7 Dynamics of a Wholehearted Church Part 2 - 7 Dynamics of a Wholehearted Church

You're listening to the road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

Church.

In my opinion, you're not a church if you don't preach the word.

How can you be, how can you call yourself a church and not preach from the Bible?

God's given us his holy word.

And we're full of opinions today.

CNN has an opinion.

Fox News has an opinion.

MSNBC has an opinion.

New York Times has an opinion page.

We judge it all by God's work.

At The Road, our vision is to raise up wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ.

For more information on The Road, visit theroad.org.

We hope you are encouraged by today's message from Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

All right, here's what I want you to do right now.

I want you to turn to John chapter 7.

John 7 · chapter mention

And this is this is a continuation of the message two weeks ago.

We did a chill.

Who was here for the children's church and the family church?

Wasn't that fun?

I had a blast of those kids.

I felt like I was Art Link Letter, interviewing them.

That was so much fun.

Anyway, look at John 7.

So two weeks ago, I talked about this prophetic word that God had given us from Ezekiel 47.

We've gotten these prophetic words like three, four different times about Ezekiel 47.

And I'm not going to go there because I already did two weeks ago, but that's the picture that Ezekiel had, the vision of the water running out from the threshold of the temple and how it rose up.

And at first it's just ankle deep.

And then in the prophecy, it's knee deep, and then it's waist deep, and then he has to swim in the river.

And I believe that's a prophetic word for our church because that's what God wants to do.

He wants a church where we're all at different spots and all at different places.

Some of you are ankle deep, some of you are knee deep, and some of you are swimming in the river of living water.

And then Jesus builds on that, and I don't know if he was actually looking at Ezekiel 47 or studying that or something when he came to the Feast of Tabernacles.

So look at John chapter 7, because at the end, the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, this is where they take the golden pitcher from the temple and they go to the pool of Salaam and they pour it out, and they're pouring it out because it was a picture of Moses with the water coming out of the rock.

John 7 · chapter mention

And who's the rock?

Jesus is the rock, right?

So he comes prophetically, he comes prophetically, he doesn't say I'm the rock, but here's what he does say in John 7, 37, because remember, he's a fulfillment of the law.

On the last day, that great day of the feast, so speaking of the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus stood and he cried out, saying, If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink.

So see what he's saying?

He's saying, when they were at the feet, when they're making this a part of the Feast of Tabernacles, where the water had come out of the rock, he's saying, I'm the rock.

He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

But this he spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in him would receive.

For the Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Now turn to Acts chapter 1.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

So a couple weeks ago we talked about the idea of seven dynamics of a whole-hearted church.

And for you that have asked the question about whether we're getting back to Matthew, we are.

But when I hit that part about the fulfillment of the law, which we covered several weeks ago, God really spoke to me to talk about these seven dynamics for a few weeks of a whole-hearted or a spirit-filled church.

How many of you know that the Holy Spirit wants to get out?

He doesn't just want to get in, he wants to get out.

It's not just about being filled with the Holy Spirit, it's about being spilled with the Holy Spirit.

So this idea of a river flowing has always been the metaphor that Jesus used, which Ezekiel used in the temple illustration, Ezekiel 47, of a new people that God was gonna raise up in the last days called the church.

So we've all been hurt by the church.

If you haven't been hurt by the church, just hang out, you'll get hurt by the church.

Okay, the church is not perfect, but guess what?

I didn't think it up.

And you didn't think it up, Jesus did.

So this concept of Israel, a nation, which is still a beautiful nation, was a precursor, a prophetic image of what he would do, and the Holy Spirit would come down and it would become the church.

So the spirit, the church is to be a spirit-filled, spirit-spilled group of people that come together, and the best image, the best foundation we have is the book of Acts.

And, you know, how many of you have ever said, I really want to be in a New Testament church?

I mean, I've heard people say that ever since I've been a pastor, I want to be in a New Testament church.

We're really New Testament church.

And I go, well, if you do, then people are gonna get killed in it.

You know, do you want to really be in a church where if you lie to the Holy Spirit, like he just like strikes you dead?

And like any, have you ever been in a church where they had images of Ananias and Sapphira up, you know, along with Mary and Jesus?

I don't think so.

So we're all in this process, right, of God filling us with his Spirit, and we all make mistakes, and we're we're sinners saved by grace that are now saints in Christ.

So two weeks ago I covered number one.

So look at Acts chapter one, first dynamic.

Look at verse 14.

These all continue with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Then look at Acts chapter 2, verse 1.

Acts 2:1

When the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all one accord in one place.

We talked about this idea of this strand like a rope, and you know, if you see a rope, even a fiber rope has all the little little strands running through it.

That's that idea of being one accord.

That's what it means in Greek.

They were one accord in prayer, and that's the first dynamic.

That we would be a church, and we're not there yet, but we're getting there with prayer, but we'd be a church that's one accord in prayer.

And I said this, and I want to say it again.

The greatest thing men and women, you that are married, could do is pray together.

It's one of the hardest things you can do, and let me just say this: if it's hard, it's probably really good.

If it's something that you don't really want to do, and you got problems, and you want to get closer and more intimate, it's probably an indication that this is why you're not there yet, because it's so hard to get there.

And so for me, with working out, you know, um, I hate curls.

I think curls are stupid.

I don't like curls, and I don't, I mean, I like to look down and go, whoa, yeah, you know, it's a little less, yeah, than it used to be.

But anyway, this little thing, you know, you know, but I try.

But I don't like curls, but I know it's good for me.

Everything tells me it actually affects your whole shoulder and everything.

So you do it.

So we talk about no pain, no gain.

When we talk about one accord prayer as a couple, it's super hard for men, especially.

It really is hard.

But I'm telling you, you guys, it's it's it's the sound barrier.

It's kind of like the sound barrier in our marriage.

If we can break the sound barrier, so many other areas of our life get easier.

In communication, sex, I mean, all those things are so much better when we pray together.

Now, not the kind of prayers where you go, Lord, I just ask that you'd help Susan to figure out why she doesn't love me the way she should.

No, no, no, that kind of prayer.

But we we we begin to actually pray to Jesus, not to each other.

Um, so one accord prayer.

In chapter two, look what happens.

And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting, and there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, and one sat upon each of them, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit.

So it was like a wildfire that came.

And so a couple weeks ago we talked about the whole-hearted empowering of the Holy Spirit, how important that is in our life, that we're being filled with the Holy Spirit, and then spirit-spilled, not just spirit-filled.

Some of us come out of backgrounds where they talked a lot about being filled with the Holy Spirit.

But I doubt we've heard much about being spilled with the Holy Spirit, because that's how you know you're filled with the Holy Spirit.

And if you recall, I had a picture up here and I spilled it out.

That's the point.

It's not for our enjoyment only, as beautiful as that is, but it's also for the enjoyment of the rest of those around us because we become spirit-filled.

And God uses that.

So those are the first two points that we already covered.

Now let's look at dynamic number three.

So what happens next?

This is just crazy.

This is so crazy.

This is Peter.

Guys remember Peter?

Peter's the guy that can't even tell the truth to a servant girl.

That's what a mighty man of God he is.

He gets filled with the Holy Spirit, and if you look at Acts chapter 2, he begins to preach the gospel with power.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

That's the third dynamic.

Wholehearted preaching of the word of God.

To be a whole-hearted church, men and women, one accord prayer, filled with the Holy Spirit.

But number three, preaching the word.

Not preaching Steve, not preaching the road.

The road didn't go to Calvary for you and die on a cross.

Jesus did.

And he gave us his holy, inerrant, infallible word of God.

I just went to hear Dennis Prager and Robbie Zacharias last night at the uh at the Pikes Peak Center.

Liz and I went.

A number of you were there.

I saw you in the crowd and stuff.

And, you know, the big question was what is truth?

Well, church, truth is found here.

And that's what I want to inculcate into our youth this fall, is to be in the Word.

They're gonna hear it again and again and again.

You're gonna hear it every time you come to the road every week.

We're gonna teach chapter by chapter and verse by verse because I don't like my opinion.

My opinion is changing.

It's like water on the beach, man.

It's like waves on the beach, it changes.

We need steady, truthful, consistent work in our life, and that only comes through God's word.

And so that's that's a concept that was radical at that time.

I mean, only the priest read the word in the temple.

Only the scribes read the word in the temple.

And then for thousands of years, it was only the priest in the church that could read the Bible because it was in Latin.

And now we have about a million translations.

I mean, you can have, you can have any kind of translation you want because the word is for you.

It's for you to read the word, it will change your heart.

It will change your life as you spend time in God's Word.

And so Peter gets up.

Look at chapter 2, verse 17, and he quotes from Joel, and it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh, not just prophets, not just kings, not just great leaders like we see in the Old Testament.

It's gonna be everybody's gift.

Your sons and your daughters, and this is radical, you guys, sons and daughters.

I mean, women were kind of pushed to the society side of society at that time.

He's saying, even your women are gonna get filled with the Holy Spirit, and not just women, but daughters.

Sons and daughters, young people.

Why can't Thursday a week at our youth gathering and we've got a bonfire going, why can't we light a bonfire in the hearts of our sons and daughters?

Praise God if we had 10, 11, and 12-year-olds come back and get us fired up because they're getting fired up down below in our children's ministry.

That's what needs to happen.

And God's done that in the past in great revivals.

Your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.

On my men servants, so you know what he's talking about here?

Slaves.

Even on slaves, maid servants, so male slaves and female slaves.

I will pour out my spirit on them in those days, and they shall prophesy, and I will show wonders in heaven above and signs on the earth beneath.

And then chapter 25, he quotes scripture again.

And then in verse 34, he quotes scripture again.

Verse 35, he quotes scripture again, and then look down at verse 42.

Verse 42 says, And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine.

That means the apostles' teaching.

Church.

In my opinion, you're not a church if you don't preach the word.

How can you be how can you call yourself a church and not preach from the Bible?

So God's given us his holy word.

And we're full of opinions today.

CNN has an opinion.

Fox News has an opinion.

MSNBC has an opinion.

New York Times has an opinion page.

We judge it all by God's word.

So I like what John R.

Stott said, and Charles Spurgeon, the great preacher of London Tabernacle, said it so well.

He says, I read the newspaper in one hand and I read the Bible in the other.

Isn't that a good principle?

And I would say you put the Bible over the paper.

We do need to know what's going on.

We do need to apply it.

That's why we talk about being word-rooted, spirit alive, and culturally engaged here at the road.

Word-rooted, our groundings in God's word, spirit alive through the power of the Spirit, but then we're culturally engaged.

God wants to make have us culturally engaged.

So I tell you a funny story was not a funny, it's a cool story, but we're in noonday prayer.

So at 12 o'clock on Tuesday, we have noonday prayer over here in the round table room.

So there's about five or six of us.

And this guy just keeps walking past the door, and he's got a big white beard.

And I said, Can I help you?

And he goes, Yeah, I'm just looking for the office.

And I said, Well, this is pretty good.

This is the office here.

We're praying right now.

And he goes, I need help.

I said, Well, what's up?

He said, Well, my wife's got cancer, and I and I just took her to a hospital, and she's probably gonna die of cancer.

I'm running from the law in Ohio, and I need to go back and face some music.

And um, so things aren't looking too good for me.

And I said, Man, that's kind of a bummer, man.

That's a really bad deal.

And I said, But I'm glad you're here.

We're gonna pray for you right now.

We're gonna ask God for some miracles for you.

So we all got up and we laid hands on him and we prayed for him.

He had an ankle thing on, you know, monitor on his ankle.

He showed it to us.

We prayed for him, and then Al uh took him and we got him gas, filled up his tank, so he'd get back to Ohio.

It was really a God thing.

And then uh Liz and I had our anniversary on Friday, been married 34 years.

Isn't that awesome?

12,410 days with the same woman.

Best wife I've ever had.

Actually, some of you can say that, but um we go to a restaurant here in town, I'm not gonna name it.

Well, we went there for breakfast, went, worked out at Villa, then we went to to uh breakfast, we come in, and this guy comes up, says, Hey, my name's Josh.

And uh is Josh here, by the way?

My waiter?

Okay, because I'll just have him come up and tell the story.

But uh we invited him to church.

So Josh comes up, he says, My name's Josh, I'll be your server.

And I said, Man, do you know where that name comes from?

And he goes, No, I said, Joshua in the Bible.

He goes, really?

And I said, Yeah, did you were you named after Joshua in the Bible?

He goes, Well, I don't know.

I my you know my parents were Catholic, but we didn't hardly go to church much.

And I said, Okay.

I said, cool.

So he comes back with the coffee, and I had my Bible, my journal with him.

I said, Hey, look, let me show you about you.

You know, so I took him to Joshua chapter one and I showed him be strong and courageous, and be strong and courageous, and be strong and courageous.

I said, see, this guy was getting ready to take over Moses' job, and he's gonna go over in across the Jordan River, and there's this big city they gotta take, and everything.

You're made to do great things for God, but you gotta be strong and courageous.

And he's going, Yeah, okay, you know, and so he's kind of listening and everything.

And then, you know, we went on and I preached a little mini sermon, but it was like one minute.

I didn't, there was no soapbox for me to stand on, so I didn't say much.

But but then we got done, and then the regional manager came over, and he we started a conversation with him.

It was really fun.

And he was telling us about his background and stuff on the farm in Colorado, blah, blah, blah.

So that got done.

Then Josh comes over with our ticket, and there's a Chris$20 bill on the bill, and he hands it to me.

He says, Hey, that you know when you're talking to me about Joshua and the Bible and everything?

I said, Yeah.

So I guess this lady over here overheard it.

She wanted to pay for your bill for 20 bucks for your bill.

And I went, that's awesome.

Cool.

I said, I don't want$20.

I don't need$20.

You need$20, Josh.

This is a sign to you that God's got something on your life and you're supposed to be strong and courageous.

He goes, it's for me?

I said, it was a pretty good tip.

And uh he goes, Yeah, it's for you.

And he goes, Wow, man, thank you.

And it was really awesome.

So then we're getting ready to leave, and I thought, I gotta go back to that, the regional manager for the particular place we were at.

So I found him, he came out, I told him what had happened with Josh.

And I said, hey, Josh did a great job.

He's just a great waiter, server, super great job.

Told him what happened.

He was smiling, and he goes, My son's name is Joshua.

And I said, Oh, that's cool.

He said, and he brought me back to God a few years ago.

I said, You're kidding.

He said, No, we were in the restaurant business for like 10 years, and one day he came to me and says, I gotta go to seminary, I gotta become a pastor.

And he goes, Okay.

So he let him go, and now he's planting a church right outside Houston.

Isn't that cool?

So you never know what God will do if you just have a mindset that the presence of God follows you.

I think that's what happened to Peter.

He's filled with the Holy Spirit.

He didn't write this sermon, he didn't even know what a sermon was.

His last interaction with anybody that opposed him was lying to a servant girl that he even knew Jesus.

But something happened on the Sea of Galilee.

Something happened on the Sea of Galilee.

Remember?

Remember in that period of time where Jesus had risen from the grave?

He comes to the Sea of Galilee, they're out fishing.

They're trying to catch fish.

He's gone back to catching fish, you know.

And then he says, It's Jesus, and he jumps in.

Remember that part?

And he swims it and he's got the fire going and everything.

And Jesus says only to Peter.

Because Peter had denied him three times.

And he said, Do you love me?

Peter said, Yeah, you know that I do, Lord.

Do you love me?

Well, you know that I do, Lord.

Do you love me?

You see, three times he was challenged.

Remember what he said?

He said, Feed my lambs, feed my sheep.

So Peter doesn't know what's going on.

All they've been doing is one accord prayer.

Holy Spirit comes down like a like a wind, like this powerful force comes down, right?

And he's led by the Holy Spirit to preach the kingdom of God.

And how would you like it?

That just just like a month, about a month and a half ago, you lie that you even know Jesus, and then the Spirit of God comes upon you, and 3,000 people get saved in one day.

That's a pretty good, pretty good business plan.

That's what God wants to do through many of you.

You don't know it, but God's gonna use you, many of you, to preach the word in the craziest of settings.

I like what Al was saying the other day, he was saying, wouldn't it be cool if you started hearing announcements like at Walmart?

We need a catcher on aisle three, they're falling.

Because the Spirit of God's moving.

I think God wants to do some cool stuff through us.

In your job, in your marriage, at Wholeheart Advance this week, at King Supers, at the post office.

Just going through your regular day, being available to God for Him to mightily use you.

The church is not just preaching the kingdom and preaching God's word, but we are.

We have it.

The sons and the daughters and the maidservants and the men servants and the old men and the young men and the old women and the young women, the spirit upon all of you in this.

Room.

Are you in God's word?

Are you in God's Word on a regular basis?

Do you wake up in the morning and spend some time in God's Word?

Or before you go to bed, spend time in God's Word.

Just read a chapter.

We call it PBJ.

Prayer, Bible, and journal.

Prayer Bible and journal.

And we have a little, you can get this at the it's actually in the cup, I believe.

Yeah, it's right here.

So when you come, you can go over there and it's got this, which gives you a Bible reading plan right there that you can use.

Because as the word gets in you, as you read the word, it reads you.

And it begins to transform us.

I love Hebrews 4.12.

Hebrews 4.12 says the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword.

You see, the word is a mirror.

It's a mirror and it's a river.

It's a mirror and it's a river.

It's a mirror of who we are.

It shows us where we need to be transformed and changed.

But then it's a river that flows out to others.

So the word of God, third dynamic.

Fourth dynamic.

Wholehearted relationships.

Wholehearted relationships with other disciples.

It's so exciting.

Look at what they said here in verse 42.

Fellowship.

It says the apostles' doctrine and fellowship.

Verse 44.

All who believed were together.

Verse 46, one accord in the temple.

So the word here is cononia.

Cononia is the word being used here.

It means to have a share in something, a sharing with someone in something.

That's what's going to happen, for example, at the Wholeheart Advance.

You men that are going to Wholeheart Advance are going to develop probably some lifelong relationships by being together for three days.

We call it bloodstained allies.

Having bloodstained allies in our life that we can be vulnerable and open with.

Most believers have no bloodstained allies.

You women are way better at this than us men.

I see, you know, I'll go into coffee shops and see some of the road folks there.

A lot of times it's women meeting, and increasingly over the years, because of Wholehearted Bance and Worshiper Warrior, I see men too.

Just it's really exciting.

But men, you need some other men.

Women, you need some other women, outside of just your spouse if you're married.

But someone that you can be vulnerable with, or two or three guys that you can be vulnerable with in a whole heart group.

We've called them D groups.

We're changing that to wholeheart groups.

But this idea that we can open up about our shame and about our brokenness.

Most of us in this room are carrying stuff from our past that has totally debilitated your ability to move forward emotionally and spiritually.

It's got you locked down.

And what the devil wants you to believe is if I tell someone, then I'll lose that relationship.

I'll be devalued.

I'll be seen as a loser.

I just want you to know in God's economy, the total opposite is true.

That actually we grow into wholeness through being vulnerable about our lack of wholeness.

We get healed from our frustrations and our anger and our and our past hurt and pain that we've caused by being open about it.

So one of my roommates in college and I met some 15 years after we had been roommates.

We were in Fort Collins, Colorado.

And I was sharing about what God was doing in my life at that time.

This would be in the 80s, mid-80s.

And um he listened and he said, Steve, I gotta tell you something from my life.

And he shared of getting a girl pregnant, an abortion that was involved, and the guilt that he felt about that.

And we invited the Holy Spirit to come into the car.

We're sitting in a car, and when the Spirit of God came into that car, my brother began to weep, and I began to weep.

And for two hours, the Holy Spirit ministered to this young man.

And he will tell you that he was set free that night because he opened up, because he shared his heart.

This is a dangerous message in most churches.

Because in most churches, there's not that level of trust.

But we built the road on that level of trust.

And it's so important that we never lose that part of who we are.

You can go and we can share, and we're gonna have unconditional love for you because we want you set free.

And we've just about heard everything you can share.

So you're not gonna surprise us with anything.

But when we begin to be open, the light of the gospel, 2 Corinthians 4, can shine in those dark areas and begin to set us free.

Isn't that exciting?

That's the fellowship, that's the cononia.

It means to participate in.

That's what was happening in the church at that time.

That's the fourth dynamic.

That's a huge dynamic that's missing in the church today.

If you're not in a small group, get in a small group, gang.

Small groups is where it happens.

That's the best place for these things to happen.

For God to bring heal.

You've been listening to The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

We hope you have been blessed by today's message.

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Go to theroad.org, click on the Ministries tab, and go to our prayer page to send us your prayer request.

Thanks again for tuning in today, and be sure to listen to the next edition of The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.