Vineyard Church of Knox County
Empowering So That…
I've heard from several of you how powerful last Sunday's Celebration Service was for you. I am so encouraged when people share with me how God is working in their lives. Knowing that God is moving in the church and in your lives keeps me motivated and focused on the mission God has given us at the Vineyard.
As I consider how God so freely gives to us His presence and power, I want us to be sure that we understand why He does so. He loves for us to experience Him, whether it be in the “everyday” activities of life or in a special moment of His choosing, a moment like the one many of you experienced on Sunday. The life connected to God and filled by His Spirit is one that contains both experiences, and both are to be recognized as God’s blessings. But how do we respond to God when He “ambushes” us with His Spirit in those special moments? Why does He do that?
God’s plan for every one of His children is to use everything in our lives for His good purposes in the process of changing us into beings like Jesus who love unconditionally and serve sacrificially. Romans 8:28-29 says God works all things for good - so that we are conformed to the image of Jesus. During this life-long process of “everyday activities,” though, we have moments of crisis, powerful turning points in our Christian lives after which we can say, “Everything is different now.” Several of us had a crisis moment at the Celebration Service last week.
Here’s why God ambushed you: for the sake of others. God is conforming you to the image of Jesus, and the image of Jesus is someone who laid down his life for others.
Yes, God fills us with His powerful Spirit just like He did in the book of Acts to those initial disciples of Jesus and just like He has done throughout the centuries - for the sake of others. He doesn’t empower us simply so we can walk out of the Celebration Service feeling good about God and about our experience. Certainly He cares about our feelings, but if we don’t follow through, if we don’t take what He has done in us to the desired end, then we will have wasted the experience. What is the desired end? - you got it! - blessing other people.
He empowers us so that we can and will INVEST our time, our energy, our care, and our prayer in those around us - our neighbors, our co-workers, our mechanics, our waitresses. He empowers us so that we can and will INVITE others to encounter the genuine love and welcome of God at a Celebration Service or a home group. He empowers us so that we can and will INCLUDE others in God’s life and work in His family.
On the day of Pentecost in the first century the disciples were filled by God’s Spirit, empowering them - why? The chapter before the Pentecost account, just before ascending to the Father, Jesus told this group that they would be baptized in the Spirit so that they would be his witnesses in their town, their region, and to the ends of the earth. They were empowered for the sake of others.
Let’s be a church that graciously receives all that God wants for us then walks away from those empowering experiences eager to bless others in the county, nation, and around the world.
Blessings,
Chris
