God at work through Spirit-filled People
Text: Acts 2:37-42
Introduction:
1. After watching the Upwards Sports film last Sunday morning, I wanted to follow this with a sermon and I want to ask you some serious questions:
Why should we bother with the families of this area?
Why should we do anything that is going to cost us more money and cause us more stress?
What’s in it for us anyway?
Why would we want to be involved in reaching out to Moms and Dads and boys and girls in this community and surrounding communities?
2. Let me take you back to Matthew chapter 18 and gives us the foundation of what Jesus taught His disciples and this same teaching is relevant for our understanding also:
Matthew 18:2ff
2 “Jesus called a small child over to Him and put the child among them.
3 Then He said, ‘I assure you, unless you turn from your sins and become as little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven.
4 Therefore, anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.
5 And anyone who welcomes a little child like this on My behalf is welcoming Me.
6 But if anyone causes one of these little ones who trusts in Me to lose faith, it would be better for that person to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck.”
14 “In the same way, it is not My Father’s will that even one of these little ones should perish.”
Statistics show us that the highest percentage of people who come to profess Jesus Christ as their personal Savior is the children up to the age of 12 years old.
After that the percentage of people coming to the Savior drops drastically.
Every year on Thursday night during VBS I am given the opportunity to preach a salvation message to children and I am literally astounded how many of those kids seriously pray and accept Jesus so readily.
During these years the church has maintained a vibrant witness in the surrounding communities.
The Key to the effectiveness of any church has been a willingness to change and adjust in ways that best minister and reach the lost for Jesus.
This is a rare and wonderful characteristic of a church family.
As we continue to prepare for the future ministry this church, once again I approach you with our Mission and purpose for being here.
In Matthew 28:19-20 Jesus said, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
“GO!”
1) A Simple Command
a) It’s pretty straight forward – isn’t it?
b) We have two common ways of responding:
First, we respond by Waiting!
We build our church buildings, put ads in the paper, announce our service times and then we wait for people to come to us.
And Yet – Jesus says we aren’t to wait for people to come to us – He says – “Go to them!”
Just recently I heard someone say, “If people won’t come to church, then we have to take the church to them.”
Secondly – we respond by sending others.
One of the most common approaches is to hire
“full-time and part-time ministers” so they can go and win the lost and build the church.
But this is not the Biblical approach – this is not the biblical concept.
In Ephesians 4:11-12 it reads, “It was he, (Jesus), who gave some to be apostles some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until all reach unity in the faith…”
In my pastoral role and my staff’s role is more clear today than ever before: It is to Equip believers for the ministry.
Example:
? Much of our ministry in the church should be much like a football team.
? Each week the coaches work to prepare the team.
? They study films, design plays, push the players to get in the best physical shape possible.
What would happen if this were reversed?
? What if on game day, the players stood on the sidelines and the coaches went out on the field to play?
? The coaches would get creamed/defeated.
? When the others were substituting freely the coaches would be exhausted.
? They would be at a severe disadvantage and no matter how hard they worked they would not be able to overcome the opposition.
Practical Application:
? Today this is a common picture of a church.
? Pastor’s and staff working long hours, feeling guilty for work not finished,
? Cutting back on vital preparation time,
? All the time being cheered on and directed by the congregation.
? And I ask you – Is it any wonder in the general church that we are aware of – that the church has made little impact across our country even though our church attendance is on the rise?
The Believers of this church are called to be the ministers of the church!
The Pastors are not only called to do ministry but they are called to do the equipping.
My understanding for this Body of believers is for the pastoral staff to equip all the believers to become ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Illus.
I’m sure some of you have seen the movie “Shindler’s List.
In this movie there is a man who was trying to save Jews from being sent to death camps to be murdered in World War II.
In the end of the movie, he would pay German officials to let a certain number of people get off the train and avoid death.
He paid a lot of his money to save people’s lives.
At the end of the movie, when he found out many people had been murdered at the death camps, he went into shock.
He looked at his watch, his car, his possessions and started saying if only I had of sold this, I could have saved more lives.
If only I had of let this go, I could have saved more.
I honestly believe when you and I stand before God on the Day of Judgment and fully understand the number of people who were lost for all eternity plus what we might have done to have made a difference, our first thought is going to be,
“If only I had done more for the cause of Jesus!
If only I would have given more to Jesus for His Kingdom.
If only my priorities had been different.
If only I had thought beyond myself and the things I wanted.
If only I had found the time.
4. In Hebrews 2:10 – “And it was only right that God – who made everything and for whom everything was made – should bring His many children into His glory.
Do you really believe this morning there are many people, Mom’s and Dad’s – boys and girls – Teen Youth live in this community and desperately need God if they are going to make it to heaven?
Do you think there are 3,000 children in this area who really need Jesus in their hearts?
Could you catch a Vision with me this morning of doing whatever it takes to reach more children for the Savior?
- You see if we don’t think about this much?
- And if we only think about coming to church once a week and getting in our hour or hour and a half for the week to fulfill our religious duty.
- And if we only think about us and not about them …
- Then what happens is – the church becomes almost a Secret Society. And only those who wander in and accept our way of thinking and preaching can belong.
- So you see with me – God’s Word expressly tells us that we must “Go into our world and preach and teach so that disciples can be made.” Matthew 28:19-20
- We’ve got to become more intense in the direction of this church to win the Lost at any Cost.
5. Rick Warren says in his book – The Purpose Driven Life,
“It is not enough just to say relationships are important; we must prove it by investing time and (money) in them. Words alone are worthless. ‘My children, our love should not be just words and talk; it must be true love, which shows itself in action.’
Relationships take time and effort, and the best way to spell love is ‘T-I-M-E.’
The essence of love is not what we think or do or
provide for others, but how much we give of
ourselves (and our means).”
I am constantly reminded of a young man whose name was Devon that I met a couple months ago.
He told me – “I never went to church until I was 16 years old.” What a fine young man Devon is.
He said, “I always thought that church was a group of people who told stories that were just made up.
Now that I’m dating a girl who goes to church, I’m going to church and I’m listening and it’s pretty cool to hear about Jesus and the Bible and I don’t believe these were just made up stories anymore.”
Devon lives in right here in our community where our church is located.
And how many other young people like Devon are out there who have never sit foot in a church and have never heard about Jesus?
You see – Jesus said,
3 ‘I assure you, unless you turn from your sins and become as little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven.
4 Therefore, anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.
5 And anyone who welcomes a little child like this on My behalf is welcoming Me.
6 But if anyone causes one of these little ones who trusts in Me to lose faith, it would be better for that person to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck.”
This verse has always intrigued me – I never want to be a stumbling block or stop what God wants to be done to win little children for the Kingdom.
14 In the same way, it is not My Father’s will that even one of these little ones should perish.”
Our message has to be His Message!
It’s not about us and our wants and our desires.
It’s about Him and what He wants and what He desires!
I. What is the problem of the church today?
A. Regretfully our problem is – We have not followed the Leading of the Spirit of God!
Even Paul recognized the problem in his day when he said in Galatians 5:16,
“Live by the Holy Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.”
B. Our problem today is we’ve heard and yet we haven’t taken action to do what Jesus commanded us to do.
Listen to what the Apostle Paul said in
I Cor. 10:3-7
3 “And all of them ate the same miraculous food
4 And all of them drank the same miraculous water. For they all drank from the miraculous rock that traveled with them, and that rock was Christ,
5 And yet after all this, God was not pleased with most of them, and He destroyed them in the wilderness.
6 Now these things happened as a warning to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.
7 Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: ‘The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan revelry.”
Christian, we have a crisis in the world that we live in.
In our communities where we live we are faced with one of the biggest crisis that the Church world has ever faced.
¬Because no one has cared enough to take time to tell them what they could do to escape the Coming Judgment.
The crisis is that there are so many in the church who have not given of their means and given of themselves to reach out to the little ones that need to come to Jesus.
Why would we want to have Vacation Bible School and put so much effort and money to bring little children into our church?
Why would we take the effort to have The Fall Alternative in October and put so much money in it for little kids?
Why would we put so much energy into such a program as Upwards Basketball and Soccer in this church?
You might say, “Pastor, why do you think it’s so important to do one more thing that is going to cost time, effort and money for little children?”
Because Jesus preached it and commands us to do it!
If we have to build a building to do this and many souls makes it to heaven than it is worth it all.
Please understand what I am preaching this morning.
Do you know that the enemy has built a strategic plan for the destruction of all the children in this area and in America?
The enemy has built all kinds of worldly entertainment to allure our children to sin.
While the church on the whole has fallen asleep!
Yes, there are some churches who are not sleeping!
But on the whole - what has the church done? Not very much if all of us would be truthful!
We have insisted on the traditional church where many people have lost interest.
C. The Church has not stayed relevant in a day when the imperative is to go beyond what we are today in order to reach those who need to be saved.
No wonder Paul taught us that great truth when he said, “I have become all things to all people so I might save some.”
There are way too many empty chairs in the church today that need to be filled every Sunday because of what we do to save children, teens and Moms and Dads in our communities.
Pastor Roger said to me last Wednesday night as we were standing up on the top of the hill. He said,
“Pastor Dan, we’re going to see 200 more children joining our kids, running around here on Wednesday nights before too long.”
You see Pastor Roger and others have a vision that we should and must win our community for Jesus!
Conclusion:
Why show a film like Upward Sports as we did this morning?
I wanted you to catch the vision of what can happen here in our church.
I want you to see little children coming to Christ.
I want you to see Mom’s and Dad’s bringing their children to this church.
I don’t want to stand in the Judgment Day and wish I had done more.
I don’t want to regret what I could have done.
I want to be changed now – so that I can lead you as your Pastor to win families to Christ and see His Church built.
Instead of 60 to 70 children – I want to see 120 to 140 children – there would be 240 to 280 children more than what we have now.
Instead of 40 teens – I want to see 60 to 100 teenagers in the next two years.
Instead of 250 to 300 adults – I want to see 500 to 600 adults coming to this church.
And yet, I say to you in one service 3,000 people came to join the disciples because of Holy Spirit-filled people who decided to obey what Jesus commanded them to do.
We can’t say – it's too much.
The Kingdom is at stake and people are lost and dying without Jesus and missing Heaven.
The result of our ministry might not be 3,000 believers in a day.
God has given us the same Power He gave Peter on that first Pentecost. That Power is the Holy Spirit!
We have the same Holy Spirit, who works through the Word.
We also have God’s promise, “MY word will not return to me void, but will accomplish the purpose for which I sent it.”
This is the result of being born again and filled with the Holy Spirit.
The church grew not only in number but also in faith, in unity and in love.
The believers were characterized by devotion.
They were so serious about this that they sold their possessions so they Kingdom need would be met.
The Kingdom believers met every day in the temple and they met in their homes.
What will we rally around?
a. What will be the propelling and compelling force in our church?
b. Will it be a Peter who preached at Pentecost?
c. Will it be a message of repentance?
d. Will it be children coming to Jesus?
