The Call To A Promise Series

#1 in Series on Holiness

April 27, 2003

The Call To A Promise

Acts 2:38-39

The Lord has sent out a call to every corner of this planet. Just as He called Moses out of the desert, called Samuel in the night, called Paul on the road to Damascus, He calls us to come to Him, for He has a great gift. God made us a promise; one that goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden, and that He would redeem us to Himself and give of Himself to us.

The story is told that one day a beggar by the roadside asked for alms from Alexander the Great as he passed by. The man was poor and wretched and had no claim upon the ruler, no right even to lift a solicitous hand. Yet the Emperor threw him several gold coins. A courtier was astonished at his generosity and commented, "Sir, copper coins would adequately meet a beggar’s need. Why give him gold?" Alexander responded in royal fashion, "Copper coins would suit the beggar’s need, but gold coins suit Alexander’s giving."

This gift is greater than we deserve and greater than our need, but it suits God to give Him to us.

Jesus said, “ If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" (Luke 11:13)

Now God is not giving us something that is a bonus for our actions. It is not a gift that is something like one of those Christmas gifts that we get, that while we appreciate and can use it, is something that we don’t really need.

When God, in the beginning, took a lump of dirt and began to design us, He created a complicated and intricate design that requires many things to make it function correctly.

We know many of these things: food, water, shelter, companionship. With these things, we can achieve a certain amount of functionality that can get us through this life. But it’s like trying to drive a car with a flat tire. You can make some progress, but eventually, the tire will completely come off, create huge stresses on the car, and these stresses on the car will eventually bring it to a standstill.

There’s one thing that we need that is part of our design that is absolutely essential to us

being able to reach our full potential. We cannot obtain this on our own, it cannot be bought, as Simon the Sorcerer learned the hard way, it is a gift that only God can give us.

As you know, I am a sound system buff. My equipment is not the “top-of-the-line” but it is of good quality. For it to work, it has certain requirements. I have an Electro-Voice 7100 stereo power amplifier. I know that there are some of you that will say, “What’s a power amplifier?” I will just simply say, “It’s what makes you hear the music.”

It’s not very large in size, it fits in my road case very nicely, but it can, when properly operated, make itself useful in a nice size auditorium. It even looks good. Now, you have to be a sound system buff to think a piece of gear actually “looks good,” but I think it does.

I can plug in my mixer and CD player, for example, and plug in the speakers and turn on everything on. There’s just one problem, I don’t hear any music. I think, “What’s the problem?” I look around and go, “Duh! I have to plug it into the power receptacle in the wall.”

Then, suddenly, I hear music! What was the difference? You got it, NO POWER!

We have all the right equipment to reach our fullest potential in this life. In a sense, our life can make some beautiful music, we have that potential. But it won’t happen until we are “plugged in” to the power source, the Holy Spirit.

That is God’s gift to us. He designed us so that our lives can make beautiful music if we are connected to Him.

Now several things are going to happen when we go to get plugged in and receive the Holy Spirit.

I. WE WILL BE CLEANSED FROM SIN.

Quite a few years ago, when I was beginning to acquire my first sound system, I needed a reel-to-reel tape deck, but good ones were singularly expensive, beyond my modest budget.

One day, someone I knew came to my house carrying a case. He opened up this case and it turned out to be a top quality Akai reel-to-reel tape deck.

He told me that he had found this at the dump. He didn’t know how it got there, but all the parts seemed to be there and thought I might could use it. I thanked him and he went on his way.