God’s Power Series

GOD’S POWER

Story of power outage

God intended for His Church to be a church that moved, breathed, and acted in His power. Now there are three specific ways Jesus said that this power from the Holy Spirit was to be applied that we are going to look at today.

I. POWER ESTABLISHED

A. The power that Jesus promises is given, “when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.”

1. And when does the Holy Spirit come upon us? It is when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior.

a. Acts 2:38-39

b. The gift of the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit Himself – if you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior then you already have the Spirit as your constant companion and guide.

2. And notice that this promise is for all succeeding generations, not just for those these words were originally spoken to.

a. You do not have to be a Christian superstar, a singing sensation, or a well-known speaker to have the Holy Spirit – if you are a Christ follower you already have the Holy Spirit.

b. Now we want to make sure that we understand that the power we are talking about is not our power – It is the power of the Holy Spirit.

3. And we also need to be clear that we are not talking about having some type of super power to fly, leap tall buildings, or anything of that nature.

a. This is the power of God, given by God, to accomplish the things that God wants accomplished.

b. In other words, we are talking here about having something here that is holy, precious, and to be used specifically in fulfillment of God’s desires.

II. POWER USED

A. It is one thing to realize you have the power of the Holy Spirit, it is quite another to actually apply that power in your everyday life.

1. Consider the woman we talked about earlier who had the electricity turned on at her house after all of those years.

a. What if, after turning her electric on, no one had bothered to tell her?

b. All she had to do was flip the switch, but until she did that, the electricity would have done her no good.

2. It is the same with the Holy Spirit – we are all promised that we will be empowered by Him, but until we begin to actually use that power, we will continue to live as if we had no power at all.

a. When Jesus speaks to His early disciples, He specifically tells them that this newfound power they have is to be used to, “tell people about me everywhere.”

b. In other words, they disciples were not given a choice as to how they were to use this power, and the power did not have multiple applications.

c. The power was given so that they could lead other people into the salvation experience they themselves had come to know.

B. I know that some of you become very nervous when we start talking about sharing the gospel, or giving your testimony to others, or becoming involved in evangelism.

1. Not everyone has the ability to speak in front of people, and many of you are shaking in your shoes just thinking about telling someone else about how to become a Christian.

a. But the great news for all of us is this – we are not the ones doing it – it is the Holy Spirit working through us.

b. You’re going to have to trust me on this until you experience it for yourself, but I can guarantee you that once you begin sharing the Good News about Jesus you will find that the Holy Spirit is taking over your speech, and that God is speaking through you.

2. He wants to use you, no matter who you are, as His vessel for evangelism.

a. When Jesus spoke to His disciples he told them to go to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

b. He was covering everything from telling those they knew the best and were most comfortable with, to telling people who were very much unlike them.

C. And His promise was that if they would be willing to share the message, they would receive all the power necessary to deliver it.

1. Now this is where you and I come in – are we willing to be spokesmen for God?

a. Are we willing, like the early disciples, to make ourselves available for God’s use?

b. If so, God promises that He will empower us to accomplish His will.

c. It is really as simple as that.

III. POWER CONVEYED

A. Now when we go into our Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, what is going to happen?