Kingdom Building

Let’s open our bibles together to Acts chapter 1. I was laughing in prayer this week because the Spirit has been kind of leading me backwards in my study for Sundays mornings. Typically I would assume most pastors would preach acts 1 and move to acts two, but we're rewinding a bit today to explore the beginnings of how the Holy Spirit-filled missions came to be. This week I’ve had the chance to speak the gospel to a lot of different lives.

I counseling moment with a person who’s been struggling. And as Alicia and I were praying with this person, I began to think about a phrase Peter said in Acts chapter 3, verse 6 where Peter says to a lame man, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” I began to think about todays sermon and I asked myself this question, what if our greatest treasure that we have, is also the greatest treasure we get to share with others?

Church, Can you think of anything more important in your life to give to someone else than the good news of how they can be reconciled to God for all eternity? It’s the greatest gift we can give, the greatest thing we can share. But here’s a question—this will lead right into our text today—if this is the greatest gift we can give, the greatest thing we can share with someone else, why are we so hesitant to share it?

This is where I think it would be helpful for us to be honest with each other. Many of us didn’t share the gospel with another person this last week. Maybe some of us haven’t shared the gospel with somebody in the last month. For some of us, maybe it’s been years. Maybe we can’t remember the last time we shared the gospel with somebody else. I’m not just talking about Jesus talk or God talk.

Just because we mention Jesus or God in a sentence doesn’t mean we’re sharing the gospel. Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses are talking about Jesus all the time, but they’re not sharing the good news. I’m talking about having a conversation with someone where you’re talking about Who God is and how we sinned against Him and Who Jesus is and what Jesus has done, and you actually invite somebody—your neighbor, your co-worker, friend, family member—to turn from their sin and trust in Jesus.

I think, whenever we hear the word evangelist or mission, we have a tendency to dismiss ourselves, because we say, how could God use me in that way and if you were to ask me, those parts of ministry are for those really, really called Christians. Those, navy seal kind of Christians that God has called to become a part of his kingdom building special forces. And the truth is… it’s not.

My prayer this week for this church and all churches, meaning all people who have placed their faith in Jesus, would get it out of thier heads that only certain people are called to be missional people. What if instead of saying, I believe by Faith, and the Holy Spirit is in me to sit on the sidelines, we actually said, the Holy Spirit is in me, and now I have the boldness, In Christ to tell someone about Jesus.

If you were to ask me… every church in the world who is a Jesus led church should be a church working in the kingdom growing business. I want to read this passage to you in the book of acts chapter 1, and then, I want to explore three things of a missional church that fans the flames of mission. My hope is that by the end of this message, every follower of Christ in this gathering will be encouraged and emboldened in a fresh way to share the gospel with somebody this week.

Just one person. So that’s where all of this is headed. There is a vast mission field waiting beyond the walls of this church, ready for the harvest. But that's not all. In recent weeks, God has also been working in our own community, expanding the harvest field right in our backyard, offering us incredible opportunities for a fruitful harvest. But the truth of the saying goes… the harvest is ripe, but the laborers are few.

My prayer is that we be encouraged to be laborers, and in turn, this church, Momentum church will passionately engage in the mission and purpose of seeing people come to Jesus Christ.. Let’s read Acts 1, beginning in verse 4.. acts 1:4-14 The first truth we find in the early church that become bold in fanning the flames of mission was this: “They had a faith that produced obedience.” They wholeheartedly trusted God and faithfully followed His instructions.

You see, Prior to Jesus’s ascension, Jesus conveyed to them, 'You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth' (Acts 1:8, HCSB). That’s the last place I think anyone of those early Christians wanted to be because not too long ago, that whole city just told every person in the world what they thought about Jesus… they crucified him! And it boggles my mind…

why would they wan to go back? Have you ever thought about the Barrabbas moment with Jesus.. Think about it, Jesus and Barrabbas come out before the crowd. Jesus is there standing side by side with Barrabbas, the murderer before a shouting crowd. And Pilot said, I’ll release one of these two men to you and the crowd begins to shout Barrabbas. What was going on in Jesus’s head in that moment?

I know I would have been, Uh… are you serious? I would have been like hold up… Wait a minute. This guy actually killed people.. I at least brought people back to life, and you want to set him free? But what caused Jesus to remain silent in that moment? What caused him to do nothing, while facing death… He didn't protest, didn't argue, didn't defend Himself. And why? Because Jesus had a faith that produced obedience.

He had an unwavering trust in His Father's plan, even in the face of death. You see, obedience without faith is nothing more than going through the motions. It's compliance without conviction. It's doing things because we feel obligated or because it's the expected thing to do. But true obedience, the kind that Jesus exemplified, is rooted in deep faith and trust in God. It’s kind of like this.. it’s going to do a service project like pick up trash along the river bed.

And the person next to you is passionate about picking up the trash. Thier talking about how straws are getting stuck in turtle noses, and six pack plastic pieces are getting wrapped around the heads of the wildlife and killing them. They are there because they are convicted deep within their core that something needs to change. We’ve got to take care of our world. And then there’s you… you’re there because you got a free t-shirt and that girl you like, or that boy you like joined.

No conviction, no position or stance on the issues affecting wildlife, just compliance. You’re just there. Those early christians were given instructions. They were told to go back into Jerusalem, into the very place that just showed what they thought about this Jesus, and they were told to go back and wait. I dunno about you, but it’s easy to have faith when we're actively doing things, when we're witnessing God's work firsthand.

But when we're called to wait, when there's uncertainty and a lack of visible progress, that's when our faith is truly tested. Waiting goes against our human nature because We want to take control, to make things happen, to see immediate results. No one likes to see things that are unsettling. NO one desires to witness chaos around us while we wait. No one wants to see things crumble into almost nothing.

But God often calls us to wait, to trust in His timing and His plans. And it's in those waiting seasons that our faith is stretched and refined. You see church, waiting requires great faith because it forces us to surrender our need for control and to rely fully on God. It requires us to trust that He is working behind the scenes, orchestrating the perfect timing and preparing us for what lies ahead.

That’s the season we are in. We’re in the season of preparing. And while we prepare, while we wait, while we place our faith in Jesus… we have a choice. We can either grow weary and impatient, allowing doubt and fear to creep into our lives.. or we can anchor ourselves in Jesus, and put our faith in Him, knowing that God is faithful and His promises never fail. Obedience isn’t driven by circumstance, it’s driven by intimacy and love.

We respond in obedience and faith because our of our relationship to Jesus. When it comes to being a church on mission, do you truly know what the single most greatest truth is that you and I can carry? It’s not our education, it’s not how much money we have, It’s not even passion to which we will talk about here in moment.. the single most greatest thing, that fans into flame the call to missions is our intimate love relationship with Jesus.

Because “Everything Jesus desires to do through you he will do out of the overflow of what he’s doing in you. Look with me in verse 14… “These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer” (NASB). This phrase “one mind” in the Greek language literally means one will, one heart, one passion. The second truth we find in the early church that Fans into flames the mission was this: They had a passion that produced unity.

Can I ask us all a very humble question…… It’s personal… Sometimes personal questions help us ask the tough questions of our faith that we sometimes aren’t willing to ask. How have we invested in the unity of Christ in this church, with those of us who are here at this church? How have you invested in others in this church. To get to know others, to actively love on others.

To let others know you’re praying for them? Do we have a passion to invest in one another? Do we have one will, one heart, one passion here at this church. What’s our passion? What stirs our souls and ignites our hearts? Because, I hope it’s Jesus. Sometimes I get a little emotional when I think of this verse, “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” I get emotional because I also couple that verse with this one in Romans, “Whatever does not proceed from faith is sin,” And what that means is that any attempt at obedience on my part, or any other act that isn’t springing from a heart of faith in Jesus, winds up just being sin because it displeases the Lord.

And so, I’ve got to get this heart of mine redirected. I’ve got to have this heart of mine recalibrated because I know it’s very easy at times to get unfocused on Jesus, and focus on myself or focus on what I think is the problems around me. It’s learning to have that relationship like David, when he repented, and said, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.” And so, I find a place, like my office, or I often like to come to the front of the church and jsut sit and focus on the cross. I say with my heart… I want to know more of you, Jesus, and I pray that I would delight in you Jesus, as I meditate on you; and I get the whole Christ before me.

When I do this, Faith will rise because grace would be coming through it, and then obedience flows out from it. I have come to realize that true passion often emerges from a place of desperation. You see, "Passion doesn't wait for convenient circumstances; Passion thrives in the midst of desperation.” Desperation is often misunderstood and seen as a sign of weakness or vulnerability. I disagree with that. I believe desperation is just like meekness, or kindness, and patience.

These are things we think are weak, but actually they are strong because they all require a deep faith and trust in God’s plan and timing. When we are desperate, we’re driven by a deep longing or intense desire for change. Think about it… think about one moment in our life where everything felt like it was failing apart, or crashing down, or just everything seems like its against you… how did you feel in that moment?

You wanted change. We say it all the time… something needs to change. But yet, in these moments of desperation we realize the limitations of our current situation and we become willing to push beyond our comfort zones. The issue though, many times in our desperation we think we’ve got to take matters into our own hands…. And trust me, any times we take things into our own hands, that’s not trusting in God.

So what did they do in their desperation? They did something simple… they prayed. Prayer became their foundation of their desperation. Waiting in prayer is not a passive; it is an active posture of trust and surrender. The Bible says they got in that upper room and they devoted themselves to prayer, and they didn’t stop praying together until God showed up to do what he said he was going to do.

I just want you to know this.. prayer isn’t powerful. The God we pray too is powerful. If you dig deep enough anywhere in the world where God is actively at work, let me tell you what you’ll find. You’ll find a remnant of people that have sought the face of God in prayer for that to happen. If we at momentum church, if we are truly passionate about the growth of the kingdom, wouldn’t our passions say that about us?

I once heard this phrase, “Actions speak louder than words — but desires speak loudest.” You see, the gospel always confronts our desires. That’s what Peter and the 11 did in chapter two when they stood up by faith together. Peter preached the gospel to the people because he and the 11 had one will, one heart, one passion. To see people transformed by the Power that was witnessed in that upper room.

The gospel always confronts the passions of our life and it leads us to ask the question, who and what are we more desperate for? And that’s a question I can’t answer for you… I can only lead you to the place of prayer and sit with you, and pray for you, and with you. What’s your passion? What fuels your passion? Unity without passion is just a collection of disconnected individuals.

It’s like a bunch of electric cords stored in box. They have a purpose, but their not connected to any power. Do you know what we need right now at this new beginning of Momentum Church? We need to be connected to one another, but more importantly, we need to be connected to the power of God. And the only way that happens is to be in Jesus Christ. We can debate for days in lecture halls and classrooms what really happened on the Day of Pentecost.

But here’s one thing we can all agree on: on that day, the church was empowered as it had never been before. We need a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit of God. And that begins with a faith that obeys, a passion that craves unity, and a desperation that calls for prayer. And when those three things happen to a surrendered vessels for the Lord’s presence, I believe those vessels will witness the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling within each and every one of them, and then they can say as Jesus said in Luke 4, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Missional minded people are Spirit filled people. *