Ted Harris – The Power of I

When my kids were little—especially the oldest—they loved watching infomercials. You know the kind: a 30-minute commercial for some incredible product you never knew you needed. Then came the sales pitch: “How much would you pay?” But wait… there’s more!

Our favorite was Chef Tony and his Miracle Blades. These knives could cut through a brick, slice an aluminum can, and then somehow cut a tomato paper-thin. And if you ordered now, you got an extra slicer blade and steak knives too. Looking back, who really needs to cut bricks with kitchen knives? Yet somehow, we bought the whole set—and after more than a decade, they still they are still cutting those tomatoes.

There is something exciting about discovering there is more included in the package than you expected.

Life, however, has a way of giving us “extras” we never wanted. When Adam sinned in the Garden, humanity inherited more than separation from God. “But wait, there’s more.” Our bodies became frail. From the moment we are born, we begin to die. “But wait, there’s more.” Illness, suffering, anxiety, emotional pain, disease, and weakness all entered the human story because of sin’s curse.

But wait, there’s good news.

As we read through the book of Acts, we see thousands coming to Christ. People were forgiven, saved, and brought into a renewed relationship with God. They experienced grace, purpose, generosity, and community. But wait… there’s more!

Again and again, healing accompanied the message of salvation.

Throughout the book of Acts we read of crowds gathering, bringing their sick and tormented, “and all of them were healed.” The apostles preached the gospel, but they also ministered healing. Why? Because healing is a part of the salvation package.

Isaiah 53 reminds us that Jesus “Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. ⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.”

Through the cross, Jesus dealt not only with sin but with the immediate effects of the Fall. Salvation is about the healing of body, soul, and spirit. Divine healing is not simply positive thinking or “faith healing” where our faith somehow creates the miracle. God heals. Faith simply receives what grace provides.

James 5 instructs believers to call the elders, pray, and anoint with oil. Why? Because healing remains part of the ministry of the church today. God is still Jehovah-Rapha—“the Lord who heals you.”

That does not mean every sickness is removed instantly. Even Paul had a “thorn in the flesh” God chose not to remove. Healing is a provision of salvation, not a guaranteed timetable. Sometimes God is glorified through healing; sometimes He is glorified by sustaining us through suffering with His sufficient grace.

But as believers, we are never without hope.

The same Jesus who forgives sins still heals hearts, minds, and bodies. The same Holy Spirit who empowered the early church still works today. And the same God who revealed Himself as healer in Exodus has not changed.

The gospel declares that sins can be forgiven and eternal life secured. But wait… there’s more!

Healing is part of the salvation package. Where do you need healing today?

Children grow up fast.

Faster than most parents are ready for.

One moment they are little kids running through the house, and before you know it they are driving cars, making plans, and starting families of their own. As parents, we joke about wanting them out of the house, but the truth is, most of us are not really ready when the time comes. Sometimes I want my 32-, 29- and 26-year-old ‘children’ to be 13, 10, and 7 again. Still, growth is healthy. It is good that children grow up. It is good that they mature. Healthy things are meant to grow.

The same is true of the church. However, the church was never meant to simply grow into crowds. It was meant to live in community.

When Jesus began His ministry, He chose twelve men to follow Him closely. Along the way others joined them. After His resurrection there were up to 500 of believers. Then Pentecost came, and after Peter preached his first public sermon, three thousand people were added to the church in a single day.

That kind of growth sounds exciting until you begin asking practical questions: Who is going to disciple all these people? Who is going to care for them? Who is going to help them mature in Christ?

It had been easier when there were only 120 believers gathered together in a room praying. They knew everybody. Life felt manageable. But healthy churches, like healthy families, are meant to grow.

The early church quickly realized that in order to grow big, they had to stay small.

Acts 2 tells us they gathered together in the temple courts, but they also met from house to house. (Acts 20:20) They worshiped publicly, but they lived relationally. They built a culture of deep community.

Scripture says, “They devoted themselves to the fellowship.”

That word “devoted” means to cling faithfully to something, giving it consistent attention and priority. Fellowship—koinonia—is more than casual friendship. Fellowship is the churchy word for community. It is shared life. Shared burdens. Shared growth. Doing life together in community!

The world pushes us toward isolation. We build privacy fences around our lives. We learn how to smile in crowds while hiding the pain that is really happening in our hearts. It is easy to wear a mask on Sunday morning for ninety minutes. It is much harder to wear that mask when a small group of people truly knows you.

But that is where transformation happens in the midst of community.

The early believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching because they wanted their lives shaped by truth. Jesus never intended for people to simply attend church gatherings; He intended for them to become like Him. Real spiritual growth happens when a few committed believers walk together, encourage one another, and help each other obey Christ.

Who is helping you grow spiritually? I am writing this right after spending a couple hours with 10 other people that I have been doing life with for a couple years now. That picture are those people bringing real life stuff before a sovereign God who loves us!

Who knows your struggles well enough to pray specifically for you? Who is helping you become more like Jesus? Who lets you rant, complain, cry and then picks you up and walks with you through the pain?

The early church also valued compassion and service. They cared for one another deeply, met practical needs, and shared generously. Their compassion became visible action. Because of that, there were no needy people among them, and the surrounding community saw something beautiful in the people of God. Something they didn’t have but knew they wanted.

And as they lived this way, the Lord continued adding to their number daily. They valued multiplication, not addition.

Healthy disciples make disciples. Healthy groups multiply more groups. Healthy churches prepare themselves to care for the people God sends.

Community, Transformation, Compassion, Service, and Multiplication. That was a new way of life. Life lived together in close community with other believers.

Growth without community creates crowds. But growth with authentic fellowship creates mature followers of Jesus. God still desires to add to His church today. The question is whether we are willing to move beyond comfort, beyond isolation, and into authentic biblical community.

3,000 in one day. My math says that is 300 small groups! Who are your people?

Sometimes the way God grows something big is by teaching it to stay small.

Christmas and Easter are the two holidays most cherished by the Church, and rightly so. They are inseparable. Without the birth of Christ, there would be no cross. Without the cross and resurrection, His birth would have little meaning. Both stand as annual reminders of God’s grace.

Growing up, Easter often meant bunnies, baskets, jellybeans, marshmallow Peeps and dressing up for church. Somewhere in the celebration, the true meaning was lost on me.

The first Easter was different. Jesus’ followers were confused, grieving, and afraid. Even after the resurrection, it took several weeks and multiple appearances from Jesus for the reality to sink in. Then came Pentecost—fifty days later.

In Acts 2, 120 believers were gathered in one place when the Holy Spirit arrived in power. A crowd of Jews, in Jerusalem for the Feast of First fruits, rushed in to see what was happening. And Peter stood up and preached the first “Easter sermon.”

He explained three life-changing truths about Jesus.

First, Jesus’ life was perfect.

Peter called Him “Jesus of Nazareth” (Acts 2:22). Nazareth was not a place of honor. Nathanael once asked, “Can anything good come from there?” Yet Jesus was publicly accredited by God through miracles, wonders, and signs. He lived among them. They saw Him heal the sick, raise the dead, and teach with authority. He was the sinless, perfect man.

Second, Jesus’ death was God’s perfect plan.

Peter boldly declared, “This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge” (Acts 2:23). The Jews understood sacrifice. Their entire worship system revolved around blood being shed for forgiveness. Peter was revealing that Jesus was the final sacrifice—the spotless Lamb whose blood paid for sin once and for all. Grace sent Jesus to the cross. Grace held Him there willingly.

Third, Jesus’ resurrection was the perfect conclusion.

“But God raised him from the dead” (Acts 2:24). But God. Death could not hold Him because sin had no claim on Him. Jesus conquered death, and by grace He offers that victory to us. Our hope is not just for this life. Because He lives, we can live now in resurrection power through the Holy Spirit and forever in His presence.

The crowd was “cut to the heart” and asked, “What shall we do?”

Peter answered, “Repent and be baptized.”

Repentance means to turn around—to change your mind and direction. Baptism is the public declaration that you belong to Jesus.

Here’s the good news: grace is not a contract. It is not “you do your part, and God does His.” Grace is not earned; it is offered. Jesus has already paid the price. There is nothing left for Him to do.

Heaven is not reserved for good people. Heaven has been purchased for forgiven people.

So regardless of what you’ve done, how far you’ve strayed, or how long it’s been since you spoke to God—grace awaits you.

Believe. Receive. Turn around.

The risen Christ is calling you.

Springtime in Indiana often brings to mind the familiar saying, “If you don’t like the weather, just wait—it will change.” In the span of a single week, we can experience all four seasons. One evening you’re bundling up in 17-degree cold, and just days later the forecast is pushing toward 80. It’s unpredictable, sudden, and sometimes a little disorienting.

Life can feel the same way—only without a forecast.

Circumstances shift without warning. One day everything feels steady; the next, you’re sitting in a doctor’s office waiting on results you never expected. A job feels secure until suddenly it isn’t. A relationship seems healthy, only to reveal cracks that have been forming quietly over time. Like a storm rolling in out of nowhere, life can change in an instant. We thought it was spring, and suddenly winter returns.

But even in the most unexpected storms, there is hope.

There is a peace available to us that is not dependent on our circumstances. God’s promises remain steady no matter how quickly life changes around us:

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” — Hebrews 13:8

“For I the LORD do not change…” — Malachi 3:6

“The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.” — Isaiah 40:8

This unchanging nature of God—what theologians call His immutability—means that His character never shifts, His promises never fail, and His power is never diminished. He is not reliable in some situations and absent in others. He is constant. He is present. He is faithful.

And because He does not change, we can have peace—even when everything else feels uncertain.

It is a deep comfort to know that while tomorrow may be unknown to us, it is not unknown to Him. He has already seen what lies ahead, and He is fully able to carry us through it. More than that, He is able to work in it—bringing purpose, growth, healing and even good from what we never would have chosen ourselves.

So, if you don’t like the season you’re in right now, take heart—God has not changed, and He is still at work. The forecast may be uncertain, but His faithfulness never is.

When I was nine years old, my dad took me to a dinner banquet he had been invited to that featured the famed sportscaster, Howard Cosell. I was the only kid in the room. After what felt like a very long dinner and a very boring speech, guests were invited to come up and meet Howard Cosell and Lamar Hunt, the owner of the Kansas City Chiefs and an NFL icon.

The man who had given my dad the tickets handed me an official NFL football and suggested I get it signed. And I did. We stood in line, shook their hands, collected their autographs, and went home. That football became a prized possession—perfect for show-and-tell—and eventually earned a place of honor on a shelf in my bedroom.

Do you know where that football is today?  Yeah… me neither.

A few months later, when football season rolled around, the value of actually playing with the ball far outweighed the value of the signatures written on it. I was nine.

As I grew up, I managed to collect several more autographs from professional athletes. I’m really going to date myself here—most of you may have to Google these names. Growing up in Lawrence, Kansas, Gale Sayers visited our Boy Scout troop. Kansas City Royals greats like John Mayberry, Darrell Porter, and Dan Quisenberry or Jim ‘Catfish’ Hunter and Lou Pinella signed items that I carefully stored in a scrapbook.

Do you know where that scrapbook is today? Yeah… me neither.

Somewhere along the way, I realized something important. The real value was never in the name written on a ball or a piece of paper. The value was in knowing the person behind the name. I no longer wanted signatures—I wanted relationships.

In many ways, professional athletes are still idolized today. People wear their names, cheer for them, and follow them closely. But most only know what they see from the stands or on a screen. They know the name—but not the person.

Isaiah 6 gives us one of the most powerful pictures of worship in all of Scripture. The prophet is given a vision of heaven: God seated on a throne, seraphim flying above Him, calling out in worship. The scene is so overwhelming that it shakes the temple itself and brings Isaiah to his knees in confession and repentance.

But if we read this passage only in our English translations, we can miss something significant. We see words like Lord and LORD Almighty and understand they refer to God—but Isaiah was using specific names for God, and those names carried deep meaning for those who truly knew Him.

“In the year King Uzziah died, I saw Adonai seated on a throne.”

And the angels were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is Yahweh Almighty.”

God reveals His names because He longs to be known.

Adonai means Master or Sovereign One. It is both a name and a title. When Isaiah uses this name, he is placing himself in the position of a servant – a slave – before his Master. He sees God’s authority and power as His robe fills the entire temple. Sovereignty of this magnitude in human hands would be terrifying. But Adonai is all-seeing, all-knowing, and all-loving. He makes no mistakes. He allows nothing without reason or purpose.

Yahweh is the most personal name of God—the name first revealed to Moses at the burning bush. When Moses asked who he should say had sent him, God replied, “Tell them I Am has sent you.” Yahweh simply means I Am. The eternal, self-existent, ever-present God.

Isaiah didn’t just know about God. He knew Him. He knew Adonai, the Sovereign One. He knew Yahweh, the holy and personal God. God was not a concept to Isaiah—He was a person. And because Isaiah knew God by name, he could worship Him in every circumstance.

In the end, what’s in a name? Everything—when the name leads you to truly know the One behind it.