Greg Laurie - Power to Change the World (08/23/2017)
- Watch
- Donate
- Become Partner
Pastor Greg Laurie shares from Acts 1 and 2 about the power of the Holy Spirit to change the world through bold witnessing. He explains that fear often holds believers back from sharing the gospel, but God qualifies the called and gives explosive power for evangelism, urging us to be filled, refilled, and used as witnesses starting right where we are.
Prayer for Boldness and Understanding Witnessing
Lord, we are so thankful that your relentless love, you have never given up on us. And here we are trusting you, following you. Now we know, Lord, that you have called us in what we often refer to as the Great Commission to go into our world and preach the gospel. But if we are honest we will admit that we are apprehensive about this. We are cautious. We are afraid in many ways. So we are praying that you will help us to understand more what it means to be a witness. And that we will take hold of all the power that you have for us. And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Alright. You can be seated. Let's grab our Bibles and turn to Acts chapter 1. And the title of my message is Power to Change the World. How is that for a title?
The Great Commission – A Direct Command
Well we have all received the memo. We are to go into all the world and preach the gospel. That is clear. In fact it is a direct order if you want to get technical. Because when Jesus gave the Great Commission in the original Greek it is a command. He says in effect, I command you to go into all the world and preach the gospel.
But do we do that? Well to a large degree, no. Many of us do not. There are some listening to this message right now that have never engaged a person with the message of the gospel. Others that do it occasionally. Others that do it more often. And then there are some that are just evangelism machines and they do it all the time. But many of us don't do it.
And why is that? Well if we were to probably pick one reason. Maybe it is an excuse. I am not sure. We would say I am afraid. When people are asked why don't you share your faith the number one reason given is I am afraid.
What are you afraid of? Well you are afraid of failure. Because you don't think you are qualified. But here is good news for all of us. God does not call the qualified. He qualifies the called. Let me say it again. God does not call the qualified. He qualifies the called. Or to put it differently, the calling of God is the enabling of God. He will give you the power to do what He wants you to do if you will take that step of obedience.
But we are afraid. We are afraid of rejection. We are afraid of mockery. We are afraid of that person asking a question we don't have the answer to. And all those things may happen. But those are some of the things that hold us back.
Afraid of Success – The New Believer Challenge
But maybe here is another reason we don't do it. And another thing that we are actually afraid of. Maybe we are afraid of success. Success. That says in, OK I am sharing the gospel with someone. I am telling them they need Jesus Christ in their life. What if they say, gulp, yes. Yeah. What if they say that? Then you need to pray with them.
By the way, if I am sharing my faith with anyone and I feel that they are at the very verge of making a commitment to Christ, here is what I say. Let's pray right now. And people will say, Here? Here? Yeah. Outside of the bathroom. Right now. Remember that story from last time. OK. I don't care if you are in a parking lot. If you are in a restaurant. I don't care where you are. We are going to pray right now.
I am not going to say to them, Hey go home and pray by yourself or think about it and we will talk in a week. We are going to close the deal right now.
But maybe we don't want to do that because now we have, well, a new believer on our hands. A new believer that needs help. A new believer that needs us. And maybe we don't want a new believer in our life.
But I want you to know it is a great joy to have someone fresh in the faith to hang around with. Because as they are learning things for the first time you are relearning those things. As their passion is growing yours will grow with them as you see things through their eyes.
I have five grandchildren. I think I have mentioned that before. And the newest is our grandson Christopher. He just turned two. He is named after his uncle Christopher. And he is just talking now. And he doesn't say many words. But I am amazed that I actually had a conversation with him the other day. I said, Christopher, he is walking out the door, I said, Where are you going? And he said, Park. I said, Park. You are going to the park? And he said, Shesh. He can't say yes so he says, Shesh. It is very cute really.
And you know watching him grow up is amazing. You know these little babies and they are really high need when they are young. I mean when they are really newborns. They need to be nurtured. They need to be cared for. They need to be protected. They need all the care that is out there. And of course they need their diapers changed. And I have always managed to be out of the room when that need comes. I have done pretty well raising two sons, five grandchildren. Oh they need their diaper. I will be right back. And I am gone. You know.
But yeah that is kind of a messy business. And then as they become toddlers, oh now you are going to watch them constantly. You can't let your eyes off a toddler for ten seconds. They are climbing up this. They are hanging off that. So you have to watch them. That is what it is like with a new believer.
New believers are vulnerable. New believers get themselves into trouble. Yeah. No. No. Don't do that. Come on over here. Be careful. Watch out for this.
But then as they start getting it, as they start growing it, as they start saying, Shesh to you, it is a joy. John said, I have no greater joy to know than my children walk in truth.
So maybe we are afraid of success. I don't know what it is. But I want you to know that those first century disciples had the same fears that you have.
Ordinary People Empowered by Jesus
We take the disciples. We put them on pedestals. We look at them through stained glass. We think that they were flawless. Nothing could be further from the truth. These guys were as ordinary, as ordinary could be. They were uneducated. They were confused. They were men of few social graces. But in a relatively short period of time God used these men and women to change the world.
You know why? Because they had been with Jesus. There is a statement in Acts chapter 4 verse 13. It is speaking of the religious leaders. It says, When they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived there were uneducated, common men. They were astonished. And they recognized they had been with Jesus.
So that brings me to this point. It is not what you know. It is who you know. It is not what you know. It is who you know.
Listen. You personally know Jesus Christ. You think you don't know that much. I suggest to you you know more than you think you know. You just haven't been put under pressure yet. But you see when you engage that person in a conversation and they ask you that question that you don't think you have the answer to, you pray and say, Lord give me wisdom. And suddenly things start popping into your mind you don't even remember memorizing. In fact what you are saying is so good you want to take notes on yourself. What is that? Well it is not you. It is the Holy Spirit.
But we have to take that step of faith and be available to Him like these first century believers were.
Remember when Jesus was arrested and sent to be crucified for the most part they abandoned Him. John stood at the foot of the cross but none of the others did. And then when He was under pressure by a complete stranger I might add. Simon Peter denied Jesus three times.
So these guys understood what it was to be afraid. But something happened in their life that changed them. And it changed the world as a result. And that something was a someone. And that someone was the Holy Spirit.
They found something they did not previously have which was the power of the Holy Spirit in their life. That is what I want to talk to you about today. This power that God wants to give you to change the world. This power that God wants to give you to change your world.
Acts – The Original Church Template
So we are looking at the book of Acts which is sort of a snapshot of the church that changed the world. A selfie if you will. The church that Jesus started. This is the original template. This is literally the original Greek. We stray from this template at our own peril because this is the church that changed the world primarily through prayer and preaching.
And by the way they didn't have media like we have today. There was no television. Paul didn't have a TV program. Peter wasn't on the radio. There was no social media. Thomas did not tweet. Matthew did not have an Instagram account. But yet in a relatively short period of time the world was a different place because of these men.
So it all goes back to when they were empowered on the day of Pentecost. Some say we need another Pentecost. No we don't. We don't need another Pentecost anymore than we need another Calvary. We need to just take hold of what happened on the original Pentecost because the same power that set the early church into motion is here for us right now.
Because on that day, the day of Pentecost, Simon Peter said to the people who were attending, this promise is to you, it is to your children, and to all that are far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
Yeah. That church, they turned the world upside down. Here is my concern. It seems like the church is being turned upside down today by the world. Instead of us changing the world, the world is changing us. Instead of us shaking the world, the world is shaking us.
Here is a good question to ask yourself. Am I shaking the world? Or is the world shaking me?
See it seems wherever Paul went something happened. Either a conversion or a riot. There was never a dull day. In Acts 17:6 it says, Paul and Silas, these are the critics saying this by the way, Paul and Silas have turned the rest of the world upside down. And now they are here disturbing our city.
That is what we need in our city. A whole disturbance. Not just another church service. A holy disturbance.
G. Campbell Morgan said, quote, Organized Christianity which fails to make a disturbance is dead. God give us more disturbances like this.
It starts one person at a time. And by the way, their world was very dark. Very dark. In fact in many ways the first century and the 21st century are much alike. We think things are bad now. And they are. But in the first century things are really bad.
Rome was in control. The whole world was bludgeoned into submission under the power of Rome. Immorality was rampant. In cities like Corinth prostitutes openly walked the streets. The religious establishment was corrupt. Idolatry, spiritism, and demon worship were openly practiced. And everywhere the first century Christians went they were ridiculed. They were opposed. They were persecuted. Sometimes they were physically assaulted for their beliefs. And on other occasions they were even murdered.
But within thirty years the original 120 and their converts changed the world.
Tertullian, one of the early church fathers, wrote about this in the year 200. Listen to this description. He says, Quote, We have filled every place among you. Cities, islands, fortresses, towns, marketplaces, the very camp, tribes, companies, palaces, the senate, the forum. We have left nothing to you but the temples of your gods. End quote.
I love that. Tertullian is saying, Hey, we have invaded all of Rome. And you know eventually Rome, the most powerful nation on the face of the earth collapsed. And Rome, by the way, was never beaten technically on a battlefield as much as they began to collapse from within.
Historian Will Durant in his book, Caesar and Christ, points out that the reason for the decline of Rome was a breakdown in her morals. And that is true. But it was also the spread of the gospel that impacted every nook and cranny of this massive empire.
And that is what we need today. We need that kind of Christianity. And by the way, that is New Testament Christianity and that is normal Christianity.
You know as we read the book of Acts we might think, Well this is kind of crazy. This is abnormal. No. I suggest to you if we don't have what they have we are the ones who are abnormal. Not them. This is the norm. This is what we should be seeing happening. What we have many times is a watered down Christianity in its place.
But the good news is the same Holy Spirit that set the early church into motion is alive and willing to move today and ready to use us if we will open ourselves up to Him.
Setting the Scene – From Crucifixion to Ascension
Now let's sort of set the scene before we read our verses. Remember Jesus had been crucified and this came as a great shock to the disciples. It was their belief that Christ was going to establish His kingdom and overthrow Rome and wear a crown of gold and sit on a regal throne. And instead He was beaten and bloodied and given a crown of thorns and nailed to a cross.
So for them the dream was over. They saw Him hang on that cross. They saw the nails pounded into His hands and feet. They saw Him slump and die before their eyes. They saw the Roman soldier thrust His spear into the side of Christ. And out of it came blood and water probably indicating a breakdown in the pericardium sac and so forth.
They knew He was dead. And as they look at that beaten bludgeoned body of Jesus they never expected to see that man alive again.
But He did come back to life. And then He appeared to them. And not just once but again again and again and again. He shows up with the disciples on the Emmaus road and engages them in conversation. He meets Mary at the tomb early in the morning. He appears in the upper room to the disciples. Then appears again especially for Thomas. Then He appears to 500 people at one time. It is almost like He was just hanging around with them all the time. Here He is again. He is back.
And so their hope was reviving. Oh good. Let's get back to that old plan where you will overtake Rome and establish your kingdom right here.
But that was not what He was coming to do. That brings us to a verse we are going to look at together. Acts 1:6. They said, Lord are you going to free Israel now and restore your kingdom. Hey let's get back to plan A, Lord. Free Israel. Establish your kingdom. They are excited about this.
But Jesus is effectively saying, Guys, that is not what I have come to do. I have not come to establish a kingdom on the earth at this time. I want to rule and reign in the hearts of men and women. That is why I died on the cross. One day I will come again and establish my kingdom.
But I have something I want you to do until that day.
And we can still have this mentality, Lord when are you coming back? You know I have talked to some Christians. They will say, I don't want to live in this evil world anymore. I just want to go meet the Lord in the rapture. That is fine. But wait a second. If that is causing you to disconnect from life, and it is causing you to not be the representative of God He wants you to be, I think you are missing something.
God does not want us to have an escapist mentality. He doesn't want us to be like the ostrich with his head buried in the sand. He wants us to be about our Father's business. He has told us to occupy till He comes.
And if Jesus decides to come in the middle of this sermon I say, Amen. I don't care if I even finish it. Maybe I will try on the way up though. One more point. No I don't care. Whenever. If He wants to come tonight I welcome that. If He wants to come tomorrow morning I am fantastic with that.
But until that time I have things to do.
Last Words – Perspective from the Mountain
So Jesus takes His disciples to a mountain in Galilee. And perhaps He did that to give them perspective. You know when you get up high you see things differently. Right. Kind of get the lay of the land a little bit more. So He wanted them to see the bigger picture of a bigger world.
And He delivers what we might describe as His last words. Now He wasn't going to die. He had already done that and risen again. Now He is going to ascend to heaven. But these are His final words to the church and His final words to us in Matthew 28.
I already mentioned them. You can look at that verse if you want. Now He calls the eleven disciples away into Galilee to the mountain which He appointed for them. When they saw Him they worshipped Him. Some doubt it. Jesus came and spoke to them saying, All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you even to the end of the age.
Sounds good. Great plan. But how? How? That is a big world. How are we going to do it?
Now the power comes in. Look at Acts 1:8. You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and to the end of the earth.
Power to be a witness. By the way the word witness comes from the Greek word martyr. We get our English word martyr from it. Power to live for your faith. Power if necessary to die for your faith. Power to have boldness to share your faith.
You shall receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you. Power to turn the world upside down.
The Holy Spirit – Avoiding Extremes
Now when it comes to the topic of the Holy Spirit some people get a little bit nervous. And it seems like there are two general reactions. Two ways that we can go wrong in the question of our experiences that we have in relation to Scripture.
One is claiming things that go beyond Scripture or even contradict it. And sometimes we see stuff done in the name of the Holy Spirit that is just flat out bizarre. Okay. And usually it is strange preachers on television. And they attribute all this weirdness to the Holy Spirit. Even the way they say Holy Spirit. You know, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Receive it now. Receive it. Yay! You are receiving it.
Why do they talk like that? Who are these people? Why do they wear bad hair pieces? They have a healing ministry. Why don't they lay hands on themselves and grow hair? In sort of a flamboyant manner they will pray for people. People fall down under the power of the Spirit. They will throw their coat. People are falling down.
I have seen services on TV where the preacher says, these people are receiving the Spirit. And the people are rolling around on the ground, running around the room like crazy people, making animal noises. And you look at that and say, if that is the Holy Spirit I don't want it. Right?
Newsflash. That is not the Holy Spirit. I don't know what it is. But I don't find it in the Bible. And if I don't find it in the Bible I don't want it.
God didn't say, you will receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you to be weird. He said, you will receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you to be a what? A witness. That is why He gave that power.
But then the other extreme is when we don't seek that which is found in Scripture and we don't receive that which is promised to us by God. It is a danger of being satisfied with something less than what God has offered to you. And that friend is called quenching the Spirit.
Quenching vs. Being Filled – Don't Extinguish the Flame
How many of you like to camp? Raise your hand. You like to camp. How many of you like to go to the beach? Raise your hand. Okay. Well you know my favorite time of going to the beach is when I get there and when I leave. You know I get real excited. We are going to the beach. The beach. The beach. The beach. The beach. You know.
So you get there and you put out your beach chair and you lay out your towel and you have got your little lunch and you have got maybe something to read while you are there on the beach. It is nice and quiet. You are enjoying it and the ocean lapping on the sand and the sun is out and the birds and everything is great.
And then somebody comes and sets up next to you. There is an entire beach and they come right next to you. Right? Why? And they have their little kids who are running back and forth across your towel. And the next thing you know they have the radio on too loud. And now the seagull just flew off with your lunch. And you are getting hot. And you are getting sweaty. And people are all around you. And you can't wait to leave. I am leaving the beach. I am leaving the beach. I am leaving the beach. You know it is setting up and it is tearing down.
And one of the things you will do maybe if you stay through the evening is you will put a fire in the fire ring if you go to one of those. The same in camping. You set up the fire. But when you are breaking camp you have to put out the fire. You extinguish the flames. Right? You must do that. Because it could be a fire hazard.
That is quenching. Okay here is the thing. We can quench the Spirit. The Bible says don't quench the Spirit. And the word that is used there for quench means to extinguish the flame.
Have you ever quenched the Spirit? You say I don't think so. Well maybe you have. Here is how it works. The Holy Spirit leads you to do something. The Holy Spirit nudges you. It is not like He speaks to you audibly. But you are just out and about in your day. And there is someone there maybe sitting there. And the Lord just kind of leads you. Like go to that person. No. No. I am not going to. I don't know that person. What would I say to that person?
The Lord leads you. Why don't you pray about this right now? Why don't you do this thing right now? The Spirit is leading you. And you say no to it. That is quenching the Spirit.
And you know what? This might come as a surprise to you. To quench the Spirit is a sin. Isn't it? I mean if that is not a sin of omission what is? There are two kinds of sin primarily. Sins of commission. Sins of omission. A sin of commission is doing what you should not do. A sin of omission is not doing what you should do.
And the Bible says to him that knows to do good and does not do it to him it is sin.
So God says I want to fill you with the Spirit. And we say no. No. I don't want it. Really? Yeah. I don't want it. No. Because if this filling is going to involve me going out and talking to people about Jesus you can keep your filling.
Really? Really? You just quenched the Spirit. No.
Instead we should say I want everything that God has for me. I want all the gifts that God has for me. I want all the power that God has for me.
So here is the question. When we look at these first century believers did they have the Holy Spirit living in them? Answer. Yes they did. Because prior to His ascension. Prior to Pentecost. Jesus appeared to the disciples in the upper room in John 20. Jesus said, Peace be to you. As my Father has sent me so I send you. When He said this He breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit.
So the Holy Spirit had come into their life. And when you become a Christian the Holy Spirit comes and lives inside of you. The Bible tells us that God's Spirit bears witness with our spirit. That we are the children of God. So that inner conviction you have right now that you are a Christian. That is the Holy Spirit.
The Bible says the Holy Spirit seals us to the day of redemption. So every Christian has the Holy Spirit living inside of them.
But that is not what Jesus is talking about. He is talking to believers who have the Holy Spirit in them. But He is saying, You will receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you to be witnesses to Me all around the world.
He was talking about something different. And He uses a different word because that word for power is a fascinating word. It means explosive power.
Have you ever heard of Alfred Nobel? He is usually remembered for the Nobel Peace Prize. Well he did something prior to that particular award that he gave out that was not as known but significant. Nobel is the person who created dynamite. Which was really brought into a major use in the days of the West and certainly in World War I.
And as Nobel came up with this idea of this explosive device he didn't know what to call it. So he had a friend who spoke Greek. And he said, What is the word in Greek for power? And the man said, It is dunamis. It means explosive power.
Nobel said, That is what I am going to call this invention. I am going to call it dynamite.
So understanding that, what Jesus is saying is, You shall receive power after the Spirit has come upon you. You will receive dynamic dynamite. Explosive power. Not political power to overthrow Rome. But spiritual power to overcome sin. Spiritual power to preach the gospel. Spiritual power to change the world.
And this happens when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.
The Day of Pentecost – Sudden and Supernatural
So let's read now about the day of Pentecost and what happened to these first century believers. Acts chapter 2. Go over there with me if you would. We are going to start in verse 1. And I will read to verse 6 from the New Living Translation.
On the day of Pentecost, seven weeks after Jesus' resurrection, the believers were meeting together in one place. Suddenly there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm in the skies above them. And it filled the house where they were meeting. And then what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared. And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in tongues as the Holy Spirit gave them the ability.
Godly Jews from many nations were living in Jerusalem at the time. And when they heard the sound, they came running to see what it was all about. And they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers. Nothing like this had ever happened before.
Luke's use of the word suddenly emphasizes the element of surprise. Even though the believers knew the Spirit's coming was imminent, they were nevertheless caught by surprise. And by describing the noises emanating from heaven, Luke is emphasizing this was a supernatural happening. A supernatural action.
So what was happening? And should we be expecting this to happen to us today? The answer is yes and no. We should be expecting it. But not in this exact way.
For instance, no other time in the Bible did the believers have the mighty rushing wind and the Spirit coming upon them in flames. That seemed to be a one-off experience. Maybe it was this way because God was setting them on fire to reach a culture that was going up in flames.
Fighting Fire with Fire – Controlled Burn
Now when we talk about fire, especially here in California with wildfires, they spread and they are destructive. We don't love them. We hate them. And they usually come around this time of the year, don't they? When things are dry. And often arsonists play a role in that. And I have never understood the mentality of people that would start a fire randomly that could result in the loss of property and even worse the loss of life as often is the case.
So these fires are spreading around and these firefighters are called out to fight back. To stop the fires. And they have an interesting technique. And I researched this a little bit and actually talked to a firefighter to make sure I had my facts straight. And he told me I did.
They have something they do called back burning. Back burning. So what the firefighters do is they start a fire to stop a fire. Does that make sense? They start a fire to stop a fire.
The way it works is here comes the wildfire moving along. And so the firefighters get ahead of it. They take a patch of dry grass and they burn it out themselves. They set the fire. It's called a controlled burn. And once that's burned that's where they make their stand.
So it's like here comes the wildfire right here. They burn this area out and they make their stand here because the fire can't keep approaching because it hits this area where there's nothing to fuel the fire. And now they try to put the fire out.
And that's what we need to do. We need to go to this culture and fight fire with fire. It's a controlled burn.
So we don't want to be a wildfire out of control, crazy, screaming, yelling. No, it's a controlled burn. They change analogies.
Have you ever seen one of those fire hoses when they lose control of it and it's flaying about? Kind of scary. Could kill you actually. And then they grab it and finally wrestle it and they get hold of it. And now aiming it in the right direction they can put out a Blaze.
That's what we're talking about here. We're not talking about wild, out of control, maniacal power. We're talking about a controlled burn. We're talking about a focus. We're talking about taking this power and using it to reach people with the message of the gospel.
Listen to this. You don't lose control when the Spirit empowers you. You come under control. Let me say that again. You don't lose control when the Spirit empowers you. You come under control.
When you hear people attributing bizarre things of the Holy Spirit. I just felt like right now Oh the Spirit did that. The Spirit didn't do that. You are just weird. You did that. I can't control myself. The Spirit is on me. Yes you can. Because the Bible says God has not given us a spirit of fear but one of a sound mind.
You see so when God's Spirit is on you there is a sound mind. The fruit of the Spirit among other things is self control.
Don't tell me that stuff is being done by the Spirit. I am saying let's take God's power that is in our life and aim it in the right direction and try to do something with it.
And again I want to emphasize this is for everyone. Because Peter says in the day of Pentecost in Acts 2:38, Repent and be converted. Every one of you be baptized. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Listen. This promises to you, to your children, all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
This power is here for you.
Many times our Christian life is not what we want it to be. We feel weak and afraid and we are vulnerable. Well what do we do? Well we need this power.
Being Filled – Simple and Ongoing
You know if you have an electronic gadget, not work, and you call in for help and sit on hold for one hour at least, and they finally answer the phone, here is what they are going to ask you. When you are calling in about your computer, your television set, anything. Here is what they are going to ask you. Two questions before they even get started.
You know my, my TV set doesn't work. Here is what they are going to ask. Is it plugged in? You are like, hey thanks for the help, man. I am embarrassed. Because it wasn't plugged in, was it?
Here is the second question they are going to ask. Is it turned on? Ha ha. No. Yeah. Is it plugged in? Is it turned on?
This thing could be asked of you, or of me. Are you plugged in to the power of the Spirit? Is your life turned on?
What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? See here is the thing. We put a lot of emphasis on emotion. Emotion. You know.
So if there is a service and we are going to pray for people to be filled with the Spirit, the first thing we do is let's dim the lights. Dim the lights. Holy Spirit doesn't like light. It scares them. Dim the light. Now we sing really soft songs. Do soft songs. Don't do songs that are loud. No. Shhhhh. Soft songs. Dim lights. Okay. Okay. Are you ready? Are you ready? Okay.
We are going to pray. And we are getting all psyched. Oh boy. This is it. I am going to get filled with the Spirit. And just... Okay. And so maybe the preacher comes. Receive. And he shakes your head. G-g-g-g. And what are you looking for? You are looking for an emotional experience, aren't you?
Or you saw somebody fall down. They fell down. Fell down under the power. Oh. Well I better fall down or I am not receiving the power.
See these are the promises. Forget all that stuff you have seen. Forget it all. Forget it all. You just receive it. It is so simple.
You don't have to dim the lights. You don't have to sling...sling. Sling. Don't have to sling. You don't have to sling anything. You don't have to sing soft songs. I mean you can if you want. I am not saying it is bad to do those things. But they are not required.
What does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? Well it is an interesting phrase. It has many shades of meaning.
In Ephesians 5 it says, Don't be drunk with wine because that will ruin your life. But be filled with the Spirit, he says. Speaking to yourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
So what does this mean? One translation of the word filled conveys the idea of wind filling the sail of a ship when it is going out to sea.
Now if you like to sail, you know how this is. If there is no wind, you are just bobbing around in your little boat waiting for something to happen, getting hot in the sun. And suddenly a gust of wind comes and it fills your sail and you are just carrying it along. And it is fantastic, isn't it?
Okay so this is the idea. Let the Holy Spirit fill your sails. Let the Holy Spirit guide you along.
Sometimes in the Christian life we are doing things out of duty. You have to read the Bible. Read the Bible. Okay let's pray. Let's not go long. Let's pray and get it over with. Another church service. All right. Here we go again. Oh do I really have to talk to that person about Jesus? I don't know.
See that is a person that does not have the Holy Spirit filling their sails.
But the difference is you are filled with the Spirit. And it is like, hey let's see what God says in His Word. Yes let's do pray about it. Let's pray right now. Hey let's tell that person about the Lord. They need Him all. Aren't you excited about going to church and worshiping the Lord.
Let the Holy Spirit fill your sails.
The other way this word is translated conveys the idea of permeating something. Let the Holy Spirit permeate your life.
Now in context they used salt in meat. As I have told you before to preserve it because they did not have refrigeration. And so they would rub the salt in. And it would get deeply into the meat and permeate it.
Let the Holy Spirit permeate your life. Let the Holy Spirit permeate everything that you do. Your prayer life. Your worship life. Your business life. Your marriage. Your singleness. Whatever you do.
So the idea that is being conveyed to be filled by the Spirit is let the Holy Spirit fill you. Which means that His thoughts are becoming my thoughts. His standards are becoming my standards. His will my will.
To be filled by the Spirit means that I am walking thought by thought, decision by decision, act by act under the Spirit's control.
Are you filled with the Holy Spirit?
Look at what Jesus says in verse 8. You will receive power. When the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You will be witnesses to me in Riverside County, Orange County, Southern California, the United States, and to the end of the earth.
You are thinking, what translation are you reading anyway? Well that was an interpretation. The original statement is, you will be witnesses for me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the end of the earth. But the application for us is what I just said.
See Jerusalem is where they were on the day of Pentecost. Judea was the outer area. Samaria was beyond that. And then there was the rest of the world. So we have where we are now. And we go from here.
The idea is that is God's plan for evangelism. But start where you are.
You know sometimes people say, I want to go on the mission field. Good. Man that is great if you want to do that. But I have a little revelation for you. The mission field is right here.
Do people need the gospel overseas? Yes. But they need it in America too. They need it here.
You want to know where the mission field is? Open your door and look. There it is.
Jesus said in John 4 from the Phillips translation, Don't you say four months and then comes the harvest. I tell you, open your eyes and look to the field. They are gleaming white already for the harvest. It is right there in front of you.
Sometimes they are saying, I want to cross the sea for Christ. Hey. Try crossing the street for Christ to start. Cross the street. That neighbor. Oh. No. Not that neighbor Greg. That neighbor really gets on my nerves. Yeah. That one. That neighbor needs the Lord.
Start where you are. This power is here.
Ask and Receive – The Simple Way to Power
Do you want this power in your life? How do you receive it? You just ask God.
Jesus said in John 11 verse 13, If you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?
I love that. Ask Him.
You know my grandchildren come to me and they want something. Papa they say. Can I have this? On almost every occasion I give it to them. That is the privilege of a grandparent. And parents we are not always going to tell you what we give them. So if they are a little excitable when we give them back to you we probably slip them some candy.
But our job is not to discipline them. Our job is not to make sure they have three square meals. We will do our best. Our job is to indulge them a little and have some fun with them. We have earned it. We are grandparents. Okay. It is our reward for putting up with you. And those children are your punishment for what you did to us. So it all works out. It goes around and comes around.
But my grandchild asked me for something. I pretty much will give it to them. Unless it is harmful or not good for them. But Papa can I have this? Yes you can.
Jesus said if you being an earthly parent would do that for your kid won't your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him.
That is all you have to do. You ask Him and He will give it to you.
See a lot of times we are running on empty. You know I don't know about you but I like to have a full tank of gas. My wife not so much. You know she is like gas station what? And so she will be like on red. We are leaving. We are late. Kathy it is like it is on empty. Oh we will make it. No we won't make it. We have to get gas now. Why do you always leave your car on empty? I don't know.
And so I fill her car for her. You know. Because I don't want to run out of gas. I certainly don't want her to.
And so you get a refill. And you refill it and refill it again.
God gives refills over and over. In fact we read about the day of Pentecost and they were filled with the Spirit. But then later on in the book of Acts and Acts 4:29 they got in trouble for preaching the gospel. So they prayed for more boldness.
Listen to this. And they said, Lord hear their threats and give your servants great boldness in their preaching. Send your healing power. May miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of your servant Jesus.
After this prayer the building where they were meeting shook. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. And they preached God's message with boldness.
So what is the takeaway truth? Here it is. God fills you. He refills you. He fills you again and refills you some more.
It is not about emotions. It is not about feelings. It is not about dim light. It is about the filling of the Spirit.
Closing Prayer for Holy Spirit Filling
And we are going to close today by asking for this power. And I will lead you in a prayer. I am an evangelist. I like to lead people in prayers.
Now if you don't want to pray this prayer with me you don't have to. You would sit there today and say, I don't want this. Don't pray it. Quencher of the Spirit. Because that is what you are doing.
Any clear thinking Christian wants all the power God has for them. They want all the gifts God has for them. Right?
So I will lead you in a simple prayer. And I want to say that when we pray this prayer you might have something happen emotionally. You might feel something. I have heard people say, I felt this when we prayed. I felt it chilled on my spine. Okay. Good. You may feel that. Praise God.
And you may feel nothing. It is not about what you feel or don't feel. This is just about what God is going to do. He will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask.
And you know what the proof of this pudding will be. And I have no idea where that expression came from. Why do we have to prove pudding? What? Well the proof of this pudding, you know where it is going to be? It is going to be in the way we live. And it is going to be what we do when we leave.
When we leave. It is not going to be about your emotions. It is not going to be about a shiver. It is not going to be about any of those things. It is going to be about power to be a witness.
And it doesn't mean God's Holy Spirit is going to overtake you. And now you have no control. Now I am under this Hello I want to... No it is not like that. You don't become a weird robot. You still have a free will.
The Bible says the Spirit of the prophet is subject to the prophet. You control the volume of your voice. You control the fact if you will step out and speak or not speak. But you will sense the Spirit's leading and nudging and guidance. And the question is will you respond.
Because when you do, bam, it is going to be exciting. You are going to speak out and say, Wow. I can't believe I just said that to a person. I can't believe those words just came out of my mouth. I can't believe I just went up to that person and did this. I have never done this before.
I know. Because it is not about you. It is about God working through you.
And that is why those first century believers changed their world. And that is why we can change ours. With the Spirit working through us.
So are you ready? Ok. Let us all stand. Let us stand and we will pray. And I will lead you in a simple prayer. I would ask that you just pray this out loud after me. Mean it from your heart. I am confident God will hear you.
Let us pray.
Lord Jesus, You have promised the power of the Holy Spirit to those that would ask. You have told us we would receive power when the Spirit comes on us to be witnesses in this world. Lord, we want that power. We want all the gifts You have for us. So we pray now. Fill us with the Holy Spirit. Permeate our lives with the Holy Spirit. Lead us by the Holy Spirit. Lead us by the Holy Spirit. We ask it in Your name. And Father, You have heard our prayer. Amen.
God bless you. You have been filled by the Lord Himself. You got it. You got it. You got it. Did you feel something? Maybe. Did you feel nothing? Perhaps. Doesn't matter. The Father gives the Holy Spirit to those that ask.
Let us all be seated now and we are going to continue our worship for a few moments. In fact we are going to receive our offering. I really know if you have been filled by the Holy Spirit. Seriously though, when you are filled with the Spirit, when you are walking with the Lord as you are, it will affect every area of your life including your giving.
So let us let the Holy Spirit lead us as we worship through our giving. And then we will have some closing announcements. And we will turn you loose and see what God will do in and through you today and the days ahead. Be praying for the Harvest Crusade. God bless you.