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• Open- Iron Man Video THE POWER WITHIN

• What you just saw was Iron Man’s assistant replacing his power core or Arc Reactor. According to the legend, this reactor is the source of his power as a superhero.
• apparently this power core/arc reactor is capable of generating 3 gigajoules (gigawatts) of energy. That’s roughly the amount of power that 3 large nuclear reactors can create, and in movie that power is wrapped up in a piece of metal the size of a tennis ball.
• Most everyone in the REAL world admits that’s not even remotely possible. There’s no way anything that small could generate that much power.
• But Iron Man is a comic book character. He’s not supposed to be bound by the laws of physics. That’s why he’s a superhero and we’re not!
• But in the Bible we’re told that (as Christians) we have an advantage that Iron Man didn’t have.
• We actually do have a power core inside of us and that power core is far more powerful than any nuclear power plant.
• Romans 8:11… the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you,
  he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you”
• The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives inside of YOU who are Christians.
• Imagine the amount of energy that would be required to raise someone from the dead.
• That energy, that power is inside your heart. There isn’t a nuclear power plant on face of the earth could hope to create that much power And it’s all, right there, inside of you.
• that wasn’t always how God did things.
• In the Old Testament it appears that God rarely placed His Spirit INSIDE of people. Bezalel (Exodus 35:30) the architect of the Tabernacle was one of these.
• But ordinarily, when God imparted His Spirit to the Old Testament saints, the Scriptures speak of the Spirit coming UPON them.
• Judges 6:34 “…the Spirit of the LORD came UPON Gideon, and he blew a trumpet… and summoned Israel together to challenge the Midianites”
• Judges 14:6 “…The Spirit of the LORD came UPON (Samson) in power so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat…”
• 1 Samuel 16:13 “Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed (David) in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came UPON David in power…”
• Again and again (thru-out the Old Testament) God’s Spirit came UPON certain people to give them power. Even then, God’s Spirit only came upon select individuals for specific purposes for God’s Spirit to come upon anyone.
• And while that Spirit did come upon several Old Testament people, it was rare for the Spirit of God to be INSIDE someone during the Old Testament times.
• However, all that changed when Jesus came.
• John 14:16-17 Jesus promised “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be IN you.”
• This was going to be different that how the Spirit had interacted with God’s people up until this time.
• John 7:38-39tells us that Jesus declared “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time THE SPIRIT HAD NOT BEEN GIVEN, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.”
• You see, in the Old Testament God’s Spirit only came upon certain select individuals. Judges, Prophets, Kings and such. But in the New Testament God’s Spirit was to be INSIDE each and every Christian.
• In 1Corinthians 3:16 Paul told us Christians: “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives IN you?”
• Like the power core in Iron Man – the Spirit of God is always inside the Christian. He’s always there to give us His power. His energy.
• SO, what exactly does God’s Spirit do for us?
• If the Holy Spirit is our POWER source from God… what kind of power does He give me?
• 1st God’s Spirit gives us the power to deal our broken lives.
• One of the writers of the Iron Man movie (Gerry Conway) made this observation: “Here you have this character, who on the outside is invulnerable… just can’t be touched, but inside is a wounded figure. Stan (Lee) made it very much an in-your-face wound, his heart was broken, you know, literally broken.”
• Iron man was a wounded man. A broken man.
• His life was ruined by a battle wound that should have destroyed him.
• But when the power core was installed, Iron man was give the ability to live again
• In Romans, Paul tells us how he’s seen his life
• InRomans 7:15-24 he tells about the damage sin had done to his heart.
• He says because of sin “even when he wanted to do right… he couldn’t get it done.”
• “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.”
• (In other words, his sin proved that the Law was right when it condemned him as a sinner).
• “As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.
• I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; nooo, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.
• Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at workin the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members
• What a wretched man I am!
• Who will rescue me from this body of death?
• That’s what life is like without God’s Spirit inside us.
• It’s like living inside of tomb… inside a body of death.
• There’s this nagging feeling that we’ve messed everything up. Sometimes it can even get to the point where we have this feeling that we’re just loser. Wretched creatures.
• Who could possibly fix this for us?
• Who can rescue from this body of death???
• “Ah”, says Paul “Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! … There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 7:25; 8:1-2)
• You see, here’s how it works: You and I are broken inside. There’s something inside of our souls we can’t fix.
• It’s like having a disease that attacks our bodies.
• If I have disease who do I usually go to see? (A doctor)
• I go to the doctor because I need someone who can get inside of my body, someone I can trust to remove the diseased cells and help me heal.
• That is what God’s Spirit is designed to do.
• God’s Spirit gets inside of my heart.
• He repairs that which was broken.
• He removes the diseased parts of my soul.
• and He makes me new again.
• And He can do that because He is a living and active. He is God!
• He’s right there inside everyone of us who’s a Christian here today.
• He’s fixing you on a constant basis
• He is continually removing the deadness of sin from your heart
• And He is faithfully putting God’s medicine inside of you to heal you.
• Thanks be to God – through Christ Jesus – the law of the Spirit of life has set me free from the law of sin and death.
• But wait, there’s more!
• He doesn’t just set you free from sin… He empowers you to live a power filled life
  Have you ever been without power? It’s a weird thing when it happens to you for the first time
• First time it happened to us, we ran out of matches and candles and food
• DIdn’t even have any cash to buy stuff
• If you don’t have power you can’t get stuff done
• In the same way, God’s Spirit empowers you and me to do what God designed us to do.
• For instance, the Bible tells me that I am designed to pray.
• InRomans 8:26 says “…the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.”
• Have you ever felt like God wasn’t hearing your prayers?
• Like you could pray and pray and pray and you just weren’t getting through?
• Of course you have. We all have. ButRomans 8 says – don’t worry about it.
• You have a direct line to God!
• You’re patched directly into God, because God is patched directly into you.
• You don’t even have to say anything. God’s Spirit is so in tune with your spirit that God senses your every emotion as you feel them.
• He knows your joys and your sorrows even when you have trouble putting those emotions into words.
• God understands everything you feel, because God’s Spirit is right there inside you