Acts 9:1-2

Acts 9:3-6

Acts 9:17-19

2 Timothy 3:16

Philippians 4:6

Psalm 96:1-2

You learn something at a very early age as a parent, and that is the fact that commercials work. Amen. They work. You saw it right here with our boys and girls this morning. Commercials work and they work in our house. My, my kids love commercials. They know everything about commercials. In fact, I’m in the kitchen the other day just making they like dad, check out emotions to our new song. And I’m thinking like maybe a new kid’s worship song and they’re like, I have type two diabetes, but I manage it well. Like, <laugh>, what are we doing? You know, like,

I mean, they’re like full dance motions. Like, I, I don’t even want to drive them places because every place we go by, they can say the commercial, you know, the, the at and t commercial with all the voicemails, like my youngest checker after the service, she can get, she can pull those tears from memory, tide, Evo, bmo, the latest side effects, the latest car commercial, you name it. They can recite it and I’m sure yours can as well. And there’s this challenge that we face this morning on what is really one of my favorite Sundays of the year as we pull all of our families and all of our kids, and we pull everybody into one space. And that is this challenge of trying to figure out there’s a saying in the south, preaching to the choir, okay? Like, if you’re here today, congrats.

You’re the choir. This is the largest choir Cherry Hills has ever had. Just, we’ll just start singing right now. But there’s this challenge of like, Hey, how do we take this information? How do we pick a story that everyone in the room is familiar with, but how do we find some kind of challenge for the new year within it? And so if you have your Bibles this morning, we’re gonna be in Acts chapter nine as we look at the story this, that every boy and girl in this room, and every adult in this room is familiar with this, the conversion experience of Saul. And I just want us to look at it for just a moment as we prepare to dig in on this really, really famous story. So Acts chapter nine, verse one says, Saul still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord.

Went to the high priest and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the way both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Okay? Saul is no doubt a famous character in scripture. He is probably one of the most famous characters. Definitely his story is famous outside of the story of Jesus, probably. That’s as kids. We, we, we grow up learning that story the most. Saul was raised in a devout Jewish home. He, he grew up like, like any other kid at that time with a strict adherence to the law of Moses, right? The very Old Testament law that we could still open up and read about. At 13 years old, he was sent to be trained by a renowned Pharisee and teacher of the law, Gamal. Like any boy his age, he would’ve memorized the Torah at that time.

He was a guy who knew the law, and yet he is traveling with permission to arrest persecute in prison and even put to death followers of Jesus. In fact, at this point in the story, he already had a lengthy track record of doing that. And, and the thing that jumps out to me is that while we might see that Saul is a student of the word, he is a persecutor of the way at this point in his life. And verse three says, as he was traveling, it happened that as he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light flashed around him, and he, he fell to the ground and he heard a voice saying, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he said, who are you Lord? And he said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, but get up and enter the city, and it will be told to you what you must do.

Catch this here. Saul knew the information of Jesus. He was smart, he was bright, he was a, a well educated individual. He knew the teachings of Jesus. He knew the reported stories of Jesus. He knew feeding 5,000, walking on water, woman at the well Galilee. He would’ve known the Old Testament prophecy of the day. But he didn’t just know these things. He knew them so well. He had them memorized and he could rattle off the information about Jesus so easily. He had everything down He knew all there was to know, and yet he’s out to shut the message of Jesus down until he has this experience. And we jumped to verse 17, and it says, so Aniah departed and he entered the house. And after laying hands on him, he said, brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

And immediately there fell from his eyes, something like scales. And he regained his sight and he got up and he was baptized and he took food and he was strengthened. And we all know what happens next. His name goes from Saul to Paul. He goes from being the greatest enemy the church has ever seen to the greatest evangelist the church has ever known. He would go on to write half of the New Testament, and he would be the key central figure in the global spread of the gospel message through his three missionary journeys. But here’s the challenge for us this morning, is that we cover the story of Saul in our kids programs here. We’ve covered the story of Saul through VBS, you adults in the Room learn Saul on a felt board back in the day. You know the story very, very well. But the challenge for us this morning, on this last Sunday of 2024, is can we find a challenge and can we look beyond this story that we are all so familiar with?

Because at the heart of it, there’s so many different ways to teach. Acts chapter nine, and I’ve taught them every which way. But at the very core of Acts, chapter nine is a visual analogy of the difference between someone who is filled with the information about Jesus and someone who has a radical life changing encounter with Jesus. That there is a vast difference that we face this morning. And this is a challenge that I have faced for 16 years in ministry. I began as a kid’s pastor overseeing kids and family and every scripture memorization program there is out there. I ran those programs every way to do VBS. I’ve done those programs every way to do Sunday school or family ministry. I have overseen all of those things. That’s been a challenge my whole career in ministry. I then went on to become a teaching pastor where we tried to figure out every single week of a multi-site campus or a multi-site church, how we would creatively connect the word that people wouldn’t just be entertained.

That people wouldn’t just consume information, but that people would be able to put that into practice in their lives. And then prior to coming here, I pastor a church where I face that challenge every week with our staff of man, how are we discipling people? Well, how are we moving them forward in this journey? For the first time in my life, my kids go to school right here they are in Christian education for the first time in their life. And we have to balance this of, of this constant inundation of the information of Jesus and all of that. Every program, every way we’ve done church, all of it is an enormous blessing. It is a huge blessing that today, the entire word of God fits in your pocket. It is a huge blessing that access to commentaries is so easy, that access to translations is so easy that if you want to get to the bottom of a piece of passage, you don’t have to have had a seminary degree to figure out the Greek or Hebrew meaning of a word.

It’s all there that today the word of God is shared more easily and quicker than any other time in the history of the world. And yet we’re faced with this challenge of seeing the difference between having the information about Jesus and coming to a life changing encounter with the Son of God. And as we try to find a challenge for us this morning, as we, as we try to, to, to find how we connect this thing, I I have this situation. If you don’t know much about me, I take food very serious. If I, I’m not kidding. If I ever give you a food recommendation, you can be assured it. Do not take it lightly. On my phone, I have shared notes apps of the best ice cream of the best dessert. I keep a notes app of the best restaurants in every town I’ve ever visited. I take food so serious, okay? And so there is one particular restaurant that here in Colorado that I love more than any. Okay? Just see how well you know me. Just audience participation. Anybody think they know my favorite restaurant? Yeah. What about you? Taco Bell? Taco Bell? That’s, that’s not it. That’s <laugh>.

If you want to know proof that sin exists right there. Not not Taco Bell. Alright, someone way back in the back, can you just yell out what you think? Gq. Gq, man, a lot more of you knew that than I expected. I got six gift cards for Christmas all to the same place, <laugh>. So raise your hand if you have no idea what GQ Barbecue is. Wow, that’s way too many of you. So things about to change here. So, so I want to tell you a little bit about my favorite place. GQ is based here in Colorado. There’s multiple locations, but is based right here in Colorado. Jason Gal, that’s where the G comes from. Jason Gal founded GQ Barbecue. He was a competitive barbecue cooker traveled the country competing in all the competitions, and he decided, could you take these these competition approaches to rubs and sauces and all the meats and could you make a restaurant out of them?

And so in 2015, he opened the first location in Westminster, Colorado, and he began to try to, to grow this thing. And he began to try to take this experience. He began to try to say, can you reproduce all of these things that you do in the competition circuit? And he created the GQ Promise. I want you to listen to this. The GQ Promise is to offer a barbecue experience. Let’s look at here that combines the authentic flavors and techniques mastered on the competition circuit. Now, check this with a welcoming, casual dining environment for friends, family and community alike. Doesn’t that sound like a magical place? Don’t you want to go there right now? And they, the reality is he’s been able to do that. They now have three locations, lone Tree, right by the mall, Lakewood, you can even get GQ if you go to a CU basketball game or football game. They’re at Tours field and at in Power Field, and he’s been able to maintain the same quality and consistency at every single place they’ve opened. If I’ve piqued your interest, GQ bbq.com, okay? Or you can even call ’em (303) 729-2506 <laugh>, okay? Just, I don’t know if people still call anymore, but you could call and you could be like, I heard about you in my sermon. No, don’t do that. Okay? If you find yourself there telling Bronson sent you back,

Don’t do that. I don’t want to. That would embarrass me. But, but you see, here’s what I want show you this morning in a way that looks a little bit different is because when you understand what they have created, you see, there is nothing like on Mondays at 10 30 when the special of the week gets sent out to our staff, pork belly burns this week, in case you were wondering if you ever wanna see me there, Tuesdays, triple Point. Tuesdays, I’m usually there Fridays for lunch and Saturday for dinner. <Laugh>, there’s nothing. I mean, we all went Monday, we were setting up for Christmas Eve, pork belly burns came in the email, we’re all texting, 10 of us jumping cars. We go, but can I just tell you this? In 2015,

The reason Jason Gal created this wasn’t so that you could have a moment where you learn all the information about it. Like if you walked by the store and you open the door, the loan tree store right there at the mall, and you said, Hey, congrats. Tell Jason, congrats 2015 going strong, man. Woo. And then you shut the door. They’d be like, that’s that guy’s weird. That’s a weirdo. And then if you were to go inside and say, Hey, just wanna let you know if you wanna call 3 0 3 7 2 9 25 0 6, and you wanna say, Hey, Bronson told me to call you today. Congrats. They’d be, what? A, that’s weird. Even if you decide, you’re like, I’m starving. I went there today. And, and then the, and as you’re ordering, they’re like, Hey, how first time here I heard about it, my sermon, they would say, well, that, I mean, they’d be thankful, I promise you. Okay? Matt would probably be there as the manager, Angela, working the ice cream station, okay? They’d probably be there today. But you see, all of that would cause you to miss the purpose. Because the reason that in 2015 they set out to create a store with the GQ promise was so that when you found yourself near a store or so, that when you found yourself at an event or needing a special occasion, their famous wings, their famous ribs, is so that you wouldn’t know all the information about it.

Hmm mm

Man, hang on. Can I just tell you right now, that’s the difference between information and encounter. And today,

I just wonder if you would say, man, I just don’t know what to do for the year ahead. And maybe today you would say, I’ve never had an encounter with Jesus. And maybe you would say, I’ve done what they said the to-do list. I I can rattle off, man, I have pastored churches with, with seminary professors. I, I, I know that there are some of you in this crowd who are like, I know the information about him, but that’s not the question. Have you been born again? Because it doesn’t exist. What a heartbreaking situation it would be if all those things you asked for for Christmas showed up, what a heartbreaking situation it would be for, for a little scooter friend who said, I asked for the scooter. I know it goes nine miles an hour. And every morning she gets up and she tells her parents, there’s my pink scooter.

It goes nine miles an hour. And she repeated that every single day. And those gifts just stayed lined. The reason for the commercials, the reason for the jingles isn’t so that you would remember them. It’s so that you would experience them. And what a heartbreaking situation it would be today if you knew everything there was to know about the things you had asked for in your life. And they sat on the side in your living room, and every morning you got up and you just told your family the slogans of all of those things in the same way, what a heartbreaking situation it would be if you had the chance to come here to hear the truth that Kurt does such an amazing job of laying out week after week after week to experience worship our kids, programming, all of those things, and to leave here with all the information from Cherry Hills about Jesus Christ, but to never live out your life encountering him every single week, my wife asks our daughters one simple question that apparently is the hardest question in the history of the world. She asks them to put away their laundry. Any other parents have that same? And you see, my, my kids try everything in the world not to do that. But here’s what they understand about their mom. They understand that they, she’s not looking for them to come back and say, Hey, mom, guess what? We memorized what you asked us to do verbatim.

And they know she’s not gonna be impressed if they’re like, we used our dual lingo. We can even say it in two other languages, <laugh>, because they also know that she would not be happy if they were like, and we’re gonna use every late start Tuesday to meet with our friends and just talk about what you asked us to do over and over and over again. Because they understand at the very core what their mom wants them to do is put their laundry away. And Kurt left us with a challenge Tuesday at the end of the Christmas Eve surface. He said, your 2025 will look radically different if you will encounter God, that if you would try church one year, that if you would have a life changing encounter. And so I just have a family challenge that I just want to throw out of say, how do I have this information?

Yes, it’s both. But what does it look like to encounter God in 2025? Number one, study his word. The Bible is where we find out about the character of God and the promises of God and the plans of God. Paul tells us all scripture is useful. Set aside five minutes. Maybe you just get a Family Bible app plan five minutes reading the truth of God’s word. Number two, spend time in prayer. Prayer is communication with God. It aligns our hearts to his will and to his ways. Philippians four says, don’t be anxious for anything, but in everything by prayer. Thanksgiving, present your request to God. Why does it say that? Because it’s impossible to know the ways of the Lord walking in the ways of the world. You have to modify your walking. If you’ve met my wife, she is a cute spunky. Five, six.

If you’ve met me, you know I’m not those things and we enjoy walking together, but it requires me to change the way I walk. Because if I walked my way and she walked hers, we would have connection early on. We would encounter one another there in the driveway, but quickly we would be apart. And this experience, this encounter that has changed our marriage, we would lose. I would encourage you journal, write down what you see. God do. Talk about that as a family. Study his word. Spend time in prayer. Number three, worship him. Worship is just our mind’s attention and our heart’s affection on God. But it also is singing. Psalm nine, six says, sing to the Lord a new song all the earth. Praise his name, proclaim his salvation day after day. Maybe what the challenge would look like for you is to turn Christian music on in the car as you drive to school with one of your kids.

Just reading your family devo and sharing what you have seen God do our school, cherry Hill School calls those God winks little moments where you’ve seen God do something big. How do you encounter God in 2025? Look, it’s about understanding this. Christianity at its core is not just this set of doctrine, although it’s important to know our doctrine because it keeps us on track. Christianity at its core, is not just a set of activities. Although a follower of Christ leads a pretty active lifestyle, Christianity is also not some set of disciplines in a checklist that we have to meet. Although one would not get very far if they were to reject prayer and study and worship. The great Puritan pastor John Bunion said this, the heart of Christianity is to live upon God because you were made for God to know God, to trust God, to love God, to draw all of your strength from God, to revere God, and to above all else experience God.

Amen. There’s a lot of ways that 2025 can look different, but maybe you would take the challenge says, I wanna move from the information to an encounter because the encounter forever changes your life. Would you pray with me? Father, thank you for the opportunity to praise you, to worship you this morning. Thank you for the gift of Christmas. Father, thank you for this church and what you’ve done in this past year, 2024. Father, thank you for the programs on Sundays and Wednesdays for the kids and the adults, for the, for the 55 plus ministry that is, that is just thriving for our, our region, and reengage Father, for our men’s and women’s ministries who are drawing people in and giving them the truth of the word. But would we not stay there, father, as we seek to come alive in the new year, father, help us move from being people who are filled with the information about you to people who have a life changing encounter with you. We ask Father that you would move in a mighty way. So in your name we pray, amen. Amen.