Lindsey Blair and Bobby Gilles recap and discuss Pastor Jonah Sage's sermon from Acts 17
Lindsey Blair and Bobby Gilles recap and discuss Pastor Jonah Sage's sermon from Acts 17
Lindsey: Welcome to the Midweek Checkup. My name is Lindsey Blair and I’m joined by Bobby Gilles. This past Sunday Pastor Jonah preached from Acts Seventeen. He said that we are becoming a people of curiosity, community, and conviction, because that is what Jesus has invited us to become.
The past couple of years have been so hard. We have been more isolated than ever before, and many of us have felt alone. There have been multiple controversial issues that have caused many of us to dig our heels in and cling to our views and opinions. Some may have even been swayed by things that aren’t congruent with Scripture. There is a beautiful invitation here for us to build something different, a beautiful community of curious brothers and sisters, with Christ as our cornerstone and foundation.
Bobby, what did you think?
Bobby: Pastor Jonah began with one of my favorite quotes: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast,” by Peter Drucker. Often, we act like we just need the right strategy, the right plans and answers. But culture is more important. It’s why children more often act like their parents than they do what their parents say, if there is a discrepancy between what parents do and what they say.
Now, for anyone who missed the sermon or needs help remembering, let’s do a quick recap.
Lindsey: Pastor Jonah said that our Sunday strategy this year is based on three pillars: Bible, Prayer, and Fellowship. Sunday belongs to the Lord, and our Bible Fellowships start on February Twentieth in the Church Hall, during both services. Those who attend the Nine a.m. service will go to the Eleven a.m. Bible Fellowship. Those who attend the Eleven a.m. service will go to the Nine a.m. Bible Fellowship. That’s our strategy. But it will not work if our culture isn’t healthy.
Bobby: So we looked at a famous passage in Acts. Three words guided our time: Curiosity, Conviction, and Community. The Berean church was willing to learn and open-minded, with a posture of curiosity. Trust and relationship are impossible when our posture assumes the worst. Here, we are becoming like the Bereans. A culture of curiosity. We are learning how to ask questions, to assume the best of each other, to be generous and encouraging.
Lindsey: And curiosity must be marked by conviction. The Bereans listened with open minds and hearts but they were not overly emotional in their response. They looked to see if what they heard agreed with the Scriptures. When we get curious about something someone has said, whether it be a news anchor or an author or an old friend or a preacher on the internet…we must ask, “is this in agreement with the scriptures?”
Bobby: Finally, notice the Bereans studied the Scriptures together. Our culture must be marked by community. We read and discuss the Scriptures together. This isn’t consumer Christianity, and none of us are Lone Ranger interpreters. We are in this together. You cannot find this kind of community with strangers on the internet. It’s dangerous to let someone on Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube interpret for you. Our curiosity and conviction is directed chiefly towards this community.
Lindsey: If we become committed to a culture, but it’s divorced from curiosity, community, or conviction, we will miss the movement of God.
We will become quarrelsome, bitter, DIVISIVE people. It’s rarely a radical departure from doctrine that brings down a church. It’s bad culture.
It’s people more committed to their agenda than the Kingdom of God, more committed to politics or economics or preferences than the Kingdom of God.
These people become rigid, skeptical, and angry … and so they come to church to stir up trouble. They do not listen, they do not participate, they divide and damage. They do not ask questions, they make assumptions.
And the only way to protect each other from this, protect ourselves from this, is to have a Kingdom Culture.
Bobby: We are not a people who say, “I don’t need anyone, just me and my Bible.” Through Christ, we are one with each other and we are one with God.
This coming Sunday we’ll begin a new series called Desecrated. We’ll look to God’s word for our understanding of what happened to his beautiful creation, why things are not as they should be in this world and in our lives, and what God is doing about it.