Spiritual Power | Mark 1

[music] Tonight we're going to be in the book of Mark in Mark chapter 1. If you want to turn in your Bibles to Mark chapter 1. And by way of introduction, you know, when we read Mark chapter 1, immediately we encounter spiritual power. People are being saved. They're being healed. Uh demons are being cast out, lives are being changed. Mark reports that Jesus teaches as one with authority. His popularity and his reputation are rapidly growing. And on the surface, it's easy to rate spiritual power based on what we see. We can look at all of the things that are taking place. Oh, look at all the spiritual power that's here. But Mark takes us behind the scenes and he shows us the source and the flow of spiritual power. The source and the flow of spiritual power. Before the miracles, there was an assignment. Before the ministry, there was an anointing. Behind the public power, there was private communion. And behind his ministry to hurting people, there was compassion. And the result of all of this is a life filled with good works or like I used to like to say, God works. A life filled with God works. And Mark chapter 1 shows us how spiritual power flows through a life that is surrendered to God. And there are five keys to understanding how spiritual power flows. Five words that kind of describe it if you want to write them down. Spiritual power flows through assignment, through assignment, through anointing, anointing, through communion, through communion, through compassion, through compassion. and it results in the goodness of God being released. So, first let's look at how spiritual power flows through our God-given assignment. In verse 38, we read this of chapter 1. But he said to them, "Let us go into the next towns that I may preach there also, because for this purpose I have come forth." and he was preaching in their synagogues throughout all Galilee and casting out demons. Notice what it says here. It says that Jesus says, "For this purpose, I have come forth for this purpose." Jesus was clear on his purpose. He knew what his assignment was and his assignment determined where he invested his time and what he refused to be distracted from. Jesus said, "I have come to preach." That was his assignment. I have come to preach. The crowds wanted Jesus to stay everywhere he went. Don't go. But his mission required him to keep moving. He wasn't distracted by the crowds. He wasn't distracted by the popularity. He stayed on his assignment which was to preach. You know, it's so important to know what God has assigned you to do and to not allow success or popularity or pressure or people's expectations to move you away from the assignment that God has placed you on. Not every opportunity is your assignment. It's one of the things that I've discovered in following the Lord is that the minute God begins to uh to clarify what he has assigned me to do, all of a sudden a bunch of opportunities will come up. And it's usually all the kinds of things that I wanted to do. But it doesn't change the assignment that God has. Not every assignment or not every opportunity is your assignment. You have to say no to an opportunity many times to say yes to your assignment. And this is exemplified in the life of Jesus. In verse 21 of Mark chapter 1, it says, "They went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught, and they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes." Now there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, saying, "Let us alone. What have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Did you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. But Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be quiet and come out of him." And when the unclean spirit had convulsed him and cried out with a loud voice, he came out of him. And then they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, "What is this? What new doctrine is this? For with authority he commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him. Notice here the connection between the release of spiritual power and the assignment. Jesus is teaching. That's his assignment. That's what he said. I've come to preach, right? I've come to teach. He's doing what he's assigned to do. He's in the synagogue and he's teaching with authority. And a man with an unclean spirit cries out, "Leave us alone." That happened to me one time at church as I was preaching. All of a sudden, this person stood up and started screaming at me, "Leave me alone." I said, "Roxy, you got to sit down and cut this out." Jesus rebukes the demon. He commands the demon to leave. That's power. power is released. And here's the principle. Spiritual power was released as Jesus was doing what he was assigned to do. How does that apply to us? Well, in in Ephesians chapter 2:10, Paul writes this. We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Every single one of us has an assignment. Every single one of us has a job to do. The word that's used here for works is aragon. It refers to doing a job or going to work. It's not talking about good works like walking, you know, your neighbor's dog or taking care of their kids or something like that. It's talking about an actual job, an actual occupation, something that you actually do. Every single one of us has a job to do. And your assignment isn't limited to what happens inside a church. God uniquely places you where he wants you to represent Jesus. God uniquely places you where he wants you to repres represent Jesus. And that's why I've always believed that ministry doesn't begin when someone gives you a paycheck and pays you to do ministry. Ministry always begins with the assignment, what God assigns you to do. And that assignment can lead to someone financially supporting you so that you're free to spend more time on that assignment. You're free to do more ministry. That's how we do things in our church. We recognize what God is doing in the lives of people and we come alongside of them and we bless that what God is doing. But it's true in the business world too. God may have placed you in business. Maybe he placed you in education. Maybe he placed you in government or in construction or in medicine. Or maybe God has placed you at home raising kids. How many of you know that? That is a big job right there. Wherever God has placed you, that becomes the place where you are to represent Jesus. Wherever it is, you're to represent Jesus. The same Holy Spirit that is working right now in this room is the same Holy Spirit that's working with you everywhere that you go. the same Holy Spirit. I think of Joseph who was second in command in Egypt. Joseph was a spiritually empowered administrator. And God used Joseph to save not only Israel but to save the entire nation of Egypt. And there's evidence within the scriptures to indicate that God probably used Joseph to save the known world at that time because of all the nations that came to Egypt for food during a time of great famine. All of this was done through supernaturally, spiritually empowered wisdom that was given by God. How many CEOs wish they had a Joseph working for them? someone that was hearing from God. But knowing your assignment isn't enough. God's assignment requires God's empowerment. God's assignment requires God's empowerment. Assignment tells me what God wants me to do, but anointing gives me the supernatural power to do it. And so, we're going to talk look at that. Spiritual power is released by anointing. In verse 9 of chapter 1 here, it says, "It came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And immediately coming up from the water, he saw the heavens parting and the spirit descending upon him like a dove. And then a voice came from heaven. You are my beloved son in whom I have well pleased. So before Jesus begins his public ministry, the Holy Spirit empowers him. The Holy Spirit descends upon him. Notice it says the heavens open and the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus. If you're born again here tonight, the Holy Spirit is dwelling inside of you. Every born again believer, the Holy Spirit sets up resident inside of us. He lives inside of us. But Jesus also promised that the Holy Spirit would come upon us and that he would empower us for service. that he would empower us to be his witnesses, to be his representatives in this world. That's what he promised to do. And so this is the pattern for the church. This is how we as the people of God are to operate. Acts 1:8, it says, "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. Everywhere that you go, everywhere that I send you, you're going to represent me after the Holy Spirit comes upon you." Notice after the Holy Spirit is poured out a little bit later in the chapter, pet Peter begins preaching. In verse 40, it says, "And with many other words, he testified and exhorted them, saying, be saved from this perverse generation. Then those who gladly received his word were baptized, and that day about 3,000 souls were added to them." Now, think about who we're talking about here. This is the same Peter that just a few weeks a earlier had denied Jesus three times. Sat by the enemy's fire. How many of you don't raise your hand have sat by the enemy's fire? And now empowered by the Holy Spirit, he's proclaiming the resurrected Jesus and 3,000 people are saved. What was the difference? It was the power of the Holy Spirit. God's assignment requires God's empowerment. It requires the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Now the question is what is anointing? You know anointing is one of those very uh expensive words that nobody really tells you what it means. It's a like one of those Christianies kind of words. People use it. Oh that's so anointed or you know you need the anointing and they don't really tell you what that is. For most people we equate anointing with preference. And where I hear about it most is uh is in the area of worship. You know, if I really like something, then it's anointed. I'll say it's anointed. So, if I say, "Wow, the worship was anointed." What I mean is, you know, I I like the band. The band sounded good. I like the worship leader. I like the singers. The singers sounded nice. The song selection was great. I like the song selection. And so, it was anointed. Recently, we have a couple in our church. They're from Australia and uh or at least the the husband's from Australia and they have a thing in Australia called Tim Tams. Now, if you don't know what a Tim Tam is, you can get them on Amazon. But um it's like our equivalent of a Kit Kat bar and it's like rectangular and it's just filled with awesome chocolate. And so you what you do is you it's called the Tim Tam Slam. You you take a bite out of one corner, then you take a bite in the opposite corner and you treat it like a a straw and you and you drink your coffee with it, you know? So, you kind of suck the coffee up and then you slam it in your mouth and you bite on it and it's just like 30 seconds of awesome joy just going crazy in your mouth. It's like chocolate just and I so I texted the guy. I says this is anointed. That is not what the Bible calls anointing. [laughter] Anointing is God's supernatural empowerment by the Holy Spirit to fulfill God's assignment and accomplish God's purposes. Anointing is God's supernatural empowerment. the power of the Holy Spirit to fulfill God's assignment and accomplish God's purposes. In the Old Testament, the anointing oil often symbolized God setting someone apart and then being empowered by the spirit for a specific role or a specific assignment, a purpose. When they were a king, they were anointed. If they were a high priest, they were anointed. When we get into the New Testament, we see the reality that the symbol pointed to that the oil, it wasn't just representing the anointing. It was pointing to the Holy Spirit. It was the Holy Spirit that came upon the person to anoint them, to empower them, to do a specific job or to uh to fulfill God's purposes in a specific area. So again, assignment tells me what to do. anointing gives me the supernatural power to do it. And I need the power of the Holy Spirit to do what he's assigned me to do. I can't do it without his power. If you're a parent, you know you need the power of the Holy Spirit. God will speak to you about your children. God will open their hearts to you. He'll reveal to you the things that motivate them on the inside as you depend upon the Holy Spirit. Even in the area of parenting on the job, he will he will speak to you about the things that will being bring blessing to your company or the things that will cause your company to be cursed and move you away from that. He'll direct you and he'll lead you by the Holy Spirit just like he did Joseph with Pharaoh. Bringing it back to Jesus as the example of this. Luke tells us that Jesus was anointed to preach and to heal and deliver. In Luke 4:18, uh Jesus reading out of Isaiah reads that the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. So his assignment, what's his assignment? His assignment is to preach the gospel, to heal the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty, recovery of sight, and to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year. That's the job. That's the assignment. And God anointed him, gave him the power to do the job. Peter affirms this in Acts 10:38. Says, "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who are oppressed by the devil, for God was with him." And so the anointing has to do with spiritual power that is released when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And the effects of the spiritual power in your life are observable. You can tell. You can see them at work. I think of DL Moody. Ari Tori said this about DL Moody that there were two women that began praying for DL Moody. They would come to his crusades and they would sit in the back. They'd come up after the meeting and they say, "We're praying for you, Mr. Moody." And Mr. Moody, after a while, he kind of got upset because he was kind of successful. And he's like, "Don't pray for me. Pray for someone that needs it. Pray for these lost people. They need the prayer. I'm doing pretty good." He's a successful evangelist. But God began to work in his heart and he began to earnestly seek for the power of the Holy Spirit. And one day as he's walking through the city, he experiences this sensation where the Holy Spirit comes upon him and he has to go to a friend's house and he experienced a life uh changing encounter with the Holy Spirit. Afterwards, Moody said his sermons didn't change and yet the results of his ministry changed dramatically. He compared the experiences to before it was like carrying water, you know, water in buckets. That's what ministry was like before. It was like I was carrying water in buckets. But after I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, it was like being in a river that was carrying me along. I wasn't carrying the water. The water was carrying me. Same Bible, same gospel, same preacher, and yet supernatural results. You know, when you're anointed by the Holy Spirit, Jesus says, "Out of your belly will gush forth torrents of living water." Instead of life being sucked out of you, you become a life source. Instead of being overwhelmed by life, you become a place of abundant life where people come to you for encouragement. Instead of doing God's worth and work in our own strength, we discover God's power working through us. And as we said before, God's assignment requires God's anointing. We need the power of the Holy Spirit. But there is a danger in this and I and I want to bring it up because inevitably what happens is people can become more interested in the power of God rather than the presence of God. They start to chase after an experience. And if you're looking for an experience with the Holy Spirit, you'll get one. It probably won't be the Holy Spirit, but you'll get an experience. But when you're just hungry for the presence of Jesus and you just want to be with him, not only do you get Jesus, but you get everything else that he brings. You see, Jesus didn't just minister in the power of the spirit. He lived in constant communion with the father. Spiritual power is released through communion. And in verse 35 here of Mark chapter 1, it says, "Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, he went out and departed to a solitary place, and there he prayed. The public ministry that everyone saw was sustained by a private communion that nobody saw." The public ministry that everyone saw was sustained by a private communion that nobody saw. You cannot continually give out spiritually without receiving spiritually. There must be a solitary place, a place of prayer, a place of worship, a place to commune with God through his word. As a young man with a family growing up, I I remember reading Reese How's intercessor and how it's with, you know, he was the guy that kind of fueled the the uh Welsh revival. God used him as a as a spark plug. And as a young man, we got to know Reverend Willis, who was a a childhood friend. His his brother was friends with Evan Roberts and he was like the little tagalong kid and he saw what God did in the Welsh revival. He would come to our church and tell his stories. It was riveting to hear what God did during the Welsh revival. But Reese House would say like he would spend all day and all night praying and interceding and crying out to God for revival. And as I'm reading this, as a as a young man with a family and a job, I'm thinking, you didn't have a job. That's why you could have all this free time. Then I found out he was a youth pastor. I said, see, there you go. And so I I had to figure out how do I live this scripture where it says to pray without ceasing, to have these times of communion with God. How do I do that in the busyiness of my life? And for me, what that looked like was I spent a half an hour every day driving to and from work. You know, one way was a half hour. And that became my sanctuary. That became the place where I just began to cry out my heart before God and worship him. And I would ask him all the questions. And then at night when everyone was asleep because I'm kind of a night owl anyhow. and and and so it just when everyone was asleep, that was the time that I would just go before the Lord. That was my solitary place. Every one of us needs to have a solitary place that we go to. Turn off the news. There's nothing news on it anyhow. It's all propaganda. and spend that time in the presence of Jesus worshiping him in communion with him. Jesus said, "I am the vine and you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit for without me you can do nothing." The word abide there means to remain, to stay, to continue. You know, Jesus is describing a life that remains connected to him, constantly connected to him. And as I am in this constant state of communion with Jesus, he begins to show me what he's doing. He shows me where he's leading and and how I'm to respond to him. That there's this constant dialogue that happens. And that constant dialogue begins to bring peace and security into my heart even when everything around me is chaotic because God begins to show me what he's about. A couple years ago, God opened the door for us to begin the process of getting a radio station in San Clemeni. And we're uh we were granted a license for 98.5 FM San Clemeni, California. Uh what's crazy about it is God opened the door and and now we're on the K actual Kwave tower. So now we have a Christian radio station that will be broadcasting uh in San Clemeni on the on the original Kwave Tower. And throughout the whole process, there have been all of these uh battles. With every battle, there's the potential to have a lot of stress. But as I've been in communion with Jesus, Jesus made us a promise when we first started. He says, "I'm going to give it to you." And all along the way, when it looks like we're going to lose it, nope, we got it. When something wasn't going to happen, oh, it just went through. And because I've kept this constant dialogue with God, and he's constantly telling me, I told you what I'm going to do. I told you what I'm going to do. I told you what I'm going to do. And now we're watching him do it. And it fills us with joy and praise and adoration. This life of communion is developed as we spend time in private prayer and worship and spending time in God's word. Luke 5:15 5:16 says that Jesus often withdrew into the wilderness and pray. He often withdrew, not occasionally, not during normal times of worship at the synagogue, but often throughout the week. when the explosion was happening at Costa Mesa and Fuller Seminary came down and did a study on Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa to find to discover the secrets. What's the secrets that's making this whole youth explosion happen at Calvary Chapel and they visited the children's ministry. They visited the youth ministry. They visited all the outreaches. They looked at the the the services that happened, the Bible studies, the concerts, and they came and they wrote this big report, and they determined that the secret to Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa was Chuck Smith's preaching. They wrote in a report, they gave it to Chuck. And Chuck looked at it and he goes, "Man, they missed the import most important thing." He says, "They never came to one prayer meeting." You see, every day there was prayer happening at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. Every day in the morning, there was a a prayer uh meeting led by a pastor. Every Monday, all day long, the women's ministry gathered together and they interceded all day long. The pastors could go in before noon uh and and receive prayer. And I still have stacks of of prophecies that were given to me by these women that were praying, scriptures. And then after 12 for until 5:00, other people could go in and the testimonies of what God did through that prayer meeting are legendary. And then on the weekends, the men would pray all night long. And Chuck himself would often take a case of waters and just go out into the wilderness and pray and seek the Lord. And so if you were to ask Chuck what was the secret of Costa Mesa, he wouldn't say the secret wasn't Chuck Smith. The secret was prayer, communing with the father, communing with God. There has to be a solitary place to pray, a solitary place to commune. And here's what happens when we spend time in the presence of Jesus. We begin to see people the way that Jesus sees them. And that communion with God produces the compassion of God in our hearts. Which brings us to our fourth principle. Spiritual power is released through compassion. In verse 40, it says, "Now a leper came to him, imploring him, kneeling down to him, and saying to him, if you are willing, you can make me clean. And then Jesus moved with compassion, stretched out his hand, and touched him." And said to him, "I am willing. Be cleansed." And as soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed. And notice what it says here, that Jesus was moved with compassion. It was the compassion that moved him. This was an essential characteristic of Jesus's ministry. In Matthew 14, Matthew records the same thing. Jesus went out. He saw a great multitude and he was moved with compassion for them and healed their sick. Compassion moved Jesus to stretch out his hand to touch this leper. And as he touched the leper, power was released. Be cleansed, he said. Now you have to understand how radical that was that Jesus did that because under the law if you were to contact a leper it would make you unclean and that's why everyone kept their distance from lepers because if you were unclean that means you means you couldn't go to your house you couldn't worship. You had to you had to be away from everybody until you were declared clean. It was like a curse to be touched by a leper. And so any leper that was coming into town had to scream out unclean, unclean, unclean, so that you wouldn't accidentally bump up against them because then you would be unclean until you were declared clean. But when Jesus touched the leper, Jesus didn't become unclean. The leper became clean. God made the leper clean. One touch of Jesus made the leper clean. You might be here tonight and you feel unclean. You feel unworthy. One touch of Jesus is all you need and he will take away that uncleanness. Jesus could have healed him from 10 feet away. He could have just spoke it out. Let her be cleaned. But instead, Jesus touched the person that no one wanted to touch. You see, that's Jesus. He wasn't afraid to touch the unclean. Compassion moved him. Compassion is essential to the spirit empowered life. Compassion moves us to touch the hurting with the power of Jesus through the Holy Spirit. And through the touch of Jesus's healing uh through the touch of Jesus, healing power is released. And this is the point of the gospel that Jesus came to touch sinners. And by one touch, they're made whole, complete, they're made clean. And I'm so glad Jesus touched my life. Aren't you? I mean, your life, not my life. I I appreciate the support. But you know, the purpose of spiritual power is to express the love of Jesus. That's what it's here for. Which leads us to our our final observation that spiritual power releases the goodness of God. And in verse 32 of Mark chapter 1, it says, "At evening, when the sun had set, they brought to him all who were sick and those who were demon-possessed. And the whole city was gathered together at the door. And then he healed many who were sick with various diseases and cast out many demons. And he did not allow the demons to speak because they knew him." Now, this is where everything comes together. This is where assignment and anointing and communion and compassion all comes together and it culminates in the goodness of God being demonstrated in the lives of those who need help, who need healing. Mark says the sick were being healed and demons were being cast out. Peter spoke this about Jesus in Acts chapter 10. And he says, "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with them." That Jesus did good. He brought goodness and healing to all who were oppressed by the devil. And here's the thing, this is exactly what the Holy Spirit wants to do through you. He wants to use you to bring the goodness of Jesus to the people that he has placed around you. In Matthew 10, Jesus says this, "As you go, preach, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. You have freely received salvation. You have freely received forgiveness. We sing about it, right? Hallelujah. We're all joyful about it. We're all glad for it, right? You have freely received restoration in your marriages and healing in your families. Some of you have received healing in your bodies. God has done wonderful things, has he not? So freely you have received And now the next step is freely give. Freely give what's been given to you. Now I want to paint a picture for you of how spiritual power flows in our everyday lives. Kind of make it so that I hope we can grasp it and you can walk out of here and go, "Oh, I can do that." Let's say that you're an office worker. You work in an office. That is where God has positioned you. That is your assignment. God has assigned you to be an office worker. You begin your day by asking the Holy Spirit to fill you. Fill me up today. fill me aresh and use me today. And as you're working, you're in communion with God. You're you're dialoguing with him. I spoke to someone uh today that when they uh when they began their career, they were an accountant and they were just kind of, you know, uh they were brand new in this office and uh it was a small office and he would listen to Jay Vern and McGee on the radio. And the other guys in the office weren't Christians, but they didn't tell him he couldn't listen to it, so he just kept it on. But all the conversations that it generated and after a couple years, all the people in his office came to Christ. That was his assignment. His assignment wasn't a pulpit. His assignment wasn't a Bible study. His assignment was an accounting office. That's where God assigned him. And so as you're working, you're in communion with God. You're aware of his presence. You're listening for his leading. And you're at lunch with a coworker. And this coworker turns to you and says, "You know, I just found out I've got a health issue that I'm dealing with." And compassion begins to move your heart. And maybe all you can say is, "Oh, that's that's that's a bummer. Can I pray for you?" I've been walking with the Lord for over 50 years. I've never had someone tell me, "No, you can't pray for me." When I've asked them, they've always said, "Yes, I would like for you to pray for me." Now, they're surprised when we pray, right? Then they have been surprised at that. But you'll be surprised how many will pe people will say, "Yeah, I would like that." And you simply pray for God to touch them. And maybe God heals them, maybe he doesn't. It's not our job to guarantee the results. It's just my job to be available. It's just my job to be used. God is responsible for the results. I'm to trust him with that. God gives us the assignment. The Holy Spirit gives us the power to do that assignment. Communion keeps us dependent on Jesus and it activates compassion in our lives and his power in us expresses the goodness of Jesus through us to those that God wants to touch. That's how the power of God flows through us. That's the simplicity of it. I don't have to get into some mood. I don't have to like get the lights going and, you know, talk in a certain way. Hey, I can remember some of my friends, we would, you know, they'd be talking normal and they say, "Okay, let's pray for this guy." Oh, Jesus. Like, what's wrong with you? Like, you're scaring me away and I'm in the club. You know, God wants to touch people's lives through you. You're going to touch people's lives that I will never touch because you're going to be in places I I will never be because I have my assignment and you have your assignment. And so, as I said in my church this week, um because it's back to school week, I'm going to give you an assignment. And this is your assignment for this week. Ask God for one person. Just one person. Ask God for one person. Lord, who is the one person that you want to touch through my life this week? And don't try to make something happen. Don't sit there and go, "Oh, I know who it's going to be, and I'm just going to position myself. You know, I'm going to be stalking them, waiting." Just ask the Holy Spirit, "Give me one person this week." You say, "Well, how will I know where that person is?" Well, look where God has assigned you. on the job, in the classroom, in the office, wherever God has already assigned you, and ask the Holy Spirit to fill you. Stay close to Jesus. And when compassion moves your heart, act on it. Don't hold back. And maybe all you can say is, "Hey, can I pray for you about that? And when you do pray, allow the Holy Spirit to work through you. Just pause a moment and ask the Lord, "How do you want me to pray for this person?" And let the Holy Spirit work through you and then leave the results to God because the results belong to him. All he's asking you and I to do is be available and just simply say yes when he says do this. That's all he wants us to do. Our job is availability. His job is results. and see if this week maybe God might use you to bring someone one step closer to Jesus. It's not hard. It's very simple, but you can't do it in your own power. You need the power of the Holy Spirit. And so, the worship team's going to come out. We're going to close in worship. But before they lead us in worship, I'm just going to pray a blessing. If you want to stand, I'm going to pray a blessing over us. And I'm just going to ask the Lord just to fill us. The Holy Spirit just to fill us. And if you want to receive just that fresh empowerment of the Holy Spirit, you can lift your hands and just position yourself to receive from him and just let him fill you up from the bottom of your feet to the top of your head and make yourself available to him. whatever you want to do, Jesus. Show me that one person. So, Lord, I thank you for your word. Lord, I thank you that Lord, it's on your heart. You want to use us. We're your hands and your feet. We're your mouthpieces. We're your your ears to listen to the to the cries of people. We're the the arms that embrace people that are in need. But we can't do it without the Holy Spirit, without your power. And so even now I ask that you would pray every fill every person with a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit that you would fill them up completely, Lord. And as you fill them up, Lord, that you would push out everything that is not of you, Lord. every anxiety, every fear, every insecurity, every depression, [music] every oppression, just in Jesus' name, just push it out, Lord, and just fill us up from the bottom of our feet to the top of our head. Let it just overflow out of our lives. Those that are looking down, their heads are down. They're downtrodden. [music] Lift up their eyes to see you, Jesus. Let your peace be upon us, Lord. And this week, Lord, show us the one. Show us the one. As we go through the week, show us the one Lord that you desire to touch through our lives. And we give you all the results, all of the all of the everything that happens after that, we entrust it to you. But Lord, show us the one and use us, Lord. and we thank you for what you're about to do by the work of your spirit as we surrender our lives to you Aresh in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.