The Holy Spirit - Power

Intro:

Good morning River Church family and friends! Can I just say I miss seeing you all. Would you drop a pic in the comments below of you enjoying your coffee at home in the livestream? Let me know you’re with us!

I want to also give a shoutout to two of my River Kids friends that I missed last week - my buddy Leo and big dog Mason! Sorry I didn’t mention you guys at our last service!

Btw - I love that everyone is engaging online in the comments. While we don’t want this to be a distraction, we also want you to feel connected during this online-only season! And each week we will have someone from TRC moderating our livestream comments! So, keep it up!

Well, this morning we’re continuing our Duplo series. We’re growing in our faith by growing in our understanding of the Trinity. And this week is our final week on the Holy Spirit - the third person of the Trinity.

You know, in the early 90s, a popular video game hit the arcades. I remember being in middle school and going to the pizza shop (across the street) to grab a slice of Da Boyz Pizza and to play Street Fighter 2! Soon after, Super Nintendo released it so we could play at home. I spent HOURS upon HOURS playing Street Fighter. My favorite character was Ken.

I remember practicing the fire ball. The flying upper cut (and learning how to time it perfectly to hit anyone jumping towards me). And also using little cheater moves, like utilizing the quick short sweep and then doing the flying hurricane kick to get to the other side of my opponent... only to hit them again with the short sweeps. People hated that combo!

I loved playing that game.

But as the years passed, my passion for video games faded. By the time XBox came out, I was terrible at video games. Too many moving pieces. Too many buttons. Maybe I’m just getting old (I will be 40 tomorrow)!

I mention this because a few weeks ago - before COVID-19 - we had our first Youth Life Group at Square Peg Pizza. Shout out to them! They hooked us up big time to make this a special night! And in their restaurant, they have old school arcade games - one being Street Fighter 2.

Now, one of the youth kids (my friend Jude), heard I liked Street Fighter 2. So, he challenged me because I guess he’s been playing it lately. I was like “Okay!”

Let me just say - I’ve played video games with Jude before and he’s destroyed me. So, I’m pretty sure he was ready to destroy me again.

So, I put my 50 cents in. He puts his in. Of course I select Ken. He picks Blanca. He even pulls out this sheet with how to do the moves out. He’s ready to kick my butt.

“Round 1, FIGHT!”

I keep him at bay with my fireballs. I even change up the speed because he’s timing his jumps over them. That messes him up. But, not all of my attempts work because I’m rusty, but I’m able to beat him. Okay - Round 2!

As we begin, I feel this surge of power in my hands. Like they know how to do things. Fireball - Fireball - Fireball. He jumps - I give him a flying uppercut. Fireball - Fireball - He jumps and gets close. And this hidden power takes over! All of sudden I’m doing all the moves I could do in 1992! Even the sweep - hurricane kick combo.

Then… Bam! “You win!”

Jude looks at me like, “What.The.Heck!?!”

You see, when muscle memory took over, I had this power/ability to do things I didn’t know I could do (at least anymore). It was deep inside me - waiting to be unleashed!

That’s kind of like Holy Spirit. As Christians, the Holy Spirit lives in us and gives us power to do amazing things, for God’s purposes and glory! It’s stuff we could never do on our own. And its just waiting to be unleashed!

And I want to mention four ways the Holy Spirit releases power in our lives, if we’re ready and willing!

Functions of Trinity (simplified but helpful):

Father planned.

Son secured.

Spirit applied.

How this relates to power?

Body:

1. The Holy Spirit gives us power to be strong.

In the Old Testament, there’s a book titled Judges. It’s a pretty crazy book. It’s a book you read and think to yourself, “Wait, am I reading the Bible? Why is this stuff in here?” Quickly - let me just say, the Bible is not a fictional, sanitized, religious book. It’s the story of a loving and holy God saving sinners. And it’s honest when it describes our sinful stories.

In the book of Judges, there’s a man named Samson. You may know about him. There was a movie back in the day.

He was crazy strong.

He could kill lions, defeat groups of men by himself, and snap rope like they were thread.

He’s the guy who’s power was connected to his long hair (kinda).

Actually, the Bible teaches that his power really came from the Holy Spirit. Each time he did something miraculous, it says the “Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him.”

The Holy Spirit gave him incredible strength to accomplish incredible things.

The Holy Spirit can give us power to be strong. But, this isn’t limited to physical strength. It can also be emotional strength.

In the same way, the Holy Spirit can give us power to be strong. And it’s not limited to physical strength. It can also be emotional strength.

When we had our first son, Georgie, most of you heard the story of how he was born dead, then revived, spent 10 days in the NICU, and given a prognosis that he’d have cerebral palsy at best. But God did a supernatural healing. However, that’s not what I want to focus on! What I want to talk about the incredible emotional strength my wife had.

During that time, Janelle was supernaturally strong. I mean, my wife is a naturally resilient woman, but this was something different. And I SPECIFICALLY remember looking at her during that season and being amazed!

I mean people were coming up to us asking, “How are you holding it together? How are you so strong?” The only answer was God! It was Holy Spirit Power.

Because it wasn’t that we’d been through this before, allowing us to handle the situation with some experience. This was our first son. We’d had no personal experience to draw strength from. We’d never faced anything like this. But the Holy Spirit was with us! And He gave us power to be strong.

I’m wondering… who is listening right now and needs Holy Spirit strength?

Maybe for the season we are all in right now?

We don’t need more fear or worry. There’s enough of that going around. We need strong men and women of God lifting up their community - like Darth Vader.

If thats you, hear this: This Holy Spirit power is available to you!

Stop focusing on the voices constantly reminding you about how bad things are. Don’t get me wrong. There’s a place for updates and information. But it gets to the point where we don’t need more fear or worry. What we need to hear is the Holy Spirit is available to give us strength for hard times!

Even our community needs that! Our world needs strong men and women of God, operating in Holy Spirit power, and lifting up our community - like world-renowned philanthropist Darth Vader, who taught us that strong ppl don’t put others down. They lift them up!

Life your community up with Holy Spirit strength!

2. The Holy Spirit gives us power to be wise.

We talked about this a couple weeks ago, so I won’t spend too much time on this, but the Holy Spirit’s job is to reveal God’s will to us and guides us into His plans. He give us supernatural wisdom to make life choices.

You guys have probably heard of Joseph (if not, go watch the Joseph: King of Dreams movie!). God made Joseph wise. Not only could he interpret dreams, but He also formulated and executed a plan that saved the world during a famine. This was not natural wisdom - it was supernatural wisdom sourced from the POWER of the Holy Spirit.

And the Holy Spirit is still giving out supernatural wisdom today. Like how we can wisely choose to be pure instead of giving into temptation and sin! This is a supernatural work because naturally, we don’t choose holiness. Sin is fun - that’s why it’s a temptation! That’s why we give in to things like...

Power to be pure - .

The Holy Spirit can give us the wisdom and power to be pure! On our own, we will choose...

Galatians 5:18–21 ESV

But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

And it’s fun for a moment, but eventually destroys our life. And we realize we lacked wisdom in our choices. At the same time, we’re stuck we try to change things in our own power. But, with the power of the Holy Spirit, we can wisely choose...

Gal 5:18

Galatians 5:22–23 ESV

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

The Holy Spirit gives us power to be wise. And this is the kind of wisdom our world needs right now.

Our world needs wisdom right now. We need wisdom to lead. We need wisdom to stay safe. We need wisdom to know what resources we need. We need wisdom to know how to be generous in our country’s time of need.

We need wise leaders.

Who make wise decision to keep us safe.

We need wisdom to know what resources we need.

We need wisdom to know on how to be generous in worry-filled time of need.

That wisdom is available to us - and to our community through us - by the power of the Holy Spirit inside of us!

3. The Holy Spirit gives us power to have faith.

Hebrews 11:1 ESV

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

This kind of faith - biblical faith - is not natural to us. It’s a work of the Spirit. Because think about it: It is “being assured of things HOPED for, being convinced of things we CANT SEE!”

It’s believing in a God we can’t see.

Believing for things He promised - things that haven’t happened yet.

And being convinced of things we can’t see.

That’s not natural! Humans like to see to believe!

On the other hand, biblical faith requires the Holy Spirit’s power. And let me share why this is important, especially in times like this, from a story in the OT:

In the book of Daniel, the Israelites were living in Babylon. God had exiled them there because of their unfaithfulness. And it was easy to remain unfaithful in such a godless land. Scratch that… in a land filled with idols as gods. And one major idol was one setup by King Nebuchadnezzar - of himself! And in , Nebuchadnezzar gave an order that at a certain sound, everyone MUST worship the idol or be thrown into a super oven.

As you’d expect, nobody wants to be a human Poptart, so they all did it. Except three faithful Israelites (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego). They loved God too much. And they told the king...

Daniel 3:16–18 NLT

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, Your Majesty. But even if he doesn’t, we want to make it clear to you, Your Majesty, that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up.”

They believed God, who they couldn’t see, instead of bowing to the idol (and king) they could see. By FAITH, they believed God would protect. And God delivered on His promise!

. - faith. Believe God who they couldn’t see, instead of bowing to the idol they did see. Believing God would protect them as He promised. Believing in a future hope, even though they couldn’t see it.

When they were thrown into fire, they were chillin like, “Aint no thang but a chicken-wing.” They even got to hang out with Jesus a little bit. Then, they walked out unharmed. Not even their clothes were affected by the fire.

But as miraculous as that is, what I really want us to see is this: They Holy Spirit gave them power to have faith, which resulted in supernatural courage! What courage they had to stand up to the king and face death without fear.

How many of us need courage like that today? Courage for COVID-19? The Holy Spirit can give that to you. Power to have faith (to trust God) which will result in supernatural courage, no matter what you’re going through!

Ex: Moving across the US. Courage. We spent the 20K we could see. Some said we were stupid. Maybe we are. But we believe God was calling us. More than that, we believe God is our provider. Not the paper in our pocket or the numbers we see in the bank account.

In the same way, as church I’m not worried about our finances. Now, should the time come when we need help, I’ll let you know because we’re a family. But I have faith God will provide. I have faith, that by the power of the Holy Spirit, God will let you know how to give in this season. And the Holy Spirit will give you power to do that by faith!

4. The Holy Spirit gives us power to do the impossible().

The power the Holy Spirit is the power of God! Because He is God! Which means that power can do the impossible. It’s the same power Jesus used to do impossible things - like cast out sickness, give supernatural provision, and calm the craziest of storms. And the apostle Paul reminds us that it was Holy Spirit power that did the most impossible thing - raise Jesus from the dead after He gave His life for our sins!

Romans 8:11 ESV

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

Rom

Church, don’t miss the significance of this. That same Holy Spirit dwells in you. You have access to that power! That means the impossible things in our lives become possible!

That life that is a broken failure...

That business that is about to die...

That marriage that is impossible to fix...

That problem that has no logical solution...

The Holy Spirit can resurrect all of those things to life!

Not only that, but He has power to bring things to life that don’t even exist! I love this verse...

Romans 4:17 ESV

as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

This live-stream that your watching is proof of that second thing… bringing life to things that don’t even exist. You know how silly it is to plant a bible-teaching church in this area, with no money, and a dummy like me as a pastor?

Before we moved to CT, I remember talking to people in this area, sharing my heart and telling my story…

… And they’d look at me, look at my plan, and say (in one way or another), “Nah - that’s not going to work. That’s impossible.” But my God can do the impossible! And He can bring life to things that did not exist before, like The River Church!

And so River Church Family, I want to ask, “What impossible things is God calling you to right now?” Believe God! The Holy Spirit who lives in you has power to do the impossible!

Power to do the impossible - resurrected Jesus (Rom 8).

Power to resurrect. Jesus himself said “Greater things will you do.” Not by our own power and greatness, but by the power of the Holy Spirit. We will do impossible things. Not that we’re better than Jesus, but the “greater” is adding to, being more numerous of (because the church is growing) than what Jesus accomplished in 3 years of ministry.

Power to do bring to life things that don’t exist. That’s not scientifically possible.

Planting a church in Glastonbury.

Impact the world - impossible. Turn the world upside down.

Maybe you’re listening right now, and you’re not a Christian, but you need the Holy Spirit to do the impossible in your life too.

You need God to save you.

If that’s you, the Bible says that, in these moments, we need to understand one thing, “Today is the day of salvation!”

If you’re ready to have God do the impossible in your life:

to forgive you for your sins,

to be with you through the hardest times,

to give you incredible strength in your weakness,

to give you peace in the middle of a storm

... call out to Jesus.

2000 years ago Jesus died on the cross to make your salvation possible! And when you put your faith in Him and turn away from your sin (old life - repent), He does the impossible. He gives you new life and fills you with Holy Spirit power.

2000 years ago Jesus died on the cross so that you could have the opportunity to be saved today. And when you put your faith in Him and turn away from your sin (old life - repent), He will do the impossible. He will give you new life and the Holy Spirit will fill you with His power.

Don’t wait! Do that today. And fill out an online connect card and let us know about that decision. We want to celebrate with you! And give you resources to help you live your new life!

Who needs some power to do for the days we are in? When businesses seem like their dying. When we’re dying from isolation. When all things we put our hope in, are dying. When people are literally dying.

Response:

I’m gonna close with this...

I’ve always been drawn to call to actions. There’s something in me that responds to being challenged. I believe it’s a biblical response too.

We see this in the book of Isaiah. God is looking for someone to be his messenger to a hard-hearted, rebellious people. So, He gives a call to action...

Isa

Isaiah 6:8 ESV

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”

And the prophet Isaiah responds to the challenge. He says, “Here I am! Send me!”

And I’m wondering, is anyone ready to respond to God’s calling in this challenging season? When the world is losing hope and is scared. I believe God is looking for messengers in the church. He’s calling out, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”

There’s this new song by Switch titled “Count me in.” Go check it out. If you’re friends with me on FB, it’s on my personal timeline. If we’re not friends, friend request me! But in the song, there’s this challenge, this call to step-up. And the goal of the song is to drive us to respond: Count me in! I’m in, no matter what!

Who is ready to tell God, “Count me in! I don’t know what I can do, but through the POWER of the Holy Spirit, I believe I can do the impossible!”?

God is ready to do miracles through the Holy Spirit. It’s what He does. It’s not by our own power or might, but by His Spirit ().

With the Holy Spirit, we can change the world. We can be strong. We can have faith. We can be wise. We can do the impossible.

Let’s pray...

Prayer:

Father, I’m reminded of the song lyrics, “We don’t want to miss one word you speak. Everything you say is life to me. Quiet our hearts, we’re listening.”

Right now, You could be sending a word of strength. Sending a word of wisdom. Sending a word of faith and courage. We don’t want to miss that! You’re ready to do impossible things for your Kingdom. Helps us to be ready, respond, and receive Your power. Thank you for Your Son Jesus, who makes all of this possible through His death on the Cross. We know - by the revelation of the Holy Spirit - that without that, we have nothing. Help us to live in Your victory. And to live, operating in the Spirit’s power living inside of us, pushing back darkness, and bringing forth hope! In Jesus name, amen.