where will we find the power to do missionary work

“Where Will We Find the Power to Do Missionary Work?”

(Acts 1:8)

I. Introduction.

A. Orientation.

We’ve seen:

That missionary work isn’t just overseas cross cultural evangelism –

It’s the simple communication of the Gospel.

That it isn’t just for the elite, specially called and trained believer –

Jesus calls all of us to be missionaries.

That it isn’t something we are just to do sometimes –

The Lord calls us to see ourselves as missionaries wherever we are,

And to be ready at all times to do this work.

We’ve seen that to be ready,

We need to know the Gospel –

Which we already do if we are believers –

We must be willing to share it,

From a life that shows its real;

And that we need to seek out those who need to hear it,

Share it with them,

And if the Lord converts them,

Try to get them into a local church.

2

B. Preview.

To finish this brief series,

I want us to consider this morning

Where we will find the power to do missionary work –

That is, how we can have a stronger desire

To share the Gospel with others –

How we can be more awake –

More alive –

And so more effective in reaching them.

We saw before that the only thing that stands

Between us and sharing the Gospel with others

Is ourselves:

No one is standing in our way,

No one is physically trying to stop us,

There isn’t a special government police force

That’s ready to arrest us if we do.

The only thing that’s stopping us is ourselves –

Not all of us, but part of us –

That part the Bible calls the flesh.

Paul writes, “For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the

flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things

that you please” (Gal. 5:17).

The Spirit continually works in you

3

To make you want to reach out more.

But the sin that’s still in your soul is fighting against Him –

As it fights against everything the Lord wants you to do.

So what can you do?

Here are four things to think about:

1. Be baptized in the Spirit.

2. Be filled with the Spirit.

3. Walk by the Spirit.

4. And keep from grieving the Spirit.

If you do these things,

You will have more than enough power

To overcome your flesh and evangelize.

II. Sermon.

A. First, you must be baptized in the Spirit.

Luke writes, “For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy

Spirit not many days from now” (Acts 1:5).

1. There are many Christians

Who believe this is all you need

To do everything Jesus calls you to do.

It isn’t something every believer experiences –

Though every believer can.

But once you do,

It moves you from being ordinary to extraordinary;

4

From a normal Christian to a super Christian.

They believe that this is where

You need to look for that power –

In the baptism of the Spirit.

2. We agree that this baptism

Moves you from the ordinary to the extraordinary,

But not in exactly the same way.

It makes you able to do what you couldn’t before:

It moves you from darkness to light.

It awakens you from spiritual sleep to spiritual wakefulness.

This is what the Spirit does

When He puts you into Christ –

He makes you spiritually alive for the first time –

But He does this for all believers.

Paul writes, “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews

or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit”

(1 Cor. 12:13).

We were born into this world

Dead in sin,

Unable to do what the Lord calls us to do,

Unable to trust Him.

We were like electrical appliances that needed to be plugged in –

Made to do something useful,

5

But unable to do it

Because we didn’t have any power.

But the Spirit changed that when He baptized us –

When He plugged us into Christ.

He made His life to flow through us.

He gave us power to trust Jesus,

To die to our old way of living,

And to begin to live for Him.

You’ll never find the power to do missionary work

Unless you first have this spiritual rebirth.

If you don’t have His life in you this morning –

Which you can know you don’t

If you’re not trusting Him and living for Him –

Then I invite you to look to Jesus –

Look to Him to save you from the wrong things you’ve done.

Look to Him to give you His Spirit.

Look to Him to give you the power you need

To turn from the selfish things you do,

And to trust in Him and live for Him.

B. Second, if you are to have the power to do missionary work,

You must be filled with the Spirit.

6

Paul writes, “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled

with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18).

This is really what those

Who believe that what you need is the baptism of the Spirit

Are thinking about – this fullness of the Spirit –

Which seemed to be a part of that baptism

The disciples experienced on the Day of Pentecost.

1. In some ways, the baptism of the Spirit isn’t enough.

It raises us to life,

But it doesn’t in itself

Give us the power we need

To serve the Lord as we should.

We must also be filled with the Spirit.

Paul isn’t saying that the Spirit is some kind of fuel

That needs to fill the empty tank of your soul.

He isn’t some kind of quantity

That we can have more or less of.

He’s a person –

One who can have more or less control of our lives.

He needs to have more control over your life.

Paul says, “Do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation.”

Don’t be filled with wine –

7

Don’t be under its control –

Because that leads to dissipation –

It changes how you behave, generally for the worse:

It makes you reckless.

Instead, he says, “Be filled with the Spirit,”

Because when He’s controlling you,

You won’t be selfish and reckless,

You’ll be more like Jesus.

You’ve heard the expression: Jesus is my copilot.

That really describes someone who has the Spirit,

But isn’t filled with the Spirit.

Jesus is in your life –

But He isn’t in control.

He needs to be in control –

He must be the pilot,

He must steer our lives.

When He’s in control

You’ll want to do what He would do –

Which is – among other things – to evangelize.

2. How can you be filled with the Spirit?

We see an example

Of how the disciples were filled in Acts 4.

8

After Peter and John were arrested

For telling others about Jesus Christ,

They were ordered to stop or be punished.

After they said they wouldn’t,

They were further threatened and then released.

When they went back to their brethren

And told them what happened,

They prayed.

Luke writes, “And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered

together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began

to speak the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31).

This filling of the Spirit

Came in answer to prayer.

If you want to be filled with the Spirit,

You can only get it in the ways God has given for you to get it:

You need to pray –

But you need to see that prayer by itself isn’t enough.

You need to read God’s Word –

But even that isn’t enough.

You need to worship, share in the Lord’s Supper, and fellowship –

But you still need more.

These are only the means the Lord uses.

9

They’re not enough by themselves.

You must receive them by faith –

You must look to Jesus for His blessing –

But even that isn’t enough.

You need to use them for the reason He gave them:

That He might have more control in your life,

That He might bring your mind and heart

To focus completely on His Son and His kingdom.

When Peter, John and the disciples prayed,

They weren’t praying for Aunt Bertha’s broken toe,

That they might get that job they interviewed for,

Or that they might be able to pass that test on Tuesday –

The Lord does tell us

We may pray for these things in their place,

But they shouldn’t be the first things

On our minds and hearts –

They didn’t just pray for the power of the Spirit,

So they might feel more spiritual.

They prayed that they might be able to do

What God called them to do:

10

“And now, Lord, take note of their threats, and grant that Your bond-servants

may speak Your word with all confidence, while You extend Your hand to

heal, and signs and wonders take place through the name of Your holy

servant Jesus” (Acts 4:29-30).

They wanted the power to honor Jesus,

And the Lord answered them

By giving them that power:

“And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was

shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the

word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31).

The Lord will fill you with His Spirit

If you want to use that power

In the way He wants you to use it:

To tell others about His Gospel.

C. Third, you must walk by the Spirit.

Paul writes to the Galatians, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry

out the desire of the flesh” (Gal. 5:16).

And he writes to the Romans, “For what the Law could not do, weak as it was

through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh

and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the

requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to

the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Rom. 8:3-4).

When you ask for God’s help –

For the right reasons –

He will give you His Spirit.

But once He gives you that power,

11

There’s something you must do:

You must yield to Him

And do what He wants you to do.

Life is a continual series of choices –

Every day, you will need to make hundreds of them –

And in every choice,

There’s always two ways you can go:

You can do what you want,

Or you can do what He wants –

If you have any question as to what He wants,

Just read His Word: He’s very specific.

The more you are filled with the Spirit,

The closer these two will become –

The more you will want what He wants –

And so the more you will do what He wants.

But the less you have of the Spirit,

The further these two will be apart –

He’ll want one thing,

And you’ll want another –

And the more likely you will do what you want.

If you want to have the power to do missionary work –

12

To share the Gospel,

Which is one of the more difficult things

He gives us to do,

Because it is the most opposed

To what our flesh wants to do –

You need to yield – to give in –

To what the Spirit moves you to do.

The more you resist your flesh and yield to Him,

The stronger His influence in your soul will become,

And the easier it will become to obey Him.

D. Finally, you must not grieve/offend the Spirit – by resisting Him.

Paul writes, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for

the day of redemption” (Eph. 4:30).

If doing what He wants strengthens His influence,

Resisting Him –

Not doing what He wants –

Weakens it.

1. The Spirit’s work is often pictured in the Bible as fire,

Because of the holy devotion He creates in your heart.

John the Baptist, when he compared his ministry with Jesus,’ said,

“As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after

me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize

you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matt. 3:11).

13

When the Day of Pentecost had come,

And the Spirit was poured out from heaven,

He appeared as fire on each of the disciples.

Luke writes, “And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent

rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And

there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they

rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and

began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance”

(Acts 2:2-4).

When you obey the Spirit,

It’s like pouring fuel on the fire –

His influence becomes stronger,

Your devotion burns hotter,

And it becomes easier to obey Him.

But when you resist Him,

It’s like pouring water on the fire –

His influence becomes weaker,

It quenches your devotion,

And at the same time,

Strengthens your flesh –

Making you more self-centered

And making it more difficult to serve Him.

2. So where are you going to find

The power to resist your flesh

14

And do the missionary work

The Lord calls you to?

a. You must use the ways God has given you

To strengthen the influence of His Spirit in your heart –

Prayer, His Word, worship and fellowship.

b. You must use them for the purpose God gave them:

To strengthen your devotion to Him –

To unite your heart completely to love Him –

Not just most of it,

But all of it –

It’s not that you shouldn’t love others,

But you need to let your love

For everyone else flow from your love for Him.

c. You must yield to His influence/control in your life –

Go the direction He is leading you –

Which will be easy if your heart belongs to Him.

d. And you must resist the temptation to disobey Him

And follow the desires of your flesh.

e. One last thing, you must seek to obey Him in every area of your life:

(i) In your thoughts –

15

You must choose not to think thoughts

That are dishonoring to Him,

But only those that will honor Him.

Paul writes, “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised

up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought

captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5).

(ii) In your desires –

You must only allow yourself to want

What you know the Lord wants for you.

Solomon writes, “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it

flow the springs of life” (Prov. 4:23).

(iii) In your words –

Paul writes, “Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but

only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the

moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. Do not grieve the

Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of

redemption” (Eph. 4:29-30).

(iv) And in the things you do –

Do only those things that will honor Him.

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works,

which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Eph.

2:10).

(v) If you will sincerely seek the Lord in this way,

You will find the power to overcome your flesh

And do what the Lord calls you to do –

You will reach the lost with the Gospel;

16

You will do missionary work.

http://www.gcmodesto.org

“Where Will We Find the Power to Do Missionary Work?”

(Acts 1:8)

I. Introduction.

A. Orientation.

We’ve seen:

That missionary work isn’t just overseas cross cultural evangelism –

It’s the simple communication of the Gospel.

That it isn’t just for the elite, specially called and trained believer –

Jesus calls all of us to be missionaries.

That it isn’t something we are just to do sometimes –

The Lord calls us to see ourselves as missionaries wherever we are,

And to be ready at all times to do this work.

We’ve seen that to be ready,

We need to know the Gospel –

Which we already do if we are believers –

We must be willing to share it,

From a life that shows its real;

And that we need to seek out those who need to hear it,

Share it with them,

And if the Lord converts them,

Try to get them into a local church.

2

B. Preview.

To finish this brief series,

I want us to consider this morning

Where we will find the power to do missionary work –

That is, how we can have a stronger desire

To share the Gospel with others –

How we can be more awake –

More alive –

And so more effective in reaching them.

We saw before that the only thing that stands

Between us and sharing the Gospel with others

Is ourselves:

No one is standing in our way,

No one is physically trying to stop us,

There isn’t a special government police force

That’s ready to arrest us if we do.

The only thing that’s stopping us is ourselves –

Not all of us, but part of us –

That part the Bible calls the flesh.

Paul writes, “For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the

flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things

that you please” (Gal. 5:17).

The Spirit continually works in you

3

To make you want to reach out more.

But the sin that’s still in your soul is fighting against Him –

As it fights against everything the Lord wants you to do.

So what can you do?

Here are four things to think about:

1. Be baptized in the Spirit.

2. Be filled with the Spirit.

3. Walk by the Spirit.

4. And keep from grieving the Spirit.

If you do these things,

You will have more than enough power

To overcome your flesh and evangelize.

II. Sermon.

A. First, you must be baptized in the Spirit.

Luke writes, “For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy

Spirit not many days from now” (Acts 1:5).

1. There are many Christians

Who believe this is all you need

To do everything Jesus calls you to do.

It isn’t something every believer experiences –

Though every believer can.

But once you do,

It moves you from being ordinary to extraordinary;

4

From a normal Christian to a super Christian.

They believe that this is where

You need to look for that power –

In the baptism of the Spirit.

2. We agree that this baptism

Moves you from the ordinary to the extraordinary,

But not in exactly the same way.

It makes you able to do what you couldn’t before:

It moves you from darkness to light.

It awakens you from spiritual sleep to spiritual wakefulness.

This is what the Spirit does

When He puts you into Christ –

He makes you spiritually alive for the first time –

But He does this for all believers.

Paul writes, “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews

or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit”

(1 Cor. 12:13).

We were born into this world

Dead in sin,

Unable to do what the Lord calls us to do,

Unable to trust Him.

We were like electrical appliances that needed to be plugged in –

Made to do something useful,

5

But unable to do it

Because we didn’t have any power.

But the Spirit changed that when He baptized us –

When He plugged us into Christ.

He made His life to flow through us.

He gave us power to trust Jesus,

To die to our old way of living,

And to begin to live for Him.

You’ll never find the power to do missionary work

Unless you first have this spiritual rebirth.

If you don’t have His life in you this morning –

Which you can know you don’t

If you’re not trusting Him and living for Him –

Then I invite you to look to Jesus –

Look to Him to save you from the wrong things you’ve done.

Look to Him to give you His Spirit.

Look to Him to give you the power you need

To turn from the selfish things you do,

And to trust in Him and live for Him.

B. Second, if you are to have the power to do missionary work,

You must be filled with the Spirit.

6

Paul writes, “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled

with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18).

This is really what those

Who believe that what you need is the baptism of the Spirit

Are thinking about – this fullness of the Spirit –

Which seemed to be a part of that baptism

The disciples experienced on the Day of Pentecost.

1. In some ways, the baptism of the Spirit isn’t enough.

It raises us to life,

But it doesn’t in itself

Give us the power we need

To serve the Lord as we should.

We must also be filled with the Spirit.

Paul isn’t saying that the Spirit is some kind of fuel

That needs to fill the empty tank of your soul.

He isn’t some kind of quantity

That we can have more or less of.

He’s a person –

One who can have more or less control of our lives.

He needs to have more control over your life.

Paul says, “Do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation.”

Don’t be filled with wine –

7

Don’t be under its control –

Because that leads to dissipation –

It changes how you behave, generally for the worse:

It makes you reckless.

Instead, he says, “Be filled with the Spirit,”

Because when He’s controlling you,

You won’t be selfish and reckless,

You’ll be more like Jesus.

You’ve heard the expression: Jesus is my copilot.

That really describes someone who has the Spirit,

But isn’t filled with the Spirit.

Jesus is in your life –

But He isn’t in control.

He needs to be in control –

He must be the pilot,

He must steer our lives.

When He’s in control

You’ll want to do what He would do –

Which is – among other things – to evangelize.

2. How can you be filled with the Spirit?

We see an example

Of how the disciples were filled in Acts 4.

8

After Peter and John were arrested

For telling others about Jesus Christ,

They were ordered to stop or be punished.

After they said they wouldn’t,

They were further threatened and then released.

When they went back to their brethren

And told them what happened,

They prayed.

Luke writes, “And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered

together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began

to speak the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31).

This filling of the Spirit

Came in answer to prayer.

If you want to be filled with the Spirit,

You can only get it in the ways God has given for you to get it:

You need to pray –

But you need to see that prayer by itself isn’t enough.

You need to read God’s Word –

But even that isn’t enough.

You need to worship, share in the Lord’s Supper, and fellowship –

But you still need more.

These are only the means the Lord uses.

9

They’re not enough by themselves.

You must receive them by faith –

You must look to Jesus for His blessing –

But even that isn’t enough.

You need to use them for the reason He gave them:

That He might have more control in your life,

That He might bring your mind and heart

To focus completely on His Son and His kingdom.

When Peter, John and the disciples prayed,

They weren’t praying for Aunt Bertha’s broken toe,

That they might get that job they interviewed for,

Or that they might be able to pass that test on Tuesday –

The Lord does tell us

We may pray for these things in their place,

But they shouldn’t be the first things

On our minds and hearts –

They didn’t just pray for the power of the Spirit,

So they might feel more spiritual.

They prayed that they might be able to do

What God called them to do:

10

“And now, Lord, take note of their threats, and grant that Your bond-servants

may speak Your word with all confidence, while You extend Your hand to

heal, and signs and wonders take place through the name of Your holy

servant Jesus” (Acts 4:29-30).

They wanted the power to honor Jesus,

And the Lord answered them

By giving them that power:

“And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was

shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the

word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31).

The Lord will fill you with His Spirit

If you want to use that power

In the way He wants you to use it:

To tell others about His Gospel.

C. Third, you must walk by the Spirit.

Paul writes to the Galatians, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry

out the desire of the flesh” (Gal. 5:16).

And he writes to the Romans, “For what the Law could not do, weak as it was

through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh

and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the

requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to

the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Rom. 8:3-4).

When you ask for God’s help –

For the right reasons –

He will give you His Spirit.

But once He gives you that power,

11

There’s something you must do:

You must yield to Him

And do what He wants you to do.

Life is a continual series of choices –

Every day, you will need to make hundreds of them –

And in every choice,

There’s always two ways you can go:

You can do what you want,

Or you can do what He wants –

If you have any question as to what He wants,

Just read His Word: He’s very specific.

The more you are filled with the Spirit,

The closer these two will become –

The more you will want what He wants –

And so the more you will do what He wants.

But the less you have of the Spirit,

The further these two will be apart –

He’ll want one thing,

And you’ll want another –

And the more likely you will do what you want.

If you want to have the power to do missionary work –

12

To share the Gospel,

Which is one of the more difficult things

He gives us to do,

Because it is the most opposed

To what our flesh wants to do –

You need to yield – to give in –

To what the Spirit moves you to do.

The more you resist your flesh and yield to Him,

The stronger His influence in your soul will become,

And the easier it will become to obey Him.

D. Finally, you must not grieve/offend the Spirit – by resisting Him.

Paul writes, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for

the day of redemption” (Eph. 4:30).

If doing what He wants strengthens His influence,

Resisting Him –

Not doing what He wants –

Weakens it.

1. The Spirit’s work is often pictured in the Bible as fire,

Because of the holy devotion He creates in your heart.

John the Baptist, when he compared his ministry with Jesus,’ said,

“As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after

me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize

you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matt. 3:11).

13

When the Day of Pentecost had come,

And the Spirit was poured out from heaven,

He appeared as fire on each of the disciples.

Luke writes, “And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent

rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And

there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they

rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and

began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance”

(Acts 2:2-4).

When you obey the Spirit,

It’s like pouring fuel on the fire –

His influence becomes stronger,

Your devotion burns hotter,

And it becomes easier to obey Him.

But when you resist Him,

It’s like pouring water on the fire –

His influence becomes weaker,

It quenches your devotion,

And at the same time,

Strengthens your flesh –

Making you more self-centered

And making it more difficult to serve Him.

2. So where are you going to find

The power to resist your flesh

14

And do the missionary work

The Lord calls you to?

a. You must use the ways God has given you

To strengthen the influence of His Spirit in your heart –

Prayer, His Word, worship and fellowship.

b. You must use them for the purpose God gave them:

To strengthen your devotion to Him –

To unite your heart completely to love Him –

Not just most of it,

But all of it –

It’s not that you shouldn’t love others,

But you need to let your love

For everyone else flow from your love for Him.

c. You must yield to His influence/control in your life –

Go the direction He is leading you –

Which will be easy if your heart belongs to Him.

d. And you must resist the temptation to disobey Him

And follow the desires of your flesh.

e. One last thing, you must seek to obey Him in every area of your life:

(i) In your thoughts –

15

You must choose not to think thoughts

That are dishonoring to Him,

But only those that will honor Him.

Paul writes, “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised

up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought

captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5).

(ii) In your desires –

You must only allow yourself to want

What you know the Lord wants for you.

Solomon writes, “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it

flow the springs of life” (Prov. 4:23).

(iii) In your words –

Paul writes, “Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but

only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the

moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. Do not grieve the

Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of

redemption” (Eph. 4:29-30).

(iv) And in the things you do –

Do only those things that will honor Him.

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works,

which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Eph.

2:10).

(v) If you will sincerely seek the Lord in this way,

You will find the power to overcome your flesh

And do what the Lord calls you to do –

You will reach the lost with the Gospel;

16

You will do missionary work.

http://www.gcmodesto.org

“Where Will We Find the Power to Do Missionary Work?”

(Acts 1:8)

I. Introduction.

A. Orientation.

We’ve seen:

That missionary work isn’t just overseas cross cultural evangelism –

It’s the simple communication of the Gospel.

That it isn’t just for the elite, specially called and trained believer –

Jesus calls all of us to be missionaries.

That it isn’t something we are just to do sometimes –

The Lord calls us to see ourselves as missionaries wherever we are,

And to be ready at all times to do this work.

We’ve seen that to be ready,

We need to know the Gospel –

Which we already do if we are believers –

We must be willing to share it,

From a life that shows its real;

And that we need to seek out those who need to hear it,

Share it with them,

And if the Lord converts them,

Try to get them into a local church.

2

B. Preview.

To finish this brief series,

I want us to consider this morning

Where we will find the power to do missionary work –

That is, how we can have a stronger desire

To share the Gospel with others –

How we can be more awake –

More alive –

And so more effective in reaching them.

We saw before that the only thing that stands

Between us and sharing the Gospel with others

Is ourselves:

No one is standing in our way,

No one is physically trying to stop us,

There isn’t a special government police force

That’s ready to arrest us if we do.

The only thing that’s stopping us is ourselves –

Not all of us, but part of us –

That part the Bible calls the flesh.

Paul writes, “For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the

flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things

that you please” (Gal. 5:17).

The Spirit continually works in you

3

To make you want to reach out more.

But the sin that’s still in your soul is fighting against Him –

As it fights against everything the Lord wants you to do.

So what can you do?

Here are four things to think about:

1. Be baptized in the Spirit.

2. Be filled with the Spirit.

3. Walk by the Spirit.

4. And keep from grieving the Spirit.

If you do these things,

You will have more than enough power

To overcome your flesh and evangelize.

II. Sermon.

A. First, you must be baptized in the Spirit.

Luke writes, “For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy

Spirit not many days from now” (Acts 1:5).

1. There are many Christians

Who believe this is all you need

To do everything Jesus calls you to do.

It isn’t something every believer experiences –

Though every believer can.

But once you do,

It moves you from being ordinary to extraordinary;

4

From a normal Christian to a super Christian.

They believe that this is where

You need to look for that power –

In the baptism of the Spirit.

2. We agree that this baptism

Moves you from the ordinary to the extraordinary,

But not in exactly the same way.

It makes you able to do what you couldn’t before:

It moves you from darkness to light.

It awakens you from spiritual sleep to spiritual wakefulness.

This is what the Spirit does

When He puts you into Christ –

He makes you spiritually alive for the first time –

But He does this for all believers.

Paul writes, “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews

or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit”

(1 Cor. 12:13).

We were born into this world

Dead in sin,

Unable to do what the Lord calls us to do,

Unable to trust Him.

We were like electrical appliances that needed to be plugged in –

Made to do something useful,

5

But unable to do it

Because we didn’t have any power.

But the Spirit changed that when He baptized us –

When He plugged us into Christ.

He made His life to flow through us.

He gave us power to trust Jesus,

To die to our old way of living,

And to begin to live for Him.

You’ll never find the power to do missionary work

Unless you first have this spiritual rebirth.

If you don’t have His life in you this morning –

Which you can know you don’t

If you’re not trusting Him and living for Him –

Then I invite you to look to Jesus –

Look to Him to save you from the wrong things you’ve done.

Look to Him to give you His Spirit.

Look to Him to give you the power you need

To turn from the selfish things you do,

And to trust in Him and live for Him.

B. Second, if you are to have the power to do missionary work,

You must be filled with the Spirit.

6

Paul writes, “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled

with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18).

This is really what those

Who believe that what you need is the baptism of the Spirit

Are thinking about – this fullness of the Spirit –

Which seemed to be a part of that baptism

The disciples experienced on the Day of Pentecost.

1. In some ways, the baptism of the Spirit isn’t enough.

It raises us to life,

But it doesn’t in itself

Give us the power we need

To serve the Lord as we should.

We must also be filled with the Spirit.

Paul isn’t saying that the Spirit is some kind of fuel

That needs to fill the empty tank of your soul.

He isn’t some kind of quantity

That we can have more or less of.

He’s a person –

One who can have more or less control of our lives.

He needs to have more control over your life.

Paul says, “Do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation.”

Don’t be filled with wine –

7

Don’t be under its control –

Because that leads to dissipation –

It changes how you behave, generally for the worse:

It makes you reckless.

Instead, he says, “Be filled with the Spirit,”

Because when He’s controlling you,

You won’t be selfish and reckless,

You’ll be more like Jesus.

You’ve heard the expression: Jesus is my copilot.

That really describes someone who has the Spirit,

But isn’t filled with the Spirit.

Jesus is in your life –

But He isn’t in control.

He needs to be in control –

He must be the pilot,

He must steer our lives.

When He’s in control

You’ll want to do what He would do –

Which is – among other things – to evangelize.

2. How can you be filled with the Spirit?

We see an example

Of how the disciples were filled in Acts 4.

8

After Peter and John were arrested

For telling others about Jesus Christ,

They were ordered to stop or be punished.

After they said they wouldn’t,

They were further threatened and then released.

When they went back to their brethren

And told them what happened,

They prayed.

Luke writes, “And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered

together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began

to speak the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31).

This filling of the Spirit

Came in answer to prayer.

If you want to be filled with the Spirit,

You can only get it in the ways God has given for you to get it:

You need to pray –

But you need to see that prayer by itself isn’t enough.

You need to read God’s Word –

But even that isn’t enough.

You need to worship, share in the Lord’s Supper, and fellowship –

But you still need more.

These are only the means the Lord uses.

9

They’re not enough by themselves.

You must receive them by faith –

You must look to Jesus for His blessing –

But even that isn’t enough.

You need to use them for the reason He gave them:

That He might have more control in your life,

That He might bring your mind and heart

To focus completely on His Son and His kingdom.

When Peter, John and the disciples prayed,

They weren’t praying for Aunt Bertha’s broken toe,

That they might get that job they interviewed for,

Or that they might be able to pass that test on Tuesday –

The Lord does tell us

We may pray for these things in their place,

But they shouldn’t be the first things

On our minds and hearts –

They didn’t just pray for the power of the Spirit,

So they might feel more spiritual.

They prayed that they might be able to do

What God called them to do:

10

“And now, Lord, take note of their threats, and grant that Your bond-servants

may speak Your word with all confidence, while You extend Your hand to

heal, and signs and wonders take place through the name of Your holy

servant Jesus” (Acts 4:29-30).

They wanted the power to honor Jesus,

And the Lord answered them

By giving them that power:

“And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was

shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the

word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31).

The Lord will fill you with His Spirit

If you want to use that power

In the way He wants you to use it:

To tell others about His Gospel.

C. Third, you must walk by the Spirit.

Paul writes to the Galatians, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry

out the desire of the flesh” (Gal. 5:16).

And he writes to the Romans, “For what the Law could not do, weak as it was

through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh

and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the

requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to

the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Rom. 8:3-4).

When you ask for God’s help –

For the right reasons –

He will give you His Spirit.

But once He gives you that power,

11

There’s something you must do:

You must yield to Him

And do what He wants you to do.

Life is a continual series of choices –

Every day, you will need to make hundreds of them –

And in every choice,

There’s always two ways you can go:

You can do what you want,

Or you can do what He wants –

If you have any question as to what He wants,

Just read His Word: He’s very specific.

The more you are filled with the Spirit,

The closer these two will become –

The more you will want what He wants –

And so the more you will do what He wants.

But the less you have of the Spirit,

The further these two will be apart –

He’ll want one thing,

And you’ll want another –

And the more likely you will do what you want.

If you want to have the power to do missionary work –

12

To share the Gospel,

Which is one of the more difficult things

He gives us to do,

Because it is the most opposed

To what our flesh wants to do –

You need to yield – to give in –

To what the Spirit moves you to do.

The more you resist your flesh and yield to Him,

The stronger His influence in your soul will become,

And the easier it will become to obey Him.

D. Finally, you must not grieve/offend the Spirit – by resisting Him.

Paul writes, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for

the day of redemption” (Eph. 4:30).

If doing what He wants strengthens His influence,

Resisting Him –

Not doing what He wants –

Weakens it.

1. The Spirit’s work is often pictured in the Bible as fire,

Because of the holy devotion He creates in your heart.

John the Baptist, when he compared his ministry with Jesus,’ said,

“As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after

me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize

you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matt. 3:11).

13

When the Day of Pentecost had come,

And the Spirit was poured out from heaven,

He appeared as fire on each of the disciples.

Luke writes, “And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent

rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And

there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they

rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and

began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance”

(Acts 2:2-4).

When you obey the Spirit,

It’s like pouring fuel on the fire –

His influence becomes stronger,

Your devotion burns hotter,

And it becomes easier to obey Him.

But when you resist Him,

It’s like pouring water on the fire –

His influence becomes weaker,

It quenches your devotion,

And at the same time,

Strengthens your flesh –

Making you more self-centered

And making it more difficult to serve Him.

2. So where are you going to find

The power to resist your flesh

14

And do the missionary work

The Lord calls you to?

a. You must use the ways God has given you

To strengthen the influence of His Spirit in your heart –

Prayer, His Word, worship and fellowship.

b. You must use them for the purpose God gave them:

To strengthen your devotion to Him –

To unite your heart completely to love Him –

Not just most of it,

But all of it –

It’s not that you shouldn’t love others,

But you need to let your love

For everyone else flow from your love for Him.

c. You must yield to His influence/control in your life –

Go the direction He is leading you –

Which will be easy if your heart belongs to Him.

d. And you must resist the temptation to disobey Him

And follow the desires of your flesh.

e. One last thing, you must seek to obey Him in every area of your life:

(i) In your thoughts –

15

You must choose not to think thoughts

That are dishonoring to Him,

But only those that will honor Him.

Paul writes, “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised

up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought

captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5).

(ii) In your desires –

You must only allow yourself to want

What you know the Lord wants for you.

Solomon writes, “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it

flow the springs of life” (Prov. 4:23).

(iii) In your words –

Paul writes, “Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but

only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the

moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. Do not grieve the

Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of

redemption” (Eph. 4:29-30).

(iv) And in the things you do –

Do only those things that will honor Him.

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works,

which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Eph.

2:10).

(v) If you will sincerely seek the Lord in this way,

You will find the power to overcome your flesh

And do what the Lord calls you to do –

You will reach the lost with the Gospel;

16

You will do missionary work.

http://www.gcmodesto.org

“Where Will We Find the Power to Do Missionary Work?”

(Acts 1:8)

I. Introduction.

A. Orientation.

We’ve seen:

That missionary work isn’t just overseas cross cultural evangelism –

It’s the simple communication of the Gospel.

That it isn’t just for the elite, specially called and trained believer –

Jesus calls all of us to be missionaries.

That it isn’t something we are just to do sometimes –

The Lord calls us to see ourselves as missionaries wherever we are,

And to be ready at all times to do this work.

We’ve seen that to be ready,

We need to know the Gospel –

Which we already do if we are believers –

We must be willing to share it,

From a life that shows its real;

And that we need to seek out those who need to hear it,

Share it with them,

And if the Lord converts them,

Try to get them into a local church.

2

B. Preview.

To finish this brief series,

I want us to consider this morning

Where we will find the power to do missionary work –

That is, how we can have a stronger desire

To share the Gospel with others –

How we can be more awake –

More alive –

And so more effective in reaching them.

We saw before that the only thing that stands

Between us and sharing the Gospel with others

Is ourselves:

No one is standing in our way,

No one is physically trying to stop us,

There isn’t a special government police force

That’s ready to arrest us if we do.

The only thing that’s stopping us is ourselves –

Not all of us, but part of us –

That part the Bible calls the flesh.

Paul writes, “For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the

flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things

that you please” (Gal. 5:17).

The Spirit continually works in you

3

To make you want to reach out more.

But the sin that’s still in your soul is fighting against Him –

As it fights against everything the Lord wants you to do.

So what can you do?

Here are four things to think about:

1. Be baptized in the Spirit.

2. Be filled with the Spirit.

3. Walk by the Spirit.

4. And keep from grieving the Spirit.

If you do these things,

You will have more than enough power

To overcome your flesh and evangelize.

II. Sermon.

A. First, you must be baptized in the Spirit.

Luke writes, “For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy

Spirit not many days from now” (Acts 1:5).

1. There are many Christians

Who believe this is all you need

To do everything Jesus calls you to do.

It isn’t something every believer experiences –

Though every believer can.

But once you do,

It moves you from being ordinary to extraordinary;

4

From a normal Christian to a super Christian.

They believe that this is where

You need to look for that power –

In the baptism of the Spirit.

2. We agree that this baptism

Moves you from the ordinary to the extraordinary,

But not in exactly the same way.

It makes you able to do what you couldn’t before:

It moves you from darkness to light.

It awakens you from spiritual sleep to spiritual wakefulness.

This is what the Spirit does

When He puts you into Christ –

He makes you spiritually alive for the first time –

But He does this for all believers.

Paul writes, “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews

or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit”

(1 Cor. 12:13).

We were born into this world

Dead in sin,

Unable to do what the Lord calls us to do,

Unable to trust Him.

We were like electrical appliances that needed to be plugged in –

Made to do something useful,

5

But unable to do it

Because we didn’t have any power.

But the Spirit changed that when He baptized us –

When He plugged us into Christ.

He made His life to flow through us.

He gave us power to trust Jesus,

To die to our old way of living,

And to begin to live for Him.

You’ll never find the power to do missionary work

Unless you first have this spiritual rebirth.

If you don’t have His life in you this morning –

Which you can know you don’t

If you’re not trusting Him and living for Him –

Then I invite you to look to Jesus –

Look to Him to save you from the wrong things you’ve done.

Look to Him to give you His Spirit.

Look to Him to give you the power you need

To turn from the selfish things you do,

And to trust in Him and live for Him.

B. Second, if you are to have the power to do missionary work,

You must be filled with the Spirit.

6

Paul writes, “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled

with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18).

This is really what those

Who believe that what you need is the baptism of the Spirit

Are thinking about – this fullness of the Spirit –

Which seemed to be a part of that baptism

The disciples experienced on the Day of Pentecost.

1. In some ways, the baptism of the Spirit isn’t enough.

It raises us to life,

But it doesn’t in itself

Give us the power we need

To serve the Lord as we should.

We must also be filled with the Spirit.

Paul isn’t saying that the Spirit is some kind of fuel

That needs to fill the empty tank of your soul.

He isn’t some kind of quantity

That we can have more or less of.

He’s a person –

One who can have more or less control of our lives.

He needs to have more control over your life.

Paul says, “Do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation.”

Don’t be filled with wine –

7

Don’t be under its control –

Because that leads to dissipation –

It changes how you behave, generally for the worse:

It makes you reckless.

Instead, he says, “Be filled with the Spirit,”

Because when He’s controlling you,

You won’t be selfish and reckless,

You’ll be more like Jesus.

You’ve heard the expression: Jesus is my copilot.

That really describes someone who has the Spirit,

But isn’t filled with the Spirit.

Jesus is in your life –

But He isn’t in control.

He needs to be in control –

He must be the pilot,

He must steer our lives.

When He’s in control

You’ll want to do what He would do –

Which is – among other things – to evangelize.

2. How can you be filled with the Spirit?

We see an example

Of how the disciples were filled in Acts 4.

8

After Peter and John were arrested

For telling others about Jesus Christ,

They were ordered to stop or be punished.

After they said they wouldn’t,

They were further threatened and then released.

When they went back to their brethren

And told them what happened,

They prayed.

Luke writes, “And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered

together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began

to speak the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31).

This filling of the Spirit

Came in answer to prayer.

If you want to be filled with the Spirit,

You can only get it in the ways God has given for you to get it:

You need to pray –

But you need to see that prayer by itself isn’t enough.

You need to read God’s Word –

But even that isn’t enough.

You need to worship, share in the Lord’s Supper, and fellowship –

But you still need more.

These are only the means the Lord uses.

9

They’re not enough by themselves.

You must receive them by faith –

You must look to Jesus for His blessing –

But even that isn’t enough.

You need to use them for the reason He gave them:

That He might have more control in your life,

That He might bring your mind and heart

To focus completely on His Son and His kingdom.

When Peter, John and the disciples prayed,

They weren’t praying for Aunt Bertha’s broken toe,

That they might get that job they interviewed for,

Or that they might be able to pass that test on Tuesday –

The Lord does tell us

We may pray for these things in their place,

But they shouldn’t be the first things

On our minds and hearts –

They didn’t just pray for the power of the Spirit,

So they might feel more spiritual.

They prayed that they might be able to do

What God called them to do:

10

“And now, Lord, take note of their threats, and grant that Your bond-servants

may speak Your word with all confidence, while You extend Your hand to

heal, and signs and wonders take place through the name of Your holy

servant Jesus” (Acts 4:29-30).

They wanted the power to honor Jesus,

And the Lord answered them

By giving them that power:

“And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was

shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the

word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31).

The Lord will fill you with His Spirit

If you want to use that power

In the way He wants you to use it:

To tell others about His Gospel.

C. Third, you must walk by the Spirit.

Paul writes to the Galatians, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry

out the desire of the flesh” (Gal. 5:16).

And he writes to the Romans, “For what the Law could not do, weak as it was

through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh

and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the

requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to

the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Rom. 8:3-4).

When you ask for God’s help –

For the right reasons –

He will give you His Spirit.

But once He gives you that power,

11

There’s something you must do:

You must yield to Him

And do what He wants you to do.

Life is a continual series of choices –

Every day, you will need to make hundreds of them –

And in every choice,

There’s always two ways you can go:

You can do what you want,

Or you can do what He wants –

If you have any question as to what He wants,

Just read His Word: He’s very specific.

The more you are filled with the Spirit,

The closer these two will become –

The more you will want what He wants –

And so the more you will do what He wants.

But the less you have of the Spirit,

The further these two will be apart –

He’ll want one thing,

And you’ll want another –

And the more likely you will do what you want.

If you want to have the power to do missionary work –

12

To share the Gospel,

Which is one of the more difficult things

He gives us to do,

Because it is the most opposed

To what our flesh wants to do –

You need to yield – to give in –

To what the Spirit moves you to do.

The more you resist your flesh and yield to Him,

The stronger His influence in your soul will become,

And the easier it will become to obey Him.

D. Finally, you must not grieve/offend the Spirit – by resisting Him.

Paul writes, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for

the day of redemption” (Eph. 4:30).

If doing what He wants strengthens His influence,

Resisting Him –

Not doing what He wants –

Weakens it.

1. The Spirit’s work is often pictured in the Bible as fire,

Because of the holy devotion He creates in your heart.

John the Baptist, when he compared his ministry with Jesus,’ said,

“As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after

me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize

you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matt. 3:11).

13

When the Day of Pentecost had come,

And the Spirit was poured out from heaven,

He appeared as fire on each of the disciples.

Luke writes, “And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent

rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And

there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they

rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and

began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance”

(Acts 2:2-4).

When you obey the Spirit,

It’s like pouring fuel on the fire –

His influence becomes stronger,

Your devotion burns hotter,

And it becomes easier to obey Him.

But when you resist Him,

It’s like pouring water on the fire –

His influence becomes weaker,

It quenches your devotion,

And at the same time,

Strengthens your flesh –

Making you more self-centered

And making it more difficult to serve Him.

2. So where are you going to find

The power to resist your flesh

14

And do the missionary work

The Lord calls you to?

a. You must use the ways God has given you

To strengthen the influence of His Spirit in your heart –

Prayer, His Word, worship and fellowship.

b. You must use them for the purpose God gave them:

To strengthen your devotion to Him –

To unite your heart completely to love Him –

Not just most of it,

But all of it –

It’s not that you shouldn’t love others,

But you need to let your love

For everyone else flow from your love for Him.

c. You must yield to His influence/control in your life –

Go the direction He is leading you –

Which will be easy if your heart belongs to Him.

d. And you must resist the temptation to disobey Him

And follow the desires of your flesh.

e. One last thing, you must seek to obey Him in every area of your life:

(i) In your thoughts –

15

You must choose not to think thoughts

That are dishonoring to Him,

But only those that will honor Him.

Paul writes, “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised

up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought

captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5).

(ii) In your desires –

You must only allow yourself to want

What you know the Lord wants for you.

Solomon writes, “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it

flow the springs of life” (Prov. 4:23).

(iii) In your words –

Paul writes, “Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but

only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the

moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. Do not grieve the

Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of

redemption” (Eph. 4:29-30).

(iv) And in the things you do –

Do only those things that will honor Him.

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works,

which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Eph.

2:10).

(v) If you will sincerely seek the Lord in this way,

You will find the power to overcome your flesh

And do what the Lord calls you to do –

You will reach the lost with the Gospel;

16

You will do missionary work.

http://www.gcmodesto.org

“Where Will We Find the Power to Do Missionary Work?”

(Acts 1:8)

I. Introduction.

A. Orientation.

We’ve seen:

That missionary work isn’t just overseas cross cultural evangelism –

It’s the simple communication of the Gospel.

That it isn’t just for the elite, specially called and trained believer –

Jesus calls all of us to be missionaries.

That it isn’t something we are just to do sometimes –

The Lord calls us to see ourselves as missionaries wherever we are,

And to be ready at all times to do this work.

We’ve seen that to be ready,

We need to know the Gospel –

Which we already do if we are believers –

We must be willing to share it,

From a life that shows its real;

And that we need to seek out those who need to hear it,

Share it with them,

And if the Lord converts them,

Try to get them into a local church.

2

B. Preview.

To finish this brief series,

I want us to consider this morning

Where we will find the power to do missionary work –

That is, how we can have a stronger desire

To share the Gospel with others –

How we can be more awake –

More alive –

And so more effective in reaching them.

We saw before that the only thing that stands

Between us and sharing the Gospel with others

Is ourselves:

No one is standing in our way,

No one is physically trying to stop us,

There isn’t a special government police force

That’s ready to arrest us if we do.

The only thing that’s stopping us is ourselves –

Not all of us, but part of us –

That part the Bible calls the flesh.

Paul writes, “For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the

flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things

that you please” (Gal. 5:17).

The Spirit continually works in you

3

To make you want to reach out more.

But the sin that’s still in your soul is fighting against Him –

As it fights against everything the Lord wants you to do.

So what can you do?

Here are four things to think about:

1. Be baptized in the Spirit.

2. Be filled with the Spirit.

3. Walk by the Spirit.

4. And keep from grieving the Spirit.

If you do these things,

You will have more than enough power

To overcome your flesh and evangelize.

II. Sermon.

A. First, you must be baptized in the Spirit.

Luke writes, “For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy

Spirit not many days from now” (Acts 1:5).

1. There are many Christians

Who believe this is all you need

To do everything Jesus calls you to do.

It isn’t something every believer experiences –

Though every believer can.

But once you do,

It moves you from being ordinary to extraordinary;

4

From a normal Christian to a super Christian.

They believe that this is where

You need to look for that power –

In the baptism of the Spirit.

2. We agree that this baptism

Moves you from the ordinary to the extraordinary,

But not in exactly the same way.

It makes you able to do what you couldn’t before:

It moves you from darkness to light.

It awakens you from spiritual sleep to spiritual wakefulness.

This is what the Spirit does

When He puts you into Christ –

He makes you spiritually alive for the first time –

But He does this for all believers.

Paul writes, “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews

or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit”

(1 Cor. 12:13).

We were born into this world

Dead in sin,

Unable to do what the Lord calls us to do,

Unable to trust Him.

We were like electrical appliances that needed to be plugged in –

Made to do something useful,

5

But unable to do it

Because we didn’t have any power.

But the Spirit changed that when He baptized us –

When He plugged us into Christ.

He made His life to flow through us.

He gave us power to trust Jesus,

To die to our old way of living,

And to begin to live for Him.

You’ll never find the power to do missionary work

Unless you first have this spiritual rebirth.

If you don’t have His life in you this morning –

Which you can know you don’t

If you’re not trusting Him and living for Him –

Then I invite you to look to Jesus –

Look to Him to save you from the wrong things you’ve done.

Look to Him to give you His Spirit.

Look to Him to give you the power you need

To turn from the selfish things you do,

And to trust in Him and live for Him.

B. Second, if you are to have the power to do missionary work,

You must be filled with the Spirit.

6

Paul writes, “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled

with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18).

This is really what those

Who believe that what you need is the baptism of the Spirit

Are thinking about – this fullness of the Spirit –

Which seemed to be a part of that baptism

The disciples experienced on the Day of Pentecost.

1. In some ways, the baptism of the Spirit isn’t enough.

It raises us to life,

But it doesn’t in itself

Give us the power we need

To serve the Lord as we should.

We must also be filled with the Spirit.

Paul isn’t saying that the Spirit is some kind of fuel

That needs to fill the empty tank of your soul.

He isn’t some kind of quantity

That we can have more or less of.

He’s a person –

One who can have more or less control of our lives.

He needs to have more control over your life.

Paul says, “Do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation.”

Don’t be filled with wine –

7

Don’t be under its control –

Because that leads to dissipation –

It changes how you behave, generally for the worse:

It makes you reckless.

Instead, he says, “Be filled with the Spirit,”

Because when He’s controlling you,

You won’t be selfish and reckless,

You’ll be more like Jesus.

You’ve heard the expression: Jesus is my copilot.

That really describes someone who has the Spirit,

But isn’t filled with the Spirit.

Jesus is in your life –

But He isn’t in control.

He needs to be in control –

He must be the pilot,

He must steer our lives.

When He’s in control

You’ll want to do what He would do –

Which is – among other things – to evangelize.

2. How can you be filled with the Spirit?

We see an example

Of how the disciples were filled in Acts 4.

8

After Peter and John were arrested

For telling others about Jesus Christ,

They were ordered to stop or be punished.

After they said they wouldn’t,

They were further threatened and then released.

When they went back to their brethren

And told them what happened,

They prayed.

Luke writes, “And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered

together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began

to speak the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31).

This filling of the Spirit

Came in answer to prayer.

If you want to be filled with the Spirit,

You can only get it in the ways God has given for you to get it:

You need to pray –

But you need to see that prayer by itself isn’t enough.

You need to read God’s Word –

But even that isn’t enough.

You need to worship, share in the Lord’s Supper, and fellowship –

But you still need more.

These are only the means the Lord uses.

9

They’re not enough by themselves.

You must receive them by faith –

You must look to Jesus for His blessing –

But even that isn’t enough.

You need to use them for the reason He gave them:

That He might have more control in your life,

That He might bring your mind and heart

To focus completely on His Son and His kingdom.

When Peter, John and the disciples prayed,

They weren’t praying for Aunt Bertha’s broken toe,

That they might get that job they interviewed for,

Or that they might be able to pass that test on Tuesday –

The Lord does tell us

We may pray for these things in their place,

But they shouldn’t be the first things

On our minds and hearts –

They didn’t just pray for the power of the Spirit,

So they might feel more spiritual.

They prayed that they might be able to do

What God called them to do:

10

“And now, Lord, take note of their threats, and grant that Your bond-servants

may speak Your word with all confidence, while You extend Your hand to

heal, and signs and wonders take place through the name of Your holy

servant Jesus” (Acts 4:29-30).

They wanted the power to honor Jesus,

And the Lord answered them

By giving them that power:

“And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was

shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the

word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31).

The Lord will fill you with His Spirit

If you want to use that power

In the way He wants you to use it:

To tell others about His Gospel.

C. Third, you must walk by the Spirit.

Paul writes to the Galatians, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry

out the desire of the flesh” (Gal. 5:16).

And he writes to the Romans, “For what the Law could not do, weak as it was

through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh

and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the

requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to

the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Rom. 8:3-4).

When you ask for God’s help –

For the right reasons –

He will give you His Spirit.

But once He gives you that power,

11

There’s something you must do:

You must yield to Him

And do what He wants you to do.

Life is a continual series of choices –

Every day, you will need to make hundreds of them –

And in every choice,

There’s always two ways you can go:

You can do what you want,

Or you can do what He wants –

If you have any question as to what He wants,

Just read His Word: He’s very specific.

The more you are filled with the Spirit,

The closer these two will become –

The more you will want what He wants –

And so the more you will do what He wants.

But the less you have of the Spirit,

The further these two will be apart –

He’ll want one thing,

And you’ll want another –

And the more likely you will do what you want.

If you want to have the power to do missionary work –

12

To share the Gospel,

Which is one of the more difficult things

He gives us to do,

Because it is the most opposed

To what our flesh wants to do –

You need to yield – to give in –

To what the Spirit moves you to do.

The more you resist your flesh and yield to Him,

The stronger His influence in your soul will become,

And the easier it will become to obey Him.

D. Finally, you must not grieve/offend the Spirit – by resisting Him.

Paul writes, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for

the day of redemption” (Eph. 4:30).

If doing what He wants strengthens His influence,

Resisting Him –

Not doing what He wants –

Weakens it.

1. The Spirit’s work is often pictured in the Bible as fire,

Because of the holy devotion He creates in your heart.

John the Baptist, when he compared his ministry with Jesus,’ said,

“As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after

me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize

you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matt. 3:11).

13

When the Day of Pentecost had come,

And the Spirit was poured out from heaven,

He appeared as fire on each of the disciples.

Luke writes, “And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent

rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And

there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they

rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and

began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance”

(Acts 2:2-4).

When you obey the Spirit,

It’s like pouring fuel on the fire –

His influence becomes stronger,

Your devotion burns hotter,

And it becomes easier to obey Him.

But when you resist Him,

It’s like pouring water on the fire –

His influence becomes weaker,

It quenches your devotion,

And at the same time,

Strengthens your flesh –

Making you more self-centered

And making it more difficult to serve Him.

2. So where are you going to find

The power to resist your flesh

14

And do the missionary work

The Lord calls you to?

a. You must use the ways God has given you

To strengthen the influence of His Spirit in your heart –

Prayer, His Word, worship and fellowship.

b. You must use them for the purpose God gave them:

To strengthen your devotion to Him –

To unite your heart completely to love Him –

Not just most of it,

But all of it –

It’s not that you shouldn’t love others,

But you need to let your love

For everyone else flow from your love for Him.

c. You must yield to His influence/control in your life –

Go the direction He is leading you –

Which will be easy if your heart belongs to Him.

d. And you must resist the temptation to disobey Him

And follow the desires of your flesh.

e. One last thing, you must seek to obey Him in every area of your life:

(i) In your thoughts –

15

You must choose not to think thoughts

That are dishonoring to Him,

But only those that will honor Him.

Paul writes, “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised

up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought

captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5).

(ii) In your desires –

You must only allow yourself to want

What you know the Lord wants for you.

Solomon writes, “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it

flow the springs of life” (Prov. 4:23).

(iii) In your words –

Paul writes, “Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but

only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the

moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. Do not grieve the

Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of

redemption” (Eph. 4:29-30).

(iv) And in the things you do –

Do only those things that will honor Him.

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works,

which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Eph.

2:10).

(v) If you will sincerely seek the Lord in this way,

You will find the power to overcome your flesh

And do what the Lord calls you to do –

You will reach the lost with the Gospel;

16

You will do missionary work.

http://www.gcmodesto.org

“Where Will We Find the Power to Do Missionary Work?”

(Acts 1:8)

I. Introduction.

A. Orientation.

We’ve seen:

That missionary work isn’t just overseas cross cultural evangelism –

It’s the simple communication of the Gospel.

That it isn’t just for the elite, specially called and trained believer –

Jesus calls all of us to be missionaries.

That it isn’t something we are just to do sometimes –

The Lord calls us to see ourselves as missionaries wherever we are,

And to be ready at all times to do this work.

We’ve seen that to be ready,

We need to know the Gospel –

Which we already do if we are believers –

We must be willing to share it,

From a life that shows its real;

And that we need to seek out those who need to hear it,

Share it with them,

And if the Lord converts them,

Try to get them into a local church.

2

B. Preview.

To finish this brief series,

I want us to consider this morning

Where we will find the power to do missionary work –

That is, how we can have a stronger desire

To share the Gospel with others –

How we can be more awake –

More alive –

And so more effective in reaching them.

We saw before that the only thing that stands

Between us and sharing the Gospel with others

Is ourselves:

No one is standing in our way,

No one is physically trying to stop us,

There isn’t a special government police force

That’s ready to arrest us if we do.

The only thing that’s stopping us is ourselves –

Not all of us, but part of us –

That part the Bible calls the flesh.

Paul writes, “For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the

flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things

that you please” (Gal. 5:17).

The Spirit continually works in you

3

To make you want to reach out more.

But the sin that’s still in your soul is fighting against Him –

As it fights against everything the Lord wants you to do.

So what can you do?

Here are four things to think about:

1. Be baptized in the Spirit.

2. Be filled with the Spirit.

3. Walk by the Spirit.

4. And keep from grieving the Spirit.

If you do these things,

You will have more than enough power

To overcome your flesh and evangelize.

II. Sermon.

A. First, you must be baptized in the Spirit.

Luke writes, “For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy

Spirit not many days from now” (Acts 1:5).

1. There are many Christians

Who believe this is all you need

To do everything Jesus calls you to do.

It isn’t something every believer experiences –

Though every believer can.

But once you do,

It moves you from being ordinary to extraordinary;

4

From a normal Christian to a super Christian.

They believe that this is where

You need to look for that power –

In the baptism of the Spirit.

2. We agree that this baptism

Moves you from the ordinary to the extraordinary,

But not in exactly the same way.

It makes you able to do what you couldn’t before:

It moves you from darkness to light.

It awakens you from spiritual sleep to spiritual wakefulness.

This is what the Spirit does

When He puts you into Christ –

He makes you spiritually alive for the first time –

But He does this for all believers.

Paul writes, “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews

or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit”

(1 Cor. 12:13).

We were born into this world

Dead in sin,

Unable to do what the Lord calls us to do,

Unable to trust Him.

We were like electrical appliances that needed to be plugged in –

Made to do something useful,

5

But unable to do it

Because we didn’t have any power.

But the Spirit changed that when He baptized us –

When He plugged us into Christ.

He made His life to flow through us.

He gave us power to trust Jesus,

To die to our old way of living,

And to begin to live for Him.

You’ll never find the power to do missionary work

Unless you first have this spiritual rebirth.

If you don’t have His life in you this morning –

Which you can know you don’t

If you’re not trusting Him and living for Him –

Then I invite you to look to Jesus –

Look to Him to save you from the wrong things you’ve done.

Look to Him to give you His Spirit.

Look to Him to give you the power you need

To turn from the selfish things you do,

And to trust in Him and live for Him.

B. Second, if you are to have the power to do missionary work,

You must be filled with the Spirit.

6

Paul writes, “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled

with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18).

This is really what those

Who believe that what you need is the baptism of the Spirit

Are thinking about – this fullness of the Spirit –

Which seemed to be a part of that baptism

The disciples experienced on the Day of Pentecost.

1. In some ways, the baptism of the Spirit isn’t enough.

It raises us to life,

But it doesn’t in itself

Give us the power we need

To serve the Lord as we should.

We must also be filled with the Spirit.

Paul isn’t saying that the Spirit is some kind of fuel

That needs to fill the empty tank of your soul.

He isn’t some kind of quantity

That we can have more or less of.

He’s a person –

One who can have more or less control of our lives.

He needs to have more control over your life.

Paul says, “Do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation.”

Don’t be filled with wine –

7

Don’t be under its control –

Because that leads to dissipation –

It changes how you behave, generally for the worse:

It makes you reckless.

Instead, he says, “Be filled with the Spirit,”

Because when He’s controlling you,

You won’t be selfish and reckless,

You’ll be more like Jesus.

You’ve heard the expression: Jesus is my copilot.

That really describes someone who has the Spirit,

But isn’t filled with the Spirit.

Jesus is in your life –

But He isn’t in control.

He needs to be in control –

He must be the pilot,

He must steer our lives.

When He’s in control

You’ll want to do what He would do –

Which is – among other things – to evangelize.

2. How can you be filled with the Spirit?

We see an example

Of how the disciples were filled in Acts 4.

8

After Peter and John were arrested

For telling others about Jesus Christ,

They were ordered to stop or be punished.

After they said they wouldn’t,

They were further threatened and then released.

When they went back to their brethren

And told them what happened,

They prayed.

Luke writes, “And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered

together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began

to speak the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31).

This filling of the Spirit

Came in answer to prayer.

If you want to be filled with the Spirit,

You can only get it in the ways God has given for you to get it:

You need to pray –

But you need to see that prayer by itself isn’t enough.

You need to read God’s Word –

But even that isn’t enough.

You need to worship, share in the Lord’s Supper, and fellowship –

But you still need more.

These are only the means the Lord uses.

9

They’re not enough by themselves.

You must receive them by faith –

You must look to Jesus for His blessing –

But even that isn’t enough.

You need to use them for the reason He gave them:

That He might have more control in your life,

That He might bring your mind and heart

To focus completely on His Son and His kingdom.

When Peter, John and the disciples prayed,

They weren’t praying for Aunt Bertha’s broken toe,

That they might get that job they interviewed for,

Or that they might be able to pass that test on Tuesday –

The Lord does tell us

We may pray for these things in their place,

But they shouldn’t be the first things

On our minds and hearts –

They didn’t just pray for the power of the Spirit,

So they might feel more spiritual.

They prayed that they might be able to do

What God called them to do:

10

“And now, Lord, take note of their threats, and grant that Your bond-servants

may speak Your word with all confidence, while You extend Your hand to

heal, and signs and wonders take place through the name of Your holy

servant Jesus” (Acts 4:29-30).

They wanted the power to honor Jesus,

And the Lord answered them

By giving them that power:

“And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was

shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the

word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31).

The Lord will fill you with His Spirit

If you want to use that power

In the way He wants you to use it:

To tell others about His Gospel.

C. Third, you must walk by the Spirit.

Paul writes to the Galatians, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry

out the desire of the flesh” (Gal. 5:16).

And he writes to the Romans, “For what the Law could not do, weak as it was

through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh

and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the

requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to

the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Rom. 8:3-4).

When you ask for God’s help –

For the right reasons –

He will give you His Spirit.

But once He gives you that power,

11

There’s something you must do:

You must yield to Him

And do what He wants you to do.

Life is a continual series of choices –

Every day, you will need to make hundreds of them –

And in every choice,

There’s always two ways you can go:

You can do what you want,

Or you can do what He wants –

If you have any question as to what He wants,

Just read His Word: He’s very specific.

The more you are filled with the Spirit,

The closer these two will become –

The more you will want what He wants –

And so the more you will do what He wants.

But the less you have of the Spirit,

The further these two will be apart –

He’ll want one thing,

And you’ll want another –

And the more likely you will do what you want.

If you want to have the power to do missionary work –

12

To share the Gospel,

Which is one of the more difficult things

He gives us to do,

Because it is the most opposed

To what our flesh wants to do –

You need to yield – to give in –

To what the Spirit moves you to do.

The more you resist your flesh and yield to Him,

The stronger His influence in your soul will become,

And the easier it will become to obey Him.

D. Finally, you must not grieve/offend the Spirit – by resisting Him.

Paul writes, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for

the day of redemption” (Eph. 4:30).

If doing what He wants strengthens His influence,

Resisting Him –

Not doing what He wants –

Weakens it.

1. The Spirit’s work is often pictured in the Bible as fire,

Because of the holy devotion He creates in your heart.

John the Baptist, when he compared his ministry with Jesus,’ said,

“As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after

me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize

you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matt. 3:11).

13

When the Day of Pentecost had come,

And the Spirit was poured out from heaven,

He appeared as fire on each of the disciples.

Luke writes, “And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent

rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And

there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they

rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and

began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance”

(Acts 2:2-4).

When you obey the Spirit,

It’s like pouring fuel on the fire –

His influence becomes stronger,

Your devotion burns hotter,

And it becomes easier to obey Him.

But when you resist Him,

It’s like pouring water on the fire –

His influence becomes weaker,

It quenches your devotion,

And at the same time,

Strengthens your flesh –

Making you more self-centered

And making it more difficult to serve Him.

2. So where are you going to find

The power to resist your flesh

14

And do the missionary work

The Lord calls you to?

a. You must use the ways God has given you

To strengthen the influence of His Spirit in your heart –

Prayer, His Word, worship and fellowship.

b. You must use them for the purpose God gave them:

To strengthen your devotion to Him –

To unite your heart completely to love Him –

Not just most of it,

But all of it –

It’s not that you shouldn’t love others,

But you need to let your love

For everyone else flow from your love for Him.

c. You must yield to His influence/control in your life –

Go the direction He is leading you –

Which will be easy if your heart belongs to Him.

d. And you must resist the temptation to disobey Him

And follow the desires of your flesh.

e. One last thing, you must seek to obey Him in every area of your life:

(i) In your thoughts –

15

You must choose not to think thoughts

That are dishonoring to Him,

But only those that will honor Him.

Paul writes, “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised

up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought

captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5).

(ii) In your desires –

You must only allow yourself to want

What you know the Lord wants for you.

Solomon writes, “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it

flow the springs of life” (Prov. 4:23).

(iii) In your words –

Paul writes, “Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but

only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the

moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. Do not grieve the

Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of

redemption” (Eph. 4:29-30).

(iv) And in the things you do –

Do only those things that will honor Him.

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works,

which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Eph.

2:10).

(v) If you will sincerely seek the Lord in this way,

You will find the power to overcome your flesh

And do what the Lord calls you to do –

You will reach the lost with the Gospel;

16

You will do missionary work.

http://www.gcmodesto.org