Adventures In Acts: Part 1-We can do Hard Things
Adventures In Acts: Part 1-We Do Hard Things
Luke 6:27-31 ,27 “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 29 To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. 30 Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. 31 And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them. ESV
Acts 1:7-9, 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” ESV
Matt 5:38-42, 38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39 But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40 And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. 41 And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 42 Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. ESV
Title: We Do Hard Things!
Introduction: I want to walk through the book of Acts a bit…but I want us to see it from a completely different perspective.
I pray our Eyes are Open…and we understand that We Need the Holy Spirit because we are called to do Hard Things.
As I said a few weeks back…I’m a little late to this idea of Trigger words…it seems when this became a thing, it has taken off like a fire across our culture.
Now everyone is triggered by so many things. Now I had completely dismissed the idea because I didn’t think “Words” triggered me…actions trigger me, images trigger me (real or imaginary) but then I kept hearing a word and realized this is what it is like to be Triggered…
The word is…EASY!
- Triggered by EASY
- When I hear the word EASY, I realize I get this twitch and this rash….
- When someone tells you “it’s easy…” RUN
- Easy Money
- Easy Peezy
- Yet there is something that draws us too EASY. Because it’s the opposite of Hard…
- I think many of us were drawn to Faith because we thought it was the “Spiritual Equivalent of Easy…”
- So, we become disenchanted with God because we come to faith and discover…it’s not easy.
- I think we run to places like this because we’re hoping to make life easy, not necessarily trying to make since of life.
- And when Faith isn’t easy, we tap out…
I have two objectives…to give us a real Need for the Holy Spirit and to give us a new trigger Word…
- Let’s be honest…Marriage isn’t easy
- Relationships are not easy
- Success and the Weight of it is not Easy
- Greatness isn’t easy
- Faith my friend is not easy
I cannot think of anything worthwhile in life that is Easy…
I think easy is the Lowest Expression of Ourselves toward God and Others…
- Jesus
- You would think that God sending Jesus to earth that one of the main purposes would have been to Make Life Easy….
- Here is the dichotomy in the equation…to have a relationship with Jesus is quite easy…for us!
- We don’t have to work for a relationship with God, we just have to embrace it.
- But the other side of the equation is: What is easy for you, maybe real hard for someone else….
- Our relationship is easy for us…we receive by faith…
- But the other side of that relationship is this…it was very hard for Jesus
- Facing all the temptations like we do…and not sinning.
- Falsely accused.
- Lied about.
- Betrayed
- Beaten
- Spat upon
- Crucified
- Feeding People and then they were hungry the next day…
- Healing folks to wake up the next day to more sick people
- None of that sounds easy…but it was done so we could easily access Salvation by Faith.
- But then Jesus says:
Luke 6:27-31, 27 “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 29 To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. 30 Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. 31 And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them. ESV
Acts 1:7-9, 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” ESV
Matt 5:38-42, 38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39 But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40 And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. 41 And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 42 Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. ESV
- In essence, Jesus is saying: ‘What you have heard is take the easy route, but Don’t do it…”
- Jesus is saying: “WE DO HARD THINGS”
- Everything that is Easy, causes me to regress and not get better….
- For my dieters – has a cheat day ever turned into a Cheat week…
- Everything I want seems to fall in the easy category…the things I don’t want to do falls in the hard category….
- Now Jesus says things in scripture that are more harsh than the verses I read:
- “If you want to be my follower, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me.”
- Now That’s Hard
- Another place He says: “Take up your cross daily”
- Just in case we thought it was ONE and done…Jesus is saying, No if you are going to be a follower of ME, “We Do Hard Things” everyday!
- “If you want to be my follower, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me.”
- Another place Jesus kind of goes off…”Unless you hate your mother, father, sister and brother, husband and wife and even your own children…you can’t be my disciple.”
- Is Jesus saying…”you have to hate your family…” No!
- He is asking can you be My Disciple and follow me if no one in your family does…not even your own kids…
Jesus is pressing into the hard choices we’ll have to make if we are to be Who He created us to be and become.
Listen We Don’t Need the Holy Spirit if we are Not Willing to Do Hard Things!
- His Spirit Lives in Us
Rom 8:5-6; 9-11, 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace… 9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. ESV
- Let’s look at this in reverse order….
- Same Power that raised Jesus…Now lives in you for Life…not just for eternity.
- But why do we need this kind of Power, to live life, if life is to be safe, easy and risk free….
- We only need this kind of Power that we begin reading about in the book of Acts and now in Romans…. Because we get to do hard things….
- You and I cannot begin to become who we were created to be Until We’re willing to Do Hard Things….
- Romans 8:5-6 informs us that the flesh “wants to take the easy way of doing things…”
- But the Spirit inside of you is screaming out…”I’ve empowered you to do Hard Things…”
- Average
- Now consider this…you don’t need effort or power to do and be average…
- When you are filled with the Holy Spirit and living the Acts Adventures…we can’t settle for Average!
- We have learned from Neuro-scientists over the past few years some interesting things about our Brains:
- The Anterior Mid-Cingulate Cortex grows every time we do something you don’t want to do…Scientist have come to believe that this isn’t just he seat of will-power, but actually the seat of the Will to Live and Thrive.
- For example, by adding time to your routines of work, exercise and by making hard decisions can cause the aMCC to enlarge.
- When we take the easy route our Brain doesn’t grow and expand…
- It’s almost as if Jesus knew that if we didn’t decide to do Hard Things we’d never become who we were created to be and become.
- Closing
- We want a Spiritual Experience where God is looking for Character Transformation….and it only comes when we do Hard Things….
- No wonder Jesus said; “Go wait in Jerusalem until you have received Power of the Holy Spirit…”
- I recently was talking to a Tesla owner and they were telling me that their tesla is faster than a Lamborghini…they can go from 0-60 in in 2.4 seconds seconds where a Lambo is 2.6-2.9 seconds…I thought to myself, because we were in Houston…where do you need that kind of Power and Speed…On Westheimer?
- Acts 1:7-8, 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” ESV
- The Anterior Mid-Cingulate Cortex grows every time we do something you don’t want to do…Scientist have come to believe that this isn’t just he seat of will-power, but actually the seat of the Will to Live and Thrive.
I want to pray for some people today who are dealing with some hard things….