A Different Kind of Power

A Different Kind of Power

Today, I want to talk to you about a different kind of power — a power that the world will never fully understand because it doesn't come from within the world. The power I'm talking about is the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit is still able to transform hearts, redirect lives, ignite movements, and change the world. When you are clothed with the Holy Spirit, the result isn't burnout. Instead, you are clothed with the supernatural power of God — power that empowers you to live differently, to live in alignment with Jesus Christ, to be sent out to serve, to speak, and to step out in boldness and faith.

The same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives within every single person who professes that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Do you believe that this morning?

This power isn't ours. We can't create it, control it, manufacture it, or manipulate it. But God is able to release this power, and when God releases it, things start to shift. Things start to transform — because Jesus is still in the business of changing lives today.

A Power Received Through Surrender

The way you receive this power is very different to the way the world works. The world tends to give power to the strong, the talented, the gifted, the able. But in the kingdom of God, the power of God is poured out on:

• those who feel weak
• those who struggle with feeling inadequate
• those who experience imposter syndrome every single day
• those who are simply humble and honest enough to admit they need help

The way you receive this power is not through striving but by surrender to God. That is the posture in the church: surrender.

The Start-Up Story of the Church

Today is Pentecost Sunday, and our reading is from Acts 2:1–12. This passage ignites and inspires faith, because it is the start-up story of the church. It's part of not only our history as the church, but part of world history — because it really did happen.

A small group of uncultured, uneducated, marginalized people in the Roman Empire 2,000 years ago, filled with a very different kind of power — the power of the Holy Spirit — rose up to become the most powerful force in the entire Roman Empire within two centuries. That is because the power of God is real. He has done it before, and he can do it again.

The first followers of Jesus Christ were filled with the Spirit and sent out on mission. They lived radically differently. And I believe this power is still available to every single one of us today.

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each one of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them...

Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?" (Acts 2:1–12)

What does this mean for us today? We have just read about the birth of the church by the Holy Spirit. In the early church, the first followers were filled with the Holy Spirit, they encountered God's presence, and they were sent out and empowered for radical discipleship and radical mission.

I believe that when we are filled with God's Spirit, we too are empowered for these three things:

1. The presence of God
2. Radical discipleship
3. Radical mission

1. Encountering the Presence of God

I arrived at HTB ten years ago, having been a Christian for close to two decades. I did have a genuine relationship with Jesus, and a lot of head knowledge about God. But I struggled, because deep down I wanted to follow Jesus with everything I had — yet I found it really hard to give God my finances, my career, my relationships, everything.

Then I was filled with the Holy Spirit in a way I'd never experienced before. Something started to shift. My head knowledge began to shift into a heart reality, because I began to experience the reality of God's love in a deep and profound way. And that changed my life.

I remember sitting up in that balcony, and in the worship I felt a physical sensation, like my chest was burning. I knew it wasn't heartburn. I began to weep — not a regular sad weeping, but because I felt God extremely close. I was completely undone, because I began to grasp the height, the depth, the breadth, and the width of God's love for us demonstrated by Jesus on the cross.

God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Romans 5:5)

Those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves so that you live in fear again. Rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba Father." The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. (Romans 8:14–16)

Two Things That Happen When the Spirit Is Poured Out

1. You experience God's love in a tangible and real way.
2. You are assured of your identity in Christ — you are a child of God.

Over the past ten years, I've simply rediscovered over and over again that I am loved by Jesus, a child of God, on my best days and my worst days.

What God is looking for is not people who have great human ability. God is simply looking for people who are open, who are surrendered, and who are deeply dependent on him. In a world that prizes self-sufficiency and independence, God is on the lookout for people who know they are not in control and who long to be more dependent on Jesus every single day.

This is why at HTB we pray, "Come, Holy Spirit." We know transformation can only happen by God's Spirit. The Spirit gives us a foretaste of the future — a deposit within us guaranteeing what lies ahead. We are no longer slaves to fear; we are children of God.

Sitting on that balcony, I prayed: "Jesus, I do want to live for you with everything I have. But will you help me?" I came forward, because I knew I could not do this Christian walk in my own strength. I needed God to clothe me with his supernatural power to enable me to live differently.

We experience God's presence in many ways — in worship, in the word, in community, in connect groups, in Holy Communion, and in times of personal prayer.

2. Radical Discipleship: Counter-Formation

When we are filled with the Spirit, we are empowered to live radically differently. That's what happened in the early church — they lived so differently that the surrounding culture took notice. They did quite ordinary things, but it was God who was at work in extraordinary ways. And it is the Spirit who enables us to live differently, step by step, bit by bit, day by day.

The Failures of the Modern Mind

I recently read an article on Thinking in the Age of AI by Steven Kotler, a researcher on creativity, flow, and human performance. He suggests there are three failures of the modern mind in the age of AI, because of the technology that constantly surrounds us:

1. Cognitive overload — There is too much information coming at us too fast. Our threat response is heightened; we have tunnel vision and reactive thinking, which leads to chronic anxiety. We feel really busy, but feel like we're accomplishing very little.

2. Attentional fragmentation — Endless novelty from our devices fractures our attention. There's no depth, coherence, insight, or flow, which leads to endless doom-scrolling and more consumption as a way to self-soothe.

3. Meaning drift — Change outpaces the brain's ability to process what is happening and to build the coherence needed for everyday life. We feel unease, restlessness, and aimlessness, and an "identity diffusion" where we feel productive but increasingly disconnected from our own lives.

When I read this, I felt so seen and understood. It gave me a deeper understanding of why I come home at the end of the day with my brain feeling fried. And if we're honest, we're probably all slightly addicted to our devices.

You become what you behold. When you're beholding a device every day, consuming content at a million miles per hour, it is doing something to our brains — and I believe it is affecting the way we engage, encounter, and experience God. This is why, in this moment of tech, what is needed is counter-formation. That is radical discipleship.

The Awaken 50 Journey

Fifty days ago, I reached out to a friend and asked, "Would you try the Awaken 50 journey with me?" People are encountering God in many ways and exploring faith through Alpha. But we also need to think intentionally about how we're being formed — about the tools of discipleship. Awaken 50, birthed out of St. Paul's Hammersmith, is simply one such tool.

For 50 days, you spend 50 minutes every day in a small group. Each day there are Bible readings with devotionals. You start the day with prayer, pray for one another, and offer words and pictures of what you sense God saying. It's intentional spiritual discipline.

You're encouraged to give some things up. For the past 50 days, I gave up Instagram, alcohol, and unnecessary purchases. You'd be surprised how much time you have. Instead of scrolling and shopping, I took that space for Jesus. The whole thing is about discovering God's fullness in you and God's purpose through you by creating space.

There are also challenges. Every day you reach out to your group. Every week you:

• help a person in need
• call a friend and speak to them
• exercise generosity
• step out in faith and share your faith with someone in your community

We've been praying for work colleagues, neighbours, friends, and people at the school gates — praying that the Spirit will give us opportunities to share the reason for the hope that we have.

One challenge asked which fruit of the Spirit you want to grow in. I chose gentleness and self-control. When my friend asked how it was going, I said, "Not good — I shouted at the dog today!" But the point is that we hold one another accountable. That's why people go to the gym together: on your own, you skip a day, but with a gym buddy you go and walk out glad you did.

Do Not Do It Alone

In the age of AI and the advance of tech, we need to take our discipleship seriously. Your discipleship is not just going to happen — life is going to happen to you. We need to be intentional about doing the Christian life together with others in close connection, because iron sharpens iron.

This could be your connect group, a new prayer triplet, or reading the Bible in one year with a friend and touching base each day. The Christian life is not meant to be done alone.

3. Radical Mission: The Power to Love Differently

At HTB, we're not just passionate about the presence of God in our gatherings and buildings. We believe that when people are filled with the Holy Spirit, they carry the presence of Jesus into the very place where they're planted — their workplaces, schools, and communities. Because Jesus is still in the business of changing lives, when you are present as salt and light, it moves into London.

The early church still had to do business and engage the surrounding culture — but they did it distinctively differently.

Reversing the Curse of Babel

Acts 2 is fascinating. When the presence of God draws near, when we see signs of revival, one of the things to watch for is not just miraculous signs and wonders, but the way it changes human relationships. Every revival has led to change in human relationships.

Tim Keller notes that Luke includes a long list of people groups because the last time you see a table of nations like this is in Genesis 10 — the Tower of Babel. There, people decided they wanted to be their own master and their own god, to make a name for themselves. So God came down, confused their languages, and dispersed them.

When humans try to be God, the result is racial and cultural superiority, imperialism, the domination of other nations, hostility, and the destruction of genuine human community. We are living in a moment where this is happening all around the world. The church needs to get on its knees and pray for a move of God right now.

But when God comes down in Acts 2, he creates a new people — the family of God. He reverses the curse of Babel, and all the barriers between races and cultures are brought down.

Notice this: the first worship service of the early church happens in all the languages at exactly the same time. This is important, because it means that in the kingdom of God there is no culture and no people group better than any other. It is all people, all tribes, all tongues, all nations.

A New Identity in Christ

When you give your life to Jesus, the most important part of your identity changes. You are no longer defined first and foremost by your gender, class, race, culture, or wealth. You are defined by Jesus Christ. I'm a child of God. Everything shifts from there.

When you sit next to someone from a radically different background, worshipping Jesus together, you have more in common with that brother or sister than with anyone from your own people group or class. That is the reality.

The way you know revival has hit a place is that people who could never get along in society start getting along in God's church.

When you are filled with the Holy Spirit, it is more than good vibes or good feelings you carry back into a great week. The Spirit of God empowers you to live differently, to love differently, to see the people around you differently, and to live for something bigger than your own life, ambitions, and dreams.

When you put Jesus on the throne, you discover your God-given purpose. It can't work when you're sitting on the throne of your own life. That is an empty and enslaving way to live. But whom the Son sets free is free indeed.

When you are filled with the Spirit, you are sent out to love people and see them differently. Your eyes are opened, and there is opportunity for social healing. The Spirit reverses the decay, disintegration, and destruction in our world, bringing about the true transformation of society. That is the kind of power we are talking about.

The Spirit gives us a foretaste of what lies ahead. One day we will stand before the throne, worshipping Jesus — every tribe, every tongue, in every nation. Here we catch a glimpse of that shared future: the family of God.

A Word of Warning and Discernment

That is why, when people use the name of Jesus and lift up the cross for their own political agenda, spreading messages of division and hate, this is not revival or renewal. This is a co-opting of the gospel, counter to the very heart of God. Just read Acts 2.

As Tim Keller says:

Don't take your culture, your way of arguing, your music, and hold it above others. All of our cultures are different — different levels of emotional expressiveness, different understandings of the relationship between the individual and the group, different narratives about freedom, different understandings of time and punctuality, of social power, of how you argue and reason. I can't think that only my particular kind of Christianity in my culture is the only real Christianity. The churches that lift up the power of the Spirit are the most interracial human institutions in the world — because it works.

That is the power of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit brings about a beautiful diversity, the power of forgiveness, and the ability to love our enemies, to forgive and move forward.

Watch for the Fruit

One of the biggest privileges of my life has been to be part of this worshipping community for the past ten years. It is difficult at times to know exactly what God is doing in any given moment — no one person can know. But I say, watch for the fruit.

If God is moving, what you will see in time is not only the gifts of the Spirit, but the fruit of the Spirit:

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, self-control.

When we are filled with the Spirit, when we encounter God's presence, we are empowered to live differently and to love differently — in Jesus' name. Amen.