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Starts partway through Conrad's welcome. Ends as the closing prayer begins. Words that could not be made out are marked [unclear].
After service, I would love to connect with you, get to know you a little bit more, welcome you to this church. But once again, we are so glad that everybody is here. If it's your first time, I want to remind or tell everybody that we are in the penultimate weekend in our series through the book of Acts. I know Acts stretches longer. But next week we will be wrapping it up. And what does penultimate mean?
It's just a fancy term for second to last. So if you've ever run a race or if you've ever gotten second to last in anything and you're embarrassed to say it, just say, I was in the penultimate place. It just sounds better. It's uplifting. It's a 10 cent word. They won't even know. They'll probably congratulate you. So we are in the penultimate weekend in our series. So Acts chapter 11 is where we will be.
Acts 11. We're going to begin in verse 19. We'll go through 26. We might look at 27 through 30 just briefly. But Acts 11:19 is where we will begin. And as you're turning there, as you're settling in, I want us to think for a few moments about the idea of nicknames. We've all got them, right? Nicknames come in very different shapes and sizes. They're for different things. Nicknames can shorten your name, right?
Theodore. [unclear]. Abraham, Abe. My personal favorite is Robert. You can go with Bob, Rob, Bobby, Robbie, Bobbert, and more. There's plenty, right? Nicknames can shorten, nicknames can also, you can lengthen something with a nickname. Nicknames give a general quality or characteristic about them that is in that identifying trait or an identifying mark. Oftentimes when we give a nickname, we're saying, yes, I'm talking about you.
You as a unique person, you as a unique group of people. The problem with a nickname oftentimes is you don't give it to yourself, right? It is given to you. A nickname is given to you by friends, family members, coworkers. And let me just acknowledge, we've all probably been called things that are not very kind. We've all been said nicknames that we don't really agree with. We've all been called things that we don't really like.
However, we've all been called things that we don't really like. Nicknames are often given to us by those outside of us. Sure, we can say, hey, I'm this, call me this. My last name's Wozniak. So for years, depending on the circles growing up, people would call me Woz. People know me as Woz in Orange County. Didn't make it over to Ventura, but I've been called Woz. I've been walking with my family one day at a place in Orange County and
Somebody, you know, was wanting to talk to us and me and my whole family were there. Like my dad and my mom, my brother, sister, like all of us were walking. And somebody said, Woz, and we all turned. It's like the idea of we've all been called something, we've all been, you know, named as something as an identifying feature. And sometimes those nicknames are a little hurtful and they're meant as put-downs.
However, then they become adopted in a unique way. Let me just share two illustrations. One, in 1985, a group of people began to call another group of people a pejorative term. Pejorative just means like a put down. They began to put down another group of people. So what happened in 1985? Well, let me share. The Chicago Bears won their first, and I'm proud to say only, Super Bowl. Only one Super Bowl.
So what do you do when you're at the top of the pile? What do you do when you've won it all? You look at your closest rival and you put them down, right? In this case, the Green Bay Packers. And so the Chicago Bears fans began to call Packer fans cheeseheads. Cheeseheads. Yes, I get it. You know, Wisconsin is America's dairy land. Last year, they produced 25% of the cheese that we eat as a nation. That equates to 3.64 billion pounds of cheese in 2025.
That's a lot of cheese. It's more than just a cheese head, right? It's a lot. But here's the thing. I'm a Packer fan. I grew up in a Packer fan household. My dad is from the great state of Wisconsin. And we call ourselves cheese heads as Packer fans. It is now no longer a put down to call someone a cheesehead. It is just simply a term of identification saying, you like the Packers. We know what you're doing on Sunday.
You're a cheesehead, right? It's just a term of identification. What was once used for negative now has been adopted internally by the great Badger State. And now Packers fans are known as cheeseheads. Similarly, in the 1700s, In the British Isles, they began to call some people across the pond, across the Atlantic Ocean, Yankees. Not as a positive term, but as a put down. We're not exactly sure what the term Yankee meant back then, but it was not a pick me up.
It was not a positive thing. But today, simply a Yankee, "Yank" is just a term for somebody who lives in America, who grew up as an American. In fact, we even have a baseball team in New York called the New York Mets. There is the Yankees as well, but Yankees is a common term. What was once used by outsiders as a put-down now has been adopted by insiders as a part of an identifying nickname, as an identifying language.
In scripture, we're going to see a label, a term, a nickname used for the very first time. It was not a positive thing necessarily in the first century. In fact, it was probably meant as a put down. That put down is something that we, for those who believe in Jesus, all call ourselves today. You probably know the term. You probably know where we're going. But you'll find that if you want to skim ahead to Acts 11, 26.
We'll get there in a few moments. But today we are considering, one, the identifying labels with which we call ourselves and how oftentimes there should be alignment with what we call ourselves and what the world calls us as well. So today I've called this message Proof of Identity. And we'll be considering the identifying statements in our world, but the identifying statements given to us as believers in Christ in Scripture.
Before we jump into our passage, let's pray once more and then we'll dive into Acts chapter 11. So Heavenly Father, thank you for this morning and for the fact that we are able to sing of our identity in you. We sang, I'm already, I'm already loved. That is a term of identification. We are identifying with your love. So Lord, I just pray that you would help us to understand our identity in Christ even more today.
That we would understand our identity as believers even more today. And that we would walk from this place, living that out in our daily lives. So Lord, go before this message. Go before our time in Acts chapter 11 and all of the other verses that we're going to be touching upon. And so Lord, encourage us and help us to walk according to your ways this morning. We pray these things in the name of Jesus.
Amen. Amen. So our context in Acts... In the book of Acts, Acts 1 through 5, the church is really central in Jerusalem at this time. Jesus' life, death, and then resurrection, and then ascension happens. And so now we're seeing the acts of the Holy Spirit, the acts of the disciples that are happening in the early church. Acts 1 through 5, you see this localized gospel in Jerusalem. In Acts 6, the gospel begins to
expand and we're going to begin to see the implications of that in our text. So I'll pick it up. There's some more context that we'll talk about. But in verse 19, it says, Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews. But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists also.
Preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them. And a great number who believed turned to the Lord. So the immediate context is that people were being scattered from the local, the place where the local church started, Jerusalem, and they were scattered abroad. Why? Because of an event. The stoning of Stephen. You can look that up in Acts chapter 7 and 8. We covered that a few weeks ago.
However, that event happened sparked a scattering of the church throughout the Roman Empire, throughout the world. We're given a few places here, and we'll talk about two things really in this section. One, a group of people, some groups of people, and then two, one specific city. But you see these cities with which people were scattering to. Phoenicia, Cyprus, Antioch, and then there were also those from Cyrene who were chatting with
Hellenists. So there was a lot of scattering going on. The church was growing under adverse circumstances. There was a really painful persecution moment where Stephen was martyred for his faith, for the gospel, and people fled. And they fled to varying cities with different cultures, with different names and identifications. They fled to these places so the gospel message spread with it. Now, one thing for us to remind ourselves is like often attracts like.
The idea is we like to gather with people who think like us, look like us. It's just comfortable for us. And so some people didn't speak the word to anybody but Jews only. It was this idea of I'm going to go to the people who are like me. I'm going to go to the people who think the same way I do. But then the text also talks about how there were men from Cyrene and Cyprus who actually began to talk to the Hellenists as well.
People who didn't think like them, people who were outside the box. And so we have these different identities here being mentioned, these different tribes, these different ways of thinking, yet the gospel was permeating all of those places. Second, really briefly, I want to touch on this city. and specifically the city of Antioch. So Antioch, let's just put ourselves in a historical context. One was a really large city.
It might not be large like New York or Los Angeles to our standards, but back then it was very large. About 500,000 in population. That put it as the third largest city in the Roman Empire. You have Rome, you have Alexandria, and you have Antioch. Massive cities. Big cities, important cities. What made Antioch so important was it was situated on some important trade routes. So goods and merchandise would come through Antioch.
But more importantly, merchants, people, would come to and through Antioch, which would also mean cultures would come to and through Antioch. Where Antioch was situated was like almost the gateway to three continents. You could get to Europe, Over here on the northwest, you could go east towards Asia, and you could go south towards Africa. It really strategically separated this town, this city, called Antioch.
Just for a moment, just thinking about application, Ventura County, most of us live in Ventura County, some of us on the edges of Los Angeles County, but Ventura County had 830,000 people as the 2025 census says. 830,000 people. That's a spread over a good geographical size. But let me say that 22.2% of the population of Ventura County are foreign born. 22.2%. That's a significant number. And if you think about Antioch, and you think about the city of Antioch, and you think about where it is and how people were coming for trade, coming for commerce, coming for culture,
That's exactly what's happening here in Southern California. It doesn't matter whether you're in San Diego, Orange County, Los Angeles, or Ventura County. The world is here. There are people coming here. Yes, there's trade. Yes, there's financials. Yes, there's Hollywood. There's so many reasons why people come here. And I just want to remind us all that as we live, we are coming into contact with the nations of the world in our backyard.
When we go to work, we are coming into contact with the nations of the world. When we drive down Thousand Oaks Boulevard or when we're driving down in Camarillo or wherever we're going, we are coming into contact with cultures around the world that don't necessarily think like us, act like us, or have the same customs and culture. Where my wife's from is different than where I'm from, and we're both from California.
Completely different environments. And yet, we're kind of comfortable in those environments because we grew up there. And so for us, I just want to remind us all that as we get up in the morning, as we speak the words of Jesus, as we live, as we move, we're coming into contact with the nations of the world. And we have the opportunity to influence people who will take that message with them wherever they go.
This city of Antioch was strategic and people were fleeing there. But guess what? From there, the message will also spread. So I just wanted to stop there and have us consider that for a few moments. But now we're going to really go into the bulk of our identity conversation. And we're going to look at Acts 22 through 26. That will be the lion's share of our text. And then we're just going to look at some terms and consider what it means for us to live today.
So turn your attention to verse 22. It will be up on the screen. You can also look in your Bibles, but it says this. The report of this, so the church growth, the great number of people turning to the Lord, that report in Antioch was now making its way to Jerusalem. Now the report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. Go check it out. When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast faith.
For he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord. So Barnabas went to look for Saul. We also know him to be Paul. We talked about him a couple of weeks ago. And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year, they met with the church and taught a great many people. And then the last sentence. And in Antioch, the disciples were first called Christians.
And in Antioch, the disciples were first called Christians. Just quick context, and then we're going to talk about identity for a few moments. So what was happening was Antioch was booming. This big trade city, this place where commerce and merchandise and goods and services were coming in and coming out of. The word of the Lord was received there and people were coming to faith in the Lord in great number.
This report reached Jerusalem. They said, go check it out, Barnabas. Barnabas says, yes, things are really happening here. He goes and looks for Saul. They spend a year there teaching them and instructing them in the ways of the Lord. I believe that they were marked by this and something set them apart in this cultural trade city. So much so that they were given a name and that they were given a label.
And probably a majority of one, we'll get into that in a little bit, they were called Christians. Before we get into the identifying label of Christians, I also want us to consider for a few moments some of the other identifying terms that we find in scripture about believers. And the first one is actually in our passage today. At the end of verse 26, it says, and in Antioch, the disciples were first called Christians.
So let's think about disciples. Disciple is a term that just means learner, someone who follows the Lord. A disciple is someone who pursues him. I have a slide for that. In John 15:8, Jesus says, by this, my father is glorified that you bear much fruit. And so prove to be my disciples. Someone who follows me, someone who walks after me, someone who learns about my will and my ways. A believer is to be called a disciple.
Next, we have another term, and it's called saints. In Romans 1:7, you'll see this said by Paul to all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints. You know, I think this is a hard one for us, so I want you to do me a favor. Turn to the person next to you and say, You're a saint. You are a saint, my love. Now turn to the other person next to you and say, you're also a saint. You're also a saint.
I'll get back to you. So that's a hard one because obviously culturally that's a unique one. We think of, oh, what does it mean to be a saint? We got, oh, St. Peter and St. Paul and these big cathedrals and that art with, they're kind of looking like this and they have a halo or whatever. But saint in the text is the word hagios, which just means holy. A holy one. And that text right there in Romans says, to all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints, to be holy.
It's not a term that we use today or culture. That's a hard one for us to understand. But that's what scripture identifies Christians to be. Next is this idea of family or being in the household of. Two scriptures here I want to show you. One is in Ephesians and one is in Galatians. In Ephesians 2:19, so then you are no longer strangers or aliens. Hear that. You are no longer identifying [unclear]. But what are you now?
You are fellow citizens. There's a lot in this one. Fellow citizens. Saints. There it is again if you're trying to escape it. With the saints and members of the household of God. Galatians 6:10 talks about the household of faith. Household is simply belonging to a family. Belonging to a family. What are the two? Household of God, belonging to God, the family of God. Household of faith, belonging to those who believe together in God.
We are a family. Disciples, saints, family members. Final one, believers. believers is the last one that i'll pop up but um i'm sure there's more in the scripture you can go look through them but believers let no one despise you for your youth but set the believers for the believers an example right speech love life faith purity all of those conduct so all of those believers what does that mean it just means like believing one the one who believes so what does it mean for us to be a christian what does that mean
It means several things. One, for us to be disciples, to become holy ones. Not perfect, but to grow in our holiness. To be a part of a family. Family of God, family of believers, and then of course to be believing ones. So we have all these different terms of Christian. But in Acts 11:26, as we've mentioned, the last sentence says, "...and in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians." I scoured the scriptures.
Christians only mention three times. It's a phrase, though, that we use probably daily. It's a phrase, though, that you'll hear even in movies and TV shows. It's a phrase that you'll hear when somebody's making a speech after they've accepted an award. It's a phrase, though, which you can hear almost anywhere. In scripture, it's mentioned three times. There's all the references. One we've just read.
Another one talks about Agrippa saying, are you going to persuade me to be a Christian? To identify with your group? And then Peter talks about it to suffer as a Christian. As one who identifies a certain way. All of those references to Christian, Christianos, ultimately means to identify. To identify in a certain context. Obviously, it's unmistakable when we use the word Christian, Christ is in that name.
Christos means Christ, Messiah, Anointed One. So for one to be a Christian, it's to identify with Jesus. Very good. It wasn't a trick question. But to identify with Jesus. So there's different ways that you can splice it. I've heard it different ways. It could mean like little Christ. It could be one who identifies as Christ. But really, I just kind of summed it up as one who ascribes to the ways of Jesus.
That's what it means to be a Christian. Now, as with cheeseheads, as with Yankees, as with how those began, Christian probably wasn't a happy term. It probably was a put down. It probably was a slight say of these Christians. They operate way different than us. We're going to, as outsiders, label them as Christians. We are going to put a term on them as Christians because their mark, their conduct, their speech, their way of living is so different than ours.
I find that significant. And that's why I want to kind of camp here. on this theme for the rest of our time together. It'll be a sentence up on the screen and I want us to consider this sentence today. And if you're ever at lunch today and you're like, what was the message about? I'm hoping that this is the thing that comes across. If we identify as a Christian, there should be proof. There should be evidences of that identity.
Now hear what I'm not saying. I'm not saying if we identify as Christian, we need to prove it to God. We need to prove our worth. We need to prove our devotion. We need to prove how much we love him. That's not what I'm saying. Christ proved his love for us by going to the cross for us. Amen? Christ proves himself and his steadfast love and faithfulness towards us. What I am saying, though, is if we identify as a Christian, there should be proofs.
or evidences or outflowings from our life in response to God that people can say, aha, I see that this person is a Christian. So let me talk about identity here for a few moments. Identity is such a unique word in our culture and climate today because people identify as a lot of things. Now, simply put, an identification is simply I'm and then you fill in the blank, right? I'm a Californian. Means that I'm somebody who grew up in California and or resides in California or a combination of the two.
I either grew up there, lived there, or both. I'm a Californian. You know, you could say I'm a cheesehead, which means I'm identifying with, rooting for a particular fan base. I'm a Vegetarian, which means that you're telling the world that you don't like to have fun at all. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Please don't take offense at that. I get it. We'll get back to that. But what you are saying is identify with not eating meat, right?
When you say I'm blank, it is telling the world something about your identity with a particular group or a particular person. What makes this super challenging in our world today is people can identify themselves as virtually anything that they like. We won't get into all of that. I recall on the road the other day, well, a while ago, but I've seen this one a few times on a big, like, hulking, massive truck, right?
You see on this massive, huge truck, and you see a little bumper sticker, and it says, I identify as a Prius. And I'm like, okay, like, you, okay, like... You're not a Prius, you're a gas guzzling truck. You can say what you want, but my point is there should be proofs that back up that identity. That truck cannot prove he's a Prius based on the price paid at the pump. So my point is we can identify many different ways, but there should be proofs of that identity in our lives.
So let me talk about us as Christians here for a moment. Christian is a significant term. And it's here mentioned one time in scripture, almost as an aside. And in Antioch, the disciples were first called Christians. In Antioch, they were first called Christians. You and I, and many others around the world, call ourselves Christians today. In a world where identity is minimized because we say we can identify or
Be whoever we want to be. I just want to encourage us, if we use the term Christian, let's take it super seriously. Let's take it really seriously. This is the most important thing that we can be identifying with as human beings. I identify as a follower of Jesus. I am a Christian. What are we saying when we say we're a Christian? We say several things. One, we say, I ascribe to the moral and ethical codes that Jesus came and talked about.
I want to walk in his ways. You know, I want to apply the Sermon on the Mount to my life. I want to apply the words that I speak to my life. I want to be reminded that every idle word will be judged by the Lord of heaven and earth. That's what it means to be a Christian. It's to identify with Jesus Christ, to identify with Jesus Christ. And when we say Christian, we say, I will pick up my cross daily and follow the Lord.
When we say that we're a Christian, we say, I'm going to walk with integrity. When we identify as Christian, we want to raise up our children in the instruction and admonition of the Lord. There's so many other fill in the blanks, and we'll get to a few in a few moments from our passage. But when we say that, I'm a Christian. I can say it and it's so top of mind because it's cultural. What I'm hoping that we all hear this morning is when we say Christian and you say, introduce yourself as a Christian or somebody calls you a Christian, stop and consider the gravity of that sentence because that is the most important identifying traits that can ever be given to you or you can ever identify yourselves with.
If we identify as a Christian, there should be proof of that identity. Again, vegetarians, if you say I'm a vegetarian and eat, go out and eat a burger after, you're not, no, it doesn't align, right? If you say I'm a Californian, but you've never been to California and you don't reside there, then no, you don't know what it's to be a Californian. We can fill in the blank for so many things, but if we call ourselves Christians, let's be reminded to walk in Christ.
in those ways. It's a challenge. We don't always do it perfectly. But ultimately speaking, we are to pursue that lifestyle to represent that identity very well. So a couple more things here that I want us to talk about. This is the first time use of the word Christian. And again, it was probably in the negative sense. And it was probably given by outsiders, which kind of made me think, what was so unique about
What was so stark different about this group in Antioch that they were called something by outsiders? And it got me thinking of a question that I heard years ago that I think is convicting. And it's the idea of being on trial. So in a trial case, there's evidence put forth, there's proofs put forth to either acquit or convict somebody. And the question is, If you were put on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough proof?
Would there be enough evidence to convict? It's a challenging thing. Because ultimately, it's not that we need to prove ourselves or devotion or work to God, but as a result of the fruit from our lives, would we be able to have those identifying marks? And say, yes, this man is certainly a Christian. I was thinking about my kids. Can my kids identify me as a Christian by saying, Dad, I know you're a Christian because of the way that you speak to me when you are frustrated.
Can I hold my tongue? Can I speak gently? Can I reserve myself? Can I speak the truth? Can I discipline well? But can I do so in a Christian way? Can I be identified as a Christian by my neighbor from my interactions with them? Or, better yet, the ways that they hear me from the other side of the fence. Talking with my family members, talking on the phone, conducting my business. The question for us is, if we were put on trial for being a Christian, would there be evidence?
Would there be proofs to convict? Obviously, in the first century church in Antioch, outsiders saw them and said... Yes, something's different. We're going to call them Christians for us. Christian is no longer the shocking term it once was. We should shock ourselves daily to remind ourselves of our identity in Jesus Christ. If we identify as Christians, there should be proof of that identity. Let me tell you a quick story.
I went into the DMV many years ago. We could end the story there, probably. We've all walked into the DMV, I'm sure. And you walk into the DMV and you wait and you wait and you wait and then your number is called and you go up to the attendant or whatever, probably was getting a new license or changing my address or something like this. So they asked for proof of identity, to which I happily obliged.
I pulled out the thing that I had. That card had my face on it and my name on it matched this right here. So proof of identity, but they require two proofs of identity to which I did not have in that moment. So they kicked me out and I had to come back another time with a second proof. So I needed to come back with my real ID and my passport or a bill or a housing statement or somewhere from my work or something like this to say these all point to collectively who I say I am.
As Christians, If we call ourselves Christians, let our words, our deeds, our actions, our thoughts, where we spend our time, reflect who we say we are. From the text, I'm just going to give a few suggestions and then we're going to wrap up. Look at verse 23 and 24. Some of the characteristic qualifying marks of what was going on in the church at this time. So, When he came and saw the grace of God, this is Barnabas was sent.
This is what he saw. He was glad and he exhorted them to do several things. One, remain faithful to the Lord and live on steadfast purpose. So these were the exhortative qualities that were being shared within the Christian community. Be faithful, live on steadfast purpose. If you're wondering what are some of the proofs that we can continually show in our lives, our world needs more and more faithful men and women.
To not turn to the left when a shiny object appears, not to turn to the right when crisis appears, but to be faithful and to move forward. Steadfast purpose speaks about the heart. To not be moved, not be surface level, but for out of our hearts, our conduct will flow. These were some of the things that Barnabas was sharing about the early church. But then Barnabas was given three descriptors as well.
He was described as a good man, full of the Holy Spirit, and of faith. Our world, your neighborhoods, your places of work, need more and more good men and good women. We need people who are upright, who are honest, who are honorable, who are pleasant, gorgeous, excellent. Jesus came and our lives should be transformed as a result of that. Barnabas was a good man. We should be good men and women. Full of faith, obviously that is belief.
Joining in with the belief that Jesus Christ is Lord and then of course full of the Holy Spirit. What is a mark of the Holy Spirit? What fruit characterizes the Holy Spirit? Well, love, joy, peace, Patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against those things there is no law. So how are we to conduct ourselves as Christians? Those are a few ways. If you skim down, we won't do 27 through 30, but at the end in there, there was a prophecy that there was going to be a famine in the land.
And so this is what happened. They decided, the disciples decided that each one, so you have a collective decision that individuals would make a response. I see that as unity. There's a unifying characteristic for a Christian. And then finally send relief. They were generous. They lived on mission. So even in the following verses that we're not even really diving into, you see this church in Antioch living into and leaning into their identities as
As Christians. For us, if we identify as Christians, it's so important for us to see the fruit, the evidence, the proof, you name it. It doesn't matter what name you put on it, but there should be an external working of that. I'm reminded and I'm convicted. I want my kids to say, yes, dad, you're a Christian, not because you... on stage, I want them to know that I'm a Christian because of how I conduct myself on a Monday or a Thursday evening.
Same with our neighbors. Same with the places that we go and eat. I want them to see how we treat our children even though things are crazy and food is flying. I want them to know that I'm a Christian by my conduct, by my words. And for us, Christians just throwing around willy-nilly, let us not be those people. Let us sit in the gravity of that. All right, we're wrapping things up here right now. But I just want to share one final thing.
In college nearly 20 years ago, I was never in like a fraternity, but I had friends who were like in the dorms with me who were connected to something like this. And I remember like conversation or the ends of a conversation that I didn't fully understand. And you get like letters, right? And then you get like a sweatshirt or something like that. And they said, no one can wear this sweater or sweatshirt except for me, essentially.
I just didn't really understand that. I didn't really understood like what that had meant. But I come to understand now that if I were to put on those letters or wear that sweatshirt, not that I wanted to, but, you know, I had my other group. I was a runner and that Not a group that nobody wanted to associate with. So if I were to adopt their letters, that would be saying I am a member of this group.
However, if I wasn't a member of the group, I would be misrepresenting them and their little tribe. For us, all I want us to leave here with is if we wear the identity of Christian, if we call ourselves Christians, If that's a label we have been called or we call ourselves, let's represent the name of Jesus well. We need to be a city on a hill, a light on a stand that is not covered. Amen? We need to be salt.
We need to be salt for this world that is decaying and doesn't taste very good. We need to preserve it and give it a little bit of flavor. Amen? We need to be people who love our neighbors as ourselves, not put them down and try to get what's ours. Amen? We need to be people who represent the name of Jesus well if we carry the term and the label Christian. For us, we see in the text and in Antioch, the first disciples were called Christians.
And today, in 2026 in Ventura County, we join the millions of And millions and millions who have called themselves Christian, been called Christian, past, present, and future. And so let us as disciples, let us as family members in the household of faith, let us as saints, I'm looking at you guys, let us as believers, let us as Christians walk in our identity. Because if we identify as Christians...
Let others see that and affirm that in us as well. Amen? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this morning and for those who...