Jack Hayford | First Conference 2016

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Well, thank you very much.

Thank you.

That's uh enough to encourage you to stand up and talk out loud.

It's a delight to be here and to share in this day at the church and uh so many different things that now connect us uh with the life of Gateway, and uh I've my friendship with Robert, which uh actually began uh kind of in the context of this of this message, which is its own story and it's his to tell.

But uh at any rate, uh when he asked me if I would come and speak on the beauty of spiritual language, uh I thought about just coming and uh I knew there would be copies of the book and opening the book and say, so I'm speaking tonight on the beauty of spiritual language.

Chapter one.

But I uh figured that wasn't what he had in mind, and especially when uh he said, I want you to, but you'll have 45 minutes, which is longer than you get on a Sunday morning here.

It's not enough, I'll tell you that, but it's uh people many people that know me very well, they realize that I uh I you don't you don't really need a watch or a clock to follow me, you need a calendar.

Uh but at any rate, uh I'm gonna try and confine this to something less in the first day and a half of the of uh the first conference, and it is an honor to be a part of this occasion.

And I bring greetings from Anna, who is not with me.

She said, honey, we're gonna get on the plane Saturday morning.

We'd fly back there, be at church, and she loves coming here.

But she said, then we'll get on the plane on Monday morning and come home.

And she said, I can use three days and start undoing all the Christmas decorations.

And so Grandma Hayford is uh got one of our uh granddaughters uh who's home from college vacation still, and uh she's helping her get it done, and she called me today, and she's as proud as she can be all she got done.

The way I look at it, I haven't said out loud to her, and I'm not sure that I'll tell him pass the word on.

I'm I I may stay away another day and she'll get it all done, you know.

But uh seriously, greetings from Anna, and it's a delight to be here.

I asked Robert, I was surprised he hadn't heard the story, and I said, I'm gonna tell this because there is a method in this madness.

But I was really amused recently, a story of a little boy, ten years old, and uh he had uh it was baseball season and he had a ball and bat out in his backyard, and he was just a little kid.

It was a wiffle ball and just a plastic back, but bat, but what he had to work with, and he was uh just he stood up there, has the ball in one hand, and he'd seen people throw him up and then swing at the ball.

So he says, He said, I'm the greatest hitter in the world.

There's the ball on the ground.

Stoops over and picks it up and uh he does, I'm the greatest hitter in the world.

Same thing happens, picks it up a third time, throws it up.

Wow, I'm the greatest pitcher in the world.

So as we uh if it's any comfort to you, I thought I'd let you know as I open the word of God, I preach the shortest sermons in the world.

If you have your Bible, I'd like for you to open to First Corinthians chapter 14, the last three verses.

1 Corinthians 14 · chapter mention

While you're turning there, 1 Corinthians chapter 12, 13, and 14 are the focus, really has to do with the gifts of the Holy Spirit and with the uh whole tone of that.

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

In fact, the way some people say chapter 12 has the gifts of the Spirit, and chapter 13 is the spirit of the gifts, because the gifts are to function in the spirit of the love of God.

Then chapter 14 really has to do with self-management, so to speak, of the resource of the spiritual language or speaking with tongues, and how it should be administrated in the church and governed.

And the reason for the book, The Beauty of Spiritual Language, being titled is that is because the subject uh is, it really is true when we know it on biblical terms and live it on biblical requirements of governance, self-governance and governance in the life of the church that is not suffocating, that is releasing, but is understood by a congregation who uh will experience uh sometimes the challenges at points of patience with people who can just be a little disruptive, and the larger a church becomes, the more difficult sometimes it is.

But there are so many different group functions in a church like this, that uh the subject of spiritual language and what can become, when interpreted, a blessing, but so many times has become a very unbeautiful, and as uh Robert this morning spoke about the weird that happens so much, and the weird has frightened more people away than anything of the truth seems to have really gathered in terms of the broad body of Christ internationally.

Sometimes the use of the weird is really an excuse to avoid confronting a spiritual reality, and so uh that needs to honestly be acknowledged as saying, well, I just don't want to mess with that.

I think if Robert said this morning that one of the pieces of counsel he got when he first launched into ministry is someone told him, if anybody talks about the Holy Spirit, don't have anything to do with them.

And that's really ludicrous proposition, but it's very extreme, and it comes from weird things that have happened and do still happen, but by far uh less and less over the years of my my observation.

And uh I came into the weird, so to speak, really uh began about a century ago becoming weird, what was a beautiful visitation of God at a very famous place that you've probably all heard of, Azusa Street, in my uh hometown.

In fact, I was born in LA.

I don't know if you knew that.

I also live in the greater LA area, Anna and I do, and uh have for most of our our marriage, except for four years, that we were in Indiana in our first pastorate.

And in the experience of the uh city of Los Angeles, you can visit Azusa Street as an actual location today.

And the celebration about 15, 16 years ago, Azusa Street was attended by people from all over the world because what happened there spread globally, and it was an awakening of people to the power of the Holy Spirit.

We usually say power of the Holy Spirit, but we can that entry into that, just as baptism in water signals not the moment of entry and a new birth, but it is signals that new birth has been experiencing, and now you're lifting a testimony to God as you were baptized in water.

The baptism of the Holy Spirit is an entry point, and it's a term that is used as uh as Jesus is called that.

John the Baptist himself, in announcing Jesus' ministry, said, Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

And uh as he preached that, within three verses later he says, He that sent me uh told me that I would see the dove descending upon the one who is that Messiah, and uh the one who would become the Lamb of God.

And then he goes on to say that uh this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.

Now he has used two distinct phrases in describing Jesus, and they are both titles of the Savior.

He is the Savior, the Son of God, the Messiah.

As the baptizer with the Holy Spirit, he is bringing people also into the entry of the function of spiritual dynamics in their life.

When we're born again, it's by the power of the Holy Spirit, and that's fundamental and basic.

And uh no man comes except the Spirit draws him.

But coming to the Lord brings us into a living contact with the living Savior and into being a part of his body, and as a part of his body, he has commissioned us, and he said to the disciples that they were to stay into Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit visited there.

Now he's telling them this after his death and resurrection.

So, in terms of the provision for not only salvation that had already been provided, and in terms of their understanding that the Spirit had come to dwell in them, was made clear Easter night.

Easter night, Jesus visited them in the upper room.

They had gone there for fear.

The same upper room they will later go to, and as they go there will be the occasion the Holy Spirit comes with power.

But he visited them and he breathed upon them, it says.

And as he breathed upon them, he said, Receive the Holy Spirit.

What was taking place in that moment was the beginning of the function, just as God breathed on man at the beginning in the garden, and there was born a man who, without sin, was to function in governing a planet under the authority of Almighty God and seeing what would be a paradise of God multiplied and compounded, but that was lost through the betrayal of disobedience and forfeited to the confusion we know of a sinful man and a devil loose and running around making it worse.

And in the midst of that situation, then the Son of God comes to set in motion what had been prophesied of the restoration of God's rule in the divine order of things by raising up another people.

And through the second Adam, as Jesus is called in the New Testament, he comes and he breathes into what is the beginning of his body, his church, in that first nucleus of believers on the day that he rises from the dead, so that the full provision of salvation has been accomplished.

Everybody following me?

Hello?

And as you have this full provision, now there can come the full beginning.

Now he said, you stay in Jerusalem because the Holy Spirit's going to be poured out.

And he had talked about that some months before.

It's in the seventh chapter of the Gospel of John that he describes that Jesus stands up, and it's the Feast of Tabernacles.

Feast of Tabernacles was the feast that celebrated Israel's journey through the wilderness.

And there was in Jerusalem a celebration on the last day of the feast when these giant cisterns would be poured out of with water, giant vases, I suppose would be a better word, but they're just enormous.

And they would be poured out, two or three to pour it out, and water would come billowing down the steps of the temple property.

And it was a remembrance of the water that broke out in the wilderness of provision of God, the water from out of the rock, and the God's providing for them in the wilderness.

And that was the concluding day of the feast.

And that day when that was taking place, Jesus stood up and he said, He that believes in me, it says that he cried out.

This is just a few months before the crucifixion, he that believes in me, out of his inner being shall flow rivers of living water.

And then John goes on to explain in verse 32 or 3, I think it is, of John chapter 7, he says, This spoke he of the Holy Spirit, who would afterward be given unto them.

John 7 · chapter mention

And so the flow of the river of life generated there, described by Jesus, describes an experience that is distinct in its own right by the very terminology used.

Out of his inner being will flow rivers of living water.

Let me leave that John 7 passage there a minute and go over to John chapter 4.

John 4 · chapter mention

John chapter 4 is the well-known story of Jesus meeting the woman at the well.

John 4 · chapter mention

And when she came to him, you recall her, the plight of her life and the shame of her heart, and her discovery of Jesus' awareness of that, and yet an openness to her that never would have been shown normally in the first place because she was a Samaritan and he was a Jew and that he talked to her at all is such a beautiful picture of the spirit of Jesus reaching to people, and especially one who was there at a noontime hour, that isn't when women get out to went out to get water.

She was out there because she was kind of looked down upon in the city because of her lifestyle.

And if you know John chapter 4, you know a little more of the story.

John 4 · chapter mention

But the point is that when Jesus speaks to her, and uh she's he's she he says, Draw me some water from the well.

And so she interacts with him over that, saying, That's peculiar, you being a Jew, ask me a Samaritan.

Anyway, when he says, if you would ask of me, I would give you living water, and you would never thirst.

And she asks more about that, and as a result, she comes to recognize who Jesus is through the interaction they have.

And in that passage of Scripture, he says, He that believes in me, in John chapter 7, where it will enter out of your inner being will flow rivers.

John 7 · chapter mention

Say rivers, please.

Rivers, say it again, please.

Rivers.

Out of his inner being will flow rivers.

To the woman at the well who opens to his love and life, he says, It will be in you a well springing up unto eternal life.

But she's talking about in you.

This is through and from you.

This is a distinction between the Holy Spirit's entry into your life when you're born again.

Everybody who receives Jesus Christ as Savior, being born again, the Holy Spirit has come in to dwell.

And that is a refreshing joy and blessing, and you can grow a lifetime in that and be a blessing to other people.

In fact, lead other people to Christ, hopefully, by on in some way by reason of your prayer life and model life and your outreach.

But the flow of the anointing of the Holy Spirit is to compound any graces that you already experience by the show of God's grace through salvation.

Let me say it again.

It is a spirit of grace and glory, it is something that compounds the potentiality of a person's life.

So the baptism with the Holy Spirit, which is the term that is used in the scriptures of Jesus' ministry, is John says, this is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

And this is the same one, as he points to him in companion ministry, who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.

And the baptism of the Spirit is the entry into that river and entering into it, the Lord brings you to a place that those rivers then transmit through you.

So when we talk about the beauty of spiritual language, it relates to the matter of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, because on the day the Holy Spirit was first poured out at Pentecost, and you're most familiar with this, they spoke with other tongues as the Spirit was moving among them at this new dimension.

And as this outpouring was taking place in their life, the very thing happened to them, which occasions the naming of the book, The Beautiful, the Beauty of Spiritual Language, there was not anything really disorderly that was taking place because the crowd came to where these believers were worshiping the Lord.

But it's the first indicate any c any uh occasion of people speaking with tongues.

And as the people were speaking with tongues, they were mystified.

And then while some were honestly curious, and they will get an answer before the next hour has gone by.

I'm not talking about my message, by the way.

They will get an answer, although maybe, who knows?

They will get an answer shortly, but there will be, at the same time, there were some that were mocking at them, and they said, These people are drunk.

They didn't think they were drunk because they were acting really weird.

They thought they were drunk because they were so happy.

It's really because of that.

It was the joy that is overwhelming them.

Now, the spiritual language was part of something that would have seemed peculiar too, but I want to make clear they were not just babbling.

Because in that crowd there were many who came that day, and hearing people speaking with tongues, they had come for the Feast of Pentecost.

The Feast of Pentecost was the celebration of the days after they had originally left the bondage in Egypt, and 70 days later they're at Sinai.

And when the Lord visited them with the word and God spoke from heaven, that was the same, the same day that's Pentecost was the original Pentecost, was the day the law was given.

Here is the day the Spirit was come to bring the law alive in people, and not just something that says, I'll come and not just engrave it on your hearts, but I'll flow it into the whole of your lifestyle and your behavior in the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

But as the Spirit comes, there are people speaking with tongues.

And the speaking with tongues was mocked as these as a part of these people being drunk, but they were just rejoicing and amazed.

And finally, some said, Tell us what this means, were bewildered, and then Peter stood and preached the great sermon.

That when he finished the sermon, having exalted Jesus, he said, This one who you took and with wicked hands crucified and slew on the cross, that he has ascended to the right hand of God and has poured forth this which you now see and hear.

You saw what was happening because there was fire over their heads, that symbolism of the presence of the purifying work of the Spirit in the life.

And then there was the language they were speaking.

And Peter said that the promise is to you as well, and to as many as are far off, as many as the Lord our God shall call.

And he called them to repentance.

And there were 3,000 who received the Lord that day, and just a few weeks later there were another 5,000 in the number that were come there in Jerusalem.

Just virtually all of those present, Jews, including the ones who had come from the obviously Jews to come celebrate the Pentecost feast and were there from different parts of the world.

The reason I mentioned they're coming from different parts of the world is because they recognized languages people were speaking from the countries they had come from, even though they were there commonly as Jews who would speak Hebrew.

But uh, as they had come, they were familiar and were doing business in different parts of the world and traveled there out of honor for their Jewish background for that feast.

So the point is that even what was being mocked was something that had a sanity to it because it could be understood what was saying.

And you know what they were saying when they were speaking in tongues?

The common denominator of what was being spoken of all these, they said, we hear them praise the glory of the living God.

They're exalting the living God.

Speaking with tongues, where there is a genuine presence of the Holy Spirit, never is anything that is ugly, although it can be disorderly in the situation in which it's manifest.

On that occasion, it was something that had never been experienced before.

But on the day that the Holy Spirit was poured out, on the day which the Scripture describes as their entry into the baptism of the Spirit, that John had given the term.

About the kingdom in a way they could now understand because what had transpired through the cross, because they could not understand why the Messiah is not taking the kingdom by force and he's discovering is going to take the world by love.

And he said it's going to take the power of the Holy Spirit working through you.

So he told them, You stay in Jerusalem until you go out, because you'll receive power.

I've often thought about that word power as it is used in the scriptures there.

And the first thing that happened when the Holy Spirit came upon them, first thing that happened is they began to speak with tongues.

And the main thing you learn about tongues in the Bible is it is it is a language of prayer, it's a language of worship, it's a language unknown to the person who is receiving it at the time.

But the sense of the spirit that is present in your life and working in you when it occurs is no mystery to you as to the source.

Because when he comes and you receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit, the spiritual language that is attending to that, irrespective of what your view on it has been, your sense of distance or reserve or uncertainty or doubt, especially as Pastor Robert has said, because of the weird, and he's going for another five weeks to be talking about this subject, and there's not anybody I know that can do it any better than he.

And as we, as you, as you move into those weeks and look forward to that, I will too listening to them again because I can get them just as you can.

And I so enjoy his ministry and particularly want to hear that.

Mainly because, Robert, I need to confess that I have never read the entire book.

And now I'll just listen to the sermons, and uh, when you can't read very well, you know it helps some of us who are bobbling our way through life with limited capacities.

And so when we come to the matter of the Holy Spirit's being poured out, this beauty and the sanity, even at the beginning, and it was, they were accused of being drunk.

There will always be people who will mock the manifestation of the Holy Spirit.

And if he doesn't mock tongues, he'll mock something else about the work of God.

People will persecute, they will criticize, they will make fun of things they don't understand or things they have belligerently set themselves against.

And so that is not a hallmark against the baptism of the Holy Spirit or speaking with tongues.

What is an unfortunate fact is the weird things that have happened along the way and gives some credence to the need for the message, which is why James asked me to come to speak.

I felt so honored those years ago when uh there was the occasion that he invited me to speak at the conference that Robert mentioned a few moments ago.

Now, uh in the book of uh that you have uh if you wish to get it, and uh they said there's uh how many did you say there's about 700 available at the several sites?

Uh it's it will shortly, of course, be republished uh now because uh there's a new platform that's uh coming for it, which I won't take time to get into right now.

But certainly this is one for starters that uh was not calculated as a strategy as we come to that point of needing a reprint.

But at any rate, uh I want to encourage you to share it if you get it and read it, urge you, uh, because it deals with so many different stories of things that help people understand facets of opening to the fullness of the Holy Spirit, including a spiritual language, uh answering questions that people so often have that needn't be a concern that discourages your passion of availability.

God, everybody help me preach this sermon.

I'm gonna tell you what I want you to re-preach for me to two people, one on one side, one on the other, or in back of, in front of, however it is, okay?

Here's the line you're gonna preach.

This will shorten the message, by the way.

So that ought to heighten your readiness to participate.

Tell somebody, God is not going to make a freak out of you by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Now, with this bigger crowd, with this bigger crowd, I've got to tell you, there's gotta be at least one or two.

And I'm afraid that it won't be God making it, but you may be made a freak.

Because some people they think that this qualifies them for some way to kind of govern life on their own terms.

The beauty of spiritual language deals with the terms the Lord calls us to.

And so as we uh look at chapter 12, 13 and 14, and that is not the text of the evening.

The text of the evening, by the way, this is scary, isn't it?

We're getting to the text right now.

Uh actually, we've said a great deal about the message in uh 1 Corinthians 14.

You needn't turn there, just let me read you the last three verses.

But if anyone is ignorant, let him be ignorant.

Paul's just gotten done saying, here's how it all should be set in order.

In the life of the congregation, this is the way when there's a message in tongues or a message in prophecy, it should be governed this way, and he is setting the record straight.

The administrative plan for a spiritual language is in chapter 14.

The spirit of its uh functioning is in chapter 13, the great love chapter, and the introduction to the gifts of the spirit, of which just the spiritual language is involved in two, tongues and an interpretation, is in chapter 12.

So you have, as I think I said, if I hadn't, I'll say it again.

If I have, I'll say it again.

The gifts of the Spirit, the Spirit of the Gifts, and the governance of the gifts in the body of Christ.

And a good deal of that is self-governance.

And that self-governance is something that requires people to not be intimidated about the miracle of the language or afraid you're going to turn into a freak because they've been heard of, or think that God's going to spin you a curveball that's going to leave you dizzy in some way that uh is peculiar.

There are doubtless people here that you're, you know you're in church that is very open to things of the Spirit, and you're waiting for God to just kind of whop you with it sometime.

Well, if God wants me filled with the Holy Spirit, he'll uh I know the Holy Spirit dwells in me.

In fact, you may say you're filled.

I'm not going to argue that you're not.

But the spiritual language has so many benefits, and those are noted by Paul in the 14th chapter.

And when he concludes by saying, Let all things be done decently in order, that's in fact where I came up with the title, The Beauty of Spiritual Language, because the words that are used there in the original language are words that speak on, I think it's tastefully put in the message translation, where it says, Be courteous and considerate.

Let all things be done decently and in order.

Be courteous and be considerate.

Another translation says, in a manner worthy of respect.

Let your manner of functioning in the life of the Spirit, this is referencing.

But specifically, when it speaks of the uh the word be uh decently and in order.

The word decently is a word that is not just kind of, well, you know, be sure your shirt is buttoned to the top or something like that.

It's not talking about decency in in that sense.

It's talking really about decency in the contrasting term, but being gracious, not just appropriate, but gracious.

In fact, the concept is inherent in that word in the Greek language that is translated be done decently in an order, the concept of a charming beauty or grace, that there would be a beauty to it.

So that the function of the Holy Spirit in the life of the church, when the supernatural matter of utterance ever would be at play, or in small groups, whatever the situation would be, has never become a private shtick of a group or some kind of a show of an individual.

And as we uh deal with the beauty, I want to underscore Paul's view of it, and then I'll be coming to the end of this message, which I am seeing I still have seven minutes on the clock.

I can hardly believe this.

I think that's one of the first times I've ever looked at that clock when I was standing here with time remaining for me in the pulpit, and it wasn't negative.

I'm gonna have to slow this message down.

What?

We're gonna add five minutes.

You shouldn't have told me yet.

Robert just said I can have five more minutes.

That came pretty easy.

How about another five?

The Apostle Paul is describing the value that he places upon the spiritual language.

And I want to note, incidentally, uh, you fellows that were so kind as put a number of things on PowerPoint for me.

Uh thank you for your patience in doing that.

And I have never acknowledged any, or we haven't turned there, but I've said verses on the message.

So if you want to know text, believe me, I don't preach without one or undergo stuff with the scripture, and I don't think I'd be invited to stand in this pulpit if I didn't.

In fact, Robert may even learned a little of that from me.

I don't know.

He talks about me that way sometimes.

The Apostle Paul teaches regarding being filled and speaking with tongues.

And as you open up to the fullness, when he came to Ephesus, for example, said, Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed?

You know, he arrived at Ephesus, and there are a number of believers there in Jesus' Messiah.

And I've often wondered what occasioned him asking the question?

And I think they got together and he had told them that he'd had been there some months before, and he said, I'm going to be back because I'm gonna, we're gonna have a congregation here.

There'd been a small group of people that began to believe.

And uh now he was back, and in the meantime, uh there had been a preacher go through named Apollos who only taught about water baptism, but not about the baptism of the Spirit.

And Priscilla and Aquila, who were associates of Paul, were there and they talked to uh the uh uh who's the guy?

Apollos whopollos.

Uh I'm 82 years old, folks.

Give me some space.

He talked.

Thank thank you for rescuing me.

Call for apologize.

By the way, I've uh the the Bible I have in the pulpit right now is one that was given to me some time back, and I I just set it aside and I only recently got it out uh because the one that I was using for the last about six, seven years uh was wearing out pretty badly.

And this one has a lot of the guilt that still shows.

This is uh G-I-L-T, not G-U-I-L-T.

Uh the guilt showing on the edge.

And I hesitate going into the pulpit with it, Robert, sometimes now because it looks like they see the gold shining on here.

He says, Is this guy ever read that thing?

When you can't, then you don't know Apollos.

He says, Well, maybe not.

But Priscilla and Aquila spoke with him about that.

And then Paul comes and he's ready to start this group, and he finds some who still have not received the Holy Spirit and the overflow of the bounty, they'd received Jesus as Messiah, but not as baptizer with the Holy Spirit.

He's the anointed one who wants to relay that anointing.

And that anointing, Messiah means anointed one, by the way.

And so as he comes to fill us with the stream of that river, well, Paul said, Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed?

And they hadn't, and so he prayed with them.

And the Bible says that then they spoke with tongues.

Now there is a relationship between the two.

There's a good amount, and I think for fair reason, though my inclination is to uh not contend over what is called the initial physical evidence doctrine, which means that this first sign of your having actually received the baptism of the Holy Spirit is you speak with tongues.

And there's sizable numbers of people that believe that.

And I don't argue with them.

Uh I the good side, the upside of that is people continue to pursue in anticipation of that language, which is a continuing benefit, while the baptism is just an entry.

And uh, but I've I find difficulty of arguing from that point, but at the same time, I will say that it is a very valid part of spirit-full-filled living, and it's for everyone.

Paul said that, but promises unto you, what they had seen and heard.

He says, A promise is unto you, when they had just beheld this whole thing of the people being filled with the Spirit.

He said, You repent, be baptized, and uh in the name of Jesus for the remission of sins, and you'll receive the promise of the fullness of the Spirit, for the promise is unto you and to your children and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.

So it was unto every uh era in the body life of the church.

Jack, don't leave the pulpit too far, you may not make it back.

Now I want to conclude quickly.

Uh it just came down to, oh, they added five.

Now I'm at seven minutes right now.

Seven minutes.

Here we go.

We're gonna, we just I I feel like a guy that just slid in the third and found out they bobbled the ball in the outfield, and I'm getting up and running for the plate right now.

Paul teaches about being filled and speaking with tongues.

They are inextricably linked.

To make it a requirement by definition, I think is a difficult thing as much as I am committed to the expectation that when you open to the fullness of the Spirit, then you should move on and expect the spiritual language too.

And every reason argues for it, and I'll give you three reasons and conclude there are ones the Apostle Paul said.

Now we probably ought to point out the source of the person, the Apostle Paul.

We all know that he is a very unschooled, blithering, charismatic, who doesn't know much of anything in the Word or the world about good sense, the Apostle Paul who wrote the book of Romans, the man who founded most of the early uh churches across the Roman Empire, a man whose books we read that have the solidity of doctrine and the brilliance of anointed intellect.

This is a man who tells you, a man could have said, Well, I just uh met Jesus and he did so much for me, I rejoiced, and I felt the presence of his spirit in my life, and so uh I'm going to serve him.

And uh, we'll just not get on with this tongue's thing because while I heard what happened that day at Pentecost, and I've also seen some people that they're just a little strange, and so I'm gonna think I can do without this for the sake of my, and this is a real problem, folks, for the sake of my reputation.

People that balk at tongues, who know the Word of God, if they look at it clear-eyed and open-hearted, are more worried about their own ego in some way.

It can be fear.

And fear and ego, fear and pride travel very close together.

And so it's a matter of coming to terms with yourself and saying, is this worth opening to and pressing on toward?

Not as a verification of anything other than your desire to have every prayer benefit you can get.

Now the Apostle Paul says that uh the benefits that he found were uh that in being baptized, excuse me, he was grateful for the continued benefit first of the intimacy with God.

He that speaks in a tongue speaks with God.

That he's tuned into heaven.

Now, well, can't you speak to God without tongues?

Of course.

But do you know everything you need to talk to God about?

Are there times that as you would seek his face, you would open to more fully and say, Lord, what do you need to show me more of?

Or as I'm interceding, help me pray.

Oh, Romans 8.26 to 28.

How many people think you know Romans 8.28?

Wave at me in the room.

Romans 8.28?

I'll start the verse, and uh you see if you run over Romans 8.28, here it goes.

Go with me once you recognize it.

Okay.

All things work together for good who those that know the Lord and are the called according to his purpose.

How many know that verse at least by recognition?

Okay.

Romans 8.28 is preceded by Romans 8.26 and 27.

It says, We often don't know how we ought to pray, but the Holy Spirit comes to help us beyond our limitations, so that as we pray with his help, all things will work together for good to them that are called according to his purpose.

You can't separate those things.

Why can you pray?

You say, Well, I just I just like the last verse.

I like for everything to work out well.

Well, God wants everything to work out well too.

But he calls people to pray for things to be transformed and turned around and intruded upon by the work of God, and he calls for his people to pray.

And I believe, honestly, that when Jesus said you'll receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, that it was not so much intended to be a surgeon.

There it is, and you muscles come bulging out of your spiritual muscles come.

You know, I believe that the power he gave us is the power that every one of us in this room needs, not just entering a new year, but in times like these when the darkness increases and our nation is en route to serious problems unless an interceding church arrives, that the power the church needs is the power to pray.

The power to pray, the power to pray.

And when Robert, and when Robert said, thank you, Mike, when Robert said, Will you speak on this?

I knew that where it needed to end was on that very point.

That we're called to receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit, an enablement for prayer.

When the prayer comes where you can pray in ways you you need to pray, I'll tell you, let's start right here.

Many of us, we we need to pray for government, but do you know the church, by and large, much of the believing church, is crippled for praying for the government because they spend time criticizing it all the time and irritated with the leaders of the nation, and you cannot pray with the love of God for somebody you're angry at or even hate for their way of government.

As pathetic as many things are in things in our culture, you cannot make a gain on it without the love of God and a capacity to pray beyond yourself.

And the church, if ever needed a sweeping, in the United States, certainly for starters, needs a sweeping, move the Holy Spirit with enabling and power in prayer.

This is it.

And when Robert asked me to speak on this subject, I had so many pathways to go on this.

I thought over and over and over, and I thought, I'll never get through this message.

But it just rolled over, and I am now.

That actually was just the last second right there.

That was the last second.

Can you believe it?

Wow, I'm the shortest preacher in the world.

I think the shortest sermon preacher in the world.

Not the shortest preacher.

Oh, there he is.

As he shrinks from sight.

I'm gonna conclude, Robert, by having a song.

Thomas, wherever you are, come and help.

Is he over here?

Are you hiding from me, Thomas?

Put the light on him.

Would you put those lyrics on?

I think Thomas gave you fellas some lyrics today.

Let me just say these words to you.

Blessed Holy Spirit.

Cleanse it.

Read them with me, would you?

Oh blessed Holy Spirit, cleansing through and through.

Or my tongue is flowing like a river ever new.

A language heaven's hearing, but to earth unknown.

Sweet communion, holy union, God and his own.

That little song I'm going to just leave with you.

And I am no soloist.

I've had a much better voice earlier in my life, but never was a soloist, but I could carry a tune fairly well.

In fact, I was a pretty good singer, but I was just not a soloist.

Maybe I was really, maybe I was a soloist.

Blessed Holy Spirit cleansing through and through.

Or my tongue is flowing like a river ever new, a language heavens hearing, though to earth unknown, sweet communion, holy union, God and his own.

Stand with me and sing that blessed Holy Spirit cleansing through and through for my tongue is flowing like a river ever new a language heavens hearing though to earth unknown this is true, sweet communion, holy union, God and His own.

Whoever's gonna conclude the service, come.

I want you to bow your heads with me and join hands and bridge the aisles.

Would you please?

I want to lead you in a prayer.

And I will tell you, I'm not gonna lead you into speaking in tongues.

I'm going to ask you, though, to pray with me if you will.

Many of you, I'm sure, in this room have received the release of spiritual language in your life.

And I rejoice with you in that.

There are many that would have a hunger.

And if you're a vital part of this church and for some reason the past has made you less than a hunger after all the resources, when the Apostle Paul says, I thank God that I speak with tongues more than you all, and he cites intimacy with God, he cites a capacity to pray beyond himself, and he cites the capacity in worship, and he said, I will sing, I will sing with the spirit, and sing with the understanding also.

Say, well, Jack, what is singing in the spirit?

Many of you have done it many times, and I'm not going to ask you to follow me, but I would like to encourage you because I found many people who want to open a spiritual language, and sometimes they they feel a hallelujah in their spirit and something rising.

If they would just lift a song, it to just sing anything.

You could sing like this and say, Lord, I give praise to you.

Hallelujah, blessed Jesus.

You're worthy of all praise.

Just sing your heart to Him.

I've known hundreds of people that singing after that fashion entered into the spiritual language while they were worshiping.

Paul says, I will.

Paul, this is an action of choice.

It is not imposed on him.

Spiritual language does not overtake you, smack you down, and rattle your lips.

Spiritual language is entered into God's gracious.

He invites you to open and trust him.

You don't need the lyrics of that song we sang.

You just need to sing your heart.

Get on your knees at your bedside tonight.

I've spoken on this subject, I have no idea how many times, not by this designation necessarily or in this fashion.

Had people on their way home alone, and their car just suddenly rising in them, the sense of joy, begin to pray in the spirit.

And the spiritual language is such a joyous point of release.

It does not make you a superior believer.

Please, everyone, understand that, especially those who don't know the life of this church where that would be made clear.

But there's some people that may think that this is a it's like getting another badge, you know, as a boy scout, get it an accumulation or as a girl scout, a new achievement, a new merit badge.

It's to his merit that we receive these things.

They are grace gifts.

That's why it's called charismatic.

Charis is the word grace.

It's something that is the charisma of the Holy Spirit.

An endowment, an endowment, both an endowment of a gifting and capacity, and an endowment with a prayer ability from on high.

Oh, oh, that the Lord, overflow us all.

Let me lead you in prayer.

Will you pray with me?

Father God.

I'm going to ask you to pray it after me.

Father God, in Jesus' name, I come to you and thank you first for the scope of your love that has embraced me and lifted me unto yourself and drawn me into your presence.

Oh Father, how many are the times in your presence that I, like John Wesley, would be tempted to say, Oh, for a thousand tongues, to sing your praise.

And Lord, I come tonight and ask you to refresh and overflow and bring about.

And I'm going to pause in the prayer right here and say, I will pray this part for you.

Lord, I say, bring about for those who practice regularly a refreshing sensitivity and a fresh animation in their spiritual language in prayer, a dimension that answers to this hour for even more.

For those who love you deeply and have been seeking and never have had a release of language, though they have opened to your spirit fully.

I pray that shortly you would cause their hearts just to simply come as little kids, and just in your throne, as it were, almost babble out, not to create a language, but to come and make themselves available and say, Oh Lord, I worship you.

Overflow me now.

And then without fear, speak what comes to their heart or their mind as they worship you.

And then for those who have spoken in the past and either neglected, I pray there come a fresh awakening, because the hour of awakening is upon us for an hour.

The church very much needs all of its life flow and all energy that you can furnish us in prayer power.

And so, Lord, now will you resume with me?

And so, Lord, I ask what is appropriate to me that has just been uttered, and go from this house to live in your way, your word, your will, and with an openness to the workings of your spirit in prayer by your power and enlargement of my capacities through Jesus Christ my Lord.

And as we come and someone's going to dismiss us and tell us what's next, I want you to praise God for two things.

The first thing is say, Jack actually ended the message exactly on time.

Don't praise him yet for that.

Praise him for his grace among us and his readiness to move among us all.

Paplaudis praise.