Confidence Boost

Intro: Confidence Boost

When faced with conflict, we often times have two default reaction:

FIGHT and FLIGHT

Last week Geoff Bradford talked about Grizzly Bears and how ferocious they can be...

How do you deal with a bear? FIGHT or FLIGHT?

Depends what color they are!

Black Bear: FIGHT mode: If you can’t escape, fight back with whatever you have on hand

Cell phone: Jab the eyes and snout as hard as possible

Brown Bear: FLIGHT mode: Play dead for as long as possible

Feel really bad for those who are color-blind...

Fight and flight vs. Worship and Witness!

2 Part Sermon:

Worship:

Review:

Part I: Fix your eyes on Jesus: Lame beggar is healed in the temple

Part II: Cling to Christ: Peter preaches to the people to repent and believe in Jesus

Part III: Stand on the Cornerstone: The Religious establishment threaten Peter and John to never witness about Jesus again...

Part IV: Longest miracle story in the Bible: Prayer time

WORSHIP

First thing they say in their prayer...

v.24: “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them

Sovereign=Hallmark theological concept of Reformed Theology

Despotes= Lord (not Lord). Relation of master to slave

Ultimate control over heaven and earth and their lives!

NOT:

SCREAM: God, we’re in deep doo-doo, we’re in over heads, we’re just a bunch of uneducated nobodies here up against our most powerful establishments...

Just this calm and comforting confession: God, who he is, what he’s made...

v.27-28: After quoting Psalm 2,

“27 for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28 to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.”

“Unprecedented joining of all the powerful forces” (NIVAC)

Herod and Pontius Pilate

Secular forces of Rome, religious forces of Judaism

Gentiles and the people of Israel

Every body and their mom (except… Mary) ganged up against God’s anointed one, Jesus...

Why?? v.28: TO DO WHATEVER YOUR HAND AND YOUR PLAN HAD PREDESTINED TO TAKE PLACE.

Predestined: A word not in the Bible a whole lot...

Ephesians 1:5: He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will

Something determined or decided beforehand.

While the forces of humanity attacked Jesus from every side, the early church confidently confessed: Your plan had predestined this all to take place...

Why is this so comforting?

Worship Invites us to see God’s Hand within the Chaos

How do you understand God within Conflict?

Fight: Angry at God, blame God

I’ve been angry at God… It’s not a good place to be, believe me.

Flight: Leave him, ignore him, doubt his sovereignty, doubt his goodness, doubt his existence...

Rather than fight or flight, consider an alternative response: worship

God knew 2020 was going to happen.

He knew the hurt you may be feeling right now...

If you feel like the world is crumbling from beneath you, just know that Jesus will be your cornerstone. That you can fix your eyes on him, and cling to him, and stand on him as your firm rock...

Second response:

Part II: Witness

Request to be Bold and to Serve

v.29: “Look upon their threats” NIV “Consider their threats”

Call back to v. 18: So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.

NOT

“Rebuke their threats”

“Judge their threats”

“Condemn their threats”

“Protect us from their threats!”

“Remove their threats”

THAT’S WHAT I WOULD BE PRAYING!

Just look upon the threats, consider them so that:

v.29b: speak with ‘great boldness’

Neutral about the threats but passionate about their response.

How is this practical?

How do you pray when we face opposition, or challenges, or you’re dealing with conflict with someone else? We talked about how worship helps us focus on God through conflict. Now the question is, how do we deal with other people?

Fight:

“Lord, change their hearts, make them see their faults...”

“Lord, give me the ability to fight back...”

Flight:

“Lord, protect me from this next challenge...”

“Lord, take this pain away from me...”

Text’s Stance:

"Lord, take a look at how their opposition helps us with the Great Commission.”

“Lord, consider how their intimidation can help us talk about our salvation.”

“Lord, could you study their resistance so that we can grow in our resolve?

“Lord, could you consider their demands so we can grow in your commands?

I find this to be the most remarkable part of this passage. There’s no hint of revenge or anger towards the leadership. It’s just neutral.

It goes against the grain… Because we want to point the finger and play the blame game. We want the enemy to have to pay! Or, out of fear, we retreat we loose all resolve to do anything.

We’re not very good at neutral, are we??

Like, imagine if you faced todays challenges with complete neutrality about your challenges?

God allowed it, so how can I grow from this?

God permitted this to happen, so how can be a better witness?

This is NOT our default…

It’s hard to admit we’re wrong.

It’s hard to give up power within a relationship.

It’s hard to give up control, it’s hard to admit that our Great God does have complete control—that nothing is a surprise to him...

It’s easier to blame others.

It’s easier to doubt him than face the skeletons in our closet.

It’s easier to complain, point the finger, play the blame game...

It’s easier to take the phone and rather than stab a bear on the snout, we use it to hurt other people online who were equally made in God’s image...

They early church knew that this isn’t a bear fight.

Why? Because they have the LION OF JUDAH on their SIDE!

THE LAMB OF GOD took on the sins of the world so that the LION OF JUDAH WOULD CONTINUE TO FIGHT ON OUR BEHALF!

We can take that neutral response because we already have that the victory in Jesus!

AGAIN: Neutral towards people but bold in witness...

Almighty God orchestrated what happened to Jesus and he continued to orchestrate what happened to Peter and John. He continues to orchestrate what’s happening in the church today… Despite our great challenges...

Use the challenges ahead as ways to witness. NOT TO FIGHT OR FLIGHT, but witness about Jesus.

And just one quick point I want to make about boldness:

What does boldness look life for us today?

Do we set up camp in Crossroads and boldly preach about how consumerism is not the real meaning of Christmas?

Do we attend are children’s baseball games with John 3:16 signs? Unless you child’s last name was John and his Jersey number was 316, you’re gunna come across a bit awkward!

Boldness means living confidently with an Almighty God and that you’re unashamed to talk about Jesus. Jesus becomes part of your vocabulary and testimony...

Just to wrap up:

Worship frames our battles, it contextualizes them within God’s sovereignty.

We can also use them to grow in our witness:

Passive about the threats, passionate to witness!

Would that define how you operate within conflict?

If not, how could you grow in this? How can you grow towards this Kingdom mindset?

And don’t forget… God is with you every step of the way. Jesus promised to be there every step of the way.

I love that this passage end with God answering their prayer.

Place was shaking

Filled with the Holy Spirit

Speaking the Word of God with boldness.

God proved his sovereignty and answered their prayer right on the spot!