The Power of the Gospel V

Bearing FruitSunday 05/03/15

 

Series: The Power of the Gospel V

 

Message – The Power to Bear Fruit unto Godliness I.mp3

Click here for the Video

 

Since Easter we have been talking about the Power of God.

That…

  • Christ was raised in power and lives by God’s power
  • That the Gospel IS God’s power unto salvation because IN IT rightness with God is revealed.
    • We are to anticipate power in the preaching of the Gospel. If we share the gospel with someone, we should anticipate God’s power being present to deliver, heal and set free.
  • We should be inclined & pre-disposed to anticipating God’s power in our personal lives.
  • We are to anticipate Power in regards to healing – not just our own either.
    • Many of you have been subject to doctors and medications which have you dependent upon a chemical to regulate things in your body. God, as the Creator of that body needs to be consulted PRIOR to consulting a doctor.
      • Should I go?
      • If I go is it just for information or to follow every thing they tell me to do?

I asked the hypothetical question – one that applies to each and every one of us – “We may have anticipated God’s intervention to keep  us from tragic illness, but what is it that has kept us from approaching God with anticipation concerning total and complete healing?”

  • And this anticipation of God’s power for healing is not just for us –
    • The other day, Teri and I saw a beggar with his eye swollen shut and very red with a cut on it. We were at a light that had just turned green when we got near to him. I handed some cheese & peanut butter crackers out to him as we always do and asked him to receive it as from the Lord Jesus. I then sensed in my spirit – pray for him to be healed. Well I had traffic behind me and could not legally hold them up so I circled the block, grabbed a pint of Gatorade and water and then parked adjacent to where he had been. It hadn’t been 10 min. but he was gone. We looked for him but he could not be found anywhere (in this particular place they usually congregate in the parking lot). We did not get to pray for him and haven’t’ seen him since…but the point is that the Lord spoke to me and it seemed to me that it was to anticipate this man’s healing. While this may not be a common thing, I serious wonder if it should be in the life of a Christian.

and Finally,

  • We are to look to, anticipate and rely upon God’s power for living Godly lives. (Not having a form of godliness but denying it’s power).

 

COVER  STATEMENT

While Godliness is not specifically mentioned as a fruit of the spirit – the net result of those fruits IS god-likeness or godliness.

Consider Gal. 5:22-23,

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.”

 

So how do we produce this fruit?

Colossians 1:3-8,

“We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, because we have heard about your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the saints, based on the hope laid up for you in heaven. Some time ago you heard about this hope in the word of truth, the gospel that has come to you. Just as it is bearing fruit and spreading all over the world, so it has been doing among you from the day you heard it and came to know the grace of God in truth. You learned about this gospel from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf. He has told us about your love in the Spirit.”

 

The 1st Key is to hunger, thirst, desire, inquire and hold onto what you hear.

The parable of the soils and the seed

Matt. 13:1-17,

(1)  On the same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea.

(2)  And great multitudes were gathered together to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.

(3)  Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a sower went out to sow.

(4)  And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them.

(5)  Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. (Lk has it – lacked moisture)

(6)  But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away.

(7)  And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them.

(8)  But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.

(9)  He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” (Matthew has it – When He had said these things He cried, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”)

(10)  And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?”

(11)  He answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.

 

WHY?

 

(12)  For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.

This passage AS READ in many English translations makes no sense. “whoever does not have, even what he does have will be taken away.” If a person has nothing, there is nothing to take away.

Well, there is more to the word translated as “have” here than meets the eye (at least in many English bibles).

THIS IS KEY….

Whoever has – means to have and hold onto. It implies that what is held is valued, cherished and desired.

 

(13)  It is for this reason that I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.

 

So we can see that Jesus’ reason for why what they have is taken from them is because they are not treating it with the love and deference it deserves. They treat it lightly or only consider it during the moment it was spoken, but later forget since they did not hold it dear to them. This is God’s righteous judgment of those who forget that it was not facts, but a person who was revealed – the person of the Son of God.

This is not entirely unlike some of the churches Jesus Himself addresses in Revelation.

There Jesus Himself speaks to the churches and warns them of their negligence to have and hold certain truths close to their hearts. he invites them to repent (change their minds) about their forgetful or chevalier attitude concerning the Truth. If they refused or lagged in diligence to repent, His word was that He would come quickly and remove their church. “Those who have ears to hear…Let them hear!”

This is where we ended this week. We will begin with hurtles to bearing fruit in our next message.


I hope this teaching will challenge you and encourage you to discover genuine and place your trust in the God of the Gospel of Power..

If you have been spiritually fed by this ministry and wish to give to its ministry, you may do so here.

 

Blessings!

 

Hi my name is Mark and though I am opposed to titles, I am currently the only Pastor (shepherd/elder) serving our assembly right now.

I have been Pastoring in one capacity or another for nearly 30 years now, though never quite like I am today.

Early in 2009 the Lord revealed to me that the way we had structured our assembly (church) was not scriptural in that it was out of sync with what Paul modeled for us in the New Testament. In truth, I (like many pastors I am sure) never even gave this fundamental issue of church structure the first thought. I had always assumed that church structure was largely the same everywhere and had been so from the beginning. While I knew Paul had some very stringent things to say about the local assembly of believers, the point of our gatherings together and who may or may not lead, I never even considered studying these issues but assumed we were all pretty much doing it right...safety in numbers right?! Boy, I couldn't have been more wrong!

So needless to say, my discovery that we had been doing it wrong for nearly two decades was a bit of a shock to me! Now, this "revelation" did not come about all at once but over the course of a few weeks. We were a traditional single pastor led congregation. It was a top-bottom model of ministry which is in part biblical, but not in the form of a monarchy.

The needed change did not come into focus until following 9 very intense months of study and discussions with those who were leaders in our church at the time.

We now understand and believe that the Bible teaches co-leadership with equal authority in each local assembly. Having multiple shepherds with God's heart and equal authority protects both Shepherds and sheep. Equal accountability keeps authority and doctrine in check. Multiple shepherds also provide teaching with various styles and giftings with leadership skills which are both different and complementary.

For a while we had two co-pastors (elders) (myself and one other man) who led the church with equal authority, but different giftings. We both taught in our own ways and styles, and our leadership skills were quite different, but complimentary. We were in complete submission to each other and worked side-by-side in the labor of shepherding the flock.

Our other Pastor has since moved on to other ministry which has left us with just myself. While we currently only have one Pastor/Elder, it is our desire that God, in His faithfulness and timing, may bring us more as we grow in maturity and even in numbers.

As to my home, I have been married since 1995 to my wonderful wife Terissa Woodson who is my closest friend and most trusted ally.

As far as my education goes, I grew up in a Christian home, but questioned everything I was ever taught.

I graduated from Bible college in 1990 and continued to question everything I was ever taught (I do not mention my college in order to avoid being labeled).

Perhaps my greatest preparation for ministry has been life and ministry itself. To quote an author I have come to enjoy namely Fredrick Buechner in his writing entitled, Now and Then, "If God speaks to us at all other than through such official channels as the Bible and the church, then I think that He speaks to us largely through what happens to us...if we keep our hearts open as well as our ears, if we listen with patience and hope, if we remember at all deeply and honestly, then I think we come to recognize beyond all doubt, that, however faintly we may hear Him, He is indeed speaking to us, and that, however little we may understand of it, His word to each of us is both recoverable and precious beyond telling." ~ Fredrick Buechner

Well that is about all there is of interest to tell you about me.

I hope our ministry here is a blessing to you and your family. I also hope that it is only a supplement to a local church where you are committed to other believers in a community of grace.

~God Bless!