Okay. Welcome, everyone, to Watermark. If it's your first time, if it's your hundredth time,
it's just such a privilege to be here together, to really come into God's presence and to experience
His Spirit at work amongst us this morning. My name's Chris, and we're going to be looking
at the book of Acts over the next little while. Before I start, I just want to pray.
Because I want to pray for God's Spirit to really speak to us. And I want you to pray with me.
Father, we need you. We want to hear from you this morning. I pray that my words would be your words,
that you would speak. Remove anything that is not from you. Let your word touch our hearts and let
us go and do what you call us to do in the power of your Spirit. Open our eyes in Jesus' name. Amen.
I don't know if any of you have ever seen the U.S. TV show Seinfeld. Has anyone seen Seinfeld?
There's a few people. For those of you who don't know, it was a very popular show in the U.S.
And a few years ago, some researchers wanted to find out why this show was so popular.
Because the show actually markets itself as a show with no plot. Okay? And so what basically
happens, it just kind of wanders from scene to scene, and it's described as a show about nothing.
That's the way they market it. And so researchers wanted to find out why is this so popular.
And so they went onto campuses, they did a whole load of research, and you know what they found?
They found the reason that this was so popular was because it mirrored the lives of the viewers who
watched it. They related totally to this life with no plot and no purpose in their lives. That's
what the research showed. And I think that's really interesting because isn't that so much of actually
what Hong Kong life really is like as well? You know, we're on this hamster wheel where, you know,
we go to school, and then we're dying to get through this exam. And then, and then we get
through the exam, and then we're dying to go to university. And then, then we graduate from
university, and we're dying to get a job. And then we, we, we get a job. But then we're dying
very soon, maybe six months afterwards, to get another job. And then we're dying to get married.
And then when we get married, then we're dying to have a family. And then we get family. And then
we're dying for the family to grow up and leave so we can retire. And then when we retire,
we're dying to do something meaningful, and then we're just dying.
right isn't that so much of life without a plot to it not part of a bigger story
and you know if you run a startup the way many of us in this city run our lives it would be
bankrupt within a couple of months because i i don't know if you just imagine you walk into
like an it startup and you say to an employee what are you doing and they'd say i'm typing
okay and you say okay why are you typing they say i i don't know why i'm typing i'm just doing what
everyone else was doing and you'd look at that and you'd think they're wasting something there
there's got to be more to life than that and the purpose of the book of acts and the purpose of what
we're going to look at is we need to know the why we need to know the purpose we need to know the story
that we're part of otherwise you'll end up just kind of doing stuff but maybe you'll end up wasting
your life and so the book of acts is um we're going to look over the next 10 weeks at the first six
chapters to help us refocus on what the story we're part of what is it that we're meant to be about as
church what is it that it means to be a christian in this city because my strong belief is god has
not got us here for some kind of plotless wandering existence we're part of something bigger
and so we've looked over this year we've looked at the book of deuteronomy which showed us
the god the call of god to love him and love other people we've seen how we failed at that the people
of israel failed we've seen how jesus comes along and sinners encounter jesus and when they meet with
jesus there's a transformation which takes place in their lives and we looked last week and last week
was easter and it's very fitting that we're starting the book of acts last week last week we had baptism
for those of you not here it's just a great time and and it's just such a fitting time because the book
of acts comes straight after easter straight after the resurrection of jesus and that's where we pick
it up and so what i'm going to look at today i just want to kind of introduce the book of acts to us and
then i want to look at power i want to look at purpose and i want to look at the ascended king
okay so i'm just going to introduce acts then we're going to look at power purpose and the ascended
king so if you've got your bulletin have it open i'm particularly going to going to focus on
verses six to eight but let me just introduce acts to you um acts is written by luke who colossians
four tells us is a doctor he's a convert to christianity he's well traveled he's well educated
and presumably very well off as well to get an education to be able to write his book he writes
some of the best greek in the whole of the new testament and you know he's also a sometime companion
of paul because we know in the book of acts in chapter 16 the pronouns switch from he says they
did this to we did this so paul luke is traveling along at some point with with um with paul and he
sees firsthand how the gospel is spreading throughout the roman empire and so verse uh verses one to five
of this book of acts are really like the the introduction for us and he's writing to this
guy called theophilus which basically means lover of god and he's a wealthy greek guy presumably a young
christian like many of us he's going through moments of doubt he's like is jesus the real deal is his
kingdom really as powerful as you say it is because i look around me and i look at the roman empire and it
seems so much stronger and christianity is like this little speck on the map is it real and so this
is the second time luke is writing this is kind of um the first time was the book the gospel of luke you
know luke and acts go together okay they're like you know it's like star wars and the empire strikes back
you know it's kind of this is the sequel to the book of luke and and if you recollect what luke is about
and luke is really about um what he does he collects a whole load of eyewitness evidence to show you
theophilus that what i've taught you about jesus this is sure this is true you can have certainty
about this that's what book one was about book two is kind of starts off as kind of like the um
and previously on you know those tv shows which they they kind of start at the beginning and they're
like and previously on the amazing race you know john got attacked by a hamster and then uh you know
and he got eliminated you know that kind of thing um that's what acts starts off with the and
previously and he says basically jesus was the messiah the king who taught about the kingdom he died he
rose again and he headed to jerusalem and in jerusalem that's where he died that's where he brought
forgiveness salvation to people and then acts it's not about going to jerusalem acts is about going
from jerusalem this gospel message going out into the world okay it's about how jesus reigns how his
kingdom spreads you know it says you'll be my witnesses in judea and in jerusalem in all judea and
samaria and to the ends of the earth and so what you'll see is jesus is starting a gospel movement
which goes first of all and you'll see in the book of acts the first seven chapters it's jerusalem and
judea okay that's kind of like hong kong island okay and then then it goes to chapter eight is goes
to samaria that's like kowloon and new territories and then chapter 13 and onwards it's going out to
the ends of the earth that's kind of everywhere else right that's what's going and the implication
is when you get to chapter 28 paul is in rome and he's proclaiming the kingdom of god and the
implication is jesus hasn't finished yet the kingdom is still going there's a chapter 29
okay and you know we as watermarkers his church are in chapter 29 there's only 28 chapters in acts by
the way okay we're in chapter 29 of how jesus is continuing to spread his kingdom and we're part of it
that's the story we're part of and we're living out this extension of this gospel movement that's spreading
so that's that's where we are we're in that story that's what book of acts is about
so let's look verses six to eight and i want to show you something about power and then purpose and then
the ascended king verse um it says uh verse eight says you will receive power when the holy spirit has
come upon you you know power is pretty vital in the world things don't move without power you know
get in your car there's no power you're not going anywhere turn on the lights no power you're in the
dark
one guy called moses name said power is what we exercise over others that leads them to behave
in ways they otherwise would not have done okay leads you to behave in ways you otherwise would not
have done i find that really actually really helpful because um who who is jesus talking to when
he's when he's talking here who's he talking to it's not a trick question he's talking to the disciples
okay do you remember what's happened like six weeks earlier the disciples good friday like he's talking
to a load of guys who've just denied him who've run away in fear who locked themselves in a room
because they didn't want anyone to know that they were followers of him these are the people he's
talking to they're totally weak wimps and cowards okay and then jesus rises from the dead brings them
forgiveness restoration and jesus doesn't kind of say hey guys i've done all the hard work of rising again
now i'm leaving it over to you when i come back i expect you to see some results from you guys
jesus doesn't say that he says i'm going to give you power because i know that you're weak
because i know that you're weak because and this is what we saw with peter last week christianity
starts continues and finishes on your knees recognizing your weakness and your powerlessness
not your capability it starts you cannot live the christian life if you think you're capable of living
did you get that you can't live it if you think you can do it in your own power because actually
you're weak the disciples knew that you know paul the great apostle says i delight in my weaknesses
because when i'm weak then i'm strong because god's power rests on me you know i think most people
are probably like me i delight in strength you know i hate it when i feel weak right you know
because i feel kind of vulnerable and exposed you know it's like you have those awkward moments of
silence where what well it's kind of silent for a while and you know you feel like when you're
talking to someone and you feel a little bit naked and exposed and you've got to say something to kind
of break the silence because we don't like that feeling of vulnerability we don't like those feelings
of weakness because we want to feel in control we want to feel competent all the time right don't we
and so what we do when we feel a little bit like out of control insecure we try and run as quickly
as possible to a place where we're feeling strong again but jesus says the normal christian life
get this the normal christian life comes and living at the intersection of your weakness and god's power
do you get that the normal christian life is living at the intersection of your weakness and his power
that's normal christian living and i don't know what i don't know what kind of week you've had
but i'm just kind of looking over my week and i'm just i'm i'm wishing that there were times that i've
been bolder i'm wishing that there were times that i hadn't given into temptation or eaten that extra
piece of cake that i did there i you know i don't like feeling like sometimes i'm not quite strong
enough i'm not quite good enough at things but jesus says to his disciples you guys need power
stop trying to rely on yourself i've brought you to your knees now i'm going to give you what you need
and he says power will come upon you when the holy spirit comes on you
so we need to talk a little bit about the holy spirit because um some people get weirded out by
the holy spirit you know we're um we're happy with father son and holy bible but um but father son and
the holy ghost you know it sounds a bit creepy it sounds a bit weird right um you know others of us are
kind of a little bit too obsessed with the spirit you know we judge every spirit about whether it's
spirit filled and and what that really means i'm not quite sure what that means but what i think it
means is there's a kind of special kind of atmosphere with a kind of happening by vibe and god's word often
is kind of secondary to some good feelings that i have that's often the way we define it but john 15
says this when the helper comes whom i will send to you from the father the spirit of truth he will bear
witness about me now we need to get this every christian if you're a christian you have the
spirit of god living in you but there's something we forget j.i packer who's a british theologian he
says said this about the holy spirit he said the holy spirit is like floodlights okay floodlights you
know if you go to the the rugby sevens you don't go like at night wow aren't the floodlights amazing
right you're not kind of focusing the whole time on the floodlights the floodlights are there to help
you focus on the game right and so he says actually the holy spirit is not there to get you obsessed by
the holy spirit the holy spirit is there to get you obsessed by jesus is to reveal jesus to you through
his word to convict you of your sin to empower you to live and obey him and to speak of him so that
you're so filled with jesus that it's just overflowing that he wants to equip you with what you cannot
do and fill you with what you cannot fill yourself with which is so much more of him
that's what the spirit is there to do and he does it in a number of ways and luke uses the terminology
here he says and he uses interchangeably he says spirit will come upon you you'll be baptized you'll be
filled with the spirit you'll be clothed with power those are all words that luke uses to describe the
spirit and and he's describing here not just something of conversion this filling with the
spirit because it happens this filling of the spirit this baptizing the spirit happens again
and again and again in the book of acts you know to the same disciples so in in ephesians 5 paul
tells the church keep on being filled with the spirit okay that's continuous tense so what is that
like what is that like well there's a there's a couple of different things which i think it means
um romans 8 it says the spirit bears witness there's that word witness again to your spirit that you are
children of god okay he bears witness your spirit that you are children of god the spirit reveals the
gospel god's word to you in a way that takes it out of your head and puts it down here into your heart
and sets you on fire martin lloyd jones um who's a welsh preacher he used to use this this analogy he
said the filling with the spirit is like a father walking down the road with his son holding his son hand
and the son feels safe and secure but then suddenly the father sweeps down picks up the son holds him
hugs him kisses him tells him how much he loves him and then he kind of goes to put him down then he
brings him again and holds him again and tells him he loves him then puts him down they carry on walking
again along the street and that son is as he's walking down he lloyd jones says this you can
scarcely contain yourself and you want to cry out my father loves me my father loves me oh what a great
father i have what a father what a father that's what the spirit wants to do in our lives to excite us
about jesus about who what it is to be his children
there's a deep assurance a confidence of the truthfulness of what christ has done on the cross
and we we find that assurance and that confidence in his love so that we don't have to be so self-conscious
it drives out fear and it produces joy that we're loved we're loved and we don't rely on experiences
that we've got to be careful we don't rely on experiences uh to to kind of base our faith on
our faith is not based on feelings it's based on the word of god and the everyday experience of faith is
walking hand in hand with your father that's what faith is like hearing his voice through god's word
the bible but what he then wants us to do is as he calls us on a mission which we cannot do
to obey him in ways that we know we cannot he wants us to call out to him in our weakness and to cry
with expectation that he'll fill us with his spirit with his love which will embolden us to go out and
proclaim his word tim keller says the spirit enables you to say if someone as all-powerful as god loves
me like this delights in me has gone to infinite lengths to save me says he will never let me go
and he's going to glorify me and make me perfect and take everything bad out of my life if that is true
why am i worried about anything why am i worried about anything
you see in our weakness the spirit wants to give us a new confidence in christ and his word which sends
us out in new boldness do you know what happens peter you know what peter was like last week
he's just total coward he was a chicken no courage in front of a servant girl to stand up for jesus
after pentecost holy spirit comes upon him and he's out in the middle of his crowds he's out in
the middle of those who even killed jesus and he's testifying to the truthfulness of the gospel
and how amazing jesus is you know he's gone from being a chicken to a lion
and he gets arrested and when he's arrested you know he's taken before the authorities and they all
see he's not very educated he's not a great speaker he doesn't know how to how to do all the kind of
great eloquence but you know he's filled with the spirit and he just speaks with boldness
and you're like everyone's looking what happened to that guy what happened to him what happened to
peter he's speaking the word with boldness the spirit wants to fill us in our weakness
and you know i look at my life and i often wonder in my life and i wonder if you do in yours
are there things which are going on in your life which can only be explained supernaturally
by the power of the spirit working in you and i'm not just talking kind of big miracles although i
believe god does that i'm also talking the spouse who perseveres year after year with somebody in
praying for their unbelieving partner even though you want to give up i'm talking about the employee
who stands for christ even when it could cost them their job because they refuse to act unethically
because they want to honor christ it's what jordan said about sawyer last week who was so timid before
and is now standing up and talking about her faith and it's only the glory of god that can do that
you know one of the things i think that stops me stops us experiencing the power of god is that we want
to be safe we want to have everything so we feel in control we want to do things so we don't want to
step out because we don't want to feel uncomfortable we don't want to feel inadequate we don't want to
feel incapable of doing things so we just stick to what we know how to do anyone do that
but we won't see his power until we're weak until we get to seeing where he wants us to go and we're
on our knees saying jesus unless you do this in me i cannot and that's where his power is shown
that's why 955 on a sunday we're getting people together to pray
and if you want to see god's power in this church in your life i encourage you to come
955 every sunday to come and pray and seek god for that sense of his power which to do what we cannot
do we need jesus we need his spirit do you want to live an explainable life or do you want to live a
life which is only explained by the glory and power of king jesus through his spirit i do
that's the power now let's think about the purpose
because the power is not just for ourselves it says you will receive power when the holy spirit has come
upon you and you will be my witnesses in jerusalem and on all judea and samaria and to the ends of the earth
you see i'm i'm really encouraged when i look at the disciples
because there's so much like you and me i mean jesus died risen from the dead taught them everything
about the kingdom of god and after all that they're thinking jesus are you now going to restore israel
what that means is like are you now going to bring us back our national pride so we can make life
comfortable for ourselves and we can have a great time here together you know you're going to bring
down the property prices stabilize the markets provide abundant free school places and jesus says
guys you're thinking israel i'm thinking the world you're staying local i'm thinking global
you see he says the power is to come so that you can be witnesses my witnesses my witnesses
what's a witness well luke is actually picking up some language from the book of isaiah isaiah 43
where he says um says i i am the lord and beside me there is no savior i declared and saved and
proclaimed and you are my witnesses that's isaiah
and luke's picking that up and he's wanting to say what is a witness a witness is someone
who has seen and experienced something right someone who's seen and experienced something the
disciples were witnesses to the life the death and the resurrection of christ that there was no
savior besides him and they would have proclaimed that to all the nations around them
now lloyd jones again says there's a difference between an advocate a lawyer my wife's a lawyer so i've
got to be careful but an advocate and a witness you see a lawyer an advocate can prepare
a case dispassionately like not really fully emotionally involved their only invested interest
can be i put can just to get out of trouble okay can be money pride or their own reputation right
but a witness in the court is someone who's involved who says i saw it i experienced it i was
touched by that event it's different and if you're a christian you have the holy spirit living inside
of you who has caused you to see and experience something about jesus right you see if you haven't
if you say well i just come to church then you're probably not a christian because the definition of
christian is someone who's the spirit of god has shown the gospel in your life and has changed you
to see jesus
now the problem with the way we talk about the spirit often these days is we talk about it we
want the power it's all exciting and we all want to make it about making my own little world a bit
better that's what the disciples want but the spirit witnesses you remember that word keeps coming up
witnesses to your spirit so that you can then be a witness to the world do you get how that goes
so he's witnessing to you about jesus love for you so you can go witness to others about his love for them
he speaks god's word to you through the bible through sermons through others so that you can speak it to
others that's how god's kingdom spreads it spreads through his word by the power of his spirit
that's our mission as watermark do you get that that's our mission we're part of this story
to spread his word but you know whenever a community group becomes simply a place to be with friends
whenever it becomes whenever you come just to listen to a sermon for yourself and there's no overflow to
others that's no longer jesus kingdom that's my kingdom it's what i i call constipated church
food goes in nothing comes out don't take that too far that analogy but but it's dangerous
if you keep eating and nothing's coming out okay i'm putting images in your mind here but you get the
idea you're that can kill you that can kill you and the question is is that you are you receiving but not
telling are you gaining but not showing are you having the spirit witness to you but you're holding it in
are you a constipated christian
because i confess that often i am and we need to repent of that because we're missing the story we're part of
what's witnessing witnessing is simply experiencing jesus falling in love with jesus through his word
in our lives and being transparent about it with other people that's all it is experiencing god's
working in your life speaking to you and just being transparent about it with others
you know we do it all the time i was on on monday we went out with theo's family we're going hiking
and the kids they love football do you know what they spent a whole lot of time witnessing to me
about how every player that they like is great and amazing they witnessed about the greatness of
leonel leonel messi they witnessed about so many players you know we witness about tv shows
we witness about our kids like how many parents of you have a new baby and then you're like oh yeah
i'm just a bit embarrassed to talk about it
we're not because because when you've got something which really touches your heart
some way somehow it's going to come out it's going to come out and if you're not a christian and the
idea of sharing about jesus seems strange or seems like you're imposing your views on other people
just think if you have a friend who's got incurable cancer and you discovered a cure for it wouldn't you
want to tell them like wouldn't it actually be incredibly unloving not to tell them right
but so often what happens is life happens i get distracted i want to be comfortable and we become
inward and when we do as a church we become aimless and we miss the power of the spirit because we think
we can do it but we need him on our knees
and you know
let me ask you a question
if you're a christian when was the last time you actually
witnessed to somebody about your faith
when was the last time you shared i'm not saying gave a 15 minute sermon i'm not even saying gave
gave um gave a whole load of principles i'm just saying shared something about jesus with someone
who didn't know
that's not a question to lead you into guilt that's a question to challenge you
because you know when somebody says to me and i say this to people as well you know well i don't
have many opportunities i know i know i've experienced that but the first thing i ask is well have you
prayed about it have you prayed for opportunities and you know what my answer normally is well
no not normally that's normally the response
you know even this week just even preparing this i've had to repent of the times where i've actually
i know this but i've stopped praying for the opportunities
and so every day like i'm now praying before i go out of the out of the house with fiona we pray
god give us opportunities today to share you give us the boldness to be able to take them give us the
wisdom to know how to do it and if i don't give those opportunities then let me just honor you
anyway and you know what i'm getting so many more opportunities and you're so much more aware of them
when you start taking them
i'm not saying run straight into your office
tomorrow morning handing out tracts and everything all the desks
you know i'm not saying that i'm saying we witness to people in a context of getting to know
them intentionally building relationships loving people listening to them but just being transparent
in the context of relationship that's what it is that's what it is and when we have no idea where
to start we begin with prayer we begin with prayer we say god spirit you need to lead me because i have
no idea what to do and he'll show you he'll give you ideas he'll show you but we're a church for those
who are not in church that's what we're here for
there's power there's a purpose purpose is the mission to proclaim jesus the power is the the fuel to
be able to do that final thing there's an ascended king ascended king
i don't have time really to go into depth in this um but i don't know if you realize how
significant the ascension is in christian life
um it says at the end of the passage jesus was lifted up in a cloud took him out of their sight
and two men come down and they say this jesus who was taken from you into heaven will come
in the same way as you saw him go into heaven
he's ascended and jesus says the ascent so tim keller says the ascension is a bit like the
detonator which sets off the bomb of the the resurrection the death of jesus and the resurrection
everything that he accomplished on the cross forgiving sins defeating death rising again all of that is
detonated when he rises again and he ascends to the place of the father's right hand that's what
acts 2 says he's exalted at the right hand of the father
you see because where he's exalted he's directing his mission
through his spirit he's ascended to the throne
where he reigns now if i ascend to the throne of england there's two ways i could do it
i could go up into buckingham palace and i can just walk up the steps
and i could go down and sit on elizabeth's throne
now what would change if i did that
i'd probably get thrown out and put in jail that's probably all that would change in the uk
i might make news but nothing much would change if you if you physically just go up some steps
it doesn't doesn't actually change a lot
but if prince william or prince harry or any other princes ascend to the throne what happens
what happens there's a regime change
something significant has happened which could although they're pretty insignificant now but in
the past would have shaped the whole of the country
you see ascension is not just kind of some spatial idea of kind of going up
it's actually an idea that he goes up to reign
on the throne
and when the last things that he says are all authority jesus says all authority in heaven and earth
have been given to me
do you get that he says all authority has been given to me
then he says therefore
go
go because i'm reigning
i'm on the throne
therefore go with confidence
confidence
and
what that means right now whatever is happening in your life right now
whatever is happening in this church right now
whatever is happening in this city right now
jesus is on the throne and he's reigning
do you get that
he's reigning
it's under his control
and there's
as he reigns his kingdom is unstoppable
because he's on the throne
and nothing's going to stop him
at the ascension 100 people were following jesus
bit by bit that spread
throughout the entire world
till now there is christians in every single country of this world
when his word is proclaimed
when people are his witnesses
the spirit empowers and leads and guides
he's going to do his work
here's the final two things
that is an encouragement and a challenge
because i don't know about you
sometimes things happen a lot slower than i wish they did
anyone get that feeling
there are people i want to become christians
who i've been praying for a long time for them to become christians
and they haven't yet
there are things in myself that i want to change
and it just doesn't seem to happen as quickly as i want them to
there are things in the church that i want to change
and they don't seem to happen as quickly as i want them to
and you can get discouraged and feel like
is it worth it
but the doctrine of ascension is liberating
because it means if jesus is truly reigning
then things are going absolutely according to his plan
and it's not out of control
and he's going to do what we cannot do
he's going to accomplish his kingdom purposes
you know
just go back to the story of sire and jordan last week
when we have given up praying
jesus is still reigning
and working
i know there are people in this congregation
who you have been praying for decades
for family members
to come to christ
and i know last year
two or three of your fathers came to christ
in their 70s and 80s
just when we give up hope
the kingdom still works
because god is reigning
that's the encouragement
doesn't matter how slow it feels
he is working it out
you can trust him
but there's a challenge
here's the final thing
if jesus is reigning
one day he'll return
and he'll look at all that has been doing
and he'll look at how much we've turned to him
on our knees
saying we need you
and he'll look at whether as a church
whether as individuals
we lived life
wandering around
or in part of his story
not perfectly
but with him
i went to a bowling alley
this week
it's amazing
if you go to these bowling alleys
because
sometimes
have you seen
there's these guys
they're just dressed in all the gear
you know
they look really cool
they look just so professional
they've got all this gear
they've got the glove
and everything
they've got their own ball
as they come in
and they're all looking
kind of really cool
and you know
i'm seeing them coming along
and they do even the little foot thing
you know
they kind of
you know
they look so professional
and i saw them
as coming up to do this
and doing all the stuff
and then i saw them
and i was thinking
wow they're just going to
swerve the ball around
and do all these kind of crazy things
and it's going to hit their strike
every time
and one of them comes up
he does this
and it's just like a three year old bowling
it's like kind of plops on the ground
and just kind of trickles along
and then goes into the gutter
and i'm like
what's going on there
and
and it wasn't just one
there was a few of them
and i thought about it
at the end of the
their
their time bowling
if they looked up at the scoreboard
it doesn't matter how great
the clothing looked like
doesn't matter how great
the kind of technique looked like
doesn't matter about actually
any of the things
the key purpose was
did they hit the pins
and it doesn't matter as a church
how beautiful we look
it doesn't matter how
how
how wonderful our bible studies are
it doesn't matter about those things
but are we doing what Christ has called us to do
are we doing what he's called us to do
not in our own power
because you know the ball which you hold
is actually too heavy for you to bowl
we can't be witnesses by ourselves
i don't have the power for that
i know
i mess up every week
but he says
i want the spirit to come alongside you
because you know what the spirit is
it's like he comes alongside you
holds your arm
and he says okay
and he holds it
and he's the one with his power
that bowls the ball
towards the pins
to do what we cannot do
and when we fail
and when we actually fail to trust the spirit
and we just
we do it and we drop the ball in the gutter
he just says come back to me
turn back on your knees
realize your weakness
repent
and let's go again
because i'm the one who's going to do it
i'm the one who's going to build my kingdom
there's a power
you're part of a story
which i'm working out
will you trust me
will you get on
and do what i've called you to do
i want us to pray
because in a second
what i want
i have up here
you may not be able to see it
i'll see if i can move these
i have a banner
it's actually a stretcher
i've taken the other part out
we did this
a few years ago
as part of watermark
and what i want you to do is
this is a stretcher
because stretchers are meant to carry people
and save them
to bring them to christ
like the man
who brought his
his paralytic guy
on a stretcher
to bring him to christ
what i want us to do
is i want us to pray for a second
i want us to spend a minute
maybe we need to repent
maybe we need to
just run back to him
and father and say
i've been distracted
i'm not doing what you've called me to do
maybe you're not a christian
and you need to actually think
does my life have a real purpose
am i part of a story
because jesus wants you to be part of his story
and if you're not
he calls you to come to him today
but i want you to come up in a minute
when you've
when you spend a minute just praying
i want you to come up
and i want you to write the names
of one
two
or three people
that you
have on your heart
that you would want to be able to witness to
that you would want to come to know christ
and i want you as you do that
just to be praying
praying
praying for opportunities
praying that god
might work in their lives
his kingdom word would come
and he would save them
so let's just shut our eyes for a minute
if the band wants to come up
just want you to think
am i struggling to trust him
where am i
do i just need to ask for him
to fill me with his love again
and experience him through his word again
just spend a minute just with christ now
and then when you're ready
i just want you to think
one
two
three people
i want you to come up
and to write their names on here
and we'll pray for that
Thank you.