Letting The Holy Spirit Move In The Church

Acts 1:12-14; 2:1-11

Introduction:

I. You have to be prayerfully gathered.

A. As the old Gospel preach John R. Rice said “God requires and men often need to plead with God for any want for supply, for deliverance, for wisdom, or for power.”

B. Jacob wrestled all night with an angel. Gen 32:26

C. Samuel cried to the Lord all night. I Sam 15:11

D. Esther and her maidens fasted and prayed three days and nights for deliverance. Esther 4:16

E. The canaanitish woman who persistently pleased for her devil possessed daughter. (Matt 15:21-28)

F. Jesus regularly prayed all night.

G. Luke 18:1 And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.

H. And in our prayer we need to seek the face of God not just His hand.

I. Prayer is not a a rear echelon activity, prayer belongs on the front lines.

II. You have to be gathered with expectation.

A. What is it we are expecting when we come to church services?

B. If you are a believer and you are here for any other reason than to worship God, then you are making a mistake.

C. Verse 1:8 tells us what they were commanded to expect.

D. What is our expectation in our services?

E. What expectations has God given us?

F. Verses 12 and 13 tells us how they responded.

G. We should respond in the same way. Be prayerful seeking the face of God.

H. Worship is about being intimate with God, it is not about exciting music and a good sermon. Those things should lead you to true worship.

I. If you do not seek His face how will you ever know the glory of God

J. We do not struggle to see the glory of God because He is up there and we are down here.

K. We struggle to see the glory of God because we are not seeking His face but often times only His hand.

L. Our expectation should be that we see the glory of God.

III. You have to be Gathered in Unity.

A. We cannot all have our own reasons for being here and expect God will move among us.

B. On the day of Pentecost, they were praying and worshiping in one accord.

C. In Acts 4 they were praying and worshiping in one accord.

D. In I Cor 11 and 14 Paul was correcting them because were not unified in worship they all had their own agendas.

E. Negative attitudes because of personal preferences are also a dis-unifying factor.

F. We have to be unified in method

G. We have to be unified in purpose

H. We have to be unified in faith

I. We have to be unified in the belief that God can and will show up here.

J. Dis-unifying spirits or people will hold the church back from God’s best for it.

IV. You have to be worshipfully Gathered.

A. (Luk_18:17 Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein.

B. This includes all that is involved in God’s Kingdom.

C. If we are going to worship God we have to set ourselves aside.

1. Our distractions

2. Our preferences

3. Our agendas

4. Anything that interferes with making that connection with God.

5. Unless we are making them known to God as our struggle we need to set aside:

a. Our fears

b. Our worries

c. Our negative attitudes