← ArchiveSunday, June 5, 2016DateJune 5, 2016Speaker—Text—Passages in this sermonActs 12:282 Timothy 16:19TranscriptClick any line to jump there.0:00We're going to look at the book of Acts this morning very quickly, but before we do, let's try to teach you a Zambian song. So, you guys can clap. Okay. Don't give up on me. Okay, that's good. Okay. But that's going to be our beat. So, singing in Zambia is, worshiping is not just with the mouth, but it's with the body, it's with the soul, it's with the mind. So, here's a song. Hosanna, Hosanna. We don't know the rest of the lyrics. Okay, so that's what we'll sing.0:33You ready? So, I'll sing a couple through and then you guys can follow us. So, thank you guys.0:47We're not exactly sure what that means except he is, Hosanna means let us praise, let us1:12praise the Lord, Yahweh himself. Let's look at God's word and we're going to just ask God, Lord, open up our hearts, open up our hearts, open up our hearts, open up our hearts, open up our hearts, open up our hearts, open up our hearts.1:33But here's the great thing about the God that we serve. The same God who is touching lives in South African countries is the same God that is transforming lives in Moody, Alabama. And so, if we are not living on mission for God here, it doesn't matter where you go, you will not live for him.2:01And I think sometimes we struggle with that because we say, Lord, I'll get on a plane and go wherever. I want to be on mission for you. And yet we forget that on Monday morning, we should be saying the same thing. And here's where God's word intersects our lives. The Acts of the Apostles. Acts chapter 1. I'll begin reading in verse 7.2:31It's a passage of scripture many of you know very well. And Jesus Christ said to them, It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in his own authority. I'm not going to get into that this morning, but if you ask God, Lord, show me this, give me the time, or when are you coming back? I want to know, I want to know. That's a great verse just to remind you. But it's not for you to know the days, the times, the seasons.3:01It is up to us to trust. But, and I always say, every time there's a but in scripture, it's either a really good thing or a really bad thing. But you shall receive power. You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all of Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.3:28Now, when he had spoken these things while they watched, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly towards heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood beside them in white apparel, who also asked, Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven?3:53The same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the like manner as you saw him go into heaven. Let's pray. Father God, your word will not return void. So Lord, may you turn these hearts of stone into hearts of flesh this morning. Because we know where the spirit of the Lord is, there is power.4:21And so Lord, if anyone has walked in here weak and timid, may we leave here with spiritual muscles that we shall receive when we are filled with your spirit. Lord, we so desperately desire to be witnesses for you. May you open up the floodgates of heaven, that people will be drawn to us. They will see our good works and glorify our Father, that we may share the only hope that we know of.4:48And that is the hope that Jesus Christ saves. Lord, change us, mold us. Stir our affections for you right now. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen and amen. So just quickly, four things as we leave here, as we've already heard what the Lord is doing in Zambia. Verse 7. And Jesus said to them, it is not for you to know times, seasons, which the Father has put in his own authority, but you shall receive power.5:13Now this is something we need to hear as Americans. Because we have trust issues. And the trust issue doesn't go like this. It's not, Jesus, we don't trust you. The trust issue is really, but Jesus, I really trust in myself more. I mean, get that slight of hand there?5:40So if I say, do you trust Jesus? Yes, we trust Jesus. But do you trust in yourself? Oh, yeah. And there will be times in our life where God looks at us and says, Josh, you cannot do both. Who do you trust? Jesus or yourself? And the great thing about traveling long distances sometimes, it makes you physically weak. Where you get to the point where you say, God, I'm just tired.6:10And the Lord says, that's what I've been waiting for. So trust me. You look at verse 7. In Jesus Christ, 2 Timothy 1 reiterates this. For God has not given us a spirit of fear. Some of you know a spirit of timidity, but a power of love and of sound mind. One story that reminds me of this point, our missionary, Christy, who's from Texas, was telling us of a young girl that received Jesus Christ.6:38And spiritual warfare is another thing that we like to dismiss. The Bible doesn't dismiss it. We dismiss it. But spiritual warfare is very real, very blatant in Zambia.7:05To the fact that there are witch doctors in every compound. And these aren't just people who are performing tricks. That these are witch doctors that can call on darkness and make things happen. And when she gave her life to Jesus Christ, one of her friends paid the witch doctor to curse her. And so she would wake up screaming every night after she gave her life to Christ. She said, there's this man that is coming and he's dripping in blood and I'm terrified.7:33So she ran to the missionary and said, what must I do? Because I cannot go to sleep. Because when I go to sleep, I see this man and it is terrifying. This is not just a bad dream. This is a life-altering dream. And Christy said, here's what you need. Next time you have that dream, call out to that man in the name of Jesus Christ. Get away. And so one night, she actually was spending the night with the missionary and she had the dream.8:04And in that dream, she was physically screaming out loud. And so Christy got to her and she said, look, just call upon the name of Jesus Christ. And as she began to call upon the name of Jesus, guess what the man did? He turned around in her dream and walked away. As if to say, Satan, this one's not yours. That's the power of Jesus Christ.8:32And the sad reality is, is most of us aren't recognizing that power or are not living our lives in a way where we trust in that power. And that is exactly what the world wants us to believe. The world wants us to say, you know what? Don't believe that story about that dream. Witch doctors aren't real. There's no darkness. There's no Satan. You know what? Just go to church, be a good person, live a good life, and you'll be accepted by God.9:01And yet you do not have the power of the Holy Spirit because you are not trusting in it. That's all we believe. In Jesus Christ, there is power. Are you living in the power of God? The more we trust in God, the more we receive his power. That's my second point. Verse 8 again. You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.9:30You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. So here's the question I have really for us Americans. Why are we living as weak Christians? Thank you. I came home with something from Zambia that wasn't exactly. It's the gift that keeps on giving. So we will receive power in Jesus Christ. And we will receive power when we rely upon the Holy Spirit.10:00So here's the question we need to ask ourselves then. As you look of your life, and you can take a day, you can take a week, you can take your whole life. Ask yourself this. Am I living a powerful life? Because if we're not careful, we put our faith in Jesus. We say, Lord, you are King of kings. You are Lord of lords. You sit upon the throne of my life. And then we start Monday morning as if nothing ever happens.10:30And we look back at our life, and there's no spiritual power there because we're truly not trusting in Jesus. And you know what you have to do if you're an orphan and you have nothing? You know what you do when your one parent kicks you out of the house and says, look, you're not a child anymore. I'm not going to feed you. You rely upon God. That's what you do. You know what you do when your mom and dad have passed away and you have no family?11:00You do as some of these children do, and you say, but Lord, you are a father to the fatherless. And what we see, even for those who are orphaned and have nothing, when you rely upon the Holy Spirit, there is power. Oh, God, why are we living as weak Christians if God's word tells us you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you?11:23If you put your trust in Jesus Christ, you are filled with God's spirit. What keeps you from being spiritually powerful? It is not God. Are you trusting like you should trust in him? Last night we were in Zambia, we heard three testimonies.11:50A young boy named John, I believe was his name. A young lady named Dynas. And then a young boy named Innocent. Innocent. And he went first and he, about halfway through his testimony, he broke down, said, I don't like to think about my life because it makes me sad. And then he said this, he said, I want to be a pastor because I want to tell children that have no father that they do have a father.12:14There is power when we rely and when we trust in Jesus Christ. Are you relying on his strength? Third, verse 8. You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses.12:38So here's what we know about the strength of God in our life. The power of God and the witness of God go hand in hand. So if you look at your life and you say, but I have not seen the power of God much in my life. My first question is, are you witnessing, are you sharing your faith? Because if we're not sharing our faith like we should, then we have ripped the power of God from our lives. You will receive power and the Holy Spirit comes upon you to be my witnesses.13:08God doesn't give you power just to live a life that you want. God gives us power to be witnesses. And you say, well, I don't know if I can do it. That's the point, right? You're looking at someone that I walked into my cousin one time at a youth camp. And I looked at him and he said, what's your problem? And I said, this is my problem. My problem is you're not living the way you should be. And you know what his answer was?13:39You're right. I need Christ. I said, you what? So that was my witnessing strategy. I'm angry at you, dude. Get your life together. And God said, Josh, you really messed that up. But when you share your faith, there is power. What a wonderful, wonderful week we had where we saw the power of God unfolded because we were faithful in sharing. May we be people who share our faith.14:10And here's our struggle. Some of you are sitting here thinking right now, well, you know what? If God just, if he puts a Zambian flag on my dinner table, like while I'm preaching right now, I'll go next year. But maybe that's the wrong question. Maybe we've been asking, Lord, if you show me, I'll go. Maybe the question is, God, I'm going. If you don't want me to go, show me. Because God's word commands us, go, therefore, make disciples.14:41Where? Not of all counties, not of all states. Go and make disciples of all nations. And that's not just countries. Those are people groups. Because there are nations within nations that have not touched, have not been touched by the gospel. Are you asking the wrong question? Actually, it's not a question.15:11God says, go, make disciples. So my question is, are you going? Because if you are not sharing your faith, if you are not going, you are living a powerless, spiritual existence, and how sad is that for us? And I'm not asking everyone here to go to Zambia. But God is commanding everyone here to go somewhere. And many of you have neighbors like I have that do not know the saving hope of Jesus Christ.15:36That is your nation. Go. You're not in your neighborhood by accident. Your neighbors need to know about Jesus Christ. And you're the missionary. So God's power is given to us to share our faith. And we have all these things that we say, Lord, I can't do it. I work here and you know God.16:04They tell me I can't share my faith. But what if God says, but Josh, I want you to share your faith anyway. Well, God, I'm going to lose my job. Josh, I want you to share your faith and you're going to lose your job. But Lord, how am I going to feed my family? Because you will pray, Lord, give me this day my daily bread. And you will find that your heavenly father is faithful. Are you going? Are you sharing your faith?16:33God's power is always tied to his testimony and witness. May we not ask God, why not me? May we say, God, I will go. I will go. Lastly, verse 8, you shall receive power and the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and all of Judea and Samaria and to the uttermost end of the earth. And then God says this to us as if it's easy enough.17:02He says in verse 11, men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up in to heaven? That's what I challenge you right now. Some of you have been in church a long, long time. And God is saying, look, it's time for you to quit gazing. And it's time for you to start getting to work. That's as nice as I can say that. And you know what?17:32Here, let me be honest right now. I have a harder time than you do with that. Because almost everything I do is church work. And you say, well, that's a great thing. Well, here's the problem with church work. Sometimes we do church work to the Lord and God says, but that's church work. That's not God's work. So may we not be people who walk around looking at the stars and saying, Lord Jesus, when are you coming back? Well, look at all the stuff I've done at Bethel. And God might be saying, quit looking into the clouds.18:00Put your head down and get to work because people need the Lord. We will receive power when he pours out his spirit upon us. May we be people who trust in him. That we can go to Zambie and share our faith. And we see that God is working. And that we can go to Moody High School, St. Clair High School, and go to the war zone that is high school and share our faith. And God changes hearts.18:30Some of you can walk into your work environment that is a war zone. And God can transform that. Some of you are going home right now to parents or to kids, to wives and husbands that are unbelievers. And you say, Lord, what can I do? And God says, be faithful. Because where the spirit of the Lord is, there is power. If you're here this morning and you have not put your trust in Jesus, but you say, pastor, I believe in him. That's not what I asked.18:59Because even the demons believe and tremble. But have you put your trust in Jesus? To believe in your heart, to confess with your mouth, and then to prove that in obedience through baptism. But Lord, I'm scared of water. I'm scared of people. Yes, but that's why he gives us his power. Because we are scared. If you have not put your trust in Jesus Christ as the only one who offers you forgiveness of your sins19:27and restores the broken relationship you have with Jesus Christ, what are you waiting for? May God remove those obstacles and may you find mercy in his throne today. Maybe you're here and you are a believer. You do trust in the Lord, but yet you have just lived a puny, weak, spiritual existence. You've been far too comfortable doing church for far too long. Maybe God is saying today, why are you gazing in the clouds19:56when there's so much work to do for the Lord? Maybe God is calling you to actually lean into God's mercy and finally trust in him like you need to trust. Maybe we need to be people who quit building barns for ourselves and saying, Lord, if you want me to sponsor kids in Africa, if you want me to go to Africa, Lord, if you want me to do this, I am willing. Instead of saying, Lord, show me, why don't we say, Lord, I'm willing. I'm ready.20:26I'm ready. Let's go. Let's pray. Father.
