Keeping In Step With the Spirit

The North Way Notes, there's not a lot of room to write on those notes, I understand that, but even if you just put little key words and phrases, sometimes that is a good reminder of what the Lord was trying to speak to you about. I'd like to read the entire second chapter of Acts today, but I'm not going to do that. I'm just going to read the first 13 verses as a beginning point, and I'll make reference to several other verses as we go through this message today. When the day of Pentecost came they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest in each of them. And all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now they were staying in Jerusalem, God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. Notice, people had come from all over the earth for the Feast of Pentecost. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked, are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? In other words, all the people who were speaking forth the praises of God were using languages that they'd never known. They were all from one area. They were all from Galilee, which is just a little northeast of Jerusalem. And the rest of the people were from all over and they were hearing their own language. And then it just lists all the different places. Skip down to the end of verse 11. We hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues. Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, what does this mean? Some, however, made fun of them, and there will always be those, and said they've had too much wine. I want to begin with a question this morning. What has to happen in your life to get your attention? I mean, to get your attention, what has to take place? With all the information that bombards us on a daily, almost moment-by-moment basis, with, you know, all of the forms of communication we have today competing for our minds, what has to happen to get your attention? I did some thinking about this and I want to submit to you that there are four characteristics of a communication that will get my attention. Number one, it's got to be unusual. Something a little different than what had happened to me before. Number two, something unexpected. If it has an element of surprise in it, it gets my attention. Number three, if it's unexplainable, in other words, if it's beyond the normal channels of my understanding, it gets my attention. And number four, if it's unprecedented, it really gets my attention. If it's never happened before, if it's a first-time occurrence. All right? Got those? Unusual, unexpected, unexplainable, unprecedented. Would something like that get your attention? Do I have your attention now? The more of these categories that a particular occurrence has, the more it's likely to get my attention. Several weeks ago, I got a phone call from a man who identified himself from a major bank whose name I didn't recognize, but he said it was a major bank, and he said he had a check for $20,000 with my name on it. Whoo, I checked my list. Yeah, that's unusual. It was certainly unexpected, and so on. And so I listened real carefully, got my attention. Then it turned out it was a marketing strategy for a bank that wanted to sell me or engage me in a home equity loan. And all I had to do was sign a couple papers, and he'd send me this check, of course, and take a lien out of my property. No thank you. I was with a man several months ago on an airplane. Sat next to me, and he was telling me what was going on in his life, and he said just a year before that, he'd been playing tennis, walked off the tennis court. Finally, couldn't get his breath. His chest started to hurt. He had some tingling in his arm, and he realized that he was in the middle of having a heart attack. And he went on to share how God changed his life in that circumstance, and how God had gotten his attention. I would say to you that the O.J. Simpson verdict got the attention of many people in this nation about the true condition of racial relations. And I don't know if you're all aware of this, but I think it's prompted a whole lot of positive things, at least in this church and in many other environments in which I'm a part, because it's really getting people to be honest with each other about where they are. This past week, the Holy Spirit got my attention through an experience that was all of the above. It was unusual, unexpected, unexplainable, and certainly unprecedented. This past week, on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, with little fanfare in the media, although it was noticed, 42,000 pastors met in the Georgia Dome. That's where the Atlanta Falcons play their professional football games. 42,000 pastors at the first-ever Promise Keeper Pastors Conference. 42,000 pastors from every denomination, every state, many countries of the world, every ethnic and racial background. It was truly an historical occurrence. Never in the history of America, as far as we could ascertain, had this many pastors come together. And many of us tried to pinpoint a time in world history. None of us could even do that when that many pastors adjusted their schedules and made a point of gathering together. Friends, there's only 385,000 churches in America. That means fully a tithe of all the churches sent representatives. Max Likado, a well-known Christian author, many of you have read some of his written works, said in his message that he believed we were witnessing a hinge point in the life of the church. Now what brought all these pastors together? Was it to discuss neat programs for growing churches? No. Was it to discuss strategies to avoid an IRS audit? No. Was it to share ideas that are working in our local church ministries so that we could all do a better job of pastoring? No. They came for the purpose of learning to break down the walls that divide us as leaders so that we as people could be united in what God wants to do, so that the church can get about the business of what God left it on the earth to do. And that is to be a redeeming influence in the culture in which we find ourselves. To hand, as the Bible says, to hold forth the word of life to people who are dying. That's what we're here to do. But friends, we're spending so much time arguing and fighting and disagreeing that the church, in many circles, is impotent today. And that's why the leaders came. They came to address those concerns which have divided us and been so difficult for us. They came to meet with God. They came to recalibrate and reconsider what God, by His Spirit, is saying. And I want to say to you, friends, it got my attention. It was unusual. I went, to be honest with you, just somewhat unsure if it would really amount to all that much. But it was beyond my expectation. God did some unexplainable things and some unprecedented things. It was moving. It was challenging. It was emotional at some points. And it was also very comforting to me, because some of the things that I heard being spoken were the very same things that we as a church have sought to embrace as we walk down this road of faith. And I want to share a few of those with you this morning. I know that some of you came expecting me to bring a message on comforting love. And in two weeks, I am going to bring that message, because I believe our church needs to know how to give comfort to people in need. But the Lord would not give me peace on that. On Wednesday and Thursday, I wrestled with that message and started to work on it. But I knew that God was saying, talk to the church about what I'm doing in the world today. Let them know how they can discern a true move of God. Let them know what they can look for in their own lives, so they don't get left behind. And friends, I know that some of us are sitting here, and we don't even know what it is to say, well, that's really a move of God. Some of us are here thinking, you know, I don't even know if I care all that much. I've got a lot of other things to deal with. I've got problems. Can I say this? If you get into a move of God, your problems will become very small, because you'll discover a God who's very big. So I encourage you to tune in. The Lord gave me a picture of this, how some of us get hung up on this. Pastor Jeff Small and I traveled pretty much together, and at the end of the conference, we were leaving Atlanta, and we left about 6.15 or so from right downtown, and there was still a lot of traffic. Okay, it was still pretty bad. And so we crested this one street, and there was this long downgrade and a long upslope, and I could see, I would guess, almost a quarter of a mile's worth of traffic, just traffic, you know, brake lights backed all the way up. And we're sitting there, and then, of course, my first thought is, oh no, you know, the airport, and oh God, what a dumb mistake, and why didn't we go another way? Jeff, why are you driving this? You know, and I was, we're struggling with all that, but we had no choice but to sit there, and Jeff and I are talking back and forth, and I could, I wondered, well, maybe there's gridlock, and maybe we're really gonna be stuck here, because we didn't move for about four or five minutes. Then I could see way out that cars were moving, and it took about three minutes from when that car moved way out there to when that little bit of movement finally got to where I was. Do you understand what I'm saying? Kind of like a parade. And I realized something in the middle of my conversation with Jeff. I turned to Jeff, and I said, you know, the Lord is speaking to me right now, Jeff, that we look where we are, and we don't feel like we're moving, and God is saying by His Spirit, He has already begun to move. It just, we haven't, it's not back to us quite yet, but if we stay focused, if we stay in that line of what the Spirit of God is doing in the people of God, we too are gonna move into the purposes of God. So if you're here today, and you feel like, man, nothing's really going on in my life, I'm not sure anything's really going on where I am, just stay focused where I'm gonna point you right now, and you're gonna be caught up. That line of traffic is gonna get back to you, and you're gonna move forward with the Spirit. Let's look at four specific ways you can discern a true movement of God. Number one, Acts chapter 2 says that the early church that gathered together discovered the presence of God. Friends, listen, Pentecost was a very routine kind of celebration. Jews came from all over, it says, to do their, one of the three great celebrations of the early, of the Jewish people, the Feast of Pentecost, and they were, they were celebrating as they always did, you know, they had their sacrifices, and they, you know, built their booths, and all that kind of stuff, and, and they were just ready to go through the motions as they always did, but something happened. The presence of God came in a way that had never come before. The Bible says that a sound like a mighty rushing wind. Every time I read that, I think, how many of you see windows open and curtains moving, and think that must, well, it doesn't say that, it says it was a sound like that, and then it said things like tongues of fire settled out on people's heads. How would you like to turn to someone and say, Carl, I don't know what to say, but there's something on your head, it looks like a flame, you know, and how I describe what that is. You see, really what the Bible writers are telling us is, Luke to be, to be specific, he didn't know how to describe it. It was a phenomenon. It was something he'd never seen before. It was God getting the attention of the early church. So confusing was it all that some people said, hey, what does this all mean, or is it the message translation says, hey, what's going on here? What's going on here? We've never seen anything like this before. We don't know what this means. This is a lot bigger than anything we've ever imagined before. People speaking in our language, people who've never learned that language. When God shows up, you see, in His presence, He has a way of exploding the little boxes that we put Him in. If we don't allow fear or pride to suppress that revelation, God will show Himself at a personal level to be much bigger than you've known Him to be. Now, I want you to wake your neighbor up right now. If your neighbor's dozing, tell them they need to hear this, okay? Tell them that. I'll tell you why it is. Sometimes, folks, we start to see ourselves in a certain way, and because we see ourselves that way, we think that's how God sees us, and we never allow God to do in us what He really wants to do. You know, you can prevent God from doing what He wants to do in your life. Let me give you an illustration about Moses. Moses had, as you all know the story, Moses had tried to take God's will into his own hands and deliver the Israelites by killing Egyptians one at a time. It would have been a long process. He went out for 40 years and wandered in the desert. He was a shepherd wandering in the desert. In Moses' mind, his leadership days were over. I'm convinced that he would have been absolutely content just to kind of live his days out, not bothering God and God not bothering him. And friends, some of us look at our lives that way. God, don't bother me and I won't bother you. I just kind of like my little niche here. But one day, 40 years after wandering around, the Bible says in Exodus 3 that God allowed Moses to wander on the backside of Mount Horeb. And there Moses saw a bush that was burning. But the amazing thing was it was burning and not being consumed. And Moses looked at that and he said, that's got my attention. And then he heard the voice of God saying, take off your sandals. The place you're standing is holy ground. And God then began in His presence to give a revelation to Moses about what now God had planned for his life. And Moses became an unthinkable thing in his own mind. He became the deliverer of the children of Israel. Moses was the one that God sent back to Pharaoh to said, let my people go. And you all know the story. You've all seen the movie. Moses had no inclination whatsoever to do that. But God blew his box wide open and sent him on a mission that he had uniquely destined Moses to fulfill. Friends, God said, Moses, your life isn't over. I'm issuing a recall. How many of you ever had a car recalled? What does that mean? That's when the manufacturer says, hey, there's a bad part in here that maybe is messed up. Bring it back in and I'm gonna fix it and send you back out. God said to Moses, get in here. I'm gonna fix what needs to be fixed and send you out. And friends, listen, in the presence of God, you can experience a recall of your life. And God can do his work and send you out to fulfill the mission he has for you. If you've lost your passion, if you've lost your vision, or if you've never had one, if you're in a spiritual slump right now, what you need is to ask God for a moment in his presence. A moment. Don't settle just to keep going around the desert and wandering around. Stop what you're doing and say, God, I need a moment in your presence where I can discover what you're telling me to do and I can get your vision for my life. Five years ago, when we were really looking seriously at building this, building a new facility, many folks said, well, I know a church that was about your size and they've done the building thing and why don't you go visit them and see what it's, what it was like and so on. It sounded good to me and I started to line up a number of different churches and in the middle of that process, I'm, I was having a time of prayer and the Lord seemed to say to my heart, I don't want you to go to places that are doing what you're doing. I want you to go to places that are far exceeding what you're doing. And so Roy Thompson and I went to three or four cities and seven different churches and every church we visited was much bigger than anything we were doing. And you know what happened in that two-day trip? God's vision exploded in my heart and in our hearts together. And because we allowed God to lead that time, we have a much different vision and a much different facility than we would have had had I just kind of followed what was safe and secure and predictable. Friends, you need a touch of the presence of God. Number two, the person of God. As I keep moving forward in my Christian life, I find that the one great challenge of all of life seems to be the capacity to focus on my relationship to the Lord. The simple pure love of Jesus himself. Look what I say there in the outline in Philippians chapter 3, just turn it over. Paul writing and saying, you know, I was all these things but I thought they were, what I thought was so important is gone from my life compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus my master firsthand. Everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant. I've dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. Underline that last sentence. Whatever it is you're hanging on to, it's useless next to knowing Christ, embracing him, and being embraced by him. And there's never been a more difficult time for us to focus on the Lord alone, free from distractions, to see our thoughts so diluted. You know, with all of the information age stuff that's out there, and the Internet, and the television options, and cable, and the print media, and radio, and all these things, they're all fine things. But friends, how many of you can have a whole day go by and never have a quiet moment? It's very possible. One of the things that surprised me when I showed up at the conference on Tuesday night, Bill McCartney, who is the founder of Promise Keepers, former head coach at Colorado University, football coach. The first thing he said was, gentlemen, he said, I want you all to fast for the next two and a half days. I said, wait a minute, I didn't sign up for this fasting for two and a half days. I'm planning to eat big time. He said, no, I don't want you to fast from food. I want you to fast from distractions. I want you to turn off your television sets in your room. Don't bother reading the newspapers. Keep the radio off. Stay away from your computers and your telephones. And I want you to know something, that had an impact, and many of us did that. The hardest one was the telephones. In case you need to know this or don't know this, pastors have this incredible desire to keep in touch with what's going on in their church. And there was about 30 or 40 telephones around the Georgia Dome. Every one of them had a line about 50 pastors long. You know, oh, I've got to get in on this. And Wednesday, Valentine's Day, one of the messages was about letting your wife know how much you love her. So all these guys go running out to the phones to call their wives, you know. And I have to admit, I succumbed to that encouragement, and got out there and got in the line, and it took forever. And I got up there, two guys from me, and there was like a three-phone bank here, and we're all waiting. And this one guy, you can hear him just laying on like, oh, you know, I so miss you, honey. I can't wait to get home and put my arms around you again. And we're all going, oh, this is like this guy. Just, you know, give it a rest, you know. Tomorrow you're going to be home, and it'll all just be fine. But distractions can snuff out the simple truth of God's love and presence in your life. A very familiar passage to many of us is the Mary and Martha passage. Remember what the Lord said? Read it with me. But Martha was, see, she wasn't evil, she wasn't sinful, she wasn't, she wasn't like proud and arrogant. She was just distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to the Lord and said, Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me. Martha, Martha, the Lord answered, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Say that with me. But only one thing, only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her. You see, at Pentecost, there were many tongues, there were many things going on, but there was really only one message. The Spirit came and brought the presence of God, and that got everyone's attention, but there was only one message that flowed out of all of that. As you read through the balance of the chapter, you'll see that the message was simply the fact that Jesus Christ was exalted to be Lord of all. And to make it very clear, the Spirit repeats this time after time. He says that it was Jesus who was accredited to by signs and miracles and wonders in verse 22. That He, Jesus, lived a perfect and sinless life. That He, Jesus, was handed over with the foreknowledge of the Father to wicked and sinful men, in verse 23. And that He, Jesus, was given for the express purpose of dying on a massive cross of splintered wood for your sins and mine, verse 24. That He, Jesus, was the one whom the Father would not abandon to decay, in verse 27. That He, Jesus, was the one whom God raised to life, in verse 31. That He, Jesus, was the one whom God exalted to His right hand, where He now lives in unapproachable light and unspeakable glory, verse 33. And that He, Jesus, was the one whom God made to be both Lord and Christ. There's one message. It's that Jesus is Lord of all. And we need to do everything that we can to keep focused on that simple, clear person. Oswald Chambers writes profoundly about the one temptation that we all suffer is to be pulled away from our first love, our abandonment to the person of Jesus. Friends, do you realize how much the Lord loves you? That He's so committed to you? It's that Jesus really is the one who says, I'll never fail you nor forsake you. I'll never leave you alone. And I'll never give up on you no matter how far down you might go. Jesus, you see, is the ultimate promise keeper. But at times, you know, we go through pain and suffering and disappointment and even loss. Sometimes God allows us to be bruised. But listen, God only bruises us so that He might use us. And that doesn't seem to be a very pleasant thought for you and me, but you know what? People say, I don't know why God would let that happen. Friends, if God allowed His own Son to be bruised for our iniquities, you can count on this. He'll allow it to happen to you if it will make you a person, a man or a woman that He can use. You just need to trust Him when you're going through those experiences that He's going to use it for His glory. One of the most impactful speakers for me was a black man by the name of Raleigh Washington, a man who had grown up in a difficult home situation in the inner city, but he worked hard. He had some athletic ability. He played baseball and got a full scholarship to college. Even though his mom or dad never saw him play one game throughout his school days. He went on to school and then eventually into the United States Army, became an officer, served faithfully and was recognized for his achievements and advanced to the rank of lieutenant colonel. But along the way he alienated some superiors simply because they didn't like men of color who were rising in the ranks faster than they were. This was a number of years ago. After 19 years, Raleigh Washington determined that he was going to retire at 20 years and take his pension from the United States Army. But during that 19th year, a couple of his superior officers fabricated a story to get him out. And they told him that if he agreed that he had been the one that had been causing some problems with some of his subordinates, and he took responsibility for that, that they would overlook it and go ahead and sign off and give him his retirement and he'd get his full Army pension. But Raleigh Washington was a man of God and a man of integrity and he said, you know what, I didn't do what you're saying and I'm not going to sign the papers. And it went back and forth for quite some time and after 19 years and 11 months and 29 days, his superior officers had him involuntarily discharged from the United States Army without his pension. Raleigh Washington had a focus on the person of Jesus, his master. He chose to not get bitter but to allow God in the bruising of his heart. And it did break his heart and it was a difficult time for him because he'd been ripped off. But he chose to allow that bruising to soften his heart so that God could use him. And so for eight long years, Raleigh Washington didn't get bitter, he just got better in the love of God. Eight years later, a man joined his church. Now he was now a pastor in a church in Chicago who was an attorney. And in the course of discussion along the way, this man said, you know what happened to you eight years ago was not right. It was wrong and I want to do something about it. Raleigh said, you know, I'm okay with it. God settled my life, I'm going on. He said, but it was wrong and I want to do something about it. And he took the United States Army to court and they battled for one whole year. But one year later, nine years after the injustice, Raleigh Washington woke up one morning, got a phone call. He said, you got to serve one more day. They reversed their decision. He said on the day he was called to serve, he got out his Army uniform, put it on, stretched it out a little bit. The guy that worked with him, a member of his church rather, said, oh how are you going over to the base today? He said, well I'm just gonna drive myself over and put in my day. He said, no, I'm gonna pick you up in a limousine, is what he said. And he picked up Raleigh Washington, took him over. He got a salute when he came in. And for that one day, he served his country and finished his 20 years and got his full pension. But the important part of that story is what happened in those eight years. God allowed him to be bruised, but he is being this day mightily used. And friend, keep in mind, if you're going through a time that's difficult, it may be that God's allowing you to be bruised, so that as you focus on Christ, you know one day he'll use you. The third thing I've seen in this scripture is that not only the presence of God and the person of God, and this will be very quick, but the power of God is evident. The third mark of a true move of God in your life and in this church will be one where the power of God is seen by everyone. Look down at verse 37. When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, brothers, what shall we do? Friends, the greatest power you'll ever see is the power that changes a human heart. We have a fetish for seeing people throw up their crutches and their canes and get off their medication, and those are great things, but the greatest miracle, the greatest evidence of the power of God is a changed heart, because that's what's eternal. And here in the book of Acts, we see it. Three thousand men and women repented and were baptized that day. What I witnessed at Atlanta was the power of God working. You see, some of you here are from a Southern Baptist background, and you could come up on this platform and tell the rest of the folks here how difficult, if you were raised in a true Southern Baptist church, how difficult it'd be for you to reach out and embrace a person from a Pentecostal church, because you were told that some of those people are weird and what they do is wrong, and some of you from Pentecostal church were told that those Southern Baptist people, they're just so stuffy and so uptight, and they're all wrong, too. And I saw Southern Baptist pastors and Assembly of God pastors embracing and loving and affirming each other, not in the details of their doctrine, but in their common love for Christ. I saw a moment where the 8,000 or so minority pastors, black pastors, Asian pastors, Spanish pastors, 8,000 of them came forward on the floor of the Georgia Dome, and for 30 minutes, the other 35 or so thousand pastors gave a standing ovation, so thunderous at times that you almost had to cover your ears. At one point, some of the black ministers were being carried in on the shoulders of their white brothers. And I want you to know, there was something that was happening. There was a power going on. There was healing taking place. And so often, you know, we look at situations like that, and we say, you know, I'm too stuck. I couldn't change. I couldn't move forward. I couldn't do what you're talking about. I couldn't do this. Friend, listen, the power of God can change any circumstance, and most especially your own heart. Sometimes we don't want to change. You know, most of you know I've told some cat stories. You know, my wife Carol likes cats, and over our 25 years of marriage, we've taken in a few, more than a few. The other couple weeks ago, she said, honey, let's take in another cat. A cat named Buster came to the door. I said, honey, where's the cat going to eat? She said, it's going to eat with us, just like the other ones. I said, honey, where's the cat going to sleep? She said, it'll probably sleep on our bed like the other ones. I said, honey, what about the odor? She said, if the other ones got used to you, I suppose he can too. Sometimes you just, you have to change, because God, through his presence, through the person of Jesus, gets your attention. He wants to change you, and it doesn't matter how far you've slipped. Jonah ran from God, but God caught up to him in the belly of a fish, changed his heart. John Mark got into this huge argument, separated himself from Paul, but God changed their hearts and reunited them later. Peter denied the Lord, God changed his heart and served him. Paul used to be a persecutor and blasphemer of God, and God changed his heart. It doesn't matter. The power of God can work in our lives. Finally, the fourth thing is a true move of God. You'll see the program of God. That is to say, the activities that God calls you to engage in, those too will change. Once you've encountered the Lord in the ways that I've mentioned, in his presence, in his person, in his power, that what God calls you to do begins to change. And we as Christians have a tendency to see, we tend to sanctify certain activities and just hold on to them. We find a group of people that we like. And you know, as much as I love to see some of you who have been friends for 20 years, always sitting together, sometimes I think, hey, find some new friends. Break out a little bit. Expand those horizons. Stretch yourself a little more. You see, God wants us to keep expanding. If you've been in the same small group with the same people for the last 13 years, get a new group, or at least include some new people in your group. After Pentecost, the church was spread and stretched in a lot of different directions. They started meeting homes and they started including people. A little later on in Acts chapter 10, Peter is told, hey, I want you to get up and go to the Gentiles with this message. Peter said, no way. I've never done that before. I mentioned on your outline here. He said, look, go do what I told you to do. Don't call what I called clean. You don't call it unclean. And a day is going to come when God's going to require all of us just to expand what we're doing a little bit, stretch our boundaries, open up our hearts, and be a little more open to what He wants us to do, and get out of our comfort zone and into some new territory. A lot of people here could give you a testimony of how God's just stretching their boundaries a little bit right now. Why? Because the move of God is catching up to them. The traffic's moving and they're sensing God moving them in some new directions. But it's up to you to do that. It's up to you. Why are you here? Why are you at this church? Is it for the presence of God, and the person of Jesus, and the power of God, and the plan or program of God for your life? A couple of years ago, I was flying back from the West Coast, and I'll close with this illustration. I was a little hurried and didn't eat some breakfast, and I got there to get the flight about noontime or so, and I was really hungry. So I got 45 minutes e