The Disruptive Church
The first thing I believe the Lord wants me to share this morning is that being on fire as a church will cause disruption. Friends, if we want to create fire, disruption is always needed. You need oxygen, fuel, and heat. Friction creates the heat. Friction happens when two surfaces move over each other and create heat. This disrupts everything if you add fuel and oxygen. Friction, disruption, heat, and then fire.
We see this in Acts 16:16-24. After meeting an influential woman in Philippi named Lydia, Paul and his team encountered a slave girl possessed by a demonic spirit and being used for monetary gain. The spirit in the woman was trying to unnerve Paul, keeping her from being healed. Paul sensed he needed to step in and disrupt the demonic activity in her life. Finally, Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to come out of her!” At that moment, the spirit left her (Acts 16:16-18).
This is what the disruptive church looks like. I loved it when we got the call from Janette about hosting you guys here today. I loved how disruptive it all sounded. I then rationalized everything and began to think we might be taking on too much, but the Lord spoke to me and showed me that as a church we need disruption. We need things shaking up a bit. We need to facilitate disruptive mission.
So this week, as you all go out across the city and in this local area, your very presence and mission are disruptive. Not in the sense of the arson attacks we mentioned earlier—that is negative disruption. The energy of the fire of God is not like arson. It’s smart fire. When Jesus ministered, when the early church ministered, and when we minister, we minister with a burning, cleansing flame. The fire is disruptive but always under control. When we step out to share Jesus, the fire goes wherever we go.
Conclusion
And so the Lord wants you to go out this week, taught up, prayed up, fired up, and expectant that as you go, your fire will attract people like this fortune-telling slave girl. What does she represent? She could be your sister, the girls in your school class, or a girl you meet on outreach who is broken. God will lead you to her and people like her, enslaved by something or someone, or a demonic power. The Lord says, do all you can to set people like this free. The good news of Jesus (crucified and raised) and the healing power of God changed her destiny. Lives will be changed through your mission this week. Why? Because as the Church, we are called to go out and be disruptive. Disrupt people who are caught up in things that are enslaving them.
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