Empowered To Serve

1. Empowered To Serve The Holy Spirit and Faith Sharing The Missing Ingredients

2. Introductory Verses • Acts 1:4 “And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.” • Acts 1:8 “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”

3. The Purpose of the Study • To remind readers of our great need of the Holy Spirit’s power and presence to carry out the assignment of the Church. • To Provide a clearer understanding of the Holy Spirit’s power and its availability to the Church.

4. Why is This Study Imperative? • Because Pentecost has been under emphasized in the Church. • Because there are so many misunderstandings and varied opinions about the Holy Spirit. • Because Satan has sought to confuse us, divide us and create havoc in the Church world on the subject of the Holy Spirit. • Because a church fully empowered by the Holy Spirit is invincible and unstoppable.

5. God’s Work Requires God’s Power! A story is told of a lady that went to a jeweler to have her watch repaired. He disappeared to the back and soon returned with it running perfectly. Surprised, she asked. “How he could fix it so quickly?” He replied, “It only needed a new battery.” She responded, “Battery! Battery! Nobody said anything about a battery. I’ve been winding it every morning for five years!"

6. Without God’s Equipping Power • A lot of churches spend their time and energy winding up programs, developing strategies and burning themselves out trying to do that which only the Spirit of God can do. Let’s get Hook Up!

7. More Than A Jewish Celebration While the Jews celebrated a harvest of grain, the Christian Church celebrates Pentecost as a great harvest of the Spirit. It is because of the Pentecostal outpouring… • We Receive the capacity to be renewed and transformed personally, and experience life in God’s presence. • We reap a harvest of power to be effective witnesses, God’s agents of transformation.

8. The church of Jesus Christ is a Pentecostal Church! The Church was born of the Spirit! The Church identify with the Spirit ! The Church seek after the fullness of the Spirit!

9. Holy Spirit empowers the Church to be God’s witnesses • Jesus doesn’t say His disciples will receive power to do witnessing; He says they will receive power to be witnesses. When the Holy Spirit empowers the church, God’s people become God’s representatives in the world by word, deed and signs. • Joh 1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

10. Those God Calls, He empowers • God dare not ask His people to do His work without giving them the ability to do it. • Apart from the Holy Spirit, no one can do the work of ministry as God wants them to. • Without the power of the Holy Spirit, the message of the Gospel rests in man’s wisdom. • Without the power of the Holy Spirit, the church would have only a form of godliness without the power.

11. With the Holy Spirit, we can make a difference. • “And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” (1 Cor. 2:4, 5)

12. The Holy Spirit empowers Christians for personal transformation and equips them to make a difference! “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” Acts 2:1-4

13. Fire is a Symbol of the Spirit • Fire is the symbol of transformation! • Fire changes whatever it touches! • Fire transformed the disciples into a fearless, united, spirit-filled group of messengers called the Church. • Fire of God’s Spirit to weld this group into one united force that confronted the Roman government, the Jewish religion and society, and the pagan religions of the world; and won the victory.

14. In the Old Testament… God Answered by fire… In Moses’ burning bush On Mt. Sinai to Israel During the Dedication of the Temple In Response to Elijah’s Prayer and many other places!

15. We believers are the "temple" of the Holy Spirit • The Church is now the dwelling place of God’s Holy Spirit. • The individual believing human heart as His dwelling place. “What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.” 1 Cor. 6:19, 20

16. God Answered This Prayer! • John 14:16, 17 “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.”

17. We Have a Living Relationship • Yet I realize that unless I build upon and maintain that relationship, it can easily become cool, inactive or even come to a screeching halt. Sin and disobedience will hinder the Holy Spirit’s activity in my life. • Often, Christians neglect their spiritual maintenance, and though they were "clothed with power" and filled with the Spirit (Luke 24:49) they find themselves out of gas, trying to do God’s work without God’s power. (Standard Oil)

18. Things to Remember • In Leviticus 6:12, instructions were given to the priest that the fire that fell from God should never be permitted to go out. It was to be attended constantly around the clock so it would never go out. Thus, we must attend the fire of the Spirit of God in our lives, and never allow it to go out! • The Bible says, “Quench not the Spirit.” Do not put out the Spirit’s fire. Believers should walk in obedience, attend the means of grace, walk in the Spirit and flow in His gifts, cherishing his presence and constantly stir up the fire He has placed within them.

19. The only way we are going to make a difference in this world in these last days is by the Spirit of God. “Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, this is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.” (Zech. 4:6) Eph 5:18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;

20. Ephesians 3:16-21 (16) That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; (17) That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, (18) May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; (19) And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. (20) Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, (21) Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

21. Holy Spirit Make Us We Ought To Be! • Allow Him to strengthen us with might by his Spirit in the inner man. (Heal our wounds and strengthen our weaknesses.) • Allow Him to dwell in your hearts by faith. (practice His constant presence) • Allow Him to root and ground us in love. (perfect us in His Love) • Allow Him to fill us with all the fulness of God. (Fill us with His Fullness)