Today’s message summary November 21, 2019 from Pastor Gus Brown:
The Holy Spirit, in many ways, is our silent partner. He is present to show the believer the greatness of Jesus Christ, and He wants you to rely upon Him in all things.
It is the power of the Holy Spirit that directs us, shapes us and molds us with the understanding of what Jesus Christ did for His people.
Christ died on the cross for the purpose of transforming our lives. We are becoming more like Jesus Christ because of the power of the Holy Spirit.
We are a people who are learning to live in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Our responsibility is to remain obedient to the Holy Spirit in executing God’s Word in our lives.
We can do nothing in the flesh that can help us to live like Jesus. There is nothing that we can do to make ourselves better in a lasting sense.
The Spirit is what helps a person to remain obedient.
Did Jesus have the Holy Spirit work from within Him?
John 5:19 ESV
So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.
John 5:30
“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.”
John 6:63
“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”
Romans 1:1-4
Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.
John 8:28
So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me.
If Jesus can do nothing on His own, what can we do on our own?
(We are referring not to His divine state, but His human state.)
Jesus reflected on His reliance of the presence of the Spirit as an example for us.
Luke 4:14-15
And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.
When Jesus became of age, He began His ministry, and the Spirit was present throughout his life. He was tested in the wilderness by Satan and showed us the example for what it is to be tested (Luke 4:1-13). The Spirit was present the entire time.
Luke 4:13
And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.
Satan knew that Jesus was in a human body, dependent on the Holy Spirit for life and completion of His work.
1 Peter 2:21
For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.
God has a plan for you, and the Holy Spirit is what holds you to the plan that God has set for you (Jeremiah 29:11).
Allow God to set His plan for your life by living in obedience to Him.
It was customary for Jesus to go to the synagogue to speak and to teach.
Luke 4:16-21
And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
As you live a Spirit-filled life, you may confuse some people who try to recall how you once lived to how you are living today.
Jesus’ life was a planned life before the foundation of the earth.
John 18:37
Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”
In the same way, your life in Jesus is a planned life.
Jeremiah 29:11
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Ephesians 1:3-4
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.
God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit.
Acts 10:36-38
As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all), you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.
We all have a need for the Holy Spirit to act within us in order to live effectively for Jesus Christ.
Man, in his flesh alone, cannot accomplish any of this.
Luke 24:48-49
“You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”
Acts 1:8
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
In the power of the Holy Spirit, you can do what seems to be impossible.
Matthew 19:26 NIV
Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
What are you a witness of?
Man can teach something, but the Holy Spirit provides understanding of God’s wisdom.
Luke 24:45-49 ESV
Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”
1 Corinthians 2:9-16
But, as it is written,
“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love him”—
these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
While none of us are eye-witnesses to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, we are witnesses to God’s goodness within our own lives.
Surely you can recall periods in your life where all that you can conclude is “God did it.”
How are we to live and overcome?
Romans 15:13
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
As you trust in Jesus Christ, He brings you hope and encouragement to experience hope within the power of the Holy Spirit.
Where will we be empowered?
From within your inner being.
Ephesians 3:14-19
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith–that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
The Spirit can do what you cannot do in and of yourself.
1 Thessalonians 1:2-7
We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia.
You have the power of the Holy Spirit not just with words, but the power of a changed life.
Akron Alliance Fellowship 