Some of them, you know, like the ones that had the, to do the books, you know, they're like the tithing, you got to do the tithing. You know, like we really need stuff paid for. You know, there's all kinds of stuff like they might have thought, like, this is my little pet peeve, my favorite commandment. I hope Jesus agrees with me. Have you ever been there before?

I know you don't think of it that way. You think of like, what's your one that. Where you're like, everybody ought to obey this one. And I see that girl's skirts too short. That guy has a tattoo, you know, whatever.

I mean like whatever it is, you're like, alright, that's my thing. That's the most important one. And I really hope that they follow what I think they need to do. Some of you need to repent of that today. You've tried to play the role of the Holy Spirit in the lives of someone else.

You've tried to be their conscience. You've tried to look through the scripture and say, this is the thing that they need to pay attention to the most. And you've harmed the spiritual journey of walking close to the Father in the fellowship with Christ with the fullness of the Holy Spirit. And you've held them back from everything God created them to be. Some of those people aren't in service today because there have been people that stood in their way.

Some of you are here despite that happening to you. Some of you are here even though somebody tried to impose upon you a commandment or a verse that they hold dear. And they say, okay, now you have to live this way as well. And I'll tell you, hear me, hear me. It might be biblical, it might be something that at some point God was going to speak to them.

The Holy Spirit was going to say to them as they're reading the Word of God and they're going to come across this thing and he's going to say to them, you've been doing this and it is a sin and you must stop. God's done that to me. There's things that I was living my life for 20, 30, 40 years doing the same thing. And then all of a sudden I'm reading the scripture and it might not even directly address that, but God speaks to me because the Bible says of itself, God says of his word that is living and active. In other words, the Word of God, it comes alive.

It's not just two dimensional. Flat words on a flat page is dimensional. It comes alive and it springs up within us when we read the Scriptures with honesty and intentionality. The Holy Spirit of God comes alongside of that, and he reveals things to you that God wants you to know. And as he does that, as he reveals these things to you, he is crafting within you the life of Christ.

He is putting the life of Christ in you so that every day that you walk in obedience to God, you look and sound and see, seem to others around you more like the presence of Jesus Christ. But some people there were people that got in their lives ahead of the Holy Spirit's plan and started trying to convict them of their sins, the things that they believe are the most wrong. And they try to put that burden on them and say, you have to do it this way. And those people found that they didn't feel welcome in the house of the Lord in the presence of other believers, and they found their way out the side door, out the back door, never to be heard from again. There are so many baby Christians missing in action today because somebody tried to impose upon them their sense of what biblical or Christian morality is.

And I got to tell you something. There might be something that God has told you in your life that he doesn't want you to do it, that you might not find any biblical basis for. You might not find any commandment in scripture, Old Testament or New that tells you not to do that thing, but the Spirit of God told you it's not for you. He says, this isn't for you. I don't want you to do it.

Because what God is doing, as a good heavenly father, is he is taking his children and saying, these are things that I'm trying to create in you. The lifestyle, the behavior, the characteristics that I want to instill in you. And so I have to remove this thing from your life. Some of you don't even drink coffee. I don't understand that.

I've had to slow way down because, like, I have this. This caffeine thing with my gallbladder, and it's a mess. And so I try to back off. Like, Sunday is my big coffee day. I never thought I would get to that point.

I slowed down on pizza a lot. But now my daughter is like. She has, like, a pizza meter and a steak meter. So tell me her steak meter is getting low. She can't tell me her pizza meter is low because she like, daddy, can we get a pizza?

I'm like, it's my weak spot. Yes, we'll get a pizza. How can I say no to that? But I've had To cut way back on the coffee or there's consequences. Some of you just decided not to, though.

I knew a guy. He's still alive, but I just don't see him much. But he's like, I said, do you want some coffee? He says, no, I don't do drugs. Come on, man.

Yeah, I guess in, like, a sense, coffee is a drug. Hot sauce can be a drug. Do you know that, like, if you have, like, hot enough peppers, you can get, like, a bit of a high, like, a buzz. It's not like. It's not like changing the way your mind works.

Like, it's not psychoactive in that way, but you can feel pretty good from some really hot peppers also. Too long, it'll tear you up like any other drug. So, okay, but some of you are like, you know, I just don't drink coffee. But some of you, God might have told you, I want you to stop drinking coffee now. For you to disobey God in that it's a sin.

But how would it look if you went around like, I can't believe it. This church, they serve coffee in the lobby. The pastor usually has a mug of coffee. I forgot to bring it. I'm cutting back.

You know, whatever. The pastor keeps a mug of coffee. Like, I guess he's worried about falling asleep while he preaches. How bad is it for the rest of us? I ought to drink some coffee to stay awake.

Like, no, I do it for my throat so that I don't get clogged up. Anyway, so it's the warm beverage that I need. You know, that's the thing. And so it's like, okay, if you're going around saying, like, I can't believe that this church supports coffee, well, not only do we support it, we support good coffee. At least we try to.

I've even had critique over what I thought was good coffee. And people like, you need better coffee. You know, it's like, okay, we'll try that too. You know, whatever. That's fine.

And so it. If you try to put your personal conviction that God has given you and place that on everyone else, you have an attitude and a mentality about it that God never intended you to have. And you might be onto something that's the most righteous thing in scripture. But you're trying to lay what you believe, the timeline of maturity that a believer should have, and you're trying to impose your understanding of that on other people. See, God's Holy Spirit is more infinitely wise than you are.

The Holy Spirit of God knows more about each person in this room, each person that comes to any church, any church property, they show up to a ministry function of some kind. And God knows more about them than you ever could. He knows more about them than they know about themselves. And I believe that the spirit of God, for every believer, he has a plan for what he wants to reveal to you about God's will for your life. He has a plan for how to do it and when to do it.

And it might just be that sometime God is going to use you to be the human voice that reveals that to them. But it's usually when they have invited you into that, when you have built up enough trust with that person that you can have that conversation with them and say, okay, here's how I see there's something in your life that God wants you to change. And it's not like you're like, you know what? I was praying and I looked around, ah, that person, that person, okay, they're the one I've got to target next. It's never like that.

It's more like you're in the word of God and you're studying and you're reading and you're spending time in prayer. And then God says, I have something that I want you to do. And it's going to be uncomfortable. But you know that person you've been talking to, and you've got a good trust, a good friendship with them, they've invited you into their life, and I want you to speak to them and I want you to share this thing with them. And don't worry, because at that point, I believe the Holy Spirit of God has already been speaking to them.

And you are just confirming what God has already been sharing. God rarely uses you as the first person to share or conviction of sin in somebody's life. And it might just be that he's already been speaking to them. And they're like, lord, if this is what you're telling me to do, just confirm it. And next thing you know, this person shows up that's you, maybe, and you speak to them and say, hey, you know, God, God wanted me to tell you something.

And I'm not sure how to say this, and I don't want to say this, and it's like, it's not my judgment, but I really do believe that I'm sinning. If I don't tell you this because God told me to tell you. And if I tell God I'm not doing it, then I'm in sin too. So I have to tell you this. But it's not because I'm judging you.

It's because God has told me that he'll judge me for not saying it. You following? So those are the times that I believe that we should do that. Now, scripture is full of times where people get this wrong. Like I said, there was a time where some people asked Jesus, the Pharisees, they're like, hey, what's the most important law in Scripture?

And they all have their little number one, number two, number three. Some of them were probably these like, purists. They're like, well, it's the Ten Commandments, of course. That's numbers one through ten. And then the other ones fall from there.

There was probably somebody that was a lot nerdier with it. And they have like a flowchart of like, there's 613 laws in the Jewish Old Testament, right? Like there's 613 of them. And so 603 aren't the Ten Commandments. And so they probably tried to break them down and see which ones they fit into on the ten Commandments and try to figure it all out.

I don't know. I try not to be quite that nerdy. I'm a Bible nerd. Not to that degree, you know, that's a lot. Jesus sums it up.

He said, well, it's obvious, you guys, Jewish people pray this every day, multiple times a day. Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God, the Lord he is one. You shall worship the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength or love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. He's like, you guys know it already. This is why God told you to pray this every day with your kids, with your family, with everyone.

Like, you share this message. You proclaim this message every day. Our God is above everything else and we should love him with everything that we've got. And Jesus just throws it out there, just in case they were confused, in case they wanted to argue about it and say, but what about this? He says, the second commandment is very similar.

Love your neighbor as yourself. Now, there was a lawyer in the bunch, a Bible lawyer. Like, doesn't that sound absolutely terrible? Like, who wants to try to argue with a lawyer?

Not even some of the women in the room. Okay, it's Father's Day. I can say that. Wait, no, it's not Husband's Day. Okay.

Ah, shoot. My wife said nevermind. Anyway, okay, so I'm gonna let that one go.

They had Bible lawyers. These are people, they can win every, like, Bible Argument, you know, except when there's Jesus in the room, then they lost every time. It's beautiful. And he's like, well, who's my neighbor? Who's my neighbor?

This is a different conversation, but it plays in who's my neighbor? He's like, he tells him the story, the Good Samaritan story. And they hated the Samaritans because of some old stuff from a long time ago that was legitimate in some ways. But they took it. Instead of like detesting the position, they detested the person.

That's never where we live, by the way. There are positions, there are actions, there are beliefs that people have that as Bible believing, Christ following Holy Spirit filled Christians, we are allowed to detest their position, their belief, the things that they promote. We're allowed to detest those things because they're against the will of God. We don't detest the person. Okay, hear me Christians.

Our second most important law command from Christ is to love everyone. And so he gives the example when this guy says, well, who's my neighbor? Like, I grew up in the country. Anybody else, like from, like rural areas? How far away, like in feet, blocks or miles did you consider somebody to be a neighbor?

Shout it out. How far away could a neighbor have been? 5 miles. An alley, an alley, like, like it could have be, it could be directly across from you, directly behind you. And it could have been up to five miles away.

And you still said, well, that's my neighbor over there. What? You know, that's a long way to go and you need to borrow a cup of sugar. Fortunately, we had some neighbors that were a little closer. I grew up on a private road a quarter mile long.

At least that's what I was told. I never clocked it, but a quarter mile long, Six houses on it and couple on the corner. So I figured eight people were our closest neighbors, or eight homes was our closest neighbors. But then around the corner there's more neighbors. And then further down like a couple miles away, there's some neighbors.

I mean, like, it's just they were all neighbors. It's just there's some you borrow a cup of sugar or a stick of butter from, and some you just say, go, say hi. Every now and then you look out for each other. Okay, so we've all got our picture that maybe you grew up like in an apartment building and you're like, I've got 100 people that live within, you know, a baseball throwing distance of me and I don't even want to talk to them. You know, so it's like, you know, your version of neighbor might be totally different, but this guy comes to Jesus and he's like, who's my neighbor?

Like, help me out, Jesus. I want it in black and white. I want to know who I have to show love to and who I can. Like, just, you know, maybe I don't hate him, but just that person, who can I ignore? Who can I avoid?

So Jesus tells a story. He's like, there's a guy, he was traveling. He's coming up to Jerusalem from Jericho. There's a notoriously dangerous route, and there's bandits and robbers there. There's a lot of places they can hide out and spring on you in teams or pairs and rob you blind.

They're looking for solo travelers, lone wolf travelers. And they're like, we got him. And they not only robbed this guy, but they beat him up so that he can't tell him who did it, and he can't chase after him and get his stuff back. You know, he can't go get help. So they beat him up and they leave him for dead.

And then Jesus said, well, you know, traveling on that same road, there's like a religious leader, a priest on the other, you know, then there's a. Like a Pharisee or something. I forget. And he says, like, these guys, they walked around on the other side. They're coming up to Jerusalem to perform religious responsibility, and they can't risk touching somebody that's broken and bleeding, possibly dead.

They're not sure because then they would be ceremonially unclean. And. And they can't go to what we might call church at that point because according to the law of Moses that God had given them, like, I'm not knocking the law. It's good. Like, the law is a good thing.

The Old Testament is a good thing. But they're thinking in their mind, if I touch this person, if I help this person, then I'm unclean and I can't do what's most important, and that's go serve at the temple. So many times we might pass somebody that needs to hear the gospel because we're on our way to church now. I don't know if you would recognize just by driving past somebody like, oh, I bet I have to share the gospel with them. But if the spirit of God says, hey, you know what, we're changing up your routine today.

I know church is just that way. I know it's just starting in a few minutes, but I want you to stop and I want you to Talk to that person. I want you to take them to McDonald's and get him a cup of coffee. No, that's GROSS. I hate McDonald's coffee.

But anyway, take them to Hardee's. Nope. And none of these places have good coffee. Bring them to church and get some good coffee. But no, like, take them somewhere and just sit down and talk with them.

And I had an opportunity this week. I was hanging out with a friend of mine named Tim. He goes to another church. You wouldn't know him. That's a joke.

You know, like a guy says, like, in high school, he's like, I do have a girlfriend, but she goes to a different school. You wouldn't know her. Anyway, Tim does exist. And so Tim and I, we were hanging out. We were at Barnes and Noble.

And after a while, he just gets up. He's an evangelist. He goes out, like, and just starts sharing Christ with people. And he says, let's go. Let's go for a walk.

Like, okay. Because we've been sitting there probably an hour and a half, and I don't know if there was somebody like that he could see that I couldn't. That was listening to our conversation. He's like, hey, we need to get away from them, you know, like, they're going to try to start some trouble because they don't like what we're talking about. Christian stuff.

I didn't know what was going on. I just said, okay, fine. We pack up our stuff and we head for a walk. And we're over at Wiregrass mall thing over there. And so we just start walking around.

And I already don't like it because it's hot and sunny. And I'm like, we were in air conditioning, man. You know, like, we left the air conditioning to be out here. But, okay, brother, I'm with you. And so I'm just following along.

And we find this little thing where you can throw, like, cornhole. There's only three bags because somebody's cut a hole in one, and the beads are all over the place. So we're just throwing one bag each. But we're really just talking and just kind of mindlessly doing this. And for some reason, he started keeping score, which I hate that because I'm terrible at sports.

You know, as a comedian, said in my head, I'm really good. Like, I got this. I got this. And then my brain has to outsource it to my body, and that's where it all falls apart. You know, My body's like, nah, you're not.

You don't got this, but we're throwing these bags. And then we get tired of that, we go to leave, and he just, like, turns around and starts talking to this guy that's sitting there. And he just starts asking him a few. Just casual questions about his life. And then he starts sharing his faith with him.

And we find out that the young man's been going to a church, but he hadn't been recently. And he starts asking him about heaven and hell and do you know where your life goes if. If you were to die today? And all that stuff? And he's like, well, you know, I think I have an idea.

And he's like, would you like to be sure? And so he leads him in his prayer. I mean, I'm shortening a longer conversation, but he leads him in this prayer. And the young man prays to receive Jesus, and we exchange phone numbers with him. And I was praying that he would be here today, but he does have a job where he has to work sometimes on Sunday.

So maybe that's not it, or maybe that's where he's at, but we just have a good conversation with him, and we're walking off. And I said, tim, I think I know the answer, but I want to ask you a question. Why did you talk to him? You know, I said, there's all these people, and I just wanted to hear him say it. He says.

He said, God just told me to. Like, I'm thinking we were sitting in the air conditioning. We walk here, we throw these bags. All this because God wanted him right there in that right moment to speak to this one man. Like, all this for that.

Listen, if God tells you to go out of your path, the thing you had planned on doing, and say, I want you to minister to this person, then you better do it. And you know what I found out? It's as simple as doing that. Then we're walking away, and he points at this guy. He's like, he's the next one.

This is yours. I'm like, dude, I'm not. I don't know. You know, Like, I'm already gun shy. Like, I preach this stuff, right?

But I'm used to very personal stuff. Like, I know somebody, and I talk with somebody I know. Not used to. Just like, hey, buddy, turn around. Talk to me.

You know, like, this guy's literally walking ahead of us. And I said, listen, if God wants us to talk to him, then he's gonna have to make it obvious. Well, there's these two, like, blonde college girls giving away some energy Drink thing. Alani. Is that what it was called?

Alani. It's a sugar free drink. I hate sugar free stuff. It tastes disgusting to me. So I'm like, I'll take a picture with it, but I'll just take it, bring it to my wife or something, let her try it.

And next thing I know, this guy that Tim had told me I had to share the gospel with has turned around and he's walking back because he wants a free one too. Or to talk to the two blonde college age chicks. I'm not sure which it was. He's their age. Tim and I are old guys at this point.

We don't care. I like free stuff even if I'm not going to consume it. It's just fun to get free stuff, you know? And it was cold, so I could hold on to that because it was like hot outside, as I mentioned. And so this guy walks up, we start talking to him and I'm like, I'm going to mess this up.

Can I tell you that I did. Can I tell you that it's okay? By the way, this is why you don't do evangelism solo. I mean, unless God tells you to, unless it's by yourself. But I'm just saying, if you're going out intentionally to share the gospel with people, bring a friend.

Because in that there's wisdom, in that there's strength and unity and God is making up for the things in which you're lacking. And so where I start fumbling up and not knowing what to say, Tim just calmly jumps in and we start talking with him. But he was a Hindu and he really wasn't interested in it and he didn't want to pray with us. And he's like, I think I'd like to leave now. We're like, okay, that's fine.

Like, I'm not trying to kidnap you on the sidewalk here, you know, it was a learning experience. I told Tim, I said, I got like a whole college semester worth of education hanging out with you today. He's like, what? I said, yeah, they don't teach this in college. They don't.

I said, it needed somebody to just drag me out on the street and do it. Anyway, these guys that were walking along the road in Jesus parable, they ignore the guy that's beaten and bloody. But another guy comes up, he's a Samaritan, and he's the ones that nobody likes. None of the Jews. Like, why is he even on that road anyway?

This is the road that heads to Jerusalem. He's got no business in that. What's he doing there? Everybody's thinking as Jesus is telling the story. And he said, he bent down, he banished the guy.

He poured. Poured medication on the guy's body. He bandages him up, he puts him on his own donkey, and then he walks it along. He carries him to an inn, pays the innkeeper the money he's got in his pocket. Says here, this should take care of him for a while.

I'm on a trip, and when I come back, I'll have some more money. I don't know if he hit an ATM on the way in 1st century Palestine, but he's like, I'll have some more money. When I come back. I'll pay you what I owe you. If there's anything left, his debt is now my debt.

Wow. Jesus said, who do you think was the neighbor to that man, to the man that fell into the hands of robbers?

That neighbor, The Samaritan. Okay.

Jesus was saying, your neighbor is the person that's in need, that's closest to you physically at any moment. Sometimes you go out of your way to get to them.

Well, that's fun. Hey, Michelle, this light's going wonky. Can you just turn that light switch off? I mean, now I guess it's done, but I'll tell you, I've been here 11 years. I don't think I've changed those bulbs ever.

And I don't remember anybody else that did. So good, good life. Been a good long time. Ah, it's back on. It's healed.

Know how that works. But anyway, cool. Okay. Sorry for that. I thought I was getting pulled over for a second.

I'm like, I swear I've only drank coffee this morning. Jesus shows us who our neighbor is, tells us to love the people, even the ones we're most predisposed to have hatred and anger and animosity towards. So I want to read this scripture because you're thinking, if you looked in the sermon series guide today, you're like, what does this have to do with what we're looking at? We talked a few times before in past weeks about the church in Antioch. Now there's two Antiochs, by the way.

If you're like a geography historical Bible nerd, there's Syrian Antioch, Antioch in Syria, and then Pisidian Antioch in Pisidia. And this is Syrian Antioch. And the church in Syrian Antioch had had some Jewish believers that went there. They started proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And then they had the audacity to share their faith with not just Jews, Jewish people who became believers, but also with Gentiles, non Jews.

And they're like, come on in. The gospel's for you, too. Jesus is for you as well. He's not just for Jews. He's for Gentiles as well.

The apostles send Barnabas up there. Barnabas goes and finds Saul, who later becomes Paul, brings him down. They minister there for a long time. It becomes their home base where all of Paul's missionary journeys are sent from the church in Antioch. It's a good model for us to understand that local congregations are sending units for Christ.

They are. Part of what we do in the congregation is we recognize the. In people's lives. We recognize the calling on their lives. We recognize the gifting of the Holy Spirit in their lives.

We work to develop that in them, to cause them to grow in Christ. And then we work to send them out as the Holy Spirit determines. And that's what happens all through the Book of Acts. When Paul goes on a missionary journey is because the Holy Spirit speaks and says, set apart for me, Saul and Barnabas, for the work to which I have called them. And they're sent out from there.

Now everything's going great until Acts, chapter 15. I'm just gonna read verses one through 11, but I commend the rest of the chapter to you as well.

It goes great until this. Now, some men came down from Judea, by the way, it's north of Judea, but they always called it down because of elevation. And just Jerusalem was up. It was the highest point. And it was the highest point, both in geography and also just kind of in religion.

And worship is where the temple was and all that. So men came down from Judea and began to teach the brothers in Antioch. Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. You ever had somebody tell you, like, well, you're not a Christian. What do they know?

Okay. When Paul and Barnabas had a major argument and debate with them. Oh, you think you've been in some. Some heated, like, church discussions. Paul and Barnabas are debating these people.

This sounds fun, but wouldn't you love that. Wouldn't you love to go to, like, a legit church debate? Like, maybe not throwing stuff and punching each other, but, like, really getting down into it. Sounds fun. Just me.

Okay. When they had a major argument and debate with them, the church appointed Paul and Barnabas and some others from among them to go up to meet with the apostles and elders in Jerusalem about this point of disagreement. So they were sent on their way by the church and as they passed through both Phoenix, Phoenicia and Samaria, they were relating at length the conversion of the Gentiles and bringing great joy to all the brothers. Isn't that fun? Like as they're going, they're also stopping at churches along the way.

They're traveling down a road called the Via Maris or the Way by the Sea. And they're traveling down this road where there's already established churches, but it's mostly Jews and Samaritans that are there. Which Samaritans were like half breed Jews. They were like, had an ancestry that was part Jewish and, and part other stuff. And so they were like, kind of like being accepted a little quicker than the Gentiles so far because they had a little bit of respect for the Abrahamic faith.

But they're like all these Gentiles, they're basically Romans and now they think they can just slip in and just like start worshiping Jesus. And they don't have to start like we did, like with the whole law of Moses and the covenant and all that stuff. Nah, they need to follow along. They need to do what we've done. That's what everybody was thinking.

So Paul and Barnabas are traveling through Phoenicia and Samaria. They're sharing about the Gentiles and it brought joy to the brothers. This is one of the cases where there's some people, there's a group of people that has come in from Judea and they're starting trouble. They're starting doctrinal issues and behavior. Like they're talking about behaviors and things and they're talking about all this stuff.

Everyone else like in the church is fine with it. Like all the brothers that they share this with, they're just telling the story and they're like, that's great. Praise God for that. Okay, verse. I don't know.

4. Thank you. When they arrived in Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders and they reported all the things God had done with them. But some of the religious party of the Pharisees who had believed stood up and said it's necessary to circumcise the Gentiles and to order them to observe the law of Moses. I'm going to explain that in just a minute.

Not the circumcision part, but the rest of it. If you don't know that WebMD it. I don't know both the apostles and no laughter. Okay, that's fine. It was kind of a Joke.

It wasn't. It's fine. I'm okay. I have feelings, too, you know. Both the apostles and the elders met together to deliberate about this matter.

After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, brothers, you know that some time ago, God chose me to preach to the Gentiles so they would hear the message of the Gospel and believe. And God, who knows the heart, has testified to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us. And he made no distinction between them and us, cleansing their hearts by faith. So now why are you putting God to the test by placing on the neck of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear? On the contrary, we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus in the same way as they are.

Let me summarize what happens after that. Peter gets up and he's like, hey, you remember I went to see Cornelius. We've talked about him a few weeks ago. He was a Roman centurion. Like, really Gentile.

Like, extreme Gentile. And yet he had been pious in the things of God. He prayed to God daily. He made sure to give money to the poor. Like almsgiving, they called it.

He feared God. And so they're like, hey, this is the guy. You know? Like, God is like, this is the guy. I want you to share the gospel with Peter.

So he sends Peter there. Peter shares the gospel with him. While he's still preaching, the Holy Spirit falls on all the believers that are there. And Peter's like, huh, I guess God doesn't hate Gentiles. That's the way the Jewish people thought.

And they're like, no, I guess he's fine with them. And that means he's welcomed them into the family, into the fellowship of believers. So they're baptized. Yeah. They hear the message, they receive the Holy Spirit, and then they're baptized.

Like, I didn't even see them. Like, confess their sins and pray the Romans, road prayer and all that. Like, oh, my goodness, what's going on? Like, God can do things out of order if he chooses. And he chose to.

And so he gives them his Holy Spirit as a sign of a witness that they are accepting. Accepted by God. And so Peter shares that story, and then they talk about some other stuff. And finally, James, the brother of Jesus, the guy who had originally not believed Jesus was the son of God, Which, I mean, I understand that. It's like, he's looking.

He's like, that's my brother. Like, I know our mom, like, I don't think he's God's son. And they didn't believe at first. In fact, they thought Jesus was crazy. At one point, they go to, like, bring him home.

They're like, we got to go get him, don't we? He's taking this, like, son of God thing a little too far. He thinks he can heal people and drive demons out of them. Why would somebody put a stop to that? But his own family tried to stop him.

They're like, we got to reign him in. We got to kind of rein him back a little bit. Jesus, like, nah, not my real family. He says, yeah, my real family. They're the ones that believe in my teachings.

They're the ones that honor what I'm saying. That's my mother and my sisters and brothers. Wow. And yet, after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, even his own brothers, who had at one point thought he was a lunatic, they believed. Because when you look at the evidence, like, all the evidence for a risen Christ, you look at all this evidence, and you either have to make a decision, one of two things.

He's a lunatic or a liar. And if he's not one of those two things, then he's telling the truth, and I have to believe in him. It's just that, like, he's either a lunatic or a liar or he's telling the truth, and I have to believe in him. So Jesus own brothers believed in him. Two of them write books in Scripture.

One of them is Jude. It's literally one chapter. It's short, but it's got some deep stuff in there. And then the other one is James. He wrote a book, is five chapters long, really good, really solid stuff.

But James, the brother of Christ, who now believes in him, refuses even to call himself the brother of the Lord. Like, they don't identify as that. He and Jude identify themselves as servants of Christ. They're like, I'm not standing on some pedigree that says, like, I get to claim, oh, because I'm Jesus, brother, I'm in charge now. He's like, no, I'm a servant of Jesus Christ.

And so, as such, they're serving Christ. But the apostles have put James, even though he wasn't considered an apostle, he is kind of the de facto leader of the council of believers. And so in this council of the Christian Church, you've got James, Peter, John, and then some guys that are Pharisees and some other believers that are leaders within the church, and they form this council, and they're called together because Paul And Barnabas are like the first delegation from a local congregation to the headquarters of the church. And they're like, what are we supposed to do here? You've got some guys that came from this area that are telling our Gentiles that they have to become Jews before they can be Christians.

So let me explain that the law of Moses, the covenant that God gave to Israel. Well, it actually I got to back up further to Abraham. God told Abraham that a mighty nation would come from him, that he would have this mighty nation of people, and that that nation of people would come to faith in God and that they would. What they had to do was he would give them a law. He would give them these rules or these covenant terms of a covenant, and that he would give them the terms of this covenant.

And one of the things that he would show them was that the males had to take a mark on their body that showed that they were part of that. And so that's what he gave them. What's called the covenant of circumcision. So when we read that in scripture, we're like, why are we talking about that? Sounds really personal.

Why are we having this discussion? And it's like, okay, really? When you read that, think the covenant of the law that God has given them, God is saying. And they had this concept way back when that was called a suzerain vassal covenant, where there's one that's a king or a ruler, that's the greater party and one that's subject under him. But the king would make a covenant or a treaty with them and they would say, here's the rules of this covenant and here's what I do for you.

Here's how I provide for you, and here's how you honor that, and here's how you serve me. God being the greater party, Abraham being the lesser party, God makes a covenant with him and says, I'm going to provide for you. I'm going to give you a family. Abraham's an old man with no kids at this point. He says, I'm going to give you kids, an offspring, a mighty nation.

I'm going to do all these things for you. And then I'm going to from your family bring forth one who will be the blessing for all nations. And so I'm going to do all these things for you, Abraham. And so Abraham had to respond in faithfulness and obedience to God and in trust and faithfulness towards him. Then later, when the.

When God takes his grandson Jacob, Jacob has 12 sons, they go off into Egypt, they're there for 400 years, and then they're slaves. God brings them out. He uses Moses for that. They're in the wilderness, and now they have this covenant that God gives them with all these laws. Like, you think, well, he didn't give them all the laws at once.

He gives them 10 at first. Then he keeps adding to them at different situations along the way. For the next 40 years, the Israelites were to keep this covenant with God. They were to obey all of God's laws. Some of those laws were concerning worship.

Some of them were concerning cleanliness and ritual purity. Some of them were concerning how to worship God in the temple or tabernacle at first, how to bring your tithes and offerings in, how to provide for the poor of the land. So a lot of them were relational laws between God or between other people and all these things. So when we see this, you know where these guys come up and say, like, hey, these Gentile Christians, they need to become circumcised. What they're saying is, you need to start observing the law of Moses.

You need to follow all the Old Testament laws before you're ever allowed to come to Christ. As I started out saying earlier, there are people who. They'll be like, okay, so this person, they might think they're a Christian, but first they've got to get this thing out of their life. Oh, first they've got to stop that behavior, that addiction, that thing that they're doing, or they're not good enough to be a Christian yet. And there's so many people that want to do that and they want to say those things.

But Paul and Barnabas and the church in Antioch, they show up and they're like, we shouldn't have to do that. We shouldn't have to go all the way back to keep the law of Moses that we were never able to keep ourselves as Jewish men and women. We weren't able to do that ourselves. Why should we put that burden on these Gentiles? Because God has already proven that he's accepted them.

He gave them His Holy Spirit. He put his mark of approval on them. Because God accepts them who they are and how they are. And through the Holy Spirit, he is making them into the people he wants them to be. So why would we put a burden on them?

So James speaks that to the group. He affirms that. And he says, I'll tell you what, let's just make some simple rules for them to follow. Some of those. There was like four of them, and part of it is like, Stay away from anything to do with idols.

That's a good thing. You know, there's people that still want to dabble in that today, by the way. There's people that still want to make mess around with things that have to do with other gods which are backed by demons. And they're like, we want to. We're basically somewhat serving demons, but somewhat serving God.

No. Jesus says somebody that has two masters will be loyal to one and despise the other. You've got to choose this day who you will serve. Are you going to serve God or are you going to serve idols? Are you going to serve Satan?

And so Jesus makes it very clear that, that he is the one true God, he is the way to the Father, and there is no other way to God. And we have to go through Christ. So the church makes this rule. They're like, okay, stay away from everything to do with idols. Just so you don't offend your Jewish brethren that you're in fellowship within the church.

Because now the church is made up of Jews and Gentiles. And they say Jews are still going to be very concerned about meat that has the blood in it. Like, that's why they have their kosher food laws. And, like, you're really going to offend your Jewish Christian brothers in church if you're like, eating meat that hasn't been butchered and slaughtered in a certain way. And so let's avoid that.

He's like, and also let's avoid sexual immorality. Now, in their world, sexual immorality usually involved, yeah, sure, they had fornication, they had adultery, fooling around, whatever, all that stuff. But it also involved going to a temple and paying to sleep with a religious prostitute. Like, that's a weird concept to think of. You go to pay to sleep with them and that somehow in doing so, you're taking part in the worship of that deity that they're serving in that temple and somehow inviting the favor of that God or goddess to work on your behalf.

And then you would go and you would eat meat there that had been offered to that idol, that God, and you would partake in some type of a holy meal there. And. And the whole thing is contrary to Christian faith, to faith in Christ. And it's very offensive to Jewish people who spend their whole lives avoiding every such thing of that. Those are the only rules they put on the Christian church in Antioch.

And they only put those rules on. And they said, we don't want to burden them with a whole bunch of laws that we know we haven't been able to follow, and we know that they're not going to follow. So tell you what, let's just make it easy. Let's just put these laws on them and. And then let the spirit of God take it from there.

So as I started out saying, there's so many times that maybe you've been guilty of doing this in someone's life, trying to put a timeline on their progression as a Christian, on their faith or on their holiness, and you've tried to impose upon them the behavior that you believe they should have, and you need to repent of doing that. And I don't want to just be harsh with that, because I want to tell you that there's grace from God. Like, even if you have done that and left countless Christians orphaned in your wake, alienated them from the fellowship of the church because they felt like they didn't belong, even if you've done that, God still forgives you, and God still offers you a new day and grace for that day, that you might be setting the example the right way from here on out. But some of you have been victims of these types of people, as I said earlier, and. And they've tied up heavy burdens and placed on you and said, okay, this is how you're a Christian now.

This is how you gotta live. This is how you gotta act. This is what you have to do. And you're like, I don't even understand why you would tell me these things. I don't understand.

Like, I just came to know Jesus. I don't know any of this other stuff. I'm still reading the Word. I haven't gotten to that chapter yet. I don't know what I'm supposed to do.

You're okay. Keep studying, keep following Christ, keep praying and keep listening. Because there are so many times where somebody will lead you astray. And I promise you, like when I preach, I can show you places in scripture I can read where there's lists of rules and there's things that says, hey, you're a Christian, so avoid these things. And I can tell you that there was people reading that maybe even the guy that was writing it still got some of them wrong from time to time.

There's Christians who know the truth of God. They know what things he's called as a sin, and yet we're still guilty of doing it. That doesn't necessarily make you a hypocrite. That means, like, you're still in need of the perfecting work of Christ, that he is making you perfect. But it takes a long time.

And according to John Wesley, who spent his, like, entire life chasing after this and leading others in the path of holiness and righteousness, he said when he was questioned, like, when do you think you actually, like, are completely holy? He's like, well, I think it's either right at the point of death, which he calls glorification, the moment when you're like, glorified in the presence of God. He says, I think it's either right at the moment of glorification or maybe a little bit before that. Like, you're almost gonna be dead by the time God really works everything bad out of you. So guess what, guys?

Wherever you're at right now, there's hope. There's hope because God hasn't rejected you. And God hasn't looked at you and said, well, you haven't kept enough of these laws in the Old Testament. You haven't done all this stuff. I'll tell you, when it comes to the laws in the Old Testament, there's something that I look at.

There's two things. One, we look at them through the lens of Jesus Christ. What laws did Jesus fulfill? Because he said he came to be the fulfillment of the law and the prophets. So in what ways did he fulfill a law?

What ways did he reform? Or kind of like re format it or re understand it, reinterpret it. Like when he said things like, I tell you, you know, you've heard in the law, and some days they said, don't murder. We can all agree, don't murder, he says, but I tell you, anyone who has anger towards his brother or his neighbor, that neighbor, like we were talking about earlier, anybody who treats his neighbor like that, who has anger towards neighbor, who wants to do away with his neighbor, he's already murdered them in his heart. Like, you have the seeds of murder dwelling in you.

So don't think, like, I would never kill anyone. It's like, I don't know, I might, you know, like, yeah, okay, you're. Yeah, you're susceptible to that because you have the seeds of it already planted in your heart. So Jesus didn't just. He like, reinterpreted that law about not murder.

He didn't do away with it and say, ah, murder is fair game now. Because there's people that say, like, well, that's the Old Testament. We don't have to listen to that. Yeah, you do. But you're not under this covenant where you have to dwell in all of the ritual laws of the covenant that God had with Israel.

But there are things that fall under these two important laws that Jesus retains. You know, he didn't just kind of reinterpret it or fulfill it. He retained them. He says, you know, don't murder, don't commit adultery. Don't, you know, he says, you honor your father and mother.

Like, he upholds these things. But he upholds them under the two great commands. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Love your neighbor the same way that you would love yourself. And for those of you who struggle with loving yourself, one, I believe God can heal you of that.

Two, if you struggle with loving yourself and you can't understand how you should love your neighbor, love your neighbor. How you should be loved by yourself. Like, you shouldn't have hatred towards yourself. You should be able to love yourself. You should be able to care about yourself, because God loves you and God cares about you.

And in that way is how you can love your neighbors, love those around you.

I'm looking at my notes for the first time to seeing what I missed.

Oh, man, I think I hit everything. That's crazy. Oh, this is good. And I have a postscript. I knew I'd need that, which I kind of just talked about a little bit.

But do we need the Old Testament? Yeah, absolutely. The Old Testament shows. It shows us the heart of God. Like, in the Old Testament, we see that God does love people, that God does want to redeem people, that God wants a good life on this earth for people.

We see that in the Old Testament. But also one of the things that we see is the sovereignty of God. He's sovereign. He is king. He is in charge.

We are under God. Like, we. We try. Like, even in the Garden of Eden, in the first couple chapters of Genesis. What's the problem?

Satan's like, you can be like God yourself. And you're like, sounds good. Sign me up. They want that. We all want more power.

People say that, like, money makes the world go round. I don't think so. Like, oh, well, you know, power and sex and money, Those are what makes the world around. I'm like, no, I think it's all just a function of power. The other things are just outflows of the power that you have.

How much you can conquer, how much you can control, how much you can take advantage of for yourself. And those are the things that people, they love. Power goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. You can be like God. You can choose for yourself what is good and what is evil.

Really. I'LL eat that apple. If it gives me power, I'll do it. And that's what it goes back to. And so God, what we recognize through reading the Old Testament, through studying that is that God is sovereign and that his will supersedes ours, or at least it should every day.

And we have to submit ourselves to God. So what we see is when we don't do that, we see the judgment of God. God does eventually mete out his judgment against evil, but he says of himself, and we see it played out in Scripture in the Old Testament, that God is. Here's a big word. It's called long suffering.

It means he's slow in his anger against ungodliness. He's slow to act against people who have willfully disobeyed him or set themselves up opposed to Him. He gives them time because he is a God of mercy and patience and love, not willing for people to suffer, not willing for people to to be destroyed or to be in torment in eternity. He wants them to come to salvation and come to the full knowledge of the truth. And so he is patient in that.

He's long suffering in his judgment because he is a God of love and mercy. And we see the fulfillment of that in Jesus Christ, where God fully takes on sin itself, conquers sin and death signs the the final arrest and death or lock up warrant for eternity for Satan signs that in his sacrifice on the cross and his resurrection and his ascension into heaven, Jesus seals the deal on that. And so the sovereignty of God is shown fully in Jesus Christ. The judgment of God is shown in Jesus Christ because the scripture tells us that Jesus himself became sin for us. The man who knew no sin, took on all the sin of the world, took it to the cross, died with it.

That sin is gone and he has gotten purchased for you. Forgiveness that is yours for the taking, for the receiving. And then we see the full love of God in that. Because it is only by the mercy of God through Christ on the cross that your sins can be wiped out. You don't have to follow the legal code, the 613 laws.

You have to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. That sums up the entirety of it. All right, Pastor Kendall, come on up. Don't hesitate.

You're good. I don't want to ramble anymore. I just want to close with that and encourage you. Don't stop short in your pursuit of Jesus Christ.

Sa.