A Spirit Empowered Life for Everyday Discipleship

Welcome. Just hand Away Tagalog Sermon Podcast your daily dose

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You're listening to a podcast or from Victory. The outworking

of a disciple of life is a spirit empowered life.

Learn more about this message and week six of our

series Make Rooms.

When I was still lost and not yet a Christian,

every time somebody would invite me to church, I would

say no for three reasons. One, I have three mindsets

that I have Mali church. One is that I thought

church is boring, so I don't want to be bored,

so I don't want to go to church. Second, I

thought the church is just for older people. I'm not

sure if young people have a place in church. And third,

I thought church is for good people, but for people

like me who is I know I'm not good, I'm

not righteous, so I'm not ready for church. And praise God,

God changed that mindset and I was eventually invited to church,

and I discovered that church is completely the opposite of

what I was thinking. I realized church is not boring. Well,

I'm convinced no, church is not boring. I thought church

is boring. Mindset compuna. Church is a gathering that I

attend once a week. I realize eventually the church is

beyond that. It's not just the meeting that I attend.

There's more to church than just attending a service, because

the church is the people.

It's not a building. It's not this mall.

It's not can third floor for floor Palata and then

sab Bahamali Patai is a third floor Sa Toy Kingdola

second Florians. But anyway, we're in the building. But the

church is not the building, it's the people.

And so uh.

And also church is not just for older people, it's

also for the younger generation. And that the church is

really not for the good people.

It's actually for the bad people.

So if you're wondering why that person is here in

church today.

Now you know. But we all need Jesus.

It's not just people who are far away from Christ,

but even those who think they are close to Him.

Now we are.

I want to go straight to the word today to

make sure that will end on time. But we are

now in the last installment of our series and we're

talking about the Holy Spirit. We said side six weeks

talking about the Holy Spirit because we want to understand

the person in the works of the Holy Spirit. I

shared at the beginning of this series that I grew

up knowing and not knowing, but hearing.

About the Holy Spirit.

I was taught to pray in the name of the Father,

the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So I grew up

reciting it without me really understanding what I'm saying. Then

when I became a Christian, I understood the importance the

person and the necessity of the Holy Spirit. That I

cannot live as a Christian without the Holy Spirit, that

it will be empty religion without the Holy Spirit.

So today we are at the.

Last installment and we're trusting that this series really is

helping you in terms of your walk with God. Yesterday

we had a shooting, a video shoot or one of

our trainings here in church.

And one thing I.

You know, I realized because say in a train Ami mcvlog,

you know, mug.

Shooting, and here Helen you are saying you need may screing.

You means some jolly person camera and also happen Baramo

and becomas natural Paramascan and yesterday we struggled the first

few minutes trying to make ourselves really comfortable in front

of the camera. It's not really easy, but you know,

we're doing this not because we need a sideline and

extra kita, but because we want to be effective as

a church.

We need to evolve as a church.

We kind of just keep doing the things that we're

doing just because it worked in the past.

It doesn't mean.

That we can just keep doing it and hope that

it will continue to be effective and reaching to the

people that God is calling.

Us to reach.

And we all know our behavior today maramitaios now or

us in ubusun atens a harabnan screen, whether that's Facebook,

whether that's Instagram, that's where people are today. And if

we are going to be the light and salt of

this world, we need to be where the people are.

And so we're trying to learn although it's not easy,

although it's not convenient for us, we're trying to do

it again because we don't want to become irrelevant as

a church. Because God called us to be part of

his mission. You know, there's a book that we are

assigned to read today by pastor den is our boss.

And the title of this book is Beyond Charity.

By John Perkins, and I like to quote a portion

of this book talking about what's happening to some churches today.

He said, we have turned the church into an institution

that serves us instead of God. In fact, the church

that we are most committed to is the church that

will meet most of our personal and family needs. This

is known as consumer Christianity, wherein many Christians are becoming

experience seekers rather than effective ministers of the gospel. We're

jumping from one church to another depending on what church.

Is meeting our needs better.

Sanmas Magundu music, Sinemas Magandu preaching, sin Mus maganda young

kids church.

And there's nothing wrong with that.

We want to be better in serving people, but that

should not be the main consideration why we stay in church.

We stay in church because God placed us in this

church and there is a role, a function that God

is expecting us to play. I like this calle from

Henry Martin's a missionary to India. He said, the spirit

of Christ is the spirit missions. The nearer we get

to Him, the more intensely missionary we become. You know,

one way we can know we are going deeper in

our walk with God is when we find ourselves becoming

active in bringing people to Jesus, because the nearer we

get to him, the more we catch his heart for people.

And there's no way we can continue to ignore the

people around us, the people that were intimidated with or

irritated with.

Even if we.

Don't like people, we cannot ignore them the closer we

get to Jesus, because Jesus loves people and the reason

Jesus came and died on the cross, the Bible says

for God, who love the world. So the more we

become close to him, the more we catch his heart

for people. And our God is a missional God. That's

one thing that we can know about him, and he

wants the Church to be on mission. And that's what

we want to talk about today, us the church, not

just enjoying our relationship with God, but us as a

church on mission with God. So if you have your

Bible with you, we're going to read from Acts chapter one,

beginning in verse eight. There's just one verse for all

of us today.

It says, but you will receive power. Everyone say power.

When the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you

will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judaea and Samaria,

and to the end of the earth. Let's just pray

right now, Lord, we thank you for your word today.

We thank you that your word is active, it's alive,

it's powerful. One verse can change us from the inside out.

So Lord, I thank you, Lord the True have a

word for us today, for the people who are here

for the first time, and for the people who've been

in church for many years.

Lord, we thank you that you are going to just reinforce.

A conviction. Lord, you will enlighten us and open. Lord God,

just a revelation once again, in order for us to

understand Lord and be on fire again.

With the calling we received from you in Jesus. They

may pray. Amen. I'm not going to spend.

Minutes a long time explaining the context the verses before

the scripture, because in the first few weeks we already

talked about the context of this verse where Jesus rose

from the dead and for forty days he appeared to

his disciples to prove them that he's really alive. And

in that forty days he talked about the kingdom, not

just about salvation, but what God wants to do here

on earth. And then he asked them a question concerning

a question that is connected to their top concern that time.

It's connected to their political.

Concern, economic concern, concern about their ethnicity. And we can

all relate to that today because we are all in

church today with our different concerns. So many of you here,

you have a concern today. Maybe for some of us,

we are very concerned about politics in our nation, or

maybe we are concerned about our finances as a family,

or concern about the business or relationship. When they asked

their question to Jesus, this is the answer that he

gave them. Their concern was valid. But there is something

bigger than just the need at hand. And sometimes there's

a tendency for us to be so caught up with

the concern of the moment that we miss out on

what is bigger and what's more important in our lives.

And here's what Jesus told them, But you will receive power.

And I want to highlight three words for us today.

Three words I want to highlight in order for us

to get the message of Jesus.

First one is the word you, he.

Said, but you Okay, can you please turn to the

person say the next you tell that person you Because

Jesus was talking not just to the early disciples, this

message is for you and me today. Maybe you're wondering, uh,

sinebato manata is up Jesus and about profile and manata anata,

you know the.

People that is talking to.

According to the critics, there's a verse in the Bible

when they were describing the disciples of Jesus. They said,

they are ordinary people who are unschooled, meaning they don't

have formal training in scriptures, just like ninety nine percent

of us here today. They are unimpressive and they have

imperfect lives. If you read about the story of Peter,

if you learn about the story of James, these people

have issues. They are imperfect, and they are not trained

in the scripture, just like you and me today. He

was talking to them and he's giving this message so

the same way with us. If you are sitting there,

imagine Jesus talking to you, you who have imperfect life,

You have issue you and then he talked about this verse.

You know, I remember Matthew chapter nine, verse thirty six.

One time when Jesus was talking to a crowd in

a gathering like this. The Bible says in Matthew nine,

verse thirty six, when he saw the crowds, he had

compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless, like

sheep without a shepherd.

It was a mixed group of people.

There are rich and poor, young and old, educated uneducated.

God felt the same way. He felt compassion for him.

They are just the same.

They have the same issues, they have the same problem,

they have the same spiritual condition.

That's why Jesus felt the same way.

You know, many people were stunned and left asking why

when two famous people died, actually committed suicide this month,

Anthony Bourdain and Kate Spade, and a lot of people

are following them. Many articles were written about them. But

there's this one article from Time magazine entitled Anthony Bourdain,

Kate Spade and the Dangers of envying perfect lives. And

I find this article insightful. There's an excerpt I want

to read.

He said.

Bourdain's suicide, which followed shortly after that of facts and

designer Cage Spade, was a one two punch to our

belief that there are some people who are living the

perfect life, that each of them chose to end an

existence that to outsider seems so idyllic and and viable.

Is a mystery to people, especially since these were not

teenagers or lost twenty somethings, but two people who might

reasonably be expected to have reached some sort of self knowledge.

Some people are dreaming of their job and their life.

I mean, for many women, they are saying, if I

only have her business, can you imagine I'm business moll bags, shoes, clothing.

You have family, you have successful career, you have a

global brand. This you have everything that many people are

dreaming of. Yet why And then Anthony Bourdain, A lot

of people are dreaming to have this job of traveling

around the world, tasting their food and receiving all the

awards and wealth.

And they both took their life.

So now I like the last portion of the article

because he said, of course there's a lot of details

that we don't know about them, but what can we

learn about stories like this? And first one at the

tail end of that article, he said, first one is

that it's wrong to envy other people, especially people who

have seemingly perfect lives and Instagram. We can't envy other

people because God has given us our own life, and

we have to be grateful about it. You know, one

of the things I'm trying to teach my daughter right now,

eight years old is to always find something to be

grateful about every day. You have to appreciate the life

that you have rather than dreaming every day of living

someone else's life. And another thing is said is lesson

we can learn is that we need to have more

compassion because sometimes when we look at other people, especially

the rich, we think that they don't need anything. There's

no reason for me to show compassion. But if we

can just look beyond the looks and the clothes and

the cars and the house and see inside, we will

see a person who is in need of Christ. That's

why Jesus, when they look at the crowds, he said,

he felt compassion on them because all of us have

the same need. All of us have the same spiritual condition.

And Jesus said, apart.

From me, you have nothing.

Imperfect people, you he said, and then he said, and

you will receive power.

We see power.

How many of you here you want to have power?

Ilenus said, you need to put three as mahalipad. You

want extraordinary power? But here's the good news. The Bible says,

if you have the Holy Spirit, you have power. You know,

the Christian life is not easy. It's not easy to

be a Christian. How many of you can agree. I've

been a Christian for many years, and I tell you

it's not always easy to be a Christian. It's I

love being a Christian, but it's not always easy to

be a Christian. It's not always easy to wait for

the answer to your prayer. I know some people who

are praying for an answered prayer for ten years already.

I tell you it's not easy. It's not always easy

to say no to temptation. It's not always easy to

stand for what is right. It's not always easy to

do what is good, even when people are not appreciating you.

It's not always easy.

But the Christian life is not just hard, it's actually

impossible to live without the help of God. Without divine empowerment,

there is no way we can measure up to the

life that God is calling.

Us to live.

We need power, and the goodness is with the Holy Spirit,

we have power. That's why we can do what God

is calling us to do. We can forgive, we can

be generous. We can reach out to people. We can

be selfless because God has given us the power. Power

is the divine ability. That's what it means when we

say the word power. It's divine ability.

You know. It's a home.

So and enjoying a time. I'm in you know, son

call a three years old. You know, we enjoy so

much swimming. That's what we do today. As much as

we can. We would do our best to swim. I

have a picture of my three year old son. His

name is Jackson and water five feet six feet and.

Floater big. That was because and it would do that repeatedly.

I enjoy moments like that.

But sometimes, you know, would put this floater and then

I will just let him float in the water.

And this floater.

Don't only make sure that he will not drown, it

enables him to move around. He can actually go from

one place to another because of this floater. But in reality,

on his own he can't do that as so, but

with the floater, not only that is he don't end

up getting drowned, he is able to move.

What I'm saying is.

That God did not only save us. He did not

only give us salvation. He gave us the power so

he can we can join him in his mission. That's why,

as Christians, we are not supposed to just make sure

we are safe and wait for heaven. We're supposed to

be moving today. We should be part of his movement,

and He has given us power.

To do that.

That's the experience of the apostle Paul in Second Christians,

Chapter twelve, verse nine, he said, but he said to me,

my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is

made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the

more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of

Christ may rest upon me. We all have our own weakness. Hey, Elen,

uid to make because you're feeling your weakness? Helen, who

saying you detail and weakness new food? You know, in

the world we try our best to hide our weakness.

We don't want people to know our weakness. We make

extra effort to show to the world that we're okay,

that everything is okay. What I like about Christianity is

that in Christ it's okay not to be okay. That

that in Christ we don't have to be ashamed of

our weakness. We can actually boast about our weakness. I

can say that I'm not good in this area. I

struggle with patience. You know why, because my weakness is

an avenue for me to experience Christ's power. Our weakness

should not hinder us from bringing people to Christ, because

our weakness is our venue to experience God's power. That's

why Paul said, I boast gladly about my weakness, because

in my weakness that's where I experience God's power and

a weakness. More maybe if some of us maybe were

saying in the whole relational natae, or maybe in Diajo

mcgilli magsalitai. But you know, there's a verse in the

Bible before I forget First Corintians, chapter two, verse four

to five. Paul testified to that that's also his experience.

He said, in my message and my preaching were not

in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the

spirit and power. Paul said, I'm not a gifted speaker.

I was not a born communicator. So every time I speak,

it's not a showcase of my great ability to speak.

Every time I speak, it's a showcase of God's ability

to empower people like me that even though I'm not

good God can use me to speak this message in

such a way that people can come to know Jesus.

The Bible says, but when you receive the Holy Spirit,

you will receive power. You know. I have this.

Colleague, okay, say men Hong Kong work before it's a

U built and panelampot as a savior.

I have a picture of him.

We were able to work together for ten years. He's

used to be part of my staff of campus missionaries,

and when I was there, this was one of the

teaching moments I had with God, my leadership development with God.

When we were working together.

I know he was called to be a campus missionary,

but in my mind, is not cut out to be

a campus director. If you're a campus director, if you

are in one local church, you know we have we're

in eighteen locations right now.

We have one in Alabama. We have at the fourth.

If you're the campus director in one area, you're in

charge and given the assignment to oversee our campus ministry

work in the area, all the campuses.

So I have this picture of.

A campus director that if you're going to be a

campus director.

You have to be like this and like this and

like this.

So every time we're going to pray for a new

campus director.

I don't pray for him.

This was a long time ago in a Ganie Lloyd.

I learned my lesson.

Because in my mind during that time, I was just

trying to help people find their sweet spot. I'm just

trying to put people where I feel like they are

gifted by God to serve, not realize saying that in

the I'm already boxing people. Actually, until there was a

time when circumstances, situation happened that this is the only

choice we have and we need to give him an opportunity.

Fast forward, to my surprise, he became a very successful

campus director. He's actually assigned in Santa Rosa today. And

not only that, our ministry work grew in that area,

it multiplied in three locations, and now not only that

is in charge of Santa Ross is actually going around

our different eighteen locations training our different campus directors how

to be effective campus missionaries. What I learned about doing

the work of God is that it's not about our ability,

but it's our willingness to respond to God's.

Ability that matters.

It's not about us, It's about the power of the

Holy space. It's not how good you are, but how

willing you are to be used by God. How many

of you here you're willing to be used by God.

I have an encouragement for you today. What is your weakness?

The Bible says, My grace is sufficient for you, and

My power is.

Made perfect for your witness.

Last thing I wanted to talk about as we end

is the word witness.

He said you. It's talking to you.

Whether you are in church for just a month, whether

you're you have the title of a victory group leader

or not, God is calling you. God is talking to you,

and God is telling you you have power to witness.

A witness in English is somebody who testify dynama, court

room drama. There may man the testimony, mana and crimen.

We have the opportunity to go to Taiwan.

Last month.

Last month about this month, it was ten years in

the making.

Sin the pastor Larry.

They'd been talking Sabinella some pung Ta Na Tayahu plantinum

church Sanam karanaim Chansna out of the country together with

our wives after ten years.

Than Yarishano. First time for me to go to Taiwan.

I'd been to China. I'd been to Hong Kong, but

personal bias.

When they went to Taiwan, I enjoyed it so much,

even though I stayed there for three days.

Only.

When I came back, people are asking me, how's Taiwan?

And I told them about my experience, what I saw,

the food I ate grabbing ma street food, seventy pezus

fifty psa rap, so I was. I was convincing them,

try it, try it magabankan piece of air, go go,

because it's so bron you know what, I realize. We

speak boldly of the things we believe deeply. If you're

so convinced about something you talk about it, you can

help yourself. That's why if you're a Christian, and if

Jesus is everything to you, if Jesus is the love

of your life, no one will be able to stop

you from talking about him.

I mean, I'm a witness of this.

But you know, in the Bible, the word witness and

the original Greek word, it's not just about somebody who

testify about what he saw.

But in the Bible, the word.

Witness is someone who carries a message on behalf of another,

somebody who's willing to die for the message. I'm not

willing to die for the message of Taiwan. The witness

we're talking about here is somebody who's carrying a message

from someone that is willing.

To die for it. That's what happened to the disciples.

If you study church history, you will learn that the

disciples of Jesus, many of them suffered violent death for

the refusal of stopping to preach the gospel to people.

Peter was crucified upside down.

John was given a hot oil treatment.

Boiling water with oil. You have oil treatment, breach. They're

willing to die for the message.

Witness.

Are you a witness for Christ? Are you bold in

speaking about Jesus if we really have this relationship, if

you really experience Christ? I mean, how can I not

talk about Christ, the God who saved me, the God

who took me out from the mud, from the dark,

the God who helped me get out of my insecurity,

of my addiction, of my hopelessness. How can I stop

talking about Jesus, the God who died for me.

I can't.

I can't stop talking.

If you really experience Jesus, you will talk about him

with boldness greater than the boldness you have talking about

your business, or your hobby, or your travels or your.

Family witness for Christ.

You know, I'm reading this book right now by Pastorized Brooks.

The title of this book is The Human Right. And

I like this book so much because there are so

many people today who are passionate about different areas of justice,

of injustice, actually gender, race, classes.

Of people, the border issue in the US.

A lot of people are so passionate about different areas

of injustice today. They are pushing their agenda in Facebook.

A lot of people are becoming ambassador of these things.

But the question is what can really end in justice?

What is the solution?

What can be done to really stop the injustice that

we see? And if you think about it, the ultimate

solution is not a change in policy. The ultimate solution

is not change in leadership. The ultimate solution is not

change in our economy. The ultimate solution is change in

the hearts of people. Because even if we change the

environment and the external, if the hearts of people committing

injustice is not going to change, it's just going to

be cyclical. It's just going to repeat again and again.

The only person who asked the cure is Jesus, and

the ultimate solution for all the injustice we see is

the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news that Jesus

came died on the cross so that you and I

not only to be forgiven of our sins, but to

be set free from the power of sin. Only the

Gospel as the power to solve injustice and to deal

with it at its core.

That's the message that you and I have more than

anything we can do for this world. The greatest thing

we can do is bring the Gospel to people. If

you have the cure.

For a terminal disease, if you have the cure for

a disease that's killing people, would you keep it to yourself?

You know?

I like what Pastor I said. The ultimate human right

is for people to hear the Gospel. If we believe

that this is the way, the.

Truth and the life.

In retrospect, the ultimate injustice we can do is not

share the Gospel to the people around us. Can you

imagine par Make is dying and I have the cure,

but I did not share it.

I kept it to myself. That's in justice.

That's why he said the ultimate human right is the

right of every person to hear the gospel. We have

a message that can change not only the temporary situation

of people, but their eternal destiny. That's the message we proclaim,

you know, as I as we end, I'd like to

read secon Timothy chapter one, verse seven, and this is

Paul exhorting the belief. Verse he said, for God gave

us a spirit, not a fear, but a power, love

and self control. You know, there are three things that

hinders Christians. Not all these are not the only things

that hinder us, but the top three, in my opinion,

that hinders Christians from preaching the Gospel to others. One

is fear, what people will say to them, panapa if

I feel fear. Second is shame, what if they know

about my past? What if they know about my struggle?

But we learned earlier that our struggle is actually a

platform for us to testify about the power of Christ

to use imperfect people like you and me. And third

is the unwillingness to suffer. People are avoiding inconvenience. People

today are doing everything they can to avoid pain. A

Yomah hassel. Selfishness is hindering the gospel from moving forward.

But I like what Paul said, we did not receive

a spirit of fear. We're not supposed to be paralyzed

by fear people's opinion. We are not supposed to be

held hostage by fear, he said. But we receive power.

Love.

God loves you regardless of your past. God is so

in love with you, and that's all that matters. And

we're given the power to control, deny ourselves, die to

ourselves every day so that we can sacrifice so that

more people can know Jesus.

Amen.

You just sort of mess from Victory. For more messages

like these or to access of the resources, please visit

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God bless you all.