The Power of Christ in Us

Dear Heavenly Father, we're so thankful each and every day that we're here, and thank you for your Son that we may have eternal life. Bless these offerings we've received, and help us to use them wisely for us, in Jesus' name, amen. Will the ladies come out here for a minute? We're going to sing a song, it's called The Same Power, and it's about that we have the same power that rose Jesus from the dead, and that it lives in us, and that He lives in us today. So, will half of you just circle around these mics here, and we're going to sing this song. You can go ahead. Start it. You'll have to get closer to the mics, though. Everybody sing along with us. They're just helping. I can see the waters raging at my feet. I can feel the breath of those surrounding me. I can hear the sound of nations rising up. We will not be overtaken, we will not be overcome. I can walk down this dark and painful road. I can face every fear of the unknown. I can hear all God's children singing out. We will not be overtaken, we will not be overcome. The same power that rose Jesus from the grave. The same power that commands the dead to wake, lives in us, lives in us. The same power that moves mountains when He speaks. The same power that can calm a raging sea, lives in us. It lives in us, it lives in us, lives in us. We have hope that His promises are true. In His strength, there is nothing we can't do. Yes, we know there are greater things in store. We will not be overtaken, we will not be overcome. The same power that rose Jesus from the grave. The same power that commands the dead to wake, lives in us, lives in us. The same power that moves mountains when He speaks. The same power that can calm a raging sea, lives in us, lives in us. It lives in us, it lives in us. Greater is He that is living in me. He's conquered by enemy. No power of darkness, no weapon prevails. We stand here in victory. Greater is He that is living in me. He's conquered by enemy. No power of darkness, no weapon prevails. We stand here in victory, in victory. The same power that rose Jesus from the grave. The same power that commands the dead to wake, lives in us, lives in us. The same power that moves mountains when He speaks. The same power that can calm a raging sea, lives in us, lives in us. It lives in us, it lives in us. Thank you, guys. Amen, amen, amen. Thank you, students. Thank you, choir. Thank you. I'm so glad you're here today. This is a special time. We're going to do prayer time pretty much like we do usual, but I'm going to lead us in prayer in just a moment. We're about to prepare to take the Lord's Supper in just a moment, and the Scripture teaches us that our hearts need to be ready to observe this Lord's Supper. That's why I think this time that we're about to do is probably one of the most important times in the whole worship service. Is your heart clean? Is your heart ready to remember what our Lord and Savior did for us? This is Palm Sunday. This is the Sunday that Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, came triumphantly into the village there, into the city. People were waving their palms, just like our children were doing this morning. They were waving those palms, and they were going up and down, and they were shouting Hosanna, Hosanna. And they believed that Jesus Christ would be the Messianic King, the one that would give them victory with a military type of king. But Jesus rode in on a donkey, humble in humility, proclaiming that He was not that kind of king, but that He was the King of kings, that He was the Lord of all, and that what would transpire over the days ahead would shake empires and kingdoms to come. Yes, we celebrate that triumphal entry, but we also come to a day called Good Friday, and folks, it wasn't good for Him. It was good for us. That's what we're going to talk about today, God's love, His gift to us. It was good for us, but for Him, it was anything but good. It was painful. It was sacrificial. He wept. He bled. Every muscle strained. Every breath struggled. Until He got to that moment, He said, it is finished. We can't even comprehend the pain, the struggle that our Lord and Savior went through. That our Lord and Savior went through. Why would He do that? Why would God send His only Son on the cross of Calvary for us? I can't comprehend it. I just know the Bible says it, that for God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believed in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And somehow that transition happened, atonement happened on the cross of Calvary. He died for my sin. No matter how grave, no matter how hard, no matter what happens in our life, He died for our sin. Today, we come to remember that. This Palm Sunday, the Sunday before the Resurrection Sunday, we come to celebrate what He did on the cross of Calvary. We come to remember what He did for us. But before we do that, we need to pray. I would ask you to pray where you're at. I'd ask you to come here and pray if you want. You do whatever you need to do. But for goodness sake, just spend time seeking your own heart and say, Lord, prepare me for this time. I want to thank you. I want to remember what you did for me on the cross. We have many prayer requests that are before you. Take some time to pray for those as well. Ashley Anderson asked us to pray for a great move to Oklahoma. The Sunflower folks are going to Topeka this Wednesday. We want to pray for them for safe journeys. We want to pray for all the things that are going on in your lives. But above all, spend some moments here remembering what Jesus Christ has done for us. As the music plays, just do that for a few moments and then I will close us in prayer. Amen. Father, we are so unworthy. We are a broken people, sinners. We have all sinned. We have all come short of the glory of God. None of us are righteous. No, not one of us. Father, I want to come before you clean. I want to come before you righteous. So forgive me of my misgivings. Forgive me of my wrongdoings. Father, make me clean. Make me holy, Lord. And the only way I can do that is through the shed blood of the precious Son of Jesus Christ. Oh, thank you, Father, for that. Thank you that I don't have to do it on my own, but that I have a Savior who is a Redeemer, who forgives, who cleanses, who makes us white as snow. So, Father, during this season, we remember what you did for us. We remember the supreme sacrifice of your body on the cross of Calvary. And we are grateful for that. So, Father, today, as we observe the Lord's Supper, may we do so in honesty. May we do so with truth. And we will give you praise and honor in Jesus' name. Amen. For those who are serving, would you please come? Amen. There are two elements to the ordinance of the Lord's Supper. One is the bread. One is the cup. Neither one of these are special or have been made holy in any special way. Truth of it is, it's just bread and it's just grape juice. I don't even know if it's well just grape juice. It is. It's prime stuff. It's not the stuff here that matters. It's not even these really pretty plates that matter or the chalice that matters. Nor do those elements go inside us and automatically become holy. That's not what we teach. That's not what we believe. It is a symbolic act of what Jesus did for us on the cross. The bread is the body of Christ. The cup is the blood of Christ. Both had to be totally sacrificed for our sin atonement. God loved us enough to do that. So as we take the bread first, it is the body of Christ. Alan, would you pray over as we take this bread? Dear Heavenly Father, we're so thankful that you sent your Son to die for us so we may have eternal life. As Keith said, the bread is the body. So I just thank you, thank you, and thank you. We ask it in your Son's name. Amen. Amen. We want as many to observe this as possible. Again as we take this bread, he said, as often as you eat this bread, you remember me that it was my body that was sacrificed. As often as you do it, remember me. Likewise we take the cup to remember the blood. Every ounce of blood was shed on the cross of Calvary. Terry, would you come and pray as we take the cup? Dear Heavenly Father, as we come before you, Father, we know that you gave the ultimate sacrifice for us. You shed your body, your blood. Father, we just humble ourselves before you and just give you thanks for your Son, Father. In the name we pray, amen. Amen. This cup represents the blood of Jesus. He said, as often as you take this cup, you do this in remembrance of me. Father, thank you for this day that we have come to remember all your mercy and all your grace that you've given to us. May you speak to our hearts, the remainder of this service, that when we leave this place, Father, that we share your goodness and mercy with a world that's lost and broken. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you, gentlemen. I have a short sermon. I probably shouldn't say that. I might get to preaching, but I'm going to try to make it as short as I possibly can. There's a few things that I want to share with you this morning, though. We've been talking about the study of belief. This week we're on spiritual gifts. In fact, if you can read that, I think you can, down underneath spiritual gifts it says, I know my spiritual gifts and use them to fulfill God's purposes. Would you say that with me? I know my spiritual gifts and use them to fulfill God's purposes. That is really what and where I want us to go this morning. I want you to understand fully that you are gifted, that you can discover that. If you don't know how to discover that, we're going to help you along the way today. That you understand that God gives you that gift to fulfill his purposes, not ours. We're going to be in John chapter 16. I'll refer to John chapter 14, John chapter 15, John chapter 16, because in light of this celebration and thinking on the Lord's Supper and this being Palm Sunday, Jesus was preparing his disciples for his death. In John chapter 14, you know the story there, he said, In my Father's house are many mansions, if there were not so, I would have told you so. I go to prepare a place for you that where I am, there you will be also. Thomas said, How can we know the way? He says, I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. And later on in that chapter of John chapter 14, he begins to tell you, But I am going to send you, after I'm gone, I'm going to send you another comforter, another advocate, another helper, a paracletos, if you will, is what the scripture says. A little bit more distinguishing there of what Jesus was going to send. It is a direct reference to the Holy Spirit. And continuing on in that narrative, then in John chapter 15, Jesus says, I am the vine, you are the branches. Abide in me and I'll abide in you. We'll read that verse of scripture in just a few moments. And then in John chapter 16, we come to this passage of scripture and he begins to explain it a little bit deeper in verses 5 through 15. So before we get there, let's just have one more prayer as we read our text. Father, once again, speak to our hearts. May we understand as we leave this place that we are gifted, that the Holy Spirit dwells in the heart of every believer, and that you give every believer gifts to use for kingdom purposes. We will give you praise and honor, in Jesus' name, amen. Read with me, if you will. Follow along either on the screen or in your notes or in your Bibles, which I prefer. And I'm using the English standard version. So here we go. Verse 5 of John chapter 16. But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you ask me, where are you going? But because I've said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart, meaning they understood that he was going to go away. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper, there it is that word again, the comforter, the advocate. will not come to you, but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. Concerning sin, because they do not believe in me. Concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you will see me no longer. Concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. Therefore, I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. What a promise to the disciples. Did they fully understand it? I don't think so, not at this point. They don't fully understand it until Pentecost occurs and the New Testament church just literally explodes and the Holy Spirit comes upon them and they begin to see that they are gifted, all different, all unique, and that the church begins to just build and thousands of people come to Christ and then the New Testament church begins to spread throughout the world in which we have yet today. We studied in the first 10 weeks what we believe, what our faith is, our identity is in Christ, that it guides our values, and then our values are our belief system. We studied 10 of those belief systems and the Holy Spirit was one of those that we studied, that he is the Trinity, that he's one and three in God, and that he is God and that Jesus ushered him in on that Pentecost day there as we study in Acts chapter 1 and chapter 2, and then it was for purpose. And he began to identify those gifts in the lives of those leaders that would have an impact on the world. The death of Christ ushered in a new age. The death of Christ we still remember to this day. It ushered in the end times. For 2,000 years we have been living in what Jesus would call the end times. That may seem like a long time to call the end time, but in God's time that's only two days, right? We don't understand that kind of time, but we are in the last dispensation, if you will. We're living in the end age and what is next is Jesus is coming back just as he left. But in the meantime, he has given us his Holy Spirit to do the work of the church. The church has been commissioned to go into the world and to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. And everyone that is in this room this morning have been given the Holy Spirit of God. If you are a believer, you have been given the Holy Spirit of God and therefore you are given gifts. We remember the death of Christ. The Holy Spirit leads us to proclaim the promise of Christ. If we come to celebrate his death today but do not fulfill the promise that he has and we fulfill the objective and the purpose that God gives the church, we are failures. We need to understand that he gives us these gifts on purpose for his purpose. So there are six quick things that I'm going to say and they are going to be quick, trust me. Number one, the Holy Spirit as a giver of gifts, his role is to simply convict the world of sin. Verse 8 says, and when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. I still remember to this day, the day that I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior. I was convicted of my sin. I knew that if I died that night, that I would not go to heaven because I had never professed and proclaimed Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. As a result, on that Saturday night in a revival there in Stinnett, Texas, I was holding on to the pew in front of me. I better be careful. Yeah, I could make this thing go over. But literally, I was shaking just like this and the pew in front of me was shaking just like this. I was under conviction. Why? Because I knew that I was a sinner and the Holy Spirit could only reveal that to me. And I knew that what I was doing in my life was separating me from the Holy God. And the only thing that could reconcile that was Jesus Christ himself by accepting him as Lord and Savior. That night, I did. It was just like it was yesterday. I received Jesus Christ. Now, how did I know that I was a sinner? I believe the Holy Spirit of God convicts us of sin. I can't convict you of sin today. I can't make you accept Jesus Christ today. I can do nothing on my own. I can only preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. If you are convicted today, it is because the Holy Spirit of God is convicting you. Alright? That would be a good place to say amen. Amen. Number two, the Holy Spirit's role is to convince us of our need to believe in Jesus. Verse nine, concerning sin because they do not believe in me. Just got to be with our precious grandchildren in Missouri as we took some beds and things. They are purchasing a house this week and we had some stuff we had to get down there. We just had to get it down there. We just had to get it down there to see the grandchildren. Our little one-year-old likes to read books or play like he's reading them or whatever. He would give me a book and then he does this cutest thing. He turns around and he just backs up to me and says, Pick me up, Pop, so we can read the book. He convinced me with that backing up against me that I was to pick him up and put him on my lap, open up the book and read what I could, at least go over the pictures. I think the Holy Spirit kind of does that to us. Not that he backs into us. He just kind of engulfs us and he convinces us. He convicts us of our sin. He convinces us of our need for a Savior that we need to change our lives and give it over to him. The third thing that he does is he guides us in truth. Look at verse 13. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. Have you ever had a guide? Some of you guys are good enough. You are a guide when you take people to fish. My dad is like that. When he goes to Lake Texoma, he was raised there. He knows that lake. We never had to have a guide, a fishing guide, because that would embarrass him. He knew where to go and we always caught fish. I had a chance to go with a guide in White River, Arkansas, which I didn't know. A former education pastor of mine. Some of you may remember Jim Monroe. He came here and worked a little bit a few years ago. He lived at Mountain Home. The White River runs down there. He had a guide that went to church at his church. He said, come on down anytime and we'll take you down the White River. He actually was a professional guide and worked for ESPN. He took Kirk Gowdy and several guys down that White River to catch trout in Arkansas. You talk about being in heaven. I had a great time, but I couldn't have done that by myself. That water rises and goes up and down because they let out water at the lake up above. He knew how to go. He knew when to get off. He knew all the right things to get us to the right places to catch those trout. The Holy Spirit guides us. Once we are a believer in Jesus Christ, He has convinced us, He has convicted us, and He guides us. The question is, do we think we can do it on our own? We think we know it well enough that we don't need the Holy Spirit in our life. Sometimes that is true. We need to submit to His leadership and that He guides us all along the way. As a result, this is where I want to go this morning. I'm going to go there quickly. I told you, as a result, the Holy Spirit is number one. When He guides us, He will speak to us. Look at verse 13. For He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears, He will speak. Let me share something with you. I hope you understand this. When the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us, after we come to begin a believer, after we have come to accept Jesus Christ by faith, He gives us that grace, He lives in us, and He deposits the Holy Spirit in our lives, and God uses the Holy Spirit to speak to us. He will never contradict this Word. What He says to us will never be in conflict with what He has already said. So I would be a little bit suspicious if somebody comes to me and says, the Holy Spirit tells me we've got to go outside and hang, I don't know, something upside down for six days. I'm just making that up. He would never do that. Why would we do that? It would be crazy. The Holy Spirit would lead us to our next-door neighbor to tell them about Jesus Christ. He would lead us to an opportunity to work in a children's department or in preschool or in adult ministries. He would lead us to go to feed someone that's in need. He would lead us to go and help because He is our helper. He would lead us to go and give comfort to others as He has comforted us because He is our comforter. He would go and speak on our behalf because He is our advocate, and He will do that on Judgment Day. The Holy Spirit is real, and He does speak to us. The question is, are we in a position to listen? Are we hearing what the Holy Spirit tells us? And where I really want to land, which gets us back to our Sunday school lesson today, the Holy Spirit will gift us to fulfill God's purpose for the church. Look at verse 13. And He will declare to you the things that are to come. There are at least 16 gifts listed in the New Testament, at least. Some would list it at 20. Some would list it at 24. Ken Hemphill, who used to be the president of Southwestern Seminary, he did a study on spiritual gifts, and what he says is that that was never meant to be a complete list, is that the Holy Spirit will gift us in the church to do what we need to do, to accomplish what we need to accomplish, to fulfill the purpose that God has called us to do. Never in Paul's mind would he imagine that there would be people gifted with the gift of service who wants to control the sound and the PowerPoint up there. Bless their hearts. They do that, and they're gifted to do that, and we have two down here that have been gifted to do that, the Elliot's as well. Now that may be the gift of service, but the talent is that they love to serve and do what God's gifted them to do. They have the ability to work with computers and sound boards. Bless their hearts. But it's beyond that. I think in the New Testament church today, God will gift us with everything we need at First Southern Baptist Church to accomplish the task that God has called us to do, which is to make disciples that make disciples, and if we are not fulfilling that task, it's because we're not accepting the opportunities that the Holy Spirit has given to you to do. Now, every one of you have been given a gift of the Holy Spirit, and you say, yes, Keith. Everybody shake your head this way. Yes, you are gifted. Well, preacher, I just don't believe I have any gifts. Yes, you do. And I believe God will gift you according to your personality. change your personality, we might commodify our behaviors a little bit sometime, but I can't change the way God made you. He gifted you in certain ways that those gifts that He gives you through the Holy Spirit allows you to serve with joy, allows you to serve with happiness, allows you to serve with a sense of anticipation that what I'm doing makes a difference. I don't care if it's opening the door, handing out a bulletin, or changing dirty diapers, or working on the soundboard up there. It doesn't matter. Playing the piano singing, teaching, just going to serve and take food to sick people. Whatever it is, you have been gifted to serve the New Testament church to help proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. Amen? And what that does, the Holy Spirit makes us fruitful. Last point, and then we're going to do some practical application this morning. It makes us fruitful for kingdom results. Going back to John chapter 15, verse 5. Jesus said, I am the vine. You, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much, everybody say much, much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. You've got to remember, folks, these gifts are not there for our glory. The only reason we have gifts is because God gave them to you. They're for his glory, and we can bear much fruit. The question is, for the New Testament church members today, are we bearing much fruit? Listen to verse 2. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does not bear fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit. Listen, pruning doesn't feel good. But God will prune us all for the purpose of his glory to bear much fruit. How do we do that? It's because of the gift of the Holy Spirit of God living and dwelling in us, giving us that gift so that we can bear much fruit. But the effectiveness is if you're not using the gifts that God gives you, it's like cutting the branch off because it's not being effective. Fruit is not being produced, and it's thrown away, and it's burned away. I've got to move quickly this morning. I want to give you a couple of practical applications. If you see that on the board, this is, if you want, you can if you want, I won't condemn you right now. You can get out your cell phone if you want. If you have an Android or an iPhone, you can go to your app, and you can get the Spiritual Gifts test, and you can find that app when you just say Spiritual Gift Test or Spiritual Gifts Survey, and you'll see that app. It's free. You can go in there, and it'll ask you 80 questions that will help you to determine what your spiritual gift is. Now, some of you, how many of you have ever taken a Spiritual Gifts Survey before? Many of you have done that before. Amen. So you know what your spiritual gift is, but I want to share something with you today that's unique and different because I did this spiritual gift. Everybody ready? You see the picture. You can kind of get the idea. I took it again, and I want to show you these are my 16 that they measure. These were my spiritual gifts. I was surprised. The first time I took a Spiritual Gift Test, which has been hundreds of years ago, teaching, administration, and evangelism was my number one. So evangelism is still in my top three. I love to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with who is willing to listen. It always has been. God gave me that gift early on as a high school student. I love to tell people about Jesus. Do I do it as often as I should? Probably not. But when the opportunity arises and the Holy Spirit is working in people's lives, I will move right there quickly. God has gifted me that. But administration and teaching, as you see, are still high in my top six. But for some reason God has given me, during this time with you, a special measure of faith and wisdom. I will tell you that your spiritual gifts will change based on the Holy Spirit working in your life and give you what you need to accomplish what you need to accomplish. I want to give you some more tools here in just a moment, but listen to what faith is. Faith trusts God to work beyond the human capabilities of the people. Believers with this gift encourage others to trust in God in the face of apparently insurmountable odds. I don't know why God would give me that extra measure of faith, but I feel at my point in time, in my ministry at this point, maybe it's because I'm getting older, especially in the wisdom area. Listen to it. Wisdom is the gift that discerns the work of the Holy Spirit in the body and applies his teachings and actions to the needs of the body. As an interim pastor, those are two pretty important gifts that I think that I need to help serve the Lord in this church at this place and time. Now, I still draw upon the administration. I still draw upon teaching love to do those two things, but God is shaping me and forming me by the power of the Holy Spirit during this time. I want to give you a couple other tools. Some of you don't have cell phones. You don't care to download apps. That's okay. Let me give you another one. If you go to lifeway.com, you can do a search on discovering your spiritual gifts. I would encourage you to go that. If you have time to print that down, you can. If you don't, that's okay. I may not give you enough time here in a minute, but I would encourage you to look at that and to do one. For those who just do not do cell phones or websites, I have 20 of these, but I have something I can make more copies if you want. It's the same as that. Lifeway has done a good job with Gene Wilkes performing this, and it's on those same 16 spiritual gifts. It would give you some kind of an idea on what your spiritual gift would be. If it would be the first time that you've ever taken a spiritual gift, God might just surprise you. Then as you begin to look at it, you'll say, yeah, that is me. That does define who I am and what God wants me to be. Let me just close with this this morning. Remember I said at the very beginning that when our identity is found in Christ, it shapes our values. It shapes what our belief system is. That belief system then shapes our behaviors. You can have all the vision statements. You can have all the mission statements. You can have all the statements of faith that you want printed down. You might very well value them, but if we don't move to action and behaviors, what good are our values? What good are our statements of faith if we don't live them and if we don't exercise the giftedness that God gives us to exercise? I might challenge you today. Is there any way we could go back to the very first screen? Thank you. Would you read that with me one more time? I know my spiritual gifts and use them to fulfill God's purpose. I hope you will believe that today. If you don't know what your spiritual gift is, discover it, will you? Then use it for His purposes and God's kingdom will be enriched because of it. Is the Holy Spirit convicted you today? Is He convinced you? Are you willing to be guided by Him? Is He speaking to you today? I hope so. He wants you to be gifted and to be fruitful. Father, speak to our hearts. May people respond accordingly this morning. In Jesus' name, Amen. Would you stand as we sing? There will be people here. If you need to respond today, it's what the invitation time. Maybe you just need to come pray. Maybe you need to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. Whatever the Holy Spirit is convicting you today, it's what the Holy Spirit is speaking to you today.