Expectation In The Spirit Series

December 21, 2017

Morning Worship

Text: Acts 4:30

Subject: Revive Us Part 1

Title: Expectation in the Spirit

I trust everyone had a blessed Christmas… Isn’t great to be able to get together with family and celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus? And at the same time it is always good to get back to a normal routine and put the busyness behind us.

Now we prepare to move into the New Year. And I want to prepare you for this New Year by asking you a question…

What kind of expectations do you have for 2018?

Now many of you have made resolutions concerning health, diet, exercise, finances, relationships… all of those things are great and necessary.

But you know that’s not what I am talking about. I’m talking about spiritual expectations.

Where do you expect to be spiritually this time next year and what are you willing to do to get there?

The Great Awakening preacher from the 18th century Jonathan Edwards said this:

Resolution One: I will live for God. Resolution Two: If no one else does, I still will.

What are your spiritual expectations for this New Year?

Do you want to increase? Do you want to draw closer to the Lord? Do you want to be used by God in ways you never thought possible? If the answer to those questions is a “YES” for you, then be of great courage for the Lord is able to bring that increase into your life and in fact that is His desire for the church.

But it only happens when you will allow Him to move in your life.

In the book of Acts we see the beginnings of the church – the church that Jesus said would beat down the gates of hell… It was the church that was empowered by the Holy Spirit through the Baptism in the Spirit. This was a group of people who denied Christ, who ran away after the crucifixion, and now have returned in the power of the Spirit to become the church. It was this group that stood before the Sanhedrin and were questioned and chastised because of the healing of a man who had been lame from birth and in spite of the opposition against them, when they gathered together with other believers prayed this prayer…

Acts 4:30 (NIV2011)

30 Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

I believe this is God’s word…

I believe it is for me…

I accept it as mine…

I will appropriate it to my life today…

Can you see that those in the early church desired to live under the anointing of the Spirit? They would never be satisfied with anything less. Let’s break down Acts 4:30 to see what the norm for the church was then and is expected to be now…

1…Stretch out your hand… Whenever we read about the “Hand of God” in the scriptures it nearly always refers to God’s power… I want you to get this; the “church” world today would agree that God is all - powerful. God is able to do all things well. But many miss this – that God does not and will not change the world just because He is able. He has ordained the church to be the Body of Christ to do God’s work here on earth with that same power and authority that He has. We are God’s representatives. That means that as we stand in the gap for the needs of others we stand with the same anointing that Jesus had and still has – the anointing that makes us intercessors on earth – the go-betweens – to see God’s will accomplished. So when the early churched prayed “Lord stretch out Your hand…” they were saying, Lord use us! Proverbs 3:5-6 (NKJV)

5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding;

6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.

The early church was not relying on their good works or their knowledge or even the fact that they had been with Jesus. They were calling on the name of the Lord to reveal His power on earth through them. They understood that through the power of the Spirit they could be whatever the Lord called them to be, and only through that anointing. Luke 10:19 (NKJV), 19 Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

Many Christians do not realize the authority that has been given them. There is nothing that can stand between you and God’s best for you if you call on the Lord to stretch out His hand…