Some Things Never Change: The Spirit Still Empowers

MESSAGE TRANSCRIPTION: 

Well, good morning everyone. How’s everyone doing today? Everybody doing good? Well, we’re doing a sermon series called Some Things Never Change, and I was born in 1966, so you can do the math if you want to. And I lived through the disco seventies. Anybody else through the disco seventies yuppie eighties, right? Blockbuster video nineties. And here we are in 23 years in the new millennium, and I have witnessed a lot of changes in my life. I witnessed the first man stepping on the moon. I’ll witness computers as big as this room now being the size of your phone. Correct? And I’ve also, I live life believe this or not, prior to post-it notes, I mean post-it notes didn’t come out until 1981. Could you imagine a world without post-It notes. And so I’ve seen a lot of changes, but there’s some things in life that never ever changes.

For example, the author of Hebrews chapter 13 verse eight says this, read it with me. Jesus Christ. Hold on, read it with me. Come on now, come on, come on, come on. All right. Here we go. One more time. Read it with me.

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.”

Hebrews 13:8

Jesus says in Luke chapter 24,, he says this:

“Heaven and earth will disappear, but my words will never, ever disappear.”

Luke 24:35

And last week we looked at the Bible still speaks, and we talked about how the Bible is the foundation of our lives and it’s the source of truth for us that are Christians. And we’re going to continue this sermon series. Some things never change by looking at this topic, the spirit still empowers. And I just want you to know that I’ve been praying heavenly for this service today because I believe that the spirit of God is going to bring forth healing in so many lives today in so many ways that I just can’t explain.

Because the reason why I know this is because during the most trying time in my life, in the season that we experienced a couple years ago, the thing that sustained me and my family was the power of the Holy Spirit. And the good news is that same power is available to you. Now, here’s the thing that I’ve learned about life. There’s principles in life that you can learn them, they can save you a lot of struggles. You anybody know what I’m talking about? Just some simple principles like here’s the simplest principle that I know of. Things works better if they’re plugged in.

I mean, your electric car works better, your microwave works better. I mean, if your phone charger cord is plugged in, your phone actually charged, and you know what? When you are plugged into the Holy Spirit, then there is something that you receive. Notice what it says in two Timothy. Paul says this to his young protege, “For the spirit that God has given us does not make us timid. [Now read it with me.] Instead, his spirit fills us with power. [When we’re connected to the Holy Spirit,] we’re filled with power, love, and self-control.” Look what it says in Acts chapter one, verse eight.

“When the Holy Spirit comes up on you, you’ll be filled with the power.”

Acts 1:8

Now, I just want you to know something that most Christians are not exposed to this power because they don’t understand who the Holy Spirit is. They don’t understand that the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. There’s God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And most people, they are afraid of the Holy Spirit. But I want you to understand that the Holy Spirit is a gift from God. He is God that empowers our lives. Now, when Jesus was in the upper room in John chapter 14, he tells his disciples that he’s going to go away and he’s going to leave and he’s going to heaven. They begin to get freaked out. They begin to get nervous. I mean, they’re just kind of shaking. And what are we going to do without you? And Jesus says to them, don’t worry, I’m going to send something that is better to you. He said, I must leave so that the Holy Spirit can come and be with you wherever you go. Now, notice what Jesus says. He says, I will ask the Father and the Father will give you another helper.

Some translations cause comforter who will stay with you forever. Now notice he is the spirit who reveals the truth about God. The world cannot receive him because he cannot see him or know him, but you know him because he remains with you and is in you. Now, I want you to pick up on a couple things here, Heather, okay? I want you to hear what I’m about to say. Some of you’re asking the question, well, Virgil, why did you highlight all the he’s and hymns in that passage? Well, I don’t know if you know this or not, but the world is consumed with pronouns right now, and I just want to make sure that we get God’s pronoun correct. All right? And he’s, he’s not a, he’s not a force. He’s not an intuition. He’s not a gut feeling. He’s the third person of the Trinity. He is God the Spirit. You have to remember that. You have to know that.

And some of you just said, did he go there? Yes, I did. With no apologies is that here’s the reason why this is important. If you don’t see the spirit of God as a person, you’ll never develop a relationship with him. You’ll always think of him as just some mystical force. The second thing that I want you to see here in this passage, as Jesus tells the disciples that it’s for their good that he leaves. Because if he leaves, then he will send the spirit and the spirit will be with them to help them, to guide them, to direct them in all of their ways and all of their paths, because Jesus was geographically bound by his presence. But when he sent the spirit of God, then the spirit of God can empower you wherever you’re at in the world. And what I want us to look at today, and I want us to look at five ways the Holy Spirit empowers your life and can empower my life.

The first thing I want you to write down if you’re taking notes is this:

The Holy Spirit empowers salvation.

Now, I understand that everybody’s at a different place on their spiritual journey this morning. He said, some of you, you’ve been Christians for a long, long time. For others of you, you’ve just started your spiritual journey. For others of you, you are seekers, your skeptics who’s trying to discover if there’s anything to this person called Jesus. And regardless of where you’re at, it’s the job of the Holy Spirit to convict you of your sin and your need for Jesus Christ. Because notice what it says in John chapter 16 is that:

“When he comes, He will convict the world…”

John 16:8

Notice of a couple of things, number one of his sin, number two of God’s righteousness. There’s no one pure. There’s no one righteous. There’s only one that is God, you and I, we are full of evil badness, all of that and then there’s coming, the coming judgment, there’s going to come the second coming and the world’s sin is that it refuses to believe in Jesus or to believe in God. And you have to understand that is what’s going on in our world today. Our people have chosen to be their own God rather than kneel for the one true God.

Sometimes when I preach a message, I will leave and I’ll walk through the hallways and I’ll go to the atrium. And when I go out there, people will ask me this question, pastor, do you have cameras in my house? Do you have a camera in my bedroom? Because every time that you speak seems like that you’re speaking to me. Anybody else ever had that experience? I mean, I get this all the time, and some people will go, what you were saying, it was speaking to me. And then they will leave. And you know what they’ll do when they leave? They will leave this place and they will think about God. They will think about the message. They’ll try to go to sleep at night and they cannot go to sleep and the reason why they cannot go to sleep is because the Holy Spirit is doing what in their lives.

The Holy Spirit is doing what? Convicting them, trying to woo them, trying to bring them to a relationship with Jesus. There’s some of you that you’re at church this morning and you don’t even know why you’re at church. You just can’t explain it. There’s something going on inside of you. And if somebody would’ve told you a year ago that you’d be going to church almost every Sunday, you would’ve laughed in their face and you would’ve called them a liar a year ago. But here you are attending church, can’t wait to come to church. There’s something that’s going on in your heart and you can’t explain it to anyone, but I know what’s going on. It’s the spirit of God at work in your life wooing you, calling you to repent of your sins and to invite Jesus Christ into your life. And the folks, here’s the thing that you need to understand.

The Holy Spirit is convicting you, wooing you to be in a relationship with Jesus Christ. And once you come into a relationship with Jesus Christ, you believe in his death, burrow and resurrection, then I’ve got good news for you. Then Jesus gives you the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life. Did you hear what I said? Not only does He save you, but then he gives you the Holy Spirit in your life. Notice what it says in Acts chapter two, verse 38, he repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Read it with me and you will receive the gift of the what of the Holy Spirit. It’s not that you are God, but God comes and takes up residence in your heart and in your life. He comes to live within you.

Now, here’s one of the great joys of my life. This is something that is probably pretty praiseworthy since January of this year. We’ve had over 140 people to raise their hand to invite Jesus Christ into their heart, and as wonderful as that is, not only do the 140 people receive forgiveness, but the 140 people now has the Holy Spirit living inside of them. Somebody should praise the Lord for that right now. 140 people have received forgiveness and the Lord, the Spirit of God lives within them. Now, here’s the thing about it is Cha, and that we have to understand that when we receive Christ and the Holy Spirit is imparted to us, it would be great if we blinked our eyes and we woke up and we was in heaven. But after we receive Christ and the Holy Spirit has given to us, we leave church after this monumental decision that we made and we feel the presence of the Lord, and we got to go back to the same old house.

We got to go back to the same old job, to the same old negative people. We got to go and we’ve got to do what? Deal with the same temptations. And this is the reason why the second part of what the Holy Spirit empowers for you and I is transformation. Not only does he give us salvation, but he gives us transformation. And the word transformation, the technical theological word, it’s sanctification. Say sanctification with me. Sanctification. Say it with me again, sanctification. Now, some of you don’t like for me to use big, large theological words, but here’s my belief, if you could place an order at Starbucks, you can understand sanctification, right? I mean, here’s what some of you you’ll do. I like to order a triple venti, half sweet, non-fat caramel latte. If you can understand that, you can understand sanctification. Amen. If you’re listening, say amen. Yeah. And so if you’re empowered by the Holy Spirit, then when you’re tempted by sin, the Holy Spirit will give you a way out. Now, I want to tell you something. I’m going to share something with you that no other preacher has ever told you, okay? I promise you you’ve never heard another preacher say this, but I’m going to tell you something that no other preacher’s ever said to you. Are you listening? If you are, say amen.

Sin is fun. Now, I’ve heard preachers all the time to stand up and go, sin is no fun brothers and sisters. And I’m going, they must not know how to sin. I mean, because sin is pretty fun. I mean, would you not agree? But the Bible says what? That sin is fun for what? A season. It’s fun for a period of time, but we who’ve been there, done that. We know what happens is that with the sin, there’s always consequences that comes with it. And some of you’re saying, well, pastor, I’m living in sin right now. I’m enjoying it. You’re right. Sin is fun, but there’s no consequences. Well, you just hold on. Consequences will come because look what it says in Romans chapter eight. It says this:

“So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.”

Romans 8:6

Now, before you became a Christian, you could sin and there’s no consequences. You’re like, you respond. Now because you’re a Christian, you begin to sin. You get to do something that you’re not supposed to do. And what starts to take place in your heart? There’s a sense of guilt. There’s a sense that you shouldn’t be doing this. There’s a sense that you feel convicted and that you shouldn’t be doing this. And why does that happen? Is because it is the spirit of God convicting you of your sin. So the Holy Spirit empowers our salvation. The Holy Spirit empowers our transformation. But number three, the Holy Spirit empowers you to share Jesus. The Holy Spirit empowers you to share Jesus Christ. In other words, the Holy Spirit will give you the wisdom, give you the power, give you the words to share with other people.

See, for some of you, you have this desire to share the gospel with your loved ones. You’ve got a parent, you’ve got a sibling, you’ve got a child, you’ve got a neighbor. You’ve got a coworker that does not know Jesus Christ as your personal savior, as their personal savior, and you want to step into that. You want to share the gospel with them. But fear keeps you from doing that. And the reason why fear keeps you from doing that, because the devil plants seeds of doubt in your mind and your heart, you go, well, what if I mess up? What if I start talking to them and they start asking me questions and I don’t have the answers for them? What if they ask me a biblical question and I don’t have the answer? It’s just better for me not to do anything. And if you’re timid about sharing the gospel, having a spiritual conversation with someone, I want you to know that you’re in great company because the Apostle Paul, he struggled with this as well.

Look what it says in first Corinthians chapter two, my message, Paul says:

“And by preaching we’re not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the spirit’s power so that your faith may not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.”

1 Corinthians 2:4

Now, what Paul is saying here, and what I want you to understand is that there’s many of times that I will stand here in this stage and I’ll preach the Bible, preach the message, and I will walk off the stage and I will go, Lord, what just happened? That was a train wreck. And then I’ll get off the stage and I’ll walk out to the atrium and people will come up to me and go, you know what? The Holy Spirit spoke to me today. And I go, what? To myself, not to them.

And I go, what? And they go, yeah, the Holy Spirit spoke to me, and then they proceed to tell me what the Holy Spirit said to them. And I go, I did not say that at all, and I didn’t. But you know what happens? Something supernatural happens in a worship service like this, God takes the inadequate words of man and he makes them supernatural, and he translates it into exactly what you need. And many of you will leave here this morning saying that the Holy Spirit spoke to me, and he did, not because of me, but because the Spirit translated the message for you to speak to your heart exactly what you needed; and see, friends, the same thing that happens here is the same thing that can happen in your life. When you step out with boldness and you start to have a spiritual conversation, you step out and start to present the gospel to one of your loved ones.

You know what will happen? The Holy Spirit will show up and show off in your life. Do you understand that the Holy Spirit will take your words and he will give you boldness to share your story. Then they ask you a question, and then you give them the answer and you go, well, where did that come? And then they ask you another question, and then you quote a Bible verse that you read earlier that week, or you heard the preacher talk about on Sunday, or you heard it on Klo or whatever. And then all of a sudden you have confidence that you’ve never had before. And why? Is because the Holy Spirit is guiding and directing and empowering your life as you have these spiritual conversations. So the Holy Spirit empowers our salvation, empowers our transformation, empowers us to have conversations with others about Jesus.

But number four is the Holy Spirit empowers your spiritual gifts. Now, I don’t know if you know this or not, but when you become a Christian, when you invite Jesus Christ into your life and he deposits within your heart and your soul, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit gives you a special supernatural ability or gift. Here’s what Paul says. Paul says that first Corinthians 12, I would just encourage you to read the entire chapter. Paul says:

“There’s different kinds of gifts…”

1 Corinthians 2:12

Now, do you understand that there’s all kinds of gifts that has been given to us who are Christians,

“…but the same spirit distributes to them?”

In other words, is that the spiritual gift that you have? You had no choice in your selection. You couldn’t go to a website and click through a list and say, I like to have this spiritual gift, that spiritual gift and that spiritual gift.

You had no ability. You had no influence in what special spiritual gift that you would receive. And just like you had no influence on who your parents would be, the color of your skin, what part of the world that you would be born in, what color your skin would be or what your nose would look like is all of that was a gift from God. And God gave, now listen, he gave each of us, when we become Christians, a spiritual gift, and there are different kinds of service, but the same Lord, there are different kinds of working, but in all of them, in every one, it is the same God at work. Now to each one, the manifestation of the spirit is given. So God has given you the manifestation of His spirit through a spiritual gift. They’re unique to you. He distributes them the way that he wants to, and they’re distributor given to you for the common good of the church and the community.

It’s never about to glorify you. It’s never to exalt you. It’s always given to help other people. And here’s the thing, there’s all kinds of spiritual gifts being used on any particular Sunday morning here at East Side. There’s all kinds of difference makers. There is people that met you in the parking lot, put out the parking cones so that you could get to your parking space. There was people who came in this week and they sanitize all of the toys and ekids. There were volunteers, different makers who met you and ekids this morning to receive your child or your children who’s leading them in worship, who’s teaching them about Jesus on their own level. There are men and women who helped you to find a seat in the worship center. There’s camera operators who’s operating the cameras to help to broadcast this online.

There are the worship team members who practiced during this past week who showed up early this morning, who learned vocal chords and vocal charts and all kinds of different charts so that they could be ready. They were in their place before the clock went down to zero. There’ll be youth leaders tonight to show up for the service that will be helping to lead the youth who will be investing in them. Your life group leader will be showing up and having life group and his or her home and inviting you to come in. And folks, that’s just only scratching the surface. And the reason why all of these people exist, the reason why they’re doing it is because they’re doing it to help the church to be stronger and to be better. Here’s the reality, my friends, is that maybe it’s time for you to get back in the game.

God is speaking to you this morning. God is saying to you that you’ve been on the sidelines far enough and maybe it’s time for you to get back involved. For some of you, you’ve never gotten involved. You’ve always just sat, soak and sour and waiting for the second coming of Jesus Christ. It’s time to get in the game. And maybe it’s time, would you say it with me? Maybe it’s time. Maybe it’s time. Maybe it’s time for you to step out and to step in to allowing the Holy Spirit to use you to push back darkness in our community. And here’s what happens. When every Christian use their spiritual gifts, then you know what happens is that every need is met. There’s no burnout. There’s no exhaustion.

There’s just no worries or no pain because why many hands and many hearts makes things much lighter in the process. So the Holy Spirit empowers salvation. Transformation, empowers you to share Jesus with others. It empowers you to use your spiritual gifts. But number five, it empowers you to be healed. And folks, here’s what I know is that there’s a lot of people in the world today who are broken. There’s a lot of people in our world, they’re so angry, they’re so full of frustration, they’re so full of bitterness and resentment. And the reason why, in my opinion, is that there’s some healing that needs to take place in their own life. And honestly, this is so personal to Rose and I that we went through a season of our life from October of 2020 through May of 2021, where there was just one event after another, and every event had the potential to take us out of the game from her mom. Rose is the only child from her mom having a massive stroke to getting C from October of 20 to December the 21st, she passed away. We did her funeral on the 23rd with a handful of people to my dad getting covid in October 31st, 2020 to him going into the hospital in January of 2021, have an open heart surgery in the next 120 days. He spent in ICU or in a nursing home before he passed. And the only way that we got through that season was because of this next verse. And this next verse says this:

“All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful father and the source of all comfort.”

2 Corinthians 1:3-4

I don’t know if you heard that or not, I don’t know if you heard that or not, but the source of what of all comfort is that God sustained us through that difficult time with his comfort. And this morning, God wants to sustain you. Many of you, you’re grieving a loss of some kind. It’s loss of a dream, it’s loss of a job, it’s loss of income. Some of you’re here today and you are dealing with emotional pain, financial pain, spiritual pain. For many of you that are here, you’re just lamenting. You’re mourning something and you don’t even know what it is, but you have a God who understands and identifies with you. In fact, the scripture says this is that the Bible calls God a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. I’ve had a couple conversations this past week with people about what is the difference between God and all the other gods in the world? And there’s many different ones, but the one big difference is that all of the gods over here that’s been created by human imagination, none of those gods has the ability to grieve with you. They don’t have the ability to share your sorrow or your pain. There’s only one God who has the ability and the desire to share your sorrow and your pain and to grieve with you. And it’s Jesus. In the Book of Revelations, it says this is that Jesus will wipe away all tears. And this morning we have a God who can identify with us. And many of you are here today, you’re needing comfort. You’re needing healing. You’re needing the transformation of the Holy Spirit in your life. And what I’m going to do is I’m just going to invite you to receive the healing from the Holy Spirit this morning. And after I give you the invitation, then I’m going to pray and then we’re going to sing a couple of songs about the Holy Spirit and just going to ask the Holy Spirit to meet you in a way that you’ve never been met before. So I’m just going to ask you to stand quietly to your feet at this very moment. Some of you, you need healing for a broken relationship. It’s with maybe your parent. Maybe it’s with your son, your daughter. Maybe it’s a neighbor, maybe it’s a coworker. Maybe it’s an extended family member. Some of you’re here this morning. Let’s just be honest. Your marriage is broken. Your marriage needs healing. For some of you this morning, it’s a financial crisis. You don’t have a job. You need a job, or maybe you have a job, but the debt that you’re living under is so overwhelming, that’s just crushing your spirit. You see no way out. For some of you this morning, you need emotional healing.

For some of you, you need spiritual healing. Somebody has betrayed you. You’ve been hurt by the church in the past. If you’ve been hurt by a church in the past or by a spiritual leader in the past, I’m sorry for that. That’s no fun. For some of you that are here this morning, you need physical healing. You have an illness, you have a diagnosis, you have a disease, you have cancer, and you’re seeking the Lord’s face for healing. For some of you this morning, you’re trapped in a sin. We haven’t even talked about this, but for some of you, you’re trapped in a sin. You have an addiction to porn, to drugs, to alcohol, to spending, whatever it may be. And the Holy Spirit is wanting to set you free. For some of you, you’re here this morning and you are hopeless. You have no hope. You don’t even know what the future can be like. You’re just needing hope in your life. You need the spirit of God to save you, to wipe away your sins. Put your name in the Book of Heaven. For others of you this morning, it’s been so long since you’ve felt the nudge of the Holy Spirit or heard the voice or the whisper of the Holy Spirit that this morning that you’re just praying that you could feel the Holy Spirit again.

For whatever reason, it doesn’t matter. For some of you this morning, the Holy Spirit is nudging at your heart to get back into the game, to start serving, start using your divine spiritual supernatural gift. See folks, there’s an international sign for surrender, and it’s this. Everyone knows what that means all around the world. And this morning, I’m just going to ask you, would you be willing to surrender to the Holy Spirit this morning? Will you just invite the Holy Spirit to come? Would you welcome him in your heart and your soul? I’m just going to ask you to bow your head. Close your eyes if you’re willing to surrender you Feel comfortable. Only if you feel comfortable, would you just raise your hands? And Father, we welcome the Holy Spirit at this moment. We ask that you come and you feel us with your power and with your love, and with your presence. And we pray these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.