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What if the pure gospel we treasure became silently tainted from within (or without), leaving believers distracted and drifting? How and why should seasoned leaders guard their own hearts so they can truly shepherd others without compromise? Paul's final charge to the Ephesian elders contains urgent warnings and timeless safeguards that are still relevant to the church today.
📝 Study Notes, Scripture List, Transcript, and more: https://medicallake.church/sermons/cross-contamination
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📝 Study Notes, Scripture List, Transcript, and more: https://medicallake.church/sermons/cross-contamination
#mlcc #church #churchonline
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LearningTranscript
00:00Years ago, when I was part of the Lions Club, we had a food truck at Founders Day, and I
00:05was
00:06asked if I wanted to volunteer my time to work in the food truck. I said, sure, I can do
00:10that.
00:10Well, they said, you need to get a food handler's permit. I said, okay, that makes sense. And so,
00:14you go online. Those of you who have done food handler's permit, you go online, you do it. It's
00:18not really hard. You just go through a bunch of stuff and then take a test at the end. It's
00:21not
00:21really hard. But I learned things like, okay, there are certain meats have to be at certain
00:25temperatures. Chicken's different than beef. And for the prep area, you want to make sure that you
00:30don't cross-contaminate the prep area to introduce bacteria into the food. You certainly don't want
00:37to kill your customers. That's not a good way to make money by killing your customers. So, you want
00:42to make sure you don't introduce any bacteria into the food that would cause harm to the people.
00:46That makes good sense. And so, I learned that, yeah, just make sure that the right temperature
00:51for the right meat and don't cross-contaminate the food by introducing some bacteria into the food
00:57that would cause harm to the people that are going to eat it. In the text today, we left Paul
01:03at
01:03Miletus, where he's going to call for the Ephesian elders, the leaders of the church of Ephesus, to come
01:08down to him because he knows he's not going to ever see them again. And it's likely, whether by revelation
01:16that he received it from God or whether he just knew it because of his personal experience, he knew that
01:20likely something would be introduced into the church, that is false teaching, that could harm
01:26the believers in the church. And he wanted to warn them about it and encourage them to pay attention,
01:32first of all, to themselves as leaders of the church, and then pay attention to the flock,
01:37which they're overseeing, to make sure something doesn't get introduced into the church that would
01:41be harmful, that is false teaching, to the believers. You don't want to contaminate the cross.
01:49No cross contamination. Don't contaminate the cross. Now you got it. I knew you'd get it
01:54eventually. And that's true. Don't introduce anything into the teaching that he didn't give
01:59them that would cause harm to the believers as they're trying to grow up in their faith
02:03at Ephesus, is make sure you don't contaminate or let it be contaminated. So that's where we leave
02:09him right now when we met him or we left him last week at Miletus. And we're going to see
02:14here,
02:14or if you have your Bibles open to Acts chapter 20, we want to look at it together. It's just
02:17God's
02:17word. We're going to see here that concern that the church would be corrupted from the inside and
02:22outside. Paul encourages the elders to carefully watch over their church to maintain its purity.
02:29No cross contamination. Don't contaminate the gospel message for it's a gospel message in it. We live
02:35and we live and we grow in our faith by knowing what God has revealed to us and knowing what
02:40his word
02:40says and make sure the cross doesn't get contaminated. Have we forgotten that the enemy,
02:48that is the devil, wants to destroy the church? Now here's a hint. He cannot, but he can weaken her.
02:56He can deceive her. He can get her off track. He can never destroy the church. It's Jesus's church,
03:02but he can weaken her. He can deceive her and he can get her off track. That is his desire.
03:07And he does that by introducing things into the body that causes harm to the body and doesn't
03:12allow you to grow up in your faith. It distracts you. You wander in a direction that we ought not
03:18to
03:18go. We left, as I mentioned, Paul and Miletus. There's a graph up there. I made it a little bit
03:25larger so you can actually see it. If you see that word toward the bottom, Cara, C-A-R-I
03:29-A,
03:29you'll see to the left of their Miletus. That's where they're at right now. Just north of that is
03:34Ephesus. That's where the leaders of the church of Ephesus are going to come down to Miletus.
03:38It's about a two-day journey by foot. So, if you remember correctly last week, we were talking
03:43about Paul wants to get to Jerusalem by Pentecost. So, he doesn't have a lot of time, but it's two
03:47days up to send a representative to go get them and two days back down. So, we're talking about a
03:52couple of days in the transition time. So, he sends for them and says, come down. I've got to talk
03:57to
03:58you. I'll never see you again, but there's things I need to encourage you about and warn you about.
04:02And that's what we see in the text right here today. If you have your Bibles, look at verse
04:06number 17. Verse number 17 of chapter 20 in Acts. Now, for Miletus, he sent to Ephesus and called the
04:15elders of the church to come to him. And when they came to him, he said to them. So, he
04:20launches into
04:20a sermon or an encouragement. It's not really a sermon. It's more of a speech, but an encouraging
04:26speech. You yourselves know how I lived among you. So, he's talking about his past.
04:31The whole time from the first day I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility
04:37and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews. And boy,
04:42did we see all the times the Jews wanted to kill him. How I did not shrink from declaring
04:47to you anything that was profitable. I told you the truth and everything. I held nothing
04:53back. And teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks
04:59of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. So, he starts off his discussion
05:05with them about the past, how he lived among them in the past. So, it's not a legal defense
05:11in front of a bunch of unbelievers. It's a speech to believers to encourage them, to warn
05:17them. So, think of it in those lines. He's talking to believers here. He knew he'd never
05:21see them again on this side of heaven. On earth, he would not likely see them again. So,
05:25we wanted to make sure to communicate to them things that would be needful for the church
05:29in Ephesus. He reminded them of his ministry among them. And there's a couple of qualities
05:34and characteristics of his ministry that I hear in the text. The first one was this.
05:37The first characteristic he mentioned was humility. Humility. He did it in humility. He's an apostle
05:44of the Lord Jesus Christ, called by Jesus himself on the road to Damascus. He could have lorded over
05:50the group by saying, hey, I'm an apostle. Listen to what I have to say. But he didn't do like
05:54that.
05:54He was humble. He was humble. Now, we know that a thorn in the flesh was given to him because
05:59of the
05:59vast revelations he received and everything he had to keep him humble, yet he worked in humility.
06:06What a great attitude to have. Service with humility. Philippians 2.3 says,
06:12do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than
06:18yourselves. So, the first characteristic was humility. He didn't lord over the people as an
06:23apostle, but he was humble among them. The second characteristic recorded was the extent of his
06:29preaching. He held nothing back. He gave them everything they needed to grow for life and godliness,
06:35everything that they needed that they could thrive as a church, everything, nothing. The whole counsel of
06:40God was preached to them. And the third characteristic was his degree of witness.
06:46He went to the Jews and to the Gentiles. He left no one out. He didn't say, I'm only going
06:52to go to
06:52the Jews or I'm only going to go to the Gentiles. He says, no, I'm not going to leave anyone.
06:55Everyone
06:55in the world needs to hear the gospel message. That is the degree of his witness. He went all over
07:01the
07:01place. All these plots that we read about so far in Acts of them trying to kill Paul, they hated
07:06him.
07:07They hated Paul because he told them the truth. He went from public, so public in the street,
07:13in the marketplace, and then he went from house to house. Most likely, that's where the churches met
07:18in the houses because they didn't have church buildings like this in those days. They met in
07:22homes. And so, you have 20, 30, 40 people in a home. So, he went from home to home and
07:26taught them,
07:27so public and house to house. He wanted to reach everyone he could with the gospel message. And that
07:33still is our goal for Medical Lake Community Church in 2026 is to reach every house in Medical Lake
07:39with the gospel message. We've started and we've got things in place. We want to be part of the
07:44Founders Day coming up here in June. So, we'll have a booth. We've invited the Gideons to come out,
07:48hand out Bibles with us at the booth. Maybe you'd like to help us in the booth. Maybe we'll pray
07:53for
07:53people. We want to be a witness to the city on Founders Day. So, if you're interested, come see me.
07:59He said, I preach repentance and I preach faith. Those two things that are just going hand in hand,
08:04repentance and faith. And it was his passion. I would have loved to seen Paul preach. You know,
08:09he says, my words weren't that elegant. He wasn't like a Greek rhetoric guy. He didn't feel like his
08:15speech was all that powerful, but he was passionate about what he preached. And you could see it in him.
08:21You could see the passion that just bubbled out of him because he loved Jesus. Jesus changed his life
08:27and transformed him. He wanted to tell everyone about Jesus and he was passionate about it.
08:33His passion was to preach the gospel. A guy named Charles Spurgeon was called the Prince of Preachers.
08:40This is what he says about pastors, preachers. He says, above all, the preacher must put heart work,
08:48not hard work, heart work into his preaching. He must feel what he preaches. It must never be with
08:57him an easy thing to deliver a sermon. He must feel as if he could preach his very life away
09:03before
09:04the sermon is done. He pours it out. That's Paul. He was so passionate about preaching. You could see
09:11it. When he spoke, you recognized he loved Jesus. So, Paul's not going to be with them any longer.
09:19So, he wants to prepare them for his absence. So, he's going to talk about the present,
09:23what's going on right now in the present. Look at verses 22.
09:27And now, behold, I'm going to Jerusalem. This is the present, past, not present. I'm going to
09:33Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy
09:40Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. Then stay
09:47where you're at, Paul. No, not Paul. Not Paul. But I do not account my life of any value, nor
09:56as precious
09:57to myself, if only I may finish my course in the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus to
10:05testify to the gospel of the grace of God. I like the gospel of the grace of God. And now,
10:10behold,
10:11I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom of will see my face
10:17again. You're not, we're not going to see each other on the side of heaven. Therefore, because of
10:22this, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not
10:28shrink from
10:28declaring to you the whole counsel of God. I held nothing back. I wanted to make sure you had
10:35everything you could use to grow in your faith. So, I told you all of this. The Holy Spirit is
10:42moving
10:43Paul towards Jerusalem and warning that suffering and affliction are going to accompany him on the
10:48way. In fact, when Paul wrote Romans 15, he anticipated this problem that was coming up. Remember, he's
10:55carrying a collection back to Jerusalem, a sum of money to give to the poor saints in Jerusalem. He's going
11:00to take that collection. He's concerned what's going to happen when he gets there. Romans 15.
11:05I appeal to you brothers by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the spirit to strive together
11:10with me in your prayers to God on my behalf. Pray for me. Why? That I may be delivered from
11:16the
11:16unbelievers in Judea and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints. He knew that
11:22something was going to come. So, he said, pray for me. Paul, he was totally committed to following
11:29Jesus Christ no matter what. He would never seek an escape. He would never seek a way out. He said,
11:35no, if Jesus, if this is what you want, I'm in. I'm in. He knows he's going to suffer and
11:41still he
11:42says in effect, I'm all in. Can we say that? I mean, can you and I say, you know, affliction
11:52comes my way? Oh man, I'm out. Or suffering comes my way. No, I didn't sign up for this. Or
11:58can we say,
11:59no matter what comes into my life, I don't care. I'm all in and following Jesus. I'm all in.
12:05I hold nothing back. You have everything, God. I am all in. I will not abandon King Jesus. I will
12:13fulfill the ministry that he's called me to do. I'm all in. No matter what comes our way, I'm all
12:18in.
12:20Now, the warning given to Paul by the Holy Spirit gave him the assurance that whatever happens,
12:25God was in it. That's a hard thing to say. When we say suffering and God is in it,
12:31affliction and God is in it, that's hard. That's a hard word. It's hard for us to move the two
12:36together when God is loving and God is good. How could he allow affliction and suffering to come
12:41our way? It doesn't seem like it meshes up. I mean, we have this verse in Romans 8, 28. We
12:46love to quote
12:47it. And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good. Do you mean
12:53suffering and affliction? You mean persecution and people trying to kill you? All things work
13:00together for good? For those who are called according to his purpose? We love to quote that
13:06verse. But in reality, do we actually believe it? That suffering that you're going through,
13:12that affliction, the persecution that we may have for the gospel sake, do we really believe it
13:17works together for the good? It does. Paul understood that. He understood whatever came
13:23his way must come through the hands of a loving heavenly father. God was in it. He was in the
13:30proclamation of this gospel, the good news of the grace of God. God's grace towards sinful people
13:36is great news. Think about that. We were dead in our trespasses and sins. We were alienated from him.
13:43We were rebels in our heart towards him. But his favor came upon us in Jesus Christ and he redeemed
13:48us by the blood of the lamb and his favor now rests upon us. That is great news.
13:57Yeah. Yeah. Think about it. Think about where you were before Jesus found you, where you could be if
14:04he would not have found you today. It is great news that God rests his favor, even on us rebellious,
14:12sinful people, when we repent of our sins and believe the gospel message. That is great news.
14:17Our neighbors need to hear that. Our friends need to hear that. Our family needs to hear that.
14:22It's great news. And Paul uses this analogy from this metaphor from Ezekiel about the watchman on the
14:28wall. And basically you can kind of get the picture. If you put a watchman on the wall and the
14:32enemy's
14:33out there and the enemy's coming and the watchman's duty is to blow his trumpet so everyone inside the
14:37city can be prepared. So Paul says, listen, when I saw the enemy coming, I blew the trumpet and I
14:43warned
14:43everyone, if you don't heed that, that's not my fault. And that's what Ezekiel says. The blood will not be
14:48on the hand of the watchman if he announced it. But if he didn't announce it and the enemy came
14:53and
14:53destroyed the city, then the blood would be on his hands. He said, listen, my hands are clean. I gave
14:57you the
14:58whole counsel of God. I held nothing back. I gave you the truth. Everything, everything.
15:04Paul's desire, whether the Ephesians elders would do the same to the people that they're
15:08ministering to. Don't hold anything back. Pass everything on. Everything that I taught you,
15:13teach the others about this as well. See, part of the ministry of the gospel is warning people about
15:19the coming judgment of God against their sins. I know it's not a fun topic. Start a conversation with,
15:27hey, did you know God's going to judge you for your sins? See how that one goes.
15:31It is a reality though. God's wrath against sin. We cannot just say, well, that's not a big deal.
15:37It is a really big deal. And we have to tell people the truth that God's wrath is against sin,
15:42but that in Christ, he can forgive our sins and we have a relationship with him. We're brought into
15:47his family. We receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. It's not a fun topic to talk about, but it's
15:54the truth
15:55and people have to understand. We'd rather talk about God's mercy. We'd rather talk about God's
16:00grace. These are important things too. However, people must fear the wrath of God. He said, I told you
16:09all, I didn't hold anything back. I give you the whole counsel of God, God's will, God's purposes,
16:13God's plans. I held nothing back from you. I wanted you to know everything.
16:19Warren Wiersbe sums up Paul's ministry. He says, his was a balanced message that included the doctrines
16:25and the duties and duties, as well as the privileges and responsibilities that belong to the Christian
16:31life. The whole counsel of God, everything, the good stuff and the stuff that are responsible,
16:36our duties to do, everything was given to them, the whole counsel.
16:40So now Paul addresses the Ephesian elders directly about what's coming in their future,
16:46in their future. Look at verse 28.
16:50Pay careful attention to yourselves, first of all, and secondly, to all the flock in which the Holy
16:57Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.
17:04I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you,
17:08not sparing the flock. And from among your own cells will arise men speaking twisted things to
17:14draw away the disciples after them. Therefore, be alert, remembering that for three years,
17:20I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears. And now I commend you to God and
17:27to the
17:27word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those
17:32who
17:32are sanctified. I coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel. No, I didn't desire any of that stuff.
17:39You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me.
17:45He worked really hard to help himself and to those around him. In all things, I have shown you that
17:50by
17:50working hard in this way, we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he
17:56himself
17:57said, it is more blessed to give than to receive. This is what's coming your way. You need to be
18:04aware,
18:05you leaders of the church of Ephesus, know that these things are coming your way.
18:09The first warning or the challenge to the elders was this, you need to pay attention to yourself first.
18:15You need to pay attention to yourself that nothing comes into your life that contaminates the gospel
18:20or the truth of God in your own life. Make sure nothing, no idea comes in that would be contrary
18:26to God's word. Take care of yourself so that you can help others is the idea. Look to your own
18:32life
18:32first. To care for the flock's success with a church leader must first care for their own spiritual
18:38well-being so they can help other people. If you're off, it's hard to help someone else.
18:43You know, many of us have flown in airplanes before, you know, they do that spiel right before the
18:48plane takes off. This is a seatbelt. This is the end. This is the other end. Put them together. I
18:52mean, you know, we've seen those before, but they also talk about in case of an emergency,
18:57the upper compartment, masks will fall down from the upper compartment and you're supposed to grab
19:02the mask and pull it down. And even though the bag doesn't inflate, there'll be oxygen in there.
19:09And then they say something that's interesting. Put the mask on yourself first and then help people
19:15around you. That's what he's saying. Elders, you leaders, you take care of yourself first so you
19:20can help people around you. You make sure that nothing gets into your life that contaminates your
19:25life because you're not able to help people around you. Help yourself first so you can help others.
19:31Be warned. The Holy Spirit had made them overseers. It wasn't that they chose that. God chose them to be
19:37overseers, to look over the church at Ephesus, to care for it like a shepherd cares for sheep.
19:45And then I want you to notice here how the church was purchased, how it was obtained.
19:49Did you see what it says? With God's own blood. With God's own blood. You see, wait a second. God
19:58is
19:58an infinitely pure spirit. He does not have a body. How could he have blood? It's because we're thinking
20:03of God, the son, God who became flesh and dwelt among us. The blood of God ran through the veins
20:10of Jesus.
20:10Jesus. Do you think God cares for his church when it cost him the blood of his son to buy
20:19it?
20:20It's how valuable you are as his church. If you belong to Jesus Christ, you're part of his church.
20:27Yeah, you're sitting right here at Medical Aid Community Church, but you're part of his church.
20:30He purchased you with his blood. Do you think he cares for his church? Yes, he does deeply.
20:38Of course, I mentioned the references to the son of God who became flesh and dwelt among us.
20:43It was his blood that purchased our salvation. He purchased the church with his blood. There's
20:49one God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus and the Father and the Spirit and
20:55the Son of one essence, one God for all of eternity. But God becomes flesh and blood ran through those
21:03veins and that blood purchased his church. Hebrews 9, talking about this fact.
21:09But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater
21:15and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is not of this creation. You remember when Moses was
21:20told to make the tabernacle? He said, patterned it after the one that you saw in heaven. So, there's a
21:26heavenly tabernacle. That's what he's talking about here. He entered once for all into the holy places.
21:31This is Jesus. Not by means of the blood of goats and calves like the Old Testament,
21:36but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and
21:43bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer sanctify for the purification
21:48of the flesh, temporarily in that sense, how much more permanently will the blood of Christ,
21:54who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from
21:59dead works to serve a living God, purchased by the blood of God's Son, his church.
22:06Pay attention, you leaders. This is God's church. This isn't Medical Aid Community Church's church.
22:12It's not our church. This is God's church. It belongs to him. And we need to pay attention,
22:17not only as leaders, but as individuals, as part of the church, that nothing enters in and
22:21cross-contaminates us that will hinder our spiritual growth. Because there's going to be
22:28predators that come into the church. No. Really? Yeah, it happened in the first century.
22:35If it happened in the first century, don't you think it'll happen in the 21st century?
22:40Jude 4 talks about these.
22:42For certain people have crept in unnoticed. How'd they get in? They came in sneakily. Is that a word,
22:50sneakily? I'm not sure. It sounds good. They snuck in. They came in unawares, it says. They crept in
22:57unnoticed, who long ago were destined for this condemnation. Ungodly people who pervert the grace
23:03of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ. Hey, be aware. They're going to
23:09come in from the outside and they're going to bring a cross-contamination. They're going to
23:13contaminate the gospel message and it's going to harm the church. Watch out, they're coming.
23:19And I can assure you, been here 25 years, they have come to this church. They have come from the
23:26outside. Even Jesus warned us about this. Matthew 7, beware of false prophets who come to you in
23:34sheep's clothing. They look like another sheep, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. He even warned us
23:40about it. They're going to come from the outside in. And we know when we get to the revelation in
23:46chapter 2, talking about the church of Ephesus, we know that false teachers did come in. Actually,
23:51false apostles came into the Ephesian church. Revelation 2, I know your works, your toil,
23:56and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those
24:01who call themselves apostles and are not, and have found them to be false. So we know that
24:08false teachers came into the church at Ephesus. So from the outside, they came in, but also we are
24:14warned, Timothy, who was the pastor of the church of Ephesus, Paul wrote a letter to him warning about
24:18people from inside the church that were going to cause problems. 1 Timothy 1, holding faith in a
24:25good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are
24:30Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I've handed over to Satan, that they may not learn to blaspheme.
24:35They're inside the church. So from the outside, they come in, from the inside, they bubble up and
24:40they contaminate the body of Christ. From inside the church. You say, well, that's really probably
24:47not happened much today. Really? I had to look this up to make sure this, I got this quote and
24:54I wanted
24:55to make sure that it's actually correct. So I looked it up to make sure that it was true. And
24:58it is,
24:58this actually was done and said, his name is Robert Bratcher. He happens to be an ordained
25:04Southern Baptist minister. I could say up front, Southern Baptists do not believe what he does.
25:08Okay. Just up front. But he actually is one. So they don't believe this, but he's, he's saying
25:14it from inside a convention when he's speaking at the convention. And the topic was biblical
25:21authority for the church today. This is what he said. Inside the church, only willful ignorance
25:28or intellectual dishonesty can account for the claim that the Bible is inerrant or infallible.
25:36In other words, if you believe the Bible is inerrant, infallible, you're insane.
25:40You're insane. You're intellectually dishonest. No truth-loving, God-respecting, Christ-honoring
25:49believer should be guilty of such heresy, is what he said. To invest the Bible with the qualities of
25:56inerrancy and infallibility is to idealize, idealize, I had this word, make it an idol. Okay.
26:03Okay. To transform it into a false God. Listen, you know what he's saying is that you can't trust
26:10this. If you can't trust this, what hope is there? And we talked about last week, I don't want you
26:16to
26:16trust me. I want you to trust the Bible. That's why I want to teach you the Bible so you
26:21can trust the
26:21Bible. When I'm long and gone, you can still trust the word of God. But if you take this away,
26:26what is
26:26there to trust? What is there to hope for? This is coming from with inside the church and there's
26:32far more worse things than that. This is bad enough. It happens from the outside in and from
26:39the inside out. In verse 28 and 31, call for vigilance. Pay careful attention. You just can't
26:48let it, can't let them creep in unawares. You got to pay careful attention. Good leaders pay attention
26:54to the spiritual state of the flock, to the word of his grace. I like that. The truth of the
27:00gospel
27:01that has God's grace at the center of it. It's all about his grace, all about his grace. And those
27:07sanctified ones, which you, if you are a believer, you are a sanctified one. You are in the process
27:11of sanctification and you are set apart for God at the same time. You are sanctified. And do you know
27:17what? God has an inheritance waiting for you. He's holding it in heaven. He's keeping it for you until
27:23you get there and you come into it. You are going to co-inherit with Jesus Christ. What he inherits,
27:31we are co-heirs with him, the scriptures say. As a matter of fact, when he wrote to the church
27:38of
27:38Ephesus, remember these are Ephesian elders. He wrote to the church of Ephesus talking about that.
27:43In him, you also, that's in Christ, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation
27:48and believed in him were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance.
27:57He lives within us and he guarantees that we will come into our inheritance until we acquire
28:01possession of it to the praise of his glory. You sanctified ones have an inheritance waiting for
28:07you in heaven that God is keeping until we come into it. Hallelujah. What a day that will be.
28:12And Paul said, listen, I don't covet other people's money. I didn't do it. I worked really hard.
28:16I'm a tent maker. I worked. He had every right to take money from the church. Take, that sounds bad.
28:21To receive payment from the church for his services. The Bible in Galatians talks about that. He has
28:26every right to do that. He chose not to. He chose not to take any money. He chose to work
28:30instead. He
28:31worked and he labored and he worked hard for himself and those people around him. So, he wanted the
28:37people at Ephesus to have the same attitude. In 2 Thessalonians, we read this,
28:43for you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us because we were not idle when we were with you,
28:48nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it. But with toil and labor, we worked night and day
28:54that we might not be a burden to anyone. So, he's just one of them to set an example. Work
28:58really hard.
28:59Work really hard. Help the weak. Don't be greedy. Give instead of asking to receive all the time.
29:10Be generous. There's a story and it is purely anecdotal, but it teaches a lesson.
29:17A wise woman was traveling. She's on a walk, hiking around, walking around.
29:22She runs across a very precious jewel in a stream as she was crossing the stream. So,
29:28she picks up this jewel and puts it in her backpack. She walks on a little further and she sees
29:32a gentleman
29:32walking and he looks really tired. And so, she says, you okay? He says, no, I'm really hungry. I haven't
29:37eaten for a day or two and I just need some food. She goes, I got some food for you.
29:41So, she opens up
29:42her backpack to give him the food. He sees the jewel in her backpack. He says, can I have that?
29:47She goes,
29:47oh, sure. Here you go. He looked at it and said, this is enough to last me for an entire
29:52lifetime.
29:53That's how valuable it is. But a few days later, he went and searched for that woman and came back
30:00to her.
30:01And he said this, I've been thinking, I know how valuable the stone is, but I give it back in
30:08the
30:08hope that you can give me something even more precious. Please give me what you have inside of
30:16you that enabled you to give it to me in the first place. Don't be greedy. Give. To combat greed,
30:25give. To learn how to be content, want less. Don't be greedy. Those who lead the church must
30:35focus on the needs of others and be more concerned giving instead of acquiring. So, now he concludes
30:41his sermon with a prayer meeting, a prayer meeting, 36 through 38, and it closed out his interactions
30:49with the Ephesian elders. 36. And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them
30:55all. So, you can imagine the leaders and him are kneeling and they're praying and there was much
31:01weeping on the part of all. Why are they crying? They embraced Paul and kissed him, being sorrowful,
31:08most of all, because of the word he had spoken that they would not see his face again. And they
31:14accompanied him to the ship. Now, think about this. Most of these people, if not all of them,
31:20he himself preached the gospel to and they got saved under his ministry. They're like his spiritual
31:26children and he's like their spiritual father. And they realize they're never going to see him again.
31:32And all they can think about is how sad that they are. They loved his presence. They loved when he
31:37was
31:37there. Now, they'll never see him again. And all they can do is weep and weep and weep. They were
31:43his
31:43children. He, their spiritual father. And it says they embrace. It has the idea of falling on one's
31:51neck and weeping, crying, tears flowing down on the collar of Paul as he's standing there.
31:59It's used in the book of Genesis. Of course, it's not a Greek word in Genesis, but it's used,
32:03this idea is used in Genesis. Then Joseph prepared his chariot and went up to meet Israel,
32:08his father in Goshen. He presented himself to him and fell on his neck and wept on his neck a
32:14good
32:14while. So, they kissed him. And it's, okay, it's, you know, the holy kiss. You got it. It's a holy
32:20kiss. They kissed him, but it says that they did it over and over again. Not just one time. They
32:26hugged him and kissed him and then they cried and they hugged him and kissed him and then they cried
32:29and they hugged him and kissed him and they cried. They kept doing, and then they accompanied him to the
32:32boat. And it's really interesting. You would think the word would be, they accompanied as
32:36one event past tense, but it's not. It's broken up in a series of events in the way that it's
32:41written. They accompanied and I'm sure they stopped and cried and wept and then they accompanied him
32:46further and they cried and they wept and then they accompanied him all the way till they got to
32:49the ship and all of these phases over and over again, they wept because they would never see him
32:54again. And this concludes now Paul's local ministry to Ephesus. He'll not see them again. He's not going to
33:01go back eastward again. After he goes to Jerusalem, he goes westward and he stays there.
33:07The focus from now on in Acts is Paul's journey to Rome after he visits Jerusalem.
33:12So here's some things that we see in the text today. Here's the first one.
33:16Serving in a godly way requires humility and honesty. That's not just leaders. That's all of us.
33:23And do you know what? Do you know that all of us have a ministry? Say no. Yes, we all
33:28are called to a
33:28ministry. May not be standing at the back door greeting people or preaching from the pulpit, but we all have
33:33a
33:33ministry. We all get to serve one another. So humility and honesty. Honest about the content.
33:40That is the truth. We don't hold back the truth from people. And the need, no one is to be
33:46excluded
33:46from the gospel message. I don't care what color skin you are. I don't care if you're male or you're
33:50female, how many tattoos you have. It makes no difference whatsoever. Everyone needs to hear
33:55the gospel message. Everyone. Secondly, be fully committed to King Jesus and do not let anything
34:02interfere or introduce into your life that interferes with your loyalty to him. Be careful
34:08that the cross doesn't get contaminated in your life. And thirdly, keep watch over yourself,
34:15lest you wander away from the truth and care for other believers in the church so that they do not
34:21wander away. In a good verse to write down, there's Galatians 6.1, that if we see someone that's caught,
34:27trapped up in a trespass, that we as believers come alongside and help them so that they're no longer
34:32trapped in that trespass. So, we keep watching over ourselves that we want, that we don't wander
34:39away from the truth. And then we watch and help others so that they don't wander away from the truth
34:42and we help each other. Now, Paul goes to Jerusalem and then on to Rome. Let's pray. Father, thank you.
34:50We are just reminded of some important things. Most of all is this is your church. You walk among the
34:56golden candlesticks. This belongs to you. You purchase it with your blood. That is your, the people,
35:01the people, the people, not the building, the people that you've redeemed by your blood, forgiven,
35:09justified, sanctified. One day you will glorify us. This is your church. We must treat it as your
35:17church. So, thank you, Jesus, for your church that you purchased. Thank you that you have called us and
35:22saved us and we're a part of your church and that we get to serve one another. Thank you, Father,
35:27for that.
35:27And I pray that as we're serving each other, that we're humble. They're humble and we're truthful.
35:34We love people and we want to make sure that they hear the truth. And we can't hold back anything,
35:38Father. So, help us to speak the truth to people, that which is in your word recorded,
35:45that which is infallible and inerrant. So, we thank you, Father, for who you are and what you have done.
35:51And thank you again for your church that you purchased. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
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