Welcome to Big Valley Grace Community Church. If it’s your first time here, we’re so glad that you’re here. My name is Joel, and normally after the gathering I’d be standing right here, and I’d love to shake your hand and get to know you.

But I’m going to be at the building, so come there, all right? Because that’s what we’re going to celebrate. If you’re here for the first time or you’re new at the church, this is a great weekend to come. We’re celebrating what God is doing.

We’re really glad you’re here. We hope that you’re very encouraged by being here today. So welcome. Welcome to Big Valley Grace Community Church.

Well, we’re going to enter into a family moment, a church family moment, where we’re going to be able to share a little bit about what we’re celebrating on First Fruits and Celebration Weekend for Built to Last 2.0.

First fruits really is a phrase that just means the first, best part. So we’re bringing our first, best part to give as a gift to the Lord as we’re kicking off the funding, the stewardship initiative, for this new building.

On Celebration Weekend, we’re going to share some things about what God has done so far and celebrate the progress that has taken place already.

One of the ways we’re going to do that is through some stats. I’m going to share with you a few stats from what has happened in the past few months.

As a part of Built to Last 2.0, we encouraged our church family to fill out pledge cards, commitment cards, and there were 276 cards received.

Those cards represent what an individual or a household is saying: “Lord, this is what we desire to give to You over a two-year period to help fund this building. Lord, we’re asking that You’d help us do it.”

So filling out the pledge card is really saying, “God, this is our prayer. This is what we desire to do. Lord, we’re asking that You would help us to do it as we commit to be a part of what God is doing here at Big Valley Grace Community Church.”

Well, in addition to pledge cards that have been received, households have already begun to give to the project as well.

So when you add the households that have given in addition to the cards that have been received, the number goes up to 462 households, which is really exciting.

You may not have begun to think about a pledge or begun to give, and that’s okay.

I’ve got great news.

You’re number 463.

That’s what your number is.

So you and your household, you’re number 463, and we’re excited to have you be a part, and we need you to be a part.

Those 462 households represent 1,363 people.

That’s a lot of people that those households represent that are participating so far in Built to Last 2.0.

What does that mean numbers-wise for dollars?

Well, it means a few things.

The first is that all those commitment cards that came in, those pledges that came in, totaled up to $1,978,713.

That’s incredible.

That’s incredible to celebrate that there are people in our church family saying, “Lord, we’re committing this to You, and we’re trusting that You’re going to help us do it.”

And like I said, there are families that have already begun to give.

So the gifts that have already come in that are in addition to what’s been pledged actually get us over the $2 million mark.

That number is $2,052,771, which is over halfway towards the $4 million goal.

Isn’t that awesome?

That’s great to celebrate.

As a church family, we celebrate big numbers.

We also celebrate small numbers.

We never know how God is going to use an aspect of ministry at Big Valley Grace to help somebody move forward as they’re following the Lord.

During the last couple months, as we’ve been talking about Built to Last 2.0, there have actually been six households who have begun to give for the first time at Big Valley Grace Community Church because of this initiative.

That means something really big is happening in those six households because God’s gotten a hold of those six households.

That represents that God is doing something really special.

Those six households are going to be different because they’re turning their attention to bring a gift to the Lord, which is going to make a difference and it’s going to change those households.

So we celebrate the big numbers and we celebrate the small numbers.

Let’s appreciate what God is doing with these numbers.

That’s awesome.

In addition to this, as a part of this building stewardship initiative, we have made a commitment to give $1 million away to support capital projects for global missions.

It’s exciting to see that our progress towards that $1 million is now at $776,000.

What that number represents is the total for missions projects counting what has already come in in Built to Last 1.0, plus the amount that’s been pledged so far in Built to Last 2.0.

With a goal of a million dollars, giving it away and seeing that we’re at gifts and pledges of up to $776,000, it just shows you how close we are to meeting that goal.

Really, really amazing.

Let’s praise God for what He’s doing in our church family.

It’s awesome.

Let me pray.

Father God, Lord, we honor You. We bless You. We thank You that we’re getting to be a part of a really amazing season of Big Valley Grace Community Church.

Lord, all of these stats and pledges and households and dollar amounts, God, it represents that You are active and working in the lives of people.

God, we say thank You.

Thank You that we’re getting to watch and observe how You’re at work in some unique ways in this time.

Lord, we love You, and we want to continue about the work that You have us to do.

So help us to do it.

We pray this in Jesus’ name.

And all God’s family said, amen.

Well, we’re going to continue in the book of Acts today.

If you have a Bible, you can take your Bible and turn to Acts chapter 13.

If you don’t have a Bible, we’d like to solve that problem.

In fact, we had four households come to our prayer room last night after the gathering because each of those households had somebody in their family that needed a Bible.

We want to give away Bibles.

We want to give you a Bible to make sure everyone has a copy of the Word of God.

So come get one after the service if you need a Bible.

In Acts 13, I’m going to read verses 1 through 12.

If you don’t have a Bible, the verses will come up on the screen, plus the outline that I’m going to walk through is going to be on the screen as well, so you can follow along there.

This is what the Word of the Lord says.

Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen, a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.

While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”

Then after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus.

When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the Word of God in the synagogues of the Jews.

They had John to assist them.

When they had gone throughout the whole island as far as Paphos, they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus.

He was with the proconsul Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the Word of God.

But Elymas the magician, for that is the meaning of his name, opposed them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith.

But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord?

“And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time.”

Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand.

Then the proconsul believed when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord.

Father God, Lord, we thank You for Your Word.

May Your Word be the loudest voice in the room.

God, You have called us according to the Great Commission that we might go and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all that You have commanded.

God, You have promised that we can trust that You’re going to be with us to the very end of the age.

So Lord, as this text is used to equip and teach us this morning for the calling You have on us to go to our community and to reach people for Jesus Christ, Lord, would we receive all that You want to teach us this morning?

May we be humble and receive it as a gift.

We pray this in Jesus’ name.

And all God’s family said, amen.

Amen.

We have been sharing about the vision for the next five years of our church, Devoted Day by Day in 2030.

We have shared a God-sized goal that, if the Lord would allow, in the year 2030 we might see between now and then 230 new baptisms.

Now, if we were to see 230 new baptisms over the next five years, what would that mean?

Well, that would mean that a whole lot of conversations about Jesus are happening in our community.

A lot of conversations about Jesus happening in the community.

That means you’re having conversations about Jesus in our community.

That’s where those conversations are starting.

They’re starting with you, with the people you know, the people that you interact with over these next five years, talking about Jesus Christ.

Just the thought of that, that you might have to have a conversation with somebody about Jesus, you might already be backing up.

You might already be looking for an exit and be like, “Hey, I just came here to enjoy church today, and then I was going to go to lunch. I don’t want to talk to anybody about Jesus.”

Well, surprise.

God might have somebody at lunch.

He’s going to have you talk to him about Jesus.

So here we have in this passage a description of what it is to be equipped so that we can have conversations with those that we meet about our faith in Jesus Christ.

I’ll put it very simply in this way:

With the Holy Spirit of God and the Word of God, we can do the work of God.

With the Holy Spirit of God and the Word of God, we can do the work of God.

As we walk through this text, we’re going to see how it equips us and instructs us in this way.

In verse 1:

“Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers.”

So from our Bible, we know that in the place of Antioch, the town of Antioch, it is the first location that Christians are called Christians.

Prior to being called Christians in Antioch, Christians were called the Way because Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

So those who are following Jesus are following the Way.

The followers of Jesus were called the Way until Antioch.

In Antioch, they began to be called Christians.

There is a church here in Antioch, and it has leadership roles.

Two roles are identified in this text: prophets and teachers.

Then it names who these prophets and teachers are.

The first is Barnabas.

We see Barnabas as a main character in the book of Acts.

He and Saul are doing quite a bit together, and we’ll see him again.

Simeon, who was called Niger.

Lucius of Cyrene.

That word Lucius actually means Luke.

And Manaen, a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch.

I want to actually speak about Manaen here for a little bit.

So what it describes in your Bible, it’ll either say a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, it’ll say his foster brother, it’ll say he grew up together, it’ll say something like that in your Bible.

What we know to be true is that there are two people, Herod the tetrarch and Manaen, and they had the same upbringing.

It was close enough proximity to be called that they had the same upbringing, whether it was in the same household or whether they were friends or however that works.

But what we know from the Bible is that Herod the tetrarch took a path that absolutely opposed God, and he was used in significant ways by the enemy.

Manaen is now seeing that he took a path to where he’s now a part of the leadership of the church in Antioch.

Isn’t it amazing how God, from the same upbringing, the same upbringing for two people, that one might go the direction opposing God and one might go the direction to serve the Lord?

We see this in the Bible throughout.

It reminds me of Moses.

He was raised in the household of Pharaoh.

Moses made a decision: “I do not want to go the way of Egypt, but I want to go the way of the people that I have been called, the Hebrews, the Israelites.”

God set them apart.

Raised with those in the household of Pharaoh, but instead of going away to work for the enemy, he was called and set apart to work for the Lord.

We see this in the character of Manaen and Saul.

Saul is Paul in this text.

Saul begins to be called Paul, and Paul is a significant character for the rest of the book of Acts.

We follow his story through the rest of the book of Acts.

Verse 2:

“While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting.”

So they are coming together regularly for worship, just like we’re doing right now.

Fasting represents abstaining from food for the purpose of focused prayer to seek the Lord for direction.

So they’re worshiping the Lord.

They’re fasting.

Among them, the Holy Spirit speaks.

We shouldn’t be too confused that the Holy Spirit’s going to speak.

It’s already listed that there are prophets and teachers among the leadership.

We have the Holy Spirit speaking, saying, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”

So a specific message comes by the Holy Spirit to identify two people and that God has a plan for the lives of these two people.

Then after fasting and praying, so now they’re back to fasting and praying again now that they’ve heard this word from the Lord, they lay their hands on them and they send them off.

This passage is so significant in our Bible.

Here’s why.

Up until this point in the book of Acts, where we see that Christians are moving to new locations, it is primarily because of persecution and opposition.

But this is the first place we see in the story of the book of Acts where the leadership of the church actually chooses and decides under the direction of the Spirit to set aside missionaries and send those missionaries out.

This begins a chain reaction of missionary work that goes all the way till today.

You saw in the video the global partners that we’re working with.

They are continuing the work that started right here in this verse.

So how do we understand this, and how will it apply to us?

Understand that with the Holy Spirit of God and the Word of God, we can do the work of God.

Number one is the Holy Spirit will set apart each believer for the work of God.

If you are a follower of Jesus Christ and you are redeemed, you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, the Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit will set you apart for the work that God has for you to do.

You may be thinking, “I don’t know that I can serve God. I don’t know that I can do anything for God. How could God possibly use me?”

Well, I’ve got great news for you.

You’re about to be radically surprised when you come to understand that the Creator of the universe actually designed you for a plan and a purpose so that you might be able to serve Him.

The fullness of joy in your life will be experienced when you serve the Lord.

As you serve the Lord, you will discover what you were designed to do.

You will discover the greatest expression of love and enjoyment that you can have, and it will be found when you serve the Lord in the way that you were designed to serve Him.

Today might be a great day because today is going to be the beginning of a discovery that’s going to absolutely change your life.

As we think about that the Holy Spirit will set apart each believer for the work of God, something that we can understand is: How does this work?

Well, we can consistently exalt and seek the Lord.

They were regularly worshiping the Lord.

They were regularly praying.

We can do the same thing.

We’re doing it right now.

We’re coming together to worship the Lord.

We’re coming together to seek Him.

We can also understand that we’re going to receive specific assignments from the Lord.

It says, “The work to which I’ve called them,” which means God’s going to call you to do something very specific.

Then God’s going to call you to do something different.

And God’s going to call you to do something different than that.

Each person in the room has an assignment that God’s going to give you.

Guess what?

The assignment is going to fit how He made you because we have been created in Christ Jesus for good works that have been planned and prepared since before the creation of the world.

God is so excited for you to discover He’s got a big, awesome plan, and you’re a part of it.

He wants to use you.

He wants to use you so that you will have opportunity to fulfill your purpose in life.

We can receive specific assignments from the Lord.

It says, “The work to which I’ve called them.”

We can also trust that the hand of the Lord is going to bless the worker of God.

It says they laid their hands on them.

Throughout Scripture, we see the laying on of hands as a practice in the church.

We practice it in our own church.

You saw on the video we set aside Pastor Aaron as our family pastor.

We laid hands on him, and we prayed for him.

We do that regularly here in our church.

What does that mean?

There’s no power in my hands.

My hands have no power.

That’s not what it means.

What it represents when we lay hands on people and we pray for them is we are asking that it may be representative of the hands of God on their life.

It is the hands of God that have power.

It is the hands of God that bestow blessing.

So they lay their hands on them.

They pray for them as it would be the hands of God to bless them, to protect them, to guide them.

As we go out into the community, we can understand that the Holy Spirit is going to set us aside for the specific work that He has for us.

We can trust that as we go, God is going to bless the worker of God.

God’s going to help us do it.

God’s going to help us be successful.

Remember, with the Holy Spirit of God and the Word of God, we can do the work of God.

That might have some of you really freaked out right now.

Just even what we’re talking about so far, it’s got you timid.

It’s got you afraid.

I want you to know that’s awesome.

That’s exciting because it means God’s got your attention.

He’s going to show you something that’s going to be brand new today from His Word.

Verse 4:

“So being sent out by the Holy Spirit.”

That’s really important because if they’re just sent out by the leaders of the church, this isn’t any good.

They’re sent out by the Holy Spirit.

That’s what is important, that God is directing this.

It says they went down to Seleucia, that’s a port, and from there they sailed to Cyprus.

They get on a boat and they go to a new land, to an island.

When they arrived at Salamis, which is where they were received at the new island, it says they proclaimed the Word of God.

So they’re getting on a boat, and they’re traveling into a new land, and they are going to share God’s Word.

God’s Word is really the only thing I’ve got to share.

If I don’t have God’s Word, I don’t have anything to say.

But if I have God’s Word, I have a lot to say because I have God’s Word, and I can share God’s Word.

They come and they’re ready.

The first thing they’re doing is they’re proclaiming the Word of God.

They begin where they knew to begin, which was in the synagogues of the Jews, synagogue being a place of religious worship where the Jews were gathering regularly.

They had John to assist them.

So earlier, we saw that the Holy Spirit set aside Paul and Barnabas for this work.

Now we see that John is with them.

Well, apparently, as the Holy Spirit set aside Barnabas and Saul for this work of missionary work, they looked around and said, “Hey, John, we need him to come with us. We need him. There’s something we need him to assist us with.”

So he’s now in the text.

When they had gone through the whole island, which means they were going back and forth, they were networking this entire island, sharing the gospel, going synagogue to synagogue, it says they came as far as Paphos.

There they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus.

Now, there’s a lot of irony in this verse.

The irony includes this: As a Jewish person, it was absolutely forbidden to engage in anything that had to do with witchcraft or magic.

Here you have someone identified as a Jewish false prophet, and he is engaged in magic.

Another irony is that his name is Bar-Jesus, which means son of Jesus.

So here you have a guy who is doing the opposite of what is forbidden in his religious faith as a Jew.

His name is Bar-Jesus, and he’s working intensely against Jesus.

Along with him, we have another guy, and he’s the proconsul.

That’s his official Roman office.

He’s a proconsul.

His name is Sergius Paulus.

It says he’s a man of intelligence.

This Roman official summons Barnabas and Saul because he seeks to hear the Word of God.

So they go through this island.

They’re having lots of conversations with people about Jesus.

They come, and this text now focuses on two people: a magician and a Roman official, a man of intelligence.

The Roman official is saying, “I don’t know what they’ve got, but I hear they’re talking to everybody on the island about the Word of God, and I want to know what it is. I want to know what the Word of God is.”

What can we learn about this as we apply it to our life?

Number two: The work of God requires the Word of God to be proclaimed.

As the Holy Spirit sets us apart for the work of God and as we go to do that work, it will require the Word of God to be used.

Which means we need to have a Bible.

It means we need to read the Bible.

It means we need to use the Bible.

And we need to share the Bible with people around us.

You might be thinking, “I don’t know where to start.”

Well, I’ve got great news.

You don’t actually need to know where to start because the text helps us understand that we can actually be empowered for the next opportunity by the Holy Spirit.

It says they were sent out by the Holy Spirit.

So you might not even know who you should go have a conversation with about God’s Word.

That’s okay because God’s actually going to reveal that to you.

He might do that as soon as you leave this place today.

He might bring you into a conversation where somebody has been waiting to hear the Word of God, and it just so happens to be you’re going to be the person who’s going to bring it to him.

The Holy Spirit can empower you for the next opportunity that you can share the Word of God.

We can share the Word of God with religious people.

It says they started in the synagogue of the Jews.

Those are some very religious people.

They’re religiously coming together in a synagogue to worship.

We can share the Word of God with religious people.

You may think, “Oh, well, someone’s already a part of another religion, so I can’t actually talk to them about Jesus because, you know, that unspoken rule in society where you don’t talk to somebody else about their religion stuff. You just leave them alone.”

That’s not a thing.

That’s not a thing.

I’ve got to tell you, just a couple weeks ago, a few weeks ago, right here in our church, a woman shared with me with so much excitement how the Lord has allowed her to see her childhood friend who is Jewish come to faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

The joy on her face as she is sharing the story with me about how she was able to have a friend from childhood—they’re now adults—and she grew up Jewish, and she’s now coming to understand Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

That is awesome.

So don’t write off people who you see as being a part of a different religion because they might be the very people that God has for you to come and share the Word of God with them.

We can share the Word of God with religious people.

We can also share the Word of God with irreligious people.

Irreligious people are people who either have no religion or they’re very actively against religion.

It describes two in this text.

A Jewish false prophet.

He was very actively against what Barnabas and Saul were doing.

And a man of intelligence, and he apparently had no religion.

In this text, we see that the Word of God can be shared with both.

What we don’t know is we don’t know who’s going to accept the Word of God until we share it.

We can discover who’s willing to listen to the Word of God when we share it.

But it takes us actually sharing the Word of God to find out what they’re going to do.

It says here about the Roman official that as they went through this island and shared the Word of God, he sought to hear the Word of God.

There might be people that are in your life that are super anti-God, and you have this list of “don’t talk to people about Jesus,” and they’re like number one on your list.

You’re like, “Avoid conversations about Jesus at all costs.”

That might be the very person who God has planned for you to talk to about Jesus.

You’re not going to know if they’re willing to hear it until you have the conversation.

But when you have the conversation, you can discover who is willing to listen to the Word of God.

The work of God requires the Word of God to be proclaimed.

Remember, with the Holy Spirit of God and the Word of God, we can do the work of God.

Verse 8, it continues:

“But Elymas the magician, for that’s the meaning of his name, opposed them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith.”

So this guy is actively working against Barnabas and Saul.

This guy’s actively working against the message of Jesus.

He is actively trying to prohibit this Roman official who is seeking out the Word of God.

He wants to turn him away from the faith.

Verse 9:

“But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, ‘You son of the devil.’”

That’s a good biblical one.

I like that one.

Some of you are going to go use it today.

“You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord?”

The path of the Lord is straight.

The attack that comes by the enemy is to take the straight path of the Lord and make it crooked so that the people who are trying to walk the straight path of the Lord find a crooked path instead, and they stumble along the way.

How does this apply to us?

Well, as we go into the community and we start talking to people about Jesus because the Holy Spirit has set us apart for the work that God has for us to do, and we begin sharing the Word of God with people, we need to know this.

It’s a reality check.

Attacks are making crooked the path for people to follow God.

That is a reality check.

That is going to happen.

Attacks are making crooked the path for people to follow God.

We can learn from this text how it happens.

We can expect an attack on our faith.

We can expect it.

If we are doing the work of God, we can expect an attack on our faith.

It says that he turned him away from the faith.

I just have to say, if you have never experienced an attack for your faith, it might be because no one knows you have any.

But as soon as you start telling people that you follow Jesus, as soon as you start obeying what the Word of God is doing in your life, there’s going to be some people who don’t like that.

I want you to know those are the problems we want.

The problems we want are problems that come because we follow Jesus.

People find out we follow Jesus.

We share our faith in Jesus.

People hear that we’re sharing our faith in Jesus, and they don’t like it.

Those are the problems you want.

Those problems are way better than the problems that come for other reasons.

Those are the problems we want as a follower of Jesus.

And we can expect it.

We can expect an attack on our faith.

Remember, these guys are traveling on an island.

There’s three of them, right?

They might think, “Man, we’re way out here on the island, and we’re alone. We’re all out here, and now we’re experiencing attack, and we don’t have any help.”

But that’s actually not what’s true because we can actually receive help from the Holy Spirit during an attack.

It says that Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit.

So an attack happens, but he’s not alone.

Not just because Barnabas and John are there, but the Holy Spirit fills him.

You might be deathly afraid to go talk to anybody about Jesus because you’re not sure what’s going to happen if they don’t like what you have to say.

Well, they may not.

But God can help you in that moment.

He can give you everything you need through the power of His Spirit.

We can also identify the source of the attack as the devil.

He says, “You son of the devil.”

“You son of the devil.”

He says, “You are working for the devil. You are a child of the devil.”

Church family, the enemy is not the people you’re sitting next to.

The enemy is not in your home.

The enemy is not even the mission field of the people that we’re trying to go reach.

People who are lost are our mission field, who we’re trying to reach with the message of Jesus Christ.

They are shackled by the enemy.

They are in bondage by the enemy.

The message of hope that we bring is that Jesus Christ can bring light to your darkness.

Jesus Christ can take you out of the chains and the bondage that the enemy has you in.

All of your sin can be forgiven because of the cross of Jesus Christ.

We are bringing the hope and the message of Jesus to people who are enslaved by the enemy.

Paul calls the ringleader out, and he says, “You’re the son of the devil.”

He calls out the ringleader.

He says, “This is the work of the devil.”

We can also boldly call those who attack to repent of their sin.

He says, “Will you not stop?”

Cut it out.

What you’re doing is wrong.

You need to repent of what you’re doing.

You need to turn away from fighting God, and you need to submit to God.

You need to turn towards God.

“Will you not stop?”

We can also understand that the attack is ultimately against God, not us.

He says, “Will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord?”

The goal of the enemy is to attack God.

The reason we receive the attack is because we’re following God.

The reason we receive the attack is because we’re associated with God.

We’re a servant of God.

I want you to know, it is a privilege to serve the Lord.

It is an honor to serve the Lord.

Anything that comes our way because we are associated with Jesus Christ—Jesus said, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for My name’s sake. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.”

There’s an incredible blessing even when we take hits because we follow Jesus.

We can understand that that attack, it’s ultimately against God and not against us.

So reality check: Attacks are making crooked the path for people to follow God.

Again, remember, with the Holy Spirit of God and the Word of God, we can do the work of God.

In verses 11 and 12, we see the outcome.

Two different outcomes.

The first is a miracle, but it’s not the type of miracle you think of because usually when we think of miracles, we think, “Oh, it healed somebody. It helped somebody. It moved somebody forward.”

Well, this miracle is more like a curse, and it’s very disciplinary.

So Paul says to the magician, “And now behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time.”

Now, those words “for a time,” that gives me hope because what that means is it’s not permanent.

If it’s not permanent, what I understand then is that this is actually a picture of grace and mercy.

God’s saying, “Okay, I’m going to put you in timeout.

“You’re in timeout because you’re messing with Me, and I don’t like it.

“So you’re in timeout, but you’re going to have an opportunity after timeout.

“There’s going to be grace.

“There’s going to be mercy.

“This is going to be for a time because you need to repent of your sin.”

I wonder how many people in the room have been put in timeout by God in their life.

It says immediately mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand.

That’s one outcome.

The other outcome, it says, “Then the proconsul believed.”

The Roman official believed when he saw what had occurred.

Remember, these two guys are buddies.

One is a Jewish false prophet, a magician.

The other is a Roman official, a man of intelligence.

They’re causing problems together.

Sounds like some people I know.

And they’re buddies.

So the Roman official sees what happens to his buddy, who’s supposed to know about everything, who’s supposed to be able to see what’s going on.

He’s like, “Whoa, this Jesus thing is real. Look what happened to this guy.”

He believes, and he’s astonished at the teaching of the Lord.

Church family, we can expect these same two outcomes.

When we go into the community and we have conversations with people about Jesus, there’s going to be people who reject it, and there’s going to be people who accept it.

We can trust that God will deal with the people who reject it.

We can expect that God is going to blow open the minds and hearts of the people who accept it to where they will be astonished at what they discover.

Church family, with the Holy Spirit of God and the Word of God, we can do the work of God.

I want you to know, I am so excited about what God’s calling us to as a church family.

It is a privilege to work in my Father’s business.

It’s a privilege to serve in the family business, to hang out with Dad in the shop, and it’s a privilege to serve with my brothers and sisters.

It is awesome to see the Father at work and to come alongside and to serve Him as He does His job.

God is calling us to reach our community.

That might have you a little frightened, and that’s okay.

Just hang out next to Dad’s side.

He’ll protect you as we go.

As you think about the people in your life who God’s calling you to have a conversation with, you might be a little anxious.

You might be a little fearful.

You might not believe that God can use you.

That’s okay because God can do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

With the Holy Spirit of God and the Word of God, we can do the work of God.

I’m so excited to do that work with you.

Father God, Lord, thank You for how You’re at work in our church family.

Thank You for this passage that equips us and teaches us about what it is to go into the community and have conversations with people about Jesus and what we can expect are the outcomes.

So Lord, give us courage.

Give us boldness.

Give us bravery.

God, help us to stay right by Your side as You’re doing a good work so that we can partner with You in it.

Lord, we love You.

We want to honor You.

Help us to reach this community for Jesus Christ.

We pray this in Jesus’ name.