Your Mission Starts Where You Are.

The holy hush comes across. So if we haven't met yet, my name's Ashley. I'm one of our leaders here at the church, and I'm really excited to have you here today. Before we dive in, I want to do a shameless plug for our community groups. Right now we're in the season of our summer communities and we've been meeting all together as a church in the living room, talking through some content about redefining success, how the world sees it versus how God sees it. We're inviting you all into that on Tuesdays at six thirty. We come together, we eat, then we typically start content at seven p.m.

If you don't know where the living room is, come find me or someone and we can show you where it's at downstairs. But yes, we have that. And then gearing up for fall, while we're meeting all together as a church this summer, in the fall we like to split up and have hosts in different homes. Hosts and leaders from our church community host other people. So we have a QR code there to sign up for fall communities. We also have college communities, but these are going to be starting in September.

Please scan the QR code. But essentially we meet together as a small group so that we can empower each other, encourage each other, share a time of diving deeper into the Lord and what he has for us as a community, and then filling each other up, praying for each other to go out throughout their week and apply some of that.

For college students, we have that community as well. We have welcome week September first through the sixth, and then we have our first community group starting on September tenth. And then for all young adults eighteen through thirty, there's also a young adults retreat, so not just for college students, also for us young adults who are not in college. And that'll be September nineteenth through the twenty-first. Registration is open.

All right. So then with that, we're going to go ahead and transition. For those who don't know me, I'm Ashley. I actually work at Epic right now doing project management. But over the past couple years, I've felt the Lord bringing me into a different season of potentially teaching. Back in college, the Lord actually put missions on my heart. So the ability to go to other countries and share the gospel. But until that time comes, I find myself in a prepping season and learning a lot here in Madison.

And so today's sermon, we're going to be in Acts thirteen. And our theme is going to be sent with the Spirit. It's kind of near and dear to my heart because not only is that for going to other places, but that can also be for going to our communities here and in our workplaces and our homes. That's kind of the season I find myself in currently. How is the Spirit calling me to act in this space, in the here and in the now?

So we're going to read Acts chapter thirteen, one through twelve to start off. If y'all would like to join me in your own bibles or phones, we'll also have it on the screen to follow along.

In the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers. Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off. The two of them, sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus. When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues. John was with them as their helper. They traveled through the whole island until they came to Paphos, where they met a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet named Bar-Jesus, who was an attendant of the proconsul Sergius Paulus. The proconsul, an intelligent man, sent for Barnabas and Saul because he wanted to hear the word of God. But Elymas the sorcerer, for that is what his name means, opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul from the faith. Then Saul, who is also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas and said, You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right. You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord? Now the hand of the Lord is against you. You are going to be blind for a time, not even able to see the light of the sun. Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand. When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord.

Acts 13:1-12

Lord, we just thank you for this time to gather, this time to dive into your word, Lord, to hear you speak through your word that is living and everlasting. God, I just pray as we dive into these words that you land on open ears, open hearts, whatever it is you want to speak to them. God, may we just feel your spirit today. May we just feel your presence and really take in what you want to speak to us. Thank you, Lord. Amen.

Sent with the Spirit

So before we dive in here, a little bit of context on this chapter. Paul, previously also known as Saul in the earlier chapters of Acts, and Barnabas, they're going on a missionary journey and they're going outside of the mainly Jewish cities that they had started in.

In Acts chapter one, seven through eight, Jesus tells the disciples:

It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

Acts 1:7-8

And so in chapters two through eleven, the disciples are following that. They're going to Jerusalem, they're going to Judea, and they're going to Samaria. But here in this chapter, they're now going to the ends of the earth. I call it the ends of the earth era. And so they're doing that, just following the directions of Jesus.

So our so what and our now what today is being sent is not just for missionaries, it's also for you. And then the now what is how is God sending you this week to your street, school, or job? How can we go with intention, be open for divine opportunities and allow the spirit to be our qualification.

The Spirit anoints us and sends us, and I want to call out that this is regardless of background and that this is fostered in community. In these first verses it says, while they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.

The Spirit spoke when they were fostering community through prayer and worship. He was telling them where to go, and the community was sending them off together. So this is something that I want us to take back. If we're not sure what our mission is, if we're not sure what we're supposed to be doing or who we're supposed to be talking to, how is it that we can foster that? We can see Paul and Barnabas fostering that through fasting and through prayer. The Spirit is also working in the community together. They're praying together, sending each other off together, and that is really bringing that presence of the Spirit in.

And so as a community, we're meant to encourage each other, bring each other into affirmation of other people's missions and how the Spirit will use each person in the congregation to affirm and confirm things that people might feel they have inkling for.

Another thing I wanted to call out here is that the Spirit doesn't allow our background to disqualify us from that. Paul was previously known as Saul. He was a rabbi, a leader in the Jewish community who was persecuting Christians up until about Acts nine, where he has this radical encounter with Jesus. He's struck blind, has to go find another disciple that the Lord spoke to. And so it's after this encounter with Jesus that he comes to know Jesus and starts preaching the word of God. He's doing this work after he's called into it just where he is.

And so now after doing that work where he is, after having that transformation into Jesus, after becoming who he's calling him to be, he is now being sent out with Barnabas to go and to proclaim. And it is the community that is fostering that and praying them into that. The Spirit is fostering that. They are fostering the Spirit, and then that is what is sending them out in community. Regardless of their past, they're going to proclaim the gospel to other places. They're in that ends of the earth era. They're going to new cities.

Filled with the Spirit

They are going on their way to Paphos, and that's where they run into that sorcerer, that false prophet who's trying to keep this leader from hearing the word of Jesus. And in verse nine, we see that this is where he is now called Paul for the first time. Then Saul, who is also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas and said these bold words.

What I want us to see here is that Paul was filled with the Spirit. Going back into the original translation, pimples, I think is how it's pronounced, but that word is used in a lot of verses throughout the Bible. And the verse I wanted to hone in on was Matthew twenty-seven, forty-eight. It says:

Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with white vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink.

Matthew 27:48

That's referencing when Jesus is on the cross and they're going to fill this sponge. I really liked that verse specifically because it's talking about physically being filled. The sponge is physically filled with that vinegar. And when I think about a sponge and how it gets filled with something, if it touches a liquid, it starts to spread and saturate throughout the whole sponge.

And I kind of like that analogy for how the Spirit can fill us as well. That's something I want to encourage you all to take a look at: what does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? What can that look like? What can that feel like? But the picture I want us to think of today is that sponge. Like Paul is fully saturated right now with the Spirit and he's able to overflow with what the Spirit is wanting him to say in boldness and in confidence because of that full saturation. Just fully absorbed in the Spirit. Each part of his heart, each part of his mind is filled with the Spirit, and that's what's allowing him to speak in the way that he's speaking.

With that, he's also boldly speaking to this man, calling him out. You are full of the devil. That's crazy. But what I want to call out there is not only is he speaking confidently, but the Spirit is allowing him to see that it's not this person, but rather the enemy inside this person, right?

Ephesians six twelve actually says:

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Ephesians 6:12

When we are coming across opposition, it's important to keep in mind that it's the enemy. It is not just that person, right? Like Jesus sees them as a person and he wants them to know the gospel. And so when we are filled with the Spirit, we're able to see past that person and see who it is that's actually opposing us. It's the enemy. And we're able to speak and rebuke that in the name of Jesus because he gives us that authority when we have the Spirit to do so.

And so Paul here is filled with that. He's able to see that opposition, and he's able to call that out. And that's something that we are able to do as well when we have access to that Spirit and we are accepting that and allowing that to drive who we're speaking to and how we're speaking to them. The Spirit's so cool.

Speaking the truth you know

Moving further into this section, I'm going to read verses thirteen through fifteen, and then we'll kind of summarize up until verse forty-three. Verses thirteen through fifteen says:

From Paphos, Paul and his companions sailed to Perga in Pamphylia, where John left them to return to Jerusalem. From Perga, they went on to Pisidian Antioch. On the Sabbath they entered the synagogue and sat down. After the reading from the law and the prophets, the leaders of the synagogue sent word to them saying, Brothers, if you have a word of exhortation for the people, please speak.

Acts 13:13-15

And then Paul pops off. He just goes off. He starts talking. In the synagogues they're hearing from the Old Testament, they're hearing from the law and the prophets because that's what they're believing in. That is what they're trying to live by in order to strive for that eternal life. And Paul takes that context and he starts to speak about what it is they're hearing. He brings them now into the new reality: Jesus has come now. Jesus has died. He is resurrected. And that means you are now worthy of eternal life. You can have access to that here.

A couple of things I want to point out here is that Paul was invited to speak, and he spoke with confidence on the basis of what he knew. And so he goes through, he's recapping all of this, but he waited until he was invited to speak. And then he simply spoke what he knew to be true. It was that Jesus the son of God came and died and he was the perfect sacrifice for all of us. He's saying that to all of these people not thinking about whether or not they're going to accept it, not thinking about if they're going to have follow-up questions that he doesn't know how to answer. He's not thinking about any of that. He's simply speaking the truth that he knows that they should be aware of.

Paul didn't have the Gospels as we have them. He didn't have the New Testament. He wrote most of the New Testament. He didn't have the New Testament to be quoting Scripture, right? And I think we put a lot of pressure on ourselves when we are encouraged to speak to someone about faith. We think we need to have all the Scriptures memorized. We need to have all of these things in the back of our brain just in case they ask us something.

But I want to say that Paul didn't have that. He just had his encounter with Jesus and he had the truth of what he did and who he was and how he impacted him. So I say that yes, as an encouragement, it's great to have scripture. Please like, if that is what you feel called to do is memorizing the scriptures, I think we're all called to memorize scripture. Not even just to tell other people, but to remind ourselves in dark spots of like, this is what scripture says I know that. But if the fear of talking to someone is because you don't know the scriptures, that's not a requirement. That is not something you need to have in your back pocket. It's great to have, but all you need is your encounter with Jesus, and you just need the truth of who he is, right? You just need the truth of who he is, what he did, and how that impacts you.

And how that can in turn impact the people that you are talking to. And so Paul was ready to speak because he knew Jesus. He may not have known all of Jesus's words and actions, but he knew who he was and how he's encountered him. And so that is what he allowed the Spirit to use in that moment. The Spirit gave him this divine appointment in this synagogue to talk to all of these people who up to this point have only heard the Old Testament laws and only heard of the prophets. And he's telling them, this has been fulfilled now, and this is what I know, and now you all can have that.

And I want to reference verse thirty-eight in this passage because this is really the heavy hitter. He says:

Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you are not able to obtain under the law of Moses.

Acts 13:38-39

He's telling them the laws that you just heard about. You don't need to worry about that like you. That is fulfilled right like it is now Jesus. And so my challenge for us is like do we know this? Do we believe that? Do we rely on that spoken truth to be enough? Can we allow it to be that simple? Can it just be that simple to go up to one of our friends, even a stranger, and just be like, this is what I know and this is really cool and I want you to have that too?

While Paul had a very clear divine appointment there, right? Like the synagogue leader was like, hey, you can say something if you want. I want us to take an opportunity to think about what opportunities do we have in that, even if it's not that clear of like, hey, what do you think about this thing?

Missed opportunities and open doors

How can we take advantage of our own divine opportunities and what can that kind of look like? Something I'm thinking about is last year, I was traveling back from a work trip. And as we're traveling back, we get into the usual conversation, do you see yourself at Epic forever? And like those kinds of things. And I referenced how I felt called to be a missionary. And like, this is just kind of a season of provision, a season of prepping and things like that.

And he asked me like, what does that mean? Like, what does it mean to be a missionary? Like, what does that look like? He actually said, is that like being a nun? And I kind of chuckled a little bit, only because I think it was just a shock factor, right? It was like, no, I can get married. I can do these things. But I kind of explained, I was like, it's just me going, maybe working in another country, living my life as a disciple of Jesus, hoping to make connections with people who don't know Jesus. And then just like showing them my life.

But I kind of just then like explained it and like left it there. And we kind of just went back into our like small talk. However, him like asking that is kind of an open door, kind of an invitation to then speak more about it. What I could have done is I could have been like, are you familiar with that concept? Maybe I could have asked him like, do you have thoughts on that? Right? Like, do you like, what is your background? Have you been to church? What do you know about Jesus? Do you know anything about Jesus?

But instead I got like scared and I was like, oh, I don't know if I can go much further. And part of that, I think there's a lot of nuance when we're talking to people, right? We're aware of church hurt and other things that we're cognizant of in this American Westernized church. And so I think that can hold back a lot. I think I was scared of like, well, what if they have a negative opinion? And then I have to try and combat that a little bit. Or like, I don't know all my scriptures memorized, you know, all of those things.

But it's possible, like, I could have done more. Like, I took that really hard. I had to process with the Lord. I was like, I'm sorry, I missed this opportunity. But the Lord just told me, he was like, I didn't need you to do that, right? Like the Lord and the Spirit is way above us. We want to be those vessels. He wants us to do those things for him, but it wasn't about me and it wasn't about that conversation that I had.

I had to put my trust in the Lord of like, he will use his Spirit and he will go through someone else and he will be able to speak to him in a different kind of way. I'm not necessary. It wasn't about me. But he wants me to be a part of that. So let me be clear. He wants you to be a part of those things.

But the encouragement is if you have missed opportunities or you're not always open for that, it's okay. Like the Spirit is larger than who we are as humans. He knows that we are going to miss those things sometimes. But it's trusting him that whatever it is he's wanting to speak, whatever Paul wanted to speak in that synagogue, it wasn't about Paul. It was about the Lord and what he wanted to speak to them.

So like Paul didn't speak to many of those probably personally, one-on-one people, right? Like he spoke to a whole congregation of people. And he simply had to trust that the Lord, he landed on ears that were willing to hear and he couldn't necessarily have that one-on-one conversation with him.

And so while his divine appointment was like, hey brother, speak, it might not be that simple for us. It might be as simple as someone asking like, oh, do you go to church? That happened to me too at work. They were like, oh, you go to church? Like, where do you go? And I'm like, oh, do you want to come? And they're like, okay? Like, it's like things like that where it's like sometimes even just a question like that we can close ourselves off. We can think, oh, they don't want to get into a larger conversation about Jesus. But then you're saying no for them. You don't know that until you ask, right?

It can be hard to take full advantage of those opportunities. But I want us to kind of think about the fact that they're there and people are around and people want to hear.

The word spreads and the Spirit draws

Moving into our next section, because there's a lot in this chapter. But into our next section here, I want to call out verses forty-four through fifty-two.

Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly. We had to speak the word of God to you first, since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life. We now turn to the Gentiles. For this is what the Lord has commanded us. I have made you a light for the Gentiles that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth. When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord and all who were appointed for eternal life believed. The word of the Lord spread throughout the whole region. But the Jewish leaders incited the God-fearing women of high standing and the leading men of the city. They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and expelled them from their region. So they shook the dust off their feet as a warning to them and went to Iconium. And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

Acts 13:44-52

What I want to draw here is that when Paul is allowing the Spirit to speak, he is opening the door then for other people to experience that, right? And when people are drawn to us as we're speaking the words of the Spirit, they might not understand why, right? But it's when we're letting the Spirit speak, they naturally have this just like, oh, I want to hear more. Like, I want to know what you're talking about. And I want to know why I feel the way I do. And it's because the Spirit is giving them a sense of access to Jesus right then and there. He's giving them that joy and that hope that's drawing them in.

And so when the Spirit draws them in, that's when we can finally say, like, this is why you're drawn in. It's because Jesus wants to have relationship with you. And it's the Spirit doing that for us and through us. It's not until they are drawn in that they can finally hear that word and they can accept that word for themselves. And so that is what the Spirit is doing through us. That's what we're allowing the Spirit to do through us.

Something I like to do, one of my friends does tell me, she's like, oh, I just there's just something about you. There's just a joy. Like I love talking to you. And my favorite thing to say is it's the Spirit. It's not me. Because I like if it were me, I think I would complain all the time. Or I would like do all these things. But like the things you're feeling is not just from me, right? Like where things come from as far as like how I'm speaking and why I'm speaking that way, it's from the Spirit.

And I'm not perfect. I mess up all the time, right? But like in those scenarios, I try to point it to the Spirit. And my favorite thing to say is you can have that too. It's not just for me, right? Like the Spirit is for everyone. And so when the Spirit is drawing people in, it's on us to point people to the Spirit. And it's on us to say, Jesus is the way. You can have the Spirit.

No matter what the outcome, Paul and Barnabas, they get thrown out. They're like, get out of here. We're tired of you. You're taking away our power. Jewish leaders are saying that. And they say, so they shake the dust off their feet as a warning to them and went to Iconium.

This is a common theme. Paul and other apostles go into a city, they start preaching the word of God, and then eventually they get thrown out because they're upturning the whole power structure of what's going on there. And they shake the dust off their feet. And even though there are many that came to believe, the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. Those are the disciples he's leaving behind in Antioch.

So when he did speak in the synagogue, it said that many who were appointed to eternal life began to believe. He's leaving them behind. And even though they went through this persecution, the disciples are still filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. And they shake the dust off their feet like, okay, there's nothing else I can do here. That's from Mark six eleven, actually. Jesus tells them:

Shake the dust off your feet.

Mark 6:11

Don't let that stop you from continuing on to other cities and other towns and other people who need to hear the gospel. But they take those words because they're also taking it as like, this isn't about me, right? Like this is about the kingdom of God. And this is about advancing the kingdom. And I can't let the people who are yelling at me, telling me I'm wrong or trying to fight me, keep me from advancing that word and advancing the gospel because it's not about us.

And so in order to leave, they shake that off and then they leave with the Spirit. They're like, I'm going to trust now that this town has the disciples and they're filled with joy and they're going to continue working in that city.

Challenge for us

So we see in the very beginning that the way that this comes to be, the way that Paul and Barnabas even know to go, even know to speak, is that they're worshiping the Lord. They're just worshiping the Lord, making space for the Spirit to speak to them. And they didn't get explicitly told like, oh, you are going to actually go and you're going to proclaim the gospel in Antioch. But it just says, I'm setting them apart for the work that they're called to do.

They knew that their work was just proclaiming the gospel because that's something they were already doing. They were already proclaiming the gospel where they were. When Saul has his encounter with Jesus and he finally, like, scales fall from his eyes, he immediately starts preaching the word of the Lord. He immediately starts preaching about his encounter with Jesus. So this work, he was already doing it where he was.

And then through fostering and community, and in prayer, and fasting, and worshiping the Lord, he's like, okay, you are now going to go out, and you're going to go to Antioch, and you're going to go to the ends of the earth and share this word.

And so knowing that their work was to share the gospel, I want us to think about that with ourselves. And kind of taking into consideration, like, do you find it challenging to speak about your faith? If it's helpful to write things down as you process things, feel free to do that. But what is it, if it's scary?

What is it that's scary? Is it that you don't know a bunch of Scripture? Is it you don't know how they're going to react? And this doesn't even just apply to strangers. It can be really hard to go talk to strangers about that. That's what I struggle with. I struggle with the strangers part. But even with friends and people you're already in relationship with, do they know that you love Jesus? Do they know that you come to church every Sunday and that you try to apply whatever we talk about here to your daily life? What is it you're afraid of?

Like I mentioned, sometimes it's a matter of church hurt. A lot of my friends have church hurt. Like I am so aware of that and cognizant of that. And so then it's like, am I going to allow that to stop me though from speaking about Jesus? How can I speak the truth in love and not in a harmful way? Because I want them to know Jesus. And that's hard. And I still haven't figured it out, right? Like it's a work in progress. But it's allowing the Spirit to try to guide me in that.

Along with that, are we open to potential divine appointments? Do we have our moments of someone's asking me about this and I feel like I should dive in more? I feel like the Spirit is telling me to ask more questions. I feel like he's telling me to tell them about my experience with Jesus.

And so what I want us to do as we move into this time of reflection is just kind of ask the Lord, like, how do I overcome the challenges I feel are there? Are there people that I'm being highlighted? Whether it's people right now or is it something you want to do during the day? Maybe each week or each day this week? Like, highlight a person to me that I need to share this with. But really just thinking about like, what is it that's keeping me from doing this? Can I allow the truth of Jesus and who he is and what he did for me just be enough for that?

And as we come into this time of worship, we're taking the stance of how Paul and Barnabas did. We're just worshiping the Lord. We're just praising his name because it's through him that we're going to know how to do that. As we believe his name is good, as we believe he is beautiful, as we believe what he did for us on the cross, that's going to naturally spread into our conversation because we're going to want to share people with that goodness.

As we behold Jesus, we are becoming more like him. We are doing what he did, which is proclaim that everything is fulfilled. Everything is fulfilled. We are free. And we want people to know that.

And so as we come into this space, I just want us to receive that today. I want us to receive the Spirit. I want us to receive his discernment, his guidance. But ultimately I want us to receive that truth for ourselves if we haven't yet. I want us to receive that truth of like that is enough. That I know Jesus and I know who he is and I know what he did. And that is enough for me to do my job, which is to proclaim.

And it should flow naturally because the more we accept that, the more we experience that, the more we want to tell people about it. Just because it just becomes such a big part of our lives. It becomes a big piece of our heart because the Spirit then is dwelling within us. And it's like, hey, I'm drawing people to you because I want to tell people about me. Jesus, not me. But yeah.

So I just invite you. You can stand, you can sit if you want. But we're going to move into this time of worship and really just beholding, worshiping the Lord and who he is so we can become more like him. So we can do things that he wants us to do.

Lord, just pray for this time. I pray for the words that were spoken to just reveal what you wanted them to reveal, Lord. I pray for your Spirit to be present as we move into this next step of worship. God, I pray that as we just come to seek you and worship you and behold you, Lord, that you make it clear to us what you desire for us. What your Spirit desires for us. What it desires for our communities and our people that we know and even for ourselves, Lord.

Holy Spirit, come and fill this place. Holy Spirit, come.