The 10 Commitments Of A Vintage Church Part 3

In Part 3 of “10 Commitments of a Vintage Church,” Pastor Steve Holt explores the powerful characteristics of the early church found in Acts 2, focusing on experiencing the miraculous, joyful generosity, and wholehearted praise and worship. The message highlights how the Holy Spirit empowered believers to live in unity, serve one another with radical generosity, and demonstrate the Kingdom of God through prayer, healing, and faith. This sermon encourages believers to become joyful sowers, generous servants, and passionate worshipers who reflect the heart of God and bring glory to Him.

Transcript

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Hello everyone, I'm Dr. Steve Holtz. I want to welcome you to the Road Church Podcast. Each week we go into God's Word. We teach chapter by chapter and verse by verse. And we are here to build the Kingdom of God revolution through empowering people to change the world. So we pray this will minister to you at your heart level and change your life. Acts chapter 2, and as you know, we've been going through these 10 commitments of a church, I'm calling it a vintage church, a word and spirit church. And this is the foundation for, in my opinion, for all time, for the way in which we measure the life of a church. This is the early church, verse 40. And with many words he testified and exhorted them, saying, Be saved from this perverse generation. Therefore, then those who gladly received his word were baptized, and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship in the breaking of bread and in prayers. Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together, had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all as anyone had need. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who are being saved. So we've talked about these commitments and these different, I mean, observations that we see in this early church. And what makes it so unique is the Spirit had just come, the Holy Spirit had just come. And there's something about your first love, right? There's something about that first time you experience Christ that is very unique in all of our lives. And I think that we endeavor as we grow older to remember that it's good to go back and ask again. God, I want revival afresh in my life. And that's what I pray for the road. I pray that we be a church where revival can come not just once, not just twice, but we can experience over a journey of a road less traveled, fresh revival, fresh transformation all the time. Because you're gonna have highs and lows. And so we call out, we cry out, we don't give up. If you don't quit, you're fit. And God will use you. So let's be seated. Thanks, you guys. So ten commitments that we've looked at as an Acts chapter two church, a Venice church, is that first of all, empowered by the Holy Spirit. We looked at verses one through four. And then the next part, the big section of Acts chapter two, we talked about God-centered or gospel-centered preaching of the gospel. And then we know 3,000 got saved, and then they baptized them. It's one of the sacraments of the church that we believe in, it's baptism. And then it says that they were devoted, they were focused in on the apostles' doctrine. So we talked about the value of doctrine and the Bible and how powerful that is. And then fellowship, cononia is the Greek word. And it was, it's this intimacy, it's sharing life together. That's why I love home groups. That's why life groups and home groups are so important in the values of this church, is that we find a close, intimate relationship with other people through fellowship with them. And then we talked about bold prayer and the power of bold prayer and why that's so important and the significance of that, especially in Acts chapter 4. And we looked at how bold prayer is often kind of follows a New Testament pattern, and that is Bible, you know, Bible, and then there's a boldness that goes with that, and then there's breakthrough. So I shared last week that sometimes we don't know how to pray as we ought, right? We don't know what to pray. And one of the best ways to know you're praying God's will is say, God, where in Scripture do you want me to pray from? And to take a passage of Scripture and pray it verse by verse. You know, take that verse, read it to the Lord, and then pray that for your situation, for yourself, or for your family, or for your, or for your community and your city. And so we talked about bold prayer. So today, I want to look at an eighth commitment. Look at verse 43. So verse 43 says this then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. So I think an eighth commitment of a vintage church is a commitment to experiencing the miraculous, leaving room for the supernatural power of God to work. And that's why we do ministry time up here. So I pray that not only here on Sunday mornings, but also in our small groups, there's an opportunity for prayer. Because at the road, we believe God heals. And I've cast out hundreds of demons. And in casting out demons and seeing people set free, there's something supernatural. I love it, by the way. I mean, I hate it, but I love it, in the sense that I'm sorry that someone is demonized. I'm sorry that they've got strongholds. But isn't it exciting to know that in the name of Jesus, and with the faith and belief, even just mustard seed faith, in that other person, they can be set free. And I get to be a part of it. It's really, really fun. And um, because I see transformation like a 180 overnight. But there's two ways. I didn't mention this so much in the past, but I'll mention it again. There's a power encounter, and then there's a truth encounter. So a power encounter is when you literally are praying with someone and you're driving the demons out. And that's what Jesus did a lot. But what a lot of people don't realize is what Jesus did most of the time, 70% of his ministry was teaching. So he was teaching on a hillside, or he was teaching on a mountainside, or he's teaching in someone's house. That's a truth encounter. That's what you're doing right now. This is a truth encounter every Sunday morning. It's a truth encounter in a home group. In other words, we're opening God's word, and by truth, what we're doing is we're crowding out lies. Because the only way that a demonic spirit can have power over us is where we have chosen to believe a lie. Usually it starts in childhood, but we start to make agreements with the enemy, and it's usually through hurt and pain and shame in our lives where we we've been deeply, deeply hurt by someone. And we make that inner vow. Oh, I'll never be hurt like that again, or I'll never open up my heart to someone again, or I'll never trust that kind of person again. And you're making these inner vows and these agreements, and at first they're just a foothold. But then the foothold over time becomes a stronghold. And then the stronghold becomes something that actually gets in the way of everything in your life. And so sometimes we need a power encounter. But most of the time, the most powerful thing that can happen is be in God's word. That's a truth encounter happening every day, I hope, and pray. And so that's the importance of God's word. And that's why in Psalm 1, it talks about the fact that a man of God is one who meditates in God's word, and he's like a tree planted beside the living waters, the streams of water, and he becomes like an oak because his roots are being nourished by living water in one's life. That's a truth encounter. So that's what was happening in the early church. They were following the pattern they saw in Jesus. So Jesus said, I'm gonna leave. I'm gonna leave this earth, and I'm gonna give you the power of the Holy Spirit, and the works that you've seen me doing, you also shall do, and greater works because I'm going to the Father. In other words, things were gonna get better because Jesus was leaving. Because his physical proximity, though gone, was now gonna be replaced by the spiritual proximity of the Holy Spirit. So every one of you in this room that have given your heart to Christ and surrendered to Christ, you have the Holy Spirit. Isn't that exciting? So you have the Holy Spirit living within you. That means you can hear from God. You can hear his voice from the word mainly, but even at times when you're you're lonely and you're struggling and you're battling and you take time to listen. I love, I love Colorado, I love the wind, I love the trees, I love the mountains. Who loves the ocean? Anybody here love the ocean? Okay. Well, I'm gonna give you a little Steve Holt trick. Because I love the ocean too. Is that I like to go out into the woods and I imagine that I'm in the ocean, I'm at the ocean by hearing the wind in the trees. And if you think about it, it's almost the same sound. But but the spirit came like a wind. The spirit came with fire, it came with wind in Acts chapter 2. And I believe the Holy Spirit still does that today, church. He still does that today. And he works through the wind, he works through the fire of the Spirit, and you can do greater works. So I want to challenge you. Someone said, Well, I don't have the gift of healing, or I can't do those kind of things. Just start praying for people. Every time you hear someone who has a need, just pray for them. And I'll make a I'll make a promise to you. And I and I am rarely wrong on this promise. If you'll pray for 100 people, somebody's gonna get healed through your laying on of hands. Somebody's gonna get healed. And I'd say you probably three to five people will get healed, and then your faith is gonna increase, and you get the supernatural power of being healed in your faith component by seeing them physically healed because you just took 15 seconds to say, Can I pray for you? That waitress, that waiter saying, Is there anything I can pray for you about? And usually it's something to do with their kids. Have you noticed that? If you ask someone what they want to pray for, they won't ask for themselves, they'll ask for their child or something like that. And um, and that's great. Just start wherever. But if you get the chance where someone is hurting, or if you want to go through our training and learn how to pray up here for people, 100 people, you're gonna see somebody get healed. And you may see many people get healed. And the transformation in your own life by seeing God work that way is amazing. It's it's really a miracle in our life because we get to be a part of the conduit of the Holy Spirit flowing through us in a supernatural way. Okay, so they saw the miraculous happening. And look at verse 44. This is crazy. And some people have said that the first Christians were communist because of this verse, this set of verses. I'm serious, this set of verses. Um, the Soviets in the early days in the Bolshevik revolution, they used this verse to say that uh communism was better than capitalism. Look at verse 44. Now, all who believe were together and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods and divided them among all as anyone had need. Continuing daily with one accord in the temple, breaking um bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart. Well, here's the big difference. The big difference is communism makes you share your goods, and the Bible offers us to share our goods because of the love of Christ. It's a volunteer, and here's the other thing we don't realize is that these are the men and women that had gotten saved at Pentecost. Over 20 nations of people had gotten saved at Pentecost, and they had used their resources to get to Jerusalem, and they had saved the resources to get back to their home country. But something happened. They got saved. And when they got saved, they stayed because there was no other place to go for them to grow in their faith than with the early church. So they were running out of resources. Get it? They were running out of resources. So he came together to help. So what I think happened, what tradition seems to indicate, is the Jerusalem and Judean Jews began to share for all those that were from Rome and from North Africa and all across Asia Minor to help them. So they're sharing because they care, because they love, because it's a part of the community. It's a new family. It's their spiritual family, and they're willing to sacrifice for each other to see that happen. But the operable word here, and I would just underline this, I just love this, is that all who believed were together, had all things in common, sold their possessions and good, and divided them among anyone as they had needed. So I'm gonna call it joyful generosity. Joyful generosity. They were volunteering to give and to help and to minister. So I want to give five kingdom principles for joyful generosity. So turn in your Bibles. Paul, so Paul's not a part of this, remember. Paul comes later, a few years later, he's gonna get saved. But in 2 Corinthians, he writes about joyful giving. So look at 2 Corinthians 9. Turn to 2 Corinthians 9. And I want to just look at a few, I'm gonna call it five kingdom principles of joyful giving. And we've always been a very joyful giving church. And Liz and I have always believed in joyfully giving. And I just love this passage. I just think it's great. And we're gonna look at this and Malachi 3, two passages on joyful giving. But look at 2 Corinthians 9, 6 and 7. But this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, but he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or out of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver. Here's the first principle: give joyfully, because you can be assured that you will reap. So I remember so many times, and you guys probably get so tired of hearing my stories about my grandpa, but I remember Highway 1 runs right through Batesburg, Leesville, coming from Columbia through Lexington. If anybody knows South Carolina, it comes through a little town called Batesburg, Leesville. So that's where my family was. And so grandmother and granddaddy had their house right there on Highway One, and I remember so many times getting in the truck with grandpa, all tobacco stained along the door, where he had his red man chewing tobacco. So we would drive down the road at about 15 miles per hour, and he would open up his door and spit. That's my grandfather. And you'd see, you'd look back, and you'd see a line of cars all behind him. This is a 55 mile an hour road, and he's going 15. And he's going along, and as soon as they're getting ready to pass, he opens his door and he spits. He didn't, he never looked in a rearview mirror in his life. Okay. But he would be driving along, and then Granddaddy Joe would look out and he would make fun of farmers. Because my grandfather was excellent in farming and ranching and sawmilling. So he was one of the best, probably in the state of South Carolina, very successful. But he would he would note things and he said, Well, there's Harold. He's three weeks late on sowing, or he's three weeks late in planting his seeds, whatever it was. I don't know if it was corn or if it was millet or whatever. The point being that Paul's using agrarian language. He's using agrarian language. If you sow bountifully in your giving, you are going to reap bountifully. And granddaddy just couldn't stand to look out there, or maybe he enjoyed it, I don't know. But he would look, and I would, and here's his grandson, just you know, take, but he was saying, this guy's late. He's not gonna reap. And so whenever I'm talking to people about giving or talking about finances, people come to me because it's the number two biggest struggle in a marriage is how you handle your finances. Nobody in this room knows what I'm talking about, right? I mean, it's an issue. I mean, Liz and I have always had these discussions. But these discussions are important, and what he's promising here is in an agrarian way, if we will, if we will give bountifully and with joy, God promises that we're going to reap. And John MacArthur has written and said, God has a unique, special love for those who are happily committed to generous giving. The Greek word for cheerful is the word from which we get hilarious. And suggests that God loves a heart that is enthusiastically thrilled with the pleasure of giving. It's so exciting. And, you know, over the years we've had nothing and we've had something, you know, as in the whole family with so many kids that we had and so many situations. But that was a conviction that we always had since the day we were married was that we were going to always be cheerful and generous givers. Verse 8. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you always having all sufficiency in all things may have an abundance for every good work. Secondly, God pours out extraordinary grace on joyful givers. And so there's a there's something about the grace of God because God's got your heart. Because if there's one area that's a big battleground for all of us in this room, is our finances and our heart. But when he's got our heart and he's got our finances, there's something of a grace of God over every area of our life. Thirdly, God will pour out grace to move us from just sufficiency to abundance in every area of our life. So I want us to look at Malachi chapter 3. So keep your finger in Deuteronomy 9, we'll come back to that. But Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament. So kind of right in the center of your Bible, go to Malachi chapter 3. And I've always called this the Malachi Miracle. And when Liz and I got married, you see, I was 27 and Liz was 24, and I'd been walking with the Lord about nine years, and she had been walking with the Lord about six years, and it was one of the first decisions that we made was that we were going to tithe. And this is a beautiful passage, Malachi 3, 8. Malachi 3, 8. So when people are struggling financially, I often take them to Malachi 3, and I say, Do you know the Malachi Miracle? How many know the Malachi Miracle? Whoa, I've done a terrible job in discipling this church. So you're gonna learn it today, because I used to teach on a lot more at Mountain Springs. Malachi 3.8. Will a man rob God? Yet you've robbed me, but you say, in what way have we robbed you? In tithes and offerings. So a tithe, men and women, is 10%. Giving 10% of your income to the Lord. Offerings is above and beyond that. So for my wife and I, Liz and I, we give about 20% a year to about 10%, 15% to the road, and then we give past that because we don't want to rob God. I've always considered it like the spiritual social security system. That there's gonna be a point in all of our lives where we are tight. I don't care how much you give, you're gonna have tight times. And I've told you so many stories, I won't go through all of them again, but so many stories where Liz and I have been in a tight situation, and I go out and I walk in the woods or someplace like that, and I've said to the Lord, Lord, you know I've been faithful. I know I'm under your covering. I believe what 2 Corinthians 9 says, I believe what Malachi says, and you've got millions of my money up there. That's really your money. But I need a withdrawal right now. I need you to show up in a mighty way. And there's so much confidence in that, you guys, when you've been faithful. When you've been faithful, you can be confident. But so many of us can't be faithful. And because you haven't been faithful in this arena, it's a struggle for you because there ain't no money up there for you. You haven't given it. And so there's a principle here, and he's saying, look, look what he says. You're cursed with a curse, for you've robbed me, even the whole nation. So he's actually blaming all of Israel for not tithing. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Try me now in this, says the Lord of hosts. Isn't that exciting? So he's saying, look, you've been given to the temple, which is now the local church, and I'm gonna show you, I'm gonna show you something. It's the only place in Scripture where you can try me in this. You can try God in this. You can challenge him in this. Lord, I need you to do it. Look at verse 10. This is the miracle part. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be food in my house. Try me now in this, says the Lord. Will I not open for you the windows of heaven? Wow. There's no passage quite like that anywhere in Scripture where God promises such a blessing that there will not, that there will not be room enough to even receive it. That's phenomenal. Everybody look at me. It works. I've tried it for 40 years. And I remember the first time I was raising support to be a missionary to Japan. It was a really big struggle. I was meeting with people, challenging them to get in, to become a part of the vision and everything for the ministry in Japan. And the lady I was standing with said, Have you learned how to tithe? And I said, What's tithe mean? I didn't know what it meant. I was 22. She said, Well, it's giving 10%. And I said, Well, where is that? So she showed me Malachi and I read it. And then went back to when I was 18 when I got saved and just kind of added up all the money that I had made through judging gymnastics meets and stuff like that. I had the scholarship, so I didn't count that, but the stuff that I earned, and then took, I think the the amount was $4,000 if I tithed it over four years as a college student, and I just gave that to the Lord by faith. And from that point on, never missed. Never missed for whatever it is, I don't know, four over 40 years. And then when Liz and I got married, we determined the same thing. And look what God's done. God's blessed us so much, you know? And he'll do that for anybody. It's the spiritual social security system of God for the advancement of the kingdom of God. And I'll rebuke the devourer for your sakes, so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit from you in the field, says the Lord. So there's spiritual warfare, church. There's warfare, there's demons out there that want to hold you captive in your finances and give us what I think is kind of a poverty mentality that we'll never have enough. And so it's like a curse. And God breaks that curse. He promises to break that curse. That's what's happening in the book of Acts. That's what's happening in the book of Acts. Everybody's looking around and they're going, man, we got needs all over the place. We're going to gather together and we're going to strengthen the local church. We're going to strengthen the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven in their giving. And so it's so exciting. And I'm going to share here at the end about some of the ministries of what we're doing at the road, which is super, super cool. So let's go back, go back to 2 Corinthians 9. 2 Corinthians 9, and look at verse 9. Because that's what he's building off of in these five principles. Look at verse 9. 2 Corinthians 9, 9. As it is written, he has dispersed abroad, he has given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, so that's us, he gives us seed, he gives us finances, we're the sower, bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness. Do you hear what he's saying? He's saying that if I've got your heart, then I've got your finances. If I got your finances, I've got your heart. And then I'm going to bless your seed, which means your finances, and on top of that, your righteousness. So it has a it has an exponential impact into every area of our life when God has our heart. And it's freeing. It's freedom. And instead of our possessions possessing us, we're possessing our possessions. While you're enriched in everything, he says. Verse 11. With all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God. That's what John MacArthur was talking about. Hilarious. Giving. Hilarious giving. Excited to give. Pumped about giving. Because we're helping others. We're ministering to others. You guys don't look very happy. What's your problem? I want you to be free. I want you to be free, you guys. I want to be the most generous church in the city of Colorado Springs. I want to be the most generous church in El Paso County. We're very generous at this church. I'm going to share the stuff that we're doing in missions that we don't talk enough about, but it's amazing what Marcus and his team are doing. And it's because of your giving. You guys have been giving. Look, we hardly ever talk about money at the road. We don't even take an offering. We don't even pass a KFC bucket. There's no gold trays. You can give online, you can give in the boxes out there. But number four, God will multiply our resources as we give to the needs of others. So again, we're back to an agrarian principle. So Liz has a greenhouse on the south side of our house, and now she has a hoop house, really big hoop house, about the size of this row right here, a hoop house with all this stuff in it. So what happens, what I've learned from her, is that when you grow a plant, what does it have in it? It has more seeds. So you can't have the seeds from the plant if you don't have the plant. So you plant a seed, you have a plant, and usually, just because of the nature of God's way, it's multiplicational. It's multiplicational. So God is always multiplying stuff. So instead of the one seed you planted, now you have 50 seeds, or maybe you have a thousand seeds that comes from that one plant. So the principle here, what Paul's trying to communicate to the Corinthians, is in the same way that you give to something, God gives back to you and multiplies the seed of the sower. It doesn't say that he multiplies the seed of the non-sower. You don't need it. You've kept it all. It's yours, fine. But God seems to recognize in some supernatural way that as we give, that means it seems like to us, probably maybe we have less, so he pours back more because he's got someone he can trust with his resources. Isn't that exciting? I mean, it's really cool. So I got it years ago. Liz and I got it. And we've had so much freedom in our finances through the years because of that. It's really, it's really fun. And many of you have this, you understand it too. And then, verse 12. Well, let me read, let me read Randy Alcorn. I love this. The act of giving is a vivid reminder that it's all about God, not about us. It is saying that I'm not the point, he's the point. He does not exist for me, I exist for him. God's money has a higher purpose than my affluence. Giving is a joyful surrender to a greater purpose than affluence. Giving is a joyful surrender to a greater person and a greater agenda. Giving affirms Christ's lordship. It dethrones me and it exalts him and it breaks the chains of money that would enslave me. And so in verse 12, Paul continues, for the administration of this service not only supplies the needs of the saints, but also is abounding through many thanksgivings to God. Verse 13, while through the proof of this ministry, they glorify God for the obedience of your confession to the gospel of Christ and for your liberal sharing with them and all men. So fifthly, God will turn our giving into eternal blessings, resulting in thanksgiving and greater glory to God. So A.W. Tozier writes, as base as money often is, yet it can be transmuted into everlasting treasure. It can be converted into food for the hungry, clothing for the poor. It can keep a missionary actively winning lost men to the light of the gospel, and thus transmute itself into heavenly values. So here's what's happening at the road. So 2025 mission giving at the road. We gave, or I should say you gave, over $200,000 to the community here. And I wrote down nine things. There's more, but these are the nine that I think were the big ones that Marcus and his team are involved in. The first one is the Lyman Men's Correctional Facility. Are some of you involved in that? Because he's got it. I was sharing this with, yeah, I was sharing this with Isaac, who's, you know, my son who works with God behind bars. Um they were amazed at the force of the leadership team that has been built by Marcus. But it started off with about 25 men. It's grown to over 60 men every other week. And at Christmas, they had 113 men. So it's just really, really growing. Number two, adopt the school partnerships. And this is where the team goes in and they meet with the teachers and they fill snacks and stuff like that in the teacher's lounge and get opportunity to minister and pray with the teachers at that school. The schools we're involved in is Sand Creek High School, D49, Ridgeview Elementary School, D49, High Plains Elementary School, D20, and Talbot Elementary D3. Fathers in the Field. And this ministry is focused on connecting fatherless boys with a mentor, father, who is there to help and minister. We have 10 men involved. There you guys are. You guys stand. This is an example of fathers in the field. Go ahead and stand up, you guys. So this so this is a mentor with his young man. How old are you?

unknown 33:46

I'm 15.

SPEAKER_00 33:47

15. And he's wearing a Ford shirt. So it looks like there's some influence on that. Okay. All right, great. All right, Crossfire Ministries. If you know about Crossfire, where they're helping so many in need, we're partnering with them and we're involved with Crossfire. Life Network Partnership. And then we have March for Life coming up, which is with Life Network and Rich, and his ministry there is awesome. Street evangelism, young adults and youth going out for the past three years and sharing Christ. The Blitz is where our young adults go to the Pikes Peak Hill Climb and witness at that. Mission Colorado is where our young people, instead of going overseas, they actually stay in Colorado Springs and minister here. Spoken for Ministry is a ministry to single moms launched through the care ministry led by Megan Wilkerson and Kaziah V. Hill. And this includes the single moms coming together and sharing a meal together and being discipled. Springs Rescue Mission is coming up in 2026. Isn't that exciting? That's what you guys are doing. That's what you guys are about. Right there.

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Thank you for listening to the Road Church Podcast. We pray today's message has empowered you to make a difference in your world. For more information about The Road Church and to find more content like this, go to theroad.org. That's theroad.org.