Just Speak

Welcome to Gateway Churches Podcast.

Wherever you're tuning in from, we hope you're encouraged by today's message.

For God so loved the world that he sent his one and only Son so that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.

Is there any scripture more precious?

I'd like to ask you, when I cite that scripture again, and I come to the word world, would you place a nation?

For God so loved, and I'll pause, and I want you to say it out loud.

Whatever nation comes to your mind, maybe it's your nation, maybe it's a nation where you have a loved one, maybe it's a place you'd always want to visit, however, the Lord leads you.

And then after I say, for God so loved, and you fill in the blank, I'm gonna be quiet and I'm gonna let you pray for that nation.

Welcome the Holy Spirit's work upon the people.

Pray in whatever language, whatever spiritual language, whatever natural language that you feel so led to pray in.

And let's follow our master's command to pray, therefore, that the Lord of the harvest would send forth workers.

For God's soul loved.

Now pray.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Lift your voice a little louder.

Let the others in the church hear you praying for your nation.

Pray louder now, please.

Raise up a chorus.

Bless you.

Bless you.

If you feel like you want to stand, stand.

If you want to raise a hand, raise a hand.

Intercede on behalf of the people around the world.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah to the King of Kings.

All praise to your name.

Continue to pray.

We're not in a hurry.

Bless you, Lord.

Bless you.

Bless you, Father.

Bless you.

Go to the distant lands.

Go, Lord.

Moscow.

Buenos Aires.

Tokyo.

Reach out, please, to Bogota.

Bless you, Lord, for Mexico City, Sydney, Australia, Fiji, Copenhagen, Heavenly Father, Berlin.

Don't forget London.

Please, dear Lord, go to Iran.

Bless our brothers in Israel, our sisters in Israel.

Please, Lord, bring peace to the Middle East.

Hear our prayers, O Lord.

Now louder, please, as you lift up your hearts, please.

Bless you, Lord.

Bless you, Father.

Bless you, Father.

Praise to your name, the God of the nations, the God, the King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords.

Find the poorest of the poor, Lord.

Those who are forgotten and lonely in the mountains, in the jungles, in Brazil, in Oceana.

Heavenly Father, Eskimos, the Native Americans.

Find a tribe, Lord.

Today make a difference.

Make a difference, O Lord, today.

Impact, Lord.

Raise up workers.

Send them out.

Send us out.

O Heavenly Father.

All praise to your name.

All praise to your name.

The King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, sovereign over all the earth, over all the earth.

Bless you, Lord.

Bless you, Lord.

Bless you, Father.

Bless you.

Bless you.

Bless you, Father.

Amen.

And amen.

It's the most important work you'll do all day, right there.

It's the most important work you'll do all day.

What a privilege to be a part of this special missions weekend.

Amen.

Was that not the most beautiful worship that you've ever seen?

You just give me the thumbs up and I'll sit down and we'll bring them all back up and do it all once again.

Well, no, don't do that.

Don't do that.

Don't do that.

It's just an honor to be here and meet and greet people from all over the world.

And may God's richest blessings be upon you, those of you who have traveled so far, and you carry such a burden for your home.

May the Lord's richest blessings be yours.

I'm personally just so very excited.

My heart is beating very fast.

It's a great treat for me to be here with you.

I continue to bring you greetings from our church in San Antonio, Texas.

They are sending their love.

And I want you to know that I'm here with their blessing and they're sending their blessings to you.

The truth of the matter is they are always so happy when I travel.

They've been really kind of rough on me lately.

I've been there since 1988, and so they don't hold anything back, no politeness anymore.

They're just telling me, Max, your sermons are getting so long.

So long.

In fact, I was preaching two or three weeks ago, right in the middle of the sermon, a fella got up and he started walking out.

Right in the middle of the sermon.

So I stopped everything.

I said, Hey buddy, where are you going?

He said, Well, I'm gonna go get a haircut.

I said, Well, why didn't you get one before you came in?

He said, I didn't need one before I came in.

It is a joy to experience mission weekend at Gateway.

And what better scripture to ponder this weekend than this one from the second chapter of Acts.

The title of our message is Just Speak.

Just speak.

And the text from Acts chapter 2, verse 14, and then skipping down to verse 39.

Acts 2:14

Then Peter stood up with the eleven, raised his voice, addressed the crowd, fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem.

Let me explain this to you.

Listen carefully to what I say.

And then later, verse 39.

Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins.

And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

This promise is for you.

And for your children, and for all who are far off.

For all whom the Lord our God will call.

What has gotten into Peter?

Where did he get this courage?

Where did he find such confidence?

Just seven weeks ago he was hiding because of Jesus, and now here he is proclaiming the cause of Jesus.

In the hours before the cross, he denied Christ, and now he announces Christ.

On the eve of Good Friday, you couldn't get him to speak up.

Now you get the impression, just 50 days later, that you couldn't get him to shut up.

What's gotten into Peter?

He was a coward at the crucifixion, a kind coward, but a coward nonetheless.

It was just a question from a servant girl that undid him.

Remember?

Not a soldier who bludgeoned him.

The Sanhedrin didn't browbeat him.

Rome didn't threaten to deport him.

No, just a waitress from the downtown diner overheard him talking and said, I've heard that accent.

Wait a second, weren't you with Jesus?

And it wasn't enough for Jesus just to say, No, I was not.

He had to curse the very idea.

Then Peter began to place a curse on himself and swear, I don't know the man.

But look at him now.

Look at him.

On the day of Pentecost, look at him, declaring to a throng of thousands, God has made Jesus the man you nailed to a cross, both Lord and Christ.

That's gutsy language.

Lynch mobs feed on those kind of accusations.

The same crowd that shouted, crucify him, could crucify him.

From wimp to warrior in just seven weeks.

What happened?

Oh, how we need to know.

How we need to know.

We admire the Pentecost, Peter, but we can relate to the Passover, Peter.

We admire the courageous, Peter, but we've been known to cower like the cowardly Peter.

We have people we know, we have nations about which we've read, we have compassion in our heart, and we want to do something, but sometimes we just get so tongue-tied, hog tied, tied up.

We cower, we back away, and we wonder, why is her life so fruitful and mine so futile?

Why is his life so powerful?

Why is my life so weak?

Aren't we saved by the same Christ?

Don't we read the same scriptures?

Don't we rally around the same cross?

Why do some look like Peter before the crucifixion?

And others look like Peter on the day of Pentecost.

Or why do I vacillate back and forth between the two on any given week?

Jesus embedded the answer to give us.

It's in his final earthly message.

He told Peter and the other followers, wait here, speaking of Jerusalem, wait here to receive the promise from the Father I told you about.

John baptized people with water, but in a few days you'll be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

A hundred and twenty of them obeyed the apostles minus Judas, plus Matthias, his replacement.

Mary, the mother of Jesus, was there, the brothers of Jesus were there.

James, Joseph, Simon, and Judah.

Mary of Magdalene, I would imagine, was there.

Joanna, the wife of Jusa, was there.

Susannah was there.

They followed Jesus.

And now they obeyed Jesus.

And now they are charter members of the church.

Jesus sent them to Jerusalem to do what?

To wait.

For how long?

They aren't told.

Upon whom?

The Holy Spirit.

How would the Holy Spirit come?

They aren't told.

They were sent to Jerusalem to wait.

Could they have imagined what was about to happen?

Oh, look at this.

Tongues of fire.

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.

Pentecost was one of the three feast days on which all Jewish men were at some time in their life required to journey to Jerusalem.

Many had arrived over 50 days earlier and participated in the Passover.

They would have witnessed the crucifixion of Christ.

They would have heard the word about the resurrection of Christ.

They came from all over the then known world, Jews from Persia, Medes with long curled beards and thick hair, poor Jews from Arabia, sophisticated Jews from Rome in their togas.

The population of Jerusalem, according to one historian, would swell from a hundred thousand to a million.

At this time of the year, you can envision a dozen dialects echoing in the markets, and coins from every currency jingled in the purses of the merchants.

The city of David hummed with activity.

The divine timing was precise.

Now, with the sacrifice of Christ accomplished, now with the tomb of Christ vacated, now with the person of Christ ascended to the throne, now with the apostles gathered together in one place in prayer, waiting on the power of the Spirit, now with representatives from at least fifteen different nations gathered in one place.

It was time.

All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

And now they were staying in Jerusalem, God-fearing Jews, look at this, from every nation under heaven.

And when they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment.

Look at this.

Because each one heard their own language being spoken.

Could you not wear out a highlighter on that paragraph?

Tongues of fire came and descended upon each of them.

Son and daughter, man and woman.

Tongues of fire came and descended upon each of them.

And because of that tongue of fire, they were empowered to speak a language they had never studied and convey the gospel in a tongue perhaps they had never heard.

And each person who was listening heard the gospel.

Look at this in their own language.

In their own language.

It came to them.

What a moment that must have been.

Andrew declaring the goodness of God in the tongue of the Egyptians.

Thomas recounting the miracles of Christ in the dialect of the Cappadocians.

Can you imagine Mary, the mother of Jesus, describing the birth of Jesus to a group from Crete in the language of their land?

Some in the crowd were cynical, accusing the disciples of having a little early morning inebriation.

But others were amazed.

And they asked this question: Whatever could this mean?

What a question.

Crowded city, prayerful followers, rushing wind, falling fire, fifteen nations represented in one assembly, disciples speaking like trained translators at the United Nations.

Whatever could this mean?

It must mean at least this, and that is the Holy Spirit empowers Christ's followers to speak the heart languages of the world.

The Holy Spirit empowers Christ's followers to speak the languages of the world.

He has a white, hot passion to see the gospel proclaimed in the heart language of every tribe, every tent, every city, every corner.

Compelling communication was the first fruit of the falling of the Holy Spirit.

Compelling communication.

In time he would allow them and empower them to heal the sick.

In time he would lead them to lead the church.

In time they would even raise the dead.

They would open prison doors.

But before those mighty acts of power, there were mighty words of proclamation.

Because of the Holy Spirit, these unschooled ordinary men, as they will soon be described in Acts chapter 4, and women, were empowered to speak languages they had never studied and impact nations to which they most likely would never travel.

Acts 4 · chapter mention

Fire fell from heaven and melted the ice that encased the hearts of at least 3,000 listeners.

Do you think God's will has changed for his church?

Do you think that was a one-time-only event never to be repeated?

Do you think God has dialed back his desire?

Do you think he no longer has a passion to see people hear the gospel of Jesus Christ in their own language?

I think his plan is still the same.

Can I get an amen for that?

Best I can tell, his promise has not been rescinded.

Jesus said, do not be anxious about how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

You and I are the curators, the carriers of a cup.

That does not depend upon our eloquence, upon our brilliance.

It depends simply upon our willingness to open our mouths.

And speak.

Just speak.

Common, ordinary men and women obeyed, they prayed, they waited, they felt, they received, and then they opened their mouths.

And here we are still today, talking about that moment.

Oh God, would you bring another Pentecost today?

Would you bring another Pentecost today?

Would you be willing to unleash from heaven yet another supernatural downpour of your Holy Spirit so strong that we open our mouths and we speak and we see people's hearts change?

Oh Lord, hear our prayer for another day and let we be a part of the answer to that prayer.

How God uses ordinary people to do an extraordinary work through the extraordinary power of the Holy Spirit.

We could use Billy Graham as an example, the son of a North Carolina dairy farmer.

Spoke to over a billion people in his life about Jesus Christ.

We could use Charles Spurgeon as an example, a preacher from a century and a half ago, and many of us are still reading his sermons to this day.

We could use Mother Teresa as an example.

She wasn't even five feet tall, and yet when she walked in a room, orators far grander than her stood back and listened as she spoke.

But I would much rather smoke.

Maybe she did, I don't know.

But I would rather tell you about Brenda Jones.

Brenda went to see a plastic surgeon, not for the purpose of cosmetics, but because both of her breasts were full of cancer.

And her only hope was to have them removed.

And she went to see Dr.

Pete, a plastic surgeon in San Antonio who specializes in breast reconstruction.

And when she went and sat across from him, Pete, a kind man, listened to her story about what she needed, explained to her the procedure.

But then as time was ticking away, she leaned across and she said, Dr.

Pete, can I tell you about the Jesus who saved me?

Can I tell you how good he's been to me?

Can I tell you that I'm not afraid of death?

Can I tell you that though I'm very sick, my soul is saved.

Can I tell you about the Jesus who saved me?

Pete did kind of what I'm doing now.

He crossed his arms and he leaned back.

Highly successful, very affluent, greatly regarded, and yet lost as a goose.

He had spent all of his life climbing the ladder, and if he were here right now, he would tell you, I was realizing that that ladder was leaning against the wrong building.

And she leaned across the table and she looked at Dr.

Pete and she said, Pete, apart from Jesus Christ, you have no hope.

But with Jesus Christ, with Jesus, he'll change your life and turn you around.

And so there was weak, dying Brenda Jones, who had the audacity to just speak.

And Pete's eyes began to fill with tears.

And his heart began to fill with hope.

And she led him in a prayer.

And he said yes to Christ.

She died two months later.

I baptized Pete about six weeks later on a cold January day in an outdoor swimming pool.

And Pete Ledoux is one of the elders in the church where I serve.

A dear man who has now raised his family to the glory of God.

Brenda Jones chose to just speak.

I could tell you also about the father of Antonor Gonçalves.

I've listened to Antonor preach many sermons, some in English, some in Portuguese.

What a powerful proclaimer of the truth he is.

He has served most of his life in a town outside of São Paulo, Brazil, only has three letters.

ITU And he's pastored a wonderful church there for most of his life.

But he never, as far as I know, would have become a pastor had there not been the most interesting decision of a man whom we'll only meet when we get to heaven, who chose to turn his front porch into a gospel billboard of sorts.

Here's what happened.

Antonor's father took the train every day from outside of São Paulo, Brazil into São Paulo.

And then he disembarked and would walk through a modest neighborhood to get to his office.

It was about a two-mile walk.

And as he walked through the neighborhood, he noticed that there was a house, and this house had a porch, and someone had taken a chalkboard, a blackboard, and placed it on the front porch.

And every day the owner of that house would write a different Bible verse so that anybody who walked past, if they stopped, would read a scripture.

Every day the verse was different, but every day the desire was the same to just speak.

Just deposit some truth in the heart of a person.

And every day, Antonor's father, Mr.

Gonsalvis, would pause and he would read that scripture.

He had never held a Bible, never been taught the Bible, but every day he would pause and he would read a verse of Scripture.

A verse maybe like this one.

Forgive me, Brazilians, it's been 35 years.

Porque Deus é meu amundo de tal maneira, que Deus é o filho unigenito, para que tudo aquele que nele crea não padeça mais a vida eterna.

Because God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him would not perish, but have everlasting life.

The words intrigued Mr.

Gonsalvis.

One day his curiosity got the better of him.

And he knocked on the door and had a conversation.

And that conversation led to an invitation.

And that invitation led to a visit to a church.

And that visit to a church led to a Bible study.

And that Bible study led to a moment of salvation in which Mr.

Gonsalves said yes to Jesus.

And he went home and he picked up little two-year-old Antonor.

And from that moment on began teaching Antonor about Jesus.

And to this day, Antonore is proclaiming the grace that his father first found on a chalkboard in the outskirts of Brazil.

God used the blackboard to change a family's trajectory.

And he used a second string quarterback to change mine.

My friend Mike was the backup quarterback.

I was the backup center.

I have to say that word carefully.

Not center, but center.

Then again, I was both.

And Mike and I did what backup football players do.

We stood on the bench, stood on the bench, sat on the bench, stood on the sidelines.

People asked me, what position did you play in high school football?

I said, well, I must have played self-back because the coach was always saying, get yourself back over there and sit down.

And so Mike and I would hang out, and Mike and I did what teenage boys in high school do.

And Mike had an excuse.

I didn't.

Mike wasn't a Christian.

I was supposed to be.

But we both knelt each week at the altar of course instead of the altar of Christ.

But then Mike met Pam.

Pam knew Christ.

Mike fell in love with Pam and then fell in love with Christ.

And little by little Mike changed.

He was kinder.

He was gentle.

I noticed that he was more respectful, especially to the people on the outside of the circle.

I really don't recall Mike articulating words to me about the gospel.

But then again, he preached the gospel to me every single day.

By what he did and by what he chose not to do.

At first, I thought it was just because he fell in love with Pam.

But then he and Pam broke up.

And his heart was still soft.

And then he and Pam got back together.

And he was really happy.

They've been married nearly 50 years now.

And I think about Mike a lot.

And I especially thought about him about four years later.

When in my own life, thanks largely to the influence of Steve Green, who's with me, I wanted to come back to Jesus.

But I didn't know if I could.

And I remembered Mike.

And guided by his example.

And the way the Holy Spirit worked through him.

I came home.

Yeah, we could talk about Billy Graham, or we could talk about Charles Spurgeon, we could talk about Mother Teresa.

But really, I'd rather talk about you.

I'd rather talk about you.

I'd rather talk about people like you, who are willing to open your mouth when you visit a doctor, who are creative enough to put a blackboard on your front porch, who just are willing to let the Spirit of Christ live through you.

And I'd like to close with a question.

What is your language?

What is your language?

If the Holy Spirit has a white hot compassion to see the love of Christ articulated in the heart language of every person who has ever lived, what is your language?

What is it?

You can speak a language that's unique to you.

Something about the constellation of your world events, something about where you live and how you've lived, where you've been and what you do.

You can speak a language.

Maybe you can speak the language of the biker, the hiker, the academic, the tree hugger, the weightlifter, the book reader, the teachers.

What language do you speak?

Please hear me.

No one else has your assignment.

No one else.

No one else can speak to those kids like you can.

And no one else can envision a trip to the Amazon like you can.

No one else can pray for those in a far distant land like you.

No one else can write a letter the way you can write it or send an email.

There's something unique about you that exists only if you allow it to exist.

Would you just speak?

Now I can hear the hesitation.

I can hear it.

Oh, but what if I mess up?

What if somebody asks me a question?

I mean, there's people, some Christians would rather memorize the book of Leviticus than speak up.

So my message to you is all you got to do is open your mouth.

Just speak.

I say, I don't know what to say.

Well, I'll tell you what to say.

Share your story.

You know there's a word in the Old Testament for this.

It's your Ebenezer.

Your Ebenezer.

It's a great word.

Because the children of Israel tended to forget.

They would forget the great works that God had done for them, delivered from Egyptian captivity, guided through the desert.

Never knew a hungry belly, never knew a sandal that would wear out.

God took care of them.

But it just would take the slightest discomfort, and they would say, I'm going back to Egypt.

Did you know there was a time they melted down their earrings and turned it into a golden calf?

And there in front of a living, God started worshiping a golden cow.

And so God gave them a tool and taught them to create an Ebenezer.

And Ebenezer was a memorial stone, if you will, a statement of how God had been good to them.

And they would bring people and they would tell the story.

They would point at that Ebenezer and they would say, oh, this reminds us of how God got the children of Israel, how God got Joshua through, how God protected us when.

And they would have Ebenezers.

What are your Ebenezers?

What are your only God moments?

What are they?

Your assignment between now and when I'm back next week.

And I'm gonna check homework.

Your assignment.

Only God, listen, that's your story.

That's your chalkboard.

That's your message.

You don't have to answer everybody's questions, but you do need to be able to say, let me tell you what God did for me.

And can I just say, can I just say, and this is important, that God is creating an Ebenezer moment for the Gateway family.

God is creating an Ebenezer moment right now.

Because we're gonna get through this.

We're gonna get through this transition, we're gonna get through this challenge, and there will be families, people in the days, months, weeks, years, decades ahead who will look back and say, Oh, yeah, it's a tough time.

But boy, we went through a tough time back then, and God got us through it.

That's our Ebenezer.

Our Ebenezer.

Your Ebenezer moment is that moment in which you can say only God could have done it.

You can tell your Ebenezer story, can you not?

There was an occasion that Jesus healed a deranged man.

The fellow had made his home in a cemetery and often cut himself with rocks.

And when Jesus delivered him, the man did what I would have wanted to do.

The man said, Can I go with you, Jesus?

You know what Jesus said to him?

Jesus said, Go home to your friends and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you.

And how he has had compassion on you.

We can do that, can't we?

We can go home to our friends, and we can tell them how good God is and how he has had compassion upon us all.

In other words, show someone your Ebenezer.

You say, I don't know, I feel still kind of hesitant, a little awkward.

That's okay.

God will do the hard work.

He will speak through you.

And he will talk to them.

Today, before you put your head on your pillow, say, Lord, is there somebody with whom I could share my story?

An Ebenezer moment.

I had kind of an Ebenezer moment not too long ago in the hill country of South Texas.

I was driving.

I know those hills very well.

I know those roads very well, and now I know a highway patrolman very well.

I wasn't paying much attention, and I looked up and I saw that sight.

Don't you hate it when you see the light spinning and you hear the ambulance?

Oh, I pulled over to the side.

I didn't get out of the car.

I lowered my window.

He came walking around.

He asked for my driver's license.

I handed it to him and he said, You look familiar.

Yes, sir.

Are you a pastor?

I said, Yes, sir.

Hmm.

On your way to a funeral?

I said, no.

Emergency?

No.

Just in a hurry, huh?

Yes.

He said, I'm gonna give you a break.

And I said, thank you.

You've also given me a sermon illustration on forgiveness.

Friends, my whole life is a sermon illustration on forgiveness.

My Ebenezer is that God took a kid who was headed on a train that was about to roll over the tracks.

And he treated me with grace I did not deserve.

And he loved me into his family.

That's my Ebenezer.

What's yours?

Would you be willing to share it?

Would you tell it?

Would you, like some are called to do, travel around the world and share it?

Or would you begin by going next door and just loving the people in your world?

Peter's gospel invitation on that day is his invitation still.

Turn to God and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, so your sins are forgiven.

Receive the Holy Spirit.

This promise is targeted to you and your children, but also to all who are far away, whomever, in fact, our Master God invites.

If you've never said yes to Jesus, we beg you to do so.

Because we have no guarantee of another day.

But right now is your day of salvation.

And if today is your day of saying yes to Jesus, we welcome you into the family of God.

And as you commune with the beautiful people of Gateway, talk to somebody about your decision.

Be baptized.

Find a group where you can grow in your faith, learn your Bible, and most of all, share your Ebenezer story.

Just speak.

Hear our prayer, O Lord, as we offer this up to you, knowing that you're a good and faithful God.

Thank you.

And thank you for these your servants who have traveled from all over the world to be here.

May your mercy be upon them.

And please continue to hear our prayers for people.

We offer this prayer through Christ.

Amen.

Thanks for joining us today.

If you'd like to connect with us, text Connect to 71010 or visit gatewaypeople.com.

We hope you have a great week.