Hungry for the Holy Spirit

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5-31-09, Cornerstone Life Church, Foley, AL.
Pentecost Sunday

The Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came to fill believers is a perfect example of the fact that we have to hunger and thirst for the things of God if we are going to experience them. The disciples gathered every day for at least 30 days to pray and wait for the Holy Spirit. They were doing what Jesus told them to do. If we are going to receive all that God has for us, we are going to have to be hungry enough to do what the Bible says to do.

Matthew 5:6
6"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. NASB

6Blessed and fortunate and happy and spiritually prosperous (in that state in which the born-again child of God enjoys His favor and salvation) are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (uprightness and right standing with God), for they shall be completely satisfied! AMP

John 14-16 Jesus told them the Holy Spirit was coming, but in Acts He told them they were to wait for Him. The end of Jesus ministry on the earth was full of His instructions concerning the Holy Spirit.

Jesus earthly ministry was limited to speaking to those who were near him, the Holy Spirit has some of the same limitations. We must draw near and listen to him in order to receive what He has for us.

Jesus was very specific in his instructions to the disciples. They were to wait, not go any where until they had received the Holy Spirit. They couldn’t just go fishing, bowling, or wherever they wanted to go. He told them to wait there. They were to wait together. They basically had church every day for 30 days. Imagine coming to church 30 days in a row and nothing happens the first 29 days. Do you think you would keep coming back after the first week? Second week? Third week?

Acts 1:4-8, 13-14
4Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, "Which," He said, "you heard of from Me;
5for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."
6So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, "Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?"
7He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority;
8but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth."
13When they had entered the city, they went up to the upper room where they were staying; that is, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James.
14These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.

Acts 2:1-4
1When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.
2And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
3And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them.
4And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.

If we want to hear the Holy Spirit's voice, we will have to listen, take time. The Holy Spirit is limited to speaking to people that will listen to Him, just like Jesus was when He walked the earth. Ex of Paul & Barnabas being set apart by the Spirit during a special time of ministry.

Acts 13:1-3
1Now there were at Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets and teachers: Barnabas, and Simeon who was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.
2While they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them."
3Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.

If you want the plan of God for your life, you’re going to have to be hungry enough for it to spend time worshipping God and laying aside other things in our life, fasting. Creating an atmosphere where the Holy Spirit can move, like the Apostle Paul did here. The Holy Spirit already knew the plan, but he didn’t speak until Paul and the others sought after God.

Click here to go the the site where you can view the whole sermon outline, listen online, or download to your computer.

What are you hungry for

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What are you hungry for?

Have you ever had a craving for something, and no matter how much other stuff you eat, if it’s not what you were craving, you will not be satisfied until you get what you were craving. Jesus said that we were supposed to hunger and thirst, or crave, after the things of God. A natural hunger will motivate you to do something. If we are truly hungering and thirsting for the things of God, we are willing to do something about it.

Matthew 5:6"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. New American Standard Bible

6Blessed and fortunate and happy and spiritually prosperous (in that state in which the born-again child of God enjoys His favor and salvation) are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (uprightness and right standing with God), for they shall be completely satisfied! Amplified Translation

The basic meaning of righteousness is "right standing with God". It also has to do with God's way of doing things. The "God way", or the "right way". God has a way of living laid out in his Word. We have to "hunger and thirst" for that way, if we are to be satisfied. God's way should be the top priority in our life.

Isaiah 54:17
No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.

Hunger spurns us to action.

What are you willing to do to satisfy your hunger for more of God?

If we are not being satisfied with the things of God, we may need to do more partaking of the things of God. Ie. Praying, studying the Word, going to church, listening to preaching, telling someone about Jesus. We do not earn our salvation by these things, but the kingdom of God, in some ways, is like anything else: you get out of it what you put in it. If you want more of God, you’re going to have to give more of yourself.

If we are not being satisfied with the things of God, we may need to do something different. What used to satisfy, may no longer do it. It’s good to change things up sometimes, alter out routine.

There will always be more of God for us to enjoy. He always has more that He wants to give us, to do for us.

Even in the natural, if we feed our body healthy things, we will begin to crave healthy things instead of junk all the time. If we will begin to spend more time with God, we will begin to crave more of God.

Click here to go the the site where you can view the whole sermon outline, listen online, or download to your computer.

Good shepherds have good sheep

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Jesus told us that He is the great shepherd. A shepherd’s job is to make sure that his sheep are provided for. This message talks about the fact that our shepherd has provided healing for us. As the title says: Good shepherds have good sheep. Bad shepherds have bad looking, sickly sheep. Thank God our Shepherd is a good one.

Mark 1:40-44

John 10:1-18 He is the good shepherd.

John 15:1-8 He is the gardener

Both a shepherd and a gardener are very interested in the wellbeing of their subjects. A good shepherd doesn’t have sickly, dying sheep. A good gardener doesn’t have sickly, dying fruit.

John 14 Jesus does the works of the Father.

Psalm 91:16With long life will I satisfy him and show him My salvation.

John 6:38 (New American Standard Bible) "For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.

Click here to go the the site where you can view the whole sermon outline, listen online, or download to your computer.

Freedom Celebration

Freedom Celebration from Brian Salley on Vimeo.

Monday, April 19th, 1993 I experienced a miracle in my life. We've created this video to share the details of it. I know that this is not the greatest story ever told, but it is my story.

My prayer is that this story will challenge you to reach out for more of God. He has more available than we could even imagine. He's more than enough of whatever you need.

Thank you for celebrating this time with me. I would love to hear your comments about this video. Feel free to share this with anyone you think might benefit form it. It is also available for download if you would like.

A big thank you to Nathan Maulorico of UnknownFilms.com for making this video for me. He did a great job. Check out his site sometime.

Accomplished at the Cross

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4-11-09, SAM, Easter Sunday, CLC

Accomplished at the Cross

There was a lot more accomplished at the Cross than just forgiveness of our sins. Jesus did more than just provide a way for us to go to heaven.

Pe 2:24 and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed. Nasb

1Pe 2:24 The burden of our sins He Himself carried in His own body to the Cross and bore it there, so that we, having died so far as our sins are concerned, may live righteous lives. By His wounds yours have been healed. (Weymouths)

1. Forgiveness of our sins
2. Everything else hinges on this
1. This gives salvation – the most important part is the not going to hell / spending eternity with God.
2. Righteousness was provided for us.
3. We were given Jesus’ position with the Father.
4. He took our place, so we could take His.

2Co 5:21 He made Him who knew no sin [to be] sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. NASB

2 Cor 5:21 21How? you ask. In Christ. God put the wrong on him who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God. Message.

3. Our healing was provided for.

Isaiah 53:2-12

Isaiah 53:4 ¶ Surely our sicknesses he hath borne, And our pains—he hath carried them, And we—we have esteemed him plagued, Smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 And he is pierced for our transgressions, Bruised for our iniquities, The chastisement of our peace is on him, And by his bruise there is healing to us. Weymouths

4. Our prosperity was provided for

2Co 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.

3Jo 1:2 Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. KJV

3Jo 1:2 Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers. NASB

Click here to go the the site where you can view the whole sermon outline, listen online, or download to your computer.

It's been a while

Well, I know it's been quite some time since the last post. As some of you may know, adding another job and another child kind of cuts into blogging time, lol. Starting with the Easter message that will be posted shortly, I am going to try and podcasting our Sunday morning services again. I am also going to start a new personal blog. It will be mostly a video blog, most entries only being about 3 minutes in length. The address for this one is BrianSalley.com.

I'd like to let you know about something coming up this Sunday. I've created an event on FaceBook called Freedom Celebration for it. Monday, April 19th, 1993 I experienced a miracle in my life. I've created this event to celebrate that miracle. On Sunday, April 19th, 2009 I will post a video telling my story. Once the video is posted, you can watch it at any time. I invite all my friends and family to watch and see what happened to me. After watching the video, I would love to hear your comments and or questions.

This event is open so you can invite friends, or others, anyone you know that might be interested in hearing about this. You don't have to go anywhere to attend this event, just watch the video and find out what happened. I hope you will join me. You can view the event and RSVP at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=66707811908

If you are not on FaceBook or don't want to be, I will also post the video on BrianSalley.com, so you can watch it there.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this blog. I pray that it will be an encouragement to you.

What How Why 2

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What are we supposed to be doing?
How are we supposed to be doing it?
Why are we supposed to be doing it?

Through time we lose sight of the answers to these questions: in our own lives, as well as in the church. Let's look in the Bible, at the life of Jesus, to see the answers to these questions.

What are we supposed to be doing? WWJD

WDJD
What
Did
Jesus
Do

He purposefully revealed the Father to mankind, acted as His representative.
Heb 1:3 His Son is the reflection of God's glory and the exact likeness of God's being. GWV
Heb 1:3 The Son radiates God's own glory and expresses the very character of God, NLT
Heb 1:3 He brightly reflects God's glory and is the exact representation of His being
Heb 1:3He is the sole expression of the glory of God [the Light-being, the [a]out-raying or radiance of the divine], and He is the perfect imprint and very image of [God's] AMP.

How are we supposed to be doing it?
How did Jesus reveal the Father to the people?
By intersecting peoples' lives with the goodness and power of God.

Acts 10:38 "[You know of] Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and [how] He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.
Luke 19:10 "For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost."

Story of Zaccheus

Luke 19:1-10. 1 He entered Jericho and was passing through.
2 And there was a man called by the name of Zaccheus; he was a chief tax collector and he was rich.
3 Zaccheus was trying to see who Jesus was, and was unable because of the crowd, for he was small in stature.
4 So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree in order to see Him, for He was about to pass through that way.
5 When Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, "Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house."
6 And he hurried and came down and received Him gladly.
7 When they saw it, they all began to grumble, saying, "He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner."
8 Zaccheus stopped and said to the Lord, "Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much."
9 And Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham.
10 "For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost."

What are we supposed to be doing?
Revealing the Father to mankind

How are we supposed to be doing it?
By getting involved in the lives of the people around us, people in the community.

Click here to go the the site where you can view the whole sermon outline, listen online, or download to your computer.