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A
Spiritual ATM
The Price of Pentecost, pt. 1
Acts 1:12-14; 2:41
For ten days they waited for the promised Spirit to come.
We read in that last verse about the day of Pentecost…when the fire
of God fell on those believers/the wind of God blew across their hearts/the
Spirit of God came down and inhabited His new temple/3,000 heard the gospel
and got saved…
Charismatics emphasize in
Acts 2 that they spoke in tongues…and they did (for a sign)…but
that’s not the big deal of Acts 2/not a rushing mighty wind/not cloven
tongues of fire on their heads…but rather that 3,000 got saved!
And we say, "If only that fire would fall on our church,
if only a fresh wind of the Holy Spirit would sweep across our church!"
Here in the 21st
century, we need to understand that there’s a price to be paid for
Pentecost! And Acts 2 would not
happen w/out Acts 1.
We all love to hear the
choir sing, for example, but we need to understand it doesn’t just
happen…Pastor Jeremy doesn’t run out into the parking lot each Sunday AM and
grab the first 25 people he can find, throw them into the loft and they make
beautiful music…rather hours of hard work and preparation go into it,
there’s a price to be paid!
(same w/ a baseball
team!)
In the same way, a growing,
soulwinning church making a difference, reaching many for Christ doesn’t
just happen…there is a price for Pentecost!
And most churches are not willing to pay the price, and they flounder
in the sea of mediocrity!
Ill.—church
sent annual report to their headquarters for previous year:
# of souls saved-0/baptized-0/transfer of letter-0/by
statement-0…then at the bottom it said, please pray that we will remain
faithful. (faithful to
what?!)
Fact is, to have a church
w/ God’s power on it, there is a price for Pentecost!…and the conditions for
it are laid out for us in ch. 1!
(not complicated, basic, easy to understand, but hardly followed!)
Any church that makes the
decision to become an empowered soul-saving station can indeed, if
they just decide to pay the price!
4 prices to pay, only
the 1st this morning:
The price of
obedience
v. 12
why important? Because
they went there in obedience to Christ (v. 4, v. 8)
They could have gone to any other city, and not experienced the power
of God. For Jesus didn’t tell
them to wait at Bethlehem…they would have
missed it…and when the fire of God fell, they were there, right there
waiting for it! Right where they
were supposed to be!
We see this elsewhere in
scripture, too…where God says, meet me at a certain place, and I will bless
you:
Elijah
(brook Cherith, God fed him during famine by ravens)
I believe he could have
gone anywhere else, even a place not in famine, and yet would have starved
to death!
Naaman
(leper, dip in Jordan)
Why in muddy Jordan?
But it wasn’t a hard thing
God was asking of him, he obeyed, and was made whole!
It’s not difficult what God
requires of us…just simple obedience to Him!
Wouldn’t it be a wonderful thing if the Lord would always find
members of GBC “there”…where God has told them to be!?
Where is there? In God’s
will!
God doesn’t pour out His power on churches full of
disobedient Christians. There is
a price to be paid, and it is the price of obedience…from the pulpit to the
pew, we’d all do well to realize our disobedience can affect the whole body,
and keep His power out of here!
Three basic areas to start: (if we
really want the power of God! If
we really want to cash in on what God can do…and you’ll remember this later
because of the acrostic
“ATM”)
1.
Obedience in Attendance
(Heb. 10:25 on screen)
No church will ever be great where the membership is
erratic in their attendance.
Show me a church whose
people come sporadically, only when they feel like it, if there’s nothing
better to do, if it’s convenient…and I’ll show you a church that’s just
playing games/not doing much for Christ!
Why?
Because unfaithfulness in
attendance says something about you…it reveals a lack of commitment, and a
lack of love.
But let’s not deal w/ this
from the standpoint of a lack of commitment (people don’t commit these
days…unless they really want to!
We can do what we want...so let's allow God to change our wanter!)
Think about the lack of
love, instead…
Ill.—preacher
visited in home/noticed they had little housedog/noticed they lavished love
on the dog to an extreme/ “I can’t get over how much you all love that dog!
You’d make great parents…maybe you should have a child to show all
that love to!”/woman started weeping and ran out/pastor knew he had said
something wrong, apologized to husband/ “There’s no way you could know, but
we had a son, and God saw fit to take him to heaven at a very young age…but
that dog was our son’s dog…it may seem silly, but the reason we love on that
dog in such a way, is that’s our way of showing love for our son…preacher,
we love that dog so much simply because our son loved it so much!”
If for no other reason, you
ought to love the church because God’s Son loves the church!
Don’t ever say, “I love Jesus, but I don’t like to go to church so
often”…that’s a contradiction in terms…you cannot separate Jesus from the
church any more than you can separate the head from the body, or a building
from it’s foundation!
It’s not “Jesus-or-the
church”, it’s “Jesus-and-the church!”
So, aside from the lack of commitment, unfaithful
attendance reveals a lack of love!
We should love what HE loves!
With all our faults, and we have many/failures/flaws…God’s Son still
loves the church as it says in...
Eph. 5:25-- Christ also loved the church,
and
gave himself
for
it;
…therefore
we should love the church and show it by being faithful in attendance!
·
So
when you faithfully
attend church, you’re saying, “Jesus, I love you!”—“I care
about the things YOU care about!”
Something else you’re
saying, is
·
“Pastor,
I love you!”
You’re saying:
It matters to me that you study long and hard/pray over your
messages/dig for Bible truth/plan and prepare/seek to minister from start to
finish/use illustrations and strive to put the jelly on the bottom shelf/try
to tell one new joke per year!
It matters to me! [applies to
those who plan music, etc. as well]
Joke—prisoners
who number their jokes: guy went
to prison/1st day/heard someone holler out from cell “43”/whole
cell block laughed!/75/again!/56!/what’s this?/we’ve all been in for years,
tellin’ same jokes over and over…so we’ve numbered each joke, someone
hollers one out, we all think of that joke, we all laugh!/ “care if I
try?”/go ahead/hollered out “12!”/nobody laughed (3 x’s) nobody
laughed/looked at cellmate and asked, why is nobody laughing?/I guess some
guys just can’t tell a joke!
Seriously, when you’re
faithful in attendance, you not only say, Jesus I love you, but Pastor, I
love you! I appreciate what you
do and it matters to me what you do!
Ill.—a
confession: I hurt my wife
deeply one time…she had told me before going to work one day about the feast
she was gonna have prepared when I got back that night/I got into my day and
got busy, and forgot, and then had a big early dinner with a friend, then
went home, and when I opened the door and took one breath, I knew I was
dead!
There was nothing I could
say other than sorry, and the only way I could’ve been more rude was to not
show up at all…
Well, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve prepared a sermon, and
while getting ready God laid someone on my heart, how much this message will
help them…well, if it’s happened once, it’s happened 100 times, I’ll look
around that day, and they’re not there!
(not talking about being
sick, vacation, working, etc., I’m talking about just taking any ole’
opportunity that comes along, or simple excuses Satan provides if you’ll
miss! / not catching up online!)
Also, not talking about
those who travel, and we have several…it’s your right and privilege you’ve
earned, and you’re faithfully in church elsewhere/you let me know before you
go, and in doing so, you say the same, “Pastor, I love you!”
When you’re faithful in attendance, you not only say,
Jesus I love you, Pastor, I love you…but also:
·
Members,
I love you, too!
Why? Because we’re a
body, that’s intended to function TOGETHER!
What if your hands had
taken the day off today? You
couldn't have put your clothes on!
You ladies couldn’t have put your makeup on!
--every morning I roll over
and thank God for a woman…named Mary Kay!
Good thing your legs are doing their job today…the whole
body is intended to function as a unit!
We’ve had some really good
crowds lately…so let’s take a survey:
how many of you are more encouraged by a good crowd than when the
crowd is down? It’s more
exciting, it’s how God intended, singing is better, people get into it, and
say amen! We’re more open to the Spirit and so we often have a more
spiritual service…every single one matters, and each one who walks in the
door is like a spiritual drop of Visine that helps “get the dead out!”
Hey, determine in your
heart that “I’m not gonna be the reason we’re down”/I care about my brothers
and sisters in Christ/I’m not gonna come only when convenient/when I feel
like it/I’m gonna be faithful and make the extra effort to make it work!
There’s a price to be paid
if we want God to take us seriously…we’d better take Him seriously!
And take His church seriously!
So, we need to be obedient
in the basic area of attendance…that’s the “A” (of ATM)…also the “T”:
2.
Obedience in the Tithe
This point is not
about building a bank acct. It’s
about obedience and blessings!
(this is the place where I’m supposed to convince you it’s for your
sake only, and not for the church’s, but it's for God's church as well!
And yet the right motive is obedience!
And for that you will be blessed!
Many of you are already in obedience here, I’m sure!
And God is blessing you for your obedience…hopefully
enough others will get on board w/ you so He can continue to bless our
church! (teens, new converts, etc.)
The word “tithe”
literally means tenth…ten percent…it’s God’s perfect plan.
The wisdom of God planned for us a method of giving which is
completely fair and equal to all who will obey, no matter what you make!
It’s
a definite
portion, and to be brought to
a designated
place (Mal. 3:10, the storehouse)
10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be
meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I
will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that
there shall not be room enough to receive it. 11 And I will
rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of
your ground
God says in Malachi, try me…try this…see if I won’t open the windows of
heaven and pour you out a blessing bigger than you’re even capable of
receiving!…see if I am able to take the other 90%, and make it go much
farther than 100% ever possibly could.
Then He goes a step farther in v. 11, look at it:
“rebuke the
devourer”
My God makes shoes last longer/the
roof stronger!
There’s 2 plans:
90% and God as your partner
100%
and you’re on your own…how’s
your plan workin’?
“If God really blesses me, I’ll tithe” (cart before horse)
“We can’t afford to add that to our bills”
(you can’t afford not to!) (Won’t work on budget unless it’s first
item!)
Hey, I’m not trying to put you into a straight-jacket, I’m trying to
set you free!
“But we’ve got a lot of debt”
You can talk about financial freedom all you want, but as a believer,
you’ll never be free until you obey this…no Christian can skip over this
step. When you tithe, there’s
always a blessing, and when you don’t, there’s always a curse!
v. 8-9
curse
8 Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein
have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. 9 Ye are cursed
with a curse: for ye have robbed me
Definite portion/Designated Place…
for a Divine
Purpose
v. 10--
that there may be meat in mine house
God has tried to give this church meat…have we bitten off
more than we can chew?
Everyone’s benefiting from a meaty program we’ve got going on now…even those
who “eat free!”
Ill.—kids
eat free at many restaurants, and when it comes to the church…it’s also the
immature [spiritual kids] who seek something for nothing.
Some make another mistake, which is thinking they have an
alternate method of blessing the church.
They say, I can’t afford to give money, but I’ll give myself…I’ll
serve in the nursery or kids ministries or the kitchen.
But the Bible says that "To obey is better than sacrifice!" God wants
our obedience more than our service.
Jesus said “Where your treasure is, there’s your heart”.
Jesus says, money talks.
That’ll prove you love me and want to obey me.
3.
Obedience in Ministry
That’s using our gifts in
the church, for we’re not saved to sit but to serve!
We must willingly help in needed areas for the Lord’s sake!
(we're a young church, so kids’
ministries need help!)
The bottom line:
God loves the church / God loves you / and we’re at a
crossroads as a church…there’s a price to pay…are we willing to pay it!
Invitation:
Who would say, “God has put
His finger on an area in which I need to be obedient, maybe one we’ve talked
about today, or another one, and I’m pledging right now to do what’s
right!”?
Who needs to be saved?
We’ve talked about the price to pay…but ultimately, Jesus paid the
price for you to be saved!
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