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He was a very disillusioned young man.

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He related that sometime earlier in his life he would come forward in a service.

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A counselor had dealt with him personally from the word of God.

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But in dealing with him the counselor had said, if you will trust Jesus Christ as your

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Savior, all of your problems will be over.

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And now some time had passed, his wife had gone through with the divorce that she had

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threatened earlier.

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He still struggled with his alcohol problem.

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And he said, the Christian life may work for some people, but it just doesn't work for

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me.

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I don't know where the idea came from that when one trusts Jesus Christ all of his problems

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are finished.

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But I wish somehow we could take that idea and stuff it back in its bottle and throw

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it away.

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Because the fact is when one comes to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ there is no guarantee

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that all of his problems will be over.

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Becoming a Christian does not relieve one of a single potential problem, trial, or pressure

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in life.

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Thank God it does settle some things, it settles the eternal questions, the matter of forgiveness

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of sins, the sins that separate us from God, the sins for which Jesus died on the cross.

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What a wonderful provision God made in the death of his Son that our sin question could

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be once and for all dealt with at that point that we trust in the Lord Jesus.

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That is a question that is settled forever when one is saved.

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And then the question of one's eternal destiny.

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To know that one will enjoy heaven instead of suffering the judgment of hell.

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That is settled forever when one trusts the Lord Jesus Christ.

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And becoming a Christian does not provide escape from the problems of life.

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The Christian is not in a bubble, protected from those experiences that are common to

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all persons.

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The greatest of saints have their struggles to face and their battles to fight just like

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all of the rest of us.

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However, becoming a Christian does provide for life's problems, challenges, and opportunities

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something that one is totally without otherwise.

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And that is the power of God operating in our lives to help us.

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Now is it just my imagination or is there a ringing?

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Do you hear that?

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I don't know if we can do something about that or not.

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We'll try.

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I thought it was my hearing aid for a moment there.

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Becoming a Christian does provide something for life's problems, challenges, and opportunities

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which otherwise we would be totally without.

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And that is the supernatural divine power of God operating in the inner person.

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The Christian possesses resources of the spirit that mystify the ungodly.

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God provides power for life's pressures.

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And you and I can learn to draw upon that resource every day of our lives.

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I'd like for us to consider several things that need to be examined in light of that

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statement so that we might learn how to draw upon those resources.

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First of all, let's consider the source of the power.

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Our power is not in self-sufficiency, but rather in Christ's sufficiency.

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We're not talking about generating the power within ourselves to help us through the tough

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times.

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We're not talking about picking ourselves up, dusting ourselves off, and starting all

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over again, as the old song used to say.

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We're talking about a power that invades our lives at the moment of salvation.

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The source of the power is Jesus Christ and not ourselves.

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There are three words that relate to power in verse 10.

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Notice Ephesians chapter 6.

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I didn't tell you what chapter.

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Our memory verse for today.

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Finally, my brethren, he says, be what?

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Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.

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There are three words there that relate to power.

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The first one is the verb.

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It's a command.

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And it says, be strong.

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In dunamao is the word.

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It comes from the word from which we get dynamite or dynamo.

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And it means to be strengthened.

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It's the same word as Philippians 4.3 uses.

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I can do all things through Christ who, what?

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Strengthens me.

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It's the very same word.

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Then there is the word power or strength.

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The original word is kratas.

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It refers to power that is manifested, power that is measured out, power that is exercised.

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And then the final word in my translation might is the word iskus, which refers to ability

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or power that one has inherently in his possession.

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It may be hidden.

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It may be invisible, but it's ready for action.

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It's power in reserve.

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And so if we were to somehow try to paraphrase the verse, we might say it this way, and be

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strengthened in the Lord and in the exercised power flowing from his great reservoir of

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strength.

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For that's the meaning of it.

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The source of the power is Jesus Christ.

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Power is not an entity in itself, but it comes from our union with Christ.

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In other words, it's not as though Jesus is over here and the power is over here.

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The two are inseparable.

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There was a group of people who learned this the hard way in the book of Acts.

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Seven brothers, their father's name was Sceva, might be appropriate to mention that since

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it's Father's Day.

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They were all Jews and they were in a profession called exorcism, that is part of their business

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was relieving people of demon spirits that oppressed them.

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In their ministry in Ephesus, they noticed the power that came from a man named Paul

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who was ministering there.

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He would name the name Jesus and demon spirits would flee immediately.

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They said, we want that power.

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They went out trying to exercise the name Jesus, but in their minds, they were separating

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the power from the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

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That cannot be done.

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When they attempted on an occasion to exercise a demon through a man, the demon said, Jesus

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I know and Paul I recognize, but who are you?

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And with that, the demon leaped upon the seven men all at once, stripped them, beat them

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up and they fled out of the house.

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It is a serious mistake to try to separate the power from the person of the Lord Jesus

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Christ.

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It is our union with Christ that puts us in touch with God's power.

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It is the enthralling Holy Spirit who personally brings to us that power.

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To the apostles, Jesus said, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.

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The Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost and permeated them with power.

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The Holy Spirit comes into the heart of every new believer and at that moment, all of the

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power of God is resident within that believer.

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It's there, may not be used, but it's there.

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The source of the power is the Lord.

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Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.

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But I'd like you to think with me secondly about the significance of the power.

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We must not overlook this significance as it relates to our personal lives.

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The power of God gives us the ability to stand victoriously in spiritual battle.

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It gives us the ability to be useful and fruitful as witnesses of Jesus Christ proclaiming His

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word.

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But there's a third sense in which it is very significant and it's the one I want to focus

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on this morning.

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The power of God enables us to live like the Lord Jesus.

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That's what I want us to think about regarding the significance of the power in our lives.

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The significance of the power of God is that it transforms you and me to be like the Lord

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Jesus.

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It is a revolutionary power, a power that overthrows the old actions and the old patterns,

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replacing them with new ones.

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No longer does the stamp of sin have its way in us, but we have the molding work of the

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Spirit of God creating Christ inside of us in our character so that we become new wives

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and new husbands.

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And the power of God makes us new daddies and new mommies, new sons, new daughters,

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new brothers, new sisters, new friends.

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We are a new creation because the power of God is active in our lives.

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The significance of the power is that it enables us to do kind deeds that meet the needs of

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others even if we don't like them or even if they mistreat us.

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Or should they not appreciate our efforts on their behalf, we nonetheless do the kind

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deeds for them.

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That's love.

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The power of God in us enables us to delight in God with an inner satisfaction even when

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our circumstances are disappointing, uncertain, or threatening.

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That inner delight, that's joy.

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The power of God within us enables us to experience calmness of Spirit, resting in assurance of

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God's sovereign loving care even when we're faced with heartache, with loss, or being

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treated unfairly.

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That calmness of Spirit, that's peace.

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The power of God in us enables us to endure and to hold out from reacting in anger, frustration,

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or retaliation even when we're annoyed or opposed or challenged.

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That's what we call patience.

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The power of God within us enables us to display a courteous, thoughtful disposition, being

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considerate and compassionate even when we're confronted by uncaring, demanding people.

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Or when we're overwhelmed by the pain and the hurt of others to reach out to them in

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kindness.

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The power of God enables us to prove active and energetic as a force for good, for honesty,

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morality.

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Even when we are faced with selfishness, impurity, greed, and dishonesty in others.

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But when we are confronted by lethargy and lack of involvement on the part of others,

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the power of God enables us to go on to prove active and energetic as a force for good.

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That's goodness.

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The power of God within us enables us to prove trustworthy and dependable.

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Keeping our commitments even when doing so means that we do not do something that we

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would rather do.

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Or when it means that we pass by an opportunity that would have brought us advantage, we keep

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our commitments and our word.

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That's faithfulness.

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The power of God within us enables us to manifest a quiet, submissive spirit, refusing to vent

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an outburst or to be reactionary and violent even when we feel great stress and tension

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from our relationships and circumstances.

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That submissive, gentle spirit is gentleness.

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The power of God enables us to govern and to master our passions, drives, and appetites,

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bringing them into check even when we feel they're a luring pull or hear their siren

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voices, ruling us to self-fulfillment.

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That's self-control.

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You may have recognized those nine qualities, the fruit of the Spirit.

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You see, the significance of the power is that it enables you and me to live like Jesus

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did.

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The power of God produces through our character the fruit of the Spirit.

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The power of God works in us to cause us to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this

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present age.

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He enables us to stand strong against pressure even if it means we stand alone.

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The power of God working in us enables us to swim against the current of the trends

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even if it means being different.

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The power of God working within us enables us to soar on eagles' wings even when others

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are tossed and driven by the blast of life's storms.

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My Christian friend, this power makes you a living testimony of Jesus in a world that

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sorely needs to see him.

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This power of God makes you a transformer rather than a conformer.

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The fact is, though, that all of us fall short of its perfect expression in our lives.

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As much as we would desire to know it perfectly, all of us come short.

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My point this morning is this, that you and I can learn to experience more consistently

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God's power.

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We can learn to do that.

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How do we experience it more consistently?

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That brings us to our final point, and that is the secret of the power.

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It's not really a secret, except that often it is to us, and how to apply it, how to appropriate

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it.

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The secret of the power.

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How do I experience this power of God that resides in me and the person of the Holy Spirit?

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How can I get plugged into that resource so that it's flowing through my life, changing

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me, making me like Jesus, and enable me to minister to others with fruitful effectiveness?

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Or just three thoughts very quickly.

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One is, there must be a conscious yielding to the Holy Spirit.

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Unless there is that conscious yielding to the Holy Spirit, the power of God will not

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flow through us.

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The verb here is in the passive.

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Be strengthened in the Lord.

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I repeat, we're not pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps, but it says be strengthened

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in the Lord.

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In other words, we are passive.

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It's something that we experience that happens to us.

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We don't originate it.

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The Holy Spirit is the origin, the source of it.

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But we passively cooperate so that we are strengthened by the Spirit from within.

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Ephesians 5.18 puts it in a beautiful picture.

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It says, be filled with the Holy Spirit.

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The filling there is the picture of a sail on a boat.

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The boat is on the water, the wind blowing over it.

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But until the boat pulls up the sail, the boat will basically drift with the tide.

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But once the sail is up, it catches the wind, and then there is power to move the boat in

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the right direction.

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Likewise, you and I can have the Spirit's power within our lives.

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But until we, as it were, put the sail up, we will simply drift in our Christian lives.

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What is the sail?

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It is the attitude of yieldedness to the Lordship of Christ.

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It is saying to Jesus, I put you first and only as Lord.

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I take myself out of the picture.

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I'm off the throne of my life.

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You take charge.

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See your life as a great house with many rooms in it.

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Let there not be one room where Jesus is not allowed to enter and to do what he wants to

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do there.

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When you and I have that kind of an attitude, then the sail goes up.

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To use a different analogy, a great reservoir of water is dammed.

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It's held in abeyance.

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Tremendous energy just sitting there.

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And then a gate is opened somewhere in that dam, and the water floods down a conduit and

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goes into units with turbines and begins to turn the great turbines, which in turn turn

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the generators producing electricity.

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What's happened?

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That power in the great reservoir of water has now been allowed to be channeled down

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through the dam as it was made to do, and it generates power that you and I use.

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We need to open the gate.

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The Spirit of God as a reservoir is within us, but we open the gate when we yield ourselves

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to the Lordship of Christ.

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Then he is allowed to flow through us and to do his holy work.

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Open the gates.

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A second thought is that there must be time spent communing with God every day in the

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garden of our hearts.

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We talked about the garden last week.

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You and I need to cultivate a garden where we get alone with God every day.

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A place where just you and God talk together, quietly.

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Last Sunday we suggested a project for you to follow through on this week called journaling.

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I know that some of you did that because you shared with me during the week as we met your

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experience early on in the week regarding journaling.

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I hope many of you did that.

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Tonight in the service there will be an opportunity for some of you to share what it was like

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this week, journaling, keeping track of your garden experience this past week.

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I'm looking forward to that.

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That will be an exciting part of our evening service.

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Every day if you and I are serious about allowing the power of God to be released in our lives,

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there has to be that garden experience.

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A time when we quietly step aside from the busy affairs and the rush and the bustle of

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life and we step into that garden and we're quiet before God.

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We might say it this way, that keeps the gates open.

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If yielding to the Lordship of Christ opens the gate, it is that daily time of communion

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with him that keeps the gate open so that the water of the Spirit flows through us and

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does its work.

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Then a final thought.

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There must be quick acknowledgement of failures and sins.

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The very moment that we become aware that some sin has taken place in our actions, our

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words, at that instant we need to breathe a quick prayer to God and acknowledge what

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we've done.

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To say the same thing as he says or to confess that action, that word as being sin.

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To say to him that thought pattern that I allowed to develop in my life was unhealthy

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and sinful.

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Father, I acknowledge it.

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When you and I are careful to keep short accounts with God and we do not allow our sins to build

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up as it were, that keeps the gates open too.

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For it is sin that causes blockages in our lives.

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It's sin that hinders the Holy Spirit.

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The Holy Spirit, you know, is a person.

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He is not an it, a person.

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Just as you as a person can be hurt, can be grieved, so can the Holy Spirit.

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Our sin in mind causes him to be grieved or to be quenched.

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Is it not a sad commentary on our lives that when we sin, so often our first thought is,

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this makes me feel bad or I wonder if I'm going to get caught or how am I going to clean

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up this mess in my life?

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And actually the first thought ought to be, Jesus, that hurt you and I'm sorry.

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If you and I want to know the secret of the power, it's in opening the gate and then keeping

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it open and not allowing any obstacles or hindrances to build up to stop the flow of

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the Spirit.

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And I think it would be appropriate for us for just a moment to take a time out and allow

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the Spirit of God to search us.

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And if in fact there is some area of our life not yielded or there's some sin that hinders,

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if we failed in that quiet time, that we today begin afresh as we often have to do, surrendering

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to His Lordship, committing ourselves to that daily time and making sure there's nothing

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hindering.

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Would you bow with me please in prayer?

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Dear friend, take this moment to remove any blockages.

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If the Holy Spirit is grieved, He will tell you, listen to His voice.

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If there is something there that's believing Him, He will bring that incident to your mind

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right now.

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Please don't try to deny it or to push it away, but acknowledge it, confess it.

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And yield afresh to Christ's Lordship.

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Oh my friend, open the gate right now.

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Will you do that?

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Let there not be one room in your house that's locked to Jesus.

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Give it all to Him.

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Oh Lord Jesus, that we might know the fullness of your power, that we might enter into the

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secret of it and experience it, transforming our lives, making us like you.

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Amen.

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There is a project I'd like to suggest to you to follow up on this message, a way for

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you to apply practically in your life what we've talked about this morning.

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You may want to pull out the outline if you've not done that yet from the worship folder

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and just jot down two or three notes.

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The project for this morning is to think of two or three situations that you anticipate

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this coming week where you know already the pressure is going to be on you.

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It may be at work, at home, some other relationship, it may be some circumstances coming up in

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your life.

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Don't allow just general things to come to your mind, but try to be as specific as you

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can.

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Where do you know right now today that this coming week the pressure is going to be on

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you to compromise as a Christian?

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To do wrong.

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To depend upon yourself.

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To react in some un-Christ-like way.

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And once you have those two or three situations in mind, why don't you just write them down

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on paper?

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Now if it's the person sitting next to you, you may not want to write that down except

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abbreviated fashion, if that's your trial.

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But can you think already today of two or three situations where the pressure will be

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on this week?

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Now after you've isolated those, I want you to think about each one of them and ask this

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question, how would Jesus respond in that situation if he were there?

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What would Jesus do in that situation at work?

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How would he handle that co-worker?

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What would he say to the boss?

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What would Jesus do in that home situation where there's conflict?

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What would Jesus do when that pressure is on?

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Think about it.

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Again, not in general thoughts and don't allow these minutes just to pass daydreaming.

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What would Jesus do in those two or three situations that you can't anticipate?

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Then I would like for you to find some time today when you can get along with God in that

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garden that we've talked about and pray and talk to him about those situations that you

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anticipate and ask the Holy Spirit in advance to give to you the power to live as Jesus

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would in those moments that you've anticipated.

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Ask the Holy Spirit in advance to give you the power you need in those moments that you're

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anticipating to react as Jesus would.

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If you will do this, you're going to find some amazing things happening this week, transforming

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you perhaps, transforming people and circumstances.

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I challenge you to do this.

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Do not be robbed of this opportunity to see God's power at work in a specific way.

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And then the final step, if you are continuing to journal, which I hope many of you will,

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record those instances in your journal as they take place.

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Be transparent about them.

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How did you feel about it?

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Did good come out of it?

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How did the other person respond?

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What are the results?

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That's the project.

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Remember, the Holy Spirit will empower you if he is allowed to.

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You have to open the gate.

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But if you will open the gate, the flood gate, he will rush into your life and through your

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life, transforming you in the meantime and then working through your life to touch others.

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My friend, that's the power of God.

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Get in touch with it.

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The source of the power is Jesus himself.

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Be strengthened in the Lord.

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The significance of it is that it transforms you.

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And the secret of it is that by appropriating it, you can know the power of God this week

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in your life.

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Let's pray once more.

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Would you join me, please?

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Fathers, we bring this message time to a close.

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I want to thank you for the power that you've caused to dwell within us and the person of

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the Holy Spirit.

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Teach all of us, I pray, to draw upon your resources and not to be self-reliant only

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to fail.

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But may we know victories this week, more consistency because we're learning to draw

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upon our resources.

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Father, I pray that your power will be released from within to make us stand in the battle.

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May your power from within make us effective in our witness.

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May your power released from within to make us new in our character, just as one day we

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will be new in our bodies and be like the Lord Jesus.

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Lord, make us to experience, I pray, the joy of your power producing a perfect heart within.

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In Jesus' name, amen.

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Worrying Son, light of creation, grassy fields of velvet floor, silver clouds of shimmering

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curtain, is designed a perfect world.

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I'm amazed at His talents, standing up, I'm so great.

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Now my soul begins to sing out to the source from which it came.

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Bless the Lord who reigns in beauty.

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Bless the Lord who reigns with wisdom and with power.

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Bless the Lord who fills my life with so much love, he can make a perfect heart.

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Bless the Lord who reigns in beauty.

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Bless the Lord who reigns with wisdom and with power.

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Bless the Lord who fills my life with so much love, he can make a perfect heart.

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Bless the Lord who reigns in beauty.

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Bless the Lord who reigns with wisdom and with power.

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Bless the Lord who fills my life with so much love, he can make a perfect heart.

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Bless the Lord who reigns in beauty.

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Bless the Lord who reigns with wisdom and with power.

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Bless the Lord who fills my life with so much love, he can make a perfect heart.

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A perfect heart.

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A perfect heart.

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A perfect heart.