What a debut!

New York Jets quaterback Mark Sanchez just finished his first season on the NFL. He threw for 2444 yards, 12 touchdowns, had a passer rating of 63% but more impressive is that he is taking his team to the playoffs as a rookie. Talk about a debut.

The Disciples had a pretty amazing debut themselves in Acts 2.

For those of you who may be unfamiliar with the story, God’s Word says that the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit and then Peter stepped up to the plate and hit a touchdown of a sermon that resulted in more than 3,000 coming to accept Jesus as Savior that day. What a debut, especially considering the expectation that was given to them by Jesus. He set the bar pretty high for those guys. Remember the words of Matthew 28:18-20 (NIV):

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

That was their mission. That was their goal. That was what was laid on their shoulders. What a God-sized mission!

After looking at their mission, I asked myself two questions:

How did God prepare them to do something huge for Him? When thinking about this question, God revealed something to me: the disciples were on spiritual cloud nine. Think about what happened in their lives in the past three years: they followed Jesus around for three years, they witnessed miracles, one walked on water, they were there when Jesus was arrested, they saw Jesus crucified, they saw Him die, they saw the empty tomb, they hung out with the risen Jesus, they saw Jesus ascend into heaven before their eyes, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit.

Talk about a spiritual high! God had prepared them and equipped them to do something huge for Him.

Now the other question…

Where did they start? You know after they saw Jesus ascend into heaven, they all looked at each other scratching their heads, all thinking “now what?” How overwhelming that feeling and pressure must have felt in that moment. I can imagine John thinking, “Jesus told us to change the world, but how? Where do we start?”

If you look back at Acts 2 (their start), you will see that God brought the people to them. I guarantee you Peter looked over that huge crowd, felt butterflies in his stomach, nervously cleared his throat, and boldly opened his mouth and out spilled the Gospel and message that changed the world. God let them start changing the world right where they were, one person at a time.

I believe God has called all his children to be world-changers. Looking at your life, how has God been preparing you to change this world? All the spiritual highs and incredible God-moments where given to you to share with others. How are you doing with that?

Finally, I understand that the mission to change the world can be intimidating. Take comfort that God (like with the disciples) will open doors and bring people into your life to start accomplishing that mission. You have to start where you are first, one person at a time.

I like to write out and set my world-changing mission like this:

HOW I WILL CHANGE MYSELF -
HOW I WILL CHANGE MY FAMILY -
HOW I WILL CHANGE MY FRIENDS -
HOW I WILL CHANGE MY WORK/SCHOOL -
HOW I WILL CHANGE MY CITY -
HOW I WILL CHANGE MY COUNTRY -
HOW I WILL CHANGE MY WORLD -

Any of that hit home today? This was pretty fresh on my heart if you could not tell. Hope this helps you in your journey.