"Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire"
Sermon Transcript for June 2, 2002
Scripture Reading: Acts 2:42-47
By Rev. Mike Beck
I want to finish up today the sermon that I began on Pentecost Sunday two weeks ago drawing out four important truths from Acts 1-2 which gives us the story of the coming of the Holy Spirit and the beginning of the church. We got one point done on that Sunday—that yesterday’s experience of God is not sufficient for the opportunities and challenges for you today. God may have done some great things in our lives in the past; we give God thanks for that. But what’s the testimony of God’s spirit at work in my life this week? What’s God been teaching me in the last month? What miracle has God done in my life recently? We need "fresh wind, fresh fire".
Point Two – Great things happen when God’s people spend time together. The first verse of Acts, Chapter 2, we read a couple of weeks ago give us a powerful incite about how God works in our life. It says, "When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place." And those five verses from the end of Chapter Two that Dan read today, I noticed five different times in those five verses the word "together" is used. As I look around Grace Church, let me tell you some of the places where I sense God’s Holy Spirit changing and transforming lives and by no means is this an exhaustive list. I see it happening in the Wednesday morning Bible Study group that’s been meeting now, I think, for five or six years. I see it in the youth mission team. I see it in the hand bells and the choir. I see it happening among the members of the Tech Team. I see it happening in those that shared in ALPHA. I see it happening in the Caring Ministry and the prayer groups. Again, the list is not exhaustive. There is a place for our personal times of devotion with the Lord, but one of the Twelve Principles of our Philosophy in Ministry at Grace Church is this: Lives are best transformed in small groups.
For the past 20 years I’ve been connected with the Walk to Emmaus weekends, which are designed for spiritual growth and leadership development. I highly recommend that three-day retreat experience for Christians of all ages. Scott Bray in his little book, Day Four, which helps persons who’ve gone through the weekend walk back through those three days. He writes that perhaps the most important ingredient in allowing God’s spirit to work so powerfully in the lives of those pilgrims is "the seventy-two hours of focused time together". If there isn’t any "fresh wind and fresh fire" in your walk with the Lord, then ask yourself, "Am I a part of a small group?" And if not, seek one out.
Point Three – I think we see in Acts 1 and 2 three ingredients that bring fresh fire to our lives and to our journey: repentance, faith, and obedience. Let me flesh them out. Repentance is so often neglected in our churches and in our preaching. But if you look through God’s word it’s not a neglected theme there. And maybe if it’s central to God’s way, maybe we ought to be talking a little bit more about repentance. In Peter’s sermon following Pentecost in Acts 2, his message in verse 38 is, "Repent so that you might receive forgiveness of sins and know the gift of the Holy Spirit". In a nutshell, repentance is when we look at our lives and say to God, "God, I’m wrong." It’s admitting that my actions are displeasing to the One who loved me so much that He died in my place and that my actions have created a barrier in that relationship. When pride or gossip or prejudice or a critical spirit has entered our lives, repentance is when we say, "God, that’s wrong and I’m going to turn now and walk a different direction."
The second word we see in that theme is "obedience". For many persons if they bother to even read the Bible they treat it like God’s suggestion book. In Discipleship Training in the lesson on prayer we are reminded that when disobedience is present in our lives in terms of our prayer life it causes static on the line to where we are not able to hear God clearly. In terms of our giving, friends, if I’m making $60,000 a year and putting $15 a week in the offering, then friends, there’s an obedience problem going on here. There was a reason that Jesus talked more about our money and possessions than any other topic for he knew the absolute truth. He says, "If I find where your treasure is, then that’s where I’ll find your heart." A person said to me recently in relation to our building plans, he said, "Reverend Mike, there’s not any lack of money at Grace Church. The only question is whether people in obedience and faith will release it." Tara Bridge, a new Christian, I just loved her comment on Easter Sunday. She said, "I was reading in my Bible and it said, so I…." Then she finished the sentence. She understands obedience. Are you being obedient as you live out your life for it’s one of the ingredients of combustion that unleashes the power of God’s Holy Spirit?
And then in that story in Acts 1 and 2, there’s "faith". Friends, faith isn’t living in a dream world. The person of faith does not throw away their mind. My grandmother wrote me years ago. I’ve never forgot it. She said, "Mike, faith is not belief without proof; it’s trust without reservation." It’s not belief without proof for what we believe, but faith is primarily trusting God without reservation. The Bible from cover to cover is a record of persons who either exercised faith or failed to exercise faith. How sad in all too many committee meetings, and I’ll just talk about us United Methodists, when we meet in committees and boards, we never talk about faith. Instead it’s all about what we think we can or can’t do in our own efforts. Faith in God and the awesome power revealed at Pentecost gets totally left out of the picture.
Here at Grace we’re getting ready to go on a journey of faith as we think about expanding our facilities. As we put out to sea on that journey I promise you there’s going to be some folks who want to sail back to Egypt. There are going to be a few who are going to abandon ship because the cost is too high. But others are going to be willing to exercise faith, and in doing so they are going to see fresh fire that comes from the power of God’s Holy Spirit in our midst when we are willing to step out in faith. I reminded the Building Committee when they met for their first time a couple of weeks ago, I said, "We’re not building this building primarily for those of us who are already here. We’re adding to this facility for those who haven’t yet walked through the door." I went through our Pictorial Directory, our new one, and I took out a yellow highlighter and I highlighted the family units who were not here at Grace five years ago. Do you realize that 40% of the families photographed in that directory were not a part of this church five years ago? It’s a faith journey. In Acts 1 and 2 Jesus told his followers to go back to Jerusalem, wait in the Upper Room in faith for the promised gift of the Holy Spirit. Without their faith and obedience, they would never have received the gift. And the same is true for us.
Point Four – The church exists so that people might be saved. When Peter preached his first sermon after Pentecost, it says 3,000 people were saved that day. Man, I’d like to have a Sunday like that. Boy, then we’d really have to have a building program! In Acts 2:47 that Dan read earlier, the chapter ends by saying, "And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." What has happened in our day in so many churches that we’re afraid to use the word "saved"? The Bible, from beginning to end, talks about our need of and God’s plan for salvation. But all too many churches today have turned their message into the latest self-help fads and we just go around telling each other, "I’m okay, you’re okay, we’re all okay." Friends, that’s not the message of this book. It doesn’t say we’re okay. It says, "We are lost and headed for a Christ-less eternity unless God steps in and saves us." Where churches have bought in to just preaching the latest self-help stuff, they ought to take down our symbol. Because what they are ultimately saying is, "We don’t need a cross. We don’t need the power of the spirit." Many of you remember this old gospel quartet song, "I once was lost in sin but Jesus took me in. And then a little light from heaven filled my soul. He filled my heart in love and He wrote my name above, and just a little talk with Jesus made me whole." It sounds like pretty good theology to me.
Some of you have heard me tell this story. A tour group was touring Europe and they went in to this wonderful cathedral. And the tour guide pointed out the great architecture and the stain glass windows and showed them in the chancel where the saints of the church were buried. But then as they were about ready to leave he said, "Do any of you have any questions?" To which a man in the back raised up his hand and he said, "Yeah, you’ve shown me great architecture in the windows and this is a beautiful place, I just have one question. Has anybody been saved lately?" Because friends, if nobody here have been saved lately, lock the doors and give your money to United Way. If Grace church is fulfilling its reason for existence than persons here are regularly being saved from sin and addiction. Persons are being released from the painful hurts and memories of the past. Children and youth are finding guidance and direction—being saved. (End of side 1)
Rod and Becky Davis, a young couple with four young children, the oldest now I suppose is about ten, Veneita? Two years ago their marriage was on the rocks; it looked like they weren’t going to make it. They sat in my office one day and I talked to them about a variety of things. But I talked to them about a God who could come in and transform and save their marriage. And I told them, I knew Rod was going to the Olympics in Sidney, and I said, "Boy it would be great if nine months from now I got a postcard from you and Becky in Sydney. It’s one of the most valuable possessions in my office. "Reverend Mike, about nine months ago we sat in your office and talked about how nice it would be to get a post card from Becky and I from the Olympics. Things were pretty tough back then, but through hard work and faith and a positive attitude it brought us to a great place in our relationship. There are many blessings in our life and many reasons to celebrate. Having said that, this post card is perfect for us to send." A church ought to be a place where families and marriages are saved. Now we need to understand, we’re not the ones to do the saving. But we become a vehicle through which God’s Holy Spirit can step in and make something beautiful out of the broken pieces of our lives. And I’m looking out, I won’t embarrass you, I’m seeing some folks who a few years ago you felt like your life was nothing but broken pieces. Through the power of God’s Holy Spirit, as you made yourself available to that power, God stepped in and made something beautiful out of that brokenness.
I want to say a word in closing to some of the people here at Grace who are working the hardest to advance the kingdom of God in this church. I worry about you sometimes. I admire your energy and your commitment and the precious gift of your time, but for those of you who I see around here all the time I worry that you not let the fire of Christ’s life burn out in your life. I remember going camping as a boy over at the Mary Gray bird sanctuary over at Fayette County. We’d always build a fire before we went to bed. But a lot of times we went camping late in the fall when it would be cold when we’d get up in the morning. And do you know what I found out? Unless somebody remembered to get up about three or four o’clock in the morning and stoke the fire, when we woke up in the morning, the fire would be burned out. To those of you who are working so hard around here, that can happen to you unless you intentionally stoke the fire of your spiritual life. Joyful service, if you don’t do that and get replaced, you may still do it out of duty but there won’t be any love and joy. Or in some cases, and I imagine some of you who are long term members can remember persons who use to do everything around here, now they don’t even go to church any more because we can get burned out doing God things. We’ve got to cultivate and stoke the fire of our spiritual life. God’s been speaking to me about that the last couple of weeks because I know the next two or three years will be far busier than the last five. And God’s been saying, "Mike, you’re getting lazy about your prayer life, you’re getting lazy about your time with the Lord." When I met that first time with the Building Committee, I told them, I said, "What you’re doing is not ultimately about bricks and mortar, it’s about you cultivating your spiritual life as you carry out this work."
Know the ingredients for fresh wind and fresh fire. Spend time with the Lord. Spend time together. Exercise faith. Be obedient. Be repentant. And for all of us, from the pastor on down, make sure we keep the main thing, the main thing. We’re here so that people might be saved. The ultimate meaning of the word saved—being made whole. And that sounds like a good thing to me.
E-mail Comments to: Reverend Dan Sinkhorn