry people that you love and different things along those lines. And so this could be a difficult moment. And at my own house, you can ask my kids if you'd like to. A lot of times when we're in heavy season, I'll try to break that up.

Sometimes with a bad joke, they don't appreciate that. Or a fun moment, they do appreciate that. And so, because it's heavy, I want to start with something light. It's a real easy question. What's your favorite food?

Cheesecake pizza. Okay, well, I didn't hear that one. I was. It was not real specific. Over here.

Jambalaya. All right. Nolan's Cajun Scott. Em. All right.

Nobody. Chocolate queso. Okay. Getting that. Pastor John wants that.

Some tacos. You can put anything in a taco. You put lasagna in there, call it taco. All right, well, bacon. Anything with bacon, too.

There's, like these universal cures to your bad recipes that are happening right now. Think about this. Whatever your favorite food is, when you think of that food, that's normal to you. I eat the same breakfast every day, sausage and eggs, every morning. Sometimes the quantity changes, but the same thing, and it's normal to me.

Some of you have milk and cereal. Some of you like bacon. Some different things that happen. But have you ever thought about when you go to another country, why it seems so weird to you that they eat the things that they eat? It's normal to them.

In fact, everything that we eat at one point was an unknown to someone. Think about that. Just if you have milk with your cereal, who was the first guy that said, hey, hey, don't kill that cow? I'VE got another idea. See those otters?

We can drink that. Yeah, that guy was weird. He's like your cousin Eddie in the family. We don't want to, but he's found something cool. All right, we'll go with that.

And then what about the guy who first ate an egg? Huh? What's that hard white thing coming out of that chicken's butt? I wonder what it tastes like. Kind of a strange thought, right?

But it's the second guy that I really have questions about. You decided you did that, too. If you. If your friend jumped off of a bridge, would you jump off? It's like that kind of thing.

It's like, how about mushrooms? Have you thought about mushrooms? That had to be an interesting discovery. Who here likes mushrooms? Like, mushrooms, salted thing.

Okay. And you live to tell about it. That's great. That's because other people didn't. It's like, oh, yeah, Steve ate one of those mushrooms last week.

Oh, did he like it? Well, he's dead. Write that down. Somebody write that down. Don't keep eating those ones.

But see, everything that's normal to you was an unknown to someone at some point. Not just food in life. Some of you are at the edge of the unknown right now. And so you're asking the question, what now? What do I do now?

Once you get to the spot where you don't know anymore, what now? I was thinking about it this week for my family and I. And there's been lots of those moments. And I remember. And if you know my family, you'll know.

This is an odd thing. It's never how you'd guess it would happen. We were married for five years before we decided we want to have kids. And I was the one who instigated it. Not just because of the practice.

It was because I thought we were ready for kids. I was a moron, but I remember sitting on the kitchen table saying to Shanna, I think it's time. I think we should have kids. And she went, really? Really?

And, like, she's an amazing mom. She's alone with the kids. And I'm like, what are we doing Still? Still, no, we don't know what we're doing. But I remember we thought we'd be ready for the first one.

So we prepared. We read the books, we went to classes. She made me go to a breastfeeding class. I was like, I don't think I'm supposed to look at boobs. She's like, pay attention.

I'm like, are you sure? I think this Applies to you, not me. This is weird. It was all awkward. We thought we were ready.

And when we get the baby home and then she cries and you do all the tricks, you feed and you read and you rock and you change and they still don't stop crying, you go, somebody, who do we call? What do we do with this? There's nobody to call. It's you. Oh, what now?

Some of you are at a stage in life where you're in a transition. Maybe you just got done with school, and that could be 12 years of your life, or 16 or 20 or 25. Or maybe you just decided to keep going, get a third doctorate. Whatever you're doing once you're done, you go, now. What?

Because I know this, but what now? And if somebody hires you now, you actually have to do the job. What now? And then you do the job for 35 years, and you retire and you go, what now? And your spouse says, you ain't hanging out with me all the time.

I like you. Not that much. What now? What now? When cancer comes?

When somebody leaves? When God calls you into the unknown. What now? We're doing this series we started last week called Every Season. Last week we were in Ecclesiastes, Chapter three, which is oftentimes famously quoted, there's a time for everything.

And we showed, as we studied the Ecclesiastes, that book's not as meaningless as it seems. There's hope in the heavel, the Hebrew word that's translated oftentimes vanity or meaningless. It really means smoke, vapor breath. It's real. You just can't grab a hold of it.

That's life. It's real. It's actually happening. It's a lot more temporary than you think it is. If you think you can get a grip on it, you can't.

Good news. God does. He holds it all in his hands. So there's hope in the heavel. But today, more than just that, there's a season for everything.

What do you do in those what now? Moments? How do you live that? And today we go to the New Testament. In the Book of acts, Acts, chapter 20, we're gonna read verses 17 through 38.

I won't preach every verse just because of time in that passage, but I could, because what are they gonna do? Fire me? But. So we'll see what happens.

If you're new to the Bible, the book of Acts is part of a two volume set. Luke is volume one, the Gospel of Luke. So the New Testament is Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, then Acts, Acts, is a transitionary book into the epistles and the churches that are started in the Book of Acts after the Gospels. Luke is the same author that writes the book of Acts. We know that from the very beginning of the book.

Volume one is what Jesus began. Luke writes that, and then Luke writes Acts, oftentimes called the Acts of the Apostles. It's been changed. The Acts of the Holy Spirit. Here's the reality.

This is what God's doing. It's what Jesus continues to do. If we were doing a series in Acts, we could name it.

Jesus continued. The interesting thing is he's not there. Just like for us. He was physically present, walking with them when the work he began. But Jesus continued.

This wild, crazy thing is he does it through you sinful people that at one time were rebelling against him, rejecting him. And he chooses broken vessels to carry his message. But he doesn't want you to do it without power. That's the theme of the whole book, and it's key. It's in verse eight.

I'll start reading verse six just to give you context. In Acts, chapter one. Then they gathered around him. And so Jesus has resurrected from the dead. He is risen.

Amen. Every Sunday is Easter at Southbridge. They gathered around him and asked him. So Jesus, over those 40 days, has appeared to over 500 witnesses. And some of them are gathering around him.

And here's their question. It's funny, we ask the wrong questions. It's like they were watching Fox News or something. Look at what they say. Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?

Who is Israel? Should we support Israel? Nope. That's not what Jesus wants them to know. In fact, he tells them, stop worrying about the days and times.

Look what he said. He said to them, it's not for you to know the times or dates. Make that your life verse. Somebody. He's coming back.

Could happen at any moment. I hope you're ready. But you're not going to know the day or time, no matter what anybody tells you. The Father has set by his own authority. But contrast.

Here's what you do need to know. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you. He doesn't ask you to consider this. This is not an optional thing. It's going to happen.

You will be my witnesses. Willing or unwilling, it will happen. And they're not always willing. We'll see. And where will you go?

This is key. This is the theme of the whole book. Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the Ends of the earth. This is a promise that is relevant to the book that it was originally promised from. It's Ezekiel, because Ezekiel is also the book that warns about false shepherds.

And that's what Paul's going to be talking to these elders about at the end of his speech, this farewell speech he gives. But Acts 1:8 fulfills a promise from Ezekiel. Ezekiel 30:6, verse 26 says this. I will give you a new heart and put in you a new spirit. I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

You don't do that. He does that. And I will put my spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees. You'll want to do this. And be careful to keep my laws because you recognize who he is as a good father.

The laws are not so you don't have fun. The laws are so you can actually enjoy life the way it was meant to be lived and how you were meant to enjoy it by following him. But he told him not to do it until they had the power. So wait. I'm going to have you go, but you don't go without me.

But I'm leaving. You don't even know the dates, times, when I'm coming back and how all that's going to happen. But you're going to get power. And you need the power. Don't do this in your own strength.

And in Acts 2, the power comes. The Holy Spirit, the day of Pentecost. And Peter. A man who days before saw a servant girl in the high priest courtyard and denied ever knowing Jesus, stands before thousands of people, some of whom are the most powerful people in the known world. And he says, you killed God.

That's power. That's not just because Peter likes to talk. He does.

But now he's speaking with a boldness he's never had before. Holy Spirit power. And that starts a movement of Jesus followers post his resurrection and before his second coming that we now call the church. Acts chapter two says there were 3,000 believers that first day. It says Peter, he replied.

And he said, repent and be baptized. They asked when he said, you killed God, what do we do? He says, repent. That means change your mind about God. Turn and change your mindset.

Be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Same gift he had they can have. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off. That was revolutionary.

You mean a Jewish Messiah came? The Jewish People killed him. And now he's saying everybody's invited. Whoa. You want inclusion?

There's inclusion. The promises for all who are far off, for all whom the Lord our God will call. Too many other words. He warned them, we don't get the full sermon. Amen.

And he pleaded with them, save yourselves from this corrupt generation. Those who accepted his message were baptized about 3,000. They were added to the number. And here's what they did. No instructions to do this.

No verses that told them they should do this. We get that. How awesome is that for us? So they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching that's foundational and to the fellowship. They were in relationship with one another voluntarily.

They weren't forced to do it, wasn't a requirement of membership and the breaking of bread. They lived life together and they prayed for one another. It seemed to make sense we would do this, would have cared. Everyone was filled with awe. And many wonders and signs were performed by the apostles.

And it goes on in the first eight chapters. The church stays in Jerusalem. We don't know exactly how long that is, but many scholars estimate it's about two years. But remember what the promise was. You will receive power.

You will be my witnesses. Not just in Jerusalem, but they're like us. We like what we know. There is a lot of research that says that the most dangerous, dangerous, scary thing for everybody's life is not public speaking. It's not death.

It's just the unknown under public speaking and under death, oftentimes known as healing. That. So they want comfort and they stay in Jerusalem. But remember, I told you this last week. You have agency.

You do not have sovereignty. Agency means you can make decisions. You have choices to make. Sovereignty means God controls the outcome. He's going to get his outcome.

He allows persecution. The first Christian martyr in Acts 8:1, ironically, Acts 1:8. You will go. They haven't gone. You'll go.

Acts 8:1. On that day, a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem. And all except the apostles were scattered throughout. What are those? Judea and Samaria.

Huh? It's like God's sovereign. They weren't using their agency. God intervened with his sovereignty. Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.

Now it's happening. And in Acts chapter nine, there's a significant character. His name's Saul. His name gets changed when he comes to follow Christ. A Paul.

And he becomes a bold proclaimer. One time a persecutor, now a bold proclaimer of the resurrection of Jesus. The lordship of Jesus. And that anybody. All who call in the name of Jesus can be saved.

Amen. That's the book of Acts, says anyone. And that's a message for you today. If you don't know Jesus, anyone, no matter what your background is, met somebody after the first service, introduced themselves as a recovering Catholic. If you're a current Catholic, a recovering Catholic, a current Presbyterian or recovering Baptist, charismatic, whatever.

No church, Atheist, agnostic. What is it you don't believe in?

Because we have all the historical proof he existed. Is he who he said he is? If you call on his name, even you can be saved. But I'm. And I do this lifestyle and I got this.

I'm not sure about my gender. All who call the name of Jesus can be saved.

And Paul goes and preaches that there's a significant church In Acts chapter 13, the Church of Antioch. Wouldn't it be great if there are more churches like Antioch that they keep going back to? There's a hub church that keeps sending people out and keeps blessing other places. And they're very generous. They're the missionary church.

And there's three missionary trips that the Book of Acts records. Paul is on each of them. And there are different teammates that he has with them for each one. Where we're at in Acts chapter 19 and 20 is the church at Ephesus, the one he spent the most time in. And what we have in Acts chapter 20 is every speech is significant, but it's got to be one of the most significant speeches Paul ever gives.

It's different than any other speech he gives in the Book of Acts. All the other speeches are for non believers. All the other speeches, his own defense of why he's preaching the gospel, why he's been falsely accused. Here, it's like closed door family time. Only believers.

He's saying goodbye. They're not actually in ephesus. They're about 30 miles south. We debate when we read and study these things. Is it because of his schedule?

Was it because it's dangerous for him to go back? There's lots of ideas. But they're 30 miles away and they're having this meeting. They weep together and they talk. And here's what you need to know.

Last words are lasting words. And what he says here is important. He's teaching them out goodbyes for just over 40 of you. I traveled with you to Ephesus. It's in Turkey, modern day Turkey, Asia Minor.

And while we were there, I already knew, if you remember, what I shared with you last week, I Knew in May 100% for sure that my assignment and Softbridge was complete. I couldn't tell you. Didn't want to mess with your trip and didn't want to do anything to the folks here and disrupt things before it was time with the folks back home. But when we were there in Ephesus, I really thought about this passage a lot and the goodbyes. Here's some things you see and experience in this passage.

If you allow yourself to enter the passage and not just mentally and academically study words. I jotted this down. The strength of a goodbye is proportional to the reality of what came before it. Paul tells the Thessalonians, I shared my life with you. He was there for three weeks.

That's a vacation.

Three years with the Ephesians. That means they saw him mess up because he did. They saw him be bold. They saw him be bold. And they go, awesome.

They saw him be bold and go awful.

Lots of time. Some of you see me say and do dumb things or I caught a lawnmower on fire. I told a woman that seemed larger than average person, when are you due? Oh, man. For what?

Your books. The books at the library. Well, not good, but like I mentioned at the beginning of the service to baptize some of you led some of you to Christ. Some of you have seen healings. There's been good and there's been rough.

That's goodbyes. Both are true. Goodbyes reveal the depth of attachment. Rarely do you know the last words are happening. Paul knew.

We know it's possible to experience gratitude and grief at the same time. Because I know that and jotted that down for myself. That's the scene that's happening here. Gratitude and grief, tensions and relief, excitement and fear. Let's read it together.

I'll start in verse 17. Acts, chapter 20. From Meletus, Paul sent to Ephesus. Now, they didn't have text messages, so the iPhone had not come out yet. That was 2007.

So 2007 years before that. It was a long time before that. He sent for. That means he sent a messenger. And that took time.

It was 30 miles. They didn't have cars. And so he sent a messenger, and the messenger went. And then these guys leave their jobs and their families and all this other stuff, and they come 30 miles south. They basically, they take a week off just to hear what Paul has to say.

When they arrived, he said to them, you know how I lived the whole time I was with you? From the first day I came into the province of Asia? They do. They Know what it was like from. Yeah, because.

And if you want to know some of those details, Acts, Chapter 18, Middle of the chapter, toward the end, through acts, chapter 19, the part right before chapter 20 is in a different town when Eutychus is on the third floor and he's listening to Paul preach. First of all, bad seating choice. Partially on you, Uticus, partially on Paul. He preaches as long as he wants because no one can tell him not to. We might go till midnight.

Anybody here? When we did secret church, Anybody did secret church, 6pm to midnight, it was a way to connect with the scattered churches, the churches that are oftentimes persecuted. And some of you came. Most of those people, I think we ran off. All right, there you go.

That's what was happening there. And this guy falls out of the window, and then he's dead. They know he's dead. And Paul goes and picks him up and he comes back to life. That's a miracle.

He says, you know, you know the boldness I've had. You know the life that I've lived. You know what it's been like. And then he goes on after he says, you know, my life. You've seen what has happened here.

He goes on and says, I serve the Lord with great humility. It seems to me my. Usually people who tell you they're humble aren't the ones. But he's right in the Bible, so we'll just. We'll count it as humble.

I serve the Lord with a great humility and with tears. There was a struggle. That's what he's saying. Sometimes it's tears of passion. We know that.

He told the Corinthians he weeps for people that are yet to know Christ. Sometimes it's tears of joy, sometimes tears of sorrow, I'm sure. And in the midst of severe testing by the plots of my Jewish opponents, I wonder the emphasis on my there. Because those are his people. His people are the ones giving him the hardest time.

That's got to be hard. You know that. I have not hesitated. That's a theme in the speech. I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you, but have taught you publicly.

And from house to house. I have declared both Jews and Greeks, that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus. He talked about a lot of different things, but that's the foundation of all of them in verse 22. And now, compelled by the Spirit, I'm going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only Know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me.

However, and this is a convicting verse, I consider my life worth nothing to me. My only aim is to finish the race and complete the task. The Lord Jesus has given me the task of testifying to the good news of God's grace. So imagine the scene. He's on this beach.

He sent message for these guys to come. They come. They're friends. They're tight friends. They've been together for three years.

They are leaders in the church. But leaders in the church are sinners too. It's kind of like in your marriage. You put two sinners together, they sin against each other. So they've fought with each other.

They fought arm in arm with each other. Other battles, they've cried together, they've laughed together. A lot of lights. Now they see each other. And he knows these are the last words.

Last words are lasting words. But rarely do you get the chance to know you're having them. And what Paul shows us in this passage is significant. We talked about last week, there's a time for everything. Seasons end.

Every gift is not a guarantee. You're all going to have to say goodbye. We're doing it in this moment as a church with me and transitioning and handing off to the elders and the next days and the things are forward. You'll do it with people you love, that move away, people that die, jobs. Have you ever been taught how to say goodbye?

Most people don't know. That's just hard. But God's word, he's showing us how. And what we're gonna see here is we're supposed to keep watch. Look.

And so each point I'm gonna give you today is look. First look back, then look around, and then look forward. And what you'll see, you can go to the goodbyes throughout the Bible when they knew that's a theme. Remember what was. There's some warnings, some blessings.

Pay attention to what's happening. Here's where you're headed. Every time. Moses, Joshua, Elijah, you go read them yourself. We don't have time.

Well, I guess we do, but we won't. I still want you to hear what I'm saying. Pay attention. Don't fall out of the window like Uticus. We don't have a third floor versus look back.

We saw him say that. When he says, you've seen my life. And he's going to tell them, we're going to see. At the end of the passage, he's going to say, that they're weeping together. And it says the hardest thing of all the stuff he says is, I'll never see you again in this earth.

To Paul's knowledge. And he's not always right. The Bible's accurate. Everything Paul thought and said isn't right. To his knowledge.

He was like, we're never gonna see each other. And he probably thought that because persecution is so intense, some of them might be dead in a week. He might be dead in a week. He doesn't know.

But here he knows. These are the last words I think about. Some last words I've experienced with different people. I remember my dad. My dad passed away.

He had had several surgeries over just over a year time period. And he came and lived with Shannon and I in our first apartment. And the last conversation I had with him, I had driven him home from two weeks of living with us and we got in an argument. He was critiquing the route that I took from our apartment to his house. I didn't appreciate his critique and I let him know it.

And we went back and forth. That was our last conversation. But the last words I said to him as I walked out the door, even though I was very annoyed with him and he was very annoyed with me, I love you, dad. And then got a call a few days later that a neighbor had found him and he was no longer here for you. Last.

Not just last words, last experiences. Oftentimes go unannounced. The last time your kid wanted you to carry them up the steps, they probably didn't tell you it was the last time. At just some point they were like, I don't want you to. I'm big enough.

I can do that myself. And that's over. Try it now. Those of you have older kids, it's not happening. You can probably remember back to the last Christmas when everybody was together.

And that might mean a lot of things to some of you. Death, divorces, fights, all kinds of stuff. But did you know it was the last one? Probably not.

Ever talk to somebody and there's an accident and maybe they're still here, but it's not the same. Doesn't oftentimes come announced. Here it is when it comes announced. Almost everybody that knows it's happening, they share powerful words and intentional words and they don't waste words. Usually it's on the deathbed.

That's often the farewells that we have. Moses knows he's not going to the promised land, but God's going to go with you. And he warns them, reminds Them and sends them. And then you see popular people. There's some famous last lines.

I've brought some of my favorites, my top three here for different reasons. William Tyndale, some of you know him, Tyndale publisher, is a current day popular publisher, and maybe you've heard of them. Well, he translated the Bible into English. That's where that name came from. When he was being burned at the stake, he said, lord, open the king of England's eyes.

So in his worst, most painful moment, he was thinking about other people and the mission. Wow, those are lasting words. St. Lawrence. He was said to always have a sense of humor. Just to give you context here, when he was being burned alive, he said, and I quote, turn me over.

I'm done on this side. That's awesome. I hope I can be sarcastic if someone's murdering me. That'd be a great last jab. CS Lewis is powerful, and hopefully we could all say this.

I've done all I could. I'm ready to go.

Paul is telling them as I read the verse, I've run the race. My assignment here is complete. He loves them. He wants his best for them. His time with them is done.

Like I said, we see it through the Bible. Jacob gathers his sons together, he blesses them, talks about identity, talks what's going forward, gives them some warnings. Joseph proclaims the promise of God, even though he's not going to experience it, and then says, don't let him bury my body here in Egypt. You take my bones into the promised land. In other words, this is not my home.

I want to live in the promise. Powerful Elijah. And Elijah, good stuff here, Paul, he says these words, you know, you know the life that I've lived. You've seen it. So he's not saying, here's my resume.

There's other places in the Bible where he gives his resume. It's an impressive resume. But everybody's resume is impressive, isn't it? You look at your own resume, maybe this will be convicting to you. It's a little exaggerated, isn't it?

Communications manager. That means you answered the phone. All right, Got it. Conflict specialist. Yeah.

You sat in a cubicle and the guy on your right hated the guy on your left. You were in the middle of it. You think you're a conflict specialist. There you go. Created a communications network.

That was a group text, all right? That's what you did.

The real stories are worse than I could make up. Listen to some of these. Career builder said that they surveyed a record number of applicants and they went through and found some of the more significant lies that were on resumes. There was one person who claimed 25 years of experience at the age of 32. You started when you were seven.

Okay, there we go. I got it. Someone claimed to have been the assistant to the prime minister of a country that did not have a prime minister. Oops. I wouldn't hire them.

But someone described himself as a construction supervisor when most of his construction experience involved building a doghouse. Yeah, hire. Right. Did a survey in 2017, and their benchmark found that 85% of employers had caught applicants misrepresenting something.

Paul saying, I don't need to prove anything to you. You saw it. You were there. We were together three years. And you read Acts, chapter 19.

And he comes in and he teaches in the synagogue. And it's interesting. The religious people oftentimes are the most resistant to the truth. And so he goes out beyond the walls to the very thing we're commanded to do as followers of Christ, beyond the walls of this religious gathering, and is more successful in the lecture halls, which is just a place that's not. It's not church lecture halls.

It's not even a seminary. It's where people exchange the best ideas of the day. And then they argue about them and then they debate them. And he knows he can get to Jesus there, and people get saved. And it's awesome.

Until it's not. Because here's the thing about Jesus. He'll take over your life. And that's amazing for you. It really sucks for your idols.

Jesus is not very hospitable to the things you want to make supreme and sit in the seat only he belongs in. He kicks them out. And the believers in Ephesus started to realize that. And so they started to burn their magic scrolls, and they stopped buying all the stuff they were buying before. And then it hit the idol of Ephesus, money.

And a riot broke out. And they started claiming it was because of what they believed in, but it was because it hit their pocketbook. And Paul wanted to go in, but his friend said, no, no, don't go in. While in the theater for two hours, they chanted, great is the goddess Artemis. Paul's there.

And did his friends think he was in danger? Did his friends think he'd make it worse? I don't know. But he heard it. But they didn't want him to go in.

But they experienced that together. Think about the experiences I've had here. Anytime we've done anything of significance, anything of significance, could be your best memory. There was opposition, at the very least, criticism. The very fact that we started a church when it came to town.

Aren't there enough churches here already? Well, there's a lot of over church people here and under Jesus, but people were not all receptive of that. Most pastors I met go plant a church in like Zebulun. That'll be awesome. Far away from us.

David Horner and Jimmy Carroll were the two guys that said, you should plant a church right by us. It's a great opportunity. The only ones of the people I talk to. It's interesting. Interesting how you can even get resistance from your own people.

I remember one time we did a gas buy down. Gas prices had gotten to $4 a long time ago and that was really hard on people. And so we took church's tithe money and paid for people's gas. And then they took a picture and put it in the News observer of a Lexus. The car before it looked like a Lego.

The doors certainly were not the original make and model on that car, but they picked the Lexus. And then people are like, oh, they're just trying to fill their coffers. Like we still put. We paid for the gas. They didn't pay us.

Whatever we did. Renewable church membership. You'd have thought we started a cult. We're just asking if you're still committed to the church. We're not seeing you as much.

We wondered if you're still here.

We did a shoe giveaway one Sunday challenge. Everybody in the church give your shoes away. Because we got most people wear their best shoes to church. And we had people that needed to do interviews at the rescue mission and a bunch of people. It was the most significant thing they've ever had at church.

Happen a few people. And I know this for sure because I was there when we tallied the shoes all up. Only gave one shoe to me. That's been a metaphor for some people's spiritual commitment. I'm mostly in halfway in.

I'm halfway there. If you're an amputee. I did not mean to offend you. I am sorry. Okay, well, what are you gonna do?

Fire me? Okay. Anyway, I had a guy in the lobby that day say, you just told people to commit a crime. And I'm like, huh, it's illegal to drive without your shoes? I'm like, well, I do that all the time, so whatever.

I just made the whole church commit a crime. Yeah, that was my intention. Thanks. Send an email to John Cullen or somebody else I know Let me tell you something. If you are not facing criticism, you're not trying.

Any opportunity that's worth taking will meet opposition. I know that for sure. After 20 years, opposition might be easy and laughable like that to me. Or it could be significant. We feel like when we decided we were going to plant.

This was more than 20 years ago when we decided we're going to plant the church. Oh, we've been in a battle ever since. It's heavy, but you don't feel any of that. Are you walking by faith?

You have agency, you don't have sovereignty. And Paul goes on, and he doesn't just say to look back at the memories, look back at the teaching, look back at the foundation that's laid. He says, look around. Look at the next part, verse 22. And now.

Now, let's talk about now. We've talked about the past. Let's talk about now and now. Compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem. So he knows where to go, not knowing what will happen to me.

But he doesn't know all that's going to happen. He knows the location. He doesn't know the details. What are you going to do when you get there? We'll find out when we get there.

Because remember, we said last week, you want to see the plan. Here's why. Most of us want to see God's plan for our lives, because we want to consider it. God's not interested in us considering his plan. He's sovereign.

His plan is going to happen. The question for you is, are you a willing or unwilling participant? That's what I mean when I say you have agency. Agency is you can make choices, you can have influence on your environment, but you cannot control the outcome. Most of us use spiritual language and prayer to disguise our fear.

And we call it planning or discernment or whatever language we want to use, but really it's control. We want to be sovereign. You do not have sovereignty. You do have agency. God's sovereignty doesn't make you a passive spectator, but you never control the outcome.

Paul knew that. I know that he's calling me to go to Jerusalem. I don't know what's going to happen when I get there. That's interesting, because most people say in my situation or job or marriage, God told me to. God did he really?

He told you to? Because we rarely see that language, even in the Bible.

Paul later in this passage will say he's concluded something. You go back in the book, back a little bit further. In Acts, chapter 15, there's a big church and all the leaders come together, big church decisions, like a first council of the church to come together. And they're trying to decide Jewish Messiah. Jewish people are, when you become a Christian, do you have to do Jewish stuff?

And they're talking about one of the traditions and they go, no, you don't. But they don't say, God told me, listen to what they say. Acts, chapter 15, verse 28. It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us. That doesn't seem like.

I know. God told me. It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements. Hey, we're doing our best here.

God's going to do what he wants to do regardless of what we do. We're trying to follow him. Somebody I was talking to one on one last week after the service and they said, well, what are you going to do next? What's the next thing? I said, well, I actually knew that it was time to be done and made that known before I had a next thing because that's how God wanted to do it for me without seeing the thing.

That's how faith works. Hebrews chapter 11 says that faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. It's not approving God's plan and then doing it, stepping out when you don't see. For me, God wanted me to take a step of faith. And the opportunity that's come since then is that what I'm gonna start doing tomorrow is working at a school here in Raleigh that's getting started.

The school system started 12 years ago, but it's an AI based school, it's called Alpha. And they started in Austin, Texas. And their thing is disrupting the school system. And they guarantee all the students will learn twice as much as a regular traditional school in two hours a day. Their students regularly test in the top 99th percentile in all subjects.

And they use AI tutors and a guide. And what they've done is taken the 50 years of learning science that we have for education but haven't done anything with and they're applying it. They guarantee the kids will love school. Most of them love school more than they love vacation. So they ask them if you'd rather go on vacation or school and they say school.

That's wild. I've never had that experience. And we've home schooled.

They'd rather go on vacation than hang out with us, but on vacation they hang out with us. What we homeschooled, we private schooled. We public schooled, never had that. And then the rest of the day, what we do is we teach kids life skills. And so I was telling my friend about that.

He goes, how did you know that's what God was calling you to? I goes, oh, I still don't. But it seems when I prayed and when I've gone to God's word and looked for direction, and when I've talked to trusted counselors and, and then the opportunities that look at what's happening, it seems we'll see how it goes. But I didn't want to stay here just because I knew it. If I knew, God told me, it's not it.

What about you? How do you say goodbye? How do you move on? Well, look around. Look at the circumstances around you.

What is God doing? What is the word saying? What are you feeling? Seemed good to them, but they didn't know. Ecclesiastes 3:11 we saw last week.

He has made everything beautiful in its time. Everything beautiful in its time. He has also said eternity in the human heart. You know, there's more than this world, whether you're an atheist or a radical follower of Jesus. And here's the thing you need to know.

No one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. No matter how much you pray, no matter how much you try to control. You have agency, you don't have sovereignty. Look around though, he's leading. And then Paul gives that convicting verse in verse 24.

I consider my life worth nothing to me. I'm not there yet. I don't know if you are. I'm back and forth day to day. But he defines faithfulness in that verse too.

Faithfulness is not just being moral. Faithfulness is not just going to Bible study or church or attending something. Faithfulness is asking questions like this. My only aim is to finish the race, complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me. And the task that Jesus gave Paul is different than the task that the Ephesian elders had.

Because his task is to go, their task is to stay.

In fact, the analogy of race is used seven times in the New Testament. Not all by Paul, many of them by Paul. The analogy of a race is for your life is what it's an analogy for. And it's interesting. It doesn't say trivia, pursuit.

It's a race. How many of you have run a race before? 50 yard dash, field day, three legged race, potato race, whatever. But what all different races, marathons, Ironmans, 5Ks, run race. Anybody run a race?

Interesting, Interesting. I see a Track coach over here. Yup. Got different runners here. I remember when I ran my first marathon, getting in the starting gate.

It dawned on me at that moment, I don't know if I can do this. And if you ever run a marathon. You know why I thought that? Because I had never run 26.2 miles in the training. Most trainings take you 20, maybe 18 miles because there's a lot more injuries that happen in the last 6.2 miles.

6.2 miles is not nothing. It's not like the point two. Right. Like I'm gonna. I'll roll to the finish.

No, it's like 6.2 miles. That's a whole race. For some people, that's two races. If you do the 50 yard dash, that's a lot of races. So I'm sitting there like, I don't know, I gotta trust the training.

Here's the reality. If you've taken a step of faith, you've had some training, what's normal to you now at one time was unknown. And you're not controlling the outcome anyways, which is what's stopping most of you from taking a step of faith is that you don't know the result. And you can't because you're not sovereign. And the only person that you can ask that is he doesn't want you to have all the answers because that's not faith.

And without faith, it's impossible to please him. But he'll let you know when you've completed your assignment. A lot of times when we're asking about the next steps, we ask things like, should we buy a new house? We have three bedroom or a four bedroom. You're asking the wrong question.

Have you completed the assignment? You have in the neighborhood you're in, should we send the kids to public school? Private school? Did you complete the assignment? Where you're at?

What have you done with the people that are already at your table?

Are we supposed to. Next job, new thing. Have you completed this? Paul's going, here's what faithfulness looks like. I completed the assignment.

And you get these race analogies all through the Bible. And he says, I don't want to run in vain. In First Corinthians, chapter 9, verse 24:27. Run in such a way as to get the prize. Do your best, try to win.

Who are you running against? Oh, that becomes relevant. Listen. Paul speaks of whether he was running or had run his race in vain in Galatians 2:2. But in Galatians 5, 7, he tells them you were running A good race.

You started off by faith. Now you're trying to live the Christian life in your own strength. That's not going to work. If that convicts you. Hear it.

Somebody cut in on you. Is the analogy he uses. Somebody told you something or something happened and you've changed and it's not good. Philippians 2:16. Paul says he does not want to have run or labored in vain.

Second Timothy later in his life. Four, seven. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. UFC people you got in the Bible.

I fought the good fight. And then still a race analogy. I have finished the race. Is there a race where you fight? I don't know of that one.

That might be what that is. Okay, here's one that I love and you need to hear. Even if you've heard it before. Have you heard this? Hebrews 12:1.

Let us run with perseverance. The race marked out not for everyone. You have your race to run. And it's different than my race. It's different than Paul's race is different than the elders of Ephesus's race.

It's different than the person sitting next to you race. It's different than your neighbor's race. One of the reasons some of you can't take a step of faith and because you're too worried about somebody else's race. Watch historic finishes in every kind of event. Marathon, ultra races, 50 yard.

If you look, it's enough. You just lost.

Paul's going. I completed my assignment. Hebrews 12:1 is an interesting one to get the context of. So let me read you the whole thing. Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, after going through a litany of examples in chapter 11 of People who lived by faith, he says, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.

And for some of you, that sin is the sin of comparison. And let me tell you one of the most freeing things I've ever discovered in my life. It doesn't matter what people expect of you. No one. And surround yourself with at least two or three or five people that they will support you even if it affects them negatively.

Because they want you to run God's race for you. That's freedom. Those people are not easy to find. It's easy to say, let us run with perseverance. The race marked out for us.

Your race. Don't be entangled. And then Paul gives a command. Finally, something for the Ephesian elders to do. They've traveled all this Way they've heard him say these things, they're looking around.

And now he's going to tell them more to look at. Now, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again. Last words are lasting words. Therefore, I declare to you today, demonstration is stronger than declaration. And he's already talked about the demonstration, but now he's moving them toward the future.

And he's declaring, look around first. I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of any of you. What does that mean? Is he killing people? Nope.

He's saying, I've given you what you need to do what you need to do, but you have to do it well. That's a healthy thing for some of you that are people pleasers or that you think you've got kind of a messiah complex, you gotta be the hero that kind of. Paul's going, I'm not in charge of the results in your life either. Not only am I in charge of the results of my life, I'm. I've done all the help I'm going to do, done everything I can for you.

Do it. And then he tells them, I have not hesitated. There it is again. To proclaim to you the whole will of God. So hesitation's a problem too, not just disobedience.

He's. I've not even hesitated. And then there's a command. Keep watch. That's the command.

Look first over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the Church of God, which he bought with his own blood. Here he's not just talking to the church as a whole. He's talking to the other leaders, the elders that are there. This is to keep the race analogy, the baton handoff and a relay race seemingly insignificant to anyone who's not run a race.

But if you know about racing, it's significant. If you're in the medical field, you know that one of the most dangerous points in any patient's time is when they're handed from one doctor to another. If you've ever been in the military, the changing of the guard in a race, do you know, and you'll be embarrassed by our country if you find this out. We did not have Usain Bolt. Unfortunately, we could not recruit him.

But other than him, we have had the fastest 100 yard dash people in the world in America, and you can only have one Usain Bolt. So we got four really fast people, some of the fastest people to ever walk the Planet over the last 20, 30 years have been American citizens. But you can be the fastest if you mess up the handoff. Listen to these stats. It gets worse.

If I were to give you world championships and not just the Olympics, because there have been times where the fastest people in the world didn't even qualify for the Olympics. But in USA track, the United States has had four decade for decades, some of the fastest sprinters on the planet. Running the 4 by 100 relay in Seoul 1988, they were disqualified. Not because anyone was slow. The handoff happened outside the exchange zone.

Dangerous. They actually can cross the finish line first and still not win. In Beijing in 2008, both the men's team and the women's team dropped the baton on the same night. Two different events, two different races. Can't make that up.

Rio 2016, disqualified again. They appealed it. They lost the appeal. No result. Some of the fastest people on the planet, no result.

Tokyo 2021 didn't even make the finals. Why they missed it outright because the handoff fell apart in the semis.

Paul is in this moment here. We as a church are in this moment here. This is a delicate and important time. Not the highlight, not the thing everybody looks back at. But there's a reason why this speech is so long.

There's a reason why this is in the Bible. This unique speech is here. We need to know this. Some of you have been a part of church transitions. That's a split.

Some of you have been in scandals, failures. We have an opportunity for this to go really well.

We can't mess up the handoff. And what's the elders first, watch yourself. It's not. Look at all the people in the church. Who's gonna cause problems?

Who's on the thing? Who doesn't like the new person? Who's mad because we didn't do this. Nope. And then it's like when Jesus says, before you deal with the speck in somebody else's eye, deal with the plank.

Pastor Mitchell preached a message, good message, several weeks back in our psalm series, Psalm 139, it ends with this. Search me, oh God, and show me if there's any offensive way in me. That is not our natural inclination. Some of you think you are the sin police. And you know that if you walked in the lobby this morning and you found several offenses before you even got to the auditorium, parenting mistakes happening over here.

Why is it this brand of coffee? They must be progressive. Why is this Bible translated? The pastor keeps talking about grace. Oh, that this place is A mess.

You should start. Christian Yelp. How has no one done that yet? I know some of y' all are gifted. I got your emails.

All right. I didn't reply. Didn't mean I didn't read it and keep sending them. It's auto reply from now on.

Yeah, Pastor. Two stars. Too much grace. Worship team. Three stars.

Maybe better. Too many lights to show. Children's ministry. Four stars. Could have been five.

I saw a kid get out of the nursery. Bad leadership. All right. They just need to know. They need to know my discernment.

What about your review of you? There's a reason why the first look is look inside. There are dangers within. There's dangers out there, too. They know that people are getting killed.

There's riots happening just because people's lives are being changed. I made a list of some of the things to look at inside and some of the things to look at outside. First, inside an unexamined heart. And there you might find malice, slander, lust, anger, pride, gluttony, twisted truth. That happens.

And it can happen from leaders. You watch for that. Here's one of the ways you know, based on this passage of scripture, that a teacher is a false teacher. If they're drawing you to themselves, and you might see it through book promotions or some other. But if they're making it about them and not about Jesus, be careful.

Politics. I remember when I came back from sabbatical, I told you last week that I wrote the elders a report and told them I was figuring out if I was going to be the pastor. And I said I was 85% sure I'd be there in a year. Five percent sure in five years. And here we are at five years.

I didn't know it's prophetic. There were other things, too. When I came back, Pastor Dave, many of you know him, unless you're newer to the church. He sat down with me and he had been handling the teaching schedule and met a lot of the new people. And he said, well, There are about 200 new people at our church since you've been on sabbatical.

And they can't wait to hear what our pastor thinks about Donald Trump. I just looked at him. I go, they are going to be disappointed. He goes, I know.

I have thoughts about him. I don't think this is the place, because this place is about Jesus. He's the foundation. We make a big deal about him. Everything else.

Heavel. Four years. You kidding me? Not based on ministry. I'm four years, eight years.

Who cares? Jesus always Was and always will be is the Alpha and the Omega, the King of kings and the Lord of Lords. Amen. And so you can change the face of a place. Paul's saying that.

I'm saying that. But at the foundation is Jesus. And unchanged. Amen. Look within, look outside.

Outside. False gospels, cultural pressure, consumerism, isolation, inside, fear, greed. If you see leaders that don't walk by faith, don't follow them, confront them. If they're trying to preserve the past, the past is great. But it shouldn't be greater than your future.

And if it is, the end is near.

So move forward. That's the last one. What do you see when you look forward? Well, Paul, he's leaving. He doesn't even know what's going to happen the next place he goes.

How's he going to know what's going to happen to the Ephesians? Look what he says. Verse 29. Verse 28 is key. We said that.

Keep watch over yourselves, over the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. So within and outside, be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. It doesn't belong to you, belongs to him. So look at what he says in verse 32. And this is key.

This is what I'll leave you with now. I commit you to God and to the word of his grace that's eternal. He's just given a huge pressure to the Ephesian elders. You seen what I did? Now you guys go do it.

You know everything I taught, go do that. You saw when it went well. You saw when it went bad. You're gonna experience that. It's gonna be bad.

It's gonna be good. You got it. But not because you can handle it. He doesn't say it's going to be okay. He doesn't promise smooth.

He doesn't promise success. We went to the church in Ephesus. It's rocks. Ain't nobody meeting there now. When I come back on the 13th, I'm gonna preach to you some from the very first passage I preached to when we launched the church in Ephesians, chapter three.

We're going to end up in the book of Revelation. They're warned because 40 years time, one generation, they lost their love. Well, they. They still. They get commended in Revelation for watching out for false teachers, though.

Oh, you can do that. Don't miss the foundation. There's a slogan on the wall in the lobby. That lobby will get painted at some point connecting people to Jesus for life change. That is not a slogan.

That's our identity. Because Jesus has risen. Amen. And we're just here waiting for him to come back. And we don't know the time, but we got an assignment, and you have power for that assignment.

Unless you start doing everything on your own strength, you'll quench the spirit. He said, I commit you to God, which can build you up. He's got the power and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. And then he talks about his example more. I have not coveted anyone's silver or gold or clothing.

He's probably telling them not to do that. You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and needs of my companions. And everything I did, I showed you. This is my hard work. So Paul didn't just pray.

He's telling them, you're gonna have to work hard, guys. We must help the weak. Remembering the words of the Lord Jesus himself. This is an interesting statement, because it's not in the Gospels, but we know John tells us there's a lot of things that Jesus said that aren't in the Gospels. So that Jesus himself said, it is more blessed to give than to receive.

Oh, he's warning them about greed. Don't hoard the things you have. When Paul had finished speaking, he knelt down with all of them and prayed. They all wept as they embraced him and kissed him. What grieved them the most was the statement that they would never see his face again.

Then they accompanied him to the ship. That's interesting, the love that he had when he looked right at them and said, I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you. Verse 29, and will not spare the flock even from your own number. He's looking them in the eye, going, some of you guys are the problem. They weep together and pray.

I have to think that some of it's because of verse 32, because he told them, you have agency, you don't have sovereignty. He just didn't use my words. You've got a huge responsibility. Commit you to God. That word for commit is a Greek word that means to make a financial deposit, to take something valuable and to put it somewhere safe.

Remember I told you at the beginning of the message, Luke writes the Gospel of Luke and Part 2, Acts. Luke writes that the other place we see this word commit is at the end of the book of Luke when Jesus is on the cross, says, father, I commit my spirit to you.

Take something valuable, roll it onto him, because you can't carry that weight. And that's What I want to leave you with church. I commit you to God. There will be different leaders, there'll be different programs, there'll be different things, but the foundation is laid. Jesus.

Connect people to him. Some of you are here. When we moved into this building in 2018, two churches, different denominations, different backgrounds came together and became one. And this building looked very different. I remember the first sermon that I preached in here was my father in law's funeral.

He was an elder at our church, helped lead through some of the murders. And then he died. There was no air conditioning that day and the room was purple.

There's always criticism, right? Purple is the King's color. We painted the room because I wanted men to come to church.

We'll tell them about the King. I don't think that they're going to come thinking, oh, this is for Jesus, okay, if when I come back on the 13th, or if I come back sometime in the future after that, and you paint this room mauve, I don't care. As long as you're connecting people to Jesus for life change. If I don't know any of the pastors or staff and the programs are all different, I don't care. Keep connecting people to Jesus for life change.

If you don't know him, they'll change your life today. Atheist, agnostic, whatever denomination, background, thought you always knew, but you don't know Him. You can be saved today by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus. If you've done that, I want to commit you to God. Father, I come before you right now.

I pray for those who don't know you. And I know some of the people in this room have told me they don't know you. Why not? Today, you. You have something better than Jesus.

What would it be like to try trusting Jesus? What do we like to say? I'm willing. I'm willing to please. But you're not going to know how it goes.

That's why it's faith. He promises what he'll do. He'll forgive you of all your sins. He'll take over your life. But you don't know exactly what he's going to do.

With control of your life, you don't have it anyways, let me tell you that. So why don't you trust the one who does? The psalmist says in Psalm 31:15, my times are in your hands. Place your life in the hands of Jesus and let the blood of Jesus wash away your sins. Forgive you and make you new.

Be saved. All who call upon the Lord Jesus shall Be saved. Is that you today? Is that the message for you? Trust him.

That'll be the greatest gift you could ever give me. So let me know. Today you trusted Jesus because Jesus gave his life as a gift for you so you could have eternal life. Those of you who know him, those of you who are part of this church, I commit you to him. You have a lot of responsibility.

You have a lot of things ahead of you. Challenges, good days, more baptisms, more worship, more teaching, more challenges. Please, Lord, not another Covid. But if that's what we need, do it, please. Not persecution against the church.

Unless we're not doing what we're supposed to. And you need to catalyze us. Oh, we need it. Do it. We won't step out without you.

Spur us, move us, change us.

But bless us with your presence. Bless us we're seeing just glimpses of your glory. Change lives and keep us focused on your mission. Helps to throw off all the things that entangle and keep our eyes on your son, Jesus. So that we'd run the race that we have been called to each one of us individually and this church.

I pray that there wouldn't be passive church members. I pray that when you prompt by the Holy Spirit and put somebody's name on somebody's heart, they don't think, oh, somebody else will do that. I'd encourage some of you just as an assignment. I know they have you writing notes to me and my wife and family, but maybe one of the pastors on our church. They need.

They need encouragement. They'll have more responsibility in this transition. God puts it on your heart. Don't assume somebody else did it. He put it on your heart.

That's part of your race. Run the race marked out for you if you want to. How's that need gonna be met? Who's gonna take that meal? Who's gonna pray that you do it?

If it's on your heart, do it. But I don't know somebody else you don't know. That's right. Take the step.

Look around. Look within. Look forward. You already have the foundation. It's in his name I pray.

Amen.