Moving Ahead When You Don't Think It Is Necessary Series

Sermon Brief

Date Written: January 07, 2014

Date Preached: January 12, 2014

Where Preached: OPBC (AM)

Sermon Details:

Series Title: Moving Ahead

Sermon Title: Moving Ahead – When You Feel There is NO Need

Sermon Text: Acts 10:1-43 [ESV]

Introduction:

Last week we started into this series on Moving Ahead as a church and we looked at the story of Ananias whom God called to go lay hand on and pray for Saul (Paul)…

We learned how ALL believers really want to serve, but when God reveals exactly what He desires from us, fear takes over and we get scared and try to get out of our initial zeal to serve God.

But last week we learned that God is insistent in His desires… and he continually pushes us forward toward obedience, even when we don’t want to go!

There was ONE thing I didn’t speak about last week and I want to share it with you today… We know Ananias did NOT want to go do what God wanted him to do, but God simply said to ‘Go’ and we saw how Ananias’ obedience radically changed the early church!

But there is something else about that gentle but firm command from God to ‘Go’ that we may overlook… we see that God told Ananias WHAT to do, but I want you to notice that God did NOT tell Ananias HOW he had to do it…

Moving ahead as a church can be a scary thing because there is lot that is unknown! God is calling us to minister to this community but His calling does not hold us to any certain method.

What we have to understand is that the methods will change but the message cannot! With that being said… this is a place where many believers and many churches get stuck when they are trying to move ahead… It is that they don’t understand that they may be required to change to be able to move ahead!

So often we get caught up in doing things the way we have always done them… and for the most part that is not a bad thing. When you find a way to cook a dish… you stick to it! When you find a way to clean a room, you usually stick to it!

But the difference here is that the target we are shooting for…this community… is an ever changing and moving target… and if we tell ourselves that one way worked at one particular time, so it should work all the time… that attitude will lead us to frustration and failure! Because our target is so fluid and changing, we too must become fluid and our methods must change to meet the need of the moment!

Our message will NEVER change, we are reaching this community with the message of Jesus Christ, but HOW we do it is always going to be subject to change. We don’t want to be guilty of falling into a rut and settling for efforts that are not our best effort… and do NOT reach our community!

I want our ministry to be excellent! I want our ministry to reflect the excellence of our Savior! I don’t want to do ministry in our community that we may say is ‘good enough’…

Have you ever heard the phrase, “that is good enough…”? I remember as a young boy growing up in South MS that my uncles would have me do a lot of work around the farm.

I was NOT a great worker; in fact I tried harder to get OUT of work than I ever did working. I wouldn’t say I was lazy, but I just didn’t see the point in a lot of things they asked me to do…

However, just because I did not SEE the point did not mean it was NOT important! I can remember that I was NEVER seeking after a ‘great job’ -- my goal was MUCH lower! I was satisfied with a “that’s good enough”…

Now you may be sitting there and thinking what wrong with that? Good enough is not bad so what is the problem preacher?

Well, let’s look at the phrase, “good enough”! The word ‘good’ is certainly a word that gives us all a positive vibe!

We want to be considered good people!

When we go to the restaurant we want to eat good food!

When we cheer for a sports team we want them to be good in that sport otherwise what is the point, right?

So ‘good’ is a word we all strive for in our lives and in the things in life that we are a part of…

Let’s also look at the word ‘enough’! ‘Enough’ is a very positive word. When we have ‘enough’ it means that we are filled, that we are satisfied, that we are complete! It also signals the finality of a situation… such as when we have ‘had enough’ of a particular thing!