You Don't Have to Go But You Can't Stay Here
Thesis Every Christian is sent into the world with everything they need — God's people, God's Word, God's Spirit, and God's hand — to faithfully proclaim the gospel in whatever cultural context they inhabit.
The shape of the argument
18 units across exposition, application, illustration, theological claim, and conclusion. The pastor's argument is built from these moving parts.
- personal story · unit #4 — The pastor uses a personal church anecdote about congregants who linger after services, requiring John (a sound team member) to repeatedly say, 'You don't have to leave, but you can't stay here.' This lighthearted illustration sets up the sermon's title and central metaphor: Christians cannot remain stationary after encountering Christ.
- personal story · unit #8 — The pastor uses personal testimony to illustrate the universal feeling of inadequacy in evangelism. By confessing his own desire for 'junior varsity Christianity' despite a decade of pastoral ministry, he validates the congregation's feelings of unpreparedness while simultaneously undermining the escape route — Jesus offers no junior varsity version.
- personal story · unit #9 — The pastor tells a self-deprecating story about wanting to take his sons camping despite having no experience, no equipment, and no preparation. His wife's gentle observation — 'you do not have what you need' — becomes the setup for the sermon's turn toward provision. The illustration captures the feeling many Christians have about evangelism: they're being sent somewhere they don't feel equipped to go.
- hypothetical · unit #16 — The pastor creates a hypothetical narrative of what Paul and Barnabas's gospel conversations might have looked like on Cyprus. He imagines Barnabas reconnecting with old acquaintances and Paul explaining his dramatic conversion. The illustration demonstrates how their personal stories became inseparable from the gospel they proclaimed — their transformed lives served as evidence of the gospel's power.
- The gospel and grace of God are meant to ripple outward from believers to transform the lives of others, not merely to remain internal blessings. unit #2
- The gospel produces a consistent internal pressure that makes remaining spiritually stationary impossible — the Christian life is one of constant change and repentance, not static addition of benefits. unit #5
- Every Christian is a sent Christian — there is no category of unsent believer — because Jesus commissioned all his followers to be witnesses from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. unit #6
- Christians are sent with everything they need for faithful witness, as demonstrated in the book of Acts. unit #10
- The Word of God carries its own intrinsic power to transform lives, not because of human eloquence but because it is God's living, effective Word. unit #17
"the Christian life is one of constant repentance" — Martin Luther (unit #5)
Full transcript
0 · The pastor opens the sermon by directing the congregation to the primary text (Acts 13) and establishing the sermon's place within a summer miniseries on Paul's first missionary journey
With that, let's turn our attention to the preaching of God's Word. Please open to the book of Acts chapter 13. Acts chapter 13. There are some Bibles on the back table. If you don't have a Bible with you, you can grab one of those, and that's our gift to you. We're going to be beginning a miniseries this summer on Paul's first missionary journey in the book of Acts, and today we're going to see how this journey begins.
1 · The pastor transitions by connecting the just-completed Ephesians series with the new Acts series, expressing his pastoral hope that the congregation's affection for the gospel has deepened through the year-long study of grace
And here's what I'm hoping to do as we connect Ephesians and Acts together. So in Ephesians, we spent almost a year Soaking in the good news of the grace of God. I hope with all of my heart that you have grown to love and appreciate the gospel of Jesus far more at the end of Ephesians than you did at the beginning of Ephesians.
2 · The unit makes a theological claim about the nature of gospel reception: the grace of God is not meant to remain internal but is designed to overflow outward to transform others
But that gospel filling our hearts and that grace of God welling up in us needs to be shared. It's not intended just to stay and transform our life, it's meant to ripple out and transform the lives of others.
3 · The pastor reads the entire primary text aloud (Acts 13:1-12), framing it as living Scripture rather than dry history
And so, we're going to see exactly that as we start this missionary journey with the Apostle Paul beginning in verse 1. And as we read, let's remember this isn't some dry history. This is God's Word. "Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen, a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, 'Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.' Then after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off. So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. When they arrived in Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John to assist them. When they had gone throughout the whole island as far as Paphos, they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus. He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. But Elymas the magician, for that is the meaning of his name, opposed them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith.' But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently and said, 'You son of the devil! You enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy! Will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? And now behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time.' And immediately Mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand. And then the proconsul believed, for he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord. This is God's Word.
4 · The pastor uses a personal church anecdote about congregants who linger after services, requiring John (a sound team member) to repeatedly say, 'You don't have to leave, but you can't stay here
Well, often our dear friend John is one of the last people to leave the church building. Our church has a consistent problem, a problem that not every church has, and the problem is this: people after church events will not leave the building. And you're laughing because that you are some of those people. Maybe you're here like, "I always leave right away." No, stay, it's good, but not for too long, because at some point we do have to turn We've got to lock the building up. And so we've tried everything. We've tried shutting the AC down in the summer. People just stay. They just sweat and talk. You know, you're just like, "But what's wrong with you people?" I remember even for evening services, we'll start to turn lights off, like first those lights and then these lights and then— and people are just unfazed. They're just, like, pulling out their phone. They're like, "Yeah, uh-huh, so tell me about your week." And so consistently, John, because he's on the sound team so faithfully, often will yell something that I just love. I've probably heard this 100 times. So he will yell out into the group of people that don't want to leave. He'll yell, "You don't have to leave, but you can't stay here." Meaning like, "Look, you got to get out of here. I don't care where you go, but you got to go somewhere that's not here." Right?
5 · The unit makes a layered theological claim about conversion and sanctification: while not everything changes immediately at conversion, a consistent internal pressure begins that makes remaining unchanged impossible
And in some ways I love that because it's a summary of the Christian life. And here's what I mean. When we become Christians, that not everything in our life immediately changes. It's not as though we totally change our wardrobe and change our job and change our city and all of a sudden, just immediately upon becoming a Christian, go down to darkest Peru into the mountains and that's our life now. It may be your life eventually, but it doesn't mean that the moment you become a Christian, everything in your life changes in every area. But there is a very consistent pressure and change that begins to well up in your heart that you can't stay where you are anymore. You can't stay where you are in every season, every area of life. Things begin to be rearranged and changed more and more and more. In fact, the whole church in Antioch exists because the Christians that believed in Jerusalem did not stay where they were. They heard the gospel in Jerusalem and Acts 11 tells us that because of the persecution that arose around the time of Stephen the martyr, a lot of these people left the city and came to places like Antioch. The only problem was they were not the same people they had been when they arrived in Jerusalem before they heard the gospel. And the text says that 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. Meaning this: these people who had had their lives rearranged in Jerusalem find themselves in Antioch, and then they start preaching the gospel because they're different. And what happens? Those people who believe turn to the Lord. Meaning there is a turn when you come to the Lord. It's not just, okay, I'm going in the same way. Martin Luther said it famously, the Christian life is one of constant repentance. Meaning this, that it's a constant change from what you used to be to the things of the Lord. Things— in Ephesians we talked about things you put off and things you put on. There is a constant change that begins. The gospel, when you encounter it truly and the Lord opens your eyes and saves you, does not leave you where you are.
Recent preaching context
The three sermons immediately preceding this one in the preaching schedule.
Discuss · apply · pray
6 questions for your group this week
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In Acts 13:1-3, the church at Antioch is described as a community of prophets and teachers gathered together when the Holy Spirit speaks. What does this tell us about how God typically directs His people — and what does it suggest about the danger of trying to discern our calling alone?Acts 13:1-3→ Where in your own life right now are you trying to figure something out spiritually without actually bringing it to your church community?
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Ricky said that 'the gospel produces a consistent internal pressure that makes remaining spiritually stationary impossible.' What does that pressure feel like in your own life, and what are you tempted to do when you feel it?
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Look at Acts 13:5 — Paul and Barnabas had 'John also as their helper.' Why do you think the text bothers to mention John's presence, and what does that suggest about how God equips us for the work He calls us to do?Acts 13:5→ Who is a 'John' in your life right now — someone God has given you to strengthen you in your calling?
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The sermon argues that every Christian is a 'sent Christian' — there is no category of unsent believer. How does that claim sit with you, and what makes us want to believe there could be?Acts 1:8
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When you think about being 'sent' into your workplace, your neighborhood, or your family with the gospel, what specific fear or hesitation comes up first — and what would it mean to believe that God has given you everything you actually need?
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Ricky named the tension of living as a Christian during Pride Month, arguing that the gospel — not political strategy — is what our culture actually needs. How do you navigate that tension in your own spheres of influence, and where are you tempted to replace gospel faithfulness with either silence or cultural victory?
5-day reading plan
This week we walk through what it means to be a sent Christian—from the church's identity as God's sent community, to the Spirit's empowering presence, to the Word's unstoppable power, to your personal calling, and finally to the courage required to witness in a watching world.
In Acts 11, the scattered believers from Jerusalem arrived in Antioch and began speaking the Word not just to their own community but to the Greeks—people entirely outside their ethnic and religious circle. This is the ripple: grace received becomes grace extended. The church didn't hoard the gospel; they carried it forward into new soil. Notice that this outward movement wasn't optional—it was the natural overflow of encountering Christ.
Paul writes to the ordinary church at Ephesus: 'I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.' Every member receives the same calling—not in identical form, but in equal weight. Apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, and you—all fitted with gifts and all sent. There is no category of unsent believer in the New Testament. You've been called, and that call sends you into your own Jerusalem.
Jesus promises: '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.' This isn't a command to go forth and figure it out alone. This is a promise of divine equipment—the Spirit's power, the apostles' community, the Word's authority. When you feel overwhelmed by your calling, ask: am I trying to do this alone, or have I linked arms with God's people and trusted God's Spirit?
As Paul and Barnabas moved through the synagogues, they proclaimed the Word of God. They didn't rely on their charisma or their strategy; they relied on the Word itself. That Word bore fruit then. That Word bears fruit now. When you witness to a friend, share with a neighbor, or invite someone into church, you're not responsible for the outcome—you're responsible for faithfulness. The Word does its own work.
In Antioch, the church fasted and prayed together, and together they heard the Holy Spirit's call on Paul and Barnabas. The calling came in community. If you're sensing that God is calling you to something—a conversation, a witness, a risk—don't figure it out in your bedroom. Bring it to the people who love Jesus and love you. God's wisdom often comes through the mouth of his people. You don't have to go it alone, and you shouldn't.
Father, Send Us With Everything We Need
Father, we come before you in gratitude for the gospel that has found us, changed us, and now sends us. You have not left us as we were — the grace of Christ has made us new, and that newness demands a sent life. We confess that we often want to remain where we are, comfortable in the blessings you have given us, reluctant to step into the neighborhoods and workplaces and families you have placed us in as witnesses. We feel small, unprepared, overwhelmed by the darkness around us. We sometimes think the gospel is meant to be a private treasure, kept safe within ourselves, rather than the power that ripples outward to transform the lives of others (Acts 13:5).
But here is the good news: we are not sent alone, and we are not sent unprepared. You have given us your people — the church is not a collection of isolated believers but a community bound together by your Spirit, where we receive wisdom, courage, and partnership for the work ahead (Acts 13:2-3). You have given us your Word, living and active, carrying its own power to transform hearts and minds. You have given us your Spirit, who fills us and speaks through us. And you have given us your hand — your faithfulness, your provision, your sovereign care over the very places and people we are sent to (Acts 13:1-12). We receive these gifts not because we are eloquent or sufficient in ourselves, but because you are.
Grant us, Father, the courage to step into our sent calling this week — in our homes, our workplaces, our neighborhoods, our schools. Free us from the illusion that we must figure this out alone. Give us eyes to see the brothers and sisters you have placed beside us, and hearts willing to link arms with them in faithful witness. When we feel overwhelmed, remind us that the power is not ours but yours. When we are uncertain, direct us to your Word and to your people. And when we encounter resistance or darkness, strengthen us to speak the gospel with clarity and tenderness, knowing that the same God who sent his Son for our salvation will complete the work he has called us to do.
We commit ourselves to you as sent people — not because we are ready, but because you have sent us with everything we need. Glory to you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, both now and forever. Amen.
You're Sent, Not Stuck
This sermon centers on the idea that every Christian is 'sent' — called to witness to Jesus in their everyday world. The prompt anchors in the image of the early church in Antioch, who couldn't stay put after encountering Christ. Use this to help your family see that being sent isn't something that happens to missionaries someday — it's happening in your house, your school, your neighborhood, right now.
In the sermon, Ricky said that after the church in Antioch met Jesus, they couldn't stay where they were — they had to go. Think about your own week: where is one place God has already put you (your classroom, your sports team, your neighborhood, your family dinner table) where you could tell someone about Jesus or show them what Jesus is like? What would that look like?
Sent Together: Gospel and Culture
- What part of this sermon made you sit up in your seat—either because it convicted you, comforted you, or challenged how you've been thinking about your own calling to witness?
- Where in our marriage have we been tempted to stay comfortable rather than move outward together—whether that's in our neighborhood, our workplace, or how we talk about Jesus with friends who don't yet know Him?
- How can we pray for each other this week to live as sent people—that God would give us courage and clarity to bear witness to the gospel in the specific relationships and cultures He's placed us in?
Acts 13:2-3
While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, 'Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.' Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.
Why this verse: This verse captures the sermon's central claim: every Christian is sent with everything they need — God's people, God's Word, God's Spirit, and God's hand. It embodies the sent life by showing how the Spirit initiates the call, the community confirms and commissions it, and God's hand releases believers into mission.
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# Cross of Grace Church A church preaching expository sermons through the books of the Bible. ## Sermons - [The Call to Stand and Fight (Ephesians 6:10-20, 2023-05-14)](/CoGElPaso/sermons/2023/05/the-call-to-stand-and-fight) - [The Weapon of All-Prayer (Ephesians 6:17-20, 2023-05-21)](/CoGElPaso/sermons/2023/05/the-weapon-of-all-prayer) - [Christian Life is Together Life (2023-05-28)](/CoGElPaso/sermons/2023/05/christian-life-is-together-life) - [You Don't Have to Go But You Can't Stay Here (Acts 13:1-12, 2023-06-04)](/CoGElPaso/sermons/2023/06/you-don-t-have-to-go-but-you-can-t-stay-here) ## About - [About the church](/about) - [Plan a visit](/visit)
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