Dennis Peacocke - Only Disciples Change the World (Part 2)

It is my joy to be here with Roberto and with you and your beautiful wife, and I am very impressed with the leadership that is in your church. You have a great destiny and a great future. Amen. So be it. And I want to share with you some things that I hope will help you achieve and get to where you want to go.

Let me share something about my background to contextualize some of what I want to share with you. How many were at the first service this morning? Some perhaps the leaders.

In my previous life my passion was athletics, sports. I always wanted to be a professional football player and win a gold medal in the Olympics. I attended the University of California at Berkley on an athletic scholarship. And in my sophomore year I unfortunately got hurt, which brought an athletic stage of my life to an end and also launched me into a personal identity crisis, as my whole life had revolved around my athletic identity, my athletic gifts.

And Berkley in the '60s was an ideal place to have an identity crisis. I got there as a stray Christian and just slipped and fell off the roof. I got totally involved, headfirst, in all the mess that was going on. I was in a key position in football, I was playing in a key position, which meant I was one of the few whites who could run with the African American brothers, so because of that relationship with the African Americans, when the time came I got involved in civil rights, I got very involved in that movement and I threw myself headlong into the academic community with the same energy with which I had participated in athletic things. My studies at that time were essentially macroeconomics and economics. And eventually I became a Marxist and got very serious about it. I got involved in the formation of what was called at the time the New Left and for that group our primary interest was not Russia. That was not our model as much as Cuba, Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Malcolm X. Those were my heroes at that time.

Eventually, however, I became disillusioned for many reasons, and came to the conclusion that human nature cannot be changed through social engineering. Well, the problem of sin is much deeper than the issue of economic redistribution, let's say. I got disillusioned with everything to do with western philosophy and there's a lot we could discuss but it wouldn't really help. So I finished my graduate studies and started working as a research economist for a number of years in San Francisco.

By that time I had gotten into Hindu, Buddhist mysticism. As you can see I covered all the bases. That was after getting into the philosophers Gurdjieff, or Spensky, but I'm not going to get into that mess either. I tell you all of this to point out that I have had a great passion for social justice all my life.

Only idealists take this path that I have just described. It's not that I was looking for love in the wrong places, but that I was looking for reality in the wrong places. By the grace of God I had a direct encounter with Jesus Christ who ruined my trip. I'm being cynical.

But when I got to the Scriptures and when I got to Christianity, then I got into another crisis. And that crisis was due to the fact that it did not fit very well with Christianity either. I was sharing with Roberto earlier today about my trip, and when I found Jesus in that matter too I ended up marrying one of my students. My wife and I have been together for 40 years and it seems that the marriage will last from what we see. We have 7 grandchildren so I hope it lasts. I never imagined that I would be sleeping with a grandmother, but it has happened.

When I came to the Lord I brought all my intellectual training and my passion to the search for God. The Lord not only changed my heart but also put more passion, more fire in that passionate search that I had for justice. And I often talk about reading the Bible with magic glasses. When I converted I was given a pair of magic glasses by the holy spirit. Some of you were just baptized by the holy spirit, not only did I start speaking in tongues but I was also introduced to a new pair of glasses. I also hope that each of you receives a pair of magic glasses like the ones I received.

Let me tell you what those magic glasses do. They allow you to study the word of God from your passion. So when I was reading the Bible I wasn't just reading what Jesus had done for me, I was reading it as a person who was familiar with the law, as an economist, in the context of geopolitics, in the context of my studies of The philosophy. I was very hungry. Sometimes I say that I got to the word of God and began to devour it like a shark of those great whites.

How many of you have ever been hungry? When I came to the word of God I was hungry, and almost 40 years later I am still hungry.

Is anyone here hungry? What does Jesus say about those who are hungry? It says, blessed are the hungry for they will be satisfied. If you are not hungry you will not be satisfied. But I came to the Lord with a passion for the Kingdom of God. I was not a suitable person to witness to him when I was a non-believer. The Christians testified to me and I told them 'if I come to be a Christian, am I going to be like you?' And they say 'yes' and I say 'no, thank you.'

Because what I heard from the Christians did not bless me. What I was listening to was what I call 'a baptized self'. And the Christians told me that Jesus did this for me, that he did that for me, it was all 'me', 'me', 'me', 'me'.

I looked at Roberto and told him 'you've lost a lot of weight', and he says 'of course, of course'. Your task now is to get all that weight back.

You know, when I was in the world I was clear that I was the problem. I wasn't looking for someone who could fix me, I was looking for someone who would take me out of myself. I wonder if you understand what I'm saying now. You know, I knew the answer was beyond me. I was looking for a truth that was going to take me out of my being.

So I studied Freud and Jung and all the nine miles ahead and I came to the conclusion after all this inner searching and my meditation and all the things that came after, everything that I I had managed to learn was to understand who I really am with greater skill and technique. I was very familiar with my own neurosis, but being familiar didn't change me at all. I understood this.

So when I heard Christians talk about themselves and how much Jesus loved them, I saw that it was so self-centered that it didn't motivate me at all. Now, get this straight: I know Jesus does all these things for us as individuals and I also thank God eternally for personal transformation, but my sisters and brothers, good news and bad news.

The good news is that he loves them. The bad news is that Christianity is not just about you alone. It's about Jesus.

I had spiritual gift number ten: that is the ability to think like a pagan. Do not pray for him because then I will not be able to speak to those who are not saved.

Is there anyone else here like me who likes the people of the world? I like people like that, from the land. You know, I still haven't figured out how this works. I believe that there is something that is incomplete about our Christian life. This is what confuses me: I must have maybe a mind........ maybe some of you are going to think that I smoked too much marijuana. How is? How does this work? How come the religious community hated Jesus and sinners loved him? But then today, the religious community loves us but the sinners hate us. What is wrong with this picture?

Are you here today? Look at your neighbor and tell him to wake up. There is something fundamentally wrong with all this. If the one we follow was loved by those who were heartbroken and if they don't love us, this is where I see part of my problem......

I am a Christian who is full of ugly questions. Is there anyone else here who has those ugly questions too? So when I came to Christ Jesus I started reading the Bible and I said to myself 'Lord, I don't understand this. How does the church get from here to that other place? Has anyone else wondered this too? I hope I'm not making you nervous. Jesus is not at all nervous about what I am saying now. Trust me, he's not nervous.

So this is another thing that I've come to conclude. Believe me, I am going to make this clear so that everyone can understand it. They will be able to breathe in a few minutes. I have concluded that human religion is much more dangerous than all the heroin that can be put in a garbage truck.

I wonder if you understand what I'm saying? The soul of the human being loves religion. Satan himself loves religion. Can I tell you what Satan's greatest pride is? It's right here in the pulpit. You know, the heroin addict or the prostitute isn't even in the game. Where is the center of all this game? It is in the very middle of the pulpit.

How many of you believe that Jesus was not suffering from oxygen deprivation? Jesus said that the only thing that has enough power to neutralize the soul of a human being is the religion established by a human being. This comes out in Matthew, Chapter 15, verse 6. You neutralize the commandment of God by the traditions of men.

So I want to be free from any religion. How many of you know that there is a very big difference between religiosity and true spirituality? Do you know what the world is waiting for now? He is waiting for truly spiritual Christians.

Now, while we're in this introductory phase of some pretty strong therapy. I want you to grab your chair..... Here is another thing that I have understood to be a very true truth. Christians have never changed the world and they never will. Do you know why I believe this? Because Jesus did not tell us to become Christians. He told us to go make disciples.

See, Christians are only interested in going to heaven. (He did better than me.) Christians are interested in going to heaven but true disciples want to see heaven come here on earth.

There was one day when I was running outside in the street,...... I usually run a lot, and the Lord said to me 'Dennis, tell my people that they are running in the wrong direction. They are trying to get out of the earth and I am trying to get into the earth.'

How many of you know that there is no problem in heaven at all? There is no crisis in heaven and there is not going to be any crisis until you get to heaven. Where is the crisis? Where is the war? Where is the fight? Where's the action? Right here on planet earth.

You know, my basic problem is that I've read the Bible. It's not just that I survived 60, but that I read the Bible. The Bible damaged the whole world for me, it made me the way I am now. I read things like 'your kingdom come and be real here on earth'. This was something that upset me when I read about the Kingdom of God. And it upset me even more when I read that the holy spirit has been given to us to make a change and fight here in the world where we are now.

I wonder if they are listening, understanding what I am saying correctly? You know, the Bible ruined me. I was upset before but the Bible just completely finished me off.

The kingdom is coming down from heaven...... I knew it was going to happen sooner or later.

You know, the Bible convinced me that there really are only two kingdoms. There may be 212 nations but there are only two kingdoms: the kingdom of this world, which is totally ruled by Satan, who does not have a red suit with horns and a tail, but who is a highly intelligent being, totally intertwined with all dimensions. of culture; and then there is the Kingdom of God which is designed to be administered by the people and the body of Christ.

How many of you can see that I have a lot of problems, because I have another one to mention now. You know, Roberto is an incredible man but I don't know if he is aware of all the problems I have. I have another problem, studying the Greek culture when I was in the world, I understood what the word 'ecclesia', a Greek word meant. The word ecclesia means congress. It means those chosen to rule.

I'm not making this up, I'm telling you the truth. The Greek cities were governed and dominated by the ecclesia. The word gospel, which was dominated in Greek, was the person who cried out to the whole city on behalf of that ecclesia, of that congress, to call the whole world to session.

Are there any other historians here who can verify what I'm saying? Is there anyone else here in the back do we have anyone? I am telling you the truth. Don't just take my words for it, look for yourselves too.

How many of you remember Jesus' Dracula-like speech? Don't you remember that parliament? John 6: "unless you eat my body and drink my blood."

Let me tell you what that line did when Jesus said it. Here are Peter and John walking with Jesus and they come to this Dracula speech. You know, Jesus has said some pretty crazy things, he spits in the mud and puts it in people's eyes. He does some very strange things. But this Dracula line is going too far.

You know, in the Bible it is mentioned that many disciples said 'Jesus, I'm going with you until the end, but this is the end.'

But how many of you have walked with many who have told you I'm going with you until the end but then it's the end that I myself determine? This is also something that I have seen in church. But seriously, do you know how offensive this was to the Jewish community when Jesus himself says you have to drink my blood and eat my flesh. It was as if I had taken a dirty cloth and rubbed it in these people's faces. It was something more offensive than speaking bad words even inside the church. They were offended beyond their own imagination, because what was one thing they were told never to do: drink blood. And now this man is here telling them that he is the son of God and he is commanding them to break the law of Moses.

Oh holy spirit give us the ability to see what is in Scripture. Now I tell you other things that Jesus himself mentioned that was equally offensive. It was when he told his disciples that he was going to build an ecclesia. Here are Pedro and Juan once again. Peter, he's giving you a compliment – we're in Matthew 16 now – he just said 'and blessed are you Simon, son of Jonah because my flesh and my blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. ' Pedro, I was with him when he said this and he was saying yes, amen, amen. And then he said that he is going to build an ecclesia.

Do you know how offensive that was? Jesus did not have to be building an ecclesia. That was a totally pagan Greek word. He should have built a synagogue. You know, Jews didn't even dare eat with non-Jews.

You know, that Dracula speech was bad enough on its own, but now Jesus is reaching a pagan culture, he's not going to build a synagogue he's going to build an ecclesia, which is a Gentile political organization. You can see why I'm so upset about this!

The problem is that when I got to Scripture in its original Greek and why Jesus was going to build an ecclesia of those chosen by God to rule. And there we go to heaven again.

Say Jesus I love you, I love you. I want you to know that I definitely want to go to heaven. I will have my wings....... I will have those streets of gold. I will be able to float and forever bore my brothers and sisters with my testimony.

What does it mean when Jesus says that he calls us to reign, to rule? Can't you understand how tired I am of making morally ethical and good decisions, and now you come to put another burden on me?

I wonder if you can understand what I'm saying. I am attacking religion at the very core. I wish I could do it even more perfectly. You know, Jesus didn't call you to have wings, you don't need wings. You know, the Bible has damaged me in a way.

I read the book of Revelation in Chapter 2, verse 26 and it says that those who can be victorious I will put in charge of nations. So this is just after the time of the final judgment. I don't know what you believe about dying on a cross. That will be a whole separate discussion. When the game is over Jesus is going to turn all the nations to the church.

I came across that passage about 30 years ago and began to cry. I would say to myself 'Lord, I don't know even one Christian who can govern a neighborhood, what is he going to do with a nation.'

You know, we've turned the world system over to the devil and let his thinking rule over everything. So me as an athlete, I love sports, I said to myself 'Help me, Jesus. Help me on this. This is the only team I've ever played for, the ones that are looking against the opposition to get on the field. I've never played people like that before. You know, the people I used to play with they would die to be there on the field, in the arena.

And we have been given nothing for the position except pain and suffering and very difficult times. Here is the prize, prostitutes and those addicted to drugs are not in the game. I wonder if they understand these words. Let me try to bring this to a conclusion now.

Every one of you is in trouble right now. They are in big trouble. And I can tell you why you're in trouble. Because you are following a God-inspired leader who wants to stay in the arena, on the field, and make a difference. He is just as crazy as me, maybe he is not as crazy as me, but he has that level of madness. He believes that there have to be alternatives to this political game of the left and the right, of that liberal and conservative group, and that world system as well, which Einstein made quite clear to him when he said that the level of thinking for solving a problem is insufficient in itself.

The left side hates me because they think I betrayed them, and the right side wants to buy me off. But I am not for sale because the left and the right are part of the problem that is quite difficult to solve. What the world needs now is the Kingdom of God.

Now, as an economist we have a school in economics and when this whole indebted system that we have now falls apart something new is going to emerge and take its place. The problem is not in heaven. We don't need to have a witness in heaven, the witness has to be right here.

Now, this man has been inspired with a divine vision. When I read it, I cried. I said to myself, 'Lord, I hope that all these scars that have accumulated in the church have not hurt me enough for me to greet that kind of optimism.

I work with an international network of churches and I sent this vision of Pastor Roberto to all these leaders. I said 'brothers and sisters, I found a man who still believes'.

Now, this is not a green beret and I am not talking about a spiritual elite. Maybe not as stupid as I may seem. I can understand what an elite series can do, but here is what I am telling you here right in front of you, in your own face, with the love of the Lord: Christians do not change the world. Christians are not going to be able to fully enter into that vision. You know what this is going to need? Disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, totally committed that they can follow, disciplined apprentices, people who speak in tongues both in the church and in their workplace. A Sunday religion alone is not going to achieve what we are talking about here. It's not going to happen. We're going to have to clean up our act.

Jesus ranks each one who is in good shape and ranks them according to their level of preparation. I get nervous when I see Christians trying to break principalities and powers at the level of the city of Boston, so I want to say 'So and so, with all due respect, you can't even control a fork in your hand, how are you doing? to be able to control a principality and power'.

Can I get real with you guys? You know I'm going to do it. There are sexual sins, we cannot say anything to the homosexual community. What are we going to do?

You know there are so many who are involved in adultery and fornication, what can we say then to the homosexual community. You know, I want to see the church take as strong a stand against adultery as they do against homosexuality. You know, many of us are so stuck in a world of debt, what are we going to tell anyone about good financial management.

You know, there is no institution as segregated on the planet as the church itself. It's great to see a good ethnic mix here, but it's not enough just to be here. So we have nothing to say against racism until we ourselves are freed from it.

Do you know who is highly responsible for the feminist movement? Machismo within the church. He didn't really say that, he did say it.

How many of you recognize that when the church gets a cold, the world gets lung cancer? Everything that is wrong with us as a church is magnified at the level of the culture. This is the problem: we want to be the leader but we don't understand that we already are. But the leader is sick, the salt and light is sick, the church is not ruling on a spiritual level. Yes, this is going to change our worship, our worship has to be a little less centered on us and more centered on Christ Jesus. I am not criticizing this in you, I am saying that when you see the Kingdom of God the game will change.

You know, we are not going to have the altar full of people saying 'Lord, forgive me I have failed, I have failed', we are going to have the altar full of people crying 'Jesus, save me because if I continue in a sin I will not be able to help anyone around me'. We have to become liberators, but we have to be freed first. So I close with this.

The Lord Jesus is not measuring how many people are here, He is measuring and seeing who is here. To do what Roberto is called to do, he needs what is known as a critical mass, it is not a critical mass of numbers, a critical mass of disciples, people who understand that when you and I were saved it was to follow the Father in the same way that Jesus follows the Father to become liberators in the same way that Jesus also was. What will happen to Boston, what will happen to Boston when we have several hundred fully committed disciples of Jesus Christ, who are ministering in power because they let God Himself fix them up?

Now, I have a kind of entertainment and I haven't maybe made some of you feel good. Maybe some of you say 'this is like drinking water from a fire extinguisher. But my job is not to make you feel good, my job is to provoke you with the truth so that you can enter your spiritual training so that your prayer life changes, the reading of the word changes, your administration changes, the way you present yourself. your work will change, everything about you will begin to change because you are training to bring transformation to the city of Boston and also to the entire nation.

Brothers, I believe that applause is appropriate, do not misunderstand me, but I believe that if we truly understood the entire content of that message as I heard it this morning, I believe that what I would feel rather It's like crying, right? Because I feel challenged by the content of that word. And I believe that all of us, to one degree or another, need to internalize what the message that our brother has just brought us represents, of what true discipleship in the Lord is, what it is to be disciples, brothers.

And in fact I was so challenged this morning by what I heard from Dennis that I determined that next Sunday even though it is Easter Sunday we continue with this theme of what it is to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

I believe that Resurrection Day is a good day for us to meditate on that, because many times we celebrate the risen Jesus but we do not understand what it means to have the risen Christ in our hearts, in our lives, reigning as Lord, as owner of everything we are, what we have.

And what Dennis says touches me in the sense, brothers, that if we are going to change the world, and I believe that God wants it; We are entering, we have entered an era, we are literally already in it, where God is preparing to do terrible, great, deep things in the structure of society and the world and an army is needed, a people is needed, God never works alone .

God is going to need men and women completely dedicated as we say in our vision, radically committed to the Kingdom of God, not people who say 'well, today is Saturday, I'm so sorry, I don't have time to go to a training workshop for the family because I already gave last Sunday and I'm going to give tomorrow. We need people, brothers, who live for the Lord.

How many dare to say, don't tell me, you don't even have to say amen, how many can say right now in their heart, my money belongs to the Lord, how many can say that? Can you really say it? My money belongs to the Kingdom of God. Can you say that with conviction? Can you say 'my time belongs to God? Can you really say it? And it reflects.... if you say yes, does your life reflect that your time belongs to God? How many can say 'my entertainment and fun habits are from God'? How many can say that in their heart? Can you really say it? How many can say 'my energies, my house, my talents, my family, my pleasures, they belong to God, they belong to God, I am God's property? How many truly reflect their lives as God's property?

I believe that most of us should kneel down and ask God for forgiveness because it is not so, brothers. We come here and say a lot of things but our lives don't reflect that, our passions don't reflect the fact that Jesus Christ is our Lord. And God is calling us to that commitment, God is calling us to that commitment. That we can live for God, for his kingdom, that when they tell me 'something is needed for the Kingdom of God, that you be the first, I am the first to say 'amen, what is needed? where do you want me? where do you need me? What do you need: my money, my time, my talents, my profession, what is needed, tell me and is it from God? How many of us can say that, brothers?

And that is what God wants, that is the people that God wants to use and that God wants to raise up. Are we willing to live like this, brothers? Are we willing to say eternity is going to be my home, someday I will be able to rest and enjoy myself, but here on earth I want to give my all to the Lord? Hopefully that's the feeling. That is my passion at this time, brothers, that when I die there is not a single drop of energy left in this land of mine, that I have left everything for the Lord, that I have exhausted everything, that they have completely squeezed me. And that the only thing that goes away is the bagasse, what remains here is the scab, the straw, because everything has been burned for the glory of God. Then my spirit dwells in eternity. That is my passion, my desire for the Lord.

Brethren, God wants that for this church. God wants to raise up a church as an instrument that he can use, like a sword that God can take and use to carry out his purposes, but we need a consecrated people, a people delivered to the Lord, a people that reflects their condition as property of the Kingdom. of God. That is what God is calling you to do. May you live with that red hot passion for God.

I am not preaching another sermon, I am simply affirming what my brother says this morning, because that is my conviction, that is what God has told me. We are already entering a time of great revival, great use of God for his people, but how many will be prepared when God calls us to surrender to the Lord?

I invite you in the name of Jesus consecrate everything you have to God and I promise you that your life will be happy, your life will be fulfilled, you will have what you have longed for in your heart: peace, joy, certainty, sense of belonging, security about eternity, blessing for your children, your sleep will be peaceful, your finances will be blessed because God gives to those who give generously. Let's commit ourselves, brothers, this afternoon. Let's take advantage of this call from God.

Let's stand up. I want you to receive this word in your heart. You have to give everything to the Lord first and then you can receive.

Father, we consecrate our lives to you. We consecrate our lives to you, Lord, this afternoon, in reaction to your word, Lord, we ask that you receive us as a sweet-smelling offering, as a living sacrifice before you.

Father, I ask that your word penetrate deeply into hearts this afternoon. Oh Lord that we can give ourselves completely to you. Oh, Jehovah and that we can honor the message, the call to be property of the Kingdom of God. Forgive us because we have not been this, Lord, but we want you to make this church your property, this town your property, this youth your property, Lord, for the glory of your name. We deliver.... I am going to say a series of things and if you believe it in your heart, you can say amen softly, however you want, about things.

Lord, I give you my time. I give you my money. I surrender my body. I give you my talents. I give you my dreams. I give you my sexuality. I give you my character. I give you my children or my wife, my spouse or even my desire to get married I give it to you, Lord. I give you my future I give you my present. I give you all my properties, I surrender everything to you, Lord, I give it to you, I give myself to you, Father. We hand over this church to you, Lord. we give this ministry to you, Father, we put everything at your feet. Be glorified, Lord. Be glorified, Father. Thank you Jesus. Thank you Jesus. In your name Lord, and the people of God say amen, glory to God. Glory to God. Thank you Lord Jesus. Thank you Jesus. Go to Spanish Version