Sunday, June 26, 2022 AM

Here this morning.

We have much to rejoice in today, much to rejoice in.

We are praising the Lord for the decision on the overturning of Roe versus Wade.

That is something I know in my lifetime I wasn't sure if I would ever see come but we've tried

pray faithfully toward that but we have much work left to do though.

So we continue to ask for the Lord's favor and blessing as we go forth.

A few announcements as we get started this morning.

Come back tonight for our evening service.

We'll be having that at our regular time at 530 after that truth group for the young adults for the month of June.

Looking ahead to Wednesday the 29th our regular meal time at 545 and then at 630 prayer

meeting for the adults and Children's Choir for the kids.

Looking ahead to a couple Sundays and Saturdays in the future on July 3rd Sunnyside will

celebrate their 70th birthday on that day.

So if you know people who maybe came here in the past and you still have contact with them invite them to come out

for that evening service.

We'll have a time just a fellowship that night and remembrance.

And then Saturday July 9th the words of life women's retreat is going to be from 9 a .m. to 4 p .m.

here at the church.

We continue to try to clear out the big mission house.

It's scheduled for demolition on July 9th so if you could just get with Hannah Hamilton she will

help you kind of if you're interested in anything that's in that house maybe taking it home there.

Is there anything there's plenty left in there?

There's still quite a bit in there.

So okay plenty of stuff in there.

Get with her and try and get some of that stuff out of there in preparation for that demolition.

Any other announcements this morning?

Right our fighter verse for this week comes from 1st Peter chapter 5 verses 9 10 and 11.

Resist him standing firm in the faith because you know that the family of believers throughout the world

is undergoing the same kind of sufferings and the God of all grace who called you to his

eternal glory in Christ after you have suffered a little while will himself restore you and

make you strong firm and steadfast to him be the power forever and

ever amen.

We're gonna have a time to prepare our hearts in prayer and then at the conclusion of.

That Dwight will come up and open us all in prayer.

Father what a blessing it is to be able to call you father.

You are our God.

Our souls thirst for you our flesh faints for you as in a dry and

weary land where there's no water.

So we have come here today to this sanctuary to your place of worship

to behold your power and your glory.

So may we put away the things of this world and focus our thoughts on you

your son the Lord Jesus our Savior and the

forgiveness that we have through your son the Lord Jesus.

May we worship you in spirit and in truth

that is with the right attitude and according to your word.

We thank you and we praise you for who you are for your holiness

your power your glory your love your son

the Lord Jesus.

In his name I pray.

Amen.

Would you stand with me for.

Our call to worship we're continuing in Psalms chapter 78.

We'll be reading verses 40 to 45.

Read with me together how often they rebelled against

him in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert.

They tested God again and again and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

They did not remember his power or the day when he redeemed them from the foe.

When he performed his signs in Egypt and his marvels in the fields

of Zion.

He turned the rivers to blood so that they could not drink of their streams.

He sent among them swarms of flies which devoured them and

frogs which destroyed them.

So if you would turn to your Psalms for worship page 78 G

and we'll sing this very sobering song that we just read about

page 8 we'll sing praise to the Lord the

Almighty.

The book of Isaiah 8.

Isaiah.

Chapter 28.

We're going to be reading verses 1 through 15 together.

Some of you may have the heading in your Bible.

Judgment on Ephraim and Jerusalem.

Isaiah chapter 28 verse 1.

This is the word of the Lord ah the proud crown of the drunkards of

Ephraim and the fading flower of its glorious beauty which is on the head of the rich valley

of those overcome with wine.

Behold the Lord has one who is mighty and strong like a storm of hail a destroying

tempest like a storm of mighty overflowing waters he cast down to the earth with his

hand the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim will be trodden underfoot.

And the fading flower of its glorious beauty which is on the head of the rich valley will be like a first

ripe fig before the summer.

When someone sees it he swallows it as soon as it as soon as it is in his hand.

In that day the Lord of hosts will be a crown of glory and a diadem of beauty to the remnant

of his people and a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment and strength.

To those who turn back the battle at the gate.

These also reel with wine and stagger with strong drink.

The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink.

They are swallowed by wine.

They stagger with strong drink.

They reel in vision.

They stumble in giving judgment.

For all tables are full of filthy vomit with no space left.

To whom will he teach knowledge.

Into whom will he explain the message.

Those who are weaned from the milk.

Those who are taken from the breast.

For it is precept upon precept precept upon precept line upon line

line upon line here a little there a little.

For by people of strange lips and with a foreign tongue the Lord will speak to his

people to whom he has said this is rest.

Give rest to the weary and this is repose.

Yet they would not hear.

And the word of the Lord will be to them precept upon precept precept upon precept

line upon line line upon line here a little there a little

that they may go and fall backward and be broken and snared

and taken.

Therefore hear the word of the Lord.

You scoffers who rule this people in Jerusalem.

Because you have said we have made a covenant with death and with Sheol we have

made an agreement when the overwhelming whip passes through it

through it will not come to us.

For we have made lies our refuge and in falsehood we have taken

shelter to pray with me

our gracious and merciful Heavenly Father.

We come before you now sobered by this passage a

passage of righteous judgment to a people

committed to sin admitted to lies and falsehood.

Let it be a warning to us father to repent and believe

to turn to the glorious face of our Savior.

Put our trust in him.

Put behind all selfishness vain glory

that we might bend our knee

to our sovereign King Jesus.

Father as we continue to worship this morning grant us the ability to do so

in spirit and in truth that we

with unveiled faces might behold your glory this morning as we gather around

your table and share in the sweet communion.

Thank you for Jesus we love you.

We ask all these things in his name.

Amen you may be seated.

Do you.

Know Christ Jesus the King.

Do you sing praise to him for he's worthy.

Is he your protection through the storms of life.

Is he your strength when you're going to fears failures and disappointments.

Will he be the one that carries you when you pass from this life into eternity.

So join with us in singing praise to the Lord forever.

Jesus

and

the

people

plot

a

vain

thing

the

kings

of the earth set.

Themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed saying

let us break their bonds and pieces and cast away their cords from us.

He who sits in the heavens shall laugh.

The Lord shall hold them in derision.

Then he shall speak to them in his wrath and distress them in his deep displeasure.

Yet I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion.

I will declare the decree the Lord has said to me you are my son today.

I have begotten.

You ask of me.

And I will give you the nations for your inheritance and the ends of the earth for your possession.

You shall break them with a rod of iron.

You shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel now.

Therefore be wise.

O kings be instructed.

You judges of the earth serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling

kiss the Sun lest he be angry and you perish in the way when his wrath is kindled.

But a little blessed are all those who place their trust in

him.

Maybe perhaps in the great grand history of the world

that what has happened in our lifetimes and the overthrow of Roe v. Wade may not seem like a big

deal in the grand scheme of things but in our generation it has been the

fight of a lifetime and the nations are given to Christ.

He is King.

The nations have been given to Christ and when he makes his decision and

as he rules and reigns people rage people rage and

they plot a vain thing.

And do you know what God does when he beholds the absurdity of those who rage against him.

He laughs he laughs.

And what is the message for everyone that we are to bow the knee to Christ.

For the rod of iron has been given to him and this whole world is filled with nothing but pottery

clay vessels.

So let us fear him and rejoice in him.

And can we give praise to Christ for answering our prayers.

Right praise be to Christ.

And so we see that he answers prayer and let us continue on to follow him and to rejoice in him and to keep

doing his will.

This is not an ending point this is a victory launching us to even further obedience and further

repentance and further glory for Jesus.

Let me pray for us this morning.

Father I thank you so much for this day.

We do rejoice in your work for it is not something that we can do.

And Lord we know that you are good and you are righteous and you are strong and you

are true no matter what is done in the political realm no matter

what is done in the social realm.

Lord we know that you are still keen and what we rejoice when you answer our prayers.

And we ask for more answers to prayer.

And we continually may we come to you and ask for you to move and do your work in

ways that many have always bemoaned and said that we're impossible.

And yet we see here you did you do something that is impossible.

So Lord we give you the praise mass now that as we turn to your word and consider the

necessity and the power of the Holy Spirit that you would bless our time in your word and that you would bless

our communion together as we partake of the Lord's table.

And we pray all these things in Jesus name.

Amen.

I invite you to open your Bibles and turn with me to the New Testament book of Acts and we're going to be

reading verses 1 through 11 again as we consider this introduction

entitled the king in his kingdom the king in his kingdom.

And now for three and a half years Jesus preached the gospel of the kingdom in every village.

He came to city by city.

As he went along healing the sick he said his priority was to preach the

gospel of the kingdom though many would want him to stay and to and to heal the droves of people that were

gathering in he would say no my priority is to preach the gospel of the kingdom.

And he would move from city to city from village to village.

And he instructed all who would hear by parable and by discourse and by rebuke of

religious leaders he would he would teach the gospel of the kingdom.

And he centered the gospel of the kingdom on who he was and what he came to do because he's

the king and it was his person and his work that has brought about the kingdom.

Now after he rose from the dead for 40 days he made a priority of again

instructing his apostles in the gospel of the kingdom the kingdom of God.

And this is telling us where the priority should be.

This is telling us how we should think about things that Jesus has now risen from the dead and that

he is ascended to the right hand of the father that he has been seated at the right hand of the father and that all

authority has been given to him in heaven and on earth.

We are to think about life in the here and now and what comes beyond even our time

in regards to the kingdom of God the kingdom of heaven.

And in this first 11 verses of Acts chapter 1 we've been seeing an

exclamation point given to Christ's teaching on this

kingdom.

I invite you to stand with me now as I read Acts chapter 1 verses 1 through 11 this

is the word of the Lord Jesus Christ by his Holy Spirit through his servant Luke

the former account I made O Theophilus of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach until the day in

which he was taken up after he threw the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom

he had chosen to whom he also presented himself alive after his suffering by many

infallible proofs being seen by them during 40 days.

And speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God and being assembled together with them he commanded them

not to depart from Jerusalem but to wait for the promise of the father

which he said you have heard from me for John truly baptized with water but you shall be baptized with the

Holy Spirit not many days from now.

Therefore when they had come together they asked him saying Lord will you at this time restore the kingdom to

Israel.

But he said to them it is not for you to know times or seasons which the father has put in his own authority.

But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.

And you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.

Now when he had spoken these things while they watched he was taken up a cloud received him out of their sight.

And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up behold two men stood by them in white apparel

who also said men of Galilee.

Why do you stand gazing up into heaven.

The same Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will so come in like manner as you saw him go

into heaven.

This is the word of the Lord thanks be to God you may be seated.

We just read this passage about the ascension of Jesus Christ.

Now having been raised from the dead he bodily ascends up into the into heaven

and is taken out of the sight of the Apostles by a cloud.

When people ask well where is Jesus Christ today he is at the right hand of the Father the the

scene here in Acts chapter 1 as he is taken out of view.

The story doesn't end there.

You can pick up the other side of the cloud and where he goes by reading Daniel

chapter 7 verses 13 and 14 you can even see another another perspective on it.

As you read Revelation chapter 5 we know exactly where Christ ascended to

and we see the glory of Christ enthroned at the right hand of God.

And yet here we are on this last Sunday of the month which is our

traditional time to to partake in the Lord's Supper and we call it communion

communion.

And clearly we have communion here in our profession of Christ in

the in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

We have communion with one another.

But this is also communion with our Savior and our sovereign Jesus Christ this

is his table and our communion is incomplete if it's just with us it's

us communing together with Christ and Christ who is the mediator brings us

into fellowship with God.

All of who God is we have communion with him through Christ by the Spirit.

We are to think about how it is that we can commune with Christ whom we cannot see who

apparently is absent but indeed he is not absent.

We are not to think about the Lord's Supper or communion as a kind of

postcard on the back of which we all sign our names.

And then the front of it says to Jesus wish you were here all right.

This is not a this is not a postcard of saying too bad we're so far apart and distant hope we can

get together sometime soon as we look forward to our fellowship with him.

Now the Lord's Supper is indeed communion is indeed a coming together

a Christ has given us his his word so that by through the Holy Spirit.

And my pulpit just broke.

I hit it a little too hard last week

sorry about that it was already limping when I got here.

I know brother Harry hit it pretty hard before I got here.

So God bless brother Harry.

As we look at the fact that Jesus Christ has given us his word so that by his Holy

Spirit we are seeing Christ in the word that we're not we're not cut off from him but that we

see who he is and rejoice in his in his truth by his scripture which is given to us

by his Holy Spirit he's also given us this this sign in which we participate and he

promises us that he is present with us by his spirit.

Indeed we are the body of Christ and he is the head.

And and as we perceive the love that he has poured out in our hearts we realize who Christ is

again by the power of the Spirit by the Holy Spirit.

The scripture tells us that we are in Christ and Christ is in us.

So that we are not to think about Christ being absent.

That just because we cannot see him now does not mean that he is not with us now.

Indeed he assures us that he is.

And I want us to remember that today especially as we think about the power of the Holy Spirit

on Communion Sunday as we've been looking at verses 1 through 11 of Acts

chapter 1 we are to remember this that the kingdom is all about the King.

If we want to understand what the kingdom of God is about what the kingdom of heaven is about we only have to look at the King

who gives himself to us and reveals God to us and speaks to us about what it all means.

We've been talking about the presentation of the kingdom in verses 1 through

3 of Acts chapter 1.

And indeed as we look here at the at the elements of the bread and the and the cup as we

think about the elements of communion we are reminded that here the kingdom is presented to us

that it's all about the King all about what he has done to win for himself a bride everything

that he did to bring about the fulfillment of the Old Testament shadows and types to bring about the

new covenant and indeed a kingdom of which will have no end.

And we've been talking about the progress of the kingdom in verses 4 through 8.

And indeed the kingdom is about progress.

In Matthew chapter 28 and verses 18 through 20 we hear something that we call the

Great Commission.

And verse 18 begins this way.

Jesus came and spoke to them talking to his Apostles spoke to them saying all authority

has been given to me in heaven and on earth unless that's everything right that is all

authority.

And then he says go therefore meaning go.

That's the word for progress right there that you can't get around that that word means advance and therefore

means on the basis of his authority on the basis that he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

So we have kingdom and we have progress.

All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations that's not political

that's that's ethnic tribal.

God loves the tribes.

Go go make disciples of all the different people groups no matter what their language is no matter what their culture is.

Go make disciples of all of them and baptize them in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy

Spirit teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you and lo I am with you even to the end of

the age even to the throughout the entirety of this and of this project throughout the entirety

of this advancement of the kingdom as he rules and reigns as King of Kings and Lord of Lords throughout this

entire age of the kingdom Jesus promises to be with us.

How is that.

How is that.

Well the progress of the kingdom.

It brings us to think about the promise of the Holy Spirit.

And this is how this is how Jesus is going to be with us throughout the entirety of this

age.

So in John chapter 14 verses 15 through 20 let's refresh our memory about the promise

of the Holy Spirit.

Now verse 15 says if you love me keep my commandments.

Well that's very simple.

And we'd have a really important commandment here at the end of the Gospel of Matthew which is repeated in the

first chapter of Acts about the preaching of the kingdom the proclamation of who Christ is to all the

nations.

And this is an important commandment.

Jesus says if you love me keep my commandments.

Yeah.

But your commandments are huge.

You just say it so quickly Jesus but it's so complicated.

But go into all the nations all the tribes.

I mean we haven't even found all of them yet.

I mean the Amazon jungle in Brazil is massive.

We haven't even found all the tribes there yet.

We haven't made it to all the tribes.

And this is now 2 ,000 years from when he said it.

There's such a huge command.

How in the world are we going to get the the gospel of the kingdom to every every tribe tongue people the nation.

How in the world are we going to accomplish this.

Don't you know how complicated it is.

Don't you know how impossible this is.

Jesus said if you love me keep my commandments.

But he doesn't leave us under the crushing weight of an impossible burden

for Christ's commandments are not burdensome and his joke is easy and his burden is light.

And listen what he says.

I will pray the Father and he will give you another helper.

And oh what a helper that he may abide with you forever.

This is how we have an abiding with God forever.

This helper is named the Spirit of Truth verse 17 of John 14 whom

the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him.

But you know him for he dwells with you and will be in you.

I will not leave you orphans.

I will come to you.

How does he come to us.

He comes to us by the Spirit.

He will come again bodily but he's not absent from us entirely.

Now is he verse 19 a little while longer.

And the world will see me no more.

But you will see me.

The world's not gonna see me anymore.

I'm gonna be invisible to them.

But you are going to see me because I live.

You will live also meaning based on the fact that he is risen from the dead and alive.

So also we will live at that day.

You will know that I am in my father and you and me and I and you.

And this is how there is an eternal abiding living

fellowship with God with Christ is by the gift of the Holy

Spirit as the promise of the Holy Spirit.

We've looked at that in great detail.

But also we are to be reminded of the priority of the Holy Spirit as the disciples ask

Christ about the restoration of the kingdom to Israel.

And Jesus explains by using language from the servant songs of Isaiah that the kingdom is

restored to Israel in the sense that he's the fulfillment of Israel and the kingdom is indeed

given to him.

The pictures that we have throughout the old covenant is that the restoration of the kingdom to Israel has to happen

because there's a great destruction a great judgment upon idolatrous unjust immoral

Israel.

And there needs to be a restoration of the kingdom.

And this restoration comes by the people of God including the Gentiles are gathered together from the four quarters of the earth by the

power of the Holy Spirit and brought into the the shadows of the old covenant

places such as Zion and Jerusalem in the temple but are brought under the rule and reign of

himself.

And that picture is given time and time and time again in the old covenant and we get to the New Testament.

It's interpreted in terms of the person and work of Jesus Christ but consider the priority

of the Holy Spirit.

And we didn't get to this passage last week but we can consider the two chapters that you

might want to read and meditate on Ezekiel chapters 36 and 37.

In Ezekiel 36 there's this promise of the new covenant a restoration of the kingdom of Israel.

God promises to restore Israel to restore the kingdom to Israel.

He says here's how we're going to do it.

It's going to be a new covenant and all the members of this covenant are going to have the Holy Spirit

enlivening them and they're not going to be dead anymore but alive.

And then comes chapter 37 of Ezekiel and it's a vision a vision of a valley full

of dead bones dry bones.

Bones that have been laying out in a mass grave thrown about baked under the Sun so

that there's not any life in them at all.

And God says to Ezekiel he calls him son of man.

He says son of man can these bones live.

And he says Oh Lord God you know.

And then he says to Ezekiel prophesy Oh son of man to the dry bones to these bones

prophesy to them.

And and he does.

And he proclaims the Word of God to them.

And then these dry bones begin to reassemble into our proper connections.

I think there's an old spiritual about that.

And they come back together.

And then the muscles come upon them and then the skin comes upon them and all of a sudden this all these

human bodies are put back together but they're not breathing.

The breath is not in them.

And so God says to Ezekiel son of man prophesy again prophesy to the breath

so that the breath by the four winds will come into these and make them live and

breathe again.

And so the son of man Ezekiel begins to prophesy again.

And indeed the breath of God comes into them like its creation all over again with Adam.

And these all stand up and now they're alive.

And in this vision of the people of God of the restoration of the kingdom of Israel God takes what was destroyed and under

judgment and he brings back life to these people.

And at the very end of Ezekiel 37 it says it very clearly.

So I will put my spirit within you clarifying

the priority of the Holy Spirit.

Indeed we see that Israel's kingdom is not restored until the Spirit by the Word of the Son of

Man is proclaimed.

So then we come to the power of the Holy Spirit.

Now when we think about the great projects of our world

we may think of maybe the Great Wall of China we may think of the pyramids and Giza.

I remember watching a solid miniature documentary about

the Erie Canal.

I mean the Erie Canal.

I mean how important is that to the history of these United States that connected the

whole upper Midwest to the Atlantic that made New York the Empire State as

wealthy as it is today all because of the Erie Canal and all the efforts that were made to

move these these unbelievable amounts of rock out of the way to

connect the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean.

It required a great deal of TNT and it cost many lives as immigrant

laborers died very often and trying to blow up all of this rock that stood in the way

between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic it required a great deal of money.

A lot of investment was made.

They had to pour money into that project a time and time again.

It required a lot deal a great deal of political power as those who wanted to see it happen had to sway

the politicians to keep it going.

It even required rhetorical power as people need to be motivated and convinced of the need

of this project.

And finally finally it was accomplished and all manner of flourishing came out of it.

As we think about the commandment of Christ as we look at the project that

Christ has commissioned it is something that is far more

impactful far greater far more important than

any kind of canal.

Erie Canal Panama Canal Suez Canal doesn't matter whatever it is whatever a project of man

that has to be planned out and so much put into is nothing compared to the to the

project that Christ has commissioned.

For he says in verse 8.

But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem

and all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.

You lay that alongside of Matthew 28 verses 18 through 20 and you see the size of the project.

But this project is not going to be accomplished by manpower.

Manpower it's not going to do it.

This project is not going to be accomplished by fiscal power.

You're gonna have the manpower.

We've got to have the money to back it.

It's not going to be accomplished by political power.

If only we could get the politics and in line then we could finally accomplish this great Commission.

It's not going to be accomplished by rhetorical power by persuasion and just

convincing people of the good of it.

This is a project that can only be accomplished by spiritual power namely the

power of the Holy Spirit.

For Christ tells his disciples in verse 5 he says that they are to a verse.

For he tells them to to to wait to not depart from Jerusalem but to wait for the promise of the father.

He has a commission for them.

They are to make disciples of all the nations.

They have a huge project ahead of them.

And he says to them to go wait in Jerusalem.

But they're not waiting around for more people to show up.

And they're not waiting around for more money to show up.

And they're not waiting around for the politicians to get their ducks in a row.

They're waiting for the power of the Holy Spirit.

Christ says this is what you need.

You need the promise of the father.

This is who you need.

You need the Holy Spirit if you're going to keep my commandments if you're going to be about my

work in my way.

And so it is important for us then to meditate today this morning

on the power of the Holy Spirit.

He says you shall receive power.

Verse 8.

You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.

Evidently what they need in order to be Christ's witnesses in all these

places.

Evidently what they need to carry out the Great Commission is power.

They don't have it and they need it.

They need the power of the Holy Spirit to do the work that Christ has given them

to do.

And we need to reflect upon that this morning.

Consider the way in which Luke talks about this at the end of

his first volume in Luke chapter 24 in verse

46.

Well this could even begin in verse 45.

And he opened their understanding that they might comprehend the scriptures.

This last chapter of Luke Luke 24.

And he opened up their understanding that may they may comprehend the scriptures.

Then he said thus it is written don't you understand the Word of God.

Thus it is written.

And thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day.

And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all nations

beginning at Jerusalem.

In other words repentance a turning unto Christ of submitting to Christ

as as King and remission of sins the forgiveness of sins by his blood.

That this message was written in the scriptures

that's necessary to be preached from the scriptures to all the nations beginning

at Jerusalem.

And he says.

And you are witnesses of these things you are going to be the ones to bring this forth.

Behold I send the power the promise of my father upon you.

But Terry in the city of Jerusalem until you were in dude with power from on high.

So the very first thing we recognize is that this this Commission this great project of preaching the gospel of

Jesus Christ the gospel of the kingdom to all the nations requires an

understanding of and a proclamation of the scriptures that

the Bible has to be proclaimed.

Well the power of the scripture is the Holy Spirit.

The power of the scriptures is the Holy Spirit and not not how many we can publish

though that's a good thing not many how many we translate that's a great thing is the power of the Holy

Spirit at work.

And so in 2nd Timothy chapter 3 in verse 16 it says to us that all scripture is

given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for training in

righteousness inspiration.

This word needs to be breathed out by God even as Christ breathed upon his

disciples and said receive the Holy Spirit just as the breath of God was was was was

called upon by Ezekiel as the Son of Man to to call the breath to fill these dead bodies they

may live.

So so also scripture is breathed out by God and thus it is

profitable for a doctrine for reproof for a correction and for instruction in in righteousness.

This is why over the last many generations Christians have been involved

in translating the Word of God into the heart language of everybody who lives in the world and much as we can.

Why.

Because the message of Jesus Christ is in the Word of God and so we want to proclaim that

message to the nations.

How else are we going to make them disciples and followers of Christ if we don't have this message

that was breathed out by God's Holy Spirit that holy men were born

along by the Holy Spirit to write the very words of God.

And so we have to depend upon the Holy Spirit because the power of the scripture is

in the Holy Spirit.

But also as we preach the Word of God we have expectations we have desires.

We have an aim to this and it is nothing less than the conversion of sinners the saving of sinners the

so that the lost may be found.

The Jesus Christ is come into the world to save sinners and we proclaim the Word of God

to them that they may know who God is and their need to repent.

We want to see people born again.

We want to see people who are who are dead and trespasses and sins alive made alive

by the grace of God in Jesus Christ.

We want to see those who are those who are dead to come alive.

We want to see those who are enslaved to be set free.

We want to see those who are servants of the of the enemy to become the children of God

and the servants of Jesus Christ.

And how does this.

How does this happen.

What happens by the preaching of the Word.

We've already looked at that but it also has to happen by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And it's not simply salvation by a momentary conversion.

I have I've made a particular decision and I've prayed a formulaic prayer.

Therefore I'm I'm saved I'm good and now I can just live the rest of my life.

Now that I've got that squared away.

Salvation is is a being rescued from the domain of darkness

and translated trans transported into the kingdom of God's beloved Son

where now everything is different hearts of stone and our hearts of flesh.

And in Titus chapter 3 verses 3 through 7 we are reminded that the that the power for our salvation

is also in the Holy Spirit.

Verse 3 of Titus 3.

For we ourselves were also once foolish disobedient

deceived serving various lusts and pleasures living in malice

and envy hateful and hating one another.

We are all if we are born again in Christ.

If we are been saved by the grace of God we are all part of the once

were some of you club that we refuse now in the

name of Christ by the power of the Spirit we refuse to identify ourselves by these things.

I no longer consecrate envy and malice and lying and

lust as well.

This is just me.

But I have been born again.

Things are different.

Now I have a new sovereign.

He is my Savior Jesus Christ.

This comes about how first for Titus 3.

But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared not

by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he

saved us.

Watch through the washing of regeneration being born again

and renewing the new creation of the Holy Spirit.

He saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit will be poured out on us

abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior that have been justified by his grace.

We should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

We make disciples of all the preach the Word of God to them.

The Word of God is the is the breathing out of God's Word to us

by his Holy Spirit.

So we have to have the power of the Holy Spirit.

For the proclamation of the Word of God we have to have the power of the Holy Spirit.

If we're going to see people born again and converted and changed and saved we also need the power of the Holy

Spirit as we suffer.

Look at the list of the places that they're going to be going to.

In verse 8 Jesus says to his apostles you shall be witnesses to me in

Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.

And everywhere they went in those four places they met with great opposition.

And we're going to read the look at the rest of the book of Acts we're going to see all manner of opposition to these apostles as they go

forth and say not Caesar is Lord but Jesus is Lord.

As they go forth and they proclaim Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah the Son of the Living God.

They're going to take all kinds of fire.

They're going to be under all kinds of opposition and persecution.

And they're going to be suffering.

And you know what.

It's the same way even today it is not a neutral thing to be a Christian and there is no

neutrality in all this land and all this world.

There is no neutrality.

Christ is King and you're either for him or you're raging against him in some fashion.

That's it.

So if you go forth and you proclaim that that Christ is King expect resistance

expect retaliation.

That's the way it works.

That doesn't mean something's gone wrong.

That's that means situation is normal until Christ puts all his enemies under his

feet.

And then we have situation glorified.

But in our suffering we know that we are to rely upon the power of the Holy Spirit.

In Matthew chapter 10 and Luke chapter 12 Jesus gives his discipleship 101 and in

there he says to his disciples that they better be quick.

They've got to go through all the villages and cities and towns of Israel as fast as they can preaching the gospel.

Don't stick around if a if a village or a town rejects you wipe the dust off your feet and get moving.

Because he says you're not going to make it through all of the cities of of Israel before the Son of Man comes in judgment

which he did in AD 70.

And all the opportunity to proclaim the gospel to these various villages and towns

went away when they were invaded by the Romans under the judgment of God.

But he also said to them you're going to be persecuted and you're going to be dragged before courts of men you're going to be in

you're going to be brought before Kings.

And also you're going to be dragged into synagogues.

And when you're there don't be worried too much about how to placate man how to answer

man with what man wants you to say the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit will teach you in the very hour what you ought to say.

So in our suffering we have a helper.

When our suffering we have a helper the Holy Spirit who will help us to and give answer

to those who oppose and attack.

So we have a witness in the Holy Spirit.

We also have hope in the Holy Spirit.

In Romans chapter 8 verses 22 through 25 we read this.

For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.

Not only that but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit those who have been born again part of the new covenant

even we ourselves grown within ourselves eagerly awaiting for the adoption the redemption of our body.

For we were saved in this hope.

But hope that is seen is not hope.

For why does one still hope for what he sees.

But if we hope for what we do not see we eagerly wait for it with perseverance having the firstfruits of the

Spirit in us we live in hope.

We live in hope.

What.

What makes us to continue on despite the opposition despite the persecution is hope.

And the hope is given to us by the Holy Spirit also for our security given

the fact of the great persecution that arises in resistance that arises against followers of Jesus Christ.

What guarantee that we do we have that is going to work out.

What guarantee that we do we have that we're going to be okay.

That we're going to be able to make it through to the end.

Well again the power for our security is also in the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 1 tells us that we are sealed by the Holy Spirit.

But also Romans 8 and verse 14 for as many as are led by the Spirit of God

these are sons of God.

For you do not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear but you receive the spirit of adoption by

whom we cry out Abba Father.

The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

And if children than heirs heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.

If indeed we suffer with him that we may also be glorified together.

In other words if we're suffering with Jesus it's an indication we're going to be glorified with

Jesus.

You see that.

And we are for being led by the Spirit of God we are the children of God.

And this is why we can cry out Abba Father in our dire

straits.

And indeed we must call out to the Father in our dire straits.

Nothing makes us feel more humble and more like a child than to be faced with great

suffering and difficulty and even brought to the brink of questioning whether we're gonna make it or not

and realize that we have no resources on our own to make it through even the next day or the next hour.

What do we do.

We go to our Heavenly Father.

We go to our Heavenly Father who knows our needs before we even ask.

And I don't even know what to say Father.

I don't even know how to pray.

Things are so bad things are so complicated.

I don't feel like I'm doing anything for you.

I don't have any way forward.

What do I do.

Well the power of our supplication in our supplication is once again the Holy Spirit

not our accuracy not our sincerity not our ability but again

the power of the Holy Spirit.

And so we see this again in Romans 8 verses 26 to 27.

Likewise the Spirit also helps us in our weaknesses.

For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought.

But the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

Now he who searches the heart knows what the mind of the Spirit is because he makes intercession for the Saints according to the

will of God.

We don't know how to pray but the Spirit Himself prays with groanings too deep to be

uttered.

And so the power and our supplication is indeed the Holy Spirit.

We could spend a lot more time meditating upon all the different aspects of the ministry of the Holy

Spirit all the different ways in which the Holy Spirit is our helper according to the Word of Jesus.

But it is safe to say that throughout any measure of success that we have

experienced any measure of success of the church in these last 2 ,000

years in any measure of success in our own personal lives in the history of this

church upon reflection we have to say that the power evident throughout all of

our success as Christ would define success is indeed the Holy Spirit.

Galatians chapter 5 verses 22 to 25 familiar.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace long -suffering kindness goodness faithfulness

gentleness self control.

Against such there is no law.

And those who are Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

If we live in the Spirit let us also walk in the Spirit.

But look if we are in the second Adam and we are being fruitful multiplying in the name of Christ

by the by the Great Commission making disciples of all the nations.

If there's fruitfulness in our lives guess what is the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

In the final assessment we say it's the Lord.

It's God it's his grace at work his power at work in us by the Holy Spirit throughout our

success the power is indeed the Holy Spirit.

I want to think about how this works in the whole story of the scriptures

throughout the Old Testament we keep on running into people who are selected by God

to be his servant to help deliver Israel out of a particular problem or

to lead Israel in a particular way.

He has a chosen servant here and a chosen servant there who has a task to do that is

simply impossible.

How in the world are they ever going to accomplish this commission that

God has given to them.

And whether we're reading about Moses in the book of Numbers or the judges

such as Othniel and Jephthah and Samson in the book of Judges what we find again and again is that God's

chosen servant is given a task and how in the world will they do it.

Well then we read that the Holy Spirit comes upon them and the Holy Spirit anoints them and the Holy

Spirit empowers them to do this task that nobody else can do.

It seems utterly impossible.

But because this person is God's chosen servant they are anointed by the Holy Spirit to accomplish what

God wants them to accomplish for his people.

We read it the same about the King Saul about King David and time would fail us to speak of

Amasai and Azariah Jehaziel and Zechariah.

But all these men in the Old Covenant tasked with particular problematic

things to do in the name of God couldn't do it on their own but the power of the Holy Spirit came upon

them and they succeeded and they accomplished the work that God had given them to do.

But all these men are mere shadows shadows

slight reflections of the one who was to come the capital C capital S chosen

servant God's beloved son the one with whom he is well pleased.

And what do we find had his baptism in the gospel of Luke

Luke chapter 3 verses 21 to 22 when all the people were baptized it came to pass that Jesus also was

baptized and while he prayed the heaven was open and the Holy Spirit descended in

bodily form like a dove upon him.

The Holy Spirit came upon him.

And a voice came from heaven which said you are my beloved son and you.

I am well pleased.

Now this is saying Jesus is the

Christ Christ meaning anointed one.

Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah the Hebrew word for anointed one.

Who's the anointed one.

Who's the chosen one anointed to accomplish what God has planned.

That is Jesus.

He's the Christ he's the Messiah.

He's the anointed one.

And what does he do in bringing about the new covenant.

He brings about a new covenant indeed a kingdom in which all who are his are anointed

because they are in him.

This is why it is perfectly the right

word to describe ourselves.

We are Christians.

I appreciate those who are saying well I'm a follower of Jesus.

Oh yes.

Indeed you should be.

I love I'm a lover of Jesus.

Well you should be.

But do you realize what you're losing by failing to use the word Christian.

Christian means that you are an lowercase a lowercase o of

anointed one in the capital a capital o anointed one.

That's what it means that you're a Christian.

It means more than simply little Christ.

It means far more than simply being baptized.

It means far more than simply having a cultural affinity when you are an anointed one in the

anointed one that means that God has empowered you for the calling upon your life the

commission that he has given to Christ as the second Adam to be fruitful multiply and fill the earth with the glory of God

as the waters cover the sea.

And we are in him being fruitful and doing the work of Christ.

We are anointed for this task enabled for this task empowered for this task precisely because we

are in Christ in the new covenant.

Everyone is an anointed one in the anointed one.

And the anointed one Christ of course is prophet priest

and King.

And we are called to proclaim the truth as a kingdom of priests in him.

This is the proclamation of the good news of the kingdom in the

New Testament given this fact.

Galatians 3 verses 1 through 3.

Oh foolish Galatians who has bewitched you that you should not

obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as

crucified.

This only I want to learn from you.

Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith.

Are you so foolish.

Having begun in the Spirit.

Are you now being made perfect by the flesh.

Dearly beloved we're in the kingdom.

We're in the kingdom by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Being born again having begun in the Holy Spirit we're not going to make progress by the

merits of the flesh.

Let the mighty man not boast in his might but the rich man not boast in his riches but the but the

wise man not boast in his wisdom but let them let us boast in Christ.

Let us boast in the Lord that we know him and we know him by the ministry of the Holy

Spirit.

So Jesus says to his followers.

He says to his Apostles wait in Jerusalem wait

for the promise of the Father until you are anointed by power from on high.

In other words and the only power that you can rely upon to do the work that I've called you to

do is the power of the Holy Spirit that we are to do kingdom work by kingdom

resources.

We are to wait upon the Lord.

But this waiting is unto action.

We are to be filled with the Holy Spirit so that we may fill the earth with

the glory of Christ.

And what does that look like.

Does it look like some kind of sensationalism.

Well if we need it then Christ will give it to us.

Let me tell you how the early church spread.

We read about it in the book of Acts.

And then what happened during the time of Acts.

And moving on you know how the kingdom spread.

A lot of it happened down by the river as women did their washing.

And here is one born -again woman with her laundry.

And here is a woman in great anxiety and fear and needing the

Lord and they're washing the laundry together.

And the one who is empowered by the Holy Spirit proclaims the good news of Jesus to the other one

and invites her and her whole family over for dinner.

And one family has another family over and and word gets around and

men go out to work together and the one is and the one is different from the others and they begin to talk

about it.

And the one articulates oh well you know there's the boss man but I serve a king

and he's a greater king than any other king.

And the word begins to spread and spread and spread and they're doing the work of the kingdom

depending upon the power of the Holy Spirit so that God ends up doing the impossible through the unlikely bringing

glory to himself by the power of the Holy Spirit in the name of Christ.

May this be true of us.

And as we reflect upon the fact that yes indeed this church has been in existence for now almost 70

years we give praise to God for that we rejoice in the Lord for that we give the credit to God for that that

the work that he has done that is lasting and that is true and that is pleasing to him has all been done by

the power of the Holy Spirit.

Let's pray father.

I thank you for the time you've given us in your word today and now as we turn our attention to the Lord's table here and we celebrate

communion.

I pray that it would be glorifying to you that we would

recognize and know that indeed we have fellowship and communion with our Lord and Savior

Jesus Christ in this meal by your spirit.

We pray these things in Christ's name.

Amen.

Our song of communion this morning is there's a fountain that's

on page 196.