Here we are, we’ve literally just stepped over the threshold of the New Year. And the question for many of us is this: Is this year going to continue to be the same as last year which was pretty much the same as the one before that and even the one before that? Or am I going to make some changes and get some things happening just a little bit better in my life?

You see them less and less these days but one of my favourite things when I was a young boy was riding the merry-go-round. There was just something so special, so magical about these brightly coloured red and yellow contraptions with horses and elephants and sometimes even kangaroo’s on them that went up and down and round and round. And then there was the music to top it all off and the sheer excitement of the prospect of riding a merry-go-round was something that would set me aquiver.

Every now and then my parents acquiesced to my pleas and spent a few pennies to let me have a ride. Wow, that was something incredibly special. And on I’d hop and go round and round and up and down only to come off the ride feeling slightly nauseous as a result of the experience but totally delighted to have been on the ride.

So when the Mary Poppins movie was released when I was just five years old, you can imagine how I felt about the merry-go-round scene when the horses they were riding on the merry-go-round broke away and started heading off over hill and dale. Totally, totally magical to the eyes and the heart of a little boy.

That was over half a century ago and yet I can still remember the feeling of the rapture at experiencing the wonder of the merry-go-round. I wonder how many oldies like me who are tuning in today and you’re totally getting this. It’s bringing back some incredibly fond memories of your childhood.

Well today, we’re kicking off a new series of messages called Why Not Jump Off The Merry-Go-Round because the sad thing is that many people’s lives are a bit like constantly living on a merry-go-round. They’re going up and down and round and round so this perception that something is happening, they’re going forward each day. But when they wake up the next morning they find themselves back in the same place again because they haven’t been going forward at all. They’ve been going round and round and round and round day after day.

And just as a single ride on a merry-go-round can make you feel, well, a little nauseous, imagine how you’d feel if you were stuck on that merry-go-round for several hours because it just wouldn’t stop and you couldn’t get off. It would make you feel positively sick, wouldn’t it? Round and round and round and round, always returning to the same place.

Life was never meant to be a merry-go-round. Like the riders in the Mary Poppins movie we’re meant to break out and ride over new territory and meet new people, win new hearts, experience new things. Might we just take a look at your life at the moment … how much of it is a merry-go-round where you end up back in the same place again each morning? What things in your life would you like to change?

Another way of coming to this whole thing is to say that our lives are stuck in a rut – it’s the same thing over and over again. We can experience this in all different parts of our lives, ‘Oh my marriage is stuck in a rut, my career seems to have stalled, I’m going up and down and round and round but I’m just not moving forward. My Church life is stuck in a rut or I feel like we eat the same food every night. I live in the same place, I go to work in the same place, I do the same things on the weekends with the same people.’ Is this how the rest of my life is going to play itself out?

These are the sorts of things that we think about when we feel entirely helpless to stop the merry-go-round and hop off it and end up heading in a different direction. It seems that someone else or something else is controlling the merry-go-round. We have no control so we just keep on going up and down and round and round.

Have a listen to this. It’s a lament from a great king of Israel after living a life of great wealth and great excitement, the most amazing life, if you will, of power and riches. He was a man of great wisdom and eventually though he came to this conclusion.

‘Meaningless, meaningless,’ he cried, ‘utterly meaningless. Everything is meaningless’. What does a man gain from all his labour at which he toils under the sun? Generations come and generations go but the earth remains forever. The sun rises, the sun sets and hurries back to where it rises. The wind blows to the south and to the north, round and round it goes ever returning on its course.

All streams flow into the sea yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from there they return. All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing nor the ear it’s fill of hearing. What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again. There is nothing new under the sun.

Is there anything of which anyone can say, ‘Look, there’s something new’? It was here already long before. It was here before our time. There is no remembrance of men of old and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow. (Ecclesiastes 1: 2-11.

Isn’t that the pessimistic conclusion we can so often come to? It feels as though we’re going round and round and up and down over and over again in the same place. And after about a thousand times of doing this none of it seems to have any meaning – it seems empty, it seems hollow.

There’s not one of us who hasn’t been there and I know that many people are there today. But I want to hit you up with some really good news today, you’re not powerless at all because the God I read about in the Bible is not stuck in a rut – no way! He’s a God of new beginnings.

Have a listen to these Words from God through the Prophet Isaiah, chapter 43: 18 – 22. These Words are to you and me. God says:

Don’t remember the former things or consider the things of old because I’m about to do a new thing, now it springs forth, do you perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, the wild animals will honour me, the jackals and the ostriches, for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself so that they might declare my praise.

And that’s what we’re going to be talking about over this next couple of weeks on the program because your God has a stunning life plan for you. Make no mistake about it – an absolutely stunning life. Now I know you may be thinking, ‘Well, that stunning life couldn’t possibly be for me, no way. I’m in a rut and that’s it, my life’s on a merry-go-round and nobody is ever going to turn the blessed thing off so I can get off’.

Back in my childhood days I didn’t quite realise it but there was a person, normally a man, in the centre of the merry-go-round. He was the guy who started it up and he was the guy who turned it off so we could hop off and get on with our lives after the thrill of the ride.

And for you and me much depends on who you and I put at the centre of our lives. Let’s face it much of our life is routine, mundane, same after same. I don’t care how glamorous or desirable a person’s lifestyle may be. I don’t care how much money they have, anybody can get that humdrum feeling happening in their lives.

I was on a fourteen-night cruise some years back and it was fantastic. Great food, great service, lovely surroundings, very comfortable cabin but after about seven days we felt like we were getting into a routine, after fourteen days we’d had a great time but we felt like it was time to get off. I couldn’t imagine doing that cruise for three or four or five months as good as it was.

So often we go looking to change our circumstances to make something new happen, to get out of the rut, to hop off the old merry-go-round. And yet, that’s more often than not, not the answer at all because more often than not, it’s what’s happening on the inside that gives us the feeling of monotony or not.

And that’s something I want to spend some more time exploring with you tomorrow.

Life sometimes feels like we’re on a merry-go-round – up and down and round and round but we keep on ending up in the same place. My question for you today, as we embark on this New Year, is what part of your life feels like that?

Each of us has our own personal merry-go-round. That part of our life where we just don’t feel as though we’re moving forward the way we should. That part of our life that seems to be so vacuous, so meaningless, so stagnant and that part of our life is the very part that we feel as though we have no control over.

So my question for you today is, what part of your life feels like that? What part of your life is your personal merry-go-round that you just seem completely incapable of stopping so you can get off?

Is it maybe your marriage? Many people after having kids and investing in them and slogging away at a career, feel as though their marriage seems to have evaporated. Where’s the love we both used to feel? Where’s the tenderness, the fun, the capriciousness, the intimacy? Is it just going to go on this way until death the two of us doth part? For many, their marriage is a source of great disappointment, round and round the same issues, the same tensions, the same … everything.

Or is it singleness? Some people (not all, mind you), singleness is a perfectly valid and wonderful state for many people but some are sick and tired of the prospect of being single for the rest of their lives but they just don’t see any prospect of meeting the right person to spend the rest of their life with.

Here’s the great paradox, both a marriage and singleness can feel like a silent invisible prison. You know that’s true. And the same job at different times can either be an absolute delight or feel like a millstone around your neck. Can I ask you today, what’s your millstone? What’s the merry-go-round that you seemed to be trapped on? Is it perhaps a relationship that you feel trapped in?

I had coffee with a man just the other day who’s heavily involved in his local Church in a leadership capacity. He said to me, ‘You know Berni, I’m going away for a few days this weekend just to get away from the people at my Church. It’s sad I know but that’s how I feel, that’s just how it is at the moment.’ Now I give him points for that because the man was prepared to admit that here was some relationships in his life that were getting him down, I mean really down. And at least, he was prepared just to insert a bit of a circuit breaker to give himself some space.

There are times and seasons in our lives where there is just this one situation, this one relationship or this one part of our lives that seems to be going round and round, up and down but actually heading nowhere. And when you’re in that place, the thing that you most often do is to just ignore it and continue to live with it through the stress and the pain of it all, round and round, up and down, over and over. And it gets worse and worse and worse. You just keep on going everyday with it as though somehow things are going to get better but they just don’t.

The key to kicking off this ‘getting better’ thing is admitting you have a problem. Like the man who took the break, looking at it and naming it and saying to yourself, ‘You know, this one part of my life, whatever it happens to be for you, isn’t going the way I want it to be going.’

Have a listen to these amazing words of wisdom from Gods Word the Bible. He says:

Come O children listen to me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Which of you desires life and covets many days to enjoy good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Depart from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it. (Psalm 34: 11-14)

Now, on the surface of things that doesn’t seem to relate too much to what we’ve been talking about but actually it has a lot. In fact, it has everything to do with what we’ve been talking about. The opposite to that feeling of being strapped to the merry-go-round going round and round, up and down, over and over is the feeling of peace. It’s the feeling that you’re in the right place, that things are going as they should be.

Now our circumstances don’t always allow us to experience that sense of peace but the Bible tells us, God tells us, that we should what? Seek peace and pursue it. In other words, don’t just sit there on the merry-go-round like some victim and let this thing, whatever your thing is, keep on happening to you but take a proactive step to seek out God’s peace and to pursue it.

And you and I both know that what that’s talking about is taking responsibility for our situation. Naming the problem, the issue and taking ownership of it in our lives. And there are few verses before that thing on seeking peace and pursuing it clearly points out, sometimes the merry-go-round we’re on, the prison we’re in is about our own attitudes and behaviours.

Do you desire life? Do you covet many days to enjoy it? Do you want peace? Then the place to start is with that thing that’s ailing you. And there’s every chance, at least a fifty-fifty chance (probably more), that a great part of what’s ailing you is the sin in your own life.

That’s often the hardest thing to accept because we don’t want to admit that we’ve been in the wrong. We don’t want to admit that we might be the cause of the problem, at least in part.

In a marriage, it takes two to tango, right? In our relationships with other people (like that man with his Church) there are often issues on both sides. In our jobs sometimes we run into difficult situations sure but then our attitudes harden and we inflame them and that makes things even worse.

Question: What part of your life feels like that and what exactly are you going to do about it, huh? I’m someone who for most of my adult life always thought I was right. I always thought that when there was a problem it was because the other person had the problem because they were wrong because they were behaving badly. It rarely, if ever, occurred to me that I could be part of the problem.

It’s not that I was all that bad a person, it just didn’t occur to me that I was inflaming the situation or that I was behaving badly and contributing to my woes. It wasn’t until I met Jesus somewhere along the way in my life and started learning more about myself that I began to realise that hey, I have behaviours, I have stinking attitudes to address. And allow me to let you in on a little secret, I still do, it’s a constant process of growing and learning.

And all along that process I’ve discovered that God’s Word and God’s Holy Spirit have such incredible power to disarm those attitudes and behaviours. In fact they are the only real power to change that I’ve ever discovered in my life.

So whatever it is that is robbing me of peace these days, whether it’s something that starts out there somewhere or whether it’s something that starts inside me or whether it’s a combination of both of those (as it often is), my plan, not always executed perfectly (mind you) but my plan is to invite God into that space.

To get proactive and not accept the status quo, to believe that God wants to resolve these issues, that He wants to bring peace, that He wants me to learn to grow.

That’s my plan, so what’s yours?

When things aren’t going quite the way they ought to be in our lives we have two options: One, just keep on doing the same thing over and over again. Two, get off the merry-go-round and try something different. But the question is, if you want to get off this merry-go-round, exactly, how do you do that?

Well, yesterday on the program, we were talking about the fact that often the situations or the relationships that we feel trapped in aren’t just a result of people out there or circumstances and situations out there but a good percentage of the time, they originate with us, our bad behaviours, our stinking attitudes, our weaknesses and limitations, our this and that. Our – can I call it this – our sin?

Come on, let’s be honest. Let’s call it for what it is and when that difficult relationship or situation (be it at home, at work or in some other part of our lives), when that difficult situation has been going on for some time we lose our peace, we feel under stress and pressure. We basically find ourselves in a state that’s not good for us or for the people around us.

Caged animals often react very badly to their situation. In the old style zoo’s that were around when I was a kid, those animals, I remember looking at them and they always seemed to be, well, not what I’d imagined they’d look like in the wild. They looked sick to me. They looked unhappy to me and that’s because they were.

You and I, we’re not meant to live like caged animals either. Yet I know as we stand here having just stepped over the threshold of yet another year, there are so many people listening today who actually feel like a caged animal – trapped. Not a good place to be right?

See, intuitively we know that we’re meant to be free but freedom is an all too rare commodity these days. I sit and chat with a lot of people and I can tell when someone has that gleam on their face, they feel free. And they have an innate sense of wellbeing and peace and joy in their hearts. But to tell you the truth, I don’t see that all too often. Most of the people I chat with show the signs of stress. They look to me much like those caged animals I saw in the old-time zoos with the concrete enclosures that were nothing like the natural state that that animal would have lived in.

Are you relating to some of this? Are you sitting there thinking to yourself, ‘That guy is actually talking about me? I would never have admitted it to myself but now that I hear it, it’s true. I feel more like a caged animal than a free one’.

So if that’s you then the obvious question is, how do you get free? How do I get off this merry-go-round when it never seems to stop? What’s the key to my cage so I can get the blazes out of here?

Well, I’ve only found one way and that way is Jesus. Now to some that might sound trite, to others really corny but I’m absolutely serious. The only way that I have found to get off the merry-go-round of my circumstances and my sin is Jesus. This is what He once said, John chapter 8, verse 36:

So if the Son makes you free you’ll be free indeed.

I like that word at the end, indeed. What He’s saying is that if He makes us free then we’ll be truly free, really free, free once and for all and that, all of a sudden when you’re trapped in a relationship or a situation or whatever it is that has you feeling like a caged animal, that becomes a really attractive proposition doesn’t it?

What if Jesus actually does want to set you free? Really free, truly free – but does He? After all, there’s a big ‘if’ in that statement. IF the Son of man makes you free, you’ll be free indeed. So does He, does He really want to set the likes of you and me free?

Here’s something else that Jesus said, it was right at the beginning of His public ministry. He was quoting the Old Testament Prophet Isaiah and applying what Isaiah had written all those centuries before to Himself as the Son of God who had come among men and women. He said”

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, he sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour. (Luke 4: 18-19)

In other words, God sent Jesus into this world to proclaim release to you and me, to open our eyes so that we can see clearly, to lift the oppression off us so that we can go free, to proclaim God’s favour over our lives. That was the very purpose for which Jesus came. That was the commission from God the Father upon the Son’s life here on this earth. That’s why Jesus did what He did. That’s why Jesus died on that cross for you and rose again for you and ascended to heaven for you, to make you really free indeed – really free, truly free, once and for all.

Imagine here you are going round and round, up and down for the umpteenth time on your own personal little merry-go-round, that thing that’s trapped you that you seem to have such little power over and all along Jesus came to set you free. You’ve been thinking, ‘I have to do something about this’ and you’ve been trying and trying and trying but try as you may, there you still are, still going round and round, up and down in the same place.

Listen to me … Jesus is the answer. He’s the only answer, He came to set you free, He came to break you out of that merry-go-round – YOU. But, but, but, I believe in Jesus. I know that’s what at least some people are thinking right now, I believe in Jesus and I’m still on this rotten stinking merry-go-round.

And if that’s you, then let me ask you, ‘But have you taken Jesus at His Word?’ Do you look at Jesus and then cast your eyes down to your circumstances and then look up at Him again? And do you believe in your heart that Jesus is your personal Saviour, your personal answer? Do you believe that Jesus, the Son of God, is your Saviour? That He can and that He will set you free, well do you?

You see, for many people that’s the gap, that’s the disconnect, if you will. Many people believe in Jesus from a distance but they don’t get close enough to start believing that He came for them, to set them free. Others wish that He had come to set them free but somehow it’s not that easy to take that leap of faith. It seems like such a huge leap when actually it’s not, believing that He came for you.

Writing about how we live and behave and believe in the midst of great trials, James says this in the New Testament, James chapter 1: 5 – 7:

If any of you is lacking in wisdom just ask God who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly and it will be given to you but ask in faith, never doubting for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind, for the doubter being double minded and unstable in every way must never expect to receive anything from the Lord.

See there’s your call. There’s the call of Jesus, for you to take the step of faith to actually trust Him. The doubter, the one who is of two minds must not expect to receive anything from the Lord. But get in there, cast your life into Jesus’ hands, completely, desperately, only to Jesus. And you, all of a sudden, discover that God is a generous God. He is a God who gives to all. Did you hear that? To ALL – generously and ungrudgingly.

The answer is Jesus. Jesus is your Saviour, yours.

Questions is … will you believe Him, believe Him, I mean with your very life?

So, you have a situation, it’s been going on for a while, it’s causing you some grief but you feel powerless to change it. So what you need … is some power. I mean real power.

I’ve thought a lot about this phenomenon of New Year’s resolutions. Most common one by far of course is, ‘I’m going to go on a diet’. In fact, here are the top ten New Year’s resolutions from last year according to the website Statistic Brain. Here they are:

(1) Lose weight
(2) Get organised
(3) Spend less, save more
(4) Enjoy life to the fullest
(5) Stay fit and healthy
(6) Learn something exciting
(7) Quit smoking
(8) Help others with their dreams
(9) Fall in love
(10) Spend more time with my family.

Now they all sound pretty familiar, don’t they? I think there’s not a one of us who hasn’t resolved at least two or three or four of those at some point over New Years. In fact, I know there are many people who’ve resolved a few of those over and over again over many New Year’s and still nothing’s changed, right?

For me, over many of my almost six decades, it was always number one to lose weight, something I struggled with for decades until I finally slayed that dragon. But most people, to be honest, never slay their dragon. They don’t lose weight, they don’t get organised, they don’t spend less, they don’t enjoy life to the fullest, they don’t stay fit and healthy, they don’t learn something exciting, they don’t quit smoking, they don’t help others with their dreams, they don’t fall in love and they don’t spend more time with their family.

Isn’t that incredibly depressing? Million’s perhaps billion’s of people making New Year’s resolutions, year after year after year on this planet, and yet nothing changes, NOTHING. Think about it, that’s incredibly depressing isn’t it?

What it says to me is despite the best will in the world, despite all the obvious reasons why you want to lose weight or spend less or enjoy life or quit smoking, people seem powerless to change. And that truth flies completely in the face of all the advertising industry tells us that you can be slim and sexy and healthy and wealthy and wise if only you buy this particular product.

The facts speak for themselves, New Years resolutions, by and large, never work because people don’t have the power to change, full stop, end of story.

I said to you yesterday that the only place that I have discovered that sort of power, the power to truly be free, is in Jesus. Again this is what He said, Luke 4: 18 to 19:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.

Jesus came to set us free. Release to those who are captives to their circumstances. Sight for the blind to see what God has in store for them and how to get there. Freedom for the oppressed and the favour of God on your life.

Friend, that’s why Jesus came, that’s why Jesus is the answer. The problem is that Jesus, well, He ain’t here anymore, He’s gone so maybe it was okay for those people back two thousand years ago to receive all those things, but what about you and me?

Well, notice what Jesus said right at the beginning of that statement as He quoted from the Old Testament Prophet Isaiah, He said, ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me and he has anointed me to do all these things’. At the same time that same Holy Spirit is available to you and me today if only we’d put our trust in Jesus.

That same Holy Spirit power is available to you today. That same Holy Spirit power to change, power to be transformed, power to grow, power to get rid of your sin, power to overcome. That power comes from the Holy Spirit and He is available to you today. His power is available to you today. Hallelujah!

Have a listen to this, the very last thing that Jesus says to His disciples before He ascends into heaven, Acts 1: 8 and 9. He says:

You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all of Judea and Samaria and even to the ends of the earth. When he’d said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight.

Come on, these were uneducated bumpkins He was talking to, not the religious elite from Jerusalem but fishermen and tax collectors and the like. And that power, that Holy Spirit power did come upon them just a few weeks later. And out of those eleven men, God raised up men of power who founded the Church and changed the world. And through whose work He is still changing the world today. Go figure! That’s the sort of power that’s available to you.

Do you believe in Jesus? Then you have the Holy Spirit and you have that power and you can be filled completely with the Holy Spirit and His power. All it requires is for you to yield your life to Him, completely surrender your life to Him.

Here’s what we do, we hang onto things, bad things, we hang on to them so strong that they become strongholds in our lives. Listen to what the Apostle Paul wrote about those very strongholds in 2 Corinthians 10: 4 and 5. He said:

The weapons of our warfare aren’t just human but they have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle raised up against the knowledge of God and we take every thought captive to obey Christ.

A stronghold isn’t something out there. Q stronghold, according to Paul, is something in the heart and the mind of the believer that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. But when we hand those strongholds over to Him, God’s weapons of warfare have divine power to destroy the strongholds.

So often we’re trapped by our own bad attitudes, our own blind spots, our own pride. And so we live out the consequences of those going round and round, up and down on that stupid stinking merry-go-round we’ve been on for years and our lives head nowhere. Trapped, powerless to change, hey powerless even to follow through on a crummy New Year’s resolution.

Do you want power? I mean do you want real power? Do you want Holy Spirit power? Then hand it all over to Jesus, the whole lot, your whole life and welcome the Holy Spirit in to fill you to overflowing with His presence and His power. Not by your own might, not by your own power but by the Spirit says the Lord.

Are you ready to do that? Do you want to do that right now? Well, why don’t you pray this prayer with me right now?

Father God, Your Word is true and You are right and I’ve heard Your Word today. I confess to You that I have some strongholds in my heart and in my mind. I have strongholds that I’ve been hanging on to and that I’m completely powerless to get rid of and so I’m living out the consequences of my sin and I feel completely trapped. I just can’t get off the merry-go-round – I’m stuck, I’m trapped and so I need You. So today, I hand my strongholds over to You. They’ve gripped me in their vice like hold, I can’t let go but I believe in Jesus. I believe Jesus that You sent Your Holy Spirit for me.

Dear Holy Spirit, please fill me. Not just a bit but a lot. Fill me to overflowing. Fill me with Your power. Fill me with your love. Be my power to change. Transform me radically, completely, whatever it may cost me. In Jesus mighty name, I pray. Amen.

Friend, if you prayed that prayer with me to be filled with the Holy Spirit get ready to have your life turned upside down. Get ready to be set free from your strongholds – this Jesus came to set you free.

When, for years, I tried to lose weight and keep it off, I tried every diet under the sun and it never worked, the weight always stacked back on again. The problem was that I lacked knowledge. I didn’t know exactly what to do. Once I had the knowledge, all the weight came off and stayed off. Knowledge is power, well, almost.

Okay, so yesterday on the program, we were talking about the fact that by and large people seem powerless to change. Millions perhaps billions of people making New Year’s resolutions year after year and ninety-nine percent of them end up failing within the first few weeks. Sensational. Depressing, isn’t it?

I knew I had to lose weight. Each year, I made a New Year’s resolution that I’ll go on a diet. Hey, I wanted to lose weight to look good and to feel better about myself, my health was suffering, my sleep was suffering, everything was suffering and still I couldn’t lose it and keep it off.

Often, we have strongholds in our hearts and minds that set themselves up against the knowledge of God. And the only way to rid ourselves of those, as we prayed yesterday together, is to invite the Holy Spirit to fill us to overflowing with His power. What Jesus said to His disciples, Acts 1: 8 and 9.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

And that’s exactly what happened.

When the day of Pentecost had come they were all together in one place and suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages as the Spirit gave them ability. (Acts 2: 1-4)

And these men, these hapless disciples who were uneducated, who had failed Jesus so many times, who had left Him alone to die, who had even denied Jesus. These are the men whom God used to proclaim the Good News of Jesus throughout the whole known world.

Through these men countless others came to faith in Jesus. In fact, Peter, the very one who had denied Jesus three times, Peter got up on that day and he preached to the very same people who had bayed for Jesus’ blood just a few weeks earlier, who had shouted, ‘Crucify Him’ and ‘we want Barabbas’. And this is what happened, Acts 2: 41 and 42.

So those who welcomed his message were baptised and that day about three thousand persons were added. They devoted themselves to the Apostle’s teaching and fellowship and to breaking bread and prayers.

That’s power but power my friend is not enough. I know that sounds crazy but it isn’t. We need wisdom and knowledge as well. We need to know how to step forward and live for Jesus. We need to know how to love, how to serve, how to stand for Jesus. The “what” isn’t enough. We need to know the “how” as well and know it in a way that’s real, know it in a way that we can work together with the power of the Holy Spirit rather than against Him. Wouldn’t you agree?

If you and I are stuck on our merry-go-rounds, up and down and round and round, in our sin, in our failures, in our circumstances, in those poison relationships that seem to entrap us, we need both the power and the wisdom to jump off that merry-go-round and into the life that God has planned for us.

And here the Holy Spirit has another role to play because it was through Him that the Word of God, the Bible, all sixty-six books of it, was written by different people over a couple of thousand years or so. And it’s through Him that God’s Word has been preserved down through the ages accurately and it’s through Him that the Word of God becomes a powerful reality in our hearts.

Listen here to the truth about His Spirit and His Word. Jesus said:

When the Spirit of truth comes he will guide you into all truth but he will not speak on his own but he will speak whatever he hears and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me because he will take what’s mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine, for this reason, I said he will take what is mine and declare it to you. (John 16: 13-15.)

I love how beautiful Jesus puts it here. The Holy Spirit, who has now come, who is available to each one of us who has put our trust in Jesus and Him alone, this Holy Spirit will guide us into God’s truth by speaking it into our hearts. And whatever belongs to Jesus, which is everything that God has, He will declare and impart to you and to me and that is all that God the Father has, everything, holding nothing back.

Think of the blessings, think of the wisdom, think of the incredible difference that the Holy Spirit is going to make in your life. And He does that through the Word of God, this thing that we call the Bible, this very living Word of the living God. Hebrews 4:12;

Indeed the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from Spirit, joints from marrow, it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

So the Bible isn’t some dead Book. It’s not just a bunch of printed words like any other book, it’s the Living Word of God – active, sharp, able to sort out the sheep from the goats in our lives, able to help us discern the intentions of our thoughts and of our hearts.

Do you want to change? Do you want to learn and grow? Do you want to be transformed? Then that’s exactly what you need because you have blind spots just like I do. We need this – the Word of God. For it is both the wisdom to change and because it comes to us through the Holy Spirit, it is the very power to change. 2 Timothy 3:16 and 17 says:

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.

That’s why you and I need to get the Word of God into us constantly.

So many people though, they have Bible’s at home that are just gathering dust, that are never opened. They even rock along to Church and listen, sort of, to the Sunday sermon. And by the time they’ve had their cup of coffee and walked out the Church doors they’ve even forgotten what’s been said.

Why is it that we trifle so with the Word of God when it’s the power to change us and transform us and to set us free from all the rubbish going on in our lives? Why do we do that?

God has a plan, He has a plan to pour His power into your life, to help you get off that stinking merry-go-round, to set you free, to fill you with power and with joy and faithfulness and love. But when we ignore His Word, when we trifle with His Word, when we don’t take Him seriously, then we are actively working against His purpose for our lives.

It’s as simple as that, pretty grim when you think about it. Have a listen to God’s plan for your life, to what He has already given you, 2 Peter 1: 3 and 4.

His divine power has given you everything you need for life and for Godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Thus, he has given you through these things his precious and very great promises so that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in this world because of lust and maybe become participants of the divine nature.

The power is already given and with it, everything that you and I need for life and for Godliness. But we need to know Him and the way that we get to know Him, the way we get set free from all this stuff and lay hold of His promises is through what He says – His Word, the Bible.

Ignore that and you’re ignoring God, you’re closing your eyes and your ears to God. And that is why so many Jesus’ believers are stuck on their merry-go-round going round and round and up and down, headed precisely nowhere.