More Than Bread

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In Acts chapter 5, we find the early church experiencing intense persecution from the religious authorities. The apostles have been arrested, flogged, and commanded to stop speaking about Jesus. But instead of being silenced and scared, they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer disgrace for the Name. 

 Can you imagine that mindset today? How many of us would consider it a privilege to be beaten and shamed for our faith? The apostles' response reveals just how radical a transformation the gospel had worked in their hearts and lives. Their devotion to Christ superseded even the most basic human instincts for comfort and control. So as we listen to Acts 5:40-42 today, just ask yourself - do I have that same spirit of joyful willingness to endure hard times for the sake of Jesus? Am I grateful for times when I suffered for Jesus? Not easy questions, but they may measure the heart of our passion for Jesus and how full we are of the Spirit. 

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In Acts 5, a religious leader by the name of Gamliel, let loose with some wisdom on the  Jewish religious leaders. He warned them to leave Peter and John alone because if this movement was not of God, it would die out. But if it was of God...they would find themselves fighting against God! 

The church in Acts was of God. It was filled with people who were experiencing the fire  of the Holy Spirit filling their hearts and minds.  A group of people who were bowing  their hearts and bending their knees to give their loyalty and their love to Jesus. And  God responded by filling them with his presence, empowering them with his Spirit and giving them courage and deep compassion. A compassionate courage so deep that they just could not stop talking about Jesus! 

When is the last time you felt like you just couldn't stop talking about Jesus?

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To turn the world upside down, we must get real with our sin.  We have to take off our masks and get real with our sin. When we get real with our sin, grace happens and life is  transformed.  If you grew up in the church, and you are wearing a mask of spirituality that hides the sin in your heart, then you don't like the story of Annanias and Sapphira, in Acts 5. You hear the story and you think, "God that was a little over the top, don't you think?"  I mean it was just a little lie, who were they hurting? 

If you are a religious person, God's the bad guy in this story. 
   
But if you have ever got real with God and found forgiveness for your sins; if you have ever dealt with your junk, you know that God's not the bad guy. Sin is a cancer that has
no cure but grace and grace that doesn't come if we don't get real. But when it comes...it is simply gloriously good!

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This episode is about stuff and our masks and getting real with each other and God. And a little bit about what sometimes happens when God gets real with us!

One of the amazing things about people giving up their stuff is that stuff is one of the most secure and effective masks we wear. Right? Because if we have stuff on the outside, then people assume that we are good on the inside. But here's the deal. Stuff means nothing. It can be used for many things, but it means nothing. It defines nothing.  We go through life collecting stuff, getting anxious about stuff, and hoping our outside stuff masks our inside stuff. 

In real church, real people get real with each other and God.

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Some of you think that there is simply no way God can do anything of significance  through you.  You beg off every time He extends His hand of partnership, because  you are just an ordinary nobody, a common anybody. You don't have the training for this or the experience for that. But  the most important question is, "Are you willing to be with Jesus."

The hearts of Peter and John were forever changed by spending time with Jesus. It left them with the kind of courage that is unshaken when you're exhausted, frustrated, and scared spitless, with absolutely no way in the known world for you to do what God calls you to do, unless he does it through you.

Do you understand? It's ok to be unschooled and ordinary, as long as I've been with Jesus. How much have you been with Jesus?

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When I read Acts 4, my first thought is this, "Before we turn the world upside-down, God may need to shake-up our church! In Acts 4, there's a prayer meeting that shook a building. We'll actually the Spirit of God did the shaking and I can’t help but ask, "God do you have it in you to do it one more time?  Would You shake us until we become the church that you can use to turn our world upside down?"

Because can we be honest? If we keep settling for the same levels of passion and  commitment; if we keep placing multiple things in a higher priority than following  Christ; if we keep loving stuff more than we love our neighbors and keep doing church like we've always done it, nothing is going to be turned upside-down, which means our world will never be right-side-up.  I hope after listening to this episode you will join me in praying, "God shake us up!"

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I want to dance, but even more I want to see those around me dance. When the crippled man of Acts 3 began to dance in the temple, do you understand his crippled place  become the glory bookmark in the chapter of the story entitled, "When the Spirit was  poured out." Where are the bookmarks in your life? What potential bookmarks are  there in the lives of people around you? Places of brokenness external or internal,  places of brokenness that when wholeness comes, they become bookmarks for the glory of God?  Are we praying for the broken people around us. Are we praying that they dance?

I know you want to dance. I want the crippled places in my life to become bookmarks for God's glory...but this story forces me to ask, "Am I praying that God will bring a dance of gratefulness to the lives of those around me?"

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As we dive into Acts 3, we encounter one of favorite early church moments, a truly  iconic miracle, the story of a lame beggar who became a dancing cripple. In fact, I’ve  used that as my user name on more than occasion, because in the end, aren’t we all just  dancing cripples?  And I don't know if you've noticed it or not, but when a cripple dances, a crowd begins to form and the church begins to matter.

See I believe that's why Jesus told the disciples to wait in Jerusalem until God gave  them the gift of His Spirit. He told them to wait until they got what He had to give, because without the Spirit, church doesn't really matter. Without the Spirit we don't have a whole lot to give. But with the Spirit we have more than we know. 

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"Wait for the Spirit," Jesus said. Then the Spirit came and the church was birthed.  It was a church of humble power and courageous generosity, a church that lived against the grain of society but loved so deeply many in that culture were compelled to join them. It became a church that beat down the gates of hell to rescue neighbors from darkness. This was the church birthed and empowered by the very Spirit of Christ.

There are many different descriptions, different words, the Bible paints many different pictures to help us understand the Spirit. But one of my favorites is the "breath of God" the wind. It's the Hebrew word, Ruach. It is the breath of God that breathes life into our deadness, that blows fire into our hearts, that brings power for living. And that breath, the breath of God is so for you!

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I want to live the uncommon life that comes from an uncommon encounter with the living God.  And as much as I want to see signs and wonders like the healing of bodies; even more I hunger to see the healing and renovation of hearts. I hunger to see the healing of 10's of 1000's of hearts; the kind of wholesale renovation that would lead God to be pleased to pour out a blessing on central PA that cannot be contained in one
heart, one valley, one school, but spills over and draws people from all over world to Central PA to be shaped by God at work

What will it take to get there? A full-on heart devotion to Jesus.