This recording is from Christ Kingdom Church in Waterford Lakes, East Orlando. Visit us online at ChristKingdom.org for our calendar, driving directions, and more audio recordings. Good morning. Again, welcome to Christ Kingdom Church, and if you have your bulletin' with you, it might be a makeshift fan at the moment. Inside there, though, is a sermon outline. It might be a helpful tool as we track this morning.
I'm reminded that the vast majority of the churches that are gathering around the world are in conditions like this or worse. So we can have some solidarity perhaps with them as we're reminded of how most are gathering here to worship God this morning with that. It's considerably cooler here than it would be in many environments as well. But thank you for persisting with that, and we do have some water bottles that we're picking up for those that might need one in the back. Well, anyway, we are in this journey here. We have been looking at the Book of Acts in specifically last few weeks. We've been looking at Paul's third missionary journey. And if I get out of your way for just a second here, you can see it started off in Antioch. And six years of time, Paul has spent this. He's gone around, and this was already somewhere, by the way, the first and second missionary trips as well. He's going back to many places where he has made a convert where he has been discipling people. He spends, as we know, a lot of time in Ephesus over two years. I went to him last week here where he was going to be in my litus, where he was talking to the elders from Ephesus, and giving them one last charge. And now he has made his way back down here, back to the Israel area, and down to Jerusalem, which is where we're picking up the story here. A lot of times we're looking at smaller passages, but we're actually going to look at three different chapters here today. And because of the length of that, we don't have time to read that, but I wanted to give you a quick summary of some of the bullet points and highlights of what's going on. This is looking at chapters 21 through 23, and then we'll kind of unpackage some principles and truths from that this morning. Along the way, by the way, after he leaves talking to the Ephesian elders and charging them, which is what we looked at last week, he sails to Jerusalem. And on the way, he's warned many different times about what is coming ahead. In fact, in chapter 21, in fact, in chapter 19 and 20, we get glimpses of the spirit, the Holy Spirit of God has already been warning Paul that, hey, persecution, imprisonment, difficult times lie ahead, especially in Jerusalem. So Paul's coming into this kind of eyes wide open. Agabus, a prophet who's also mentioned in chapter 21, actually comes up and takes Paul's belt from him and actually wraps up his hands and his legs and shows this is how you will be bound in Jerusalem. If you go, if it wasn't clear then, you got another notice there. Luke, who's telling us this account, who's writing acts, who's part of this third missionary journey, actually says, hey, me and my companions, we tried to dissuade Paul from going on because they kept hearing about what was lying ahead and they love Paul. They didn't want to see Paul go through hardships or face possible death. Paul's response in chapter 21, it says, hey, I'm ready to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, if that's what awaits me. And why did Paul have that kind of attitudes because he was convinced that the Holy Spirit was indeed calling him? Well, he arrives in Jerusalem. He has a great reunion with James, the leader of the church, the brother of Jesus and the elders that are there. He shares stories of the past six years and everybody's encouraged because they're hearing about how God is working. Not just among the Jews but among the Gentiles, bringing people to faith in Jesus Christ. They encourage Paul in the midst of that because in Jerusalem there's a lot of buzz about Paul. Those that are really excited about him and those that are really, really not excited about Paul. Either love Paul or hate to Paul if you're in Jerusalem. And so those that loved him said, Paul, hey, we want to give you a tip here. There's so many here, there's so many rumors, false rumors saying that you are speaking against the law of God for the Old Testament. Here, practice a purification right by coming in with some of these other brothers. Come here and serve this purification right in the temple as a sign that you are indeed still being trying to be very faithful to the law of God. And Paul's like, hey, that will work, that will kind of calm some fears and get rid of some rumors, he's glad to do it. So Paul does that. The only problem is while he's in the temple there, the crowd gets riled up. The crowd realizes, oh, that's Paul. That's what we've been hearing about. And it creates this incredible uproar in the community. So bad that the Romans, those that are there to oppress the Israelites, the only thing that's more important than to oppress their enemy that they're in camp, they've invaded Israel now for years. The only thing more important than is to make sure that there's no up swell ever bellian with them. There's no disorder in the city. And so the Roman officials are going, wow, chaos is breaking. Yeah, there's like a riot here. And so they come in and try to calm things down. They actually arrest Paul for his own safety and protection initially. Well, chapter 22 goes on and tells us that Paul, under this being arrested for his safety, and as they're trying to calm things down, Paul asks them, hey, can I address this crowd? Well, and the Roman leader, the Roman centurion leader there is like, well, maybe this will help. So he lets Paul get up and Paul of a son now has a stage before the maybe hundreds, or at least hundreds, maybe thousands of people that are gathered there. And he proclaims his story. He tells the story of how he came to faith in Jesus Christ, how God had met him. Jesus had met him on the road in Damascus. He had this vision. And Jesus appears to him. And he says, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? He gives that whole account again. He gives this story in chapter 22. And everything is going well. They're listening. They're on their edge, edge of their seat, listening to him until he says, in Jesus told me to go preach this message to the Gentiles. And all hell breaks loose again here. They start crying out. They're like away with him. He doesn't deserve to live. They want Paul killed. They want Paul executed. The Romans have to step in again just to protect him. And they want to set aside a day. They capture him again, or they take him into their guard. And the next day, in beginning in chapter 23, they give him an opportunity to address the Sanhedrin. They're like, hey, let's get some of these leaders that have this problem together with us with Paul and find out what's going on. So they do. In chapter 23, this Sanhedrin, these religious leaders of the Jews get together with the Roman guards that are there with them. And this, another debate breaks out. Paul very wisely and very strategically knows that there's a lot of different fashions or factions within the Jewish people. And so he sets out the Sadducees against the Pharisees, as long as the story won't get into all that. But Paul simply gets out there and he sits there and speaks a few things that gets them fighting with each other. Now the funny thing about that is that they're so much fighting with each other now. They've forgotten about Paul, at least for that day. And then that night, they get together. They recalculate and they start to come up with this plan in chapter 23 that they're going to ambush Paul. They're going to come in. And when they're moving Paul, they're going to come in, take over and kill him. Now Paul's nephew, here's about this. I'm not sure exactly how he hears about a video. Over here is that he comes and he tells Paul. And Paul says, hey, go tell the soldiers here, what you've heard. So he tells the soldiers. And the soldier in charge decides, hey, we're going to move Paul by night instead for his protection. And we're going to start the process, which it does. Paul moving from Jerusalem on this long journey to Rome, which is where the last sections of the book of Acts will tell us. So there's a quick nutshell of these three chapters of what's going on here. Returning to Jerusalem, though, was not such an easy thing for the Apostle Paul to do. Jerusalem was a difficult place. And we're going to talk more about that in a second. One thing though that Paul knew was that where God called him, his grace always followed. And Paul knows this truth. And I think it's it's key and it's fundamental. And we're going to talk about it all morning long. Grace awaits in Jerusalem. This truth made the difference in Paul's life. And I honestly believe it will make the difference in your life as well too, as we unpack it and take a closer look. So if you're following along, if you look in your outline there, here's point number one. Paul had a Jerusalem. And you have a Jerusalem. Paul had a Jerusalem. And you have a Jerusalem. You know, one of my first Jerusalem's that I experienced or had was when I was a freshman at Auburn University. And I was planning on pursuing a speech communication degree, which I did. And one of the initial things I had to do was take a basic speech class. Now a lot of people had to take a basic speech class for, you know, for whatever reason that they were majoring in. So there was a bunch of us in there, not just speech majors. And again, I'm a freshman. I haven't really even done this before. And the teacher knew that, you know, freshmen are already kind of nervous anyway about college. Well, the only thing more nervous that everybody shares probably than going off to a new place or something like that is public speaking. Nobody is really, at least initially, very comfortable with the idea of getting up in front of people and talking where everybody's looking at them. Kind of like this right now with that. Nobody's really comfortable with that. And so this teacher had a really good philosophy. They, you know, it was a lady and she was like, you know, here's what I'm going to do is they want a class and everybody's kind of low on easy, what's going on, what's going to be expected. Well, right now I'm going to give everybody in the class that wants to a chance to get up speak come up in front of the class for five minutes. You can speak in front of the class about any topic you want for five minutes. And it doesn't matter how it goes, what you say, whatever else like that, you would get an automatic A for this assignment if you're just willing to get up and try it. Not a bad deal for first day class freshman thinking, all right, hey, here's you can get an immediate A, no studying required, no expectations. All you had to do is simply get up and talk for five minutes about anything you wanted. Well, nobody raised their hand initially until finally somebody raised their hand because you know, it's one thing to have that assignment is nothing to be the first one to get up and do that. But again, people begin to do that, but I remember just thinking, oh my gosh, you know, and not only is this an uncomfortable thing, but I don't know these people, I'm new to school here. What would I talk about? It was an opportunity that felt like a Jerusalem to me, a difficult place, a place that required faith, which is what Jerusalem was to be possible. Well, Paul's Jerusalem, this place, this difficult place for him, that was a place that he'd been warned that persecution faced him, we've already mentioned this. Even common sense alone had warned Paul that, hey, difficult times were ahead, they were plenty of rumors floating around. He knew, it was difficult already on his missionary journey, the places where people weren't, didn't really know who he was all that much or really weren't that concerned about him. Some pockets of people did, but now he was going to the hub to Jerusalem. Where people had either a love for Paul or a hatred that led to one to kill him. We already talked about the prophet, Agabus, in chapter 21, verse 10, had warned him. We already heard that he'd been warned through the Holy Spirit, that his friends had come alongside. Paul knew this would be a difficult and very challenging destination, Jerusalem. It was where his past was, not sure if you thought about this. Jerusalem was his hometown. Paul was born in Tarsus, but we know that early on, because he studied, and he even says he grew up there, and he spent his time there, that early on, probably at least by early teens, he was living there. He trained under Gamalia to be a Pharisee, so Paul had spent much of his life, mostly his adolescent life there. This was a place where he probably had a reputation, at least at one time, that had been very positive reputation. No doubt, many had seen his incredible potential and had great expectations at one time for him to be a leading religious leader among the Jews. His career had taken off at Jerusalem, growing up there, because Paul says himself, his father was a Pharisee, he's a son of a Pharisee. So he's coming from a family, he's got a legacy already, he was a Pharisee, he describes himself as a Pharisee of Pharisees, he's a highly devoted follower to the law of Moses, which is what Pharisees were. They were public religious leaders, they were respected by the community, as men that held God's law in his statues and requirements very, very high. In fact, his career was peaking as he went off to track down Christians and Damascus. Things had gone so so well for Paul. Paul has given the responsibility and the privilege to represent the Jewish religious community to go off after those Christians who were fleeing Jerusalem, some who had gone to Damascus, to lead the way and bringing them back to justice where they could stand trial, where they would be persecuted, where some would even be killed. Paul was the guy, this was Paul's past, and he's walking right back into it. Here are religious leaders, no doubt, felt deeply betrayed by Paul. He once been the representative, he'd been the guy that had sent out leading the way, and what had he done, he had turned. He'd met Jesus along the way, and he had ceased to persecute the followers of Jesus, and he had become one. So he's going back to a home town where all those leaders who knew him, all his colleagues thought, this is Paul the betrayer. This is the Paul who probably deceived us. His mentor, Gamaliel, who was an expert teacher of the law, who was a leader in the Sanhedrin according to historical records. He certainly would have known about Paul's conversion. Paul was one of his top disciples probably. His actions probably, Paul's actions probably even publicly shamed Gamaliel. The actions of a student will often reflect on a teacher. He would probably experience persecution and people would say, hey, what happened? What kind of teacher are you? Gamaliel probably felt very betrayed. Paul's family, we often forget this. Paul's family was probably in Jerusalem. Paul doesn't really talk about a wife or children, but we know this from historical records that Pharisees, one of the high things of that was to be married. Actually it was a requirement with the Pharisee tradition to be married and do have lots of children. Most scholars think probably for sure the apostle Paul was married. Had he been married long enough and had started a family had children? Maybe, maybe not. We're not sure. But at least probably there's a former wife there. When Paul says that he has suffered the loss of all things, those think that he probably was referring to one of those things being a family and his marriage. That where he went off to become a follower of Jesus, that his whole family had deserted him and left him. That's who's also waiting for him in Jerusalem. Plot thickens a little bit, doesn't it? Or his children wandering around on the streets? Were they thinking differently of them? Certainly his wife was. These might be some of the things that Paul felt along the way. Jerusalem is where everyone thought he was a failure, best case scenario. In worst case scenario, he was a heretic. That's what awaited him in Jerusalem, apart from the small group of Christians that were there. Grace awaits in Jerusalem though. Well that was Paul's Jerusalem. I want to talk for a second about your Jerusalem. How many of you have ever been to Jerusalem? Just curious. A few? Okay. Well let me tell you, you all have a Jerusalem. You all have a Jerusalem. A difficult place. A place that requires faith. A place that God is calling you. Now I want to read through a list of things. And I want you to consciously, and if you're willing to ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you right now, I want to charge you and challenge you. We ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you about what a Jerusalem might be for you. If you're not a follower of Christ here this morning, I'm glad you're here. But I want you to know that we as followers of Christ are called to go to difficult places in faith, entrusting in Jesus Christ. And here are some of the ways that he might be calling you. So I'm going to read off some things. And I just want you to listen to the Holy Spirit. Is he pricking your heart? Does one or two or three of these things kind of prick your heart? Here are some possible Jerusalem's that you might be called to. Is God calling you to face something in particular from your past? Is God calling you to sacrifice an opportunity? Is God calling you to endure poor health or a disease? Is God calling you to leave the comfort of home missions for overseas missions? Is he calling you to stay sexually pure until you're married? Is he calling you to stand up for the truth in a situation even though it will cost you? Is he calling you to acknowledge that something is an addiction and you need help? Is he calling to change jobs? Is he calling you to reconcile with someone who has hurt you deeply? Is he calling you to take a demotion or let a promotion pass over you in order to stay true to God's call? Is he calling you to apologize to someone that you have hurt deeply? Is he calling you to confront an individual or a situation? Is he calling you to give a lot of money away? Is he calling you to speak the truth of God in an antagonistic situation? Is he calling you to take a risk of the leading of the Holy Spirit? Is he calling you to change friends? Is he calling you to sacrifice a reputation in order to obey God? Is he calling you to make a wrong right? Is he calling you to step out of your comfort zone to enter into someone else's war zone? Is he calling you to stay in a difficult marriage and trust him? Is he calling you not to cheat or deceive with the crowd because you know God sees? Is he calling you to befriend someone who is relationally challenged? Is he calling you to give up a dream for yourself to rest in his plan for your life? Is he calling you to stand up for someone that needs defending even though it may cost you? Is he calling you to let go of bitterness and finally forgive? Is he calling you to love someone that seems unlovable by your own power? Or is he calling you to cease to be paralyzed by fear and instead empowered by faith? You get to add hundreds to this list. I hope you're getting the picture. But what or where is the Holy Spirit calling you to a Jerusalem in your life? Ask yourself, is it possible that grace awaits you at that difficult place? Well, most of us would say, having a Jerusalem and being called to go there are two completely different things. Yeah, most of us would say, yeah, we all have some problems, we all have some struggles, we all have some difficult things we face. But Scott, you're talking about entering into those difficult problems, moving into them, approaching them. Well, not only did the apostle Paul have a Jerusalem, did we have a Jerusalem, but God called Paul to Jerusalem. And let me challenge you to consider something. He's calling you to your Jerusalem. I remember early as a child, when we were growing up in Atlanta, we would often make trips up into the North Carolina, Virginia area, Tennessee area, different things like that. But if we ever came near at Chattanooga, ever, let me say this, if we ever gotten a 50 mile radius of Chattanooga, we saw this. Has anybody ever seen something like this? Did you know that there's over 900 barns that have seen Rock City written on the side of it? 19 different states have it for Chattanooga, Tennessee. I'm not sure I can name 19 states that surround Chattanooga, Tennessee. All signs, no matter where you're going, point. What was amazing is that we were driving on the road, we'd say Rock City, 15 miles, keep driving. Rock City, turn here. I was finally thinking, we're done, we finally could pass that. Rock City, turn here. I mean, if there was a road that could possibly take you back to Rock City, you were told about it for the next 20 miles past it. And the last time I would say, seeing Rock City, make it you turn. I mean everywhere, all signs were pointing if you were in that area to go to Rock City. You couldn't escape it. Well, you know, that's kind of how I actually felt in that speech class, that first class in my freshman year there. I'm sitting out there, I'm listening to people get up and talk about, well here's a cool drink you can mix up at home. Remember the teacher said you could talk about anything. So some of these students were taking full advantage of that. Or some I was getting up and talking about, well here's what I did on this past summer vacation, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I'm saying that they're thinking and just listening to people rattle off about anything because they want to A. And it's only five minutes. Anybody just about can talk in front of somebody for five minutes. And I'm just, it's plotting on my heart all and all again going, Scott, what are you going to say? You don't want to miss a chance to get an A. Could be your only chance for an A. Don't miss this chance. What are you going to talk about? And I have lots of hobbies, music or sports or different things like that. But I kept feeling that sense in my heart that the Holy Spirit was saying, you can talk about anything. Any one. Five minutes. Guarantee A. Will you talk about me? So I pushed that thought aside and started about one of my other options. There was this nagging sense of a call that I couldn't escape. It was like Seerock city signs driving through Tennessee in my heart and my mind. God called Paul to Jerusalem and Paul was sure of it. Let me give you some reminders. Acts chapter 19 verse 21. Paul says this or Luke writes says, Paul purposed in the spirit to go to Jerusalem after he passed through Macedonia and aka saying, after I've been there, I must also see Rome. Acts chapter 20 verses 22 through 24. Paul speaking says, and now behold, down by the spirit, I'm on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. Except that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies me in every city saying that bonds and afflictions await me. But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself so that I may finish my course in the ministry which I've received from the Lord Jesus to testify solemnly to the gospel of the grace of God. The calling is clear to Paul that the spirit was calling him to do that. Paul knew Jesus and he knew that grace awaits in Jerusalem. And I believe that made all the difference because Paul had seen his grace in Ephesus. Paul had seen his grace in Corinth, meet him there. Paul had seen his grace when he was left for dead outside the city where he had been flagged one of the several times. Paul knew that grace awaits. But let me tell you, he's calling you to your Jerusalem as well. The question is simply where? Let me give you a couple of helpful questions. I might help you in thanking through that. Hopefully something in that list, hopefully something jumped out. Maybe the Holy Spirit triggered something in your heart and you thought, oof, that might be me. Is that where your spirit's calling me? I mean, here's some questions. Does this Holy Spirit nudge you on one of those areas or several of those areas? Does his calling, and here's an important question asked, this is calling the sense of his calling aligned with his word. For example, God will never call you to have an affair. You can take that issue off. He won't because it wouldn't align with his word anywhere or his character, but does that sense of calling, whatever that might have been, do you sense that it aligns with who God is in his word? Can you visualize how answering this call to go to your Jerusalem would bring glory to him? Because I believe the Holy Spirit, as he's calling you, gives you a picture of the possibilities. Gosh, if I go back and engage that relationship, that's going to be really, really hard. But I think the Holy Spirit will cast vision and going, but yeah, forgiveness is possible. Reconciliation is possible. Giving testimony to me is possible. Those would be the kinds of things the Holy Spirit would do, I believe. Do you sense in your spirit, even if it's just a small part, feeling energized at the thought of accepting that particular call? Let me clarify. Part of you could be totally terrified, like I was, by the way, in that speech class, about what was it before you? But at the same time, in your flesh being totally terrified, if you were a follower of Christ, you're given the Holy Spirit, the scripture, say, you can often feel that quiet, or hear that quiet voice, or that quiet assurance inside that says, yeah, but I'd be with you if you did that. Something cool, really, probably, might happen if you did that. Those would be the kinds of things that you might hear, the Spirit of God. I might even encourage you that there's a godly person that you respect, you might go and share that call with them, especially if they know you pretty well, and hear what they say about that. They might give you some insights, especially if they know you well, to say, yeah, I really think there might be something God is calling you to, or they might tell you, honestly, I think you're hearing a different voice. Those can be helpful tools. But the point is God does call us into our Jerusalem's, difficult places that require faith, but remind yourself that God is for you. Romans 8, 31 through 32 says this, what, and we read it, the call to worship, what then shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also, along with them, graciously give us all things? Meaning that if God gave you the greatest gift you could possibly give you, that it was the thing that you needed most in Jesus coming to die in a cross for your sins, taking away your death penalty, your sin penalty, and granting you righteousness and relationship with him, if God would go that far, do you think he's going to cut you short on a Jerusalem, or a few different Jerusalem's in your life? If God is that much for you, and he's calling you to a Jerusalem, he's not going to leave you hanging, he's not going to desert you, speak to yourself, grace awaits in Jerusalem. Well, Paul found grace, and the promises you'll find grace as well. Paul found grace, you'll find grace. Well, I wish I could say I boldly approached, after the second or third speech in class and got up there and went up there and preached the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, but the reality is that I waited until there was five minutes left in class and the teacher had already been asking anybody else? Sure, you know what else wants to go? You sure? And there were some students that were like, not going. Okay, there was probably maybe half a class that said, I can do it and do something. The rest of the half were gone. You know, I want to expect this the first day of class, I don't need to aid that bad. She said, I've got time for one more. So I shake and we put my hand up, say, I'll go, and I get up there, and I might think, oh, gosh, I could talk about football for hours. That'd be easy. Talk about music, talk about friends, stories, summer vacation plans. But I knew I had to just simply tell my story of what the impact Jesus Christ had made in my life. And I was shaking. My knees were shaking. I tell you what, you know, nobody was like, you know, all the other, some of the other speakers had been kind of funny. People were laughing, and there was light-hearted, you know, and there was kind of just this easy feeling in the room. Well, there wasn't that because as soon as I mentioned Jesus, everybody kind of was like, there was this silence. You know, it's like I had, you know, all of a sudden broken, the party had stopped because I had mentioned Jesus. But of course, you could talk about anything. And so the teacher didn't stop me. Although she was clearly not a believer in Jesus Christ, I would find out later on. She let me go. And I just shared my story, shared the hope I had in him, and how he had transformed my life. About the time I said, she said, time was up. She said, all right, class dismissed. And I just remember people got up silently. You know, I wasn't getting high fives or stuff like that. You know, but everybody just kind of filed out. And I was kind of collecting myself going, what do I just do? You know, I kind of kind of pinned myself now to this whole class. And well, I have any friends in this class. And nobody, nothing was said. I thought, well, at least I got an A. I believe I do what God wanted me to do until I walked out the door. And a female student had stopped and waited. And she said, you know, that took a lot of guts to do that. I needed to hear that. Thanks for being courageous enough to share. And she walked off. Grace was there for me. God gave me the strength to do it. God used it. I don't know in some big, small way. I don't know. At least one student's life with that. But let me tell you, I've never forgotten that experience. The grace God meeting me in that moment continues to be something that I won't forget. Paul experienced the grace when he got to Jerusalem. Let me give you some of the ways he experienced grace that God showed up for him. Chapter 21, verses 17 through 20, says that when Paul got there, he was united with James, the leader of the church, with the elders, and he shared. And they celebrated together the goodness of what God had done the last six years. That was a gracious thing. Paul was going and getting oppositions in different places. At least initially in Jerusalem, he gets together with the other believers, and there's excitement going on. They're celebrating the goodness of God and how God is working. That was grace showing up for Paul. Paul has also given the courage to face his past and his enemies. He's given this challenge by the leaders. Hey, go in and do some of these Old Testament sacrificial law, purification, things as a testimony to that. So Paul walks right into there, walks right in where his enemies, the religious leaders would have been hanging out most of the time, where his Pharisee previous friends would have been hanging out the temple. He walks right in. God gives him the courage and the strength to do that. And even when the riots started, they started to kill him. God continues to give him courage and strength. When he could literally have been torn apart and killed an instant, ironically Paul has arrested the Romans, the ones who are the oppressors of the nation of Israel, the Romans come to his defense. They protect him. It's a sign. It's a visible presence of God's grace. Paul gets a chance to testify to the crowd before him and he gets a chance to give his own testimony. Much bigger crowd or audience than I did, but he gets a chance to. God lets that story go forth. God shows up in grace. Paul gets an all-expense trip paid from Jerusalem to Rome. If you thought about that, Paul had been a tent maker. He'd been going around doing work and stuff to cover his expenses. All of a sudden now, the Roman guards, they're going to start him on the process, that's going to take him eventually to Rome. All-expense trip paid. How many of you would go to all-expense trip paid to Rome right now if you could? Yes, you would. Paul had it. How about that? That's pretty cool. Let me tell you what was even better. Acts chapter 23 verse 11 says this. This is Paul. By the way, Paul's in jail under guard, under arrest. At night, the following night, the Lord stood near Paul and said, this is Jesus speaking. Take courage as you have testified about me in Jerusalem so you must also testify in Rome. We don't know if Jesus said one on that or not, but he said at least that. How cool was that? The Son of God shows up in your room at night to encourage you. Doesn't send a fellow just believer of the church community doesn't just send a message through somebody. Doesn't it send an angel? Jesus himself shows up. The last time that we know that this happened for sure with Paul was on the road to Damascus. When he had been blinded by the glory of Jesus on the road and had met Jesus for the first time, Jesus showed up literally in Jerusalem. There is no more greater picture of grace than the presence of God in your room to encourage you. Well, grace does not just await the apostle Paul in his Jerusalem. Grace awaits you in your Jerusalem as well. You might say, well, it's God, how do you know that? Let me tell you some reasons how I know that because the scriptures basically say this is how God operates. He's looking for those who trust in him. Second Chronicles 69. Listen to these. For the eyes of the Lord reigns throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. God's looking for people that want to step out and trust him. Not only that, he delights in those who trust him. Psalm 147, 10 through 11. His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse nor his delight in the legs of a man. The Lord delights in those who fear him. Who put their hope in his unfailing love. God delights. We step out and trust him in faith. Not only that, he goes before those who trust him. Due to around me 31, 7th or 8, when Moses was about to die, he was charging Joshua who was going to follow him and he says this or the text says, then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the presence of all Israel. Be strong and courageous for you must go with this people into the land that the Lord swore to their fathers to give them. And you must divide it among them as their inheritance. The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged. And even Paul was directly reminded later that his grace is sufficient. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 12-9. After he had asked Jesus to remove this stone in the flesh, he asked him three times. He writes, but he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you. For my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may rest on me. Your Jerusalem is a place where you feel weak. Your Jerusalem is a place where you feel needy, a place where you feel desperate. But yeah, a place that God's calling you still to go. And Jesus led the way. Luke 9-51, Luke not writing an ask, but Luke writing in his gospel of Luke says this, when the days drew near for him, Jesus, to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. Was there a place that would be more difficult ultimately than Jerusalem for Jesus on that journey? Where he knew death and the cross awaited him. Where he knew the betrayal of every friend he had on the planet would happen. Where he would be left alone and isolated. His grace may not look the way you expect, but it will be there. You know, your Jerusalem sometimes is a small choice in the course of a day. Sometimes I'm sitting, well not sometimes. I'm often sitting at Panera Bread. But I remember sitting at Panera Bread sometimes on a Sunday morning and I'll meet people. If people come regularly on Sunday mornings, I'm there reviewing and getting ready for today. I remember there was a guy named Hooy that came and I met and we talked for a long time. He always came on Sunday mornings and I would say, hey, you ought to come to church. He was like, well, you know, it was my only day off when we were doing stuff with the family. He was a real nice guy. We would talk and I would invite him and I pray for him. But that was a small Jerusalem on my Sunday mornings of thinking, all right, you know. I can be uncomfortable and step out and trust and invite and pray or not. Those are small choices that happen in the course of the day. Sometimes there might be a spontaneous choice that happens too that is a much bigger deal. My son, Michael, as you know, is a junior at FSU and he shared a story with me just a month or so ago. He was walking by on campus and he came across one of those open air preachers. I don't know if any of you were on a big college campus. I remember that happening at Auburn when I was there in the late 80s. There were people come up and they would just start yelling out on the corner of some spot on campus. And they would draw a crowd and they just would be yelling and talking about, you know, God hating sin and sinners. And if you don't repent, you're going to burn and die in hell. And I think people stopped just because it was entertaining. It was different. And what was this guy going to say? And could they heckle him or whatever else? And Michael was having that kind of experience as he walked by. He stopped. He said there's like 75 people there listening to this guy go on and on. This guy, he said he even had a poster of all the bad things that you might do that would soon need to hell. And he was holding up. If you have done these things and don't repent, you're going to die and go to hell. He had this poster he was actually holding up there. Michael was out there just listening and, you know, kind of getting upset about it going, you know, this is not the picture of the offer, the gospel of grace through Jesus Christ. Yeah, God hates sin. Yeah, the cross is what Jesus had to go through because of sin. But my goodness, this is a message of wrath and judgment, not a message of hope and grace and mercy. He got so riled up and the spirit so moved in him that he jumped up on the wall next to the guy and started going preaching along with him and said, hey, this guy is talking about some things that is not the gospel that's given in the scriptures. And he said for the next 10 to 15 minutes, he went on both of them, the guy didn't stop speaking. Both of them speaking and him trying to out, you know, volume, the other guy talking about the goodness and the love and the grace of God. You took the guy's poster and said, I've done most of these things. I struggle with most of these things. But God has paid the curse of my sin through Jesus Christ on the cross. And I've been set free from this through the work of Jesus Christ. He said he was physically, physically shaking as he was speaking and leading and doing that. As he walked away, he wept as he walked home just experiencing the power of God working through him and giving him the boldness to speak and proclaim and to say, look, this is not the gospel. There is a gospel. I asked him as I was talking about him about sharing it, the son, and he said, how's it touched you? How's it worked in your life? He's like, God, the way God showed up to me was so huge that day. And the things that he reminded me of, because I knew that for me to get up and speak, I had to be convicted of this deeply. For me to get up in front of 75 people, I don't know. And to go, you know, toe-to-toe, another guy, and try to out-shout him with good news of the grace of God. That was a spontaneous thing. He didn't wake up that morning wondering, is that my Jerusalem? But I tell you, in the moment, he knew there was a Jerusalem that God was calling him into. You know, your Jerusalem might be a big choice, one that takes an extended time of prayer and preparation, one that maybe came up on that list. And he was struggling with for years. You know, the God's calling you to move into. A guy I met, I met one time, actually, up in the air, a guy named Edward Houston, was telling me his story just this week. He told me how four years ago he came to faith in Jesus Christ. And so he's only been a Christian for four years, but that early on in his faith that he was growing, he just felt this burden for the Jewish people. And he was like, God, is that just because, you know, Jesus was the Jew and, you know, Old Testament is about Israel, is that what the deal is? He just had this knowing thing about it. Now, he's a businessman, he owns his own business, he's got lots of things going on, he's got a wife, he's got kids, he's got stuff to do. But he got so convinced, so burdened that God was calling him to a Jerusalem that he ended up going to some Christian, Jewish Christian conference up in Washington, D.C. He just got, plain take it, went to the conference because you're going to talk about Christians and Jews. He didn't know why or what. He didn't know what God was doing, but he since God was calling him and leading him. He gets up there and he doesn't, you know, he has a nice time, but he says like, God, you know, I'm learning stuff, this is cool, but what do you want me to do? Well, he makes contact with one guy that he met up there as they talked and interacted. And weeks later after the conference, I guess they exchanged emails or phone numbers, this guy calls him and says, hey, he said you had a burden for the Jewish people and looking for opportunities, what God might want you to do? Do you think God wants you to be involved with this particular effort and outreach? As you know, living in Israel, it's dangerous times. They actually have people that are building small portable bomb shelters that you can take and place there because, well, there's missiles that come in sometimes at strange times of the day. And he heard about this opportunity there and he has taken his spare time to go and now start, which he's gone several times to Israel, to raise money here for portable bomb shelters that could withstand a missile strike to put them at daycare centers, places where like one place is a place where children and mothers have been abused, a home like that, places that would never have the money or the resources to get a shelter. This is Edward. This is what one of the bomb shelters looks like. This is him with a rabbi there in Israel. This is somebody that, since God was calling him to a Jerusalem, didn't know how God might use him but who's having an impact, and he says what he gets asked, and by the way, obviously, you know, most of the Jewish people there are not Christians, they'll say, why are you doing this? And he waits till they ask and when they ask, he says, because I have a personal relation with Jesus Christ. He's called me to do this. What a testimony, what a platform to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. His grace awaits in Jerusalem and it will be sufficient and it will often surprise you. Edward is also known as Hui. Hui is the guy four plus years ago that I began to talk to at Panera and with very much resistance from him about church, just thought I could pray for him. Hui came up to me at Panera this past week and shared this amazing story. And I said, who, that's amazing. I've just been praying for. He's like, thank you for praying for me. My wife has come to the Lord, my son knows the Lord and look what God's doing. Your Jerusalem might be to pray for somebody. Your Jerusalem might be getting the business of bomb shelters. I don't know what your Jerusalem is but I know that he's calling you. Ask his Holy Spirit this morning where your Jerusalem is. Believe that his grace awaits you there. And by the way, not only does his grace await you, his grace takes you there. Remember that Jesus has led the way. He will go with you on the way and he's waiting to extend his presence, his power, his grace when you arrive. Grace awaits in Jerusalem. The only question is, will you go? Let's pray. God, I ask right now that you would come and that your power in presence. You would show us where you are calling us to the difficult place that takes faith. God, the place where we must go and trust you the place where we have to leave our comfort zone. And God, will you remind us that you go with us, that you will be there when we arrive, that your grace is sufficient. Even in our weakness, your grace is, your strength is made shown and known through our weakness. So God, would you now draw hearts to yourself? Will you come remind us that he did not spare his own son? Will not fail to give us anything that we need? And what we need are lives that are centered around trusting you, seeing your power work in and around us. So God, lead us now as we continue to respond this morning by your grace and I pray this in Christ's name. Amen.