What are you curious about? Acts 2:42 (Grad Sunday) 060423
I believe one of the greatest strengths we can leverage in our lives is curiosity. Most people know the old cliche the curiosity killed the what? CAT But we are not cats friends! While being curious about the wrong things can indeed lead us down a very dangerous path curiosity about the right things leads us to greater equipping so we can be all God calls us to be.
Jesus knew this and was continually peaking people's curiosity.
He spoke in parables and did miracles that people could barely explain or
understand. However, it made most ferociously curious about this man and what
he was all about. Ultimately it helped many of them follow him passionately-and
be curiously equipped at the same time!
Sadly I'm afraid we’ve become less curious in our faith
journey-we lose the joy of discovery and we get bored. My hope today is to help
you see:
Godly curiosity is the key to good equipping.
(This is your point with the fill in :)
Where do I get this? I like Ephesians 4:11-13 in the NLT that
says this: Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles,
the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their
responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church,
the body of Christ. 13 This will continue until we all come to such unity
in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord,
measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.
Look hard at v.12-I’m your pastor so my job is to equip you,
so how am I to do it? Let me ask you a question: what are you curious about? I
hope you are still a little curious about our mission statement which is what?
Let’s read it on your bulletin: “Our church invites you to live a saved life”
-but what is the saved life? Each letter in the word saved stands for one
element of the saved life.
This is where we go to our Biblical anchor text which
sustains our mission statement which is Acts 2:42-47. Let’s just open our
Bibles and camp there for a bit. We have already covered the S-which stands for
what? …and the A which stands for what? …and last week the V which stands for
what? Today we’ll look at the E which is for the equipping element in the word
saved, which comes from verse 42 which reads:
42They devoted themselves to the
apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to
prayer.
We find in this verse people were curious about the apostles
teaching, much like they were curious about Jesus-after all, these apostles
were Jesus’ body-the church! Now we must understand the apostles teaching was
primarily what they remembered and then wrote down in letters about the story
of Jesus. This was supported by various Old Testament texts in the light of
Jesus and his fulfillment of that covenant.
These teachings are full of Old Testament references and
applications for people who are following Jesus.
If you want to know what they were studying just keep the
book of Acts open and keep reading. The New Testament was written by these
early believers under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit-thus it is the Word of
God.
As Christianity spread and grew, more and more people had
more and more curiosity and questions and so more teaching and writing
continued. And the study of the New and Old testaments increased and were
ultimately combined to make the Bible we have today. Curiously seeking God with
his people in his Word has continued ever since then.
We are so blessed to live in a time where we can be equipped
with so many Biblical resources in so many ways. We have over 2,000 years of
collected Jesus oriented resources at our finger tips!
To be honest when I
started this sermon I was completely overwhelmed as to what I could point you
to for equipping, because there is just so much. With that said you must know
that this is only the tip of the iceberg of equipping. [End of Intro]
You maybe asking, but why do I need equipped to be a
follower of Jesus? Anything in life you want to be successful and sustainable at
you need to be equipped. If you want to play basketball, you better have the
right shoes, a good ball and know the rules-if you want to drive to the west
coast you better have a solid vehicle, plenty of money and good directions. The
life of faith is the same-you need to have resources to enjoy the task.
But there is also the reality that we have an enemy that
wants us to fail-the Bible says in 1 Peter 5:8 that the devil is a roaring lion
seeking who he may devour! So equipping has a defensive element to it as well. I’ve
heard Christianity described as climbing a mountain. If you try to climb a
mountain without the proper equipment you could get hurt or even die-especially
if there is an enemy that want to eat you on that mountain! This should all
inspire our curiosity to be equipped! On your outline-answer this…
What is a Godly topic you are curious about and want to be
equipped in?
I hope to point you in the direction that your curiosity can
be both sparked and satisfied for even greater equipping to happen. I would
like to highlight three tool boxes where good equipping can be found. [toolbox
illu?] Then give you solid examples of
how you can begin to get equipped with each of these even today.
First books, for many years I've been so inspired and
equipped by several books I have read and I was curious to see if anyone else
could be as well. I began a book based Sunday School class that has run for a
few years. The books that we study are all Biblically based and by Christian
authors.
If you are curious about what will happen after you die you
should read the book “One minute after you die” by Erwin Lutzer. I’ve never
read a better, shorter and more biblical book on death and what’s next.
He wrestles with hard issues like the death of a child and
suicide. Are you curious? Why not see if
any of your friends are curious and read it together. [Pass around-take a photo or jot down the
title… this is my book so I want it back!!!]
If you can find 2 other people who are curious to join this
is called a small group study and anyone can do it. If it happens on a Sunday
morning we would call it a Sunday school class. If you say I have no idea how
to lead a study I’ll teach you how in about an hour-or you can read the article
I just posted on my blog-how to teach a ss class.
If you are curious about anger and why it's such a powerful
emotion you should read Gary Chapman's book “Anger-handling a powerful emotion
in a healthy way”. If you are curious
about how to deal with sorrow and suffering in life you should read living with
thorns by Marianne Folick-it’s the best book I’ve ever read on grief and
recovery and I have several copies I can give to those who may be curious. If
you are curious about how to win your friends and family to Christ you should
read “Walk across the room” by Bill Hybels-you
can see those you love come to Christ-Bill and the Bible show you how!
These are just a few books that have equipped people in mighty ways over the last few years. The full list of books is included in my “how to teach ss” blog post-if you haven't gone it's right here ;)
My desire is to see more individuals and groups be powerfully equipped with these tested resources. Of course the ultimate book for equipping the Christian is the Bible itself.
I hope you come here every Sunday morning at 10:30 to be
equipped by the word of God. The reason I preach is that you can leave here a
little better equipped for life and faith as you move into Monday morning and
the days to come.
On my last sermon survey that was a strong call for me to
preach from The book of Romans. I am preparing for that series and will likely
supplement the series with a study of the book. A tested tool that has been
used is by Warren Wiersby called “Be right” if you are curious about being
right with God please let me know and we can figure out how that study of
Romans can come together.
The other way you can be equipped with the Bible is by grabbing
the Student Bible that is at the ends of our benches. Just this week some one
lead a person to the Lord and they called me to say they needed a Bible-I said
come and get it! We have thee best I bible I know of to help a new or more
experienced believer in their walk with Jesus-so use them to equip yourself or
that person you lead to Jesus!
What is a Godly book you are curious
about and want to study?
The next tool box of equipping is videos. We have
invested heavily in a resource called right now media. It is available through
our website and literally has thousands of hours of excellent teaching on every
imaginable topic. If there's a topic you are curious about and it’s not there I
can call right now media and ask them to get resources as they are very open to
making sure we can be equipped through their tool.
I know several Sunday School classes, small groups and
individuals have utilized this resource and I hope many more will in the future.
I’m curious about the whole transgender topic-so I dug into it and here’s one tool I found-check out the trailer…
Curious? Just go to our website and click on the
rightnow media logo.
The other HUGE FREE video tool is The Chosen. Unless you’ve
been living in a cave-or just not come to SMC for a couple years you have heard
about this series. So artful and impactful. Never have I seen Jesus come to
life like in this. Stellar acting, provocative writing and cinematic filming-it’s
got it all. If you love someone who doesn’t know Jesus-have them over and watch
the first episode-see if they get curious-better yet-pray they do!
The last toolbox for equipping is events. These range
from marriage seminars we've actually hosted in our building to off campus
events all around us. The two that have been most attended are the leadership
summit and the weekend to remember marriage retreat.
Everyone in this room is a leader at some level because we
all must lead ourselves. I would bet everyone also has influence over other
people as well. This is leadership and we must be equipped to lead well. For many
years I've been inspired and equipped by the leadership summit and if you are curious,
I would invite you to go this year. It's
at Wooster Grace Church and we have a special deal so let me know if you want
to go! There is a poster in your mailbox with all the info you can give to a
friend after you register ;)
The weekend to remember is also coming up and if you are
married or almost married you should attend this rich event. Few equipping
events have more laughter and learning than this retreat so I hope you will
consider going. It’s coming to CLE this fall: October 27- October 29, 2023, Friday
at 7:00 PM - Sunday at 12:30 PM at the Embassy Suites Cleveland in Independence.
All that info is on my blog under the “get equipped for a marvelous marriage
post.”
There is also one of the biggest and best Christian music
events in the world right in our backyard the alive music festival at Atwood
Lake! It’s an amazing time of equipping through music and teaching that happens
every summer.
Alive is a 3-day music festival with 3 stages, 50+ artists,
beautiful camping & RV sites, a 1,500-acre lake, tasty food and drink, VIP
experiences, late night comedy, and so much more. Alive takes place July 13-15,
2023 at Atwood Lake Park in Mineral City, OH.
But here's why you go-Jesus shows up there and people follow Him b/c they were there-get curious!
There are a few
people planning to go from SMC, including the youth group, and if you are curious I think you should go.
Just google Alive music festival and you find it.
On that musical note I was recently asked by someone who is
in a very difficult health situation about Christian radio. They listen to
country music all their life but found that in this hard time it offered very
little hope and virtually no faith message to hold on to. Then they stumbled on
to a Christian radio station and ask me if I knew of any more? We are so
blessed to have so many excellent radio stations that anyone can access for
free 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
I just want to list these
in case anyone would be curious 90.9 95.5 102.5 102.7 and 103.3 are all
stations that have incredible music and some have solid biblical teaching that
everyone can be equipped over the radio-for free :)
Again this is just the tip of the equipping iceberg! But for
now I just want you to consider the questions on your out line:
What is a Godly topic
you are curious about and want to be equipped in?
Which too will you choose to get equipped with: a book,
video, event or other tool?
I commit to getting equipped by this date:
May we all get better equipped to live faithfully, even
today, let us pray…
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