Acts: The Open Seat

Announcements

Dream Team Dinner - This Wednesday at 6:30 - YOU CAN STILL RSVP (In place of Closer Nights this week)

Easter is 3 weeks from today - Invite cards in your seat - EASIEST WAY TO EVANGELIZE IS TO INVITE

Recap

Last week we talked about A New Baptism

Before Jesus tells them what’s coming - He honors what has been - We don’t have to dishonor what was to celebrate what is

He speaks of the baptism in the Holy Spirit - We can be immersed in the Holy Spirit and when that happens…everything can change!

Ultimately that baptism is to enable us to be witnesses - Martys - The boldness to proclaim the truth even if it costs our life!

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Opening Story

When Weston was in first or second grade he was on a basketball team in Cherokee county

By the end of this particular season…pretty much everyone was over it…even the coach

For the playoffs the coach didn’t show up and so I was the proxy coach

WE ONLY HAD FOUR PLAYERS

The opposing coach offered to only play four players…until they weren’t blowing us out…then he put in five.

Four guys guarding five guys doesn’t work in your favor

Five guys guarding four guys doesn’t work in your favor

IT CAME DOWN TO A LAST SECOND SHOT…WE LOST - I had to break up a parental fight

HAVING ONE OPEN SPOT MAKES A DIFFERENCE

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Looking for Jesus in an empty sky

Acts 1:9–10 (NKJV)

Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.

And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up...

The disciples had just seen an astounding move of God...

It’s not every day you see your master levitate off the ground and be taken into the sky.

As he ascended he eventually left the earths atmosphere..

The disciples were straining their eyes trying to see him…when he was no where to be seen.

They were doing their best to find Jesus in the place He used to be!

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Missing where He is by watching where he was - Stages of Life

We have a tendency to want to find Jesus where He moved last time instead of following his direction to where He is about to move.

1 Samuel 16:1 NKJV

Now the Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go; I am sending you to Jesse the Bethlehemite. For I have provided Myself a king among his sons.”

I have been in current seasons while mourning previous seasons...

When we left missouri and went to Texas…it was like ripping my heart out.

This has happened numerous times in ministerial transition.

Change is good....but transition is hard!

I was dreaming of the day that I could go back…and I heard a preacher read this text.

Memories are a great place to visit but a terrible place to live.

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Missing where He is by watching where he was - Styles of Church

This doesn’t only happen in stages of life but also in the way that we do church.

I’m thankful for the ministry we did in 1996…but that ministry isn’t changing lives today.

I’m thankful for the way God moved in the early 2000’s…but that move isn’t changing lives today.

Often the reason we are commited to living in memories as opposed to being present is because we don’t feel we can match the quality of bygone eras. (WE ROMANTICIZE THE PAST)

Haggai 2:3 NKJV

‘Who is left among you who saw this temple in its former glory? And how do you see it now? In comparison with it, is this not in your eyes as nothing?

Haggai has been given the opportunity of prophesying the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem after the exile.

The temple was representative of the presence of God

IT IS A PICTURE OF REVIVAL!

One of the hindrances that the nation of Israel had to face was the discrediting of the current revival by those who had been present in the past revival!

They couldn’t see value in the present because they were so stuck in what God had done previously!

We have some phenomenal memories of some extraordinary moves of God.

What God does in this current generation may not seem as spectacular as our romantic memories...

A mediocre movement is more beneficial than an extraordinary memory!

TR: The disciples are staring into the sky trying to find Jesus in the place he used to be.

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Heaven loves to interrupt our star gazing sessions

Acts 1:10–11 NKJV

And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.”

The best remedy to living in a memory is understanding that we have an assignment.

The heavenly messengers reminded them Why it was so important that they not stay on that hillside?

Because Jesus is coming back.

The reason we can’t be satisfied to simply celebrate the past and rest together…is because there are people in our circle of influence and around our community that need to hear the gospel of repentance before Jesus returns!

(Wednesday Night) We need a God-given burden for the lost

EVERYONE WILL SPEND ETERNITY SOMEWHERE (Heaven or hell)

TR: The reminder that Jesus was going to come back in the same way He came served as an awakening of purpose and activity for the stargazing disciples.

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The church was built on prayer and unity

Acts 1:12–14 NKJV

Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey. And when they had entered, they went up into the upper room where they were staying: Peter, James, John, and Andrew; Philip and Thomas; Bartholomew and Matthew; James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot; and Judas the son of James. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.

The key phrase that predicated the revival that would shake the world consisted of two things.

Prayer

Unity

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The Strategy we’re building on…

There are a lot of different strategies and a lot of different ways to build a church.

Some churches have found their niche in worship

Some churches have found their niche in small groups

Some churches are cooler than others.

As we rounded the corner from last year into this year...I have strategized on how we could grow our church

THE STRATEGY WE ARE WORKING IS PRAYER AND UNITY!

We can go without a lot of things as a church…we can get a lot of things wrong as a church…but we must be a house of prayer…and we must be a house that is unified.

Prayer and unity has doubled our Sunday morning attendance in less than three months…LET’S DO IT AGAIN!

TR: I find this next passage of scripture to be oddly encouraging.

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Mission = Mess

Acts 1:15–19 NKJV

And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples (altogether the number of names was about a hundred and twenty), and said, “Men and brethren, this Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke before by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus; for he was numbered with us and obtained a part in this ministry.” (Now this man purchased a field with the wages of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his entrails gushed out. And it became known to all those dwelling in Jerusalem; so that field is called in their own language, Akel Dama, that is, Field of Blood.)

We like to think that the early church was this perfect gathering.

After all, they had witnessed the death and resurrection of Jesus

They had heard Jesus himself teach on the kingdom

They had been given the task of waiting directly from Jesus and watching him ascend into heaven.

But even the early church…born directly out of the direction of God…was marked by messes.

The first meeting of the church that initiated revival was one in which they were dealing with a broken situation.

DO YOU REALIZE HOW MANY OF US WOULD HAVE LEFT THE EARLY CHURCH ON DAY 1

This meeting is discussing what to do in the leadership gap left by a church leader who had leaked classified information to the press, then felt guilty and commited suicide.

How many of us are ready to jump into growth track after this discussion?…

WE WOULD HAVE BEEN TEMPTED TO JUST PRETEND LIKE IT DIDN’T HAPPEN.

We would have just forgotten all about Judas

We would have only mentioned him with passive aggressive jokes aimed at those who had inside knowledge..

BUT PETER OPENS UP A MEETING IN THE MIDDLE OF A PRAYER GATHERING TO SAY WE NEED TO DEAL WITH THIS FRACTURED PART OF OUR ORGANIZATION!.

THE EARLY CHURCH WAS NOT ONLY CHARACTERIZED BY PRAYER AND UNITY BUT ALSO BY AUTHENTICITY

In order to move into the fullness of the future we have to be willing to admit the problems of the past.

Even revival will have some wreckage.

Remember broken yokes create messy fields.

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SN: Ignoring your brokenness is a terrible strategy

Ignoring brokenness on the inside of us doesn’t make it go away.

“God only heals what you choose to reveal”

Today we are asking God to help us peel back the curtain and identify the wound…because we can’t fully move into the future until we rectify this brokenness from our past.

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We can’t leave the seat empty

Acts 1:20 NKJV

“For it is written in the Book of Psalms: ‘Let his dwelling place be desolate, And let no one live in it’; and, ‘Let another take his office.’

Empty Chair Illustration

What we often do when we go through seasons of betrayal... is vacate the seat of the one who betrayed us..

And carefully secure ourselves so that no one ever fills that seat again.

We were hurt by our best friend…we will never have a close friend again

We were hurt by a pastor…we will never be pastored again

We were hurt by a spouse…we will never give someone that opportunity again.

The problem with this strategy is that every seat has a role to fill…an empty seat in our lives leaves an unmet need in our lives.

I have felt the Holy Spirit on this phrase in some of our lives this week…let another take his office.

Remove the caution tape from that seat.

There is a part of your life that is less than fulfilled while that seat sits empty

There is someone in this world that needs that seat…(we will discover next week the person was already in the room…)

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Peter was sitting in a seat that could have been left empty

Peter was well qualified to talk about refilling forfeited seats..

He had been told He would betray Jesus

He had denied that he would betray Jesus

HE CURSED PEOPLE FOR EVEN PUTTING THEM IN THE SAME SENTENCE!

Jesus had every right to disown and distance himself from Peter...

but when given the opportunity to speak with him again…(John 21)

JESUS RESTORES PETER AND GIVES HIM PURPOSE

Jesus showed Peter the necessity of filling the seat.

The will of God in our life is always restoration…not retribution

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What if I get it wrong?

A lot of time our hesitance to taking next steps is the fear that we will take the wrong one...

If you take the wrong step…or make the wrong decision…The same God is still with you.

WE WILL READ HOW THEY FILL THIS SEAT...

It was the wrong choice…the guy who they added to the team turned out to be a heretic while the guy they rejected went on to be a pretty productive minister...

Making mistakes in an attempt to be obedient is better than playing it safe in disobedience.

You might get hurt again

But the risk of pain is the only way to find fulfillment.