Welcome to the Lansdale Life Church podcast.
If you're seeking a closer relationship with Jesus Christ, this podcast is for you.
Thank you for joining us today.
Welcome everybody. Praise the Lord. Isn't it great to be in the house of the Lord? That worship was just so amazing, wasn't it?
Oh, it's so beautiful. Who else is worthy? Nobody. Only Jesus Christ.
He was before all things. He made whole all things and He holds all things together.
Jesus. Amen. Can we just on the count of three, just shout out the name Jesus, right?
One, two, three, Jesus!
Does that feel good? Just rah! I think all the demons have left the building. What do you think? They are scared.
They don't even want to come near this place. Amen. Amen. So just a couple of little things. First of all,
Devon and JT, where are you? Because you're right in front of me. I love, here
they are. Why don't you guys stand up? They just got married last week.
Praise the Lord and they're back in the house. So make sure you congratulate them. It's so great to see you guys.
Also, I just wanted to reiterate the prayer night this coming Friday night.
You know, it was a vision that we've had since we started the church and it comes and goes.
But right now, the Lord is doing great things through our prayer ministry and Doug Miller will be leading with his son, Drew, the prayer night.
So this coming Friday night, make sure you come out and it's gonna be a great time of just powerful prayer. Amen.
And then finally, I just wanted to again reiterate men's breakfast this coming Saturday. Our very own Josh Owens is going to be shared.
Josh, you want to stand up? Yes, Josh.
And Josh has just a real, just he loved last week. Did you love last week that history? Oh my goodness, that was beautiful.
Wasn't it? William Federer. Well, you know, Josh really that's he's all about the history and he has actually a podcast that he talks about historical figures
and usually how their faith ties in to the great things they've done.
So men, make sure you come out to next Saturday morning at 9 a.m. in the fellowship hall for a great sandwiches, great fellowship.
Amen. Yeah. Well, mainly a great, great teaching. Amen. Hallelujah.
So if you guys can turn to Acts chapter one and, you know, the book of Acts, 12 years ago when we started this church,
we started initially with a little look at Ephesians chapter six, spiritual warfare, because we assume we were going to be up against a lot of it.
Of course, we always are. Right. This is what we have in this world.
But then we immediately jumped into Acts. So so this is we actually did a full loop around in the New Testament and we're back into the book of Acts.
And I'm excited about it. It's where it all began. Right. And where would we be without the book of Acts?
Imagine just reading through the gospels. OK. And then all of a sudden you're reading the epistles and this guy Paul, like who's Paul?
Like we don't know who Paul is. How did Paul get into the picture? What happened to Peter, James and John and all?
Well, Acts fills in all of that tells you every that link.
It's the link to the gospels to the rest of the New Testament. So praise the Lord for acts.
I mean, it fills in all of the gaps and tells us so much.
And acts is the story, really, of how the early church began in less than 35 years.
The gospel just spread in so many different directions, but mainly westward. Right.
And when Jesus walked the earth, OK, he spent most of his time in Judea and Jerusalem.
We have a little map up there. If you could put that thanks, Christine.
And I don't expect you to read those little tags unless some of you have like 10 10 vision.
Is that the way it goes? 10 10. Anyway, you can read that.
But really, I put that up there really just to let you know there's maps that tell you where Jesus stepped foot all throughout the Holy Land.
So you can look this up and really you could track his steps.
So it's pretty amazing. We have that knowledge to know where Jesus went because the word tells us where he went through the gospels.
Right. And so that was where he spent his time.
But Jesus said, look, beyond this, when I go, you should be glad I'm going because unless I go, the Holy Spirit will not come.
And when he comes, he will anoint you to do even greater things.
And we see the Book of Acts shows how the gospel spread around the entire Mediterranean.
And there is a picture of the Mediterranean.
And we see that the the gospel spread, you know, this is where Jesus was.
OK, he spent all this time right there.
Well, after after he ascended to heaven, we read in the Book of Acts how the gospel spread all the way over even to Africa, Ethiopia.
Remember in Acts, Chapter eight, when Philip ran up to the chariot and the Ethiopian eunuch.
And he's saying, what are you reading?
You know, he's reading Isaiah and and he led him to the Lord.
He went back to Ethiopia.
He started a church and the acts captures all of this, how the gospel went everywhere, even to Rome.
And so praise the Lord, we're going to be reading about how the gospel just spread out in so many different directions.
And the gospel is still spreading.
But thank God it has reached the entire planet now.
Everywhere is reached with the gospel.
Some areas like Turkey, you know, the gospel actually reached those lands and then actually they they they they reverted away.
They turned back from the gospel.
But now, of course, there's a resurgence even in those countries that are reclaiming Christianity.
And so just like Jesus did say in John, Chapter 14, 12, he said that most assuredly,
I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also and greater works than these he will do because I go to my father.
So these apostles, these saints are going to spread the gospel everywhere.
And then he also said, because my my church is going to bring my message, he said even the gates of Hades will not prevail against the word.
Amen to that.
Right.
So nothing can prevent the gospel from getting out.
So we're going to be diving into this.
Before we do, let's talk a little bit about the author, Luke, OK, from the early church history.
They were repeatedly writing about how Luke wrote the book of Acts, even though his name is not mentioned in it.
But he also wrote, of course, the gospel of Luke.
And this used to be a two part a two part message.
He first wrote Luke, OK, and then he later on wrote the book of Acts for further explanation of what is happening.
And so Luke, Chapter one, verse three, and we know this because of course, because of church history, but also the recipient of this letter, Theophilus.
And you could put that up, Christine, in Luke, Chapter one.
Remember, this is the gospel of Luke, which he wrote first.
OK, he said, it seemed good to me also having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first to write to you an orderly account.
Most excellent Theophilus.
And that's how this book is going to begin naming Theophilus as the recipient of this book, that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed.
So Theophilus received this letter.
Now, who is Theophilus?
Who's the reason we talked about the composition of this book?
We talked about the author of this book, of course, inspired by the Holy Spirit.
But who is Theophilus?
And let's just mention that I'm trying to move fast on the intro, by the way, because I want to make sure we get to some application.
So hang in there.
OK, if it's too much information, just hang in because we're going to get some tangible things that we can all apply to our lives as well.
But Theophilus could have been in a he was probably Greek or Roman and Luke was writing to him because he was someone who was interested, intrigued by this this this religion like like how what is this all about?
This guy who died, he rose back to heaven.
You know, what is this all about?
And so it could have been just an interested, interested official.
It could have been a friend of Luke.
OK, although he refers to him in a very formal way, which we're going to talk about in a second.
And Luke could have also been a representation of the church at large.
In other words, Theophilus could have been actually a symbolic person because the word means God lover.
So when he said Theo, you know, Theo, God Theophilus, he could have been really writing to everyone who's going to read this letter.
Explaining how the church expanded through the known world.
So that's who Theophilus could be.
But the term most excellent even brings a little more dials in a little more who this person could have been because the next slide shows this word.
Most excellent is actually one word, cratistos, and it means mightiest, strongest, noblest, most illustrious, best.
It's used addressing men of prominent rank or office.
OK, it was used for Governor Felix and fastest only a couple of times.
The reason why I bring this up, because you might find this interesting that this could have been really Luke's attempt to write a defense, a defense report on behalf of Paul.
Because Luke accompanied Paul, the apostle Paul, all over the place from when he was returning to Jerusalem to where he would be arrested.
Luke was always there with him and then he even sailed with him to Rome when they shipwrecked on Malta.
We're going to read all of this in in the Book of Acts.
But this was Luke traveling with him for two years listening to Paul, hearing about, you know, the what Christ taught.
Him directly and also the early church.
He had so much time to really record two full years of just recording from all the all the people who were monumental and spreading the gospel from Peter to John to Barnabas to all these different people.
Silas, you know, he he recorded all the events of Jesus Christ, many people who were there observing Jesus Christ so that he can write.
And many believe that perhaps these two books were also part of a defense on behalf of Paul while he was sitting in prison in Rome, trying to make a defense for him, saying, no, this this religion, Christianity, it's harmless.
It's not an illegal religion.
It's an extension of Judaism and you, the Romans, accept Judaism.
It's really the completion of Judaism.
Jesus Christ is the Messiah.
And so all of these things he was trying to explain, it's not harmful, it's it's it's lawful and it's it's innocent.
This this Christian religion, you don't have to be afraid of it.
OK, and so many believe this is who Theophilus is.
I want to make sure I get through enough of this intro.
Are you with me still hanging in there?
Good. I know it's a lot in the beginning, but I think it's OK to start reading.
What do you think? All right.
Acts, chapter one, we're only going to stop a couple of short times because, again, I want to really get to this this application at the end.
So let's dive in.
To Acts, chapter one.
The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach until the day in which he was taken up.
After he, through the Holy Spirit, had given commandments to the apostles, whom he had chosen, to whom he also presented himself alive after his suffering,
by many infallible proves being seen by them during 40 days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.
So we'll just stop.
This is one of those couple of times we're stopping.
But here he's saying, you know, Jesus, when he rose from the dead, he didn't keep it quiet.
He went around and probably presented him first and foremost to those who trusted him while he was walking the earth prior to his crucifixion to say, look, I'm back.
I'm alive. And then he went and preached to the more people at one time.
In fact, Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15, six that at one time he actually spoke to as many as 500 people in one shot.
So he had small gatherings of people, you know, probably many said, oh, that can't be him.
I know it looks a little bit like him, but it can't be him.
But others say he he really rose from the dead.
Look, I'm sure he even had the imprinted impressions of this, of the thorns in his head.
Of course, he had the scars in his hands and his side and his feet, of course, because he wanted to show he is the evidence that he defeated death.
He rose from the dead.
So for 40 days, he went around and shared.
And we read, remember in Matthew, when he when he rose from the dead, actually, there were graves that opened up and people came out of them.
I mean, imagine that you're in Jerusalem, like what is going on?
This is like the walking dead suddenly coming out of the graves.
And of course, they wouldn't have been walking around like that.
They would have been like, yeah, how how much longer until I take off to heaven?
Right. So this was like a manifestation in Jerusalem to prove that Jesus Christ rose from the dead.
But then after 40 days, he ascended to heaven.
So this is right during this time that Luke is rehashing what happened to the apostles.
But in only 10 days after his ascension, the Pentecost is going to come and anoint the early saints to move with power just like Jesus Christ did.
Like Jamie is going to share that message next week about Pentecost when the Holy Spirit fell on the early church and anointed them to do all the things that Jesus Christ did.
Because just as he said, greater works you will do than even these I've done.
Amen. We have that Holy Spirit, isn't that awesome?
You have the Holy Spirit to move in power and might just like Jesus Christ did.
Now, I'm not saying each one of us will do all the same things.
I'm not saying we are God or anything like that.
But he has anointed us to do great things on his behalf.
All right, let's move on.
So verse four.
And being assembled together with them, he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem,
but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, you have heard from me.
For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.
Therefore, when they had come together, they asked him saying, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?
And he said to them, it is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in his own authority.
But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Sumeria and to the end of the earth.
And I just want to show you like the outline that we can see.
Now you go to the next slide, actually, but
we can see an outline of the book of Acts, how it demonstrates what Jesus just told them.
Look, it's going to start in Jerusalem.
It's going to spread to Judea.
It's going to spread to Samaria, and then it's going to go way out from there.
And that's exactly what we are going to read in the book of Acts, how the gospel spread to all of those places.
And verse nine.
Now, when he had spoken these things while they watched, he was taken up and a cloud received them out of their sight.
And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven?
This same Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will so come in like manner as you saw him go into heaven.
And then they returned to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olivet called Olivet,
which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey.
And when they had entered, they went up into the upper room where they were staying.
Peter, James, John and Andrew, Philip and Thomas and Bartholomew and Matthew, James, the son of Alphaeus, and Simon, the zealot, and Judas, the son of James.
These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.
Now, I just want to mention, that's pretty cool, okay?
Do you remember his brothers while Jesus was walking the earth?
He was the old, they were half brothers.
We know that in case you came from a religion that didn't teach that Jesus had earthly siblings, they were half siblings, right?
Because after Jesus was born immaculately, miraculously through the Holy Spirit and Mary, of course, Joseph and Mary went on to have children of their own.
And these half brothers and sisters, we don't read that they actually believed who he really was.
In fact, at one time, he was in a house and he was preaching and the house was packed.
And they said, man, he's going nuts.
He's really ruffling a lot of feathers around here.
He's getting the scribes angry, the Pharisees irritated.
You know, everyone is really getting upset by our brother.
Let's go save them.
Okay, so they wanted to go in and grab him out of the house.
Remember Jesus said, who's my brother?
Who's my sisters?
You know, those who do the will, my father or my brother, my sisters, my mother.
So they were earthly siblings and they didn't really believe him.
In fact, one time they said, look, if you're trying to be a celebrity, imagine you, they're saying this to Jesus Christ, the son of God.
You know, we read through this like it's nothing.
They say, if you really want to be somebody, okay, you got to go in when the crowds are there.
In Jerusalem, you got to go in.
You got to make a big splash for yourself, you know, make a big to do so that everyone really wants to follow you.
If you really want the crowds, okay, you can almost hear like the jealousy, the envy, whatever.
And yet he said, you know, to you, any time is right.
For me, I need to go when the time is right.
And of course, he did end up going to Jerusalem too long of a story to tell.
But so his half brothers didn't even believe him.
But now he rose from the dead.
I'll bet he showed up.
Hey, hey, Jude, here you go.
All right. James, what I tell you.
Okay. And suddenly they're on board.
Okay. They're with everybody else in that upper room with the 120.
Just like just like saying, well, I couldn't believe it.
That was brother Jesus flying up in the air like Superman.
Of course, he wasn't around yet, but it was amazing.
Right. And they're like, wow, you know, they're believing.
You know what it reminded me of of when you know the story of Joseph,
when they mocked him for his dreams?
You know, you're just a dreamer.
You're just thinking you're going to be great someday.
Suddenly they're bowing before him in Egypt because he's the second in command
of the known world. It was true.
Imagine that like just being humbled like that or David.
Remember, they mocked him when he was about to go into fight Goliath
in the battlefield. And they're like, you're just so full of yourself.
We know why you're really here.
Suddenly he takes down Goliath.
He becomes the leading commander of the armies.
And they're like, wow, it's true.
Like we lived in the same house.
Our little brother is this amazing guy.
Who would have known, right? He's anointed.
And what it says is when Saul became so vehemently envious
of David that he wanted to execute him, you remember?
He had to leave and he ran away into the caves.
And, you know, we read actually in 1 Samuel, we don't have the verse up there,
but 1 Samuel 22 verse 1, that his brothers went to him and joined his militia.
Isn't that awesome? They're like, you know what?
He's the next king.
We're going with him.
It's just amazing when finally like your own siblings give you some credit
for like the transformation in your life.
I don't know if you've lived with any siblings
in your house that maybe did a little mocking.
Anybody, anybody can relate.
I had a bit of that, you know, and it's funny because when you're the youngest,
which I was, sometimes you never do get, you know,
the credit for turning your life around and being something.
But but you know what?
That's not where the credit needs to come from.
The Lord validates us.
The Lord gives us value, gives us purpose.
It's his purpose that we live.
It's him we serve.
We only want one person's approval, right?
And that's God's right.
We don't need anybody else's.
But it is special when you see people come around and finally say, yes,
there is a transformation that was Jesus is the son of God.
We lived under the same roof as him.
Imagine that, you know, I can't really.
But let's move on.
So verse 15 and in those days, Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples all
together, the number of the people were 120 and said, men and brethren,
this scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke before by the mouth
of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who are arrested,
who arrested Jesus, for he was numbered with us and obtained a part in this
ministry. They're talking about Judas Iscari, of course.
And verse 18, and now this man purchased the field with the wages of
iniquity and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle of all and all his
entrails gushed out pretty.
And it became known to all those dwelling
in Jerusalem so that that field is called in their own language,
a keldama, and that is the field of blood.
Now, you see, I thought he hung himself.
Well, he did.
But obviously the rope eventually snapped probably after the gases really.
Well, we don't have to go there, but he landed on the ground and ugly things
happen, we can just say that, OK, but verse 20, for it is written in the book
of Psalms, let his dwelling place be desolate and let no one live in it
and let another take his office.
Therefore, of these men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went
in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John to that day when he was
taken up from us, one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection.
And they proposed to Joseph called
Barnabas, who was surnamed Justice and Matthias.
And they prayed and said, You, O Lord, you know the hearts of all.
Show which of these two you have chosen to take part in this ministry.
An apostleship from which Judas, by transgression,
fell that he might go to his own place.
And they cast their lots and the lot fell on Matthias.
And he was numbered and the 11 he was numbered with the 11 apostles.
So what just happened there?
They said, all right, Judas is gone.
There used to be 12 of us.
Of course, that would be a picture, really, of the 12 tribes of Israel.
OK, if you know, if you read through
scripture, you'll notice God loves numbers, OK, he loves numbers.
We're not going to go through all the symbolism of all numbers,
but three means that three is a big deal, seven is a big deal, 12 is a big deal.
Multipliers of those things are big deals.
OK, and 12 really is usually a picture of like governance, you know,
just like it was, you know, the 12 tribes, the 12 spies.
So logically, you know, the apostles would be thinking we're missing.
We only have 11. We can't function with just 11, right?
And so we need to choose somebody else.
OK, and so they went through this process.
And that's really what I wanted to look at with you guys, is the process that they
went through, not necessarily that it's completely applicable to us
because something's different. What's different?
You guys know they didn't have the Holy Spirit yet, right?
So the Holy Spirit is going to fall on them next chapter, right?
So so they were just trying to figure things out.
OK, there's only 11 of us.
We have a trouble. You know, we have a problem.
What are we going to do? There's only 11 of us.
And there has to be 12.
And so they went through this process.
I'm not saying it's a wrong process.
I don't really like looking at scripture and having my own opinions that,
you know, I think they did something wrong.
How dare I ever think that, right?
They did what they did in the whole and God answered their prayers.
And so that's what we're going to look at.
But it isn't completely applicable to us.
Does that make sense?
And I'll tell you why in the end, you know, different things.
But but so we're going to look at these things.
Did there need to be 12?
OK, you know, later on, James, you know, Peter, James and John,
the trio that were up on the Mount of Transfiguration, he died.
And we don't read that.
They said, oh, my goodness, we got to replace them.
You know, we got to, you know, because this was later on.
OK, because I think they started realizing, wait a minute,
is it still about the 12 or about the multitudes coming to Christ
and becoming, in a sense, new disciples and having apostolic purposes?
I'm not saying they're the original apostles, but having apostolic
offices, you know, in the church, that make sense?
And so.
So did they need 12?
Well, we read, I'm sure you thought about this, but in Revelation,
remember, the holy city is being built.
OK, and there's 12 foundations.
OK, and if you could put Revelation 21 14 and it's talking about the holy city.
OK, and it says, and now the wall of the city had 12 foundations and on them were
the names of the 12 apostles of the land.
You ever read that before?
You're kind of thinking, well, which names?
Like, I don't think Judas Iscariot gets a foundation, a layer.
Do you think he gets a layer?
I don't know. And then many say, well, it has to be Paul,
but Paul hasn't come along yet. Was it Matthias?
We're never going to answer that.
So I just like throwing it out there because I'm sure this way,
when you come up to me after the service, you say, well, you know, there's a you
know, I just wanted to throw it up there.
I know about it, but we don't know.
We don't really know.
And it's OK.
I'm certainly fine with things that aren't explicit in scripture.
Just saying, I don't know, you know, but I know what I need to know.
You know, if we just do what we need to do with what we do know,
this would be a different world, wouldn't it?
Why do we go off into these tangents trying to explain or discover new things
that aren't explicit in scripture? I don't need to figure them out.
I only have a small mind.
I just need to figure out what I can comprehend.
And there's so much to figure out in the
scriptures that are real easy to learn that that's where I want to spend my time,
you know, majoring in the majors.
But so did they need 12?
Well, they chose for a 12.
But we're going to go through this decision process because I feel is really
interesting because I think we can learn from it for our own decisions.
We want to make Godly decisions, don't we?
I mean, we want to make decisions that improve our lives,
improve the lives of people that we know and love and decisions that, of course,
are God's will for us and and decisions that we don't look back with regret.
Obviously, we're all going to make mistakes.
You know, I can't you know, I don't have enough digits on me to count how many
mistakes I've made, you know, so we're going to make mistakes.
But that's you know, it's to be expected.
Sometimes that's part of God's will.
He wants us to make a mistake so that we can learn from it so that we can follow
even closer, you know, so let's look at these things that they went through.
If you could put them up, Christine.
So the first and this will be up a few
times, but the first thing they did is prayer and supplication.
You know, you heard the acronym Ask, Ask, Seek, Knock.
But they came together and they prayed and they and and they and supplication.
It's an interesting word.
I always think of it this way.
It's an application for supplies.
Does that make any sense?
A supplication is kind of words squishing two words together.
But you need something.
You need it bad.
God just supply my needs.
The word says the Lord God will supply all your needs according to his riches
and glory. Right.
Lord, I need I just need, you know, even though the word says he already knows
what you need before you even ask, he still says ask.
OK, so I ask, I don't know about you, but if I need something, I ask.
Even if I want something, I ask.
But I usually do throw in a little caveat.
If it's your will, that's me.
I'm thinking, you know, I don't want to be thinking I'm bullying around God.
It ain't going to happen anyway.
But I don't want to think I'm like twisting his arm.
Come on, God, I really want that Lamborghini.
Please, you know, he's not going to listen to that.
Thank God for me, right.
I'll end up around a telephone pole somewhere.
But anyway, so but they prayed and they asked supplication.
The next thing is they rely and waited on the Holy Spirit.
Now, they didn't have the indwelling Holy Spirit.
That didn't mean the Holy Spirit wasn't there with them.
Right.
We've taught a lot in the past about how the different
positions of the Holy Spirit with people, you know, the Holy Spirit comes along
side of unbelievers, trying to draw them to faith.
Right. So the Holy Spirit, you know, among unbelievers, too.
And then the Holy Spirit comes upon people to empower them for things.
But the indwelling Spirit is that spirit where you receive the Holy Spirit,
where you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and say, Lord,
I'm going to I'm dying with you on the cross.
I consider I reckon myself dead with you on the cross.
I no longer have that life, and I hope each one of you have done that
because it's so freeing to know I'm dead. I'm dead.
You know, Paul says for you die and your members on earth are no longer alive.
Consider yourself alive in the faith.
Right. And so you die and then you say, fill me with your Holy Spirit.
And the Holy Spirit comes in and it seals you until the day of your redemption.
It seals you.
And the word says it's a deposit from heaven.
So the Lord actually deposits his Holy Spirit into your inner depths and he seals you.
You know what a seal is?
Nothing can penetrate the Holy Spirit's seal upon your life.
You now are the temple of the Holy Spirit.
You have the indwelling Holy Spirit.
Now, I do believe also the Holy Spirit still
comes upon you to empower you for certain things.
You know, when you're suddenly talking to someone and you're like,
you suddenly have this like amazing, like wisdom, where does this come from?
It ain't for me. That's for sure. Right.
And you're talking, you're like, wow, the Holy Spirit's here.
He's a lot like the Spirit has his own mind and his own will.
And when you say, Lord, I want that, it's so free and you know,
you could do things that you never would imagine.
I was so awesome.
I pray with someone who was in the hospital last week.
And he's, oh, I mean, it's, you know, praise the Lord.
I just I hope he recovers.
But he accepted Christ and he was just bawling his eyes out, you know.
And he's like, I believe I'm going to walk out of here.
He had a trach and he was disabled, you know, from different things.
But I just said, you know, and he just was bawling.
And he had heard about Jesus his whole life.
People have been preaching to it because it wasn't me.
Praying with him was just
watering seeds that have been planted by so many people in his life over and
over again, you know, people just giving him the gospel.
But I really believe this time he's just like, I'm done.
I am done.
If he gets me out of here, I am I am going to walk a whole new life.
It's all new, you know, praise what I hope so, you know.
But that Holy Spirit coming upon and the Holy Spirit just you just knew he was
there and you could just rest and say, wow, God, you're doing something and you
chose me at this moment of time to do your will.
It's so it's so such a privilege to serve God, isn't it?
You know, so they but we need to rely and wait for the Holy Spirit.
And I say that because, you know, perhaps they could have waited.
We don't know what day when this was, was it day three, day seven,
ten days, the Holy Spirit would have come upon them.
Things might have been different.
We don't know. OK, we never will know.
But they didn't wait, but they thought this was the right thing for now to do.
OK, I will mention some people say, well, see, Paul was actually the 12th apostle.
They should have waited.
OK, if they had only waited the Holy Spirit, you know, well, because you know
why they say because Matthias is never mentioned again anywhere in the New Testament.
He didn't do too much.
OK, all right.
He didn't do too much.
OK, well, neither did Andrew
according to finding him anywhere else in the New Testament.
Neither did Thomas.
You never see his name mentioned one more time in the New Testament.
OK, neither did Bartholomew, nothing.
Matthew, believe it or not,
James, son of Alphaeus, Simon, the zealot, crickets.
Right. Does that mean they did nothing?
No, we just the the word doesn't choose to tell us the other things they've done.
So I don't even believe that's an excuse to say they should have waited because
Matthias turned out to be inconsequential.
You know, according to who?
You know, how do we know that
Barcibus didn't go on to do amazing things, too?
You know, but we now have that Holy Spirit and we can just
wait and say, Lord, you know, if it's not time yet, I don't want to jump ahead here.
OK, I just want to be in line in step with you.
You know, wherever you are leading, you know, I just thought of.
Oh, well, I'll just throw it in there.
Like those creatures, the celestial creatures in Ezekiel.
OK, you ever read about them and they
just they only move where the Holy Spirit rolls them to.
It's a really cool thing.
Anyway, shouldn't have brought it up.
All right. But that's what I want to be.
I say, Lord, I want to roll with you.
Where are we going?
OK, if it's time to stop, I'm going to stop.
We don't need to jump ahead to think
we're serving God more by moving ahead of his Holy Spirit.
We just wait for them, right?
They gather together to discuss.
And, you know, that is so important.
Like you need to have people who know God.
You know, if you want Godly advice on something that you really need to have
direction, don't ask unbelievers.
So I sense course, but you're you're asking the wrong people.
You need to go to believers.
OK, and not only a believer, but, you know, a strong believer that you could see,
you know, success in their decisions and their walk in Christ, you know,
you want to go to them and say, you know, I have this
dilemma, I have a decision I need to make
and I'm not sure what decision I need to make.
And can you pray with me?
Can you give me some direction?
If they're actually involved in the exact thing you are wondering about,
that's even better, you know, about having kids.
That's what's so amazing about people with young children
connecting with old heads like Jill and I.
Well, I'm the old head. She's not the old head.
I'm old enough.
But going to us and say, hey, you know,
how did you do this?
OK, that's that's that's great.
Learn from someone else's mistakes.
OK, why make your own say, you know, what do I do in this situation?
You know, I'm in I'm in mortgages and people ask you all the time,
you know, like, what should I do in this case of finances or whatever?
And since I know I love telling them, you know, this is what you should do.
If I were in your shoes, this is what I would do.
Same thing with with Christian walk.
You know, it's like we need to help one another through these decisions
that we're making.
We don't want to make those decisions alone
because we probably have a blind side, a blind spot that we're not seeing.
I remember this guy at our old church
and he was sure he heard from God that he needed to buy this property.
OK, to have a retreat center for missionaries.
And he was sure he needed to do it.
OK, and he actually asked me for a mortgage.
OK, back then, this is whatever 20 years ago or something.
I'm like, you know, OK, well, let's let's talk about it.
You know, so I looked at this whole thing and I'm like,
I don't see how this is going to happen, you know, but no, God is going to do it.
I'm like, you know, OK, you know, so and he was telling everybody,
God told me, you know, that this is what I need to do.
OK, and we would be every every gathering.
We're together.
He was talking nothing about this building.
Properties going to build by and used for a retreat center.
And it was like almost like when you saw him, you'd kind of like, oh, boy,
you know, I don't want to hear about this place anymore.
You know, and like it was sad.
But that's because he just he was sure of it, but he wasn't getting other advice.
And so it was so bad that, you know, I said I couldn't help him.
And then so he went on the settlement day and couldn't make settlement, had no money.
And he said, you know what, I'm sure I'm going to get this place.
You can keep my deposit if we don't close
by the end of whatever next month or something.
And he had thousands, tens of thousands on deposit.
And he just left it there.
And he says, you know, I'll surrender that.
And he lost, you know, and you're like,
you know, I never want to be so myopic.
Is that the word that I or my optic that I I'm only seeing what I'm seeing?
And I just I can't even open up my lens to see something else.
You know, if someone else of Ben's going to say, oh, dude, no, no, no, don't do
that, you know, you know, I don't want to be so lost in my own head
that I can't make a decision that's
wiser based on other people's perspectives that also know the Lord.
You know, it's important for us to open ourselves up for advice.
Our church does it all the time.
We have an elders board and the six of us get together and we talk and pray
through everything. We have a leadership board with 14 of us, I think, still.
Yeah, I think around.
But we get together, we talk about all the different things going on in ministry.
What do you think about this? What do you think about that?
We talk to other people in those ministries.
It's just so important to get different
perspectives because I need it, I need it.
You know, I want I crave accountability
input so that I can make wise decisions.
I'm sure you do, too.
And that's what they did.
They said, what should we do?
And they talked through it.
I love that the Proverbs have a lot to say about this.
Proverbs 15, 22 and 24 six is without council plans go awry.
But in the multitude of counselors, they are established for by wise counsel,
you will wage wars, wage your own war.
And in a multitude of counselors, there is safety.
So if you go into something that you
know there's going to be a lot of complication, you have to navigate it well.
You get Godly input, you know, and that's what they did.
They came together and they talked about it.
And the next thing is they discerned scripture.
You know, when you read the whole Psalm
that Peter read those couple of verses out of, you know, it's all about David
and it's all about David, you know, and his involvement with evil people that were
trying to take him down and a lot of people were in his life trying to take him
out and and so Peter was observing and the Lord just gave him these verses
just like that to like grab onto and say, all right, this means something for right
here and now and you ever do that?
You're reading through the word and you're like, I know why I'm reading this.
Because I need to do this, you know, it's like speaking to me.
The word just is like shouting out, you know,
because the word is always speaking to us, isn't it?
The word is active, alive, sharper than a two edged sword.
It divides soul, spirit, joint, marrow, intentions and thoughts.
It just opens you up, right?
And it exposes things.
I remember way back, I was like such a workaholic
and poor Jill was always, you know, having dinner with the kids without me,
you know, and and I just was commissioned.
I just was driven.
And that's that's all I wanted to do is is be successful.
You know, and I did, you know, I hid behind.
I have to provide my family, but it was just drive, drive, drive.
And back then, way back then, you couldn't do nearly as much at home.
Everything was at the office.
You stay in the office to the bitter end.
And then I'm coming home an hour and a half after I said I'd be home all that.
And so she was super patient and I'd be coming home and they're already in bed.
I would feel guilt.
But one thing changed it all.
One thing changed it all.
And
I got home and the last one still awake was Jake.
He was always the last one awake, even though he was the third third son.
The youngest he was in there playing
with his matchboxes and hot wheels until like all hours of the night.
We couldn't get him to sleep.
But so I get home and he's still up and I'm like, hey, you know,
so I get in the bed with him and I'm hugging him and we're talking.
And and, you know, he was just he had all these.
He always had wild things that he would just talk about.
He was a real day dreamer, a visionary, you know, real visionary.
And so a lot of things he said were just out there.
So we're talking.
I'm just hugging him.
And he's like, you know, hey, dad.
Yeah.
He goes, do you love your job more than us?
And he's like five.
Like, like what?
Like that was either from God through him
because to say something with such poignancy, clarity.
And he wasn't even trying to be mean.
He just he just said it.
I don't even know if you know what I say.
He just said it.
And I'm like,
wow.
You know, no, no, no, no, no.
And it just that was the start of it because I just said, I can't do this anymore.
This is insane.
Like, I can't even think clearly anymore.
I'm just too busy, you know.
And so I just started getting help to, you know, in originations and all that stuff
because I just can't I can't continue this way.
But it's interesting because I went back down the next morning and I'm reading
kings. I love kings.
Some people say, how does that apply?
I love kings.
It just is so practical to me for some reason.
But I'm reading about these great kings, OK, doing great things.
Only in Judah. All the Israel kings are bad.
But and then they really were.
So but then I'm reading about one of the great kings.
And he says, but he didn't take down the high places.
Like the high places, you know, the places where people burnt.
Offerings to idols, you know, those those altars on the top places where they say,
yeah, yeah, yeah, the tabernacle, the temple, that's good.
But I also want to go up there and get a little extra stuff from from some
spirit, you know, and they would go up there and do those things.
And these kings, they almost had it, but they left the idols in place.
I'm thinking, that's me.
I got idols.
I just want to be something I want to I just want money.
And it wasn't even the money.
It was the success.
That's why, you know, and it's like that's me.
And between Jake being my counselor that night and the next day reading
the high places, I'm like, all right, God, enough, please, please.
I don't need any more.
OK, you know, driving down the road, I see a billboard and I'm just kidding.
But I just knew that was it.
You know, that's what we need to do.
We need to discern scripture accurately, you know.
And so what's the next one on here is.
Define criteria, you know.
You know.
Choosing the right thing, because they
realize, you know, these two guys are right.
But which one should it be?
OK, they narrowed it down.
And that sounds practical, sounds like common sense.
And I guess it kind of is.
But really, the Lord already guided us to decisions.
And really, it comes down to typically one or two.
And then you just pray through it.
Sometimes it's doing both.
You know, our church a lot of times just tries several things at once.
And, you know, you watch and see and the way it's led and so forth.
You know, you say, this is work.
In fact, it's cool.
I'll just give him a little shout out.
I don't know if he's in the building at the moment because he's in security.
But so Leo came to us and said, hey, you know, Leo has been or Linsky has been
great in cell groups and security and all kinds of different ministries.
And and he's like, hey,
you know, what do you think about me starting a jujitsu class at church?
And, you know, he's like a whatever he is.
Do they have what's better than a black belt?
What is he, Jamie black belt?
Should be.
Jamie's a black belt, in case you want to know, he's the real deal.
But he learned from Jamie and many other.
But anyway, he says, can I hear he comes.
But anyway, so I'm not talking about Leo right now.
But
nobody says, can I have a jujitsu class?
And I'm like, you know, so we talked about it.
We met as leaders.
Is this something a risk, the insurance, the this, the that, the other thing?
But like we prayed through it, we walked through it.
We saw and we all said, like, if we're trying to build community and fellowship
and tough men, no kidding.
No, but like, why wouldn't we try it?
You just try it, right?
If God's not in it, it won't work.
This church started that way.
It was just started as a little Bible fellowship.
And if it's going to work, that's what the pastor said.
If God's in, it'll work.
If not, it's not.
They don't give you anything.
They don't they just pray for you and send you
not good luck, but good, good blessing to you, you know.
And that's it.
And really, sometimes you just have to go for it, you know.
And anyway, it's been a great thing.
We was doing an amazing job being a mentors to men and an instruction.
That's really what it's all about.
We come together, guys come together to do things and we need to be doing something.
We work side by side.
You know the difference?
Women meet in front of each other.
Men are side, but we need to be doing something to fellowship.
I don't know if that's true.
More and more of my life, I'm kind of
face on because I can't do all the other stuff anymore.
But but anyway, but you know, it's just you just try things.
But like you can discern and say, you know, this seems right.
In fact, later on in scripture, you know, when the disciples came together,
they said it seemed right, you know, let's try it to see what happens.
You know, in the spirit, of course, bless that.
So anyway, narrow it down.
But then finally, cast your lots.
Now, what am I saying about that?
Right. So cast your lots.
Now, we just read they cast lots to decide between two people, Barcibus and Matthias.
Right. And you're like, what's that?
Now, we don't know exactly whether they drew sticks, rocks, paper, scissors, shoot.
You know, I don't know if I don't think so.
I think that's a newer thing.
But they probably had sticks that they chose from, you know, or they rolled rocks.
I have a couple of rocks here, you know, and it's like, all right, you know,
we're going to make you Matthias.
You're black and and Barcibus, you're white, you know, whatever.
But, you know, and they would choose things by getting a device.
OK,
an object and say the Lord is going to determine through this object.
OK, that seems kind of weird to us that God is in the rolling of the dice.
You know, he's not.
But back then he was and they believe that this was God moving.
In fact, even the high priest had the Urim and the Thummim and they would go
into the tabernacle and these stones would somehow identify God's will,
whether it would be the Urim or the Thummim, based on some manifestation,
whether they lit up, one of them lit up and the other one didn't or whatever it
was, we don't know, OK, but they would make decisions based on God saying,
you honored me with bringing the Urim and the Thummim,
now I'm going to show you what my will is on this subject.
Why he did it that way in the Old Testament?
We don't know.
But here they still were making decisions according to the Old Testament.
You know what's interesting?
You never see.
The casting of lots in the New Testament ever again after this spot.
Isn't that something?
The same words used, but it's used for inheritance.
That's a different story.
It's used for our inheritance.
But this is how they decided who got what part of the land.
All right, you know, we're going to Manasseh.
Let's see what you get.
You know, and they would and they would cast 12 lots to make a decision
because they believed that it was God making that decision.
I have a dice.
I said, can you find me a big dice, Jill?
She actually found it. Isn't this cool?
I have a feeling as soon as one of my grandkids sees this, it's gone
immediately. So much for the prop.
It's going to be gone after today, I'm sure.
But anyway, it's a cool prop, isn't it?
But it's it's dice.
OK, and a lot of times in life, you know, it's gambling now.
OK, but they believe that the Lord is going to cause this thing
to land just where it's meant to to tell you what his will is.
And I love there's a couple of scriptures
that talk about the casting of the lots.
Again, in Proverbs, if you have that, the lot is cast into the lap,
but it's every decision is from the Lord.
How about that?
Casting lots causes contentions to seize and keeps the mighty apart.
I always think about the Super Bowl.
OK, and they come out and they flip the coin.
OK, do you have heads or tails?
I used to always say, heads I win, tails you lose.
But no one ever falls for it.
But but and it decides based on how the coin lands, you know, who you get a choice.
Do you want to receive or do you want to kick off that kind of thing?
And so, you know, a lot of things in this life are still decided through chance.
But that's not that's just chance.
We believe that the Lord doesn't need vehicles, doesn't need objects like dice
and stones and all these things and straws to figure out what his will is.
We are the temples of the Holy Spirit.
We can discern his will and make Godly decisions based on what the Lord is
telling us and telling us through others. Amen.
So as the worship team comes up, I know I went a little long,
but it was a big introduction into the book of Acts.
Jamie's going to have it so much easier next week talking about Pentecost.
Sure, you know, we'll see how that works out with time, but he'll stay in the boundary
compared to me, but but anyway, isn't that interesting?
You know, the book of Acts starting off,
but the Lord showed them after the Holy Spirit came along.
Get rid of that dice.
Nothing's chance.
You know, if you cast your lots, it means
we're taking a chance on what the Lord is leading us to.
And the great thing about God is if we believe we're following his will and we
and we step forward in it.
He will redirect our paths, right?
A man makes the plan in his own mind, but the Lord directs his steps.
He won't.
He will redirect just like the GPS.
He will redirect us where he wants us to go
because he's so benevolent, so loving.
He's like, no, no, no, no, it's not that way.
It's that way.
Just follow me.
You know, we can have that.
There's no reason any of us have to be an island.
We all up here, not yet.
It's sad.
I had this conversation
with someone four days ago
and it was pretty sad because, you know, his
his life is pretty messed up.
He's married, his kids.
And they refuse to be part of a church
community because no church is good enough.
Critical about everything, you know,
they're hypocrites, they're this, they're that, whatever.
If you ever notice, people are usually that's evidence.
Usually they're doing the worst inside.
When every other believer is a hypocrite, every other believer, nobody cares.
There's something wrong in here, you know, and and all these things.
And I just I just said, look, if you're teaching your kids something
that they can't trust the church, they can't trust authority,
do not be part of a community.
How is that working for you?
You know, we need to be part of community.
We need to have people seeing and saying, you know, you know, JT,
what an amazing, amazing choice you made in perfect.
Amen. Amen.
But like just that support, you know, and getting so much love
and support as they were moving through the premarrow counseling from all you guys
and just that love, you know, we need that.
We need support from everyone to be guiding. Amen.
So let's stand up.
We're going to finish up singing a doozy of a song.
I don't know what it is, but it's going to be a doozy.
And I just want to thank, you know, Jake and Bree, what an amazing
dynamic duo they are as worship leaders over all these years.
They've just been always doing such a great job.
We thank the Lord for that.
And if you can, if you can pick up your kids and bring them back in,
because we don't want to get the nursery and children's leaders irritated
because I did go long and I apologize.
But let's just pray, Father, God, we just thank you.
You are so great, so mighty, so loving.
Your kindness just never runs out.
We can't run away from your love and your joy and we never want to.
But we're just praying Jesus' name.
You would just, damn it, show us the best decisions to make
to live the best life for you, Lord.
We'll never regret living for you.
We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Let's give the Lord a round of applause.
Come and give it up for the Lord.
Thanks for joining us at Lansdale Life Church as we praise God and discuss His Word.
Don't forget to join us for worship live Sunday mornings at 10 a.m.
Eastern on YouTube.
Be blessed and have a great day.