Links to my most recent sermon...see other blog

I received this the day after delivering the 'more of my cup overflows' message of 1st October...see my Sermons blog.... then the item below it (Spurgeon) was received on 6th October. Both came by e-mail. Read them alongside the sermon. Mike

When I read the book of Acts, I see the church as an unstoppable force. Nothing could thwart what God was doing, just as Jesus foretold: “The gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). The church was powerful and spreading like wildfire, not because of clever planning, but by a movement of the Spirit. Riots, torture, poverty, or any other type of persecution couldn’t stop it. Isn’t that the type of church movement we all long to be a part of?
So much of what we see today is anything but unstoppable. It can easily be derailed by the resignation of a pastor or an internal church disagreement or budget cuts. Churches we build only by our own efforts and not in the strength of the Spirit will quickly collapse when we don’t push and prod them along. I spent years asking God to be a part of whatever I was doing. When I read the book of Acts, I see people privileged to play a part in what God was doing.

Recently we held a discussion about how to solve some of the evident problems in our church. One of our pastors spoke up and said, “I think we’re trying too hard.” He went on to share of the supernatural things that had taken place through his prayer life. At that point, we decided to stop talking and thinking. The next hour was spent intensely in prayer. We never got “back to business” that day.

While there is a time to brainstorm and think and act well using the gifts God has given us, far too often we never get to prayer (much less start, end, and allow it to permeate all that we do). Let’s pray that God would build his church, an unstoppable force, empowered and sustained by the Holy Spirit.
Francis Chan

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"Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall
never thirst."
-- John 4:14

He who is a believer in Jesus finds enough in his Lord to satisfy him
now, and to content him for evermore. The believer is not the man whose
days are weary for want of comfort, and whose nights are long from
absence of heart-cheering thought, for he finds in religion such a
spring of joy, such a fountain of consolation, that he is content and
happy. Put him in a dungeon and he will find good company; place him in
a barren wilderness, he will eat the bread of heaven; drive him away
from friendship, he will meet the "friend that sticketh closer than a
brother." Blast all his gourds, and he will find shadow beneath the
Rock of Ages; sap the foundation of his earthly hopes, but his heart
will still be fixed, trusting in the Lord. The heart is as insatiable
as the grave till Jesus enters it, and then it is a cup full to
overflowing. There is such a fulness in Christ that he alone is the
believer's all. The true saint is so completely satisfied with the
all-sufficiency of Jesus that he thirsts no more-except it be for
deeper draughts of the living fountain. In that sweet manner, believer,
shalt thou thirst; it shall not be a thirst of pain, but of loving
desire; thou wilt find it a sweet thing to be panting after a fuller
enjoyment of Jesus' love. One in days of yore said, "I have been
sinking my bucket down into the well full often, but now my thirst
after Jesus has become so insatiable, that I long to put the well
itself to my lips, and drink right on." Is this the feeling of thine
heart now, believer? Dost thou feel that all thy desires are satisfied
in Jesus, and that thou hast no want now, but to know more of him, and
to have closer fellowship with him? Then come continually to the
fountain, and take of the water of life freely. Jesus will never think
you take too much, but will ever welcome you, saying, "Drink, yea,
drink abundantly, O beloved."
Spurgeon