Intro / Review:
Leaving a Legacy: 4 Things I'd Like to Say at Your Funeral:
- Your name here had a sincere Faith. (Acts 20:17-21)
- Your name here followed Jesus, even when it was Hard. (Acts 20:22-24)
- Your name here loved God's Word. (Acts 20:25-30)
- Your name here loved to Give. (Acts 20:31-35)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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01:02-01:04
Alright, open up your Bibles with me please.
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The book of Acts, chapter 20.
01:09-01:21
We're going through this series in Acts called "The Unstoppable Church" and this is going to be our last message in the book of Acts until October.
01:23-01:25
This is a big passage to end on.
01:27-01:42
While you're turning to Acts chapter 20, We've been following the Apostle Paul and his missionary journeys, and at this point, he's on his third trip where he went back to Ephesus where he stayed for three years.
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Remember, we talked about the riot that broke out.
01:45-01:47
It was actually stopped by the mayor.
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Last week, we saw in 20.1, "The uproar ceased, but the ministry did not." And now Paul's on his way to Jerusalem.
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with an offering for the poor saints in Jerusalem from the Gentile churches.
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And he's trying to get there before Pentecost.
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Remember last week we saw in verse 16 that the Apostle Paul, while he was traveling, it says that he avoided going to Ephesus.
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And it wasn't because he hated Ephesus, or there's somebody in Ephesus I still owe five dollars to, or something like that.
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It was actually the opposite.
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It was because he loved the church so much that he knew going there would stop his travel plans.
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And we saw that he went to a place called Miletus, which was 30 miles south.
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Look at verse 17.
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It says, "Now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him." Okay, so to give you sort of a context for what's happening in this passage, if we were to put it in more modern day speak, imagine that I was traveling from Erie to Pittsburgh, and it was really important that I get to Pittsburgh for some God assignment.
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I said, "Well, I'm not going to stop in Wexford." And here's why.
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Because I know when I stop in Wexford, it's going to delay my trip.
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I'm going to run into Levi.
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I'm like, "Hey, man, how's the music going?" and I want to hear all about it, and I'm going to see Jared and Rachel, and I'm like, "Man, the newlyweds, how's it going?
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And how are the pigs? I'm going to want to talk to you guys." And next thing you know, I'm just going to go around the room, "Oh, there's the Campbells, how are you guys doing?" And I think Paul was a lot like me, or I was a lot like Paul.
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He just knew, like, you can't stop.
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You're not going to get out of there in a timely fashion.
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He said, "I have some things I need to tell the church.
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Get the elders here." So it would be like, again, in a more modern day scenario, if I called ahead and said, "Hey, you know where the parking lot is in Warrendale?
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Tell the elders to meet me there.
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Because I've got some things to tell the church, but I'm not going to have time to stop." Okay, that's what's happening in this passage.
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Paul had some final words for this church, and they all circle around the legacy that he's leaving behind.
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As we look at this passage, I want to remind you that you are leaving a legacy behind too.
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Good or bad, righteous or sinful, you are leaving a legacy behind.
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It's not a matter of do you want to.
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It's a matter of what kind are you.
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I will never forget this.
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Many years ago, I got a call from Geibel's Funeral Home in Butler.
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They had somebody had passed away, it was a young girl that was killed actually in a car accident.
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And they asked if we would do the funeral since she didn't have a church home.
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And typically in those situations when I go in there I try to find a family member so I can share some general eulogy information, you know, here's the kind of person she was.
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Not being presumptuous like I knew her, but to just start the funeral service.
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You know, here's who she was and here's what she liked to do.
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and try to give a little bit of a personal touch.
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I remember sitting down at the funeral home with the girl's father, the girl's 28, and like I said, died in a car accident.
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I sat down with the girl's father, and I told her I'd like to share some general eulogy information.
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What are some things that I could share about your daughter?
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And he just, he sat and he just stared at the table.
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And after a while he said, "I don't know." I said, "Well, what are some things that she did?
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I mean, was she into gardening?
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Did she like art?
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Did she like to go to the movies?" He just stared at the table and he said, "I don't know." And I said, "Well..." At this point I'm just sort of grasping at straws.
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I said, "Can you think of anything that she liked to do?" Finally he looked up from the table.
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"Yeah, she liked to do drugs." Wow. She left a son behind, a young son.
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That story always stuck with me, thinking, "Here's a woman whose life was sadly cut short from our perspective, and this was the best that her closest relative could come up with to say, 'Here was her legacy.' She liked to do drugs." Now, obviously I didn't share that in the funeral.
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But you understand my point, right?
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You're leaving a legacy behind, whether you intend to or not.
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Is it righteous? Is it sinful? Is it for Christ?
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Or is it for something much lesser?
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So this was the last time the Ephesian elders were going to see Paul, were going to see it in the passage.
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And in a sense, you could say that this was sort of like Paul preaching his own funeral.
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He tells him, "You're never going to see me again." And I want you to remember some things.
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I want you to remember the example that I left you in following Christ.
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And as I was studying this this week, and I was obviously thinking about you, church, and some of you as individuals, I was thinking, "What am I going to say at your funeral?" You're like, "Guess what you do all week, Pastor Jeff, huh?
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Just sit in your office and imagine what you're gonna say when I die." Well, let's not have your funeral anytime soon, okay?
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But what legacy are you leaving?
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And these things we're going to see in the text, these are things that I would hope.
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I honestly, I would like these things to be said about me.
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And I hope to say them about you.
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So on your outline, if you're taking notes, leaving a legacy, there's four things I'd like to say at your funeral.
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Four things I'd like to say at your funeral.
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Number one, write this down.
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Well, first of all, here's -- okay, with the blanks on the outline, the first blank is always your name, okay?
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It's always your name.
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So you can go through right now.
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I'm going to give you a second.
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The first blank and all those, just write your name.
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Don't write like Y-O-U-R-N-A-M-E.
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What's your first name in the first blank all the way down?
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And I'll tell you what goes in the other blanks.
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Number 1, he had a sincere faith.
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She had a sincere faith.
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Again, we'll pick up on verse 18 where we left off.
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It says, "And when they came to him, when the Ephesian elders met Paul and Miletus, He said to them, "You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears, and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews, how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable and teaching you in public and from house to house, both the Jews and Greeks of repentance for God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Let's stop there. Can I say this about you at your funeral? Can I say that?
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Levi had a sincere thing. Notice the first thing that Paul says, verse 18, he says, "You Paul knew that he wasn't blowing smoke here, he wasn't deceiving these people.
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He says, "You yourselves know that my lifestyle matched my theology. How's that going for you?
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Do you live what you say you believe?" Look at this statement that Paul makes. We could spend a whole sermon just on this one statement.
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He says, "You yourselves know, first of all, how I lived. You know how I lived." Paul wasn't like in the office 168 hours a week, never with the people, never in small groups, never at any church functions.
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He says, "You saw how I lived." Again, next phrase, "among you." And Paul didn't isolate himself like some preachers do.
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I will show up and grace you with my presence when it's time to speak, but until then, leave me alone.
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He said, "No, I was among you." Look at the next phrase, "the whole time." The whole time.
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That it wasn't like, you know what, Paul, he had a really good month.
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I remember is like back in like February was and then it seemed like March things really went sour and and Then we had a really hard time getting him back on track in April. He says the whole time the whole time From the first day from the first day meaning yeah when Paul came to us he was a Little pagan around the edges, but over time he sort of changed. He said, "No, you saw from day one the kind of person that Christ made me to be, and how I lived among you." Church, this is where it falls into our laps, because you know what?
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You can fool me. You can fool me, because I see you on Sunday morning, here and there at the church picnics.
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My small group I see a lot more.
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But you can fool me.
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You can even come here and fool the rest of the church members.
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And there's probably some of you here that can even fool your small group.
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But if you're married, you're not fooling your spouse.
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Your spouse knows the kind of person that you are.
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And if you have children, your children know the kind of person that you are.
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So what's the gap between what you say you believe and how that shows up in your life?
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Like, well, what does sincere faith look like?
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What's all in verse 19, jot some words down.
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We're gonna go through these quickly.
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Like I said, we could spend so much time on this.
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I'm gonna go through this quickly though.
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What does sincere faith look like?
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Verse 19, he says, "Serving the Lord," first of all, he says, "with all humility." serving, humility.
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Write down the word "submissive." What does sincere faith look like?
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Write down this word first of all, it's "submissive." Paul says, verse 19, "Serving..." What does your Bible say?
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"Serving..." Say it again, "Serving the Lord." Not serving himself, not even serving the church.
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He said, "I'm serving the Lord." And how did he do it?
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What's the next phrase?
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with all humility." Humility.
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That's submissive.
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Look at the next phrase.
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He says, "And with tears." Write this word down.
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Write down "passionate." Not only is sincere faith submissive, sincere faith is also passionate.
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That doesn't mean you have to be a crier, like some of us are.
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But it means you should be passionate, that looks like for you.
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Next phrase, he goes, "And with trials." He says, "I started with tears and with trials." Write down this word, sincere faith is persevering.
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We'll talk more about that in a couple minutes.
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Sincere faith, write this word down, it's edifying.
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It's edifying.
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He says, "I did not shrink back from declaring to you anything that was profitable." Sincere faith is consistent.
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That's where he says he taught publicly, taught house to house to the Jews, to the Greeks.
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Basically he's saying everywhere, everyone it was the same message.
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See Paul wasn't like, you know, when I'm with this group of people I act this way, and when I'm with this group of people I act this way, and when I'm in this place I act a certain way, and when I'm in this place, he was consistent in his message no matter where he was or who he was with.
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Like, you know, more Jesus for these people, but these people maybe a little less Jesus for them.
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He was consistent. That comes from a sincere faith.
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Write down this last word here, complete.
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Sincere faith is complete. Meaning what?
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Look at this last phrase in verse 21.
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He says, "Testifying both the Jews and the Greeks of repentance toward God, and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ." That is the gospel.
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There's two sides of it.
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There's repentance that's literally changing your mind.
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Repentance is when you get to that point that you look at your sin, and you're like, "I thought I loved this. I don't love this.
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this is disgusting it dishonors God and it's ruining my life and it's a change of mind I don't love this I'm not I'm I'm not doing this anymore and repentance is turning and here's the other side of it it's faith in our Lord Jesus Christ it's turning to Christ and saying I need you to transform me I can't I can't hate the sin and avoid this sin in the flesh God I need you to transform me and I That's the gospel. It's repentance and it's faith.
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You see, we have a tendency to be a little lopsided with that, don't we?
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For some people it's just condemnation, judgment, and you're a sinner, and you're going to hell, and you need to repent, and you don't ever hear the grace side of it.
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But for some people it's just like, "You know what? Jesus loves you.
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It's all good. It's all good.
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And they never talk about turning from sin.
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Authentic faith comes from a complete gospel.
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Turning, that's repentance.
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Turning from your sin, turning to Christ, receiving the forgiveness and eternal life that He offers.
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So if I was at your funeral, I just want you to imagine, imagine it's your funeral.
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And you're like, "Yeah, I'm just laying there in that casket." And I said, "She had a sincere faith.
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She had a sincere faith." What in your mind's eye, what do you see your family doing when I say that?
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Do you see your family sitting there going, "Yeah, you know what? She did.
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She really did love Jesus Christ." Or would you see your family sort of doing awkward, put their head down, like, "Well, the preacher thought she was sincere, but boy, He didn't see her the other 167 hours of the week.
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Convicting, right?
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Number one, he had a sincere faith. Number two, write this down.
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Four things I'd like to say at your funeral.
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If I go first, maybe things I have to say are mine.
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Number two, he followed Jesus even when it was hard.
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Look at verses 22 and 23.
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Paul says, "And now behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me." Paul knew what was ahead, but he followed the Spirit's guidance anyways.
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How in the world can you do that? Look at verse 24.
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How in the world can you march in knowing that you're going to be walking right into problems, imprisonment, and torture, and here's how.
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And verse 24, either you get it or you don't.
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Verse 24 says, "But I do not account my life of any value, nor as precious to myself.
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If only I may finish my course in the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus to God.
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It's assessing the value that you put on your life.
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That's how you get to the place where Paul was.
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To say, "I don't care what trials are ahead." Now understand that when Paul didn't count his own life as precious, he wasn't like Debbie Downer.
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I'm such a loser." That's not the case at all.
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You see, what Paul did was he put his life on the scale, and he put the gospel on the scale.
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And you need to do the same thing, and you need to ask yourself, "Which one has more weight?" For a lot of people, it's your life.
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My life has value. My life is precious.
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And when you do that, the gospel doesn't have the kind of impact in your life that it should.
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But you see, Paul was saying, "When I put them on the scale, The Gospel far outweighs the value of my life.
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Comparatively speaking, my life really isn't worth very much.
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Because the Gospel of Jesus Christ is infinitely valuable.
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That's why it doesn't matter.
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That's why all that matters is completing the mission.
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That's why all that matters is telling people about Christ.
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"But Paul, what about you and your comfort?" "It doesn't really mean anything to me." "But Paul, they could kill you." that's eventually what happened and Paul's like yeah but when you put it on the scale see trusting God and following Jesus it's so fun when it's easy isn't it so fun when it's easy like at a wedding yesterday had a wedding last week - it's falling crisis for when it's easy like you know I feel like God has called me to marry this person I just don't want to be obedient to what God's calling me to do it's fun when it's easy right or God opened this door for me to new job and I'm gonna be making so much more money and following Jesus is fun when it's easy but you really know how sincere your faith is when the trials come. Mark and I were talking about this this morning weren't we when it comes to trials everyone gets them right? Everyone gets them. That's what we said we were talking about this in my office like you got issues I got issues we all got You've got problems, but nothing proves your faith like perseverance in trials.
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Not only does it prove your faith to you, it's going to prove your faith to others.
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We've talked about that. We've seen it all through Acts.
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You see the sincere faith when the trials come, when the fires come.
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So at your funeral - by the way, I'm not going to lie at your funeral - Would I say, "You know what, her trials in life were just... they overcame her." Or would I be able to say, "You know what, you know what was wonderful about her life, was she followed Christ no matter how hard.
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No matter how difficult her life became, she would never give up following Jesus Christ." Thirdly, you might be able to say this at your funeral, He loved God's Word.
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Can I say that?
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At your funeral, he loved God's Word.
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Look at verses 25 and 26.
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"And now behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again.
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"Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all of you." He says, "I'm innocent." What does he mean by that?
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He's like, "Look, none of you can stand before God and say, 'I've never heard the gospel.
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I've never heard it.'" None of you can, you know, when you die, none of you are going to be able to stand before God and say, I didn't know about this plan of salvation around Jesus. I just never heard.
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Paul said, "I made sure that you knew who Jesus Christ was, and what He accomplished, and what that means to you." He said, "That's why I'm innocent of your blood." I love verse 27, he says, "For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God." He says, "I did not shrink." That's a term that means retreat.
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Why? Because, let's be honest, there's some parts of the Bible that aren't as fun to preach, right?
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And it's easy to just preach on what you want to preach on.
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You know, let's just do topical sermons every week.
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In fact, what was it, a couple years ago, there was a famous preacher who said that, he goes, "Pastors that preach the Bible expositorily," he says, "that's lazy." Pastor does nothing but topical messages.
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And I would disagree with him.
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I think it's far easier to preach topical messages.
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They just sit around and say, "What do I want to preach about?" "Oh, I know. I'll preach about God's love because everybody wants to hear about that." And I just make that my thing every week.
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"Hey, God loves you. God loves you." Is that true? Yeah, it's absolutely true.
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But is that everything that the Bible teaches? No.
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That's why he says, "I didn't shrink back from declaring to you the whole counsel of God." That's why at Harvest Bible Chapel we do expository preaching.
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We pick a book of the Bible, and if some of you have been with us long enough, you see we walk through it. We walk through Acts, we walk through Mark, We've walked through Colossians and Philippians and so many books in the Old Testament, the prophets, you know, like Jonah and Habakkuk and Haggai.
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We've walked through verse by verse, not skipping a verse.
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Because expository preaching forces us to talk about things that we might talk about otherwise.
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But things that God recorded in His Word, because obviously He wants us to know them, right?
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the whole council of god the whole council of god means not just your little pet doctrines how many people in here have a pet how many people have a pet, ok how many people in here have a pet doctrine like what do you mean by that, here's what i mean, you know you have a pet, you love your little pet you have a dog you have a great dog you have a great, i love your dog Not as good as my dog, 'cause everybody thinks their dog's the best, right?
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So we all love our dogs, right?
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And, um...
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Some people have doctrines like that.
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They just sort of cradle, and they love so much, and they want to insert it into every single conversation that can be had.
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Like, what are you talking about? I'm gonna give you some examples.
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One is, like, baptism.
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One time preaching at North Street. I think this sermon was about money or something.
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this guy he was visiting from out of town and rushed to pulpit right after Pastor Bob you were gone this guy rushed to pulpit he's like why didn't you talk about baptism I'm like because it wasn't in the text this guy was so bent about that he's like I can't believe that you're preaching to a group of people and you didn't mention baptism why was that such a big deal to him because that was his little pet doctrine gonna make sure you get that in because that's the most important thing in the Bible. Now look, do we believe in baptism and harvest Bible chapel? Yeah, obviously. Do we baptize? Yeah, obviously. Do we need to talk about it every single time we open our Bibles? Do we need to try to find it in every single passage even if it's not mentioned at all? No, because we're about the whole counsel of God. For other people it might be creation. We just did whole sermon on creation. Do I believe in creation? Absolutely. Six literal 24-hour days, that's what I believe, because I believe that's what the Bible teaches straightforwardly. Do I need to preach about creation every single sermon?
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But that's my pet doctrine! You can't preach about Paul talking to the Ephesian elders without first mentioning that God created the world on which they met in Miletus, and God created the people that eventually made the people that Paul met with. See, creation's right in there. For some people it's election. Do I believe in election? Yeah, I absolutely do. I believe that we have the responsibility to make a choice to follow Christ, but somehow over-encompassing that is the fact that God has chosen us in Christ. Do I Do I understand it? No.
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But I believe it.
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But I've met people that they want to talk about election constantly.
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Constantly!
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Like no matter what you're talking about, you have to insert this idea that only if God preordains you to do that, like the passage can be like, okay, like this passage here.
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Well, Paul went and met with the Ephesian elders at Miletus, and they're like, yeah, do you know why?
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predetermined that he was going to meet them there.
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Like, can we just assume that on the front end, right? Can we just assume that?
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No, you have to preach it.
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We could go on. For some people it's sign gifts, you know, pet doctrines.
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Just watch out for the pet doctrine people. One thing is everything in the Bible.
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And that's not preaching the whole counsel of God.
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The whole counsel, verse by verse, keeps me from choosing my favorites, forces me to cover it all.
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I really just want to reflect the text that we see when we come together.
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So if you're leaving here today and you're a little upset that I didn't spend any time talking about your pet doctrine, ask yourself, did I share what was in the text?
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That's really what matters.
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Look at verse 28.
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"Be careful to attention yourselves and all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God which He obtained with His own blood." By the way, just put a little mark in your Bible or underline that.
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We talk a lot about the end of the Bible says that Jesus is God, Jesus is God, absolutely He is.
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Here's a passage that says God is Jesus.
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It says that God obtained the church with His blood.
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Interesting way of putting it.
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Talking about the divinity of Christ, obviously.
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Verse 29, Paul says, "I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them.
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Therefore, be alert.
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Remembering that for three years I did not cease, night or day, to admonish everyone with tears.
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And now I commend you to God, the Word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.
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Stand firm in the truth.
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Be diligent in imparting the truth, knowing that the people you love are going to be exposed to teaching that comes from hell.
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There is so much damning and wicked teaching out there.
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It is ridiculous.
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And the only way that you're going to be protected from that is to be familiar with the real thing, right?
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That gets back to the whole counsel of God.
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This is why I do expository preaching.
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I want to hammer a passage into your head and into your heart, so that when you hear false doctrine, you can say, "You know what? No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
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We walked through that passage, and I know that's not what that says." So much bad stuff out there.
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Be familiar with God's Word, alright?
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The question for you is, do you love God's Word?
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Do you love all of it?
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growing in your ability to spot error.
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That's what I wanna be able to say about you at your funeral.
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I wanna be able to hold your Bible up and it's like tattered.
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Instead of like holding your Bible up and like, this was her Bible, it's still in the wrapper.
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He loved God's word.
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Finally, write this down.
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Your name in the blank, obviously.
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Loved to give.
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Loved to give.
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I want to be able to say that at your funeral.
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I want to say, you know, Big Ron loved to give.
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He loved to give.
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Look at verse 33.
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Paul says, "I coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel.
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You yourselves know," oh, there's that again.
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"You yourselves know that these hands I ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me.
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In all things, I have shown you that by working hard in this way, we must help the weak.
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And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He Himself said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." Those are the only words from Jesus' earthly ministry that aren't recorded in the Gospels, by the way.
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Something else about those words, That's not the magic phrase that we use when we get a bad Christmas present.
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Okay?
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"Oh, a hot pink and green scarf, thank you!" And we like to say to our family, "Well, you know, it is more blessed to give than to receive." That's not what that verse is about.
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For those who are givers, they know the truth.
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when Jesus said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." That might be another encouragement to take this Financial Peace University, right Alex?
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You'll experience what this verse means.
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It is more blessed to be a giver than to be a taker, and you're one or the other.
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You're either looking to give or you're looking to get.
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You're either looking to how can I get ahead or how can I be a blessing to others.
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How? Well, obviously money.
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To the church, to the needy, to missions.
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Also giving of time.
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Make serving at church a priority. We've talked about that.
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Serving a church at some point needs to be a priority.
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Am I going to be able to say that at your funeral?
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You know what? He loved to give.
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He loved to give.
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And this is a big deal because giving is the ultimate expression of love, is it not?
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Isn't giving the ultimate expression of love?
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You know the most famous verse in the Bible?
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John 3.16?
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"For God so..." Help me out. "God so..." He loved the world, right?
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How did God show that love?
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What's the next phrase?
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For God so loved the world, He gave, right?
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That's the ultimate expression of love, is giving.
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It's giving.
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It's natural, and it's lavish, and it's God-like.
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When you love, and that love drives you to give.
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What legacy are you leaving?
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Are you a giver?
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He was a taker.
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Look at verse 36.
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"When he said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all.
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There was much weeping on the part of all.
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They embraced Paul and kissed him, being sorrowful most of all because of the word he had spoken, that they would not see his face again.
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And they accompanied him to the ship." To the Ephesian elders, this was the end.
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This was like Paul's living funeral.
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Sad, isn't it?
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Sad reality is your end is going to come.
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And you too, like Paul, are going to be leaving a legacy.
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And what the world is asking, and what the world needs to know, what the world needs to see from you in the meantime, is the gospel of Jesus Christ work.
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Is it just a religion that you've sort of added to try to be a moral person?
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Or is there a genuine transforming born-again life change?
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People need to see does the gospel work So if you go before me Here's what I want to be able to say about you at your funeral You saw how the gospel was at work in their life You saw they had a sincere faith. They followed Jesus Christ even when it was hard They loved God's Word They were a giver I'm gonna be able to say that about you You know thinking of last words As many of you know a couple of years ago. I lost a very dear friend and a motorcycle accident and Sometimes things really come into perspective in the rear view mirror, right?
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And he called me the week before the accident, and he's not, you know people that are like, they're not phone guys, right?
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Most guys are like not phone guys, most.
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But this guy was really not a, he didn't like to spend time on the phone.
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But we talked for probably 45, 50 minutes on the phone the week before his accident.
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And I look back on that now, his name was Mike, and I look back on that now, and the things that he said in that conversation are going to stick with me the rest of my life.
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He had no way of knowing.
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See, Paul threw the inside scoop from the Holy Spirit.
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Paul knew that he wasn't going to see these guys again, but when Mike was telling me these things that I'm about to share with you, he didn't know this was going to be last real conversation he and I had.
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I think that God knows.
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Pretty sure.
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But in that last conversation, one of the things that Mike said, he said, "You know, Jeff, the older I get, the more I realize that, you know what, really the most valuable thing that we have on the earth, do you know what it is?" He says, "It's time." you know they're not making any more of that.
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You can always, he said you can always get more money, right?
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You can always go get another job and you can always go get more money.
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There's really no way that you can go get more time.
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So my question to you church is what are you doing with your time?
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What sort of a legacy are you leaving behind?
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Let's pray.
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Father in Heaven, we thank You for the incredible things that we have seen in Your Word.
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We thank You, Father, for the power of the Gospel.
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We are not assembled as a group of people trying to keep the rules of a book.
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We are assembled as a group of people who were once dead but have been made alive in Jesus' presence.
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Today, Father, we're just simply examining, are we walking with Christ?
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Are we showing the glorious truths and the realities of the Gospel?
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Can the world see?
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Father, we know it's easy to put on a show for the world.
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Jesus talks so much about that.
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Do not be like the hypocrites who love to stand in the synagogues and pray, and stand on the street corners and pray, who like to disfigure their faces when they fast, who like to sound trumpets before they give.
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Jesus told us that putting on a show before the world is very common.
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What about the people who know us best, Father, the people that we're closest with, the people that can tell whether or not our faith is authentic?
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Thank you for the example that we have from the Apostle Paul, and I thank you for examples we have in our day, the people that you placed in our lives that show us what the transformed life in Christ looks like.
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Father, let this be a day of examination.
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Grant us repentance where needed.
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We praise you, Father. In the glorious name of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Acts 20:17-35
What are the two sides of the Gospel, according to Acts 20:21? Why are both parts important? What happens if you leave a part out?
Who do you know that follows Jesus no matter how hard his/her life gets (Acts 20:22-23)? How does this person inspire you?
What are the characteristics of someone who loves God’s Word (Acts 20:25-32)?
are ways the church can keep youth from disengaging? How can you help?
Breakout Questions:
In which of these areas are you weakest?: Sincere faith, following Jesus during hard times, loving God’s Word, being a giver.
Have your breakout group pray for you to grow in that area.
