February 14, 2010 - Go Fish #3:

Fish Guts! (Acts 4:23-31)

Message Kernel:

• Fish Guts - The primary reason we don't fish is because of fear -- fear of not doing it well, being stumped by a question, being confronted with our own hypocrisies, and fear of being rejected. But we learn to pray for boldness and see the Spirit move in powerful ways to help us do what Jesus has called us to do.

Practical Go Do of the Message:

• Commit to pray every day for the rest of the series for boldness to share Jesus with others, but in ways that respect them and treat them with gentleness (Acts 4:31 & 1 Peter 3:15).

Core Ideas:

• Jesus called his followers to come follow him and he would make them something they weren't ... something they had never really wanted to be ... something that they had never thought of becoming ... something that would change their lives and the lives of many others. That's why Jesus said, "Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people." (Luke 5:10) Pretty strong hint from the beginning to not be afraid about sharing Jesus!
• The message of God's love for us in Jesus is not intuitive: it is a life lived in history, so people are not going to discover it on their own so we have to tell that story, we have to share Jesus in word and deed for people to really know Jesus.
• We're followers of Jesus because someone told us about Him, but we are not so sure we should tell someone else. In fact, some may even struggle that it is even ok to try to change someone's heart about their faith.
• The early believers knew they were not supposed to talk about Jesus, that it made the authorities uncomfortable, even angry, made enough to oppose them. -- that the people around them, the people in charge of religious and political thought, didn't think it was right for them to tell their story. But the story of the book of Acts, of the explosive growth of the first followers of Jesus is that they ignored politics, culture, and law. They shared their faith in Jesus no matter the cost!

• So in context where it is a lot easier to share Jesus, why don't we?
  And when you boil it all down and ask why we don't share the Jesus story with others, it all comes down to one thing ... fear!
  • We can relabel it a jillion different ways. Don't want to mess up. I've got struggles in my life. I can't answer all the questions. I've been a hypocrite. They don't know me that way at work. I don't know what to say.
  • But bottom line, it's about fear! What if they not only reject the message, but me? I don't want to judge people. But for most of us, it all comes down to that four letter word: FEAR!
• Now we are not alone. Remember the great apostles of Jesus as he faced his Passion. They were cowards. Judas, Peter, the apostles -- betrayed, denied, and deserted. Think of the big braggert Peter. He cowered in fear, denied he knew Jesus, and was ashamed of accent -- to a couple of strangers and little girl. What's more, Jesus had warned him ahead of time.

• Fear can shut all of us down if we are trying to do this on our own -- if we are trying to share the message of Jesus on our own. But together, with prayer that puts things back in focus for us, and with a good dose of Holy Spirit's power, amazing things can happen!
  • Acts 4:23-31
    1. The apostles pretty much knew that you can talk about a lot of stuff at the Temple -- religion, God, Moses, Abraham, even Ruth -- but don't try to convince us about Jesus! They were sick about hearing about Jesus!
       [Kinda like our world, huh. Kinda like our schools, right!] [Brit Hume]
    2. And they had to know: If the Jewish leaders had enough leverage to get the head dude killed in such a public way, the leader of a whole movement crucified, don't you think they have enough clout to get the followers offed?
  • So under those conditions, what would you have prayed?
    Lord, we can't lose Peter and John -- great leaders ... and they hadn't written their books yet so how would the church know what to do after they died! And if they were martyred, what would happen to the early movement of believers? They weren't even called the church yet!
    1. Wouldn't we have prayed something like -- Dear God, thank you for this day ... help me, help me, help me ... protect Peter and John and ... fix it, fix it, fix it... get them off our back ... change our political leaders ... stop them, stop them, stop them ...
       [What we say and pray about mission trips!? Keep them safe! Kevin Harris!!!]
    2. Notice their prayer!

    * Sovereign Lord -- context and faith
    * Psalm -- this is what is happening. People stand against you and your Anointed One, the Christ, Jesus. We are in the middle of fulfillment of all of this -- we've seen this Psalm happen and you frustrated your enemies even as we didn't understand. This was your plan. We are in the middle of living your story ... and your story ransoms what has happened in our story.
    * We thought things had spun out of control, but they were doing what you had foreordained to happen because your hand was directing the flow of where things would go even as evil men chose to do evil, you turned it to good.
    * Now ... finally getting around to their request ... notice what they don't say or request ... consider their threats and enable us to speak your world with great boldness.
    So often our prayers about "me" because my world about me. But God, the Sovereign God, has invited us into His story, His great story, and wants to catch us up into something so much bigger than ourselves. And as a player in this story, as a player in God's story, we have something bigger to do than what our limited little set of wants and wishes will ever address.

Key Focus:

• Boldness is ...

  ... recognizing that the Sovereign God has perfectly positioned us to be in the lives of other people and to be able to be put in certain places, to share Jesus with others.

• But what does that mean?

  [Assignment coming out of this is to pray every day for boldness to share Jesus, wisdom to know how to best do it, and discernment to know the best time. But the biggest focus needs to be BOLDNESS!]

• "Enable us to speak your word with boldness."
  1. More aware of opportunity
  2. Prepared to face the fear of sharing Jesus

• Why should we be bold? (give several reasons)

  [Tony Romo holding for field goals]

Key Scriptures:

• Acts 4:23-31
• Acts 1:1-8
• Acts 8:1-3

Drama, Media, & Connecting Pieces:

• Pre-video:
• Video Piece: This would be used right before Phil's message at both services!
  • Key Message Piece: Win a Friend to Jesus

• Scripture reading

• Acts 8:1-4; Acts 11:19-21
  

Daybreak Planning Team: Jason Fry

Refresh Planning Team: Shannon, Hailey, Sam

Sundown: From Max Lucado's Traveling Light

1. Theme: It's a Jungle Out There -- Psalm 23:3 He restores my soul.
2. Speaker: Danny Minton
3. Worship Leader: Luke Baty