[00:00:03] Speaker A: Welcome to the leaders notebook with Dr. Mark Rutland. Dr. Rutland is a world renowned leadership expert. He is a New York Times best selling author and he has served as the president of two universities. The Leaders Notebook is brought to you by Global Servants. For more information about Global Servants, please Visit our website globalservants.org Here is your host, Dr. Mark Rutland.
[00:00:25] Speaker B: Now if you have your Bibles, if you'll take those and turn if you will, to the book of Acts.
This whole series is about spirit filled living.
Not a theological or academic approach to the work, person and ministry of the Holy Spirit. But what difference does he make in our lives and in our life together?
What does a spirit filled Christian look like? How did they act?
How do they think and talk?
I don't ever like to call anybody up, but one lady, two weeks ago, two Wednesday nights ago, she said it's not a physical healing for me. She said I've been under a cloud of darkness and it's lifted.
That's the stuff that ought to happen in spirit filled churches.
That's the way things are supposed to go.
That Wednesday night when the prescribed sort of predict sought specific revival is starting that Wednesday night, I just want to tell you this. I want to preach that night in the Spirit filled church. There ought to be the Pentecostal experience.
So I'm going to actually preach on the baptism of the Holy Spirit that night and at least in part give my own testimony. So that night, that's October 18th, I would like to invite you, nay, urge you, you may have friends that don't understand what Pentecost is, that don't wouldn't even understand what happened right here tonight. They wouldn't even understand this.
I invite you to do whatever it takes, bribe them with dinner at Bare Bones and come and bring them. And I Recommend on the 18th, it's great to bring a Pentecostal friend to church.
Bring a Methodist, bring a Baptist, bring a friend, bring somebody that doesn't know anything about this and let's see what God will do that night. One of the things that ought to happen in the spirit filled atmosphere, it's so obvious people ought to become spirit filled.
Okay, so tonight if you have your Bibles, turn to Acts chapter four. Acts chapter four.
Now what's happened here? Peter and John have been used by God to heal a man. A miraculous, straight out instantaneous healing.
And they've been arrested for it and brought in before the high priest Annas, the high priest Caiaphas, Alexander, the others gathered and they bring them in before this guy Peter and John, fishermen from the Galilee with Galilean accents. What does that mean?
I tried to think what that would be like.
Let's suppose that there was a.
That there was a group of college professors from upstate New York and they bring some little Pentecostal preacher in with an accent from South Mississippi.
I've just tried to. I'm not trying to say college professors from New York or like the Sanhedrin. I'm trying to give you the sense.
I'm trying to give you the sense of the accents.
These are hicks.
These are rednecks. These are guys that work in fishing boats in the Galilee. Okay?
And when they had set them Peter and John in their midst, they asked them, by what power or by what name have you done this? Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, ye rulers and of the people and elders of Israel, if we this day be examined for the good deed to this impotent man, by what means he was made whole, be it known unto you all and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, who whom you crucified, whom God hath raised from the dead, even by him does this man stand before you whole. This is the stone which was set at naught of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other. Any other name, meaning, for there is none other name under heaven given unto men whereby we must be saved.
Now, when they saw the boldness Peter and John and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled and they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus.
Now just turn over to page to verse 29.
Now Peter and John are released.
They go back to their people and tell them, we've been arrested, we've been threatened, we've been beaten.
I ask myself this. What.
What might the contemporary American church pray in response to that?
And I fear that what we might pray is God keep us under the radar.
Don't let them know where we are.
That's not what they pray.
Verse 29. And now, Lord, behold their threatenings and grant unto thy servants that with all boldness they may speak the word by stretching forth thine hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child, Jesus.
And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and spoke the word of God with boldness.
Now I want to read on to the end of the chapter, and then I'll Try to bring this together. And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul. Neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own.
But that all things common and with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and great grace was upon them all.
Neither was there any among them that lacked for as many as were possessors of lands or houses, sold them and brought the prices of fine things that were sold and laid them down at the apostles feet. And distribution was made unto every man according as he had need. And Joses, who by the apostles was named Barnabas, which is being interpreted the son of consolation, a Levite of the country of Cyprus, having land, sold it and brought the money and laid it at the apostles feet. Put your hands on your bible, bow your heads, close your eyes if you will please.
And with your heads bowed and your eyes closed, is there anyone in the room that will say, since we prayed at the front, Dr. Altland, I sense God is touching me and I want you to pray again. Yes.
1. Anyone else raise your hand and say I just feel like God is moving. 2, 3. Hold your hand up high. Right back there. Way back there. All right now I don't want to embarrass anybody but if you hold your hand up and you'll open your eyes. Look at the people whose hands are raised. Go to them and let the people that are around them lay your hands on them. Lay your hands on them right there. Look at the people beside you right there sister. There's somebody right beside you with their hand up. Reach over and lay your hand on them. And you may think to yourself, who am I? Who am I? Listen, who is anybody?
Heavenly father, I pray that you will continue the flow. We don't know what you're doing there God, but if you have begun a work of healing in them, we ask that you would increase it, Quicken it, bring it further. Lord, we believe you for it. Awaken their senses to it. Make us sensitive to what you're doing, friend. In the name of Jesus, receive a touch from God. Speak to that person on whom you're laying your hand. Speak to them right now. Say in the name of Jesus, Be healed in the name of Jesus. Receive your healing. In the name of Jesus. Receive your healing in Jesus name.
We believe you for it. In Jesus name. Amen. Amen.
Amen. You can be seated.
What are the fundamental characteristics of the climate of a spirit filled church?
Imagine a young, strapping, young 25 year old American missionary who Goes to India perhaps where there is endemic malaria. You understand? Endemic, different from epidemic.
Epidemic comes in, sweeps through, people get it moves on. Endemic. It is one of the defining qualities of life.
It causes people to be of diminished stature, smaller, weaker, sicker, frail, lacking in resistance. Their immune systems are compromised.
So in comes this tall, strong, strapping, 25 year old American missionary. And he comes in and he works all day fixing their houses. He climbs up on the roof. He fixes a roof.
He has crusades at night. He's preaching, he's teaching, he's playing with the sick, praying with the sick. He visits from house to house.
You know what they said?
He's crazy.
He's crazy because if you live your life long enough at the subnormal, normality looks crazy.
What we're talking about is normal Christianity.
Normal Christianity. What are the characteristics of normal Christianity?
First of all, boldness.
That ought not to require preaching.
Over and over again in that passage which I read to you from Acts chapter three and four, it says, and they were bold. And seeing their boldness.
What does bold mean? It doesn't mean arrogant, it doesn't mean presumptuous. It means to be forthright by to be bold, not to be timid and frightened and weak.
I took a college student with me. We had a revival in our church. And this young boy had received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and he was bold as brass.
And I took him with me to Nigeria.
We were just. He and I were traveling over toward Benin City and we came to a guesthouse, a government guest house.
And we just stopped there in the night. It was empty. Nobody was there except the cook and some. Nobody else was staying there. So it was gonna be nice to kind of have the government guest house to ourselves.
And the cook cooked us a dinner for the night and we were gonna pay for it. And in the middle of our dinner, a Nigerian soldier showed up. And his name tag said Mohammed. So we weren't in doubt about what his religion was. And he, he came in, he was already stoned when he got there. His eyes were bloodshot, he'd been drinking. He came and sat at the dinner table with us and he was loud and arrogant and he said, where are you from? We said, united States. And he launched into it how he hated America and America was killing Africa. And if a cow died in Ethiopia, it was because the CIA had poisoned it. And on and on and on. And I was trying to send telepathic messages to my college student friend. Eatja rice and. And we'll go to bed. And all of a sudden this boy turns to Colonel Muhammad and he says, can I ask you a question? I'm going, mm, mm, mm, mm.
He says, can I ask you a question?
The colonel says, sure. He says, if you were to die right this minute, would you go to heaven or to hell?
I said, oh God, what has he done?
And that Islamic colonel said, if there is a hell, I would go there.
And that college student said, why don't you pray with me to receive Jesus Christ? He can deal with this alcohol. He can deal with your anger. He can heal your life. He said, I just received the baptism of the Holy Spirit about two weeks ago. And he said, God can save you through the name of Jesus Christ. And there is no other name.
This is what just quote what I just read to you. There is no other name. He's saying this to a Muslim.
There is no other name given under heaven whereby you can be saved.
And to my amazement, that big Nigerian Muslim colonel prayed to that college boy to receive Christ.
Boldness should be a characteristic of the community of faith.
The second thing that should be a characteristic of the community of faith is the power of prayer.
When Peter and John returned following being beaten and accused and persecuted, the first thing they did. This again, I fear, sometimes is an indictment on the contemporary American church, even the Spirit filled church.
And when we come to the very end of our rope, we say, well, we've tried everything else. Maybe we ought to pray.
And the first thing they did was pray the first thing. And they mixed. Do you see? The prayer and the boldness are mixed. They said, grant unto thy servants boldness.
What's got them persecuted and arrested and beaten and threatened.
Signs and wonders.
So what did they ask for? God give us more signs and wonders.
God, give us boldness.
They don't ask to be hidden.
They asked for the boldness of faith to believe, for signs and wonders.
Now we're going to have our next prayer for healing, and this is the prayer that we want to pray for. Healing from fear and intimidation.
I believe that there are Christians, spirit filled Christians. I'm not saying they haven't received the baptism or that they aren't good folks, whatever, but they live in a level of fear that somebody may actually what? Find out that they're Christians or call them out, expect something of them. Watch them people that work on construction crews and the people around them just cursing a blue streak and they won't say a word.
They won't say a word.
It's not that they don't care about their friends or want them to go to hell, but they lack boldness.
Now I'm not talking about arrogance or presumption. Shut that up. You're not going to talk that way in my presence. I'm talking about saying, you know, friend, can I just say this to you?
That Jesus that you're using as a curse saved my life, redeemed my soul and cleansed my family and has made me well at lunch. I'd love to talk to you about Jesus. He's not a swear word. Where's the boldness? What about the boldness of teachers, the boldness of students? The boldness. And you say we live in a world. You don't understand what it's like to work in a government office or to have the threat of losing your job. You don't understand what it means.
I'm saying to you that boldness is a characteristic of the spirit filled community.
And I believe we need a prayer for healing to heal us of timidity and fear that the power of boldness would come forth. So will you bow your heads and close your eyes all over the house? Here's our next prayer for healing. Heavenly Father, I believe you for it. I thank you for the power of boldness. That when the Holy Spirit came upon Peter and John, ignorant and unlearned fishermen, rednecks, God, and that you gave them boldness before the most educated and religious and powerful people in their whole country who had been responsible for the death of Jesus and Peter and John never backed down. They spoke with boldness. And Lord, when they returned to their people, they prayed for boldness. They believed you, God, and prayed for it. So here we go. Here are we.
So pray right out loud. Now just begin to pray. Don't wait on me. Say lord, make me bold. Break the spirit of fear in my life. Go on, pray out loud. Break the spirit of fear in my life. Give me boldness. Cleanse me, O Lord, of anything that would keep me timid or frightened or weak or intimidated by people of power or education or position.
Go and pray it right out loud. Say Lord, shake the house where I live. Fill me, make me bold.
Lord, Peter and John weren't the most educated people in the room. They were just the most spirit filled. Lord, we thank you for it. We believe you for it.
Now with your head bowed and your eyes closed, if you would say, Dr. Oton, will you pray for me? If there's one prayer this whole night that I need is the prayer for boldness. Will you pray for me? I need it I don't know why. I love the Lord. If I were to die now, I know I'd go to heaven, but I just. I can't seem to open my mouth. If that's you, raise your hand and I want to pray for you, for healing. Yes. So many, so many, so many, so many hands still going up. Still, still, still. Heavenly Father, you see our hands are raised. Oh God. We live in a threatening and intimidating world. Behold God. They're threatening God. We pray that you will increase our boldness, give us signs and wonders and open our mouths to proclaim the goodness of Jesus. We believe you for it, we thank you for it, for healing and we expect to hear reports.
I was in a situation, a circumstance, and God gave me boldness and I'm going to hear that report. We claim it by faith and in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen and amen.
Now, what's the final characteristic? People of boldness. People who pray boldly. The final characteristic of the spirit filled community is the spirit of generosity.
Don't turn this passage into an apology for communism.
This passage that everybody had everything in common. There two elements that have to be taken into account. They were living under the immediacy of the expectation of the return of Christ.
Many in the Christian community at that time, they believed that Jesus was coming back right then.
In a sense, after 2,000 years, we still believe Jesus is coming back right now.
It's just that it's not. We know it wasn't then, but the fact that it wasn't then is what makes it possible.
Believe that it's now, if you see what I'm saying.
But there was this spirit of generosity.
There is so much of clutching at things in the contemporary church.
The next prayer for healing, we're going to pray in a moment is for healing financially.
I want to pray that God will bless you financially, but that he will also bless you with generosity financially.
I want to pray and I'm not trying to jack up the offering for brother Grizzle. I'm talking about life. We live tiny little stingy lives.
So I want to pray about finances in a minute. But generosity goes beyond.
It goes beyond the way we talk to each other.
Guys, when your wife says, do I look fat in this dress?
She says, well, I don't know. May not be the dress. I don't know.
That's not what she wants.
That's not what she wants.
She says, baby, do I look fat in this dress? You want to say, honey, let me tell you something. You make anything you could wear a burlap bag and make it look good.
Generous in praise.
Generous. Generous in sharing.
Just. We live stingy little lives. What if God doled out grace to us like we dole out love and affection and admiration to other people?
To the boldness of giving joyfully, to release, to let go.
I want to share some things with you tonight.
About three weeks ago, a man pulled into the parking lot outside of the Global Servant's office and walked in and said to our secretary, Janice Brooks, he said, I have 410 ounces of silver in the boot of my car, and God has told me to give it to Global Servants.
So Janice called me, I said, he's got a box of silver in the boot of the car. She said, that's what he says. I said, he doesn't have a patch over his eye. He's not a pirate, is he?
Got gold doubloons or something?
No. He had bought 410 troy ounces of silver years ago. He's been keeping it in a box in his house.
And God just said, give it to Global servants.
He did $91,000 to our girls homes, silver. Somebody said, hold it, the price could go up. I said, I'm not gambling with money. God has given us that stuff be sold before morning.
The generosity just to let go of stuff, to release.
I preached revival many years ago at the First United Methodist Church in Marietta, just not far from here.
And I was staying in a house. In those days, they didn't put you in hotels. You remember, you'd stay in people's houses. They put me in this house. It must have been $2 million house, 3 million. Beautiful, gorgeous man and woman, no kids. And me. And I had like half the house. They had the other half.
And one night it was a bitter cold, snowing, freezing cold. And the lady came to the altar and received the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
And she said, the one thing that has stood between me and the baptism, she said, I don't know why it is.
I've lived in fear that God would take my antics.
She said, I have a house full of millions of dollars of antics. And she said, I don't know why. I've just lived in fear that if I gave everything to God, he'd ask for my antics.
And she said, tonight, he can have them. He can have them. She received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. She was. Then the husband came and said, baby, I'm going on home. You bring Dr. Rutland. I'm worried about the dog freezing to death. Oh, she said, that's right. Go home. And she said, get a quilt and wrap the dog up. So we prayed with people and some other things. I got in the car with her. We drove home. When we pulled up in the parking lot, the garage door was open and the lady just put her head over in the steering wheel and started laughing. She was laughing. She was almost hysterical.
I said, ma', am, what are you laughing at? She said, the dog. The dog. I said, I see it. I don't know what's funny. She said, I sent my husband home to wrap the dog up in a quilt. She said, that's a $5,000 antique quilt.
She said, I told God at the altar, you can have the antiques. I didn't know he was going to give them to the doctor.
The spirit of generosity. To let go of stuff, things, people. To release life, to live free. We're not supposed to live our lives like clenched fists.
We're supposed to live in abundance, to give abundantly, to give joyfully. I don't know who counts the offering at your church. You have ushers. I guess you're pointing to somebody.
You ever get these checks and say, $413.17.
Sup with that? I will tell you what's up with that. That's somebody's tithe.
They take their paycheck and a calculator put the amount of the paycheck in times 0.1. Okay, God, there's your tithe. $413.17 and not one penny more.
Come on, round it up.
To release.
To live without fear.
To let go.
That's the joy, the adventure, the delight of living bold, adventuresome, joyful and generous lives.
What could God ask you for tonight that you would tell him no? I'm not trying to scare you. I could see people saying, oh, man, not my car. Not my car. God, I'm not trying to scare you. I'm asking you a very serious question.
What could God. If Jesus appeared in your house tonight and said, give me the something, what could he ask you for that you would just say no?
If you can make the decision up front, anything, anywhere, anytime.
Not just money, people.
There are women in this room who clutch your children to your breast and scream, mine, mine, mine.
God, don't mess with my kids.
Don't call my son to Africa.
Don't turn my daughter into a missionary.
You have to let go. You have to let your kids.
Listen to me. I'm not speaking theoretically.
Sometimes you gotta let go of your kids and let them mess it up.
You can't sit on your children. You can't hold them. You can't clutch at life.
God, I'm worried about my job. Let it go. God, I'm worried about this. I'm worried about that. We live our lives clutching stuff to our breast.
Mine.
The character and nature of the apostolic community of faith in primitive book of acts was of release.
They gave stuff. They released things, they surrendered things. They were bold, they were prayerful, and they were generous. They just gave generously.
I got invited to preach a telethon. Do you know what I'm talking about?
Telethon for Christian Television Network asked me to come and preach. I was very excited about it. I thought God really gave me a message and I was excited about it. And I went and preached. And man, that old lady that ran that station, she was mad.
She said, you will never preach for me at another telethon. I said, why? I preached on the. I preached on the people of the camp of Moses when he called for the offering to build the tabernacle that they gave so much. You remember this story?
They gave so much that the elders came to Moses and said, tell them stop. Tell them to stop. We can't deal with all this stuff. It's the spirit of generosity.
She said, that's not what I want. I said, you don't want the spirit of generosity? She said, no. She said, I want you to look into that camera and say, God has revealed to me that if you'll send $1,000, he'll give you 100,000.
I said, yeah, but see, he didn't say that to me.
If he says that to me, I'm going to say it to you. But he didn't say that to me. What he said to me was, he wants us to have a baptism of generosity, to give more, to release, to let go.
Billy and Ruth Graham went to church one Sunday. He wasn't preaching. The saint just went, well, in any little country church where Billy Graham goes, everybody's staring at Billy Graham, you know. So the offering plate got to him faster than he thought.
He had a 10 and a 20 in his pocket, and he reached in and thought he got the 10, pulled it out, and it was the 20. Well, everybody's looking at him. He didn't want to put it back in, so he put the 20 in. In the car. Later on, he said to Ruth, he said, well, we're going to get a better blessing than I thought. I meant to put the 10, and it was a 20. And she said, oh, no, Billy, in God's eyes. It was a 10 reach in deep. Let go, release.
Let go of things.
Let go and let God. Let him have his way.
Release life.
Release other people.
Live in faithful, bold, generous life. That's the character and nature of the spirit filled life.
Generosity is not just Yes, I know some people have a gift of giving liberally. It is. There is a gift in that. But it's also a characteristic of spirit filled living.
To release, to give more. We're not going to take an offering.
I'm not trying to get ready for an offering here. I'm talking about the nature of spirit filled life.
To praise more joyfully, to pray and live more boldly. To give more generously.
To be more gracious in your compliments.
To be more kind.
The characteristic look, the baptism of the Holy Ghost is not supposed to make you mean and stingy.
A mean person is a terrible thing. A mean Pentecostal is an aberration.
Stingy people. Stingy people that clutch and grit their teeth. Okay, you want this guy? Used to. I used to run a paper route. Any other boys here ever run paper routes when you were kids?
Lord, my lands, did you meet some of the meanest people on God's green earth, deliver that paper, get up in the morning, five o' clock in the morning and run that paper out on my bicycle and then go to collect from a housewife who lives in a house that my parents could never have afforded. And she will argue with me that she had paid me the last week. I said, ma', am, I got the stub right here. Okay, here's your money.
A dollar for a paper boy.
I wanted to say, God, whatever she's got, I don't want it.
I want the joy of living and the joy of giving.
This may not seem like a very profound sermon to you tonight, but I'm telling you, I believe that the character of the primitive church was about boldness, openness and faith and prayer and generosity of heart and life to give openly, generously.
I believe that's what God wants from us.
[00:32:48] Speaker A: You've been listening to the Leader's Notebook with Dr. Mark Rutland. You can follow Dr. Rutland on
[email protected] or visit his website, Dr.markrutland.com where you you can find information about his materials and his app. Join us next week for another episode of the Leader's Notebook.
