Matthew had two names. A Jewish name and a Greek name. He was a tax collector and he worked for Rome. Jesus said “Follow me” and Levi/Matthew did. He left everything. Then Levi has a party for Jesus at his house. Lots of tax collectors and others. The Pharisees and teachers of the law were there too. They asked a question of the disciples. Why are you eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners?
Levi/Matthew’s caste was tax collector. It was more than a job. Levi was defined by his caste, his vocation and his moral standing (sinner). The house was filled with sinners. They were religious but they were sinners. Non-believers don’t think about sin. Only religious people think about their sins and therefore only religious people are called sinners. He was outside his caste. Why was Jesus hanging out with these people?
It is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. This is a universal principle. This is the purpose of His ministry.
The call to follow Jesus does not discriminate and does not require cleaning up first. Jesus did not pray the sinner’s prayer with Matthew. Didn’t water baptize him or anything else. Matthew was not required to give any explanation for his previous life. He only had to do three things: hear Jesus, understand what Jesus was saying and then he had to say yes and obey. This was the beginning of following.
There are a lot of people who want to follow Jesus but don’t know where to begin. The church sometimes make religion the start of following. But there are people who want to start following Jesus before they start going to church or without thinking about religion. How do we cooperate or serve that?
The response to follow Jesus is a lot like going fishing. One new follower suggests that there are others nearby. Sinners hang out with sinners. Unfortunately, Christians avoid hanging out with sinners.
Doctors can’t heal from a distance. They have to get close. Doctors have chosen to spend their career with sick people. This applies to different castes, cultures, etc.
So we have to get close also. Sinners are everywhere. We need to reach out to them. Jesus was a friend of sinners. He was accused of being that! We can learn from that. We have to find ways of not losing connections with non-believers or new believers.
How might God use us in a world of sinning people? How might he use us in the sinners He has brought into our individual lives?
Presented in English and Swahili.
Ferne Millar and her husband Campbell Millar describe how God's grace is sufficient and how He has shown that to be true through out their missionary lives.
Ferne Millar speaks about trusting the Lord.
Ferne Millar speaks about depression.
Ferne Millar speaks about the Holy Sprit and fighting His prompting.
The Holy Spirit is a game changer. When the Holy Spirit come into your life, it changes everything. It fills you with a spirit of power and life and love.
In the Old testament the Holy Spirit would come on people but it would not come on everyone.
The first person mentioned in the Bible that became full of the Spirit was Bezalel. He was an artist and built the first temple. He was a construction worker.
Then there was Joshua. Then Gideon. Then Samson. Then Saul. They were all filled with the Spirit and when the Spirit came in, it was a game changer. Everything changed.
The early church exploded when the Holy Spirit came. Look what happened to Paul/Saul. In 1 Corinthians 2:4-5 Paul accredited his message and preaching with a “demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.” That is good news. It isn’t resting on you if you have the game changer with you.
Your faith should be based on God’s power through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit wants to come on us. He wants to move through us. We can’t be content with just having the Spirit fill us. He wants to move through us to fill others.
Jesus wants us to partner with the Holy Spirit. In John 14:12 Jesus says “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing. And they will do even greater works than these because I am going to the Father.”
When the Holy Spirit fills us, He changes the game. He changes the situation. He changes our schools, our jobs, our families and the way that we think.
God is love. There is nothing more powerful than God’s love.
It is God’s purpose in this world to bring people together. In the beginning, God created the universe with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit does not point to himself.
One of the first mentions of the Holy Spirit was by a king that didn’t even know him. Joseph foretold to Pharaoh that there would be famine. Pharaoh knew Joseph was right because he had dreams and he knew that the Spirit was in Joseph. So even someone that does not know God can recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit. We want to always evidence the Spirit here when someone visits us.
Jesus told us that He had to go away so that the Spirit could be in us and with us. We should make use of this each day. The Spirit helps us even to pray.
How can we be unified in a world where there is so much trouble? The Holy Spirit will help us with that.
When you have trouble with a brother or a sister, what is the trouble. We have original sin. Original sin means you are born with it. There is a worm in every apple. Even if you think a person has no faults, they have original sin. Without the Holy Spirit and the blood of Jesus we cannot have unity.
God doesn’t want to make us weird or peculiar. What God wants is to make us holy.
Throughout the New Testament we see the work of the Holy Spirit to make us holy. One of the ways is the fruit of the Spirit described in Galatians 5:22. There are also the gifts of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12:8.
Immersion is taking something a dunking it in water. It needs to go under the water. Completely covered. We practice water baptism but we also believe in spirit baptism.
To be baptized in the spirit you must be thirsty for the Holy Spirit. We need the Holy Spirit. We just don’t know it.
The Holy Spirit comes in different ways in the Old and New Testaments. In the Old Testament the Holy Spirit would come upon certain chosen people. It would come upon a prophet and the prophet would prophesy. Or it would come upon a king and enable the king to rule. But Jesus said He had to go to His Father to send the Holy Spirit to us more directly.
Jesus died on the cross to forgive our sins but also to send the Holy Spirit to us. The sacrifices in the temple in the Old Testament were a preview of Jesus’ death and sending the Spirit.
We have a new relationship with God. The law is written on our hearts and we are a people of priests. The Old Testament is looking forward to this time. No longer is it just that prophet speaking Gods word. We have the Holy Spirit to help us with the work God has set out for us.
We talk about the baptism of the Spirit and we say that the Spirit comes upon us and gives us power to heal, to speak prophesy and knowledge and to speak in a language we don’t know.
We recognize two baptisms, with water and with fire and the Holy spirit.
The baptism with water is conversion. Symbolically dying with Christ.
The baptism of the Holy Spirit which brings power and other gifts.
There is also the baptism of Moses which brings people of for deliverance.
Are you thirsty? Then you need to take a drink.
When you don’t drink enough water you get dehydrated and all kinds of things can go wrong. Pain, infections, all sorts of things.
We are dehydrated as a church. We are not drinking enough or the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is kind of like the fluids you put in the engine of your car. We all know about gasoline, but you also need oil and antifreeze. The Holy Spirit serves many roles and we need them all.
If you don’t have enough water in your engine you will see fire and it will be bad. The oil keeps things moving smoothly.
We need the Holy Spirit in our lives in order to function properly. The Holy Spirit gives us power to do ministry. Power to cast out demons and pray for someone to be healed or to speak a word of knowledge into someone’s life.
We need the water of the Holy Spirit to keep us regulated so we don’t burn out. We need the oil of the Holy Spirit to keep us working smoothly.
In John, Jesus talks of the Holy Spirit and says that it will come after He is Glorified. What is He referring to? He was glorified when He was lifted up. Lifted up on the cross in crucifixion, into heaven in resurrection and onto the throne in ascension.
Jesus was redefining the ceremony where the priests were pouring out water. He said that He was the water that you need.
Jesus went to heaven to send back the Holy Spirit for us. Everyone needs the Holy Spirit.
So, are you thirsty?
A discussion of tithing and blessings.
Each of us has a mission and destiny that was begun before we were born. God knew us then and formed his plans for us then. You are a person of destiny. God has a plan for you.
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