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Race for the Lost

David Sorn

Apr 13, 2025

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In Acts 9, we find out that Dorcas is dead. But her friends haven’t given up hope and agree to go on the race of a lifetime!

MESSAGE TRANSCRIPT

  1. INTRODUCTION
    1. (Easter Weekend Service Times slide)
    2. Good morning again! My name is David Sorn, and I’m the Lead Pastor here at Renovation Church.
      1. We are getting so excited about what God is going to do next weekend at our Easter services.
        1. Our Egg Hunt pre-registrations (which you don’t need to pre-register because you attend here), but our pre-registrations for first time guests are coming in at an absolute record-pace.
          1. And so we know that we’re going to be able to share the gospel with so many people who don’t know Christ
            1. And not just parents and kids that are coming also for the egg hunt…
            2. But so many people without kids (or young kids) come to our Easter services for the first time too.
              1. It’s like Super Bowl weekend for the church.
    3. And because we’ll have, I don’t know, 500-1,000 non-followers of Christ in the room next weekend, I’m going to spend my message next week giving a very clear gospel presentation.
      1. The Lord has used this outreach so tremendously over the past number of years, and it has changed not only individuals, but entire families for Christ.
        1. So when you pray at your meals, when you pray in the morning, whenever you’re praying this week, would you please be specifically praying for this outreach?
    4. Also, I know SO Many of you are volunteering at the egg hunt or even at multiple services on your volunteer teams next weekend…
      1. but if you are able to adjust the service time you attend in here, that will help a lot.
        1. We are expecting to be VERY packed at those last 3 services on Sunday.
          1. The very best thing you can do is come to 8:00am.
            1. We will have room there!
          2. Or, on Saturday!. Saturday is gonna be busy, but not as busy as those 3 Sunday later Sunday services
        2. Now, if your coworker or your family member says they are coming for the first time, and they want to come at 10:20, then you come at 10:20!
          1. But if no one can come with you, then we ask that you do what you can to open up seats for all of the people coming to hear the eternity-changing gospel for the first time!
    5. Okay, because we are coming up on such a significant outreach for our church, I wanted to have us be in a passage of Scripture that would be really helpful for us as we prepare for next weekend.
      1. Acts 9:36-42
      2. Page 750
        1. If you haven’t read it before, the Book of Acts is one of my favorite books in the Bible.
          1. It’s the story of how the church got started after Jesus ascended back to heaven.
        2. And we’re going to read a story today about one of Jesus’ original 12 disciples, Peter.
    6. Let’s take a look
      1. (Acts 9:36-42) – NIV
      2. 36 In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (in Greek her name is Dorcas); she was always doing good and helping the poor. 37 About that time she became sick and died, and her body was washed and placed in an upstairs room. 38 Lydda was near Joppa; so when the disciples heard that Peter was in Lydda, they sent two men to him and urged him, “Please come at once!”
        39 Peter went with them, and when he arrived he was taken upstairs to the room. All the widows stood around him, crying and showing him the robes and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them.
        40 Peter sent them all out of the room; then he got down on his knees and prayed. Turning toward the dead woman, he said, “Tabitha, get up.” She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter she sat up. 41 He took her by the hand and helped her to her feet. Then he called for the believers, especially the widows, and presented her to them alive. 42 This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord.
    7. (RACE FOR THE LOST)
    8. Okay, so today we’re learning about Dorcas.
      1. Dorcas and Tabitha is actually just the same name.
        1. Tabitha is her name is Aramaic, Dorcas is her name in Greek.
          1. And they both mean “Gazelle”
      2. And Dorcas was this amazing Christian woman who was always helping the poor.
        1. Specifically, by making much-needed clothing for them.
          1. I always notice verse 39 where Peter arrives and the inconsolable widows just start showing him stuff that Dorcas had made for them
  2. I’ve been to a lot of funerals, and I can tell you, people do this kind of stuff.
    1. They show you something the person gave them or made…it’s part of the grieving process.
  3. But somebody in the group (in Acts 9) has not moved on to that grieving phase…somebody is holding out for a miracle.
    1. The first clue is that the verse 37 tells us they washed Dorcas’ deceased body and put it in an upstairs room.
      1. Most of us read that, and we’re like, “Okay, weird. Wouldn’t personally do that. But probably some ancient custom I don’t know about.”
    2. Your instincts are kind of right. It was actually highly unusual to place a corpse upstairs in the living quarters that were often reserved for guests.
      1. The normal custom was to apply an initial coating of spiced resin, and wrap the body in strips of linen (we see these linens on both Jesus & Lazarus in the Bible)…
        1. And then, you’d bury the body within the day.
      2. In fact, if you lived in Jerusalem, it was law that you had to do it by sundown
        1. Some exceptions were made for rural cities, but most people were buried the same day they died.
  4. So the fact that they’ve put Dorcas upstairs, and are not burying her…is a clue that something is up.
    1. And while most friends are just grieving Dorcas’ passing, we know there had to have been one friend, who cleared their throat, and said, “What if we pray for her to come back from the dead?”
      1. And that’s crazy faith!
    2. And I mean, you can just read the Bible and say, “Yeah, they should have faith!”
      1. But would you?
        1. If your friend died tomorrow, would you go over to their house and pray for them to be raised from the dead, or would you be like, “Yeah, that’s weird”
    3. Because remember, Dorcas’ friends were not superheroes; they were regular human beings just like you!
      1. But they had been seeing God do some pretty amazing and miraculous things, and so someone must have said, “I don’t think God’s done with her yet! Let’s get Peter to pray over Dorcas!
    4. Now, it’s not that they couldn’t have prayed for such a thing themselves, but often in spiritual gifts, there are people who have higher amounts of a particular gift than others.
      1. We can all teach someone something, but some truly have the spiritual gift of teaching.
      2. We can all host a friend, but some truly have the spiritual gift of hospitality.
      3. And all who have the Holy Spirit could theoretically heal someone, but some can have the spiritual gift for it.
        1. And Peter has already demonstrated that he has this gift of healing several times in the Book of Acts.
  5. And here’s the thing about this passage that most amazes me!
    1. And it’s part of why I love studying the Bible.
      1. A number of years ago, I was reading through Acts, and I got to this passage, and I read that they sent for Peter, and I knew that they culturally only had until sundown for him to get there…
      2. …so I started thinking, “How far is Lydda (the city where Peter was) from Joppa (the city Dorcas’ friends are in)?
        1. SO I looked it up.
          1. And you want to know??
          2. It’s 11 miles! ELEVEN!
      3. And they don’t just have to get there, they gotta get Peter, and they’ve gotta get back! By sundown!
        1. That’s 22 miles!
          1. Almost a marathon!
    2. And they’re not reserving an uber for Peter.
      1. There were no cars, no bikes, not even horses for the average person.
      2. They’re going to have to run!
        1. Now, if you were training for a marathon, and you had 21st century running shoes (not 1st century sandals), you might be able to complete that 22-mile journey in 3 to 4 hours.
          1. Realistically, this is going to take them probably closer to 8 or 9 or even 10 hours to complete the round-trip.
            1. And so if it’s morning, or already mid-morning, they’re going to have to race to get Peter there and back…
              1. …otherwise they’re going to bring cultural shame on their families by not burying Dorcas by sundown.
  6. The race is on.
    1. And I love this picture.
    2. What great lengths these friends were willing to go through for God to work not in THEIR life, but their friend’s life.
      1. And I also love it because it’s a perfect connection of human will and God’s sovereign will.
        1. I mean for goodness sakes, they have to run 22 miles to save their friend… but they weren’t 100% sure what God would do.
          1. Sure, they had faith.
          2. But in the end, it was still up to God.
            1. It’s on God to do the miracle; it’s on us to run.
  7. And I want to ask you…are you running for your friends?
    1. Specifically your friends & family that don’t know Christ.
  8. Because, think about it…Dorcas isn’t just sick. She’s not just hurting. Dorcas is Dead.
    1. And when you’re dead…there’s nothing you can do to help yourself.
      1. But when you’re sick…. Totally different story.
  9. I hate being sick. I could be wrong, but I gotta think I’m in the 90th percentile of people who hate being sick.
    1. If anyone even sniffles around me, I’ll say, “Are you sick? You got something?”
      1. And let me tell you why I hate being sick:
      2. …it’s because as I’ve been preaching for 20 years, now 4 services a Sunday (preaching 9 times next weekend!), and so my voice doesn’t have the strength that it used to.
        1. And when I get sick, so often, I lose my voice, which is brutal on my life and ministry.
      3. In fact, I had one stretch, back when we met at Northpoint Elementary, where I kept losing my voice.
        1. I literally wouldn’t talk all week to save up for Sunday morning (I’d make signs to my family, and type out my thoughts on a computer at work), and then I’d get through one service on Sunday morning…
          1. …and my voice would be gone.
        2. We’d literally have to video the first service, and show the 2nd service the video from 1st service.
      4. It went on like this for a month.
        1. Imagine not talking for a month!!
          1. Some of you are like, “I know some people that I’d like to not talk for a month” 😊
            1. Stop!
        2. Well, eventually, we just had to bring in a number of guest speakers, until I could get it back.
      5. So I HATE being sick.
        1. I’ll do everything thing I can to avoid it, or try and save my voice if I feel a sickness coming on.
  10. But here’s the thing…when you’re dead…there’s nothing YOU can do. You’re dead.
    1. Dorcas is a physical representation of what is a spiritual reality for a lot of people.
      1. And it makes me think of our friends and family that don’t know Jesus.
        1. Because the Bible says that they’re spiritually dead.
          1. In Colossians & Ephesian, it says they are “Dead in their sins”
            1. Because without the forgiveness of Jesus…without Jesus REMOVING the penalty for their sins…they’re spiritually dead…and their eternal destination is hell.
        2. And the crazy thing is…many of them (most of them) have no idea that they’re dead.
          1. I know what it’s like to be there…I had NO idea.
    2. But when you’re sick…you know you’re sick…you hate being sick…you’re trying to get better…
      1. But our friends and family that don’t know Jesus…right now…they are dead in their sins…and most of them aren’t trying to do anything about it…because they don’t KNOW to do anything about it.
        1. Or maybe they do feel lost, or they do feel pain, but they don’t know WHY
    3. So right now…that mission falls to us.
      1. And I ask you…will you run?
      2. Will you join the race for the lost?
  11. I want you to think of your friends, coworkers, neighbors, family members who don’t know Christ.
    1. And think of them as Dorcas.
      1. They need you. They need you to run for them. To bring resurrection, and salvation to them.
  12. But I know what some of you are thinking, you’re thinking, “David, there’s no way that my sister, or my neighbor, is going to respond to me sharing the gospel or my testimony with them…or even just inviting them to church.”
    1. And I would ask you: “Is the possibility of them coming to Christ smaller than the possibility that Dorcas friends’ faced when they said, “Let’s run 11 miles, find some guy we don’t even really know, convince him to come back with us, run another 11 miles, & see if he can RAISE HER FROM THE DEAD”
      1. Surely that was even crazier than the situations we face!
        1. But they went! They got up and ran!
          1. Why?
          2. Because they believed in a BIG God!
        2. Do you?? Do you believe in a BIG God?
          1. Stop thinking about how big the obstacle is that’s keeping them from Christ…
            1. …and start thinking about how BIG your God is!
              1. And run!
    2. In fact, what I want you to do right now, is to grab this card at your chair.
      1. It’s either underneath the chair in front of you or in the chair pocket in front of you if you’re in the elevated seating
        1. This is our My Five Card, and we’re going to do this together as a church this week.
          1. And I want you to (right now, grab a pen) to start writing names on here of people you know locally that don’t know Christ.
            1. If you can only get 2, 2 is better than zero.
              1. But aim for 5
        2. Start writing names.
          1. And we want you to pray for these 5 people every day this week that they would come this next weekend when you invite them.
            1. When you run for them.
            2. And you enter the Race the Lost.
              1. And it doesn’t have to be an invite to church.
                1. You can tell them your story, tell them what God has done in your life.
                2. Tell them the Gospel.
          2. We just know that this has been such an effective event to lead so many to Christ, that we want to use the opportunities that are in front of us.
  13. In fact, I want to build your faith in how Big our God is.
    1. So if you’re going, “I mean, I could write their name down, but my friend would just say no. My neighbor would never come.”
      1. I want to build your faith, so I want to invite Natasha Dahm up on stage, and I want you to hear her testimony.
        1. Natasha Testimony
  14. We pray the impossible because God does the impossible.
    1. He changes lives.
    2. So I’m asking you, will you run?
      1. Will you enter this race for the lost?
        1. Time is of the essence.
          1. Eternal permanence is coming for all of us.
            1. Just like Dorcas was eventually going to be buried in the ground….the opportunity buried.
      2. Will you run?
        1. Will you run for the people you know that haven’t yet experienced the incredible love and forgiveness you have?
          1. Will you be the one in the room that says, “What if…we run to Lydda and get Peter and pray for her to come back to life?”
          2. Will you be the one who says, “What if we started talking to our brother who doesn’t go to church about Jesus?”
      3. Will you be the one that says, “What if it’s possible because our God makes the impossible, possible?”
  15. And when God moves, He often moves exponentially.
    1. I don’t know if you caught it, but today’s passage, in verse 42, just ends with another miracle
      1. After Dorcas was brought back to life, it says, “This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord!”
        1. That’s part of what’s happening here in that you keep seeing so many more people stream in here every week, and we keep adding services!
          1. It’s because people keep getting saved.
          2. And God is resurrecting their LIFE.
            1. Their attitude changes…their countenance changes…their lifestyle changes…their family changes…everything changes.
              1. And those around them say, “What happened to you?”
                1. It’s like you used to be dead, and now you’re alive!
          3. And they say, “It’s Jesus! You gotta know him”
            1. And now their friends are finding Jesus.
        2. You’re seeing that in our baptisms.
          1. Just two weeks ago, we baptized Yet another person who just came to Christ 2 months ago when they were invited to a baptism of someone else who just came to Christ!
            1. That’s disciples who make disciples who make disciples.
  16. See, when you believe in a Big God, you will get up, and in FAITH, you will run, and when you run & share the gospel…there is no telling what God can do.
    1. Let me pray.

Copyright:

David Sorn

Renovation Church in Blaine, MN

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