Facing Prometheus — Week 20 (Sacred Lives in a Secular World) | “Killing Lukewarm” | Guest: Pastor Pace Hartfield, One Place Church
Last week Pastor Jason made a declaration over the church: the age of lukewarm Christianity has to be over. This week a guest message picks that statement up and pushes it further. The series title itself becomes the way in. In Greek mythology, the titan Prometheus stole fire from the gods to give it to humanity, and power came by way of rebellion. Christianity stands in sharp contrast. The one true God does not have his fire stolen from him. He pours it out freely, as he did at Pentecost in Acts 2, sending the Holy Spirit to empower the church for her mission. Killing lukewarm requires that same fire.
This week’s message comes from Pastor Pace Hartfield of One Place Church in Idaho, one of The Well’s overseers. The focus is the power of the Holy Spirit that is available to every believer, and why so many Christians live in defeat where there should be victory. Anchored in John 16:7 and Ephesians 3:20–21, Pace offers three empowering truths about that power so the church can kill lukewarm.
The Text
“Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.”
— John 16:7 (ESV)
“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”
— Ephesians 3:20–21 (NIV)
The Power Available to Us
The most powerful machine humans have ever built is the SpaceX Starship: 15 to 17 million pounds of thrust, the equivalent of strapping 380 F-18s to a rocket, burning 13,000 gallons of fuel per second, traveling 17,500 miles per hour. That is staggering power. And it pales in comparison to the power available in the Holy Spirit. The same Spirit God poured out in Acts 2 to empower the church, he is still pouring out today, offering fresh fire for everyday life.
Which raises an honest question. If that power is real and available, why do we struggle so much? Why do so many of us stay on the struggle bus, tripping over the same old sin and temptation? The reality is that many of us live in defeat where there should be victory, held captive by the flesh because we believe we lack the power to walk away. We would never deny the power of God, but we rarely experience it daily. There is a gap between what we believe and how we behave, and we need someone to bridge it. That someone is the Helper, the Holy Spirit.
This is the advantage Jesus spoke of in John 16:7. The question is whether we are living in it.
★★ The same power that raised Christ from the dead now lives in you. That means there is an advantage available over sin, over the things that try to steal your joy and rob your peace, and over the devil himself, who Scripture says is under your feet.
One of the ways the Holy Spirit is revealed throughout Scripture is through fire. He led Israel by a pillar of fire by night and met Moses in the burning bush. We need that same holy fire of God to kill lukewarm.
The words behind the text
Paul packs Ephesians 3:20 with meaning worth slowing down for:
- Able — dynamai (δυναμαι): to have power by virtue of inherent ability. God does not merely have power; he is power, with an unending supply. It is present tense, which means it is constantly available and never runs out.
- Immeasurably more — hyperekperissou (ὡπερεκπερισσοῦ): above and beyond, more than enough, beyond what we can comprehend. Most of us simply do not pray big enough.
- At work within us — energeō (ἐνεργέω): his working, operative power, active on the inside. It is not our power. It is his. Which makes it an inside job.
1. It Is an Inside Job
Christianity is an inside job. It is not a show, an event, or a crowd putting on something for the outside. What happens in a changed life is that God sets a fire on the inside and changes a person from the inside out. The desires they used to have begin to fade.
This starts with understanding the problem. The unique offer of God’s grace rests on a hard diagnosis:
★★★ Sin didn’t make us bad. Sin made us dead.
If you have never received Christ, you are spiritually dead, and there is nothing you can do for yourself. The gospel is not self-improvement through Jesus. It is not phoning a friend for a little help each day. It is recognizing our depravity, that left to ourselves we self-destruct, and that Christ rescued us when we did nothing to earn it and nothing to deserve it. If you ever wonder whether God loves you, look no further than the cross.
But many believers stop at the cross. They settle the question of salvation and are then left wondering how to actually live it out. Colossians 2:6 answers that: “just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him.” There is more than salvation. There is power to live. The gospel that says Christ died for us so now we must do our best to live for him is well-intentioned but dangerous, because Jesus said the life he calls us to cannot be lived in our own strength.
★★ There is a grace that covers, forgives, and redeems. And there is a grace that empowers. The empowering grace comes through Christ by the Holy Spirit. Paul names it as the mystery that prophets and patriarchs never knew:
Colossians 1:27 (NIV) — To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
The mystery is two small words: in you. It is Christ in you, not merely Jesus alongside you as a companion you call on when you need a hand. It is his power on the inside.
Colossians 1:28–29 (NIV) — He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.
For anyone at the end of their rope, in a marriage or an addiction or a season of exhaustion, the word is simple: let go. Stop trying to do it on your own, and surrender to the One whose power is immeasurably more than you can imagine.
2. It Is Imperative, Not Suggestive
Ephesians 5:15–18 (NIV) — Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
“Be filled with the Spirit” is not a suggestion to consider if you feel you need it. It is a command. You cannot live the life God intends unless you are filled with the Spirit. And Paul writes this to Christians, people who have already received grace, and still commands them to be filled. Two features of that command matter:
- It is passive. It is not your job to fill yourself, so this is not about chasing the next movement or working up an emotion. God does the filling. Our part is to allow it.
- It is present tense. “Be being filled.” It is continuous, not a single dose. When D.L. Moody was asked why he kept saying he needed to be filled with the Spirit again and again, he answered, “Because I leak.” We all leak. We run out of patience with our kids, we pour out until we reach the end of our fruit. The Christian life is not sustained by yesterday’s filling. You have to keep going to the well and keep drinking the living water.
★★ When God commands it, he will empower it. God is calling some at The Well to live so boldly, stepping out in faith at work or with friends, that unless they depend on the Holy Spirit it simply will not happen. Today’s obedience requires today’s dependence.
3. It Requires Your Surrender
God’s power begins at the end of you. He cannot fill you while you are full of yourself. To be filled with the Spirit means you can no longer be the all-prevailing thought of your own life. It has to be Christ. Scripture calls us to be holy, and good luck being holy without the Holy Spirit.
A word on feelings, for anyone who watches others experience God emotionally and wonders why they do not. The accompanying feelings are action-driven. Empty yourself, depend on the Holy Spirit, and obey, and the feelings will follow. But never chase the feelings for their own sake, because feelings alone will lead you astray.
★★★ You are the only one who can prevent yourself from being on fire. You can be as close to God as you want to be. He is not playing hide and seek, and he is not withholding himself. You simply have to make yourself flammable.
How? It begins with honesty about your condition and about the desires that run contrary to God’s best for you.
★★ What you uncover, God will cover. When you confess, when you say, “God, I have sin and I don’t know what to do with it, so I’m bringing it to you,” he begins to change the very desires of your heart. It begins with hunger. God moves behind hunger, and it requires a real pursuit of him. As we do that, the power of God comes.
Closing
Fresh fire is available. Fresh filling of the Holy Spirit is available, not as a reward for the impressive but as a gift for the hungry and the honest. The invitation to every believer is to ask God for fresh wind and fresh fire, to be honest about the desires that war against his best, and to receive.
And for anyone who has never received what Christ did on the cross, perhaps because you have spent your life trying to earn a love that cannot be earned, the message is that you are loved today. God has made a way for your salvation and the forgiveness of your sin, and the free gift is yours for the asking. Several said yes to Jesus across this weekend’s services, and all of heaven celebrates every one of them.
The line that lands the whole message is worth carrying into the week: you are the only one who can keep yourself from the fire. Make yourself flammable.
