Form Without Power
Church - Part 1
Sunday, May 15, 2022
Acts 1:2-5; Matthew 12:43-46
“When an unclean spirit leaves a person, it wanders through dry places looking for a place to rest. But it doesn’t find any. Then it says, ‘I’ll go back to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the place vacant, cleaned up, and decorated. Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself. They go in and make their home there. That person is worse off at the end than at the beginning. This is the way it will be also for this evil generation.”
Matthew 12:43-45
Listen to this week’s sermon here:
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Do you accept the freedom and power God gives you to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves?
In this vow we declare our belief that God not only saves us from the consequences of sin, but from the power of sin itself. Like the person in the scripture above, we are often quick to cast out the unclean things from among us, but we do not fully allow God’s Spirit to take up residence in its place. We do not accept the freedom and power God gives us to overcome sin and darkness.
John Wesley once wrote,
I am not afraid that the people called Methodists should ever cease to exist either in Europe or America. But I am afraid lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having the form of religion without the power. And this undoubtedly will be the case unless they hold fast to both the doctrine, spirit, and discipline with which they first set out.
It’s easy to develop a like-minded club or group of people who like each other and want to live good lives and keep themselves separated from the world around them. It’s easy to have worship services and read the bible together in Sunday School and share fellowship meals. It’s even easy to do a few community service projects… We are very good at “playing church”.
But without the fire of the Holy Spirit and the power He gives us to live out the discipline and commitment of our Baptismal Covenant, we are not The Church.
If we have been baptized by the Holy Spirit and by fire, God has consumed all evil and wickedness within us. If we allow the His fire to burn within us, no evil can return and we will experience freedom from sin, guilt, and shame.
Will we vow again, to live the Holy Life to which we were called, out of darkness into the marvelous light of Jesus, the Christ? Let us pray:
Lord, I come, and I confess,
there are things in me, that are not of you
and I lay down my mess.
I replace it with your love,
I replace it with your peace.
I surrender all that is holding me back
from all you have for me.
Cheryl Vought, “Replace It”