It is time
By pastor Fernando Cabrera
Acts 1
1. To Make God’s agenda, your agenda ("Holy Spirit given orders" v.2b)
a. What is God’s agenda? What is the heartbeat of the Father? What moves the Father? What is God seeking after?
i. “to seek and save the Lost”
1. We cannot understand the upper room until we understand the why of the upper room
2. What preceded the upper room was a divine mandate “to go to the world and make disciples of all nations…”
a. God says “come” to unbelievers, but “go” to the church
ii. What is the vision of the church? Win souls and make disciples
1. difference between ministry and mission
b. Am I as committed to the salvation of men and woman as God is?
1. You must change your identity from a church attender to a disciple maker
2. Jesus saw himself as a disciple maker
a. God has call you to see yourself as a disciple making machine for God
b. Why didn’t Jesus just die for our sins when he came?
i. He WAS MAKING DISCIPLES (V.2)
1. People ask today, “what would Jesus do?” – make disciples
2. Don’t let anyone make you feel like you need to apologize for sharing Jesus
a. If anything, we need to apologize for not sharing any sooner
b. Stop apologizing and start evangelizing
ii. Church should be a place where people come with a problem, but are sent with a purpose
c. The church in America is full of people who profess, but do not practice. Why?
i. Because they are still seeking to fulfill their own agendas, instead of being vision driven.
1. that is why we need an encounter with the cross
a. before there was Pentecost there was the Passover
i. “only dead people experience resurrection. God will not pour out his resurrection until you have experience death. The reason there is a death is because a resurrection is coming”
b. The cross is the place of exchange
a. It is the place where I decrease and he increase
b. It is the place where old things pass away and all things become new
c. It is the place where I trade my sorrows for dancing
d. It is the place where I no longer live, but Christ lives in me
i. The reason why we often don’t experienced a down pouring of the Spirit is because we have not experience a true discipleship
1. If this generation won’t go, he’ll let this generation die off and raise another to reach this world
e. In a two year study done by George Barna, it was found that most born again Christians don’t see their lives goal to be a committed disciple of Jesus or to make disciples
i. Only one in every 10 Christians every led someone to the Lord. And far less have ever made a disciple
1. "... Christians spend seven times as much time on entertainment as they do on spiritual activities."
2. "Desiring to have a close, personal relationship with God ranks just sixth among the 21 life goals tested, trailing such desires as ’living a comfortable lifestyle.’"
a. Vance Havner once said, “You have not really learned a commandment until you have obeyed it.
ii. The only thing worth living in life for is the one passion that it is worth giving my whole life to
1. The only thing worth living in life for is the one passion that it is worth giving my whole life to
2. What is holding you back to give yourself wholly to the vision of Jesus?
b. There are two main reasons why people don’t give themselves fully to the vision of Jesus.
i. First, they wrongly believe that you can separate salvation from the Lordship of Jesus (Romans 10:9-10).
1. You cannot have the Savior with out his Lordship.
2. They are both intricate part of who the Messiah was to be. Some people today want a Savior that places no demands of discipleship upon their lives. The whole book of I John was written to debunk this wrong teaching.
ii. The second main excuse for not given oneself wholly to the vision is excuses. In Luke 14:18-24, Jesus gives a few examples of those make promises, but soon break them. We find in this story that the three people who were invited had already promise to come. It proves their insincerity. They had said “Yes”, when they meant “No”.
1. The first person represents those who use their jobs as an excuse.
a. Notice who he wanted to check out the property AFTER he purchased it.
b. In verse 18 Jesus says, “The first said unto him I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused.” The man was saying “Please consider me excused” (v. 18).
c. It sounds very familiar to the famous “God understands” excuse.
d. The fact is that God does not understand. It baffles the Lord how he has given everything to believers, only to hear excuses about how busy they are with their jobs, who God gave to them in the first place!
e. Please take notice how the lord had little patience for the lame excuses he presented (v.24).
i. There are those who would forfeit the work of the ministry (Ephesians 4:12), because they make their jobs the supreme priority of their lives.
ii. Work is good. It is commendable. It should be done to support our families and fund the kingdom of God. But in no way it should replace our passion for the vision. Our jobs should be a vehicle for the vision to flow and touch the masses, not an obstacle.
2. The second person who was invited said, “I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused” (v.19).
a. This second man represents those preoccupied with new possessions. He was saying in essence, “I am going to try them out”.
b. These are those who are more entertainted with the gift than with the giver.
c. These are the people who get satisfied with the good, and forfeit the great.
3. The third person represent those who always use their family as an excuse why they cannot fully devote themselves to the vision.
a. In verse 20, we are told that V. 20 “I have married a wife, and for that reason cannot come”. I say, “Bring her to the invitation”! These are those who use their family as an excuse for not serving God fully.
YOUR PRIORITIES WILL BE DETERMINE BY YOUR PASSION AND YOUR PASSION WILL BE DETERMINE BY WHAT SATISFIES YOU THE MOST.
b. We find here a “Cause and Effect”. Look how he says “I have…therefore”.When Christ is not the cause in your life, you will not experience the effect! When Christ becomes your cause, your effect will be effective.
iii. Notice that all of the excuses begin with “I HAVE”. The words “I have” implies OBLIGATION.
1. Your obligation is determine by what you need most – necessity. Necessity is established by what you cannot live without.
2. Jesus was saying, “I am the ultimate necessity in your life. Since I am the ultimate necessity, I should be your ultimate desire”.
3. You will be DEVOTED to whatever possesses you.
1. you must love the vision of the Father so much that you are willing to give your whole life to it.
a. What drove Jesus to give his whole life to the vision of the Father – Love the sheep
b. Do you love your city so much to lay down your life for it.
c. The joy of heaven is to win souls, what’s yours?
i. Luke 15:10 “There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents”
ii. Are you more interesting in learning that in touching people’s lives
ii. Do you value your life more than your witness
2. To have an Encounter with the Holy Ghost
a. Have you come to the point where your absolute emptiness has drawn you to seek and yearn for more of God in your life.
i. They were so hungry for God, that for 10 days they did nothing but to seek God until they receive the power
3. To Go into the World
b. It is time To take over your territory
i. There is a conquering of territory upon territory (Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and utter most part of the earth)
1. Here we find expansion
a. There is a VISIBLE growth
2. Through fruitfulness and multiplication God will enlarge your ministries sphere of influence
ii.
c. If I were the Devil
i. I would take off the main page of your life
ii. I would put it in the very busy list of things to do
iii. I would not put it in the main thing the church ought to do
iv. I would see to it that pastors would have a mission’s program, not a mission’s passion; I would see to it that the church would have a mission department not a demonstration of mission; I would see to it that Christians would have a mission conscience, but not a mission’s commitment; I would keep the church so busy, that they wouldn’t have time to evangelize, I would keep them so busy in buildings, programs and entertaining others and not on the doom, damn and the dying!
1. The main thing would be keeping the main thing from becoming the main thing.
2. the only thing you can take with yourselves is souls
a. You may say, “I don’t have a heart for souls, mission and evangelism” I can change that…
i. Invest your treasures, time and talents into (Matthew 6:21)
ii. We will be held accountable for the surplus and excess in our lives
iii. Every possession is a trust
1. “of course I love, but I would miss you too”
v. Instead of “Go and make disciples…” I would teach “Stay and teach yourselves over and over and over again to be discipled” doctrine
1. Illustration: Hour Glass –
a. Robert Moffatt: “You have all of eternity to celebrate your victories, but only one short hour to win it”
i. Your hour is almost up
ii. 1000 years is as a day to the Lord
iii. 70 years old men gets 57 minutes
1. if you get to live to 80, you get another 4.5 minutes
2. If you don’t think you are getting older, just take off all your clothes tonight and look at yourself in the mirror
a. Gravity is working!
iv. If I were the devil, I would deafend the sound of a ticking clock that your time is running out
b. If we don’t reap it, it will rot
i. By the time you go to sleep tonight 26,000 will go to eternity without having heard the name of Jesus
b. I were the devil I would teach them that the power of the Holy Ghost has been sent to bless them
i. Bless me focus on the church of Jesus
1. bless me, anoint me, appoint me, prosper me, heal me, thrill me, reach me, entertain me, move me, build me, encourage me, inspire me, satisfy me, please me, fill me, grace me, more for me. All for me.
i. Power to lay down your life to share the gospel
ii. We love the equipment, instead of using the equipment
c. The devil’s worst nightmare is about to unfold
d. He only has a few years left
e. We are the only generation of Christians where the finish line is on sight
i. Unprecedented rate of salvations across the world
ii. As we are praying for blessings in America, the third world is sending 5X more missionaries than we are
iii. In the book “The Church is bigger than what you think” Patrick Stone
1. 1900-1999: 50% of the continent of Africa has converted to Christ
2. every 7 weeks in Latin America 1,000,000 people are getting saved – Gloria a Dios
3. Half the population of Brazil, Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador are born again
4. 40% Chile, Costa Rica and Bolivia are Christians
5. 50 years ago in Papa New Guinea they would have eaten you alive
a. Two years ago, the biggest Pentecostal denomination pull out their last missionary there…mission accomplished…33% Christians and another 35% open to the gospel
b. Government gives the land and building for free to churches; government mandates the use of the bible in every secular school
6. Before you go to sleep tonight, 35,000 chinese became born again
7. The convertion rate is four times faster than the birth rate in this planet
f. The question is not whether the harvest will be reap, but whether you will be a part of it.
i. God is no longer waiting for Americans to die to materialism and self indulgence, God is going to do with us or without us
1. Pray…whatever you are going to do…please don’t do it without me
2. It is harvest time
a. Many would say that we will blanket the whole earth in ten years…the time is near
3. Let’s trigger the biggest event in the history of mankind
a. Come on it is just 57 minutes
b. You are in the age, but are you in the harvest
