But What If You're Wrong?

But as you're turning two Acts chapter 9 we're continuing the series in the book of Acts and we're doing that looking at these different things that Christ was doing in his church understanding all of the all of the incredible things that took place there. That is the birth of this movement that has continued uninterrupted up until our current day, right? That's the most amazing thing to me that the church that we see in Jerusalem is still the church today. Jesus said that he would build his church and the gates of hell would not overcome at the church from that day to this has never ceased to exist has never ceased to proclaim the truth of who Christ is that should if you're you know in the church history and we could blow your mind because there's nothing more than a mess. When you look back at the people have got in history which gives me a great deal of confidence to say this that when history look back on this should the Lord Terry. Guess what they'll think of us. What a mess. What a mess and let God use them. Anyways, now I say that in the midst of 20/20 and I say that in a state where the the governing authorities haven't had asked that we wear masks that we observe social distance in our gathering and you said you know, what as we look at the word of God how whether we agree with this stance or not. We as a church of going to comply with that and it's just going to be one of those things right? We're going to have some people who like I don't wear masks. Some people say I do wear masks and people who judge either side right from their vantage point, right? That's that's inevitable. But what I want to point out is that 2020 when we look back on it. Should we all survived it when we look back on 2020? Guess what? I don't think that the key thing here is going to be masks or no masks. I don't think when we look back on 20/20. We're going to be talking about the election. I don't think we're going to be talking about, you know, anything political. How's it going to be talking about wildfires climate change impact a lot into 20/20 and it's not over yet folks. We packed a lot into this year, but I think this this is why I think would win history look back at this year that you and I are living through it will be known as the year of the experts. 20/20 will be forever Remembered at least in my mind as the year of the expert because no other point in history have there been so many experts on so many different topics hear what I'm saying we have in this Society now all become experts overnight. I knew next to nothing about pandemics. I'm not an epidemiologist if I said that correctly. And yet I am now an expert knowing exactly how the government should or should not have addressed the issue. I am not a lawyer. Not an expert in jurisprudence and yet I will look back on 2020 is the year. I became an expert in the confirmation process for the Supreme Court of the United States. I'm not an expert. anything The 20/20 has made it so may I humbly suggest that the world does not need any more experts? May I humbly suggest that it is okay for you not to have an opinion on everything? May I humbly suggest? Did the reason so many people have told me that they are tired and worn down and depressed this year. Comes as a direct result of trying to be an expert on everything. How exhausting is it to have an opinion on every single subject under the sun? How just wearing is it to have to defend to the death?

A position that you've established after 10 minutes of Googling something you've never heard of before.

How depressing is it to put all of your hope in the things of this world and to watch them shatter one by one? If you're worn out if you're tired, if you're depressed I want to ask is it because I'm trying to be an expert on everything is it because is it because I feel this burning desire and need to be in control of my situation and twenty20 has made me feel out of control.

Some of you resonate with that some of you for like I am tired of all of this. Thank you for giving me permission to not be an extra try it. If you didn't grasp it. You have this non papal dispensation from me to you saying you don't have to be an expert on everything. But there are others of you who really like this whole being an expert thing who really like having an opinion on everything cuz you kind of gotten to enjoy this that's where we come to the title of today's message. But what if you're wrong?

What if you're wrong what if the opinion that you have formed after such extensive YouTube research? is incorrect what if the people who study this subject for years? our rights and you're wrong. I just want you to consider what if you're wrong because here's what I know from the word of God in this is what we're going to see in Acts chapter 9. Is it the point of following Christ the points of reading the word? Is not to establish. The right answer to every single question that ever might be conceivably asked. The points of following Jesus the point of studying the word. Is to become ever more and more to a trust that even if you don't have the answers Jesus does and to take all of that weight of opinion and take it off of your shoulders and say I'm going to put this with you Jesus. Can you hold on to it for a bit? That is a freeing thing to say. I might be wrong. But I know somebody who's never wrong. I might not know best but I have full confidence that Jesus does this is y and end if you are here this morning and you do not trust Jesus and when I say trust I want you to hear me some of you of this and search for a long time when you hear trust and you're like near mental assent to the fact that Jesus existed, right? That's not what I mean by trust what the Bible means by trust. It's not adding Jesus as like the cherry on top of your life went when I say, I want you to trust Jesus if you do this morning, I want you to trust him more if you don't this morning, I want you to start when I say, I want you to trust Jesus. I want you to trust in the way the Bible says to trust him with the whole of your life. He's not the cherry on top. He's the whole Sunday, okay. I'm and I'm getting hungry already. Is it is it late? Okay, here's what I want. I want you to understand that to be a Christian to be a Christ follower is to reject autonomous decision-making. The old bumper sticker says God is my co-pilot will of God is your co-pilot as has been said before he's in the wrong seats, and so are you He needs to drive right Jesus to trust Jesus Christ follower means that you do not just follow your culture. In making a decision means that your political views are not determined by a donkey or an elephant or red or blue and need your political views are determined by the king. To trust Jesus means to submit every single aspect of your life to his authority to no longer turn decision-making capabilities over to a 24-hour news cycle. It's to follow Christ. In line with the countless hundreds of thousands who followed him through the centuries. And like them to say regardless of what's taking place in our world? Because we might be wrong with our short-sightedness regardless of what's taking place in our world. We are going to trust Christ with the whole of Our Lives. Because we might be wrong in Acts chapter 9 as we pick this up to 332 people in a group who are wrong. And we see how God changes their hearts how God changes their mind. So my question to you this morning is don't come in here with this attitude. Like I know everything.

Come here and say okay God what if I'm wrong change my heart want to look at Acts chapter 9 with me. We're going to read the whole section. So follow along in your copy of the word or on the screen with us still breathing threats and murder against the disciples. You haven't been here with us. What we've been doing has been walking through acts and we've is just been doing it kind of passed by Pat's not really verse by verse with passes by pathogen Acts chapter 8. We see this guy named song at the beginning. He's still he's he's persecuting the Saints. He's he's taking those who follow Christ and saying, nope. You're in jail. We don't want your kind on our streets and so he's locking them up. He's he's making sure that they can't spread the gospel and he's doing that alongside others end of people in Jerusalem where the church was at this point, they received this persecution now and they've got a decision to make what are we going to do? And God uses this to push them out of Jerusalem and they begin to go all throughout the region. CN Samara that Geographic Space lyrics and as they were scattered by the persecution there preaching the gospel and we see this guy named Philip and he's preaching the gospel in the apostles are preaching the gospel. And there's is Ethiopian eunuch. You should read Acts chapter 8 basically but long story short saw lots of this persecution. Everybody's mad at the Christians. The Christians are preaching the gospel and then we get to accept Hernandez, but saw was still breathing threatened by yourself just because that other stuff happened doesn't mean stalls saw stop persecuting the church. All right, but saw still breathing threats and murder against the disciples the Lord went to the high priests and ask him for letters to the synagogue's at Damascus so that if he found any belonging to the way men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem now as he went on his way, he approached the mask and suddenly a light from Heaven flashed around him and falling to the ground. He heard a voice thing to him Saul Saul. Why are you persecuting me? And he said, who are you Lord? He said I'm Jesus whom you were persecuting but rise and enter the city and you will be told what you are to do the men who were traveling with him stood speechless hearing the voice, but seeing no one saw a rose from the ground and although his eyes were opened. He saw nothing. So they let him by the hand and brought him in to Damascus and for three days, he was outside and either 8 or drink now there was a disciple of Damascus named ananias the Lord said to him in a vision ananias and he said Here I Am Lord the Lord said to him rise and go to the street called straight and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus name Saul from the hold he's praying and he is seen in a vision a man named ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight but ananias answered Lord. I've heard from many about this man how much evil he has done to your Saints in Jerusalem and here he has Authority from the chief priests to bind all who care call on your name. But the Lord said to him go for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and Kings and the children of Israel for I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name. So ananias departed an inch of the house and laying his hands on him. He said brother saw the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me to you so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit and immediately something like scales fell from his eyes and he regained his sight then he rose and was baptized and taking food. He was strengthened for some days. He was with the disciples at Damascus and immediately. He proclaimed Jesus in the synagogue saying he is the Son of God and all who heard him were amazing said is this not the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called on this name and happy not come here for this purpose to bring them down before the chief priests, but stall increased all the more in strength and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ. When many days have passed the Jews plotted to kill him but their plot became known to saw they were watching the gate today and night in order to kill him but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall lowering him in a basket when you come to Jerusalem. He attempted to join the disciples, but they were afraid of him for they did not believe that he was a disciple but Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared them. How on the road he had seen the Lord who spoke to him and hot Damascus. He had preached boldly in the name of Jesus. So he went out went in and out among them at Jerusalem preaching boldly in the name of the Lord and he spoke and disputed against the hellenists, but they were seeking to kill him when the brothers learn this they brought him to say Surya and sent him off to Tarsus. So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria headpiece and was being built up and walking in the fear of the Lord in the comfort of the Holy Spirit it multiply. That's a long time to text. But I want you to keep it up open in front of you. Okay? I want you to be able to refer back to it. I want you to see. How it is that God takes these perspectives. Both from someone who's not his yet and from those who are and he says you're wrong. Let's change the way you're looking at this situation. The first thing that we saw is that saw was wrong and end and saw and later. We'll get to know him as Paul. And so I may you know, what use those interchangeably sometimes I'm right so slow. He is breathing threats and violence or threats and murder against the Disciples of the Lord. That's how the chapter opens. Why is he doing that? Why is Saul breathing threats and murder because he's a faithful Jew Because he's faithful to the understanding of the Old Testament that he had been raised. Right? We did not ascribe some sort of Nefarious motive here to saw. He's trying to be faithful to the Lord.

But he's wrong. His understanding of the scriptures is incorrect.

wildly, so His understanding of the scriptures is that the Messiah when he comes is going to rain Supreme he's going to pick up a sword and drive out. All of those would be enemies of God's people. That's who the Messiah is in. So this little Colt that's going around saying that Jesus who died on a Roman cross. Is the messiah? I think you got the wrong. This has to be Stamped Out this heresy has to be dealt with why not because Paul or solids evil. But because he's trying to be faithful to the Bible. crazy thought

What if in trying to be faithful to the word of God we were wrong?

Saul spent his whole life. studying the word of God and he missed the mark by so much that he was persecuting the followers of the very one who the Old Testament said was coming. If somebody can give their whole life to studying the scriptures and missed it by that much. Is there a chance?

but in your life and and I don't want to make assumptions here. but we've got a lot more distractions in our days and Paul had in his so I don't want to assume anything but generally speaking Christ followers in America are not as dedicated to the study of God's word as Paul was we we take a little bit more like 5 minute devotion before you run out the door approach to the word of God rather than hours of study in it. Is there a chance that you might have got something wrong?

Is there a chance that in applying the word to your life you miss something crucial? Is there a chance that you might be right now? There are things and I just want to clear this up right off the bat because I start talking about maybe being wrong people like oh, this is one of those guys who like doesn't believe that the Bible is true and in the end. He just kind of goes wherever he's feeling sick. No listen listen. The word of God by which I understand to be Genesis to Revelation Old Testament, New Testament. The word of God is inspired by the Holy Spirit. Was written down by human authors, but is inerrant in its original text. I want you to hear me say that the Bible is the only certain source of Truth for us That's not say that we can't see truth. When we look at the word world. That's not to say that two plus two isn't true. Although I wish math would just kind of go away. Is that the same as there's not this General truth in the world around us, but the only certain truth we find is in the word of God. However where it is in there, it's we are not. And a lot of what we didn't understand to be actually the text of the word of God is really just our interpretation of the word of God. I don't remember the exact number. So I'm going to make up a statistic real quick 76% totally made up by the way, 76% of people think that God helps those who help themselves is a Bible verse. Guess what not a Bible verse Guess what? Probably in a similar if not higher percentage of people think that the word of God says God will not give you more than you can handle. It actually says the exact opposite of this he will give you more than you can handle handle in order to Showcase his glory in your weakness. And yet you see how easy it is. to have a somewhat tenuous relationship with the text of scripture and to begin to make it say things that it doesn't actually say This is where we have to be. What what CS Lewis would call epistemological be humble? Now I was going to warn you guys this morning that there might be a lot of CS Lewis references and today's message, but I'm going to run out of time and so there's not going to be as many as there were going to be but CS Lewis said we ought to be epistemological humble. Right? What that means is it when it comes to what we know where the Bible is clear. We want to be absolutely clear. This is the word of God to assist of the very truth revealed from the creator of the universe and we have to be so clear. Did there is no other name given among men by which we may be saved and that of Jesus Christ. We want to be so clear that we cannot earn our Salvation through good. But it is purely by the grace of God through faith in the Son of God that we have any hope of being saved from the Wrath to come we want to be really perfectly clear that Jesus Christ Rose literally physically historically from the dead. Without that Paul says you don't have a gospel Jesus rose from the dead. We want to be so abundantly clear Jesus Christ is returning. One day to set the world, right?

These things we are absolutely certain. But there are some other things that we're just not given certainty on and what I'm seeing in our culture and what I'm afraid we'll start seeing from one. Another is certainty on places where the Bible does not give a certainty we're seeing this in the election right now. We're seeing Christians say if you're a Christian, you can't vote for X, then you can fill in the blank. If you're a Christian you can't vote for why and you have these two people who say you can't be a Christian and vote this way. You can't be a Christian and that way, you know that there's a right-hand and left-hand here. Can I make it any more clear without naming names? You can't be a Christian. If you vote this way. Here's the thing the word of God never says this is how a Christian must vote. Do. You know what the word of God never does? It never addresses a situation in which the people of God are actively governing themselves. You understand that the Bible doesn't tell us how to vote. The Bible doesn't even assume the fact of a democratic Nation every single nation that the Bible is addressed in the time of is a monarchy or an oligarchy. That's it. And so if we say in this democracy, this is the Christian vote without having chapter and verse to support it. We've gone far away from what the word of God says now, I don't want to be unclear. There are things that the word is very very clear about. Abortion is a plague. on our nation and I believe that future Generations will look back at our time frame with the same revulsion that we look back at the Holocaust with

Said I wasn't going to do that still got it.

I just finished listening to a book about World War II and the history of Germany. And I was I was working on some stuff at the house and I was listening to this book. And my wife came in she said how's it going? And I went that were perpetrated by the Nazi government. against people made in the image of God and it brought me up short this week to realize we're doing the same thing.

The Bible is clear. The Bible is clear that God's intention for marriage was between one man and one woman for life.

And frankly anything that falls short of that is contrary to the word of God. Yes o Burger Fallon and homosexual marriage but also divorce and then that's touchy subject. Right? This is not something the church is unaware of we have this we've walked through this pain together. But the word of God is clear one man one woman for life. but to say that one vote or another boat is automatically the Christian response is to miss the fact that there are tons of scripture passages. That address other issues entirely. There are tons of scripture passages that talk about loving the immigrants in your myths caring for the Sojourner not a pressing the wage-earner and we have to be careful as Christians when we give Christ stamp of approval to any political party if they hold any position that is contrary to the word of God. We cannot say this is the Christian boat or this is the Christian vote because the only Christian vote is Jesus 2020. And as we look at the issues involved when we consider the text involve we will come to different conclusions.

And there will be some of you who vote this way and tell me about this way and tell me about this way in San Jose as a Chrysler. I cannot in good conscience before any of these candidates. That's okay. Jesus is King. We are sojourners and aliens on this Earth. Our citizenship is not here. Our hope is not in a nation. Our hope is not in family values. Our hope is not in the Moral Majority. Our hope is in Christ and Christ Alone. What if we're wrong? We have to be humble enough to say this is the way I feel convinced out to vote or this is the way I feel convinced out to vote and understand if our brothers and sisters choose differently. So long as Christ is held as king what if we're wrong confession time. This is not my notes that I actually brought it with me. Saw was wrong about Jesus because his study of the scripture let him to prioritize certain passages over others and to ignore large chunks of text. I'm afraid that we do the same thing May that might be the case brothers and sisters. May that not be the case that what we are known for is the same kind of misguided faithfulness the scripture. That's all exhibited instead. May we be known for the same humility that saw has when Jesus shows up instead listen. It will actually listen. And give Grace to one another that's where ananias was wrong saw was wrong because his understanding scripture missed a large part of the text. ananias is wrong to The Lord appears to win Division and says go to this house and see saw you got the address wrong the name written down backwards because you can't be talked about the guy that you're talking about. He is your enemy. Why in the world would I go to him? and got says because I told you to it's always wrong in his interpretation of the word. He thought Jesus couldn't possibly be who the Christian said that he could be ananias is wrong and his interpretation of the situation because it's always absolutely not who he thought he was we do not have the perspective of God on History, right? We understand that we are extremely historically myopic. That's a CS Lewis reference. For those of you didn't catch it. We can only see a slight sliver of the timeline. So why in the world would we say well. Can't use this kind of person? We tried. You don't understand this dude gets in the White House. Things are over.

Got this watch me. Watch me. If God can take saw who's literally locking Christians up.

and turned him into the greatest missionary the church has ever known responsible for Again, I lose the number but like over half of the New Testament. If God can use him, who are we to say what got you Surly truly can't use this person or that person. We do not have the perspective of God. What we need is to recognize God sits enthroned overtime itself. God sits enthroned over the course of humanities provinces with the heart of the king is like a course of water in the hands of the Lord. He can direct it wherever he wants. I want to limit God by saying will God if you don't do this if we don't do this then it's it's doomed. I want to say God. I'm going to be following my conscience. I'm going to vote the way that I believe the word leads me to vote. But I am not going to limit what you choose to do through my myopic view of the situation. I'm going to trust you got stuck in a frat. I'm not going to worry. I'm not going to argue with brothers and sisters who come to a different conclusion. I just going to trust you God. I'm going to be fully convinced that Romans 14 thing. I mention this in Sunday school early Romans 12:2 flight 15.5 is like the passage for the church today. And if I wasn't running out of time, I read it for you. No, you guys go read it you guys go read it and apply it to your life and say what's going on in our world hate. Maybe I shouldn't you know. pay attention the word of God

is clear Did the people of God can be wrong? The word of God is clear that the people who are not of God can still be made the people of God and ainias is wrong to say God. You can't use saw he's persecuted your people. He's an evil man. Cat says yeah watch me and had a nice. This is what I have and a nice says okay if it's good enough for you God, it's good enough for me. I'll go to him. Can you imagine? Put yourself in ananias shoes walking over to that house on Straight Street. What a creative name for street, by the way.

Walking over there think of me and this guy was there when Stephen was stoned man this guy. Has been locking Christians up pursuing them all throughout. the nation of Israel But got to go and I'll go any gets there and what it's all do he repents his heart is changed. by the truth of the Gospel

I want you to hear this. There is nobody beyond the grace of God. Not your worst enemy. Not your best friends. Not sure mom or your dad. Not even you. I'll be on the grace of God. What I want us to take away from Acts chapter 9. Is we may be wrong?

But we're never wrong if we say I trust you Jesus. And my question for you. His do you trust him? With the future of your country, do you trust him with the future of your family? Do you trust him with your future? And if not, why not? She's shown himself capable.

He's shown himself faithful time and time and time again.

20/20 is not going to put a stop to that. Nothing has changed on Heaven's Throne the King still Reigns.

Live like it's true.

Trust him. Today and tomorrow and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and Friday and Saturday in October and November and December and until you quit breathing. Trust him. He's worth it. He's faithful. Let's pray.