A Good Thing Is a God Thing

I I want you to turn with me to the book of Luke, chapter one, and we're gonna talk just out of the first four verses of the book of Luke.

You might be thinking, can an egg, a plastic egg, make a difference in the life of someone?

Can someone be truly transformed to God?

Could just the birthing, first of all, the miracle that a egg, a plastic egg comes out of a living chicken is one miracle, but is it possible that something so simple, something just so relatively small, can be such a God thing?

And I want to talk to you today out of this story, out of the book of Luke, chapter one.

And and Luke is the writer, of course, of the gospel of Luke.

He he was a physician, he was a Greek.

So first you have Luke's background, this context of Luke is that he was not, if you will, a professional minister or pastor or a theologian or someone that would have been well versed in the scriptures, but his profession was as a medical doctor to study anatomy.

And that's what we know about this Luke.

And Luke was not just a professional doctor, but but Luke was a Greek.

Luke was not raised in the ways of the Hebrew life or the Jewish system.

He would have not been privy to the scriptures growing up, he would have not known the privilege of gathering in temple and studying the Torah and having a family, if you will, that was godly and serving the Lord.

But being a Greek, he thought like the world and had a context and a background that was very different than the rest of the writers of the gospel.

And I want to talk today, not only to those that have been raised in church, but I want to talk to people who have maybe just started coming to church, just started coming to Christ.

And you're not in the ministry, and nor have you been raised in church.

Like myself, I was not raised around a family that frankly was, well, just privy to going to church.

My mom and dad were wonderful people.

My father was a professional football coach in the NFL, stands for not for long, and we were not for long anywhere.

And born in Canada, he was head coach for the BC Lions for many years.

But by the time I was born, mom and dad, because of their own personal experiences growing up, and even some experiences concerning church and concerning what would be called the kingdom of God, they they just said, we're not people that go to church.

But they taught me love and they taught me the principles.

In fact, I will say that they probably had more an effect on me, on what it was to live right and not from a religious background, but just doing what's right than many religious people.

And so I was extremely loved and extremely cared for.

But when it came to church, when it came to God, Sunday mornings was not a part of our lives concerning going to a place like this.

I think it's helped me be what I am and not only what I am, but it's helped me to be what I am in Austin, Texas.

Because I think like people who don't go to church.

I try to think like people who have not had any background to the kingdom of God or growing up in the scriptures and not even hearing, not one time a prayer prayed.

And the only prayer that I would ever hear pray going up and growing up would be from my brother who would say, Yubba dubdub, thank you, this grub.

I'm in, yea, God.

That was the extent of our prayer.

And we would not even go to Christmas or Easter services.

I'd say, how come we don't do like the rest of the group, like the rest of the neighborhood?

My dad said, I know enough about God that if God wants us, and and in fact, he calls us, if we're gonna go at Christmas, he wants us the week after Christmas, and if we're gonna go at Easter, he wants us the week after Easter.

And he would put in me the fear of the Lord.

Don't mess with God until you're ready to go all the way with God.

Okay, not gonna mess with him.

Don't wake him up.

And I think that's shaped me, and it has shaped the way that I look at life and the way that I look at people.

And that was good.

It's been good.

Come on, say it's all good.

Turn to somebody and say, You're looking good today.

Turn to your second choice and say, Hey, how are you doing?

Nice to meet.

Because you obviously don't know them, so you didn't want to like.

The Bible says God causes all things, all things to work for good.

He can take an egg, a plastic egg.

He can take that egg that is so simple and just so elementary, and yet it becomes good.

And then not only is it good, that plastic egg with the invite to gateway this coming Easter, you can take that egg across the street or to your cubicle mate in the office, and and that little simple act of kindness, that that little simple act of good can become God.

And that literally somebody could be changed forever and ever.

And when you look at the story of Luke, and when you look at how Luke tells us he came to write the Bible, the gospel of Luke.

I would like to tell you before we look at it that Luke says, I heard from God, and God spoke to me and said, Luke, I'm your father.

Write the Bible, compile the stories of Jesus and put it in the Bible.

Luke doesn't say that.

I would think that Luke would say, God inspired me, God provoked me, God moved on me, God came down in a cloud of purple haze and breathed on me, and I saw this volume of books, and it opened up the scroll, and I saw a key come down and unlock the lock, and the lock opened up with the scroll of the unveiling of the scroll, and it began to speak to me.

Luke, write the book.

It doesn't happen like that, and nor does it happen most of the time like that.

Luke, how did you write the Bible?

How did you come to play a part?

How did you become a part and not only a part, but a significant part to be one of the four gospels?

You were a doctor, you were a Greek.

How does God take somebody like that who was not writing it to be a professional or writing it to be a celebrity or writing it to be a famous preacher, but you were writing it to just reach one man.

How does that happen?

How does that come to be?

And here's what Luke says, and I want to speak to people who are sitting on this thought.

You know God is speaking to you, and God has been asking you to just start doing good.

And when you just start doing good, God gets in your goodness and he begins to take what is your good thought, your good move, your good choices, your good life, and it becomes a God thing.

I have found that most God things did not start off as God things.

From our perspective, they just started off as a good thing.

Notice what he says in the book of Luke, chapter one, inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us.

This is Luke writing, saying, even though others have gone ahead, even though others have already written, even though others, like Matthew, like Mark, like John, even though others have compiled an account, or they built their gospel, they built their testimony, they built their story, even though others, others have already planted churches, others have already written books, others have already started companies, others have already taken into a hand.

They've already done that, been there, done that.

But Luke says this.

Luke says, It just seemed.

Seemed.

Seemed your translation may say it seemed good.

New American reads, it seemed fitting.

What do you mean?

You wrote the Bible because it seemed like God?

It just seemed good.

It seemed fitting.

Literally, that word there means it was of my opinion.

It was of my thoughts.

It was just out of my daily walk with God, and not only out of my walk with God, but for a love of a man by the name of Theophilus, he said, it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus.

So that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught.

And I know that many of you are praying about God.

Is it your will or is it me?

How many are in a valley of decision?

Let me see your hand.

Maybe you're at one of the campuses.

You're trying to pray.

God, is this you or is it pizza?

Is it you or is it my personality?

Is it you or is it my own choice?

Is it my own flesh?

Is it my own will?

I am kind of talking to you today about discerning the will of God for your life and discovering the goal or discovering the destiny or the discovering the intention that God has for you.

And what is it that He has you on this planet for?

And I think that many people are literally sitting on something good because you want it to be God, and God says it won't be God until you start doing something good.

That's good preaching, Pastor Joe.

That's awesome.

Go back to Austin.

Okay, here's the deal.

It's happened after every service this weekend at Gateway.

Pastor Joe, I know God has been speaking to me, but I don't want to do anything that's good.

I want to do something that's God.

There are examples in the Bible where you can do a good thing, but it may not be a God thing.

I'm not into, and the older you I get, the less I want to be a part of a good thing, and the more I want to be a part of a God thing.

But I'm here to tell you what Luke captures about Jesus for us more than any of the other gospels is Luke being a physician and being a Greek comes from more of a man side of Christ.

He captures the son of man aspect more than he is just the son of God aspect.

And oftentimes the more religious or godly we become, we stop being human, and we become Godly.

And I'm waiting on the Lord to tell me to go witness to my neighbor.

God hasn't spoken to me to bring a plastic purple egg to my CEO.

I'm waiting on the Lord to speak to me about a pink egg.

Plastic egg to bring it to my lost friends and tell them.

Come meet God through a plastic egg.

God is in this egg.

You love eggs?

I love eggs.

No, let go my ego.

Here's the point.

I have found religious people, and this is exactly what happened in the day of Jesus.

The religious people of the day were more about God than just doing good.

And when good was presented to them, the opportunity to do good, they played the God card.

Remember a man by the name of, well, he was a Samaritan man.

Broken, beaten, bruised, in a ditch.

And two out of the three people that pass them are godly people.

And I am on my way to the house of God.

I'm on my way to do something for God.

And I'm not about doing good.

I'm about doing God.

Therefore, I don't have time to go on the other side of the street and pick a man up out of the ditch and take care of him.

I'm not into good, I'm into God.

And then there was a man that had nothing to do with God, but he just saw that there was an opportunity to do good.

And this good Samaritan comes across and picks up this man broken, beaten, naked, wounded, left for dead.

Jesus said, What was God?

Who was God?

What was godly?

What was more godly?

Those who had no time to do good?

Or those who said, I will do good and trust that it's God.

I know that there are people in this room whom God is speaking to you to birth that company, to write that book, to take that step.

And you're standing and sitting today going, only if it's God.

And Luke says, I would have never written the Bible.

And nor would I've ever known what my ministry or what my work would have done and even being talked about today.

I'm sure Luke would have said, I didn't start it off doing what I thought was writing for God the Bible.

I was just writing for a man by the name of Theophilus whom I wanted to know and have an intimate relationship with Christ.

And I'm trying to pull out of you and pull out of those that are at our campuses today this one thought.

That if you'll just start doing good, I promise you, your good will become God.

Oh, there are those stories.

That sometimes the good is not God.

Let me give you an Old Testament story.

It's the story of Abraham and Isaac.

Oh, not Isaac.

Abraham and Sarah in the wanting of a baby.

How many know that's a good thing?

God said, You're gonna have a baby, you're gonna have a child, you're gonna have a son, and well, they said, you know what?

We've been waiting a long time for this baby, and God spoke to us, and Abraham looks at Sarah, and Sarah's looking at Abraham.

Saying, man, we're about to go to Sun City, we better start producing some activity here.

Something needs to happen.

And they, in their flesh and in their zeal and in their desire, what did they do?

They they birthed a baby by the name of what?

Ishmael.

And we know the story of Ishmael.

We know the pain.

Now, how many know having a baby's a good thing?

Okay, some of you are like, I'm a parent, it's not.

No, it's just like having a baby's a good thing.

It's yeah, but it's not always God.

It's not always God's way.

So, yes, they had a baby, and you could say, well, you know what?

Hey, God said we're gonna have a child, and we did it, and we can have it, and here it comes.

But it wasn't it wasn't God's way.

That's the Old Testament understanding.

Here's a New Testament understanding that you can actually do something good that's not God.

And here's another story, the book of Acts, chapter 19, God was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul so that even handkerchiefs and aprons were being taken from his body to the to the sick people.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

And when people would touch those aprons, those handkerchiefs, the diseases would leave them, and the evil spirits would even come out of them.

It's a crazy story.

This is in no wise a scripture for you to go home and start a prayer cloth ministry, but the Bible says, nor is it ever mentioned after this account.

But also some of the Jewish exorcists, there, there were people there trying to get in on the action, and they went from place to place attempting to name over those who had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, and this is what they were saying.

I command you or I adjure you by the by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.

Come out.

How many of you know you better be careful?

You're gonna find yourself in an exorcism movie real quick here.

This is gonna be like Chucky is gonna manifest, and heads are gonna be spinning.

Here they are.

They're speaking out of their head and not out of their heart.

They're speaking out of doctrine but not out of experience.

They're speaking more out of theology than out of a personal relationship.

We command you, we adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches, come out.

And the Bible tells us seven sons of one skeva, a Jewish chief priest, they were doing this, and an evil spirit answered one of them when they were trying to deliver this evil man, and the spirit said this, excuse me.

I recognize Jesus.

I know who that Jesus is, and I know about Paul.

I know who Paul is, but who are you?

I think he was simply saying, You want some of me?

You're telling me to go?

And you don't have the one that you're talking about inside of you?

And then the Bible says, and the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them and subdued all of them and overpowered them so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded or bleeding.

Sounds like a bad Sunday to me.

That's what I'm talking about.

Here's what the evil spirit said.

I know Jesus, I know Paul, but who are you?

Let me just tell you, the reality is you can have your name on a church role, but you may not be known in hell's role.

You may be known in religious circles, but let me just tell you, religion doesn't move the powers and principalities and rulers in heavenly places.

The only thing that will move powers and principalities and rulers in heavenly places is a personal encounter with a living God.

And it's one thing for us to say, I know I'm in church or I'm in God, but it's another thing that hell knows who you are.

Are you known in hell?

Do you move?

Listen, before you move people, you gotta know how to move powers and principalities and rulers in heavenly places.

We're not just trying to open up people because before you'll open up people, you gotta open up powers and principalities and rulers in heavenly places.

And so it's a possibility that you want to do ministry, it's a possibility you want to do something for God.

And what you may find yourself in is over your head.

It's very possible.

Old and New Testament truth.

But what we find from Luke is that Luke said, I was just having a thought.

And I was just, well, I had this one desire to bring out Christ in a way that has never been brought out before.

I wanted to show Theophilus, I wanted to show him an angle, I wanted to show him that God knows him and that God can speak to him right where he is.

And as good as Matthew has done, and as good as John has done, and as good as Mark or any of the other accounts, or any of the other people that have testified to Theophilus, I wanted Theophilus to know from my experiences and from my angle and from what I have been through, this story might touch him.

And guess what?

When you and I begin to compile our testimony, not just in a version that can witness to somebody with our words, but I'm talking about when you understand that everything that has ever happened in your life, in and by the blood of Jesus, God takes it and he redeems it and he brings it right down into a story so that your story is gonna preach a story.

That has never been in the world before.

Never been heard before.

Never been done before.

This was the story that God used for me and my wife.

We had heard, we had thought, we had heard from God.

It is Austin, Texas.

We had never been to that city before 13 years ago.

And then I was like, God, why?

Me?

Why would it be me, inasmuch as others have already planted churches in Austin, Texas?

Even though others have already stepped into that city, even though there are others that have compiled an account or their brand or their version of Christianity, if you will.

God, what about me?

I don't want to just do a good thing, I want to do a God thing.

And I'm reading this story literally at the dining room table, and God says through his story, Luke, Luke just thought it was a good thing.

And it set me free.

And we moved our family there.

And that was 13 years ago.

And I want to tell you, there is certain characteristics and features.

There are key ingredients for your good thing to become a God thing.

Because you don't want to just live a good life, you want to live a God life.

You don't want just a good company or a good family, but how many want a godly company and a godly family?

You don't want to be just known for being good or being kind or being considerate or compassionate, but but everything you do, how many want everything you do to end up where?

For the glory of God.

Here are the principles.

Number one, a good thing can become a God thing when there's faith.

Come on, say faith.

I'm just going to give you two principles.

Here it is.

Number one, faith.

Inasmuch as many have already.

In other words, what is Luke telling us?

He had to drive through a spirit of intimidation and comparison.

And oftentimes people say, I don't want to, I can't.

I'm just concerned.

It won't match up.

It won't meet the mark.

It's just not going to be as good as anybody else's.

And let me just tell you, the motivation that often keeps people from wanting to start off just doing good and doing something for God is you have a you have a spirit of perfectionism, and it is keeping you from doing what's good because you said, well, it's got to be God.

And God says, just start doing good.

And it's amazing how God starts getting into your goodness.

And if you will break that spirit of perfectionism, I'm telling you, it's amazing what will begin to happen in your life.

You see, you're gonna have to step out by faith.

So I went to Austin, and six months later, we're invited to this group of pastors, and they said, Pastor Joe, you're new to the city, and we've about a hundred pastors, and we've been here a long time.

We want you to share your story.

And what do you feel and what do you see for Austin, Texas?

And I snapped up and I just said, Well, we want to plant a life-giving church, and we we are literally believing God for 100 acres on I-35.

We're gonna believe God to reach the city.

And it was as quiet as that.

Six years later, we've got campuses and several thousand people, and then on our property of 110 acres on I-35, I got a phone call from one of the pastors there and said, Pastor, can we meet?

And I said, sure, I'd love to.

And I said, I hope it's not like the last meeting.

And they said, No, no problem.

And he said, I'm here to repent.

I said, What is it?

He said, When you shared your vision, we had no faith for it.

And I said, Oh, I know.

I know there was no faith for it.

It was as quiet as a Chick-fil-A on a Sunday afternoon.

That's I love Chick-fil-A, but I hate them on Sunday, I'll be honest with you.

How many have pulled up to Chick-fil-A?

What are you doing home?

You stabbed.

Get those chickens alive.

Here's the deal.

I said, I don't live by your faith.

And he asked me, why do you think it's a secret?

I said, I don't live by your faith.

I live by faith in the Son of God.

How many of you?

How many of you are living by the faith of your mama and the faith of your daddy and the faith of your brothers or the faith of friends and the faith of people who are not maybe saying what you need to hear to do what God has told you to do?

Luke says, I don't move by that faith.

I move by the faith of the one who set me free.

And the second principle, and we're done.

It's purpose.

One purpose.

Luke! Why did you do what you did?

He said, I didn't set out to write the Bible.

I didn't set out to write a theological discourse.

I didn't set out to be a celebrity.

I wrote it for one reason.

For one man.

Theophilus.

And if you can't touch one man, why would God allow you to touch a thousand?

If you can't be faithful with the little, yeah, but I want it to be big.

That's the problem.

Because if you start off with being big, if you wanted to be big, you want to be bigger than God.

And God says, just let me be big in you.

But why don't you just love one man like I loved you when I died on the cross?

Start with what you have.

Start with the good.

And watch God get the glory.

Would you bow your heads, please, all over this place?

I know I'm talking to some people.

I know I'm talking to some people here today that, number one, you're waiting on God.

You're waiting on God.

How many have been waiting on God for an answer, for direction, for a leading, for his spirit?

Let me see your hand.

That's not ungodly.

You're like, well, I'm not gonna raise my hand.

I'm gonna start doing good.

No, no, no, no.

You need to wait on the Lord.

But I'm here to tell you.

God might be saying, start doing good.

Number two.

You might be the one that Jesus wants to know.

He loves you.

He died for you.

You're the only one he thinks about right now.

He has thoughts toward you, not for calamity and not for harm and not for death, but for life.

Luke had one thought for one man.

He wrote not only the gospel of Luke, but he wrote the book of Acts so that Theophilus, his buddy, can know Jesus.

And God has done everything he can, everything in his power so that you can know God when he sent his son Jesus.

Father, today, may we all start doing good so you can be God in our imperfect good.

In Jesus' name.