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What will it take? - Acts 8 sermon

Pastor Addison's Sermon Notes

What will it take? Acts 8:1-8 Friends, Complacency is dangerous… And honestly, I’m shocked at how complacent Christians have become. Myself included. We have become content with a few people saved. A few people added. A few minutes per week A few verses a day A few dollars a month A few prayers… Our fire is slowly dying out… My question is, what will it take to relight the fires? What will it take to make us white hot? What will it take to see us share our faith daily? What will it take to get us to cherish our time with our church family more than any activity… What will it take for us to crave the Word of God and His presence in our lives? What will it take. God is not done working… He can still do great and marvelous things… He can still turn our city upside down… but what must HE do to us to get us to join Him? I was thinking as I studied this…, if we let complacency win, what future will we hand our children? What is complacency you might ask… one writer put it this way.. “Complacency is a blight that saps energy, dulls attitudes, and causes a drain on the brain. The first symptom is satisfaction with things as they are. The second is rejection of things as they might be. "Good enough" becomes today's watchword and tomorrow's standard. Complacency makes people fear the unknown, mistrust the untried, and abhor the new. Like water, complacent people follow the easiest course -- downhill. They draw false strength from looking back.” Complacency is dangerous! And in the passage we are going to discuss this morning, we will see how God rids his people of complacency… Can I ask you… what will it take to get you to be all in? What will it take for me to be all in?? I don’t mean to offend you, but I do hope to rouse us. I want to be like Jesus… I want to be all in.. I crave to be passionate about my God and faithfully fulfill the destiny He has for me. What about you??? Are you content with the christian life you are living now? Are you content doing only what you have done before? Are you content? Or I guess a more accurate word is… are you complacent? Don’t you want to be more than that? Don’t you want to see God use you like He did Paul, and Stephen and Phillip? Don’t you want to leave life behind knowing you gave every last drop of passion… every ounce of energy for the Cause of our King? Don’t you want to be ushered into Heaven and hear God say… WELL DONE!! If so, let’s learn from the early church… and let’s see the three stages on the road past complacency. A Clear Command The first stage on the road past complacency is a clear command. You see, in Acts 1:8 God had given them the blue print.. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And in Matthew 28:18-20 He gave the command And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. Believers had a job to do, and it wasn’t complex, it wasn’t complicated and it wasn’t obscure… JESUS SAID “GO” Don’t keep this to yourselves… Share the Good News with everyone Teach them what I have taught you… Make disciples as you have become disciples of me… And do it everywhere!! Remember friends, this wasn’t a suggestion… this was a command… a command that was to become their life mission. And this command is our life’s mission as well. This one command is MORE important that our jobs… This one command is MORE important than our past times… This one command is the very reason God has left us behind… To SPREAD THE GOOD NEWS EVERYWHERE!! The command is clear… How have you been doing? How have I been doing? A man once said, “It is easy to determine when something is aflame. It ignites other material. Any fire that does not spread will eventually go out. A church without evangelism is a contradiction in terms, just as a fire that does not burn is a contradiction.” Who has heard the Good News from your lips this last week. Not just, “They know I’m a christian…” That is good… BUT WHO HAVE YOU DISCIPLED? Who is a follower of Jesus now because of your obedience to this one, vital command? The command is clear… Our mission is to Go, Win, Baptize and Disciple… Starting here and moving out everywhere… How are we doing? What will it take to get us to take this command seriously? But not only do we see a clear command… we also see 2. A comfortable church. As we have journeyed from chapter one to chapter 8, it has largely been an exciting and powerful journey… The began in powerful obedience, seeing thousands brought to faith in Christ in Jerusalem… they endured some rebuke and shame even for the name… But after these thousands had been saved, it seems as though they forgot the rest of the command… They were not only to make disciples in Jerusalem… they were supposed to keep going… But they didn’t… They grew comfortable… The late Sam Shoemaker, an Episcopalian bishop, summed up the situation this way: "In the Great Commission the Lord has called us to be--like Peter--fishers of men. We've turned the commission around so that we have become merely keepers of the aquarium. Occasionally I take some fish out of your fishbowl and put them into mine, and you do the same with my bowl. But we're all tending the same fish." God had done mighty works, and now they focused on maintaining.. “Why do you say that?” You may ask.. Well, because they hadn’t reached past their borders yet… they stayed in Jerusalem… They stayed in their “comfort zone” as we might put it… And friend, let me be honest with you… NOT much Good can be done by people staying in their comfort zone. The world will not be impacted by a church in their comfort zone.. A family will not be impacted by a person in their comfort zone… Maybe you think, “BUT I’VE DONE it this way FOR YEARS! I know this! This is my routine!” “If I do what God is asking, I’ll have to give up some of my past times! I’ll have to cut out some things that I really enjoy!!” “If I do what God is asking, people will begin to look at me funny, and that makes me incredibly uncomfortable!” “Why would God want us to get out of our comfort zone!!” Maybe you are here and you think, “Pastor Addison, I don’t think God wants us to be uncomfortable… I think God only wants us to be warm and snug and happy… The most important thing to God is my happiness you know..” I would say to you… you’ve been lied to. God does desire for you to be joyful… and yes even happy to an extent! But that is not God’s chief aim for you… One day you will know continual bliss in the presence of God… but God’s biggest desire for you at this time is conformity to Christ… and if I remember my Bible correctly… life didn’t always Go comfortably for Jesus.. But Jesus willingly chose to be uncomfortable (and that is putting it lightly) because He knew there was a greater joy on the other side of His pain. Hebrews 12:2-3 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. And friend, greater joy lies just outside of your comfort zone… Imagine the Joy of leading your neighbor to Jesus? Imagine the Joy of seeing a friend in church beside you? Imagine the Joy of Seeing Jesus face when you enter into heaven… Don’t get comfortable… The church at Jerusalem did… and because of that they put off reaching the rest of the world… But God didn’t let them stay complacent… And God won’t let American Christians stay complacent for long either… But how did He get them out of complacency? That is our third stage… 3. A Compelled Change. The truth is, we don’t know if The christians in Jerusalem would have eventually decided on their own to bring the Gospel to other places… But we can see that God allowed something very uncomfortable to get them to leave the nest. God allowed persecution. Up to this point the church had had relative peace… there was some minor persecution of the leadership, but no-one had died. Then Stephen happened.. and everything changed. Now there was a whole group of people out to destroy christians and their families… a group headed up by a man named Saul. Acts 8:1-3 And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison. Saul made havoc of the church! He decimated it.. He wanted to stamp it out of existence! And you would think that that would be the end of this movement… that the death threats and jobs lost, and homes ripped away and friends turned… surely this would cause people to forsake Jesus! But that is never the case! In fact, more people leave Jesus in comfort than they do in pain. It’s easy to think we don’t need church when everything is going well… It’s easy to think we don’t need God when food is on the table.. But when persecution begins to ramp up, christians begin to wake out of sleep and take a stand! Persecution never hurts the church… And we see in this passage that all it did was spread the gospel further.. Vs 4 Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word. Friend, all persecution can do is spread the gospel further than it has ever gone before! ILL: I remember sitting in bible class one day in Highschool, and as the teacher got up, he read from a book, I don’t recall if it was fact or fiction, but it was about Chinese Christianity, and in it an American was in a house church there and the speaker got up and began to stomp on some glass… and as he did people began to cheer more and more…. And the more they cheered the more he stomped, and the more he stomped the more they cheered… After the service the American asked his friend what that meant… and the Chinese christian said that the preacher was demonstrating what persecution does to local churches… it can never destroy them, only scatters them all over the place… And that is what persecution always does… it pushes us out of our comfort zones and takes us places we were previously hesitant to go. Now as I read this passage I thought to myself… what will it take for us? Will it take God bringing intense persecution for us to begin to share our faith? What will we have to lose before we wake up? What will we have to suffer before we get serious? God has called us to make disciples… And as long as there are lost people in Grants Pass, our mission is not complete… Can I ask you… what would it take to have you give one of these [a tract] to someone at a drive through window? Or a cashier… BUT THEY WILL LOOK AT ME FUNNY!! I know, stepping out of our comfort zone… But friend, can I encourage you to stop thinking about your comfort zone and think about Christ… He died for the person at the drive through… He died for the people we pass day in and day out… And often times we put our comfort over their eternity… What will it take? It took persecution to get the early church to spread to Judea and Samaria… What will it take for us? I pray that we don’t have to be compelled by persecution… I hope we willingly obey… And may we see God use us in His work, as witnesses and disciple makers… so that one day we can hear him say, WELL DONE!

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Sermon Notes from Pastor Addison Jesus is worth dying for Acts 7 I read a story of the forty martyrs of Sabaste. These forty soldiers, all Christians, were members of the famed Twelfth Legion of Rome's imperial army. One day their captain told them Emperor Licinius had sent out an edict that all soldiers were to offer sacrifice to the pagan gods. These Christians replied, "You can have our armor and even our bodies, but our hearts' allegiance belongs to Jesus Christ." It was midwinter of A.D. 320, and the captain had them marched onto a nearby frozen lake. He stripped them of their clothes and said they would either die or renounce Christ. Throughout the night these men huddled together singing their song, "Forty martyrs for Christ." One by one the temperature took its toll and they fell to the ice. At last there was only one man left. He lost courage and stumbled to the shore, where he renounced Christ. The officer of the guards had been watching all this. Unknown to the others, he had secretly come to believe in Christ. When he saw this last man break rank, he walked out onto the ice, threw off his clothes, and confessed that he also was a Christian. When the sun rose the next morning, there were forty bodies of soldiers who had fought to the death for Christ. - SermonIllustrations.com Friend, Jesus is worth dying for. Last week we spoke of true discipleship… we came to understand that a disciple didn’t just want to know what his rabbi knew… HE WANTED TO BE JUST LIKE HIS RABBI! It was his passion.. It was his life’s goal I want to be like my rabbi. Last week many of us said that we wanted to be more than a church member…. We wanted to be a disciple… we wanted to spend every moment with Jesus and learn to live like he lived… to love like He loved… But friend, if we are going to truly be talmidim of Jesus… there is one final thing we must be prepared to do. Jesus said, “Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” Mark 8:34 We may not feel the full force of that statement living in 2021… but the audience hearing Jesus would have been shocked… It would be like me saying… “if you want to be a part of this church, you must stop living for your dreams and desires, reserve your seat on death row, and live with me and be like me…” This was a hard statement to hear… And Jesus was the one who said it! He said you must be willing to die with me and for me… And friend, that call has not changed… Jesus still bids us take up our cross… not figuratively… Jesus fully expects us to be willing to die for His name. Are you willing to? If men burst in this morning with guns saying, “Renounce Christ or die,” what would you choose? Friend, Jesus is worth suffering for. Jesus is worth losing friends for. Jesus is worth dying for. This morning I want us to see a man… a man who loved Jesus so much, he was willing to die to share Him with the world. This man was the first of many such men and women and even children to give their lives for their King… And who knows… maybe one day we will join their ranks. Now, Just before this man, Stephen, gave his life, he preached a powerful sermon, a sermon that rings out today. Would you look with me at this sermon and see how this disciple of Jesus represented his Lord even till death… and may we draw courage from his stand. As I came to the text I had some questions… I mean this was an interesting sermon! But it was a unique sermon.. a sermon that didn’t have clear applications through… A sermon that can leave you wondering… why did the people get upset at this?? That is, if you don’t know the context in which Stephen is speaking… You see, Stephen was saying some very profound things here, that only those schooled in the Torah would have picked up on… And so I invite you to wrestle through the text with me and see this sermon through the eyes of those who first heard it. So lets begin… The first thing we hear Stephen talk about is Abraham… why in the world is Stephen talking about Abraham! Well, Stephen is going to prove to these people that Jesus is in fact the Messiah, and that they should believe on him… and to build his case, he wants to begin at the beginning.. Abraham… You see, the story of the Bible begins with humanity in a beautify garden… In this garden mankind had all that they could ever need… they walked with God, loved God and were exactly what they were supposed to be. But God had planted a tree in the garden named the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil… God told the man not to eat of it, or He would die… Those were the very Words of God! All he had to do was Believe it. Why would God put such a tree in the Garden? To give men freedom. The freedom to trust God or doubt him… The freedom to love God or hate God… You are free to choose. Don’t ever forget that. God will not choose for you. But you are not free to choose the consequences. So Satan tempts the human’s wife, and she doubts God. This sin of unbelief was demonstrated in her and Adam, eating the fruit. To make a long story short, Death came into the picture here… yet God didn’t want mankind to stay under the reign of death… He promised someone would come to take the punishment for ADAM and his descendants… This is so good, God in Genesis three said he would fix the problem that Adam started… IF he had waited to promise a solution… there may have been people not included in the solution… BUT GOD SAID, AS MUCH AS YOU BROKE ADAM… I WILL SET RIGHT… That means you and me… we can be put right, we can be made free from the sin and death that Adam brought into this world through sin… But when would this person come? This person who would defeat evil, and be wounded in the process?? The story is rich and deep, but I want to pick up the story with Abraham… Abraham is special in the story of humanity, because He marks the beginning of God’s rescue operation for broken humans.. BUT WHY IS STEPHEN BRINGING HIM UP? You see, God gave Abraham a promise… He promised Abraham a land a seed and a blessing that would bless the entire world… Adam and Eve Doubted the word of God… but do you know what we see Abraham do… Abraham heard the word of God (with no evidence) and HE BELIEVED HIM! Abraham believed the promise of God… God would give him a land…. God would give him a child… God would restore blessing to the earth through His family. And by faith, Abraham entered into this relationship with God. It is always by faith friend… from the beginning till now, it has always been by faith! You cannot work your way to heaven, you can never earn his love… but God has given you the choice to believe or not to believe… Like Adam and Eve… Like Abraham… Some will tell you that you can’t choose… that faith is a work… But those people aren’t telling you the truth. The Bible clearly tells us that faith and works are different in the mind of God… and God has given us the choice… will we believe, or not believe. Adam and Eve Chose to doubt.. Abraham chose to believe God’s Word… And it was counted to him for righteousness! The next person he brings up is Joseph But why?? Why would he begin talking about Joseph… Now to the Jews, Joseph was a clear picture of who the Messiah would be… Joseph was a picture of the one who would bring the blessing promised to Abraham to the world, Joseph was a picture of the one who would defeat Sin and death… So much so that the Jews would call the messiah, not only the son of David… but also the son of Joseph… They knew that the messiah would live like Joseph lived… and so Stephen begins to speak to them about Joseph… - The children of Israel (Jacob) envious of Him… Sold him into slavery… In the minds of those listening they would begin thinking of Jesus and see that they, because of envy had given him into the hands of the Gentiles… Pontious Pilate… - Joseph was vindicated, raised up out of the prison and set on the right hand of Power - Jesus was vindicated raised from the prison of the grave and set on the right hand of God… Stephen was boldly saying, that just like Joseph was rejected and then set up as savior…. EVEN SO, YOU REJECTED JESUS, BUT GOD HAS LIFTED HIM UP AS SAVIOR! But Stephen doesn’t end there… he brings up Moses… One of the most revered men in the Jewish Tradition.. But Why??? In short… Moses was rejected as savior of the people… and then God made Him the ruler and deliverer (vs 35) Are you seeing a pattern… One believed God and he was rescued (Abraham)… but after that, the others rejected God’s man, only to see later that He was in fact the deliverer they were waiting for. - God invited Abraham into a love relationship and he accepted by faith… - God invited Israel, HIS CHOSEN… Chosen to represent him to the nations and bring the blessing to the entire world, time and time again…. AND THEY REJECTED!! They would not believe… At Sinai… God invited them to be his bride… during the wedding they committed adultery with the Golden Calf… God wrought wonders to get them into the promised land… yet they turned from God to Worship the stars… and burn their children on the fiery hands of their idol Molech… God, time and time again wanted to draw them to himself… yet they chose to reject him. Like some of you may be doing today. Some of you, God is knocking on your heart, but you harden yourself against him… He wants to have a relationship with you through Jesus Christ… But you will not believe… It is not that you cannot… God has extended the invitation to every living creature… And he drew all men to himself when HE was lifted up from the earth on an old rugged cross.. You have the choice in front of you… but will you be like Abraham and take God at his word, or will you be like the Children of Israel who continued to resist him… The choice is in your hands… God forces no one to accept him… He will let you make the decision… But choose wisely… And so Stephen, boldly makes his defense… I stand by Jesus. Jesus is the one promised… He is the one like Joseph… He is the one like Moses… But then he turns to the claim they made against him regarding the temple, and that Jesus would destroy the temple… He does this by telling them that God at one time dwelt in the tabernacle… but that wasn’t designed to be permanent… that wouldn’t be the final place for God to dwell… He then tells them about the temple… And remember, they knew these stories like the back of their hands… When he brings up David desiring to build a place for God… they would remember that conversation… In 2 Samuel 7 God tells David through Nathan the Prophet, You want to build God a house…but “the LORD telleth thee that he will make thee a house. And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up -- thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish -- his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish -- the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men: But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee: thy throne shall be established forever.” Now in the Bible, prophesies were often doubly fulfilled… partially in a human, but fully in Christ… The jews took this scripture as a clear reference to the messiah and that God would raise up a Son of David, the son of God… and He would build a house (family) and a kingdom. David said… I want to build you a Temple! God said, I will send someone through you who will build me a living temple… a family that I will dwell in… Even Solomon at the dedication of the temple said… “And Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven: And he said, LORD God of Israel, there is no God like thee, in heaven above, or on earth beneath, who keepest covenant and mercy with thy servants that walk before thee with all their heart: Who hast kept with thy servant David my father -- that thou promisedst him: thou spakest also with thy mouth, and hast fulfilled it with thine hand, as it is this day. Therefore now, LORD God of Israel, keep with thy servant David my father -- that thou promisedst him, saying, There shall not fail thee a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel; so that thy children take heed to -- their way, that they walk before me as thou hast walked before me. And now, O God of Israel, let thy word, I pray thee, be verified, which thou spakest unto thy servant David my father. But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have built?” In essence… This temple is a step up from the tabernacle… BUT WE KNOW IT CAN’T REALLY CONTAIN YOU… it is still incomplete… it is still not your perfect temple… Ok Stephen… so what is your point! The jews would have understood… Stephen is claiming that Jesus is the Son of David, the Son of God that was foretold… and he is building A house for God.. not made with hands!!! He is building a temple that includes all those who by faith accept Him… WE become living stones… we become a place where the Holy Spirit can dwell… So yes… God will be done with this temple… Because, Jesus, the son of God is building a house that will endure forever! Stephen then turns to address the crowd specifically when He says, “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.” What an indictment! YOU ARE RESISTING THE HOLY GHOST!!!! The Holy Ghost is drawing you, but you resist!! Just like your fathers… “Wait, you can resist the Holy Ghost??” That is what the Bible Teaches… God even goes so far as to say that their fathers… LIMITED HIM… Psalm 78:40-41, “How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert! Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.” Friends… can I beg of you… DON’T RESIST THE HOLY GHOST!! A saved person can grieve the Holy Spirit by sin… A saved person can quench the Holy Spirit by not listening… But a lost person can resist the Holy Spirit by not coming to faith in Jesus. WILL YOU RESIST? Jesus is the Son of God! He was rejected, betrayed and nailed to an old rugged cross… but now is he lifted up as the king of kings and lord of Lords! What will you do with Jesus?? You will either be like Abraham and believe and be saved… Or you will be like the children of Israel, resisting and rejecting. Now after Stephen says this, the people grab him begin to chew on him with their teeth! They were so angered by his accusations and so convicted by the spirit that they began to gnash and grind their teeth… And Stephen would have easily seen the intent to kill him on each of their faces.. And if he was like many of us, this would be the part where he softened his tone and tried to get away… BUT STEPHEN WAS NOT AFRAID TO DIE FOR HIS RABBI… So he said something so powerful that they had to kill him… What did he say you ask?? listen… “And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.” Now maybe you think… why is that so convicting??? Listen to what they would have heard… First of all, the title the son of man is a title loaded with meaning… The first layer of meaning was viewed by the Jews as meaning someone like Abel… Let me explain… Abel was the son of man… (the word for man in hebrew is ADAM…) and he was the first one killed for doing what was right by someone Jealous… And it was commonly reported by Jews that a son of Adam (like Abel) would one day be vindicated and take judgement on all of those who killed righteous people in envy… So on the first level… Stephen was saying JESUS IS THE SON OF MAN WHO WILL BE VINDICATED AND WILL JUDGE ALL THOSE WHO HAVE DONE WRONG FROM THE BEGINNING OF TIME… That would’ve included all of them as they murdered Christ! But it went even deeper than that… The son of man is mentioned in the Book of Daniel chapter 7 as a Human with Divine status… He is seen coming to the ancient of days on a cloud, and is given divine authority and reverence…. This was a claim to deity! He was saying to these people… I SEE JESUS!! AND HE IS ALIVE… AND HE WILL JUDGE THE WICKED… AND HE IS GOD!! This was simply too much for the listeners… They stopped their ears… ran on him… threw him out of the city, and most likely off a little cliff where they would begin to throw massive stones to kill him.. And in the fever and fury of the moment, the men threw their coats down at a young man’s feet… a young man who no doubt heard all that had been said… a man who’s name was Saul… Saul will become a major character in this story soon enough… But Stephen is there, rocks flung at his body… And with two more statements seals his testimony… He shows that Jesus is God by asking him to receive his spirit the same way Jesus asked the Father to receive his spirit… And then, just like his master… asks God to forgive those who are murdering him. No anger… only love… What a disciple. Not only did he live like his master… He died just like his master. Friend, the time may come when you are called on to give your life for Jesus… Can I encourage you… Jesus gave his life for you… It is worth it to give your life for him. Jesus was standing… ready to welcome Stephen home… Friend, Stephen is not dead… his body is sleeping, but He is very much alive. And if you give your life for our savior, you too will live. Don’t fear those who can destroy the body… they cannot touch your soul. Stand up for Jesus! Just like the saints of old… Jesus is worth dying for… But Jesus is also worth living for. TRUST HIM! His is God… and yes he was rejected by many, but God has raised Him up and seated Him on the right hand of power… and one day, every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess that HE IS LORD!! Trust him today… Live for him today… And when the day comes, be willing to die for Him… IT is worth it! Jesus is worth Dying for.

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This is the final lesson in the series, "When you can't just get over it" by R.B. Ouelette.

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You CAN be a disciple of Jesus - Acts 6:9-15 Sermon Pastor Addison's Notes You CAN be a disciple Acts 6:9-15 S. I. McMillen, in his book None of These Diseases, tells a story of a young woman who wanted to go to college, but her heart sank when she read the question on the application blank that asked, "Are you a leader?" Being both honest and conscientious, she wrote, "No," and returned the application, expecting the worst. To her surprise, she received this letter from the college: "Dear Applicant: A study of the application forms reveals that this year our college will have 1,452 new leaders. We are accepting you because we feel it is imperative that they have at least one follower.” So many people want to lead their own life… Too many Christians want to be in charge of where they will live, how much money they will make, what is good for them… Many want to lead… But not many people want to follow Jesus. Following takes humility. Following takes faith Following means giving up your own rights and letting someone else make decisions for you… Following can be scary. But God has called us to be followers of His dear Son. Will you? We have just come off of a wonderful week of revival. God used each and every message to penetrate my heart. And the goal of each and every person in this room after a week like that is… I WANT TO BE A DISCIPLE! You see, Stephen wasn’t just a church member… He wasn’t even just a deacon… Stephen was a disciple. And I believe that this text proves that every single person in here, if you choose to be, can be a disciple too. I desire to be a disciple… do you? Then look with me this morning at three powerful proofs of discipleship. Proof 1: You have the power of your master. The very first evidence of being a disciple is what your master does, you do. In America today, being a disciple often means learning the basic truths of the Bible and going to church at least once a week… but that is not the biblical definition of a disciple. In Jesus day, being a disciple was so much more. The First ingredient on the road to discipleship was community. You see the disciples would live together in community with the rabbi. There was a communal aspect to being a disciple… they shared in the daily tasks… lived, slept and ate together… in essence they were a family. No wonder the early church met everyday… they were not Americans… they knew that being a disciple meant dedication. The Second ingredient was LOVE for the Word of God. Those on the path toward becoming a disciple would love the word of God!… LIKE LOVE IT! they would come to synagogue and in their synagogue would be Moses Seat… a place where the reader of the text would sit. Opposite of Moses seat was the Torah Closet where the sacred texts would be housed… as the Rabbi took the scroll, he would open it and show the people that the words were still on the scroll, and the people would get excited! The people would reach out and touch the scroll and bring it to their hands back to their mouths as if to say, “May His words be sweet to my taste.” THEY LOVED THE WORD!!! The third ingredient was schooling: Bethsepher was for the young till around 12-13yrs old. They would study and memorize the torah… after this they would often be done and go into their family trade. Bethmidrash was the next stage and this was for those who had free time, they would come and listen to the Rabbi teach and expound on the text… but those young people who showed much promise would go straight from Bethsepher into Bethmidrash and seek to soak up all the Rabbi could teach them… If they still wanted to go further… they would take the final step. Talmid/Talmidim - This was for the elite… This person wanted to become just like the Rabbi… In our culture, it is mostly about knowledge… to them, it was about life. This took DEEP commitment to study the text and memorize the whole OT. It took deep sacrifice as they would leave everything behind JUST SO THEY COULD BE LIKE THE RABBI! Do you see the goal of a disciple… become what their rabbi was… You became a disciple… a Talmid… by finding a rabbi you admired and wanted to be like (after all of the other stages) and you would go up to him and ask him if you could follow him… He would no doubt observe you for a while, allow you to walk behind him, see how you did in Bethmidrash and in the discussions… and IF YOU HAD WHAT IT TAKES…. THEN AND ONLY THEN would the rabbi say you could follow Him… After years of living day in and day out with the Rabbi, He would finally tell you that you made it, now it was your turn to Go and make disciples. This was the path of discipleship in Jesus day… IT was all or nothing… you couldn’t be kind of committed… you couldn’t have it your way and the rabbi’s way… If you were going to be a disciple, IT WAS YOUR PASSION… to be like your rabbi!! Can I ask you… is it your passion, your absolute desire to BE LIKE JESUS! Are you dedicated to the scripture… are you dedicated to the church community here… how much time do you spend with our LORD… Maybe you are sitting here and you are thinking… Pastor Addison, you just showed me that it is impossible for me to really be a disciple… I can’t memorize the first five books of the Bible… I’m not smart enough… I would never be the one to make it past the first stage… and even then I would struggle… I guess I don’t have what it takes to be a disciple… no rabbi would ever choose me… But that is where you are wrong! Jesus didn’t choose the elites… he chose simple fisherman… And they didn’t ask to follow him… he asked them to follow Him… In essence… I BELIEVE YOU COULD BE LIKE ME!! Yes you Peter, humble fisherman with a motor mouth.. you could be like me.. Yes Thomas… you who doubt so much… you could be like me! Yes Matthew, traitor, publican… you could be like me! Yes Simon Zealotes… Assassin, murderer… You could be like me! BUT YOU MUST GIVE UP EVERYTHING!! You must sacrifice… So they did, they left their old lives behind and followed Jesus… Have you? Is it your one passion to be like Jesus? How much time do you spend with Him? How much time do you spend with His family? Do you really want to be a disciple?? I hope so! You see, Stephen did… I love the story of Stephen because he wasn’t an apostle… He didn’t walk with Jesus like Peter James and John.. He was simple man… A servant in the church… BUT HE WANTED TO BE LIKE JESUS!! And maybe you are here and you think, it would have been great to have been Peter and walk with Jesus day in and day out… BUT JESUS IS GONE! I can’t be a disciple… Stephen’s story proves you wrong! And that is why I love it!!! YOU CAN STILL BE A DISCIPLE! YOU CAN STILL BECOME LIKE JESUS!! And Stephen did… We see that He had become a disciple of Jesus as we look at these verses. Look at verses 8-10 “And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people. Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen. And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake.” Man that sounds like Jesus! As Stephen walked down the street, people might pause and say, is that Jesus? He talks like Jesus, He smiles like Jesus, He Loves like Jesus… Stephen sure lives a lot like Jesus… why? HE WAS A DISCIPLE. Could people say that about you? Stephen was full of faith… (because he was full of the Word… faith cometh by hearing…) Stephen was full of power… The Holy Spirit Gives power to live the life Christ wants us to live… Stephen was full of wisdom… True disciples live in the power of their master… Friend, do you crave to live the life Jesus lived? YOU CAN by the power of His Spirit… Jesus is calling out, follow me… will you answer the call. But not only does a disciple live in the power of the power of their master… PROOF 2: You have the persecution of your master A fan can have all the glory and none of the pain… but a disciple is with the master in the highs and lows… And here we see Stephen being just like his Master… John 15:18-20 says If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. One proof that you are a disciple of Jesus is that you will endure persecution for His sake… Stephen stood up and taught them the truth of Jesus and yet vs 11 states, “Then they suborned men, which said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses, and against God. And they stirred up the people, and the elders, and the scribes, and came upon him, and caught him, and brought him to the council, And set up false witnesses, which said, This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law: For we have heard him say, that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us.” What a disciple!! Doesn’t this sound just like Deja vu Maybe it will after you listen to this. Matthew 26:59-68 Now the chief priests, and elders, and all the council, sought false witness against Jesus, to put him to death; But found none: yea, though many false witnesses came, yet found they none. At the last came two false witnesses, And said, this fellow said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days. And the high priest arose, and said unto him, Answerest thou nothing? what is it which these witness against thee? But Jesus held his peace. And the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy; what further need have we of witnesses? behold, now ye have heard his blasphemy. What think ye? They answered and said, He is guilty of death. Then did they spit in his face, and buffeted him; and others smote him with the palms of their hands, Saying, Prophesy unto us, thou Christ, Who is he that smote thee? The very same persecution that Came to Jesus, came to His disciple Stephen… And if you are going to be a real disciple, you must be ready to endure some persecution… 2 Timothy 3:12 “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” Friend, if you are following Jesus closely, the stones that Hit him will hit you too. But don’t let that stop you… Don’t turn away when the going gets rough… Because just like the master… Proof 3: The disciple has the peace of His master. As we come to the very last verse of this chapter we see something amazing… And all that sat in the council, looking steadfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel. Now there is discussion about whether this means a heavenly glory shown on his face like Moses (not against this, that is still being like Jesus [transfiguration]) But others believe that his countenance was so peaceful and loving it was supernatural… it was angelic… Friend, Stephen looked heavenly… Friend, mission accomplished… Jesus in Matthew 10:24-25 said “The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?” Stephen wanted to look like Jesus, his rabbi… and in this moment, the best way they could describe his countenance was HEAVENLY… Stephen had come to the place where people saw a glimpse of his master’s glory when they looked at him… He lived like Jesus He was lied about like Jesus He lit up like Jesus.. He was a disciple.. Friend, God really challenged me this week… Jesus has called us by His Spirit and His Word, to be His disciple… That means that he fully expects us to become like Him… He sees you, He sees your struggles, your inadequacies, and yet HE STILL SAYS, FOLLOW ME! Friend, Jesus believes that you could be like Him… So he holds out his hand, live with me… love My words… seek to talk like me, seek to respond like me… Yes it will take time… and yes it will take the supernatural aid of God… But you can be like Jesus… Will you? Stephen proves to us that a normal person can live like Jesus, He wasn’t an apostle… we aren’t apostles He never (to our knowledge) walked with Jesus on this Earth… Neither have we.. Yet he got rooted in the community of the church, meditated on the Word and sought to live just like His Master… You can too… But it will take sacrifice.. It will take passion… IT will take patience… BUT YOU CAN BE A DISCIPLE…. YOU CAN! Will you? Luke 14:25 “And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them, If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth ambassadors, and desireth conditions of peace. So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. It will cost you something to be a disciple… Please don’t call yourself a disciple simply because you attend church… or read a devotion every once and a while…. Realize the HIGH CALLING of discipleship… Realize the sacrifice but also the honor of being the disciple of the Son of God… Realize the Life He is calling you to… Count the cost… it may cost you your job. It may cost you a friendship It may cost you a dream It will cost you control over your life It will cost you time It will cost you pleasures of this life Count the cost!! But can I tell you what I think…. I think it is worth it. I really do. IF God wants me to become like Him… and HE will take the time to mentor me, correct me, teach me… why would I pass that up? If you liked basketball and Lebron James or Steph Curry offered to mentor you… you would be a fool to walk away because you couldn’t work at McDonalds anymore… The God of the universe is offering you the chance to live the rest of your life, mentored by Him… moment by moment… and you think it costs too much??? Matthew 16:24-26 says Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works. Friend, there is nothing in life worth missing out on this opportunity… Yes it will cost you… but the benefits will far out way the costs… Will you be a disciple of Jesus? Not just a church member… A disciple.. Not just a christian… a disciple… Well then… don’t just say it… prove it with your life. Commit your life to one thing… I want to know Jesus and I want to be like Him.. He is calling you… will you respond?

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Preparing for Revival

Psalm 85

As we are preparing for revival coming up this next week, I wanted to take this morning’s service and discover what revival is, and what we can do to prepare for it.

I don’t know about you, but I really want to see revival.

A man once said, “Revival is the people of God living in the power of an ungrieved, unquenched Spirit.” - James A. Stewart

Andrew Murray described revival this way, “A true revival means nothing less than a revolution, casting out the spirit of worldliness, making God's love triumph in the heart.”

Vance Havner said, “Revival is the church falling in love with Jesus all over again.”

Brian Edwards said, “In revival, the minds of people are concentrated upon things of eternity, and there is an awareness that nothing else really matters.”

Friend… I want to see revival.

• I believe that God can start a Nationwide revival right Here in Grants Pass Oregon… Why not here??
• I believe it can start right here at GPBC
• I believe God wants to send revival
• I believe God is no respecter of persons and that He is powerful enough to use even a small, young church like this in His powerful plan!

I want to see revival!

But the revival must start with me… it must start with you…

We must crave it

We must be desperate for it!

We cannot be content to just go through the motions…

WE must realize that we need God… not America… WE need God… Not Oregon… WE need God… Not even Grants Pass… WE MUST REALIZE THAT WE NEED GOD more than anything

Friend, we need to come to the place where we can admit that our sin is part of the problem…

It is easy to point fingers at the world and say they need God… But may we take a moment this morning and realize, we are not innocent… part of the great mass of America’s sins, were put there by us!

And often we have added to the pile of our nations sin… and not thought anything about it.

Friend, I may not be able to change Washington DC… But I can let God change me.

Do you want revival?

I hope so…

If you do, this morning I would like to show you three powerful steps to prepare for God to do a reviving work in your heart.

Step 1: Remember God’s Goodness (vs 1-3)

As we come to this psalm, the writer of this song takes the first three verses and dwells on How Good God had been.

Many believe that this was written almost immediately following the return from their captivity in Babylon…

So picture this in your mind… they have been captive in a strange land for 70yrs… and now God has brought them back.

Hallelujah!

God had been so Good to them!

Some believe that this psalm was written to be sung by two choirs and a soloist, and these three verses were sung by the first choir…

You can almost hear the triumphant rhythm, feel the raw excitement and imagine the hearts turned upward in praise to such a good God!

Read vs 1-3

LORD, thou hast been favorable unto thy land: thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob.

Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people, thou hast covered all their sin. Selah.

Thou hast taken away all thy wrath: thou hast turned thyself from the fierceness of thine anger.

They had been sent into captivity because of their wicked sin… they sacrificed their children… they became obsessed with the occult… they put idol statues in the very temple of the LORD… and the Bible says that they sinned even more than the nations around them!

So God sent them into captivity in Babylon…

And God used these 70 years to purify His People…

Now the 70 years were up and they were headed home!

God had been favorable!

God Had delivered them from Captivity

God Had Forgiven them for their wickedness..

God had Covered all their sin!

And they were excited about it…

Wouldn’t you be?

Maybe you are thinking… yeah I would be excited if God had done all of that for me… but He hasn’t

But oh my friend, HE HAS!!

God has been nothing but favorable to us since the day we took our first breath… And He is so favorable… so gracious… so loving…

That He saw a sinner named Addison… a captive… a slave to sin and death…, and He left Heaven's glory to deliver me from those wretched chains!

He delivered me from captivity when He died on the cross for my sins… and then rose again 3 days later!!

But not only did He deliver me… He forgave me for my wickedness!

One of the sweetest words in the English language is FORGIVEN!

No longer is your wrong held over you… you have been released, you have been cleared of all guilty charges… YOU HAVE BEEN FORGIVEN!!

And friend, all who have trusted in Jesus alone for Salvation have been forgiven! And those sins have ALL BEEN COVERED!

There is not one more sin on my account!

I am Clean!

I am forgiven!

What a Good God!

But wait there’s more.. not only did he forgive me…

He is no longer wrathful towards me… Sin brings death… but now that my sin has been removed, I HAVE PEACE WITH GOD..

Can you hear the first choir lifting up their voices in praise to our Lord… YOU HAVE DONE WONDROUS THINGS!

What a Good God…

Friend, as we prepare our hearts for this next week, please take time to remember what God has done for you.

He is good…

He always will be…

But now the first choir’s piece comes to a close… and the song takes an interesting turn.

This turn leads us to our second step

Step 2: Plead with God for Revival (personal and Corporate)

Now the second choir begins to sing, and instead of a powerful anthem of praise… we hear the musicians begin to play in a minor key…

The mood feels ominous, the voices of the second choir almost whisper their section with such soft intensity it pierces through you…

Turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward us to cease.

Wilt thou be angry with us forever? wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations?

But now the choir suddenly shouts out with all their heart..

Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?

Show us thy mercy, O LORD, and grant us thy salvation.

What a second verse…

It is so opposite from the first…

and maybe you are like me, you think… wait… how did they go from praising God for taking away his wrath to… please don’t be angry with me?

Don’t worry, I wondered the same thing…

But I want you to go back in your mind to the context… REMEMBER, CONTEXT IS EVERYTHING WHEN STUDYING THE BIBLE..

They had just been delivered from Babylon… God was no longer angry with them for the sins of their nation before Babylon…

You can see the change in person from their… to us and our… from national to personal

You see, now as they get home…

Do you know what they see…

A city… a city their parents had told them wonderful stories of…

A city they had dreamt of returning to since they could first walk…

But as they came to this city… it reeked with death and decay… the walls were toppled… the temple destroyed…and now the people of the land threatened to stomp them out before they even got started!

They were delivered… but still dead as a nation…

The great Israel of the past was no more… it was dead…now all there was were just a bunch of Hebrews who had lived their entire life in Babylon… and this was their cry…

Don’t leave us in this state… Don’t stay angry with us and leave us as a nation destroyed…

REVIVE US AGAIN!!!

Maybe you are here, and you have been delivered from sin… but your spiritual life is not what it should be… maybe you are even at the point where you feel almost spiritually dead…

You know you are saved, but the power is no longer there..

You know you are saved… but worship has lost its lustre..

You know you are saved… but preaching is no longer powerful..

You know you are saved… but Reading God’s Word is a drudgery…

And every time you look at your spiritual walk you feel like these freed Israelis coming back to their home land, only to find it toppled and in disrepair…

May we plead as they did… REVIVE US AGAIN!!!

God I don’t want the walls of my life to stay in ruins… REVIVE ME AGAIN!

God I want the temple of my life to be clean and pleasing to you so that you can dwell closely with me… REVIVE ME AGAIN!

God our church needs your presence to keep us from sin, from division, from false doctrine… REVIVE US AGIAN!

Friend, we must plead for revival.

Some of us don’t really see the problems in our own lives… we think everything is perfectly fine..

And some of them could have thought that as well…

They could have come back to the dilapidated city and convinced themselves that that was just the way Jerusalem was supposed to look…

But what kept them from thinking that…

They knew the stories of what Jerusalem was intended to be…

And friend, we must see what we were intended to be… LIKE JESUS!

And as we tour our lives remembering what God has called us to be… we must cry out.. REVIVE US AGAIN!

Friend, I want God to work in me more now than He has…

I want God to convict me more now than He has…

I want God to help me see Calvary more clearly and dearly than I have…

I WANT TO BE REVIVED..

May we spend this week pleading with God… REVIVE US AGAIN..

But Now the second choir is silent… and through the silence… a soloist begins to sing

Step 3: Hope in God’s Provision

The soloist, with such a pure tone, sings out, “I will hear what God the LORD will speak: for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints: but let them not turn again to folly.”

Do you hear that line against the rest of the Psalm?

• The first choir lifts up their voices powerfully singing about how God has been Good..
• The Second choir somberly sings about the ruin of Jerusalem and then bursts into an earnest plea for revival…

And then, right after their plea… One Steps up from the crowd and says… I WILL HEAR WHAT GOD the LORD will speak….

In essence… I will stop talking and listen…

Friend, all of us need to listen to the Word of God… both here on Sundays and Thursdays and in our own time of study..

We must lift up God’s word in our hearts…

But look at what he says… not only will I hear… I KNOW WHAT HE WILL SAY!

Peace.

Did you hear that beautiful word…

PEACE!!

What a word… but that word comes with a warning… DON’T GO BACK TO THE WAY YOU WERE…

But almost as quickly as the soloist ends his line… Both Choirs Join the soloist and belt out vs 9-13

Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him; that glory may dwell in our land.

Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven.

Yea, the LORD shall give that which is good; and our land shall yield her increase.

Righteousness shall go before him; and shall set us in the way of his steps.

I don’t have time to unpack all of that… but in short, they had a tremendous hope… not a “maybe” hope… but a sure hope..

Do you see the word that kept repeating! shall

They have a sure hope!

I love that first line.. God’s salvation is near!

• And this salvation is where mercy and truth meet

• It is where the perfect, uncompromising righteousness of God, and the protective peace with God embrace each other…

There was only one place where the truth of who I was and how broken I was met the mercy of almighty God…

And that is calvary

There is only one place where the the God who cannot stand sin came and brought peace to all sinners….

And that is calvary!

And because of Calvary we can say that God has a good plan for us… and He will spiritually increase us…

And He will set us in the way of his steps..

We have a sure hope!

Friend, remember this, God is not up in heaven holding back the power to do what He has asked you to do…

God is not the one keeping you back from revival…

• God opened the doors to his infinite provision, in Jesus…

• All that we need for life and Godliness is ours to lay hold of… because of Jesus.

The power we need to live in the near and dear presence of God is available… because of Jesus..

1. Friend, remember God’s goodness

2. Plead for Revival

3. Hope in God’s sure provision..

God may or may not turn this world around… BUT HE ABSOLUTE CAN TURN OUR LIVES AROUND.

Do you want to be revived?

I do.

I really do.

If you are here and you are not saved… you can’t be re-vived… because you have never been made alive… but I’ll tell you this… THE SAME GOD WHO WANTS TO REVIVE THE SAINT, WANTS TO SAVE THE SINNER.

Every human is born a sinner… yet God demonstrated his great love for us, in that while we were still sinning… JESUS DIED FOR US.

You can know the life that God has in store for you…

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.

Now friends I’m going to close this service a little differently than usual.. a couple weeks ago I introduced the altar.. a place to humble ourselves and pray…

I am going to open it up for our church and I want to invite all who are able to come and kneel before our king and plead for Revival…

You don’t have to come… but I do ask that you join me…

You see, we praise God when we sing… we worship God when we kneel…

Let’s pray.