Waianae Baptist Church & Worship Center
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IMPACTING OUR WORLD FOR CHRIST
Ananias and Sapphira: You can't fool god
If we think to put a cheat upon God, we shall put a fatal cheat upon our own souls. How sad to see those relations who should quicken one another to that which is good, hardening one another in that which is evil! And this punishment was in reality mercy to vast numbers. It would cause strict self-examination, prayer, and dread of hypocrisy, covetousness, and vain-glory, and it should still do so. It would prevent the increase of false professors. Let us learn hence how hateful falsehood is to the God of truth, and not only shun a direct lie, but all advantages from the use of doubtful expressions, and double meaning in our speech.
Corruption and power in the church
The separation of hypocrites by distinguishing judgments, should make the sincere cleave closer to each other and to the gospel ministry. Whatever tends to the purity and reputation of the church, promotes its enlargement; but that power alone which wrought such miracles by the apostles, can rescue sinners from the power of sin and Satan, and add believers to His worshippers. Christ will work by all his faithful servants; and every one who applies to him shall be healed. The Lord still has all hearts in His hands.
SERVING GOD the right way results in blessing and builds the church
God's work done in God's timing will never lack God's support.
Satan's strategy failed. He tried to divide the church, and it did not work. Satan's second strategy also failed. The apostles were not distracted from the focus of ministry God had for them. Christ will work by all his faithful servants; and every one who applies to him. God did great wonders and signs through the apostles, but also through others--those of of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom.
Every problem is an opportunity to prove God's power. The early church had a problem arise within its ranks but they came together as a spiritual Godly body and solved a problem that could have derailed God's work in the early church. The successful spiritual conclusion to an early problem led to an increase in people coming to faith in Jesus Christ including many who were priest in the Jewish faith.
"WHEN GOD’S PEOPLE, DO GOD’S WILL, IN GOD’S WAY, THEN GOD’S WORD WILL BE SPREAD"
Standing up for your faith and god's calling
Stephen was clearly teaching that Jesus was God; that Jesus was greater than the temple; that Jesus was the fulfillment of the law; and that Jesus was greater than the world's religious customs and traditions.
Satan's strategy is to pervert or silence the truth--the Word of God, until Christ returns.
Many Christians face persecution and even death for advocating, renouncing, refusing to renounce, or refusing to advocate a belief or cause as demanded by an external party.
Stephen’s stoning and the difference between the world’s view of success and God’s view of success with Stephen fulfilling his purpose in life by becoming the first martyr of the faith!
Stephen was at perfect peace. His face was not filled with fear or terror, because he knew his life was in God's hands and that Jesus never forsakes His people. "Perfect love drives out fear." 1 John 4:18.
PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS and the spreading of the gospel
Christians are persecuted for the their faith in Christ by others. God uses persecution to scatter the believers throughout the known world in order to take the Gospel to all places.
Acts 8 describes the transition of the gospel message from Jerusalem to Samaria.You cannot buy the grace that saves unbelievers, it is freely given and here demonstrates that God saves believers abundantly. After hearing Peter's rebuke, Simon who wanted to buy salvation asks the apostles to pray for him so that none of Peter's words would become reality. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” Ephesians 2:8
Finally beware, Satan has a counterfeit gospel, righteousness, church, preacher, and Jesus.
Ananias Baptizes Saul and his call of Evangelization
On his way to Damascus to seek out those who believe that Jesus is God's Messiah and to stop the spread of "the Way," Saul of Tarsus is blinded by a life-changing encounter with Jesus. Jesus sends him to Damascus, where he sees again and takes up his call of evangelization.
Miracles STILL HAPPEN
Christians wonder, do miracles still happen? Why did Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead? “Aeneas,” Peter said to him, “Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and roll up your mat.” Immediately Aeneas got up.
Miracles vindicated Jesus claims about Himself and His teaching. Although He didn't need to perform any miracles and refused to perform them on demand, they came so that others might believe.
Of course the greatest miracle of all, Jesus took His life back and delivered a confirmation of His Kingship that no one could ignore.
Contagious Christians
The Bible provides firsthand experiences of how Christians became contagious by the power of God. Contagious Christians are founded on biblical truths that empower. The Book of Acts provides the road to spiritual truth and enthusiasm for spreading the Gospel and meeting the great commission challenge. Go viral!
Impacting our World for Christ- 1st called christians
Peter supports his visit to Cornelius in Caesarea and tells of his vision prior to the meeting. Peter elaborates on the pouring out of the Holy Spirit during this meeting. Peter defends God’s grace. In verse 17, “If therefore God gave them the same gift as He gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God?” In verse 18, “When they heard these things they became silent; and they glorified God, saying, “Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.”
The door is openED Part 1.
In Acts 13:1-3 The calling of Paul & Barnabas to missions. We find the work of the Spirit in the lives of Saul and Barnabas and the church at Antioch which gives us God's perspective on who sends the missionary. Church Leaders as Missionary Candidates. (13:1). The church is to set apart Barnabas and Saul for the evangelization of Jew and Gentile (compare Rom 1:1; Gal 1:15). Christ opens the door! The Spirit communicates that now is the time for deployment! You can walk through the door that God opens!
The door is openED Part 2.
In Acts 13:4-13 In part 2 we continue on the road that has been paved for Christians with God's power to carry out the great commission--to tell and bring others into a relationship with Jesus Christ. What are we waiting for?
1st Missionary journey
There will always be mixed reactions to the gospel. Your responsibility is to preach, and the Holy Spirit will do the rest. Accepting the good news of Jesus Christ is a matter of the will. All without coercion--we cannot force people to accept the gospel. We can pray for them.
Knocked down but not out!
Sometimes being persecuted means you're doing the right thing by God. Not to worry, because God keeps His promises. The disciples come to find Paul, they see that Paul hasn't quite been stoned to death. So Paul goes back and continues the work God gave him to do, and doesn't stop there.
yet not my will but yours
Controversy can fill our churches today just as in the past. The main controversy that began in Antioch, was when 'certain men' came from Judea teaching that salvation was dependent on circumcision according to the Mosaic law. Today as then, Christians and ministers can lose sight and become engaged in controversy, just as then, those that should have been busy in enriching and growing the church can become captured in composing the divisions of it. This message is a warning in what to expect when unhappy discords take precedence in our walk with Christ. God through His Word has given us the answer when are willing to Stop, Look, Listen, and Do His will, not ours.
yet not my will but yours (Part 2)
Controversy can fill our churches today just as in the past. The main controversy that began in Antioch, was when 'certain men' came from Judea teaching that salvation was dependent on circumcision according to the Mosaic law.
a message from mars
“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. " Acts 17:24 The prevailing philosophies of the West's post-Christian era--secular humanism's scientific empiricism and the New Age pantheistic type of postmodernism--are remarkably similar to the Epicureanism and Stoicism Paul encountered at Athens. Paul's speech becomes a model for how to witness to the educated post-Christian mind, even as it spoke to Theophilus and his fellow seekers with their first-century pre-Christian minds.Proclaiming the Gospel with Integrity (17:16-21)
Time is in God’s hands
Our times are in God's hand; we purpose, but he disposes; therefore we must make all promises with submission to the will of God. Let us earnestly seek, in our several places, to promote the cause of Christ, forming plans that appear to us most proper, but relying on the Lord to bring them to pass if he sees good. The business of ministers is to preach Christ. Not only to preach the truth, but to prove and defend it, with meekness, yet with power.
steadfast in god’s will
The powerful influences of the Holy Spirit bind the true Christian to his duty. Even when he expects persecution and affliction, the love of Christ constrains him to proceed. None of the things Paul faced moved Paul from his work; they did not deprive him of his comfort. It is the business of our life to provide for a joyful death. Believing that this was the last time they should see him, he appeals concerning his integrity. He had preached to them the whole counsel of God. As he had preached to them the gospel purely, so he had preached it to them entire; he faithfully did his work, whether men would bear or forbear. The most advanced Christians are capable of growing, and will find the word of grace help their growth.
Misunderstood
In the temple, where Paul should have been protected as in a place of safety, he was violently set upon. They falsely charged him with ill doctrine and ill practice against the Mosaic ceremonies. It is no new thing for those who mean honestly and act regularly, to have things laid to their charge which they know not and never thought of. It is common for the wise and good to have that charged against them by malicious people But God seasonably interposes for the safety of his servants, from wicked and unreasonable men; and gives them opportunities to speak for themselves, to plead for the Redeemer, and to spread abroad his glorious gospel. Today in our current society we are experiencing attacks on our integrity which is built on the Rock. God has taught us by example, as well as by rule to pray always without ceasing in all things.
Paul speaks
As the soldiers were about to take Paul into the barracks, he asked the commander, “May I say something to you?”
“Do you speak Greek?” he replied. “Aren’t you the Egyptian who started a revolt and led four thousand terrorists out into the wilderness some time ago?”
Paul answered, “I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no ordinary city. Please let me speak to the people.”
God’s purposes are always fulfilled
God's purposes fulfilled through the thwarting of the governor's desires. Pilate was unable to transfer jurisdiction over Jesus to Herod Antipas. As a result, Jesus' prophetic declaration that he would suffer in Jerusalem was fulfilled. Similarly, Felix does not succeed in sending Paul to Cilicia or Tarsus. As a result, the road to Rome lies more directly before Paul (Acts 23:34-35/19:21; 23:11; compare Lk 23:6-7/9:51; 13:33). God's "fingerprints" are certainly all over what happens to Paul in these last days and hours. These turns of events authenticate his message and mission.
Christians imprisoned and god’s response
Felix's profligate life warns us all not to let sex, money or power put us into a "don't call me, I'll call you" stance toward the gospel.
Life is unfair!
How often does fear hide behind a busy schedule? How many have fooled themselves into thinking that by not deciding they have truly "kept all the options open" and at a convenient time in the future they will give the claims of Christ the serious attention they deserve? Actually indecision is a decision--a choice to remain where we are, outside God's saving grace, with the condemnation of the judgment to come our only prospect (Jn 3:18, 36). Paul's solid defense teaches us that though proclaiming a controversial message may spark an uproar, messengers themselves must always be peace-loving, circumspect and law-abiding.
Divine Appointment Christians
There are certain "defining moments" that forever change the identity and destiny of an individual, a movement, a nation. The moment may be as commonplace as the birth of a child or as unique as the extraordinary British defeat of the Spanish Armada. The defining moment for all of human history and for every individual is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Prisoner Paul boldly proclaims this before Festus, Agrippa and Bernice in the final missionary preaching in Acts. To embrace this proclamation is to permit the purpose of Luke-Acts to be fulfilled in one's life (Lk 1:1-4).A King's Curiosity (25:13-22)
Shipwrecked: Down but not out
Eric Liddell, "the Flying Scotsman," won the four-hundred-meter race at the 1924 Paris Olympics in world-record time. But his real heroics occurred twenty years later, in the Weihsien concentration camp in China. This missionary's faith and energy encouraged many of the eighteen hundred trapped in the camp's squalid conditions. "Uncle Eric" to children separated from their parents, he "organized activities, served as a teacher and a guardian for youth, and fulfilled the role of pastor until a brain tumor claimed his life in February 1945" (Williamson 1991:127). The comforting prophetic word had been fulfilled to the last letter (27:22, 34). The strongest of natural forces threatening Paul's existence had been unable to thwart God's providential purposes for him. What can Christ do your you?
Health Preserved by the Power of God
Though Christians may differ on what aspects of Paul's miraculous ministry were unique to him as an apostle and which are possible today, all should agree that the proclamation of the "whole gospel" will involve prayer-saturated witness to and concern for the "whole person" (compare Jas 5:13-18). Paul experiences what he had instructed the Corinthians about--the dynamic of sowing spiritual things and reaping physical things (1 Cor 9:11; also see Rom 15:27). The islanders honored Paul's party in many ways and furnished them with the supplies . . . needed. A mercy ministry embraced in truth will not simply amaze or bring physical restoration--it will make one merciful.