Matt Weber: Find your place in the book of Acts, chapter 15.

Dr.

Jim mentioned a super soaker for those who fall asleep, and the cleaning crew helped me out with that.

Since we have this session, I think it reaches pretty far.

Let’s see here.

Does that work over there?

All right, good.

As long as I know it works, we can make sure we get going there.

I’ll leave that up here for the next session, too.

So I don’t know if it’s a super soaker.

I thought, oh, there’s Dr.

Jim.

It’s not a super soaker, but it’s BCM style, so that’s, I guess, how it works.

All right, good.

X15.

Before we get to our time here this afternoon, excited to be with you.

I enjoy this opportunity for many reasons.

One of the things that is helpful for me is just trying to understand where we’re at spiritually here this afternoon.

Anybody in here say that they’re excited about what God’s doing in their heart.

They’re looking forward to serving the Lord as best as they know in whatever capacity he has.

and they’re excited about what God’s doing even here at this youth conference by the uplifted hand, that would be you.

Okay, you can put those down.

Anybody here would say, you know what, Pastor Weber, I’m only here because somebody forced me to be?

Okay, got a couple.

Anyone over here?

Anybody who would just say, I’m a rebel and I just really don’t want to be here at all?

Don’t be afraid.

I mean, it’s okay.

Not even one.

All right, good.

All right, good.

I’ll see you guys after the service over here, and I got water and stuff for you, but it’s good to be with you.

I’m going to take some time.

Brother Bosler mentioned about my journey a little bit.

I do that every year, kind of give you a little piece of the journey that I’m on.

If you were here last year, you heard a little bit about that.

We’re going to keep going down that journey a little bit, so if you want to get the full journey, you’ve got to come over the last several years, so I’m sorry about that.

Acts 15, if you’ve got your Bible.

Acts 15.

And verse 23, if you’re familiar with the book of Acts, chapter 15 is a pivotal chapter.

It’s a time in the history of the New Testament church where they were facing some problems and they were up against a wall and they needed God to do something.

We heard about James this morning.

He’s going to speak to us again this afternoon, which is, I believe, of the Lord.

And he’s going to share with us a few things that will help us as we move forward in our walk with God.

Verse 23 says, And they wrote letters by them after this manner.

The apostles and elders and brethren send greeting unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia.

For as much as we have heard that certain when out from us have troubled you with words subverting your souls, saying, You must be circumcised and keep the law, to whom we gave no such commandment.

It seemeth good unto us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men unto you, with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We have sent, therefore, Judas and Silas, who shall also tell you the same things by mouth.

For it seemeth good to the Holy Ghost and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things, that you abstain from meats offered to idols, from blood and from things strangled and from fornication, from which if you keep yourselves, ye shall do well, very well.

Let’s pray here this afternoon.

Father, thank you for the privilege you give us to gather together to consider the word of God.

Thank you that the word of God gives life.

Thank you that your invitation to us to come and drink freely.

We pray that you’d help us even here tonight to drink freely of the word of life.

Bless our time, we pray in Jesus’ name.

Amen.

I want to preach a message.

This thing is really shaky up here, so if you don’t mind, I’m going to step down off of this thing.

And if you can’t see me, stand on your chair.

I want to preach a message this morning.

It’ll kill the gospel.

It’ll kill the gospel.

I understand in this room we’re all growing I’m still growing not in height, I think I finished that in first grade but in my walk with God I’m still growing, I’m still learning in fact the more I grow, the more I walk, the more I learn and I think like parenting, the further down the road of parenting the more you realize is you don’t know anything you really don’t know what you’re doing you’re just kind of swinging at the wind sometimes and in this Christian

life

we’re all growing and I hope your desire here is to continue to grow and my kids are growing right they’re growing in their walk they’re growing in their understanding of how to relate to mom and dad for instance wonderful story my son my son who’s five now he just turned five he was walking with his mom the other day and he looks up at mom and says, Mom, I love you.

Oh, you can just tell that mom’s heart just started pounding.

Oh, you sweet little man.

Oh, you’re so wonderful, right?

That’s what moms always say, you know.

Oh, he’s so wonderful.

Now, future parents here, if your kid ever says I love you, just enjoy the moment.

Don’t ask any further questions.

Okay?

Because you might hear things that you don’t want to.

Just enjoy the moment.

My wife, she learned that lesson.

Looking down at her son, son, why do you love me?

He looks up at her, because the Bible says to love your enemies.

Like I said, sometimes just leave it alone.

Walk away, enjoy the moment.

Anyway, it’s wonderful stuff.

But we’re all growing.

This church was growing.

These churches were growing.

Obviously, we’re in Jerusalem in Acts 15, right?

James and the disciples, the apostles, the different ones that are gathered together because Barnabas and Paul had come back from their first missionary journey, ended up in Antioch and began to find teachers teaching in the churches in Antioch in the different areas of the gospel going forward.

And they were finding people in there teaching what we just read.

They were teaching that you must be circumcised and obey the law.

Paul thought that was a problem.

That it conflicted with the message that he was preaching.

Now, let me go back a little bit further in the book of Acts.

Back in Acts chapter number 2, the gospel was exploding in Pentecost.

The Spirit of God had come.

People were being saved by the thousands as you read those chapters.

Fascinating.

Multitudes, both of men and women.

The devil himself, in his best effort that he could, tried to snuff out that gospel advance.

Right?

What did he use?

The Roman Empire.

Acts chapter number seven, we see the persecution, the martyrdom of Stephen and the persecution of the church.

We see that the enemy, in his best effort to snuff out the advance of the gospel used outside influence, political, military influence.

But instead of snuffing out the gospel, he threw water on a grease fire and it went everywhere.

We read in the book of Acts chapter number 11 that they found the people from Jerusalem that were scattered abroad upon the persecution of Stephen going everywhere.

What were they doing?

Preaching the gospel.

wonderful thing, right?

the devil overplayed his hand and he thought if I can’t snuff out the gospel from the outside then I’m going to come inside I’m going to make it an inside job notice our text it says here verse 24 James is writing here to these churches he’s sending this letter back out for as much as we have heard that certain which went out from us, from within.

They have come to you with troubling words.

This is the confusing words that have unsettled you, unsettled your faith.

They have shaken you.

He’s writing back to these New Testament brand new churches.

So the enemy, in one sense, tries to snuff out a gospel advance by using outside influence.

Instead, he throws water on a grease fire, and it just spreads everywhere.

The enemy realizes his tactic, and instead of coming with outside pressure, he now comes from within, and he begins to do something different.

Paul’s burden about this, obviously the book of Galatians gives us a ton of insight into Paul’s burden here, but Paul’s gospel was different than what these guys were teaching.

In fact, if you go back into the book of Acts 15, and I think it’s verse number five, we’ll see that what’s within this group of believers are Pharisees who are still stuck on old tradition and religion.

And they’re still trying to get through to these New Testament Christians that they still need to be circumcised and obey the law.

Let me tell you something, young people.

It’ll kill the gospel.

Because there’s no freedom there.

There’s no life there.

You see, Paul was preaching a gospel of liberty.

a different kind of gospel.

And he was preaching a gospel where Jesus was the centerpiece and that the law kills what Jesus is trying to do.

Anything that’s not Jesus, my friends, Jesus-centered, will kill the gospel.

I come to you today with the burden of my heart.

Really, I wish I could say that this message was culminated in the last several days, hours, as I put down notes and tried to prepare things.

But my friends, this is years in the making.

Because what Paul was preaching was a real, genuine relationship with Jesus Christ.

Something real, something alive.

Go to the book of 1 John.

The Apostle John understood it.

Something tangible, something you can touch, something you can interact with.

Because the law kills.

But the gospel of Jesus Christ gives us life.

So let me ask you here today, young people.

What’s your relationship with Jesus like?

Is your relationship with Jesus Christ something along the lines of just doing the things?

just doing the things to make somebody else happy, just going along to get along.

Listen, I know I’m not in a group of rebels here, okay?

Only the two over here raised their hand that way.

Just kidding, guys.

I was just going to mess with you.

Now you’re an object.

We’re here because we genuinely want Christ, right?

We’re here because we genuinely want to see God do something in our lives.

But let me ask you, Are you seeking him?

Because right here in Acts 15, this was a crossroads for that New Testament gospel advance.

This is a crossroads for Christianity.

Either Christianity was going to be free to serve Jesus Christ, it was going to embrace its liberty in Jesus Christ, or it was going to bow down to under the thumb of religion.

What do you have today?

do you have freedom in Jesus Christ or my friend today do you have nothing more than religion what are you doing do you read your bible just because you have to read a certain amount of chapters every day or week do you go to church just because somebody wants you to be there because you can check it off the list?

Do you comb your hair a certain way or wear certain clothes or listen to certain music or have a certain version?

I mean, why?

Why?

What is the object?

What seemed good to the Holy Ghost in this chapter was that they give them certain things that would develop that relationship with Jesus Christ.

They could have given them hundreds and hundreds of rules and regulations to this new Gentile group, but they didn’t give them hundreds and hundreds of rules and regulations.

They gave them four things that developed their relationship with God and with men.

Anybody in here know the royal law?

That which all the law and the prophets hang on.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself.

Do you have a relationship with Jesus Christ that’s free and exciting?

Do you know when Christianity is free to love Jesus with all their heart and have an intimate personal relationship with him, that the gospel advances exponentially in that point?

Think about it.

For me, I was saved at 28 years old out of a life of drugs and alcohol.

some of you maybe who have never been here before are wondering why they let a preacher up who has tattoos all over his arm and neck I got saved at 28 years old out of a life of drugs and alcohol it was one of the greatest it was probably the greatest moment in my life I was free I’ll tell you the years after that the year or so after that when I was learning about this relationship with God, my prayer life was dynamic.

I was unashamed to witness to anybody who came near me.

If you even looked at me funny, I would tell you about Jesus.

I would stand up in church and give testimonies, pray for my family.

I would tell my family about Jesus.

Jesus told me to do this.

I would do that.

Hey, listen, there were times when Jesus told me to move out of my house.

Give my house to my brother and move into the basement with my sister.

Yes, sir.

People are like, you’re crazy, what are you doing?

I’m following him.

I sold my pickup truck, I bought a bicycle, I got a job at $15 an hour, I paid off $40,000 in debt in less than a year.

It was the greatest time in my life.

And now I find myself praying, Lord, take me back to the joy of my salvation.

Why?

Because it was exciting, it was fresh, it was real.

Let me give you a few things about a real relationship while we’ve got a few minutes here together this afternoon.

A real relationship is built on trust.

trust Proverbs 3, 5, and 6 says trust in the Lord with all your heart lean not to your own understanding but in all thy ways acknowledge him you know that’s not just a good proof text for when you want to do something that’s a great proof text for your entire life trust in the Lord with how much of your heart?

Not just when it’s convenient, young people.

You know, some of us are growing up in a world where it’s hard to trust people.

You say things in confidence to somebody, maybe on the phone, maybe in a message, maybe in person, and within weeks it comes back around from somebody else.

huh we’re not to be putting our trust in men because it doesn’t say trust in men with all your heart trust in him do you know why you can trust in God with all your heart because he’s trustworthy has God ever failed you one time if somebody can tell me in here when God has ever failed you one time let me know after the service because I don’t want you to ruin my message and you’d be the first like Dr.

Jim was saying this morning so much appreciated his thoughts there from the book of James because it’s true you’d wonder how can God take a young man who grew up in a broken home who didn’t have a dad who’s scared to death of ever becoming a dad, who’s scared to death really to get married, although he desperately wants to get married, scared to death to ever go off in the ministry and talk about this Jesus who he fell in love with, scared to death to

do

all the things that God had put in front of him, and I’m supposed to trust him, even though I grew up in a world where I could never trust anybody.

Because all those people I was supposed to trust had walked out on me.

One step at a time.

God gave me a wife.

And God gave me kids.

God gave me a lot of kids, Dr.

Jim.

Dr.

Jim says God gives you a lot of kids when he knows when you’re proud and you need the stuffing beat out of you.

I got six of them.

And I’m old.

And I’m really in trouble and so are they.

But all along the way, God’s been faithful to help me.

He’s taken that broken life, and he’s turned it into an object of God’s grace.

He said, you know what, Matt?

You can’t look back at the fathering of your father, and you’re not going to produce what you need to do as long as you need to look to me.

I’ve taken away all the things that you can lean upon, and now you’ve got to look to me.

You never had a dad to show you how to be a good husband.

You never had a dad to show you how to be a good dad.

You never had those things, so now you’ve got to look to me.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart.

And I’ll be honest with you, young people, that’s really hard for me.

Because I grew up in a world where you need to perform to gain people’s acceptance.

Where you have to do good things and live a certain way and you have to act a certain way and talk a certain way and do certain things, and that’s what’s happening in this chapter.

Listen, if you do these things, if you act this way, then you’ll have approval of men.

Jesus says, trust in me.

Can Jesus ask you to do anything?

Go anywhere?

Do you trust him?

Because the gospel advance depends upon it.

You know, we talked this morning about those Jericho walls.

We talked about those rivers of Jordan.

But what about the mountains that are in front of you today?

They look so high.

You don’t think you can get past them.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart.

Don’t lean to your own understanding.

Don’t lean on the things that have happened to you in the past.

Don’t lean on those experiences in your past.

Turn your heart to God because I’m telling you, He is the one that can fix everything.

Excuse me.

I got something going on in my throat here.

I’m going to grab my water.

Number two.

A real relationship with God’s built on trust.

Not trusting in your experience, not trusting in your past, not trusting in the good things that you can do.

Listen, some of you are really talented in this room.

You’re really smart.

Some of you are really good at sports.

Some of you are really good at other things.

Music.

I’m really good at playing the radio.

I know how to turn that volume up just right so it aggravates everybody.

But what I want to be good at, man, I just want to be good at trusting the Lord.

If I don’t excel at anything in this world, boy, that’s one thing I want to excel at.

Trusting in Jesus with all my heart.

Because sometimes my life looks really difficult.

And I wonder sometimes, why am I here?

Why am I here?

I’m going to mess these kids up, this poor wife.

She deserves something better than these poor people.

Why do they want me to stand up here and present Jesus to them?

And it’s in those moments where I feel so inadequate.

quit.

Where I look up and I see him who has never failed me nor forsaken me.

Are you trusting in the Lord with all your heart today, young people?

Does he have everything?

You want to be a generation of change?

And listen, you’ve got no greater opportunity than today.

you’ve got the greatest opportunity in the history of the world to change the world right now.

It’ll never happen if you don’t trust in the Lord with all your heart.

Number two, a real relationship that this performance mindset would hinder, A real relationship needs trust.

It needs unconditional love.

That’s a tough one, isn’t it?

Do you know what unconditional means?

It’s not based on conditions.

It’s not conditional upon your performance.

You’d say, Pastor Weber, that’s not how it works.

I know how this relationship with Jesus goes.

I’ve got a lot of people.

I’ve got to do this.

You know before you were even saved Jesus loved you unconditionally and you want to know what?

now that you are saved Jesus still loves you unconditionally praise God thank you brother finally I thought we were in an amen crowd here you must be from the south think about that for a minute think about that for a minute unconditional.

In 1 John chapter number 4, the Apostle John there says that we love him because he first loved us.

You know what that means?

That we can reciprocate back to Jesus Christ his love for us because we have first embraced his unconditional love for us.

Think about this for a minute.

Does Jesus love you unconditionally?

Now, I’m not asking if you know it.

I’m asking if you believe it.

You know, because this guy has a hard time with that.

Because I fall sometimes.

And I struggle sometimes.

And I really wonder, am I lovable?

Okay, I’m going to get the squirt bottle out because I see some of you guys over here meditating a little too hard.

Make sure it works.

Okay, if you hear that, you better pay attention.

Mr.

Nate, I see you over there.

does Jesus love you unconditionally yes do you let him love you unconditionally see you know when you’ve accepted the love of Jesus unconditionally for your own life when you can then give it to somebody else people who struggle with God’s unconditional love put people in a place where they have to perform they make their love their approval of them conditioned upon their performance that’s what’s going to kill the gospel do you know Jesus loves the lost world he loves them unconditionally he loves them how

do

you know that for god so loved the world think of all the things we say about the lost world isn’t it tragic the mean things we say about our president or the politicians that we don’t like or the the weird people on the streets or you go down, listen, you know how many weird people are in this room right now?

And Jesus loves you unconditionally.

Why can’t he love them unconditionally?

I struggle with unconditional love because I know my past.

I’ve been there.

There’s things that happened in my life that I’m not even going to talk about.

But Jesus loves me unconditionally, even with that junk in the past.

And there are times on the way to church that I don’t feel like I’m saved.

I’ve got six kids and a wife in a Honda Odyssey.

And it’s all we can do sometimes to get to church and feel like a Christian.

And those who are laughing know what I’m talking about.

We have a baby.

And there are times she loves to be in the car.

Usually when nobody else is in there except for her and mom.

And it’s always wonderful.

But when dad’s in the car, baby screams her brains out.

And when baby screams, the two-year-old screams.

And because the ten-year-old can’t handle the screaming, he begins to tell everybody to be quiet.

And dad’s out there white-knuckling the thing, thinking, what’s absolute madness in this place?

so I’m on my way home from church I didn’t tell you that it takes us an hour one way to get to church can you imagine an hour of screaming that will test the nerves of anybody in this room even Pastor Van Geldren we were 40 minutes into the ride I was ready to get out and walk.

And in my heart, I began to come up with a way to handle the situation so I didn’t have to walk, and yet everybody was quiet.

And I thought I could start yelling at people and join into the chaos, because that wouldn’t fix it, but at least I would be doing something other than sitting here wondering what to do.

and as I’m wondering and trying to process what I should do, Jesus began to talk to me.

It’s funny the places he finds you in those frying pans of life.

And he says, Matthew, you want to yell and scream.

You want to lash out and say things.

Aren’t you so glad that I don’t do that to you?

Aren’t you so glad that I love you no matter what condition you’re in?

Aren’t you so glad that even though you struggle in this area, I can help you?

I can help you navigate this moment I can give you grace in this moment I can do this guess what Matthew I can do this not just in this car ride but I can do it on every car ride and it was in that moment I began to realize Jesus loves me unconditionally and he is so long suffering he’s so wonderful fault.

And I’m sitting there crying like a baby.

I’m sure my wife thought it was just because of the chaos going on.

But it was because Jesus was ministering to me even in the middle of that frying pan.

Let me tell you, Jesus loves you unconditionally, my friends.

And the moment you receive his love for you is the moment you then become a place, a channel where the unconditional love of God can begin to flow out from you to other people.

Do you know why lost people don’t get saved more often?

It’s because all we do is tell them a doctrinal truth.

All we’re doing is telling them some doctrinal truth that’s theologically correct, but there’s no love of God in it all.

Because most of us don’t have a real relationship with Jesus.

Most of us are living under the thumb of performing for the people around us, performing for the churches around us, performing, performing, performing, and we don’t know what it’s like to have a real relationship with God.

There’s three pillars, and then there’s two other truths that flow out of that.

I’ll give you the other pillar here because we’re out of time.

Honesty.

It’s where I was last year.

We talked about honesty.

A real relationship is built on trust, unconditional love, honesty, communion, and identity.

If you don’t have those five things, you do not have a real relationship.

But let me tell you, friends, we’re here today.

We need to start being honest.

I don’t have what that preacher’s talking about.

I might understand all the things.

I might have all my ducks in a row, quote unquote.

But when it comes to the reality of a real relationship with Jesus Christ, I couldn’t tell you the first thing.

I want it, but I don’t have it.

Trusting God?

Sounds like a good idea.

Maybe in the pews at church.

Maybe in youth group.

But when it comes to actually walking out on the streets, I don’t know if I can do it.

Unconditionally allowing God to love you first.

We live in a world that’s so comparative, don’t we?

Well, I don’t look like, you know, Caitlin so-and-so, and I don’t look like, you know, this person so-and-so, and their stuff’s all over social media, and I’m going to put some stuff up there just to put some stuff up there so people think that I’m better than I really am.

But when we found our approval in God himself, it changes our life dramatically.

Instead of living under the thumb of religion and performance.

Are you honest here today?

Do you know that if you’re not honest and walking in the light, you’re not walking with Jesus?

1 John says that you can’t walk in the light and walk in darkness at the same time.

it’s absolutely impossible.

Where are you spiritually?

If I were to look around here today and point one of you out and ask you to stand up and tell me where you’re at, really, where you’re at with your walk with God, would you be able to do it in front of everybody?

Why not?

Would you be afraid of what they might say about you?

That’s called the fear of man.

Proverbs 29 says that the fear of man brings a snare.

It captures you.

It hinders you from having something that you should have.

But whosoever puts his trust in the Lord shall be safe and free.

So we look around the congregation.

We can’t be honest.

We can’t let Jesus unconditionally love us.

We struggle with trust.

And most of all, it’s because we are insecure about our peer relationships.

Boy, some of us love to use peer pressure to force some of you into doing things, don’t we?

Fear of man, my friends.

I began to share my journey a little bit with our church family where I’m at right now.

My wife said, you know, honey, you got to be careful.

I said what she said you know you’re the pastor you gotta be careful I said honey if they don’t like me they can get rid of me I’m not doing this for their approval I live for the audience of one and if this group in this room lived for the audience of one and got sick and tired of living for the approval of others and started having a real relationship with Jesus Christ this state would change dramatically your state would change dramatically and this world

would

change dramatically the gospel would actually be free to go you know we’re going to end here young people I said it earlier you have the greatest opportunity in the history of the world to change the world I feel bad for you because you’re in the shadow of some of the most faithless, prayerless spiritless Christianity ever but it can all change with you you’re coming out of a generation or coming from a generation that doesn’t believe in prayer doesn’t believe in the ministry of the Holy

Spirit

doesn’t believe in gospel advance doesn’t believe this world can be reached and I believe it’s because they didn’t genuinely embrace a real relationship with Jesus Christ and it can all change with this group you’re in front of an impossible mountain young people but a decision of faith here today can take that mountain and remove it out of your way will you embrace a real relationship with him?

Because if not, it’ll kill the gospel.

Let’s pray.