A Look At What God is Doing

This evening I want to take the week of prayer theme… and use it in a bit of a different way.

The theme for our week of prayer is Awakening. Throughout the week, we are believing for God to awaken within us certain things.

Ultimately, I pray for our culture and society to awaken or come awake regarding their need for the Lord!

And… I pray that we as the church… the body of Christ… would wake up to a new level of urgency regarding the mission God has given us.

I am THANKFUL for what the Lord has done! But I believe the Lord has incredible things in store. In fact, Jesus gave us a hint at what we can expect in these days of ministry.

John 14:12–13 NIV

12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

This is truly a remarkable passage of Scripture! Although we don’t have time to fully break it down, let’s hit some of the important highlights.

BEFORE Jesus made this statement, He revealed that He was in the Father, and the Father was in Him.

Whoever believes in Christ will do the works He had been doing.

So let’s consider His works for a moment. Throughout the entire book of John you will hear Jesus speak of what He came to do: He came to do the will of His Father. Jesus was ALL about fulfilling the plan God had for Him.

IF we believe in Jesus, then we will do the same. We will NOT follow our plan or agenda, but rather we will follow the will of God in two ways:

We will follow His will for us, personally. GOD HAS A PLAN FOR YOU!

We will follow His will for us, corporately. GOD HAS A PLAN FOR HIS CHURCH!

As we do this faithfully, Jesus states that we will do even GREATER things because Jesus was going to the Father.

So… what does GREATER things look like? It looks like the continuation of Jesus’ ministry… through His church!

Greater things includes spreading the gospel message. It includes leading people to faith.

Greater things includes seeing God do miracles through His people. Read through the Book of Acts and you will see the early church doing some incredible things!

Greater things includes seeing evangelism go global as the church grew throughout the region and the world.

And… the all of this will bring glory to our heavenly Father!

Sounds pretty incredible, right? So… how do we begin to see these things take place? It sure seems like the world is being consumed in darkness. What must we do to see greater things?

Well, that’s what we are going to talk about tonight. Because I believe God is wanting to awaken His church… THIS CHURCH… to greater things.

And John 14 gives us the insight on how this will come to pass. There is no secret formula, there is no special prayer. There are no three steps or any kind of process. Jesus told us that...

Greater Things Begin With Greater Belief.

Jesus revealed to His disciples that belief is the key that unlocks this reality in our lives. But this belief must be accompanied by something very important: it must be belief that moves us to action.

In fact, I would word this a different way tonight… Our belief… must move us to OBEDIENCE. In fact, Jesus lays this out as instruction for His disciples to be followed… not to be ignored.

IF YOU BELIEVE, THEN YOU WILL DO… what is it that those who believe will do? The works and will of Jesus!

We need to give special attention to if, then statements in the Bible. If-then statements highlight conditional requirements that must be present.

IF this is present, it will lead to this result. Belief in Christ will lead a person to do or live as Christ (as Christ is our example).

If we long for greater things… perhaps God is longing for our greater belief - belief that moves us to obedience.

We serve not our will, but His will - and God continually opens doors of opportunity for us to serve Him. The question is: will we move on that opportunity or simply pass on by?

Remember the story of the Good Samaritan? We need to engage the needs that the Lord brings to us… not simply pass by on the other side of the road. Anyone remember why Jesus told this parable? Because He was asked “who is my neighbor” as a response to Jesus’ command to love our neighbor.

IF we want to see God do greater things in us and through us… then our belief in Christ must be evident through our obedience to His plan and commands.

Secondly, John 14 reveals another important key to unlocking greater things in the passages that follow. This passage reveals that:

Greater Things Are Dependent on the Greater Spirit.

What Spirit am I speaking of tonight? God’s Holy Spirit. God’s Holy Spirit that is now available to ALL believers because of what Jesus has done!

John 14:15–17 NIV

15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

When Jesus was speaking to His disciples, He was speaking of a promise to send the Holy Spirit, another advocate, the Spirit of truth… to those who believe. Today, that promise is fulfilled and His Spirit is available.

We will NOT experience greater things IF we do not give the Spirit access to our lives. IT CANNOT BE DONE. For the Spirit of God moves us from what we can do… and opens the doors to what only our God can do.

You hear me pray it all the time: Lord, do what only You can do. I don’t want to trust in only what man can do… I my trust… our trust as a church… to be placed in what God can do!

If we desire to see greater things in the days ahead, then we must, we must, we must, be fully dependent on the Spirit of God.

We don’t need an awakening of new programs. We don’t need an awakening of new trends. We don’t need an awakening of ministry methods or models. WE NEED AN AWAKENING OF GOD’S HOLY SPIRIT IN OUR CHURCHES AGAIN!

God promised that in these last days that He will pour out His Spirit on ALL PEOPLE! My prayer is that all who follow the Lord would be open to what God desires to pour into them!

Not only do we need to be available for God’s outpouring, but we need to encourage those in our ministries to be open. The Spirit of God is on the move… the question is… are we ready and willing to move as the Spirit would lead us?

Lastly, there is one more thing I want us to consider before we close regarding greater things.

Greater Things Give Honor to Glory to God.

Ministry leaders and volunteers, listen up… because I have a bit of homework for you tonight. I’m going to ask us to start doing something very important throughout this next year.

God has been moving powerfully in this place… and we need to give Him praise for it. Beginning next week, I am adding an element to our Sunday Morning Service simply called Ministry highlight. The point of this highlight is simple: I want our church to see what God is doing in our ministries.

And… I don’t want to stand there and give generalizations… I want to deliver specific testimonies regarding our ministries. How are we going to do that? That’s where this leadership team comes into play!

The church office provides an attendance sheet for every class that happens here at HWC. Here’s what I want you to do:

If you see God do something amazing in your class, make a note of it on your attendance sheet. Give a brief description of what happened. If the story is to long to write down quickly, then send an email to the church office.

We are going to collect this information so we can share it with our congregation - so we can give honor to our heavenly Father. God is moving… and we need to celebrate His move!

Listen Revelation 12:11 tells us that we overcome the enemy through the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony. We need to give testimony of what our God is doing!!!

Testimony builds faith… it strengthens our belief… it moves us from passively attending to actively engaging. AND THE MOST IMPORTANT PART IS: TESTIMONY HONORS THE LORD!

Get Ready for Greater Things!

These are not things we can manufacture or produce… these are things that can only come from God.

I’m not interested in what man can do… I can’t wait to see what the Lord is about to do! And as we hope for greater things… let’s begin to reach for what opens the door for greater moves of the Lord.

Let’s pray for greater belief - belief that moves us to obedience.

Let’s pray for greater Spirit - a dependency on God’s Holy Spirit of power and fire.

Let’s pray for greater glory - not glory for ourselves… but glory for our God! Let’s pray in advance for the lives He is going to change this year, for the healings He will provide, for the direction He will give! Let’s believe God for amazing works only HE can do!

Will you join me in that prayer this evening?

Here’s what we are going to do… We are going to pray at our tables tonight for each other. We are going to lift each other up as we collectively as God to Awaken our hearts to the greater things He has in store.

Pray for greater belief, for a dependency of His Spirit, and for His name to receive all the Glory! He has great things in store!