What's In the Well Comes Up In the Bucket

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Well, good morning, church.

And greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Before we dive all the way in, I do just want to take a moment and reflect on how grateful that I am, and I hope that all of us are that those of us who are in the Lord aren't where we once were.

And our circumstances that we are in may actually, in fact, be worse.

We might be worse off based on our life circumstances around us than we were before Christ.

But the truth is that in Christ, there is nothing, there is nothing that can tarnish the eternal future and hope that we have in Him.

And so it is very exciting to celebrate that truth with all of you here today.

And I'm really thrilled to be in the Everyday Evangelism series.

I think it's very wise to go from gospel on the ground, seeing what our Lord Jesus was doing in the book of Mark, and then translate okay, from that gospel, from that truth, what do we do about it?

Why do we share it?

How do we go about sharing it?

And so I think it's a very practical and helpful sermon series that we are going into right now.

And last week's message talking about being a friend to sinners, like we saw with Jesus and his relationship with Zacchaeus, the one who was on paper, the last person who should have been someone that Jesus sought out as a friend.

And yet Jesus sought him out, told him good news, gave him good news, and it changed Zacchaeus' life.

Well, if we go and we are a friend to sinners, we then in theory have a sinner, a person who is far from Christ in front of us.

And now it is then our job to engage in everyday evangelism.

And there is an important step that all of us have to have in order to engage in everyday evangelism, and that is being spirit-filled.

I believe discussion regarding spirit-filledness, if you'll allow me to say it like that, is a somewhat common phenomenon in church life.

We often sing songs that say things like, Spirit, come move over us, and Holy Spirit, come rest on us.

It's vocabulary that's kind of, you know, insider baseball, if you will.

We love to talk about being filled by the Holy Spirit.

Because, um, or excuse me, but rather, uh, spirit-filled is one of those church vocab words that actually, when you're talking to other people who are outside of a church environment, they might look at you a little funny when you say spirit-filled.

What does it mean to be spirit-filled?

That might even be a question they ask.

They might say, okay, what does it mean to be spirit-filled?

And then we might discover we actually have a hard time answering that question.

So, we tend to understand that God the Father reigns in heaven.

We tend to understand that his Son Jesus came and lived a perfect life on earth, died, was crucified, and resurrected from the dead, and now resides at the Father's right hand.

But in Acts chapter 2, Holy Spirit that comes like the sound of a mighty rushing wind and then descends upon the apostles like tongues of fire, whatever that means, in a manner where people are able to utter other languages where they can all understand one another.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

That's rightfully pretty challenging for us to understand and articulate exactly what that's all about.

But the Holy Spirit's mystery and majesty makes him no less important in our lives.

Actually, the Holy Spirit is crucial in our everyday lives and evangelism.

My grandfather, my papa, he always says, What's in the well comes up in the bucket.

Maybe you're familiar with the phrase, what's in the well comes up in the bucket.

And that's the title of my message today.

So our task, as we go through God's word together, is to answer two questions.

As Christians, what exactly is it that we say is in our well?

What exactly is this spirit that we say resides in us?

And then two, we want to also answer the question what is it that should come up in the bucket as a result?

Those are the two questions.

What is in the well, and what exactly should be coming up in the bucket?

So, let's pray.

Our Father, we thank you for this day.

We thank you for your goodness and grace to not leave us where we once were, but to transform us and change us by making us sons and daughters through Christ Jesus.

I ask that your word would be preached today and any error of mine would be hidden, and your truth would be boldly shown.

We pray these things all in Christ's name for his sake and glory.

Amen.

I hope you guys are ready to buckle up today, because we're going to go on a little bit of a grand tour through the Bible.

Instead of seeing one text about the Holy Spirit and camping out in one text of what the one time of the Holy Spirit did, we want to see an overview.

Who is this Holy Spirit as outlined in the Bible?

So our first stop, our first stop today should be on pretty close to page one in your Bibles.

Please turn to Genesis chapter one, verse one.

Genesis chapter one, starting in verse one.

And it begins by saying this in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep.

And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

Our first detail that we need to understand about the Holy Spirit is that the Trinity, we believe in a Trinity, a triune God, the Trinity shares in essence.

The Trinity shares in essence.

Almost like the way your family shares traits or characteristics, right?

Yo, he has his dad's eyes, oh, he has his mom's hair, he has her nose, whatever.

Except, in the case of the Trinity, these traits are perfectly shared between all three members of the Godhead: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

So, what does the Bible say about the Holy Spirit?

What does the Bible say that he does, and what implications does that have for our life as a result?

As we begin, I want to time travel with you for a moment, if you will.

So be prepared to time travel.

When I was a freshman in college, I went on a mission trip to Spain.

And the first thing that stuck out to me when I went to Spain is just how old everything was.

It was all so old.

You know, in the U.S., I've had the opportunity to go to DC, and you know, everything is situated in 1776 or thereabout, you know, give or take a few years.

And then I was walking around in Spain, and the tour guide says, yes, this building was here in six.

It's like, six what?

And they're like, it was, it was, it's been here for a while.

This thing was has been here for 1,500 years.

And it's, oh, it kind of puts things into perspective for a red-blooded American like me.

We don't have anything that we can go look at some monument or building or castle and say, this has been here since the year 500.

And that's where I want you guys to time travel with me.

I want you guys to think about those first five centuries of Christianity, right?

Year 100 A.D.

through about year 500 A.D.

And I just want you to put yourself in those shoes.

What was church like then?

Think about it.

These are the generations that saw Jesus ascend.

And then they all had to look at one another, and they all had to decide, what do we do now?

And as time went on, that generation died and they had sons and daughters.

And then they had sons and daughters, and so you're a few generations removed, and you have these people in the church saying, What do we actually believe about all this stuff?

Who do we say that Jesus is?

Who do we say that the Holy Spirit is?

Is God triune?

Is he three and one, one and three?

Or is he three different things?

Should we only worship God the Father and just respect Jesus as some good person?

These are the questions that the early church had to grapple with.

In your life, I don't know if you've undergone something like a pastoral transition, but it can be very stressful.

I know in the life of our church, we had a pastor who served our church wonderfully for 10 years.

And when Pastor Danny decided to retire, there were some important decisions to be made.

Is Pastor Rick our new senior pastor?

For Pastor Rick, he had a question to answer.

Is he going to reach out to this Eli guy who has a resume on his desk who wants a job?

There were some decisions that needed to be made.

Well, the early church had a transition that I don't envy.

And they were the committee responsible for answering that question after Jesus' ascension.

What do we do now?

Which of these letters that Paul wrote are important?

Are they scripture?

Are they not?

Are they just helpful things?

I tell you this not to give you a history lesson, but to encourage you.

The things that we believe about the Holy Spirit now, the things that we're going to talk about today, trace all the way back to what those Christians believed then.

And our connecting line between the two of us is Holy Scripture.

So, what does the Bible say that the Holy Spirit is?

First, the Bible says that the Holy Spirit is uncreated.

The Holy Spirit is uncreated, just like the Father and the Son, the Spirit is uncreated, without beginning and without end.

The beginning of Jesus tells us that God, who created the heavens and the earth, who was there in the beginning, hovering over the waters with him, but the Spirit.

The Spirit is not some Acts chapter 2 invention in the New Testament.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

The Holy Spirit resides here and now in Genesis chapter 1 that we just read.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

Our Bible tells us about a spirit that is eternal, that was in the beginning with God before the foundation of the world.

The Spirit shares the nature or essence with God because the Spirit is God.

The Spirit is God.

That is what we believe, that is what Scripture teaches us.

If we have a God with no Spirit, we have no God.

But God is Spirit, and we worship God in spirit.

This is not the case for us.

We are not uncreated beings.

There was a time in which we were not, or there was a time in which we did not exist.

But that is not the case for God.

That is not the case for the Holy Spirit, which has always existed.

So the Spirit is uncreated.

Once we establish that the Spirit is uncreated and acknowledge that God is eternal, if you would, you can flip to or just write down Romans chapter 1, verse 20.

Romans 1:20

Chapter 1, verse 20.

Scripture says this for his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world.

So, ever since Genesis chapter 1, verses 1 and 2, God's eternal power, including the Holy Spirit, has been visible in the world.

Genesis 1:1

And that eternal nature leads to another very important point that we need to understand about the Holy Spirit, which is that the Spirit is unchangeable.

The Spirit is unchangeable.

What encouragement does that have for us?

Well, the encouragement for us is that the spirit in Genesis chapter 1 is the same spirit that we see promised in Acts chapter 1, verses 4 through 8, which is the same spirit that is promised to reside in us.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention Acts 1:4–8

It's not a different spirit, it's not a different version or a different flavor or you know, one, two, three spirits.

No, it's the same Holy Spirit in Genesis 1, in Acts chapter 1, and in our hearts right now, if you are a Christian.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

So if you would, please flip to Acts chapter 1 and let's see what it says.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

Acts chapter 1, reading these verses, reading verses 6 through 8.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

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

And he said to them, It is not for you to know 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 all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

That spirit, that Acts one spirit, same spirit hovering over the waters, same spirit that resides in your hearts.

It's the same spirit that in Acts chapter two, if you can just flip up one page or maybe just look at the page across from it, like it is in my Bible.

Chapter 2, starting in verse 1, it says, When the day of Pentecost arrived, this is the day Jesus promised.

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 of 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 other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

God's character, and thus the Holy Spirit's character, or his very essence or nature, is one that is unchanging.

One that is unchanging.

If you want to write down James chapter 1, James chapter 1, verse 17.

James 1 · chapter mention James 1:17

James chapter 1, verse 17.

James 1:17

In James chapter 1, verse 17, we see how God is unchanging.

James 1:17

There is no shadow of change with him.

He's not one who makes up his mind on the fly because he didn't think about a decision.

Or he's also not one who had to think about a decision and came to a crossroads.

God is unchanging and he is always right in what he says and does.

So I want you guys to all think for a moment about just how comforting an unchanging presence is in your life.

Maybe it's knowing that you have a job.

Maybe you've been in a job for 15 plus years and you are comfortable in your job, and you know that that is not an aspect of your life that is likely to change.

Maybe it's a friend or a family member who's always there in your corner.

For me, I think about when I was in college and I'd come home for summer breaks, or when I'd come home for Christmas break, because it was a safe and steady, familiar thing that I got to experience.

Nothing had changed when I'd left.

When COVID lockdown happened and I went home, my family, my house wouldn't have even noticed.

We were all just in there playing video games together, like nothing even happened.

We were going on more walks around the block than we ever had before.

Because it was family that was familiar and that was safe.

There is no shadow or chance of change with God, with the Spirit.

He is a steady and safe presence to those he indwells.

Which leads to our next shared trait, which is that the spirit is uncircumscribed.

Uncircumscribed.

Big fancy word that I wanted to use to have the UNC, the UNC for all of them.

But what it means a little more simply, what it means a little more simply is that the Spirit is unrestricted.

You cannot bind or constrain the Holy Spirit to one particular thing.

What do I mean by this?

It is the spirit indwelling a Christian on one side of the globe that is the same spirit that's indwelling a Christian on the other side of the globe.

The Holy Spirit is unrestricted by race, by gender, by geographic nation, or sin background.

There is no person that you can say with certainty that the Holy Spirit cannot or does not want to save.

If you came to our men's ministry breakfast most recently, we really enjoyed having people from prison fellowship ministry.

And it was incredible.

It was incredible to see a man who is now a multi-state business owner, a man who's now an associate pastor of a church, who came to radical faith in the Lord Jesus Christ while serving a life sentence without parole.

He was wicked.

He told us he was right to be condemned to life in prison.

And yet, the Lord transformed his heart by the introduction of the Holy Spirit.

Not even those who are the farthest off that our mind can conceive are unreachable by the Holy Spirit.

Or maybe if that's just too gripping, you know, wow, that tugs my heartstrings too much.

Maybe you can think of something like my AMC Stubbs Premier List subscription that gets me a free movie ticket every uh, you know, I get four free movie tickets every week or whatever.

And the way that works is like this: you can pay up to$20 to get a free movie every week in a certain number of states.

And those states include all the states that I would tend to live in, except what happens if I go to the beach in Florida and while I'm on vacation, I want to watch a movie.

This particular subscription does not offer it.

It is restricted.

I have to tear up to a higher subscription status in order to watch free movies in Florida, right?

Scott got that one.

That one was for somebody and it was for Scott.

I appreciate that he liked it.

Very good.

So there is a restriction of certain things, right?

We are bound to a certain place in time in our bodies.

We are not spirit in the same way that the Holy Spirit is.

We are bound to a certain place in time, but the Holy Spirit is not.

There is no exception or exemption to the grace of the Holy Spirit.

Hear this from Titus chapter 3, verses 5 and 6.

Titus 3:5

It says, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.

He poured out on us richly.

If the grace and mercy of the Spirit were based on our merit, based on what we could do to measure up, based on if I can meet the mark, then that is a restricted grace.

Do you understand how that works?

If I have to meet a certain point, then everyone who falls short of that point is thus restricted from that grace.

But the bad news is that no one can meet that standard.

If that grace is restricted and we have to measure up, the bad news is that we can never measure up.

So rather than being restrictive, the grace of God, or as the verse says, the renewal of the Holy Spirit is free to all who would believe through, as Titus says, the saving work of Jesus.

We've now gotten an idea, we've gotten a picture of what's in the well.

That the Holy Spirit, when it lives inside us, shares the same essence.

As the Father and the Son.

That all three of the Trinity are uncreated, unchanging, and unrestricted.

Point two is that the Holy Spirit is the substance of the gifts of God.

The Holy Spirit is the substance of the gifts of God.

Now I can take no credit for that title.

That title comes directly from a book written called On the Holy Spirit.

It was written in the fourth century by somebody named Didymus the Blind.

So if somebody decides to name their child Didymus, I'll give you$20.

And also I think we should totally bring back adjectives as a part of our names and titles.

So I'm taking submissions as to what mine will be, and I'm happy to give you guys ideas for yours as well.

But like I said, like I said, this is fourth century writing.

This is year 300 and something.

That Didymus, who apparently is blind, is somehow hearing the scriptures and is saying, the Spirit is this, the Spirit is not that.

The Spirit is this, the Spirit is not that.

And he comes to the conclusion that the Holy Spirit is the substance of the gifts of God.

And there are a few things that I just love about that phrase.

First is that the Holy Spirit is the substance.

When I hear substance, I think of a real and true thing.

You can think of the opposite, for example, right?

If someone says that your argument has no substance, that means there's no real quality to your argument, or that you have no leg to stand on.

I love comparing the thought of, you know, a substance, a real concrete substance, to the Trinity.

Because at first thought, my mind immediately goes to Jesus, right?

Substance, real, present, Jesus.

Jesus was the real flesh and blood, Son of God who lived on this earth that we read about in the Bible.

But what does Didymus say that the Spirit is?

This mysterious thing that we can't really see.

He says that it is the substance.

It is the substance.

And how is it real and tangible in our lives?

It's by his gifts.

The Holy Spirit is the substance of the gifts of God.

So what are these gifts?

What are these gifts?

The first gift is the gift of grace.

The gift of grace.

If you would turn in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 17.

2 Corinthians 3:17

2 Corinthians chapter 3 verses 17 and 18.

2 Corinthians 3:17

God's word says this.

Does that sound familiar if you've worshipped at CCW for any degree of time?

And we all with unveiled faces, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image, from one degree of glory to another.

For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

Very end, verse 18, he says, For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

What is the work of the Holy Spirit?

He's talking about freedom and transformation.

Like I said, I was relishing in that song we were singing, thank God that I'm not where I once was.

But we experience freedom and transformation by the work of the Spirit.

Freedom from sin, the gift of the grace of God is not a net neutral action for our lives.

It's rather avoiding a net negative, right?

Our sin is a net negative situation, and we aren't just getting redeemed to neutrality.

Let me put it this way.

I have disliked this rain.

I do not like rain.

I feel like same I am.

I do not like rain at all.

That is a net negative situation for me to be in the rain.

I don't like to be wet.

A net neutral situation might be get an umbrella.

A net neutral solution might even be just stay inside.

A net positive would be somehow, somehow, teleporting to Pasadena, California, where it's sunny and 75 and dry.

Right?

That's the difference between our net negative, our net neutral, and our net positive.

The grace of God doesn't just take us from a net negative to a neutral.

We are transformed from the negative, the worst possible situation we could have been in, into marvelous light.

We are taken from overall negative sinners, condemned for eternity, and then transformed into the same image as Christ our Savior to reign with him forever instead.

This is why the grace of God, by the Spirit's presence, brings us the fruit of the Spirit.

Galatians 5, verses 22 through 23.

Galatians 5:22–23

I trust many of you know them.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

There's a lot of them.

This is only possible.

Those traits are only possible by the transformational gift of grace that the Holy Spirit brings.

I also want to say this as a practical note.

If you are a Christian, if you are in Christ and the Holy Spirit dwells within you, you have the fruits of the Spirit.

You have all of them.

You cannot be a person that walks around anymore as a Christian and say, Oh, I'm just not patient.

I never have been, never will be.

You can't go around saying, Oh, I just say what I mean.

I mean what I say.

I shoot from the hip.

When in reality your words aren't seasoned with grace and with salt, and you're actually just being unkind.

If the spirit is in you, you have all of his fruit.

And you are being transformed by his grace to show more and more of his fruit.

If you are not the most patient person in the world, the spirit is at work to transform you to be a more patient Christian.

If you are not the kindest person in the room, don't settle, but surrender to the power of God's transforming grace.

That's the gift of grace.

Which brings us next to the gift of wisdom.

The gift of wisdom.

And there are two key examples I want to draw your attention to from Scripture on the connection between the Spirit and wisdom.

First is in Luke chapter 21, verses 14 and 15.

Luke 21:14

Luke chapter 21, verses 14 and 15.

Luke 21:14

This is when Jesus is sending out his disciples, and he's warning them of persecution that is going to come their way.

And he essentially answers the question, so what do we do about it?

And that is where we are in verse 14.

Where Jesus, foretelling of the persecution that is coming, says, Settle it therefore in your minds, not to meditate beforehand how to answer.

For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict.

How do you think Jesus is to give this mouth of wisdom to his disciples, to his followers?

Well, the Bible lets us in on what exactly that mechanism is in Acts chapter 6 through the person of Stephen.

Acts 6 · chapter mention

Through the person of Stephen.

Stephen is the first deacon we see.

We see him serving the widows who are being mistreated in the early church.

And the Bible says that because of his wisdom, faith, and being filled by the Holy Spirit is why he was chosen for such a task.

Further in Acts chapter 6, he is proclaiming the gospel boldly to people who do not believe.

Acts 6 · chapter mention

Starting in verse 9, he's speaking to these people who are of the Alexandrians, Cilia, and Asia.

They rose up and disputed with Stephen.

Verse 10 says this but they could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he was speaking.

Remember what Jesus said?

I will give you a mouth, I will give you wisdom.

Well, it's by the Spirit, we see.

We see Stephen here, have this wisdom, have this spirit, and that is what makes them unable to just stand against what it is that is being preached when it is true.

When it is true.

So that is the gift of wisdom.

No one likes to feel like they don't know what they're doing.

Can I get an amen?

I recently picked up golf as a hobby, and so I can attest to this frustration on a personal level.

No one likes to know or likes to feel like they don't know what they're doing.

But seriously, life gives us circumstances and trials that leave us without answers.

And the Spirit is our source of wisdom in these moments.

When life doesn't give you a study guide for the test, but the test comes anyway, it is the Spirit of God that grants wisdom if we should choose to be humble enough to ask for it and then listen.

Finally, last gift we see here.

List could go on forever, but the last gift we'll talk about today is the gift of power.

The gift of power.

Second Timothy chapter 1, verse 7.

2 Timothy 1:7

This is my dad's favorite verse, and I'm going to imagine it's a favorite verse or at least a memory verse to many of us.

It says, For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of self-control.

This gift and this verse is incredibly relevant for everyday evangelism.

Remember 2 Timothy?

This is a dying Paul.

This is a Paul who is old and feeble, and on top of that, is facing death for his beliefs.

And yet he isn't shying away from the truth.

He isn't shying away from the reality that he faces.

Instead, he's proclaiming to this young pastor Timothy that he has not been given a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.

It specifically says that we don't have a spirit of fear.

Just like Paul didn't have fear in what he wrote, we should not have a spirit of fear either, but rather of power.

When we are afraid to share our story about what God has done in our lives, when we're afraid to share the story of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that's not a feeling or a sentiment that comes from the Holy Spirit.

Rather, the Holy Spirit gives us power to overcome these fears and overcome much more as well.

We also have power over our own sin.

Our own sin.

It's incredible.

We feel so often defeated by our sin.

The sins that we go back to like the Bible says, like a dog returns to its own vomit, right?

It's awful.

We hate when we sin.

And if we don't, we should.

But this encouragement comes from Scripture that we have power over our sin.

Read this in Romans chapter 6, verse 14.

Romans 6:14

Chapter 6, verse 14, it says, For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under the law, but under grace.

Remember that gift of grace that comes from the Spirit?

Because of the gift of grace that is within you, sin has no stronghold over you any longer.

We can approach our sin struggles with confidence, knowing that God has given us the power to be more than conquerors through his grace and the spirit within us.

We can also know that if the Spirit gives us power over sin, that the unchanging and unrestricted Spirit has that power in the lives of others also.

He has that power in those who are far from him.

He has the power to reach and transform hearts, our own and the hearts of others.

Ultimately, and this is the greatest joy, ultimately, we have power over death itself.

We have power over death itself.

If you'll turn to John, this might be the last relocation I give you.

I think I'm lying, looking at my outline.

But if you flip to John chapter 6, John chapter 6.

John 6 · chapter mention John 6 · chapter mention

Verse 63.

Verse 63 says this it is the Spirit who gives life.

It is the Spirit of God which gives life.

That is life here and now.

That's the life that sustains your very breath.

And that is the life eternal.

That is from the Spirit of God.

It is the Spirit who gives life.

The flesh is no help at all.

The flesh is no help at all.

This is the penultimate form of power.

This is the ultimate form of power that not even death itself can have a negative or harmful effect on you who have the spirit living within you.

Not even death itself.

Whatever trials we face pale in comparison to the glory of eternal life from the spirit that lives within us.

So as we close our time together, we need to recognize as Christians our practical application from our relationship with the Holy Spirit.

First, we can depend on Him.

We can depend on the Spirit.

Second, we need the Holy Spirit.

But what exactly do we do?

This sounds a lot like sit and receive.

Right?

What do we do?

If you are a Christian who believes in Christ Jesus as your Savior, I'll pose that this is what we do to strengthen our walk with the Spirit.

In Galatians 3, chapter 5, or excuse me, chapter 3, verse 5, God's word says this does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law or by hearing with faith?

By works of the law, by what we can do to measure up, to make the spirit work, to make the spirit act, or by hearing from the spirit in faith.

Paul's answer to that question is not confusing.

He says it is by hearing.

So, Christian, here today, I encourage you to hear the Spirit.

Hear the Spirit.

Eat this book, hear the words that He has for your life.

And if you are humble enough to sit in submission and listen, you will hear what He has to say for your life.

Come to this church, do not forsake assembling together and hear the word of God preached.

Do not stand idly by thinking that music is just something for a select few who like to sing and we want to make sure that we sound good.

Sing because you're worshiping a holy God who deserves it.

Speaking a lot to men my age, men older than me, young men younger than me.

I fell for the temptation that I thought it was the cool man thing to do, to stand in worship.

And that's not the move.

I praise God for Benji and for Brandon, who sing and lead us in worship.

The men on the worship team who lead us in an act of worship to God, we need to hear that because it encourages us, it reminds us of how good He's been to us.

We sang that this morning.

Hear God's word sung, preached, and in your own personal quiet time.

If you're listening and you would say, I don't believe in Christ as my Savior.

But maybe this word from God has pricked your ear, and you think, What next?

Your application is also to hear.

Also to hear God's word, to follow the pattern that we see in Acts chapter 2 after Peter delivers the first evangelical sermon, right?

Acts 2 · chapter mention

The first gospel invitation.

And it says that the people were cut to the heart, and they asked Peter, What do we do?

And he said, Repent, be baptized, and receive the Holy Spirit.

Christians, hear from the Spirit as He speaks to you.

Maybe there's a lot of clutter in the way in our lives that's keeping us from hearing the Holy Spirit.

Will you clear the way so that the Holy Spirit would speak strongly in your life?

And to you who may be far from the Lord, would you hear repent?

That means turn away from your sins.

Believe on Christ for your salvation and receive the Holy Spirit, followed by obedience and baptism.

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