Sanctify

Sanctify

“After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken.

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.” Acts 4:31

Intro: An 18 wheeler semi set on the side of the road with its hazard lights on.

A passing state trooper stopped to offer assistance.

The problem was not in the 600 horse power motor.

Or with the 1850 foot pound of torque.

The truck could average about a thousand five hundred miles on the 300 gallon fuel tanks.

The problem was the tanks were empty.

What do you do when you find yourself in this situation spiritually?

We can look around us here today.

We have a nice building.

We have the right equipment.

We have the Family Life Center.

We have the education rooms.

We have the commercial kitchen.

We have to capacity to travel farther than our grandparents could ever dream of going.

But yet we find ourselves drugging along at a snail’s pace

Or worst yet we find ourselves setting in the pew with the warning lights blinking.

What fuels your spiritual life?

What powers your soul?

What drives your passion for Jesus?

Sanctify is a word full of power and meaning.

It is the result of a changed life.

It is the process of being and becoming what God created you to be.

A little boy asked his grandmother how old she was.

The grandmother not willing to reveal her age replied. “I am 39 and holding.”

The little boy knowing he was not getting a straight answer asked again.

“Grandma, how old would you be if you let go?”

To sanctify means we let go of the past and trust God for future.

We live in world full of hurts and fears.

Problems, injury and heartaches

But the simple answer is trust God.

This week I attended the high school senior honors banquet at Rotary.

They recognized honor students from both Paintsville and Johnson Central High Schools.

The president of Pikeville University Dr. Web was the guest speakers.

He talked about the ever changing world.

If you think there has been a lot of change the past 50 years just imagine the change over the next 50 years.

He gave an example of a high definition t.v. screen that is flexible and small enough

that it can be wrapped around a drinking glass or cup for advertizing.

He talked about how the average college graduate will face as many as 6-7 career changes.

Not just job changes but actually career changes.

Everything from taking your child to school for the very first day,

To picking up a child from school for the very last day,

And everything in between

all represent things we try to hold on to but often have no control over

No it is never easy to let go.

We suffer because we cling to things that need to be let go.

We somehow have to learn to open our hands and trust God.

What things of the past are you clinging to that need to be let go so that you can enter the next level

Holiness in your relationship with God?

This is not something we can do over night.

We don’t just instantly become a holy saint.

It is a slow method of allowing God to live and exist more and more in the places where we live and exist.

Pentecost is a time to feel the fresh wind of the Holy Spirit

and experience the strong surge of energy from God into your life.

We celebrate Christmas and the birth of Jesus.

We celebrate His resurrection

But today is Pentecost and hardly anyone realizes it.

There are no isles at the store filled with flames of fire

Or doves on shelves.

Or flags or banners being displayed symbolizing unity

Or God’s power.

Yet today is a very important day.

Because Pentecost is the birthday of the Church.

There was a little girl at church with her father.

She was a such a good little girl.

She was well behaved.

She didn’t make much noise

She did not cause any problems.

But every once in a while she would stand up in the pew, turn around, look at the people behind her

and smile at them.

Her smile was so affectionate and contagious that soon everybody behind her started to smile back.

It was going along fine until the father realized what she was doing.

When he did, he turned with a stern look on his face and gravel in his voice

And told her to sit down and remember that she was in church.

Have you ever been to a church where everything was gloom and doom?

That is not the kind of church I want to belong to.