Week Five: the Character and Power of the Church
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NO LIMITS Building more than ourselves Celebration Church Pastors Bryan McDevitt & Tom Bartlett Daily Devotionals Week 5 Week Five: The character and power of the church. WEEK FIVE DAY 1 WORD About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God come in and say to him, “Cornelius.” And he stared at him in terror and said, “What is it, Lord?” And he said to him, “Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God.” Acts 10:3-4 (ESV) Today’s encouraging word: Over the years I’ve encountered some amazing stories about people who came to know the Lord. Growing up in a strong missionary-minded church, our church would annually would host a mission’s conference with speakers each night and presentations from dozens of ministries and missionaries from around the world. Statements such as this one by Isobel Kuhn would stir my heart, “I believe that in each generation God has called enough men and women to evangelize all the yet unreached tribes of the earth. It is not God who does not call. It is man who will not respond!” (Missionary to China and Thailand). My heart would be stirred and challenged to be that man to go. Another inspirational story I recall was from a man who was bringing the gospel to the furthest reaches of the globe, to people groups with no gospel witness. He would go into these remote places, befriend them, learn their language, and then share the Good News of Jesus. He one such group of the news that the Creator of all loves every person on the planet and that because of sin, man was separated from this great Creator, but the Creator made a way for every person to know Him and live with Him forever. He sent His own Son to die in our place. The missionary said that after sharing all this information, the leader of the tribe told him that his tribe had followed and worshipped the great Creator for a long time, they simply did not know His name or what He had done for them. The missionary told them that the name of the Creator is Jehovah, and His Son, our Savior is Jesus. The people readily accepted the love of God and now had the name of God and the Good News of salvation from God through His Son Jesus. These people, though not educated by modern standards were smarter than most. The Bible states, “The fool has said in his heart there is no God.” (Psalm 14:1). And that, creation is a witness against those who refuse to believe, (Romans 1:20). These people could clearly see the moon and stars, all of creation, and by deduction know that there must be a creator, and whoever that creator was, they prayed to and worshipped Him. You see, God heard their prayers and sent a missionary to explain more fully who He is. This is much like the passage of Acts 10. As the news of the gospel spread from Jerusalem, the church grew daily. What at first had primarily been a Jewish splinter group, the church was now reaching more and more gentiles. In acts 9 Paul is converted and begins his preparation to be the apostle to the Gentiles through a 3-year study of the Old Testament in the Arabian desert. It’s there that he uncovers Jesus all over the Old Testament and is prepared to preach Jesus to the Gentile world. Peter will be the apostle to the Jews primarily but he also needed some preparation to complete his training and understanding of the gospel for all people. Paul expresses these roles in Galatians, “For the same God who worked through Peter as the apostle to the Jews also worked through me as the apostle to the Gentiles.” Galatians 2:8 (NLT). Peter would be used to help redirect the Jews back to the purposes God chose them for, you see the Jews were to be a “light to the nations” (Isaiah 49:6) to help the world see and know God. Unfortunately, over time they simply kept the knowledge of a relationship with the Creator to themselves. As Paul is preparing for ministry after his conversion in Acts 9, in Acts 10 we see an encounter between a Gentile Roman soldier, an angel of God, and Peter. An interesting fact occurs here in this passage of Acts 10. For years I’ve heard preachers say, “the only prayer God will hear if you’re not a believer is a prayer for salvation.” While I understand what preachers are saying, this scripture clearly refutes that notion since Cornelius’ prayers reached the ears of God. Cornelius, a very religious man prayed to God often, and his prayers were reflective of his heart. The Bible says that he was generous and helped those in need and that his whole household had this atmosphere of devotion and care. You might say he was a better Jew than many Jews living at that time, that he understood and lived the admonition of Micah when he wrote, He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8 (ESV). It was this attitude and a sincere pursuit of God that caused God to visit Cornelius in a vision. Now it’s important to state here that the work of the church is mandated by the world to “go and make disciples of all nations”, but while we are going, God is already at work in ways we cannot see. It’s also important to note that sincere faith and giving to the poor are not enough, Cornelius needed and encounter with the truth of who Jesus is. God was working out a plan to send help to this man who needed to know about Jesus. So, the reality remains whether you go to your neighbor or a foreign land, God is already at work in the lives of people you will encounter. You may not know it, but He is. Our job is not to make converts, that’s the job of the Holy Spirit. Our job is to make disciples. Those who respond in favor of the gospel then become our responsibility to help them grow and become reproducing followers of Jesus also. Oh, for people in our church to have the missionary fervor that once was prevalent in our country. Today, South Korea is the largest missionary sending country in the world. Today, missions are slowing down in the US as we become a more pagan and godless society. As the torch is burning low here, would you pray that God would raise up men like C.T. Studd again who once said, "Some wish to live within the sound of Church or Chapel bell; I want to run a Rescue Shop within a yard of hell." PRAYER Lord, place a fire within me Lord, one that burns for those who need you. Jesus help me to be as concerned for those in need physical and spiritual as Cornelius was and to do as You would for them. In Jesus’ name A-men. WORSHIP – Honor God today by telling someone about the love of God. Today’s suggested reading: • NeheMiah 11:1-21 WEEK FIVE DAY 2 WORD Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.” This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven. Acts 10:13b-16 (ESV) Today’s encouraging word: I once flew to Las Vegas, (or as my dad would say, “Lost Wages”), to do a wedding for my younger brother. He lives there and works in show business. One of my life-long friends had flown out there too, to attend the wedding. On the Saturday after the wedding, we decided to attend a church locally. From the hotel we were staying in, we could see no less than 4 store-front churches in a shopping complex. Not knowing which one to attend, we randomly picked one, (probably the closest) and headed out to attend their service. Our experience left a lasting impression on the both of us, and not a good one. There was no greeting at the door, no greeting inside the building where about 50 or so people had gathered leaving us to feel less than welcomed. We found a place to sit and participated in the songs. During a welcome time, no one initiated talking to us as it seemed that they tried to avoid us, although we reached out to welcome those around us. We left with a feeling of emptiness and sadness for that body of believers. Now, I do not know what that church may have been facing as a congregation, but we got the message loud and clear, NO OUTSIDERS HERE! If someone needed hope, while we may have not known where to send them, we now knew where not to send them. Is that how the church is supposed to be? Are only certain people with the right look, or right vibe welcome? Not at all. Paul teaches that the church is a family, we didn’t get that impression in that church body on that day.