One Mission pt.1

A few weeks ago we finished a series called “One” and it was a book study on Jeremiah and how he helped rebuild the walls of Jerusalem in 52 days. We talked about how our inner walls needed to be built up so that Satan couldn’t come in and “steal” things from us. This week we begin a series called One Mission. It’s a study based on the book of Acts. Now Acts really is sometimes over looked, simply because most people like to go from the time Jesus was around and his death/resurrection to the apostle Paul and his transformation so often times acts is just kind of left alone. But there is so much that we can learn from the book, which is why were going to start studying it. I encourage you
all to go home and read the book as we go along it’s quite an interesting book. So let’s get started, ecology style.

            Didyou know that there is a bird in the seagull family names the Albatross? Now this bird is special it has one of the largest wing spans of all birds, their wing spans can actually grow to be 11 feet long! That’s crazy awesome, because when their on the beach or floating in the water they look like normal seagulls. Its wing span is what makes this bird so special, it’s what makes it unique, now because of its huge wing span the Albatross is able to reach distances that other birds just can’t cover. It can go places other birds just can’t go. See the Albatross is meant to soar using the wind to carry it. In fact the wind is so important to the Albatross that at full speed its heart rate is the same as when it’s sitting on the beach. On days when there is no wind. Guess where you’ll find the Albatross? You’ll find it just floating in the water soaking up some rays. See without the wind the Albatross is almost powerless. Other birds work really hard to get where they are going. They flap their wings, and try. The Albatross though is different. Its wings were made to rely on the wind not on their own power. In the same way God has made us uniquely dependent on him. So many of us rely on our own strength to live out our faith, we wear ourselves out as we “flap our wings” to get where were going. Instead like the wind for the Albatross, God has given us his Holy Spirit, to empower us for our life mission. In fact the Hebrew word for spirit can be translated as wind. Now Jesus knew that his followers needed the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives. In the first chapter of Acts he tells them to go and wait in Jerusalem for the gift of the Holy Spirit. In chapter 2 we read that when the day of Pentecost had come that they were all gathered in one place, and suddenly the sound of a blowing like a violent wind came from Heaven and filled the whole house. See for the early disciples they desperately needed the power, and the anointing of the spirit of God, to fulfill their life’s mission. The same is true for you and me today. For us to be the Disciples of Christ and to live out the life that God has for us to live, we need to surrender to the working of the spirit of God, and allow him to invade every part of our lives. God wants you to soar to new heights today.

            Now the book of Acts is an amazing book in the bible, we see how the first church was created. We see God as he begins to move through the early followers. It’s filled with adventures, and thrills, but it doesn’t start off that way. In fact in Acts chapter 1 we see that the disciples are a little confused, and slightly bewildered. I mean just a few weeks ago Jesus had been crucified. For three days they hid, they were scared for their own lives. And of course three days later Jesus was resurrected, and he spent with them 40 days. Here we find Jesus leaving them again, imagine what it must of felt like to them, put yourself in their shoes. Their dearest friend, the one that they walked with for 3 years, day and night, they had seen him perform many miracles, and now he was gone again. And they were supposed to carry out his mission. And so they stayed there in Jerusalem waiting to be baptized with the Holy Spirit. And so they go to the room, and they wait, and wait…and wait.  For 10 days they waited. I don’t know about you but I don’t like to wait. I HATE TO WAIT. In fact this week alone when I was standing in line to get a drink from the water fountain, I found myself growing impatient with the people in front of me, TAKING SUCH A LONG TIME! It’s like come on I have a class to get to, people to talk with, SAVE SOME FOR THE STINK’N FISH! I guess I need help, but the whole point is we need to slow down. God wants us to slow down; often times for me if I’m going to fast in my life I tend to not hear God speak to me. In fact it seems like sometimes he will throw obstacles in my path to get me to slow down a little so that I can hear him. It’s good for us to slow down, or you may call it “stopping to smell the roses.” In fact just for the heck of it lets have a fast on April 4^th. Let’s fast together as a group, to hear the voice of God. It’ll be a 18 day fast. Now some of you are thinking 18 days, no food for 18 days, no were going to have food. It’s a Daniel Fast, now the idea of the fast is not to go without food; the idea of fasting is to grow closer to God by distancing yourself from other things. I will have more on that next week. Back to the book of Acts though, Acts 2:1-4 read; “On the day of Pentecost* all the believers were meeting together in one place. Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages,* as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.” Now for some people they’re like keep going, don’t stop there, tongues whew spooky, just keep reading. Satan is trying to make us scared of the Holy Spirit. See some people think that the Holy Spirit is weird because they have seen weird people, do weird things, and they’ve blamed it on the Holy Spirit. Let me tell you something though; trust me that was not the Holy Spirit. Those people were just weird, and they’re going to be weird with or without the Holy Spirit, so don’t blame it on the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not weird, turn and tell somebody that the Holy Spirit is not weird. The Holy Spirit is not weird, it’s not wild, it’s not out of control, or spooky, or something to be scared of, see the enemy would love for us to be confused about the Holy Spirit and who he is, because the power of the Holy Spirit is also the power for us, and the power for the church. So we as Christians need to understand the Holy Spirit because without it we become broken and un-useful in the church.

This brings me to our first question; who is the Holy Spirit? He is the PROMISE of God. All throughout the gospels we see Jesus preaching about one/something/counselor that’s going to come, and 800 years before Jesus preached about the coming of the Holy Spirit, God promised it to the prophet Joel. In Joel chapter 2 verse 28: “Then, after doing all those things, I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions.” See this is significant because in the Old Testament, the Spirit would descend upon a priest, a king, or a prophet for only a moment and then leave. The promise of Joel is that the Holy Spirit is not longer going to be for a priest, a king, or a leader; it’s going to be for everyone. We also see that the Holy Spirit is GOD. He is the third person of the trinity; God the father, Jesus the son, and the Holy Spirit. Every day we need to SURRENDER full control to the Holy Spirit, then we begin to see a transformation within us, we begin to understand that we can STEP UP AND STEP OUT. The more you surrender to the Holy Spirit the greater the things you can do.  In these next few weeks were going to begin to explore the Holy Spirit, and the book of Acts. We’re going to do some serious thinking, and as I said earlier I want to encourage you to go home and read the book of Acts. This is the first church this is the first generation. This is where the churches journey began. We can learn so much from it. This week go out and know that the Holy Spirit is with you always, if you let him.