A few weeks ago, my brother in Christ Tom Sipling and his wife Cindy were in town staying with us. They helped us train 70-some young, radical missionaries from the West, and I had Tom on my radio show. They are an awesome couple, living out the Christian life in faith; this is their message. By the way, the radio program–we call it the “Counseling Pulpit”–has really hit stride. With over 2.4 million listeners in four African countries, I get stopped on the street and at restaurants often as people ask me if I am that American on the radio! God is up to something crazy…
IV. Fourth Revolution: People
(Acts 2:14, 40, 41) “Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd…”
Peter, who couldn’t stand with Jesus before one young girl at a camp fire, is now addressing the crowd in the streets of Jerusalem! This teaches us that passion for God has a symptom: compassion for man. Thousands were being added to the church, because there was a remnant of passionate, praying people who had a heart for their city.
Postmodern preachers don’t populate the pews; they connect people to the living Christ. Postmodern evangelism doesn’t say to the world, “Come to church.” Rather, it says to the church, “Go to the world.”
You can be the last of a dying breed of ministers, those left standing on a burning platform, or you can be the front-guard of a new breed of ministers. You can be a dinosaur in the pit, or you can be the frontline of a new kind of church leader fro the church. You can be the church in a world you wish you had, or your faith can face the world the way it really is. (Leonard Sweet)
I challenge young people: Is there a young person who would stand in their cafeteria and declare the message of God’s love? This is scary stuff, but it’s necessary.
V. Fifth Revolution: Presence of God
In Acts, Chapter Three and the following chapters, many salvations and supernatural events began to take place. Go back to your Bible, and read some of the stories. Transformation of a city begins to take place. Can a high school campus be transformed by the presence of God? We would all say, “Yes.” and probably quote Luke 1:37–“Nothing is impossible with God.” Of course, we would; the focus is God.
Now let me ask the question: Will a high school campus be transformed by the presence of God? We would probably hesitate in our answer, because now the focus is on us! The revolutionaries now become the decentralized church walking loose in a city as carriers of God’s presence.
