This is our mission, and it’s not a vacation. This past Sunday Pastor Chip opened Acts 1 and made the case that God never created you for a life about you.
Why Vacations End in Arguments
Pastor Chip started with something everyone recognizes. On almost every vacation, somebody gets into an argument with somebody.
His theory on why: vacation is about me. Half the room wants to rest and half wants to go do everything, and those two plans collide.
Then he set it against mission trips. Canada, Mexico, Africa, Belize, Jamaica, Ireland, all over the United States. He couldn’t remember a single argument breaking out on one of them.
The difference is the center of gravity. Vacation is about you. Mission is about Jesus and the people you’re serving.
It’s good to go on vacation. It’s not good to stay on one, because you weren’t created for it.
Here’s the trade. If you want a miserable, frustrated life, make your life about you, because you’ll never get it the way you want it. If you want a satisfied life, make it about Jesus and about other people.
Cruise Ship or Battleship
On a cruise ship, everyone aboard is paid to serve you. The food, the pool, the excursions, the sun.
On a battleship there’s a commander in chief, a mission, an enemy, and people to rescue.
We’re not called to live on the cruise ship.
The Marine Who Filled the Line
Pastor Chip told a story he heard from another pastor about military recruiters visiting a college campus.
The Army talked about money, bonuses, and tuition. The Navy talked about travel and technical training. The Air Force talked about a career track for life.
Then the Marine got up, stared at the room for a full minute, and told them he thought he was wasting everyone’s time. He said he wouldn’t promise them career advancement or early retirement, because it probably wouldn’t be true. He told them they’d hate it. Hungry, cold, tired. First ones in and last ones out. Some would be killed in the line of duty. Then he said he’d looked every one of them in the eye and didn’t see a single person with what it takes. He apologized for wasting their time and walked off.
When the recruiters went to their tables, the Marine’s line ran down the hall, around the auditorium, and out the door.
There’s something in how God wired you. You’re not at your best living for yourself. You’re at your best living for Jesus and for the mission He gave you.
The Promise Comes Before the Command
Acts 1:6 has the disciples asking Jesus whether this was the moment He would restore the kingdom. Jesus tells them it’s not for them to know the times or seasons.
Pastor Chip stopped on the fact that they were gathered together when they asked. Jesus loves it when His people come together. Online church is for the weeks you’re sick or out of town so you don’t miss anything. When you can be in the room, be in the room, because God does things when the body gathers.
Then comes Acts 1:8. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.
Here’s the part Pastor Chip didn’t want anyone to miss. Jesus didn’t open with a command. He opened with a promise.
A lot of us walk into church already worn down from the week, braced for one more thing we’re failing at. That’s not how God works. He isn’t telling you to try harder on your own power. He’s telling you He put His power inside you. He doesn’t call you to anything He hasn’t promised to do through you.
It’s also why witnessing can feel impossible. It is impossible, on your own. That was never the arrangement.
A Witness, Not a Lawyer
Pastor Chip made the point with Texas Roadhouse. The peanuts. The one pat of butter for a whole basket of rolls. The bone-in ribeye with extra seasoning, the sweet potato buried in marshmallows, and the salad you order because you’re on a diet. When you love a place that much, you tell people about it. Nobody had to train you to do that.
That’s what a witness is. Someone who has experienced something firsthand and talks about it.
You’re not the judge. That’s God’s job. You’re not the defense attorney who has to win the argument. You’re a witness. You’re telling people what Jesus has done in you, and that He can do it in them.
That takes the pressure off. You don’t need an answer for every hard question. You just tell the truth about what you’ve seen.
Nervous Is Normal
Pastor Chip admitted he still gets nervous witnessing, and he said it coming off one of the hardest weeks he’s had in a long time. Sick kids, middle-of-the-night hospital trips, almost no sleep.
By Saturday he went in for an MRI, got slid into the tube, and couldn’t do it. He asked them to take him out.
He called his doctor, who attends the church, expecting to hear what was wrong with him. She didn’t say that. She said they’d find the way that works for him.
That’s the point. When nervousness or anxiety gets between you and what Jesus has asked you to do, He doesn’t look at you and ask what’s wrong with you. He helps you find the way that works.
Start Where You Are
Jesus said Jerusalem first for a simple reason. That’s where they were. He wasn’t from there and neither were the disciples. It was just where they were living at the time.
So start where you are. Where you live. Where God has put you.
Pastor Chip pushed back on the saying that home is wherever the heart is. He’d rather your heart be where your home is, because we’re called to love the place Jesus put us.
Luke 19:41-42 shows Jesus coming near Jerusalem and weeping over it. Not tearing up. Weeping. He’s looking at a city full of people He created to know Him and died to save, and they don’t see Him for who He is.
So who’s in your Jerusalem? Your street, your office, your kid’s team, the people you pass every week without thinking much about it.
Why Are You Still Looking Up?
In Acts 1:9 Jesus ascends and the disciples stand there staring into the sky. Two angels appear immediately and ask why they’re still looking up.
Pastor Chip didn’t read that as a rebuke for keeping their eyes on Jesus. We should look up. We should worship, pray, and stay in the Word.
He read it as a nudge toward the people around them. Jesus is coming back, and nobody knows when. So look up, then look around.
The Pattern Jesus Left
He closed by tracing the same seven steps through three places.
Jesus did it Himself. He announced the mission, was filled with the Spirit to preach, served people like Peter’s mother-in-law, shared at Zacchaeus’s house, had people brought to Him like the paralyzed man lowered through the roof, saved and discipled them, and kept going.
The disciples repeated it in Acts 1 through 7. Mission, power at Pentecost, serving the lame beggar at the temple, sharing boldly under threat, bringing the sick and the crowds, multiplying greatly, and persevering all the way to Stephen’s death.
First Baptist runs the same pattern. Mission. Power. Serve, through serve days in schools, parks, and homes. Share, through benevolence and partnerships like Big Fin and PSPS pregnancy services. Bring, through grill outs, Trunk or Treat, VBS, Winshape, Upward basketball, and open gym nights. Disciple, through worship and groups until people find their gift and serve too. Then persevere, and keep doing it until Jesus comes back.
The whole thing in one line: we bring Jesus to our community so we can bring our community to Jesus.
Live It Out
Pastor Chip gave two challenges, and they aren’t the same size.
The first is a fourteen-month assignment. Serve on the local mission team one time before the end of 2027. One time. Register on the website, call the office, or just show up to the serve day this Saturday and see what God does with it.
The second one starts this week. Share on your own. Name-drop Jesus in your ordinary conversations and watch what the Spirit does with it.
Then he landed on the question worth carrying around. Who’s your one more?
What is Jesus waiting for before He comes back? One more person saved. Then one more. Then one more.
So name yours. The family member, the neighbor, the coworker whose face came to mind just now. Pastor Chip named his. Joey. He prays for him every day.
Then pray a prayer you can actually mean. God, I can’t do this for You, but I believe You can do this through me.
There’s a Seat for You
Maybe you’re somebody’s one more. Maybe nobody has ever put it to you plainly, or maybe they have and you’ve been putting it off.
You don’t need to have anything figured out first. Come as you are.
Plan Your Visit and join us this Sunday. Or take your next step and Get Connected with our church family. We’d love to walk alongside you.