Who Was I to Stand in God's Way? First B Jackson 2025-02-16 Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record. ---- Good morning, everybody. Fantastic to see you this morning, and would you stand and join us in song? Good word from Psalm 103 to lead us into worship. It's bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that's within me. Bless his holy name. That's what we've come here to do. Would you sing with us 10,000 reasons for our hearts to find. Bless Announcement this morning. What do we have? I know that tomorrow is President's Day, so we are not doing Awana because of President's Day. Right? Am I right about that? Yes. Am I on the wrong? Yeah. There it is. No Awana. 02/17. '17. Noa Wana tomorrow. As fun as that looks, just not happening tomorrow. It'll be back on. Teton Valley Idaho Fellowship is normally the second Friday of the month, but there's a glitch in February where the second Friday of the month ended up being Valentine's Day. I didn't catch that last week. I didn't think about it last week. Neither did they, and so they have moved that. It is supposed to be this Friday. I don't see Yeah. There we go. It is happening. There it is. I got the two thumbs up. It is happening this week. That's the third Friday, but it's close enough. Teton Valley Idaho Fellowship, that's happening. The men's snowmobile retreat is happening this coming weekend too. The twenty first through the twenty third, Old Faithful Christian Ranch. You can talk to Richard Largie about it. It's a $120 per person. I think that that's still open if you wanna go, let him know quick quickly though because it's happening next weekend. The Jackson Hole women's community is having a Bible study down at Gateway right now. It's met here before, it's met at the Press Church before. It's meeting at Gateway right now. Carl and I played again in the band this week. It's wonderful. It's so good. I cannot incur I know it's a women's Bible study and I know Carl and I were there. But I'm telling you, I cannot encourage you anymore ladies to go to that. It's fantastic. The teaching is great and the time together is great. The music was pretty good too. Alright. Young adult Bible study, Lauren and Anika have gotten one rolling for young adult ladies. Mondays at 7PM, February 3 through May, whatever that is, fifth. That looks good. Lauren, you wanna say anything more about it? Nope. Nope. Okay. That's happening on Mondays at seven. This 12 part series to build joy, Steve Gilmore got up a few weeks ago and announced that he'd be starting. It was actually started last week, but it was informational. So if you just weren't able to be here 06:00 on last Wednesday, you can start up and you'll start from the beginning this Wednesday. And it is gonna be great. It's a restarting group. It's really trying to build and maintain joy. Having that joy can't be your place, right, that you come back to. You might go into other emotions, you come back to joy as your base. That's what the idea of this is. So Steve Gilmore, he's got a lot of experience with helping people in their fifth steps of the 12. So it's really really good time. That happened last Wednesday, it went well. This is kind of a save the date card for VBS twenty twenty five, June twenty third through twenty sixth. If you wanna put that in your schedules so that you don't plan another road trip. The theme this year is road trip, June 23 through the twenty sixth twenty twenty five. That's it. First be in the Bible, y'all know about. I think I'm gonna skip through that. Y'all know about that. I think that's it. Does that does anybody have another one that I have forgotten about? Okay. Good. Can we pray for just a second and then we'll get to singing this ancient hymn. In Jesus name, Lord, we come together as creatures bowing before the creator. Singing your praises, Lord. Thankful that you brought us here together. Thankful that you put breath in our lungs and Lord thankful for all of the influences on our lives. Lord, contemplating your goodness and contemplating your greatness and the scale on which you work that what other people intend us evil, you can and do turn it for good. Lord, thank you for the way that you bless. Thank you for the way that you transform our thinking and transform our hearts. I pray that you'd be renewing our minds as we're here together this morning. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Would you stand with us? Let's sing together. All creatures. From Psalm one forty seven, it's how good to sing praises to our God, how delightful, and how fitting. And God, it is. It is so fitting that we pour out our our gratitude, our praise, our worship, our adoration toward you. It's it really is. This is about you. It is for you. And, God, would you keep us moving here in the same direction toward your heart this morning. In Jesus' name. Amen. Worthy of all the praise we could ever bring. Worthy of every breath we could ever bring. We live for you. Jesus, the name above. Jesus, the name above every other name. Jesus, the only one God, it is so good to be among your people and singing your praises together. And I just can't get past the together part. Lord, this this is us, the collective body of Christ together. And with all we are, with with all that we brought into this place, and some are mourning and others are rejoicing. And we're to rejoice with those who are rejoicing and mourn with those who mourn. But we're together, and God, that is just a gift. That is such a gift to be here together as the body of the as the body of Christ, each part having a special and unique purpose working together. And, Lord, we make this not just our our song, but our our prayer. God, would you open up our eyes and wonder? Could could we see, Lord, Lord, the the depths of the riches of Christ this morning that we would go deeper maybe than we had before to know what your heart is. And we know what your heart is because scripture has told us it's to love you and to love others. And God, it's it's a it's it's not a hard thing to understand, but it's a tough thing to do. But, Lord, you've given us your Holy Spirit to do the work, and we thank you for that. And, God, we keep singing in faith. In Jesus' name. Amen. Heavy hearted, come to Jesus and find your peace. If you're rundown Come to Jesus and find your way. If you want freedom, be forgiveness. Just come that you need it, he is. And let's sing who he is. He's the comforter, counselor, prince of peace, author and maker of everything, defender, deliverer, king of kings, Amen. You can have a seat here for a moment. It's the worship through giving part of the service. I'll invite our ushers to come on forward, and and we're gonna sing another song. From Isaiah 40, it's the grass withers, the flowers fade, the word of God. That's what stands forever. And before we sing, Ray, may I ask you to pray? Yep. Lord God, thank you for the for this week, for the experiences of this week. Since we were here last, Lord, I've seen the joy of family being baptized, the joy of what appeared to be impromptu. Lord. It was. It was a spontaneous expression action following after the spirit, encouraging to the church, Lord, and then to go and witness a grieving family in the walking in the shadow of death. Lord God almighty, you are with us through every one of these experiences. You are with us lord in the midst of all that we're going through and And I pray, Lord, that we recognize your presence. We'd recognize you, and that we would see and take comfort in. And Lord, that we would choose continually to give that kind of life and light to those around us. Lord, I pray that you would still our fears, that you would allow us to walk in the freedom that you provide, and that you'd allow us, lord, to walk in in the spirit, that you would keep us on the path. In Jesus name, we're so thankful, lord. You're you're showing us You're showing us the good old gospel way because you've walked it out. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, lord. Thank you, spirit for your indwelling presence. Thank you. Overwhelm, lord. Would you take these offerings, lord, and all else that's placed in the metaphorical plates, Lord. All of our time and prayers and conversations and our leaning towards the other. I think of you touching the untouchable. Lord, would you show us who it is that you would like for us to reach out to this week? Show us, Lord, and give us the strength to just do it. In Jesus name, we gather. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen. Let me hear your words above all, of voices above all, the distractions in this world. For your words bring light. For your words bring light, and your voice speaks Amen. It is time for children's church downstairs and I was supposed to make an announcement that this is the time for middle school and high school too. Y'all are welcome down there. There's a class for YouTube middle school and high school and the childrens are headed down. This is me, not Carl, not the rest of the band, not the rest of the orchestra we've had up here. Sound check was absolutely fantastic, and I love it. Absolutely. And I started thinking about the sermon about usually, the reason I play bass up here is because I can't think of anything else but playing the bass while I'm doing that. It's the simplest instrument on the stage, and it is all I can do to concentrate on that. And I just found myself not playing along. There's a difference in playing at the same time and playing together. And it doesn't take but one monkey to ruin the whole circus. I'm that monkey. So anyway, I'm glad that y'all I hope y'all have fun. All I could think about was what's next. And because I have about half as many slides as I usually do. So I know that the sermon part, like the normal stuff that I do, is about half as many slides and half as much information as usual. Thank you. That's very kind of you. It's not true either, but it's it's very kind. Acts eleven one through 18. Last week, I covered Acts 10, the whole chapter and for me, it was a very very encouraging sermon. The text itself is a significant geographical boundary, not cultural boundary. To to spread the good news of Jesus to the Gentiles and have them received into the family of God is a huge step in salvation history. It's a huge huge quantum leap forward. It was unthinkable, right? It was unthinkable for Peter before he had his vision And for Cornelius, the God fearer, he knows how. He knows how the Jews feel about him. He knows that. He's a God fearer, but not a full proselyte into Judaism. And I say all this, you're fixing to hear the same story again. Acts eleven one through 18 is the same story, but it's in sort of a different vein. I said last week during the prayer, was a little nervous. When I looked down at my phone while I was preaching, I don't I'm not used to looking at my phone while I'm preaching. I'm looking I'm used to it all the rest of the time, But I looked down and I and I got nervous right there, and I recognized something about myself that I loved to play basketball, and I like to be in the mix, like mixing it up, know, play and I want the ball, I want the ball. Several of you all said, love that story. I really do. I like to give a good hard foul. I don't mind taking one but please don't call it if somebody fouls me. Okay. Please don't. I'd rather just play rough. Blood on the court is fine with me. We'll wipe it up when we take a break. That's really the way I feel because I can't shoot free throws. I shot like 46%, seriously from the free throw line and that's terrible. And I'm a big guy, I don't mind taking a bump, I don't mind taking a foul, and I'll keep jumping and keep on putting it up until it goes in eventually. You've had your rebound statistics. But free throws are always a problem and it it was because everybody's looking at you during the free throws. The worst worst than a free throw is when they call a time out during the free throw, and then you were iced and you're just up on the line. And then I realized, that's my job. I stand up here every week, and if I ever think about it, I have a couple of y'all, a couple of y'all that look at me and go, just breathe and calm down Ray. You're gonna be fine. The scripture is up there. You're gonna be fine. I like to be in the mix. I like to be in the game And when you get the direction from the coach, okay, you're going in there and they're going do an inbound pass and it's an alley oop. Great. That's my favorite favorite inbound pass of all time. Wham. Just make a make a show of it. That's good. But then you just keep playing. You don't stand there, and you're just sitting there, standing there on the platform. I want to be in the mix. So here we are at Acts 11. Soon, the news reached the apostles. Maybe it should be a capital a there, the sent out ones. Soon, the news reached the apostles and the other believers in Judea. And hey, Judea, the land of the Jews. Soon the news reached the apostles and the other believers in Judea that the Gentiles, the nations, the heathen, it's translated a lot of times in the King James. It's the ones who are outside the Gentiles. They called them the dogs, like they didn't feel good about them, you know. Soon the news reached the apostles and other believers in Judea that the Gentiles had received the word of God. Wow. Huge leap like I mentioned. But when Peter, remember, Peter had been in Joppa staying in the house of Simon the Tanner, and then he was called 31 and a half miles away up to Caesarea, and Peter comes from there. He stayed with Cornelius, that's where we left off last week. He stayed with Cornelius for some time. When Peter arrived back in Jerusalem, the Jewish believers What do you think they did? They rejoiced with him. They criticized him. Ain't that aggravating? Yeah. It's terrible. But it is what happened, and so here it is. Man, what a high it is to see what was going on at Cornelius' house, and to hang out, and to be able to eat with him, and feel fine about it, and be okay with it because God had said so. God had not called it impure or unclean, but he opened it up, opened up the abundance of this new era. When Peter arrived back in Jerusalem, the Jewish believers, the the ones of the circumcision is what it literally says right there, criticized him. You entered the home of Gentiles and you even ate with them? What were you thinking? What in the world were you thinking? I wore blue jeans this morning. Part of the reason I wore blue jeans this morning is because in Mexico, I was, you know, working on a construction site most of the time. I had new jeans, you know how you do, new jeans down to your worn out jeans you wouldn't wear anywhere except the yard. And I I wore a pair of blue jeans to church, and I saw this. I thought he was a missionary. I thought he was a believer. Believers don't wear blue jeans to church. Oh, gracious, Jackson Hole. Here we are. Gentleman's appropriate for everything. It's a weird boundary. It's a strange one, but that was one of them that they had. It it didn't hang around very long for at first, they're like, you can't do that. You gotta wear slacks, you know. You gotta be that's weird. You entered the home of Gentiles and you even ate with them? They said, exclamation point. They're upset about it. And then Peter told them exactly or precisely or in order. And this is Luke that wrote this. Right? Luke wrote Luke and Luke wrote Acts. And at the beginning of both, he says, I'm giving you an orderly account of what went on. And Peter felt it was necessary to do exactly the same thing. Alright. Go with me here. I'm gonna tell you the story exactly how it happened. I was in the town of Joppa. I was hanging out with Simon. He said, and while I was praying, I went into a trance, I saw a vision, something like a large sheet was let down by its four corners from the sky, and it came right down to me. From heaven right down to me. And when I looked inside the sheet, I saw all sorts of tame and wild animals, and unclean, reptiles and birds. And I heard a voice say, get up Peter, kill and eat them. And I reacted just like you would have. No, Lord. No. I can't do that. I have never eaten anything that our Jewish laws have declared impure or unclean. Never. No, Lord. I can't do that. But then this voice of heaven spoke again and said, do not call something unclean if God has made it clean. Now, this happened three times. This voice from heaven happened three times, the sheet lowering down, all of this, it happened three times before that sheet and all that it contained was pulled back up into heaven. And just then, in the in the other chapter he said, it says, Peter was perplexed, bewildered, confused. But as he was perplexed, bewildered, and confused by what God was showing him, it says, just then these three men he didn't he didn't go through his uncertainty when he was telling the story. He just was telling the facts. They weren't the subjective feelings. This is what happened. Okay? Just then three men who have been sent from Caesarea arrived at the house where we were staying, and the Holy Spirit told me to go with them and not to worry, to make no distinction that they were Gentiles. Here it is. Meanwhile, as Peter was puzzling over the vision, the Holy Spirit said to him, three men have come looking for you. Get up, go downstairs and go with them without hesitation. No distinction. Don't worry, I have sent them, God. And the spirit says, so I came without objection. As soon as I was sent for, I made no distinction. So these six brothers here accompanied me. In the in the tenth chapter, we see that he took some folks with him, and then here it says, these guys. He went back to Jerusalem, he took the same guys that had been in Joppa, that went to Caesarea, and when he went back, he said, I'm gonna need some witnesses on this. And whereas two or three witnesses is good in Jewish circles, in Roman circles, they needed a more ample group of witnesses. So six plus his would be the number that was really good for that. So these six brothers here accompanied me, and you can ask them what happened. These folks are witnesses, and this is all about acts is about witnesses. It's people who know what they have seen and what they have experienced, and they are willing to tell their testimony. They're not judges, they're not lawyers, they're not required to argue the points or why. All they're supposed to do is say what they have seen. These six brothers here accompanied with me and that we soon entered the home of the man who had sent for us. We did. We went in. Yes. He told us how an angel had appeared to him in his home. Did you hear that? The angel went there. The angel went there. He told us that an angel appeared to him in his home and had told him, send messengers to Joppa, summon a man named Simon Peter. That is a little outlandish to to our church ear, Baptist church ear maybe. Right? I was up there praying, I get this vision, and just then these three arrive and we went back with them. And here it is, his vision lined up with mine. We have seen this already once. Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Ananias, I want you to go to Damascus, to the straight called street, go to Judas' house, and when you get there, you're gonna meet a man named Saul. Saul, Saul, Saul, the one who's trying to kill us? Take us back. Yeah. That one. I've already told him you're coming. Ananias, I told him by name. This is what needs to happen. He he is confirming it. Cornelius gets a vision, Peter gets a vision. Summon a man's name Simon Peter, he will tell you how you and everyone in your household can be saved. Ultimately, it comes to salvation, the presentation of the gospel and the acceptance of it is the way that the gospel moves forward. Peter says, as I began to speak. He recognizes that it was not because of anything that he had planned. As Paul says, it's not with persuasive words. As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them. In exactly the same way, just as he fell on us at the beginning. Y'all remember what that was like? It was weird for us. It was something that Joel had predicted. It was something that Jeremiah had predicted. It was something that Jesus told us about acts one eight, you will receive power from on high. And when that happened, we thought it was weird. The Holy Spirit fell on them just as he fell on us at the beginning. And then I thought of the Lord's words when he said, John, baptize with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. And I saw it happening in front of me, so did these six other guys right here. And since God gave these Gentiles the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was out of standing God's way? Make it plain, Peter. Make it plain. Right? I'm not supposed to think of anyone as impure or unclean. What they do, their practices, that's a different thing, but I'm not to think of them as impure or unclean. I'm supposed to think of them who's someone who is pre Christian. Whatever has happened to them in their life has got them in the place that they are. The gospel is true, and the gospel is still true for them, and I should not build a barrier in between me who knows it and them, those people who do not. Who is out of standing God's way? God wants to overcome those barriers. Here we are. And when the others heard this, this is verse 18, this is as far as we're going. Okay. When the others heard this, what do you think they did? So the first time I said what they do, they criticized him. Right? He came in, we heard what happened. But when the others heard his presentation of just the facts, ma'am, not his subjective feelings, just this is what happened. They stopped objecting and they began praising God. Amen. That's wonderful. And they said, we can see that God has also given the Gentiles the privilege of repenting of their sins. Do you count repentance from your sins as a privilege? You should. You should. You could be blinded to your own sin. To recognize it as sin and to have the privilege of walking away from it is a privilege that we have experienced. We might not think of it that way, but he says he get and that's the first thing he says. Right? He he list two things. We can see that God has also given to the heathens, the nations, the outsiders, the privilege of repenting of their sins, and of receiving eternal life. It's not just for Jews anymore. It's not just for Samaritans who are half reading their halfway right and they had half the Bible. Right? No. It's for it's crossed over. It's not just Jerusalem and Judea. It's not just Samaria. It is to the uttermost parts, and it opens up the kingdom to everyone. And that's the idea of the great commission is that as you are going, you be going and you be doing this, making disciples, baptizing him and teach him to obey all that I have commanded you. It's a question of who has authority and the authority is with Jesus and he hands it over to his apostles. He hands it over to us. Carry this message forward to the very ends of the earth everywhere that you go. And then it said and throughout the rest of scripture, actually, Carl is preaching next week. This is gonna be yellow slide preview next week. Sorry, Carl. I'm gonna just low front load them. Here we go. He was prepared to preach this one this week because we were in a funeral in Sheridan yesterday, and we left there pretty late and didn't know snowstorm on the way. So I said, go ahead and preach yours if you if you have to. So this is it. Meanwhile, the believers who have been scattered during the persecution after Stephen's death. The believers who have been scattered during the persecution after Stephen's death, they traveled as far as Phoenicia, and Cyprus, and Antioch Of Syria, and they preached the word of God, but they only did it to Jews. They they didn't know. They were out of the town when Peter came back and kind of defended himself about the Gentile mission. So they were already there in Phoenician, this is why Paul says for the Jew first and then for the Gentiles. Right? For the Jew first. Literally, they were first. They got the message first and when the gospel leaps over these cultural bounds, they don't all see it at once. So they keep on in the vein that they're used to until they hear or as it says later on, they taught him the way of God more accurately. Right? They preached the word of God, but they only did it to Jews. However, some of the believers who went to Antioch from Cyprus and Cyrene, which are really far apart by the way, they began preaching to the Gentiles about the Lord Jesus. Some of them, it was spontaneously happening anyway. And they probably felt just like Peter. I don't know about this. It doesn't mention their visions, but he's not telling their story. The word of God is to go to the nations. It is to go to the ends of the earth. The power of the Lord was with them and a large number of these Gentiles had believed and turned to the Lord. Ain't that beautiful? The the mission of God goes forth. It keeps on going forth. It's led by his spirit, empowered by his spirit, but it is about the factual truth of Jesus's life perfectly lived, fulfilling the law, fulfilling all of the righteous requirements to have a perfect record that he can offer to anyone who would believe. The plan of Father God, right? This is amazing news. It's really really good. So that's the last slide that I have up there, But I want to mention something before we go. Next week, Carl's preaching, you're going have folks fill in for a little while. I'm not going anywhere like forever. Okay? But I am going to Africa for about a month. So we're going and we do feel Yay. Thank you, Connor. That's the way I feel about it. Would you defend me to anybody like Peter needed to defend him? No. Now we're gonna go Tanya and I are gonna go. We kinda know where we're going to first as ministry two ministries in South Africa that we as a church support and have supported for some time to meet up with a couple of believers there. And reading acts and knowing that you're going, I can look around the room and I know there are people that have ministry in Indonesia and have ministry in Uganda and ministry all over the world. And I'm I can look at your faces and like, that Nepal, there's I know that there's a lot going on. We will give a report when we get back about what happened. On the front side of a mission trip, you really don't know what's gonna happen. So would you all be praying for us? The men's group kind of commissioned me last week after the men's study, and I appreciate that. And I I just want for you all to know that we're heading out, we're going to South Africa first, and we're ending up in Kenya. They're a long ways apart. There's a lot between the two. We know kind of what we're doing on the front side, we know what we're doing on the back side of it, but the middle, we're not positive of all that God will reveal, I'm sure. But we do feel motivated to do this. When we came on, we came on hired as missionaries. I've never been a pastor, US pastor before. I've done a little, you know, work at 19 years old at a campground for a summer while I was in college, but never been in this position. But we feel motivated by God to go, and it's it's pretty awesome sitting on this side of it. So if you would be praying for us, we really appreciate it. Tanya speaking at the Pres Church on Thursday, flies out on Friday. I hope to pick her up at the Atlanta Airport. I'm driving. So our missionary travel start with that very soon this week. But can I ask you all to pray? I'm gonna ask the band to come on back up. We're ten minutes early. I know. Nobody complains about a short sermon. But can I can I ask that y'all would pray and I'm? May I pray for you? Sure, ma'am. Please. I'd love to do that. And Lord, we do pray for our brother. As we're going through acts, we're seeing this incredible work that you do as as your people are led by your spirit. And they're going from this place to that place. And, again, just led by your spirit, and you connect the dots. And, Lord, I trust that this is just an extension of of that, though, that you will connect the dots. They have made a plan, but they're leaving room for you, God, to to bring them wherever they might. And, Lord, we're looking forward to hearing what that what that is, what that will be, what you have in mind. We know that you have done before them already, that you have this all planned out. And we ask for your your blessing, God, on them, on Ray and Tanya, as they as they travel, as they encourage the believers in Africa. Thank you, God, for the privilege of being able to do so. Thank you, God, that we're just a continuation of the the book of Acts right here to all peoples, to every nation. Lord, your people need you. You need shepherds. They need encouragers. And I thank you, God, for sending Ray and Tanya. And pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Shall we sing another song together? Would you would you? I also I wanna say, we do know what we're doing on the front side. We do know what we're doing on the backside of it. Like like that in the middle, we've got some pretty good ideas, but just haven't heard back from over there. I see in Jesus' life the interruptions is a lot of his ministry. And so I don't ever wanna think of an interruption as an interruption, but as an opportunity for that. And so we're leaving some space for that. And I'm really, really, really thankful. Tanya gets to go back towards the end of our trip. She gets to go back to the Nama girls, which some of you ladies went on '20 in 2013 and helped to begin this ministry. I wanna say one more thing. Roseanne is 90 years old. Roseanne Welch. She has gone to this church for a long time, but she was missionary in Bolivia, she was missionary in Kenya for nineteen months. And the ministry that she did there in nineteen months has ramifications that are almost unbelievable. Churches planted and the Nama girls is now 70 girls. Right? It's pretty crazy. So we'll we'll hope to report on it when we get back, but I thank you again. We're gonna sing the gospel here. King of Kings. Yep. I'll sing about his resurrection here and the beginning of the church. Till the stones moved for good. For the land had conquered them, and the dead moved their tombs and the angels stood in all. For And then as a benediction today, Romans ten nine through 10 says this, if you declare with your mouth Jesus is Lord, you believe it in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. That's the gospel. If it is it it for it is with your heart that you believe justified, it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and you are saved. God, would you give opportunity this week for all of us to profess your good gospel, to say it out loud, Lord. The proclamation of your word will either be rejected or accepted or they'll hear more from us later on it. In Jesus name, I pray that your gospel would go forth, that we would all witness it, that we would all get glimpses of it. In Jesus name, amen.