Forgotten God - Power Up

We've all felt it — the moments in life where we're running on empty. The marriage that's struggling. The parenting season that has you wondering if you're doing it right. The temptation you keep losing to. The hurt you just can't shake.

What if Jesus already gave you exactly what you need to face all of it?

This week, we're diving into one of the most overlooked gifts in the Christian life: the power of the Holy Spirit. Like a power-up in your favorite video game — the super mushroom that helps you grow, the shield that protects you, the fire flower that burns up what's trying to destroy you — the Holy Spirit is God's provision for every challenge we face.

We'll walk through the story of Pentecost in Acts 2, discover how God's promise in Ezekiel 36 points to something He always planned to give us, and learn why Acts 1:8 changes everything about how we live, love, and serve.

The power isn't just for miracles. It's for your marriage. Your kids. Your career. The person who hurt you. The bitterness you're carrying. The fear that has you stuck.

God put His Spirit in you so you don't have to do this life alone — and this episode is a reminder not to forget the greatest source of power you have.

Ready to power up? Let's go.

Visit us at Generations Cowboy Church for more info about our church or find ways you can support what God is doing at GCC!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:26

If you want to flip or turn in scripture, I'm going to get to Acts chapter one in just a moment. We're going to bounce around to just about three or four different scriptures today. We're in this series called Forgotten God that we're talking about the Holy Spirit and taking a look at what the scripture has to say about the Holy Spirit. And we're talking today about this thing called power-ups. Now, for those of you that are old enough, some of you might remember playing video games. And in those video games, you would get a power-up, right? So let's just do a test here as we go. I got a few pictures of some of the power-ups for those of you that are old or young enough. Let's see how many of these you guys remember. Can you throw that first one up there for me? Oh. Yeah, Super Mario Brothers, right? Like those of us that are old enough. I remember I was probably like six years old when we got a Nintendo. I remember playing Mario Brothers forever, right? And that little mushroom powered you up, right? You grew from the little guy to the big guy. Like it was this mushroom that would help you grow. If you also played, then maybe you saw this one as well. The Fireflower, right? Like, like you didn't just grow, but now you could throw some flaming fire at somebody if you wanted to. And so we had a few of those. Maybe if you didn't play Nintendo, if you played the Sega, you might also see this one. Sonic the Hedgehog. A few of you like Mario, I get it. Like I was a Mario guy, but there was this shield, this power-up that would protect you as you were going along. Or the very last one for those of you that like to play Mario Kart. Any Mario Kart fans in here? Like we have to be careful in our house because games get competitive real fast. And we may have broke a steering wheel or two with a remote because somebody lost and they got a little mad. Anyone else? Anybody ever have a rage quit where you just hit that power button before it's over? Because there's no way I'm going to give you the victory of that win. Yeah, y'all are laughing because you're just like me. I remember those days, but that star power-up gave you the ability to be invincible for a little while. Like we get this idea of power-ups in the games that we play. And what if I told you that there's actually this thing that God has given to us called His Spirit that is a power-up for us to navigate anything we face in this life? Like to me, this is the beauty of the Holy Spirit. And why I know some people want to forget about him because some things that have happened, maybe that we make him weird. But again, I said last week, he is not weird. We make him weird. And I think one of the reasons honestly we're uncomfortable with the Holy Spirit is because he leads us to truth. And we live in a culture that is not comfortable with truth. And so I just love the Holy Spirit. I love the work that he does. But more importantly, I love how Jesus points him back to us because he is the power-up for our life to be able to live for him. That in this moment we face different things, different moments, that maybe in our marriage, he would actually be the power-up to help us have a better marriage. If you want to learn to love your spouse and care for your spouse and serve them the way Christ has called us to do, let me give you a real quick clue. The Holy Spirit's here to give you the power to do that. Like that's the beauty of it. Like maybe he's the power-up mushroom because some of you need to grow up in marriage. Yeah, nobody has to say amen to that. It's okay. Like I would be quiet too right now. Like maybe the reality is the power-up for some of you is parenting, and I'm trying to raise kids in today's world, and it's a struggle to figure out how to raise kids and help them actually follow Jesus because it seems like everything else out there is trying to take my kids in the opposite direction. There's a power-up for you, it's called the Holy Spirit. Like we don't have to go through this life without this. It's just we choose to often forget or ignore the very one who promised us to give us the power to navigate this life for Jesus. And so we have these moments, maybe for students, you're in a world at school, whether you're in middle school or high school or heading off to college, and we face all these different temptations that the world would throw at us, and Jesus is trying to help protect you and create a shield around you, like Sonic had is a shield to protect you that no matter what the world would throw at you, there was a way to find the power to navigate through anything the enemy would throw your way. I'm going to maybe present the Holy Spirit in a different picture or altogether in a brand new way for some of us. But maybe the reality is you can't beat the temptation or the sin you're struggling with because you haven't invited the power of the Holy Spirit in your life to help you. You're trying to do it on your own when Jesus said, Hey, I got a power-up for you if you want it. There's a reality here that Jesus offers us something. You want to learn how to forgive somebody the way Jesus did? There's a power-up for you. It's called the Holy Spirit. Acts 1.8, Jesus, red letter words. If you're reading in your Bible with me, it says this, but you will receive, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses. Uh, telling people about me everywhere in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. There is this moment in Acts 1.8 where Jesus promises us power. Why? Because the Holy Spirit is our power up to live for Him. We've made it way more complicated. Let's just simplify it down a little bit. Some of us are scared because we've seen or heard weird things. Okay, cool. Then let's just simplify it down for a little bit. Trust me, hear me out. Jesus told his disciples that you will receive power. And you know why they're here praying. And we're gonna read it in just a moment, is because Jesus told them to go and wait. Go and wait and pray and just seek what it is I'm trying to do for you in this moment. Why? Because he's trying to give us power to live for him. The same Savior who loved you so much to die on a cross and sacrifice his life for you loves you so much that he didn't just leave you to figure out how to navigate this life in your own power. He said, I will die for you, and then I will fill you with the power of my spirit so that you can have the ability to live for me no matter what you face in this life. And I think so many times as Christians, we forfeit the greatest resource we have, known as the Holy Spirit, to help us navigate through this life because somebody has told us some crazy things, or maybe we've decided we don't like what Scripture says about the Holy Spirit. And so, how about we just navigate Scripture and I'm just gonna trust Him to do what He does? Can we can we do that today together? And so I'm gonna take a little bit of a history lesson, is what we're gonna do. We're gonna go to Acts two, and then we're gonna bounce around to the Old Testament. Acts two, starting in verse one, on the day of Pentecost, all the believers were meeting together. After Jesus told them, You will receive power when the Spirit comes on you, all of the believers were meeting together in one place. Suddenly there was a sound from heaven like a roaring of mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting, and then what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them, and everybody present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages as the Holy Spirit gave them ability. I want us to stop because we missed this detail. If you don't know where we're at historically, today is actually the Pentecost Sunday. Maybe some of you didn't know that. It's cool. When does it happen? It's almost it's always 50 days after Easter, after the resurrection. And and sometimes Pentecost Sunday for some of us, we've tied to this story about Jesus promising the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. But I think we miss the bigger story, and that's that this thing has been set up from the Old Testament until now. There's actually a lot of history that we skip over to try to make this moment something. And if we skip the history, we miss the story of what Jesus was trying to do. That Pentecost Sunday was more than just a moment where the Holy Spirit would come. Pentecost Sunday originally was a Jewish custom. It was known as the festival of weeks or the festival of harvest, that it was part of the story that God was building all the way back in the Old Testament so that when this moment of Pentecost happened, it's still part of the same story. God didn't start writing a new story. Hear me out. The same God in the Old Testament is the same God in the New Testament. Just because we call it New Testament does not mean it's a new story about a different God. And he's continuing a story that he started all the way back in the Old Testament. So if you don't want anything to do with the Holy Spirit, cool, that's your choice. But just know you're ignoring almost all of Scripture in the process of choosing to ignore the Holy Spirit and what he wants for your life. And so we have to acknowledge this. And we're going to go all the way back to Deuteronomy 16. If you're taking notes, jot this down. You can go home and read these things too. But it says this count off seven weeks from when you first begin to cut the grain at the time of harvest. And when, then celebrate the festival of harvest, also known as Pentecost later on, to honor the Lord your God. Bring him a voluntary offering in proportion to the blessings that you have received from him. And this is a time to celebrate before the Lord your God at the designated place of worship. He will choose for his name to be honored. Notice they're coming together in a designated place to worship him. Sound like something that we still do today, right? God is not up to something new. He's building on the same story in different ways. All right. Just keep following with me. It's cool. This is a time to celebrate with your sons and daughters, male and female servants, the Levites from your towns, the foreigners, the orphans, and the widows who live among you. Remember that you were once slaves in Egypt. So be careful to obey all these decrees. So what's happening in this moment at Pentecost? God is essentially saying, He's reminding them of the covenant that he made with them. If you remember the Old Testament, the stories we're reading, Israel was slaves in Egypt. God came in a mighty way. Pharaoh let my people go, right? All those miraculous things. He set God's people free. And then as they were out in the desert, one of the things he did is he made a covenant with them. And in that covenant, he gave them all the rules, all the laws that we read today and we know of. But that word covenant is the same word like we use in marriage today, that it is a union between two people for life. And so much of a union for God that it didn't even matter what Israel did because they wouldn't get it right. God still stayed committed to them, even though they weren't holding up their end of the deal. And so part of Pentecost was a moment to celebrate God as the one who has made a way for us. Remember that you were slaves. As you get to harvest and all of the things you have, what would that look like today? As you get checks in your bank account and you see the ability you have, just remember that you didn't do that on your own, that God gave you the ability to make that kind of income. He gave you the strength, he gave you the wisdom, and he provided the opportunities so that he could bless you. And so in these moments, remember as we come together in this designated place to worship him and remember the covenant that he made with us. This is an old testament thing that shows back up in the New Testament. That there's part of what God is working out here in this moment, that God moved on their behalf as they were committed in a space to worship him and celebrate the relationship that they shared with him. Does that sound like what we do every Sunday? Let me tell you why Sundays are so important. Not so that you can get to heaven. Sundays are so important because I don't know about you. I need moments that refocus me back on Jesus and remind me that I was once lost, but because of him I'm saved. And I need this sacred space that speaks life and breathes life into me because the world is trying to take me in an opposite direction. And I need this community, I need this weekly gathering to help me stay focused and be the person that God created me to be. And so that's why He creates these moments. That's why something like Pentecost exists, because we need these reminders. I don't know about you, but have you ever found this cool function on your phone called the reminder? Anybody ever do that? Like I have to set timers and dates so that it pops up and reminds me of something that I'm supposed to do. I have calendar invites that I have to put on my calendar with a reminder so that I don't forget something's coming up that I need to prepare for. And my phone notifies me. I have reminders throughout my day that pop up on my phone. One of the reminders, I'm gonna be quite honest with you, pops up on my phone about every three or four hours and it just says pray. I mean, you're a pastor. You mean you gotta set a reminder to remember to pray? I'm a human, yes. And sometimes it's kind of nice when this pops up and just reminds me, like, oh, I could pray about this instead of worry about it right now. I could pray about this and trust God instead of freak out in this moment. I have reminders that pop up on my phone. That if one of those reminders pops up at 8 a.m. as I start every day, it says, God is bigger than this moment. Why would you do that? I need that reminder. Because if I'm not careful, there are moments that I let lie to me and trick me into thinking are bigger than the God I serve. And so why would I stick a reminder on my phone? Because I need this holy moment to recenter my life back on Jesus and not the stuff that this world throws at me. That's what Pentecost was: a moment to come together with God's people and be reminded of the covenant that God made with his people and that his people made with him so that we could learn to follow him and live for him in the world we live in. Church is just the same old thing in a new way that God has still been working out over the course of time and history. It's so important. And in this moment for us, when we get this reminder that God is trying to point us to, for some of us, we freak out if we can just be honest. Because I read something about where they speak in tongues and I've heard some weird things about that. And so, like, I'm just I would rather not have a conversation about that because I'm not comfortable with it. Cool. Then let's just talk about the power of God that He promised to give you. Can we just stick there? Because here's what I know how God does something doesn't bother me as much when I know why. Let me ask you this way: if you were here and five years ago you suddenly became blind, couldn't see a thing, couldn't see your spouse anymore, couldn't see your kids anymore, couldn't see a sunrise or a sunset. And Jesus showed up and said, Hey, I tell you what, I'm gonna heal you, but I'm gonna scoop up some of this dirt, I'm gonna spit in it and make a little bit of mud, I'm gonna put it on your eyes and then go wash it off and you'll be healed. I don't know about you. Spit away, Jesus man. Let me help you. Let's go. I want to see again, right? I don't care how you do it. If the goal is, I understand why you're doing it, because you're gonna heal me. So, okay, I might not be comfortable with how Jesus talks about the Holy Spirit because his tongue's thing is weird to me. Cool, fine. Then let's focus on why he did it because he promised to give us power. Can we do that? I'm not gonna throw away the power of God because I'm not comfortable with how God did things. Because I don't know about you, but man, most of the miracles that we read that Jesus did, they were mostly uncomfortable moments for people. Somebody ripped a ceiling open and lowered a guy who couldn't walk down in front of Jesus so they could heal him. That was a weird and awkward and uncomfortable moment if you're sitting in the crowd. I can promise you. Imagine being a guy lowered down in front of everybody as this is happening. A woman who needed healed crawled through a crowd on her hands and knees, no telling what was on the ground. It was a weird and uncomfortable moment, but she didn't care because she was desperate enough because she needed what Jesus had, that she didn't care how, because she knew the why. If I could get to him, then he could do something. Somewhere, we're just not desperate enough for the power of God. And so we're not willing enough to do some uncomfortable things. Because to be honest, I got this. Anybody ever say that? And and I here's my prayer for you today. I pray you keep trying to get this until you can't get it anymore and you finally need some help from Jesus. I pray you hit the bottom of I got this so hard that you become desperate enough to lean into Jesus and what he wants for you. That's my prayer for you. That doesn't sound very loving. It's actually the most graceful and loving thing that anybody could ever pray for you. Because until you reach the end of yourself and realize Jesus is all I got and all I need, then you're gonna stay stuck anyway. So the faster I can help you hit the bottom and realize that he's all I need is the gift to you and to me in this moment. Jesus did not die to give you confidence in yourself. News flash from today's world. I know. He died to give you confidence in him. And if I would learn to obey him and follow him and trust the power that he's given us, then I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. That means more than throw a touchdown pass in a football game. Amen. Okay, let's keep going. I promise. Here we go. Ezekiel, we're gonna bounce along here. Old Testament still, he's doing something here, all right. Ezekiel 36, 26 and 27 says this. And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you, and I will take out your stony, stubborn heart. Anybody have a stony, stubborn heart? You don't have to raise your hand, it's okay. I do. And give you a tender, responsive heart, and I will put my spirit in you. Nothing new, something old that God's been doing this whole time. Didn't say I would put my spirit on you, he said I would put my spirit in you. So that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations. I'm not gonna read it, but if you want one more reference to look at, you can jump over to Jeremiah 31 sometime and read Jeremiah 31 through 34, because Jeremiah reinforces this same idea of God taking our old stony heart out and putting a new soft heart in and putting his spirit in us. And Jeremiah calls it the new covenant that God was going to give us. That God, you want to know how to live for him? Let his spirit come into your life and give you the power to change your stony, stubborn heart, which we've all got, whether we want to admit it or not, and give you a soft heart that he can work with. And then he notice what he said. He said, Once I put my spirit in you, I would give you the ability to follow my decrees. You want to know how to follow Jesus better? Lean into the one thing he said he would give you, the power of his Holy Spirit, to change your heart to help you live for him. Yeah, but I just keep trying and I can't do it. It's because you keep trying in your power. That's why I said the most gracious thing you can do is reach the end of your power as fast as you can. So you will quit saying, I keep trying, and I'm trusting the Holy Spirit to give me the power to do what I can't do on my own. And the sooner we get there, the sooner we tap into the greatest source of power that Jesus promised us in John, like we read John 14 and 15, that he came at the beginning of Acts and gave to his people. He didn't give us the power so that we could have these moments of these other gifts. He gave us the power so he could empower us to live for him and be his witness in the world we live in. And he wants it so much for you and I that he knows you and I have no ability to follow his rules without his power changing our heart. If we could follow the rules and get it right, Jesus didn't die on the cross, didn't need to die on the cross, and he didn't have to send the power of his Holy Spirit. But the fact that most of us know no matter how hard we try, eventually we're going to fail is all the proof that we need that I can't do it. He can. And when I trust his Holy Spirit, he can empower me to do something I can't do. Why? Because he's made a new covenant with you and I. And that wasn't just to save you, but it was to put his spirit in you to empower you and I in such a way that we could live for him in this life until one day we stand with him forever face to face on the other side of eternity. That he's not just waiting for us to get home, he's giving us everything we need in this life to make it through this life until the day we cross that threshold and we stand face to face with him. That you don't have to live this life defeated. You don't have to live this life always losing the battle. That if we would allow his power into our life, we would find he actually gives us the ability to do the thing we can't do on our own. Why? Because he transforms our heart, he transforms our mind, our lives, the way we think, the way we do things. In this moment, when we follow Jesus, here's here's what most people tell me like, can you just tell me? Me, what God says about this, so I can know how to follow his rules. Anybody else ever do that? Like, just what does the Bible say about this so I can know what I'm supposed to do or what I'm not supposed to do? Right? Like, that's what we want. Just give me the list of rules to follow, and I'll be good. And Jesus said, I tell you what, I'll boil my list down to two things, and then we still ask the same question. Love God, love people. And then we still got, yeah, but what about this scenario? Love God, love people, man. And then we still realize we can't measure up, and those are the moments we say, Great, I can't give you enough rules to follow that will change your heart if we haven't figured this out by now. You can't come up with enough rules in your life to change the things that you do. Let that sink in one more time. You can't come up with a long enough list of rules to follow where you'll ever get it right, and it will change your heart. Jesus knew that. That's why he went to the cross and he died, and he rose again, and then he didn't just stop there. I think so many of us we think that's where the story stopped. Jesus said, No, I'm gonna rise again, and then I'm gonna put my spirit inside of you to start a new covenant and change your heart because you can't follow all the rules. That's why I had to do this, and you won't get it all right. So I'm gonna put my spirit in you to help you do what you can't do, and that's live for me. Rules will not change you. His spirit will transform you. That's what I've learned. I'm just telling you, anything you see in Jason that you're like, man, I want to be like that, that's the Holy Spirit working in Jason's life. And any moment that I offend you or hurt your feelings, that's Jason at work in Jason's life. And I've just learned to trust him, to change me, to lean into him rather than to lean into myself. We all need a heart transplant. We need a new heart. That if sin is your struggle, if running the opposite direction of Jesus is your struggle, then we need a heart transplant. And Jesus gave us that through the power of his Holy Spirit. And Pentecost was not a one-time event sealed in history. So many people say that. Pentecost was not a one-time moment sealed in history because it's history in the Old Testament and it's still history in the New Testament to be experienced today. There's nothing in Scripture that locks Pentecost back to the early church. And people will bring a scripture or two to me. I promise, if you're thinking it now, you can bring it to me. And I'll just tell you right now, it's out of context. Because Pentecost was never meant to be a one-time moment in history. It was meant to be something we experience forever until the day we stand with Jesus because he empowered us with his spirit to live for him. That's the invitation. We need him. Acts 1.8, one more time. The amplified version says this. But you will receive power. What does that power mean? You will receive the ability or the efficiency or the might. Anyone need to receive the ability to follow Jesus better? Okay, a few of you. Thank you. I'm not the only one here, right? Anyone need to be more efficient and effective in this life and what it means to follow Jesus? Yeah. Then Jesus has said, I've got you because you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth, the very bounds of the earth. Hear me out. Jesus didn't send the Holy Spirit so we could speak in tongues. I know. Some of you are like, man, you're AG enough. Like, I didn't know y'all could say that. Like you were gonna get in trouble for stuff like that. It's okay. He sent the Holy Spirit so we could be a witness for him. Now I think what we need to do is redefine what it means to be a witness for Jesus. Because I think we misuse this term all the time. And we think that to be a witness for Jesus means I've got to figure out the ABC plan of how to share my faith with somebody. That's one way to be a witness for Jesus. Yes. It is not the only way. You want to know another way you can be a witness for Jesus? Be nice to that waitress today at lunch and don't be a jerk. I'm just saying. We well, I mean, come on. Like, like I'm paying for a service and they're not giving it to me. Cool. Maybe they're having a bad day. Maybe somebody they love is in the hospital, sick or dying, and you just need to show them a little love and grace and be a witness for Jesus. So if you're gonna be a church a jerk today at lunch and you're wearing any of our apparel, please take it off before you go to lunch. I'll give you somebody else's. No, I'm just kidding. Just kidding. I used to joke around when I go to my daughter's basketball game. I wear some of my other churches' stuff when I would go to my daughter's basketball game. If I yelled at the refs, they weren't mad at my church about it, they were mad at another church about it. Just kidding. He gave us his power to be his witness. And that witness, man, that changes everything. He didn't give us the power so that miraculous things could happen. The only point that Jesus ever used anything miraculous, he didn't heal anybody for the sake of a miracle. Just so we're clear, he healed people so that he could be a witness of who God was to a world that desperately needed to see him. And everything Jesus ever did, if you follow through all the gospels, was proving to people over and over again why he's God. And as he would heal the sick, he proved to the world that I could do something that no doctor can do. And as he walked on water, he proved that he was a God that even exceeded the laws of nature. When he looked at a storm and said, Peace be still, and it just went calm. Jesus didn't do that miracle so people would say, Wow, look at me. Jesus did that miracle so people would see Jesus at work and realize who he said he's. And the day he rose up out of that grave, he didn't do it to just make a point to Roman history. He did it to prove I've got the power over everything, including death. He did it all to be a witness to who God said he was going to be from Genesis all the way up until that point. And he pours his spirit out on us still today because he's trying to empower us to be his witness in the world we live in. And if you don't need that power, if you don't want that power, cool. That's between you and God. I'm not here to force anything on you. But if you're ever gonna figure out how to live for Jesus and follow him, you better figure out how to tap into that power because you ain't strong enough and you ain't good enough. Nobody, including me. I ain't that good. On my best day, I'm not, and on my worst day, I'm for dang sure not. But he is. So we have this moment where we come together. We have this moment where you want to know how to be a witness for him? It's not just sharing your faith with somebody. Let me tell you, one of the greatest witnesses that you can have in this world have a marriage that's centered around Jesus and thriving. Like I in fact, D.L. Moody once said this, and I felt so convicted by it. He said, if a man doesn't treat his wife right, I don't want to hear him talk about Christianity. You want you want to have a witness that draws people to Jesus? Have a marriage that's centered around and built around Christ and is thriving and growing and healthy. And I promise you, you will be a witness in this world like nobody's business. You want to know why? Because staying married to somebody for any extent of time in today's world is almost non-existent. My wife and I go on 27 years this December. My prayer is that in 23 more years, when I am 69, if the Lord tarries and gives me that moment that we can celebrate 50 years together, loving each other, being faithful to each other. But I know that it will only happen if I trust the power of his spirit. But if I do, what a witness and testimony to people of what God can do in today's world. But if you're like, man, well, I already messed that up, cool. Start right now where you're at. You want to know how to have a witness in today's world? Parents, raise your kids and teach them to follow Jesus. That's one of the best witnesses you can do in today's world. Yeah, my kids don't want to go to church. Cool, they're coming anyway. Yeah, but they won't get anything. I promise you, something's gonna sink in. I went to church a lot of time growing up when I did not want to be there. And yet, over time, God continued to work inside of me. And so if you want to be a witness for Jesus parents, raise your kids to follow Jesus. Do everything you can to put all the wood around that fire you can to help your kids fall in love and follow him. That'll be a witness in today's world because there's a whole nother group of people that are leading their kids to do so many other things. You want to be a witness in today's world? Man, maybe you're hurting. Maybe life has thrown you some things that you're just hurt and broken inside. Let Jesus come in and heal those things that's broken inside of you and be a witness to him. I can tell you I've talked to some of you that have stories of broken pasts and addictions. That Jesus has come in and healed and restored and changed, and what a testimony, what a witness we have of people in this room that are here today worshiping Jesus. Why? Because he changed their hearts and transformed their lives and their situations, and he's using them to reach more people for him. And I need his power and his spirit to do this. You want to figure out how to forgive the way Jesus forgives? You want to figure out how to life that's unoffendable? You need the power of the Holy Spirit because everything in this world would teach you a reason to find something to be offended with. Walking around with church hurt and being bitter or hurt because of what somebody has done to you years ago in your life and never healing is hurting your witness, not helping your witness. Let the power of his spirit come in and heal you and set you free. You got a sin or an addiction that you're struggling with that you can't seem to be, great. The sooner you realize you can't and you need his spirit at work in your life, the sooner he'll set you free. But the same thing that he said in Acts is the same thing that applies today. He'll pour his spirit out on those who are seeking and asking for it. He won't pour it out on those who don't want it. He pours it out on those who are looking for it. Here's my challenge to you that I want to give to you in this moment. You need the power of the Holy Spirit to work in your life. I do too. I am not good enough on my own. To be the husband that I need to be, I need his spirit at work in my life. To be the pastor that God has called me to be, I need his spirit at work in my life. One of the things that scares me the most as a pastor leading a church is that I don't ever want to become one of those stories that we hear about in the news. You know how we keep that from happening? I trust the power of the Holy Spirit to transform my heart and mind and keep me following Jesus. And so as we sing this song, nothing else, and there's nothing else in the world besides Jesus and the power of his spirit in your life that's going to help you overcome what you're facing today. To help you find victory from whatever you're looking for, victory from, to heal your marriage, to heal your life, to help you be the parent he's created you to be. Jesus didn't just die to save you, he died to partner you and partner with you and fill you and me with the power of his spirit so we could be his witness in every area of our life. So if you're here today and you want somebody to pray with you, and you're just willing to say, hey man, I need his power in my life. I got a space or place I'm struggling in, you don't even have to tell somebody. You can just say, Man, would you come down and pray for me? I got a spot. I'm struggling, and I need his power in my life. As they sing that song, if you need prayer in any way, my invitation to you today would be to come down front and let somebody pray with you. If you need power for whatever you're facing in life, you can walk right out these doors the way you came in. Or you can surrender to Jesus and say, I need your power of your spirit to help me do what I can't do on my own. That's my prayer. That's my hope for you. Is they sing if that's you and you need prayer, come down front. Let somebody pray with you. Find a spot at the stairs. Just make a moment between you and God if you need to, but take a moment to seek Him and invite that power into your life.