daily Broadcast

How? - Part 2

From the series Catch the Vision

Has God ever spoken to you? Would you like to learn how to hear His voice and then be able to act on it? Join Chip as he shares that when you're able to hear God's voice and then act on it, you’ll see His power like never before!

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Message Transcript

Four scenarios. Let’s go to the other side, you’ll find professional fishermen in a storm. They are convinced they are drowning. They are absolutely hopeless. He speaks to the storm and they winds and the waves, whoo, and the moment He does it, what do they say? “Who is this man?” What is He doing? He is revealing who God is.

Scenario number two. When they get to the other side, they are on a shore and there’s a demoniac. It’s a person who is filled with a legion of demons. It’s an impossible situation. People can’t hold him in chains. He cuts himself. He is a wild man. And when he rushes out, because Jesus spoke to him, he says, “Oh, Son of the Most High God, don’t torment me!” So the demons know who He really is.

The text makes it very clear, no one, at any time can control this person. Jesus takes the demons, casts them out of him into a herd of pigs, and the man is clothed in his right mind. It’s the picture of the kingdom. He is forgiven. He is delivered. He is loved. He is restored.

And then he says, “Can I get in the boat with you?” And Jesus said, “No. Go to where you are from and tell them the great things that God has done for you.” He gets back in the boat.

So, okay, I am a disciple, right? I am in on all of this. I am watching, watching, watching. Waves. A little bit later, Jesus doing something and if I’m James, “Peter, who do you think this Dude is? You know, the stories, I thought He was the Messiah but, man, that stuff. That calming the wind?”

And then, the next one, they lived in a very supernatural world, all kind of demonic activity. The demons listen to Him. He didn’t rant, He didn’t rave, He just spoke, poof! Now they get in the boat and when they land there is a man named Jarius and he is the head of a synagogue. He said, “Please, please, please come. My daughter is dying. Please.” And he is putting his life on the line, his reputation, like God wants some of you to do and wants me to do.

See, to openly say that I am a follower of Jesus, if you are a synagogue ruler, he is going to get booted because the Pharisees have said, “Anyone who thinks He is the Messiah or messes with this Guy, you’re out.” But you know something? If your daughter is dying, you don’t care what people think, like a lot of us.

You lose your job, you lose your house, your kid is in ICU, your marriage is falling apart, you know what? All of a sudden, you don’t care what people think. God, if there is a God, I need help. And so He comes.

And Jesus is on His way to help him and on the way, it’s like, again, the crowds are swelling.

People are packed everywhere and He stops, “Who touched Me?” And the guys are going, like, Who isn’t? He said, “No, I felt virtue. I felt power go out of Me.” And so there is a clearing and a woman comes and falls at His feet and says, “It’s me.” And the woman had an issue of blood and the text makes it clear she spent all of her money. It’s a female issue so it’s very, this is a risky thing to do. She, all the doctors can’t help her, she is completely broke, she is desperate. But she believes. “I have seen, I have heard, I have watched.” She responds. She touches Him. Whoo. She is healed.

And what does He say? “Daughter, your faith,” because that’s the agenda. She believes. “Your faith has made you well. Go in peace.”

Well, by now, the crowds are swelling and - storm, demons, woman healed. He gets to the house and they said, “Hey, forget it. It’s too late. You blew it. She died. In fact, she has been dead for a while.” And Jesus, audaciously says, “No, actually, she is just asleep.” They start laughing. They start mocking Him. “Who does this guy think He is?” He says, “Just everybody stay here, okay? Mom, Dad, you two. Peter, John, James, you’re going to need to realize who I really am. You guys can come up too.”

The little girl, about twelve years old, what does He do? Does He touch her? “Little girl, I say to you, ‘Arise.’” Whoo. She rises from the dead. James, Peter, and John go, “Ooh.” You know what they learned? I can trust Him. I can trust Him with my business, I can trust Him with my future, I can trust Him with my relationships, I can trust Him with my money. God has come to earth, I am lining up to follow Him, and whatever He says I want to be a family member. I want to be a mother and brother in the family of God. I want to usher in the kingdom the way He ushers in the kingdom. I want to be a follower of His. And if it means I surrender my life and have the joy of resurrection in this life and to know for sure I will be with Him forever, that’s what I want to do. And they do.

It’s His agenda. And as a result, there is a little band of people about one hundred and twenty by the time of Pentecost. Jesus has died, He has been crucified, He has risen from the dead. For forty days He has walked around; over five hundred eyewitnesses. And He told them, “You are My body. And wait for Me, because I am going to bring power so that I will have more intimate relationship with every one of My followers, even than Peter, James, and John because I am not going to be among you, I am going to live in you by the person of the Holy Spirit.”

So this hundred and twenty people are scared to death and people are trying to kill them and it’s this radical movement and the Jews’ leadership want to kill them and the Romans, Hey, man, this is not good for business. This political stuff. Let’s kill them. And they are hiding in this room praying in Jerusalem. And then, whooooo! A mighty, rushing wind and the Holy Spirit. And as it comes, tongues of fire above them, and they begin to speak languages that they never learned. And this one, Ethiopian. And this one, Zimbabwean. And this and that and that and that.

All these different, known languages. And it’s nine o’clock in the morning and pretty soon people hear a loud noise like thunder. And then these people are walking around and they are hearing, in their own languages, the praises of God. So a huge crowd comes together and, “What is going on? What is going on? This is wild!”

So one group says, “I think they’re drunk.” And Peter steps up and let’s see if he learned anything about Jesus’ strategy. Can you turn to Acts chapter 2? Or scroll over in your phone? Acts chapter 2.

Acts chapter 2, the Holy Spirit has come. Peter, in verse 14 takes his stand with the eleven, raises his voice, and declares to them, “Men of Judea and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let it be known to you and give heed to my words, for these men aren’t drunk as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. But this is what was spoken through the prophets.” And then he begins to quote Joel and all the Messianic prophecies.

And it sounds like he had a pretty good sermon going here. And when he got done with the sermon, skip down to verse 36. “Therefore, let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” That would not be a good message to be on the other end of.

Now, when they heard that, they were pierced to the heart and they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brethren, what must we do?’” Verse 38, Peter said, “Repent. Have a change of mind that leads to a change of action and let each of you be baptized, an outward expression of this new faith, for the remission of your sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, for the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off,” guess who that is? That’s us.

“For as many as the Lord our God shall call to Himself, and with many other words he solemnly testified.” One translation says, “And He continued preaching for a really long time.” And then he says, “With many other words, ‘Be saved from this perverse generation.’” So what does Peter do? He teaches the multitudes. You know how I know? Because three thousand of them come to become followers of Christ. They receive Christ, get baptized right then. They go public. So there must have been thousands upon thousands.

So then what did the early Church do? What about the strategy? Pick it up at verse 42, “And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, a meal and the Lord’s Supper, and to prayer. And everyone kept feeling a sense of awe and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all those who believed,” listen to the relationships, “all those who believed were together and they had all things in common. And they began selling their property, their possessions, and they shared as anyone might have need. And day by day they continued with one mind,” large group, the temple, “and breaking bread from house to house,” small group, “they were taking meals together in gladness and sincerity of heart.” They were in community, they were doing life, they were encouraging one another, they were supporting one another, they were meeting each other’s needs.

The result? “Praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were saved.” And just look at chapter 3. Chapter 3 opens up, “And Peter and John are on their way to the temple at the hour of prayer,” and here is a man who is crippled. What do they do? They serve. They heal him. And then they go and they share. And so guess what. The Early Church does what? They teach the multitudes. They equip small groups. And they – do what? They are sent out to serve.

Does anybody see a pattern?

Did you notice that word: They were devoted to? Jesus asked these men and those women for their life. It wasn’t, “I believe in Jesus. Oh! I intellectually agree He came from God. And I will give Jesus and God this nice, little sliver of all the compartments of my life because I think it’s nice.”

It’s not them. What does it say? They word: They were devoted. They were focused on loving God and loving others. They became aware, very quickly, they couldn’t do it on their own and so they gathered in small groups, not because it was a program or they ought to or should. They realized that they were public enemy number one. And they loved each other.

And, by the way, if you haven’t awakened to smell the roses of what is happening in our world, especially America, it is going to become more and more unpopular to be a genuine follower.

So one of the things we are doing here, we are pausing. We are calling a major time-out and we have looked at the world situation and we are saying we need to pause and have everyone realign and reevaluate: Why are we a church and why are we here?

And we have got to set our hearts on: We are here to complete His mission. That’s not my agenda or yours. Now, the byproduct will probably be a marriage that is better. The byproduct will be kids who have parents who are a lot more healthy and the byproduct will be deeper friendships and all that. But that’s not why.

Jesus is not the great self-help genie in the sky to make your life work out. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He is coming back. And every knee is going to bow on earth and in heaven and under the earth and every tongue that has ever lived will confess Jesus Christ is Lord.

And now He is calling us, as a church, to say, “Are you in or not?” And that would mean that we would proclaim to the multitudes. You know how we teach the multitudes? We do it on the weekends. But every one of you goes someplace either at home or at work or a neighborhood and you are a living epistle. Someone is either hearing the gospel really clearly through your life and your words and your relationships, or they are not.

And we’re going to get connected in small groups. Our goal is not to know about God. It’s not to know the truth. It’s to live the truth.

Finally then, we send people to serve. We send them locally. We help with people who are pregnant and struggling. We have a ministry with homeless people.

And then it’s global! We have church planting, theological education, schools for kids that we have been raising kids since they were babies all the way up through, now some are in college. We have a nursing school in India, we have another school in Ethiopia, we bring fresh water to the people around the world.

One of our staff members said, “These people in Islam, they are so disappointed in their whole life and everything is gone.” He said, “There was a pastor there who had been working with Muslims for thirty years and he began to pray something, God, I thank You for ISIS. Lord, I thank You for ISIS. I thank You for ISIS.

And he said, “I have ministered for thirty years and it has been like a rock wall. And since the ugly, ugly ISIS, people have recognized their need for a living God. And, literally, tens of thousands of Muslims are coming to Christ. And God is manifesting Himself in dreams, in visions, and the gospel.” And you know what? We need to be a part of that. That’s what we are about. Explaining who God is. Bringing the kingdom. Making disciples. Surrendering our lives so that others could live. With the byproduct that we get a joy that is completely supernatural.

Unconsciously, we think, If I had more, if I found the right person, more success, more money, more power, more this, more that then I would be happy. And what you know is some of it is nice but it sure didn’t make you happy.

Not if the things of the heart, not if relationships are wrong.

Sometimes you think you believe something else, but your behavior screams that’s what you believe. Your schedule screams that’s what you believe. Your priorities scream that’s what you believe. The pressure you put on your kids screams that’s what really, really matters.

And, yet, in times of brokenness and difficulty you get bankrupt and you surrender all that you are and you say, God, I just want to be Your man or your woman or your student and You can do whatever You wish. And you give your life away.

And there is a joy that you can’t understand and God uses you to love people. And then in the graciousness of God, a lot of those things, because He is so kind, you end up with probably more than you thought or more education and your kids do better than you thought. But there is not that, there’s not that angst.

We are on a journey.  Number one, make a commitment at your place of maturity. Okay? You don’t need to be an all-star. But you can say, I am going to come before God on a regular basis and I am going to come before God corporately. And we have all kinds of tools. You’ll start to learn to read the Bible and talk to God on a regular basis.

And then you’re going to say I am going to do life in community. I am going to get in a group. And, by the way, you don’t have time to get in a group, do you? Something will have to change. Everyone who followed Jesus, something had to change. Sometimes they had to drop their nets, they had to leave this, they had to shift gears. If you want to be who you are, keep doing what you’re doing. If you want to be who God wants you to be, do what He calls you to do. You will never regret it.

And then, finally, say, Where could I help? Where could I serve?

Now, do you know what is limiting? Do you know what is absolutely limiting the kingdom of God and His work from going on?

The person in your seat. We are only as effective as every single person hears God’s Word and applies it. We are only effective as every single person gets into a group to be equipped. And we are only as effective as every single person taking baby steps to big steps says, “I am here to serve. It actually is not about me.” And I will tell you, things can change that you would never imagine. But no one out there is going to change that. It will cause you and me, in a fresh new way, to say, “Here am I, Lord. Send me.”