A Mission from God
Faith at the Movies • Sermon • Submitted
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· 7 viewsIf God call you to it, God will provide what is needed.
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Transcript
I want my life to be on fire! Three kinds of fire:
1 - that which burns
2 - that which is strange
3 - that which is holy & passionate
Acts 2:38 - forgiveness of sins & the gift of the Holy Spirit
I want to be on fire - Baptism in the Spirit
The Holy Spirit FILLS you, when you come to a CRISIS!
How do you wind up in a CRISIS?
You are done trying and are thirsty for more of Jesus - John 7:37
You are confronted with the Word of God - John 14:26
You ask Jesus to fill you - Luke 11:13
You surrender to whatever God wants - Romans 12:1-2
Ephesians 5:18 (The Living Bible) — …Be filled instead with the Holy Spirit and controlled by Him.
The end of Mark:
1. Mark did not write it. We lost the end of Mark, or he just ends it at verse 8.
2. Someone as early as AD 170 (within 100 years of John Mark writing the original) wrote it.
3. The early church generally accepted it as inspired.
4. The events found in it are affirmed elsewhere in Scripture.
It is trustworthy and we can learn how to live in Christ.
If I could just see Jesus…
Mark 16:14
The disciples lacked faith when they did!
What does it mean to be full of faith?
First, it means to believe in Jesus as Savior, Sanctifier, Healer, and Coming King!
Second, it means you live in a divine purpose.
Divine Purpose
Mark 16:15-16
To all creation - every living person of all nations
Self-seeking or God’s self-sacrificing loving agenda
Preach means to tell
Notice: its not your job to make them believe. Its your job to offer and plead for them to accept His amazing love.
We are witnesses - we just tell what happened to us.
Reasons we don’t do that divine purpose
Mark 16:17-18
Vs. 17 - and these signs…
A sign - a phenomenon that indicated something else
They point to the truth of the Gospel
Divine Power - drive out demons
Demons are fallen angels
Their methods: temptation, deception, accusation, oppression (hindering progress and especially communion with God), depression (change your thought patterns), and possession.
Dinner Church disrupted!
No matter how the enemy of our soul is putting people in emotional, spiritual, and psychological slavery, I’ll set them free! ~ Jesus
Divine Prayer - speak in new tongues
You can enjoy supernatural intimacy with God. Your own language to connect with God!
Hear God’s voice
Ephesians 6:18 - pray at all times in the Spirit
We’re bored, we’re anxious, we’re good, we’re at the bottom, we’re at the top, we’re betrayed, and when we’re spoken well of.
The worldwide mission of saving the world can not be accomplished with our own wisdom and strength. We need to hear God’s voice.
We need direct communication - QB with the coaches
What if you don’t - the Bible is silent.
How do you know that you are filled with the Spirit?
Ongoing transformation to be more like Jesus - 2 Corinthians 3:18
Fellowship with the Third Person of our Triune God - 2 Corinthians 13:14
Fruit of Character - Galatians 5:22-23
Power and Fruit for Evangelism - Acts 1:8 & John 15:16
Greater understanding of God’s truths - John 14:25-26
Calling for Ministry - Ephesians 4:11
Gifted for ministry - 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 & 1 Corinthians 12:4
Speaking in Tongues - Acts 2:4, Acts 19:6
A song in your heart - Ephesians 5:18-19
Confidence in prayer - 1 John 5:14-15 & Luke 11:13
Rescue in times of weakness - Romans 8:26
Separation from Sin - Galatians 5:19-21 & Ephesians 4:22-31
Kindness and Forgiveness - Ephesians 4:32
Thirst for more of Jesus - John 7:37
Transformed thinking - Romans 8:5 & 12:2)
Joy and inner peace that confirms that we are children of God - Romans 8:16
This list is not exhaustive, but should be exciting! This means the Holy Spirit is propelling us towards Christ!
Divine Protection - pick up snakes and drink poison
God’s purposes will take us to dangerous places - no place is off-limits, no people are exceptions.
Jesus was talking about the power of the enemy. Snakes and scorpions were figurative of satan’s powers. How do I know? Let hard to understand Scriptures be interpreted by easier to understand Scriptures.
Luke 10:19 - Look, I have given you the authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy; nothing at all will harm you.
Context - Jesus is sending out his disciples and they will face false teachers. The power of the enemy will come at them like snakes and scorpions!
The poison spewed by the snakes and scorpions is satan’s ability to deceive. Jesus said believers would be able to overcome this.
You are not commanded or a challenged to hike into the desert of New Mexico and catch a rattlesnake with your own hands. Or to gulp down a bottle of cyanide and see if we are unharmed.
That’s just stupid.
God does not ask us to tempt the laws of nature. God is not a safety net for people who leap off of tall buildings. People really say: the Coronavirus will not kill them?
Over 900 Christians followers of preacher Jim Jones, drank poison and in November of 1978, which resulted in mass death of men, women, and children (the parents forced the children to drink cyanide).
You shall not test the Lord your God
Jesus was saying whatever evil satan throws at you, shall never harm you and achieve its intended effect.
The most dangerous place for some may be right in God’s will.
You’ll get made fun of at school and bullied - you’ll get passed over for a promotion
When we find ourselves in a threatening situation, the Divine Protection means we don’t have to panic. God hasn’t left us.
Jude 24-25 - Now to him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, without blemish and with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time, now and forever. Amen.
God is able to protect you from stumbling = you’ll keep your worth & faith
God is able to make you stand = you’ll keep your faith & win in the end
Divine Protection means that no one can take us before God has decided it is our time.
If we don’t have the fire of the Spirit, we won’t be willing to suffer for Christ’s sake.
Divine Prescription - lay hands and heal the sick
People need healing: physically, emotionally, mentally, and psychologically.
Why don’t they happen as often today?
Gregory the Great (Gregorian chant named after him) c.600 AD - These were needed at the church’s beginning. The new faith needed to be nourished by miracles to grow. When we plant a vineyard, we must water the plants till we see they have begun to grow in the earth, and when they have once taken root we cease to water them constantly.…
Ezekiel 18:4 teaches us the important truth that death and sickness are a result of the Fall: “the soul who sins shall die.” If Christ came to remove the curse of the Fall, then why would healing sickness and death not be part of His work? We even are told, “by His stripes we are healed” (1 Peter 2:24).
His ministry - He healed countless
His cross - atonement reaches “as far as the curse is found.”
His resurrection - Jesus’ life is the spring and source of health and life.
His ascension - He mediates for us
Hebrews 4:16 - Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need.
Many people confused miracles and healings.
Miracles happen instantaneously and break the natural physics of time and space.
Healings are usually a process.
Take your meds!
It doesn’t matter how long it takes to heal someone; it only matters that God is active in making it happen.
Touch is not magic.
Covid 19 - lack of touch means a lack of peace.
Jesus said that you’ll lay hands - People need your touch!
Hugs lower blood pressure.
When Krissy touches my hand when I am angry!
Touch may be the most powerful means of communication.
That is ordinary touch - now mix that with the fire of God coupled with prayer! It takes on a divine dimension!
Medical condition? Addiction? Emotional wound? Haunted past?
Some need healing of heart disease:
Guilt - I feel worthless
Compulsion - I feel helpless
Alienation - I feel lonely
Confusion - I feel aimless
Worry - I feel restless
Jesus wants today to deal with your heart and the disease that you have allowed to creep in.
For this to happen today, there are two kinds of people in the room:
1. Those who need a heart transplant.
2. Those who have a new heart, but poor circulation.
Jesus wants to send someone your way to bring a divine prescription!
Divine Purpose means Divine Danger!
I need the baptism of fire - the baptism of the Holy Spirit
Not because I want to feel superior to anyone
It’s dangerous
Many a minister is praying for the filling with the Holy Spirit who does not really desire it. He thinks he does, for the filling with the Spirit means to him new joy, new power in preaching the Word, a wider reputation among men, a larger prominence in the church of Christ. But if he understood what a filling with the Holy Spirit really involved, how for example it would necessarily bring him into antagonism with the world, and with unspiritual Christians, how it would cause his name to be "cast out as evil," how it might necessitate his leaving a good comfortable living and going down to work in the slums, or even in some foreign land; if he understood all this, his prayer quite likely would be-if he were to express the real wish of his heart-"O God, save me from being filled with the Holy Ghost.” R.A. Torrey - early 1900’s
I still need the fire!
I want to be more biblical
I want to experience more of Him!
If we focus on the purpose, the signs will come and won’t have to be forced.
Wait, won’t this stuff hinder our mission? The supernatural is strange! I want to remind you - people are ok with weird, but they are not ok with fake.
The signs go back the Divine Purpose: Go into all the work and preach the gospel to all creation!
The Gospel:
1 - God created
2 - We rebelled
3 - Jesus saves - respond by faith (trust + action)
4 - We live in purpose
May God so fill us today with the heart of Christ that we may glow with the divine fire of holy desire. ~ AB Simpson - early 1900’s