Power Point Ministries - Jack Graham

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to this edition of PowerPoint with Jack Graham. A
little later in the program, we'll tell you how you
can get a copy of doctor Graham's book Angels. But first,
here's the message giving your faith away.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Open your Bibles to the Book of Acts. We're in
a series of messages called the power of Spiritual Engagement.
And really what we're talking about is life in the Spirit.
And if we are living life in the spirit, the
outliving of His indwelling in us, then certainly it is

(00:44):
the plan and the purpose of God's Spirit in us
to use each one of us to share the faith,
to invite others to know Christ, to introduce our family,
our friends, and people that we may never meets through
various ways and means to the good news of Jesus Christ.

(01:06):
We're going to meet a man who went to a
desert place, at a distant place to share his faith.
He was on mission to share the Gospel and to
get out of his own comfort zone and to get
into the caring zone of personal faith. Looking verse twenty
six of Acts, chapter eight, his name is Philip. Philip

(01:29):
was one of the deacons of the church, a layman
unleashed sharing faith in Christ. And remember this, it wasn't
just the apostles sharing their faith, but all the believers
were at this mission of inviting others to know Christ.
And so Philip, like Stephen before him, one of the
deacons of the Church, is out there doing what God

(01:52):
has called him to do. First in Samaria, he crossed
some racial barriers and some religious barriers to go to Samaria.
And there in Samaria, God sent a great revival among
the people there, and God greatly used this man, Philip,
as a catalyst for that revival. But then something very
unusual happened to Philip. Verse twenty six says, now an

(02:12):
angel of the Lord said to Philip, rise and go
toward the south, to the road that goes down from
Jerusalem to Gaza. This is a desert place. And he
rose and went. And there was an Ethiopium, a eunuch,
a court official of Candacy, Queen of the Ethiopians, who

(02:33):
was in charge of all of her treasure. In other words,
this was a very important figure in the government of
the Ethiopians. And he had come to Jerusalem to worship,
being a God fearer, someone who had converted to the
Jewish faith. He had sought God in Jerusalem, and had
made this trek from Ethiopia across the desert to Jerusalem.

(02:58):
And yet this man filled with religion was going home empty,
knowing that he needed something else, something more in his life.
So verse twenty eight says, and was returning seated in
his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. And
the spirit said to Philip in some way intuitively and

(03:25):
yet intently, the Spirit of God spoke to Philip and
prompted him to go talk to this man. So Philip
ran to him, I love that, don't you. He ran
to the chariot and heard him reading Isaiah the Prophet,
and asked, do you understand what you are reading? He

(03:48):
met him at the point of his need. He found
this man fully prepared to receive what God was about
to give. And the gentleman said, in verse thirty one,
how can I unless someone guides me? And he invited
Philip to come up and sit with him. Now, the
passage of the scripture that he was reading was this,

(04:11):
and this comes right out of Isaiah fifty three, verses
seven and eight. Like a sheep, he was led to
the slaughter, and like a lamb before his shearer is silent,
So he opened not his mouth. He's talking about the Lord.
He's reading about the Messiah who would come in sacrifice,
and in his humiliation, justice was denied him. Who can
describe this generation? For his life is taken away from

(04:34):
the earth. And so this very religious man, this leader,
in his own country, he is wondering, what does all
of this mean? What did the Prince of prophets Isaiah
mean when he spoke of this one who would die
like a lamb sent to a slaughter. And the eunuch

(04:56):
said to Philip, about whom I ask you? Does the
prophet say this about himself or about someone else that
I love? Verse thirty five. Then Philip opened his mouth.
He didn't simply influence them with his life. That's good,

(05:16):
that's a great start. But it takes more than that
to bring others to Christ, doesn't it. He opened his mouth,
he spoke, and beginning with the scripture, that scripture, he
told him the good news about Jesus, that in simple form,

(05:41):
is the way every one of us can witness if
we are externally engaged, externally focused. It was an extreme
thing for God to say to Philip, I want you
to leave this comfortable place and go to an unknown place.

(06:03):
Just follow my promptings, go after my leading, and I
will show you and prepare for you something that I
have specifically called you to do. The Spirit of God
often moves us to take risks, to get off of
easy street and walk the narrow road, to take off

(06:26):
our shoes and get our feet dirty for the cause
of Christ, even in a desert place, even in a
dirty place. And that's what Philip reminds us of today.
How we can be used of God if we will
simply now listen, be open and obedient to the promptings

(06:50):
of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Now, if you're
looking for the gist of this message, you just heard it.
How God can use ups us if we will be
open and obedient And let me add one word other
o word ore portunistic to the voice and the vision

(07:11):
of the Holy Spirit in our lives. How do we
do that? Let's start by being open to the work
of the Holy Spirit. God spoke, Philip, listened, he was
attentive and responsive to the ministry of the Holy Spirit
in our lives. Our lives. You say, well, what is that,
pastor Well, the Bible says as many as are led

(07:34):
by the Spirit of God. These are the children of God.
And therefore we are to be filled with the Spirit,
which means controlled by the Spirit, in order that we
could be used by the Spirit. It's impossible to be
used of the Spirit if God is not filling my life.
And of course, when we speak of our witness, we're

(07:56):
talking about we're talking about the collaborative and the cooperative
ministry of the Spirit through us. When we work in
our human energy, we get what we can do. But
when we work in the power of God, we get
what God can do. And when we share Christ, it

(08:19):
is our availability, but it is his ability. It is
our personalities, but his power. It is our witness, but
it is His work through that witness and the Holy Spirit. Therefore,

(08:40):
when we are filled, enables us to do things that
we couldn't do ordinarily, and that includes our witness. To
be filled with the Spirit is to ask God to
take control and take command of your life. Ephesians five
eighteen says do not be drunk with wine whereas an excess,

(09:02):
but be filled with the Spirit. In other words, be
intoxicated with the Spirit of God. And when you are
filled with the Holy Spirit, you will Therefore live listening
to the Spirit. Then God will give you the openness
to see all around you opportunities that you would have

(09:23):
missed a thousand times had you not been walking in
the spirit. I want to tell you, if you're filled
with the spirit, you will see more witness opportunities than
you can possibly fulfill. It's when we're walking in self
promotion or self centeredness that we miss all the opportunities

(09:43):
that are around us. But listen to the Spirit. These
are the promptings of the Spirit. He guides us, He
places us in strategic places, He leads us to people
that need to hear our witness. And everyone can witness
to someone every day. Maybe this would be a good

(10:07):
time for a question, when was the last time you
witness to anyone? Now, I'm not here to put you
on a guilt trip, but I'm here to encourage you
to get on the greatest adventure of life, and that
is being open to the work of the Holy Spirit,

(10:28):
sensitized by God in you to people all around you.
Because remember, this is the passion of Christ. The Spirit
of God is Christ in us. And if Christ went
about doing good each day, and that's what the scripture
tells us. If Jesus came to seek and to save
that which is lost. If Jesus said, as the Father

(10:48):
sent me into the world, so do I send you.
If this is the mission of Christ, then it is
the mission of his church, and it is the mission
of every Christian amen. And so what I need to
do is to get out of my personal zone and
to get in to the God's zone in my life.

(11:11):
That's the filling of the spirit.

Speaker 1 (11:13):
You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message
giving your Faith Away. In his book Angels, Doctor Graham
takes you through scripture to explore how angels serve, protect
and point us to the power of our Savior. We
want to send you this powerful book today to thank
you for your generous gift to help PowerPoint end this

(11:33):
current year of ministry on June thirtieth as strong as possible.
This is so important. A two hundred thousand dollars matching
grant has been offered by generous friends, which means every
dollar you give through June thirtieth will be doubled. Call
one eight hundred seven ninety five four six two seven.
That's one eight hundred seven ninety five four six two seven.

(11:57):
You can also text the word angels to five seven
eight nine. Don't let stress rob you of peace. It
is possible to break the destructive grip of stress on
your life and enjoy the peace and abundance God desires
for you. That's what doctor Graham helps you do in
his booklet Breaking Free from Stress. We want to send
you a digital download of Breaking Free from Stress when

(12:18):
you sign up for email updates from PowerPoint Today. Just
go to PowerPoint dot org slash stress and sign up today.
Now let's get back to today's message, giving your faith away.

Speaker 2 (12:32):
The first thing that needs to happen if we are
going to give away our faith is that we need
to be open to the leadership, to the prompting of
the Holy Spirit in our lives. Secondly, we need not
only to be open, but we need to be obedient.
Remember being comes before doing so be open number one,

(12:55):
and then be obedient. The Great Commission is not a suggestion,
This a commandment, and so if I'm going to be
an obedient Christian, then I need to live every day
with this unquestioning obedience. The moment I stop obeying God

(13:19):
is the moment that I give up spiritual power. The
moment I say no to a prompting of the Holy
Spirit is when I'm cut off from that divine sense
of power. And total obedience is what God expects and
what God requires. We don't always know why God tells

(13:40):
us to do something, do we. Abraham didn't understand why
God told him to leave err of the cowvis and
to go out, not knowing where he was headed into
the unknown zone. Philip could have questioned God leading him
to the desert. Lord, here we are in Samaria. God's

(14:02):
using me in a great way. But now, Lord, you
want me to go somewhere the south, in the desert
on this road, this forsaken road to the desert. You
want me to go out there. But there's no sense
that Philip even argued with God on this. He just
immediately responded, and God led Philip to just one man.

(14:28):
Interestingly enough, we're told in Christian tradition and history that
God later used this man, this Ethiopian, who came to
faith in Christ because of Philip's witness. That God used
this Ethiopian eunuch to take the Gospel of Christ to
all of North Africa. You see, you never know what

(14:50):
could happen if you just simply obey God and talk
to the person right in front of you about Jesus.
We're told to the scriptures that we must never quench
the spirit. The spirit of God was spreading through the Church. Now,
remember Jesus had told them to go into Jerusalem first,

(15:12):
and then too Judea Samaria, the uttermost parts of the earth.
And interestingly enough, when the opposition rolled in in Jerusalem
and persecution began, remember Stephen who died as the first
Christian martyr. The persecution was hot and heavy. So as
a result, the fire now was spreading. God in one sense,

(15:37):
forced the Church through their discomfort, through their pain, through
the struggles of persecution, forced them out of Jerusalem and
to Judea Samaria that's where Philip was, and then ultimately
out into the desert and onto the world. It may
be that the spirit of God is using some crisis

(15:57):
in your life to move you out of your comfortable
zone and to get you out sharing Christ. Did you
know that if you're going through a hard time right now,
if you, as a follower of Christ, are struggling in
some area, maybe you've got a physical issue, maybe there's

(16:18):
a problem in your life that you can't explain. God
wants to use that situation in your life, even the darkness,
for you to shine the light of Christ. Because what
people want to know does your faith work in the
tough times? What people want to know the people you

(16:38):
go to school with, the people you work with, the
people in your neighborhood. They want to know when you're
struggling and when you're hurting and when you've got a problem.
Does your faith make a difference in your life? Does
Jesus really change things? Or are we just like everybody
else falling apart at the first crisis. Know, these Christians

(17:04):
were moved by the spirit of God because they were
obedient to his work. The scripture says that Philip verse
thirty five, opened his mouth, began at the scripture, and
he preached Jesus to him. Being obedient includes knowing the scripture,
and that's another message another time. But it's important for

(17:27):
Philip and for all of us when we are given
these moments, that we are able to some degree to
articulate what we believe. And so it is vital that
you know the basics of your faith. I mean, if
someone walked up to you right now and said, tell
me how I could go to heaven? Could you tell them?

(17:50):
You ought to be able to tell them the basic
facts of the Gospel and of Christ. He began and
with the scripture and preached Jesus. Ultimately, that's what it's
all about, isn't It is talking about Jesus. It's telling
people about Jesus. And there are many ways that we

(18:11):
do that. We can't all do it in the same way,
but I tell you this, if we're led by the Spirit,
we all will find our way of doing it. It
may be through ministries of mercy and helping hurting people
that you are given an open door to share your faith.
It may be through a ministry of the church. This

(18:34):
is why we ask people, urge people to get involved
in the ministry of the church, because every ministry of
the church. If you're working with children, or if you're
working with students, or if you're working in a class,
or if you're working as an USh or are you
working in the parking lot, whatever you're doing, these are
opportunities to share, to show your witness for Christ. And

(18:56):
these will open doors for you to our articulate your faith.
It is the business of the Holy Spirit to introduce
people to faith in Christ. Christians today either neglect the
spirit or abuse the Spirit of God by grieving the
spirit or quenching the spirit, rather than allowing the Spirit

(19:17):
of God to use us. Philip open the Word and
he preached unto him Jesus. That's what I want to do.
This is when I'm loving life. Is when I'm opening
the Word and preaching Jesus. When I'm opening the scriptures
and sharing Jesus from me. Life doesn't get any better

(19:40):
than that. It's all about sharing Jesus and the Holy
Spirit will soften and prepare the person that you're talking to.
You see, every person has needs two basic needs. They
need to be forgiven and they need to be fulfilled.
And Christ forgives us of all of our sins, fulfills
and fills our lives. I'm not talking about just the

(20:03):
down and out. Too many of us think that the
Gospel is for the down and out. Well, the Gospel
is for the down and out. But this man, this Ethiopian,
he was an up and out and he needed Jesus.
He had the same need. He had all this religious experience,
but he was empty and unforgiven and needed to know

(20:26):
of the love of Christ. And so just as the
Spirit of God is working on me to prepare me
to go and to be open to the work of
the Spirit of my life and obedient to the will
of the Spirit in my life, then He is working
on somebody who is in my life that day that

(20:48):
I could simply share a witness with them. And that's
what I want to challenge you to do. Will you
talk to people each day? What do you talk to
them about? Well, we talk about the family, we talk
about the news, We talked politics, We talked about the weather,

(21:08):
all surface stuff. We talk about our favorite sports team,
we get pumped about that. We talk about our business,
we talk about the next deal. I love the story
of Pete Merrivitch, the great basketball player who came to Christ.
He said, if I have the opportunity to introduce the

(21:29):
subject of the conversation with the people I meet, the
subject is always Jesus. Last night I was with a
group of people called the Roaring Lambs, a great banquet.
Gary Kinder as the leader of this group, a wonderful
Christian layman, and the purpose of Roaring Lambs came from

(21:52):
a book written by a gentleman named Bob Briner now
in heaven. Some of you remember Bob, but he wrote
a book called The Roaring Lambs. You say, that's an
unusual title. Roaring Lambs. What's that about. Well, Jesus was
the lamb that roared, the lamb of God who takes
away the sin of the world. And Jesus roared when

(22:16):
he died and when he came back from the grave,
and he's the roaring lamb, the bull lamb of God
who takes away the sin of the world. And those
who follow the roaring Lamb should also be roaring lambs.
And that's the theme of Briner's book. That's the purpose
of this particular organization, and the genuine purpose, men and women,

(22:40):
is to get people like you in the laity to
go to the market place with Jesus. The greatest mission
field in the world is the mark at place. And

(23:01):
God has placed you in that place, and God has
given you a job and an assignment in that job,
and you ought to be a faithful worker and a
good worker, and you ought to do everything you can
to be successful in your business. For the purpose of
beginning right there and talking about Jesus, that Ethiopian came

(23:25):
to Christ he was baptized, he went on his way,
and Philip was translated just like that to another assignment
for the Lord. That's the way to live. That's the
way God calls laymen and people like me who get
to preach to live every day sharing Jesus.

Speaker 1 (23:47):
You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message
giving your faith away. On June thirtieth, we will close
our books on another year of ministry, and it's critical
we end strong. That's why friends have stepped forward with
a two hundred thousand dollars matching grant, which means every
dollar you give by June thirtieth will be doubled. Your

(24:08):
gift to help meet this grant in full is so important.
We'll send you doctor Graham's powerful book Angels. It's our
special gift and thank you to you. This encouraging book
reveals what Scripture says about God's messengers and how their
presence reminds us that Heaven is always near. Request your
copy when you call and gift today. Call one eight

(24:28):
hundred seven ninety five four six two seven. That's one
eight hundred seven ninety five four six two seven. You
can also text the word Angels to five nine, seven,
eight nine, and don't forget to visit Jack Graham dot
org where you can shop our East store, give a
gift online, or sign up for doctor Graham's free daily

(24:49):
email devotional. Our website again is Jack Graham dot org,
and also be sure to sign up for doctor Graham's
podcast Bible in a Year pastor what is your our
point for Today?

Speaker 2 (25:03):
The first key to giving your faith away every day
is to be open to the prompting of the Holy Spirit.
God is at work in the lives of men and
women and children all around you. He is drawing people
to himself. He is preparing people to hear the story
of Jesus, and He wants to use you to tell
that story. So if you are open to the Holy

(25:24):
Spirit and sensitive to his gentle promptings in your life,
you will walk into divine opportunities every day, and you
will be able to share your faith effectively. The second
key to giving your faith away is to be obedient.
Once you have felt the Lord's prompting to make that
phone call, or to write that note, or to visit

(25:46):
that person, that's the time to act. Don't be slow
to respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit in
your life. Be sure to obey the Lord right away.
Often the Lord will prompt you at a specific moment,
at a specific time, to deliver a timely word to
a person who desperately needs to hear from God. And
guess what you get to be the delivery boy. You

(26:09):
get to be the person to carry the message in.
You don't need to delay because you might miss the
moment that God has designed. So it is vital that
you learn to obey immediately when you feel that the
Lord is speaking to you about speaking to others. The
third important key in giving away your faith is to
be observant. Sometimes it is possible to see that God

(26:31):
is at work in someone's life and that they are
becoming more and more open to talking about Christ. So
what we need to do is to pay attention to
what is happening in the lives of people around us,
and then to take every opportunity to speak into life
situations where you know that people are ready responsive and
are open to hearing about Jesus. The Lord is constantly

(26:54):
giving us opportunities to share our faith. He really is.
The challenge is before us every day. The call comes
every day to be more open to the Holy Spirit,
more obedient to his promptings, and more observant to the
opportunities that are all around us. God bless you as
you share your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Speaker 1 (27:17):
And that is today's power Point. Remember when you give
a gift of ten dollars or more to PowerPoint, we'll
send you doctor Graham's book Angels as our thanks. Call
one eight hundred seven ninety five four six two seven.
That's one eight hundred seven ninety five four six two seven.
You can also text the word Angels to five nine

(27:38):
seven eight nine and join us again next time as
doctor Graham brings a message about how the Holy Spirit
can lead you exactly where you need to go. That's
next time on PowerPoint with Jack Graham. PowerPoint with Jack
Graham is sponsored by PowerPoint Ministry s