Empowered

EMPOWERED

Today I’m going to help you feel empowered!

You might say, Woah! Me? Empowered? I don’t think so. That’s not me . . .

But please stay with me on this and don’t drift off.

Our series is “The Wellbeing of my soul” –

This is not about achieving great things for yourself

This is not about feeling good

This is about being empowered to do something of value, of purpose, of benefit to God! Yes – you and I can do something of benefit to God. Amazing isn’t it? You better say, “Yes” because I truly believe our Heavenly Father has a task, a purpose for each of us. It maybe big, it maybe small, but He wants us to carry it out. Remember this series is about spiritual, not physical wellbeing. And for our spiritual wellbeing, we are to feel spiritually empowered to carry out what God has in His plan for us.

Do you feel spiritually empowered? For the “Wellbeing of your soul”, you and I really need to know the empowering of God’s Spirit. I started on this last week. You see, for the wellbeing of our soul, we need to sense the Holy Spirit in us – God in you!

There is a difference between being a follower of Jesus Christ,

And being an active ambassador of Jesus Christ.

If you want to see what I mean, we are going to look at two bible passages. So let look at the first:

Matthew 4

18 As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 19 ‘Come, follow me,’ Jesus said, ‘and I will send you out to fish for people.’ 20 At once they left their nets and followed him.

21 Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, 22 and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

Who did Jesus first choose to be His disciples? Who were they?

Fishermen – a little business maybe, but rough round the edges guys

Tax collector - He would have acquired some education and reputation to achieve this job. But he would not have been liked. “tax collectors and sinners” was often a collective phrase used. You get it, right?

Simon was known as the Zealot, not strictly a profession, but Zealots engaged in politics and anarchy, attempting to overthrow the Roman government.

Judas served as the treasurer in Jesus' band, and John 12:4-6 identifies him as a thief and an embezzler.

Thomas we may wrongly nick-name the doubter; but for sure he wasn’t exactly empowered.

The others we know less about.

We know that nearly all ran away at Jesus arrest! They weren’t strong enough to stand with Jesus when he was up against it – even though Christ had clearly taught them what would happen to Him in Jerusalem. When it happened, they weren’t prepared to be strong for Him.

What am I saying?......

Jesus could have chosen great leaders, amazing teachers, educated men to have around Him, BUT HE DIDN’T! He wanted us to remember 2000 years later that (1 Corinthians 1:27)

. . . God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

So….. NEVER think (or say out loud) that “I’m just a ….. and God won’t use me for anything important.” Remember the twelve, remember that verse from 1 Cor. 1:27

God chooses what the world would class as the foolish things.

I’ll take that. The idea that God could use me is foolish! But has he?

And God wants to choose you! Yes, I know it seems foolish, but that’s how God works!

Just days after Peter had fallen asleep at the most crucial moment in Jesus ministry. Days after Peter, cut off a guy’s ear with a knife. Days after Peter had lied three times

Jesus walks with him along the sea shore and says, “I’ve got a big job for you Peter”

What???????!

Have we seen any real empowering in Peter, James, John and the rest up til now? They all seem pretty weak to me.

And so we turn to our second reading. You’re probably familiar with it:

And with it, we se a huge change from being “followers of Jesus Christ”….

to being ambassadors of Jesus Christ:

Acts 2

1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues[a] as the Spirit enabled them……