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Supernatural Power for World
Missions, Ephesians 5, verses 18-21. Let's hear the word of
the Living God. And do not be drunk with wine,
in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Holy Spirit,
speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord. giving
thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of
God. This is the Word of God. We are commanded to be filled
with the Spirit, to be being filled with the Spirit, to go
on being filled with the Holy Spirit. It is in the imperative
tense, it is a command. It is in the passive tense, we
must let ourselves be filled. It is in the present continuous
tense, we are to continually go on letting ourselves be filled
with the Spirit. We must be being filled with
the Spirit. The emphasis here in the Greek
is so clear. For a Christian not to be Spirit-filled
is actually a downright sin. If we are not filled with the
Holy Spirit, then we are living in sin. God commands us, be filled
with the Holy Spirit. And if you do not obey, then
you sin by neglect. There are not only sins of commission,
there are sins of omission. James 4 verse 17 says, to know
the good that we ought to do and to fail to do it, that is
sin. By indifference to the Word of God, by apathy to His commands,
by spiritual laziness and spiritual carelessness, by a sluggish and
lukewarm response to God's great command to be filled with this
Holy Spirit. The Church has been filled, not by the Spirit, but
by the world. The Church has been filled by
the flesh and by the devil, with sinful, half-hearted, lukewarm,
semi-saved, half-saved, pseudo-saved, even unsaved, poor imitations
of the real thing. As Christians, we are involved
in a full-scale war. It's a world war of worldviews.
It's a clash of civilizations. It's a battle for the heart and
the mind. It's a battle for the family.
It's a battle for the future, for our faith. And yet, the Church
in general doesn't seem to be doing much fighting. The Church
is being attacked by the powers of darkness. Deception, sin and
worldliness are crippling, undermining church outreaches. And worse
still, most Christians do not even seem to be aware that we
are in a war. Yes, a war requires conscription, rationing, sacrifice. All of us have friends and family
members under the attack of the evil one. We have family members
chained by the devil. where family members trapped
in addictions and sinful habits and the church as sheep who have
been carried away, captured by the false prophets and the filthy
demons of hell. Satanists and occultists are
undermining church leaders and the work of the church by incantations,
hexes and subtle spiritual warfare. Secular humanists are deceiving,
distracting and deluding so many of the church leaders. And yet, by tempting and blinding
and deceiving and distracting and deluding Christians, many
have been deceived into engaging in false priorities, embracing
false doctrines, adopting false agendas, employing human solutions
and becoming ensnared in sinful habits and addictions. By keeping
Christians from the Bible, by hindering us from prayer, the
devil has rendered whole congregations and denominations ineffective.
Many have accepted a false god, a false gospel and a false mission.
That's one of the main points in the agenda twofold, that the
average churches today have a false god, not the biblical god. And they've got a false gospel
and a false mission. They've completely been sidetracked
from the Great Commission and from loving God with all of our
heart, soul, strength and mind into the world's agenda, rendering
vast amounts of the Church ineffective in fulfilling the Great Commission.
The devil is waging an all-out war against the forces of Jesus
Christ and many seem to be confined to barracks, tamely singing choruses
and having fun in fellowship. eat meat and retreat. Terrible
thing to call a church camp a retreat. You're not meant to retreat,
you're meant to be advancing. Napoleon once said as he looked out over
the vast expanse of China on the map, there lies a sleeping
giant. Let her sleep, for if she wakes
she will shake the world. If Napoleon could have said that
200 years ago about China, how much more could the devil be
saying that about the Church today? If China was a sleeping
giant 200 years ago, the Church today is an even greater sleeping
giant. The power and influence and potential
of the Christian Church, 2 billion people who claim to believe in
Jesus Christ as the resurrected Son of God, what a sleeping giant! If the Church wakes, who would
shape the world. We can liberate the world for
Christ. We can reach every tribe, tongue,
race and nation on earth for Christ in this generation. Christianity
without Christ's mighty Holy Spirit is inept, dry, dull, powerless,
ineffective. But Christianity and the power
of the Holy Spirit, such as we read about in the Book of Acts,
Christianity, as we read about in the time of the Reformation,
and the Puritans, and the Revivals, and the great evangelical awakening,
and Christianity during the greatest century of missions, that was
dynamic, and fresh, and powerful, and spiritual, and invincible,
earth-shaking, and history-making, winning whole tribes and nations,
and even the cannibals to Christ. The greatest power in the universe
is the power of God's Holy Spirit. There is no limit to what God
can do in you and with you and through you if he is not quenched. Hench not the Holy Spirit, we
are told. Resist not the Holy Spirit. We are not to lie to
the Holy Spirit. We are not to resist the Holy
Spirit. We are not to quench the Holy Spirit. We are rather
to be filled with the Holy Spirit. We are to pray in the Spirit.
We are to walk in the Spirit. It is said of the Christians
of the first century, these people who have turned the world upside
down have come here also. What a great description of church,
the people who have turned the world upside down and have come
here too. And that's exactly what true Christianity, the power
of the Holy Spirit always accomplishes. Read through the book of Acts.
And you can see the incredible impact of Spirit-filled believers
as they came to every community. What an impact their lifestyle
and their message had on the Roman Empire. Whenever the Gospel
was proclaimed in the power of God's Holy Spirit, there was
either a revival or there was a riot. But apathy and indifference
was absolutely not an option. To such a radical message, such
an invincible power, people either revolted in a riot or there was
revival and they fell to the knees in repentance, brought
their occultic books and burned them up, saying, I'm burning
my bridges, no turning back, I've decided to follow Jesus,
no turning back. Are you dissatisfied with your present personal spiritual
experience? Are you frustrated by the inroads
that the world, the flesh and the devil have made on the church
and into our societies and countries? Do you long to see Christians
making a greater impact on society? Is it the burden of your heart
that the evangelization and discipleship of the whole world in this generation
becomes a reality? If you determine to stop quenching
the Holy Spirit, if you determine to humble yourself and pray and
seek His face and turn from your wicked ways, to seek first His
Kingdom and His righteousness, if we Do this with a thirsty
heart. If anyone thirsts, let him come
unto me, Jesus said, and out of his innermost being will flow
rivers of living water. And this he spoke about the Holy
Spirit. As we ask, as we seek, as we knock, God promises to
fill us. Ask, seek, knock. God promises
to fill us with supernatural power from above. Tarry in the
city until a power from above has come upon you, Jesus said. There is a vibrant vitality and
life that comes from being filled with the Holy Spirit. God promises,
He assures us, whoever asks will receive, whoever seeks will find,
whoever knocks the door will be opened unto him. If you, being
evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more
will your Father in Heaven give good gifts to those who seek
Him? What father, when asked for a fish, will give his child
a serpent? And so if you, being evil, know
how to give good gifts to your children, how much more does
He have me, Father, know how to give good gifts to those who
ask Him? We must ask, we must seek, we must know. God stakes
the honor of His name on the biblical promises. If we fulfill
the simple conditions, He will work miracles and endure us with
power from on high. Blessed are those who hunger
and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. So
what then do we need to do in order to turn this world upside
down, right side up, back to God? What is needed for us to
reclaim the nations for Christ? Well, firstly, we need dedicated
Christian disciples wholeheartedly committed to Christ. And we need
to be freed from the chains of sin and selfishness and worldliness.
The Hebrews could not be much servants to God while they were
in chains to Pharaoh in Egypt. They need to be freed. They need
to survive the Passover. They need to come across the
Red Sea. They need to survive in the wilderness and come across
the Jordan into the Promised Land and be trained and capable
to fight to reclaim the land. And we need nothing less. We
need Christians filled with the Holy Spirit. Secondly, we need
these Christians able to be led by the Holy Spirit. into God's
will, to do and to say the right things at the right time to the
right people. God gives the very best to those who leave the choice
to Him. And for God's master strategy of freeing this world
from Satan and turning it to Christ, we need Christians master
controlled, so as to know the most appropriate
word or action to do or to say to the most prepared person at
the most opportune time for the greatest results. We need Christians
led by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit made me go, you read
in the book of Acts. So we need to be fully committed
to Christ, we need to be led by the Holy Spirit, and we need
to know what it is to pray in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Jude 20 speaks about praying in the Spirit. God acts in answer
to prayer, and if we do not pray, we cannot expect God to act.
Prayer releases the power of God. The only foundation for
spiritual work is prayer. Now, prayer is not an alternative
to obedience. Some people try to use prayer as an excuse for
inactivity and disobedience. I'll pray about it often means
I don't want to do it. But prayer is the foundation
for obedient action. It's not an excuse for disobedience
and inaction. Prayer releases the power of
God. The only foundation for spiritual
work is prayer. Prayer is our priority. A prayerless
life is a powerless life. A prayerful life is a powerful
life. Nothing lies beyond the reach
of prayer except that which is beyond the will of God. When
we pray in the Spirit, then we are releasing the greatest power
in the universe. The Church needs Christians who
will pray in the Spirit. Fourthly, we need Christians
endued with supernatural power to win the spiritual war that
is raging There are far too many of our friends and family members
and churches that have been undermined, chained and crippled by the forces
of evil. Deception, distraction, delusion are pervasive. The time
has come to rise up and go out in the power of God's Holy Spirit
to annihilate the forces of wickedness and worldliness. We must set
prisoners free. That's a lot of what Christians
are meant to do. Set the captives free. We must win the victory. And we can be more than conquerors
through Christ Jesus who loved us. Greater is He who is in us
than whom is in the world. Submit to God. Resist the devil.
He will flee from us. If the devil is not fleeing from
us then either we're not submitting to God or we're not resisting
the devil or both. We must win a world for Jesus
in the power of the Holy Spirit and in the name of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. We must prevail. We shall prevail. We
will prevail. In order to set the captives
free, the prisoners of sin and Satan, the Lord has given believers
power to bind evil. And wherever two or three are
gathered in God's name, whatever we agree on can be done. What
we bind on earth will be bound in heaven. What we loose on earth
will be loosed in heaven. We can restrict, limit and oppose
the files of rebellion and doubt and unbelief and sin and perversion
and slavery and deception and hatred. We have the power to
overcome the gates of hell, to storm the gates of hell, the
very strongholds of evil. When the Lord said he is building
his church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Many people see this as we're in our trenches, we're being
attacked but we'll survive till the rapture comes. That's the
wrong understanding. Gates don't attack, gates defend. The gates of hell shall not prevail
against the church means the church is doing the attacking.
The gates are doing the defending and falling. Satan can spend
generations, millenniums, chaining and deceiving entire nations
and cultures in superstition and false religion. But the gospel
of Christ has the ability to come in a generation, in a lifetime
or less, and smash those chains and set those captives free. Jesus himself said, I've given
you authority so that you can walk on snakes and scorpions
and overcome all the power of the enemy and nothing will harm
you. Luke 10, 27. And so we are to announce liberty
to the captives, to set free the prisoners. Even the demons
must obey when a command is given to them by a Christian in Jesus'
name. This is because when we place
ourselves in submission to Almighty God, we're able to resist the
lesser power of the only. Greater is Christ in us than
Him in the world. The Church of Jesus Christ needs
dedicated Christians who are Bible-based, Christ-centered,
Spirit-led, prayerful Christians, endued with God's supernatural
power and order to win the spiritual world and turn people to Christ.
John Wesley famously said, give me 100 men who love God with
all their hearts, who fear no one and nothing but God, and
who hate nothing but sin, and I will change the world. We need Christians who will love
God with all their hearts. We need Christians who will fear
no one but God. We need Christians who will hate
sin. And Christians who will make an impact on this world.
And this is what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
To be filled with God's Holy Spirit is to be filled with the
very nature of God, which is to be filled with Christ, which
is to be filled with love and wisdom and knowledge. These are
inseparable. To be filled with God's powers,
to be filled with His love, knowledge and wisdom. And the power of
God and the wisdom of God's Holy Spirit shows itself in dynamic
action. Action that moves the world back
to God. The mark of a Christian is love and the mark of love
is action. True love is not just words and talk, it shows itself
in action. And He is able to do far more
abundantly above what we ask or think, or dream of by the
power of His love working within us. We need to be filled with
the Holy Spirit. So how do we receive the fullness
of God's Holy Spirit in our lives? The Spirit of God is received
through the Word of God. As we expose ourselves to the
Word of God, as we submit to the authority of the Word of
God, God's Word above all things was what Bishop Stephen Bradley
had over his churches. God's Word above all things.
Sad that that's being taken down from the outside of St. James,
because that used to be the theme. The Spirit of God is received
through the Word of God, and as we expose ourselves to the
Word of God and submit to its authority, we open ourselves
to the powerful working of God's Holy Spirit, who works through
the Word of God. You are cleansed by my Word, Jesus said. We are
renewed, our minds are renewed, by the washing of the Word of
God. It is the Gospel that is the power of God for the salvation
of all who believe. Faith comes from hearing and
hearing by the Word of God. So as we submit ourselves to
the Word of God, we open ourselves up to the work of God's Spirit.
The Bible teaches us that the Holy Spirit fills clean vessels
in response to surrender and faith, and it is the Word of
God that cleanses us. The Word of God imparts and builds
up faith within us. Faith comes from hearing, hearing
from the Word of God. The Word of God accomplishes
the purpose of God. It never returns void. That is
why we are taught that God is at work in them who believe and
receive God's Word and faith. 1 Thessalonians 2.13. So as we
surrender to the Son of God, we receive faith from the Word
of God. We find the more we get into the Word of God, the more
the God of the Word gets into us. It's like a blacksmith who
puts his iron in a fire long enough for the fire to be on
the iron. We need to be so immersed in the Word of God that the Spirit
of God is in us. So as we accept and believe and
submit to the Word of God, and as we receive simultaneously
the cleansing of the Word, the infilling of faith, and the fullness
of God's Holy Spirit. It all comes together. That is
why the Protestant Reformers put the Bible, the open Bible,
in the center. The pulpit, the teaching of God's
Word, became central. The Mass, which had been central
in Catholic churches throughout the Middle Ages, was moved to
the side, or demolished, and replaced with a table or pulpit
with an open Bible. because God's will is achieved
through the preaching and teaching of the Word of God, the renewing
of minds as we, by our very thoughts and minds, get conformed to the
will of God. It is very telling that many
churches today speak about the praise and worship as the singing
part, and now that the praise and worship is over and the children
can all leave, now we'll get to sermon. But the sermons may
be a key part of worship because Having our minds renewed by the
washing of the Word is a key part of worship. It is not just
that God is worshipped by our singing. That's a vital part.
We're a singing faith. But that the very thoughts and
meditations of our hearts, not just what is sung, but what is
said, and by how we respond to it, and how we have the meditations
of our hearts being acceptable worship in the sight. So the
more we are filled with the Word of God, The more we come under
the influence of the Word of God, the more we come under the
control of and apply the Lordship of Christ to all areas of life,
the more we are filled with the Holy Spirit. The more we come
under His influence and His control and we are able to be led by
the Spirit, be filled by the Spirit, pray in the Spirit. Now
this infilling is both a process and it is a crisis. You are responsible
for the process of being continually filled with God's Spirit by being
continually filled with His Word, by receiving His Word, by meditating
on His Word, by applying His Word, by obeying His Word. Psalm
1 lays this out, But His delight is in the law of the Lord, and
in His law He meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree
planted by rivers of water that brings forth its fruits in season,
whose leaf shall not wither. Whatever he does shall prosper.
Psalm 1 summarizes it. It is that we've put down our
roots right down into the soil of the Word of God, which is
nourished by the living waters of the Holy Spirit. God will
respond at times to the crisis, where you may have a spiritual
encounter and experience with God's Holy Spirit, either preparing
you for some work or some hardship, or some task, or some responsibility,
but doing a work within you, renewing your mind. That was
a major emphasis of R.C. Sproul's ministry, so much so
that he kept calling it Renewing Your Mind. And James Kendi had
his program called Truths That Transform. And this gets to the
heart of it. The truth of God's Word is what
transforms us. Our mind needs to be renewed.
Most people don't like this because this sounds too much like discipline
and hard work. It's so much nicer if you can
just have an aggregate abber. It's nicer if a Mary Poppins
can come to your house and just click the fingers and everything
jumps into their place. And so many people would prefer
this idea of having health and wealth and having a miracle a
day keeps the devil away and a whole lot of mumbo-jumbo magic,
and most people want magic, they don't want the biblical faith.
The biblical faith requires work and discipline and dedication
and consistency, and that is not quite as exciting for our
shallow, superficial, sensational, me generation, instant coffee,
instant everything, microwave messages, let's just go straight
to turn it up max and make it pop out of the oven like some
popcorn that you put into the microwave. That is not the way
we get biblical fruit. It's a process. Fruit is produced
by months of nourishment, which includes nutrients in the soil,
probably being cared for, and in our spiritual life it requires
nothing more. We want to be more than popcorn and candy floss.
We've got to have more nourishment and depth. We need the fruits
of the spirit, not just the fruits of this world. And so we need
inner healing. We need to be prepared ministry
endowed with gifts and the Holy Spirit gives gifts to every member
of the church. We need his empowerment for witness.
You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you
and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria
and to the uttermost parts of the earth. It's the Holy Spirit
that anoints us for worship. It's the Holy Spirit who empowers
us to pray. It's the Holy Spirit who calls
us to ministry. It's the Holy Spirit who led
the church in Antioch to set upon Paul and Barnabas for the
ministry to which they were called, which was to take the Gospel
to Europe. All of these could be called
the overflowing of God's Holy Spirit. When we are faithful
to the process of being filled with the Word of God, then we'll
find time and again when the Holy Spirit overflows from within
us. There's been a lot of argument in the Church about the baptism
in the Spirit and the filling of the Holy Spirit. Some will
say you're filled by the Spirit, or you're filled with the Spirit,
or you're filled, baptized in the Spirit. Well, actually, the
word in, with, and by, which theologians have argued over
for a long time, it's the same word in Greek, in, with, and
by. So, whether you're filled with the Spirit, in the Spirit,
by the Spirit, it becomes the same thing. It's the same word
in the Greek. In a sense, we must be baptized
by the Holy Spirit, into the Holy Spirit, filled with the
Holy Spirit, overflowing with the Holy Spirit. It suggests
being not just immersed in the Spirit, but the Holy Spirit being
from within us. As Jesus said in John 7, rivers
of living water flowing out from your innermost beings. So it's
not just like in physical believers' baptism by immersion, where the
person goes into the water. This is rivers of living water
flowing from out of us. You must be filled with the Holy
Spirit. It's not just being washed over by the Spirit, but it's
the Holy Spirit coming within us, and that comes from the Word
of God. And what is the fruit of the Spirit? What is the evidence
of the Holy Spirit's work in a person's life? Love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and
self-control. The evidence of The fullness
of the Holy Spirit is seen in any life surrendered to God.
It is real love, overflowing joy, deep peace of heart and
mind, exceptional patience, real kindness, true goodness, invincible
faithfulness, genuine humility and great self-control. Jesus
said you'll know a person by his fruit and he said we should
be judging teachers and preachers by their fruit. The Spirit shows
His presence through love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. This is the fruit
of the Spirit. If you think of the fruit trees,
the fruit tree's fruit is not for the tree's benefit, it's
for the benefit of everyone passing by. the shade and the nutrients
come for the benefit of others. In a Christian's life, in many
ways, we exist to bless and benefit others, to be service to God's
creatures. Many today, in many churches,
would prefer us to be Christmas trees, which are all about the
gifts. The gifts are important, but
the fruits are also important. Martin Luther said that the decorations
on the tree symbolize the fruit of the Spirit. The gifts on the
tree symbolize the gifts of the Spirit. The decorations of the
tree are also important. The fruit is in fact more important
than the gifts of the Spirit in many ways. It is the fruit
of the Spirit that produces the actions that make an impact on
lives and change our world and accomplish God's will. A Christian
filled with God's Holy Spirit is filled with faith and with
power and love. And such a Christian is able
to be directed and guided by God into his perfect world to
accomplish his mighty purposes, fulfilling the Great Commission,
reaching the nations for Christ, winning the world. Such a believer
who is filled with God's Word will find that as he prays sincerely
from his heart, according to the Scriptures that have been
cherished and stored up in his mind, he has vital contact with
and union in Christ. John 15 verse 7 is a key verse
here. If you abide in me and if my words abide in you, then
you will ask what you desire and it will be given to you.
So as the will of God as revealed in the Word of God, and the desires
of the Christian as transformed by the God of the Word meet and
harmonize together they make combined impact with God's pre-answering
power and his purposes are accomplished not by might nor by power but
by my Spirit says the Lord this is spiritual dynamite actually
that doesn't even come close this is spiritual nitroglycerin
and it releases the power of God that is needed to transform
lives and change the world. Three of the greatest natural
forces in the world are fire, wind and water. And these three
forces reveal something of the power of the Creator. On the
day of Pentecost, the fire of God and the wind of the Holy
Spirit and the living waters of Christ moved in great power
and the church was born on the first day of the week, the day
of Pentecost. Do you know what it's like to have the fire of
God burn within you? Do you know what it is to have
the wind of the Holy Spirit lead and guide you? Do the living
waters of Christ flow from your life refreshing others? Power for living. Power for guidance. Power for prayer. Power for conquest. Power for missions. Your church
needs this power. Your world needs this power.
You need this power. Let the Word of Christ dwell
in you richly in all wisdom and teaching and admonishing, one
other than psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with
grace in your hearts to the Lord. Be filled with the Spirit. Pray
without ceasing. Go ye therefore. Let us pray. Lord God, we thank you and praise
you for the power of your Holy Spirit. We praise you, Lord God,
for the power of your Word. We pray, Lord God, that you'd
deepen our faith, that you'd deepen our understanding of your
word, that you'd transform our lives, that you'd renew our minds,
that your truths would truly transform us. We pray, Lord God,
that you'd increase our vision, our world vision, to fulfill
your great commission in our generation. We pray this in Jesus'
precious and holy name. Amen.
Supernatural Power for World Missions
Series Livingstone Fellowship
| Sermon ID | 521181538599 |
| Duration | 31:12 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Language | English |
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