A spiritual problem
Review of Acts 1-11
I don’t know about all of you but, for me time moves so fast.
I don’t know what happened…When I was a kid time moved so slow, Christmas took for ever to come.
But now birthdays, anniversary seem to always be around the corner.
By the time I figure out how to et a few things done another year ends. Another Birthday comes to remind me that time is marching on and my kids are growing ups and things are changing.
As a church we are hitting one of those mile stones today.
Charge conference is when we pull out the paperwork and see what has happened over the year. We choose officers and celebrate the ministry we do.
Charge conference is a warning sign that another year is almost over. In January, we officially will put 2006 in the file folder and call it Church history.
So today we need to make ourselves pause and evaluate what has happened and what we do as a church.
We have been in a study of acts since May 28th (over 3 months) and we are not using a direct scripture except the arts we have studied up to now. You can use you bibles to help you today. As we have a pop quiz:
Get out a clean piece of paper and a sharp # 2 pensile and clear your minds so we can get started.
Actually we are not going to write anything down. We are playing school and we will volunteer our answers out loud. So don’t be timid, raise you hands and give an answer.
1. The Holy Spirit comes on the day of Pentecost…when What happens?
Holy Spirit, Power comes over the disciples and gifts are exposed.
2. Someone name some of these gifts?
Preaching, Healing, Speaking in tongues, Leadership
3. When Peter preaches on Pentecost what happens?
Other languages, They are accused of being drink, 3000 join the church
4. Does the church experience troubles, if so what are they?
Trouble comes with Jail time for preaching, People in the church gripe, Threats and persecution.
5. How does the church respond?
Keep on with what they are doing, Preaching and teaching, Deal with complaints, appoint others to ministry. Share what they have, money food , possessions
6. Who is Stephen and what happened to him?
7. The church does what? All but apostles scatter
8. Where do they go?
Samaritans and Gentiles
9. Who is Saul? What happens to him
Ok – Now time for the essay question….
10. How does any of this relate to us today?
Are we anything like the church of Acts?
Are they something to be modeled?
When Jesus ascended he left the disciples gathered in a time of meditation and prayer. They were living in Jerusalem and were halfway fugitives with not real property. They are considered to be outsiders from the Government and the general Jewish population.
First of all I will tell you that I believe we have it really good.
We are living the good life as a blessing from God. We are able to celebrate the good news of Jesus Christ with a freedom that the people of the day could never have dreamed. We have church buildings and denominations and are generally considered to be upstanding members of the community.
They has the advantage of spending close personal time with Jesus. Our exposure is second hand and often feels quite removed. However, we have the bible which helps us hold to a firm understanding that does not fade with our memories.
Yesterday I kept focusing on something that I thought was a big difference te I don’t believe should be in the way. In general I am not talking about just our church but about most of the churches in the US.
Do we have the Holy Spirit today?
Why or why not?
Is it softer and less powerful than in the early church?
How did the early church get it? Jesus sent it to the disciples Right? They were in prayer together for 10 days and Woosh!!!!
Do you think there is a connection between prayer and meditation and the power the Holy Spirit has in a Christian’s life?
I can assure you that I believe that is exactly the connection. As a church we get together and celebrate things really easily. We look for all the joy and good which is all well and good. We definitely need to celebrate what we have done with God as a church and individuals. But we don’t like to look at our failures and mistakes. Well at least I don’t.
Does nay body here let time jade our vision and thing that the church that was forming in the Book of acts was a perfect church? Don’t because they weren’t they were learning as they went along. But for all their failures and mistakes they made up with commitment and action.
I think the church today has a lot of problems but not based on environment or persecution or lack of anything. We have a spiritual problem.
It starts because we don’t want the spirit to mess up our lives. The reason we don’t feel like we have the spirit and the power and conviction that goes with it is because we don’t want it to mess up our lives.
Yes, I said mess up our lives.
When the spirit of God comes on the early church it means that they can never go back to the way it was. Never Fit back into the normal society. If they truly let the spirit into their hearts they died. They died and started to live for God. Their lives of the past as fisherman or tax collectors and farmers no longer had meaning because there was no power.
Once they accepted the power of the spirit they had a priority to use it as they were directed. To take what in their old lives would be chances and risk.
The authorities said, don’t talk about Jesus! But, they talked about Jesus any way and people listened. The power of the spirit healed people as they walked by. The power of the spirit was given to the disciples that were unable to speak or act on their own.
IT is like they were possessed…..But only because the said yes…not maybe…not no. They said Yes I want to be a part of the kingdom and have what Jesus Christ said was possible.
There is not a one of us in here that would not like to see the healing of our loved ones, of people in the emergency room of the little children we have heard about on the news.
But would any of us choose to spend an undetermined period of time in jail to see it happen. Not just for family, but for the unknown beggar and the drug dealer.
When we ask God for power we don’t get to control it we just get to witness it. While he allows his people to be the vessel, the container that embodies the power it is completely the work of God through a willing person.
He does not need the person for the power to be released he needs the person so that He gets the Glory…the credit….the attention….He needs the person, the church so that the community knows where he is working.
Here is the problem: How many of us would be willing to commit to a prayer vigil and just wait for god to move?
How do we know how and when he is going to move…..We don’t….
Is there any one here that really wants the spirit to come into our church with power?
Do we want the blind to see again, the lame and infirmed to walk and be strong?
What are we willing to do?
What are we willing to give up?
Do you understand that when God enters a place that does not quench his spirit the power released brings blessing that touches all of us> When we allow the spirit freedom to work in and through us we will witness the world changed like never before. It is personal and exciting. Look at the story in Acts. The power of God moves and people are changed…..followers become leaders, Uneducated fisherman become powerful preachers….me and women are empowered to explain the gospel.
The are empowered to stand up to persecution and to make the best of what hey have. They learn how God’s grace is really sufficient.
I don’t think we have that. I think we only allow just enough of the spirit that we can feel good about our faith. We only trust God enough to accept the good promises. We are un willing to follow the rest of the model and trust God for our daily bread
The early church pooled what they had to make sure the widows were taken care of.
It looks like they did nto have a money problem in the church. The powere of the spirit led people to act whe they identified need.
If we are not interest in what God really wants…why should he keep blessing us. How long will he keep terrorist out of LA, or Chicago, or Atlanta.
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Let me point out the obvious signs of our spiritual problem.
We have very few young families which means that there is nothing for the kids here. Parents today go to a lot of trouble for their kids. They are low of time and need and want relationships that connect them to spiritual things that can help their lives.
We have no visitors invited or sent by God – I will let you think that one . If you invited someone eventually someone would come just to be nice. And if we were a spiritual congregation God would send someone just at random.
We have no people (members ) that ask how they can serve the church. No members that say we need to do this or that. We need to have a prayer breakfast or a praise supper or have a neighborhood work day. We don’t have anyone reaching out to families in the community that have a loss and no church home. We don’t offer spiritual first aid the a hurting world.
God has sent us one group of people to love and it seems like we want to hold back on that. It is a spiritual problem anytime we fail to love the ones that God sends, children to adults.
The final sign of a spiritual problem that I will mention this morning has to do with Money. If the armor was not up already I know it just wet up now.
The church needs money to do God’s work. Giving to the church is a spiritual gift giving t god is a sign of worship ad that is why the offering is in the middle of our worship service. When we give to God we are not just giving to pay the bills and the preacher. When we have special offerings they are for worthy causes that touch lives.
My salary form this church is about 40% of the full budget, you pay me $16200 per year no insurance, no retirement and I am grateful that god provides.
But how many of you think less of worship when you give and more that you are paying the bills and the preacher?
It’s a spiritual problem when you don’s see how God works and gifts people for ministry and giving and healing
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