2023 was the “Year of Alignment,” and we spent considerable time during the first quarter of last year talking about how to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and trust that everything else would fall into place in our lives. The key verse was Matthew 6:33. We talked about the Vine/Branch relationship that is written about in John 15 where Jesus is our Source, and everything we need flows from Him to us just the way the Vine provides what the branches need to be sustained and to grow and flourish. In short, we focused on living connected to Christ.
This past summer, I received a challenge to pass on to you. I believe what I will share over the coming weeks is a God-ordained challenge for us all. I am calling 2024 “The Year of Activation!” From our connection with Christ, I believe God wants us to live confidently and courageously for Him.
The Year of Activation. Act, activate, activation…these are action-based words. The call to activation is the call to get moving and to do what God wants us to do to win the world to Christ. During the Year of Alignment, our focus was on becoming what God wants us to become. Now, at the start of this new year, there is a call to discern and do what He wants us to do.
We can receive lots of information and lots of inspiration when we come together weekly, and on our own, we can focus on and enjoy abiding in Christ, which is the alignment principle, but if we never move from information and inspiration to activation, what have we done to expand the Kingdom?
Jesus calls us to a Christian life AND Jesus calls us to Kingdom life. I think it is easier for us to comprehend what the Christian life is about than it is to accept what Kingdom Life is about. The Christian life is about our identity. It is about being made new on the inside, being washed clean, being saved. It is about an internal shift away from a worldly identity to identifying with Christ. It is about placing faith and confidence in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ to the point where we want to be done with sin. Jesus died to free us from the consequences of sin, but He was raised so that we could live to be dead to sin, so that we could stop sinning. That’s Romans 6:11.
The Christian life involves the transformation of our desires. Not that we are “sinless,” but as the Holy Spirit has His way in our lives, we certainly begin to sin “less.” The goal is to follow in the sinless footsteps of Jesus.
Kingdom life involves the transformation of our priorities. As we grow, we understand that we no longer live for ourselves, but we are to go to the world to bring the world to Jesus.
So, to summarize, I see the Christian life as a state of being and believe kingdom life involves moving from a state of being to a state of doing. The Year of Activation. The word “activate” means:
- to cause something to start working
- to make active
- to cause something to function or act
- to start something off
- to trigger something to start
- to set something in motion.
What could we do to set something in motion for the Kingdom? What could we trigger? How could things shift in our region if the Kingdom expands? Who could be brought in? Who could be introduced to Christ because we actively share our faith? Who could be healed because we activate our prayer lives? Who could we draw into a closer walk with Christ because of the way we actively pursue the Lord? Who could watch our commitment to our church and our personal relationship with Jesus and begin to ask questions about our motivation?
I believe that 2024 is the beginning of a five-year process of winning 250 souls for Jesus, that’s 50 a year, over the next five years. I believe 2024 is the beginning of a five-year process of baptizing and discipling those 250 converts. I also believe 2024 is the beginning of a five-year journey to double in size as a congregation. For us to double in size would mean we would be a worshipping congregation of between 950 to 1000 people by the end of 2029. This challenge isn’t about numbers; it’s about souls! It is about Kingdom impact. It is about taking back what Hell has stolen. It is about the rule and reign of God in this Valley.
The staff has been reading a book called “Intentional Churches” that offers a track for us to run on. It talks about the potential that resides in our congregation because Christ’s power resides in each one who claims Christ. Do you realize that the same power that raised Christ from the dead lives in you, believer? Look at it in Ephesians 1:18-20:
18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms,
For us to know what it means to have Jesus living on the inside, Jesus in fullness, Jesus in His Sovereign Authority, Jesus in His matchless power, for us to know what that means, we need to have the eyes of our hearts enlightened. Paul says, “You need to understand that the incomparable power (say, “incomparable”) of Christ lives in us. It is the same power that was activated or released when Christ was raised from the dead.
How many of us feel as powerful as Jesus this morning? Right? Why not? The Word says His power lives in us! We need to be enlightened by the Spirit of God to the power of God that resides in us. We need a revelation of the power that is in us that we can activate by faith as we walk with the Spirit of the Living God. Power is to be exerted. Power is to be utilized. Power is to be demonstrated. Power is to be activated. When power is released, there is a measurable impact. We will never realize our potential as Christ-followers and as a congregation if we are not exercising the power that resides with us because of Christ.
What is the point of having power if it is never utilized? What good is a bunch of stored energy? I submit to you in 2024 God wants us to be more than a large group of stored energy! Stored energy is known as potential energy. God wants us to move from potential energy to purpose and power! What would happen if we, as a group of stored energy believers, heretofore to be known as SEB’s (stored energy believers), what if we SEBS activated God’s power by faith and moved from potential energy to the “dunamis” dynamite, dynamic power that is talked about 120 times in the New Testament?
God hasn’t placed His power inside of us for us to store it, to sit on it, and to be saturated by it. He has given us His power so that it can flow out of us to those around us and point people back to Him. I don’t want to be a lump of potential energy. I want to see God’s power activated in my life so that people get to see what He can do and understand who He is.
II Corinthians 4:7- 7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.
The treasure is the Holy Spirit and the power and fruit that flow into a surrendered life.
Acts 1:8-“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Notice that Acts 1:8 doesn’t say, “But you will receive potential when the Holy Spirit comes on you so that you can consider whether or not to share me with others as it’s convenient for you or as it fits your agenda.” No, The Holy Spirit’s power is placed in us so that we can be God’s witnesses.
How do we activate God’s power in our daily life to be God’s witnesses? If people are looking at us, hoping to see the power of Christ, what are we demonstrating? How do we win 50 people to Christ each year for the next five years? How do we double in size over the next five years?
Look at Paul’s words to the church in Corinth in I Corinthians 2:1-5 And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.[a] 2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. 4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.
Paul did not win the Corinthians to Christ not through his eloquence. He didn’t captivate audiences with comedic timing or passionate pleas, though he may have had those skills. He didn’t wow people with his knowledge of Scripture or religious pedigree, although, he pretty much was at the head of his class. He didn’t fascinate people with all the Bible facts he had memorized in Hebrew school. You know, all the churchy, evangelistic tools we might think we need in our toolbelt if we are going to get into a Jesus conversation? He didn’t use any of those.
No, he spoke very humbly. He said, “I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” What he knew never trumped WHO he knew. He had one message. He had one drum that he kept beating. It was the message of the cross. He didn’t try to dress up the message or make it flashy or politically correct or palatable. He didn’t insert pressure or his own opinion. He just proclaimed the simple Gospel message that Jesus Christ was crucified for the sins of the world, as the world’s substitute, and that all who turn to Him in repentance will receive forgiveness and eternal salvation.
Paul shared about the cross because that is where the battle was waged and that’s where the victory was won. Sin was defeated there, death was defeated there, and Satan was defeated there.
Because of the cross, I am no longer defined by or condemned by my sin. Jesus was condemned there in my place. Because of the cross and resurrection, death has no power over me! It is no longer an enemy, but it is just a doorway I will walk through into eternal life. Because of the cross, Satan has been defeated, and I have been given authority over the devil. I’m not afraid of him, and I will not be controlled by him. Oh, Church, there’s victory in Jesus!
The cross where Jesus died became a place of victory for the rest of us. That is powerful! That is a triple victory. When every enemy you have has been defeated in one place at one time by one man, that is truly a demonstration of power!
You can activate the power of God in you by lifting high the cross where Jesus died. His worst day became our best day. Paul’s success in winning people to Jesus wasn’t the result of him having a winning personality or a flashy smile. It wasn’t about being clever or churchy. It was simply that He shared what God had done to rescue humanity through Jesus’ death on the cross. Paul was living Kingdom life in two strategic ways:
- He didn’t rely on his own intellect.
- He didn’t rely on his own strength.
He shared the message of the cross, and the Holy Spirit gave him power. We can do the same thing. We can be Kingdom expanders if we will share Jesus and let the Spirit give us the power to do it. We don’t have to lean on our own understanding or skill. We just share what we have learned and what we have experienced.
If we wait until we think we are ready, we will never do it. We’ll just be like a stick of dynamite sitting in the corner, all powered up but with nowhere to go. Truly, if every believer in this room won just won person to Christ in 2024, we would have far more than 50 souls to celebrate.
Kingdom life is a doing life with a focus on bringing others into the Kingdom. To actively witness we are going to have to be intentional. Kingdom life is intentional. To witness in Corinth, Paul had to go there. In fact, he moved there. He lived with Priscilla and Acquilla for the better part of two years. He became a tentmaker. He made tents in Corinth so that he could pay the bills and share the Gospel in Corinth. Isn’t that interesting? He wasn’t a preacher in a temple. He made tents AND he told people about Jesus.
What conclusions could we draw from that? We could be in healthcare AND tell people about Jesus. We could be a lineman AND tell people about Jesus. We could be in Information Technology AND tell people about Jesus. We could be in education or banking or sales or accounts payable or work fast food AND we could tell people about Jesus.
While in Corinth, he didn’t get deep into the weeds on lots of topics. He kept it simple. He kept it focused on Jesus and Jesus’ mission to save us by the cross. Do we keep this dynamic message to ourselves because we think it is too complicated or that someone wouldn’t be interested in it? Do we think it’s someone else’s job to share the Gospel? Do we think Jesus will understand if we aren’t really interested in the Kingdom life part? Are we satisfied with living a Christian life but not interested in Kingdom life?
When Paul said he came with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, I’d like to think in part that he meant he came as a demonstration of the Spirit’s power. Paul wasn’t talking about something he had not personally experienced, and his rap sheet, his B.C. life was pretty nasty, vile and heinous. If God could change Paul and save Paul and turn Paul’s life around, well, what other proof did people need that the message of the cross had transformational power?
I’d also like to think he meant that he was relying on the Spirit’s power to do what he was doing. It’s a lot to work a full-time job and just take care of the business of life. Working in additional time to be an intentional Kingdom Witness, well, that can be tricky. Building relationships with people takes time. I’m guessing people heard his speech more than once. I mean, he was there almost two years. He had to have some repeat conversations with more than a few folks. He needed supernatural power to not get discouraged and give up. He also needed power beyond himself to discern who to talk to, how to start the conversations, and what all to include.
What does it look like when the Spirit empowers someone? Maybe there is a sincerity with which they speak that piques someone’s curiosity. Maybe there is an authority that has a supernatural component. Maybe hope springs up in the heart of the listener, something the preacher isn’t even aware is happening. Perhaps there is a love that can be felt from the speaker, the kind of love that woos people, that draws people, that compels people to want to hear more. May it is a courage that comes on a person suddenly so that even if it isn’t like them to be bold for Jesus, it happens almost effortlessly.
What I do know is that over and over in Scripture, we are assured of God’s presence with us, we are promised that He will give us the words we need to speak, and He will guide us into the places He has prepared for us to be witnesses for Him. If we believe all of that and yet never open our mouths to share the Gospel, we are sticks of dynamite that never get ignited. Don’t wait to feel powerful before you share. The power is activated as you share.
50 souls in 2024. 250 souls by the end of 2028. Doubling the size of this congregation in the next five years. That will require we move beyond being content with simply experiencing a Christian life and that we become intentionally active about living a Kingdom life as we share the message of the cross in the Spirit’s power.
To help us make this message concrete, I want to encourage you to ask someone this question this week, “What do you believe about Jesus?” If that seems too pointed, too daunting, then ask someone, “What do you believe about God?” Then just listen.
Over the next few weeks, I want you to be thinking about your one. Jesus left the 99 to go after the one to bring that one back into the fold. Surely, over the next five years, every one of us who claims Christ could help bring one person into the Kingdom. It won’t happen using our own intellect. It won’t happen by relying on ourselves. It won’t happen if we just all agree it is a good idea and should happen. It won’t happen if we just think about it happening. It won’t happen if I preach every week about it happening. It will happen as we activate our witness and trust God to supply the power.
I love that Scripture contains a record of the workings of God. I also love that in many places, the names of people were recorded. There was proof they were “there” in those special, defining moments. I believe this is a defining moment for Teays Valley Church of God. This Year of Activation is the start of something very intentional, very strategic, and will prove to have an energy and momentum that can only be attributed to the power of the Holy Spirit. So, as we begin to sing, if you are a believer who can see yourself committing to Kingdom life, committing to activating your witness, committing to believing that God will help you bring ONE soul to Him in the next five years, I want you to come and place your name on one of the pieces of paper that are across the front of the platform. I want to keep a record of at least the initial commitments made today. I know not everyone is here. Some are watching online. Some just aren’t here. We can add names for a few weeks. If you are online and want us to put your name down, let us know.
Five years from now, we’ll revisit the list, and I believe we will have a party and celebrate unlike we ever have because of what God will do to increase the Kingdom through us. Let’s move from potential to power and activate our witness for Christ.
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