I believe in the Holy Spirit

Hey everyone, this is Josh from Encounter Church

Henley and thanks so much for tuning into our

podcast. Our prayer is that through this podcast

you can have an encounter with Jesus that will

change your life. And now get ready for an inspiring

message from our preaching team. who came together

and prayed and discerned that there was going

to be a church in Henley Beach and you're all

here because they faithfully stepped out and

so while it's it's a really exciting step for

the Horners and for the Browns as well and you

guys are gonna love having Tom and Pieta and

Bellamy's like the best kind of a lot their daughter

like honestly I will miss having Bella at church

a lot the kids ministry I don't know but I will

miss her a lot But I just really want to take

the time to honor you guys and and thank you

for all the effort and Prayer and faithfulness

and time you poured out. So you just take a moment

and honor and thank the horn is with me You You

have time next week next week's air official

last week, but I'm not here So I want to take

some time there now I am here today and I'm here

because somebody has to bring some dignity back

to this church. Two weeks ago, well last week,

you had Tim Goldney, our youth pastor here. And

Tim, how did Tim Goldney start out his sermon?

He just yelled Jesus Christ. Now in fairness,

he was preaching about, I believe in Jesus Christ.

So you know, Tim's both a tradie and a youth

pastor, you've got to give him a little bit of

leeway. But then the week before that, the global

senior Henley mega pastor, Tim Littleford was

preaching. And halfway through his sermon, he

talked about Jesus sitting down and cracking

open a cold one. And I thought, at some point

somebody's got to bring the inner city private

school dignity that only a Pembroke old scholar

like myself can bring. You know, that blazer

wearing, rowing, enthusiast, only, thanks, only

an inner city private school boy can really bring.

That sense of being better than you without ever

having proved it once. That's what we're looking

to bring today. A bit of tignity everybody. And

even in the middle of a series of the Apostles

Creed. Now the Apostles Creed is incredibly beautiful

because it is something that unites us. It unites

us together. And one of the things it does is

it not only unites us together as a group here,

but it unites us with the Church globally. Because

the Orthodox Church, Orthodox with a little O,

we're going to be talking about a lot of words

with little letters today. We all believe in

the Apostles' Creed. It's one of the things that

unites us together as a Church. We have a lot

of things that we believe in differently. Some

of us have very strong feelings about infant

baptism or about just adult baptism. That can

have some variation, but we all gather under

the Apostles' Creed. And it's so helpful, so

healthy to have that. It gathers us as a Church

here, it gathers us as a Church globally, and

it gathers us throughout Christian history. every

saint who has ever put their trust in Jesus,

past, present and into the future, into the kingdom

of God yet to come, have all stood under the

Apostles' Creed. So, I'm going to ask you to

do something we haven't done yet, and I'm going

to invite you to stand if you're able, and say

the Apostles' Creed with me, which I think, did

I put that in my slides? I'm pretty sure I did.

Nice! Look at me go. Okay, so if you can read

it, sorry Tex, let's read the Apostles' Creed

together, after me. or together with me, I believe

in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven

and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only

son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy

Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered

under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and

was buried. He descended to hell. The third day

he rose again from the dead. He ascended to heaven

and is seated at the right hand of God. from

there he will come to judge the living and the

dead i believe in the holy spirit the holy catholic

church the communion of saints the forgiveness

of sins the resurrection of the body and the

life everlasting amen you may be seated i feel

like if we're doing series on the apostles creed

we should probably read it out once or twice

right Now, you might have noticed the word Catholic

Church there. We are not a Catholic capital C

Church here at Encounter, but we are a Catholic

little c, which means we're a Christian Church.

We're part of the global Christian Church. So

even though we're not a part of the Roman Catholic

Church, we are still part of the corporate body

of Christians throughout the globe. And that's

really important. And I'm here today to help

you understand what it really means to say, I

believe in the Holy Spirit. Everybody say Holy

Spirit. Okay, now say to him, but whisper it.

Yeah, okay, that's what it's like trying to understand

the Holy Spirit, that whisper. So I'm gonna pray

and then we'll get into the word today. Loving

Lord God, we are here because of you. We put

all our trust in you and we thank you Jesus that

you're the author of salvation. But Holy Spirit

is to you we turn today and we invite you to

reveal yourself to us. We say with the church

through our history, Holy Spirit come. Fill our

hearts, speak to us, guide our lives, inform

us, move us, challenge us. But we are your vessels

to hear from today, Lord. In Jesus' name, amen.

Okay, I'm gonna start with the Holy Spirit origin

story. The Holy Spirit was present in creation.

In Genesis chapter 1 verses 1 to 2 where the

Genesis 1:1–2

Spirit of God hovers over the deep and then he

comes upon different people in the Old Testament

at different times for different tasks. E .g.

there's an artist called Bezalel. He comes upon

him for artistic work. We see that in Exodus

and then he comes upon Gideon and gives Gideon

leadership. We see that in Judges. He comes upon

Samson also in Judges for power and for strength

and then in Isaiah we see that he comes upon

Isaiah to help him prophesy. The Holy Spirit

was promised by God the Father. to be given to

the people of God throughout the Old Testament

prophecies. One of the most commonly known ones

would be in Ezekiel, this sort of a two -parter.

The first is that in Ezekiel 36, God's going

to remove a heart of stone and replace it with

a heart of flesh. That is, he's going to breathe

life into something that is hard and uncaring.

And then the very next chapter in Ezekiel 37,

in one of the more famous Old Testament prophecies,

Ezekiel sees a valley of dry bones and then there's

flesh put on them. So there's a human army standing

there, but they're not moving. and they cannot

move until the Spirit of God comes in and animates

them. The Holy Spirit has always been present.

The Holy Spirit is not something that was invented

after Jesus ascended to heaven. The Holy Spirit,

as Pastor Tim shared a couple of weeks ago, is

the third person of the Trinity. And in the Prophet

Joel's writings in the Old Testament, we hear

that the Spirit was promised to be poured out

on all people. Then when Jesus comes along everyone

around the birth of Jesus is filled with the

Spirit including his mother and his aunts and

a whole bunch of other people and then he himself

is filled with the Spirit and at his baptism

the Spirit of God comes down and anoints him

in the form of a dove and we hear the voice of

the Father saying, this is my Son and in my Son

I am pleased. Father, Son and Spirit together

you're with me so far. Okay, good. And finally

in Acts chapter 2 the Holy Spirit is poured out

Acts 2 · chapter mention

on all believers on the day of Pentecost and

that fulfills that prophecy from Joel and this

was made possible by the death resurrection and

ascension into heaven of Jesus. Now if you're

struggling to keep up I know I will dig down

into some of this stuff but that's just the broad

overview and I say it all so you don't get confused

and think that it's like a sidebar for God. God

the Father, Jesus the Son and the other one.

No no this is an even trinity of partners. God,

Jesus, and the Holy Spirit though. Here's a little

bit on how this works. In Matthew chapter 27,

Matthew 27 · chapter mention

we read that Jesus died and the veil in the temple

was torn in two. But it wasn't torn from bottom

to top, it was torn from top to bottom. Now the

veil in the temple was much, much higher than

the ceiling we have here. This is in Jerusalem.

It was about... at least half again as tall as

the ceiling we have here. And so when we hear

that this thick veil, this thick curtain really,

but it's called a veil, was torn from top to

bottom, you know that only a divine hand can

do it. Someone from the bottom could maybe start

ripping it up and hope they get a bit of momentum,

you know, like when you're cutting wrapping paper

and it glides along, something like that. But

from top to bottom, only the Lord can do it.

It has to be a divine act. And why was that important?

Because that curtain separated the presence of

God in the temple from the rest of the world.

It was an area called the holiest of holies where

the presence of God resided on earth, tabernacled,

resided, was present. And when Jesus died and

everything was fulfilled in his work, that veil

was torn and the presence of God went out into

the world. Now, this is a little bit figurative.

Not the veil. Not that the presence was in the

world, but this was the choice of God to restrict

Himself to a holy place so as not to overwhelm

everybody, but also to wait for the fulfillment

of everything that needed to happen. There was

a special timing to all this. Now, here's why.

In John chapter 16 verse 7, Jesus says this very

John 16:7

difficult -to -take thing to His disciples. Now,

He said a lot of difficult -to -take things,

but this is one of the hardest ones. He says,

Now, he's just spent the rest of the three years

before that going, I am the son of God and the

saviour of the world. And they're like, great.

Okay, I think we're in. Then he goes, good. I'm

going to leave and it's going to be way better.

Sorry, I just don't feel like those two things

go together. You know, these are like two magnets.

You're pointing them the wrong way. But Jesus

was saying, no, no, no, no, no. This is what's

happening because if I don't go away, the counsellor

will not come to you, the Holy Spirit. If I go,

I will send Him to you. When He comes, He will

convict the world about sin, righteousness, and

judgment. Now, here's the thing. Jesus was incarnate

among us as a person. You could touch Him. Even

after His resurrection, where He was able to

sort of appear at will, there was still a sense

of presence in one place at one time. He didn't

just go... multiverse. Like, He was in one place

at one time. But the Holy Spirit... is pure Spirit

and not tangible in the same way. So the Spirit

of God can be poured out over all the earth all

at once. So you and I, no matter where we are,

have the presence of God physically with us,

which is something we were never able to say

before unless we were A. one of Jesus' disciples

or B. like Moses, briefly. You following me so

far? This is why it is good. So the presence

of God is now not in the temple. nor in Jesus

himself, but in the world and specifically in

these tiny little mini temples that Jesus called

disciples. That is you and me, if you believe

in Jesus you have a down payment, a deposit of

the Spirit of God in you. That's some good news.

Now, when we talk about the Holy Spirit and we

pray to the Holy Spirit, we'll often invite the

Holy Spirit to come. And we say things like,

Holy Spirit come. But I've just told you the

Holy Spirit is everywhere. So that sounds ridiculous.

Why would we say Holy Spirit come if the Holy

Spirit is everywhere? Well, it's because of this.

There are two different kinds of presence. Omnipresence

and manifest presence. Everybody say omnipresence.

Look how smart you sound when you say words like

omnipresence. You'll be a Pembroke old scholar

yet. We say that I'm not taking this seriously.

If you don't know me well, just like relax, okay?

I don't even read the newsletters. I'm not in

the parents and friends. It's fine. We say all

these things because what we crave in our lives

is not the general presence of God. We crave

the manifest presence of God. We crave the sense

that God is really with us, right? Jared and

Tex, two of my closest friends. If someone goes

to me, hey, you know what? Jared's in the state.

I'm like, oh yeah, that's good. But if they go,

hey, Jared's coming today. I'm like, oh, that's

great. In fact, this literally happened today,

because Jared's normally at Enfield with me.

I forgot that he was coming today. And so I saw

him. I'm like, oh, Jared's manifest presence

with me today. And Jared said, that's a pretty

weird way to say it, but thank you. I'm excited

because the people I love are with me. We are

more excited when the people we love are with

us. So God, with us, is a cause for celebration.

Amen? It's not just God generally. You know when

somebody says in kids church, they're like, God

loves you. And you're like, oh yeah? Like, I

hope that lands on me somewhere. But when you

have an encounter with the manifest presence,

the tangible sense that God is here with you,

you know that God loves you because you feel

it. And there's something to that. So if you

are here and you're relatively new or you're

still seeking in church, I've got to tell you,

we're very good at giving information and I get

caught up in it all the time. Giving information

about God. What you really want though is the

presence of God that transforms you, that changes

you from the inside out. Information's just like

something you can put on your Goodreads later

to go, yeah, read a book today and Tim and Charlie

will be really excited. But that's not the point.

The point is you've got to... be knowing God

yourself because it's a relationship. The Bible

is not a book to read, it is a vehicle for relationship

with the living God. Now encounter is a Pentecostal

church. That is, we are a church that lives.

after Pentecost, who believes in the work of

Pentecost. The Holy Spirit has come out and poured

on his people. We're living temples. We're the

temples. The living water is on us, just as Jesus

promised. Spirit of God is inside us and we desire

to be used by God to impact the world in Jesus'

name. And we want to operate through the Holy

Spirit. I'm going to leave that vague because

I want to get to it later. The Holy Spirit is

here so that we might know God and experience

the presence of God. here on earth as in heaven.

We are meant to live as mirrors of heaven. Heaven

is not a place in the ether we just float to

when we die. Heaven is something we begin to

mirror as we are shaped in the image of Jesus

here on earth. So what does the Holy Spirit actually

do? Like if we're going to experience the presence

of the Holy Spirit, what does that look like?

What does it feel like? I'm going to start with

feelings and then I'm going to move to theology.

So if I start talking about feelings and you

panic with the theology nodes, relax, I'm going

to get there. Okay. Because what we don't want

is as we consider, if you're opening yourself

up to the idea that the Holy Spirit is true,

that means there's a spiritual realm. That means

we have to consider that there might be a negative

side to the spiritual realm. what is sometimes

called the demonic. We're not going to get into

that today, relax, that's not today's sermon,

but we do want to ask the question, how do we

know that it's from the Holy Spirit that's speaking,

or something negative, something demonic, or

maybe more commonly, I just ate too much pizza

the night before and now I'm a bit creative in

my mind. Let's be frank, the amount of times

we're like, is that God, or do I just need to

go to the bathroom? I don't know, I don't know.

So let me outline some common feelings to begin

with. Often when people experience the presence

of God, let's say they're in prayer or they're

in worship, they might get goosebumps. That's

one of the ways people often feel it, like sudden

goosebumps. Not because there's a chill in the

air, but because something is happening. Sometimes

people describe it as a tingle in their body,

like. I don't get that personally, so I'm not

sure exactly how to describe it, but I've heard

a lot of people describe it as a tingle. Another

one is like something strongly in the pit of

their stomach. Those are three quite common ways

people feel it. Now, in terms of hearing the

Holy Spirit, the pastor and author Tyler Stanton

says this. He said, pressed to describe hearing

God speak, I'd say it feels like a thought entering

your imagination from the outside rather than

from the inside. It's a normal thought, like

any other. but it originates somewhere unfamiliar.

Now I would add to that, that if you're listening

to the Holy Spirit and you're trying to work

it out, it quite often feels left field. So yes,

coming from the outside, but it doesn't feel

like a thought either I've been thinking or that

I perhaps would normally think. So again, I've

just been talking about Tex and Jared. So if

I immediately went to say something from the

Holy Spirit and was immediately about one of

these two guys, there's a pretty good chance

that's just stuff I'm thinking about. But if

out of nowhere I'm looking at these guys and

someone says, oh Callan, like there's a, the

word Callan is in my brain. Now Callan's back

there, I'm not looking at him, that's not from

the Holy Spirit, I looked around for someone

else to say. But that would be more likely to

be the Holy Spirit because it's out of left field,

it's out of nowhere, suddenly speaking. You're

tracking what I'm saying? Yeah. I'm not trying

to say that was the Holy Spirit, I'm just trying

to give an example of how it might happen. Now

let's look at the theology. Anything from the

Holy Spirit will confirm Jesus as the Son of

God. Anything. So if it tries to deny, that you

have a voice in your head denying that Jesus

is the Son of God, that is not the Holy Spirit.

That is something else. If what we say and do

doesn't glorify God the Father and Christ the

Son, it is not from the Holy Spirit. If what

you think the Holy Spirit is saying doesn't match

up with the Spirit -breathed Word of God as revealed

in the Bible, it is not the Holy Spirit. Because

the Holy Spirit will speak in ways that are fully

Uncontradictory that there's probably a better

way to say that that's a double negative, but

they it will be consistent There you go. It will

be consistent with the words of God in the Bible

Now the Holy Spirit is not limited to the Bible

But it will never contradict the Bible. Okay

God the Bible is not God This is a very important

word for some of us here. The Bible is fully

true The Bible reveals what we need to know about

God, but the Bible itself is not God. God is

not confined to a book, but God communicates

it to us because we are confined in our brains,

or at least I don't know about you, well I know

about some of you, but I am confined in my brain

and I find that every morning before I have at

least one coffee. I need some sort of parameters

to help me understand things. So God has gifted

us the Bible to help us understand His nature,

because how do you understand infinity? We need

something to help us understand, to get our head

around it. So for example, let me give you an

example of how the Holy Spirit might speak through

or something else is speaking. The Holy Spirit

will never tell you to cheat on your wife because

that's adultery and the Bible speaks against

it. in many places. Exodus chapter 20 in the

Exodus 20 · chapter mention

Old Testament, Hebrews chapter 13 in the New

Hebrews 13 · chapter mention

Testament, and about a hundred other places as

well. If you do that, you are intentionally going

against the will of God as revealed in the Bible.

So you know that's not the Holy Spirit if that's

what you're hearing. However, if you want to

know how much time you should spend on your phone,

it is unlikely you're going to find a scripture

that directly tells you how to use your iPhone.

Like frankly, it's unlikely you get directions

from Apple about how to use your iPhone. What

you need is guidance through prayer, through

the Spirit. And if Tex prays and gets three hours

a day and Jared prays and gets one hour a day,

who's hearing from the Holy Spirit? Probably

both of them. Jared puts his hand up by the way.

Both of them, but they're hearing what they need

to hear for discernment from God. Because using

your phone isn't inherently sinful as outlined

in Scripture. Are you with me on that? Let me

say that one more time. The Bible will never

be contradicted by the Holy Spirit. The Holy

Spirit will only affirm the words of God in the

Bible. But if you need information about something

that is not explicitly in the Bible, including

the sort of relationships and jobs you have day

to day today, you need to ask the Holy Spirit

to give you wisdom. And then you need to make

sure that wisdom doesn't contradict any of the

wisdom of the Bible. That's how that works. For

me, I've had examples in my life where I felt

the Holy Spirit whisper to me that I need to

stop watching a TV show. It wasn't particularly

worse or better than some other TV show. It was

just that I felt the Spirit saying, don't watch

that. That's not going to be good for you. So,

okay, sure. Other Christians have watched it

and I have no problem with them doing it. It's

just for me. that the Spirit was telling me in

the Spirit's wisdom that that's not good for

me. Similarly, maybe less potent, like little

phone games that I'll be playing and just the

Spirit going, don't do that, that's a waste of

your time. Okay. And then other phone games are

seems fine. I don't know. You just got to be

listening for the whisper of the Spirit. Perhaps

more importantly, I'm married to my wife because

I prayed and sensed the clear prompting of the

Holy Spirit. That was the sort of decision I

didn't want to just jump into with logic and

my best intention. Because that's not enough.

I wanted the guidance of the Spirit of God leading

me into marriage. And so that helps when you're

going through times that are less pleasant in

your marriage. So again, the Holy Spirit is not

limited to the Bible, but it will never contradict

the Bible. My wife's here next week, by the way.

I didn't say that thing about less pleasant.

There is no less pleasant. It's all been good.

The Holy Spirit is also likely to appear to you

in a number of certain ways. Let's hear about

the actions of the Spirit. to be a counsellor,

a counsellor. In John 16, 7, Jesus calls the

Holy Spirit the counsellor. Now, if you're here

and you've got some big life questions, especially

if you're under 30, and you're like, what do

I do with my life? Will you bring that question

to the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God? Say, God,

tell me what I should do with my life. And the

Holy Spirit is there to guide you. He will prompt

you deep in your spirit. Or maybe he'll prompt

someone else to give you a word of knowledge

or information. The second thing is the Holy

Spirit comforts us. In Acts 9 .31, Luke writes

about the comfort of the Holy Spirit. In Philippians,

the Apostle Paul writes about the peace of God

which exceeds anything we can understand, guiding

our hearts and our minds as we live in Christ

Jesus. God's promise there is not that when you

go to sleep at night and you pull the doona around

you, you'll be all cosy because you probably

will, but that's just because you've got a nice

doona. God's promise is that when you are in

the fires and furnaces of your life, if you're

lifting those times up to the Spirit of God and

asking Him and saying, God, I need you, you will

find peace and comfort in ways that make no sense

in the natural realm. You'll find yourself in

the worst of situations and people go, how are

you? And you're like, I'm all right. I'm all

right. Like this is not good, but I'm okay because

the Spirit of God is giving you comfort. You

understand? It's good. Yeah, so those times you

feel out of control pray Hand it back to God

and you'll get surprising peace The last thing

I want to mention is that the spirit brings us

conviction in John 16 8 Jesus says that the spirit

will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness

and judgment now a Conviction is a firmly held

belief, but it also refers to a jury saying somebody

is guilty So often the Holy Spirit will highlight

sin or an element of guilt in our lives that

needs to be dealt with because it's festering

inside us like a wound, like a bacteria. And

my experience of conviction is often that it

feels like a knot in your stomach, like it feels

like that almost like that moment before you

think I'm gonna be sick where your stomach just

tenses up because the Lord is trying to give

you a physical understanding of a whisper in

your ear. So how can we tell that we're actually

living by the Holy Spirit? I'm glad you asked.

Let's move into that, more practical. In Galatians,

Paul points out that when we have the Holy Spirit

working in us and through us, our lives look

different. Verse 16. These are opposed to each

other. so that you don't do what you want. But

if you are led by the Spirit, you're not under

the law. Friends, the Holy Spirit in our flesh,

our human desires, they often work against each

other. That's quite helpful to know that we can't

always trust our emotions. That's why I'm telling

you the sort of feelings that you sometimes get

when the Spirit is speaking to you, but the theology

you need to frame whether it's actually the Spirit.

We can't always trust our emotions. But Paul

then goes on to tell us what life led by the

Spirit actually looks like. And he says basically

it looks like a healthy fruit tree bearing good

fruit. This is what he says, the fruit of the

Spirit working in you is love, it's joy, it's

peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness,

faithfulness and self -control. There is no law

against such things. And he goes on to say, now

those who belong to Christ Jesus, have crucified

the flesh with its passions and desires. If we

live by the Spirit, we need to keep in step with

the Spirit. Paul is describing the Holy Spirit

like a dance partner. He's like, you gotta keep

in step, let the Spirit lead, but you know, follow

along, get the moves going. Make sure you're

in line with the Spirit. Now the sneaky thing

is when you read Galatians chapter 5 and there's

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

some other stuff in it that's helpful to get

into, it can read like a list of do's and don'ts,

but it's actually not a list of do's and don'ts.

It's a list of what will happen to us if the

Holy Spirit is working in your life or if He's

not working in your life. That's the difference.

The key difference is God is doing the work,

not you. Let me just say that one more time.

You can't work your way into God's good books.

You can't work your way into the Spirit of God

working through you. But God is longing to work

through you. The Holy Spirit is here to keep

us in step with Him, not because He's desperate

for you to obey rules. He just knows what happens

when you don't. He knows what your life looks

like when we self -sabotage our lives and God

wants us to prosper because He loves us. That's

the whole point of the whole presence thing.

He's manifest with us. He's living in us because

He loves us. He doesn't have to do that. But

God's nature is loving and relational. So in

His grace, He has come as the Holy Spirit to

comfort us, counsel us and convict us. You with

me? Good. If I stopped here, you would have heard

a lovely, theologically sound message. on why

we should believe in the Holy Spirit. But I would

have totally botched it because the point of

a relationship with the Spirit is not to be informed

about the Spirit but be transformed by the Spirit.

The point of all this is not to be people in

our seats getting information in us, friends.

The point of us is not to be participants, it's

not to be passive, it's to be active, to be participants.

You get the Spirit of God within you and you're

sent out in the world to change the world and

bring a taste of heaven to earth. So that everyone

might know when we read passages in the Bible

like we do in Hebrews chapter 2, if we just jump

Hebrews 2 · chapter mention

back, I think it's the next slide, Hebrews chapter

Hebrews 2 · chapter mention

2, if we jump there, you can read about salvation,

right? So what makes us think we can escape if

we ignore this great salvation and we can go,

yes, okay, we have to go out and share the good

news about Jesus so that people are saved by

believing in Jesus. 100 % true. But we never

ask the question, why? Why do we want people

to be saved? Is it like into heaven and out of

hell thing? I mean, yes, but it's got to be more

than that, right? Like, have you ever met somebody

who claims they believe in Jesus? And then when

you have a conversation with them, you're like,

is this really what Jesus is like? Really? Because

I'm struggling. I'm struggling to believe it.

There's something wrong when we're not living

it out. It's the difference between orthodoxy

and orthopraxis. Two more fancy inner -city private

school words I know. But just stay with me here

for a second. Orthodoxy means right belief. Ortho,

right, doxy, belief. Okay, it is important to

know what you believe and believe the right things

because what you believe tends to shape what

you do. But more important than orthodoxy is

orthopraxis. That is right action. Because if

we don't do anything with our beliefs, what do

they even mean? And this is why everyone all

over the globe gets a little bit eye -rolly at

the moment with people waving placards. It's

like, okay, great. What are we doing with what

we believe here? That is the key. If you're in

the room and you're a follower of Jesus, my challenge

to you is this. Where is the Holy Spirit at work

in your life? What is the evidence? What is the

fruit? If somebody came to see you, would they

naturally say you are a person of love, joy,

peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith on

His gentle and self -control? Or not? And here's

the other thing, it's not just about fruit. There's

more to come than just living a good life. Because

that feels kind of tiring and boring. This is

what we read in Hebrews. Have a look at this

up there for you. So what makes us think we can

escape if we ignore this great salvation that

was first announced by the Lord Jesus? Okay,

Jesus started the salvation process off and then

delivered to us by those who heard him speak.

Oh, okay, so the disciples are taking the salvation

message and giving it to us and then God does

something and then God confirms the message by

giving signs and wonders and various miracles

and gifts of the Holy Spirit whenever he chose.

That is... The Acts moment that I talked about,

the Holy Spirit pours out from the upper room.

These disciples are filled with the Spirit and

we've been singing songs about it all afternoon.

I need a fresh wind, that's from Acts chapter

Acts 2 · chapter mention

2. Spirit come rushing wind, Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Fire and wind, come and do it again, Acts chapter

Acts 2 · chapter mention

2. And I always get worried when I'm in a church,

especially one of the ones that I take responsibility

for. And we're like fire and wind, come and do

it again, open up the gates. Do whatever. No,

it's like fire and wind come and do it again

Come and do it again. I am a mess without you

God pour out your spirit I need to be filled

with you. I need your life. I need your love

I need your relationship and I need it not just

for me But because every time I go out into the

world I cause chaos when I'm not led by you I

cause pain and cruelty so Lord fill me again

Do it again not just for me, but so that others

might understand what it means to be filled and

transformed by You. That's what it's about. Fire

and wind, come and do it again. Earth too. It's

about the way the Spirit of God moves in us and

actually the key thing is it's not just about

heaven, it is about earth. It's about what's

happening on earth right now. right now. But

unless we are open to what God wants to do in

us, nothing will happen. We'll go about our lives

and we'll probably be really nice people. We'll

probably read the Bible, pay our taxes, love

our family. We might not be people of radical

forgiveness. We might not be people who throw

ourselves into causes that people would call

hopeless because we say actually as people of

the Word, as people of God, we believe in redemption

and restoration. We might not serve the poor

in the way that the world desperately needs someone

to serve the poor. Without the Holy Spirit, we

dry up. So when we say, I believe in the Holy

Spirit Church, we are saying, God, fill me with

your presence. Change me and send me. It's not

enough to be spectators. So what I want to do

tonight is to help you live by the Holy Spirit.

I want to help this church to continue to step

forward as a Pentecostal church and What you'll

find is if you're in this church, if you're in

the room today and you grew up in what you might

describe as a reasonably conservative Christian

environment. I don't say there's a criticism,

just a description. You might find it quite difficult

to wrap your head around the shifting, the movement,

the miracles of the Holy Spirit. But the Spirit

of God has never stopped moving. There's never

been evidence of the stopping of the miracles

of the Holy Spirit. Never. In fact, the Bible's

pretty clear. The spirit's poured out. We've

got to keep asking for Him to speak to us. And

so what I want to do tonight is invite us to

let God speak to us. So if you'd start with me,

I want to just encourage you to rise to your

feet if you're able. And do something really

simple. I'm going to lead you in a little process.

And then we're just going to let God do what

God wants to do. That's really the key here.

We want God to move as only God can. So this

is what I would encourage you to do. Number one,

just remove your defences. It can be tempting

to feel a bit awkward, to feel uncomfortable,

to feel defensive. If God speaks to you, wouldn't

that be amazing? Wouldn't that be something you'd

really like? I reckon it probably would. So why

don't we just relax? Just physically relax your

body. Just take a couple of deep breaths. Steal

your spirit. You'll have questions coming in

your mind. Don't worry about that for now. God's

big enough to deal with your questions, but just

put them to the side. And then the second thing

is we request, we ask, we say, Holy Spirit come.

Would you just say that if you're comfortable?

Holy Spirit come. Holy Spirit come. You may want

to say something like, speak Lord, I'm listening.

These are great words from Scripture. Jesus encourages

us to have ears to hear what God is saying. And

finally, just receive. Let God speak how he wishes.

Pay attention and obey. I'm just going to leave

a little silence for a moment. Holy Spirit. Thanks

so much for tuning into this week's message.

If you felt challenged or need prayer, we'd love

to hear from you on Instagram at encounterhenny.

Or if you're interested in how you can support

this ministry, please go to our website encounteradelaide

.com .au. Thanks again for listening. God bless

you.