Baptism of Discipleship (In the Name of the Holy Spirit) | 05-10-26

Thank you, Jesus.

It's good to be at River Life Church on Mother's Day today.

I'm I'm so excited about this day.

Uh I love celebrating the moms because besides uh outside of of Jesus and God the Father and the Holy Spirit, nobody deserves to be celebrated like moms.

Amen.

Come on.

Come on.

So it's interesting as we shift into uh the message going back into the series of baptism of discipleship.

It's interesting that today is the day that we are going to talk about in the name of the Holy Spirit.

This, if we would have stayed on schedule, this message should have happened weeks ago.

But we had some different things that happened where we had the power outage and we had to cancel church, and then uh we had a prophetic word that was given instead of the sermon a couple of weeks ago.

And how many of you are grateful we can just flow with the Holy Spirit?

Amen.

And so because of that, it pushed this message uh to today.

And uh, I just think that it's only the Lord that can orchestrate stuff like that because that wasn't the schedule.

Uh Matthew 28, you know the scripture.

We've been reading it for every single message.

It's the springboard scripture to this uh series that we're in, uh Baptism of Discipleship, Matthew 28, 18.

Lord, we pray you would speak to us today, that you'd give us revelation, Lord, into who you are and into your word and into the mysteries, God, that you've called us to steward.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Jesus came and told his disciples, I've been given all authority in heaven and on earth.

Therefore go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Teach these new disciples to obey.

Say, obey all the commands that I have given you, and be sure of this I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

So to be baptized in the name means, this is a recap.

This is what we've spent a lot of weeks talking about.

It means to be fully immersed, submerged under.

I don't know if we have that.

Did I give you that slide that has this?

So to be baptized in the name means to be fully immersed, submerged under, and firmly fixed into God's very own authority, character, and nature.

So if we're talking about the Father, that would read the Father's very own character, authority, and nature.

If we're talking about the Son, that would be Jesus' very own authority, character, nature.

We're talking about the Holy Spirit to be fully immersed, submerged, word baptized, baptism in the Holy Spirit, to be immersed and submerged under and firmly fixed into the Holy Spirit's very own authority, character, and nature.

I'm just I'm hovering there just because that's we need to understand what that means.

I think I've said it enough, but maybe not, that that wasn't language for what we say at the end of a prayer or when we baptize someone.

What he was laying out was a discipleship process that we are supposed to lead people through.

And it starts with being baptized in the name of the Father.

We talked about that, that is identity.

We talked about that, that is about identity, it's origin.

It is our origin story, it's where we came from, it's how God created us, it's where we get our identity.

Um personal.

And then we talked about baptized in the name of the Son, and that is a baptism of acceptance.

We talked about forgiveness, imputed righteousness, grafting into the very own family of Jesus.

That is a baptism that is positional.

And now today we're diving into in the name of the Holy Spirit, and that is about power.

It is purpose, health, nurture, emotional health, security, fruits, and gifts.

And it is powerful.

So the first one is personal, and then the second one is positional, and the third one is powerful.

Those are the three uh things that we are supposed to be baptized into as disciples of Jesus.

And then, as we'll we'll talk in the in a in a couple of weeks about what it actually looks like to be disciples that make disciples, and he's given us the template for that.

Baptism into the Father is focused on the person that you are, baptism into the Son is focused on the position that you are in baptism, into the Holy Spirit is focused on the power that you have.

So, what does this look like?

God exists as a family, and becoming a disciple at its core is a baptism into the family of God.

It's a baptism into the family of God.

Isn't it interesting that we have this picture all throughout scripture of God as father, son, and spirit?

It's exclusively family language used to describe God and how he exists.

He exists as father, he exists as son, and he exists as Holy Spirit.

Now, Holy Spirit seems to break the language of family, but if we are really paying attention and you study it out in Scripture, it is contextual and biblical to say it like this Father, child, and mother.

The Trinity is a picture of Father, child, and mother.

Now hear me out.

I am not trying to establish this doctrinally or anything like that, but more theologically, and for you to better understand how God exists, functions, and reveals himself.

So we're not going to be weird and start saying God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Mother.

Okay?

Don't say that.

People will be like, what are they doing at that church over there?

But you need this revelation.

There's a reason that God didn't write it that way, and there's a reason that he's exclusively referred to overall as he.

Some of that is part of the mystery that we are called by faith to steward.

But I do believe that today God is wanting to give you some revelation about who he is.

I believe it will help you settle into all that God is, all that God has, and all that God wants to do in and through your life, your marriage, and your family.

Genesis 1, verse 1 says, In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:1

The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters.

And the spirit of God, notice that it said God in the beginning, and now it's saying the Spirit of God.

So it is delineating those as different.

But we know they're the same.

They're the same, but they're different.

They're different, but they're the same.

And the Spirit of God, listen, was hovering over the surface of the waters, or one translation says over the faces of the deep.

So the earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters, and the spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

Now that is an interesting word, hovering right there.

It's a word that shows up all throughout scripture, and it always means the same thing.

The Holy Spirit of God hovered over the faces of the deep in the beginning.

The Hebrew there for hovered is literally how a mama bird hovers over her chicks.

From conception to full maturity, a mom literally takes all that she is, all that she has, and she lays it down over her children, right?

They nurture life and they give shape to what they hover over, feed, and guard.

The Holy Spirit releases this cry through Jesus in Matthew 23, verse 37, where he says, Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stone God's messengers.

Matthew 23:37

How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn't let me.

It's the same exact word there that's in Genesis hover.

And here's the thing: we all know that moms are supernatural.

Amen.

We all know that moms are supernatural.

And it scares us.

There's no way to describe in the natural how they do what they do.

Moms are supernatural because they are designed and empowered by God for that specific task.

The father can't do it, the child can't do it, only a mother can do it.

For a long and extended season, they do not carry out their own desires or dreams.

And the result is the establishing, forming, and shaping of the lives that will shape and form our future and our nation.

The hope of the next generation depends on the most influential person in a child's life being in place to do what only they can do.

The moms.

The moms.

And in the same way, the Holy Spirit is here for us as Christians to do what only the Holy Spirit can do.

The Father can't do it, the Son can't do it.

Only the Holy Spirit can do it.

My mom, Carla, and my wife, Melanie, and my mother-in-love, Kathy, are the textbook standard setting, incredible moms that we're talking about today, who emulate and model the work and ministry of the Holy Spirit in a real and tangible way.

It's supernatural.

I've never seen anything like it, and I wouldn't be here today.

Certainly wouldn't be the man that I am today without those three women.

Let's give a hand to all the moms again, right now.

We love our moms.

And here's the deal the enemy knows this.

And that's why one of the best ways to alter or destroy the future of an entire nation is to simply alter or destroy the place of a mother.

God created and instituted the family unit, and the nuclear family is a picture of God's very image.

In Genesis 1.26, the Bible says this in the creation account.

It says, then God said, Let us, let us make.

So in Genesis 1.1, we read, God created the heavens and the earth, and then the Spirit of God.

So you see, God and the Spirit of God.

So then he says this, let us make human beings in our image to be like us.

We know us wasn't referring to the angels, because the angels were not made in the image of God.

Let us make human beings in our image to be like us.

They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.

What like God, the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit reigns over all the angels, right?

Angels are even referred to in Scripture as birds of the air, beasts of the field.

Okay?

So he's saying, I'm gonna make you in our image, and you're gonna rule and reign over these things, like we rule and reign over the things in heaven.

So God, listen, so God created human beings in his own image, in the image of God.

So what is God's image?

God's image is male and female, right?

That is, that has to be God's image, or we could not be created, male and female, in his image.

So God exists with male and female.

God exists as a family, father, child, and mother.

Male and female, husband and wife, father and mother, parent and child, family.

It's all from God, with God, for God, and unto God.

Amen.

So the Trinity is an interesting thing.

Let's talk a little bit about the Trinity.

God is triune.

He is triune.

He is communal in nature.

Communal in nature.

The word communion literally is how God exists.

Koinea.

He exists as the Greek word koinanea, which is communion, connection, relational connection.

As image bearers, we share his communal nature.

God even says this about Adam in Genesis 2.18.

It's not good that man should be alone.

He recognized that man was alone.

He said, It's not good that man should be alone.

God and Adam, this is what also amazes me at that.

I don't want to get too far off onto this, but when God said it's not good that Adam's alone, was Adam alone?

Who was he with?

He was with God.

In perfect communion and relationship with God, and yet God says it's not good for him to be alone.

It's powerful.

So God created Adam in his image.

Therefore, Adam needed his own family to belong to.

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Father, Child, and Mother.

Listen, God is a family.

His nature is family.

God is both paternal, which is how a father relates to a child, and he is maternal, how a mother relates to a child.

We tend to think, okay, this is getting, this gets in our business a little bit.

We tend to think of the Holy Spirit as an optional take it or leave it addition.

Like an add-on feature.

I'm speaking of the church in general over the years, okay?

There's some churches that don't do this, and by the grace of God, we will not be one of them.

But we tend to think of the Holy Spirit as an optional take it or leave it addition or an add-on feature to enhance the Christian life.

However, that is a tragic and fatal deception.

How would some of you husbands feel if you're invited to a party or an event that was co-ed and they said, hey, you're invited, but your wife isn't?

You're welcome to come and be a part of this, but we only want to relate to you and not your wife.

How would that go over?

We really feel that relationship with you is important and primary, but we really aren't interested in having a relationship with your wife.

How well would that go over?

Or how would you feel if someone said, You're welcome.

We really want you, and we really want to build relationship with you, but your mom isn't welcome.

Because we don't really feel like your mom is necessary anymore.

She ceased to be necessary.

We want you, father, and we want you, son, but we don't want the mom.

She used to be important, but she ceased to be important and is pretty much irrelevant now.

We all know what it's like to say, hey, you say what you want to say about me.

You can even talk about my dad, but you better not talk about my mama.

Amen.

We know we know that feeling like there's something special about the mom.

Don't talk about my mom.

Don't mess with my mom.

But listen to me.

Without the Holy Spirit, the church is a broken home.

Without the Holy Spirit, actively engaged, just as honored as the Father, just as necessary as the Son, the church is a single parent family.

And just as divorce and single-parent homes are devastating to children, a church without the Holy Spirit is devastating to its members.

Throughout the Bible, we see the Holy Spirit manifesting the maternal nature of God.

Even in the natural family, we know psychologically that a mother and a father have very different, distinct, and vital roles in the contribution into the life, development, and health of a child.

In the world of psychology, it's observed that in general, we get our identity, our self-worth, our sense of confidence, and healthy self-image from our father.

Likewise, in general, we get our sense of well-being, emotional stability, nurture, sensitivity, mood regulation, how you handle stress, how you approach relationships, conscious inner self-talk and thoughts from your mom.

That's psychology.

If your mom was emotionally healthy, calm, responsive, nurturing, comforting, and supportive, you're more likely to feel emotionally stable, at peace, safe, secure, happy, covered, trusting, forgiving, etc.

If she was emotionally unhealthy, emotionally unstable, cold, inconsistent, distant, reactionary, et cetera, you may struggle with things like anxiety, fear, hurt feelings, easily offended, chronic negativity, critical thoughts, feeling unsafe or difficulty trusting people, et cetera.

So what we see as pastors and counselors who deal with people's issues, problems, and dysfunction is interesting.

Someone who had father issues generally struggle in the area of identity, and those with mother issues generally stuck struggle in the area of emotional health.

And if you had a father and mother issues, you may have to overcome unhealth with both of those things.

And it's no surprise then that the focus of the enemy is to destroy the nuclear family, to destroy the health, and to bring personal and relational brokenness into the generational lineage of a family.

This is literally how generational curses are established.

But be of good cheer today.

I bring you good news of great joy.

God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit has a brilliant and mysterious plan to graft you into the family of faith where everything you lacked in your family of origin is supplemented.

Amen.

You don't have to lack any of that.

You don't have to stay in that situation where you have identity issues or emotional health issues.

God supplies all of your needs according to his riches in glory.

Amen.

If you will accept God's plan and submit your life to it, no matter what season of family you are in, it's never too late.

You can begin to change the past, the present, and the future of your genealogy.

Your kids and grandkids do not have to inherit the brokenness that you grew up with.

The family of God is the answer.

It is the answer.

I shudder to think about what my life would look like without my faith family that God grafted me into and supplied all of my needs according to his riches and glory, according to his riches of family.

Jesus consistently speaks of the Spirit as He, though His through His teachings, listen, even though the Hebrew word rua, which means spirit, is grammatically feminine.

Again, I don't understand that, but I trust there's a good reason for that.

However, we can just see through many, many, many, many, many contextual scriptures this maternal nature of God that resides in the Holy Spirit.

There are many of passages where the Spirit's work reflects nurturing, life giving, and comforting maternal.

Qualities.

Scripture gives the following characteristics to the Holy Spirit.

Helper, standby, or paraclete.

Helper, standby, or paraclete.

Now remember that word helper, we're going to come back to that.

Comforter and consoler.

Now let me just stop and ask you a quick question in the room.

Men and women, guys.

Out of between you and your wife, between your mother and your father, who was the better comforter?

Who was the better consoler?

Mom.

Not that dads can't comfort.

Not that dads can't console.

They should.

They better, but they can't do it quite like mom.

Counselor and advisor.

Teacher.

The Bible refers to the Holy Spirit as the teacher.

Now, some of you are teachers in this room, and every one of you know the answer to this because you've been to school at some level.

When you say teacher, do you think woman or do you think man?

Out of all the teachers that exist, who makes up the majority of them?

Women or men?

A hundred percent.

Well, not a hundred percent.

It's probably like sixty or seventy percent, maybe eighty.

Guide, the Holy Spirit is our guide, the Holy Spirit is our advocate.

One characteristic of the Holy Spirit is that the Holy Spirit reminds us of truth.

Now, men.

Who's the better reminder in your household?

Who's the one that forgets the majority of things, and who's the one that's reminding you of stuff all the time?

Women.

Convictor of sin.

Now, men, again.

Between you and your wife, between your mom and your dad.

Who was the more righteous one?

Who was the convictor of sin?

Who had the highest moral standard in your family?

Your mom, your wife.

Also, uh, it says the Holy Spirit is an intercessor.

Intercessor.

Now, if you've ever known any intercessors, what gender were they?

Majority of them were women.

100% of the time, the majority of them are women.

Empowerer and strengthener, edifier and sanctifier.

Again, out of husband and wife, mom and dad, who is the most sanctified?

The woman.

Most times.

I'm saying I'm not saying it can't ever be the man, but usually it's the woman.

You get my point.

You get my point.

Listen to this.

Well-being is the hyperfocus of the feminine.

In the role of a mother, safety, nurture, comfort, nutrients, hugging, loving, caring is the hyperfocus oxytocin release of the maternal instincts for the flourishing and thriving of the human life.

Did you catch that?

Isaiah 63, 13.

The Holy Spirit says through the prophet Isaiah, I will comfort you there in Jerusalem as a mother comforts her child.

It's God speaking through Isaiah.

In John chapter 3, verse 5, Jesus replied, I assure you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.

John 3:5

Humans can reproduce only human life.

Listen, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life.

It doesn't say the Father gives birth to spirit, it doesn't say the Son gives birth to spiritual life.

It says the Holy Spirit gives birth, amen, to spiritual life.

John 14, 16.

This is Jesus talking.

He says, I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper, capital H, so that he may be with you forever.

The helper is the Spirit of truth.

Now, Jesus is talking, and he's saying, I'm gonna ask who?

The Father, and the Father's going to give you the Spirit, a helper called the Spirit.

So what do you have in that scripture?

You have Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The Spirit is the helper whom the world cannot receive because it does not see him or know him, but you know him because he remains with you and will be in you.

Okay, now let's go to Genesis 2.18.

Then the Lord said, It's not good for the man to be alone.

I will make him a helper suitable for him.

Same word.

Genesis 2.20.

He gave names to all the livestock, all the birds of the sky, all the wild animals, but still there was no helper just right for him.

Genesis 2.22.

Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man.

You know the story.

He puts Adam into a deep sleep.

He cuts him open and takes out one of his ribs, and he uses that to make, to fashion the woman.

And what was the woman the answer to?

The fact that Adam needed a helper.

Same exact word that Jesus is using when he says, I, the son, am going to ask the father to send the helper.

You know, Melanie and I actually met at Tony Roma's rib restaurant in 1998.

She was 19 years old.

We were interviewing for jobs at the restaurant, and she had long black, curly hair and dark skin, and was strikingly beautiful.

I walk into the place where we were filling out applications and having a job interview, and she was the first person that I saw.

And I was excited about this job right from the start.

I told all my friends, actually, the manager uh the manager told me after the interview, you've got the job if you want it.

And I said, Hey, um, did the girl that just left get hired?

And he laughed and said, Yes, she got hired.

I said, I'll take the job.

No, I'm not kidding.

I've said that, literally said that.

And then I went and told all my friends I met the hottest Mexican chick I've ever seen.

And then, of course, come to find out when I met her, she's not Mexican.

She's American Indian.

She gets her features from that side of her family.

Uh, but one time me and my pastor were in uh San Salvador, El Salvador, doing some missions work, and we were driving through San Salvador and we passed a Tony Roma's.

And I'm like, there's a Tony Roma's in San Salvador.

And he said, Hey, didn't you meet uh Melanie at Tony Roma's?

And I said, Yes, sir.

And he said, Ben, you found your rib at Tony Roma's rib restaurant.

I said, Amen.

I did.

I found my rib.

Listen, the Holy Spirit isn't optional.

The Holy Spirit is essential.

Just as moms are essential, the Holy Spirit is essential.

You cannot have a family without a mom.

God's will is that you have a nuclear family.

And if you didn't have one in the natural, you you won't have any excuse because God has gone to great lengths to provide everything that you need in the family of faith.

The Holy Spirit isn't optional.

The Holy Spirit is essential.

Listen to me.

At River Life, we will not be another broken home church that doesn't reflect accurately the image of our God.

He functions as a nuclear family, and we will function as his true ecclesia, the fully functioning, governing family of God in the earth.

Amen.

Amen.

Let's stand together today as we close out our service and our time together today.

I'm excited about the fact that May is the Holy Spirit month.

And I didn't even, when I really was thinking, I wasn't thinking about Mother's Day or this revelation or any any of that.

And so as we are focusing on the Holy Spirit, now this may be a different message on the Holy Spirit than you've ever heard.

But next week we will talk about the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the power of the Holy Spirit, the fruit of the Holy Spirit, all the things that we already know that are so wonderful and powerful about the Holy Spirit.

We'll get into some of that.

And then on May 24th, on Pentecost Sunday, uh Pastor Apostle John Bosman and Ann Bosman will be here from South Africa.

They live in Frisco, but they're from South Africa, and they will be here ministering the Holy Spirit to us.

And I'm so excited about that.

And here's what I believe that God is strategically doing in this season of our church family.

He's building the foundation of the nuclear family.

And it starts with the Godhead.

It starts with the baptism in the Father, in the Son, and in the Holy Spirit.

And just like Jesus looked at the disciples and he gave them all the promise and all the vision and all the things, and then said, But go and wait.

Do not go and do what I've called you to do until you receive the promise of the Holy Spirit, until you are endued with power from on high.

Don't even think about trying to go be a follower.

Don't even think about trying to be a Christian.

Don't even think about trying to build my church until you have a right relationship with the Holy Spirit, until you are filled with the Holy Spirit.

And I feel like that's exactly where we are.

We're in this season where it's, don't even think about growing.

Maybe that's why the Lord won't let us market and stuff like that.

He's like, don't even think about it.

This bunch needs to get filled with the Holy Spirit, or they're gonna get their rear ends kicked.

If they try to plant a church and take take kingdom, uh take ground from the kingdom of darkness.

If three years with Jesus in the flesh wasn't enough for the disciples, God the Father and God the Son is not enough for you, it's not enough for me.

We have to have the essential power of the Holy Spirit.

As God does what only He can do.