To the Ends of the Earth | Acts 14:24-28

Amen. Well, good morning. Good morning. How are you? Good, man.

It's so good to see you this morning. I want you to keep your hand on Acts 14, but I want you to jump to the book of Ephesians real quick as well. Go ahead and save Ephesians 4. I'm gonna get there in a minute. Then, if you're new with us, we're so glad that you're here.

I love what God's doing right here at Church of the Valley and what God's doing in you and through you. I get a front row se every week of seeing God's grace poured out on you and through our church. And so if you are new, I would love to meet you. I'm always in the back of our room by our next steps table. Just love to get to know your name, how you got here, and what God's doing in your life.

I want you to imagine for a moment, right? Some of you, you're like, hey, this is very close, so it's kind of offensive. But for some of you, you're like, I can't even imagine this time in my life yet. But I want you to just think for a moment, right? Like, you and I were some 90.

Like, we're 90 years old. We're sitting by a fire, we're reflecting on our lives. We're sharing stories about the good old days, and we're just sharing these stories over and over again. Hey, here's what I did. Here's what I accomplished.

Here's my regrets, here's the things that were awesome, like teenagers. This is what you would call, like, I'm trying to get in touch with my inner Gen Z self here. This is what you would call your dad lore. If you're an adult. And you're like, I don't know what that means.

I don't either. But I heard my kids say it once, and it sounded cool. These are the stories that you're gonna tell about your teenage years as a dad. Those of you that are like, that sounds bad. First time I heard it, my wife was like, you heard this phrase before?

And I'm like, no, but I'm gonna slap somebody. Cause that sounds horrible. Like, no, it's just a cool story. It's what we do as kids. Like, you're reflecting on your life, what you did, what you didn't do, what you hope you did.

And we're just swapping stories, right? You remember Andy Bernard, great pastor, said, I wish there was a way to know when you're in the Good old days before you actually left them. Like, we're in the good old days. Whether you realize it or not. Like, the decisions you're making right now are building your legacy.

The stories that we're gonna tell one day are all about what happens today. So what stories do you want to share about the good old days? Right. The life that you and I are living today will be the stories that we'll tell others or others will tell about us. And I feel like this kind of.

Like, I don't know what it is lately. I don't know if this is just kind of where I'm at in life, but I'm always in this tension of, like, what God is doing and what's happening in culture. And I want you to live a life that is so counterculture. I don't want you to be taken captive by everything that just happens. Right.

Here's the good news. Culture is just culture. It's not doctrinal and it's not eternal. It's just what happens. And the reality is culture is always evolving and changing.

The beauty of it is that it's temporary, but it's strong and it pulls us in every direction. But the good news about God is that God's Word never changes. It's never false, it's always trustworthy, and it is always going to be the same. This is where I love how the scriptures say that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow and forever. Like, we get to stand on the truth of God and a wave of just culture that just comes and goes over and over again.

It's interesting because a guy named Solomon said, there's nothing new under the sun. That's why I love the Bible, because this impact interweaves itself into every culture, every generation, every people group, for the glory of God and the good of mankind. So I, like, I feel this kind of unrest. So I want you to go to Ephesians 4. This is kind of what's on my heart for you.

And I think this passage kind of articulates why I keep trying to exegete the Bible. Right. That's what we do on Sundays. As we exegete the Bible, we just go through it verse by verse and say, here's what God's word says. What are we going to do?

But I also feel like there's a tension in which I got to kind of exegete the culture around us, to kind of bring some centeredness and some, like, stability to you. In Ephesians 4, verse 11 through 15 or 14 says, and he gave the apostles and the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ until we all attain the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by waves and carried out about every wind of doctrine by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes. Like, I just feel like this is just a reminder of why I do what I do. Like, it's my job, as the Bible says, to equip the saints for the work of ministry. That means if you're a follower of Jesus, you are a saint of God.

And it's my job, and it's our pastors and our elders and our staff's job to equip you for the work. Like, you are the ones that are on the field playing the game. Like, the gospel and ministry is not you just watching me do what I do. But it's my job is to open up the word of God to equip you so that you would go about proclaiming Jesus to others. But then it's also my task to make sure you're not swept away by bad doctrine and every scheme of the enemy that he throws at us today.

And I need you to know that, like, we're caught up in this moment right now of time, where God's doing something remarkable, but we're also caught up where culture's just constantly evolving and changing. Like, I just can't keep up with it. The amount of emails I get right now from organizations that want to partner with our network and teach us about AI. I'm like, I don't even know. I'm like, I, like, use ChatGPT, but I don't even know if I'm using it the right way.

And so in a world that's rapidly being changed and transformed by a. I just need to kind of let you know, I asked ChatGPT to help me with this one. I said, give me the top five things that are shaping culture for good or bad right now that are hard to detect. Like. Cause I just need you to know, like, what you and I are living in. I said this last week, like, back in the day, we had, like, a cell phone that was locked up in the glove department, and you had 400 airtime minutes.

And if you had a girlfriend, you're like, hey, boo, call me after nine. Because that's when it's free. I was trying to explain that to our kids the other night. Now at the hospital, you get a pacifier and an iPhone. Like, culture's just different.

But I just asked Chad, I said, hey, help me understand and make sense of this, right? Like, as I go to shepherd you and help you see the truth of the Bible, but yet the culture we live in, kind of five current trends here.

There's an algorithmic formation, this invisible discipleship. Like, your life is not just social media, but it's curated, right? Your phone's not neutral, but it's discipling you and shaping you in some way. How you see the world, how to feel a certain way, how to think a certain way. Like, your algorithm is showing you a certain story, right?

We live in the collapse of boredom. Like, there's no empty space. Like, how many of you kind of freak out when it goes silent, like you just don't know what to do? Like, you have that Ricky Bobby moment where you're like, I don't know what to do with my hands right now. Right?

This is like, there's no space for boredom. Yeah. You want to test this? Tell me what you do at a red light, all of a sudden your brain goes, I got 14.6 seconds to scroll the Internet. You spend half the time just trying to get your face ID to like.

And then you're freaking out and you're like, I have six seconds. Like, it's the collapse of boredom, right? There's a podcast on anything you want to know today. Let me say something to you. As parents, one of the best gifts you could give your kids is tell them to be bored and to go outside.

Don't be bored, and put YouTube on. But say, my gift to you is that you're bored right now. Because in that you have to deal with some emotions and thoughts and you get creative. Third, cultural trend is therapeutic. Language has replaced moral language.

We increasingly interpret life through psychological categories instead of moral and spiritual ones. And I'm all for, like, psychology. I'm all for counseling. Like, I see a counselor once or twice a month, right? Like, I'm not knocking this, but the reality is we have exchanged language today.

Instead of saying stuff like, hey, that's sin. Like, that goes against God's design for you, we're saying, no, that's trauma. Instead of being like, hey, this is just straight up wrong, we try to pacify it. Instead of saying, hey, repent and turn from your sin and turn to Jesus, we say, you just need to process and think through this, which is true. It's helpful, and it helps reduce shame and increase empathy.

But we also have to remember that when we replace moral language with therapeutic language, we're removing accountability. We're diminishing personal responsibility, what we're ending up doing. And this is kind of the wave in which we're caught up in right now, is we reframe rebellion and call it self expression. Here's where it gets dangerous, is what ends up happening is there's a subtle shift of authority from God to man. Just the third wave here, fourth one is the erosion of shared reality.

Like, we no longer consume the same information anymore. Like, your worldview is probably shaped by your news channel. Or today, probably your YouTube channel. See, two neighbors can live in entirely different universes today. This is why we just have a society that's suspicious about everyone and everything, right?

Like, we literally had church member over the other night. She's like, I don't even know it's real anymore. And I'm like, yeah, right. Conspiracy thinking. There's always, like, something behind something, right?

There's a breakdown of civic trust. Like, there's no ability to have a debate in good faith where we just say, let me just listen and learn. Help me understand why you think the way you think. It's not just disagreement anymore, but it's disagreement about what is real and what is truth and who gets to define it. Like, this is where we say, at Church of the vine, we're just a Bible, people.

Like, I just want to keep pointing you to this because this is the truth and this is what's our trustworthy source. We live in a day where people get to redefine what is truth. And the fifth wave that kind of gets us swept away is the acceleration of everything, right? I didn't even know, like, microwaves are bad. Dude's at my house the other day, and I was about to nuke something.

He's like, don't do it. I'll get in trouble. And I'm like, I don't know how else to heat this up, bro. We live in a culture of speed, right? Think it's called Instagram, right?

It's instant in the moment, man. Back in the day, if you're, like, under the age of 20, let me tell you something. Like, we didn't have 10,000 photos on our phone. You would get a camera and, like, it was outside of your phone, right? It wasn't two in one.

Here you get this phone or this camera, and you have to get a thing called film. And you'd have to go to the store and buy it. And you'd get 24 to 36 chances at this thing, and you had no clue if any of them were going to be good or not. And you'd have to take that film. You remember, you had to, like, crank it, and then when it was done, it went zzz.

And then you have to take that film, and you'd have to ask your mom to bring you to Walgreens. You drop it off there for a couple weeks, and best case scenario, out of the 24 shots you took, maybe three are good. Like, that was the world we lived in.

But now news cycles, last hours, trends, weeks, outrage peaks and disappears in 48 hours, right? Speed has reshaped expectation. We just expect everything to be fast. We expect instant results. We expect immediate clarity.

But the reality is character, discipleship, marriage, church planning, endurance, those all grow slow over time. Like, I'm in the midst right now, right? Like, I thought I was trying to be cool, so I was like, let me sign up for a half marathon. Horrible idea. Because I've ran before.

And I'm like, I want to run that fast. And then I try to run that fast. I'm like, nope. Like, my fastest day is my son's slow day.

I feel the weight of all of these things, and I feel it pretty regularly. There's a lot of times where I'm just like, man, I just don't even know where this thing's going. Like, culture's just moving so fast. Then I think back to, what story are we going to tell about our time together? What story are we going to tell about how we lived our lives?

Because when we are old and ready to see Jesus face to face, I don't want the story of Church of the Valley to be this. Yeah, we just kind of argued online a lot. Like, we just kind of argued with dudes in Kansas for no reason. Played a lot of Candy Crush. And we watch a lot of YouTube.

We watched everybody else live their lives just like me. I've shared with you. I barely sleep, so from 1 to 4, I'm usually awake and I'm watching this young couple. They're like, we went to this city in China and it's the future. And I'm like, I want to go to China now.

I'm like, man, I don't want this to be the story of our lives here. I want you to live a life that is worth living. Where we'd say, man, I saw God do so many things like when we're living in these good old days now, and when we're old and we're sharing stories, like we just have this big Church of the Valley reunion one day and we're like, hey, look at what God did. Look how God moved. Look at what God did in my life and in my heart.

Look at what he did in my friend's life. And we just stand amazed by it.

I want us to live in some acts 14 type days. I just want this to be marked by who we are. And I bring up all these things because I want to show us like, man, if we're going to do that, then there has to be some intentionality here that we just can't get swept away in the trends of culture. Because here's the reality. These five things, they'll be different next week and there will be a new wave of a new cultural idea that's just going to sweep people away.

And it comes back to Ephesians, where my job is to equip the saints for the work of ministry and to mature you and to think bigger biblically.

So Acts 14 is just a recap of the stories of what God did in Acts 13 and 14 collectively. The church just waited and prayed here. So when you think about Acts 13:1 to Acts 14:28, there's about an 18th to 24 month span, right? You got to remind yourself over and over again as we read the Bible. The church in Antioch wasn't getting like a monthly newsletter like John Mark's not on the Side, like sending an email to the leaders in Antioch.

There's no Instagram stories, there's no Insta, like updates. It's just like, man, we don't know what's going on. Like, there might have been at certain points different guys traveling all throughout the region and coming back to Antioch. And like, yeah, man, I heard what God did over there may have been that, but in reality you didn't hear until they just showed back up. So you have to assume at some level that the church is just waiting and praying.

Man, I can't wait to see Paul and Barnabas again, right? Two years goes by fast, doesn't it? Like, my wife and I and our family were rolling on two years here in Salt Lake City. And I'm just thinking, I'm like, man, when I showed up here, I had a kid going into high school. Now that dude drives.

It's two years, right? Sat in my office and prayed with some of our church members. I'm like, I remember when that kid was Born. Now she's over there talking to me. A lot could happen in two years.

Acts 14, verse 24 to 26.

Says, then they passed through Poseidon, Pamphylia, and when they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Attilia, and from there they sent, sailed, sailed to Antioch. Now I got to assume that what happened in verses 24 and 26 is very similar to what happened in verses 18 through 23. That when Paul and Barnabas, after they were retracing back their steps as they're on the road back to the towns that they visited, that they strengthened the disciples there, that when they got together with the church, they're like, hey, a bunch of y' all weren't Christians this time last week. A bunch of y' all weren't Christians last year. So here's a reminder of what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

Here's how to pray, here's how to study scripture, here's how to live a godly life. They strengthened the disciples. Secondly, they encouraged them to continue in the faith and reminded them that through many tribulations they would enter the kingdom of God. Paul's just like, hey, man, I just need you to know that if you're going to be a Christian, your life is going to be marked by suffering. I said last week we ought to act surprised when suffering and tribulations aren't happening, not when they happen.

It's just a mark of being a follower of Jesus. You got to remember that the path to the resurrection is by way of the cross. Paul and Barnabas themselves experienced persecution on just about every city in which they witnessed to. How about that for some ministry? Get up, tell people about how to go to heaven and share good news.

And they're like, we're going to kill you for that.

Verse 26 through 28, it says. And from there they sailed to Antioch. And when they had been and where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that had been fulfilled. And when they arrived and gathered the church together, they declared all that God had done with them and how he'd opened a door of faith to the Gentiles and there remained no little time with the disciples. Write this down, that the church should gather regularly to declare and celebrate all.

All that God is doing and has done. Like the church ought to just gather regularly. And that means, like what we do here on Sunday, like when we all get together, it should be a collection of us bringing to one another, hey, let me tell you what God's Done this week. Hey, let me tell you how he's at work in my life. Let me tell you how he's at work in with one of my one mores.

Let me tell you how he's working in my family. Let me show you how I need God.

In Acts 14, verse 27, we see specifically here how Luke records how God opened a door of faith to the Gentiles as a highlight of this trip. Why is that a big deal? Just got to keep remembering. Look back in the book of Acts, Acts 10, Peter and Cornelius both given a vision from God that the Gentiles are now part of the family of God. In Acts 13 through 14, we see the Gospel spread to the Gentiles.

Next week we're going to see in Acts 15 where some people don't like it. And then Paul and Barnabas are going to get called to Jerusalem to have a conversation about it. But let's recap for a moment, right? Let's look at the highlights of the last 18 to 24 months of Paul's journey here. Go back to Acts 13, 1 4, And keep in your mind Acts 14:27, they declared all that God had done with them.

Few short words to summarize two years of ministry here. Acts 13, verses 1 through 4, says, now there was in the church at Antioch, prophets and teachers. Barnabas, Simeon, who's called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Mannani, a lifelong friend of Herod the Tetrate, and Saul. And while they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, set apart from me, Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I've called them. And after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and they sent them off.

So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia and from there they sailed to Cyprus, right? In Acts 13, we saw a model for multiplication, right? Like when we think about why we exist is to help you know the love of God. We want you to know that more than anything else, we want that to be who you're marked by. But then, secondly, as a church, we're here to multiply disciples.

That means every single one of you, if you're a Christian, you're called to make disciples. We see the model of multiplication here. The church was worshiping, right? They're just giving great worth to Jesus because he's supreme. They prayed together, they did whatever God said, and then they sent out their best, right?

Like when we think about our church here, right? Like we had one of those, like Gospel like, goodbye moments at our family meeting, Chris Longley gets up on stage and he's like, hey, man, I don't know what. And I don't know how, but it just feel like our time in Salt Lake is done. And I was like, after we all tried to rebuke him 85 times, we were like, man, you ain't hearing from the Lord. We're like, man, we just got to live out Acts 13.

They just sent out their best. They worshiped and they prayed together. If you're part of Church of the Valley and you're not on a serve team, I want you to sign up today for one specific team. We have kind of relaunched our prayer team, and I want you to just join it. Like, don't even think about it.

Don't even pray about it. Just do it. Kind of simple, right? Let me pray about praying. It's like you just pray.

When you find the church in Acts, it says they're worshiping and they're praying. It's been so much on my heart for you and I to just be a praying church is that you and I would be marked deeply by prayer. Charles Spurgeon was an English pastor who has often been called the Prince of preachers. And Charles Spurgeon's church in London saw thousands of people meet Jesus. Like, just literally thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people.

And there's a story of a day when a group of young pastors visited his large church, and they admired the sanctuary, right? Like, you got all these young guns, and they see the prints of preachers, and they are like, man, this place is incredible. It's a pretty remarkable building. And as they're doing this tour, Spurgeon offered to show them his boiler room. So in his time, boiler rooms powered the entire building.

And they were often the source of energy and strength. And these young guns were like, yeah, that doesn't sound exciting. We don't want to see the boiler room. Like, why do we want to see that? We don't want to see the furnace.

But when Spurgeon led them to the basement, they found about 100 people gathered in prayer. And with a smile, Spurgeon looks at them and he says, this is my boiler room. And when asked the secret to his ministry, he simply replied, my people pray for me. Everybody saw the highlights, and they saw thousands upon thousands of people gathered. But what they didn't see was the hundreds of people downstairs praying.

I need you to join the prayer team. Like, there's three opportunities here. There's pre gathering prayer, right like, 8:45 men and women in this room, literally praying over every seat that's in this space. Walk in our hallway, praying over Valley kids. 8:45, 9:45.

You can meet me in my office to pray with me and over me, right? Like, today we had two guys. One guy, he's like, I don't even know. I just want to pray with you. I'm like, cool, you on the prayer team.

He's like, huh? He's like, I just want to pray for you. I'm like, cool. Well, you just joined during our gathering to stand in the back and say, how can I pray for you? Right?

The QR code that was on there, scan it, sign up. So the church in Antioch was worshiping, fasting and praying, and they sent out their best. Well, where did they send them to? We see first that they went to Cyprus. Cyprus is a small island.

Sounds like a great gig, in my opinion. Don't know how great it is, but sounds awesome. It's like one of you are like, hey, I feel God's called me to Hawaii. I'm like, I'm sure he has.

Just gotta go suffer for Jesus there. We will put a Church of the Valley campus there if you want to go. I'm all for it. But we see in Cyprus, right, false prophet there named Elimaeus. He's into magic.

This ain't like David Copperfield type stuff. He's not like making a rabbit disappear. This is like witchcraft, demonic type stuff. And the disciples confront him, call him to repentance. Because of that, the Roman governor gets saved, right?

So you gotta think, wow, how cool is that? Don't you ever say that somebody's too far from God. Don't you ever say that somebody can't be saved. Here's the Roman governor of the island. Get saved.

In a moment, Paul and Barnabas decide, hey, we're going off to Antioch now. Antioch, Poseidon. When they get there, they're invited to share a message at the local synagogue. They preach the gospel, and it says that the people begged them to come back the next week. Like, I would love for that to be.

Our story is that you're so enamored with the person of Jesus that your friends are like, hey, when can we do this again? When are you coming over for coffee again? When are you coming over for dinner? Cause I just want you to share the message of Jesus says that then the next week, almost the whole city gathered. You have to understand at this point that the Jewish synagogue in Antioch, Poseidon, they may have heard Some rumors about this man Jesus.

And here's Paul and Barnabas. And they go to the Jews and they're like, hey, you know, as the scriptures have said, that the Messiah is coming, that God's going to send a Redeemer. Well, he's come. And they killed him in Jerusalem. But he rose from the dead.

It says that the Jews and the crowds. The Jews saw the crowds and were jealous. So they began to speak contradictions against Paul. But then we read in Acts 13, verses 48 through 49, it says, when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord. And as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.

And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region. And then we see that Paul and Barnabas, right, because of persecution. It says that they shook off the dust of their feet and they moved on. But the Bible says that they were full of joy and of the Holy Spirit. Like, you want joy to increase in your life?

Get bold about who Jesus is. You know, you want your life to be filled with a lot of joy. Start sharing the gospel with some people. And then it says that they went to iconium. In Acts 14:1, it says a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed.

But we saw that the same mission, the same message created the same opposition. And so Paul and Barnabas responded. It says that they stayed a while, they spoke boldly, they bore witness, and they saw God perform signs and wonders there. This made the city even more divided. This made the city more angry at the message of the gospel.

How about that? Like, look at Paul's life. Preach, people believe, others get mad, and then they just try to kill him. It says that they ended up fleeing to Lystra and Derbe. While they're in Lystra, Paul's preaching and this crippled man's listening.

And we saw in Acts 14 that there was two men of faith. You had Paul who's just full of faith, right? God could do anything. Like we said in that sermon, we're like, man, we need some friends around us that are just those kinds of friends that when your life ain't going the way you want it, or you're kind of overwhelmed or you're anxious, they're the kind of friends that are just gonna lay a hand on your shoulder and say, hey, God could do this. I don't know what or how he's gonna do it, but I know that he's able to.

So here's Paul, and he sees this crippled man, and it's very interesting because in Acts 14:9, it says that he saw that the man had faith to be made well. And so then Paul looks at him, he says, hey, man, get up. He's not shy about it, but he's bold about it. And then what happened here was the entire scene shifted because these people worshiped the Greek gods, and they thought that Zeus and Hermaeus were visiting them. And so here's the crowds.

They're like, man, the gods are among us. And Paul's like, hey, man, you need to stop, because we're just mere men, just like you. But the crowds are like, man, let's offer sacrifices to these gods because the gods are here. And Paul's rebuking them over and over again, saying, stop, but turn to the living God. And then in Acts 14, verse 19, they decided, instead of just celebrating him because he didn't do what they wanted, they decided to kill him.

And Acts 14:19 says that they stoned Paul, supposing he was dead. And Paul's like, psych.

Do you want to talk about some courage? You want to talk about some faith? Here's a dude that they just stoned, and they said they literally just dragged him outside the city because they're like, dude, we actually did it. Like, we killed this guy. So they drag him out of the city, and Paul, the next day gets with the disciples, and he walks, walks back into town.

And we saw that Paul's ministry there. Four things. They preached the gospel and made disciples. They strengthened and encouraged the church. They reminded them that trials are just part of the Christian life.

And they saw that they raised up godly leaders to lead the church. Says that they went town to town, right? They're retracing back their steps. Could you just imagine?

Just imagine. Acts 14, verse 27. And when they arrived and gathered the church together, they declared all that God had done with them. How many of you grow up Southern Baptist? Keep your hand up.

You remember Sunday night, Church, Sunday night, you're like, man, we got to hear somebody give a testimony. I remember. You can put your hands down, though. Like, how long do I have to hold it up? I remember one time we had this dude, he was from Scotland, and it was testimony Sunday night, and this dude's up there on stage, and he had no social awareness at all.

It was supposed to be, like, quick, right? Because everybody who was not as godly was like, okay, we got to listen to that guy. And then pastors got to get up to preach. We want to go eat. And so he's up there sharing his testimony.

Everybody was like, five minutes he'd be done. No, ten minutes go by, worship. Pastor gets up, starts playing keys. Like the cue of the century, right? Like, you know, that's when it's over.

He plays keys, gets up, puts his hand around the brother. He's like, man, thank you so much, brother, thank you. And finally at one point, everybody's like, somebody just needs to tell him to stop. And so we thought, okay, Pastor loves us not going to get up and preach, so that way we could all go eat. Church was like 85 hours that night.

We today forget that God is doing so many different things. I don't think for a moment in Acts 14 when it says that they arrived and gathered the church, got together, that they declared all that God had done with them and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. I don't think there's anybody in that room that was like, man, are you done yet? You got to think for some two years have gone by, they have not seen the face of Paul or Barnabas. And then word on the streets, like, hey, Paul and Barnabas are in town.

And we're just getting together. And here's Paul and Barnabas retelling all of Acts 13 through 14 to this point. Just saying, hey, look at what God did here. And I think there's probably just this, like, massive amount of. Just people on the edges of their seats hearing how the gospel went to the ends of the earth, right?

You gotta remember Acts 1:8, when God commissioned the disciples, said, go. You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and to the ends of the earth. We're seeing Paul tell stories about that piece to the ends of the earth. You think there was a lot of fun going on? I just think everybody was in that room.

Like, man, this is incredible. You think Barnabas is like, hey, man, bro, tell him about that story. You remember you almost died there? Remember that? And Paul's like, oh, yeah.

Hey, you remember that person that got saved in Cyprus? What's going on? Hey, you remember so and so. Hey, remember that whole family, right? When we went to Antioch, Poseidon and we preached there?

You remember that? You remember the journey in which it took them to get there? They had to sail some couple hundred miles. They had to hike 100 miles just to get to that town. You don't think there's some fun in that?

You remember when so and so they couldn't make it, bro, we just kind of left them.

Consider the names and the families and the people whose lives were transformed in iconium in Acts 14:1. And a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed literally probably hundreds of names right there. We will not know this side of heaven who is transformed. So I asked you in the very beginning, what stories do you want to tell about the good old days?

Like, what do you want your life to be marked by when you look back? And for some of you, you'll live in Utah till you die. For some of you, it may be another few months. What stories do you want to tell about this? What do you want to say of 2026?

I just want to come back to this very, very basics. To live a life intentionally be so intentional with your time, what you give your attention to. Live out the core value of pray hard and live in anticipation. Like, pray and beg the Lord to do something significant through you while you're here, and just live with a sense of anticipation that he's going to actually do it. Why do we actually surprise when God answers our prayers?

Like, I can't believe this just happened. I'm like, man, look at who we're praying to. Like, when we prayed in our team rally, we just simply prayed, not specifically for some things, but just we tried to orient all of our attention on who we're praying to. This is a pretty big God. He's pretty capable, all right, if he could raise the dead, probably do a lot of things.

All right. Share the gospel and make disciples. I want you to be very specific about these stories. Like, think about it, that maybe your stories. I just prayed for every street and every neighbor I have.

That's just what my life is marked by. Like, we got some cool things going on. Like, my life is just always revolving around what you guys do. So quick, shout out, man. We got, like, half the, like, Red Rocks team here.

Awesome. I love gymnastics now, for some reason. Never liked it before. All of a sudden, I'm a big fan. That was a horrible kind of, like, clap, by the way.

So don't want to say they crushed, but pretty much literally crushed BYU Friday night, by the way. So you should go to Red Rocks.

They're like, you ever been to one of these? I'm like, no. I was like, man, I like hunting fish. Those of you at the U, like, look up at me for a moment. And college teenagers, you get one run at this thing and don't buy into that story and that narrative of, like, the college life.

Like, getting wasted and partying every night and sleeping around. Stupid. Like, give your life to something far greater Right. Like, use and leverage that time of influence for the glory of God. Use that time and leverage it in such a way that when you're platformed and people are like, why are you so awesome?

Well, let me tell you about somebody who gave me these gifts. And then understand, like, this is gonna be so short. Like, all your friends that want to go out and just kind of party and like, be stupid, just you could buy my permission, make fun of them and be like, that's dumb. We're just gonna reject it. But you get a short window of opportunity here, teenagers, the same thing.

Like, delete every app that just distracts you and live for the glory of God. Like, for some of you, your story is like, man, I'm the only Christian in my office and workplace and it's kind of depressing. We'll pray against and let's change that story. Let's pray that God would raise up other godly men and women to co labor with you in those places. Pray that God would send you Christians to work there with you.

Let's change that story and narrative. Let's look back and be like, hey, man, like, I remember the good old days. I was the only Christian in this office and by God's grace, I just started a Bible study and now it's still going and I'm not working there anymore more. Pray these things, my friends, We say it often. Those of you that are moms and dads, who you raise is far more important than who you'll reach.

Don't you ever for a moment think that you're not doing enough. Man, if you got a baby, rock that baby for the glory of God and pray over them. You got teenagers. Just keep enduring.

You're probably not messing up their life as much as you think. It's the constant tension every day. It's like, man, am I just like messing this thing up? Probably not. What stories are you going to tell when we get to those good old days or when we get to the end of our life and we talk about the good old days?

Man, I just want to sit here and do an Acts 14 moment. Let me tell you about so and so. Let me tell you about so and so. Let me tell you about every person that heard the gospel and responded to Jesus. Let me tell you about how that, that moment in our life, it felt so incredibly tough and difficult, but yet God's grace was sufficient in it.

If you're new around here, we got a simple core value that just says we joyfully celebrate God's grace. We joyfully celebrate it. It's our way of saying that God is always at work. He's always doing something, and he has purpose in every little detail of your life. John Piper said it this way, that God is doing 10,000 things in your life, and you may be aware of three of them.

So what we're trying to do with this value is just get you to be aware that God is doing something. He might be doing something through you, or he's doing something in you right now. And God is just trying to scream at the top of his lungs to get your attention, to see it. And for some of you, like, man, it's just so hard. This just seems so difficult.

It just seems so challenging, right? You ever get to that moment where you're like, man, I'm just trying to get ahead and I'm trying to find some peace, And God's like, no, I'm working in the midst of all of that. This is what Paul is saying, that through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God. Can we just stop trying to think that life is always going to be awesome and fun and exciting all the time, and then nothing ever goes wrong?

Because the reality is God is working in all those situations every single time. And at some point, you're gonna gather with the church and you're gonna sit there and laugh. Man, I was so foolish. I whined way too much. I cried over a lot of stuff that wasn't even worth crying over.

But look how God was redeeming those things. This is why Jesus says in John 16:22, so also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. That's why we joyfully celebrate God's grace. That's why we joyfully celebrate. Hey, when you introduce me to your.

One more. And I'm like, man, this is awesome. When your friend meets Jesus, and when you're telling me about the sorrow you're going through, we're gonna rejoice. Psalm 92, verse 1 through 5. The Psalmist says this.

It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O most High, to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night. To the music of the lute and the harp and the melody of the lyre. For you, O Lord, have made me glad by your works and at the works of your hands. I sing for joy. How great are your works, O Lord.

Your thoughts are very deep. So Let me ask you, what stories are we gonna tell in the good old days and more specifically right now, in this very moment? What has God done in your life, and what do you see God doing? And we're gonna joyfully celebrate those things. What's God doing?

What has he done? Like, what's point? The first thing that comes to mind right now for some of us, man, I don't even know. Like, everything in my life has just fallen apart. Well, there's one small little glimpse into that where you could see the hand of God working, man.

We're living the dream right now, man. You celebrate that, and you be thankful for that. We need to stop apologizing for. When God blesses a situation, it's like, well, I feel bad because my friends aren't going through anything great right now. Well, there'll be a day where the story's flipped.

So what has God done and what is he doing? Because we're a family, here's how we're going to respond today. So I'm asking you to stand to your feet right now.

If you don't know the people around you, great opportunity to meet somebody. But just very, very basic. Look to the people. And you're not allowed to cheat. You're not allowed to be like, all right, boo, we're going to talk because we rode together.

Like, I want you to just awkwardly make eye contact with somebody you don't know. Hi, my name's Boyd. Here's what God has done. Here's what God is doing, and then you're going to celebrate it by praying over them. Simple.

Some of you are like, I'm never, ever coming back here again. All you introverts are like, this is my worst nightmare.

But what I want to do is I just want you to just hear how God has worked in somebody else's life, how he's working. And then I want you to hear this entire room be filled with people declaring the faithfulness and the steadfastness of God. Why? Because one day we're going to look back and be like, I remember the good old days. I remember when Boyd made me talk to somebody, and I hated him for it.

Man, that was awesome. So find some people around you. Make some contact, eye contact. Extend your hand, say, my name's so and so. And just tell somebody, what's one thing God's done, what's one thing you see God doing?

And then pray for each other. And then we're going to close out with singing. So God.