Empowered By The Spirit

And full of life and energy as we uh jump into the first service of the morning.

If I didn't have the chance to meet you, my name is Nathan.

I'm one of the pastors here.

I'm typically down at our social circle campus, but uh Russ and I decided to switch today, so he's down there, and I get to be up here with you guys today as we continue our series called The Familiar Stranger, All on the Person of the Holy Spirit.

I'm excited about this morning and what we're going to be able to talk about together.

I don't know if many of you guys have heard the name John Wimber before, but he was a pastor back in the 70s and 80s, and he actually was the founder of the Vineyard movement, if you've heard of that before.

Um he was a rock musician before he came to know the Lord.

He was part of the Righteous Brothers, if you've heard of that group.

Um faith totally unchurched, totally no Bible background.

And so when he came to know the Lord, he began to read the Bible with fresh perspective, a fresh set of eyes.

And when he did that, he saw that Jesus was someone that was constantly doing miracles.

He was healing people, he was doing these incredible teachings, he was casting out demons, he was multiplying food, he was raising people from the dead.

And so John Wimber gets the courage one day to go up to one of the church leaders and he asks the church leader, hey, when do we get to do the stuff?

And the leader was confused and he said, What stuff?

And Wimber said, You know, the stuff that Jesus did, healing people, miracles, prophecy, the good stuff.

And the church leader looked back at Wimber and just said, Oh, we don't do that anymore.

We just do church stuff.

And Wimber famously said, You mean I gave up drugs for this.

Now, that line has stuck with me ever since I've read that story.

That they just do the church stuff.

We don't do the Jesus stuff anymore.

We believe that the Bible taught that Jesus did these miracles and that the early disciples and the early church did these amazing things for God, but yet in our modern American kind of culture, we oftentimes settle for less.

Like this is the best that there is.

It's easy for us to believe sometimes that miracles happened in the Bible, but do miracles still happen today?

Do we see people that are radically healed?

Do we see the supernatural, or do we just simply settle for the natural rather than looking and expecting and experiencing the supernatural?

And I think there's many reasons why we kind of settle for the natural rather than the supernatural, and I think it's part of a partially part of the enlightenment.

The enlightenment kind of taught that if you can't measure it, if you can't dissect it, if you can't prove it, then it's not real.

And when that's that kind of thought process has leaked into the church, and instead of us expecting God to oftentimes move in power, we just try to manage things, every everything on our own abilities.

We see we've lowered our expectations.

We say we believe God can do anything, and we would say that, but deep down we don't expect Him to.

We pray for healing, but secretly we think that those prayers will just bring some comfort rather than healing.

We read about prophecy in the New Testament, but we assume that that was just for the early church.

We talk about the Spirit's power, but oftentimes we act as if everything depends on our strengths and our abilities.

We've lowered our expectations, and as a result, we've lowered our experience of God.

And that's what I want to talk about this morning.

And my goal and my hope is that we'll expand our view of who the Spirit is and what he ultimately wants to do in and through you this morning.

If you're taking notes, this is the big idea that the Spirit empowers us to do what Jesus did.

The Spirit empowers us to do what Jesus did.

And one of the things that we've been praying in social circle throughout this series is a simple little prayer where we've asked the Holy Spirit to come, but we've also been praying this one phrase where we just said, God, if there's more, then I want it.

God, if there's more of you, if there's more to experience than what I'm currently experiencing, then I want it.

So I would love for us just to stop now, pray, and just ask for the Spirit to work and move in our midst.

So let's pray together.

Holy Spirit, Lord, we thank you so much for the opportunity to be able to gather in this room.

And what we say often here at church at the Grove is that we don't come to uh talk about you, but we come to meet with you.

And so, Lord, we believe that your spirit is with us, that you are actively working among us.

And so, Holy Spirit, would you come now?

Would you open up our eyes and our hearts and our minds to be able to hear your voice?

That we would be able to hear your truth spoken to us this morning.

And Lord, we just say that if there's more of you, if there's more than what we're experiencing right now, Lord, than we want it.

Would you take us to another level?

Would you move us forward in our relationship with you and experience a greater intimacy with you this morning because of our time here together?

And so come, Holy Spirit, be with us now.

In your name we pray.

Amen.

If you are just joining us, we're in the middle of the series called The Familiar Stranger, and we're talking about the person of the Holy Spirit.

And so, so far in this series, we've talked about how the Spirit is not a force, it's not like some Star Wars uh imperial kind of force that's out there that we experience, but rather the Holy Spirit is a person that we can know and love and follow.

He's also our constant companion.

He's with us wherever we go.

If we're a follower of Jesus, if we put our faith and our trust in him, if he's our Lord and Savior, then the Holy Spirit dwells within us and he goes with us wherever we go.

And last week we talked about how we can hear the voice of the Holy Spirit.

That's one of the key distinguishing factors of a follower of Jesus, is that we know his voice and we follow his voice and not the voice of the enemy.

And I've been so encouraged by so many people here in Wannack Grove and in Social Circle throughout this series, just sharing stories of how they've experienced the Holy Spirit in recent weeks.

And we're pressing in and we want to see more and more of that.

And so today it's all about being empowered by the Holy Spirit.

And that can be a controversial kind of message.

Some people have different backgrounds and different thoughts of how the Holy Spirit empowers, but I want us to kind of get a gr underlying kind of foundation so that we would expect God to maybe do more in our midst than he's currently doing.

And so the first thing we understand, if we're going to be a church that allows the Holy Spirit to empower us, we have to understand that there is first a promise of power.

There is a promise of power.

If you know the story of Acts, you know that it comes right after Jesus' life here on earth.

And so it's the continuation of the ministry that Jesus began.

So Jesus, he died on the cross, he rose again on the third day, he walked with his disciples for 40 days.

And then as he's about to leave to go and ascend to be with the Heavenly Father, he meets with His disciples and he tells them that they're going to do great works, but they need to wait.

And here's these disciples that have experienced these incredible miracles of God.

They've seen people healed firsthand.

They've seen Jesus literally come back from the dead.

They've experienced all of this.

And you can imagine that these disciples are eager to get out there and share the message of Jesus and the wonderful news of salvation that he has brought to the earth.

But Jesus is going to tell them to wait.

This is what he says in Acts chapter 1, verse 4.

Acts 1:4

Jesus says, While he was with them, he commanded them not to 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 when they came together, they asked him, Lord, are you restoring the kingdom of Israel at this time?

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

And so Jesus clearly tells these disciples that they need to wait for the Holy Spirit, that they need to wait for the Holy Spirit to come, because if they're going to go out and be the witnesses that they're called to be, then they're going to need to be empowered.

There's this promise of power that was to come.

The church was never meant to operate in our own human strategy or strength.

It was always birthed and fueled by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The word power that he says there is actually the Greek word dunymus.

It means dynamite.

That's where we get the word dynamite from.

And he's saying that this is a supernatural thing that is occurring.

Things are not brought about by human willpower, but rather by divine enablement.

That we have been given the Spirit to be able to operate and be empowered to do the things that God has called us to do.

And the number one thing that the Spirit is led leading us to do is to witness.

He says it right here, that you will be my witnesses.

The purpose of the power is that we would be witnesses of who Jesus is and what he is doing here on earth.

And we're going to come back and talk about that in a couple weeks, kind of how the spirit empowers us for mission.

And we're going to talk about some spiritual gifts and stuff next week.

But we've got to understand that the Spirit brings power.

Those things are great.

And the Spirit does do those things.

But the primary purpose of the Spirit given to us is so that we would be public witnesses for him, that we would carry out the mission that God has given to us, that we would begin and continue the works that Jesus did.

Francis Chan, he was a pastor in California and then a missionary all around the world, and I don't even know what he's doing now.

He's kind of a nomad just following the Holy Spirit.

But he said this in one of his books.

He said, I don't believe God wants me or any of his children to live in a way that makes sense from the world's perspective.

A way that I know I can manage.

I believe he is calling me and all of us to depend on him for living in a way that cannot be mimicked or forged.

He wants us to walk in step with his spirit rather than depend solely on the raw talent and knowledge he's given us.

I believe that that's true.

I don't believe the Holy Spirit was just given to the early church so that they could walk in power and authority.

But I believe that the Holy Spirit was given to you and I so that we can walk in power and authority.

Imagine for a second that there's a king in the Middle Ages.

You know, kings in the Middle Ages, you can think of torrents and castles and ladies in waiting and battles and kingdoms and glory, and the king was the most powerful person that was in the kingdom, right?

He was considered to be ordained by God, and he was greatly revered by everyone.

He had abundant wealth, he had numbers of servants, and what the king said was true was true.

That his word carried weight, his judgments were final.

And a good king understood that responsibility, and he would protect those who lived in the kingdom and the boundaries that were established.

He would pursue what was best in the best interest for the kingdom.

Now, this king would have tremendous power and extreme responsibility.

The king was given extraordinary power at times, even absolute power, that what he said always became the truth.

Now imagine though that a king comes into power and he's completely unaware of the power that has been put in his control, or he's rejected that power, what would happen to the kingdom?

Soon it would be conquered, its inhabitants enslaved, the resources would be confiscated.

It is not enough for the king to hold to the position as king.

He must perform the functions of the kingship that are only made possible by the power of his position.

So, in other words, the king's position of authority is of no effect if he doesn't wield the power that comes with it.

And here's what I want us to understand that you have been put in a position of power.

One of my biggest frustrations with modern American church members is that we don't walk in the power and the authority that we have been given.

You are a new, made a new into a new creation because of Christ.

You have been given the mind of Christ, that you are co-heirs with Christ, that you are ruling and reigning.

You are in his ambassadors here on this earth.

You are called to push back darkness and advance the church, and you have been given incredible power.

But sadly, so many of us don't wield the power that has been given to us.

It's not about just holding the position, but it's actually about doing something with the power that we have been given.

We must learn to operate in conjunction with the Spirit, to yield to his authority and his role in our lives.

The Spirit is given to us to empower the whole church for mission.

So there's a promise that's given.

Jesus says, wait until the Spirit comes, then go and live in power.

The Spirit was essential if the early church was going to make an impact in the world as they knew it.

In Acts chapter 2, we see the promise of that power fulfilled as the Holy Spirit actually comes.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

It says in verse 1, When the day of Pentecost had arrived, they were all together in one place.

Suddenly a sound like that of a violent rushing wind came from heaven, and it filled the whole house where they were staying.

They saw tongues like flames of fire that separated and rested on each one of them.

Then they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

So we see that the power was promised, but now here's the pro power of God through the Spirit poured out.

The disciples were waiting just like Jesus had said.

They're in the upper room and they're praying, and all of a sudden, this violent wind and tongues of fire fall.

They begin to speak in different languages.

This isn't just a really cool moment for them to experience, but rather these public signs become a witness to who God is.

It shows that they are walking and operating with power.

And Peter, the one that had denied Jesus, the one that failed to walk in boldness and obedience to Christ just a few weeks or months before, now stands up and begins to proclaim the message of God, empowered by the Holy Spirit.

And he quotes Joel chapter 2, which says that I will pour out my spirit.

Joel 2 · chapter mention

That was the message that Peter preached.

And as he did, the power of the Spirit began to work, and 3,000 people on day one of the church were saved and were baptized.

This incredible miracle.

And it didn't come because Peter was a great preacher.

It came because of the power of the Spirit.

And that's what we're called to live in that same way.

The Spirit didn't just give Peter and the other believers a little boost.

It wasn't just a little supercharge, but they were completely filled with his presence.

And as a result, power overflowed in their lives.

If you jump down to verse 43, it says, Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and signs were being performed through the apostles.

So the spirit empowers 120 believers, then 3,000 people are saved, and the spirit continues to work in their midst.

And this isn't just a one-time event, but it's an ongoing move of the Spirit.

And as you trace the Spirit's moving all throughout the book of Acts, you can see story after story of the Spirit moving in power.

In Acts chapter 3, you've got Peter and John, and they encounter a lame man that's sitting by the city gates, and he's begging for money.

Acts 3 · chapter mention

And Peter just looks at the guy and says, Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do give to you in the name of Jesus of Christ of Nazareth, walk.

And the man jumps up and begins to walk, weeping and praising God.

In Acts chapter 4, the disciples are being threatened, and they begin to pray.

Acts 4 · chapter mention

In Acts 4 29, it says, And now, Lord, consider their threats, and grant that your servants may speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand for healing, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of the Holy Servant Jesus.

When they had prayed, the place where they were assembled was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak the word of God boldly, the power of the Holy Spirit, working and moving in the church.

In Acts chapter 6, we meet a man named Stephen.

Acts 6 · chapter mention

Stephen is described as someone that is full of grace and power, that he's performing great wonders and the signs for all the people.

Philip in Acts chapter 8 is someone that did miracles and healings and deliverance begins to break out based on his work in Samaria.

Acts 8 · chapter mention

In Acts chapter 10, Peter preaches to the Gentiles, and as he's still preaching, the Holy Spirit begins to move and work, and the Gentiles begin to speak in tongues and praising God.

Acts 10 · chapter mention

The Holy Spirit was the source for the power of the early church.

You can't make sense of the early church without the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit was the driving force of the church.

We quoted this the first week of this series, but I love this quote from A.W.

Tozer.

He says, if the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the church today, 95% of what we do would go on and no one would know the difference.

If the Holy Spirit had been withdrawn from the New Testament church, 95% of what they did would stop and everyone would know the difference.

See, we've settled on our own power and our own strength instead of leaning and relying on the Spirit of God to empower us.

The early church was a church that was empowered by the Spirit, and as a result, the church and the message of Jesus spread like wildfire across the Roman Empire, and the world was drastically changed because there were people that were empowered by the Spirit, walking in the Spirit, relying on the Spirit's power in and through them.

Does our church look like that today?

Does your life look like that?

Why is it easier to believe sometimes that God moves like that in the past, but then somehow reconcile in our minds that God doesn't move like that now?

Do you believe that God still brings healing?

Do you believe that God still casts out demons?

Do you believe that God still does supernatural works in our midst?

Why does the church oftentimes fail in this?

Well, I think there's a number of reasons.

One, we've lowered our expectations.

Two, we've grown cautious, afraid of being disappointed or fearful or looking foolish.

And then there's, I think, this thing where we just learn to naturally explain things away.

But here's what I know, without a shadow of a doubt, what I'm convinced of.

Is that the same God that was working back then is the same God that is working now?

God does not change.

And he is working just as he worked then, he is working now in our day, in our time period, in our country, in our state, in this community, and in this church.

The early church was desperate, they were expectant, and they were willing to risk everything stepping out in faith.

And so we're gonna come back and we're gonna talk more in detail about what this looks like.

But today I just kind of want to give a setup, a foundation, kind of what the soil of the church should look like if we're gonna see the miracles of God persist in our community in our day.

So there's three things I want us to look at.

First thing is this desperation positions us.

Desperation positions us.

The early church was a church that was full of desperation.

Imagine for a second that their leader, their savior, the one that they have been putting their faith and trust in, has been murdered because of what he was saying and what he was doing.

And they're told to go and do the exact same things that Jesus was doing.

And so there's going to be a tremendous persecution.

They were getting in the same culture, the Roman Empire, the words that they spoke had incredible weight.

When they said Jesus was Lord, that wasn't just a saying that was kind of easily mentioned.

It was something that meant almost a death sentence.

It was a declaration of war against the Roman government.

But yet they were called to still go and do that.

And it was because they had this desperation that if the Spirit wasn't with them, if God wasn't moving in and through them, then there was no way that they were going to be carrying, carry on the mission that God had given them.

Think about healings, for example.

A lot of times when it comes to our world in our day today, it's very different from the early church.

In the early church, there was a constant awareness of need.

There were no hospitals, there was no antibiotics, there was no modern medicine.

And so if someone was sick or injured, their only hope really was divine intervention.

They had some other things that they did, but ultimately it came down to divine intervention.

And the people, we can see this all throughout the stories of the gospels, that people who struggled for decades would come to Jesus as kind of one last Hail Mary in order to maybe see God bring healing into their life.

They ultimately knew that if God didn't move, Then nothing would change.

In our world, we live in a very different culture.

Now, listen, I'm very thankful for medical breakthroughs.

I'm so thankful for the doctors and the nurses and the medicine that we have that can help treat diseases.

They are a gift to us.

They are a gift from God that is for our common grace.

But there is a downside with it as well.

That so often we can have so many safety nets that we don't have the same desperation that the early church did.

When someone is sick, our first instinct isn't to call on God, but oftentimes to call the doctor.

Now, again, I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with calling a doctor.

Please hear me in that.

But there it does reveal something deep down within us that we often trust in human solutions rather than divine power.

We were doing a community group leader training a couple weeks ago here at this campus, and Paul, one of our elders, was teaching part of the group.

And he went off curriculum.

If you know Paul, that's pretty standard.

And he was talking about this passage from James chapter 5.

James 5 · chapter mention

And he said, it says in James chapter 5, if anyone among you is sick, he should call the elders of the church, and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.

James 5 · chapter mention

The prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up.

If he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

And so Paul quoted that verse, and he said, You know, I've been an elder for almost an entire year now.

And he said, and there's been one person that has called upon the elders to come and to pray for them.

And he's like, and I know that there's a lot more that are sick.

There's a lot more that need healing.

Why?

is the question that he asked.

And that stuck with me.

Because I think that we lack oftentimes a sense of desperation or expectation that God's the one that's going to bring healing in our lives.

Peter and John weren't anti-medicine, but they were desperate for the Spirit's power.

Charles Spurgeon said, Without the Spirit of God, we can do nothing.

We are ships without wind, branches without sap, and like coals without fire, we are useless.

That's where desperation grows from.

Without God, we're powerless.

John 15, Jesus says the words, I am the vine, you are the branches, the one who remains in me, and I in him produces much fruit because you can do nothing without me.

Have we lost our sense of desperation?

Are we not desperate enough to ask?

Are we not desperate enough to pray?

Are we not desperate enough to take Jesus at his word?

Desperation is the soil where faith grows.

First mark of the spirit-empowered church is desperation.

And I believe that God wants us to become a church that is desperate.

Desperate for his presence, desperate for his move, desperate for him being in our midst, working and moving like only he can.

Second thing is this expectation prepares us.

Expectation prepares us.

The disciples were waiting expectantly in the upper room.

They were living and praying with expectation.

And then the Holy Spirit comes as a result.

In Mark chapter 11, Jesus says these words, and he says many other sentences or statements like this.

Mark 11 · chapter mention

In verse 22, Jesus replied to his disciples and he said, Have faith in God.

Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, be lifted up and thrown into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.

Therefore, I tell you, everything you pray and ask for, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

That's a pretty bold statement that Jesus makes.

If you have faith like a mountain, just pray it and believe that whatever you're praying, that he will hear you and answer that prayer.

He doesn't invite us to pray half-hearted prayers.

He's asking us to pray with expectation.

God is wants everything that we do to come from faith.

He wants this heart of expectation.

In fact, there's this issue with faith oftentimes in our lives, where faith and the lack of faith often limits what God does in our midst.

That's a statement that can be a little controversial depending on where you kind of fall on the map.

But in Mark chapter 6, verse 4, Jesus is going back to his hometown and he says, A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown, among his relatives and his household.

Mark 6:4

He was not able to do a miracle there except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them, and he was amazed at their unbelief.

So what does that message?

What does that ver those verses say?

It's saying that Jesus went to his hometown.

They didn't have any expectation for him to move.

He was just the carpenter's son.

They had seen him grow up.

They didn't have a whole lot of expectation for him to move.

And as a result, the scriptures say, not Nathan, the scriptures say, he was not able to do a miracle there.

He was amazed at their unbelief.

And so there's a correlation between faith and God moving.

There's a correlation between those things.

Somehow, unbelief limited the people from experiencing God and his miraculous moves.

That should sober us.

That our expectation matters.

Faith prepares the soil for God to move.

Hebrews 11:6 says that without faith, it is impossible to please God.

Hebrews 11:6

Faith is essential as we follow the Lord and work alongside Him to believe, bring His kingdom here on earth.

Now listen, faith is not a magic formula.

And miracles aren't a vending machine, that if you just have enough faith, then things are going to go the way that you want.

If anyone's ever told you that the reason that you didn't experience healing or you didn't experience God breaking through in your midst in some miraculous way, it's because you didn't have enough faith.

That's a very dangerous and wrong message to be sent.

However, there's a tension here to manage where we are called to have faith, and faith is powerful, and we want to be a church that leans in to faith, that we believe and expect God to move.

Jesus calls it mustard seed faith, that if we just have faith like a mustard seed, then we can see incredible things happen.

Expectation doesn't guarantee a specific outcome, but it does position us to see what God wants to do.

Do you believe?

Do you have an expectation?

When you come here on Sunday morning, do you expect God to move?

Do you expect God to speak?

Do you expect miracles to happen?

Desperation positions us, expectation prepares us, and finally risk releases us.

You've got to step out of the boat.

You can't just stay comfortable forever if you want to lead a life where the Holy Spirit is empowering you.

The early church wasn't just desperate, they weren't just expectant, but they were also a church that was willing to take risk.

And did they always get it right?

No.

Did they mess it up at times?

For sure.

Are there times that probably aren't recorded in Scripture where they asked for someone to be healed and they weren't healed?

I'm pretty sure that's probably the case.

But they still risked.

Peter and John standing there with the crippled man that we mentioned a second ago.

They just say, hey, get up and walk in the name of Jesus.

It required risk on their part.

What if the man didn't stand up?

What if he wasn't healed?

Would they look foolish?

Yes.

What if the man just sat there?

Would it be embarrassing?

Yeah.

But the reward required the risk.

Peter staked everything on the spirit working through him.

And as a result, the man jumped up, walked, and leaped, and praised God.

Faith always looks like risk.

Jordan Sang says, faith looks like risk.

It's an entire lifestyle built around taking risks on God's generosity because that's the best way to grow in trust.

Oftentimes I feel like when we pray, we don't pray the prayers that God tells us to pray.

You know, it's interesting that anytime we see Jesus telling for healing to take place, Jesus is saying healing's going to take place.

Anytime we see the disciples are that are healing people, they're not asking if it's God's will, but rather they're expecting God to move and they're willing to risk to see God move.

I feel like so often, I'm speaking for myself here, so often I can be guilty of going, God, you know, if it's your will for this person to be healed, and it's almost as if I'm giving God an out.

Like if God doesn't move, then I can have an excuse that maybe it wasn't his will.

And I don't see that in the pages of scripture.

We're called to pray with expectation.

Our kids, we have a saying at home, you know, there's the saying that says practice makes perfect.

And we uh vehemently deny that, because that's not true.

But we do say practice makes progress.

You don't quit riding a bike the first time that you fall.

You don't burn a dinner and then never cook again.

You don't leave a sport after fumbling or striking out once.

Growth requires failure, practice requires risk.

And for us as the church of God, we have to be willing to step out and risk.

Pray the bold prayers.

And if nothing happens, then what do we do?

We pray again, we ask again, we believe again.

And if nothing happens, what do we do?

We try again, we believe again, we have faith again.

We always should be people that are praying with expectation and faith, willing to risk everything to see God move on our behalf.

We're gonna talk about spiritual gifts next week, but I'm telling you, if you're gonna use the spiritual gift that the Spirit has given and empowered you with, it's going to require risk.

It's gonna require you to step out, to get out of your comfort zone, to pray prayers that maybe you normally wouldn't pray.

The Spirit was given to the church to empower us to do what Jesus did.

We aren't called to use our own strength.

We aren't called to use our own wisdom.

We are called to be empowered by the Spirit, living with Him, walking in Him, and allowing Him to flow in and through us.

Leonard Ravenhill has incredible books.

I would encourage you to check out, but this is one of the quotes from uh uh one of the books that I read.

It says, the early church was married to poverty, prisons, and persecutions.

Today the church is married to prosperity, personality, and popularity.

We need a baptism of fire.

So much of what we call church or the Christian life today could roll along without the Spirit's power.

But I want our church to be the church like Acts that was desperate, that was expectant, and that was willing to step out and risk.

Is that sum up your life?

If someone was looking into your life and how you walk and live on a daily basis, would they look into your life and say, man, there's someone that lives with a sense of desperation for God to move?

There's someone that lives with a sense of expectation that God's gonna do something supernatural in their midst.

There's a person that is willing to step out into risk, to risk their reputation, to risk looking foolish in order to follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit.

That's what I want our church to be.

I want us to be a people of God that see the miraculous happen all around us, but it's only going to come when we understand that the Spirit was given to empower us, and we need to have desperation, expectation, and risk.

And so one of the things that we're doing actually in a few weeks, November the 14th, it's a Friday night.

We're going to do a night of prayer and worship, and it's primarily going to be focused on healing.

We believe that God still heals.

We believe that God has given us commands to see that happen in our midst.

And so what we're going to do is we're just going to open the doors.

We've never done anything like this.

It's a little outside of our comfort zone, but we're willing to take risks.

And we're just inviting people to come.

If you need physical healing, come.

If you need some type of an emotional inner healing, come.

We just want to anoint you with oil.

We want to pray for you.

We want to see God break through in our midst.

We want to position ourselves to be people that are desperate, people that are expecting God to move, people that are willing to step out and risk.

And we're that's happening on November 14th, but at the same time, I don't believe that God wants some of us to wait until November 14th.

I think some people you came into the room this morning and you need God to touch you.

You need a special touch of the Spirit in your life.

You're walking through hardship.

You need God to move on your behalf.

You need financial provision, you need a healing of some physical kind or spiritual kind or emotional kind.

And here is the time, here is the moment for the church to actually practice what God has called us to be about.

The Spirit empowers us.

He empowers us to do what God has called us to do.

And so this morning, we're just going to simply go to the Spirit and we're just going to ask Him in desperation and expectation, and we're willing to risk this morning to see Him move on our behalf.

We're not going to pray polite prayers or half-hearted prayers, but we're going to pray bold prayers.

You know, the promise of Jesus that's always stuck out to me that's fascinating is in John 14, 12, which means a lot of things, but I think it includes this as well.

He says, Truly I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do.

For he will do even greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.

The Spirit empowers us to do what Jesus did.

And so we just say, Lord, if there's more, then I want it.

If you're somebody that isn't living with a desperation, man, pray for the Lord to give you a desperate heart.

If you're not living with an expectation, then help ask the Lord to increase your level of expectation.

If the Lord's calling you to risk and to step out in faith and to obey him in some area that's uncomfortable to you, then ask him for boldness.

Ask him for courage and allow the Spirit to empower you to do what only he can do.

The future of the church is not going to rest on personalities, it's not going to rest on great preaching.

It's not going to rest on beautifully orchestrated programs.

It's going to rest on the presence, the empowerment of the Spirit, working through everyday ordinary believers to see the supernatural occur.

And so let's just invite the Holy Spirit in now and respond to whatever He's calling you to do.

And so maybe with your hands open, your eyes closed, let's just ask, Holy Spirit, come.

We pray this at the beginning of the message, but Holy Spirit, we didn't come to meet about you, but we came to meet with you.

And so right now in our midst, Lord, would you come?

Lord, you have the power to speak to every single person.

You have the power to speak to every single heart and every single mind and every single soul in the room this morning.

You know exactly what we're going through.

You know exactly what we need.

And so, Lord, would you come right now?

Would you do what only you can do?

Lord, would you give us desperate hearts for you?

Where we just crave and yearn for more of your presence in our life.

If you don't come through, Lord, we're up the creek without a paddle.

Lord, we desperately need you.

Lord, would you increase our level of expectation, believing you for more?

That the Bible teaches that you've done miracles and you did miracles in the early church, but that didn't stop.

You're still doing that today.

And so raise our level of expectation.

Allow us to pray bold prayers.

Allow us to believe that you're doing greater things in our midst.

And Lord, let us be people of risk.

Let us step out in faith, get out of our comfort zone, do the hard things, become uncomfortable, Lord, because we want to be people that are obedient to what you're calling us to do.

And so in a minute, our band's gonna lead us in response, and we're just gonna sing a song, just this God of revival for us to experience Him on a new and a different level.

But for some of you here this morning, maybe you just need to step out.

You need to come forward.

You just need to have somebody put their hand on your shoulder and just pray for you.

Maybe it's physical healing or something that's going on just in your life, and you just need a special touch from the Lord.

Man, let this be a time when you risk, when you step out of your comfort zone, you come forward, and you allow the Holy Spirit to minister to you through other believers and sisters.

And so let's just sit here for just a moment.

Holy Spirit, would you come now?

Would you move in our midst?

We don't want to get beyond you, we don't want to miss you.

And so, Holy Spirit, would you just come now and allow us to be the people that you called us to be?

And so our band's just gonna lead us.

I'll be up front, Jonah will be up front.

Any of our other leaders that want to come forward, we would love to just be able to pray for you this morning and just ask for the Holy Spirit to move.

And so, Lord Jesus, would you come now as we respond to you and your call in our lives?

It's in your name we pray all this in the name of Jesus.

Amen.