WHAT SHALL WE DO? WHAT IS OUR VISION FOR THIS YEAR?
This is it... ACTS 1:8
I watched the longest baseball game in postseason history this week. The Yankees and the Red Sox battled it out for 14 innings.
The teams played back-to-back marathon games that totaled 26 innings almost 11 hours -- 5 hours, 2 minutes on Sunday
and 5 hours, 49 minutes on Monday -- the longest by time in postseason history.
"The owner Tim Wakefield said. "It took every ounce of whatever we had left to win tonight’s game and to win last night’s game."
What made the difference between being a good team and being a great team? - Desire, focus, ...
“Good is the enemy of great. And that is one of the key reasons why we have so little that becomes great. We don’t have great schools because we have good schools. We don’t have great government, principally because we have good government. Few people attain great lives, in large part because it is just so easy to settle for a good life.” (first 63 words) – Jim Collins, Good to Great, p. 1
It seems that most Christians settle for a good life, but God has given us a great purpose in a Great Commission.
In 1994, Jim Collins and Jerry Pourous published Built to Last, which remained a national best-seller for 5 years, with more than 1 million copies in print in 13 languages. That book studied and explained how great companies like General Electric are designed from the start for long-term high performance. What the book did not explain was how mediocre firms that were not “build to last” could attain the same level of greatness. Now, after five years of intensive research, Collins has identified and studied 11 companies that have made the leap from being “just good” to being truly “great.”
SO WHAT IS OUR VISION? HOW CAN WE SAY WE HAVE DONE A GREAT JOB FOR THE LORD?
In a George Barna survey in November 2002, Americans were asked what they believe is necessary to have a successful life.
33% said the health or well-being of their family, or how they raised their children, would determine their success.
25% defined personal success in terms of tangible outcomes or accomplishments.
25% said they had no idea what would signify they had lived a successful life.
Only 7% said anything related to spirituality or faith would result in “success”
“‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa. 55:8-9, NIV).
SO WHAT IS OUR VISION? The Lord tells us what it must be in Acts 1:8
I. YOU SHALL be My Witness! 1:8
A. You shall be baptized by the HS so you can witness v4-5 salvation = baptism then anointing
1. Not to be counted as a “leader” in the kingdom v6
2. Not to know special knowledge - only for God v7
B. You shall receive His power so you can witness 8
Power (dunamin). Not the “power” about which they were concerned (political organization and equipments for empire on the order of Rome). they needed new “power” (dunamin), to enable them (from dunamai, to be able), to grapple with the spread of the gospel in the world. AT Robertson
C. You shall be MY WITNESS
In Act_1:22 an apostle has to be a “witness to the Resurrection” of Christ and in Act_10:39 to the life and work of Jesus.
Act 1:22 Beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection.
Act 10:39 And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they slew and hanged on a tree:
Consequently there could be no “apostles” in this way after the first generation.
But here the apostles are called “my witnesses.” “His by a direct personal relationship”
ILL>> Traveler this week -- I show my witness...That’s good but with no actual telling of the gospel - Your not a witness until you tell
ILL>> It is like a courtroom drama where the person who actually sees the crime refuses to become a witness. He is a witness but only to himself. We are commanded to go out and tell people.
Would you agree with me that we are all to be witnesses? - Show of hands?
II. YOU SHALL be My Witness, where. 1:8
The events in Acts follow this outline (Jerusalem till the end of chapter 7, with the martyrdom of Stephen, the scattering of the saints through Judea and Samaria in chapter 8, the conversion of Saul, chapter 9, the spread of the gospel to Romans in Caesarea by Peter (chapter 10), to Greeks in Antioch (chapter 11), finally
Paul’s world tours and arrest and arrival in Rome (chapter 11 to chapter 28) AT Robertson
A. You shall be a witness in Jerusalem - our community & local area association (partners)
We have hundreds of children and families that are affected by FAITH. When My brother Jerry drove into Cuthbert he asked a man at a gas station where Faith was located. The man told him he was a member of a small church in the country but he wished he was a member of Faith because things are happening at Faith.
B. You shall be a witness in Judea - our State Association GBC
Revival: The Time is Now" >>> November 15-16, 2004 >>>Georgia International Convention Center, College Park
Our intention is to help Georgia Baptist Convention churches prepare to hold simultaneous revivals in the Spring of 2005, as shown in the chart below. In this manner we will be able to witness a "wave" of revival across Georgia beginning in the south and culminating in the north in 2005.
WAVE Revivals---- Regions Suggested Dates >>>>>>>Southwest/Southeast 2/13 - 3/11
C. You shall be a witness in Samaria - our NAMB
D. You shall be a witness in uttermost (ends of the earth) - our International Mission Board
ILL>>>Counting the Cost - Paying the Price by Bobby Welch-----Bakari was born and grew up in a Muslim tribe near the Indian Ocean in Southern Kenya. On a Wednesday night last March, Bakari was persuaded to attend a Baptist church. Bakari was only willing to go to a church because of personal illness, and he was desperate for help. That evening, at forty-two years old, Bakari found Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
Proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord cost Bakari everything. His wife immediately divorced him, the family disowned him, and his job was taken from him. But he had found Jesus, and Bakari never looked back. He immediately and enthusiastically began to be discipled by Ushindi Baptist Church. He loved being at church, and Bakari gladly participated in FAITH training, not even sure what it was except that it was all about his Lord Jesus Christ.
That first day of FAITH training is when I met Bakari. After the training he knew clearly what FAITH was, and Bakari tried to present me with a gift. I told him it wasn’t necessary — Bakari responded, "But you have taught me how to share Jesus." This man had been clearly changed again by Christ. This time it was Jesus’ words, "You shall be My witness." I was truly moved at the time by Bakari, but it was only the first day of the FAITH training, and I thought nothing further of it as I headed to my hotel.
The very next day before the FAITH sessions began, Bakari presented me with sixteen pieces of paper. I thought, "Is this his gift to me?" I had no idea that what I was holding represented eternity sixteen times! Bakari had taken the FAITH outline he was provided the day before, and after only one day’s training, he had gone home to his village and led sixteen Muslims to Christ, including his sister. The pieces of paper were the follow-up sheets he had taken with him from his church. With tears I copied the names into my journal off the pieces of paper.
I later learned that the Ushindi Baptist church staff had received additional "gifts" from Bakari each day. By the end of the FAITH training, Bakari had led sixty-one Muslims to Christ. The entire church was aware that a miracle had been taking place over and over all week. Bakari didn’t seem to notice all the buzz over him, he was consumed getting a lost world to notice his Jesus.
>>>>>A “good” church will have a meaningful worship service and an enjoyable and challenging pastor. It will take good care of your kids and provide you with encouraging Christian friends. There are many “benefits” to being part of a “good” church.
But a GREAT church will help you give your life away.
John Marshall, pastor of the large Second Baptist Church in Springfield, Mo.: “Healthy churches aren’t determined by budgets, buildings or even baptisms. A great church makes a great commitment to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission . . .The call to be a Christian is the call to give heart, soul and mind to Someone above this world.”
III. YOU SHALL be My Witness, how. 2.1-6
A. Witness - Anytime God gathers a crowd v6 - with a sound - when and how
1. Peter preacher --Special Preaching Services / Camp Meeting Preaching / Tent Meeting Revival /
Concerts with preaching to follow / attract a crowd somehow!
2. People got saved 2:41 -
B. Witness - Anytime Gods people are united in love and ministry v46
1. daily! 2. at church and from house to house -- Have a plan to reach people / knock on doors / monthly outreach times / FAITH TRAINING ...
A regular effort to visit and win people.
The Lord will add daily salvations!
OCT 4th SBC Life Paper -On the Road Goal: 1 Million Baptized by Allen Palmeri
-- Shortly after noon, Sunday, August 29, Southern Baptist Convention President Bobby Welch boarded a rented bus on an adventure he compared to a "Lewis & Clark expedition" to try to win souls.
Welch conceived of a national bus tour rally as a means of generating a sense of urgency about evangelism among Southern Baptists. The bus tour is a kickoff for "The Everyone Can Kingdom Challenge for Evangelism" campaign which has the goal of "Witness, Win, and Baptize ... ONE MILLION!" in one year.
Welch is scheduled to travel to all fifty states and Canada to visit with pastors and denominational workers and join them in neighborhood evangelistic visits. On that Sunday night in Richmond Hill, Georgia, the co-creator of the FAITH Sunday School Evangelism Strategy widely used in SBC churches, led by example as he shared the gospel at two homes.
With a passion to see God seek and save the lost, the SBC president hopes "The Everyone Can Kingdom Challenge for Evangelism" will motivate the 16-million-member denomination to expand its outreach. Although membership in the Southern Baptist Convention continues to grow, there has been a decline in baptisms for four consecutive years, and Welch is praying for God to reverse that trend.
"’Amazing’ is a good word to describe it," John Sullivan, Florida Baptist Convention executive director, said of the national tour moments before the bus pulled away from a throng of church members at First Daytona. "Bobby Welch has never done anything ordinary."
CLOSE ----Vision Planning meeting next Sunday Night After CHURCH
Acts 1:8 tells is to be his witnesses. Do you really want to know what He is asking us to do?
The apostles knew this.
Jesus is asking us to lay down our lives for His by sharing the gospel of the cross.
Our word martyrs is this word here martures. Witness-- def = “one who dies for his faith.” because that was the common practice. AT Robertson
WHAT IS YOUR VISION FOR YOURSELF THIS NEXT CHURCH YEAR?
WILL YOU TAKE THE ACTS 1:8 CHALLENGE?
