Project Change Weekly Messages

WM8 Change Series #1 February 25, 2017

The Holy Spirit isn't some imaginary thing that sortof happens after being baptized. I have a friend in school that was baptized in Jesus' name, and trust me when I tell you that he isn't filled with the Holy Spirit yet. In fact, he hasn't changed a bit since he got "saved".

But when we are willing to repent, sacrifice and praise, we can be filled with Jesus's true Holy Ghost, which, while not making us perfect by any means, leads us, guides us, strengthens us, changes us, and saves us.

When filled with the Holy Ghost, all people of all different backgrounds speak a united tongue, one that doesn't come from this world, and binds us together, signifying our siblinghood that stretches the globe in Jesus's awesome plan for us! When we speak in tongues, Jesus's Holy Spirit is giving us a new song of praise to Him, in a foreign language, that floods our souls, makes us desire change, fills us with joy and strength and energy and love!

Even when trying to do good for Jesus we can have a self-centered Gospel. I might be guilty for this in my past sermons sometimes. And here's what I mean: It's more than God fixing us to be the right people so WE can change the world. If we show God's glory to the world, through the same mercy, wisdom and love that only He has and only He can give, God can change the world through us. We can only botch things up, even when we try to do good, and God is the only one who can make things better. We need to wake up, and immediately start praying to sacrifice our mindsets to God, exchanging our fleshly self-centered view that tries to reclaim our hearts every minute, trading it in Jesus's blood for one that says, "How can I show HIS GLORY? How can I show HIM and what HE CAN DO, instead of trying to help with my own weak hands?"

And we need to praise. The Bible says God inhabits the praise of His people. And I can provide a personal testimony, that begging for God to do things does nothing. I've whined and moaned and begged for all sorts of things and nothing happened. But when we praise Him, just lift His name up and tell Him how we love Him and how good He is, He can't help but enter into his people and change lives and heal. If we are going to be the Christians God wants to use to change this world, we need to learn to praise everyday.

We can adopt a mindset that we will never complain or sulk in prayer. I'm going to start doing this and I want all of you guys to do this too.
We don't get any stronger from prayer and we don't get what we need to sustain a relationship when we whine! Instead, it only weakens us.
But when we are down, we can ask God (in praise!) to give us the strength to praise Him through all our needs, requests, repentance, sacrifices, and all the other things we need in prayer. Can you imagine how strong we would be spiritually if every word we spoke to God had a humble, praise-giving heart? Can you imagine how much He would appreciate that??

And the devil thrives off our desire to whine.
"Ohhh, Im so sorry, God."
"Ohhh, please oh please please help me."
We're all guilty of it (I just realized it's wrong today!) but what it does is it plants seeds of negativity in us. And if we don't allow those things in our hearts or to come from our mouths...

How can the devil produce Fruit of Negativity and Sin in us, if we don't let his seeds hit the ground?

Repentance, Sacrifice, Praise. This is how you get the Holy Ghost, and that is how we must live in the Holy Ghost every single day. If we pray everyday, striving to Repent, Sacrifice, and Praise, our prayers will make us the tools we need to be for the Carpenter to work with.

If we read the Bible everyday, refusing to finish until it leads us to Repentance, Sacrifice, and Praise, Jesus can root out all of our hidden sins and make us wise enough to help our brothers and sisters in the faith, as well as everyone who needs it.

If we live everyday, refusing to exist without daily Repentance, Sacrifice and Praise, we can live for God.

I'm not talking about establishing some kind of daily religious ritual, or a pre-planned prayer to accomplish this, because that will only do the opposite. What I'm talking about is a relationship with Jesus Christ in which everything is His, something I can't pretend to say that I have yet. But if we get over ourselves, give it all to God, realize He is the ONLY star of the show, we can, through Him, change the world.

Mission: Repentance, Sacrifice, and Praise every single day. We need to Spirit-filled annointed believers or we will never get anywhere.

I have heard from Isaac, at least three or four people from state youth congress, my pastor, my youth pastor, and my friend who saved me that they have ALL recieved some kind of revelation that 2017 is going to be the year that revival starts. A few weeks ago, said friend prophesied, God spoke through her directly to us, that our church is called to be His soldiers.

2017 can be our year. If we are spiritually ready every single day to take a step of faith, God can use us for His purposes. Not all of us are called to be missionaries or pastors or bishops, but we are all called for a great, glorious, awesome responsibility to share His beautiful love.

And that is what can change the world.