Ordinary People, Extraordinary Impact

Introduction

General: God has called our family to leave Stoughton and move to Ozark, MO, where I have been called to serve as the Lead Pastor of LifePoint Church.

Personal: I am not an extraordinary person. I’m just an ordinary person with an extraordinary God. And I have seen God do extraordinary things.

Biblical

That’s what happens in our story today. In context, Peter and John healed a crippled man in Jesus’s name, and were arrested by the Jewish leaders, and are on trial before the high council.

Acts 4 (NLT)… especially v. 13.

Subject: How can ordinary people have an extraordinary impact?

Body

Ordinary people do extraordinary things when they’ve been with Jesus.

Exposition (v. 13)

We are not extraordinary people. But Jesus is an extraordinary God!

Have you been with Jesus? There’s a difference between learning about Jesus and being with Jesus.

The Jewish leaders recognized that they’d been with Jesus. Can other people tell that you’ve been with Jesus?

Illustration: “If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” —Warren Wiersbe

Application: Have you been with Jesus? See verse 12… Will you decide to follow him?

Ordinary people do extraordinary things when they’re filled with the Holy Spirit.

Exposition (vv. 8, 31)

What does it mean to be filled with the Holy Spirit? Not that you have more of the Spirit but that the Spirit has more of you.

There are times when the Holy Spirit fills you so full that ordinary people do extraordinary things.

Illustration: I saw a woman in my church healed after she’d broken her ankle.

Sometimes God says yes, and sometimes no, but whether he heals or gives you the strength to endure the suffering—both are extraordinary things through the power of the Spirit.

Application: Are you living a Spirit-filled life? How? Fill your life with God, and God will fill your life.

Ordinary people do extraordinary things when they’re united in heart and mind.

Exposition (vv. 32-37)

Extraordinary! Selling a field isn’t like dropping a $20 in the offering box.

They were united… How do we have unity? Not by a shared vision (common misconception) but by a shared commitment to pray together.

“After this prayer… all the believers were united in heart and mind” (vv. 31a, 32).

Illustration: I have a regular practice of praying with other men, and I have experienced how it unites us together.

Application: Unity comes through prayer.

Conclusion

We are not extraordinary people. But Jesus is an extraordinary God. Ordinary people do extraordinary things when they’ve been with Jesus, when they’re filled with the Holy Spirit, and when they’re united in heart and mind.

What LakeView needs most in this season of transition is ordinary people who will devote themselves to prayer, to worship, to the teaching of God’s Word, and to each other. And God will do extraordinary things through you.