← ArchiveSunday, July 20, 2014DateJuly 20, 2014Speaker—TextActs 10Passages in this sermonActs 101:14TranscriptClick any line to jump there.0:00Like I said, sing it a little more often, you'll get it down. I'll tell you, no, I didn't mean that as a slam, Greg. I meant that, that you're getting pretty good at it. Now, the anchor holds is an important aspect of why we're where we are today, amen?0:30And it's because we know what the anchor is, and we know who the anchor is, and we know the importance of having the right anchor. There are a lot of people who have various anchors in their life. They anchor their life on the financial ability of themselves to remain stable. They anchor their lives on their physical ability to remain healthy. They anchor their lives on relationships that will support them and encourage them when0:59the only true anchor for anyone's life that covers all of areas of our life is Jesus Christ. And he holds us through all the storms. If you have your Bibles with you, I want you to turn with me to Acts chapter 10, Acts chapter 10. I want to do something today. And, you know, it's one of those things that, as someone has explicitly shared with me, being1:22a lame duck, I guess that's because I should waddle across the stage. You kind of preach things a little differently than you would be if I knew I was going to have to be here another five years. So, what I want to talk about is a passage that's very familiar. I've preached this passage a multiplicity of times, preaching through the book of Acts. You preach this passage. A lot of times we preach two different messages.1:51One of them's on Peter specifically. And then we preach the message that they're concerning Cornelius. And there's a good reason for that is. And that is that you don't want to be here all day. But today I'm going to do both of them. And I'm not going to, I'm going to try to keep us from being here all day. So, if you have Acts chapter 10, you will see at the very beginning, there's a little introduction. And there's a lot of text here concerning Peter's vision after we see Cornelius' plight.2:19And I'll just tell you, there are some things that I accepted, that I heard preached, that I just automatically assumed was right until you begin studying the Bible and find out that don't ever accept things that someone else says if there's not a scripture text to found it on. And I'll share that with you as we go through this text because this is a beautiful plight of two men.2:48It's a plight of two men. And there's a good chance that in this room today, each one of these men are represented. In this room. And if so, there's hope for all the men in this room. Now, the tragedy is if neither one of these men are, you can align yourself with them. And don't just throw Peter out because he was an apostle and we say, I could never compare3:17myself to the apostle Peter. Yes, you can. You can compare yourself to the life and the spiritual growth of the apostle Peter. Don't say I can't compare myself to a Cornelius because I'm a religious man. I'm a Christian. Well, you know, there's some interesting things that Cornelius brings to light concerning some things that I think we just automatically assumed God didn't do or did do.3:45So look with me as we read, beginning in chapter 10, verse 1 of Acts. At Caesarea, there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian cohort. In other words, the writer Luke, Dr. Luke, is giving us an identification of Cornelius.4:08He's a Roman soldier. He's a Greek. He is someone in whom a lot of responsibility has been paid. And with it, he has paid a lot of responsibility. By that, I mean, he has grown up in an era where he has been taught that Caesar was God.4:32He has been taught that the religion of his life was to serve an empire. And he learned it well because he had advanced from just being a normal soldier to becoming a centurion. So in other words, he was a good bad man.5:00He was a good bad man. He had done everything right to get where he was. And everything that he had done right to get where he was was wrong. Amen? Now you're going, wait a minute, let me think on that. No, seriously, think about it. If he has had to pay bribes, if he's had to show homage to Caesar, if he's had to be a pagan worshiper,5:25if he's had to do everything that a Roman centurion would have to do before he could rise up politically, then he's done those things. He's done whatever it took for Caesar to look upon him and for the Senate of Rome to look upon him and for the leadership of the military to look upon him, to bring him to the place where he is. He's done it well. He's done well being a bad guy and being wrong.5:55But we're going to see that that just doesn't match the character of what now is taking place. So he's a Roman of the Italian cohort. And then all of a sudden it says he's a devout man. Now we're getting into his religious side. There's a devoutness about him that has drawn the attention of Luke, that he has brought him to be an example for us in the word of God6:23as to what God is about to do in the early church to reach the rest of the world. And you know, I'm not so sure that this church and the modern church doesn't need to understand these same examples exist today in the other parts and other parts of the world we live in.6:49There was a devout man. He feared God with all of his household, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God. Now I want you to notice as you read that text that that God that he's praying to is a capital G, not a little g. It means he stepped out of the pagan world. He stepped into the religious world.7:18Now the best we can comprehend from the study of this passage is that some Jews have converted at least as much as they could convert a Greek to become a proselyte. And so that's what Cornelius is. He's a Jewish proselyte. Does it say that? No, but that's what we would have to come to understand that he is because a proselyte would be someone who's not a Jew but who seeks to become everything a Jew is and follow the God of the Jews7:48and follow the practices of Judaism as far as they can. Now we know because we know enough about Judaism that there are just certain things that a proselyte can do and there are a lot of things that a proselyte couldn't do because he could never be a full-blooded Jewish person who the temple would be open to on the day of sacrifice and other things.8:17He could do things in a limited manner and that might be a good study for some of you that want to go back and just read what are the rights and the privileges of a proselyte over the rights and privileges of someone born a Jew. And they're different and there are a lot of limitations but as best we can come to understand Cornelius is that proselyte and it goes on. He's a devout proselyte. He's a God-fearing person. His household gave, he gave alms to the people.8:47He prayed continually but about the ninth hour of the day God's going to intervene in this proselyte's life. He clearly in a vision, excuse me, he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God come in and say to him, Cornelius. And he stared at him in terror and he said, what is it, Lord? And he said to him, your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God9:15and now send me to Joppa and bring one Simon who is called Peter. He is lodging with one Simon a tanner whose house is by the sea and when the angel who spoke to him had departed he called two of his servants and a devout soldier, in other words, someone who was like him, someone he knew he could depend on to take this message because he realized that the soldiers9:45that were around him were not like him. They were not necessarily men of faith. They were not necessarily men who would be considered trustworthy with this information. And so he brought them in from among those who attended him and having related everything to them, he sent them to Joppa. Now, here, I actually heard this and it was debated among Baptists as preachers is that God10:13that God doesn't hear any prayers except the prayers of a lost person. That God never hears the prayers of a lost person. God only hears, I said that backwards, God only hears the prayers of the saved. And so when we pray as redeemed, saved people, God hears us as a lost person out there prays, God doesn't hear them. Well, that may be true as it is limited by the purpose behind the prayer.10:43For instance, if a lost person's out there praying for something to be done in their life and it doesn't relate in any way, form or fashion to God's purpose of praying for their life, there's a good chance God doesn't hear that prayer. But in the event that we have Cornelius here, there is a man who has bought in, and I don't mean that derogatorily, I mean that in his faith and in his desire to know God,11:12he has purposed himself to align himself with a religion that he believes is true. And so he has aligned himself with Judaism, it just so happens to be. And that is very important because I believe that that was still the religion that God and the relationship that God had with his people was through Judaism and the election of his people and the growing of his people and the bringing them to the point of their rebellion11:41and even to the point of the birth of the church because the church is birthed out of Judaism. The church is birthed out of Jews. The church, Jesus was a Jewish man. The apostles were Jewish men. The early disciples were Jewish people for the beginning. But the thing that I want us to point out and the one thing that a lot of people can relate to, you can be religious and you can be all about alms and you can be all about praying12:11and still lack the most important thing in your life. Now, as great as we read this passage and as great as Cornelius is, as fine a man as he is, God knows, the Holy Spirit knows, Jesus knows that he's lacking. My friend, I want to tell you something. I believe there are a lot of people in the church12:39that are like Cornelius. I believe there are a lot of people that have just become proselyte Baptists, they've become proselyte Methodists, they've become proselyte assemblies, they've become proselyte church members. In other words, they want and they see and yet their ambition is to be religious and to find an order of religion to be a part of without the relationship.13:06Now, the difference in that and what we read about Cornelius is that Cornelius was devout in his desire. In other words, Cornelius has a purity about his desire to know God. There is a desire in his heart not just to be a part of this Jewish religion, there's a desire in his life not just to be acclaimed to this religion,13:34but to actually be bought into, be a part of, be everything he can be that this religion will let him be so that he can know God. And he proves that because there are two things, and I thought this was interesting, there are two things that God makes note about Cornelius that one of them we just kind of want to shun. One of them is that he prayed. Now, that's important.14:04We all like to think that people pray. We all like to know, and we know that that's our way of communicating to God. You know, there's a lot of things that people don't realize. Did you realize prayer was a privilege? Prayer is a privilege given to every born-again believer, and Jesus Christ is very rarely used by most believers. But prayer is a privilege. God opened the door of heaven because of what Jesus Christ did and said, y'all can come pray to me. In other words, we know that unlike other denominational religions,14:31we don't need to go through anybody for God to hear us. And I think it's interesting that here is a man that I would consider lost. He does not know Jesus Christ. Now, some people might say, well, you've got to realize the dispensation that he lives in. And I don't get caught up in dispensationalism because you can break it up.15:00I'm not saying that it's not a reality and that they're not dispensations. The Old and New Testament proved there are two dispensations, and then there's the life of Jesus, and then there's the life of the church, and then there's the life after the church. I mean, after Jesus has gone up. But the thought of Cornelius here is just a really interesting concept and understanding of what God does in a lost person's life. Now, there are a lot of lost people15:27that can relate to Cornelius that are still lost because they're praying, and did you realize the second thing that God noted that Cornelius did? He paid. He prayed, and He paid. He gave. Cornelius was a giver. He gave alms. He gave a tithe. He made sure that he was doing everything that he could do religiously15:56to be approved by God so that he could be a part of the Jewish religion, so he could be this proselyte, and so he could be everything that he could be. In other words, he didn't just sit back and become a proselyte. He'd become a giving proselyte. My friend, I want to tell you, there are a lot of people that fill the pews of churches today that pray a lot but never give a lot. They never give a lot of themselves. They never give a lot of their tithe. They never give a lot of their anything.16:25They just kind of absorb, but not Cornelius. Cornelius is unique. Cornelius is praying. He's seeking God. He's devout. He's devoted to what he's doing. The Bible gives us several words that describe him, and those words are important as we can look them up. Devout means having or showing a deep religious feeling or commitment. You know, he was a devout Baptist.16:54He was a devout person in everything that he did. He was pious. He was religious. He was devoted. He was dedicated. He was reverent. And the Bible says he was even God-fearing. He feared God. That meant that his life now was being controlled by what he understood that he held to as truth, which was all that he had.17:24And you know, it wasn't enough. I can talk about Cornelius all day long. We can talk about how good he was all day long. But it wasn't enough. And why wasn't this enough? Well, that brings us to the second man that's in this story. The second man in this story, man, we know him. He is devout. He is God-fearing. He is under the control17:52and the love and the hope of the Lord Jesus Christ. We know him to be a man who by all means from the early days of his life, not afraid to speak his heart. He's not afraid to share what's on his mind. I mean, this guy has been speaking to people for a long time. He's been sticking his foot in his mouth to he's got the toe problems that most people have in his mouth. He's got athlete mouth.18:23That's what I meant to say. You know, he does. I mean, you know, you go back and you look at the life of Peter and time and time again, Peter's sticking his foot in his mouth. He's saying what we would think of the wrong thing and then he says the right thing and he gets everything right and not shortly thereafter, he gets it all wrong again and that's just Peter. But now Peter's changed. Things are different. The day of Pentecost has come. He's been filled with the Holy Spirit of God and he's out preaching. He's out teaching. He's healing.18:53He's healing. He's doing great things. Go back and you read the first few chapters of the book of Acts and just about every one of those chapters have something that Peter's done or Peter's doing and yet Peter's lacking in his life. So now we have two men, both devout, both God-fearing, both seeking to please God with their life and both of them lack something.19:21lack something. They don't both lack the same thing, okay? Don't hear me say that but they both lack something and I think Peter gives us a beautiful picture sometimes of those of us, yourselves, that know Jesus Christ as your Savior. You know if you die today you'd spend eternity in heaven and yet there are those that have just been stymied, stunted in their spiritual growth. They haven't allowed God to work through their life19:50so that they can fully be used by God to take the truth of God wherever they are. They've come to block walls, I would call them theological block walls, some of them. Some of them are just ideological walls. Some of them are walls of tradition that say, you know, I am not going any further than where I am and if there was anybody that had the right to say that at this point, that's Peter because Peter is an apostle.20:19He's the one who said, I'm going to give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. You have declared who I am. The Holy Spirit and you are talking. You are with it. Y'all are together on this thing. Y'all are right. You're all these things and yet in Peter's life, something is there, something's not there that he lacks. Now, if you've read this passage, you know what I'm talking about already. But you know, I got to thinking about that20:48and I got to thinking about, I wonder what lacks in my life. I'm a believer. I know Christ is my Lord and Savior. I've been a preacher. I've been pastoring since Samaria 33 years. I've been preaching. I can't tell you how many sermons I've preached. Somebody wrote a letter when they said I've preached over this many sermons in his lifetime. I can't tell you how many sermons I haven't kept up with them. Only heaven knows how many sermons I've preached. I'm glad I haven't kept up with them because some of them probably weren't very good anyway. But the reality is21:18that I wondered as I related this to this point, what about my life is there yet lacking? And here's what was lacking in Peter's life. Peter was Jewish. He was surrounded by law. He had broken loose from the law by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. But there were still unclean people in Peter's life. There were people who in Peter's life21:47that undoubtedly he felt like he could not socialize with because they were Greeks. They weren't like him. He was Jewish. Peter needed a work of God in his life to change his heart to where God could use Peter for the full purpose and potential that he had for Peter's life. Now, we know22:17we know before we go too far that the true apostle to the Gentile world becomes Paul. Paul's converted and Paul becomes the apostle to the Gentiles. He says that himself. But at the same time, Peter is going to become an apostle who is going to be preaching to the Gentile world. But for that to happen, God has to do a work in his life. For that to happen, God has to show Peter where he is limited22:45in his life and that's what you find in verses 9 and following. You find the vision that Peter has where God declares to Peter that the Greeks are just as needful for the gospel and their cleanliness is there because God has declared it so. And so you can read it down and you can read because it says in verse 17, now while Peter was inwardly perplexed as to what the vision23:15that he had seen might mean, behold the men who came to him from Cornelius. In other words, he said, you know, I don't know why I've had this vision. I wonder why I've had this vision. And about that time, Cornelius' servants come and they come to Peter because we go back to, and I know you know this, I haven't said it, but you gotta realize what's Cornelius lacking in his life? He's religious, he's devout, he's God-fearing, he gives, he prays.23:45he prays. What more does a man need? Jesus. Cornelius needed Jesus. You see, as far as we know, in everything that we've read, that's going to be the whole purpose of getting Peter's eyes fixed on God's purpose for his life was to make sure he cleared up the discrepancies, any discrepancies that Peter might have had in his life concerning the desire of God24:14to go outside the walls of Jerusalem and out into the Gentile world and especially the Roman world. So what does God do? God establishes a man named Cornelius seeking him who is the, I don't know if I used this word right, the quintessential of everything that Peter should despise. He is everything that Peter, because he's Roman,24:44he's a soldier, who, you know, we know it was the Romans that actually carried out the crucifixion of Jesus under the command of the Jewish people, but it was the Romans who guarded the body, it was the Romans who made sure everything took place, took place. So here is this Roman centurion representing everything that Peter would despise because of what had just happened now is clearly in need of Jesus. Now I want you to think about this25:14for just a minute. I sat with a man for three hours this past Friday as he was working through some training with me and at the end of it we were out and we were talking about this evangelism project that they're using all over the world and they're using it especially in North India and he gave it to me but in it there's this card and it's like a bookmark and the bookmark is really interesting but it had nine blanks.25:43It had one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and nine blanks on the card and what they do is they take this with them when they go to India they take it with them when they go to other parts of the world and they're training one of the things that they do to determine whether or not the men that they're working with are truly desirable and worthy to hold a leadership position in the church is when they take these cards and they bring them back26:11after a period of time because they're trained in what to do with the card and then they look on the card and they see how many names of lost people there are on this card and so they then take the card and the names of the lost people and the whole idea is that they are supposed once they learn the card the card is to help you and guide you through what they call sharing your story not your testimony26:40but your story and so you share your story with someone and then in the process that person in turn shares their story with you and then when they share their story with you their story for instance let's say Peter's got the message God has shown him the guys have come Peter makes his way and the first thing Peter does he meets Cornelius and the Bible says he preached Jesus to him and his spouse is saved27:10but that's awesome but first of all Peter shares his story you and I have a story everybody that's a born again believer in this room has a story can I tell you something have you ever been around somebody that you couldn't get a word in edgewise until they got through with their story first whatever their story was maybe it was an experience at a football game at a basketball game maybe it was an experience with their child have you ever27:39have you ever been around a couple of grandparents and them trying to show their children's their grandchildren's pictures to you while you're trying to show your pictures back to them you can't get a word in edgewise of how cute and awesome your little grandchildren are and I love having been your pastor for 20 years I could always tell you neat things and you had to sit there and be quiet but some of you never failed to come out afterwards and say now let me tell you my story so anyway28:08so anyway Ken was talking to me and he had that with him and he said Chris he said I want to give you this he said I want you to look over the material he said it's good material he said you know you may want to use it you know he said and I think it's really good I'm going to pass the material on to Brad and we'll look at it but he said I looked at my bookmark and he said I'm going he goes to Indonesia he goes to to northern28:38to northern India he goes all over the world he goes he was held up in Iran for 17 days because somebody stole his passport all of his buddies left and came back home and he stuck in Iran for 17 days without a passport that's that's how amazing this guy is but he said I looked at my card and he said you know how many names I had on mine and I'm out there challenging those young Indian29:07pastors and the various people he said I had no names on mine and he said God just overwhelmingly convicted me that I needed to put some names on my mark on my bookmark and he said so I started writing them in and he said I wrote down my neighbor's names he said I wrote down some people I knew here's people I knew there and he said all I know I needed to do was I want to come over29:36and I just want to share my story with you Chris have you got a minute for me to share my story with you and so I share my story and the story is how you came to know Christ the story is how you were lost once we're lost and now you're saved and how glorious God has been in your life and how awesome it is to walk in grace and not guilt any longer how awesome it is to walk in joy and freedom because of the mercies of God and he said I realized30:06I realized wow I needed to start practicing what I was preaching and teaching all those people and you know it really stuck with me and I thought wow here I am I'm going to go I'll do this but am I even doing this whose list was Cornelius on he was on30:35God's list because the Bible said God paid attention to his praying and to his giving God paid attention to his life to such an extent that he would say31:05I'm going to take my number one preacher and I'm going to do a work in his life that will bring him to this man so that he can preach the gospel to him that he might be saved you know I have a story there's the story of William Carey if you've ever read anything about missionaries but when William Carey got ready to go31:34to the mission field there weren't very many missionaries on the mission field at that point and he was from England and he met with this kind of the Baptist Association of the day and he told him that he really needed to go to India and preach the gospel and one of the members said ah because you got to understand Baptists 200 years ago were very reformed in their doctrine and so one of the great leaders of this association stood up and said ah William if God wants to save the heathen he'll save the heathen he don't need you32:04and that ideology is not less present today than it was then there are a lot of people that say oh if God's going to save the heathen he'll save them but God will save the heathen when there are people who've had the kind of change in their life that Peter had in his life that will be32:33willing to go because God has shared the need with them now I'm just saying that all of us need to pray God let me be that person that you speak to and that you clarify who needs to hear the gospel now I have people tell me from time to time now you're just33:01you're just going to the Dominican Republic or you're just going to Costa Rica I want to tell you something there are villages where the gospel has never been heard in the Dominican Republic and yes there are those countries like Indonesia and other places where they've my friend was telling me there are places in Indonesia where there are villages in the mountains where they don't even have a dialect to bring the scripture to them in and they're having to work with other missions organizations so that they can develop an understanding33:31an understanding of the dialect so they can write it down so these people can understand the scriptures in their dialect but until then there are people that are going and preaching the gospel in their dialect because they believe they need to hear the gospel and there's not millions in these villages there's just a few hundred but it's worth that few hundred for the gospel to get there and so Cornelius needed the gospel my friend34:01my friend you and I needed the gospel that's where it begins is with the gospel that's where God changes our hearts and our lives that's where God saves us is when we by faith trust the gospel the gospel is so clear and so prevalent for us that we make something really hard out of it and we we really struggle with the reality that the gospel34:29is easily understood because the work of the Holy Spirit that already has been done in our hearts and lives to receive it and then there's Peter and Peter to me brings the harder part of the understanding and that is that Peter's a born again believer Peter's a great preacher and yet Peter lacked in his life the understanding that other34:59that other people besides his people needed the gospel and so God performed a vision in Peter's life that clarified that faring enabled Peter to go to Cornelius' house with Roman soldiers leading the way to a Roman centurion's home go up the steps preach the gospel and see a35:29whole family saved now you do you want let me ask you a question and I don't know that I want you to raise your hand but I want you to answer it in your heart do you want to see this church grow it's a35:53it's a simple question now I'm not saying just numerical growth I'm talking about growing kingdom wise the responsibility of the growth of this church will never lie solely on its pastor whoever you call however great36:23however great he may be but it will lie percentage wise more on whether or not you as a body of believers are willing to share your story because if you don't share your story and you leave it up to one person to share his or them to share theirs then you're always going to struggle but you see people we don't36:53we don't have to formulate a program of soul winning to have people simply share their story of how Jesus Christ came into their life and then have time to listen to others share theirs and see37:21and see where you can share the truth with them isn't it interesting that there very well could be people in our community that are praying right now God help me and God working in somebody's life in this room right now saying37:50saying hey Joe needs to hear your story you see everybody's story is not the same my story is not like yours yours is not like mine but there's a common thread through all of our stories and that's the gospel and it is the same but how we heard it's not how we come to know Jesus it's not and so God uniquely wants to use us wonder38:20wonder why God didn't just wait and send Paul why didn't God just go ahead and send James why didn't God send John because God purposed that Peter would have the vision and stand for the Gentile my friend there38:49there are communities after communities with people who look different who walk different who act different who dress different than all of us but they're just as lost and in need of the gospel and if we bypass them to get to somebody else it's no wonder our churches are becoming less and less what they need to be now39:18now here's the challenge would you just take a moment and examine your heart are you a cornelius that's a religious person that's a praying person and you're a giving person but you know in your heart you're not a saved person you don't have a relationship to God39:48God you have a relationship to Baptists you have a relationship to Methodists you have a relationship to Presbyterians you have a relationship to religion but you don't have a relationship with God I want to tell you something I don't care what other churches and denominations are saying you can be a member of every denomination on the world and go to hell so would you check that out because only you truly know the answer to that now40:16now you've confirmed that answer you've got that answer locked in your mind you know that you know that you know that you know that you've confessed Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and if you die today you're going to heaven because you've confessed Christ not because you were baptized not because you're a Baptist not because you've prayed not because you've given but because you know Jesus Christ is your Lord and you know the evidence that God has shown you in your heart and life because of the work that God has done in your heart and life and the40:46the markers that God has placed in your life that have affirmed that you are his you see the Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit confirms our salvation I don't need you to tell me I'm saved I don't need Gail to tell me I'm saved I'm sure there are sometimes Gail says you don't act like you're saved but I don't need Gail to tell me that I'm saved because I know what God has done in my heart I know what he's done in my life so now I came41:16came to a place41:25do and I want you to quit being afraid and do it and how many of us here today that are believers and we've been doing the same old same old things and we we've got these walls just like Peter had that are laws but our walls and our laws are tradition you know there are people who because of their tradition41:54tradition there's just certain music they can sing let's bring that wall down there are some people that your tradition is pews well if we have to let's get rid of the pews and let's bring them little canvas chairs in where you can put drinks in the side of them let's get rid of the carpet that we're so scared to death is going to get stained up by somebody who doesn't know that we don't drink coffee in the worship center and there they go with that Dr. Pepper again let's let's let those walls come down let's42:24let's let the walls that keep us from going after lost people that are going to die and go to hell unless God brings down the wall in our life let's quit worrying about whether somebody's got earrings or toe rings or tattoos you know what I was talking about I tell you I just want to say this I thought this was the funniest thing I read this last week and I don't have a problem going42:53going we're going after people that are lost don't care what they look like but I'll just tell you when you get old there's a group of about 80 year old men maybe 85 90 year old men in a nursing home there's about five or six of them in a circle and they got their shirts off and Angie walks over there to them and she says boys y'all can't sit around here with your shirts off put your shirt back on what you got your shirts43:28my friend we got to get the walls down in our lives so we can go after the people that need us most or God's going to close the doors on this church and you say oh wait a minute I don't think so let me tell you I pass by White's chapel every day the doors are closed at White's chapel as of a month ago why I'm not going to lay blame anywhere but if there's anybody43:58anybody winning somebody to Jesus the doors of the local church will never close let's quit whining and crying because I've done enough of it about who's just down the road or across the street and let's let God bring the walls down that exist in our lives so we can go to the Cornelius that need Jesus they're44:28they're just this far away but I want to tell you something this far away on the day of judgment will be trillions of miles away God does not save people that a good religious background or people go to heaven because they have a good religious background people that go to heaven have a relationship with Jesus Christ and they have a relationship because somebody wasn't afraid44:57afraid to share their story now friends I don't have a book of cards for you to sign up and fill out but if I were you and you really really truly want to see God do a work in this church that outlasts you and make you up a list of lost people you say well brother Chris I just don't know any lost people stop45:27stop and start buying gas at one of the service stations down the road there's plenty of people that are hanging out or working in them that don't know Jesus or anywhere I don't mean to be blaming you say well I work at the service station I say I'm not knocking that you may shop at Bale's find out who that sales person is find out if they know Jesus if you eat at a restaurant and that young waiter or waitress walks up to you find out if they know you don't you say I just don't want to be a nuisance that's our problem in45:56in first Corinthians Paul writes that they were called the people of the way and that they were creating a stir because the magistrates were saying they're turning the world upside down you know we're not turning the world upside down anymore but the Muslims are and other religions are46:26are two top growing religions in the world are cults outside of Islam which is whatever it is but we're not because we're no longer telling our story we're not telling our stories because we've built so many walls that keep us from going to the people that need it most and God needs to bring down the walls I want you to pray with me today God bring down the walls that46:55that I've created in my life that I've let religion create in my life that I've let preachers create in my life that I've let Sunday school God bring down that I've let happen that God I'll make a list and I won't care who that is on my list I'll make that list I'll write their names down and I'll start praying God give me an opportunity to go share my47:23my story father I would pray if there's someone here today and they relate to Cornelius but they're lost that today Lord they get saved I pray today God they confess your Savior I pray today God that have a conversion experience that can only come when your Holy Spirit truly speaks to them because God you through Jesus Christ died for my sins and Father I put my faith and my trust in the glory and the purpose and the person of Jesus Christ47:53Christ because Jesus Christ died for that which I could never deal with or die for and that's my sin I'm a sinner and God today it doesn't matter how many sermons I preach sermons won't get me to heaven doesn't matter how many churches I pass won't get me to heaven don't matter what I do outside of who I've confessed as my savior and Lord I confess today and every day that48:23that you are king of kings and lord of lords and you died for me that I might call you lord and allow you to live through me and do your will father today you convict that heart you convict that person and you let them know where they are father today if there's somebody that's got walls in their life they're they're Christians but God they're walls I pray today Lord those walls will come down that God you'll do that which you could never do or which no one could48:53could ever do with the walls that Lord you'll bring those walls down and that God you'll create the attitude of Peter and those people that will allow them to go God go wherever you call them to go Father I ask this in Jesus name amen I'm going to ask you to stand for a hymn of invitation as you stand I want to challenge you right where you are right now to consider am I a49:23a Cornelius am I Peter maybe you're not a Peter maybe you've already tore down those walls that's fine but you haven't been sharing your story and you need to ask God God forgive me for not sharing my story God forgive me for not having any lost people that I'm praying for God forgive me help me Lord be that person who can share their story in the work of the Holy Spirit redeem a lost soul to the kingdom of heaven Greg would you lead us God God God God GodMore sermons on Acts →
