SELFLESS
WK. 1 - BOLD IN WITNESS
PASTOR TIMOTHY PORTER
TEXT: MATTHEW 16:24
INTRODUCTION:
I love this weekend because it's the first weekend of a new year.
How many of you have New Year's resolutions, you have goals, you want something to be different this year?
I hope that you do.
It's interesting to me when you think about it, most of the time when we make New Year's resolutions, most of them are more self centered in nature.
Not an entirely bad thing, just an observation. In other words some of you might say
I want to lose weight this year
I want to eat better this year
I want to keep my house cleaner this year
I want to get rid of our cats this year
I want to stop smoking this year
I want to save more money this year
I don't know what it might be for you but a lotta times our goals, they are more about us than anything else.
The tragedy is when it's so much of our life when it comes to God, is more about us than it is about him.
For example, so many people today when it comes to God, they are trying to get God to do what they want rather than trying to figure out what God wants for their life. Sometimes it's a very self centered thing.
God bless me, God help me be richer, God help me be happier, God give me what I want. And whenever life doesn't go as we want, there's some people who end up blaming God.
Here is what they might say.
Well you know I tried to go to church or I read my Bible one time or I did whatever. And I didn't get a better job and I didn't get a better parking space and the girl I wanted to date ended up dating somebody else. I tried God, it didn't work.
Because God didn't do what I wanted him to do.
What's interesting is that people think God exists for us when in reality, WE EXIST to SERVE and to honor Him.
In fact, when Jesus invited people to follow him, this is what Jesus said, Jesus said "Whoever wants to be my disciple must" do what?
Life's not going to be more about them, but that person must do what they "must deny themselves and take up their cross "and follow me." (“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. Matt 16:24 )
If we wanna be a disciple of Jesus, it's less about us and it's more about him.
That's why as we walk into a 2021, in the culture that we live in, a very self centered, selfish culture, I wanna teach four messages that'll help us become selfless and more obedient to following Jesus.
Because if we want to follow him, it's gonna be less about us and more about him.
So let me give you our big four themes so you'll know where we're going in the coming weeks.
Bold Witness—Faithful Service—Extravagant Gen—Grateful Grind.
Today what I wanna do is I wanna talk about being bold in witness, bold in sharing our faith in Christ.
I also wanna talk about being faithful in service, using our gifts to minister to other people.
We'll also talk about being extravagant in generosity. And we'll talk about being grateful in the grind. In other words, instead of God, just do what I want, God bless me, make my life better,
What if we said this, God use me to reach more people, even if I'm laughed at or ridiculed. Bold in witness.
God use me to use the gifts I have to serve others, to show your love even if it makes me uncomfortable, Faithful in service.
God help me to use what I have to be a blessing to others even if I have to change the way that I live, Extravagant in generosity
And help me God, every single day, to wake up and do what even may seem mundane, but to do it all for your glory, grateful in the grind.
Instead of being self centered and selfish, what if we, as followers of Jesus, would strive to live a selfless life, starting Selfless off by denying ourselves and saying Jesus, we want what you want, we wanna follow your will.
So today, we're gonna start with the big idea, one that I believe will spur many of you on to share the love of Jesus. And we're gonna talk about being Bold In Wtness.
? Let me give you the context of what we're gonna talk about in scripture today.
If you can imagine there were some disciples, some men that Jesus had been training and investing in for about three years.
He's teaching them what it means to know God, teaching them how to do God's will.
He's investing in them and the whole time Jesus is explaining to them, every now and then he'll say, "now you need to remember, the whole reason we're doing this "is because one day I'm gonna give my life, "I'm gonna die, and then on the 3rd day "God is gonna raise me from the dead."
The disciples had a really difficult time with this because they didn't really understand the whole context like we do today.
It's like, "No Jesus, no, no, you can't do this." And Jesus said, "No, I'm gonna have to die "for the forgiveness of sins.
"This is why I came.
"I didn't come for the healthy, but I came for the sick. "I didn't come for the righteous, "but I came for the sinners.
"I'm gonna have to die "and God is gonna raise me from the dead. "Three days later I'll be back."
And so Jesus went to the cross, he suffered brutally, three days later, it's Sunday evening, What do you think the disciples are doing?
Do you think they were out preaching boldlyand being Bold In Wittness, "He's coming back, he told us about this, "we've been waiting for it. "Any minute, here he comes, he's coming back."
Not at all. John's gospel tell us what they were doing and we read it in John chapter 20, verse 19,
John 20:19 (NLT2) 19 That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said.
? Why is it, those of you that are Christians? Why is that we are not more often bold in witness?
Afraid - Don't know enough - We don't want to offrnd others or be pushy - We don't want to look silly -
In my opinion if you get to the root of it, almost every excuse we have, the root of it is because we're afraid, we're afraid.
We're afraid that we won't get it right. We're behind locked doors, afraid of the Jewish leaders.
I totally and completely understand this.
Just because I'm a preacher doesn't mean I wake up every day and my Bible hovers over my desk and I glow in the dark with supernatural glory to be bold in all that I do. I totally get it.
? Seminary / Personal Evangislisim Class — Pray aren’t home
I love what Jesus said " Peace be with you" In other words I am back! Meaning it is finished! Peace with God and His people has been established.
And all of the sudden these guys went from being selfish, being timid, being afraid, being self centered, to bold, courageous and evangelistic in all that they did.
These guys, who were in one moment, hiding behind locked doors, the next moment were out preaching boldly.
Peter and John started preaching—Repent sins! (3000-5000) Priests and Captain of Temple Guard confronted (Police) Confronted them — Prison./ even then they would not shut up! The kept preching!
---- Annas—High Priest says By what power—In whose name have you done this?
Peter Bodly say's -
8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of our people, 9 are we being questioned today because we’ve done a good deed for a crippled man? Do you want to know how he was healed? 10 Let me clearly state to all of you and to all the people of Israel that he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, the man you crucified but whom God raised from the dead Acts 4:8-10
Boldness—We speak boldly about what we believe deeply!
? If we're not speaking boldly about our faith in Jesus, do we really believe it deeply?
(Our car)—Restaurants—Shoes—stock market— our football team - Netflix series! ( how about Jesus! )
Peter—Tell you about powerful name of Jesus
12 There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved. 13 The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus. Acts 4:12-13
?How amazed are people by your boldness for Christ?
Unmoved 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Amazed
Shared Christ—Brought people—Praying—Brought no one
HOW DO WE GROW IN BOLDNESS?
1) SPEND MORE TIME WITH JESUS
[They were amazed by the disciples’ boldness] …for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus. Acts 4:13
Who was God using? Ordinary—Regular—Unschooled people. (Idiotes)
Who does God most often use? Idiots who have been with Jesus!
? When I Skip my quiet time—Spiritually distracted—Consumed w/ things of world - fFootbal lGames, Fashion, Social media—Spiritually apathetic
? When I spend time with Jesus first—Build faith—Spiritual urgency—Confidence—Bold— He Uses us More when we spend time with Jesus
2) ASK GOD TO MAKE YOU BOLD
Religious leaders continued to threaten—Jail—Put you to death
29 And now, O Lord, hear their threats, and give us, your servants, great boldness in preaching your word. Acts 4:29
When we are BOLDS He Keeps us safe! Don’t let anything bad happen to us .
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When we pray for boldness and spend time with Jesus we become :
SELFLESS more of Him and Less of us — We Deny ourself—We are not living for today— We are Living for eternity.
When this life is over—We will live somewhere forever.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You will Live in the presence of the glory of God in heaven Or in the horror of eternal damnation in hell.
Never liked preaching focused on scaring you to death—Fear based preaching
I Wouldn’t be true to God’s word if I didn’t tell you that hell is a horrible place - Words are inadequate to capture hell’s excruciation, anguish, horror.
Outer darkness, Eternal lake of fire, Place torment, sorrow, everlasting destruction - Indescribable suffering day and night for all eternity.
If your right eye causes you to sin—Gouge it out—Better than suffering in hell.
Same way words cannot capture the horror of hell Words can’t capture glory of heaven.
“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.” 1 Cor 2:9
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared... 3 I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” 5 And the one sitting on the throne said… “It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life. 7 All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children. Rev 21:1-5
What I want you to understand is there are people in your life that you love, who do not know the grace of Jesus.
And at this moment it's not too late for them, this moment. One day, one day it will be too late. And so what we tend to think as we're hiding behind the doors. Well what if I do this and I don't get it right? And what if I try and they say no? And what if, what if, what if, fear, fear, fear, fear.
And what if I share my faith and they don't wanna hear it?
Another question we could ask ourselves that is perhaps more powerful is what if I don't? What if I don't? What if I don't?
Remember this, in one moment. Pop. They were scared to death, when they realized Jesus was risen, everything changed.
For some of you, this is that moment!
The tomb is empty and instead of being afraid, just like Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, you are an ordinary person, filled with the Holy Spirit. Courageous in faith and bold in witness, because we speak boldly about what we believe deeply.
And we believe Jesus is the name above every name, who is soon returning, conquering King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, the way, the truth and the light, the living water, the bread of life, our source, our savior, the one who died and who rose again.
So Father I ask today that you would make those who are followers of your son Jesus, bold rather than being selfish. God we deny ourselves. We follow the one who gave his life for us. At The Bridge church today, those who say I am a follower of Jesus, God make me even more bold in Spirit. Would you raise your Selfless hands high right now, just lift 'em up. All over the place.
