Today there are somewhere around 2 billion people on our planet that call themselves Christians.

The vast majority of those are not Jewish. Like us, most Christians are Gentiles. Without Peter and Cornelius BOTH obeying Jesus, BOTH taking risks, would we have a church today that is worldwide in scope?

Two weeks ago, we began digging into this part of the early church’s history, and we saw that God works in the lives of people who are “outsiders.” God’s constantly at work wooing and showing everyone his love.

Last week, we saw how Peter had to be stretched, stretched to see that what used to be taboo and off limits was now the heart of what God was doing. God’s love is “off limits” to NO ONE!

It’s because of Peter and Cornelius’s obedience that you and I have been told about Jesus. Their obedience changed the church and changed the history of the world for the better. But, as we just heard, it took another step. The rest of the church had to come around to what God was doing, too.

Peter didn’t exactly get a ticker tape parade when he came to Jerusalem and everyone heard he’d gone into the home of a Gentile.

In fact, everybody got pretty fired up. They’re angry and accusatory, and the passage form Acts 11 that Johndy spoke is Peter’s rebuttal and defense.

Peter simply shares what he’s experienced: God’s message through the dream, his own reluctance…but most of all, he focuses on the fact that God himself gave those hated Gentiles the same gift all the other good Jewish Christians had received.

The proof, the thing that led to a positive verdict, was that God’s Holy Spirit was given to the Gentiles.

Listen again to the beauty of verse 18 [READ].

They stopped arguing and started praising God. God’s let the Gentiles have what they had-the ability to turn away from sin and to God. God’s life is in the Gentiles!

Everywhere we look, God is doing miracles. God’s active in the lives of outsiders, he’s teaching old dog Peter new tricks, he’s visibly filling the lives of Jew and Gentile alike. And now, God does the miracle of helping the Jerusalem Jewish Christians change their minds! The accusations and the anger toward Peter are gone, and now everyone is rejoicing in what God has done.

What kind of miracle is God doing in us?

What kind of miracle does God want to do in us at NFC?

If we’re to follow the example of the early church, whatever God is doing, whatever God will do, will come as the result of our obedience together. It took Cornelius AND Peter to listen and obey together. Whatever it is God does and will do will come through our obedience together.

I suppose what intrigues me once again is the Holy Spirit being poured out in such tangible ways. I don’t think our obedience is any sort of guarantee. I don’t think we somehow obey a certain number of times and then God is required to give us the Holy Spirit. There isn’t a formula or guarantee to this.

Several people have asked me over the last few weeks what it is, exactly, that I’m hoping for.

What does this pouring out of the Holy Spirit look like at NFC? Is there something in particular I’m wanting to see or wishing for?

It’s an important question. We’ve begun a discovery process for our future, looking together to see what God has for us. Do I have some picture in mind of what it looks like to be filled with the Holy Spirit, to be the church God wants us to be?

In one sense, I really don’t. The way the Holy Spirit shows up, how it looks, when it comes, how powerful it is, is completely up to God and out of our control. We can’t make God do anything. I don’t think “Holy Spirit filled” has to look a particular way.

What we do have control over is the same thing Cornelius and Peter had control over. When God speaks to us, we have control over whether we will listen and act… or not. Our combined listening and obedience is when God has room to do his stuff!

There is a sense, though, where I do have some dreams about how it will look.

If we don’t have some picture in our mind, some way to evaluate whether what’s going on is God-inspired, we’ll struggle.

I’ve been thinking about this quite a lot in the past 6 or 8 weeks, and asking God to keep shaping and refining my thought.

One of the things I’ve been thinking and talking with others about is, why does Newberg Friends exist? What’s our purpose? What’s our main product?

I’ve come up with several likely answers that I think are NOT our main purpose, but that often sneak in and steal our attention.

Our goal isn’t to become a bigger church. It isn’t even to be a healthy church. Our goal isn’t to do great ministry, or have a name in the community, or be fiscally responsible and sound. Our goal isn’t to provide a place where people feel good about themselves, or a place where people can learn.

All of those are good things, and all of them are part of what happens in a church. But they are not our main purpose, and sometimes our pursuit of them pulls us away from the reason we exist.

Our purpose, our “product” if you will, is people.

We exist to help more and more people pursue God passionately and serve God obediently.

Each one of us is a product of the church, and we are a part of the team that produces the product.

Biblically, from this example of the early church, our purpose is people with changed lives and who live in obedience to the Holy Spirit. Our path to getting there is obedience to God, trust in God, taking risks, and doing it all within community.

A key question for us in the discovery process is this: “What can we do to help each other become people who are listening to God and living in obedience to him, joining God in spreading his love to everyone?”

When we do that, it removes some of the other questions we ask.

My own likes and dislikes in worship take a back seat. It isn’t about whether I enjoy coming here and sitting in worship. It takes away the desire to criticize and judge if “I’m not being fed.”

Every single one of us has a role to play and something to give. We either are equipping someone else in our community to join God’s mission of love, or we are ourselves building relationships of love with people who don’t yet know Jesus…or both!

Our vision statement really is key and central to our purpose.

We are a growing community, listening to Christ, changing in the Spirit, living out love.

We’ve been growing in numbers lately, which is a great thing. Many of you are new here at NFC, and we’re glad you are here. We hope more and more people will join our church family, through our invitation and through God’s leading.

However, we want to be more than just a “growing in number” community: we want to be growing in community with each other.

There are many different levels of that, and let me start with the most basic: help us know who you are, and let us help you get connected! If you haven’t yet filled out a community card with your name and address, would you do that right now and give it to an usher as you leave?

Use the lines where you can ask for more information to let us know what you need most. Do you need to know more about stuff for children and youth? Do you want to be a part of a small group to build more face to face relationships? Do you need to know more about what it means to follow Jesus with our lives?

Growing in community means taking the risk of asking questions, and risking being known.

It’s not just newcomers who might need to take a risk.

I think each and every pastor could name several people who would tell a story like this: “I’ve been coming to NFC for years, but I just don’t feel like I’m really connected.”

The people who DO feel connected are the ones who join Companions in Christ small groups, or who go through the Alpha course about basic Christianity, or join a Sunday School class like the Agape class or Shepherd’s Flock or Sandals, or who are involved with other people to serve in ministry.

When we think about the future, think about this: we want to be a growing community, both in number AND in relationship… and we’ve also committed to remaining in this building.

The ONLY way we can do all of that is for each of us to have some other connection, some smaller group that we are a part of, other than Sunday morning. We’ll have to multiply our smaller gatherings to grow!

It’s in these smaller groupings that we find community.

It’s in these smaller groupings that we can get help each other listen to Christ. The Spirit does its most profound changes in me in community, though people who know me.

And it’s in these smaller groups that the rubber meets the road and we get the encouragement and the accountability to find how to live out God’s love.

How am I supposed to join what God is doing in the world? How do I keep at it, and not get consumed by busyness and other things?

We need each other, plain and simple. We need to combine our obedience, to seek God together, and it’s then that the Holy Spirit brings change to our lives.

Our combined obedience to risk community when we’ve been wounded before. Our combined obedience to consider God’s call to lead a small group when we might feel completely inadequate. Our combined obedience to challenge each other to make sharing our faith not an extra or an add on to our lives, but simply part of how we live and follow God in community.

I really don’t know what it will look like for the Holy Spirit to fall on us.

The truth is, I know the Holy Spirit HAS fallen on us, again and again over the years. But God’s not finished with us. We’re not finished. We’re being shaped by God. And God is shaping others through us.

The only way it really can’t look is to be along for the ride. Our goal isn’t just a bigger church, where we can make our contribution just by coming and sitting in a pew. Our goal is people listening and obeying God to help more people listen and obey God.

And we need YOU to make it happen. YOU who feel like an outsider, like a Cornelius. YOU, who feel stuck in your ways, like Peter. YOU, who sometimes are scared and angry about how things are changing, like the Jews in Jerusalem…and YOU, who get so excited and amazed at how God is at work in the world! We need YOU! God’s already at work in your life, and the only question is whether you will respond and say yes to God’s leading.

Closing prayer exercise.