Letting The Inside Out
NLF Pentecost 6/8/2003 2 Chronicles 34:1-18 Acts 1:1-8
Let’s suppose for a moment that you were in a room with hundreds of bags hanging overhead. All of the bags say the same thing on the outside. All of the bags look just like each other. All of the bags are filled with sand except for one. There is one bag that’s filled with tiny diamonds worth more money than you can ever dream of having. Lying on the floor next to you is a spear with a sharp point on it. If you only had 5 minutes to find the diamonds what would you do?
Now you could get a ladder and try to open the top of the bag and see what’s inside. You could get a ladder and try to put your arms around each bag and squeeze it to see how it feels. Or you could just pick up that spear and run from bag to bag jabbing it and moving on? You know that whatever is in that bag is going to come pouring out when you put enough pressure on it to cause it to open. Now keep this in mind for the rest of the message.
In our Old Testament reading we came into contact with a king by the name of Josiah. Josiah was on of the best kings in terms of faithfulness to God and he was the last of the good kings. The interesting thing about Josiah is that he became king at age 8. We were thinking about going to third grade when he was becoming king. But at age 8 the bible says, “he was doing right in the eyes of the Lord.” We are never to young to start serving God.
At age 16 we find that he is very serious about God and is actively seeking to know God. At age 20 he is removing everything out of his country that keeps the people from worshipping the true God. He destroys all the false gods that people worshipped. At age 26 he is repairing the temple where everybody worshiped the true God.
Josiah is a good example of what’s on the inside of a person will show up in what he or she does on the outside. Because he decided to get to know God early in his life, his life looked like a person living for God.
Today we celebrate what’s known as Pentecost. After Jesus died on the cross and rose again from the dead, Jesus did not go straight back into heaven and remain there. For about 40 days after his resurrection, Jesus came and was teaching the disciples. How many of us could handle a formerly dead man teaching us something for forty days?
Before he finally leaves, he tells the disciples, “You are to wait in Jerusalem in order to be baptized by the Holy Spirit. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will tell others about me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and all over the world.” After Jesus told the disciples this he left and went back into heaven.
Now the disciples were scared to death to tell others about Jesus. That was a good way to get into serious trouble, because the people who had killed Jesus in the first place also wanted to get rid of everybody who was claiming Jesus had risen from the dead. So when they met together, they did so secretly and behind closed and locked doors.
Then the day of Pentecost came. Now Pentecost was a name of festival that took place to celebrate the grain harvest. Pente means 50. This festival took place on the fiftieth day. So a big celebration was going on in Jerusalem and people had come from all over the empire to celebrate. The disciples and believers in Christ, a group of about 120 people had been in a room praying in Jerusalem.
While they were praying, the building started shaking, and there was a sound like a tornado was coming through. The people sitting down on the floor praying looked up and saw this fire in the shape of a tongue hovering over head. The next thing they knew, the huge tongue split into several little tongues and landed on the top of each one of them. All of them immediately got up and started preaching. The only thing was, they were all preaching in a different language.
People from all over the world who had come to Jersualem were shocked to hear these people who had never learned their languages, preaching to them fluently. It was as if, one day while Tony was preaching a group of Chinese, Koreans, Germans and Nigerians came into the service and all of a sudden not only did Tony stop speaking English and started in Chinese, but Scottie, Josh, and Trionna all jumped up to a microphone with Scotty speaking Korean, Josh German, and Trionna one of the Nigerian dialects. Not only this, but everybody understood the preaching at the same time.
Now the disciples had been filled with Holy Spirit. Since the Holy Spirit was in them, they received the power that Jesus had promised them. They went from being scared to speak about Jesus, to being ready to do whatever God told them to do. They preached boldly about Jesus Christ, and what Jesus had done for them. They even went to the people who had framed Christ and put him to death and called them murderers right to their faces.
People were getting saved from the disciples preaching. They kept preaching that Jesus has risen from the dead, there is no other name by which you can be saved, and Jesus will change your life. Well the leaders got upset with the disciples and told them, “if you don’t keep quiet and stop this preaching, we will have you beaten and thrown into prison.”
These disciples who were full of the Holy Spirit told them, “Look you got to do what you got to do. We have made up our minds to obey God no matter what. So if God says preach we’re going to preach.” Well they went on preaching and sure enough they were arrested. They were thrown into jail and coming out of jail, the religious leaders gave orders to give them a whipping they would not forget.
Now some of us would have kept our mouths closed after they told us, “say another thing about Jesus and you’re going to jail.” Some of us would have been okay with going to jail, but getting beating, now that’s something else altogether differently. We do not want to risk our good looks with scars left on our faces or our teeth knocked out. Do you know how we know whether we are full of the Holy Spirit or not? Only when something starts to tear us apart with pain. Do you remember those bags, most of which were filled with sand? We could only find the diamonds but ripping the bags open.
We know the disciples had the real thing. Let’s read Acts 5:40-42 His speech persuaded them. They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. 41The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. 42Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.
This was not a simple slap on the wrist. In a flogging, leather thongs made into whips were beaten against the bared upper body of the bound prisoner. The prisoner would be made to kneel, then the triple-strap whip would be beaten across both chest and back, with two beatings on the back for every one on the chest. This punishment would be given to people judged guilty of crimes: “
Now can you imagine the disciples going home saying, “thank you Lord that you counted us worthy to be among those whom you would allow to suffer for the cause of Christ.” When we look at our circumstances in this way, we see that God gives us opportunities to suffer for his sake. But we spend so much time complaining about our situation, that God is not at all glorified in our lives. Oh God, why didn’t you save me from that beating when I was doing your will and telling people about you.
There is nothing in the Bible that teaches us that being in the will of God means being in a place where tragedy and suffering will not strike. One of my best friends from college also went into the ministry. He and his wife had five children. They left all the comforts of this country to go do ministry in Malawi, a very small poor country in Africa.
One day Doug’s wife, Barbara was riding her bike across a bridge. Something happened and she fell off the bike into the ravine. She was left paralyzed from the waist down. The mission agency told them, they would release them from their assignment to stay for a certain period of time. They chose to stay in Malawi until the term was up because they wanted to complete the work that Christ had called them to do.
You see when the spear of life ripped them open, sand did not come out, but rather diamonds because they had been filled with the Holy Spirit. We so often concentrate in Christianity on what a Christian does not do because of the power of the Holy Spirit, that we forget there are some things we should do because of God’s power.
When we get saved, we are ready to go to heaven, but it does not mean we are fit to be good witnesses for Jesus Christ or are easy to live with here on earth. To be a good witness means being ready to show people what’s on the inside of us when things we do not like enters into our lives. We really do not know if we will act like Jesus wants us to act in a given situation until it actually happens.
Let’s look at where we are to take positive steps in being a Christian to demonstrate that the Holy Spirit is filling our lives. Let’s read together Colossians 3:12. “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” Now this one verse could forever change our lives if we determine to let Jesus put it into practice. If you’re having problems with your parents, your kids, your spouse, your boss, or your friends this is the verse that can help turn things around for the better.
Is there anybody here who wakes up each morning, gets out of bed and immediately goes to school or work without changing clothes. What happens if you wake up late in your pajamas and you “pray Lord, you know I’m late, so put me on the right clothes as I eat and run out the door.” Well if we did it once we would not do it again, because people would ask, why are you still in your pajamas.” Unfortunately to many think this is how change takes place in a Christian’s life. You pray and it happens.
This verse says to clothe ourselves. Do you know what that means. It means if we do not make the choice to make something happen, it’s not going to happen by some automatic process. We can learn about pants, shoes, dresses, underwear, coats and socks. We can lay them out on the bed. But if we do not choose to put them on, we will be naked when we go outside.
We have to choose to obey the word of God. We have to choose to let the Holy Spirit pour out of us in the everyday situations of life. What kind of things are we to put on. First we are to put on compassion. Compassion is when we forget about ourselves, long enough to meet the needs of someone who is really hurting or has a need.
The opportunity for compassion shows up in many forms. We know someone has a need and we have the money to help meet the need. What do we do? That’s usually the easy compassion situation. But how compassionate are we, when we may be the source of another person’s pain. During an argument or discussion, we may have really hurt someone’s feelings and saying “I’m sorry “could make all the difference in the world.
But those words do not come out easily. We have to choose to let the Holy Spirit flow out of us, because the natural thing is to say, “I know I was right and I’m not apologizing for anything I said.” That’s not diamonds falling out of our lives, but rather sand. The Holy Spirit equips us to allow diamonds to fall.
I can confess that in my own life, I have failed to be compassionate when my wife has needed an arm, a touch or a hug from me in a dispute, but pride kept me from being compassionate. It made me so much less of the man that God is calling me to be.
Sometimes God is calling us to show compassion right in the middle of our desire to prove that we were right and the person got what they deserved. How many of us here can say we’d be happy if we received from God all that we deserved? How many are thankful that we serve a God of mercy and compassion? We do not simply pray for compassion, we choose to put it on so that the Holy Spirit on the inside, can show through to the outside.
Put on kindness. Kindness is looking for things you can do to be a blessing to others. If you’re the kind of person who believes only in being fair, you will fail to have kindness flowing through you. To be kind, you have to take the initiative and do things knowing, that others may not even be appreciative of what you’ve done. In going to the cross and dying for us, Jesus did a kind thing. He knew most people would never say thank you, and that many did not even care. But love moved him to do it because kindness was a part of who Jesus was.
If someone followed you around for a day, would they consider you a kind person. I’m not talking about a nice person, where you speak and are friendly, but a kind person who goes out of his or her way to do things for others. Have you ever did a chore for someone without them having to pay you back? You did it just to be helpful. Will you clean up a mess that you find somewhere be at home, on the job, or at the church just because you see it and it needs to be done? What about your grocery cart, are you kind enough to carry it back to the gathering area or do you simply leave it and go about your business.
Kindness if measured in terms of things we actually take the time to do. The natural thing to do is to say, “you didn’t do it for me, so why should I do it for you.” Have you ever said that? Do you think those words came from the Spirit of from the self? We do it, because when we are kind, we are being the type of witnesses Jesus told us would be when the Holy Spirit comes upon us.
We are told to put on humility. Humility is not going around with your head hanging down. Humility is a voluntary choice to do something you do not have to do. You recognize, that nothing God asks me to do is beneath who I am. We can all look like we are humble people. But when things happen to us, we demonstrate humility. When someone says something we do not like, the initial response is to come back with some smart mouth response to try to put the person in their place. That’s why we have to choose to put on humility. A smart mouth is the exact opposite of humility.
On the way to the cross, Jesus was called all kinds of names. He had people spit on his clothes, and into his face. Some even took shots at slapping him. At the blink of an eye, he could have destroyed them all, but instead he chose humility. He didn’t even open his mouth.
He was not saying, “you have a right to treat me this way.” He was saying “I have the power to respond to you in the way I choose to respond. I’m choosing to follow the way of God even in this situation.” What happens in your home when you disagree with your parents or on your job when you disagree with your boss.
Do you let the Holy Spirit flow out of you once you’ve been torn? Would others look at you and say, “wow what humility she showed or he showed.” Or would you rather have the satisfaction of knowing, “ooh I got that person told.” Jesus wins every time we display humility. We’re not yielding to the other person so that they win. We are choosing to allow Jesus to win the battle that is going on, on the inside of us.
We’re told put on gentleness. Gentleness is choosing to step aside so that someone else can go ahead. It’s closely related to kindness. As a driver, are you a “I got my rights driver” or “a gentle driver.” The first kind blows his horn and speeds up when someone is trying to cut in traffic, the second kind slows down and waves the person on into the lane.
At the grocery line, are you more likely to race ahead and cut someone off in line when you’re both going to the same cashier, or are you the one to smile and slow down so the other person can go ahead. In the game, do you insist on going first, or do you give the other person the option. If Jesus had of concentrated on his rights, he would have never made it to the cross.
The last thing we are told to put on is perhaps the most difficult of all. We are told to put on patience. Just because we get saved, does not mean we become patient people. We still want, what we want, now. Patience means waiting a little longer and doing it with a smile in your heart. If you’re patient gritting you teeth, then you’re not being patient just tolerant.
We forget that the most important things we have in our lives are people. The greatest treasures in life are wonderful relationships. Being impatient can destroy the very relationships that God gave us to be gifts.
We will show far more patience to those who do not live with us than we do with those closest to us. But this verse tells us to put on the same level of patience with everybody. Patience is putting up with people or circumstances that irritate us or get on our nerves. We are tempted to think that the problem is the person whose getting on our nerves, but the real problem is the way we are choosing to respond to the person who’s getting on our nerves.
Is there anyone here who has sinned and asked God for forgiveness and then turned around and did it again and even more than three or four times. Has God ever said, “you’re about the biggest dummy that ever was. You never will amount to much of a child of God. You’re just wasting my time and yours. I’m just sick and tired of you doing the same ole same ole.”
How many of you know we are blessed because of the patience of God. Not only do parents have to be patient with children, but children you have to be patient with your parents. We all blow it and make mistakes. That’s when we need patience the most. Since the Holy Spirit has filled our lives, we have the power to be patient if we want to be.
If we choose to put these things on each day in our lives and make a reality verses 13 and 14 in this chapter, every time we are torn, the Holy Spirit will show on the outside of us. Let’s read the last two verses together and close this message. 13Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
Sermon Outline Pastor Rick 6/8/2003
Letting The Inside Out
2 Chronicles 34:1-18 Acts 1:1-8 Colossians 3:12-14
A. What’s On The Inside
1. Hundreds Of Hanging Bags All Look The Same
2. Sand & Diamonds—What’s Inside
3. Three Options Look, Squeeze, Jab
B. King Josiah—One Who Made A Difference
1. At 8 Becomes King Doing What Was Right
2. 16 And Seeking The Lord
3. 20 And Bringing About Revival
4. 26 And Repairing The Temple
5. What’s On The Inside Will Show
C. Pentecost—The Feast Of Harvest
1. Jesus Preaching & Teaching 40 Day Period
2. Command To Wait For The Holy Spirit
3. Group Of Scared Disciples
4. Pente—Means 50
5. The Prayer, Tornado, Tongues Of Fire
6. Preaching In Languages At New Life
D. The Power Of The Holy Spirit
1. A New Boldness To Preach Jesus Christ
2. Threats Won’t Stop The Movement
3. Do What You Have To—We Will Obey God
4. Jail, Beating? Made Us Quiet
5. Risks Involved In Serving Christ
Acts 5:40-42
His speech persuaded them. They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.
41The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. 42Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.
E. Being In The Will Of God Can Be Painful
1. Flogging Leather Thongs—Upper Body Bare
2. Kneel, 2 For The Back 1 For The Chest
3. Celebrating Suffering For The Cause Of Christ
4. Complaining Hinders God’s Glory
5. A College Friend’s Call To Ministry
6. Tragedy Strikes But Remains Faithful
7. What Comes Out When Life Tears At Us
F. Getting Saved Prepares For Heaven But Not For Earth
1. We Have To Show What’s On The Inside
2. Positive Steps Required In Living For The Lord
Col. 3:12
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
3. Choosing To Get Dressed
4. A Prayer Leading To Embarrassment
5. If We Do Not Clothe Then There Is No Clothing
6. Called To Put On Spiritual Qualities
7. A Minimum of 5 Pieces Of Clothing
H. Compassion
1. Forgetting About Me & Thinking About You
2. Seeing Someone In Need & We Can Fill It
3. Compassion In An Argument Or Disagreement
4. Confession Of A Pastor In A Time Of Need
5. How To Be Less Of A Man Or Person
6. Compassion A Choice
I . Kindness
1. Looking For Ways To Be A Blessing
2. You Have To Take The Initiative
3. Not Always Appreciated
4. Jesus—Kindness Led To Cross
5. Kindness Vs Being Nice
6. You Didn’t Do It For Me So Why Should I
7. Kindness In The Parking Lot
8. Choosing To Be A Witness
J. Humility
1. Holding Your Head High, With A Bowed Spirit
2. Voluntary Choice To Let This Happen
3. Nothing God Asks Is Beneath Me
4. Jesus Humility-Names, Spit, Slaps
5. Not That You Have A Right To Do This
6. I Simply Choose To Respond To God
7. Humility In Disagreements—What’s Important
8. God Is Really The True Winner
K. Gentleness
1. A Choice To Let Others Go First
2. I Got My Rights Driver Or A Gentle Driver
3. What Are You Like At The Grocery Line
4. How Often Do You Have To Go First
L. Patience
1. Being Saved Does Not Equal Patience
2. We Still Want It Now
3. Greatest Treasure Found In Relationships
4. Impatience Destroys Relationships
5. Giving Out Patience Unequally
6. Irritation Necessary For Patience To Grow
7. Who Is The Real Problem
8. Remember Our Failures & God’s Response
9. Patience Is A Job For Everybody
10. One Verse Changes A Life
Col. 3:13-14
Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
