May the Force be with You

04-28-2019

May the Force be with you

Intro -

Welcome

I wished this sermon would have been near May 4th

Get it may the force be with you

Maybe it would have made more since

But today we are going to be looking after Jesus was raised from the dead and just after he ascended to Heaven

You have guessed it we are talking about the Holy Spirit

I don’t think most churches talk about the Holy Spirit, maybe it is the forgotten part of the Trinity

Maybe it scares us because another name used is the Holy Ghost and for churches that is odd maybe

See as believers we are given the Holy Spirit when we begin our relationship with Christ

Some other names for the Holy Spirit

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But it only after we confess our sins before God and confess he is God and that he raised Jesus from the dead

But church for salvation to happen we have to repent of our sins and Run to Jesus

In church we call that getting saved

But it is important for us to know what that is that we are given the same spirit that raised Jesus from the grave

We are given the helper, the comforter

John 14:15–17 NASB95

15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. 16 “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; 17 that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.

See Jesus foretells His disciples that if you and I Love God we will do His commandments

See church is not about behavior modifications church is not about making you a better person

It about a relationship with Jesus

Having a relationship is not about making you a better person it is about making you more like Christ

It is not about the outside behavior but it is about the heart change

The heart change is through loving God

Please hear me its not about a formula that if you love God more you will be ok

But church you and I if we are believers in Christ we are to love God and because we love God we will do His commandments

And because we are loving Him and doing His commandments God will not leave us alone

See the relationship with God isn’t us loving Him and us doing his commandments and we are left to do things on our own

God gives us the Holy Spirit, a helper

So you and I will not be alone

See you and I are not alone in this world

We are not asked to have a relationship with God and then left to own

We are given a helper in this life

Jesus also promises that the helper will be with us and the world will not know Him

So now fast forward a bit to Jesus has died and now raised from the dead. We have the empty tomb to prove that

Jesus has met and even eaten with His disciples and now 500 witnesses have watched him ascend into heaven

Acts 1:4–8 NASB95

4 Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, “Which,” He said, “you heard of from Me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” 6 So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; 8 but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

They are commanded not to leave but to wait patiently for what the Lord will send them

See church the Lord doesn’t expect us to follow us on our own

He sends them a helper in the matter

He says that they will receive power from the Holy Spirit

See church they are given the great commission and God doesn’t just leave them to do it themselves

Rather he says he will send them a helper

Church we are no different

As believers in Christ we are not given a call on our lives, we are not called as a church to go and share the Gospel

As individual believers we are not called to walk with Jesus and run with Him in our everyday lives

All on our own

Jesus is in essence saying may the force be with you!

Jesus is giving you and I the power of the Holy Spirit

May the Force be with you as you go out

May the same spirit that raised Jesus from the Grave be with you

May the peace of God that this world doesn’t understand be with you as you go out

How exciting it is when the Power comes on us

Acts 2:1–4 NASB95

1 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.

God sends the power of the Holy Spirit down on the believers and they begin to do things that can only happen because they have the power of the Holy Spirit

Now please don’t read this and think they only way the Power is sent but through a violent wide

or please don’t think the power is only manifested in you and I as believers but though the speaking of tongues

See the Holy Spirit is given to Believers

As a comforter

John 14:16 NASB95

16 “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever;

See The Holy Spirit is with us forever

Jesus was only going to be on the earth for a short while that is why he promised he would send the Holy Spirit to be with us forever

As believers, we have that Holy Spirit

Why we go around always defeated when it comes to life is beyond me

But church as believers you and I have the Power of the Holy Spirit living in us!!

The Holy Spirit is wise counsel

Isaiah 11:2 NASB95

2 The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and strength, The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

See Jesus promised that when he left he would send a help mate

Part of that help mate is the Holy Spirit

It is not only a comforter

But church the Holy Spirit is also wise counsel, it is also understanding

When the things of this world don’t make sense it is finding rest in the Holy Spirit that lives inside us as believers

That is where our wise counsel comes from, not what we as man can figure out

That is also where understanding comes from the Holy Spirit that lives inside us!

Its my prayer church that you and I understand the Power of the Holy Spirit

It is through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ

That only begins church after we repent of our sins, understand this church if there is no repentance of sin then there is no relationship with Jesus

And church if there is no relationship with Jesus there is no giving of the Holy Spirit

Then it is understandable that this life is difficult

That is why Jesus sent the Holy Spirit so we would have someone to go through life with us, to help us, to comfort us, to give us wisdom

That why church Jesus would have said

May the Force be with you!

That is why he can send us out into the world to be a light to the world because the Holy Spirt changes us and we are different because of the Holy Spirit

Acts 2:1–4 NASB95

1 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.

Church as we move into a time of closing

This should encourage us as we go out today and this week

This should encourage us as believers to know that the Holy Spirit was sent to us and for us

To guide us, to comfort us, and to give us wisdom

As the musicians come up

I want to invite you to the front if you have never made a profession of faith, if you are here today and do not have a personal relationship with Jesus, I want to invite you up front and there will be people at the front to open up scripture to show you how you can begin one

That the relationship is started when you repent of your sin, and confess that Jesus is lord and believe that he was raised from the dead

maybe you are here and you have a personal relationship with Jesus and there is another decision you need to make

or maybe you simply need to spend time in prayer at the altar