The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
1 Peter 1:3quoted during worship as living hope through resurrection of Jesus Christ
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
introduction of Aquila and Priscilla, expelled from Rome under Claudius
2 He found a certain Jew named Aquila, a man of Pontus by race, who had recently come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome. He came to them,
quoted to show Paul's commitment to sharing the gospel to the Jew first and also to the Greek, righteousness revealed from faith to faith
16 For I am not ashamed of the Good News of Christ, because it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes; for the Jew first, and also for the Greek.
17 For in it is revealed God’s righteousness from faith to faith. As it is written, “But the righteous shall live by faith.”
Gallio dismissing the case as a matter of Jewish law and driving them away
14 But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, “If indeed it were a matter of wrong or of wicked crime, you Jews, it would be reasonable that I should bear with you;
15 but if they are questions about words and names and your own law, look to it yourselves. For I don’t want to be a judge of these matters.”
the crowd beating Sosthenes the synagogue leader in front of the judgment seat
17 Then all the Greeks laid hold on Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. Gallio didn’t care about any of these things.
mentioned as a passage preached on the first Sunday, with the point that the verses before it call God's people to settle and put down roots for seventy years
11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,” says Yahweh, “thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope and a future.
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Pastor Ray walked through Acts 18, which follows Paul's extended stay in Corinth, his partnership with Aquila and Priscilla, and the opposition he faced before the proconsul Gallio. The message ran alongside a send-off for Carl Clemer, who has served on staff for fifteen years and is moving with his family to Huntsville. Those two threads, one from the first century and one from Sunday morning, ended up speaking to each other in ways that felt unplanned and genuine.
What was said
Paul arrives in Corinth after a solitary stretch in Athens, and the first thing that happens is he finds people who share his trade. He moves in with Aquila and Priscilla, works as a tent maker, and reasons in the synagogue on the Sabbaths. Pastor Ray noted that Paul seems unhurried here, which is unusual. He is tilling the ground rather than pressing for a decision.
When Silas and Timothy catch up with him from Macedonia, Paul steps away from the trade and gives himself fully to the word. Pastor Ray paused there to talk about what makes that possible, how having capable people around you frees you to do the thing you are most called to do. The congregation heard some honest gratitude for exactly that kind of support, with Carl named as someone who made that freedom real.
When Paul directly declares that Jesus is the Christ, the resistance comes. Pastor Ray took time with the word "blasphemy," explaining that it means more than a curse word. It is calling what is genuinely good evil, and what is genuinely evil good, exchanging the truth of God for a lie. The crowd in the synagogue does exactly that, and Paul shakes out his garments and says he has done his part. He turns to the Gentiles.
What follows is notable. Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, believes, along with his whole household. Then Sosthenes, who appears to have taken Crispus's place, also aligns himself with Paul and gets beaten for it in front of the judgment seat. Pastor Ray sat with that for a moment, the way leadership carries weight, and how taking a position seriously means the cost of it becomes more visible, not less.
The Lord had already told Paul not to be afraid and not to be silent, because He had many people in that city. That promise does not mean the road is smooth. Gallio dismisses the case without a second thought, indifferent to the beating of Sosthenes right in front of him. Pastor Ray connected that to the way the world keeps moving through other people's hardest moments, which he named plainly as one of the heavy parts of pastoral work.
Paul stays in Corinth for a year and a half, longer than almost anywhere else in Acts. The whole stretch, from finding a trade partner to the vision at night to the courtroom scene, shows a man who is learning to be where he is, to bloom, as Pastor Ray put it, where he is planted. That picture sat quietly alongside Carl's own words about God's timing leading his family somewhere new, and the congregation's history of watching people leave and then simply picking up where they left off when they meet again.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages
in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
Pastor Ray talked about Paul settling in Corinth, working as a tentmaker alongside Aquila and Priscilla before shifting his full focus to the word once Silas and Timothy arrived. What do you think that kind of patience and willingness to work a trade while ministering says about how God uses ordinary circumstances to set up something larger?
When Paul shook out his garments and told the people in the synagogue that their blood was on their own hands, he was saying he had delivered the message faithfully and the rest was up to them. Have you ever been in a situation where you felt you had said what needed to be said and had to leave the outcome with God? How did that feel?
Speaker 2Hey. Good morning, everybody. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful to see you. Would you please stand and join us in song? And I would love to begin by singing the Lord's prayer.
If you've ever wondered, hey. I don't know how to pray. I don't know what to pray. Here's a wonderful prayer to pray and to sing. Father, let your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven right here in our hearts.
Would you join us in singing it?
RayAmen. Y'all can have a seat. I've got a few announcements, and we'll see what they are. And ain't it fun to be together? Just fill in the aisles.
Do what it takes. Do what it takes. There are still seats down front as always. So you can come on down if you want to. The announcements this morning, road trip.
Road trip is the theme. Hey, road trip is the theme of this week's Vacation Bible School. You'll see all kinds of decorations around and that starts tomorrow. It's nine to twelve, Monday through Thursday this week. Rising pre k to fifth grade, still time to register if you wanna register kids.
So this is happening right here. Road trip, on the go with God. Compass Women's Care is doing their gala event July 10. That's coming up fast. July 10 at 5PM.
You can register at friendsofcompass.org/fortieth. This is the fortieth anniversary of Compass Women's Care. They've been named other things, but this is this is what they're named right now. So forty years of Compass Women's Care, that's happening. The gala is happening.
And First Bee has a table with some seats available, I believe. And so if you want to get in on that, you can let us know and we'll put you in one of those. First b b q. First b b q is happening out here on the green space on The next one's on July 13. We have one on August 3, September 7 between the services.
That's a fun time. I'm glad we're not doing it today. But we are doing a little bit of a get together today for it's a send off, potluck for the Clemers and that's happening down the hall in the fellowship hall and spilling over into anywhere else necessary. Chicken and waffles are down there. The church has provided a lot of people have brought sides and desserts and all kinds of stuff.
And speaking of road trips, we're on one this afternoon. Carl and Renzi up in the booth from way back, and Blake up in the booth for our still current, and I are hauling Carl and his stuff to Alabama this afternoon. So that's happening. So that's the road trip. But there, say your say your bye bye's.
They've been saying good goodbyes for a good long while. He said, I want this service to be as normal as it can be. And I thought, alright. So if you need anything else, that is QR code to get to the website or you can just go to firstbjackson.org. If you try anything else, you might end up in Jackson, Mississippi.
It happens. But no. Jack firstbjackson.org is us. And I think that's it. Is there anybody else?
Casey. Yeah. So I'm graduating high school seniors. I knew there was one more. I knew there was one more.
It didn't make it into the announcements. So graduating seniors up into college age. 28, 20. 20. Of town at our house for 20.
So Casey McCooey and Brian McCooey live out kind of behind the airport. It is on Sunday evenings at 06:30. 06:30. I gather there's a meal. Dinner.
There's dinner for 20. That's fantastic. It's a really good time and there's gonna be there's gonna be some Bible study and there's gonna be lots of games and fun and fellowship. It's a good time that is just starting up and I'm sorry that didn't make it in there. I knew it.
There are flyers around the church and 20 from high school, just graduated seniors up through college age, whatever that happens to be, nontraditional student. Alright. That's out. Come now, fount of every blessing. Would you stand with us and we're gonna keep on praising the Lord.
Speaker 2And Lord, here we are as as a church body body together, God, to worship you, the head of this church. And, God, would you would you fill us with your joy, with your peace, with your spirit? God, what do you want from us? You want our hearts. Thank you.
Thank you. You brought us to this place. We wanna worship you with all our heart. In Jesus name, amen. I love you, Lord, for your mercy never fails me.
All my days, I've been held in the heart. Christ, my living whole. Oh, this is so good. Here's good news from first Peter. It's praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It's in his great mercy that he's given us new birth into a living hope. How does that sound, church? Doesn't that sound so good? And it's not just like something out there. It's something right here for right now.
He is our living, living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. It is because of his perfect life, his sacrificial death, and his resurrection that we get to have new life in him. Amen. Amen. You can have a seat here for a moment.
And this is the worship through giving part of the the service, and I'll invite our ushers to come on forward. We're gonna sing another song here. This one's called act justly, love mercy, walk humbly, you could guess right where it's from. It's Micah six eight. And what does the Lord require from us, and it's to do just that, to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God.
And before we sing, Ray, may I ask you to pray?
RayGod, thank you so much. Thank you for this gathering this morning, for this for this place together, for these people who are gathered and for the great savior in whom in whose name we are gathered. God, I thank you and I'm overwhelmed this morning with with anticipation, with joy, with gratitude. I think about so many different things, but Lord, you tell us to commit our works to you and our thoughts will be established. I pray that you'd center our hearts on you and your will for our lives.
Lord, may we increase our our contact with you, our conscious contact with you. Praying that you would give us exactly what it is that you want for us to do. That information lord is great, but the power to carry it out is what you do too. So in Jesus name, I pray that you would align our steps are right with you and your will. Lord, maybe be walking out the path, the steps that you have established in advance.
And I pray that you would bless this offering, Lord, that you would bless this to do your kingdom's work. Whatever it is that you want for us to do, you would be supplying it and we would be doing it. In Jesus name, I ask for your blessing on this offering but the gift and the giver. Amen.
Speaker 2And from now you'll see the fruit our hands
RayAmen. It's not time. It's not time for children's church. It's not time. That's not until first BBQ.
There we go. But we are up to this. Alright. Lord, help us. Amen.
We're up to acts 18 in our study. We're just rolling forward in acts. And acts is a travelogue. Road trip is a great name for a Bible school when you're walking through acts on Sunday mornings because it seems like, boy, that joker is just moving on, moving on. Acts 18, Paul slows down a bit and it's nice.
I imagine that it's nice for him to just be for a little while where he is. I I have been presenting on this since, mean, obviously acts one, but the missionary journeys of Paul and Barnabas to begin with, and then Paul and Silas after that, and Paul, Silas, and Timothy. And as we're going forward in this, I'm just thinking about, man, this place is so active and people are coming and going all the time, and you cannot help but see it. So this is Paul at Corinth. And here we start right here.
Eighteen one says this, now after these events, that's all the events of the latter half of '17 where he's in Athens and he was by himself in Athens, which is weird for Paul. He usually has a traveling companion. Right? He usually does. But he had to get out of town, and he got out of town from Berea, went down to Athens, and he was there, and he presented in the manner of the philosophers on Mars Hill.
And then, he's got to get out of there too. So rolling, rolling, rolling it goes. So after this event, Paul left Athens and he went to Corinth. Corinth is right there. Corinth is a very very wealthy city.
I'll get into it when we get to Corinthians, but they're extremely focused on sports. They're extremely focused on making money and figuring out any kind of way that they can do that. And they even dug an isthmus across this isthmus that they're upon. They even dug a trench all the way across it, kind of like the Panama Canal. You can't see it because my star is covering it up, but they dug it and then they taxed everybody who went through it.
They're pretty bright, very financially minded. And so Athens is all about philosophy. If you can say Corinth is about anything. Or some of y'all are going say Corinth, I'm from Georgia. I think it's Corinth.
It's Corinth, Mississippi. I know that. So Corinth. And so, in Corinth, Paul settles a bit. Here it says, right there in Corinth, found a Jew named Aquila.
So this is one of his countrymen, somebody you ought to know. He was a native of Pontus. I don't have a map for that. Having recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla. Now, this is the first time we meet Aquila and Priscilla in Acts.
They will come up at intervals for the rest of the book and they're very important. Usually, they're listed, Priscilla's name is first. Priscilla was very particular apparently, and it says that Priscilla and Aquila taught Apollos the way of God more accurately. Like she really had her her wits about her. It's great.
Having recently covered Millie with his wife Priscilla because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. And that's something you can go back, it's historical fact. There was an edict that said, come on, you all are just causing too much trouble around here, get out of town. So they skedaddled. And honestly, it might have been.
I'm not saying it was. It might have been because Christianity had come into the Jewish thing and there's altercations between hard line and traditionalists and the followers of the way. And so, they're commanded to get out and leave Rome. So he, that is Paul, came to them in Corinth. He meets up with Aquila and Priscilla because he was of the same trade as they were and he stayed with them and they worked together for they were tent makers by trade.
This is the first time we hear what what Saul, Paul did. He was builder. And so were Aquila and Priscilla. They belong to the same trade. He comes into town.
Now usually when he comes in, he goes straight to the synagogue. What's the next thing to say? Oh, yeah. And Paul was reasoning in the synagogue every Sabbath, and he was trying to persuade Jews and Greeks. It seems like, I don't know this.
It seems like he's there and he's taking his time this time. He's got a trade that he's working and he's going to the synagogue and he's he's speaking to him. He's not just an itinerant rolling along kind of guy right now. And he's reasoning with them, trying to persuade both Jews and Greeks, that's what he's been doing. But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, so they didn't go to Athens, they weren't there with him, so Paul was Solito right there in Athens.
But when he gets to Corinth, they catch up with him. And Paul began devoting himself completely to the word. So by vocational ministry is a perfectly reasonable way of doing things in my life. I have been under the teaching of bivocational pastors probably more than anything else. They were doing something else working, had a lot of gigs going in some cases or had a steady job going in some places.
Some of them were retired, I suppose, but for the most part, that's the way it was. And then when he had enough help, Silas and Timothy get there, he's able at that point to really focus on the word. I'm trying not to do it, Carl, but I'm gonna do it anyway. Having Carl here, I don't ever think to set up Oh, and Christa here. Christa puts the silverware at the beginning of the line and end of the line.
That's genius. How many of you forget it? It's so good, I forget it every time. And then I'm like, oh, thank God for Christa. My screen went out back there, but you all are still up.
We're good. Okay. There's another place in Acts where it says, and a and a problem arose among the in the distribution and some of the Hellenistic Jews or some of the Hellenists were coming in and saying, hey, our widows are being overlooked in the distribution. And the apostle said, should we be the ones to handle this or should we be ministering the word? And they set apart seven Greek named people to handle the issues.
And that's the deacons. We've got boards of trustees and we've got the elders and so that's helpful. But for Paul being able to just concentrate on the word, I wanna say thank you. This is not about Carl. I wanna say thank you just for giving me the freedom to preach what's there.
It's like it's really free and to just say, okay, what's next? Acts 18. Let's go there and just see what God has for us. It's really helpful. But what has made that possible is having a lot of y'all, Carl being the one that I'm thinking of most right now, that just allows for me to do that.
And so a lot of times, sit behind the desk and he's carrying stuff around or changing lights because he's an electrician, or doing something else, and I'm sitting there in front of the computer, and I think I probably ought to be helping him. And then, I don't. After they said, you're you're in the last little bit here. And I'm real nostalgic right now, so forgive me. So what do you list who you are, what else?
I love God's people and love God's word. I thought the people part was gonna be easy for me, and the word part was gonna be really really difficult. And since I've been here, not that people are difficult, but the word has become the easier part, and the people part is a heavier burden than than I had ever guessed that it would be. But it's beautiful. This body has beautiful, and y'all are so helpful for so many.
And I don't think y'all know it, but I'm the I'm the point of that that gets to see it. And so thank you for that. Okay. Here we go. Okay.
So Paul began devoting himself completely to the word. So he stepped away from the job. It's so it looks like, and he comes to where he's just ministering the word. And he begins testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. Now before it said he was reasoning with them.
He was reasoning with it from the scriptures. He's tilling the soil. He's saying, let's reconsider this Old Testament passages. Let's reconsider this. I understand where you're coming from, but could it be that Messiah might not be military?
Could it be that Messiah might be what it's talking about? By his stripes were healed. Could it be? And then when he has extra support, and it's not just him there, Solito. He goes, Jesus Jesus fulfills all this stuff.
Jesus fulfills all this stuff. So when they resisted and blasphemed, which is what that's what's gonna happen. Right? Resistance to that. I don't want it to be that way.
This is not the way I've been taught. I don't want it to be that way. They resisted and they blasphemed. I love the word blasphemy. Blasphemy is the Greek word and we say blasphemy and you kind of know, oh, that's blasphemy.
Usually, there are two letters or two words that you think of when you think of blasphemy. It's that curse word. Right? But blasphemy is really just abuse abusive or scurrilous language. I'll have to get divine scurrilous too.
Making or spreading scandalous claims about some with the intent of damaging their reputation. Well, abusive or scurrilous language in particular, it's literally being slow to call something that is good, that really is good, and slow to identify what truly is bad, that really is evil. Does that make sense? It's actually switching right for wrong and wrong for right. Down is up, up is down.
Calling that which God disapproves of as right or in Romans, the language says, exchange in the truth of God for a lie. So Paul is presenting the truth of God and they are calling it a lie. No. We don't want to hear that. And the next thing that happens, I expect resistance, blasphemy, and I expect And then they form a mob and they're gonna You know, he's in jail or he's getting beat up or whatever.
But this is on on Paul this time it says, when they resisted and blasphemed this time, he just shook out his garments and said, y'all's blood is on y'all's hands. It does say y'all by the way. Y'all's blood is on y'all's hands. I'm clean. I've carried the message forward exactly as it was written and I'm carried it to you.
I've set I've fitted in your lap and you have decided to call right wrong and wrong right, and so I'm innocent here. From now on, I'm going out to the Gentiles. I know Jesus told me I was supposed to be his apostle to the Gentiles, but I love my people so much. I'm always gonna start with them. They ought to know better for the Jew first.
In Romans one says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. I'm gonna keep on sharing that good news. It's the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it, the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as is written. The righteous one's gonna live by faith.
And then he left the synagogue and he went to the house of a man named Titius Justice. Titius Justice. Does that sound like a Jewish name? No. That's a Roman name.
He was a worshiper of God. Okay. That's great. Wouldn't that be great just somebody says, Ray McDaniel, he's a worshiper of God. That's great.
Yeah. Thank you, Connor. Whose house was next door to the synagogue? Now, I I am terrible at sales and I've told you all that before and I've proven it or and or. But I had a boss that said one time, this is a good principle, Ray, just start where you are.
Start with the people that are closest to you. Work your way outward from there, concentric circles. You start right here and just kind of go out from there. And then don't step over business to get the business is what he said. I've got a funny story I'll tell some other time.
No. I'm gonna tell it now. Sorry. I tried to sell stuff for a specialty advertising. It was terrible.
A screen printing I could do. I did screen printing for several years. I burned up my sense of smell, but I love screen printing. So I did that, and then he went to specialty advertising where you get your little trinkets with stuff on them, you know, and I never sold anything except for one set of magnets to a pizza thing, and they got the wrong they got the phone number wrong on it when I finally did sell something. But I was so tired of doing that job, and I mean I was tired of doing that job.
Selling, not the print screen print, I could have done that forever. When I got to the selling part of it, I was going on a job interview in Mobile. Mobile is five hours from where I live. And I sold them a set of pens with the name of the company on it. And the guy thought, Ray, don't step over business to get the business.
You drove five hours to sell 200 pens? I was like, yeah. And this is my two week notice. They hired me. It's the only thing I ever really sold.
Sorry. Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, he believed in the Lord with his entire household. Titius Justice, a worshiper of God whose house was next door to the synagogue. This was a Roman guy who just lived nearby and he started right there. And then it says, Crispus, who was the leader of the synagogue, the head guy at the synagogue, he believed in the Lord.
Do you think it was Paul shaking out his garments and saying I set that right before you. I've told you the truth. In prayer, Crispus believed. And he believed with his whole household. So there they are.
I'm thankful this is from first Corinthians. I'm thankful that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius. Because there was division among the Corinthians later and he wrote them later. He he loved them, but he's like, I remember Crispus coming in, leader of the synagogue. And many of the Corinthians also believed.
As they listened to Paul, they were believing and they were being baptized. Apparently not by Paul, but they were being baptized. And the Lord said to Paul by a vision at night. Last time we saw this happened where God gave him a vision at night, he was in Troas and he said, come over here to Macedonia, we need your help. And they went and Lydia, Thyatira, an unnamed slave girl, and the Philippian jailer were all saved and their households.
And now, we see the word of God spreading in Corinth, we see people believing in Corinth and the Lord said to Paul by vision at night, don't be afraid Paul. I don't think that Paul is being very afraid, but he was. And he said, don't be afraid Paul. You've been rolling and rolling and rolling and you can Don't be afraid. You just go on telling the truth, you just go on ministering, keep on applying the gospel, applying it to your life and applying it to every situation.
Don't be afraid. Any longer is in italics in the new American that's added in English. It just says don't be afraid. Keep on speaking. Don't be silent.
The world needs to hear what you have to say. For I'm with you and no one will attack you to harm you for I have many people in this city. Isn't that sweet? The Lord goes before us. He's already preparing the hearts to hear the message.
I have many people in this city. It may not feel like it, it may feel very foreign to you, but I have many people here who need to hear what you have to say. And he settled there for a year and six months. Now, Ephesus, that's the longest we ever see Paul anywhere. He said, I was in Arabia for this long and I was there, but we hear about him hanging out in Corinth and being there.
This reminds me of our first Sunday here. I didn't speak the first Sunday here. There was a missionary speaking, and they spoke on Jeremiah 29, but the part before eleven. I know the plans I have for you. They're plans to prosper you.
You're gonna be stuck here for seventy years. That was the that was the first part of that. Right? Don't believe anybody who tells you anything else. You're gonna be here.
Plan on putting down roots. Be where you are. Bloom where you planted, as they say. Do what I have for you to do here, and just plan on being here for a while. Kids and grandkids, it says in that passage.
And he settled there for a year and six months, and he was teaching the word of God among them. Good. He's playing the trade. He's doing what it is that he does. That God has equipped him to do the best.
But while Galileo was proconsul of Achaia Okay. Wait a second. This feels like a history lesson. Yep. Galileo you can look it up.
Galileo was proconsul of Achaia. The Jews rose up together against Paul and they brought him before the judgment seat. Now, God has told him don't be afraid. God's told him not to be silent. Boy.
Here we are. They rose up together against Paul. They brought him before the judgment seat, the bema, and they were saying, this man is inciting the people to worship God contrary to the law. Now, these are Jews and they brought him before a proconsul that is Roman and Romans didn't like to deal with the with your That's your business, know. In fact, that's what it says next.
But when Paul was just about to open his mouth because he had been told, don't be afraid. Don't be silent. So I could see Paul just waiting. Here's my opportunity. I got my opportunity.
I'm supposed to be before governors and kings. I know that I'm supposed to be the voice to the Gentiles, and I bet he was waiting with bated breath. And it says, Gallio said to the Jews, if it were a matter of some crime or some vicious unscrupulous act you, oh Jews, it would be reasonable for me to put up with you right now. But if the questions are about teaching in persons and your own law, come on. See to it yourself.
I'm unwilling to be a judge over these insert trivial matters. That's no big deal to me. Just he drove them away from the judgment seat. Get out of here. Threw it out of court.
This is nothing to me. Now God says he has many people in that city. Now he he used Gallio so that they would not beat him up or so they wouldn't throw him in prison. He's like, no, that's not my issue. There this in acts, it keeps on presenting over and over that Christianity is no threat to the government.
It says that multiple times. They they end up imprisoned quite a bit, but it's not a threat. Just like kingdom just like Jesus said, my kingdom is not of this world. But what they did then was they took hold of Sostinese. Sostinese was the leader of the synagogue.
Wait a second. Wasn't Christmas the leader of the synagogue? He's no longer leader of the synagogue, he went with Paul. But apparently, Sosthenes, second in command, also agreed with Paul. So they took Sosthenes, we see him also in first Corinthians, Paul called as an apostle Jesus Christ by the will of God and by our brother Sosthenes.
This is later, you know. But Sostomus is the leader of the synagogue, and they began beating him right in front of the judgment seat. God said to Paul, nobody's gonna mess with you here. He didn't say the same thing to Sostomus. He believed in Jesus and it cost him.
There is a cost. The cost of discipleship is is real. Began beating him in front of the judgment seat. Christmas, leader of the synagogue, believed in Lord and his entire household. Sosthenes, leader of the synagogue.
They were I I guess what I was trying to say right here to myself, through putting the slides in this order. When you sit in a position of leadership and you and it really becomes apparent that there are people that are looking to you, it The weight of it is something. It really is. And and Crispus took that weight and he said, I believe he's right. And then Sostenie is taking his place because I believe he's right.
And so following after him is they took their job seriously. Everybody should have recognized it from no one, but when it becomes sort of your your passion or your vocation to do this, boy, I am more convinced today than I've ever been of the goodness of God singing about it a minute ago. I'm more convinced today of of my own fallibility and that I need him every hour I need to stay in contact. And I think that when you when you take your position seriously, that is the way that it goes. I love this.
I actually looked up to see, could Crispus and Sostenes be the same guy? There are a few people that think so, but I don't think so. I think he's just saying that there they were. And yet, Galileo was not concerned about any of these things. One of the things in ministry that having having walked through hard times with a lot of people is that the world just keeps on turning.
The world just keeps on moving. There was a terrible accident yesterday on South Park Loop, and there was someone that was killed. And for her family today, they're going through the motions of life and they're seeing the whole activity of all the world. All the it it feels like nothing has changed. Gallio, not concerned about any of this.
A man's being beaten. You know. Christianity is growing. It's the vast and unchronicled witness. Christianity is spreading and that's a good thing, but there's all kinds of ugliness that's happening to all around the world right now.
There are all kinds of hard things that are going on. And I wanna pray for those hard things right now, and then we're gonna give three minutes with Carl. That's what he asked for. God Almighty, for the difficulties that are all around us that we, Lord, have no power to do anything about on the front side, but we have a way of being able to help some on the backside. Would you show us, Lord, if those are our steps that we're supposed to take?
Would you show us as we pray, would you give us the passion and the compassion to carry out acts of kindness and goodness, and would you allow us the grace of being able to be your hands and feet to those people. In Jesus name, and I extend that to the absolute uttermost parts. Amen. Alright, Carl. Three minutes.
Speaker 2I do wanna keep this brief. Otherwise, it'll just be a pile. First be it has been an absolute joy and pleasure to be one of your pastors for the last fifteen years. And God is so gracious and so loving and so faithful and so kind, and you first be are a beautiful reflection of that. And so I couldn't ask for a better congregation to be a part of, a better staff.
Connor, I love you. A better lead pastor and friend as Ray, and a talented and faithful and committed worship team. There's really no good reason to leave here. There's really no good reason at all other than God's divine hand leading us to Huntsville. And in his wisdom and his sovereignty, he has made the way for us to be near our family, for my wife, Christa, to continue to teach and use her gift in an elementary school for our kids as they grow into adulthood, and even for me to still be a pastor.
Believe that? And I get to be a pastor and worship leader. And there's no way that I could have orchestrated all these things on my own, like, no way at all. God's will, his way, his timing has just absolutely astounded me. And I wanna say that I am leaving with confidence and with certainty that God who began the good work will finish it to completion.
And there is no doubt about it. God has always filled in the gaps. Always, always. Where one part of the body of Christ moves away, he brings another to fill it in because that is how God works. First b, I love you, and I will miss you.
And it would make my heart so happy if you were passing through Huntsville to just give a give a call, shoot, shoot a text, it would make me so happy to see you there or on a return visit as we return to Jackson or a phone call, just to say hello or something like that. We have seen a lot of folks come and go here at First Bee. And for me, when I see them again, can I share what I appreciate the most about this church family is simply picking up where we left off? And first b, may I ask you to do that from from for myself and for my family? When we see you again, can we just pick up where we we left off?
That's my favorite part. I love the reunions. And first, be pleased continue to be who you are in Christ, loving God, loving people, all you are. Amen. Hey, can we sing another song together?
That's my favorite part. And let's sing of God's faithfulness, shall we?
RayAmen. Amen. And now may the Lord bless and keep you and make his face to shine upon you and give you peace and may you be a carrier of that peace and spread it everywhere that you go. Amen.
