WHAT GOING WITH GOD LOOKS LIKE.

Acts 17:26 NKJV

26 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings,

By Charles Trepany USA TODAYPosted May 27, 2020 at 11:19 AM

The trio capped off their statement with a Bible quote from Romans about how nothing can separate people from God’s love, saying that they remain “thankful and grateful” to God for their band, their music and their relationships.

Last Friday, singer Jon Steingard posted a lengthy declaration to Instagram about how he no longer believes in God and shares how he came to that conclusion.

“After growing up in a Christian home, being a pastor’s kid, playing and singing in a Christian band, and having the word ‘Christian’ in front of most of the things in my life - I am now finding that I no longer believe in God,” Steingard writes.

The singer continues to describe how his newfound belief did not occur suddenly, but rather “has been several years in the making.” He says he’s sharing his beliefs to be honest with his fans.

Growing up, the Church was integral to his life and identity, Steingard writes. But the singer still found himself uncomfortable with certain practices.

“Praying in public always felt like some kind of weird performance art,” he says. “Emotional cries such as ‘Holy Spirit come fill this place’ always felt clunky and awkward leaving my lips. A youth conference I attended encouraged every teen to sign a pledge that they would ‘date Jesus’ for a year. It felt manipulative and unsettling to me. I didn’t sign it.”

Nevertheless, Steingard said he suppressed his doubts and joined Hawk Nelson when he was 20. At the time, Hawk Nelson’s music was not overtly religious, but became more Christian over time.

“To be fair, I was one of the loudest voices pushing for that shift, because I believed it would lead to more success in the Christian music world,” Steingard adds. “Even through this shift, there were still many things about Christian culture that made me uncomfortable. In fact, the list was growing.”

When Steingard consulted the Bible for answers to his questions, he says he became more confused. Steingard’s doubt in the Bible is what ultimately led him to stop believing in God, a thought that sent him “into a tailspin.”

The members of Hawk Nelson are speaking out after the Christian rock band’s lead singer, Jon Steingard, announced he no longer believes in God.

In a joint statement to USA TODAY on Tuesday, Steingard’s bandmates

“God is still FOR Jon & he still matters,” they add. “Why? Because that truth doesn’t change just because we question it.”

If you listen to Jon’s story, you can hear the danger of just being about the crowd. First, he was born into the Christian Crowd. Folks being “born” in a church, being born into a churched family, does not make you a Christian any more than if you were born in a garage you’d become a car or a Autobot Transformer. That’s not how it works.

One must be born of the Holy Spirit or born again as Jesus said in John 3:3. If you have not experienced the Holy Spirit, no amount of moralizing, no amount of crying at a Christian Concert, no matter how many times you raise your hands and feel a warm tingling, that will not make you a Christian.

And you know what, God designed the Christian faith to be passed on by personal interaction that points people to Jesus and then by faith you can experience the Holy Spirit. Today’s passage will cover a number of things that Jon mentioned. It will cover that the Bible is not some magic book that you just open up and understand everything. It covers that the Lord calls people to share and explain the message. It will cover that some things are hard to understand and it is foolish to just look at it once and not get help to understand it. Even Peter, the Apostle admitted he had difficulty with what the Holy Spirit said.

2 Peter 3:16 NLT

16 speaking of these things in all of his letters. Some of his comments are hard to understand, and those who are ignorant and unstable have twisted his letters to mean something quite different, just as they do with other parts of Scripture. And this will result in their destruction.

“Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.”

Gilbert K. Chesterton

Acts 8:26–40 NASB95

26 But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, “Get up and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a desert road.) 27 So he got up and went; and there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure; and he had come to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and he was returning and sitting in his chariot, and was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29 Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go up and join this chariot.” 30 Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 And he said, “Well, how could I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 Now the passage of Scripture which he was reading was this: “He was led as a sheep to slaughter; And as a lamb before its shearer is silent, So He does not open His mouth. 33 “In humiliation His judgment was taken away; Who will relate His generation? For His life is removed from the earth.” 34 The eunuch answered Philip and said, “Please tell me, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or of someone else?” 35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture he preached Jesus to him. 36 As they went along the road they came to some water; and the eunuch said, “Look! Water! What prevents me from being baptized?” 37 And Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” 38 And he ordered the chariot to stop; and they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch, and he baptized him. 39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; and the eunuch no longer saw him, but went on his way rejoicing. 40 But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he kept preaching the gospel to all the cities until he came to Caesarea.

LESSONS FROM PHILIP AND THE ETHIOPIAN EUNUCH:

CROWDS CAN DISTRACT YOU FROM KINGDOM SUCCESS. (V26-27)

We saw with Joh Steingard that by his own description that he had always been in the crowd and about the crowd. In fact, he pushed his band to do more Christian music as a marketing tactic. Now the Ethiopian had traveled from far off. He came to the big worship. He listened to the preaching to the crowd. But he left with some questions that could not be answered in the crowd. Philip had been part of preaching to the crowd

THE CHARIOT REMINDS US THAT WE MUST MOVE TOWARDS THE LOST. (V29-30)

LISTENING TO PERSON ALLOWS US TO START A MEANINGFUL CONVERSATION.

A thrash metal drummer says he visited hell during a coronavirus-induced coma — and Satan wasn’t as cool as he thought.

Will Carroll, of the band Death Angel, was comatose at the California Pacific Medical Center for two weeks in March after catching the virus on a European tour earlier that month, according to the San Francisco Chronicle’s Datebook.

During that time, Carroll, 47, said he had disturbing dreams of visiting the afterlife.

There, the devil — a woman in this case — punished him for the deadly sin of sloth and turned him into a “Jabba the Hutt-like-monster” who vomited blood until he had a heart attack, the outlet reported last week.

For most of his time under and on a ventilator, Carroll was in critical condition and came close to dying, doctors told the outlet.

“He still was near the limits of what we could do with our supportive care, and we were very worried about him,” said Dr. George Horng, a pulmonologist.

“He wasn’t getting worse, but if he were to get worse, there wasn’t much more that we could have done.”

The Bay Area rocker’s near death-experience prompted him to make some big life changes.

In an effort to be healthier, he said he’s quitting hard alcohol and bong rips, narrowing his substance use to the occasional hard cider and marijuana edible.

As for his faith, Carroll said he now believes in a higher power — and feels prayers from his family and friends helped him pull through.

“As far as for my personal life and my experience of what I went through, I don’t think Satan’s quite as cool as I used to.”

You think he might be able to have a spiritual conversation.

WE NEED TO MAKE A BEELINE TO CHRIST WHEN SHARING. (V35)

I’m going to challenge all of you here today. I want you to think about Philip, the Holy Spirit guiding him. He walked with God and knew God. But he did not understand the OT until recently himself. Listen to the Road to Emmaus:

Luke 24:26–27 NASB95

“Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.

Now, I want all of you to think of a verse in the OLD TESTAMENT that said Jesus would be the living God, born of a Virgin, who would die on the cross, take your place so God’s judgment did not have to fall on you, and rise again on the third day. I want all of you to think really hard about that. Now some of you have a verse or two in mind. I want to go back and have you think about that verse. If you did not have the New Testament, would all the theological messaging jump out at you?

No it wouldn’t. And by the way that’s why you need small groups. Even with Covid Quarantine, you need to actively get together. This week I am going to be challenging your small groups to seek to meet off campus, using a hybrid of zoom etc… to get this down. You need to interact. you need to discuss. things. It’s how God grows your understanding.

Now you may say, pastor, people don’t want to talk about God. Yeah, I know, people don’t want to talk about politics or faith… Right, I mean look at the news this week, its all about space rockets, pulling kittens out of trees, and how to volunteer at your local Good Will store. No. It’s all about politics and when it comes down to it, issues of faith and morality. What do we really believe matters and how do we do the good we want to do.

Think about how easy it can be to move a conversation to Jesus.

Boy this week has been tough. We’ve seen great tragedy and injustice. George Floyds murder was horrible. The anger over injustice is very understandable. But the way some people have acted by stealing and looting is horrible as well.

You can ask them what they think the answer would be. And they will give a bunch a different answers. Some will be good answers. And you can listen.

But, you can say, “You know Jesus gave a straightforward answer, you and I need to love God with all our hearts and love our neighbor as yourself.” If everyone did that, then the officer would not have treated George that way. People would not be prejudice. People wouldn’t steal, but help each other out.

We say we want to do that, but only Jesus did that perfectly. We need to be like Him, we need to have our hearts conquered. Can I share with you how Jesus can do that in your heart? You can point them to John 3:16, Romans 3:23, 6:23, John 14:6, 2 Cor. 5:17, Rev. 3:20. Jesus will come into your heart and change you.

If you want to grow in Christ and make an impact for the Kingdom

WE NEED TO ACTIVELY FOLLOW THE COMMANDS AND CALL OF CHRIST. (V36)

Don’t be shy in calling people to follow Jesus. Jon Steingard went the the motions, without belief. But, belief leads you to go with God. Philip followed God, not the crowds. he reached people and impacted the world for Christ.