INTRODUCTION...A BLUEPRINT OR DETAILED PLAN OF ACTION FOR A CHURCH ON FIRE FOR GOD!
God gave us that BLUEPRINT...the BOOK OF ACTS SHOWS IT TO US...NOW ALL WE HAVE TO DO IS FOLLOW IT...
ACTS 2:1-13 says... “1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. 3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. 5 And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. 6 Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. 7 And they were all amazed and marveled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galileans? 8 And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? 9 Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, 10 Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. 12 And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? 13 Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine.” LET'S PRAY!!!
I've got a friend who is Spiritually a product of the Jesus movement of the 60’s...he met Christ in a dramatic way.
And after coming to Christ he began reading the New Testament, beginning with the Gospels and then moved next to Acts and was excited about what he was reading in Acts.
Then he decided to enter mainstream religion so he went to a church and there became very disillusioned.
Now I grew up in church but at the beginning of my college experience I also ran into the same disillusionment...I went to First Baptist Church of Atlanta on Peachtree St. and was appalled by what I saw.
The church service was a zoo...literally a zoo...it was tailored for TV...but definitely not for worship.
It was so orchestrated it was almost like a play...it never ran overtime...had to be over exactly at 12 noon...but the worst part was there wasn't any emotion...it was a sterile service and sterile environment.
Now back to my friend...he went to a polite and tidy service and yes it was over exactly on time too.
And yes...it was also sterile and very lacking in emotion.
My friend looked at some of the people around him and asked: “When are you gonna do the stuff?” “What stuff?” they wanted to know. He said, “You know...the stuff!”
See...he had been reading in Acts about the conversions, the healing, the deliverance, and the other miracles that took place in the early church recorded in the book of Acts.
But instead of signs and wonders...he saw no sign of anything that would make him wonder...except the deadness of the ritual he had just sat through.
And even though for me in a far different way, that was exactly what I saw at FB in Atlanta...it was not worship...it was a performance and in one form or another that is happening all over America today.
People come to church and want to hear a message that will make them feel good, shower them with love and affection, and be over right on time...and I cringe when I say this...pastors apologize for running long.
If Jesus ran a little long at the Sermon on the Mount...do you really think that He would apologize?
So what is up with all of this...where did we go wrong...and how do we get back to that Pentecost Church?
I've been really reading the book of Acts again...as a matter of fact I have been spending a lot of time digesting it.
I am seeing again that signs and wonders were not the exception, no...they were the norm of the early church.
Healing and supernatural happenings were expected and they occurred regularly.
Now some explain this by saying we are living in a different time and that the age of miracles is over.
You mean they occurred only for a specific time and place and they were just to authenticate the message of the apostles and we no longer need that today.
Really now!!! Does God actually divide history up into neat little segments where he acts one way with one generation and a totally different way with another? I don't think so! Why?
Because if it is true, then God is not as HEBREWS 13:8 says... “the same yesterday and today and forever”.
If he does respond differently at different times, then he is one kind of God at one point in history and an entirely different God at another point of history and I can throw this Bible away because we have discovered a part that is not true...but to that I say hogwash...rubbish...it is absolutely blasphemy!!!.
The church today needs to discover once again that we have an unchanging God and an unchanging kingdom.
We need once again to discover the power of Pentecost and to become a Pentecostal church...and I am not talking about a denomination...I am talking about an ACTS 2 HOLY GHOST INSPIRED REVIVAL CHURCH.
We need to be filled with the HOLY GHOST and we need to be operating in the GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT.
We need to see people’s lives turned around...to see people healed physically, emotionally, relationally, socially, and spiritually...people experiencing the UNITY OF THE SPIRIT just as the early church did.
We need to be living in genuine love for each other, and when we fail at that then we need to seek reconciliation...we need to have a HOLY GHOST FIRE WALL and for the PEOPLE OF GOD to actually RISE UP.
I once heard said... “When God sends forth the HOLY GHOST amazing things happen: barriers are broken, communities are formed, opposites are reconciled, unity is established, disease is cured, addiction is broken, cities are renewed, races are reconciled, hope is established, people are blessed, and CHURCH HAPPENS.”
But if that is going to happen in our church certain conditions need to be met and certain preconceived ideas need to be changed...WE NEED A MAJOR HOLY GHOST INSPIRED MAKEOVER...YES A SPIRITUAL MAKEOVER!!!
FIRST...PENTECOSTAL POWER COMES WHEN YOU REALIZE THE CHRISTIAN LIFE IS NOT ABOUT KEEPING RULES, BUT ABOUT KNOWING CHRIST...WAKE UP BELOVED-FORGET THE RULES AND JUST LOVE GOD AND LIVE GOD EVER DAY!
“A pastor told me that as he was growing up in the church he heard a lot about being nice and how important it was to be a good person. He goes on to say... We were told to be kind and to love everyone...you know... 'Love your neighbor as you love yourself' and that is important. But if there was ever an opportunity to come to Christ, or an altar call in the church in which he grew up, he was unaware of it. In fact, he met the pastor’s son from that childhood church many years later and he told told him that even though he had grown up in a pastor’s home, he had never come to know the Lord until his high school chemistry teacher led him to Christ. His father was a good man, a good Christian, but like his congregation, his faith had become privatized...he had trouble sharing it.”
So many are like that today...we are very private about our FAITH? Do you have trouble sharing yours! Does worship get you excited or is it just a function you attend on Sunday...then you go back to the way you were?
In one of the churches I attended growing up everyone dressed their best...acted their best...the service was predictable and formal...but thank God Dad decide we'd made a mistake and we would look for a new one.
Don’t get me wrong, the Bible was read and the preacher said all the right things but there was no passion.
I’m sure the words of the responsive readings by the Pastor and congregation were meaningful, but they seemed like they came from another time and place.
And much of the service never connected with many of the people, or if it did, they were careful not to show it.
No one ever gave a testimony and certainly, no one raised their hands or clapped during the music.
And no one ever, ever said AMEN...see as far as I knew by seeing this church, Christianity was about keeping the rules and being a good person and if you loved God you did it quietly and never spoke out loud about it.
And today in churches all across America the gospel of being good is being preached...the gospel of “God is Love” is being preached but the “GOSPEL OF PENTECOST” is being avoided...even worse...IT IS ALMOST AS IF IT IS TABOO!
Until we renew our commitment to preaching THAT JESUS CHRIST IS THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE AND THAT NO ONE COMES TO THE FATHER EXCEPT THROUGH HIM, we will not experience the presence of the HOLY GHOST or know the awesome zeal and power and fire of that early church.
Until the people who call themselves the people of God renew their commitment to knowing Christ on a daily basis and living faithfully for Him, we will not experience the POWER AND FIRE OF PENTECOST.
Until we live by repentance and faith we will always be going through the motions of religion...without ever really knowing the person of Jesus Christ...we will just be playing church.
We've got to get back to is LOVING GOD and LIVING GOD EVER MINUTE OF EVER DAY!!!
As long as we think that Christianity is something that WE DO...AN ACTION ... we are totally missing the point.
Our FAITH is not about what we do...Please Hear Me...It is only about WHAT GOD DOES IN US.
Being a Christian is not doing the right thing or believing the right doctrines, it is knowing the right person.
It is not about being a member of the church or reciting creeds or performing communion or whatever.
No it is not about baptism or communion, although those are important parts of our life together.
It is about surrendering our life, our body, our mind, and our heart to Jesus Christ and then asking him to take up a residence...asking Him to move into the TEMPLE OF GOD that must be in us.
It is about confessing our sin and turning from it...it is about getting to the root of our sin and ripping the root out of our lives...ripping out what causes us to sin...getting right down to the very root of our sin.
It's about banking ALL we have and are on God...then LOVING HIM AND LIVING HIM with ALL our heart, mind, soul, and body.
The Christian faith is not a feeling Beloved ... it is a TRUTH...it is a WAY OF LIFE...and it is a SPIRITUAL REALITY.
It is a real RELATIONSHIP WITH A REAL PERSON ... THE REAL PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST.
Christianity is about the most powerful and wonderful person in the universe who desires to know us intimately and this experience is not tame...it is wild, wonderful, awesome, and powerful and if it is not that for you today...then we need to find a way to get you to that point of Spirituality.
Paul said in PHILIPPIANS 3:10... “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.”
And that is what we must do...and what we must say...and we have to get back to having a GOD GIVEN VISION of the CROSS...a GOD GIVEN VISION OF THE RESURRECTION POWER.
We must realize that the greatest thing this side of eternity is to be a GOD FILLED MAN...Paul had that type of VISION an we have to get back to that type of VISION!
We have to get away from the ideas...the doctrines...the rituals because..they are as straight as a gun barrel-but just as empty if we don't LOVE GOD FIRST and SECOND LIVE GOD EVERY DAY OF OUR LIVES!
SECOND...THE PENTECOSTAL POWER COMES WHEN YOU FINALLY REALIZE THAT THE CHRISTIAN LIFE IS NOT JUST ABOUT SALVATION, IT IS ABOUT A TRANSFORMATION...IT IS ABOUT A TRANSFORMED LIFE...
JOEL 1:4 says... “That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten.”
God's church over the years has become like crops in the fields...they got away from their BLUEPRINT for a church and the palmerworm, the locust, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar ate away at the flesh of the BODY OF CHRIST.
We've got to realize that Salvation for our people is a worthy goal...but that is all many churches ever focus on.
They faithfully preach SALVATION...the necessity of NEW BIRTH...that is what you hear almost every Sunday.
The scripture may change, but the message is basically the same... “You need to be born again.”
And that is good as far as it gets. Yes...it is a necessary FIRST STEP.
If our faith only consists of a single event where we repented of sin and came to Christ, then it is an incomplete faith and the Satan's pest eat away at the foundation of the church...they eat the flesh of Christ body.
Let me give you and example...what if a baby was born and we all celebrated the new life, but the baby never took in nourishment, was never nurtured, never grew, never developed.
As wonderful as its birth was, that baby does not survive. Pediatricians call it “failure to thrive.”
If you think that the Christian life is only about being born again, then I stand here today and tell you...think again.
JOEL 1:5 says... “Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.”
See...we drank the new wine when we came to salvation … but so many were never transformed and are now slowly being cut off from that new wine.
We are simply “serving God by proxy” instead of serving God by doing and through spiritual action.
Beloved...SALVATION is a necessary and good first step...but transformation must come next.
To hear some people talk you would think that once you come to Christ you just wait around for heaven.
I heard this said... “Most people after having a conversion experience are just waiting around to be raptured” and in far too many churches today that is what is going on...and churches like that are dieing.
And if that is true...Satan is happy and excited...because his pestilence is stripping the flesh off the church.
Maybe I missed the verse in the Bible where it says that if you are saved you go straight to Heaven?
Far too many of us are just putting in time until Jesus comes and Satan's pestilence...the locust, palmerworm, cankerworm, and caterpillar are hard at work and His church is being devoured and is dieing.
If that is the way we think, we will never experience that Pentecostal power of real SALVATION.
We will never understand that Jesus Christ has come to establish his kingdom “on earth, as it is in heaven,” and we are his agents through whom he works to make that happen.
God wants us to grow in HOLINESS, AND TO BE SALT AND LIGHT IN A TASTELESS AND DARK WORLD.
We are to become transformed on a daily basis, through the spiritual disciplines, and then become agents of that transformation in the world...to the world...and for the world.
It is sort of like this...you can take ten gallons of gasoline and release a tremendous amount of power and energy by just dropping a lighted match into it but you better find a way of dropping it from a long way away.
It will make a dramatic one time impact but there is another way to release the energy in that gasoline.
Place it in the fuel tank of a new Ford designed to get 30 miles to the gallon.
The high tech engine will use those ten gallons of gasoline to take a person 300 miles or more.
Explosions may be spectacular, but a sustained and controlled burn has lasting power...has staying power.
You don’t want to be one bang and over, you want to make a difference over time...last for the long haul.
You don’t want the HOLY GHOST to just save you for heaven, you want Him to use his power to transform you and your life up until the day your Lord calls you home...to use you in this world for kingdom purposes.
The kingdom is not far away in time and space, it is here and now.
To be a member of God's kingdom you need to LOVE GOD and LIVE GOD EVER DAY through the power of the HOLY GHOST operating in your life.
The apostle John, in the book of Revelation, talks about all the things we have to go through in this world and he says in REVELATION 14:12... “This calls for patient endurance on the part of the saints who obey God’s commandments and remain faithful to Jesus.”
THIRD...PENTECOSTAL POWER COMES WHEN YOU OVERCOME APATHY WITH ZEAL AND POWER AND FIRE...
You can’t try to be good and think that you are a Christian...
Again I have to say I am not questioning your salvation but you cannot just point to a past experience of being “born again” and say you are a Christian...you have to GROW...you must GROW.
Over the years there has entered a darkness of apathy in God's Body...His church … And concerning that darkness that has enveloped most of Christendom we have got to come to an understanding that... "When you're sitting in that dark room, you can either sit and curse the darkness...or you can light a candle."
And that candle is this...to be transformed into the very IMAGE OF CHRIST...to want to be made like Him.
You cannot be apathetic toward the things of God and his kingdom and experience that Pentecostal power.
You have to be like those who were at Pentecost...you have to become drunk on His new wine.
See the people at Pentecost were mocked that they were “full of new wine”...and Praise God...they were.
But the wine they were drunk on came from GOD'S CUP...they were drunk on the BLOOD OF CHRIST!
A true transformation is a transformation of a heart that loves God and desires to know him better every day...in other words it is a heart that LOVES GOD and LIVES GOD EVERY MINUTE OF EVERY DAY!!!
When we are delivered from the bondage of sin and ushered into the KINGDOM OF GOD where there is freedom, we delight in the things of God...and we are drunk from the presence of God's HOLY GHOST.
The more you know God, the more you will LOVE GOD...then the more you will LIVE GOD...then more excited you will be about the KINGDOM OF GOD.
And yes...the more you LOVE HIM and the more you LIVE HIM...the more you will want others to know him.
The more you experience his presence and power, the more of it you want.
Beloved...we have been forgiven ... we have inherited eternal life ... we have experienced eternal love.
And if we are LOVING GOD AND LIVING GOD we are holding nothing back because we have discovered life.
We have found the PEARL OF GREAT PRICE...it is worth more than anything we have seen or possessed before.
Because of this we are excited about life again and we are excited about the wonderful God we serve again and we are willing to do whatever it takes to have more of him.
The church needs a mighty overhauling by divine Hands...she needs the baptism with the HOLY GHOST and FIRE...yes she needs a PENTECOSTAL STYLE REVIVAL TODAY...
When Jesus Christ ascended into heaven from Mt. Olivet, He charged the disciples that they should "wait for the promise of the Father" who said He would give them the "baptism of the HOLY GHOST" with its resultant power...so what is that resultant power?
FIRST...THE PROMISE OF THAT RESULTANT POWER WAS EXCLUSIVE...
It said..."Ye shall receive power."
And who was to receive the promise? Those drunk on that NEW WINE...Only the followers of Christ.
SECOND...THE PROMISE OF THAT RESULTANT POWER WAS EXCITING...
It said "The Holy Ghost shall come upon you..."
And in eager anticipation of this blessed promise, the waiting ones could see all their weakness evaporating in the HOLY GHOST BAPTISM OF FIRE.
THIRD...THE PROMISE OF THAT RESULTANT POWER WAS EXPLICIT...
It said He would come "Not many days hence."
It was to come very quickly after allowing His presence within them.
FOURTH...THE PROMISE OF THAT RESULTANT POWER WAS EXPANDING...
This thing was not to be done in a corner, nor whispered among the redeemed only.
It was to reach out thru them to Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth thru their witness.
FIFTH...THIS PROMISE OF THAT RESULTANT POWER WAS EXALTING AND EXCITING...
In the whole world of created things there is no greater power than that of the HOLY GHOST OF GOD.
They were to be filled with the very SPIRIT OF THE LIVING GOD. Earth has no greater honor than that.
Every thing in the heavens above, or in the earth beneath, or in the waters above the earth - all these are the work of His fingers and this Mighty one is He who condescends to come and indwell in mortals.
The first essential for the coming of the HOLY GHOST into a heart today is that the heart should be cleansed from sin, for the HOLY GHOST does not fill an unclean heart.
And what God has cleansed, He then fills...finally, whom God fills, He uses...and a holy life is the AUTHENTIC SIGN OF BEING FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT.
But too many for ages and ages have not understood this TRUTH and the palmerworm, the locust, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar have eaten the very life giving flesh from God's church...the body of Christ.
CONCLUSION...SO WHAT ARE WE TO DO?
Today we need a REVIVAL OF HOLY LIVING...A REVIVAL OF LOVING GOD AND LIVING GOD!!!
We need churches which are filled with the HOLY GHOST...and people that are filled with the HOLY GHOST!
And if that happens in America today you will not have to advertise it...Why?
FIRST..."Our God is a consuming fire. He consumes pride, lust, materialism, and ALL other sin."
SECOND..."We must do what we can do for God, before He will give us the power to do what we can't do."
And THIRD...When that FIRE comes on a congregation...the whole community can see it...they can just feel it...because it VIBRATES...because it is SELF-EVIDENT!!! And it PRAISE GOD because it will SPREAD!!!
Many of you heard or read about 27-year-old Aron Ralston who had his right arm pinned by an 800-pound boulder in a climbing accident.
He had gone hiking in Bluejohn Canyon, adjacent to Utah’s Canyonlands National Park.
Now he was an experienced climber...he had already climbed 49 other peaks in Colorado over 14,000 feet high and he thought about what it would be like to die up there...have his family find his body...or not know his fate.
Ralston thought about his options and after five days of being pinned...having run out of food and water...he decided to apply a tourniquet and amputate his arm below the elbow with his pocket knife.
He then rappelled to the canyon floor with his one good arm...was spotted by a Utah Public Safety Helicopter.
What the news did not say was that he credits his FAITH IN GOD for ability to do what he had to do.
Because Aron wanted to live beloved...he was willing to cut away everything that was holding him back.
And we must make that very same choice if we want to really get right with GOD.
When you are willing to cut away everything that is holding you back and walk out of the canyon of bondage, then the Holy Spirit will come to you in new ways and you will then know a life you did not know was possible.
The Bible says in HEBREWS 12:1... “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress. And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us.”
The apostle Paul did exactly this and tells us how in PHILIPPIANS 3:13-14... “Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. BUT ONE THING I DO: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
Beloved...that goal is just one thing only...to become drunk on the new wine...to LOVE GOD and LIVE GOD EVER DAY...will you join me in doing just that TODAY...LET'S PRAY!
