Life lessons from Tabitha — Acts 9

0:00 Okay. So, when I actually started down this path that I'm going to, speak about today, I actually had several women I was going to talk about. Once I dove into Tabitha, I realized that there's more than one message here. You're going to get one message today but there's a lot more information, available. So it's an exciting time for me.

0:22 I wanted to bring this up because I really am confident in my purpose for being up here and I am really confident in my purpose for the messages that I've done from the pulpit over the last several years, but I don't know that I've shared with you what I think that purpose is. So, I'm going to share it with you. If you go back to the first time I cracked open the book of James here, that would have been November 2018. My desire was to encourage you individually in growth. My desire was to encourage the entire organization, Westlake Bible Fellowship in growth.

1:07 And certainly, my desire today is to encourage you in growth. So I literally went back over every message that I preached up here since 2018 just to confirm that. So that's my purpose. So I do things a lot different than most. My focus is channeled in a different direction than most.

1:36 But my desire is for you. My desire is to edify the church. I am not up here for me. Anybody that gets up here can tell you, we're not up here for ourselves. But I think if we have the focus, I'm up here for every single one of you.

1:50 I am up here because of every single one of you. That really is what gives me the energy. Okay? That gives me the energy. So that's kind of a little bit of an opener.

2:03 The next thing I wanted to do, and this is no slight to Don and no slight to Andy, but I really appreciated the youngsters getting involved this morning in their heart and what they had to say. And if we take a look at it, we could take a look at the personality of Devin and how his personality comes through up here. Alright. We can take a look at the personality of Mason. Right?

2:28 And see how his personality comes up here. I'm not going to give you examples, but if you guys want to talk with me, I'll let you know what I feel when you guys are up here. Because it's an emotional thing. And definitely was able to feel the energy that Josh was bringing this morning. Who am I missing?

2:46 Timothy. Yeah. So Tim, and he... I've already had a conversation with him today. Man, I really love seeing his growth and how he is spreading out his message to, you know, include some of these thoughts that maybe we wouldn't necessarily bring.

3:05 Because because I I I think that bringing your heart to that first meeting and bringing your heart to this meeting is what God desires. Okay. So let's let's open up in a word of prayer real quick. Lord, we we thank you for this time to come together to share. Lord, I just pray that you bless this time and I pray that you bless everybody individually and that we can grow together through this.

3:28 Alright. So, again, I I wanted to make sure that I was clear. Let me give you my purpose for for today's today's message. My explicit purpose. Today, we will look at the life of Tabitha and we will uncover the lessons that we can learn from her that will help us grow in our relationship with God, help us grow in our relationship with others.

3:53 Specifically, I believe that we will learn that using our gifts for the edification of the church, God will be glorified. That's the purpose of this. And if I didn't hit it, tell me. I'm happy to be criticized. Tell me, Bob, you didn't hit it.

4:14 You missed a mark. That doesn't bother me because my purpose is to serve you while I'm up here today. So let's take a look at this statement here. I believe I believe we will learn that using our gifts for the edification of of the church, God will be glorified. And when I when I think of that, the first thing that I think of is, I I think of the West mister...

4:53 So what that does for me is it begs this question. What were you created for? What was your purpose? This is the opportunity for you to share with me. What you feel we were created for or that you were created for.

5:06 So I'm happy to take anybody's comments. Yes, go ahead Mindy. To love God and to love others. Yes. Created for relationship with God.

5:19 Created for a relationship with God. What else do we have? To worship him. To worship him. For good works.

5:29 Thanks for doing the homework ahead of time, Jim. To show an example. Amen to that. Yeah. What else?

5:44 To Right. Help other Okay. So these are all great answers. Right? How about, I mean if we go back to Genesis.

5:57 Right? What what does what does Genesis tell us that we are supposed to do? And multiply. Be fruitful and multiply. Go ahead, Kevin.

6:06 Because we... You and I talked about this yesterday, so I knew you'd have it. Take dominion of the earth and subdue it. So when we when when we take a look at this concept, we can dive deep. Can we not?

6:23 When we try to explore what is our purpose, we can take a real deep dive. You know, it's how much time do we want to actually devote to that thought is what it is. Because we can get lost in that thought for a long time. So I'm going go to this one, Ephesians two ten. Alright.

6:43 So this is just one one part. Right? We, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works. Thank you, Jim. Which God prepared ahead of time for us.

6:59 Right? So here's the next question. What are good works? Yes. We do for others.

7:16 Okay. Things we do for others. In the name of Lord Jesus. Things we do for others in the name of Lord Jesus or are you adding on to that or are you just... Okay.

7:25 Adding on. Not that his answer wasn't that one. Bob, I didn't tell you ahead of time, but I think I love how you define good works. Are you willing to share that with us? That's okay.

7:47 You'll you'll figure it out. And and that is in alignment with what you told me before. You told me we can't do good works. It's the Holy Spirit that makes us. Right?

8:10 That's even better than... Exactly. When we get out of the way. What else? Anybody else have any ideas of good works?

8:26 Okay, I'll take that one too. Yes. Go ahead Philip. Mindy, you wanted to. Okay.

9:08 So we're talking about good works temp. Put that in layman's terms. Like I... Look, look, and and the only reason I say that because I know you can't. You gave me a real intellectual answer, but I know you can share feelings.

9:25 So so put it in layman's terms. So I don't remember the exact date, but I know it's in my notes because I looked at my notes. I I said something. This was before the Hiltons moved back. And I said this sounds like either something Andy, Andy Hilton would say or Andy Griffith would say.

9:47 What's they're, for those of you that don't know, they actually lived close to each other or Andy took me through Mayberry or what's the real name of it? Mount Mount Airy. Yeah, so. And do you remember what that comment was? Does anybody remember?

10:08 What's in the well comes up in the bucket, right? An outward manifestation. What is in my soul? Okay, so it's an outward, say, how did you say it again, Tim? What's in the well comes up in the bucket?

10:24 Zach, your hand was up. Be careful now.

10:32 With customers like having a good relationship and then with that good relationship have a good like strong foundation with them.

10:40 Yes, absolutely. Have a strong foundation with them. Okay. Anybody else want to act or want to add to that? Wow, Joanne.

10:55 An expression of our faith. Great. We're gonna talk about faith if we have enough time. So, on to that thought too. Jenna?

11:17 I love that. I love that. Some, whoever's taking notes, mark that down and send it to me in an email. Trevor, you, Trevor, your hand was up. God's Obedience to God's command.

11:30 Again... Yeah. Go ahead, Devin. Awesome. Yeah, Mindy.

11:53 Romans twelve two, right? Yeah. Go ahead, Jim. Absolutely. Yep.

12:20 Thanks for bringing that up, right? You know, again, I assume way too much. Yeah, that's... It is... So good works as as Bob pointed out, Holy Spirit working through us when we get out of the way.

12:32 It is for God's glory. It is not for our glory individually. It's not for our glory collectively. Alright. So let's let's move on to the next.

13:01 Yeah, this is probably one of those questions that we ponder often. You all know that I'm a fan of James. And there's there's many reasons why. And he talks about faith without works is dead, right? Doesn't mean that if you have faith and don't do works, you aren't saved.

13:24 Right, you can be saved and not do good works. I think of people that are focused on themselves and maybe have a personality where they're uncomfortable going outside of their comfort zones. If I look at the idea of a monk, right? A monk, Martin Luther, right? Until he broke through, right?

13:51 Just sitting there and maybe praising God and worshiping God, but individually by themselves. So I don't... I I truly believe that you could be saved and and not do good works, but I also believe that you cannot do good works unless you're saved. All right, and so let's look at this. Hopefully I didn't confuse you with that because I think I confused myself.

14:14 Well, this isn't being recorded, so we'll move on. Ephesians two:eight-nine, For we are saved by grace. All right. Let me pause and unpack this word grace for a second. I think I think too much.

14:35 We we we dive into this word grace and we again, I think we we jump over it. And I think when I... Well, we accept it and try to explain it is what is what I'm is what I'm saying. We accept it and try to explain it. But when I look at the word grace, especially as it relates to these verses right here, I'm going to ask you a question.

15:04 What's the opposite of grace? This isn't guess what's in the preacher's head. I'm just going to tell you what I think the opposite of grace is, unless you have a thought. Yes. Justice.

15:18 The opposite of grace is justice. Okay. I'd be happy to engage in that conversation. Anybody else? Condemnation.

15:32 Okay. Let me show you what I think it is. The opposite of grace is legalism. The opposite of grace according to Bob Markovich, and Bob Markovich only, is legalism. If we had this series on Don just did for us.

15:59 Humility. On humility, right? And pride. And if we think grace, we always enjoy giving ourselves grace. Right?

16:10 We'll go through that red light, but that person, when we're trying to go through a green light, that person better not go through that red light. Right? So we we give ourselves grace. The more grace you have, the less judgmental you are. The more grace you have, the less judgmental you are.

16:29 The more grace you have, the happier and more joyful you are. Alright? So we aren't saved by good works because good works is legalism. There's nothing that we can do at all for us to be able to justify ourself to god and deserve to be with him. Absolutely zero.

16:56 Okay? For we are saved by grace through faith. Grace through faith. And this is not from yourselves. It is God's gift.

17:10 Not from works. So that no one can boast. Right? Because God knows that if we earn something, we would be prideful. And if we're prideful, that's sin.

17:24 And if we have sin, that's eternal separation from God unless we have a relationship through God, with God, through Jesus Christ. And it's pretty simple. It's extremely simple. So the easiest decision I ever made was to say, I give up. I can't win this battle anymore.

17:47 I can't be good enough. Lord, I accept your death for my sins. Boom. Then move forward. Okay?

18:27 And Denzel, you're right. You called me out on it yesterday and I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do it. I think Tabitha is just an absolutely beautiful name. I really do.

18:39 Dorcas, not so much. In Joppa. Alright, Tim. Did you study anything about Joppa while you were doing Jonah? Okay.

18:54 What do you know about Joppa? Yep. Port city. What do we know about port cities? There's usually wealth.

19:05 Right? There's usually a lot of men at that time were the sailors. A lot of men that lived there that would get on the boats and would travel around. So there were a lot of families. So there's a lot of families.

19:17 There's a lot of wealth. There's a lot of men that go out on ships. There's a lot of death because ships sink. Men die. Women are widows.

19:27 Yep. Right? Okay. If you read the story, you got that already, but I just wanted to make sure I pointed that out. In Joppa, there was a disciple...

19:38 Alright. Maybe one of these trivia questions. The only time, this is the first time in the New Testament where a female name and the word disciple were used together. When was the second time? There wasn't.

19:58 This is the only time that a female and the word disciple were used together. I don't know why. I don't think that there's any... I I can't sit here and make any assumptions on that, but I think what it what it does is it tells us the character, the character of Tabitha. Alright.

20:18 In Joppa, there was a disciple named Tabitha, which translated to Dorcas. Now, why am I why am I... I said yesterday when we were doing cutting down trees, I said, I'm not going to say that dorkus, but listen to this. Dorkus is named for the gazelle, a small, graceful, and swift antelope known for its radiant, glowing eyes. This is Tabitha.

20:51 Radiant, glowing eyes. So that's what that name Dorcas means. She was always doing good works and acts of charity. Why, and I don't know the answer to this, why are good works and acts of charity separated? What is an act of charity?

21:22 Yes. Exactly. So charity is supporting those people that are not as well off as us. That's what charity is. Yes?

22:17 Thanks, Devin. Pardon me? I think they don't know. You'd amen on that one? Okay.

22:22 Bob? Now you guys know why I want to have a podcast after every message because the wisdom that's in this crowd is amazing. That's right. I agree. I didn't even think about that.

22:42 Right? That there's no expectation because they can't give back. Right? About that time she became sick and died. Yay, thanks.

22:54 After washing her, they placed her in a room upstairs since Lydda was near Joppa. The disciples heard that Peter was there and sent two men to him who urged him, don't delay in coming with us. Peter got up, went with them. When he arrived, they led him to the upstairs, and all the widows approached him weeping and showing him the robes and clothes that Dorcas had made while she was with them. Peter sent them all out of the room.

23:26 He knelt down, prayed, and turning toward the body said, Tabitha, get up. She opened her eyes, saw Peter, and sat up. He gave her his hand and helped her stand. He called the saints and widows and presented her alive. This became known throughout Joppa, and many believed in the Lord.

24:10 Anybody have that desire? Alright, Devin's coming up. Alright, we have the math teacher who's gonna show us if he knows how to spell. For those of you that know me, I'm extremely dyslexic and I can't spell hello. So...

24:30 See, you'll never know what you learn. Alright. So opening it up. I'm going to ask you a question first of all. Who of which of you were able to come up with a minimum of three life lessons?

24:59 Just for those of you that don't know, I gave homework and this was one of the questions. Who was able to come up with three or more? How many did you ask for? Two or three. Did anybody?

25:19 See, some of us, when we're students, we go a little further than what we're asked. We're overachievers. I set you up. Because I know that there's more than two or three. But, let's see if we come up with different ones.

25:41 So who wants to offer up one? Go ahead. Wasn't bitter. And and and no, don't... Don't don't apologize.

26:11 I didn't... I sat in my studio a long time and I didn't come up with that one. I love that. She wasn't bitter when she was brought back to life. I agree that you can think outside of the box on this.

26:33 That's the idea here. Wasn't bitter when she was brought back to life. Love it. What else? Others.

26:42 Served others. Yep. That's two. She was beloved. She was loved by the people she served.

26:55 That's another one. Go ahead, Mace. How are you writing that one down Devin? Okay, do I have another one? Any others?

27:25 She discipled others. Joanne, were you reading my notes? Her life was an example. Yes? Christ follower.

27:43 Did we have disciple now? Okay. So Christ follower, I like that. Okay, Bob? She gave- Is it the legacy?

28:11 There you go. Okay. She she she had a legacy. My gosh. Yes.

28:38 So, she gave materially, materially and spiritually. I I don't know. I'm not good at math. Devin, are we above two or three? We we have more than two or three?

28:48 Yeah, we do. Go ahead. Yeah, think about that, right? So, all right, so many of us are challenged with depression and anxiety. And when we are, we kind of find it hard to move.

29:35 But at least that's my experience, kind of find it hard to move. And it would appear as though she had every right to have depression and anxiety. Yet, she was full of going out and giving materially. Absolutely. Would you think that, do you think that that brought her joy?

29:55 Think it brought her happiness? What else? Yes? We tried to get a bigger whiteboard, but I was voted down. Tim.

31:15 My gosh, yeah, right? So you would think that the the the possibility of her bringing that I that that faith to them, right? Was that that kind of in alignment of what you're thinking or? Wow. Other...

31:46 Yeah, go ahead, Kevin. Right on. Anybody else? Alright. Let's see how my thoughts compare with what we have here.

33:07 Number two, she was devoted to good works. Number three, acts of charity. Is it up there? Okay, acts of charity. Number four, she died.

33:26 And it was brought up. Yep. She died, right? She wasn't bitter about coming back. Recording in progress.

33:33 Let me ask you this. Raise your hand if you believe you're not going to die. Okay, so Roger and Bob and Kevin think that they're going to be here when the rapture comes. I'm assuming that's why you think you're not going to die. Yeah, you didn't put his hand up.

33:52 Alright. Yeah, and I do like, and I'm glad somebody else out there said it, legacy. Right? Legacy. We're all going to die.

34:02 What's the legacy that we're going to leave behind? And again, Nancy reminded me yesterday of the song, we don't want to leave a legacy about ourselves, but we're leaving a legacy about the Lord. Right? Are we an instrument of Jesus Christ, and are we leaving that legacy behind? So I had the I had the...

34:26 Recording stop. Had the good fortune of being able to speak a little bit at Dave Bingham's funeral. And the point that I was trying to drive home there is that he was faithful. He was faithful. And the legacy that Jim Bingham, I'm sorry, sorry Jim.

34:48 The legacy that Dave Bingham left me was being faithful. And just to give you a little... I'm going let you know this. So I've got this morning routine that I do. I've got a binder that's about that thick, I flip through most of it on every day.

35:02 And the last document, the last flip page that's in there, it says, are you faithful? Are you faithful? Right? So that's a question, right? What's our legacy going to be when we die?

35:16 In fellowship with other disciples, that's up there, right? Somewhere, something like that? Love. Okay. Okay.

35:25 Took care of the material needs of others. Took care of the material needs of others. Served widows. We're called to serve widows and orphans, are we not? She did.

35:37 Number eight, she was beloved in the community. She was beloved in the community. And how do I pull this out? Because the women were bawling their eyes out as a result of her death. Peter had to ask them to leave.

35:56 Again, I don't want to put words in the scripture, but it's gotta... You you... The the amount of emotion, I believe, that these women showed as a result of their love for her, they were loud. And we know that, we do know that current Jewish tradition is to be loud and wail and cover mirrors and the whole nine yards when somebody dies. Alright?

36:20 So I don't think that it was any different there. Peter actually had to ask him to leave the room. I don't know if that was the reason why he asked, I have no idea, but he did ask him to leave the room. She was beloved in the community, had a spirit of generosity. Right, Denzel?

36:34 That's kind of what Denzel said. She had a spirit of generosity. And number 10, and this is why I say I have 11, lived a fulfilled and faithful life. Now, Andy said, fool. Andy said, fool.

36:47 She was fool. Now I'm saying that she lived a fulfilled and faithful life. Okay. Devin, thank you so much. I appreciate that.

36:59 Yes, can you give him a little hand? We can do that. We're to clap in church. Alright. Now, so that last one, why do I think Tabitha lived a fulfilled and faithful life?

37:51 I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you took me in. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you took care of me. I was in prison and you visited me.

38:10 Then the righteous will answer him, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and take you in? Or without clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and visit you? Here's verse 40.

38:39 And the king will answer, well the king will answer them. Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me. So the reason why I think Tabitha lived a fulfilled and faithful life is because this is what she did. What she did is illustrated right here. I don't know that I I...

39:11 I'm I'm saying her her goal wasn't to live this because the book of Matthew wasn't even written at this point when when we when we experience this with the book of Acts in this in the story. Yet, we can use her, we can use Tabitha as an illustration for living her life for others, for serving her purpose. I believe when she truly did die, that she heard, Well done, Thy good and faithful servant. She used what she had. She used her spiritual gifts.

39:51 She used her means. She understood what the people in the community needed. And she went out and did it. And she... It doesn't seem anywhere here that she was looking to be patted on the back.

40:07 She did it because she loved them. She did it because she wanted to see people saved. She did it because she wanted people to have a relationship with Jesus. She did it not out of her own desire. It's because it was in her soul, and this was, Tim, to use your words, an outward manifestation of what was in her soul.

40:33 What was in the well came up in the bucket. And this is just an absolutely beautiful illustration. And maybe maybe this is the reason why I think Tabitha is such a beautiful name. Because we see her here and what she did. And the legacy that she left behind.

40:53 Wouldn't that be wonderful if we were individually, if we were as a body at Westlake Bible Fellowship, to be able to leave that legacy behind. Now here's a point, man. All this being said, it takes a lot of discipline to live the life that you are called by God to live. It takes discipline. You have gifts.

41:26 Everybody that is called by God has gift. At least a gift, has gifts. But it takes discipline to use them. Now the best thing about discipline, the way we become disciplined is we develop habits. Right?

41:44 I mean, I'll use Christian as an example. He goes to Edgewater every Saturday. It's a habit. He has to do it now. He can't not not do it.

41:54 Triple negative. So we have to build these habits into our lives because quite frankly, there's going to be something that happens that says, I don't want to get out of bed and do it this morning. But when you build these habits, it becomes part of our life and we become disciplined in doing them. So it takes a lot of discipline to live this life that you are called to... Called by God to live.

42:23 Now part of part of my morning routine, I've got a I've got a list of of songs that I that I listen to every morning. And one of them is Rescue by Lauren Daigle. Lauren Daigle. And so I put this up here. I'm asking you.

42:46 I'm asking you. Don't be the sum of every high and every low. This is a lyric from her. Don't be the sum of every high and every low. I understand.

42:58 I'm the same way. That's how I live life most of the time. But we need to become disciplined in our life for Christ so that we live the life that god created us to live. And we need to do that collectively as a body at Westlake Bible Fellowship so that we do what god created us to do. I'm I'm I'm out of time.

43:22 But, you know, I've always felt I've always felt that the gifts, skills, and abilities of people that go to Westlake Bible Fellowship, we can accomplish great things for god. As long as we get into the boat and row in the same direction together. The gifting that people have in this body absolutely astounds me. He brought us together for a purpose. He brought us together for a reason, to work together.

44:23 And if I can't say yes to that, I gotta become disciplined. I gotta understand what my spiritual gifts are. Then I need to go out and do them. And understand, using your spiritual gifts is not easy. You have to develop them.

44:38 They're like a muscle. If you let it atrophy, it ain't going to be worth anything. So we have to take what God has given us, and we to do the Romans 12 thing, we have to give up our life, we have to get on the altar, we need to be a living sacrifice. And we do that by doing what He's called us to do every day as often as possible for his glory. Let's pray.

45:35 I don't care how much this hurts. I don't care how scared I am. Lord, I know that you will take care of me because I'm doing what you asked me to do. And I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.