Hope Worth Having

Pastor Mike will be speaking on God’s Plan for Missions 3. He will be reading out of Acts 13-15.

God doesn’t have one plan of salvation for one group of people and then another plan of salvation for another group of people. But there is one gospel, there is one Lord, and there is one baptism, there is one salvation, and it is only found in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Hello this is Pastor Mike Sanders from the Open Door Church and welcome to Hope Worth Having. We are grateful that you are here and that you are ready to learn the Word of God. We are continuing our study in God’s plan for missions and we are kind of overlooking Acts chapter 13, 14, and 15 and we are learning about what did God want to do to help launch the church throughout the world with the gospel.

So let’s grab our Bible and let’s get into the Word. We have been studying God’s plan for missions and this morning as we come to chapter 15 we come to the final part of this little series in the book of Acts.

We are reminded the book of Acts runs parallel to the great commission that Christ has given the disciples. If you recall in Acts chapter 1 and verse 8 Jesus told them that they were to take the gospel to first the Jews Jerusalem and then they were to take it to Samaria and then they were to take it to the uttermost parts of the earth.

And as we study chapters 1 all the way through chapter 8 we see that they are doing a great job of reaching Jerusalem. And then we jump into chapter 9 where the Apostle Paul who at the time is Saul and he is converted to Christianity but he was the number one persecutor of the church.

But this led to the spreading of the gospel that as he would invade into the homes of believers that they would spread out and take the gospel. of Jesus Christ to Samaria. We remember that because Christ commissioned the disciples to take the gospel and the disciples now are flooding the gospel into this little region called Samaria and then we come to chapter 13 and we begin to witness how the church is embarking upon this great commission of taking the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth,

to every person on the planet and when we looked at chapter 13 we saw the calling to missions that in God’s plan for missions that he would call people within the local church to step up and to step out of the fellowship and to take the gospel to other places and other regions and other lands and we saw that Barnabas and Paul or who at the time was Saul they would take a team and they would go share the gospel of Jesus Christ and We learned so much about that.

Then we picked up last week in verse 6 of chapter 13, and there we went all the way through chapter 14, unbelievably. But the point is God’s plan for missions also has challenges. There are many challenges for missionaries, and there are many challenges for all of us who share the gospel of Christ.

There is deception. There is frustration. There is opposition. There is persecution. And we walked you through all those different challenges that are before the missionary. This is why it’s essential that you be a people who are praying for the missionary.

Now, when we come to chapter 15, our final section on this plan for missions, I call it the conference on missions. Amazingly, it’s been about 15 years since Jesus had died and rose again when we come to this text in chapter 15 of the book of Acts.

And what we see here is the first church council. Whenever the church had a problem throughout the history of the church, the leaders of the church would gather, they would debate, they would discuss, and they would deal with it, and they would come with an answer.

And this is what you are witnessing in chapter 15. And I want you to see first the dissension that takes place. The Bible says in verse 1 of chapter 15 that certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.

Therefore, when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and dispute with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them should go up to Jerusalem, to the apostles and elders about this question.

So being sent on their way by the church, they passed through Phoenicia and Samaria describing the conversion of the Gentiles. And they caused great joy to all the brethren. And when they had come to Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all things that God had done with them.

of the sect of the Pharisees who believed rose up saying it is necessary to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law. Unfortunately what had taken place as we shared with you last week that there is always the challenge of false teaching and unfortunately some Jewish believers being misguided were insisting it was essential for the male gentile converts to be circumcised.

The Bible says in verse 1 that certain men they are referred to as Judaizers and they were teaching a doctrine that you must work your way to heaven. That the only way you can be saved is if you work your way to heaven.

You and I know different. The Bible says for by grace are you saved through faith that not of yourselves it is a gift of God not of works. And so how is it that you and I are saved? By what Christ did on the cross for us, we place our faith in Jesus Christ.

He washes us and He cleanses us of our sins and He grants us a new life and He gives us a new beginning. But yet the Bible teaches us that in the early church, there was the challenge of teaching of salvation by works.

Now look down at verse four. The Bible says when they had come to Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders. They reported all things. What were they reporting? They were reporting what God was doing, the evidence of God’s work in the life of the Gentiles.

Remember that I told you how the gospel was going out. It went to Jerusalem. People were getting saved. Remember that Peter baptized over 3 ,000 people on the day of Pentecost. And then you remember that Philip the Evangelist went into Samaria and you remember how many were coming to Christ, but specifically that there was a political leader.

He was a eunuch and he was a man of great means and great wealth. And yet he was wondering about this gospel. He was wondering about this Jesus and Philip explained to him the wonderful news of Jesus Christ and he came to believe in Christ and then was baptized.

It is those kinds of things they were sharing with the leaders of the church. Then we see the discussion in verse six and seven note. Now the apostles and the elders came together to consider this matter.

And when there had been much dispute, Peter rose up and said to them, men and brethren, you know that a good while ago, God chose among us that by my mouth, the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe.

Peter is giving a defense that God had chosen him to take the gospel out far enough. he is reminding them of how God was converting souls. Jump down to verse 10 and 11. Now therefore why do you test God?

By putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we are able to bear. Remember what is the yoke? It is that you have to be circumcised. You have to follow the Jewish law or you cannot be saved.

Verse 11 of chapter 15. But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they. Meaning that God doesn’t have one plan of salvation for one group of people and then another plan of salvation for another group of people.

But there is one gospel, there is one Lord, and there is one baptism, there is one salvation that we find and it is only found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we have a question here to consider this morning.

this declaration has been made that we shall be saved in the same manner and that manner is that we must believe in Jesus Christ in what he did on the cross for our sins and the question I want you to consider this morning is how is faith acquired how is faith if I am called to believe how is this faith acquired if I am called to trust how is this acquired look at Romans 10 17 on the screen it says so then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God how does God ignite faith in the hearts of your children how does God ignite faith in the hearts of your friends and your family how does God ignite faith in your hearts let me tell you through the hearing of the Word of God now God has not only chosen his message and he is not only ordained his message but he is ordained the means by which it would come about and so I want you to jump back to verse 9 and I want you to see this that as Peter is making the case that it is salvation by faith that he says in verse 9 and made no distinction between us and them meaning there’s no distinction between the Jews and the Gentiles purifying their hearts by what by faith they were forgiven of their sins their hearts became pure before God not because of what they did not because of all their efforts or achievements but rather by their faith in what Christ did on the cross for them God is the one who purifies our hearts he uses the instrument of faith to bring us to forgiveness and to find the true salvation that’s in Jesus Christ many of you have burdens for your friends for your children and for your family members that do not know Christ the key to understand is that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God there is a dynamic to this kind of faith that changes the heart.

Did you see that in verse nine? Purifying their heart. It is not only that God changes us within, but He progressively changes us without. That as God has intrinsically changed us and forgiven us and cleansed our hearts, that He outwardly begins to shape our lives and to mold us into the image of Jesus Christ, that we might reflect the glory of God.

That’s why behavior modification, it isn’t sufficient to save this nation. Trying to get everybody to be moral and to do the right thing will not save this nation. The only way that this nation will turn around and come back to God is if they put their faith and their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now it would make sense. Because Christianity is rooted in Judaism, it certainly would be understandable that there might be some who are misguided in thinking that we must follow the Jewish law. But I want you to remember this.

Jesus Christ, when he sat in that upper room, and there’s nothing distinct about the upper room, I went to the upper room, it was just upstairs. It said the upper room, I thought it was gonna be special, but it was just upstairs.

But Jesus was up in the upper room, and there he sat with the disciples, and he told them that the old covenant was completed in him and that he was instituting a new covenant. A new covenant, when we take communion together, we celebrate what Christ has done in that he has not only paid for our sins, but he is fulfilled, and he has completed all that the Jewish law required.

And now, my friends, we live under a new covenant that is rooted in what Christ did on the cross. What we could not do, this yoke of burden of trying to keep up with the law and follow all the commands and do all the ceremonies that they required that could not be fulfilled in our own flesh, and our own effort was fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

And now we have a new covenant, and those ceremonial laws, and all the Judaism of the practices and the rituals, it is all faded away. Why? Because Christ fulfilled it all. Every once in a while, I run into believers, and they say, well, Pastor Mike, you’re not really doing it right.

You’re meeting on Sunday, and really, you’re called to meet on Saturday. And I say, well, I can’t meet on Saturday, I gotta mow the lawn, but I’m just saying, they say Saturday’s the Sabbath. But listen to me, friends, under the old covenant, yes, Saturday was the Sabbath, but it was fulfilled in Christ.

The church meets on Sunday, because this is the day that Christ rose again. We come and we begin our week. This is the first day of the week. Look at your calendar. This is the first day of the week, not Monday, but Sunday’s the first day of the week, and we dedicate this week to God, and we worship Christ, and we begin our week with Him, and we ask for His strength, His grace, His forgiveness, His goodness to be a part of it.

on us so that we might reflect Christ in every relationship, in every activity, in every situation that we find ourselves. And that’s why we understand that we are not under the old covenant, but rather we are under the new covenant that is found in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so Peter is explaining all this in verse seven through 14 that God is calling the Gentiles and the Jews out, and He is calling them to be believers and that this is the new church and that this is God’s people and it doesn’t matter their ethnicity, it doesn’t matter the color of their skin, it doesn’t matter what their education level is, it doesn’t matter where they came from or where they’re headed to,

what matters is do they know the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior? The gospel is not an invitation for you to be more religious. But the gospel is an invitation for you to have a real relationship with Jesus.

And when you get that all messed up, and sometimes parents, we gotta be careful that we don’t mess our kids up thinking that the gospel is about rules and religion and what we really need to help them understand that the gospel is about being connected to the Father and that we have a relationship with the Father and it is through Christ that that is made possible and that relationship purifies our heart and changes our lives from here on out.

I want you to see in verse 19 through 29, and we don’t got time to read every verse, and that is the decision that was finally made. They had this debate, they’re laying it all out there, Peter’s making the case, Paul is making the case, Barnabas is making the case, and they’re all saying, look, God is working and people are being saved and we’re not gonna put this yoke of burden on people.

So look at verse 19 of chapter 15, therefore I judge that we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God, but that we write to them to abstain from things that are polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled and from blood, we’ll explain that here in a second, for Moses has had throughout many generations those who preach him in every city being read in the synagogues every Sabbath,

that it pleased the apostles and the elders with the whole church to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, namely Judas, who was also named Barsebus and Silas, leading men among the brethren, and of course they then write a letter.

Now what’s going on here? What is going on? A decision has been made, and here you’ll note in verse 19 that he says we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God. The word trouble has the idea of throwing something in someone’s path to annoy them or to trip them, and what…

Peter is saying look let’s not do this let’s not throw something in the path of a new believer that frustrates them or confuses them and messes them up in their understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

You and I as believers we have to be careful about this that we don’t become so legalistic in our faith that we throw something in the path of a new believer that not only annoys them but trips them up and causes them to become distant in their fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Moms and dads you need to be alert to this that the things that you prefer are not always the principles of God’s word. Some of you are more worried about the hair of your children than you are the heart of your children and you’ve got to stay alert.

Listen as a believer I have preferences in my life I have things that I like I have things that work for me in my discipline in my habits of walking with the Lord Jesus Christ but it’s not necessarily that it’s in the Bible it’s not necessarily that it’s spelled out in the Bible and so I don’t project those on you.

I don’t sit there and tell you, you gotta do A, B, and C. What I try to do is get up and teach the Bible and principles to you and tell you through the power of the Spirit of God and the wisdom of God and the mind of Christ that you would live out your faith as God has called you to do.

I don’t have a long list of do’s and don’ts. I just don’t. I mean, I tried to make the list, but I started looking at the list and said, Mike, I can’t live up to this, so why make this list? I crumbled up and threw it in the trash, amen?

And what I want you to know is don’t ever put in the path of another believer something that will trip them up in their faith and always distinguish between the difference between what is a principle and what is a preference.

But anyways, my point is to you that you have preferences in all areas of your life. Don’t make them a requirement that causes new believers to stumble. That’s what Peter is trying to teach us. Now, they made it clear in their decision that salvation came through God’s grace, that it wasn’t circumcision, it wasn’t religion, it wasn’t rituals, and the Gentiles did not have to become a Jew to be a Christian.

Now get this, you don’t have to become an American to be a Christian. That in every culture, all Christians have different things that they like in their culture, but that doesn’t mean they’re not Christians.

What you have to do is come to Christ and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ to be a Christian. And it’s not just that you’re born an America that makes you a Christian, you must make a personal decision with the Lord.

You must confess that you’re a sinner, acknowledge that he is the Lord, and believe in him that he died for your sins. Now the Bible tells us in verse 20 and 21 that they laid out four little guidelines for them.

They laid out these guidelines for them, and they asked them as new believers to not participate in some of these things. because it would be a stumbling block to the Jewish believer. Look at verse 21.

For Moses has had throughout many generations those who preach him in every city, being read, meaning the Torah, the law, the first five books of the Bible, the Old Testament, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath.

So as Jewish people were coming to Christ they are saying to these new believers don’t be a stumbling block. They’re saying to the old believers don’t throw something in their way that causes them to be annoyed or trip up in their faith but to the new believers they’re saying look you need to be careful what you do where you do it and how you do it.

It’s not that you’re a hypocrite but you don’t want to cause the Jewish believers to be a stumbling block. And so I want you to understand something church that there are things as believers. that maybe we understand that our forefathers and our people that came before us, that maybe it was important to them, that there were certain things that were important to them and that we might abstain from those things when we’re around them because we don’t wanna be a stumbling block to them.

We don’t wanna hurt their faith. This is what we have in Jesus Christ. We have this freedom, not only that we can live for Christ and that we can obey Christ, but we also have this freedom that gives us the wisdom of when we apply how we live our lives before others so that we don’t become a stumbling block.

There are many things that I would be free in Christ to do, but yet when I think about nearly 500 students up there at that school and over another hundred some online, there are things that I do not do because I don’t wanna be a stumbling block to those children.

I wanna be an example to them. I want them to think of Pastor Mike as someone who was an example of how to live the Christian life. And so we’re alert to these things. We try to be understanding and you must be willing as a believer to be mindful of these things.

Remember in Revelation chapter two and verse 14, remember that as Jesus was speaking to the churches, he said to the church at Pergamos that I have a few things against you because you have some there who hold the teachings of Balaam, who kept teaching Bala to put a stumbling block before who?

The sons of Israel, meaning the Jewish people, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality. Certainly sexual immorality is part of the new covenant of being things that we should abstain from.

But the apostle Paul would later teach in 1 Corinthians eight that it would be okay to eat meat offered to idols, that the new believers would eat meat offered to idols, not because they were worshiping God, but just because the meat was cheaper.

And so they would buy it on the black market. because it was the aftermarket, and it was what they could afford because they were experiencing so much famine and poverty in the lands, but it was upsetting the Jewish believers.

And Paul said, when I’m around the Jewish believers, I don’t eat meat offered to idols. But when I’m by myself, it’s no big deal because we know that there’s only one true God, Jesus Christ, amen. We know there’s only one true God.

So he is asking us to use the wisdom of the spirit that we know what we should do, when we should do it, so that we are not a stumbling block. And this is what Jesus addressed to the church at Pergamos, that they had become a stumbling block before the sons of Israel.

This is what you and I have to consider in our faith that as we’re out there, we have to be sensitive to what might be a stumbling block. And so Barnabas and Paul, they were standing up for the Gentile believers.

helping everyone to understand that they have equal access to the gospel, they have equal blessings of the gospel, and this is what God wants. Now we come to the final section of chapter 15 in verse 30 through 35.

I want to read this to you because it’s so beautiful, that after having heard this decision the Bible says, so when they were sent off they came to Antioch and when they had gathered the multitude together they delivered the letter, but the letter certainly includes verse 23 all the way to verse 29.

And when they had read it they rejoiced over its encouragement. What a blessing because the message was don’t be a stumbling block and the message was don’t throw anything in the path of a new believer that annoys them or trips them up in their faith.

It was that we’d be willing to deny self and take up the cross and follow Jesus. That’s the essence of the letter. And when they read it they rejoiced over its encouragement. Verse 32, now Judas and Silas themselves being prophets also exhorted and strengthened the brethren with many words.

Verse 33, and after they had stayed there for a time they were sent back with greetings from the brethren to the apostles. However it seemed good to Silas to remain there, but Paul and Barnabas also remained in Antioch teaching and preaching the word of the Lord with many others.

There’s a lot of significance in chapter 15. One of them you may not notice, but all of a sudden Saul is now referred to as Paul and from here on out he’ll always be referred to as Paul. A reflection of not only his new life in Christ but his new ministry in Christ that God had given him.

His old life he was a persecutor of the church. He was one who dragged people out of their homes to be brought before the Jewish courts and to be condemned for their faith in Jesus Christ. But now there was a new direction for the church and this new direction is that the church would understand that God accepts all people of life.

of all racists that God saves those who repent of their sins, who turn from their sin and turn from their self, and they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And Romans 10, 13, the apostle Paul would write later that whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Seems like a settled matter for us, but I want you to understand something, church. It wasn’t always a settled matter, but praise God it became a settled matter, but I want you to know the devil is still fighting today, trying to twist the word of God, trying to twist what it means to be saved, trying to confuse new believers, trying to trap people into false doctrine and false faith.

That’s why it’s important for us to remember our mission. What is the church’s mission today? It’s real simple. Our mission is to announce the good news to people in every neighborhood and every nation that they can be servants in Christ’s kingdom.

if they will transfer their allegiance from this world to Jesus Christ, if they will believe by faith that Jesus died on the cross for their sins, then my friends, they can leave the world’s kingdom, which will one day pass away.

And there’s a new kingdom. It’s the kingdom of Christ, and the Bible tells us it’ll be a place and a season where there will be no sadness, and there’ll be no sorrow, and there’ll be no suffering, and Christ will rule and reign on this earth with righteousness and peace.

Our hope is not in politics, though we work hard because we’re just trying to keep the freedoms to tell others. But our hope is in Jesus Christ, and therefore we are missionaries. All of us are missionaries.

We all have our part in this world to spread the gospel. We all have the responsibility to be world Christians who are reaching to the ends of the earth. We understand that God loves every person on this planet, and we understand that God is calling us to believe, to belong, and to proclaim his good message.

Jesus, over 2 ,000 years ago, said, I am the way, the truth, and the light, and no man comes to the Father but by me. And before Jesus Christ ascended into heaven, he gave his high priestly, heavenly prayer to the Father, the inner Trinitarian prayer that blows the minds of Bible scholars that God would pray to God, that the interaction that we witness in John chapter 17, but at the conclusion of this great prayer,

Jesus said to his disciples, as the Father has sent me, I also send you. Church, we ought to help them find the way to Christ, help them define the way of salvation by being fully engaged in the plan of mission.

The Book of Acts traces how the Holy Spirit moves the church outward in its witness. The church in the early days began to kind of focus inward, and so all of a sudden God is working through persecution to push the church out to Samaria and to the othermost parts of the world.

And that’s what we’re witnessing, and we’re seeing that great plan unfold in chapter 13 through 15. So I hope it’s been a blessing to you and it’s been an encouragement to you as you understand how God is working.

I want to remind you that our website, Hopeworthhaving .com, has a lot of good information, a lot of ways for you to keep up with what’s going on in the ministry of Hopeworthhaving, and I hope you’ll take advantage of that.

This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.

The post God’s Plan for Missions 3 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on God’s Plan for Missions 2. He will be reading out of Acts 13-15.

I don’t believe the Bible’s a buffet that we pick and choose what we want and that we kind of just say, well, I like that part, but I don’t like that part. I’m not one of those preachers who said, oh, the Old Testament, we don’t need it.

No, my friends, we need God’s word from Genesis all the way to Revelation. Can God’s people say, Amen? Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders and this is Hope Worth Having. We welcome you to our radio broadcast.

We’re delighted that you’re with us and we want to get back into the book of Acts. We’re kind of surveying Acts chapter 13 through 15. We’re talking about God’s plan for missions, so let’s get our Bibles and let’s get back at it today as we study.

If you have your Bible this morning, I want you to join me in Acts chapter 13 and we’re going to continue our study on God’s plan for missions. As we come to the book of Acts, the church is launching forth.

We are seeing the church make a deliberate effort to carry the gospel to the whole world. The book of Acts is the story of how the early church understood the words of Jesus Christ when he said in John chapter 20, verse 21, as the Father has sent me, so send I you.

We come to the book of Acts and we learned last week in the first five verses about the calling to missions. We saw in the church at Antioch that God, through the Spirit of God, had called out these two men, Paul and Barnabas, and that they would assemble a team that would begin and launch a missionary journey.

Bible scholars call it the first missionary journey. As we begin in chapter 13 verse 6, all the way through chapter 14 verse 28, we witness this first journey that Paul and Barnabas were on. Their mission, their assignment from heaven, was that they were to go into these particular cities and they would plant Bible -believing churches.

They would preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. Many would come to Christ, but yet some would resist the gospel. This morning as we understand God’s plan for missions, we’ve learned how the calling to missions works.

But I also want us to understand today the challenge of missions. We are under this impression that whenever we surrender to take the gospel to the ends of the earth, that it will just always be easy.

Well, this morning when we look at the challenge of missions, we understand that God’s plan for the gospel message was not to be just limited to the Jewish people, but it was an inclusive message to go to every home and every heart, that it was a message to be proclaimed to the ends of the earth.

But there would be challenges that not everybody would like, that Paul and Barnabas are out there trying to win people to Christ. We pick up in verse 6 and we note the first challenge of missionary work is dealing with deception.

The Bible says in verse 6 of chapter 13 of the book of Acts, now when they had gone through the island of Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar -Jesus, who was with the pro -counsel, Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man.

This man called for Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the Word of God. But Elmas, the sorcerer, for so his name is translated, withstood them, seeking to turn the pro -counsel away from the faith, then Saul, who is called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, O full of all deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord.

And now indeed the hand of the Lord is upon you and you shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a time, and immediately a dark mist fell on him. And he went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand, and then the pro -counsel believed when he saw him.

what he had been done, being astonished at the teaching of the Lord. A sorcerer, a false teacher, a sorcerer, a magician who dabbled into the occult named Elmas, which is simply a translation of the Arabic word magician, was trying to resist the gospel and trying to deceive those who wanted to hear the Word of God taught.

We understand that this individual was doing everything they could to stand against the advancement of the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ. And yet what we witness here is that as Paul and Barnabas are going out, right at the inception of their missionary journey, right out of the gate, they are dealing with deception.

And I want you to note how they deal with that deception. Do you see, Saul? Do you see Barnabas just laying down and saying, now let’s not ruffle any feathers, let’s not upset anybody, let’s just try to all get along so we can go along.

No, would you come back with me to verse nine. Then Saul, who is called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit. He’s not doing this in the flesh. He is filled with the Spirit of God, looked intently at him and said, oh, full of all deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord?

Friends, he calls out the false teacher. He doesn’t just say, write a letter to him and say, please quit deceiving people, but publicly he calls out the false teacher. He addresses and confronts the false teaching, which is a reminder to all of us this morning that we are called to stand against false teachers and we are called to stand against false teaching.

Jesus warned us in Matthew seven to beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. I’m telling you that today in America, we are captivated by our senses.

We are shaped by our experiences and all too often we are led astray by appearances. And what we need to make sure is that even as we are out there sharing the gospel, whether it is our missionary colleagues who are taking the gospel across the world, or whether it’s our ministry trying to share the gospel across the street, that there will always be this deception that we have to deal with.

There has to be a boldness, a holy boldness, and a spirit filling within us willing to stand against false teaching. Because the devil is working 24 seven to make sure that the gospel does not go to different people, that the gospel does not reach the heart.

and the homes of people. The devil is going to do everything he can to trap people into false teaching. That very much like this man, this pro -counsel, that he was hungry for the word of God. He invited Paul and Barnabas to come and to share the gospel with him.

He invited them to come and teach him the word of God. But yet this sorcerer, this magician, this occultic person tries to step in and resist the true teaching of Jesus Christ and what does the apostle do?

He calls them out. Now when we’re trying to identify false teachers, it can be very confusing because there are many teachings in our land and even in the world there are many religions that are in our land and we have to be alert to these things and how do we identify false teachers?

I want you to remember that it comes down to three questions. that you have to ask when you’re trying to identify false teaching. Within the family of God, within the body of Christ, there are going to be differences.

But that doesn’t mean that’s false teaching. It doesn’t mean that’s heresy. How do we identify what is true heretical teaching? Number one, what do you believe about Jesus? I want to know what people believe about Jesus Christ.

Now think about this. I want to know, do you believe that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, that he lived a sinless life, that he offered himself up as a sacrifice for the sins of mankind, that he is the savior of the world, and that on the third day he arose from the tomb and that he has ascended into heaven and he is at the right hand of the Father.

What do you believe about Jesus through the years, church? Those of you that have been with me from the beginning of our ministry here, you know that there have been times that we have called out false teachers.

We do not call these false teachers out because we are somehow antagonistic towards them or that we might even be jealous of them or that we don’t even like their style of ministry, but rather we call them out because they do not believe in the same Jesus that you and I believe that is found and presented to us and revealed to us in the word of God many years ago.

And I told the church that Joyce Meyer is a false teacher. And I’ll tell you what, I could have created a firestorm because Joyce Meyer does not believe when Jesus Christ hung on the cross that he was God.

She denies the deity of Jesus Christ. I have the quotes, I have the video clip. I’m glad to present it all to you, but I know that so many are infatuated with the appearances and I know that many are infatuated with the…

razzle, dazzle, and you’re easily sucked in to the false teachers and their ministries, and you buy into the poison that they are feeding you. I understand when your heart is hurting, and you’re wounded, and you’re struggling, that it’s easy to grab the quickest medicine that you can find, only to find it is not the right medicine nor is it the truthful medicine that’ll heal your heart.

The second question that we ask when we’re dealing with deception is what do you believe about salvation? What do you believe about salvation? There’s only two types of teachings about salvation. You either believe that you’re working your way to heaven, you’re being good enough to get to heaven, that you’re doing something or you’re not doing something so that you’ll be accepted and be able to go into heaven,

or you believe that Jesus Christ did all the work on the cross for your salvation. You believe in Ephesians 2, 8, 9 says, For by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should what church?

Both. We can’t brag and say, Lord, look at me. I went to church so often I got a pin. I put money towards the church. Look at me, Jesus. I should be worthy to be able to enter into heaven. Friends, I want to tell you that the best of us are not worthy to enter into heaven, amen?

That the best of us, the prophet Isaiah said, that our righteousness is as filthy rags. And friends, I want you to know that even at your best, you fall miserably short of the perfection and the righteousness of God, and that the only way that you and I can be saved from our sins and be worthy to enter into heaven and to live with the Lord Jesus Christ forever and ever is by faith in Jesus Christ.

And what he did on the cross, what Jesus did on the cross, for you to say that, well, I’ll believe in Jesus, but I’ll also work my way to heaven. I’ll kind of combine them together is an insult to the atoning work of Jesus Christ.

What you’re saying is that his work on the cross was not good enough. It was not sufficient enough. And so you’re just gonna come in and you’re gonna kind of fill in the gaps and you’re gonna kind of make it better.

No, my friends, Christ paid it all. Jesus did all that was necessary. You say, well, then pastor, why should I work? Why should I do anything? Well, first you’re created and designed by God to work for the Lord.

But ultimately, why do I work? Because I love Jesus Christ. My labor of love is not… It is not to earn merit, it is not to earn salvation with God. My labor of love for the Lord is because I love Him and I want to show my love to Him and I want to show my gratitude to Him and therefore I am busy for the Lord.

I am active in the cause of Christ. I am doing everything that I can that more people might experience the wonderful good news of Jesus Christ. Don’t you believe church that the work of Christ and the plan of salvation is good news to mankind?

Oh, amen. Now friends, the third question. How do I discern and identify a false teacher? First, what do they believe about Jesus? What do they, number two, believe about salvation? Number three, what do they believe about the Bible?

Friends, I believe the Bible is the inerrant, infallible Word of God from Genesis all the way to Revelation. I don’t believe the Bible just contains the Word of God. I believe the Bible is the Word of God.

And I believe that God breathed his word through his prophets and through his apostles who were designated at a certain time and a certain season that they would reveal to us what God’s word is, the Old Testament, the New Testament.

It all comes together to give us the message of God. It all comes together to point us to the Lord Jesus Christ. I don’t believe the Bible’s a buffet that we pick and choose what we want and that we kind of just say, well, I like that part, but I don’t like that part.

I’m not one of those preachers who said, oh, the Old Testament, we don’t need it. No, my friends, we need God’s word from Genesis all the way to Revelation. Can God’s people say amen? Now friends, if you don’t believe the Bible is the inspired, infallible word of God, if you don’t believe it’s God breathed and came from heaven and delivered to us and preserved for us today in our language that we have been given,

if you don’t believe that, my friends, we can’t work together. Because this is the word of God. And I’m not going to put down the word of God. I’m not gonna diminish the word of God. I believe that faith comes by hearing the word of God.

I believe the word of God will strengthen you, comfort you, encourage you, guide you, teach you, equip you, and train you, and all the things that you might need. God’s word is sufficient to do its effective work in our hearts and the prophet Isaiah said that his word, God’s word, would not return boy.

God’s word will do its mighty work. And so when we’re dealing with deception as we are out there friends, remember that those are the three areas. Now we may have differences. Some of you may want to be a Presbyterian.

Some of you may want to be a Pentecostal. Some of you may want to be a Baptist. Some of you may want to be a Methodist. And some of you may want to have a different title. Whatever titles you want. You slap whatever label you want.

But here’s the only. The only thing I care about, you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior. And you see, people say, well, I’m of this, I’m of that, and my grandma was this and my grandpa was that.

Friends, it doesn’t matter. God doesn’t have grandchildren. It’s your relationship with God. I’m a pastor, I have three children, I have three grandchildren, but they all have to give an account to God themselves.

They don’t get any special privileges, because their dad was a pastor. Everybody has to give an account to the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you believe that, church? Oh, I hope so. Friends, the challenge of missions as we’re sharing the gospel, not only locally, but globally, is that we have to deal with deception, but I want you to see the second challenge is dealing with frustration.

We come down to chapter 13. Now, I’ve already told you that Paul and Barnabas, they put this team of people together. It included, obviously, Paul and Barnabas, but it included, Luke, it would include Timothy and Titus, and it would include a young man whose name was John Mark.

But would you notice with me in verse 13? Now when Paul and his party set sail from Paphos, they came to Perga in Pamphylia, and John, that is John Mark, departing from them, returned to Jerusalem. Have you ever started out and as you were getting on a journey and you had a task and you had a job and you had an assignment and then all of a sudden your team started falling apart?

Have you ever tried to go out there and share Christ with someone and you were responsible for certain things and other people were responsible for certain things and come to find out that the other people didn’t do their job and now you’re all alone trying to do it yourself?

This is the frustration that the Apostle Paul is experiencing, that he has gone and set out with this team, but all of a sudden, there is a young man who leaves. Now the question is why did John Mark leave Paul and Barnabas?

Luke never tells us. We’ll learn more about John Mark and John chapter 15. We encourage, the story ends well, but in this moment, there is frustration in the heart of the Apostle Paul because people who said they would do something did not do something.

People who promised that they would help never showed up and stepped out instead of stepping up. And so now Paul is frustrated as he is dealing with the departure of John Mark. We don’t know if John Mark left because of a physical problem, an emotional problem, a spiritual problem.

We don’t know. He could have gotten homesick and said I’m coming back. I can’t be away from mamas, fried chicken and mashed potatoes. Have you ever felt like that? Well, whatever the reason was, he’s not there.

And this was so difficult for Paul that we’ll… learn later that it became a point of conflict and dissension between him and Barnabas. We’ll learn about that later but I want you to remember this that as we are serving God people are at different seasons and different levels of their faith and people are going through different things in their life and sometimes the team that you put together may not always be as reliable as you want them to be and they may not be all that they should be and they may not step up when you need them to step up and they may not fill in the gap and help solve the problem and advance the cause of Jesus Christ like you would like them to and what you need to remember is this that when we go into the journey of life and as we are serving God whether we’re on the mission field on a mission trip or we are trying to share the gospel with others that people are flawed how about that how many of you know that nobody’s perfect All of you that are perfect,

would you please stand and make yourself known to this congregation? As I tell people that if you’re perfect, please don’t join an imperfect church, amen? Because you’re gonna mess it all up. You see, friends, as we’re serving with our brothers and sisters in Christ, guess what?

Sometimes they fail us. Sometimes they disappoint us. Sometimes they discourage us. But what I’m trying to say is this, sometimes rather than coming to be a blessing and coming to be a help and to be an encouragement, sometimes we come and we got all of our frustrations and we got all of our angst and we just kind of let it all out and we’re just kind of discouraging people everywhere we go and we’re just dropping all these emotional bombs on people rather than coming to the house of the Lord and people being built up and encouraged and strengthened and excited about serving God and wanting to love God more and love people more,

they walk away frustrated. And I want you to understand something. What does Paul and Barnabas do? Did they quit? Did they fold up their tent? John Mark quit. He went back home. He’s not going with us.

Let’s just give up. No, my friends, your assignment does not stop because one person failed you. Your assignment in heaven that God has called you to do is not finished just because someone offended you.

How many times have I seen this as a pastor through the years of me serving the Lord? How many times people are offended and I can’t get them reengaged. I can’t get them back involved. Somebody said something.

Somebody didn’t do something. Somebody forgot somebody. Friends, great is our reward in heaven. All that I do for God is not based on how people respond. It’s not how people handle situations that I wish they’d have handled better, but it’s based upon my love and my commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ.

When you serve God, you are going to face frustrations. I want you to see the third thing. they had to deal with, and that was opposition. Now we come to chapter 13, but I want you to jump down to verse 50.

We’ll back up into this section here a little bit. The Bible says in verse 50 that the Jews stirred up the devout and prominent women and the chief men of the city raised up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and expelled them from their region.

What we see is that the civic leaders of this area stirred up opposition that drove Paul from the city, drove his whole mission team from the city. What was their response? This is what I want you to see.

Look at verse 51. They shook off the dust from their feet against them and they came to Econium and the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. Are you with me, church? There are gonna be challenges in serving God.

There’s gonna be challenges in getting the gospel out and there might. even be opposition. You thought everybody would love you. You thought everybody would get behind you. You thought everybody would welcome you.

You thought everybody would hug you. You thought everybody would give you a pat on the back. But the truth is not everybody’s for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I could take you all the way from chapter 2, chapter 4, chapter 6, chapter 8, chapter 12, and now chapter 13 of all the times that the apostles were opposed for preaching, teaching, sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Now what is happening here in verses 14 through 52 is that Paul is giving an overview as he is sharing the history of Israel through the Old Testament. He was invited to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and he was invited to come to a synagogue.

We’re going to jump in the middle of his sermon and I want you to go to verse 22 of chapter 13. The Bible says that when he had removed him, he raised up for them David as king to whom also he gave testimony and said, I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart who will do all my will.

Man, friends, when I read that sometimes because I know more about David’s life than maybe some other people do is that I say, well, that’s not always true. David many times failed God. David many times disobeyed God, but yet the consensus and the conclusion of his life is that he was a man after God’s own heart and he was a man who desired to do God’s will.

The reason I want to share this with you is this, that God is not so much interested in the perfection of our life as he is in the direction of our life. This morning you may have come here and you may be struggling in your journey of faith.

You may be just kind of conflicted in your faith and not sure and you may be struggling that, hey, how could God ever look upon me because I have failed him so many times. Friends, I want you to know that it wasn’t that David was perfect, it was that every time David failed God, he knew that he needed to run to God, and he came to God, and he asked God’s forgiveness, and the Bible teaches us that God restored him and gave him back the joy of his salvation,

and God was able to use David because David’s heart was a heart that was for the Lord Jesus Christ. My friends, I don’t want you to give up on your family. I don’t want you to give up on your children.

I don’t want you to give up on your brothers and sisters in Christ. There may be detours in our journey of faith. There may be stumbling blocks in our journey of faith. There may be times that we trip and we get trapped, and there may be times that we fall flat on our faith because we have failed.

We failed God, we disobeyed God, we made bad choices, and we made bad decisions, but I want you to know there is a savior in heaven who is more than ready to restore you back into the family of God and back into fellowship with God.

And the Bible teaches us this is why Jesus Christ went to the cross, that he might pay the price and the penalty of our sins, and you and I could enjoy the forgiveness that is found in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Can God’s people say amen? You can read it later, but Paul is describing here how God’s hand was directing the nation of Israel’s affairs, how all of the past was a gift from God, and now the greatest gift has come to them, and that great gift is Jesus Christ.

Look at verse 23, from this man’s seed, meaning David’s seed, according to the promise, God raised up for Israel a savior, Jesus. Jesus is the savior, he forgives us of our sin. I want you to jump over to verse 38.

The Bible says, therefore, let it be known to you, brethren, that through this man, what man, who? Jesus, this man is preached to you, the forgiveness of sin. All of the Bible is about Jesus. All of history is his story.

It is about helping every one of us to experience the redemption, the grace, the forgiveness, the mercy that is only found in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you’ve stumbled in here and not sure why you are here, you are here because Christ is calling you to experience his forgiveness in your life.

How did the people respond? We’re back in verse 50. They stirred up. I mean, Paul gives us great presentation of the gospel. It’s powerful, it’s meaningful, it’s benevolent, it’s come get saved, it’s wonderful.

But the Bible says they stirred up the devout and prominent women and the chief men of the city and they raised up persecution against Paul and Barnabas. How did they respond? Verse 51. they shook off the dust from their feet.

Verse 52, the disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit. When you’re out there serving Christ, you’re gonna get pushback. There are times you’re gonna give the greatest presentation. You couldn’t believe it came out of your mouth about how God saves people.

And yet people will resist you, oppose you, and yet what is to be my response? I don’t want you to have a pity party. I don’t want you to quit. I don’t want you to curl up and say, I’m done. I want you to shake the dust off your feet and move forward for the Lord Jesus Christ.

You don’t serve other people. You’re not their servant, you’re God’s servant. Now God will use us to serve others. Yes, I am with you on that. But if the people do not wanna hear the gospel, then our job is not to cry.

Our job is not to quit. Our job is not to get angry, but it’s to shake the dust off your feet and move forward for the Lord Jesus Christ. by friends and move forward for the Lord Jesus Christ. In Acts 13, we see the first missionary journey of the Apostle Paul.

We see his team and one of those individuals was Barnabas and God has set them apart that they would serve. And then we see how the gospel is going forth. And so this is really God’s plan for missions.

God wants us to reach people. We think about our families. We think about our communities. We think about our country. And then we think about the world. And that’s what God wants us to do. This is Pastor Mike Sanders.

And I wanna remind you that in Christ, there is hope worth having.

The post God’s Plan for Missions 2 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on God’s Plan for Missions 1. He will be reading out of Acts 13-15.

You are here to take the gospel to someone, to be a light to someone. If you’re trying to figure out, why am I here? Why did God not take me home? To be a blessing, to be a light, to be a person who can share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders. It’s hope worth having today where the Bible is taught verse by verse, chapter by chapter. Today we’re in Acts chapter 13 and we’re going to talk about God’s plan for missions.

And sometimes people don’t fully understand what it means to reach other cultures, other nations, and other people groups. But I want you to see this unfold in the book of Acts chapter 13 through 15 and what is God’s plan for missions.

So let’s begin our study together. This morning if you have your Bible I want you to turn with me to Acts chapter 13. And we’re going to begin a series which I’ve entitled God’s plan for missions that is going to cover chapter 13, 14, and 15.

When we come to the book of Acts we are reminded that the book of Acts is tracing how the work of the Holy Spirit is moving the church outward in its witness. You recall that when we started this great study in this great book entitled The Acts of the Apostles that Jesus had commanded his disciples that they were to go to Jerusalem and they were to go to Samaria and they were to go to the uttermost parts of the earth.

When you begin to study the book of Acts chapter 1 all the way through chapter 7 we see this great work that God is doing among the people in Jerusalem that they were literally witnessing the church.

The church being attitude, people believing in Christ every day, the church daily, the Bible says, was added to. But then God brought about persecution and opposition to the church, which caused the disciples to begin to spread out into Samaria, which was the second phase of his great commission to the church.

You recall in chapter seven and chapter eight and even chapter nine how the gospel went into the Samarian region and how God was working effectively and bringing people to true salvation. We come all the way now to chapter thirteen, and this is the inception or the inauguration of the church going beyond Samaria.

For we have not forgotten the commission that Christ has given the church and that it is to go. to the uttermost parts of the earth, that the promise that God has given that he will be with us is not that we would just huddle together and that we would just rejoice together and that we would be satisfied together, but the promise of his presence is that we would go to the ends of the earth with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The book of Acts also contains the record of Paul’s ministry. In Acts 13, we see the first missionary journey coming together that the Apostle Paul would lead. He and his team, which would include Barnabas, were set apart and set forth from the church in Acts 13.

Pick up with me in verse one this morning of Acts 13. Now in the church that was at Antioch, there were certain prophets and teachers. Barnabas, Simeon, who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaiian, who had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch and Saul.

As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, “‘Now separate to me Barnabas and Saul “‘for the work to which I have called them.’ “‘Then having fasted and prayed and laid hands on them, “‘they sent them away.’ “‘So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, “‘they went down into Seleucia, “‘and from there they sailed to Cyprus.

“‘And when they arrived at Salamis, “‘they preached the word of God “‘in the synagogues of the Jews. “‘They also had John as their assistant.'” Now Acts 13 is a unique chapter in the New Testament, because it’s a milestone text as it marks a radical shift in the mission strategy of the church.

The strategy that the early church had did not result from hours of studying data, analyzing trends, and debating the best course of action. Instead, During a season of worship and praise and prayer, they heard the voice of the Spirit of God and they obeyed that voice.

That voice told them to separate two men out of the church and that they were to lead a missions team to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. This morning, I want us to focus our attention on the calling of mission.

Our text is verses one through five. There’s three things I want you to learn about the calling of missions. For this lays the foundation for us as a people of God and as a church family, what is gonna be the theology and the philosophy of our missions program at the Opendoor Church.

You’ll see first in the midst of this calling that there was the place of their call. the place of their call, the missionary work involves churches sending people. What was this place? Well, we see in verse 1, it says, the church that was at Antioch.

We come down to verse 2, the Bible says, they were ministering, praying, worshiping, and fasting, and the Holy Spirit said, Now separate to me, Barnabas, and Saul, for the work which I have called them.

The place that God called his people to serve was in the local church. When we say, where will the future missionaries come? Where will the future ministers of God, where will the pastors come from? Where will the servants of God come from?

They will come from the church. That’s why it’s essential that the church be missions -minded, that the church be a place where the fire of God is felt and the knowledge of God is learned. That we understand that this is a place where our faith is inspired and our faith is rooted, and that our faith is challenged.

We see this displayed several times in the book of Acts, chapter 9 and verse 20. The Bible tells us, referring to the disciples who were at Damascus, that immediately he preached Christ in the synagogues, that is, that he is the Son of God.

What God had done is that he had raised up Saul, and as he came to Christ, and as he believed in the Lord, he began immediately to preach Christ. Where did he go? He went into the synagogues, where the Jewish people met.

He went to tell them about the Lord Jesus Christ, but it was through the local church that he was called. We jump over to chapter 14 and verse 27 of Acts. The Bible tells us in verse 27 that when they had come and gathered the church together, the church never knew anything about not being together.

That was just their practice. and their pattern and they always came together but the Bible says that they reported all that God had done and that he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles what was happening is that Barnabas and Saul who had already gone out on their first missionary journey and they were reporting back to the church all that God had done how people were being saved lives were being changed and that there was the transformation of the gospel in the hearts of many lives but the church had gathered together and we see how the church is this special place in the calling of missions jump over to chapter 15 and verse 3 so being sent on their way they passed through Phoenicia Samaria describing the conversion of the Gentiles and they caused great joy to all the brethren the place of the call is the church Why is it essential for you to be connected to a local church family?

Well, certainly one of the reasons is that this is the place that God uses to call out His future servants. This is the place that He is calling all of us to missionary work. This is the place that God is doing His effective work.

And though we understand that we are the temples of God in our own bodies and that the Spirit of God dwells within us, that there is something unique and there is something special, when the people of God come together in that place that He has granted to them and given to them, that in that place, the anointing of heaven and the call of God is upon the people of God that when they are inspired in their faith,

that they are to go forth and to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Bible says that it was in this place, the church at Antioch. I’m back in verse two of chapter 13 that they ministered to the Lord.

That meant that they were spending time in prayer. It wasn’t that they were isolated, that the church was separated, but the church had come together and they had prayed because remember what I’ve always taught you, God has chosen to work through prayer.

And He’s not only chosen to work through your individual prayers and personal prayers, but He has chosen to work together through corporate prayer. If anything stands out in the study of the book of Acts, it is how often the church came together and prayed.

Because it was in that moment that as they were having this powerful prayer meeting, that they received direction from the Spirit of God. And that these directions were that they were to separate Barnabas and Saul who would later be Paul.

And they were to be sent out to another place. It must have been exciting for the church at Antioch to see that God would pick among them two individuals who would go forth with the gospel. Now we propose a question to you this morning to consider.

How do you How does a church send missionaries? Well, I think it has to begin with prayer, doesn’t it? That we’re always praying, Lord, raise up among us your servants. Not that we are not all servants of God, but God is calling some to special tasks and special responsibilities, not only within the church, but that He is calling them to go to the regions beyond.

That He is calling that each and every one of us would recognize that a part of our prayer time personally and corporately is to pray that God would raise up and that He would call men and women to serve Him.

But there is not only the responsibility that we are to pray for one another, but we also recognize that we must be willing to part with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Is there anything more difficult than to have God, to call?

a couple, a family, an individual out of our church, and we love them so much, and we’ve spent so much time with them, and they’ve been a blessing to the church, but God has called them to another field.

It’s not easy because some of you, they’re your family, they’re your children, but I want you to know it is of the highest honor that God would choose a church, and that God would choose someone in your family to be able to take the gospel to the ends of the earth, because what it says is that God has high trust in your child or has high trust in that individual that they would carry the gospel of Jesus Christ,

which is the greatest treasure of all the world. It supersedes the gold and the money and all the stocks and bonds of this world. It exceeds it all that they would take the treasure of heaven and take it to the people of the world.

A church must send missionaries by not only praying, but also partying, but also they must be willing to pay for the missionary. Perhaps a better word is that we’re to support financially missionaries out of our church.

I like to be a part of a church that is missions minded and that they understand the value of not just saying, brother, we’re praying for you, and hope that they do well, but that we get behind them financially.

You say, Pastor Mike, why do we do faith promise giving? Because it’s the challenge upon you and I as the brothers and sisters of Christ to step up our game above and beyond our tithing and above and beyond our regular giving to the church that we would give extra to support the missionary and that we take the plan of that as we co -opt together as a family that we can do more together than we could ever do by ourselves.

And that as we stand with these missionaries and we help them to meet the needs that they have that we are able to support them to fulfill the special calling that is upon their life. Now, when you might ask the question, how can I get involved?

and missions. Well, I want to just tell you right out of the gate that it always begins with prayer. And so we bring in these missionaries. We ask them to set up a table. We ask them to give you a prayer card.

And I know it might be old -fashioned and I know it might be outdated, but I’m just telling you that you need something to remind you to pray for missionaries. But the bottom line is I would encourage you as God’s people that whenever we have a missionary, make sure you get their prayer card and make sure that you’re praying for these missionaries.

No missionary is coming in this pulpit unless they have been vetted and approved. It’s not that I’m trying to be mean and difficult, but I want to make sure that they align with us and that we’re committed to spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ and that we’re working together to advance the cause of Jesus Christ.

And so if you see someone up here, you’ve got to know that the elders and the deacons and the pastors are all behind this person and we need to get behind them and we need to support them with our prayer.

Every missionary will tell you that the most thing that they value is your prayer. The second way that you can get involved in missions is to connect. And what I’m trying to tell you this morning, Church, is that you gotta find a way to get to know these missionaries.

You sign up for their email list, you sign up for their newsletter, you sign up for any possible way that you could communicate to them, you send them birthday cards, you send them anniversary cards, you send them encouragement cards, you send them emails and you send them text messages and you let them know that they are loved and they are appreciated.

There’s hardly a week that doesn’t go by that people don’t hand me a card or send me a card and say, pastor, we love you and we appreciate you. Do you understand how all this keeps me encouraged? And I live in this wonderful luxury of encouragement and this beautiful place where people are supportive of the pastor, but I want you to know that there are missionaries out there who never get a word of encouragement.

Every day they’re out there slugging, the devil’s beaten down on them. And I don’t know if you know this, but missionaries are real people with real emotions. What would it mean to a missionary if you were to connect with them in just a small, tangible way and let them know that they are loved and appreciated and that you are praying for them?

With today’s technology, there just is no excuse why we can’t connect with our missionary families. The third thing I would challenge you to do to get involved in missions is to give. God never called me to go to the regions beyond, but he did call me to use my platform to rally his people to get behind his missionaries.

Listen, here’s where I tell people to start. Would you start with one dollar? I’ve never had anybody say to me, pastor, I can’t give a dollar to the missionary. Every one of us, no matter who we are, where we’re at in our faith, I think we have enough faith to say, I wanna support the missionary.

You can do that. You can give through our giving box. You can give online. You can give through our app, however you choose. to give, you can make it happen and give to missions so that we can continue to get behind these folks.

I want to thank you, church. Recently, our church did a scripture assembly. We assembled over 38 ,000 Bible booklets, amen? Wasn’t that wonderful? But I want to tell you something that a few weeks later, we completed raising over $7 ,000 to help those Bible booklets to go to the mission field.

And I want you to give glory to God this morning, a great hand of praise. Just two weeks is all it took. And God’s people rallied around. They gave over $7 ,000. Now, look, missionaries don’t have money to buy Bibles.

So we got behind Beacon of Truth Ministries, and we put those Bible booklets together. Those Bible booklets are going to go to the mission field free of cost. And we said, not only are we going to help put put them together, but we’re gonna pay for the shipping, we’re gonna pay for the printing, and we’re gonna pay for the ink, we’re gonna pay for the paper, and we’re gonna pay for whatever it costs so that it can get into the hands of the missionary and the missionary can get it into the hands of people who need the Lord Jesus Christ.

Don’t you understand church more important than anything that’s going on in this world politically that the most important thing in this world is that people come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior?

That is why we give our time. That is why we give our talents. That is why we give our treasure. That is why we sacrifice. And if it’s just a dollar, just start there. If your faith is only a dollar, then start there.

Praise the Lord. Let’s start right at a dollar and say, I’m gonna give to the missionary one dollar a month, one dollar a week, whatever God lays on your heart. Give as God has purposed in your heart, the Bible says.

And then friends, watch God grow. Watch him grow your giving. Watch him continue to show you that he’ll meet every need in your life. But anyways, the fourth way to get involved is to go. Now, it doesn’t matter to me whether you go across the street, around the world, go.

Who’s stopping you from randomly knocking on people’s door, randomly visiting people, or who’s stopping you from sharing Christ? The way that God intended is not that we had a special day to visit, but that every day we’re interacting with the community and that we’re sharing Christ, inviting people to church, and helping them to know the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And so whether you’re doing that where you work, or whether you’re doing that on a mission trip, it doesn’t matter to me, let’s just all be involved in going. Missionary work always involves people. So I want you to see the second part of this call is not only the place of their call, but the people who were called.

We’re introduced in verse one that we have prophets and teachers. These prophets and teachers, they taught the word of God and they instructed the local congregation. in Antioch, and they would share God’s word with the people.

We’re introduced to them. A list is given to us who these individuals are. But what we see is out of the midst of them is this, that when God calls a person, he always calls a person who’s already busy for him.

Now, some of you might say, I wanna go to the mission field, then get busy. Well, no, I’m gonna wait till God calls me, and I’m gonna wait till the heavens rend, and he gives me a special assignment.

No, here’s how God works. God calls and opens new doors for those who are already active in the gospel. That’s how God works. Jesus taught us that if we’re faithful in the little, that he will make us leaders or rulers of much.

And the point is, we have this responsibility to stay busy. that long before we get this opportunity, God wants us to take the first opportunity he gives us, some of you are praying, and you’re praying about being a Sunday school teacher, you’re praying about helping out in the nursery, you’re praying about helping in the children’s ministry, you’re praying, and listen to me, my friends, God is not on vacation.

What God wants you to do is get busy. He wants you to get up from your prayer time and get involved and find a place to serve. And let me tell you, those are the people he’s gonna call. Those are the people that he is gonna call, those who are already active, serving God, and they are involved.

So we should cooperate with Christ in discovering and setting apart people who are actively serving God, and that we should do everything we can to help those people to be able to sense that God has got a special calling on them.

Jesus said, you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain that whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

Don’t misunderstand, God is not a genie up there that anytime you pray and ask him, he’ll give you whatever you want. But let me tell you this, that God is more than ready. He is more than ready to answer your prayers that are according to his will for those who are actively bearing fruit for his cause.

If you are a person who said, I’m not gonna be involved anymore, and I’m just gonna sit on my tough and never do anything for God anymore because of A, B, or C, then, friends, you’re putting a lid on your prayer life.

But when you get involved and serve God, and you start bearing fruit for God, then you’re gonna see God’s hand of blessings and power upon your life, and that as you are bearing fruit, he is answering your prayers according to his perfect will because the people that have a anointing from God are not people who just sit in the pew.

God did not call you to come sit in the pew and just soak in the word and do nothing, but God has called you. I want you to come sit, hear his word, soak it up, and get out there and serve. Find your place in the church.

Find your place in the community. Find your place and get active for Jesus Christ. Get up off the couch and get back to serving Jesus Christ and be a people who are faithful to his calling. I am asking you to stay busy for the Lord Jesus Christ.

The people who were called were busy. They were busy for God. Now the third thing I want you to see here is the purpose of their call. So we see here in verse three, they fasted, they prayed, they laid hands on them, and they sent them away.

Now let me just say something here about the laying on of hands. Again, we’ve seen this several times in the Old Testament, in the New Testament. The laying on of hands was the church confirming the call.

The leaders of the church would lay hands upon those servants. It was what we often refer to as an ordination service. It was saying that we approve the call, we believe the call, and we are sending forth this individual to serve the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now we have people sometimes, and they don’t want to be approved by the church. They just wanna do their own thing. They don’t want to be submissive to the leadership of the church. And I want you to be careful of those people who just pop up and throw up a sign and think that they are from God.

Listen, my friends, there is a process. There is an approval process. And why is it that God would have this special laying on of hands by the church, that the missionaries would be sent by the church is so that we would protect the people from false teachers.

You know there are people out there who claim to be something when they are nothing. When you know that there are false teachers who are wolves in sheep’s clothing, who are devastating people’s spiritual lives, and there are too many that submit themselves to these individuals just because they threw up a sign and rented a room and say, I’m a pastor, and they got their ordination on the internet,

which I don’t see in the Bible. Ordination doesn’t come from the internet. It comes, you are sent by the church. You must be sent by the church, and you must be alert to this church, and you must be aware of this.

And if there is something that emerges out of the Bible, that a pattern that we can follow, it is that the church sent forth the people, and they acknowledged the call by laying on of hands. Nothing magical about the hands.

Nothing mystical about the laying on of hands, but a symbolic expression from the church leadership that we stand with this person, and we stand for this person, and we believe that they have a special calling upon their Lord.

lives. Be alert to that. What is the purpose? We come to verse four. We see two things that emerge in verse four and five. The Bible says, so when being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus, and when they arrived in Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews, and they also had John as their assistant.

The purpose is twofold. It’s real simple. It’s nothing profound, but it’s there. Reach the world, number one, and preach the word. Here it is, church. Every Christian is called to do something to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ.

You can’t get around it. It’s in Matthew 28. We are called to go, and therefore all of us must understand that we minister under a divine mandate, and that mandate is that we would reach the world. In Acts chapter 13 and verse 47, the Bible says, for so the Lord has commanded us, I have set you as a light to the Gentiles, that you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth.

You are here to take the gospel to someone, to be a light to someone. If you’re trying to figure out, why am I here? Why did God not take me home? Why did God just leave me on this planet? To be a blessing, to be of light, to be a person who can share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Hear me church, you don’t have to be afraid. When your job is done, God will call you home, but you’re not leaving a minute early before your job is done. God has an assignment on every believer. He has a task upon every believer.

And that task is to be fulfilled by that believer. Whatever skill sets, whatever talent he has given you, you are to use it to reach the world. To be a missionary, you must reach people. But the key is that you must be willing.

Barnabas and Saul were willing. Willing to depart, willing to go, willing to sacrifice, willing to make an effort. And so here’s a simple question for you to consider this morning. Are you willing? Are you willing to give out a track?

Are you willing to invite someone to church? Are you willing to pray for someone who talks to you about a need? Are you willing to strike up a conversation? Are you willing to pray for your children and grandchildren to be saved?

Are you willing church? Because this is where it starts. This is where it starts. We said our first purpose of the call was to reach. The second is to preach. There’s much that can be said, but let me simply say this.

Every one of us are missionaries, and we are missionaries with a… message. We have a unique gospel message that deserves a hearing and we have a responsibility to take it to the ends of the earth. We are called to bring a message of hope to people that we meet every day.

And I pray that God will move upon each of us and that we will sense that call. We’ll understand God may call some out of our church to go to the regions beyond. He is called all of us to be active serving Him in the advancement of the kingdom of Christ.

Let me tell you what will save America. What will save America won’t come from the White House. It won’t come from Congress. It’s going to come from the church house. When the people of God get out there and start witnessing and leading people to Christ, that’s when America will change.

One soul at a time. The Book of Acts is the story of how the early church understood the words of Jesus when he said, as the Father has sent me, so send I you. Now that the church has faced persecution, it’s spreading out beyond Jerusalem and it’s sharing the gospel with new people and now it is spreading like wildfire.

That’s the plan of missions, is to make disciples of all nations, of all people groups. So I hope that as you see this plan, that you’ll pray for the fulfillment of this plan throughout this world. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.

The post God’s Plan for Missions 1 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on Dealing With Pride 2. He will be reading out of Acts 12:20-25.

Why should I go to work and give my best every day that it may bring glory to God that people might see my good works and that they would give glory to my God? Hear me church, nothing brings more glory to our God than the salvation of souls.

Hello this is Pastor Mike Sanders and we are coming to you from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania where I serve as the senior pastor of the Opendoor Church and we have this wonderful ministry called Hope Worth Having.

It’s a ministry of the radio, television, internet and social media where we are proclaiming the Gospel to every heart and to every home. Thank you for joining us today. In this broadcast we’re going to be in Acts chapter 12, verse 20 through 25.

We’re continuing our study on dealing with pride. So join me as we begin. Insisting that we get what we deserve, that we take the approach that somehow we are worthy of these things, this royal apparel, that we are somehow given things that we demand in our life.

What happens is that pride begins to emerge and we begin to think that we’re really something. When everybody around us is pretending because they are appeasing us, they’re trying to keep us from having an emotional blow up, they spend their entire life walking on ice around us afraid to upset us and always giving us exactly what we want.

But we don’t get upset. Some people find themselves in relationships like that. Some parents have attempted to raise their children like this. And they wonder what’s wrong with Johnny. When you spend your life giving Johnny everything that he wants and trying to appease him with all of his selfish desires, it is no wonder that he grows up self -absorbed.

It’s no wonder that he feeds off the appeasement of others, which build more and more pride in his heart. I know that you love your little Johnny, and I want to give you some advice. Number one, don’t let the grandparents raise little Johnny.

Amen. Grandparents aren’t designed to raise children. I know some of you have to, and we certainly… are praying for you, but somehow you gotta get out of grandpa mode, and you gotta get into mom mode or dad mode, and that when this child does something wrong, we’ve gotta deal with it, we gotta address it, because if you just keep on handing them a sucker, or you keep on handing them candy, and you keep on handing them a Mountain Dew,

hoping that it will appease them and make them happy and like you, you’re gonna raise up a child that is gonna be destructive in society. Are you with me? Number two, this is just Mike Sanders’ parental advice to you, okay?

And you say, okay, is do not wait until your children are 16 to realize there’s a problem. The greatest truth every parent could learn is that their child is born a sinner, in need of a savior. And the very heart of every child is this heart that is deceitful, a heart that is destructive, the Bible says, who can know it?

Sometimes people say to me, they say, pastor, I’m gonna follow my heart, and I say, please don’t. You follow your heart, and you may go down the wrong path, because your heart doesn’t always know what’s best, but I tell you that you don’t build your life on your feelings, you don’t build your life on your emotions, you build your life on the truth and the promises of God.

And when you understand that your child is a sinner in need of a savior, and little Johnny, I mean, you don’t have to have a training session on how to have a meltdown at Target, and how to lose your senses, fall on the ground, kick and scream, yell.

I mean, no mom and dad saying, let me teach Johnny how to do that, right? Can’t get them everything that they want. You gotta teach them to work for it, you gotta teach them to be humble and talk to them.

teach them to make effort and that everything’s not gonna be handed to them in their life. Can I give another piece of advice? Like I wouldn’t, right? Some of you have grown children. Are you with me?

This is where you’re gonna get mad at me, okay? Don’t worry, I am capable of dodging the tomatoes. Would you quit bailing out your kids? Would you quit bailing them out? Your kids need to learn to not trust you, but trust the Lord.

They need to look to the Lord Jesus Christ for their hope, their strength, and their help, and these parents that are always covering and making up and bailing out their children are only deepening the pride that’s in their heart and they think that they are worthy of it and they deserve it.

and they are very much in this progress of pride that we see in the life of Herod in that there is not only unresolved anger that has never been dealt with, there is appeasement that is constantly going on because we want to keep them happy.

God is more interested in the character of your children than he is the comfort of your children. And God is more interested in the holiness of your children than he is in the happiness of your children.

And let me just throw this out there. I know it’s just a lot of stuff flooding in my mind at heart right now. But think about that prodigal son’s father. He had the capacity, the ability to step in at any point while his son was walking down the hog pen trail getting ready to bottom out into that he would live with the hogs and the pigs.

Dad could have stepped in any time. Paid the bills, covered the debts, but he never did. Because God was doing an effective work in the life of that young man and he would have never came to himself until he bottomed up and there is many a young person that’ll never look to Jesus until they’re flat on their back.

But yet you keep jumping in. You’re the Holy Spirit. You’re gonna save the day. You’re gonna make that one difference when you are really only slowing the process of God’s redemptive work in the heart of that child.

Not only do we see anger and appeasement, but we see adoration as part of this progress of pride. We jump down to verse 22 of chapter 12. The Bible says the people kept shouting the voice of a God and not of a man as.

Herod was putting on this show as he was making this orientation, as he was declaring this speech, who knows what he was talking about. It was so irrelevant and insignificant that Luke does not even record the substance of what he said, but rather reminds us that he was a raid and royal apparel.

And according to the historian, the Jewish historian, Josephus, he was wearing a garment that was made of silver. It was flashy, it was dynamic. And so he was putting on this show and the people were shouting, it is a God.

He’s a God, not even a man. They began to adore him, flatter him. They began to give him words of praise that were not even appropriate for the moment, but elevated him in his own mind, thinking that he was superior to everyone and that he was above even God himself.

I need to drop a word. This idea that if our kids show up to a ballgame, they deserve a trophy. Time magazine put out an article and said, this generation is called the self -esteem generation. Like no other generation, they have been told how wonderful they are and they believe it.

And they are shocked when they have to show up to work. They are shocked that they have to have evaluations and they have to have progress reports and they are shocked when they receive critique in the real world about their job performance because they have been told all their life that they were so wonderful and they just showed up to a T -ball game and all of a sudden were handed out medals and trophies to them,

telling them they’re the greatest thing since peanut butter. And you say, peanut butter? I know it’s sliced bread, but I like peanut butter. And my point to you is be careful that you yourself are not only emerging yourself in the adoration of others, but that you are giving it out so much that it is really not authentic and it is really not worthy and that you are feeding the beast of pride in the hearts of yourself as well as others.

Life is not gonna be, everything’s wonderful every day. There’s true challenges, there’s true suffering, there’s true sorrow in this world and what we have to teach our young people is how to endure, how to power through, how to look to God in these moments of sufferings and difficulties and that life cannot always be where you’re on a stage and you’re receiving adoration.

and you’re receiving accolades yes when you achieve something yes when you accomplish we celebrate your good work we celebrate God’s good work in your heart but my friends when you’re done we need you to get out there and make a difference because every day is not a graduation ceremony and every day is not a t -ball game with trophies and medals and candy so we see this adoration unfolding in the heart of Herod which only feeds his pride in his life and I want you to note the punishment of pride in verse 23 the Bible says then immediately then immediately an angel of the Lord struck him now why because he did not give glory to God The Bible says pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.

We see first the messenger of punishment. It was an angel and sometimes God sends angels to be his instruments of judgment. I found Acts chapter 12 to be an interesting chapter because we saw in Acts chapter 12 verse seven through 11 that there was a delivering angel that delivered Peter out of prison.

And then we saw in verse 15, there was a personal angel. Remember I taught you a few weeks ago that in Judaism they believe that every person is assigned an angel. And when the young lady came to the door and Peter was knocking wanting to let them know that he had been set free, she went back to tell the folks that were praying and they said, no, you just saw his angel.

Not a angel, but his angel because they believed in their heart that every person was assigned an angel. Jesus affirmed this truth in the gospel of Matthew chapter 18 when he reminded us that we are to receive the little children unto him and that we are to allow the little children to come to him and that we are to never offend or hurt these little children.

Why? Because their angel is before the throne of God every day. So God reminds us that yes, we do have an angel signed to us. Some of you have probably been assigned many angels because of your behavior and your risk -taking and some of your choices.

The Lord decided we better send 10 ,000 angels to take care of that person, but there are not only delivering angels, personal angels, but I want you to know there was a death. angel. In verse 23, the angel immediately struck Herod.

And I want you to see the motive because he did not give glory to God. The crime for which God would judge Herod was he would not give glory to God. Remember what the scriptures teach us that God gives more grace.

The Bible says therefore it says God opposes the proud but he gives grace to the humble. God opposes every heart that lifts itself above him and towards him. God opposes pride in the life of every individual but the heart that is humble before God.

He keeps pouring grace. upon grace upon grace on that individual you say why is it that that person seems to have so much grace manifested in their life it may be that they are humbly coming before god on a daily and moment by moment basis receiving the grace of god because he responds to humble hearts but Herod he said look at me look at me look how wonderful I am he didn’t give glory to god the scriptures teaches us in 1st Corinthians 1 31 he who glories let him glory in the Lord you and I have no grounds for pride or boasting in ourselves we are aware of what the bible says for by grace are you saved through faith that not of yourselves it is a gift of god not of works lest any man should boast you’re not gonna be able to stand before god and say lord look how many times I went to church lord look at what I did for you and look at all the things I accomplished for you oh my friends if that becomes your motivation and if you think that somehow you’re gonna have credentials that you can bring to god that will give you entrance into heaven and that your religion or the manifestation of your faith and your determination and your perseverance is gonna somehow make you more favorable to god than any other person that I’m telling you you will fall short you will fall short for the only way that you and I can enter into the pearly gates of heaven the only way that our sins can be forgiven is through the eternal work of christ on the cross as he rose again affirming that god has accepted his sacrifice that he gave his life for you and he gave his life for me it’s not my work that saves my soul,

it is the work of Jesus Christ on the cross that brings eternal life to all who believe in Jesus. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

My friend, have you turned from the world? Have you turned from the flesh? Have you turned away from your sin and turned to Jesus Christ and received him as your Lord and savior? Have you come to God and said, Lord, I am a sinner and I wanna just bow before you and ask you to do an eternal work in my heart and to save me from my sins?

You don’t get to come to God and say, Lord, look at me. Every once in a while I hear people say, man, if that person gets saved, look what all they could do for God. Are you kidding me? That’s not how God works.

God chooses the foolish things of the world, the weak things of the world. And the Bible tells us, why does God do this? Why does He choose the most insignificant and the most unlikely people? It is because that He would receive all the credit and all the glory and all the praise for whatever is done in and through, around any of us.

Yes. The scriptures remind us in Isaiah 42 .8, I am the Lord, that is my name, and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images. In the Westminster Catechism, we are reminded that what is man’s primary purpose?

The answer is simply this, man’s primary purpose is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. Your entire life is about bringing glory to God, even those minute tasks, even those what you might find in your life to be insignificant moments.

It’s all about bringing glory to God. Why should I raise these children to love God and to love people? It is that they may bring glory to God. Why should I go to work and give my best every day and do my best every day?

It is that it may bring glory to God, that people might see my good works and that they would begin to give glory to my God. Why should I make every effort to reach others who are hurting and struggling and suffering because it brings glory to God?

Hear me, church, nothing brings more glory to our God than the salvation of souls, nothing. And that’s why there is nothing more significant that you could be a part of than the ministry of reaching others for Jesus.

I want you to see the misery of the punishment in verse 23. Hang in there, then immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give glory to God and he was eaten by worms and he died.

Again, historian Josephus, he was a Jewish historian. He recorded that Herod suffered terribly for five days before his death. In life, sometimes we see people, we learn what to do. But other times, we see people and we learn what not to do.

And I propose this question to you this morning for you to consider in relating to Herod’s life, that if God’s wrath breaks out against a man for not giving God the glory in a speech, how much greater danger must hang over the heads of those who refuse to give God glory in their journey of faith?

If God would judge a man who did not believe in him, because he did not give glory, how much more would he judge us, who know better, who love God, who have the spirit residing in us, how much more would he hold us accountable for not giving glory to him?

When the apostle taught on the Lord’s table in 1 Corinthians 11, he reminded the believers in verse 31 of chapter 11 that if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. His point was saintly this, if you would deal with it now, God would not have to deal with it later.

That’s why every day in this struggle of pride that each of us wrestle with, and it doesn’t matter who you are, how long you’ve been living for Jesus, that we all must be cognizant of this battle that exists within our hearts, and that we must bring the sin of pride and confess it to God on a daily basis, asking the Lord to judge that sin and address it, and be confident of this, that if we confess our sins,

he is faithful. faithful and just to what church? Forgive us, cleanse us from all of our unrighteousness. You see, Jesus took the judgment of sin on the cross for you and he took it for me and therefore I do not have to bear that judgment when I bring it to Christ.

I am washed, I am cleansed, and I am forgiven, and I am given a brand new start in Jesus Christ. Don’t wait. Don’t wait. Though pride has embedded in your heart and you have become addicted to adoration and appeasement, and anger controls your thoughts and your decisions before you finally come to Jesus and say, please slay pride in my heart.

The final truth that we see in this text, and I won’t take you long, I won’t keep you long, but it is one that you can consider for your own self, and that is the parting of pride. In verse 24, what is the response?

Remember that this man, he already murdered James, one of the apostles, he threw Peter into jail. He was a man who was out to destroy the church and the word of God, but what is the response? The word of God grew and multiplied.

I remind you church, that there is no political leader, there is no government that can ever be a threat to the church, because our God is sovereign. While Christians should be salt and light in the world, it’s easy for us to be deceived into believing that political power alone will help our church or the cause of Christ.

It will not, God can take care of any ruthless leader. Move them out of the way, judge them so that the gospel will go forward. Do not be discouraged church. Do not be shaken by the circumstances of this world and the political drama that unfolds on day -to -day basis.

Do not be driven by your emotions of what you see on a news station or what’s popping up on your phone, but rather you be driven by the confidence and the promises of the sovereignty of God and the cause of his purposes in this world.

Volitaire was a man who tried to stop the ministry of the word. He wanted every Bible to be burned and destroyed, but 25 years after his death, his house was sold to the Geneva Bible Society to be used to store newly printed Bibles.

God’s word will never stop. When we deal with pride, God’s word spread, and we see God’s people are serving. And I just want you to see there in that last verse how Barnabas and Saul just picked up the baton and got busy.

They could have spent all their time in grief. They could have spent all their time in depression about James being martyred in the beginning of the chapter. They could have been all hiding and fretting because Peter was thrown into jail.

They could have been shook into their core as they witnessed the advancement of Herod the king as he was making political negotiations and people were praising him. But in a moment, God humbled and destroyed the kings of this earth and he laughs.

at their arrogance and Barnabas picks up the baton and says let’s carry on the work of Christ. There are times church that God calls home our loved ones. He calls home our friends. He calls home the patriarchs of our churches but I promise you this he is not calling on you and I to quit and give up.

There are times that the political atmosphere is oppressive and difficult but God does not call us to run and hide but he calls us to be victorious marching forward. Rest assured church that if in any moment the Lord calls Mike Sanders home that you take a couple minutes show up to the funeral slap me a high five and say pastor we’re so happy you’re in heaven and you get back to work and serve Jesus amen.

Do not spend all your time whining and crying and complaining or maybe some of you might be rejoicing and partying. We finally got rid of him. God is so awesome. I’m just teasing maybe not at all but church we got to move forward for Christ and don’t be so self -absorbed that it’s all about you because it is about the glory of God.

Pick up the baton and let’s get busy for Jesus Christ. Would you pray with me? It’s not natural for us to be humble. It’s not natural for us to put others first. It’s not natural for us to seek the will of God and the plan of God.

So it requires us to deal with our pride and that’s something that we have to bring to the altar every day of our life and making sure that we are confronting it and that we are willing to slay it, if you will, and get it under the surrender of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And that’s when we can maximize our life for Christ. So we’re grateful for the opportunity to learn about this and even though it’s been a little bit difficult, I hope that it has touched your heart and challenged you in different areas of your life.

We want to encourage you to check us out on hopewithhaving .com. If you haven’t had a chance to get to our website, you can learn more about our ministry, more about what we are doing. We also have a newsletter you can sign up for.

So if you go to hopewithhaving .com and just click on the newsletter, then you can take advantage of receiving that material, keeping you updated on the ministry. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.

The post Dealing With Pride 2 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on Dealing With Pride 1. He will be reading out of Acts 12:20-25.

These parents that are always bailing out their children are only deepening the pride that’s in their heart. There is appeasement that is constantly going on because we want to keep them happy. God is more interested in the character of your children than he is the comforter.

Hello this is Pastor Mike Sanders and we welcome you to the Hopeworth Having radio program. We’re going to be in Acts chapter 12 but this time we’re moving to verse 20 through 25 and we’re going to talk about dealing with pride.

Is there anything that is constantly attacking us like pride? We have to remember that pride is always trying to swell up. We see this in the life of Herod and I want you to see how the Lord teaches us to deal with pride not only in our hearts but also being able to make sure that we deal with pride in the hearts of others.

So let’s begin our study today. Perhaps the most destructive word in any language is the word pride. It was pride that damned Satan and his angels. It is pride that has destroyed many churches, families, and individuals.

The Bible says for all that is in the world the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but it is of the world. Pride leads to spiritual defeat. The book of Proverbs reminds us that there are six things that the Lord hates.

Seven that are an abomination to him. He tells us that one of those things that God hates is haughty eyes. D .L. Moody was a great evangelist of the 18th century. historians have said that he was a man who literally took the nation of England and the nation of America by each hand and shook them for God.

He said one time in his sermon that God sends no one away empty except those who are full of themselves. Again, the book of Proverbs tells us that when pride comes then comes shame. But with the lowly or the humble is wisdom.

In our text today in Acts chapter 12 verse 20 through 25 we are learning how we can deal with pride. I know that the immediate reaction might be I don’t have any pride, Mike. Well friends, here we go.

We need to address pride. The truth is it doesn’t matter whether it’s the pastor, the people. We’re all struggling with pride. We’re all working through it, and when we come to our text, we are introduced to a man whose name is Herod.

Herod was appointed by Rome to rule over the province of Judea. He is referred to as Herod the King. He was the grandson of Herod the Great, who had murdered his father, Aristobulus. Herod the Great was a blood -thirsty ruler.

You might remember in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 2, in verse 16, when our Lord and Savior was born, that the Bible says that Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he became furious.

And he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem, and in all the region who were two years old and under, according to the time that he had been ascertained from the wise men. So Herod’s grandfather was a murderous man, but the Herod that we’re introduced in chapter 12 is not Herod the Great, it’s Herod the King.

You recall in our study a few weeks ago that Herod, that he had set up 16 soldiers to guard Peter in prison. Remember that he had begun to persecute the church, and he was upset that the advancement of the Gospel was making such a impact in the community, so he had James slain, murdered.

He threw Peter in jail with 16 guards around him. God demonstrating his power sent one angel to free Peter, reminding us that there is no power of mankind that can thwart God’s plan. There is nothing in this world that can stop the advancement of the Gospel of the Lord.

Lord Jesus Christ. There are times that you and I feel the oppression and maybe the persecution of others upon us that somehow it might hinder the advancement of the kingdom of Christ, but I assure you that God is sovereign and that he is in control.

And to help us understand that, I remind you of what the Psalmist said in Psalm chapter two. In Psalm chapter two, verse two, after the question had been asked, why do the nations rage or why do the heathen rage and the people plot a vain thing and the kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed saying, let us break their bonds and pieces and cast away their cords from us.

Note verse four, what is God’s response? He who sits in the heavens shall laugh. “‘The Lord shall hold them in derision. “‘Then he shall speak to them in his wrath “‘and distress them in his deep displeasure.'” The point is that it’s very laughable to God that finite man would even try to stop the advancement of his purposes and his causes upon this earth.

And so when we come to Acts chapter 12 and we begin to close out this chapter, we are reminded that God is giving to his church more evidence of his sovereignty over everything that the church faces.

Yes, the church had lost one of its leaders to martyrdom. And yes, the church had witnessed one of its leaders thrown in jail and the angel set him free. And now we see in Acts chapter 12 that we have a king who has lost control of his emotions.

We pick up in verse 20 of chapter 12 of the book of Acts. The Bible says, now Herod had been very angry with the people of Tyree and Sedan, but they came to him with one accord and having made blast the king’s personal aid, their friend, they asked for peace because their country was supplied with food by the king’s country.

So on a set day, Herod arrayed in royal peril, sat on his throne and gave an oration to them. And the people kept shouting the voice of a God and not of a man. And then immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give glory to God.

And he was eaten by worms and died. But the word of God grew and multiplied and Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem and he returned from Jerusalem. And when they had fulfilled their ministry and they also took with them, John, whose surname was Mark, how do we deal with pride?

I want you to notice the progress of pride. In verses 20 through 22, we see how pride can progress in our lives, how it can take hold of our hearts and lead us down a path that is destructive. The book of Proverbs tells us again in Proverbs 21 .4 that a haughty look, a proud heart and the plowing of the wicked are sin.

What is this progress? I think the first thing that begins to initiate pride in each of our heart is anger. It’s anger. Would you note again in the text, the Bible says that Herod had been very angry with the people of Tyree and Sedan.

I did all the research and I could. and there is no one that really understands what this anger was about, and why he was so upset with these groups of people, but he had this attitude of anger that had begun to take deep root into his heart.

And it laid the seeds of pride, and it began to control his choices and his thoughts and his decisions in life, and as a result, he saw himself as an invincible person, a person who could just decide whatever he wanted and he could destroy whoever he wanted and he could take life if he wanted to take life.

He could attack whoever he wanted to attack. It was the attitude of anger that had never been resolved in Herod’s heart. The Bible reminds us that human anger does not achieve God’s righteous purpose.

There’s something about anger in our hearts that the Scriptures remind all fathers to not provoke their children unto anger. It’s anger that is never dealt with that can lead our children to be arrogant, arrogant, prideful, young people who could care less about God and want nothing to do with loving Jesus.

The Bible says a fool utters all his anger, but a wise man keeps it back and steals it. It’s essential in your life that whether it’s you, your children, family, friends within the church, doesn’t matter what the scenario, their circumstance, that you do not let anger to be the bed seed of pride in your heart.

Too many believers have unresolved anger in their hearts. Too many believers have not come to grips with what is really causing these emotional outbursts in my life. What are these things that are clouding my thoughts and affecting my decision making?

Many times God is calling us to come to the foot of the cross and to confess that anger to him and to see his redemptive work in our hearts and bring those matters to the Lord Jesus Christ. It may be something in the past.

It may be something in the present. It may be something that you’re seeing about to happen in the future. But whatever it is that is rooting anger in your life, God is calling you to address it. We like to suppress our emotions.

We like to deny it. But God is calling you to confess it to him. When you come before the Lord Jesus Christ and you are transparent and you bring these matters, these issues, these unresolved thoughts in your heart, then you bring them to Christ.

God’s work, God’s grace begins to be effective in your life. We not only see that the progress of pride is anger, but it’s appeasement. Look in verse 21 of the text. You note that the scripture says, so on a set day Herod, a raid in royal apparel, sat on his throne and he gave an oration to them.

Recall that Herod was angry with Tyree and Sadan. He had leverage on them because he was the one that provided food to them and they realized that even though this individual was not emotionally stable and he was not someone that they could rely upon, he was not a trustworthy person, they would have to make an agreement with him for the sake of the people.

And so they began to appease him and they began to feed his ego. They began to give him things that he wanted. Remember, I’ve taught you in the past that whenever you read the scriptures, you’re getting snapshots.

You’re getting, if you will, kind of a picture of what is taking place. Sometimes all the details are not there, but what we do understand is that there was this negotiation that went on between verse 20 and 21 and the resolution or the agreement was that they would appease Herod and they would give him royal apparel and he would sit on a throne and he would be able to stand before a large crowd and this large crowd,

no matter what he said, no matter how horrible his speech was, they were going to give him whatever he wanted. They would clap. They would praise him. They would respond in a way. that fed his ego. That’s what happens when we live in a context of always wanting everything in our life, demanding that people appease us, demanding that it be our way or the highway, insisting that we get what we deserve,

that we take the approach that somehow we are worthy of these things, this royal apparel, that we are somehow given things that we demand in our life. What happens is that pride begins to emerge and we begin to think that we’re really something.

When everybody around us is pretending because they’re appeasing us, they’re trying to keep us from having an emotional blow -up, they spend their entire life walking on ice around us, afraid to upset us, and always giving us exactly what we want.

But we don’t get upset. Some people find themselves in relationships like that. Sad to say, some parents have attempted to raise their children like this. And they wonder what’s wrong with Johnny. When you spend your life giving Johnny everything that he wants and trying to appease him with all of his selfish desires, it is no wonder that he grows up self -absorbed.

It’s no wonder that he feeds off the appeasement of other, which build more and more pride in his heart. I know that you love your little Johnny. And I want to give you some advice. Number one, don’t let the grandparents raise little Johnny.

Amen. Grandparents aren’t designed to raise children. I know some of you have to, and we certainly are praying for you, but somehow you’ve got to get out of grandpa mode and you’ve got to get into mom mode or dad mode and that when this child does something wrong, we’ve got to deal with it, we’ve got to address it, because if you just keep on handing them a sucker or you keep on handing them candy and you keep on handing them a Mountain Dew,

hoping that it will appease them and make them happy and like you, you’re going to raise up a child that is going to be destructive in society. Are you with me? Number two, this is just Mike Sanders’ parental advice to you, okay?

And you say, okay. is do not wait till your children are 16 to realize there’s a problem. The greatest truth every parent could learn is that their child is born a sinner in need of a savior. At the very heart of every child is this heart that is deceitful, a heart that is destructive.

The Bible says who can know it. Sometimes people say to me, they say, pastor, I’m gonna follow my heart. And I say, please don’t. You follow your heart and you may go down the wrong path because your heart doesn’t always know what’s best.

But I tell you that you don’t build your life on your feelings, you don’t build your life on your emotions. You build your life on the truth and the promises of God. And when you understand that your child is a sinner in need of a savior and little Johnny.

I mean, you don’t have to have a training session on how to have a meltdown at Target and how to lose your senses, fall on the ground, kick and scream, yell. I mean, no mom and dad saying, let me teach Johnny how to do that, right?

Can’t get them everything that they want. You gotta learn, teach them to work for it. You gotta learn to teach them to be humble and teach them to make effort and that everything’s not gonna be handed to them in their life.

Can I give another piece of advice? Like I wouldn’t, right? Some of you have grown children. Are you with me? This is where you’re gonna get mad at me, okay? Don’t worry, I am capable of dodging the tomatoes.

Would you quit veiling out your kids? Would you quit veiling them out? Your kids need to learn to not trust you, but trust the Lord. They need to look to the Lord Jesus Christ for their hope, their strength, and their help, and these parents that are always covering and making up and bailing out their children are only deepening the pride that’s in their heart and they think that they are worthy of it and they deserve it and they are very much in this progress of pride that we see in the life of Herod in that there is not only unresolved anger that has never been dealt with,

there is appeasement that is constantly going on because we want to keep them happy. God is more interested in the character of your children than he is the comfort of your children. And God is more interested in the holiness of your children than he is in the happiness of your children.

And let me just throw this out there. I know it’s just a lot. a lot of stuff flooding in my mind at heart right now. But think about that prodigal son’s father. He had the capacity, the ability to step in at any point while his son was walking down the hog pen trail, getting ready to bottom out into that he would live with the hogs and the pigs.

Dad could have stepped in any time, paid the bills, covered the debts, but he never did. Because God was doing an effective work in the life of that young man, and he would have never came to himself until he bottomed up, and there is many a young person that’ll never look to Jesus until they’re flat on their back.

But yet you keep jumping in. You’re the Holy Spirit. You’re gonna save the day. You’re gonna make that one difference when you are really only. slowing the process of God’s redemptive work in the heart of that child.

Not only do we see anger and appeasement, but we see adoration as part of this progress of pride. We jump down to verse 22 of chapter 12. The Bible says, the people kept shouting the voice of a god and not of a man as Herod was putting on this show as he was making this orientation as he was declaring this speech.

Who knows what he was talking about? It was so irrelevant and insignificant that Luke does not even record the substance of what he said, but rather reminds us that he was a raid and royal apparel. And according to the historian, the Jewish historian Josephus, he was wearing a garment that was made of silver.

It was flashy, it was dynamic, and so he was putting on this show and the people were shouting, it is a god. He’s a god, not even a man. They began to adore him, flatter him. They began to give him words of praise that were not even appropriate for the moment, but elevated him in his own mind thinking that he was superior to everyone and that he was above even god himself.

I need to drop a word. This idea that if our kids show up to a ball game they deserve a trophy. Time magazine put out an article and said this generation is called the self -esteem generation. Like no other generation, they have been told how wonderful they are and they believe it.

And they are shocked when they have to show up. to work they are shocked that they have to have evaluations and they have to have progress reports and they are shocked when they receive critique in the real world about their job performance because they have been told all that all their life that they were so wonderful and they just showed up to a t -ball game and all of a sudden were handed out medals and trophies to them telling them they’re the greatest thing since peanut butter and you say peanut butter I know it’s sliced bread but I like peanut butter and my point to you is be careful that you yourself are not only emerging yourself in the adoration of others but that you are giving it out so much that it is really not authentic and it is really not worthy and that you are feeding the beast of pride in the hearts of yourself as well as others Life is not gonna be everything’s wonderful every day.

There’s true challenges, there’s true suffering, there’s true sorrow in this world, and what we have to teach our young people is how to endure, how to power through, how to look to God in these moments of sufferings and difficulties and that life cannot always be where you’re on a stage and you’re receiving adoration and you’re receiving accolades, yes, when you achieve something, yes, when you accomplish,

we celebrate your good work, we celebrate God’s good work in your heart, but my friends, when you’re done, we need you to get out there and make a difference. Because every day is not a graduation ceremony.

And every day is not a T -ball game with trophies and medals and candy. So we see this adoration unfolding in the heart of Herod which only feeds his pride in his life, and I want you to note the punishment of pride in verse 23.

The Bible says, then immediately, then immediately an angel of the Lord struck him. Now why? Because he did not give glory to God. The Bible says pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.

We see first the messenger of punishment. It was an angel, and sometimes God sends angels to be his instruments of judgment. I found Acts chapter 12 to be an interesting chapter because we saw in Acts chapter 12, verse 7 through 11, that there was a delivering angel that delivered Peter out of prison, and then we saw in verse 15.

15, there was a personal angel, remember I taught you a few weeks ago that in Judaism, they believed that every person is assigned an angel. And when the young lady came to the door and Peter was knocking, wanting to let them know that he had been set free, she went back to tell the folks that were praying and they said, no, you just saw his angel.

Not a angel, but his angel because they believed in their heart that every person was assigned an angel. Jesus affirmed this truth in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 18 when he reminded us that we are to receive the little children unto him and that we are to allow the little children to come to him and that we are to never offend or hurt these little children, why?

Because their angel is before the throne of God. You’re free. day. So God reminds us that yes, we do have an angel signed to us. Some of you have probably been assigned many angels because of your behavior and your risk -taking and some of the choices.

The Lord decided we better send 10 ,000 angels to take care of that person. But there are not only delivering angels, personal angels, but I want you to know there was a death angel. In verse 23, the angel immediately struck Herod and I want you to see the motive because he did not give glory to God.

The crime for which God would judge Herod was he would not give glory to God. Remember what the scriptures teach us, that God gives more grace. The Bible says, therefore it says God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.

God opposes every heart that lifts itself above him and towards him. God opposes pride in the life of every individual, but the heart that is humble before God, he keeps pouring grace upon grace upon grace on that individual.

You say, why is it that that person seems to have so much grace manifested in their life? It may be that they are humbly coming before God on a daily and moment by moment basis receiving the grace of God because he responds to humble art.

We got to remember that God is always working, and he is calling us to walk humbly before him. And that means we need to remember that pride can be our downfall. So we hope what you’re learning here in Acts chapter 12 about pride will continue to help you and all of us together to deal with pride in our hearts.

You may not have ever read our book called Dynamic Devotions. It’s available on HopeworthHaving .com and this is just a series of devotions day by day that you can read, be inspired, and encouraged. Make sure that you go to the website and that you make that selection and any donation of any amount will send you a copy of that book to you so you can continue to grow in your faith.

This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.

The post Dealing With Pride 1 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Power of a Prayer Meeting 2. He will be reading out of Acts 12:1-9.

And even if you have a hard time articulating what you want to say to God, the Bible says even the groanings of our heart through the Spirit of God are launched into heaven and he understands your plight, he understands your problems.

And my friends, he is effectively working in response to your prayer. Hello this is Pastor Mike Sanders from the Opendoor Church. I serve there as the senior pastor and we welcome you to the Hope Worth Having radio program.

Hope Worth Having is about reaching people with the hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Today we’re in Acts 12 and we’re going to be continuing our study in the power of a prayer meeting. So join me as we jump into this text.

And the psalmist said, in thy presence is fullness of joy and at thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore. Do you think anybody goes to heaven as they’re disappointed? You think anybody steps out of this land and steps into the immortal land of heaven and thinks wow, I wish it would be so much more?

There’s nothing to be afraid of. We’re not afraid of danger. The second reason that we recognize God is in control is because we’re not afraid to suffer. God uses suffering. He used suffering to make the church stronger.

He used suffering to teach the church that they can’t rely upon a personality like James. They can’t just look to Peter for all their answers. They must look beyond those church leaders and they must look to Jesus Christ.

And so the church was called to gather together and to come to God almighty and to come to him because whence cometh my help, does it come from the… of political figures. Does it come from the religious leaders?

Does it come from the church leaders? No, it comes from Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, amen? I want you to know that you and I understand that even in the midst of suffering, God can use suffering to make you a stronger Christian.

God can use suffering to make our church a better church. I have to just be real with you this morning if you’re okay with that. Not that I’m not ever real with you, but just want to say that. But I think our church is stronger after COVID.

I think we’re more united, more caring, more loving and more understanding and more sensitive. And I think that there’s something special that God has done among our people. And I think we’re more grateful for the opportunity to be with God’s people and to gather and understand how quickly the freedoms that we have to live our faith can be gone in a moment.

And there’s a special work that God has done. among you and I, as his people. We know God is still in control because we’re not afraid to trust God’s care. That’s what prayer does, prayer says, Lord, we trust you.

We’re not gonna look to the world for the answers, we’re gonna look to you. There was a problem that activated the prayer meeting, but I also want you to see the people that assembled for the prayer meeting in verse five.

Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by who? Go ahead, you can answer, the church. Let’s try that again. I know it’s been a week, you guys have been out of sync, haven’t you?

Peter was therefore kept in prison by constant prayer was offered to God for him by who? Do you know who the church is? It’s you, it’s not these buildings, it’s not these facilities, it’s not this beautiful campus that God has entrusted to this family of fellowship, of believers.

The church is you, it is the people of God, it is the saints of God that believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And there is not only a global church that encompasses the entire world, but there are local churches of fellowship of believers like the Open Door Church and other churches in our community that worship Jesus Christ and believe he is the only way to heaven.

And I tell you that God had assembled the church in this trying time. You can imagine how devastated they were that their leader, James, the brother of John, was killed with the sword and how they were grieving and now Peter was in jail wondering what is gonna happen to this ragtag collection of people who somehow have been moving forward, advancing the cause of Christ.

Would the movement of Jesus stop? No, my friends, for God had called. Peter’s faithful friends come together and pray. From its inception the early church has demonstrated an earnestness and a constantness in its prayer life.

Would you just walk with me through Acts chapter 1? We’ll start there with the thread that exists of the people of God committed to prayer and I want you to know not just prayer individually but together.

I know some of you say pastor I can pray at home. I can pray while I’m driving on the road, yes, but keep your eyes open. But I want to say this, there’s something special and there’s something powerful when God’s people pray together.

In Acts chapter 1 and verse 14 we see these all continued with one accord in what church? Prayer and supplication. We jump over to chapter 2 and verse 42 as Again, Luke is describing this unique unity that exists in the family of God.

And in verse 42, he says, they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship in the breaking of bread and in what? Prayers. We come over to Acts chapter four. And again, we come down to verse 23.

And you remember that again, the church was facing a little persecution from the religious elite. The Sadducees were upset at Peter and John, and they had preached the gospel to them. The high priest, Caiaphas, was upset.

And here we see the church praying, verse 23. And being let go, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them, verse 24. So when they heard that, they raised their voices to God with one accord and said, Lord, you are God who made heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them.

We jump over to chapter six, when the church was facing the problem of organization and so much growth going on the church that the needs of different people in the church were being neglected. The apostles said to the church, you’ve got to pick out some leaders to help.

You’ve got to pick out some servants, some deacons to help with the task. We pick up in verse four, why would they want to do that? Why would they want to get more people involved? Look at verse four, that we will give ourselves continually to what?

Prayer. Now we’re over here in Acts chapter 12, and we see that the church in verse five is offering prayers. to God, offering prayers to God. We sometimes minimize prayer and we say, well, all we can do now is pray, as if that’s all we can do.

Oh, we wish maybe we could do something more or maybe something more effective, but I want to say to you, each and every one of you, this morning that the most powerful and the most effective ministry at the Open Door Church is prayer.

And not only should each and every one of you be committed to pray daily, but you and I should be committed to coming together and praying together as God’s people. I think about, I was thinking about last night as I was just going over my notes and thinking about what I wanted to say this morning to you.

And I was thinking about how we have all these classes across our campus, whether they’re adult classes, youth classes, children’s classes, and how beautiful it must be for God to look across this 52 acre campus and see the people of God.

divided up in these groups and classes and that they are praying to him together as the family of God. Oh, I know some of you missed it, didn’t you? Some of you didn’t come this morning because Sunday school’s not important to you because praying together is not important to you.

But I’m gonna challenge you this morning to step out of your comfort zone and step out of your worldly thinking that it’s not important to be with God’s people and it’s not important to be in a class praying together before the church comes together in a worship service.

We have people across this campus praying together, learning the word of God together and I think it is a powerful hour in the life of the open door church. I would strongly encourage each one of you that if you’re not connected to a class or you have neglected or you have allowed COVID to get you out of the habit of connecting with God’s people in prayer that you would once again step up your game and say prayer is important and prayer is valuable and coming together and praying together with God’s people and whether that’s on a Sunday morning or whether that’s on a Wednesday evening or whether that’s on another day or night.

Some of you are gathering together on Tuesdays and Thursdays and some of you are gathering on Wednesday mornings and some of you might gather together on a Saturday morning. Whatever it is, I just want you to know there’s nothing that is thrilling the soul, if you will, of our heart, of our God, like seeing his people praying together.

Some of you may not think prayer is that important but I’ll tell you what’ll change your marriage and what’ll change your family is praying together. There’s nothing that unites a husband and wife and there’s nothing that unites the family together like prayer.

I want to encourage you to pray with your spouse. I want to encourage you to pray with your… children, you see my children are growing up, it’s okay, keep praying with them. Can I have prayer with you?

I told the people up in Binghamton, I was preaching through the book of Amos, and we were talking about Amos and he was praying for his nation, praying that God would turn them around. But I told them about, there’s really only two people in my life that have ever turned me down to pray.

And I’m not kidding with you, I’m not lying to you, I’m just telling you what happened and isn’t anything to do with Mike, it just happened, but there was only two people, and when they turned me down, the next day within 24 hours, they were gone, they had died.

All I’m saying is this to you, is don’t underestimate the power of prayer and don’t devalue it in your life. and know that when God gives you the opportunity and you are given the invitation to pray with a prayer partner, to pray with a pastor, to pray with other people in the church, elders, deacons, leaders, spouses, children, whoever it might be, dear friends in your classes and your groups and your Bible studies,

that you do not neglect this moment and that you understand how precious it is and there is no other time that you are closer to the throne of God than when your heart is bowed before God Almighty with God’s people praying to Jesus Christ, Amen, go ahead.

What we see about their prayer is that it was consistent. It was not something that the church just did randomly but rather it was regular, it is something that they made an important part of their life.

It was the life of the church and people say, well, prayer is boring or prayer is not that important or I can just do it another way or another’s time but listen to me, my friends. We’re called to be a consistent people.

When we pray, we’re saying, Lord, I need you and I not only need you every hour, Lord but I need you every moment. We are humbling ourselves. Prayer is a reflection of our hearts and when our heart is so prideful that we’re too good and we’re too busy to gather with God’s people to pray, it is only telling the Lord where our heart is.

Their prayers were not only consistent but they were fervent. They were fervent, they were passionate, they were authentic, they came right from the heart. I know some of you say, well, I just don’t know what to say when I pray.

Well, just speak from your heart like you’re talking to anybody. You may not have the fancy words and you may not even always be theologically in line but that’s okay because God knows the heart, Amen.

And you remember the thief on the cross, he had been a pretty rough dude because it’s not like every day the Romans were wanting. and to crucify people, but this guy had lived such a life that not even the Romans, and all of their humanism, and all of their secularism, and all of their pluralism, not even the Romans could put up with this guy in society anymore, and they said we’ve gotta crucify him.

We gotta get him outta here, because he is a mess, and he is a menace upon society. And so they were going to crucify him on this cross, and while he was on the cross, he saw the Lord as savior, Jesus Christ.

He saw the holy God being crucified unjustly, and he said to Jesus, remember me. Now some of you deep theologians, you would never let him into heaven, because he didn’t pray the right sinner’s prayer.

He didn’t say it the right way, and he didn’t walk down an aisle, and he didn’t bend a knee. My friends, he’s on the cross, he can’t bend a knee. But let me tell you what God looks at, your heart. You’re worried about your words, but God is watching your heart.

Remember me and Jesus said, today you’ll be with me in paradise. Unfortunately, many people have prayed the sinner’s prayer, but they never meant a word of it. They’re still living in their sin, thinking maybe they’re okay with God.

It is with the heart, the Bible says, man believes unto righteousness. So we see that God looks at a heart when we are praying. Thomas Watson, the great Puritan preacher, said that the angel fetched Peter out of prison, but it was prayer that fetched the angel to go to prison and get Peter.

Now I want you to remember this about prayer. Why is prayer so important to you and me? In God’s sovereignty, in his wisdom, he has chosen to work through the prayers of his people. You want to move the heart of God?

You want to see God activated in your life? Feast not in praying to him. Keep coming to him with your prayers, because this is how God has chosen to work. It is no wonder that the Apostle Paul said to the Thessalonians, brethren, pray for us.

Is there anything more special than to be on anybody’s prayer list? I’m so grateful for the many of you who remind me that you are praying for me, the cards you send, the text messages, the emails, the letters that you sent to me, the one -on -one communication, and saying, pastor, we are praying for you.

I am touched and I am moved, because it is special to be on your prayer list. And we need to learn to pray for each other. and we need to do it together. God’s ear is always open when we come to Him in prayer.

We see that even though the church was earnestly praying in verse five, we jump down to verse 16 of chapter 12, and they’re kind of astonished that God answered the prayer. Now Peter continued knocking, and when they opened the door and saw Him, they were astonished.

Have you ever prayed like that? You prayed to God and you didn’t think He would answer it, but then all of a sudden, bam, it happens. The door opens. The life is changed. A decision is made. Wisdom is given to you.

I wanna ask you a question. Do you trust in God to answer your prayers? Do you believe that God would answer your prayers? Here’s a powerful truth. God answers prayer. Wow, I know you wanted something deeper.

But when you hang out with a bunch of New Yorkers, it doesn’t get too deep up there. I’m just teasing. Last year, I was preaching at this conference and as soon as I got done, I was trying to get out of New York as quick as possible because I didn’t want them to lock me down because of COVID.

And so I was flying through those little towns and a little police officer, he pulled me over. I guess you shouldn’t drive 55 in a 30. But I started dropping names and I started letting them know I was a pastor and I was at a Bible conference and thank God it saved me from a ticket.

But this time I drove as slow as I could and I told Terry, I said, if they locked me up because of COVID, hopefully they’ll let you go and you go tell the people to pray that I could get out of jail.

You see, God answers prayer, church. And that’s why you should be a praying people. The third thing I want you to see is that the peace that attended the prayer meeting. I want you to go back to verse six of chapter 12.

It’s just amazing as I was reflecting on this verse this week that the Bible says when Herod was about to bring him out, Peter knew that he was gonna die. He knew that this was the end of his life, that Herod was just waiting for the Passover to be over but the Bible says that night, Peter was what?

Bound with two chains. Have you ever tried to sleep with two chains? Two soldiers and the guards before the door were keeping the prison. I mean, he knew his life was over and the people are praying for God to release him.

It’s an impossible situation. What is Peter doing? Tossing and turning, being fretful and just upset and full of anxiety? No, he slept. The Bible says he gives his beloved sleep. Peter slept, why? Because he was assured of God’s care.

You may be facing something that has caused you to be very anxious, something that has caused you to toss and turn at night, but let me assure you what the psalmist said in Psalm 29, 11, that the Lord will give strength unto his people and the Lord will bless his people with peace.

It’s something to go through the storm with peace, isn’t it? It’s something to walk through the fiery trials of life and still have the peace of God in your heart. You wanna talk about being a testimony for God?

It’s not melting down every time there’s a problem in your life. It’s not melting down every time there’s a disagreement. It’s not getting angry and upset every time a mistake has happened, but it’s walking in the peace of God.

It’s experiencing the peace of God when the pressures of life are on you. Peter’s peaceful submission to the Lord. Lord, you’re in charge to live as Christ, to die as gain. Whatever your plan is, God, I’m all in.

I want you to see the fourth thing, the pardon that answered the prayer meeting. In verses seven through 11, we see Peter’s supernatural deliverance. We read it to you earlier. We see that Peter is liberated from prison by an angel.

And I want you to see that as soon as God has made the exit, as soon as God has made the way forward, that Peter showed instant obedience. Did you see that? I want you to go back to the text and notice that the Bible says in verse seven, Behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him and a light shone in the prison, and he struck Peter.

The Greek word has the idea of he hit him hard. I mean, Peter slept so good that he had to be slapped upside the head to wake up. And the angel raised him up and said, rise quickly. He said, get up. And as soon as he obeyed, what happened?

His chains fell off his hands. You’re waiting for the chains to fall, and then you’ll obey. God’s waiting for you to obey, and then the chains will fall. This is the way God works in your life, is as soon as you obey him when you don’t understand, as soon as you trust him, when it doesn’t all make sense, as soon as you look to him, that’s when the chains fall in your life, and that’s when God starts blessing and doing miracles in your life.

Let’s go on. The angel said to him, gird yourselves and tie on your sandals. He’s saying, get dressed, Peter, get dressed. And it was after that he got dressed that the Bible says that he went out and he followed him.

He didn’t know what was done by the angel. He was kind of- in a haze, and he didn’t quite clearly grasp everything that was unfolding, but it was in that moment that they came to the iron gate that leads to the city, which opened to them of its own accord.

You see, the angel said, get dressed. The angel said, get out of here. And that’s when God started doing miracles in the life of Peter. Are you there yet? I know that you’re waiting for all the answers before you trust and believe.

But God wants you to trust and obey, and the answers are soon to follow you, church. A church that understands that no matter what our circumstance, prayer is always the best thing we can do, is a church that will always obey God and see Him do a miraculous thing.

The psalmist said in Psalm 18 .6 in my distress, I called upon the Lord and cried unto my God. He heard my voice out of his temple and my cry came before him, even unto his ears. You think God has checked out?

You think God is not listening to you? But not only does God answer prayer, God hears your prayer. And even if you have a hard time articulating what you wanna say to God, I want you to know that the Bible says even the groanings of our heart through the Spirit of God are launched into heaven before the throne of God and he understands your plight, he understands your problems, he understands your emotions and feelings.

And my friends, he is effectively working in response to your prayer. The final thing that I want you to see very quickly in verses 12 through 19 is the joy that accompanied the prayer meeting. We see verse 14 that the little girl Rhoda, she came, she was a servant in the house and the Bible tells us that she came to the door and when she recognized Peter’s voice because of her gladness or her joy,

she did not open the gate, she left the guy standing there. I mean here, this guy’s life’s being threatened and he’s trying to hide and he’s trying to get away and he’s trying to run from Herod, but he wants the people of God to know and he comes and knocks on the door.

She won’t let a man, she’s so excited, she’s so ecstatic, she runs in and she announced to the crowd that Peter stood before her at the gates. But you’ll notice in verse 15, the Bible says they said to her, you are beside yourself, which means you’re crazy.

Yet she kept insisting that it was so and they said it is his angel. Underscore that line because you know the Jews believe that when you die, that your angel, your guardian angel will appear to your family to assure you that you are aware.

Okay, in the presence of God. So that’s why they said to her, it is his angel. It is his angel. But it was not his angel, it was Peter. And what does Peter do? He gives a joyful testimony of how God delivered him.

When God answers prayer, there is great joy. How meaningful it must be for the people of God to come together and to seek God on a matter. How meaningful it must be for prayer partners to call one another and pray for a matter.

How important it is for a class to be praying for one of their classmates. And to see God answer that prayer and see God do a miracle and see God part the waters and see God provide a breakthrough. How special and joyful it must be when we see the Lord answer prayer, amen.

I mean, some of the reasons we don’t have joy in our life is because we’re not experiencing the power of a prayer meeting that brings joy to your life. That if you would value prayer more, not just individually, but corporately, if you would come together and you would pray and you would see God answer these prayers in your life, your heart would be bubbling, your heart would be overflowing, you would be a joyful warrior for God out there in this crazy world.

What did the people learn? They’ve learned in Peter’s deliverance that there is no earthly king and there is no earthly president and there is no earthly governor that can succeed for long in hindering the kingdom and the cause of Jesus Christ.

Let the political people do whatever they think they gotta do, but the cause of Christ will march on. It’ll march on. It’ll march on without Mike Sanders. It’ll march on without you. It’ll march on because God will always raise up a generation and there will always be a remnant in every generation that loves Jesus Christ and let the political leaders get together and conspire trying to hinder the work of God.

Let the Herod’s rise up and be dictators and try to hinder the work of God. But Jesus Christ, through the power of his people praying together, will have his cause, his gospel, reach the ends of the earth.

There is no enemy on this planet that can thwart the God’s will for reaching the world with the gospel. But what does God say when people pray? I leave you with Psalm 50, verse 15. Call upon me in the day of trouble.

I will deliver you and you shall glorify me. Would you pray with me this morning? God is still in control. That is the most important thing we can learn. Even in these troublesome times that we live in, we need to remember that God is in control.

And what is the result of it? That we’re not afraid. We’re not afraid of danger. We’re not afraid to suffer. And we’re certainly not afraid to trust God that He will care for us. And so that’s what the power of a prayer meeting is.

It does work in us effectively. And it not only draws us together as the people of God, but it draws us to God Himself. Well, if you haven’t been to our Facebook page, Hope Worth Having Facebook page, check us out.

Like our page. Again, we’re putting out daily posts, sometimes several times a day. Videos we’re also putting some of our blogs on there now and we’re just trying to get the message of the gospel and God’s Word to as many hearts as possible.

And so I hope you’ll check us out on Facebook This is pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.

The post The Power of a Prayer Meeting 2 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on The Power of a Prayer Meeting 1. He will be reading out of Acts 12:1-9.

The church was called to gather and to come to God almighty because with cometh my help does it come from the political figures does it come from the religious leaders does it come from the church leaders no it comes from Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior amen.

Hello this is Pastor Mike Sanders and today we begin our 19th year on radio. Thank you for joining us we’re going to be in Acts chapter 12 and we’re going to be talking about the power of a prayer meeting God uses prayer God works through prayer and when God is getting ready to do something great he first moves his people to prayer so let’s see that manifested as we look at the early church in Acts chapter 12 and let’s study about the power of a prayer meeting.

Stan Guthrie in his article that he wrote entitled Doors Into Islam in a magazine entitled Christianity Today said these words about a unique experience that had taken place in Afghanistan. He said after watching the Jesus film and listening to Christian radio on July the 15th 2001 Samuel not his real name took a monumental step for an Afghan and a Muslim.

He received Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. Soon thereafter as Western AIDS were either arrested or expelled from Kabul the Taliban came looking for him. They told Samuel that he was of working for foreigners which had been legal and they then threw him in jail and for the next 14 days they beat Samuel at least once a day with a five -foot steel cable.

After the last of these sessions, he fell unconscious in the prison cell floor. That night, Samuel had a dream. In it, a luminous man wearing bright white clothes appeared to him. The visitor, whom Samuel would later describe as having very beautiful feet and shoulder -length hair, spoke kindly to him.

Then he said, get up. In the dream, the visitor led Samuel out of the prison cell. Going to the front gate, the ex -Muslim met another man who was wearing bright green, which many Muslims associate green with God’s blessings.

This man led him out of the prison. Then all of a sudden, Samuel awoke from his dream. And when he looked up, he found that prison cell doors were open. He walked through it to find the front gate of the prison unguarded and open.

A close western associate said that Samuel walked out and he walked into the night as a free man. When we come to our text this morning in Acts chapter 12, we have a very similar incident that takes place for the Apostle Peter.

As we come to this text we must be reminded that God is teaching us that He is always delivering His people either through a trial or He is delivering His people from a trial. This certainly would include any kind of persecution that God’s people might face.

We see in this passage a beautiful picture of God’s pattern for deliverance for those who look to Him. I’ve entitled this message the power of a prayer meeting and as we analyze Acts chapter 12 verses 1 through 19 I want you to see some important points that will help us as we face the challenges of the days that are before us.

In these uncertain times and unusual days God is calling us to be a people of prayer. You will note in Acts chapter 12 verse 1 the Bible says now about that time Herod the king stretched out his hand to harass some from the church that he killed James the brother of John with a sword and because he saw that it pleased the Jews he proceeded further to seize Peter also.

Now it was during the days of unleavened bread so when he had arrested him he put him in prison and delivered him to four squads of soldiers to keep him intending to bring him before the people after Passover.

Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church. And when Herod was about to bring him out that night, Peter was sleeping, bound with two chains between two soldiers and the guards before the door were keeping the prison.

Now behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him and a light shone in the prison, and he struck Peter on the side and he raised him up saying, arise quickly, and his chains fell off his hands. Then the angel said to him, gird yourself and tie on your sandals, so he did.

And he said to him, put on your garment and follow me. So he went out and he followed him and did not know that what was done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. When they were past the first and the second guard post, they came to the iron gate that leads to the city which opened to them of its own accord, and they went out and went down one street, and immediately the angel departed from him.

When Peter had come to himself, he said, now I know for certain that the Lord has sent his angel and has delivered me from the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the Jewish people. So when he had considered this, he came to the house of Mary, the mother of John, whose surname was Mark, where many were gathering together praying.

And as Peter knocked at the door on the gate, a girl named Rhoda came to answer, and when she recognized Peter’s voice because of her gladness, she did not open the gate, but ran in and announced that Peter stood before the gate.

But they said to her, you are beside yourself, yet she kept insisting that it was so. So they said, it is his angel. Now Peter continued knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished.

But motioning to them with his hand to keep silent, he declared to them how the Lord had brought him out of prison, and he said, go, tell these things to James and to the brethren, and he departed and he went to another place.

Then as soon as it was day, there was no small stir among the soldiers about what had become of Peter. But when Herod had searched for him and not found him, he examined the guards and commanded that they should be put to death, and he went down from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there.

What an amazing story that we read about here in Acts chapter 12. But at the crux of this miraculous, story that is unfolded in Acts chapter 12 is that we see several times that God’s people have gathered together and they have prayed and that’s why I think it’s important for us to learn about the power of a prayer meeting and I hope today that as you walk away that you not only have a sense of the value of prayer in your own personal walk with the Lord Jesus Christ but that you would once again even in these unique times understand how important it is for the church to gather and pray together that it’s not just that God has called us to pray individually to him which is rightly so but that he has also called us together as his people to come together and corporately pray to the Lord Jesus Christ and that the Bible teaches us that where two or three are gathered in his name there is Jesus Christ in the midst so what do we see first and that is the problem that activated the prayer meeting We are introduced in verse 1 to a man who is called Herod the King.

He is literally, his literal name is Herod Agrippa. Now you might think in your mind and remember that there was a king back in the Gospel of Matthew at the birth of Christ who had ordered that all the children, all the children that were born to be murdered and to be killed, all the male children.

But this is not the same Herod, this is the grandson of that Herod. And like his grandfather, he was a cruel dictator who did not value life nor cared about Christianity. Herod Agrippa was the son of Herod the Great and many describe him as an insane person.

Historians say that he had created an intense persecution upon Christianity, not because so much that he was against Christianity, but he saw it as an advantage for him politically. You remember in the scriptures that the Bible says in verse 3 of chapter 12 that because he saw, meaning Herod, that it pleased the Jews.

He proceeded further to seize Peter, meaning that he began to persecute the church and of course that unbelievable scenario. In verse 2 we have this clip that he killed James, one of the apostles. He was the brother of John.

Herod is trying to pick off one leader at a time of the church and so he goes after James. He sees that the Jewish people, the Jewish religious elite, that they like this. They’re excited about it and so then he says let’s go after Peter.

But he had to wait because it was the season the scriptures teach us in verse 3. It was during the days of unleavened bread which always were the seven days before the Passover and it was a special festival for the people of God as they were preparing to receive the Passover.

The Bible tells us that James was killed. James was the first of the apostles to be martyred. We know that from history and from the Scriptures that all the apostles were martyred for God except for one.

John the Revelator, he would end up on the Isle Patmos and he would be isolated from population and he would be one who would die on the Isle Patmos after he wrote the book of Revelation. There’s no doubt that the church was distressed.

The threat of martyrdom was upon the people of God and we find that Peter was in a perilous condition as a leader. He was the visible representative. He was the spokesman for the church in the early days.

And here Herod has come after him and has now thrown him into prison. We might think it’s strange that bad things should happen to such good people. Why would God, as He is advancing the cause of Christ, why would He allow James to be murdered, and why would He allow Peter to be thrown into jail?

We might think in our hearts that have this kind of a mindset that those who are faithful to God should live trouble -free lives, but that’s not true. I want you to understand that whenever you stand up, speak up, for the Lord Jesus Christ, that you run the risk of pushback, and you run the risk of there being friction not only in your family, but in your community and on the job.

And believe it or not, sometimes when you stand up for Christ, there might be even those within the family of God that might push back on you. But I want you to remember that in God’s sovereign will, that He is always working even when there is trouble amongst us, even when there is persecution, even when there are trials.

We may curse the darkness, and we may curse the political figures, and we may be upset at them and want to protest and riot and somehow try to overthrow the government, thinking that that is the resolution of all of our trials.

But I assure you, that is not the strategy of the early church. That when they found themselves under political pressure and under political persecution, that what we learned from them is that they were a people of prayer, and that they understood that their weapons were not of this world, but their weapons were spiritual weapons, and that God was calling them to not only pray individually, but collectively as the people of God.

When we come to God in our problems, we are literally saying to Him just by our actions that God is still in control. I must remind you that as a pastor, I must remind you that as a pastor, how do you know that God is still in control?

Disappointed I was in so many Christians who seem to be so frazzled and shaken to their core of their faith when we experience COVID upon the land. How many Christians look to retaliate to political figures and rally on downtown squares and try to fight the battle of the world with worldly weapons when what God was really calling the church to do was to come together and pray.

You be careful of political figures and people who claim to be Christians who wanna lead you down a rabbit hole that is not honoring to God, for God has not called us to advance the kingdoms of this world, but he has called us to advance the kingdom of Jesus Christ.

My friends, God is still in control when there is persecution. God is still in control when the leaders of the church are martyred for the cause of Christ. God is still in control even when we find opposition in our life.

We recognize that God is in control because we remember three important truths, that no matter what, we are not afraid as believers of danger. I mean, I have to be honest with you, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

Too many Christians look at death as such a sad thing and such a terrible thing, but for the child of God, it’s our promotion, it’s our graduation, and we step out of this world, this sad, sinful, sorrowful world, and we step into a glorious place, a place that is prepared for the people of God, a place in the presence of God, and the psalmist said, in thy presence is fullness of joy, and at thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore.

Do you think anybody goes to heaven as they’re disappointed? Do you think anybody steps out of this land and steps into the immortal land of heaven and thinks, wow, I wish it would be so much more? There’s nothing to be afraid of.

We’re not afraid of danger. The second reason that we recognize God is in control is because we’re not afraid to suffer. God uses suffering. He used suffering to make the church stronger. He used suffering to teach the church that they can’t rely upon a personality like James.

They can’t just look to Peter for all their answers. They must look beyond those church leaders and they must look to Jesus Christ, and so the church was called to gather together and to come to God almighty and to come to him because whence cometh my help?

Does it come from the political figures? Does it come from the religious leaders? Does it come from the church leaders? No, it comes from Jesus Christ. Christ, our Lord and Savior, amen? I want you to know that you and I understand that even in the midst of suffering, God can use suffering to make you a stronger Christian.

God can use suffering to make our church a better church. I have to just be real with you this morning if you’re okay with that. Not that I’m not ever real with you, but just want to say that. But I think our church is stronger after COVID.

I think we’re more united, more caring, more loving, and more understanding and more sensitive. And I think that there’s something special that God has done among our people. And I think we’re more grateful for the opportunity to be with God’s people and to gather and understand how quickly the freedoms that we have to live our faith can be gone in a moment.

There’s a special work that God has done among you and I as his people. We know God is still in control because we’re not afraid. to trust God’s care. That’s what prayer does, prayer says, Lord, we trust you.

We’re not gonna look to the world for the answers, we’re gonna look to you. There was a problem that activated the prayer meeting, but I also want you to see the people that assembled for the prayer meeting in verse five.

Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God, or him, by who? Go ahead, you can answer, the church. Let’s try that again. I know it’s been a week, you guys have been out of sync, haven’t you?

Peter was therefore kept in prison, by constant prayer, was offered to God, for him, by who? Do you know who the church is? It’s you. It’s not these buildings, it’s not these facilities, it’s not this beautiful campus that God has entrusted to this family of fellowship, of believers.

The church is you, it is the people of God, it is the saints of God that believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and there is not only a global church that encompasses the entire world, but there are local churches of fellowship of believers, like the Open Door Church and other churches in our community that worship Jesus Christ and believe he is the only way to heaven.

And I tell you that God had assembled the church in this trying time, you can imagine how devastated they were, that their leader, James, the brother of John, was killed with the sword, and how they were grieving, and now Peter was in jail, wondering what is gonna happen to this ragtag collection of people who somehow have been moving forward, advancing the cause of Christ, would the movement of Jesus stop?

No, my friends, for God had called Peter’s faithful friends. To come together and pray, from its inception, the end. the early church has demonstrated an earnestness and a constantness in its prayer life.

Would you just walk with me through Acts chapter one? We’ll start there with the thread that exists of the people of God committed to prayer. And I want you to know, not just prayer individually, but together.

I know some of you say, pastor, I can pray at home. I can pray while I’m driving on the road, yes, but keep your eyes open. But I want to say this, there’s something special and there’s something powerful when God’s people pray together.

In Acts chapter one and verse 14, we see these all continued with one accord in what church? Prayer and supplication. We jump over to chapter two and verse 42, as again, Luke is describing this unique unity that exists in the family of God.

And in verse. 42, he says, they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship in the breaking of bread and in what? Prayers. We come over to Acts chapter four, and again, we come down to verse 23, and you remember that again, the church was facing a little persecution from the religious elite, the Sadducees, were upset at Peter and John, and they had preached the gospel to them.

The high priest, Caiaphas, was upset, and here we see the church praying, verse 23, and being let go, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them, verse 24.

So when they heard that, they raised their voices to God with one accord and said, Lord, you are God who made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all that is in them. We jump over to chapter six, when the church was facing the problem of organization and so much growth going on the church that the needs of different people in the church were being neglected.

The apostles said to the church, you’ve gotta pick out some leaders to help, you’ve gotta pick out some servants, some deacons to help with the task. We pick up in verse four, why would they wanna do that?

Why would they wanna get more people involved? Look at verse four, that we will give ourselves continually to what, prayer. Now we’re over here in Acts chapter 12, and we see that the church in verse five is offering prayers to God, offering prayers to God.

We sometimes minimize prayer and we say, well, all we can do now is to help. was pray, as if that’s all we can do. Oh, we wish maybe we could do something more, or maybe something more effective. But I wanna say to you, each and every one of you, this morning that the most powerful and the most effective ministry at the Open Door Church is prayer.

And not only should each and every one of you be committed to pray daily, but you and I should be committed to coming together and praying together as God’s people. I think about, I was thinking about last night as I was just going over my notes and thinking about what I wanted to say this morning to you.

And I was thinking about how we have all these classes across our campus, whether they’re adult classes, youth classes, children’s classes, and how beautiful it must be for God to look across this 52 acre campus and see the people of God divided up in these groups and classes and that they are praying to him together as the family of God.

Oh, I know, some of you missed it, didn’t you? Some of you didn’t come this morning because Sunday school’s not important to you because praying together is not important to you. But I’m gonna challenge you this morning to step out of your comfort zone and step out of your worldly thinking that it’s not important to be with God’s people and it’s not important to be in a class praying together.

Before the church comes together in a worship service, we have people across this campus praying together, learning the word of God together, and I think it is a powerful hour in the life of the open door church.

I would strongly encourage each one of you that if you’re not connected to a class or you have neglected or you have allowed COVID to get you out of the habit of connecting with God’s people in prayer, that you would once again step up your game and say prayer is important and prayer is valuable and coming together and praying together with God’s people and whether that’s on a Sunday morning or whether that’s on a Wednesday evening or whether that’s on another day or night,

some of you are gathering together on Tuesdays and Thursdays and some of you are gathering on Wednesday mornings and some of you might gather together on a Saturday morning. Whatever it is, I just want you to know there’s nothing that is thrilling the soul, if you will, of our heart, of our God, like seeing his people praying together.

Some of you may not think prayer is that important, but I’ll tell you what’ll change your marriage and what’ll change your family is praying together. There’s nothing that unites a husband and wife and there’s nothing that unites the family together like prayer.

I want to encourage you to pray with your spouse. I want to encourage you to pray with your children. You see, my children are growing up. It’s okay, keep praying with them. Can I have prayer with you?

I told the people up in… Binghamton, I was preaching through the book of Amos and we were talking about Amos and he was praying for his nation, praying that God would turn them around. But I told them about, there’s really only two people in my life that have ever turned me down to pray.

And I’m not kidding with you, I’m not lying to you, I’m just telling you what happened and isn’t anything to do with Mike, it just happened, but there was only two people and when they turned me down, the next day within 24 hours, they were gone, they had died.

All I’m saying is this to you, is don’t underestimate the power of prayer and don’t devalue it in your life and know that when God gives you the opportunity and you are given the invitation to pray with a prayer partner, to pray with a pastor, to pray with other people in the church, elders, deacons, leaders, spouses, children, whoever it might be, dear friends in your classes and your groups and your Bible studies,

that you do not neglect this. this moment and that you understand how precious it is and there is no other time that you are closer to the throne of God than when your heart is bowed before God almighty with God’s people praying to Jesus Christ.

Amen, go ahead. What we see about their prayer is that it was consistent. It was not something that the church just did randomly but rather it was regular, it is something that they made important part of their life.

It was the life of the church and people say, well, prayer is boring or prayer is not that important or I can just do it with another way or another’s time but listen to me, my friends. We’re called to be a consistent people.

When we pray, we’re saying, Lord, I need you and I not only need you every hour, Lord, but I need you every moment. We are humbling ourselves. Prayer is a reflection of our hearts and when our heart is so prideful that we’re too good and we’re too busy to gather with God’s people to pray, it is only telling the Lord where our heart is.

Their prayers were not only consistent but they were fervent. They were fervent, they were passionate, they were authentic, they came right from the heart. I know some of you say, well, I just don’t know what to say when I pray.

Well, just speak from your heart like you’re talking to anybody. You may not have the fancy words and you may not even always be theologically in line but that’s okay because God knows the heart, amen?

And you remember the thief on the cross, he had been a pretty rough dude because it’s not like every day the Romans were wanting to crucify people but this guy had lived such a life that not even the Romans and all of their humanism and all of their secularism and all of their pluralism, not even the Romans could put up with this guy in society anymore and they said, we’ve gotta crucify him.

We gotta get him out of here because he is a mess. and He is a menace upon society. And so they were going to crucify Him on this cross, and while He was on the cross, He saw the Lord as Savior, Jesus Christ.

God always delivers His people. He’s either delivering them through a trial or from a trial or out of a trial. And that’s what we’re seeing in the Apostle Peter’s life. And what is it that people of God are doing?

Praying. So much can be resolved in prayer. And I hope that you’re taking that opportunity to tap into the power of prayer, and not just individually, but collectively with the church family. Well, we want to encourage you to check us out on our YouTube channel.

We are there, hope worth having. Just type that into the search button. And there we have all of our sermons that we’ve been teaching, as well as we have. some interviews and different Bible studies and we hope you’ll take advantage of them and we encourage you to continue to access extra resources to help you to grow in your faith.

This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.

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Pastor Mike will be speaking on God’s Pattern for the Church 2. He will be reading out of Acts 11:19-30.

But my goal is to get you to take that next step, whatever that next step is, that God would challenge you to go to the next level in your faith and helping you to become deeper and stronger in your faith so that people notice that you are like Jesus Christ.

Hello this is Pastor Mike Sanders from The Open Door Church and I want to welcome you to our radio broadcasts, Hope Worth Having. We’re delighted to have you with us today and we’re going to be in the book of Acts chapter 11 and we’re studying verse 19 through 30, continuing our study that we began last week on God’s pattern for the church.

So we’re excited that we can look at the scriptures and see that pattern of how God wants us to operate in this world. So let’s get our Bibles and get right into it today. It’s not a rejection of you, it’s a rejection of our Savior.

You don’t have to take it personal. Your job is just to plant the seeds. You don’t have to live in the fear of rejection but we also may have the fear of failure. We might think, man, I really can’t do a good job and I don’t want to mess this thing up and I don’t want to be the reason because I failed to do the presentation right that I might cause somebody to go to hell and be separated from God forever.

I want to tell you as I’ve been out there trying to engage people in spiritual conversations, there’s many times I fumbled the ball, misquoted the verses, couldn’t remember a Bible verse. Have you ever been there?

Am I the only one left? You all ever have those moments? But you know what? God gloriously works because people are saved through the power of the Spirit and the Word of God not because Mike Sanders said a certain thing or did it a certain way.

And that’s how the Lord works and there have been times I’ve thought, man, I did everything like I should be, crossed every T, dotted every I, why doesn’t this person get saved? because it has to be a work of God.

So you don’t have to be afraid of failure. The third reason I think we don’t engage in evangelism is because of ignorance. We may not just know how. We just are not aware. The Bible tells us in 1 Peter 3, 15, to sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready, always, to give an answer to every man that’s asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.

It’s good to take training classes. It’s good to read books on evangelism. It’s good to learn more how we can effectively engage people in spiritual conversations. But ultimately, I want you to know that you need to live a life that is so honoring to God that people say, man, why are you so joyful?

Why do you have so much hope? And you just answer. You just give the reason. Of why you are a person of hope and that reason is because you have put your faith and your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ You would be amazed how many times that you are in situations Where you can share your faith and you can share the hope of Christ with others.

You just have to be alert to it You’re already there. You just have to be aware of it Now in the book strangers next door immigration migration and missions if you’ve not read that book you need to read it But in this book it reminds us that there are more unchurched people groups who live within the boundaries of the United States Than any other country besides India and China.

There are 361 different people groups even within our own Country so we have a great responsibility To take the gospel and God is bringing the world to us and we should share Christ with them We should be open to engaging in evangelism.

This is what the early church did remember our Lord and Savior That in the gospel of Luke 19 and verse 10 He said the Son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost The second thing that I want you to see is the pattern of the early church relating to that they were committed to Discipleship, let’s go back to verse 22 and let’s look it says then the news of these things all these people getting saved God’s mighty work in these particular places the news of these things came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem And they sent out Barnabas to go as far as Antioch When he came He had seen the grace of God.

He was glad Encourage them all that with purpose of heart. They should continue with the Lord When we think of discipleship, discipleship is the birth and the growth of a believer by which we become more like Jesus every day.

When we are discipling others in the church, we’re calling them to a higher commitment to Christ. We are calling them to a deeper walk with the Lord. Jesus said in Matthew 10, 25, it is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher and a servant like his master.

Jesus is our master, Jesus is our teacher. It should be the desire of every Christian to be like Christ. When the Jerusalem church heard how great things were happening as these new converts were coming to the Lord, Jesus, that the Jerusalem church wanted to help establish these new converts in the faith and so they sent their best discipler.

His name was Barnabas. Barnabas is a name that refers to the son of encouragement. That is what Barnabas means, to be an encourager. Barnabas was a great example of what being a true encourager entails.

Scripture frequently sums up a person’s life in a single sentence, and we see that in Barnabas in verse 24. Go back to verse 24 of chapter 11. He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.

And a great many people were added to the Lord. Barnabas’ original name was Joseph. We’re introduced to him in chapter four of the book of Acts. But he had a graciousness about him. He had a way about him where he was always encouraging others.

And so the apostles gave him the nickname Barnabas. Which means the son of an encouragement. That’s a great name, amen. Would you like to be known as that, as an encourager? Barnabas was known for his willingness to seek out those who were struggling.

And to encourage them along the way in the work of the Lord. Did you see that back in verse 23? That he was glad, and what did he do? He encouraged them all. What did he encourage them all? That with purpose of heart, they should continue with the Lord.

This was the message of Barnabas. And not only was he encouraging the church at Antioch, these new believers, but he took the initiative to reach out to Saul, who would later become Paul, and to get him connected to the church at Antioch.

Barnabas played a key role in helping the church to receive Saul into the family of God. You know the story how Saul was a persecutor of the church, and there was great fear among the church family. Here, Saul is now claiming to be a believer.

Is it possible that he might try to infiltrate us? Is it possible that he might turn against us? No, Barnabas was the man who stepped up and said his faith is genuine and we need to recognize that God’s hands on this man and we need to let him be a part of the church family.

So he was a true encourager, a discipler. And Barnabas and Saul would take time for a whole year teaching and developing the church. Look at verse 26. When he had found him, meaning Saul, he brought him to Antioch.

So it was that for a whole year they assembled with the church and taught a great many a people and the disciples were first called Christians at Antioch. Each of us would be a better person. If we would be like Barnabas and if we had some Barnabas in our life.

We need to think of those terms of when it relates to discipleship. So many times we look at discipleship as more formal. We see it as something like classes, which I think that’s certainly a part of it.

But you know, I think sometimes more is caught than taught. And we need to remember that we need people that will help us along the way, that we need those encouragers in our life. We need people who will help us to stay faithful for the Lord.

And we need to be those kind of people to others in the church family. The Bible teaches us that the word encourage has the idea of putting courage into someone. And that’s the way I see Barnabas as he is going to the church at Antioch as these new believers are coming to Christ and they really don’t even have an Old Testament or a background that much in Judaism.

They’re Gentile believers. They’re just coming to Christ and they’re trying to leave their old lifestyle behind and they’re trying to follow a Savior. They’re trying to give their life fully to Christ and Barnabas was that encourager helping them along the way.

And he connected them to a good teacher of the Word of God, Saul. We all need encouragement to keep growing. I want to challenge you in your own life to think about who can I encourage this week? Who could I send a text message?

Who could I send a card? Who could I pick up the phone? Who could I have lunch with? Breakfast with? Who could I encourage? Look, God has not just called us to sit and soak but he certainly called us to serve.

And as we serve him, as we think about others, think about many times of how in my own life how God had always had different people in my life to encourage me in the faith. It wasn’t that they were scholars or that they somehow had all this Bible knowledge but they were just faithful people who loved God and who were always encouraging me to live for Jesus.

Jesus Christ. Many of you know my story and how I came to Christ and I was invited to ride the bus to church, little church of about 50 people and that was on a high special day. But anyways, our bus driver, he couldn’t even read.

He had to leave school early to take care of the family. And yet he was such an encouragement to me, my brother and sister. To this day, all of us are active in our churches. All of us married to Christian spouses, all of us having Christian families and here God used this man greatly in our lives because he was an encourager.

I wanna challenge you to think about people not only in our own community of faith here at the Open Door Church but others throughout the community, others throughout the region that you could encourage because God has called us to encourage people in their walk of faith.

What was the outcome of the discipleship? in the church? What was the outcome of having a man like Barnabas who was encouraging others and a man like Saul who was teaching the Bible? What was the outcome?

Well, look at verse 26 at the end. The disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. They were first called Christians. Most likely it was the Romans who looked at their lives. They saw something distinct and different about them.

Be a Christian, the word literally means little Christ. Little Christ. How wonderful for others to recognize by your actions and your beliefs that you are very much like Jesus. That’s what it means to be a Christian.

So as these new converts are being discipled in the faith, they are becoming more like Jesus. I want to challenge you to A, be that person who is every day striving to be more like Christ. Also be that person that is striving to help others be like Christ.

And there’s a key component to that that is important because sometimes we let the perfect destroy the good or be the enemy of the good you might have heard. And that is that we must learn to accept people where they’re at in their faith and help them to take that next step.

As a pastor, I recognize that not all the people are going to be committed as some of the people. I got to understand that I have a core in my church. I have people who are going to be here a few times a year and people are going to be here a few times a month.

Now some of you, you’re here all the time. It’s so wonderful. But my goal is to get you to take that next step. Whatever that next step is, that God would… challenge you to go to the next level in your faith and to encourage you to become more devoted followers of Christ, more committed in your walk and helping you to become deeper and stronger in your faith so that as you are living your life in your homes,

as you’re living your life in the workplace, as you’re living your life in the community, that people notice that you’re different. Not in a weird way, but that you are like Jesus Christ. Now I want you to notice the third pattern in the church.

We learned already, first of all, that they were active in evangelism, committed to discipleship. But the third pattern is that the church was devoted to ministry. They were devoted to ministry last week.

Pastor Seth shared with us a lot about ministry and service and he did a great job. We appreciate his message and I’m not here to reiterate it. But I just want to add a few more things to it, not that it needed anything added to it.

But according to the passage, I have to stay true to the passage so I couldn’t really get around it. But in verse 27 through 30, it says, in those days the prophets came from Jerusalem to Antioch. And one of them named Agabus stood up and showed by the spirit that there was going to be a great famine throughout all the world, which also happened in the days of Claudius Caesar.

Then the disciples, each according to his ability, determined to send relief to the brethren dwelling in Judea. This they also did and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul. The entire Roman world was experiencing a crippling famine.

According to Josephus, in his historical books, he has written that Claudius was an emperor from AD 41 to AD 54. And the famine had reached a pinnacle in 44 through AD 48. And so this is what Luke is recording about that the church and really literally the Roman empire is experiencing this great famine.

And so the church decides they’re going to do something about it. The believers, rather than just sitting on the sidelines, say, you know what, we’re going to get involved and we’re going to be willing to help out.

Look at verse 29, the disciples, each according to his ability, determined to send relief to the brethren dwelling in Judea. And that’s something how the new Gentile believers in Antioch were desiring to show the grace of God that they had been shown.

They were so grateful for the believers in Jerusalem and Judea who had come down and shared the wonderful treasure of Christ with them. They now wanted to share their own. tangible treasures with others and bringing relief of the suffering that the Jewish believers were experiencing.

The Apostle Paul referenced this in Romans chapter 15 in verse 31. He does this in other passages but this is what I want to bring to your attention. He says to the believers in the city of Rome he wants them to pray for him.

He says when you pray, pray that my service which I have for Jerusalem may be accepted of the saints. As Paul was traveling he was raising funds to help bring relief for the church in Jerusalem and he was praying that they would be responsive and accepting.

It might have been difficult for the Jewish believers who kind of were the founding of the church relating to Jerusalem being the first place where the local church had emerged. and been born. But now they would be receiving.

Sometimes it’s hard for us to receive, right? But God had established a new way to test the faith and the commitment and devotion of the believers at Antioch by calling them to show grace to those who had brought the grace of God to them.

I want you to know three things about this service that I think is important when we minister to God. First, that our service should always be practical. That is, it should be tangible. You know, sometimes we say, well, I’m going to pray for you, and I think that’s good, and I know prayer is powerful, and I believe every aspect of prayer, God works through prayer, I’m all in.

Let’s make sure that when we’re trying to help others and minister to others, that we are practical. And it could be as simple as a meal, it could be simple as helping with a circumstance, it could be simple as Pastor Seth taught us to just listen and be an encourager.

What I want you to note is that the way that we show people that we love our neighbor is by practically finding ways to do things that demonstrate God’s love for them. When we go down to the rescue mission, what a wonderful ministry, Pastor Paul oversees that, and every month we go down there.

It isn’t enough for us to just teach the gospel. It isn’t enough for us to have a testimony of the gospel. It is not enough for us to sing about the gospel. We must bring something tangible, and every group brings food and feeds these folks that are struggling in their life, and I know God honors that.

Remember that Jesus, throughout his ministry, found practical ways to serve people. You don’t need a list from me. You just need to be led of the Spirit, and you need to let God’s wisdom be poured into your heart and mind.

as you think of practical ways. The second thing I want you to note about this ministry, that it was accountable. It was accountable. Of course, it required money, and of course they were giving each according to his ability.

There was no mandate on a percentage. There was no pressure. It was just according to their ability. And here, how was it handled? Look at verse 30. This they also did and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.

What we see here is there’s accountability. It’s not just that it’s out there randomly, recklessly, or even spontaneously. It is that there is a structure, there is order, and there is accountability.

And the reason for the accountability is to make sure that God would receive all the glory and that we could be blameless before the world. Human nature without accountability will always lead to demise and That’s why it’s important.

It doesn’t matter who we are Whether it’s church leadership or it’s any of us serving for the kingdom of God. We must all be accountable Every once in a while run into Christians even sometimes leaders not within our own church, but other areas They don’t want to be accountable Well, why wouldn’t ya?

Doesn’t accountability help us to stay true to the Lord doesn’t accountability help us you have a ministry God is entrusted to you Don’t be afraid to have people help you give input into your ministry to be Accountable so that your ministry can continue to strive.

We often have this conversation With ministry leaders and that is what is going to happen when you’re gone What is your legacy plan? I? Remember I was sitting down with brother Dave Arnold you remember brother Dave Arnold and he was in my office and I said brother Dave what is your legacy plan?

What’s gonna happen when God calls you to home? He said my legacy plan pastor Mike is heaven. I Said okay, that’s good Dave But how are we gonna make sure these pastors are taken care of as they support so many pastors in Sierra Leone?

How are we gonna make sure that these schools are continue to being built after you’re gone? No ministry should ever be built on a personality or a person We should always be built on the foundation of Jesus Christ, but people come and go You must recognize that but when we build it upon Christ and we establish a Plurality of leaders and we establish a ministry that is accountable.

This brings honor and glory to Christ The last thing I want you to know is that it was a partnership There are three things about this ministry that we see at the church at Antioch is that it was practical it was accountable and it was a partnership.

Would you look at verse 30 again? Would you underscore the two names there, Barnabas and Saul? What you’re gonna see as you study throughout the scriptures from chapter 11 all the way to chapter 15, Barnabas and Saul, eventually Barnabas and Paul, eventually Paul and Barnabas, a partnership that they have together in serving the Lord Jesus Christ.

I wanna remind you that all ministry is not a solo act, but ministry is a partnership, and we have a partnership in the gospel together. Why? Remember this church, we can do far more together than we can do individually.

We can support more missionaries together as a church family than we can individually. We can accomplish more for Christ together than we can individually. Never do ministry alone. And I know what some of you are saying to me.

Well, Pastor Mike, if you want to do it right, you got to do it yourself. I know some of you are like that, but let me tell you something. You’re not helping the next generation. You’re not equipping the next generation.

You’re not building the next generation. When you do it all yourself and you don’t pass on those opportunities and those blessings to others and the opportunities to learn and grow and develop, you are limiting the gospel, the reach of the gospel from one generation to another.

And you don’t want to be a part of limiting it. You want to do more together. Some of you say, well, it just takes so long, Pastor. It takes so long to have to train somebody. It takes so long for me to have to teach them and they can’t remember half of what I teach them.

And then I know how some of you are. It’s got to be your way or the highway, right? I know how some of you are. It’s your way or the highway, but you know what? It’s okay. Everybody has different styles.

Everybody has a different way. We don’t have to all be like each other. I’m thankful that we don’t have cookie cutter Christianity. It’s okay to have a different style. Your style may be different than mine.

I may be more confrontational in my witnessing and not afraid to knock on a door or to walk up to a stranger and share Christ. You may be different in how you do your witnessing. It’s okay. As long as you’re witnessing, I’m a hundred percent in.

We all have a ministry that we do and we’re called to do. And our ways of ministry, our styles may be different, but we need to remember that God is calling us to serve together. I think about where would I be if there wasn’t different pastors throughout the years as I was going to Bible college who said, come on, Mike, come serve for a summer with me and let’s work together.

I think about when I became a new believer, how my pastor used to take me to the hospital and teach me how to make hospital visits. I think about different people who through the years have let me work right alongside of them because I’m telling you that more is caught than taught.

And you’ve got to be that kind of person who says, I’m committed to a partnership, I’m not gonna do ministry alone because one day, I know it’s hard for us to believe this, but one day we’re not gonna be here.

So who’s gonna step up and take your spot? When I first came to the Open Door Church, I told the staff, it was me, Carl, and Pastor Carl, I should say, Pastor Art Brown. How many of you remember Pastor Art Brown?

What a great man of God, a great soul winner. This is another story, but every time I think of him, well, I was one time out in the lobby and I was on my way somewhere and I was running late and Pastor Art wanted to tell me something.

I said, Pastor Art, just send me an email. He said, Pastor Mike, we don’t do emails here. He said, we built this church, me and Dino, and Dino, and Dino, and Dino, and Dino, and Dino, 30 West, cup of coffee, and on a napkin.

I said, okay, brothers, put it on a napkin and lay it on my desk. Heh heh heh heh. All right, I’m all in. But, I remember when I first came, we was in a staff meeting, and I said, I need you guys to work yourself out of a job.

And after the meeting, Pastor Art came to me, he said, are you trying to get rid of me? And I said, no, brother, I’m not trying to get rid of you. And he said, well, you said, we need to work ourselves out of a job.

And I said, what I meant, and what I was trying to say, is let’s get other people involved, so that when the Lord calls us home, that we got somebody to step up and fill in the spot. And you know, every once in a while, I run into different ones of you, and I see, you know, things that you’re doing.

And I remember, Pastor Art took you out on visitation, didn’t he? He showed you how to do it. Some of you go out and you visit the hospitals, you visit the shut -ins, you visit different people, you check in on people for us.

You know why you’re doing that? Because there was a man named Pastor Art, who didn’t do ministry alone, and he partnered with you to help you learn, you watch him, and you learn how to do it. And friends, that’s what ministry is about.

It is a partnership. So I want to encourage us to dedicate our lives to service the Christ, who gave his life for each of us, so that we could have eternal life. Let’s pray together. [“The Spirit of Life”] We are called to be on mission, and the principal theme in the book of Acts is the triumph of the gospel in all the world.

That’s our mission, continue to take the gospel to every person, to every heart, and to every home, as we sing. the pattern that is laid out so clearly in Acts chapter 11, I hope that each of us will a be a part of that pattern as a individual believer, but corporately that you’re connected to a Bible believing church that is exemplifying the New Testament church in the book of Acts.

We got to be careful. Sometimes we want to be like the church down the street or we want to be like the church that is the biggest in America, when really what we need to do is strive to be like the church in the book of Acts.

And that’s what God honors and that’s what he blesses. And that’s what he uses to make disciples and to bring people into the family of God. Well, I want to encourage you to make sure you check out our website, hopeworthhaving .com.

On that website, you can get an update of what’s going on in our ministry, a lot of resources available as well as we are archiving all of our preaching and teaching. So make sure you check that out and remember that in Christ there is hope worth having.

The post God’s Pattern for the Church 2 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on God’s Pattern for the Church 1. He will be reading out of Acts 11:19-30.

There are 361 different people, groups, even within our own country. So we have a great responsibility to take the gospel, and God is bringing the world to us, and we should share Christ with them. It’s Hope Worth Having radio program from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and I’m Mike Sanders, senior pastor of the Open Door Church, and delighted to be with you today.

Thank you for tuning in. We’re going to be in Acts chapter 11. This time we’re going to begin in verse 19 through 30. We’re going to talk about God’s pattern for the church. Many times churches look to other churches on how to do church, but really what we need to do is look into the book of Acts because that’s God’s pattern for the church.

So a lot to learn here and a lot for us to unpack. So let’s get right into God’s work today. I want you to take your Bible, and I want you to join me in Acts chapter 11, verse 19 through 30. I want you to remember that God is always at work.

And not only is God always working, but He wants you and I to join in in what He is doing. Not only just within our own families, but what He is doing literally around the world. When Jesus in John chapter 17 was praying, and as He was praying to the Father, He said, as you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.

In essence, Jesus is reminding us that each of us have been sent by God that we are on assignment from heaven. That God has a plan, He has a purpose, and that as He is working out His great cause in this world, that each of us as His servants are called to be on mission.

for God. We must wake up every day recognizing that God has an assignment for us, that there are people who are going to cross our paths, that God is calling us to serve and minister to, that there are things that are going to unfold throughout the day that God is bringing about His great purpose and glory in the lives of others.

When we come to Acts chapter 11 as we’ve been tracking through this book, we cannot forget the overarching theme of the book of Acts. It is the triumph of the gospel in all the world despite the politics, despite the persecution, despite the problems and the circumstances.

The gospel is triumphing. The gospel is moving forward and that’s what we see as we read from chapter to chapter as Luke shares with us. the details of different stories, we are overwhelmed and touched in our heart that this gospel that Jesus Christ has given to us, this good news that teaches us that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God and we are all in need of a savior.

And Jesus Christ is that savior and he went to the cross and died for our sins and whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. As we come down to chapter 11, verse 19 through 30, we see the early church’s mission of spreading the gospel is continuing to the Gentiles.

You might recall that in Acts chapter one, verse eight, that Jesus gave the commission to the disciples that they would be his witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.

At the outset, the church was doing great in spreading the gospel in Jerusalem and even parts of Judea. But it’s really not till Acts chapter 10 that we see the gospel going farther and wider into the uttermost parts of the earth, into Samaria and places that had never heard the gospel.

It is in Acts chapter 10 that we see kind of a transition as Peter comes to the full enlightenment and understanding that what God has called clean, we cannot call unclean. And that Christ is the fulfillment of all that the law required and therefore the good news of the gospel goes beyond just Jerusalem and it goes beyond just a particular race of people and it is to be taken to every heart and it is to be broadcast to every whole.

Peter has that unique experience with Cornelius where he is able to go into the home, share the gospel. of Christ, and not only does Cornelius come to Christ, but his whole family comes to Christ. It is a momentous change in the hearts of the disciples.

We pick up in verse 19, and we see the Bible says, now those who were scattered after the persecution, you got to stop there because you have to remember that that persecution certainly not only began in chapter 4 and chapter 5, but we see it reemerging in chapter 8.

But what was happening is the people of God were being spread out, God working even in persecution, and the Bible says that that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to no one but to the Jews only.

But some of them were men from Cyprus, and Cyrene, who when they had come to Antioch, spoke to the Hellenists, preaching the Lord Jesus. Here’s what I want you to see. And the hand of the Lord was with them.

And a great numbered believed and turned to the Lord. Verse 22, then news of these things came to the ears of the church of Jerusalem. And they sent out Barnabas to go as far as Antioch. And when he had came, he had seen the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all that with purpose of heart, they should continue with the Lord.

For he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith and a great many people were added to the Lord. Then Barnabas departed for Tarsus to seek Saul. And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch.

So it was that for a whole year, they assembled with the church and taught a great many people. And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. In these days, prophets came from Jerusalem to Antioch.

Then one of them named Agabus, stood up and showed by the spirit that there was going to be a great famine throughout all the world, which also happened in the days of Claudius Caesar. Then the disciples each according to his ability determined to send relief to the brethren dwelling in Judea.

This they also did and sent it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul. In this short passage, we see God’s pattern for the church, God’s pattern for believers, God’s pattern for us as followers of Christ.

And I want to point these three things out to you because this becomes our template as believers. This becomes our template as a local congregation. The first pattern I want you to see is the church was active in evangelism.

Verse 19 through 21, we see that the gospel went as far as Phoenicia, and this was a area that we would know today as in the Middle East towards the Lebanon area. And so the gospel is going from Jerusalem, Judea, even farther out into Phoenicia, but you also know that the gospel went to Antioch.

We go back to our text and we see in verse 19 that they were preaching the Word in Antioch. Then we come down to verse 20, but some of them were men from Cyprus and Cyrene who went and they had come to Antioch and they spoke to the Hellenists.

What were they preaching? The Lord, Jesus. They were lifting up Christ. We see that the Cyprus and the Cyrenians, they were Greek speaking people who were spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. Christ, and they took it to Antioch, which was a major city in the Roman Empire.

The third largest city in the Roman Empire. And what was the result of their evangelism? What was the result of them preaching, teaching, proclaiming, talking about Jesus? Well look at verse 21 again, the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord.

You and I have a mandate upon us that as we look and see how the early church operated, we have a responsibility to be fully active in evangelism. Each and every one of us has a responsibility to share the gospel of Christ with those in our world.

You might recall when Jesus in the gospel of Luke chapter 8, he had cast out a demon in the life of a man, and his response to this man who was so full of thankfulness and praise towards Christ, Jesus said to him in verse 39 of chapter 8 of the gospel of Luke, return to your home and describe what great things God has done for you.

And the Bible tells us that this man went his way proclaiming throughout the city what great things Jesus had done for him. That’s really what evangelism is, is we’re just telling other people of the great things that God has done for us.

How Christ has saved us from our sin. I remember many years when I first came to the open door church that one of the members had passed away, he was promoted to heaven, but his daughter was not a fan of Christianity nor did she even want to have to endure any kind of a funeral service.

And as I was sitting down with her trying to help her plan for the funeral service, she told to me right to my face. She said to me, now Pastor Mike, I don’t want you telling people how to be saved at this funeral.

And I was kind of taken aback and I was listening to her and of course she gave me her reasoning and I said, well I can certainly appreciate you have a different opinion than your father. But are you okay if I share a little bit about his faith and how he came to Christ?

And she said, oh sure, that’d be great. I said, wow, this is awesome. Because here’s the thing, people, we all get saved the same way, man. And so I was glad to brag about her dad and how he came to Christ and I just kind of interjected and once I was up there, there’s nothing they could do.

But I said, hey, this is how you get saved. And so I want you to know that that’s what we do. We brag about Christ. Some of you might feel like, man, it’s just so hard for me to be engaged in evangelism.

You might feel intimidated by it. You might feel like you’re inferior and there’s no way that you could do that. But I want you to know that we need to keep it simple. You don’t have to memorize long sets of verses.

You don’t have to memorize all these different formulas on how to be saved because we all get saved the same way. Now you might ask the question, why don’t we do this? Why don’t people evangelize? Well, I just jotted down three reasons why.

Number one is that we believe the myth that people are not interested in spiritual issues. But I want you to note that in a recent Gallup survey it discovered that 65 million Americans have no church home.

And that 34 million of them said they would attend if somebody would just invite them. How about that? 34 million people are waiting for an invitation. It is rare church. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen.

It is rare for someone to just pop in and just come to church. I remember during the COVID days when we were all watching the service online and we were here, me and the band and the sound people and streaming people in the back there.

But there was this gentleman who just came. He just came. We didn’t have a greeter. So I had to run out there and greet him. And so I said, hey, this is what’s going on. You understand? And I said, but you’re welcome.

And so he was my one audience. He sat in the back row there. I haven’t seen him back since. But anyways, it is rare for people to just pop in. But when they’re invited by a friend, when they’re invited by a family member, when they’re invited by someone that they come across or that they meet, what a blessing that is.

And so I don’t want you to be under this impression that somehow people do not want to talk about spiritual issues. The second reason we don’t engage in evangelism is because of fear. We might have the fear of others in that we’re not sure how they’re gonna respond.

We’re not sure what their reaction will be to us and maybe that they would not like us anymore or maybe that they would be upset that we have shared the gospel with them. Remember, their rejection is not a rejection of you, it’s a rejection of our savior.

You don’t have to take it personal. Your job is just to plant the seeds. You don’t have to live in the fear of rejection but we also may have the fear of failure. We might think, man, I really can’t do a good job and I don’t wanna mess this thing up and I don’t wanna be the reason because I failed to do the presentation right that I might cause somebody to go to hell and be separated from God forever.

I wanna tell you as I’ve been out there trying to engage people in spiritual conversations, there’s many times I’ve fumbled the ball, misquoted the verses, couldn’t remember a Bible verse. Have you ever been there?

Am I the only one left? Do you all ever have those moments? But you know what, God gloriously works because people are saved through the power of the Spirit and the word of God, not because Mike Sanders said a certain thing or did it a certain way.

And that’s how the Lord works. And there’ve been times I’ve thought, man, I did everything like it should be, crossed every T, dotted every I, why doesn’t this person get saved? Because it has to be a work of God.

So you don’t have to be afraid of failure. The third reason I think we don’t engage in evangelism is because of ignorance. We may not just know how, we just are not aware. The Bible tells us in 1 Peter 3 .15, to sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready, always, to give an answer to every man that’s asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.

It’s good to take training classes. It’s good to read books on evangelism. It’s good to learn more how we can effectively engage people in spiritual conversations. But ultimately, I want you to know that you need to live a life that is so honoring to God that people say, man, why are you so joyful?

Why do you have so much hope? And you just answer. You just give the reason of why you are a person of hope. And that reason is because you have put your faith and your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

You would be amazed how many times that you are in situations where you can share your faith and you can share the hope of Christ with others. You just have to be alert to it. You’re already there. You just have to be aware of it.

Now, in the book Strangers Next Door, Immigration, Migration, and Missions, if you’ve not read that book, you need to read it. But in this book, it reminds us that there are more unchurched people groups who live within the boundaries of the universe.

United States than any other country besides India and China. There are 361 different people groups, even within our own country. So we have a great responsibility to take the gospel, and God is bringing the world to us, and we should share Christ with them.

We should be open to engaging in evangelism. This is what the early church did. Remember our Lord and Savior that in the gospel of Luke 19 and verse 10, he said, the Son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.

The second thing that I want you to see is the pattern of the early church relating to that they were committed to discipleship. Let’s go back to verse 22, and let’s look. It says, then the news of these things, all these people getting saved, God’s mighty work.

In these particular places, the news of these things came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem and they set out Barnabas to go as far as Antioch. When he came, he had seen the grace of God. He was glad, encouraged them all that with purpose of heart, they should continue with the Lord.

When we think of discipleship, discipleship is the birth and the growth of a believer by which we become more like Jesus every day. When we are discipling others in the church, we’re calling them to a higher commitment to Christ.

We are calling them to a deeper walk with the Lord. Jesus said in Matthew 10 .25, it is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher and a servant like his master. Jesus is our master, Jesus is our teacher.

It should be the desire of every Christian to be like Christ. When the Jerusalem church heard how great things were happening as these new converts were coming to the Lord, Jesus, that the Jerusalem church wanted to help establish these new converts in the faith and so they sent their best discipler.

His name was Barnabas. Barnabas is a name that refers to the son of encouragement. That is what Barnabas means, to be an encourager. Barnabas was a great example of what being a true encourager entails.

Scripture frequently sums up a person’s life in a single sentence and we see that in Barnabas in verse 24. Go back to verse 24 of chapter 11. He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord.

Barnabas’ original name. was Joseph were introduced to him in chapter four of the book of Acts. But he had a graciousness about him. He had a way about him where he was always encouraging others and so the apostles gave him the nickname Barnabas, which means the son of an encouragement.

That’s a great name, amen. Would you like to be known as that as an encourager? Barnabas was known for his willingness to seek out those who were struggling and to encourage them along the way in the work of the Lord.

Did you see that back in verse 23? That he was glad and what did he do? He encouraged them all. What did he encourage them all? That with purpose of heart, they should continue with the Lord. This was the message of Barnabas.

And not only was he encouraging the church at Antioch, these new believers, but he took the initiative to reach out to Saul, who would later become Paul. and to get him connected to the church at Antioch.

Barnabas played a key role in helping the church to receive Saul into the family of God. You know the story how Saul was a persecutor of the church and there was great fear among the church family. Here Saul is now claiming to be a believer.

Is it possible that he might try to infiltrate us? Is it possible that he might turn against us? No, Barnabas was the man who stepped up and said, his faith is genuine and we need to recognize that God’s hands on this man and we need to let him be a part of the church family.

So he was a true encourager, a discipler and Barnabas and Saul would take time for a whole year teaching and developing the church. Look at verse 26, when he had found him, meaning Saul, he brought him to Antioch.

So it was that for a whole year they assembled with the church and taught a great many of people and the disciples were first called Christians at Antioch. Each of us would be a better person if we would be like Barnabas and if we had some Barnabas in our life.

We need to think of those terms and when it relates to discipleship. So many times we look at discipleship as more formal, we see it as something like classes, which I think that’s certainly a part of it, but I think sometimes more is caught than taught and we need to remember that we need people that will help us along the way, that we need those encouragers in our life.

We need people who will help us to stay faithful for the Lord and we need to be those kind of people to others in the church family. The Bible teaches us that the word encourage has the idea of putting courage into someone.

And that’s the way I see Barnabas as he is going to the church at Antioch as these new believers are coming to Christ and they really don’t even have an Old Testament or a background that much in Judaism.

They’re Gentile believers, they’re just coming to Christ and they’re trying to leave their old lifestyle behind and they’re trying to follow a savior. They’re trying to give their life fully to Christ and Barnabas was that encourager helping them along the way.

And he connected them to a good teacher of the word of God Saul. We all need encouragement to keep growing. I wanna challenge you in your own life to think about who can I encourage this week? Who could I send a text message?

Who could I send a card? Who could I pick up the phone? Who could I have lunch with, breakfast with? Who could I encourage? Look, God has not just called us to sit and soak, but he certainly called us to serve.

And as we serve him, as we think about others, think about many times of how in my own life, how God had always had different people in my life to encourage me in the faith. It wasn’t that they were scholars or that they somehow had all this Bible knowledge, but they were just faithful people who loved God and who were always encouraging me to live for Jesus Christ.

Many of you know my story and how I came to Christ and I was invited to ride the bus to church, little church of about 50 people, and that was on a high special day. But anyways, our bus driver, he couldn’t even read.

He had to leave school early to take care of the family. And yet he was such an encouragement to me, my brother and sister. To this day, all of us are active in our churches, all of us married to Christian spouses, all of us having Christian families, and here God used this man greatly in our lives because he was an encourager.

I wanna challenge you to think about people not only in our own community of faith here at the Open Door Church, but others throughout the community, others throughout the region that you could encourage because God has called us to encourage people in their walk of faith.

What was the outcome of the discipleship in the church? What was the outcome of having a man like Barnabas who was encouraging others and a man like Saul who was teaching the Bible? What was the outcome?

Well, look at verse 26 at the end. The disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. They were first called Christians. Most likely it was the Romans who looked at their lives. They saw something distinct and different about them.

Be a Christian, the word literally means little. Christ, little Christ. How wonderful for others to recognize by your actions and your beliefs that you are very much like Jesus. That’s what it means to be a Christian.

So as these new converts are being discipled in the faith, they are becoming more like Jesus. I want to challenge you to A, be that person who is every day striving to be more like Christ, but also be that person that is striving to help others be like Christ.

And there’s a key component to that that is important because sometimes we let the perfect destroy the good or be the enemy of the good you might have heard. And that is that we must learn to accept people where they’re at in their faith and help them to take that next step.

As a pastor, I recognize that not all the people are going to be committed as some of the people. I gotta understand that I have a core in my church. I have people who are gonna be here a few times a year and people are gonna be here a few times a month.

Now, some of you, you’re here all the time. It’s so wonderful. But my goal was to get you to take that next step. Whatever that next step is, that God would challenge you to go to the next level in your faith and to encourage you to become more devoted followers of Christ, more committed in your walk, and helping you to become deeper and stronger in your faith so that as you are living your life in your homes,

as you’re living your life in the workplace, as you’re living your life in the community, that people notice that you’re different. Not in a weird way, but that you are like Jesus Christ. Now, I want you to notice the third pattern in the church.

We learned already, first of all, that they were active in evangelism, committed to discipleship, but the third pattern is that the church was devoted to ministry. They were devoted to ministry last week.

Pastor Seth shared with us a lot about ministry and service, and he did a great job. We appreciate his message, and I’m not here to reiterate it, but I just want to add a few more things to it, not that it needed anything added to it, but according to the passage, I have to stay true to the passage so I couldn’t really get around it.

But in verse 27 through 30, it says, in those days the prophets came from Jerusalem to Antioch, and one of them named Agabus stood up and showed by the Spirit that there was going to be a great famine throughout all the world, which also happened in the days of Claudius Caesar.

Then the disciples, each according to his ability, determined to send relief to the brethren dwelling in Judea. This they also did and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul. The entire Roman world was experiencing a crippling famine.

Well, God is at work and He wants you to join Him. And part of what He is doing is He’s certainly working through the church. And He has a special plan for the church, so I’m grateful for that. And we are reminded that every one of us as believers are on mission.

Have you signed up for our newsletter? We have a Hope Worth Having newsletter, so we encourage you to go to our website, hopeworthhaving .com and you can just sign up for the newsletter and we can send it to your email.

We can physically send it to you however you want it, but sign up, keep up with what’s going on in the ministry and how God is working. And we thank you again for being a part. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.

The post God’s Pattern for the Church 1 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.

Pastor Mike will be speaking on How to Seek God’s Guidance Part 2. He will be reading out of Acts 11:1-7.

But I’m here to assure you that God is effectively working in your circumstances and that God knows the future. He has a plan and he is carrying out his redemptive purpose in the life of your family through the circumstances of your life.

Hello, this is Pastor Mike Sanders and we are broadcasting from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. It’s hope worth having. It’s time to learn the Word of God and thank you for tuning in. And so we’re back in Acts chapter 11.

We’re learning how to seek God’s guidance in your life. We sometimes feel like the journey of faith may be so aimless, but truth is God has a plan. He has a purpose and we just need to be sensitive to his leadership in our life.

So let’s dive in Acts 11 and get to learning the Word. And so God’s Word is a lamp unto my feet, but it is a light unto my path. It not only reveals where I’m at with God, but it shows me my next steps.

It is a light to my path. It shows me where I need to go. Now hear this. God will never call you to do anything that contradicts his Word. Do you understand that? Many, many years ago when I pastored in Indiana, I know this is hard to believe, but it’s the honest God truth.

God is my witness that there was a man and woman who came into my office and they said, Pastor, God has told us that we should leave our spouses and marry each other. And I said, no, he hasn’t because it’s not in the Bible.

There’s nothing in the Bible that teaches in principle or in detail that teaches us that. What the Bible teaches us is total love. different. So sometimes you may be led astray by the world, the flesh, or maybe even the devil.

But I want you to be assured that how do I know God’s will? It aligns with the Word of God. That’s how I know. So when you are seeking God’s guidance, seek it through the confirmation of His Word. Second of all, you are to seek God’s confirmation or God’s guidance through the conviction of your spirit.

Now go back to verse 11. Here Peter, he is being called to make changes in his life that are deep -rooted in his faith of Judaism. Now the new covenant is upon him. It is the confirmation of God’s Word that helps him to make this change.

But in verse 11 and 12, we see the conviction of his own spirit. The Bible says at that very moment, three men stood before the house where I was. having been sent to me from Caesarea, then the Spirit told me to go with them, doubting nothing, moreover, these six brethren accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house.

The Spirit of God had convicted the heart and the Spirit of the Apostle Peter that this is what he is supposed to do, that this is what God was calling him to do. And friends, I want you to understand something that the Spirit of God lives in all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And the Spirit of God, just like he pointed Peter into the direction that he wanted him to make and the change and the person that he wanted him to go see, that God works in his Spirit through you. We are led by the Spirit of God every day.

We must get up every day and ask the Lord to lead us and to guide us through his Spirit. We are not to be led of the flesh, we are not to be led by the world or the philosophy of the world, but we are to be led of the Spirit of God.

You see, what Peter is pointing out is that the providence of God in this situation was being unfolded before him and the Spirit was leading him to go to this man’s house, share the gospel and how wondrous was it that this man got saved, his whole family got saved, this man gets baptized, his whole family gets baptized, the Spirit of God had convicted him that this is what he needs to do and there are times that the Spirit leads you to talk to someone,

the Spirit leads you to text someone, the Spirit leads you to call someone, the Spirit leads you to send a call. It’s hard to someone, to reach out to someone, to minister to someone, to just be a blessing to someone, and when the Spirit of God is leading you, you know that you are following the will of God in your life.

Now you might wonder, how do I know when the Spirit is leading me? How do I know when the Spirit is leading me? Well, let me give you a few things that’ll help you understand the leadership of the Spirit.

First of all, is prayer. Prayer will always help you to sync up with the Spirit. When I take time to just shoot arrows of prayer to God, Lord, are you leading me? Is your Spirit telling me to do this?

Are you telling me not to do this? Some of you have been prompted to get out of your bed in the middle of the night, and to pray for your children and your grandchildren. It’s the Spirit of God that is moving you.

And you don’t know, and you may never know until you get to heaven all that the power of that prayer did for your children and your grandchildren and how it may have protected them from a very difficult situation from the attacks of the devil or the attacks of this world upon their lives.

But I assure you this, that as we are praying, we are gonna be more sensitive to the Spirit of God. The second key word to knowing the leadership of the Spirit is peace. You see, there is a peace that comes from God.

The Bible tells us that He gives us a peace that passes all understanding, may not make sense to the world, may not even make sense to our own understanding. Remember in our scripture reading that we learned in Proverbs three that we’re not to lean on our own understanding, but we’re to acknowledge Him in all of our ways.

One of the ways that I acknowledge Him is I seek Him in prayer and He gives me His peace in my heart to know, listen to what the prophet Isaiah said. He said, you will keep Him in perfect peace. Whose mind is stayed or focused on you because He trusts in you.

You see, I want you to know that I can know the leadership of the Spirit in my life through the peace that God gives me. That as I am praying, I am seeing God at work and I recognize that He fills my heart with His peace.

And so I reach out, I minister, I walk up to that stranger and I share the gospel of Christ or I administer to whatever their particular need is. This is the work of God in your life. Church, we have to be more sensitive.

We have to recognize that God is always at work. He is not only at work in me and through me, but He is at work around me. And He wants to use you like He used Peter to help others to know Christ. Have you ever thought about that?

What if Peter would have said, you know what God, I’m not doing that. I don’t know Cornelius. I’m not going there. I’m gonna just stay at home where it’s… more comfortable. I’m just gonna do my own thing and I’m gonna let Cornelius do his thing.

But no, he was led of the spirit. The spirit told him to go and he went. He went. Friends, I want you to know that you can be sensitive to the spirit and you can be led of the spirit by prayer, by peace, and let me give you the third one by God’s principles or God’s Word.

Now again, the spirit will never lead you in contradiction to the Word of God. The spirit will lead you through the Word of God. The Word of God and the spirit work simultaneously together in your life.

That as you’re reading the Word of God, He is prompting you. He is convicting you. He is challenging you to get out of your comfort zone. He is calling you to a particular task. He is calling you to a particular cause.

He is calling you to a particular mission. And so we must be sensitive to these principles in God’s word that are instructing us and leading us and even convicting our own spirit that we should do this.

I promise you that every day of your life, God wants you to make an impact upon someone. He wants you to make an impact upon someone. Some of you would like to make impact upon people that you don’t even know, but I would recommend you start with the people you do know.

God wants you to influence the people that you know, and then he’ll use you in a greater way as you are faithful and saying, Lord, how can I be a blessing to my children? How can I be a blessing to my grandchildren?

How can I be a blessing to my spouse? How could I be a blessing to my church family? How can I be a blessing to the people that are already all around me? Every day, help me, Lord, to respond in grace and to be led of the spirit of God in ministering to people.

As I’m seeking God’s guidance, I not only want him to guide me and confirm to me his will through his word, but I want him to convict me in my spirit. Now, the leadership of the spirit is a unique thing that we must understand.

Sometimes as believers, we don’t know, is this the flesh, is it the devil, is it the world, is it the spirit? Keep in mind this, as you are trying to discern the leadership of the spirit, that the devil and the world and the flesh are always condemning you, but the spirit of God is always encouraging and building you and calling you to a greater work.

Many times I meet with, believers who feel very convicted in their life. Perhaps maybe about unresolved sin in their hearts, maybe unresolved anger, and there is some bitterness in their life, and there are struggles in their hearts about these things.

And they say to me, Pastor, is this God speaking to me? Or is this the world? Listen, the devil condemns you. The devil says you’re a loser. The devil says you don’t have a relationship with God. The devil tries to tell you that you’re never going to amount to anything.

But let me tell you what the Spirit says. The Spirit says you’re more than a conqueror. The Spirit says that you are led in triumph with God Almighty. The Spirit says that Jesus Christ went to the cross, and if you confess your sins and you bring it to God, and if you’re honest with Him and humble before Him, He’ll take that sin and He’ll cast it as far as the east is from the west to be remembered no more.

The Spirit tells you that you have a new creation, a brand new start in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the work of the Spirit. It is not the work of the devil. And so I want you to listen what you’re hearing.

I want you to discern what you’re hearing and that’s how you’ll know whether you are being led of the Spirit or you’re being led of the devil or the world. Now the third way that we seek God’s guidance is not only through His word and through the Spirit, but I want you to see through the circumstances of your own decision.

In verses 13 through 17, here what we see is an amazing unfolding that these circumstances seem to take place in the life of Peter that he cannot fully explain. But he says in verse 13, he told us how he had seen an angel standing in the house who had said to him, send men to Joppa and call for Simon whose surname is Peter.

Now while Peter is receiving a vision, you remember in chapter 10 that Cornelius was receiving a vision and God was bringing the saint and the sinner together that the sinner might find Christ. God was working providentially in the life of Cornelius and he was working providentially in the life of Peter.

It’s no accident that your path is crossing people who are hurting. It’s no accident that God is putting people into your life that are struggling. You might feel like hey man, this is too much drama.

I can’t handle all this mess that people are in, but I’m here to tell you that God is bringing about people in your path so that you can minister to them and make a difference in their life. How wonderful is that?

A major theme in this passage of scripture and even through the whole book of Acts is God’s role in directing Cornelius into the path. of Peter and this became a historic encounter. It would be the gateway that would lead the church to leave behind Judaism and all of its trappings that had been holding back the church of reaching the world with the gospel.

It would not only be historic but it would be transformative for the life of Cornelius and it would be transformative for the life of Peter and it would be transformative for the life of the church because from this moment on as we are studying the book of Acts we are gonna see the church propel into the uttermost parts of the earth and even through the life of the Apostle Paul as they will share the gospel to hundreds and thousands of people who now are in heaven because of this one moment.

Have you ever considered how historic the moment was? when God brought a soul winner into your life. How profound it was the moment that someone shared the gospel with you and how that has had a ripple effect upon your family, not just your life, but the life of other people.

I think about that often, about that pastor in Oklahoma who went in for coffee every morning at a gas station where my mother worked and how he would get a cup of coffee and every time he paid for that coffee, I’m not even sure the coffee was good.

But he invited my mother to come to church and she started out resistant, but she said, you know, I got these three kids that are driving me crazy. He said, man, I got a bus that’ll pick them up. And on that day, the first time my brother and sister and I ever heard about Jesus, we didn’t even know about God, gospel, church, Jesus, nothing.

But somehow in the providence of God, he brought us to that church and put us on the front row. But here I was on the front row and I remember it was this side of the church, church, little small church, wasn’t even 50 people there that Sunday.

But in the providence of God, somebody in the church paid for a bus, somebody paid to have gas put in it and somebody got up and said, let’s have this bus ready. And on that day, the preacher preached on Jesus and that day, three children walked forward and received Christ as their savior.

I told you church last summer that my wife and I were able to visit my mother in Oklahoma and in the living room, she received Jesus Christ as her savior. I told you, church, yes, go ahead, amen. I told you, church, and I’m not, I know that the things don’t always work out like this, but I’m just telling you how it is profound.

That my sister is married to a wonderful man who loves Jesus, her children love Christ, my brother is married to a wonderful lady who loves Jesus Christ, and their children love Christ, they’re all active in their church, they’re all active.

When I was talking to my mother about being baptized, she said, I’m not sure about that, Mike, because she’s afraid of water and she’s having some physical health problems. I said, well, mom, the sprinkler’s outside in the front yard, maybe we could just run you right through the sprinkler in a wheelchair.

I said, we just can’t let the church know this. We didn’t do it that way, don’t worry. But I just want you to know, I think about God was working in the heart of a preacher. He was working in the heart of my mother.

It brought about our salvation and that ripple effect today. What I’m trying to say to you is this, don’t ever look at any person crossing your path. Don’t ever look at your circumstances as something as being an accident.

Some of you might feel like that you are just hanging in there by faith or that you are hanging by luck, good or bad, perhaps more bad than good. But I’m here to assure you that God is effectively working in your circumstances and that God knows the future.

He has a plan and he is carrying out his redemptive purpose in the life of your family through the circumstances of your life. That your circumstances are not by chance or accident, but God is sovereignly bringing things together.

This is what Peter is sharing with the church in verses 13 through 17. He is saying, man, look at verse 17 at the end, who was I that I could withstand God? Who am I that I could withstand God? Who are we church that we can withstand what God is doing and where he is working and what he is up to.

It is no accident that people cross your path for he has a purpose that may have significance beyond the moment and be historical in the life of the church. We think about a young man that perhaps you have heard about many.

His name was D .L. Moody. D .L. Moody was a young boy who walked into a shoe store. That shoe store owner was a sole winner and he shared Christ with D .L. Moody. D .L. Moody got saved and would grow up to become one of the great evangelists of the world.

The Bible declares that God can use any person and he can use them in any way and D .L. Moody was very uneducated. He never went to Bible college, never went to seminary, but he was a man that God literally used.

Historians say that D .L. Moody metaphorically took England in one hand and America in the other and he shook them for God. In his ministry, there was a young man named Mordecai Hamm who came to Christ at one of D .L.

Moody’s evangelistic crusades. Mordecai Hamm, again, another young man, very uneducated, but he would grow up to be an evangelist for God. and he would crisscross America, more particularly the South, and he would preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Mordecai Ham held an evangelistic crusade in Charlotte, North Carolina. There was a young boy whose name was Billy Graham, who would come to Christ at that meeting and crusade in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Billy Graham would come to know Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. And Billy Graham would become one of the world -renowned evangelists preaching the gospel, not just in America and England, but through all the world, literally every continent, every country telling people about the Lord Jesus Christ.

Billy Graham would have a son. His name would be Franklin Graham. Franklin Graham would grow up hostile to the gospel. He would be rebellious to the gospel. His mother prayed night and day for him. She would not give up on Franklin Graham.

Franklin Graham would finally come to Christ, surrender his life to God. He would surrender to serve God in whatever capacity that he could. And he started a group called the Samaritan Purse. And you and I know today that the Samaritan Purse puts out millions of Christmas shoeboxes around the world.

It was a historic moment of circumstances that would lead a little boy named D .L. Moody into a shoe store that would lead to his conversion, that would lead to Mordecai’s conversion, that would lead to Billy Graham’s conversion, that would lead to Franklin Graham’s conversion, that would lead to millions of people around the world being saved.

God is working through your circumstances. Don’t you ever think that any moment or any person is in sin? significant in your life. Finally, we seek His guidance through the Council of Godly Friends. We come back to verse 18 of chapter 11.

When they heard these things, they became silent. They glorified God. Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life. This is how the people responded to Peter when they heard this story.

We back up to verse one of chapter 11. Remember that He went, the Judea heard that the Gentiles had received the Word. Peter came to Jerusalem, and those of the circumcision contented with Him. They argued with Him.

Who were these people of the circumcision? They’re holding on to Judaism. They’re loyal to the old covenant. They wanna make sure that everything is just as it ought to be. And here is their response to Peter in verse three.

You went into uncircumcised men and you ate with them. What are you doing, my friend? It would be those same people who by the time we get to verse 18 that they would glorify God and they would counsel Peter that God is granted to the Gentiles repentance.

We back up to verse 12, Peter recounting the story of this amazing circumstance of how the Spirit told him to go and not to doubt that there were six brethren who accompanied him. There were six friends who were of the faith and they entered into the man’s house.

He goes on to explain how these men would help him and that they would give him counsel. I want you to understand the advice of our close friends and family members, those in the church family, those who love Christ, God is using them to help guide you in his will.

The book of Proverbs says without counsel plans go awry but in the multitude of counselors they are established. When you and I are trying to seek the will of God, the people that God puts around us that love God, the people that are committed to the cause of Christ, we should seek the counsel of wise people.

Proverbs 1 .5 says, a wise man will hear and will increase in learning and a man of understanding will attain unto wise counsel how sad it is that sometimes God’s people are the most unteachable people.

How sad it is that sometimes we think we figured it all out and we know it all and we won’t listen to the people that God puts in our path. God is putting godly people in your life. Sometimes they’re a warning sign.

Don’t go down that way. The bridge is out. Sometimes they are good people who are here to encourage you. There are three types of people you need in your life. Write this down and I’ll be done real quickly.

I promise you but you need three types of people and if you haven’t found them… Start looking, number one, you need an Apostle Paul, you need a mentor, you need a mentor in your life. You need someone that you can counsel.

I recommend that you have at least five of them. When I was a young pastor in Indiana, I had a pastor friend tell me, Mike, find five pastors to mentor you. You need at least one, don’t be afraid to have two.

You need mentors in your life. You need to pursue them, you need to ask them if they would be a mentor in your life. You need to ask them, could you bring anything to them and they would counsel you to make good decisions.

Number two, you need a Barnabas in your life. You need an encourager in your life. You need people in your life who are positive, they’re refreshing, they’re renewing. You know, there are some people in our lives, they drain us, don’t they?

Every time we’re around them, they find fault, there’s a speck on the wall, they’re constantly critiquing us, they’re always doubting everything about us and they don’t believe in us. But you need a Barnabas in your life.

Paul was a man who was new to the faith and he had Barnabas who encouraged him and he had Barnabas who stood up for him to the church that his conversion was legitimate. And there’s much to be said about Barnabas but you need encouragers in your life.

People who will renew and refresh you. But thirdly, you need a Timothy in your life. You need a mentee. Who are you pouring your life into? Who are you encouraging? Perhaps one of the greatest things I enjoy is helping younger pastors, helping young men who want to serve Christ.

I love pouring my life into young people who want to serve God in any capacity. When I see a young person that wants to serve the Lord, I don’t care who they are, where they are, what their situation is, I wanna do everything I can to help them to be faithful to the call that God has upon their life.

And are you like that? Are you willing to be a blessing to someone? Are you willing to find ways to help this person? You see, there was a time, there was somebody who took a risk on Pastor Mike. There was somebody, there was a pastor who said, you know, I don’t know about this guy, but hey, I’ll let him come on staff, we’ll get it a try.

There was somebody who said, you know what? I’m gonna drive Pastor Mike all the way from Oklahoma all the way to North Carolina, 17 years old. My mother was freaking out, but here I am to Bible college, but it was my pastor who did that.

Somebody took a risk on me and somebody took a risk on you. Somebody took you under your wing and said, let me show you the way. What I’m trying to say is that we all need these relationships in our life as we’re seeking God’s will.

And God has put special people in my life and he’s putting special people in your life. The key is, are we responsive? Are we gonna be like Peter and be responsive? Or are we gonna be like that crowd at the beginning of the church?

In verse 1, all they could do was see fault and criticize. Or we will just step back and say, Lord, what are you up to? And what are you doing where I can serve you? The Christian should never wonder or worry if God will guide them.

We know that he’s promised to lead us day by day and give us our daily bread. And so we don’t have to be filled with anxiety and questions. We can just come in confidence, believing, and trusting that God has a purpose.

And he’s guiding us each day. And so we encourage you to keep that in mind as we have shared with you today. We want to encourage you to grow in your faith. And one of the tools we have is our YouTube channel.

If you go to YouTube, type in Hope Worth Having. You’ll see that there are many interviews. There are many Bible lessons. There’s devotions. and a lot of resources that I think will be a blessing to you.

So check us out on Hope Worth Having in the YouTube channel. And I know you’ll be encouraged by that. This is Pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ there is hope worth having.

The post How to Seek God’s Guidance Part 2 first appeared on Hope Worth Having.