Marks of the Kingdom IV - Profession & Proclamation

Kingdom Series IV

September 26, 2021

Fr. Phil Eberhart

Profession & Proclamation

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Profession & Proclamation:    Your Call as an Ambassador

 

 

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This is the fourth in the Kingdom Series of sermons.  We’ve talked about the Kingdom of God as …

Ø Power for the Powerless

Ø Presence of the King

Ø Possession / Position with the King, and this morning…

Ø Profession and Proclamation of the King

In our opening hymn this morning, we sang about The Great Commission:  “Go ye therefore… baptize and teach, heal and preach!”  Jesus, as He sends His disciples out in Luke 10 tells them, “Freely you have received – freely give!”

God’s Kingdom program is one that has an inward component and an outward component:

 The Inward Component of the Kingdom of God is the formation of the Character of Christ in each disciple.  You are destined to “LOOK LIKE JESUS.” 

“…for those He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son.” 

“All we who with unveiled faces, behold the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to the next; this comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” 

“…don’t let the world press you into it’s mold, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…”

“He has given us His great and precious promises, that by them you may… become participants in the divine nature.”

 

Do you sense a theme here yet?  Romans 8 and 12; 1 Cor 3; 2 Peter 1 and the beat goes on!  Across all of Scripture:

Our destiny is to become conformed to the Image of the Son of God, from glory to glory, in an Inner Transformation, so we actually come to PARTICIPATE (KOINONIA] in the Divine Nature!

Secondly, AS THAT IS HAPPENING, we are called into service as Ambassadors.

The dictionary defines “ambassador” this way:  “a diplomatic official of the highest rank, sent by one sovereign or state to another as its resident representative”.

Paul, the Apostle, in his second letter to the Corinthians, lets them (and us) know that this is now our calling and station. We are ambassadors of the KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, sent and stationed ON EARTH, to be the representation and extension of the KING and THE KINGDOM in this place!

 

 

He says it like this:

²⁰ So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. ²¹ For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Actually let’s back up a verse or two:

¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; ¹⁹ that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself,^[d] not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us…

 

Friends, this is the OUTWARD part of our destiny – the OUTWORKING of the INWARD IDENTITY that you have as a son or daughter of the KING, is that you are an AMBASSADOR for the KING and the KINGDOM.

What are your Ambassadorial Duties?  What do Ambassadors do?

An Ambassador is the highest ranking appointed representative of the President and the Nation, to a foreign nation or other entity, such as the UN.

The Ambassador represents the interests of the nation, negotiates with the power of the President and under His direction, confers with other diplomats on matters of state, coordinates activities of an EMBASSY – an outpost of our nation on the foreign soil to which the Ambassador has been appointed.

This is quite a job!

It’s YOUR JOB!

Paul says it this way:

“God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”

6 As we work together with him, we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain. ² For he says,

“At an acceptable time I have listened to you,
    and on a day of salvation I have helped you.”

See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation! 

 

The last piece of this Kingdom series I want to speak on is the URGENCY OF THE KINGDOM.

 

In the final verses of Revelation there is a line that I think bears repeating. John is quoting from Isaiah in fact:

¹⁶ “It is I, Jesus, who sent my angel to you [John] with this testimony [of Revelation] for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”

¹⁷ The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.”
And let everyone who hears say, “Come.”
And let everyone who is thirsty come.
Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.

 

Friends, our world is thirsty!  Very thirsty, and they do not know how to quench their thirst !! 

Would you consider giving them a cold bottle of water?

There is just nothing better !!

 

It is your profession of the King and your proclamation of His Kingdom, as an AMBASSADOR here on this planet, here in this country, here in this state, here in this city – in your neighborhood and in your own house.

 

This is the why and the where of our calling to GO and TELL !!

You are an AMBASSADOR, urging Reconciliation to the KING.

The class we are hosting on Wednesday evenings, our outreach to the neighborhood, our Treasure sale, the Community Thanksgiving service that is coming – all are part and parcel of this work.

The Kingdom of God is here now -  God’s power is available to us … We are in the seat of authority, representing the King and the Kingdom.  His Presence actually goes WITH US as we represent Him, as we make our appeal to those here on the earth around us: 

ARE YOU THIRSTY? 

BE RECONCILED TO GOD !!

 

LET’S PRAY:

 

Almighty God our Savior, you desire that none should perish, and you have taught us through your Son that there is great joy in heaven over every sinner who repents: Grant that our hearts may ache for a lost and broken world. May your Holy Spirit work through our words, deeds, and prayers, that the lost may be found and the dead made alive, and that all your redeemed may rejoice around your throne; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

 

Increase, O God, the spirit of neighborliness among us, that in peril we may uphold one another, in suffering tend to one another, and in homelessness, loneliness, or exile befriend one another. Grant us brave and enduring hearts that we may strengthen one another, until the disciplines and testing of these days are ended, and you again give peace in our time; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace: where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is error, truth; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. O divine Master, grant that I may seek not so much to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Marks of the Kingdom Series III - Possession and Position

 Signs of the Kingdom Series III

October 19, 2021

Fr. Phil Eberhart

 

 

“Possessing the Kingdom – Our Position in Christ”

 

 

This is our third in the Kingdom Series of sermons here at REZ.  First the Kingdom of God is POWER for our powerlessness.  Second the Kingdom of God is the PRESENCE of the King.  This week I want to talk about our POSSESSION of the Kingdom and our POSITION in Christ.  Next week I will be talking about our PROFESSION of the Kingdom, our PROCLAMATION of the KING!

 

Jesus said to his disciples, “Fear not little flock; It is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom!” Luke 12:32

 

Jesus told Nicodemus in his fear that God SO LOVED the world that HE GAVE…  He gave us His One and only SON!  Paul later asks the Romans, “How shall he not, with Him, give us all things?”

In fact, he goes on to tell us that there is nothing:

NO THING that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord!  Romans 8,  It’s worth reading!

 

We come to possession of the Kingdom because of our position IN CHRIST.  We are given the authority to become a child of God, because we have received the Son.  John tells us this in the very beginning of his gospel.

 

This is what Jesus was talking with Nicodemus about that night.  The one who comes in faith believing that Jesus is the Son, is born a new, over again, from above, by the Spirit of God.  If you want to inherit the Kingdom of the Father you must become a Son or Daughter of the Father.

 

And this is the GOOD NEWS -  the GREAT NEWS – the BEST NEWS EVER!!

 

God has made the way for this to happen, through Jesus’ life and death on the cross, and through our faith-filled acceptance of His sacrifice for us!  We accept and receive Jesus and His work of reconciliation and we are then received by Him, we are received INTO HIM in what I call the GREAT EXCHANGE!!

¹⁷ So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!

²¹ For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.   [2 Cor 5]

 

So when Jesus, on the Cross, said, “It is finished!” and the curtain was torn by God’s hands, from top to bottom, this is the work that was done.  We were afforded access to the Father, through the Son, IN HIM in fact. 

 

We are IN CHRIST now.  I want to commend this for your study!  It is the stuff of a thousand sermons – a lifetime of study, all by itself.  He is IN US and we are IN HIM.

 

Paul said it this way, “ I have been crucified with Christ; ²⁰ and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”  [Gal 2]

 

You see, He is in you and you are in Him!  The great exchange!  This is what we mean by our POSITION in Christ.

 

Have you flown in a commercial airliner?  Do you listen when the pilot comes on and says “This is flight 7777, to Chicago.”  If you want to go to Chicago, does it matter if you’re on a flight to Phoenix?  

Well, YES!  Destination matters!

So you pay attention to destination, right?  It’s printed on your ticket; its on the overhead sign at the gate; its announced by the pilot and the crew. Check, double check, triple check!

Do ETERNAL DESTINATIONS matter?

DUH…

YES! YES INDEED!  MOST OF ALL!

 

But this life IN CHRIST is not JUST about the eternal destination, but about our earthly destiny.

Listen again to the Great Exchange in 2 Cor 5:21

“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

 

BECOME … THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD!

 

In John 1, we are given AUTHORITY OR POWER to BECOME … Children of God.

 

Our earthly destiny is about our “becoming.”  The Kingdom is not just the Eternal Destination of the Plane called ‘IN CHRIST’ – The Kingdom is the daily being and doing of RIGHTEOUSNESS.  Matthew 6 tells of Jesus injunction at this point:

“Seek (strive) first for the Kingdom [of God] and HIS [it’s] RIGHTEOUSNESS …”

 

Paul had it right!  He said, “the life I live, here an now in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God.

 

Later, in his Roman letter, he chronicles this passage from death to life – the struggle of it and the triumph of it – through chapters six and seven till we come to Rom 8.

 

Triumphantly he emerges from this struggle declaring “there is no more guilty verdict!”  No more condemnation!  Why?

 

Because we have entered into CHRIST!  Because we have gotten on the right plane!  The plane whose destination, whose destiny, is the righteousness of God and the life of Heaven.

We are lifted out of the law of sin and death (gravity) because of a higher law, the law of the spirit of life IN CHRIST JESUS!

 

And the righteousness of God and the life of Heaven begin in the here and now!!   We are in possession of the Kingdom of God, because we are in position SEATED WITH CHRIST – IN HIM – ABOVE THE CLOUDS.

I was on the flight a few weeks ago back from Tulsa and it was one of those days where we were flying above the 40,000 ft puffy clouds off to our left.  I was IN HIM, SEATED IN HEAVENLY PLACES.

 

Did I do anything to be there?  Well, I received a ticket – in our case today, a ticket that is purchased for us!  You just need to receive it.  And show up and take your seat, IN CHRIST.  HE DOES THE REST.

 

Let’s pray…

[would you stand, and imagine Jesus sitting on this Altar as His throne … ]  Pray after me. Silently or aloud…

 

Lord, I come.  Just as I am. 

I receive all you did for me on the Cross.

I confess I can do nothing apart from You.

I come.   Just as I am.

To be seated with you, to be seated IN You.

I enter into YOU.  Make me new.

I come.   Just as I am.

But not to stay as I am.  To be changed.

Into Your image, from glory to glory.

I come now.  As You are, I am.   Amen.

Marks of the Kingdom Series II - PRESENCE

 

Sermon Series:  The Marks of the Kingdom
Part II:   PRESENCE

Sept 12, 2021
Fr. Phil Eberhart

Isa 50:4-9 

Ps 116:1-16

James 2:1-18 

Mark 9:14-29

 

This morning I want to talk about the second mark of the Kingdom of God:  The Presence of the King!

 

The question isn’t IS God with us?  That is a settled fact, hidden in His Son’s name, “You shall call His name, Emmanuel, God With Us.”  Jesus said over and over again that He was “sent” from the Father.  But He also commented to Thomas in the upper room after he put his hand in Jesus’ side – “SEE! Thomas!  You believed because you have seen!  Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet believe!”

 

So the question is how do we know The Presence of the King?

 

I’ve known people who had eyes that could see into the unseen realm, the realm of angels and demons – a gift of discernment or a “seer anointing”.  I just call it the “oooo-eeee-ooooo” factor.  But they are few and far between. They tend to be wounded by the churches they are in, floating from church to church sometimes or out of the church all together, so wounded that they just don’t open their eyes any more.

 

Pollster George Barna, a couple decades back, asked if people had ever had a discernable encounter with the “presence” of God – no definition of that experience.  Just however you would define it, have you had that experience in church, … in worship?  Only about 10% said that they had.

So how do the 90% of us sense, feel, intuit, or otherwise know that God is WITH US?  I describe myself as an Eastern Colorado Wind Meter:  A Post with a log chain bolted to the top.  You know the wind is blowing hard when it’s whipping the links off the log chain!

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And in our experience of life there is a lot of evidence blowing in the opposite direction:  Paul describes it in 2 Cor 4 – his own lived experience.  The verbs are striking:

“Afflicted ;  Perplexed ;  Persecuted ; Struck down;  Carrying about death;  Given over to death.”

Ever feel that way, and you say, “where are you Lord?”

Said it this week?

But Paul’s perspective was different somehow.  The Presence of God in him – THE TREASURE IN HIS JAR OF CLAY – taught him to see those things differently.  Listen again…

[2Co 4:7-10 ESV] 7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.

Paul begins the chapter with the words, “we do not lose heart” and he repeats it here later in v. 16:  “So we do not lose heart.  Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen, for the things that are seen are transient (or temporary), but the things that are unseen are eternal.”

 

Friends, how can God be with us, when we’re “under the circumstances?”

What are the evidences that God is with us?  That His Presence abides with us and is even IN US!

Well, #1 is that He SAID IT WOULD BE.  Over and over. Jn 14 & 15…

“I will NOT leave you as orphans,” Jesus said.  “I will come to you. … In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.”

And here is this Key to the Kingdom:

“Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.  And he who loves me, will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”

The disciples asked him the same question we are asking today!
“How is it that you will manifest yourself to us…?”

Jesus answered, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”

As they walked from the Upper Room over to the Garden of Gethsemane, they strolled through a vineyard.  Jesus used the opportunity to teach, once more:

“Abide in me, and I in you… I am the vine; you are the branches. … apart from me you can do nothing.”

So the #1 proof of the Presence of God, isn’t a feeling at all, it is The Word of His Promise!  HE SAID HE WOULD BE WITH US.  PERIOD.

 

But like Thomas, still we want to see!  Jesus turns our old saying on it’s head:  ‘Seeing is believing.’  Actually in the KINGDOM it’s ‘BELIEVING IS SEEING!’

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The 2^nd proof of the Presence of God is FRUIT IN OUR LIFE.
But fruit grows.  Have you ever seen a tree, grunting and groaning, trying to produce apples?  Ever walked into a wheat field and heard millions of little groans and whining as wheat tries to grow and bring the heads of wheat out?

NOPE.  They just grow.  They root themselves deeply in good soil and wait on the things that make for growth, sun and water.

Paul prayed something like that for you and me in his letter to the Ephesians, in chapter 3:

“… according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸ may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, ¹⁹ and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” 

Friends, this doesn’t happen by our trying harder!  Or wishing it so. It happens by our abiding and obeying.  That is why we are called Human BEINGS, not human DOINGS.  We turn it on its head every chance we get – we come to be known in our communities by what we do!

James tells us in our reading this morning that Faith without works is dead.  True that is, but works without faith?  Equally dead.  A bridge built to nowhere!  We end up nowhere, breathless!

The Kingdom is both Faith and Work.  Bound together as one.  Two sides of the same coin, tossed in the air or spinning on the table, where the two sides are almost indistinguishable from each other!  They cannot be separated.

The Fruit that Jesus talks of in John 15 is this combination of faith and work – of intention and outcome.

If you want to see the proof of the Presence of God, look at the Fruit of the Spirit in your own life!

 

LOVE, JOY, PEACE, PATIENCE, GOODNESS, FAITHFULNESS, GENTLENESS, SELF CONTROL.

Have you ever done a Word Study on those words?  Challenge for the week!!

Or the Character of Jesus called The Divine Nature in Peter’s 2^nd letter:

Add to Faith – Virtue

To Virtue – Knowledge

To Knowledge – Self Control;

To Self-Control – Steadfastness;

To Steadfastness – Godliness;

To Godliness – Brotherly Affection;

And to Brotherly Affection – God’s Unconditional LOVE.

There is a seven week sermon series!!!  Or seven months!!

I call it Peter’s Ladder of Character!  And here is the Promise:

“… if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

God’s Presence in our lives is not primarily a feeling that we get in worship, though that is nice when it happens.  Tears and goose bumps are more common for others and we need not judge one another for having them or NOT HAVING THEM!

The real proof of God’s life in our midst is the FRUIT of our lives, lived in rootedness in His Love, and in the outflow of that rootedness; in the FRUIT that we bear in His Kingdom, both the internal fruit of His character, empowered by His Spirit; and the external fruit of lives that are touched and changed in our world, in our families, in our workplaces, our neighborhoods, again empowered by His Spirit in us.

Then the world, even our enemies will say of us:  “I think these people have been with Jesus!”

May the KING of the KINGDOM be seen to be PRESENT in the Church and to the World, in our lives and through us, in every place we set our feet, to every person we meet, and in every circumstance that we find ourselves under!

Let us pray…

 

O God, because without you we are not able to please you, mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

 

O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry out in tranquility the plan of salvation; let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Marks of the Kingdom Series I - POWER

 Sermon, September 5, 2021

Fr. Phil Eberhart

15^th Sunday after Pentecost

 

 

Series:   The Marks of the Kingdom

Part 1:   POWER

 

 

I want to thank Jacob for that introduction!  We thought that it has been so long, maybe some might think I was a guest speaker!

 

It’s good to be back up front, and I’m sure you can tell me if its as good for you in a few minutes!

 

I’ve decided to usurp this spot here for the whole month of September!  Ethel that’s good news and bad news for you.  The good news is you don’t HAVE to preach next Sunday, the bad new is you don’t GET to preach next Sunday! 

 

It’s been so rare for me to speak 4 weeks in a row for the past decade that my mind is spinning about what to do or say.  But our readings this morning have given me a starting point for a series I’m going to call “The Marks of the Kingdom of God”.

 

Today is Part I – simply entitled POWER. So let’s begin.

 

Very often, in our Normal (American) Christian Life, as in life in general, we have a sense of powerlessness.

Whether it be from the swirling hurricanes, hail storms, news programs, political commentary or even our own health and life circumstances, I think that powerlessness is often a point of frustration and even anger in our lives.

 

Sometimes we’re mad at ourselves, sometimes at others, sometimes just circumstances and that leads us to God.  If we believe as most of us do that God is all love and all powerful … why?

 

The “why” question can lead us to some contemplation of our own complicitous thoughts, attitudes and behaviors, but often our circumstances are beyond the laying of blame.

 

Whose fault was it that I fell here on this stage more than a year ago?  God’s?  Mine?  The Robe’s !!  But God uses the things that happen to us, if we let Him, to help us gain in character, in patience, in love, in long-suffering, kindness, gentleness, so forth.

 

But in the midst of our malady, our plight, our power-less-ness, there is an in-breaking from time to time.

An ln-breaking of the Kingdom of God – a different kind of reality, that moves in a different direction than our circumstances.

 

We experience that in-breaking initially as HOPE or JOY.

It cuts through the weight of sadness or the frustration we are caught in;  it severs the cords of sadness that surround us – the Bible talks about PEACE that “passes our understanding!”

 

I’ve heard people who are struggling with health issues talk about that PEACE that they can’t explain – that sense that GOD’S GOT THIS. 

 

All of our readings this morning speak of this in-breaking!  Listen again to the phrases…

 

And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly

 

 

Ps 146: 7 Who does right to those who suffer wrong; * and who feeds the hungry. 8 The Lord sets prisoners free; * the Lord gives sight to the blind. 9 The Lord helps those who have fallen; * the Lord loves the righteous. 10 The Lord cares for the strangers in the land; he defends the fatherless and widow; * but the way of the ungodly he makes crooked.

 

²⁷ Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

 

⁵ Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
    and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
⁶ then the lame shall leap like a deer,
    and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.
For waters shall break forth in the wilderness,
    and streams in the desert;
⁷ the burning sand shall become a pool,
    and the thirsty ground springs of water;

 

Over and over and over, and not just in these passages, but throughout the testimonies of God about His Kingdom and His plan of salvation, these SIGNS are present.

 

Jesus pointed to them when asked by the disciples of his doubtful cousin, John the Baptizer, about his ministry:  “Are you the One or should we look for another?” 

“Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news brought to them.”

 

He almost repeats what I call His “job description” from Isaiah 61 and Luke 4:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
    because he has anointed me
        to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
    and recovery of sight to the blind,
        to let the oppressed go free”

 

This morning I want you to hear that The Kingdom of God is coming – it’s breaking in with POWER. 

 

It’s breaking into our lives at the point of our need – whether you need GOOD NEWS or RELEASE or RECOVERY OF SIGHT or FREEDOM FROM OPPRESSION.

These can all be both physical and spiritual realities in our lives and in the lives of those around us.

 

I was struck over and over as I read these verses at the ACTION OF GOD… and the IMMEDIACY of His answers, both in and through us.

 

I wonder what could happen if wherever we went, we asked the simple question:

 

Is there anything I can pray for you about?

 

What might happen? 

 

We’ve talked over and over and over for a decade about willingness and availability and obedience.  Here it is.

 

The inbreaking of the KINGDOM OF GOD is NOW!  It is available TO US…  and to others THROUGH US.

 

It’s a breakthrough of POWER into a powerless world.

 

It doesn’t matter what our own circumstances are – you can ask that question to someone setting you up for chemo!  To your surgeon for hip surgery!  To the PA you see, or the nurse you meet along the way. 

 

God wants to break into our own lives as we live them, but more than that He wants to Break Out from our lives, into the world and the lives we intersect with

day by day.

 

There is a prayer in Acts that I want to pray with and over you this morning:

 

The church prayed this prayer in the face of persecution in Acts 4 but I want to pray that boldness in the face of the sense of powerlessness in our own lives and in our culture.

 

Stand up if you want to get an anointing this morning of the Power of God to be His Witnesses, with Peace, with Hope, with Love, with Healing…

 

Let’s pray:  If you would, open your hands and hearts to God:

 

Lord, open our eyes to the circumstances around us, and open our lips granting to your servants to speak your word with all boldness,  while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”  Shake this place and fill us with the Holy Spirit that we may speak the word of God with boldness.

 

Now lift one hand up to God…

 

Place your other hand on your heart and repeat after me…

 

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…  (repeat)
    because he has anointed me …
        to bring good news to the poor…
He has sent me …

to proclaim release to the captives…
    and recovery of sight to the blind…
        to let the oppressed go free…

 

 

Now Lord, I receive your anointing…

And commit my way to you…
Send me as you were sent …

To seek and to save …

That which is lost.

 

In the Name of Jesus the Messiah…

the Prince of Peace…

 

Amen and Amen.