Relate Community Church
Relate Community Church
Holy Spirit: Power Up
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Holy Spirit: Power Up
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. Acts 1:8
Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the spirit. Ephesians 5:18
1. The Holy Spirit is not weird
2. Jesus said we need the Holy Spirit.
And I will ask the Father and He will give you another advocate, who will never leave you. John 14:14
The Holy Spirit is our teammate
But the counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. John 14:26
The Holy Spirit is our teacher
When He comes, He will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgement. John 16:4
The Holy Spirit is our transformer
3. The Holy Spirit is available, but not automatic.
And the disciples were continually filled with Joy and with the Holy Spirit. Acts 13:52
Being filled with the Holy Spirit doesn’t make me better than you, It makes me better than me
Discussion Questions:
If you had to describe your energy level as a battery percentage today, what would it be and why?
Why do you think Jesus considered the Holy Spirit essential?
How have your past experiences shaped your view of the Holy Spirit? In what area of life do you most need His help right now? And what is one area where God may be inviting you to grow?
What is one practical step you can take to stay connected to the Holy Spirit this week?
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Amen, amen. What a day in the house of the Lord would you just take one minute and give the Lord praise this morning that he's worthy of you gotta get it back. That was about a 20% worth of what he what he deserves. So we're gonna try it one more time on the count of three. I just want you to give God glory the best that you can on the count of three. One,
Praise, Welcome, And Connection
SPEAKER_01two, three. Come on! There we go. You guys are amazing. God is so good today. Before you sit down, would you find about five people and just give them like a double high five? Come on. Double high five. Alright. I can't tell you guys how excited I am to be back. I'm excited to be here. I'm excited that Seek Week is this week. We got a lot of things going on. Every my phone personally gets a uh an alert every time someone signs up to be baptized. And every time I get it, I'm celebrating that another person is gonna uh take the plunge. I think that's happening Friday night. So if you have not signed up to be baptized, you can do that. It's gonna be uh lots of cool things happening this week. Communion and first Wednesday, what a what a time that usually is of worship and the message. Today I wish I could take more time to catch up and to just they always tell me I redo the announcements, so I'm not gonna redo the announcements. I just like to talk about all the things that are happening. Uh I'm not gonna do that today, so you can relax. We're gonna dive right into the message for today. As we kick off a brand new series, we just finished 10 weeks in uh Summer in the Forge. Feels like we just started summer, but we just finished 10 weeks, and um, it won't be long before we're into the fall, just a couple more weeks. Summer's uh fall small groups will be kicking off, and it is um feels like it could get away from us. So, man, I just can't. I am always surprised whenever I see a bunch of your faces I haven't seen for a long time. I gotta tell you, it means a lot to me that you're here today. So glad that you came, and um you guys are just a blessing. Would you reach over and touch somebody and say, I'm glad you're here? Just imagine it was me touching you on the shoulder, saying, I'm glad you're here. For those watching online, it matters a lot to us that you that you chose us today as well. Three weeks, we're gonna be talking about the Holy Spirit. Three weeks, and today is it's gonna be a fun time. It's gonna be, I love this subject. I love talking about him, I love talking about the spirit of God and what that means. I hope that you walk away from today and from this series with your mind changed, with your heart changed, with your relationship with the Lord changed. Let's give it up for the band. They're doing an awesome job. Come
Why The Holy Spirit Matters
SPEAKER_01on. Yes. Amen. Pull out your notes. We are a note-taking church. We want it to stick with you. What better time than a brand new series for me to just remind you that um how many of you have your white clicky binder? A little three-ring binder right here. My brother has his. Hold it up real quick. There you go. We have them all over the room. But if you don't have a notes binder and you wonder every week, what are you talking about? Pull your notes, you can get it on the app so you can pull the digital notes. But every single week, our greeter team stands out and they pass out the physical paper notes. You can put that into a binder that's already paid for for free. You can grab one on your way out. It's on the shelf by the uh the main entrance there. So grab one every week. We're taking notes, we're digging in so you can carry it with you. Take it to small groups. You'll be able to remember what the sermon was about. Some sometimes it's hard. I know. Holy Spirit. What do you think of when I say the word Holy Spirit? I think for a lot of people, the response and the reaction is it can be very different. It really depends on how you were raised and what your experience with the Holy Spirit, how you've experienced God, how you've experienced church, what you've seen. For some of you, that might mean uh you some of you, especially if you grew up in a certain kind of church where they maybe wore too much makeup or not any makeup at all, you're probably thinking, yes, we're gonna talk about the Holy Spirit. Some of you, if you have the only experience, the only uh the only thing you know about the Spirit of God is something that you might have seen on YouTube or on social media, then you might be thinking, uh, uh-oh, I think I came on the wrong Sunday. Maybe I picked the wrong message to check out this church. Can I just tell you that you didn't pick the wrong message? And I hope that this, especially the first in the series, is really might be an introduction to you. It might be uh a reintroduction and a reminder of why the Holy Spirit is so important. So, really, we get a kind of split responses. But I will say this I want to talk to everybody in the room, and I believe this is every person in the room that experiences, has experienced or is experiencing this time of life or a season of life where you are feeling drained and you feel like you're struggling so hard. Why is this so difficult? Why is it so difficult to get to church every Sunday or get my kids here? Even if it was at one point not that difficult.
Drained Versus Empowered Living
SPEAKER_01You're feeling like you're just, I don't know if I can make it. I don't know if I don't know why I'm doing this. I don't know. There is a an answer that can be found in the person of the Holy Spirit. And I want us to look at it today. Jesus said, when you receive the when the Holy Spirit comes, you will receive power. We're gonna read that verse in a minute. But the power, I want to focus on that just a little bit today because I think there's a recharge. If you just think simply about power, not the Holy Spirit, just what what you probably know about electricity and power is that there's a recharging that happens. There's a a filling of power or no power. You can have power in your vehicle or in your in your house or not. The same is true in our spirit walk, in our faith, our emotions, our uh your life in general. Maybe it's a specific area, maybe it's overall. And so I want us to talk about that today and what it looks like to be recharged. But before we do that, I want to look at the word spirit. I want to look at how the Bible refers to the spirit, what it means when we hear that word. So we'll look at Old Testament, then New Testament, and then we're gonna unpack it just a little bit and in who is the Holy Spirit and what it what does it look like? All right, we'll start in the Old Testament. So when you see the word spirit in the Old Testament, it's actually a Hebrew word ruach. Everybody say ruach. The definition of that word is a wind, breath, a violent exhalation, a blast of breath. So this might be a mind shift for you, a perspective change that we think some spirit is like a ghost, or in fact, a lot of times in the Bible, the the
Spirit Means Wind And Breath
SPEAKER_01words Holy Spirit and Holy Ghost are interchangeable. The person of the Holy Ghost, the person of the Holy Spirit. But when you when God is referring to the Spirit, or when the Bible refers to the Spirit, it's actually referencing something that is not as easily defined. It's not like just something ethereal or mystical or something way off in the cosmos, or that's hard to describe. Wind is very easy to describe, actually. You might not be able to scientifically describe, like, I don't know where wind comes from. It's just there, you feel it, and it makes a it can change the way you feel, it can affect my life, it can blow down a building, it can it brings great power, especially if you capture that power, but it's not something that can't be can't be understood, even if I'm a kindergartner. In Genesis chapter 1, the very the second verse of the Bible, we see this word ruach. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the spirit of God, the ruach of God, was hovering over the waters. That's the breath, the violent exhalation, the blast of breath. So, like the wind of God. I want you to hang on to this because it's gonna matter when we start talking about the spirit of God moving in your life. It's not a mystical, ethereal thing that can't be understood, or that it's some crazy thing that only certain specific Christians or certain sect of uh Christianity should be focused on. Let's keep going. New Testament, real quick. In the New Testament, we see the this a different word because we're moving from Hebrew to Greek. Some of you are like, Can you just get to the message, Pastor Shaw? This is it, this is the message. It's Hebrew and Greek, and yeah. You just keep your brain on for a second. The Greek word pneuma again, the definition is it's a current of air, a blast of breath, a strong breeze. It's not just a ghost that shakes the house, and there's no chains involved. It's not a scary thing, it's a wind. In fact, I'd say more often than not, a wind is refreshing. And we see it when Jesus talks in John chapter 6, verse 63, he says, The words I have to sp the words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. So they are wind. They are breath and they are life. So I don't want you to do this one time for me. Everybody in the room, just do this. Go. Some of y'all used your hand. Thank you. I it's just the this breath. You don't see it, you can feel it, you can hear it sometimes. There's this breath. I think this is this is how we need to see the Holy Spirit because that's how He's described to us. That's what He is. He's the breath of God. And in our faith, our walk of God, our our walk of faith, our our relationship with God, we can get to where we're stagnant and stale, and there doesn't feel like it's alive, and it just feels like what am I doing here? And I can I just want you to recognize this one thing before we go any further, and that is that in a moment the breath of God can come into your life and everything changes. The wind of the Holy Spirit can begin to move and blow into your life. And whatever your preconceived notions and ideas and things you grew up with, and things you saw on YouTube and described and heard from a friend of a friend, that they held snakes, baby, or they held, you know, drank poison and did all the things that must be associated with the Holy Spirit. Can I tell you, the way I read the Bible is that when the breath of God moves into my life, it's refreshing and recharging, it brings power into my life, and that's what I want for us. As I was preparing for this message this week, I was remembering my son Jake, who's now 23. He, when he was about eight years old, the best toy, I think, in my opinion. I think in his opinion, I didn't ask him because I know it. This is the best toy he ever had. The best toy he ever had, it was a little electric. Uh nowadays,
The Battery Drain Motorcycle Story
SPEAKER_01electric scooters are pretty common. In those days, they weren't very common. And uh, it was given to him as a gift, and it was a little uh pocket rocket motorcycle electric, like not very loud, but you didn't hear him coming. But when he got there, it was fast. It was just he would ride it all over the church property and the double gym in and out and around. And uh his sister Grace would beg to ride on the back and get uh get a ride with him, and he would just it was so fast. In fact, that I don't know how fast it went, but I know that it was so fast that his mom, Angela, thought he does not need this. This is not this, he's eight years old. Is this too grown up of a toy for him? And I said, look, but he's having such a good time, and you can't take it away from him now. He got to where he would ride at like full speed, like uh indie racers, like moto all the way tipped over at eight years old. He was an excellent rider, and um he had a few wrecks, but what I remember more than anything is this we would leave it charging anytime we weren't there, and then whenever he would come into the building, usually it was straight line for that motorcycle. And when he'd get on it, he would ride just forever until all of a sudden, as batteries do, the battery would begin to drain, and all of a sudden, what was the time of his life, and hair's blowing and wind blowing, it doesn't matter. Even the wrecks, he was running right back to the motorcycle, get back on it and let's go again. All of a sudden, what was the time of his life, then he's having a blast, all of a sudden, it becomes a struggle. And what was easy for him to get around usually this happened as far away from the charger as possible, he would then have to physically push it back, and all as usual, here comes Jake. Dad, he would tell me he needed me to bring his bike back to the charger so he could get it on there for a little while so he could ride some more. And all of a sudden, what was happiness and joy is tears and struggle, and he's pushing, trying to get his sister back and everybody back to the charger. And then I would just say, just leave it, I'll get it, I'll bring it back later, go do something else. And of course, more tears at that point. Here's what I think happens: I think that just like in your faith, just like in your walk with the Lord, one moment, maybe it was when you first came to God. You first surrendered your life, you started off and it was a blast, your hair is blowing, everything is easy. It's easy to go at top speed, it's easy to go all over the property. You're here and there and back again. And it's not hard to go to church, it's not hard to join small groups, it's not hard to get the whole family up, and everybody's pumped and excited to get it. And here we go. We're gonna read our Bible every morning, we're gonna pray before we eat, we're gonna pray before we when we wake up, pray before we go to sleep. And all of a sudden, the charger starts to go down. And what started off as being very easy the efforts, the new ideas, the creativity, the ministry, the work, the fundraising, the uh the living in holiness, all the things that just were second nature and you were having a blast, all those same things are now struggle, and you got tears, and you're like, I don't even know what I'm doing. I can't, I feel like I'm working my butt off and I'm getting nowhere. And can I tell you that it's probably not because you're broken? Because I think that's our first instinct is to just think, what is wrong with me? I was doing so good, and now it's like everything's gone wrong, and I must be something must be wrong in here. And I gotta talk to pastor, I gotta talk to my small group, I gotta talk to somebody, I gotta go find a new church, I gotta, I gotta do something different. Listen, the problem is not that you're broken, the problem is that you're drained. And that what was easy is now hard because you don't have the same power that you had before. What does that look like? I'll give you some examples, and here's what you gotta do. Keep your eyes on me. Don't look at anybody because as soon as the first one comes on the screen, you're gonna think, I know that person. What does it look like when our when our power starts to get drained? It might look like easily annoyed. Like what didn't matter before, like, oh, that's no big deal. Now all of a sudden, those little things become big irritations, and you're extremely annoyed. It might look like constantly exhausted. Maybe you get a whole night's sleep. Everything on paper looks like it should be great, but you wake up and you're already exhausted, and the day hasn't even started yet. Maybe it's uh an emotional un instability that you're not used to. You feel like you're doing great, and then all of a sudden, I just don't feel like I did this morning. Five minutes ago, I felt good, and now I'm just struggling. I'm like all over the place. Maybe it's argumentative. Your power meter has drained, and you used to get along with everybody. You were having a good time, we were all on the same team, and now all of a sudden you're just at odds. Feels like everybody's against you. We all know that. In person, and sometimes it's us. Could be often offended. Have you ever felt like you just couldn't wait for it? I wish somebody would do that. I wish somebody would say I wish they would cut me off in the freeway today because I not today. Not today, I'm ready. Yesterday I'd have been okay, just give you the lane, but today, not today. I'm just sometimes I get in the car and I just have my hand on the horn. I'm ready. Maybe it's lacking joy. We talk all the time about choosing joy, and you know that's the right thing to do. I gotta choose joy, but it just becomes infinitely more difficult to choose joy because it feels like everything is against the joy. You're not broken, you're just drained. So when we are filled with the Holy Spirit, what happens is it turns that struggle back into a celebration. It turns the the difficult trial back into the time of my life. And I'm not saying it's not hard, I'm saying that even in the difficult times, even in the rough times, you can get back up to speed, you can get back to the place where I can take all the struggle with ease because I'm empowered by the Holy Spirit to do it. I want to show you what Jesus says. So Jesus gathers all the disciples after the resurrection, and he says, Look, I've got big plans for you. We're gonna change the world, but you're gonna need some power to accomplish it. He says Acts chapter 1, verse 8. Jesus says, You'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth. In other words, there's a I'm gonna give you a mission that's impossible to do without the power. Or you can fight and you can struggle along and you can try to do it with all your might, but it's gonna
Power For Purpose, Not Burnout
SPEAKER_01hurt. Or you can do it with power and you can do it with ease. He said, My burden is easy and my yoke is light. But that's only when we're empowered by the Holy Spirit to do it. So we need God's power to walk in God's purpose. So God's gonna God has given all of us purpose, and we love to talk about the purpose, and we love to get excited about the purpose, and then the moment you try to carry that purpose without his power, it crushes you. Because it is impossible. And what happens when we try to accomplish God's purpose without God's power? What happens is burnout. And we may you may have experienced that before. What happens when you start to feel the effects of burnout? In other words, you start to feel the chur the the meat, your power meter starting to go down. Uh oh, my batteries are starting to run low. I need to fill my batteries, I need to recharge. How do you there are a lot of things that we reach for to fill that deficiency? It might be food, drink, drugs, shopping, someone. Sometimes it's a person we think fills that gap because we have, oh man, I just fill this gap, this deficiency where my power's just draining. I just need somebody. That's a lie. You need the Holy Spirit. You don't need someone else to fulfill you. You need to be empowered by the Holy Spirit to keep walking and accomplishing his will for your life. Ephesians chapter 5, Paul talks about that gap and how we try to fill it. He says, Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Instead, be filled with the breath of God. What's your instinct? Most of us understand God the Father. Oh, he's a father. I can't I get that. Even if you didn't have a good father, you might think, okay, I get it. He's a good father. And then we understand Jesus because he died for us. He hung on a cross. He's a savior. He's my Lord. He's my savior. I'm gonna follow Jesus. But when it comes to the Holy Spirit, a lot. Times we have this disconnection because I just don't know what that means. I just it's it's it's not clearly defined for me. And so when we think about the Holy Spirit, we think about um maybe an experience in church where people were shaking or jumping or falling, or lots of things get blamed on the Holy Spirit. In fact, I've been in in a lot of situations where I maybe I'm preaching and then all of a sudden we hear thunder outside. Oh, God must be telling us that must be the Holy Spirit letting us know. I felt the whole building shake. That was definitely the Holy Spirit. Or you know what, Hashon, look, I got goosebumps. That's the Holy Spirit. That's just letting me know. God's letting me know. And a lot of times because we don't know, we fill the gap and try to define what the Holy Spirit is just by the way we feel. It's clear in the Bible what the Holy Spirit does and what he can and can't do, and what the whole point is. So today, if you're feeling that powerless, if you're feeling that struggle and drain and lack of joy and all those areas, I want to give you today three quick things in about the next 15 minutes or so, so that we can walk out of here and over the next three weeks, we are whenever we we have this week seek week, what are we seeking? We're seeking the presence of God. Because listen, I all the things you probably need, you could make a list of a hundred things you need. Nothing compares to the presence of God showing up in a situation where everything is going wrong. You could you could have uh a recipe for God. If you if you would just do X, Y, Z, A, B, C, if you could just do all these things and fix this and give me more money and fix my health and this relationship and my marriage and all. Listen, when the Holy Spirit, when the breath of God comes into your life, all those things fix. All of those things don't, they don't matter. They're not as heavy. And even if something is not the way I would prescribe it to be, when I have the breath of God in my life, I have the power to do and live the life that He has asked me and called me to live. So here's three things you need to know about the Holy Spirit. Number one, the Holy Spirit is not weird. The Holy Spirit is not weird. Jay, can you hand me this bottle of water right here? The Holy Spirit is not weird. Now, I've been to plenty of church services that I thought were weird. In fact, I've seen a lot of videos on YouTube that I thought were weird, and I can tell you that if your understanding
The Holy Spirit Is Not Weird
SPEAKER_01of the Holy Spirit is something you saw on YouTube, it probably is weird. Here's the thing the Holy Spirit's not weird, people are weird. Some of you are weird, some of me is weird. A lot of times we try to avoid the Holy Spirit because we think it's weird. When in truth, the thing that was weird was someone and something they did. We don't stay off of Facebook because there's a crazy weirdo on there's a lot of crazy weirdos on social media, but we don't stay off, right? We're drawn toward it. And yet when it comes to things of God, oh I saw something back in 1981, and I just decided then and there I was never gonna be a part of that. Those Holy Spirit people, not me. So something happened to me this week that I really debated whether or not I should show you, but as soon as it I just knew I had to show you, and it's a little bit embarrassing, but that's okay. Um this week, thank you so much. How many of you guys enjoyed last Sunday? Brother Joseph came and brought an incredible message. As usual, our team members are incredible. Um but it gave Angela and I um just a couple of days. We were able, we were, we flew to Mexico and had a couple days' rest in vacation, and I'm excited we're back. But when we were at the airport in Mexico, I walked into the men's bathroom and something crazy happened. This conversation just took a turn. I can tell all of you guys looking at me like, where are we going here? There's I walked to the uh the men's urinal. It's getting better, the story's getting better. And right there in the men's urinal was something that I was so surprised at that I had to pull out my phone and take a picture, which is weird in itself. No one was no one else was in the bathroom at all. And so it was a sneaky pad. Get my camera out real quick and take a picture of the urinal, which is the first time for me, which is crazy. I thought I'll show I'm not hold on, wait, wait, wait, wait. There it is, right there. It's a soccer goal with a little soccer ball in the bottom, and the soccer ball moves, it's a functioning soccer goal, and so I hold on, this story is actually going somewhere. I took this picture and immediately I was like, okay, who can I send this to? Nope, can't send it to them. Who I who can I show this to? I'm not gonna post this online. So I sent it just to my family, and the immediate response from all of them was, ooh, we don't need to see that. You don't show us any picture, and right then and there I decided I have to show everybody. I'm gonna bring it to church on Sunday morning. Here's what here's what I think doesn't happen. People don't see something like this and are immediately grossed out and say, you know what? Soccer's weird. I'm not I I can't this just crosses the line. I'm not ever gonna have anything to do with soccer again. And yet, when it comes to things of God, one person will do something so crazy, so over the top and over the line, that's obscene. And then we say, I'm not having anything to do with that ever. And it's not the Holy Spirit that's weird, it's people are weird. People can be very weird. So it's not the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, in fact, has incredible things for us and is ready to fill us with power, and we push away because we're we're just too sensible to be a part of that. Can I challenge you a little bit? Don't be too sensible and too civilized that you missed what this is all about. Number two, Jesus said we need the Holy Spirit. If Jesus said, I need it, we get so excited about all the things God has for us, but we can't do any of it without his spirit. So Jesus in the upper room before he's arrested, in John chapter 14, 15, and 16, he gives us this uh last description to the disciples here's what you're gonna need. This is what's coming, this is the all the things we've done miracles,
Advocate, Teacher, And Convicter
SPEAKER_01signs, wonders, we're changing the world. The kingdom of God is at hand, and this is the next step. And over the course of those three chapters, go read it this week. The course of those three chapters, Jesus gives them a picture of what it looks like and why they need the Holy Spirit. In fact, he tells them, It's better for you if I go. It seems like it could be Jesus. Why do you have to go? Why does the temple have to be destroyed? Why all this doesn't make sense? He kind of corrects them and says, It's better for you if I go, because then the Holy Spirit can come. Then a better one than me will come. In John chapter 14, 14, he says, I'll ask the Father. Jesus said, I'll ask the Father, and he'll give you another advocate who will never leave you. It means this that the Holy Spirit is our teammate. You realize that you have someone on your team that you can lean on, all of the deficiencies that you have, the things you don't understand, the future that doesn't make sense, all the all the struggle in life where you fall short, he doesn't. All the things that don't make sense to you, they make sense to him. The things that surprise you, like, oh my god, I'm so surprised. I never saw this coming. He saw it coming. Where your bank account ends, his bank account doesn't end, and you have a teammate that you're just uh that's a little too weird for me. We don't just live life for God, we live life with God, with his spirit in us. The second one, but the counselor, the Holy Spirit, the whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I've said to you. The Holy Spirit is not only our teammate, he's our teacher. Have you ever considered that there are things that you don't understand that God can download to your spirit? But you don't even ask. You just go to YouTube. Oh, I'm gonna figure this out. You dig through a thousand opinions and a thousand ideas and all this, and the Holy Spirit can just show you what you need to do. You're debating on the fence of should I take this job, should I not take this job, should I make this decision, should I get married to this person? Should I do this? Should I do that? Why don't you ask the Holy Spirit? He already knows. And here's one people don't like the third one. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment. But there's a point behind conviction. The scripture says there is therefore now no condemnation. I don't have to be condemned, I don't have to feel guilty, I don't have to carry it with me, but the conviction of the Holy Spirit helps me decide. It's my conscience on a greater level that shows me, oh, I don't need to go there. Oh, this person's not good for me. This thing is not good for me, this decision is not good for me, this is good for me. I don't know what it is about this person, but I'm gonna get closer to them. I don't know what it is about these people and this small group, but I gotta get, I have to be a part of that. Something is like magnetism, whenever the Holy Spirit convicts and shit, he's like, He's like a gatekeeper that helps me, keeps me in a guideline. But we don't like that because we don't like to be told what to do. Well, I'm gonna figure it out myself. I just want to go where I want to go. Wait a second. I want to be teachable. I want I want to follow the spirit of God in my life. It's always funny to me whenever people talk to me after service and say, Pastor John, I hear you loud and clear. I know that one part of the message, you were talking just to me. Let me tell you, I probably wasn't thinking about you. It was about three weeks ago or so. One of the one of our team members came up and we were sitting in our staff meeting and they said, Oh, Pastor John, you need to know that uh right after service, so and so said that they they got your message and that uh they went ahead and and they signed up on the signup sheet because they knew that whenever you were talking about the signup sheet, you looked at them and you made a face and you knew that you I was not making a face at any. I'm never making a face at you. So that's not trying to look like up here somewhere, especially if you're talking about something heavy. I don't want you to take it personally, it's not for me. In fact, don't listen to me. Listen to the Holy Spirit because even while I'm speaking, sometimes the Holy Spirit's gonna give you an idea or convict you of a thing, and maybe it's not this crushing guilt. He's not trying to make you feel guilty, he's trying to keep you in a guideline that's gonna keep your family safe, keep you walking in blessing. So if I look at you and I squint a little with one of my eyes, I can barely see you. This light is very bright. I'm not trying to signal anyone in the room ever. Unless I am. The last one is this the Holy Spirit is our transformer. He doesn't just convict us for no reason, he wants to transform you. He's he's made each of us to be a new creation. He's come that we could be transformed. There's a process called sanctification. We should be leaning into it. Sometimes it's painful. Imagine a potter molding clay. The Bible says that he is the potter and that we are the sometimes when the pot when the pot has to be changed and molded. If I'm the pot, it doesn't always feel good. But at the end of the day, I become the vessel that he can use. So the Holy Spirit's not weird. Jesus said we need the Holy Spirit, and finally, number three, the Holy Spirit is available, but he's not automatic. The last couple minutes in closing, I'm gonna invite the band to join me and we'll close in worship. But I need you to know this that Jesus said that I gotta go so that my father will send another, an advocate, a counselor, a teacher.
Available But Not Automatic
SPEAKER_01The thing is, he's available, he wants to empower us, but it's not automatic. And I know this is this is the one part of this message that can get a little bit theologically uh confusing. I thought I received the Holy Spirit whenever I gave my life to Christ, whenever I got saved, whenever I surrendered everything. When I said that prayer, I thought the Holy Spirit, I was filled right then. True. I don't want to confuse that. You get the Holy Spirit when you surrender your life to Jesus, He puts His Spirit in you, and yet there is an infilling that happens again and again and again, and we continually get filled with His Spirit. Watch this. Acts chapter 13, verse 52. After the Holy Spirit had come and uh the day of Pentecost had happened, we're gonna talk about that a little bit in the next few weeks. What that means, what that looked like. The Holy Spirit Jesus ascends to heaven, and then here comes the Holy Spirit. Says that they received power. But watch this, Acts chapter 13, verse 52, it says, and the disciples were continually filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. You know, a gust of wind doesn't just happen and then stop, and then I mean it can happen, but if I'm filled with the wind or the breath of God, it continues to breathe, it continues to blow. We sang a song earlier that said we want a fresh wind. This can't be that you know, well, back in 2006 I experienced God like never before, and it just stayed with me ever since. Just like the disciples, it says they were continually filled. God wants to continue to breathe his spirit into you. And all it takes is for us to ask. Says, ask and you'll receive. Now the verse he says, if a son asks for bread from his father, will his father give him a stone? No, he'll give he'll give what we ask for. You ask God to fill you with his spirit, put aside all the preconceived ideas of, like, oh, that's weird, I'm not gonna ask. Listen, if you want God to breathe his spirit into you, it can just be as easy as a still small voice breathing, whispering to you this morning. I'll close with one one thought, and that's this. I think there are there are a lot of people that fit this description, and I just saw in my mind this week a picture of you sitting in your house with all the windows and doors closed and the lights off. And you're struggling in your mind, your thoughts are like racing, and you're like, I can't do this, and I don't, it doesn't make sense. I can barely see in here, and I'm I'm uh I feel drained, and I feel like there's just darkness all around me. The Holy Spirit is available, but it's not automatic. You have to reach, you have to engage it. It's like you sitting in the middle of a dark room and just being overwhelmed by the darkness and overwhelmed by the by the lack of connectivity. And if you would just stand up and walk over to the wall and turn the light on, everything changes. There's an accessing of the power of the Holy Spirit that I'm not just I'm not trying to say that the Holy Spirit is like a light switch and you just need to turn it on. What I am saying is that it's accessible, it's it's available to you, you just have to reach for it, you just have to ask for it. God, breathe your spirit in me. And so, in closing, I'm not gonna invite anyone to come forward or I'm gonna let the prayer team stay right in the audience. If today, if you want to start Seek Week and start the rest of this year with the presence of God like never before and have a fresh infilling of the Holy Spirit and let Him breathe life into you. Maybe it's that one area that you just, I can't do this anymore. If that's you today and you're ready to turn the lights on, I just want you to stand up right where you are. No one's gonna mess with you, with every eye closed, nobody looking around. But if that's you, just stand up right where you are, and I want you to open your hands in front of you and I'm gonna pray for you. I'm gonna I'm gonna ask that God would pour out his spirit and breathe breath, a wind, a fresh wind, into your thoughts and into your mind and into your spirit so that you can experience him like never for. I think there's a few more people that are you're arguing with yourself whether or not you need to stand up right now. No, I promise you, nobody's looking at you. But if you're struggling, the answer is you need to stand up and open your hands. He is a gentleman, he's not gonna do anything to you that you won't like. When that fresh wind starts to blow, you'll be refreshed, you'll be recharged. Here comes the power of God making all of those things that are a struggle, make it make bringing you back to a place where now it becomes a celebration. Even in a trial, he's already overcome the world. So would you just open your hands in front of you? I want to pray for you, and then we're gonna close. Father, I thank you for your spirit being poured out on every one of us. I ask right now, God, that you would just begin to blow a fresh wind of your spirit, that you would begin to whisper into the hearts of men and women in this room, those who are watching online, God, that your spirit would begin to blow into their lives. Take out that stagnant, stale air, and God bring in your fresh wind of heaven. We love you, God, and we receive your spirit right now. Fill us a new God. Fill us fresh with your anointing and your power. Refresh us, recharge us to go out and to stand for your word and do your will and accomplish for your kingdom, what can only be done through your power. Let's worship for a moment. What you stand up on your face. But before we go, I feel like I just I wish we could stay here all day and just keep worshiping. Before we go, I want to give every person in the room an opportunity. The first step to the life that God has made you for is to just choose to make Jesus your Savior. We do that with a confession, with a decision where you decide, God, I'm gonna give you my life. I surrender everything to you. From this moment on, I'm gonna follow Jesus. If you've never said that before,
Salvation Prayer And Next Steps
SPEAKER_01maybe you have, it's time to recommit. I want to invite every person in the room. Would you say this prayer with me? Make that commitment. Would you just close your eyes right where you are and say these words with me? Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for sending your Son to die on a cross for my sin. Today I choose to give you my life to make Jesus my Lord and my Savior. So lead me and guide me. Forgive me of my sin. Put your spirit in me. And from this day forward, I will follow you in Jesus' name. Amen. Would you put your hands together? So glad that you said that prayer. If it was for the first time, I want to invite the prayer team to join me at the front. If you want to pray with someone about anything before you leave today, why don't you make your way down? Take somebody by the hand, let them say a prayer of faith with you for just 30 seconds, 45 seconds and agree, and watch faith move mountains. I love you guys. I'm looking forward to seeing you tomorrow night at 6.30 for our prayer service. It'll be a one-hour service. We'll see you there, right here.