Fame & Deeds In Our Time | Habakkuk 3:2 | Coleton Segars

The teaching text for today is really two passages that our vision as a church is built around.

So I'm gonna read these together.

Habakkuk 3:2 says, Lord, I have heard of your fame.

Habakkuk 3:2

I stand in all of your deeds, Lord.

Repeat them in our day and in our time make them known.

And then Matthew 28, starting in verse 18 and a little bit of 19, Jesus said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Therefore go and make disciples.

This is the word of the Lord.

If you have been with us for a little bit, we are pausing our He is Good series that we've been going through, Mark, pausing that just for a little bit, to look at the direction we're headed as a church.

And if you're new, this will be helpful, hopefully, as an orienting space of going, what is this church about?

What are we trying to do?

This will it'll be a short course, but a good way to actually see where we're going.

And then if you've been with us for any time, or like some of the people in the back that came from Living Hope and have been with me for a number of years, this will sound very, very similar to the stuff that I've been talking about for the last 10 years.

Um and so don't fall asleep.

Um, but um one of my favorite quotes of all time uh comes from Abraham Heschel when he was on his deathbed deathbed, and this is what he he said this he said, Never once in my life did I ask God for success or wisdom or power or fame.

I asked for wonder and he gave it to me.

Um I love that quote because I think it's a really beautiful way of living.

Like I didn't ask for any of that other stuff, even though it's not necessarily wrong to ask for whatever those things are.

Um but I love the idea of like I just want to live with wonder.

I want to be filled with something beyond, oh, this is just business as usual, or this is just life as normal.

I I want to live with a reality that exists where something greater can happen and is happening.

I want to live with that.

And so the reason I love Habakkuk 3.2, this prophet crying out, um, the reason I love it is because this that verse has stirred wonder in me and just like, man, what's possible?

What can God actually do?

What could happen if people began praying like this man prayed?

And I was like, look, I have read the scriptures, I have read what you can do, and honestly, I'm thrilled by it.

It's amazing.

I I think the stuff that you have done in history, God has, I mean, it's shaken the earth.

It's it's really incredible.

I just want to see those things in my time.

Um, and feeling permission to pray that and and to join in the cry of Habakkuk and saying, I also want to see those.

I'm not seeing some of the stuff that I read about in the scriptures, and I want to see that stuff.

Um, and feeling a discontent, but in a good way.

Like, I want to see more of your work in the world.

I don't believe Jesus gave his life to create the church, fill it with the power of the Spirit for us just to show up, do nothing, have some songs and whatever, connect on a relational level, but really never experience the power of God in encountering him.

And to me, Habakkuk is crying out for that.

And this verse has really stirred that in me and going, what happens if we just begin praying that thing and begin chasing that down?

Maybe there is actually more available in the way that Habakkuk is saying that he's like, I know there's more available and I want to see it.

And so our vision as a church is to see the fame and deeds of God repeated in our time.

And we go about that, and the way that we're pursuing that is by developing uh lifelong followers of Jesus who actually practice his word and put his word into practice.

And so the hope, everything that we're aiming at, what are we, what are we hoping to see?

I am hoping to see as I pastor a church, I'm hoping to see the fame and deeds of God repeated in our time.

And the best way I know about going about that is to develop followers of Jesus who actually put his word into practice.

Teddy knows, and maybe Rainey too, every time I pass this school, I place a handout as I'm driving or whatever, and I pray.

I'm like, I pray back at 3-2, Lord, repeat your fame and deeds in our time.

Repeat your fame and deeds in our time.

I actually have a picture on my phone.

I get an update at 3.20 every single day.

Colin, if you can go to that slide.

Um, it's a picture of me on my phone.

There it is.

Uh it pops up at 3.20 because uh 3-2 is nothing.

But 3.20, every day I get a picture of a notification.

It's like, you should pray this this verse.

And so Habakkuk 3-2 pops up my phone.

Like, I want to see this stuff happen so much for us.

And so that is our vision, that's what we're aiming at.

And so, what I want to do today is go, if if that's what we want, if that's what I want as a church, and that's where we want to head, to see the fame and deeds of God repeated in our time, I just want to give you two reasons why I want to see the fame and deeds of God repeated in our time, why we're aiming at that.

And then I want to give you really a why as to uh why we're going about chasing that by developing followers of Jesus.

And so three whys just aimed in different directions.

Why do we want to see the fame and deeds of God repeated in our time?

And the first is because I want us as a church and as a people, I want us to be a people who still believe that God can and will move and act in power in our time.

I want us to be a people that actually really still believes he still does that stuff and not capitulate into a space of going like, ah, I don't know that he really does that stuff anymore.

He did cool stuff in the past.

I just don't think he does that stuff anymore.

A lot of people in the church shift that way, especially as they get older.

And I want us to continue to chase down this idea that he can still repeat his fame and deeds in our time.

And I want us to be people who believe that he can do those things.

In Habakkuk, if you read the three chapters of Habakkuk, Habakkuk is just like us, many of us, maybe some of you have seen some incredible stuff, but Habakkuk is just like us.

He's only ever read the scriptures or heard the stories of God's powerful works in his time.

He's only ever heard the stories of God crushing the Egyptians and splitting the Red Sea in half.

Like he's only ever heard of Joshua's march around Jericho and like they didn't even lift a sword, but the walls fell down.

He's he's only heard those stories.

But what I love about him is that even though he's not actively experiencing those things in his time, he doesn't sit there and go, well, I guess I'm not experiencing those things and therefore it's not happening.

No, he's like, I I have I've only ever heard, but I do know that those things still exist, and I still believe that you want to do those things.

He still believes that God can move in power, he still believes that God wants to move in power.

And I think that's important for us, and I want that for us, because what mostly happens uh or what normally happens is people, especially in the, I mean, it's primarily Christians, but um it can be anybody.

People who aren't experiencing things stop expecting those things.

And so people stop expecting what they normally don't experience.

And so it's very possible, and it happens a lot, that Christians have trouble believing that things are possible if they're not experiencing those things.

And so you uh maybe you've experienced this, but people will say, like, I prayed for that person or I prayed for that thing and nothing happened.

Therefore, it's hard for me to believe that praying again will do anything.

And I get the correlation, it's just the issue is that's not the way the scriptures actually testify the way that we're supposed to live.

And so people, I prayed and it didn't work.

It's hard for me to believe that this will change anything.

I've never seen anyone healed, and so it's hard for me to believe that God actually can heal people uh in real time.

Still today, I've never seen that happen, so it's hard for me to believe that.

I've never seen God radically save someone and change their heart in such a way that they go from like Saul to Paul.

I've never seen that.

So it's hard for me when I look at the people in my life who really are like, they're impossible, they're never coming to faith.

It's hard for me to believe that he can actually do that.

And so they they don't expect what they haven't experienced, and that happens in the church.

And what happens is their experience becomes the authority and it overtakes the scriptures.

And so what they begin believing is possible is what they experientially know and have seen.

And so instead of the scriptures being the authority in their lives and going, no, no, this is what's possible with him.

What we do is we allow our experience to be actually, this is what's possible because this is what I've experienced.

And we flip this thing around where it's like his word was supposed to be the authority, and what is what the scriptures say he can do is supposed to be the thing that tells us what he can do.

And yet somehow we've gone through life claiming fidelity to the scriptures, and like I just, it's the you know, inspired, inerrant word of God.

And yet many times what happens is our experience becomes the authority for us, and it's like, I don't believe that's possible.

Why?

Because the scriptures say it's not?

Like, no, I just don't think it's possible because I haven't actually experienced that.

It's like that's a problem.

That's not the way it's supposed to go, it's supposed to be the other way.

The tragedy with allowing our experience or allowing your experience to dictate what you believe is possible, what you believe God can do, is that we tend consistently, and you'll see it in the scriptures, you tend to experience from God what you expect from him or what you believe is possible from him.

You tend to receive from him and experience from him what you believe is actually true about him.

And so you see this in the scriptures.

Just a couple of examples here.

The people who believed more from God experience more.

So Noah, Noah believed that God could and would flood the earth.

He's like, I heard he's gonna do it.

I don't know what rain is, but I just think he's gonna do it.

And he's gonna do this thing.

I believe that he's gonna do it.

He goes and preaches to the world, trying to get anybody to believe him.

They do not believe him, and so only his family experiences the salvation that God talked about by building the ark.

He believed that God would do something more, and what other people were like, he's not gonna do that.

I don't even know if that God's even real.

I don't believe any of that.

And like the experience of those two people or those two families, Noah's family and every other family on earth, their experiences were very, very different.

Caleb and Joshua believed that God could bring them into the promised land against armies that were twice their size.

But the rest of the people of Israel didn't believe that.

And so you know their experience if you've read the scriptures.

The experience is Caleb and Joshua go into the promised land and they watch God do a very powerful thing.

And the rest of Israel does not enter into the promised land because they're like, I don't believe he can.

It's like, then he won't for you.

But he will for those other two who believe that he can.

Very different experience.

King Saul.

King Saul and his army didn't believe that God could help them against Goliath.

And so what they did for days was run and hide and fear.

They were terrified.

And then all of a sudden, David, he believed that God was stronger than any giant.

And so he walks out and deals with Goliath and believes that God's going to deliver Goliath into his hands, and then that's what happens.

And all of a sudden you see two very different experiences with this exact same problem.

Nothing has changed.

There's still a giant taunting an army.

It's just the army didn't believe that God could actually do anything about it.

And David's like, I think he can.

And then he watched him do it.

In the New Testament, too, the leper in Luke 5 believed that Jesus could cleanse him and he did.

The woman with the issue of blood believed that touching the hem of his robe would heal her, and then she went and did it.

Bartimaeus believed that Jesus could open the eyes.

I mean, you could almost go through the scriptures in the New Testament and just one by one, by one, by one, by one, and see the difference of what could happen between people who actually believe Jesus can do things in power and those who don't.

Nazareth is where Jesus was from.

He goes to Nazareth.

They don't believe he is who he says he is, they experience nothing from him.

And it's like, look at that.

There's something about what we actually see about him, what we believe about him to be true.

It's very, very consistent that in the scriptures they testify to the fact that those that believe more is available experience more available to them.

They just experience something very, very different.

And the people who didn't let their current experience determine what God was capable of doing actually saw something happen more.

They were more like Habakkuk, where it's like, look, I'm not experiencing it right now, but I do know that it's possible.

I'm gonna chase it down until I receive it.

And I want to see that thing.

What we think about God, what you and I believe that he is capable of doing has a significant impact on what we will actually experience from him.

And I want us to be people who still believe he can still act, he can still do those things.

I don't know why he's not doing those things all the time when we pray immediately.

I don't know that, and I don't know that I'll have a good answer for that, but I do know that he can still do it.

And I want us to live with the wonder that all of that stuff is still available.

A.W.

Tozer says that what we believe God is capable of doing shapes our lives significantly because of this.

He says we move towards our mental image of God.

He says, what comes to into our minds when we think about God, it's the most important thing about us.

The gravest question before the church, the people in the church, is always God himself and what we deep in our hearts conceive God to be like.

Because we tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God.

We just will move towards a mental image of him.

Whatever we believe about him, we'll move towards that image.

And so again, David and Saul both moved towards their image of God, who they believed him to be like.

And they had two very different outcomes and two very different practices.

David believed his mental image of God is like he's the king, he runs everything.

No one can stand up to him.

Like this giant's nine foot nine, that's pretty strong.

But like, my God created his own body, knows every hair on his head.

Like he's just a very different experience that David has.

And King Saul is looking at the giant and going, All I see is the giant.

His vision of God led him towards, he moved towards his mental image of God.

And I think the same is true for us.

If we don't believe that he still does impossible things, then we won't move towards him to do the impossible things.

We'll just make our peace with it and settle for something less.

If we don't believe that he can actually move into people's hearts and shape them and change them and uh melt them and make them completely new people, then we will just look at the people in our lives that are difficult to be around or aren't Christians and just go like, well, that's just the way that it is.

It's just gonna be that way.

Versus doing what Habakkuk's doing and going, like, I've heard what you've done.

I've heard the amazing stuff that you've done.

Please do the amazing stuff again.

They need it in their time.

If you don't believe that he really is powerful enough to help us, and he's not against us, but he's for us, and he wants to bend his power towards us to help us.

If you don't believe that, then we won't actually rely on it, we won't depend on it, we'll depend on ourselves.

And then we'll experience something far less than what we are actually supposed to experience.

We'll experience what the pagans should be experiencing, and we should be experiencing something greater because our God is actually the king.

And so there's this space for us where I want us to be people like Habakkuk, like David, like Caleb, like Joshua.

I want us to constantly be going, I just believe so highly of him.

I still, like, even when I'm not experiencing exactly what I want, or even when I'm not experiencing my experience in the scriptures, testimony seems to be out of line, I still believe that that's available to me.

And so I want to pursue those things, and I want us to be like that, who are just, we're just um defiantly faithful.

Like, even though I'm not seeing it, I will cry out for it until I see the power come.

Um, I want us to be people like that.

And so I I don't want us to, I don't want to be people where I'm going like, I want to see the fame and deeds of God repeated in our time, and people go like, yeah, he's not gonna do any of that.

I'm like, man, you're gonna hate our church, I've got to be honest.

You're really not gonna like it.

Because that one, I think that's a lie, and then two, that's just not going to be something that lives here very long or very well.

Because we're gonna preach against that, we're gonna call that sin, we're gonna call that lack of faith and lack of belief, and we're gonna call you to repent because that's not true, and it's not true according to the scriptures.

And so I want for us to be people who go, like, I've heard of your fame, I stand in all of your deeds, and I want those things repeated in my time.

I'm not experiencing them.

Would you please do them for us?

And so that's the first one.

I want us to be people who believe in the fame and deeds of God, not just in history, but for our time and in our time.

All right, the second, why is this our vision?

I want this to be our vision because I want our church to be filled with people who are pursuing and crying out for the fame and deeds of God to be repeated in their time, because God responds to hunger.

I don't just want us to believe that it's available.

I actually want us to have a group of people that are just constantly pursuing and longing for and joining this prayer and joining Habakkuk and going, I really want to see this stuff happen too.

Memphis needs the fame and deeds of God repeated in this time.

Memphis needs what happened in Nineveh, where Jonah goes and preaches a terrible sermon, which I got tons of those, runs and preaches a terrible sermon, and then the whole city repents and comes to faith.

That's what Memphis needs.

And if you don't believe that that's possible, then it's like, then what then why even do any of this?

If you believe a man rose from the dead, now sits at the right hand of God, but you can't believe that God can change a city.

I'm like, I don't know how much you believe a man rose from the dead.

Like, that's much harder than the other thing.

And so there just has to be this space where not only we believe it, but that we're actually pursuing it.

I want our church to be filled with people crying out for the fame and deeds of God to be repeated in their time.

Because God does, according to the scriptures, he responds to hunger.

Tozer again says this.

He says, I want to deliberately encourage a mighty longing after God.

The lack of it has brought the church, he's writing this like in the 40s or 50s, okay?

The lack of it has brought the church to our present low estate.

The stiff and wooden quality about our spiritual lives is a result of lack of holy desire.

Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth.

But acute desire must be present, or there will be no manifestation of Christ to his people because he waits to be wanted.

He waits to be wanted.

We talk about that a lot, we say that a lot.

He waits for content for consent.

He waits to be asked.

You have not because you asked not.

And we have this in here.

We say that a lot because it's in the Bible.

And so we talk about it a lot.

But Toza says he waits to be wanted.

And what he's drawing on, he's drawing on this idea that God responds to hunger and not to apathy.

That he's not just going to act the same way in history, regardless of what you do.

It's like, no, no, he actually responds to hunger.

And he's using the scriptures to give us this idea.

And so he's drawing on the idea from like Israel enslaved in Egypt, and it says that their cries came up before the Lord.

That something about them crying out led God to respond to that hunger.

And in judges, Israel would turn away consistently.

They would turn away from God, they would be delivered into the hands of enemies or something like that, and then they would begin crying out to God.

And it was like it was just this pattern happening every single time.

God would help them, they would walk away from God, then they'd cry out and God would help them again.

He just couldn't help, even though he knew they're going to do it again, they're going to do it again, they're going to do it again.

He couldn't help but respond to their longings and their cries and their hunger.

We need you to move here.

And constantly he was responding to it.

David says in the Psalms and elsewhere, he's like, I earnestly sought the Lord.

I sought him and he answered me.

I sought him and he helped me.

I sought him.

I took refuge in him and he helped me because I took refuge in him.

I sought him and I earnestly chased after him and he helped me.

God himself, in 2 Chronicles 7.14, God himself said, If my people, if, if my people who are called by my name, if they'll humble themselves, if they'll pray, if they'll seek my face, if they'll turn from their wicked ways, then I'll hear from heaven and I will heal their land.

If if they will hunger for me, if they will place aside everything else that they're feeding themselves with, if they will do that, I would respond to their hunger.

I would respond to their pursuit of me.

If they do that, then I would respond.

One of my favorite verses, I prayed it today in the prayer room.

2 Chronicles 16 9 says, Let the eyes of the Lord search the earth to show himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are fully devoted to him.

The idea that God is searching the earth and just looking for anybody who is like, I want nothing else but you.

I like the situation I'm dealing with, nothing else in the world can help me but you.

That his eyes are searching for, he's like, I want to do strong stuff.

His eyes are searching the earth to show himself strong.

He's like, I want to do strong, powerful things.

Does anyone want it?

Does any is there a heart out there that's like, yes, you look no further?

Here's my heart.

You can do it here.

I want that stuff here.

And he's going, I'm looking for people.

And I think he found one in David back in the day.

He's asking big things of me.

And his eyes stopped and they found themselves on David.

It's like, your heart seeks after me, so I have sought after you.

It's this beautiful thing that he has with these people, but he's like, I actually want to do more.

I'm just looking for anybody who wants it as much as I actually want to do it.

This is also true in the New Testament.

Hebrews 11:6, the writer says, anyone who comes to God must believe that he exists.

Hebrews 11:6

That's the first part.

And then that he rewards those who earnestly seek him, that there is a reward available for those who earnestly seek.

And the idea is that if you don't earnestly seek, then there's something that you will miss out on because God responds to hunger.

James 4.8, draw near to God, he will draw near to you.

If you don't draw near to him, then you might not experience that thing.

Draw near to God, he will draw near to you.

Jesus even said, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

And he's referencing himself.

Like, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for me.

Like I am righteousness fulfilled, like I am all of it.

And if you hunger and thirst for God, you will be filled.

He will respond to your hunger.

Those who hunger and thirst for God will be filled.

And they're filled because they hunger.

And if they don't hunger, the idea is, or the implication, if you don't have that, then there's something that will go unfulfilled.

And something will be different in your experience.

And so according to the scriptures, there's a different experience for those who want Him, for those who hunger for Him.

And I want us to be a church that's like, we want you here.

If you're looking for a space to show to flex your arm, you can flex your arm in this space.

You can do it in this city, you can do it in my life, you can do it in my family.

I want no other but you.

There's no one else beside you that I have that I that could actually help me and do the things that I long for.

And so I need you to do it, and I want you to do it.

And I want us to be a church that's filled with that.

There is a lie that exists, and I think Tozer is referencing it back in the 40s and 50s, but it's still very, very true today.

There's a this lie that exists that says God is going to do whatever he's going to do anyways, and it doesn't matter what we do.

He's going to do whatever he's going to do, and it doesn't matter what we do.

That's a lie.

You won't find That anywhere in the Bible.

He is sovereign over all things.

He is going to make he's going to uh accomplish his ending will in the in the end, where he conquers and rules and reigns, and he's going to rule over the earth, and he's currently doing that now in part.

And so he is going to do that.

But this idea that God's just going to do whatever he wants to do, regardless of whether we pray, regardless of whether we're hungry for him, regardless of whether we seek him, that is a lie that's not true in the scriptures.

And there's tons of verses that actually say the exact opposite thing that are constantly saying, like, will you seek me?

We we did a men's study over the summer just looking at all the different kings.

And it was so interesting.

It's like every single time you look at a king that does well, it's like, why did they do well?

Why was their life different?

Why was their kingdom different?

It's like they sought the Lord, they sought him.

And then if you notice, like every bad king is like, why not?

They turned away from the Lord.

The two very different experiences as kings.

And the only answer wasn't like, well, God's just gonna do whatever he's gonna do anyways in these guys' life.

It's like, no, the scriptures testify to the exact opposite.

One sought the Lord and the other one didn't, and their experience was very, very different.

Living under their kingdom was very, very different.

Living in their world during that time was very, very different because one person sought the Lord and one person didn't.

And so for us, this idea that exists that like God's gonna do whatever he's gonna do, regardless of what we do, is just not real.

And I don't want us to fall into the trap of believing that.

Again, there's no Bible verse that says, seek him or don't seek him, pray or don't pray.

It doesn't really matter.

Your experience is basically gonna be the same because he's gonna do whatever he wants to do.

There's no Bible verse like that.

It doesn't exist unless you write it in there yourself, which don't do that.

But I like it just there's not there, but there's tons that say the exact opposite.

He waits to be wanted, he responds to hunger, and those who hunger for him experience something more.

And I I just I want that for us.

And I when I when I preached on there, it was hard for me to read the room because I couldn't really see everybody.

But up here, I I I feel like this might be coming across as angry, uh, and I'm not angry at all.

And if you're like, it's not coming across as angry, that's okay, I'm gonna say this anyways.

Um it it's not it truly like it's not coming from a place of angry.

I don't want our vision to be like, he's pretty angry about that vision.

I don't know if I want to go to this church.

That's not what I want.

But I do want it to be this space of like my primary experience of working at seven different churches is like I can find a just a pocket full of people, just a little bit of people that actually still are holding on to faith that God can still move in their time.

I was told by a pastor at my last church that was like, you believe that God still wants to move in like now, like he's present for us now, and like he's present for us, like he wants to do something now, but he hears us now.

He's like, I don't believe that.

I'm like, bro, you're a pastor at a church.

Like I could not, I was like, you don't think that he cares for us?

That he like if he died and stayed dead, then okay, he's not there.

He stayed dead.

But if he rules and reigns in heaven, it says that he intercedes for us at the right hand of the Father.

He's constantly praying for us right now.

And so this I just, I my experience has been trying to galvanize people to believe this thing, and people that are so faithful to the scriptures have read them through and through and through and through.

And then all of a sudden it's like, what do you believe he's gonna do for you?

Probably nothing.

He's not gonna do a lot.

I'm like, but you've read the Bible.

And if you read it, there's no way to make it from beginning to end and wind up in this space where it's like, I think it's all on us.

I think we can, we are the captains of our faith.

No, you're not.

He is, he's the king, like he is the person who runs this stuff, and we should beg the king to do stuff that we can't do in our own strength.

And so I want that, not angry.

See, I just did it again.

I just hit the thing.

Sorry.

Not angry, passionate, not angry, passionate.

Don't read it as anger.

Uh Lord, help me.

Okay.

I want us to believe that stuff.

Um, and I'm not angry with you if you don't.

I just I just think you're gonna miss out.

I came to faith in this odd way where it was like, I mean, just the if there was a superlative for least likely to become a Christian and be a pastor, like I would have gotten that.

Like, there's no way.

And like I heard this message.

I told you the story of Mark, and like he gives this message.

I hate it, I'm belittling him while he's preaching it.

And then a year later, that message like just rips my heart into it.

I'm drunk at the time.

And like I just experienced like the power of God coming into my life and shaking me from the inside and going, like, I don't know what this is, but I want whatever he is.

I went from literally one day of going, I want nothing, I want to throw raging parties at my house with girls and alcohol, to now I want to go to church and spend most of my time in the sanctuary reading the scriptures and praying and crying.

Like that's what I want to do.

Like this really odd experience.

All my friends were like, he's lost his freaking mind.

Like he's and then I can't, but I just experienced something from him.

And so for people to say, like, he doesn't do that kind of thing anymore, I'm like, I go talk to my friends in high school, and they'd be like, He, God must exist.

Look at Colton.

Like, it has to be true.

And so there's this space for us that I think that if we sell ourselves short, we're not just selling ourselves short, we're selling him short because he really does.

He's like, I'm searching the earth.

Does anybody want me to flex my arm in their life?

And I'm like, good Lord, of course we do.

Look with the city that we live in, look at the stuff that we're dealing with, look at the stuff that's going on in our families and all the stuff like God, flex your arm.

And if there are churches that exist in Memphis that are telling you that He's just God's gonna do whatever He's gonna do anyways, it doesn't matter whether we pray, it makes sense why Memphis is the way that it is, because the church has given up.

We're the supposed to be the people constantly saying that there's more available, that God wants to move in power and do these things and he can change anybody's heart, and he's if if if the death can't hold him, then death can't reign here either because he lives in power.

We're supposed to be the ones doing that stuff, and if the church goes, nah, I'm just gonna let it burn, then of course it would be in the space that it's in because you can't legislate what God can do with his own power.

I'm not angry, I'm passionate.

All right, all right, last one.

The reason we're pursuing the fame and deeds of God by developing followers of Jesus is because that in the scriptures it was the followers of Jesus, the disciples, who experienced the fame and deeds of God in their time.

And so these two kind of go together.

I want to experience the fame and deeds of God, but honestly, if you look at the scriptures, the people that actually experienced that stuff were the followers of Jesus, not the Christians.

Not the in our term, I'll get there in a second.

But it wasn't just people that called themselves religious.

It wasn't the religious people like the Pharisees.

People that experienced the fame and deeds of God, those that like, I'm following this man, I'm gonna practice, I'm gonna put his word into practice, and I'm not just gonna be someone that calls myself by a name.

I'm actually gonna be a person who follows this king.

And so as you read the scriptures, you see that.

Um, not only did the followers of Jesus just see Jesus do some amazing stuff like walk on water and calm seas and stuff like that, um, but it was also, it was the followers, it was the people who took his word and practiced his word and was like, I'm gonna take what you said and I'm gonna force it into my life, and I'm gonna do those things.

They're the people that experienced the fame and deeds of God in their time.

So a couple of examples.

One, I just read this in Luke 5 because I'm going through Luke right now.

But Jesus says to Peter, Simon Peter, he says, put out into the deep water.

I think we have it, put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.

And it's a perfect example because Simon answers similar to the way I would answer, like, hey, we've been doing this ourselves all night.

We've worked hard all night, we haven't caught anything.

That's the ex that's what I've experienced, okay?

But he doesn't allow his experience to dictate his actions and expectations moving forward.

He says, but because you say so, because you seem to have words that are filled with life, because you say so, I will let down my nuts.

And when they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break.

And it's a small example, but they're blown away by this.

And it's like, why did that happen?

And it's like, well, in my strength, I'm not catching any fish.

But when I put his word into practice, something different breaks out among me.

And you see that consistently.

Jesus tells the paralytic man to stand up in the gospels and he tries to, he puts his word into practice and tries to stand up, and the paralytic man stands up.

Jesus tells the blind man to go wash in the pool of saloon.

And if the blind man had said, like, no, that's pretty far, I'm not doing that.

I'm not gonna wash in the pool.

It's basically a bath.

That's gross, I'm not doing that.

Um, if then he would not have been healed.

But he takes Jesus' word, go wash in the pool of saloon, goes and puts it into practice in his life, goes there, does exactly what he says, and he walks away seeing.

The lepers, the ten lepers, he's like, go and show yourself to the priest.

And it says, as they put his word into practice, as they did what he said, then they were cleansed of their leprosy.

It was consistently the followers that put Jesus' word into practice that experienced the fame and deeds of God in their time.

If you read the book of Acts, it is basically just them following Jesus' words and doing what he said and doing what the Holy Spirit said.

And when they do those things, all this stuff happens.

And so for us, I want us to be people who aren't just people who call themselves Christians, but people who are like, I am a literal practitioner.

I have heard what he said, I've watched what he's done, and I am putting those words into my life.

Jesus himself said this about those who do that, that the experience will be different for those who practice his word.

He says, As for everyone who comes to me, anyone who comes to me, Jesus, and hears my words and puts them into practice, they're like a man building a house who dug down deep and laid the foundation on the rock.

When the flood came, the torrent struck the house, but it could not shake it.

That's one experience.

Then he says, But the one who hears my word and does not put them into practice is like a man who built his house without a foundation.

And the moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and this destruction was complete.

That's a second experience.

Two very different experiences with one change.

Everybody heard the word.

One group decided, I'm gonna do what he said, I'm gonna put that into practice and experience something built in him and an experience for them that was just available to this person.

And another one was like, hey, I heard what you said, it's really cool stuff.

I really liked it the day I heard it.

I'm not gonna do any of that because it sounds like garbage.

Um, they experienced something very, very different.

And I just want us to be people who are like, I want to, I want to experience the stuff.

I don't want to miss out on what he has for me because I'm like, that sounds really cool to my ears, but it doesn't sound really cool to my bank account or to actually having to follow you in some way.

And so instead of actually experiencing what you have for me, I'm gonna miss out because I'm not putting it into practice.

It was the followers of Jesus, the practitioners, the one who did his word and were obedient to his word that experienced the fame and deeds of God.

And that is why I am not um I'm not trying to preach morality from the stage.

Like if you ever walk away from here like Colton just wants me to be nice.

I yeah, but no, I don't, I mean, I don't care.

I want you to be nice, but that's not that's never why I'm preaching something.

If I'm asking you to forgive someone or you should practice forgiveness, it's not because nice people forgive.

That's okay, that's dumb and boring.

Um what I the real reason I want you to do that is because Jesus tells us to forgive people who don't deserve it.

And when you take his word and you put it into your life, you may become a nicer person.

But if you take that thing, I'm gonna I'm gonna forgive this person that doesn't deserve it the way that Jesus told me to.

What's possible in doing that is that the fame and deeds of God could break out among you in whatever relationship there was that was there, that was broken and messed up, that his power now has access and availability to move into that situation and do something among you in the same way that Peter said, Look, I don't know what this is gonna do, but because you say so, I'm just gonna do this thing that you told me to do.

And then all of a sudden he sees something he's never seen before.

I want you to see every command of Jesus like that.

I'm not telling you to pray because good Christians pray.

I'm not telling you to do that.

I'm telling you to pray because when people prayed in the scriptures according to what Jesus asked them to do, they saw the fame and deeds of God repeated in their time.

They saw things happen that otherwise wouldn't have happened.

They saw prison doors shaken open, they saw people healed, they saw uh people being completely transformed into all these different things.

And so for us, I don't want to just be people who call themselves Christians because people who just call themselves Christians but don't do what he says.

My common experience with them, again, seven churches, my common experience with them is I don't believe anything that you're saying because I haven't experienced any of that.

It's like, that's because there's no there's no promise to someone who just calls themself a Christian from Jesus.

Like he, there's no, there's no different fame and deeds of God for those who just call themselves by a name, but there is for those who practice his word.

There is something available for those that actually do what he says to do, not in order to be nice or to make God love you, but it's like do what he says so that in doing what he says, his word that has power moves into whatever situation that is.

And then the fame and deeds of God break out among us.

And so that's why I want us to do those things, and that's why I'm never going to preach be moral, be nicer people.

Maybe you should do that, and you could probably get that from television shows like Andy Griffith or something, but this is the Bible.

There's something better here than just be nice.

Okay.

We want, we want followers of Jesus putting this word into practice, like he tells us to, because those in the scriptures who put his word into practice experienced something greater.

They experienced his power in their time, his power in their lives, his power in their cities, and I want that as well.

I don't want us just calling ourselves by a name, but actually going like I am a I they would call me a Christian because I look so much like him.

They would call me a Christian because I'm doing the things that Jesus does.

Like that's why they would call me a Christian.

I don't call myself like I'm just following this person.

And so that's what I want.

I want us to practice the way of Jesus together.

And I want that for you as well.

So that's what we're aiming at.

That's what we're pursuing here.

Worship and tea, worship and uh team, y'all can come on up.

Prayer team too.

Y'all can go ahead and make your way to the sides and stuff.

We're gonna close with this.

Um if you're a pastor or an elder on the prayer team, left and right, that'd be great.

But that's what we're aiming at.

In a culture, in a culture that uh struggles to believe that this kind of stuff is possible.

I want us to be just defiantly faithful to that.

Like, I know it's not my current experience right now, but I have read about it in the scriptures.

I have heard what he's done.

I've heard his fame and deeds and what's what famous deeds he did in the past, and I believe those things are still possible.

I want us to cry out for and actually be hungry for and seek the fame and deeds of God in our time because again, according to the scriptures, God cannot help but respond to hunger.

He just, it just moves him.

People who want him, it just moves him.

And I want us to be followers of Jesus who practice his word because they're the ones who experience more.

And I want us to be people who experience more.

I want our church to be a space where people actually come in and they like they begin moving in such a way and doing certain things where they're like, man, I just experienced something very, very different from God than I've ever experienced before.

And it's like, it's not us, it's just we're actually doing the things that he's called us to do.

And so that's what we're aiming at.

That's where we're going to see the fame and deeds of God repeated in our time by developing each of us into a deeper and deeper level of a follower of Jesus who's actually practicing his word.

That's what we want, that's what we're aiming at.

And so I want us to give us some time to do that here and to respond.

Um if you, hopefully, are not angry, but just passionate.

Um if you want to see the fame and deeds of God repeated in your time, um I would encourage you to respond.

Maybe for you, you have someone on your heart that you just like, I want God to do a thing.

Um, or something in your life that I'm like, I'd like to see God move in this way.

I've heard what God has done in the past and I'd like to see that thing happen.

And so maybe there's someone in your family that you'd like to have a radical conversion like Paul or like me.

Um, maybe there's a person you're like, I just don't know how it's gonna happen.

Like it's not gonna be normal circumstances.

God's gonna have to like give them a vision or something.

Like, great.

He's done that before.

He's doing that now in Iraq.

Great.

Just pray for that and respond in prayer.

Go talk to somebody and say, like, Lord, I want you to repeat your fame and deeds of my time.

I need this person to come to faith, and I don't know what else to do other than just beg you for it.

And your scriptures testify that you respond to hunger, and so I'm hungry to see this thing happen.

Maybe there's an illness that you want healing for or an impossible relationship.

Actually, healing, we just prayed for Jane back in the back at the prayer room.

Because again, I don't know that he's gonna do it.

I know that he can do it, and I never want to lose the hope and the dream of like you can still do this stuff.

And it might be weird, and people might think you're weird, and it's fine.

I probably am weird, I don't know.

Um, but I do want to constantly believe that like this stuff is still available for us.

So maybe there's healing that you want, maybe there's an impossible relationship that you think this will never be reconciled, that you're like, maybe God could do that.

Maybe your marriage is dead and you'd like to see it be brought back to life.

I think he can do that stuff too.

And so if you were like, I think many times we long for the fame and deeds of God to be repeated in our time, but we struggle to believe that it's actually possible.

And I just want us to be a church like it is possible.

He does do this stuff.

And so if you want those things, if you're hungry for God to respond to you, use this time, use this time of singing in response to go and find somebody to pray for you.

Or maybe you just need to sit in your seat and actually just pray to him and deal with him and cry out to him for yourself.

But we'd love to help with that.

We'd love to be people who actually cry out with you.

And if you want healing for something, we want to pray for you.

And if you're like, that's weird, you're gonna lay your hand on my shoulder where it hurts, and like, wow, I don't, Jesus did that, so I'm gonna follow him.

Like, that's all I know to do.

And so, for you, if that's what you want, let's do that.

Or maybe you just need to put his word into practice.

Maybe he's been telling you to be obedient to something and you've just been saying no.

I'm not gonna be obedient to that.

Today, use this time, put his word into practice.

Do what he's saying.

If he's setting something on your heart and you're like, I know I'm calling myself a Christian, but I'm not following him in that way.

Follow him in that way, put his word into practice.

Use this time to be obedient now.

Or maybe you've been calling yourself a Christian, but you really haven't been following.

I would encourage you, surrender your life to Jesus.

Don't just call yourself something.

Calling yourself a Christian.

There's there's not a single passage in the scriptures like if you Jesus didn't even say go make Christians.

He didn't say that.

He didn't want Christians.

He wanted followers.

He kept constantly saying, I want you to follow me, go and make disciples, students, followers.

Christians is what the pagans called the followers.

He didn't even want that.

He wanted something greater than that because he knew the promises that I have for them are baked into them following me and putting my word into practice.

And so use this time to respond, to actually put his word into practice.

Let me pray.

Lord, your eyes are searching the earth, looking for hearts within people to show yourself strong on behalf of those who are devoted to you.

You actually want to do stuff in the world.

And you wait to be wanted.

And you are searching the earth looking for, does anybody want me to move in their time?

And Lord, I just want you to know, I want you to move in our time.

I want this church to honor you with the belief that you deserve.

That you still act, that you still love us, that you have not grown cold towards us, that you haven't grown weak as the years have passed on.

That you are still just as strong, still just as able.

You are the same God yesterday, today, and forever.

And so the God who healed can heal again.

The God who transformed hearts before can do it again.

And so, Lord, I just pray that you would help us to believe that afresh.

Holy Spirit, that you would move in our hearts.

Where are you calling us to follow you?

Where are you calling us to put your word into practice?

And God, I pray that we would respond, seeking you, because those who seek you experience something different.

Would you do that for us in Jesus' name?

Amen.