Pastor Stan Mons
Sermon Transcription:
To worship you, I live. I was just so pleasantly taken back in my memory to when I first came alive in Jesus Christ. Amen. To come alive and to now have a purpose that says, "In everything I do, I worship you." Worship is not singing. Singing is praise. Worship is a way of living—it's a lifestyle. It's the way I do my job, it's the way that I treat my boss, it's the way that I treat my enemies, it's the way that I treat the unbeliever, it's the way that I treat the hungry. In everything, I desire for eyes to be now turned to Jesus, who can set anyone free, forgive anyone. And God gives you that identity—He gives you life. When all you had was life was this size you were. Life was either good for you or bad for you, but it was about you and what you could get out of life, and how things may turn out for you or against you.
To come alive, to actually come alive in the Spirit, to where you'll never die again—you may exchange this body for a Heavenly one, but you'll never die again. To actually come alive unto God and to now have a purpose that is so much bigger than yourself, so much bigger than what you would like to accomplish in this life. And to be able to sing, "I know why I live—to worship you, I live." I know what to do in every situation because, in every situation, I'm looking to have actions that worship Jesus, that point the attention to Jesus. I'm grateful, very, very grateful, to worship with you online and here in person this morning. Today, the word that the Lord has given me for you is really the second part of a larger word He gave me two weeks ago. Two weeks ago, we started off with Entering the Power to Change. Today, the title is Spend the Power. But I will give you a brief recap of what we talked about two weeks ago. Entering the Power to Change
The first slide will be up. It says: God wants you to enter into the power that can remove the mountains from your life. We looked at the Scriptures and how they speak over Zerubbabel—really speak over anyone in whose life the Spirit of God becomes present. We read that the Word says, "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit," says the Lord. And we looked into that word "power" in the original text. Anybody remember that word? "Power" means the strength of men, the resources of men, the ability of men, the ability of the flesh. And God says, "Not by might" (not in numbers), "not by the resources or the ability of men, but by my Spirit," says the Lord. "This mountain before Zerubbabel will become a plain." Then we went into Acts, where Jesus foretells us that the Spirit of God will be poured into our life, and there will be power. A different word for power—that word means miraculous power. It means God's ability, God's resource, God's strength.
The next slide says: Change is possible for people that come to Jesus. Now, I can't tell you how many times I've heard in my life, "You know, people don't really change. People adjust their behavior, but at the heart, you know, people stay rotten." You name it—I've heard it. But God promises that when His ability, His resource, His power is poured out into a life, we don't have to pretend. We don't have to behave better. We don't have to adjust our actions. We don't have to try to clean up our act or change the way we talk. We don't have to do any of that. His power—His miraculous power—is present to do miracles, to do things we could never do, to accomplish things we could never achieve so that we would be changed. And everything about our change would point to Jesus. And we would never be impressive. Have you ever run into impressive people? Nothing is as discouraging as running into a horribly impressive person. You feel this small—you could never be that. They're successful. If you're ever on YouTube, you can find a video on the "how-to" of anything. They got all the answers, they figured it out. "You do this, and you get up early in the morning, and you do your push-ups, and then you take a cold plunge." I know some of y'all can do that—I cannot. But they have this discipline, and they're impressive people. And they're able to achieve so much.
Jesus came for the people that can do nothing. They're good at one thing—it's called sin. One definition of sin is "missing the mark." In everything they do in life, they're spending on what they were not made for. They're missing the mark. But change is possible for people that come to Jesus. The next slide says this: Anything that cannot be changed by the ability of man is now possible for you. That is the gospel—for your journey of dealing with your personality, your character. Anything inside of you that really does not look or behave like your Heavenly Father—anything that cannot be changed—now is possible for you. Because God gives His power, His strength, His ability—so you don't have to try anymore. Next slide says this: When your trust shifts away from Jesus, your change will never exceed your own ability. And that's what a lot of us at times run into. We've heard something from the heart of God in our heart. He's touched our hearts, and we're fully convinced that He's real. And there are even times that we trust Him, but some days we trust the money in our bank account to be our provider. When there's $1,000 in it, we feel more at peace than when there's $10 in it. Where your trust comes from is what you worship. Where your peace comes from is what you trust. And so, when your peace comes from having more, you've shifted your trust away from Jesus. What happens in your life? You are not able to change any more than your own ability, your own resource, your own strength. You're not running at that point off of God's miraculous power.
Next slide: God has sent miraculous power through the Holy Spirit so that you don't have to struggle on your own or figure out how to change. That's how He brings what Jesus purchased on the cross into your life. And He puts what Jesus purchased on the cross—He puts that to work. And you get to enter, as the Bible says, you get to enter into the Sabbath. You get to enter into God's rest. What did God do on the Sabbath? He rested from all His work. What does the Bible say? He that hath entered the Sabbath hath also rested from all of their works. When we enter into God's rest, now the cross is performing all of the work, doing all of the changing, bringing glory to God, and we are just along for the ride. And anytime somebody asks us for the hope that is in us, we just get to point to Jesus. I never did nothing right, but I know there's a cross. I've heard of a cross. And when I placed my hope, my trust on the cross of Jesus Christ, this is what God did. This is what God does for sinners that have nothing left and place their trust on the cross.
The last slide of two weeks ago says this: Exchange the trust you have for your own resources, your own strength, and start trusting God, allowing His Spirit to come into your impossibility.
Remember that mountain? That mountain shall become a plain before Zerubbabel. But how is God going to do that? Not by might, not by power, not by the ability and the strength of man, but by my Spirit. And it is the Spirit of God that gives you the Lord's strength, the Lord's resources, the Lord's abilities to bring these things to a plain. This week, we're going to talk about the extended part of that sermon: Spend the Power. I want to pray with you one more time before we go into the word. Father, I love You today. And Lord Jesus and Holy Spirit of the Living God, we are solely dependent on Your ministry. Lord Jesus, You are the Messiah, and it is the Messiah's ministry to distribute the Spirit of the Living God to every single person that has believed and confessed that Jesus is Lord. They no longer place their trust, their hope, their work on any other thing but Jesus Christ and Him alone—the finished work, the rest of God, what God has accomplished.
No longer what I can and cannot do. No longer what I did good and what I did bad. Lord, none of that. We allow the power to tell us who we are. We've given that power away to the cross of Jesus Christ. That cross has called us valuable enough for the life of Jesus. That cross has called us approved. That cross has called us wanted in the presence of God. That cross has called us people that have hope despite their failures. Lord, I ask You to send Your Holy Spirit upon every heart that is online with us, every person that is here, Lord God, in the church. I pray that You send Your Holy Spirit, that by Your power, Lord God, You open our eyes, You open our hearts to see and to receive encouragement from Heaven, Lord God, and to walk encouraged and full of faith, Lord God, out of these doors into the world, where You've called us to bear witness to the risen Lord Jesus Christ, by whom all men must be saved. Lord God, lead us and teach us and fill our hearts with Your word today. Remove all distractions from our mind, Lord God—everything that tries to pull us away from what the Holy Spirit is seeking to do today. Lord God, I pray that it be gone in the name of Jesus, and we commit this time, Lord God, to Your purposes. In Jesus' name we pray, amen, amen.
We're going to go into this week's word: Spend the Power. Ephesians 4:7-16 But to each one—would you say each one? Each one, not excluded—but to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore, He says: When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive and gave gifts to men. Now this, He ascended—what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things. And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, until we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. That we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. Spend the Power.
Now, here we have a scripture portion that very clearly outlines why God sends His Holy Spirit into your heart, into my heart, and what He intends to accomplish through your life and through my life in the lives of the people around us—through that Spirit, through that power. Not yours, not your abilities, not your talents, but through what God places inside of you. But who is it really for? Verse 8 stands out to me. I will read it again: "Therefore He says: 'When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive and gave gifts to men.'" Now, I'm already convinced this is for every single one of you, and every single one of you online. But I hope that every single one of you will be on the same page by the time that we close out this service. Because what does He say? He's referring to Jesus Christ, who descended into the lower parts of the earth and also came back to heaven. And what did He do? He led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. So captivity—bondage—the ability of darkness to lock you up... captivity. Jesus took captivity captive so that at any time, in anyone's life, when they hear that Jesus Christ has paid for their sin, they are not in captivity. They can respond to that preaching. They can respond to the truth because Jesus took captivity captive. They can turn from their unbelief, and they will be saved. They will be filled with the Spirit, and God will start a work in the most unlikely of people that will bring glory to His name, hope in the earth, and gross disappointment to Satan himself.
Jesus led captivity captive. Amen? Amen.
He took the ability of bondage to be effective—He took that away. You could say He took bondage into bondage so that you and I, even when we make mistakes, we don't go back into bondage. We don't go back into captivity. The moment you realize, That was a mistake; I shouldn't have done that, you can turn to the Lord. You can say, Thank God that I am forgiven and that I'm not again in trouble. I'm just going to move on now. The Holy Spirit will have to do the work in your heart that says, Okay, I'm not going to take sin lightly. We can never—it is almost blasphemy—to believe that somehow we could feel sorry enough for our sin, or shed enough tears, or apologize hard enough, or repent hard enough to somehow show God we are serious about this. We'll never get that right. All we can do is say, Lord, I understand. You're going that way; I'm going to follow You again. We will have to leave the raising of His children up to the Father. Amen?
But He led captivity captive. And then, instead of the captivity that used to be on our lives—the inability to be changed, the inability to walk away from sin, the inability to walk in the light—
You remember what it was like to live with secrets? To hide things? You were a little ashamed of them. You wanted people to look at you as if you didn't do these things. Sometimes, you wanted people to look at you as if you do certain things, but secretly, you didn’t—when nobody was watching. You remember what that was like? Living in darkness. Coverings to hide things from the prying eyes of people. We knew maybe that we couldn't hide it from God. That didn’t stop us from hiding it from people and trying to live in darkness, trying to live covered.
But Jesus took captivity captive, so that you can live in the light. With every mistake you have—never receive condemnation, never be held accountable to your wrongs.
Instead, He gives gifts. Every person that trusts Jesus enough to come fully into the light and live there—captivity is not what happens to that person. Captivity has been taken captive. That person receives gifts. It is the last person, in the eyes of people, that deserves to receive gifts from God. The last person. Because you can see everything that’s wrong, everything that they're not doing, everything they're doing that maybe you feel they shouldn’t be doing. And yet, God gives them gift after gift after gift. And they don’t deserve it. It’s all pointing to a place—it’s called Golgotha. That’s where it happened—what nobody deserved. And God is always trying to draw attention to what nobody deserves. That people may begin to believe that God is good. That God intends good—good for bad people. That God wants to give life to people who, in their own actions, are choosing death. But God is not responding to our actions. He is responding to the actions of His Son. When we believe it, now we have put our trust in the cross of Jesus Christ. He took captivity captive. He also dealt with the account of your debt.
This is one of my favorite scriptures. Colossians 2:13-14 Let me read to you Colossians 2:13 and 14."And you, who were dead in your trespasses, or in your sin, in the things you did wrong, and the uncircumcision of your flesh—in other words, you were not part of the family of God—God made alive together with Him, that is, Jesus, having forgiven us all of our trespasses." In other words, you did not have part with the people of God. All you really had was sin, and yet God responded like this to you—He gave you everything that belonged to the people of God. He gave you life just like He gave Jesus life when He came out of the grave, and He forgave you all of your trespasses. He’s giving you gift after gift, undeserved thing after undeserved thing. How did He do it? Verse 14: "By canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to the cross."
You see, I've heard so many preachers in my lifetime explain that God washes away your sin, and that statement is true. But I've seen so many understand it as if God gives us a clean slate.
We come to the altar, we come to the Lord in prayer at home, and maybe we've come to a place where we say, "I know I've made a mistake again, and Lord, I'm coming to You. Please forgive me," as if we're asking the Lord for a clean slate again. As if, when we make a mistake again, or when we abuse the grace of the cross, the mercy, the forgiveness of the cross, and we do our own thing or commit our own sin—as if here comes the little, little piece of chalk, old-fashioned like that, and here comes the chalk down, writing down what you just did. And it's there. It happened yesterday, but in the morning, you remember—it's right there on the slate. And here comes today's record. That’s not what God is like. That’s not what the Bible teaches. That’s not the truth.
What does the Bible say? He canceled the record. He didn’t wipe the record clean—He threw the slate away. So there’s nothing anymore to write on. There’s no account to slowly begin to fill up again. There’s no slate that can keep track of your record ever again. He canceled the record of your debt that stood against you with all of its legal demands. So every legal demand against you, according to the wrongdoing you have ever done or will ever do—God put it aside, died, and nailed it to the cross long before you were born. So that you would be able to hear about a God who had already decided, before you were even born, that you were worth spending the life of His Son—so that you would be free from captivity and be able to turn to Him anytime you are willing, anytime you want to come to Him. God made a way for you to come to Him, despite what you have done.
Such power that God has spent in order for you to be able to step out of what you’re walking in—no captivity for you—and come to the Lord. And when you come to the Lord, you experience that He doesn’t set you aside. He doesn’t reject you. He doesn’t have a slate and want to talk to you about some stuff. Instead, you find out—long ago, God already threw away the slate.
He’s just been waiting for you to believe in the sacrifice of Jesus and the blood of Jesus enough to finally say: "I believe I can come as I am, and I’m not going to be rejected. I’m not going to get a list of to-dos. I’m not going to be receiving an assignment to become a better person from God. He’s going to give me His power. He’s going to give me His resources. He’s going to give me gifts. And every bad thing I had—He’s going to take it. There’s nothing He’s going to require of me."
He canceled the record of debt by the power of the blood of Jesus Christ. He set it aside, nailing it to the cross. You know, He set Jesus aside. Jesus wasn’t crucified in Jerusalem. Jesus was crucified on the hill of rejection. Calvary wasn’t a mountain. Calvary wasn’t excavated. All the land around it was excavated, and Jerusalem was built with that stone. But Calvary Hill—the stone was such low quality, it was even rejected for the building of Jerusalem. And so this rejected ground became the place where they would crucify the rejected people. And here, the Word tells us that He set it aside, nailing it to the cross. He set Jesus aside onto rejected ground. He made Him rejected, nailing to the cross the very record of your debt. What does the Bible say? The Bible reads to us that "It is appointed for man to die once." Church, Jesus has died in your place. Death will never again be able to hold someone that Jesus already died for.
Death won’t be able to hold you. Death cannot hold you—just as it could not hold Jesus Christ, whom the Father sent the Spirit to raise from the grave.
There’s only one slot to be filled with your name on it in the empire of the dead. And Jesus died in your place. So when you pass away and this body gives in—you cannot be held by death. The system, if you will—glory to Jesus—it’s like the system glitches out. That slot cannot be filled. It’s already been filled. And death just has to release you. And God says, "I’m going to give you a new body. I’m going to give you a purpose. I’m going to make a whole new heaven, a whole new earth. There won’t be any pain anymore, any tears, any difficulty." And how you have spent your life in the power of God’s Spirit on this side of eternity—it’s going to have an effect on how you will spend your eternal life on the new earth. The Bible only gives us a few insights on it, but there’s going to be a job for you to do. There are going to be things you’re going to be responsible for.
The Word tells us various examples of what life will be like on the new earth, but in every case, it’s very clear that what we have done in this very short life, here, with our trust in the cross and the power that God placed inside our heart and our life—it’s going to have an effect. That’s why it matters so much to the devil to get you to a place where you think you do not play a role in God’s Kingdom on this side of eternity. You see, the devil loses you to heaven. The devil loses you to God’s Kingdom. But he still hates you—maybe more than ever. And so what he seeks to do is rob you of your heavenly rewards. He seeks to rob you of your eternal joy. He seeks to rob you from your eternal accomplishments. What are eternal accomplishments? How many people are with you in heaven because you opened your mouth in your small way, in your simple way?
But when you believe in God but you haven't fully put your trust in the cross, when you open your mouth, there's no power. The power doesn't seem to be present. People don't surrender to God. People don't get saved regularly.
Church, you need to know with all of your heart and all of your mind that the power of God has set you free. That means that you will never be in trouble again. That is the simplest way I can put it. You won't be in trouble if you die tonight. You won't be in trouble if you abuse your freedom. You won't be in trouble if you make a mistake. You won't be in trouble if you drop the ball. You believe with all of your heart that it is finished and that you have become the highly favored son or daughter of the King, who is the best parent in the universe and is going to raise you to be a child that will become a blessing to many, spread hope in the name of Jesus Christ, and who will have the power of God reside inside to change whatever needs changing. I need not to worry anymore because God worries for me. You need to be convinced that the bond of sin is broken over your life, that Jesus led captivity captive away from your life, that captivity in your personal life is not free anymore. Captivity can't operate in my life. Jesus led it into captivity.
Church, the Spirit of God has filled you to give you God's strength on the inside of you to accomplish the impossible in you, but additionally also through you. Not through your neighbor, not through your pastor—through you. Let me read to you Ephesians 3:16: "That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man." On the inside of you, the might and the strength of God are present inside of you to do what is impossible anytime that it needs doing, anytime it's necessary. God is going to do the impossible because His Spirit, His presence, His power is right there, placed inside of you.
The question is, is that power being spent through you? Do you see that a power that is not your own has come upon your life, and without any of your help, without any practice, that power seems to work through your life, and now the output is different? The input has been changed, and now the output is different. And it's not just that you're trying to behave or speak or share the way that you think a Christian should—there is a power, and it causes people to become saved.
Is that power being spent through you? Are you going to hear, if you go home tonight to be with the Lord, washed by the blood of Jesus Christ, and you arrive before the Lord, is He going to say to you, "Welcome, good and faithful servant"? Have you served the world? Have you served the world with the power that God has provided for your life? Is your life defined by the power that God placed upon your life? Is it being spent through your life? And has this power that God placed in your life to do the impossible inside of you, but also through you, made the impossible possible yet? God says, "I'm going to do it with the devil watching. I'm going to ruin his day. I'm going to do it with people watching. I'm going to cause hope in their heart. And I'm going to be watching, and you're going to be doing it by faith. I'm going to be so pleased. We're going to work together. I'm going to see people come to light, come to call in the name of Jesus. And all you used to love was the devil and everything he had to offer. This is what my power can accomplish for all of the universe and every person to see."
Is that power being spent through you? Is that power the new thing that defines the purpose of your life, how your life is being spent? Maybe you're not sure, but then the question becomes, would you love for your life to be defined by God's power, God's resources, God's abilities, God's plan, God's intention, God's purpose for this day in the lives of the people around you?
I'll read to you again Ephesians 4:11-15: "And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of faith and to the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting."
That's quite the accusation. When the Word of God is using big words, we should pay attention. If it uses three in a row, the Lord is really trying to get our attention. He says that we should no longer be children, easily influenced, tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men. Here the Word is claiming that there are people out there in pulpits, and they seek to trick people into believing something God never told them to tell you. By the trickery of men, He goes on, "And the cunning craftiness." Cunning—that's a snake word. It's a sneaky word. Cunning craftiness. In other words, this has been planned well. It's been thought over. There's intention. There's craftiness. We're trying to shape something to make this thing work for our purpose, not the purpose of God. And deceitful plotting. I mean, this is quite the summary: the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. If it was a poem, it would receive an A+. The cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting—planning to trick people into believing, from a pulpit even, though the simple gospel of Christ Jesus is not being preached. They ran into it in the early church as well—the Jews that had become believers in Jesus Christ.
They started going around telling people, "You also have to keep the laws of Moses." That's why we have Acts chapter 15. It was the same problem—people with the right intention, the right motive, tried to trick and con and plan and plot people into: "How are we going to keep these people safe? How are we going to keep them walking in line? How are we going to make them good people? How will they represent God well?" I believe with all my heart the intentions were pure, the motive was honorable, but it came from the heart of men, and so they had to put a stop to it. But in every case, here's the reason: that we may speak the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ Jesus. But every single one of us that have received the Spirit of the Living God play a part in this. We can look at a list like this—Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers—and think, "These are the Chosen Few. These are the great Saints. They're just able to do what I cannot. These are, remember, impressive people." When in all reality, the Word tells us that the body may be built up by what every joint supplies—every member, everyone involved—for the equipping, for the building up of the body of Jesus Christ.
But here's my question to you: Do you know how God wants to spend His power through you? He wants to spend His power on you by changing anything that is impossible anytime it needs changing—that's how He wants to spend the power on you. But do you know how, in what way, God wants to spend His own power through you? Because if you don't know, you don't know what to say yes to, you don't know what to say no to, and you're an easy target for the enemy to keep you in a place where you just don't do that much, or you do a whole lot of doing and not a lot of speaking—not a lot of fruitful ministry. You don't see a lot of people become saved by the power of God. "Pastor, how do I find out? How do I find out how God wants to spend His own power through me?" Now that the power of God has set you free, you give room to the Holy Spirit. That's as simple as it becomes. You give room to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a person—He has an opinion, He has a will, He has a plan. God the Spirit will lead you and guide you, but He will not force anything on you. If you give room to the Holy Spirit daily, you will come to find out.
Let me read to you Galatians 5:24-25: "And those who are Christ's, those that belong to Jesus, have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit." If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. In other words, you can be made alive in Jesus, you can live in the Spirit, and not walk in the Spirit, and not make room to follow the Holy Spirit daily, and arrive where God wants you, and walk into what God wants you, and begin doing and walking out what God had planned for you. You can miss that, even though you were made alive in the Spirit. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. But here's the encouraging thing in this scripture: If you live in the Spirit, if you have believed that the blood of Jesus Christ has the power to cleanse you from all sin, if you live in the Spirit, that means today that you are able to follow the Spirit and walk with God. If the Word tells us, "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit," that tells me you're going to hear from the Holy Spirit. You're not going to be guessing at what the Holy Spirit wants. You're not going to be guessing at what His voice sounds like. You're not going to be guessing at when He will show up. You will hear from Him. You will have clarity from God, and you will have the invitation to make room and to say, "Holy Spirit, have it Your way. Holy Spirit, have me in Your place. Holy Spirit, have me do what You are doing, what You want to lead me into. You have to start making room in my life."
I've shared it many times—it started with cleaning toilets. Still, to this day, the Holy Spirit does not allow me to walk away from a toilet, no matter if it's in the train or somewhere public where you would love to walk away. But the Holy Spirit never allows me to walk away from the very first day that I was forgiven and saved. He's never allowed me to walk away from a restroom without having clear communication—"Stand, clean this, and leave it behind perfect, if you will, for the next person." And the Lord gave me the toilet ministry—that's what the Lord gave me, and I did not care. I was so glad that I was hearing His voice. It didn't matter what He said, as long as He was talking to me, and I just started cleaning toilets. Then He started to entrust me with the trash ministry. I'd be walking in the city with my friends in the Netherlands, and there would be a hundred pieces of paper, but there was the one. And it was always when we were already past it that the Holy Spirit would tell me, "Go back. Go throw that away." And there was embarrassment in front of my friends that I had to deal with. There was—"They're going to think I'm crazy. Why that piece of trash? Nobody will understand." The Holy Spirit was testing me to see if I would make room and just listen to Him.
The Holy Spirit doesn't start telling you things about people. He doesn't start with that. He doesn't start with giving you a pulpit. He doesn't start with having you lead a Bible study. He starts with testing if you love His voice, if you will make room for what He wants to do that day. Even though you may not understand, you will know what God wants, and you will have God's power present to walk it out. That's what this scripture tells me: "If we live in the Spirit, let us walk in the Spirit." Everything will change in your life—everything. All things become possible. Nothing is impossible. If God has it on His mind, and I'm willing to walk it out, then God, by His power, is going to bring it to pass. My parents are here today, and they can bear witness to this—I never wanted to speak about forgiveness in the name of Jesus to people, let alone to groups. If we had an anniversary, or my parents had an anniversary, it was generally my middle brother that would do the talking and that would step up to the plate, and I was not comfortable talking in big groups. I never wanted to speak to people about forgiveness in Jesus Christ until the Spirit of God filled me in my office.
Church, don't be tempted to believe that your flesh has the power to keep you the same. People believe that stuff—that somehow their flesh, their sin, their struggle, their doubts, their age, whatever it may be—that somehow these things have the power that is greater than the power of the cross, a power that is greater than the power of the Spirit of God. Miraculous power that he brings into your life—it's unbelief in the cross of Jesus Christ. The cross is not strong enough, not present enough, not willing enough, not in favor of me enough. I'm going to stay the same. Don't be tempted to believe that you will never crucify the world or that somehow you won't die to this world. People all over Christianity are being convinced by the Devil himself that some impressive people crucify the flesh. You don't even want to crucify the flesh like that. You don't even want to turn away from the world like they do. You don't even want to die to the world the way they do.
Don't be tempted to believe it. The devil constantly goes around trying to convince souls that this walk with the Spirit will pass them by. He whispers, "You will—what do you mean? You will never be a pastor. You will never be a teacher. You will never be an apostle. You will never be a prophet. You will never be an evangelist. You won't crucify the world, and you won't die to the world enough to be a part of that stuff." That's the voice of the serpent. That is the devil trying to make sure that you do not have rewards eternally and that you do not have people with you eternally that bring glory to Christ. Because God was able to pay for the sins of someone like you, but then he was able and allowed to spend his power through you and begin to pursue this world and begin to bring hope into the hearts that had no hope—hope and forgiveness upon the lives that only had guilt and shame.
He wants to do this through you. The devil wants to stop this. He whispers to you, trying to convince you it won't be you. Galatians 6:14: But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
Church, Paul was able to see heavenly things. Paul was able to spend his lifetime on heavenly things. Paul died for heavenly things because the world had been crucified to him, and he to the world. And it is so easy to look at somebody like Paul and believe, "He's an impressive guy. I won't be like Paul. I receive a different Holy Spirit. I couldn't be like Paul. I couldn't obey like Paul. I couldn't be saved like Paul. I couldn't talk like Paul. I couldn't have an impact like Paul. I couldn't be used by God like Paul." Paul, Church—Paul is testifying. He is not giving a command. He's not giving that impressive to-do list that we find for problems in our life. Any problem you have, you go on YouTube, you can find a how-to video to get out of it.
Paul is not doing that in the old profession way in one of his letters. He's not saying, "You want to be a successful minister? You go ahead—crucify the world, be crucified into the world, die to yourself." No. He's saying, "God forbid I should boast in anything else. I didn't do anything. I did nothing. I came to Jesus Christ by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." He is testifying of an incredible promise. He says, "You give your life to Jesus Christ, the world will lose its attraction on you. The world loses its power to influence you because the power and the Spirit of God have come to live inside of you, and he that is in you is greater than he that is in the world." Hallelujah! He is sharing a promise with us. You come to Jesus. He died on the cross. God doesn't send you to the cross. God doesn't crucify you. You don't have to crucify yourself—it's not in the Word. You believe on Jesus. No matter who you are, no matter what you've done, you believe on Jesus Christ, and the world will become crucified to you and you to the world.
You'll be free from the grip of this world—that's what he's saying. You'll be free from the attraction of this world, and you'll be free from the world having influence over you. Don't ever, Church—don't ever be afraid that you won't or you can't crucify the world like pastors do. Trust me, Church, they never crucified the world. They never did. They never crucified the world. The cross of Jesus Christ did it for them. He sets you free. I will read it to you again: But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom—Jesus, not me—by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. He set me free. I came to him, and he set me free. Church, God is going to spend his power through you. People, that's what he desires to do. Now, which place you hold and which thing you are called to do specifically in the Kingdom—the Holy Spirit will make it so clear to you. He'll just lead you right into it. He'll walk you right into it. All you do is make room. How do I make room?
I begin to believe that what Jesus says is true. God wants to spend his power through every vessel that he filled with his Spirit, that he filled with his power. God did that for a purpose—not just for you. He wants to spend that power through you on the freedom of other people.
You. Not your neighbor. Not your pastor. He wants to do it through you. If you believe on Jesus, your life has the power to get people saved. The devil tries—I can't tell you how many times I've heard believers and the world, the enemy is busy with this, say the same thing. You're trying to talk to somebody about Jesus on the street or somebody in your family or somebody on the job, and they go, "You trying to save me?" And the believer will go, "Oh, I can't save nobody." Who told you that? Who whispered that into your mind? The Bible doesn't say that. Paul doesn't say that. He says that by all means possible, I may save some. Jesus already took captivity captive.
Jesus already sent us into the world to go and seek and save the lost and bring them home. Go in the highways and the byways and compel them to come in. Somehow, Satan has the church convinced that we can't save nobody, that captivity is just still going to be there until God does some great miracle—even though God already has performed the greatest miracle this world will ever see. He has taken captivity captive and has given gifts unto men, that the power of God may be spent through the most unlikely of lives. And with the devil and all of his demons watching, there's nothing they can do. Captivity has been taken captive. He's whispering into your mind—the devil—to try and convince you that it's just the few that are called and sent and that have the power. He tries to get you to believe him and not God. God intends to spend his power through you, and God has qualified you for life-giving ministry. Let me read it to you from the Word: 2 Corinthians 3:5-6"It is not that we think we are qualified to do anything on our own. Our qualification comes from God. He has enabled us to be ministers of his new covenant. This is a covenant not of written laws but of the Spirit. The old written covenant ends in death, but under the new covenant, the Spirit gives life."
Church, the Spirit of God, the power of God, wants to give life through you. He wants to bring life into other people. He wants to cause other people to begin to see through you. He's chosen you. He's given you his Spirit. He's paid for you. He's brought you home. He's nailed the account that could ever declare you guilty to the cross, and that account did not come out of the grave. That account is gone. There is no way for you to ever be guilty before God ever again because of the power of the blood of Jesus Christ. Now the question comes: Will we spend that power on the freedom of others, or are we going to allow small, soft, snakish, cunning thoughts to put us in a place where we're very grateful—we'll even sing to Jesus, we'll even show up in church—but we don't make enough room for the Holy Spirit? Will we begin to see that God is spending his own power for his own purpose through his own vessel that he purchased?
He will do it if you make room. It's not difficult. It's not complicated. One day at a time, you make room, and he will cause you to become a vessel that helps people see in your own place—wherever he is seeking to use you. Here's the altar call. If you would stand with me. Somehow, someway, Satan has been seeking to convince you that God will not do these things through you. He whispers to your mind. Satan whispers to your mind: When you speak up, there won't be power. That's how he makes you feel—When you speak up, there will not be power. He whispers to you: God is not going to spend his power through you. He wants you to give up on how you will be spent on this side of eternity, on building God's kingdom. That's what the enemy wants—he just wants you to give up. It's a very light switch in your heart. You can give up and still live in the Spirit. You can give up and still show up in church. But you're no longer walking in the Spirit. You're no longer seeing God spend his own power on his own purpose through a vessel like you.
If the devil has been trying to drag you down, if the devil wants you to quit, here is the altar call to faith. Hallelujah!
I hope you are ready to believe. I hope you are ready to declare, Church. Here’s the altar call—two statements of faith and one declaration: Lord, I believe you will crucify the world unto me and me unto the world, in Jesus’ name. I believe you call me qualified for life-giving ministry. I believe it. I'm rejecting everything the devil has whispered into my soul. And then, the Declaration: God, I'm yours. Spend the power. If you want to make those statements of faith, and if you want to make the declaration unto the Lord today—God, I'm yours. Lord, spend the power. I'm making room. If you want to do that, I want to invite you to come to the altar. We're going to pray together, and we're going to see grave disappointment in the enemy's camp.
Because we're going to find out what God will do through someone like you when all you do is say: Lord, I believe.I'm willing, Lord.You go ahead—spend your power on the freedom of others through my life.
-Pastor Stan Mons