Fire & Wind: A Summer of Renewal // Called Out Ones
Fire & Wind: A Summer of Renewal //
Called Out Ones
Pastor Charlie Weir
The church is the embodiment of Jesus’ counter-cultural message and the champion of this cross-cultural mission.
“The church was God’s idea and all of God’s ideas are essential to life.”
The Holy Spirit’s connection to the Church.
· The Holy Spirit’s presence and power was essential in the birth of the Church.
· The Holy Spirit’s presence and power is essential in our becoming the Church.
· The Holy Spirit’s presence and power is essential in fulfilling the mission of the Church.
· The Holy Spirit’s presence and power is essential in renewing us as the Church.
Acts 2:42-47 (NIV) 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
The church was becoming group of people experiencing together…
· a 180° transformation.
· an unprecedented hunger and thirst for the things of God.
· an irresistible gravitational pull to be together.
· open hands.
· open hearts.
A satisfied church (people) stays put. A stirred church (people) spreads out!
Acts 11:19-26 (NIV) 19 Now those who had been scattered by the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killed traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, spreading the word only among Jews. 20 Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. 21 The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. 22 News of this reached the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. 23 When he arrived and saw what the grace of God had done, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. 24 He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord. 25 Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, 26 and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So, for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.
Church = Ekklesia
ek = out
klesia = called
Ekklesia = “called out ones”
“Now the whole offer which Christianity makes is this: that we can, if we let God have His way, come to share in the life of Christ. If we do, we shall then be sharing a life which was begotten, not made, which always existed and always will exist. Christ is the Son of God. If we share in this kind of life we also shall be sons of God. We shall love the Father as He does and the Holy Ghost will arise in us. He came to this world and became a man in order to spread to other men the kind of life He has — by what I call "good infection." Every Christian is to become a little Christ. The whole purpose of becoming a Christian is simply nothing else.”
Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis
We can’t talk people into becoming a Christian but we can walk them to Christ.
Kyriake is a derivative of the Greek kurios meaning Lord.
Kyriake means “the Lord’s House”.
To belong to the Church is to have a place of belonging in the Lord’s House with Jesus’ people.
3 places we are called out of and 3 places we are calling into.
1. Darkness to Light
2. Anxiety to Peace
3. Futility to Purpose
· Darkness is dangerous but … Light provides peace/security
· Darkness conceals but … Light provides truth/revelation
· Darkness impedes progress but … Light provides direction
· Darkness can lead to depression but … Light provides hope
Darkness to Light
John 8:12 (NIV) 12 …I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
Darkness into Light
Acts 26:15-18 (NIV) ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied. 16 ‘Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen and will see of me. 17 I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them 18 to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’
Anxiety into Peace
Matthew 6:25-34 (NIV) 25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? 28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Futility into Purpose
Living with God as Lord is a flip from futility to full!
A satisfied church stays put. A stirred church spreads out!