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Transforming Power - Blueprint Series
59 Plays1 year ago
In this sermon, Ridley Barron preached about the transformative power and centrality of the gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives. He stressed the critical need for churches to be Bible-based and Holy Spirit-centered, exploring how genuine faith and obedience to the gospel can unify believers and serve as a powerful testimony. Barron delved into the story of Simon, illustrating the importance of true repentance and the reception of the Holy Spirit. He encouraged believers to embrace bold obedience, trust in the gospel's power, and rely on the Holy Spirit in spreading Christ's message. Through the lens of Acts chapter 8, Barron reflected on the early church's perseverance amidst persecution, the role of amateur missionaries, and the indispensability of prayer and commitment in God’s work.
Timestamps:
00:00 Early Christian dispersal fulfills Jesus' prophecy.
04:23 Jesus performs miracles, brings joy to city.
08:50 Baptism and laying of hands exemplify faith.
10:10 Initial payment locks in all future benefits.
14:38 Adversity can lead to God's glory.
16:50 Apologizing for teaching wrong idea, serving the church.
20:00 Church's impact spread despite prejudices against Samaritans.
26:36 Accountability, Bible's power, and living changed lives.
27:27 Philip and Antioch church did amazing things.
31:51 Receive Jesus, rely on Holy Spirit, share gospel.
33:37 Turn ashes to beauty, change world for Christ.
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Transcript
Introduction to Acts and Grovefield Church
00:00:00
Speaker
If you got your Bibles, go ahead and turn to Acts chapter eight this morning. Go ahead and dive into our message today. If you're first time here in a while or whatever and you haven't been a part of this series, I want to try to catch you up to where we are in the book of Acts as we're walking through this, the story of the early church and what God was doing in the early church and how that church sets such a great example for us. and what we're attempting to do here at Grovefield Church and trying to reach our community and reach the state and the world for Jesus Christ.
Stephen's Martyrdom and Saul's Redemption
00:00:30
Speaker
um If you were here last week, you remember that we experienced together the
00:00:36
Speaker
The martyrdom of Stephen, the first Christian martyr, because Stephen refused to be quiet. He continued to speak the gospel despite the threats of persecution, despite the threats of even death. um just he he He felt so compelled by the Spirit, I have to speak the name of Jesus, and so he did to the point where they put him to death. You will also remember that two significant things happened as a result of that. Number one, there was a guy by the name of Saul who stood nearby who sanctioned what was going on and he was the coat checker that day. He he took the cloaks of everybody who was throwing stones at at Stephen and he watched what was unfolding there and he gave his approval to it. Saul would later become the guy you and I know as Paul, the greatest missionary the world has ever seen.
00:01:22
Speaker
I hope that speaks to you as a promise to you today that there is nothing in your life that disqualifies you from the grace of God. The grace of God is for all who will receive it no matter what stage of life you are in and no matter what has been written into the past pages of your life. If you give God the control of the pen, he will write a beautiful story for the rest of you.
Persecution and Dispersion of the Church
00:01:45
Speaker
The second thing that happens here is that because of Stephen's death, persecution breaks out against the church there in Jerusalem, and the church is scattered, it's dispersed. And that's where we're gonna pick up the story today. But the beauty of that is that in the dispersing of those Christians out of Jerusalem, now finally Acts chapter one verse eight becomes a reality where Jesus says to his apostles, you're going to be my disciples in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.
00:02:12
Speaker
You and I would probably have a tendency to look at the martyrdom of Stephen and go, man, that that's an awful event. I'm very, very sorry. And indeed it is. But in the scope of God's universe and his economy, he looked at what happened with Stephen and said, Stephen's death means he gets to come to glory with me, which is where he wants to be. And in turn, I finally get those stubborn hearted Jerusalem Jews, those new Christians out of Jerusalem to go do what I asked them to do. Most scholars believe that between Acts chapter one, verse eight and Acts chapter eight, verse one, that there's about a year that passed.
Philip's Mission in Samaria
00:02:44
Speaker
So Jesus says, y'all been sitting here for a year and I told you to go to the ends of the earth. You're either gonna move or I'll get you to move. And so he allowed the life of Stephen to be that that catapult that just sent them out to the ends of the earth. I want us to look today at what happened in that process, what unfolded because of those events,
00:03:02
Speaker
and to take it as a lesson and a challenge for us about what God is doing, what God wants to do, because we say it all the time, the best is yet to come, and man, when we're done, you're gonna go, man, the best is yet to come. There are a lot of good things. I'm gonna speak to you about some incredible stuff that God is doing in our congregation, and even where we are headed next, and I hope it will challenge our hearts a little bit. So Acts chapter eight, beginning in verse four this morning, as we pick up the story, Acts, it says, So those who were scattered went on their way preaching the word. Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah to them. Now, a little tip about reading the Bible. Anytime anybody goes away from Jerusalem, it's always described as going down. In our modern vernacular, we would go, wait a minute, Samaria is north of Jerusalem. Isn't that going up to to Samaria? No, it's always going down from Jerusalem for two reasons. Number one, Jerusalem is the center of the Jewish jewish world.
00:03:56
Speaker
And so everything was going out. It was a mountain. It was called Mount Zion. It was ah it was a place that everything descended. You had to descend to go away from it. The second reason is because in their vernacular, it was the idea that everything emanated from that place. And so when they describe it as going down to a city in Samaria, they're not talking about direction as much as they are status compared to the holy city of Jerusalem. The crowds were all paying attention to what Philip said as they listened and saw the signs. He was performing. For unclean spirits crying out with a loud voice came out of many who were possessed and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed. So there was great joy in
Simon's Misunderstanding of the Gospel
00:04:40
Speaker
that sea. You can imagine as you are bringing your friends, your relatives to Jesus and he is making the lame walk, he's making the blind sea, excuse me, to Peter and John, not to Jesus, but he's bringing them physically to them that Jesus is working in their lives. And when your mother-in-law gets that demon out of her, you're pretty happy, right?
00:04:57
Speaker
That's a great gospel moment for whoever experiences that. So they are a great joy because of what God is doing in the city through the power of the Holy Spirit. It says, a man named Simon had previously practiced sorcery in that city and he amazed the Samaritan people while claiming to be somebody great. Can I just warn you that right now in the church, we got a lot of people drawing attention to themselves. They're saying, look at me, I'm great. look at me I'm great. Simon says this and there's some some reason to believe that because of all the things he's doing but he's creating a lot of fanfare about himself so much so that in the next verse it says they all paid attention and they said this man is called the great power of God. Now don't confuse that with the one true God. The word wording there the Greek words there actually mean the
00:05:48
Speaker
the great power of a God, just any God. So they didn't they weren't falling in love with the God because of Simon. They were falling in love with the idea that there were powers out there and that Simon had connections to them. In verse 11 it says, they were attentive to him because he had amazed them with his sorceries for a long time. That's a word of caution to every single one of us who are pursuing God. because many of us will get our attention locked in on Jesus Christ and the next little shiny thing that comes along that amazes us and suddenly we're pursuing it. It may be a great author, it may be a great teacher, it may be some great band, it may be some great worship leader. Man, if you are taking anything away from Jesus, you are establishing idolatry in your life.
00:06:31
Speaker
God says, I will have nobody else sharing my glory. It is mine and mine alone. And so you better be very careful that as as the scriptures tell us, you are checking the spirits that you follow because many of them will lead you away from God, even though they talk about good things.
Role of the Holy Spirit in Salvation
00:06:47
Speaker
So be cautious about that. Verse 12, it says, but when they believe Philip, as he proclaimed the good news about the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized. Even Simon himself believed. Make a note of that, we're gonna come back to it. It says, Simon himself believed and after he was baptized, he followed Philip everywhere and was amazed as he observed the signs and great miracles that were being performed. When the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. After they went down there, they prayed for them so that the Samaritans might receive the Holy Spirit because he had not yet come down on any of them.
00:07:27
Speaker
they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. I want to stop right here. I want to take a few seconds to unpack this a little bit for you because this is a very important part of yours and my theology. to understand what's happening here. Because instantly the question may be asked, wait a minute, why did Peter and John have to go lay hands on them for they received the Holy Spirit? What was going on there? And why does it make a point to say that they were only baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ? I want to answer both of those questions because they're important, and I want to start with the last question.
00:08:03
Speaker
The reason they say that they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, when Kyle or John or myself up here, we baptized people, you will notice that we specifically say we baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The reason we acknowledge the triune nature of God is because we believe that all three natures, all three parts of the element of God, that they all work together in the salvation of every person. It's God who created the idea of salvation. It's Jesus who died to bring us salvation. It's the Holy Spirit that moves us toward salvation. And so we acknowledge all three of them there. The reason these people were only baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ was because the Holy Spirit was a new thing for most people. And so in that moment, these people in Samaria didn't really know about the Holy Spirit.
00:08:50
Speaker
So the only thing they had to do was to baptize in the name of Lord Jesus Christ, which leads to the second question, well, what about this laying on of hands? Why did the apostles have to go do that? They actually do it three times in the book of Acts where people will come and who are part of the apostle, that central group of followers of Jesus, those apostles will come and they will lay hands on them. Why in the world does that happen? We believe that when a man or a woman chooses to follow Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord and receive his salvation work on the cross, that the Holy Spirit is given to them in that moment. You receive Jesus, the Holy Spirit comes in you. You get all of the Holy Spirit you're ever going to get. It's not the question of, can I have more of the Holy Spirit? The question is, can the Holy Spirit have more of you?
00:09:36
Speaker
It's how much you submit yourself to his authority in your life. Now you want a little evidence of that. Let's take a side trip for a second. Ephesians chapter one verse 14. This is Paul writing and he says, the Holy Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance until the redemption of the possession to the praise of his glory. He is the down payment of our inheritance. How many of you own a home? Okay, i and to do like the eight o'clock. How many of you know you own a home? Because you're going, I don't know. Do you own a home or not? Okay, so you own a home, what was the first thing you had to do to get that home? You had to make a what? Down payment. Do you have the ability to go back to the owner of that home or to the bank that holds that loan and say to them, I want to take back some of my down payment? Do you have the power to go in and say, hey, I would like like to give more to that down payment? As much as they like your money, they can't do that because contractually the full down payment has been made, right?
00:10:32
Speaker
So you don't go take it back, you don't add to it. That's the same thing is true with the Holy Spirit. He is the down payment on what you're going to receive for eternity. And because of that, you've received everything you're going to get of the Holy Spirit. What you see when you see people being moved and changed by God is their better submission to the power of the Spirit and the life of them. Does that make sense? Do you follow me?
True Belief vs. Acknowledgment
00:10:54
Speaker
Okay, great. It's important. Do you understand that? Let's keep reading. When Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money, saying, give me this power also so that anyone I lay hands on may receive the Holy Spirit.
00:11:10
Speaker
Peter said to him, may your silver be destroyed with you because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money. Now notice this next part, it's it's important to the story here. He says you have no part or share in this matter because your heart is not right before God. A minute ago we just read that passage where it said Simon believed what Philip was preaching and here Philip is now saying, wait a minute, you have no part of God. How can that be true? Because a lot of people believe in God, but very few people follow God. It's one thing to believe, it's another thing entirely to give your life over to him and truly surrender to him. Some of you here today are going, man, I just don't feel the power of God in my life. It's because you know God, but you don't know God.
00:11:59
Speaker
Book of James says, there is a God, you believe that? That's great, but even the demons believe that and they shudder. They are afraid because they know the reality of God. You know there's a God, you see it all around you, you walk out of here and see a tree, you go, God created a beautiful thing. You go out of here and you see a beautiful sky and you say, man, that's incredible, God did a wonderful thing. But it's one thing to acknowledge that, it's another thing to submit your life to the power of it. And so Simon is an example of somebody who had the head knowledge but his heart wasn't following along. Again, I would just say this to you, if you don't see things happening in your life that you can only credit the Holy Spirit with, do me a favor, stop what you're doing, put everything aside and have a conversation with God and go, why am I not seeing you move?
Laypeople's Role in Evangelism
00:12:51
Speaker
In some instances, it's gonna be just because you have started to take back areas of your life and say, okay, God, I got this part.
00:12:57
Speaker
Some instances, it may be that some of you go, you know what? I've had a lot of head knowledge of God for years. I've been in and out of church. I have read the Bible. I've heard the Bible stories of saying all the songs, but I have never ever trusted Jesus Christ to be the Lord of my life. And that may be the difference for you this morning. Let me keep reading. Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours and pray to the Lord that if possible your heart's intent may be forgiven. For I see you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by wickedness. Pray to the Lord for me, Simon replied, so that nothing you have said may happen to me.
00:13:32
Speaker
So after they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they traveled back to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans. As I said, I just want to take a second this morning to unpack this story a little bit and see the examples that were set, not just by Philip, but even this early church and Antioch, because this is a transitional portion of the book of Acts, the story of the early church. Up until this point, the church has been centered in and based out of the city of Jerusalem. All of the apostles were there, that's where the work began, We read that the church started with 11 true followers of Jesus Christ that turned into more than 15,000 in a year's time. But now, because of the persecution and the martyrdom of Stephen, and because of the dispersion of the believers there, the gospel is going out and the center of the church is now relocated to Antioch where it will operate from for the next several decades.
00:14:26
Speaker
What happened? Well, first of all, like we said, the church was dispersed. You see, the enemies of God tried to kill the message and the messengers, and when that began, when that began the church took off. It headed in different directions. But here's where I wanna remind you of a passage that many of you have quoted. You may not even know where it's from, but when I start to say it, you will instantly recognize it. Genesis chapter 50, verse 20, where it says, for that which you intended to be evil, God intended it for good, for the working out for the salvation of many souls. Can I offer you something this morning? Could it possibly be this morning that your demotion at work was to put you on a platform where God could be exalted?
00:15:07
Speaker
Could it be that the struggle you're going through in your marriage as you and your husband are not on the same page and you're working those things out together, that God is putting your life on display so your neighbors, your friends, your relatives can watch you use the power of God to fight for your marriage and therefore bring Him glory by what you're going through? Your struggle against drugs, your struggle against lust and pornography, the trial that you're up against, the illness that's been given to you, it might just be that God says, I'm gonna put you at a place where only I can receive glory. I need you to trust me about what's gonna come next. Notice what Philip did. Philip didn't run in fear, he didn't get anxious, he didn't worry, he didn't lie awake at sleep at night. It says that he went and kept on preaching.
00:15:52
Speaker
Everywhere he went, wherever his feet took him, he was preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and he refused to give up, no matter what the persecution looked like. His teachings were accompanied by signs and wonders, healings that would capture the crowd's attention and because of that, the gospel was going forth the way God had planned it. But I want you to notice something unique and interesting here. It's not the paid professionals that are doing it. There's not one theology degree among any of them. Not one of them's getting paid a penny to do it. None of them have a college education or a Bible college education for that matter. Every single one of them are what we would call amateur Christians, the lay people. It's not even the original 11 apostles that are taking this message out. Philip, just a few chapters before, is the first guy named to be a deacon in the church. Before that, he'd been just an ordinary Joe like you and I.
00:16:54
Speaker
But these are the people that God wanted to use to send his church. I want you to hear something from me. I need to apologize to you because I've been teaching you something wrong for the last six years. I have said to you that if you're gonna come and join our church and you're gonna become a covenant member of our church, then you need to join and immediately you need to find a place to serve the body of Christ. That is bad teaching. The day you receive Jesus Christ, you're supposed to serve the body of Christ, whether you join our church or not.
Church Growth and Mission Opportunities
00:17:23
Speaker
You see, the minute that the power of the Holy Spirit enters your life and turns you from sinner who was broken to saint that's been saved, that moment you become a missionary of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Wherever your feet take you, wherever you go, because what the Bible tells us is the Holy Spirit comes into our lives and he gives us gifts and talents and abilities, things that he wants to use for his purposes. Philip said, here I am, Lord, send me.
00:17:51
Speaker
And because he went out, the gospel went forward. The church is a more effective organism when we are all serving our purposes, when we're all doing our part, when we're all living out the calling in our lives. I wanna read a little bit from you, from a passage, ah a book entitled, Evangelism in the Early Church, it's by a guy by the name of Michael Green. I want you to hear what he says about this passage here, scripture. It says, as early as Acts 8, we find that it is not the apostles, but the amateur missionaries, the men evicted from Jerusalem as a result of the persecution which followed Stephen's martyrdom, who took the gospel with them wherever
00:18:32
Speaker
They went. It was they who traveled along the coastal plains to Phoenicia, over the seas to Cyprus, or struck up north to Antioch. They were evangelists just as much as any apostle was. Indeed, it was they who took the two revolutionary steps of preaching to Greeks who had no connection with Judaism, and then with launching the Gentile mission from Antioch. For those of you who aren't familiar with that term, Gentiles, anybody who's not a Jew, you and I are Gentiles. It was an unselfconscious effort. They were scattered from their base in Jerusalem and they went everywhere spreading the good news which had brought joy, release and a new life to themselves. This must often have been not formal preaching but informal chattering to friends and chance acquaintances, in homes and in wine shops, on walkways and around market stalls.
00:19:30
Speaker
I love this next part. They went everywhere gossiping the gospel. I love that term, because you know what happens when you gossip? Everybody finds out. It spreads, right? Because everybody has two close friends, right? If you tell somebody, you know three people are gonna know in the next 15 minutes. And that's the way the gospel went forth. They went gossiping the gospels. They did it naturally, they did it enthusiastically, and with the conviction of those who are not paid to say those sorts of things. Consequently, they were taken seriously, and the movement spread noticeably among the lower classes. Tony Merida, who wrote this book, actually adds this, neither persecution or relocation could stop the gospel from spreading.
00:20:15
Speaker
Man, that we would be that kind of church that we would take every opportunity we are given to take our gifts and our talents to this community, to Tennessee, and to the rest of the world. We've said it for six
Unity and Vigilance Against False Teachings
00:20:27
Speaker
years. We believe that we can change the world from right here in Chapel Hill, Tennessee. And in just a minute, you're gonna hear how real that has become for us as a congregation. The opportunities that lie before us are incredible. And I'm excited to be a part of what God's doing next in our congregation. So one thing that enabled the church to be this effective was their willingness to dismiss their prejudices and biases against the Samaritans. You remember these two groups didn't like each other. Remember the story of the woman at the well who was a Samaritan? We are introduced to this idea, this concept that the Jews who were the true Jews, the ones who had stayed faithful to Jewish faith, they did not like those Samaritan people.
00:21:07
Speaker
In fact, it's kind of ironic and beautiful that they suddenly now have become the focus of the Jewish people as they begin to share the gospel. We'll talk more about that in a minute. The second thing we see here here is the gospel always conquers evil. The gospel always conquers evil. Philip's message had gained great attention and brought great joy to the Samaritans. Simon, a sorcerer, a wicked person who had a very sketchy background, even he comes to follow the gospel eventually. The gospel has the power to transform even the most skeptical and hardened hearts. It has the ability to penetrate to places that we can't stop it. The question is, will we receive it?
00:21:49
Speaker
Will we follow it? Will we trust it? Will we give ourselves to it? Because right now in this room, there are some of you are sitting here, you're going, man, there's absolutely no way God would ever use me. There's absolutely no way God could ever take me and do anything with me. And the truth is that if you continue to believe that life, then he never will. But there comes a point where you have to read the gospel, trust the gospel, and say to God, take me and use me as I am. As I shared with John just a second ago, John isn't equipped to do this. John's from Oklahoma. He's a sooner.
00:22:32
Speaker
John's made bad choices. John's made mistakes along the way. John's been a broken man, and by the power of God's grace, John has been raised up to a new position in Christ Jesus so that he can be used. I love that man, but it ain't him. It's the power of the Holy Spirit in him. Not one of you here today had the permission to say, God could never use me. Because the gospel always conquers evil. I don't wanna hear about your past. I wanna see what God's gonna do to write your future. Third thing, we see to the unity of the church is protected. Can I just say something here? This is really, really cool. this I am blessed and honored that I get to walk the streets of this town and people go, you're that pastor from Grove Hill Church, aren't you?
00:23:18
Speaker
And I have to be honest, sometimes I wanna go, no, it's that guy. Because I'm scared about what's about to come out next. But every single time that is uttered, it's usually followed with something similar to this. I hear all kinds of great things about your people. I love that. They don't say I hear you're a great teacher. i't They don't say I hear that you're a great pastor. Because I'm not. I hear you've got great people. And I wanna go, man, you just need to come experience it. There are no words to describe what I'm feeling and what I'm sensing. I'm a part of a great group of people. They will love you exactly like you are, but they refuse to leave you that way because they're gonna walk with you. I love it because on Tuesday morning, I walk into the office and Ari might hand me a note saying, such and such happened with this family and they need this. And before I can even say it another sentence or take another step, she's going, but it's okay, the deacons have already been there.
00:24:16
Speaker
their life group has already shown up. I hear that such and such family bought them a ticket to get where they need to go. So and so went and bought them some groceries. I can't do this by myself. We've got a staff of eight people and right now we have over a thousand names on our roll. Members and non-members, guests and visitors and regular attenders. You do the math because I ain't got it in my brain to do it. Eight to a thousand is not the ratio you want. But a thousand to a thousand? It means that every single one of us can be loved where we're needed, can be cared for in the way we need to be cared for. And you better believe that when we do that, the enemy hates it. He hates it. So he's gonna do everything he can to divide us on big things and little things. She parked in my space last week. He didn't speak to me in the hallway. I sent him an email and it's been 13 minutes and they haven't responded.
00:25:19
Speaker
Guys, we cannot be divided for the petty things of this earth. We must continue to center our lives around the gospel of Jesus Christ and around the cross of Jesus Christ to stay unified in this work because in that there is power and there's testimony.
Power of the Gospel to Transform Lives
00:25:35
Speaker
You're about to see some of that in a minute. Number four, the importance of opposing the false gospel. We know it's out there, right? Men want to twist the gospel. They want to change the gospel. They want to make it a little more fancy, a little more shiny, a little more appealing, a little less whatever.
00:25:55
Speaker
In fact, if you remember the story, it says that Simon believed, and he's been listening to Philip who's teaching the teaching the true gospel, and almost 3.7 seconds later, who's twisting it? Simon. He's going, how much did does it take for me to buy this? How much do I have to invest to get a part of this, the stake of this? It didn't take long for the gospel to be twisted towards Simon's favor. We have a tendency to do that. We have to, all of us, have to hold each other accountable in the gospel. This church will always be a bible-based Bible Bible-focused, Bible-centered congregation. And the day that this pastor steps out of line with that, one of two things better happen. You better hold me accountable, or you better call me off this stage and send me somewhere else. The Bible is what changes people's lives, not some pastor.
00:26:47
Speaker
The Bible is what offers us hope, not some great program or some great ministry opportunity. The Bible alone carries with it the power of the Holy Spirit to change people's lives. And we have to keep teaching it and training it and introducing people to it. Simon's initial response was just that of, man, what's in it for me? And because of that,
00:27:15
Speaker
He had a wrong understanding of what the cross of Jesus Christ had done for him.
00:27:20
Speaker
so So here's how I wanna close because this this is what we're called to do. We're called to live changed lives. philip Philip did some amazing things. The Church of Antioch did some amazing things. There's three things I wanted you to take away from here today, but I wanna read something to you for, because I want you to be engaged with this the way I am, where where we are as a staff looking at this. So Monday night, Tuesday morning, about three o'clock in the morning, couldn't sleep again, which usually means that God's wanting to talk to me about something or I had bad dinner. One of the two. And this particular night as I'm um'm laying there, my mind instantly begins to think, because we we say it, I know we say it to the point where some of you are going, oh my gosh, he's gonna say it again. The best is yet to come, right? The best is yet to come. I started thinking that direction. So I got up Tuesday morning and I said to the staff, i want to play you I want you to play a little game with me. And because they love me, they indulge me. And they played along, I said, this is what I want you to do. I want you to start July the 1st and go through October 31st. And I want you to think about it.
00:28:18
Speaker
Every single potential thing that can be happening in this church that we've got on the schedule That could change people's lives could change the trajectory of this church could change the kingdom of God Every single thing that we can be involved in don't pick just the regular stuff like worship service Okay, we're just going to talk about the extra things that over the next four months could do something really powerful in our church Okay, so they played along want you to listen when read your list everybody take a deep breath and I want you to hear me say this. You don't have to be ah at all of these. Okay? So here we go. Two different mission journeys. One to Alaska, one to Guatemala. A church plant in Lewisburg launching in August. Four discover classes between now and the end of October. Promotions Sunday. Fifth Life Group added giving us a total of 23 life groups in the fall. A family gathering. Deacon and Elder Selection in August. Student Life Fall Camp. Leadership Academy for men and women coming up this fall.
00:29:15
Speaker
staff retreat, 5k mission run, discover you classes, it's a new thing that we're adding that's going to help you discover your spiritual gifts and talents and how to use them and where to use them, high attendance, a fourth service that we're adding in September, baptisms, mentor programs, ah Curriculum change coming into children's ministry, a women's retreat, Serve Saturday, Fall Festival, Denver Church partnership that we're launching in 2025, we're doing the work on it now, 2025 budget that we're proposing and approving, new affinity groups coming out even before the end of the summer, and new worship team members that are coming on stage to serve as part of our worship. Tired yet? But every single one of those puts us on the cusp of what God wants to do next.
00:30:01
Speaker
we We could even mention them that we stopped because we filled up the whiteboard. All of those in the next four months. Why am I telling you that? Because that's not gonna happen because your staff gets more committed. It's gonna happen because the people of Jesus Christ have sworn to follow him and be obedient to him because they get committed. And what I need you to do is I need you to pray. I need you to pray. We are where we are after six years because you prayed. We're also where we are because many of you got up and said, I will serve, I will go, I will give my talents, I will be a part of what's happening next. But we need more of that.
00:30:40
Speaker
because every single one of these are opportunities to continue to expand into places. We're still looking at opportunities in Israel in the future. We're sending missionaries to Europe, both Western and Eastern Europe before the end of next year, hopefully. We are doing all kinds of things in all kinds of areas. Why? Because we believe that the gospel has the power to change the world and it's not supposed to stay here in this building with us.
00:31:06
Speaker
The power of a church is not in its seeding capacity, it's in its sending capacity. the ability to send out those who will share the gospel. So very quickly, these three things that I think we've got to be a part of. Number one, being bold in our obedience. You need to be praying as a follower of Jesus Christ, not, God, I will trust you to follow you once I hear what it is, but I will trust you to follow you. Now tell me what it is. You don't get to put conditions on obedience. If you're truly a servant of Jesus Christ, you choose to follow before he gives you the word he wants you to follow.
00:31:43
Speaker
Secondly, we've got to trust the power of the gospel. I believe you're here today because the gospel changed you, but that same gospel was meant for the world. And from the moment you receive Jesus Christ, you are having the opportunity as a missionary of Jesus Christ, as an ambassador of his name, to go in to share that gospel with others. Thirdly, we rely on the Holy Spirit as we share Christ with other people. It is not you that's been given the assignment, is the Holy Spirit working through you that will carry out this assignment.
00:32:14
Speaker
Now,
00:32:18
Speaker
again, I think in this moment, there's some of you who are going, how could God possibly use me? I mean, I'm not talking about a distant past where I made mistakes. I'm talking about last week I blew it. I'm talking about last night I blew it. I'm talking about this morning before I came to church, I said things, thought things, did things that I know that a believer in Jesus Christ shouldn't do. How could God possibly use me? I'll give you an opportunity to see that, but first let me pray for you. Father, make our hearts fertile ground. Give us this opportunity to see, hear, and receive what's about to come.
Closing Prayer for Transformation
00:32:59
Speaker
To receive all that's already been said, prayed, sung, and shared. May we emerge from this worship to today in a incredibly different place from where we are right now.
00:33:15
Speaker
May we emerge as changed people, empowered people, by the same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead, doing us what you wanna do. Let us be bold enough to say with guys like Isaiah and Philip and Peter and John and Paul, Lord, here we are in all of our brokenness, in all of our mistakes, in all of our isolation and loneliness, here we are, take our ashes, turn them to beauty, send us so that we may see the world changed for Christ.
00:33:44
Speaker
In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.