Filled with the Spirit 2

to be filled with the spirit we saw last
week is to allow our lives to be
controlled by the holy spirit and just
as a drunk person is controlled by
alcohol so a spirit-filled person is to
be controlled by the holy spirit and
just as being drunk with wine leads to
debauchery or loose living so being
filled with the Holy Spirit we saw last
week according to the passage before us
here in Ephesians leads to two things
number one we are given a new desire and
ability to worship God verses 19 and 20
speak to one another with Psalms hymns
and spiritual songs sing and make music
in your heart to the Lord always giving
thanks to God the Father for everything
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ
the second thing that happens according
to Ephesians chapter 5 is that we are
given a new desire and the new ability
to live God's Way relational a verse 21
submit to one another out of reverence
for Christ and then of course follows
very practical teaching on marriage
family life and labor relations to be
filled with the Spirit has us growing in
our relationship with the Lord
vertically thank you Darrell and
vertically with the Lord and
horizontally with each other
that brings me this morning then to
still a third aspect of what happens
when we are filled with a spirit and
that is that we are empowered we are
empowered to bear witness
to Jesus acts 1 verse 8 a verse you've
often heard this quote around here you
will receive power when this Holy Spirit
comes on you and you will be my
witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea
and Samaria and to the ends of the earth
some of you have been in this church
long enough to remember the Dunamis
conferences that we used to have 10 to
15 years ago with dr. Brad long and you
may recall that he was fond of
distinguishing between the spirit within
and the spirit upon the spirit within is
the holy spirit given to live within our
hearts to conform us to the image of
Christ to teach us to love God to teach
us to love our neighbor but the spirit
of pond is given to empower us to do the
work of God and to join with Jesus in
the Great Commission the process of
making disciples of all nations and so
on the time that we have this morning as
we prepare for the celebration of
communion I want to share with you four
maybe five depending on how we fare for
time ways in which this being filled
with the spirit upon will manifest
itself in your life and in my life as we
try to engage the world in the Ministry
of Jesus so what happens then when we
are filled with the spirit in the upon
way of which the Scriptures speak well a
number of things the first I believe is
that we experience a heightened sense of
the spiritual world we experience a
heightened sense of this spiritual world
we live in a world as you know
that is divided both into the material
or the physical world that we experience
with our physical senses of sight and
touch and and hearing and all of those
but we also have a spiritual world that
we cannot normally experience very much
with our natural senses but is every bit
as real as the physical world in which
we live normally there is a veil that
divides the natural world from the
spiritual world and when we're joined to
Jesus that veil breaks through in the
Holy Spirit and we begin to experience
the reality of life in Christ Jesus puts
it this way in John 14:21 he who loves
me will be loved by my father and I too
will love myself loved him and then
these words show myself to him the
promise of the New Covenant is they by
the Holy Spirit Jesus will show himself
to us and when one of his disciples said
Lord we don't understand that how are
you going to show yourself to us but not
to the world then Jesus went on to
respond with this if anyone loves me he
will obey my teaching my father will
love him and we will come to him and
make our home with him and that of
course is the genius of the New Covenant
that's what happened on the day of
Pentecost when heaven opened and God
came in a very real way to dwell among
his people and already in the Old
Testament we have glimmerings of this
where God pulls back the veil and he
reveals the invisible spiritual world to
his people two very quick examples one
is the example of Jacob at Bethel Jacob
you may remember was running for his
life
because he had cheated his brother Esau
out of the inheritance ISA was furious
and so his parents send him off to go
back to Padanaram the relative where the
relatives lived where Rebekah had come
from originally and then on that journey
he he stops for the night puts his head
on a rock and then he has this marvelous
dream of a ladder reaching into heaven
and God standing on top of that ladder
making promises to him he'll remember
the story his comment after that is
really very interesting because this is
what scripture says when Jacob woke from
his sleep he thought surely the Lord is
in this place
and I was not aware of it he was afraid
and said how awesome is this place this
is none other than the house of God this
is the gate of heaven Jacob has a
transcendent moment and he calls the
name of the place Bethel because Bethel
means the house of God now we don't have
time to talk about it this morning but
if you will read the first chapter of
John's Gospel you will see Jesus make
reference to this story in a very
oblique way it's the story of Nathaniel
and how Jesus saw him under the fig tree
before he even knew that Jesus was there
and then Jesus says tanif annuals
response is to say you are the son of
God and Jesus says greater things than
these you will see remember that story
what happens next
Jesus says to him you will see angels
ascending and descending on the Son of
Man remember that and what Jesus is
saying in that story just for the record
is that he is the New Bethel he is the
new house of God God coming to dwell
among his people one other quick example
from the Old Testament were the
ovens are open and that's the story of
the Prophet Elisha the king of Arum has
been attacking the king of Israel and
the Prophet Elisha has been giving
information to the king of Israel where
the king of Arum is going to be in the
king of Arum is extremely upset finds
out that the problem that there isn't
the spy in his midst but the Prophet
Elisha is telling the King what the king
of Arum is going to do and so the king
of Arum decides he needs to take out the
Prophet Elisha and so he gets all his
armies together and Elisha and his
servant are in the city of Dothan and in
the morning they wake up and the servant
looks out and there he sees the whole
city surrounded by the king of Arabs
truth perhaps you remember the story
the young man freaks out what in the
world are we going to do and Elisha
makes the observation that the Lord God
is with him and then and then we read
this in 2nd Kings chapter 6 verse 17
that Elisha prayed O Lord open his eyes
so that he may sing then the Lord opened
the servant eyes and he looked and he
saw the hills full of horses and
chariots of fire all around Elisha say
the veil gets pulled back and heaven
comes down as the old gospel song used
to say in glory filled my soul when the
Spirit comes upon you there is an
increasing awareness of this spiritual
dimension of life and for most of us
that probably takes the form of those
moments in prayer where you feel that
God's presence is near or those
transcendent moments when you see a
beautiful sunset or you look into the
face of a newborn baby
and you say to yourself there's got to
be a god or those moments when you
gather in corporate worship and people
are united in spirit and the Spirit of
God hovers or broods over the assembly
and you just know that you know that you
know you're standing in the presence of
God you want to take your shoes off
because the place where you're standing
is holy ground not all of us perhaps
experience that but let me ask how many
of you can identify with at least a
moment in your life a moment in your
life where you just knew that God was
real in ways that normally you don't
experience let me see your hands
ah wonderful that's what we're talking
about the Spirit of God hovering over
the water very important because when
the spirit hovers stuff happens he
broods any incubates new life and so the
next thing that happens as the Spirit of
God comes upon us afresh is that our
spiritual gifts are activated now
spiritual gifts as you know are
anointings given by Jesus to his people
to help us accomplish the purposes of
God it's what Jesus meant when he said
wait in Jerusalem for the spirit to come
upon you and you will be my witnesses
spiritual gifts vary in number and
different people count them in different
ways but they include things like the
gift of mercy and the gift of leadership
and the gift of faith and the gift of
prophecy on your bulletin cover this
morning is a bit of a a diagram that
lists a number of spiritual gifts kind
of heavily on administration and
evangelism and Apostleship but
anointings of Jesus to help us do the
work of God and a portion by the exalted
Lord Jesus according to his sovereign
pleasure
they may or may not match our natural
giftings or our natural inclinations
but it's what God has created and
redeemed us for so that we can do the
work of the kingdom now listen to me
here most of the time these gifts lie
pretty much latent in our lawyers you
don't generally go around saying to
yourself well you know I have the gift
of faith and I can move mountains
anytime I want to or I have the gift of
evangelism and I can preach the gospel
to the whole world and everybody's going
to listen not quite that simple
but every so often when the situation
arises where the Lord wants to use you
for his glory in somebody's life and you
experience a fresh in filling of the
Holy Spirit that gift whether that's a
gift of prayer or a gift of evangelism a
gift of leadership or a gift of
preaching those the Spirit of the Lord
will fill you up and you will discover a
new courage and a new boldness to step
out in faith and be used of God to
accomplish his purposes give you an
example Acts chapter 4 Peter and John
have just been instrumental in healing
the at the beautiful gate to the
temple draws a big crowd they're
preaching Jesus to their heart's content
the religious leaders aren't very happy
about that
Peter and John get dragged before the
religious leaders and the question they
get asked there then is this question by
what power or by what name did you do
this and then notice what the text goes
on to tell us in verse 8 and following
then Peter note the phrase filled with
the Holy Spirit said to them rulers and
elders of the people if we're being
called to account today for an act of
- shown - a and are asked how he
was healed they know this you and all
the people of Israel it is by the name
of Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom you
crucified but whom God raised from the
dead but this man stands before you
healed he is the stone you builders
rejected that's a quote from psalm 118
which has become the capstone or the
head of the corner salvation is found in
no one else for there is no other name
under heaven given to men by which we
must be saved now what's really
interesting is the next verse and the
reaction of the religious leaders listen
to this when they saw the courage of
Peter and John and realize that they
were unschooled ordinary men they were
astonished and they took note that these
men had been with Jesus
two things their courage it takes
courage for Peter in the presence of
powerful leadership that can destroy
your life to stand there and boldly
proclaim this Jesus you killed God
raised from the dead that's not how you
make friends and influence people
courage and powerful words coming from
an ordinary unschooled individual that's
what happens when the Holy Spirit comes
upon you and you're filled with power
you know what blessed me so much last
week when when Susan and Dave Taft were
up here in and John and Sandra and share
that story of healing I mean the healing
itself is an amazing glorious and
wonderful thing but you know it really
struck me these are ordinary regular
people
not to put them down in any fashion but
no huge heroes of the faith John shared
his own struggles in terms of very God
can use Balaam's donkey to speak a
prophetic word and so when the Holy
Spirit hovers over a community our
hovers over your life something's going
to happen and it begins by stirring up
your spiritual gifts and our challenge
then is to learn to step out into that
with courage and boldness to watch what
God will do and that's the third thing
that we can expect to happen when we are
filled with a spirit upon us God moves
through us with authority and power he
moves through us with authority and
power see spiritual gifts are the power
tools of the kingdom they are intended
to push back the darkness and make room
for King Jesus and a fantastic example
of that again from the book of Acts is
the story of Paul and Barnabas on their
first missionary journey on the island
of Cyprus Barnabas was from Cyprus and
so that's where they naturally start
their missionary journey Paul is
preaching the gospel to the proconsul a
man by the name of Sergius Paulus and he
is speaking with authority and he is
speaking with power and surges pollicis
on the verge of becoming a Christian and
you may remember the rest of the story
so often the seed of political power is
supported by
a spiritual power in this case a Jewish
false prophet by the name of bar Jesus
or LMS and Elemis runs interference to
keep surges paulus from submitting to
and receiving the gospel and here's how
the story goes
notice again how it's worded then Saul
who was also called Paul filled with the
holy spirit let me pause there and say
the phrase filled with the Holy Spirit
is part of Luke's specialty it doesn't
really occur anywhere else in the New
Testament that I know of except in the
writings of Luke who sometimes has been
called a theologian of the Holy Spirit
so Paul filled with the Holy Spirit
looked straight at Elemis and said you
are a child of the devil and an enemy of
everything that is right you were full
of all kinds of deceit and trickery will
you never stop for hurting the right
ways of the Lord
now the hand of the Lord is against you
you're going to be blind and for a time
you will be unable to see the light of
the Sun immediately missed and darkness
came over him and he groped about
seeking someone to lead him by the hand
when the proconsul saw what had happened
he believed for he was amazed at the
teaching about the Lord spirit hovers
the spirit verse spiritual gifts you
step out into that spiritual gift with
authority and power and guess what
happens
jesus said greater works than these you
will do and he empowers his people to
push back the darkness for God's kingdom
to come
that's why spiritual gifts are important
I've often thought you know you can plow
a field behind your house so the old
fashion show shovel and hole and
eventually you may even get there but
how much quicker to hook up a tractor in
a plow and a cultivator and use the
power tools of the kingdom God has
equipped us in Christ with power tools
of the kingdom and if we can be but
sensitive to what the Holy Spirit is
directing us and we we gain some courage
and boldness to step out into that then
we will often be surprised at what God
will do
did John and Sandra in their team when
they prayed over Susan and her
Parkinson's expect a kind of healing
that she testifies and her neurologist
testifies to her having experienced
probably not Parkinson's doesn't go away
generally speaking certainly not easily
but you see if you're into the spirit
and you're stepping out in faith it is
amazing what God can and will do if we
will but lay hold of him by grace how
many more miracles would we see in this
church in our lives in our relationships
if we could grab hold by faith of the
Spirit of God hovering let him quicken
our spiritual gifts and have the Grace
and the faith to step out into it and
see his kingdom come that's how it works
and that's how the world gets
transformed one more thing just very
quickly then that I think we can
anticipate happening as we're filled by
the Holy Spirit and we move out in his
power to do his will and that is this we
experience joy
unspeakable I don't know if you remember
this but in training his disciples to
take over his work of ministry after his
ascension into heaven the Lord Jesus not
only sent out the twelve disciples to be
his apostles but he also sent out
seventy-two you'll find that in Luke's
Gospel in particular and he sends them
out to preach and to teach the cast our
demons at the heel to say who remembers
their reaction when they came back Luke
chapter 11 verse 17 the 72 returned with
joy and said Lord even the demons are
subject to us in your name they returned
with joy now Jesus made sure to mention
to them to not rejoice in the fact that
the demons were subject to them but
rather that their names were written in
heaven but the fact remains they were
filled with joy and terrifying as it is
to be in the presence of God and
terrifying as it is sometimes to step
out into what it is the God has for us
to do there is nothing in the world for
God's people that compares to knowing
that you've heard from God knowing that
you have been able to step out in
obedience to his will trusting him and
then to have been surprised by joy
because of the way that he has used you
in helping somebody else and that may be
a simple thing as as you follow the
prompting of the Holy Spirit and and you
talk to somebody and they affirm that
this was exactly what they needed when
they needed it it may be as simple a
thing as your taking a meal over to
somebody's house and this is exactly
what meets a deep deep spot in their
heart
because they know there haven't been
forgotten there is joy in obedience to
God and for most of us this comes by
trial and error I'm willing to bet that
for most everybody here there have been
lots of instances where we have felt
what about what we have experienced what
is very much felt like the prompting of
the Holy Spirit isn't untrue
and isn't it safe to say that nine times
out of ten we talk ourselves out of
following the prompting of the Holy
Spirit because we don't want to look
foolish we don't want to make a mistake
and we don't want to take any risks true
fortunately God is extremely gracious
and what happens in instance after
instance when he is trying to teach us
how to be the body of Christ through
which he can express himself with power
and with authority is afterwards you'll
find out what you felt you needed to do
or what you felt he needed to say was
exactly what was needed and that
encourages you for the next time to step
into it and eventually we learn an
increased level of obedience wouldn't it
be neat if in a church like this all of
could be like a body well tuned to the
head welcome to the head experiencing
the in feeling of the Holy Spirit to
carry out the work of God and instead of
talking ourselves out of it we yield to
it we learn from him and we learn from
each other and we could see Jesus moving
through his people to accomplish his
purposes in our generation I believe
with all my heart
but God calls this church to be a
prevailing regional church that can draw
people from far and wide
and introduce them to Jesus and help
them to experience the powerful
redemption that only Jesus can bring I
also believe that He pours out his holy
spirit upon all flesh and that he not
only gives us a greater passion to love
him not only gives us a greater passion
to love each other but also a greater
passion to reach out to the world in the
power and in the authority of the Holy
Spirit and he wants to raise us up to
accomplish that in our simplicity and in
our brokenness we've already had to pay
a high price for that price isn't going
to get any less but when we embrace our
weakness and we embrace our limitations
and we cry out to God for His mercy in
his power God says I'll fill you with my
spirit and you not only love me more
you'll not only have greater love for
your neighbor but you'll also have an
increased level of power to be about the
business of the kingdom and so as we
turn to communion this morning and as we
take in his life by faith and as we lay
hold of his promises by faith let's
rededicate ourselves if we can to be in
the hands in the feet of Jesus let's
quit making excuses for the fact that
we're weak and powerless and we're
ordinary uneducated men and women
doesn't really matter much in the
kingdom let's just invite him to make a
sensitive to when the atmosphere is
pregnant with the Holy Spirit to be
sensitive to the stirrings of our
spiritual gifts to learn to step out
into those gifts as he leads us with
wisdom and grace and power and then
let's let's watch him move do the
unexpected
did the unexpected and fill our hearts
with incredible joy because we know that
God is alive and he's in the midst of
his people and he is promised to be with
us always even to the end of the age
what do you think