SEP 8 2015 | Evangelism and Holy Spirit Power

Sea Change Church · "Evangelism and Holy Spirit Power" · Adam Stadtmiller · September 8, 2015
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Open your Bibles, if you would, to Acts chapter 1, verses 7 through 11. It says 7 through 8 on the top, but it's 7 through 11. He said to them, and this is Jesus speaking to his disciples after he had been taken up into heaven. He said to them in verse 7, and this is the Holman Christian Standard Bible, it is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.

But you will receive power, put a circle around that word, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you. And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and to Samaria and to the ends of the earth. And after he had said this, he was taken up as they were watching. So Jesus flies up into the sky. It's cool. I think it's my favorite miracle in the Bible, Jesus flying, is really cool.

No one ever thinks about it as a miracle, but Jesus flying is really cool. No one else thinks that's cool? Everyone's just kind of staring at me. Walking on water is cool. Healing the sick, obviously important, more important than flying. But flying is super cool. So Jesus flew, which is rad. Makes me happy. And a cloud took him out of their sight.

And while he was going, they were gazing into heaven. So picture them just looking up, just gazing. And you'd look at that, right? If Jesus is flying around. I mean, that's interesting to me. They're gazing at him and they're fixated on Jesus and they're amazed as he's taken into heaven. That is something worthy to watch. The ascension is awesome, okay?

The descension is going to be even better when he comes back. And suddenly, two men in white clothes stood by them. They said, men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking up into heaven? I love that question. We're going to focus on that question. This Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come in the same way that you have seen him going into heaven.

I love it. I love this story because the angels come. Jesus has been gone. I don't know how long they were looking. Maybe it doesn't say. Maybe it was a half hour and it makes sense that angels would show up. But it seems like immediately that event had ended and the angels come and say, hey, let's get after it. Let's get on to the next thing. Like the time for fixating on what is already ended is over.

You can remember it. But let's not fixate on one thing. Let's move forward to what is set before us. Because I'll tell you what, the disciples had a big job ahead of them. And I want you to know it's the same job that you have ahead of you. The calling to the disciples, if you want to know what your purpose on earth is and your calling, or at least a major part of it, then look at this calling to the disciples.

It is to get in touch with the Holy Spirit. It is to wait on God and then to go make him real and relevant and relevant in a tangible way through the power of the Holy Spirit in the personal spiritual geography in which you live. Where do you live? Where do you live? Where are the places you live? And how do you insert what God infuses into you through your personal time with Christ into a conversation standing at a counter with somebody?

I had four or five of those this week where I was at different counters. I was at a coffee house in La Jolla. I was at a guy, I won't say their names because I don't want us all to go bomb them, but somebody at Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, where I began to speak. And one guy, he asked me what I did and I said, well, I work at a church. And he says, what translation do you use?

I thought, what translation do I use? That's odd. I said, we use multiple translations. And I said, are you a follower of Christ? I love that question. I don't use the word Christian much anymore because I think it has all these meanings that I don't understand. I don't understand what it means to be a Christian anymore. But I know what it means to follow Christ.

And so I said, are you a follower of Christ? He goes, no, but my roommate is. And he's a Nazarene. And I was at a Nazarene university, and I don't remember this being a tangent of the Nazarenes. But he said, you can only use the King James Bible. I said, really? Okay, we can only use the King James Bible. I won't get into that, but we continue to talk.

But now we have a spiritual conversation going on. I went back later in the week, asked him how he was doing. You know, I didn't invite him to church, but I did invite the coffee guy. I met an African-American guy named Luigi. How cool is that? I said, bro, I don't want to stereotype you, man. But can I just, can I, and he's from Boston. I said, that's, how's that work?

You know, Luigi. He goes, I tell people I'm from Sicily. And he had a big, thick Boston accent. Raise your hand if you've met an African-American man named Luigi. Yeah, right? Yeah. Great guy. And I invited him to the church. Said he'd like to come sometime. Where in your life are you getting evangelical traction? One of the terms you're going to hear is, what do evangelicals do?

There's this big term, right? Evangelicals. Okay. Evangelical has all these meanings to it. Just like the fundamentalists in the early 1900s had this different meaning to it. You know, if I were to ask you to raise your hand and tell me what evangelicals do and believe, you would list off a whole bunch of different things. A lot of them political.

What they believe politically. The problem I have with the term, and I was talking to a new friend of mine. And he uses the term, he writes a lot about evangelicals. Now, he's not a believer, he told me. He said, I'm not a believer. But his clinical work is in researching peace movements. And he worked on, did some stuff on evangelicals. And he kept using the word evangelicals.

And I said, one of the problems I have with the term is most people I know that would consider themselves evangelicals fail to do one thing. What do you think that is? Evangelize. I mean, come on. I mean, seriously. I understand there's like this big definition of what evangelicals are. But few evangelicals I know actually have a regular way in which they pour their lives out through evangelical fervor into those that they live near.

Now, there are outliers of people who really go after it. I would say, you know, I've mentioned my mom many times. If you don't want to witness to somebody, don't go to lunch with my mom. Okay? Like, she is going to witness to somebody. If you spend, you know, an hour with my mom walking on the street. Costco. Okay? She's going to ask you about Jesus.

I mean, it's just part of who she is. It's easy to say that, well, you know, I don't have the gift of evangelism. I want to say that everyone has the call to evangelism. Now, the measure in which you have that gifting can increase or decrease according to your what the scripture says. He who has faith. Who has been faithful with little will be given what?

What? Much or more. You know, our gifts are not static. Scripture is very clear that if you don't use your gifts, they can shrivel up like an apricot on a tree that has not been watered. And if you do use your gifts, God can increase it. Have you ever seen someone's gifts that have been increased? One of the best ways to get more of the Holy Spirit is to pour yourself into your gifts, to use your gifts.

The best way to grow into your gifts is use them. If you have a gift of service, hospitality. We're going to be taking a spiritual gifts here, test here soon in the fall to get you a better understanding of what God has called you to do. But this term evangelicals has a sense that we are evangelizing. I'm not sure a snarky comment on Twitter counts as evangelizing.

What I see evangelizing is, is actually knowing who people are. And being able to share love and life with them and what God is doing within your heart in a way that makes a difference. One of the things that I saw, or that I said this week is when we begin with evangelism, evangelism cannot begin with the end result in mind. Let me tell you why.

The end result in mind means, okay, I've met, let's say it's Larry. Now, he's my father-in-law. I'm pretty sure he's saved, right? Pretty sure, okay. But we'll pretend he's not. Now, if I meet Larry on the street and I think, I've got to get this guy saved, all of a sudden, I have jumped over the dignity of the human being, of who stands before me, of the beauty of who God created.

And I have a plan and a purpose that has really nothing to do with who Larry is as an individual. When we begin evangelism, when we begin going out and witnessing in Judea and Samaria and to all the ends of the earth, and that Samaria piece is really interesting, right? Because the Jews had a problem with Samaria. I won't get into that today.

But as God calls us into places we might not want to go, where we're sharing Christ in places we might not want to go. But if we start with the end in mind, we actually, as people become a product and we dehumanize people, I want to say that getting the message of Christ's salvation has to be, I think, in a few steps down the line from knowing actually who's standing in front of you, from knowing and caring about people.

You see, people have a radar that God put in them, and they can usually tell when you care about them. Does that make sense? You ever go into car sales a lot? You feeling a lot of love? No offense to the car salesmen. And I'm sure there's, I have some friends that are great car salesmen, and one of my friends, he's always at the top of the board.

He says, I don't try to sell them a car. I try to get to know them. He's always at the top of the board. I'm like, bingo. Like, that's it. Do you care about the person who's in front of you? I want to say the easiest way to evangelize people is to get to know people, to smile and to get to know them. Ask them, hey, this is great. You know what people love?

Being asked, most people love being asked questions about yourself. Where are you from? What's your name? That's an interesting origin. I've never heard that name before. Where does that name come from? Great. Are you from San Diego? You know. I tried that once with a guy one time. I asked him like four or five questions. And at the end of it, he's all, why do you want to know?

Because I'm a weirdo stalker, man. I'm going to chase you. Well, it was about, I said, where do you live? San Diego. Oh, we're in San Diego. Oh, just in San Diego. Really? Like, well, what part? Just San Diego. Why do you want to know? I was like, well, that's how the conversation went. Because you're at my church. I'm a pastor. Oh, forget it. We want to have a public faith.

One of these articles I read talked about evangelicals' lack of a public faith. Now, that faith can look a lot of different ways. In the 80s, I was told that that faith means you need to go stand on a corner with signs. And there was a big movement of, like, public faith. If you're not willing to stand up and cause controversy for Jesus, then, you know, you must not love Jesus.

Like, you know, and then there's the other side that we went in the late 80s to, like, seeker sensitive. Like, we're secret Christians. Don't tell anybody. Okay? You can even come to church. You might not even know. Okay? But we have really good coffee. The music's good. We want to find... Oh, I can start the timer. Great. Don't you hate that? We want to find the balance.

I think we want to find... There are times we need to stand up for our faith. I heard as those, you know, guys were, you know, dying for Christ in the Middle East recently, that they were tortured for a long time and they would not deny their faith. That's hardcore. Standing up for their faith, you know. We also have to be wise in how we go about it.

The other thing, too, is we want to make sure that we do have a public faith. Does anybody know you're a Christian? Like, seriously, does anybody know you're a Christian? Like, do any of the people you spend time with know, like, have an idea? Yeah. The more I'm stepping out and just letting... Like, I told you, I'm out of the wardrobe. I've totally come out of the wardrobe, okay?

I, like... I just talk about Jesus all the time with people. And it's... You know what's surprising? Like, I don't really get much pushback. Like, just say, hey, how you doing? Are you some guy in the water yesterday? He said he had a crook and he had a pinched nerve in his neck. To be able just to say, hey, you know, I'm going to put someone who prays.

What's your name? I'm going to put you on my prayer list that, you know, that that gets healed. Oh, okay. Well, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Where is your faith being public? You know, the enemy wants to drive you into little dry pastures of evangelism with no fresh grass, with no fresh fruit, with nothing. He wants to drive you into dry and waterless places of evangelism.

Where are you sharing Christ? So we see that the angels come and they're saying, hey, let's move on to it. We'll look at that in a second. I want to say one more sentence you'll see in the notes there. My friend said evangelicals have the most powerful engines and the slickest tires. I love that. The most powerful engines and the slickest tires.

How do we get traction? How do we get traction? How do you get traction to your faith? Let me ask, let me ask this and don't answer it. When was the last time you asked somebody this question? Would you like to pray to receive Christ? Would you like to pray? Would you like to be a Christ follower? Is Christ following something that you would be interested in?

I want to say, we'll say at the end of the message, that's a core question that I think should be in your regular conversations with people. At some point, after you've come to know them and after you've won the right to be heard. Now, for many of you, that probably scares the crud out of you. And I want to say that scared the crud out of me for years and years.

To the point now, the more I do it, the more God has increased my faith, the more he's increased my results, and the more it just becomes natural. I want to say that once you step out into that and find your own personal way that you share, because Bev is going to share a lot different than Wendy. But I said the Holy Spirit wants to manifest his power in a way that makes sense to who he has created you individually to be.

So where are we sharing that? And when do we have an opportunity to finally say to somebody, do you want to pray to know Jesus? Or not even to pray, because that is very evangelical, okay? To say, do you want to be a Christ follower? And begin to walk with them. Begin to disciple them. Begin to ask them, do they want to follow Christ? If we look here, Jesus promises the fuel for a purpose.

The Holy Spirit is a fuel. And one of the things I said last week is that when we look at the Holy Spirit, there is this thought sometimes that if the Holy Spirit doesn't come with the kind of power that you, you have a definition of power. Now, I ask you to circle power in your notes, right? So as you look at the word power, when you think of power, what do you think of power?

Now, some people, when they look at power, they're going to think about an explosion going off, a nuclear bomb that just blows everything up in its path. It is just radical. Other engineers are going to think about a grid that comes out of a power source that is contained, that has a purpose, that goes to a place that turns lights on in a house.

Do you see the difference there? The Holy Spirit manifests himself in the same way in multiple different ways, in many different ways is a better way to say it. When we begin to say that the Holy Spirit has to come in the form of signs and wonders, I think we're getting off. Now, I love signs and wonders. I've seen radical signs and wonders all over the world.

I mean, I've seen people get healed. I've, you know, been in spiritual conflict, seen demonic stuff, like seen the Holy Spirit fall in a crowd of 5,000 kids at a conference. And it was just, it was, I won't even go into it because it'll freak some of you out. Radical. Okay. Just radical. And I remember sometimes coming home from those and going, God has to do, if he's not doing this in my church, then we've missed it.

What I've come to realize as I've matured in the faith is to find that the Holy Spirit energizes people with all different types of power, but it's still the Holy Spirit's power. There are people in the world, and maybe, I don't know if Billy Graham is one of them, but Billy Graham does not really talk much about experiencing signs and wonders.

Who would raise their hand and say, he's not filled with the Holy Spirit? Of course he's filled with the Holy Spirit. And of course the Holy Spirit is energizing him to the final product that that fuel is for. Get this. If you're going to get anything today, it is this. Look at where it says the fundamental purpose. My belief is this, and I believe it's biblical.

The fundamental purpose of the Holy Spirit upon earth is to save souls. There's a lot of other reasons the Holy Spirit, he's a counselor. He heals. He heals. You know, he interprets the word. There's so many purposes. But when you look at this scripture, when the angels are talking, when Jesus is talking, he says the Holy Spirit's going to come, and it's going to come with power.

And we saw one example of that power in the book of Acts. What I have wanted to say is that the book of Acts is one church having one type of experience, and not every church that is filled with the Holy Spirit will have that type of experience. I know I'm going to get an email from my Pentecostal friend, but it's okay. That every church that God empowers them, and he empowers them for one purpose, because that power that gives you gifts, that increases your gifts, that increases the energy of evangelistic fervor is for one purpose.

That it can all trickle down to one effect. But people spending eternity with God. See, the Holy Spirit's power, when we access the Holy Spirit's power, it is for one purpose. And there's other purposes as well. Healing, I get that. But God wants to take all those things that will pass away. Have you read 1 Corinthians 13? So many of the things of the Holy Spirit, it says, well, what?

Will pass away. But there's one thing that will last. The salvation of souls. But once a person is saved, they are saved forever. So we see that. And so one of the things I challenge my friends that say, oh, man, I went to this meeting, and I've been going for the last year, and God's power came, and there was prophetic words. Look, I love prophetic words.

I like it. Okay? I believe in it. He says there was healings. People fell on the ground. They got slain in the Spirit. This whole thing. And some of you guys are going, oh, that's way too much for me. That's fine. I'm going to pitch a fastball at this church. So, you know. But with that, the question I always ask is this. Are people being saved? Are people being saved?

Because the work of the Holy Spirit will generally have one trademark to it as you walk alongside it for a long period. People will come to know Christ. If you want to know if the Holy Spirit is active, people, you will see people getting saved. You know, I see what's happening up in Bethel. And one of the things I, Bethel is a Pentecostal church up in Redding, California.

I've been up there, checked it out. One of the things I know, and whether you like it or don't like it, is I see a lot of young people getting saved. A lot. I look at it. I can't vouch for everything that happens there. I'm not there all the time. But I do know that people are getting saved. And if there's one thing that I want to do, is I want to lead a people who are committed to evangelism.

That are committed to sharing the love of Jesus in the communities, in the spiritual geography in which you live. Because everywhere you put your foot is part of spiritual geography. That you have a spiritual geography that is laid out before you. Look at the next point there. Evangelism is where the rubber meets the road in the Christ follower's story.

Evangelism. Evangelism. Evangelism. Evangelism. Who this week did you meet and think to yourself, that is a person that I want to share the love of Christ with. That is a person I want to get to know. I probably met five to six. Now I'm new into the neighborhood, so I'm meeting a lot of new people. But, you know, as I meet people, I'm thinking, man, they would be such a great follower of Christ.

Sharing the word of God with them. I want to say, now hear me out, because I don't need an email. Let me explain this well. Well, Jesus did not die on the cross to release the Holy Spirit. And I didn't write that sentence out completely. To release the Holy Spirit for its release sake. Does that make sense? But rather that all mankind might be saved.

He released the Holy Spirit because he does want to indwell us. He does want to empower us. He does want to show us power in all forms and all ways. But the primary reason, according to what I see in this scripture, is the Holy Spirit is released that people might be saved. One of the things, and look, I've been in, I was in a Pentecostal movement, okay?

I've seen, I haven't seen it all. I've seen a lot. I was about seven to eight years. I was in the vineyard. And then I was in an even more Pentecostal movement out of England for a while where I got fully involved in chasing after the things of the Holy Spirit. I love the things of the Holy Spirit. Love them. I love seeing the Holy Spirit work on people.

I love seeing people healed, healed of depression. I love it. But one of the problems that I found is it was so easy to get fixated on the next happening of the Holy Spirit. What I don't understand about God is he seems to keep showing up and giving you more if you want it. If you want to spend your whole life and never evangelize but just go after the Holy Spirit experiences, I don't know why, but it seems to me that God keeps showing up and giving you that.

And the reason I think why is I've contemplated because it bothers me. I'm like, God, at some point, stop showing up so people can see that there's more to it than just having the Holy Spirit be a spiritual opiate where I can have an experience. Just stop. What I have found out is that the Holy Spirit is a lot different than me. He has different purposes than me.

And he loves to be with people. And wherever you want to seek him, you will find him because he's infinite. And I kind of look at Christ following oftentimes like a food court. Does this make sense? Hear me out. You ever go into a food? I love food court. They just overwhelm me, though. You know, Chinese food, German food, Greek Euro, the whole deal.

So I see the faith as this giant food court. There's missions. There's social justice. There's Holy Spirit. There's evangelism. Like imagine a food court full of all the different things that you see with God, okay? There's study of God's word. And what I found this. If you want to just go around and sample each of those and try to have a balanced Christian life, God will give you that and you will meet God in these different places.

But if you just want to binge on Bible teaching, you can stuff yourself with, like at a Greek Euros place. Like I want nine Greek Euros, please, with extra yogurt sauce. Yeah. And you sit there and you just eat and eat and eat. God is going to keep giving you Euros. Does that make sense? You can binge because he loves you and he wants to meet you.

The problem is when we start saying, these Euros are great. Everyone needs it. Everyone from the food court, get over here because if you haven't had the Euros. We all need to eat Euros. Let's just eat the Euros, okay? Or Chinese. Oh, the sweet and sour orange peel chicken, right? That's so good. And what I find is that when you go after God in one way and you're true about it, and I believe that so many people, even in cessationist movements, people who don't believe the Holy Spirit works, do I in any way and no longer heals?

Do I believe? And they're all about biblical teaching. Does God honor that? Of course he does. So they're there and they're finding all this truth. Oh, you know, and they're finding all this truth. They're like, no, this is true because they find some truth there and they think it's the only truth. What I'm saying is this, is that I don't want to get fat at any one place other than knowing Christ crucified.

If there's one thing that I want to eat on a regular basis, it is Christ crucified, that he knows me, he leads me to the Father, that the Father loves me, the Father has equipped me with the Holy Spirit to share Christ with others. That's what it is. And so what I've tried to do as I think I've matured is I quit, you know, after God taking, you know, diving into these different restaurants.

Each time I'd go to a new one, whether it be Holy Spirit or biblical teaching or evangelism or whatever I got into, I was like, that's the new thing. Oh, that's the thing. Oh, if you don't have that, you're missing out. This church over here, they don't do that. They're completely missing out. And I finally, eventually, I just kept getting disappointed because I'd find disappointment in these things.

And I just had to come back to the basics. You know, I'm a simple guy. I just want to, you know, Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible, it tells me so. And I want to tell you about it. I sat and had a conversation. I got the honor to talk to Chuck Smith before he passed away from Calvary Chapel. And I asked him, you know, when the Calvary revival happened, there was all these signs and wonders and Lonnie Frisbee and the baptism.

And he was open to all those things, okay? But probably you didn't see it a lot at Calvary Chapel when you were there. Calvary Chapel is kind of feasting now at biblical teaching. And I said, well, Chuck, what about that? He says, you know, I could have gone after that if I wanted to. But he said, at the end of my days, I wanted to put all my time towards evangelism and discipleship.

In the end, he says, when I stand before Christ, when I look at all the works that I've done and he judges my works, the works that I just, I want to, the lion's share is having let people know about Jesus. And I remember sitting there thinking to him, and that's the day I made a decision. Yeah. Yeah. Me too. I just said, me too. And if you're not in that camp, God, that's cool too.

There's no judgment on that. I just said, that's where I landed. And that's where I want this church to land. Am I open to the things of the spirit? Do we have ministry time afterwards? Yes. But that power, and so that power is for a purpose. And I see the scripture saying that purpose ultimately has to end in evangelism. Because everything else it says, tongues, prophecy, it says in the scripture, will pass away.

Now, I want those things in our church. I want, I get prophetic words. Kai gives me prophetic words. People in the church give me prophetic words all the time. But I want to go out, I want to say, okay, how does that get to the result of people coming to know who Jesus is? I want to say chasing after God's Holy Spirit. I want to say chasing after God's Holy Spirit can often become a spiritual opiate that leads to personal consumption rather than saving of souls.

Let me read that again. I crafted that specifically for this sermon. And I've experienced it. And I know this because I've done it. Okay. This comes from me having done this. It's my personal story. That the chasing after God's Holy Spirit can often become a spiritual opiate that leads to personal consumption rather than the saving of souls. Jesus chastised two types of people.

One, he says, all you ever want is a sign. All you ever want is a sign. You want another sign, another sign, another sign. And then he also chastised another group. You know what? You don't want any signs. You don't believe in signs. He goes, if all the signs were done here, you don't believe. It hasn't opened you up to a belief. So we see that. That Jesus is saying extremes are easy.

We find somewhere in the middle. We often deal. Now, this is the part that I really wanted to get to in the sermon. Evangelism, roadblocks. What's your roadblocks? Do you have a roadblock? One of the things I used to do when we were a kid up in Rancho Santa Fe is we would go put, like, roadblocks on streets. And then we thought it was funny to, like, not in dangerous places, but we just thought it was funny to watch people get out and have to move the roadblocks.

And then we put it back. Like, as a kid, I thought that was really, really funny. Not so funny. You're like, hey, that was me. Roadblocks stop us from doing what we're called to do or where we're called to go. And if you think about it, every one of us, do you have personal roadblocks? Think about it. What's the roadblock that is keeping you from being a public Christian and having a public faith?

Or sharing the beauty of what God is doing in your soul? Because even in hard times, God is working out a beautiful story within you. Evangelism is as easy as sharing your story and hearing others. What are the roadblocks that are keeping you from getting to a point where you will ask that question, do you want to follow Christ? Or would you like to come to church with me?

It doesn't always have to start with that. What are those roadblocks? The angels look, come to the disciples, and they basically say, you've got this roadblock. You're sitting here fixated on Jesus. Now, we know the book of Hebrews says what? Fix your eyes on who? Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. So you could easily say that these guys were doing the right thing, right?

They're fixating their eyes on Jesus. Except there's one thing as we read through it that gives us a little hint to why they were missing the point. It says while he was going, they were gazing into heaven. They were fixing their eyes on Jesus. That's good, right? And suddenly, two men in white clothes stood by them. They said, men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking up into heaven?

This Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven will come away in the same way that you have seen him going. Jesus wasn't there anymore. He had been taken away, but yet, here's the point. They were still fixating on a place where Jesus no longer was. Does that make sense? That they were sitting there fixated. And I say as believers, we need to be careful, especially churches, when God has done a powerful movement in one way or in our lives in one way, and we become fixated on that.

But Jesus has said, which he does many times in the school, you know he's a bit elusive, right, in following him. He likes that. It creates faith. And so he's in a place, and you're finding some fruit there. But all of a sudden, Jesus, like, runs over here, okay? But we're so focused on, oh, all this good stuff happened, and we're chasing after it.

And Jesus has moved on. You see, what the angels had said to him was this. Move on. That season is over. See, they were in what you would call spiritual paralysis. Looking at a place where Jesus no longer was, and they were becoming immediately, immediately became stagnant. You know how long it takes to become stagnant in your faith? That long. Let me do it in the mic so you can hear it.

That long. Immediately, those angels came and said, Jesus is no longer here. Jesus is no longer here. Move on. Look at Isaiah 43. I love this scripture because it speaks to exactly what was happening in that moment. Do not, Isaiah says, do not remember the past events. Pay no attention to the things of old. Look, I'm about to do something new. Even now it's coming.

Do you not see it? Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. I want to say that there's certain things that many of us and many of you are still looking at. And God is saying, forget the former things. They can be negative things. They can be positive things. Both will get you off track. Both will get you off track. Remember how it used to be nostalgia.

Nothing is as paralyzing, I think, as an elixir. Or not in a elixir, but nothing is as paralyzing as nostalgia. Remember how it used to be? Remember in this church how it used to be? Remember how our family used to be? Remember, remember, I like memories. God gave us memories. But not for the points we can sit there and stare at it. Oh, remember how it used to be.

Remember how you see. But God says, I'm doing something new. I felt like the Lord said to give a word to many of you. Okay? And this is a prophetic word, not big P, as in I'm changing prophetic things of the book of Revelations. Personal prophetic for many of you here. Quit looking at the old things and move on. That time has passed. The grief, grief should come to an end.

Do you get that? Scars heal. You feel the scar is there, but scars heal. To no longer lay down in the valley of the shadow of death, but to walk through it. That the time of grieving for that thing, or the time of mourning over something that was great that no longer is. Or the family that you lost, as tragic as that was. Or whatever thing happened to you.

It's time to move on. And I felt specifically like the Lord. And you'll know if it. By the way, the Holy Spirit works when we teach and as we listen. If that's words for you, and I'm not telling you it is, you will know. You know right now what I'm talking about. I don't know what you know. Okay? But you know what you know that I don't know. Okay? We want to move on.

We want to hold on to the goodness. But we want to move on to the next thing. It's time to move on. What is God doing before us? We can honor the past. We want to move on. And stop looking at the sky. We have a tendency to want to live in the land of spiritual fascination. Or tangible experience. Three things and we're done. And I'll make it quick. How do we get Holy Spirit-fueled evangelical traction into our story?

The first is this. Know Jesus. The second is go where Jesus is. And third, grow where you see Jesus. Quickly. To know Jesus. It's impossible to introduce someone. I didn't know how to put this sentence because I used two someones. It's impossible to introduce someone to someone you don't know. Hey, have you met? Oh, by the way, have you met? If you don't know them.

Or have you met Jesus? You say, I know him. I want to introduce you to him. You've got to get intimate with Jesus. You've got to get to know him. How do we get to know him? By spending time in places like this with other believers. By listening to worship. By changing the channel of what you put into your ears and your eyes. What you allow to come in.

Whatever you allow to come in is what will come out. The best way to know Jesus is to surround yourself with him. Surround yourself with preaching. Surround yourself with worship. Surround yourself with the things of God. Surround yourself with prayer. And pray. Let me just give you some freedom. Pray however you want. Here's some freedom. Pray however you want.

If it's walking on the beach. If it's sitting. If it's in a group. Just pray. You know, the secret key to praying is what? Praying. That's the secret key. I found it. The secret key to praying. Okay? It's called praying. Just pray. Come to know God. Know him more. The more you spend time with him. The more you know him. The more amazing you will find that he is.

And if you don't know how to do it. And you're at a roadblock. Find someone who looks like they're a little further down the path. And go up to them and say, may I follow you to follow Jesus? People. Discipleship is oftentimes asking someone. Will you disciple me? Can I come alongside behind you? The next one is go where you see Jesus. How do you know where you see Jesus?

Jesus. When I'm in a line and a guy says, what translation of the Bible do you use? I saw Jesus. Immediately there was an open window. There was an open door. They're not hard to find. As I talk and people ask me questions, I just see the open windows and the open doors. And I think, I'm going to make it a point to go back to that coffee house. Even though that coffee was horrible.

Okay? I'm going to drink your bad coffee. Because I want to hang out with you. Get to know people. See somebody in the water. You have a conversation with them. You begin to see Jesus. I know I'm the soccer coach right now for my daughter's team. Troy Pines Elementary. Go Rockets. Okay? La Jolla used soccer. The Rockets. I tell you what, what great families.

I'm not trying to win them to Christ. I'm trying to get to know who they are. And just spending time with them. Those little kids, I've only known them for two and a half weeks. I love them. They're awesome. I see. I'm meeting the parents. It's fun. Like, what a great opportunity. All the new parents we met at Torrey Pines Elementary, now at the school, going over there and hanging out.

I love it. Fields. Fields of opportunity to harvest and just go pour my life into it. Just show up and smile. How you doing? So good to see you. But I tell you what, you can't fake that. You can't fake it. It comes from knowing Jesus. Know, go where you see him, and then grow where you see him. Just plant yourself deeply. Where is some, I want to give you, here's a little Scooby snack, a little evangelism Scooby snack.

Okay? Wherever you go, let's say you have a pharmacist. Okay? Bring them a cup of coffee. Go to Pete's. Get them a cup of coffee. Wherever you want to go. I won't use the big, sorry, or get some organic, you know, fair trade. And take it. Give them a cup of coffee. Find your favorite restaurant and bring them a bouquet of flowers. You know, I was just thinking about you guys.

Boom, wanted to bring you some flowers. Yeah. End the conversation with bless you. All right, bless you. They get it. Trust me. They're cool. People are so open for genuine, authentic. You know what? I think the world is dying to find, you know, genuine Christians. Because they see this, like, thing on TV, this representation of Christians. But then when they meet an actual Christ follower, it just blows their mind like a dry sponge.

It just sucks it up. I want to say, just be authentic. Be authentic to know Christ. And then at some point, ask the question, would you like to follow Jesus? Do you want to follow Jesus? Let's ask the worship team to come up. Lord God, as we prepare for a time of communion, Lord, we want to bless you, Father. We want to bless you, Jesus. God, we thank you for all that you're doing in this church, God.

Now, as we come to the table, Lord, we'll do so again in a fellowship meal. But right now, we're going to come to the table. Just lay whatever you have before Jesus as we come. Jim, come take us away, my friend. Listen to all we will see from God. Peace. Amen.