The fresh wind of the Spirit
Acts 1 says:
Acts 1:1 - 26 (NASB) 1The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach, 2until the day when He was taken up to heaven, after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen. 3To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God. 4Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, “Which,” He said, “you heard of from Me; 5for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” 6So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” 7He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; 8but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”
INTRO
1. Last weeks we had a wonderful service.
2. I believe without a doubt the Spirit of God did something special in the hearts of this church.
3. It was a wonderful thing to stand up here and see just about everyone in the congregation come forward to testify that they want to be kingdom connectors and to be “steadfast” fixed or unchanging in doing “much more then is necessary for Gods Kingdom”
4. Now this is great. But the reality of the situation is that it’s not going to be easy.
a. It is humanly impossible
i. Standing firm for God and doing all we can to be in the center of His will is well “humanly impossible”(slide)
(Trouble in the Text)
The disciples faced humanly impossible odds
1. Explain the situation for the disciples
They were given a commission to do. But they were afraid, There leader is going, the head of the movement is gone He said He will come back but they don’t know when they have a big agenda on their shoulders. They were to spread the news of the gospel throughout the entire world
In the midst of a world who killed their leader. Their message wasn’t going to be easy to get out there. They were going to face trails and challenges. They were scared
There may be a few people here today who are scared of the future.
There might be something going on in your life right now that you might be saying…I don’t know how I am going to pull it off. It might seem that the odds are against you… It might seem humanly impossible to pull it off.
4. This is how the disciples must have felt.
Right before Jesus ascended into heaven. They were left standing there alone and afraid. With a big job to do. Spread the message! Change people’s idea of their faith. A faith they had to thousands of years. A tradition that they faithfully followed. It kept them who they were. You don’t see ammonites around or Babylonians. But you still see Jews. It’s because of their traditions and strong faith in their religious system. Now they are suppose to somehow penetrate this and spread the gospel in a hostile society. The scripture tells us that the early Christians were persecuted for their testimony. All of the disciples where ultimately martyred for their testimony. Accept John who just happened to be boiled in oil and left on the Isle of platmus. Yes the disciples were scared and afraid and unsure what to expect in the future. I believe they all stood around when Jesus ascended think how am I going to pull this off…Its impossible.
Trouble in the world (We face humanly impossible odds)
1. We at times are also faced with these same odds
The great commission counts for us also. We know this. We know that is by our own strength and will power we will un-doubtable fail. We face the same persecution
- The media, the liberal party.
- The A.C.L.U. It’s crazy out there
- We are called fundamentalist
- Intolerant. Bible thumpers
2. I don’t believe that anyone of us by our own determination can pull this
a. By our strength Sooner or later we will burn out, get sidetracked and turn from were we started.
5. Can anyone relate to me...?
Question: Can anyone ever remember a time that they got fired up for God and for His kingdom and had so much zeal that they were going to start a ministry and do mighty things for God. You get started things start moving and then sooner or later the zeal is gone, The enthusiasm has washed away and before you know it your discouraged, and defeated and then quit?
Am I the only one who has experienced this?
Story: of men’s ministry getting smaller
1. Satan will get you down
a. The moment you start doing something significant he pops His ugly head
b. He gets people to start complaining about what you do
c. You should do it this way
d. I didn’t like this or that.
e. He’ll put stumbling blocks in your way that test your faith
2. People will get you down
a. Story: Video of Judas. Someone complained.
b. Story: We get the “You should people” Those that always say you know you should do this…or you should do that. I have a wonderful idea…but they won’t help or lift a figure
3. Life’s troubles get you down
a. Things happen at work.
b. Things happen at home
c. The car breaks down
d. Whatever is it we lose interest because of the troubles we face
Yes there isn’t a person in this room who has the ability to pull off a great strong wonderful ministry with any lasting value on their own.
“It is inhumanly possible”
Grace in the text
1. But God is good
But I am here to tell you that God is good. And that with Him all things are possible. God knows that we can’t pull this off. He knows that we need help. God isn’t going to dangle something out in front of us to do without realizing that we can do it alone and that we need His power.
5. Jesus said wait for my Spirit.
a. It will give you power
Acts 1:8
8 but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you;
We receive a power
The power is the Greek word Doo-na-mis—
It means force (literal or figurative);
Specially miraculous power (usually by implication a miracle itself) :-
Ability, abundance, might (worker of) miracle (-s),
Power, strength, (wonderful) work.
—Strong’s Greek & Hebrew Dictionary
7. It comes from
a. to be able or possible :- be able, can, could, may, be possible, be of power
What is this power we receive for? To do what?
a. To be His witnesses
b. To pull off what He was telling the disciples to do
“and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth."
9. What is a Witness
One who can give a firsthand account of something seen, heard, or experienced: a witness to the accident. One who furnishes evidence! Something that serves as evidence; a sign.
i. To testify to His reality.
ii. To speak the truth about Him
iii. We get the ability to do this.
10. They were to demonstrate this power
a. By what they proclaimed
b. By how their lives proclaim Him
Jesus tells them basically don’t worry. I know you can’t do what I am asking but I will give you something that will…..Trust In me
The day of Pentecost comes and the Spirit shows up in a rushing wind and mighty flames of fire. They start speaking in tongues proclaiming the mighty works of God. Thousands were saved. They were able to do what they couldn’t do the day before. Peter who denied Jesus is now proclaiming Him.
Grace in the world
12. That’s how you can tell if you have a fresh wind of the fire.
a. Are you proclaiming the mighty works of God?
b. Is that all you want to talk about?
c. It’s all I want to talk about
d. It’s not because I am the preacher…..It’s because I am filled with the Holy Spirit…sanctified holy….I am a fired up sold out servant with a cause and that cause as I said once before is for Christ.
I wonder if anyone is really hearing me today….
I WONDER IF ANYONE IS TRULY UNDERSTANDING ME…
We don’t receive this mighty unlimited power of God which resides in us to be weaklings in the faith….we receive it so we can overcome the world…..
If we are going to be a godly people and do what God calls each of us to do…We need to be sensitive to His Spirit…
If we are to be a godly church and be kingdom connectors we need to be filled to the overflow with the Spirit…We can’t do it on our own…
I am not talking about salvation….I know we receive the spirit of God when we are saved..
But we all need a fresh anointing of that Spirit….
It was that power that came on the day of Pentecost that gave them what they needed. The power to do what God asks
1. WE SEE THAT WHEN THE SPIRIT CAME IT GAVE THEM
a. Gave them boldness to preach His word
b. When the spirit moves a crowed will come.
c. Gave them the ability to evangelize in all situations (tongues)
d. Example: Picture
Acts 2:6 says:
Acts 2:6 (NASB) 6And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together, and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language.
Find a map of Israel to show people from all areas
2. When the Spirit moves
a. People will be astonished
b. People will be skeptic
c. We will speak and proclaim Gods mighty deeds
3. How do we receive this fresh wind
“Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39“For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.”
It says repent
1. We need to repent individually to God
2. We need to repent as a church to God
a. Some might be saying as a church?
b. Yes sure.
c. I know I haven’t been here long but I know Gods word
d. I am not really sure what needs to be repented.
e. But we need the freshness of the Spirit.
f. We need to yield to it…
2. We need His strength…..What we need is His Spirit,
a. “A fresh wind of the Holy Spirit in our lives” and in this church.
1. If we are going to do anything significant in our personal lives we need a fresh wind of the spirit.
2. If we are going to do anything significant as a church we need a fresh wind of God Spirit.
3. We need His fire to fall fresh down upon us
a. This is where I believe many people loose total victory.
b. They lack of understanding of the Holy Spirit and how much we need to rely on Him.
c. We speak of God and we speak of Jesus.
d. We even pray to both…But we as a whole ignore the third person of the Trinity.
e. Yes I said person He is just as important as the other two.
f. Satan Knows He is the power and if we don’t take the Spirits ministry to heart he can keep us defeated.
4. But God is bigger than that
a. We just need to open our hearts and wait for that Spirit and let it do what it needs to do in our lives and in this church and we will see mighty things accomplished..
