I'm not sure. I knew about that book launch. I heard about it here, and I don't care whether you come as long as you buy the book. Hey Steve, could I interrupt you just for a second, because I messed up. Children, kindergarten through 5th grade, you can go for children's worship. I'm very sorry. Thank you. I'll tell you, they shot out of here like a bullet. So by the book, it's not for me. I don't years ago. I decided that all my book royalties and all the honorariums that I get for speaking would go to key life. I don't know what I was thinking. Those were the days when I was smoking pot, and I'm sure that I was high. I don't want you to think, I don't want you to come. I hope you do. I like the subtitle of the book rather than the title. The title is talking the wall, but the subtitle is how to be right without being insufferable. And I've been thinking about that for two years, and I discovered some good stuff about that particular subject. Let's pray. Father, as we come into your presence, we come with open hearts and minds. We pray that you would speak to our minds, that we would not be cold Calvinist, and then that you would speak to our hearts, and then to our lungs and our hands and our feet, that the world might hear the laughter of the redeemed. Father, as always, we pray for the one who teaches, forgive him his sins, because there are many we would see Jesus, and him only, and we pray in Jesus' name. I mean, every year, right after Christmas, I have this thing in my mind, a picture of a couple who are standing in the middle of the living room, taking the tree down. They're putting ornaments in the little boxes, and there's wrapping paper, spread all over the living room, and they stop for a moment, and they look up, and you can see it in their eyes. What was that all about? Easter is kind of like that too. We've had a great Easter season. It's a celebration. And after every celebration, whether it's a graduation, or an anniversary, or a wedding, or Easter, the appropriate question is this, what now? There are no more flowers in the lilies up here. Kathy and the people who were involved in that, that made that great heart, wasn't that beautiful, and all of the sets were wonderful, and the palm fronds, the kids bought, all that's gone now. I went to three services on Holy Week. I was so religious, I could hardly stand myself. But it's all behind us now. I'm an appropriate question, and the quietness is this. What now? When Kevin asked me to do this, I thought about it, and I immediately remembered of what now text in the Bible. It's the second chapter of Acts, and that's Pentecost, and it's the first sermon ever preached by Christian in the history of the world. His name was Peter, and you remember what happened. They had been with a dead man, that'll change your perspective. He had gone to heaven, but he had given some instructions. They were ready to do something, and Jesus said nothing. Be still, and wait, and watch. So they were in a house in Jerusalem, and they were still, it was a small group, and waiting. Small group in prayer, and they were watching, and that's when the wind came. A mighty roaring wind, and then the fire, and then the tongues, and then the gospel preached to people, Jews from all over the world, and in their own language, the miracle of Pentecost. Peter got up to preach that sermon, and I'm not going to read the entirety of the second chapter of Acts to you, but I trust, or you'll get the fever and die, or best the hives, if you don't look at it, sometimes over the next two or three days, but I've spent the last week in the second chapter of Acts, and I've learned so much, and I get a chance to share it with you now. Peter, like all preachers, had a text, and his text was from the second chapter of Joel, and I'm going to read it to you from that second chapter of Acts starting at the 17 verse, where he quotes the prophet as saying this, and in the last days it shall be God declares that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men will dream dreams. Even on my male servants and female servants in those days, I will pour out my spirit, and they too shall prophesy, and I will show wonders in the heavens above, and signs on the earth below blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day, and it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. In a bit we're going to talk about that question what now, but first I want, if you'll permit me to go down a couple of side roads, and the first side road is this, that the disciples lived the life that created questions in the minds of believers. When Peter gets up to preach, and by the way they had been waiting in the house, and the crowd had not seen the miracles that are described in the second chapter of Acts, 3,000 of them came to no Christ, but the first thing that Peter felt he ought to do was to explain that the disciples were not plastered. Do you think our pastor has to explain that about us? Of course not, we're Presbyterians. Of course not, we do things decently and in order, and it's a shame. Sometimes we're so in the box, so decent, so in order, so nice, so religious that the world yons. I got an email this week from my HIV friend. Three years ago I told you about him with his permission, and I ask you to pray for him, and many of you still do, and I thank you for praying for Jeff. I love him more than I can say. In his email, he told me that for the first time in years, at Easter, he went to church. That's major. And he said in his email that he wept the whole time, and he said, because I knew if they knew about me, they would reject me. I wrote him back and said, you might be surprised. You oughta come to our church at Willough Creek. If you came to our church and told us who you were, our elders would say, so, and what's your point? The people would say, this is a church filled with sinners, and there's room for one more. You're welcome. That would surprise the world, because they think we're homopobic. And we're angry and judgmental and condemning. We live within the box, we say the right things. We never cuss or spit. We never shock and we never disturb. I want you to do me a favor and think of something you could do, or a place you could go, or something you would say that would cause the pagans to drop their jaws. And then, for God's sake, go out and do it. The disciples created questions. And one other side wrote, and then we'll get to the main subject. Please note, they also got off the couch and out of the house. As I said, the miracles took place in the house. They were waiting, and they were watching when the wind came. And after that, they could have been a small group sat around, held hands, sung combayah, and said, well, look what God did, but they didn't. They got off the couch and they left the house and went to the world. I remember after we lost our house and Andrew, that was a, I don't know if you remember, years ago, but it was a horrible storm with tornadoes. I thought we were going to die. My German shepherd brought a ball and dropped it in my lap and he wanted to play ball when the roof went. And I said to him, are you a crazy dog? We're going to die. You don't play ball when you're on your deathbed. It was just an awful time, but we lived through it, and most of us were surprised we did. And all of us met out in the street when it was over the next morning, especially the Christians. And we made a pledge to each other that it wouldn't happen again until we had told our neighbors about Jesus. Sometimes I followed that and sometimes I haven't done well. We have new neighbors in our neighborhood right next to our house. And I really liked our old neighbors too, Joshua and Kerry. We talked often, their kids picked up our mail. They were a wonderful family and then they left a month ago. And I don't, I don't know where they went. And I didn't tell them about Jesus. Jesus said he liked me a lot, and it was okay, and he would take care of it. But he said try to do better with these new ones. And I'm going to do that. I'm going to get off the couch and out of the house. That's what we're called to do. The only reason we're here now is for them when you were saved, you could rest secure as secure as if you were already there in heaven. So why wait? Because of them. And they're not going to come here. We got to get off the couch and out of the house enough. Did you know that African American preaching is one of the true and maybe last art forms in America? I absolutely love black preaching. Often in my homiletics class I'll play tapes or CDs of black preachers so the students can listen and learn and grow. Well, Evie Hill, my friend is in heaven now. I'll remember his hug and his preaching. And if Jesus doesn't allow Evie to preach in heaven, frankly, I don't want to go. I remember one time we were both speaking for a conference in Washington. And he was preaching on go down Moses. And I got so caught up in it, so excited about it that I miss my airplane getting back home. How that's done. Our African American brothers and sisters generally have one point. I have 18. They generally have one point and they drive it in over and over again until it gets into your heart and your mind and you can't shake it and you leave and you live it. Well, Peter only had one point. Let me read it to you from that second chapter. And that's all his sermon was about. I'll start at the 22nd verse. Men of Israel, hear these words. Here comes Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him and you're missed as you yourselves know. This Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan. And for knowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, losing the, losing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held. One point can't keep a good man down. One point, a dead man got up and walked. That's what happened. They had celebrated it and I moved the previous question. Now what? Now what? One of Napoleon's assistants when they were getting ready to go into battle was sitting on his horse and he noticed his legs were shaking. He sounded his legs and he said, Shake will you? Shake will you? If you knew where I was going to take you today, you would shake even more. Well, if the disciples knew where Jesus was going to take them, they'd be scared to death. Peter was crucified upside down. The following you was hacked to pieces. James was run through with the sword. All of the disciples except one died as martyrs and he was on a prison island where he wrote the book of Revelation. I mean, I mean their future was unsettled. It was cool that Jesus got out of the grave, but the question for them and for us is this what now? I'm going to show you. First, because of the resurrection, they could dance without looking at their feet. One of the interesting things about Pentecost is that it was celebrated for two things. Originally it was a harvest celebration, but later on it became a celebration of the law given to Moses on Sinai. And given what John said in John 1 that the law came through Moses and grace and truth came through Jesus, you begin to see a pinnacle there, a tipping point. There's a more. There's a connection between Pentecost and Jubilee. Jubilee, if you don't know, it has to do with seven, but it also has to do with 50. 50 days from Passover sins were forgiven. And 50 years, Jubilee was celebrated and all the slaves were set free. All the debts were forgiven and everybody started on a ground level. It's no accident that this Pentecost marks the beginning of the church. My friend David Zoll has written the book. He ought to get it. It's great. Seculosity. And he says a lot of great things on that book, but one of the things he says is that we're hardly ever not in church. Because we are created to worship if you're a pagan or an atheist or an agnostic or a priest or a rabbi, you're hardly ever not in church. And then he goes on to say that religion is hard to destroy, but it's easy to rebrand. And so people, because they don't believe in the real God, don't believe in nothing, they believe in anything. And so romance and even parenting and money and church become the God. And David says that there's a large or religion and a small or a religion and that both of them are religions of the law. If you produce your boss and God will reward you. If you follow the laws, the police and maybe God will like you. If you're nice, people will be nice to you and maybe God will be nice to you. And David says that's from the pit of hell. It's not Christianity and it smells like smoke. We've been delivered from all of that. You're forgiven really. Jesus looked at Peter. These were not wonderful people. Peter had denied him three times. And you know about Thomas, he had doubts that we've never had. And they all ran from the danger in fear that the same thing would happen to them. And when Jesus came, he didn't say confess and repent and you're forgiven. You know what he said? And he said it to Peter three times. I know. Now you go, bro. He said to Thomas, I know you go. And he sent them into the world. He didn't send good people or faithful people or obedient people. That would have messed the whole thing up. He sent you. And he sent me. And he sent these disciples who knowing they were forgiven, love beyond their greatest imaginations, could dance and sing even in a Presbyterian church. You know when I think of that, I feel like speaking in tongues. I don't. But if I did, I would. And I wouldn't give a rip about what you thought. It's the gift of Easter. What now? You're free. You're forgiven. You can dance without watching your feet. But there's more. Because of the resurrection, you can not only dance without watching your feet, you can make an obscene gesture to the prison from which you have just come. I wish you knew my brother. By the way, that's what Peter said at the end of the sermon. They said, all right, we get it. What should we do? And he said, rip in of your sins. Come to Jesus. And three thousand people did. What happened was they got forgiven, of course. But let me tell you what happened to you and what happened to me. They got redefined. Steve, I got stuff that would shock you. I mean, I've read all the books. You ought to see some of the doubts that I've got. I've been doing this longer than most of you've been alive. I've heard people read last anger. Sometimes I die, but listen to me. Steve does not live here anymore. I've been redefined. I wish you could meet my brother. My kid brother, my closest friend, he died in his 40s. He was the district attorney and would be the governor of North Carolina if he had lived. I ran his media campaign and he won by a landslide. He also had just gone through a divorce and he was an elder in a PCA church. He resigned and he was really sad and did some bad things. I talked to him often and one time I called him and I said, how are you doing, bro? And he said, I'm tired of being a whipping boy. Actually, that's not what he said. What he said was a little bit more earthy than that. But it wouldn't be appropriate for a sermon. And I didn't say to him, but I wish I had. Don't let any of that define you. What defines you? Abuse, failure, divorce, your sexual orientation, the things you did that hurt people, you love the most. You don't live there anymore. You've been redefined, acceptable and loved. That is the answer to what now? We're redefined. And there's one other thing and we'll be finished. Because of the resurrection of Christ, not only are we free and can we dance without watching our feet, we're not under the law. Of course we're going to mess it up. Secondly, because of the resurrection, we are redefined, making obscene gesture to the place where you still live, not because you've changed, but because you're is. And then thirdly, these disciples and oh heavens, they knew they need it. The disciples could go into the future without wincing. Please note that in the sermon, Peter said, according to the foreknowledge and the plan of God, somebody's in charge of this mess. And because the dead man got up and walked and said, I will never leave you. It meant these and it was going to be hard. They were going to be laughed at. We are too. People will think they're crazy. They think we are too. We're not the favored religion anymore. And it's okay. What scares you? That you're going to lose your job. You're going to lose it anyway when you die. Your kids? Well, not everybody can have kids as perfect as mine. Are you worried about not being able to make the mortgage payment? Are you worried about your own sin? And guilt truncates our witness. Stop it. We witness because we're not good, not because we are and nobody ever missed Christ because our witness of purity wasn't given. Go into your future. What has been ordained by a sovereign God who was in charge without fear? We interviewed Nick Lanan this past week on our talk show. He wrote a book and I love the title. It's this. Life is impossible and that's good news. In other words, he was mirroring what A.A. says until you're a real drunk and hit bottom ain't nothing going to happen until you realize that your best plans ain't working. Ain't nothing going to happen until you have messed everything up really bad and can't fix it ain't nothing going to happen. And that's what Nick was saying in his book but he had the best illustration. There was a young man taking karate and what he was going to do at a karate recital or whatever they call him. They had one of those big concrete blocks and he was going to hit it with his hand and break it into. And his sensei had written on the block when he got up to do it. Congratulations. You did it before he did it. That's true with you because of the resurrection. Worried about your kids. Congratulations. You did it. You're think you're not going to get through another week of work. Congratulations. You did it. The divorce is going to kill you. Congratulations. You did it. They told you you had cancer and you didn't think you're going to make it. Congratulations. You did it. It's the nature of belonging to a dead man who got out of a grave. I think it's a result of what I just taught you. I think I changed that statement. Congratulations. He did it. You think about that.