Rooted - Bold Proclamation: Unfiltered Faith

Welcome to South Sub Church. We are so glad that you've decided to worship with us today. Whether you're in the room right now or watching from home, wherever it is, we're just so glad that we get to spend this time together and worship the Lord together as one. Here at South Sub Church, we believe we are one church with two expressions of worship, but we have one mission to bring people to Jesus Christ and together become passionate followers of him. Another way that we worship is through our tithes and offerings. And here at Southsub Church, we believe that we give the Lord back what he gives us. And there's a couple ways that I want to invite you to do that this morning. One is giving online at southub.urch/g. Another way is by texting the number that's on the screen right now. Or there's an envelope in your seatback pocket. And here's what I want to invite you to do. No matter what gift you give, big or small, we believe that whatever we give, the Lord multiplies that and we are able to be the hands and feet of Jesus here where we are right now. If you're new, we invite you to fill out a connect card. We would love to get to know you, pray for you, and find a way for you to get more connected with our church. And if you're watching us online, make sure you leave a comment wherever you are. Maybe you're going to the mountains, maybe you have a soccer game to go to. Whatever it is, we're just so glad that you've decided to join us for worship. You picked a great week to be here. Let's jump into God's word together. Let's worship him today.

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Well, good morning. Listen, I want you to know as pastor of South Sub Church, I love my church. Okay? There's not a day that doesn't go by that I'm just going, God, I just I'm so thankful that you brought me here and I just love the church. I love the people. I just love you. But every once in a while, there's this moment that there's a proudness that almost exceeds the love. Okay? That I just like, oh my gosh, just to be the pastor of a church like you that I'm so proud of. And that moment happened this morning. And here's what it was. It's fallback Sunday and not a single one of you showed up early today. So, I'm just proud of you that you set that clock. So, give yourself a hand here. Okay. Now, here's what I believe this. First of all, nobody should be yawning today. Okay? You got that extra hour of sleep. And here's the second thing. I want to make sure you're on schedule when it comes to this afternoon. So, I'm going to go ahead and add an hour to my sermon preaching time. That way, you're kind of on your normal schedule for your nap today. Is that fair? Listen, since Denise and I moved here several years ago, we have tried our best to make sure that we don't just just come and just sit at home. Like, we were always trying to be out doing things, exploring things, experiencing Colorado. And so, there's a number of things that we've checked off the list. We go to breance quite often and ride our bikes. We've done Ess's Park. We've looked at the elk. I mean, all these different things. But there's one thing that we've done two or three times that I'm always curious. Is it one of those things that people look forward to in Colorado? Or is one of those things that you said, "Done it, been there, check it off the list, and don't ever have to do it again." And this adventure, and we've probably done it three times, is visiting the North Pole. Okay, let let me let me see this. How many thumbs up it says, "I love look for I look forward to going there." And how many says been there, done that, don't ever have to do it again. Let me see some voting here. Okay, the North Pole. Okay, like if you ever want to think to yourself, what was it like to celebrate Christmas back in the 50s? Okay, it is the most nostalgic, neat, updating place I've ever been to in my life. Okay, the Santa that sits on top of the slide is the scariest Santa I've ever seen in my life. Okay, now if you have no idea what I'm talking about, take an hour and a half drive right around Pikes Peak. There's the North Pole Santa's workshop and it's there. But there's one particular ride at this place and all the rides were built back in 1955. The individual who who designed this was actually a Disney worker and somebody had this great idea to create this amusement park that felt like you were at the North Pole. And so all these rides were put back in or built in 1955. And here's what I promise you. If you've not been there in a few years, they haven't changed them since. Okay? They haven't rewired them. They have maybe a little bit of extra paint on there, but you feel like you're at an amusement park from back in 1955. And so the big ride there is the ferris wheel. And I did some reading this past week, and because of where it sits on elevation, at the very top of the ferris wheel, when you get to the top of it, you are 7500 ft in elevation. It is the tallest point on any ferris wheel that you'll ever be on in the entire United States of America. And so if you ever ride that thing, you will get to the very top of it. And because you're looking down at it at the metal that was installed, the ride that was installed back in 1955, because you're thinking to yourself, you're higher up than any ferris wheel in America, and there's some teenager running this ride below you. There's this moment of tension. There's just no moment of tension that you don't know. Should you pray? Should you jump off? Should you update your will? It is just this moment of tension going, I don't know where this thing is going to take me when it's all over with. And I was thinking about that ride and that same tension that you might experience when you're on the ferris wheel at the North Pole is the same tension that I think from our story last week in Acts chapter 3 that the Apostle Peter was experiencing in his own life. If you were with us last week, here's what we discovered. It was this event in the life of Peter that he walked up and as he was walking to a temple to pray, there was a a lame man that was begging for money. a man that had never walked a day in his life. And on this particular day in Acts chapter 3, the Bible lets us know that that know this that Peter reached out and healed the man. He stood up. The man stood up and walked and danced and leaped for the very first time in his life. Well, when all that happened, again, Acts chapter 3 tells us this, and you go back and read it this afternoon, the crowd began to look around because they had seen this man day after day after day as they had walked the market streets, as they had gone to the temple. They knew there was a man that's standing and dancing and leaping that had never walked a day in his life. And so the Bible says this great crowd gathered around and Peter took and the Bible says this saw the opportunity. He saw the moment. He seized the moment and he began preaching to the crowd. And you might be asking, well Keith, where's the tension in that? That sounds like excitement. That sounds like joy. Well, the tension happens as you start reading chapter 4, which we're going to look at today. Because here's what happens. Peter addresses the crowd. He is talking to everybody. He is he is witnessing. He is sharing the gospel with everybody. And then some religious leaders walk up. Men that weren't as excited about what he was sharing about Jesus as the crowd was. Men who were a little bit intimidated and jealous because Peter was getting the attention and they were losing the attention. And so I want to take you to Luke chap I'm sorry, Acts chapter 4 today. And I want to pick up and I want us to seize and look and and understand this tension that's going on. If you have your Bibles, you can look it up. We'll have it on the screen or if you got a handout today, it's in the handout. There's even some place you can take some notes if you want to. But Acts 4:1 and here's what it says. It says, "While Peter and John were speaking to the people, they were confronted by the priests, the captain of the temple guard and some of the Sadducees." And so the Bible says this, they were confronted by these men. And these men walked up and said, "How dare you teach? How dare you preach? How dare you draw this crowd? We can't believe you're speaking about this Jesus who resurrected." Good chance these religious leaders were upset they were talking about the resurrected Jesus because they're the very ones that put him in the grave that he needed to be resurrected. They were the very ones that were trying to push down this thought of Jesus while the crowds were raising up this idea of the resurrection. And so these religious leaders came up to him and said, "We want you to stop talking about this." They knew they couldn't get them to stop talking about it. So here's what happens. The religious leaders takes Peter and John and they put them in jail for the night. The sun was already setting. There was nothing they could do for any trials or courts or discussion. So they thought to themselves, let's just put these guys in jail and maybe tomorrow things will settle down. And the next morning they brought the two disciples Peter and John before these religious leaders to have greater discussions with them. In verse 7, and they brought in the two disciples and demanded by what power and whose name have you done this? Because they weren't just trying to have them be quiet. They were trying to figure out they knew this same man that everyone else saw that was lame that had never walked a day in his life. They knew on this day the man was leaping and jumping and dancing. And so they looked at the two disciples and said, "By what name? How did you do this?" And so Peter saw another opportune time and the same gospel that he shared with the crowd the day before. The Bible says he began sharing it with the Sanhes with the religious leaders with these group of men and began to tell them that the very Jesus they had crucified was the same very Jesus who rose again three days later. He began to share with them that Jesus is the cornerstone of everything that we do. And then he says these famous words. He looked at the religious leaders and he says there is salvation in no one else. Jesus is the only way to God. Then in verse 13 says this in the Bible, the members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus. But since they could see the man who had been healed standing right there among them, there was nothing the council could say. So here's this moment that Peter sees this opportunity. He witnessed he share the gospel with these religious leaders and they're just kind of sitting there like dumbfounded because they can't argue against it because they're seeing the man right there dancing and leaping. The man that had been lame forever and they just sat there almost in awe of what's going on. Now church, this is one of those stories that we talk about in church that we preach sermons about it. Maybe you heard it as a small child in Sunday school. To me, it's one of those stories that seem larger than life. It's one of those Bible stories that just sticks in your mind. But here's the problem. Sometimes stories like this seem so much bigger than life, you wonder they have any application or practicality in our life. I mean, when's the last time you stood on the steps of church and you drew a crowd? When's the last time you saw somebody could never walk and they're walking again? When when's the time in your life that you confront the religious leaders and share the gospel? So, it just seems like this bigger than larger than life. In fact, if you read this passage in detail, it says this. On that day, almost 5,000 people began trusting Jesus. Now, here's what scripture says. probably not 5,000 that day, but over the last couple of weeks since Jesus's death, burial, and resurrection, 5,000 new people began to follow him. So, hundreds responded to the invitation. Hundreds responded to the conversation, the declaration that Peter was making that day. When's the last time that you tried to share your faith with somebody? And hundreds said, "I'll take that." And so it's easy to take a story like this from scripture and put it in the larger than life. It happened then. But this really doesn't have any application to us today. But I think if and when we do that, we make a mistake. Because I believe this that the invitation, the conversation that Peter was having with lots of people, we can have the same power. We can have the same just awareness of people in our individual conversations with people today. It doesn't matter if the crowd is a hundred, a thousand or one. I think there's some really transferable principles that we can learn from this encounter that we can apply to our life today to make our conversation about Jesus as inviting as Peter's declaration about Jesus was on that day. And so if you have your notes and if you want to follow along, I'm going to give you three different things that we can apply to our life from that story to today that I think can empower our own witness. And here's the first one. Peter and John, they displayed a boldness that encourages interaction. Peter and John displayed a boldness that encouraged that invited interaction there in in the beginning of that in verse 13 it says this they saw meaning the religious leaders they saw the boldness in Peter and John now here here's the problem today in our society we have lost the art of being bold that's because too many times as we look in our politics, as we look in our social media, as we just look at the world, it feels like arrogance has replaced boldness. And so for many, we shy away from being bold because we don't want to come across like those people. Sounds more like arrogance when we're shouting our opinions, when we're drawing battle lines, and we're insisting I'm right and you're wrong. And we can point to the political arena, but my fear is it's transitioned over to the spiritual arena as well. And instead of creating a boldness and exhibiting a boldness in our life that draws people into knowing more about Jesus, too many times we're repelling people against Jesus because we come across more arrogant than we do come across being bold. You see in this particular day, Peter's boldness was not fueled by his ego. Peter's boldness was fueled because he was anchored in Christ. And there's a big difference. There's a big difference in being ego-driven and Christ driven. And Peter was so centered and and focused and it's all about Jesus. It wasn't about himself. That's why he could have boldness. because he didn't have to shout louder to get people's attention about himself. He just had to share the name of Jesus and that carried enough weight all by itself. His his confidence came from knowing the truth, not proving the truth. Let me say that again because I believe this so many times we stand back and we don't have the boldness that we that we should have in our conversation about Jesus because we're going, "Well, if somebody asked me questions, I can't prove it." We will never prove who Jesus is, but we can know who he is with such great confidence. It lets us share who he is out of our overflow of our life. In fact, Peter's courage drew people in. It didn't push it away, push them away. And so, you and I need that kind of boldness in our life. You see, when we display that kind of boldness, not arrogance and trying to prove you wrong and me right in my Christian thoughts, but when we have boldness and who Jesus is in our life and through our life, here's what happens. We begin to draw people in and we don't push them away. And that's what happened on this day that Peter was preaching to the crowds. It's the same thing that happened when he was preaching to the religious leaders. He said it in such a way with such confidence in Christ, with such boldness in who Jesus is, it actually had people lean in instead of pull away. Now, we got to make sure don't mistake their boldness because they had some great degree in spiritual spirituality. In fact, um, don't even mistake a seminary grade degree is needed to be bold in talking about Jesus. You may be sitting out there going, "Well, Keith, that's really easy for you to say because you, you know, you went to Bible school and then you you got your seminary degree and you know so much more about Jesus than the Bible. So, you can be bold because if somebody asks a question, you know what to say. But but you sitting where you are, like you've gone to Sunday school and you've read the Bible, but you don't have near the knowledge." Let's not mistake the boldness comes from the seminary degree. In fact, there's one part of that passage says this. The men looking at Peter and John said this. They could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the scriptures. So Peter's boldness didn't come from his knowledge. It simply came because he'd been with Jesus. They weren't rabbis or scholars. They were just ordinary fishermen. Ordinary fishermen. Their power didn't come from education about Jesus. It came from a life encounter with Jesus. Let me say that again. Let that one sink in. Their power, their boldness, their confidence did not come from their education about Jesus. It came from their encounter with the real life Jesus. These were just ordinary plainos guys with no training in the scripture. And throughout scripture, God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things. The little boy who came to hear Jesus teach and brought a sack lunch of some bread and some fish and 5,000 people were fed. A man by the name of Moses who the Bible describes had a stuttering problem, had a speech impediment, and was afraid to talk to people and led the entire nation of Israel through the desert to the promised land. to a little boy named David who slew of Goliath with a few stones to two fishermen that shared the story of Jesus and hundreds of people came to know them. God uses the ordinary to do the extraordinary.

And so the boldness that you and I need to have in our life in order to have the type of conversation to have to present the type of invitation that they did that day comes from our boldness and knowing who Jesus is. But there's something else they had as well. If you're taking notes, you can write this down. That they had that we should have. And it's this. They would model a friendship with Jesus that draws interest. to model a friendship with Jesus that draws interest. Maybe one of the most powerful little phrases in all the Bible comes in these few verses. And this is what these few verses say about Peter and John. They recognized they had been with Jesus. Wow, man. If you could put that on my tombstone, on my grave one day, that people recognized that I had been with Jesus, not recognize that I went to church, not recognize that I did some good things, but my life would be an overflow, that your life would be an overflow. That's exactly what these religious leaders looked at Peter and John and they recognized that they had been with Jesus. The greatest sermon you can ever preach is your life transformed by the time you spent with Jesus. That's more powerful than the words that come out of your mouth is the life that you live because you've been with Jesus. I had an amazing father. I've shared with y'all that he passed away 30 years ago. He was the greatest influence in my life. I remember as a little boy playing baseball. He was my baseball coach and so he taught me how to play little league baseball. When I got to high school, he could no longer coach because that's what they did in high school. He would be at every one of my basketball games. Many times you'd see him up in the stands watching the practices and sometimes I'd be embarrassed because like what parent goes to watch their kid play practice basketball at high school? But my friends would be going that's a cool dad that would do that basketball games. He would keep all the stats up in the stands and every game afterwards all my friends would come up on the team going get your dad stats. Get your dad's stats. My father loved my mother in a way that went beyond his generation. He did more than just go to work. He came home and he sacrificially loved her and he modeled that for me. Amazing influence in my life. But the greatest influence he had in my life was spiritually. And I've shared this story before and I'm committed to sharing it until my own kids can say it about me. But my father every single morning would sit at our our old oak table at our house and he would rest his arms on the table. And every morning when I got ready to go to school, he'd be sitting there with a cup of coffee reading God's word. And I knew the way that he loved my mother. I knew the way that he supported me. All of that overflowed from the life and the intimacy that he had with Jesus sitting there in the mornings laying his arms on that oak table drinking coffee. And after he passed away, we kept that table in our family for many, many years. There were two worn spots where he rested his elbows. And like I said, I've shared that story here before. I'm committed to sharing it until my kids can say it about me. Because the greatest influence that you and I can have on anybody, anybody, whether it's our family, whether it's our friends, it's the people around us, the greatest influence that we can have on somebody is them looking at us and knowing and saying and declaring and they spent time with Jesus. That that's what influenced them. You see, when you walk closely with Jesus, his peace becomes visible in your life. When you walk intimately with Jesus, his compassion becomes audible and his joy that he puts in you becomes contagious. And it's really interesting. We've been in our rooted study. That's what this series is called is rooted. We're on week number nine. We finish it up next week. But we've had nine weeks now of many of our small most of our small groups going through this rooted book. It's a devotional book that we're studying some of the same things that we're studying and preaching out on Sunday morning. And for all those are going through the rooted book during the week and taking time every day and studying it. I've heard so many comments going, "Man, that has changed my life. This has been so good for me. This has been such an influence on me. This has helped me see a new perspective." And we we the comments I've heard is rooted has been so good. Rooted has been so good. Can I make an observation? For those of you that have gone through the Rooted book with us and you're taking some time every day to do the daily devotional, it's not what's in the book that's changing you. It's who's in the book that's changing you. Because you see what's happened for many people, they have prioritize spending some time with God every day. Even if it's only 10 minutes a day reading God's word and studying that. Here's what's happening. Putting yourself in line to be in the intimacy and at the feet and at the table with Jesus. And so it's not what's changing you, it's who's changing you. As I think about Kenan leading our high school and middle school students, here's what I know. The same foundation, the same principle that takes place 30 years ago in my life takes place today. If we can just get students, middle school and high school students to spend 10 or 15 minutes a day with God, we don't have to worry about what they do on Friday and Saturdays because the Holy Spirit has them and the Holy Spirit is leading them in their lives.

And so as we think about what gives us this power to have the invitation that Peter did that day, it is having a making a friendship with Jesus that draws interest and that people recognize that. Here's the last one. The last one is this display in our lives. This is what Peter and John did that day in our lives. Display a proof that cannot be denied.

The religious leaders, they're sitting there listening. Po Peter and John, they're not wanting them to say anything they're saying. But the man who was lame is standing beside them, dancing, jigging, gleaping. He's moving on his feet. This is what the scripture says. They could see the man who had been healed standing right there among them. There he was. He was a living, breathing evidence of the gospel's power. Even if they these men, these religious leaders wanted to look at Peter, they wanted to look at John going, "Hey, you got nothing to say. We don't believe you." How could they discount a man who was blame lame but now can walk. You see, when my character and your character, when my peace and your peace, when my purpose and your purpose, when all of those things of ours, when they resemble Jesus, we become undeniable evidence that Jesus is alive. When we resemble who he is, when we become a real life picture of Jesus, nobody can deny who he is.

People can argue theology, but they can't argue transformation.

I remember years ago when I was a youth pastor, we had this big weekend that we called reality, and we had two or 30 hundred comes to it. It's like a big long weekend. And so the the students at our church would invite their friends from school. It became this huge outreach. And there was this one young man, a sophomore, his name was Ro. Roro had led a rough life. When Rooro was invited, he came to the weekend. I was kind of scared because I'm like, I don't even know if he can control Roro. I mean, Rorow was on the front end of bad. And that weekend, Rorow gave his life to Jesus. And I remember coming back in that youth group the next Wednesday night. two or 30 hund students gathered and they were just sharing testimonies and we had new kids come to know Jesus. Why? Because on Monday when Rooro went to school, he was no longer on the front end of bad. He was on the front end of grace. And people began to see students around him, his peers began to see the transformation in his life. They couldn't argue with it. You see, transformation through a personal relationship with Jesus is what makes us persuasive in our invitation.

Now, the story doesn't end there because here's what goes on. The religious leaders, they're sitting there watching this. They're seeing the man. They don't know what to do. And finally, the Bible doesn't say it this way, but you get this idea. They just throw their hands up going, "We don't know what to do." Like, they don't want Peter and John saying what they're saying. They don't want Peter and John to rise up in popularity. And they sure don't want the name of Jesus to rise up when some people start following him. And so, here's what the Bible says in the rest of chapter 4. They just looked at each other and going, "Okay, guys, Peter, John, here's what we say. Stop doing this. We're going to release you. We're not going to put you in jail because that's going to cause some big ride and we can't handle everybody out there. But we're just telling you guys, you need to stop telling people about Jesus. You need to stop inviting them to follow and learn and discover who Jesus is now. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. And we're about to release you. Just stop it.

And the Bible says this, that Peter and John replied to him, "Do you think God wants us to obey you rather than him? We can't stop telling about everything we have seen and heard. You get this sense that with great humility, with great sincerity, they just look at these religious leaders, these men that had power over their lives, to put them in jail if they wanted to, and they had the power to persecute them. They just looked at them and said, "Guys, can you tell us to stop? We can't. We're not trying to be arrogant. We're not trying to push past you. But here's the deal. Jesus has done too much in our lives for us not to tell people. And if we didn't tell people, we would be disobedient because it's what Jesus called us and told us to do when he left this earth. In fact, throughout our rooted series, we've also looked at times through first and second Peter. It's a book in the Bible that Peter, the guy we're talking about here, he actually writes this book. It's actually a letter, but he writes this letter some 30 or 40 years later, reflecting back on things that he learned in his spiritual fa spiritual journey. And this is what he writes in 1 Peter chapter 3:14 and 15. But even if you suffer for doing what is right, God will reward you for it. You wonder as Peter's writing this, he's thinking back to the day that he spent the night in jail because they were accused and told that they were sharing with people and they stood before the religious leaders. But even if you suffer for doing what is right, God will reward you for it. So don't worry or be afraid of their threats. Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone askked about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it. He didn't write 30 years later, go find you some steps and shout out to the whole world to hear. He didn't say, go get you a megaphone and stand on the street corner. He just said this one. Here's the deal. You live your life as worship to God. And when somebody asks you about it, you get ready to tell them. You be prepared to tell them. In fact, watch this. Here's what he's really saying. is that when we have our discussion, when we have our invitation ready to offer somebody about Jesus, it is a form of worship and it is disobedience not to do it. And so, church, as we wrap up this particular moment in the life of Peter, here's here's what we need to think about. How's your invite? How's your invite? And you go, "Oh, Keith, I don't know if I could ever preach a message." I didn't say, "How's your sermon?" Oh, I don't even know what I would tell somebody completely. Don't even think the whole story. The simplest way that you can share the gospel message is simply inviting someone at least just come to church with you. The band's going to come back up here and I want to share something with you. We've done this from time to time at the church. And here's the deal. It is not easy. I can stand up here and preach, but can I be real honest with you? My invite to my nextdoor neighbors is not near as loud, clear, strong, and consistent as it is standing on these steps. I'll be honest. I need a nudge just like you need a nudge to proactively invite. just invite somebody. Just just come here. Hear the gospel message. You don't have to preach it. Just come. Come go with me to church where we know the gospel will be presented. And so we're going to try a little rooted experiment. Whether you're doing the study, not doing the study, you're here. So this is all part of the rooted 10e series that we're doing. Here's the rooted experiment. We made us some invite cards. And it's really simple. You are invited. And here's the rooted not necessarily experiment. Here's the rooted challenge. When you leave here today, everybody will be given one of these. If you want more than one, they'll be more than happy to give to him. But everybody take one. It's small enough that you can put in your pocket. Hang on to some point during this week, invite. On the back side just has our different worship times. Um, next week would be a great time to invite them with you next week because why? We're having sweet Sunday which you've been to those before where we have the desserts and the stuff outside. So, it's just kind of a fun day. But the rooted challenge invite an invite is a form of worship. An invite is also a form of obedience. So would you join me in inviting that we're just not learning about some big epic story found in the pages of scripture. We are living out the story found in the pages of our heart an invite. Will you pray with me? Father,

would you nudge us? Would you lead us? Would you push us? Would you just help us to live the life that we see in scripture? Would you give us boldness to invite? Would you allow our lives to be a model to empower our invite

that we can see people come to know who you are? And we pray this in your name, Jesus. Amen.