Success is Bottom Up

Title Slide

Series: On the Move: Overcoming the Obstacles to Growth

Title: Success is Bottom Up

Text:

BACKGROUND

BACKGROUND

Today we begin a new series entitled, On the Move: Overcoming the Obstacles to Growth. For the next few weeks, we are going to walk through the book of Acts discovering why the church grew and how they overcame the obstacles to that growth. We’ll begin at the beginning, so turn your Bibles to Acts chapter 2 verse 41. I think in this book and in this chapter you find the time when the church was at its best; you’ll also find the time when they grew the most. The book of Acts has a title that befits it’s name. It describes what the Holy Spirit did—how He acted—that enabled the church to fulfill Christ’s final command. So let’s read these verses together:

Acts 2:41–47 NKJV

Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

41 Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. 42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. 43 Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. 44 Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, 45 and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need. 46 So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

PRAYER

ATTN

Slide - Jim Mattis

They nicknamed him “CHAOS.” At the time he was the colonel in the Marines and was training his soldiers for war in Afghanistan and Iraq. He had them in the Mojave desert and was doing his best to get them ready for the grueling battle ahead. To his men his unconventional approach to their training was harsh and even bizzare. They thought he was just finding ridiculous things for them to do to keep them busy. One day he walked into a training room and saw written on the board, “Call sign CHAOS.” He know it was meant for him but he didn’t know what it meant, so he asked his junior officer what it meant. The officer replied, “Sir, you don’t want to know.” He replied, “O yes, I do want to know.” Since he outranked the junior officer he told him. “Sir it stands for, the Colonel Has Another Outstanding Solution.”—C.H.A.O.S.

Though it was meant as a backhanded slap, as it turned out “Mad Dog Mattis,” the former Secretary of Defense, did have great solutions. He believed in his men and sought to develop them into leaders. Even when he became a general, he crawled into the trenches with them and listened to their suggestions. He never over-controlled things. He simply mentored his men into the kind of men he knew would succeed, clearly described the objective and then trusted them to take the initiative to make it happen. It became the strategy of the powerful success the U. S. military had in the early days of the war in Afghanistan. It proves this point: Success is not top down, it’s bottom up.

Now maybe that needs a little more explanation. What do I mean when I say that success is “bottom up?” I mean that if your enterprise is really going to succeed, it must rely on the initiative of the workers. Yes, there must be a leader who describes the vision and clearly states the mission, but the success of that mission depends on the passion and the leadership of those who carry it out, whether they are fighting in a foxhole or working on Wallstreet.

NEED

This is also true of the church. If she is ever going to achieve the purpose for which God created her, members of the church family must learn to take the initiative. Sadly, though full-time pastors have brought some needed stability and direction to many church ministries, there has also been a tendency for the people within the church to look to their leaders for initiative. Need for a church visitation night? Wait for a visitation night. Need to serve? Wait to be asked or begged. Need to get involved in reaching out to the community? Wait for someone to design a program to for it and then see if you want to do what is asked.

Here’s what I have come to realize as a pastor: If we are going to glorify God and make disciples by helping everyday people experience life change through Christ-centered relationships, it will happen bottom up, not top down; It will happen because God’s people are so captured by God’s vision that they take the initiative.

And I am glad that the New Testament gives us a clear picture of what it looks like to do that. In fact, In these verses I find four stages to growth that produce a people who are ready to stop sitting back and are ready to take initiative. The first stage is:

D1: DEVOTION

The first stage of real growth is devotion.

EXP

If you are familiar with the book of Acts, you know that this description of the church follows Peter’s message right after he had received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. There was a powerful response. V41 says that 3000 people were saved that day. And what happened to these new converts? LIFE CHANGE!

Acts 2:42 NKJV

And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.

V42 says that their change of heart created a change of habit. It begins, And they continued steadfastly. Literally it means that they “persevered to the point of devotion.” They gave themselves completely to this new activity. They were “all in” you might say.

Acts 2:42 NKJV

And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.

And what was it that they devoted themselves to? Well four areas are mentioned. It says And they continued steadfastly in the APOSTLES’ DOCTRINE. Since these were the first believers in the early church, they didn’t have the New Testament yet. It would be written by the Apostles over the next 50-60 years. Now, that really was a disadvantage for them. Today we have the Scriptures as our great treasure and instruction on how we ought to live our Christian lives. Then, they were not so blessed.

They did, however, have the Apostles living with them, so they hung on their every word. They heard; they internalized; and they obeyed what they were being taught. This is always the first step to growth. If you are going to grow in your faith, you must have a deep, powerful commitment to the TRUTH.

Acts 2:42 NKJV

And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.

But their life change went beyond their own personal growth. These early believers were devoted to something else. Look at v 42 again: And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and FELLOWSHIP. One commentator said that in this verse Luke underscores the personal relationships that were formed in that early church. There was a depth here that went far beyond the surface. You can feel it in the text when you read these verses. These people LOVED being together! They were not just acquainted with each other, they were deeply engaged with each other.

Acts 2:42 NKJV

And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.

And that engagement led them to WORSHIP. V42 says, And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in THE BREAKING OF BREAD. This went beyond cooking burgers on the grill and baking some beans. While it may speak of sharing a meal together, it primarily meant celebrating the Lord’s Supper. We call that celebration, “Communion.” That’s a good word for it. When we come to the Lord’s Supper, we commune with God as we celebrate Christ’s death and resurrection. We also commune with each other. Fellowship and worship go hand in hand.

Acts 2:42

Acts 2:42 NKJV

And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.

And that leads me to the last thing this church devoted itself to: Prayer. V42 concludes, And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and PRAYERS. I think that, through the work of the Holy Spirit, these people supernatually understood that God’s church was never meant to work by feelings or simple intuition. God wanted His people to seek His face and obey His leadership. That’s why they spent so much time in prayer. If they were going to Christ, they first had to talk to Him.

And here’s the point: It is no accident that these verses are right here in this exact location of the New Testament. I think that the Spirit is trying to describe for us what the DNA of the church is supposed to be like. In just two short verses the Holy Spirit gives us the culture of a church which can explode with growth.

APP

A couple of years ago the staff began to specifically define what biblical qualities we thought would make Peace church grow as we look to the future. I wish I could tell you that we sat down and did a thorough study of this passage of Scripture. We did not. But listen to those qualities which we did list and see if they sound like this passage:

What should define this church? The Practice of Truth.

The Practice of Truth

We said that here at Peace, we are committed to the practice of truth. We want clear Biblical teaching that equips disciples for growth in ministry. That would correspond to the commitment the early church had to the apostles’ doctrine

What should define this church? The Pursuit of Community.

We said that, here at Peace, we are committed to the pursuit of community. We wanted to connect people together so that they could encourage each other to grow in the Lord. That would correspond to the commitment the early church had to the apostles’ doctrine.

What should define this church? A Passion for Worship.

We said that, here at Peace, we are committed to developing a passion for worship. We want to connect the heart of man with the heart of God. That would correspond to the breaking of bread.

What should define this church? The Priority of Prayer.

Last we said that we believed in the priority of prayer. We said that we believe in Consistently connecting the heart of man with the heart of God.

We said that we wanted these things to define our church’s DNA.

ARG

And maybe you’re saying right now, “Well, that’s all well and good, but I don’t know why you are making such a big deal over this. Why should we devote ourselves to being a place of truth, community, worship and prayer?

TRANS

Well, it’s because of the second stage of growth that happens here in this passage. You see the DNA of this early church released:

D2 POWER

The Second Stage of real growth is power.

EXP

Acts 2:43 NKJV

Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.

When I was digging into this text, I saw a pattern here that I had not seen before. Vv41-42 show us what the church devoted itself to: That is truth, community, worship, and prayer. Because they were all in, they really went after these things, then look what happens in v43: Then (underline that word! When did what is about to be described happen? It was after the church had devoted themselves to truth, community, worship, and prayer) THEN, great fear came upon every soul and many signs and wonders were done through the apostles.

When those qualities we talked about were pursued, something happened INSIDE the people. It says that “fear” came upon every soul. That word “fear” is not the sniveling kind you see on some horror flick. It was a deep sense of reverential awe. Why would that have happened? I’ll tell you why! It’s because as people heard the truth; as people became accountable in community and shared in each other’s lives; as people worshiped God and saw Him for Who He is; and as people lifted up their hearts in prayer and began to obey what God showed them to do, they became aware of just how holy and awesome God is, and that awareness brought a deep sense of awe.

And that sense of awe went beyond their meetings to the city of Jerusalem. The verse says that “great fear came upon every soul.” I think that includes the others in Jerusalem and in that environment of the fear of God, great power was released. The bible says that many signs and wonders were done through the apostles. It started on the inside as people devoted themselves to the culture the Holy Spirit was building in the church and then it moved to the OUTSIDE as the power of God falls on the church and the city.

Now try for just a moment to take yourself back to Jerusalem in 33 A.D. for a moment. You’re one of those new converts that prays to receive Christ and is baptized on the day of Pentecost. You go to their house churches and study truth. You begin to connect with others who have become believers and you receive encouragement. You see God for Who He is in worship as you celebrate communion together and then you begin to see God work through His apostles as you pray for them. People are being healed. Lives are being changed!

Maybe you turn around 3 or 4 months later and begin to ask yourself, “How did all this happen?” As you think that, you begin to realize that it happened because there were a group of people saved through the power of the Spirit that pursued truth, community, worship, and prayer and God worked. Do you think that you would become even more devoted to doing those things than you had been before? Absolutely you would!

You see, it is the pusuit of these spiritual qualities—these habits, if you will—that that creates the culture of the church, but it is the CONFIRMATION of the power of the Spirit which I believe caused these people to deeply internalize what they had begin doing and living them out. It works like this: Devotion releases power and that release of God’s power causes His people to really internalize that culture He is producing in them.

ILL

Pic - Discipleship pic

I saw it work in my own life. I was challenged back in 2009 to start something called “life on life discipleship.” Doug Rogers started talking to me about this and, quite honestly, when I heard about it I was a little underwhelmed. Don’t get me wrong, I knew that new believers and even older believers needed to grow in their faith and I also knew that they would not do that alone. My answer for them, however, was primarily to come to church and go to Sunday School.

Now there was nothing wrong with those answers, but I knew that they were not really getting the job done. Something else was needed. I wasn’t sure that what Doug was telling me would even work, but I thought it was worth a try, so I thought I would just jump in.

I am not lying to you when I tell you that the same week, maybe even the same day I talked to Doug about it, I got a phone message from someone. This person had visited our church and wanted to talk, so I thought to myself, “Great! My first victim!” We set up a meeting and I shared the gospel. He prayed to receive Christ and I invited him into discipleship. What happened then truly changed my life! I saw God just do an amazing work in the life of this guy and in my own heart. Before, life-on-life discipleship was just another way to try. When I saw God’s power at work as we simply met and engaged around Scripture, I internalized discipleship. Now I was hooked! There may come a day when I am too old and decrepit to pastor a church, but I will disciple until my dentures fall out! Why? Because I’ve seen God’s power released and it has built inside of me a passion for discipleship.

That’s what happens in the growth of the church: Growth begins with devotion to truth, community, worship, and prayer. That devotion brings deep reverence for God and a release of His power. Then comes the third stage. There is devotion and power and then there is:

D3 – INITIATIVE

The third stage of real growth is initiative.

EXP

When you get right down to it, there are two primary ways of “doing church.” There is the church in which the leadership take the initiative. In that church, it is the leaders who set up all the activities, plans them out, then calls for people to get involved. They make all the arrangements and then hope that people feel sorry for him enough to actually show up. In this scenario, people aren’t very motivated and often feel under-utilized and unappreciated.

The other way to “do church,” depends on people to take the initiative. The leadership shares the vision, trains and equips the people, then allows them to implement that vision. Because they are taking the initiative, people are much more motivated and, instead of feeling a lack of challenge, are energized by the challenges they face and overcome. Personal initiative happens when the people have so internalized the culture that they do the ministry on their own.

Acts 2:43–44 NKJV

Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common,

Acts 2:43–45 NKJV

Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.

Acts

I think I see that in this passage. This church goes from leadership initiative (i.e. Peter and the Apostles setting the entire agenda in Chapters 1 and 2 of Acts, to personal initiative here at the end of chapter 2. Just look at the text: After it says in v 43 that great fear fell on all the people and many signs and wonders were done . . . you get the sense that something really happens in the hearts of the people. I think they internalize the message and the culture of the church. I say that because of what then next few verses say. Look at v 44: Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.

I think I see that in this passage. This church goes from leadership initiative (i.e. Peter and the Apostles setting the entire agenda in Chapters 1 and 2 of Acts, to personal initiative here at the end of chapter 2. Just look at the text: After it says in v 43 that great fear fell on all the people and many signs and wonders were done . . . you get the sense that something really happens in the hearts of the people. I think they internalize the message and the culture of the church. I say that because of what then next few verses say. Look at v 44: Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.

That’s a mouthful!! I think it was a spontaneous thing that happened. I don’t think the people walked into the Sanctuary one Sunday and saw banners everywhere announcing a “Sell all your stuff” campaign. You do not read anywhere that there was some kind of encouragement from the Apostles to do this. There was no high pressure sales pitch, they just did.

The question is, “Why?” What would possibly make a group of people spontaneously start selling all their lands and possessions to give to others? I believe it was because they had internalized the Biblical culture of the church to the point that they began to take the initiative themselves.

ILL

I’ve heard it illustrated like this: The difference between leadership initiative and personal initiative is like the difference between a balloon filled with air and a balloon filled with helium. Where leadership has to take the initiative the people are like the balloons filled with air and the leader’s job is to try to keep the balloon up. So we have to keep hitting you when you come.

We’ll tell you “stop doing that” (hit the balloon); Get busy with this (hit the balloon); Serve in the nursery (hit the balloon); Go on a mission trip (hit the balloon); Tithe (hit the balloon); Give to faith missions (hit the balloon). That’s a leadership initiative church.

But in a personal initiative church, the people have internalized the culture and they are self-motivated. There is this inward passion to serve. They are like a balloon filled with helium. Because they are devoted to truth, community, worship, and prayer and because they have seen the release of God’s power and seen Him bringing life change, they don’t need to be challenged. They take the initiative. And I must tell you: This is a huge turning point for any church.

APP

You see, it is the lack of initiative which hinders the growth of the church, so that brings me to this question: How can a church experience this shift from leadership to personal initiative? Well, if we do that, there are some trades we must make.

Trade religion for personal devotion.

First, we must trade religion for personal devotion. What I mean is that instead of having a “check-the-box” church attendance, we must be personally devoted to the practice of truth, the pursuit of community, a passion for worship, and the priority of prayer. These things have to be pursued with great intention and passion. So are you? Are you personally practicing truth? Are you engaged in a life group or a d-group or life-on-life discipleship? Are you committed to growing in worship so that in greater and greater ways your heart connects with God’s heart? And are you prioritizing prayer in your life?

Trade satisfied mediocrity for spiritual power.

Second, we must trade satisfied mediocrity for spiritual power. When people are not deeply engaged with God, they will settle for mediocre efforts. They will be satisfied if the crowd is big enough without even asking about whether any in the crowd experienced life change.

Trade limited strategy for internalized culture.

Third, we must limited strategy for internalized culture. Your staff can sit around and plan all kinds of activities for all of us to be involved in, but none of them will achieve the life change we’re looking for because it will not come through strategy. It will come when people have so internalized the culture and experienced God’s power that they step out and act. So what would that look like for you? What would you do if you knew God was calling you to do it and you were so convinced of His power that you could not fail?

TRANS

And I want you to know that there is a powerful payoff for this kind of church. You see, not only does Devotion bring power and power internalize culture and culture produce intiative, but then initiative promotes:

D4 – MULTIPLICATION

The fourth stage of growth is multiplication.

EXP

Acts 2:46 NKJV

So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart,

Growth happens in this church! There is a POWERFUL IMPACT, first of all on the believers themselves. V46 says, So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God . . . I love this description of the church. You see so many good things in it. You see faithfulness—It says they were continuing daily. You see unity—they were continuing daily with one accord. You see community—they were breaking bread from house to house. You see joy—they ate their food with gladness. You see transparency—they had simplicity of heart. You see glory for God—they were praising God.

Acts 2:47 NKJV

praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

And this impact went beyond the church to the people in the city. It says that they had favor with all the people. What does that mean? I think it means that they had influence. If you had taken a survey in Jerusalem among the average people, you would have found that people genuinely admired the church. This meant that there was an open opportunity to talk about Jesus.

And because of the powerful impact and the opportunity that it brought, there was DIVINE MULTIPLICATION. It says that the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. By the way, when our staff was describing the culture we wanted to see in Peace church, there were not four but five: Yes, there was truth, community, worship, and prayer, but the fifth one was MULTIPLICATION. What we didn’t realize when we said it, though, was that Multiplication was not just a fifth quality we added TO truth, community, worship and prayer, it was actually the RESULT of a church that has genuinely internalized truth, community, worship, and prayer.

APP

So let me kind of draw this all together with some closing applications then give you a living picture of this message in action.

All of this begins with obedience.

First, all of this begins with obedience. Jesus told us to go and make disciples (in essence—to multiply) and, faced with that command, we only have one question to answer: Will we obey Him or will we disobey Him.

We must adopt the four habits that lead to growth. Truth, community, worship, prayer

Second, if we choose to obey, in order to multiply, we just adopt the four habits that lead to it. We must devote ourselves to Scripture, to deep community, to genuine worship, and to earnest prayer.

Out of our pursuit of these four habits will arise a release of the Spirit’s power that will cause us to internalize those habits and make them our own.

Third, out of that commitment I believe will arise a release of the Spirit’s power that will cause these five characteristics—this culture, if you will—to be internalized.

When these commitments are internalized, we will begin to take the initiative.

Fourth, when these commitments are internalized, we will begin to take the initiative and reach out with or without a program or even when there is no pastor looking over our shoulder.

The result of all this will be multiplication.

Finally, when we all take that kind of initiative, we will begin to see God adding to the church those whom He will be saving. We will see life change through Christ-centered relationships

VIS – Randy’s sto -

Pic - Pool

His name is Randy. He grew up in Chicago. Because he was raised primarily by his mom, he had a lot of freedom in his later teens. For him that meant going to the pool hall that was open for 24 hours. At a young age, he began to play people for money. It started with one dollar bets at age 16 and the size of the bets grew to hundreds of dollars by the time he was 20. He was the best player in that pool hall and people would drive far distances to play him.

As you can imagine, his youth and the environment of that pool hall got him into a lot of immoral dishonest things. Through it all, he knew that there was more to life than a pool stick and an eight ball. Then he met a girl at Illinois State University. She shared Christ with him and, in 1993, he became a Christ follower. He finished his degree in business and after a 3-year stint of selling consulting services, God opened the door for him to go to Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. There he got his M.Div and became the associate pastor of the third church plant of Harvest Bible Chapel, where he pastored for about 10 years. On the side, he started a business refurbishing coin operated pool tables in his garage.

Why am I telling you this story? It’s because Randy is a living picture of someone who has taken initiative. You see, though he is no longer on staff as a pastor, he has taken his expertise at playing pool, and turned it into a ministry. Here’s the way he describes it:

I believe pool can be an amazing tool to introduce people to Christ and foster great fellowship/community. In my junior high years, I would have loved to have had someone teach me how to play pool, teach me the Scriptures and show me an example of Christ. Therefore, God has placed this vision in my heart to offer a pool after school program that would help kids learn how to play competitive pool, have a place where they belong, have a place where they are loved, and have a place where they can believe.

In a day in age where kids are consumed with their media devices, pool gets them using their hand-eye coordination, socialize in person, be in a positive environment, positive music, and learn to play competitively. He said that it is amazing the conversations you can have while you are playing the game of pool.

And maybe right now you’re saying, “Well, that’s great and all, but that’s in Chicago.” Well, it WAS in Chicago, true, but now Randy and his family live in Elm City and he’s been attending church with us for the last few weeks. Here’s a guy who has internalized the mission and is now taking the initiative to reach out. I LOVE IT! Look we can do programs here and we will continue to do the ones that make sense and match our mission and vision, but the greatest success will not come through our programs, but as our people internalize the vision and begin to take the initiative to reach this world. That’s true because success really is not top down, it is bottom up.