Monday, August 30th, 2010
Small acts of Faith.
Sunday was all about one idea from scripture. “Big things start with small acts of faith”. Throughout the Bible, the most epic and miraculous stories begin with a small act of faith. God first spoke to Moses by asking him to take off his shoes. God “introduced himself” to Abraham (then Abram) by asking him to move away from his relatives to a place he had never seen. Jesus repeated the “process” over and over during his time with his followers. Jesus asked fishermen to leave their nets and become “fishers of men”. He asked a tax collector to leave his table in the market place and follow him. In the passage we talked about Sunday (Matthew 21:1-11 ) Jesus asked his followers to “hot-wire” a donkey and bring it back to him…and if the owner asked why they were taking his property…Jesus told them to simply say that “the Lord needs it”.
Big things start with small acts of Faith. Retrieving a donkey can set off the “triumphal entry”…and the Crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord. I think we often miss the voice of God because we ignore the small and often odd requests the Spirit makes of us. Perhaps we think that when God speaks he asks for “Big” actions. Perhaps our embarrassment or self-consciousness about the often odd things God’s spirit prompts us to do holds us back from obeying “whispers from God”.
I shared Sunday how embarrassing it felt to “admit” that we thought we should start actionchurch. It seemed so ridiculous to say that we were starting a church when there are plenty of great churches in York County and we had absolutely no training or backing that would seem to make starting a church a “good idea”. I am so thankful today that I made a small step of faith…I’m so glad I did not ignore God and miss out on being a small part of the Big things God is doing at actionchurch.
REALLY excited for the folks that are taking the next step in their Journey with God by being obedient in “small acts of faith”. We’ll be be having a Baptism on 9/12 for them. Want to go public with your faith through baptism? info@actionchurch.com or talk to me Sunday.
Thanks so much to all the great actionchurch crew for all your individual acts of faith that have made this thing possible. YOU are responsible for what is coming for our church and county. Thanks to all of you who generously share your time, talents and money each week.
Special thanks to the guys from ionia. The reason why we were sound-checking at 10:45 is because they took a wrong turn on the way from New York City and arrived 20 minutes before the service started. In spite of their late arrival they were onstage and ready to rock by 11am…and the fact that they donated their fee back to actionchurch to help finance our move was beyond generous.
I really can not wait to kick off the “So Help me God!” series next week…
This Sunday we’ll be talking about the story of Jesus and a “stolen” donkey. This odd story contains a powerful single principal (found throughout scripture) that can positively affect EVERY area of your life. We’ll also be talking about the story behind actionchurch, how this principal is so important to “why we do what we do” as a church today…and where we’re headed in the future.
