Sent By The Spirit

Well, good morning.

Welcome to Church of the Grove.

My name is Jonah Faulkner.

I am the student pastor here at Church of the Grove for our Warner Grove campus.

Russ and his family are out on, they went on vacation this weekend, so he is not here this morning, so I'm filling in for him.

And it's always a privilege, and um I'm excited about continuing our series through the familiar stranger as we just kind of dive deeper into scripture about who the Holy Spirit is, um, what his role is in our life, even kind of what his role is within the Trinity.

Um, and then this morning we're gonna kind of focus a little bit more rather than um the spirit's role in our lives, how the spirit uses us um to play a role in the lives of other people.

But before we get there, uh I want to talk about one of my favorite movies uh I had when I was growing up as a kid.

Has anyone seen the movie Like Mike?

Anybody?

Okay, okay, that's kind of what I was expecting, honestly.

It's it's a little bit of a niche movie, but it was one of my favorite movies growing up as a kid.

It's a basketball movie, it's got little bow wow in it.

Um, it's incredible.

If you haven't watched it, go watch it.

Seriously, it's a clean movie, it's great for families.

Your kids will love it, I promise.

So, any kids in the room, tell your parents you want to go watch Like Mike uh when you get home.

So, this movie, I I won't try to spoil um too much, but this movie it tells the story of a 13-year-old boy named Calvin Cambridge.

Um, Calvin is an orphan.

He he lives in an orphanage, and and the movie kind of opens up uh with him and his friends, uh, and and specifically Calvin starting to get a little bit discouraged about his future.

Um, his hopes of of getting adopted are kind of trending down.

Um he he's just really, really lost for what his purpose in life is going to be.

And one day his friends are hanging out in the courtyard and uh they they bring in a donation.

A donation gets made to the orphanage, um, and I don't know what they're called, the the mothers or whatever of the orphanage.

They they come in and they bring this box to Calvin and his friends, and there's a bunch of clothes in this box.

And in this box, Calvin comes across a pair of sneakers, of Air Jordan sneakers, and he looks at the shoes and notices that on the tongue it has the initials in Sharpie written MJ.

So him and all of his friends immediately start thinking, oh my gosh, could these shoes have belonged to Michael Jordan, the goat of basketball himself?

So eventually they come to realize that that these shoes did belong to him.

And long story short, through a series of events, he comes to realize that these shoes that he stumbled across gives him these special abilities to play basketball.

And he becomes like Mike.

That's kind of where the name of the movie comes from.

And eventually a professional basketball team uh in the movie, it was the Los Angeles Knights, they discover Calvin and his talent, and he kind of becomes the next big star of the NBA as a 13-year-old.

I mean, tiny, tiny little dude playing amongst grown men and doing everything that they can do.

He's dunking all over the place, he's making every shot uh that he takes.

But kind of the whole plot of this movie is that nobody else knows that all of his talent is coming from this pair of shoes that he discovered and came across.

And as the movie goes on, his magic shoes actually kind of end up getting destroyed, and after that, he goes from this NBA star to a 13-year-old boy playing in the NBA.

Uh, with all he has is just his natural um talent, and he becomes this boy amongst men.

Again, the movie has a great ending.

He ends up kind of getting adopted.

He still plays a little bit of a role in the team in a different capacity.

But what I want to really focus on, and kind of what kept Connie in my mind as I was preparing for this message is how all of his power and his ability and his talent to play basketball was found in these shoes.

And without these shoes and without wearing these shoes, he he wasn't anything special.

He was just another 13-year-old boy that had this dream of playing in the NBA.

But um he, you know, without the shoes, he could try his hardest, but his natural talent could only get him so far.

So again, this morning, as we continue our familiar stranger series, and we look at the person of the Holy Spirit and the power that he makes available, um, I think we're gonna see something a little similar to the story we see in Like Might.

Mainly that the Holy Spirit has given us incredible power to be witnesses and workers for the kingdom of God.

Meaning that the Holy Spirit has given us incredible power to labor for the kingdom of God and do things that will last for all of eternity.

Incredible things.

But apart from the Holy Spirit and the power that he makes available, we can do very little for the kingdom of God.

Meaning that in and of ourselves and the whatever talent we may hold, whatever characteristics that we may have, in and of ourselves, we can do very little.

But when we walk in the power of the Holy Spirit, God can use us to do extraordinary things that will make a difference for all of eternity.

Apart from the Holy Spirit, we are ineffective as witnesses and ambassadors of the gospel.

But when we walk in the power of the Spirit, everything changes.

And I'm not saying that the Spirit is, we talked about this a lot, I'm not saying that the Spirit is just this magical force that gives us all these crazy abilities or you know can make us dunk a basketball.

I've come to the grips, I will probably never dunk a basketball, and I'm okay with that.

Um, but you you know, you never know.

But I do believe that the Bible makes it clear that the Holy Spirit empowers us to do things that we cannot do within ourselves, including being a witness for the gospel, including being a light in a lost and broken world, including sharing the gospel with someone so that their eyes are open to the truth and the beauty of the person of Jesus.

So that being said, our big idea for this morning is that we are saved to be sent by the Spirit.

We are saved to be sent by the Spirit.

We are saved to live on mission, to be witnesses of the gospel, to tell people what Christ has done for us and has already done for them, whether they know it or not.

So I'm gonna pray for us and then we're gonna dive in uh to scripture.

Father, I um just thank you for a rainy morning and just a time that we get to gather together as your church, as your bride.

Um, I thank you for just a time of worship and um just a time to set worries to the side um and just fix our eyes on you.

And I just pray that as we open your word, God, that we would see the mission, the responsibility, um, the work that you have called us to to be to be witnesses of Jesus.

God, that we would understand the gravity and the seriousness of this call that God, you choose to use us to take the good news of the gospel to people who are lost and broken and without Christ.

And just pray that through the power of your spirit, that you would speak, you would open our eyes, God, that you would call us, lead us, compel us by the love of Christ.

So we love you and just ask you to draw near to us as we draw near to you and pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

All right.

So this morning we will be using Acts 1, 1 through 8 as kind of our main passage, and then after that, we're we're gonna talk through ways how the how the Bible teaches us that the Spirit gives us power to be witnesses to other people, to share the gospel of people in a meaningful way.

But first, we're gonna be in Acts 1, 1 through 8.

So the context of this passage, we actually spent some time here a couple weeks ago in this passage, but we're gonna kind of walk through it again.

But the context of this of Acts 1 is kind of this scene right before Jesus ascends back to heaven.

So he's already been crucified, bodily resurrected, and he's kind of back with his disciples, and this is where Acts 1 picks up.

Verse 1 says, I wrote the first narrative, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach.

And I can't spend a lot of time here, but I want everyone to underline, circle that word began.

That word began.

So if you don't know, Acts was written by Luke, who also wrote the Gospel of Luke.

For a long time, Luke and Acts was actually one book, and then they kind of got separated over time.

But so essentially what Luke is saying is he's writing this letter, this narrative to his friend Theophilus.

And he's referring, the first narrative he's referring to is the gospel of Luke.

And he's saying, Theophilus, the everything you just read about in the gospel that I just wrote to you is only the beginning of everything that Jesus is going to do and going to teach.

Meaning that, yes, the the work for salvation is finished, that we have victory in Christ, but he the work isn't quite done yet.

There's still more to be done.

So this is just the beginning.

And then he says, until the day he was taken up, after he had given instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen.

And after he had suffered, he also presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days, and speaking about the kingdom of God.

And then listen to verse 4.

It says, While he was with them, he commanded them to not leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the Father's promise, which he said, You have heard me speak about, for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit in a few days.

So this promise that they are supposed to wait on, he's referring to the Holy Spirit.

And when you read this passage, it it's kind of it's kind of interesting, especially in the context that we see it in.

Because when you look at the end of the Gospel of Matthew, we see something that's pr pretty well known.

We see the Great Commission.

And what is the Great Commission?

These kind of final words that Jesus tells his disciples.

What does he say?

Yeah, he says, Go, you go and you make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.

So at the end of Matthew, we see Jesus tell his disciples, you go.

You go and make disciples, you go and be witnesses.

But then here in Acts 1, we see you don't do anything.

You wait right here until the Holy Spirit has come.

Don't go anywhere.

Don't go anywhere.

You wait for the Holy Spirit.

So before Jesus ascends back to heaven, we see we essentially see him tell the disciples, you go, but you wait.

You go and make disciples, but you gotta wait on the Holy Spirit first.

You gotta wait for the Father's promise.

Your mission is to go and make disciples, but you have to wait on the promised Holy Spirit.

So why do you think Jesus tells his disciples to do this?

If if the mission is to go and make disciples, why has he told them that they gotta wait first?

It's because Jesus knows that they cannot fulfill this great commission that they have been given apart from the person and the power of the Holy Spirit.

That if they go out in and of themselves in their own talents and wisdom and their own experiences, their own power, that they will be very ineffective at making disciples, at being witnesses of the gospel.

Simply put, Jesus knew the mission he gave them was impossible apart from the power of the Holy Spirit.

We see Jesus in John 15 tell his disciples that to abide in him because apart from him that they can do nothing.

And Jesus meant that.

And now that he was ascending back to heaven and wasn't going to be with them physically, he knew that they needed his presence still.

In order to continue the work of Jesus, this work that Jesus began, the apostles needed the power of Jesus.

And this is why they were commanded to go and make disciples, but you gotta wait on the Holy Spirit first.

It keeps going in Acts 1.

It says, So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, are you restoring the kingdom to Israel at this time?

He said to them, It is not for you to know times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority, but you, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

As we kind of continue in the story, these verses show that the disciples still didn't quite understand what Jesus was commanding and calling them to do.

They still didn't quite understand what Jesus meant by go and make disciples, but wait on the Spirit.

They didn't quite grasp what the mission was.

And you can kind of see in their quick their question of Jesus when they say, Lord, are you, are you restoring the kingdom to Israel at this time, that they were still looking for Jesus to complete the work that he had started, all the work that we see in the gospels.

They were still looking for Jesus and waiting on Jesus to conquer the world, to take this message to the to the ends of the earth, to bring the restoration and redemption that God has promised to the people of Israel for thousands and thousands of years.

So they were asking Jesus what he was going to do next.

Still looking for Jesus to continue the work.

But this is when Jesus kind of redirects them and he places this responsibility of continuing his work on them.

The disciples asked, Lord, are you restoring the kingdom of Israel?

And Jesus simply responds by saying, That's not for you to know.

That's not for you to know, but you, you will receive power.

You will be my witnesses.

The Holy Spirit will empower you to continue the work that I have started.

The disciples were so focused on this final fulfillment and restoration of God's people that they failed to see what their responsibility was.

They failed to see what their role in all of this was.

They failed to see why Jesus called them to follow him and why they spent all these years being his disciples.

They failed to see that what Jesus had done was just the beginning and the story was still being written, and they now get to be a part of it.

Through the power of the Holy Spirit, the disciples were gonna go and be witnesses of all that Jesus began to do and teach.

By the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus was gonna use them to continue the work that he started until the gospel has reached the ends of the earth.

This is the command that Jesus gives his disciples in Acts 1.8.

But it's also the command that Jesus continues to give to his church today, that we are to go and be witnesses, that we are saved to be sent by the Spirit, that Christ has died for us, he rose from the dead again so that we could have life with him, but because of that, we are now sent out by the power of the Spirit to be witnesses and tell everybody else what Christ has done in our life.

And so often, just like the disciples, we can have the same mindset, the same mindset of just sitting around waiting for Jesus to come back, waiting for Jesus or the Father to complete all the work that he's promised to complete, and we just kind of sit back and wait for it to happen.

And we fail to see our mission, we fail to see our part in God's plan.

That Jesus has saved us and to send us out to be his witnesses by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And it is this component that we should look forward to and long for the day for Jesus to come back and be prepared for that.

But at the same time, that doesn't mean we just sit around and wait for it to happen.

Because God has given us a mission to continue the work that Christ has begun.

And sometimes we become so complacent in our faith, we become distracted by the worries and cares of the world.

We fall into this rut and routine of just going to church on Sunday and then leaving the rest of the work up to God or the professional Christians Monday through Saturday, and we just let them do all the work.

But this is when Jesus looks us in the eyes and says, You have received power.

You have received power by the Holy Spirit to be witnesses.

You are called to go to the lost and broken.

The story is still being written.

Everything Jesus did was just the beginning, and God's plan is still unfolding.

And me and you, we get to be a part of that.

We get to be a part of that.

God wants to use us to bring about this grand plan of redemption of humanity.

God wants to use us to reach the ends of the earth with the good news of the gospel.

So you have been saved to be sent by the Spirit.

And then the question becomes, where are you sent to be a witness?

And we go back to Acts 1.8.

We see Jesus says, You will she you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and all Judea and Samaria, and then to the ends of the earth.

And I don't think there's I don't think it's a coincidence that Jesus chose these places.

He didn't just randomly name off places.

He used Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and then the ends of the earth as examples of where the disciples were now sent to.

In Jerusalem, it kind of represents this home base, so to speak, for the disciples.

This is where they were currently at when Jesus told them all these things.

This is where most of um kind of kind of ministry happened while they were following Jesus.

This is where Jesus was betrayed, crucified, raised from the dead.

So Jesus is essentially telling them start where you're at.

Start where you're at.

Start with the people closest to you, physically, but also relationally.

Start with the people closest to you.

And then Judea, if you look at a map, was just kind of the larger region that Jerusalem was in.

For a lack of better words, Jerusalem, uh Jerusalem is kind of a city.

And if Jerusalem is a city, then Judea is kind of the county or the state that Jerusalem would have been in.

So it's this simple picture of the gospel just kind of rippling out.

The witness of Jesus just rippling out from the place that they were.

And then the importance of Samaria wasn't so much of its geographical location, but it was the relationship that Jews had with the people of Samaria.

Samaria would have been the last place the disciples would have gone to be witnesses for Jesus.

Samaritans were viewed as enemies.

It was a wasteland.

It wasn't worth time or attention.

So much so that the Jews would literally go around Samaria if they were traveling around it.

They would go around it instead of just going directly through it because they didn't want anything to do with the Samaritans, but Jesus is saying, No, you will go and be my witnesses to them.

And then to the ends of the earth kind of explains itself that we are sent by the Spirit into a lost and broken world, and we can't be satisfied until it has reached the ends of the earth.

Every corner, every crevice, every tribe, every nation, every culture, every ethnicity, whatever it may be, we cannot rest until the gospel has reached to the ends of the earth.

No one is excluded or out of reach of the gospel message.

So with all this being said, Jesus is kind of giving us a roadmap of where we are sent to be witnesses.

And a simple way to think about this is simply witness where you live, where you work, and where you play.

Witness where you live, where you work, and where you play.

We start with the people we do life with.

We start where we're at, with the people that we know.

We start with our family, with our brothers, our sisters, our parents, our kids.

We start with the people that we do life with.

We start with the community that we spend most of our time with and the friends that are closest to us, the people that we love and we care the most about.

And then we view our jobs not just as this place to clock in and make a paycheck, but an opportunity and a mission field to be the light of Christ, to be his witnesses.

We work in a way that points others to Jesus, and then we boldly proclaim that he is the Lord.

And we're bold about the things that he's done in our life, the way that he's changed our life, the way that he's brought breakthrough and victory into our lives, even to the people that we would least expect to respond or to listen to it.

And then we live on mission wherever and however else we feel the rest of our time throughout the day.

We're witnesses on the golf course, we're witnesses on the pickleball courts, we're witnesses at the ball field on Saturday mornings when we're watching our kids play.

Wherever we are, we understand that we have been sent and empowered by the Spirit to be witnesses of the gospel.

That Christ is dwelling within us and has given us this incredible responsibility to go and be his witnesses, his representatives, his ambassadors here on earth.

And it's it's always so encouraging to me when I see people who don't work in ministry, but they but they get this.

That they don't let their job or their occupation stop them from being a witness of the gospel.

It's so encouraging to see some of our students that that, yes, school has its good days and its bad days, and there's very few kids who really like going to school, but some of our students, they understand that their school it's a mission field.

That the classmates that they sit beside aren't just coincidence, but God has placed them beside somebody that that and and he wants them to be a witness of Jesus to them.

Our students get this.

Some of our teachers do the same.

It's so cool to see some of our teachers live kind of in boldness and know that there are some restrictions when it comes about talking about our faith with within the school and all these things, but at the same time, they live in a way that other kids and other teachers see the light of Christ in them.

One of my good friends, I'm in a Bible study with him every week.

His name's Kyle.

He works in the textile industry, he works in a plant.

Um, and and he he but at the same time, he is on fire for the gospel.

Jesus has rapture.

Changed his life and he doesn't care where he works.

He doesn't care where he's at.

He understands that the people around him need to know who Jesus is and need to know what Christ has done in his life.

And he says all the time that, you know, he says, you know, I don't I don't feel like I'm called to be a pastor, but that's okay because I work in a place that's full of lost and broken people that need the gospel.

That he is literally in the thick of it with people who need to know who Christ is.

And he views his job as an opportunity to be a witness of Jesus.

There's a quote I want to read from Tyler Staton when he kind of talks about what it looks like to live as witnesses of Jesus.

He says some use the term spirit-filled to refer to churches most active in their gathered worship, meaning what we would do here on Sunday mornings.

Communities enthusiastic in their praise, wild in their worship, and charismatic in their practice.

But maybe we've got it backwards.

Maybe the spirit-filled church is the one most active in their scattered worship.

The life of the Holy Spirit sends us out in power, commissioning us to live in this world in a way that spreads the truth of another world.

So what if we got it backwards in the sense that we want to be, I want Church of the Grow to be a church that is spirit-filled.

That the Spirit of God is working and he's active and he's taking over our lives, but that doesn't mean everything happens within this room.

It doesn't mean everything happens on Sunday morning.

If we are a spirit-filled church, then the Spirit of God is going to start working wherever else we are when we're not here.

The Spirit of God is going to work when we're at work, when we're at home with our families.

The Spirit of God is going to use us to be a church that worships while we're scattered, while we're not just here together.

And this is the command that Jesus is giving his disciples.

And he's now giving us that we are witnesses, and we are to take this good news of the gospel to the ends of the earth, and we're to walk in the power and the strength that the Holy Spirit gives us.

So we've covered what Jesus is telling us to do.

We've covered where Jesus is sending us out to.

And now we're going to spend the rest of this morning looking at how the Spirit gives us power to be his witnesses.

What does the Bible say?

And what does Jesus mean when he says that the Spirit will give us power to do these things?

The first thing is this the Spirit leads us and goes ahead of us.

The Spirit leads us and goes ahead of us.

Similar to kind of what we just talked about, sometimes we just we don't know where to start.

I mean, this great commission to go make disciples of all nations, to take the gospel to the ends of the earth, that's kind of a that's a big thing.

You know, that that can be really overwhelming when we see the big picture of what Christ has called us to do.

And we can start asking, I I don't even know where to start.

Who who do I start with?

But I've learned in that in in kind of throughout life is we simply just have to follow the Spirit's lead.

And he will lead us exactly to the people that need to hear about Jesus.

He will put us in situations that might seem like a coincidence, but they're not.

That's just God doing his thing.

It's God's hand moving and working in our life.

In Acts 8, we see the Spirit lead a guy named Philip to witness to this Ethiopian official.

I'm going to read the story real quick and we'll kind of look at how the Spirit is at work.

But as I read this, just look for the hand of the Spirit.

It says, An angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, get up and go south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.

This is the desert road.

So he got up and went, and there was an Ethiopian man.

He had come to worship in Jerusalem, and was sitting in his chariot on his way home, reading the prophet Isaiah aloud.

And the Spirit told Philip, Go and join that chariot.

And when Philip ran up to it, he heard him reading the prophet Isaiah and said, Do you understand what you're reading?

How can I, he said, unless someone guides me.

So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

And as we read the story, that the Spirit's guidance, and even the way that the Spirit is just one step ahead of Philip the whole way, is so evident.

I mean, that the Spirit literally tells Philip to go into the desert for this one guy.

And Philip had to be wondering, why are you sending me to the desert?

But he didn't ask any questions.

And Philip comes across this guy and was told to go and join his chariot.

Philip didn't ask questions, he just followed the Spirit's lead and trusted his power.

And as he followed the Spirit's lead, it is evident that the Holy Spirit was going before him.

That the Spirit had already gone ahead of Philip and started working in the Ethiopian's heart.

The guy literally welcomes Philip up into his chariot.

He was eager, he was, he, he, his, his heart was softened, his mind was open.

And Philip was able to share the gospel with him.

And later on in that story, the Ethiopian, he's baptized on the spot.

And I would venture to say that most of us at some point in our discipleship to Jesus, we have we have maybe felt this tug or had this moment in our life where we can almost hear God saying, Go, go and join.

Go and join that person.

Go and sit with that person.

Go, for using this metaphor, go and go and join his chariot.

Go sit with him.

Go go be with them.

This is the power of the Holy Spirit leading us and guiding us to be a witness.

This is the Spirit going ahead of us.

And all we got to do is listen and follow his lead.

And what I've noticed is that when I follow the Spirit's lead, he has already started working.

He's already gone ahead of me.

He's already started to soften someone's heart and gotten the harvest ready, just like kind of Jesus told his disciples that the harvest is ready, it is plentiful, but the laborers are few.

And our responsibility is just to lead where God is calling us because God is waiting on le laborers to send out into the field.

The Spirit is preparing the way for us.

We just have to look for how he is working and then just say yes to whoever or whatever he may be calling us to.

So the Spirit empowers us by leading us and going ahead of us.

But if we're being honest, if we've ever had this moment where the Spirit is telling us to go and join someone, go and talk to someone, go encourage someone, this is when doubt starts to creep in, right?

This is where the enemy starts to come back and speak lies and doubt into our minds.

And this leads us to the second way that the Spirit empowers us to be witnesses, that the Spirit speaks through us.

The Spirit speaks through us.

The most common doubt that people have when it comes to being a witness for Christ is just not knowing what to say, right?

Not knowing where to start.

Kind of the the same thing, not feeling like we we know uh all the all the Bible verses that we need to know or or know all the answers that we have to know.

We we start to doubt whether whether we can actually be a witness.

We allowed the fear of the unknown to keep us from kind of walking in obedience.

And if that's you when I want to encourage you that that you're not the only one, that that everyone has experienced that.

But scripture tells us that it's in these moments of weakness that the spirit starts to work.

That the spirit starts to speak through us.

In Matthew 10, right before Jesus sends out the twelve disciples for the first time, he kind of warns them of what they're up against.

He says that he's sending them out like um sheep among wolves, that they would be put in difficult situations, that they possibly they couldn't prepare for these things beforehand.

Meaning there's no way they can know all the answers, no way they can know all the scripture that they need to refer to.

But then he gives them this promise.

Matthew 10, 19 through 20, he says, But when they hand you over, don't worry about how or what you are to speak, for you will be given what to say at that hour, because it isn't you speaking.

That's so important for us to understand when it comes to us being witnesses of the gospel, that it is not us speaking, but it's the spirit of your father is speaking through you.

We are sent by the Spirit, and he will empower us and speak through us when we don't know what where to say.

When we don't know where to go, the Spirit will lead us.

When we don't know what to say, the Spirit will speak through us.

And when you live as a witness, the the Spirit of your Father is speaking through you.

So don't allow the unknown to keep you from following the Spirit's lead.

He will give you power, he will give you strength, and he will give you the words to say.

And then lastly, the Spirit works through us.

The Spirit works through us.

Along with worrying about what to say, a lot of times we worry really about how effective, how effective is our witness gonna be.

Is is my story or or what I'm about to say to someone, is it, is it, are they gonna get it?

Are are are they even gonna understand it?

Are they gonna respond to it?

Or are they gonna befriend me or or unfriend me or or whatever it may be?

We think to ourselves, how could God possibly use me?

Surely there is a better option, surely there's someone more qualified than me.

We think to ourselves, I cannot possibly be an effective witness for Jesus.

I can't possibly have a role in this plan that God has for his people.

And to some extent, that's it is true.

Going back to what we talked about at the beginning, apart from the Holy Spirit, you you are really ineffective.

Apart from the Holy Spirit, yeah, your witness doesn't have power, it doesn't have authority because in and of ourselves we we are nothing.

Paul says that that he plants apolish waters, but it is only God who gives the growth.

So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.

But this brings us back to the promise that we have been given us.

The promise of the Holy Spirit is that we are no longer alone.

That when we witness to someone, it's no longer just us.

The promise of the Holy Spirit is that the same power that raised Christ from the dead now lives within us.

So while we are nothing but an empty vessel, the power of the Holy Spirit works through us and works through our witness and speaks life where there is no life and brings light where there is no light.

And oftentimes it's in our weakness that the glory and the power of God is displayed the most.

It's in our weakness that the glory and the power of God is displayed the most.

And this is what Jesus is talking about when he promised the disciples that the Holy Spirit would give them power to be his witnesses, that the Holy Spirit would lead them, speak through them, work through them, that they are saved to be sent by the Spirit.

And the same is true for us.

That when we just say yes and we walk in boldness and we walk in faith that the Lord will use us in some way, then He will.

The Spirit will lead you, Spirit will go ahead of you, start softening hearts that need to be softened and in preparing the way, all we have to do is say yes.

And when we say yes, the Spirit will speak through you and He will work through you.

He will do things that you cannot do.

He will move in ways that will blow your mind, he will use you to speak life where there is no life, light where there is no light.

He will use you to be a witness of the gospel.

So our band's gonna come back up and kind of lead us in in worship.

And as we respond this morning, I just want us to consider how we can live sent out by the Spirit.

What is it, and it is personal, maybe maybe even as a family, but but what does it mean for you to live sent out by the Spirit?

It's asking yourself, what is it that God is calling you to?

And then how can you just walk in faith and obedience to that, resting and trusting and relying on the power of the Holy Spirit?

And like so many things in our discipleship to Jesus, the hurry of this world, it blinds us to what God is wanting to do in us, but also through us.

It blinds us to how God wants to use us for things that are that are bigger than the things of this earth.

Things that are eternal.

So I just want us to take a second to think and pray through a couple things.

So if you want to bow your head, close your eyes, whatever you need to do, to just kind of open your mind and your eyes to whatever it is that the Spirit wants to say to you this morning.

And first, I just want you to spend time listening for who and where the Spirit is leading you.

Just ask the Lord, God, who who are you, who are you leading me to?

Where are you leading me?

Where do you want me to go?

One really practical question that you could ask yourself is who's the person closest to you that is farthest from God?

Who is the person closest to you that is farthest from God and it's starting there?

Starting there.

Who is the person closest to you that you care about, that you love, that you long so desperately for them to understand and surrender to the truth of the gospel?

Who is the person closest to you but farthest from God?

And then pray that the Spirit would go ahead of you.

Pray that the Spirit would prepare the way so that you can be a witness to that person, be a witness to their life, their family.

And then maybe committing to pray for this person every day this week, praying for an opportunity to share the gospel, praying for an opportunity to be a witness to them.

And then as God opened doors and the Spirit leads you, it's just saying yes and walking in obedience.

And then, secondly, I want I want you to ask the Lord to give you the words to say.

To give you the words to say.

We didn't really talk about it much, but the beautiful thing about what Jesus commands his disciples and now commands us, he just tells them to go to go and be a witness.

A witness is just someone who has seen or heard something that they know is true and has impacted their life.

So when Jesus tells us to go and be his witness, he's not necessarily telling us that we have to go and and preach the entirety of scripture to someone.

He's telling us all we gotta do is just go and tell them about what Christ has done in our lives.

Tell them about the things that we have heard, the things that we have seen, the things that we know to be true because we have experienced them in some way, shape, or form.

So maybe it's asking the Lord or examining and looking back throughout your life at what the Lord has done in your own life that you can share with the people he leads you to.

How has the Lord saved you?

How has he brought redemption and victory in your life?

How have you seen his glory?

What is it that he wants you to witness and tell to someone else?

So as our band kind of continues to lead us in in worship, it's just spending spending time asking the Spirit, where are you leading me?

Who are you leading me to?

And what do you want me to say?

Where are you leading me?

Who are you leading me to?

And where do you want me to say?

God, we are so grateful for the gospel, grateful for the person of the Holy Spirit.

God, that you have not left us alone, but God, you you live and dwell within us.

The same power that rose Christ from the dead now dwells within us.

And I pray that by that power you would send us out to be witnesses.

God, that you would put people in our lives and allow us to cross paths with people just in a way that we know that you're leading us and that you're you're preparing the way, you're going ahead of us, and that we would be people who just say yes.

And we would be willing and bold enough to be witnesses for the gospel.

So, God, just pray that you would fill us with your spirit, give us power.

God, bring to mind the things that you've done in our life that we can just go and tell other people.

Things that we know are true because we've seen them, we've heard them, we've experienced them ourselves.

So I just pray that you would draw near to your people in this moment and just lead us wherever you want us to go.

We love you, and we pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.