Plugging into The Power
Acts 4:31-33
Dr. Bill Bright of Campus Crusade for Christ tells this story of a famous oil field called Yates Pool: During the depression this field was a sheep ranch owned by a man named Yates. Mr. Yates wasn’t able to make enough on his ranching operation to pay the principal and interest on the mortgage, so he was in danger of losing his ranch. With little money for clothes or food, his family (like many others) had to live on government subsidy. Day after day, as he grazed his sheep over those rolling West Texas hills, he was no doubt greatly troubled about how he would pay his bills. Then a seismographic crew from an oil company came into the area and told him there might be oil on his land. They asked permission to drill a wildcat well, and he signed a lease contract. At 1,115 feet they struck a huge oil reserve. The first well came in at 80,000 barrels a day. Many subsequent wells were more than twice as large. In fact, 30 years after the discovery, a government test of one of the wells showed it still had the potential flow of 125,000 barrels of oil a day. And Mr. Yates owned it all. The day he purchased the land he had received the oil and mineral rights. Yet, he’d been living on relief. A multimillionaire living in poverty. The problem? He didn’t know the oil was there even though he owned it. Many Christians live in spiritual poverty. They are entitled to the gifts of the Holy Spirit and his energizing power, but many live their entire Christian lives unaware of their birthright. And the one thing that would change our lives more than anything…living in the power of the presence of God.
I. We are all in the need of the Power of God.
1. We need God’s power in our lives.
a. You can’t live the Christian life without God’s power to guide and direct.
b. If all we have is own power we will surely fail.
c. Yet many people STRUGGLE through life…just getting by…never seeing the Power of God move in their lives…never understanding that there is all the Power of the Fulness of the Godhead available to them.
d. Going thru life like Mr. Yates.
2. We need the Power of God in our Families.
a. We have become too much like the world in our marriages.
b. Their was a time when a Christian marriage far outlasted a non Christian one…but recent studies have shown that Christians are almost as susceptible to divorce as non Christians!
c. How can this be?
d. Our families are torn apart and fragmented just like the worlds’.
e. We need strong, Godly families leading the way in our communities.
f. Our children need to be the beneficiaries of two strong Christian people.
3. Our churches need to see an explosion of the Power of God today.
a. Too many churches are living in defeat, powerless against the attacks of the world.
b. Trouble from without…fightings from within…wilting from the power of the Evil One…it hadn’t ought to be so…
c. We need an infusion of Old Fashioned, Holy Ghost Spiritual Power in this church today.
d. If we are going to win the lost…
e. If we are going to have an impact on this community.
f. If we are going to build a new church…
g. If we are going to do anything FOR THE LORD…
II. All the Power we Need Is Available to Us!
1. We have the promise of Power in the Great Commission.
Matthew 28:18 - 20 (KJV) 18And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
2. We have access to the greatest power of all…resurrection power.
Philippians 3:10 (KJV) 10That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
3. The Early Church had this power to change the world…
Acts 17:6 (KJV) 6And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also;
III. So …we know we need it…we have access to it…how do we ATTAIN IT?
Acts 4:31 - 33 (KJV) 31And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness. 32And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common. 33And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.
ANSWER…we get this power by plugging in to 3 things!!!
B ody
1. We must plug into the Power of Prayer!!!
a. And when they had prayed…
b. Nothing happened until they prayed…the power was present yet not unleashed! Think about that…when we refuse to pray…we in effect tie the hands of God…
c. BUT…when they prayed…the place was shaken…you wanna have the earth shaking Power of God in your life…this does not come without prayer.
d. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit…
2. The Message is crystal Clear…POWER comes thru PRAYER.
3. The disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray.
a. Can you imagine what it must have been like to hear Jesus pray?
b. We are welltaught in many things…
Organization…running the church.
Doctrine…the church covenant.
Teaching and Preaching
c. But…when it comes to prayer…we have way too many Spiritual Illiterates in the Church today…
d. Today’s Church has a small and a weak faith and I believe it can be be traced back to an insufficient prayer life of it’s members.
e. We learn to pray in faith by asking big and then expecting answers!
f. We as a church body are going to do that tonight.
g. How do we lean on that…because God’s Holy Spirit is moved as we pray!
h. Prayer brings with it the Power of the Holy Spirit.
i. Prayer also brings boldness in telling others about Christ.
James 4:2 - 3 (KJV) 2Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. 3Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
B. We Must plug in to the Power of Love!!!
1. They were of one heart and one soul. (v.32)
2. In other words they were all pointed in the same direction…one accord.
a. How important is love and unity in the church?
b. It is vital…
3. Jesus said it is the measuring stick of our faith…
John 13:33 - 35 (NKJV) 33Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come,’ so now I say to you. 34A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
4. Why is love so important to a church? Can’t I just like someone?
5. Only God’s love has the power to change!
1 Corinthians 13:1 - 3 (NKJV) 1Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body £to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
6. Without God’s love, all CHRISTIAN EFFORT IS USELESS!!!!!
a. Love Forgives AND Breaks down barriers.
b. Love looks for the best in our brothers and sisters.
c. Love is considerate to others in the church.
d. Love produces a passion for the lost sheep in the community.
e. Love enables Christians to put away their differences. (wha…..we have those?)
f. Love makes people more important than possessions!
C. We must plug into the Power of Witnessing. (V. 33)
1. There is nothing that unleashes the Power of God more than prayerful
witnessing.
2. Those praying, loving people became Powerful Witnesses.
3. They witnessed the power of the cross and the resurrection.
4. One on One Evangelism is the greatest need of our time.
a. That’s the way you build Christ’s Church.
b. Too many times we say…build our church or my church.
c. We must never forget we are to be about the Father’s business…and
that is building Christ’s Church!
4. Churches languish and die because so few witness for Christ.
5. Witnessing Christians are a powerful force.
CONCLUSION
A. Consider the accomplishments of the early Church.
1. With none of our advantages…they put us to shame.
2. They stressed the basics and won thousands to the Lord.
3. Can we do the same?
4. I have an idea for some HBC T-Shirts…ask me about Jesus!
5. How many would wear them a lot?
B. We must get back to the basics of Christianity.
1. Prayer, Love, and Witnessing will shake Holland AR for Christ.
