The Lord Our Provider

We have many needs in life.  However, if we are not careful, our life can become a version of seeing how many plates we can keep spinning.  In such cases we are driven to keep an innumerable amount of desires satisfied.  Of course, it is never enough.  If I only had more skill at this then I could be like so and so.  Have you ever stopped to think that this most likely is not God’s plan for us?  Scripture clearly states that God does not want man to worry about how his needs will be supplied.  As long as God is with us, we can trust in Him.

Another problem is that we can focus only on material needs and neglect the even more important spiritual needs.  We need spiritual sustenance and healing as well as physical.  As we look at Luke 9:10-17, we find Jesus ministering to both the physical and spiritual needs of the people.  In this passage the feeding of the 5,000 teaches us that we need not grumble about what we lack because God will always provide.

Jesus Has Compassion For Us

Luke’s account is brief compared to the other gospels.  In both Matthew and Mark we are told that Jesus was “moved with compassion.”  This is a hallmark of Christ.  He is deeply touched with what it means to be human and have need.  Though it may seem strange, the teaching that God took on a human nature makes sense in the light of compassion.  He can identify with our situation and cares for us.

In fact the reason Jesus had gone out into this uninhabited area was in order to be alone with his disciples.  They had been going throughout Israel ministering with Jesus and had just returned to him.  Jesus knew that they needed some time alone with him in order to be the receiving ones.  Humans were not designed to only be givers.  We are to also be receiving from God and from that supply giving to others.  So it is not just the crowds that need Jesus, but also his faithful workers.

Even Jesus himself later sends his disciples across the lake while he prays on the mountain alone.  This sets up a powerful understanding.  We all need to receive from God as individuals in a quiet secret place of our own.  From that place we can be an encouragement to our close friends and family.  This part is a two way street.  I am giving to them, but they are also giving to me.  The third layer is the one of the crowd.  These are people who have no relationship with us at all.  However, Jesus had compassion for them as well.  Notice how we often want to choose one over the other.  Jesus kept them all in balance because he truly did care for each one.  Sometimes we can let the sheer numbers of the crowd and the never ending need drown out our care for them.  The opposite is true as well.  Some people care more for the crowds than they do for those closest to them.  May God help us to love Him, our friends and family, and the unknown people around us.

These people were imposing on Jesus and his disciples.  But he had compassion on them.  Many of them would only follow him if he was doing miracles.  They would never enter his Church after his resurrection.  Some of them would stand in Jerusalem shouting, “Crucify Him!”  Yet, he had compassion.  As he ministered to Judas, knowing that he would betray him, so we must listen to the heart beat of how Jesus operated.  Jesus began teaching the people and healing those who needed healed.

Jesus Wants His Disciples To Have Compassion

As it approaches evening, the disciples come to Jesus with a practical concern.  He needs to tell the people to leave if they are going to find lodging and food for the night.  The area they were in was uninhabited.  But, Jesus turns this problem back on them.  “You give them something to eat.”  Jesus is not a dummy.  He understands that there is not enough food around.  He is testing them.  Another word for testing is “training.”  These disciples need to learn to operate from the same compassion and trust in God that Jesus had.

It starts with choosing to be a giver.  It is easy to always send people on their way and never ask the question, “Does God want me to give to them?”  Being a giver has nothing to do with how much you have to give, but with how much you care for the other person.  Even when we have much to give, we can operate from a “mentality of lack.”  People need Truth and Love even more than they need food and clothing.  We always have something to give.  Like Peter at the temple we can say, “Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee.”  Quit looking at what you don’t have as an excuse for your lack of compassion.  Rather, give what you can material or spiritual out of compassion.  Our heavenly Father is a great giver.  Look at all that He has provided on earth and throughout the universe.  To become like Him is to become a giver.  So make that choice.  You will find that when you become a giver, your out-of-control consumption is restrained.  Your mentality will not be about how little you have, but how much you can give.

Which points out, we shouldn’t worry about what we have to give.  Whatever it is, it is enough.  It is enough to help the other person.  You are not God and He doesn’t expect you to meet all of their needs.  We spend too much time bemoaning what we don’t have.  In truth we can actually rejoice in the little that we have.  Why?  We can rejoice because God’s supply will be easier to see.  Paul saw this when he said, “when I am weak then I am strong.”  He knew that his weakness would make God’s strength all the more obvious, which would then strengthen his faith and the faith of others.  When we are strong we delude ourselves into thinking it is all us.  When in truth God is even then helping us.

We need to also give in both material and spiritual things.  Different people tend to go one way or the other.  We either give $5.00 to someone and go on our way, or we hand them a Bible tract and go on our way.  I am not saying that either of these is wrong.  The real question is about our motivation.  God, how can I help this person?  Sometimes we need to stop giving people money and help them in other ways.  This takes true care and the wisdom of God.  Jesus was able to do both.  He fed the people food, but also taught them about the Kingdom of God.  Sometimes people do not realize that they have great spiritual need.  They may despise your attempts to minister to them spiritually.  Compassion should not be given because the recipient is so thankful.  It should be given because it is the right thing to do.

This Event Parallels Israel In The Wilderness

When you step back from this story, you realize that is practically a reenactment of Israel and Moses in the wilderness.  First, we have a people who go out to meet with God in the wilderness.  In the Exodus it was Israel leaving Egypt to follow Moses.  Here it is people who are hungry for God leaving the society of Israel behind to follow the Messiah.  In both cases it is a remnant of all the people in the land who follow God.  Today, the Church is the remnant of the tribes, tongues, and nations of the earth that have been called out of the world system in order to meet with God.

The second point is that God provides bread and meat for them.  In the exodus, they began to complain and God miraculously provided manna and quail as well as water.  Jesus of course takes 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish and feeds over 5,000 with it.  In fact in this case it is the Messiah who does the miracle.  Whereas Moses only told the people what God would do.  Even today, the material needs of God’s people are met by Him.  He promised that if we would put His Kingdom first, then He would provide our material needs.

The third point is that God provided Truth and Instruction for them.  Moses is known as the lawgiver because God gave his laws to Israel through him.  Here, Jesus instructs the people in the new society they are to become a part of, the kingdom of God.  It is easy to settle for bread and meat and to not care about the spiritual.  God is not content to just meet our material needs.  As Christians we can be guilty of being part of the religious crowd, but not really letting the teaching of Christ change our life.  Here is a question for you.  Do you interpret the Bible in the lens of what you want and feel?  Or, do you interpret your feelings and wants in the lens of Scripture?  Don’t be foolish and twist God’s Truth to fit what you want.  We are the ones who need to repent, not God.

In some of the other gospels we are told that the people continued to follow Jesus in the days after this great miracle, hoping for more bread and fish.  Yet, he rebuked them and said they needed to work as hard for spiritual food as they did for food for their stomach.  Thus commendation is for those who trust the Lord, not those who saw a miracle.  In days of the Exodus, all the people saw great miracles, but they perished in the desert because they did not have faith in God.  Faith turns away from grumbling and towards thanksgiving.  Faith turns away from complaining and towards rejoicing.  Faith turns away from disobedience and towards obedience.  Faith does not focus on our lack, but rejoices in His faithful supply.  The Lord is our provider and He has not failed us yet!

Lord our Provider Audio

Power and Authority Delegated

Today we will be looking at Luke chapter 9 and verses one through ten.  It is easy to think of the ministry of Jesus and his disciples in the sense that the disciples were just baggage that Jesus carried around with him.  However, in today’s passage we see that, even before the cross, Christ had sent them on missions in which they were able to do what Christ had been doing (to some degree).  How was this possible?  It was possible because Jesus had delegated to them his power and authority.

Power and Authority Delegated

In the first two verses we see that the word delegated is not used.  However, it clearly says that Jesus gave his disciples power and authority.  Of course, this is the very definition of delegation.  The word “power” focuses on the raw power to do something.  The disciples would have this “raw power” because the Holy Spirit would work through them.  Jesus was giving this to them.  The word “authority” focuses on the right or position that enables one to do something.  As personal representatives of Jesus, they are given the right to act on the behalf of Jesus in certain ways.

Now remember that Jesus has more than proven his power and authority by this point.  He has shown power over disease and nature.  He has also demonstrated power and authority over spiritual powers.  So when he tells them that he is “giving” them power we should sit up and take notice.  This somewhat amazing command is helped by the very nature of the one giving it.

Freeing a person from a spirit or from a virus is really quite similar.  A foreign entity is removed so that a person can operate as God intended them to do.  Yet, spirits do have sentience.  So Jesus tells them to cast out spirits and to cure diseases.  Yet, the authority and power is limited.  They are not told to take over the administration of Israel, or to command the Romans to leave Israel.  Thus true delegation is powerful and yet limited by the one who is giving it.  It is easy to do to dismiss the “backwards” notion of evil spirits.  However, those who have honestly researched into these things will find that too many things cannot be explained.  I won’t go into it this morning, but God’s Word warns us against opening ourselves up to evil spirits through drugs and occult rituals.  These things are ways that people give “permission” to evil entities to begin operating within them.  As our nation, more and more, rejects Jesus and God’s Word, we will begin to see more and more demonic activity.  Are you ready?

Now in verse two it mentions that they are to preach the Kingdom of God.  Thus while they do spectacular works of power, they are proclaiming a message about God’s Kingdom.  Israel had longed for the Anointed King or (Messiah) to come and rule with the righteousness of God.  His would be a just administration that would truly be God with us.  Jesus and his disciples proclaimed that the Kingdom of God was now here.  However, it has a present and a future sense.  In the spiritual, Jesus would take up rule in the hearts of his believers without an earthly throne.  By his Spirit in their hearts he would direct and rule over this kingdom from heaven.  This is not exactly what Israel was expecting.  They were looking for the Messiah to sit on a throne in Jerusalem and raise up Israel to rule over the world.  Now there is a future promise that Jesus will come back to earth in physical form.  He will also put down the armies of the nations of the world as they try to stop his coming.  Jesus will indeed rule in person on this earth one day.  But that day is not yet.  Thus there was a strong need for some powerful proof that the disciples were not just making up a likely fairy tale to explain why Jesus had “failed,” once he was crucified.

Don’t Worry About Provision

In verse three Jesus tells them not to stock up on things that they would normally take with them on a journey.  Why?  Material provisions and our worry about them can often get between us and God’s plan.  So, Jesus ensures that they will have to learn quickly how to trust God and Him alone.  In some ways not taking anything would make matters worse.  From day one they could worry about where their next meal would come from.  They could worry more.  But, as they found God supplying their needs they would grow in faith.  Sometimes God allows us to enter times that seem lean to us.  Yet, if we will trust Him, we will find that His supply will remain constant, though maybe not at the level we hope for.  If we remain thankful and faithful, we will become more like Christ and bring joy to our heavenly Father.

We also notice that God would provide through people.  This is seen in the following verses.  This too is a pitfall.  Will I become to lean on people more than God who opens their heart towards me?  What is my motivation?  Am I seeking to mooch off of people or even worse, fleece them?  The work of a minister is to be a humble one.  I am at the mercy and care of others.  I should never take advantage of that, nor become angry when it is not up to my liking.  If God calls you to full-time ministry then He will provide for you.  It will often come through the help of people who are thankful for your ministry on God’s behalf.  Do not let that corrupt you.  Rather continually give God thanks no matter what is given and minister freely to those who do not have.  Even if you are not called to full-time ministry, no matter what God calls you to do, He will provide.  You won’t have to shake people down, or manipulate them through better fundraising techniques.  You merely need to pray and be faithful at what He has called you to do.

Don’t Worry About How You Are Received

In verses 4-5 Jesus speaks about the kinds of reception they will receive.  Now when we say, “don’t worry about how people receive you,” it doesn’t mean you don’t care about how they respond.  But, it does mean we refuse to operate out of a method that will change the message in order to get more to receive us.  Jesus was rejected by the religious leaders because he pointed out their sins.  Some would receive the disciples.  Perhaps because of what was being preached and wanting to know more.  Or perhaps, because of a miracle that they had seen the disciples do.  They would find people who wanted to be a part of the kingdom of God and would invite them into their houses and feed them.

On the other hand some people would reject them.  Not all still believe there is such a thing as the Kingdom of God.  Perhaps they have grown cynical.  They would be rejected by individuals and yet, Jesus says that they might be rejected by whole villages.  The Gospel was not to be changed in order to appease them.  Rather, Jesus instructed his disciples to shake the dust off of their feet as they left town.  This is a reference to a custom of some religious Jews who, when they left Gentile cities, would shake off the dust from their feet as a sign that they wanted no contamination to cling to them.  Yet, here Jesus uses it as a sign that the disciples had been there and would leave evidence that God could point to as proof of the guilt of those who rejected them.  When we come in the name and manner of Jesus, He will deal with those who reject us.  We need not be bitter or compromising.

The Rulers of This World Perplexed

In verses 6-10, we see Herod perplexed.  Jesus is the king of the Kingdom of God.  However, the current King of Israel isn’t sure how to take him.  Herod is himself a pretender to the throne.  Given to him by Rome’s Ceasar, Herod had no true claim to Israel’s throne.  Yet, Jesus does not seem to be trying to take it.  He doesn’t “do politics” in a way that Herod understands.  Herod also seems to have some guilt about killing John the Baptist.  He conjectures that Jesus just may be John come back from the dead.

Although God works indirectly through world leaders, His primary tool in this world is His Church- people who are surrendered to His rule and mission in their life.  God has rejected the wise men and the movers and shakers of this world.  This perplexes them.  They cannot conceive that anything great can truly be done without them.  But God has pledged to do exactly this.  If you find yourself among the powerful of this world, humble yourself and beg of God for grace.  Jesus and His Kingdom will not be brought in by Herod, Ceasar, or the leaders of the world today.  Rather, He will do so through the most humble of the earth.  1 Corinthians 2:7- 8 says, “We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory.”

Just as Herod was perplexed with Jesus, so the spiritual powers behind him are at a loss as well.  The strategy of Jesus is quite different from the schemes and tricks of the devil.  In fact, had satan realized what crucifying Christ was doing for sinners, he most likely would have refrained from instigating the leaders against him.  But now Jesus has spiritually bound the strongman.  Those who know Christ are given the right and authority to preach the gospel on His behalf.  He also chooses to confirm this gospel through signs and wonders that he performs at his desire.  Yet, the battle is not completely over.  Even as satan is spiritually bound today and all are free to embrace Jesus, many still reject Christ.  Eventually God will let the world and its leaders have the way that they have desired, which will only lead to rapid ruin for this planet.  So until the Kingdom of God is materially instituted on this earth are you operating within it by the Spirit already?  Christ is still delegating today power and authority to His faithful disciples.  We must respond in a way that waits upon the Lord for direction as to how he has determined for us to serve him.  We must also be bold in this hour when the enemy wants to cause us to fear through intimidation.  Respond to the Spirit today by putting your faith in Jesus and becoming a proclaimer of the Kingdom of God.

Power Authority Delegated Audio

Stepping In His Steps

This weekend is Father’s Day and so I want to look at several verses in Psalm 37:23-24.  When Jesus called his disciples he used a certain phrase, “Come, follow me.”  Those who responded became his disciples.  Notice that this same thing is happening today, 20 centuries later.  Of course, Jesus is not physically here calling people.  But, the Holy Spirit is speaking to the hearts of individuals and through the lives of believers to call out to this world, “Come, follow me.”

Yet, this call to follow Jesus would be like asking a child to follow a professional rock climber.  Without help we are unable to follow Jesus.  Today’s passage makes it clear that those who respond to the call to follow Jesus are not left to do it in their own strength.  Rather, they are helped by God Himself.

The Good Man Fights the Good Fight

Verse 23 starts out by referring to a “good man.”  The word translated as good is a term that can also mean strong, as in strong for battle.  Because the context is not about physical strength it gets translated as “good” as in morally strong.  Perhaps it may be better to see it as strong in faith because that is what is in contention.  It is clearly a righteous man who trusts in the Lord that is in view.  In fact the whole chapter is a treatise regarding the righteous and the unrighteous.  So this is a good man, a man strong in his faith toward God. 

We see the Apostle Paul speaking of this in 2 Timothy 4:7, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”  He has been a strong warrior for the Lord.  The good fight is not fought with physical strength, but with spiritual strength.

Our battle is not with atheists and other religions.  Rather, our battle is first of al with our own self.  The flesh has a powerful way of justifying its lusts and desires.  If we do not restrain it, it will pull us down into a quagmire of serving self.  We also battle against the corrupting influence of this world.  Its culture, institutions, systems and powers are difficult obstacles to overcome in the arena of faith.  Also, we have a spiritual enemy in the devil and his evil spirits.  They operate mainly through deception and temptation.  These three areas of Self, World, and the Devil take a man who is strong for battle.

Of course, none of us are able to conquer these three areas.  Only Jesus has been able to do that.  He is the ultimate warrior.  He has done what none of us could do.  However, this enables us to follow him.  When we stick close to Jesus and put our steps into his steps we will be able to have victory in these areas.  We will talk more about this later.

The Good Man Gets Direction From The Lord

Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.”  So in Psalm 37 we are told that the Lord “orders” the steps of a man who trusts him.  Our paths or steps are a picture of the decisions and actions that we do in life.  Put in order we walk a certain way.  Now there really are only two ways in life.  God’s way will lead us to life. But “my” way will lead me to death.  Even if “my” way involves following someone that we look up to, other than Jesus, it is still headed in the same direction.  Yet, believers find that when we try to follow Jesus our way becomes a mixture of veering off the path of Jesus and then course correcting to get back in line.  This may seem futile, but recognize that God is able to direct us through it all.  He is not trying to control our every step so much as inform our every step.  Do you get your directions from Jesus?  Perhaps you wonder how that is possible.

We have the commands and example of Christ given to us in the New Testament.  We also have a powerful instructive picture in the Old Testament that helps us to understand who Jesus really is.  Thus his directions, in general, are given in the Bible.  As you read the Bible you will see that Christ does not call us anywhere that he hasn’t gone himself.  So if we cast off his commands and example we are trusting in our own thinking or the thinking of someone else.  The problem here is not that we are thinking.  Note in Proverbs 3:5-6 that we are only warned against leaning (i.e. putting all your weight upon) on our own understanding.  Yes we have questions and fears.  But we shouldn’t put our weight upon those things.  Instead we should trust the lord.  If we are truly listening, God will lead us and give direction to our path.  He will not force us.  He wants us to follow out of our own heart.  But know this, His direction will give you sure footing on treacherous ground.

The Good Man Is A Delight To God

You may not be particularly excited about your life right now, but God is.  He delights in our trust even when it is the trust of a spiritual babe.  He knows that it will grow and become the trust of a strong man of faith in time.

He also delights in the future to which He is bringing us.  He is leading us to a wonderful goal both in this life and in the life to come.  He sees the end that we cannot see yet and He is delighted in anticipation of the joys we shall have together.  Even when we are told the end goal, we cannot truly grasp how it will come about and what it will be like.  Thus it is our joy to delight in the discovery and realization of those things along with Him.

What about our failures?  Surely God doesn’t delight in us when we have failed.  The reality is that none of us will make it into eternity without having failed.  Only Jesus is the perfect warrior against sin.  God can see over the top of our failures to the person we are going to become.  He loves us, not just in spite of our failures.  In fact, our trust and love become more precious and more of a delight because it is over the top of cuts and bruises in this life.  Our trust becomes that much more precious, which brings us to the point of verse 24.

The Good Man Is Supported When He Falls

God promises to help us when we fall morally.  He knows that our frame is frail and that we are but dust.  This is precisely why He has pledged Himself to help us.  If you put your trust in Jesus, you will make it, period.

We might ask our self why we fell.  Did I fall because I desired sin?  Or, did I fall because someone else sinned against me and I couldn’t let it go?  Perhaps I merely lack skill in a particular area that he enemy is attacking and I am learning to follow Jesus.  Whatever the reason, Jesus knows your difficulties.  If you look to Him and cry out in the time of need, he will help you.

Notice verse 24 says that though a man fall, he will not be cast out.  It is one thing to fall, but quite another to never get up again.  Everyone who has fallen reaches that moment when they realize that they have survived and need to get up, and in fact must.  Can you imagine if the first time you fell off your bicycle you just quit trying ever again?  Though it sounds silly, what if you never got up off the ground and continued to cry and get angry for years on end?  Things that don’t happen in the natural often happen spiritually.  Many people are still laying in the road of some misfortune long ago and, instead of getting up, they just lay there refusing to move on.  Please know this, God is not looking for an excuse to get rid of you or throw you away.  He knows you will fail and He is committed to helping you get up and keep riding until you get it.  However, you must want to get back up and keep trusting Him.  People may cast you aside, but Jesus has pledged, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”  And, that means even when you fail.

In fact, the Lord promises in verse 24 to support us by His own hand.  Allstate insurance can only do so much for you.  But there are far better hands in this world and they are God’s.  The support or bracing of the Lord holds us up so that we do not fail beyond recovery.  Of course we may not want to fall and wish God would keep that from happening.  However, we will never learn if God protects us from the effects of our decisions.  The hand is the symbol of power.  The power of God is Jesus.  He is the hand of God that has come down to save us.  When you trust in those hands they will lift you up through this life and through times of failure and bring you out the other side.  Jesus does this through the work of the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit’s purpose is to come alongside of us and provide the help that we need.  If this is His purpose then He is also working in believers to be such a help to other believers.  I point this out because in engineering bracing is always done through triangles.  Thus God supports us directly by his Holy Spirit and indirectly through other believers.  This triangle of God, You, and Other believers is magnified by the multitude of relationships we can have with other believers.  Let the Lord support you.  If you aren’t a part of a group of believers that are trusting God and helping each other through life then you are missing a great part of how God intends to support you.

Now, the enemy wants you to stay down and refuse all help when you fall.  If you let him, he will get in your head and poison your thinking.  He will lead you to believe that it is impossible for God to love you because you have failed so badly.  In fact he only needs to insert the idea and walk away.  You will do all the work for him by trusting in what he says.  Don’t do that.  You will never recover from failure until you reject the lies of satan and believe the truth of God.  “Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholds him with His hand.”  It is not over.  God is not done with you yet.  Trust him.  Rise up and walk!

Stepping in His Steps Audio

The Greatest Birthday Gift

This Sunday is a celebration of the Day of Pentecost.  Some scholars refer to this as the birthday of the Church.  We won’t deal with that debate here today.  However, it is the day that God gave a great gift to His followers.  Just as Jesus was an incredible gift of salvation to the world, so the Holy Spirit is a similarly incredible gift to those who believe on Jesus.  In fact, Jesus had told his followers not to leave Jerusalem until they had received the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit would be taking the place of Jesus.  Just as Jesus taught, so the Holy Spirit would teach.  The Holy Spirit would also work through the Church to heal and do miracles.  The Holy Spirit would be a comforter just as Jesus was to his disciples.  Ultimately, the Holy Spirit would do all that Jesus did, but without the physical limitations and restraints.  Thus today, as hundreds of millions of believers awake, they are instantly greeted by the presence of God’s Spirit.  He who is called the Promise of the Father is with us.  So, today we celebrate that no matter how dark and difficult our situation is, God is with us through His Holy Spirit and that is more than enough.

We are going to look at Peter’s sermon following the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Acts chapter 2 and verses 36-39.

You Shall Receive The Holy Spirit

When the Holy Spirit is poured out on the disciples, they are in Jerusalem.  The resulting worship and praise of God in many different languages at the same time causes a ruckus that draws the attention of a large crowd.  At this point Peter begins to explain what is happening and why.  They are receiving the Promise of the Father because they are followers of Jesus.  The people recognize that they are in danger of missing out on this promise that they all had been waiting for and so they ask what they should do.  Peter’s answer gives them the hope that they can experience the outpouring of the Holy Spirit for themselves.  It’s not too late.

But, in order to receive the Holy Spirit, the people needed to do some things.  First they needed to repent.  They needed to definitely repent of participating in the death of Jesus.  However, it was their sinful hearts that led up to this act.  They needed to see their own sinfulness before God and turn away from it- both the actions and the mindset that led up to them.  The beautiful thing is that they were “cut to the heart” by Peter’s words.  This is a way of saying that Peter’s words pierced their hearts with sorrow and grief.  I say it is beautiful because it is the very work of the Holy Spirit that Jesus said would be in John 16:8.  “[The Holy Spirit] will convict the world of sin.”  Though the Spirit is being poured out on believers in Jesus, He is also graciously working in the hearts of unbelievers to convict them of their sin.  Conviction of our sin enables us to desire something better.  The word “repent” literally means to turn away from one thing and towards another.  They needed to turn away from the way they were and towards the person and teaching of Jesus Christ.  Of course some will refuse this grace of the Holy Spirit.  Such refusal only hardens us further to His conviction.  At some point an individual can become so hard that they will never repent.

The second thing that is necessary is to identify with Jesus.  I say it this way because we can focus on being baptized all the while losing sight of Jesus.  Baptism is not the critical word in the phrase, “Be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.”  It is actually “Jesus Christ.”  They were used to being baptized in the cleansing rituals in response to the law.  But they were doing it in obedience to the Law of Moses. Now they are to do the cleansing ritual in obedience to Jesus Christ.  This purposeful identification with Jesus is the key point.  We turn from our sins and publically identify with Jesus and his people.  I am a follower of Jesus.  Today there are many baptized people who are letting their sins lead them to identify with the Spirit of this World, rather than picking up their cross and following Jesus.  We redefine who Jesus is and what he would do because we do not want to let go of our sins.  God’s Spirit is given to those who want to turn away from sin and towards Jesus.  In those days there was only one Jesus and the society was polarized as for or against Jesus.  But today we have many different images of Jesus.  This is why it is so important to go into the Bible for yourself and discover who Jesus really is; not what someone says he is.  Are you following the true Jesus or a politically correct Jesus?  Are you following the true Jesus or a socially acceptable Jesus?  Only the true Jesus opens the door for the Spirit of God.  Any other “Jesus” opens the door for the spirit of this Age.

If you do those two things, repent and identify with the true Jesus, God will keep His word.  He is not a liar.  God has been faithful to convict the hearts of people in this world, calling them out from this world to become a part of a community that is being saved from judgment.  Not just that, but, He is also empowering us to work with the Holy Spirit in this.  Peter is the prime example.  The Spirit came upon him and enabled him to preach the truth to his generation.  It was a hard truth and one that Peter would have ran away from in his own flesh.  But now he boldly proclaims to them that they killed the Messiah and need to repent and believe on Jesus.

Now God will always empower those He calls.  His will is two-fold.  Regarding me, the Spirit helps me to keep turning from sin and to strengthen my faith in Jesus.  This is more than maintaining a status quo.  But rather a day by day growing in our understanding of sin’s hold in our life and the trustworthiness of Jesus.  Thus our position in Christ should become stronger over time.  In regards to others, the Spirit enables me to love them with Spirit-filled actions that come from Spirit-led motivations.  Now for believers this is helping to build up their faith.  But towards the lost it is helping to lead them to Christ.

There has never been a time that Christians could do such a work without the Holy Spirit.  No amount of technology and psychological analysis will enable us to do what only the Holy Spirit can do.  We have been given the Holy Spirit because the work cannot be done without Him.  In fact, He is not just another component in this.  He is the Key component.  So what should we do?  We must first make sure that we are turning from sin and towards the true Jesus.  Then we must recognize that God is faithful and the Holy Spirit is with me.  You will not always feel like the Holy Spirit is present, but remind yourself that it is true nonetheless.  Then ask for His help.  Don’t wait until you have tried everything.  Instead begin each day by asking the Holy Spirit for His leading, help, comfort, correction, and guidance.  Then walk by faith.  Whether it is doing what God’s Word says, or responding to a prompting in our heart, we need to walk by faith.  Of course “promptings in our heart” are subjective.  But that does not mean they cannot be real.  God calls us to be mature children who are learning and have learned how to discern the difference between my flesh and the Holy Spirit.  If your heart is in the right place and you are carefully walking out what you believe the Lord is saying to you then God will help you.  Even when you make mistakes, He will help you to see that and grow, and learn.  Let’s be led by the Spirit of God and not the spirit of this world!

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