POWER SOURCE
Living in the Power of the Holy Spirit
INTRO:
- ILLUS: Imagine that you are going to Best Buy to purchase a new refrigerator. (You get the most high tech fridge out there $3500.)
They deliver your shiny new appliance into your home, put it in place and you stuff it with plenty of all your favorite groceries.
The next morning you go eagerly to the kitchen refridgerator and open the door, but the shelves don¡¦t glide out automatically, they just sit there.
What¡¦s worse, the melted ice cream in the freezer section has run down and is all over everything. Your vegetables have turned color and the milk has gone sour.
o It dawns on you that your top of the line refrigerator is not functioning as you were led to believe it would.
o You pick up the phone, call that salesperson who had sold you this merchandise and when he answers you give him a piece of your evangelical Christian mind!
„X The salesman says, ¡§Well, will you please open the fridge door and see if light comes on?¡¨ NO LIGHT
„X ¡§Would you put your ear down at the bottom and let me know if you hear the hum of the motor?¡¨ NO HUM
„X ¡§If you don¡¦t mind, would you kindly look around the back of the refidgerator and see if the cord is plugged in tight?¡¨ END OF CORD LOOSE ON FLOOR.
„X You come back on the phone and you say, ¡§The cord hasn¡¦t been plugged in but for 3500 dollars that shouldn¡¦t matter! It ought to work just on general principle!¡¨
o That¡¦s when the salesman explains that appliances are intricately designed to have astounding capabilities¡Khowever, they are dependent in nature!
o While they have all the necessary parts to perform everything the manufacturer has designed it to do ¡V they are not able to accomplish this on their own.
o They first need to be empowered by the fire that electricity provides ¡V only then can the parts do what the parts were created to do.
- When you and I gave our lives to Jesus Christ, he gave us NEW PARTS.
(new mind, new heart, new conscience, a new disposition)
- But sometimes it looks like this new thing doesn¡¦t work.
o Sometimes it appears that coming to Christ is like buying a lemon ¡V it just doesn¡¦t seem to function the way we were lead to believe it would.
o That¡¦s why you and I need to understand ¡V we are dependent in nature.
o We were never re-created in Christ to function on our own.
o We need power¡Xwe need enabling from another source to ignite the proper functioning of the new nature God has provided us.
o Christian living only works when we are fully connected to the one source of enabling, God¡¦s Holy Spirit.
- In many ways the Holy Spirit is like the ¡§lost member¡¨ of the trinity¡XMost people just don¡¦t understand Him.
o And yet the H.S. is actually the person of the Trinity who is MOST ACTIVELY WITH US now.
o He is indispensable to your life and mine.
- EXPLANATION OF TRINITY: Ice, Water, and Steam (It is all H20 but manifested in 3 different forms).
- If there were no H.S., there would be no gospel, no faith, no church ¡V no Christianity at all.
- If there were no Holy Spirit there would be no human life, for the Bible says in Gen. 27 that God breathed (or God spirited, into Adam the breath of life.
- If there were no H.S., there would be no Bible because those who wrote it ¡§spoke from God as they were carried along by the H.S.¡¨ (2 Peter 1:21)
- If there were no H.S. there would be no victory over Satan, no restraint of sin, no overcoming of our trials/troubles
- The Holy Spirit is more vital and essential to our life and faith than most of us have ever imagined.
- PROP: This morning (and tonight) I want us to study closely the promises God makes to us concerning His Spirit so you can know and treasure these truths enough to make a lasting difference in your life.
- The better that you know Him, the more you¡¦ll experience everything He is, and everything He has for you.
I. Power to Practice Supernatural Living
- Acts 1:8, ¡§And you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you¡K¡¨
o Power = ¡§dunamis¡¨ ¡V a continual supply of energy.
- The H.S. has been given to every Christian to make real in your own spiritual experience everything the Bible says.
o The Job of the H.S. is to lift this truth off the pages of Scripture and write it on your heart¡Xmaking it alive and vivid.
o That means leading you into a whole new realm of existence¡XIt means experiencing the supernatural.
- HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED¡Kwhy aren¡¦t more of us seeing this supernatural invasion of God in our churches, in our families, in our own lives?
o If any Christian is defeated or powerless, he is defeated or powerless not because he has to be¡Kbut because he is either uninformed or has chosen to be powerless.
- The Holy Spirit is our link to God¡¦s reality and power!
- ILLUS: Have you ever been stranded in a parking lot somewhere with a dead battery in your car? You¡¦re in trouble but fortunately a kind stranger parks alongside your stranded car and with the hoods open on both cars, a set of jumper cables is attached to both batteries, linking them. Then the other person starts the ignition in his car.
o What happens next is a transferring of power.
o Through the cables, power from the living battery is transferred to the dead one.
o One battery borrows life from the other so the dead battery is alive as the living battery already is.
o BUT FOR ALL THIS TO HAPPEN THERE MUST BE A CONNECTION.
o The basic problem of every human is that we¡¦re stranded ¡V We need life inside our dead battery to give us the ability to become all that God wants us to become.
- Jesus is our friend who comes to the rescue
AND the H.S. is our set of jumper cables.
o His job is to connect our life with Christ¡¦s life, allowing a transfer of HIS life to ours.
- If you are born-again¡Xinside of your inner self is HIM (the Holy Spirit)
o God has become a person who is no longer external from you but internal¡Xand He has come to stay.
o We sometimes think that the H.S. is like some kind of Star Wars ¡§force¡¨ ¡V but he is an actual person who expresses His life within you.
o He¡¦s a person to be known, not simply a power to be used.
- How many times have you heard Christians say, ¡§Our problem is that we need more of the Holy Spirit.¡¨
o But the issue is never how much of the Holy Spirit you have, because He¡¦s inside of you and that means ALL of Him.
o The real question is this: How much of YOU does the Holy Spirit have? How much are you letting him fill you and control you?
- So you¡¦re thinking: I want this closer relationship with the Holy Spirit so I can experience more of His supernatural presence and see my life changed. How do I make this happen?
- ILLUS: When you buy a new car, it comes with an indwelling power. It¡¦s called an engine, and it lives under the hood of your car. That engine is designed to transport you at a remarkable speed, wherever you wish to go.
o However as you sit behind the wheel in your new car with that indwelt engine¡Xjust wanting to drive away isn¡¦t enough to make it happen.
o To get the car moving out of the parking lot, the engine must be engaged/ignited.
o And that requires an act of your will ¡V you must turn the ignition key.
- The H.S. is God¡¦s engine dwelling in you. So how do you turn the key? What act of your will does it take to begin moving forward in a Spirit-filled life?
- Living by the Spirit¡¦s power begins in your THINKING
- That brings me to my next point¡K
II. Power to Overcome Sin
- Look at Romans 8:5-6, ¡§For those who live according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.¡¨ (Romans 8:5-6)
- To live according to the Spirit means first of all to think in alignment with what the Spirit is thinking.
1. Restrict Fleshly Influences in Your Life
- ILLUS: Your mind is like a radio that picks up 2 stations.
One of them is the Fleshly Broadcasting Network, FBN.
You¡¦ve always been able to pick up that station, for a while it was the only one you received.
o The other station is the Heavenly Broadcasting Network, HBN¡Xwhich you¡¦ve only been able to tune in to since the Holy Spirit came to live inside you and transformed your reception capability.
o SO now you have a choice.
You can determine which station to listen to.
Both are on the air, pouring out a constant stream of programming.
„X Everything on FBN is filled with lies¡Xit drags you down.
„X Whereas everything on HBN ¡V is truth for your soul.
„X The Listening Choice is Yours!
- BIBLE ILLUS: Do you know why the devil couldn¡¦t get to Jesus in the midst of a 40 day fast when he was starving? It was because Jesus was already satisfied.
o You see, Jesus didn¡¦t have an itch the devil could scratch.
o TEMPTATION really comes down to this: A temptation is an inducement by the devil to satisfy a legitimate desire in an illegitimate way.
(That¡¦s all there is to it!)
o The Devil wants you to take a God-given desire and satisfy it in an God-forbidden way.
o The devil says, ¡§Hey, you got a need, and I can satisfy it!¡¨
o So when you are tempted¡Xyou are given a choice!
Are you going to get that need satisfied by the devil, or by the Lord?
o You see, the devil is a pervert, he has no raw material.
All He can do is take what God has created and pervert it!
2. Raise Your Thinking to New Heights
- ILLUS: In the early days of aviation, Frederick Hendley Page of England was one of the pioneers.
He told a story of how he was flying alone in a small plane when he heard a disturbing sound behind him in the cargo area. He soon realized that it was a rat, gnawing on the plane¡¦s control cables¡Xa disaster in the making.
These were the days before the Autopilot so he couldn¡¦t just leave the controls and go back and kill the rat.
SO WHAT COULD HE DO? He remembered that if he could gain sufficient altitude, the decrease in oxygen would be fatal for the rat.
So he flew the plane higher¡Kthen higher¡Kthen higher until he no longer heard that gnawing sound.
Later when he landed, he found that rat¡¦s dead body.
- Maybe you fell as if there¡¦s something gnawing at your life, trying to bring you down and destroy you.
- If you¡¦ve got the rats of sin on board, the first step to knocking them lifeless is to take your thinking upward to new heights
- Colossians 3:2 says, ¡§Set your mind on things above.¡¨
- To think higher you need to stay actively aware of the fact that the real you is your new, Spirit-given identity in Christ.
3. Release God¡¦s Power to Overcome Temptation.
- But Paul lays out our problem with our sinful flesh in Romans 7:15-ff, ¡§I do not understand my own actions, For I don¡¦t do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate¡¨
Can You Relate to that?
Vs. 18-19, Paul says, ¡§I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.¡¨
Paul feels like a prisoner.
Vs. 23 he says he¡¦s ¡§captive to the law of sin¡K¡¨
Then he cries out in vs. 24, ¡§Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?¡¨
- EXPLAIN BODY OF DEATH: Back in Paul¡¦s day, there was a form of capital punishment where they would take a dead body and strap it to you; everywhere you went, you had to drag that corpse along as well.
o You can imagine how strong a desire you would have to get rid of it.
o That was the longing Paul had when he thought about the wretchedness of his natural, sinful flesh ¡V ¡§Who would deliver me from this body of death?¡¨
- Sometimes we cry out for the same thing. We need freedom from our addictions. We want spiritual power. We want victory over that 1 sin we keep slipping into ¡V but our flesh is trained and programmed at doing wrong.
- So who will deliver us? Paul explains in Romans 8:2 that our deliverance comes through the Holy Spirit.
o Paul says there is a higher law that sets us free from the law of sin.
o Romans 8:2, ¡§For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.¡¨
4. Recognize that You are Under a New Law
- ILLUS: You learned a long time ago that there is a law that keeps things down on the ground rather than flying off into the sky¡Kit¡¦s called the law of gravity.
But airplanes don¡¦t obey that law. Why not?
It¡¦s not that gravity doesn¡¦t exist for airplanes, but that the law of gravity is transcended by something else ¡V the laws of aerodynamics.
o When you take a particular design and apply a certain power behind it, and a certain speed¡Xyou get a certain lift.
o Airplanes don¡¦t negate the law of gravity; they just override it with a higher law.
- The same is true of your life and mine. When the Spirit takes over, He doesn¡¦t cancel the deadly law of sin in our lives (sin still tries to do its thing to us) ¡V but the Spirit overrules and supercedes the law of sin with a NEW LAW (a higher law) ¡V the law of the Spirit gives us life, enabling us to soar.
5. Repent of Sin as Soon as the H.S. brings it to mind.
- One of the marks of spiritual maturity is the shortness in time between sin and confession.
- Romans 8:13, ¡§For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body; you will live.¡¨
- The bible says, when it comes to overcoming sin, YOU must make the choice¡Xbut then you carry it out by resting upon and drawing upon a power beyond your own.
III. Power to Walk Through Daily Challenges
- Galatians 5:25, ¡§If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.¡¨
- Paul compares living a Christian life to walking.
- If you¡¦re walking, it usually means you¡¦re going somewhere¡Xyou have a destination.
- And your destination as you walk in the Spirit is to livin for the will of God.
- In your relationships, your activities at home, at work, wherever you are, you¡¦re telling your Heavenly Father, ¡§I want to do what pleases you.¡¨
- Walking also implies a continuous motion¡Ka sustained forward progress¡Kone step after another.
- Walking in the Spirit does not mean that the Spirit does everything and you do nothing.
o Walking is measured and balanced in its pace (it¡¦s not the same as huff and puff running)¡Kit is a step-by-step approach to life, taking each thing as it comes on the path that the Spirit leads us on.
o I also think that to ¡§walk in the Spirit¡¨ implies that this is a dependent kind of walking ¡V since the weight of the entire body is carried by the alternating movements of the legs.
o We have to be consciously aware of God¡¦s presence walking with us through the everyday challenges of life.
- ILLUS: When I was about 11 years old, I jumped over a fence and I suffered a severe injury to my ankle. I had to walk on crutches for weeks.
Those crutches were strong, and with them I could do what I otherwise couldn¡¦t ¡V I could walk.
But I had another crutch, too¡Kit was one that I liked better than the wooden ones. Sometimes the wooden ones were out of reach so I put my arm around my mother¡¦s shoulder and she would put her arm around my waist.
o I liked that living crutch much better because those wooden crutches didn¡¦t love me and care for me like she did.
- That¡¦s exactly what the Holy Spirit is.
o He¡¦s a living crutch who loves you, a crutch who cares for you.
o And if you¡¦ll depend on Him (through prayerful obedience to God¡¦s Word) you¡¦ll find that He¡¦s plenty strong enough to hold all your weight and all your burdens
„X Yet He is sensitive enough to whisper in your ear, telling you where to go and what to do and how to do it in accordance to His revealed will.
- How do you know when you¡¦re walking in the Spirit?
o You know it when you¡¦re living a life of prayer because prayer is proof of dependence on the Spirit.
o QUESTION: What level of dependence upon God does YOUR prayer life reflect?
o Paul says in Ephesians 6:18, that we should be ¡§praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.¡¨
- With each step you take in daily life, you ought to be praying (either silently or out loud):
Lord, in this responsibility facing me now, I¡¦m counting on you to help me do my best and be my best.
- Lord, I need you to give me sensitivity and understanding in this conflict with my wife.
- Lord, grant me wisdom in disciplining my child
- Holy Spirit, open the eyes of my heart as I look to God¡¦s Word to speak to me!
- A person who is walking in the Spirit is not ashamed to pray again and again ¡§Help me¡KHelp me¡KHelp me!¡¨
- Romans 8:26 says, ¡§¡Kthe Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.¡¨
o What better prayer partner could you ask for than the Holy Spirit
- Walking in the Spirit means that you are, in fact, borrowing from God¡¦s power.
o If you give me the mind Einstein had, there¡¦s no mathematical formula I could not unravel.
o If you give me the fingers of Mozart, there¡¦s no tune I couldn¡¦t play.
o If you give me Michael Jordan¡¦s legs and Hank Aaron¡¦s arms ¡V there¡¦s no sports contest I could not excel.
o AND if you give me the life of Jesus Christ¡Kthere¡¦s no spiritual victory I cannot achieve.
- Paul said in Galatians 2:20, ¡§I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.¡¨
- Paul had no qualms in saying, ¡§I borrow from God ¡V I cannot live the Christian life on my own.¡¨
- Most Christians believe they can pull off most of the Christian life, until they get to the ¡§biggies!¡¨ ¡V Only then do they need God.
- ILLUS: MOVING SIDEWALK. One day Carrie and I were hustling through an airport to catch our next flight.
And as we were going through a corridor, we noticed something. Although we had relaxed our pace to an easier stride, we were smoothly and quickly passing people on both sides of the corridor. It was almost as if we were flying through the airport.
Where did all that power come from that enabled us to outpace the other people with no extra effort on our part.
IT WAS THE MOVING SIDEWALK we had stepped onto.
o Our strides were now applied on top of another power.
o Underneath us was a force that was taking us farther and faster, yet with less exertion.
o We were still stepping forward, but our efforts were fueled by a power that was greater than our own.
- That¡¦s what walking in dependence on the Spirit is like.
PART 2 -- Sunday P.M. Service
(Review of Morning Message)
IV. Power to Enlighten your Decision Making
- QUESTION: If Jesus were still here on earth today, and in fact -- was living in your own home ¡V who would be the first person you turned to when facing a problem?
- Of course, it would be Jesus!
- You wouldn¡¦t phone up your pastor first,
Or a Christian Friend.
- You wouldn¡¦t do that if you could step right into the room where Jesus was and sit down and talk with Him.
- You may have thought at many times ¡V If only Jesus were here physically in our day¡XI know I could handle life so much better.
- The fact is, we have a situation far better than that!
(And Jesus Himself was careful to explain why)
- BACKGROUND: On the night before He would be crucified, Jesus talked with His disciples about leaving them.
o This was no small matter to them.
o The One whom they had risked their lives for, left their jobs and families for was now saying, ¡§I¡¦m leaving.¡¨
o That raised a fundamental question: ¡§How are we going to manage if You¡¦re not here?
- Their question is very much our question as well, as we try to follow Jesus in this crazy and discouraging world.
- How do we really do it when He¡¦s not here?
- John 14:16 -- Jesus said to His disciples, ¡§I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be with you forever.¡¨
o Vs. 17, ¡§You know Him for He dwells with you and will be in you.¡¨
- John 16:7, ¡§It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, it will send him to you.¡¨
- Helper = parakletos which means, ¡§To come alongside to assist.¡¨
o Jesus had always been their source of encouragement before ¡V But Jesus promised that after he ascended into Heaven, they would still have His help, His guidance, and His encouragement.
o Jesus was telling them, ¡§This Helper, the Holy Spirit, will be to you exactly what I have been to you.¡¨
- SHOCKING: If Jesus were still here on earth in human form, we would be worse off as Christians.
o Our lives would be horrible¡Xwe would be miserable, hopeless, defeated, and discouraged.
o That¡¦s because when Jesus walked on this earth, the presence of His deity was always limited to His physical location.
o He was always God ¡V but He limited Himself to being the God-Man.
o In order to receive Jesus¡¦ ministry directly, you had to be right there with him ¡V in His physical presence.
(And He could only be in 1 place at 1 time.)
- But now, with the Holy Spirit ¡V Jesus can be everywhere all at once.
- Probably the most practical way we experience the Helper¡¦s Presence is in the guidance and intervention He continues to give us.
o The more that you depend on the Spirit of God, the more you¡¦ll be guided.
o Every single day we encounter a constant stream of decisions and demands ¡V there are so many choices, concerns, opportunities, and needs.
o Sometimes, you just don¡¦t know which way to turn.
- ILLUS: Dr. Fear¡¦s Infinity with GPS (Global Positioning System) ¡V it is a device that lets you know exactly where you are.
o The Holy Spirit is like a G.P.S. ¡V His purpose is to be the voice of God in our hearts to direct us through the twists and turns of life in accordance with the Word and will of God.
o Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it." (Isaiah 30:21)
- ILLUS: That¡¦s why going to someone else for counsel before you go to the Spirit of God is like rubbing first aid cream on a broken leg
o It may feel a little better at the moment, but your problem hasn¡¦t been solved.
o The Spirit of God needs to be our first contact point as we seek Him in prayer and in God¡¦s Word.
o And when you do go to other people for counsel, you want to make sure they¡¦re full of the Holy Spirit, so their spiritual abundance can be applied to your own spiritual need.
„X EX: Hearing bad advice at Starbucks.
- In order to see God¡¦s clear guidance, you must decide in advance that you¡¦re going to obey whatever He reveals.
o If that¡¦s your passion ¡V if you say, ¡§Lord, whatever You want me to do, I¡¦ll do it¡¨ ¡V then He will assuredly be your Guide and Illuminator.
- Missionary Amy Carmichael offered a wise prayer: ¡§Holy Spirit¡Xthink through me, till Your ideas are my ideas.¡¨
V. Power Realize your Purpose and Mission
- The spiritual life must be lived and nourished from the inside out, but most of us try to do it from the outside in.
o The problem with most of us is that we think that the way to grow spiritually, or the way to fix anything that might be wrong inside us, is to do enough of the right external stuff.
o But that is all backwards.
- The Holy Spirit¡¦s job is to control, and influence, and enliven everything about you ¡V starting from the inside out
- A reforming and transforming process is triggered that will work itself out from your spirit
¡V breaking through to your mind, emotions, and will
¡V and then flowing outward into your body, so you can live a brand-new life in public.
- BUT it must be activated from the inside out.
- ILLUS: It¡¦s a lot like popping popcorn. In each kernel of corn there is moisture. When popcorn is placed in the microwave, the energy and heat of the radiation turns the moisture into steam. The steam expands and presses against the external shell until the pressure¡¦s so great that the seed pops ¡V and becomes transformed.
o What was contained internally is now expressed on the outside; the hard external gives way to the soft, eatable inside.
o And what¡¦s amazing about this process is that you would have never known by looking that the external shell had so much on the inside.
- When you are filled with the Holy Spirit ¡V God¡¦s Spirit in you transforms your soul ¡V and the transformed soul changes the behavior in the body.
- The new life on the inside becomes the dominant expression of the visible life on the outside.
- The Holy Spirit wants to renovate us from the inside out ¡V ¡§spirit and soul and body.¡¨ (I Thessalonians 5:23).
- LET ME JUST SAY PARENTHETICALLY ¡V when a church fails to experience empowerment and transformation ¡V the problem for most of us isn¡¦t a lack of Bible teaching.
o We have plenty of church services, Christian radio and television, Christian bookstores, seminars, workshops, programs, and ministries.
o We are not lacking in those areas.
- What we are lacking in our churches is a filling of the Spirit.
- BOLD STATEMENT: The fuller of the Spirit that we are, the fewer ¡§programs¡¨ that we need.
o Because no program on earth can match the filling from heaven.
- The church¡¦s job is not to replace the filling of the Spirit.
o The Bible commands us not to neglect meeting together.
o AND we are to be responsible and organized in our ministries
o BUT we must never let organization or programs replace the Spirit¡¦s filling.
- Why aren¡¦t more of our churches experiencing the supernatural?
o It¡¦s because they are not Spirit-filled churches.
o They may be Bible-teaching churches
They may be Programs-based churches
But they are not Spirit filled churches.
- What does it mean to be ¡§filled with the Spirit¡¨?
- Turn to Ephesians 5:18, ¡§And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit.¡¨
and let¡¦s make some observations:
1. It is a command ¡V this is not a suggestion. ¡§Be filled.¡¨
God is not asking you, he¡¦s telling you.
And your obedient response must involve an act of your will.
2. It is passive ¡V The Spirit does the filling ¡V our job is to let Him do it.
That means that we cannot already be full of ourselves.
We have to empty ourselves of pride and self-dependence.
- That¡¦s usually something we¡¦re not very good at.
- ILLUS: We¡¦re like a plastic milk jug after the last glass of milk has been poured out of it. The jug isn¡¦t really clean inside¡Xthere¡¦s still a residue there.
And to remove it we need to fill that jug clear to the top with fresh, cleansing water, just as the Holy Spirit fills us up to clean us out.
3. The Command is plural ¡V this applies to everyone.
It¡¦s for all Christians, not just some spiritually elite group.
Every believer is to be filled with the Spirit.
4. The Command is in the present tense.
It¡¦s continuous.
We are to keep on being filled.
*You cannot get filled yesterday and expect it to last for today. (Problem w/church members is that they think that if they are filled with God¡¦s presence on Sunday¡Xit will last throughout the entire week.)
- Filling today doesn¡¦t mean filling tomorrow.
- ILLUS: We regularly take our cars to the gas station. WHY?
So we can fill them with fuel. WHY? So we can go where we want to go.
o And after you drive from the gas station, they don¡¦t give you a new motor.
o NO, your indwelling motor is there to stay in your car.
o But unless that motor gets fuel, you¡¦re going nowhere ¡V So you fill ¡¥er up!
o HOWEVER, the very second you pull away from that gas station and head down the road, the fuel begins dissipating.
„X You¡¦re burning it up, consuming it.
„X You are losing the filling.
„X The farther you go, the faster you go¡Xthe less fuel you have, and so you have to get filled up again.
- It¡¦s the same way when it comes to the filling of the Spirit.
o We constantly need fresh wind, fresh fire to enable us to live out God¡¦s expectations for us in this world, to empower us each day to go where He wants us to go and do what He wants us to do.
- Remember it says, ¡§Do not be drunk with wine but be filled with the Spirit.¡¨
o Ask the alcoholic how to get drunk ¡V by drinking
o You stay drunk by continually drinking.
o The problem with most of us is that we are only sippers instead of drinkers.
Summarize: What can God do for you if you live in the Power of the Holy Spirit? 5 Things (Review P.O.W.E.R.)
REVIEW: The H.S. will give you Power to¡K
Practice Supernatural Living
Overcome Sin and Temptation
Walk through Daily Challenges
Enlighten Your Decision Making
Realize Your Purpose and Mission
CONCLUSION:
- When God intervenes in your life, it is to make sure that we have the power we need for accomplishing His purposes.
- Remember Acts 1:8, ¡§You will receive power¡K¡¨
- The disciples who heard this had spent 3 years listening to Jesus
¡V 3 years of going to ¡§seminary¡¨
-- 3 years of being taught by the eternal Son of God.
- They were not lacking information
They were not lacking a good Bible Teacher
They were not lacking instruction on what God wanted them to do.
- But Jesus knew 1 thing they were lacking ¡V POWER.
o He told them that until the Holy Spirit came, they would not experience such power.
- We see in Acts 2:4, ¡§And they were filled with the Holy Spirit¡K¡¨
o God was setting them apart as the church to get full of the Spirit so they had power to pull off everything the Lord Jesus had taught them.
NOTE: Although the message and outline is mine, much of this content came from Dr. Tony Evans.
