with you this weekend and a privilege. I count Ricky to be one of my good pastor friends in Sovereign Grace Churches. You know, as I get out and I visit churches, one of the things that you learn and observe is that over time churches tend to take on the personality of their lead pastor. And so you can imagine how surprised I have been knowing how mellow and laid back and chill Ricky is to find such a church energy and life and vibrancy. It has been a shock and a pleasant surprise, and so good to be with you.
Let me invite you to turn to the book of Acts. If you brought a Bible or electronic device, we're gonna draw our attention to Acts Chapter 13.
I was watching Paw Patrol with my grandchildren, with my grandchildren. And for those of you unfamiliar, the Paw Patrol is an animated cartoon series featuring a group of rescue dogs named Chase, Everest, Rocky, Rubble, Zuma, Skye. You watch it too? And Marshall. All right, we have Paw Patrol fans here. The, the aim of the Paw Patrol is to teach kids about problem solving and teamwork, and so you have episodes that include Everest rescues Alex and Mr. Porter from the snowstorm. Or Rubble saves the kingdom of Barkingburg from a sleep spell. Or pups help the fish get over the beaver dam. Their motto is, "No job is too big." And no pup is too small.
So when it comes to identifying developing people to make a meaningful contribution to the ministry of a local church, I found that in most cases, many cases, we, we tend to perceive the job is too big and we are too small. In other words, there are sufficient numbers of folks to do what needs to be done and fill that children's ministry with a appropriate number of leaders, but those folks perceive they are in some way or another insufficient to do what needs to be done. Maybe they're not smart enough or perceive themselves to be gifted enough or spiritual enough or something else enough. The job is too big and the pups are too small.
But what is often missing is really a proper perspective. What the pups, what the people, what the What people fail to recognize is that God has, in fact, been preparing them all along to fulfill particular works. God has supplied all that they need to do all that God has prepared them to do. In Acts chapter 13, Luke draws our attention to three of the most significant developmental turning points in his recorded history of the mission of that first 1st century church. One profound turning point is recorded in Acts 13:1-12, namely the very first intentional action taken by a local church to set apart and send out disciple-making missionaries. Up until Acts chapter 13, that had never happened before. Up until Acts 13, God had providentially positioned disciples to make and multiply disciples. That is, He did this, he positioned them mainly through persecution. That is, disciple-makers didn't scatter strategically, they scattered in order to survive. And as a result of this providential persecution, a church was planted in Antioch, a city in Syria. And according to Acts 13, while that church gathered to worship, the Holy Spirit provided direction through revelation, to send out Barnabas and Saul to continue that work and witness of Jesus. And so they did. A second significant moment that Luke draws attention to in Acts 13 is the Apostle Paul's first recorded sermon. Now, of course, it's not the first time Paul had ever preached, But in Acts 13:16-47, it's the first time we hear him. It's the first time we've heard his voice in writing open God's word and expound the gospel. It's a historic moment.
And then there's a third thing. In Acts 13:13-14, God draws our attention to something Oh, that we could so easily overlook. But it might be, it might be the most significant thing that Luke records in this very remarkable and pivotal chapter. So I want you to follow along. I don't know if you do this here, but in our church, as an expression of our regard and respect for God's Word, we just invite you to stand. And I will read. Follow along as I read. I'm just going to read one and a half verses. Acts 13:13-14. Now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John left them and returned to Jerusalem, but they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia. This is God's Word.
6 · A pastoral prayer acknowledging human tendency to overlook God's Word and requesting the Holy Spirit's illumination
Pray with me. I know, Lord, that many of us were so— we are aware of our nature, easy to pass over important Words easy because of the inclinations of our heart just to not see, not hear, not receive, our impulse to disregard very significant things that you are drawing our attention to. We recognize that we need help from you. And so, we ask that by the working of Your Holy Spirit, You would instruct us, open the eyes of our hearts to behold and see the glorious, wondrous things in Your Word, and to move us, Lord, by Your mighty grace to trust You and obey You and follow You that you might be glorified. In Jesus' name, amen. Please be seated.
7 · Dirnberger expounds Ephesians 2:10 to establish the theological foundation for the sermon: believers are God's workmanship, created for good works God prepared in advance
In his letter to the Ephesians, the Apostle Paul records a very familiar text. He writes, we are his workmanship, we're God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. That means that anyone who has been made alive to God in Christ Jesus is a new creature in Christ Jesus. And for all who have been made new, created in Christ Jesus, God has good works. God has good works that he planned for us before we were born. God has good works that he planned for us before we experienced regeneration and the renewing of our spiritual life in Christ Jesus. And further, God not only planned in advance these good works in which we would someday walk, he also planned in advance every day, every experience, every critical formative event and relationship in our lives. And God planned them in advance for the very purpose of preparing and shaping us so that we might fulfill those good works. Or, or to use Paul's Paul's vernacular in Ephesians 2:10, your life, Christian, is God's workmanship. Or the word there in the original language is poema, where we get the word poem. Your life is an epic poem written by God, and every word, every line, every stanza, every day is God's path and process by which you and I are uniquely shaped for specific work. He's not making it up as he goes along.
8 · Dirnberger applies the theological claim to the full range of human experience, asserting that every day—both good and bad—is intentionally used by God for developmental purposes
Your best days and your worst days, your joys and your sorrows, your highs and your lows, the dramatic and the mundane, all of it, all of it, every day is an essential part of God's developmental process by which we are carefully, purposefully prepared to steward all that God has given to us.
9 · Dirnberger signals a structural shift from the theological foundation (Ephesians 2:10) to the primary text (Acts 13:13), framing the Acts passage as a case study demonstrating the principle just established
I want to draw your attention to that because what God does in the book of Acts is he permits us to observe the very practical reality of Paul's teaching in Ephesians 2:10. It's a critical turning point in the developmental process of Paul's life. And that turning point is recorded in Acts 13:13.
10 · Dirnberger exegetes the significance of the name change from Saul to Paul in Acts 13:9-13, demonstrating that this moment represents Paul stepping into the good work Jesus identified for him in Acts 9
This is a dramatic moment Something extraordinary is taking place right before our eyes. Luke had actually given us a little sneaky hint of it back in Acts 13:9, saying, "But Saul, who was also called Paul"— that's a new thing. Prior to Acts 13:9, Saul had never been referred to as Paul. It's the first time. And then after Acts 13:9, Paul is not referred to as Saul again except by himself in his own words when he recounts and refers to his own conversion. So something profound has happened. And therefore Luke says in Acts 13:13, now Paul and his companions set sail. Paul set sail. It's a wonderful, it's a metaphorical, it's an actually literal expression of the unique work that God had prepared before Saul was born, before Saul met Jesus on the road to Damascus, and even before Saul Paul was baptized by Ananias in Acts 9:18. In Acts 9, Jesus tells Ananias, the one who baptized Paul, He says, "Rise and go to a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he," listen, listen here, "he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. There it is. That is the good work that God had prepared in advance for Paul to fulfill. And now in Acts 13:13, Paul has set sail, or he's walking or sailing, as it were, in this good work. Namely carrying the name of Jesus to the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. This is a pivotal moment. And listen, it's always a pivotal moment when a child of God and those around him or her behold that moment of convergence, when it becomes clear, this is what I was made for. This is what my life is all about. This is what God has been doing and preparing and working to accomplish in me so that I might walk in the good and the joy of the works he has planned for me.
11 · Dirnberger synthesizes the exposition into a direct theological assertion linking Paul's story to the congregation's experience
So you see, God has not only planned in advance specific good works for Paul and for us in which we are meant to walk, God has also planned in advance every day, every chapter, every experience, every critical event and relationship in the lives of his sons and daughters in order to prepare us and shape us and to equip us to fulfill these good works.
12 · Dirnberger articulates the sermon's practical aim: Christians must be trained to read their own life stories through the lens of God's workmanship
And friends, it's my conviction that we need to be trained to pay attention then to our lives, to be trained to pay attention, to read the storyline of God's epic poem in order that we might rightly frame our experiences and our backgrounds and our strengths and our weaknesses and all that we're proud of and all that we're ashamed of through the lens of God's craftsmanship and artisanship to prepare us to walk or maybe set sail.
13 · Dirnberger establishes the first of four points about God's workmanship: it takes time
And with the life of Paul then as an illustration, I want to draw your attention to 4 things that we learn about the workmanship of God, this activity of God preparing lives for good works. And the first of Paul. The first one is that the workmanship of God takes time. The formative activity of God in preparing Paul for his launch in Acts 13:13, it was years in the making. In Acts 13:13, it begins saying, "Now," Now Paul and his companions set sail. And this now comes years after his first encounter with Christ. We know this, we know that from the time of his baptism in Acts chapter 9, verse 18, to the time when Barnabas came to find Saul in Acts 11:25 in order to bring him to Antioch to teach and to serve. It's a period of 17 years. We get that from Paul's own testimony in his letter to the Galatians. I want to show you this. Beginning in Galatians 1:15, Paul writes, when he who had set me apart 'before I was born and who called me by his grace was pleased to reveal his Son to me in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia.' returned again to Damascus. Then after 3 years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him 15 days. But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord's brother. Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. And I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. They only were hearing it said, 'He who used to persecute us is now preaching the the faith he once tried to destroy. And they glorified God because of me. Then after 14 years, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas. You see that? It was 17 years just from the time of Saul's conversion to the time when he and Barnabas were sent as curriers to Jerusalem with this famine relief offering referred to in Acts 11:29. Now, you know, we can't be super precise with how much time it took to return from Jerusalem to Antioch in Acts 12:25, and of course it doesn't include the time that passed between their return and then their being set apart and deployed in Acts 13:1-4. But let's just say, let's just say conservatively, it's a span of 20 years.
14 · Dirnberger extends the timeline beyond Paul's Christian life to include his pre-conversion formation—vocational training, rabbinic education, and even his persecution of Christians—all of which God sovereignly incorporated into Paul's preparation
20 years of life for Paul as a new creation in Christ. 20 years of the Lord's sovereign and intentional developmental formation of Paul. And those are just his years as a Christ follower. That doesn't include the prior years of formation as a vocational tentmaker, nor does it include the prior years of formation as an Old Testament scholar under the tutelage of Gamaliel, nor does it include those dark years. And they were dark years of hunting and prosecuting and imprisoning and and killing Christians like Stephen. Those years would have certainly left an enduring formative influence on the storyline of Paul's life. And they are no less a part of God's workmanship because according to Psalm 139:16, all the days that were formed for each of us were written in His book when as yet there were none of them.
15 · Dirnberger applies the principle to the congregation: every critical event and relationship—especially painful ones—functions as an engraving tool in God's hands to shape believers for their calling
And friends, this is true, this is true not just for Paul but for every new creation in Christ. Time together with each and every critical event in relationship and, oh, including and I would say especially the painful events in relationships, they are engraving tools in the hands of God to shape us and equip us for the good works He has planned and prepared in advance for us that we should walk in them. So the workmanship of God, it takes time. It takes time.
16 · Dirnberger identifies the second principle: God's workmanship involves personal growth through endings
Second, the workmanship of God involves personal growth through endings. Endings. From Acts 11:25, when Barnabas sought out Saul, up to and until Acts 13:13, it's always Barnabas and Saul, Barnabas and Saul. Barnabas had served as Paul's advocate. Barnabas had served at least some significant measure as Saul's mentor. Without Barnabas, we might safely say there would have never been a Paul. And for years, Barnabas is referred to first and Saul second. So look again at Acts 13:13. It is a pivotal moment. It is no longer Barnabas and Saul. From here on, it is now Paul and his companions. The baton has been passed, and in so doing, a relationship has changed.
17 · Dirnberger pauses to honor Barnabas's grace in stepping back, drawing a parallel to John the Baptist's words about Christ
We can only speculate on how significant the impact was on these two men, but it is certainly the work of God's grace for a of Barnabas to say, "Paul must increase, I must decrease. His name first, me second. His name, I'm just one of the companions." And there are certain temperament types that just naturally find joy in promoting others. "Here, you stand out in the front." But it is a profound evidence of God's grace when the the deepest joy in making and multiplying disciples comes when the disciple surpasses the discipler and succeeds him.
18 · Dirnberger offers a personal-life analogy of children growing up and leaving home—kindergarten, independence, marriage—to illustrate the emotional pain of necessary endings
You know, it's often a painful transition when kids grow up and leave home. Some of you maybe haven't experienced that yet, but there are others of you You might remember the day you sent your baby out the door to kindergarten. It's often a painful transition when kids grow up and become independent. They don't need us anymore. They may even communicate they don't want us anymore. It's often a painful transition when kids leave home and get married. And something sweet and precious has come to an end.
19 · Dirnberger reframes painful endings as good and necessary for growth—in natural life, in discipleship, and in fulfilling God's prepared works
But as painful as those endings may be, something good has happened, right? It's precisely what it means to grow up. It's part of God's design for life and God's plan for our developmental process as living human beings, as well as our maturation as disciples of Jesus, as well as a necessary component for faithfully walking in the good works God has prepared in advance for each of us. See, here's the thing. As challenging as they might sometimes be, without endings, we cannot grow up.
20 · Dirnberger returns to the primary text to apply the principle: the 'Barnabas and Saul' chapter is permanently closed, and though it likely stung, it was God's good workmanship
And in relation to Barnabas and Saul, an ending has taken place. And that particular order under God's providential design for both of these men and for the church and for the progress of the gospel is by necessity and forever over. It's over. Barnabas and Saul is over. Now it is Paul Paul and his companions. And though it is more than likely it stung, how could it not? It is God's workmanship and it is good because God's workmanship includes growing through endings.
21 · Dirnberger introduces the third principle: God's workmanship includes painful endings—not just necessary endings, but searing ones that leave scars
Therefore, it's no surprise that thirdly, God's workmanship, the workmanship of God includes painful endings. Not all the endings that God writes into the storyline of our developmental process are accompanied with tears of joy. Some are searing and leave scars. Look again at Acts 13:13. Now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John left them and returned to Jerusalem.
22 · Dirnberger speaks directly to the congregation's experience of people leaving the church—both benign departures and painful ones marked by conflict
Relational endings are particularly hard, and in local churches, people leaving is always hard. Friends get married, they move away. They get a new job that requires them to relocate. They go off to college someplace. You know, even under the best of circumstances, it hurts. It hurts because things aren't the way they were. But when they leave because of disappointment or disagreement or disillusionment or estrangement, their leaving is like an emotional tear that bleeds. And for pastors and ministry leaders in particular, endings like these, they inevitably feel personal, like failure, like rejection.
23 · Dirnberger offers a vulnerable personal story from his church plant experience, detailing the specific numbers of people who left—launch team members, deacons, and sent members
But listen, God uses all endings and even, and I might add, especially through painful endings as a part of our personal development process. And he does it in order to produce depth and wisdom and maturity and resilience. Before we planted Emmaus Road Church of Sioux Falls, I was familiar with the analytics There's analytics even in the sport of church planting. I'd heard the stories. On average, 50% of the members of your launch team will leave you in the first 18 months. I kind of balked at that. Ah, yeah, right. But every planter I talked to, they said the same thing. As exhilarating as church planting mission is, you better get ready to have your heart broken. We celebrated our 10th anniversary of the church plant this past December, so just a couple months ago, and in doing so I was reviewing all of our founding documents again, and here are the facts for us. Of our original launch team, 17 of the 37 who had committed themselves to getting us up and running, 17 of those 37 are still with us. 20 left. Of the 7 original members of our deacon team— those were the people who led our essential ministry areas— 3 of them are still with us and serving. And of the 4 of those original deacon team members who left, They left before the end of the first 6 months. And of the 7 adults who relocated from the mothership in the Twin Cities to be part of our church plant, 7 members of Sovereign Grace Church in Minneapolis that sent us, not one of them is still with us.
24 · Dirnberger categorizes different types of leaving (good, commissioned, benign, hurtful) and then demonstrates from Acts 15:36-39 that John Mark's departure left lasting scar tissue—Paul refused to take him on a second mission, resulting in a sharp disagreement and the separation of Paul and Barnabas
My point is, leaving happens. Sometimes the leaving is good and we celebrate it. Sometimes the leaving is commissioned and purposeful. Sometimes the leaving is benign, you know, just, it just didn't work out. And then there's sometimes that the leaving is hurtful and we don't know the specific circumstances surrounding John Mark's departure, but we do know that it caused some emotional scar tissue. Later, when Paul approached Barnabas about a second mission, you probably know what happened. Here it is, Acts 15:36-39. Paul said to Barnabas, "Let us return and visit the brothers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord and see how they are." Now Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark, but Paul thought best not to take with them one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. And there arose a sharp disagreement, so that they separated from each other.
25 · Dirnberger reframes the painful separation as a switchback rather than a setback—a providential turn that enabled all three men (Paul, Barnabas, and Mark) to gain greater altitude in their callings
So I think this is the point that I want to draw your attention to. What appeared up close to be this kind of a gut-wrenching setback— ugh— reframed by years under the workmanship of God, this epic poem. It was not a setback. It was actually a switchback that enabled each of these sons of God, all three of them, to gain greater altitude for the glory of God. Look at Acts 13:13-14 yet again. John left them, but they went on. Paul and Barnabas separated from each other. But according to Acts 15:39, Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus. Paul chose Silas and departed, having been commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. And they went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.
26 · Dirnberger applies the switchback principle to the congregation: moments that feel like terminal setbacks or dead ends are often hidden entrances to necessary reorientation for the next chapter of God's developmental process
Friends, the points in our storyline at which we fear we are, oh, terminally bogged down, or we've lost our path, or, oh, the best times are behind us. Under the providence of our loving Lord, these often turn out to be hidden entrances to places that we need to visit in order to reorient ourselves for the next part of our developmental journey.
27 · Dirnberger introduces the fourth principle: God's workmanship aims toward and displays redeeming grace
A journey which, fourthly, aims toward and displays God's redeeming grace. If the tooling of his early years while known as Saul were grueling and grinding, it didn't get any easier at the end. Aging, as they say, is not for sissies, right? Prison life during his golden years golden years. This would be Paul's deepest and darkest valley, but it was in the depths of this dark crevasse that the glory of God's workmanship shone forth with the most unanticipated brightness. Who, who was it that stood at Paul's side in the pit of a Roman prison? Colossians 4, Paul tells us, "Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, greets you, and Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, concerning whom you received instructions. If he comes to you, welcome him." And Mark, Yes, John Mark, cousin of Barnabas, right? That probably explains at least in part why breaking up the band cuts so close to the bone. Barnabas is standing up for his cousin. And yet something happened over the course of those years that reconciled them so that in Paul's darkest hour, it is John Mark Mark, the deserter, the one who left him, the one who broke his heart, the one over whom Paul's partnership with Barnabas was torn. He's the one who's there caring for his needs.
28 · Dirnberger expands on Mark's transformation, noting that Paul's prison became a profound workshop where Mark learned through anonymous, unnoticed service
And I would venture to say more than caring for his needs, he is learning and he's growing He is studying the man through serving that man in that dark place, that place where no one sees and no one takes notice and nobody goes, oh, great job, great job. It's those anonymous seasons. They are often the most profound workshops of God. And Paul is a disciple maker to the very end and is a servant of God's developmental process in the life of John Mark. This may have been, this very well could be his greatest work. In his letter to Philemon, he writes, Epaphras, my fellow servant in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow servants. It is God's workmanship that redeemed Saul of Tarsus, the blasphemer, brutal persecutor, insolent opponent of Christ, and transformed him into Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles. It is God's workmanship that redeemed the relational tear between Paul and John Mark and transformed what may be appropriately assumed as an inexperienced young man with thin-skinned unreliability into a seasoned, trustworthy servant with sturdy, resolute masculinity. A man who at the end of his life Paul counts as a fellow servant right alongside Dr. Luke. And perhaps the crown jewel and most enduring fruit of God's redemptive workmanship through Paul in the life of Mark is the gospel account of Christ attributed to Mark's authorship and the redemptive effect of that story in countless lives throughout redemptive history.
29 · Dirnberger synthesizes the sermon's theological argument: every believer's life is a developmental process planned in advance by God—including all peaks and valleys, joys and sorrows, endings and beginnings—to prepare them for specific good works that fulfill God's redemptive purposes and glorify Jesus
Friends, listen, the life of every child of God is a process. By which we are developed by God for specific works planned in advance uniquely for us in order to fulfill the redemptive purpose of God. In Christ, our lives are not our own. We have been purchased, redeemed with a price, the blood of Jesus, the Son of God. And our Heavenly Father has written this epic storyline of our own lives in advance with all the peaks and all their valleys and all the joys and all their sorrows, all their endings and beginnings, pains and promises in order to redeem us and shape us and prepare us for good works, beautiful things, redemptive things for the glory of Jesus.
30 · Dirnberger issues the closing charge: pay attention to your life for God's providential fingerprints
So just one brief closing exhortation. Pay close attention to your life. Pay careful attention for God's providential fingerprints. He has written your story in advance. Every day, every day before any one of them came to be. He's not, he's not making this up as he goes along. He is at work in us now, shaping us now, tooling us now, engraving us now. Perhaps for some of you it feels like he's excavating you now, and in so doing, listen, he's only enlarging your capacity internally for more of his fullness so that you might make disciples of others who will grow up and surpass you and multiply the good works of God through you so that God God gets all the glory.
31 · Dirnberger closes with a pastoral prayer asking God to reveal Christ's glory, produce spiritual fruit, and increase the congregation's faith that God is forming them through present circumstances for the good works he prepared
Let's pray. Well, Lord, we're looking to You to reveal the glories of Jesus in us and through us. We long for You to produce in greater and greater measure joy and soul satisfaction and love and tenderheartedness, mercy, wisdom, power, the power of the Holy Spirit. How's that going to happen unless you You fill us with all the fullness of God. We're trusting you today. I pray that you would increase the faith in this dear flock, whatever they're walking in these days, that you are for them, you're forming them for good works that you have prepared in advance for them to walk in. We look to you, Lord, for the joy, the goodness of seeing all these things unfold. In Jesus' name, amen.