Skip to content You Are A Tool | Pastor Todd Doxzon | Acts 14 Oct 25 · 32 min ...more
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You Are A Tool in God's Hand 0:00 Amen. Well, have you ever been so blown away by someone's gift that you begin to idolize them? Blown away by their gifts. I'll give you0:12 an example. When I was growing up, I idolized two different guys, and they both happen to... Have the first name Michael. And, Michael Jordan was my idol. In fact, if you go back to0:24 my little room in the basement, it was littered with posters of Michael Jordan everywhere. Basketball cards hanging from the ceiling. It was idol worship in the basement.0:36 How many Michael Jordan fans? Anybody? Anybody? K. How about Michael Jackson fans? Any Michael... I got the silver shoes for Michael. Love, Michael.0:49 We worship. I mean, we we... Now God gave the gift, so we we honor that. I mean, it's great. We celebrate that. The problem is we start worshiping the person1:01 who's been given the gift, not the one who gave the gift. And we do it all the time, and I... I'm chief of sinners. And in fact, we even do it in ministry. There's one of the greatest1:13 evangelists of our time, a guy named Billy Graham. Anybody anybody know Billy Graham? Billy Graham was used of God in a powerful way. So, again, we honor his participation with God and to be used as a tool in his1:25 hand. The problem is sometimes people would then put him on a platform and worship him and not the one who gave him the gift and the call. I'll never forget, we were at a a Billy Graham crusade way back1:37 in Bible college. We drove, like, fourteen hours to get to it, and the man stood on the stage and he shared, I promise you, it's fifteen to twenty minutes. And he gave the very simple, clear gospel message. God loves1:48 you. He's got a plan for your life. The problem, you've all sinned and so have I. I've fallen short of God's standard of perfection. But God loved you so much that he sent his only son,2:01 Jesus Christ, who lived the perfect life for thirty three years. And then he was brutally crucified on that cross for your sin and mine. They buried him. But three days later, he rose2:12 from the grave proving who he is, the one true God, and now he sends his spirit out into all of humanity. And he says, just come to me, repent of your sin, and you will have life and life to the2:24 full both now and for eternity. He shared that message, and I promise... I'm like, that was alright. No really cute stories, no really cute connections, you know, just straight gospel.2:36 And and I'm telling you, in the... In that whole stadium, floods of people were coming forward to give their life to Christ. Now the temptation would be to2:48 start worshiping Billy Graham, but a true believer understands it was him just operating and being a vessel, a conduit, a tool in his hand.3:00 Now this is what happened, unfortunately, in the book of Acts in chapter fourteen. God was using someone in a miraculous way, Paul and Barnabas, as they were connecting with this group3:12 in Lystra. They were preaching the word and this young man actually that as Paul was preaching, he looked at him and this man was crippled from birth. And he looked at the man and he knew3:24 that he had a gift to be healed. I don't know why I'm looking at you, I've seen healing in your life and I love it and I want to continue to see that. And he looks at the man and he knew that the man had the faith to3:34 believe that from birth this guy was crippled, but today he was going to be healed. And so Paul preaches and he looks at him, he's like, he looked at the man, he said stand up.3:46 And this man who was crippled from birth miraculously stood to his feet for the very first time. Which, yeah, we can celebrate that. I mean, how many of you, you've been crippled your whole3:58 life and by some reason God touched you and you are healed from your disease, from your depression, from any type of dis... Something God's done, something powerful. So the problem,4:09 everybody say the problem. The problem, they're preaching in Lystra and they worship Greek gods, not Yahweh, the one true God. So what did they do? The people4:21 were so mesmerized by the gift, they began to worship Paul and Barnabas. In fact, they said Paul is Hermes, the Greek God, the chief speaker, and Barnabas was4:33 Zeus, the chief god of the of of the Greeks. And Paul, as he's... As as they were trying to worship him, he had a choice, didn't4:45 he? Does he receive or does he point people the right way? Unfortunately, the group says this and Paul is so smart, he4:57 said, woah, woah, woah, woah. Hey, guys. Give me a thirty second time out. I'm a human just like you are. And he and he takes their worshiping of him and he points people to5:08 Jesus. I was thinking about this, how I could illustrate this, and I thought of a time when I was playing football in Europe and I was returning a kick. And as I was returning the kick, for5:20 some reason, on that particular play, no one decided to block. I get hit by, like, five ugly guys at the same time. My foot stuck in the ground and blew apart, and and I had this crazy injury.5:32 Now by God's grace, there was this surgeon named doctor Lemak. And doctor Lemak was in Birmingham, Alabama. I flew to Alabama, and he performed a surgery on my foot. And ninety percent5:44 of football players, their career is over, but by God's grace, the gift that he gave doctor Lee Mack, he healed my foot and after a year I got back into my career and kept on going. Now I thought of5:56 this and I was like, you know, what if what if I was like those guys in Acts chapter fourteen? What would that look like? You know what it would look like? It'd be me in my hospital room and doctor Liemach came to6:07 visit me after to tell me that the surgery was successful. And I looked at him and then there was like a scalpel right next to him. And instead of thanking6:19 him, I looked at the scalpel and I looked at the scalpel and I'm like, scalpel, great surgery. I'm so grateful that you healed my foot. Wouldn't that be ridiculous? So here I6:31 got a little phrase, we need to worship the surgeon not the scalpel. We need to praise the surgeon not the scalpel. It's, listen, you are a tool. Just look to your neighbor real quick and just say, you're a tool. Now now6:43 look to your second, don't tell them like you want to tell them they're a tool. No, you're a tool. Like listen, if you're open to what God wants to do through your life, you're a6:55 tool in God's hand. You're a vessel. You're a scalpel and God wants to use you in a powerful way if we'll let him work in our life. Now7:07 let's get into this story so we can... I I wanna give you some handles and some ways because here's the thing. Some of you right now, you need to be like the crippled man and stand up today.The Miracle of Healing and Misplaced Worship 7:18 Some of us are like the crowd, and we need to turn from worshiping worthless things and begin worshiping God. And we'll get to that in the end, but let's go through this. It's, Acts chapter fourteen.7:30 Let's start in verse eight. Let's start in verse eight. Now while they were at Lystra, Paul and Barnabas came upon a man with crippled feet. Let this sit... This next sentence settle7:42 in. He had been that way from birth, so he had never walked. Think of the think of the depression, the pressure, like the7:54 overwhelmed feeling that he's had his whole entire life. He was sitting and listening as Paul preached. And then looking straight8:06 at him, Paul realized that he had faith to be healed. Did you know that there's a gift of faith, by the way? In first Corinthians, I think fourteen, the Bible says there's actually a gift of faith.8:18 So as Paul's preaching, this guy sees it, and and something starts rising up in him. The Bible says in Romans, I think it's ten seventeen, that faith comes by hearing8:30 and hearing by the word of God. So as he's preaching, Paul realizes this guy has a gift to be healed. And then verse ten,8:42 so Paul called to him in a loud voice, stand up. Everybody say stand up. Stand up. No, say it like you mean it, stand up. Stand up. Stand up. And the man jumped to his feet and started8:54 walking. It reminds me of Acts chapter three. Remember Peter and John? It was the hour of prayer and they were walking to the temple and there was a there was a crippled man just like this guy begging for alms right9:05 outside the church. And Peter looks at him and he said, hey, silver and gold I don't have, but what I do have in the name of Jesus Christ rise up and walk.9:18 And at that moment, he grabbed him, got to his feet and in the original language, the bible actually talks about how this guy's ankle is out of place. As he was raised up, it went...9:30 It like went into place. How about that? The power of God released. It's the same exact thing. It's not Peter. It's not Paul. It's9:42 God's power being released through them as the man has the gift of faith that it's going to happen. I started thinking, at church today, how many people came in9:54 crippled? And you might not be crippled physically, but I'm telling you, if you're like me, you're crippled mentally at times. I don't know how many times I've10:05 heard this is God's rubbing my nose... Or excuse me. The enemy's rubbing my nose into my sin with shame. Am I really a Christian? There's people here right now, you are10:17 crippled spiritually and mentally because you made a mistake. Can I just give you a good news? The Bible says if you repent, God forgives as far as the east is from the west. He chooses to10:29 remember your sin no more. When he looks at you through the lens of a perfect life of Christ, he sees you as if you'd never sinned. That means justified. Just as if10:41 I'd never sinned. Where are you crippled? Where am I crippled? You're crippled relationally. I... That's why I love the Kuva family. I10:53 love... Thank you guys. One more time for the family, just being able to share that. Like, we could have walked away and just been gone. But I I I just wanna thank you guys for sharing your story because I think about11:03 how many of us in our family, we have different family, you know, relationships. And I just love how you share. You guys are different. And it creates some type of conflict at times.11:15 But the beauty of God's word, man, and understanding each other and working through it is powerful. There... There's crippling in our families that is is now healed because of the11:27 power of god's word, and it's happening in our lives, and I love it. So in verse eleven, when the crowd saw that11:39 Paul had what he'd done, they shouted in their local dialect, these men are gods in human form. Sounds like NBA... When I go to NBA game, that's what I say. Like, these guys are so big and athletic.11:50 I'm like, sorry. That's just me. Verse twelve, they decided Barnabas was the Greek god Zeus and Paul was Hermes. That's what my wife calls me by the way. She calls me Hermes, the chief12:02 speaker, a Greek god. Thanks, babe. I appreciate that. Since he was the chief speaker. It's true story. Thirteen. Is that right, Judah? Verse thirteen. Now the temple of Zeus was located just outside the town. So the12:13 priests of the temple and the crowd brought bulls and wreaths of flowers to the town gates and they prepared, check this out, to offer sacrifices to the apostles. Pause there.12:25 What? They're so overwhelmed and mesmerized by the gift of healing, they misplaced the worship and now they start trying to worship them. That would be12:37 like... I mean... And by the way, if pastor Mike, our lead new lead pastor, if you're watching right now, I love you, but, man, you have a phenomenal gift of leadership. But if I went over to some people at Love Church,12:47 you know, just to visit them and and I go into their bedroom and there's, like, pastor Mike posters, like, all over, like, I'd be like, woah, bro. Like, hold up now. Like... And I was saying with Cap. Cap's one of my12:57 favorite communicators to get the prophecy and, like, belief and it's like, let's go. But if I came over to your house and like cats like, you know, like all swole up or something, like a bobblehead. I like that. The13:09 cat bobblehead over there and you're like bowing down to the cat bobblehead. It's like, woah, woah, woah. Pump the brakes. And and this is what... I I wanna give you this phrase real quick. It's misplaced, misaligned13:21 worship. It's what it is. And we've all been there before. We're we're worshiping the person, but we really need to be worshiping the god who gave the person the gift.13:35 There's a phrase that, William McDonald... I I love listening to his common... Commentary. He said this. Check this out. For a successful Christian worker, that that would be you and I who say yes to being used13:47 of God with any type of gift that he's been given. I I was thinking about... By the way, let me just pause real quick. I wanted to honor all of our servants and love kids right now who are using their gift right now. Can13:58 we honor them right now? We honor God and we thank God for what he's doing through them. I was thinking, my man right in the back right there. Remind me your name.Refocusing Worship on the Living God 14:11 Owen. Owen. Owen and Kevin. The beauty is they are working hard right now using their gift like of smile and technology14:23 to put up these slides on the screen to help you right now. I would be back there fumbling everything. They're using their gifts to honor God. Can we give it up for God, what he's doing? So so what we're doing,14:35 the successful Christian worker... Here's here's here's the thing. The peril is more than persecution. It's the tendency for people to center their spiritual attention not on Christ,14:47 but on his servant. And a lot of Christian servants who are used of God, unfortunately, have insecurity from their past, and they're wanting to be14:59 known or needed. And so instead of deflecting it to Jesus, they're taking it themselves. We gotta repent of that Christian worker. We gotta be like, no, man. And and I was I was saying, I love the worship team. In15:10 heaven, I'm gonna... Dude, I'm gonna be laying down lead lines and I'm gonna be... My voice is gonna be suddenly changed when I get to heaven. And I was I was thinking about the worship team. If if one of you come to one15:21 of the worship leaders and go, dude, that was amazing. Thank you so much. The response... I'm just going to train you right now. The response is very similar. It it... This is kind of how it sounds. Thank you so much for15:33 the encouragement. All glory to God. Do you see how balanced that is? You're not saying like, no. It's only God. It's only God. Well, not really because you participated. If Josh and15:45 Christie who oversee our pastoral care, some family... Their family's completely changed because they were willing to sacrifice some of their time to meet and pray with them. And15:57 a year later, they go, dude, I just wanted... They give them a gift. Thank you so much for serving God. Their proper response is, thank you for the encouragement, all glory to God. That's how16:09 we we we kinda start figuring this out where we're not going overboard and being freaked out about this, if that makes sense. So the refocus. Look at verse fourteen. So16:21 when Paul... Excuse me. When the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard what was happening, they flexed some more and, like,16:33 posted on social media how awesome they are. And by the way, check out the miracle I just did. No. What did they do? They tore their clothing in dismay and ran out among the16:45 people. So they're they're like, dude, what are you doing? And and I like verse fifteen, they said friends. They didn't say idiots, right? By the way, when you're helping16:56 people understand stuff, it's not idiot, it's friends, friends. Let's build bridges, not burn bridges. Alright? Friends, why are you doing this? We're merely human17:08 beings just like you. And by the way, I love that. If you look around, there's no aliens in this room. We're all humans. Some of us are gifted in some ways. Some of us are gifted17:20 in other ways. Some of us are being used of God in some ways and some in others. But we're all humans. We all make mistakes. We all wake up with bad breath in the morning.17:34 We have come to bring you the good news that you should turn... Underline this, you should turn from these worthless things. These Greek gods that you believe in, Turn from these worthless things and17:46 turn to the living god who made heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them. I like it's the refocus.17:59 It's it's, hey, guys. You... You're you're worshiping the wrong thing. There's a there's a... Just jot it down. I didn't give these guys the slide. Psalm one fifteen eight, I believe. The bible says that18:12 we become like the thing that we're worship... That that we worship. So the beauty is as we're in the word every day as we're worshiping Jesus, day by day we're being formed into18:23 his image. And we begin looking more like Christ, more loving, more patient, more kind, and the fruit of our life as we worship him begins to change. Side note, by the way. I don't know if you read18:35 the rest of acts fourteen. Be careful if you have the temptation to receive human praise and not give glory to God. Later in that chapter, after they18:47 had just started sacrificing and worshiping Paul and Barnabas, this mob came in later and instead of worshiping, they began stoning them.19:00 So how flip floppy is the praise of man? One minute, anybody been in athletics, you have a couple good games in a row and then you have a bad game, They worship you and then they throw all kinds of salt. So be19:12 careful to receive this. So it is with human praise. So two ways we miss it. Number one, we kept the glory. Be very careful. And the19:24 question would be, how do you... How are you receiving this right now? Are we turning it back to God? Number two, we praise we praise the tool. We praise the tool. It's funny.19:37 My junior year of college, I I was at Iowa State playing football. In the in the very first day of practice, it was ninety five degrees, ninety percent humidity. And at the end of practice, I19:49 was running, gassers at the end of practice and had a full body cramp. Anybody ever have, like, a... Just a calf cramp? How'd that... So my calf started cramping and then little by little started going up20:01 my body, like my hamstring, my quad, my abs, my chest, my face. I was like I was like on the ground. And I had already had a bad attitude because we had...20:13 This is good humility. I was the quarterback of a team that went o, ten, and one the year before. So can you imagine how I felt and my attitude was?20:26 So after I had a full body cramp, I came the next day. I went into the head coach's office. I said, I'm done. I'm quitting. I have terrible attitude. If I'm the quarterback and I'm supposed to lead these people, I have20:37 such a poor attitude. There's no way I should be your quarterback. So I left. I had a lunch with my position coach, Jay Norvell, and then I went home to pack. I called my mom and20:49 said, mom, I'm quitting. Can you come pick me up? She drove from Omaha to Ames, Iowa. She got there. I'm pick... I'm putting all my stuff, packing stuff up to leave and quit football. And right when I was about to leave,21:01 Jay Norvell comes in from after the second practice. I'll never forget it. He comes in the door and he said, Todd, I've been thinking about this all practice long, and I have a question for you. Would you rather let this21:11 team down with your poor attitude or by walking out on them? And I'm telling you is the one phrase that kept me at Iowa State. If I don't stay21:23 in football, I don't go to Miami where I... And then I won't meet Denise. I won't be a part of Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale. I won't be standing on this stage right now. And so it was such a powerful thing,21:35 and I had this revelation years later. We were in Bible college, and Jay Norvell was coaching receivers at the the Raiders. And he... I call him, and I said, coach, I just wanna21:47 tell you what's happened in my life, and I wanted to thank you for being a tool in God's hand. You'll never believe what's happened in my life. And he said, first of all, Todd, no one's ever called me a tool and21:59 gotten away with it. And then he said, secondly, praise God for what he's doing through your life, and praise God for the word that22:11 God gave to Jay Norvell. And how many of you know, sometimes it might be a word that God gives to you to give to someone else to get them back on track for their life. It's a it's it's a22:22 refocus. You and I are tools. We are tools in God's hand. One more quick story, and then I'm gonna give you a phrase that will help shape this.22:34 There was a man, in the bible. His name was king Nebuchadnezzar. He was the Babylonian king. And people began to worship him, and his head got big. And it was God actually that used him22:47 and the Babylonians to come and put Israel in a time out. It wasn't anything that he was doing. So it was God that was using him in a powerful way. And at that time he was overseeing the entire world. And one day heTrue Ministry Gives Glory to God 22:58 was on, he was in his palace in the top roof and he was kind of floating around thinking really good, he was taking all this praise for himself, and he's like, man, check out this kingdom that I have built. I am awesome.23:11 And as he was speaking it, he's like, check out how awesome my kingdom is. And he turned into an23:23 animal basically and started eating grass. For seven years, the guy was out of his mind until he humbled himself and then began giving God the23:35 glory. That's when he came back to himself. So what's the moral of that story? Be careful who we're praising. Be careful who we're praising. So you're like, okay, Todd. Give me some handles. Give me a23:47 framework on how we look at this, and I'm gonna give you the definition I learned years ago, a a very simple definition of true Christian ministry. Are you ready for it? From Warren Wiersbe,23:59 I love it. Here... Here's here's what it is. K? It's four things. He said true ministry is when divine resources meet human needs through24:11 loving channels to the glory of God. Don't you love it? It's divine resources. So if we go back to this story, it was nothing Paul and Barnabas had. It24:22 was it was God's power, miraculous healing power that that healed the crippled man. It was God's power. It was not his. And it was meeting human24:34 needs. The crippled man obviously had a he had a major need to be healed. And it was through loving channels. I love this. Paul and Barnabas weren't there trying to flex. They were so changed24:46 by Jesus that they couldn't not go to different cities and tell of the good news. Why? Because they had love in their heart. They wanted people to see. Today, by the way, we're24:58 praying for over two thousand people to be on this campus. Why? So we can say sweet, love church is awesome and we have a lot of people. You know why? Because we've been so changed by the love of God.25:10 And we can't not tell as many people as we can. And some of you, thank you, you're making these trunks with Bible stories and we're taking what's happening in the25:22 culture where it can be evil and we're extracting the the precious from the worthless. That's what the Bible says. And we're telling stories so people are going to come on this campus. Why? So because25:34 we're loving channels and true ministry is going to happen. And then finally, why? For the glory of God. The glory of God. For years I've been saying the same thing. This is25:46 not Todd's church. This is God's church. And I love it. And and now Mike and Jerica are doing such a phenomenal job taking this baton and leading us to the25:58 next season of helping more people. Why? So God can get the glory. It's a beautiful thing. So application, response.26:10 There's two ways that we're going to respond, and I'm going to pray here in a second, but I just want to give you a little thoughts to consider. Number one, where are you feeling crippled in this season26:22 of your life? No shame, no blame. It's the power of small groups. This week, we talked about some areas that us as men are struggling, that we feel crippled, and we got to pray for one another26:34 and encourage each other in the word of God. That's why we challenge you to get in a group, man. Tap your neighbor and say, get in a group. Don't don't stay isolated, man. So so where are you feeling crippled today? I'm26:46 gonna ask you in a moment to stand up. Not right now. I'm gonna ask you to stand up, and I wanna pray for you. And number two, there's gonna be some people in here you've never said yes to Christ for the first26:58 time. Maybe you know of God, you believe in God, but you've never truly surrendered. I'm gonna challenge you to turn. That's what the Bible said right here. Turn from these worthless idols and turn to the living27:09 God. Do you know, by the way, Jesus himself, we're just teaching you what Jesus' first public ministry, if you go look at him, he fasted for forty days, his first words in his public ministry was27:21 repent. You know what the word for repent is? It's turn. Hey, man. You're not a bad person. You've just been going the wrong way. Turn back and go God's way, and that's gonna be the challenge. Amen?27:33 Let's pray. Father, thank you for the time we've had considering your word. So challenging, so encouraging, and we pray every one of us would have an accurate picture27:46 of true ministry. God, your resources, divine resources, power, healing, your word, your grace, your forgiveness, your spirit,27:58 divine resources. We wanna be those those loving channels meeting human needs, and we wanna be super quick to point people to you and you alone. In us, we just... There's no way.28:10 No way to peoples... To see people saved and delivered and healed, but with you, all things possible. Give us that accurate view, and we pray that today would be the day28:22 of salvation. There'd be some that would take their free choice and turn back to you today. Again, all for your glory, in Jesus' name.28:34 Before I say amen, I just wanna start with that first group of people. You're here today, and you say, Man, I just need a special touch from God. I just want you to stand right now. Take... If you're a humble person in28:45 here, you go, You know what? I'm crippled in a certain area, and and I just want prayer. I just want God to touch my body physically, my mind. My mind's been racing. I need it to settle down.28:57 Spiritually, I've just been off. I've been kind of dabbling with some sin that I know, man, it's not going to take me the right way. No shame, no blame today, but I want to pray for you for healing. Just like Paul looked29:09 at that man, he said, stand up. He said, stand up. No more messing with the devil. No more messing with sin. No more messing. No more believing the29:21 lie. Today, it's gone. So God, we pray that you would do the miraculous. I'm I'm nothing apart from you, but I just want to be a tool in your hand. Would you be the surgeon, God?29:34 I'm just the scalpel. Would you be the surgeon by your spirit, that you would change, you would heal? All of us crippled people, I'm standing right now. God, I need your healing power. Trust you to do it,29:46 and we'll be quick to give you the glory and help more people in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Yeah, you could clap your hands as you take your seat. I want to29:57 also invite those that need to turn. Actually, stand, stand, keep standing, keep standing, sorry. Let me be audible real quick. Because I just... I believe there's someone in here, you need to turn to30:09 Christ today. As Billy Graham preached, God loves you. He's got a plan for your life. You and I though, we've all sinned. We've all got off track. If you've sinned one30:21 time, it separates you from a holy God. But He loved you so much, you sent Jesus to live the perfect life that you and I couldn't. They crucified Him. He paid for our sin. TheyStand Up and Turn to Christ 30:33 buried Him. Three days later, He rose from the grave, proving who He is. And I just want to know, is there anybody here? You need to turn from worthless things. You're doing your own life your own way. You need to turn30:44 back to God today. I just want you to raise your hand. Just raise your hand so I can see it. This is for you online as well. I just wanna pray for you. Come on now. Come on now. All over the building. Come on. I love30:56 it. Just gonna pray real quick for you. And if you... Listen now, there's some great people that wanna give you Bible, so don't leave without grabbing a Bible. Maybe we'll give you an orange Bible too. We'll double Bible31:07 you. Father, bless your people. And these that are turning from worthless things and turning to the living God, would you forgive their sin? Would you fill them with your spirit?31:19 Change their life all for your glory. And along the way, would you just use them as vessels to help a lot of people? In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. God bless you31:31 guys. Hey, let's giveIn this video 0:00 You Are A Tool in God's Hand7:10 The Miracle of Healing and Misplaced Worship14:10 Refocusing Worship on the Living God22:50 True Ministry Gives Glory to God30:30 Stand Up and Turn to Christ
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