You're listening to audio from Faith Church located on the North Side Of Indianapolis. If you'd like to check out more information about our church and ministry, you can find us at faithchurchindy.com. Now here's the teaching. It feels weird to be coming up here without any, walk on music. I shouldn't pass I mean, if MLB players get that, should shouldn't we have, like, our own when we're not in the middle of the series, we don't have the music to, help the kids know it's their cue to head down for, children's time.

And I feel kind of awkward now because I'm just going on about this for no reason other than helping the kids get out of the room. I'm Jeff Schultz, one of the co lead pastors here, and, I've been thinking a lot, as maybe many of you have, about change and transition. Most of you are probably aware that, Joey, one of our other co lead pastors, has left pursuing other ministry opportunities, and we're kind of in the middle of, pastoral transition. And so that's gotten me thinking about transitions that we have gone through in our own family. We moved here to Indianapolis about, nine and a half years ago after having lived in St.

Louis for almost, twenty years. And you can imagine over that period of time, we had a lot of deep connections, rootedness in the community. We left behind friends. We came to, a new home, a new community, new church, new culture, new schools for our kids who were kinda halfway through a school year for them. We had to learn, I remember reading Faith News for the first time, our weekly news bulletin, and trying to figure out what in the world is a pitch in because I had no idea what that was and finally figured out, oh, it's a potluck, and we just have a different name for it in Indiana.

I'm still trying to remember every time, how to play Euchre, because nobody mostly outside of Indiana really plays Euchre, and so we, you know, we're trying to get used to that. It's a reminder, looking back over, again, the last nine and a half years that we've been here and maybe what many of us, maybe all of us in different ways are going through, that life is about change. Circumstances are always changing. I looked up recently, some statistics. The average person, statistically will have, about 12 different jobs in their lifetime, We'll move about 11 times.

And, the average person has two serious relationships before marriage. So if any of you here are dating, you're probably looking around and wondering, like, am I number one? Am I number two? Where am I in the process? Transitions, change are just common, but there's an important distinction to know, that that I wanna draw out for us.

That transition is actually different from change. William Bridges was a preeminent authority on change and transition. His research and writing helped guide many, many people and organizations through significant changes. Bridges says this, change is not the same as transition. Change is situational.

You have a new boss, a new job, a new team, new roles, new policies. A transition, however, is the psychological process that people go through to come to terms with the new situation. Change is external. Transition is internal. I I think that distinction between change and transition is helpful, but the key insight that Bridges offers is this.

It's not the changes that do you in, it's the transitions. It's the process that we go through. We don't get to choose many of the changes that we experience, things that just happen in our lives. But we do get to choose. We have ownership.

We even have a responsibility for what we do with that change. What change does in us. What change does through us. I think that's what we see happening in Acts chapter one. If you haven't already, you can turn in your Bibles to Acts one.

It's on page ten eighty in those black Bibles in the seats underneath you. And as you're turning there, I just want to set your minds at ease. We are not starting all over in the book of Acts. This is just a refresher, kind of a review. Jesus has risen from the dead.

He's appeared to his disciples. He spends forty days with his followers, and the father in the Now those first disciples, think about the context. They had pretty much every day of the last three years with Jesus. They ate with him. They slept with him.

He's taught you. He's given you purpose and meaning. He's changed your life. He's healed you. He's he's convinced you, confirmed God's forgiveness and love for you.

And you think he's the chosen one of God. And then you see him arrested and tortured and crucified. And it's almost inevitable that you're going to assume they're coming for you next. And then Jesus appears alive, risen in glory. I mean, it's hard to imagine a series of more significant changes that these guys have gone through.

And what we see in Acts one is a season of transition. I don't think it's a stretch to say this passage connects to what most of us here at Faith Church are experiencing right now as transition. But it's not just right now. I think most of us, if we really understood, if we knew what was going on in one another's lives, we'd probably be surprised at what people are dealing with, the challenges, the uncertainties, the difficulties. That's one of the things that being in community does.

You get to know one another. You get to hear one another's stories. You get close. You understand all the all the challenging situations that people are dealing with. And and if you aren't feeling it now, odds are that you will, or you know someone who is.

And and when you're in a season of transition, the questions that we all naturally ask are things like, what is going on? What is God doing? What am what am I supposed to do? What's what's next? Anxiety can be high.

The unknown is everywhere. What do we do in a season of transition? That's what we want to see from this passage that we're looking at for several reasons. Because Jesus' first followers were faced with massive change in their lives and going on around them. Their ideas, their expectations are suddenly upended, and they have to figure out how to process through this.

What do I do with all this change? And I think there's encouragement for us in how Jesus shepherds them in this passage. And we are also getting back to our acts series, which we are going to finish up this summer, just before our one worship series in the August. And acts as a story, remember, of how God's spirit works through God's people to accomplish God's mission in the world, to be witnesses of Jesus and to introduce people to him and and to be a part of the process of the massive change that the coming of God's kingdom brings into this world. Now acts one is not about us.

It's not written about us, but it's written to us. We are part of that story. God is still working to lead his people in mission to accomplish the purpose of us living as witnesses of Jesus in this world and being part of the change that the coming of the kingdom of God brings about through all the changes that that we face. So we want to see what it means for us to be faithful witnesses and live as God's people for his purposes in a season of transition. And I think in this text, God has four things to say to us that that will help guide us in transition.

So if you haven't already, open your Bibles to Acts chapter one, and let's look at this together. What do you do in a season of transition when things are coming to an end? There's unknown. There's there's new beginnings on the horizon. And and I think the first thing that you do is this, you you do what you already know.

You do what you've already been told. Look at what it says here in Acts chapter one, in verse four. While staying with them, he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the father. Now to stay in Jerusalem, I think, has to be the exact opposite of what they wanted to do in that moment. Right?

Because of everything that's going on, they they seen Jesus crucified, they they know that it's dangerous to declare that Jesus is the Son of God, The religious authorities, the the Roman government just killed our leader? Do you think that they're gonna stop there? These guys probably wanna scatter, head back to their homes, go back to something that feels familiar and comfortable, that Jesus commands them to stay, and it's important to remember it's not a new command. At the end of Luke's gospel, Jesus commands them and promises them, Behold, I am sending the promise of my father on you, but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. And this is the tension, right?

In a season of what's going on, and and how do I make sense of this, and and what's next, and what do I do now, Jesus says, keep on doing what I've told you to do. Do what you've already known to do. A young man in our former church in Saint Louis, joined the army and then, went to ranger school. And and when he was home on leave at one point, he told me a story of, a time when his group was sent out on a hike. They were given instructions to go, a certain distance and wait there for instructions on what to do next.

When they stopped for camp, the commanders intentionally cut off communication with them. They they didn't know this was coming. It was a training exercise to see what you do out in the field when you lose contact and how you'll respond to uncertainty. So they waited, and they waited, and they waited. And they, you know, they set up camp.

They established a perimeter to protect themselves. They figured out how to find food. Two days later, they finally got instructions on what to do next. And I remember asking this guy, too like, you didn't just go back to base when you didn't hear from them? I mean, certainly, you must have you know, all this uncertainty, maybe that's the thing to do.

And my friend looked at me and said, we are property of the United States government. We don't get to do what we want. And then he said, one of the things that they drill into you is this, you do what you are told. You follow orders. You do what you're told.

And a lot of us are in a season of transition. Things seem hazy. And what we can tend to do is focus on the problem right in front of us and forget maybe some of the things that we already know to be doing, things that we've already been told. We can forget that God still has a mission and a purpose that's bigger than the thing that seems overwhelming right in front of us. And he's giving us he's given us operating instructions.

Do what you already know what to do. And yet we still wanna go, yeah, but I need answers to this specific thing. How do I know what to do now? What's Your will for me right now, God? And I think sometimes we make God's will out to be this, you know, big inscrutable, impossible thing to find, you know, like a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow or a teeny tiny target on a bull's eye that we're supposed to hit.

For sure if I've got the right answer. What if, you know, if I did this other thing, could I be 5% closer to what God wants me to do? Which college should I go to? Should I take this job? Should I date this person?

Should I buy that car or the other one? We make God's will out to be massively complicated and super detailed. And I want to share something that is hopefully massively comforting and super important to remember. God's will for your life God's will for your life is that you would live God's way as revealed in God's will for your life. Season where you don't know what to do.

Just keep being faithful in the things that God has already told you. Keep on loving your family and loving the church. Keep on doing your work faithfully. Continue to read God's word, to stay connected to him in in worship and in prayer, to love your neighbors, stay faithful to what God has already told you to do. The second thing is this, and and nobody likes this one.

I hate this one. Wait. That's what Jesus says. Look, again, back in acts one, In verse four, while staying with them, he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the father, which he said, you heard from me, John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. Do what God has already told you to do and wait.

Bridges, again, says that you can map out transition in kind of three big movements or phases. There's there's what he calls endings. Right? Like something ends. There's no new beginnings without endings.

And then there's a neutral zone. There there's a lot of confusion, disorientation, uncertainty, and then there's a time of new beginnings. Okay? Endings, neutral zone, new beginnings. Can you guess where the worst decisions are made?

In the neutral zone. Always. Right? Because in the neutral zone, fear and anxiety can grab the steering wheel, can sit in the driver's seat. Right?

We become reactive. And and one of the enemy's greatest temptations is to apply pressure to us. Feel pushed into making a decision right now. It's a or b, b or a. It it feels like, you know, the last fifteen seconds there on on Family Feud where you have to come up with a good answer to a question you weren't prepared for and the clock's running and everyone's waiting on you.

We surveyed a hundred people. Give us the best answer to this. Pork blank. And one lady said, you pine. Think about it.

Literally, that's that's that was her answer. Hurry up. The clock's running. What's your answer? I I read this great line from another pastor recently.

God rules the universe with his feet up. I love that. God's never worried or threatened by what's going on here. He's never stressed. He's never anxious.

He's never said, uh-oh or oh no or what do I do now. When you feel the pressure, a or b, b or a, kind of saying like, well, there's c, d, e, f, g, h, I can keep going on. Maybe it doesn't have to be that way. Maybe you don't have to feel the pressure. The thing to do sometimes is just take a deep breath and wait and see what God is doing.

We're waiting, yes, fear can arise, but there's also a promise in the verse, wait, because the Holy Spirit is And I think Jesus is telling us this, where God guides, he always provides. Where God guides, he always provides. I have a mission for you. I have a purpose, and I'm going to give you what you need for that mission and that purpose. So the question is not, oh, is this gonna happen?

And how is this gonna turn out? The question is, can I wait to see God's provision in my wife? And can I trust in the meantime that especially over the long horizon, it's going to be alright? It's going to work out. Because the things that seem massive and important right now literally will not matter a hundred or two hundred years from now.

Some of them won't matter a year from now. Wait and trust. Doesn't mean waiting is passive. It doesn't mean you do nothing. I'm praying for a job.

Hey, that's great. We're gonna pray with you. We're gonna pray for you. What are you doing about it? How many, resumes have you sent out?

Who you're trying to connect with? Who can help you network? Waiting is where we seek wisdom and and where we put our faith to work. Do what you were last told, wait, and then be aware of your own bias. Be aware of your own bias.

Here's what I mean by bias, our perspectives, our assumptions that shape the interpretation we apply to the changes happening around us. And this is where we need to do some internal work, especially. Look at look at what the disciples asked in verse six. They said, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? Now, you guys probably understand what that's about, especially as we've been going through acts and and talking about the expectations of what the Messiah is going to do.

Right? This is obviously, they think, the time when Jesus is gonna call down the angel armies and draw the sword and destroy the Romans and establish God's judgment and justice in the earth. Looking for it. They were hoping for it. They were ready for it.

The prophets promised it. This sure looks like what God must be doing now. And Jesus response in verse seven. It's not for you to know the times or the seasons that the father has fixed by his own authority. I love how honest the Bible is about the disciples.

They're just they're people like us, right? Like they see Jesus, they know, they believe, but but they're still, like, confused and they still doubt. And Jesus has predicted his death and resurrection. He's he's performed signs and wonders. He's affirmed his authority.

He's he's given demonstrations of He's about to ascend in the heaven, and and they still are seeing things through their own filters, their own perspective, which tells me this, that sometimes one of the greatest hindrances to God's agenda in my life is my agenda for my life. I have a certain idea of the way my life is going to go and what things are going to look like. And I come to God asking him to confirm what I want him to do. And it's easy for me to convince myself that God's will is going to line up with my preferences. God, I'm sure that if you're going to be doing something good, it's going to look like this.

It's going to work out this way. It's going to have this kind of outcome. Think about this. Jesus told his disciples, as he was preparing to leave, it's good for me to go away, because when I leave, I will send the Holy Spirit, the comforter. That should just blow our minds.

There is no way that Jesus leaving could be good. Right? I mean, if I had a time machine, I would go back and and watch dinosaurs right from a safe distance. I would go back and see the Roman empire because all guys every day are thinking about the Roman empire in random moments. Man, Romans were so cool.

I would absolutely go back and want to see Jesus face to face, to spend time with him. But Jesus tells me it's actually better to be where we are now because we actually have God the Holy Spirit living inside us to empower us to to live and to do things that Jesus himself was not doing when he was here on earth, to empower his disciples to do things that we weren't doing, that we weren't capable of doing until the Holy Spirit came. It's better for Jesus not to be here in the flesh and for us to have the Holy Spirit, even though it seems to make no sense. And that tells me to question my understanding of things. When we look at change, we we naturally, of course, bring our own perspective, our own history into it, similar experiences I've had in the past, how things that look like this turned out a certain way.

We end up looking at how this thing impacts me. And and that's just natural. Right? I mean, we humans are wired to make sense of the world by looking for patterns. Right?

That's a good thing. When when I'm driving and I pull up to a red octagon that says SDOP, I don't have to stop and pull out the driver's handbook and try to think through, okay, now what does that mean? I I think I know what that is. No. It's like, I know what that is.

It follows a pattern. I mean, I wish the other drivers that saw that would follow the same pattern more often. But there's a pattern that we don't have to stop and process and think and wonder and But pattern sensing also has a drawback, right, because it can tell us, I've seen this before. I know what's going on here. I've read stories about this.

I know what to expect here. We make assumptions about people and situations that may be accurate, may may not be accurate. I need to have, awareness. I need to ask God to help me have an awareness of how my past, my perspective, my personality shape how I look at what's happening now. I mean, that that's what our faith tells us as followers of Jesus.

Right? We sing, I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see. Saying when we sing that, right? I'm found because God found me. I'm able to see because God opened my eyes.

I can't figure it out on my own. I I need God's help. I I need help to see rightly. I need God's wisdom, God's direction, God's perspective, God's reorientation. That never stops for any of us in following Jesus.

Do what we were last told. Wait. Will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you. You'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth. Notice the language, the tenses here.

You will receive. You will be filled. Those are future tense. As Jesus is telling them this, it hasn't happened yet. He's made a promise to the disciples.

He said, there's a lot of change going on. You're in a season of transition. I'm no longer going to be with you. I'm not gonna be here physically present by your side. The promise of the Holy Spirit is going to come, but but there's a gap.

There's there's a time where that's not going to be the case yet. And in that gap is where insecurities and the fears and the what ifs can can tend to grow. Before I take this step of faith, can you just tell me how it's gonna turn out? As a witness for you in my everyday life, but can you just tell me it's gonna be okay? That they're gonna respond positively when I do that?

If you could just give me, you know, let me know how it's all gonna turn out, that would be fantastic. And then I'm willing to trust you and follow-up on that. And then I'm willing to trust you and follow-up on that. And then I And then I'm willing to trust you and follow. What if we were content with what God has revealed rather than being consumed with what he's concealed?

That would make a huge difference in my life. That that would make a huge difference in my life. I was content with what God has given instead of being sometimes consumed with what I don't have or what I think I need. Another pastor, reflected on this. Rather than wishing for different circumstances and better soil, what if I was content to bloom right where I'm at now?

What if the house that I have is good enough? What if my job is good enough? What if, what if I was content with the things that God hasn't given me? Because I trust that he's good, and he's enough, and he's given me enough for where I am and what I need right now. How, how different would it look if in all the places, in every situation, relationship that are filled with gaps where I don't see what God's doing, I don't like it, it doesn't make sense, I filled it with What if I gave God the benefit of the doubt?

Now listen, I I wanna be really clear. I am not saying don't ask questions. I I'm not saying don't express concerns. This is not about shutting down questioning or feedback, or I'm certainly not implying that human leaders always get it right because we get it wrong all the time. And and I'm thankful for some some of you who have reached out and raised questions and said, hey.

I I don't know what's going on. Help me make sense of this. I don't I don't get this. I I need to talk through this with you. That's that's fantastic.

That's what we should be doing, and and we should all be open to that with one another. This is not about saying trust your human leaders blindly. This is about saying trust God in the middle of not knowing and not understanding. Can I trust him with this change? Can I trust him in this season of transition?

Can I trust that whatever is happening, he will be at work? He is at work in in all of it, ultimately, for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purposes. In the moments of fear and anxiety, that's that's where God wants to meet us. That's where God asks us to draw. I know.

I know. If we could just see the risen Jesus, if we could hear his voice, God's voice from heaven, if we could see Jesus glorified, then, then we'd know. Then we could trust it didn't work that way for the disciples either, right? Like, I love how in the end of Matthew 28, Jesus gives us great commission to go make disciples of all people, and all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. And and and they believed him, but some doubted.

And and and and they believed him, but some doubted. What? Like, you're seeing the risen Jesus who has just told you he has all authority in heaven, and that's us. Right? Head that Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth and and he will never leave me or forsake me, but it it doesn't always feel that way.

And that's where I need to lean in to trust mountain top, you know, glorified Jesus in front of me, I'd there's I'd probably still struggle to trust and believe when he leaves and then it's Tuesday morning. This isn't what I wanted. But I believe God that you are here now, and you are good now. If we pull all this together, I think the big idea to to know and understand from today is this, Every transition is an opportunity to trust God. Every transition is an opportunity to trust God.

We've been through a lot of changes. I mean, just me personally in the nine plus years that I've been here. There's there's hardly anyone still on staff now who was working here when I started. So shout out to Britney Johnson because, she's the veteran and and she's awesome anyway. There's a different children's director, a different youth leader, a different worship director, a different business director, a different communications director, a different FIEAC director since I started here.

I'm on my fourth job title now. Change our pastoral leadership after I got here. We tore apart the children's area and the lobby and figured out how to do worship in the dust for a year and a year global pandemic together, where we couldn't meet together and worship face to face for what, like fourteen weeks? And then when we came back together, we had to be socially distanced and wear masks and and we got all through that. We just didn't.

Right? I think most of the time, you know, it feels for us on an ordinary day like, Yeah, life just goes on. We know what to expect. Right? Then something unexpected happened and suddenly it feels like, Oh, everything's unpredictable.

The truth is everything is always unpredictable. It just feels like things are predictable a lot of the time. But times of significant change can be a blessing, more or less present with you today than he was a month ago. He's not more or less good to you today than he was a year ago. More or less at work when you thought you knew what was happening.

Then he is. Change your life in all the best way possible, today is the day you can do that. Just dead, but risen and alive, and and I hear his offer of life and change and and faith and forgiveness, and I and I want that. I want to walk with him by faith. And and that's something that we can all say today.

What if today your perspective changes? That the season you're in is in in Invertation to trust God that God could be working now that you don't want to be in, that you're struggling with, that you don't like. What would it look like to be content, to trust God, most of all, in the middle of everything? That he's actually doing something good, and that he's at work, and he's present. Every transition is an invitation to trust God.

Let's trust him. Let me pray for us. Father, thank you for this reminder from your word, this vision of the risen Jesus who is alive, who is at work, who is unfailingly good and faithful, who is the one that we trust in. Father, thank you for these reminders from your word that as your people, we hardly ever know what's around the corner. But we know you will be there with us just as you are with us now, just as you've always been with us.

So God help us not to diminish the the reality of the change and how unsettling it can be. Help us to encourage and strengthen one another as we go through change together, but help us to trust you through the transition, to grow in good ways. We love you, Jesus, and we thank you for the hope and the security that we have in you. We pray in your name. Amen.