Review:
Why the Holy Spirit is the Most Important Person in the Church:
- Only He can Empower ministry. (Acts 13:1-5)
- Only He can fight our Battles. (Acts 13:6-11)
- Only He can Save people. (Acts 13:12)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:00-00:01
Five years today.
00:02-00:04
Can you believe that?
00:04-00:06
That this church has been in existence for five years?
00:07-00:12
On one hand, it seems like the church just launched a couple of months ago.
00:13-00:24
But on the other hand, it seems like I don't really remember what life was like before Harvest Bible Chapel, before the Lord brought you folks into my life to do ministry.
00:26-00:54
So thankful. So thankful. Speaking of things that happened a long time ago, I want to take you back to a much earlier chapter in my life when I was much younger and in much better shape. And some of you might not know this. Some of you do. But for eight years or so, I was a professional wrestler.
00:55-00:55
I'm retired.
00:57-00:58
But I've got to tell you this story.
01:01-01:06
That when you start out, you're basically-- you get beat by everybody.
01:08-01:12
And I took my share of beatings and kept at it, kept at it.
01:12-01:25
And a few years into my somewhat illustrious career, I was booked to be the main event against King Kong Bundy.
01:26-01:29
How many people here know who King Kong Bundy is?
01:30-01:31
OK, some of you have no idea.
01:31-01:31
Google him.
01:31-01:32
Not now.
01:33-01:34
Just Google him.
01:35-01:38
King Kong Bundy is like this 450-pound monster.
01:38-01:40
He was famous back in the '80s.
01:41-01:46
But I was booked to be main event at this show against King Kong Bundy, and I was so excited.
01:46-01:48
I was going to tear him apart.
01:48-01:49
I just couldn't wait.
01:50-01:51
Sorry.
01:53-01:54
I just couldn't wait for the match.
01:56-02:01
And I remember Darren and a friend of ours drove out-- it was in Columbus, Ohio-- drove out to see this match.
02:01-02:09
And I was so excited because this is a guy that I watched in the '80s, and now we're in the late '90s.
02:09-02:14
And there was a problem, though.
02:15-02:22
I got word that King Kong Bundy forgot his wrestling gear.
02:24-02:27
Yeah, he forgot his wrestling gear.
02:28-02:31
And my question was, how in the world does that even happen?
02:33-02:43
Now, let's pretend for a second-- I know some of you are judging me for my past career choices or whatever, but I want you to just walk down this path with me.
02:43-02:46
Let's pretend for a second that you are a professional wrestler.
02:46-02:47
Can you do that for a second?
02:49-02:50
Can you just pretend that you're a professional wrestler?
02:51-02:51
Give yourself a name.
02:52-02:52
Go ahead.
02:54-02:56
Pretend that you're a professional wrestler, OK?
02:56-02:59
Now, you're booked to wrestle on a show.
03:00-03:04
So let's write down all of the things that you might need to wrestle on the show.
03:05-03:06
Any ideas?
03:08-03:10
Yeah, how about wrestling gear, right?
03:11-03:15
But somehow that was the thing that he forgot to bring.
03:17-03:21
Well, that word got to me, and I went back and talked to him about that.
03:22-03:24
And I said, what's going on?
03:25-03:26
He's like, I'm so embarrassed.
03:26-03:27
I forgot my gear.
03:27-03:28
This has never happened before.
03:30-03:36
But I think, kind of looking back, you know, history in the rearview mirror sometimes gets a little clearer.
03:37-03:38
I think I know what really happened there.
03:40-03:40
He was scared.
03:43-03:45
At least that's the story that I'm sticking with.
03:46-03:51
OK, so you're a pro wrestler, and there's one thing that you need to do your job, just one thing, literally.
03:52-03:53
And that's the wrestling gear.
03:54-03:57
OK, so let's look at other areas of life.
03:57-04:02
If you're a deer hunter, what's the one thing that you need to hunt deer?
04:03-04:04
A gun, right.
04:04-04:05
You need a gun.
04:06-04:08
OK, let's say that you're a painter.
04:08-04:11
What's the one thing that you need to do your job if you're a painter?
04:13-04:15
You need a paintbrush, exactly.
04:16-04:21
Okay, if you're a drummer, what do you need in order to do your job?
04:21-04:27
You need one thing, you need, say it, you need drums, right?
04:29-04:34
Okay, so if you're a church, what's the one thing that you need to be the church?
04:36-04:37
You need a building?
04:39-04:43
No, I think we've seen in the last five years that you can have church without a building.
04:44-04:45
Do you need an office?
04:46-04:51
No, I think we've also seen that you can have church without an office building somewhere.
04:51-04:53
Do you need pyrotechnics?
04:54-04:57
Well, we've discovered that you don't need pyrotechnics to have the church.
04:57-05:00
Do you need the world's greatest preacher in order to have a church?
05:01-05:04
This church has discovered that you don't need the world's best preacher to have a church.
05:06-05:13
You can get by without any of these things, but there's one ingredient that the church can't do business without.
05:15-05:16
And that is the Holy Spirit.
05:18-05:22
How foolish is the wrestler that shows up to do his job without his wrestling boots?
05:23-05:26
How foolish is the deer hunter that goes out into the woods without his gun?
05:27-05:31
How foolish is the painter that shows up on the job site and doesn't have a brush?
05:33-05:37
How foolish is the drummer who shows up to the gig and doesn't have a drum set.
05:40-05:50
None of those even pale in comparison to how foolish is the church that tries to do the work of the church without the Holy Spirit.
05:52-05:53
That's our theme this year.
05:53-06:01
We're going to be talking about the unstoppable church, because on our own, we are quite stoppable.
06:02-06:09
And as we see in the book of Acts, including this passage today, when the Holy Spirit is at work, the church is unstoppable.
06:09-06:10
So do you have your outline?
06:13-06:16
Why the Holy Spirit is the most important person in the church.
06:16-06:19
You're going to see it very clearly in this passage.
06:19-06:23
I want you to turn with me to the book of Acts in chapter 13.
06:26-06:29
Acts 13. While you're turning there, just a quick review.
06:29-06:46
What brings us to this passage was everything that we walked through last year. We saw in Acts chapter 1, Jesus promised the disciples that we would receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon us, and we would be His witnesses.
06:48-06:55
And we saw throughout the book of Acts, the Holy Spirit did come to indwell all believers, and those early disciples began witnessing.
06:56-06:59
The church grew as many people came to believe in Christ.
07:01-07:10
But the religious leaders were constantly trying to stop all of this Jesus talk, and that culminated in the execution of a young preacher named Stephen.
07:12-07:19
This execution scattered the church, but it didn't stop the religious leaders from pursuing Christians.
07:21-07:31
Especially one persecutor - a man named Saul, who met Jesus while he was on the way to arrest Christians.
07:32-07:34
Paul was on the way to arrest Christians, not Jesus.
07:36-07:44
Then God opened the door for Peter to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles, and that changed the course of history.
07:44-07:49
That's why you're sitting here today because of the way the Lord brought the Gospel to the Gentiles.
07:51-08:01
Even the king's attack on the church - talking about Herod, we looked at him a couple of weeks ago - even his attack on the church couldn't stop the power of God.
08:01-08:08
Today in your outline, why the Holy Spirit is the most important person in the church, you're going to see it very clearly in this passage number 1.
08:09-08:12
Only the Holy Spirit can empower ministry.
08:13-08:15
Only the Holy Spirit can empower ministry.
08:16-08:21
And as we look at Acts 13, understand that we're at a major turning point in the book of Acts.
08:21-08:24
The first 12 chapters were basically about Peter.
08:25-08:28
The whole rest of the book of Acts is about Paul.
08:28-08:34
The first 12 chapters dealt mainly how the gospel was going to Jewish people, the nation of Israel.
08:35-08:42
The rest of the book of Acts focuses on how the gospel spread throughout the world and went to the Gentiles.
08:44-09:33
Acts 13.1 says, "Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers." Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, "Mernusius went back to Antioch, the Bible says they took John Mark with them.
09:34-09:35
Look at your text here.
09:35-09:37
It says they were at the church at Antioch.
09:37-09:38
First of all, there were prophets.
09:39-09:40
What is a prophet?
09:40-09:42
That's just another way of saying preacher.
09:43-09:48
Now, in the Bible, prophets would sometimes tell about future events.
09:49-09:54
But understand that prophecy doesn't always necessarily mean telling the future.
09:54-09:58
It literally just means proclaiming God's Word.
09:59-10:01
Do we have prophets in our day?
10:01-10:04
Well, God's not giving more biblical revelation.
10:05-10:09
I'm not going to show up at church next week and say, hey, God gave me a new book in the Bible I want to share with you.
10:09-10:12
We're just going to tuck that in there right behind revelation.
10:14-10:16
The biblical revelation is done.
10:17-10:24
But understand, when I get up, or Mark or anybody else gets up here and preaches the Word of God, we're fulfilling the role of a prophet.
10:25-10:27
saying this is the Word of God.
10:29-10:32
So it says the church at Antioch - prophets and teachers.
10:33-10:34
What are teachers?
10:34-10:41
Teachers are people and are people like Dan Thompson had talked about in the small group video.
10:42-10:50
People that the Holy Spirit gifts to help people get a clear understanding of the truth of God's Word.
10:51-10:53
Teachers have that spiritual gift.
10:54-10:56
and take the Word of God and explain it in a clear way.
10:57-11:05
And people often at this point would ask, "Okay, well, what's the difference then between a prophet and a teacher?" And here's the answer.
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The difference is minimal.
11:08-11:09
The difference is minimal.
11:10-11:14
There's some slight nuances maybe in style or approach, but the difference is minimal.
11:14-11:20
Both people are equipped and gifted by the Holy Spirit to proclaim the Word of God.
11:21-11:22
So who were these people?
11:23-11:24
You see the list there in verse 1.
11:24-11:25
Barnabas, we're going to talk about him.
11:26-11:28
Simeon, who was called Niger.
11:29-11:31
That just means black.
11:31-11:32
Why did he get that nickname?
11:33-11:34
The Bible doesn't tell us.
11:35-11:36
Was he dark-complected?
11:37-11:40
Did he have a favorite set of black pajamas that he wore?
11:40-11:41
I don't know.
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That was just his nickname.
11:43-11:45
Lucius of Cyrene.
11:45-11:46
And look at his next name.
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Menean, a member of the court of Herod, the tetrarch.
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There's different ways that that phrase is translated.
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He was a member of the court of Herod.
11:55-11:58
Some translations say he was a lifelong friend.
11:59-12:00
The Greek word is interesting.
12:03-12:21
The Greek word can literally be translated "foster brother." So whatever the situation or relationship was, Luke is pointing out here that this guy grew up in the family or with the family of Herod.
12:21-12:25
Do you remember the stuff we had already learned about the Herod family?
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Herod the Great?
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Herod the Tetrarch?
12:30-12:34
Mentioned here, this is the same Herod from Luke 23, verse 7.
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The Herod they brought Jesus to.
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But this man who was a prophet or a teacher in this church, the Bible says that he had a lifelong relationship with Herod's family.
12:51-12:54
Normally when we read something like that we can sort of skim past it.
12:54-12:57
Oh, that's an interesting little factoid. I just want to pause for one second.
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And let this be a great encouragement to you. You know, your past doesn't have to define who you are.
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And your past relationships and associations don't have to define who you are.
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This guy had a lifelong close relationship with the most wicked family maybe ever in history.
13:18-13:21
Looking at the political scene today, some people might debate that.
13:22-13:23
But this family was extremely wicked.
13:24-13:30
Remember, Herod the Great was the one that said, "Let's kill all the male babies two and under," because he was trying to kill Jesus as an infant.
13:31-13:32
That's this family.
13:33-13:36
And this guy, this Manan, grew up in that house!
13:37-13:38
Could you imagine growing up in Herod the Great's house?
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Could you imagine what that was like?
13:43-13:46
You see, it would have been real easy for the church to shun this guy.
13:46-13:49
To say, "We don't want him to be part of this." Do you know who he grew up with?
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Do you know who he's always been tight with?
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The Herod.
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He didn't have anything to do with him.
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He's garbage.
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But the church didn't treat him like that.
13:57-13:59
He was a pillar in the church.
13:59-14:07
And I think that Luke let us know about this background just to remind us of the transforming power of the gospel.
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That's who he might have been.
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That might have been the relationships he had.
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But now, he's one of the preachers and teachers at this incredible, booming church.
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Don't let your past define you.
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Let Jesus Christ define you.
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Alright?
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So much more we can say about that.
14:27-14:28
Look at the next name on the list.
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Ann Saul.
14:34-14:36
We're going to talk about him more in a second.
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the Saul who met Christ on the way to arrest Christians.
14:43-14:44
Look at verse 2.
14:44-15:11
"While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, 'Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.' Then after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off." So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus.
15:13-15:25
When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the Word of God in the synagogue of the Jews, and they had John to assist them.
15:25-15:30
That's John Mark, that's Barnabas' cousin that they took back from Jerusalem.
15:31-15:35
So Cyprus was an island in the Mediterranean Sea.
15:35-15:38
We learned from Acts chapter 4 that this was Barnabas' hometown.
15:40-15:47
So this was sort of a welcome back cotter kind of thing, that Barnabas went back to do ministry where he grew up.
15:50-16:29
But I want you to notice here specifically in verse 2 and in verse 4, the Bible makes it very clear that the work of this ministry is being done and attributed to the Holy Spirit. He is empowering all of it. Look at verse 2. It says, "The Holy Spirit set these people apart." Verse 4, "The Holy Spirit sent the people out." The Word of God is being so clear that this wasn't just some idea that Barnabas or some idea that Saul had, like, "Hey, I got this idea for a mission trip. Let's do it." That the Holy Spirit was equipping and sending and and empowering these people to do ministry.
16:31-16:33
The Holy Spirit does the work.
16:33-16:35
You say, "Well, Pastor Jeff, what's our part?
16:35-16:36
Are we just robots?
16:36-16:39
Are we just puppets on a string?" Absolutely not.
16:39-16:41
We do have a part.
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And our part, biblically, is called walking in the Spirit.
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Our part is to allow ourselves to yield to the workings of the Holy Spirit.
16:59-17:01
In other words, we need to tune in.
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We need to be sensitive to what God's Holy Spirit wants to do.
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That's our part.
17:09-17:11
Like, well, how do I do that?
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How can I be more sensitive?
17:14-17:16
You know, you talk about the Holy Spirit speaking to me.
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We watched this video where people were saying I was talking to God and He told me this and He equipped me for this and He empowered me for this.
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And how can I tune in to what God wants from me?
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I want you to think of it this way before we look at the how.
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Think of the concept this way.
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I want you to think about radio programming.
17:40-17:44
You know, right now, radio programming is being broadcast.
17:46-17:48
It happens all the time.
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It's happening right this minute.
17:50-17:59
Even though you can't hear the radio broadcasts, you can't hear a radio station right now unless one of you has a secret earpiece or something, which you better not.
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But right now, there's radio broadcasts happening.
18:04-18:05
We don't hear it.
18:06-18:08
But right now, there are songs being played.
18:09-18:11
There are talk shows that are spouting opinions.
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There are sports radio shows that are lamenting the pirate season.
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There's news being reported.
18:21-18:22
There are commercials being aired.
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That's happening right now, though we can't hear it.
18:27-18:29
But I want you to think about this.
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When you get in your car after the service and drive to wherever you're going, it's still happening.
18:35-18:38
These broadcasts are still happening even if you don't hear them.
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But if you want to know what's going on, you simply have to do what?
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You turn on the radio and you tune in to a station.
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Are you with me?
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Because in the same way, the Holy Spirit - God's Holy Spirit is present with us.
18:56-18:57
He is here right now.
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He resides in us.
19:00-19:01
He doesn't leave and come back.
19:03-19:07
If you're a born-again believer in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit lives in you.
19:07-19:16
We don't work to earn His presence or to tap into His power or to glean His wisdom or to follow His direction.
19:17-19:27
What we need to do as individuals, as families, as churches, our job is to simply tune in to hear what he's saying.
19:29-19:32
Like, okay, how do we do that?
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What needs to happen in order to hear his broadcast, in order to get good reception?
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Well, I think it's very clear in the text.
19:45-19:48
Do you see it? Look back at the verses again.
19:49-19:53
Verse 2, it says, "While they were..." What does your Bible say?
19:55-19:56
Go ahead, say it out.
19:56-19:59
"While they were worshiping." Right, worshiping.
20:00-20:03
The Greek word for worship, this is interesting.
20:03-20:07
You know, the Septuagint was the Greek translation of the Old Testament.
20:07-20:09
They had a copy of the Old Testament that was in Greek.
20:09-20:21
And the Greek word used for worship here is also the same Greek word that's used in the Old Testament, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, to refer to the priests.
20:23-20:30
In other words, this word for worshipping can also be translated ministering.
20:32-20:34
Like, what's the point? The point is this.
20:34-20:38
Serving Jesus Christ is an act of worship.
20:39-20:42
When I say worship, what's the first thing we think of?
20:42-20:43
we think of the music, right?
20:43-20:45
That's the first thing I think of.
20:45-20:46
Like, let's worship.
20:46-20:49
I think, ok, here's Darren up here leading us in worship.
20:50-20:54
But worship is so much more than that.
20:54-20:57
It is that, but it's so much more than that too.
20:57-21:03
The reason we worship in music is because we're called to love the Lord our God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
21:04-21:07
Worshiping in music allows us to worship God in our emotions.
21:10-21:13
That's not the sum total of what worship is.
21:15-21:19
When you serve Christ, that is an act of worship.
21:20-21:29
That is you saying Jesus Christ is worth my time and energy, and I'm going to show Him that by doing things in His name.
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By serving Him.
21:32-21:35
They were worshiping, or they were ministering.
21:37-21:48
So if you want to get tuned in the Holy Spirit's, evaluate, are you worshiping Him by serving Him?
21:49-21:50
What's the next thing?
21:50-21:51
How do we tune in?
21:52-21:54
How do we tune in to what the Holy Spirit is doing?
21:54-21:56
What the Holy Spirit might be calling us to?
21:56-21:59
What the Holy Spirit's wanting to teach us or how He wants to guide us?
21:59-22:00
Look at the next thing.
22:00-22:02
While they were worshiping the Lord and...
22:02-22:02
What's the next thing?
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I know you don't want to say it.
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You don't want to say it because as a culture we don't do this.
22:11-22:12
What's it say?
22:13-22:13
Fasting.
22:15-22:16
Do you know what fasting is?
22:17-22:20
Because I don't think many people really understand what fasting is.
22:21-22:25
It's like, oh yeah, I've got to get blood work done at the doctor and they told me not to eat for a few hours.
22:26-22:28
That's your idea of fasting.
22:29-22:37
And fasting is making that choice to go without food purposes of seeking the Lord.
22:39-22:49
And for some people, maybe because of health reasons, you can't abstain from food, but fasting can be anything that distracts my heart and mind.
22:50-22:55
I'm just going to get it off the table for a while so I can just focus on God.
22:56-22:58
We don't do that, church.
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Collectively, consistently, Passionately? We don't do that.
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Now interestingly about fasting, is it commanded? No.
23:12-23:15
Fasting is not commanded in the New Testament.
23:16-23:17
But it is assumed.
23:18-23:19
Right?
23:20-23:22
It's not commanded, but it's assumed.
23:22-23:22
What do you mean by that?
23:22-23:24
Well, look at Matthew 6.
23:24-23:28
Jesus said when you pray, don't pray like the hypocrites.
23:29-23:31
So Jesus was assuming that we would do what?
23:33-24:07
assuming we would pray he says just don't pray like these people Jesus said when you give don't be like the hypocrites so Jesus was assuming that we'd what that we give as an act of worship Jesus also in Matthew 6 says and when you fast don't be like the hypocrites so Jesus was assuming that we would what? Fast. We live in such a self-centered, all about me, culture right now.
24:08-24:20
That this idea of denying yourself of anything is completely just not even on our map. We promote this in our culture. Why should you say no to anything?
24:22-24:23
You want to eat it, eat it.
24:23-24:24
You want to buy it, buy it.
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You want to get intimate with it, get intimate with it.
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We as a culture, we don't say no to anything.
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And fasting is one of the greatest resources.
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Hear me church.
24:40-24:43
Fasting is one of the greatest resources that God has given us.
24:45-25:20
And I think it's the most underused resource that God's given us to say, I'm gonna go without for a while because I just want to focus on God I just want to put my mind and heart on what God's Holy Spirit would want to teach me So that means I'm not gonna worry about food or eating. I'm gonna use that lunchtime I'm gonna use that mealtime and pray and think about You know God's Word and open myself up to say I'm here. I Commend that to you Like man, I've never done that before I I encourage you to start.
25:20-25:24
Maybe starting for you is, you know what, for the next three days I'm going to skip lunch.
25:24-25:28
And I'm going to use that time to just kind of get God's Word and be quiet before the Lord.
25:28-25:29
Start there.
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Or start with a one or two day fast.
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I'm just going to go with that.
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I just want to focus on my walk with the Lord.
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I want to focus on that love relationship that He's given me and not let anything else get in the way.
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Fasting is not commanded, but it is assumed.
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And it's connected to the next thing.
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Look down at verse 3.
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It says, "Then after fasting and..." What does your Bible say?
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Praying.
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Praying is connected to fasting.
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Prayer is our lifeline.
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Prayer is our declaration of dependence.
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And as individuals, as a church, These are ways that the Lord has given us to tune in, to sharpen our ear to hear the Spirit.
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He's here.
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If you're a born-again believer, He's here.
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But are you tuned in?
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Like, man, you know what?
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It's been a while since I've really been tuned in, since I've really been passionate about seeking the Lord.
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Where do I start?
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Here it is - worship, fasting, and prayer.
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Start there.
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God's already done the work.
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All you need to do is listen.
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You want a Spirit-empowered ministry?
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You and we - you and we and I collectively - we've got to tune in.
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Only the Holy Spirit can empower ministry.
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Secondly, only He can fight our battles.
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Only He can fight our battles.
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Look at verse 6.
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Okay, so we're in Cyprus.
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to Salamis. Mark was with them. Verse 6 says, "When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came upon a certain magician." Now when we say magician, we don't mean like this guy's running around pulling rabbits out of hats or like, you know, "Hey, go dig a cord, I'm going to show you something." This was occultic stuff okay so this was a an occultic magician a Jewish false prophets named bar Jesus ok that's not a connection to the Christ that just means the son of Joshua is what that means that was his one of his names because he was with the pro council that's a governor sergius James Paulus, a man of intelligence, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the Word of God.
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So this governor hears what these preachers are going through, telling people this Gospel message, and this governor's like, "Hey, get those guys.
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I want to hear this message." What are they telling people?
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"I really want to hear this.
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This is interesting. Get them." But Elimas, the magician, That's another name for Bar-Jesus, Elimus.
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And your Bible says parenthetically, "For that is the meaning of his name." Elimus is a transliteration of an Arabic word that means magic.
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That's all.
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Just another nickname.
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"To Elimus, Bar-Jesus opposed them, seeking to turn the procouncil away from the faith." Okay, so Bar-Jesus again dabbled in the cult.
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We saw a guy like this, remember back in Acts 8, verse 9, Simon.
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Same kind of thing.
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Occultic, satanic.
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And Sergius Paulus, he was governor of Cyprus.
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Obviously very interested.
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Verse 9.
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But Saul, who was also called Paul, while we're dealing out nicknames here, Luke's like, I'm going to remind you Saul - I'm talking about a permanent name change - and he's all the rest of the way here in the book of Acts.
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But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at Him.
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On a scale of 1 to 10, how intense do you think that was?
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Like Paul is trying to preach, and here's this Jewish false prophet trying to stop the preaching from happening.
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The Bible says he looked intently at Him.
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Go ahead, model that for me.
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What do you think that looked like?
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What do you think that looked like?
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He's trying to preach, and he's like, "I've got to stop this guy from telling people about Jesus." And Paul's just like, "Let me see your most intense look." Okay, not bad.
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"Looked intently at him and said, 'You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord.
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And now behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you.
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And you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time.
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And immediately, mist and darkness fell upon Him.
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And He went about seeking people to lead Him by the hand.
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We talked about this a lot in the last year that God sometimes did these things in this age.
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He would allow these miracles to happen because they confirmed this message.
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You have these people going out proclaiming the new covenant of forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ.
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And to authenticate the message, God would do miracles through the apostles.
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I read passages like this, and I think to myself, sometimes I wish God still did stuff like that.
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You know, somebody opposes your ministry, like, you know what?
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Next three days, you're blind.
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Bam!
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The truth is, I couldn't do that.
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Because spiritual wars cannot be won in the flesh.
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And you see in this passage, Paul didn't claim anything or speak over anything.
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His boldness wasn't just about his personality.
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There's a part of me that would think, well, Paul seemed like kind of an intense guy, Maybe that was just sort of his personality coming out.
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But that's not true because look at verse 9.
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It says, "But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit." This was a Spirit-powered rebuke and action.
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Because there was a war going on for Sergius' soul.
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Very clear in the text.
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He wanted to hear the Gospel.
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This false prophet tried to stop him and we're hearing it.
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Church, there are spiritual wars happening all around us.
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How many people here this morning can tell a story something like this?
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Something like this.
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You know, there's a co-worker of mine that I've been wanting to share the Gospel with for months, and it seems like every time I go to share the Gospel with him, something happens.
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He gets called away.
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There's some kind of an interruption.
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The phone rings.
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Anybody have a story like that?
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That's spiritual war.
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That's exactly what's going on in this passage.
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Here's a guy that's open to the Gospel, and here are people that want to give him the Gospel, and Satan puts one of his agents right in the middle to say I'm going to stop this from happening.
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It's happening where you work too.
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There's a spiritual war going on.
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Maybe you have a child that you've set this example about following Christ and doing the right thing, and this child has rebelled against that.
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They've decided to become their own god.
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And just when you think you're about to have a breakthrough with this child, you've taken two steps forward and you've taken five steps back.
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There's a spiritual war going on.
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How many times in your life do you think that there's an Elimus, there's a Bar-Jesus trying to stop something that the Lord is trying to do?
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I think that happens a lot more that many of us can realize.
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There are spiritual wars going on.
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The bad news is you can't win them.
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The worst news is you can't even fight them.
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The great news is the Holy Spirit fights our battles for us.
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Enemies are going to come.
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This year as we go through Acts 13-20, We're going to see a lot of crazy stuff happen to the early church.
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We're going to see Satan trying to stop the church through things like riots and attempted murder and imprisonments and mob attacks, beatings, fallouts - all of these things happening to this young, early church, and almost 2,000 years later, here we are - bigger and stronger than ever.
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Because the Holy Spirit has fought our battles with us every step of the way.
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And just like the book of Acts, just like these chapters we're going to be looking at this year, your life is a story.
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And in your life, you have to deal with mobs and riots and tragedy and hurts and disappointments.
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There are times that you're going to feel crushed.
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But I want to encourage you that just like in this passage here, The Holy Spirit shows up and takes care of business with Bar Jesus, strikes him blind.
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Maybe the Holy Spirit won't show up and do that exact thing in your life, but I promise you, He's going to show up and He's going to do big things to win a victory for you.
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If you're willing to hold on.
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If you're willing to patiently endure, He will fight your battles for you because you can't.
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2 Corinthians 10 3 Paul says for though we walk in the flesh we are not waging war according to the flesh Satan and his demons aren't going to be affected at all no matter what caliber of gun you own no matter how many karate classes you took no matter how much you can bench press that doesn't impress them at all this is a spiritual war and only God's Holy Spirit has the power to win these battles.
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Paul did not have the power to strike people blind himself.
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Like how do you know that? Because he would have done it a lot more often.
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Trust me on that. Finally, why is the Holy Spirit the most important person in the church? Well, only he can empower ministry, only he he can fight our battles the last thing only he can save people only he can save people look at verse 12 it says then the Pro Council that's Sergius Paulus the governor then the Pro Council believed when he saw what had occurred look at this last phrase this this last phrase like the best part of the whole passage to me it says for he was astonished at the what does your Bible say say it loud Teaching of the Lord.
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He was astonished at the teaching of the Lord.
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Alright, now look at life from Sergius' perspective for a minute.
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You hear this gospel message, there's preachers in town, I want to hear them, this guy tries to get in the way, and they're like, "You're not going to see for a while." This guy goes blind and these preachers show up.
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You've seen some crazy stuff already.
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Stuff that would astonish you.
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But the Bible doesn't say he was astonished at the miracle.
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The Bible says he was astonished at what?
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Teaching.
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He was astonished at the gospel.
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What do you mean by that?
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Well, I'm going to give you two stories.
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I'm going to tell you two stories real quick, and I want you to tell me which of these two stories is more astonishing.
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Story one, are you ready?
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Story one.
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Man was struck blind temporarily.
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Amazing?
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Yes, but let's stand it next to this one.
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Story number two.
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God Almighty created the universe by speaking it into existence.
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And with all this incredible stuff He created, there was one thing He created that was superior to everything, and that was mankind.
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Why is man superior?
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God put His image on man.
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And says, "I created you to have a love relationship so that you would enjoy me and be blessed by knowing me and experience my provision, and we're going to have this relationship." And what did man do?
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Man spit in God's face and turned his back by disobeying the one rule that God gave man.
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Because of that, every one of us are born encoded into our DNA.
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Every one of us are born with a sin nature, a rebellious nature, a self-centered nature.
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But this same God, still, despite all of that, He still loves you so much.
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Despite this death penalty that we earned.
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despite the justification that God would have to just fling us straight to hell the first time we sin.
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He loves us so much that he said, "I'm gonna fix their problem for them.
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"And here's how I'm gonna do it.
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"I'm gonna become a man and I'm gonna live among them.
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"And I'm gonna show them what I'm like, "but ultimately what I'm going to do "is I'm going to allow them to take me and nail me to a cross and publicly humiliate me, publicly execute me, and I will allow that death to take their place. I will allow that to pay their penalty for them. And I will raise from the dead and give the promise of the resurrection and restore in them the eternal life that they forfeited the first time that they has erased spit in my face. And this gift of salvation, this gift of forgiveness, this gift of eternal life, it's available for anyone, no matter who you are, no matter what you've done, the gender, color of skin, income, I don't care, it's available for anyone who is willing to receive this gift.
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Which story is more amazing? That one? Or some guy somewhere was blind for a couple days?
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Which one was more amazing?
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The one about Jesus, right?
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Not the one about our Jesus.
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And that's why Sergius Paulus, when he heard this message, he was astonished.
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To say the God of the universe loves me that much?
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That's the amazing thing.
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no program or event or gimmick that we come up with.
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No matter how talented our musicians are, no matter how great our artists are, no matter how gifted our administrators are, no matter how polished our public speakers are, we don't have a thing that can save a soul.
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Only the Holy Spirit can do that.
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What's our part? What's the power that we bring?
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There's only one thing, church, that you and I can contribute.
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We spent all year last year talking about the Holy Spirit being the power of God so that we might be witnesses.
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Well, the Holy Spirit's God Himself.
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That's why He is the power of God.
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But you know there's only one thing in the Bible besides God Himself.
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There's only one thing in the Bible called the power of God you know what that is like creation right creation is the power of God the Bible doesn't say that like what about miracles miracles are the power of God the Bible doesn't say that aside from God himself there's only one thing that the Bible calls the power of God one thing it's in Romans 116 I am NOT ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God not it describes the power of God not it tells us about the power of God but your Bible literally says that the gospel is literally the power of God so when you are tempted to unload the power of God on someone you have that that ability, all you need to do is share the Gospel.
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Because that is the power.
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So as we kick off this new year, we're going to be asking God's Holy Spirit to do what only He can.
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All year, this is what we want to see God's Holy Spirit do.
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We want to see Him empower ministry.
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It doesn't really matter how talented you are.
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What matters is if you allow to be at work in your life.
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That's where the power is.
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This year, we're asking God's Holy Spirit to fight our spiritual battles for us.
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If you've been with us, some of you have been with us from the beginning, you know the battles that we've had.
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We've had some bad ones.
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We've had some rough ones.
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We've had some heartbreaking ones.
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The Holy Spirit has taken us through some very hard times.
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And there's going to be some battles ahead.
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Over the years, I guess I get less and less scared of them because more and more I see God's Holy Spirit taking care of things.
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I learn to trust Him more and more.
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Lastly, trusting the Holy Spirit to save people.
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We want to see the Holy Spirit bring people in the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
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We want to see people baptized public response, a public profession of faith. We're going to close our time here together in here by receiving the Lord's Supper. If our worship team would come forward. As we gather around the Lord's table, if our ushers would come up as well please. We're going to celebrate God's grace.
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We're going to celebrate our unity in Jesus Christ. We're going to celebrate the victory that Christ has accomplished.
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We're going to celebrate the truth that we are not a people who someday hope for maybe, probably, a salvation that comes.
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We're not a people that hope someday maybe victory over evil is won.
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We are a people who are celebrating salvation and victory right now.
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There's no better way for us to kick off this New Year the gathering around the Lord's table, in remembrance, in thanksgiving, in celebration, Jesus Christ has won.
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His church is unstoppable.
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I ask you to bow your heads.
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I'm going to lead us in a prayer.
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And then as the ushers pass out the elements, the worship team is going to play it over you for a few moments, and then when everybody has the elements, hold on to them and as a sort of a sign of unity let's take the Lord's Supper together celebrating the finished work of Jesus Christ the unstoppable victory that he gives us Church. Father in heaven we thank you for your faithfulness.
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Father just as it would be so foolish for a man to go fishing without a fishing pole it is so foolish for us to try to do church stuff without your Spirit. So Father, we thank you. We've already received the promise. We thank you, Father, that the Holy Spirit is already present here. I pray, Father, for our church that we would model this church in Antioch, that we would be diligently and deliberately trying to tune in to listen. We are actively trying to listen through worship, through ministering, through fasting, through prayer.
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That we would be a people who are so seeking Your face and in tune with what You're trying to teach us as far as what direction we're to go, how we're to carry out the ministry that You've called us to.
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Help us, Father, to tune in.
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As we gather around Your table today, Father, I pray that this is not something we take lightly.
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Jesus commanded this.
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This is a time of incredible celebration and reflection.
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A time of proclaiming the Lord's death until He comes.
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We praise You, Father, for every perfect provision that You've already made for us.
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Let us walk in these.
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Let us walk in the Spirit, we pray in Jesus' name.
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Amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Acts 13:1-12
Make note, as you read, what specific things the Holy Spirit is doing for the church when He is specifically mentioned.
What 3 things are we to do to "tune in" - to best hear the Holy Spirit and follow His guidance? List them and discuss how to do them and why God uses these things to help us be "tuned in" to the Spirit. (hint: Acts 13:2-3, one of these things is mentioned twice!)
How does the Holy Spirit fight our spiritual wars? How do you know when you are in a spiritual war (Acts 13:6-11)?
What astonished Sergius Paulus (Acts 13:12)? What is amazing to you about the Gospel?
Breakout Questions:
Please pray for our ministry year. Lots of big events planned, pray we see the Holy Spirit empowering us, fighting our battles, and saving souls!