Radical Turn!
WE are going to find, LOVE, encourage, disciple and empower hundreds & hundreds (then, thousands) of individuals and families in the communities of the RiverBend & beyond!
#BOOM
Early this morning, I prayed this CRAZY big prayer (of faith) over our Abundant Church kids, youth & young adult ministries! My heart gets to racing all over again each time I read it!
Too bold? Impossible? Don't believe?
-- ok, then, stop reading and leave this post... because faith is required to read on.
By the way — this message, in part, was preached last week at our BIG SPLASH — that night 4 new people met Christ and 7 new believers were baptized! Ohhh, yeah!! Ok, on to the story…
Around 33AD: Two followers of Christ were on their way to a prayer meeting in Jerusalem. As they got close to a familiar gate, a lame beggar who they have seen countless times, asked them for money — rather than mumble something and keep going — they stop and pray. The man is radically and completely healed and begins jumping around, making a scene …
People came running from all directions to see the spectacle: a man, lame for 40 years, is suddenly jumping and leaping and shouting praises to God. He's undeniably healed through the power of Jesus.
So, with the crowd gathering one of the followers of Christ, Peter, seizes the opportunity and…
receives an offering - no!
stops and takes a selfie - no!
Snapchat? IG? Tik-Tok? - Ha! no!!
boldly tells the crowd the great news about Christ? - YES!
Miracles aren't for writing books or making youtube videos, they're all about glorifying the Lord and introducing others to Christ!
Have you ever watched one of those shows about “Horders” — you know you have.
You don’t want to watch but you can’t seem to look away. These confused or broken people hold onto everything. Even when they try to let go, they just go right back to the clutter and craziness! Why?? Because there was never a change of heart.
— explains why we hold onto habits, relationships, addictions and destructive behavior…
When we truly accept Christ, we are given a transformed heart!
Authentic, life changing, ministry to students (of ALL ages) is about the BIG, RADICAL, 180º TURNAROUNDS!
4 “TURN LESSONS” WE MUST EXPERIENCE:
1] TURN FROM DEATH! ... past, bitterness, unforgiveness, hurt, hate ...
Peter says, “REPENT” — he could have just said, join our new community group! Or, try to be a better person! No, he wanted them to be FREE & refreshed!
TURN = 180º from Sin
For many people the word repentance brings up the image of megaphone street preachers or televangelists screaming: Hell, fire, brimstone, judgement, damnation – "turn or burn." But, the truth is that repentance is a positive not a negative!
Repentance is freedom!
2] TURN TO LIFE! - by grace through faith. choose God & His love!
He must be #1 in EVERYTHING! IF you truly turn completely to God, you will also turn completely from sin, death and all that other junk. The problem is, most people only want to turn 90º so that they can fit in BOTH worlds... that never, ever, works.
TURN = 180º to God
Fight to stay turned completely to God (life, truth, faith, hope & love). No cheating!
3] STOP TURNING! - get off the carousel that constantly brings confusion: “I believe… I have doubts… I don't want to believe… whoa things suck… I better believe again!”
The Christian life is NOT a merry-go-round, it's a ROCKET SHIP!
REFUSE to be the dog that returns to it’s VOMIT! Yuck! So gross & stupid! No way, DON'T turn even 1º towards your old life, habits or junk -- get after God 110%!
Get IN God’s presence & God’s Word — then Get OUT there and LIVE IT! SHARE IT! LOVE IT!
4] GOD’S TURN!
OK, this is where it gets really good! Peter tells that crowd that after they turn from death, turn to life and then stop turning that something amazing will happen! And, I've personally experienced this and KNOW it's true! Peter says, Then times of refreshment will come from the presence of the Lord. He will again send you Jesus, your appointed Messiah. Basically, he's saying, THEN Jesus will rock your world is an epic way!
Are you ready for God to do His thing?!
I’m ALL about applying these 4 TURN LESSONS every day in ANY ONE that I can reach! You can be part of it too!
Oh, and by the way, it doesn't always get celebrated by the community (at least not at first)... in this story we find that while Peter and John (the other follower with him) were speaking, a group of religious haters show up and have them arrested.
Too late, however, the GREAT NEWS can NOT be stopped, and many of the people who heard their message believed it, so the number of believers now totaled about 5,000 men, not counting women and children. This means that in just a few days the followers of Christ in Jerusalem went from 12 to 120 to 3,000 and now to 10,000 or more!
WOO-HOO! This gets me so AMP’d! How about YOU?
IT’S YOUR TURN!!
**the story above is found in the Bible, Acts of the Apostles, chapter 3.
