Where Is The Unstoppable Church?
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Introduction
Introduction
Christianity in America is not what it used to be.
The question is; was it ever truly biblical Christianity?
The reason for the question is simple.
Finding unstoppable believers has never been easy, but in recent times it has become nearly impossible.
Every time you think you can count on an organization, a church, or an individual claiming to be full of the Holy Ghost and fire of the Lord Jesus, something invariably happens.
Unbiblical teaching or lifestyles, churches going woke or too political, or the absolute worst: another church scandal surfaces
We can see in the book of Acts the kinds of Christians we talk about but rarely become.
Sold out for Jesus
On fire with the power of the Holy Ghost
Absolutely unstoppable even in the face of impending death!
The Weekend (Weakened) Church
The Weekend (Weakened) Church
We have all heard of the instructions that the Apostle Paul gave to young Timothy as he was pastoring the church at Lystra.
I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom:
Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers;
and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.
But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
And here we are church!!! 2000 years later and the words of Paul should be ringing in our ears today.
We should be mortified by the contrast and decline of the modern church.
We are not shocked or mortified because the Church has become weak and feeble through the years.
We have become desensitized by our eternal enemy…
BUT…..
The Word of God will always lead us back to the straight and narrow pathway that Jesus told us about.
“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.
Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
Why is it so hard for us to stay on track and become who God is calling us to be?
“But to what shall I liken this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their companions,
and saying: ‘We played the flute for you, And you did not dance; We mourned to you, And you did not lament.’
For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’
The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ But wisdom is justified by her children.”
The old saying is you can’t please everybody all the time
But Jesus is basically saying that people hardly ever remain content with God
We become like the friend we used to know to Jesus.
So what do we do?
We go back to the living Word of God!!!
It will lead the way from here all the way to GLORY! Winning souls and making disciples of our Lord Jesus all the way!!!
Why?
For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
The Unstoppable Church
The Unstoppable Church
And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people.
Then there arose some from what is called the Synagogue of the Freedmen (Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and those from Cilicia and Asia), disputing with Stephen.
And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke.
Then they secretly induced men to say, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.”
And they stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes; and they came upon him, seized him, and brought him to the council.
They also set up false witnesses who said, “This man does not cease to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law;
for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs which Moses delivered to us.”
And all who sat in the council, looking steadfastly at him, saw his face as the face of an angel.
Stephen, a man full of the Holy Ghost, defending the faith was stoned before a man by the name of Saul. What the others thought of as stopping the preaching of Stephen, turned out to be the conversion of the world’s greatest missionary.
· Tradition tells us Antipas was roasted in a brazen bowl during Domitian’s reign.
· Herod tried to quiet one of the sons of thunder by beheading James.
· Philip was scourged, thrown in prison then crucified.
· Matthew was killed with a halberd, a pike with an axe head.
· James the less was beaten and stoned. He then had his brains bashed out by a club.
· Matthias was stoned then beheaded.
· Andrew was crucified.
· Mark was dragged until his body literally came apart.
· It is said, Peter was crucified upside down.
· Paul was beheaded.
· Bartholomew was cruelly beaten then crucified.
· Thomas was killed with a spear.
· Luke was hung.
· Nero burned the church at the stake until the smoke of that sacrifice choked the city.
And yet, notwithstanding all these continual persecutions and horrible punishments, the Church daily increased.
1. Why? Because our foundation is on the apostles and prophets Jesus Christ being the chief corner stone.
The emperor Domitian said, “no Christian, once brought before the tribunal, should be exempted from punishment without renouncing his religion.”
2. You can’t stop the Unstoppable Church.
They tried lions and dogs but couldn’t stop the Church.
The Church was made to walk on nails, stones, spikes and thorns.
The Church was beaten until their flesh hung in tatters, veins and muscle were exposed.
Buried alive, tied to horses and dragged through cities, encased in bags with scorpions and snakes, put on racks and stretched until dead, stoned, tortured with hooks, and burnt with hot irons.
Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment.
They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented—
of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth.
From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one.
Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep;
in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;
in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness—
Luci will try to:
· Trip us Get back up
· Push us Push back
· Deceive us Proclaim truth
· Shut us up Shout all the louder
· Cripple us Invent a new way to praise
· Whip us Witness
· Burn us We have the fire of the Holy Ghost
· Bind us We’ve already been set free
· Tempt us Plead the blood
· Steal victory Sing the song…victory is mine, victory is mine…
· Make us weak The joy of the Lord is my strength
Are you ready to become a part of the unstoppable Church?
The world became so fearful of these men of God because of their ungodly desires that they persecuted them everywhere.
But the Jews who were not persuaded, becoming envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.
But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, “These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.
Who wants to turn this ungodly generation upside down?