 Radiant church, okay, good morning, good morning Portage. Good morning Radiant church, hey great to be with you. I know all of you were like, it's summertime, what did that girl in the video say? But I told you, it's a lot of information to digest, but it is all going to be good, so please do what you can to refresh yourself on that. Portage, great to see you. I don't know if it's the camera here, but do you all look thinner and happier? Okay, so I'm excited to be here. I was up here yesterday going, man, I don't know when the last time I taught was, we're in a series called Heroes, and I was like, I think the last one that I did was Peter quite a while ago, but we have had some fantastic communicators, and so last week we had Mike Bickel, if you weren't here, and he had notes and handouts for every single night and every service, and then the week before that was Pastor Caleb, and he talked about Timothy, and he had an entire juicer machine up here, and then Rick Renner, Pastor Rick Renner the week before that talked about Paul and expounded for like 45 minutes on the word the, and we were all like, and so this week will be nothing like any of those. I have no props, I will tell you though, I was on sort of a vacation with my wife Kendra, we went up to Traverse City for a few days, and so I had my briefcase already, like I did a wedding on Friday, I knew I had to speak, and I wanted to review everything, well I forgot my briefcase, get all the way to Traverse City and I don't have it, so I'm in a little bit of panic mode, but it's good, we stayed at a hotel, I download the service order for the wedding, and I'm trying to just figure some things out, and so we stayed in Grand Rapids where the wedding was on Friday night. Saturday morning, I wake up early, and I go to Starbucks to study. On the way, listening to 105.7 in Grand Rapids, Tina Turner comes on the radio, singing about how we don't need another hero. As I'm praying for my hero's message, so I was like, whatever Tina, who even asked you, right? What's your opinion got to do, got to do with it? It's exactly what I said. So that happened, and then I go to, this is my life, I'm not even joking, I go to Starbucks and I'm studying, and we're gonna have a married couple that we're talking about, and so I just started thinking about Kendra, and how grateful I am, we've been married 19 years, and I'm like, you know, we're still in Aquila who we're gonna talk about, they did ministry together, and they're mentioned together every single time they're mentioned, and how important that is, and so sending a nice text or a little gift, if you've been married a while, hopefully you surprise your spouse every now and then, like, hey, I made coffee before I left, or here's a little note of encouragement, so I was like, I'm gonna text Kendra something, so I opened my phone, and I am looking at the last text that I sent Kendra. Now granted, we've been together in Traverse City, so I've been saying nice things to her face-to-face, but I'm like, this is a classic, been married 19 years text, so I actually forwarded it to the team, I was like, you gotta show this. Oh, apparently there's a bunch of sizes, I need you to send me a pic of the toilet seat, and also text me the brand. So, if you need some tips on romance after 19 years, come see me, I'm at Home Depot just dropping love notes to my wife. Okay, anyways, hopefully you brought your Bible. We are gonna talk about more important things than this, eventually, so if you brought your Bible, turn to Acts chapter 18, if it's on a device, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and then Acts written by Luke, Acts chapter 18, and I'm gonna read the first four verses, but let's just pray before we do. Father, we do ask in these next few moments that you would illuminate your word, you said, the grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of the Lord endures forever. God, the entrance of your word, it brings light, and it gives understanding to your people, so God, I ask, Holy Spirit, minister to every single heart in this room where we need encouragement, where we need to be admonished, where we need to be corrected, whatever it is, in your love, goodness, and grace, bring it to us in Jesus' name, and everyone said, Amen, Acts chapter 18 says this, after this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth, and he found a Jew there named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife, Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome, and he went to them, and he went to see them, and because he was at the same trade, he stayed with them and worked, for they were tent makers by trade, and he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks. As I said, we're in a series called Heroes, and last summer we looked at Old Testament Heroes, this summer we're looking at New Testament Heroes, so we had John the Baptist and Peter and Paul and Timothy, and the things that they all have in common is basically if you've been around church at really any level, you've probably heard of these people, you're probably aware of at least who they were. Today, however, is, I feel like, a much more obscure hero. There's not much said about this particular couple, Priscilla and Aquila, and so at first I was like, well, thanks a lot, Pastor Lee, I don't even know who these people are, so I'm just kidding, I knew who they were, but I'd never heard an entire message on them, I'd never really dug into their lives, and as I did, I was just blown away and encouraged by the message, their lives can bring to us today, 2,000 years later, as is true of the Bible all the time, so Priscilla and Aquila are only mentioned in Scripture four times, so in Acts chapter 18, they're mentioned three times in this one chapter, so this is where we learn the most about them, but then Paul mentions them briefly in 2 Timothy chapter four, Romans chapter 16, and 1 Corinthians 16, but in all of those, it's either like a greeting, like, hey, greet Priscilla and Aquila, or like a ending of the book, and where he's acknowledging them, so we really don't garner much information at all about them, and that's not uncommon, I mean, we think of the Bible as this huge book, but when you think that it spans 1,500 years, several continents, several languages, it's not that in depth about every single person, and yet there's so much that we can pull out in the case of Priscilla and Aquila, so they're a couple, they are living in Rome, in Italy, and they are tent makers, and that's their lives, and there's no mention of them, as I said, in much of the Bible, and yet there was a connection that God made that we're gonna look at today that launched them into a place of discipleship, a place of ministry, a place of utilizing the gifts and callings that God put inside of them in a unique and a very powerful way, and I think it really shows us how God weaves his plans and purposes in ways that we don't always see, so as I said, they're married, you never hear about one or the other by themselves, throughout scripture, they're always mentioned together, and they were hugely impactful in the first century church, and so I was ready, as I was preparing this, to just kinda jump into what they did with Paul, how they established churches, how God used them, and God really said, no, I want you to start by talking about the circumstances that led them to the relationship they had with Paul, and so I was like studying that, and then I was like, okay, great, Lord, I'll do that at the end, because it could really tie it in, and God said, no, you're gonna do that in the beginning, so we're gonna do that in the beginning, so verse one, as I read, it says, after this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth, so after this obviously means something happened prior. You read Acts 17, and Paul is in Athens in Greece, and he's spiritually convicted because there's so many idols, that's what the Bible says, there's these people and they're worshiping this God, that God, this God, that God, and he's trying to explain to them that Jesus is the Christ, and they even have an idol to a God that says the unknown God, and so Paul, in his wisdom, sort of tax on that and says, you know, I know who this unknown God is, he's the creator of the universe, he's the giver of life, his name is Jesus, and he begins to explain the gospel, and the Bible says that the people in Athens, for the most part, are unreceptive, they mock him, they scoff at him, which is not uncommon in Paul's ministry, but some of them are safe, so he's leaving Athens kind of under adverse circumstances, and he goes to Corinth, but then you have Priscilla and Aquila, and look what it says about them, they came from Italy, and they went to Corinth because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome, and so we can read that and kind of gloss over it, but I want to start there. This is a huge deal in the lives of Priscilla and Aquila. Priscilla is a Roman citizen, most scholars believe, but Aquila, the husband, is a Jew, and there's been some ethnic and religious tension in Rome, it's not the first time, it's actually happened several times over the last couple hundred years where whoever the emperor is, whoever the leader of Rome is, in this case, Claudius just decides we're getting rid of the Jews, I want all of them gone, and we know throughout history there's been some anti-Semitic stances that people have taken and nations have taken and that goes all the way back to this instance, so here's Priscilla and Aquila, they have a tent making business, they have family, they're rooted there and they have to leave, and one day the government just says get out, and so they leave Rome and they go to Corinth, and what I want to just remind you is that in this season we can read it in the Bible and just be like, okay, they're left, they got kicked out, but no, they don't have any idea where they're going, they don't have any stability in their lives, they're not sure are we gonna be able to start our business back up, they have to learn a new language, they have to travel, everything about their lives has been uprooted, has been shifted, and they're not in a place where they should have peace or stability in their lives, and the first point I want to make about this passage and about Priscilla and Aquila is that God uses difficult seasons and circumstances to advance his plan, God uses these difficult seasons, so I imagine Priscilla and Aquila, they're uncertain, they're unsure, and yet they kept their focus on the goodness of God, they didn't choose to complain, they didn't choose to say, well, this is terrible, and this is not our fault, and this is outside of our ability, so what's gonna happen? No, they kept their focus on the goodness and the plans of God, and I wanna encourage you today, if you're going through a season that's difficult in your life, if you have some things that haven't come to fruition, if there's some things you've been believing God for that haven't happened or some things that you'd like to have more clarity on, I wanna encourage you that God is working in your situation, that God will never leave you or forsake you, he hasn't abandoned you, and God uses these difficult seasons to create a scenario where his plans and his purposes come to a place of fulfillment in your life, and that's what happened with Priscilla and Aquila, you can say as an act of serendipity, but obviously we feel providentially they had to Corinth from Greece, and then Paul heads to Corinth from Athens, and they meet there and they just happened to both be tent makers. I don't know if they met at like Joanne's fabrics or how that works in your a tent maker, but God connected them in that moment, and God had a plan for their lives, how that Paul was gonna influence their lives, how they were gonna influence Paul's life, and all of it happened in the midst of chaos, and in the midst of uncertainty, and in the midst of not knowing the plan that God had, and yet God connected the dots. And so let me just say this to us, in your life you're going to have struggles, you're going to have trials and tribulations. Sometimes we think or we've heard theology that's erroneous that says if you're a real person of faith, then you shouldn't have this, and no one should get sick in your family and you shouldn't have these issues, and it's just not true. Jesus said in John 16, in the world you will have tribulation, but take heart, I've overcome the world. Our perspective when we go through trials is of vital importance. If we can keep our eyes on Jesus, if we can stay in a place of faith and stay in a place of praise, then no matter what you're going through, God is working and God is connecting the dots in your life to bring forth his ultimate purpose. And so stay in a place of praise, stay in a place of thanksgiving, stay in a place where you're thanking God for his provision, even when you don't see it. That's what it means to walk by faith and not by sight. And when you change your perspective and you choose to believe in the goodness and love and faithfulness of God, even when it's difficult, everything changes, everything changes. That's what Paul's and 2 Corinthians 4, it's one of my favorite scriptures. His perspective of God's goodness changed the perspective of what he was going through. So he said this, I may be hard pressed on every side, but I'm not crushed. And I may be perplexed, but I'm not in despair. And I may be persecuted, but I've not been forsaken. And I may be struck down, but I will not be destroyed. For greater is he who's in me than he who is in the world. And I'm an overcomer by the blood of the Lamb and the word of his testimony. And he who began a good work in me will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus. That is how you speak life over yourself. That is how you speak and prophesy even in the midst of storms in your life. The promises of God are yes and amen in him. And so Paul connects with Priscilla and Aquila in this fashion. They both kind of come through these difficult tension in their lives. And then the second thing is that we learn from Priscilla and Aquila is that God's plan includes every one of his children recognizing their kingdom commission and call. So there's a progression of events in the life of Priscilla and Aquila that I just wanna take us through. And hopefully it will encourage you. So they come to Corinth through difficult circumstances. They're connected with Paul. And the first thing they do is they show Paul hospitality. They're both tent makers. Paul doesn't have a place to stay. I like what it says in verse three. It says, and because he, Paul was of the same trade, he stayed with Aquila, he stayed with them and worked for they were tent makers. And then verse 11 says, and he stayed a year and six months teaching the word of God among them. So Priscilla and Aquila said to Paul, you can stay with us. And this isn't like, you know, guest quarters, fresh prints of Bel Air status. This is like we all live in a one room thing and you can crash on our couch. For 18 months, they're with Paul and they just opened up their home. And in that time, they began to be discipled by Paul. They began to understand Paul's theology and who he was and the act of hospitality opened the door for the plans and purposes of God in their life. And I wanna encourage you, some of you have the gift of hospitality. You never know when you open up your home. You never know when you prepare a meal for somebody, the impact that you're having on their life and that ultimately it can have on yours. Don't minimize the gift of hospitality. It's a beautiful thing and it's often opens the door for relationship and for opportunities. That's exactly what happened with Priscilla and Aquila. So they're making tents, they're living together. He's reasoning with the Jews and Greeks telling them about Christ, Paul is. And then they go on and they leave. And in verse 18, it says this, after this, Paul stayed many days longer and then took leave of the brothers and set sail for Syria and with him, Priscilla and Aquila. So he takes them with him. At Centria, he had cut his hair for he was under a vow and they came to Ephesus and look what it says and he left them there. But he himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. So he goes and he goes to on a trip and they stop in Ephesus with Priscilla and Aquila and he leaves them there to disciple believers. He's poured into them, he takes them with him. He says, I'm gonna keep going. I want you to establish a church here in Ephesus. I want people to meet in your home and I want you to tell them about Jesus. So there's been this discipleship process in the lives of Priscilla and Aquila. So Paul takes off, he leaves them there and then look what it says in verse 24. Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus though he only knew the baptism of John. So here's this man, they're in Ephesus, they have people meeting in their home. There's another communicator, his name is Apollos and he's smart, eloquent, knows the scriptures well. He starts getting a following actually. You can read about that in Corinthians where there was some sort of tribalism that took place where Paul had to say, look, don't start saying, I was baptized by Paul, I was baptized by Apollos. No, there's only one Christ and Paul goes on to say, I planted but Apollos watered and God gives the increase. So he is a prominent figure in scripture. Some theologians believe he may have wrote the book of Hebrews, no one really knows who wrote Hebrews, we're not given the author's name, but so here's this man and he's teaching and he's proclaiming, but it says he only knows the baptism of John, he was a disciple of John the Baptist. So he understood repentance but he didn't understand fully the impact of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He didn't recognize the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and he didn't recognize God's plan for Jews and Gentiles to worship together. So his theology was incomplete and look what it says in verse 26. And he, Apollos, began to speak boldly in the synagogue but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. And then when he wished to cross to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. And when he arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public showing by the scriptures that Christ was Jesus. So here's this man, he's teaching, he's proclaiming, he's charismatic, he's a great communicator and I wanna just point this out. Priscilla and Aquila hear him. They're like, man, this guy's good. This guy has passion, he's fervent for the Lord but he doesn't understand some things fully and so they take him aside and they begin to communicate to him the full scope of the gospel. And when they do that, when they disciple him, when they reveal these things to him, he's then launched to another church, he's walking in a greater dimension of power and anointing in Christ. And the key I want us to hear today is that they pulled him aside and began to teach him some of the things he didn't know without a critical spirit, without yelling at him. They didn't get on Facebook and say, Apollos is a heretic, don't listen to anything he says. Right, they didn't start pulling up every time he spoke and taking little snippets and creating a YouTube channel about why he's not godly and why he's not a good minister. They quietly took him aside and they said, look, there is some things we want you to know about the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ and what I want us to know today is that too often, even as Christians, we're far too critical of leaders in the church and of communicators in the church. It's because of social media, I get it, exasperates it but we hear people and I'm not talking about heresy, I'm talking about differences of opinions, different ministries, things like that where we are like, oh, I can't believe what they said and I can't believe what they're doing and I'm just gonna tell you, as a reading a church, we've heard some of the pushback from some of the guests that we've had. Mike Bickel, Bethel, there's people who are like, man, I can't believe you have a Bethel artist on staff, I can't believe you had Eric Johnson here and don't you know that they believe this and he believes that and look, here's what I'm just gonna tell us. His pastor Lee has relationship with all these people, he knows them, he asks them questions, he's not gonna have somebody in here who is gonna speak contrary to the gospel but pastor Lee is not going to blast people who we may have a different opinion about some things, he's gonna have a respectful conversation and there's gonna be dialogue and that's how it should look in the body of Christ when we disagree and I guess I'm bringing that up because I am the email buffer so I make sure that none of the email is not in this room but people out there, Portage probably, I'm just kidding, send and say, did you know that they do this and they do that and there's people who spend the majority of their time, energy and lives digging up stuff about other people and I'm saying do not do that. You can have a difference of opinion but what happens is you adopt a critical spirit and you don't even know what's happening and we do it in this way of well I'm a watchdog and I'm just looking out and I'm concerned but what happens is you become consumed with negativity and a critical spirit and it carries over into other areas of your life and we don't even recognize it most of the time. We think that we're actually helping and we're not and believe me, I get the emails and I don't often respond because I'm just like I don't even know what to say. I got an email once, well I heard that radiant church only cares about lights and smoke. I'm like, well we care about snacks. Let me just tell you that first of all. You should see the break room, we have donuts. So we care about lights, smoke and snacks and then I hit send. I'm like, what is that, I don't understand. Why are you wasting your energy and your time and let me just tell you as we head into downtown, as we head into a different battleground if you will, it's only gonna ratchet. There's only gonna be people who are gonna be hypercritical of some of the biblical stances we take of some of the, and our job is to love, our job is to believe the best, our job is to say the grace of God says come as you are, the goodness of God says don't stay where you are. That's our role as Christians. So I just wanna prepare us. We need to be a lot more like Priscilla and Aquila. We need to have non-critical spirits. We need to speak in love and we need to believe that God is using people powerfully even if we're not fully aware of what that looks like. Does that make sense? Okay, good. All right, I didn't wanna be mean. Okay, it's great. Next thing they did in this progression is they left comfort behind. They left comfort behind. So they showed hospitality. They were given leadership positions. They discipled leaders in a healthy way and then they did something that required risk. I want you to see what Paul says about them in Romans chapter 16. This is one of the times he references Priscilla and Aquila in verses three and four. It says, greet Priscilla and Aquila. He's writing the church in Rome. Look what he calls them. My fellow workers in Christ Jesus who risked their necks for my life to whom not only I give thanks but all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks as well. You can read different translations who risked their lives, who put themselves in a precarious position but Priscilla and Aquila at some point did something that incurred risk and was a step out of comfort for them and Paul acknowledges it in Romans chapter 16. And no one really knows for sure what it is. Some scholars believe it might have something to do with the riots and Ephesus. You can read about in Acts chapter 19 where the whole city's in uproar because of the idols that are being destroyed and the commerce that's taking a hit because of Christianity and literally they're getting ready to kill Paul, Silas and everybody. So maybe they did something to interject at that point but somewhere along the line, Priscilla and Aquila took a risk for the gospel. Did something outside of their comfort zone and Paul said, you risked your necks. You put yourselves out there and I'm not only grateful all of the churches of the Gentiles, thank you. The impact you have didn't just save me one person but generationally people are going to know Christ and are gonna grow up in church and in faith because of the risk that you took. And what I feel like the Lord saying to us today in 2019 is that we cannot stay comfortable as Christians. When's the last time you took a risk for the gospel? When's the last time you put yourself in an uncomfortable position when it came to maybe somebody you needed to talk to, somebody you needed to pray for, somebody you needed to reach out to. Whatever it is, God is always looking to push us out a little deeper in our faith. It's what John Iverick and talked about a few weeks ago. Deep isn't like theological jargon that no one understands. Deep is being over your head. Is being in a place where I can't do this in my own strength. I need the Lord to intervene. I'm in a place of being uncomfortable because my feet aren't touching. And God wants that for every single one of us. If you've never been uncomfortable in your Christianity, I'm gonna challenge you and say, you're not following Jesus the way you're supposed to. If your Christianity has never made you uncomfortable, if you've never had a situation where you've had to pray through it, where you've had to defend your faith, where you've had to do something that puts you in a precarious position, God is stirring that up in you right now and saying there's more for you. The reason so many Americans think Christianity is boring is because we never put ourselves in a risky position. We just check a box, okay, I'll come to church, but I don't wanna be radical and I don't wanna bring God anywhere else. I like God right here in the sanctuary. And we're surrounded, listen to me, by millions of people who live their lives with no hope, with no real ideal of the reality, of eternity, without recognizing that all of us are gonna stand before God someday and give an account for our lives. And we have millions of people around us who just kind of go through the grind of the day and we're watching the clock and, oh man, is it five o'clock and I'm working for the weekend and is this over and they don't like anything that they're doing, they don't have any purpose or plan for their lives, that should not be how Christians live. Every day you should be waking up and saying, God, how can you use me to be a light to the people around me? How can you use me to further and advance the gospel? What are risks that I can take today? Maybe God's saying to you, you need to go on a mission trip, maybe he's saying you need to forgive your ex-husband, maybe he's saying you need to become a giver and your comfort says, I can, it's too much, it's too soon, but God is saying, no, take a step of faith and risk something because you never know how many people you're gonna impact. Brazil and Aquila weren't thinking in the moment, man, this is really gonna make us look good and Paul's gonna probably write about us in Romans 16, no. They just took a risk and Paul says, you don't even know, it's not just me you affected, it's generations to come of the Gentiles that your faith and your risk and your willingness to be uncomfortable provided for people. There's people in this church, many, but I'm gonna brag on a few, Larry and Deb Boss, if you don't know them and Dave and Sharon Klein, they're fairly normal people. They have lives, they have jobs, they have things that they're doing and God prompted them and said, look at the orphans in the nation of Myanmar and we want you to do something about it and listen, they, again, they're successful people, they have comforts, they have things that are going on, they have children, they have, I'm sure things, other things they're thinking about, but in that moment, God prompted them and they got on a plane and they went over there and they started an orphanage on literally the other side of the world and they're providing homes and schooling for children, for parents of those children, cleft palate repair for children who would never be able to have the surgery and they took a massive risk and I'm telling you, at some point they're gonna stand before the Lord and just like Paul said, I don't just thank you, the Gentile churches thank you, there's gonna be a day where people from Myanmar stand up and say, I don't just thank you, all of these thousands of children who grew up to know Jesus because you took a risk, thank you for what you did. Amen. That's what it looks like. That's what it looks like and listen, not all of us can plan an orphanage, not all of us can stop a riot and emphasis, but all of us can do something to put ourselves in a position to be used by God. All of us can. We don't want to be before God someday and have to say, I wish I had filled in the blank. I wish I had gone on that trip, I wish I had started that business, I wish I had taught my kids to read the Bible and pray more, I wish all of these things that in the moment we say, oh man, I'm busy, I don't have time, can someone else do that and take a risk, take a risk for the Lord, live an adventurous life for Jesus, put yourself out there and I'm telling you, we're in the deep, God says, I won't let you drown, just like Peter who walked on the water, began to see the winds and the waves and Jesus wasn't like, I told you, look at me. No, he reached his hand out and he said, I'll take you, but if you never take the risk, you'll never know the reward and I'm not talking about our reward, I'm talking about people that you impact so they took a risk and then the last thing I wanna say this morning is the kingdom of God needs tent makers. That's what Priscilla and Aquila were, they made tents, doesn't sound that exciting. The Bible doesn't say they wrote any of the books of the Bible, the Bible doesn't record any super miracles that they were a part of, they were just tent makers, but they didn't see themselves as only tent makers, they saw themselves as ministers in the kingdom of God that just happened to make tents for a living and they refused to be identified by what they do instead of who they are and they recognize we're children of God, we've been saved by grace, the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead is alive inside of us and yes, we need to make tents and yes, we need to make a living but we need to do it through the lens of being ministers and ambassadors for God. Look at, if you have your Bible, turn to 2 Corinthians chapter five, I just wanna read this to you, it's one of my favorite chapters of the Bible because Paul is seeing people come to Christ in Corinth and Corinth was like Las Vegas, they had massive immorality, massive corruption, massive idol worship and these people are coming to Christ and they got these terrible backgrounds and so in verse 17, Paul says, look, anyone who's in Christ is a new creation. Old things have passed away, don't worry about what happened, don't worry about who you were, all things become new, it's the good news of the gospel of Jesus. And he says, verse 18, all this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself. So the first thing God does to you as a believer is he reconciles you. He gives you relationship with the Father through Jesus, your past doesn't define you anymore, the work of Jesus Christ, his blood shed for you, defines who you are and you're reconciled, you have right relationship with God. So he reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. Look at your neighbor and say you're in the ministry. Oh my, we're all, what, nuns? You gotta say it louder, look at the other neighbor. Say you're in the ministry. Come on now, I know all the introverts love when I do that, I'm sorry, all right, he gave us you the ministry of reconciliation. Well, what's that you ask? I'm glad you asked, look at verse 19, that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself through Jesus, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Verse 20, therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us, we implore you on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God, we're ambassadors, you're an ambassador, you're a minister, you might be a tent maker, you might have a different profession, but you are called and equipped to be an agent of change wherever God has you. Priscilla and Aquila were tent makers, they weren't super ninja missionary turtles. I'm pretty sure that's true, they were not that, but what were they? They were willing, they saw themselves differently and they said, we're going to open the doors of opportunity through hospitality, through learning, through spending time with God, through recognizing our call, and we're gonna make an impact in the world around us. That's what happens. You don't need a title, you don't need to be a pastor, you don't need to go overseas to be a missionary, God wants you to be a missionary right where you are. I'll never forget, I had upfront for prayers, probably like 10 years ago, it was a long time ago, and this gentleman came up and says, I need you to pray for me. And I said, okay, what are we praying for? He goes, I need a different job. I got to switch jobs, Pastor John. I'm like, why? Everyone that I work with is a heathen. They're terrible people, they swear, they use the Lord's name in vain, some of them, some of them go to the strip clubs on their lunch break, which I don't recommend, obviously, but, and I said, so what do you wanna do? He goes, well, I wanna get a job at a church. I wanna get a job. Will you pray that I get a job at a church where it's like easier and people love Jesus? And I said, no, I won't pray that. And he was like, what? I was like, I'm not saying you couldn't work at a church, but I want you to think through a different lens. Is it possible that God has you right now in a dark place because he wants your light to shine into that dark place? And I get it, it comes with its own trials, it comes with its own challenges. Ask Daniel, who was in a Babylonian culture, which was as wicked as it gets, and he still decided to pray, and he still decided to not bow down to Nebuchadnezzar, and he got thrown into a den of lions. But he said in his heart, I'm not gonna compromise, but I'm also not gonna just turn my back, I'm going to shine my light. People saw him pray, that's why they reported it. The King Nebuchadnezzar. And I said to him, what I want to pray for you is that you recognize you're an agent of change, that you're different, that maybe just like Esther, you've been called for such a time as this. And I'm not saying you have to be the savior. God alone can do that, but when you shine the light of Jesus, it creates an opportunity for people to see God in you. And that's what I want to pray for. And I don't, and we did. And I don't know what happened. I didn't keep up with him, he's not around, but man, too many Christians have this idea that I need to get out of here because no, we don't run from darkness, we shine into darkness and it ceases to be dark. That's what darkness is. Darkness isn't even a thing, it's just the absence of light. And so when we as light shine into darkness, it's illuminated and it's not magic and it doesn't happen instantaneously, but when God's people recognize their call to be agents of change, it makes all the difference in the world and God will use you and it will be exciting and you'll have challenges and you'll see fruit and you'll go, wow, it's pretty cool to be a Christian. I want you to write something down. This is the last thing, it's gonna come up on the screen. It's a confession that I want you to confess over yourself. Maybe every morning for a week, maybe every morning for the rest of your life, but it is a shift in identity for us as followers of Jesus. So often we get wrapped up in what we do. And so, you know, you talk to a stranger in the first 10 seconds, what do you do? Oh, I'm a plumber, I'm a doctor, I work in finance. I'm a teacher, I'm a student and there's nothing wrong with that, I get it. But it's not really who you are, it's what you do. And so I want there to be a shift when you go to your job, when you go to your school, whatever it is, and this is what I want you to say every single morning, I'm an ambassador for Christ. First and foremost, covertly disguised as a fill in the blank, construction worker, stay at home mom, lawyer, teacher, student, whatever it is, that's what you're disguised as, but at the end of the day, you're an ambassador for Christ and you're called to convey the love and truth of Jesus to the people in your sphere of influence. I'm telling you, it sounds maybe weird, but it's a radical shift in your direction. If you go into every meeting, every workspace, every family reunion, whatever it is, with the idea of I'm an ambassador for Christ, it's not me, I am only reflecting the love and grace of Jesus. I don't have to be God, I just have to be light for Him and it changes everything. We guys stand up with me if you would, I just want to pray that over you as a church and I want you to just to close your eyes right now and think about your own situation. Think about what risk is God asking you to take? What step that may be uncomfortable does God want you to do? And I'm not talking about boldness being a personality trait. It's not like, well, you don't know, John, I'm a quiet person, you can be. You can be, boldness is not a personality trait, it comes from knowing God. And the more that you know Jesus, the more that you spend time with Jesus, the more confidence you're going to have to be used. I'm not talking about your own strength, I'm not talking about yelling and manufacturing something, I'm talking about downloading from the Lord, what do you want me to do? And God's not gonna leave you hanging. God's not gonna make you do it on your own, He's gonna give you the grace, the courage to say yes to every invitation that He has. We just close your eyes and Father, I pray for this church. God we are, we're stepping into uncharted waters, we're expanding our footprint, God, not so that we can look good, but that we, God, can give glory to you, that we can impact more people with the love, goodness, and salvation that comes only from Jesus Christ, God. That's what we want for downtown, that's what we want for Richland, that's what we want for Portage, and every single surrounding city, township, county, God, is that Jesus Christ would be glorified. But Father, you wanna use us, we're ambassadors for Christ. It's not someone else's job, it's not the missionaries, it's not the super pastors, it's all of us recognizing the call. So I pray God that every person in this room would be filled with courage, filled with boldness from the Holy Spirit that says, are you willing to pray? Are you willing to step out? Are you willing to invite? Are you willing to forgive? Are you willing to create an environment where you don't have to be in control and let me lead you? God, you're our leader, fear is not our leader. You are, fill us today, Father. And God, above all, I ask that you give us compassion for people, for the hurting, for the loss that God, we wouldn't become frustrated. We wouldn't become those who point at darkness but those who shine our light, God, the light of Christ. We love you, we honor you, we consider it God, a privilege to be vessels of the glory of God, broken and insufficient as we are. You've chosen us to be the carriers of your glory and we thank you for it and we wanna honor you with it in Jesus' name and everyone said, amen. Let's give the Lord a huge hand clap. Can we do that this morning? Amen.