Acts 19 verses 1 -10

Do you sometimes think to yourself - there must be more to Christianity than this? You hear bible passages that speak of streams of living water flowing in your life and of experiencing love and joy and peace.

You hear of God working through people and touching people’s lives with his love and healing power. But if you’re honest this isn’t really your experience.

You come to church week in and week out and do your best to be a good person, to be kind and thoughtful but somehow God seems a bit distant.

Sometimes you pray and you’re sure that God must be listening but really it’s a bit of an effort. And sometimes you read your bible but you find it quite hard to understand.

You would like to share your faith but you find it very difficult and you’re really not sure what you should say.

If this resonates with you – you are not alone. I think this is a common experience for many who go to church.

We may have been baptised and confirmed and we may have had the odd spiritual experience when we felt close to God but by and large God can feel quite distant and our faith can feel a bit flat and lifeless.

Perhaps this is how the disciples we read about in today’s passage from Acts felt. No doubt they were good people who were genuinely trying to live in a way that pleased God – but there was obviously something missing from their lives.

Most of the pieces of the jigsaw were in place but a vital bit was missing and so their picture and experience of Christianity wasn’t complete.

However Paul being a spiritually perceptive sort of chap gets to the root of their problem quite quickly. They needed to open their lives to Jesus and receive the Holy Spirit and when they did this – the jigsaw would be complete.

And I think if we feel spiritually flat and a bit lifeless, the solution for us also - is to open our lives to Jesus and ask him to fill us and empower us with his Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit makes the world of difference to our lives and our faith. He is the one who makes God real and alive. He is the one who inspires us to pray and helps us to understand the bible. He is the one who fills our hearts with God’s love and inspires and enables us to reach out to others.

Of course there are lots of different theological views about the Holy Spirit and when and how he comes into people’s lives - but in some ways these theological arguments are a distraction from the really important questions which are – firstly - is He in our life? Has the Holy Spirit really come to live in us?

In other words have we been born again and do we know God? Have we opened the door of our heart and invited Jesus into our life? Because if we haven’t, our faith will be no more than a vague hope and God will remain outside our lives.

And secondly if we have done this - and the Holy Spirit is living in us - have we been empowered by him? Have we come to Jesus and invited him to fill us with his spirit and to impart spiritual gifts to us? Because if we haven’t we won’t be as effective disciples as we could be.

And although we may have faith and believe in Jesus - our Christian lives may be a bit flat and uninspiring; prayer and bible reading may tend to be a struggle and sharing our faith may be hard work, rather than an overflow of the life that is in us.

And thirdly, even if we have been empowered by him - are we continuing to live in that empowering? Are we continuing to ask the Holy Spirit to fill us afresh and remaining open to receiving whatever else God may desire to pour into our lives?

So wherever we are in our faith journey – we all need the Holy Spirit.

Of course once we have received him we still need to put effort into our relationship with God and set aside time to pray and read our bibles and look for opportunities to share our faith. It’s just that he helps us to do these things more effectively.

Personally I think it would make a tremendous difference to Brenchley church if more of us would recognise our need to be empowered by God - and then actually trust God enough to come to Him and invite Him to fill us with his Holy Spirit and to impart whatever gifts He chooses, to us.

Of course the problem is that many of us are perhaps – if we’re honest - a bit afraid. We’d like our faith to be a bit more alive but we’re nervous about opening our lives to God.

Although Jesus says that he will only give us good gifts, there’s part of us that’s unsure. Perhaps we’re afraid of being keener or more spiritually alive Christians. How different might we be - and what might people think?

So although ideally we’d like to be more fruitful and better able to share our faith – we hold back and shy away from God. What we are familiar with – even though it’s a bit dry and uninspiring - seems safer than receiving spiritual gifts that sound a bit – well – other worldly.

Or perhaps some of us have had negative experiences in the past and have been hurt by other Christians – and this has put us off. So we stick with what feels safe.

Perhaps although we haven’t had first-hand experience of the gifts of the spirit we’ve heard about them from others and it all sounds a bit well supernatural – so we shy away from it.

There are lots of reasons why Christians - especially in the West – shy away from seeking to be filled or baptised with the Holy Spirit – whatever you want to call it

I remember when I wanted to be empowered by God in this way – feeling quite nervous about it.

I’d been a Christian for 5 or 6 years but I noticed at the Anglican Church I was going to in Tunbridge Wells, that some people had a certain power when they prayed or spoke about God – which I didn’t have.

Somehow they just seemed to be a bit more in tune with God. I really wanted this power in my life but there was also a part of me that was afraid of going deeper into the things of God.

In the end my desire to be filled and empowered by the Holy Spirit was stronger than my fear - so I asked someone to lay hands on me and pray for me.

I felt something of the holiness of God when I was prayed for but apart from this I didn’t feel any different.

However over the coming weeks and months I did notice a new power and vitality in my Christian life. I felt better able to pray – especially in prayer meetings, and better able to share my faith.

I also noticed that God started to communicate with me more through little pictures in my mind’s eye and on occasion He gave me encouraging words to share with people – which He hadn’t done before. And I felt a new sense of wanting to worship God.

All in all what God did in my life that day has stayed with me and has made a tremendous difference to my Christian life.

Although I had been afraid - it really wasn’t a scary experience at all. Someone simply laid hands on me and prayed for me. That was it. I didn’t have any amazing visions or feel any power surging through me.

It was very much as we do when we have prayer for healing at the communion rail.

And the reason I’m sharing this is that I believe God wants to empower and fill all Christians with his Holy Spirit. If you are a Christian this is part of your birth right.

In the early church as we’ve read in the passage in Acts today - it was the norm for Christians to have hands laid on them and to be prayed for in this way. It was part and parcel of what was considered normal Christianity.

Today it is the norm particularly of course in Pentecostal and Charismatic churches, but increasingly also in some Anglican and Catholic churches.

I remember for instance a few months ago Campbell telling us about The Right Reverend Richard Hare, the Bishop of Pontefract who experienced being empowered by God, and the tremendous difference it made to his life and faith.

The trouble is, as I’ve already said, many of us are a bit suspicious of anything that seems a bit other-worldly , - but surely being a Christian is already other-worldly.

I mean if the Holy Spirit is already living in us – isn’t that other-worldly in a sense – and if He is already living in us - why is it scary to ask Him to empower us?

Ultimately I think the whole subject comes down to trusting Jesus. To trusting him when he says; “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

God loves us and He wants to pour good things into our lives. He also knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows exactly which spiritual gifts to impart to us – gifts that will useful for the roles He calls us to and gifts that will be a blessing to others.

I think we need to put aside all our negative preconceptions about gifts of the spirit and speaking in tongues. And if we’ve been hurt we need to realise that it wasn’t God who was at fault – it was unloving Christians.

And then we need to step through our fear. Fear is a trick of the enemy – and he most certainly doesn’t want to us to be filled and empowered by God because He knows it will make us more fruitful and effective Christians – something he doesn’t want.

My grandparents told me a story about a little boy who was afraid of a monster. His parents told him that the monster was small and harmless but he didn’t believe them. As far as he was concerned it looked huge.

His parents told him that if he walked towards it, it would become smaller, but again he didn’t believe them.

In the end though, he decided he’d be brave and trust his parents and so he walked towards the monster and a very strange thing happened. He found that the closer he got, the smaller the monster became.

And when he reached it, it was actually tiny and fitted in the palm of his hand. It wasn’t scary at all.

We all need to open our lives to God and allow him to empower in any way he sees fit – not just for ourselves - but for those around us – our family, our friends, our neighbours, and our church family.

God wants us to be fruitful. And if we believe that He really loves us – we need to trust him. Like little children we need to come to Jesus and say Lord I trust you to give me only what is good.

Please fill me with your spirit and empower me as you desire and impart to me any gifts that you want me to have - because I want to be the most effective disciple I can.

So to end, can I encourage you – wherever you are in your journey of faith –to open your life to God and to trust Him. If you’re not yet a Christian you can invite Jesus into your life quietly by yourself. He is only a prayer away. Or if you’d prefer – find someone to pray with you.

If you are a  Christian but you haven’t experienced being empowered by God - find a mature Christian that you trust and ask him or her to lay hands on you and pray that God will fill you with his spirit and impart to you any gifts He wants you to have.

And if you’ve been empowered in this way in the past, but you feel a bit like a dry lawn that needs watering - why not come to God again and ask him to refresh and revive you – to pour out His spirit upon you afresh.

In the name of the living God. Amen