Time in my life when I was lost, my first wife left me for another man, and then Jesus saved me. He revealed his gospel of grace and mercy to me, and my life was transformed. I went from hopeless to hope-filled. Sometime after that, My mom, who was definitely saved, she was a charismatic Catholic. She loved Jesus.
And so she invited me to come to this prayer meeting. She says, "Hey, mijo, we have this prayer meeting with other Catholics that love Jesus, and it's on Friday night, and you need to come to this thing." I said, "Okay, all right, sure, Mom. I mean, I need all the help I can get." All right, so I go to this prayer meeting of these charismatic Catholics, and I walk into this thing, and they are in there, and they're lifting their hands up. They're worshiping Jesus. They're praying in tongues, and I just thought, what in the world is going on? I mean, I'd never seen anything like this in my life, but I could just— I mean, these people were happy. They had smiles on their face. They were— I mean, listen, I was raised Catholic, and if you were raised Catholic— anybody here raised Catholic? Yeah. So, you know, I mean, as Catholics, we're kind of, you know, we're in church, you're quiet, you know, you don't make noise. If somebody's making noise or the baby's crying, you kind of look at him like, you know, be quiet. Quiet. And so this was like, this was like, what is going on here? What's happened to these people? Why are they so jazzed up and fired up about Jesus? This is just— they were absolutely unashamed. I was— men, it was women, and I was blown away.
And I remember talking to the leader. He was a, he was a deacon. It was a Catholic deacon. He was filled with the Spirit. I said, man, what is this? He says, is this— is this— is this— I mean, is this biblical? And so he said, yeah, this is biblical. So he took me to some scriptures, you know, in the Psalms where it talks about Psalm 63:4. He says, so I bless you as long as I live. In your name I will lift up my hands. I like Psalms 134:2, "Lift up your hands in the holy place and bless the Lord." Or 1 Timothy 2:8, "I desire that in every place that men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling." Lifting hands was this act of worship. I had never seen it in my life, but these people were doing it.
They were lifting hands, and I was just like, well, I'm not going to do that. I mean, but I thought, I want that. I want to be able to worship the Lord and not be concerned. I mean, look, as a Catholic, I was just like, you know, I didn't want to sing too loud because I didn't want to upset anybody next to me, and I was always self-conscious. And so, but I thought, I want what these people have. I want to be able to worship the Lord the way they worship the Lord. They have freedom to worship Jesus, and I want that. I need that. And so I prayed. I said, Lord, would you do that for me? Would you just set me free so I can worship you? And so I remember just going to some Protestant church and people are doing it. And I just remember lifting up my hands and just worshiping Jesus. And I just thought, this is what I'm supposed to do. This is what I was built to do. This is what God created me to do, to worship Him, not be concerned about anybody else, not think about anybody else, but thinking about Him. And Him only. And kind of, you know, as you're lifting your hands, you're kind of, you're just kind of surrendering. I'm Yours, Lord. I am Yours. So lifting hands. So I just want you to know, if you ever wonder, if you're in our church, you think, why do some people lift their hands? What's up with that? I just want you to know it's biblical. And if you want to be able to do that, just say, Lord, help me to do that. Help me be set free to worship you. Not be concerned about who's on my left or my right, but just to be concerned about you, Jesus. I want to worship you. He also showed me in Acts 2:4 where it says they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. They began to speak in other tongues. And I just thought, what is this other tongues? And you know what it says? Other languages. And so, um, I thought, okay. If that's part of this thing, yeah, Lord, give me the tongues too. And so he did. He gave me— I just prayed, so Lord, give me that gift of tongues. And so I was just by myself. I was alone, and I just said, Lord, would you give me that gift? I want that gift. I want to be able to worship you. And just so he did. He was kind enough to do that.
So I can remember You know, after this time, you know, I'm saved and I want reconciliation. You know, my wife's gone off with some other guy, but I didn't care. Jesus saved me. I wanted Him to save her. And so I prayed and prayed for 3 and a half years that we would be reconciled. And I remember getting a call from a friend that my ex-wife had gotten married. So I came to church. By that time I was coming to this church. Paul Palmer was the senior pastor. Chuck was one of the pastors, another guy Keith Rushing, and Paul was the senior pastor. And he befriended me and prayed with me. So I came and told him, I said, "Paul, you know, my first wife got remarried." And he said, "Bro, you've done everything you could to be reconciled. Just be at peace. God's got a different plan for your life." And so, in the goodness and kindness of God, the Lord brought me my wife Kim. And so, you know, there's a saying, every guy marries up. Well, I definitely married up. I married Kim. And so we got married. Yeah, thank you, Brent. We got married. Had Ricky, our son, 3 daughters, and 8 grandchildren. So I could have never imagined that any of that would have happened, you know, when I was going through all that stuff for those 3 and a half years. I mean, there were some times when it was lonely. It was disheartening. But God was so kind and just helped me and encouraged me. And this church helped me.
So I want to share one personal story of healing that happened to me. So when Tony Walsh was our senior pastor, our church with several other churches, we went to Flagstaff, Arizona. Does anybody remember going to Flagstaff, Arizona? So we used to go to Flagstaff, Arizona for these things that were called Celebration Conferences. And so our church and several other churches from the West We'd drive off to Flagstaff for several days and, you know, we'd just be there worshiping the Lord, hearing great teaching. And one of the things they usually did was asking people, "Hey, if you need some physical healing, raise your hand." So I'm there sitting next to Tony and Mary Wools and he's like, "Raise your hand, raise your hand." I go, "What for?" He said, "Well, because you have seizures, man. You take medicine for seizures." I said, "Well, okay." So I raised my hand. So I get prayed for, and you know, I just kind of forgot about it. And after the conference, I went to my dentist because the week before the conference, I had had a problem with my tooth with my regular dentist. He goes, "Oh, I think you need a root canal." So he sends me to another dentist, the root canal dentist. And he looks at me and he tests me, "Does that hurt?" "Oh yeah, that hurts." Okay, we're going to have to schedule you for a root canal. Has anybody had a root canal? Yeah, you know, I guess they're not fun, is what I understand. So it didn't sound fun, and he gave me some medicine for pain. But after the conference, I'm sitting there in the dentist chair, and then I'm thinking, you know that tooth I'm supposed to have the root canal? It doesn't hurt. And so the nurse comes in, the attendant to prepare me for this root canal. And so I just kind of mentioned to her, I said, you know that tooth that I'm supposed to get the root canal on? She goes, yeah. Well, I said, it doesn't hurt. She goes, it doesn't hurt? I said, no, it doesn't hurt. Are you taking pain medicine? I said, no. She goes, okay, let me look at— she goes, open your mouth. So she opened my mouth, she starts blowing air on it. Does that hurt? No. She sticks something in. Does that hurt? No. She goes, I gotta go get the dentist. So the dentist comes in, he goes, what is this going on? What is going on in here? What is this? Your tooth doesn't hurt. I said, well, I just noticed when I sat down that my tooth doesn't hurt. So again, open your mouth. So I open my mouth. He does all kinds of tests. And then he says this, listen to this. He goes, what were you doing last week? Did you go to church or something? And I said, well, you know, I went to this conference and they were praying for healing, but they were praying for healing for something else. He says, well, apparently you got healed of this root canal because you don't need a root canal. I said, well, praise God. So anyway, the Lord healed me. That was about 25, 30 years ago. To this day, I've never had that root canal. Praise the Lord.
6 · Signals the transition from personal testimony to the sermon's main teaching focus drawn from chapter 6 of the referenced book
So today we're talking about chapter 6, The Lighthouse. The Lighthouse.
7 · States the central warning of the chapter and the sermon: the Holy Spirit is not given primarily for personal blessing but for outward witness
So one of the temptations that this chapter talks about is to focus on ourselves as we experience the Holy Spirit and the gifts he bestows. We can desire new gifts or experiences. This chapter helps us to remember why the Holy Spirit comes at Pentecost and what he wants to do through us. The work of the Spirit that He does in us is also meant to shine out from us. I mean, this is so important. This is so important.
8 · Introduces the lighthouse metaphor as the organizing image for the sermon—believers as light-bearers in darkness
So the lighthouse story, it's a great reminder our lives should shine in a dark world.
9 · Quotes the first half of Matthew 5:14-15, establishing the biblical foundation that believers are called to be visible light, not hidden
Matthew 5:14 says, "You are the light of the world." A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.
10 · Completes the Matthew 5:14-16 citation and draws out the implication: believers are called to shine through good works that point others to God
In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. See, we're called to be light bearers. We're called to give out the light where we are, who we're with.
11 · Expounds Acts 1:8 in light of the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) and Jesus' farewell discourse (John 14-15)
But we need power for that to be light, don't we? We can't drink a— what is it that drinks a bull? Red Bull. The Red Bull is not going to do it, all right? I mean, that might make you a little jittery or something physically, but we need Holy Spirit power. That's the power of the Spirit. When Jesus is about to ascend, he speaks of the promise of the Spirit coming, and he ties the Spirit coming not to our personal experiences but to our outward mission. So Acts 1:8 says this. This is the Lord speaking. He's speaking to his disciples. He's resurrected, and he's speaking to them. They're gathered there, and he tells them this thing. He says, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. So I'm no Greek theologian, but I can read a dictionary, okay? So that word dunamis is where we get power, dynamite. That word dynamite comes from this word, power. The Lord gives us the amazing promise after he gives us our mission. Do you remember Matthew 28:19? What does it say? Go therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you. Behold, I'm with you always to the end of the age. You see, we need power to do this work. And the Lord says to us, but you will receive power. Can you imagine these disciples are like, Jesus, you're leaving? I mean, he had told them in John 14 and 15, he says, you know what, it's better for me to go. If I'm a disciple, I'm saying, no way it's better for you to go, Lord. We want you here. We've seen what you've done. We've seen you open blind eyes. We've seen you heal people. We've seen you raise the dead. How can it be better for you to go? He says, 'Cause if I go, I'm gonna send him. I'm gonna send a helper. I'm gonna send you the Holy Spirit, and you're gonna receive power to be my witnesses.' See, so he doesn't say, 'Well, suck it up. Hope you can do it. Figure this out.' You know what? Go do some push-ups. You know, things. No, he says, I'm going to give you— I, my Jesus himself says, I'm going to give you my power to do my work. I mean, isn't it good that we don't depend on ourselves, but we depend on him and his Spirit to do this?
12 · Articulates the central thesis: the Spirit is given not only for personal edification (e
The Spirit says Jesus is coming to us, but not coming just for us. The gift of the Spirit is also for others through us. See, he gives us a spirit. I mean, look, you have this, the Holy Spirit, you have gift of tongues, you can pray. I mean, it's great, it's wonderful, it edifies you. But he gives us the power to be a witness of what he's done in our lives. The power we receive from the Spirit is given to empower us for a mission. What's our mission? Our mission is to witness who Jesus is and what he has done in our lives. Has Jesus done something in your life? Has he? Do you want to tell somebody about it? And you said, but it's hard. Okay, Lord, help me. Give me your power. I need your Spirit. I want to talk to my friend about you, but I am afraid. He says, okay, hey, claim this promise. You will receive power. Just ask for the power of Jesus, the power of the Spirit to do this.
13 · Expounds 2 Timothy 1:6-7 (though Joe mistakenly cites 1 Timothy 6:7) to show Paul encouraging Timothy to rekindle the Spirit's empowerment for ministry
Look at what 1 Timothy 6:7 says. For this reason, he's talking to Timothy. So Timothy was one of Paul's guys and he's reminding him of this thing. He says, "For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and love." and self-control. See, he's reminding Tim, saying, Tim, you're a little— you're getting a little shy, you're getting a little timid. He says, remember, remember, I prayed for you, Tim. I prayed for you that the Spirit would empower you to do this work that I've commissioned you to do. Oh, that's such good news.
14 · Declares the mission of shining Christ in neighborhoods and among friends
Our mission is to shine that out from one end of our neighborhood to the other that Jesus is our Savior. Jesus is our Lord. Jesus is the one that delivers. Jesus is the one that changes. Jesus is the one that takes you from hopeless to hope-filled. Has he done that for you? Man, when he did that for me, I could not wait to tell my friends. I could not wait. Did they think I was crazy? They knew what kind of guy I was. I mean, in high school, I mean, all I cared about was chasing women. And now all of a sudden I'm chasing Jesus. I'm going to prayer meetings. I'm lifting my hands. And they're like, what is going— what's happened to you? Jesus has saved me. Jesus has transformed me.
15 · Narrates a 20-year friendship evangelism story culminating in Rick's salvation
I can remember sharing with this friend of mine. I'd have lunch with him every week, and I would tell him these— I'd tell him about Jesus and what he's done in my life for weeks and for years. And after 20 years, one day he calls me up. He calls me, says, Joe, I just want you to know I got it. I said, what? What, Rick? What did you get, Rick? I got saved. I said, yes, yes! See, we, we don't save. Jesus saves, right? But we, we're just the messengers. We're just messengers of that message of salvation to others. And God wants to use every one of us to be those messengers of that message. We're the witnesses of what he has done.
16 · Signals a shift to an illustration about the importance of having a witness, setting up a car accident story
So I know in the book Ricky told a story of a witness, the importance of being a witness. I have a story about the importance of a witness.
17 · Tells the story of a hit-and-run car accident where another driver witnessed the entire event, followed the offender, and provided critical testimony that led to justice
Years ago, I was coming home and I was at this 4-way stop. I mean, I was probably less than a mile and a half from home. And, you know, it's a 4-way stop, so I'm looking left, I'm looking right, it's clear. I'm turning and I'm going left. And as I'm turning, I hear this honking. And I look at the car that's honking, and then all of a sudden, pow! This car plows into me, spins my— I was driving this little Mazda Miata— spins my little Mazda Miata around. I can smell burning rubber, literally. My back two tires blow out, and my head hits the side of the car. I think, what in the world's going on? Well, I got to pull over because I got to talk to the driver, right? That's what you would think. The driver, surely the driver is going to stop so I can talk to him, right? So I get over, I get out of the car, I'm looking for the— where's the driver? There's no driver. I'm like, this guy, he's behind his rock wall, he hears this noise, he goes, "What happened?" I said, "I got hit by a car. Did you see anything?" He says, "No, I didn't see I didn't see anything. He goes, are you okay? He says, I'm calling 911, man. That was a bad car accident. I said, you didn't see anything? And I'm like, I cannot believe this. This person hit me and kept going, and I don't know who it was. But there was another driver. Remember the driver that was honking their horn at me? Well, that person saw and witnessed the whole thing. And so she's honking, she's trying to get this other car's attention. It's just coming through the speed, the stop sign at 40 miles per hour. And just, so she saw this person hit me and keep going. And guess what that person did? Followed that car, went to that person's house, took a picture of the car and the license plate and called it in to the police. Now, was that helpful to have that witness, huh? A personal witness who saw the whole thing and reported it. Here's the amazing thing. The person, a police detective goes to this person's house, sees the car, sees my car. He had already seen my car. Sees the paint of my car on that person's car. This person denies it. And he's like, lady, that's the same pain. I got an eyewitness. I'm sorry, here's a ticket for causing an accident. Here's a ticket for leaving the scene of an accident. So she got the tickets. My car was repaired. But man, is it important to have witnesses? Yeah, it is. But that's what, that's what the Lord calls us to be— witnesses of what we have experienced in salvation. What we have experienced as we read God's Word.
18 · A long composite unit expounding the nature of witness, drawing from Ricky's book and Acts 2
You know, one of the most precious things we can do when we're saved is we read God's Word. You know, have you ever heard anybody say, man, I wish God would just speak to me? And I always tell them, you know what, He wants to speak to you. You got to open up His Word. And he will speak to you. He will speak to you so clearly, and it's his word that's speaking to you. It's him encouraging you. It's him helping you. It's him sustaining you. And so there's so many times when you're reading that word and, and you're just like, Lord, I need this. I can remember when I was sick, man, when I, I was sick and I needed God's the Word desperately. And every day, man, I would spend an hour just reading and writing down scriptures of God speaking to me and encouraging me and bringing me out of my— it was— there's power in the Word of God. So our mission is to witness to who Jesus is, what He has done. Our mission is to shine that out. From one end of our neighborhood to the other. From one end of the world to the other. So in Ricky's book it says this: What is a witness? A witness is anyone who speaks to what they've experienced or seen. A witness makes the difference. And we're witnesses. I'm a witness. You are a witness. When Jesus says the disciples will be his witnesses, he means that they will share what they have experienced and seen. They saw Jesus. They experienced Jesus. They'll share what is true of Jesus for all people, the good news of his life, his death, his resurrection. They'll share that Jesus is the long-awaited deliverer who offered himself for sinners that they might be saved and set free from sin and death. But these disciples will also share about their own personal experience with the good news of Jesus. They will share what Jesus has done in their lives, what burdens he has lifted, and what new life in him has meant for them. Listen, guys, God— this is the great quote in the book— God has not given us power so that we can perform impressive magic feats. But so that we can be powerful and faithful witnesses to the gospel of Jesus. We receive power for a task to do the job at hand. To say, I'll take the power but not the job. I like the power. I like the healing. 'But I don't want to talk to anybody about Jesus. It's just me and Jesus.' No! There's no Lone Ranger Christians. Okay? We're in God's army. You've been drafted. Everybody here, if you're a Christian, you've just been drafted. Okay? You're in the army. God's army. You're called to be a witness. Called to testify what He's done in your life. In Acts 2, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit comes, and he— I mean, there's this mighty rushing wind. Because what happened? Jesus told them, hey, wait, wait in Jerusalem till you receive power. So they're waiting, they're praying, they're seeking God. And you know what? There's 120 of them. Sometimes people think it's just the 12 apostles. You know what? No, it's 120. They're there praying with Jesus' brothers and his mom to him, saying, Lord, we're waiting, we're waiting. We need your power. And he comes, the Holy Spirit comes, this mighty rushing wind. And the Spirit comes with fire that looks like tongues of fire. And then they just start speaking in these other languages. You think, what's up with that? Why are they speaking in other languages? But see, this sound gathers this huge crowd that's there in Jerusalem for Pentecost, and these people are from all over the place, from all different countries, and speak all kinds of languages, and they come and they hear them speaking their own language worshipping and praising God. Now, do you think that was a powerful witness to those people? Because they are looking at these guys and they are saying, "These guys are fishermen. They don't know my language. They couldn't explain it." Some of them said, "Oh, these guys are drunk." I mean, Peter has to get up and he has to say, "Look, come on." It's 9 o'clock in the morning, for crying out loud. We're not drunk. This is the promise in the book of Joel. In the last days, I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. See, in the Old Testament— I think it was funny, we had a conversation with somebody once, and they were saying, well, you know, the Holy Spirit didn't come till the New Testament. I was like, what? I said, no, you know what, we're going to do a little Bible study. So we went back to Genesis. Here, the Spirit of God is hovering over the face of the waters. The Spirit was there. The Holy Spirit was there at creation. The Holy Spirit is there on Moses. And then the Lord says, bring up 70 of your elders because I want to put some of the Holy Spirit that's on you on them. And so in the Old Testament, the Lord would do it. He would give these little glimpses of the Spirit on people, on the prophets. You know, Elijah and Isaiah, all these guys, the Holy Spirit was on them. But then he said, but then this is what's so great to be New Testament Christians, guys. That Spirit power is now for all of us. It's for all of us. You don't have to be a prophet of God. You just have to be a believer in Jesus and his life and his death and his resurrection. And you have to say, I want to be used by you, Lord. I want to be your witness. I want you to use me to be your witness. The Spirit works, shines out the light of witness.
19 · Transitions to Acts 4 and sets up the context of persecution following the healing of the crippled man
In Acts 4, the believers face intense persecution. Why?
20 · Recounts the Acts 3-4 narrative: Peter and John heal a crippled beggar, face persecution from the Sanhedrin, declare they cannot stop speaking of what they've seen, and return to the church to pray
Because you know what happened? Peter and John, they're going to the temple to pray. Here's this guy who's crippled, and they're just walking in. They're walking in to pray. And the Holy Spirit tells him, look at this man. And he looks at this guy, and Peter tells him, in the name of Jesus Christ, get up and walk. And he takes him by the hand, and he is instantly healed. And I mean, they cannot explain it. I mean, the Sanhedrin, they are ticked off. Why are you preaching in Jesus' name? Why are you holding us responsible for killing this man? Well, they did kill him. And they tell them, you better not talk about him anymore. And they said, well, look, you know what? We cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard. We cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard. So what do they do? Peter and John are released. What do they do? Do they go, well, you know what, I guess that was a good gig, but I guess it's over. No, they go back and they tell everybody, this is what happened. Let's have a prayer meeting. So they have a prayer meeting. They remember the prayer. Hey, remember that last prayer meeting we had when the Holy Spirit came on us? That was really good. And so they start praying, and here's what they pray.
21 · Expounds Acts 4:29-31, highlighting the church's prayer for boldness (not relief) and God's response: another filling of the Holy Spirit accompanied by physical shaking
Grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness. They don't pray, well, stop the persecution. They're being mean to us. They don't say that. They say, Lord, grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness. And so what happens? Verse 31 says this, and when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. These are the same people that were filled with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Right? And the Lord says, I'm going to fill you again. I want you more, more bold. You want boldness? I'm going to give you some more boldness.
22 · Calls the congregation to pray specifically for boldness as the Acts 4 church did
Oh God, church, remember when Mike Seaver was here and he preached on this? He said, do you pray, Lord, give me Boldness. Let's pray for boldness. Let's ask God, give me boldness, Lord, through your Holy Spirit to share what you have done in my life, in your life. We all have a story. We all have something to share when we set ourselves to the task of witness. Listen to this: when we set ourselves to the task of witness. God gives us the power of the Spirit for that witness. Do you pray in the morning, Lord, Lord, today use me to be a witness. I want to be a witness today, Lord. Use me. Fill me with your power. Fill me with your Spirit so I can be a witness.
23 · Reiterates the Matthew 5:14 claim that believers are light and asserts that visible difference from the world is required
Remember Matthew 5:14, "You are the light of the world." We, each one of us, is meant to be a light. We're meant to be different. If people don't think we're different than they are that are not saved, then there's something wrong. We should be different. We should be light. We should be shining out. We cannot turn ourselves from cowardly to bold, but the Spirit can.
24 · Uses Peter as the paradigmatic example of the Spirit's transforming power—from denying Jesus to a servant girl to boldly preaching the first gospel sermon that resulted in 3,000 conversions
Look, he turns Peter from a coward. Remember, this is Peter who told Jesus, I'll go die with you. Jesus says, uh-uh, no sir, tonight before the rooster crows 3 times, you're going to deny me. He's like, no way, I'd never do that, Lord. He does. This young woman says, wait, aren't you one of those Galileans? Weren't you with him? No, I wasn't. He was a coward when his Lord was taken away. But what happened to him? What happened to Peter? What changed Peter from being a coward, afraid of a little girl, to being this bold— Look, folks, he stands up And he gives this first sermon. He explains what's going on by the power of the Spirit. And what happens? What happens? 3,000 people are saved. Was that a good word? Was that an effective sermon? I mean, wouldn't you have liked to have been there for that one? I mean, don't you want to see that happen today? Wouldn't it be great for that to happen in our time out at McCallaghan Canyon? We have 1,500 people out there, and Ricky gets up there and starts preaching through the power of the Spirit, and 1,000 people get saved. Oh man, I want to see that. I pray for that. I hope for that. Lord, let Jesus— church, let's pray for those things. Do you have a heart for the lost, for those that are lost and going to hell because they don't know Jesus? Man, Lord, give us a heart for those that don't know you.
25 · Recounts Stephen's martyrdom in Acts 7 as an example of the Spirit enabling witness even unto death
We cannot always find the right words to share the gospel compellingly. But the Spirit can. So he gives Stephen the power to share the gospel in the face of death. And Acts 7, so Stephen, one of the first deacons, and he's there. I mean, these guys, they are ticked off at Stephen. They hate him, and they're stoning him. But he's— as he's stoned, dying, he looks up and he sees Jesus stand. He says, I see Jesus. Standing at the right hand of God. What do you think Jesus— just imagine, holy imagine, Jesus, it's like, this is what I imagine Jesus saying, "Way to go, Stephen. Well done, son. Come home to me now." And as he's dying, he says, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Do not hold this sin." against them. And who's there when that happens? Saul. Do you think the Lord answered that prayer? Yeah, I think he did. I think he did.
26 · Introduces the concept of 'divine appointments'—Spirit-orchestrated opportunities for witness when unbelievers initiate spiritual conversations or express spiritual need
One of the things we can pray for is something we used to call divine appointments. Anybody heard that term, divine appointments? Divine appointments? What? You may say, what the heck is a divine appointment, Joe? Okay, I'll tell you. Yeah, here it is. These are opportunities when the Spirit causes someone to ask, "Hey, Stacy, why are you the way you are?" Or somebody whose children have grown up and Man, I'm feeling kind of lost.
27 · Two divine appointment stories: (1) at a Community Foundation dinner, an empty-nester opens up about feeling lost, creating a witness opportunity; (2) neighbor Reuben falls critically ill, the church prays, God heals him, and he testifies to the power of prayer
I can remember, you know, I get the— I have the privilege of being on the board of the El Paso Community Foundation. I can remember one night we have these board meetings, and then we have dinners afterwards, and we always get to invite our spouses. And I'm there, and so I'm always looking for opportunities, right, to share about the Lord and be a witness. And there's this man, and he's right next to Kim and I, and he just starts saying, yeah, you know, my kids have grown up, and now I'm an empty nester, and I kind of feel lost. And I kind of look out of the corner of my eye at Kim, and she's like, "Uh-huh. There it is. There's your divine appointment. Are you going to take it?" Yes. Did I open that up? No, the Lord did. The Lord did. The Lord opens these up. See, we don't want to be obnoxious Christians. It's okay. You know what I'm talking about? You know, "Oh, there's that holy roller over there." No, we don't want to be. We want to be faithful witnesses. We want to be people that love the Lord and our lives are sweet to other people and they see something different. They see something that they don't. I mean, that's where Drew meets Jesus. That I had a friend who was different, and that is the guy I called. That is what we want to be. I remember a neighbor of ours, a doctor, was once taken via ambulance to the hospital as he was very sick. His wife texted Kim and told her about it. Kim said, "I am going to tell Joe and ask him and the pastors to pray for him." His name was Reuben. You probably remember this. I think I was even at a meeting with the pastors and said, "Hey, you know, my neighbor, his name is Reuben. He's in— I mean, he might die." He was in that bad of shape. And we prayed for him. And he was in ICU for about 5 days and then got home for— and then 2 weeks later, I'm outside, I'm going to pick up something, and I see Ruben. I mean, and he comes running over to me, and he just hugs me, and he says, I am healed because you all prayed for me. This is a doctor, okay? He's acknowledging who healed him. The Lord healed him. The Lord healed him. Man, I was just like, I just thought, what? This guy's never been— I mean, we barely shake. I mean, he is hugging me. He almost died and God met him.
28 · Uses Kim's hospitality and baking ministry as an example of adorning the gospel through practical service
Look, my wife Kim is a great cook. She's a great baker. She makes amazing banana bread. She's always sharing her banana bread with our neighbors. Neighbors. She's always got to make extra loaves for the neighbors. See, that's her gift. She loves to serve. She loves to bless. Baking is— that's how she adorns the Gospel. So our neighbor— do you think our neighbors love her? Yeah, they love her because here comes Kim and she's bringing that great— they're saying, "That banana bread lasted 30 minutes and it was gone." Can we have some more? Yes. Our neighbors love her and they know they can ask for help anytime. That's why that neighbor texted her because she knew here's somebody I can ask for help because of how she's just been a good neighbor. You see, guys, God's given us neighbors, right? We all have neighbors. Do you know your neighbors? Are you a good neighbor to them? Do you let them know? No? Well, then repent! You can repent tonight, not being a good neighbor. We can. We want to be good witnesses to our neighbors, guys. That's our mission field right there, is our neighbors. Bless them. Help them. Serve them. Cook for them.
29 · Articulates the two-fold content of witness: (1) the objective gospel facts about Jesus' life, death, and resurrection; (2) personal testimony of encountering Jesus and being transformed from death to life
So, our mission as witnesses has two components. First, we declare the reality of Jesus' life and death and resurrection. We speak the truths of the gospel. We share not that Jesus, not just that Jesus was the sinless Son of God, but also that we have personally encountered Him. See, I knew about Jesus before. When I was a Catholic. I knew He was the Son of God. I knew He died for sins, but I hadn't personally encountered His salvation in my life. And once you personally encounter and receive the Lord's salvation in your life, Man, that's why, you know, that term born again that we talk about— we're born again. Yeah, we're born again. The Spirit enables us to believe in Jesus, but we are— we're— listen, we're dead in our sins. Dead, dead, dead. Okay, and Spirit comes and regenerates us and gives us this ability to believe in Jesus. And he takes us from death, spiritual death, to life. And he saves us not just to save us, but he saves us for a purpose and for a reason and for a mission. And brothers and sisters, I mean, look, all you got to do is turn on the news and see things are happening all over the world. I mean, weather's going wacky. Earthquakes happening. I mean, look, we don't know when Jesus is coming, but we want to be about the work of being a witness of the gospel until he comes, because we never know. I mean, I want to, I want to share Jesus with my neighbors because I know, I don't know, that neighbor Reuben, he could have died. Man, I would have felt horrible if he had died and I had never shared the gospel with him. We share not just that Jesus rose again bringing new life, but also that He's brought new life to us.
30 · Points to Ricky's book (pages 88-89) for a simple testimony framework modeled on 'I was lost, then Jesus saved me and changed me
Remember how at the beginning I started with there was a time in my life when I was lost? I was lost, but then Jesus saved me and changed me. This is an easy way to share your testimony. So Ricky puts it in this book. It's on page 88 and 89. He gives us like this little way to do it because we want it. I mean, look, folks, everybody has their own unique testimony and story of how Jesus saved you. Kim's is different than mine. Mine's different than Cherry's. It's different than John's. It's different than Manny's. Every one of us has a different story, but that's what makes it wonderful because every story is powerful. Every story is.
31 · Narrates a divine appointment where Autumn (Reuben's wife) came to thank Kim and Joe shared his full testimony with her
Remember the story of the neighbor I told you about who texted Kim to ask for prayer for her husband? So she came over to thank Kim, and as she was there, the Lord opened an opportunity for me to share my testimony with her. And I just started just telling her, this is what the Lord has done in my life. This is what happened to me. I was married before. All what I had shared with you, I just shared it with her. She started, she is getting tears in her eyes. And she just says, "Man, I've made a lot of bad choices in my life." And I said, "We all have. We all have made bad choices in our lives, but that's why Jesus came to change our lives." I wish I could just tell you that she just got on her knees right there and repented. God said, "No, she hasn't yet." Yet, her name is Autumn. Would you please pray for her? The Lord wants to save her and add her to His church and her husband.
32 · Outlines a four-point gospel framework for witness: (1) who God is—Creator; (2) who we are—rebels whose sin devastates; (3) who Jesus is—the perfect substitute who died and rose; (4) how to respond—believe, ask forgiveness, follow
So from that starting point of witness, it's easy to share the basic components of the gospel that give our story meaning. What God has done in our lives is built on 4 key elements of the gospel. Number 1, who God is. He's a sovereign and good Creator. Who we are: people who have chosen to reject God and pursue sin and rebellion, which devastates everything in our lives, relationships, and creation. Who Jesus is: the Son of God who came and lived the perfect life we could not live, died the death we deserved, and rose again. He did this to save all who would trust in him. I mean, man, I can't tell you when I understood that Jesus had done all these things for me and it wasn't me trying to be good enough to work my way into heaven because I never could make it. Oh man, you talk about being set free. That's what he does. That's what we want to declare to people. This is what Jesus does when he saves you. Are you bound up in sin? He wants to set you free. And then we'd say how— then we teach how to respond. The gospel message calls us to believe Jesus is who he claimed to be, ask for forgiveness, and choose to follow. Follow Him. See, we got to tell them this is how you do it. This is how you do it. It's easy. It's easy. You can pray with them. You can lead them in that prayer.
33 · Tells Kim's testimony: saved at 18 through a neighbor's witness, but convicted by her non-Christian friends that her life showed no transformation
So I'm going to share a story about Kim, my wife, but she gave me permission to share this story because I checked in with her before because I didn't want to get in trouble. So my wife Kim got saved when she was 18 years old. This was in 19— maybe I shouldn't say the year. Well, anyway, it was a while back. She was 18 years old. It was a neighbor, right, that had shared the gospel with you? So again, a neighbor across the street, Mimi Stewart, shares the gospel with Kim Jordan. The Lord saves her. Forgives her sins. The Jesus that she had heard about, because she was raised Catholic, so she went to catechism, and she always loved Jesus, but she didn't know Him as her Savior. Now He was her Savior. So she would tell her family and her friends that Jesus had saved her and she was a Christian. Sounds good so far, right? But then she's with some of her unsaved friends, her non-Christian friends, and they say, hey Kim, you said you're a Christian, right? Yeah, yeah, I'm a Christian. Well, how come you don't seem to be any different? How come it seems like you're still acting the way you were before you were a Christian and still doing all the things we're doing, which we all know You are wrong. So the Lord used her friends to help her and to convict her, like, yeah, you know what? I'm not living the life that Jesus purchased for me. And so she began to pray and say, Lord, transform me. I want to look more like you. I want to be a better— she realized, man, I'm a bad witness. We want to be good witnesses, right? But sometimes we're bad witnesses because the way we live. But she realized Jesus was calling her to be a changed witness, and only he could help her. So she prayed, Lord, change me, transform me "Lord, I want to live my life to look more like you." And so he did. He did.
34 · Quotes the book to articulate the sermon's closing claim: gospel witness requires both declaration (words) and demonstration (transformed life)
At the end of— towards the end of the book, it says this. It says, "We declare the gospel truth, and we also demonstrate the reality of Jesus through our lives. When our lives are increasingly marked by family resemblance to Jesus, it reinforces the reality of the gospel. Our witness with words is matched by the witness of our lives. As the gospel affects our lives, we can't help but point to it in a thousand ways by the way we live. But we need the Spirit, don't we? We need the Spirit.
35 · Closes with a pastoral prayer asking the Father to send the same Holy Spirit who came at Pentecost and Acts 4, to fill, transform, and embolden the congregation for witness
All right. Oh Father, I know I need you. I know I desire to be used by you, and I need more of you, Lord. We need more of you, Lord. We need you to send that same Holy Spirit that came at Pentecost, that came at Acts 4. We need that same Holy Spirit to come on us, Lord, to fill us and to transform us and to help us to be bold witnesses of what you have done, how you have purchased us with your blood and your life and death and your resurrection. Lord, we want to be used by you. And so we pray, Lord, help us and fill us with your Holy Spirit, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen.