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FULLY CHARGED, WEEK 1 "What's Your Status?"
Today we start a new series that I am calling “Fully Charged”. The goal of this series is to show how we can live a life that is empowered by the Holy Spirit. And I believe that it is the will of God for each of us.
That doesn’t mean that every Christian will live that way. The reason that some do not, is not because they don’t want it, but simply they don’t understand the plan of God for their lives or there is fear attached to it.
1 Corinthians 12:1 (ESV) Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed.
Paul goes on to talk about the manifestations of the Holy Spirit because He didn’t want them to miss out on what they could have had. The same is true in our church today. I don’t want you to do this walk of faith with one hand tied behind your back all the time. The reason that happens is because too many times we are uninformed of what was available to us.
God wants you to live your life FULLY CHARGED! You don’t have to just exist in the red of being empty all the time. He has given us a way to stay charged up and empowered for ministry.
I have my phone with me today. You know we have become so dependent on these things haven’t we? There is nothing worse than when you need this thing the most, to have a battery that is running low or even dead. Many times we don’t even know how to function when that has happened. When our battery is low, we will try to work around it by using only the app we need at that moment, or we shut everything down so we have access to call in an emergency.
The sad thing is, I think we do that very thing a lot when it comes to our spiritual lives. We are trying to run everything that God has for us, with a low battery. Just like these phones, we were not made to run without being connected to a power source.
Jesus knew that we would need something extra to be able to do this walk of faith and to reach a lost world. He gave us a mission that is so big that we are not able to do it on our own.
Every person in existence today is in one of 2 spiritual states…we are either lost (not belonging to God) or we are saved (we belong to God).
So God made this plan, that he would send his son Jesus to walk on the earth and to preach about the kingdom of God, to show the way to the kingdom of God. To provide forgiveness for the ways we have strayed away from the plans of God. When Jesus died on the cross and rose again, he became the lamb of God. The sacrifice that was needed. When he rose from the grave, he became the victor over death and grave and the eternal payment for sin.
John the Baptist said of Jesus…John 1:29-34
John 1:29-34 (ESV) 29The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’ 31I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.” 32And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 34And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”
Now we need to get what John said of Jesus…he said, he was the lamb of God, that takes away sin…but also that he was the one that would baptize with the Holy Spirit!
I want to say at the outset of this series, that I don’t believe there are levels of salvation in Christianity. We are either saved or we’re not. That is not what we are talking about today. Too many pentecostals get caught up in the idea that being spirit filled somehow puts us on another level spiritually.
Again, you are either saved or not.
The Holy Spirit lives in every person that calls themselves a believer. How do we know that?
John 20:19-22 (ESV) 19 On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 20When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. 21Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”
22And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
So what we need to understand is that prior to the book of Acts and the ascension of Jesus to heaven, he had already imparted the Holy Spirit into the lives of the disciples. They were saved and their salvation was sealed by the Holy Spirit.
But Acts 1:4-8, as Jesus is preparing to leave, He gives these same disciples a new command…
Acts 1:4-8 (ESV)4And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; 5for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”6So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
As Jesus was risen and paid the price, he imparted the Holy Spirit into their lives. They were forgiven and the SPIRIT bore witness to that fact. But now He is telling to WAIT FOR THE PROMISE!
They were saved, but Jesus was telling them, there is something that you can have in your life, a benefit to you that will help you in the mission that you have been given.
The Holy Spirit works in our lives basically through 2 ways…there is a internal work that He does in us and there is an external work that he does in us.
Inward Work of the Holy Spirit PURITY (IN US) | External Work of the Holy Spirit POWER (THROUGH US) |
Salvation | Spirit Baptism |
Sanctification (growing to be more like Him) | Spiritual Gifts |
The inward stuff that the Holy Spirit in our lives is hard to see. We wont always feel the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. But He is always working in us to move us closer to God and to God’s plan. He has been there since salvation.
But the other side of the coin is that just because we don’t feel him doesn’t mean we shouldn’t press in to him. When we think about having a life that is fully charged, there is a part we play in this.
Our job is to RECEIVE the promise.
It’s like getting a new phone. I have a box here that a new phone will come in. When we open this box, many times our new phone comes with a little bit of a charge in it. But if you read the instructions, they always say, fully charge before using. There is a reason that it says this. First off, you can actually build a program into the battery that makes it operate with less charge, and it just goes back to what was initially used. You are essentially training the battery to work on less than intended.
The other part of it is that when you just start using it, you don’t get the benefit of a phone that works as intended.
When we receive salvation, we are opening a gift (a box if you will) that gives us access to a new spiritual life. Many times we come with problems, and God trades off our broken battered lives for something new. He wants to charge up your life and empower you to live it to the fullest.
Power—DUNAMIS—released energy! ===Dynamite
Not hidden from us
Not just sitting in an idle state waiting to enacted
Not something that we have already
Jesus told the disciples that they would receive a DUNAMIS POWER.
Why do we need to be Fully Charged? It’s not to have the touchy feely or to be known as the most spiritual…it’s because of the task ahead of us!
Matthew 28:19-20 (ESV) 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
You and I as Christians have been commissioned to go and make disciples. We do that by being witnesses to the greatness of God and of the love He has shown us. The task is a huge responsibility. You see Pentecost in itself is all about the harvest. I don’t believe God made a mistake by pouring out his spirit during that celebration. Its what drives this spirit-filled life.
Not only did He give us the huge task to be witnesses, but He gave us enablement to do it. When the Holy Spirit comes upon your life, it will give you some benefits!
Power to be a witnesses (Acts 1:8)
Gives you a boldness to be a witness (Acts 4:8-13)
Lead you to people whose hearts are open to the gospel (Acts 8:26-39)
Will help you choose the right words and thoughts to use (Luke 12:11-12)
He do the work ahead of you so you confidently share (John 16:8)
Today is just a teaser of what is coming in this series. I believe that if we as a church will embrace the power of the spirit in our lives, we will see our community changed, our building full, and our lives closer to God.
But it all starts with wanting more in your life. If today, you are like the broken phone that was created for so much more, God wants to offer you a new life.
If you here today and you have closer to God than you are right now…you are like that outdated phone. It was good at one time, but now, has no ability to recharge and to function…God wants to move to an upgrade.
If you saved right now, but the power is gone, you can reconnect to the source and find your strength again. But it all comes down to you and I receiving what has been offered.
We can’t be a rush just to move on because we don’t feel it…just like the disciples, you may need to wait for the promise…tarry.