It is possible for your power needs to outweigh your power supply.

When we attempt to draw more power than a circuit can provide we will be left powerless. In life we need to be connected to a power source that can supply our power need. Power comes through connection.
Jesus is the only source of power that can supply all of your needs.
Jesus promised in Acts 1:8 that we would receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on us. If this power is for us to receive, then we need to stop living powerless lives.
Power comes with the Holy Spirit connection. Power comes through connection. Are you connected?

Power comes through Connection from Redemption Church on Vimeo.

Power comes through Connection

Sermon notes by Chris Fluitt

Redemption Plano tx

Welcome to the year 2017.
Hello to all of our podcast listeners, Youtube subscribers, and whoever might be finding this sermon. My name is Chris Fluitt. I serve as lead Pastor here at Redemption Church in Plano Tx. It is an honor to minister the Word to you today.

1 Powerful Year

My prayer for you this year is that you would have a POWERFUL YEAR. A lot of us feel like we limped through 2016. We may feel like we barely survived in our relationships, our health, and our finances.
I am praying that your 2017 would be a year of power, strength, momentum, victory, encouragement, faith, miracles, and success. God wants to power your year. He wants to power every area of your life. DO YOU WANT THAT?
Acts 1:8 is our memory verse for the month of January. Memorize this scripture.
Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”(NIV)

2 We need Power

One of the worst things that can happen in your home is to lose power.

No heat in the winter.
No AC in the 8 month long Texas summer.
No light in the night time hours.
Worst of all… No Netflix.

We need power to function. We need power to succeed. When we have no power, nothing works. All the high dollar things you are so proud of don’t work without power.
Your 60 inch smart tv with the truest of black and the highest 4k resolution… is a broken picture frame without power.
Your iPhone 7s with its apple A10 fusion quad core processor and 3 GBs of ram, those strange little Bluetooth earbuds, and all those cool games and apps… it is a $700 paperweight without power.
Most of the things you own… the things your dream about owning, are worthless without power.

Your relationships need power. Your marriage. Your family. There is a need for power.
Your church needs power.
Your calling in God needs power.
We need to power up our finances, our careers, our education.
We are in need of power in every area of our life.

Acts 1:8 tells us that God will give us power. If God has promised to give us power, then we need to stop living powerless lives.
Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you…NIV)

3 Power is yours to receive

If power is yours to recive, then we need to stop living powerless lives.

Acts 1:8 gives us a principle.

4 Power comes through connection

When you are connected to the Holy Spirit you will receive power. Power comes through connection.

This makes sense in the physical.

Your house is literally connected to power line cables. Without that connection there is no power.
If you don’t connect your phone to the charger then it will not receive power.

The power comes through connection.

Do you understand why we worship? Do you understand why some around you are singing and raising their hands? They are connecting.
Do you understand why we pray? Do you understand why people come to this altar and talk to God? Do you understand why we pray for each other? Do you understand why we lay hands on people and pray for them? It is about connection.
Do you understand why we need to seek God every day and not just on Sundays at church time? We need to connect in order to have power.

When we don’t connect to God’s UNLIMITED power, we try to use our own LIMITED power.

In my house growing up we had a reoccurring problem. If someone used the microwave and the toaster at the same time we would lose all power in the kitchen. We would suddenly be standing in the dark with no power and someone would have to grab a flashlight and go find the circuit breaker. We would have to flip the switch on the circuit breaker to restore power.

5 Overloaded circuits

The circuit breaker distributes power throughout my home. It will send so many amps of power to the kitchen and so many amps of power to the bedroom and so on.
When we used the microwave and the toaster at the same time, it would try to draw more power than the circuit could provide. This would overload the circuit and cause it to shut down.
It is possible for your power needs to outweigh your power supply.
There was a time at Redemption Church where we tried to serve a meal after service using 6 Crock Pots. Who remembers the Crock Pot Chaos of 2010? We kept losing power during the service because the crock pots required more power than the circuit could provide.
It is possible for your power needs to outweigh your power supply.

We often connect to things and ask for more power than they can provide.
There are some good things you can connect to… but they can’t supply all the power you need.

{Power Strip Visual}
A relationship. Relationships are good. Marriage, family, friendship – These are Godly ideas, but can these relationships supply you with the power you need?
Try getting happiness from a relationship and you will end up with an overloaded circuit. No person can make you happy all the time. The sifting situations of life will bring about seasons where you need to draw more from a relationship than it can supply.
Your career. Careers are good. Money in the bank is great. Promotions, success, and influence – These are Godly ideas but can your career supply you with all the power you need?
Try getting peace from your bank account and you will be left in the dark. The economy is never something that provides true lasting peace. In the midnight hour when you can’t sleep because you are worried and fearful, your career cannot supply you with the peace you need.
Try getting fulfilment from your successes. Your latest victory is not enough. You don’t even pause long enough to celebrate the last success, because you need to move on to the next one. No amount of success will supply the fulfilment you so desperately need to draw into your soul.

Your status with people. You ever try to get life from what other people think of you? It will leave you powerless.
Pleasure. People will try to draw from a drug addiction, an alcohol addiction, a sexual encounter, or some kind of thrill seeking adventure where they jump off a bridge a piece of elastic tied to their feet.. These are the symptoms of someone trying to connect to a power source that will never supply them with what they need.
Religion & tradition. This how momma believed. This is how daddy lived and we will do the same. The Pharisees had religion and tradition and Jesus looked at them and said they are ‘whitewashed tombs full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean.’
In other words, Jesus is saying,
The religion and tradition of the Pharisees cannot supply you with LIFE.
The religion and tradition of the Pharisees cannot supply you with HOLINESS.
{Matthew 23:27 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean.(NIV)}
We need power. Power comes through connection.
This year you need to connect to a power that can supply all your needs.

6 Careful what you connect yourself to

The Bible is very stern when it comes to connection.
1 Corinthians 6:16 warns that if you connect yourself to a harlot you will be one with the harlot.
{1 Corinthians 6:16 Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.”(NIV)}
In the Garden of Eden, Adam & Eve connected with the lie of the serpent instead of the TRUTH of the creator.

The Bible also gives us promises about connection.
Matthew 18:19 says that if 2 or 3 will connect in prayer that God will answer them.
{Matthew 18:19 “Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.(NIV)}
Matthew 18:20 says that if 2 or 3 will connect in the name of the savior, he will be in their midst.
{Matthew 18:20 For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.”(NIV)}

7 Who is connecting to you?

There is someone trying to connect to you? This is good and it is bad. Let me explain.

Too many people can try to connect to you and it will leave you with overloaded circuits. It will leave you powerless and in the dark.
- People will try to connect to your money until you don’t have a penny left and they have pulled you into debt.
- People will try to connect to your happiness only to drain you and pull them into their depression.
- People will try to connect with your time until you have none left.

YOU ARE NOT THE SOURCE. YOU CAN’T BE ANYONE’S SUPPLY.
As your pastor, I cannot be your supply. In fact you should only connect with me as I am connected to Christ. Paul said “follow me as I follow Christ.”
1 Corinthians 11:1 Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.(NIV)
I can’t be your source, but I can be a connection to the source.
The people that are connecting to you, it is your responsibility to get them connected beyond you… get them connected to the source.

8 Can you spot the power problem
The power strip is connected to itself.

9 Don’t connect to yourself

It is a very humanistic idea to connect to yourself. The world will preach you the sermon that you need to look within yourself to find happiness, peace, and fulfilment. It is a lie that the power you need is found inside of you.
That is like a power strip plugged into itself. That is powerlessness plugged into powerlessness. That is vanity plugged into vanity.
Most people will spend 2017 like this.
Unplug from yourself. Unplug from your pride. Unplug from your envy. Unplug from your score keeping attitude. Unplug from your greed.

Redemption Church, we can be like this.

10 Church don’t connect to yourself

We are not the source that will supply the power you need. The Church is at its best when it is THE CONNECTION POINT. The Church is at its best when someone walks in saying I NEED HELP and we connect them to Jesus. …Not to a song service. …Not to a denomination. …not to a sermon or personality.
Redemption Church are we connected to Jesus? Or are we connected to an endless loop of powerlessness.
Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”(NIV)
This was fulfilled for the first time in Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2:1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.(NIV)
Acts 2:2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.(NIV)
Acts 2:3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.(NIV)
Acts 2:4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.(NIV)
The apostle Peter stood up in POWER and began to preach. He preached… …not about a new denomination. …not about a new church program. …He did not placate them with an “I’m ok you’re ok seeker sensitive message.”
Jesus stood up in Power and declared the power source!
Acts 2:16 this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:(NIV)
Acts 2:17 “`In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people…(NIV)
Acts 2:36 “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”(NIV)
Acts 2:39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off–for all whom the Lord our God will call.”(NIV)
3000 souls were saved that day. 3000 souls were connected to the power source – The Lord Jesus Christ.
Redemption Church do you want to be connected to a power supply that is strong enough for every area of your life.
Do you want to connect your year to a power source that is strong enough to face everything coming your way?
1 Powerful Year
Power is yours to receive.
Power comes through connection.