Get a mega vibe #5
Dynamics and Economies of Scale
Theme - mega vibe in our tribe
INTRODUCTION
We have been talking about a mega vibe in our tribe..
What is our MEGA vibe?
V Vibrant, virtuous, vintage relational Ecstasy!
I Invested in people, in our church family and in Soulwinning
B Being Transformed by being church - continuously filled with the Holy Spirit to overflowing, Knowing it will have finally sunken when we appear to others as drunken
E Excellent - doing everything with excellence / even more when no one is watching. Philippians 2: 12 Daniel had an excellent Spirit – look where that took him?
Examples of excellence
My topic today - Dynamics and Economies of Scale. straw. It’s a pretty corporate sounding title.
Some of you might think I got the short straw. Is this the last straw? It is the last in the series, but the Last shall be first.
And how does dynamics and economies of Scale relate to Jesus, the Word of God , the gospel? Well, it may surprise you but it does. I am going to share some things tonight that show these principles are interwoven throughout the scriptures. I will briefly talk about Dynamics and focus mainly this evening on economies of scale.
DYNAMICS
We all know what Dynamite is. It blows things up. It has lots of energy and can make a big mess. Dynamo, dunamis, power, dynamics is about energy, change.
Music is dynamic
In Music the change in volume signifies the dynamics. If it all stays at one volume we’d soon all go to sleep!
Speaking should be dynamic - When a voice speaks on without changing it has no dynamics and rather it is monotonous. That too will put us to sleep.
God is dynamic
God’s Creation is dynamic - we never get bored with creation do we? The sky is never the same and even on a given day it is constantly changing. Think of all the sunrises you have seen – or the sunsets? Every single one is different.
Jesus was dynamic. He was baptized in water and was filled with the Holy Spirit - John saw a dove came down upon Him. He went out into the wilderness and fasted 40 days and 40 nights. The Bible says he came out of that fast in the POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. He went on to appoint His team, show forth the power of God with healings, miracles, signs and wonders.
Apostles were dynamic
The dunamis power of the Holy Spirit baptism in Acts chapter 2 changed Peter from a person who denied Christ to a tongues talking, miracle working, bold preacher!!
For those of us who are also born again of the Spirit, Baptized in the Holy Spirit are we dynamic?
WE - Christians should be dynamic!
“Christ ones” People who had been with Christ - We too have the same power that raised Christ up from the dead! Lets use it!
Romans 8:11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
1 Corinthians 3:16 Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
If you are listening and you don’t know Jesus as your personal savior then you too can experience these things as you turn to Him, the author and finisher of our faith.
You may find it hard to believe knowing me now that I was the quiet one in my family, who sucked my thumb and read books, was very, very shy. When I committed to Christ at the age of 20 I very quickly became a bold preacher – on the streets, I went to beach camps over Christmas and New year to tell young people about Jesus! Oh the joy of leading a soul to Christ!!
Ok so lets now talk about Economies of Scale
ECONOMIES OF SCALE
To demonstrate economies of scale, we are going to start with 1 and scale that out to see what happens.
Addition
1
God said it right at the beginning of time as we know it.
“It is not good for Man to be alone”
And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.”
On the positive, One person can have an impact, one person can do great things.
Even God is not alone. God Himself is 3 in one, He is a model of family, of a close relationship between 3 eternal beings, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
1 + 1
The Value of a Friend
Two are better than one, Because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, For he has no one to help him up. Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm; But how can one be warm alone? ...
Life can be tough. Lets all be a friend. Tiff had that great word about the meaning of Cherokee - Be a friend – EL Salvadorian meaning of the word Chero is “Friend”. The key to us seeing some success on the trip to Cherokee next weekend is being a friend. Look for those opportunities to talk with people, hang with them.
1 + God
1 + God Is a majority ! You and God – that is exponential growth right there!
Elisha and Gehazi
Context
Elisha first shows up in the scriptures while Elijah was a great prophet of Israel near the end of his time on earth.
1 Kings 19:19 So he (Elijah) departed from there, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he was with the twelfth. Then Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle on him.
I couldn’t find any mention of him prior to when Elijah threw his mantle over him . So there was Elisha minding his own business ploughing a field with his oxen.
Maybe Elisha was well known to Elijah, maybe not, maybe he had to ask around.. Where is Elisha? Who knows if Elisha was known in that area to be a man of faith? The Bible doesn’t say. But he must have been to God at least.
2 Kings 6 8 Now the king of Syria was making war against Israel; and he consulted with his servants, saying, “My camp will be in such and such a place.” 9 And the man of God sent to the king of Israel, saying, “Beware that you do not pass this place, for the Syrians are coming down there.” 10 Then the king of Israel sent someone to the place of which the man of God had told him. Thus, he warned him, and he was watchful there, not just once or twice. 11 Therefore the heart of the king of Syria was greatly troubled by this thing; and he called his servants and said to them, “Will you not show me which of us is for the king of Israel?” 12 And one of his servants said, “None, my lord, O king; but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom.” 13 So he said, “Go and see where he is, that I may send and get him.” And it was told him, saying, “Surely he is in Dothan.” 14 Therefore he sent horses and chariots and a great army there, and they came by night and surrounded the city. 15 And when the servant of the man of God arose early and went out, there was an army, surrounding the city with horses and chariots. And his servant said to him, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” 16 So he answered, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” 17 And Elisha prayed, and said, “Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. 18 So when the Syrians came down to him, Elisha prayed to the Lord, and said, “Strike this people, I pray, with blindness.” And He struck them with blindness according to the word of Elisha. 19 Now Elisha said to them, “This is not the way, nor is this the city. Follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom you seek.” But he led them to Samaria. 20 So it was, when they had come to Samaria, that Elisha said, “Lord, open the eyes of these men, that they may see.” And the Lord opened their eyes, and they saw; and there they were, inside Samaria! 21 Now when the king of Israel saw them, he said to Elisha, “My father, shall I kill them? Shall I kill them?” 22 But he answered, “You shall not kill them. Would you kill those whom you have taken captive with your sword and your bow? Set food and water before them, that they may eat and drink and go to their master.” 23 Then he prepared a great feast for them; and after they ate and drank, he sent them away and they went to their master. So the bands of Syrian raiders came no more into the land of Israel.
What a fantastic story!!
Elijah is the leader, shares the vision, prays for eyes to be opened and eventually the servants / congregation will get it. Leaders in the church should remember that God will often give them revelation and vision ahead of the congregration and yes it is their job to share that vision but patience is needed to wait until the Lord affirms that vision into the hearts of His people. That sometimes takes time.
GEHAZI
Was Elisha’s servant. Imagine being a servant of Elisha and seeing all the things that took place!!!
He was filled with his own ways. When Elisha healed Naaman, Gehazi secretly went out to him after he had left to get some garments and gifts - the things Elisha had said no to. Gehazi had overhead.
Gehazi saw with his natural eyes. He didn’t see in the Spirit the true situation.
We can be like Gehazi at times. I have been like that. Not seeing clearly how God sees things, not believing, not always seeing the leaders’s vision. When leaders we know are praying, seeking God and then sharing what they believe is from God, it is our job to take these things seriously, pray and seek God’s confirmation. God will do it. – If it is from Him. It isn’t our job to just blindly follow, it is our job to be seeking God too.
Yes 1 + God is a majority! You plus God is a majority! No matter what you are facing, in good times and in tough times YOU ARE NOT ALONE!
Multiplication
God said to man “Go forth and Multiply”
And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
Jesus chose 12 - John 6:70
Jesus sent out 70 - Luke 10: 1
At Pentecost there was 120 - became 3,000 - Acts 2: 41
An Example of how we can multiply our effectiveness
10 people praying at a prayer meeting one at a time for a minute for 10 minutes = 10 minutes
10 people praying together in the Spirit / in tongues at a prayer meeting about the same thing at the same time is equates to 100 minutes of prayer. – That is economies of scale. IT takes less time with 10 x the impact.
EXPONENTIAL
5 Loaves and 2 Fishes - 5000 men plus women and children , 12 baskets
Matthew 4 – 7 Loaves , 4000 , 7 baskets
Matthew 15:34 And Jesus saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven, and a few little fishes.
Less goes into the bigger crowd but still more left over
Leviticus 26:8 One will chase 5, And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.
John 14:12 Jesus said “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.
I have heard the question so many times, what can that mean? Does that mean we can do greater things than Jesus?
Jesus was GOD!! No one could do what Jesus did. He alone could take our sin upon Himself, NO HUMAN BEING could bear this alone.
I believe what he meant there and it is hinted at in the scripture – He was around for just 3 years in one localized area of the globe and had to leave / had to go home. Talking of at scale - what happened when Pentecost and persecution of the church took place? Many people who had been with Jesus began also doing mighty things, preaching the gospel, healing the sick, performing miracles – they were spread abroad and so the gospel went out / Peter took the message to the gentiles, Paul/Saul took the gospel and associated signs and wonders all around Asia. Generation after generation and there are millions of Christians, Millions of spirit-filled Christians filled with the power of God and able to do great exploits. We too can intercede for others just as Jesus interceded for the whole world. Stephen when he was being stoned lifts his voice up with forgiveness at his perpetrators and asks God to NOT judge the Jews for it but to forgive them! Wow, think of the power in that!
What it doesn’t mean is that we ourselves become God.
BID
Salvation
Christians – Bear much fruit / be dynamic