Equipped By God

All right, so hopefully I can do this without crying today. I'm not a crier at all. Don't say. Now, I just, as I was praying this morning, and I was praying with Pastor Seth for service, I just have this deep desire that you would know Jesus in a more intimate way today.

I just feel like I'm just scratching the surface on knowing him. I almost feel like I don't even know him. And that's how much there is to know. And hopefully today that you'll just have a deeper love, a greater appreciation for your relationship with Christ, what that means to you.

And if you don't know Jesus, no better day than today to be introduced to him. So we're going to believe God for that too. All right, so let's see. I don't have any good traveling stories, but do I have any good stories to tell?

Probably not, I don't know. I did perform a wedding last night. My daughter got married last Sunday, or last Saturday I told you Pastor Seth did that wedding, and I did a wedding for some friends of ours yesterday. And it was pretty cool.

I just want to encourage you with this, is that as I was standing under the gazebo, waiting for the bridal party to come, I just asked the Holy Spirit. That said, Jesus baptized me a fresh in your spirit. And as I, you know, we think of it just as marriage ceremony, but more than any message I've ever preached, I've had more people come up and say they've never heard anything like that in their life. I don't even preach a message.

We just married people, we incorporated the gospel with it, but it was like the presence of God got released over 250 people in Cumberland, that their hearts were awakened to something that they don't even know what it is yet. So the pump is primed, and there are people that are hungry for God, and they may not even know why yet, but I believe God did a supernatural work in the midst of a wedding last night. Didn't that worry, started as ministry at a wedding? Yeah, it was, the first of his miracles.

All right, well, we're gonna finish today, a preach two weeks ago, and we talked about several ways in which God, that were equipped for the assignments. They want to talk about being equipped by God himself. And so that if you just for review, the first way, which we really spent all last summer for several months talking about was that God equips us with ministers, specifically the five-old ministry gifts. And as we look at these, if they're up there behind me, not yet, I want you to know that every one of these equippings has the word work in it, that it's for the purpose of doing something.

And so when it pertains to the five-old ministry gifts, and Ephesians 4 verse 11 and 12, it says, and he gave some apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the, say it, work of the ministry. And 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17, which is what we looked at two weeks ago, it says, all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and it's profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction, and righteousness, we talked about that, the man or woman of God, may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. And then today I want to look at, so we have a quipping that takes place by the ministers of God, we have a quipping that takes place by the word of God, but none of that is complete without the equipping that takes place from the spirit of God. And even Jesus, if you think about Jesus as ministry, from a time he was a young boy, when he was 12, you remember his parents take him to the feast, and they leave three days later, they realize he's not with him, and they go back, and they find him in the temple, it says, listening, both listening and asking questions.

So even Jesus was ministered to by a teaching priest. Jesus as a rabbi was grounded in the scripture, so Jesus was equipped by, at that time, what would be our equivalent of the fivefold ministry, Jesus was equipped by the word of God, but Jesus wasn't flourishing and activated into ministry until he was equipped by the spirit of God, the data John, the Baptist baptized him, and says, the Holy Spirit descended like a dove, and by the holy form like a dove. And so all these three things are even evident in the life of Jesus. So today I want to look at the last one, being equipped by the spirit of God, from Hebrews chapter 13, verses 20 and 21, and it's also you're going to see in that, it's going to have to do with every good, say it again, work, that there is a purpose to being equipped.

So putting on the equipment, if I'm a football player, Nick was just up here, and it would be senseless for Nick to put the equipment on and go home. But that's what a lot of believers do, they want to be equipped, they want to be, they want impartation, they want grounding in the word, they pray for the power of the Holy Spirit in their life, but then they don't do anything with it. And so equipping is for a purpose. Equipping has a purpose, God has a work for you to do.

So all these equipping are focused with a purpose. So three, four things I want to look at today about the equipping of God, I'll give them to you up front, we'll go through them. That first of all, the equipping that God does is perfect. The equipping that God does is perfect.

Number two, the equipping that God does is purposed. It's perfect, and it's perfect, purposed. Number three is this, the equipping that God does is pleasing. It's perfect, it's purposed, it's pleasing.

And really, this is, we'll go through this fairly quickly because I want to get to this one. Number four is that the equipping of God is powerful, that there's power that comes from the equipping of the Holy Spirit. When he comes upon you, there's a purpose to the power. And so that's really where we want to hone in today.

So if you have your Bibles, we're going to read from Hebrews chapter 13, verses 20 and 21. And if you don't, you know, I encourage you guys to bring your Bibles, right? Let me just see, who has a Bible? Electronic paper, doesn't matter.

All right, don't be lazy and rely on this. All right, bring something to read, make notes. Hebrews chapter 13, verses 20 and 21. It says, now, may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, that great shepherd of the sheep for the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do his will, working in you what is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever, amen.

Father, I just thank you today for your word. God, I just ask today that your word would come forth with power. Father, that you would do the miraculous today. God, I believe in that you want to equip your church to fully represent you and all that you intend to do in the earth.

So Father, today we come with open hearts and open minds to receive Holy Spirit. We just welcome you here today again in Jesus name, amen. Now, may the God of peace, what's the first word in that? All right, three letters starts with ends.

Sounds like now, what's the first word? Now, now, this is for right now. Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do his will, working in you what is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever, amen. Say amen to that, amen.

So when we see there, it says, what doesn't say equip, well, most translations other than the King James, or New King James, where it says make you complete, that's the word equip. So if you read the New American Standard, NLT, and I'll be a numerous other ones, they'll say that he will equip you for every good work. It's the word catarizo, so go to the next slide. It means to repair or mend what's been broken or rent, to equip, fix out, put in order, arrange, adjust, perfect, strengthen, complete, look at this, I like this, make one what he ought to be.

That the equipping that God does through his Holy Spirit makes you what you should be. It perfects you, it equips you, I shouldn't say it, he equips you, he perfects you, he strengthens you, he puts things in order in your life and arranges things so that when you walk in obedience to him, he can actually release through you the things that he wants to do. See, there's an equipping that comes from God that I can never do what God's called me to do. The problem is we've got too comfortable doing what we can do in our own strength, where we don't even need to rely on him.

That the calling God has on your life is greater than you could ever even imagine. It says in Ephesians 3.20, it says, it says the power that works in us, it says that unto him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we actually think, according to, so that the power that God has is proportionate to what's already in us. Like he's placed it in you, but that just doesn't mean that things function automatically, you have a part to play. And so I was telling Seth before churches, I want to talk about receiving today, but we need to go beyond receiving, we need to become receivers, but we also need to be releasers, that we need to receive what he has, but then we need to turn around and release it.

And so that's where we're going to go today. So number one is this, that his equipping is perfect. And I just kind of shortened those two verses down, we're going to pull a few highlights from these. And like I said, we're going to go through the first three.

It says, now may the God of peace, who brought up Jesus Christ our Lord from the dead, make you complete in every good work, may the God of peace, may the God of peace, ever the term Jehovah Shalom. If you remember the story that Jehovah Shalom originated in, it came in Judges chapter six. Remember God shows up to Gideon, Gideon's hiding because of the Midianites. And the angel of the Lord says, God is with you, you mighty man of valor, and he says, well, God's with us, where are all the miracles, where are all the things that we heard about?

But before the angel of the Lord says, you mighty man of valor, he says, God is with you. And then he goes through a few things, and he puts out, like he makes some food, and the angel of the Lord puts a staff on it and it burns it up. And all of a sudden, in about verse 22, Joshua has this revelation that he's not just talking to an angel, but it's the angel of the Lord. It's the Lord himself.

And when he realizes that, the angel of the Lord says, peace be with you. See, there's a connection between God being with you and peace being with you. It said at that moment, Joshua made an altar to the Lord and called it, the Lord is peace, or some Bibles will say, Jehovah Shalom, and it is there until this day, it records. See, when it talks about God being the God of peace, peace meaning Shalom, Shalom means nothing broken, nothing missing, completeness, wholeness, and soundness.

See, when I think of it, it's the God of peace that's equipping me, he's not giving me peace that I'm not gonna have issues in my life. Anybody have issues? Anybody facing a situation? Your life, I'm not prophesying negatively, but you're gonna have issues.

But I want you to know this, that you have a God that completes you, you have Jehovah Shalom, that is a Completer, the God that makes things whole and entire, that he fixes and repairs and mends and completes and perfects and strengthens and makes you what you ought to be, the God of peace. See, God's not just interested in giving you a little equipping. He wants to complete your equipping. He wants to perfect your equipping, because that's what he does.

Paul uses this in 1 Thessalonians 5, 23, great verse to talk about Spirit, Soul, and Body, but we're not gonna do that. He says, now may the God of peace sanctify you completely and make you whole, Spirit, Soul, and Body, and preserve you blameless until the day of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. See, he said that he wants to make you so complete, not just in Spirit, not that you should be born again, but in soul that you begin to think like him, that you begin to reason like him, that you're complete in body, that you walk in divine health, that he keeps you completely preserved, blameless, means that nobody can actually bring an accusation against you. See, that's how complete he wants to make your life.

He's the God of peace, he's the God of Shalom, he's the Completer, so that when God equips you, there's nothing missing. Like God doesn't leave out the helmet, or the tailbone pad, or the knee, he puts the whole package together. And when his Spirit comes upon you, there's nothing missing. Speaking of Jesus, it says in John 3, 34, it says this, it says that, whom God sends, that person speaks the words of God, because he does not give the, because he gives the Spirit, does not give the Spirit without measure, speaking of Jesus.

So that when God sent Jesus, God gave Jesus the Spirit without measure. Some translations say without scarcity, in abundance. So you're like, well, that was Jesus. Do you realize that Jesus says, so God sends Jesus, and when he sends Jesus to preach the word, he gives him the Spirit without measure.

Do you know that Jesus said, as the Father sent me, so send I you. So if the Father sent Jesus with the Spirit without measure, when Jesus sends you, and you receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit, you have the Spirit without measure. See, a lot of times, and I get that when Pastor Seth was, we're saying, more Lord, I want more the Lord in my life. And a lot of times we look for the more Lord meter, like, am I full or am I empty?

But I think we need a, a make room meter. We were saying that in that song, I will make room for you. See, his capacity to fill is only limited by your willingness to yield. It's not that he's not dialed it back.

He gives the Spirit without measure. Like, there's not even a way to measure it. What you need to measure is your willingness, your submission, your want to. Like, do you want to yield?

Because if you want to, he wants to, and he'll do it. There's no measure. There's no limits. There's no scarcity.

When he sends you, he sends you complete. Number two. Oh, actually I wanted to read the message. You know, I want to give shout out to Pastor Seth here.

Here's this in the message. May God himself, the God who makes everything, remember to talk about sanctification, everything, everything, holy and whole. Holy and whole, make you, holy and whole, put you together, Spirit's own body, keep you fit. He keeps you fit.

He keeps you put together. Like, I couldn't do it without him. We need him. It's perfect.

His equipping is perfect. Number two is equipping is purpose. Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus and the dead make you complete in every good work to do what? His will, to do his will.

See, there's a purpose to him equipping you. He's got a plan for your life. He has a will for you. Ephesians 2, 10, Paul says this.

He says, we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. You're his workmanship, but he created you in Christ to do good works that we should walk in them. So God, like God pre-planned these in eternity past. God planned your destiny out in eternity past.

He has a will for your life. He's got a will for this church. He has a will for Cumberland, Maryland. But here's what I know.

His will doesn't automatically come to pass. His will just doesn't happen. Now that doesn't mean that he can't step into time and space and do it, because he can. He's sovereign.

But the general rule is he works through the free will of man. So he says in 2 Peter 3, 9, God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. So his will is what? That all come to repentance.

Do all come to repentance and do some perish. Yes. God's will doesn't always function automatically. God's will, 1 Thessalonians chapter 4.

This is the will of God for you. Abstain from fornication. Ooh. Ah.

I can prove with that verse. That one verse, God's will doesn't always come to pass. Because some of you are sleeping around right now. It's an act of your choice.

1 Thessalonians 5. In everything, give thanks for this is the will of God. If you're not thankful in every situation, God's will didn't come to pass. Jesus prayed, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

That doesn't happen unless we say yes to the assignment, unless I partner with Jesus. See, just because it's God's will, I've got to decide that I want to partner with him. Then when I partner with him, I can see what he wants to happen come to pass. See, Jesus, remember Jesus was God.

Jesus was and is the eternal Son of God. But when he lived on earth, he imposed self restrictions to his God attributes. He restricted himself. He lived as a man.

He didn't live as God. He lived as a man. So Jesus had to make a conscious decision to do God's will. John 434, John 530, John 638.

It says through there, I didn't come to do my will, but I came to do the will of him who sent me. So Jesus makes a conscious decision not to enact his own will, but to partner with the will that God sent him for. All the way to the cross. You remember what he said?

He said, if there's any way possible that this cup can pass from me, nevertheless, not my will, but yours. See, God's will doesn't come to pass without submission to his will. You've got to choose to submit to what he wants to do in your life. It says that's why Paul says in Romans 12, feel like we have to renew our mind to this.

We have to be transformed. Be not conformed to this world. I can't live and think like the world thinks. I can't have a worldly worldview.

I've got to have a biblical worldview. I've got to have my mind renewed to God's word. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you might prove what is that acceptable and perfect will of God to prove it means to put it on display. It means that I know what God's will is.

I've decided to partner with his will, and now I can actually put the will of God on display for people to see. Well, God was going to do it. He did it 2,000 years ago. Jesus died, Jesus resurrected, 50 days later, he, or 40 days later, he ascended, 10 days later, he sent out the Holy Spirit to empower you to prove God's will on earth.

See, we bring God's will to pass when we partner with him. The same word, transform, appears in 2 Corinthians 3, 18. But we all with open face, be holding as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord are transformed into the same image, by, in this case, it's by the Spirit of the Lord. So we have the word of God, the Spirit of God, working to transform us into the very image of Jesus so that when I partner with Jesus, I can actually effectively release what God wants to do through me and in me.

Receive and release. God's equipping is perfect. God's equipping is purposed. Number three, God's equipping is pleasing.

It's pleasing. May the God of peace who brought you up from Lord Jesus from the dead make you complete in every good work to do his will, working in you. Working in you. Think about this.

God's pleased with the work that he's doing in you. But is God pleased with the work that you're doing for him? Like his work, if God's work is perfect, why wouldn't he be pleased with it? See, the work he's doing in you is pleasing to him.

Not just pleasing, but well pleasing. That the work he's doing in you is so perfect that he brings pleasure to him that he's doing it in you. See, but just because God is doing a pleasing work in you doesn't mean it's being released out of you. There's a difference.

See, we actually steward the very work that God's doing in us. He's entrusted us. He's given it to us. But then what are we doing with it?

Paul says to the church at Philippi, he says in Philippians chapter two verses, I think it's 12 and 13. You'll recognize the one phrase, but basically Paul starts out in verse 12, he says this, he says, be loved, might be loved brethren. You have always obeyed. There's a word we don't like to use.

You have always obeyed, not in my presence only, but much more in my absence. And then he goes on to say this, right here he says that, he says, work out what? Your own salvation with fear and trembling. See, it doesn't say to work for your own salvation, it says work out.

And then the next verse, verse 13, a lot of times we don't connect it to, but it's all one thought. He says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who does what? Works in you both, not one or the other, but both to will and to do. Both the will and to do for his, what?

Good pleasure. See, if God is pleased with the work he's doing in me, if I actually release the work that he's doing in me that he's pleased with, guess what? He's gonna be pleased with. The work that works out of me.

Because if it's the same work, he's pleased here, he's gonna be pleased here. It says, so here's what we gotta do. We have to work out what God is working in. See, it says that he works in us, if you read the new living, I like the new living translation that says that God works in us both the desire and the ability.

So he says this work in me. I say yes, and all of a sudden he begins to work the desire, like the one two. Like I get people that work sometimes, God forbid I say this, they're lazy. They don't have any, one two.

They need an encounter with Jesus to get their one two in gear. Otherwise, notice their rear end. Some people need to get their one two in gear. The old elbows and buttholes, you know?

It's like this. I better see him both moving. He says that God puts in you the one two. But what good's the one two if I don't have the ability?

He gives me the desire, like God, I wanna do this. But he doesn't leave me incomplete because he equips me perfectly. And so he puts the desire, but then he gives me the ability to do what pleases him. He works it in me.

See, everything you'll ever need is in you because you're in Christ and Christ is in you. The kingdom does not come, but it's Jesus, what he says. He says, the kingdom isn't here or there, but the kingdom is in your midst. That wherever the king is, so is the kingdom.

That God has put the fullness, that says that the fullness of the God had dwelled in Jesus bodily. The fullness is in Jesus. And guess what's in me? The fullness.

And that it's in there. And God's working and in me. But it's not meant to stay there. I need to work out my salvation.

I need to work out some issues in my life. I need to work out, like there's healing. It's in me because I'm in Christ. There's deliverance in me because I'm in Christ.

There's forgiveness in me because I'm in Christ. The love of God is shed abroad in me because I'm in Christ. Like too often we're asking God to give us what we already have. We need to learn to release what we've already been given.

And if you haven't been given it, you need to ask. And if you ask, guess what? You'll receive. So tie along with that last verse that said that God only puts the ability to the want to.

I'm sorry the desire, but he also puts the ability. That when God equips you, he equips you completely. You're not missing anything. He takes what's broken and fixes it.

You don't need to qualify because Jesus qualified you. That God does it. Like he equips me so much better than I equip me. Like quit trying to equip yourself.

Like he's perfect. He has a purpose in his equipping. He's pleased with his equipping. And here's what he does.

He gives you his power. It says, may the God of peace who raised our Lord Jesus from the dead, well, how did he raise the Lord Jesus from the dead by the agency and power of the Holy Spirit? That when Jesus was dead, that God by the power of the Holy Spirit makes him alive and brings him back to life and raises him. Paul says this, it says that he wants us to know what is the greatness of his power toward us who believe.

The power that God has toward us who believe, it's according to the same power that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand of the Father. The same power that raised Christ. The same power that ascended Christ. The same power that keeps Christ seated at the right hand of the Father for all eternity is the same power that God releases to us today.

See, he doesn't do it in measure. He gives the Spirit without measure because he knows that he calls us to the, like if God only called us to do what was possible, I don't need the Holy Spirit. But he calls us to live an impossible life. He calls us to do things that are not humanly possible.

And it requires us to draw on his power that the God of peace, the God that completes us, equips us with the power that he used to raise Jesus from the dead. See, Paul said this, he says, a lot of times we want to preach but not have a demonstration of power. And so Paul says in Romans 15, he says, that with mighty signs and deeds by the Spirit of God, good Romans 15, 19, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem all around to Lyricum, I fully preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. See, if you're here Thursday night, you're gonna pass this back to that, the gospel is the power of God.

It is, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the power of God. See, when Paul said this, he says, I couldn't fully preach the gospel apart from the power of the Holy Spirit, that when the word is released, there's also the combination of the power of the Holy Spirit giving demonstration of the very thing that I was preaching. And he called that to be fully preaching the gospel.

See, how do we expect to fully preach the gospel if we haven't been fully equipped by the Holy Spirit? See, that's what we need. Like, we don't need it. One time is not enough to be equipped by the Holy Spirit once and then this doesn't do it.

We need it, it should be an ongoing thing in our lives. And I think if Jesus, if Jesus himself needed the Holy Spirit, like why wouldn't I? Why wouldn't you? Like, are you better than Jesus?

You're like Jesus. In the spirit part of you, you're just like Jesus. The rest of you is becoming like Jesus. But he needed the Holy Spirit's power in his life.

Paul says, I'm sorry, Peter says this when he's preaching in Cornelius' house in Acts 1038. He says this, this is a long passage, but he says, how that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth, with what? The Holy Spirit and with power. How that God anointed.

To anoint means to smear on. It means to rub on. It's the Greek word creo. Now why is that important?

Because the word Christ is crestos, which comes from the word creo. Christian, crestonos comes from crestos Christ, which comes from creo to smear on. So how would we ever call ourselves Christians if we really haven't been smeared on with the power of the Holy Spirit? Because that's really what it means.

It says how that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth. That's good news right there. It doesn't say how God anointed Jesus, the Son of God. It doesn't say that how God anointed Jesus Christ.

It doesn't say that how God anointed God. It says that how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth, in his humanity. I write that to say how God anointed Fred of RIDGLY. How God anointed Whitney of Cumberland.

How God anointed Curtis of Cumberland. Because if he didn't anointed one, he anointed the man Jesus. That if he anointed Jesus the man, he needs to anoint Fred the man. He needs to anoint Royce the man.

He needs to anoint Evie the woman. The Jesus, my brain got all twisted up. The man. The woman.

I still got wedding, wedding thoughts in my head. And he took a rib and took a woman out of man and brought a woman to man. I got a man and woman and woman and man. I'll come bumbled up.

But God anointed Jesus of Nazareth, smeared on. The Holy Spirit and power. The words that resonated to me this week from this verse, that he went about, went about, doing what? Doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil for God was with him.

God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power who went about. See, when Jesus was baptized by John, it was probably the most dramatic experience he had ever had in his life. But he didn't live at the place of the encounter. See what happens a lot of times when we have an encounter with the Holy Spirit, we want to camp at the encounter.

But Jesus didn't camp at the Jordan. It said that he was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. And then after he left the wilderness, it says he left in the power of the Holy Spirit and returned to Galilee. And then he goes to the synagogue and he says, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.

To proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to heal broken hearts and to give deliverance to those who are oppressed and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Like the anointing that he received at the river, he didn't stay at the river. He took the anointing and went somewhere with it. He went about doing something.

He went about, it says doing good and healing everybody. See, Jesus himself did good works. They're called miracles. He's called us to do the same works and even greater works than he did.

And if he needed the anointing of the Holy Spirit to do the good works that he did, how much more should we need the Holy Spirit to do the same or greater good works? See, what happens a lot of times when we have an experience with the Holy Spirit, and I'm guilty of this, is we, and I'm gonna say me, but we get so caught up in the phenomena, the experience that we never walk out the purpose. And sometimes it's the lack of phenomena. Sometimes this experience can be glorious.

I told you I had an experience on the plane. I was going to, where were we going? Somewhere, oh, I was flying to the Bahamas in December and I was reading the script on the plane. I asked the Lord for a certain thing and the power God hit me so strong, like I almost fell out of my seat on the airplane.

And it was like lightning pulsing through my heart. And I couldn't take it. That was a day that I did cry too that day. That was a crying day.

But there's been other times that I've gone expecting some phenomena and I don't receive it. Or at least I don't perceive it, I receive it. And sometimes we can get stuck in the place of the encounter because of the manifestations. And other times we can get stuck in that place because we think nothing happens so we just stay there and wait more.

I gotta never forget we were at, we were voicing the apostles back in October and Curtis and Whitney and Seth and Evie and they called pastors up forward and they're equipping pastors. I'm talking about these are generals of the faith, laying hands on people. And I'm like, oh man, I've always wanted to fall out. I've never fallen out.

Like I want to fall out, right? And so there's like 50 of us on stage. There's 5,000 people and these guys are going down and praying, bam, bam, bam, bam. I'm like, here it comes.

Seth, you know, Seth, he's a videoer. In areas I look out and he's got the video on. We're gonna get this on video. Bam, bam, bam, bam.

Everybody goes down, there I am, like the Statue of Liberty. I got nothing, got nothing. And I'm just like, okay, how long do I stand here now? Everybody's down, I'm just doodododododododod.

But here's what I want to tell you. That God challenged me in that moment. Not me not in that moment, but in the days following that, you never walk away from impartation without receiving something. Because God's word says if you ask, you receive.

So it's not based on the manifestation when you receive, it's based on did you believe when you asked. And so when I walked away from that experience, I didn't have an outward manifestation, but I came back, activated in things that I wasn't activated in before I went. My preaching hopefully became better. My revelation opened up.

Words of knowledge began to flow. Things happened. So don't get stuck at the place of the experience or lack thereof, realize that when God fills you and God empowers you, that just like Jesus, you gotta go about. It's time to get out of the Jordan and get out into Cumberland.

That we've gotta go about and do good and heal those that are oppressed of the devil. Because that's what Jesus did. What did Jesus say to the apostles? Now think about this.

On Resurrection Day, remember Jesus comes back, he walks through the door or the wall, whatever it was. They're, ah, scared. And he says peace. And it says he breathes on them.

It says receive the Holy Spirit. At that moment, they were born again. The Holy Spirit came to live in them, to reside in them. Because he would go on to say 40 days later before he ascended to the Father.

He would say wait in Jerusalem until you're in dude with power from on high. And Acts 1, 80 says you will receive power. After that, the Holy Spirit is come upon you. And you shall, say this, be witnesses.

You shall be something. You shall be something. There's a purpose to the power. There's a purpose to God filling you.

See, too often people, like oh God fill me so I can get some goosebumps. Forget it. Like if you wanna be a witness, if you want to go into the community and introduce them to Jesus. Like why should you have all the fun?

Why should you be the only one that knows the secret of the intimacy with the God of all creation? You should wanna introduce somebody to him. You'll receive power after that the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you shall be witnesses unto me.

In Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth. You know that Peter stands up and preach, 3000 people get saved. Then the next day they go into the temple. Peter sees the guy with the lame from birth.

He says, silver and gold, I don't have anything, but that which I have in the name of Jesus. What? Rise and walk. What did Peter have to give away?

He had the authority and the power that was given to him from Jesus. They get arrested, they can put in prison overnight, they get interrogated by the elders. And then the next day they all gather together and they pray again. And they say, God look on your servants.

You see their threats. You see what they're doing to us. It says that you would grant us boldness to preach your word by stretching out your hand to heal that signs and wonders may be done through your holy servant Jesus. And it says, and when they prayed, the place where they were gathered together was shaken.

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness. And it goes on to say in Acts 4.33, if we have it up there, keep going. It says, with great power, the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and great grace was upon them all. Here's the story I want to bring it to close today.

Cause I know most of you are sitting there, I'm not an apostle. I don't operate in that. Do you know that God wants to fill you to be a teacher? God wants to fill you to be a parent.

God wants to fill you to be an awesome employee or manager or business owner. God wants to fill you to be a politician. God wants to fill you to be an actor. God wants to fill you to be an athlete.

See, it's not the realm in which you do it in. It's that you're being you filled with all of God. And then he's making you complete in the realm that you're working in. Here's what most people say, well, I just want to serve food to the poor.

I just want to pass out water in Western port at the flood. That doesn't take the Holy Spirit. That's where you're wrong. See, that's where you're wrong.

See, the purpose of me and you being filled with the Holy Spirit is so I can introduce somebody to Jesus. Unsafe people pass out water all day long. It's called humanitarian effort. See, God's not looking for humanitarian effort.

He's looking for a heavenly encounter. And he wants that to happen through you. He wants heaven to flow in you and out of you, not so that somebody can just get warmed and fed and they're thirst quenched. He wants to actually use the thing that you're doing that seems little to actually bring about great fruitfulness in the kingdom of God.

Let me read you this from Acts, chapter six, because this is the first deacons. And we'll read this quick, but I just want to read this to you because I don't want you to ever think that what you do is insignificant or so insignificant that you don't need the power of the Holy Spirit. See, a lot of times people look at where they start or what they're doing. You remember, I think it's Zachariah 4.

You remember this verse that says, not by, God says it's a rubble, not by might, not by power, but by my spirit says the Lord. And the next verse he goes, who are you, O great mountain? In front of the rubble, you'll become a flat plane. I think we kind of sang about that today, right?

Every mountain will be made low. And it says, the rubble will put the capstone on it and will say to it with shouts of grace, grace unto it. Jesus is the person of grace. But then a few verses later it says this, it says, who despises small beginnings?

He says, do you not realize the plum line is important? Because here's what happens a lot of times. The rubble will be says, you're gonna finish the temple, you're gonna build this thing, it looks impossible, it looks like an insurmountable mountain. You're gonna literally put the capstone on this thing, but right now you're holding a plum line.

Right now there's just dirt. Right now there's no foundation. Right now you're like, what's the point of this? He says, don't despise that small beginning.

Because the small beginning starts with holding a plum line. It starts with laying a string. It starts with making sure things are level. Because eventually when you start here, you're gonna end up one day setting a cap on top of this thing.

And you're gonna do it not with your effort, not with your might, but with shouts of grace that God empowers you, the spirit of grace empowers you to do the thing that seems impossible. But it starts small. Well, I want the microphone. We'll start serving, but don't just start serving, start serving filled with the Holy Spirit.

Now in those days, Act six, when the number of disciples was multiplying, there arose a complaint against the Hebrews that the Hellenists, because of their widows, were neglected in the daily distribution. So there are some widows, the apostles are trying to do everything, and there are some widows that are getting overlooked. It says the 12-some in the multitude of disciples and said it's not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. So not that they're too good to do it, but they realize the call of God on their life, that God called them to preach, to pray, to impart.

And they said we shouldn't leave what God's called us to do to do this, not that we can't do it, but we're not as effective at doing what we should be doing. He says, therefore, verse three, seek out from among you, seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom that we might appoint over this business, but we'll give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word. So think about this, they need somebody to pass out food. They say the widows aren't being fed, we can do it, but that's not the best use of our time.

We really would rather devote ourself to the word and to prayer so that when we preach, we can be more effective, but we need somebody to feed the widows. Search out seven men that have a good reputation, which means you were doing something before you were picked, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom. Man, when we ask for volunteers, I'm just happy that you don't smoke and you change your shirt and you take a bath, like we need to raise the standard. Like we're looking up, can you fog them here?

Oh yeah, you're alive, okay, you can serve. No, if you want to serve tables, that standard of scripture is that you're filled with the Holy Spirit, that you have a reputation. See I got all these people like, people are like, well put me in, have you ever played? No, can God use you?

Yes, would it be better if you started holding the plumb line, realizing that God wants to equip you for greater things, don't despise the small thing, but start there and let God elevate you. Verse five in saying, please the whole multitude and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith in the Holy Spirit and Philip, for chorus and the canner, Timon, Parmenius and Nicholas. Oh, there's Nicholas, where's Nicholas still here? Nicholas was one of the first guys, a Procellate from Antioch, whom they said before the apostles, when they had prayed they laid hands on them.

They pray for them, they impart to them. Just like God told Moses, take some of the Spirit that's on you and release it into Joshua, release it into the 70. So they lay their hands on them, they pray, they commission them and it says, then the word of God spread and the number of disciples greatly multiplied in Jerusalem. So here's what's happening.

So the apostles are freed up from doing what they can do, but not what they're called to do. So when God does that, God actually multiplies the church because he's got everybody functioning in the lane that they need to function in for the greatest growth. And then verse eight says this, oh it's verse seven, the word of God spread the number of disciples multiplied, Galen Jerusalem, great man in the priest, we're being to the faith. Okay, Stephen, a guy that had a good reputation, a guy full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom.

He's prayed for to do what? Pass out food. That doesn't take the Holy Spirit, bull crap, it does. Because the purpose is to introduce somebody to who?

Jesus, I want you to know Jesus. I wanna serve in such a way that you don't see me, you see Jesus. I wanna talk in such a way, you don't hear me, that my words are changing atmosphere, that it stirs something in you that makes you say, what's going on here? I came to get a piece of food, but my God, something's stirring in me.

There's an emptiness in me that I didn't know was there and tell me more. Or we can just go, there's your potatoes, there's your potatoes, there's your potatoes. Oh, you wanna piece of bread too, here you go, here you go, here you go. An unsafe person can do that.

A safe person, not filled with the Holy Spirit can do that. And people walk in and out, hungry, filled and unsaved, sick, depressed and in bondage. The same way they came in. But you have an opportunity to introduce them to Jesus.

Look at this, verse eight, we're gonna close. Stephen, full of faith and power. Before full of faith and the Holy Spirit, now full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. Can you imagine, we know he went on to become the first martyr in the church.

He actually had said that people from Alexandria and Serene and a couple other cities came to argue with him. But because his wisdom in the Holy Spirit was so deep and so precise, they couldn't even refute him. He was a guy that was picked to pass out food. Imagine if he'd said, don't they know what my potential is?

Don't they know who I am? Don't they know my reputation? I should get a promotion. What if he would have missed that opportunity to serve food?

Because in the midst of serving food, great signs and wonders were done among the people. That's what you can do. That's what you can do. That's what God has purposed you to do.

To do great signs, to do great exploits. It may not seem that great today, but step into it. Receive all that he has and take a step knowing that God has called you into a particular assignment to do great things and to release the power of God that he's put on your life. I'm going to close with a quote by Michael Colianus.

I don't know if we have it up there. There it is. Let's pray. It says, read this.

It's very important. You realize God wants you to walk in his power for a reason. There's a reason. What's the reason?

So others will meet Jesus. If I meet somebody and they don't meet Jesus, I failed. I want you to think about that. If you meet somebody and they don't meet Jesus, you didn't fulfill your assignment.

Don't wallow in shame. Don't wallow in guilt. Just stand up. Ask to be filled again and take another step.

I failed more times than I succeeded. What's that saying? It says you miss 100% of the shots you never take. I'd rather take 1,000 shots and make two than take none and make none.

I'm going to fail. I'm going to get up. I'm going to receive power. I'm going to do it again.

I'm going to do it again. I'm going to do it again. I'm going to do it again until I see the same results that Jesus had because he's our model. Let's pray.