Sermon Tone Analysis
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This morning we are picking back up our study of the book of Acts.
If you’re new to MCF, if would be good for you to know that we practice a form of preaching called “Expository Preaching”.
What that means is we believe the Bible is best taught by taking books of the Bible, and then studying them from beginning to end, chapter by chapter, verse by verse, in order to understand what the Bible means in our lives.
With that said, we are currently working our way through the book of Acts.
A book of the Bible that was written to teach us how the church is meant to function in order to accomplish the mission that Jesus has given us.
A mission that involves taking the good news of Jesus Christ from where we live to the ends of the earth.
And what we’ve learned so far is the only way that mission can be accomplished is if we are empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Jesus puts it like this:
That being the case, we’ve spent the last couple of weeks learning how a person get’s empowered by the Spirit.
And what we’ve learned so far is like anything that advances us, there are some prerequisites for spiritual empowerment.
Four specifically that must be present in a persons life if they desire to be empowered by the Holy Spirit.
#1 - in order to be spiritually empowered, a person must be a committed follower and disciple of Jesus.
And when I say Christ follower, I’m not talking about a church goer.
I’m not talking about somebody that just goes to church and identifies with a denomination or the Christian faith.
I’m talking about a person who has given their life to Jesus and made Him Lord of their life.
I’m talking about a devoted follower.
The first
#2 - in order to be spiritually empowered, a person must be committed to a life of obedience to God’s Word.
And when I say obedience, I’m not talking about living a perfect life.
That’s impossible.
What I’m saying is a person has to be committed to living in a way that lines up with the Bible.
The fact is, God isn’g going to empower someone who consistently and knowingly lives contrary to His Word.
#3 - in order to be spiritually empowered, believers must be committed to the unity of their Church.
We learned last week the disciples were of one accord.
Meaning they were unified in mission and unified against division.
They were committed to serving in the capacities God had called them to and they were committed to stomping out anything that might work to destroy the unity among believers.
#4 - in order to be spiritually empowered, believers must be committed to corporate prayer.
Luke says the disciples sought the empowerment together through prayer.
The fact of the matter is, spiritual empowerment is of a spiritual nature.
In other words, it doesn’t come through natural means.
It only comes as a group of people gather together and ask God to supernaturally equip them for witness.
That’s why last week I announced that beginning this Wednesday evening, we are starting a 6 week corporate prayer focus on Wednesday nights from 7:00PM-8:00PM.
The fact of the matter is, if we are going to reach our community to the degree God wants us to, we have to be spiritually empowered to do it.
And the only way that is going to happen is if together we seek God’s help.
So, again, I want to invite you to the first prayer meeting this Wednesday night.
And just to put any fears to rest, I can promise you a couple of things about the prayer meeting:
First, I can promise you it’s not going to be boring.
I say that because I know when I say we’re having a prayer meeting, some might think, “Oh boy, that sounds exciting”.
And I get that.
But I doubt you’ve ever been to a prayer meeting like we are going to have.
Because I can tell you, when God’s people show up to talk to God, God responds.
In fact, I believe it’s going to be a time where God shows up to strengthen us, renew us, and equip us in a way we could have never imagined.
I can promise you if you come, you won’t be bored for one minute.
Second, I can promise you it won’t be weird.
The fact is, when we start talking about the Holy Spirit, and we hold a separate service that focuses on empowerment, people tend to get excited and nervous about what might or might not happen.
So, just to be clear to those who may or may not have a pentecostal background, this isn’t a service where it’s going to get weird.
And if you want it to be weird, I’d ask that you leave that at the door.
Our focus is simply to ask the Lord to empower us for effective witness and ministry.
And I can promise you, it won’t be weird.
All that to say, if you want to grow in your faith journey, and you want to be empowered to share your faith with others, then you’re going to want to be at the Wednesday night prayer meetings.
So, that’s where we’ve been, and that’s where we’re going.
However, before we get there, Luke is going to lead us on a little bit of a detour.
Because as we come to our passage today, Luke takes us to one of the first major challenges and decisions that the early church would need to make concerning its future.
And to deal with this challenge they had what you might call a good old fashioned “Church Business Meeting”.
In fact, this next portion of passage represents the first recorded church business meeting in church history.
So, maybe a good place to start this morning would be by asking this question, “How many of you have ever been to a church business meeting?”
Some of have, some have not.
So, maybe a good place to start would be by asking you this question, “How many of you have ever been to a church business meeting?”
Well, as boring as it may sound, church business meetings can actually be some of the most entertaining and disheartening meetings you’ll ever witness.
Because believe it or not, in some churches, church business meetings become the boxing ring for Christians as church members fight or argue over the direction of the church.
Or as church members argue or debate over ridiculous common sense decisions that in the end don’t really matter or reach one person for Jesus.
For example, I recently read an article where pastors were encouraged to submit some of the most outrageous items they had encountered at a church business meeting.
Here are the top ten the author of the publication choose to share:
1. Dead body in dumpster.
One Church had a prolonged business meeting on whether or not to put a lock on their dumpster.
There was no resolution.
Within the week someone put a dead body in the dumpster.
The church voted overwhelmingly and immediately to put the lock on.
I wonder if a pro-lock church member placed the body there.
2. Church name change.
I am not surprised this meeting was contentious.
This type of change is emotional and far-reaching.
But this argument against changing the name was classic: “How will Jesus know who we are when He returns if we change our name?”
3. Donuts.
The church had a two-hour meeting discussing donuts.
I get it.
Donuts are important.
4. Absentee member.
Those at the church meeting voted a person to serve in three different positions.
But she was not present.
That will teach her to miss business meetings.
5. Lawnmower blades.
The church had a multi-hour business meeting on what type of lawnmower blades to purchase.
Now that’s silly.
You should fight over lawnmower purchases, but not the blades.
6.
The pastor’s son.
The church had three hours of contentious discussion, mostly against the pastor.
Toward the end of the meeting, the pastor looked up to the balcony to see that his teenage son had sneaked up there to listen.
Ugh.
Just ugh.
7. Donuts . . .
reprise.
This meeting was another contentious discussion about donuts.
The issue this time was whether or not people can eat them in the worship center.
I’m sure there was a bylaw change as a result.
ecord time for a business meeting.
This church business meeting began at 7 pm and took a break at midnight to resume the next evening.
The point of contention was the type of wheels to put on a people mover, standard or chrome.
We all fully understand why you need over six hours to fight over this vital issue.The lady gets no respect.
The church voted against giving a woman a volunteer ministry position i the church.
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