Baptism in the Holy Spirit | Pastor Jared Ming | Venture Church

Hey, everybody, this is Pastor Brandon. I want to thank

you for watching our YouTube channel. Please in the comments

below let us know where you're watching from. It's always

a blast breast to see from where people are watching

from around the world. Thank you for watching. Enjoy the service.

Well, I want to say, what an honor today to

be with you. If you haven't met me, I have

been here for a lot of years, so maybe you're new,

or maybe you just happen to not be here on

Thanksgiving weekend, because it seems like every year that's when

Pastor Brandon brings me in. So maybe I haven't seen you,

but I've been a part of the Venture family for

a long time and it's an honor to be with

you today. I pastor a church in Southern California called

Higher Vision Church. We have nine locations, eight or in

Southern California and then one is an El Salvador. And

if you're interested, you want to check us out, you

can check you can find us on all the social

media platforms and so on. Also you can find me

Jared Ming, Pastor Jared Ming. That's what that's what it is,

or I think it's peace p Jared me something I

don't know. You can, you can check it out. I

have actually had the chance this week to spend a

lot of time with Pastor Brand And he's not here

this weekend. He's preaching somewhere else. But he was with

us last weekend and preaching a Higher Vision church. And

then him and I got to spend a week going

and having some fun. We went to the Dodgers and

Mariners game down in LA We got to go to

Disneyland and check out Club thirty three. That was cool.

I went to a Mariner's game yesterday, so I've been

with him all week long. Please pray for me. It

was great, but it's nice, I think to have a break.

He kind of gave me the thumbs up and air

me the knuckles yesterday. He's like, it's been good, but

it's ready. I'm ready for a break. So anyway we are.

We're glad to be here today and sharing some things

with you. Let me know that you are blessed to

have listen. Great churches, great ministries, great things that happened

in the earth don't happen by accident. They happen because

God places great leaders to lead them. And how many

know Pastor Brand and Pastor die are some of the

greatest leaders, some of the greatest pastors on the planet.

Can we honor them today? I'm just so thankful for

them for their example, and thank you for your leadership

and getting to see all the things that God has

done well. Pastor Brandon asked me to continue your series

on the Holy Spirit. It's a series called More. Week one,

you learned this idea what changed, and he told you

the story of Peter, this guy who was afraid to

even admit he knew Jesus suddenly has this encounter with

Holy Spirit and it becomes this awesome preacher in the

church is launched, and we learned about the impact of

the Holy Spirit in our lives and how it can

change a lot of things. Week two, he taught on

unlocking your gifts. God has given gifts to us called

gifts of the Spirit, and God wants us to unlock

those gifts so we can walk in that power and

that authority that God asks for us. And then last

week Pastor David talked a little bit about the presence

of God and the Holy Spirit. And so today Pastor

Brandon asked me to finish out the series and I

want to talk to you on something that is something

that sometimes in churches can be an area where people

just don't quite understand the fact. They might even think, wow,

that's a little weird or a little strange. But we're

going to dive right into something that happened in the

Bible and we're going to bring it into the President

and how it affects us. Me ask you a question,

if God had something waiting for you that was like awesome?

How many know Pessor Brandon loves gifts. He loves gifts,

he loves to give him, he loves to receive him

and God, did you know that God has a gift

for you? How many know that if God has a

gift for you, you wouldn't want to get to Heaven

and miss the gift that He had waiting for you.

So today we're going to learn a little bit about

this gift. If you have a Bible turned with me,

I always say that it's at Higher Vision Church that

we are a Bible bringing, note taking amen shouting church.

So if you want out me feel comfortable. And by

the way, if you'll shout a big amen every once

in a while, not only will it be awesome because

we'll be you know, together, saying, Hey, that's what I

want for my life. But it makes me preach faster. Amen.

All right, so say amen, everybody. So we're gonna learn

about a gift. It's found in Acts chapter one. I

want to read to you what it says. If you

have a Bible, you can follow along. Says this, and

being assembled together with them, speaking of Jesus, he commanded

them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for

the promise of the Father, which he said, you have

heard from me. Let me pause. Right there, Jesus has

been telling them about this promise or this gift that

is available to them. And now right before he's going

to ascend and go back to his father in heaven,

he's about to leave. After this is after his death

and resurrection, he spends some time with the disciples. He

tells them once again kind of his last words about

this topic. He says, you've heard me, you know, you've

heard me talk about it. Verse five, for John truly

baptized with water. I mean ask you a question. Anybody

here have been baptized with water? Wait about me? All right?

He said, John baptized with water? But you shall be

baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.

Let me let me ask you a question. Would you

turn to your neighbor and tell him this, Ask him

this question, Have you been baptized? Come on, anybody ever

seen not Joe Libre, I have a question. Have you

been baptized? Have you been baptized? What is this baptism

of the Holy Spirit. We understand being baptized in water,

but what is the baptism of the Holy Spirit today?

I want to talk to you on that theme. What

is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Well, if you

keep reading in Acts chapter one, going in Acts chapter two,

you're gonna see what the baptism of the Holy Spirit is.

This gift, this promise that Jesus said was waiting the

disciples and the followers of Christ. If you read in

chapter two, here's what it says. It says they went

back and did what he said. They went back to Jerusalem,

they waited, they began to pray, they begin to fast,

They begin to see God about one hundred and twenty

in the Upper Room. And then it says this on

the day of Pentecost, just a few day days after

says they're all in one accord, in one place. They

were praying there, seeking, it says, and suddenly there came

a sound from heaven, like a mighty rushing wind, and

there appeared over them tongues of fire. So there's this

supernatural experience where they saw like literally flames. It says.

It divided and it sat upon each of them. So

the Holy Spirit, the fire of God. We sang about it,

let the fire fall. The fire touched them, and look

what it says in verse two, And they were all

filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with

other tongues as the Spirit of God gave them utterance. So,

in other words, the gift that Jesus said was available

to them, this baptism the Holy Spirit, was when the

Holy Spirit came upon them in such a way that

they spoke in tongues. So I'm like, oh, we're going

to talk about tongues. Yes, we're going to talk about

tongues today. Now. I remember when I was younger in ministry,

I would get, you know, asked to go to youth

camps all the time, and one time I was asked

at a camp talk about, you know, speaking in tongues.

So on my way to the camp, we stopped at

this grocery store. It was a Hispanic grocery store, and

we bought the biggest cow tongue you've ever seen. And

when we got to camp, I started talking about tongues.

The first thing I did is I pulled out that

tongue and I went around and started trying to give

people tongues. And they're like, ooh, you know, the girls

were grossing out and everything because of the tongue. Today,

maybe for you, you don't really understand the tongue thing,

and when you hear about it, you kind of have

that response like, ooh, whoa is that weird? What is that? Well,

let me just make it real clear, because if you've

ever been kind of weirded out or wondered what is

this thing, I'm gonna make it real simple. It's not

really a weird thing. Here's what the word tongues mean

in the Bible language. So the Bible says that they

were baptized by the Holy Spirit and they spoke in

a spiritual or supernatural language. So y'all with me, that's

what tongues is. So what I want to do today

is talk about this baptism in the Holy Spirit or

speaking in tongues. This gift that Jesus said was available

to believers, and I want to make it real simple,

So I'm going to teach on that today. Now, maybe

you're thinking, well, why in the world would God give

us tongues or you know, speaking in tongues. Well, here,

here's what's interesting that Pastor Jack Hayfert, who kind of

became a spiritual father to me for a season, and

I love what he said about it. He says it

this way. He says, when you think about God, is

it really unreasonable to think that God would give us

a way to worship and communicate with Him in a

language or method that transcends our natural ability? How many

believe that God does miracles. If God can heal the sick,

then couldn't he give us a unique way to communicate

with Him in a way that, by the way, maybe

we don't understand what we're saying, but he does. And

the cool thing about that is, not only maybe we

don't understand, but the devil doesn't understand. He gives us

this secret code to speak with him in a way

that transcends our natural ability. So today we're going to

talk about tongues. You with me, everybody, say amen. If

you're not with me, just say amen. If you're ready

for lunch, saymen. Okay, here we go. I'm gonna give

you some real simple principles. We're gonna make this simple. Point.

Number one, you don't have to speak in tongues or

you don't have to have a spiritual language to be

a Christian. All right, So let's get that straight right

from the beginning. I'll never forget when we started Higher

Vision Church, just like we were about a year and

a half behind venture. We started after we were pastor

Brandon and I Pessor Die, my wife. We were all

in the same staff in Modesto, California. They were the

youth pastors. We were the worship pastors. God spoke to

Brandon and Die, let's go plant to church in Seattle.

And then a year and a half later, God spoke

to my wife and I to go to southern California

and plant a church. And so when we first start

to the church, we were growing. New people were coming

and we would do this thing once a month called

coffee with the pastor. It was kind of a chance

to ask questions, and so we had this event and

it just so happened. There was a good crowd there

and this lady comes walking up and she says, you

know what, My name is Trey, and you know, we

really we came to the church last week for the

first time, and we were kind of weirded out because

we heard you guys speak in tongues. But when we

went to the service, it was just like this normal,

awesome service. And we've heard and do you believe this

that you have to speak in tongues to go to heaven?

And I said, no, that's not what we believe. And

maybe you've wondered, well, what is the tongues thing? Do

you have to speak in tongues to go to heaven?

There's some denominations that actually believe that. Let me show

you what the scripture says. First of all, Christians are

born again through the Holy Spirit. I want to bring

that up because I want to show you what it says.

In John chapter three, Jesus says this. Jesus replied, I

assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God

without being born of water and the spirit. Humans can

only reproduce human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth

to spiritual life. Meaning when you accept Jesus, something happens.

You get born again spiritually. How does that happen. It's

through the power of the Spirit. So becoming a Christian

happens because of the work of the Holy Spirit in

your life. You are with me shot him man. Second

thing is the Holy Spirit lives inside Christians. Look what

the scripture says in or First Corinthians six nineteen. Don't

you realize that your body is the temple, the dwelling

place of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and

was given to you by God. In other words, when

you accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, you're filled with

the Holy Spirit. So if you're a follower Jesus, you

got the Holy Spirit inside of you. It reminds me

of that song I got the joy jor jor joy

down in my heart. Somebody you might know that song

down in my heart, down in my heart, I got

the joy, joy, the joy of the Holy Spirit. It's

one of the fruit of the spirit, love joy. You

have the Holy Spirit. And then the second verses and

if the devil doesn't like it, he can sit on attack. Ouch. Okay,

we won't sing that song anymore. Weird song. Weird song

meaning if you have the Holy Spirit. That means it's

proof that you're saved. If you're saved, you have the

Holy Spirit. So you don't have to speak in tongues

to go to heaven. Somebody like, oh, you're a little nervous.

I'm not sure how I feel about that second thing.

Point number two, the baptism of the Holy Spirit or

speaking in tongues is four. Today, there are some in

you know, Christian circles that don't believe that the miracles

Jesus did and the promises Jesus made are necessarily for today.

They were for back then, but they're not for now.

They are called secessionists, and they believe that the gifts

of the spirit, like Pastor talked about a while back,

Pastor brand and the word of you know, healing, working

of miracles, tongues, prophecy, those things are not for today.

They believe that when the last Apostle died, those gifts

died with them. So I want to address is tongues

for today, And I'm just gonna simply go back to

when tongues came and what Peter had to say about it.

So if you ever Bible. Go with me. We're going

to look at chapter two again. Remember they were all

filled with holy spirit. They began to speak in tongues

as a spirit of guy gave them mutrants. And then

Peter gets up. The crowd gathered because they heard that

wind saw the fire. They gather around. They're looking at

the you know, the people speaking tongues. They're like, well,

these guys are speaking in our own language from you know,

another place like Africa and other parts of the world,

and we're hearing them speaking other languages, and this is crazy.

They must be drunken. And so Peter addresses that issue.

Look what he says, acts chapter two, verse thirty eight.

Then Peter said to them, repent, and let every one

of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ

for the remission of sins. And he says, and you

will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Now look

what he says for the promise, or another translation says

for this promise. What's the promise speaking in tongues, it's

the gift. Jesus said, go wait in Jerusalem. God's gonna

give you a gift. And the gift happened to be

them speaking in spiritual language, supernatural language. So he said,

so this promise, because remember Peter before this gets up

and says, when they gathered, they're like, what's going on

with these guys drunk? He said, no, they're not drunk.

It's the middle of the day. They're not drinking. This

is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel in

the last days. I'll pour it my spirit on all flesh.

Sons and daughters will prophesy, young men will see visions,

old men will dream dreams. He's saying that what they

experienced was this gift God had for them. Speaking in tongue.

So Peter says, repent, be baptized. He said, for the

promise is for you and to your children. And to

what's the next word? That was a little week for

this later service. I thought, you guys are awake stright again.

And to who all who are afar off? And then

he clarifies who these ones who are far off? As

many as the Lord our God will call. What does

that mean? It means anyone who puts their faith in Jesus,

anyone who becomes a Christian, any Christians in the house

wave e me anyone who becomes a Christian, not just now,

not just the next generation, but forever and ever and

ever until Jesus returns. Anybody who becomes a Christian, this

gift is for them. And it's like he's saying, I

know down the road, I know people are skeptical. Even

right now, they're saying they're drunk, They're saying, this is

this is weird. I know that that's gonna happen. Even

later on in history, people are gonna wonder. They're gonna go,

is that strange. They're gonna have questions. So I want

to make sure right now when it first happens, that

for now and evermore, everybody knows this is available for everybody,

for anyone. Turn to your neighbor and just tell him

it's for everybody. Come on now, turn to your second

choice so they don't feel left out, and say it's

for everybody, even you. Peter is saying, this is a

real experience, it's for the future, and it's for everybody.

So you don't have to speak in tongues to be

a Christian. You feel you have the spirit, but that

gift it's for today. Point number three, y'all still with me?

Shai Man point number three is this. I want to

point out that the Apostles, the early Church, the leaders

of the Church encouraged every Christian to experience it. You say, what,

what do you mean. Well, wherever they would go, they

would say, have you accepted Jesus? And they would say,

have you experienced this Holy Spirit thing? Let me show

you a story in the Book of Acts. So in

the Book of Acts, God was moving and one of

the deacons that were raised up, remember Stephen who was stoned.

That means something different than some of you are thinking

right now. What happened was is Philip, one of the deacons,

went to Samaria. And when he gets to Samaria, what happens.

He preaches the Gospel and revival breaks out. People are

getting healed, people are getting saved. All these great things

are happening. So when the Apostles hear about it, they're like,

we need to send somebody down there to check this out.

So they send Peter and John. I want you to

see what happens. Now. When the Apostles were at Jerusalem,

when they heard that Samaria had received the Word of God,

they sent Peter John to them, who, when they had

come down, prayed that they might receive the Holy Spirit.

For as yet he had not fallen, had not fallen

up on any of them, You'd fall on none of them.

They had only been baptized in the name of the

Lord Jesus. So what does the Bible say, So they

laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.

Now you say, well, they doesn't say they've spoken tons. Well,

in their mind, the only thing they knew that was

evidence that they had received the spirit, at least at

this time, was that people began to speak in tones.

So when they get there, they say, well, yes, they've

accepted Jesus, but they have have they encountered this gift?

They haven't. So we're gonna lay hands on them, We're

going to pray on them. They receive it. In fact,

if you keep reading, it tells us even more clearly

that that's what they were looking for. Because remember the

guy Simon the Sorcerer. He was there and he watched

them lay hands on people. And when they laid hands

on people, he immediately go, WHOA, that's cool. Why did

he think it's cool if they just laid their hands

on him prayed for him. They had been Hallelujah and

that's it. He would have been no big deal. But

he saw them what speak in tones? So what does

Simon the sorcerer say, Hey, can I pay you some money?

And so you and give me that gift so I

can do that, I can lay my hands on people

and they can speak in tongues. And Peter turns to

him and said, your motives are wrong, and he curses that.

And the point that I'm making from this story, there's

a lot there we could talk about. But was that

Listen when you received Jesus, there's more available for you.

Paul even said this way, He said, I wish everybody

spoke in tongues. He said, I speak in tongues more

than everybody, and I want you to do the same.

It reminds me of a story. So Pastor brand and

I have spent a lot of time this week together

and we've gone and had some pretty cool meals. In fact,

yesterday we went to the game and we went to

this club where they had all kinds of cool food

and it was awesome. And I found out something that

I really didn't know about Pastor Brandon. I am a

massive ice cream connoisseur. I love ice cream. Do you

have any people that love ice cream in the house.

You do know that they're going to serve that in heaven.

So if you didn't raise your hand, just start practicing

now for eternity. So yesterday Pastor Brandon wanted some ice cream.

It was hot, and so found out he liked ice cream.

It reminded me of a story. So there's a barbecue

place in southern California. It's a chain. It's kind of

all over, but it's called Loose Seals. Anybody here ever

been to Lucial's Barbecue? Okay, we got a few. They

have these amazing big ribs. Food's good. And so one

time I brought a friend of mine who was like me,

who really loves ice cream. I brought him there and

we ate this massive meal. I mean we ate so much,

just ribs, and I was so good. And afterwards, I'm like, dude,

how you doing. He's like, oh, I'm so full. And

I'm like, well, are you too full for ice cream?

He's like, well maybe not. You know, you know, people

that love ice cream just can find a little extra room.

And so I said, well, do have you heard of

the Snickers pie? What is the Snicker's Pie? Well, if

you've ever been there. It is an ice cream dessert

that's ice cream with Snickers all in it. It's like

a peanut butter ice cream with Snickers chopped up and

in there on this crust that's made of chocolate, kind

of like almost chocolate Graham crackers kind of a thing.

And then it's got this car all dribbled or drizzle

across the top of Anybody getting hungry as I'm talking,

and so I'm like, I'm gonna order the pie. So

I ordered the pie and it was like, man, as

you know, as soon as he saw it, he kind

of had one of those Scooby Doo moments like Reggy right,

You're like, what is this? And so we start chawing

down and and he's like, oh man, that's awesome. I'm

never gonna eat here again without ordering the Snicker pie.

Because here's the point. Jesus doesn't want you to just

eat the ribs. He wants you to get the Snickers pie. There,

Jesus says, there's more the the you know the graphic

that was here earlier, There's more. If God has Snickers pie,

then why are you just settling for the ribs? God

said there's more more available. The apostles are saying, there's more. Yes,

you received Jesus, you've been baptized. Let me ask the question,

how many of you and water have been baptized? Okay,

only two of you. We need to have a baptismal

service tonight. How many have been baptized together? They see this,

man ask okay, but Jesus said, that's good. The pastors said,

that's good. But there's more. They encouraged it. And let

me tell you why, because you might say, well, why

is that a big deal? Why is this speaking in

tongues things or baptism and only spirit things. What benefit

is there for me? Well, let's go through. I'm gonna

tell it to you quickly. Number one. The first benefit

is this, it's a miraculous sign. It shows the miraculous

hand of God in your life. When you speak in

a language that you don't know. In the day of Pentecost,

they were speaking in languages they didn't know. And we

also know that it wasn't just a language you didn't know,

a known language that you'd never learned, but it also

could be an unknown language that nobody understood. That's what

we also find in the Book of Acts. Why let

me explain it this way. So several years ago, my

brother he went to he's a pastor, worked on staff

for us for a few years. Pastor's an amazing church

in Dallas, now Oversaw Denomination. Just you know, God's used

him in many cool ways. I'll never forget. One year

he went to Brazil and led a team on missions,

and when they got there, you know, everybody speaks Portuguese,

and they ask him to preach that night. He gets

up to preach the message and preaches the message through

a translator and calls people forward for prayer. He starts

going around praying for people. And when he gets to

certain people, you know, he doesn't have a translator in translating,

so he would just pray over them in English. But

sometimes he'd just pray in the spirit. And this one lady,

as he saw her, he just felt prompted. He put

his hand on her and began to pray for her,

and he began to pray in tongues, pray in the spirit.

He prayed for He prayed for her, and amazingly, she

just broke down and began to weep and cry. And

He's like, well, God, must be touching her, and he

moved on in the prayer line, went back to the

hotel that night, and as he was just thumbing through

his facebooks, saw a message, so it popped up for

him and put translate on there, and it was this

woman and she had messaged him and she said, Pastor Wyman,

I wanted to share with you, thank you so much

for your prayers over me in Portuguese tonight. And he's like,

wait a minute, I don't speak Portuguese. And she began

to tell a story how that God had spoke to

her and called her into the mission field, but she

was questioning whether that was God. She was questioning whether

she could do it. It was a big step of faith.

She was questioning whether she had the ability to leave

everything to go off into the mission field as full

time ministry. And she said it was crazy. Because as

he laid her hands on her and began to pray,

he was praying in Portuguese, prophesying that God had called

her into the mission field and that he was going

to provide everything she needed, and that the things that

needed to happen would happen, and she would go forward

and do everything God called her to do, and she

broke down and cried, Well, it was a miraculous sign

that God was all over the calling on her life.

Point is is that God uses those gifts for miraculous signs.

The second reason that this is something that maybe God

wants for us because number two, it edifies the church.

The Scripture tells us in First Corinthians chapter fourteen, verse four,

or I'm sorry in First Corinthians chapter twelve through verse

or chapter fourteen, it says that when someone speaks in

tongues in a service, and I'll explain it in a minute,

and then there's an interpretation. It says, it's done to

edify the church. Now, if you never grew up in

a kind of Pentecostal church, in an old school Pentecostal churches,

sometimes in a service, someone would get what they call

a tongue, and it wasn't just their personal prayer language

praying to God in tongues. It was a prophetic message

for the church. So the church would get quiet, the

person would speak out loud in tongues as everybody listened,

and then the Bible says, according to Paul, there should

be an interpretation, not a translation word for word, but

God would give someone what that message was about, and

so then that person would share out loud that prophetic

message that God had for the church. And he said

that was a gift used to edify the church, kind

of like prophecy. God will speak. Just a moment ago

in the worship, I said, there's somebody here who has

a door that you've been trying to get through. And

remember when I shared that, that's a prophetic message. So

that is done. What to edify? The word edify means

to build like legos, it builds up the church. I

mean the church needs to be strong. It builds strong.

So the gift is to edify the church. I'll give

you an example several years ago at Higher Vision. We

don't have tongues and interpretation happen in the services of fact.

I think it's only happened maybe twice in twenty years

of the church. But there was a specific time where

the things got quiet, someone gave a prophetic word and

then the Lord gave me the interpretation. And the interpretation

was kind of like what I spoke a moment ago.

I said, there's somebody here that needs a miracle, and

you've been trying to see this thing change, and God's

gonna on Monday morning give you your miracle, and you're

gonna see things change. The door's going to open, You're

going to have what you need. And I began to prophesy.

In fact, I looked at the camera and I said,

somebody watching online, I'm talking to you right now. And

this was a message God gave me from this you

know this tongue that was given. So we went on

with the service, didn't think anything about it. And then

Monday morning we got an email from Sweden. Anybody here

from Sweden, glad that you that came today, and I'm

the Here's what the message said. I was watching online

yesterday from Sweden, and you gave that prophetic word. And

I had a meeting on Monday morning that I had

been working towards for a long long time. I tried

to get the answer. I tried to get the deal.

I'd tried to close the deal. I tried to and

it had been had just been failure after failure after failure,

but it just so happened on Monday morning. I had

my meeting, I shut up from my meeting, and miraculously

we got the job. And your prophetic word came to

pass you thankful that God cares about the little things

in our life, that he wants to build up the church.

But not only does it build and edify the church.

Here's the third thing. God wants this gift. The apostles

leadership of the church want it for us as Christians.

Why because it edifies us, it'll edify you. Did you

know that when you pray in spiritual language, you pray

in tongues, it builds you up. Let me show you first.

Corinthians chapter four fourteen, verse four says this, he who

speaks in a tongue edifies himself. That means to build up.

So when you pray in tongues, you're getting stronger. It's

like doing push ups or curls or whatever pull ups.

You're getting stronger spiritually. Anybody want to get stronger spiritually.

Another example of this can be found in June chapter twenty,

when he says, build yourself up in your most holy faith,

praying in the Holy Spirit. So when we pray in

the Holy Spirit, it builds us up. God wants it

for you. There's another reason why the Apostles encouraged that

for everyone is because it helps you pray the perfect

will of God. Let me here, Have ever had a

situation that you're praying about, but you just didn't know

what God's will was? Do I take the job or

not take the job? Do I move or not move?

Is that the person God has for me? Or am

I supposed to find someone else? Lord? What is the plan? Well,

let me show you what it says in the Book

of Romans. If you have a Bible, everybody go with me.

Romans Chapter eight, verse twenty six and twenty seven says

that this says it this way. Likewise, the Spirit helps

us in our weakness, for we do not know what

we should pray for as we ought, But the Spirit

himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

A lot of theologians that believe in tongues and this

gift that we talked about today believe this. This is referencing

how the Holy Spirit will pray through us. He prays

for us. And then it goes on to say how

now he who searches the heart knows what the mind

of the spirit is, because he makes intercession for the

saints according to the will of God, meaning that when

the Holy Spirit prays through you. You're praying the perfect

will of God. So if you don't know how you

should pray, pray in tons and then you will be

praying perfectly in alignment with the will of God. Let

me give you a cool story. This is a story

about my mom. My mom is in her eighties and

she travels to Africa. She's been doing it for twenty years.

She's helped build churches there, she's done medical missions there.

In fact, she just went last year, middle of her eighties,

flying all the way across the country and across the

globe to go. I've always admired her for that. There's

a man over there in Kenya. His name is Bishop Natuka.

He pastors a church and now he's kind of retired,

but he has several churches, like one hundred and fifty

churches that are under him. Well, my mom would go

every year, and so it just so happened. This is

several years ago. She woke up in the middle of

the night when she was here in America, and she

had this immediate urgency pray for Bishop Natuka. But she

didn't know what God's will was, She didn't know what

she was praying for. She couldn't pick up the phone

and call him, so she just starts praying in tongues

and as she's praying in the spirit, she feels like

just this heaviness and like she's got to pray, and

so she just keeps praying. She keeps praying. Well, eventually

that urgency lifts. She feels like it's okay to quit praying,

and she finishes her prayer and goes back to sleep.

A few months later, she forgot about it. A few

months later, Bishop Natuca's assistant happens to be in America.

He's traveling around and he stops by to see my parents.

They're out to lunch, and my mom just randomly says,

you know, it's so weird. But a couple months ago,

I was in bed in the middle of the night,

I was praying. I woke up and felt the Holy

Spirit tell me to pray for Bishop Natuca. I start

praying in tongues and she starts telling him the story.

And as she's telling this, his eyes get big and

she's look at him, like, what's going on. He goes

tell me the exact time and day. So she tells

him the exact time and the exact day, because you

know it's different over there than it is here with time.

And he said, you're not going to believe this. She said,

what so well years ago, and I'm going to pause

the story and if you want to the end, you

have to come back tonight. I'm teasing. Okay, we'll keep

going into it. So what happens, she said, He told

the story. He said Bishop Natuka was going to a

prayer meeting in Kenya. A lot of churches had come

together to pray. There's some stuff going on with the government,

so they called this massive prayer meeting. Bishop Natuka had

a group of intercessors from the church that were following

him towards the front left of the stage. That's where

he was going to pray. And in the middle of

walking to the exact time, my mom woke up and

started praying in the spirit. He stops and goes, you

know what, I think we're not supposed to pray there.

I think we need to go pray over there. So

they turn around and they start walking to pray on

the other side of the area where they're at and

thirty seconds later, a bomb went off on the corner

of the stage and killed several people assume you're like,

is that a true story, asked my mom, true story.

I know that's a little bit crazy, huh. But she

didn't know what she's praying, but the spirit prayed the

perfect will of God through her. What incredible prayers do

you need to pray concerning your family, concerning your future,

concerning this city, concerning your leadership. If you allowed this

gift that God has available to you, allow the Holy

Spirit to pray through you in alignment with the will

of God. Some me said, but I don't know what

to pray, or I don't know what even I'm understanding

what I'm saying. Well, look what First Corinthians fourteen says

and verse fourteen. For if I pray in a tongue,

my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. I don't understand.

So what should I do. I will pray in the spirit,

I'll pray in tongues, but I'll also pray with my understanding.

I will sing with my spirit, and I'll also sing

with my understanding. God has given you a gift to

give you the ability to pray the perfect will of

God every time you pray. That's why God says there's

more somebody shout him, man, I'll give you the last

two and then we're going to bring this to a close.

Another reason why the Apostles wanted us to experience this

gift is because it gives you power to share your

testimony to witness, Jesus said, and you will receive power

after that the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And then

we learned a story about Peter who was afraid what

changed Pastor Brandon preached on. He was afraid to even

mention that he knew Jesus, And now he stands up

in front of thousands of people, calls them a stiff

neck generation, and declares the gospel. Why because the Holy Spirit.

When you are filled and baptized with the Holy Spirit,

what happens. It gives you more boldness and more power

to share your faith. Some of you been struggling with

the ability. You've been too afraid to really share your faith. Well,

if you get baptized in the Holy Spirit, guess what,

There's gonna be a fire. There's gonna be a power

inside of you that helps you to rise up and

share the gospel and tell people the good news about Jesus.

The last reason is it's a method for praising God.

Did you know on the day of Pentecost, it tells

us what they were saying. You ever thought about what

were they saying on that day? They're speaking in other tongues.

Actually there were known languages that they hadn't learned, kind

of like my brother. The Bible tells us they were

declaring the wonderful works of God. So you don't have

to be a Christian. I mean, I'm sorry, you do

have to be a Christian if you want to go

to heaven. You don't have to speak in tongues to

be a Christian, Okay, to get to heaven. Number two,

the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit tongues is

for today. Thirdly, the leadership who started the church want

you to experience the snicker's pie. And Lastly, the Holy

Spirit will speak through you, but not for you. I

want you to see what the scripture says in next

chapter two. When they received this gift, watch what happens

and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and

began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave

them utterance. Professor Jack Hayfert explain this this Greek word

this way they spoke in tongues as the Holy Spirit

gave them what to say, meaning that the Holy Spirit

doesn't take over your tongue and control it for you.

He gives you what to say, but you have to say.

It reminds me of growing up. I was grown up,

but my kids were growing up up, and we'd come

together at Christmas for this big family event. We'd stay

several days at my parents' house and all the grandkids

were together Christmas, and at one point on one of

the evenings, my dad would pull out Fred the Frog.

I don't have Fred the Frog today. I have mister

paper machine or whatever, mister paper bag. And here's the

interesting thing. If you've ever seen, you know, like a

one of those they call him a dummy or they

you know, a puppet or whatever, sometimes what you'll see

is you'll see a ventriloquist that'll speak for the puppet

right and be like, hello, thanks for coming today. That's

kind of the way, you know, ventriloquist, And they try

to do what that moves me in their mouth, Hello,

thanks for coming today. You know, well, Fred the Frog

and my dad didn't do it that way. Here's how

they did it. Fred the Frog would look around the room,

and he'd look at one of the grandkids, like Macy,

and then he'd do this and the whisper into my

dad's ear, and then my dad would say, Macy, Fred

the Frog said he heard that you learned about that dance,

and he wants you to do it for the other grandkids.

And then Macy would get all excited. You should get

up and her do dance, and we'd all laugh, and

then he'd go and my dad would say, oh, Haley,

Fred just told me. See, that's kind of how it

works with the Holy Spirit. He's not going to force you.

He's not going to do it for you, but he'll

give you what to say, and then you have to

step out in faith and say it. When I was

eight years old, someone prayed for me to receive the

Baptist the Holy Spirit. As an eight year old child,

can you know what happened? I started hearing words, and

I question, is that me? Or is that God? Let

me just pause and say, if you're asking or someone

prays for you to receive the Holy Spirit and suddenly

random words that you don't understand come into your conscience,

it's probably not you, and it's probably not the devil

because you did, weren't thinking of those words before that

unction or that desire, that passion, those things come upon you,

then you have to choose to speak. The meaning of

that is they spoke in tongues as the Spirit gave

them mutreans. In other words, they spoke as Holy Spirit

gave them what to say. The Holy Spirit will speak

through you, but he won't speak for you. And so

let me just say today we're gonna take a moment

and we're going to pray, and it just might happen

that today in this room, on the other side of

that screen, as we pray, that you receive the Holy Spirit,

the baptistm and Holy Spirit. Maybe something's gonna happen to you. Now.

Sometimes people feel it. You don't have to feel it

to experience it. Sometimes people do. Sometimes their lips will stammer.

I've seen that. Sometimes they get anybody ever got ducky

bumps in church? Okay? Two people kind of feel the

Holy Spirit. You feel God. Sometimes you feel it, sometimes

you don't. The question is when the Holy Spirit begins

to activate and work in your heart and your mind,

if he gives you the words, will you speak those words?

Will you be baptized. Will you give that utterance tonight,

at this awesome night, We're gonna believe, we're gonna pray,

We're gonna have team members up here, and you can

come and have someone lay hands on you. But I'm

gonna tell you someone doesn't have to lay hands on you.

We've had people driving home from church suddenly start speaking

in tones. We've had people literally in the shower suddenly

starts speaking in tongues. Listen, it's not a scary thing.

It's a powerful thing. Why would you just want the

ribs when there's more? Today? I want you to close

your eyes. I don't want to ask an important question.

Maybe you're here today and you can't say that you

really are a Christian. You don't have the spirit of

God inside of you. You're not the temple of the

Holy Spirit. The reason is you've never invited Jesus to

come into your life. You've never asked him to forgive

you of your sins. The reason people aren't Christians is

because they haven't received Jesus. And the reason for that

is sin. We all sin and fall short. Everybody here

has made mistakes, and the Bible says that, well, if

we have the courage to acknowledge it, admit it, confess

our sins. He's faithful and just to forgive us and

cleanse us. Today you could be forgiven. You know, if

you're honest with yourself, you have to know that there's

a burden that you're carrying of the things you've done

in life that are wrong. We've all done things wrong,

every one of us. No one can say we haven't.

But the Bible says we have the courage to confess

that and repent of that. Here's what happened. Jesus will

wipe the slate clean. You can walk out of here.

You can turn off that screen and every mistake you've

ever ever made is erased. You can start fresh. And

then if the Bible says this, if you call on

the name of the Lord, you will be saved. You

can know you're on your way to heaven. And you

know what will happen in that moment. Fill with the

Holy Spirit, and let me tell you need the Holy Spirit,

because the Bible says the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, faith, meetness, temperance. Man,

you want those things in your life. God will empower

you with great gifts the fruit of the spirit. The

gifts of the spirit can be yours, but you have

to know Jesus. So today, if you're here and you've

never accepted Jesus, if you've never confessed your sins, I'm

talking to you. Or maybe you have, but you've walked

away like the prodigal, and you need to come back

and recommit yourself to Christ. When I say three, raise

your hand, and then we'll all pray a prayer together

admitting I'm a sinner and I need a savior. I

admit I made mistakes and I need Jesus. I want

the Holy Spirit. I want to know that I can

go to heaven. So you're ready, whether it's the first

time or recommitment. I'm gonna count to three, and this

is your moment. God has brought you here for this reason. Today,

are you ready on the count of three? One you

can be forgiven. Two you can be filled with His spirit. No,

you're on your way to heaven. Where are you on three?

Right now? Three? Raise your hands all across this room?

Where are you? Thank you? Thank you? Who else today?

Thank you? Thank you who else today? Thank you? Thank you,

thank you over there, thank you over there. Thank you.

Over there. Anybody else say yes, pastor, you're talking to me, Jared,

anybody else to see it. Thank you. I see the hand,

Thank you. I see that hand. Anybody else say yes,

you're talking to me. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I see the hand. Thank you. Up there, thank you,

thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. I see

that hand, thank you, thank you. I see that hand.

All right, you can put your hands down. Now when

everyone to pray. This prayer of the mouse says, confess

with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart.

Say this, Say Jesus. Come on, everybody, even on the

other side of that screen, screen, say Jesus. Today, I confess.

I've sinned, I've made mistakes. I need a savior come

into my life, cleanse me, forgive me. I put my hope,

I put my faith. I put my trust in you

as a Son of God and the savior of the world.

Starting today, I will follow you in your name. I pray,

and everybody shouted. Come on, give the Lord a handclap

of praise. Heaven's rejoicing right now, come on, let's celebrate. Hallelujah.

Guess what you just got filled with the Holy Spirit.

Thank you Jesus. Now here's what I'm gonna do before

I turn it back to Morgan. I want everyone, everyone

in this room, everyone joining us online. I want you

to just reach your hands towards Heaven for just a second,

and I want to pray for you, just like the

apostles prayed in Samaria. God. The first thing I pray

as our hands are extended, or we lift our hands

sometimes as a sign of surrender, and for some of

us we need to surrender our bias, our fear. Well,

that's weird, or I don't know much about that, that's

kind of scary, or maybe it's we were taught that

it's not for today, or maybe it's just we're apathetic, like, well,

this is enough I got forgiven and I'm just gonna

get to Heaven by the skin of my teeth. No, Lord,

I want more, and so Father, today I pray you

would break off of us that thing that says I'm

settling for where I am. But God, give us a

hunger for more, Remove every excuse, remove every apathetic thought

or desire, and give us a passion. Stir up the fire. God,

stir up the fire, the passion, the zeal of your

spirit within us. Lord, I also break Lord, doubt and unbelief.

Lord your word. When we know the truth, it sets

us free. And some people have not stepped into this

new arena because Lord, we haven't have the faith. We've

been fearful, or we've doubted. Father, Today we break all doubt,

We break all fear and release right now. You said

you can every person a measure of faith. Increase our

measure of faith right now, to believe that every good

and perfect gift comes from the Father of Love. To

believe that today you have something for us. Father. Now

I pray, Lord, We're not going to try to do

it in our own strength, but Lord, if you speak

to us, then we'll let you speak through us. And

what I'm gonna do right now is I'm gonna pray.

As I pause that prayer, I'm gonna say, receive the

Holy Spirit. And if you're here right now joining us online,

and the Holy Spirit starts speaking things into your spirit,

I want to encourage you just begin to whisper those

things out and begin to speak those things out. Tonight

we're gonna spend more time doing this, but today just

might be the moment. Are you ready receive the Holy Spirit.

Receive his baptism now in jesus name, speak it out.

I'm not saying loud for everyone to hear. I'm talking

about the gift of tongue and interpretation. But your language,

your spiritual language, speak it out, speak it out, speak

it out, speak it out, speak it out right now.

The Holy Spirit will speak through you, but not for you.

So Lord we speak. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Father, I thank you

for what you're doing in this place. This is the seed.

This is the beginning of a powerful baptism that's going

to carry into tonight and in the days ahead. In

Jesus' name. Once you look at me, some of you,

maybe you've sent something but you were afraid to step out.

You watch maybe on the way home, maybe in the car.

Maybe tonight, there's going to be a release, I says.

If there's rivers of living water, it's going to bubble up,

release it and release His power in your life. It's

time for us to go after more. Shout Amen, God,

bless you. You know.

I was just thinking that we've had a lot of

revival Sundays adventure, but I I just can't help but

feel like the Holy Spirit wants to do something new

in our church. He wants to do something new in

your life. And Pastor Jared spoke it right there at

the end. Sometimes we have to remove a spirit of

apathy to make room for the Holy Spirit to have

more domain in our life. And so maybe you're here

and you weren't planning on coming tonight.

I just want to speak that.

Over you, remove whatever is holding you back, and come

get more of who He is for your life tonight.

Amen, he has.

More for you, He has more for our church. I

believe he's going to do some great things tonight, and

so we want to invite you back at six pm.

Can we just think Pastor Jared one more time for

that word?

Well.

I also want to direct you to our What's Next

page on the app because every week we provide you

with some really practical tools, some great resources that you

can take this message and continue to dive into it,

continue to dig for more. And I want to direct

you there on our app. Just click that What's Next

tab and it'll give you so many new resources, Bible

reading plans, all sorts of things that you could do

this week to follow up on this message. I also

want to invite our ushers to make their way forward

to receive this morning's tithes and offering. Yeah, come on,

we celebrate the opportunity to give this morning as we prepare.

There's a couple of ways that we give here. We

give them a regular tithes and offerings, but we also

give above and beyond towards Kingdom Builders, which goes to

expand global mission, it goes to really investing in our

neighborhood in our region here, and it goes into raising

up leaders here through Venture Church. And we want to

thank you for your continued generosity here at Venture. I

want to pray and we'll pass these buckets. There's short

video that'll play and we'll get you guys out of here,

But would you just pray with me this morning? Father, God,

thank you so much for who you are. God, Thank

you for your word in our life that transforms who

we are. God, we ask for more of you, And

as we ask for more of you, got we lay

down with the world, got you greater than all of it.

And so Father, we give to you today with cheerful hearts.

God, ready to see.

Your work be spread through our world and here in

our Church. God, we love you, We praise you, bless

each gift in every giver in Jesus name. And everyone said, Amen.

We pursue God. We chase after God. We pursue the

Holy Spirit. The same Holy Spirit I raised Jesus from

the dead is still active in moving into life today,

is with in us. He's in our church. Amen.

Come on, We're excited to be back with you guys tonight. Hey,

revival happens when God's people get hungry for more, So

we want to invite you to come back six pm

once you stand to your feet with me. Thank you

so much for being here with us at Venture Church.

We love you.

Thanks for joining us online.

We'll see you guys next week.

Actually, no, we'll see you here tonight.

God bless We'll see you later.