Holy Spirit Empowers Us

May 19th 2024

Series: Who is the Holy Spirit?

Sermon Title: Holy Spirit Guides Us

Topic: Journey to help us learn who the Holy Spirit was, is, and will always be and how the Holy Spirit is active in our lives today.

Key Passages: Exodus 31:1-5 Exodus 35: 30-35

Topic: Holy Spirit, Gifts of the Spirit,

Sermon Blurb: In today’s message, we will see some of the gifts the Holy Spirit gives people.

***1st week ODD months add communion & target message at 15 pages.

***1st week EVEN months add space for dedication, baptism, or ministry highlight & target message at 15 pages.

***Green in sermons means illustration, something we are looking for a response from, and/or a picture that goes on the screens.

***Yellow means what is yellow will be on the screens and in the handout.

Dedication, Baptism, or Ministry Highlight:

Sermon:

Hello Family Church!

Family Moment –

Start with something personal from your family life recently to help people get to know you.

Celebrate salvation’s / re-dedications / baptisms last week.

Those of you who are new, or newer, to Family Church we are SUPER happy you are with us today!

We are in a series that is taking a DEEP dive into who the Holy Spirit actually was, is, and will always be.

How God the Father.

The Son Jesus.

The Holy Spirit….

How they are ALL the SAME…

And how they are ALL different…

PAUSE

Last week we began looking at how the Holy Spirit was active and moving in the Old Testament….

Or the first ½ of your Bible….

Today, we are going to continue looking at that.

Last week we looked at the references to the Holy Spirit in Genesis…today we will look at what we see in the book of Exodus, or the second book of the Bible.

PAUSE

Now grab your Bible and open it up to

Exodus 31

Believe it or not, that is the next place we see the Spirit moving.

And by the way…..

New Person Bible Connection:

If you do not have a Bible, that is ok!

After service, we will give you an AMAZING leather-bound study Bible!

Just go to ADD YOUR CAMPUS PLACE and get one for FREE!!!

PAUSE

If you look in your notes….It lists all the locations in the first 5 books of the Bible where the Holy Spirit is mentioned.

Holy Spirit in the Old Testament: Genesis 1:2, 2:7, 6:3, 41:38. Exodus 31:3, 35:31. Numbers 11:17,25-26,29, 24:2, 27:18. Deuteronomy 34:9.

I find it interesting that in Genesis 1 & 2, the Holy Spirit is there giving identity and life to mankind…

Then, when the Holy Spirit is mentioned again in Genesis 6, it is at the Holy Spirit limiting the life span of humans because we keep making such bad life choices….

Then Genesis 41 is about the ruler of Egypt seeing God’s Spirit in his followers….

PAUSE

From a VERY HIGH level….

Exodus is all about God taking his people out of slavery in Egypt and getting them to where God wanted them to be.

God then teaches them how he designed them to live in relation to him and the people around them.

Then God, toward the end of Exodus, begins to give VERY specific instructions on how to build things to aid the people in worship of Him.

Exodus narrates how the people building the Tabernacle and all these objects of worship were endowed by the Spirit of God.

Let me show you…

Exodus 31:1-5 Then the Lord said to Moses, 2 “See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah,

3 and I have filled him with the Spirit of God,

Now look at the specific things that this person being filled with God’s Spirit does for him…

with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills—

4 to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze,

5 to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of crafts.

Other translations say the Holy Spirit FILLED him with wisdom, understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship.

This verse is part of a passage where God is speaking to Moses about the Tabernacle's construction.

For those of you who are newer to church, the Tabernacle was where the Israelites would worship God.

Today, we call that church.

Back then it was called a Tabernacle.

There is a church just down the highway a few miles from us called, “Tabernacle” for that very reason.

PAUSE

In their context church had to move from place to place as they traveled.

The tabernacle was a portable tent that the Israelites could take with them as they traveled.

It was a physical representation of God's presence among His people and a place where they could offer sacrifices and perform other acts of worship.

PAUSE

But here is what I want you to see…

Look in your Bibles….

God’s Spirit, right here, gave specific instructions on how to build the Tabernacle and its objects of worship.

Write this down, and it comes 100% from what you just read in the Bible:

The Holy Spirit can give us wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and all kinds of skills.

Repeat

Here is the reality church…

When we are following God’s leading in our lives.

When we are doing what God calls us to do.

When we are building things God is calling us to build.

When we are speaking to people God is calling us to speak to.

The Holy Spirit will fill the gaps in our abilities!

We saw this time and again as we walked through the book of Acts as a church!

How the early church, as they followed God’s leading, did SOOOO many amazing things!

NOT because they had AMAZING abilities…

BUT because the Holy Spirit in the moment GAVE them the ability to do what was needed!

PAUSE

Share a story about the Spirit working through someone, or yourself, in a way that was NOT possible.

Let me give you an example of this….

A few years ago I went to El Salvador with a group.

We ended up in a community I had never been in before.

We were serving a church that, years prior, another ministry had dug the well because, in that community, the water was only turned on by the government 2 days a week.

The well when we got there was broken.

But the Holy Spirit had spoken to the Nyland family that they were supposed to go on this trip.

And Mike Nyland, who had worked on wells before, said we might be able to fix it…if we had the tools…

So we looked all over for the right tools and could not find exactly what was needed.

But God ALSO sent us a few guys like Brett Hoffman with some epic-sized biceps…

God sent Scott who is a jack of all trades…

And so, these guys started working on this well NOT KNOWING exactly how to fix it.

WITHOUT the tools really needed to fix it…

And the Holy Spirit moved…

Two days later… this happened

VIDEO

God gave those guys wisdom in the moment.

God gave them knowledge in the moment.

God gave them understanding in the moment.

God gave them skills in the moment.

PAUSE

Here is the only question church….

Will you…

Will I…

Will we….

FOLLOW the Holy Spirit’s leading to do things we do NOT know how to do!

Will we FOLLOW the Holy Spirit’s leading to speak to people when we DON’T have all the answers…

Will we trust God to give us the skills we will need when we step out in faith???

PAUSE

The question is NOT IF the Holy Spirit will help us when we follow Him!

The question is IF we will FOLLOW Him in those moments…

PAUSE

But it does not stop there church…

This same guy comes up again in the Bible in Exodus 35…

Move there in your Bibles.

In Exodus 35: 30-35 it says this,

Exodus 35: 30-35 Then Moses said to the Israelites, “See, the Lord has chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah,

31 and he has filled him with the Spirit of God,

And again….

Look at the specific things the Holy Spirit gives this guy…

with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills—

32 to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze,

33 to cut and set stones, to work in wood and to engage in all kinds of artistic crafts.

Now….

Pause here for one second…

I want you to see what the END of verse 34 says…

Because here we see another thing the Holy Spirit can do for us.

Let’s read just the end of this verse, because I cannot read this guys name anyway…

34 And he has given both him and Oholiab son of Ahisamak, of the tribe of Dan, the ability to teach others.

The Holy Spirit gives him the ability to TEACH who???

Others.

Other people.

And note…the Holy Spirit did this for more than one person this ability!

It is NOT exclusive!

PAUSE

Write this down so you don’t forget.

The Holy Spirit will give me the ability to teach others.

Repeat

PAUSE

And let me say this as well…

Life is NOT about you.

I LOVE that the Holy Spirit helps you and me.

But life is NOT about you and me…

It is about God and helping others find God.

So I LOVE that it does NOT stop with the Holy Spirit helping us…

But this CLEARLY shows us….

These skills and abilities were to help people be able to worship God.

AND…

To help others learn how to do the same!

The Holy Spirit gives us these things to help us help others FULLY worship God!!!!

Do you see it church?

PAUSE

And let me read verse 35… and then I want to park here…

He gives these guys the ability now to NOT ONLY do it themselves.

BUT he ALSO gives them the ability to TEACH OTHERS how to do things as well….

Verse 35…

35 He has filled them with skill to do all kinds of work as engravers, designers, embroiderers in blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen, and weavers—all of them skilled workers and designers.

Stop and think about this church…

The Holy Spirit, as we have learned about recently.

The Holy Spirit gives us identity.

The Holy Spirit changes us.

The Holy Spirit Guides us.

And now we see…

The Holy Spirit will LITERALLY give us the skills and abilities we need in life!

HOW AWESOME IS THIS!!!!!

How comforting is this!!!

You do NOT need to worry about where you lack…

Because the Holy Spirit will fill the gap…

PAUSE

ADD EXAMPLES of where you feel you lack and H/S fills in…

I will be honest with you….When I came here to go after this church plant….

I did NOT know what to do!

I didn’t know what to preach about!

I didn’t know how to grow it!

I didn’t know how to motivate people to give to the vision I had!

When we went multi-site we DIDN’T have pastor Keith on staff!

We DIDN’T have him waiting in the wings!

When God gave us the Redwood campus Pastor Erik was NOT on staff!

WE….

WE….

As a church….

Have demonstrated what we are talking about today so many times…

Step out in faith…

Trust God…

Follow God’s leading…

Follow even when we DON’T have what we need…

And then let God fill in the gaps…

And I can PROMISE you, church…

It is so fun when you see God show up!!!

It will grow your faith so much when God shows up!!!

It will change you when you see God work through you!!!

PAUSE

I am not the same pastor I was when I came here because of how God has changed me as I have trusted him and followed His leading…

My son Wyatt is not the same kid he was before he had cancer and had to trust God with his life.

My wife Jenny grew up outside the church and will be the first person to tell you that when she accepted Jesus, it changed everything!

When we CHOOSE to follow the Holy Spirit.

When we CHOOSE to do what God calls us to do EVEN WHEN we do NOT have the abilities needed…

That is when we step into the BEST version of life!

A life dependent on God…

A life dedicated to God…

Which is what Jesus taught us to do!

PAUSE

Church…Exodus shows us…

God telling Moses that He has chosen Bezalel and has filled him with the Spirit of God to:

give him the wisdom,

understanding,

knowledge,

and skill to carry out the work of constructing the tabernacle and its furnishings.

And to help others do the same!

This book shows us that the Holy Spirit empowers and equips people to carry out God's work.

This leads us to our life application today…

PAUSE

Let me share your life application with you today….

For those of you who are new, or newer, to Family Church.

We end our messages with a Life Application.

It is simply something to help you go home and process this message with someone else.

Something to help you continue to ponder how you can apply today's message to your life.

So here is what I want you all to spend some time processing and talking with someone about.

Life Application: The Holy Spirit wants to help you in life. Who could be the person God created you to teach about Him?

How could you step out in FAITH and follow God’s leading even when you do NOT have the ability?

As a result of today’s message, I will _________________________.

Maybe end with a closing song? Time for people to come pray over God leading and empowerment?