God's Valentine's Box

Acts 1:8: But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth.

If we wait on God as the believers did at Pentecost, we will receive power. The Gr. Word for power is dunamis, meaning miraculous power, strength, violence, and mighty, wonderful works. The word has evolved into the root for words such as dynamite. The power that God gives is not a “poof”, but a BANG! What type of power do we have—do we have a form of godliness, but deny the power, i.e., a power that only looks good or are we filled with the power to begin tearing down the kingdom of darkness and raising up the Kingdom of God?

How do we get this power? This dunamis power comes from the Holy Spirit that dwells in us. The most crucial victory that Satan has ever had was to make the church scared of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit lives in us at salvation, but there distinction of residence and prescience. Many have made the Holy Spirit a passenger, but refuse to allow the Spirit to driver. The Holy Spirit is one person of the trinity. We affirm that God is holy and God is love, so the Spirit of God is holy and works through gentle love.

The rest of the verse is my focus this morning, but I had to put it into perspective. It moves us onto the next step, but I didn’t want to leave out the preparation. God gives the power to be victorious before he sends us out as the church. Too many people are trying to reach the lost without the power that God provided to us.

Now, notice where we go. Our witness needs to be ordered. Jerusalem is first. Jerusalem speaks of our family. Next we witness to Judea. This is our work place or school, our neighborhood, our circle of friends, and our extended family. Samaria, like Judea is not far from us; it’s those people who are outside the bounds of our friendships and social circles. It consists of people who are different from us, socially, economically, etc. Finally, the uttermost parts of the earth show us that we move outwards with our ministry until we reach the ends of the earth. Missions and evangelism ought not start in 3^rd world countries; it ought to begin right here at home in our Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria. We’ve sent our best to other countries for years. Now these same countries are sending missionaries over here. The United States is the 3rd largest mission field in the entire globe.

Jesus embodied what he taught. Matthew 10:35-38: And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. (36) But when he saw the multitude, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having on shepherd. (37) The saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; (38) pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.

Notice what Jesus was doing. First he was teaching. The Jewish people loved religious debate. They gathered in the synagogues not for a service as we think of service, but to hear and debate the scriptures (Sunday School, prayer meeting and Bible Study). Jesus was reasoning from the scriptures with them, straightening out their wrong thinking. Next he was preaching the Gospel. He did this in all the cities and villages. Today, He would have stopped by Adamsville, then moved on down the road to Pleasant Grove and on to Zanesville. He preached the Gospel in everything he did. And that preaching produced faith. And then he healed. He didn’t just heal some, but he healed every sickness and disease among the people. And while there are physical sicknesses today, the greatest sickness we face in America today is sin. It is weakening morality, killing our children, and even pulling churches apart.

Then He saw how big the problem was. His description is reflective of the church body today. Faint and scattered…sheep without a shepherd. Every denomination and the churches within it are going there own way. But I want you to see this morning that Jesus looked on them with compassion. Do we see the lost as sinners with condemnation or do we see them with compassion? Too often the church is satisfied with the status-quo, with being the people of God, without embodying the love of God.

What Jesus said next was the key. The harvest is too great for any one man or woman to handle. We must do our part as God leads us; the number one calling is to pray. Pray for laborers. Billy Graham said “nothing is done without prayer.” Prayer for lost souls will release the Holy Spirit to convict them and bring them to salvation. How many of us have loved ones on their way to the pits of Hell for eternity? PRAY. Not just once, but like the saints of old. PUSH. Pray Until Something Happens. And when you pray, pray the promises of God.

A. Promises

Matthew 10:38 – pray for laborers to share the salvation message.

Mark 4:8 – Good Soil. Only God can break up the hard ground, clear out the weeds, and allow the word sown in them to grow.

Acts 16:31 – if we are saved, all house can be.

Is. 59:21. - if word in us, it will be in the mouths of our children and their children to the third and forth generations.

B. Binding and Loosening prayer.

The Bible promises that whatever we bind on earth is bound in heaven, and whatever we loose on earth is loosed in heaven. So we bind the spirits of the North, South, East, and West (see Is. 43.5-6), we loose the heavenly angels to draw them in, and then we pray for the Holy Spirit to be loosed upon them, to bring conviction and to lead them to a place of salvation. The Holy Spirit is sometimes referred to as the hound of heaven. Once God begins to pursue you, he just keeps on coming, much like a coon hound who has found the scent. He'll chase us until we reach a place where we are ready to surrender to God.

C. Point of Contact. A physical manifestation of your faith.

Mt. 21:22 “all things . . .ye ask in prayer, believe, ye shall receive.” Let me put it another way. We need to "Believe you receive when we pray."

Valentine’s Day just passed. The sermon's title is God’s Valentine’s Box. What I want you to do is to take the card from your bulletin and write down the name or names of unsaved loved ones. If you need several cards, feel free to take more from the altar. And as we close in prayer, I’m going to ask you to come and place them here on the altar, in the box. This box is a point of contact--a physical manifestation of our faith. As we place these names in the box, we are entrusting them to God and committing ourselves to pray. And as you pray the promises, I want you to pray not just for your names, but for all those names that are in the box. In that way we can multiply the amount of prayer. As you are praying for the loved ones of others, they are praying for yours as well. And as we pray, we believe we are receiving. Amen.