Amen. Thank you. Why don't y'all thank the worship team for a great time of worship this morning?
As many of you can tell, I'm obviously not David Harper. I know most of you know me, but my name is Aaron Harper. I'm his youngest son, and he had every intention when he started this week of being here this morning, but sickness changed all of his plans.
It was Wednesday afternoon, or earlier this week, we found out that, I think, Andrew, Madeline, and some of them had gotten sick. Then Wednesday rolls around, and Dad texts me and is like, "Hey, I think it's hit me. You might want to prepare something." So then I hit him back Thursday morning, and I'm like, "Wait a minute. Don't give me some ifs, maybes, buts, and ands. Am I doing it or am I not? Because it's Thursday morning, and I got to go with this and run, or I'm not. I'm waiting around."
And so he said, "Yeah, I'm making the call. Get it ready." And so he's at home. Him and Mom are both getting over that. So keep them in your prayers. It's hit just about everybody in our family. If there's a Harper that's not here, they're at home sick right now. So keep us in your prayers. You can thank him later.
He did give me the option to opt out, and I decided, "No, we're going to get this done before December." But we're going to run through three chapters this morning. Okay? Three chapters. I know what you're thinking. You should have ordered lunch, brought it. It's okay. I promise we can get you out of here at a reasonable time. But we are going to close out Acts.
And before we jump in, I just kind of want to jump back a little bit and talk about what we've seen. So basically, you know, Luke is writing the book of Acts. At the beginning, he kind of focuses more on Peter and what's going on with Peter. Kind of towards the middle, he shifts his focus, and it pretty much ends the book focusing on Paul and his missionary journeys.
Every one of us in this room, if you proclaim to be a believer, you can go all the way back. Your Christianity got to you. You believed because it got to you from 120 people that were standing in the room. As Jesus said, "You will receive power." Those 120 people went out from there and changed the world.
Now, I don't know if we've discussed this before, but the book of Acts is about 30 to 35, maybe 40 years in length. If you read at an average length, you can read through the book of Acts easily within an afternoon if you read at an average pace. But don't let that fool you that this is 30 to 40 years that all of this has happened. That the world has become changed, that Christianity has spread because 120 people were in a room. As Jesus told them, "You will receive power."
So that's why me and you are where we are today. And it's pretty incredible. If you think about it, I'm a history buff. One of my majors at Shorter, or my major at Shorter was history, which don't do that. There's no history factory to go get a job at. I had no options, so I had to choose something else. So that's why I went to law school. But I majored in history. And so I love history.
I love looking up, you know, what do we know about the time periods like this? One of the things that we do know is that religion in this day and age, it didn't spread like this. This was unseen in pretty much all of humanity for a religion to spread in the way that Christianity has now spread in the first century.
Because you think about it, Jews, wherever they were, they were Jewish. They didn't open up the synagogue to Gentiles. They stayed Jews. They weren't trying to convert Roman Gentiles to Judaism because they weren't Jews. So they didn't try to convert them. You think about any other religion that we've seen, all the pagan idol worship. You know, you have Greek mythology, Norse mythology. You have all these other pagan religions that were basically based off geography.
So they didn't go around. You know, if somebody took over another place, they would make them worship their gods, but they didn't go around trying to proselytize and make new converts of their pagan worship because somebody else just worships a different way. This was unheard of that somebody would go around and try to convert people.
And not only that, but at the same point that it was, as we'll see today, Paul is saying this isn't to the great people of the world. And it's not just for the little people of the world. I'll preach the gospel to anybody who will hear it. I want everybody to believe in it.
And so that's another thing that we see is typically socioeconomic status paid a huge part in what religion did you take part in? Because rich people wanted to be around other rich people. They didn't want poor people coming in with them. So they worshipped a different way, and poor people worshipped a different way.
And so it's completely unheard of. And I want to just make sure we get into the quick historical context of what we've seen. How insane this is that 120 people have basically gone across the whole Roman Empire, the whole known world. And there's converts everywhere they go. That's why you and I are sitting in this room today is because of those. We can trace it back to those 120 people.
So we're going to be in chapter 26 starting out. We're going to jump through each point. Three points. Each point will be one chapter. I promise we're going to park a little bit longer in 26. 27 will be a little quicker, and we'll finish with 28.
So I'm going to set the stage here real quick. What we see, and you can go down to in chapter 26. I'm going to start in verse 12. But as you're getting there, you're going to see some names that are popping up. And I want to, again, give you some historical context here. Because I think it's very important to get in the mindset of Paul.
Because it's very easy for us to read these accounts and go, "Oh, yeah, Paul just shared the gospel." Well, no, you've got to understand who Paul is preaching the gospel to. Who is he saying this to? So you'll see the name Agrippa. Agrippa. Agrippa. Agrippa. It's not to be confused with chapter 12. There's another King Herod Agrippa. That is King Herod Agrippa I. And he was struck down and eaten by worms. Okay? So this guy's father. All right?
So his immediate dad was killed, struck down by an angel of the Lord, and he's eaten by worms. So King Agrippa II's grandfather is, and I do not know how to pronounce this, Aristobulus IV, and he was actually killed by his dad, who we all, you should recognize this name, Herod the Great, King Herod the Great. He's the one that when Jews were saying there's a messiah to be born, he's like, "Nope, not in my kingdom, kill all the babies."
He's that guy, and he was so nervous about somebody taking his throne that he had all these children killed, and not only that, he had his two sons killed. Aristobulus, however you pronounce it, and his brother were sent off to Rome to be educated. When they came back, everybody in the town loved them. They were so popular in the town. Can you imagine this? They were so popular in the town that their own father got jealous enough of them, and he killed them because he was afraid they were going to take his throne.
So this is the family line that Paul is about to stand in front of and boldly proclaim the gospel to. So understand, I think it's so easy for us to just read it and go, "Oh yeah, Paul's just sharing the gospel to somebody else." It's like me just sharing the gospel to one of my co-workers. No, it's not. It's just not.
He's preaching the gospel to somebody here who is not a fan of Christianity. This guy, Agrippa II, is known for his work to connect the Roman Empire and the Jews together. He wants them to work in unison, but in 70 AD, when there's an uprising of Jews, he actually flees Judea because he's siding with the Roman Empire. And he's like, "I don't want any part of these Jews that are doing this." And so he abandons his post and leaves them.
But this is a guy who comes from a lineage that does not believe in Christianity. And then you've got some other characters in there, Felix, Festus, some cool names back then. All these people are showing up. But we're going to see here that Paul has been brought basically before this, as you've seen. He caused an uprising, and they bring him before court. It was basically a phony court.
So then they're like, "Well, no, the government steps in. You've got to set up a panel." So they set up a panel, and they're like, "We don't know what to do with him. This doesn't make any sense. He hadn't done anything." So then they send him off to somebody else, and they're like, "Well, still, we don't see any evidence that he's done anything."
And so then we get to chapter 26, where he's now going to go before King Agrippa II and give an account. He's got to basically give his defense, which is the first point. You can blame these points on my dad. They're very literal. I did not have time to come up with fancy points. So point one, Paul's defense.
And that's what we're going to see here in chapter 26 is he's basically, he's told this story over and over again. And everybody in the Roman government's like, "What? What even have you done?" And so at this point, they don't have anything to send to the Roman Empire. Because in chapter 25, Paul, as a Roman citizen, has the absolute right in any criminal case against him to basically say the words, "He's appealing to Caesar."
And it's not just him. He's appealing to Caesar. At that point, there's nothing anybody else in lower government can do. They can't make a decision on his case. They can't determine guilt or innocence or let him go or do anything. He has to be sent by, at the cost of the Roman Empire, to Rome. And Caesar, whoever Caesar is, is the only one that can determine their outcome. And that was an absolute right of any Roman citizen. And that's what he does in chapter 25, previous to this.
And so here we get to chapter 26, where they don't really know. So they know they're sending him to the Roman Empire, to Rome, to Caesar. But they don't really have anything to send with him. They don't have a report to send or some kind of case synopsis. They don't have anything to give the judge to kind of say, "Hey, here's the facts of the case. Here's what's gone on underneath."
And so they're going to get Paul to tell his story again. And this time, King Agrippa II is like, "Wait a minute, I'll be there tomorrow. Wait till then. I want to come hear what he's got to say." So he shows up. And at the same time, I believe it's Festus or one of them, basically making a report. While all this is happening, he's writing it down so they can send that with the Roman soldiers to Rome.
And they basically accused Paul of three things. They've said that he's a troublemaker. And yes, in those days, you could be killed for being a troublemaker in the Roman Empire. Today, our criminal justice system puts up with a lot more. But you could be killed for that. If you were a troublemaker, the Roman Empire didn't put up with that.
The Jews also accused him of disrespecting the temple. They accused him of causing riots, which obviously he hadn't done. They were the ones causing the riots. But those were the three charges that they were bringing against him.
And so here we get to chapter 26, starting in verse 12. And let me jump there. So while, and then we're jumping into the middle of this. Okay. So understand I can't read. I don't have time to read the whole thing.
So, while I was occupied, I journeyed to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priest. At midday, O king, along the road I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who journeyed with me.
And when they all had fallen to the ground, I heard a voice speaking to me, saying in the Hebrew language, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads."
So I said, "Who are you, Lord?" And he said, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and witness both of the things which you have seen and the things which I will yet reveal to you.
I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles to whom I now send you, to open their eyes in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins. Oops, my computer is jumping around.
They may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me. Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those in Damascus and in Jerusalem and throughout the region of Judea, and then to the Gentiles that they should repent, turn to God, and do works befitting repentance.
For these reasons the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me. Therefore, having obtained help from God, to this day I stand, witnessing both to small and great, saying no other things than those which the prophets and Moses said would come.
And that Christ would suffer, that he would be the first to rise from the dead, and would proclaim the light to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles. Now as he thus made his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, "Paul, are you beside yourself? Much learning is driving you mad."
But he said, "I am not mad, most noble Festus, but speak the words of truth and reason. For the king before whom I speak freely knows these things. For I am convinced that none of these things escapes his attention, since these things were not done in a corner.
And King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? This is verse 27, we're almost there. King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you believe. Then Agrippa said to Paul, "You almost persuade me to become a Christian."
And Paul said, "I would to God that not only you, but also all who hear me today might become both almost and altogether such as I am, except for these chains."
I love what Paul says there at the end. So I kind of gave you some of the context before we jump in at the beginning of chapter 26. He's kind of laying out his bona fides, his Jewishness, his Jewish credentials of how he knows everything. He was a Pharisee among Pharisees. He knew all of the things that the Jews believed in, and he practiced them. He was the perfect Jewish Pharisee.
So he's giving them his bona fides, saying, "I know what you're accusing me of, and I haven't done it, and I know I haven't done it, because this is who I was." And then we jump in again. He's telling his conversion story to the king and to all who will listen.
And so I've titled this sermon, "To Be As We Are." And it's kind of a play on those words, and we'll get more into that as we go through. I'll explain the title there. But basically, he's giving his bona fides there of saying, "You know, I know what they're accusing me of, and I haven't done it. I'm a Pharisee. I know how to react and act in the temple. I haven't desecrated the temple. I haven't caused these riots. All I've done is tell the same exact story that I'm telling you, and it's made them mad. And I've preached the gospel, the grace of Jesus Christ."
He says in verse 22 that help comes from God. And I love that he says he will say it to small or great. It doesn't matter who you are. You be rich, you be poor. You can have a lot or a little. You could be somebody or nobody. He's like, "Paul's like, I don't care. I'm going to preach the gospel to them. They're going to hear about my conversion story."
And so then he appeals to the prophets and Moses. And I love this here. And don't miss this, because that's why I gave you the background here. Agrippa II would have understood what Paul was saying. When he makes this appeal, he's not just saying this to say it.
If you remember some chapters back when Paul was in Greece, he found a connection there with the Greeks and said, "Hey, I see you guys worship an unknown God. I know the guy." So he's making this connection. Anytime he makes this apologetics 101, he's making a connection first. He said, "If we can agree, we're going to start at ground level and we're going to agree on this."
And so he makes the appeal, and then he's pointing, saying from the prophets and Moses they were pointing to Jesus. So if you know about the prophets and Moses, then let me introduce you to this Jesus guy who they were talking about who they were here before. So that's what he's trying to do with the king, and most of the people there that were listening were Jews, so they would have understood as well.
So he's making that argument for a reason. And then verse 26, Paul points out that he is using an argument again that King Agrippa would understand and be familiar with. And then he says this: these things that have happened to Jesus and the early Christian church, they haven't happened in a corner.
Everybody's heard of this. I mean, why do you think it is that when King Agrippa II heard that Paul was going to be the one testifying, it says he made haste to get there? He likely had heard who Paul was, what Paul had done, the things that were happening within the way these new believers. He's like, "Hey, y'all hold on a minute. I want to go hear what he's got to say."
So he hurries to get there because all these things haven't happened in a corner. Christianity, Jesus' death and resurrection just didn't happen off to the side of the Roman Empire. I mean, look at us today, 2024 years later. Where do we get the day or the year 2024? Where do we base that on? These things didn't just happen in a corner.
And Paul is pointing that out, saying everybody's heard about this. You've got to know about this because this hasn't just happened randomly. And then verse 28, there's other texts. So he says almost in the New King James, he says almost Christian. And this is Festus who he's speaking to, or I believe is King Agrippa, one of the two, says, "You know, you're almost persuade me."
ESV and some of the others say, "Would you persuade me so quickly to become a Christian?" And it's more of a sarcastic than genuine remark. He's not really saying, "I'm almost there, but not quite. What else can you give me?" It's more of a, he's making a sarcastic remark as a Jewish Roman who's serving in the Empire.
He's saying, "You really think you're just going to come up here and walk on stage and talk for maybe five minutes, and I'm just going to convert? You really think it's going to be that easy for me?" And I love Paul's response because he's basically like, "Yes, that's exactly what I'm doing. I want you and everyone else who hears me to believe in this Jesus Christ of whom I worship."
Like that's the whole point. You see, Paul is supposed to be giving a defense of his case, but in all of the text we've read, one sentence is given to what they're accusing him of and why he shouldn't be guilty of it. And all the rest that he spends his time talking on, that could be killed for the rest of his time, he's talking about, "Hey, I was converted. This is who Jesus is. Believe in him. Believe in him. Please hear me."
That's all he's doing. And you see this over and over and over again with Paul. And I want us to make sure that I don't think, and we'll get into it more again here in a minute. I don't want to jump the gun. But we don't share the gospel the way Paul does. We just don't.
And I believe there's a lot of reasons for that that we'll get into. But this is the urgency that Paul had. He had it every moment when his life is hanging in the balance. He doesn't say, "Hey, let me get my witnesses together. Let me get an attorney. Let me do this. Let me do that." He doesn't talk for 30 minutes about how these charges are just trumped-up charges against him that he hasn't really done.
He just kind of says, "Yeah, I didn't do that. All I've done is this." And it's share the gospel. And this is the gospel. He does that over and over and over again. And I think we don't have that urgency, and we need to have that urgency in sharing the gospel.
And that's kind of where the title of this comes from is there at the end where he says, "I would to God that not only you, but also all who hear me today might become both almost and altogether such as I am." And I love he throws in kind of a sarcastic remark back to him because he's standing there in chains making his free case.
And the guy's like, "You really think you're going to convert me that fast?" He's like, "Yes, I wish you would be me well except for these chains that you've got on me." You know, he's kind of giving him a sarcastic remark back. So don't let anybody fool you; sarcasm is in the Bible, and I'm allowed to speak it.
So then that's kind of sums up chapter 27. He's made his case, and at the end where chapter 26, I'm sorry, and at the end basically what we see is Agrippa is kind of like, "Yeah, I mean, you've made your case. There's nothing really against you. You should be set free." But because you appealed to Caesar, you got to go to Rome. So he keeps him in custody.
And now at this point, again, this is not just like the next day. You know, in the United States, this would be, yeah, there would be an order for him to show up in a different court, different jurisdiction. He'd have to go through a whole process, but it would happen, you know, within a couple of weeks. They would, you know, a different sheriff's department or whoever would come pick them up and take them. You know, this isn't like that.
He's got to wait some time. The Roman soldiers have to get all they would take from regions. Any Roman citizen who had appealed to Caesar, they would group them together and kind of wait so they had a group, and then they would travel to Rome together with, you know, there'd be Roman soldiers with, you know, some prisoners who they would take to Rome.
So this isn't necessarily the next day, but sometime they get together, and then they start going to Rome. And so this is where we get to chapter 27, and I've got a lot of this is where we get to chapter 27, and I've got a lot of, again, very little literal, and you can thank Dad for that. My next point is Paul's journey to Rome.
That's essentially all we see in chapter 27 is Paul's headed to Rome. He's made this. He could have been set free, but he made an appeal to Caesar, and King Agrippa II is like, "You got to go to Rome. I can't release you." And so he goes to Rome, and we're going to jump in chapter 27, verses 21 to 25.
But after a long abstinence from food, then Paul stood in the midst of them and said, "Men, you should have listened to me and not have sailed from Crete and incurred this disaster and loss. And now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you but only of the ship. For there stood by me this night an angel of the God whom I belong and whom I serve, saying..."
So here we see that Paul, what's happened before this is they were going to set sail, and Paul's like, "Hey, guys, wait a minute. The Holy Spirit's told me we really shouldn't set sail. Like there's some danger ahead. We shouldn't take this journey." And of course, as any normal human being would do, the soldier didn't listen to the prisoner and was like, "Shut up. We're taking this journey." Right?
Like he's not like, "Oh, Paul, let's take some advice from you." No, he's a prisoner. So, of course, they didn't listen to him. So then they get on the boat. So they set sail. They start. They get in the storm, and it says for 14 days they didn't see the sun or the stars. And they're basically battling the ship, trying to keep it afloat. They're working so hard. They haven't even eaten anything because they're working so hard to keep the ship afloat.
And I love this because I know the reaction I would have. And a lot of you imagine you're on that boat. Okay, you haven't eaten in 14 days. So I know every one of you in here is hangry. You're angry. All right? And if you don't know what hangry is, find the closest, youngest person to you and ask them. Every one of you is going to be mad. You're all going to be angry. You're all going to be hungry.
There's some context clues. You're all going to be upset. You're all going to be tired. And so finally, when they sit down to eat, what does Paul do? He's like, "Man, listen to me. I got to share something with you." And I'm going to be honest with you, straight up honest with you. If I was another Christian with Paul, I'd be like, "Hey, Paul. Shut up. So let's not. Now's not the time. These guys, they don't want to hear this. Can we just eat real quick and relax? Like, please, man, don't be weird about this. Just sit down. Let's eat. Maybe we'll check the vibes after we've eaten, see if people are kind of relaxed. Then we'll share the gospel."
That's my reaction. I mean, this is not the time, man. This is not the time for us to be preaching the gospel. Let's eat. Let's eat. Let's relax. Let's maybe get to ground, get to safety, and then maybe you can find some time to gather up the people that want to listen. And Paul's just like, "Nah, I've got the floor. I'm going to say something."
And so he's like, "One, I love that he's like, 'Well, you should have listened to me, but that's besides the point.'" And then he gets into he's had a vision, and this goes back to, I can't, I think it's in the 2020 something, where Jesus appears to Paul for the third and final time. He's in a trance, and he says to him, "Hey, this is a gist, so go and read it for yourself."
He says, "Just as you've witnessed in Jerusalem, I'm also going to send you to Rome to do the same thing." And so Paul, being encouraged by that, is telling these people, "Hey, I'm on a divine mission here. So as long as I'm on this boat, nobody else is going to die. We're all going to make it because I've got a purpose here that I'm headed towards."
And so then what else do we see? Because there's a lot of problems within his journey. They finally make it to land. They're getting out. Paul almost loses his life. They're getting on these little boats to try to make it to land, and as they're on the boats, they get caught in some currents and reefs, and the boats are basically going to sink.
And so some of the soldiers are like, "Hey, stab the prisoners so they don't get caught in the water." And they're like, "Hey, don't swim and get away, and then we'll just swim to shore and figure out life from there." And there's a certain soldier here who has really taken a liking to Paul, and he's like, "No, no, no. If you can swim, swim. Everybody else grab a piece of the boat that's breaking up and go to shore."
And so that's what they do, and Paul's life is spared along with all the other prisoners. So they make it to shore, and this is an island called Malta. And you can look it up. As of 2021, it's 88% Christian. 88%. At this time, it's probably zero. There may have been one or two, but it more than likely is zero.
And all of them can trace their Christianity back to a shipwreck that put Paul on their island. And so you see Paul goes up on the island, and he's helping out the islanders, give them a warm welcome, and they're helping them. And so it's beginning to be winter, so it's very cold. And so the islanders make a fire for him, and as Paul is, you know, working, doing what he's supposed to, he's gathering up sticks, a poisonous snake bites him on the hand, and he shakes it off and throws it in the fire.
And I love the villagers' reactions, the islanders' reactions, because at first they're like, "Oh, this guy's a murderer. He's a bad man. Something, he's done something wrong, and he dodged a bullet by getting off that boat. Justice wasn't served, but now it's going to be served because he's going to die. He was bit by a snake." And then nothing happens.
And so then at that point, they're like, "Oh, okay, he must be a god." And so these people are just easily persuaded. I mean, they're just back and forth. I'm like, "Well, I don't know." They're just, you know, what's going on? And so this gives Paul a chance to again share the gospel.
Like he's doing everywhere else. We see he just did it to King Agrippa II, who's the great-grandson of King Herod who tried to kill Jesus. Then he's on the boat in the middle of a storm, and he's preaching the gospel there. And then he gets to an island, and he's preaching the gospel there.
There's no, it doesn't matter where Paul is. And I was talking to Tiffany about this the other day. I said, "I know myself, and I'm not going to put myself as the only person because I know some of you here in the room, you just may not want to admit it. But when life struggles, when life just craziness happens to you, when you're driving in a 15-passenger van going through the middle of nowhere Mexico and the AC goes out, how many of us are just immediately in an ill mood? Like this is ridiculous, right? Amen, right? I'm there with you. At least I got one to admit it. I'm right there with you.
Like immediately just throw my hands up. We might as well just go home. Just call Tracy, book the flights. We're headed back to the airport. This is over with, right? We get a flat tire like, "Oh, we're going to be out in this heat for an hour," right? Like that's how we are today. The first thing that goes wrong, we immediately just throw our hands up.
But what's the first thing Paul does when a live stroll is getting away? What's he doing? He's looking for an opportunity to share the gospel. He's looking for an opportunity to share the gospel. He's wanting to share the gospel with whoever will listen. So to him, if his boat makes it to Rome, he's going to land there and share the gospel. If his boat lands at a random island in the middle of the ocean, he's going to share the gospel.
If his boat is stuck in the middle of the ocean, guess what he's going to do? Share the gospel. It's all about the gospel to Paul. That's his only focus. That's the only thing he cares about is that he can preach the gospel everywhere he goes.
And I just don't think we have that sense of urgency about it. We like to get in our own self-pity. Well, my gosh, this is just tough. Life is just horrible right now. I just don't have the energy for it. I don't have this. I don't have that. Maybe at Christmas, maybe after the bonus, maybe after the new job, maybe after better health, then I'll get on it.
And Paul gives us the greatest example ever. It doesn't matter where he's at. He knows that if he's, again, if he's at Rome, that's because God put him there, and he's meant to share the gospel there. If he lands on a random island in the middle of the ocean, God put him there. So he's still on his divine purpose, whether it's in the middle of the ocean or on the boat or on land. God has put him there, and he's on a mission.
And so he continues to share the gospel. And I just think we want to give excuses for everything. We really do. And, again, I'm just going to say this. I'm not talking about myself. I'm saying we, because y'all may not admit it, but I'm putting myself in there. We love to have excuses.
I'm just not feeling it today. I'm just not this. I'm just not that. I'm struggling with this. I'm too busy. I'm not focusing on it. I love this story. Matt Chandler tells a really funny story that after he had graduated from, I believe he went to Texas A&M, he was beginning his pastoral ministry, and his parents were truck drivers.
And so every Sunday afternoon, he would go meet them at a Fine J truck stop. And this one day, he gets there, and, you know, it's 20 minutes, 30 minutes. They haven't shown up yet. So he's sitting there drinking coffee. And, again, this is a pastor. He's a pastor at this point in his life. And he's sitting there drinking his coffee, and this waiter, some of the busboys, something, comes by the tables, and he's wiping off.
And he, Matt just kind of gives him like a, "Hey, man, how are you?" And the guy gives him the most softball of softball answers for a Christian. He says, "Well, I'm just a soul that nobody..." I mean, it's the slowest softball pitch in the world. And Matt Chandler says, he looks up at him and says, "I hear you, brother," and goes back to drinking his coffee.
He had the easiest chance in the world to share the gospel with this guy. I mean, Matt Chandler jokes. He's like, "The guy might as well have said, 'Hey, man, tell me about Jesus.'" And I was like, "All right, cool." And just didn't even think about it. It just never crossed his mind.
He said later, as he was leaving, he was thinking back, and he said it just, he was like, "My gosh, it was a perfect setup. God was inviting me to play, and I just missed." He's the easiest softball in the world. He wasn't trying to share the gospel to King Agrippa who could have him killed.
This was just a random busboy who said, "Hey, he recognizes he has a soul, and he says nobody wants it. I know a guy who wants it," right? Like the greatest thing in the world. But what do we do? We just, we get busy. It happens to all of us. We just, we're not focusing on it. It's not the main thing to us.
And I think that's what Paul does through this whole, through all of Acts. That's all he cares about. That's all he's focusing on is, "Who can I share the gospel with next?" And to us, we think, "Well, yeah, I've got cancer. I can't do that. I've got financial troubles. I can't do that. I'm in school. Once I get out of school, I'll do that. Once I get over this, I'll do it. Once I get here, I'll do it. Once I get my life together, then I'll share the gospel with them," right?
And I love how people, I love our thinking because nobody ever thinks about the opposite of this. We all have thought this before. "Well, I'm not acting right. I know I'm a sinner. I'm kind of a hypocrite. So once I get my life together, I'll share the gospel."
And I love the opposite of that because it's also not true. Do you think when you share the gospel, they're going to believe in the gospel because your life seems all put together? No, but that's not how people believe. So share the gospel. Share the gospel, right? Like Paul is just, he's sharing the gospel. Just do it.
That's what we've just got to make this the main thing. We have to have a sense of urgency about sharing the gospel like Paul did. Share the gospel. It doesn't matter what life troubles have thrown in your way, what struggles you're going through. Paul gives us a great example in chapter 27 of, "Hey, just share the gospel."
Regardless of what you're going through, regardless of life's troubles, share the gospel. I think too, there's opportunities every day. We all have opportunities every day. I meet with people at the jail all the time, and I can't tell you, religion is easy to share in the system.
When people are sitting at the Floyd County Jail with me, it's very easy for them to be receptive to religion. And some people I've prayed with before, and some people have said, like the Matt Chandler story, they say, "Well, it's all in God's time." And I just kind of, "Yep, right." You know, sign the paper, let's get, you know, I'm ready to get out of the jail, go home to my family, and I just miss it, right?
You've all got opportunities every day in front of you. There's opportunities every day. And if you don't think you have opportunities, you need to slow down. You know what you really need to do? You need to take this thing and walk away from it. If you think that you do not have opportunities in front of you every day to share the gospel, you might be staring at that a little bit too much because there's people every day in front of you.
And we don't, unlike Paul, we don't have someone who hates Christianity standing in front of us. We live in the Bible Belt. People are going to be, I mean, most people are not going to be like, "Oh, you idiot. I don't want to hear about that stupid stuff today." You know, they might kind of, "Hey, you know, thank you, man."
You know, they might do the half step out. You know, pay attention to people's feet. It'll tell you a lot about their thinking up here because if their feet are starting to turn away from you while you're talking, they're not interested, you know? But most people in the South, they're going to listen to you. You know, they're not going to, they may not listen to your whole conversion story like Paul tells, but they're going to listen to you.
But we just, we don't take the opportunity that it's so easy. I mean, Paul would have a field day if he lived in Georgia today. I mean, the amount of people that he could preach the gospel to without getting beaten, like he could go home and sleep and not have bruises on him. He's not going to be put at the local jail by preaching.
And we just, we take advantage of it. We think, "Oh, you know, it'll happen. Somebody will share the gospel with them one day." Or, you know what we do? I love this. We will be like, "Oh, yeah, I'll tell, you know, God loves you." The biggest lie that's ever been told to the church was, "Preach the gospel, and if necessary, use words."
Let me tell you something. You have to use words to preach the gospel. You've got to use words. You've got to tell your story. You can't just live right and people just think, "Oh, they must be a Christian." You've got to use words. Tell your conversion story. Focus on why you're a believer.
And if you don't know that, maybe you should think about it. Maybe you should talk to one of the elders after church and go, "I don't really know about my conversion." Maybe if it's not the main focus, I love we talked about this in Sunday school last week with Steve. If that's not your main focus, maybe pray that the Holy Spirit would make that your main focus.
Pray that the Holy Spirit would show you to see people who are going to be on your side and you through his eyes, that you would see people the way Jesus sees them, that they're not just a co-worker. They're a person lost and dying, and they're going to spend eternity in hell away from a true and righteous judge.
That you would want to see them to be as we are, that they would have the forgiveness that we have. And I'm jumping way ahead of the gun here, but I want us to take this serious because we just see people every day, and they're just a co-worker. They're just a cousin. They're just a friend.
I don't, it's not the time. Like I was thinking, "Paul, man, shut up. We're in the middle of a storm right now. We haven't eaten. Let us eat first, and then maybe share the gospel." And Paul's like, "No, I'm going to share the gospel whenever I can."
That's, you know, honestly, I think he probably got to share the gospel there because there was nobody strong enough to be like, "Hey, sit down." Right? Like he's been trying the whole time to share the gospel, and they're like, "Hey, let's keep this boat afloat so we can stay alive."
And they keep pushing him back, and finally they're so exhausted, Paul's like, "Hey, here's my chance. Everybody's got to listen because they don't have energy to get up and walk away," right? Like that's the way we should seize our opportunities, but we just don't.
And then in chapter 28 is where we'll finish. This is the last chapter of Acts. Chapter 28 is where Paul gets to Rome. So this is at the end of chapter 27. They stay on Malta. Again, please focus on these things because they're important to understand. They stayed there three months.
This wasn't they didn't just show up shipwrecked, and the Roman Empire sent a boat the next day to pick them up and take them to Rome. Like they were stuck on this island for three months. And if you look at pictures of Malta today, it was not like that back then.
Malta today is very, it's beautiful. The ocean around it is pretty. There are nice buildings. I'm sure a bunch of them are, you know, they've got all-inclusive resorts there that if you go there and chuck it in, it's a great experience. Stay there. We're great. You're super rich. You could go stay at it. It's a very nice island now.
But understand at the time, that's not what it was. These were just islanders who lived there, and they were stuck until winter was over, right? Like they've just got to wait out winter. Wherever you're stuck when winter comes, you're just there.
And so he sits there for three months, and he begins ministering to the people on the island. The leader of the island, his father, is sick, and so Paul goes to his house and heals his father. And then everybody else is like, "Whoa, hey, bring everybody else out." And so all the sick come out to Paul, and they all get healed.
And then he basically preaches and teaches to him for, he spends three months there preaching and teaching, and then the Romans take him away once, you know, once it's warm enough, three months later, and they head towards Rome.
And so they get to Rome, and this is kind of Paul's thing everywhere he goes. And pay attention to this because it's very important. Everywhere Paul goes, it's because Jesus said to the Jew first and then to the Gentile. He goes first to the synagogue, and once they pitch a fit and kick him out, then he just preaches wherever he wants.
You know, wherever accepting outside of there. We saw this at the very beginning. He was preaching at the synagogue, and then there was that, like, hall of Tyree or something like that, that he basically, it's a Gentile who owns a schoolhouse, and he's like, "Well, you know, y'all don't want to accept me, so I'm going to go here."
And I think it's also very cool because what happens is there's Jewish converts at each place he goes, and those Jews lived within that area. So this isn't like the United States where you can drive, you know, ten hours from here, and they're going to speak the same language as you.
There's a language barrier, but what happens is because Paul goes to the Jews who live there, they would have been able to read and understand Hebrew and also the local language. So you see this later as Paul goes to Spain. There's Jews there who he can preach to, and as they convert, now the language barrier is broken because these converts, they know how to speak Spanish and Hebrew.
So he can speak to them, the new Jewish converts, and then they can interpret. There's still a language barrier back there. They still had to overcome that, but it's pretty cool how God works in converting people like that because they could then be the local translators to spread the gospel.
And so that's what Paul does here is he gets to Rome. He's greeted, and he goes to his friends. He basically put kind of on house arrest. The guard at this point really likes Paul. He's taking a real good liking to him. And so he's like, "Hey, you can, I'm going to give you some leeway here."
And so his friends, there's already converts there, so they're in Rome, right? So your geography on a map over here, the side of the Mediterranean is Jerusalem, and way over here is Italy. That's where he's at now. And again, this whole book takes 30 to 35 years, and there's already converts there in Rome.
It's pretty cool that that's already happened that quickly. There's already converts. And so he gets to Rome, and we'll read verse 21 of chapter 28, 21 to 24. Then they said to him, "We neither received letters from Judea concerning you nor any of the brethren who came reporting any spoken evil of you, but we desire to hear from you what you think. For concerning this set, we know that it is spoken against everywhere."
So when they had pointed a day, many came to him at his lodging, to whom he explained and solemnly testified of the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus from both the law of Moses and the prophets from morning till evening. And some were persuaded by the things which were spoken, and some disbelieved.
It's pretty cool here that he goes, again, he's keeping with his M.O. He goes to the Jews first. And I want to kind of compare this to us, like we've been talking about. How many of us, we think, kind of one of the things that keeps us from sharing the gospel is we think, "They're not going to be receptive. They don't want to hear that from me."
Like if I was Paul on the boat, I definitely wouldn't have done what Paul did on the boat. I'm like, "This is not the time or place. These people are not going to care what I have to say." And I wouldn't have seized the opportunity.
And how many times, Paul would have been well within his right at this point in his life to say, "I've gone to Jerusalem. I've gone to everywhere I've gone. I've gone to the Jews first. And every single time, all they do is beat me up. They kick me in jail. They throw me, you know, they throw some charges on me, and I get beat up. Everywhere I go, that's the only thing that happens."
And so Paul could have easily showed up to Rome and been like, "I'm not going there first. They're not going to believe. They don't want to hear this." Right? They're just going to beat me up again. They're going to do this.
And I think that's one of the main reasons that we don't share the gospel is we just go, we make up somebody's mind for them and say they don't want to hear it from me, and so we don't say anything to them. But how many times do we just speak something little, and they just, "Hey, what can I pray for you about?" And man, they give you a laundry list. Right?
Like they're so receptive. And Paul could have easily just said, "I'm not doing this anymore. I know what's going to happen. They're going to beat me up and throw me in jail. I'm going to the Gentiles in Rome first." But yet some believed. Some actually converted.
Imagine if Paul would have done what we do, if he said, "Nah, they're not going to believe it here. They won't believe. They don't believe it anywhere else, so I'm done going to the Jews." Some people would have lost, been lost and died and gone to hell for eternity, separated from God because he made up his mind for them that they didn't want to hear it.
And how many times is that what we do? We're at work. It's not the time. They don't want to hear that here. Oh, we're eating dinner. You know, we're just kind of chit-chatting. I don't want to make it awkward. They don't want to hear that. We make up people's minds for them every day on what they want to hear.
Every single day. And yet Paul here, he is doing the same old thing knowing, "I'm probably going to get beaten, flogged again over and over again." But yet he doesn't let that dissuade him from going to the Jews and talking with them.
But I think so many of us, every single day, all we do is we make up other people's minds for them. One, like we talked about before, I think a lot of us, we think we've got to get perfect before we can share the gospel. And like I said, that's just not true because the opposite of that isn't true either.
They're not going to look at you and think, "Oh my gosh, their marriage is perfect. Their house is so clean even though they have little kids. This looks perfect. This is that. Their Instagram, my gosh, they just bought a nice new car, and they closed on the house, and they're posting this new job and that thing."
People aren't going to believe in it because of that. That's not the reason. And if it is, they don't understand it to begin with, so maybe help them explain it. But yet we don't share the gospel because we think we've got to be perfect.
I've got to get rid of that porn addiction. I've got to quit getting greed. I've got to quit spending the credit card. I've got to quit doing this. I've got to quit doing that. Just share the gospel. That's all it is.
And let me tell you something. And you've heard it before, but if you think if you're afraid to share the gospel because you're afraid you're a hypocrite, let me tell you, we are, right? Every day we should attain to be Jesus, but we're going to fall short. All have fallen short of the glory of God.
And let me tell you something. That's a great way to lead into sharing the gospel with somebody. I'm not perfect, and you aren't either, but I know somebody who is. Take any avenue you can. We've got to share the gospel every day.
There's people, and see, again, I just don't think we take something serious. There's a lot of reasons why I think we don't share the gospel like we should, but another one is I don't think we take it serious enough.
Like do we understand that your family members, your friends who do not believe, they are going to die one day, and they are going to spend eternity in hell, separated from a true and loving God who would have accepted them had they believed in him?
And believed, and you could have been the one to say something to him. You could have been the one to point them in the right direction to preach the gospel to them too. And again, I'm not, you don't have to be weird about it. Like, yeah, Paul was pushy. You don't necessarily have to be that pushy, but you need to be pushy more than we are because the complacency that we see in the church every day isn't getting us anywhere.
All we're doing is flushing church members around. That's all Floyd County does. You sit in the room. You may have come from another church, or when you get mad at my dad or the elders, you're going to go to another church. We're not reaching the lost.
We need to be reaching the lost. That's, I want a thousand lost people coming in here. I don't care if a thousand people leave West Rome and join our church. I want a thousand lost people coming in here who don't know what they're doing, who need direction on what the Bible says, who want to learn.
I don't want another hundred or another thousand church members who are going to sit here every Sunday and walk out of here. They don't tithe. They don't do anything. They don't volunteer. They don't give. They're just church members.
And let me tell you, if you're just a church member, if you're just here because you think that's going to save you, find something else to do. It's the rut right now. If you deer hunt, go sit in the woods, sit in the tree stand. That'll be a lot more fun this morning than sitting in here thinking this is what's going to save you.
This is not going to save you. You need the gospel of Jesus Christ, and we need to get serious about preaching the gospel. And the last thing that I would go to here is I'm going to close. I've got a challenge for us because I just don't think we, again, I've walked through all that. I won't rehash it.
But my question for us today, as Paul said to King Agrippa when he made a sarcastic remark, and he said, "Do you really think it's going to be that easy that I'm just almost going to believe? You almost persuade me." And Paul says, "Yes, to anybody. I'll preach that. I wish that you would be as I am."
And I don't think we have the heart for the lost world out there to say, "I wish you were like me because, you know, I have the grace of the Father that it doesn't matter how many times I step back into sin. There's grace to you that he loves you, that he will accept you and draw you in, that he wants a relationship with you to know forgiveness every day, that no matter how much you've messed up, there's forgiveness for you, that you can wake up in that every morning."
Those are the things that we should be preaching to people. And I think we get so focused on the rules of church. You've got to come in here, and you've got to dress a certain way, or you've got to do this, or you've got to do that. And that's not the point.
The point is that I wish you would know the Jesus that I know. That's what I wish we had the heart for. That's the point that Paul's trying to make everywhere he goes, that yes, whether you're a king and you're over a region, or whether you're Caesar and you're over an empire, or whether you're a poor peasant who's not going to eat today, I desire that you would know the Jesus I know.
That's what we need to have a passion for, and we've lost it. We don't have it. And I hate to admit this, but there's a part of me that I wish Trump would have lost the election because the complacency that's going to set in the church thinking that we got our guy in, we're good.
That if a foot to every way where the church was suppressed, it spread. People had a passion. And there's a part of me that wishes I could experience that in the United States of America, that we would have persecution so we would take it serious, that it's not just a thing we come in here and sit down and do every Sunday, but it's an action that we go out and we preach to people because every day they're lost and they're dying and they're going to hell.
Like we've got to understand that these people that we meet every day, they're going to spend eternity in hell, and they're going to spend eternity in hell, and all they had to do was turn and believe. That's it. They don't have to get better or get rich or do this or do that or get rid of the porn or the other stuff. That'll come with believing in Jesus. He'll do that work. All you've got to do is believe.
And we just don't take it serious. And I know we desire it. Like my question is, do we desire that? I know everybody in here is a believer. You believe that they should, we believe that these people should believe in Jesus, but I don't think we desire it.
It's not a passion that burns within us to say, "Wherever I go to lunch today, if my car breaks down at the stop sign, somebody's going to stop by that I can share the gospel to. Where I'm seated at lunch today is going to be a waitress who, guess what? She may be struggling to make bills coming up in December, and she's got gifts to buy children, and she's got other things going on in her life. Her life is just as tough as yours. Share the gospel with her."
Whether you're at the hospital dealing with some sort of illness or pain or whatever, maybe you're just visiting up there, there's something that you need to do. Somebody up there, share the gospel. If you're just going to work, share the gospel.
Paul took every chance he could. Paul did everywhere he went. It didn't matter if he was shipwrecked or on the direct path he knew he was supposed to be on. He knew that he was there for a reason, and that's to share the gospel.
And I think we need to get on our knees and pray that the Holy Spirit would give us a desire, that we would have a passion for sharing the gospel. Not that they would be Hollywood church members, not that they would become religious or just come in here and follow the church rules, but that they would know and understand who Jesus Christ is and that they have grace and forgiveness is free to them, that all they have to do is believe.
And this is our day. I'll close with this. This is our day. Paul is not walking in that door today. He's not. I know you think, "Well, duh, he's dead." Well, he's not. But yeah, we need to understand Billy Graham is dead. He's not walking in the door. He's not preaching the gospel on stage. It's you.
This is our day. You've been called. If you are a Christian and true believer of Jesus Christ, this is the mission you are on. And it doesn't matter if you've been shipwrecked and lost your job or you've got cancer or financial issues or wherever you've been shipwrecked in life. Your mission is still to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And if everything's going perfect and you're making smooth sailing to Rome and you get there three days ahead, your mission is still to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. It doesn't matter where you're at in life. Your mission should always be to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And that's what I pray that myself and us, that we would have the passion and the desire that others would be as we are, that they would get to stand in the grace and forgiveness of Jesus Christ. Whether they're a co-worker or friend, whether it's the mayor of Rome or the governor of Georgia or the United States, whoever it is, I don't care who it is.
Like Paul said, whether great or small, my desire, and I hope our desire, will focus and be on making others as we are. Let's pray.
Lord, I thank you. I thank you for today. Lord, for the challenge that's before us. Lord, help us break the complacency that's set on the church in America. The complacency that's set on me, not even on everybody else, Lord. The complacency that's set on me.
Lord, help my desire to be the share of the gospel with whoever is in front of me. Whether it's a client at the jail or at the courthouse or a waitress or whoever it is, Lord. Lord, open my eyes to see them as you see them. That you desire to have a relationship with them. And I can point them in the right direction.
Lord, give us all that desire. That 120 people turn the world upside down through the power of the Holy Spirit. Lord, I pray that we would see the power that is living within us. And Lord, if we don't, if that's not our desire, if maybe we're struggling and we don't understand, Lord, I pray that you would open our eyes.
That maybe some of us are just doing church. That we're not necessarily believing. That's not our desire. Maybe we had an emotional feeling. Lord, I pray that they would come to know you. That I or we as Hollywood Church could point them to you to have a true relationship with you.
And so, Lord, I just, that's our prayer today. And so, Lord, give us the desire for our family members, for our friends, for the random people in life. Lord, that they would be as we are and know you.
If you'll stand and worship. This altar is open. Or sit in your seat. Whatever you want to do. But I pray this morning because I know there's people in your life, just like when the Holy Spirit was convicting me.
I'm sitting in the deer blind last night, and there's people I'm thinking about that I'm thinking the same exact way. They don't want to hear this. They don't want to believe. They don't care. Those people popped in my mind, and I hope they popped in yours.
Pray that God would give you a door to share to them. That you would have boldness to share the gospel to them. And the rest is in God's hands. You can't do anything else about it. All we can do is point them to Christ. I pray that you'll pray for boldness in that.
Can be seated. Hallelujah. This is, I promise I'm closing it. I'm not preaching anymore. This is a great week and time to make this your focus because you're going to be around a lot of your family.
And some of you, it may be the political talk. You don't want that to happen at the family fallout. Maybe make this the talk, right? Like you're going to be around family. Why not mention it? It's simple. Just ask them a question.
You can ask people today lots of questions. "Are you religious? What do you think about Christianity?" When I was in Europe, Tiffany's friends over there that they had been foreign exchange, I was asking some of them, "What do you believe about Jesus?"
Because they tell you a lot about, are they interested? Are they not? They pay attention to history. Are they saying he's not a real person? Because that's historically outside of Christian text. We can prove that.
There's a lot of ways to do it. Or maybe just, you know, it's your family member going through a struggle. Go up and ask them, "Hey, how can I pray for you during this time of the year?" Let them know that you're praying for them, that you're open to talk if they need to talk.
There's lots of ways to do that, and now this time of year is the perfect time to do that. I've got just a few announcements, and I see a text from Dad, so I am making sure I'm not missing something.
Okay, so the devotionals are back there. You can grab those for this week. Again, we are done with Acts. Dad, you're welcome to do whatever he wants to now heading into Christmas.
On the info sheet, and it is also emailed out every Friday, so you can just see it on your phone right there. But I want to point out just a couple of things. Obviously, it is Thanksgiving. The church office will be closed from Wednesday through the rest of the week.
The budget brochures, I see them back there, are going to be handed out for members. I mean, anybody can grab one, but members, you will only be allowed to vote on that, and that will be December 8th.
And then we're going to have a little bit of a break the morning service, and we will vote on that without discussion. So if you would like to discuss the budget, December 4th from 6 to 6:30 and December 8th from 8:30 to 9 a.m., you can do that.
If you have questions about the budget, those are the times to do it. We're not going to do that during morning worship. And then Christmas for families, we will have some cards, I believe it's how we did it last year, that you can pick up if you want to help some families out with Christmas.
This is, look, this is a tough year. This is a really tough year. It's just been expensive. Everything's been expensive this year, and Christmas is no different. So if you want to help out, we'll have those up here.
Or if you just want to, if you do the text to give, which I love because I know some of the old people, wise people, they don't use checks, but those take too long to come out of my account. When you do text to give, it's immediately out.
So I know I have this much in my account. It's not going to randomly disappear out of my account two days from now and go, "Well, I thought that was already out of there. Where did the money go?" Right? It's immediately out of there.
So it jumps out. But there is a way you can give to our benevolence fund that we have started. That's just a way when we see a need as a church, we can pull that money out to help in that area. So if you just want to start donating there, you can do that.
I believe that's it. On the first page, on the back of this, there's some dates. November 27th, no Wednesday this coming Wednesday. Obviously, no Wednesday night activities. Then through the rest of the week, the church office will be closed.
December 1st, children will pay attention. Parents, young parents, all the kids will be down here. Okay? All of them down here next Sunday. And then the Sunday after that, we are moving check-in.
Will be at the other side of the nursery check-in. So if you are inviting young families to come in December or you are a young family, there will not be any nursery for them next week. And then the week after, we're moving check-in to the other side.
So underneath the black stairs, when you park in that parking lot up there, underneath the black stairs, there's a door they can walk straight through that. And when they get out there, because I know it's December, it's about to be really cold walking all the way around the building.
You can walk all the way down that long hallway, and then they'll turn left when they get out of there, and that'll be, you know, right at the check-in, and that is covered. So if it's raining, they can make it through there without getting rained on.
As I said, December 8th, budget vote during the morning worship service. And then prayer, please keep Tommy Renfro, Joe Moreno, and David Bailey. Keep all them in your prayers.
You know, again, there's a lot more. I know half my family is just sick, so keep them in your prayers. I know a lot of you are sick. And just take some time away from the devices this week.
You know, I say that because this is a distraction for me. Well, there goes the paper. This is a distraction for me. And so I have to make sure I'm putting this down to be in the moment.
Do that, especially this week with Thanksgiving. Enjoy time with family. Enjoy time with friends. And it is 11:59. And I have one more announcement. Avery Huckabee, I don't know if they are here. She will get a gift card next week because she's one of the only ones in the elementary who did all the work for each Sunday.
She memorized her Bible verse. She turned
on Nov 24, 2024
