Getting on the Lord's Agenda
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Each one of us has our own agenda
One is in sports
One computer games
Each of us has our own
When you know a person’s agenda, you can discern what he thinks is important, what values dominate his direction or what reservations hinder his development
Each church has its own agenda
When I asked one church about not having a projector, they said and we don’t have a band either
Often the agenda is written from culture and conditioning rather than from faith and guidance by the Holy Spirit
How do we get ourselves and our churches on God’s agenda
Where do you me, or us, to be or do tomorrow, this month, next year or five years from now
The early church had difficult time getting on God’s agenda
you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in Judea, and Samaria and to the ends of the earth
They believed the Churches agenda was limited to the conversion of Jews in Jerusalem
God speaks to Peter and Cornelius
God speaks to Peter and Cornelius
God had already been speaking to peter
He was staying the house of a tanner which was forbidden to associate with those who worked with dead animals
Peter stayed in Joppa for some time with a tanner named Simon.
Peter was on the roof for his devotions
While there he became hungry
A trance overcame him and he saw a sheet come down with all kinds of unclean animals
God said kill and eat
Then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.”
Peter said he had never done that
God replied, What God has cleansed, you must not call common
God had in mind not the foods Peter should eat but the people he should love
Cornelius had another vision the day before and was told to send for Peter.
He was a soldier but had become a Jewish believer and was a very generous man.
Peter was in a town about thirty miles away
that would be about like winchester and richmond
Getting on God’s agenda
Getting on God’s agenda
Three men knock on the door as the vision end
While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Simon, three men are looking for you.
So get up and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them.”
Peter’s emerging emancipation from legalism is indicated by his willingness to eat with the Gentile messengers and lodge them overnight.
Cornelius was filled with gratitude and bowed down before Peter
Peter told him to stand, he had come to witness about the one who alone was worthy of worship
A sure sign that we are on the Lord’s agenda is our willingness to listen to people in order to communicate in contextual empathy
He had opened his heart and mind to the Lord’s new agenda
Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism
God’s agenda got results
God’s agenda got results
While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message.
The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles.
For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God. Then Peter said,
“Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.”
So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked Peter to stay with them for a few days.
The leaders of the church had a closed agenda
The apostles and the brothers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God.
So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him
and said, “You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them.”
Our agenda must be consistent with the Lord’s revealed agenda for his people
He has called us to be saints holy, set-apart people belonging to Him
Our ultimate purpose is to know,love, and obey him
He has loved us to make us lovers of men
We are called into ministry, ordain b the Spirit to be witness. People, all races and types of persons, are priority on his agenda
Our agenda must be based on our present experience with the Lord, not our past
Peter had a new agenda based on what God revealed
The Lord’s response is never say never
I will never move, change my feelings, alter my directions, or accept certain people
What would be in the sheet God let down in front of us
all the people you dislike, and despise, and do not and cannot, and will not love,
People will say “The one thing I will never do is_____or that is the last thing I would be willing to do.
Usually that is the first thing we are asked to do