Well, there's a group of people here among us that we want to acknowledge together today. They are overachievers. We're going to recognize them. Can we give a round of applause to everybody who ran in a turkey trot this this weekend? I know people at our church who really did this. And I don't know about you, but in my vocabulary, turkey and trot don't belong in the same sentence. Anybody with me on that? Like, there's a brother here at our church, and I'm not going to mention his name. But I was driving down Golden West one day, and I was watching him run on the side of the road. And I realized that's my bro, my very good friend from our church. My first thought was like, what is he doing right now? Because this guy, he's running down the street, he looks gassed, he looks tired, he looks miserable, if I'm being honest. Right. And then I realized where he lives and how far he was away from his house. And I all of a sudden immediately had respect for my friend. I was like, this guy is really going for it, like he is running a long distance. Look at him. He's really doing it. In fact, he talked to another brother at the church into running a half marathon with him. That's thirteen miles, everybody. And I saw a picture of these two brothers in Christ at the finish line. And they had these radiant smiles on their faces. Like, I'm so glad that's over with, you know what I mean? I mean, they were just joyful because they had finished the race.
And this is how Paul regularly talks about our eActsperience of faith in Jesus is that we are running a race, and we need to finish our course. I invite you to open the Bible in turn with me to the book of Acts, Acts, chapter 20, verses 22 to 24, are going to be our teActst together here today, just three verses, where Paul's going to eActspress his commitment to finish his race. And I hope this will be a great inspiration to you in your faith. We've been going through Acts 20, where Paul makes this speech to the elders at the church in Ephesus. This is the one speech in the entire Book of Acts that is to the church about how to be the church. And so, we're going to go through this very slowly to make sure that this is who we are here in Huntington Beach. And so, we're just doing it a few verses at a time. And today, it's Acts 20:22-24. And out of respect for God's word, I'm going to ask if we would all stand up for the public reading of Scripture. If you're out there on the front lawn, or watching online, I'm going to ask if you would stand. And let me read for us these three verses Acts 20:22-24.
“And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, eActscept that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.”
That's the reading of God's Word. Please go ahead and have your seat. And so, if you were here with us last week, we started this speech that he gives, and it was review. If you go back to the middle of verse 18, he started it out to these men that were the elders of the church in Ephesus, “You yourselves know how I lived,” or how I was there in Ephesus. And we went through that together. If you turn back that's Acts chapter 19; it tells us all about Paul's adventure, planning a church there in the city of Ephesus, how he was there for over two years, how all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord. And Paul said, there were three things that I was when I was there among you, I was serving. He says, I was profiting you through the teaching, and I was bearing witness, I was witnessing that everybody needs to repent and believe in the gospel. And we reviewed that, what happened in Ephesus, and I was so thankful as I studied that, not just because it was Thanksgiving week, but I was thankful because those three things are things that I can say I see here in Huntington Beach. We have people who are here at this church to serve, we have people who are profiting from teaching, both in big groups and small groups throughout the week. And we have people who are bearing witness to Jesus, and they are spreading the message of repentance and faith in the Gospel. And so, Paul reviews what happened in Ephesus. We reviewed what's happened here. But now he says, look at Acts 20:22. “And now, behold…” Now he's going to tell them something they don't know. He's going to tell them what his mission that he's on right now. And his mission, he says, is I'm going to Jerusalem. But then this is new development that we don't even know at this point, Acts 20:23, “eActscept the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me.”
So, we've already learned back in chapter 19, while he was there in Ephesus that the Holy Spirit made it clear to Paul that his will was for him to go to Jerusalem, and then to Rome. And so we said, hey, from Acts 19:21, all the way to the end of the book of Acts. We're going on like Paul's personal mission, not like a missionary journey like we've been on before. No, this is like his mission. He knows he's supposed to go to Jerusalem, then to Rome. Well, now we're starting to get other people saying to him in every city, hey, Paul, do you really want to go to Jerusalem? I mean, these Jews had been chasing you around from city to city, you're now going to the home of the Jews. If you go there, they're going to imprison you, and you are going to suffer. So, we're starting to see that this plan the Holy Spirit gave Paul to go to Jerusalem may not be in Paul's best interest, because he's going to end up in jail, he's going to end up suffering.
Go over to Acts 21:10, and you'll see this theme increase. They're going to go to the house of Philip, the evangelist. And it says, “While we were staying for many days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. And coming to us, he took Paul's belt and bound his own feet and hands and said, ‘Thus says the Holy Spirit. This is how the Jews of Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’” So Agabus, the prophet, uses Paul's own belt as a visual aid, binds his hands and feet and says, by the Holy Spirit I'm testifying to you, if you go to Jerusalem, they're going to bind you up just like I'm doing in this example. And so, when we look what happens in verse 12, “When we heard this…” Luke and the rest of the crew there with Paul, “we and the people there urged him not to go up to Jerusalem.” Okay, this is like me trying to tell my friend back in college when my friend told me, hey, I'm going to join the cross-country team, I was like, bro, you’ve really got to rethink your life choices right now. Like, have you seen the cross-country team? Like they go to bed early, they wake up early, they go on these ridiculously long runs. All I do is hear them complaining about it later on in the day. Is that really what you want? See, I'm trying to talk my friends out of the pain and suffering and trial that is going to await them if they join the cross-country team, like, hey, bro, do you really want to sign up for that pain you're going to endure it? That's what Paul's friends are saying to him. They're saying, Paul, maybe you should really rethink this idea of going to Jerusalem. It's not going to work out well for you, Paul, to go there. And look what he says in Acts 20:13. “Then Paul answered, ‘What are you doing weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.’” And since he would not be persuaded, we ceased and said, let the will of the Lord be done. So, here's a thought we really need to consider together right now, because Paul thinks it's God's will by the power of the Holy Spirit. He knows he's supposed to go to Jerusalem, but by the power of the Holy Spirit, people are saying to Paul, if you go to Jerusalem, you're going to end up in prison. So, it seems that God's will for Paul's life involves suffering. It involves like the fact that he is going to be afflicted and imprisoned, and Paul says, not only am I ready to suffer, I'm ready to die in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, he's on a mission, a mission that's not going to work out very well.
Turn with me to Romans 15, and, and let's hear what Paul has to say about it when he's explaining this mission that he's on to the Roman church. And we saw a few weeks ago, earlier in the book of Romans, how he said he wanted to go there for their mutual encouragement that if he went there to see them, he could encourage them, they would encourage him. Now he gives more detail. We're going all the way to Romans 15:22-29 where he's going to really explain why he wants to go to Jerusalem, why he wants to go to Rome. He says, “This is the reason why I have so often been hindered from coming to you. He’s talking about the persecution of the Jews. “This is the reason why I have so often been hindered from coming to you. But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you, I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be helped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a while. At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem bringing aid to the saints. For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem. For they were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings. When therefore I have completed this and have delivered to them what has been collected, I will leave for Spain by way of you. I know that when I come to you I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ.”
So, here we get Paul's itinerary. These are his travel plans; we're going to Jerusalem because he wants to go back to the original city where the church got started. And he wants to bless them. He has a financial gift that he wants to give to help the poor. They're at the church in Jerusalem. And he's bringing these men we've already seen, he's bringing all these representatives from all these churches that Jesus has planted, and he's going to go to Jerusalem with them. He wants to get there by Pentecost. And he wants to say, look at what Jesus is building, look at the church in all these different cities. Here's a gift from all these cities to you. He wants to bless the saints in Jerusalem, then he wants to go to Rome for this time of refreshment and encouragement. But did you all catch that? He's really saying, hey, Rome, you're really just a stop on my way to… where did he say he really wanted to get to? Spain, the end of the earth, like I'm going to go to the big city in Rome, and then I'm hoping that you guys will help me I am hoping that you guys will give me money so I can go to Spain, so I can preach the gospel to the end of the earth. So, he's got this clear mission that he's on, we're going to Jerusalem for this purpose. I'm coming to Rome for this purpose, may be I’ll end up in Spain.
And then he invites them in Romans 15:30. “I appeal to you brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me and your prayers to God on my behalf.” Well, you all become prayer partners in my mission that I'm on is what he said, I need you to pray for me. And here's the request, Romans 15:31-33, “that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, so that by God's will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company. May the God of peace be with you all. Amen.” I mean, we should all be inspired by Paul here today. This is a man on a mission. This is a man who has decided he is running a race. He's going to finish the race. He's going to finish it if it kills him, and he's inviting, hey, you could strive together with me on my behalf. Will you pray with me? Because I know there are Jews who are going to oppose me there in Jerusalem? Could you pray for that? But I’ve got to bless the church in Jerusalem, will you pray for that? He's asking for their partnership in his mission that he's going to accomplish because he wants the will of God to be done. I'm telling you this sermon is going to beg the question for all of us, are you living so that the will of God be done in your life? Are you living to do the will of God, even if it means it's not in your personal best interest, and you're going to suffer for it?
Are you still like, I want to finish my race for Jesus Christ? That's what Paul is saying. And he knows people are trying to talk him out of it. He knows people care about him, and they're trying to warn him not to go, but he says, I'm going even if I'm facing opposition, and I'm asking that you would partner with me in prayer, but I am a man on a mission. And that's what we're going to be studying in the rest of the book of Acts, we're going to go to Jerusalem with him. We're going to end up in Rome with him, and we're going to see the will of God be done in Paul's life, with many imprisonments and afflictions, but he's like, I’ve got to do the will of God, no matter what. See, that's our goal here at Compass HB. We want to do the will of God. Can I get an Amen from anybody on that? We want to study what God's will is revealed to us. We want his Word to be a lamp to our feet, a light to our path, and once it's clear to us what God is calling us to do, we want to run and we want to do it, and even if we suffer for it we're going to cross that finish line. And we're going to take a picture at the end of the line. That's our goal. Okay? And we want to help you make sure that you're on the course of the will of God for your life, that you and your family are conducting yourselves according to God's will for you. And if your will isn't going to partner with us, we want to help you accomplish God's will, wherever that is taking you because you need to finish your race.
That should be the goal of all of our lives leaving here today. I need to finish the race for Jesus Christ, I need to do the will of God in my life even if it's going to cost me, I'm all in. I’ve got to cross that finish line. That's what we're studying is a man who's like, I'm going to go, and you can partner with me, you could even help support me financially, but this is what I'm doing. And you're all invited. But I'm going to do this no matter what. And we really believe that God has made his will clear to us. Speaking on behalf of the elders here at the church, we spend a lot of time praying to seek the Lord. And when we think we have a clearer idea, this Road to Christmas men's retreat we're doing. And next week, it's not just a men's retreat, it's a whole study that we're going to do through all the prophecies that lead up to Jesus Christ this December, and we're going to take the men away and train them so husbands and fathers can come back and teach it to their children and share it with their coworkers. But if you come back to church next week, you're going to hear about the Road to Christmas. And we're going to send out this this reading plan, and we're going to say, hey, everybody, let's go study the prophecies that lead us to Jesus, let's make this Christmas the best worship, the best adoration of Jesus Christ we've ever had in our lives. Who's in? We think that's God's will.
And then we even think we have an idea of where God is taking us in 2022, where God's taking us into the future where we're doing this thing called the double double project. And just like Paul asked for prayer partners here, we've asked everybody, will you partner with us? We've been asking people to pray about this over a long time, because we believe that God has more for us to do here in Huntington Beach. Okay? We're not here to circle the wagons and get comfortable. We're here to say, we want to reach this city, we want the name of Jesus to go mega here where we live. And we think that God is going to do such a work to mature us in our faith, that we want to double into another church in Long Beach. And we want the gospel ringing out there. So, we want to double here in Huntington Beach, and double into Long Beach. And on Wednesday, December 8, we're going to unveil all the details that we've got so far, that we think God has revealed about this plan, some exciting announcements that we're going to make, and we're saying, hey, maybe God's will is for you to be a part of what he's doing here at this church, and you could partner with us in prayer, you could even partner with us financially, and we could see this church continue to be built up so that we can mature and present everyone complete in Christ. And then we can see there's a need for a Bible preaching church in Long Beach. And we want to see some of us who live there in Long Beach and Lakewood establish that new church. And so, we're asking for you to partner with us in what we think the will of God is here.
But go back to Acts chapter 20. Now that we understand the plan of what Paul is trying to do, and how he's convinced it’s the will of God, and the Holy Spirit is leading him to do it, even if he's going to suffer for it. Well, now let's get into the why of it. Let's see his heart here in Acts 20:24. Three phrases that are going to become our three points here together today. First phrase, but I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself. So, the first thing he says is, I don't even value my own life. I'm not hanging on to my own life as if it were precious. That's a radical statement. We’ll talk about that. And the reason he doesn't value his own life is precious, second phrase here, if only, or so that I may finish my course, because I have a race that I'm running, and I need to finish. And he says it is the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus. So, I'm not hanging on to my own life as precious, because I've got to that finish line of the ministry that Jesus gave me. And then he says, what that ministry is. The third phrase here, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. So, I can't hang on to my own life as precious, because I'm running a race in the ministry that Jesus gave me, and my ministry is to bear witness to everybody of the good news that God has given us grace in the face of Jesus Christ, and you can be saved. And I've got to go bear witness to that. That's my ministry that I have. So, these are the reasons that he's going to Jerusalem, that he's going to Rome, even if it's not in his own self interest. Why is he okay with that? Because he's not hanging on to his life as precious to himself.
So, I want to invite you to, if you're not taking the notes yet, pull out your handout out of your bulletin. And we're going to turn those three phrases into three points for us here today, as we try to really study together. What is Paul saying in this verse? And should you and I be thinking the same way as Paul, because when he says that right there, that first phrase, I do not account my life of any value, nor as precious to myself. I mean, that sounds radical to us. A guy saying, I'm not putting value in my own life, I'm not hanging on to my life as precious to me. Now, this Greek word here for precious is the same exact word used in 1 Peter chapter 1:18, when it talks about what purchased you out of all your sin was the precious blood of Jesus Christ that redeemed you. Okay, it talks about the blood of Jesus being shed to pay for your sin, how precious that is. So, this word is something that is very near and dear to our hearts. And Paul is saying, hey, I'm not counting my own life as precious. He's counting the blood of Jesus as precious. It's kind of like what Paul said in Philippians 3 that I'm taking all the things that I used to value, and I'm counting them as rubbish, as trash, because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. Like I'm not living for my own life. I'm finding life in Jesus Christ is what he's saying. So, I don't hang on to my life as precious.
Now I’ve got to just be honest with everybody here today. That word “precious” has been forever ruined for me by Lord of the Rings. I'm just getting real everybody. Okay? And I don't know if you're like, oh, Lord of the Rings fantasy? Count me out. But I'm sure that I have some brothers and sisters who are fellow Lord of the Rings fans here this morning. Am I right about that? Not as many as I was hoping for, honestly. But there's this character and, yes, I've read the thousands of pages. and I've watched the movies, extended edition, multiple times. All right. Yes, director's commentary, you name it. All right? I have done it all. And there's this character, Gollum. And Gollum, he's like this kind of deformed, unnaturally long-life man, kind of his hunchback creature now. And he has the ring of power that he calls “My Precious.” And he pets his little ring of power. And he says, “mine, my own, my precious.” So that's what I think of every time I hear that word now. Okay. And I just wonder like, is the reason some of us aren't all in to run the race, aren't all in to do the will of God, is we're still holding on to our life like it's mine, my own, my precious. And he said, that’s not how I think about life anymore. It's not even my own life, it’s not precious to me anymore. And my concern is when Paul says that in Acts 20:24, people are going to be like, oh, here we go again. The apostle Paul, that guy, I'm never going to be that guy. No.
Now go with me to Luke chapter 9. He's not saying something here that's like unique to just him on his particular mission because he's the super apostle. Everybody turn with me to Luke 9:23, and let's just make it very clear that what we're talking about here is not AP Christianity, it's not extra credit bonus. Christianity. This is Christianity 101. This is entry level Christianity. This is what Jesus, our Lord says in Luke 9:23. “And he said to all, ‘If anyone would come after me…” that includes you, anybody who wants to claim Jesus as their Lord and Savior, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.’”
Let's get this down for number one: You lose your life to find it. You lose your life to find it. This is for all who would follow. As a good friend of mine likes to say, you have to give your life away if you want to gain eternal life in Jesus Christ. You have to sell out, you have to leave everything behind. See the Christian life is not about self-fulfillment, or self-expression or self-esteem. No. This is a call to deny yourself. That's what we're doing here. We're saying I'm not I can hold on to mine, my own, my precious. I'm not going to value it like that anymore. No, I'm willing to lose my life so that I can gain the kingdom with Jesus Christ. I'm willing to lose the here and now so I can gain the there and then. You can take all this world, just give me Jesus. This let's make it very clear, this is what we all signed up for when we said we wanted to follow Jesus. We signed up to say that my own life will no longer be precious to me, I will deny myself, I will tell myself no about things that I genuinely desire in my heart, I will deny them
Now, look at look at this passage. The context here is this is a very important passage that we all need to know because this is where Jesus takes his disciples away, and he says, “Who do you say that I am?” And Peter gives the right answer. “You are the Christ, you're the Messiah,” you're the Anointed One of God, you're the one that all the prophecies are about. And Jesus says, yes, right answer. And you can go to the parallel passages in Matthew 16 and Mark 8. And here we are in Luke 9. And these are the turning points of all these gospels, where once they identify correctly who Jesus is, Jesus now says, here's what I'm going to do. Look at the mission that Jesus was on in Luke 9:22, “saying, ‘The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.’” So, once they're like, you're the Christ, he's like, okay, now that you know who I am, let me tell you the will of my Father that I came to accomplish. Let me tell you the mission, that I am on, the seek and save mission that I came on here on planet earth, it's a threefold thing that I'm going to do, I'm going to suffer, I'm going to get rejected by the religious leaders, and I'm going to get killed. And then after that, on the third day, I’ll be raised. Now if you know from Matthew 16, or Mark 8, Peter, who just gave the right answer, you are the Christ. How does Peter, the friend of Jesus, how does he feel about his mission of suffering, rejection, and death? Now, Peter says, “No, that's not for you, Jesus.” And Jesus looks at his disciple Peter, and he says, “Get behind me…” who? Satan. Are you starting to see a theme here, the will of God for your life is probably going to be something that your own best friends and family might want to talk you out of. That's what the will of God is going to include. See, Jesus, we see if you're going to follow Jesus, where did Jesus go? Well, he went to suffering, rejection and death. If you're going to follow Paul, as an example, where did Paul go? Where he went to imprisonment and afflictions? And what is the call that Jesus then gives to all of us? Deny yourself, take up your… what does he say? Cross. See, you're going the same direction he's going. See, when you opened the gift of salvation, when you got a free gift from God through Jesus Christ, when he saved your soul and gave you a new heart, put his Holy Spirit within you, when you open that gift, it's kind of like one of those Christmas gifts that you open up and you're like, wow, this is the most amazing toy that I've ever seen in my life. And then it says on the gift, batteries not included. Anybody ever had that happen to them before? So, I’ve got this awesome new thing that I can't even use because I’ve got no batteries. I’ve got no juice for this thing. Right? No, when you open the gift of salvation, there's a part that a lot of people overlook. Suffering is included in running the race for Jesus Christ. See, a lot of people they didn't realize that's what they signed up for. But we should have understood it. Because that's what Jesus is saying right here from the beginning. You're going to have to lose your life. If you try to hang on to your own life as precious, you're going to lose your life. But if you actually lose your life and let go of it, you will find eternal life. Real, true, abundant, lasting life.
And so, the decision to follow Jesus is a letting go of things that are precious to you. In fact, go to the end of Luke 9. Look at Luke 9:57 because there's a conversation that takes place a little later on about people who want to follow Jesus, they have the right intention of becoming disciples and of running the race of the Christian life. “As they were going along the road, someone said to him, ‘I will follow you wherever you go.” To me that sounds great. Here's somebody coming to Jesus and saying, Jesus, I'll follow you wherever you go. Let's do this. I'm in, let's go. Luke 9:58, “And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” Now, that is not a great recruiting pep talk right there. Did everybody catch that? You want to follow me wherever I go? I've got no place to go. If you follow me, you're going to be homeless here on planet earth because my kingdom is not of this world. You're going to become a citizen of heaven. No, you want to follow Jesus, you're letting go to being at home here in this world. And let me tell you, one of the things that is so precious to people that they want to say is mine, my own, it’s their home. I'll tell you, that's a big part of people's lives. I mean, people are putting all their dreams in a box. All their memories are contained in that place. Like they've been working their entire life, so they can have the investment of their home, especially with homes cost around here, like people to get a home of their own. That's such a big deal. That's such a precious part of their life. They want to leave that as an inheritance to future generations, and Jesus, somebody's like, I’ll follow you Jesus. And he's like, do you realize what you're signing up for? You're not even going to be at home in this world anymore. See, being at home is something that's precious to us. And Jesus, he's calling it out, like, hey, you're going to follow me, you're ready to go wherever I go, well, who knows where I'm going to take you. You’ve got to be ready to go anywhere, if you're going to follow. Look what it goes on to say. The next one, Luke 9:59-60. “To another he said, ‘Follow me.’” Jesus invites someone, “’Follow me.’ But he said, ‘Lord, let me first go and bury my father.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.’” Now, when the guy says, hey, I'm going to go bury my father, you don't expect Jesus to reply back, leave the dead to bury their own dead. And what the guy's probably referring to here is the burying of his father would involve him receiving the family inheritance. We know that it's such a big deal in the context of the Bible for the father to pass everything on to his firstborn son. Like that was like the point of life, it seems. And a lot of the stories that we read, and he's like, hey Jesus, if I go and bury my father, I'll be financially set, I will receive the inheritance and then I'll totally be ready to follow you. And Jesus is like, hey, you can't be building up riches in this life. You’ve got to be about being rich in the kingdom, you should go and proclaim the kingdom. You cannot serve God and money.
We know when the rich young ruler came to ask Jesus, how to get eternal life, he walked away because it's hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And people's money, that's something they want to say, “Mine, my own, my precious.” And Jesus is saying, do you realize what it's going to cost you, maybe even financially, to do my will? To run that race to the finish line? And if those two weren't intense enough, then you get to this one. Luke 9:61, “Yet another said, ‘I will follow You, Lord.’” Here's another person with the right intent to follow Jesus, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.’” That seems completely reasonable to me. I'm just going to go say goodbye to my loved ones, to my family, to my closest friends, hey, just let me go say farewell to everybody at my home. And Luke 9:62, “Jesus said to him, ‘No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” Wow. What a thing to say to a guy who just wants to go say goodbye to his family. And Jesus is like, if you're going to follow me, there's no turning back. And you can't even turn back for your own family. You want to talk about something that's precious to us, something that maybe we just experienced this Thanksgiving is being around with the people that God has put in our life that are such gifts to us, the people we would say we love the most I would imagine that your family, your spouse, your kids, that they are precious to you, that they're yours, your own family. And here's Jesus saying, hey, you can't even you can't even let your family keep you from running the race for me. And this brings up people's homes, people's money, people's family, these are all things that are very precious, and we're seeing that all of these things are things we might have to lose if we're going to follow Jesus Christ. We have to not value our own life, or consider it precious to ourselves. What are you willing to let go of to follow Jesus? What would you consider precious that you're going to say, I'm not going to consider precious anymore because of the surpassing value of knowing Jesus Christ, my lord. It wasn't just Jesus that walked a path of suffering, it wasn't just Paul that had imprisonments and afflictions, no, all of us are going to lose things in this life if we want to gain Jesus Christ. Can I get an Amen from anybody on that?
This is for every single one of us here. Okay? Now go back to Acts 20:24, and here's why would we be willing to lose things. Why would we be willing to suffer the loss of things that are precious to us? Well, it's so that we can run this race; we have to get to that finish line. As he says here, I have to finish my course. And that word that's translated “course” there in the Greek, it's sometimes translated “race”. It is the same exact word in 2 Timothy 4:7, where Paul says that he has finished his race. So here we have him saying, I need to finish my race. And eventually he's going to go to Jerusalem, he's going to go to Rome, he's going to write a letter to Timothy, and he's going to be able to say, I have finished my race. That should be your goal. I want to do the will of God for my life. I want to accomplish the purpose that Jesus saved me, for Jesus saved me for good works. I've been created in Christ Jesus because God's got something he wants me to do in my new life, and I want to do what Jesus has me to do before I die. I want to get across that finish line. That's why he's willing to suffer the loss of things that he would consider precious, even his own life, because he has a clear goal to fulfill the ministry that Jesus gave him, to finish his race. And in Paul's mind, there's no way you're following Jesus. Okay? There's no way you're running a half marathon. And that's why he's using this race analogy. He's expecting it to be hard. He's expecting that living the Christian life is going to push me past my limits. I'm going to feel like giving up, I'm going to feel like I just want to stop and rest. I want to turn and go back. This is so hard. And there's hurdles I've got to overcome, and I'll get knocked down. And then I've got to get back up again. Like he's using this analogy the way that I described it earlier. You just ate all that turkey; who wants to go on a 10k trek? Anybody want to do that? You're immediately thinking that sounds like a far way to go. That sounds like suffering. That sounds like pain. That's how he thinks it's going to be. He said, yeah, that's what I'm signing up for. It's like I'm running a race. And it's going to be worth it to get to the finish line. But it's going to involve suffering to get there.
Turn with me to Colossians chapter one, verse 24. I want to take you to a verse that I don't think we've ever turned to together as a church. This is Colossians 1:24. And if you ever heard somebody say this verse, if we didn't know Paul wrote this in the book of Colossians, it's inspired by the Holy Spirit. It's Scripture just hearing this verse. Like, if somebody says this in your fellowship group, like you would be immediately like, oh, that person might be a heretic. Like, I'm not sure about that. Okay? Like, look at this, this is going to sound really interesting when we read it here. Colossians 1:24. “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church.” Okay, I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions. Does that sound a little suspicious to anybody else? What do you mean? What Christ is lacking in? In what? I'm pretty sure that Jesus paid it all. Can I get an Amen from the congregation on that? Okay, so when you first read this verse, that I'm filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions, you might think, well, is he saying that the death of Jesus on the cross is not sufficient to redeem us out of our sins? No, he's not saying that. Go back earlier, just a few verses to Colossians 1:19:20. He's talking about Jesus here. And he's saying, “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.” Can we be at peace with God through the blood of Jesus? Is it sufficient? The answer is, yes, there's nothing lacking in Jesus's finished work on the cross. But in Paul's mind, there are some afflictions, some of Christ's afflictions that he needs to fill up that are still lacking in his body in the church. And notice, whatever these afflictions are that are lacking, that he wants to fill up. He says, at first I rejoice in my sufferings.
Like, I anticipate that if I want to see the church double up in Huntington Beach and see more people get saved, or if I want to see the church double into Long Beach, between me and more people getting saved, there's going to be sufferings and afflictions. That's what he's thinking. Not that Jesus’ suffering on the cross was incomplete, but that there is more suffering to be done in the name of Jesus for the Church of Jesus Christ. And we're going to have to, as we all go follow Jesus, we're all going to have to take up our cross, and we're all going to experience some suffering. This is how he thought about it. He understood that with the gift of salvation, suffering was included.
Let's get it down for point number two: You take up your cross to follow Jesus. You take up your cross to follow Jesus. You could write down next to that, suffering is included. The cross, and when Jesus said that in Luke 9, was not the beautiful symbol of our salvation, no, it was a way of torture and execution, it was a way of pain and death. That's what the cross meant. And if you're going to follow Jesus, you're taking up your own suffering, and you're going along on that adventure. And you know, it's going to be a race, and it's going to be hard. And it's going to involve pain. And there's going to be times maybe where I feel like I'm running out of breath. And it would be easier to give up. This is how Paul expected it to be. That's why he's using the race analogy, because, hey, you know, if somebody runs the turkey trot, if somebody runs the marathon, if they're on the cross-country team, they're signing up for some level of pain, and he's saying, we've all signed up for that; he knew he had. And so, he rejoices in it because he knows that there's suffering, and what's on the other side of that suffering is glory. What's on the other side of that suffering is more people getting saved, what's on the other side of that suffering, is going through a trial and being comforted by God so I can comfort other people. What's on the other side of that suffering is perhaps the sweetest fellowship I've ever known with Jesus Christ, sharing in his sufferings. So, he's fully expecting that to run the race of the Christian life, he's not going to feel like he's got to keep pace the whole time, and it's all just smooth level road all the way there. He's expecting that this is going to involve some real suffering. And we're all going to fill up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions, for the church.
Go over to Philippians 1, just a couple pages to the left. Philippians 1:27. Look at how he says it here to this church. Look at how Paul is not just expecting to suffer himself, or even pointing us to the suffering of Jesus. But look how Paul is going to make it very clear that we should all expect to suffer if we run the race of faith. He says here in Philippians 1:27, “Only let your manner of life be worthy[h] of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.” Now, I love that phrase right there. Because it's encouraging when you're running for Jesus. You don't run alone, you’ve got brothers or sisters running with you. Can I get an Amen from anybody on that?
And when we talk about striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, that's like when I was saying earlier, who wants to see it happen in Huntington Beach, who wants to go to Long Beach? And we got people cheering and like, yeah, let's go, let's go. And then you keep reading and it says in Philippians 1:28, “and not frightened in anything by your opponents.” It's like we're running the turkey trot and people are trying to knock us down is what it is. See, this is what people don't realize they signed up for in following Jesus. You mean there's now people who are going to oppose me? You mean I'm now going to have enemies because I signed up for Jesus because I signed up on Team Love and Forgiveness? People are now going to hate me and even Satan and the rest of the demons the spiritual forces of evil are going to come against me, like I now have opposition and I'm not supposed to be afraid of it? I’ve got people coming against me? Perhaps I’ve got demonic forces coming against me, opponents, and I can't even be frightened of them? Like we learned earlier, do not fear, Jesus said to Paul, for I am with you. He says, yeah, you can't be frightened. He goes on to say here in Philippians 28-30. “This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of yours salvation and that from God. For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also…” what does it say everybody? “suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now here that I still have.” Paul is saying that when you believed in Jesus, you were not only granted the rich privilege of salvation, you were granted the privilege of suffering in the name of Jesus. In fact, he expects that this church in Philippi, would experience the same conflict that he experienced. And they had already been eyewitnesses of the conflict. They're in Philippi. And where is Paul writing this letter from the book of Philippians? We got to study it a few years ago, where is he writing it from everybody? Prison. So, when somebody writes to you from prison, saying that you're going to experience the same conflict that he experienced, what you should be thinking is somebody, governing authorities, Jewish religious leaders, outraged idolaters, who were taking all their business, somebody is going to get so angry with us raising a ruckus in the name of Jesus that they're going to want to throw us in jail. And he's saying, yeah, that's what we've all been granted, is suffering for the sake of Christ.
So, I hope that nobody's going to walk out of here thinking, oh, well, Paul had this unique mission to go to Jerusalem. Well, there were things that were unique about it. But the road of suffering is the road that we're all running in the Christian life. And I just am asking you, have you embraced that? Like, I hear a lot of people saying, I think what I know what God's will is, and it's interesting how a lot of what people are saying God's will is for their life, gets them a home, gets them more money, and is a better experience for their family. I'm just saying a lot of people are like God's will for me seems to be an unlimited blessing in my life. If you're on a road marked the will of God, and there's no suffering involved, you’ve got to ask yourself, is this really God's will for my life because I'm following Jesus? I'm going in the history of men like Paul, I'm going in a long tradition of people who actually believe Jesus, and it was not only granted for them to believe, but to suffer in his name. And why am I thinking I'm some American anomaly? Who's going to get all of the blessings of the Christian life here on planet earth, with none of the suffering? That's not what this book teaches you to think. No, you should expect that the will of God for your life, the way the Holy Spirit is leading you, you might have your own friends and your own family come to you and say, hey, bro, do you really want to sign up to run that race? Like, you're going to go to bed early, you're going to wake up early, there's going to be a lot of pain, and you’re doing the will of God in your life, is that really what you want to do with your life? There will be suffering down God's path for you. There will be opponents down that path. And these guys, Paul, he's showing us the way; Jesus clearly showed us the way, and these are the ones we're supposed to look to, as examples.
Hebrews 12:1-2 says, we should set our eyes, we should fix them on Christ who for the joy set before him, he endured the cross, he despised the shame, and he sat down at the right hand of God. So, take off all the weights, throw aside all the sin, and run that race. Look at how Jesus finished it. Paul had no problem saying, imitate me, as I imitate Christ, just like Jesus carried his cross to Jerusalem, I'm carrying my cross to Jerusalem. And you should expect the same conflict that you see in me. So, everybody here if you're following Jesus, you're taking up your cross, and suffering is included. So, the question is, why would we choose suffering? Why would we sign up knowing it's not in our personal best interest? Why would we choose to run a race that we know people are going to try to knock us down, and it's going to be a very difficult experience for us? Well, that gets us to our third phrase. Go back to Acts 20:24, because this is why, and let me tell you why my life is not precious to myself. Let me tell you why I'm going to finish my course, no matter what it costs me, because I need to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. Now, this is a second time he said in this speech so far already, this idea of testifying which is really getting back to the word “witness” in the Greek, or theme word for the entire book of Acts. He already said, look back at verse 21, “testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.” So, we already said, you guys know how I was in Ephesus. I was telling everybody that they had a response of repentance and faith in the Gospel, their human responsibility in light of the grace of God in the face of Jesus, they need to change their mind about how they're living. And they need to put their trust in what Jesus has done, when he died and rose again, repentance and faith in the gospel. He already said he was witnessing to that. Well, now he says, I need to witness. Let's talk about it from God's perspective. I'm bearing witness of good news of great joy for all people, there has been born a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And the good news about this life full of sin and suffering that we're going through is that God is so good, and he wants to be good to you. And He wants to give you riches beyond anything that not only you would deserve, but even beyond what you could ask or think. I mean, if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you love talking about grace. Can I get an Amen from anybody on that? I mean, this is like our theme song. This is like our favorite song that's just coming up here. Hey, why am I holding my life not precious to myself? Why am I going to run a long race of endurance and perseverance? Because God is that good. That's why, and I’ve got to go tell everybody in Jerusalem, and everybody in Rome, and I'm going to write as many letters as I possibly can. And I'm going to let everybody know that we have grace in God, and that grace is amazing. And you've been redeemed by a free gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. That is grace for you. In fact, when you were dead in your sin, God made you alive in Jesus Christ; by grace, you have been saved. It's a good thing this man was willing to suffer because probably one of your favorite verses about grace, he wrote down, testifying to the gospel of the grace of God. Some of our favorite things that we like to talk about as Christians, we got from this man on the road to Jerusalem suffering, because he's going to let us know how good God is. And that is based on nothing you have done; it is not based on you being good. It is totally unmerited favor, it is totally the fact that God is good, and he wants to give you eternal life, that God would give something that was precious to him, his one and only Son, and that that son would shed his precious blood to save your soul. And it's all by grace.
Now, a lot of people talk about grace. But these days, I don't think we talk about it enough. Or basically, what I'm saying is I don't think we talked about how awesome grace really is. Listen, when you hear people talk about grace, usually what they refer to is the forgiveness of their sins. And it is amazing that God has been so good to forgive us for all of the sins that we have done against him, by the blood of Jesus. He has washed them as white as snow, and that is by his grace to forgive us. Can we praise God for his grace to forgive us our sins? Okay, but let's just make it very clear. The only reason you're sitting here today is by his grace. The reason that you can obey the commands of Jesus today is all by his grace. You can be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And in fact, from this moment all the way until you are in the presence of the glory of God, until you see the unveiled face of grace in the glorified risen Lord Jesus, the goodness and mercy of God will be chasing you all the days of your life, and you will dwell in the house of the Lord forevermore. And you will bask in the radiant splendor of the glory of God for all of eternity. See, the grace of God is everything. It's not just the beginning of the story. It's the middle of the story. And let me tell you that we haven't gotten to the end of the story yet, and the best is yet to come. The future grace that we're going to experience is way better than any of the grace we've received thus far. No, it's all a story of grace. Don't settle for this grace that only forgives sin. Know that grace is still there after the sin is forgiven. And it gives you strength to resist temptation. It gives you strength to obey Jesus, it gives you strength to keep on running when you feel like you've got nothing left in the tank. That's when grace comes through. And it carries you all the way to the finish line. Now he's got a message that is so worth sharing. He doesn't care if they kill him for it because it's worth telling him. That's how good God really is. There is the gospel of the grace of God.
Let's go to Titus 2:11. Let's just go to one of the many passages we could turn to, that this man is going to write to bear witness to the grace of God in our lives. And he says that if we're running a race here today, and our goal is to get to that finish line because we want to bask in the glory of God and the picture there in the finish line, well, then he says grace is actually our trainer that's going to help us run this race. Look at what he says here in Titus 2:11, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people.” And we know that the grace appeared in the face of his Son, Jesus Christ, who was full of grace and truth. Look at what it says grace does though, Titus 2:12, “training us,” or teaching us “to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age.” So, Grace is your trainer. Yeah, grace shows up, all of your sin is forgiven. But then grace starts to train you. And it says, you can say no to those old sins, you don't have to keep doing those things anymore. You say no to that; you renounce that ungodliness and you start living like you have control of yourself, and you start living a godly life, even though we're living in a wicked age, even though Satan and the rest of the demons are out there, leading everybody towards evil, you could live a godly life here and now because of grace training you to do it. See, when you do reach that finish line someday, and you get to the end of your course, and you've run your race, when you look back, you're going to realize that it's grace that carried you all the way through. And you're going to be like, wow, how did I keep running? Grace trained me to keep going. And Grace gets you look into the future. Look what it says in Titus 2:13-14, you're “waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” Oh, Grace, it's got me so excited because I'm waiting to see his face. It's going to be unveiled. All of his glory is going to be beheld by all of us. No, I mean, the best grace is yet to come when you get to see Jesus, when you get to be with him. That's who's waiting for you at the finish line is our Lord Jesus Christ.
Let's get this down for point number three: The grace you share is what will get you there. The grace we're supposed to be telling other people about that is the grace that will take us all the way across the finish line. Why am I willing to suffer in this life? Because I believe that the grace of God, the eternal weight of glory, that I am yet to experience will be of surpassing value, will far outweigh the limited sufferings of this life. I believe that grace is going to be worth it, is what I believe. I believe that Jesus is better than the suffering. In fact, I so strongly believe in the grace of God, if you don't have a reason to give thanks to God for his grace at this time of year, I want to testify to you that God is good, and he will be good to you and his Son, Jesus Christ. That's what I am. I might lose my life, I might suffer, I might lose money, and I might lose relationships. And I may always have this sense of, I'm not at home in this world. But if I get to see Jesus, if I get to experience the future grace of being in his presence, and if I get to tell a bunch of other people about God's grace, so they can experience it, sign me up, I'm all in. I want to follow Jesus because I want to see his glory. I want to know him in the fellowship of his sufferings in the power of his resurrection. I want the full experience of grace. You know, when we sing Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind but now I see, we don't just sing the first verse, do we? I mean, the first verse is great. I like singing the first verse. But then we talk about the hour I first believed, that's exciting to think about, the joy of our salvation. And then it talks about how he's promised good to me. He's promised to be good to me. He's promised to get me home to be with him. And when we've been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun. No, I like singing the whole song Amazing Grace, and I have a feeling that the most amazing parts of it are still yet to come. So, I want to bear witness to you that we have good news of great joy for all people, that God has been so good to us, and it's worth suffering for. Let we pray for us and then we'll sing together.
Father in Heaven, we don't want to be here as Christians who are in it for ourselves. Father, we don't want to be people who think that your will exists for our blessing. So, God, I pray that you will use this word that Paul said to these elders in Ephesus, that you will use Acts 20:22-24 to give us some clear expectations that we should not hold our lives precious to ourselves. And Father, I pray that if there's something we're holding on to, if there's some kind of idol in our heart that we're saying is “Mine, my own, my precious,” I pray that you will convict us of that today, that we'd be willing to let go of that, that we'd be willing to lose our lives so that we might really find it. And I pray for everybody here, I pray for all my brothers and sisters that they will run this course to the end, that they'll keep running in this race till completion, that someday we'll be able to take a picture across that finish line, a picture of your glory and your splendor, a picture of your grace, that it was you by your grace you saved us and you sanctified us, and you glorified us, and look where we are now. How did somebody, a wretch like me? How did I get to be here in the presence of eternal glory, in your presence, Father in heaven? Help us to see it's going to be so worth it to run this race. And use your grace even today to encourage us that we need to run. We need to strive side by side for the faith of the gospel. We need to strive together in prayer that if anything, we need to pick up the pace in these last days. So, God, make us a church, a real church, where people run to the head, because we believe in grace. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.