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Empowered by Whom? Sermon · Beyond the Sermon

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You're listening to Beyond the Sermon, the podcast of First
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Methodist Church in Collingswood, NJ.
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On our podcast, the goal is not just to share the sermons we've
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preached, but to go beyond the sermon and talk about what we're
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learning and what God is doing in US and in our community.
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You can find more information about our church at
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fumccollingswood.org. Thanks for listening.
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Well, here we are getting ready to start a brand new sermon
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series. I know, I'm excited.
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I know Scott's excited. But first, our scripture for
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this morning is taken from the book of Acts chapter 1, verses
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one through 12. In my former book Theophilus, I
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wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day
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he was taken up to heaven. After giving instructions
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through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen after his
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suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing
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proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a
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period of 40 days and spoke about the Kingdom of God.
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On one occasion while he was eating with them, he gave them
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this command. Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait
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for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak
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about. For John baptized with water,
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but it in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.
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Then they gathered around him and asked him, Lord, are you at
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this time going to restore the Kingdom to Israel?
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He said to them, It is not for you to know the times or dates
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the Father has set by His own authority, but you will receive
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power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my
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witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to
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the ends of the earth. After this.
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After He said this, He was taken up before their very eyes, and a
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cloud hid Him from their sight. They were looking intently up
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into the sky as He was going, when suddenly two men dressed in
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white stood beside them. Men of Galilee, they said, Why
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do you stand here looking into the sky?
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The same Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven will
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come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven.
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Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called
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Mount, the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day walk from the city.
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This is the word of God for the people of God.
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Thanks be to God, Amen. Would you pray with me before we
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get started this morning? Almighty God, to you, all hearts
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are open, all desires are known, and from you no secrets are
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hidden. Would you cleanse the thoughts
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of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may
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perfectly love you and worthily magnify Your Holy name.
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We pray this through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
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Well, as a dad of four boys, the idea of superheroes has been
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prevalent in our household. It's been a fixture in our
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household. Different superheroes have
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featured at different stages, depending on what shows they're
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maybe watching or what movies have come out.
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And, and no matter, you know, what age our boys have been,
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there's always been some superhero they've been talking
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about. And, and regardless of which
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superhero is kind of the flavor of the week, it seems to me that
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all of them, all of them share at least three things in common,
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right? Three things that are kind of
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part of of the mythology of superheroes, right?
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Even if it looks a little different in each hero's story.
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And Please note, I'm speaking pretty generally here.
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You don't have to come up to me after the service and give me
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examples that don't fit the pattern that I'm giving you.
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That's OK. Looking at you, Benjamin.
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But three things you ready for them #1 common thing that all
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superhero stories have superpowers, right?
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To be a superhero, you need to have super powers.
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It could be super strength or blinding speed.
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It could be the ability to climb walls and sling webs or
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intelligence that enables you to create arc reactors and super
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suits and those kind of things. But to be a superhero, you need
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some kind of superpower, right? All right, that's the first
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thing. Second thing that is common to
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all superheroes is an origin story.
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An origin story. The story that tells how this
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person came to possess the power they have and how they decided
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to use that and or how they were awakened to this power that was
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latent within them. You know?
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So Peter Parker is bitten by a radioactive spider while on a
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high school field trip and he becomes spider man, right?
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Steve Rogers is injected with super serum and he's transformed
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from a runty army cadet into Captain America.
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OK, you guys are passing the test already, good job.
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Bruce Wayne watches his parents get robbed and murdered in the
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street and he grows up to become Batman.
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Good job, good job. The list goes on and on, but a
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significant part of superhero lore is their origin story of
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how they became who they were. Third thing that superheroes
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tend to have in common is an alter ego, right?
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Who they are when they're not wearing the mask of their
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superhero persona. So Clark Kent steps in, steps
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into the phone booth, he takes off his glasses and he emerges
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as Superman. Bruce Banner gets angry and he
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transforms into the Hulk. Tony Stark puts on his suit and
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he becomes Iron Man Good job. We're trailing off there a
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little bit. That's all right.
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Then with all these superheroes, there's there's a distinction
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between who they are as a superhero and who they are in
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their normal day-to-day lives, right as a distinction concealed
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behind a suit, a Cape, or a mask.
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Now, I imagine that I am not alone in daydreaming at some
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point about what it would be like to have a superpower or
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what superpower I would like to have.
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I don't know what what else it might entail for me, but I have
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always thought it would be amazing to be able to fly like
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Superman. All right, maybe maybe that's
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where my love for Hawks comes, watching them soar up there in
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the sky. But but what about you?
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Have you thought about it before?
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Surely I'm not alone in this, right?
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Tell me I'm not alone in this, All right.
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Anyway. But the reality is most people,
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most of the time, we don't feel very super.
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And in fact, we recognize that if everyone was super, no one
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would really be super, right? That's what the villain in the
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movie The Incredibles said. That was how he dealt with the
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disappointment of not being super himself.
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Well, we'll just make everybody super, and then nobody will be
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super. But friends, what if I told you
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this morning that you were meant to be super?
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That you were created to operate in a power that doesn't
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originate within yourself? That you were intended to live a
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life of supernatural empowerment?
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I believe that's exactly what the Bible teaches us.
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We were meant to live a life of supernatural empowerment.
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Over the next few months, this is exactly what we're going to
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be talking about. How the Holy Spirit who dwells
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within everyone, who has received new life through Jesus,
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how he transforms us and he empowers us to live the same
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kind of life that Jesus lived. A life surrendered to God the
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Father and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
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So we're going to take the next 5 weeks to lay out a scriptural
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foundation for this kind of empowered life.
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I'm not just making this stuff up.
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I, I, I believe we find it here in the pages of Scripture.
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We're going to develop some foundational principles for what
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those gifts and empowered lives look like today and how God is
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leading us to live together as a congregation in these realities
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of the Spirit. Then we're going to take the
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summer and do a deep dive into the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
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The gifts the Holy Spirit gives to us as Christians for the sake
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of building up the church, the body of Christ, and, and for
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serving and witnessing to the world.
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These spiritual gifts, I believe are the primary way that God has
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chosen to release his power in the world.
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It's, it's through us, through his people, empowered by his
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Spirit. So we're going to give a
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significant amount of attention to these ideas, right?
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Five weeks, the summer, that's almost 1/4 of the year because I
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believe this is a key. This is key to becoming the
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church that God is calling us to be.
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These are ideas that I've been marinating in for for almost a
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year now. Before I felt like the the
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Spirit said, OK, it's time you've you've thought about it
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enough. Now you've got to start
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preaching it. Much of my thinking over the
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last year has been shaped by a pastor from a church in Toronto
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called Sanctus Church. His name is John Thompson I I
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first met John almost a year ago through the pastoral cohort that
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I was part of. And since then I've read a
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couple of his books, I've listened to some of his
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teachings and sermons, and he's been a bit of a mentor from a
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distance in these things. And just this week, Meg and I
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were down near Nashville for a 2 day conference where John was
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speaking. Anyway, even though we're giving
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more than 1/4 of the year's sermons to delving into these
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gifts, know that this is just the beginning of the
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conversation. I don't intend to be vague
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through these sermon series, but I also have no illusions that we
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can say everything that needs to be said about what it means to
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live an empowered life in the Spirit in a few months of
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sermons, right? So, so this is to give you a
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peek of where I think God is leading us.
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I think these ideas could and and probably should change the
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very ways we operate as a church.
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So take your notes, write down your questions as they come up
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for you as we work through these series and and we're going to
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create some opportunities where we can have some some more
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conversation, get those questions answered.
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You can't wait for those. Feel free to reach out.
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We'll set up a time and sit down and talk about the things that
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are on your mind and heart. But today, today I want to begin
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the conversation and we're going to start at the very beginning,
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not talking about creation, but the beginning for us as
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Christians, right, is always who Sunday school answer Jesus,
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right? For us as Christians, we look to
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Christ, we look to Jesus. And so we're going to start with
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Jesus because I think if we're honest, subconsciously we tend
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to think of Jesus the way we think about superheroes, right?
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The gospel tells us about the many miraculous things that
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Jesus did, his superpowers, so to speak.
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He, he healed people, he cast out demons.
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He had insight into people's thoughts and motives.
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He raised people from the dead. He exerted the authority over
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nature, like calming the storm and walking on water.
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His teaching had a power and authority that the people around
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him were not used to. We can read in those same
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gospels about Jesus's origin story, right?
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Mary and the Angel Gabriel, divine conception by the Holy
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Spirit. We we read about an angelic
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chorus at his birth and shepherds and wise men and
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silent night, and then almost nothing, right?
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For for roughly 30 years, we hear nothing about the life of
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Jesus except for that one little rabbit trail story where Jesus
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kind of wandered off from his parents.
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And you know that story. And if not, let me know.
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We'll we'll find it and talk about it.
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But basically nothing for 30 years until Jesus is baptized by
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John and heaven opens, the Spirit descends on Jesus and God
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the Father speaks words of affirmation over Jesus.
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This is my beloved son with whom I'm well pleased.
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And then Jesus starts doing all the things right.
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That's when the miracles and the healings and the teaching,
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that's when his ministry starts. But if we're not careful, I
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think we can start to think about Jesus as God's alter ego,
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right? Like he's really God, but but
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then he puts on a human mask. Or that he is human, but not
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quite. That he's somehow more than
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human. Tim, you can keep going in in a
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way that is unattainable for us normal people, right?
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He's human, but not quite. This is the mystery that we call
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the incarnation, right? That God put on our human flesh
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and became truly human, right? Jesus isn't 50% God and 50%
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human. Either this is divinity or his
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humanity are diminished by this union between God and humanity,
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what theologians call the theandric union.
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That's not in your notes. You don't have to write that
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down. But Jesus is the God man, right?
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He's 100% God and 100% human. If you can't quite get your
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minds around that, don't worry, you're not alone.
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Your pastor's right there with you.
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But the common assumption is that all the stuff Jesus did, he
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did because he was God, right? He did it from the power of his
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divine nature. But friends, I don't think
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that's quite what the New Testament teaches.
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If we read it closely, the apostle John in his Gospel
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writes that Jesus said, I tell you the truth, the Son can do
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nothing by himself. He can only do what he sees his
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Father doing, because whatever the Father does, the Son also
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does. See what that's saying is Jesus
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didn't do anything by himself. Jesus did nothing on his own
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right. He only did what the Father
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revealed to him to do. The Apostle Paul put it this way
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when he wrote a contemporary worship song into scripture in
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Philippians chapter 2, right? For for everyone who's saying we
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should only sing the hymns, well, there's contemporary
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worship right there in the on the pages of Scripture,
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Philippians 2, Paul writes Jesus, who, being in very nature
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God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to
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his own advantage. Rather, he made himself nothing
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by taking the very nature of a servant being made in human
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likeness and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled
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himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.
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Therefore God exalted him to the highest place, gave him the name
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that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee
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should bow in heaven, and on earth and under the earth, and
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every tongue acknowledged that Jesus Christ is Lord to the
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glory of God the Father. And the Church said Amen.
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Amen. That was a radical thought for
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the majority of early Christians who are coming from a Jewish
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background, right? Did you catch that idea at the
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beginning in verse 6? Jesus being in very nature God,
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This man who they had walked with, who they had heard from,
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who had talked to them, who had been crucified in front of them
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was God. Paul's very clear Jesus is God,
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but he didn't consider his equality with God something that
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he had to hold on to, something he had to to grasp and reach for
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or use for his own benefit. You see, Jesus didn't cease to
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be God when he took on humanity. He didn't give up his God card,
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but he also didn't use his own power as God to accomplish his
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ministry. And this is where Jesus's
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superhero origin story comes back into play.
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Remember his baptism? When the Spirit came and the
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Father spoke at his baptism, Jesus was being empowered for
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ministry by the Holy Spirit. The power that Jesus used for
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ministry, it wasn't his own. It came from the Holy Spirit and
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it came through spiritual gifts. See, Jesus is not a superhero.
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Keep going, Tim. Sorry, I'm learning this as much
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as Tim is through spiritual gifts.
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Keep going. Jesus is not a superhero.
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He is the perfect human and he's not Superman.
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He's the perfect man. He's what Adam was always
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intended to be. He's what Israel was meant to
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be. When Adam and Eve screwed up
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everything and we we entered into sin.
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Jesus is the model of what humanity was always intended and
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created to be. 100% human. Surrendered to God and empowered
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by the Holy Spirit. Surrendered to God and empowered
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by the Holy Spirit. And so in his life on earth,
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Jesus walked in, in what we've been calling the spiritual
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practices, the spiritual disciplines, right?
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Things like silence and solitude and scripture and prayer and
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worship and service. And this is how he developed
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that intimacy with God. It's how he maintained that
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intimacy with God. It's how he knew what the Father
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wanted him to do, where he was supposed to go, who he was
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supposed opposed to heal or set free.
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This is where Jesus encountered God the Father through spiritual
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practices, right? And then the same time Jesus is
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operating in the spiritual gifts that he was given, things like
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healings and miracles and words of knowledge and teaching and
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and so on. This is where the power came
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from. This is how he was empowered by
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God the Holy Spirit through spiritual gifts.
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All right, so we've got spiritual disciplines and
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spiritual gifts coming together, converging together.
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Everything Jesus did, he did at the leading of the Father
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through the power of the Holy Spirit.
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He did nothing on his own. So at this point, they're either
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light bulbs coming on for you or you're looking for your pocket
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sized pitchfork that you brought to church this morning just in
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case the preacher went off the rails.
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Right? Let me push it one step further
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and say this friends, this life that Jesus lived surrendered to
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the Father, empowered by the Spirit, using spiritual
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disciplines to encounter God and and operating in spiritual gifts
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to release the power of the Spirit.
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Friends, we are called to live the same kind of life that Jesus
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lived. Just like Jesus, we are called
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to live lives surrendered to the Father, empowered by the Spirit,
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to walk in these spiritual disciplines as the means by
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which we encounter God, and to exercise the spiritual gifts
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we've been given as the means by which through which the Spirit
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empowers us. This is what Jesus promised his
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followers before he ascended to the Father, after the
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resurrection, and in other places.
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If you go back and read the Gospels, Jesus talks about the
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Holy Spirit a fair bit, but it's the story we read from Acts
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chapter 1, or we read this from Acts chapter one, this one.
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It's a story that it's telling us.
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Jesus is getting ready to return to the Father.
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He's been crucified, resurrected.
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He spent 40 days, 40 days walking with his disciples,
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teaching them, explaining all the things that he had done and
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what he had taught them in light of the resurrection.
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And before he goes, he gives the disciples some instructions.
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He says stay in Jerusalem, wait for the promised gift, or Jesus
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had spoken to them about the Holy Spirit before.
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And he's here. He's reminding them last words.
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He's saying to them, the Father's going to send the Holy
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Spirit. When I go, I'm going to send the
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Holy Spirit. He's telling him that the
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Spirit's going to be poured out on them.
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They will be immersed in the presence of the Spirit, and the
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presence of the Spirit is going to bring power to their lives.
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It's going to bring power, power that would enable them to be
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God's witnesses in the world. Spirit was going to testify
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about Jesus, and so were the believers.
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They were going to testify about who Jesus is by the power of the
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Holy Spirit. If we were to continue reading
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in Acts, we would see that this promise was kept not just for
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the 12 apostles who were kind of Jesus's group of apprentices,
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right, but for all the believers who listened to Jesus's
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instructions. And, and they stayed in
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Jerusalem until the Spirit came. 120 of them were gathered in
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that upper room one day. They were praying together,
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waiting for God to send the Spirit he had promised.
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And on the day of Pentecost he did.
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We'll get to that. Pentecost was in a few weeks.
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But it wasn't just even those 120 believers in the Upper Room
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that day. All through Acts we read about
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people coming to faith in Jesus and the Spirit being poured out
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on them and and even subsequent fillings of people who had
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already received the spirits. They're empowered to do a
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ministry that God is calling them to do.
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Jesus's promise was that we as his believers could be empowered
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by the same Spirit who empowered Jesus.
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Did you hear me? Jesus's promise was that we
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could be empowered by the same Spirit who empowered Jesus.
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In fact, Jesus said that his followers would do even greater
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things than he had done through the empowerment of the Holy
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Spirit. Not because of us, not because
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we can do anything, but, but through the Holy Spirit greater
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things than Jesus had done. Through the spiritual gifts that
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God gives to each of us. Through the spiritual practices
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we can encounter God, right. And through the spiritual
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practices, we are formed into people that He can entrust not
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just with his power, but with His presence and His power.
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People he can entrust with His presence and His power.
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Through spiritual gifts, we're empowered by the Spirit to build
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up the church, to serve, and to witness to the church, right?
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That's why He gives us those gifts.
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It's not just so that we can feel good about ourselves.
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It's not so we can use them in whatever way we want.
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He gives them so He can build up the church, so we can serve and
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witness to the world. This is what God intends for
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each of us. Walking with God, submitted to
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the Father, living like Jesus, empowered by the Spirit.
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Do you believe it? Are you living in it today?
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Jesus isn't some superhero that we can never hope to measure up
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to. He's the perfect human.
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And he's the model then, of what we too can become when we live
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lives that are surrendered to the Father.
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And we're encountering him in the spiritual practices like
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reading scripture and pray, spending time in silence and
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solitude so we can hear God speak in the midst of this noisy
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world that we live in. Where we're being formed in
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holiness by those encounters. And we're empowered by the
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Spirit serving through those spiritual gifts that he's given
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us and, and being open to moves of the Spirit to do what he
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wants to do, to lead us where he wants us to go.
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This is where we're headed. This is where I think Jesus is
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leading us. And so I want to invite you all
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to stand here this morning. I'm going to lead us in prayer
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before we sing. And this morning, if, if
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something is stirred within your heart at these words, at these
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promises from Jesus, if you want to express your openness to a
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deeper experience of the work of God in your life.
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This morning, if you want to encounter him more deeply in the
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practices, Maybe they've gotten kind of dry and stale.
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And, and you're reading your Bible every day to check off a
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box or you're, you're praying for 30 seconds.
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So you could say you did, or you're praying through the
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prayer list and you're just kind of naming the names and it feels
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kind of dry. If you want to encounter him
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more deeply in the practices, I want to invite you to come.
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If you want to surrender more of yourself to his leading, you
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say, wow, Scott, as you're talking, there are things God's
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speaking to my heart about and he's saying they're not OK.
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I can't stay there. I've got to change some of the
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things. He wants to give me power.
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If that's you, if you want to surrender more of yourself to
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Jesus, you come. If you want to be empowered by
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the same spirit that empowered Jesus, your life is you've been
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trying real hard, but you don't feel like you're getting much of
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anywhere he wants to empower you, you come.
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Or if you just want to him to to begin to reveal to you.
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Well, Scott, you're talking about gifts.
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I don't really know what my gifts are, but but I I'd like to
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know. I'd like to find out I'm I've
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been a Christian for 30-40 fifty years and and I don't know what
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those gifts are. Come and ask him to begin to
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reveal those things to you. If God's speaking to you, you're
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invited to come. Let's pray together.
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Spirit, we sense your presence here moving among us, speaking
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to our hearts. And Spirit, some of these things
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we've heard this morning, maybe they, they sound a little
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different than things we've been taught in the past.
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Maybe it's a, a different framework, a different paradigm
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than we've been exposed to. And, and we're not quite sure
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what we think. Would you come and reveal your
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truth to us? Jesus said, Spirit, that you
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would lead us into all truth. So whatever words of truth have
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been spoken today, would you take them and use them?
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And anything that's been spoken that's just me or my thoughts
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doesn't lead us to truth. Let them drop by the wayside.
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Jesus, the Spirit, we want to give you freedom to speak to our
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hearts about anything you might want to say.
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We want to be available to you. We want to know your presence
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more deeply. So whether we need our own
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personal revival today because things have gotten kind of dry,
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we need to surrender, or we need an awakening to what you can and
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want to do in US and through us. Would you give us boldness to
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step out to respond to what you're doing?
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God, we trust you and we want to trust you more.
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We pray these things. Jesus, in your name, Amen.