It Starts With Power | Don't Move Without Power

Welcome to Reach KC everybody, it's so great to have you with us, I just want to invite y'all to stand up and join in. Thank you. God I'm just grateful for you, God I'm just grateful for you, all my life you've been by my side, God I'm just grateful for you, God I'm just grateful for you, hope you hold me, there's only one way, give me glory for all that you've done, even though I don't deserve it, you did it, even though I couldn't make it, you gave it, who am I that you'd leave me on, you're my God, I'm just grateful for you, God I'm just grateful for you, all my life you've been by my side, God I'm just grateful for you, God I'm just grateful for you, all my life you've been by my side, God I'm just grateful for you, God I'm just grateful for you, all my life you've been by my side, God I'm just grateful for you, God I'm just grateful for you, all my life you've been by my side, God I'm just grateful for you, God I'm just grateful for you, all my life you've been by my side, God I'm just grateful for you, all my life you've been by my side, God I'm just grateful for you, God I'm just grateful for you, God I'm just grateful for you. I just want to speak the name of Jesus over every heart and every mind. Cause I know there is peace within your presence, I see Jesus. And I just want to speak the name of Jesus till every dark addiction starts to break. Declaring there is hope and there is freedom, I see Jesus. Your name is power, your name is healing, your name is life. Break every stronghold, shine through the shadows, learn not to fly. And I just want to speak the name of Jesus over fear and over anxiety. When these souls are captivated by depression, I see Jesus. Your name is power, your name is healing, your name is life. Break every stronghold, shine through the shadows, learn not to fly. Your name is power, your name is healing, your name is life. Break every stronghold, shine through the shadows, learn not to fly. Shout Jesus from the mountains, Jesus in the streets. Jesus in the darkness over every enemy. Jesus for my family, I speak the holy name of Jesus.

Shout Jesus from the mountains, Jesus in the streets. Jesus in the darkness over every enemy. Jesus for my family, I speak the holy name of Jesus. Shout Jesus! Shout Jesus from the mountains, Jesus in the streets. Jesus in the darkness over every enemy. Jesus for my family, I speak the holy name of Jesus. Your name is power, your name is healing, your name is life. Break every stronghold, shine through the shadows, learn not to fly. Your name is power, your name is healing, your name is life. Break every stronghold, shine through the shadows, learn not to fly. I just want to speak the name of Jesus over every heart and every body. Because I know there is peace. Within His presence, I speak Jesus. Here is where I lay it down, every burden, every crown. This is my surrender. Here is where I lay it down, every lie, every doubt. Here is where I lay it down, every lie, every doubt. Here is where I lay it down, every lie, every doubt. Here is where I lay it down, every lie, every doubt. Here is where I lay it down, every lie, every doubt. Here is where I lay it down, every lie, every doubt. Here is where I lay it down, every lie, every doubt. Here is where I lay it down, every lie, every doubt. Here is where I lay it down, every lie, every doubt. Come on, church. Come on, church. God, thank you. God, we thank you. God, strip us away of the religion that we have clung to.

God, strip us of the altars that we have built up that are not of you, God. Let us sit in your presence in a holy moment. Come on. Break it. Your way. Your way. Shake up the ground for my tradition. Break down the walls for my religion. Your way. Your way. Shake up the ground for my tradition. Break down the walls for my religion. Your way. Your way. Your way. Shake up the ground for my tradition. Break down the walls for my religion. Your way. Your way. So much better. So much better. So much better. So much better. So much better. So much better. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. God, thank you for showing us your way. God, I am so thankful that your way is not a mystery.

That your way is not tucked away and hidden somewhere for only a certain people to find. But your way is written in the book of life. And it's written in your word. And it is given to your people. So Lord, we choose you. We choose your way. We choose to make room for you. We choose to put you over all things. In all of God's people in the church, they gave a mighty amen. Can we give a round of praise in the house? Have a seat. Tell your neighbor, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome. Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome. Hug. No, we're coming for a hug. Hi, Howard. How many of us are excited to be in church this afternoon? Me too. I am excited. And we are excited. Here we say, welcome home. Because we believe that you are actually home. And for somebody to feel like they are at home, that is going to require them to feel like they are at home. That is going to require them to feel like they belong. And you belong just as you walked into those doors. So for the first time guest that is here, for the first time guest that has got an invite to watch somebody else be baptized. That that invitation was not by happenstance. And that baptism that is going on on the person that has invited you to witness that can happen in your heart as well. And we pray that this would not just be an experience for you or a show for you or something that you would just witness. But that God and the Holy Spirit would do something inside of your heart.

And that you would choose to respond to that spirit. That you would choose to say, nah. That God, I am not going to do that. I want to do it your way. I am unknown to this way. I have heard about this way, I know little about it, but I am responding to the spirit that is inside of me. Thank you, Jesus. And for the rest of the guests, we say, welcome home. But we believe that God is looking for unlikely people from overlooked places to do extraordinary things. Yes. We are reaching the one that is far from God and then helping them become a passionate follower of Jesus. And for the one that is on Pando right now, watch him. Yeah. We say that you are loved and you are seen, you are cared for and you are heard. And also shout out Balcony up there, man. To everyone, welcome home. Thank you. You are in a house. Can I share something out of love? I didn't even get a response. Can I share something out of love? Yeah! Ain't nothing. What happened? But can I tell you that what is done here in this house is done out of love?

And the preaching that is done here in this house is done out of love? And this is not a home where you will be allowed or condoned to live comfortably in your sin. This is a house where the truth will be proclaimed with honesty and authenticity and with love as well. Yes. And we get to this portion here at church. We get to this portion here at church where after the worship goes on, it almost becomes a formality to some, right? Because here's what comes next is you can almost guarantee that the man that gets up on stage or the woman that gets up on stage, she's gonna do what? Talk to you about what? Giving. And the moment that the giving comes about, the moment that it is said, there are some of you right now listening to me, that the scales are over your eyes right now and you have exited out everything that I am about to say before I even speak it because of the pre-notion that you have in your heart about giving. But can I direct us back to the scripture and what Jesus tells us about giving? And can I educate us a little bit on what a tithe actually is?

Because here in the gospel, and it's in Mark and it's in Luke, but I'm gonna read from Mark 12, 41, and this is the widow's offering. You may be familiarized with it or not. But Jesus sat down near the collection box in the temple and he watched. Here he is. He's over here in the corner and he's watching and he's with his disciples and the crowds and they drop their money into the box. And you can think it in this time frame, this is not a paper or a QR code that they are scanning. This is real kaching dollars. And so here it is as they are dropping it coins into a, you can hear it. And there are ones with large amounts and they are dropping it in. And you can hear, and you can almost hear the pride as they drop it in. And then here comes a poor widow who drops in two small coins. And to see this, Jesus says to his disciples, he says, hey, check this out. He says, I'll tell you the truth. He said, this poor widow has given more than the others who are making these large contributions. For they gave a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she has. And we remove the church out of the equation when we tithe,

that God has placed you inside of a church and that you are tithing not to the church, but you are tithing to God. When you witness a ministry that is doing prison ministry, that is doing homeless outreach, that is doing these things that you find in your heart to give towards, that is giving towards a ministry. I'm not talking about that right now. I'm talking about acknowledging God as the true owner and saying, God, I am thankful for what I have. Huh. I mean, I'm a man that looked like straight out of Miami Vice with a vacation shirt and a mustache. I get it. I get it. Who's this man with the mustache telling me to give my money away? It's not the man with the mustache. It is God, man. Yes, that is working in your heart That is saying son. Would you honor me daughter? Would you honor me? Would you trust me? And so we say these things out of love because you know why he preaches like he preaches and you know why I stand up Here and say what I say, it's just we're willing to see somebody set free today So what a spirit of the Lord is there is freedom also We will take up an offering. We'll get some ushers to come up here We will get into a great great message that you will be truly blessed to hear So God we thank you Lord for who you are. We thank you for Everything that you have done in our lives done in the lives around us God you are so good and you are so faithful Lord we choose you

We trust in your provision. We trust in your timing in our life God help the one that is struggling right now in wrestling with past religion Theological debates in their own mind Lord but let the spirit of the Lord be so present in their life right now That they would trust in what is going on Remove the veils from our eyes God What are you guys doing like letting a one-year-old clean it actually he's almost two Give a break We'll be having two workdays coming up on April 11th and April 25th We'll be having workdays at our new 8701 Sniowar Road location Where you are more than welcome to pick up a broom grab some cleaning supplies and make this house a home Rebuilding the city with your own hands. We'll be here from 9 a.m. To 4 p.m Both of those days to get this place ready. We know that this community is Expecting what we have to offer. They're ready for us. They've been waiting and watching how we've been working So let's get this place cleaned up and let's reach the one Together That was a good catch right there I Don't know about you, but I think she should try out for softball or something. Hey, man Look at that slavery Listen It was the best help we could find you know what I'm saying like I'm just kidding There are others, you know people's like I signed up to serve I know August was just available You know what? I mean? And so Amen, we're just so excited for what God is doing. How many of us are excited to be at church this morning? Well, hey, I don't know about you, but I came to have church this morning And so I wonder if anybody else came to have church not just came for church But I wonder if anybody else came to have church. Hey, man, I wonder if anybody else came to be the church. Hey, man man, like six people and so It's okay, it's okay. It's alright Lord said he would build it so we're gonna let him build it Last week we preached a message that was titled

Church on the move. Amen. How many of us was excited about that? There was a little bit of vision in there. There must not been anybody here last week. That was here today Like Dude I barely remember yesterday. What did you say last week? I don't even remember, you know, it's like All right. It's all right. You know, I just spent 40 hours developing that message. It's okay, you know, it's all right No, no hard feelings, you know, I'll I'll get over it. I promise But no, we preached a message that was it was titled Church on the move and it was from the last two chapters of Romans and We just looked at what the church looked like on the go and you know I've been praying this week and was just like Lord what where do you want me to go next and you know? I just I was thinking we was gonna go through one of the Gospels But instead I just felt the Lord just continuing to move me to that message last week and said hey I want you to go through the book of Acts because that is the church on the move and I want you to just go into acts and just jump right into it go through and just look at it And so I thought it appropriate to title the theme of the Book of Acts, Church on the Move, amen. And so I want to kick off a series, that's kind of the theme that we'll be in for the next 40 weeks, and so get embraced, amen. But we are in a series that I am titling today, It Starts With Power. It Starts With Power, amen. And today I've titled my sermon, Don't Move Without Power. Don't move, like stay still, do not move until you get the power. Everybody say, I got the power. Amen. Okay, you didn't have to do that, but. Have you ever tried to run something important without power?

Come on somebody, how many of us has an iPhone 12 or older, and you go to get out your phone and you need something and it's got 1%? You don't know why it don't have no power, but you forgot you've been reeling Instagram reels for 12 hours today. And you need that phone and you've got no power, amen. Or how many of us has a little bit older of a car and we went out, man, to tell you the truth, I don't even have to be older, I had a new Denali, went out of town for a week, got back from the airport, hopped in my truck, it was beautiful, I hopped in it and that joker would not start. It was dead, it didn't have any power. Or how about this, when you've got kids and they are streaming a YouTube video in the driveway as you were getting ready to leave the house, but their iPad don't have no cellular data, amen, and they pull out of, you get two blocks down the road. What happened? What happened? What happened, my video just stopped playing and they say, what happened? You think you ran somebody over that you didn't see, something bad happened, you wasn't sure what it was, you stopped the car, pull over to the side of the road, you're like, what happened? And they're like, my video stopped. And you're like, are you serious? Because all of the sudden, the Wi-Fi drops

in the middle of something critical, right? Everything looks fine. But nothing works like it's actually supposed to. Your new car sitting at the airport looks beautiful. A joker didn't mean a nothing. When I got in, it couldn't start it. And I thought, I'm at a place where you have to pay to get into, so I can't just call somebody for help. I'm sitting here like, what do you do in this situation? I bought a new truck, so I didn't have these problems. And yet I got these problems because it don't have no power. And sadly, this is where a lot of believers are actually living. Not broken, not lazy, not uncommitted, just disconnected from power. And in Acts one, Jesus is literally about to launch the greatest movement in history. The church. Come on, somebody. The church. The solution, the answer, the antidote, the thing that is the conduit of hope, the thing that is the conduit of blood, the thing that is the conduit of all salvation, the church. He's breathing, birthing this very thing, and yet before anything starts, he gives them one command. Wait. Wait. You ever been downtown or at the plaza and you're going to cross the road and you hit the button?

Wait. If you're like me, I get to making beats with it. I'm like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. And my wife is like, would you stop? And I'm like, wait. And I will stop. And then just out of sheer disobedience, it's like, wait. She's like, she just gives me that scowl eye, you know? Wait. Now, every time you hear it, you're going to be like, yes, Lord. I hear you, God. I'm waiting, you know? It's like, you'll never hear it the same. You're welcome. But today, I want to look at four principles of power from the book of Acts, from Acts 1. Four principles of power from Acts 1. Number one is this. God prepares you before he empowers you. God prepares you before he empowers you. Acts 1. three through five it says during the 40 days after he suffered and died now let me just remind you acts is the continuation of the book of Luke okay you see the gospel of Luke and it tells the whole story of of Jesus's life from from a doctor's perspective and that was Luke and and he gives all of this and then he goes on in to writing the book of Acts a lot of people if you look in your Bible it will actually say the author could be unknown but in the beginning of it it says that this is a letter to Theopolis which actually if

you go back to look at the letter of Luke of the gospel of Luke it is actually a letter that is written to Theopolis and so it is contributed to Luke as the book of Acts and so it could almost be like one scroll that if you was reading through the gospel of Luke that you would continue right on into the book of Acts and so Luke ends with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ the resurrection come on somebody that's what we're getting ready to celebrate next week that Jesus is alive he is no longer in the tomb he came back for so that he could be the breath and the life of the Living Church and he wanted to launch a movement into secession to where it would take over where he left off and he was gonna send the comforter ahead and so it says right here that during the 40 days after he suffered and died he appeared to the Apostles from time to time and he proved to them in many ways that he was actually alive and he talked to them about the kingdom of God and one time he was eaten with them and he commanded them do not leave Jerusalem until the father sends you the gift everybody say the gift that he promised as I told you before John baptized with water like we're getting ready to do after second service come on but in just a few days I will baptize you with the Holy Spirit now has anybody ever seen a movie trailer and noticed how they show you the best moments they show you the highlight reels like you've been to a movie and you thought there is no other good scenes but what was in the trailer come on somebody movie was bonk home movie was trash there was only two good scenes and they showed it they show all the big scenes they give you just enough to hook you it literally convinces you I need to see this it's a marketing thing but in reality it's not the whole story you've seen enough to believe but not everything yet and for 40 days Jesus gave them proofs that he was alive it says that he appeared from them time to time come on I wonder if any of us have ever felt like the Lord just showed up from time to time amen like God I just need you all the time I need you with me right now and every day all the time and and I don't need just from time to time but he didn't give them everything yet he gave him just enough to remove doubt right you got the the Thomas the doubter that stuck is I

wanted Jesus he said man I need to touch you and see this brother is morbid like I and he said I need to stick the finger in your nail holes not me I'm good I pass out in Jesus name receive the Holy Spirit right there you know but he removed out he gave him enough to remove doubt he gave him enough to build faith amen cuz when Jesus shows up from time to time in our own life isn't that enough to build faith in our own lives when we need to see God show up and he shows up and it gives us faith and then sometimes he might feel removed until the next situation but I can ride the faith way from the last situation because God shows up from time to time in our own life right he prepared them for what's next and yet he still says you're not ready yet you are not ready yet see there's a difference between being convinced and being equipped see you can be convinced I know a lot of people that feel convinced to start ministry I know a lot of people that feel convinced To have a marriage. I know a lot of people that feel convinced to go launch a church and do all of these different things Yet they haven't been Equipped see think about graduating school for instance, right? You've passed the classes, right? You've learned the material you've even earned a degree you're ready in knowledge but when you step into your first real job and realize What the heck am I doing? Like when I planted a church Yeah, if you've ever been in treatment, they say don't fake it till you make it, baby I know how to fake it till I made it a man Never pastored a day in my life and started passing like we had this all figured out Because I went to Bible College. I had me a edumacation You can't even spell edumacation Edumacation He's a edumacation Vacation no, that's where Tucker is, okay But then you step in seriously you step into your first job and you realize wow, I still need a lot of training I

Still need a lot of hands-on Experience I still need a lot of guidance in my life Why because you can be convinced you're ready, but still not be equipped to move And see the disciples they had seen the resurrection They was there some of them witnessed the crucifixion They seen they came to the tomb seen that Christ was gone. They had walked with Jesus personally Literally they had heard the teachings of Jesus firsthand, but Jesus still says wait Wait Wait, I don't want you to go anywhere and this is shocking because Jesus had trained them Walked for three and a half years in ministry with them said hey, here's what you do You send them out by twos if they don't receive you you dust off your shoulders and you keep on moving Come on, that's a word for somebody You need to quit hanging on to the person that has offended you that you've offended and they're upset by you Somebody just needs to dust a little bit of stuff off Somebody just needs to dust a little stuff off and get back to what God has called you to do and wait He Trained them He prepared them. He commissioned them if you look at the end of Matthew 28, it's called the Great Commission He said hey now is the time I want you to go and preach to the lost Baptize them in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit and teach them to obey my commands But then when you start in the book of Acts right after the crucifixion wait What I Hate waiting I Don't want to wait I don't know if anybody else here can can can relate with that But I don't think anybody in here loves the waiting process. No, we want to start right now God called me. He's anointed me. He's told me to go I'm gonna go I don't care what anybody says I want to start right now because I got it all figured out Come on, somebody. I don't know but I don't know what nobody else in here got it all figured out only me

I know it's okay. It's okay. I know I'm the one to crash out I know I'm the one to to do things and just start without no, no, no No, we want to start right now. Why because if we can build it fast the better we look If I can launch a church and launch large like all of the church planting Organizations say to do then it makes me look great because we had 500 people on Launch Sunday We want to build it but as what has happened in my own life is over the years We've had a lot of people see what God is doing through reach we've seen a lot of people and they're they are enamored by what he has done and Many people walk in today. Maybe you're here today and you're like wow This is amazing. And we see what is happening and it's easy to think that it could come without any weight But in reality what we see today is nine years of fruit of ministry It's nine years of pain It's nine years of preparation It's nine years of hearing. No, not right now. It's nine years of saying hey, you've got to let them go It's nine years of saying hey I know it hurts, but you keep pressing. Hey, it's nine years of seeing the vision when nobody else seen it and saying, God, this is the direction. I know that you have called me, you have equipped us, you have called us to go. You told us to reach the loss. You told us to go to the hood. You told us to do what you said to do, but wait, but wait, there's murder. See, biblically, it's more frankincense and more, but that's a Christmas message. We'll preach that later. See nine years of fruit and we can be so easy to look at somebody else's life and say, man, look at what happened all of the sudden, nothing happens all of the sudden.

God is preparing us so that there is a moment that we are equipped with the power of the Holy spirit so that when we walk into what God has called us to walk into, we are equipped because we can't just be convinced. We grew slowly. We got hurt time after time after time. And the truth is, is had we tried to move too quickly, we wouldn't have been prepared to take on what God is doing now. Now hear me church. Jesus prioritizes preparation over pace. He's not as concerned about the pace as he is the preparation. See, we get so concerned about the pace because we want to get there and get there fast and God, I need you to do this so that I can get there where, but rushing ahead without God leads to burnout, not breakthrough. Rushing ahead of God, trying to get in the way, trying to go around God, trying to go around the plan. When he said, wait, and we say, no, I don't have time to wait. I don't have time. God, do you not see the situation that is oppressing right now on my life? And if I don't move now, I'm getting old. I only got a few years left in me. God, you better, you better bring somebody down. He said, wait, you ain't as old as you think you are. See, Sarah had a baby yet. He said, he said, I can do whatever I want. If you wait, see rushing ahead without God leads to burnout, not breakthrough. We seek breakthrough, but we never get that when we don't wait, there's a reason that he told him to stay in Jerusalem until they received the gift is that, Hey, I told you before John baptized with water, but in just a few days, you will be baptized with the Holy spirit. Why is this important?

Because we don't just need more ministers church. We don't just need more people running around and preaching adulterated gospel. We need men and women of God that are filled with the Holy ghost that have the fruit of the spirit in their life. Not just the baptism of the spirit, but they have the fruit of the spirit. I'm tired of hearing people say they're baptized in the Holy spirit and possibly even speaking in tongues, but their life is out of control. You cannot have the baptism of the spirit without the fruit of the spirit. It don't work that way. How can we say we received the Holy spirit when we lack self-control, long suffering, things like love, peace, joy, patience, all of these things that he said that we would have in the book of Galatians, see Jesus knew if they didn't wait and rely on him for the power to do ministry, that they would grow to a place where they thought they were the ones doing it. And I've learned in my years of ministry, this is absolutely not about me because had it been about me, I would have tried to grow this thing so fast that we would have bellied up because it wasn't until year five or six that we started implementing systems that could withstand the growth. We didn't even know if somebody wasn't here because we couldn't track them. We couldn't see some of the things and, and, and God, you know, he says, Hey, I'm trying to prepare you for something that you can't even see yet. You aren't fighting a battle that you can win with your hands church. You need the power of the Holy spirit to fight for you. There is a reason that he is telling some of us. And I believe as I was preparing this message that the Lord told me that there was somebody in here right now that this is your season to wake up. This is your season to wait, so wait patiently. He said, so wait patiently, not wait complaining, not wait fussing and fighting, not wait being out of alignment, but wait and wait patiently. Because when the Lord says it's time, baby, it's time. It's go time and ain't no stopping. And it will be like you was on the escalator like we talked about last week and you step onto it and

all of the sudden you can look over and there will be people trying to catch up to you like my wife does when I'm in the airport. And there is just people trying to say, hold on, wait for me. And you said, no, dog, you didn't step your game up in time. I waited for years. And is what will happen is when you wait and others don't, they want to grab your shirt tail when you start to move, because they want to get the escalator without the process. And they don't want, they just say, Hey, can I get close to you so you can take me somewhere where you're going? Because I want to have a steroid shot of the Holy Spirit. I don't know that's theologically correct, but you know what I'm saying? Because we want a boost of the spirit. We want, we want the evidence. We want all of this stuff, but wait so that in due time, we can win. Why? Because God, God will prepare you before he empowers you. Number two, right mission, bad alignment. Right mission, bad alignment. Says this in Acts 1, 6 through 8. So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him. Now you got to remember, he just said, I'm gonna baptize you with the Holy Spirit so that you can receive power. And then the response from the apostles, from the 12 disciples was this. So when the apostles were Jesus, they kept asking him, but Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom? What? He replied, the Father alone, and I feel an escalation in Jesus's tone in this voice, and he says, he replied, the Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know. But you, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my, see how he brings it back? It's that repetition, the hermeneutical principle of repetition, and he says, you will receive power. He says, pay attention, because when you receive the power of the Holy Spirit and it comes upon you, you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere, in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. It's interesting to me because they try and deter the conversation back to what they thought it was about. It sounds like a lot of our prayers, right? And as what happens, I'm gonna get theological for a minute and go into a moment of teaching, is the future, they come back to this moment where they were trying to bring it back to the future rule of Christ, because the disciples had this in mind, right? They knew the prophecy of Ezekiel 36. See, they knew that it had come where it says, for I will gather you up from all nations and bring you home again to your land. This is a prophecy that they thought that was going to happen when they would return and bring the kingdom to restoration, that they would restore the kingdom of God. And they thought, since the children of Israel was the chosen people of God, that all of the sudden, when there was the

restoration of the kingdom of God, that they would restore them back to the promised land. And then he goes on, Ezekiel says, then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. Your filth will be washed away, and you will no longer worship idols. And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. And I will put my spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations. See, they knew God's promise to Abraham included not only the seed of the descendants, but also the promise of the land. And all throughout the Old Testament, God's promise to Israel was connected to the the promise of the land. And so Jesus didn't, you see this in this moment, and Jesus didn't deny that it was still God's plan to restore the kingdom or the rule of God to Israel, but on earth, they would never know the specific times, is what Jesus says, and proper occasions of that restoration before Jesus returned. See, in Old Testament times, God did not reveal the time span between the first and the second coming of Christ. And again and again, Jesus warned the disciples that no man knows the day or the hour of his return. And Jesus also warned that the kingdom would not immediately appear. And so the father had placed the times and the seasons under his own authority, Jesus says, and he alone has the knowledge and wisdom to take all things into account. And in his wisdom, he made the times and the seasons his business, not the concern of the church. Well, what is the believer's business then? Well, verse eight actually gives us the answer

because he says that the disciples would receive power after the Holy Spirit came upon them and through the Spirit's power, the church's business would be to serve as Christ's witnesses telling what they had seen, what they had heard, and what they had experienced. He says, hey, go and tell the world your testimony. He never said, hey, go and argue a theological debate, go and argue a doctrinal truth, go and argue denominational differences, go and argue all that stuff. No, he said, go and tell. A lot of people say, well, I don't know how to witness because I don't know the entire Bible. No, but you know if God saved your life, you know if God ripped you out of the pit of hell, you know if he set your feet up on a rock, you may not be able to answer what versus where, you may not be able to say where he said he would take your feet out of the clay and put you on the rock, but you know that he did it. You know for a fact that he did it because you can look at your old life and say, that ain't me no more. I don't have to live that life no more. I'm not that person. I'm gonna go and tell him my testimony. I'm gonna tell everybody what I seen, what I heard, what I experienced, nothing more, nothing less.

That's what I'm gonna do. But wait, because you're going to have something else to tell him too, he said. He said, hold on. And the disciples said, are you restoring the kingdom of Israel now, God? They're thinking political takeover, come on somebody. They're thinking immediate results. They're thinking their version of success that they had drummed up in their mind. Come on, they're thinking that God is coming back and he's gonna radical, but Jesus doesn't affirm it. He redirects it. And they had Jesus literally, but still misunderstood the mission. They had Jesus right there, but still misunderstood the mission, which means this, that you can be in church, that you can be doing all the things, that you can be around Jesus, that you can be in the presence of the Holy Spirit and still be off in what God is actually trying to do. That means you can be around all the people. You can talk the talk. You can act like you walk the walk and you can still be off in alignment. See, God told him, hey, I will put my spirit in you. In Ezekiel, I will put my spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations.

Come on somebody. Here is a fulfillment of prophecy. Because in Ezekiel, he said, here's what I'm gonna do. And I'm gonna give my spirit to you. And when he's looking at the apostles, he's reminding them, yes, in Ezekiel, it said that I was gonna restore the kingdom. I was gonna bring it back to the land, but I also told you to wait because when the spirit came upon you, you was gonna have something in you that would help you be who I've called you to be because you're gonna need the power of the Holy Spirit in your life to do what I've called you to do. So when we receive the Holy Spirit, it's time to knuckle down and begin to follow his decrees. So we have to. Be careful to obey his regulations. The Holy Spirit isn't just for feel-good moments or sporadic outbursts that we give God credit for, that are out of alignment, that are out of order, that are not done how God said that it would be done. Because if there was moments that it happened that it could confuse the unbeliever and the unbeliever that it would be better to prophesy. But yet we, well, no, that's my time to shine. I need 15 seconds of fame. I've never been here, I've never walked through a system, I've never done anything that would put me in a place

where I could get the authorization to do what God told me to do. And then we blame stuff and see too many people claim that they are baptized in the Spirit but still can't even conquer their desires. I'll wait. It's a fact that too many people claim that we have received the fullness of the Holy Spirit and yet still can't even conquer the desires of our flesh. See, the Holy Spirit don't fill us so that we can continue living however we want to, church. He fills us so that we can go out into a dying world and represent a king that laid his life down, that get himself aside, that said, there is something that is more powerful than my desires. Because when he was in the garden, if you don't think that this moment was heavy, he was in the garden and he said, Lord, if it be your will, remove this cup from me. Remove this cup from me. Said, man, it is heavy. I don't know, I've never swept blood. But I can imagine what he felt like when he was in the garden of Gethsemane. He said, God, I've always wondered about this moment of weakness. Because he knew the sin of the world was getting ready to be laid upon him and he knew that in a moment's time that God was gonna turn his back on his own son

because he couldn't look at the sin on the cross. And when Jesus was hanging from that cross, God had to say, I can't look at the sin, son. I gotta turn my back for just a moment. And Jesus said, if it is your will, God, would you please take this cup from me because I don't wanna spend a second of my life without your presence. I don't wanna spend a moment without your presence because God, you know that all I want is you. All I want is to be in your presence. Clarity of vision matters. We can have the right mission and still be out of alignment. If we're not focused on the things that matters most. Which leads me to my third point is the mission requires power. The mission requires power. See, Acts 1a says, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. See, the coming of the Spirit is an empowering experience. He says, you shall receive power. See, the Greek word is actually deutamus. It's the word that American, the Western society gets the word dynamite from. So you will receive this explosive power, the ability and Jesus in Matthew 24 emphasized that his followers could not wait for ideal conditions before spreading the gospel to the nations.

He told them, hey, this age and especially the end times would be characterized by wars, by rumors of wars, famines and earthquakes. Come on somebody, it's getting close. But followers of Jesus must spread the gospel to all nations, he said, despite all of these natural calamities and political disruptions. He said, you got one assignment. That's it. You got one assignment. Well, how would this even be possible? Well, Jesus promised that they would receive power as a result of being filled with the Holy Spirit. See, this would literally be the secret of success in the church age until its final consummation. And when Jesus returns, not better systems, systems are great. We love them, we use them. build them, but not better systems, not more talent. We don't need more talented pastors that can blow up on Instagram. We don't need more talented pastors that can blow up on YouTube. We don't need more talented people that can blow up on a podcast on TikTok. That's not what's gonna save the world. We don't need stronger personalities. We don't need people that can raise up in this, but you wanna know what we need?

We need dutimous power. Explosive power, the power to change who we were, the power to say no to sin, the power to say no to lust, the power to put down your phone and get somebody that will hold you accountable and put some accountability covenant eyes on your phone so that you would quit looking at the stuff that you don't need to be looking at because God didn't call you. He didn't call you so that you could continue to corrupt the very spirit that he lives within. He didn't call us so that we could wander around in our life of sin. No, he gave us explosive power so that we could receive the Holy Spirit, so that we could be a witness for Christ, so that we can have a sustainable source of power. It makes me think of this story. There was two different people and they was both in need of water. And one of them uses a bucket. Kind of reminds me of Burundi because if you go to Burundi, you will notice as you're heading from the airport to the YWAM campgrounds that there is this river that you pass over. And it is the source of water for the entire area. And there will be five, six, 700 people down in that Creek or it's really more of like a glorified Creek.

And they will be filling up these five gallon jugs of water and they will carry them on their head. And it is the women's assignment every single day to go and get water and come back and go and get water and come back and go and get water because that's the only way that they would be able to ever have it. And they keep running back and forth, back and forth, back and forth to the river. And it works, but it only lasts a short period of time. But see then the other one, right? The other one that needed water, he decides, you know what? I'm not gonna keep running back and forth. I'm gonna dig a well. Now the water can flow from within and not only will I have a source to the water, but the water that I have a source to can now supply others that need water too because now I got something that people can start traveling here and they can start filling the presence of water here and they can start getting what they got and take it back there. See, one digs a well, the other one has a bucket. One is exhausting while one is sustainable. See, God didn't design you to keep running for strength. He wants to be your source. And as what is happening is unfortunately,

there are a lot of Christians that are living bucket type Christianity, running Sunday to Sunday, Sunday to Sunday, moment to moment, from high to high, like spiritual high or whatever high. But I'm talking about spiritual moments running from one week, we come down and we do this, one week, we come down and we do this, one week, we come down and we do this. Listen, we are not supposed to live a spiritual lifestyle like an employment opportunity where we live paycheck to paycheck to paycheck. God said, I will give you a source of power that will sustain you, but I need you to dig. I wonder if I got any well diggers in the room, some people that would say, I'm tired of living Sunday to Sunday. I'm tired of living moment to moment. I need the presence of the Lord to fill me so I can see that the change is possible because there's a power that I want to tap into. I need something digging maybe difficult up front. It makes me think of the four friends in the Bible, the parable where the four friends have a friend on the pallet and they're carrying them up a ladder, which had to have been difficult by the way.

And whenever they got him up there, they said, hey, I need to dig a hole in this roof because I know right down underneath of us, there is a source that has your healing for you. And you know that when Jesus was standing in a room full of people and there was some friends that would help their friend dig, that there was some crumbles that was. Fallen down in the presence of Jesus and he had to been looking and he stopped the room and he said hey There is some faith that is up above that is digging right now That is getting ready to change not only the trajectory of them, but the trajectory of their friend That's how I know friends matter I Don't know about you, but not only do I want to be a digger But I want to have some people that are friends with me that's willing to grab a shovel and say I know it's hard for You right now pastor, but I'm gonna dig a hole I'm gonna dig till we see the presence of the Holy Spirit in this moment because this church ain't done yet This life ain't done yet. I know that this ain't done. You got it in you pastor. You got it Listen, let me tell you you got another moment in you. You got another Sunday in you You got another life in you. You may see your past and think that God couldn't do nothing through you But he's telling you to wait Because if you can grasp what the power of the Holy Spirit can do in your life, he said I'm gonna turn it around And I'm gonna use your life To begin to do something through the power of the Holy Spirit see I'm trying to find a new source of power I'm not trying to stay in the same thing That's why we say you can't receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit and remain When my wife got saved she went into her work said I quit I'm not adjusting our suggesting everybody do that But People at her work was smoking pot all the time

She was in a situation where she was tempted She was tempted in all of these different realms and she said hey, I got to change it when I got saved I told all my friends. Hey, we ain't gonna be friends no more when I get out of the joint You ain't gonna see me around no more I'm not gonna be who I used to be. But if you want to send me $200, I'm cool with that Bet Absolutely did but I told him up front look bro, I promise you I'm not coming I'm not coming back to the life and they said, okay, we'll see and I said bet we will But if you want to send $200 every month, I love you. I Will pray for you. I will fast for you I will believe and I'm gonna dig for you because I believe that God can change the ex-dope dealers life the ex-whores life The ex-whatevers life because God wants to do something in your life because he can use you Everybody got a story everybody got a story But wait Cuz see without the spirit, how did I preach this in 10 minutes last service and it's taking me 30 A Last service that was like wait pastor. You got more You got you're running out of time or you're not even close to running out of time But see without the spirit is what happens is we gather but we don't transform See we speak but we never leave impact Lord don't ever let me speak a word That isn't ordained by your presence Let me seek your face Before I seek your hand Let me be in your presence God because I wanted to flow from the overflow see we try but we don't see breakthrough If there's anybody else that's just tired of trying see what effort struggles to produce the spirit can release Because where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom See the mission of God requires something that only God can provide because without the spirit we end up with good services But no transformation I'm not here to preach and impress

I'm here to preach to see life change So that men and women of God can be raised up because I don't want activity but no authority. I Want the authority that the Holy Spirit gives I don't want to just be impressive. I don't want crowds with no change See come on baby if the Holy Spirit doesn't show up we're just gathering we're not advancing If we aren't advancing then what are we even doing which leads me to my last point That is an astonishment because a lot of us don't even understand stand this sometime because of what we've been through the brokenness man you got to remember the story of the disciples as if you go and you read it when Jesus told him this he said hey you are the plan you are the plan you you are the plan not just professionals see acts 180 said you will be my disciples you will be my witnesses you will be the ones that that go you will be my witnesses acts 1a says it you not just professionals not just pastors but you see God's strategy is people that are filled with his spirit the mission isn't programs programs are good but they're just activity on a calendar his mission isn't buildings buildings is what hosts the church it's not the church it is mission isn't big events although they win people you want to know what it is it's spirit-filled people living on mission that's what it is the church isn't just a place we go folks it's a people who we are and it's a people that are sent that's just the way that it is the disciples didn't just launch a service in acts 1 or an axe period they didn't just build a brand you know I'm saying the 12 men you know I'm saying or whatever whatever their brand would be I don't know what kind of disciple threads come on somebody that's one of my favorite t-shirt brands by the way disciple threads that had to been launched by them if you think about it who else would have done that like who else would have launched them like that you know it would have been the disciples but no they didn't create a system that they didn't you want to know what they did they waited on God they were filled with the Holy Spirit and then they moved at his pace don't don't move without power church don't don't even take a step without power because I don't know about you but I don't want to take a step in any

direction without the guidance of the Holy Spirit I want everybody to close their eyes for just a second I know this is out of the norm but I want you I want you to take a second and I want you to ask yourself I want you to ask yourself this this morning with your eyes closed where am I moving ahead of God God where am I moving ahead of you where am I moving at a pace that is faster than you am I relying on your effort or on my efforts more than I am the Spirit am I trying to do is this why I'm tired God is it am I tired because I'm doing this from my own strength and not your strength have I slowed down enough for God to fill me have I what if today what if today everybody look we were to surrender our control what if we said God I don't want to do this anymore I want to repent of self-reliance I want to repent of my pride I want to repent of my arrogance what if today we were asked we were to ask the Lord for a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit what if we was to say God I I don't know what you want to use me for but God fill me with your spirit I'm willing to wait I'm willing to sit here I'm willing to hear a word from you because God I don't want to build anything without your power God have your way in my life I wonder if there's anybody here today that would pray that prayer and say God I need you I need you more than I need me I've got in the way and God I want to myself out of the equation so that I can see you do what you want to do in and through my life if I could have everybody stand with me for just a