Sermon Transcript
It’s encouraging already, and we want to be encouraged this morning through the Word of God. So take out your Bible, and we’re going to look again at the book of Acts. This week and next week and the week after, we’re going to be in Acts chapters 4 and 5. So series we’ve called Filled, and you’ll see as we go along why we’ve titled it that. Appreciate the song about courage and the fact that the person that wrote the song was saying, Lord, make us courageous.
We were made to be courageous, but We need God’s help, intervention to be the courageous people he wants us to be. Of course, anybody that goes into harm’s way is somebody of courage. So you think about soldiers, we’re with Veterans Day thinking about the soldiers that obviously have courage to do what they do, to give of their lives in service in the way that they do. We think about police officers, we think about firemen, lifeguards, and just numerous occupations where people have courage. I became aware of that actually when I was in college, and I was a student at Westmont College, but we were at an extension program here in San Francisco for a semester.
Some of you have heard part of this story, but one of the things that we did was we did these different assignments throughout the city, and one of the assignments was to go on a police car ride. So they put us in some police cars, and that evening, late into the evening, we just rode around with these police officers, and I can still remember in the police car that I was in hearing the report come through on the radio that an officer needed assistance. So immediately this officer in my car, the one I was in, turned on his light sirens and we were flying through the streets of San Francisco. I know they do, you know, have done shows about this and all this stuff, but we were literally flying through, driving crazy through the streets of San Francisco. And I remember thinking as we were driving toward this crime scene, whatever it was, that I would in myself usually be going the opposite direction.
I’m not the guy of courage, you know, there’s something going on over there, wow, I’ll just go over there and make an attempt to help things out or something. I’m usually the guy who turns around and goes the other way. So I immediately thought of the whole matter of courage and actually the thought went through my mind of asking the police officer if he might pull over for just a moment and let me out, but I figured that would probably not be the appropriate thing to do. But there was a time where I actually jumped out of a car. It wasn’t a car that was moving.
It was a car that was actually sitting still. It was across the street from the church. It was a car that my girlfriend owned, and she had asked me to drive it. So we, after youth group, went over to the car and got in, and I was about ready to start the car, but I heard a moan in the back seat. There was something groaning in the backseat.
So I turned around and I noticed that there was some figure back there, some kind of person. I had no idea what it was or what she or he was. All I know is that there was a person back there, and so my immediate reaction was natural for me. I immediately jumped out of the car and ran away while my girlfriend was still sitting in the car, which didn’t go over really well, especially for the youth group that was standing across the street watching this prank be played out on Dave Gudgel. And of course, I was the laughingstock for several weeks and all the rest of that sort of stuff.
But, you know, there are a lot of things you can learn out of a story like that, that if you’re interested in a guy, find a guy that’s courageous, first of all, that won’t leave you in the car alone. The other thing is just lock your car, and maybe people won’t end up in the backseat of your car, that kind of thing. So when we come to this text this morning, it’s a text that really does focus on courage. And I was thinking to myself, I know that I need courage, but especially when it comes to being a person who is willing to speak about Jesus Christ to others. Now, my guess is, and I don’t know how courageous you are, but my guess is if you’re like most Christians, if you’re like most Christ followers, if in fact you are a Christ follower, courage is not something you’re high on.
It would be something that we would all say together with this song, Lord, make us courageous. But for a lot of us that are sitting here right now, we can’t think of even the last time we verbalized our faith to somebody. Because courage is pretty low for us. We struggle with courage, and opportunities come up, and often we find ourselves cowering in the corner instead of having, you know, brave heart or something like that. We just tend to not speak up for Jesus Christ.
So this passage that we come to this morning in Acts chapter 4, I think, can be really helpful to all of us, because what we see here is we see the apostles speaking up for Christ. And if you know the story, You know that before the resurrection, they had gone full timid. They were living filled with fear. But after the resurrection of Christ, they’re now filled with courage, with boldness, bravery. They’re just different people.
And what I want us to see is something that they came to know and understand that changed them, that can change us. We need to come to know and understand this as well. So Acts chapter 4, that’s the setting. That’s where we’re going this morning. If you look back in Acts chapter 3, you actually find out that Peter and John had just healed a lame man and then told this crowd that was astonished by the fact that now this guy that was lame from birth was actually walking.
And the disciples, in explaining what had happened, connected his healing to Jesus, the man that the disciples just came right out and said to these people, the guy that you killed on the cross, well, he’s the one that healed this guy. So I’m gonna pick it up right there. Acts chapter 4, verse 1. The priests and the captains of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people. They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead.
They seized Peter and John, and because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day. But many who heard the message believed, and the number of men grew to be about 5,000. So just get the setting in your mind, if you would. They’ve just healed a guy that was lame from birth. He’s, he’s now able to walk.
They’ve talked about why he was healed. It was because of Jesus. Well, that got the attention of the religious authorities, so they come up onto the scene. They’re disturbed, you’ll notice that, because these apostles were teaching people about Jesus and his resurrection from the dead. And so they’re going to put an end to that by putting them in jail.
So they put them in jail, but you’ll notice there’s a whole different reaction. Some of the people who heard this message believed in Christ. In fact, a large number came to believe in this guy that was raised from the dead. The number was 5,000 men now have come to believe in Christ. So the church is growing rather rapidly at this point in that first century.
Just imagine there were 3,000 that came to Christ on the day of Pentecost, on the day that the Holy Spirit came and Peter stood up and gave this message. And now we’ve got 5,000— notice, not just 5,000 total, but 5,000 men that are a part of the church. So maybe, I don’t know, 20, 15, 10,000 people now are part of the church. We don’t know. It’s just explosive growth in the church.
But not everybody was on board. So you have the religious authorities rejecting the message while others are accepting it. Pick it up again then in verse 5. The next day the rulers, elders, and teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. Annas the high priest was there, so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and the other men of the high priest’s family.
They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them, by what power or what name did you do this? Of course, speaking about that healing. Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, rulers and elders of the people, if we’re being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple, and are asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel, it is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. And then here’s this verse that we just sang about. He’s the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone.
Then he went on to make this statement, salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. Now, would you call that a courageous statement? Absolutely. I mean, from beginning to end, he basically nails them and says, he would not be dead if it wasn’t for you. You killed him.
That’s courageous to say that. But not only to say that, He’s the one that you’ve been looking for. Come on, guys, you know Psalms. You know what it teaches about the Messiah and his coming. He would be the stone on which we would build, but you’ve rejected the cornerstone.
Are you kidding? He’s the one that salvation is found in. And notice there’s no way out on this thing. He just absolutely nails it down and says there’s nobody else. There’s no other name under heaven given by which we must be saved.
He’s the one, he’s the one and only. Now I’d say that’s a pretty brave statement.
It says actually that they even noticed how brave it was. Verse 13, when they, the religious authorities, saw the courage of Peter and John and realized they were unschooled ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. Now let me ask you a question. Would they have taken note? Would they have taken note of the fact that these guys were with Jesus had there been no courage?
Probably not. I mean, Jesus was a courageous person. And what they see is that these guys have become like Jesus. It actually astonished them. First thing I see in terms of if we’re going to have the same kind of impact that the disciples had, We’ve got to have courage.
Courage is required. To make an impact for Christ, you’ve got to have courage. I’ve got to have courage. No courage, no impact. Low courage, low impact.
Let me ask it just simply this way. Have you ever told somebody that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven? Some of you could raise, you know, shake your head on that one and say, yeah, I could. I’ve done that. But some of us have never done that because it’s not politically correct in this pluralistic culture to talk about one way to heaven.
And yet these guys go on record with that. Several years ago, Noah Reiner, a Dartmouth freshman, gave a convocation speech. And he focused on character in this speech, but he decided that he would use Jesus as the ultimate example of character. So in this speech, he said this, Jesus’ message of redemption is simple. People are imperfect, there are consequences for their actions, he gave his life for our sin, so that we wouldn’t have to bear the penalty of the law so we could see love.
The problem, Noah said, is me. The solution is God’s love, Jesus’ love on the cross for us. Now, how do you think secular student body reacted to a convocation speech about Jesus like that? You know, there was a firestorm that came out. People were sending him emails, you know, how dare you Talk about Christ from the podium?
Are you kidding? His response was basically the same to everybody. As a Christian, I can’t talk about character without talking about Jesus Christ.
Now think for a minute. If we had the opportunity to talk about character, if we had the opportunity to even do a paper on character, would we talk about Jesus Christ? Possibly not. Why? Because that’s not an acceptable message in our culture.
Where does a Christ follower get the kind of courage like the apostles had or Noah had? Well, it tells us actually in verses 7 and 8 there where it says they had Peter and John brought before them, and then they asked them this question: Why? By what power? What name did you do this? Answer: We did it by the Holy Spirit.
Filled with the Holy Spirit, they said, and then they gave their answer. You see, they were living in the power that Steve talked about the last couple of weeks. They were living in the power of the Holy Spirit. You remember back in Acts chapter 1, verses 4 and 5, where Jesus instructed his disciples and said, don’t leave Jerusalem, wait for the gift my Father promised, which you’ve heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you’ll be baptized with the Holy Spirit.
So before his disciples were gonna go out, Jesus wanted to make sure that they had the correct power source to do what it was that they were about ready to do. So he said, you can’t go and witness for me until you receive the Holy Spirit. He went on to say, verse 8, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you’ll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Now, what was he saying? He’s saying you need the supernatural work of God working in you if you’re going to do the work that I’m calling you to as witnesses.
So not only is courage required, but courage is inspired. It is the fruit of the Holy Spirit living within us. Now think about this. There are 2 places to get courage. There’s human strength And secondly, there’s a Holy Spirit.
All right, basically boils down to the man factor or the God factor, the HS factors. You could get your strength from human strength, or you could get your strength from the Holy Spirit. And these guys were filled with the Holy Spirit, and it made all the difference in the world in terms of their courage, courage and their boldness in their witnessing. Think of it this way. Jesus was saying, I’ve got— and this fits our Silicon Valley culture— I’ve got a new operating system.
You need to think with me about this. This system over here is not going to cut it when it comes to you being the witnesses that I want you to be. This operating system that I want you to live with is the result of the filling of the Holy Spirit. Now think, what’s the fruit of this when it comes to witnessing? Timidity.
What’s the fruit of this when it comes to witnessing? Boldness, bravery, right? Who do you think of when you think of timidity in the Scriptures? I think of Timothy. Paul wrote a letter to Timothy, a couple letters, and 2 Timothy wrote specifically about the problem of timidity.
To Timothy. In 2 Timothy 1:7, he said this, for God did not give us a spirit of timidity. Okay, that’s not the Lord’s work. The Lord didn’t make us timid, as the song said, but he gave us a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline. So this is the fruit of the Spirit.
It’s courage. It’s the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to speak boldly for God. I don’t know if you get Randy Alcorn’s blogs, but Randy often comments on conditions in our culture and that sort of thing. But he recently put up a blog where he was talking about his boldness to take a stand for Christ when he was in college. I think some of you students could think about this, but many of us who’ve been there can go back and rethink, you know, Was I a person that stood for Christ, if I was a Christ follower at the time, with boldness among my students, among faculty, or with teachers, or fellow students?
Was I bold? But anyway, Randy, as a 20-year-old college student, took a stand for Christ in his philosophy class. Christianity was being ripped apart by the professor. The Christian faith was basically something that was downplayed, and so Randy took a stand. He said that a fellow class member came up to him after the class and he thanked him for speaking up for Christ.
And then he said, you know, I just can’t get over the fact that a Christ follower would do that. Listen to that. I can’t get over the fact that a Christ follower would actually stand up for Christ when the Christian faith is being ripped apart. Because in his mind, Christ followers just shut up when people start ripping on the faith. Of course, that wasn’t the case for the apostles.
It was commonplace for them to speak up for Christ, even under threat. Now go on just for a minute, see the rest of this. I’m not gonna actually fill in the whole passage, so I’m just gonna jump over here to verse 18. Just jump over to verse 18. Actually, what happens between here is the religious authorities go out and they confer and they try to figure out what are we gonna do with these guys.
And they’re so popular with the people that they finally just come back in and they say, what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna threaten them. That’s what we’re gonna do. So picking it up, verse 18, then they called them in again, the apostles, and they commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. Isn’t that interesting? What we’re gonna do is we’re just gonna shut down them saying things about Christ.
We’re just going to get them to not say anything. But Peter and John replied, judge for yourselves whether it’s right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God, for we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard. After further threats, they let them go. They could not decide how to punish them because all the people were praising God for what had happened. For the man who was miraculously healed was over 40 years old.
So here’s this thing, this thing happens and they think, well, we’ll just, we’ll threaten him. Now what I was thinking through as I was looking at this passage, well, there are a couple things. One was when we’re threatened, and sometimes it’s not even a verbal threat, it’s just we perceive that the person won’t receive what we’re about ready to say about Christ. But they’ll reject it. And so with that threat, we just shut up.
We don’t say anything.
There are a lot of ways that we can perceive threat, but these guys were under threat evidently for their life. And if you read on, what you get the feeling of is that they might then shut down, which oftentimes we do. We perceive people are gonna reject us or reject the message, So we just shut down, we don’t talk about Christ anymore. But what did they do? The text tells us they went back, and we’ll put it into the language we’ve been talking about, they went back to their missional support group, okay?
They went back and they huddled with them, and then in this support group, they prayed together in community, which we’ve talked about that too, the importance of praying with others, actually admitting, you know, we’re under threat right now, there’s a chance that We won’t go bold anymore for Jesus like we’ve been doing. So they prayed together in community, and this is part of their prayer, verse 29: Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. So the very thing they’re concerned about is whether or not they’re going to continue to verbalize their faith in Christ and do it boldly, and not just boldly, but with great boldness. So they pray, stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus. After they prayed, it says, the place where they were meeting was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God boldly.
What this tells me is that not only is courage required And secondly, courage is inspired. It’s a work for God. But also this tells me that courage is acquired. You say, how is it acquired? Well, they’ve already acquired the Holy Spirit by the baptism of the Holy Spirit when God saved them and put in them the Holy Spirit.
But now they are acquiring the Holy Spirit through prayer. In other words, see, prayer is just an act of surrender to God. God, we want you to continue to use us. And right now we’re living under threat, and the threat is, is that we would shut up and we wouldn’t go public with our faith anymore because there are people out there that are rejecting it.
So they’re asking God to fill them through prayer. They’re asking God to fill them with the Holy Spirit so that they don’t give in to the threats. They don’t give in to the threats. Listen, they don’t give in to the threats of the people. And secondly, they don’t give in to the timidity of this flesh.
God’s speaking, just listen, okay? I love it when the lights go off at these divinely timed moments where the Lord says, get it, get it, did you get that? Anyway, I didn’t plan that, all right? But get the point. This is kind of a crucial point here.
They could have shut it down now. They’ve been told not to speak in the authority of Jesus’ name any longer. They’re living under threat. But it’s not just the threat of the people. Listen, it’s the timidity of this flesh.
You say, why do you shut down? Why do we shut down? Because there’s a book I read when I was in college called Why Am I Afraid to Tell You Who I Am? Why am I afraid to tell you really who I am and that Jesus Christ is a personal part of my life and I absolutely love the Lord? I mean, why am I afraid to tell you that?
Because if I tell you that and you reject me, then you reject Jesus, then you reject me. And it could be because my significance is connected to you, so I’m afraid to tell you that. See, these guys got it. This was good news. There was no reason to not share this good news other than the timidity of the flesh or the threats of others.
A couple days ago we had a granddaughter born. Maybe some of you heard about this or saw the postings on Facebook. Her name’s Paisley. We got a picture of Paisley at 1 day old. They just got out of the hospital this morning.
We are so grateful for Paisley. She was born to my daughter. It’s her first, the 6th birth baby now, so that means we are grandparents 6 times over. Plus Katie married a guy that had 3 children, so now we have 9 grandchildren. You’re looking at one old dude up here, but anyway.
And you know what? Since she was born, we have unashamedly told everybody we could, even this morning you, that we had a grandbaby born. Why? Because that’s good news.
What is it about the good news Jesus Christ, what is it that, you know, holds us back from telling it?
I think oftentimes this is exactly what happens. We perceive that people will reject it, and so we, we back off. Now, I’m not saying that that we’ve always got to be, you know, talking about Jesus like 24/7 or something like that. I don’t even see that in the apostles. But I am saying that if we’re responsive to the work of the Spirit within us, when God prompts us and gives us opportunity to speak, that if we cower, guess what?
It’s a reflection of the fact that we’re not filled with the Spirit. That’s what it tells us. See, the bottom line of this account is simply this: if you’re filled with the Spirit, you’ll witness with boldness. If we’re not filled with the Spirit, we’re probably going to cower. You say, what is it that’s holding me back from being the brave witness that God wants me to be?
It’s oftentimes directly connected to whether or not we’re filled with the Spirit. And Steve helped us think about that last week. The application of that when it comes to witnessing is just the full surrender to God to constantly be staying connected to God through prayer and other means and saying, Lord, I want to be used by you, and when you move in me to be your witness, I want to follow. So let me make this as personal as I possibly can. A couple weeks ago, I got out again with a trainer friend.
He actually doesn’t train me, but he’s a trainer at 24 Hour Fitness. I’ve talked a little bit about this individual. His family background is Muslim. And we have built a relationship over the past 4 years. We’ve had a lot of breakfasts together.
We’ve had a lot of lunches together. We’ve had a lot of conversations, and we’ve had a lot of conversations about spiritual things as well. And so a couple weeks ago, we got together for another breakfast. We walked over from 24 Hour Fitness to Panera Bread, you know, Sunnyvale, Saratoga, that whole area there. And we sat down, and he started sharing with me where he’s at in his life right now and how hard and difficult things have been.
But how much he’s learning right now. And he shared this whole story, and it really kind of a vulnerable thing that he would actually share some of the detail with me that he did. About a half hour into that conversation, I said to him, you know, there’s something that you’ve got to know about where you are right now. And at the moment that I started to go where I knew in my mind I needed to go, and I think it was the prompting of the Holy Spirit, that was going to take us there, there was a little bit of a conflict going on in me. Is this a good time to talk about Jesus?
Do you ever have those kinds of thoughts? I don’t know if he’ll really hear it right now. I mean, we’ve talked about it before. Besides, this is a restaurant. Somebody else might hear this conversation right now.
Some of us, that’s why we don’t go public with our faith even by praying in a restaurant. Not even enough courage to pray in a restaurant. So that was going on in my mind, and I just felt like I had to do it, right? You know how this is, because if we’re going to continue to be filled with the Spirit, you’ve got to respond to the Spirit. If we don’t respond to the Spirit’s leadings, as Steve helped us remember, you quench the Spirit or you grieve the Spirit.
What’s to quench the Spirit? It’s the Spirit saying, talk to that person about me. Oh no, I’m not gonna do that. That’s quenching the Spirit. And when you quench the Spirit, then you grieve the Spirit.
You sin against the Holy Spirit. You basically said no when the Holy Spirit said yes, right? And we have these moments where God brings us to a potential conversation about spiritual things with people, but we shut it down. The concern of the apostles was that they would not shut it down, that they would allow God to continue to fill them and give them the boldness. So they stepped out in faith and trusted him to do that.
And in this particular conversation, it was a neat moment because this doesn’t always happen for me. Please do not believe that for a minute I’m a courageous guy. I already admitted I’m not. But this was a neat moment for me. I was able to just continue the conversation and say, friend, I’m not using his name here.
You’ve got to know that you and the things that you’re working on right now really need them, but there’s something you need more than that. You need God. You need God working in your life, and God would love more than anything else to save you from your sins and to be your lover. Now, we’d already been talking about lovers. I said to him, has anybody ever taken you through the story of the Bible?
He said, no. Do you know the story of the Bible? He said, no. I knew as a Muslim the place that you start with a Muslim is not Christ. You start with creation because they identify with that.
They’re on the same page in many ways when it comes to creation. So I said, well, let’s just go back to the beginning. God created man and woman to have relationship with him, but man and woman decided not to. He gave them choice, just like he’s given you choice. And they sinned against God.
They turned their back on God. And God ever since has been seeking to put us back into relationship with him, but it’s our choice whether or not we want that. And it’s your choice whether or not you want a relationship with God. And God made that relationship possible through the family line of Abraham. You know something about Abraham, which Muslims do.
And we talked a little bit about Abraham. We shot straight forward to Christ and got to that point of now we’re at this point of possibly saying, so do you want that? And at that point, when you get to the point of possibly saying to a person, so do you want that? Guess what happens often? There’s something inside of you that wants to cower out, something that wants to chicken out.
What’s that? That’s the work of the flesh. That’s the work of the devil. That’s why this thing can be so hard. Do you think there’s not satanic forces of darkness working against us sharing boldly our faith with people?
Absolutely they’re there. So I still remember the moment. Took a step forward anyway and started talking about Christ. And as we began that conversation, he ran out of time. Isn’t this typical, right?
So he said, I got to get back and do the next training. I said, okay. He said, well, could we continue to talk? I said, sure. So we stood up and we talked a about Christ as we’re walking out of the restaurant.
And I said, you know, here’s what happens if a person gets to a point where they actually want that relationship with God. They want to receive the free gift of life that’s found in Jesus Christ. They express that to God. They usually express that to God in just their— about in a prayer or just in, in their own words. And usually it comes out to be something like, God, I I’m beginning to understand you love me, that you sent Jesus to die on the cross for me, that you want to adopt me into your family.
The problem is, is my sin has separated me from you, and yet you’ve made it possible because of Christ’s death on the cross to forgive me of my sins. And when you forgive me of my sins, you adopt me into your family. And so I’m just kind of rattling off the things that are just coming to my mind, right? Isn’t that what the Holy Spirit does? The Holy Spirit says that he’ll bring to your mind what it is that you need to know.
And so those things are just coming to mind, rattling them off. And, and so if this is something that you want, just express that to the Lord. Well, as I’m going through these different things, about halfway through them, as it turned out, He started repeating them after me. Lord, I want to be a member of your family. I want to be one of your children.
I want to receive the gift of life that’s found in Jesus Christ.
He kind of got all through that, and I stopped him and I said, now listen, if that’s really your heart’s desire and you truly want to believe in Jesus— and to believe in Jesus isn’t just something that you do intellectually, but it’s something you do with your will and your emotions. It’s your mind, your will, and your emotions are involved than belief in Jesus. See, any one of us can believe intellectually that Jesus lived. That doesn’t save a person. It’s a willingness to follow after him.
It’s the willingness to say, Lord, change my life. I want you to be the leader. You are my forgiver, and I wanna receive that gift. So I explained that to him, and I said, so if that’s your desire, then just tell God that. He said, could you please go back through all of that again?
We’re walking now by Toys R Us as we’re walking over to 24 Hour Fitness. So I said, okay. It’s the first time I’ve ever done this where eyes wide open, we’re walking across a parking lot and I’m giving him the thoughts that might be his thoughts to use, and he’s expressing after every thought in his words similar words and asking Jesus Christ to save him from his sins. We got back over to the club and I stood there and I was amazed. And then I thought to myself, I am so grateful that I did not shut the work of the Holy Spirit down here.
You know, I just think There are many times where we shut the work of God down and we don’t apply what it is the disciples knew, a responsiveness with open hands to the work of the Spirit to save people from, from their sins, which Jesus alone can do. I don’t know if you saw a couple weeks ago the report on television about a house fire that was in Fresno. Things went from bad to worse before the fire department showed up. Watch this clip just for a second. This is what happened.
Now to the dramatic rescue caught on camera. A daughter crying for someone to help save her father from their burning home, and miraculously someone came out of nowhere to help. ABC’s Michelle Fransen has more on this amazing story. Good morning, Michelle. Well, Paula, the video lasts just 5 minutes, but in those few moments, we see the drama play out.
A daughter pleading to help save her father trapped inside a burning house and the brave rescue that almost seemed impossible. A frantic scene at a home just east of Fresno, California. Huge flames and thick smoke shooting out of this duplex, all as neighbors desperately try to find a way in after a woman screamed that her father was trapped inside. Your dad is still in there? Your dad is in there?
I called 911. It’s Poppy! Oh my God, get Dad! Beth Lederach captured the frantic moments on her cell phone. Get my dad!
We gotta get him out of there. Agonizing minutes and precious time, the fire intensifying and setting off explosions, making it difficult and dangerous for anyone to go in. Is everybody— no, there’s a man in there.
Then an unknown rescuer races out. Um, I noticed then that there was a guy in a cap that just started walking toward the house very calmly, just walked in there, and then the next thing I see, he’s coming out with this man over his shoulder. Oh, thank God! Pulled out in the nick of time, the unidentified man, in shock and weak, is helped to the sidewalk waiting for fire and paramedics to arrive a few minutes later. Officials say he was transported to the hospital to be examined.
This morning, the man who bravely rushed in is being called a hero, risking his life to save another. Do you think the family is happy? Absolutely. Because one person— and I think there are some others that were part of this— courageously walked into a dangerous situation and did what he could to rescue the person.
We don’t talk about it anymore because it’s not politically correct, but there’s a fire on the other side of this life, and without a relationship with Jesus Christ, people are going to spend an eternity of separation apart from God in a place called hell.
We don’t think about that anymore. It seems like one of those things that we want to just dismiss, and yet the reality is, is that God has us here on a rescue mission. But it takes courage to be people who on this rescue mission are used by God to pull people from that destiny of hell.
Some of you are Divergent fans.
There are 2 words that are constantly used on this show. You know what they were? Be brave. Heard those words? Be brave.
You say, how do you be brave? Well, in the Christian world, you be brave by being filled. If we’re filled with the Spirit, the result is bravery, boldness. If we’re not filled with the Spirit, the fruit of that is timidity. So this morning we’ve said, if We’re filled with the Spirit, we’ll be people that share the gospel bravely.
And that’s my hope for myself, that’s my hope for you, that’s my hope for this church.
Is it your hope as well? That’s my question. Is that your hope as well? Say, yeah, it is. Well, then that’s an indication that you’re saying to God, Lord, I just want you to fill me, I want you to use me, I want you to do whatever it is you want to do in me, to help me be the kind of witness that makes a difference in this world.
Let’s pray together. Lord, we know that this matter of courage is central in sharing the gospel with others, and so many times we just simply struggle. So we ask again for your filling and that we would Completely surrender to your work. You are perfect in how you lead, so help us discern that still small voice when you lead. Help us follow you instead of getting in front of you.
And I pray for each one of us that you would open doors of opportunity for us to courageously walk through them and to help others come to faith in you. And even this morning, we just would stop and say, if you’ve never come to faith in Christ, you can even now. The gospel message is clear. Jesus died on the cross for your sins, and he wants to give you the gift of life now and forever. He wants a relationship with you.
The question is, do you want a relationship with him? And if you do, he will adopt you into his family. He’ll begin to transform you from the inside out. Yes, he’s going to ask you to give your will to him. But it’s worth it.
And if that’s your desire, express that to God this morning. Just ask him to forgive you of your sins, to adopt you into his family. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the one that was raised from the dead and has provided life everlasting. God, thank you that you hear simple, heartfelt prayers like that. And I pray for those of us who are praying this prayer of being filled, that Lord, even When there are threats that come our way and feelings of timidity, that we would trust you in those circumstances and be bold, be brave, be courageous.
Would you use us to help people be saved from the fires of hell? Would you use us, Lord, to even this week have spiritual conversations with people that are outside your family? And we pray as a result of that, you would be pleased and lives would be changed. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Well, we’re going to finish our service with some more worship and song. And so let’s have our team come back up. And if we can help you in any way before you leave this morning, please just don’t take off, but hang around, pray with us. Let’s talk together. If we can be an encouragement to you in any way, We want to do that.
So, uh, we’ll be around and we’d love to pray with you and do what we can to be helpful this morning.
