I wanna start by asking you a question. Have
you ever tried driving when you're exhausted?
Maybe you went on a long trip and you had to
make your way home, but the week was really long.
It was really exhausting, but you still got to
get home. So you decide we're going to tough
it out. And so maybe if you're like me, you stop
at the gas station, you grab an energy drink,
some dill pickle sunflower seeds, and you get
on the road. Maybe you'll stop at a Bucky's and
you'll get a brisket sandwich, some chips and
some beaver nuggets. If you know, you know. Maybe.
You'll turn the music up really loud. You'll
roll the windows down. You'll blare the music
so that you can't hear anything. You can't even
hear yourself think. And you'll scream, sing
along with it all in an effort to stay awake.
And it might work for a while. Like you may get
pretty far. You may even get home. But what does
that really do for you? And what does it really
do to you? Think about the junk we fill ourselves
with to try to stay awake. You put your body
through this agony of feeding it, this junk,
and you've damaged your ears with the loud music,
and you've wore out your voice because you were
scream singing the whole way. And you don't really
know how you got home because you dozed off a
couple times, but you made it. You just put your
life and everybody else on the road's life in
danger. I want you to think about what it's like
to drive exhausted. And then I want you to think
about what it's like When you've had a good night's
sleep and you're not exhausted and you had a
good breakfast and you get on the road and maybe
you've got a cup of coffee or maybe you just
got a water because you feel like you're fueled
for this journey. It's different, right? It's
the same drive. It's the same car. It's the same
you, but a completely different experience. You
know, a lot of people. are trying to live life.
And you may be in this situation where you're
trying to live life the first way. You're trying
to live life full of junk and you're doing everything
you can. You're white knuckling down the road
so that you can just make it to the next day,
make it to the next destination, make it to the
end. You're relying on your own efforts. You're
doing whatever you can just to get through. And
sadly, I think that's especially true for a lot
of us as we try to follow Jesus. and as we try
to live good lives. But what I hope we can understand
more today is that our problem isn't needing
better techniques. It's not needing different
strategies. It's not needing to try harder. It's
not needing to do better. It's simply needing
power. It's needing a better fuel system. It's
needing something better than the Red Bull. It's
needing something better than my own strength
and my own power. It's needing... God's power,
a much better power than anything I could ever
produce on my own. So I want us to start looking
at Luke chapter 24. We're closing in on the end
of our series in the gospel of Luke. And so we're
going to read this first passage. If it's underlined
and you'd like to, I'd love for you to read it
with me. If not, then that's on you. All right.
So here we go. Luke 24, starting in verses 36,
going through 43. As they were talking about
these things, Jesus himself stood among them
and said to them, peace to you. But they were
startled and frightened and thought they saw
a spirit. And he said to them, Why are you troubled?
And why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my
hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch
me and see. For a spirit does not have flesh
and bones as you see that I have. And when he
had said this, he showed them his hands and his
feet. And while they still disbelieved for joy
and were marveling, he said to them, Have you
anything here to eat? And they gave him a piece
of broiled fish. And he took it and he ate it
before them. So right there, Jesus again is proving
that he's alive, but now he's doing it to all
of these disciples that are in this room. He
shows up, he proves that he's alive and not only
that he's alive, but that he has power over death.
And they're afraid because they haven't quite
seen him yet. They know he's not in the tomb
anymore, but they haven't all seen Jesus. And
so when he shows up in this room, they're thinking,
is this a ghost? Like, how'd he get in here?
The door's closed, the door's locked. How'd he
get in here? So they're thinking it's a ghost,
but he responds with, peace to you. And then
he points to his wounds. He eats some food so
that they can see that it's really him in the
flesh. And he says, does a ghost, does a spirit
eat? Does it have wounds? Does it have flesh
that you can touch? So he wants them to understand
that he's defeated death because until Easter,
until that resurrection day, death had never
lost. It had always won. It had an undefeated
record. But Jesus, in all of his power, fully
displayed in the resurrection, wants them to
see what the power of God can do. And if he has
power over death, if Jesus has power over death,
then everything he says and everything that he
does carries divine and supreme authority. Because...
I don't know about you, but if I see somebody
take the beating and die the death that Jesus
died and then he rises again, I'm going to follow
that guy. I'm going to follow the guy that can
defeat death, especially if that guy promises
me that I can defeat death too. I'm going to
follow him. And so that's what happens here.
And that matters because Jesus is about to do
some teaching in verses 44 through 48 that I
believe could only be trusted. if it was from
someone with that kind of power, someone that
is truly God. So let's read the rest of this
portion. Then he said to them, these are my words
that I spoke to you while I was still with you,
that everything written about me in the law of
Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be
fulfilled. And then he opened their minds to
understand the scriptures. And he said to them,
thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer
and on the third day rise from the dead, and
that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should
be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning
from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.
So Jesus connects the law of Moses, and he connects
the prophets and the Psalms, and he brings it
all together, all pointing to the suffering that
they foretold, all pointing to the death that
they foretold, and all pointing, most importantly,
to the resurrection that they foretold. And all
of it was so that man could be forgiven of sin
and restored to relationship with God. That was
the point of it all. And that's good news. And
that good news message is something that we have
to proclaim and not just has to be proclaimed,
but proclaimed to everyone everywhere for all
time. That is a message that must be shared.
And we can ask the question, well, who's going
to proclaim it? Well, Jesus says, you're going
to proclaim it. You are. I am. We are going to
proclaim it. Because we're witnesses. That's
what he says. And I'm going to take him at his
word. We are witnesses of what has happened,
of the fulfillment of the law, of the fulfillment
of the prophets. We are witnesses. And witnesses
have a responsibility, right? Like think about
a witness in a legal sense is someone who is
called upon to testify. And if you're called
upon to testify, you're being called on to bear
witness or give evidence about. A truth. So we've
got to tell the truth. So we've all been called
on as witnesses. We're on the stand and we're
being questioned by the world, by the people
around us, by our relationships. Everyone that
sees our lives is questioning what do they know
about the truth? What do they know about this
case? And so Jesus is telling them, you've got
a message to share and you've seen it with your
own eyes. You are an eye. witness. And so you're
going to share that message, but not just yet.
I want you to see what he says in verse 49 and
behold, I'm sending the promise of my father
upon you, but stay in the city until you are
clothed with power from on high. Something I
want you to hear this morning is that calling
requires empowerment. We have not been called
to testify in a case where we are not offered
protection. We've not been called to testify
in a case where we're not offered power. I want
you to think of it like this. If I hire a contractor
to build a house for me, then I have to supply
the materials, or at least I have to give him
some money so that he can get his hands on it
and get some extra hands so that they can build
the house. I've got to give him the resources
to do this. Likewise, Jesus is commissioning
his followers to go into all nations, to go to
every people everywhere and proclaim, testify.
the good news message. Living lives that proclaim
a good, holy, and living God. But they have to
be given the resources to do that. And he refers
to this promise. He refers to this promise of
power, of being clothed with power from on high.
And so when we think about, well, what's he talking
about? It's really simple. It's the Holy Spirit.
It is the Spirit of God being promised to be
poured out on all people. There are several passages
in the Old Testament that speak directly to this.
From Isaiah to Ezekiel, God says over and over
again, I am going to pour out my Spirit on my
people. If you're a child of God, then you count
as his people. And he's going to, well, he's
already poured his Spirit out onto you. But I
especially love this passage in Joel 2, verses
28 -29. And it shall come to pass afterward that
I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. Your
sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your
old men shall dream dreams, and your young men
shall see visions. Even on the male and female
servants in those days, I will pour out my Spirit.
See, the plan was always to fill all who follow
Jesus. All who... accept this good news to fill
those people with the Holy Spirit so that we
could carry out the life that Jesus has called
us to. Because that life's not easy. That life
is not easy to fulfill. It's not an easy walk
to go into this world and all of its dangers
and all of the scariness and worries that we
might have. It's not easy, but God has promised
power because power is required to live lives
that testify the good news. I want you, using
this kind of legal idea, I want you to think
about a good crime movie. And in this movie,
there's probably a prosecutor who feels like
they have got the smoking gun. They have got
the surefire eyewitness that knows exactly what
happened, that saw it with their own eyes, that
if they testify, case solved. And that's good.
Until the crime boss comes around and he threatens
the eyewitness. And he maybe says, if you testify.
and you get me in trouble, I'll do damage to
you. Or maybe he doesn't threaten the eyewitness
with damage to them, but he threatens damaging
their family or hurting their family. And so
if you testify, it's going to be bad news for
your family. Or if you testify, it'll be bad
news for your career or bad news for your social
life. And so he puts this fear. in the witness
so that now the witness is discouraged from testifying.
And if it does testify, it's not going to testify
the whole truth because that's scary. Witnesses
need courage and courage comes from power because
in this life, there is a very real enemy who
will use fear. He will use doubt and he will
use pressure and he'll use insecurity to keep
us from testifying, to keep us quiet. And I do
believe that for far too long, Satan, the ultimate
crime boss, has been trying to keep witnesses
of the good news quiet. And because he has been
successful in keeping some of us quiet, we have
seen the kingdom not grow like it's supposed
to. You think about the church in Acts. I can't
wait until we get into our Acts series. The church
in Acts was not scared of what Rome was going
to do to them. They weren't scared of what the
enemy was going to do to them. They weren't scared
of what it would bring for their lives. They
weren't scared if they would go hungry. They
weren't scared if they would die because they
knew where their power came from. And if they
could trust in that power, then they could be
fearless. And so we need, witnesses need power.
And that's why the Spirit's power matters. That's
why this promise is so important because Jesus
isn't interested in sending us out unprepared.
He's not interested in sending us out unequipped.
He is giving us everything we need. The disciples,
they've already seen this power displayed. They
watched Jesus face temptations. They watched
Jesus experience hardship and experience grief.
They saw... the Son of God on earth endure unimaginable
suffering and a gruesome death, and yet he still
fulfilled his mission. He still spread the good
news. And how did he do it? Through the power
of God. And that's the exact same power he's
promising them. And what's true for them is true
for us. If they get power, we get power. If this
promise was going to be poured out to all who
are in Christ, then we have access to it. With
that said, I want you to think about the difference
between maybe rowing a boat and sailing. So where
I grew up on the coast, we had a lot of people
that had sailboats. They sailed and they had
sailing camps in the summer where kids could
learn how to make a sailboat work. But me, I
liked kayaking. I liked a good little rowboat.
And so I would take my kayak and I'd go out on
the gulf and I would paddle out into the water
and it was awesome. But it was also really tiring.
It was hard. And, you know, at the end of the
day, I wouldn't have gotten very far because,
you know, you're swimming against the tide. And
so I wouldn't have gotten very far. My muscles
are sore. And then I got to paddle back and it's
kind of difficult. But then I'd look out across
the water and I'd see somebody in a sailboat
and they are flying. They are going way faster
than I am. And they look like they are having
a way better time. than I was. And they were
just like sitting there drinking drinks and eating
snacks while I'm sitting here struggling to row.
I want you to hold on to that thought because
there's a difference there, right? The difference
in paddling your own boat and letting out the
sails and letting the wind take you way faster.
The difference is the power source. Instead of
relying on the strength of one man or relying
on the strength of one woman or relying on the
strength of a couple people, we're relying on
one of the strongest power sources in the world,
wind. And so when it comes to our walk with Christ,
am I relying on my power or am I relying on his?
Am I relying on my own strength or am I relying
on God's strength? You know, the God that created
the universe and shaped the earth. With his own
hands? The God that formed the most complex systems
in the world with his own mind and his words?
Yeah, that God is offering us a power like his
own. So am I going to rely on mine or his? Well,
the choice there should be easy. But then the
next question is, well, how do I access that
power? Well, the first thing I want us to talk
about is who has access to that power? Because
for the followers, they're looking at Jesus and
he's saying, this promise has been made to you.
And they're like, well, to all of us or to just
some of us? Like are the 12 the only ones who
are going to get the power or do we all get the
power? Well, the Old Testament says all. And
Jesus says all. And so when we say who has access,
what I would say is the children of God. In the
Old Testament, that would be Israel. But in the
New Covenant, it's the disciples of Christ. It's
all who have given their lives to Jesus. That
is who has access to this power. So before we
can talk about living in this empowered way,
we have to ask, am I a follower of Jesus? Am
I a disciple? And I want to define... Who a disciple
is, who a follower of Jesus is. And the easiest
way I could think to do that is to look at what
Peter says in Acts chapter two, verse 38 through
39. Repent and be baptized every one of you in
the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness
of your sins and you will receive the gift of
the Holy Spirit for the promises for you and
for your children and for all who are far off.
So when Peter's saying that, he's saying that
to thousands of people. He's not just saying
it to the 12. He's saying it to thousands of
people. And what he's saying is, is if you will
repent, if you'll turn away from your sin, if
you will be baptized, die to yourself, rise to
new life, you have access not just to forgiveness
of sins. Yeah, that's important. And that is
a very good thing. But also to the Spirit's power.
And then that day, 3 ,000 people were baptized.
And he says, Those 3 ,000 people, they get power.
And then who else? Their children. In other words,
the people that they disciple and bring into
a relationship with Christ, they get power. And
who else? Oh, well, all who are far off. Essentially,
he's saying everyone who comes to know Jesus,
gives their life to him, surrenders, gets access
to the Spirit's power, and it all starts with
belonging to Jesus. That's pretty simple, right?
You mean all I've got to do is join the club
and I get access to this power? Yes. It starts
with belonging to Jesus. If you want to live
in the Jesus way, you have to first give yourself
fully to Jesus. And when you do that, the promise
will be given to you. And I think there's some
in this room that are trying to live that exhausted,
driving life, that are trying to fuel themselves
and just white knuckle their way through, and
hopefully they'll make it to their destination.
There are some of us that we haven't actually
received this power, this better fuel. And you
might believe in God. You may show up to church.
You may listen to the songs. You may even sing
the songs. You may read your Bible and do the
devotionals. But you haven't truly surrendered
to God yet. And you haven't turned away from
the sinful and selfish ways of this world. You
haven't truly become an apprentice of Jesus that
is following him so that you can learn his ways
and then go do his ways. And as you try to live
this life without the right power source, you
find it impossibly hard to look like Jesus. And
if you're feeling like it's hard, I want you
to consider what Paul says in Romans 8, verse
9. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ
does not belong to Him. That's a hard verse to
read. Because there's a lot of us. That maybe
we're walking and we feel like, I don't feel
like I've been powered. I don't feel like I have
this power source that Jesus is talking about,
that Paul is talking about, that Peter is talking
about. I don't feel like I've got that power.
And so we have to wrestle with the question,
do we belong to Jesus? Have we? Repented, turned
away from the sinful natures of this world. Have
we been baptized, made the choice to die to ourselves
and live for him? Have we given ourselves to
belonging to Jesus? And I'll say it. There are
some people that have been in church for 50 years
and they have not belonged to Jesus. And that's
okay. It's not too late to start. I'm not asking
you to do more. I'm not asking you to try harder.
I don't think that's what the Bible is asking
you to do either. What I think, what I believe
actually, is that Jesus is calling us to simply
belong to him. It's about belonging. It's very
possible that some of us have been near Jesus,
like we've been kind of following him in the
shadows, or maybe we've been a little bit closer.
Maybe we've been a part of the church. We've
been in the church our whole lives and, you know,
we've done the churchy things. We've been near
Jesus, near his people. We've seen the power
from afar maybe, but we haven't accessed the
power. I don't want to be in that boat. I don't
want to look back on my life and say I had access
to the power, but I never grabbed it. I never
used it. It's like if you've got lights in your
house, but you never turn them on. And so you're
just walking around in the dark and you're stubbing
your toes and you're bumping your knee on the
door. And it's like, hey, turn the lights on.
And for a long time, the church has had the lights
off. We have not been living with this power.
We've been wasting it because we've just been
letting it go unused. That's not what the church
in Acts did. That's not what Jesus called his
followers to do. There is a reason that they
took over Rome, but we can't even take over our
county because we haven't been using the power.
And then there's those of us who we are in Christ,
but we still don't feel empowered because we're
trying to do things on our own. We're trying
to row our own boats. We're trying to focus on
the rule keeping and making sure we check every
box. And I'm not saying that checking the boxes
is a bad thing. I'm not saying that making sure
we follow the rules is bad, but what I'm saying
is it cannot be about our own effort. We need
to work with, we need to rely on the Spirit.
Because on our own, I don't know if you've ever
known this, but on your own, you're weak. On
my own, I'm weak. And I find that to be true
when I'm alone. Because when I'm alone, in a
situation, when I'm alone in a struggle, when
I'm alone in my fear and my worries, that's when
I feel the worst. But do you know the difference
when you're facing a trouble and you've got friends
around you? But now imagine if you could not
just have friends around you, but you could have
the ultimate power source within you. You'd never
have to be alone. And you never have to worry
about how am I going to make it through this?
You can simply say, God, I know you will bring
me through this. I don't have to rely on my own
strength. I can rely on God's. And I say all
that to say, for those of us who have committed
to following Jesus, the issue is not the absence
of power. It's there. It's just we don't use
it. Like I said, we leave the lights off and
we walk around in the dark and we hurt ourselves
and we waste the ability that we could have.
It's being on a sailboat, but having the sails
tied down instead of letting them out. And I
mean that individually and collectively. Like
I said, I think the church for far too long has
taken the Holy Spirit and we've either been afraid
of it or we've abused it. But either way, we
have not used the power for what it was made
for. And because of that, we have suffered. So
the question we ask this morning, if we are in
Christ, if we have given our lives to Jesus,
if we call ourselves Christians, the question
we ask then is how do we raise the sails? How
do we raise the sails so that we're not just
floating about, but that we are being pushed
by power? Another way to say that is how do we
position the sails so that we can be moved by
God? Well, the first way is we start with prayer.
In Luke 11, verse 13, Jesus, He's telling the
disciples, and He's talking to them, and He says,
how much more will the Heavenly Father give the
Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? And so we start
by asking. We just ask God. We ask him to show
his power. We ask him to show his might. God,
would you show up in this moment, in this situation?
Would you take control of my life? And you steer
the ship and you push the ship and not my power,
but yours. God, would you take over? Can you
imagine if we would just ask God to show his
power? And we then have to surrender. Maybe we
surrender first and then we pray. Either way,
surrender is a part of the equation. We take
our hands off. the paddle and we let the sail
out and we say, I'm not doing this on my own.
God, I'm going to work with you. I'm not going
to work against you. I'm going to work with you.
We surrender control. We deny ourselves so that
Jesus can take the lead, so that Jesus can take
control because God isn't going to force his
way in. God's not going to rip your hand off
the paddle. You have to surrender. So many times
I think we want to just say, God, if it's your
will, you'll do it. But we've got to say, God,
I'm not making my will. It's your will. I'm not
doing my thing. You do yours. We surrender. Because
truthfully, if we're filling our tanks with junk,
if we're trying to paddle by our own strength,
we cannot be surprised when our lives do not
look how they're supposed to. We can't be surprised
when the lives around us aren't being changed
because we haven't done anything. We can't be
surprised when we're not operating the way we're
made to when we are putting bad power sources
in our operating system. And because Christ is
our access point to the Spirit, because He is
the way we get to the Spirit, it's in our best
interest to stay connected to Him. There is no
way... We can have the power of God without being
connected to God. So it is in our best interest
to stay connected. In John 15, Jesus says, whoever
abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears
much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing.
He doesn't say, apart from me, you can't do all
that you were supposed to. He doesn't say, apart
from me. You won't meet your potential. He doesn't
say apart from me, you'll only be able to do
a little bit. He says apart from me, you can
do, say that again, nothing. Try again. Apart
from me, you can do nothing. No thing. Do I need
to define that for you? Y 'all got it. We got
it? Okay. So we have to place our trust in him.
We have to abide, be in him. If we want our lives
to bear the fruit that they're supposed to. And
that fruit. We sing the song in our house every
night. The love, joy, peace, patience. Can anybody
finish that one for me? Kindness, okay? Gentleness,
faithfulness, self -control. Somebody skipped
goodness, but that one's in there too. Y 'all
need to be good. Those fruit, the fruit of the
Spirit, that all comes from the Spirit's power.
It is only an access from... By accessing Christ,
we can access the Spirit. That is the only way
we can bear that kind of fruit. And I don't know
about you, but that kind of fruit sounds a lot
like Jesus. And if I want to look like Jesus
so that my life can proclaim His goodness, so
that my life can testify Him, I need the power.
I need the Spirit. Because of Christ, we have
access to a power that can make us look like
Jesus. like him. I'm an ugly dude. It is only
by the grace of God that I got a wife. I would
love, I would love to look like Jesus because
I don't know what he looked like physically,
but I wasn't saying I'm an ugly dude physically.
Some of y 'all may have amen that one, but I
lack patience and I lack gentleness and I lack
self -control. I don't always show kindness.
I'm not always as faithful as I should be. I'm
not good. But I have a hope because of the promise
from God that if I will rely on the Spirit's
power, one day I will look like Jesus. I will
be good and I will be kind and gentle and self
-controlled and patient. And Eliza is saying,
please hurry up, God. We'll look like Jesus if
we'll rely on his power. We'll live lives that
stay faithful to him when things get hard. We'll
live lives that love people who don't deserve
it, who make it hard to love. We will live lives
that have peace in the midst of the chaos. We
will live lives that resist temptation when it
tries to control us. We will have lives that
speak truth when it could cost us everything.
If we will rely on the Spirit's power. So this
morning, I know there's some of us that are,
we're living that kind of life that is still
trying to drive exhausted. We're still trying
to do our own thing, fueled by the junk of this
world instead of by the power of the Spirit of
God. And if you're in that boat, if you're still
trying to live that life where you're rowing
all on your own, I'm asking you to just let go.
Let go of trying to control your own destiny.
Let go of trying to control your own power source
and let God fill your sails with his power because
it will take you farther, faster, and way better
than you could ever do on your own. And so for
the follower of Jesus, I'm asking you to rely
on his power. And for those who haven't quite
given their lives to Christ, my invitation for
you is just like it was for Peter in Acts chapter
two. Come, turn your life away from this world.
Repent of your sins. Give up the ways of your
flesh. Be baptized. Murder the self and rise
to a life that lives and looks like Jesus. The
choice is yours. Are you going to operate on
your own power? Or are you going to choose to
live a life that's far more peaceful? far more
good, far more patient, far more kind? Are you
going to live a life that is easier to resist
temptation? Are you going to live a life that
can stay faithful? What life will you live? And
that is ultimately answered by what power source
you'll accept. And so the choice is ours. Are
we going to live powered by the Spirit of God
or are we going to keep tucking it back in a
cubby like it doesn't exist? Whatever you choose
to, or however you choose to respond, whatever
you need, wherever you're at this morning, we
invite you to respond to the invitation as we
stand and as we sing.