Let’s start with a trivia contest. This is only for old people like me. How many of you remember something specific about the summer of 1969? Raise your hand...something about the summer of 1969. It’s funny. For the old people, they’re doing a couple of things. One...they’re saying, "I don’t want anyone to know what I remember about the summer of 1969." Then the other half of the old people is saying, "I’m not going to admit I’m old enough to..." We know. Come on.
I remember the summer of 1969. I was seven years old. In July of that year, Neil Armstrong took the first step of a human on the moon. How many of you remember that event...watched that on TV? I’ll never forget...I was over at a friend’s house, and we were seven, so we ran out in the front yard. We looked up at the moon to see if we could see Neil Armstrong walking on the moon. We couldn’t see him, but I knew from that moment on exactly what I wanted to do in life. I wanted to be an astronaut. Man, no matter what else, I was going to be an astronaut.
So what do you do if you’re going to be an astronaut? Do you guys remember? What do you drink? Tang...that’s right. I started drinking my Tang. Everybody under 40 is saying, "What? What are they talking about?" Drank my nasty tasting, powdered orange-juice Tang. Started doing my sit-ups. I started paying attention in math class every other day. I was going to be an astronaut. Well, my extreme fear of heights and claustrophobia combined...man, I was never going to get inside the space capsule. Probably my weak math would have messed me up too. But I knew from that time on, I wanted to do something extraordinary.
I tell you what I want to do. Let’s have a little audience participation today. Now, what I want you to do...just turn to your neighbor, tell them what you wanted to be when you grew up. Tell your neighbor right now. What did you want to be when you grew up? Okay. We don’t need a description of your career, just what you wanted to be. Some of you guys...maybe you wanted to be a rock star when you grew up and sing to a huge coliseum. Or maybe you wanted to be an athlete who caught the winning touchdown in the Super Bowl, or maybe you wanted to be a doctor who cured cancer. But almost all of us, I think, would say that when we grew up, when we were kids, we wanted to do something extraordinary.
I don’t think any of us would say, "You know, my dream when I was a kid...what I really wanted to do would be to grow up and live an ordinary life, and to have an ordinary family, have an ordinary business, and eventually die an ordinary death and not make a ripple in life." Probably not. If you’re like me, what I wanted most, as a kid, was to do something extraordinary with my life.
That’s one of the reasons I love the book of Acts in the Bible because the book of Acts is about very ordinary people...people like you, people like me. The people in the book of Acts were fishermen. They were blue-collar workers. They were accountants. They were stay-at-home moms. They were career people...just ordinary, everyday people. Something happened in their lives that they suddenly became extraordinary. They did extraordinary things. In fact, by the end of the book of Acts, someone is going to describe this group of people as having turned the world upside down. That fascinates me. That’s why I love the series we’re in. We’re in a series called It Starts With One. We’re going through the book of Acts.
Now, we will be going through the book of Acts well into 2015. Okay? Just so you know that. What will help you as we go through this series, honestly, and it’s a habit I’ve kind of gotten out of, but if you’ll start bringing your Bible with you every weekend to church because we’re going to spend a lot of time just actually in the Scripture. I carry my Bible, and I have a little Blackberry, and I have an online Bible I use, but whatever Bible you use, let me encourage you, just really start bringing your Bible.
If you brought one today, go ahead and pop it open to Acts, chapter 4, because that’s where we’re going in a little while. We’ll eventually get there. We’re going to take a look at a Scripture in Acts, chapter 2. So if you want to put a finger in Acts, chapter 4...back over to Acts, chapter 2, the last few verses, we’re going to take a look at those in a few minutes. We’re going to look at how this band of ordinary, everyday people lived extraordinary lives. Before we dive into that, let me pray. Would you pray with me just for a minute?
Father, what a privilege to speak this weekend. Lord, to stand on this stage is always such a humbling experience. You have done such amazing things through other teachers here, and Lord, I know I’m just honored to be given this chance. Lord, I pray today that You will speak through me. I pray today that we will focus on You, on Your Word, and on the Cross. Lord, I pray that’s all I will speak today is You, and You crucified and resurrected. Lord, speak through me today. In Jesus name, Amen.
We started this series a couple of weeks ago...Acts, chapter 1. You remember, at the beginning of that chapter of the Bible, Jesus is talking to His band of disciples. There are 11 of them left. Judas has already committed suicide. Jesus is talking to them, and then He’s taken up back to heaven. So these 11 ordinary guys are left looking at each other saying, "What do we do now?" They went to Jerusalem and they gathered in a room. They gathered their families together. By the time all of them were gathered, there were about 120 of them in a big room. They were scared. They locked the doors. Jesus had been arrested and crucified just days before and they didn’t know what to do. So they just began to wait.
Then you read in Acts, chapter 2 something extraordinary happens. Do you remember that? This huge wind comes. It sounds like a tornado ripping through the room...a freight train rolling through the room. Then the Bible says, "Tongues of fire sat on each of their heads." They started speaking in languages they had never studied, that they didn’t know. People outside the room heard them speaking in languages and they started gathering around. Then Peter, this fisherman, who had never been to college, had no rabbinic teaching, stands up and gives this amazing sermon...first sermon he has ever preached in his life. Thousands of people commit their lives to Christ and become a part of this community. Something extraordinary beings to happen.
At the end of Acts, chapter 2, there is a description of the community that begins to build. It’s an amazing community. That’s where I want to start. Acts, chapter 2, verse 44, says, "And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved."
It’s really cool things happening. Everyone likes these guys. They have favor with everybody. Everybody they talk to wants to know more about Jesus. People are committing their lives to Christ. This is an awesome ride to be on. They’re giving away things. They’re generous. I mean this sounds like a lot of fun. In Acts, chapter 3, things begin to turn. Things begin to change. This is where it really becomes extraordinary.
If you were here last weekend, Billy Hornsby talked about Acts, chapter 3. Peter and John were going up to the temple. It’s 9:00 in the morning. They’re in Jerusalem. That’s the time of morning prayer, so every morning they go up. As they’re walking up to the temple, there is a man lying beside the gate. He’s a guy who has been there every single day. In fact, everyone who regularly goes to the temple knows about this guy. He’s just a regular guy. He’s lame. He lies there. He asks for handouts every day.
Well this day, Peter and John are walking by and something comes over Peter. Peter gets a wild hair. He says, "Let’s try out this new Holy Spirit thing that’s going on. Let’s see if this deal works." So he looks at the guy, and the guy gets excited. The guy says, "Alright, give me some money." He obviously didn’t realize it was a preacher. You know, there’s no money coming here. (That’s a joke, okay?) Peter says, "Do you know what? I don’t have any money, but let’s try this. In the name of Jesus, why don’t you get up and walk?" The guy doesn’t know any better than to give it a shot. So he does. He climbs to his feet and says, "Dude! I can stand up." Peter says, "Try walking. This could work." The guy takes a step. Peter says, "That’s cool."
Then things get out of hand. The guy thinks walking is alright...let’s try this running deal. So he takes of running around and around and around. The Bible says he is running. He is jumping up and down. He’s shouting for joy. He runs inside the temple. He starts running around in the temple, jumping up and down saying, "I’m healed! You guys know me. I’m the guy who lies by the gate, and now I can run and I can walk." People start gathering around. Well, what happens any time there is a preacher and a crowd gathers? What’s the preacher going to do?
Somebody said, "Take up an offering." That just hurts. Okay, that’s just cruel. Any preacher knows first you preach, then you take up the offering, okay. So Peter preaches another sermon...second sermon. He begins to talk about the fact that this man was healed in the name of Jesus.
Well, when the authorities in the temple hear about this disturbance that’s going on, and they hear that someone in there is using the name of Jesus, the guy they had put to death a few weeks before, they said, "Wait a minute. This...no, no, no. This isn’t good." At this point, things change forever for this group of believers because for the first time, they’re in trouble. So they arrest Peter and John and because it’s night and the court doesn’t meet until the next morning, they throw them in jail. They spend the night in jail.
The next morning, they bring them in. They bring them into the chamber where this tribunal meets. It’s the high priest. It’s the high priest’s relatives. It’s some of the scribes...the lawyers. It’s the Pharisees. They all meet in this religious council. When they bring Peter and John in, they know where they are. They are very familiar because just a few weeks before, when Jesus was arrested, this was the room He was brought to. Peter and John had followed along and had stayed in the shadows. They had seen Jesus face this exact same council of men. In fact, I imagine as Peter stood there, he looked down and he could see drops of blood dried on the ground. Those were the drops of blood Jesus shed when He stood in this same space.
So let’s pick up the story and see what happens. Verse 7, of Acts, chapter 4, "And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, ’By what power or by what name did you do this?’ Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit..." That’s important. Luke always prefaces what’s going to happen with the fact they were filled with the Holy Spirit. What he was saying is, "This just isn’t Peter thinking these things up. It’s not that Peter is just this amazing guy." He is saying, "Peter is an ordinary guy, but he is filled with the Holy Spirit."
It says, "Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, ’Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified..." See how personal that is. Peter is talking to the people who had Jesus crucified. He says, "We did this in the name of Jesus who you...you crucified."
"Whom God raised -- by him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.’ Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus."
If you have your Bible there, I would underline the word boldness because boldness shows up several times in this chapter. They’re looking at these guys. They’re saying, "These are uneducated guys. These guys have not been to college. These are not scholars. These are not lawyers. Now they’re telling us about things about the Scripture. What’s the deal with this?" Then one of the guys says, "Wait a minute. I recognize the fisherman. He was the guy who followed Jesus. These are disciples of that Galilean we put to death just a few weeks ago." Now they don’t know...What do we do with these guys?
"But seeing the man who was healed standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition." They want to stop this, but here this guy, who everyone knows was crippled, is now healed and he’s standing right here. What are they going to do about this? They had nothing to do in opposition. "But when they had commanded them [Peter and John] to leave the council, they conferred with one another, saying, ’What shall we do with these men? For that a notable sign has been performed through them is evident to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. But in order that it may spread no further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name.’"
"So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered them, ’Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.’ And when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way to punish them, because of the people, for all were praising God for what had happened. For the man on whom this sign of healing was performed was more than forty years old."
These guys now have a major problem...Peter and John, and all the followers of Christ. We’ve talked before about the fact that in this society, if your synagogue, if the priest in your synagogue were to excommunicate you, that would be a major problem because all commerce ran through the synagogue. It was the center of society. It would be difficult for you to conduct business. It would be difficult for you to buy food. Being excommunicated would be very bad.
You see, this is another level above that. This isn’t the village synagogue. This is the temple in Jerusalem. The high priest is the one who has told them, "Don’t speak about Jesus anymore." This would be like a Catholic being before the Pope, and the Pope saying, "I don’t want you to say that ever again." This is a major thing. You see if they disobey the high priest, if they disobey this council, not only will they be in trouble, their family will be in trouble. Their extended family will be in trouble. It’s conceivable that their grandparents could be kicked out of the synagogue, and their children could be kicked out of the synagogue.
Not only that, but these men have the power to arrest them and hold them in prison for days, for weeks, for years. In fact, they’ve shown with Jesus that these same men have the ability to manipulate the Roman court system. They could have them put to death.
So let’s think about that in our own context. What would you do...what would I do if I were called before a judge, and the judge told me, "Don’t say the name of Jesus again. If you do, we will take your house. We will take your car. We will arrest your mother. We will put your children in jail, and you will go on trial for your life. Do you understand?" What would you do? Would you move away? Let’s just move. Let’s move to another community.
Would you say, "Do you know what? Let’s go underground. Let’s just do this quietly. We don’t have to speak in public about Jesus. We’ll do like has happened in China for many, many years, and the Church can go underground." Or maybe we would say, "Do you know what? My obligation is to take care of my family. My obligation is to make sure my wife is safe, that my children are safe, that they’re taken care of, that my family is cared for, so I’m not going to talk about Jesus because He would want me to care for my family."
Well, let’s see what happens in Acts, when these guys take this threat back to the church. We’ll pick it up in verse 23, "When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God." So they tell this whole group of believers, "Here is the deal. We have been threatened to not ever use the name of Jesus. What are we going to do?" They said, "Well, let’s pray."
Here is their prayer, "Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them who through the mouth of our father David, Your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, ’Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against His Anointed’- for truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever Your hand and Your plan had predestined to take place."
Here’s their request. They remind God of what He has done in the past, what has happened recently, and now they make their request. "And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to Your servants to continue to speak Your Word with all boldness, while You stretch out Your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of Your holy servant Jesus." Now it’s interesting...let’s look, first of all... What’s interesting to me is what they did not ask for. They didn’t ask for safety. They didn’t say, "Lord, we’ve been threatened. Please protect us from their threats. Please keep us from being put in jail."
Now, I’ll be honest with you. When I pray every day, a lot of my prayer is focused on safety. I pray, "Lord, please protect my wife while she is at work. Please protect my daughter while she is away at college. Lord, please protect my son and my daughter-in-law as they are doing their jobs or going to school." A lot of my prayer and my time is focused on the safety of my family and those around me. There is nothing wrong with that.
Paul prayed, the apostle Paul prayed for safety of those who were close to them. I just think it’s interesting that this church, this group whose safety was very much threatened, didn’t pray to be safe. They didn’t pray for comfort either. This was a very uncomfortable situation, but they didn’t say a word about the Lord making it easier and more comfortable for them.
I mean how often do we pray for our comfort? There is nothing wrong with that, but how much of our prayer is focused on, "Lord, take away this thing that hurts. Lord, help me get this job. Help me get this house. Help me get this car. Help me move ahead in life. Lord, help me stay comfortable." Again, nothing wrong with praying for comfort, but the question is...Why didn’t these people pray for comfort?
The other thing they didn’t pray for...they didn’t pray for victory. They didn’t pray to win. This was definitely a contest, and we know in a contest we pray to win. Right? Here is how the football prayer goes. The football prayer, the public, the out-loud football prayer is, "Lord, please don’t let anybody get hurt. Let there be good sportsmanship. Let all things be done to Your glory." Blah, blah, blah. What is every person on the team praying? "Lord, let us win. Let us win. Let us kick them, hurt them, knock them down and win big time." That’s how we pray...right.
These guys didn’t pray for that. In this case there were definite good guys and bad guys. There was no doubt about that. Even at that, they didn’t pray, "Lord, let these guys be put to shame. Lord, let us triumph. Let us win. Let us be the conquerors and the victors in this battle." They didn’t even pray to win. They didn’t pray for revenge. Think about it. These are the people who arrested the Son of God. These are the people who had Him beaten to within an inch of His life. These are the guys who took Jesus before the Roman rulers and had Him crucified and put to death. And yet, there is not one word in this prayer about...Lord, put them to shame. Lord, bring harm to them. Lord, pay them back for what they did to You and to us.
Why is that? Well, let me be careful here. There is nothing at all wrong with praying for comfort and safety. There is nothing wrong with praying that we win over evil. Those are all important things. The problem is when that becomes the sum total of our prayer. When my prayer basically could be summed up as this, "Lord, please let me keep my comfortable, ordinary life. Lord, please restore the ordinariness of my every day existence. Lord, I just want things to be the same and safe and comfortable." That’s the mistake we make. That’s what these guys would not pray for.
Let’s look back at their prayer one more time. It says in verse 29, "Look upon their threats and grant to Your servants to continue to speak Your Word with all boldness, while You stretch out Your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of Your holy servant Jesus." What did they pray for? They prayed for three things, didn’t they? They prayed for boldness. Now, what got them in this predicament in the first place? Peter was too bold, wasn’t he? Peter talked about Jesus in places he shouldn’t have talked about Him. They said, "Okay, make us bolder to proclaim Your name."
What else got them in trouble? Peter healed the wrong guy. Peter healed a guy everybody knew...a guy who couldn’t keep quiet about it. What did they pray for? "Lord, let us heal more people. Let us do more healing. We’re in this predicament because we were bold. Let us be bolder. We’re in this predicament because Peter healed someone. Let us heal more people."
Then they said, "Lord, let’s go beyond that. Lord, let us do signs and wonders in Your name." Why did they pray like this? It’s because these people had been ruined for the ordinary. They had been with Jesus. They had seen resurrection power. They had been filled with the Holy Spirit. They had seen what God could do, and they could not imagine going back to their ordinary lives and their ordinary business and their ordinary home and their ordinary family, and so they prayed an extraordinary prayer.
If I were to sum it up in one sentence, I would say this. This is what they prayed, "Lord, let us live such extraordinary lives that they can only be explained by the power of God. Let people look at my life and say, ’I can’t explain him. I can’t explain what he does. I can’t explain how this happens, except for the power of God.’"
I want to take a little detour here back into the Old Testament. In 1 Kings there is a story about Prophet Elisha. Elisha was an amazing prophet. He followed Elijah. He did all kinds of miracles. He advised kings. God worked through him in amazing ways, but at the end of his life, he is on his deathbed. In fact, the Bible tells us this is the end for him.
As he is almost breathing his very last breaths, the king, at that time, named Joash come to Elisha...come into his bedroom, and says, "Elisha, I’m desperate. I have to get some input from you. I have to get some advice from you. We’re facing the Assyrians, and I don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t know what God wants us to do. Elisha, you have to advise me. You have to help me."
Elisha raises himself up off his deathbed, and he gathers his last strength. He says, "Okay, Joash, here’s what I want you to do. I want you to take an arrow, and I want you to put it in a bow, and I want you to open that window. I want you to draw the bow." So Joash did. He put the arrow in the bow and then he drew it back. Then Elisha feebly got up and he reached around him, and he put this hand on the bow and he put this hand on Joash’s hands, and he said, "Okay, shoot the bow. Shoot the arrow." So he did. He shot the arrow. There was something about that that didn’t sit well for Elisha. He said to Joash, "Joash, I want you to do one more thing. I want you to take some arrows, and I want you to bang them on the ground."
You can tell that Joash’s attitude was like, What is this about? Elisha says, "Just do it." Joash pulls out the arrows, and he bangs them on the ground. The Bible says he bangs them on the ground three times. You know, I’m really not into this. I have to lead the army. I have to do this deal. I’ll do it. Elisha, you said...there you go. Bang the arrows. Now what? Elisha gets angry at him and he says, "Why did you stop? Why did you stop after three times? If you had banged the arrows five times or six times, you would have won this war, but you know because you quit after three times, you’re going to win the battle, but you’re not going to win the war." That’s kind of odd.
I heard Pastor Bob Coy at Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale explain it like this. He said, "When Elisha reached around Joash, he could tell there wasn’t a passion. There wasn’t this desire to win this...this desire to be extraordinary as a king. He could feel, in Joash, there was just kind of this reluctance, this laid back attitude. Then when Elisha asked him to bang the arrows on the ground, apparently Joash just took the arrows and said, ’You know, I’ll do it. I’m not that into it. Here you go, I did it.’ Elisha was saying, ’Joash, if you had just grabbed those arrows and banged them on the ground, just showed your passion and your fire, and that you really, really wanted to make this happen, something amazing could have happened through you. But Joash, you just weren’t into it.’"
Here is my fear. Seacoast is a very easy place to attend. We have 12 physical campuses. We have an Internet campus. Some of you guys...I just kind of feel like you’re just not that into it. You just show up at whatever is convenient and at the convenient time. Sometimes you bring your Bible and sometimes you don’t. Sometimes you come and sometimes you don’t. Sometimes you pray, and sometimes you don’t. Most times you probably maybe walk out of the doors saying, "It was okay...good little sermon. Music was okay, but honestly...just not that into it."
The people who want to live extraordinary lives are the people who grab the arrows and say, "I’m into it." They’re people who pray the bold prayer that says, "God, I’m not so much concerned that I’m safe or that I’m comfortable, but I am concerned that my family be dangerous, that people be afraid when my family walks in because they’re going to boldly proclaim the gospel. They’re going to heal people. They’re going to do signs and wonders."
I have a friend who lives in Denmark. He’s a pastor in Copenhagen. He read this passage of Scripture that said, "Lord, we want to heal people." He said, "You know what? That must be for real," so he started gathering a group of people. These are Europeans. They don’t understand how this deal works. They just read the Bible and then they do what it says. What is that about? It makes no sense.
So he gathers a group of people. He says, "Guys, we’re going to go out into the streets, and we’re going to heal people." They said, "Okay, we’re going to go pray for healing." He said, "No, that’s not what the Bible says. The Bible says they went and healed people, so we’re going to go and heal people." So my friend, Pastor Cave, goes out on Tuesdays in Copenhagen, and they pray and they heal people. I don’t know how that works. I don’t understand that. I don’t get it. I tried to get him to explain it, and he said, "I can’t explain it. It’s the power of the Holy Spirit." Do you see what I’m saying? Unbelievable stuff happens when we say, "God, I want to live such an extraordinary life that it can only be explained by the power of God."
Let’s look what happens when these guys pray this prayer. Verse 31, "And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit." Can you imagine that? It was shaken. What is that? Well, have you ever been in your house...maybe it’s in the middle of the night, and there is a thunderstorm and a lightning bolt hits right next to your house. How many of you guys have ever had that experience? Scare you a little bit? Shake the house. Windows are shaking and the dads are crying, I mean...the kids are crying. I mean, it’s crazy.
I was reading this week that a single bolt of lightning can have up to one billion volts of electricity. That’s what happened in this house. When they prayed this prayer, a billion volts of supernatural power, Holy Spirit power, came and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.
Now, we know that in Acts, chapter 2, they were baptized with the Spirit. We know when we accept Christ as our Savior, when we make Him Lord of our life, we receive the Holy Spirit. There is obviously another experience...being filled with the Holy Spirit. Luke talks about it again and again and again. There is a verse where Paul, the apostle Paul, talks about being continuously filled with the Holy Spirit.
Now, I’m not going to spend a lot of time getting into that today, but here is what I’m going to tell you. If you want to live this extraordinary life, you want to experience this one billion volts of Holy Spirit power in your life... About a year ago Greg did a message on being filled with the Spirit. He talked about how to be filled with the Spirit. What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? We have a website called www.afterthemessage.com. I want you to go to www.afterthemessage.com. There is going to be a link to it. I want you to watch that message because Greg does a great job of explaining...What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit?
Let’s see. These guys prayed, "Lord, make us bold. Let us heal. Let us do signs and wonders." Then the house is shaken. They’re filled with the Holy Spirit. Then the chapter ends with the results of this extraordinary prayer. It says, "They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all."
What happened? They prayed this prayer and now they had boldness. I mean, the temple leaders says, "Hey, hey. Shh, quiet." So they go away and pray. Then now not just Peter and John have boldness, but now you have 10,000 believers all being bold, telling about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Not only is there boldness, there is unity. Can you imagine 10,000 people all being on the same page?
I mean this church right now in Acts, is about the same size that Seacoast is right now. Can you imagine at all of the campuses, in Columbia, in Greenville, in Savannah and in Manning...we’re all on the same page, all doing the same thing, all speaking with boldness? It says not only that, but they were generous. They started to just give to help people out, to help one another out.
You know, we’ve seen that here at Seacoast. About a year ago when we saw the economy falling apart, we came to you guys. I don’t know if you remember this, but we said, "Hey, we would like to help our church family. When people in our family are hurting, they’re losing their house or they’ve lost their job, we want to be able to step in and stand in the gap. So if you have margin in your finances and would be willing to give to those who are struggling, if you’ll give to what we call the Acts 4 Fund, we will help distribute those funds to people who have need."
Hundreds of you responded and gave tens of thousands of dollars. Over the last year we have given away all that money...tens of thousands of dollars. It has helped Seacoasters in amazing ways. Maybe one of the things you want to do today is you want to get that fund continued going, and you just want to, on an envelope, write Acts 4, online, give to the Acts 4 Fund, because out of the abundance that God has given you, you want to be generous.
There was boldness. There was unity. There was generosity. There was power. It says when the disciples talked about Jesus Christ there was power in their words. Wouldn’t that be amazing that when you talked to your coworker about Jesus, they could just feel the power that is coming through you. Then love the way it ends. It says, "...and great grace was upon them all." I mean this is just an amazing lubrication of grace where they were working together and generous and power was going on and boldness was going on. All summed up, they were living lives that could only be explained by the power of God.
So...what is your prayer today? I mean is your prayer focused on...God, fix this problem. God, heal this need. God, keep us safe. Make us comfortable. Nothing wrong with those prayers unless they are in the place of praying, "God, I want to live such an extraordinary life that it can only be explained by the power of God."
Let me pray for you: Father, I want to be transparent today, and You know me inside and out. You know there are many, many times that my prayer is, "Take care of me. Make me comfortable. Make me safe." Lord, I want to bust out of that cocoon. Lord, I want to be dangerous to a world of evil. Lord, I want to be bold. I want to see You heal. I want to see You do signs and wonders. Lord, I pray that will be our prayer today.
I pray for those who are here that Lord, maybe they don’t know You. Maybe they’ve never accepted You into their life. Today is the day they pray a bold prayer that says, "Please forgive me of my sins. I want to make You the Leader of the rest of my life."
Lord, I pray for those who are afraid, Lord, those who are holding back, those who would just be honest and say, "I haven’t really ever put myself totally into this Christianity thing, but I want to go all in, heart and soul." Lord, I pray we will pray bold prayers, and then we just expect that You will fill with the Holy Spirit, and that amazing things will be done. Lord, we ask it in Jesus’ name, Amen.
