Enabled
Scriptures: Matthew 3:16; Luke 4:18-21; 10:1, 17
The title of my message this morning is “Enabled.” I want you to think about what it means to be enabled and to help with our understanding I want to give you the definitions of three words.
• The first word is “Able.” Able is defined as “physically or mentally equipped to do something; having the necessary resources, ability or talents to do something.
• The second word is “Enable.” Enable is defined as “to provide somebody with the resources, authority, or opportunity to do something; to confer legal power or authority on somebody or something.”
• The last word is “Disabled.” Disabled is defined as “a description of somebody with a condition that makes it difficult to perform some or all of the basic tasks of daily life; incapable of performing or functioning.”
All three of these words share the word able but their definitions are very different. The word able speaks of potential and ability, but it does not speak to drive or desire. We have all seen people who have the ability or potential to do something but because they have no inner drive or desire all of their potential and abilities are wasted. Being able is the opposite of being disabled. Disable speaks to the lack of potential or ability to do something even if the drive and desire is present. Now I really want you to pay attention to this. Enable speaks to the authority/power that has been given that makes someone or something able to perform a task or function. In other words, being enabled is not necessarily about what the person already has within them, but is directly about what is being placed within them – what is given to them! What I want you to take away from these three definitions is this: God has enabled us! Where we were once disabled by sin, through Jesus Christ God has changed us, we have been enabled! Through the Spirit of God we moved from being disabled to able because of God enabling us. But remember what I said earlier, being able does not address drive or desire and that is what I want us to think about this morning.
There are many Scriptures in the Word of God that shows us the role we are to be playing while we are here on earth. The primary role that all of us share is the spreading of the Gospel. It is not enough for us to just to come to Church and have a good time; we have to live the Word outside of these four walls. There are many people in the world who are suffering and are in need of the message that we have; the message of hope; the message of deliverance; the message of Christ. Having experienced being a Christian, can you imagine going through this life not believing in Jesus Christ? Can you imagine not experiencing the release that comes through fervent prayer? Can you imagine thinking that everything in your life happens because of you – you answer only to yourself? Can you imagine experiencing troubles and having to tell yourself that they are of your own making and only you can solve them? I am not saying that we do not experience troubles of our own making, but we know that we always have Someone who is able to help us even as we learn from our mistakes. The message that we have is a message of hope, deliverance and most important, love. It is a message that heals the broken-hearted, calms fears, brings us through difficult times and offers encouragement when no human words can do so. It is a message that transforms the human life into a spiritual existence. It is a message that offers peace and rest when we are in the midst of the storm and eternal rest when we leave this earth. Yes we have a wonderful message and God has enabled us to be able to get that message out – but we must have the desire to do so.
So let’s talk about what it means to be enabled by God to act on His behalf on this earth. How many of you have heard the word “delegate”. There are two definitions that I want us to examine for this word. The first definition means “to give a task to someone else with responsibility to act on your behalf.” The first definition of delegate is a verb – it represents an act. In this definition someone with authority transfers their authority to someone else to act on their behalf. The person receiving the authority now carries the same power to make the decision as the original person. This leads to the second definition where delegate is used as a noun. The second definition of delegate is “someone who is chosen to represent or given the authority to act on behalf of another person.” The first definition defines an act while the second definition identifies the one acted upon. What this means is that there is an act of delegation where someone transfers their authority to another and the person receiving that authority now becomes the original person’s representative or emissary. This is what Jesus meant when He said, “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.” (John 6:38) Jesus was here as the delegate (or representative) of His Father and His desire was only to do the will of God. He repeated this when He was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. He said, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.” (Luke 22:42). Jesus was here to do the will of His Father. Once we are saved, we are to do the same and it starts with our doing the commandments of Christ. Jesus said, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” (John 14:15) We give up our personal will to be delegates for God through Jesus Christ.
We have often heard people talk about being anointed. During some of our services, we have anointed people with oil for healing as well as to set them apart for service. The anointing I am talking about this morning is the latter, God anointing us for service. When God gives us a gift, I believe it is in us at birth. However, we may go through years of experiences before we are ready to fully understand and utilize what God has placed within us. Some people never reach the point of understanding and utilizing their gifts while others may choose to use their gifts but not necessarily for the Lord. Each of us has talents that God has placed within us and He desires that we use them for the Kingdom. The anointing of God enables us to do what He has called us to do. The purpose of the anointing is to enable and equip us for service. When we accept Christ as our Savior, we immediately become delegates, representatives of Christ. He gives us the authority to act on His behalf which includes praying for the sick, ministering to the needy and loving our fellow man. This also includes taking a stand against sin because we do not want anyone, friend or enemy, to spend eternity in hell. These are things we are all enabled to do. Not everyone is called to preach or teach. Not everyone is called to sing or usher. There are multitudes of service that needs to be done for the Kingdom of God and He has people that He has anointed to get every job done. When God calls us into service we are His representatives. When we become His representative, it’s all about what He wants. We are His delegates so the decisions we make are the ones that He wants us to make. Remember, as a delegate we are empowered to represent the One who chose us – we are not to act on our own behalf. Let’s examine a few Scriptures that bear this out.
Matthew 3:16: “As soon as Jesus was baptized, He went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on Him.”
Luke 4:18-21: “The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
In these two references we find where Jesus was anointed by the Spirit of God for service. After Jesus was baptized, the Spirit of God came upon Him and anointed Him. Luke 4:1 tells us that Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit. It is important that we understand that when Jesus was born, He was born just like us, except His Father was God. When He walked the earth, He walked just like us. At the time that He walked the earth, the only difference between Jesus and us was that He knew without a doubt His Heavenly Father and His reason for being here. He was 100% sold out to His Father. He gave up the fullness of His deity to walk the earth as a man to empower us to have the relationship with His Father that He had. Wo when Jesus went into the temple, He read a prophecy from the book of Isaiah that was about Him and after He finished reading it, He told them that the prophecy was fulfilled in their hearing.
What I want you to look at and pay close attention to is what the Spirit had anointed Him to do. Jesus said, “The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-21) There is nothing in these verses that says Jesus was anointed so that He could serve Himself and achieve the praise of men. Now hold that thought as we look at a few other verses. Remember the definition of delegate that I shared with you earlier? I want to expand on that now. We have already seen where Jesus was anointed for service, so now we will look at what took place with His disciples and subsequently with us.
Luke 10:1, 17 “After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of Him to every town and place where He was about to go….The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in Your name.” Here we see where Jesus sent out the seventy-two “in His name”. They were delegates of Jesus going to the cities where Jesus would later visit. They went to prepare the cities for His visits. Because they were His representatives and empowered by Him, they walked in the authority that Jesus had to the point that even the demons recognized their authority and obeyed. As a delegate (representative) we have His authority to do what He has called us to do. This is confirmed in the great commission that was recorded in Matthew 28:18-20.
“And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20) This was the great commission. Jesus told the disciples to go out into all the world to preach the Word and save the lost (make disciples.) This is our commission as well. This is why we are here – to reach others for Christ. When we make this step Jesus said that He would be with us forever. Again, at the beginning He said all authority was given to Him and therefore it was given to us as His representative. Now turn to Acts chapter one.
Acts 1:7-8 “He said to them, ‘It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by His Own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.”
Acts 3:1-6 “One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer, at three in the afternoon. Now a man crippled from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put everyday to beg from those going into the temple courts. When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, ‘Look at us!’ So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them. Then Peter said, ‘Silver and gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”
When we get to the book of Acts, in the very first chapter Jesus told the disciples to wait for the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Why? When Jesus walked the earth, the disciples acted as His delegates – He was there with them. But Jesus was preparing to leave and what He wanted them to have once He was gone was the power to accomplish His will. Jesus came to get it started, the disciples took it up from Him and 2000 years later, we are still carrying it forward. Before Jesus started His public ministry, He too was anointed by the Holy Spirit so He told His disciples to wait for that anointing (that power) before they went out. Once they had the anointing, they would be strong enough to do what He had called them to do. As you read later in chapter two, when the spirit of God came upon them, they spoke in other tongue. Those “other tongues” were actually the language of the multitude of people who had gathered around them to see what was happening. In other words, when the Spirit was given, the first impact was not the “glorification” of the 120 in the room, but Christ’s message going out to the multitude in a language that they could understand.
Once they were empowered by the Holy Spirit, the disciples were no longer afraid of death. They came out of hiding and began to minister to the world. In the last Scripture we read about Peter and John healing a crippled man. What is interesting here is that the crippled man asked for money. Peter said that they did not have any money, but what he did have he was more than willing to share with the man. And with that he told the man to get up and walk. What did they have? They had the power of the Holy Spirit operating within them. They understood that they were representatives of Christ and what Christ’s mission was while He was on earth was now their mission. It is the same for us.
When you look at the few verses that I covered today with the many other examples that are given in God’s word, it becomes crystal clear what the true purpose of God’s anointing on our lives is to enable us to serve Him in this world. The anointing that God places on any individual is not so that person can be puffed up and glorified here on earth, it’s so they can do the work of the ministry – winning souls for Christ. Our anointing, our enabling, is always linked to someone else’s needs. God does not enable us to serve ourselves, but to serve others.
The gifts and talents that we have are for the benefits of others, not ourselves. It is not for me to take the glory or praise for what God has “enabled” me to do. I am Christ’s representative. As His representative, everything that I do should bring praise to Him – not me! My gifts and talents are not about me, they are about you. Your gifts and talents are not about you; they are about the rest of us. Everything that God has placed within us is so that we can meet the needs of those suffering around us. It’s so we can give hope to a dying world. Remember, as delegates of Christ, we have His authority and with that authority come the responsibility.
We are delegates of Christ. As His delegates, we have been given authority to accomplish the things that He set out to do. We walk, talk and act on His behalf and with His authority. We have been enabled, meaning that we have been turned on. The power is flowing to and through us so we can do what we have been called to do. In everything that we do, because we are delegates and we are not acting on our own accord or in our own authority, the praise goes to our Father in heaven who has called us. Our gifts are not given to us so that we can gain the praise of men; they are given so that we may serve others. The time is now for us to share the good news with the world. To share the message of Christ’s love for them; the message of peace He gives; and the message of repentance and forgiveness through Him. Are you willing to share this message, with your family, your friends and the stranger on the street? Are you willing to invite others to worship with you? It is time for us to fully engage what we are meant to be doing here. I pray that you are ready.
Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
(If you are ever in the Kansas City, KS area, please come and worship with us at New Light Christian Fellowship, 15 N. 14th Street, Kansas City, KS 66102. Our service Sunday worship starts at 9 a.m. and Thursday night Bible study at 7 p.m. Also, for use of our social media, you can find us at newlightchristianfellowship on FB. To get our live stream services, please make sure you “like” and turn on notifications for our page so you can be notified when we are live streaming. We also have a church website and New Light Christian Fellowship YouTube channel for more of our content. We are developing more social media streams so please stand by and we will notify you once those channels are up and running. We look forward to you worshipping with us. May God bless and keep you.)
