If you go with me in your scriptures to Acts
chapter 15 this morning, Acts chapter 15, we're
going to read a story here that has been speaking
to me, that has been impacting my life. I was
camping with my daughters and my grandson, Edmund.
It was his first trip. He's back there running
the cameras. this morning. Happy to have him.
And the fourth night, the first three nights
were awesome. The fourth night, we got, we were
planning on staying at a lake and every campsite
was full. So when that happens, guess what you
got to do? You got to go to the next lake. And
I am thinking that nobody has ever been to that
lake. It was called Skin Dance Lake. Skin Dance
Lake. And, I mean, it was so overgrown, we couldn't
even find the campsites. But the girls finally
found the campsite. And we found out why it was
called Skin Dance Lake. Because there were so
many mosquitoes in that place. I mean, we had
bugs, but not that bad. And they were, it was
mind -boggling how many mosquitoes that we had
on that lake. Especially, you know, when the
sun goes down, the mosquitoes usually come out
for about 40 minutes and then they settle down
and leave. Well, they did not settle down and
leave all night. They swarmed and swarmed and
swarmed and swarmed. And my grandson Edmund said,
Papa, I have been to the gates of hell. We named
that website, or that website, that campsite,
the gates of hell. So many mosquitoes, it made
your skin dance. See, that was the, that's how
we're going to remember that lake forever. Skin
dance lake. And then the last campsite, the Lord
rewarded us for us enduring. Jesus is building
his church at the gates of hell. I just want
to remind you about that. It's not always the
nicest places that Jesus is building his church.
Isn't that right? And the Lord rewarded us, though,
with the last campsite is normally the first
one taken on the lake, and we got there late
during the day, and we got the best campsite
on Segal Lake, and it was... phenomenal. It had
its own swimming pool. It had its own precipices
where we could climb and see every part of the
lake. It had blueberry patches that were totally
ripe. We picked blueberries. We even found some
raspberries that were ripe, and we picked them
and picked them, and we called that the gates
of heaven. Amen. And so why did I tell you that?
Oh, because when we were at that site and I was
setting up the tent, I just felt the Lord speak
to me and drop in my heart something that He's
going to do, that He's going to send the moving
of His Spirit. That he is going to breathe on
our city and in this region fresh life. That
he is going to move in power. And I was setting
up the tent there. And I just, the presence of
the Lord. And you know, it was all good. It wasn't
like... It was a great time with my family. It
wasn't a prayer retreat for me this week at all.
But in that moment, the presence of God came
upon me. And I knew God's going to bring revival.
He is going to bring the moving of His Spirit.
That may or may not... mean anything to you.
You might be sitting there saying, well, what
do you mean by the moving of God's Spirit? What
do you mean by God's going to bring revival?
What do you mean by that? And what I mean by
that is that there have been different times
and seasons throughout history that God just
sovereignly moves by His Spirit. Sometimes it's
in response to people calling out to him, which
is why we need to increase prayer, which is why
we're having summer nights of prayer on Wednesdays.
And so sometimes it's in response to a hungry
heart seeking after God. But sometimes it's simply
a sovereign move of His Spirit. God just chooses
this moment in this time, and He begins to do
things that only He can do. And the New Testament
church is really... in the last hundred years,
really since Azusa Street and a little bit before
that, the church began to realize that we can
experience what the New Testament church experienced.
We can have the same encounters that the New
Testament church had. And then as that grew,
as that grew in the hearts of men, they begin
to say, not only can we, but we don't want to
settle for anything less than that. That's what
we're believing for. That's what we're praying
for. And you have moments of history that God
broke in and did great things. Now, there are
some times where you catch, you know, on a trip
like ours, that I've had taken in the last couple,
in the last month I've had two trips up there,
you know, and I don't catch fish in nets up there.
I catch them with a line one at a time. And there
are times where God catches people one at a time.
Here and there. Catch this one. Catch that one.
But I believe And I'm thankful for that. Some
of you got saved all by yourself. You came to
Christ all by yourself. You were the only one.
Maybe you were all alone. And I'm thankful for
that, and I don't want to diminish the ones and
the twos and how God works here a little, there
a little, because it is God that does it just
the same. Amen? But the time for needing the
nets, is coming where you don't catch one or
two for dinner here or there, where you throw
the nets out and the nets get full of fish and
you bring in the fish, not in the ones and the
twos, but in the dozens and the dozens and the
dozens and the dozens. Hallelujah. Glory to God.
And this is what begins to happen in what we
would call a move of God in the land is that
many people begin to come under conviction all
at the same time. There comes in the life of
a group of people, families, cities, all groups
of people, a desire to get right with God and
walk in repentance. Praise the Lord. And the
New Testament church, they walked in that. They
saw it. They saw multitudes come to Christ. Multitudes.
And I want to read this story. This might seem
like an odd story to read, but it's been speaking
to my heart because we need to make it easy for
people to come to Christ. not more difficult.
And certain men came down from Judea and taught
the brethren, this is the Gentile brethren, unless
you are circumcised according to the custom of
Moses, you cannot be saved. Therefore, when Paul
and Barnabas had no small dissension and dispute
with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas
and certain others of them should go up to Jerusalem
to the apostles and elders about this question.
So circumcision was the sign of the Jews and
it was a portion of following the law. Well,
the law was what Jesus came to fulfill. Jesus
fulfilled it. And the law teaches us what sin
is. So they sent Paul and Barnabas on their way
by the church. They passed through Phoenicia
and Samaria, describing the conversion of the
Gentiles. And they caused great joy to all the
brethren. And when they had come to Jerusalem,
they were received by the church and the apostles
and the elders. And they reported all the things
that God had done with them. But some of the
sect of the Pharisees who believed in Christ
rose up saying, it is necessary to circumcise
them and to command them to keep the law of Moses.
And can I tell you that this teaching still persists
today? That if you want to follow Jesus correctly,
you've got to follow the law. If you want to
do it rightly, you've got to be circumcised.
And all 600 and some laws of the Old Testament,
you've got to keep them all. And so these Pharisees
had come to Christ and they trusted in Christ,
but they said, we've also, as we trust Christ,
got to follow the law. Now the apostles, now
this is an important question. You see, seven
to ten years before, was when Peter had the vision
to go to Cornelius' house. He had a vision of
unclean animals. He was on his rooftop praying,
and he had this vision of unclean animals, and
this vision came to Peter, and the voice that
he heard was, rise, Peter, kill, and eat. And
he was appalled, disgusted by this vision. He
was like, Lord, nothing unclean has ever touched
my mouth. You want me to eat these unclean animals?
And the vision happened three times. And what
God was really showing Peter was that Peter,
you thought that salvation was only for the Jews,
but salvation is for the Gentiles as well. Now
that encounter that Peter had happened seven
to ten years before. And so the church had, through
the leadership of Peter, this Jewish church had
opened up its heart to see that the salvation
that Jesus brings is not just for the Jews, but
it's also for the Gentiles. So the church had
come to the place where they understood that
salvation was not just for Jewish people, but
that it was for whosoever will. But that created,
although everybody rejoiced as they watched God
move among the Gentiles, and now through Paul's
ministry, they all rejoiced about it, but it
also created tension. And it created problems.
Because the Jewish people who grew up in their
Jewishness, who had all of these traditions and
different things that they celebrated and different
ways that they lived because of the law of Moses,
when they trusted Christ, they did not just immediately
abandon all of those things. They continued to
keep those things as part of their tradition.
And do you know what? The Holy Spirit never convicted
them about it or told them to stop. It was okay
for the Jewish people to maintain some of those
Jewish traditions in the midst of following Christ.
And in fact, Jesus is the fulfillment of all
of those traditions. The Jewish traditions are
fascinating. The revelation of Jesus is in those
traditions. And it's awesome. But now these Gentiles,
who did not grow up with any of that Jewishness,
are coming to Christ. And guess what they're
not doing? They are not following the laws of
Moses. They are not. intertwining with any of
those things. They didn't grow up with it. It
was not a part of who they are. You know what
they're just doing in their Gentileness? They're
just trying to follow Jesus as best as they can.
And that's probably where most of us are at.
Gentile people. Not grown up in any kind of religion.
But here they are. turning to Christ. And it
bothered some of the Pharisaical believers. And
they came and preached. Okay, yes, you've got
to follow Jesus, but now you've got to do this,
you've got to do that. And they started preaching
the law of Moses to these beautiful Gentile believers.
And it angered Paul and Barnabas. And they broke
out and they were protecting these Gentiles.
Let them follow Christ. Let them follow Christ.
And there's some of that in us. We look at people
and we say their lives aren't perfect yet. We
see that their lives are not perfect yet. And
we want them to do this and do that and all of
these things. But I'm telling you that if they've
got the real thing, if they've given their life
for real to Jesus, and the Holy Spirit is leading
them, guess what's going to happen? They're going
to start walking in line with Christ. The Holy
Spirit is very good at his job. Somebody say
amen to that. So the apostles... we're considering
this question. What is the place of circumcision?
What is the place of all of this in the lives
of the Gentiles? Is everybody with me so far?
And when there had been much dispute, verse 7,
Peter rose up and said to them, men and brethren,
you know that a good while ago God chose among
us that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear
the word of the gospel and believe. He's referring
to Cornelius in Acts chapter 10. You can read
that on your own time. So God, who knows the
heart, everybody say knows the heart, acknowledged
them by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he
did to us. and made no distinction between us
and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Isn't
this a good story? This is Peter now, the cornerstone
apostle talking about to this meeting. Now therefore,
Why do you test God? By putting a yoke on the
neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers
nor we were able to bear. But we believe that
through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we
shall be saved in the same manner as they. Oh,
this is a good moment. This is a good moment
because the Pharisaical believers who were preaching
the wrong message, trying to put a yoke on all
the other believers, got rebuked by Peter and
said, no, we're not going to have any of that.
It is not by works that we are saved. We are
saved by grace through faith. Hallelujah. In
his name. And Peter wanted to make sure the Gentiles
are saved by grace through faith, and we are
also saved by grace through faith in Christ Jesus.
when you try to add to it, when you try to put
rules on people, when you try to conform people
into your image, you are not discipling them
unto Christ. You are trying to conform them to
what you think that they should be like. And
that is not the role of the church. And Peter
was saying, leave them alone. I love this story.
Then all the multitude kept silent. They listened
to Barnabas and Paul declaring how many miracles
and wonders God had worked through them among
the Gentiles. When I read that, I say, God, may
that be the story of Faith Church. May we be
able to go around and tell of all the wonders
and the miracles that God is doing in Lincoln,
Illinois. Hallelujah. Somebody on the Lincoln,
one of the Lincoln website or the Facebook groups
said, hey, can somebody open up restaurants on
Sunday morning so that tourists will come to
Sunday morning. Did anybody else see that post
about 10 days ago? Jamie, you saw that post.
I read that. I read that. And the Lord spoke
to me and said, tourists are going to come to
Lincoln, Illinois to see the good things that
they've heard that God is doing. I want to say
that again. tourists are going to come to Lincoln,
Illinois to hear, to see with their own eyes,
is it true what I've heard about that God is
doing in the city? Hallelujah. I believe that
with my whole heart. And they told of all the
wonders that had happened among the Gentiles.
And after they had become silent, James, this
is the half -brother of Jesus, Now an apostle
and a leader in the church answered and said,
men and brethren, listen to me. Simon has declared,
that's Peter, has declared how God at the first
visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people
for his name. And with this, the words of the
prophets agree. Hallelujah. Just as it is written,
now this is from Amos chapter 9. James is quoting
from Amos chapter 9. After this, I will return
and I will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which
has fallen down. I will rebuild its ruins and
I will set it up so that the rest of mankind
may seek the Lord. Even all the Gentiles who
are called by my name, says the Lord who does
all these things. Hallelujah. And known to God
from eternity are all his works. Therefore, I
judge that we should not trouble those from among
the Gentiles who are turning to God, but that
we write to them to abstain from things polluted
by idols, from sexual immorality, from things
strangled, and from blood. For Moses has throughout
many generations those who preach him in every
city being read in the synagogues every Sabbath.
So we'll come back to that in a moment. Then
it pleased the apostles and the elders with the
whole church to send chosen men of their own
company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, namely
Judas, who was also named Barsabbas, and Silas,
leading men among the brethren. They wrote this
letter by them. The apostles, the elders, and
the brethren, to the brethren who are of the
Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia, greetings.
Since we have heard that some who went out from
us have troubled you with words, unsettling your
souls, saying you must be circumcised and keep
the law. to whom we gave no such commandment,
it seemed good to us, being assembled with one
accord, to send chosen men to you with our beloved
Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their
lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who will
also report the same things by word of mouth,
for it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to
us to lay upon you no greater burden than these
necessary things, that you abstain from things
offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled,
and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves
from these, you do well. Farewell. So when they
were sent off, they came to Antioch, and when
they had gathered the multitude together, they
delivered the letter. When they had read it,
they rejoiced over its encouragement. Now Judas
and Silas themselves, being prophets also, exhorted
and strengthened the brethren with many words.
And I see them prophesying over the people there.
And after they had stayed there for a time, they
were sent back with greetings from the brethren
to the apostles. However, it seemed good to Silas
to remain there. Paul and Barnabas also remained
in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of
the Lord with many others also. The move of God.
The move of God. Moving from city to city, from
people group. people group. Quickly, why those
four things? Those four things for three reasons.
One, because they needed to come out of their
idolatry to follow Christ. These Gentiles, many
of them were steeped in idolatry. and they needed
to come out of their idolatry to follow Christ.
You cannot serve two masters, and the message
of the gospel is repent and turn to God. Well,
if you're going to repent, you're going to turn
to God, but you're also going to turn away from
something. And so that message to give up your
idolatry to follow Jesus is clear. And if you're
going to follow Jesus, friends, it's going to
be because you turn your back on some things
in your life. The stuff that's dominated you
can dominate you no longer. You have a new master.
His name is Jesus. Come out from among them.
The second thing, that they were cautious of,
is that they wanted to build a bridge to the
Jews in their cities. And if they're eating strangled
animals and blood and calling themselves Christians
and preaching to the Jewish people to come to
Christ, What do you think will happen? Will any
of the Jews come to Jesus? No, they won't. And
so part of this message is, we want you to remove
the stumbling block that can exist so that others
will come to Jesus easily. And you know what
that is, friends? That's called love. I am not
going to live in such a way that is going to
keep others from Christ. If you get nothing else
from this message this morning, I want you to
hear that. I am not going to live in such a way
that will keep others from coming to Christ.
I want to live in such a way that I am not a
stumbling block. Yeah, but pastor, aren't I free?
Don't use your freedom to do things that will
cause others to stumble. But use your freedom
to create the opportunity for others to come
to Christ. It's called love. We build bridges
to people. We build bridges to people. And thirdly,
the command, these four commands, especially
the call to come out from sexual immorality.
This is a major call to our nation. Because sexual
immorality causes so much harm in a person's
life. Paul said in nearly every one of his letters,
warning against sexual immorality of all different
kinds. He who sins sexually sins against his
own body. You cannot live in sexual immorality
and walk in the blessing of God. The two do not
exist. The two do not exist. And they wrote this
to... provide the protection on these new believers
to keep them from the schemes of the enemy. America,
I have watched over the last 20 years and 10
years and five years, America go off the rails
with sexual immorality of types that were rare
even in the wild days of the 60s and the 70s.
Before I was born, some of you remember those
days. The free love days. But it is that immorality
that harms each individual. When you sin sexually,
you're sinning against your own life. And so
they wrote this in there to be a protection of
that new faith that they had in Jesus Christ.
Hallelujah. And so our message of purity is not
one of condemnation. to the nation or to people
groups or to individuals who are digging their
heels and saying, I want my freedom. We are not
condemning people. We are calling people out
of the stuff that keeps them in bondage and keeps
them in captivity and in to the blessing of the
Lord. Hallelujah. And so you'll read it in the
New Testament over and over and over and over.
Keep yourself sexually pure. Hallelujah. Praise
God. If I preach this as much as Paul did, you
might get tired of me talking about it. But this
is a point of prayer for our nation. It is way,
way, way, way more common. For people to live
together now than to get married. But they are
sinning against their own body and condemning
their own souls when they're trying to live for
God at the same time and it cannot work. And
so they told them these three things. Come out
from your former way of life. Build a bridge
and love the people around you. Don't live in
such a way as to be a stumbling block. And keep
your heart, your body, your vessel pure sexually.
And if you'll do those three things in four commands,
you will do well. You will find favor with God.
And I love how Peter just boiled 700 commandments
of the law down to four. He said, we don't expect
you to follow 700 of them. But will you follow
four? And they all said, yeah. They rejoiced
at the encouragement. of the letter. These people,
they came and they were teaching us all this
stuff, and it unsettled us, and we didn't feel,
we don't know what to think. And that letter
set them free, and they said, yes, we can follow
God. Friends, I believe that God is about to
make a highway. I'm going to preach another message
about the passage from Amos. That James quoted.
The tabernacle of David. God reestablishing the
tabernacle of David. He's going to do it again.
He's doing it now. He's going to do it again.
And people are going to stream. People are going
to stream to the presence of God. Hallelujah.
From every tribe, tongue, and nation. We're going
to see it. We're going to see the move of God.
Some of you don't know your place yet in the
kingdom, in the church. You're here for a reason
right now. You are foundational. You are foundational
to this house. Tell that to the person you're
sitting next to. You're important. You matter.
You might not believe it, but I'm telling you
to believe it. You are a part. And God is going
to use you. I want to close with a passage in
Genesis chapter 4 that has touched my heart my
whole life. In Genesis chapter 4, the whole event
with Cain and Abel, the family of Cain, All of
this. And then the very last sentence, the very
last sentence does not fit in, seemingly, with
the chapter before it or after it. The very last
sentence was this. Then men began to call on
the name of the Lord. The last sentence of Genesis
4. Then men began to call on the name of the
Lord. This was a sovereign move of God at that
moment in time. People just started getting right
with God. It just happened. How many of you have
prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed
and prayed and prayed and prayed for revival?
You prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed and
prayed and prayed for a move of God. And you've
seen a few things happen, but your soul has not
been satisfied yet. And here, along this sentence,
just described this time period about the people
in that entire region. Then men begin to call
on the name of the Lord. It suddenly began to
happen. People started praying. People started
getting interested in the things of the Holy
Spirit. People started caring about their relationship
with God. Up until that point, they blew it off.
They didn't think about it. They lived however
they wanted. They did things for themselves.
But at this time in history, men began to call
on the name of the Lord. And I believe we're
about to enter into such a time. I believe we're
about to step into a moment like this where people,
not because of this church or that church or
anything that they've done right or wrong or
any of that, but God begins to move on a city
and God begins to touch hearts and lives and
people begin to waken in their heart and something
moves inside of them that wasn't there before
and they begin to say, I gotta know this God,
that God is real. I didn't think he was. I didn't.
think he was paying attention, but he is paying
attention. I've got to turn my life to him. I've
got to begin to pray. I've got to begin to seek.
Hallelujah. And God is going to cause people
to sovereignly move on his heart. Some of you
have family members that you've twisted and twisted
and twisted and twisted and tried to get them
to step into their calling and get to church,
get to church, get to church, get to church,
get to church, get to church, get to church.
And you've said it so many times that you quit
saying it because you just gave up. But then
all of the sudden, God is going to move in their
heart and life and they are going to begin to
call on the name of the Lord and it is going
to happen in Jesus' name. Thank you, Lord. Do
you feel hope this morning? Do you feel hope
in life? Thank you, Father. Thank you, Father.
And so, Lord, we see you moving in Acts chapter
15. You made a way. God, if they would have made
the wrong decision in that moment, if they in
this moment would have said, oh, they have to
follow the whole law. If in this moment they
would have said that, they would have put an
end to the move of God. Lord, I pray that you
would convict your church when they make it harder
than it really is to come to Christ. When they
say you've got to get all your ducks in a row
before you come to Jesus. You can't just come
as you are. You've got to change everything first.
Lord, I pray that you would forgive your church
for having that kind of a mentality. God, you
said, whosoever will call on the name of the
Lord shall be saved. And I ask God that the way
would be made easy for people to come to Jesus
in this last hour in the name of the Lord. I
pray that it would just be very easy for people
to turn to God. These Gentiles turning to God.
Turning to God. I pray that it would be said
of Lincoln, Illinois. that it turned to God.
In every neighborhood, in every street, God,
in every corner of this city, in Jesus' name,
then people begin to call on the name of the
Lord. God, we are expectant. God, we believe.
We're looking to you to move by your spirit.
Thank you, Father. The grace of God shed abroad
in this city to turn hearts in high places and
low places, in every social class. Oh, God. Oh,
God, we feel your promise. We hear your calling.
We ask, God, that you would move and have your
way. Have your way. You're going to bring revival.
You're going to do it, God, by your Spirit. Hallelujah.
Hallelujah. Thank you, Father. Just take just
a moment here and just, in your own words, just
ask God to move by His Spirit. God, we've made
it so hard for people. God, I ask that it would
just be very easy for people to come to Christ.
Oh, Lord Jesus, have your way. Oh, Lord Jesus,
move. Oh, Lord Jesus, move. Thank you, Father.
The people that feel like they are last, you
are making them first. God, you are calling the
people in the hedges and the highways and the
byways, the people in the obscure positions and
places of life to see that the Father's house
is full. To see that the Father's house is full.
Oh God, oh God, oh God. Fill up your house, we
pray. Fill up your house, we pray. Oh Jesus.
Oh Jesus. Jesus, move.