Title: The Power of Pentecost
Date: May 27, 2007
Text: Acts 1:4-8, 2:1-4, 37-39
INTRODUCTION
- The church today needs power.
- More churches close their doors each year than new ones that are started.
- Witchcraft is growing faster than mainline Christianity.
- The church has a task to witness to the power of the risen Christ but it seems to have lost the power of his resurrection.
- The same thing happens in personal lives.
- People hunger for something more, but seek it in New Age philosophy or eastern religions.
- The enemy is willing to give something that looks like power, but it is only a counterfeit, temporary, and instead of giving freedom it enslaves you.
- We want the power to be healed of our inner struggles, to be given peace and to live a meaningful and purposeful life.
- But because it seems impossible we give up and just allow ourselves to flop downstream like a dying fish, doing whatever seems to give us a good feeling for the moment.
- God knew we needed more.
- That is why he sent us the power of Pentecost.
- Someone once said the average person is so afraid of getting out on a limb they never even bother to climb up a tree.
- Over the years we have seen spiritual gifts and God’s power abused and misused.
- We are afraid of the excesses of people who go to extremes.
- But we cannot afford to allow these fears to scare us from the real thing!
- God knows we need the power of the Holy Spirit.
- The Holy Spirit was sent for a reason.
- I am not talking about becoming Pentecostal or charismatic.
- This has nothing to do with denominations.
- I am talking about a need for power in our lives to overcome our addictions.
1. The Promise of Pentecost
- Acts 2:37-39
- This outpouring of the Holy Spirit was given for all ages, not only the early church.
- It is for all people who turn to God for forgiveness of their sins and direction in their lives.
- As many as the Lord our God shall call!
- So it is for today as well, today here in this chapel!
- Dr. John R. Rice, a well-known Baptist preacher, said, “There is an experience after Salvation, called the Baptism with the Holy Ghost. All Saved people do have the Holy Spirit. When someone is saved, the Holy Spirit puts him into the Body of Christ. But besides that, Christians ought to be filled with the Holy Spirit and special soul-winning power. Saved people are not always filled with the Holy Spirit, they ought to be, and can be, but many are not.”
- At Baylor University, a seminary professor said to ministerial students, “There is an experience subsequent to salvation, called the Baptism with the Holy Ghost, which is an enduement with power from on high…Don’t you dare go out and preach without it!”
- Dr. R.A. Torrey, a famous Bible Teacher, pastored the large Moody Bible Church and led the Moody Bible College in Chicago. He said, “The baptism in the Holy Spirit (the filling of the Spirit – not the work of the Holy Spirit at conversion to place us into the Body of Christ) is for every child of God in every age of the Church’s history. If it is not ours, it is because we have not taken what God has provided for us.”
2. What was the promise?
- Acts 1:4-8
- The promise was of the Holy Spirit coming in power into the lives of Christians.
- It relates to the promise in John 14:15-16.
- God would send us a Comforter, one to come alongside, to give us power to live the Christian life.
- This is what happened on Pentecost Sunday roughly 1977 years ago.
- And it continues to happen in the lives of believers who open their hearts to allow the Holy Spirit to come in all his fullness.
- Acts 2:1-4
- This is what happened.
- There was a sound of a rushing wind, and the disciples saw cloven flames of fire sitting on each of them, and they started speaking in tongues.
- People wondered what was going on.
- Then Peter preaches an awesome sermon, starting with the prophecy in Joel that God would in the future pour out of his Spirit on all flesh.
- People were convicted of their sins and cried out what can they do?
- Peter tells them that it is time to repent, and that when they do God has this free gift for them, the Holy Spirit.
- This was for them at that time, it has been for Christians for 2000 years, and it is for us today.
3. We will know when we receive this promise
- Dr. R.A. Torrey said, “The infilling of the Holy Spirit is a definite and distinct experience. A Christian will know whether he has received the Spirit or not. Jesus commanded His disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they received power from on high. If this were not a definite and distinct experience, the disciples would not know whether they had complied with Christ’s command.”
- When we receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit, we will know.
- The power of the Holy Spirit in a person’s life will be evident.
- There will be fruits in their life which will show that they have received power from on high.
- Acts 1:8
4. How can we receive this filling with the Holy Spirit?
- Luke 11:9-13
- How much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them who ask Him.
- We need to ask God for it.
- There are examples in the book of Acts, showing how people received it.
- Some received it spontaneously.
- Others received prayer from Paul or Peter.
- In Acts 8 the people in Samaria heard the gospel and repented and were baptized. When the apostles laid hands on them they received the Holy Spirit.
- In Acts 9 Paul received Jesus during his Damascus Road experience, and when Ananias prayed for him 3 days later, he was filled with the Holy Spirit.
- In Acts 10 Peter preached for the first time to Gentiles, and God spontaneously filled them with the Holy Spirit.
- In Acts 19 Paul finds disciples who had not heard about the Holy Spirit. He prays for them and they are filled with the Spirit.
- There is nothing weird about being filled with the Holy Spirit.
- But it is a promise and an important part of living the Christian life in power.
- If you want to receive this gift, ask God for it. Seek it. Keep knocking on heaven’s door till you receive it.
- You will know when you have received the answer to your prayer.
- Because the promise is “to you, to your children, and to all who are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.”
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Sunday, May 6, 2007
A time to receive forgiveness - Psalm 51
Title: A time to receive forgiveness - Psalm 51
Date: May 5, 2007
Text: Psalm 51
Introduction
- Sometimes we do something and we feel consumed by guilt
- This happens particularly when we have been found out
- How could God ever forgive us?
- David once sinned in a big way, and he was punished for it
- 1 Samuel 11
- Notice that David seems to carry on with life in seeming ignorance
- David knew what was right and wrong, he was aware of his sin
- But each time that guilt cropped up, David crushed his conscience
- David was getting to be in a bad place where he thought he had covered his tracks pretty well
- But God does not give up on him
- 1 Samuel 12
- After 9 months, God sent Nathan the prophet to confront David with what he had done
- David wrote down his prayer asking for forgiveness
- This morning we are going to examine how David asked for forgiveness
1. David acknowledges his sin (v.1-6)
- Starts asking for mercy – his sin weighs heavily on him
- His sin is ever before him, he cannot forget about what he has done
- Knowledge of his sin torments him
- He acknowledges that God is loving and merciful
- He wants to be totally cleansed
- This was not just a sin against Bathsheba, Uriah and her son
- This was a sin against God, and a stumblingblock for the nation
2. David asks for restoration (v.7-12)
- He wants to be clean and pure again
- He wants to experience joy in his life again
- Joy is something that comes from being right with God
- When we carry around guilt it is impossible to feel joy
- He recognizes that it was God who made him face his guilt
- He asks for his sins to be blotted out
- He recognizes that he is unable to do this himself, God has to renew a right spirit within him
- He particularly wants a restoration of relationship with God
- He asks for a restoration of the joy of being saved
- He asks for God not to take the Holy Spirit away from him
- His biggest concern is that he needs God’s presence, and he wants that relationship restored
David moves on (v.13-19)
- Having been restored, he now thinks about others
- There are others who have sinned, and he wants to help them come to full restoration as well
- He wants to tell sinners about a God who is prepared to remove our guilt
- He can now speak from experience, God is good
- He has a testimony, he can tell of the grace and forgiveness God has given him personally
- He is restored to true worship again, he understands God’s heart
- God desires humility in us, which comes from seeing ourselves in the true perspective
– God is holy and sinless, we are the ones who mess up and sin
- When we recognize our place in the order of things, then we are able to worship in a way God can accept
- He does not want worship dripping in pride or doing our own thing
- He seeks worshippers who come to him in spirit and in truth – John 4:23
- David intercedes for Zion, the city of David, and asks for blessing for the people in front of whom he had placed a stumblingblock
- He prays that God would accept the worship of his people, that the breach between him and the people and God would now be healed and they can move on
Summary
- God is a merciful God
- He forgives our sins
- Our relationship with him can be restored
- If we want that relationship, we can accept our forgiveness
- this takes humility, and being prepared to say, "I was wrong" - 1 John 1:9
- God blots out our sins and no longer thinks about them - Psa 103:11-12
- However, we also need to move on - Philippians 3:13
- Despite David's sins, God still treasured him, because he desired relationship more than anything else
- God knew David could be trusted and his heart was right with him - Acts 13:22
Conclusion
- Each of us has the opportunity to come to God in sincerity and humility
- whenever we sin, the way is open for restoration
- no sin is too big, no crime is too great for God to forgive
Date: May 5, 2007
Text: Psalm 51
Introduction
- Sometimes we do something and we feel consumed by guilt
- This happens particularly when we have been found out
- How could God ever forgive us?
- David once sinned in a big way, and he was punished for it
- 1 Samuel 11
- Notice that David seems to carry on with life in seeming ignorance
- David knew what was right and wrong, he was aware of his sin
- But each time that guilt cropped up, David crushed his conscience
- David was getting to be in a bad place where he thought he had covered his tracks pretty well
- But God does not give up on him
- 1 Samuel 12
- After 9 months, God sent Nathan the prophet to confront David with what he had done
- David wrote down his prayer asking for forgiveness
- This morning we are going to examine how David asked for forgiveness
1. David acknowledges his sin (v.1-6)
- Starts asking for mercy – his sin weighs heavily on him
- His sin is ever before him, he cannot forget about what he has done
- Knowledge of his sin torments him
- He acknowledges that God is loving and merciful
- He wants to be totally cleansed
- This was not just a sin against Bathsheba, Uriah and her son
- This was a sin against God, and a stumblingblock for the nation
2. David asks for restoration (v.7-12)
- He wants to be clean and pure again
- He wants to experience joy in his life again
- Joy is something that comes from being right with God
- When we carry around guilt it is impossible to feel joy
- He recognizes that it was God who made him face his guilt
- He asks for his sins to be blotted out
- He recognizes that he is unable to do this himself, God has to renew a right spirit within him
- He particularly wants a restoration of relationship with God
- He asks for a restoration of the joy of being saved
- He asks for God not to take the Holy Spirit away from him
- His biggest concern is that he needs God’s presence, and he wants that relationship restored
David moves on (v.13-19)
- Having been restored, he now thinks about others
- There are others who have sinned, and he wants to help them come to full restoration as well
- He wants to tell sinners about a God who is prepared to remove our guilt
- He can now speak from experience, God is good
- He has a testimony, he can tell of the grace and forgiveness God has given him personally
- He is restored to true worship again, he understands God’s heart
- God desires humility in us, which comes from seeing ourselves in the true perspective
– God is holy and sinless, we are the ones who mess up and sin
- When we recognize our place in the order of things, then we are able to worship in a way God can accept
- He does not want worship dripping in pride or doing our own thing
- He seeks worshippers who come to him in spirit and in truth – John 4:23
- David intercedes for Zion, the city of David, and asks for blessing for the people in front of whom he had placed a stumblingblock
- He prays that God would accept the worship of his people, that the breach between him and the people and God would now be healed and they can move on
Summary
- God is a merciful God
- He forgives our sins
- Our relationship with him can be restored
- If we want that relationship, we can accept our forgiveness
- this takes humility, and being prepared to say, "I was wrong" - 1 John 1:9
- God blots out our sins and no longer thinks about them - Psa 103:11-12
- However, we also need to move on - Philippians 3:13
- Despite David's sins, God still treasured him, because he desired relationship more than anything else
- God knew David could be trusted and his heart was right with him - Acts 13:22
Conclusion
- Each of us has the opportunity to come to God in sincerity and humility
- whenever we sin, the way is open for restoration
- no sin is too big, no crime is too great for God to forgive
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