Gospel Identity, Part 3 // Empowered Missionaries

Welcome to the Lookout Weekly Podcast.

Church of the Lookout is an old of 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 theLookout.church.

Hey, good morning, everybody.

Good to see you.

Glad to have you with us here this morning.

Like Tiana said, if you're a guest with us today, we're so honored that you would come and worship with us this morning.

And I just want you to take a moment and just uh look at the person down the road from you, maybe right next to you.

I just want you to admire them for a second, how amazingly good looking they are.

Um I want you to acknowledge how uh how awesome it is that you are sitting next to somebody right now, sharing the space with them.

And uh and and in like manner, I want you to consider how odd it is, how bizarre they are as well.

How how how wonderfully unique is what we call it in the Christian world.

How wonderfully unique they are.

They are not like you.

They are different than you.

And isn't it wild how the thing that brings us together every Sunday morning isn't uh isn't that we agree on every particular issue in life, isn't that we're into the same things, it's not that we watch uh the same football games or uh we subscribe to the same politics, it's because God has done something in himself to unify this hodgepodge rag tag group of people called the church.

And we're shared together, and I get to share a space with you, you get to share a space with somebody as strange as me.

And uh and it's amazing.

And one of the things about about church that's really interesting is we are all actually very unique, we're all so different.

But what brings us together is more than just our individualism.

And this is what we've been talking about the last couple weeks uh in the church.

Um this whole idea of gospel identity.

And the reality is all of us in this room, all of us, what gets us out of bed in the morning, whether we know it or not, is there's this ache, there's a throb, there's a there's a pulse in our heart to know who we really are.

All of us have a strong urge in our life, a deep craving of our soul.

We we we want and need to know who we really are.

And we we ask this question in our lives: who are we?

And how is it that we can know who we are?

But the the kind of the anchor idea that we've been exploring the last couple weeks is our identity does not start with self-discovery, it does not start with our discovery of ourselves or our decision to become a certain kind of person.

It starts with a view of God and what he has done that fundamentally transforms who we are and how we live.

And so your identity and your individual, and this is really actually really, really good news in a world that tells you to go find yourself and live your truth, and you do you, and you find your thing, and you go well in and whatever feels right to you.

This is actually really good news that when we come to God, he says, before you go that route, let me show you who I am and what I've done so that can become a foundation for who you are and what you will do with your life.

And it actually is very good news because it liberates us from the rat race of trying to find our thing for the rest of our life.

How many of you have ever felt tired from trying to carve your own niche or find your own thing?

I know I have.

And maybe you've you felt that in your own uh social circle, maybe you felt that in your career, maybe you felt that in a lot of your pursuits.

And so one of the good news that we're rallying around today is that God has invited us to behold him, to behold who he is.

And so the first week we talked about what it means to behold the Father.

So when we look at God, we know that God He comes to us in three persons, one God in three persons we call the Trinity.

When we turn our view to God as the Father, it tells us something very quickly about who we are, that we're not just on our own doing things for God.

We're actually, if God is our father, he sent his son Jesus to pull us back into this family.

So the father makes us then sons and daughters.

It's a baseline of our identity that we are not orphans, we are sons and daughters.

In the same way, the son, when Jesus Christ the Son comes, he came to us not to dominate us, not to coerce us or to get us to be compliant, though we do willingly yield to his lordship and his authority.

The Son, Jesus, came to earth not to just get us to do things for God, but to serve us and to stoop down and to gently wash our feet and to show us a kind of love that we're not even capable of on our own.

And he says, I want you to do exactly for each other what I am doing for you right now.

I want you to stoop down and I want you to extend my rule and my kingdom on the face of the earth in a world that is craving power and craving control.

I want you to take the opposite route.

You're gonna come underneath your neighbors and even your enemies.

You're gonna wash their feet.

And when you do that, it's gonna send a fragrance into the world that nobody has ever smelled before.

It's gonna be the fragrance of Christ.

And it's a different tone, it's a different color, it's a different spirit, isn't it?

So the Father comes and he makes us into sons and daughters.

The Son comes and he invites us to join him as sibling servants, as co-hairs, extending his rule and reign across the earth.

And today we're gonna talk a little bit about the Holy Spirit.

Ironically, is when we're following God in a world that says, go find your truth, when we're following God, when we're following the Father and the Son and the Spirit, it actually leads to an understanding of who we are in Him.

It actually leads to freedom, it leads to joy, it leads to the happiness that so many people are searching for, so many of us are searching for.

The baseline is turning our eyes and our view to God.

Because, listen to this, until our identity has been anchored and grounded with a starting point, we're simply left to our own devices to design our lives and world according to our own understanding.

Okay?

One of my friends slash mentors, John Peterson, he says it like this.

He says, It is hard to be led as a son or daughter, empowered as an ambassador, and move out in the authority of heaven if you are still rooted to this earth, seduced by temporal things, hopeful in political ideologies, committed to a comfortable life, and walking in the fear of human opinion.

And so this is the reason we're talking about this is important because we constantly face a temptation to redefine our lives through the lens of a political party or a social status or goals for comfort.

We're constantly lured away from our truest identity into these lesser substories that actually don't lead to happiness, although that's what they promise.

But the deepest freedom well-being enjoys when we found, when we receive our identity, the gift of our identity from the Father.

We cannot bring the fullness of the kingdom as orphans and slaves.

We need the spirit of adoption.

And so all of this is what's really important is more than just belief in God and right understanding in God, we need the power of God.

How many of you know you need the power of God?

More than belief in God, we need the power of God because the scriptures say even the demons believe in God.

It's actually not that special to believe in God.

If that's all you have right now, it's okay.

It's okay.

If you're here and I say, I believe in God, that's it, that's it.

That's all I believe.

That's okay.

Welcome, welcome.

We're so glad you're here.

But the scriptures tell us that even the demons, even Satan believes in God.

And so the reality is God didn't call us to just believe in him, he called us to be inhabited by him, to actually be filled with him.

And so that's why the whole overarching story of the scripture is the Father sent his son, the Son sent the Spirit, and then the Spirit of God sends the church.

And so this is what we see in the scriptures.

I'm gonna read a few texts for us this morning.

We're gonna start in Acts 1, verses 6.

Acts 1:6

If you have your Bibles, I hope you do, turn to Acts chapter 1, verses 6 through 8.

Acts 1:6–8

We'll start there.

You guys alive this morning?

Still suffering the crushing defeat of the buffs yesterday.

Dear Lord, just stretch your hands towards Boulder right now.

We're gonna pray.

Wipe those tears away.

It's okay.

It's gonna be alright.

Our hope is not in the buffs.

So Acts 1, 6 through 8, the disciples were kind of rallying after Jesus had risen from the grave.

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

He said to them, It is not for you to know the times or seasons 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 Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

Everybody say, You will be my witnesses.

Say, I am a witness.

So he said that you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and then that's going to do something to you.

When you receive the power of the Holy Spirit, what Jesus is saying, you're gonna receive power, and then you will become witnesses.

There's something fundamentally in your identity that will shift after you receive the power of the Holy Spirit, because you cannot be filled with the Holy Spirit without something changing with how you see God, with how you see yourself, without with how you see your place in this world.

Amen.

And so this theme, though, is reiterated all through the New Testament.

John the Baptist says he was baptizing people before Jesus would but would ultimately send the Holy Spirit.

Matthew 3.11.

John is baptizing people.

He says, 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.

So there was a baptism of repentance, and then there's a baptism of fire.

It's a different kind of baptism, and it comes through the Holy Spirit.

And then even Jesus in John chapter 14, before he would ultimately ascend into heaven, but before he did, he said, Listen, this is actually really good news for you guys.

John 14 · chapter mention

I know I'm leaving and you're bummed about that, right?

How awesome would it be to walk with Jesus in the flesh, by the way?

It would be uh uh unbelievable.

But according to Jesus, there's actually something better than him in the flesh.

It's him in the spirit.

In John 14, verse 25, he says this.

John 14:25

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

He said the whole the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name.

He will he's gonna actually teach you, he's gonna bring to your remembrance everything that I send.

So so Jesus, much of his setup was that he was going to be sending, he wasn't just gonna be commissioning his disciples to go do do good works for them and to try to remember, just try to not screw this up, right?

Sometimes we think that like Jesus, like he came and he discipled his guys, and he's like, I'm gonna give you all the the good stuff, and then I'm gonna send you off, and hopefully you don't screw this up along the way, right?

Just try to remember, try to do your best to remember.

I'm gonna quiz you and just try to remember.

He didn't do that.

He said, I'm going to send you my Holy Spirit, who's going to remind you of all of these things that I've said.

So when you forget, he's going to remind you.

When you forget who you are, he's going to remind you.

When you forget who I am, he is going to remind you.

He's going to help you along the way.

He is the Spirit of truth, and truth comes through the Holy Spirit.

And this is actually a good day that you're headed for because he's going to be with you from now until the end of the age through the Holy Spirit.

And so Jesus said he's going to send the Holy Spirit.

And sure enough, the Holy Spirit came.

And we read in Acts chapter 2 that the Holy Spirit comes in power as the disciples are waiting for him.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

And the Holy Spirit came to the earth in a new fashion, looking for a temple to inhabit.

And it's almost as if the Holy Spirit zoomed in and he bypassed the ancient temple made of stones and he crash-landed on this huddle of bewildered disciples in an upper room.

It's almost like he missed course and accidentally landed on these guys where the Spirit of God used to inhabit a building.

Now he inhabits a group of men and women.

He found a temple that he could inhabit that would actually disperse his glory into his earth.

He found a new kind of temple that he wanted to dwell in.

And that's what 1 Corinthians 6.19 says.

When Paul says, Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you?

Whom you have from God.

You are not your own.

And so just to settle into the fact that a lot of us see church, church buildings, cathedrals, holy places as the resting place of God on earth.

That's not God's ultimate plan.

His plan was always to inhabit you and us as his people, that your body is actually a temple.

Your body is holy to him.

That's why God has such a high view of our bodies in the scripture, because our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

It's the house of God.

We are the house of God.

Come on, say it with me.

We are the house of God.

Okay, all at one time.

Here we go.

We are the house of God.

Okay.

This is fundamental identity shift.

That God is not looking for special places, He's looking for people who are willing to say, be at home with me.

Come and be at home.

And so that's what changes our identity.

So over the last few weeks we've been looking at four main questions: who is God?

What has he done?

Who are we?

What then do we do?

So if it's true that the Holy Spirit, God, the Holy Spirit, um, is the third person of the Trinity, then the Holy Spirit we know is our helper, our comforter.

He convicts the world of sin.

He brings truth into the world and he brings to remembrance everything that Jesus taught.

How does he do that?

What did he do?

He did that by baptizing us with himself, baptizing us with fire and filling us as his temple.

That's what he did.

When you accepted Jesus, for those of you who accepted Jesus, and you can and you turned your heart towards him and you opened up your life to Jesus.

When you did that, there was an initial receiving of the Holy Spirit.

There is a component where the Holy Spirit indwells inside of you, but the scriptures also point to a baptism of the Holy Spirit that we all actually need to be catalyzed and activated into our God-given purpose.

Acts chapter 2 details the story so clearly on the day of Pentecost, verse 1, it says, When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place, and suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting, and divided tongues as fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in tongues, in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

And so the Spirit of God as they were waiting in the upper room came upon them, and things got weird.

They got weird quick.

Alright?

They're speaking in tongues, tongues of fire.

I don't even know what that means.

Like a fire, like a some kind of tongue made of fire rested upon them.

And somehow it filled them, and then they went out into the street and they started speaking languages they didn't know.

And it wasn't unpurposeful, it wasn't gibber jabber in this particular story, languages from men and women that were in Jerusalem at that point of time.

They were hearing things in their own language that they had never heard before.

And these men and women are all of a sudden speaking a language that they didn't know to people who did know that language and they're hearing the praise of God in their own native tongue because that's what happens when the Holy Spirit comes upon us.

He actually emboldens us and gives us a language to speak to the world in a way that only they can hear.

And it's so critical that we understand that when the Holy Spirit comes upon us, he leads us into things, he leads us into a life that we wouldn't prescribe for ourselves, but it is full of power and it is for the good of the world.

And so he baptized them in fire, he baptized them in the Holy Spirit.

And fundamentally, in this moment in Acts chapter 2, these bewildered, scared, frightened, timid group of believers transformed in a moment into a powerful, emboldened witnesses for Jesus.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

And they went out and they were able to cast out demons.

They were able to heal the sick by laying on of hands.

All of a sudden the Spirit gave them utterances, the Spirit gave them gifts that they didn't know they had.

Some would have words of wisdom, some would have prophecies, some would have the gifts to serve, some would have gifts of leadership, some would have gifts of teaching.

And the scriptures teach about the Holy Spirit dispensing gifts to each one and just levels of grace to each one.

And things started to come alive in them that they didn't know were there.

They needed a baptism, they needed a fresh baptism.

They had been baptized in water for the repentance and forgiveness of sins.

Now they needed a baptism of fire to be catalyzed into mission for the world.

So what does that make us here today?

If that's true that that's what the Holy Spirit did, that's who God is, what He's done, what does that make us?

That means all of us are transformed in our identities to spirit-empowered, sent ones.

We are missionaries, we are witnesses in the world.

Can I just say it like this?

Trying to live the Christian life without the Holy Spirit is insanity.

Absolute insanity.

And some of us, maybe, maybe you feel like you're trying to do that.

You read the book and you're like, gosh, I'm just trying to like do it.

I'm just trying to do it.

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

It's actually impossible to be like Christ without the empowering work of his spirit.

Which is why he said, I've created you to depend on me, not to just do things for me, but to let me inhabit you.

So I come out in all of your thoughts and all of your thinking and all of your words, that your whole soul is just leaking and exuding my presence in every way.

Without the Holy Spirit, Jesus is just a good idea of someone who lived a long time ago that we're trying to live up to his expectations.

But with the Holy Spirit, everything changes.

We actually are given strength where we don't have strength.

We are given boldness and courage where we don't have the confidence or courage.

Life without the Holy Spirit is like a body without breath.

It's like going sailing without wind.

It's like trying to start a fire without a spark.

It's like brewing coffee without caffeine.

It's like the Fourth of July without fireworks.

It's like Thai food at spice level one.

It's just like, why even bother?

See, the Holy Spirit is the mind and the muscle of the whole operation.

Here's what kind of really brings it home, though, when we tee up our lives.

Because here's the deal.

In the US, the studies found, and I shared this recently, studies found that about 60% of Bible-believing Christians don't believe the Holy Spirit is actually a person of the Trinity.

They think the Holy Spirit is a mystical force, like a genie in a bottle that just poofs from here and there and just magically kind of shows up and that kind of thing.

But don't actually believe the Holy Spirit is the force of power of heaven that is extending the rule and the reign of God.

This is a big deal.

AW Toes are set out like this.

If the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the church today, 95% of what we would 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 did would stop and everyone would know the difference.

Did you guys catch that?

And so part of the it's this is not just a challenge, it's an invitation.

So much of our lives, it's so easy to believe in the Holy Spirit, but then live our lives without checking in, without a vibrant relationship with Him.

But it's amazing.

You look at the screen time on your phone, how often we pick up our phone and check in.

How often are you picking up picking how you're pausing what you're doing just to check in with the Holy Spirit to say what is on your mind for today?

Because this is how he created us to live, and not just because he wants obedience, he wants to send us in his power to extend his life into the world.

That's why we need the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Francis Chan said, I don't want my life to be explainable without the Holy Spirit.

We are called to live the kinds of life that don't make sense unless God has given us his actual spirit that is inhabiting the inside of us.

Anyone here?

That's actually the kind of life he's invited us into.

And it's amazing.

And it's good news.

It's good news for all of us.

And so what happens is, and I'm gonna go quickly through this because we're gonna make space for something here this morning.

When we come to the Holy Spirit, he takes what we bring him and he transforms it from one thing into another.

And all you have to do after this morning, just read through the book of Acts.

You could probably read straight through in an hour or two.

Just read through the book of Acts and you'll see.

And you and you mark every time the Holy Spirit shows up what it does to this group of believers.

And we've already talked about it.

Number one, it turns them from timid into bold.

They were going out, they would be persecuted and threatened for their lives, and then so they would retreat to pray.

Then as they prayed, they were filled with boldness to go out and preach even harder.

There was something about, they just didn't care what it would cost them.

They went out because what they saw, they were witnesses of the living God, and what they saw actually sent them out in boldness.

The Holy Spirit turns common men into qualified men, common men into qualified men.

Acts 4, it says, now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated common men, which which actually is just kind of like kind words for they were they were dumb.

I mean, they were they were just not they were not they were not elegant.

There was nothing kind of uh there was no academic bone in their body, right?

They just hadn't been learned.

And they said that they were when they perceived their uneducated common men, they were astonished when they recognized they had been with Jesus.

But seeing the man who was healed bes standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition.

And so Peter and John would go out, they weren't formally trained, they didn't write quite have the words for it, but they were moving in the power of God and actually silenced the mouth of their opponents.

Peter had a double whammy.

Not only was he uneducated, but he was a failure.

He had failed, he screwed it up, he walked with Jesus and still denied him.

How many of us disqualify ourselves from being used by God because we spent so many years either not taking it seriously, or we've spent so many years wandering from God, we spent so many years and we've done certain things that we feel like have just taken us out.

We haven't done the training, we haven't done the study.

I'm telling you, this book has been given to us with stories that show all of us are in and everybody gets deployment.

You're qualified not because of your own merit, but because of the blood of the Jesus Christ on the cross.

He has sent you his spirit to qualify you to be his witness in this world.

He has qualified you to be the carrier of his power.

He has qualified you to be the carrier of his spirit.

It doesn't matter what they say about you.

It doesn't matter what you say about you, it doesn't matter what your family said about you, it doesn't matter what your dad said about you when you were young, that kind of has left this ache in your heart.

It doesn't matter what the disappointment you felt from your mother because you didn't, you didn't you didn't get good enough grades, you didn't actually achieve the career goal that they had in a moment.

It doesn't matter what your boss said about you, and it doesn't matter because Jesus looks at you in the umest, and he says, I know who you are, and I know what you're capable of for good and for bad, and then I don't care, I have qualified you in the name of the Father and the Son, and the name of the Holy Spirit, go in the power of kingdom.

It's the power of God.

And this is why it's good news for all of us, because we move from disempowered lives to lives just just just spilling over in the power of God.

We are not spectators, we are participants in the life of God.

So, what does that mean?

What does that mean that we do?

Is that we live a life, first of all, acknowledging that we are helpless without him, even Jesus said apart from the Father.

You can do nothing in John 15.

Romans 8 says, all who are led by the Spirit are children of God.

So what happens is when we come into the Spirit, we're activated into the supernatural life.

We pray with faith.

The way you pray is different.

You're not praying as if God is not in the room.

You're praying, knowing that the Holy Spirit is right with you and interceding with you on behalf of what you're praying for.

We're always living on mission.

Life in the Holy Spirit transforms us, that we're always now looking for the opportunity of the next encounter with God, wherever we're at.

That's why I love the stories of uh from you guys of just praying for people in the most random places, grocery stores and bus stops and post offices and wherever.

Because you only do that if your eyes have been changed from the inside out.

You're not looking for what everybody else is looking for, you're looking for it for a breakthrough.

You're looking to extend the power and the goodness of God every step you go.

That's what happens when we're changed from the inside out.

We're always on mission.

And we're we're reminded of what God has done in for us.

Are you guys with me?

Amen?

Okay.

I've done enough talking though.

One of the things I just felt like the Lord spoke to me this earlier this week was do not teach about me as if I'm not in the room.

Do not teach about the Holy Spirit as if he's not here.

I have a tendency to talk and to bullet point things out.

And I want to I wanted us to see in the scriptures what's possible in the Holy Spirit.

But I just believe that this morning to open up a space here just to be before the Lord, just to invite Holy Spirit in a fresh way.

In a fresh way this morning.

Because even as we're worshiping today, we're lifting up the name of Jesus.

We don't sing songs about him as if he's somewhere else.

We don't preach sermons about him as if he's a historical figure.

We're we're coming and we're submitting our lives in his very presence.

And that's why we're here this morning, right?

Yeah.

So here's what I want to do this morning.

Um, for all those who are willing, we're just gonna clear a little space here and we're gonna invite the Holy Spirit to come in a fresh way.

And just like in the scriptures, there's a baptism water, and there's a baptism fire.

If you look in Acts 19, Paul went to a group of believers and and uh he found out they were there was a bunch of Christians, and he asked them, So how were you baptized?

They're like, Oh, we received John's baptism of water.

And and he asked them, Do you have you received the baptism of the Holy Spirit?

They're like, No, we have no idea what the Holy Spirit is.

And he said, Great.

He lays his hands on them, and then at once they receive the Holy Spirit afresh from the inside out.

Now it's possible that some of us in this room, maybe you've heard about the Holy Spirit, um, but you've never received the Holy Spirit in a fresh way.

And I believe this morning that that that I have faith to believe that this morning God wants to help us experience him in a very real way, maybe for the first time.

Okay.

If you're willing, if you're open to receive the Holy Spirit, I I believe that that's possible today.

I I also believe that there's a lot of people in the room that maybe you've walked with God for a long time, or maybe you had some times with the Holy Spirit, encounters with God early on in your life or years ago, but it just fe it just feels like it's been either dry, or maybe you just stopped asking over time.

And maybe for a variety of reasons you stopped asking.

And certainly sometimes when we walk with God, we can get stuck with unmet expectations or just feeling like I don't even know what I want anymore, that kind of thing.

And I just believe this morning there's an invitation from all for all of us here today, just to don't stop asking, do not stop asking God for more of God.

If you stop asking God, He said, just ask me again.

Ask me again.

And even as I bring this up, it it can stir up a lot of different things.

Maybe, maybe across the room, you've yeah, you have been hurt because you you depended on God at one time in your life and you just feel like he didn't meet me there.

And I feel like the Lord wants you to know this morning that He knows He knows the disappointment, He knows the unmet expectation.

And He's not asking you just to, He's not asking you just to get over yourself, but He wants to meet you exactly where you are this morning.

But the the the way this works, though, I believe one thing is really important for us here this morning is the Holy Spirit comes where He's invited.

There's a gentleman nature to Holy Spirit, where he's not gonna just he's not just gonna do something to you that that's not something that you want.

And so across the room, maybe if you could just join me in in a moment together.

Let's just close our eyes across the room.

And we're gonna take a moment and let's just acknowledge he's with us.

Just become aware of him.

And I'm just gonna wait in silence here for a minute and just listen to God.

Anything he wants to say, but let's collectively just acknowledge that he's with us here.

Thank you, God.

Oh Spirit, I thank you that we were made for you.

We were made for you.

Okay, so and with your eyes still closed, just uh just we'll just shift our postures a little bit and just I if if you're open or willing, maybe inside of you there's uh you're curious, maybe there's an enthusiastic, yes, Holy Spirit, I need you.

Maybe you're you're here and maybe it's like your first time back in church for a while, and you're not quite sure what you want right now, but you're at least open to encountering God for the first time.

I I I just want to invite you, just begin, just prepare your heart and just begin to expect to just know that the Holy Spirit is here and He wants to encounter you and just prepare your heart to receive from Him.

Even the thought of that for some of us here, you might need to um release any judgments you have against the Holy Spirit, or the desire to do it to control what this is gonna look like or to manipulate the thing somehow.

Maybe maybe you're just a little scared, that's okay.

But if you're open and willing, just join me.

Let's just say, Come, Holy Spirit.

Come, Holy Spirit.

We welcome you, Holy Spirit.

Come, Holy Spirit.

Okay, so here's what we're gonna try together across the room.

And again, this is a little bit of a step of faith.

I'm asking a little courage on your part.

If you're here today and um and you would like to encounter the Holy Spirit, maybe for the first time, or it's just been a long time and you've you've forgotten, um you just you need God to remind you of his love for you, and you need a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit, just a fresh baptism in a new way.

If you cross the room, if that's you and you know it's inside of you, maybe you you you know it because there's a fluttering in your heart, you know it's for you, you know that you cannot leave church today without like a fresh sense of the Spirit of God in your life.

I want to ask you just to stand up right where you're at across the room, okay?

It's okay wherever you're at, just stand up.

And I know that there's several of us here.

This is a good thing.

This is a good thing.

And in many ways, all of us need to be filled with the Holy Spirit afresh, okay?

This isn't just for a few of us, I believe it's for all of us, but I do think that the ones standing, you're a hungry heart.

And the reason you're standing because you're hungry for God.

And this and God He He wants He wants to bless that hunger and that yes in your life, that desire for more fam.

So here's the next thing I'm going to ask across the room.

One of the things we see in scripture is oftentimes the Holy Spirit comes when we pray for each other, we lay our hands on each other.

Um, it's not this magical thing, all right?

It's just the extension, the extension of faith.

There's something about being with each other in this desire.

So if you're standing around somebody, uh if there's somebody around you who's standing up and you feel like you have faith to come alongside of them and to impart to them and to actually stand with them in their desire right now, I just want you to go around them and put your hand on their shoulder, maybe on their hands.

And as they come around you, number one, I want you to feel the sense of you're not alone.

You're not alone.

We're in this together.

When you feel that hand on your shoulder, I want you to feel like we are doing this together as a community.

Okay.

And then again, I think I I want I want to invite you, if you're praying for that person, I just want you to start blessing them in the name of the Holy Spirit.

And we're gonna invite Holy Spirit to rest on each one.

Holy Spirit, we welcome you to rest on each one to receive what they need in this moment.

We welcome you, Holy Spirit.

We welcome you, Holy Spirit.

Pray with faith.

Pray with boldness.

And maybe you even hear, maybe the person praying for you is you hear them speaking in tongues.

It's called a prayer language.

And we don't understand what we're saying, but it's something that God knows.

He knows what we're saying, and he and we're we're partnering with his spirit.

Thank you, Father.

Thank you, Father.

And as you receive prayer, some of you are gonna feel different things in your body.

You might feel warmth in your body, you might feel warmth in your gut or in your heart, you might feel a fluttering in your chest.

You might actually feel that inside.

That means God is at work, God is at work inside of you.

Maybe you feel love, you just feel an extreme sense of peace and love, and that's a good thing because he's pouring his goodness over you, he's anointing you with oil.

You might even feel the impulse to speak out some words that you don't know or or something's happening.

I don't judge yourself, don't worry about what anybody else thinks.

Just say yes to Jesus in this place.

And and maybe you don't feel anything, and that's totally fine too.

This isn't about feelings, it's about trusting that God is at work, baptizing us in his fire and his love.

So just continue to pray, guys, continue to welcome the Holy Spirit.

Thank you, Father.

Thank you, Father, thank you, God.

Thank you, Jesus.

There's nothing but ever come.

Nothing can come to you.

Your presence of taste and sea of the sweetest of hearts where my heart becomes free, and my chain is out.

Thank you for the presentation.

There's nothing worth more that will ever take your day.

Thank you, God.

Thank you, Jesus.

Church, I just want to share a testimony with you.

I believe that a part of being baptized in the Holy Spirit is receiving the gift of speaking in tongues, which is such a beautiful gift.

And the Bible tells us that we are to come as little children.

And as we get older, we can complicate things.

But I just want to share.

I was brought up in the Baptist Church, and I thank God for my deep, strong foundations there.

But I was never told about I heard about the Holy Ghost.

I'd never really heard that that was the same as the Holy Spirit, and about some of the gifts, because that was not believed about I then became part of a church.

And we were at a barbecue one night, and my uh sister, who's very different to me, very composed, and I saw her and she was laughing and she was just like, what is going on with her?

And some friends were holding her up, and someone said to me, I said, What's going on?

She's been baptized in the Holy Spirit.

And she's speaking in tongues, and I thought, I have no idea what that means, what it is.

And so I, as a child, at twelve, thought, okay, God, I have no idea what they have to say to me what that means.

But whatever this is, if this is a beauty, can I have it?

And what's more, the innocence of the child, what's more?

Could I receive this in front of my parents?

They would not believe.

I got home and I said, guess what, mom and dad?

I was baptizing the Holy Spirit.

And she began to speak in tongues, and I began to speak in tongues.

My parents, you can that was a different story.

But I just remember the peace that came over me.

And from that time on I know the power of speaking in tongues in situations when I don't know what to say, when I'm just like when I'm talking to someone and I'm speaking in tongues, and I come, it used to be a God, it used to be.

And I know some of you here this morning.

I know some of you want the gift of speaking in tongues that comes with being baptized in the Holy Spirit.

And as adults, we can complicate it, we can kind of it just doesn't make sense.

We can, you know.

But I want to encourage you today to set all that aside and just think here I am, God, I am becoming as a child, a child of God, with those childish thoughts.

I open up my heart.

I open up myself to you, God.

And I invite you in, Holy Spirit.

And I just want to pray over you all now that if there's anyone who would like the gift of the Holy Spirit, the speaking in tongues, to be released, I invite you now to just come.

I say, Holy Spirit, come and touch my brothers and sisters right now, Lord Jesus.

Holy Spirit, come and release your gift of speaking in tongues.

Holy Spirit, come and have your way.

May we come in a childish, childlike way and just say, Here we are, Jesus, here we are, God.

I just ask, Holy Spirit, that you come and the tongues of fire just come and rest on my brothers and sisters.

That there's a real release of gifts of the Holy Spirit in this house today.

There's so many more gifts of prophecy and teaching and the gifts of speaking in tongues.

So many gifts, Holy Spirit, that you have.

And we just say, here we are.

It's not about us, it's about you.

And we come with our childlike faith and we invite you in and Holy Spirit come.

And may, as of this moment and this day, things be different in this place, God.

Things be different because we are picking up the gifts that you have for us and we're gonna run with those gifts in the name of Jesus.

And the power that comes with the Holy Spirit and the boldness and the strength.

We just say, come, come, Holy Spirit, and have your way.

Come, Holy Spirit.

We invite you in.

We invite you in because without you, we are nothing.

So, church, I just say, just come with an open heart and an open mind and just watch what Holy Spirit, what God is gonna do and what he has for you.

I bless you in his name.

That's so good.

So good.

Let's stand, let's stand across the room together.

And let me just want to affirm what Fiona said.

She said there's a, you know, the scripture talks about that one way the Holy Spirit comes through this is through this idea of speaking in tongues, which it sounds weird because it is weird.

Alright?

It's it's weird.

But but I'm telling you, like when I when I first was filled with God, it didn't come right away because I I my first encounter with God, I just felt the peace and love of God.

I was 13 years old.

I felt Him overwhelm me in a way that I had never felt before.

It was a baptism of love, it was a baptism of peace and joy.

It wasn't until later, I think I was by myself in a corner at a big youth conference, and I just felt, I just said, God, whatever you want to do, just let it come out.

My parents had showed me what it looked like for them when I was young, but then it just came out in its own time.

So you don't need to rush anything, you don't need to look, you don't need to do anything on anybody else's timetable, right?

Pressure is off.

That ruins this for so many people to feel like it needs to look a certain way.

I'm telling you, if you say yes to God, if you go home today, and if nothing else, you go to your room and you lock yourself in your room and you say, God, whatever it is, I say yes to what you want to do.

You will be astounded how God meets you exactly where you need to be met.

Amen.

Amen.

So I want to pray for us this morning.

This is not the end of something, this is the beginning of something.

And for so many of us, God is turning on the power again.

He's turning on his power source.

He doesn't need a disempowered church.

He needs you to be filled with power and love and boldness.

And I believe this morning that the other thing that God is causing to drown away is the fear of man.

Some of you are crippled by the fear of what other people think.

You are crippled by the opinions of man, and that day ends today.

You will be filled with power to be his witnesses in all the ends of the earth.

That is what you were made for.

So I bless you in boldness.

I bless you in power.

This is what you're made for.

Amen.

So, so again, let's just be before we go, and a couple things after I pray here that don't just leave right away, right?

There's a couple of things I need to make you aware of.

But I want you to pray with faith, with me.

This is not something that I'm saying to you.

This is something that we are receiving together as a church body.

Amen?

So, God, we receive you today.

We ask for more of you today, God.

We thank you that you are here and that you are with us.

And as we go, God, we go full expectation that you are going with us, and every step we take is marked by your power, is marked by your love.

And I thank you, Lord Jesus, that you are sending us out as missionaries, as ambassadors of the kingdom of God to love, to serve, to demonstrate your power in unexplainable ways.

We thank you for an unexplainable church because you're an unexplainable God.

We thank you, Father, for the mysteries of heaven to accompany us.

And I thank you for your love to go with us, Lord God.

We I bless this church.

I bless everyone who stood up to say, I want more of the Holy Spirit.

And I thank you, God, that you will continue to let those prayers unfold even as we leave.

You are going with us, Lord God.

We bless you, we thank you.

And it's in Jesus, Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Come on, let's give God a shout.

Let's give Jesus a shout.

Okay.

So this morning, if if if you are in a place, and some of you are, you're in a place where God is speaking to you.

Don't rush out of the room.

This place is yours.

Stay in your seat.

You can come up front and receive prayer from our ministry team.

That's awesome.

A couple things to know.

There's a class starting point.

It's for people who are newer to the community, and you want to know what this church is about.

You want to spend time with some of our leaders, and you want to find out your place.

I want you to go join us in the theater.

It's in the back side of that room.

We have lunch for you.

Uh, it's on the back side of the building.

Join us for starting point this week and next week.

We cannot wait to meet you, okay?

If you're not able to do starting point, just go find that connect with the sign in the back, and then you can meet some uh some lookouts um on your way, okay?

Um, last thing, we need, listen to this: ten strong individuals.

Strong individuals who would be willing to lift a playground on the north entrance.

We're gonna lift the playground and we're gonna move it about 20 feet, okay?

To uh the sandy area over there.

It's not super heavy, it's just awkward.

We need 10 individuals who starting right now.

Go to the north entrance, go meet out there, and you're gonna move that playground, and then you can come back in and finish up your conversations, alright?

Does that sound good?

How many how many strong individuals?

10.

All right.

So you can head out there and uh and give us a uh give us some help.

Guys, love you, bless you.

May the Lord bless you and keep you, may He make his face to shine upon you, may He be gracious to you and give you rest.

Go in the power of the Spirit today.

Amen.