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"Be Filled to Pour Out" Acts 1:8; 2:16-21

by Clancy Nixon

May 11, 2008

Church of the Holy Spirit

Ashburn, Virginia

www.HolySpiritAnglican.org

To all you moms out there, Happy Mother's Day! We honor you today, as we

honor all women. Since it's also Pentecost today, which is the day we celebrate the

giving of Holy Spirit power in fullness to the church, we're going to look at the

supernatural power that is available to you in your calling as a parent, indeed in any work

you might put your hand to. The title of my message today is "Be Filled to Pour Out."

As many of you know, I first came to believe in Christ as my Savior at an

Episcopal summer camp on the shores of Lake Erie in Ohio. I remember one family

camper named Rick. I asked him how he was doing. He said, "I've been doing great, at

least since I've been here. See that water bucket hanging on the outside of back of the

cabin? When I come to camp, slow down, and take a long look at the lake, and let go of

my usual worries, then my bucket gets filled up again." I know how Rick feels. From

time to time, I have felt like I'm running on empty; the water level in the bucket of my

life can feel like it's getting very low. When the woman with the issue of blood touched

the hem of Jesus' garment in Luke 8:45, Jesus felt the power go out of him. I sometimes

feel like I've been pouring out for so long, so much power has gone out of me that I

simply don't have any more reserves that I can pour out. I need to refuel, and it's not so

much sleep or rest I need, though I may very well need those things. I need to be refilled

with the Holy Spirit for service. The Filling (of the Holy Spirit) is for Service.

Mothers and fathers, many of you know what this feels like when it comes to your

kids you've prayed, you've been diligent, you've done your best to "train up your child

in the way he should go." But perhaps you're still waiting for the other half of the

promise from Proverbs 22:6 to be fulfilled in your child's life "and when he is old, he

will not depart from it." Your bucket feels low - not just because the promise has not yet

been fulfilled that's true for all parents until a child grows up - but because sometimes,

if your child becomes cold to the things of God, you fear that the promise may not ever

be fulfilled. In my own life, I've always trusted that promise for my children, even

though there have been times when my children are not exactly hungering and thirsting to

hear another one of my sermons!

Even so, I have had that feeling like I'm running on empty, of discouragement, of

feeling low on God's power. It typically comes when 2 things happen to me at the same

time: 1) Circumstances don't go the way I had planned; and 2) God seems far away. By

contrast, during those times when my faith level is high and God seems near, when I am

filled with the Holy Spirit - then even when things go really badly when I believe that

God is in control, I find that God gives me strength to serve with joy. To continue this

metaphor, if you and I are buckets, then God the Holy Spirit is the water in the bucket.

When we pour out our lives in service, we find that we need to refill that bucket with

more of God, with more of his power, and more of his love in our lives. If we don't do

that, if we neglect our own spiritual health in service to others, if we try to serve in our

own strength, then we will feel empty, and it will feel like God is far away. So we need

to fill up on God, but never forget that the Filling (of the Holy Spirit) is for Service.

Sometimes, as I read my Bible, a huge cognitive dissonance arises in my guts. As

I read of the initial outpouring of signs and wonders on the first church in Jerusalem in

Acts 2, as I read of the thousands of converts that church experienced, and how disciples

were multiplied, the vast difference between the church of the book of Acts and the

church as we experience it today all this makes me parched, and thirsty for more. I don't

believe my vision for Church of the Holy Spirit, that we would be an Acts 2 church, is

asking too much. Remember Acts 2:42 and following. We are a church whose vision is to

devote ourselves to the apostles' teaching, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers;

we are to be in awe at the signs and wonders that are done among us; we are to share our

possessions as people have needs; and we are to see God adding to our number daily

those who are being saved. That's not asking too much! I'm believing that our

congregation should be normal, that's all.

John 7:37 and 38 tells us that on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, which is

the harvest feast when people erect and camp out in booths made of branches, Jesus stood

and cried out to the crowds in Jerusalem, "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let

the one who believes in me drink. Out of the believer's heart shall flow rivers of living

water." In verse 7:39, John tells us that this was referring to the Holy Spirit, which

believers in Jesus were to receive after Jesus was glorified. When I think about that

metaphor of living water flowing from you and me, that looks like supernatural power for

ministry service, supernatural power for witness. Jesus isn't talking about whether your

bucket is full; John takes us far beyond that metaphor, so far beyond it that not only does

our heart, or our "cup runneth over," but rivers of living water flow out of our hearts.

Jesus is using an image from the Feast of Tabernacles that everyone around him

had just been witnessing. Each day during the feast, a priest would fetch water in a

golden pitcher from the pool of Siloam as a symbol of the water that God brought forth

from the rock in the desert in Exodus 17. In the ceremony, the priest bought the water to

the Temple in a procession, and poured it out on the altar as an offering to God, while the

people sang and shouted. Jesus announced that day that he was the font of living water,

and that when you drank from his fountain, you too would become a fountain of life for

others. We become fountains when we are filled with the Holy Spirit to overflowing.

Every fountain needs a water source, and we need to fill up on God in order to be

fountains for our children, for our parents, for those we serve in our workplaces and in

our schools.

There is a principle in ministry that illumines our roles as parents and as teachers:

You can't give away what you don't have. By contrast, it's easy to give away what you

do have. My mother knew how to enjoy herself around her friends, so it's never been

hard for me to enjoy being around people. One of my sons called me yesterday and asked

me if he could buy a certain expensive gift for his mother for Mother's Day. I said that

was very generous and thoughtful of him; then I asked him if he had the money to buy it,

or was he really asking me if I would pay for it? [pause] I'm not going to tell you his

answer! You can't give away what you don't have. The same is true of spiritual things.

Before you can give away a spiritual blessing, first you must already possess it, or you

must ask the Father in Heaven to give it to you so you can give it away. If you want your

children to have a daily quiet time, yes, you need to teach them how to do it, but even

more important, you must have your own quiet time with God. You have to model it.

During his visit, Bishop John Guernsey told your Vestry that they should never expect

the congregation to rise above the spiritual commitment that they themselves show.

I know that most of you don't feel like fountains of living water most of the time.

Most of us are just trying to keep our own buckets full. Here's how we can become

fountains of living water; here is how we get power for service. So listen carefully.

Back in Acts 1:5, the resurrected Christ appeared to his disciples, and Jesus told

them that he would baptize them with the Holy Spirit. Now the Greek word for baptize,

baptizo, means to immerse, or in the sense of a sunken ship, to be waterlogged. It doesn't

mean sprinkle. It means dunk. Not just a quick dip in the water, but a sense that the water

is now with you always: to be saturated, or marinated in the Holy Spirit, so God the Holy

Spirit seeps through and becomes a part of your every fiber. Jesus says, be baptized; we

might say, let your bucket be filled to overflowing from the River of life, so that you too

become a fountain of living water, serving others with such love and such devotion that

people can see the Holy Spirit on you. That is what happened at Pentecost, in Acts 2,

which records the fulfillment of Acts 1:5, ten days later - they were baptized in the Holy

Spirit so that people saw fire alight on them. Then they spoke in tongues, in order that

people could hear the gospel message in their own language, be saved, and join the

community of believers. The gift of tongues was for witness. In Acts 1:8, Jesus said,

"You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you shall be my

witnesses...." If you have never received the gift of tongues or of prophecy, be

encouraged by the Apostle Paul in First Corinthians 14:1: we are to eagerly desire the

spiritual gifts, and Jesus promises us that when the ask the Father for more of the Holy

Spirit, He will give Him to us (Luke 11:13). Ask him today. Our prayer ministers would

be glad to pray with you on the left aisle today or any Sunday to receive any spiritual gift

that you desire to receive.

Being filled with the Holy Spirit is not intended to be a one-off experience. It is a

continuous need. It's not so much that we leak it's that we burn the fuel of the power

of God in us, so we need another filling. The reason that we need filling is for service in

His power, not ours. Be filled to pour it out.

Left to our own devices, all of us run out of gas in the spiritual realm. We all need

to be intentional about connecting with God in a focused way at least once a day. Look at

Acts 2:42. Being devoted to the apostles' teaching means studying the Bible. Every day!

Do you have daily needs for guidance? Of course you do so you need your daily bread,

daily scripture intake. Being devoted to the breaking of the bread refers to the Holy

Communion you need that feeding every week, for spiritual strength! The blood of

Jesus is a powerful weapon against the enemy of your soul. Being devoted to the prayers

means daily prayers. The point is not so much the spiritual disciplines themselves; the

point is to connect with God every day, so that you experience spiritual exhilaration

regularly! Listen to me. If you do not taste the love of God for any length of time, you

are in spiritual danger. "When Christ ceases to fill the heart with satisfaction, our souls

will go in search of other lovers." (Maurice Roberts, The Thought of God, quoted in John

Eldredge, Wild at Heart, p. 172)

If you want to move beyond the stage of bucket-filling to becoming a fountain of

living water, you are going to have to pay the price in time with God. You can't give

away what you don't have. We'd all like to see the fruit that Acts 2:47 speaks of "And

God added daily to their number those who were being saved." This does not suggest a

program of evangelism, but father it suggests people who were so in love with God, that

they became fountains of living water to those around them. Be filled to pour it out.

What is our job description? Love God, and love your neighbor. Fall more in

love with Jesus, and be a loving witness to your neighbor. The power is for witness.

Amen.