Empowered

How was your day today, Camp Quarantine? We had a good day, didn’t we? God has given us such a beautiful place to enjoy out here. And I loved seeing all of you get pulled around behind that boat out there on the lake. Thank you to Mr. Mikel and Mrs. Keni for coming out and driving for us!

I have always enjoyed tubing and skiing and wake boarding and hydro sliding. I’ve never done bare footing, and I’ve got to be honest, I don’t really have an inkling to try it. But I have done all of the others, and I’ll tell you that they are very different from each other. They all involve different techniques. They all involve different groups of muscles and strategies for balancing and staying up. Some of them take next to no skill and only a minimum amount of strength. Others take real athleticism and skill gained through great patience to master.

When I was in college, I spent two summers working for a summer camp. The campers would leave on Fridays most of the time, and we would spend the entire weekend out on the lake wake boarding and skiing. That first summer, I had never wake boarded, but I caught on really quick. And the basics came to me so fast, I got a little over confident. And I was jumping across the wake, trying to get more and more air. And then I decided I was going to do a board grab. So, I jumped the wake, grabbed the board in mid air, and as I came back down, I over corrected. So, the side of my board went under water and I face planted hard into the water. I mean, I really bit it. And it was like I hit a brick wall. I busted a blood vessel in my eye that day, and my whole eye turned blood red for two weeks.

And so, the next week, we had a camp full of younger kids. And there was this cabin of girls that screamed every time they saw me. I was a certified life guard, and so I was out guarding the lake during swim time, when one of the girls came up and told me that she wasn’t afraid of me. Now, that’s not really normal, so I was a bit distracted. Still, I tried not to take my eyes off of the water. But, she kept talking. She said, I know you’re a vampire, but I’m not afraid.

To this, I asked her why she thought I was a vampire. She said, you have sharp teeth and a red eye, it’s obvious. But our counselor has such bad garlic breath, you won’t come anywhere near our cabin!

Open your Bibles with me, if you will to the book of Acts, chapter 1. That’s Act’s chapter 1. Acts is the 5th book of the New Testament. It’s after John and before Romans. We’re going to be hopping around again tonight, but I want to start us off in Acts chapter 1, verse 8.

Acts 1:8 NASB95

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.”

Would you pray with me? Lord, Jesus, we are so thankful for another great day at camp. We are thankful that you kept everybody safe. We’re glad for the chance to enjoy the great things that we got to do today. We’re also glad to have had such meaningful time in Your Word. We thank You for the ways that You are showing each one of us what You created us to do as a part of the work of Your Kingdom. And God, I pray for each one here tonight, that You would open our hearts and our minds to the things that You would teach us through this time we have together tonight. Holy Spirit, would You come and show us the things that we need to know so that we might become the most glorifying versions of ourselves. God, I know that we’re getting later in the week. I know that folks are tired. Lord, would you make us alert. Take away anything that would distract us tonight, and draw us into what You have for us. In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.

I love water sports. They are so different, each one from the next, but I love them all. And as different as they are, there are a couple of things that is the same no matter which one you are doing. First, you have to get in the water. I don’t care if you are tubing, knee boarding, skiing, wake boarding, bare footing. Whatever it is you are doing, you have to get in the water to do it. I know grown adults that will never know if they can do any of these things because they never got in the water to try it. You can’t do a water sport without getting in the water.

Secondly, and this is a big one, friends, you cannot do these things without a source of power to pull you. You can go out here to the lake. You can put on your life vest, and grab your tube or skis or board. You can hold onto a rope and be in position. You can have all of the talent and ability in the world for the sport you want to do. But if there isn’t a powerful boat on the other end of that rope, you are wasting your time. Nothing else that you do out there is worth anything unless you the power that pulls you is applied.

And what I want to tell you guys tonight is this:you and I are the same way. Our lives are the same way. Go ahead and get out that pen and paper, we’re about to write something down. But I’ll tell you something. This week, we’ve talked about our God as THE innovator. He is the one that made you and created you. He made a plan for you and for your life long before there was time. Before the earth was formed, God had already seen and written down every day of your life. He knows the good you do, He knows the things that you do you think no one knows about. And our creative God created you in His image. He built His creativity into the fabric of who you are

And He put you on this earth so that you could bring Him glory by knowing Him and making Him known. He gave you natural talents and abilities. And last night, we were talking about how when you become a follower of Jesus Christ, that God gives each and everyone of us gifts. He gives us new talents and abilities that we are supposed to use to make disciples and to grow and unify His church, and to love on other people around us. And we were talking about the fact that each one of you is unique and different, that your talents are unique and different, but that they all have been given to us for the same reason: Knowing Jesus and making Him known.

But tonight, I want us to really focus in on a deep truth that you need to understand. You see, your world, and your society, they have teaching you a great lie since the very beginning of your life. And you believe it inside, because that’s what everybody says, and it’s this: the purpose of my life is my happiness. That’s the big lie of life. I want you to write this down.

The big lie is that my life is about my happiness.

Think about it, friends. Every tv ad: Buy this phone and you’ll be happier. Buy this car and be in charge. Invest your money with us so you can be happy. Take this medicine for a happy life. The next time in your car, turn your screen off and read the billboards on the sides of the road. All of them promise your happiness. Everything is about you being happy. They tell you find a career that makes you happy. Go to the school where you’ll be happy.

And I’m sorry, friend, I really am, because this is a big lie. And the things that you think will make you happy won’t. Bill gates has billions and billions of dollars. And he’s giving it away. In the last 20 years, he has donated more than 2 billion dollars to charities. Why? Because he has everything and none of it made him happy. Life is not about making you happy. And the truth is that if you spend your life pursuing happiness, what’s going to happen is that you are going to live a life of disappointment. Oh, sure, you may find momentary glimpses of it, but this life isn’t about your happiness.

So, if that is the big lie, what is the purpose of life? Well I already told you once this week, but I want you to write it down again, because I don’t think that I can say it enough to you.

My life is about knowing Jesus and making Him known.

That is your whole purpose. That is what you were created to do. Your whole life is meant to be about Him. It isn’t about your comfort. It isn’t about your fun. It isn’t about your fame or fortune or well being. He may allow you to have some of these things in your life, but your life isn’t about these things, it is about Him. And you may think that’s not fair.

You might say “I don’t know if I want to believe in a God like that.” And I have to tell you tough! He made you. He fashioned you, He planned you, and God is the only one that gets a say in what you are for. The prophet Isaiah said it like this:

Isaiah 45:9 NASB95

“Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker— An earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth! Will the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you doing?’ Or the thing you are making say, ‘He has no hands’?

God made you, and He is the One who set your purpose, long before there was time. And our creative, loving, amazing God wants to use you in incredible ways that will be good for you and will bring great glory to Him. His plan will bring you joy and contentment in life, maybe not the way you define it, but it will bring you those things. But if you are going to move forward, there are two things you’ve got to understand. You see, because of that lie our world has told you since you were born, there are a couple of truths that you need to hear that will get us where we need to be to move ahead. The first one is this:

My life is not about me, it’s about God’s glory.

Your life is not about what you want, it’s about Him. And let me break that down for you: that means that the school work you do, the job that you work, the degree that you seek, the way you spend your time, the way you spend your money, the things that you think, the things that you say, all of these things are about Him, not you.

And I’m sorry, because I know you look around you and you see parents and adults and folks in the church that haven’t all been doing this right. Some of them are. Some of them have been really strong men and women of God. But some haven’t, and the world around you is busy telling you lies, And so what I’m saying sounds radical and crazy, but the thing is is that God said it. I didn’t make this up. What’s our memory verse? Deuteronomy 6:4-5

Deuteronomy 6:4–5 NASB95

“Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

We need to understand that our lives are not our own. We belong to God, and so our lives are to be about Him. God demands nothing more than everything from you. He wants it all. Every. Last. Bit. Your life is not about you, it’s about His glory. That’s the first truth. The second one might be even harder. It’s this:

God does not need me

I don’t think that I can say this loud enough. God does not need you. He doesn’t need me. He is the King of the universe. He can make water come out of rocks. He can make donkeys talk. We know, he has done it. Our God created everything, He breathes out planets. What can you give to God that He needs? Your heart? Your life? God doesn’t need those. He wants them, but He doesn’t need them. He gave them to you in the first place!

And I know it seems harsh, friends but bear with me for a moment, ok. God doesn’t need you. There is nothing that you could give to God that He needs. In the Old Testament, they used to make sacrifices to God. They would sacrifice lambs and sometimes bulls to make offerings to God. And the people kind of got into the habit of doing this just because “they had to.” They would go about living their lives like the wanted to, and acted like as long as they made their offerings they were fine. But listen to what God had to say about that in Psalm 50:8-15

Psalm 50:8–15 NASB95

“I do not reprove you for your sacrifices, And your burnt offerings are continually before Me. “I shall take no young bull out of your house Nor male goats out of your folds. “For every beast of the forest is Mine, The cattle on a thousand hills. “I know every bird of the mountains, And everything that moves in the field is Mine. “If I were hungry I would not tell you, For the world is Mine, and all it contains. “Shall I eat the flesh of bulls Or drink the blood of male goats? “Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving And pay your vows to the Most High; Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me.”

God doesn’t need you. There is nothing that you can give to God that doesn’t already belong to Him. There is nothing that you can do for God, that He can’t do for Himself. So, what, then? What is all of this about? If my purpose is to know Jesus and to make Him known, and you’re telling me that God doesn’t need me, that He could even do that without me, then what? What is all this for?

That really breaks life down doesn’t it? If God made us for a purpose, and He doesn’t even need us for that, where do I find my meaning? Why do I even matter? And when we get to this place, friends, this is where we can finally get to the heart of the matter. Because your meaning and your value comes from two basic truths. First,

I need God

God doesn’t need us, but we need Him. We need the air that we breathe that He made. We need the food that He provides. There is nothing that we have or could have, even that men have made, that could be produced without the things that God made. It’s his sunlight, his air and water, His warmth, His rain. It all belongs to Him, and we have no life without Him.

But our need for God goes so much deeper than our physical needs. You see, you and I do things that are wrong. We break God’s law. And we think “I’m a good person. I don’t do anything really bad.” But we lie. We cheat. We steal. We talk poorly of others. We sin in anger. We sin in the way that we think about and desire members of the opposite sex. We sin so many different ways. and the Bible tells us that penalty for sin is death. You only have to break one law to go to jail, so it should make sense to us that one sin is enough to convict us before a holy God as well. And some people think that they can make up for the things they do wrong, that if we just do enough good that it will make up for the bad. Others think, well, maybe no one will notice, and then it won’t matter. But God sees everything. And His judgment isn’t for the things you do right, but the things you do wrong.

You and I, we need God, and yet our sin keeps us from being with Him. But here’s the thing, and this is good news: and you can underline this too:

God wants me

God does not need you, but you need Him, and He wants you! God wants you. He loves you so much, that He took care of your sin problem. He sent His son Jesus, who was both God and man. And Jesus died the death that you deserved for sins so that you could be forgiven, so that you could have the chance to have everlasting life in His eternal Kingdom, so that you could have the privilege of knowing Jesus and making Him known, that the life you were made to live could be a reality.

God does not need you, but He wants you. That, my friends, is a powerful and humbling thought. You see, it’s better to be wanted than needed. God doesn’t need you, He chose you.

Ephesians 1:4–5 NASB95

just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,

God chose you. He doesn’t need you, but He chose to love you. He chose to make you a part of His plans. He chose to use you to glorify His Name. God doesn’t need you, but He chose you.

And you need Him. These things are critical for us to understand, because sometimes we think about it like it’s the other way around. Like, we’re doing God a favor by showing up, by being in His youth group, by going to church. I did it God, now you owe me. Sometimes, we act like God needs us and we want Him sometimes. But really, it is that we desperately need God, and He wants us all the time!

And if you go back all the way to the beginning of tonight, back in Acts 1:8, what do we see:

Acts 1:8 NASB95

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.”

What will come to us?The Holy Spirit. And He will give us power. power. God’s power comes to us. When you follow Jesus Christ, the God that wants you, the God that you need, when you follow Him, you will receive His power. Write this down.

All of my power comes from the Holy Spirit

You could take all the gifts God has given you, and you could go in your own strength and try to do something with it, but it won’t add up to much. Why? Because just like that skier, just like that tuber, you are dead in the water without power, and you don’t have any on your own. The power that we need comes from God, and God promises to give that to those that are His followers.

Notice what it says is going to happen. It says, when we have His power, we will be His witnesses. Where? Locally, nationally, internationally, and around the world. That’s what that says. It says that when our power comes from the Holy Spirit, that we will go everywhere to everybody using the talents that He has given us in His power that He supplies, and we will make Him known. God gives us everything that we need to do what He made us to do, and then He gives us His power to do it.

So, we need God, and He gives Himself to us because He wants us! This should humble us, friends. And really, truly, it should bring us to a place of joyful service. God doesn’t need me, but I’m here because you want me! And I don’t have any power. I don’t have any strength of my own.

Matthew’s theory of relativity

God picks those dust mites because He loves us. We need Him, but we have no strength, so He gives us His power. And why would we want power from anywhere else. Let me tell you about His power.

The Holy Spirit’s power comes only to believers

The only way you can experience the power of God is through the Holy Spirit, and the only way you are going to do that is by opening your heart to him.

John 14:16–17 NASB95

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

The power of the Living God can dwell in you. The Holy Spirit can live in you and He can move mightily through you. He can dwell with you and walk with you. You can have a helper through all of the trials and the struggles of life. You can have the King of Glory working in your life to bring about His great will in your life. He can use you mightily in ways that you could never imagine, and once He is with you, He will be forever and ever. But the only way that happens is if you are a follower of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the only One that can open that door in you. Jesus is the only one that can save you from the hopelessness of this world and into the power of God through the Holy Spirit.

And the Holy Spirit can do things that you simply can’t do.

The Holy Spirit makes me bold

He empowers me to say and do things that I wouldn’t be able to do otherwise.

It is the Holy Spirit that gives me the strength to stand up here in front of all of you and preach His Word. It is the Holy Spirit that worked in and among His church to make this camp happen for you all this week. It is the Holy Spirit that will give you the words to say to that friend at school that doesn’t know Him, that we give you the strength to stand when everyone else is doing what you know to be wrong.

The Holy spirit makes you bold. I know a lot of Christians that are scared to talk about their faith. They talk big on Sundays and Wednesdays about loving Jesus, but when it comes time to tell others about Him, they are whimps. They are afraid they might be made fun of or people might not like them. They act like the Holy Spirit isn’t in them.

That’s not who the Holy Spirit is. The Holy Spirit gives you the boldness of Christ. When you step out in faith, the Holy Spirit makes you bold, because the power of God is bold. The power of God can do things that nobody else can do.

The power of God moved in Peter in Acts chapter 2. And He got up and started preaching the Gospel. And do you know what happened? Acts 2:41. Look it up. Look at Acts 2:41.

Acts 2:41 NASB95

So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls.

That’s bold. That’s the boldness of the Holy Spirit. That’s Spirit bold. Look at your neighbor. Look at the person sitting next to you and ask them, “are you Spirit bold?”

The Holy Spirit makes you bold.

The Holy Spirit gives me supernatural abilities.

You’ve always wanted to be a super hero. You thought it would mean you could leap tall buildings, or that you could fly around with a glowing lightbulb in your chest. But God can make you supernatural for real. In Acts 2, when the Holy Spirit first came to the disciples, they started speaking in tongues. They were speaking in their own language, but every other person heard them in their own language. look at verses 7 and 8

Acts 2:7–8 NASB95

They were amazed and astonished, saying, “Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? “And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born?

The Holy Spirit gives you supernatual abilities. Those gifts we were talking about last night. You all have your hats? Who didn’t bring a hat in here? Man, y’all should know better than that. Put your hat on if you’ve got it. ANd you think about that hat like the gifts of the Holy Spirit, evangelism, preaching, teaching, prophecy, are some. He also gives the gifts of generosity and mercy and service and hospitality. There are so many super powers that the Holy Spirit gives to us.

And what do we know? Because of all the things we’ve talked about tonight, what do we know? He doesn’t need us, but He chooses to use us to do things that we can’t do to show us and others that He is working and living in us. He does these things through us so that we can testify to the goodness of God in us.

I can tell you something. I’m not a patient person by nature. So, when the Lord gives me supernatural patience, and somebody thanks me for being patient, I truly point to the Lord and say “it is all Jesus.” When I give sound advice to someone seeking counsel, I can say it is all God, because He is the source of the only wisdom I possess.

And when we follow the Spirit’s leading, not to the things we want to do but to the things that He calls us to do, we get to see God move in spectacular ways, because through His supernatural abilities,

The Holy Spirit gives supernatural results

God does incredible things. He does things that nobody else can do. He hung the earth on nothing. He invented life. He gave the sun its light. He made each and every individual that is in here tonight. I look, and I see those different hats, and I see the glisten in your eyes, and I am reminded that God made each one of you different and unique, not for how special you would be, but so that You could reflect His glory in a different way than the person next to you.

And when you have given your heart to him, when His Holy Spirit dwells within you. When you have realized that this life is not about you and you blaze forward in doing what you were made to do in service of Your King, God brings about results you know had nothing to do with you. There was a missionary family in Mexico. They had gone to the beach for a day of rest. And the teenage son was out in the water, when he got caught up in a rip current. His father swam after him and both men ended up drowning.

Their bodies washed up on the beach. And as the wife and daughter stood their in horror, a large crowd gathered. And seeing the crowd, the Spirit of God welled up inside of mom, and she began to speak. And she proclaimed that today, those men stood before their maker, covered in the blood of the Lamb. They weren’t dead, they were reborn. And she called for hearts to turn to Jesus and hundreds got saved.

Friends, that is supernatural strength. Those are supernatural results. And that is what our God does. He moves mountains. He heals hearts. He will help you to walk through fire. And He’ll do it, not because He needs you, but because He loves you, because He wants you. And in that moment, when you see the hand of God move through you. And others are patting you on the back and you are shaken to the core in disbelief because you know it was God and not you that did that thing, you will truly understand.

You can be mightily empowered, friends. But it starts here. It starts in letting go of that great lie. It starts in the decision to let your life be about Him.