The Power to Be

Fresh Power - What Happens When God Leads and You Follow!

We are two weeks into our summer reading of Pastor Jim Cymbala’s book, “Fresh Power.”

Two weeks ago, we looked at “There You Are,” and how the Holy Spirit places you in the right place at the right time so that God can use you in situations that are all around you all the time.

If we are trusting in God, His Holy Spirit will place us where we need to be.

This will be different many times than where you think you need to be.

We need to remember that God has a plan for the lives of all of those around us, not just us.

We need to believe that God does want to use us and move out in faith, when he starts to do so.

The Holy Spirit will draw a line between what is just life and what is really important in life.

God has a sovereign will for our lives. Some of those things he will reveal to us, but many times we have to trust him for the rest.

There are things that only he knows that you won’t fully understand until you get to heaven.

You can trust God, because He will never lead you wrong.

The Holy Spirit will match what He has put within you with the need around you.

He knows why you are here. He knows why you are good at things and gifted with things that others aren’t

And he has placed you in work places, and relationships and homes and families so that those giftings can be used.

Remember, we are limited by time. all that we see is the here and now, and we remember the past.

But God has been in everyone of your days and he has placed things within you so that they can be used for his glory along the way.

This week, our reading was chapter 2 - Of Cemeteries and Insane Asylums.

That we have to find the right place between the two when it comes to our faith and trust in God’s Holy Spirit.

A church that preaches against the Holy Spirit and won’t accept, because they don’t understand what God has given us, is dead.

A church that goes totally the opposite direction, and doesn’t follow what the Word of God says about the moving of His Spirit, is crazy.

And it’s not the middle ground that we are working for, but the truth about the God’s Holy Spirit.

The Word is very clear.

One of those Scriptures is the one I want to look at today.

Acts 1:1–11 NKJV

1 The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, 2 until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, 3 to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. 4 And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; 5 for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” 6 Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. 8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” 9 Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. 10 And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, 11 who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.”

Acts 1:8 NKJV

8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

The last words that the disciples heard Jesus say, as he ascended into the clouds was this...

You shall receive Power and you shall be witnesses to me.

It could have been said like this, you are receiving power so that you can witness of me.

Everyone, just take a second with me, close your eyes, relax and take a deep breath.

Let it out.

It’s going to be okay.

I know that we get all keyed about ministry and witnessing in our world, but it’s okay. It’s not you. It’s God’s Holy Spirit that will do the work......THROUGH YOU!

So relax.

Michael Durso

Besides, just think about Michael Durso’s story. Nobody but the Holy Spirit could have done anything there.

Raised in a very afluent Italian Catholic family, with a gourmet pasta business that was doing very well.

Raised to take the business over.

Meets a girl named Maria who is from another very well to do family

Together they lived the good life.

And the high life. cocktails of various drugs all mixed together - heroin, quaaludes, acid, and cocaine.

They travelled to beautiful and distant places, to get away and do drugs.

Then one day, while on vacation in Mexico, Maria says to him, Hey by the way, when we get home, we should go to church.

He didnt’ want to, but when you are with a beautiful woman in Mexico and life is good, you don’t rock the boat - He said okay

He said that he went, in a defiant mood. He dressed outrageously to shock the religious people

He sat in the front and made a spectacle of himself, clapping loudly and greeting everyone.

He said as the guest speaker spoke, he didn’t hear a word he said.

and all of a sudden during the close of the service. This is what he said. (keep in mind - he wasn’t paying attention)

Suddenly, I felt overwhelmed. I knew my life was headed for hell. All my confidence in my religious upbringing and my smart image vanished. I felt ashamed of my appearance. Both Maria and I headed for the front.

Instead of going to club to party that night, they went home and cleaned house.

thousands upon thousands of dollars of things went out to the building incinerator.

(keep in mind - nobody told them to do this)

magazines, their music collection, the drug paraphernalia, jewelry, clothing

Michael moved out of the apartment, until they could get married.

they grew in the Lord, got involved in ministry at Brooklyn Tabernacle and today are pastoring Christ Tabernacle Church in Queens.

How does that happen? Only by the Holy Spirit who says I give you “Power to Be My Witnesses”

So we take last weeks lesson, about being in the right place and time with the right giftings and now we see that God uses us to be witnesses and to make huge differences in the lives of people around us.

First,

The Holy Spirit Makes Us Witnesses

He works in our lives.

He puts us in places where we see the power of God moving.

That builds our faith

That gives us a foundation to stand upon.

Much like David and the Lion and the Bear before Goliath.

The Holy Spirit opens our eyes to see the truth.

The Holy Spirit gives us the ability to accept the truth

He then gives us the ability to live the truth.

Listen to me church family, You cannot tell anybody what happened, if you weren’t a witness to it happening.

Man, we don’t need Christians going around speaking what they think about Christ.

We need men and women who have experienced the power of Christ and can tell their testimony. What’s a testimony? This is what Jesus did!

Why do you think Michael and Maria Durso did so well in the street ministry of Brooklyn Tabernacle? They had experienced the power of God to break those very things in their lives that the people in the streets were living through now.

He cleans up our lives.

We can’t be witnesses if there are things in our lives that will lead people away from Jesus.

And all of us in the flesh have those things.

sins

temperaments

idiosyncrosis

failures

relationship flaws

They hinder us from being witnesses for Christ. But the Holy Spirit handles them in our lives.

Whatever it is that the enemy is keeping you held back from sharing your faith with, the Holy Spirit can free you.

Perhaps it is his lie that you are never going to be free from that sin

Perhaps it is the lie that you can’t speak before people

Or they will think that you are crazy or treat you as such

Oh they may. But Holy Spirit boldness goes a long way.

That power to become witnesses, deals with our humanity

It deals with our sin and brokenness

1 Corinthians 5:9–13 NKJV

9 I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. 10 Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. 11 But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person. 12 For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? 13 But those who are outside God judges. Therefore “put away from yourselves the evil person.”

1 Corinthians 5:

If we will allow him to do so, the Holy Spirit will judge our sin and give us the victory over it.

But that will require and effort on our part to die to that sin. To give it over to him and trust him in all that he wills to do in us.

He will turn us into people whom Christ can use to lead others to him.

I would like to pause right now and pray for us.

Because I feel today that the Holy Spirit is hitting a nerve in many of us. He is speaking to those things that we know hinder us from being the examples to our families, our co-workers and our world of who Jesus really is.

And I feel that something is going to change in all of us today, if we will allow him to do it.

PRAY

Next,

The Holy Spirit Gives Us Witness

Matt

Matthew 10:19 NKJV

19 But when they deliver you up, do not worry about how or what you should speak. For it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak;

I know that this is speaking about times when we are pulled in before people in times of persecution and judgement.

But I also believe that we can stand upon this in times of sharing our faith with people, because I’ve seen it happen in my life.

The Holy Spirit will give us the right words to say.

I was speaking with Brother Dan Kitsch about this just this past week.

We were talking about tongues and how the Holy Spirit moves in our lives.

And church, it’s not about the tongues, yes praise God for that powerful prayer language. I use it every day.

But it’s about having the right tools at our disposal when they are needed.

We were talking about how the Holy Spirit knows what he is doing in the other persons life. You may not.

You might have just met them, you might not have seen them in a long while

or they may be total strangers, but as in last weeks message, we believe that God puts us in the right place at the right time.

Well he also gives us the right words to speak.

He knows what they are going through, he knows what he is up to in their hearts

And now he expects you to speak into that and carry them further along into their journey with him.

The HOly Spirit gives us witness.

The right words to say

The right attitude to say them in

The right time to smile, cry or even pray with them

He will bring the word back to remembrance in our hearts. The very part of his word that they need to hear at that moment.

He’ll give us the ability to lead them into it.

Stephen and the Ethiopian Eunich

(of course this is reliant upon us being in the word and knowing it ourselves)

He’ll give us the words of liberty, the utterances of healing and faith, and the right way to pray over them.

He’ll guide our hearts in what actions to take.

How to love them, how to be patient with them, and how to get them where they are going, physically and spiritually

The third and last point goes right with this, but takes it a little further and makes it more meaningful

The Holy Spirit Empowers us to Witness.

What am I saying with that point? He Gives us the Goods!

Have you ever met anyone who doesn’t have the goods? I’m not talking about spiritual wise, but life wise.

They promise you the moon. They tell you that they can handle something for you.

Sometimes they believe that they can, and other times, they are just schiesters.

But what happens, you get left down.

Something doesn’t happen that should have happen

You lose money

You end up having to pay double, because now you have to hire somebody else to do it for you

It’s not fun is it?

Well Jesus advertises to the world that if they want healing, and if they want purpose and if they want salvation that they just need to meet his people

And then we don’t have the goods.

WE can’t pray for them, because we’ve never prayed for us

We can’t give them a word from God, because we don’t know the word of God

We can’t lead them in the right direction, because we are so lost ourselves.

That’s really what this whole message is about, isn’t it?

The Holy Spirit gives us the goods.

He leads us to the Word. And gives us the ability to understand it, retain it, live it and teach it.

He brings that word to life in us and faith rises up in our hearts and lives

He causes that faith to come alive and now we begin to act upon it.

We begin to see others differently, we can now sense their brokenness and their need

We know what Jesus has done, and can now pray for them in full assurance that he will do it in thier lives

We know what it’s like to walk with Him and so we can begin to lead others in walking with him.

As Paul said, follow me as I follow Jesus.

That is being made a witness

That is being empowered to be a witness.

Doesn’t that make our job easier?

Doesn’t that give you hope in your spiritual mission on this earth?

Your reliance isn’t upon you, it’s upon God’s Holy Spirit. And He can do it.

Hey, we can see that he can change lives without us, but he sure does love to have us assisting.

The last words that the disciples heard from Jesus was The Power to be witnesses.

I’m empowering you to do the work

Let’s hear those words today church and let’s get out there and change our world.

Amen? Amen

Pray