A Fresh Wind Of The Spirit

The fresh wind of the Spirit

Acts 1 says:

Acts 1:1 - 26 (NASB) 1The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach, 2until the day when He was taken up to heaven, after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen. 3To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God. 4Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, “Which,” He said, “you heard of from Me; 5for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” 6So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” 7He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; 8but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

INTRO

1. Last weeks we had a wonderful service.

2. I believe without a doubt the Spirit of God did something special in the hearts of this church.

3. It was a wonderful thing to stand up here and see just about everyone in the congregation come forward to testify that they want to be kingdom connectors and to be “steadfast” fixed or unchanging in doing “much more then is necessary for Gods Kingdom”

4. Now this is great. But the reality of the situation is that it’s not going to be easy.

a. It is humanly impossible

i. Standing firm for God and doing all we can to be in the center of His will is well “humanly impossible”(slide)

(Trouble in the Text)

The disciples faced humanly impossible odds

1. Explain the situation for the disciples

They were given a commission to do. But they were afraid, There leader is going, the head of the movement is gone He said He will come back but they don’t know when they have a big agenda on their shoulders. They were to spread the news of the gospel throughout the entire world

In the midst of a world who killed their leader. Their message wasn’t going to be easy to get out there. They were going to face trails and challenges. They were scared

There may be a few people here today who are scared of the future.

There might be something going on in your life right now that you might be saying…I don’t know how I am going to pull it off. It might seem that the odds are against you… It might seem humanly impossible to pull it off.

4. This is how the disciples must have felt.

Right before Jesus ascended into heaven. They were left standing there alone and afraid. With a big job to do. Spread the message! Change people’s idea of their faith. A faith they had to thousands of years. A tradition that they faithfully followed. It kept them who they were. You don’t see ammonites around or Babylonians. But you still see Jews. It’s because of their traditions and strong faith in their religious system. Now they are suppose to somehow penetrate this and spread the gospel in a hostile society. The scripture tells us that the early Christians were persecuted for their testimony. All of the disciples where ultimately martyred for their testimony. Accept John who just happened to be boiled in oil and left on the Isle of platmus. Yes the disciples were scared and afraid and unsure what to expect in the future. I believe they all stood around when Jesus ascended think how am I going to pull this off…Its impossible.

Trouble in the world (We face humanly impossible odds)

1. We at times are also faced with these same odds

The great commission counts for us also. We know this. We know that is by our own strength and will power we will un-doubtable fail. We face the same persecution

- The media, the liberal party.

- The A.C.L.U. It’s crazy out there

- We are called fundamentalist

- Intolerant. Bible thumpers

2. I don’t believe that anyone of us by our own determination can pull this

a. By our strength Sooner or later we will burn out, get sidetracked and turn from were we started.

5. Can anyone relate to me...?

Question: Can anyone ever remember a time that they got fired up for God and for His kingdom and had so much zeal that they were going to start a ministry and do mighty things for God. You get started things start moving and then sooner or later the zeal is gone, The enthusiasm has washed away and before you know it your discouraged, and defeated and then quit?