Immersed in the Holy Spirit

Welcome to the Lookout Weekly Podcast.

Church of the Lookout is in Boulder, Colorado, and our vision is Jesus abiding in his presence, growing in his family, and living on his mission to transform the world with awe-inspiring love.

Visit us online at the lookout.church.

So in a couple weeks, we're doing something special.

I want you guys to make sure you mark your calendars, make sure that you mark Sunday, uh, April 28th.

It's gonna be a special day.

We're gonna do something we haven't done before that I'm aware of, like on a Sunday morning.

And so uh, I'm sorry, April 28th, we're doing something called Serve Day.

I'm gonna tell you just a couple minutes about Serve Day and invite you to be a part, okay?

So uh one of the opportunities we feel like the Lord is breathing on this year as a community is building bridges with our neighbors and not just metaphorically be a good neighbor.

It's to our actual neighbors, the ones like the houses you can see from here and neighborhoods you can you can see from here.

And uh and and we believe that we have an opportunity not to just assume that they know we're here, but to go where they are.

And so uh we realize that the majority of you guys are driving in from way out of town.

You're driving in from Longmont, from Erie, from Frederick, from from Lewis to Lafayette Boulder.

You're driving from a lot of other places and not these neighborhoods.

Um, but we want to be a community that's known, that we we want our neighbors to know that we are for them.

And that our our our goal, our hope is not that we just try to recruit them here, but we want to go be where they are.

So on April 28th, we felt led to do something um uh different on Sunday morning.

We're gonna gather here as usual.

We're gonna have a little bit of a shorter service, and then we're gonna be inviting you to get in your car, drive three minutes away to Heatherwood Elementary School.

So it's just south of here across this field.

There's a neighborhood called Heatherwood, okay?

Um, and we have that's that's the entrance sign to Heatherwood.

There's a couple photos coming up.

Why Heatherwood?

Well, one, it's one of the closest neighborhoods to our actual church, and it's the closest school to our church building here.

There's no HOA, so it means there's no organization happening in Heatherwood.

You talk to a lot of our neighbors in Heatherwood, they don't know each other's, they don't know the neighbors, they have don't really have a good way of connecting.

And so, as I've talked to some of the neighbors, they said there's hardly any community there just because they don't have any good way of organizing.

And uh, and they're excited that we've reached out.

We've been in contact with Heatherwood Elementary School, some of the neighbors there, and they're like, oh, this is awesome, you're coming to serve.

So, what are we doing on that day?

There's a few things we want to invite you to come and be a part of.

Number one, we're gonna be organizing several small teams that are willing to do light yard work, spring cleanup, planting flowers.

Okay, the kinds of things you'd probably be doing at your home, anyways, all right?

And we're gonna have a few teams that are gonna be available that day.

One of the teams will be at Heatherwood Elementary School, and uh and they're gonna be doing some work.

Um, you're gonna see uh this is a photo of Heatherwood.

There's another photo that shows some of the areas that we're talking about.

Um yeah, right here.

There's some potted plants, some old growth that needs to be cleaned up.

We talked to the staff, they said this would be awesome if if if you guys would would help us with this, help us beautify the school a little bit.

And so we're gonna be freshening up some landscaping.

Um, and then what we're gonna do is some of the teams are going to be uh actually checking in with going to some of the neighbors, the homes right around Heatherwood Elementary School, and we're just gonna knock on the door and say, hey, we're here helping out the school.

We want to know if there's anything we can help you with while we're in the neighborhood, okay?

So we're gonna check in with some neighbors, do some of the same things.

We're not trying to take over the whole neighborhood, we're just trying to be present with within the neighborhood.

And one of the other neighbors also asks, hey, while you're in the neighborhood, could you look at our entrances to the neighborhood?

It's really pathetic right now and it's looking pretty rough.

Could you do something about that?

And we're like, thumbs up, we're gonna do it.

So um, so what we're doing over the next two weeks is we're we're inviting you to sign up for whatever you're willing to participate.

Some of you are willing to do some light yard work.

Some of you are more uh competent when it comes to gardening and actually the planting of flowers, that kind of thing.

Some of you are just good conversationalists, and you'd be just open to meeting some of the neighbors, praying for them, maybe, just being open to whatever the relationship would bring.

And then what we're gonna do is after an hour and a half, two hours of just being present and helping where we can, we're gonna meet back at the school and we're gonna do a picnic there.

So we'd invite you to bring a picnic, uh picnic blanket.

We're gonna have some games for the kids.

They're gonna be able to use the playground there if you have kids, and uh, and we're just gonna enjoy uh the rest of our time being together.

Hopefully it's a sunny day, cross your fingers, right?

Um, and uh and then we're just gonna enjoy the rest of the time relationally at the park.

So we're gonna serve at the school, we're gonna serve some of the neighbors, we're going to do some light cleaning up there, and the whole thing, the whole thing, we're not necessarily trying to recruit anybody in, that kind of thing.

We're what we're trying to do is we're gonna we're trying to adopt a neighborhood and say we're doing one thing, we're doing you're gonna take one day to let them know in a simple way, just through serving, that you matter to us and you matter to God.

Okay?

Does this sound like a plan?

So you see this QR code, and I know we've been doing a lot of QR codes, and maybe you're not a QR code person, but I'm gonna make you a QR code person right now.

So take out your phone if you have a phone.

Maybe you've never done this.

All you have to do is open your camera app on your phone.

And what happens is once you kind of zoom in on that screen, you'll see probably like a little yellow box or something around that QR code, and just click on that.

I think that's how that works.

And once you go to that, um, you'll see a link to sign up for things that you can do on that day.

And and you might be here and you're like, I'm not really physically able to do a whole lot.

It's totally fine.

Just come and hang out.

It's gonna be a blast, okay?

And again, Sunday, April 28th, what we're gonna do is we're gonna meet here for probably no more than an hour, and we're gonna do some worship.

Our kids are gonna be in the service with us.

We're just gonna get a little lay at the land, and then we're gonna hop in our cars, go to Heatherwood, we'll be a blessing, have a picnic.

It's gonna be a great day.

All right?

Come on.

All right.

There's a lot we don't know about this day.

We have never done this before, so it's a giant learning experiment, okay?

But we're going to do it together because we feel like it matters to the heart of God.

All right?

Heatherwood, here we come.

All right.

Would you pray with me?

We're gonna jump into the word today.

Pray with me.

Father, we thank you for this morning.

Jesus, we exalt you in this place.

We lift you high, Jesus.

Your name is above every name.

And we thank you that you are the King of kings, you are the Lord of Lords.

And your kingdom is at hand, God.

In our hearts we hold Israel, we hold the Middle East.

In our hearts before you, God.

We ask for peace, God.

We pray for protection, we pray for safety, Lord Jesus.

Cover the entire Middle East, Palestine, Iran, Israel, Lord God, would you let your spirit rest over that region and de-escalate this war?

And today, God, as we open your word, help us to be filled with the mind of God.

We want to be filled with the mind of God.

We want to live into this kingdom that you've invited us into.

So would you open your word in Jesus' name?

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

So if you have your Bibles, we're gonna start in Acts 19.

Um, we didn't meet last week because of the power.

So uh, unfortunately for you, this this message has been overcooked a little bit, all right?

I've had two weeks of preparation.

So I've doubled the amount of content I want to try to get through, all right?

Um, no, it's this is really good.

There's a lot that we're gonna unpack together.

Um uh and I believe it's in flow of what God wants to do today.

So a couple weeks ago on Easter Sunday, we had the privilege of baptizing about nine individuals on Sunday morning.

Um, and it was a beautiful, beautiful morning sharing the blessing of water baptism.

What a gift it is when we put our faith in Jesus and we demonstrate that through the going under the water and the coming up.

And we looked in the scriptures together, this whole word baptism, it's this Greek word baptizo, and uh this word baptizo actually means to immerse, to cleanse, to overwhelm.

It means to immerse, to cleanse, to overwhelm.

So when Jesus told his disciples to go in all the world, make disciples, baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, he's saying, I want you to go and make sure they are overwhelmed in the name of the Father and the Son and the Spirit.

I want them to be fully immersed.

Not a sprinkling, not a drop, not slightly damp.

I want them in.

Get them in the water.

And so we're immersed in God.

But in the New Testament, not only are we immersed through the forgiveness of sins, and not only does baptism represent the forgiveness of sins, but there's another kind of immersion that follows baptism in Christ.

It's called the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Come on.

This is a charismatic church.

Every one of you has a coffee cup at home that has Acts 2 written on it, right?

So if you're joining us for the first time, or that's a new concept, baptism of the Holy Spirit, you're not the only one, okay?

I want to talk about this for a minute.

So in the New Testament, we read about not only baptism of water, but baptism of the Holy Spirit.

So if you were just baptized a couple weeks ago, you want to lean in, pay attention to this, okay?

Um, in Acts 19, we read this story of Paul's encounter with a group of believers who had never heard of the Holy Spirit and never heard of baptism.

Let's read this together.

And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus.

Then he found some disciples, and he said to them, Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you were baptized, or when you believed?

And they said, No, we have not even heard there is a Holy Spirit.

And he said, Into what then were you baptized?

They said, Into John's baptism.

And Paul said, John baptized with a baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who is to come after him, that is Jesus.

On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began to speak in tongues and prophesying.

They were about twelve men in all.

And so, so this little picture of as the gospel is spreading, as the early church is being founded, the apostle Paul, we know, was just he was just going out, proclaiming the good news of what had happened in Christ all across Asia Minor.

And this was happening at all kinds of different speeds, levels of understanding.

Um, he never knew what he was arriving to.

So when Paul arrives in Ephesus, the city of Ephesus, he had no idea what he was getting into.

And so he had to kind of start with a pop quiz.

All right, tell me about what you know.

What kind of baptism do you know?

How have you been baptized, and which one, right?

And in this case, um, they had been received John's baptism.

So John the Baptist, hang on to his name, we'll talk about him in a second.

Um, but they had never even heard of the Holy Spirit, and they didn't even know there was another kind of baptism, and so he catches them up.

They're baptized in water, it says, but then following the baptism in water, it says he laid his hands on them, and then they were baptized, they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and then and immediately these 12 men started speaking in tongues and prophesying.

So that's what happened in this particular passage.

Now, um, today I want to just just set some groundwork and some framework here, especially for those of us in the room.

We're all coming from different experiences and perspectives when it comes to baptism of the Holy Spirit.

And ultimately, this has become one of the most controversial and divisive parts of Scripture that has separated the church.

It's caused a lot of questions, it's caused a lot of confusion, it's caused a lot of excitement and good as well, but we're all kind of coming to the table with all kinds of questions, much like these men Paul came to.

Who is the Holy Spirit?

What is the baptism of the Holy Spirit?

What does that even mean?

Now, maybe you did not grow up in a setting where you even knew what the Holy Spirit was, besides this magical force that poofs from here to there, right?

It's like a genie in a bottle, right?

And it was just this aura and energy, just this impersonal thing, not a person of the Trinity.

Um, and and maybe you'd never had that experience with the Holy Spirit.

Maybe you had grew up in a church and there was the opposite of that.

There was a lot of the Holy Spirit.

And along with that, maybe a ton of pressure to experience the Holy Spirit in a particular way.

Maybe you felt shame because you prayed to receive the Holy Spirit in your life, but nothing spectacular happened on the surface like you were told it was supposed to.

And that's left you with a lot of questions as if you did it right.

Maybe, maybe for you, you were you have been filled with the Spirit, but that was something that happened long ago.

And since then, you've only referred to the Holy Spirit in past tense as something that you know you've encountered a long time ago, maybe in your youth, but you've settled for referring to this past tense rather than expecting him to continue to fill you today.

Maybe you've been hurt by other charismatic or Pentecostal Christians, and and and you were told that you didn't uh you didn't really get it, you didn't understand it, because you're not speaking in tongues, because you're not prophesying, because you're not doing a bunch of the things that you're not really saved.

And I know there's people in this room, you've been told that.

And I'm sorry, but I don't believe that's true at all.

And and and maybe you've been hurt by other Christians who told you that what it is supposed to look like, and so ever since then, not only have you carried a certain hurt which has turned into judgment against Holy Spirit people, but that judgment's also been turned to the Holy Spirit.

And so now with the Holy Spirit you enjoy maybe reading about him scripture, but an experience he's at arm's length because you're not sure what to expect, right?

So in this room, we have all of those, okay?

But here's what I here's here's what I really believe for us here today.

First of all, pressure's off.

Everybody pressures off.

Second of all, this is supposed to be fun.

It's so bizarre to me that what was supposed to be the most powerful, electrifying, exciting, delightful experiences of the kingdom of God has turned into one of the most controversial, divisive, uh, confusing, disappointing, disillusioning, pain-inducing experiences.

And I just feel like all week when I was preparing for this, I just felt like the heart of God just reminded me like, I just wanted to have fun.

Anybody ever been to Disney World before?

A few years ago we took our family to Disney World for the first time.

And and uh if you've never been to Disney World, you you too can do this for the the small price of one full annual salary of your income.

And it was something we were really looking forward to because we wanted to introduce to our kids all things Disney and have all the fun.

And we had all of our family and extended family that were, or a bunch of our extended family that were coming to be a part, and we are all getting flights and organizing this trip.

And uh, and you of course, you know, as soon as the trip starts, everything that you thought you had in your mind about what it was supposed to be like, just throw that out the window, right?

And so we had family members missing flights because of snowstorms, and then they had to take other flights from Colorado Springs just to get down to Orlando, and then we get there, kids start getting sick, and we get this big house, and we're getting you know, this this house with a pool, and it was a great house, but you know, it was just to kind of like be a holding place to get to the park, and so we get to the parks, but then like halfway during like the first or second day, I kid you not, you're my kids started saying what they they should have known better.

They should have known better than to say this to us, but they said, When are we going to go back to the house so we can get into the pool?

All right, and I'm thinking, you have no idea, you little punk, right?

Do you know what I paid for this?

I need you to enjoy this, I need you to love this.

I paid for you to love this.

And uh, you know, it was one of those things.

I I really it was a high pressure on my kids to have a certain kind of experience.

I needed that to happen for me to feel better about my my investment, right?

So but at the end of the day, we did the whole thing because at the end of the day it was just oh, we just wanted to have fun, all right?

We just wanted this to be a really delightful experience.

I think that's what sometimes what happens when it comes to things of the spirit.

Things can get complicated really fast, things can go sideways really fast.

But at the end of the day, can we just set a basic, you know, just level playing field?

God wants us to enjoy life with him.

God wants us to enjoy life with him, which is why he gives us his Holy Spirit.

Francis Chan said this.

He said, if I were Satan and my ultimate goal was to thwart God's kingdom and purposes, one of my main strategies would be to get churchgoers to ignore the Holy Spirit.

Because the reason it's so divisive, the reason that this leads has left us so many different ways is because it is the power of God.

The Holy Spirit is the power of God.

No, the passage that we read to together in Acts 19 was Paul going into as he's establishing the churches and he's teaching them about what it means to enter into the life of God, the baptism of Jesus and the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

But let's just backtrack just a little bit about some backstory.

Matthew 3, 11.

John the Baptist, he was the one that came before Jesus, and he was baptizing people in the Jordan.

And it was a baptism we know it was a baptism of repentance.

And what that was was an inner cleansing.

There was a there's a preparation to receive Jesus, a preparation for the new thing that God was doing.

So repentance is a way of just um you know being cleansed from your sin, of making your heart right with God.

And so he was inviting the people that would come to him to to repent from their sins.

So Matthew 3.11, though, he says this I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me, who is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry, he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

Jesus continues this theme in the Gospel of John, John chapter 14, as he is preparing his disciples for his departure, John 14, starting at verse 15, he says, If you love me, you will keep my commandments, and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him.

John 14 · chapter mention

But you know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

And he continues a little bit later in John chapter 14, starting in verse 25.

John 14 · chapter mention

He says, These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you, but the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all the things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

What a gift.

And then Jesus, as he went after he resurrected from the dead, and he's with his disciples for several more weeks after he after he rose from the dead, this is before he ascended into heaven, his final words in Acts, Acts chapter 1, verse 4, he says, and while staying with them, this is actually the uh this is the writer Luke, he's writing what Jesus said.

Acts 1:4

And while staying with them, he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, You heard from me, for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.

So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?

And he said to them, It is not for you to know the times or seasons for the that the Father has fixed by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.

Amen.

So this was the promise of the Father that Jesus said, I want you to wait.

I want you just to wait, stay where you are, and wait, because the Holy Spirit is going to come to you not many days from now.

And it happened.

And so when we read in in Acts, and if you've never read the book of Acts, it's really documenting the entire move of both the Holy Spirit and the church as the church was being birthed.

And in Acts chapter 2, we see we read that this happens, right?

Acts 2 · chapter mention

And so the the disciples are gathered in an upper room to pray.

They're waiting on God, they're fasting and praying.

And it says that the room was all of a sudden filled with the sound of a mighty rushing window and uh the sound of many waters.

And it And it filled the room, and it says that tongues of fire rested on the heads of all these disciples.

And so there's this fiery element, and all this they started speaking in languages they didn't even know.

And what happened is they leave the upper room, they go out into the streets, and they start speaking in languages that, as men were gathered there for Passover from nations from all across the region, they were there, and they heard these men and women speaking in languages, uh, extolling the praises of God in their native tongue.

And it was so powerful.

And the crowds are like, Are these men drunk?

They said, No, it's only three o'clock, wait till nine o'clock, right?

And they, no, I'm just joking on that one.

Um they they were filled with tongues, and that the praises of God were moving out in all kinds of different languages, and it says that 3,000 men, when Peter started preaching, 3,000 men turned their lives over to this message of the gospel of entering into the work of Jesus, and the church was born on the day of Pentecost.

It was a beautiful thing.

In fact, the Acts of the Apostles documents the normal life of the kingdom, of what it looks like to live in the power of the Spirit.

But it was uh in the middle of the 20th century, A.W.

A.W.

Tozer, he kind of had a harsh critique of what he was experiencing in the church of his day.

He said this if the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the church today, 95% of what we do would go on, and no one would know the difference.

If the Holy Spirit had been withdrawn from the New Testament church, 95% of what they do would stop and everybody would know the difference.

And so we start reading of how these believers were getting together and they were breaking bread, they were fellowshipping, they were opening the scriptures, and they were praying and they were sharing things with each other, and generosity was exploding in the lives of these men and women.

But it was full of the spirit.

They were working their jobs, they were tent makers and fishermen they were doing, they were sown into the city, but it was full of the spirit of God.

It was full of the power of God.

And that's the blessing of who the Holy Spirit is.

The Holy Spirit is the breath, the ruach of God that has been given, the wind, the great wind of heaven.

He's our comforter, the scriptures say.

He comforts us in times of pain.

He convicts us of our sin.

He's our helper, he's our friend, he leads us into all truth.

He baptizes us with fire and with his cleansing power.

We would all be toast without the Holy Spirit.

Now, a couple, like a just a technical question that oftentimes people ask about baptism and baptism and water versus baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Like, is that the same thing?

Are they two different things?

Let me just share with you two schools of thought and then I'll share with you the real answer.

First school of thought is is as you read Acts, many have concluded, yes, that it's a different thing.

There's baptism into Christ through water, and then there's a separate kind of baptism, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which is a kind of a dramatic infilling that happens, it's a marking of a second time.

That it would be easy to read through the book of Acts and see that.

Um but others would say, no, when you're baptized in Christ, you you're baptized into the Holy Spirit too, because when wherever Jesus goes, he brings his friends with him.

And uh, and so when you're baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, there is there is an initial gift and grace of the Holy Spirit that's that that happens there.

And there may be some other infillings that happen, but it happens there.

So the real answer, everybody, drum roll, please.

The real answer is yes.

Okay?

The real answer is yes.

Or I don't know what the real answer is.

Can we just put it like that?

So rather than getting tripped up on where and when it happens, let's just settle on this.

No matter when it happens, one thing is clear God is so vast that you can never come to an end of Him.

No matter how much of the Holy Spirit you may have today, there is always room for more.

There's always room for more.

So whether it happens as a distinct thing or whether it happens in your baptism, the good news is this there's always room for more.

The Holy Spirit loves to fill you and to fill you again and to fill you again into full immersion.

This is what I pray over my kids every night, because I can't always think of what to pray.

So I pray Ephesians 1.19, where Paul's praying, he says he prays that they would know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that they may be filled with all the fullness of God.

So if you don't know what to pray, just be prayed, just pray to be filled with the fullness of God.

Filled with the fullness of God.

Who wants to be filled with the fullness of God?

If you don't know what to ask for, just say, God, fill me with the fullness.

I want to be filled with the fullness of God.

That's what we need.

It's what we want.

That is not a one-time thing.

That's not something that happens at one point in your life.

That you may be filled with the fullness of God.

This is God's heart for you.

This is should be our hunger, our thirst, our desire to know why, but why do we need to be baptized with the Holy Spirit?

I'm gonna share five things.

Why do we need to be baptized with the Holy Spirit?

Number one, as Jesus said, is that we may be bold witnesses.

This is what he said.

I want to, I'm gonna baptize you not many days from now, that you may be my witnesses in all of the earth.

So one of the things that's very important to Jesus, one of the ingredients that he thought was very important is if you want to be a witness, if you want to tell anybody of what I've done and do it justice, you're going to need the Holy Spirit to be witnesses.

How many of you know that when we come into Christ and we experience the resurrection life in Christ, part of the joy is to be able to be a witness of what he has done in our lives, right?

And yet, oftentimes for for many Christians, it's uh it's it's become something that we we either we hide or we diminish or we don't want to project something onto other people.

It's a thing of shame or insecurity.

We don't want to impose ourselves.

But in the life of the king or for those who've been filled with the Spirit, it is natural to be able to share of what Christ has done in your life.

This is actually in your genetic now that you speak of what you've seen, you speak of what you've experienced in Christ.

This is a good thing to be able to be bold witnesses.

And this is what got the early church in so much trouble, because they would go out and they'd be proclaiming the gospel, they'd get jailed for it, they'd escape jail, and then go out and have a prayer meeting.

And you know what they pray for?

God, give us more boldness.

Let us be more bold than we were before.

You only pray that if you've encountered the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

It makes absolutely no sense.

But life in the kingdom is about being filled with the boldness of God.

I remember I love that a couple weeks ago, after we hosted a 24 hours of worship and prayer here at the church, one of the worship leaders who led in the middle of the night from two to four, which that's pretty wild in and of itself.

After he left the prayer room, he sent us a voicemail later that day, and kind of he told us the story.

He said, after he left the prayer room, he was going home, decided to stop by like a fast route to get some breakfast on the way home.

And uh he stops by, he goes to the drive-thru, and he felt like the Lord told him to, you know, to speak to whoever whoever's serving him at the window and tell him about Jesus.

And he's like, This is too weird, I can't do this.

And so he drove off, but then it just God wouldn't let it go.

And so he circled back around, he showed up to the parking lot, he started coming into the restaurant.

Meanwhile, this employee just got off work and is walking out of the restaurant.

He's able to, this guy's name is Jonathan, he's able to basically share the love of Jesus with this guy, talk about the forgiveness of sins.

This guy says, Yeah, I'd love to know what that is like.

He prays with this guy, he receives Jesus, and he asks him, How does this feel?

He says, I feel so much lighter.

And he said, That's because your sins are forgiven.

You don't have that weight on your shoulder anymore.

And they rejoice together.

And it's like, that is like just we go out, we're filled with boldness.

When God says speak, you speak because he, whatever he's done for you, he wants to do through you.

Come on.

To be bold witnesses.

We're filled with the Holy Spirit to be bold witnesses, but we're filled with the Holy Spirit to be empowered for ministry.

We need the power of God to carry out every work, ministry, assignment that He's called us to.

And this is this is something about the difference between authority and power that we see in Scripture.

When Jesus commissioned us, he gave us his authority.

He said, All authority has been given to me, and I send you out.

He commissioned us to go out in his name to do his work, but he also knew we needed power, not just his authority, but with his power.

Well, what's the difference?

There's really a couple examples.

Um the one that's probably the clearest, I don't like the most, because it's a little aggressive, is um you just imagine a police officer, a police officer, a law enforcement will have a badge, which is their authority.

But oftentimes they also have to carry weapons, they have to carry other tools to enforce their authority wherever they go, right?

And there's a difference between authority and power.

If you just had a badge but you had no tools or power, you would not be able to do what you've been authorized to do in every sense of the case.

Another example might be uh it's it would be like getting your driver's license but having no car, or having your driver's license, but having a car that is completely out of gas, right?

It's not going to do much if you're legal to be on the road, but your car has no power to it.

In the same way, we are commissioned, we've been given the authority of Jesus, but but he empowers us for the things that he has called us to by the through the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Everything that you do, every person in this room, and you need to hear me on this, every single one of us is a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Everybody has been commissioned into full-time ministry.

I don't care if you're an accountant, if you're an engineer, if you're a stay-at-home mom, if you work for a nonprofit, if you're a teacher, you have been called by God to the work that He has sown you into.

And for you to take that seriously means that you don't just need your own intellect, you need the power of God and the wisdom of God, the intelligence of God, the strategies of God, the heart of God, the prophetic word of God.

You need all of the resources of God to go into what you're doing, to do it unto the fullness of joy and peace, so it can minister life and healing and freedom everywhere you go.

This is what you need, this is what I need.

We need to do the Lord's work, but we need the power of God to do so.

Corey Tenboom, who many of you know is a Dutch watchmaker, she ended up housing many um uh refugees from the concentrations camps.

She said this trying to do the Lord's work in your own strength is the most confusing, exhausting, and tedious of all work.

But when you're filled with the Holy Spirit, the ministry of Jesus just flows out of you.

It's exhausting to live the Christian life without God.

Anyone?

It's actually impossible.

And a lot of us are there, you're exhausted.

Like, how am I gonna do all this?

You're not.

That's the point.

It's God living through you.

It's a there's a power of God, there's a resource of heaven that he gives to you to live the Jesus life.

You can't live the Jesus life on your own.

If you could have done that on your own, you would have done that.

You wouldn't have needed Jesus.

But he gives you his life and he backs it up through his spirit.

Amen?

Are you guys hanging?

Are you guys we good?

Okay.

Just stay dialed in, guys.

I need you to stay dialed in.

So we are bold witnesses.

We've been given the Holy Spirit to be empowered for ministry.

We've been given the Holy Spirit to proclaim the gospel through signs and wonders and miracles.

Now, I'm not gonna spend as much time on the last couple points here because we're gonna make some space to be with Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

But this is very important that when when Jesus commissioned us out, he commissioned us to heal the sick, to cast out demons, to raise the dead, not to just proclaim the gospel with words, but demonstrate through works.

Matthew chapter 10, when he's when he's sending out his disciples, this is the Passion Translation, he says, As you go, preach the message, heaven's kingdom realm is accessible, close enough to touch.

Matthew 10 · chapter mention

You must continually bring healing to the lepers and to those who are sick, and make it your habit to break off demonic presence from the people and raise the dead back to life.

Freely, you have received the power of the kingdom, so freely give it to others.

So that was a different translation.

But basically, the whole idea is I'm I'm commissioning you to go out and to demonstrate what's real in the kingdom of heaven.

And so our level of faith has to rise with Jesus' levels of faith.

I don't have a ton of time to get into this today, but I just want to encourage us even if your experience is different than that, it is still the bar.

The bar is still that you have been given the power of God.

If it takes praying for 10,000 people before one person gets healed, then you pray for 10,000 and one people.

You keep going.

Why?

Because he said it was possible.

He did not lie, he did not lie to you, and he did not lie to me.

So we we smile, and if somebody gets healed, we say, Praise God.

If they don't get healed, we smile and we say, God is still good and he's in this, and I don't understand what's happening, but we're we still believe that he's good.

Amen?

So we demonstrate the kingdom through signs and wonders and miracles, but then also we've been given the Holy Spirit to grow in spiritual fruit and gifts.

It's the overflow of the life of in God.

It produces both fruit and gifts.

If you want to read later, 1 Corinthians 12 lists a lot of the gifts of the Spirit healing, wisdom, prophecy, discernment, speaking in tongues, interpretation that are unlocked through the power of the Spirit.

But then also, Galatians 5 lists the fruit of the Spirit, which is the kind of person he's making you into into this world.

The fruit of the Spirit is the fruit of your life.

In a church world, sometimes we get more infatuated with the gifts than we do the fruit, but arguably the fruit is just as powerful as the gifts.

We need people in our world today who are filled with the fruit of the spirit, not just gifted people.

We do need gifted people, but we need fruitful lives that speak of the Holy Spirit.

And then the last one I just want to hit on here is this we are baptizing the Holy Spirit to receive help and guidance.

To receive help and guidance.

The Holy Spirit wants to help you.

He wants to help you, He wants to guide you.

He wants to remind you of everything you've forgotten about what you've read about what Jesus said.

That's awesome.

Because it's really hard to remember everything that Jesus did and said, but the Holy Spirit was given to us to bring to remembrance everything that Jesus did and said.

This is a beautiful thing.

He is our what the Bible calls a paraclete.

He comes alongside us, he helps us in our time of need.

Now, if there's a photo that that that captures what I think life in the spirit looks like, it's this one.

Let me show you this photo.

Okay, let me just explain to you what's happening here.

One of my favorite photos of all time.

This is in London at the Paralympic Games in 2012.

Blind Brazilian runner, Teresinha, Guillermina, and her guide react after crossing the finish line to win the women's 100-meter final.

Okay.

So this is a blind Paralympics.

They have to wear face max just to make sure every runner is given a guide in the race.

Okay.

I just want you to look at this for a moment.

I want you to pay attention to the facial expressions.

What do you picture?

Does it look anything like this?

So sometimes when we picture the Holy Spirit, we picture somberness, we picture somebody who's trying not to be disappointed in us.

We picture somebody who wishes that we could get it together, like a disappointed parent.

But what if the Holy Spirit is way more excited than you ever thought?

What if the Holy Spirit is not only your power, he's the one who guides you in the right direction.

He tells you when you're off track, he holds your hand, and he rejoices every step of the way.

I believe.

I think this is what's happening.

When we're baptized in the when you're walking with the Holy Spirit, I you can't always see it, but he's holding your hand, he knows you're blind, and you know you're blind.

And you know I am dead without this guy holding my hand, and he is committed to you finishing your race.

He is committed to you going well, he's committed to you staying strong, and he's excited, he's cheering you on, he's gonna make sure you get there, and he has nothing but joy for you every step of the way.

This is your Holy Spirit.

Who wouldn't want that?

That's what I'm saying.

We've overcomplicated this thing.

We have made this thing so blown out and so wild, but at the end of the day, he's our best friend, he's our guide, he wants the best for us.

And so I'm just gonna leave that up there for a minute.

And this morning, I we want to leave some space here just to allow Holy Spirit to speak to us, to meet us right where we're at.

And again, if you've grown up in a church environment like I did where everything was Holy Spirit, and it was great.

I mean, I was, gosh, I was I was speaking in tongues before I had a driver's license, all right?

I had encounters with God that I just thought that everybody did.

Um, and some some of the time I was faking it, some of the time it was real, and then it eventually it turned into a very real thing.

And I don't know the difference, honestly, looking back.

I don't know uh I don't know what I was making up versus what was uh what was actually the the real work of God.

I just trust that in all of it, he was with me the entire time.

Now, what I want to do here is this, though.

I just want to make sure all the pressure's off.

We're not gonna have a ministry team up front, but we are gonna have some ministers around the room just on the walls, just around the walls.

The question here is how do you get baptized in the Holy Spirit?

And I don't want to overcomplicate this thing.

Uh the simplicity of it is you you ask for it.

You ask for it.

Acts 2.38, Peter said to them, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

I've this has happened to me in church.

I've talked to other people that this happens on the way home from going to church.

I've talked to people this happens in your home by yourself, or somebody else said, I was in a hammock one day and this happened, and I was just didn't expect it, and the Holy Spirit came upon me.

Other people, it just looks different for every person.

And so there is no expectation or no pressure that you are to experience God in any particular way.

Here's what I'm asking for, here's what I want you, I'm asking that you be open to that you at least surrender your need to know what's happening, you surrender your need to control it and to understand everything, but you yourself yourself that you would invite the Holy Spirit in humility and wonder and curiosity to fill you again today.

Maybe for the first time, maybe it's been the first time in a long time.

But we believe that God goes where he's wanted.

William Seymour, who was one of the leaders of the Azusa revival at the beginning of the 19th or the 20th century, this young black pastor, he said it like this The Pentecostal power, when you sum it all up, is just more of God's love.

It does not bring more of God's love, it is simply if it does not bring more of God's love, it is simply the counterfeit.

The power of the Holy Spirit makes us love Jesus more and love our brothers more.

It brings us all into one common family.

So at the end of the day, being filled with the Spirit is about being filled with the love of God.

So that being said, I just want to invite you across the room to close your eyes with me.

We're gonna pray together.

And as I'm talking about the Holy Spirit, if that feels completely new to you, then I I just want to invite you to be open to anything He wants to do in you to be filled filled with His Spirit today.

If you're here and maybe that something happened like decades ago or years ago, but it's been a long time.

Same thing.

Maybe maybe you're here today and just opening up to the Holy Spirit again.

Just setting any judgments or hurt or offenses aside.

Maybe that's really the word.

I just want to invite you.

The Holy Spirit wants nothing but good for you.

He's your friend, he's your counselor, he's your guide.

I just want to invite you to pray with me.

That's where you're at around the room.

If you're open to saying anything the Holy Spirit wants to do, just put your hands out in front of you.

Maybe put them on your lap as if you're opening your hands.

And we just say, Come Holy Spirit.

Come Holy Spirit.

Father, we thank you for your promise.

We thank you that you promise to send us your Holy Spirit.

And across this room, Lord God, we want to be filled with the fullness of God.

We want to know the power of your resurrection working in us and through us.

So, Holy Spirit, I thank you, God, for all of those willing here today, willing to just say, Come, Holy Spirit, I thank you for your promise to fill us to overflowing.

That we would hold nothing back from you, that your the gifts of the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit would be fully manifest in us, that your kingdom would be established in us.

And we say thank you, Holy Spirit.

And I just want to We're gonna invite the worship team to just hold the space here for a little bit and play some music.

But a couple things that happen.

When the Holy Spirit comes upon us, sometimes we're filled with his thoughts, sometimes we feel sensations in our body, sometimes there is a shaking or a trembling.

So if you experience anything like that, it's totally normal.

Sometimes you just feel more joy and you start to laugh.

Sometimes you start to feel healing and you start to cry.

Some of us start to speak in languages that we don't know.

And none of none of these things have to happen, but they're all things that could happen.

Some of us just fall under the weight of the Holy Spirit.

And one of the invitations today, this morning, no matter where you're at, is that while those things may not happen to you, I just want to encourage you, do not resist.

Don't resist the Holy Spirit if he comes upon you.

And if in if if today you would like someone to pray with you, you're gonna see people around the room with badges, and they're kind of on the sides of the room.

If you want someone to just pray with you, I want to invite you to come and just join them around the room and they can pray with you.

But you can stay in your seat, and we're just gonna ask the Holy Spirit to come right where we're at.

And we're gonna give it some time.

So again, God, we thank you.

We open ourselves to you, Holy Spirit.

We thank you to immerse us in who you are.

We thank you to fill us with your love.

We surrender the need to control, God.

We surrender the need to know what's going on, God, and we step in, Jesus.

We participate in your life today.

So I pray for us as a community that even now, Lord God, you would fill us overflowing.

Jesus' name.

Yeah, some of us here, you might be in this moment and feel like you need prayer, like that would be helpful for you to just join faith with somebody else.

I just want to encourage you, don't leave this room without joining with somebody else.

You might be here and you feel like God is leading you.

Some of you, God is leading you to go pray for somebody else in the room.

And I just want to encourage you to do that.

Some of this just happens as a community of faith we believe with each other for what God is doing.

So maybe somebody is being highlighted around the room, and you just feel like I just need to go pray for them.

Listen, guys, so much of this, so much of life in the spirit is about particip, it's about jumping in with them.

Has anybody ever been a part of a conga line?

You know how awkward it is to join a conga line?

Uh like at a wedding, or like this happens at church or like summer camp or whatever.

There's these things I was thinking, like, sometimes it happens where like there's a conga line that forms, and somebody decides that's a really good idea, and then you're they're just kind of waiting for people to join, and then I'm always that guy thinking there's no way I'm joining this conga line.

It's not gonna happen.

I'm not I'm not getting into that.

But it's the only way you're gonna experience the conga line is to join in the conga line.

All right, I'm we're not doing a conga line here, by the way.

That's not the point.

We're not doing a conga line.

What I'm saying is part of our experience of God is the willing to say, I'm jumping in with you.

God, I'm gonna be a part of this, and I don't quite get it all the time, but I'm willing to do it.

Some of it is just raising our hands for the first time.

Some of it is being willing to uh to go and pray for somebody or to prophesy over somebody or to share with what we're what we're feeling or what we're learning.

It's willingness to take a risk and to not understand what's going on.

So I'm saying, guys, we need to jump in the conga line, alright?

So let's let's stand together.

Let's stand together across the room.

And I just want to invite us as we hold the space together.

Some of us we're kind of at that point where you have to leave, but if you don't have to leave, the worship team is going to continue to pray.

Some of you might need to go lay your hands and pray for somebody else in the room.

Others of you just might be willing to receive prayer from somebody else.

But together, there's all something we can do to take a step into life in the spirit.

So, God, this morning, we thank you, Lord Jesus, to fill us afresh, that your church would be filled afresh.

God, I thank you, Lord Jesus, that you have something you want to bring to every single one of every single one of us.

You want to deepen our well, you want to deepen our relationship with you.

So I thank you, Lord Jesus, for the joy and the freedom of walking in the Spirit of God.

We say yes and amen to who you are, Lord Jesus.

Would you blow through this place, blow through us like a mighty rushing wind?

We say yes, Jesus.

We say yes, God.

Amen.

Let's continue to sing.