Fan to Follower | UNLEASHED | Kyle Idleman

[Music] i don't know anyone who doesn't want to make a difference with their life i i think each of us wants to have an impact we want to be a person of influence influencer is a word you hear a lot these days oftentimes influencer is defined as someone who has a lot of followers on facebook or a lot of people on instagram i don't even know the right language to use but they're on social media and they've got a lot of likes a lot of followers but if you study through the gospels one of the things you'll see is that a person of influence is a person who loves people one at a time it's not necessarily having a lot of folks follow you on facebook it has more to do with how do you love people in your circle you can do that through social media there's certainly opportunities to use those platforms to love and care for encourage and connect with people but the tendency is for us to lose sight of caring for people loving people one at a time the way of jesus when we live in a world that puts such an emphasis on how many and how much and so one of the things we're learning as we study the book of acts is that the early church was unleashed to change the world and the way the early church changed the world is by loving and caring for people one at a time and so you have the book of acts that was written by one person for one person it's a lot of time to write if i'm writing a book and they're like only one person is going to read it it's going to get a lot shorter quickly right like it's it's a lot of effort to put in for just one person yet this is the jesus way this is the gospel approach and so the book of acts is written by one person for one person and then you see one story after another where the gospel spreads the good news is unleashed one person at a time that's what we're committed to as a church we want to be a church of influence and impact the way we measure influence and impact is not by how many people attend it's not by how many people come to buildings it's not about size of crowds it's about the way we love people in the name of jesus one at a time that's what we want to be known for i'm convinced that in 2021 more than any time in my life i don't know how far this would go back but more than any time in my life there's an opportunity for the church to change the world by loving people one at a time i i believe that when we demonstrate radical compassion when we show kindness and grace it's going to be noticed when the church demonstrates hope and peace when circumstances are difficult and uncertain it it's gonna be a light that shines brighter than i think that it ever has in my lifetime and so as a church we're leaning into this we're doubling down on this like we want to be a part of changing the world so we're not going to just huddle up and if you were here in week one we're not going to just huddle up and cover our ears as the train goes by like we we are going to be intentional and we are going to be radical in how we reach out and love and care for people and how we proclaim the good news of gospel from a platform of compassion and kindness and grace and the love of jesus we're we're gonna give a lot of our hearts and efforts and sacrifice for this i believe that this is how the church is unleashed but here's my tendency and maybe i'm not the only one i tend to get pretty self-focused especially in times like these like i focus more on self-preservation i think more about my own physical health i think more about my own future finances and what's going to happen in the economy and will i be able to provide the way i want to be able to provide for my family and for i tend to become very much focused on myself but for the church to be unleashed it means that we take the attention off of ourselves and we recognize that god hasn't just saved us as followers of jesus to to come and to sit but to to reach out to engage not just to receive but to give there's nothing more humbling to me than reading some of the missionaries uh the biographies of missionaries from the past as a way of of keeping things in perspective so that when i start to feel sorry for myself and i've done a little bit of that in this season when i start to complain because god's plan doesn't match up with my plan and i knew what things were going to look like for the next five years and now things are much different it just reminds me of god's power and god's sovereignty and the need for my humility and submission not my will but yours be done yours is your will is better than my will so i've got to tell you about a um a missionary biography i was rereading during this pandemic season it's about one of america's first missionaries one of the first people to ever leave america to be a missionary his name was adeniram judson at age 24 he set sail to india he would eventually spend most of his ministry in burma an incredibly difficult and hostile country at the time but at age 24 he he set off now think about this for a minute like there's no face time he's saying goodbye to his family and friends at age 24 and he will likely never talk to them or see them again in fact there was a name for missionaries like this back then they were called one-way missionaries and they would pack up their belongings not in a suitcase but in a coffin because that's where they were going to be buried and so he set sail he wasn't by himself though he he was with his new wife her name was ann he was 23 years old i want to read to you the letter that adaniram wrote to anne's father when he asked anne's father for her hand in marriage here's here's the letter i have now to ask whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring and to see her no more in this world whether you can consent to her departure and her subjection to the hardships and sufferings of missionary life whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean to the fatal influence of the southern climate of india to every kind of want and distress to degradation insult persecution and perhaps a violent death can you consent to all of this for the sake of him who left his heavenly home and died for her and for you and for the sake of the perishing immortal souls for the sake of heaven and the glory of god can you consent to all of this in hope of soon meeting your daughter in the world of glory with the crown of righteousness and her dad replied she can make up her own mind that's probably the right call i've had two young men sit down with me and ask for my blessing i don't think it would have changed much had it gone the other way but as for my blessing to um and propose to my daughters i don't know how i would have responded if they would have handed over a letter like that but we have a letter that she wrote that ann wrote to her friend lydia kimball about the decision that she had reached listen to this here's ann's conclusion here's her decision i feel willing and expect if nothing in providence prevents to spend my days in this world and heathen lands yes lydia i have about come to the determination to give up all my comforts and enjoyments here my sacrifice sacrifice my affection to relatives and friends and go where god and his providence shall see fit to place me and all of a sudden we get a little perspective oh maybe maybe i shouldn't complain maybe there's some ways that god wants to use me that will stretch me out of my comfort zone and maybe that's okay they leave in 1813 they end up in burma in 1824 anne is pregnant adenairem gets put in prison for preaching the gospel and in prison his feet would be tied together and he would be hoisted up into the air so that only the back of his head and his shoulders would be on the ground that's how he would sleep night after night every night he began to waste away in prison over that year was nearly crippled from the torture his wife ann during that time was pregnant with her daughter her name would be maria but she was sick and she was wasting away as well and yet every day nearly every day she'd walk two miles to the jail where adniram was being held and she would plead plead for his release eventually there was something about them that softened the jailer's heart and and so when maria was born anne was very sick and she she she couldn't feed her baby her milk had dried up and so the jailer allowed adnirum out of prison in the evenings trusted him enough to let him out of prison in the evenings to take his baby around to the women in the village and beg for those women who were nursing to feed his baby and then go back to prison sometimes what we need is a little a little perspective but we hear stories like that and we're like i don't know i just i want to be a person of influence and impact but that's not really what i'm looking for i'll tell you most peop the most miserable people i know at least the most miserable christians i know are the ones who try to be comfortable in their approach the ones who think you know what i want to follow jesus but i don't want to do it in a way that's comfortable or inconvenient so look i'll follow him without walking the narrow path and it doesn't work like that's not what we've been called to do and so if you think you can you know just come to to church and and be fed and make it about yourself and not really engage and not really be a part of things not give not serve not be a part of the family but just treat it like a movie theater where you're gonna sit towards the back or you're just gonna you watch it from home but you're not really a part of the mission you're gonna be miserable because that's not what god has called you to do with your life he's called you not to be comfortable but to be committed and it's by all of us coming together with this type of passion and purpose that the world will change but each part of the body has its own function like it doesn't work the bible says if one part of the body says well you know i don't need to do my part somebody else will do it like it it works when we all come together so if you're studying the book of acts one of the phrases you'll see consistently in the early chapters of acts is the phrase all the believers so it's a it's a common description of the early church all not just a few not just um a unique a uniquely gifted group not just the the chosen or the select few but all the believers like this is the power of the church it doesn't happen we don't even get close to it if it's just some pastors and some key leaders and then everybody else just says well it's it's up to them the power of the church is felt when all the believers come together and together we are on mission so you'll see this phrase throughout um the gospel or the book of acts a few examples acts 2 verse 1 all the believers were meeting together 2 verse 42 all the believers devoted themselves to the apostle t apostles teaching to the fellowship to the breaking of bread and to prayer verse 44 all the believers were together and had everything in common acts 3 verse 24 all the believers lifted their voices together in prayer verse 32 all the believers were united in heart and mind and so you see the unity that was a part of the early church and this is my prayer for us church family man i love this church i love the church i love i love the unity that has marked this church i love that this is one of the most multi-generational churches i've ever been to you look around at any campus and you just see all kinds of generations represented i love the socio-economic diversity represented in our churches and our campuses i love the the fact that we have people from all kinds of different political perspectives that come together and and one of the ways the enemy is going to try to neutralize the church is to divide us the early church had all kinds of things that could have divided them but they were united around jesus they understood that the mission of christ the eternal mission was more important it was more important than any kind of um political separation economic separation there are lots of different kinds of people representing the church but they all the believers coming together that's where the power is found and so one of the things you'll hear us talk about as a church is that we want the full force of the church to be unleashed full force means you then it means me it means that we're in this together it means that i'm not afraid to ask you for help it means it means that when there's opportunities to serve and to give i'm going to let you know and i'm not going to be nervous about that or worried about that not asking for me i i'm giving you an opportunity to be a part of what god is doing like we should be thankful we should feel privileged that we get an opportunity to join god and the work that he wants to do during this time in history and so the title of this message is we wrap up the unleashed series is from fan to follower and the idea is that oftentimes a church is full of fans people who like to sit in the stands but don't like to play in the game people who want to follow jesus close enough to be associated with him but not so close that requires anything from him people who want to know strings attached to relationship with jesus like they want to come to church they want to get they want to get the benefits but they don't want to have the commitment and so what we're calling ourselves to as a as a church family is away from comfort and convenience and towards commitment where jesus says do you want to follow me you take up your cross daily and you follow me it's not that we just know about jesus it's that we know him and that we walk with him it's not that we just know information and learn bible stories it's that that are it's that our life is a story of the difference that jesus makes and so the book of acts you see all kinds of examples of this but the one that i really want to draw your attention to is the life of paul so we've looked at different stories i want to touch on paul before we wrap up this series because paul really exemplifies this idea he grew up in a really religious home some of you will identify with us like from a young kid it was um impressed upon him here are the rules that you need to keep in order to make god happy anybody think that that's what religion was that's what faith was that the the idea of being a christian somehow got ingrained into you at an early age that if you're a good boy or a good girl god will like you and bless your life but if you are not a good boy not a good girl that god will be mad at you he won't like you and you won't go to heaven so that's not the gospel the gospel tells us it's not because of what we do it's because of what jesus has done for us and it's out of what jesus has done for us that we live a different life but but paul was someone who grew up in in a very religious home learned to keep all the rituals went to uh rabbinical school studied under you know um the lead uh rabbi in fact he calls himself in scripture he was that he was a pharisee of pharisees like he kept all the rules he knew all of it he believed in god but think through this with me he spent his life memorizing these uh prophecies about the messiah and then when the messiah comes he doesn't even recognize that he's the messiah right think just think about that paul more than anyone else certainly more than the 12 disciples would have had all the the prophecies about jesus from the old testament memorized like 300 plus prophecies he would have known them by heart but jesus comes on the scene he doesn't see it misses it it's interesting how religion can do that to you can uh inoculate you from the real thing some of the hardest people to reach are religious people i'd rather well i probably should stick to my notes on that so so paul paul grew up that way and um and he was so convinced that jesus was a threat to the religious system which he was that that paul made it his mission to to put an end to the church and to stop followers of jesus he could see how it was getting unleashed and so he was going to make his purpose in life to put a stop to it and so he is um arresting christians and and putting them in prison in acts chapter eight we read but paul saul um same person saul was going everywhere to destroy the church he went from house to house dragging out both men and women to throw them into prison verse 1 of chapter 9 says meanwhile saul was uttering threats with every breath and was eager to kill the lord's followers like he was success what are you passionate about killing christians like that was that's what he was excited about what what's your purpose i just have i just have this eagerness to kill followers of christ like that that's what he was living for and so he went to the high priest and he requested letters he's getting his hunter's license what he's doing here he requested letters addressed to the synagogues in damascus asking for their cooperation in the arrest of any followers of the way christians that he found there and he wanted to bring them both men and women back to jerusalem in chains and so he goes to damascus he's got his punting papers with him the trip he was on is like a six day trip to damascus he's got his crew with him as he heads there to collect the christians for prison and execution and along the way there's this bright light like blinding light i'm not metaphorically blinding like literally blinding this blinding light from heaven and he hears this voice and his voice says his name why are you persecuting me what are you doing saul says who are you the voice says i'm jesus and and saul is struck blind and you get a glimpse here of what god's doing in paul's life i think it's what he's doing for some of you you get a glimpse of how far god will go to release you from what's keeping you from being unleashed to release you from a purpose that's not his purpose from a plan that's not his plan that he's going to interrupt those things you want him to bless something that is not his plan for your life you keep praying that he's going to bless this path but it's not a path that honors him and you're annoyed and you're frustrated but he loves you and he's calling you to something different and so paul is this man who is his he is proud and he is predatory and now he is walking into the city he was going to raid broken and humbled and blind he needs help and so god uses this moment to literally and spiritually open his eyes he's blind can't see suddenly he's dependent feeling incredibly vulnerable there's something about that there's something about being put in a place of dependence and vulnerability that will open our spiritual eyes differently some of you recognize that like that's what this season has been about for you like you were on your six day journey and you're walking and doing fine and you're enjoying it things are good and then there's this interruption and and now you feel blind and vulnerable and i believe that for many of you like this is the this is the moment this is the season where god's going to get your attention and he's going to set you on a different path he's going to give you a different mission give you something else to live for than what you've lived for up to this point and then we read about paul's unleashed story in the book of acts he starts uh 10 plus churches 10 that we know about mostly of of non-jewish believers um the new testament 13 of the 27 books in the new testament are letters that paul wrote to these churches or to the church leaders teaching them how to live out their faith to be a part of this mission that god had called them to so we read in the book of acts these three different missionary journeys we don't have time to go through all of them but i do want to look at just the first missionary journey that he goes on it begins in acts chapter 13. it says while they were worshiping so he's with the church worshiping while they were worshiping the lord in fasting the holy spirit said set apart for me barnabas and saul that's paul for the work which i have called them to i've called them to a work that's different than this and so after they fasted and prayed they placed their hands on them and sent them off this gives you an idea of what the church was focused on these are probably their two most effective communicators and leaders and the church says you go you go like the purpose of the church is not just to make all the existing members happy it's not a country club like that's not why we're here the reason that we're here is to reach others to be obedient to the great commission to go and so that's what they do and they send them out and and as you read through the the book of acts you just you see on these missionary journeys a few characteristics that i think separate fans from followers and i think are really good descriptions of what we need as a church to be a church of influence and impact during this time in the world like i just want to give you two you probably come up with a dozen i want to give you two that i think are particularly relevant to being a church to being a person of influence making a difference during this time the first phrase i would give you that marked paul's ministry that marked his unleashed journey would be the phrase sacrificial commitment sacrificial commitment he committed himself to following jesus in a way that was not comfortable but it required sacrifice and so i just want to ask you if this describes your journey as a follower of jesus sacrificial commitment sacrifice is saying yes to jesus even when it means saying no to yourself are you doing that like is that part of this if what jesus wants for you is always what you want for you then there's probably something that's a little off even even jesus would say not my will but yours be done and so sacrifice saying yes to jesus even when it means saying no to you now almost always there's a call out of something comfortable and convenient requires commitment and so i would just say this that we put so much emphasis on talent and on passion and skills and resources but more often than not what makes a person a person of influence and impact is comes down to a decision of comfort or commitment really of convenience or sacrifice and we see this throughout paul's life if you read through his missionary journeys i mean they they sound a little bit exhausting not a little bit like a lot of bit but they're just he's walking traveling everywhere in the book um moody atlas of bible lands which i'm sure most of us read recreationally but in the book moody list of bible lands there's this paragraph that jumped out at me it just describes the physical demands that paul faced on his missionary trips he said the new testament registers the equivalent of about 13 400 airline miles that paul would have journeyed he would have sailed across stormy seas and we know of several shipwrecks the roads would have been primitive paths many of which were unsafe largely controlled by bandits and there would have been mountainous terrain just just lots of difficulty and again and again he had to choose commitment over comfort and convenience and again and again so will you i um in a weak moment found myself waiting in tj maxx which happens in my life usually i go to the back where there's comfortable seating and um i just wait back there in kind of the husband's section at least that's how i think of it and but sometimes they have like the aisle of technology towards the front it's kind of like the candy aisle for um men grown men and there's just all kinds of things that you don't need but you look at it and even though you didn't know that it existed until then you now have to have it and so i i was at t.j maxx and i came across this contraption that i don't know if you know what this is but i don't know what you call it it goes around your neck and then it molds up like this and then it holds your phone so that you can walk around i wish i would have brought it but you can walk around with your hands in your pocket and and you can just hold your you can lay down in bed and you can just look up it just holds your phone there so you you know you can be doing other things where you can you don't have to work out you don't have to even hold the phone you just you just look up at it and i i bought that like i thought i could use that in my life and i i you know spent that evening not the whole evening but walked around with it like this and if you want to lose respect with your wife quickly walk into the kitchen with a contraption that holds your phone up for you right like everything is just convenient and comfortable and and and i think that's one of the greatest threats to you and me living out the mission that god has called us to be on and so we're called to live this life of sacrificial commitment that the second phrase i want to draw your attention to is the phrase defiant joy i think that this marked paul's life and his missionary journey in in in such a manner that people took note like they recognized there must be something different about him because he is persecuted he is ridiculed people lie about him and and he's beaten with rods the bible says in one instance and he gets up and he walks back into the city and keeps preaching he's left for dead he gets up he shocks the shakes the dust off his feet and goes to preach in the next city and but he always had joy and there's just one story um that i want to finish with it's in acts 16 and he's on a second missionary journey here and he's with silas he's not with barnabas anymore and verse 22 says a mob quickly formed against paul and silas after they've been preaching and the city officials ordered them stripped and beaten with rods and they were severely beaten beaten almost to the point of death and then they were thrown in prison and the jailer was ordered to make sure they didn't escape so the jailer put them into the inner dungeon and clamped their feet in the stocks well that i mean that's a rough day for a pastor like he's he's beaten nearly to death and he's not his wounds aren't treated he's not cleaned up and and the jailer doesn't have to put them in stocks he seems especially cruel right because it's not just um like these loose-fitting stocks as we might picture it there's a form of torture where they would stretch out arms and legs and and that's how they're left paul and barnabas together paul's like or paul and silence together and paul's like that's what you want to what do you want to do i mean we're just we're here beating nearly to death stretched out incredibly painful uncomfortable and silas is like um you want to sing some worship songs and paul's like that's what i was thinking too and so they break out and worship and they just start they start singing what do you think that did to the jailer midnight paul and silas says in verse 25 we're praying and singing hymns to god verse 26 let me read this to you suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken and once all the prison doors flew open and everyone's chains came loose and the jailer woke up and when he saw the prison doors open he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped he knew that his fate would be worse than death if the prisoners that he had been told not to let escape escaped so he's ready to take his own life but paul shout paul who is now free from the shackles shouts don't harm yourself we're here and the jailer called for the lights and he rushed in and he fell trembling before paul and silas and he brought them out and he asked what must i do to be saved what do you think happened in that jail that night the jailer is so antagonistic towards them that he puts them in an inner cell no windows no lights smelled horrible he stretches them out puts them in these chains torture but he can't help but listen to them as they talk about jesus he can't help but notice their peace and then he listens as they start singing it's midnight and they're singing and then when they have an opportunity to leave they see him about ready to fall on his sword and they say don't do that and here's what i want you to see this is really important such a big part of the church being unleashed is that when they faced persecution and suffering hardship they responded with peace and joy that's who we are that's who we are we are not overwhelmed we might get struck down but we're not crushed we respond to hardship and suffering like no one else because of jesus we have a defiant joy i'm not gonna take that from me by anything that this world can throw at me there'll be hard days and there's certainly grief that's not what's being talked about here it's it's just this defiant hope that this life is not all there is don't buy into that don't get panicky and overwhelmed and upset don't let anxiety drive your days because your mind is constantly focused on everything that's going wrong and all the uncertainty of the season we are we are people who follow jesus and he gives us a piece that passes understanding i think that's one of the things that made this jailer take notice he saw the way they responded to hardship and suffering the other thing is when they faced cruelty and opposition they responded with grace and kindness right they they have an opportunity to escape and this jailer had tortured them put them in these chains they have an opportunity to escape even though he had treated them with cruelty they treat him with kindness even though he was callous towards them they were compassionate towards him and as a result the jailer says what do i do to be saved then you go on to read in that passage it says that they replied believe in the lord jesus and you will be saved you and your whole household they spoke the word of the lord to him at the hour of the night at that hour of the night same hour that he asks the question and gets the answer it says the jailer took them and washed their wounds because that hadn't happened yet and then immediately he and all of his household were baptized immediately didn't put that off didn't wait till he said what must i do to be saved and they preached salvation through jesus to him jesus is the one who saves us they respond to that message through a decision to be baptized a way to signify that this is now how they are aligning their lives in their hearts a lot they didn't know a lot of questions they didn't have answered but that's how they responded so i want to finish by telling you about adniram judson he faced nearly 40 years of opposition in burma but in that time he translated the entire bible into burmese he would remarry later but seven of his own children died before him in burma but he left behind seven thousand children of god today there are three thousand plus close to four thousand congregations that trace their beginning to ad nyrum jetson leaving america in fact i told that story a number of years ago i don't know maybe like five or six years ago and i've always wanted to share what happened at the end of that sermon so i finished telling that story about an iron jet and at the end of it after church was over i was out here talking to a few friends and these three young men were down front they motioned me over i went to talk to them they weren't from america they explained that they were visiting their english wasn't very good they were visiting from burma they wanted me to know that all three of them became christians became followers of jesus at a church and the name of the church was judson church just wanted me to know that we don't always get a glimpse of influence and impact i don't know nyrum probably had no idea how god would use his sacrifice to further the mission that church family we have a part where we have an opportunity to be a part of something really special at this time in history together we have an opportunity to be unleashed and to impact this world to influence this world in ways that i think will bring all kinds of people to jesus glorify god would you join me in this i know that it's it's difficult right now to get the attention off of ourselves i know there's so many distractions and every time you turn on the news or scroll through social media there's something pulling at you in a different direction and i'm asking you to recognize that god has if you're a follower of jesus god has not saved you to be consumed by all those things if he would have just had you become a christian and go straight to heaven right but he has you here for his purpose and reason for something eternal and so together we want to unleash the full force of the church let me pray for us god i thank you for your your grace that you would allow us to be a part of something that you are doing and i know this is a reset time for a lot of people like this is just a time where we need to have our eyes opened and just like paul on that road we need to see some things differently and some of us are pretty stubborn about this and so i prayed that that you would open our eyes and you would let us see that he would call us to something more than our own personal comfort and convenience that would call us to something more than just waking up each day and worrying about our own selves that that you would let us recognize that the worst thing that can happen to us as a follower of jesus is for you know for somebody to come in and do to us what they did to add in iran and torture death but god this life is just a breath it's just a moment there's nothing there's nothing that this world can do to us because of the hope we have in you we need to encourage each other with it we need to remind each other of it would you call us today to be a part of something greater than ourselves it's in jesus name we pray amen

Channel: Southeast Christian Church

Views: 5,162

Keywords: Southeast Christian Church, Dave Stone, Kyle Idleman, creative church, sermon series, worship, Jesus, God, Louisville, Kentucky

Id: aukLB5x9L38

Length: 37min 51sec (2271 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 07 2021