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Aug 10, 2025

Overwhelmed, But Still Making Good Decisions | Spirit, Power & The Church

Overwhelmed, But Still Making Good Decisions | Spirit, Power & The Church

Passage: Acts 1:8-26

Speaker: Matt Petty

Series: Spirit, Power & The Church

Category: Sunday Sermons

Keywords: acts 1 explained, how to make good decisions when you’re overwhelmed, biblical truth for stressful seasons, what to do when you feel spiritually stuck, christian habits that bring clarity, practical help from the holy spirit, making decisions through prayer and obedience, how the early church modeled faithful living

This message looks at a defining moment in Acts 1 where the disciples found themselves in a place of major transition—Jesus had ascended, and they were waiting on the Spirit. They didn’t have all the answers, but they modeled what it looks like to stay faithful, keep praying, and move forward with wisdom. Whether you're facing decisions or just trying to stay afloat, this message offers a guide for staying connected to God and making decisions that align with His will.

Well, good morning, good morning and good morning, church. You guys are looking good today and congratulations to a lot of you guys. Why? Because you made it through the first week of school. Come on. You did it. You did it. You did it.

I mean like 80 more to go, but that's all right. You made it through week one. Hey, listen, we didn't do this last week, but every year on one of these first weeks of school, we pause just for a moment and we recognize all of our school teachers, all of our administrators, our county employees, and listen, if you are the chief CEO and grunt person of the homeschool corporation, we recognize you as well.

And we would love to do that just for a moment this morning, we want to recognize you, and we also just want to pray, just a prayer of commissioning over your year.

So if you are a teacher, administrator, if you're a county employee, would you do us a favor and just stand, just for a moment? Come on, you do it all week long. It's okay, you can do it now.

Would you stand and let us appreciate you and say thank you for who you are, and I just want to pray. Just want to pray over you guys this morning. So let's just do that. Lord Jesus, we thank you today for these people that are standing. We thank you for how much they mean to us, how much they mean to you, and Lord Jesus, the reality is how much they mean to their campus, and to this county that they work with.

Lord, we thank you for them. We ask that you give them your encouraging, encouraging spirit. We ask that you show them how to be salt and light.

We ask that you give them energy and understanding and patience. And Lord, we just ask that they would stand in many, many ways for you throughout the rest of this year. And it's in your name, Jesus, amen and amen.

Give them one more hand as they're sitting down this morning. Amen. Amen. Well, listen, hey, if you were here last week, you know that we have just started a new series to where we're actually going to walk through the book of Acts and we're going to see the power of God, the spirit of God and the church.

And the reality is we're going to see how all of these things just kind of weave their way together. Now, to which I want to say this about it. One thing that is so cool about the Book of Acts, is that actually it is written in a time period that is just like ours.

We saw last week that this guy named Luke, that also wrote the Gospel of Luke, is writing this letter to a guy named Theophilus to do a couple of things. Number one, just to introduce to him who Jesus is. Number two, to show him and teach him about the love of Jesus. And number three, Luke is doing everything he can to convince Theophilus to give his heart over to Jesus, to which some of you that are not yet believers would hear that statement and go, "Wait a minute, that's exactly what you're trying to do to me." To which I would say, "Yes, it is exactly what we're trying to do to you."

In fact, if we weren't trying to convince you to give your heart to Jesus, to allow Jesus to shower his mercy over you, to save you and to redeem you, we would be the worst human beings on the planet.

Why? Because we know the truth and we know what he can do for you. And it would be like us knowing the cure of cancer and not caring enough to share it to everybody around us. So what Luke is doing in the Book of Acts is actually a challenge to what we as a church should be doing, and we as individuals should be doing. And that is proclaiming the love of Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit over every single person that we meet.

So this book of Acts, it's really a roadmap to life for us and for our church. Now last week in the first half of chapter one of Acts, Luke is actually recalling what is happening in the disciples lives. He's telling us that Jesus had spent these 40 days between the resurrection and his ascending back to the Father and that Jesus has been spending time teaching them and preparing them, and sending them.

And we saw last week that Jesus knew that he needed to take these ragtag guys, his disciples, and that he needed to give them the right message about who he was. So that's what he's been doing. He's been teaching them about the kingdom of God. He also knew that he needed to show them the right proofs of who he was, and the fact that they needed to be able to put their lives on the line to know that they knew that they know that Jesus was who he said he was.

So that's what he's been doing during this time period. Jesus also last week in those first couple of verses, gave them the right proofs and the right power, right? We saw in Acts chapter 1, verse 8, kind of the theme verse for the whole book of Acts. It says this from last week.

It says, "Jesus says that you'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all of Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth." So Jesus is teaching them, he's showing them, he's proven himself to them. He's showing them the power that is available to them, which is not coming from this kind of try harder mindset, but it's coming from the Holy Spirit.

And then we also saw in these first couple of verses in the book of Acts, that there was this mystery that Jesus gave them, that they didn't know when he was going to return, that they didn't know when God was going to establish his kingdom. And that every time, and every generation has this responsibility to preach the name of Jesus. Well, all of that happened in the first couple of verses in Acts, and today's text actually directly follows after this command and to go and be his witness.

And actually today's text is the final movement of preparation to the spirit of God coming in Acts chapter 2 at Pentecost, that'll be next week. You don't want to miss next week, the spirit is going to fall. All right, so today's text is actually one of those in the second half of Acts chapter 1, that most of the time gets skipped over for some of the more popular texts in Acts.

But here's what I'm going to tell you about it. It has some great truths, some amazing challenges that will actually keep me and you connected to the person of God and connected to the power of God in what I would kind of just call the overwhelming moments in life. So if you've got a copy of scripture, let me just go ahead and jump into the text today, in Acts chapter 1. I'm going to start a few verses after where we left off last week in verse 12.

And here's what it says. It says this, it says, "Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath's day walk from the city." Now, you can actually tell here that Luke is presenting this to someone that doesn't know the area, someone that didn't grow up in the area. He's actually describing, it was about a half a mile from Jerusalem, he's right to Theophilus. Verse 13, "When they arrived," say the word they for me. Ready, 1, 2, 3. "When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying."

I want you to kind of leave that word they in your mind for a minute. So what's happening? Let me kind of bring us into the context here. What's happening is, is they've just seen Jesus return to the Father, literally levitate, literally be received back into heaven. If you go back and read the verses, you'll see that some angels kind of call them out because the disciples are a little bit dumbfounded.

They're like, "What is going on?" And the angels are like, "What are you looking at?" They're like, "What do you mean what are we looking at it? It's not every day, right, that you get to see this happen." And what we're also seeing is now that they've been told to wait on the Holy Spirit, they've been challenged to be witnesses to the whole world.

And in the middle of all of this excitement that is happening with the disciples, you've got to know that their world has been literally turned upside down. Why? Because on one side there's all of this excitement, but on this other side, their world has just radically changed. So Matt, how has it changed? It's changed because for three plus years at this point, they've physically walked with Jesus. They've heard from his mouth, they've saw what he has done, they've experienced the fear at the cross, they experienced the excitement after his resurrection, and then they saw Jesus, right, for 40 days they walked with Jesus after he rose from the dead. They saw with their own eyes, Jesus prove who he said he was.

They saw him be lifted off from this world. Now, for us to read that, we're like, "Okay, well that's probably a pretty big deal." But for them, you got to get into their mindset a little bit. You've got to think, for them, they have never walked without Jesus in their faith. Now, for us, we're like, "Yeah, it's a big deal." But we've never walked hand in hand with the physical Jesus, right? But they had never not walked hand in hand with the physical Jesus in their faith. So what are they doing? To get into their mindset, you've got to think that they're starting fresh, that they're starting new, that their whole paradigm of faith has been turned upside down.

They're probably wondering, "What do we do?" And you know that they are surely overwhelmed in all areas of life. Let me ask you this. What about you? Have you ever been in a moment? Have you ever been at a point in life where you were just absolutely overwhelmed? Of course you have, if you say no, you're a liar, right? Of course you have. Have you ever been in a moment in your life where you just didn't know what to do? Have you ever been in a moment in your life where you're just not sure the way? Or have you ever been in a moment in your life where you're just not sure that you can keep going? Or have you ever been in a moment where you're just really not sure what the future is out there for you? Or possibly this is how you could say it, have you ever been in a moment where you just need some encouragement and you just need some direction from the Holy God?

Well, this passage is actually going to answer what do you do in those moments? Why? Because it gives us some instruction and it gives us some hope in the example of the disciples. This is actually one of those passages that gets skipped over. But now, after you read it today, here's my prayer for you, and here's my prayer for me, is that we can actually filter our whole walk of faith through these six, what I would kind of call principles, of what we should do when we feel overwhelmed.

Let me give you number one, and then you're going to see, because we've just read how it describes this one. Number one, what do we do when we're overwhelmed? Number one, what the disciples would say by their lives is that we should stay close to a solid biblical community.

Now, look, I know that sounds really churchy, right? That sounds really churchy. You're like, "A solid biblical community, what does that mean?" That means this, stay close to church. That's what it means. It means this, it means don't isolate yourself in the moment of being overwhelmed. Believer, let me tell you something. Let me make a promise to you. I can promise you this. One of the things that Satan is going to do in your life in moments of confusion, in moments of fear, and in moments of question, right? One of the things that Satan is going to do to you in your life is he is going to try to isolate you. He's going to try to isolate you, is what he's going to do, right?

He's going to try to make you feel so alone. He's going to try to make you feel so independent. He's going to try to make you feel so different than everybody else around you that you might as well just isolate and turn inward and withdraw yourself away from the family of faith. But let me tell you something from a child of the eighties, the one saying that I can remember from the whole eighties is this, "Just say no." Just say no, right? Can I get a child of the eighties? That was all we ever heard, right? Our brains will scramble if we do drugs. Just say no, right? Just say no.

That's the opposite of what God tells us to do. Isolating ourselves is the opposite of all that we should do. And actually listen, it's the opposite of what we just saw in the disciples' life. We just saw the word they three times in the sentence. If you read the book of Acts over and over and over and over again, you're going to see that they're together, that they're together, that they're doing this together, they're walking together. The 120 that you see in these next chapters, they are together and it makes a difference. Why? Let me give you a little Nat Geo understanding of this.

It's never the zebra in the middle of the pack that gets eaten by the lion. It's always the one in the back, right? That's all by himself. Listen, that's what Satan wants to do. He wants to isolate you. He wants you to cut off from the pack, and he wants to get you by your self.

But when we struggle, when we struggle, why is it that many of our first moves is to retreat from the people of God and not to the people of God? Listen, I know some of you have been burned. You've been burned by churches, you've been burned by place, and I totally, totally get that. But listen, as long as I'm the guy with a microphone in this place, let me tell you this, this place is always going to be a place where it's okay to not be okay, and it's okay to lean in to the God of the universe and the family of faith that God has put around us here.

Man, let me ask you to do two things if you're not okay, number one, just keep coming. Just keep coming. Keep coming. Keep putting yourself before the people of God and the Lord God. Keep coming.

Keep coming. Get yourself into community. Do you know that you can isolate yourself by just sitting in these seats on Sunday mornings and doing nothing else? You said, "No, no, no, man, I'm here." No, no, no. Some of you ain't here. You know how I can tell you're not here? Because you know the door to come in where nobody talks to you. You know the time to leave during the invitation before nobody else looks at you. You know where you can come to sit in a seat where no one says a word to you. You are really isolated. Keep coming and keep planting in to the family of God.

And secondly, here's what I'm going to ask you this. Just put yourself at the mercy of those that want to love on you, to speak truth into you. Listen, when we struggle, our first move needs to be to the family of God.

Why? Because we need each other. That's what church is, right? The disciples over and over and over again, especially after these moments after Jesus has been ascended to the Father, they're always in one accord, in the hope, in the group of Jesus, even in these questionable moments. But I can feel the tension, "Matt, but I just feel like every time I do that, I look around the room and everybody else has it figured out and my life is in shambles."

No, you're wrong. 24 years of meeting people, and I'll tell you this, we're all one step from stupid. Every one of us, every one of us are, and I'll tell you this, they're just better at faking it than you are. Get into the family of God. Don't isolate yourself. Plug in. Number one, the disciples are together. I want you to notice that in the text.

Secondly, in times of being overwhelmed, I want you to do this, number two, remember the moments that you fully experienced Jesus. Remember the moments that you fully experienced Jesus. Now, I put moments as plural there on purpose and you'll see in just a minute why. Now, let's get into the disciples lives for just a minute. What are they doing? What are they doing right here? They have gone back to Jerusalem, all right? These guys, they listened to Jesus. He sent them back to Jerusalem. He sent them to go wait on the Holy Spirit, and they actually together move themselves back into a moment and a place that they know they can experience Jesus.

In fact, they moved themselves and went to what the Bible would call the upper room, the upper room. In John chapter 13 through John chapter 17, Jesus spent significant time with his disciples the night before the cross teaching him about himself and about his love and his hope and his mercy, teaching them about the coming of the Holy Spirit.

It's in this place and in this time and moment that they did what, that they celebrated the Lord's Supper together. This is the place and the moment that Jesus encouraged them in these moments, and so much came together in that moment that they had been with Jesus. And I would also say that so much confidence came out of those moments, spending time with Jesus, but what about you?

See, I just said that one of the things Satan will do is try to isolate you, but also one of the things that Satan's going to try to do in times of confusion with you, is he's going to try to make you doubt who you are in Jesus. That's what he's going to do to you. He's going to try to make you doubt it. And one of the things, one of the best ways to fight this doubt that we've been given in our lives are what I would just call these moments that you can remember what God did in you.

You see, for those of you that are believers in Jesus, you need to go back to that moment that you submitted your heart to Jesus and he radically saved you. You need to go back to that moment. For me, it was when I was eight years old on a Tuesday night in a revival in a little church in Mableton, and God invaded my heart and I stepped from death to life.

And listen, I can't tell you how many times that Satan's tried to kind of cut me off from that, and I've had to go back to that moment and go, "No, no, no, no. That's the day he sealed me in Jesus. I may be a fool. I may make some decisions, but I know that I'm his." We got to go back to those moments. For some of you, you need to go back to the moment where you were far from God and you turned from God and you know that he rescued you.

For some of you, you need to go back to the moment that God radically met you in a time of need, in a time of hurt so that you can proclaim his message and his power in your life, and you need to set a mental pin in that moment. The Bible would call it in the Old Testament, to set up an Ebenezer. That's not your grandma. That's a thing, right? To set up an Ebenezer or a marker that you can go back to see God's faithfulness.

In fact, I love this text out of 1st Samuel seven, verse 12. It says, "Then Samuel took a stone and he set it up between Mizpah and Shen, and he called it Ebenezer saying, thus far the Lord has helped us." It was a physical reminder of God's faithfulness that would radically move in them in the future.

They did the same thing at the Jordan, when they crossed over into the Jordan. Do you remember what they did? The first thing is they entered into the promised land, as they set up these piles of stones to remember the moment. Church, listen, these moments that God gives us, you need to lean into them for promises of God. You need to lean into them, into the power of Jesus and the chaos. You need to let Jesus show you in these moments that you are not alone and let these moments keep proclaiming to you that you are God's, and Satan, you have nothing to do with me.

I love that the disciples went back to this moment. But on top of the moment I want to show you something. They didn't just not isolate. They didn't just go back to the moment. Also, thirdly, I want to say this.

When you're overwhelmed, the disciples would say, establish a place to regularly meet with Jesus. Establish a place. Make a place that you have to regularly meet with Jesus. Look back at the disciples. What did they do? I just said it earlier. They came back to the room, right? They came back to the room. They came back to the spot. Let me read it to you, Acts 1:13. It says this, "When they arrived, they went upstairs..." I love this, "To the room where they were staying, and those present were Peter and John and James and Andrew and Philip and Thomas and Bartholomew and Matthew and James, the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas, the son of James."

Now, look, I don't want to make too much of this whole upper room, but I think there's actually a really, really, really good discipline here that the disciples are showing me and you, and that is this.

We need a place and we need a location. We need a room. We need a desk. We need a closet, listen to me closely, that when we sit down, that when we kneel down, that when we walk in, it means something and it means that I am walking into the holy presence of God to spend my moments with God.

Now, listen, "Does that mean, pastor, that I can't meet with Jesus anywhere, that he doesn't hear me anywhere?" No, no, no. That's not what I'm saying, but I'm saying this, as a believer in Jesus that wants the power of God in your life, you need to establish a place in your life that when you walk in, you know that you mean business. God knows that you mean business, and Satan knows that you mean business, and when you come into that place, it is you and God.

It is the scripture in front of you, your prayer journal beside you, a good cup of black coffee, and it's me and you Lord, and here we go. Do you know why? Because it cuts down on the transition time of being in the world and being in the presence of God. You see, for me, it's my desk at my house. Man, when I sit down in that chair in the mornings, it is me and the Lord. It don't take me 17 worship songs to get into the presence of God because I sat in that chair ready.

Let me ask you something. Where's yours? Where's your place? You need one. The disciples had one and they went back to it right here. I love that in the text. Let's get back to the text because in verse 13, it actually shows us this list of names of the disciples.

It's the same list that Luke gives us in Luke chapter 6. There's no surprise they're, right? But what I want to point out is it's actually not the same order that he gives it to us in Luke chapter 6, all right? You might be tempted to say, "Well, Matt, what difference does that make?" Well, actually I think it shows us once again that these guys weren't superstars. There was no huge pecking order in the group right here, it's showing us that they all played a part. They were all witnesses. They were all sent just like we are.

But keep looking at the text in verse 14, I want to show you the next step that we can make when we're overwhelmed. Verse 14, Acts 1:14 says this, "They all joined together constantly in prayer." Are you seeing it? Are you seeing it? I'm not making it up. I'm just reading the text over here, "Along with the women, and Mary, the mother of Jesus and with Jesus's brothers."

And there's a lot that we can say to this text right here, a love that it shows us, man, Jesus did have brothers. It's the last place we see Mary in any of the scriptures. She's not making decisions for them. They're meeting together. They're praying together. But here's what I want to show you about being overwhelmed. Number four, when you've not isolated, when you've went back to those moments, when you went back to that spot that you know God moves. Number four, the disciples would say, "Pray together and pray constantly." Pray together and pray constantly.

Now, I want you to notice both parts, they're both very specific and both there for a reason. Every word in the Bible is there for a reason. There's two words.

There's together and constantly. What does together mean? Together is actually another arrow that is pointing to the idea that our Christian faith is not a private faith. It's meant to be operated in the context of community. It's meant to operate in the context of walking this thing out with other people, specifically with the church.

So what I would ask you this, is that you or you just kind of isolated? Have you just done it on your own and you don't jump into other people's lives? Also, number two, who are you praying with? Man, I get it, you're praying on your own, but is there somebody in your life that you are [inaudible 00:25:48] with, that you are lifting up the name of Jesus with and experiencing his power. They prayed together and they prayed constantly. I love that word constant because it means that they were focused on prayer.

They were constantly praying. "Now, pastor, does that mean that they never ate and they never slept? They never went to the market? They never told a joke? Maybe they never watched football on Saturdays?" No, that's not what it means, but what it does mean is that prayer was the primary force in their life that invited God's presence and God's power into their situation. That's what it means.

Listen, if I sit through one more Bible study or small group that somebody says, "Well, I guess all we can do is pray," I might just punch them in the mouth. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Why? Because prayer is the primary power we have in our lives. Prayer is not just a defensive weapon. It's an offensive welcome to God to move in this situation, especially in the moments of crazy, and in the moments that are overwhelming, we need the power of God and the presence of God, and that's what prayer is.

It's us invoking that over us and in us. How does it happen? When we pray together and when we pray constantly. More to come on that in the book of Acts. So they're not isolating. They're in the moments that God moved. They're remembering those. They're in the spot. They have a positional place in their life where they invite God into the moment. They're praying together, they're praying constantly, and along with all those, when we're overwhelmed, according to the disciples' example, I want to show you these next two. They're a little tougher, but they're in the text.

Number five, the disciples would say also elevate the word of God. Elevate. Now, I put that word elevate on purpose because it actually describes taking it from the bottom shelf and putting it onto the top shelf. You know what I mean by that, right? Elevate. There's no doubt that everybody in here or most of us in here would go, "Yeah, word of God is important," but I'm talking about putting it as the importance, and I want you to see the first thing that comes out of Peter's mouth here.

Look at this in verse 15, it says this. It says, "In those days, Peter stood up among the believers, a group numbering about 120, and he said to them, brothers and sisters, the scripture..." Circle that word, the scripture, "Had to be fulfilled in which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through David concerning Judas, who served as a guide for those who arrested Jesus." Verse 17, "He was one of our number and he shared in our ministry."

I love verse 16 here where Peter leans in, he is like, "Hey, the scripture had to be fulfilled." Now, if you go back and you think about Peter, let me stop right there and point this out. This is actually a new vernacular for Peter. This is a new MO for Peter. If you trace Peter's life with Jesus, doesn't it seem like every time when he was walking with Jesus that he opened his mouth, that somehow he was sticking his foot in it?

You know what I'm talking about? It just seems like every time he talked, it was always an opinion. It was always a rant. It was always a challenge. It was always a, "Why are we doing this, Lord?" But here, after 40 days with Jesus post resurrection, after being with Jesus in the Bible boot camp with Jesus, right, the VBS with Jesus, right? His vernacular changes and the first thing that comes out of his mouth is, "Wait. The scriptures need to be..." You see the difference there? I believe versus the scriptures? Do you know why this happened? Remember last week in Acts chapter 1, verse 3, watch what Jesus did to make this happen. Acts 1:3 says this, "After his sufferings, he presented, that's Jesus, presented himself to them and he gave them many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of 40 days and he spoke about the kingdom of God."

So what is Jesus doing? He's not only giving them the physical proofs, he's showing himself to them, and he's actually teaching them what the kingdom looks like. On top of that, I want you to go back to the disciples sitting on the seashore with Jesus, right after he's resurrected, their life is torn up. Their life is out of control. It is upside down and watch what Jesus does for them in Luke chapter 24, verse 40, it says this, it says, "When he had said this, Jesus, he showed them his hands and his feet and he said to them, this is what I told you when I was still with you. Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in what, the law of Moses, the prophets and the Psalms." What are those things? That describes the whole Old Testament, right?

Those three things, and watch this in verse 45, "And then Jesus opened their minds so that they could understand the scriptures."

What did Jesus do right here, and what does the Holy Spirit do for us? It gave them a new excitement, a new understanding of scripture. It gave them and us, it gave them a new way of all of this to start to make sense, and the beauty of all of that had been said, was that Jesus is who he said he is, and all my life needs to do is to take my opinions off the table and put God's opinions on the table and walk them out in our lives.

Listen, if you want the power of God in your life, the power of God in your life does not come from your opinion. It doesn't come from your desires. It doesn't come from your family heritage. It doesn't come from your ability to work harder. It comes from you and me calling the presence of the Holy Spirit to help us walk out the word of God.

That's what we're seeing here. So in times that we're overwhelmed, they're telling us, "Go back to the scripture, go back to the scripture, go back to God's word and lift it up." And in fact, if you keep reading the narrative in this, what you'll be seeing over and over and over again is every single time something comes up, they just bring the scriptures back up again. What a model for us as New Testament believers to hold high the word of God.

Actually, if you keep reading in the text, in verse 17, I don't think this is in the notes, but let me read it to you, in 17 through 20, he does it again. Watch what Luke does as he gives him the narrative of Judas's death. He says this, he's going back and remembering this. He says, "He," he's talking about Judas, "Was one of our numbers, and he shared our ministry, with his payment he received for his wickedness bought a field, and there he fell headlong and his body burst open and his intestine spilled out." There's a verse for you, sixth graders, welcome to church. There you go, right?

Verse 19 it says, "Everyone in Jerusalem heard about this. So they called the field in their language Akeldama, and that is the field of blood. For Peter said..." Watch, he does it again right here, "It is written in the book of Psalms, may his place be deserted, but there be no one to dwell in it and may another take his place of leadership." What did Peter do again? Yeah, he's telling a story, but where does the story come out? It comes out in the word of God.

God has told us, listen, church over and over and over and over again, "If you'll hold onto my word, if you'll walk in my word, if you'll hold high my word, I will walk with you."

And he always fulfills his promises. So what are we seeing? Man, they're not forgetting the word of God. But here's the last one, number six, when you're overwhelmed, keep walking in obedience. Just keep walking in obedience. Have you seen how this is built up so far?

They've gone from not isolating themselves. They've gone back to a moment where God has moved in their life. They have a spot in their life where they know that when they get there, they mean business. What have they done? They've prayed together. They've held high the scripture together. And now the last one is, what do they send to us? They're like, "Listen, in times that you don't know what to do, just walk in obedience, even when it's not something you're totally sure what to do." You say, "Matt, what does that have to do with this text?" It has everything to do with this text.

Why? Because this next section in the text is absolutely one of the hardest texts to kind of pull into who we are. Why? Because the disciples now are left blazing a new trail. They are prior in this text to the Holy Spirit coming, that's next week. Don't miss next week, all right? The Holy Spirit's going to fall, all right? At least in me in the Bible, can't tell that about you. All right? It is going to be here, all right?

But now they know that Jesus is no longer with them. They're waiting on the Holy Spirit and they're a man down, right? We just read that Judas has died. Now there's only 11 disciples and they know that Jesus has called 12 disciples. And that Jesus, according to Matthew 19:28, that Jesus had already established these 12 thrones for the disciples to sit on for eternity. And now they're sitting there going, "Man, we got a spot open. What do we need to do? We need a replacement."

And watch this in verse 21 through 26, it says this, "Peter says, therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men that has been with us the whole time, the Lord Jesus was living among us, beginning from John's baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us, for one of these must become a witness of his resurrection." Verse 23. "So they nominated two men, Joseph called Barabbas, also known as Justus," that's just two names. We won't worry about him. He doesn't win anyway. "And Matthias." Now that's a good name for you right there. And in verse 24 it says this, "Then they prayed, Lord, you know everyone's heart. Show us which one of these two that you have chosen to take over the apostolic ministry, which Judas left to go where he belongs."

Verse 26, "Then they cast lots and the lot fell on Matthias. And so he was added to the 11 apostles." Now, so, "Matt, what does that have to do with following the scripture and obeying the scripture?" Listen, here's what I'm going to say about this. The scripture's not saying here that we should make all of our decisions based on drawing straws or rolling dice. That's not what it's saying, okay? Nor is it actually condemning that they did it. Why? Because this is prior to the Holy Spirit. There's no mention of lots after the Holy Spirit comes, because now he dwells in us and he leads in us.

Actually in the Old Testament, casting of lots was a way that they made decisions. Joshua did it in dividing the land. Nehemiah did it when determining the schedule of sacrifices. Actually lots were cast at the day of atonement to determine which one of the goats would walk and which one of them wouldn't.

It was kind of a way for them to put all of the decisions in their hands to shake it up and to throw the decision before God and wherever it landed, that was where they would walk. Here's what I want to show you about that though. That's what God asks of us. God asks us to put every decision in our hands and to allow him to move in us.

And whatever he says, that's where he expects us to move. You see, the bigger picture here is not the casting lot. The bigger picture here was their decision that it was based off the word of God, in other words, that David had already said in Psalm 109:8, "May Judas's days be few and may another take his place of leadership." So they were walking that out. They already knew that one of them would fall.

David said it, this decision was based on the word of God and it was based on continual prayer. We saw in verse 14, and now we see in verse 24, how did they make their decision to walk? What does it say Acts 1:24? Then they prayed, "Lord, you know everyone's heart. Show us which one of these two you have chosen, and here's what the implication is and we will move on it." You see church, here it is.

It's not just good enough to not isolate. It's not just good enough to go back to those moments that God has done work in your life. It's not just good enough to have a place in your life that you meet with God. It's not just good enough to do what, to pray before the Father. It's not just good enough to say that you elevate scripture in your life.

The proof of all of this happening is when you actually begin to put your faith in your feet and you actually begin to walk it out in your life, in the holy power of the Spirit of God. When you're overwhelmed, that's the cure. That's what gives you direction and that's what will lead you to seeing God's power.

What you're going to see over and over in this book, is that when we live a life of obedience, God directs and he proves and he moves and he answers and he makes a way. But when we choose to take that power back from him and walk on our own, you know what? Every now and then we might have a little success on this earth, but that success will be nothing compared to the kingdom power that God wants to put inside of you. So here's the invitation today.

The invitation today is are you walking out the faith and the power that God has offered to you? Or are you still walking out your own power? Listen, church, eternity is on the line. And if Jesus is the way and is the truth, and is the life, that he deserves every single one of our decisions to be left to him. So here's the invitation today, number one, has there ever been that moment in your life that you can look back upon that you stepped from death to life where Jesus came into your heart, where he forgave you of your sins, where he became your Lord and pace setter?

If not, here's the good news and the bad news. The bad news is that you can't look back to that time because you've never had it. But the good news is this, we serve a God that just says, "If you'll confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead," that you can be radically saved and from this point forward, you can put an Ebenezer down that says, "This is who God is."

Is that you today? Do you need to say, "Here I am, Jesus, save me." Just a minute, we're going to have an invitation. If that's you, I just want you to take a step out of your seat as soon as I say amen and just walk this next step and go, "Hey man, I need Jesus today." Maybe today though, maybe you are a believer, and this is what I want you to do today. I want you to take these five or six that I just laid out before you, and I just want you to take the number one and number two maybe of them that you just need to say in these next couple minutes to say, "God, you're worthy and here this is." You know what, for you there's probably one that kind of struggles a little more than the others, we all have them. Which one is it today that you need to go, "Hey God, you're worthy and here it is, and Holy Spirit, move in me."

 

Follow Along with the Message

Overwhelmed, But Still Making Good Decisions

 

August 10, 2025

Acts 1:8
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
When life seems overwhelming:
Acts 1:12–13

12 Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk from the city. 13 When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying.

1. close to a solid biblical community.

2. Remember the you fully experienced Jesus.

1 Samuel 7:12

Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen.

He named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.” 

3. Establish a place to meet with Jesus.

Acts 1:14

They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

4. together and constantly.

5. the Word of God.

Acts 1:15–17

15 In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty) 16 and said, “Brothers and sisters, the Scripture had to be fulfilled in which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through David concerning Judas, who served as guide for those who arrested Jesus. 17 He was one of our number and shared in our ministry.” 

Acts 1:3

After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.

Luke 24:40,44–45

40 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet... 44 He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.” 45 Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.

6. Keep in obedience.

Acts 1:21–26

21 Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus was living among us, 22 beginning from John’s baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection.” 23 So they nominated two men: Joseph called Barsabbas (also known as Justus) and Matthias. 24 Then they prayed, “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen 25 to take over this apostolic ministry, which Judas left to go where he belongs.” 26 Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias; so he was added to the eleven apostles.

Psalm 109:8

May his days be few; may another take his place of leadership. 

Acts 1:24

Then they prayed, “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen

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