I Love The Church: What If?

September 6th, 2026/Seventh Day Adventist

Story:

Anybody here watch the Marvel series What If...? The whole premise of the show is built around one question: What if one thing had happened differently? What if Peggy Carter became Captain America? What if T’Challa became Star-Lord? What if Ultron actually won? They take one moment, change one decision, and imagine how everything else might have turned out.

I think we all play our own version of What If...? What if I had taken that job? What if I had gone to that school? What if I had never sent that text? What if I had bought Bitcoin when my friend told me to?

But “What if?” can take us down two very different roads, because fear has a “what if,” and faith has a “what if.” Fear says, “What if it doesn't work? What if they reject me? What if I heard God wrong? What if I fail?” But faith asks different questions. What if God really is speaking? What if I obey? What if I invite them and they come? What if I pray and God answers? What if I walk across the room and discover God was already working in that person's life?

Unlike Marvel, most of the “what ifs” God puts in front of us aren't hypothetical. Every day we are given real opportunities to join God in what He's already doing. A name comes to your mind. You feel prompted to send a text. Pray for somebody. Give something. Invite someone. Forgive someone. Start something. Usually there's no dramatic music playing in the background. You don't know how significant the moment might be. So here's the question I want us to wrestle with today: What if you said yes to your calling and yielded to the Holy Spirit in every moment? What might be on the other side of your yes?

If you have your Bible, go with me to Acts 10.

Let's start with Acts 10:1–6.

Passage: Acts 10:1–6

There was a man in Caesarea named Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian Regiment. 2 He was a devout man and feared God along with his whole household. He did many charitable deeds for the Jewish people and always prayed to God. 3 About three in the afternoon he distinctly saw in a vision an angel of God who came in and said to him, “Cornelius.” 4 Staring at him in awe, he said, “What is it, Lord?” The angel told him, “Your prayers and your acts of charity have ascended as a memorial offering before God. 5 Now send men to Joppa and call for Simon, who is also named Peter.

Before we go further, let me give you just enough context to understand how significant this moment is. We're roughly ten years removed from Pentecost. Peter has watched the Holy Spirit fall, thousands get saved, miracles happen, Stephen becomes the first Christian martyr, persecution scatters the church, Philip takes the Gospel into Samaria, and Saul goes from trying to destroy the church to preaching Jesus. Peter himself has healed the sick, and right before this story he watched Tabitha raised from the dead.

Peter isn't a rookie. He's been walking with God, leading the church and seeing miracles for years. Yet ten years into this thing, God still has another barrier He wants Peter to cross. You never graduate from saying yes to God.

The Gospel has gone to Jews and crossed into Samaria, but now God is moving unmistakably into the Gentile world. “Gentile” translates the Greek word ethnos, meaning a nation or people, where we get language like “ethnic.” Cornelius is about as unmistakably Gentile as you can get. He's a Roman centurion, an officer representing the empire occupying Peter's people. Yet he's spiritually hungry. He fears God, prays and gives generously. One afternoon an angel appears and tells him to go find Peter.

Cornelius is in Caesarea, roughly 30 to 35 miles north of Joppa. Peter is down in Joppa staying with Simon the Tanner. Cornelius doesn't know Peter. Peter doesn't know Cornelius. Peter has no idea an angel just said his name 30 miles away. But God knows both of them. God is speaking in Caesarea, and God is about to speak in Joppa. Heaven is coordinating something neither of them can see.

What if God is already working in Caesarea while He's speaking to you in Joppa?

What if the person God puts on your heart is already praying?

What if your invitation intersects with someone's search?

What if your generosity intersects with someone's need?

God may be doing something on the other side of your obedience that you cannot see from where you're standing.

“NO, LORD”

Now Luke moves the camera down the coast to Peter. Cornelius's men start traveling toward Joppa, and while they're on the road, Peter goes onto the roof to pray.

READ ACTS 10:9–16

The next day, as they were traveling and nearing the city, Peter went up to pray on the roof about noon. 10 He became hungry and wanted to eat, but while they were preparing something, he fell into a trance. 11 He saw heaven opened and an object that resembled a large sheet coming down, being lowered by its four corners to the earth. 12 In it were all the four-footed animals and reptiles of the earth, and the birds of the sky. 13 A voice said to him, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat.” 14 “No, Lord!” Peter said. “For I have never eaten anything impure and ritually unclean.” 15 Again, a second time, the voice said to him, “What God has made clean, do not call impure.” 16 This happened three times, and suddenly the object was taken up into heaven.

Peter sees a sheet filled with animals, and a voice says, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat.” Peter responds, “No, Lord!” I love Peter because Peter has the spiritual gift of saying out loud what the rest of us would only think.

Bible teacher W. Graham Scroggie says, “You can say ‘No,’ and you can say ‘Lord’; but you cannot say ‘No, Lord!’” Those words don't belong together. If He's Lord, eventually my no has to become yes.

Before we judge Peter, we should probably admit how often we do the same thing. “Lord, I'll follow You, but I'm not forgiving them.” “Lord, use me, but don't make me uncomfortable.” “Lord, I'll be generous, but not if it costs too much.” “Lord, I'll share my faith, but not with that person.” We want Jesus to be Lord while maintaining veto power over His leadership.

And Peter doesn't immediately understand the vision. Verse 17 says he's “deeply perplexed.” While he's trying to figure it out, somebody knocks on the door.

READ ACTS 10:19–23

19 While Peter was thinking about the vision, the Spirit told him, “Three men are here looking for you. 20 Get up, go downstairs, and go with them with no doubts at all, because I have sent them.” 21 Then Peter went down to the men and said, “Here I am, the one you’re looking for. What is the reason you’re here?” 22 They said, “Cornelius, a centurion, an upright and God-fearing man, who has a good reputation with the whole Jewish nation, was divinely directed by a holy angel to call you to his house and to hear a message from you.” 23 Peter then invited them in and gave them lodging.

“The Spirit told him, ‘Three men are here looking for you. Get up, go downstairs, and go with them with no doubts at all, because I have sent them.’”

Peter doesn't get the twenty-year plan. He gets the next instruction. That's usually the part we don't like. We'd like God to give us a timeline, a budget, references, maybe a PDF from heaven. But sometimes clarity comes on the other side of obedience.

What if the life God has called you to isn't waiting on one giant decision?

What if it's being built through a thousand little yeses?

CROSS THE THRESHOLD

At the end of verse 23, Peter does something we can easily miss. He invites these Gentile men into the house and gives them lodging. The vision has barely ended, and his first response is hospitality toward people he previously would have kept at a distance. Then the next morning he goes with them. Watch the progression. First, he welcomes them in. Then he walks with them. When they arrive in Caesarea, Peter takes an even bigger step.

READ ACTS 10:24–28

24 The following day he entered Caesarea. Now Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. 25 When Peter entered, Cornelius met him, fell at his feet, and worshiped him. 26 But Peter lifted him up and said, “Stand up. I myself am also a man.” 27 While talking with him, he went in and found a large gathering of people. 28 Peter said to them, “You know it’s forbidden for a Jewish man to associate with or visit a foreigner, but God has shown me that I must not call any person impure or unclean.

Notice three little words: “He went in.” Peter has spent his life with cultural and religious boundaries separating him from Gentiles, and this isn't just any Gentile home. It's the home of a Roman military officer representing the empire occupying his homeland. Yet Peter crosses the threshold. The sheet was about food, but the lesson was about people. God wasn't merely changing Peter's menu. He was expanding Peter's mission.

I wonder what this looks like in Boulder. Think about the person whose worldview makes you uncomfortable. The person whose politics you cannot understand. The person whose lifestyle you disagree with. The person whose bumper stickers make you want to park on the other side of Whole Foods. Now imagine the Holy Spirit saying, “Go to their house. Eat their food. Sit at their table. Listen to their story. And when the opportunity comes, tell them about Jesus.”

Our modern cultural divisions aren't exact equivalents of the Jew-Gentile divide in Acts 10. But I do think we've become very comfortable loving people from a distance. Peter could have preached from outside, but God made him cross the threshold. You can't reach people you're determined to avoid. Jesus never compromised truth, but somehow sinners loved having Him at their table.

When Peter walks through the door, he discovers Cornelius has filled the house with relatives and friends. Everybody is waiting. Peter thought God was asking him to walk into an uncomfortable house. He had no idea God had prepared an audience on the other side of the door. I imagine Peter looking around that room and realizing, “God was here before I got here.”

WHAT IF BOULDER IS ALREADY SEARCHING?

There's another fascinating detail. Philip the evangelist had already been in Caesarea. Acts 8 tells us Philip preached his way up the coast until he reached Caesarea, and Acts 21 later shows him living there. So why send men 30 miles to Joppa to get Peter when there's already an evangelist in town?

Acts doesn't explicitly tell us every reason, but it's clear God isn't only doing something through Peter. He's doing something in Peter, and through Peter He's doing something in the larger church. Cornelius needs the Gospel. Peter needs his categories transformed. Later, the Jerusalem church will need Peter to testify that he watched God give the Holy Spirit to the Gentiles. Sometimes the assignment isn't only about what God wants to do through you. Sometimes it's also about what God wants to undo in you.

Cornelius says in verse 33, “Now we are all here in the presence of God to hear everything you have been commanded by the Lord.” Think about that room. Cornelius is devout. He prays. He gives generously. He fears God. He's spiritually hungry. But he still needs Jesus. Spirituality isn't salvation. Sincerity isn't salvation. Generosity isn't salvation. Cornelius still needs the Gospel.

And I wonder how many Corneliuses live in Boulder. Our city is filled with spiritually hungry people searching for peace, meaning, healing, identity and purpose. They meditate. They pray. They climb mountains hoping to experience something bigger than themselves. They know there's more.

What if Boulder isn't as closed as we've convinced ourselves it is?

What if God is already working in people we've assumed would never be interested?

Maybe the problem isn't that nobody is searching. Maybe we're not crossing enough thresholds.

WHAT'S ON THE OTHER SIDE OF YOUR YES?

Now Peter finally understands why he's there.

READ ACTS 10:34–43

Peter began to speak: “Now I truly understand that God doesn’t show favoritism, 35 but in every nation the person who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. 36 He sent the message to the Israelites, proclaiming the good news of peace through Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all. 37 You know the events that took place throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John preached: 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how he went about doing good and healing all who were under the tyranny of the devil, because God was with him. 39 We ourselves are witnesses of everything he did in both the Judean country and in Jerusalem, and yet they killed him by hanging him on a tree. 40 God raised up this man on the third day and caused him to be seen, 41 not by all the people, but by us whom God appointed as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be the judge of the living and the dead. 43 All the prophets testify about him that through his name everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins.”

Peter preaches Jesus. He tells them about His life, death and resurrection, and then says in verse 43:

“All the prophets testify about him that through his name everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins.”

Everyone. Jew, Samaritan, Gentile, Roman centurion, religious person, irreligious person, moral person, messy person. Everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness.

Then Peter experiences something every preacher dreams about, verse 44 says, “While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came down on all those who heard the message.” Peter doesn't even finish. The Holy Spirit falls on the Gentiles, and the Jewish believers who came with him are stunned.

Suddenly Peter sees what was hiding on the other side of his yes. His yes affected their lives. Their lives affected a household. That household affected the church. And this moment helped open the door for the Gospel to continue toward the world. Peter thought he was walking 30 miles north, but God was moving the Gospel toward the nations.

That's why you should never underestimate a Spirit-led yes just because it looks small from where you're standing. You only see the yes. God sees what He's connected to it.

WHAT IF WE SAID YES?

I can't read Acts without thinking about Pinewood. Acts is a story of formation and multiplication happening simultaneously. The church is being formed while the church is being sent. Approximately ten years after Pentecost, God is still forming Peter for the next frontier.

And for eight years, God has been doing that in us. We've been trying to reach Boulder, but what if while we've been evangelizing Boulder, God has been maturing us? What if while we've been building His church, He's been building something in us that He needs for where He's sending us next?

Right now, one of our biggest yeses is this building. We're praying, sacrificing and believing. But hear me clearly: the building is not the destination. What if God establishes us here so He can send us from here? What if the building we're believing for isn't the culmination of the last eight years, but the launching point for the next twenty?

I think about South Boulder, North Boulder, The Hill, Table Mesa, Gunbarrel, Niwot and eventually Longmont. I think about leaders sitting in this room who may pastor those communities someday. Missionaries we'll send. Churches we'll plant. Kids growing up in Pinewood who will take the Gospel places none of us will ever go.

I don't know exactly what the next twenty years look like. Neither did Peter when he left Joppa. He just knew the Spirit said, “Go.” We don't have to know every step of the next twenty years. We just have to be faithful with the next yes.

And that's true for Pinewood because it's true for you. What's your next yes? Maybe it's serving, generosity, forgiveness, inviting somebody, leading your family spiritually, or finally stepping into something God has been stirring in you. Maybe you've spent too much time asking fear-filled “what ifs.” What if you changed the question?

WHAT IF TODAY IS YOUR YES?

There's one final turn in this story. We've spent all morning asking, “What if Peter says yes?” But what if you're Cornelius? What if you're the one who's been searching? Maybe somebody invited you today. Maybe you've been praying or asking questions. Maybe you've felt something drawing you toward God that you can't explain.

Warren Wiersbe writes, “The seeking Saviour will find the seeking sinner.” Jesus says in Luke 19:10, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.” Maybe you thought you've been looking for God. What if God has actually been looking for you?

The message Peter preached is still our message: “Through his name everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins.” Jesus died for you. Jesus rose again. Your sin can be forgiven. Your past can be redeemed. You can become new. Today you can say yes.

And I love how this story ends because today is Baptism Sunday.

READ ACTS 10:47–48

“Can anyone withhold water and prevent these people from being baptized, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” 48 He commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay for a few days.

They hear the Gospel, encounter Jesus, and get baptized. Some of you need to give your life to Jesus today. Your yes is, “Jesus, I give You my life. I believe You died for me, and I believe You rose again. Forgive me of my sin. Make me new. Fill me with Your Spirit. And help me follow You, all the days of my life.”

Some of you already believe, but you've never been baptized. Maybe you didn't come prepared. Neither did Cornelius. But we've got water. And Peter's question still works: “Can anyone withhold water?”

Peter began this story saying, “No, Lord.” Somewhere between the rooftop in Joppa and the living room in Caesarea, Peter's no became a yes. That's the kind of church I want us to be. Whatever You ask, wherever You send, whoever You put in front of us, whatever threshold You ask us to cross, yes, Lord.

Because we have no idea what God is already doing on the other side of our obedience. Pinewood, what if we said yes?

Prayer of Salvation

Jesus, I acknowledge that I need you.

I confess that I have sinned against you.

I believe that God raised you from the dead.

And right now, by faith, I say, “Jesus is Lord.”

Thank you for forgiving me.

By your grace I am saved, and by your power I am set free.

Amen.