6/14/15-Empowered by the Spirit to Serve

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. It is that part of you when you become a believer that urges you to act like Christians.

It reminds you to live as believers rather than live as what you once were before you came to the Lord for salvation.

That intimate time when you faced a hardship and you felt God as close to you as your neighbor sitting next to you, that was the Holy Spirit.

It is Jesus, here. When Jesus says, “I am giving you the Holy Spirit. He is basically saying, I am giving you, Me”

So what does it mean to be filled with the Spirit, it is getting up daily, and saying “Lord, I want you to rule in my life”

And the Holy Spirit can be resisted, that is actually what Stephen criticized the religious leaders for doing.

He was full of the Spirit of Jesus, and they were completely empty of it, and so the author here is saying, to be mature Christian, you have to be willing to say, “Lord, in every situation, I am going to do what you want instead of what I want”

“Lord not my will, but yours be done. Help me to study and know you so well, that in the blink of an eye, when the heat is on, and time is running out, I won’t have to think twice to know what to do.

Remember, it takes practice to be a Christian, but I want to see all of us here mature into strong believers.

The life of a disciple of Jesus requires that we surrender, that we throw ourselves down and say “God, give me a fresh outpouring of your Holy Spirit, so that I would live the way you want”.

Every day you and I have a choice to make. Will we listen and be led by our base nature, our flesh, and what it desires, or will we listen and be led by the Spirit of God, and what He desires.

God wants us to grow in your faith, and the more you grow and mature, the more you will be guided by God’s Spirit instead of your own desires.

Are you ever frustrated that you can’t quite conquer that sin that has been dogging you and won’t leave you alone.

Just pause…and say “Holy Spirit, work through me” and He will. You have God on your side, but God does not want you to work alone, for that is why they here in the text and we here today were given the Holy Spirit so we could serve one another.

Every day we have a choice whether we want to operate by our limited way of seeing things, or to actively seek God, and say “Lord what do you want”

We gotta be a church that is led by God’s Holy Spirit. If we are led by our flesh, it does not really matter if we have great programs, a big budget or anything else.

We must be led by the Holy Spirit. If you are trying to discern leaders here in the future, ask yourselves, are they full of the Spirit or do they chase after the flesh? Decons, leaders, board members, Sunday School teachers,

Parents, children, everyone here, say “yes” to Jesus, and be filled with the Spirit. Look at the final verse here v. 7 it says three things happened.

God’s message was preached in ever-widening circles, the number of believers increased, and many of the Jewish priests were converted too.

The church keeps growing, because the solution worked. Church problems can be solved so long as we seek God, and do what He wants, and it was so blessed, that the gospel was even reaching and converting the very people that had Jesus killed.

The enemy is on the run, and souls are being saved and reclaimed with the gospel.

We can be that church. We can be the church, not free of problems, but that faces problems head on and discovers solutions without being rocked to our core, but it takes leaders. God may be calling you to be a leader. And with a servant’s heard full of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, nothing is impossible.

Remember, you have God on your side, and the last time I checked, that was enough.

Acts 4:1-22, 31-Empowered by the Spirit-6/7/15

We see here in the apostles Peter and John a holy boldness, courage in the face of danger. I mean here they were, facing the exact same guys that put the Lord Jesus to death, that found an innocent man guilty.

You remember how these guys and other disciples reacted? They ran, they hid. Now they are facing the same guys from whom they once hid. They are caught, but now they are looking at their accusers different.

Something has changed now. These guys aren’t cowardly cats. They are lions ready to roar!

What has changed? They were given the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus Himself, and now nothing can stand in their way.

And if you are a believer in Him, then He dwells inside of you, what you see when you look in a mirror each morning. He lives in you.

They tried to arrest Peter and John, and the church kept growing, they tried to persecute the believers, and the church kept growing. The more the devil tried to clobber the Kingdom of God, the more the devil found himself being clobbered by God.

The tables are about to turn and the accusers are about to find themselves the accused, and the judges are about to be judged.

And its apex hits a crescendo in verse 11 and 12-“The Stone you builders rejected has now become the cornerstone. There is salvation in no one else!

There is no other name in all of heaven for people to call on to save them. I know that message isn’t very popular today. It seems exclusive, but to say anything less, is to not honor and give thanks to God for what He has done.

See people think there are hundreds of religions out there. No, there are really two types. One is salvation by works, where it is my own effort. The other is by grace which is accepting God’s offer. One way you look at God and say, “I must do” the other, God looks at you and “it’s done”.

One way is effort, the other is grace. One way leads to pride, the other

love. One way is work, the other way is a gift. One way is a duty, a responsibility, the other is a relationship and a joy.

Either Jesus is enough, or He isn’t and we still have to earn something with God, and friends we can’t…but we don’t have to.

Don’t focus on the fact that God has chosen only one way to save humanity, rejoice He gave us a chance at all, when he didn’t have to

The debt has already been paid, and this is part of the proof of it. This man has been healed by the disciples, and the leaders are marveled by this!

It did not take degrees, or schooling, it took spending time with Jesus, quality time learning from Him.

If you live for the Lord, His light will shine through you, and you don’t have to be afraid of those who hurt you because of your faith, because if they stand against you, then they will find themselves standing against God Himself.

If you are faithful, God will provide the evidence needed to show your faith.

Don’t be afraid. If these guys could do it, so can we. But it takes all of us to make a decision, to say no to self, and yes to the Holy Spirit. To yield to self, is to be filled with the Spirit. To live Spirit-controlled lives. And that is going to take us being humble.

But once we do, the fruit of the Spirit becomes multiplied. Look at the answer they gave when they were threatened.

“We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.” These men walked so closely with Jesus that to deny Him would be to deny who they were. Friends, if there is one point Acts is bringing us in its pages, is that the same Spirit that gave them the power to do God’s work is the same Holy Spirit today, here and now.

We are the handiwork of God, continuing His mission in the world. We ought to pray for courage. He is the one who has won the battle with death, Satan, and the world and in doing so has purchased our freedom to live!

We have been made friends with God, and when we are with Him, nothing is impossible.

You are the church. It rises or falls depending on your faithfulness to the gospel. Be filled with the Spirit