EMPOWERED
Today I’m going to help you feel empowered!
You might say, Woah! Me? Empowered? I don’t think so. That’s not me . . .
But please stay with me on this and don’t drift off.
Our series is “The Wellbeing of my soul” –
This is not about achieving great things for yourself
This is not about feeling good
This is about being empowered to do something of value, of purpose, of benefit to God! Yes – you and I can do something of benefit to God. Amazing isn’t it? You better say, “Yes” because I truly believe our Heavenly Father has a task, a purpose for each of us. It maybe big, it maybe small, but He wants us to carry it out. Remember this series is about spiritual, not physical wellbeing. And for our spiritual wellbeing, we are to feel spiritually empowered to carry out what God has in His plan for us.
Do you feel spiritually empowered? For the “Wellbeing of your soul”, you and I really need to know the empowering of God’s Spirit. I started on this last week. You see, for the wellbeing of our soul, we need to sense the Holy Spirit in us – God in you!
There is a difference between being a follower of Jesus Christ,
And being an active ambassador of Jesus Christ.
If you want to see what I mean, we are going to look at two bible passages. So let look at the first:
Matthew 4
18 As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 19 ‘Come, follow me,’ Jesus said, ‘and I will send you out to fish for people.’ 20 At once they left their nets and followed him.
21 Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, 22 and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.
Who did Jesus first choose to be His disciples? Who were they?
Fishermen – a little business maybe, but rough round the edges guys
Tax collector - He would have acquired some education and reputation to achieve this job. But he would not have been liked. “tax collectors and sinners” was often a collective phrase used. You get it, right?
Simon was known as the Zealot, not strictly a profession, but Zealots engaged in politics and anarchy, attempting to overthrow the Roman government.
Judas served as the treasurer in Jesus' band, and John 12:4-6 identifies him as a thief and an embezzler.
Thomas we may wrongly nick-name the doubter; but for sure he wasn’t exactly empowered.
The others we know less about.
We know that nearly all ran away at Jesus arrest! They weren’t strong enough to stand with Jesus when he was up against it – even though Christ had clearly taught them what would happen to Him in Jerusalem. When it happened, they weren’t prepared to be strong for Him.
What am I saying?......
Jesus could have chosen great leaders, amazing teachers, educated men to have around Him, BUT HE DIDN’T! He wanted us to remember 2000 years later that (1 Corinthians 1:27)
. . . God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.
So….. NEVER think (or say out loud) that “I’m just a ….. and God won’t use me for anything important.” Remember the twelve, remember that verse from 1 Cor. 1:27
God chooses what the world would class as the foolish things.
I’ll take that. The idea that God could use me is foolish! But has he?
And God wants to choose you! Yes, I know it seems foolish, but that’s how God works!
Just days after Peter had fallen asleep at the most crucial moment in Jesus ministry. Days after Peter, cut off a guy’s ear with a knife. Days after Peter had lied three times
Jesus walks with him along the sea shore and says, “I’ve got a big job for you Peter”
What???????!
Have we seen any real empowering in Peter, James, John and the rest up til now? They all seem pretty weak to me.
And so we turn to our second reading. You’re probably familiar with it:
And with it, we se a huge change from being “followers of Jesus Christ”….
to being ambassadors of Jesus Christ:
Acts 2
1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues[a] as the Spirit enabled them……
Peter addresses the crowd
14 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: ‘Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. 15 These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! 16 No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
17 ‘“In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.
18 Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they will prophesy.
It’s like these aren’t the same guys!
The difference is the Holy Spirit. He turns a follower of Jesus into an ambassador of Jesus.
Romans 8:26
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.
Who feels weak? [hand up]
You know those disciples felt weak too.
In deed they had shut themselves away. They were in Jerusalem – where Jesus had been arrested, falsely put on trial, beaten, nailed to a cross, and lots more. These guys felt weak and scared.
They had had 3 years with Jesus – in person! But they didn’t have the Holy Spirit.
Until that moment, they were a rather odd group of men who didn’t know what to do with themselves.
In Acts 1, Jesus final words to these weak, scared disciples were: Acts 1:8
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’
See what happened? It was just as Jesus promised.
They will be empowered, and THEN they would do great things.
They did do great things – really great things for the Kingdom of God. And they had to face all kinds of mountains to overcome. None of it should have been a surprise.
In Luke 12, Jesus had told them clearly: 11 ‘When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, 12 for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.’
From the Day of Pentecost, when the HS came into them, they knew the words to say. And we can have that experience too. We can be empowered to do great things for the Kingdom.
It’s just a matter of letting God use you to change the world. It’s about opening your life to allow God’s Spirit to work. And maybe that seems a bit scary to some. Maybe it is, but if you know that your heavenly Father loves you, and has given you His Spirit to equip and empower you – let go, and let God work through you.
The disciples really were a rag-tag group. They messed up, doubted, didn’t uinderstand, yet as the Holy Spirit moved in their lives, the church grew!
We are here today as a direct result of those humanly weak, spiritually empowered men.
So this morning, again, I ask you to open up your life – your very soul to the HS
In our weakness, we can become strong – empowered!!!!
Bow – hands open
Tune into the Lord
Tune into the HS within you
“May the weak say, “I am strong” – for you lord strengthen me.
You have something for me to do…
You have entrusted it to me. I don’t want to let you down, but I feel weak.
I ask your HS within me to empower me. Right now I open my life to Him. Fill me. Fill me. Fill me
I don’t just want to be a follower.
I want to be your ambassador – to represent you and serve you.
Lord, may your Breath come Breathe in me
