The first set of Joneses rocketed to what seemed like great success (primarily financial). To all the world, they looked like winners, like everything they touched turned to gold. They had the jobs, the beach house, the perfect family picture. That was what they wanted more than anything else, and they worked very hard to get that perfect family picture.

On the other hand, there was Reuben and Sue, who – as the song goes – “had nothin’ but Jesus.” When their first child was born, Reuben’s buddies had to take up a collection to help him offset the hospital bills. They didn’t look like a “success,” at least not in the sense we usually mean. They worked very hard at being successful, too – but they had a different measure of what meant “success.”

In Acts 4:36-5:11, we see another “two sets of Joneses.” In 4:36, we’re introduced to Joseph, called Barnabas (which, so we’re told, means “son of encouragement”). We don’t know how well off he was, but he owned a field and sold it to contribute to the needs of the very rapidly growing Jerusalem church. In an agrarian culture, land was obviously a really big deal, so selling it off was a very generous thing to do – and a very public thing to do.

The other set of Joneses in this story – Ananias and Sapphira – also sold off a piece of land. It was likewise very sacrificial, generous and very public. Both “sets of Joneses” in the Acts story wanted to be successful. But like the song, “success” meant different things. For Barnabas, success focused on the first part of that sentence: sacrificial, generous. He felt blessed to have the field to sell so that he could help those in need. For Ananias and Sapphira, they focused on the “public” part. They didn’t really want to sell the field, but the status and esteem they imagined they get from the fast-growing church when they dropped all that money at the Apostles’ feet were worth the price. (Well, most of it, anyway.)

Does it kind of freak you out that God killed two people who attended church and made a big financial gift to it? It does me. Ananias and Sapphira went wrong in trying to buy honor from their peers instead of caring only what God – who sees everything – thought. It had nothing to do with their holding some of the money back, as Peter pointed out. And it freaks me out that God killed them for their misplaced priorities because more often than I want to admit, I do good stuff with one eye on the crowd.

This bad attitude, of course, is something Jesus explicitly spoke against:

Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
- Matthew 6:2-4

What does success look like in your life? There’s nothing wrong with a big house, a nice car, a pretty family, just like there’s nothing inherently good or spiritual about poverty or struggle. Why do you do what you do? Be honest: would you still be motivated to sacrifice, to love, to give if nobody ever knew it was you who did it?

Success in the Christian life is not about money. Money can only buy temporary stuff, and God isn’t into temporary stuff. As Bono famously sang, “the God I serve isn’t short on cash, mister.” But He is unfortunately short on the genuine praises of His children.

So as you do what you do today, think about your motives. Why do you do what you do? Maturity in Christ means that most of it comes from a desire to use all that He’s given us – good stuff and bad – in a way that makes Him alone proud of us.

I don’t know about you, but when I read Acts and the stories of thousands of lives powerfully changed, of wounds healed, of the world turned upside down, I’m inspired! I want to experience that. Heck, I’d be happy to just talk to someone else who’s experienced that! But here in America, church doesn’t (often) look like Acts – and it feels like the emperor is wearing no clothes, and I don’t want to admit I’m not experiencing it in case it’s just me.

Why is our “worship experience” so different? Is Acts all just propaganda? Or is there something lacking in how we “do church” that wasn’t missing for them?

I think it’s the second one. I think that first church saw the Spirit move in incredible ways that we don’t see, mostly because they were prepared and we’re not. Look at the things that characterized that first church:

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
- Acts 2:42

We see the results in Acts 4:32-33

Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.

They had supernatural unity, their preaching had supernatural power, and their testimony had credibility.

These first believers had grown up saturated in the Old Testament. Every one of them likely had heard enough to connect the dots between what Jesus did and what the prophecies said the Messiah would do. The men who wrote the New Testament – who experienced first-hand the power of God in those first years of the Church – used hundreds of Old Testament quotes in their books. We don’t know our Bibles as well, which is one reason we can’t be used like they were. One guy described it this way in an article called, “Why You and I Couldn’t Write the Book of Revelation“:

The book of revelation has about 400 verses, and scholars say those verses contain around 550 allusions to Old Testament passages.

But here’s the thing, John doesn’t include a single quotation of the Old Testament. He only uses allusions. This means that his writing, his thoughts, his spirituality literally bleeds with an deep, abiding knowledge of the Scriptures.

John didn’t just look up passages that supported his point. And he didn’t memorize a few powerful proof texts to argue and impress. He knew the Scriptures. He lived the Scriptures. The words of God were a part of him that couldn’t help but flow from his pen. The Spirit of God used that embedded knowledge and wisdom to enable John to write a book that contains more allusions than verses.

Does Scripture – the teachings of the Prophets and the Apostles – literally saturate your life? Some of you post a verse or passage on Facebook every day. Maybe that’s a good way to start. But until we – as a church – put daily time to really study and KNOW God’s Word, we can’t expect to experience church like the Apostle’s did.

Second, they devoted themselves to prayer. They prayed all the time. Conversation with God was like breathing – it was just natural. When you’re alone (or just trying to find a “happy place” to escape the screaming kids in the back seat), do you pray? Or are you so busy with life that you get to the end of the day and realize you haven’t once talked to God? If we want to see God move, we must be people who pray unceasingly.

Finally, we need to live out community in such a way that it gives credibility to our message. We have to love others MORE than ourselves (Phil 2:3). Look back at Acts 4:32-33:

Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.

Verse 32 gives credibility to verse 33. It’s not that we’re lacking the power that the Apostles had – we just don’t have their credibility. If all we do is preach the verses on loving our neighbor and never actually do it, our message is robbed of any credibility. Good intentions aren’t enough.

God wants to use us in this community, and I think He wants to do it in ways just as big and earth-shaking as He did with the church in Acts. But we can’t outsource our praying, our Bible-learning, and our service to the legal entity that is Pin Oaks, to the staff. We have to do church differently if we want to experience God moving in uncommon ways. We need to pray constantly, to know His Word deeply, and we need to love each other more sacrificially. We have to do it because God is going to move in our community – and we need to be ready if we want to be a part of that.

I swear to you that the Lord of the Rings theme this week is entirely unintentional. I saw Frank post his yesterday and sent him a message saying that I already had this one ready for today. At least we didn’t pick the same topic -Clay

What is the purpose of walls? Are they built to keep people in, or to keep people out? If you construct a tall enough, think enough wall, can it keep out the hordes of those that you don’t want to have access in to your life?

In the second part of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Two Towers, the men and women of the kingdom of Rohan are on the run. Their western borders have been overtaken by the wildmen sent by the wizard Saruman. Their people were fleeing and the forces of evil would soon be on the doorstep of Edoras, their capital. King Theoden makes the decision that they would all gather at Helm’s Deep, a mountain fortress that had never been breached.

In this case, the walls of Helm’s Deep were erected in order to keep attackers out. Instead of being overrun by Saruman’s forces, the men of Rohan were able to hold out through the night until salvation arrived in the form of Gandalf the White and the remaining members of the Rohirrim, the horse-riders of Rohan.

Walls are useful for keeping evil at bay. We are wise to build up walls around our hearts

Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life - Proverbs 4:23

Do those walls need to exist to hold everyone out though? Too often (and I’m terribly guilty of this) we hold others at arm’s length, not willing to let them into our lives lest they see what we are actually like. We spend just enough time with people to barely get to know them.

The church of Acts did not experience this. They lived, ate, and worshiped together.

44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. - Acts 4:44-47

What will it take for us to break down the walls that hold out people, and then rebuild them as a community? The walls of our hearts need to be strong enough to repel evil, but able to expand to include those in community around us. As Pastor Phil said on Sunday, we need to replace our suspicion with openness, our uncertainty with willingness. When the church becomes a loving, welcoming community that is working together for a common goal (helping others to meet Christ and grow in that relationship), the world will notice. The community will see the unconditional love and the high expectations that we have for each other and want to know more.

Today, let’s all ask ourselves what we can do to make this happen. How can we rebuild the walls around our community so that we all can fight together?

What is “the ring” in your life? What agenda would you sacrifice relationships to accomplish?

It’s a tough question, if we’re honest, because we each have agendas, and they’re often very good things. So let me rephrase the question: what personal ministry goal would you sacrifice relationships in order to advance? What charitable cause would you work for even if it meant burning personal bridges? Maybe it’s getting out of debt and finally getting some financial breathing room, or advancing a career so you can better take care of your family. Maybe it’s a political cause, advancing an agenda that will protect the marginalized. Maybe it’s never being hurt or burned again. We all have agendas (despite the baggage that word often carries). Most of the time, they’re not inherently bad…and they mean a lot to us.

It’s these agendas that are at the heart of most church splits: people who care about something that is important to them – and usually something good – are willing to go to war to protect their agenda, to hold on to their “ring.” Maybe it was something like this that caused an internal fight between two women in Philippi. Paul mentions them in his letter to that church:

I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.
- Phil 4:2-3

Maybe Euodia wanted to sing hymns and Syntyche was more into contemporary stuff. Maybe Syntyche preferred unflavored coffee, while Euodia wanted to put the flavored stuff in the big pot. Maybe Euodia thought missions was the sole reason the church exists, while Syntyche was more into discipleship. Whatever the reason for it, these two women were fighting, and it was affecting the unity of the church in Philippi.

James puts it in even more stark language:

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people!
- James 4:1-4

It’s hard to not get jealous when life seems so easy for others and while we struggle to get what we have. It’s hard to watch someone else advance their agenda when ours seems to be going nowhere. It’s even harder when their agenda’s progress means my agenda gets put on hold. How will you handle this struggle? For Pin Oaks specifically and for Christianity in general, a lot is riding on our answer. Will we set aside ‘mine’ in order to have unity among God’s people, Christ’s body?

The church that was born at Pentecost had a clear answer. They were unified, specifically because they each were willing to set aside their personal agendas for the benefit of the whole. The first church was characterized by love and humility.  They accomplished great things by sacrifice, not by ambition. They willingly surrendered their “rings” so that others could advance…at their expense.

Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.
- Acts 4:32-35

So back to the question earlier: what is your “ring?”

We all have agendas, and they mean a lot. My agenda is a good one, and it means a lot to me. You’re passionate about something else and maybe even put here by God “for such a time as this.” But our body – our local church – may never get the benefit of that if I try to defend my agenda at your expense. What if I win…only to rob the church of the work God is doing through you?

Pray for me, will you? Let’s pray that as a church, we’ll be able to put aside “mine” so that we might look a little more like that first church. Imagine the impact that would have on our community.

One of my favorite forms of Southern art is BBQ. And it’s definitely an art form. While I lack the culinary skills of Bob-Dawg, I don’t need to be a painter to appreciate a Monet. I remember in college, the day before a home football game. The old alums would back their massive RVs into their spots and unpack their smokers. Several locals in pickup trucks had trailer-sized smokers they’d bring in with them, too. They’d break out large coolers of meat covered in a super-secret mix of spices they referred to as “rub.” As with all true art, every detail was intentional. Everything from the choice of wood to the ratio of individual spices in the rub to how long and how hot to cook it. And sometime in the very wee hours of the morning, when most college students were heading to bed, these guys would be up stoking the fires in their smokers.

Armed with gallons of coffee and a bottle of water to spray down the occasional flare-up, these artists filled the air around the stadium with the some of the most incredible smells in the world. And while all that preparation seemed to take forever, it was always worth the wait.

(Hungry yet?)

While you evaluate your options for dinner tonight, think back over what you know of biblical history. Every major work of God in the Bible seems to come out of two things: 1) dark times for God’s people, and 2) sustained, emotional cries to God for action. Moses was sent to Pharaoh after centuries of God’s people crying out to God. The Judges were appointed to deliver Israel from foreign oppressors. Jesus came “in the fullness of time” as the Messiah, the Deliverer. And the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost after sustained prayer by Christ’s fearful band of followers following Jesus’ very public execution, resurrection and dramatic exit from the Mount of Olives. They must have felt very alone.

So they prayed.
And the Spirit moved…
And three thousand men were added to their number in a single day.

But the Spirit wasn’t done. In America, we’re kind of immune to news of a church split because it happens so often. Fights break out over music style, small group curriculum, and obscure line items in church budgets. Or churches compete for members, “negative recruiting” the members of their town. Unity among believers seems like a myth. But it wasn’t for that first church. The Spirit knitted their souls together. Acts 2:42-47 tells how they shared their property, their time. They valued each other more than they valued their own individual priorities. They no doubt shrugged off insults and slights (real or perceived) from other believers and responded instead with genuine love (not fake smiles). This was a one-of-a-kind group, characterized by supernatural unity – and it didn’t go unnoticed.

“And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:47)

The world is still feeling the effects of that spiritual explosion in Jerusalem 2000 years ago. The drama of Acts is miraculous, an awesome display of the Spirit’s power to change the lives of whole groups of people. But it’s easy forget that something else came before. It wasn’t an isolated event, a “Big Bang.” There was time, preparation. The fire of the Spirit that exploded at Pentecost began as a slow burn that was stoked by the desperate prayers of the saints. Like good BBQ, the time spent in the silent, slow burn of the Spirit made it so that the church born at Pentecost was totally characterized by the Spirit’s consuming fire. And the world couldn’t help but notice.

Times are tough for so many these days. The nightly news seems to show a world that’s getting darker. Closer to home, the suicide rate is climbing as more and more people of all ages give up hope. Our community is in desperately in need of God’s presence. We need Him to act in a big way… and soon. But too often, our response is dictated by our short attention spans. Just like raw meat doesn’t transform into delicious BBQ in an instant, God prepares His people to participate in something big by a slow – often painful – burn.

Our community needs us to endure that burn. Our friends and family need us to pray for them. Our church – if we are to be the light of God in a hopeless world – requires us to pray. And not the formal, dignified prayers at dinner, but the emotional, desperate prayers that the Bible – in its understated way – calls “crying out to God.”

If we want God to move in our church and in our community in a Pentecost kind of way, we need to be transformed by the same kind of slow burn that happened in that upper room in the days leading up to Pentecost. Let’s you and I commit – really commit – to spending some time on our knees (or faces) and beg God to act. I can’t help but think that’s just the kind of prayer he’s itching to answer.

Noteably, one crew member was left behind. Ken Mattingly had been exposed to German measles from one of his kids and just three days before launch, he was replaced by his backup. His dream of visiting the moon shattered, he was essentially sent back to the bench to watch others achieve his dream. He never got the measles.

The mission didn’t go according to plan. Two days into the mission, an oxygen tank exploded, causing all sorts of problems. The three man team was forced to live in the Lunar Module, which hadn’t been designed for that many people for that many days. In particular, the carbon-dioxide scrubbers were inadequate for the task of cleaning out that much carbon dioxide so that the three men could breathe. Making the task trickier was the fact that the astronauts on board Apollo 13 didn’t exactly have a full workshop to rebuild the scrubbers. They’d have to find a way with what they had on hand.

In jumped Mattingly. Having already spend thousands of hours in the training version of the module, he moved back in to help – from the inside – figure out a way to help his friends. He was instrumental in reworking the scrubbers, which begged the question: what if he hadn’t been left behind?

Imagine what it looked like for the Apostles. They’d spent three years following a guy they believed to be the Messiah – the hope of Israel, the Deliverer. But he’d been arrested, beaten, crucified and buried. Things had not gone according to plan, and the ragtag band of Christ’s followers looked for all the world like the greatest fools of all time. It seems quite clear that the guy they’d been following had failed.

Of course, in hindsight, we know that the plan did not fail. Christ’s trust that His Father would raise Him from the dead was proved true. And the Apostles’ faith in Christ’s message was vindicated.

At Pentecost, Peter pulled no punches in pointing this out:

Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. (Acts 2:36)

Have you ever had a time like that – when it looked for all the world like the plan had become an utter disaster? Maybe you’d done what you believed to be right – only to see someone trash your reputation and appear to all the world like they’d beat you. Or maybe you’ve faithfully followed Christ as best you know how, believing that He’d take care of you… only to see your world fall apart.

Has the plan failed? Has God left you to wait? You’re in good company. David was left there for fairly large chunks of his life. He spent decades hiding in caves with outlaws while Saul lived comfortably in his palace. He had to hide again, when his own son ran him out of Jerusalem. In both instances, it looked to all the world like he’d failed, like someone else had won. And then, of course, there’s Jesus.

“So this great biblical story of God’s purposes to set the whole world right going ahead actually includes the strange, dark theme which says the Servant who is to carry out God’s mission will look as though he’s failed. All he can do is trust God, to commit his cause to God, to wait in utter faith.”
-NT Wright, Christians at the Cross

If this is where you are, then wait in faith as God’s servant. Wait in full confidence. Be encouraged by the story of Pentecost, of the victory of the book of Acts. The dark days following Palm Sunday were overcome by a light that is now filling the whole world. God’s plan has not failed, and He has vindicated His Servant. He will also take care of you. The plan may not always look like a success. Mattingly never made it to the moon, and the Apostles never ruled on earth. But follow David, listen to his psalms, and learn “to wait in utter faith.” The God who saved 3,000 men in a single day knows your circumstances, and He hasn’t forgotten you.

Like many people (and I’m sure some of you reading this right now) I would find a reading plan and start it, trying to make sure that I covered the whole Bible. Many times I’d find myself bogged down in Leviticus, slogging through what seemed to be an endless list of laws about sacrifices and animals and hair care and so many other things.

Then I stopped.

I stopped looking at the Bible as what I was going to glean out of it. I quit seeing it as a requirement and started looking at it as a privilege. Right now, I could reach out an arm and put a hand on at least seven Bibles on my bookshelf. This doesn’t count the multitude of Bibles that can be found in either my Logos software, through YouVersion on my phone or iPad, or on the web at multiple different places. Through technology and my own bibliophile habits, I have the ability to read the Bible in any language, any version, from anywhere.

So why don’t many of us do it?

We view it as a responsibility. We view the Bible as part of our religion¹ and nothing more. Should we view it as more though? Christ himself tells us to pray, “give us this day our daily bread.” He’s not talking about physical bread, but about the daily sustenance we require from the Word. Just because it’s a habit, yes, something that we do religiously, doesn’t mean that it should be dry.

Here is what I would recommend.

First, find a version of the Bible that you are comfortable reading. Yes, the King James is old and hard to read. So find another. I study out of the New King James, but typically will teach from the New American Standard or the English Standard. I don’t use the New International much just because I am more comfortable with the other translations.

Second, find a good reading plan. YouVersion has a multitude of different ones. Currently I’m going through the chronological reading plan. It does give a different feel as I started on January 1st in Genesis, read through about 15 chapters or so, and then skipped to Job. I’ll finish Job this next week and then it’s back to Genesis. After that looms the trek through the rest of the Pentateuch, but I’m ready for it this time.

Which brings me to my third point: do something different. This year I’ve started keeping a journal with me when doing my daily reading. I write (scribble to be honest) notes, questions, observations, whatever comes to mind while I’m reading. I’ll admit it is a little bit exciting to see that book fill up. I’m already on the fourth page and I think that it will be an invaluable resource in the future for me. If I run into something where I want to know about a particular section of the Bible, I can pull out that notebook and read what I was thinking the last time I read through it. It might become my own personal commentary set. You might not do this, but find something else that excites you about reading the Bible.

Fourth, make it a priority. I found myself over the last year going to my phone as soon as I woke up. I would check emails, scan over Facebook and Twitter, browse my RSS reader and then maybe get to my Bible. If I had time. It was too easy to not find time to read the Word. To combat that, this year I have changed that habit to where I won’t read anything else until I have done my Bible reading. Honestly, it’s not been difficult at all. It has been refreshing to have that be the first words spoken into my mind and heart every morning rather than someone complaining about how the Cowboys coaches are morons.

Finally, find a way to share that with someone. Let someone else know what you’re doing and allow them to hold you accountable for it. Now my tens of readers (probably not even that high) know what I’m doing, and I give each one of you permission to ask me about it. Ask to see my journal if you want. Ask me if I’ve been keeping up with it. Thirteen straight days of reading is simply a good start. I’ll be more excited when it is 364 days and I’ve only one more day to read until I start the next plan.

To sum it up, just like I’ve said already this year: just start. Resolve to show up. Grab your Bible and get into God’s word. If you need help with a reading plan, shoot us an email and I’ll help you out. We’d love to hear about how you read the Bible.

Nimrod was a self-made man. He didn’t even bother paying lip service to the God who had delivered his great-grandfather from the Flood. He felt his rise to power was a direct result of his own efforts, his own choices. Nimrod was an authoritarian ruler who amassed great power and ruled pretty good chunk of the post-flood inhabited world. As far as kings go, he was pretty successful.

But you know how the story goes. No matter how much fame, fortune and power Nimrod amassed, he knew he was still mortal. One day he would die, like all men, and be forgotten. Human memories aren’t eternal.  So Nimrod decided to embark on a building project like no other. He brought the best builders and used a the newest technology of bricks instead of stone. And so he began work on a massive ziggurat that would stand for all time. The building project quickly took on a nationalistic tone, and as word travelled, people from all over came to watch the progress. Soon it felt like all of humanity was united in the project, elevating the monstrous brick structure from a nationalist to a religious symbol. It was no longer just about Nimrod’s search for something larger than himself – it was now a symbol of mankind’s self-sufficiency. They no longer needed God – if they all acted together in this, what couldn’t they accomplish?

You know the rest of the tragic story. The blind vanity of the Tower of Babel resulted in thousands of years division, war and atrocities so numerous we’ve become numb to them, to say nothing of the individual isolation and brokenness.

But then came Pentecost. At Pentecost, God took people separated by language and culture, limited by the curse of Babel, and formed a new kind of unity: the Church. And where language and culture used to divide, in Christ those differences become beautiful new ways to express and reveal God’s plan.

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
- Rev 7:9-10

God took the tragic story of Babel and redeemed it at Pentecost. He’s also done the same for you and me. Whether from a empty life that only looks successful on the outside, or a painful life with plenty of scars on the outside, the wonder of Christ’s redemption is that He is using the very things that would have destroyed us without Him to give us a unique means of telling His story.

As you think of the miracle of Pentecost in Acts 2, ask yourself a few questions:

1. How have you seen language and culture be a destructive, isolating force?
2. In heaven, the scene from Pentecost will play out for all eternity: people from every language and culture all praising God in their own unique way. How have you seen God worshiped in another culture that has struck you and contributed to your own understanding of God?
3. Think about the wounds you’ve endured. How is Christ using those painful experiences to allow you to tell others the story of Christ’s love?

Now, put yourselves in the disciples sandals. Jesus told you to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19) and you are ready to run out and do what the Savior has asked. You’ve just seen him raised from the dead, a man you saw crucified with your own eyes. You know he was dead, laid in a tomb, but yet he is here, standing in front of you. Your desire is to tell as many people as you can about the Messiah that you’ve seen and know. You and your fellow disciples have all gathered together to start spreading the Gospel when Christ says to wait here and don’t leave. Wait? But you said to go, and I’m ready to go! I don’t want to wait. Aren’t you going to restore the kingdom? Why not now? (Acts 1:4-6)

Don’t we all feel that way sometimes? We feel ready to unchain ourselves from what has been holding us back and then we are required to wait. We want to accomplish things NOW, not wait for something that we don’t know when or how it might be coming. This happens in our personal lives, our professional lives, even among the church. We don’t want to wait for something, we want it now. Patience is truly a virtue that many of us have not mastered. My wife says that I am patient most of the time, though my children and my parents would disagree with that. I see myself as fairly patient, but I have a proximity bias. I know that there are times when I’m more than willing to wait on something, and other times when I want to start on it immediately. I don’t believe that I’m unique in this feeling either.

What the disciples didn’t know was that they were about to receive a helper, a comforter to assist them in spreading the Gospel to the ends of the earth. They were ready for the kingdom to be restored immediately but Jesus told them,

“It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:7-8)

It is not for you to know the times or seasons. That’s powerful language. It takes the onus of knowledge off of us and places it on the Father. It requires us to wait until we have received the Holy Spirit, and then it’s time to do the work we have been commanded to do. The results and outcome are left up to God, we simply work in the field to help bring in the harvest. The power to accomplish this task is not even our own, but comes through the Holy Spirit.

So, are we ready to wait and see where the Spirit directs us? Or are we going to jump the gun and run off in our own race, without the power promised us by Christ?

But then a case requires her to go undercover… as a Miss USA pageant contestant… in less than a week. Teams of people are assemble to remake Gracie Hart. She’s quickly taught how to smile, how to walk. They tweeze, wax, primp. And besides all that, she’s got the other contestants to worry about and a murderer to discover and nab. It’s way outside her comfort zone, and more than once she’s ready to quit. But she can’t, because she loves her job. In one exchange with her friend and now boss, she describes that commitment in a telling phrase: I am the job. And even though her transformation from a person whose wardrobe consisted largely of sweatshirts into a polished pageant finalist was more than she thought herself capable of, her commitment to her job keeps her from quitting.

I think Gracie Hart’s difficult transformation is a pretty good example of God’s plan for you and me. He has saved us and called us to be a part of His plan. And – for the most part – we’re on board with that. But what He wants requires all of us. It requires us being remade into the people He originally made us to be. And that’s not comfortable.

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age… (Titus 2:11-12)

This is what was also asked of the first Disciples. From the time Jesus was arrested until the Holy Spirit came, they pretty much hid. They were afraid they were next on the hit list. So they played it safe – much like we do. But Jesus had given them a job to do.

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.” (Acts 1:8)

It’s a big job, but – like Gracie Hart – our uncomfortable transformation is not done by our own efforts. Gracie had a team of people who had done some “extreme makeovers” before, and – as Jesus said – we have the Holy Spirit, “with power” (I think that’s actually the only way He comes!). Don’t miss that part: we’re not asked to transform ourselves, because we don’t have the power to do that. Like Gracie, we simply need to “be the job,” to follow Christ in whatever He asks of us, no matter how uncomfortable (and it doesn’t take long in His family to discover just how uncomfortable it can be, right?).

Some maybe obvious questions to ask ourselves then:

1. Jesus gave his followers a job in Acts 1:8. Are you “the job”?
2. What comfortable things, attitudes, habits, etc. are you holding onto, and how might they be keeping you from truly being “the job”?
3. How can we – as a church, as friends, as spouses, or as children or parents – encourage each other through the uncomfortable-ness of become more Christlike?