Salt & Light

1. 10 weeks ago I started this series called Salt & Light – I believe that God is calling us to be the salt of the earth & the light of the world in our community & culture. That he is calling us to be DISTINCT from our culture and to PERMEATE it at the same time.

2. after preaching 2 sermons on Matthew 5:13-16 I turned to Acts 2:42-47 to examine the practices, habits we need to give ourselves to in order to become life-changing, culture-altering salt & light:
® 1st we need to take our sin seriously by confession & repentance
® 2nd to give ourselves to – Biblical teaching + loving fellowship + living worship + outgoing evangelism & mission

3. the following people have shared with us as we’ve been on this journey – mike higgs, annie cernac, heather barton, ragna shollenberger, kyle maddox, lynn olson & kristin payne.

4. we have 1 more sermon to go as we wrap this series up - everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles (Acts 2:43).

††† PRAY †††

#1 boils & ministry
1. I 1ST met Jing Dubrico in the Philippines in 1976. He was an Alliance pastor, a church planter. When he was 18 years old he was seriously sick for two weeks. He had a string of boils that grew around his waist line. He lost his appetite, lost weight, couldn’t sleep at night. There was no hospital or medicine or doctor to turn to.

2. his mother went to prayer for him. Jing promised God that he would become a pastor if God healed him. Two weeks later Jing was completely healed. Six months later Jing enrolled at Ebenezer Bible College. Today he has been a pastor and church planter for 42 years. Jesus was/is his healer. Those boils were his call to ministry.

#2 conception & salvation
1. 4 years ago Jing and Emily his wife were conducting a Bible study in a Chinese home. The husband of one of the couples told the group that he had been a Buddhist for 40 yrs & was not going to change his religion.

2. a few months later his wife received the Lord. She asked Jing to pray for them to have a child. They had been married for more than 20 years & had not been able to conceive. Both were at their late 40's.

3. Jing prayed. She got pregnant. Their son was born on October 10, 2005. On December 18 they dedicated their son to the Lord AND baptized his father!

wonders and miraculous signs
1. everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles (Acts 2:43)

2. literally – occurring in every soul awe. Transpiring in every soul. Experienced in every soul. Housed in every soul. What? A deep, inward sense of overwhelming awe because God was displaying his miraculous power. And every soul, meaning both followers of Christ & non followers of Christ.

3. today I want you to hear about the absolute necessity of expecting to witness God’s supernatural power.

4. miracles marked the ministry of Jesus. Miracles marked the ministry of the apostles. And miracles have marked the ministry of the Church down through the centuries.

5. I/CAC/CMA believe that God heals people today.
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definition of a miracle – wayne grudem
1. a miracle is a less common kind of God’s activity in which he arouses people’s awe and wonder and bears witness to himself. Let me unpack this a bit.

2. less common kind. Miracles don’t occur all the time. Miracles are not the primary way God works & reveals himself to people today.

3. of God’s activity. Miracles come from God. They are not human in origin or human in the making. They are an unmistakable God-thing.

4. arouses people’s awe & wonder. Miracles catch people’s attention. They force people to encounter another dimension to life. They stop us in our tracks. They breed a sense of mystery, awe, wonder, the Divine in our lives.

5. and bears witness to himself. Miracles point to God. They are God’s signposts. They are not about the human vessel God may use to bring them about. NO, NO, NO! A true miracle bears witness to God himself alone.

#3 gum & t-shirts
1. Brett Lott is a follower of Christ who is a writer of literary fiction. Oprah Winfrey made him famous in 1999 by featuring his novel Jewell on her book club. A few years ago he & his family traveled to Moldova in Eastern Europe on a mission trip to help run a Bible camp for kids. He was the camp activities director. They were told to bring supplies for 140 kids. But once the Bible camp started they discovered they had around 160 kids to work with.

2. in one of the relay races they organized each kid was to run to a paper bag, put on a pair of gloves, reach into the bag & pull out a piece of gum, unwrap it & put the stick of gym in their mouth, take the gloves off & run back to their team.

3. as they got to the end of the relay race Lott’s oldest son yelled out to him, Dad, we’re running out of gum! Lott hollered back, pray! Lott himself prayed that somehow there would be enough gum. And there was, to a child. God multiplied the gum!

4. on the last day of the Bible camp the big craft event was the tie-dyeing of T-shirts. They started out with 140 shirts but some had been lost with luggage on the flight over. The largest group of kids for the whole week showed up on the last day – 170 kids & they were working with less than 140 T-shirts.

5. they prayed over the shirts before the kids arrived & asked God for enough shirts. At the end of the day they praised God that there were precisely enough shirts – one for each of the 170 children.

6. Jesus multiplied bread & fish in his day & gum & T-shirts in ours.

#4 healing of a blind man (ken & carolyn vankurin)
1. in a remote area of Indonesia a national evangelist, Yohanis Sock-eye, was holding special outdoor meetings. The Muslims in the area were unhappy because some of their people were attending the meetings. They began stirring up opposition.

2. among the many people in attendance was a blind man. When the invitation was given to respond to the message, the blind man went forward and said ‘yes’ to Jesus as his personal Savior. He requested prayer for healing for his eyes. Yohanis anointed his eyes and prayed for healing and God instantly restored his sight.

3. after seeing this miracle opposition to the Gospel ceased and more Muslims began attending the services. Some were saved.

purpose of miracles
1. wayne grudem gives 4 purposes for miracles. I think he is right on. 1st miracles authenticate the message of the gospel. They give evidence that God is at work. Miracles serve to advance the gospel. Hebrews 2:4.

2. 2nd miracles bear witness to the fact that the kingdom of God & its benefits have come. The benefits of the kingdom are salvation, healing, deliverance, changed lives. Matthew 12:28.

3. 3rd miracles help those in need. Here is where we see the compassion of Jesus at work. Matthew 14:14.

4. 4th miracles bring glory to God. The other 3 purposes contribute to this one. Matthew 9:8. Miracles bear witness to God and underline his glory.

#5 healing through touch
1. kim lee kwai was sick with cancer when Josh was 1 year old. She weighed less than 100 lbs. Chemotherapy had almost killed her. She was extremely depressed & full of anxiety. She was spiraling downward. One morning she asked Harry to drive her to a psychiatric hospital.

2. a few days after she was admitted she was given a roommate. A woman who had overdosed. This woman looked like she was in a coma when they brought her into Kim’s room. She lay on her bed for hours without waking or moving.

3. suddenly she woke wide awake, looked over at Kim & asked her if she could give her a backrub. Kim said yes (now she can’t believe she said yes!). The woman came over to Kim’s bed & started giving her a back rub & immediately Kim felt different & started getting better.

4. she called Harry after the back rub & told him she wanted to go home. This was a titanic healing moment for Kim – emotionally, physically & spiritually. God used the touch of a drug overdosed women in a hospital psychiatric ward to heal Kim. Today she is utterly convinced she experienced a miracle of God!

5. the poet Wallace Stevens has said – the job of the poet is to put people in agreement with reality. The job of Scripture is to put people in agreement with reality. The job of the sermon is to put people in agreement with reality. What reality? The absolute necessity of expecting to witness God’s supernatural power.

#6 leg, back & cancer (norm beck)
1. At the Jan. ' 98 Pastor's Prayer Summit at Cannon Beach I went to the chair in the afternoon session to have them pray for my back. Pastor Larry Trogen prayed for my left leg that was 1" shorter than my right leg and within 5 sec. my left leg grew out to the same length as my right leg. He prayed for my 2 degenerative disc and degenerative arthritis in my back and the pain immediately went away.

2. A lingering question for me afterwards was why did God bless me so richly with healing my painful back?
3. I think I got at least one answer the following year in '99. Pastor Mike from Portland and I were with one other pastor in a small prayer group. Mike told me that when he witnessed the healing of my back and leg that his theology was shattered. He couldn't believe what he saw.(he had a Baptist background) He went back to his church, his faith stronger and deeper.

4. then he said a lady (Donna) in the church had an inoperable brain tumor and had developed a rash on her head from the chemotherapy and they couldn't find anything that would get rid of it. This was in May '98. Mike decided to take some oil and visit her in the hospital. He anointed her head and prayed for her. That afternoon the rash went away. A week later she called him to see if he would perform her wedding. Her cancer was in remission. He said because of his experience of my healing the year before, his faith and the churches faith had grown.

Application
1. do you have a need for healing today? The elders would be happy to anoint you with oil & pray for you in accordance to James 5:13-16. notice what is important:
® sick? Ask elders of church to pray over him & anoint with oil
® pray offered in faith in order to be effective
® confession of sin
® prayer of righteous is powerful

2. meet up front here if you would like prayer

Music i listened to while sermonizing – bruce springsteen

Books i read & studied while sermonizing – lent and easter by thomas merton; surprised by hope by n.t. wright; the shack by william p. young; acts by ajith fernando; the spirit, the church & the word by john stott;