THE DISTURBING GOSPEL

Psalm 122:1 - I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go into the house of the LORD.”

Plug Wednesday Nights (And you never know what will happen! You know it is said that the Lord Works in Mysterious Ways, and so The Wednesday before last....) Story: Singing “Without Him”, Piano gets louder as it is connected to sound system. (Mind you, no one is operating sound system! I turned on, to use mic.) Then while singing the Words come up on the screen! Now everyone is looking around at each other and back at sound room. This is Adam, this is not the Holy Ghost. I am at home with Covid!

Rd. Acts 17:1-8 (NLT)

Pray, then Say: A few years ago, while watching T.V. one night at home, and getting ready to go to bed, My Wife (Heather) and I started hearing BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, coming from my nearest neighbors.

So, I go and look, and right outside my bedroom window I see a car about 50 ft. away with its windows down and loud music coming out from the windows!

But, while we were preparing to get in bed the music stopped! So, I’m like, Alright!

But no sooner than when we laid down, it sounded like we were at a Hank Williams Jr. Concert, and all his rowdy friends were right outside bedroom window!

Now I don’t know about you, but when it is almost 12:00 midnight, and I have to get up and go to work in the morning, I don’t want to hear but one thing, the sound of my fan running on high speed!

Any other noise, including my wife snoring is Unacceptable for Sleeping!

But these neighbors, were obviously not worried about Disturbing Us, or the rest of the families around us!

So, after a trip over to the neighbors, they graciously turned the music off!

Now as you can imagine, their Disturbance was not Desirable to me and my family, much like what we as Christians have to offer the world is not Desirable, to them!

You see, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and a Christian Living According to it, is not welcomed in most circles of our society, for it Challenges and Convicts a Sinful, or Me Centered Lifestyle!

Church, listen to me, it is time that our Actions, and Words as Christians start lining up with the Christians we find in the book of Acts.

If we are going to DISTURB THIS WORLD/TURN THIS WORLD UPSIDE DOWN (as other versions say), as the early Church did according to what we just heard in Ch. 17 of Acts, then we are going to have to Quit being Afraid/Ashamed of Disturbing the Lost and Indifferent in our world!

You see, this World that we live in, Our Country especially, is headed down a Road of DESTRUCTION, because many Christians and Churches are Afraid of Disturbing them with the Gospel of Jesus Christ! (And I say that even after our Election, and the Hope that a New President brings! Amen! Yes, we welcome the change, but Trump and any other politician is not JESUS! AMEN! JESUS is the Solution to Our Countries Ills, Jesus and Him Alone!)

We have the greatest reason for causing a Disturbance that this world has ever Heard, and whatever choice we make, To Disturb, or Not Disturb, WILL have ETERNAL CONSEQUENCES!

Yes Church, It is Time for Our Actions and Words to cause a Disturbance in the World around us!

So, why is our world not being DISTURBED/TURNED UPSIDE DOWN by the Church today, as it was in the book of Acts?

I believe it is simply this, we, the Church, we as Individual Christians, do not want to be DISTURBED, OURSELVES! (pause)

Just as I didn’t want to be Disturbed while trying to go to sleep, it seems that Many Christians, don’t want Disturbed from their Sleep either!

Many Christians seem Content to stay in a Slumber, while the World around us goes to Hell!

Churches are full of people today that need to Wake Up and Realize what Jacob did as he awoke from his sleep in Gen. 28:16 and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”

Let me ask you this morning, “Do you know that Jesus is here today?” AMEN??!

He is Here because His people in which He indwells through His Spirit, are here! (Everyday   

   Occurrence – unlike Jacob) But like Jacob, many of us, that Profess to be Indwelled by the

   Holy Spirit, seem to NOT EVEN KNOW IT!

“Our Lives”, the lives that GOD HAS GIVEN US, (the lives that we are Living because God allowed our hearts to beat & lungs to breathe air), the lives that Jesus Christ DIED for, the lives that Jesus Bought and Paid for, are most often controlled, by OUR FLESHLY DESIRES! Instead of the Spirit of God!

And that is the Difference I believe, between what the Church and Christians today are accomplishing, compared to what the 1st Church in Acts accomplished!

The DESIRE the church in Acts had, was to WHOLE HEARTEDLY serve the Lord, by Following the Spirit of the Lord! What is yours?

The challenge for you and I today, is to find out what the Church in Acts had, that resulted in the World Around Them, Being (Disturbed) Turned Upside Down!

Then when we find that out, we must Commit to Live Out those same principles!

So, the first thing I want us to See about the Church in Acts is: 

I. THEY WERE PEOPLE WITH A PURPOSE!

They knew what they had been “Called Out” of this World to do, because:

 A. They Were Converted!

1) The problem I believe many of our Churches are having today is, they are filled with “Professing Christians”.

When I say that, I mean that many have Professed Faith in Christ, they may or may not be saved, but either way, their Lives do not Show It! And this makes it hard for the Church to Press Forward to it’s Purpose!

a. These that were (DISTURBING The World) Turning the World Upside Down were True Christians and their Lives Spoke to that Fact!

They were Winning The Lost to Christ!

b. Rd.: Acts 17:4 (KJV) - “And some of them believed (As Paul Reasoned, and Explained The Scriptures in the Synagogue some of the

Jews believed)… and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few.”

This is just one of several examples, of the Early Church being Formed, and Lost Men and Women Converting to Faith in Christ!

On the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came and indwelled the Church, a great number of people came to Christ!

And Acts 2:47 says, that EVERYDAY after Pentecost, the Lord ADDED to the Church! The Early Church had a Purpose and it SHOWED, thousands, were coming to Faith in Jesus Christ!

  2. CONVERSION, is the first step in having PURPOSE in this life!

3. Many, many people in this World Believe that as long as they are a Good Person, as long as they Don’t Commit any Major Sins like Murder or Rape, as long as they are Affiliated with some Religion, as long as they Believe that God exists, as long as their Good

Deeds Out Weight their Bad Ones, EVERYTHING, WILL WORK OUT IN THEIR FAVOR in the END!

    a. Lost person hear me please, None of that will matter in the end, if you have not been CONVERTED! (If you have not given your Life to the Lord Jesus Christ!)

   b. Lost person, you may be thinking, “Well preacher, I am a pretty good person, I treat others the way I want to be treated, I help people in need, I put others before myself, I give money to charitable causes, I, I, I…

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(maybe take out:

(1)  But hear what Isa. 64:6 says, “But we are all like an unclean thing (before we come to faith in Christ, we are seen by God as

dirty, defiled, wicked people), and all OUR RIGHTEOUSNESSES are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like

the wind, Have taken us away.[1]

(2) Your Righteousness, every GOOD THING YOU DO apart from Jesus Christ ????????according to Isa. 64:6, is Nothing but Filthy

Rags!

   c. What does that mean? Well lost person, It means, that ALL your Good Works, Every Good Thing that you have done in your Life, up

until this very moment, is of ?????NO VALUE, and they will GAIN you NOTHING, when your Life is Over! __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

d. You see, listen to me carefully, YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS ALONE, is not enough to gain you entrance into the Kingdom of God! (No

AMOUNT of GOOD DEEDS, will gain you Favor with the Father!)

    (1) You must have the Righteousness of Jesus Christ, Applied to your Life!

   (2) All that will Matter when you leave this life for the next, IS, are you a Sinner Saved By Grace? (Do you have the Righteousness of

Christ applied to your Life?)

   e. When you Become a Christian, you are given a Purpose (Spread the Gospel), and Hopefully that Purpose will Change the Eternity of those around you!

  3. Listen to me Lost person, your Life does not begin, until you have given “Your Life” to Jesus!

   a. Just look at the Conversion of the Apostle Paul! Paul was a Changed Man and he brought Change to the World around him!

   b. Paul considered his Old Life BEFORE Christ, a LOSS! (In the eyes of the Jewish people, Paul would have looked like a Good

Man/One of the Best!)

    (1) Philippians 3:4-8 (NKJV) - “though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the

flesh, I more so: 5 circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning

the law, a Pharisee; 6 concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. 7 But

what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8 Yet indeed I ALSO COUNT ALL THINGS LOSS for the excellence of

the KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST JESUS my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may

gain Christ.”

   c. Paul, and the Early Church, were willing to give up EVERYTHING (Possessions and Privilege), they were willing TO COUNT IT ALL LOSS,

in order to Know Christ More!

   d. I ask you today, What about you? (Are you willing to Give up Possessions, Privilege, Notoriety, Friends, Family, Way of Life?)  

(pause) Remember, this is a sign of True Conversion!

    (1) Mark 8:34-36 (NKJV) - “When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to

come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 35 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but

whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. 36 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and

loses his own soul?

   e. Do you want to know for sure if you have been Converted? If you are a Born Again Believer in the Lord Jesus Christ?

    (1) If you do, just ask yourself, “Am I Denying Self? Am I Crucified with Christ? Am I Following and Seeking after Christ?

(2) Now could you still be SAVED and not doing these things, YES! For Works do not Save, Only Faith, only Belief in the Lord Jesus!

But WORKS Prove our Faith to others and Ourselves. But if Works/Fruit are not coming forth from your Salvation, you will

continue to have no ASSURANCE of your Salvation, and NO PEACE in your Salvation.

 B. The Church in Acts Was Compassionate!      

  1. Rd.: (KJV) Acts 16:40 - 17:3 - They cared for the BRETHREN!  “when they had seen the brethren, they comforted them…”

   a. 1 John 3:10-14 (NKJV) - “In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest (are made evident): Whoever does not

practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. 11 For this is the message that you heard from the

beginning, that we should love one another, 12 not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he

murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous. 13 Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. 14 We

know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death.”

   b. Love for the Brethren, also proves Conversion! (Do YOU, Love your Brothers and Sisters in Christ?)

   c. IF not, you must ask yourself, if you have truly Passed, from Death to LIFE.

  2. We also see that the Church in Acts, Cared for the LOST! 

How do the Lost, truly know that we care about them? IF WE TELL THEM ABOUT CHRIST! (Pen and Teller? Penn Gillet, said how much does a man have to hate someone.....)

   a. Vss. 2&3 said that Paul Reasoned with the Jews for 3 Sabbath days and he would Preach Jesus to them!

  3. The Church was being led by Paul, a man that use to Persecute Believers every Opportunity that he had!

   a. But now he was a man of Great Compassion for Believers and for those that were living LOST, as he once did!

  4. Paul now had a Purpose in Life because of his Conversion! He had a Life Changing Encounter with the KING OF KINGS and LORD

OF LORDS!

  5. Listen to ACTS 20:31, I want you to FEEL the Compassion that Paul had for the Lost!

NKJV - “Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I DID NOT CEASE TO WARN EVERYONE NIGHT and DAY with TEARS.”

  6.  Paul, just as we must, had Discovered the Truth of Psalms 126:5-6 (KJV) - They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. 6 He that goeth

forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.

  7. This was not just Occasional Acts of Compassion!

   a. Acts 20:31 pointed out that Paul warned everyone, Night and Day!

   b. And according to Acts 17:2, This was Paul’s MANNER/CUSTOM or WAY OF LIFE!

   c. I want you to think about this question. How much do you love the lost, how much compassion do you have for them?

   d. How many of you witnessed to someone you know is lost, this week?

There, is your answer about how much you love the lost!

   e. How many of you will make it a Priority to come and Gather with your Church family, on Monday’s, on Wednesday Evenings, on

Sunday Mornings, to Pray for the Salvation of your friends and family?

There, is your answer about how much you love the lost!

   f. How many of you will make it a Priority to go out into the Community to Share the Gospel of Jesus, to go out and meet Needs in

your Community?

There, is your answer about how much you love the lost!

  8. Are you Satisfied with just an Occasional Act of Compassion? Or do you desire to be like Paul and make Compassion a Way of Life?

   a. I want to remind you of God’s Commands, given by Paul in Philippians 2:4-7 (KJV):

- “LOOK NOT every man ON HIS OWN THINGS, but every man also on the things of others. 5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in

Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7 But made himself of no reputation, and

took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:” 

    b. If we will put Ourselves, and Our Things aside and think of others first, we too, can take on the Form of a Compassionate Servant! Just as Our Lord!

 C. The Church in Acts Was COURAGEOUS! 

Verses 5-6 here in Acts 17, tell us that they were Risking Attack/Assault to Spread the Gospel! (To be a Christian, to be a Church Member, to have a Gospel Purpose, was a Risky Way of Life!)

  1. These who were DISTURBING this World/Turning it Upside Down knew the meaning of Courage and Boldness!

  2. They were willing to Stand Up for Jesus, even in the face of Persecution and Suffering!

  3. Listen, we must Reach the Point, where we live out the Conviction that NOTHING, is more Important than the Expansion of God’s Kingdom!

a. It is More Important than our personal well-being! (And Church there may come a day, that are personal well-being is in Jeopardy!)

   b. It is More Important than our education!

   c. It is More Important than our success! It is More Important than our Wants and Desires!

   d. We must become Kingdom people, if we are to DISTURB Our World/Turn Our World Upside Down for Jesus!

   e. Do you remember just a few years ago when our Country was being Disturbed, Turned Upside Down? Riots were taking place in

cities across our Nation! Good was WRONG, and Evil became Good to many! Look how quickly that took place! I believe if the Church

would get as Serious as those groups like Antifa and BLM were, if the Church would get Serious about Spreading the Gospel we

Could Cause a DISTURBANCE for The Lord!

    (1) It is TIME the CHURCH, WAKE UP, and DISTURB THIS WORLD WITH THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST! AMEN!

   f. Kingdom people, are people who put God and His Kingdom first in their lives, NO MATTER THE COST!

   g. And that takes COURAGE!

  4. Billy Sunday Quote: I am not a member of any lodge, and never expect to be, but if I were a member of a lodge and there were a prayer-meeting and a lodge-meeting coming on Wednesday night, I would be at the prayer-meeting instead of at the lodge-meeting. I am not against the lodges; they do some good work in the world, but that doesn't save anyone for God. God is first and the lodge-meeting is second. God is first and society second. God is first and business is second. "In the beginning, God!" (Gen. 1:1) That is the way the Bible starts out and it ought to be the way with every living being. "In the beginning, God." Seek you first God and everything else shall be added unto you. Christianity is addition; sin is subtraction. Christianity is peace, joy, salvation, heaven. Sin takes away peace, happiness, sobriety, and it takes away health. You are robbing God of the time that you misspend. You are robbing God when you spend time doing something that don't amount to anything, when you might do something for Christ. You are robbing God when you go to foolish amusements, when you sit around reading trashy novels instead of the Word of God. "Oh, Lord, revive thy work!"

  5. Church, it takes Courage to SEEK FIRST, GOD & HIS KINGDOM! (Our Priority should be, GOD IS FIRST!)

   a. Are you Courageous? Will you do All you can (Even in the Face of Persecution) to Turn this World Upside Down!

II. THEY WERE PEOPLE WITH POWER! (Go to Acts 4)

  - Saved by the Grace of God and FILLED with the Power of God!

 A. They Experienced the Power of God!

  1. Look back at Acts 4:7-10 (NKJV): Peter and John here were on trial for healing Lame Man.

(My oh my, how I long to see a Church with The Power of God Upon It! How about you?)

Nothing the Apostles, the N.T. Church, or the Church today did or does, can be accomplished, unless it is done through the POWERFUL name of JESUS!

   a. Church, we may accomplish things by our “Own Power”, but it will not be anything Great, Worthwhile or Fruitful!

  2. The N.T. Church saw many miracles, signs and wonders, they saw 3,000 saved in Acts 2, 5,000 saved here in Acts 4.

   a. The N.T. saints knew the Power of the Holy Spirit because they Experienced it.

   b. Experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit is not an Option, it is an Obligation!

    - Rd.: Eph. 5:18 - And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;

    - Church, this tells me that we should NOT FILL Our BODIES or our MINDS with anything that takes the place of or renders useless the

power of the Holy Spirit!

   c. Drunk with wine is a way of the world, and that is exactly how my neighbors were Disturbing me.

    - (Brothers and Sisters, why do so many Christians insist on participating in something that Destroys Lives, that IS A STUMBLING BLOCK!

What if your child gets hooked on that junk, because of you? What if a Bro. or Sister in Christ, turns back to drinking, or starts

drinking because of you, and they become addicted?)

    - Church it is time that we Stop Participating in the same things that the world does!

    - Many Churches and Christians are looking more like the World, than the Church that we see in God’s Word! And therefore, Satan is

Stealing the Power of God from our lives!

    - Church, if you want to be Filled with something that will MOVE YOU, allow the SPIRIT, (Not Spirits) TO FILL YOU!

    - We need to allow God’s Spirit and Power to Fill us and Influence us, instead of being under the influence of Satan’s Unholy Devices!

    - And maybe then, we can DISTURB the lives of the Lost and Indifferent with the Gospel!

 B. They Expressed The Power!

   - Rd.: Acts 4:31 (KJV) - And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.

  1. People who have experienced an Endowment of Power from on High are BOLD TO SPEAK and DECLARE the Word of God!

   a. Dietrich Bonhoeffer (pastor, known for his resistance of the Nazis)- “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us

guiltless! Not to speak, is to speak! Not to act, is to act!”

   b. How about you, are you Bold to Speak? Or does the least bit of resistance stop you?

 C. They Were Enthusiastic About The Power of The Holy Spirit! (Rd.: Acts 4:32-35)

  1. These Christians were not just religious, not just active, they were Influencing their Society!

   a. Are you influencing others with the Gospel? Can others see that your POWER SOURCE is none other than Jesus?

   b. Are you Excited, Ready and Willing, to use what God has given to you, for the Furtherance of the Gospel?

    - How are you using what God has given you for his Glory? Home, Car, Talents, Gifts, Money, Time? (None of this belongs to you, ITS GOD’S!)

 D. So, as we think about the POWER that The First Church possessed, Why are many Christians, and Churches today, not becoming

Powerful Weapons for God?

  1. I believe it is because our Association with Christ and His Church has become one of CONVEINCE! AMEN!

   a. If it suits our particular desires at the time, then we Serve Jesus or we go to Church.

   b. If our lives become Crowded and Busy with other things, then we put aside the things of God!

   c. We are CONSUMED people, but not with God and His Word!

   d. Mark 4:19 says this: “And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke

the word, and it becometh unfruitful.”

   e. Too often we have allowed the Cares of this World to Consume us, and therefore Choke out the Influence and Power of the Word of God in our lives!

III. THEY WERE PEOPLE WITH A PLAN! Rd.: Acts 1:8

 A. This Plan is: Personal in Obligation (1:8a) “But YOU SHALL…”

  1. There is no need to Point a Finger, or Pass the Buck, if you are saved, YOU HAVE a Personal Obligation to be a FILLED BY THE SPIRIT

SERVANT of God!

 B. This Plan is: Plain in Objective (1:8b) “YOU SHALL be WITNESSES unto ME…”

  1. When you Receive the POWER of the Holy Spirit, YOU WILL be a WITNESS!

   a. This is your RESPONSIBILITY!

 C. This Plan is: Plentiful in Outreach (1:8c) “in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth”

  1. The Fields are White unto Harvest!

a. Matt. 9:37-38 - Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; 38 Pray ye therefore the

Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.

  2. Brothers and Sisters, you and I have family, friends and co-workers that need us to be Labourers! We must pray that for one another!

  3. I ask you today, is this your PLAN? For this is given to all Believers of the Lord Jesus Christ!

IN CLOSING: I am sure most of us have heard the Story of the Rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-28.

In this passage we find a Rich Man, and a Poor Beggar Man, that had died. And the Poor Beggar had nothing in this life and went to Abraham’s Bosom (Heaven), but the Rich Man had everything, he was in want of nothing, and found himself in Hades (Hell). And as this Rich Man realized where he was, and that there was no Relief from the Torment of the Flames to be found for himself, he turns his attention to his 5 Brothers. And he asks Abraham if he would send Lazarus, to warn his Brothers about this Horrible place of Torment that he was in. But Abraham said, if they will not hear Moses and the Prophets, they neither will hear from One that rises from the Dead!

Listen to me as we Close things up, the bible says in 2 Cor. 6:2 - “...Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of Salvation.”

Who do you know that is LOST, and Needs to Know Jesus TODAY?

The rich man in this parable could only hope that someone would go and DISTURB his 5 brother’s lives!

This rich man understood the importance, of someone DISTURBING the lives of his brothers!

For he was in Torment in the Flames of Hell and did not want the same fate for his brothers.

Do we truly understand what is at Stake for the LOST LIVES in our world?

There is a literal FLAME that burns forever awaiting the lives of those that choose to reject the Holy Spirit’s convicting POWER!

And sadly, many may never feel that conviction if we are unwilling to take THE DISTURBING GOSPEL to them!

  1. That is my challenge to you today, DISTURB Someone, Today, Tomorrow, this week!

  2. And this is now time for you to Respond to God’s Word!

   a. If you are lost, I ask you to respond to the LOVE OF CHRIST, and not end up as the RICH MAN did!

   b. COME AND GIVE YOUR LIFE to CHRIST!

   c. Christian, if you have been unwilling to DISTURB the Lost, I ask you to COME, REPENT, and GIVE God the Reigns of your life!