The Church is: Empowered by the Spirit

Favorite verse: Romans 1:20

For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

(Rom 1:20 NIV)

Everywhere you look, you can see hints and signs of God’s character.

With that in mind, I want to start with a little demonstration:

Favorite pastime-woodworking demonstration

·         Wood

·         Tool

·         Power

What does this have to do with the church?

Wood: Us. Defects. Beauty waiting to be brought out. Many pieces fit together to create awesome structures.

            -Examples.

Tools: Tools God uses within the church to transform us.

·         Bible-learn about Him, apply to life

·         God’s grace/forgiveness-something going to talk about more this Summer. Give us freedom to explore & develop relationship with Him regardless of state of our lives.

·         Fellowship opportunities-strengthen/support one another

·         Trials-opportunities to stretch/test our faith

Power: What is this power thing? Some sort of power is required to produce real change.

Sometimes when going about our everyday business, we forget how important this is in the life of a church. 

End up presenting to the world a bunch of planks-wonder why they should bother getting involved.

People in the early church who we read about in the book of Acts understood the importance of this

·         You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high."

(Luk 24:48-49 NIV)

·         Later read in Acts how Holy Spirit came upon the early disciples and began proclaiming news of Jesus in all kinds of languages.

·         Even though had seen all Jesus did, Jesus knew they needed the power of the Spirit to be his witnesses.

·         Holy Spirit is manifestation of God who remains in and with those who belong to Jesus-people of the church.

Many people today seem to recognize the existence and need for a higher power in their lives today.

Addiction recovery programs are based on the idea of recognizing the need to depend upon a higher Power to help people regain control of lives.

All kinds of ideas being presented today about the presence of a higher power working in the world today…people refer to a god or goddess as a universal power working in their lives.

Don’t want to get into discussion putting down these ideas. Point is that they recognize the presence of a Higher power. Many, however, reject our ideas about God and the Holy Spirit.

Need to ask what the truth is. Mentioned earlier that God’s character is evident in the world. We can sense it. Often try  to explain it based upon our personal experiences…we speculate. Speculation is not fact, though. Early people-lived during time of OT, saw and experienced the power of sun and moon and speculated that they were divine beings.  Not fact. Just because we can sense something about God doesn’t mean we know the truth about Him?

So why do we as Christians so firmly believe that God as he is revealed in the Bible is the truth about Him and his Spirit?

Simple answer is that there is actual power in it. The power of God has followed Christianity throughout history.

o   Worked through them in miraculous ways-healing

o   Changed them-transformed Paul

o   Evidence of God working among Gentiles

Acts 10:42-48

Testimonies of the power of the Holy Spirit continue today:

·         People will tell you-I myself will tell you-that their lives have been truly transformed by God.

·         People often turn back to own ways under stress…but this is less often true among Christians.

o   Christian Recovery

o   Persecution-unwilling to recant, always grows

o   Christians continue to experience God in very real…sometimes physical ways

·         This power is important in our definition of the church. People on a journey…believing in & belonging to Jesus..empowered by the Spirit.

o   Spirit changes us..shapes us plain pieces of wood into works of art as we experience God

o   Builds us together as a church into marvelous structure

§  This is witness to world that God really has worked through is Son Jesus and revealed self through Bible.

Final point-safety glasses: need safety equip-not under control. We don’t control Spirit. Bible tells us all kinds of things Spirit has done-healings, resurrections, words, telling them where to go/to do- Can do all of those things and more today. We remain open to God’s word, but allow Him to act as he will.

Want to have you ask yourself today what you know about God’s Spirit.  Encourage you to read through the book of Acts to begin learning about Him.  Go beyond-ask how Spirit is working in your life.  What is the testimony of God’s power in your life?  How has God taken his power tools and shaped you?

Seek his power in your life so make you into a witness to God’s presence in the world.