Pentecost Power

Acts 2: 1-4, Narrate 5-14 then read (14 – 21)

Today is Pentecost Sunday , The Birthday of the Church, The scripture today tells of an exciting time , strange things are happening, Tongues of fire touching people, folks speaking in unknown languages, power is being poured out and the disciples are out of Hiding ,not living in fear anymore. They seem to have acquired a boldness about them like never before. What is going on? I tell you what’s happening the Holy Spirit has arrived and with it Power!!!!!

What happened? From the birth of the church till now where did it go? Its seems that the church is shrinking more and more each day. People find every excuse in the world to cow tow to the ways of the world. We act like we have been defeated.

People come into churches all over this world acting like we are defeated, have you read the Bible? Victory is ours, we will not be defeated Jesus will prevail!!!!!

Let me tell you what I believe is the one thing that can turn our churches around…. POWER!!!

Not our power but the Power of the Holy Spirit working through us. I think we have gotten out of tune with the Holy Spirit. It’s not gone, that same Holy Spirit poured out on the day of Pentecost is alive and well in us today , but we gotta use it, we gotta realize that its already been given to us but we must harness it in order to move forward in our efforts to do Kingdom work. I want you to do something to help you realize scripturally that you have the Holy Spirit in you. Look at your neighbor and say “Jesus is Lord” 1st Corinthians 12: 3 says that without the help of the Holy Spirit no one can say “Jesus is Lord”. Then the scripture goes on to clarify the gifts of the spirit.

Now we all may have different gifts but we all have the same Holy Spirit in us and that is where our power comes from we just have to utilize it. As Christian we just aren’t living up to our full potential until we harness the power that God has given us through the Holy Spirit.

Let me show you… (Visual Illustration) I can push this vacuum around all day long trying to clean this carpet. I may move some dirt around, I may even break out in a sweat, I’m going through all the motions but it appears this vacuum just isn’t doing a good job. No matter how hard I try by itself this vacuum just isn’t working.

But, when I connect it to its power source it comes alive and you can hear it working and picking up things and can even see the difference in everything it touches. This vacuum must be connected to its power source in order to live up to its full potential and expectations...

I want you to realize something about the church and each and every individual in it. We will never reach our full potential as a Christian until we get connected to our Power Source. And our Power Source my friends is the Holy Spirit. If the church is to survive and grow it will be under the power of the Holy Spirit. That same Holy Spirit that was poured out with the sound of a rushing wind and tongues of fire at the birth of the Church is the same Power that we have available to us today.

So what’s wrong…? Why are our churches and denominations in such a terrible state? I think it’s because we just haven’t connected to our power source well enough to live into our full potential. So what can we do to get plugged into the Holy Spirit?

Well we have got to truly turn our lives over to God. We must become open and receptive to the moving of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We have to listen to that still small voice, we need to follow the direction of that nudge or feeling that we have. We need to believe that with Christ all things are possible. The more we try and listen for direction of the Spirit through our prayers and our meditations the more receptive we become to what God would have us do. We must claim that scripture that says “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength”

So what’s this power of Pentecost all about? Well it isn’t about a denomination it’s about the Church

Preaching faith and opening up to the Holy Spirit and believing that we can do things that we never even dreamed were possible that we can achieve anything through our faith and the power that God has given us. What does it mean? It means that if we have faith even the size of a Mustard seed we can say to the mountain, MOVE and it will be moved!!!!! Whatever mountain is in the way, whatever obstacle is in our path, we have the power to move it out of the way and overcome. We can achieve anything through Christ.