Dear TVCOG,
What an awesome day in the Lord Sunday! We baptized 13 people and had great altar responses in both services!
Here are some highlights from Sunday’s message.
In Luke 4:14ff Jesus went to Galilee (his hometown area) and started His teaching ministry. I highlighted three ways the Holy Spirit helps us from this passage.
1. The Holy Spirit sustains us.
Jesus had just taken Satan on three times and had fasted for forty days and nights. You would think He would need a week off for rest and refreshing before He headed back to Galilee and started teaching. But, no, right after that exhausting and draining desert experience He came back home ready to jump in and get started. He was operating not in His own strength, but in the Holy Spirit’s power.
2. The Holy Spirit inspires us to share God’s message. Jesus quoted the prophet
Isaiah when He said in verse 18, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
You and I have the same ability through the Spirit’s power to share all of the Good News Jesus shared. It’s all as simple as pointing people to Jesus.
3. The Holy Spirit guides us. The Holy Spirit led Jesus to begin His ministry at
home. It didn’t go very well. In fact the crowd took Him to the edge of a cliff with the hopes of pushing Him off! However, Jesus walked right through the crowd and left town. Maybe you are in a tight spot and you see no way out. Jesus could have looked at the edge of that cliff and thought, “This is it. Death is in front of me, and there is no way out. Mission over!” But the Holy Spirit guided Him right through the crowd.
The Holy Spirit IS God. He is faithful to His promises just as God the Father is. He will sustain you. He will inspire you to share the Good News. He will guide you. Are you seeking, like Christ, to be in the power of the Spirit?
Praying God continues to grow in us this week.
Pastor Melissa
