Posts Tagged ‘Acts’

Ever been frustrated in trying to follow God?  I sure have.  I fall down so much.  I sin all the time.  I find myself setting up idols, and then tearing them down because God has revealed to me what I’ve crafted out of creation to worship, instead of worshipping the Creator God.  I get frustrated trying to follow God and I promise God that I’ll never commit that one again, or think that thought or have that attitude, or look at that, or whatever.

As I’m researching the message for this week, studying, praying and dissecting much Scripture, God has awakened me to something so crucial.  Most of the time I’m frustrated in my walk with God and trying to follow God, my frustration is a signal that I’m not allowing the Spirit of God to do the Work, and I’m trying to do it in my own power.  I’m trying to follow God with my own strategies, experiences, abilities, instead of relying on God the Holy Spirit inside of me.

The disciples were given a mission in Matthew 28:19-20 and Luke 26:45-49.  Go and make disciples.  Follow Christ in this.  Do as Christ was doing and make disciples and spread the gospel.  BUT – wait for the gift of the Spirit.  Why would Jesus say this?  Acts 1:1-11 shows Jesus telling them not to launch out on this mission until they received the Spirit.  Why?  They needed God to follow God.  God empowers us to follow and obey and make much of His name.  We can’t do it on our own.  He’s got it rigged!  We need his help to give hope.  We need his Spirit to spread the gospel.

What did his people do?  They had 2 choices.  Wait or not wait.  They could be frustrated or they could follow.  They chose to wait and Oh my, did they receive power to follow God.  Read Acts 2 for how God used them as they relied on Him!

Dig Deeper.

PC

The Word is good.  God’s Word to us is absolutely incredible and amazing and freeing and convicting and life-changing.  Yesterday we encountered a truth at RiverStone in our corporate worship gathering that I absolutely love.  We looked at Matthew 4:18-22.  This is where Jesus calls 2 sets of brothers, Andrew and Simon, and James and John away from their nets and to Himself.  They would stop investing their lives for fish, and they would start investing their lives for God through catching people.

Here’s what is so incredible to me about this Scripture.  Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” (ESV).  Don’t gloss over this too soon.  This is a statement by Jesus that is very popular, especially if you’ve grown up doing the church thing most of your life.

What’s so powerful about this statement to us today, and to the 4 invitees, is that Jesus gives us our responsibility and he gives us His responsibility, wrapped up in these 10 words.

Here’s our Responsibility:  “Follow me…”  We are to follow Christ.  Spend time with Christ.  Snuggle up to Christ.  Go where Christ goes.  Do what Christ does.  Observe what Christ does, and emulate Christ.  What does it take to follow Christ?  It takes repenting of sin (acknowledging we are sinners and turning from our sinful ways).  It takes believing Christ as Savior (believing the gospel, the good news that God sent his son to live, die, be buried, and rise from the dead in order that our sins may be atoned for by belief in His son), and then following after Him.  Doing what he does and going where he goes.

Here’s Christ’s responsibility:  “I will make you fishers of men.” Jesus tells them that their responsibility is following, but His responsibility is to make them what they need to be in order to do what he’s called them to do.  They couldn’t do it on their own.  They couldn’t make themselves fishers of men.  Look at these additional passages to show us how we do what God wants us to do:

• Acts 1:1-8 – We can’t accomplish the task of Christ without Christ giving us His Spirit
• Matthew 28:16-20 – Based on the authority of Christ, we go and make disciples…without the authority of Christ, there’s no way we can do it.

Hey RiverStone and Friends,

Hope your week is going great and that you are actively engaging this week in disciple-making at home, at work, and/or where you play.  We tend to make disciple-making difficult; but what we see God calling us to do is to simply SHARE Christ and SHOW the teachings of Christ.  If you need more instruction on how to do this, please let us know at RS, and we’ll be happy to help guide you.  Simply email me at cdearman@riverstonechurch.org for more information and training.  I’m excited about what God is up to, and that’s what I want to talk about a bit more today.

I want to reinforce the truth that God is the one who is at work, ultimately, using our SHARING and SHOWING, to bring people into the salvation of their souls through faith alone in Jesus Christ.  He is the one who is responsible for people coming to faith in Christ, not us.  We are responsible for the SHARING and SHOWING.  But God is responsible for the SALVATION!  Does that free anyone up?

You may be asking, “Where are you getting that from?”  You may be saying, “I’ve been taught all my life that if I don’t lead the person to faith in Christ that I’ve shared with, then I haven’t done something right.”  That’s the temptation to think that we’ve failed if we don’t see results.  That’s American culture screaming at us, and not the Bible.  The Bible is clearly pointing us to the truth that God is the one at work behind all of disciple-making.  Look at these texts with me:

• Matthew 28:19-20 - Who is all-powerful?  Because he is all-powerful, what is the “therefore” saying to us?
• John 12:27-32 - What does Jesus say is our responsibility?  What will he do as we do our part?
• Joshua 1:7-9 - What does the Lord call Joshua to do?  What determines Joshua’s success in his mission from God?
• Mark 4:26-29 – What is man’s responsibility?  Who is responsible for the seed taking root and growing?  How should the man sleep at night knowing he’s done his job?

In these verses, we get a robust theology that God is at work, that God is the source of success, and that God is responsible for outcomes as we are responsible for obedience.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27ps4quZz58 (listen to this and praise God for being Sovereign!)

Dig Deeper,

PC