Hey, have you ever just kind of stopped and thought or had the thought go through your mind...I wonder if my life really makes a difference? I wonder if what I do really matters. You know, usually it’s on a birthday that we have those thoughts, isn’t it? Like when you turn the big 3-0, or 4-0, or 5-0, or just add one to anything with a 9, you know. And you’re basically the same as you were yesterday, but you take time to reflect and think, and you wonder...Did I really or have I really made a different? Or do I make a difference?
Here is what I’m going to suggest. I’m going to suggest that thought and that desire to be a difference maker is hardwired into us by our Creator. God wants us to make a difference wherever we are. That’s why, when we do, there is such a huge payoff.
I mean, I’ve seen it in the eyes recently of medical professionals when they did a dental access clinic or maybe when they come home from a medical mission trip, and you can see it in their eyes. You can hear it in their voice when they said, "You know what? What we do everyday makes a difference, but we made a major difference in somebody’s life who couldn’t help themselves."
Or maybe it’s an everyday person who tutors less fortunate kids who maybe don’t have as great a chance as your kids do or other kids do. In fact, recently, I was talking to somebody who was tutoring someone in our North Charleston campus who was failing at school and now they’re taking college prep courses, and you could just see it in their eyes...I’m making a difference.
Or it might not be something as large as providing medical care or tutoring a child, maybe it’s just an everyday kind of random act of kindness, and you do something, and it makes a difference for somebody. Maybe they don’t even know it, and something inside of you says, That’s right. That’s what I was created to do.
See Jesus was the original Difference Maker...began with Him. He came 2,000 years ago and He made a difference. He changed the world. Why did He do that? Why did He come and live and teach and die and rise again? Because the world was broken. Because it was wrong. The world wasn’t what God created it to be. Jesus came and He willing gave Himself, the Bible says, and He became a difference maker, and then He established the church.
I’m so excited about this series. We’re starting the book of Acts, and we’re going to study the church because it began with Jesus...just one. Then it began with just a ragtag group of people, you know...kind of like those guys on Fort Moultrie, and they literally changed their world. We’re going to study that over the next few years. Few years...kind of like the Luke series. Did I say few weeks?
Then it goes on to you...to you. Because here is God’s plan. I’m going to tell you upfront what my desire is...what my desire is. These days there are about 12,000 of us who gather on the weekend here and at the various campuses. What if we could mobilize every one of us? What if we all would go wherever God has called us to...in the place we live in the towns and the workplaces and the schools, whatever? What if Jesus could live through us, and we could be difference makers, and He could change the world through us?
See I’m just radical enough to believe that if you’re a Christian, if you’re a Christ follower, then your family should be better off because of it. If you’re a Christ follower, the school you go to should be better off because you’re in it. If you’re a Christ follower, the place where you work should be a better environment to work because Jesus is living through you by the power of the Holy Spirit. If you’re a Christ follower, your neighbors should be glad you live there because you mow your lawn all the time and you put your trash bin away right after the trash guys come. Jesus is just living through you, okay? Alright? Can I get an, "Amen," there at all? Okay, alright.
In your city, the city ought to be glad that this church is in the city because the church makes a difference in the lives of those who matter to God...which is everybody. See that’s the vision and that’s what happened in Acts, chapter 1.
So here is what I want to do. We’re going to go through a study. Hopefully it won’t take years, but we’re going to start today. I don’t know how else to start but just to start, okay? What we’re going to do...let me read it. The book of Acts... Guess who wrote the book of Acts? Luke...a few of you said Luke. Did you know we just finished Luke? But Luke is not finished yet. In fact, if you have an outline sheet or if you have a Bible or you know a PDA, whatever you use to read your Bible, would you take that out right now? Let’s just read the first few verses, and then we’ll kind of dive into this study.
Oh, by the way, there are going to be small groups. We’re all kind of trying to study the same thing for the next six weeks, and I want to encourage you here and at the campuses to jump in. Be a part of a small group so we can kind of all be on the same page for just a few weeks here.
Acts, chapter 1, "Dear Theophilus: In my first book..." What was his first book? Luke. Oh, you guys are good. Yes, this is his second book. I haven’t written my first book yet, but I’m working on it. "In my first book I told you about everything Jesus began to do and teach until the day He ascended to heaven after giving His chosen apostles further instructions from the Holy Spirit. During the forty days after His crucifixion, He appeared to the apostles from time to time..."
Why did He appear to them from time to time? It says, "...and proved to them in many ways that He was actually alive." What difference did that make? That meant He was God. He was who He said He was, and He appeared to hundreds of them from time to time...as many as 500 at one time. "On these occasions [when He appeared to them] He talked to them about the kingdom of God."
What we’re going to do today is we’re going to study one of these occasions when He sat down with a group of believers and He talked to them about the kingdom of God. "This is what your life is going to look like in the next few days and weeks," He says. "You’re going to be a world changer. You’re going to make a difference. You’re not going to believe the difference your life is going to make."
Well, I want to be a world-changer. I trust that you do too. God has called every one of us to it. I hope by the end of the message you will realize that. Let’s jump in...
How do you change your world? The first thing is kind of surprising. The first instruction that He gave them and that is this...you take a timeout. You don’t get started right away. You take a timeout. Look at the next verse, verse 4. "In one of these meetings as He was eating a meal with them, He told them, ’Do not leave Jerusalem..." He had a mission for them that was going to reach, not only Jerusalem, but the surrounding area and the entire world. And He said, "You know, don’t get started too quickly. Don’t get started too quickly. You need to take a timeout."
Timeouts are good, aren’t they? When do you need a timeout? You need a timeout when the world is coming at you too fast. You need a timeout when you don’t understand things. You need a timeout when things are changing quickly. You need a timeout just to stop and to think. We teach our kids that, don’t we...timeout?
I love the timeouts these days. They’re not like they used to be. My dad’s timeouts included what they now call reminders. But with my grandkids...they’re learning timeouts. It’s so cool...so cool. A grandkid story... I’m only going to do it for the next 20 years; then we’ll start on the great-grand’s.
I wish we would have had these classes when Debbie and I were raising kids. You know with your kids...I don’t know if your kids were like ours. Ours were wonderful kids until you went out somewhere, like to a restaurant or Walmart. We didn’t have Walmart, but whatever. You go out and then they just kind of release...demon-possessed...all of this kind of stuff comes out, you know? Kids aren’t demon-possessed...alright. Just chill.
So you go out and you don’t know what to do. And my grandkids...I watch my kids with my grandkids and here is what they do. Little Miles, two years old, he’ll be just going nuts. What are they going to do? What are they going to do? They’ll say, "Miles get some self-control." I’m thinking, That’s not going to work.
It’s called the timeout, but they say, "Get some self-control." So what they do is they say, "Miles, put your hands together." He puts his hands together, and he’s just going nuts, but he has his hands together...nuts. Then they’ll say, "Take a deep breath." And he does. It’s just incredible. "Take a deep breath. Take three of them. Now let’s count to 20." And they count to 20, and by the end of that, he chills. It’s a miracle. It has perspective.
The other day Lisa was on the way home with Miles and Greta Kate and they were both in their car seats. Greta Kate is six weeks old. And Greta Kate was going nuts. Not much you can say to a six-week-old, right? After a little bit, Miles turns to his mom and he says, "Greta Kate needs a timeout."
Every once in a while we need a timeout. Jesus says to the new church, "Don’t get started yet. Things are crazy right now. Take a timeout." See timeouts were important to Jesus. Jesus took timeouts before every major challenge He had.
When He first went into ministry He took a 40-day timeout in the desert...a time of fasting and prayer. Then He started His ministry. When He chose His first disciples He took a timeout. He went away by Himself and He prayed, all through the night it said, before He did it. Before He went to the Cross, you know what He did. He went to the Garden of Gethsemane, and He took a timeout to get perspective. Timeouts are important.
Some of the best things I’ve received from God have been during timeouts. I try to have little bitty mini timeouts every day. Do you do that? I try to have a timeout in the morning before I face the world...just read a little bit of Scripture, pray just a little bit, listen just a little bit because I don’t know what’s going to be coming at me that day. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s challenging. Do you guys have those kinds of days? So I take a mini timeout, try to take a mini timeout.
Then during the day sometimes when life is going fast or you know, I don’t know what to do. I take a mini timeout and I’ll just whisper a prayer. A lot of times, for me, it’s just claiming Scripture in the Bible...James, chapter 1, verse 5, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask." That God gives it...and I claim that and have a mini timeout. It just gives me a sense of perspective and a sense of God’s power flowing through my life.
Then every week I try to take a kind of a Sabbath timeout on Friday where I don’t think about the things I normally think about...just kind of reflect, kind of write, kind of just take a timeout so that God can reenergize and refill.
There have been several instances in my life when I was getting ready for kind of the next season of my life and timeouts really helped me to hear God. Before I went into the type of ministry I do right now, I felt a call to do this during a college retreat...a timeout. In fact, this summer I had the opportunity for the first time in 30 years to go talk to the guy who conducted the timeout where I felt God’s call into ministry and just say to him, "Thank you. You made a difference in my life."
Before we started Seacoast Church, the elders at Northwood Assembly went to Dillard, Georgia for an extended timeout...a time to pray and just wait and seek the Lord. That’s where Seacoast was birthed...out of a timeout.
So timeouts are important. Jesus said, "You know what? You’re going to change the world, Church, but before you do, don’t leave. Don’t leave. Take a timeout. Stop."
Here is what we’re going to do at Seacoast...I feel like this series is so crucial to the future of our church. What’s cool about this is we’ve been here 20 years, and I don’t want to sound corny, but I really believe the best is yet to come. As God has collected us together, and now I believe in a greater way He’s going to unleash us into a broken world to heal the hurts.
Hopefully during this series I’ll be able to convey some of the things I feel. I feel like this is a new season for us. I think it’s time for us to take a timeout. So here is what we are going to do. I’m going to ask everybody, if you would, if you’d consider it, on Wednesdays... Say, "Wednesday," together. Wednesday at 1:08...can you say, "1:08?" Alright, trying to get you to remember that. Wednesdays at 1:08 we’re going to take a timeout.
If you’re working, if it’s possible that you could take just a little tiny mini break, maybe even 30 seconds or a minute to stop and just take a break and pray and say, "God, would You fill our church with the Holy Spirit? Would You fill me with the Holy Spirit? Would You give me marching orders for the world-change that You desire for me?"
Some of us are going to gather together in homes. Some of us are going to gather together at work. Some of this will be individual things. At the campuses, as many as possible, we’re actually going to gather at the campuses. Here at the Long Point campus we’re going to gather in the chapel at 1:08 on Wednesday. Why at 1:08? Because the key verse we’re going to study today is Acts 1:8. We’re going to get to it in just a minute. So at 1:08 we’re going to gather and we’re going to take a six-week time out as a church just to pray, just to seek God, just to say, "God, fill us with Your Holy Spirit in a powerful way. We want to be energized and used by You. We want to change the world we’re in."
So the first thing that a world changer does is they take a timeout. Now the second thing. Look at what he says in verse 4. Get all that God has for you. That’s the fill in the blank. Get all that God has for you. He says, "(Do not leave Jerusalem)...until..." Circle until. He has a specific thing that was going to happen. You’re going to know. You’re going to leave Jerusalem when this happens. He says, "Until the Father sends you what He promised." He says, "Don’t get started on the work I’ve called you to until you have the right stuff, the right tools."
Have you ever gotten started on a project and you didn’t have the right tools so you had to improvise and it became harder than it needed to be? Example...how many of you have ever used a fingernail to screw in a screw? Just really quick...really quick. Okay...three of us. The rest of you are liars. Okay. Alright, if you didn’t have a fingernail, how many of you used a credit card? How many of you have ruined a credit card by screwing in...? Okay.
How about a butter knife...you’ve used a butter knife? Okay, there we go. I’ve been to some of your houses. I see the way it’s twisting in the end. You try to hide it, but you used it for a screwdriver and it didn’t work well because you didn’t have the right tools. Because life works easier when you have the right tools.
Jesus said, "Listen, I have a work for you. Church, I have world-changing stuff for you to do, but you need to wait until you get it." In fact in the next part of the verse He says, "Remember, I have told you about this before. John baptized with water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."
Now, what does it mean to be baptized with the Holy Spirit? Well we’re going to have to wait until next week to find that out because that happened in Acts 2. That’s not Acts 1. You’ll want to be here next week. Next week is TNT week...Power. I mean it’s going to be explosive and somewhat controversial. You’ll want to be here. We’re going to talk about it. But before we do, let’s get some background.
He says, "You will be baptized." Let’s see how this happened in Jesus’ life. You remember in our study of Luke (if you were here) in Luke, chapter 3, before Jesus goes into public ministry, He goes to be baptized.
Remember His cousin John the...who? Baptist. You guys are quick. John the Baptist was baptizing. John was like this radical guy. He was a prophet. He was weird. I mean we probably would have security watching him in the church because this was a weird, weird guy. He wears these clothes...he wears like really rough clothes and he wears them inside out. He eats locust and honey, and he doesn’t comb his hair. He would be an embarrassment. We wouldn’t use him as a greeter.
But anyway, he preaches repentance. He preaches repentance, and he tells people, "You need to repent of your sin and you need to be baptized." And when he does, people are convicted of their sin and they go on and get baptized. Sometimes whole cities do.
One day he was baptizing and Jesus came. Jesus is his cousin, and John suddenly realizes who Jesus really is. Jesus says, "I want you to baptize Me," and John says, "Man, I shouldn’t be baptizing You. You should be baptizing me." Jesus says, "No, this is according to Scripture. You need to do it." So John baptized Him. Then something really wild happens. It’s like heaven opens. A dove...the Holy Spirit comes on Jesus like a dove, it says, and then they hear the voice of God saying, "This is My Son, in whom I’m well pleased."
What it was...it was validating Jesus’ public ministry. It says He came up out of the water full of the Holy Spirit. Something happened to Him. Then immediately after that in Luke 4, it says He was led by the Holy Spirit into the desert for a timeout, and it wasn’t a nice place to be. In fact, He was tempted.
Now let me just make one little point here. Sometimes we feel like when things aren’t going right in our lives and things are hard and maybe we’re being tempted, sometimes we think...Well I must not be where God wants me to be. Well you know what? Sometimes you’re right in the middle of where God wants you to be. The important thing is to listen to the Holy Spirit, to get to such a point that you’re led by the Holy Spirit and then to overcome where you are. You don’t run. You walk through. You overcome.
Jesus overcame the temptation of the Devil. Then it says He went back to the city, and it says specifically...full of the Holy Spirit, full of the Holy Spirit’s power. Then He goes back to His original church where He grew up. He is going to preach in His original church.
Can I tell you that’s a tough gig? I did that. I remember one of my first messages was in the church that I grew up in. And you have people and you’re telling them, "Repent." You know, because when you first get saved you think everybody is a sinner and you’re the only one going to heaven. You know, I’m preaching, "Repent," and there are ladies out there saying, "I changed your diaper, pal. Don’t point your finger at me."
So He goes back to the home church. He takes up a scroll...Isaiah, the Word...and He reads from Isaiah, and He says this, "The Spirit the Lord is upon Me, for He has appointed Me to preach Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the downtrodden will be freed from their oppressors, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come." Then He takes the scroll and He rolls it up and He sets it down and He goes and sits down and everybody just kind of stares at Him. What’s up with that? Then He goes out and He does the stuff.
Let me just make this point...most of the world-changing "stuff" does not happen in the church. Okay? This is not the most important thing that happens. We come together. We worship. We celebrate. We receive teaching. It ought to be a time of encouragement for one another, but it’s just building us up to go out where we do the stuff.
Jesus got up and He went out and He did the stuff. What did He do? He healed the blind. He set at liberty captives. Some of them were bound by demons they couldn’t overcome. He preached the good news to the poor, and then He said, "The Day of the Lord’s favor is on you. This is good news." And He began to change the world.
He showed the disciples and He brought them along with Him. He said, "Okay guys. Watch this." Then in His last talk to them, just before He was crucified, He sat down with them and He said this...He said, "But when the Father sends the Counselor as My representative--and by the Counselor I mean the Holy Spirit--He will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I Myself have told you."
He said, "There is going to come a day. You need to remember this. There is going to come a day when the Father is going to send you the Holy Spirit, and you’re not going to be alone. I’ve called you to change the world and do things that you would never dream that you could do. But you’re not going to do them in your own power. You’re going to do them in the same power that I did. You’re going to be baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit."
"The Holy Spirit is going to be like a coach for you. There are going to be times when you’re going to be out there and you’re going to need to know a word I said. And all of a sudden it’s going to pop into your mind and the reason it’s going to pop into your mind is because the Holy Spirit brought it because of the power that is inside of you."
There are going to be times when you’re going to need to pray for people and you won’t know how to pray, and the Holy Spirit is going to pray through you. There are going to be times you’re going to stand before people and you won’t know what to say. When people are opposed to the message, when people are criticizing you, you won’t know what to say. And in that moment the Coach, the Holy Spirit will come on you and you’ll say the right things.
There will be times when you will be so sad because life doesn’t always work the way that you want it to. And there will be grief because the world is broken, and in those moments, the Holy Spirit will come and He will minister to you a peace that you will not understand. And when He does, you’re going to impact everybody around you and they’re going to be changed.
And do you know what? That’s exactly what God wants to do through you. It’s exactly the same thing. He says we’re to be filled with the Holy Spirit. We’ll talk about what that means next week. Then we’re to be filled again and again and again with the Holy Spirit so He can work through us and in us and that the world would be changed. So take a timeout.
The second thing you do if you’re going to change the world...get everything that God has for you...everything.
Then the third thing you do is this...you refuse to be distracted. You refuse to be distracted. If we’re going to accomplish anything significant in life, you have to be focused. You have to be... Do you get distracted easily or is it just me? Debbie will say to me, "Why don’t you run down to the grocery store and pick up these three things?" Got you. I’m in the grocery store. I know I’m in the right place, but for the life of me I can’t remember why I’m here. Am I the only one who ever does that?
The other day she sent me to the grocery store, and she said, "Get these three things." I said, "Can you help me? I don’t want you to get mad at me again. I want you to text that to me right now. Will you text it to me, and hopefully I’ll remember my phone, okay? And if I remember my phone, we’re good...we’re good."
You have to stay focused. You have to stay focused. You get going on the right track and then all kinds of things happen. It happened to the disciples. They had been called. They’d been trained to change the world. Jesus had been with them for three years. He gave them a last minute pep talk before He died and now He’s saying it again. He said, "Okay, you go wait because it’s going to happen. We’re going to change the world. Don’t go until you’re full of the Holy Spirit. Don’t go until the gift from the Father comes."
Look at their next question. When the apostles were with Jesus they kept asking Him, "Lord, are you going to free Israel now and restore our kingdom?" Now this is a big deal to them because they’re under Roman domination. Life is hard, okay? Life is really hard for them right now. They’re pumped up. Jesus is alive. They had been depressed because they thought He was dead and now He is alive. He is God and He is going to use them, and they said, "Is now the time that you off the Romans?" They say, "Is now the time you set Israel free and make our lives easier?"
God has a bigger vision. God has a vision not just to free Israel but to free the world. Our agendas, even our big ones, are shortsighted in light of God’s vision. As a church it is so easy to get sidetracked with the trivial and off of the mission that God has. In fact, I would suggest to you, and I love the church, and I think the church is a whole lot better now than it was in the book of Acts. I mean they were pretty screwed up in the book of Acts. You just read the book. I mean you have the book of 1 Corinthians when there was all kinds of junk going on.
The church has progressed. I think God is doing great things. But you know what? The church gets distracted off of the mission. In fact today I think most of the church is distracted. I think at Seacoast we get distracted all the time. Churches get distracted. Churches fight over worship styles...and the world is broken. Churches fight over the color of the carpet...and people are blind. Churches fight over the volume of the music...and there are captives that are bound. Churches fight over whether the preacher should be live or on video...and there are people dying and families broken apart and people without God. Churches fight over whether the pastor should wear jeans or khakis or ties.
Jesus says there are poor who need to hear the good news. Blind eyes need to be opened. Captives need to be set free in Mount Pleasant, North Charleston, Columbia, Greenville, Kenya and South Africa, and all over the world. They need to know the time of the Lord’s favor has come, and you’re arguing about whether the gifts of the Spirit should be used in the church or whether they’re used enough and whether we’re Spirit-filled enough or whether people should speak in tongues or shouldn’t speak in tongues. The church gets distracted. That’s just stuff.
Our agendas are shortsighted in light of God’s vision. Lord, are you going to free Israel now? Notice Jesus didn’t respond by saying, "Hey, great question. One day, I’ll send my servant Tim LaHaye to write a bunch of books to explain everything and then Kirk Cameron will act it all out for you." No, here is what He said. He said, "The Father sets those dates. They’re not for you. Don’t get distracted by the trivial."
Can I say to you church...don’t get distracted by the trivial. When is Jesus coming? When is the world going to end? Will it happen in 2012? Can I tell you? I’m not on the date-and-time committee. I’m on the change-the-world-until-He-comes committee. That’s what I know. Do what you know to do and don’t worry about it. That’s a good time to applaud. That’s right. That’s alright. We’re almost getting Pentecostal here. This is unbelievable...unbelievable.
You’ve been called to change your world. Take a timeout. Get all God has for you. Don’t get distracted. The fourth thing you do is...expect to be used by God. Expect to be used by God. This is the key verse, and I want you to read it out loud. Verse 8, "But when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power and will tell people about Me everywhere--in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
He says, "When the Holy Spirit comes on you, you will..." Circle the word will. You will receive power. "You will be My witnesses in Jerusalem [which was the local area], Judea [which was kind of the county around there], Samaria [which was not very far but totally cross-cultural...different group of people], and to the ends of the earth."
Fortunately, they followed the instructions, and a small ragtag group of ordinary people started a revolution that continues to change the world. And trust me...these were normal, ordinary people. Some of them were fisherman, just normal fisherman. One of them was a tax collector who was despised. One of them was way overconfident. Two of them craved social recognition for all the wrong reasons. They wanted to be first. One was a skeptic who had problems believing. Yet they took a timeout. They received all God had for them. They continued to focus on the mission. And God used them beyond imagination.
We’re going to study how God used them...unbelievable! Some of them received miraculous gifts from God. Gifts where they would walk through, and they would touch people and they would be healed. Even their shadow would touch people and they would be healed. Others didn’t receive that miraculous gift, but they got into healing.
In fact, did you know the hospitals were first created by the church...Christians? Nursing associations were created by Christians because the Greek and Roman societies of the time cared very little about the weak. It was all about the strong. And here were Christians...countercultural who went and they changed their world.
In fact, they did so many things. During that time there was very little value of life. Children were often abandoned if they were not totally healthy or if they were girls because women had very little value in the society. If you had more than one girl in your family most generally you would either abandon the next one or drown them at birth.
You say, "How can mothers do that?" Because they were so saturated in the culture. It’s just what they did. People who wrote in the first century about the first century church who weren’t even Christians said, "One of the most amazing things about these people is that they take orphans in. They practice the kind of hospitality that’s not just, "Let’s go out to eat together. It’s...why don’t you come live with me if you don’t have a place?" They changed the world.
It was a culture of death. Violence was premium. In fact, I was there this summer...in Rome. I loved Rome. It was a great place to be until the boat caught on fire (that’s a whole other deal...). But I stood there in the Coliseum and my heart was broken in the Coliseum. The Coliseum is a great, architectural wonder...60,000 people could fit in it. It was built 80 AD, not long after Acts was written. And the specific use of the Coliseum was so that gladiators, slaves, people who were captured from other cultures, people who didn’t matter in that culture that never could matter, were placed in there to fight against one another to the death.
What is the difference between NFL Football and gladiators? It was a fight to the death. It was a different thing. They gloried in it, and it was the Christians who eliminated it. First they boycotted the games. They wouldn’t go. Then some of them got involved in politics because that’s what God had called them to do and be. Ultimately, a Christian emperor eliminated the blood sport of Rome.
In fact, if you study down through history, you’ll see that where there has been a Christian... Oh, there have been bad things happen through the name of Christianity, but when there has been a real Christian influence, it has been life-giving and world-changing. In fact in Acts, chapter 17, verse 6, it said about this ragtag group a few years later, "These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also."
William Carey, who is the father of modern missionary movement, said this. He said it like this and I love it. He said, "Here is what you need to do. If you’re going to be a world changer you need to expect great things from God and then attempt great things for God." Do you like that? Expect great things from God and then attempt great things for God.
Now if you try to do that you’ll have critics who will rise up and tell you it can’t be done. There is not enough money. Who are you? It can’t be done. They have the ministry of discouragement, the gift of criticism. But you know what? There will be a group of people who will look at that and say, "Do you know what? God has a calling on my life."
God has a calling on this church. He has a calling on you. Some of you, when you take a timeout, when you get everything God has for you, when you stay focused, and when you expect great things from God, some of you will receive gifts to heal. For some of you it may be miraculous. I pray for that.
I had a prayer team member...I’ve been sick for two weeks. It’s not contagious. It’s an infection thing...I haven’t been able to hear for a couple of weeks. Last night I asked one of our prayer team members to pray for my ear that it would open, and it opened last night while I was preaching. I’m praying for...and you say, "Well, you’ve been taking medicine long enough." Well, I don’t care what happened. Just prayed, "God, help me." Best prayer you could every pray is just, "God help." How many of you know that sometimes?
I’m praying that God will grace some of you with those gifts. Others of you won’t have the supernatural gifts, you’ll have gifts of mercy and compassion, and you’ll change the world by trying to heal people who like in Dental Access Days and in medical clinics and giving away your time.
Some of you will have tremendous gifts of encouragement and gifts of teaching, and you’re going to change the world through that. Some will be drawn to the poor, to the forgotten, to the undeserved. Some will be moved by injustices, and ultimately you’ll discover...You know what? I think God is calling me to politics to help change that.
I don’t get involved in the political process. I’m not a Republican or Democrat. We have both in this church and we always will, I hope. But I encourage you guys...some of you have a passion that God’s burning within you and you need to follow it. We need people, Christians who will change the world in every arena that is out there...as doctors and teachers and mothers and lawyers and politicians and service industry people. Some will do acts of kindness.
I heard this week about one block here in Mount Pleasant where there are some Seacoasters on the block and they team up and every time the sanitation truck comes through, once a week to take the trash, they make sure the sanitation workers get a cold iced drink of some kind. I think that’s cool. I think that’s cool. Some day one of those sanitation workers is going to be in a hard place and they’re going to remember those people. And God will touch them. He’s changing the world.
Somebody else told me just this week...they were in the chapel and may be here this morning. They’re going through a hard time in their life. They dropped out of church. They were depressed and discouraged. And last Christmas some of you were wrapping Christmas gifts. I mean, that’s one of the easiest outreaches you can do...wrapping Christmas gifts for free. Some of you did that. You remember that. You wondered if anybody was touched by that.
This lady said she saw that, she asked, "How much does it cost?" One of you said, "It’s free...just in Jesus’ name we just want to love you." She went home and she couldn’t believe it...came to the Christmas Eve service, still was skeptical. Then she began to see others of you at various places in the community everywhere she went. She said there was somebody serving somebody. She said, "I can trust a God like that." She came to church, rededicated her life to Christ and now is serving in Medical Outreach because those are the gifts she has.
Her husband came up to me while we were talking and he said, "Hey, by the way, if people can’t get plugged in at Seacoast, it’s their own fault." I said, "Okay, alright, timeout...timeout. I got you. I got you." They’re both serving in Medical Outreach, and God has changed their lives.
Some of you will write music and books that draw people to the majesty of God. Some will teach children. Where will you do it? You’ll do it in the church, in Jerusalem. You’ll do it in the community, which is Judea. You’ll do it cross-culturally, which might be in another culture from you. And you’ll do it around the world. But God has called us to change the world.
Let me pray for you: Lord, thank you today for Your Word. God, I pray that You would radicalize us to the kingdom of God...that we would see the world through Your eyes, that we would crave to be filled with Your Holy Spirit so that we can be people who are used by You to do the incredible. Just ordinary, ragtag people who love You. God I pray that You would challenge us to the extraordinary, that we would attempt, that we would expect great things from You and we would attempt great things in Your name. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
