TAKING GROUND | Week 3 | Sermon

amen. So a couple years ago when my wife and I had just moved out here from California, we got a rental property in Power Ranch. And one day there was a

knock at my door or the, you know, doorbell goes off and it's one of those moments where you like praise God that you have a ring doorbell. You know what I mean? You can sit on your couch and make a decision of whether or not you wanna tell this person no without ever having to go to the door and have the awkward encounter in front of them. Right? So I look at the ring doorbell.

This dude is a quintessential sales guy. He's got the clipboard. He's got the whole deal. Right? And I don't know why I should have just dismissed him, but for whatever reason I go and have a conversation with this guy. And again, it was like the beginning of summer and so this guy was either on drugs or just was walking

around and all sweaty and trying to sell people pest control which makes you wanna do drugs either way.

Either way, was like, this just isn't a great scenario to start. And I don't know why I have a conversation with this guy but I started to talk to him and he I remember when I opened the door, he said, hey, know you don't wanna speak to me, but I promise I'll be shorter than most celebrity marriages. And I was like, okay, that was funny.

I'll give you a shot. Right? And so we started having this conversation. Mind you, the house that we're renting, the homeowner that like the landlord pays for pest control. So I don't need pest control services. We already have it. But I started having this conversation with this guy and I don't know why, but I felt this like thing that you're gonna try to believe it was more holy than what it was. But I just I felt like I was supposed to have this conversation with this guy and I don't know what that feeling was.

And somehow in this conversation of pest control and who he was and what he was trying to sell me, Somehow the conversation changed and I don't remember exactly what the transition was, but next thing I know we're talking about this guy's life. And he's crying on my doorstep

and I started to realize, okay God, this is why you were nudging me to get up off the couch and not just dismiss him with the ring doorbell and to have a conversation with this guy that I should have just dismissed. And that truthfully when I saw him, I had all types of preconceived notions. Come to find out he'd been a worship leader at a church for about four or five years. His life imploded a few years before that.

And I'm sitting there telling him, said, Ethan, here's what's crazy, man. Know you're at my house to sell me pest control, but I think God brought you here to remind you of how much he loves you.

And I said, look, man. I'm a pastor at a church around the corner. And if you come to church for the next couple weeks and just start to come and listen, be in the presence of God again and watch what he'll do in your life, I'll buy your pest control services. Though I don't even need them. We actually literally had two pest control companies come to our house at some point because I bought them from this guy just so I had an opportunity to live life with him. I've gotten to over the last couple years live life with Ethan and watch what God has done through his life. And I I wonder what would have happened if I had missed that opportunity.

And I don't that the danger in that is going, oh, Daniel's super spiritual. It wasn't a really spiritual thing. I was really honestly kind of frustrated and annoyed, but there was something that said have this conversation with this guy.

And here's what I've come to learn over the years of following Jesus, what we're gonna see in Acts chapter 10 that oftentimes the most important, the most pivotal conversations that you and I will have with people. The turning point type of conversations with people often are disguised as really ordinary conversations.

And I wonder how often we miss those moments because we're so busy,

Because we're hectic. Because we have things going on. Because you will do the same thing that I did. You will open your door and you will make an instant judgment of somebody based on how they look, what they do, all these different external things about them. And maybe just maybe those become barriers to sharing the hope that can be found in Jesus with that person.

The reason that I know it's true about us is it's true about this guy named Peter in the bible.

Acts chapter 10 is one of the most important chapters in the bible. You and and I sitting here in Queen Creek, Arizona as non Jews, you and I would never have gotten the to be recipients of the message of Jesus had Acts chapter 10 never happened. This is the moment where the church is going to expand from just the Jews to the rest of the world. But it's gonna happen through this guy named Peter

coming face to face with some biases and prejudices that he has in his heart that he has to deal with. Here's what I wanna try to convince us of over the next few The the big idea, if you will, that we're gonna see in Acts chapter 10. The gospel,

the message of the hope that's found in Jesus. Yes, it's for you and I. Yes, it's for us, but it's also for them. It's for those people. The people that you swear God could never reach. The people in your life to go, man, not that person.

And I know it's easy for us to go, I don't have that. I'm really enlightened. I'm just better than other people. But I think all of us, if we're honest, have certain people in our hearts that we just go, there's no way that God could reach those people.

But I'm telling you sitting in church today is a bunch of people who used to be those people who God could never reach. Yet here you are. Acts chapter 10, we got a lot to cover. So let's get reading. Okay. Here's how the story starts. It says, in Caesarea,

there lived a Roman army official officer named Cornelius who was a captain of the Italian regiment. Here's what the bible says about Cornelius.

He was a devout God fearing man as was everyone in his household. I don't think they would say that about my household but this guy was crushing it at home. Right? He gave generously to the poor and prayed regularly to God. One afternoon about 03:00, he had a vision in which he saw an angel of God coming toward him. Cornelius,

the angel said. Cornelius stared in terror at him and he says, what is it sir? He asked the angel. And the angel replied, your prayers and gifts to the poor have been received by God as an offering. Now send some men to Joppa and summon a man named Simon Peter.

He's staying with Simon, a tanner who lives near the seashore. I remember when I first read that as a Christian, was like, wait, you can have a job where all you do is you get tan and you live by the seashore? Like I wanna do that, right? Like what's a tanner?

You know, I'm like, it's got like animal skins? Like that sounds terrible. I just wanted to be Bob Barker, right? Spend three hours a day sunbathing.

So listen, again, I wish I had five hours to walk through this. This is the danger of the bible is there's so much in six verses that we just read, but let me at least set the scene so we can see it. It says that there's a guy named Cornelius who lives in a city called Caesarea.

And Cornelius is a Roman officer. He's a part of this thing called the Italian regiment. We know that he leads at least a 100 men. This is a person of prominence. He's living in a town that was essentially the hub of all things Rome. The Roman governor would have lived in Caesarea. This was a wealthy to do city.

This is where all the high up, big up Roman people would live. And Cornelius, the Bible doesn't tell us how, but Cornelius at some point in his journeying, he has surrendered his life not to all the Roman gods, the pantheon of Greek gods, but he has given his life to the God of Abraham,

Isaac and Jacob. He's a follower of the God of the Old Testament. But he knows there's something missing in his life. He's God fearing, he prays, he gives generously to the poor. Externally,

he has a lot of things going for him, but there's something missing and Cornelius is desperate in his prayers and God eventually one day hears and receives his prayer and he sends him an angel.

And this angel tells him, hey, God has heard you. He sees the cry of your heart and he's gonna answer it through a man named Simon Peter who's in a town called Joppa. It's about a three day walk from Caesarea, but he tells him, go and get Simon Peter

and bring him here. Now again, here's what's really interesting about this. Simon Peter up until this point has been kind of the most important person in the book of acts. He's the one that preaches in Pentecost. He's the one where 3,000 people give their life to Jesus in that moment.

And remember from the very beginning, k, the book of acts. We started this a few weeks ago, but the book of acts starts. Acts one eight, Jesus told him, now that you have my spirit in you, you have the holy spirit. Here's what you guys are gonna do now. You're gonna be my witnesses here in Jerusalem. Yes. But then you're gonna go to Judea. And then you're gonna to Samaria. But then you're gonna take this message to the ends of the earth.

That was always the charge was to take this message to the entire world. Yet in Acts chapter 10, here we are ten years removed from that moment. From Jesus' ascension into heaven and him sending the disciples to send the message into the world. And yet we're gonna see in a second, it's never even gone to a single non Jew.

They still are believing that this can only be for the Jews. Now here's what's really interesting that this story would say that the angel would tell him to go get Peter.

Because remember a couple weeks ago, Bill told the story of Philip and Philip was the evangelist who went alongside the Ethiopian eunuch and helped that guy understand who Jesus was. Well, Philip, Acts eight tells us at the end of it that he settles in. He lives in Caesarea.

Later in Acts 21, it'll tell us that he's known in Caesarea as Philip the evangelist. Why does this matter? Well, why if God was trying to reach a Roman guard who was living in Caesarea, why wouldn't he just go get the evangelist who's his next door neighbor to tell him about Jesus?

Why would he make him go get Simon Peter who's a three day journey away?

Because what's about to happen in Acts chapter 10 is much bigger than just message of Jesus being told to a Roman citizen. God is about to root something out of the church that is the greatest obstacle to the advancement of the kingdom of God. And it's gonna start by rooting something out in the heart of Peter.

Philip didn't have the clout. He didn't have the leadership that Peter had. This was a task that God needed the leader for. And you notice the city he's living in? Joppa.

Remember the story of Jonah in the old testament when God told him to go to the nation of Nineveh and to preach the gospel? He was also in Joppa before he tried to run and go the other way and get in the belly of the whale. It's like God is setting up the scene of the prophet who wouldn't go. Now is another opportunity for a prophet to write a new story of redemption to lost people.

And this is the last little point of this before we'll keep reading, but notice the house that Simon Peter is staying in. I made the joke about Bob Barker, but he's staying with a tanner. He's staying with a guy who works on dead animals. This is a huge deal when you understand that

Jews were not allowed to associate with anything dead. It would have made them ceremonially unclean to interact with anything dead or be around anybody that acted or dealt with anything dead. So it tells us that Peter is starting to connect the dots a little bit that God's plan, Jesus's plan is bigger than he realized. He's made some progress in opening his mind towards people,

but he still has a long ways to go. He still has further to go in rooting out the prejudice and bias that we all carry in our heart to really allow the message of the hope of Jesus to be for all people. That's the scene that acts chapter 10 starts with. Look how it continues.

It says in verse seven, says, as soon as the angel was gone, Cornelius called two of his household servants, a devout soldier, one of his personal attendants. He told them what had happened and he sent them off to Joppa.

K. The next day as Cornelius' messengers were nearing the town, watch it's now gonna shift. It's going to completely shift. The Bible is gonna change scenes to Peter. K. And it says, Peter went up on the flat roof to pray. It was about noon and he was hungry. But while a meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. That's a really spiritual way that Luke is telling us that Peter went up to the top of the roof to pray and he was tired and he fell asleep. I'm like, I can relate. Oftentimes I sit down to pray, next thing you know, I took a nap, right? It happens to Peter, it happens to all of us.

And in his sleep, it says in verse 11, he sees the sky open up and something like a large sheet was let down by its four corners.

In the sheet were all sorts of animals, reptiles and birds. Then a voice said to him, get up Peter and kill them. No Lord, Peter declared, I've never eaten anything that our Jewish laws have declared impure and unclean. But the voice spoke again, do not call something unclean if God has made it clean.

The same vision was repeated three times. Then the sheet was suddenly pulled up to heaven. Talk about a bizarre dream. A bizarre vision. This is something that if you if you watch Jesus while he was on this earth with his disciples, he kept trying to get them to understand

what you have become convinced of with all of this man made rule, all of this religion that you have created. It is nothing but external duty that does not actually make you any closer to God. There's a scene that's recorded I think in Mark seven in Matthew 14 or 15 where Jesus was sitting with his disciples.

He sits with them to have a meal, which again as these cultural Jews, you had to go through this whole ceremonial hand washing before you could eat That was never a part of God's laws. It was the Pharisees who had made this up. And the Pharisees are watching this encounter and Jesus deliberately tells the disciples,

don't do it. Don't wash your hands. Eat the food. To which they're like, the Pharisees are gonna get really upset. And Jesus tells them they're blind. It's like the blind leading the blind. We don't need them. And Peter would pull Jesus aside later and ask him, what was all of that about?

And Jesus was saying, do you think it's all of this stuff out here that defiles you? Do you think it's all of these things that externally make you unclean? But he says that the food that you eat will go into your mouth. It will go into your belly and eventually it'll end up in the sewer system.

But what really makes you and I unclean? It's our heart.

And he says, out of your mouth, those are the things that really make us unclean. And the disciples didn't get it. Jesus was always Acts 10 isn't a new invitation to share the message with the Gentiles. It's a return to what the people of God were always supposed to be. Look at the design of the temple that is built for the people of God. The biggest part of it was the court of the Gentiles.

The court for the non Jews. They were always supposed to be a part of the plan.

So Peter has a vision where God says, eat and kill these things. And Peter understands as a cultural Jew, I can't eat those things. But three times, which is kind of a theme in Peter's life, he's kind of thick headed. He's kind of stubborn. He doesn't get it. So often God has to repeat to him multiple times the plan.

Three times he has a vision saying, stop saying something is unclean when I have said it's clean. And I don't think Peter completely gets it, but I think his heart begins to shift as he wakes up from this dream. And look what happens next. It says Peter was very perplexed. Verse 17, what could the vision mean?

Just then the men were sent by Cornelius,

they find Simon's house. Standing outside the gate, they asked of a man named Simon Peter was staying there. 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.

Don't worry for I have sent them. Okay? At the exact same time that Peter has this vision, he wakes up. Some dudes come knocking on his door and they say, hey, we're here for this guy named Simon Peter.

And Simon Peter hears the Holy Spirit tell him, hey, go down and have a conversation with these guys. I've sent them. Don't be afraid.

And here's the danger when you and I read a verse like that where it says, the Holy Spirit spoke to him and told him exactly what to do. I often, if I'm honest, I read verses like that and I go, man, it's crazy how clearly God used to speak in the book of Acts. I wish you would speak that clearly today.

And I wonder sometimes if the reason we don't hear the Holy Spirit's voice and nudging as clearly as we see it here in Acts chapter 10 is because we don't often do the same thing that we see Peter doing in Acts chapter 10. Notice what his intention was. Does he fail epically at it? Yes. He falls asleep

and has a dream of like in and out burgers and animal style fries. But what was his intention? His intention was to set time aside, to spend time alone with God in prayers so that he could hear his voice. It's not coincidental that that's the same time that he hears the Holy Spirit speak to him. Why do I say all this?

I think part of the reason that we don't hear God speak as clearly today isn't because God's not speaking. I think it's because we live in a world that's so busy and loud and chaotic that we don't get still enough to hear the still small whisper that his voice is.

And I wonder if God is not speaking and nudging our hearts as clearly as what's happening here, but we're just too busy to hear it today. We're too distracted by all of the things. How often do we set time aside with nothing else? No distractions, no phones, no electronics to just sit and allow God to speak.

Friends, I promise you, God is speaking. The question is, is are we listening?

And again, you gotta remember, sometimes when you read the bible, we can over spiritualize these things. This is a story that Luke is recording. Somebody told him this story, most likely Peter, but he's recounting what Peter said. Now who knows if this was an audible voice or a nudging of the holy spirit, but either way, God was speaking clearly and he told him, go have a conversation with these guys.

And what's about to happen is something that Peter would have reacted to totally differently had the vision not happened had he not heard from God. Because look what these guys say. Verse 21, Peter comes down and he says, I'm the man you're looking for. Why have you come?

And they said, hey, listen. We were sent by Cornelius, a Roman officer. He's a devout and God fearing man. He's well respected by all the Jews. A holy angel instructed him to summon you to his

has three men show up to his house and says, listen, a high ranking Roman official wants you to come with us to his house. For any Jew, this would have been a moment of absolute terror. Why? Because the Romans were terrible to the Jews. These were their oppressors.

These were the ones taking taxes from them that were unjustified. These were the people that were literally enslaving them. And now a Roman government official comes to Peter's house and tells him, you need to come with us.

And it seems like an insignificant detail, but Peter invites them in to stay the night at his house. Again, showing us the progress that Peter has made in opening his mind to non Jews being allowed into the kingdom of God. Because all of Peter's neighbors are all Jewish

and they would have seen this moment. Acts 11 actually tells us he gets confronted about this moment later. Peter invites Gentiles into his home, which you can't do as a cultural Jew.

So it tells us Peter's making some progress. He's staying with a tanner. He's inviting Gentiles to be with him. Like, he's starting to connect the dots, but he still has a long ways to go.

So he invites him in for the night. Here's what happens in the next verse. It says, the next day, they went with them accompanied by some of the brothers from Joppa. So Peter's like, I'm going with you but I'm taking some of the big homies with me, all right? Because something goes down, I need some backup. Verse 24, it says, they arrived in Caesarea the following day. Cornelius was waiting for them and they had called together his relatives and close friends.

As Peter entered his home, Cornelius fell at his feet and worshiped him. But Peter pulled him up and said, stand up. I'm a human being just like you. So they talked together and went inside where many others were assembled.

So Peter told him, you know what's against our laws for a Jewish man to enter a Gentile home like this or to associate with any of you. But God has shown me that I should no longer think of anyone as impure or unclean. So I came I came without objection as soon as I was sent for. Now, tell me why you sent for me.

Peter has these men show up to his house and he makes the decision to go with them. He now has a three day journey to think about the vision that God gave him while he was praying. And he starts to connect the dots about this vision of animals and food and starts to realize that this has nothing to do with food.

And I think Peter starting to put the pieces together that what Jesus was alluding to the whole time is that when he said that the message of hope was for all people, he really meant all people. Not just the people that I thought it was for, but it was for all people.

And Peter has three days to think about the reality that there's really nobody that's too far gone for the message of Jesus to reach him. There's nobody that's messed up so badly that you're beyond the reaches of the grace that can be found in Jesus.

And so for three days, he has an opportunity to think about the message he's gonna preach to Cornelius' home. And he starts with the worst introduction in the world. He offends everybody in the room.

He goes, listen. Listen. You guys are all bunch of Gentile heathens. I'm not supposed to be here. I'm a really good Jew. I don't know why I'm here, but I'm here because God told me to be here. It's like, you had three days to think about your sermon and that's what you came up with. It's like, tell a joke, bro. Like, go with a magic trick or something. Right? Like, do something. Get their attention. But instead, he just offends all of them.

Then he says, why am I here? I think I know why I'm here, but can you just help me understand why you sent for me? Here's how Cornelius responds.

In verse 30, Cornelius basically tells him, I have no idea why you're here either. He says, four days ago, I was praying in my house about the same time, 03:00 in the afternoon and suddenly a man in dazzling clothes was standing in front of me and he told me, Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your gifts to the poor have been noticed by God. Now send some messengers to Joppa and summon a man named Simon Peter. He's staying in the home of Sinar who's Bob Barker and is a tanner by the seashore. So I RIP Bob Barker. I know it's probably too soon, but verse 33. So I sent for you at once and it was good for you to come.

Now we're all here waiting before God to hear the message Lord has given you. Cornelius says, I don't really know either but this angel said to go get you, so I got you, you're here. Now what do you have for us?

The whole house is filled with people with an expectation for God to speak,

for a message of hope to be delivered. And there's some things that I want us to see here. This story, the primary thing is what's happening in the church and what's happening to Peter. But there's some lessons that I think we can learn from the life of Cornelius,

A guy that's kind of an ancillary secondary figure in this that I think there's some lessons we can learn from his life here. The first one if you're taking notes, I want you to write this down. The first thing I see that Cornelius does that you and I need to learn to do as well is we should always be in a posture of praying for more.

No matter where you are in your journey with God, if you're just beginning and you're still kind of figuring this thing out, your heart should be postured to go, God, I want more of you. More of your understanding. If you've been here and you've been following Jesus since you were 12 years old and you're now 58 or whatever, you still have to figure out a way to get your heart to be postured to go, God, I want more.

Friends, we cannot settle for the understanding of God that we have today.

We cannot we cannot settle for the presence of God that we have today. We need more of his peace. We need more of his presence. We need more of him in our lives. And I wonder even as I wrote this point this week, I sat there going, how often do I sit down and pray and ask God for more?

Because oftentimes, I think I'm pretty good. I think I have a pretty good understanding of God. I have a pretty good grasp of what it feels like to be in his presence. But I wonder what would happen if we became desperate for more.

For God to speak, for God to show us more, for him to enlighten us more, but not just more for information. This is the thing I think Cornelius does. The second thing I want you to write down is that we come to God. This is our heart when we walk in the doors of church. We come to God with a hunger to learn. Yes and amen.

But more importantly, we have a commitment to obey. It's this idea that we listen, we understand, but then we're willing to live it out. This is the disconnect that I think often happens inside of the church today, is we have a lot of head knowledge,

but we don't necessarily live a lot of it out. The part that I love about Cornelius is he has this entire room full of people going, man, we're here. We're hungry. We know there's more. We know there's something that we're missing. We're ready to do and go wherever it is you tell us to go. Just give us the message. I'm telling you friends, if we walk in doors of church like that every week with a heart to learn,

a a posture that says I want to understand so that I can obey, I'm telling you friends, it will begin to change everything. Here's Peter's response in his message. Verse 34, Peter replied, I see very clearly

that God shows no favoritism. He says, in every nation, he accept those who fear him and do what is right. Verse 36, this is the message of good news for all the people of Israel,

that there is peace with God through Jesus Christ who is Lord of all. Peter is about to preach the gospel. He's about to just tell them plainly what it is that they've been missing. In the very beginning, he says, this is what you've really been missing. I'm gonna give you the details and the specifics,

but in practicality, the thing that you're searching for Cornelius, the thing you're searching for friend who's here trying to figure out this religion thing on your own, the thing that you and I cannot get on our own through striving and trying and working and doing and giving more and becoming more generous,

you and I cannot usher in peace in our hearts by ourselves. It is something that can only be found through Jesus. Here's how we receive it. Verse 37 says, you know what happened throughout Judea. It began in Galilee.

John, John the Baptist began by preaching the message of baptism. And you know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. And then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil for God was with him. And he says, and we apostles are witnesses

of all he did throughout Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him Jesus to death by hanging him on a cross, but God raised him to life on the third day. Then God allowed him to appear, not to the general public, but to us whom God had chosen in advance to be his witnesses.

He says, we were those who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. And he ordered us to preach everywhere. You should put in parenthesis here except to the Gentiles, to everywhere

and to testify that Jesus is the one appointed by God to be the judge of all the living and the dead. He is the one all the prophets testified about saying that everyone who believes in him, you will have your sins forgiven through his name. Says, you wanna know what you can't get on your own Cornelius?

The peace in your heart that you're searching for? It's because what you really need is forgiveness of your sin. Friends, this is the reality of the message that we've been stewarded with. This is the message of Jesus that we have to remember as his ambassadors on this side of heaven.

The thing that the world can't get on their own, the thing that the world is so desperate to find through so many different avenues is a heart that is at rest. A soul that has peace.

And we can try all these external things, but Cornelius is a perfect picture of what we can do on our own. You can get pretty close and you can become a lot better through habits and rituals and striving and giving and serving. But what we cannot do on our own is reach forgiveness of our sin that lets our hearts be

at peace. It is something that can only be ushered in through the power of the cross that Jesus conquered two thousand years ago. That is our message. And it is the thing that the world is desperate to hear. And what I love about Peter's sermon that he has three days to prepare. He literally walks in and says, Jesus

was born in Galilee. You know that he lived. He did all these miracles. People watched him. The Jews hung him on a tree. He died, but he came back to life. We ate with him. We were with him after he was dead. And today, he's sitting here offering life

to anyone who will put their life in his hands. Friends, that is the gospel. That is our message. It is what the world is desperate to hear. And watch what happens after Peter proclaims the truth of the gospel.

Verse 44, even as Peter was saying these things, it should say, as Peter transitioned to point two in his sermon, the holy spirit fell upon all who were listening to the message.

And I think that's the hope. That's my heart and my hope every time we gather as a church. That the message of Jesus would be boldly and clearly proclaimed. And what would happen as a byproduct is that God would do the rest.

The Holy Spirit would fall on the scene. What I believe is happening even right now in this room is in the hearts of a lot of you. You're feeling things. That that God seems like he's speaking to you specifically. That is the Holy Spirit falling on the room. It is God in reckless pursuit of you.

Allow him to do what he's doing. Peter tries to transition to point two, and then God goes, watch what I'll do. The Holy Spirit falls on the room. Verse 45 tells us the Jewish believers who came with Peter were absolutely amazed that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles too.

For they heard them, the Gentiles, praying in other tongues and praising God. And then Peter asked, can anyone object to their being baptized? Imagine the guy in the back like, actually, you have some theological problems with this. Like, I'm good. I'm good. We're I'm cool with it. Right?

So he did anybody object to them being baptized now that they've received the holy spirit just as we did? So he gave orders for them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ and afterwards Cornelius asked him to stay with him for several days. Acts chapter 11 basically recounts this entire story again. Peter's neighbors confront him and go, wait, we saw you have all those Gentiles, like what happened? And he's like, dude, I don't know. I was dreaming. There was a sheep and there was animals. I went to his house. I said one point, didn't even get to the good part of my message, didn't even get through the illustrations.

And all of a sudden the Holy Spirit falls, they start praying in tongues, revival breaks out and they all got baptized to which all the Jews basically go, wow. Well, there goes the neighborhood. The Gentiles are in. And this is the moment where now

Gentiles are a part of the family of God. But the question that has to be asked is why did it take ten years? Why did it take ten years for it to happen? Because the truth is is that Peter had some stuff in his heart that God needed to root out.

What are the lessons that we can learn in this? What are the things that we can take from this story from the life of Peter? Here's the first one that I would encourage you to look at. The bible talks a lot about this idea of walking in the spirit. Right? Galatians says that that's part of the goal is walking in the spirit. But you and I won't walk in the spirit unless we're willing to walk where the spirit leads.

As I look at this story, it's really pretty simple of Peter just taking the next step of faith that he feels like God is instructing him to do. And then when he gets there, God gives him the next step. And as you go where the spirit leads you, all of a sudden you will find yourself walking in the spirit. It's this idea

of us learning to walk in union with the power of the holy spirit that's with us. That we're not alone on this side of heaven. That we have the power of God with us, and that we should be able to walk in his spirit. But here's the trouble, is God's gonna ask you to do some things that make you uncomfortable.

He's gonna ask you to talk to some people that you don't want to. He's gonna ask you to have conversations with that guy that you end up in meetings with all the time that you don't even really like. And maybe, just maybe, that's the person that God has been nudging your heart to talk to.

And if we're not willing to go to the places that are uncomfortable, we'll never really learn to feel what it feels like to walk in the spirit. Part of what we have to learn to do as people is to leverage our testimony to tell people about what God has done in us. Here's the part of this story that I hope we see.

Notice how the conversion of Cornelius starts. It starts with an angel from heaven coming to him. Why didn't the angel just tell him about Jesus himself? You don't find a single story in the bible of an angel telling a human about Jesus. An angel always directs him to a human to tell the human about Jesus.

You and I have been given the incredible stewardship of the message of the gospel. It is ours and ours

alone. It's why Paul will tell us in Romans chapter 10, here's the danger if we don't ever share this. Look what Paul says in Romans 10. He says, how can people call on Jesus to save them unless they believe in him? Okay, it starts with belief.

But how can they believe in him if they've never heard about him? And how can they hear unless someone tells them? At some point, we have to be willing to venture into the waters of having a spiritual conversation with our lost friends and family.

Because it is how people are awoken to the truth of the gospel. Here's the second lesson that I want us to learn from the life of Peter. This is a little bit throat punchy, so don't get mad at me. Okay?

All of us. This story proves to me that all of us, none of us are exempt from this. We all have prejudice that we have to ask God to remove from us. And I know our natural inclination when we hear something like that is to go, Yeah. Not me.

I've become very, you know I've made a lot of progress. I'm very enlightened and I just don't have any prejudice. And I think it's a lie. I don't think that we're walking around as a bunch of blatant racist, but I think all of us have prejudice in our heart. We all have bias in our heart if we're truthful,

if we're real. And it's not always a race thing. A lot of times it can be a political thing. There can be people who just vote a certain way that we're like, I will not associate with those people. Certain sexual orientations,

we just have a natural bias towards them. And there's sometimes when we look at people, we build natural prejudices in our heart. Why did it take ten years for the church to spread the message to the Gentiles? Because the truth is that the church was dealing with racism. Peter was racist.

And it's okay for us to say that because he was in process. He was figuring it out. He had made some steps towards the right direction but he still has a long ways to go. I wish I could tell you that Acts 10 is the solve, which is what we love to hear is the story of like, well, he was prejudiced and he's not now. Well, later in a couple chapters in the book of Acts, he's gonna walk into a room of a bunch of people sitting down to eat food and he refuses to sit with the Gentiles.

You know why? Because he's like, yeah, I know they're part of the family but they're not circumcised.

Like we all had to get circumcised and if they're not gonna get circumcised, I'm not sitting with them. To which Paul goes, hey, dummy. Don't you remember what happened in Acts 10 when they all gave their lives to Jesus? And remember the whole thing about hell, there's no longer Jew or Gentile. There's no longer Roman or Greek. There's no longer male or female. There's just one who are in Christ Jesus.

They're a part of the family now. I say that to say, friends, we have to understand that all of us, we are living in a fallen and broken world, and the byproduct of that is that we have the same predispositions and biases in our heart as well.

One of the saddest realities for me is I look at the church that existed in early America. You know the church was one of the biggest advocates and proponents for slavery? We used to use the bible to justify enslaving an entire group of people to another group of people.

I don't say that to say I think that's where we sit today. I think we've made a lot of progress, but it shows me the danger of what our fallen hearts will do. And if we're not careful,

we will stand in our own way of the advancement of the gospel because it's not just for us, but it's for them as well. Okay. I'll move off this point so you can stop being mad at me.

Here's the third thing that this should be the liberating thing for us. Friends, if God is putting someone on your heart, this story shows me that it probably means that God is working on the hearts of that person he's putting on your heart. Here's the part of the story that I love,

is that God came to Peter and told him, I knew I need you to go to Cornelius and tell him about me. But what Peter didn't know is that behind the scenes, God had been working for years on Cornelius' heart.

For years, he'd been speaking to him and showing him who he was. What Peter was was the final push across the line. He didn't do the heavy lifting. He didn't do all of the work. He did the final 2%. God does the 98%.

It tells me that maybe, just maybe, the reason that God is putting specific people on your heart to go and speak to and share the message of the gospel with is because just like my friend Ethan that came to my door,

God had been speaking to him for a while. And what he needed was a nudge from another broken and flawed human to tell him, hey, man, there's still hope for you. There is still hope for you in Jesus.

And that should free us from the burden of going, well, I don't know it all. I don't have all the questions figured out. I don't know all the answers to everything. You don't have to because

God is doing stuff in their heart. Let me make this whole thing really practical for us. What's the kind of so what? How do we take this thing home? I believe that in this room are a lot of people. You've been in church for a long time,

but we're honestly, we're we're kind of like Peter and that we just settle into church as we know it. And the people that we encounter, those are the only people that we're living life with and having spiritual conversations. And I'm gonna challenge every single person in this room

to think of one person in your life. One specific person that you can begin to ask God to give you opportunities to have spiritual conversations with. Because here's the truth of what I know about a lot of people sitting in here today.

A lot of you are the recipients of people before you who have done the same thing and prayed the same prayers. You might not know this if you're new, but every day when you walk in the doors of church, there's a big black cross outside our church.

And our design team did an amazing job to make it incorporated with the rest of the building. But every brick behind this cross, I don't know if you know this, but it has a name on it. We actually had people

when we were building this building, as we were praying for people on the floors underneath all of the chairs in this auditorium are people's names. Behind the cross out there on every brick is names for people that people who are investing into this building were praying and asking God to reach through this. And I can't tell you how many people that we know that have come to us and said, you know, I was one of the names on that brick. I was one of the names that somebody wrote on the floor. I am here today because of the faithful

stewardship and the faithful prayers of the people that have gone before me. Friends, don't underestimate what your prayers can do. Who's your one life this week that you can be praying for? But I think there's another group of you who are here today who you're Cornelius. God's been speaking to you.

God's been nudging your heart and I think today

is the final push across the line for you. That I believe that today's the day that some of you need to do exactly what Cornelius and his family did and realize that you can't do this on your own. You can't find forgiveness of your sin on your own. You can't have a heart at peace on your own.

And I believe that right now, today is your moment. The bible tells us if we confess with our mouth and believe in our heart that Jesus is Lord, that we are saved. And all we have to do is believe

in Him. And so I'm gonna ask right now for every single person here to close your eyes and to bow your heads. And for those of you who've already given your life to Jesus, would you just be praying right now? Be praying for the people who are going to give their lives to Jesus right now. But I know that there are people in this room. It's happened at every service last night. It's gonna happen all day today.

That there are people in this room today that today's your day to surrender your life to Jesus.

And I know even as I speak and say this, some of you go, he's talking to me. Don't dismiss it. That is the power of the Holy Spirit speaking to you. Today's your day to surrender your life to Jesus. And I want you right now with boldness. Everybody's eyes are closed so the Christians in the room, if they look, God will strike them with lightning. But

I want you, if that's you, to just respond physically to what God's doing in your heart. So just throw your hand up right where you are. Just sitting right where you are. Don't be ashamed. Throw your hand up. There's hands going up all over the room. Throw your hand in the air to say, yes, I wanna surrender my life to Jesus right now in this moment. There's hands going up all over. Don't let the enemy tell you it's not you, it's somebody else. Throw your hand in the air proudly.

Amen. Put your hands down. If you would just pray this prayer with me in the quietness of your heart. To Jesus, in the faith that I I have, in the understanding that I have, I ask right now for you to come into my heart.

I believe that you are who you say that you are. You are the son of God who lived the life I could never live. You died the death that the bible says I deserve to die for my sin. I ask right now for you to take control of my life. Right now, I wave the white flag. I surrender.

And I acknowledge you as Lord of my life. Come into my heart and set me free. It is in the mighty name of Jesus. All God's people said, amen. Hey, can we just give a huge round of applause for all the hands that went up and hearts that surrendered to Jesus.

Hey, a couple of things. I know right now you're like, this is the moment. Sprint out. Get out there. Get your kids. Two things. Give me just a second. If you said yes to Jesus, we wanna know. Just go to rockpoint.io.

Click on the said I said yes tab so we can follow-up with you and give you some next steps in your faith journey. But other than that, have a great weekend. We'll see you guys next week.

Thank you for joining us online this weekend, and let us know if we can help you in any way. Make sure to follow us on social media and connect with us on the We Are Rock Point app for prayer and everything happening here at Rock Point.