SPEAKER_01: Hello everyone, I'm Dr.
SPEAKER_01: Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_01: I want to welcome you to the Road Church Podcast.
SPEAKER_01: Each week we go into God's Word.
SPEAKER_01: We teach chapter by chapter and verse by verse.
SPEAKER_01: And we are here to build the Kingdom of God revolution through empowering people to change the world.
SPEAKER_01: So we pray this will minister to you at your heart level and change your life.
SPEAKER_01: Today, be encouraged by our guest speaker.
SPEAKER_00: Steve asked me if I'd preach on uh Acts chapter 4.
SPEAKER_00: So, by the way, just to kind of set the stage here, it's amazing how the incredible things that happened after Jesus was crucified and after he rose.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, it's amazing when you look at Acts chapter 1, Acts chapter 2, Acts chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: In Acts chapter 2, the Holy Spirit is poured out.
SPEAKER_00: Now, under the old covenant, they didn't have the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit came upon prophets, priests, and kings, but the normal believer didn't have access to the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit dwelt in the Holy of Holies, but the amazing thing, one of the things why the new covenant is so much better than the old covenant is we got the Holy Spirit when we got Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And so when Jesus, when all these people came streaming into the kingdom, it was an incredible thing because all of a sudden the church was birthed, but it wasn't birthed by the ideas of man, it was birthed by the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes we forget that.
SPEAKER_00: We forget about the power of the Holy Spirit, how if it hadn't been for the power of the Holy Spirit, there wouldn't have been any church.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
SPEAKER_00: And uh it's amazing how in such a short time people were added daily.
SPEAKER_00: They met from house to house, they broke bread.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the incredible thing: they actually loved and cared for each other so much that they brought their goods and anybody that had need was taken care of.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I heard this atheist say, well, that was communism.
SPEAKER_00: I thought, no, that's not communism.
SPEAKER_00: Communism is forcing people, taking money away, keeping it primarily for yourself, and giving a little to the people.
SPEAKER_00: That's communism.
SPEAKER_00: That's not Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: Christianity is a movement of the heart.
SPEAKER_00: And so when you understand, when we understand that, we understand that we have access to the greatest power on earth.
SPEAKER_00: We have the ability to literally know each other through Jesus Christ and become brothers and sisters in Christ, the closest fellowship we can have with anybody.
SPEAKER_00: And so he breaks down the barriers and makes it possible.
SPEAKER_00: So everything's going great.
SPEAKER_00: There's people added to the kingdom every day, God's moving, there's signs, wonders, miracles, all kinds of things are happening, and all of a sudden, all hell breaks loose.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 4.
SPEAKER_00: Now, as they spoke to the people, the priest, the captain of the temple, the Sadducees came upon them, being greatly disturbed that they taught the people that preached in Jesus the resurrection of the dead.
SPEAKER_00: Now, it's interesting, the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection of the dead.
SPEAKER_00: It actually says that in Matthew 12, but they didn't believe in the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: They were very politically oriented.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, pretty much they did what the government said.
SPEAKER_00: They kind of went along with the government, they were very politically involved.
SPEAKER_00: And as the Roman government fell, they kind of disappeared.
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of people say, well, that's why you said that they were sad, you see, because they didn't believe in the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't believe in the resurrection, you're gonna be sad.
SPEAKER_00: Because this is not all there is to life, folks.
SPEAKER_00: We've got a heavenly father that we're gonna spend eternity with.
SPEAKER_00: We've got loved ones who have gone before us.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, think about what awaits us, you know?
SPEAKER_00: And some it's a little shorter than others.
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, the point is that we've got a tremendous, tremendous inheritance.
SPEAKER_00: Without that inheritance, I don't think any of us would have hope.
SPEAKER_00: But we all have hope, no matter where we are in life.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the Lord spoke to me actually driving in that in this first service there was going to be somebody here, and you were so discouraged and so upset that it's a miracle you're here today.
SPEAKER_00: I want to tell you, God saw you coming here.
SPEAKER_00: He appreciated the fact that you persevered through your depression and through what you were going through, and you came here today, and he's meeting you.
SPEAKER_00: He's meeting you now, and he's gonna meet you in this service.
SPEAKER_00: So uh important to know that he really cares about us.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we forget that.
SPEAKER_00: So God was moving, and then uh all of a sudden uh there's trouble.
SPEAKER_00: And um anyway, it says being greatly disturbed, they taught the people they preached, you know, the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: They laid hands on them and put them in custody until the next day.
SPEAKER_00: Now think about it, everything's going well, and now all of a sudden they end up in jail.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I spent some time in an Israeli jail, and I gotta tell you, and I'm not going into that story today, but but anyway, I gotta tell you, uh, it was not fun.
SPEAKER_00: 21 days, and I'm not gonna go into it, but but I I've been there, done that, and I don't have the t-shirt though.
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, uh however many of those who heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to be about 5,000.
SPEAKER_00: Now think about that.
SPEAKER_00: The word was preached, and all of a sudden, boom, five thousand come into the kingdom plus.
SPEAKER_00: And it came to pass on the next day, the rulers, the elders, the scribes, as well as Ananias, the high priest, Caiphus, John, Alexander, and as many as were the family of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, By what power or by what name have you done this?
SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't know about you, but if I screwed up as badly as Peter did, if Jesus had told me I was going to deny him three times, and then I literally denied him three times, and then the rooster crowed, I would have thought, there's no way God's gonna use me.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: You know, how many of you have screwed up in life?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, thanks.
SPEAKER_00: The rest of you are lying, so you we've all screwed up, but sometimes the enemy uses that to hold us back.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to know if you've got breath in your lungs, God is gonna use you.
SPEAKER_00: I just want you to know he's got a purpose for you here on earth.
SPEAKER_00: Think about it.
SPEAKER_00: It may be just an encouraging word to someone, it may be just a helping hand, it may be just a smile.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what it is, but God's got you here for a reason.
SPEAKER_00: And so don't give up.
SPEAKER_00: Don't give up.
SPEAKER_00: You say, Well, I'm getting old.
SPEAKER_00: Well, so am I.
SPEAKER_00: But you know what?
SPEAKER_00: You know when Caleb got into the promised land?
SPEAKER_00: He was 85.
SPEAKER_00: That's actually even older than me.
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, what I gotta tell you is that God has a purpose for your life.
SPEAKER_00: Don't let that get away from you.
SPEAKER_00: Because sometimes we just we we think, well, God can't use us.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure Peter went through this, but all of a sudden he gets up, he preaches on the day of Pentecost first, and then he says, and and we pick it up in verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: He says this, he says, and Peter filled with what?
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Say, Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, rulers of the people and elders of Israel, if we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he he was made well, let it be known to all and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by him this man stands here before you whole.
SPEAKER_00: Now the man that was healed, he was he was actually lame from from his mother's womb, it says, and it was an incredible miracle.
SPEAKER_00: He'd always been there at the gate, and all of a sudden Peter and John lift him up and he went leaping and walking and praising God.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this was an incredible miracle, and it really ticked off the religious authorities.
SPEAKER_00: You know, when I first got out of seminary, I mean, uh, yeah, out of seminary, cemetery or seminary, sometimes hard to tell the difference.
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, when I got out, uh, I went to a church in Grand Lake and a little church, and uh, you know, we started, things started going well.
SPEAKER_00: Now I didn't know what I was doing.
SPEAKER_00: I just loved Jesus and and uh didn't learn anything how to pastor in seminary, but I learned the Greek and the Hebrew and all that, and that was wonderful.
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, the point is uh I began to learn and and God was moving.
SPEAKER_00: You know, people were loving each other, God was moving in a supernatural way.
SPEAKER_00: We had we really had a mini, kind of a mini revival.
SPEAKER_00: And then I went on a trip with my wife and and kids.
SPEAKER_00: Uh they were very, very little at that time.
SPEAKER_00: And when I was gone, in my mailbox, I the next when I got back from the trip, uh, we got back, I saw this letter that went out to all the congregation sent by three men in the church who were very unhappy what was happening.
SPEAKER_00: We'd had a miracle healing of a lady, and uh, they were on my doorstep that day and said, you know, we can't have this, we can't have healing in the church.
SPEAKER_00: Oh God, oh God, oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_00: And I would talk about how you have to be born again, and this one guy would come up to me and he'd shake his fist.
SPEAKER_00: He goes, How dare you say I must be born again?
SPEAKER_00: I was brought into the church in my mother's arms, and I've always been a believer.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Look, you got an issue with that.
SPEAKER_00: It's not my issue, you got an issue with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Because he's the one that said, You must be born again.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, and so anyway, all of a sudden, these three men, very religious men, not spiritual men, but religious men, tried to come against me and run me out of town.
SPEAKER_00: In the letter, it analogized me to Jim Jones and Adolf Hitler.
SPEAKER_00: Just because the church is growing, that doesn't mean it's a good thing.
SPEAKER_00: Look at Adolf Hitler, look at Jim Jones.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going, holy smokes.
SPEAKER_00: These are people I sat and they had coffee, I had herb tea.
SPEAKER_00: And uh anyway, the bottom line was I thought I can't believe these people are coming against me.
SPEAKER_00: Well, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: Paul said, we don't wrestle against flesh and blood, do we?
SPEAKER_00: It's principalities.
SPEAKER_00: The enemy wanted me out of there because he he did he knew that there was something coming, and we did.
SPEAKER_00: We had a mini-revival.
SPEAKER_00: We went through some struggles, but but it's interesting.
SPEAKER_00: It's not the drunks or the prostitutes or the you know the sinners.
SPEAKER_00: They're not the ones coming against us.
SPEAKER_00: It's the religious, the religious establishment.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's hard to be around religious people.
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_00: When you're around religious people, you never feel like you read the word enough, you never feel like you pray enough, you never feel like you give enough, you never feel like you're enough.
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_00: You always feel like I fall short, I fall short, I fall short.
SPEAKER_00: That's why I remember complaining to Jesus, because I said, I don't like to be around religious people.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Well, in case you haven't read the scriptures, I I didn't really appreciate it either.
SPEAKER_00: So I guess I can't, I guess we have good company in that in that way.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we love people, but sometimes religion tries to get in the way.
SPEAKER_00: And uh it's the do's and don'ts, and and the heart of compassion gets torn out.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, um Peter was transformed by the power of God.
SPEAKER_00: That was a man who was turned upside down.
SPEAKER_00: Now he went and deeply repented and deep, had you know deep sorrow, but he really cried out to God, and God did a miracle in him.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter was used, you know.
SPEAKER_00: He he was always putting his foot in his mouth, but now he was actually the one that was bold and going forth.
SPEAKER_00: And uh so uh he used the name of Jesus in that he he wasn't afraid to say it's the name of Jesus, who you crucified by him.
SPEAKER_00: This man stands here healed.
SPEAKER_00: That's powerful, that's giving glory to the truth of who did it.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, it's it's interesting.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes people just think using the name of Jesus just works like an incantation.
SPEAKER_00: The sons of Scava tried that in Acts 19.
SPEAKER_00: We won't get into that because you're gonna get to that in a several weeks.
SPEAKER_00: But in Acts 19, the sons of Scava, they were exorcists, Jewish exorcists, and they used the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And the demon said, Paul we know, Jesus we know, but who the heck are you?
SPEAKER_00: And they beat the crap out of them.
SPEAKER_00: Literally, I'm sorry to use that word in church, but that's that's what they did.
SPEAKER_00: And because the name of Jesus, you have to be in relationship with him.
SPEAKER_00: You can't just use the name as an incantation, amen?
SPEAKER_00: And so when he prompts you by the Spirit to pray for somebody and use the name of Jesus, there is tremendous power in that.
SPEAKER_00: There's a release of power that comes not from us but through us.
SPEAKER_00: He's the powerful one.
SPEAKER_00: You know, when I was uh I went to I went to uh seminary back east, and uh there was a man there who took me under his wing, and he was very good friends with the pastor where I was a youth pastor, and he had a healing ministry, and uh it was amazing.
SPEAKER_00: There would be lines that would form uh, you know, after he'd preach, he had an incredible service on Friday night, and he had it at uh the pastor where who I was a youth pastor at that church, he was good friends with him, and there were people had tremendous worship, and then there was a healing line that would go out the door sometimes, and it was very, very powerful.
SPEAKER_00: His name was Richard Weir, he was British, and he would pre-he would preach in that British, and when he prayed for people, his hands would shake.
SPEAKER_00: So he came to me and he said, Hey, I want you to work with me.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I'm here till midnight, and after sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: He said, You you know, these two people who work with you in case somebody falls out in the spirit and and uh and so I'm thinking, oh man.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm sitting up there on the platform and he's finishing, and I just, I mean, this sounds unspiritual, but I just want to run down and jump in my car.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to pray for anybody.
SPEAKER_00: Because I tried to make my hands go like Richard's, and it just didn't work.
SPEAKER_00: And I tried to talk in a more, you know, I couldn't talk in a British accent, but I tried to talk in a deeper voice, so I had more authority.
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, the point was that I felt so insecure, I wanted to run down, jump in my car, and go home and not pray for anybody.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I wanted to say it, you know, the line's coming down, and then okay, this person gets Richard, the next person gets me.
SPEAKER_00: I wanna say, hey man, I'm really sorry.
SPEAKER_00: This Friday you got me.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe next Friday you'll be lucky enough to get Richard, but you got me.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I wanted to apologize.
SPEAKER_00: So, anyway, I don't run it out into my car, but I want to.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm sitting up, and the Lord, and I was a fairly new Christian.
SPEAKER_00: I got saved at 28 and a half, and by now I was about 30.
SPEAKER_00: And so, anyway, the Lord came and he said, What does the scripture say?
SPEAKER_00: Well, I knew enough to say, well, in you know, in Mark 16, it says they'll lay hands on the sick and they'll recover.
SPEAKER_00: He said, That's right.
SPEAKER_00: You lay hands on the sick and leave the recovering to me.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Okay.
SPEAKER_00: And then he showed me a pair of rusty battery cables.
SPEAKER_00: I go, rusty battery cables?
SPEAKER_00: Well, let's face it, none of us are perfect conductors of his power.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're driving along and somebody's battery's dead, you reach down in your trunk and you pull out this rusty pair of battery cables, you hook it up to your live battery and his dead battery, and all of a sudden, boom, boom, boom.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't go, Wow, what an incredible pair of battery cables, man.
SPEAKER_00: Uh-uh.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: He's not gonna say that.
SPEAKER_00: Because it's not the battery cables, that's not, it's, that's not where the power is, amen.
SPEAKER_00: The power is Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You know, that set me free.
SPEAKER_00: From then on, I just thought, hey, I'm gonna pray for people.
SPEAKER_00: If they get healed, he gets the glory.
SPEAKER_00: If they don't get healed, not my problem, it's his problem.
SPEAKER_00: I'm serious.
SPEAKER_00: See, that'll enable you to be obedient.
SPEAKER_00: And so I pray for a lot of people.
SPEAKER_00: I see a lot of people healed, I see a lot of people don't get healed.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what do you do about the ones that don't get healed?
SPEAKER_00: That's not my problem.
SPEAKER_00: That's his problem.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: See, we just he wants us to be obedient to what he calls us to, but he doesn't promise us the results.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you say, Well, you don't have much faith.
SPEAKER_00: No, I got faith.
SPEAKER_00: I do.
SPEAKER_00: I know God heals, but I know he doesn't heal every time.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, don't say that.
SPEAKER_00: That's a lack of faith.
SPEAKER_00: No, that's reality.
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, that's reality.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes he takes longer than our time frame.
SPEAKER_00: Now, ultimately, we're all gonna be healed when we get, you know, if you're saved.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if you're not saved, you need to get saved today.
SPEAKER_00: But if you're not, you know, we're all gonna be eventually in heaven, we're gonna get new bodies.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna have a full head of hair, you're not gonna recognize me up there.
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, the point is, the point is that we're all gonna be ultimately healed.
SPEAKER_00: I want to get healed here, though, when I'm on earth.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why I believe for, and I'll believe for you, and I'll believe for whoever to be healed here.
SPEAKER_00: I want the healing to happen here, and then we'll have the full healing when we get to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And those athletic injuries that we've had, uh, they're gonna go away.
SPEAKER_00: Thank God.
SPEAKER_00: All right, now.
SPEAKER_00: The transformation of Peter was so amazing, and then uh in chapter, uh actually chapter 4, verse uh verse 11 and 12 and 13, it says, This is the stone which was rejected by the builders, which has become the chief cornerstone, nor is there salvation in uh in any other name, for there is no name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
SPEAKER_00: Now, there's a lot of controversy over this.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I didn't grow up in a Christian home, and so I tried other ways.
SPEAKER_00: I was a Zen Buddhist for five years.
SPEAKER_00: I ran the Monterey Zendo in Monterey, California.
SPEAKER_00: I would stare at a wall for 40 minutes, and then 40 minutes in the morning, 40 minutes in the evening, religiously.
SPEAKER_00: Whether I was drunk, stoned, or whatever I was, I would always do it.
SPEAKER_00: Now I could achieve a surface peace, but but I needed somebody to get to the depths of my being.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus came into my life at 28 and a half years old, and he began to calm the storms.
SPEAKER_00: Now, he's still working on me.
SPEAKER_00: That was a long time ago.
SPEAKER_00: He's still working on me.
SPEAKER_00: But you know, the good news is he came into my life and changed my life.
SPEAKER_00: And I realized people say, well, you know, they'll send Buddhists to me and say, Well, tell them what the difference is.
SPEAKER_00: I'll say, I'll tell you what the difference was.
SPEAKER_00: When I was a Buddhist, it would help me to meditate.
SPEAKER_00: I I could, yeah, I'm a little ADD anyway, you can probably tell that.
SPEAKER_00: But but anyway, the point is I could achieve a surface peace, but I couldn't, I could I didn't have peace internally.
SPEAKER_00: Also, I would have fellowship with the wall, which was not that exciting, to be honest.
SPEAKER_00: But now I had fellowship with the living God.
SPEAKER_00: He would impart things to me, he would put things on my heart, he would let me know how much he loved me.
SPEAKER_00: And I thought, how can he love me when I screwed up my life so bad?
SPEAKER_00: And yet he loves me.
SPEAKER_00: And I wasn't given to crying.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I was the captain of the wrestling team, you weren't allowed to cry.
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, the point was the thing in that was, you know, there's this love that comes, and I wasn't used to that.
SPEAKER_00: I was I was used to performing to get love on the athletic field, on the wrestling mat, wherever it was, I was used to performing to get the accolades.
SPEAKER_00: Now God's telling me how much he loves me, even though I screwed up my life, even though I had a lot of really bad things happen.
SPEAKER_00: It blew my mind.
SPEAKER_00: So, here's the thing I want to say.
SPEAKER_00: If you look at verse, uh, if we go down, and there is salvation in no one else's name.
SPEAKER_00: Think about it.
SPEAKER_00: Every other religion is our attempt to get to God.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus came to us, he died for us, he did it all.
SPEAKER_00: We just have to receive him and let him be the Lord and direct and guide our lives and just follow him.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, Follow, follow me.
SPEAKER_00: Just follow me.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it seems hard, but but it isn't.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 12, I'm verse 13, I mean.
SPEAKER_00: And now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled and they realized they had been with who?
SPEAKER_00: With Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you, the greatest power that people can see in you is being with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Just being with Jesus, not performing for him, but just being with him.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know when the church was birthed, they didn't have the New Testament?
SPEAKER_00: Did you know that?
SPEAKER_00: They were living the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: They had a relationship with Jesus, they had a relationship with each other, and they changed the world.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the word's very important.
SPEAKER_00: Thank God we've got the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Thank God we've got the Word to keep us on track.
SPEAKER_00: We need the Word desperately.
SPEAKER_00: But they didn't even have that.
SPEAKER_00: They had the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: They had a relationship with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the problem is so often we get into a place where we struggle with fear of God or awe of God.
SPEAKER_00: I like better, not being afraid of God, but being wanting to please Him out of the goodness of our heart versus wanting to please people.
SPEAKER_00: Think about it.
SPEAKER_00: Think the pressure that we have to be politically correct.
SPEAKER_00: Think of the pressure we have to kind of keep the truth underneath.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I wanted to write a book, Whatever Happened to Truth.
SPEAKER_00: Truth seems like if you come out with truth, you're a bigot, you're a racist, you're a jerk, you're you you fill in the blank.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I gr granted, when truth is used as a hammer, that's totally wrong.
SPEAKER_00: But Ephesians 4, 15 says that we are to speak the truth in what?
SPEAKER_00: In love.
SPEAKER_00: See, truth is so powerful when it is spoken in love.
SPEAKER_00: You know, but here's an example where, you know, well, you don't want to say anything.
SPEAKER_00: Don't don't make him feel bad because he's blind.
SPEAKER_00: Well, he's gonna die if you don't say something.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I wonder how often we hold back because we're afraid we're gonna offend somebody rather than coming in deep love.
SPEAKER_00: And sharing what the truth is.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I really appreciate Steve that he didn't bow to the political pressures of shutting this church down during the pandemic.
SPEAKER_00: I'm thankful for a man who had the courage to keep things open and say, no, we're going to meet.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to meet.
SPEAKER_00: And God's not, you know, the government is not shutting our church down.
SPEAKER_00: And so I think it's really important to know where the barrier is.
SPEAKER_00: Now we don't use truth as a hammer, we use it as we walk in love.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to give you an example very quickly.
SPEAKER_00: In our house where we lived in Grand Lake, we live in a different home now, but where we lived, there was a lady who was a lesbian who lived right across Caddy Corner across the street.
SPEAKER_00: And I was waved to her, and you know, and and uh and so one day I saw a U-Haul there, and I went over and I said, Hey, could I help, you know, do you have any furniture or anything that I could help lift and put?
SPEAKER_00: She goes, Why are you being so nice to me?
SPEAKER_00: I said, Well, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: She goes, I know who you are.
SPEAKER_00: I know you're the pastor of the rock.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: So what did Jesus say?
SPEAKER_00: He said, To love my neighbor.
SPEAKER_00: Aren't you my neighbor?
SPEAKER_00: She goes, Yeah, but why are you nice?
SPEAKER_00: So anyway, so anyway, I helped her, we loaded her, and then she said something to me.
SPEAKER_00: It was really interesting.
SPEAKER_00: We had a really nice exchange, and she goes, Well, let me ask you something.
SPEAKER_00: What does God think about my lifestyle?
SPEAKER_00: Now, we were having such a nice conversation, I didn't want to go there.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't want to go there, but here's the thing because I approached her in love, and I wasn't judging her, because of that, she trusted me.
SPEAKER_00: So I had an opportunity to either bring truth or not.
SPEAKER_00: So I thought, well, I said, Do you really want to know?
SPEAKER_00: She goes, I do.
SPEAKER_00: I said, Well, you know, homosexuality, lesbianism, you know, whatever you call it, is sin.
SPEAKER_00: But so is adultery.
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, and so I said, It's all sin.
SPEAKER_00: But I said, here's the thing.
SPEAKER_00: What you need to know is Jesus died for all our sins.
SPEAKER_00: And if you just give him a chance and stop trying to figure it out and just give him a chance to come into your life, I said, that's the key.
SPEAKER_00: Now I don't know if she did.
SPEAKER_00: She drove off in the U-Haul.
SPEAKER_00: I never saw her again.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if she did, but I do know this.
SPEAKER_00: I know that I had a voice with her because I loved her first and didn't judge her first.
SPEAKER_00: You know, and I I gotta tell you, folks, that's hard.
SPEAKER_00: Because I'm I feel judgmental sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: I do.
SPEAKER_00: I have to kind of hold that back.
SPEAKER_00: I hate sin.
SPEAKER_00: I hate it.
SPEAKER_00: God hates it.
SPEAKER_00: But we don't hate the sinner.
SPEAKER_00: We actually love the sinner and we want to help them, and sometimes when we condemn them, we're not helping them.
SPEAKER_00: We're actually putting them in a place where it's hard for them to get free.
SPEAKER_00: I just know Jesus is the only one that can set us free.
SPEAKER_00: He's the only one that can set Peter free, he's the only one that can set me free, and he's the only one that can set you free.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: And so that's why he's the key.
SPEAKER_00: So again, I'm gonna read Acts 8, Acts 4, verses 18, 18 to 20, and it says this.
SPEAKER_00: And they called them and commanded them not to speak.
SPEAKER_00: This is after they brought him in, and um, and not to speak or teach in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But listen to this.
SPEAKER_00: But Peter and John answered and said to them, Whether it's right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge.
SPEAKER_00: For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, we cannot stop from speaking the truth of what's going on here.
SPEAKER_00: And if that's you got a problem with that, you got a problem.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And so truth is so important, but it's got to be delivered in love.
SPEAKER_00: If it's not delivered in love, it will never be received.
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, we we all struggle.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's all, you know, relatives or friends or kids or, you know, whatever.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's always going to be struggles.
SPEAKER_00: That's how we handle those and how we help others.
SPEAKER_00: And so, uh, you know, it's interesting in Galatians verse 1, uh chapter 1, verse 10, it says, for do I now persuade men or God, or do I seek to please men?
SPEAKER_00: If I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You know, there's always going to be pressure for us to be politically correct.
SPEAKER_00: But just remember, we need to do it in love, not with a not with a bad attitude.
SPEAKER_00: I'm speaking to me.
SPEAKER_00: I got one finger toward you and three back at me.
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, and so, very, very important.
SPEAKER_00: Um, one of the things that you see here in verse 29, you see what Peter and John do, they return to their family.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you know we need we need brothers and sisters in Christ?
SPEAKER_00: We need to have that closeness.
SPEAKER_00: And here in verse 29, he says, Now the Lord look on their threats and grant to your servant that with all boldness that we may speak your word, by stretching out your hand to heal.
SPEAKER_00: Notice your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken.
SPEAKER_00: They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.
SPEAKER_00: Now think about that.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you, but when God shakes your world, I mean, there's a boldness that comes on us.
SPEAKER_00: You know?
SPEAKER_00: You can be bold or you can be obnoxious.
SPEAKER_00: There's a difference.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes people that try to be bold, it's obnoxious.
SPEAKER_00: Am I speaking to the to the choir here or what?
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_00: Where they just are so bold in their own flesh that it's a turn-off.
SPEAKER_00: It's not something that's enjoyable.
SPEAKER_00: It's not something that's easy to receive.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm talking about fleshly boldness, but I'm talking about where God speaks to your heart and you have a boldness that just comes from within.
SPEAKER_00: You're not trying to be bold.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's a gentle boldness.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's very gentle, but it's it's based on truth and it's based on love.
SPEAKER_00: And that gentle boldness is what really transforms people.
SPEAKER_00: Now, sometimes you have to be bold, like they had to be bold with the authorities and say, guys, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: This is what we're gonna do.
SPEAKER_00: Whether you like it or not, this is what we're gonna do.
SPEAKER_00: And we may end up in jail.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know what's gonna happen, but we're gonna do it anyway.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I traveled to Pakistan with a man named Leif Hetlan, and uh we usually travel with machine gun bodyguards because it's very dangerous, especially when we go up to places like Peshaba and up in the north, closer to the Afghan border, where a lot of radicals.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh it's interesting when you're speaking in there and there's radicals, you can tell, you can feel the demonic.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and yet you still have to be real, you have to be honest, and Leif is great because he'll preach the gospel even at the and he was actually, he doesn't like me to tell this story, but he was actually captured by the Taliban.
SPEAKER_00: They were taking him out to the desert to kill him.
SPEAKER_00: The last minute they didn't kill him.
SPEAKER_00: And uh he's still alive and still going.
SPEAKER_00: He's been going to Pakistan for over 20 years now.
SPEAKER_00: So, anyway, what I what I want to say though is there's times where we have to be bold.
SPEAKER_00: There's other times where we just have to stand firm in that truth, knowing the truth, and that's the anchor.
SPEAKER_00: And that truth is what sets us free.
SPEAKER_00: It sets us from free from trying to please other people.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I need to wrap this up.
SPEAKER_00: So let's look at in verse 29.
SPEAKER_00: Uh oh, I already read that.
SPEAKER_00: So let's go down to verse 32.
SPEAKER_00: That's where I ended.
SPEAKER_00: I ended at 31.
SPEAKER_00: And now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul.
SPEAKER_00: Now think about that.
SPEAKER_00: One heart and one soul.
SPEAKER_00: That's really huge.
SPEAKER_00: Neither did anyone say that any of these things he possessed or was his own, and they had all things in common.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, they go, hey, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: There was such love and such fellowship that they go, hey, you know, if you need, if you if you need help here, here's the help.
SPEAKER_00: And with great power, the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of Jesus, the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.
SPEAKER_00: Nor was anyone among them who lacked, for all who possessed of lands and houses, sold them and brought them and proceeds, the things were sold, and they laid them at the apostles' feet, and they distributed to anyone as they had need.
SPEAKER_00: You know, somehow there's a sense of when we have stuff, it's a sense of security.
SPEAKER_00: It's a false security, but it's a sense of security.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I have stuff.
SPEAKER_00: I have never done a funeral or a memorial service where there was a hearst with a U-hole on the back.
SPEAKER_00: We're not taking any of the stuff with us.
SPEAKER_00: None.
SPEAKER_00: We're not.
SPEAKER_00: So why do we cling to the security that it so-called brings?
SPEAKER_00: It's a false security.
SPEAKER_00: It'll come, it'll go.
SPEAKER_00: You know, and so why do we cling to it when it's all his anyway?
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: One guy said, you know, I know you guys tithe, but he said, What I do is I say, okay, Jesus, here's all my money.
SPEAKER_00: Throws it up in the air.
SPEAKER_00: You keep, Lord, what you want, and the rest will be mine.
SPEAKER_00: That's a joke, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, in quick review, I believe He's called us to change the world.
SPEAKER_00: I believe we're here to make a difference.
SPEAKER_00: Many times I would say to my congregation, don't pray for comfort.
SPEAKER_00: Pray that I'll make a difference.
SPEAKER_00: See, lots of times, Lord, take this away, take this struggle away, take this away.
SPEAKER_00: No, Lord, use me to change the world.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not seeking after comfort.
SPEAKER_00: I want to make a difference.
SPEAKER_00: That needs to be our prayer.
SPEAKER_00: That needs to be our prayer from the very depths of our heart.
SPEAKER_00: I want to make a difference.
SPEAKER_00: Four things I want to just mention that happen.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, time with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: They recognize they had time with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Time with Jesus is so important.
SPEAKER_00: So important.
SPEAKER_00: Just being with Him, just letting Him impress on your heart, letting Him just walk with you, letting Him direct your steps.
SPEAKER_00: You know?
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes that's through the Word, other times it's just through prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Number two is Holy Spirit with signs and wonders.
SPEAKER_00: Very, very important.
SPEAKER_00: That's what changed the world.
SPEAKER_00: Number three is boldness, a fear of God, more than you know, which causes obedience.
SPEAKER_00: When I want to please God, I'm gonna be obedient.
SPEAKER_00: And the last one is real community.
SPEAKER_00: We have we need real community.
SPEAKER_00: Real community is being real, it's not being phony.
SPEAKER_00: How's it going?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, everything's great.
SPEAKER_00: No, it isn't.
SPEAKER_00: You're lying.
SPEAKER_00: How can I pray for you?
SPEAKER_00: Be real.
SPEAKER_00: You know, people want real.
SPEAKER_00: They want authentic.
SPEAKER_00: They don't want Christian, Christianese.
SPEAKER_00: Bull.
SPEAKER_00: I can't say the other part of it.
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, it's so important that we become real.
SPEAKER_00: We become connected to each other.
SPEAKER_00: The older I get, the more important I see is our relationships, our friendships.
SPEAKER_00: Never take for granted the friendships you have.
SPEAKER_00: I know sometimes you can't give time to them that you'd like to, but never take them for granted.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you for listening to the Road Church Podcast.
SPEAKER_02: We pray today's message has empowered you to make a difference in your world.
SPEAKER_02: For more information about the Road Church and to find more content like this, go to theroad.org.
SPEAKER_02: That's theroad.org.