Thankful for the Holy Ghost

Chapter 1 is where we take our reading today. The Bible says this in Acts chapter 1,

Acts 1 · chapter mention

but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will

be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and in Samaria and to all the end of the earth.

This is Jesus telling his followers at this time.

Let's read it again. You will receive power of the Holy Spirit,

the Holy Ghost has come upon you and you will be my witnesses

in Jerusalem and in all Judea Samaria

and Samaria and to the ends of the earth last

week we preached uh we're thankful because this is our Thanksgiving series

the next three three weeks and last week we spoke on being thankful for the

blood of Jesus we said we're thankful for the blood because we said that the

blood of Jesus what's it do it breaks every chain covers every sin and opens

every door remember that breaks every chain, covers every sin, opens every door.

And this week I want to preach on this subject. I'm thankful for the Holy Ghost. Amen.

I'm still, listen, maybe I'm just old-fashioned. I'm still old-fashioned enough

to believe there's still power in the Holy Spirit.

Does anybody believe that? There's still power in the Holy Spirit.

That's what I want to preach on this week. I'm thankful for the Holy Ghost.

So let's pray. Father, in the name of Jesus, we come before you.

We're thankful for your Holy Spirit. Thank you that

you're here this morning and holy ghost only you can speak

one word that can say so much to everybody

only one word that comes out of my mouth you can take it father you can make

it unique to every individual speak into every circumstance speak into every

life only you can take a word and lose healing and miracles only you can do

that so holy spirit we just ask you to speak to us this morning in the name

of jesus we pray and the church said.

Amen. Amen. I'm telling you, if everybody in the room would amen,

like BJ or Jim, we would be able to have church in here like you would not believe.

So really, I'm talking about being thankful for the Holy Ghost this morning.

I was thinking about it, really the message I want to convey,

hopefully by the time that we're finished with our time here this morning,

is this, is that the Holy Ghost, He, the Holy Spirit, is the power that fills,

that fuels, and that flows through us.

Okay, that's what hopefully I can prove this to you by the end of the sermon

today The Holy Ghost is the power that fills,

that fuels, and that flows through us Now,

I was thinking about it, I use this example from time to time Sister Bonita

bailed me out on this one so that my example is a little more relevant to those

who may be in the younger crowd Maybe you've never used an atlas to drive anywhere

before But I was thinking about this Back in the days,

we would take trips Took a trip to Mexico one time I drove 14 students in a

15-passenger van down to Mexico one time.

And back then, you didn't have iPhones. You didn't have Google.

You didn't have all that stuff telling you where the directions,

you know, turn here, dummy.

You know, you didn't have those directions back then. So back in those days,

Ashley, if you'll hand me my prop right there.

This is the most complicated my props get most of the time. But you had to use,

has anybody used one of these before?

Yes, absolutely. Thank God for people who know what I'm talking about.

So back in the old days, for those of you who don't know,

We broke this out and Vips said, Scott, I went on a trip with you in 2010.

You used an atlas to get somewhere. Where'd we go, youth conference or somewhere?

And so we used an app. Back in the day when you went somewhere,

you had to break out a map like this.

You had to actually know which direction north was in order to get somewhere.

Because, you know, it's like the subways in New York City. If you get on the

southbound train and you want to go north, you're in trouble.

And so you had to know your directions when you used a map like this.

But I was thinking about it. I was thinking about the sermon this week is that

we would get in that map, and that map was great, but I remember one time I

had to go preach in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and I'd never been to Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Now, there's some cities, major cities that those maps have that zooms in on

the major cities. You can see streets in that major city.

I know some of the older folks, they're like, yeah, you're like me.

You use that map, but you know, the map that I had, the atlas that I had didn't

have Fort Wayne, Indiana, so I got up there, and I didn't know where that street was.

I didn't know where that church was, and so I had to start stopping at gas stations.

Anybody ever done that before and say, how do I find my way to such and such street?

I had to take people's words for it, and there's times I took people's words

for it, and they got me lost, all right?

Oh, and then I remember the wonderful invention of the Garmin. All right.

What was the other version? They had Garmin and they had Tom Tom. There we go.

You had either people either Garmin or Tom Tom. And so I had a Garmin.

Remember that? Some of you guys, you probably did like me and you had that Garmin

and it had a windshield mount to it.

And so when nobody's looking around, you just,

you just licked the bottom of that thing and just stuck it up there on the windshield.

Some of you women that were dignified and licked your thumb and

rob that is the same thing the guys just licked the suction cup and and hopefully

you didn't borrow it from a buddy or anything you just licked that suction cup

and you just stuck it on that windshield and and and garmin the great thing

about garmin it was almost like our current gps and that little robot lady would say, turn here.

You know, he's had the little robot lady voice, turn here, the right hand, turn here.

Now they wouldn't tell you what the route was or anything else. It's just turn here.

And what I found was though, my Garmin, man, I'd go up into Ohio and Indiana

and I was right turn here,

left turn here, except for about two years in of having that Garmin stuck to

my windshield, I found out that my maps were getting outdated and I would drive

across bridges that were built and it would have me over top of a lake and it

would say recalculating,

recalculating, recalculating because the information was outdated.

And so now we use our phones for everything. Now,

I believe that that brother Google is getting a little bit better because at

first I really thought that Google was calling me to inner city ministry because

every time I GPS anything, I'd find myself in the ghetto of wherever I was trying to get.

So I thought that he was calling me to inner city ministry, but what I found

about the current GPS is it stays updated.

If they put a new road in then they it's they they

just cattle i don't know it's it's it's amazing the technology they

know these roads that were built in the last few years and

they're there i started thinking about that this week because that's the way

it is with the holy ghost see we got the word of god we knew we're never going

to get beyond the word of god this word of god the bible says that it's quick

and it's sharp as any two-edged sword we're never listen you're never going

to get educated enough to where you know more than the Word of God.

You're never going to have enough friends to where there's enough opinions to

get you beyond the Word of God.

The Word of God is infallible. We stand upon the Word of God,

but I read the Word of God, and sometimes when I look at the Word of God,

it's like looking at that atlas, and I know where the Word of God is telling

me to go, but it's not zoomed in on this specific area of my life.

I read the Word of God, but it's not zoomed in to tell me where I need to go to college.

I read the Word of God, but it's not zoomed in to tell me what job that I need

to take, but that's where that Holy Ghost navigation comes in there,

and He, the Holy Spirit, zooms down and speaks into area.

See, here's what you've got to realize about Him, the Holy Ghost,

is that He is never going to speak of Himself, but He is only going to remind

you of everything that Jesus Christ has said.

He is not going to contradict the word he's

not going to contradict the prophets in this in this uh

in the old testament in the word of god he's not

going to contradict the words of jesus in this

new testament but when the holy spirit speaks all he is doing is not just reaffirming

the word of the scripture but he's zooming in to every area of your life and

telling you this is the way that you apply the word of god to your life if you

believe that give the lord a hand clap of praise this morning. I believe that.

I believe it. See, I started thinking about this the other night because we

have people right now that don't believe that the power of the Holy Ghost is

real, but we need to get back.

See, we have a lot of technology these days. It's amazing. We look around,

and we've got excellent worship teams.

My goodness, the singing we've had this week, the singing we have every Sunday.

I put on C.C. Winans when I pray sometimes, and then when Christa gets up here

and sings King of Glory, and I'm like, who's C.C. Wynes? You know, she gets up here.

We are so blessed with what we have in this church.

We've got technology, we've got community involvement, we've got every,

thank God for social involvement that we have out of this church,

but I wanna say this right now,

none of that is a replacement for the Holy Spirit at work in the believers' lives.

See, there's a subtle drawing if we're not careful.

Dangerous tendency to overlook the most essential part of our spirit-filled

life, and that is the infilling of the Holy Ghost in the believer's life.

Listen, He, the Holy Ghost, is the active, empowering presence of the living

God on the inside of the believers. I want to say this. I'm not against education.

I'm not against education.

I have two sons in college right now, and

they're learning a little more than every day every day i told

you a few weeks ago i went and showed carter my toe he's

in second year of well he at that time i guess he was

still this this is several months ago he was still in the first year of nursing

school i showed him my toe and he looked at it he said oh yeah we had to cut

somebody's toe off like that with diabetic neuropathy i said i said get behind

me satan and and so i i went i went to doc and showed it to dr renfro dr renfro

said, ah, yeah, soaking Epsom salt.

And so I was thinking, my goodness, he was getting ripped. But you know what?

I'm not against education. As a matter of fact, I want him to learn not to cut

my toe off when I get a little bit of infection in there.

And so I'm not against education. I'm not against higher learning.

I'm not against studying the way. I'm not against life experience.

But here's what I'm telling you is if we ever think that we get too educated

for the Spirit of God, we have lost our way.

If we ever think that we have so much life experience that we can make our own

decisions, we have lost our way.

Without the Holy Ghost, our efforts will amount to little.

We may feed a few people. We may clothe a few people.

We may supply some diapers without the Holy Ghost, but we will never change

lives without the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Amen.

In the early church, the Holy Ghost, He wasn't just a concept.

He was their lifeline, their strength, and their guide.

Believers depended upon Him daily. See, we need to get back to where we came

from, this power of the Holy Spirit.

We believe in a triune God. If you didn't realize that, Father,

Son, and the Holy Spirit, three distinct personalities.

Three in one is the way that we describe Him. that the Father is not the Son,

the Son is not the Holy Spirit, but they are all together in one,

three distinct personalities operating as one Godhead.

It's important to remember that because we don't, in our culture today,

church culture is what I'm talking about, we don't deny the Father.

We want to call upon the Father.

We don't deny the Son, but we want to speak the name of Jesus.

But it's become very popular for us to deny the power of the Holy Ghost as the Scripture has said.

I want to bring it back to historical context around our Scripture today.

We read the book of Acts chapter 1 in verse 8. If you get all the way back to

Acts 1 · chapter mention

Acts chapter 1, Jesus has just finished his earthly ministry.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

For three years, he has walked around with his disciples, with his followers.

Now think about this. He's walked with them. They have seen His miracles.

They have heard His teachings. They have observed His compassion upon humanity.

It seems like they should know everything that they need to know in order to

go out and do the work that they are called to do.

Yeah, I used to work at a hospital and a medical residency program.

Three years of residency, you're supposed to know everything you need to do

to go out there and to save lives and do what you need to do.

And you would have thought that in three years of walking with Jesus and living

with Him and eating with Him and seeing every part of His life,

that they would have known everything they needed to know.

Yet the Bible says that He told them to go tarry in an upper room because they

still lacked one essential ingredient and that was the power of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus told them, You shall receive power.

That the Holy Ghost is come upon you.

See that word, that Greek word from power right there, that's the word dunamis

in the Greek, and that's the word that we get our word dynamite from.

It's explosive power. It's dynamic power.

It's energizing power. It's life transforming power.

See what it came down to is the disciples had the teachings of Jesus,

but they needed the power of the Holy Ghost to live out those teachings fully.

See, this wasn't a new concept. As a matter of fact, it was a fulfillment of

the prophet Joel because the prophet Joel told them in the Old Testament that

God was going to pour out his spirit on all flesh.

When I read this, I know a lot of times that people say, well,

it happened on the day of Pentecost, and then it happened again at Azusa Street,

and those Pentecostals are just wanting a second Pentecostal.

No, no, this is not a second Pentecost.

This is a fulfillment of what God promised them in the book of Joel that was

fulfilled in the book of Acts chapter 2 when God poured out His Spirit upon all flesh.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Ordinary men and women became bold. They were filled with miraculous power,

and they started doing the miraculous work of God.

See, what we're talking about is the baptism of the Holy Spirit,

the baptism of the Holy Ghost. And the Bible tells us.

Now, let me separate this for you. Because the Bible tells us that we receive

the Holy Spirit in us when we are saved, that the Holy Spirit dwells within

us, and it marks us as God's own according to Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

But there is a subsequent separate gift of God called the baptism of the Holy

Spirit that God prophesied in the Old Testament and was fulfilled in the New Testament.

And that's the power that we're talking about this morning, that we said that

fills us and fuels us and flows through us.

See, I'm going to talk about this for a few minutes because we have denied the power.

We've got social agendas and social programs. We've got children's ministries

and outreach ministries, and people are bragging about what they do,

but who are we changing without the power of the Holy Spirit?

I know people say, if you go to work, if you go to work and you've been going

to church here for months or years or weeks or whatever, and you say,

well, you know, you should come to church and freedom of worship with me.

And they say, well, I had no idea you went to church.

I'll tell you this right now. You can't be filled with the Holy Ghost and somebody

have no idea you go to church, right?

Because when He comes upon you, then you've got to tell somebody about Him.

When the disciples received the baptism of the Holy Ghost, they were filled

with supernatural boldness and ability.

They spoke in new tongues. They prophesied. They performed miracles.

And I'm going to say this.

Can I just, I know I'm out there now, so I might as well just step on out there

now because we're talking about the Holy Ghost.

Everybody gets tripped up on tongues. You've got one group saying that you shouldn't

speak in tongues and somebody else saying that you should speak in tongues and

everybody's getting tripped up on tongues and we're neglecting miracles and

healings and prophecies and every other gift that comes with the Holy Ghost

because we're sitting around and arguing about tongues.

You know, if somebody, okay, I'm not going to say that.

I'll make it a more lighthearted example for some of you men that may be follically

challenged on your head. And maybe you've got a beautiful head that God didn't put hair on.

What if somebody said, I can give you hair, but if I do, it would have to be red.

All right? I mean, I don't think that you would get mad. John, you'd deny it?

Okay, you don't want red hair. I get it. I get it.

But, you know, if you had an ailment in your body, if my leg was broken and

the doctor would say, I could fix your leg, but I'm going to have to cut all

the way down that leg and fix that bone.

But you're going to have zigzag staples and everything else,

and it's going to look weird when you wear shorts. Well, first of all,

you've seen my legs in shorts. It is nothing to brag about anyway.

I wouldn't be worried about what that scar looked like. I wouldn't be worried

about what those staple marks look like. I would say I just want the ability

that comes along with the surgery that's going to happen.

It's the same way with the gift of the Holy Spirit. I'm tired of people arguing about tongues.

Number one, I'm tired of a Pentecostal church that glorifies tongues above the

experience of the Holy Ghost.

Tongues is the evidence. It's not the power behind it. And number two,

I'm tired of another circle that says I don't want to speak in tongues and denies

the power of prophecy and gifts and healings and miracles.

We need to all shut up, let God have his way, and work through us and see the power of God.

Throughout christian history the baptism of the holy ghost has

been recognized as the transformative experience for

the believers that ignites them with the passion that

came from god the early pentecostal movement in the 20th century it was a resurgence

of the original day of pentecost it was not a second pentecost i've heard preachers

say well we know we want a second no well we don't want a second pentecost we

just want to tap into what god poured out on the day of Pentecost.

You can get scriptures. You can read there. I don't have time to go into it,

but you can read the scriptures on it all. Amen.

1 Corinthians, I did want to read this. 1 Corinthians, the Bible says,

For in one spirit we are all baptized into one body.

Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and we are all made to drink of one spirit.

Ephesians chapter 5 says, Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery,

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

but be ye filled with the Spirit.

The baptism of the Holy Ghost fills us with power that aligns us with God's

will and equips us to live victoriously.

People say, well, I've given my heart to God, but I struggle.

Well, you need power. You need power in your daily life.

You know, the first thing, and hopefully I can prove in the next few minutes

why you need to seek this gift of the Holy Spirit.

Number one is the Holy Spirit. He gives you the power to witness boldly,

to witness boldly. There's power that comes along with that.

See, I know that you probably wouldn't. Preachers say this, and I wonder about

some of them, but I don't have to wonder about me because I know I wasn't the

one that wanted to get up and give presentations in high school. I wasn't.

As a matter of fact, I didn't do enough work in high school to be knowledgeable

enough to give a presentation on anything.

I was not the strongest student in high school.

God did a working me all the way around, but he saved me.

But there was something when I was baptized with the Holy Ghost,

there was something, a transformative power that happened in my life,

took control of my life to where I could not be silent about God.

Have you ever been sitting in a room and you see somebody and they seemed overwhelmed?

And in your natural, you're saying, it's none of my business.

It's none of my business.

I'm not getting involved. It's none of my business but there's

a voice on the inside that says you need

to speak a word of encouragement to them i need

you to be a mouthpiece for me and open you know what that

is that's the power of the holy ghost in the believer's

life that equips you for ministry in order

to witness boldly the holy god the holy ghost of god fills us with courage to

overcome our natural timid nature You can go back and read in the book of Acts

Acts 4 · chapter mention

chapter 4 and verse 31 that Peter and John were threatened by religious leaders

and when they gathered and prayed,

the Holy Ghost filled them and the Bible said that they spoke the Word of God boldly.

This is not just something that...

That we've made up to make church more exciting and i

want to say this right now uh i'm i'm out

here i might as well step on the edge and and say this

that pentecostal church spirit-filled church if

the only time that you ever witnessed the power of the holy spirit is in a church

service then you've got a counterfeit emotional experience if the only time

you ever feel boldness is in the church service when they're singing a song

and the music's playing 150 miles an hour that's a counterfeit spiritual experience,

but he, the Holy Spirit, he's going to speak to you when you're sitting at home.

I've been watching TV before, and all of a sudden the Holy Spirit,

you know, he's a gentleman.

He's not going to drown out that football game if you're stubborn enough,

but he begins to speak, and I've got to turn the TV off.

I've got to switch. As a matter of fact, I've been watching things before,

and something evil comes on there, and all of a sudden the Holy Spirit began,

and I've got to change that channel.

You say, well, I'm old enough to watch. I'm not talking about being old enough to watch it.

I'm talking about being bold enough to keep that stuff out of your life and

realize that He, the Holy Spirit, has preeminence in every area of your life.

2 Timothy 1 says, God did not give us the spirit of fear, but of power and love

and self-control. sound mind in the King James Version.

See, as a matter of fact, according to Barna, Barna says that half of the millennial

Christian generation feels uncomfortable sharing their faith.

Why is that? Because we've raised up a Christian culture by name that has no power and no authority.

We've not taught them about the power of the Holy Ghost.

We've sent them out with a Christian t-shirt and.

A cross on their neck and a cool name of

a youth group fire blaze encounter we've given

them cool names of everything and sent them

out there in the world that they are not equipped to

overcome we need the power of the holy ghost not only can he give you boldness

for ministry but also he gives you guidance and discernment for daily living

he the holy ghost is not just for special occasions he guides us daily.

One of the most, I really do believe this. One of the most overlooked spiritual

gifts is the gifts of discernment.

Some of you, you need discernment. I've been talking to people before,

and as they talk, as they spoke, I just felt something like,

I really shouldn't be aligning myself with this person.

Their words didn't say it, but there was something about the Holy Spirit that

He grieved me, and I knew I didn't need to align myself with what was going

on in that person's life.

We see in the book of Acts chapter 16, Paul and Silas were on a missionary journey

Acts 16 · chapter mention

when the Holy Ghost prevented them.

The Bible, it didn't say that obstacles prevented them.

The Holy Ghost prevented them from going to certain areas and took them to Macedonia instead.

The Holy Spirit was allowed to work in their lives for practical ministry purposes

just in their daily lives. We need to get back to that.

The Bible says in the book of John chapter 16, when the spirit of truth comes,

John 16 · chapter mention

he will guide you into all truth.

Once again, when he comes, he's not going to speak of himself.

He's going to give you the truth about your, I've had people say,

well, God told me to do this and it's contrary to the word of God.

I want to say this right now. God's not going to tell you to do anything that contradicts his word.

We stand upon the Word of God before anything. And the Holy Ghost,

you say, well, do you believe more in the Word of God or in the Holy Ghost?

Well, listen, the Word of God is a reflection of Jesus Christ.

Jesus was the Word, and the Word was God, and the same was in the beginning with God.

Jesus is this Word, Word made flesh. And so I believe in them both.

I believe that we stand upon the Word of God, but when the Holy Spirit comes,

He does not speak of Himself, but He reminds us of everything that Jesus has

said. In other words, what happens is that he doesn't contradict Jesus.

I had somebody tell me one time, and not for a biblical reason,

because there's biblical reasons, but they said, God spoke to me and told me to get a divorce.

I'm sorry, but God is not going to speak to you and tell you something that's against his word.

Well, God told me to go up and hit him right in the face. God's not going to

tell you to do something.

People do stupid stuff and blame it on God. The real Holy Ghost that's active

in the believer's life is not going to do anything that contradicts the Word

of God, but it's going to reveal all truth when He comes into your life.

LifeWay's research has shown us that 82% of Christians struggle with knowing what God's will is.

Why is it? It's because we read the Word of God and we're trying to rely upon

our own intellect to know what God's will is.

Once again, I'm not against study. I'm not against scholarship.

But what I do believe is that God can give us the ability.

I had somebody tell me one time that says, I just want wisdom.

I don't care about getting any more.

I don't care about learning any more. I just want God giving me the wisdom.

We got to know the Word of God. The reason why people have a hard time knowing

what God's will for their lives are is because they don't read the Word of God.

We got to know the word of God because the Bible says that God will give us

wisdom. But you know what wisdom is?

Wisdom is the ability to apply knowledge.

Listen up now. I've heard people, they'll say, oh, you know,

so-and-so knows the Bible. I just trust in the Holy Ghost.

No, the Holy Ghost is going to tell you to read the Bible.

That's what He's going to tell you. He's going to tell you to study God's Word.

He's going to tell you, you better know something about Jesus,

because He's going to remind you of everything that Jesus said concerning your

life. It's like that GPS.

I see the Word of God, and God takes me there, and it takes me to His Scripture.

And then all of a sudden that Holy Ghost GPS zooms in and says,

this is where that particular scripture applies to your life.

This is where that word of healing applies to your life.

This is where that word of victory applies to your life. But we have to know

that there's a power that God can give us so that we have discernment in our daily living.

And then finally, God gives us strength for spiritual, the Holy Ghost gives

us strength for spiritual warfare.

I know you say this kind of stuff and people are like, oh, I don't believe in all that.

I'm amazed that unbelievers believe in spiritual warfare more than believers do.

You don't believe that? Go talk to somebody. They come out of that movie house

over there, and they got those demons that climb up the walls and do everything

else. Their heads spin around.

I don't know. That was a 1980-something poltergeist reference right there.

But anyway, their heads are spinning around, spitting out pea soup.

And people that don't even know Jesus, they'll say, ooh, that was demonic.

But you speak about demonic things in most churches, and they're like,

oh, that's silly stuff. No, there's spiritual warfare.

There's things that's happening in the spirit realm right now that we're not

even aware of, that we need to tap into because there's spiritual battles that we need to fight.

There's spiritual battles you need to fight for your family right now.

There's spiritual battles you need to fight for your marriage right now,

your home right now, your life right now.

And the Holy Ghost empowers us to fight those battles.

Ephesians chapter 6 tells us to put on the armor of God, urging the believers

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

to pray at all times in the spirit.

Prayer in the Spirit is a weapon against an adversary that we may not always

know what his methods are.

We may not always know what his plan is. But that praying in the Spirit,

the Bible says in the book of Romans, that sometimes when we don't know what

to pray, that the Spirit can pray through us with groanings that cannot be uttered.

There's been times in my life that I didn't know what to pray.

There's been times in my life that I've been so broken that I didn't even know

how to articulate how broken my heart was.

And I've laid on an altar and I've just cried.

But that cry that goes out and the Holy Spirit, God is hearing the words of the Spirit.

I didn't even know how to pray. But those groanings and those cryings and those

moans and those wails of the believer, spirit-filled believer,

that's coming up before God.

The Bible says that the Spirit helps us know what to pray for when we don't

know what to pray, that He will pray through us with groanings that cannot be uttered.

See, it's like a soldier on the battlefield.

They would never go on the battlefield without protection, without armor,

without supplies, without strategy, without training, and it's the same way for the believer.

The Holy Ghost-filled believer needs the spiritual armor, needs prayer, needs discernment.

As a matter of fact, studies show, this research shows,

that Christians who actively engage in spirit-led prayer are more resilient

and live with more peace in their daily lives than believers that don't engage in spirit-led prayer.

See, just for a few minutes, I've got to dip over here for just a minute.

See, we have neglected the gifts of the Spirit because we've not wanted to have

anything to do with people talking about us and putting us into certain categories.

We have neglected the gifts of the Spirit.

We see there's the gift of wisdom. There's the gift of knowledge.

There's the gift of faith and healing and miracles and prophecy and discernment

and tongues and interpretations of tongues.

It's just a few weeks ago that I was standing here preaching,

and all of a sudden God gave me a word for somebody, and I said it to that person

just in the middle of a service, and I didn't know what was going on.

Anything was going on. God gave me a word of knowledge on it.

Immediately his wife starts to cry, and they told me after service what opportunities

were opening up in their life, and they didn't know what decisions to make.

Without the Holy Spirit, we don't know what to decide. We don't know the decisions

that we need to make. We are going through life trying to make decisions.

That would be like me saying, hey, when you leave here, I need you to drive

to Kingsport. You've been there before. You know how to get there.

But close your eyes and try to drive there. You know where the road is.

Or don't turn on your headlights tonight. Drive to Kingsport.

Just kind of stick your phone out the window.

I mean, really. It's silly. Even though we know the way, even though we know

the way, there's obstacles that we can't even anticipate.

That's the way it is in this world. Listen, I believe if you're born again, you're going to heaven.

But there's obstacles along this journey that we can't anticipate,

that we need the power of the Holy Ghost in our lives to be able to fight against.

There's gifts that the Bible is telling us about. As a matter of fact,

we see this because I know people say, well, that was only for the book of Acts,

and it doesn't apply for the believer's life.

First of all, we don't find in the scripture where God said this is only for a temporary period.

More so, we read about early church fathers like Arrhenius and Tartullian that

wrote about the ongoing operation of spiritual gifts into the second and third centuries.

I realize with the reformation that things had gotten so political,

and Christianity had been turned into a political power that they had tried

to try to bring themselves back to the word of God again.

But we can't get to the place where, okay, let me, let me take you bowling for a second.

I'm going to put the, I'm going to put the gutter guards in for your bowling

alley. Is that all right?

Is that, has anybody ever been bowling and they got the gutter guards in?

Is that great? I bowl much better when the gutter guards are in.

Brad, you probably need gutter guards. But anyway, I bowl much better when the gutter guards are in.

That corrugated pipe they put over in the gutters, if you've never been there,

and your ball can't go in the gutter, it will bounce out and will stay in the

lane, and you'll bowl better.

Well, here's the gutters. If we're not careful, here's the gutters that we fall in.

You have one group on this side that says there's no such thing as this baptism in the Holy Spirit,

that that is not a current work, in the believer's life and

so they're just talking they spend more time talking about

other churches than they do about the word of god and and

and they just stay over and it's and it's hard to live a life

of victory when you're always trying to defend why you

don't believe in any power and then you've got another gutter on

this side that you can get into and you've got people that

all they want to do is come into a church service and sing

a song 150 miles an hour and run around a

building and then they walk out the door and they're meaner than a rattlesnake

both of them are gutters that we can get into but

right down that middle of that aisle when you bowl

a perfect strike there's that believer that believes

in the word of God that it's the infallible word of God that

is it is truth no matter let the word of God be true and every man a liar but

at the same time they believe there's power in the Holy Spirit that he will

lead us back into all truth and if we start to err from the word of God the

Holy Spirit brings us back and reminds us of everything that Jesus said in our lives.

Hope you'll come help me land this big 777 this morning. All right. Amen.

See what the Holy Ghost does in the believer's life. He empowers us for ministry.

He encourages the body of Christ, and he demonstrates the power of God.

I'm not saying this. We're emotional beings. I remember one time I was,

I'd had bone spurs in my neck.

I went and got, you say, well, you think you did? I said, no,

I got, I got x-rays. They told me I had bone spurs in my neck.

They told me that I was going to have, I had pain.

And I've been to the chiropractor. I'd done everything to try to get,

you know, I would have probably tried yoga if they did, if they did. Maybe not, maybe not.

But I tried everything. I've been to the chiropractor i've been the doctor the

doctor sent me for for x-rays and it showed bone spurs that were back here in

my neck and they you know they said we can do some things prescribe some medicine

we continue to do some physical therapy continue to go to the chiropractor and do all that,

and we were up there on thacker's branch in the middle of a service and i was

praying and i was actually i wouldn't pray for that i was praying for somebody

else man the power of god hit me and Listen, when the power of God hits you, you get emotional.

You will. You know what that is? That is the human response to an amazing power

that you don't even know what to do with.

Right? And I know, listen, our responses are cultural.

I say this all the time because people say, well, they don't shout like they

used to. Well, it's because that's what your culture did.

Because in the old Pentecostal church, we used to jerk and run around.

Then I'd take a trip to Mexico. and they would dance around the building with

tambourines and streamers under the same power i went to africa and they would

dance around the front of the building and under the same power,

same power different manifestation because it was cultural because it's a human

response an emotional response to a supernatural power i was standing in that

service that night and i felt the power of god come upon me and i ran from the

front of that building to the back and back to the front danced across the front

of the building it's back from a hip hurt.

Music.

I've never had pain in my neck since then i never went back to the doctors never

never i've never i've never used a heating pad on my neck since then what was.

Music.

It there was a supernatural power,

we can't deny the power of the holy spirit.

We are we're facing challenges that we are not equipped to face some people

face diagnoses that They're not equipped to face without the power of the Holy Spirit.

We face family circumstances, situations that we're not equipped to face without

the power of the Holy Spirit. What am I telling you?

We need the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

I speak to two groups of people. Number one, I speak, maybe you've been saved,

but you don't know what I'm talking about.

The Bible says the Holy Spirit is a free gift to anybody that asks.

I know people have come up they shake people that's not what I'm talking about

I knew a man Johnny Eagle and he sought the baptism of the Holy Spirit,

and he just got his head over it he just thought he might not be worthy he was

praying for somebody else one night years ago,

he was praying for somebody else

one night to get the baptism and the Lord baptized him in the Holy Ghost,

because he believed that God would baptize them.

He got so much faith believing it was a gift that God baptized him in the Holy

Spirit. So all you gotta do is believe. It's a gift. It's a gift.

But I'm also speaking to a group of people that maybe you used to allow the

power of God to work in your life years ago. See, the Holy Ghost is a gentleman.

Like I said, if you don't wanna turn that TV off, he's not gonna strike that cable for you.

You've got to make the decision. If you don't want to speak the word of God

in boldness, I heard somebody say one time, well, I'll get up and praise him

and shout like that if the Lord does it. Why should he praise himself?

Why should he come down and force you to do the work that he has already called

and give you the power to do?

Why should he come down and make you speak words of encouragement to somebody else,

that as believers we should desire to speak to

somebody else and so the second group people i'm

speaking to are those that you have not allowed the power of the holy spirit to

move in your life in a while maybe you

used to flow in the power of the holy spirit but but but now

you've just kind of figured you'll let somebody else do it no god's

called you see when the holy

spirit when the believers were baptized with the holy spirit they

went to the marketplace they went from house to

house they went everywhere telling people

about jesus see that's why we need the holy ghost as

a matter of fact the bible tells us that what we're doing right now

is equipping the saints for the work of the ministry what we're doing right

now is this is not this is not the work this is the equipping the work is outside

of these four walls and that's where we need the power of the holy is to move outside.

Hey, I can stay saved in this building, but it's a lot harder to stay saved out there.

When I left, I left that Spiritfield Ladies Conference yesterday, went to KFC.

Music.

Order four chicken meals that's all i wanted and i'm

pretty sure that that that that the

fbi don't interrogate like that woman interrogated me

well what sides you want i told her she said well would you rather have a drink

instead of sides i'm like well maybe initiate what drinks you want and like

i'm going through all this stuff and i finally i think okay i'm okay well what

what dip sauce do you want and i got ashley up here saying garlic parmesan and

this lady's over we don't have garlic,

but yeah, we got ranch and chicken, you know, I'll just, and I just, I'm like,

I'm just about to get out of here and punch this sign. What are we doing right now?

Music.

It's outside of this church that we need the power of the Holy ghost.

People love you in here. We need the power of the Holy ghost to go out there

and to fight the good fight of faith that God has called us to fight.

Let's all stand out of this building.

Music.

Thank you Holy Spirit thank you Holy Spirit,

every head bowed every eye closed if you're here this morning I got three calls

number one is this if you're not born again if you're not born again,

today's the day today's the day the Bible says that today's the day of salvation,

if you're not born again that's the prerequisite for being baptized in the Holy Ghost it's being saved,

so if you're not born again you'd like to accept Jesus Christ into your heart

right now we're not going to pull you out we're not going to embarrass you I

believe Jesus can save you right where you are but if you're there if you're

not born again you want to receive Jesus I just want you to raise your hands

that's me I want to give my heart to Jesus Christ today I want to give my heart to Jesus.

Anybody, you want to give your heart to Jesus Christ today. I pray we're all saved in this room.

Here's my main call. If you're here today, you're a believer.

Once again, I'm not going to pull anybody out.

I believe God can baptize you in the Holy Ghost right there where you're standing.

If you want to respond, that's fine.

But I believe God can baptize you in the Holy Ghost right there.

But if you want to be baptized, if you've never received the gift of the Holy

Spirit, you'd love to be baptized in the Holy Ghost.

You believe that the words I've spoken are true, that the words that are in the Bible are true,

that there is a subsequent gift known

as the baptism of the holy spirit that's you and you'd like

to receive that today i just want you to raise your hands that's me

there's hands going up who else there's hands going up who else

there's more hands going up who else we don't say i want to baptize in the holy

ghost i want to receive that gift who else yeah there's hands going up thank

you jesus god sees all those hands thank you holy spirit thank you holy spirit

for hunger for hunger this congregation here's my last call if you're here today

and you'd say pastor Scott,

I used to move under the power of the Holy Ghost, but I've just not allowed

him to move my life, and I want him to baptize me afresh in the Holy Ghost.

There's hands already going up.

You'd say, that's me. I just want him to baptize me afresh in the Holy Ghost.

Yeah, there's hands going up for that call as well. Here's what I want to do right now.

If you are needing prayer of anything, or if you raise your hands on any of

those calls, and you want to come to this altar, I want you to step out on the

counter. There are some people already stepping.

One, two, three, step on out that's right come on down come on down Holy Spirit

you are welcome in this place Holy Spirit you are welcome in this place Holy

Spirit you are welcome in this place

I have some people if you want to work these altars come up and pray with these

believers this morning I want some Spirit filled believers.

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And some people thought, well, are we just supposed to keep on singing?

No, that's when warfare takes place.

When the Holy Spirit comes in in the middle of a song service,

that's when we start fighting those spiritual battles.

And you say, God, whatever it is you've got to do in me, whatever it is you've

got to do in my circumstance, my situation, that's the time we just don't sing songs.

It's not just about singing songs. It's about having the power in the one that we sing about.

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That's what it's all about. but we're growing together we're growing together,

I'm speaking and praying,

amazing things over this church over the individuals of this church it's not

just about a church guys, this is not a social club.

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When God's moving, I said at the 9am I've never had anybody that's run up to

me and said, are you a member of the country club?

The country club is amazing I'm not no particular country club it's not a social event,

but there's something about the power of the Holy Spirit that when He fills

you when He transforms you that you've got to go and tell somebody about it say do you know Jesus,

do you know the power that we're talking about do you know the restoration.

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The healing, the miracles there's power there's power Father we just thank you

we thank you for what you've done in this service God, continue to minister

around this altar, continue to move in these lives.

Holy Spirit, Father, Jesus, you're the Holy Spirit baptizer.

I just felt that in my spirit right now. Somebody just needs to remember that.

Jesus, you're the Holy Spirit baptizer. Thank you, Jesus.

Music.

I invite those who want to continue to tarry around this altar.

Everybody else, you are dismissed.

You're welcome to tarry as long as you want to, though. Thank you, Jesus. We love you guys.

Music.