If you have your Bibles, turn to Acts.
We left off at Acts.
I believe it was chapter 2.
We haven't got to Acts 3 yet.
I forgot to put the chapter heading other
than just the verses.
Verse 14.
And the message this morning is hindrances to
spiritual growth.
Hindrances to spiritual growth.
And I'm assuming all of you want to
grow spiritually.
Don't you?
Okay, good.
That's a good spot to start.
But once we set on a course to
go...
Well, that's alright.
I just have to watch.
Don't walk back that way.
Once we set a course to go in
a spiritual direction and grow spiritually, the enemy
comes in and brings in distractions, setbacks, roadblocks,
all different kinds of things.
And to grow spiritually, it's going to hurt.
And often we want to avoid the hurt,
but it's often in the hurt and getting
through the challenges of life that we grow
spiritually.
Also, I forgot to put this down too.
We are praying about a second service.
Talking about growth here.
But we need more children's ministry workers if
we want to keep that going.
I think we're going to try to open
up to 4 or 5 classes now for
kids.
So that means we need almost 10 teachers
if we're going to have that at the
earlier service.
So we're praying about all those things.
I'll keep you posted on that.
But I did want to let you know
that we need help with worship team if
you want to participate in worship.
If you're gifted in that area, see Brandt
afterwards.
I've talked about that before.
Just wanting to be on the worship team
and being gifted are two different things.
Because I want to be on that worship
team.
And it's not going to happen on this
side of heaven.
It will not happen on that side.
Okay.
Hindrances to spiritual growth.
And we actually read a sermon last week
that Peter preached.
So if you want an idea on what
a good sermon is, read this portion of
Acts.
Acts chapter 2.
If you have your Bibles, you can look
at that this evening.
But preaching can hinder spiritual growth or it
can help spiritual growth.
And the way it hinders spiritual growth is
if it's not challenging the people enough.
And it can also hinder spiritual growth if
it's too legalistic.
And if you're just beating up on the
people versus encouraging them.
If you're just constantly condemning and condemning and
condemning and never measuring up, they're not going
to measure up and they'll die spiritually.
So preaching has to find an interesting balance
between convicting and loving.
Between challenging and God's grace.
And Peter gives a wonderful example here.
I'm just going to briefly review a few
things.
So if you want to look at the
perfect sermon, this is it.
The first thing he does is he has
personal application and he references God's word.
You'll always find those in a good sermon.
You have to have God's word and how
does it apply.
Verse 14.
Peter standing up with the eleven, he raised
his voice and said to them, Men of
Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let
this be known to you and heed my
words.
For these are not drunk, as you suppose,
since it's only the third hour of the
day, but this is what was spoken of
by the prophet Joel.
So he looked at God's word.
He said, here's what's happening.
He gave practical application or practical reasons for
what was happening.
And many of you know what was happening,
right?
It was going to be weird to some
people.
Oh, they're just drunk.
The spirit has been poured out in this
place.
The building shook.
It's like tongues of fire and they spoke
in another language.
And if you want more on that, go
back to the last few sermons.
I'm not going to take time and cover
that today, but obviously they did it.
If you take the Bible literal, obviously it
was a good thing.
If you take the Bible literal.
And what now is happening is people who
are not used to the moving of the
Holy Spirit have a problem with it.
They're drunk.
They're out of their mind.
Now, I wish I could have did a
whole series on the Holy Spirit because this
is an interesting area.
And I've talked about it before.
We want to make sure that we're open
to what God wants to do through the
work of the Holy Spirit, but at the
same time putting the same constraints on it
that the Bible does.
Making sure that it's proper order.
Making sure that it's the right spirit leading.
And that's why you'll see different denominations.
You'll have Pentecostals and Charismatics who do a
lot of things saying that they're filled with
the Spirit.
It's much more emotional, much more engaging, and
much more liberty in certain areas.
It doesn't mean it's all right.
And then you have very conservative churches who
you're not going to see anything going on
at all.
I remember one church that will remain nameless
where a person started to raise their hand
during worship and they said, we don't do
that here.
Ma'am, please put your hand down.
We don't do that here.
And so you can see the quenching of
the Holy Spirit on both sides, can't you?
And a lot of things are done in
the name of the Holy Spirit that really
isn't God's Spirit.
Here's what happens when God's Spirit truly visits
a place.
Men and women are on their faces before
God, crying out to God, weeping before God.
Their sin is magnified.
Repentance is taking place.
A genuine move of the Holy Spirit.
Now, I love reading about revivals.
I go back to the 1700s in Welsh,
the Welsh revivals, people you've never heard of,
like Griffin Jones.
And there's a four-part series on different
men in the Welsh revival, 1700s, of course,
George Whitefield and Wesley, and you get to
the modern day Welsh revival of 1904.
You have the holiness movement and there are
Methodist circuit riders who would ride across our
landscape in America and they would deliver these
messages at camp meetings.
Hell is hot and heaven is sweet and
you better be holy and right before God.
And these powerful messages and all these accounts
of revival are not conservative.
I can't find one account of revival that
is conservative in nature because it's God's people
bearing their heart.
I mean, you look at the Dodger game
yesterday and the crowd, I don't even know
who won, you can tell me afterwards.
I think it was the Cubs, right?
But the crowd, that's amazing.
I'm watching and they are high-flying, you've
got beer flying, you've got people painted, you've
got, they're so excited.
But when it comes to God, if you
get excited, you're just emotional.
I've never really understood that.
You're just emotional.
Well, you can go and act like a
drunken fool down in LA at a stadium,
but we here at church, God forbid, that
people get a little bit excited.
Now with that can come hysteria, with that
can come things that are not spirit-led
because if you're just open for anything, anything
might happen.
The devil loves to work.
Whenever you see the God working, like in
the Bible, you'll see false doctrine, a church
down the street.
You'll see God perverting, the devil perverting that
truth.
Whenever you see a genuine move of the
Holy Spirit, you'll see the devil come in
and try to pervert that move.
He always wants to mimic and falsify what
God is doing.
So suffice it to say, that was a
rabbit trail, but I think it's needed because
what a lot of these people saw was
a genuine move of God and they thought
the people were drunk.
Actually rewind to Jesus's ministry.
They were actually attributing the works of the
Holy Spirit to Satan, the religious leaders.
And if you look at closely, read through
the passage on blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.
Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is when you
attribute the works of God to Satan and
you're not open for what God wants to
do.
Now that doesn't mean acting weird.
It doesn't mean doing certain things.
It just means when God gets hold of
a person's heart, you might hear sobbing throughout
the room.
You might hear people getting their lives right
with God and that's God's Spirit moving on
a body of believers.
And that's what genuine revival is.
Wilt thou not revive us again so we
can rejoice in you?
God reviving his people.
And that's what was taking place here.
And then Peter expounded.
He taught the people.
Men and brethren, let me speak freely to
you.
And then here we go.
He convicted them.
Therefore let all the house of Israel know
assuredly that God has made this Jesus whom
you crucified, both Lord and Christ.
So he brought conviction.
Why did he bring conviction?
It's like a slap in the face.
We killed him.
What must we do to be saved?
That's the whole point of conviction is to
bring the magnitude of God's Word to our
hearts so that we do grow spiritually.
Because you won't grow spiritually unless you say,
I was wrong.
I have a problem in this area.
I am this or this or this or
this.
God, I need deep repentance to take place.
I am so convicted by what your Word
says.
And that's why the challenging thing right now
is I don't know how many of you
follow a lot of the bigger churches out
there.
They're pastors and there's a lot of good
churches.
If you look at James McDonald's, John MacArthur
has a large church.
There's some Southern Baptist churches, Charles Stanley, Chuck
Swindoll.
But a lot of the bigger ones that
are relating to the culture now are very
careful not to convict.
We don't want to go there, Shane, in
that area of whatever that is.
We're just here to encourage and show God's
love and grace.
Okay, well, so is Peter, right?
Because many times in order to show God's
love and grace, you have to say, hey,
here's where we're wrong.
And because of God's love and grace, He
wants you to turn back to what is
right.
And that's why you won't see a lot
of people changing if they're never convicted.
Now, you don't come into a church and
just beat them up either.
In most churches, it's hard to find that
balance.
Either you're going to have a lot of
truth and no love, or a lot of
love, no truth, and trying to seek that
balance.
And that's what Peter did here.
It was perfect.
He said, you put Christ on the cross.
You crucified Him.
Now, today, I thought about that he might
say, you know what?
Well, there was a group of you and
there was a group of people and they
just didn't know what they were doing.
They wanted to have a conversation with Jesus
and He didn't listen.
And it wasn't really a good thing.
But if we're just going to sing kumbaya
after this is over, and we're going to
go out and minister to our neighborhoods, and
everybody's like, oh, okay, that sounds good.
Well, they would have missed the whole point
that repentance needed to take place at a
very deep level.
They put Christ on the cross.
So then, but here's the good thing about
the sermon.
He gives the answer even when it hurts.
So they heard Him, and they said, Peter,
what must we do to be saved?
Then He said, repent.
Let every one of you be baptized in
the name of Jesus Christ for the remission
of your sins, and you will receive, you
shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
For the promise is to you and to
your children and to all who are far
off, as many as the Lord our God
will call.
So here you have a wonderful verse about
God's sovereignty, whoever He calls, but also a
wonderful verse about whosoever will.
The invitation is thrown out there to everybody,
whosoever will.
And a crowd this size, I want to
throw that out there.
If you haven't, what Peter says, if you've
never repented, if you've just been coming to
church, you've kind of been getting by, you've
been struggling through life, but you've never repented
and said, Lord, you are my Savior, Christ,
you are my Savior, and you are my
Lord, I would encourage you.
We're not even guaranteed tomorrow.
You need to get your life right in
this area.
You need to repent and say, I've been
a phony, I've been a fake.
God already knows.
That's what cracks me up.
God already knows who's the phony, who's the
fake, who's not really saying.
But we go through life trying to, well,
I'm going to fool everybody.
You're fooling everybody but the one who it
really matters to.
So God, if He knows your heart, this
is the time this morning to say, okay,
I'm done playing games.
I don't care.
Who knows?
I'm coming to the Lord and I'm repenting
of my sin.
That's why Paul says, do not be deceived.
Neither fornicators nor adulterers, nor liars, nor thieves,
nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor all these different
lifestyles where sin can manifest.
If it's an area of unrepentant sin, the
Bible calls us to repent, to turn our
mind which then leads to a change of
action.
Now this last phrase is interesting.
You shall receive the gift of the Holy
Spirit.
And I've talked about this before so you
can go back to the last two messages.
But what he's talking about here is you
repent, you acknowledge God is Lord and you're
not.
I'm done trying to be the master of
my own ship, you know, the captain of
my own ship, the master of my own
destiny.
I'm tired of all that.
Lord, you are now ruling and reigning.
I'm repenting and I'm going to be baptized.
I'm going to give an outer profession of
my faith to a group of people and
show them that I'm sincere in my faith.
And then he says, then you'll receive the
gift of the Holy Spirit.
Now this gift here is the abiding presence
of Christ, the abiding presence of the Holy
Spirit, Christ, Godhead, everything at conversion.
So when a person is converted and they
receive the Holy Spirit, the gift of the
Holy Spirit is this abiding presence of the
Holy Spirit.
Sorry, should have drank some water.
The abiding presence of the Holy Spirit at
conversion.
That's what we get this, we get this
wonderful gift at conversion.
But what we've talked about before, and I
want to read something because I came across
it this week, but not all believers receive
the fullness of the Spirit.
See, there's this gift of the Holy Spirit
at conversion, but many people are lacking the
fullness of the Spirit.
They're trying to do and do and do.
They're not abiding in Christ.
There's something missing, but they don't know what
it is.
And I came across this Charles Stanley just
released a new book.
I would recommend it, Courageous Faith.
And I didn't want to spend a lot
of time, but I wanted to reference something
he said because he was, his ministry, his
life was dull, and he didn't know what
was wrong.
And he read a book I actually recommended
before They Found the Secret.
He read that book many, many years ago,
1964 I believe it was.
And he realized that all of his shortcomings,
he was toiling, he was burdened, he didn't
have rest of soul.
He was struggling in his Christian faith.
Nothing was vibrant.
Nothing was really alive.
It was just this, a burden he was
carrying.
He couldn't understand why.
It's because he didn't surrender his life fully
to the work of the Holy Spirit.
In other words, you have a lot of,
I should say we now, right?
We have a lot of cherry trees out
here in this area.
Or you do that live out here.
Now how hard does that branch work to
produce a cherry?
It doesn't work at all.
It just abides in the tree.
That's what this abiding in Christ looks like.
It's not this toiling and working and, sure
you've got to obey, sure you've got to
be filled with the Spirit and lead a
certain life.
But it's all about abiding in Christ.
And once you say, Christ you take over,
fill me with your Spirit, I'm going to
produce fruit because I'm abiding in you, that's
when the fullness of the Spirit takes place.
Because many people, including himself, including Adrian Rogers,
if you remember him, he's the president of
the Southern Baptist Convention, including D.L. Moody,
I can go down the list.
All these people were in ministry.
But they weren't full of the Spirit.
A.W. Tozer, Oswald Chambers, ministry, they're in
ministry.
And they said ministry was dead, it was
lifeless, I knew something was missing.
People talk about the Holy Spirit, the fire
of the Holy Spirit, the power of the
Word of God.
And I didn't, I love God, but I
had this tremendous burden.
I had this toiling, I couldn't make the
connection.
And it was in all cases because they
were resting in their own strength on what
they did, on what they built, the way
they were going to do it.
And until they released that, they were not
filled mightily with the Holy Spirit.
So it makes you wonder how many people
today are struggling under that same burden of
toiling and trying to do better.
And Shane, I try to read the Bible,
but it's boring.
I try to get in worship, but give
me clean hands.
You should have seen what my hands were
doing this week.
I was just, I was a mess.
I was mean to people.
I was doing all these things.
I don't know how to sing these songs.
I don't want to be here really, but
I know I need to be here.
I love the Lord, but I don't know
what's going on in my walk.
It's probably because you're not filled with the
Spirit.
And that's meant to be convicting.
That's meant to be convicting.
I want some people to get so mad
that they leave here and say, I don't
like what that guy said, but Lord, that's
what I need.
I need it.
Because that's what finally does it.
We'll get emails from people.
Well, there's people here I can introduce you
to.
They can't, I'm never going back to hear
that guy again.
I just don't like what he's saying.
And then next week, they find themselves here.
Next week, they find themselves here.
I just don't like, and it's because they're
struggling.
They're fighting what God wants and what they
want for themselves.
Until it finally comes.
Now you know why I talk about full
surrender all the time and brokenness.
Because this is so important.
I can preach my heart out for the
next five years and it won't even matter
if you're not filled with the Spirit.
If you're not being that empty well that
wants to be filled with God's Spirit.
That empty well that says, Lord you fill
me.
And that's what we see here.
You shall receive the gift of the Holy
Spirit.
So the first hindrance is not overwhelmingly filled
with the Holy Spirit.
So you will not grow spiritually.
How are you supposed to grow spiritually if
you're not filled with the Spirit that grows
you?
That's how we grow spiritually.
When God convicts me, go and apologize.
No, I'm not going to apologize.
I'm not going to apologize.
And then guess what happens?
Funny situation I'll tell you about.
Me and my wife took just a few
days to get away.
There was somebody at this hotel.
They're by the pool and I'm in too
trying to read Charles Stanley's book.
And it comes up who they're voting for.
And it's not who I'm voting for.
And in about 15 minutes she goes, I
don't have to sit here and take this
anymore.
I'm leaving.
And her husband goes, yeah, you can go
preach to your pop-up but don't preach
to us.
And he walked away.
I'm like, well see, there you go.
You don't want to hear about murdering children
in the womb.
You don't want to know that all these
things.
But the next day I saw them so
I went and apologized.
I didn't mean to even go that direction.
Oh, no problem.
I understand.
But I knew God was convicting me because
you know when you're supposed to pull back
a little bit, don't put on the fuel.
Put on the brakes.
And instead of that drawing questions out of
them, I was forcing that into them.
So I had to, was that humiliating?
Oh, yes.
Now they have this image of right-wing
fundamentalist, Republican, whatever they have this image of.
And again, I'm not party this or that.
I'm biblical principles.
What does God's word say?
And who are we going to put the
best person in a position of leadership in
there?
Who are we going to choose?
And on Facebook, it's getting ugly.
Sometimes we have to remove, we have to
remove certain posts and unfriend certain people.
And I didn't realize that it's bad.
And that's what's concerning me is where we're
going and the direction of our nation.
I don't know if you've read the news,
but I think Putin in Russia has asked
that all of his high-ranking officials and
their families now begin to leave America and
come back to the motherland.
And I've checked a few different sites to
make sure and that's not a very good
sign.
There's in China and different things is going
on and that should put a church on
their knees to pray.
Those things should propel us to the prayer
closet to make a difference and to be
filled with the spirit.
So a few other things I want to
keep reading Acts 240.
And with many other words he testified and
exhorted them.
So Peter up there started preaching Acts 240.
And with many other words he testified and
exhorted them saying be saved from this perverse
generation.
Be saved from this perverse generation.
So be saved from this perverse generation means
this.
Be saved from this generation right now.
We live in a perverted generation.
Can you hear me up there on the
balcony?
Okay, good.
Do you know we live in a very
perverted generation?
Perversion is just taking something straight and perverting
it.
Taking what God says is wonderful and beautiful
and perverting it.
It's a perversion.
And that's where the word pervert comes from.
That they pervert something that is good for
their own desires.
It's a perversion.
So this whole generation.
Here's how you're saved.
You come out of that generation.
Now this isn't something you physically do at
first.
It's a repentance.
It's a thought that occurs in the mind
that this is a perverse generation.
I am part of that perversion.
God, I'm a sinner.
I'm repenting.
I'm coming out of that generation first here.
That's why the Bible says he who loves
the world does not love the Father.
And that word is cosmos.
It loves the world's mindset.
So if I love the world's mindset.
I love all the music.
I love all the movies.
I can't wait to get Lady Gaga bumping
in my truck when I leave here.
This worship was not that great.
You need to listen to Lady Gaga and
you need to listen to Craig Perry and
all these.
See, if I love those things, I don't
have the love of the Father in me.
They can't coexist.
For some reason, I will not share with
you.
I've never been in Halloween City until yesterday.
I had to pick up something.
And I'm like, how quick can I get
out of this place?
Like everything, nothing resonated with me.
There's nothing redeeming about this horror and this
death and this glorifying of this.
I felt dirty.
I've got to get out of here.
How can you celebrate this wickedness and this
ungodliness?
How is it possible?
There was something in me that was detesting
it.
Where does that come from?
The perverse generation loved it.
People had their little four-year-olds showing
them things.
I was like, I can't believe this.
What's the difference?
Light and darkness, right and wrong, truth and
error, good and evil, they can't dwell together.
So to come out of this perverted generation.
Now I better hang out there for a
minute.
If you put up a pumpkin in your
front yard, I'm not coming against you.
Because what I'm, you can, there's something about,
and I'll probably write an article on this.
I have, I'll give it to you guys
as well.
We can redeem sometimes the theme of certain
things.
Christmas at its roots, probably not good.
Easter from the goddess of Esthar.
Bunny eggs, fertility god, worshiping.
Now I'm not gonna let them pervert Easter.
I'm not gonna let them pervert Christmas.
I'm not gonna let, when my kids want
a pumpkin and roast pumpkin seeds, I talk
about Christ overcoming hell, death in the grave.
Darkness celebrates it.
We celebrate us overcoming the darkness.
So there's a way to redeem certain things
without getting so involved in them.
Now some people choose don't have anything to
do with it, and that is wonderful.
That's fine.
That's a good thing.
But don't try to put your opinions on
others that are trying to redeem a certain
thing, and they're not celebrating the evil, and
they're not celebrating the darkness, but they have
a pumpkin on their front porch, you know.
So be careful in this area, because that's
gonna start to happen.
All the little things are gonna come out
on Facebook and different things and allow people
the freedom.
Also realize that not everybody is where you're
at spiritually.
It takes a little time to get caught
up maybe where some of us are at.
So allow them that freedom to grow in
their faith.
So that's what hinders spiritual growth.
Now on this issue of coming out from
the perversion for somebody who's not saved, do
you realize that it applies to us as
well?
Come out from among them and be separate.
To be filled with the Holy Spirit, to
remove hindrances to your spiritual growth, there will
have to come a point in your day
and in your time, how you spend your
time, where you come out from the mindset
of the world.
If you're constantly, and I'm constantly inside the
world's mindset, the culture, everything about it, it
will prevent spiritual growth.
We can't grow spiritually and be involved in
the world just like our friends are that
we're so jealous about because they get to
do all these things.
Well, they're miserable.
Don't trust a Facebook post.
Oh, I love my life.
I'm so happy.
No, you're miserable.
But we're not going to say that, right?
So this is an area that's, and I've
talked about so much.
I don't want to belabor the point, but
it fits here.
Come out from the perversion.
Paul says, come out from among them, be
separate.
So there's a separation that has to take
place in order to grow spiritually.
Verse 41, then those who gladly received his
word were baptized.
That tells me not everybody received his word.
They weren't glad about it.
They rejected his word.
But those who received Peter's word to repent
and believe, they received his word and they
were baptized.
And about 3,000 souls were added to
the church.
3,000.
See, that's how you grow a church.
That's church growth strategies.
Right there.
That's how you grow a church is you're
filled with the spirit of God, you obey
God, and you let God grow the church.
That's the best church model for growth you'll
ever find.
Because you can get in all these demographic
surveys where you're surveying this and what do
the people want and what do we do
this and it's all about growing the church
and we've got to make sure they like
the music and we've got to make sure
the message is about 30 minutes.
Anything above that, you lose the attention span.
Are we getting our sermon from pop psychology
and the latest fad?
This is how you grow a church.
God would say, no.
That's not how you grow a church.
How you grow a church is men and
women surrender to God and let Him grow
the church.
But it also says, and they were baptized.
They believe they were baptized.
You know how many people are coming up
to me who are not yet baptized?
Guess what?
That's a good thing.
Don't become...
I opened up, and I think that opened
the floodgates that I got baptized over at
the old location when I was 30.
Christmas 2000, I was like, no, I've been
not going to do this.
I've been a Christian since I was 12,
and I think I got baptized in a
pool somewhere, and God was convicting me.
I said, no, this is embarrassing.
Now I'm writing a book.
I speak sometimes.
I'm going to get baptized?
But God was working on my heart because
it says believe and be baptized.
So once I went and did that, I
was baptized.
I could tell my walk with the Lord
was much better because I wasn't holding that
away.
I wasn't, you know, I'm not going to
be baptized.
And I truly believe that failure to obey
anything but failure to obedience, failure to obey
being baptized can also hinder spiritual growth.
If God is saying, listen, believe and be
baptized.
We say, no, I did that when I
was a little baby.
A Catholic church sprinkled some water on me.
I don't need to do that.
Well, I would probably differ with you on
that belief because although baptism doesn't save us,
it's a sign of a step of obedience
saying I'm going to go before others and
profess my faith in Jesus Christ and be
baptized in the name of the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit.
So the list is growing for next weekend,
the 23rd.
We've got a lot of baptisms taking place.
Make sure you talk to us afterwards if
you want to get baptized.
It's not a bad thing.
It's a very good thing.
God knows.
Back to that question.
God knows.
And people come in and are getting baptized.
They've been in church a long time.
And you think we're going, oh, I can't
believe that.
And we're saying, praise God.
Who cares?
They're taking that step of obedience.
And so that's what he said here.
Gladly receive the word.
We're baptized.
So failure to obey in general.
If there's an area, let me just springboard
off of baptism.
If there's an area in your life that
God is convicting you on and showing you
things on and wanting you to move on
and you don't do it, you will not
grow spiritually.
What about if you're a grumbler and a
complainer and a gossip and a backbiter?
And you know it.
And God's working on you in that area.
And you just sit there.
And you think you're going to grow?
Well, when you get to heaven, you can
interview about 1.5 million Israelites out in
the desert area and ask how they felt
about wandering in the wilderness.
Now the theologians are going, that number is
not quite accurate.
1.75 million.
We don't know exactly.
But we know that they were led and
continue to be led in the wilderness back
and forth for 40 years because they would
not stop complaining and backbiting and bickering and
all these things.
And that will stifle spiritual growth.
Stifle spiritual growth.
Let me say this just lovingly.
There are people I know have been Christians
or Christian longer than I have.
And they're still at that same level 25
years ago.
Still the same.
There's no spiritual growth at all.
And this is why.
God wants us to work on those areas
that are detrimental to our spiritual health.
And you might say, but Shane, I'm trying.
But see, that's it.
You abide in Christ.
You don't keep trying and willpower and rules
and checklists.
You say, this is not right.
God, I'm repenting.
I'm bringing it to the light.
I'm going to have other people help me.
And with God's help, God's grace, I'm going
to overcome this.
And that's all God wants.
And not this perfect, perfect person that will
never do that again, but a person who
admits it and says, I need help in
this area.
God will fill that person mightily with his
spirit.
There's nobody in Christian ministry that is perfect.
But there's a lot of people that God's
using that are humble and broken before him.
It was funny.
This is a side note.
I'm speaking this week to a group of
pastors.
On abortion and getting involved in different things
and out of the area.
And I'm researching and I want to talk
about pastors needing to be broken before the
Lord humble.
Because a lot of people say, well, Shane,
I'm not so called to talk about those
kind of things.
Have you talked to God about that?
You know?
Or are you just trying to be politically
correct?
The problem is a lot of people aren't
broken.
And I was researching.
It takes like, I think it's, I don't
want to misquote, but I'll come back to
you if I ever find the right answer.
But it was like six pounds of lavender,
little flowers, to make one little ounce.
Or 50, 500 pounds, I think it was,
of rose petals to make a little ounce
of rose.
The fragrance there.
But all that, the 500 pounds, it has
to be crushed and it has to be
broken to get that little bit of ointment.
And that's what God's trying to do in
our lives.
Is to break that, maybe not 500 pounds,
but 250 pounds.
Trying to break that out of us till
the fragrance can come through.
And it's through that brokenness that that happens.
And then they continued, verse 42, steadfastly in
the apostles doctrine and fellowship.
Steadfastly means they continued in that doctrine and
that fellowship.
Let me encourage you.
Church is not perfect.
You will get discouraged.
You will get disgruntled.
But God just calls us to follow that
path.
Not quit every time something gets difficult.
If that is the case, then I would
have quitted five years and 11 months ago.
One month into the church plant.
So often God just says continue steadfastly.
Continue in the doctrine.
Continue in fellowship regardless of the bumps that
are taken along the way.
And breaking of bread and in prayers.
So here is the model service.
So everybody sits there and says, well the
church needs to do this and the church
needs to do that and the church, why
is that church doing this?
Why is that church doing this?
Here is the model for the church.
Is there teaching?
In the apostles doctrine, is there fellowship?
Iron sharpens iron.
Is there communion?
Taking place baptisms where we are remembering and
we are thankful.
And is there praying?
No doubt worshiping.
So see that is where we try here
at West Side Christian Fellowship to take what
God's word says.
We need to preach His word.
We need to be in fellowship.
Iron sharpens iron with communion, baptism and praying
and worshiping.
That is our focus.
That is the focus.
We don't want to get focused on all
these other things and start to have different
programs and different committees and different things that
might be nice.
But what is the main purpose of the
church?
Here is the reason this is so important
because when everything is a priority, then nothing
is a priority.
I have been at conferences where they will
tell pastors, listen here is the attention span
now.
You have got to get their program, their
digital age, you have got to have power
points, you have got to have digital things
and keep people interested in doing this and
keep your sermon under 30 minutes.
And worship you want one song, do some
quick announcements and a few songs.
Don't lose their attention span.
Now all that might be true about the
digital age, but what does God's word say?
Because He will always honor His word.
If people are captivated, they will listen to
40 minutes of worship.
They will listen to a 45 minute long
message or an hour when I get too
many rabbit trails or sometimes 30 minutes if
God calls us to that.
Because what I liken it to is putting
hot water on a flame.
Sometimes that water is not ready for tea
in 5 seconds.
Leave it on that flame for 5 minutes
and it is hot, it is ready.
You can feel the fire of God rising
up in us through that worship, through the
word, through the time of prayer.
And that is what the early church did.
So this is the model service.
Now this is an interesting point on church.
Avoiding church, this won't offend some of you,
it might, but this is going to offend
people who listen to this message I am
sure.
Avoiding church hinders spiritual growth.
If you avoid church, it will hinder spiritual
growth.
We need to be here because iron sharpens
iron.
Think of the main reasons why we avoid
church.
It is usually because people are there that
we don't want to see, or I am
tired, or something better came up that is
not really better, or I don't feel like
it today, well welcome to my world.
You will never live a life fully pleasing
God if you think you are going to
wake up every day just loving everything about
church.
It is fighting the flesh many times.
So if you don't, now there are seasons
where people, they are not going to church
right now, they are trusting God, they are
waiting, they are praying, those are different seasons.
Or if we are busy doing other things.
Billy Graham probably didn't make church every Sunday,
right?
There are things that might take the place
of that, but overall avoiding church will hinder
spiritual growth.
This is how iron sharpens iron.
But the person says, I don't need to
go to church to be a Christian.
No, but you won't grow spiritually either.
You are going to be a little five
year old with this pacifier for the rest
of your life, drinking formula, because you won't
sit at church.
Many times people don't go to church because
they have been offended, or they are mad
at people.
And God says, reconcile, forgive, have a spirit
of unity, and move forward.
They say, no, I am not going to
do that.
I am not going to do that.
So they stay stuck again as a five
year old.
And that is really what it looks like.
That is why the person who is not
in church, who is not growing spiritually, for
a lack of a better word, they act
like a spiritual baby.
Crying and whining and complaining, and there is
just no growth in them.
It is really sad to see.
It is wonderful to see a two year
old, I mean a one year old with
a little binky, right?
But not a ten year old.
Not a ten year old with something in
their mouth, not growing spiritually.
Verse 43, then fear, then fear came upon
every soul, and many wonders and signs were
done through the apostles.
So fear came upon everybody, and many signs
and wonders were done through the apostles.
If you don't fear God, it will hinder
spiritual growth.
Proverbs 28, 14, How blessed is the man
who fears always!
But he who hardens his heart will fall
into calamity.
He will fulfill the desires of those who
fear him.
He will also hear their cry and will
save them.
And I'm not too worried about this principle,
because it's absolutely true.
We need to fear God again.
Our nation needs to fear God.
The church needs to fear God.
Before these pastors talk about getting their sermons
down to 30 minutes in a pleasing people,
they need to spend time in the prayer
closet seeking God and fearing Him.
They should come up here and say, Lord,
this is your place.
This is your word.
This is your people.
What I'm saying, I'm proclaiming your truth.
If you fear with God, you better be
with me, because I fear you.
I fear that I might say the wrong
thing.
But how should that filter into our lives?
How should it change the life of a
husband?
Or a wife?
Or parents, if they really feared God?
How would we treat each other if we
really feared God?
How would we?
Fast forward, I think it's Acts 5, with
Sapphira and Ananias.
And what happened to them when they didn't
fear God?
Verse 44, Now all who believed were together
and had all things in common and they
sold their possessions and their goods and then
divided them among all as anyone had need.
Did you catch that?
Now all who believed were together and had
all things in common and sold their possessions
and their goods and divided them among all
as anyone had need.
Now, this is an interesting scripture because in
my opinion, again in my opinion, this is
not a proof text for go out and
sell everything you have.
Go live in a tent over on the
east side in the desert and just get
rid of everything.
Now God might call certain people to that,
but what we see here is getting rid
of all the excess.
Everything that I don't need, I need to
get rid of to help those people who
are in hard positions.
And this is actually one of the concepts
where the word communist comes from.
Communal, to bring everything in and it's all
equal.
Now the pilgrims, I don't know if any
of you have read a book by Bradford,
William Bradford on Plymouth Plantation, I believe it
was, and the pilgrims tried this, but they
failed and they almost all died because of
this.
They realized that the hard workers were doing
all this and the lazy people weren't doing
anything.
So they all just came in.
So now they went back to the biblical
text and if you work hard, you are
rewarded for that.
So we see that also in the Bible,
if you don't work, you don't eat.
So it's not just all things in common
for lazy people and this.
What he's saying here is get rid of
your excess.
Two cars and houses and all these things.
All the disciples did, they were so filled
with the Spirit of God, they said we
don't need this, we don't need this, we
don't need this.
Let's get rid of these things and help
those who don't have anything.
And here's a proof text for that.
2 Corinthians 8, 13.
Of course, I'm paraphrasing, of course, Paul says,
I don't mean your giving should make life
easy for others and hard for yourself.
I only mean that there should be some
equality.
1 Corinthians 16, 1.
Now concerning the collection for the saints, as
I have given orders to the churches of
Galatia, so do I also to you.
On the first day of the week, let
each one of you lay something aside, storing
up as he may prosper, that there would
be no collections when I come.
In other words, Paul doesn't need to take
collections, the church is already providing for it.
So that's what we see here.
We fail in this area as well because
we have way too much.
Let's just throw it out there.
Most people live way beyond their means.
They have too much, they have excess.
And I will remind you that the more
you own, the more owns you.
That's what he's getting to here.
The best way to get rid of this
type of heart is to give it away.
Is to give some of those things away,
this excess.
It's incredible, the excess we have.
And that's what these people did.
They were filled with the spirit.
They said we don't need this and we
don't need that and we don't need this.
We don't need all these things.
We're going to sell it and we're going
to give to those who do need.
So does that make sense?
There was an approach there.
They saw a need and they got rid
of their excess.
But the point here is excess can prevent
spiritual growth.
If we're living in excess, it can prevent
spiritual growth.
Shane, would you clarify that?
Sure, I will.
I'm glad you asked.
If there's nothing wrong with when God blesses,
there are people blessed with more things than
others, obviously.
But they usually, if it's done according to
being filled with God's spirit, they give a
lot of that back.
They're blessed, they give back.
So there are those that are blessed with
greater things and more priorities and more things.
But those things don't own them.
They're not saying, okay, now I need a
bigger garage for my 12 cars and I
need a bigger house and I need three
over here and I need Aspen, Colorado and
I need one there.
Why don't I get one up in Mammoth?
You know, lakes where I would love to
have one and why don't I get one
over in Wisconsin at this wonderful lakes or
the greens there.
And all this, they're just getting all this
stuff.
Now having some of those things, there's nothing
wrong with that as long as those things
don't have you.
See, it's not about keeping up with the
Joneses.
It's about giving away things as they come
in.
So those who God has blessed are often,
if they're filled with the spirit, they're generous
givers.
So you see the difference there?
If somebody's just taking excess and they're building
this portfolio, building that, and that's constantly excess
and getting the things of the world, they
will not grow spiritually because we're not called
to make those things our God.
It's called idolatry.
And that's what we do when we're so
worried about the stock market instead of Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John.
When we're so amassing treasures and this and
that.
Now if God is blessing and I can't,
all this income's coming in and we're just,
and we're giving it, we're blessing people, then
that's different.
The things doesn't have a hold on you.
So that's the best way to get rid
of this kind of thing if it has
a hold on your life is to start
giving things away.
And it's funny, with this concept, it's not
necessarily to rich people.
Even poor people, or what's world would consider
poor, try to keep up with the Joneses
and try to keep every little excess and
they're not growing spiritually either because their priorities
are not right.
So it doesn't necessarily mean what you, in
other words, it doesn't matter if you're a
millionaire if you spend 1.1 million a
year.
Right?
You're still in debt.
It doesn't matter what you make, it's what
you spend.
So this has to do with things having
a hold on our lives.
So the bottom line is here, if something
is holding you and God is convicting you
of it, you're to give it away, give
it to those in need, and release that
burden that the Holy Spirit has put on
you.
So that's what I see here.
I don't see here everybody just selling everything
and living, you know, like I said, in
a tent out in the desert.
They're like what Paul said here.
I don't mean your giving should make life
easy for others and hard for yourself, but
only that there is equality.
You see somebody needing something, you help out.
Verse 46, So continuing daily with one accord
in the temple and breaking bread from house
to house, they ate their food with gladness
and simplicity of heart, praising God and having
favor with all the people.
And the Lord added to the church daily
those who were being saved.
Boy, I had a whole thing on this
about the temple and they met on the
outer court, but suffice it to say they
were all in one accord.
Disunity prevents growth.
I've talked about that a few weeks ago,
so I won't again, but disunity prevents spiritual
growth.
If you're a fault finder, if you don't
like unity, if you like all the little
fighting and complaining and bickering and you're looking
for those things, you will not grow spiritually.
It will hinder spiritual growth.
God loves those who are wanting unity and
wanting reconciliation, spirit of reconciliation.
God was reconciling Himself through Christ Jesus.
He was reconciling the whole world.
So He's given us the ministry of reconciliation.
That's another important part.
1 Corinthians 1.10 I appeal to you,
brothers and sisters, in the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree
with one another in what you say and
that there is no division among you, but
that you be perfectly united in mind and
body.
Now on that point, I don't want to
just say it and we all say, yay,
that makes good sense.
I think we need to do that.
But we search our hearts this morning.
If there's areas of disunity and there's not
good fellowship and there's an offense against us
or we have an offense against somebody, God
asks.
It's clear in the Scripture that you go
to them.
You say, hey listen, I just want to
let this go.
I apologize if I've been feeling a certain
way.
I need to let this go.
And that's how you grow spiritually.
How do you develop forgiveness if you're never
wronged?
Is it, I'm just going to be a
forgiving person.
No, somebody's going to wrong you.
How do you develop or how do you
love the unlovable?
You can't unless you're faced with the unlovable
right before you.
So that's how you grow spiritually is by
applying these things.
And then I'll probably have to tackle this
next week, but it was in Acts 3.
If you have your Bibles, Acts 3.
The lame man is healed.
I'm not going to read that account this
morning, but this man was healed.
Peter said, silver and gold I do not
have, but what I do have I give
you in the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth.
Rise up and walk in the name of
Jesus.
See, there's no other name that seals, that
seals you for redemption.
There's no other name that heals you.
There's no other name that saves you.
Nothing.
We can get worried about Putin.
We can get worried about the next election,
but it doesn't matter.
Who's on the throne?
God is on the throne.
And what the enemy wants to do is
sidetrack us, mainly through Facebook nowadays, is to
sidetrack us off what's important and get us
focused on all these things we're supposed to
worry about.
And he says, just look at me.
That's what Peter said.
He said, I don't have anything, silver, gold.
Nothing's going to help you, but you look
at me.
Look at me and be saved.
Look at Christ and be saved.
That's so powerful that those this morning who
are not saved, all you have to do
to be saved is to look at Christ
and accept His gracious offer of salvation.
Many of you have heard of Charles Spurgeon.
When he was converted, he was a young
man.
He walked into this old church in the
snow, and this deacon came up to speak,
and he said, young man, just look to
Christ.
Just look to Christ.
Look to Him.
And it pierced his heart so much that
he bowed his knee to Christ that morning.
And now we've heard of him.
Everybody has heard of him in the Christian
community just about.
Why?
Because they looked at Christ.
So there's three areas I want to leave
you with.
Number one is look to Him this morning
if you don't know Him.
If you've had religion and not a relationship.
If you've been going to church and you
can't say that you have a relationship with
God, you don't know Him.
Look to Him and be saved.
The Bible says just look to Him and
be saved.
And also the person who maybe you haven't
been filled with the Spirit.
Maybe this sermon upset you.
Maybe you don't have all the abundant life
that Christ spoke of.
Look to Him.
Look to Christ.
Stop trying to do it in work.
Stop trying to be rigid in all these
areas.
Just look to Him.
Look to Him and be filled with the
Spirit.
And the final person this morning is I
want to remind all of us in here
that if you're going through a challenge, there's
people losing family members or have lost family
members.
They're tired.
They're weak.
They're just done.
I can't go through another thing, Shane.
Or I can't go through another thing, church.
And you look to Jesus.
Look to Him.
Abide in Him.
Rest in Him.
This is where you find perfect rest.
Perfect rest.
As you remove all the doubts, all the
fears, all the anxiety, all the drama, everything
that's going on and you just look to
Him.
You look to Christ and Him alone.