Empowered to Live

A spirit as she sows into the children. The children

we have both online and face to face. So Father,

would you bless their time together with you in Jesus name. Amen,

Simon would just pray.

Kishi brandaraf We play for fresh fire for Dave now

this morning, fresh and nineteen.

Whither.

I'm saying that his word will go forth in power

that you speak today and they will not return to

him void, and they'll be like a ripple bouncing, bouncing, bouncing.

So it's not going to come back once, It's not

come back twice. It's going to keep coming back and

keep coming back and keep coming back.

Amen. Thanks, so the technology work the right way around.

I don't want my sermon upside Dan, you don't want

my sermon upside down.

There.

This month we've been looking at loving Eggham. Anybody love Eggham?

I mean, if you don't love Eggan, why are you

living here? You know, sometimes you end up in a

place that you don't particularly like just because of the

job that you have, or maybe something happens that means

you're in a house and you're there. You know that

you're there for a season, but you know, once you

know that you know that you know you're here for

a while, You've got to reconcile in your spirit about

loving to be here. You know, there may be things

we don't like, like waiting at level crossings, But do

you know what one of the things that happened that

love Eggham as we gave away pastries was every time

the barriers came down, our focus changed from the people

who are getting onto the train to the people who

were waiting at the level crossing. And there was a

wonderful moment when Lydia, who was part of Saint John's

she had a tray full of pastries and a bus

pulled up in the queue to wait for the level crossing,

and as she and others had done, they all went

up to the cars with pastries and said would you

like a pastry? And then people would say why are

you giving away free pastries? And she went to the bus,

I think, expecting the bus driver just to open the

door and say, oh, I'll have a pastry. But the

bus driver opened the door and said come in. So

she walked all the way up and down the bus

and save pastries to complete strangers. So you know, waiting

at the level crossing can be a blessing. We showed that.

So we need to learn to love Eggham. We need

to learn to love our places where we work. If

you sense God has placed you where you work, then

learn to love it because God wants you there for

a reason. And if you don't know why you're there,

because sometimes we end up somewhere, I think, God, why

on earth them I hear? What am I doing? I

don't see the fruit of that. You might have heard

of a guy called Steve Chalk. Steve Chalk once ended

up just making a job, and his job was to

work in the warehouse, and he said many days he

would just end up sweeping or cleaning the floor of

the warehouse. But one of the things he learned to

do was every time he walked into the tea room

when he was into the office, when he saw people,

he'd always look them in the face and say, Hi,

how are you today. Now, by the time he left,

he knew everyone in the company. Everyone in the company,

and the CEO who said his farewell said, this man

has a way of connecting with people, and it was true.

It is true. He's got a way of connecting with people.

And I just want to say to you find out

why you're there, because then you can choose to love

it or not, but choose to enjoy it anyway. You know,

sometimes we find ourselves sitting on a train or sitting

somewhere where we think, why am I here? What am

I here for? What am I meant to be doing?

And sometimes we just need to close our eyes, close

our eyes and just see what God will say. Sorry,

my technology hang in a sec.

Too, clever, h.

Okay, let me get to what I want to share

about today. I want to talk about being empowered by

the spirit, building upon something that Letty shared was it

the week before last? Let's he and being filled with

the spirit. We need to be a life. We need

to leave a life that's full. You know, if we're

full of something, we're a bit like a sponge were.

If we're dry and crusty, and some of our so

dry and crossly from time to time, then we're not

very good at absorbing stuff. But you know, if you've

got a dry and crusty sponge that won't absorb any water,

you know, the kind of one you just put it

it's been out in the sun. When you put it

on top of the water, it floats until something starts

to seep in, and then it starts to And if

you want to get to soak water in quick quickly

you squeeze it and it sucks the water in. And

then what happens when you squeeze it again? The water

comes out. What are we full of when we get squeezed?

What comes out when we're under pressure? What happens? I

want to speak about living a life lead and filled

by the Spirit. Acts Chapter one, verse eight says this,

but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes

on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem

and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of

the earth. Firstly, it's just notice how many us there

are in this. There's three us in this one single sentence.

Three you. So it's talking about us. It's talking to us.

I know they were talking to the early church and

talking the disciples. But you will, and it's a very

you will receive the Holy Spirit when it comes upon you.

You will see power. Why so that you will be

witnesses too. You will have declared something of what you

have seen the Holy Spirit do. And here's the thing.

You might read this as to the disciples, to the

Early Church, to Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria, and to

the ends of the earth. Or you could take it

and let's let's expand this for Egham wherever you live,

wherever that is, so Egham stains Runnymead or Surrey, and

to the ends of the earth. That all means we

all need to go every part of the world. But

when you find yourself somewhere else Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Uganda, Ghana,

when you find yourself in one of these other places,

I'm still in touch with the Holy Spirit. I haven't

left him behind. I believe that we see powerless lives.

If you've ever had a torch that the batteries are

dying and you come to switch it on and you

can see the bulb start to flicker. If you've got

ordinary batteries, you need to take the batteries out and

change them. If you've got rechargeable batteries, you need to

recharge them. Jesus loves the church. He loves this church.

He loves the church, and he wants us to act

in boldness, with direction and having impact. Why because he

wants us to be full of souper natural strength. Jesus

did not leave us, He did not leave the disciples alone.

He promised the Holy Spirit not just to comfort us,

but to empower us. There is a promise in power.

If you get a battery and you read on the

side of the battery, or promise the kind of level

of power that you will get out of that battery.

If you put the wrong battery in the wrong place,

it doesn't work, it's not got the right power levels.

There is a promise of power. Look twenty four forty

nine and behold, I am sending the promise of my

father upon you. But stay in the city until you

are clothed with power from on high. Sometimes we need

to wait for the power to come. If you've ever

lived in a part of the world where the power

is uncertain, places in India, places in Africa, places around

the world where the electric goes off. If you live

in a tower block where your water is powered by electricity,

then do you know what happens when the electricity goes off?

You fill your bath. Sounds like a crazy thing, but

you fill your bath so that when the water electricity

goes off, you've still got water to boil the kettle

and wash your face. Sometimes there's a time when we

need to top up and fill up and be ready

for when we need to walk in disconnected power. I

don't mean we've left God, but we are carrying his

power because He promises power from on high. Being a

Christian is not just a theology. It's a power filled

life because of Jesus, but also because of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is not an optional extra. It's not

something you sign up to and say, oh, well, maybe

I'll tell you. It's a very much a fulfilling part

of our lives. It's the essential presence of God in

our lives. Day by day. Jesus, God Father, God, empowers

us by his Holy Spirit to live a life differently.

Romans eight, verse eleven says this, and if the spirit

of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living

in you, who raise Christ from the dead, will also

give life to our mortal bodies. What does that mean?

The spirit empowers us to live victoriously over sin. The

price has been paid for our sins over fear and discouragement.

Now people love to discourage people. You might not think it,

but actually criticism is something that readily comes out of

mouths praise less so common. He renews our hearts. He

gives us strength when we're weak, and he enables us

to live a holy life. He ever felt weak, ever

felt not able to do something, do you know what?

Those are? The times when we can lean into God.

We can lean on God and say, Lord, I can't

do this, help me. And I've told this story before,

but I'm going to tell it again. As a church

in bonnas Ferry, which is in Montana, Western USA, part

of the Life Links group of churches, and I was

in a service I was speaking at and a lady

came forward to give a testimony, and she gave a

testimony that her husband that particular, yes the previous day,

So I was in church to following day. The previous day,

he was working on his car. He was someone who

knew about mechanics, so he'd rolled his car up and

he'd jacked it up on some of those jacks, and

then he was underneath the car working on his drive

and one of the bolts was really stuck, so he

was levering on the on the wrench to try and

get the bolt undone. The car started to wobble and

the car fell off the off the stands onto his chest.

He was underneath the car, and he was screaming out,

help me, help me, help me. Now. I don't know

whether you know America, but off the American houses have

big gardens, and that you know, everybody goes everywhere by car,

so you rarely have people walking down the street. Anyway,

His wife heard him screaming, came rushing out, and she

just she was she was about this tool. She she

she came out and she she she tried to lift

the car. She was trying to do some just she

felt the car move a little bit, but not enough

to actually her husband to get out, and she's cried out,

Lord help me, And she said, to this day, I

don't know whether an angel came and lifted the car

or whether God gave me supernatural strength. But the car

lifted up just enough for her husband to wriggle out,

and he got a bruised chest, but no broken bones

at all, you know, And she said, you know what,

in my weakness, God gave me strength. Her husband was

at home. He'd been to the hospital and he was

told to take bed rest, and he wasn't in church

that particular Sunday. He was in church the following Sunday.

But you know what, in our weakness, if we cry

out to God, he will give us strength. He will

also help us with our speech. You know, the average

person has, i'm told, a vocabulary of about twenty thousand words.

Someone like Stephen Frye, I'm told, has something like eighty

thousand words. You know. He seemed to come out with

words that I've never even heard of. But the Holy

Spirit can give you words, can remind you of Scripture.

One of the reasons I give you a memory verse

every Sunday is because I want you to feed yourself

with something that may come out again in the future.

Terry Waite, known as the two meter Man. I met

him when I was at University down in Bathroomship where

Julie or I met. He was speaking in the mission

down there, and I remember him talking about on this

particular mission, he talked about how the scriptures that he'd

memorized carried him through his time in prison. He said

there were scriptures that he didn't even realize were inside

his head. Maybe they weren't, maybe you got injected some them. Well,

I don't know, but he said, I just gave thanks

to Sunday School. He said, sometimes I'd remember an old

Sunday school song and that Sunday School song would remind

me about a scripture that I had forgotten. But it

came to me again and became as an encouragement. God

enables us and his Holy Spirit gives us power to

speak boldly. And that's not just about the words that

we use, it's the way that we say them. We

had the privilege of leading the youth here at Rasif

for many years, and I remember taking a group of

young people to a meeting on the way to Twickenham,

and I remember one of our young people, who was

very scientific, turned to me and said, Dave, I don't

believe what this guy's saying. John Noble was speaking as

she said, I don't believe what he's saying, but he

says it with such confidence and with such truth that

I can't deny the truth of what he's saying. It

was an enigma to her, you know, and sometimes God

will cause us to be an enigma to other people,

because He gives us boldness to share the good news

of the Gospel, not with arrogance, but with confidence and love.

You know, many people are silent not because of their

lack of faith, but because of the lack of the

filling of the Holy Spirit. We need to speak with

boldness and confidence. The Holy Spirit also empower us to

serve and to minister to others. In one Corinthians twelve,

verses four to seven, it says that I'm going to

summarize just a bit of it. Actually, let me read

it all. There are different kinds of gifts, but the

same spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service,

but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working,

but in all of them, and in everyone, it is

the same God at work. Now to each one. The

manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.

There are different kinds of Spirits distributes them differently, and

the manifestations are different. Our God empowers us with spiritual gifts,

not for our glory, but for His purpose. If God

gives you a word of wisdom, if God gives you

a word of knowledge, if God gives you a word

of prophecy, it's all about Him. And one of the

things we can say about a prophetic word will be

A prophetic word is to comfort, exalt, and and support.

The Spirit empowers us not just for for purpose, but

also for teaching, for healing, for leading, for encouraging. The

Holy Spirit equips us to minister others effectively. The Holy

Spirit also empowers us to overcome the enemy. There is

a battle. We can't deny there is a battle going on.

We know. The end of pause letter to the Dephesians

talks about putting on the full armor of God, and

towards the end of that, in Ephesians six, verse ten

to twelve, it says this, finally, finally be strong in

the Lord and in his mighty power, put on the

full armor of God. We are in a spiritual battle.

We can't deny that anybody had a battle this week.

Anybody had a bit of skirmish about something. Only a couple, okay.

I mean saying you're in a battle is not omitting failure.

Sometimes people go, I don't want to admit I'm in

a battle. You know. Sometimes I'm just going to put

my little finger up. Yeah, I'm in a little battle.

We're all in a battle. The enemy does not want

you to progress. The enemy does not want you to succeed.

The enemy does not want the Gospel to go out.

The enemy does not want God's love to be shown

through you. So in many simple things there will be

a battle, and in that battle, our strength should not

come from ourselves. It needs to come from the Spirit.

We need to have titanium strengtheness, spiritual titanium strengtheness that

will enable us to stand. The Spirit helps us to

resist temptation. Notice I say resist temptation, not avoid temptation.

We are all likely to be tempted today at some point,

to be angry, to be cross, to overstep the mark.

You know, I could keep on going, but I do

not want to. I don't do not want to condemn.

I want to encourage and convict. So the Holy Spirit

enables us to resist temptation. So when temptation comes, we're

able to go, oh not for me today, thank you

very much, or I choose to do something else. The

Holy sp it enables us to stand firm. As we

read further on in Ephesians, stand firm, and it talks

about standing two or three times in that particular scripture.

So then stand Standing is a positive thing. Did you

know standing is good for you? For anybody who sits

down all day at a desk, let me encourage you

to stand up from time to time to get up

and walk around, take a break. Post COVID. One of

the things that's been a real challenge has not just

been circulation, but the ability to stretch, the ability posture

has circulation, All of those things have been impacted. So

let me encourage you however you want to do it.

Set an alarm, set a trigger, get up from your desk,

walk away from your screen, do something different for five minutes.

It's okay. One of the problems we're working at home

is that we become our own boss and we're in

charge what we do, and therefore I must finish this.

Oh now, I'll just do this, And suddenly we realize

we've been sitting at the desk for two hours and

we haven't moved. It's not good for us. And why

am I bringing that in the sermon? Because in those

five minutes, when you get up and you walk away

from your desk, you can pray for two minutes, you

can make a coffee, you know, and whilst you're making

the coffee, you can pray. You can hang your washing out.

All those beautiful things that you can do that you

couldn't do when you were working away from home. Enables

us to stand firm, enables us. The Holy Spirit enables

us to pray with authority. What do I mean by that?

Because we're not just praying in our own words, in

our own way. We are asking the Holy Spirit to

help us, to enable us and to speak with clarity

and strength. This is something we should These are the

things that we should do on a daily base. Let

me go back and just review some of these. Then

there is a promise of power. We should be filled

on a daily basis. We should live differently on a

daily basis. We should speak powerfully and boldly on a

daily basis. We should serve and minister to one another

on a daily basis. We should overcome the enemy. We

should win a battle. We should raise a flag, we

should raise a victory cry on a daily basis. Because

being filled with the spirit is not a one time event,

Scripture talks about continually being filled and being continually filled needs.

We need to put ourselves under the tap on a

continual basis. If you've ever used a watering can that

has leaks, you know you have to take it back

to the tap and fit it up again. Then, and

we're all leaky people. We're all leaky people. Because we're

leaky people, we leave a mess behind us, or we

also leave a blessing. So my challenge to us today

is are you filled with the Spirit today? Are you

walking in His power? Or are we walking in our

own strength. I'm just going to pause and allow you

to think for a few moments. I'd like you to

think about some different areas of your week at home,

at work, where you like to spend leisure time and

pleasure time with family, maybe a couple of other places

you want to think about as well. Just think about.

Just go on a guided tour. Just close your eyes

for a few minutes and go on a guided tour

of your week. Where are you going to spend your

time this week? Who are you going to spend your

time with? And are you taking the Holy Spirit with you?

Are you going to leave impact in the suitcase back home?

We need the Holy Spirit with us every day. Sometimes

the Holy Spirit will cause us to see things differently.

Sometimes the Holy Spirit will cause us to respond differently,

a spiritual response rather than a fleshly response. Only this week,

I was on a team's call, and on the call,

somebody was getting fairly heated and started pointing their finger

at me on the screen and saying you need to

do this, you need to do that, And my fleshly

response was no, I don't. I wasn't asked to do that.

It's not my job. I took a deep breath, said

Lord help me, and just had this phrase leap into

my mind. Say, that's an interesting perspective. I'd never thought

about it from that point of view. And then somebody

else who was part of the team said, no, that

wasn't Dave's job. We didn't ask him to do that.

And suddenly it moved from a finger pointing at me

to a finger pointing back to the team or asking

me to do something. Thank you Lord, because I could

have so easily stepped up in the flesh and said, no,

where are you going to spend your week? Where are

you going to spend your time? Are you going to

take the Holy Spirit with you? So are we walking

in His power or in our own strength? I'm going

to pray in a moment, but I want to give

you a final scripture to really to hang some of

this on. It's from Zechariah chapter four, verse six, and

it says this not by might nor by power, but

by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty. So you've just

taken yourself on a guided tour. Maybe one of those places,

or more than one of those places, you need to

do it less in your own strength and more with

God's help. I'm not suggesting everywhere. I'm just suggesting maybe.

And if that's you, would you stand where you are

back home or those who are listing online, if that's you,

if there's a place in your week ahead where you

really need to do it less of me, less of

me and more of God. It might be work. It

might be the way you relate to some of your family,

might be some one of your neighbors you've fallen out with.

Might be something you need to say and you've never

got around to saying it. There's a time when you

need boldness, isn't it. There's something on your to do

list that's been on your to do list for ten

weeks or more. Maybe you need a help of the

Holy Spirit to make it happen. Father God, we stand

before you right now. Father, we're not quite full. We

need more of you. We need more of your Holy

Spirit at work in our lives. We need more of

your Holy Spirit at work in every dimension of who

we are. Father, I pray for testimonies and stories of

what you've done this week, when you've enabled us to

do something we couldn't do in our own strength. So, Father,

would you fill us afresh right now with your Holy Spirit.

Would you empower us to live, to speak, and to

serve in your strength weither help us to recognize when

we're doing it on our own, and help us to

look up and ask of the Father. And as we

ask of the Father, the Holy Spirit will come and

empower and enable us in Jesus's name. So we can

say not by might nor by power, but by your spirit,

says Father God, Almighty Amen.