Our Core Values & Beliefs: Spirit-filled Living Pastor Scott Pearson

So some of you are familiar with the Timothy Initiative, TTI, and have taken their course

called Disciples Making Disciples.

And it's an excellent manual on disciple making.

It includes how to craft and share your story, give your testimony, how to share God's story,

the gospel, how to know that you have assurance of salvation.

It has teaching on prayer and devotions and how to study the Bible, how to really experience

God as our Heavenly Father, talks about baptism and how to get plugged into a church and how

to disciple new believers and much more.

What is the first lesson in that book, The Spirit Fill Christian Life?

So why does a study manual designed to equip disciples to become disciple makers, which

is our church's vision, why does it begin with the importance of the Holy Spirit and

the Spirit Fill life?

Because it is the Holy Spirit who empowers us to do everything else in the book.

It is the Holy Spirit who empowers our witness and who assures us of our salvation and who

motivates and directs our prayer life and gives us insight and understanding into the Bible

and draws us into intimacy with God as our Heavenly Father and gives us spiritual gifts

to build up the church body.

Our church vision of every Christ follower, a disciple, every disciple, a disciple maker

will be fulfilled only in the power of the Holy Spirit.

So as we continue our series on Cornerstone's core values, it is significant that one of

those core values, as listed in your sermon notes, is Spirit Fill Living.

Because the Holy Spirit is the source of our victory, we respond to Him with lives that

are empowered by and exhibit the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

In the power of the Spirit, we proclaim God's truth, we pray, we serve, we worship and song,

and we love God with all that we are.

That will be the focus of our message this morning.

I'd like to invite Tanner Custer up here right now.

There'll be several scriptures we're looking at, but Tanner is going to read a couple of

them for you at this time.

Tanner, go ahead.

Acts 1, Acts 1, 8, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and

you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends

of the earth.

Ephesians 5, 15 through 21, look carefully at how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise,

making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.

Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is, and do not get

drunk with wine, for that is debauchery.

But be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in Psalms, hymns, and spiritual

songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and

for everything, to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one

another out of reverence for Christ.

Good time.

Next to it right here.

Father, I pray for Tanner that he would experience the reality of what he has just read, that

he would experience the reality of the Spirit-filled life.

I pray that for all who are here today, that we would experience the reality of the Spirit-filled

life.

I pray that also for our Panama mission team right now, that they will be filled with the

Holy Spirit as they minister your love to those around them during this coming week.

We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thank you.

Please be seated.

So let's take a look first of all at the person of the Holy Spirit.

So who is the Holy Spirit?

I grew up in a Bible teaching church, and I developed a personal relationship with Jesus

as my Savior and Lord, and with God as my Heavenly Father, but I knew practically nothing about

the Holy Spirit.

And it didn't help that he was often referred to as the Holy Ghost.

How do I develop a relationship with a ghost?

Do I even want a relationship with a ghost?

And I remember the Holy Spirit referred to as a power source.

Does that mean the Holy Spirit is kind of like electricity?

No, I learned that the Greek word for power is dunamis, from which we get the word dynamite.

Great.

The Holy Spirit is a ghost who blows things up.

So I kept the Holy Spirit at arm's length.

I either ignored him or kept my distance from him.

I guarded myself against him.

How about you?

What kind of a relationship do you have with the Holy Spirit?

What is your understanding of who he is and what he is like?

The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

He is not an impersonal force or a ghost-like entity.

He is a person equal in every way with the Father and with the Son.

Same character, same infinite intellect, same emotions, same will, and perfect alignment

with the will of the Father and the Son.

Jesus called him another paraclete.

And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another helper, paracletes, to be with

you forever, even the Spirit of truth from the world cannot receive because it neither

sees him nor knows him.

You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

The word translated to your helper is the word paraclete in Greek, meaning the one called

along beside.

It can also be translated comforter or advocate or counselor or encourager.

The Holy Spirit is all of those things.

And as Jesus said, He both dwells within us and also dwells with us.

He dwells with us as a companion and as a friend.

Have you ever thought of the Holy Spirit as a companion and friend?

We sing, What a friend we have in Jesus, and He is.

But it's also true that Jesus now dwells at the right hand of God in heaven, and He sent

the Holy Spirit to be with us here on earth.

Jesus calls him another paraclete because as Jesus was to the disciples dwelling with

them, so also the Spirit is with us dwelling with us and in us.

And every character quality that you would attribute to Jesus or to the Father is also

true of the Spirit.

He is merciful and gracious and compassionate and wise and strong and powerful and kind

and abounding and steadfast love.

In fact, Jesus even said, Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage

that I go away.

For if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you.

But if I go, I will send him to you.

That's astounding.

Jesus says, We are better off with the Holy Spirit dwelling with us and in us than the

disciples were with Jesus walking beside them in the flesh.

Why?

Because Jesus being fully human as well as divine could only be in one place in one time

in his human body.

But the Spirit is Spirit, not flesh, and He can be everywhere at once.

So at the same time as He is present with us here, He is also present with our team

in Panama.

He is present with believers in Moldova, Mexico, Kenya, Togo, Nepal, Morocco, Spain, Israel,

wherever.

And although Jesus walked with the disciples, teaching and training them, performing miracles

before their eyes, He did not live within them.

But the Holy Spirit not only dwells with us, He also dwells in us, energizing and strengthening

and empowering and guiding us and speaking to us from within.

So ask God to strengthen your relationship with the Holy Spirit.

Just look then at the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

What does the Holy Spirit do for us and in us and through us?

First, He gives new life through the new birth.

Jesus said to Nicodemus, truly truly I say to you unless one is born again, he cannot

see the kingdom of God.

Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he is old?

Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?

Jesus answered truly truly I say to you unless one is born of water and of the Spirit, he

cannot enter the kingdom of God.

That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit.

Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again.

The wind blows where it wishes and you hear its sound but you do not know where it comes

from or where it goes.

So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.

Many people assume that the major problem in our relationship with God is that we're

not quite good enough to be accepted into heaven and we just need to try harder to do

more good works.

The reality is that we are according to the Bible spiritually dead.

We're spiritually dead in trespasses and sins and we need to be made spiritually alive.

Now you can try harder to be a better person but how do you make yourself spiritually

alive?

You can't.

It is the Holy Spirit who gives new life through the new birth.

So you must be born again.

You must be born of the Spirit as Jesus said.

How does that happen?

But to all who did receive Jesus Christ who believed in His name, He gave the right to

become children of God who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of

the will of man but born of God.

When a person receives Jesus Christ into their life as Savior and Lord, the Holy Spirit comes

to dwell within that person and gives that person spiritual life which is eternal life.

The person's spirit is made alive by the Spirit of God and will never die even when

the body dies.

That spiritual life given by the Holy Spirit is stronger than death and will last forever.

Secondly, the Holy Spirit assures us of our presence and future salvation.

How do you know for sure that you are saved?

That God accepts you into His family now and that God one day will accept you into heaven

when you die.

Can you be sure?

Perhaps you're hoping that your good deeds will outweigh your sins and failures but the

Bible makes it clear that no one will be accepted into heaven on the basis of their own goodness

but rather only on the basis of the finished work of Jesus Christ and His death and resurrection.

Perhaps you're counting on the fact that you prayed a prayer to accept Christ as your

Savior.

It's true we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ and that prayer is an appropriate

way of expressing that faith.

But how do you know that God answered that prayer?

How do you know that your faith was good enough?

And what if you've committed serious sins or have drifted away from God since praying

that prayer?

How can you be sure of your salvation and eternal life?

Some of you know one of my sisters is dying and probably has only a few days to live.

I went to visit her in Milwaukee on Tuesday.

This is not a theoretical question for her or for any of us for that matter.

Even if you have decades left to live, our life on earth is a mere dot compared to eternity.

My sister is a believer but she has lived a hard life and is well aware of many failings.

By her own admission she has not lived an exemplary Christian life.

I asked her, Donna, do you know for sure that you will go to heaven when you die?

And she said without hesitation, yes.

And I said, well how can you be sure?

Why are you so confident?

And she said because he made me a promise.

What promise I said?

That if I believe in Jesus, he would give me eternal life.

Good answer.

Maybe the best answer.

And this is the testimony that God gave us eternal life.

And this life is in his son.

Whoever has the son has life.

Whoever does not have the son of God does not have life.

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the son of God that you may know

that you have eternal life.

Believing God's promises in his word gives assurance of salvation and eternal life.

And when we believe in Jesus and the gospel, God seals us with the Holy Spirit.

In him, in Christ you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation

and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit who is the guarantee

of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory.

By giving us the Holy Spirit to live within us when we accept Christ, God seals or stamps

us as his very own at our conversion.

Now in New Testament times, first of all, the seal denoted that a document was genuine

and certified by the one who sealed it.

So also when the Holy Spirit seals the believer of the gospel, the sealing of the Holy Spirit

is God's certification that the salvation of that believer is real and authentic.

Second, the seal was affixed to denote ownership.

Today's equivalent of this is the title deed to a property.

Thus, the seal of the Holy Spirit is the indelible sign and proof that God through Christ has

redeemed us from sin for his ownership and possession.

And third, the seal was used to ensure the security and safety of the object sealed to

protect its contents from being violated.

The Holy Spirit is God's seal of protection over the believer's life.

And under this sacred seal, no man or demon or anything can wrest the Christian from his

secure position in Christ.

No one can break the seal of God.

It is because the Spirit has sealed us that we are assured that we are indeed children

of God.

For you did not receive the Spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received

the Spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba, Father.

The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirits that we are children of God.

The gift of the Spirit to believers is also called a down payment on our heavenly inheritance

which Christ has promised and secured for us at the cross.

The Holy Spirit down payment is the irreversible guarantee that what God starts with the new

birth, he will most certainly complete with the glorification of believers perfectly conformed

to the likeness of Christ when we see him face to face.

So God grants us His Holy Spirit to live within us as the certain pledge that we are His forever

and will be saved at the last day.

Third, the Holy Spirit enlightens us.

When you are going through hard times, trials, seasons of loss, there's no more important

question than what is God like?

And I trust God's goodness and love and wisdom and grace and faithfulness and sovereignty

when everything in life seems to have turned against me.

If God still loves me, why are all these bad things happening to me?

Or after what I just did, how can God possibly forgive me and accept me?

Or maybe you are struggling to know God's will for your life.

To know God's will, you need to know God in His Word.

To know God in His Word, you need the Holy Spirit.

I do not cease to give thanks for you, Paul wrote the Ephesians, remembering you in my

prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit

of wisdom and of revelation and the knowledge of Him.

Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which

He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and

what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe.

You want to know God?

Then read His Word, the Bible, which is God's revelation of Himself to us.

But it's not enough just to read the Bible.

For plenty of people have read the Bible, but they don't know God.

They don't believe in Jesus.

They don't trust God's promises.

It's the Holy Spirit who enlightens our hearts and minds so that we can know God and understand

His ways and trust His character and embrace His promises.

So when you read the Bible, ask the Holy Spirit to give you spiritual understanding of spiritual

truths.

Ask the Holy Spirit to show you how those truths apply to your life.

For example, how does God describe Himself in the Bible?

This description that you're seeing is repeated several times in the Bible, including Psalm

138.

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.

The New American Standard has it the Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger,

and abounding in loving kindness.

Now, why does God describe Himself in this way?

What does He want us to know and believe about His character?

How does my concept or your concept of God align with how He has revealed Himself?

Ask the Holy Spirit to renew your mind with these truths of who God is and show you how

to apply those truths to your life.

Or maybe you're attending church as a seeker.

You're investigating who Jesus is in order to decide whether or not you want to commit

your life to Him.

Try reading the Gospel of John.

One chapter at a time, there's 21 chapters.

Take your time, do it over the course of a month.

And as you read, ask the Spirit of God to show you who Jesus is and what it would mean for

you to believe in Him and follow Him.

The Holy Spirit enlightens us so that we can come to know God and His Son Jesus so that

by believing we may have eternal life.

Fourth, the Holy Spirit gives gifts for ministry.

God wants to use you and you and you to build up our church body.

Every believer is a member of the body of Christ and every member is a minister in Christ's

body.

Every member has a different function just as in the human body, hands and feet and eyes

and ears all have different functions.

And every member has been gifted to serve others in the body of Christ.

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's very

grace.

What's a spiritual gift?

A spiritual gift is a special ability given by the Holy Spirit to every believer to be

used to minister to others and therefore build up the body of Christ.

And different believers receive different gifts as determined by the Holy Spirit.

Now there are varieties of gifts but the same Spirit and there are varieties of service

but the same Lord and there are varieties of activities but it is the same God who empowers

them all and everyone.

To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit who apportions to each one individually

as he wills.

Now some examples of spiritual gifts found in Romans 12 include prophecy, serving, encouragement,

giving, leadership and showing mercy.

These gifts are not just special skills for special tasks but basic motivations for Christian

service, a basic inward drive that determines how we see the needs of others and how we

meet those needs and how we approach Christian service.

God gives every Christian eyes to see and the desire and ability to meet certain needs.

Your spiritual gift or gifts determines how you minister to the needs of others and how

you serve in the church.

More than just something that helps you do a church job, your spiritual gift is what

makes you tick and determines how you relate to other people.

So for example, the gift of serving motivates meeting practical needs.

The gift of mercy motivates meeting emotional needs and comforting those in distress.

The gift of giving motivates meeting financial needs.

The gift of encouragement motivates meeting spiritual needs and helping people grow in

faith and obedience.

There's much more to say on this subject, please see me or one of the pastors if you're

interested in learning more.

Then the Holy Spirit fills and empowers us.

Has that ever occurred to you that there's much more to the Christian life than what

you are now experiencing?

I read these words of Bill Bright for the first time when a freshman at Iowa began attending

Campus Crusade for Christ meetings there.

My immediate response, has that ever occurred to you that there's much more to the Christian

life?

My immediate response was yes.

Yes I was feeling dissatisfied and discouraged and frustrated and defeated with my Christian

life and had been for years.

I believed the gospel to be true.

I'd accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior 10 years before that.

I was confident Jesus died for my sins and was raised from the dead and that I would

go to heaven when I died.

But my actual Christian experience was deeply disappointing.

It's not that I was a rebel or involved in a gross sinful lifestyle.

I was actually trying hard to live for Christ and witness for Christ and serve Him and live

a fruitful Christian life.

Trying hard in my own strength and failing again and again and again to the point where

I was about ready to give up trying.

Because these students and staff at Campus Crusade meetings were excited about their

relationship with Jesus and were freely talking about Jesus with both believers and non-believers

alike.

What did they have that I didn't?

What was I missing?

As I read that article by Bill Bright, You Shall Receive Power, I realized that what was

missing in my life was the power of the Holy Spirit.

I had been trusting in my own efforts and my own strength to live the Christian life

and I was failing and frustrated.

I knew that Christ was alive in heaven but I didn't understand that He was also alive

in me through the presence of the Holy Spirit.

I didn't know about the Spirit filled Christian life.

I had accepted Jesus as my Savior but I was not allowing Him to live His life in and through

me and the power of the Holy Spirit.

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

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

Why was I unable to witness for Christ?

Why was I living a fruitless and frustrated life?

Because I was not relying upon and drawing upon the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit came into my life when I was eight but I knew practically nothing about

Him or how to be filled and empowered by the Spirit.

Do not get drunk with wine, Paul wrote, for that's debauchery, but be filled with the

Spirit.

So what is the Spirit filled life?

The Spirit filled life is the Christ filled life with Christ on the throne of the life

and the Holy Spirit directing and empowering our life and witness and ministry.

No longer is it a matter of the believer trying hard to live for Christ, now the risen Lord

is living His life in and through the believer.

No longer are we working for Christ, now Christ is doing His work through us in the power

of the Holy Spirit.

I have been crucified with Christ.

It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me and the life I live in the flesh,

I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.

After finishing reading that article, I got down on my knees in my dorm room.

I wept tears of repentance for running my own life.

I fully surrendered myself to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and I prayed to be filled

with the Spirit and I appropriated the filling of the Holy Spirit by faith.

It was a very emotional experience, but also a very powerful spiritual experience, life

changing in fact.

Receiving Christ as a child changed my eternal destiny, but receiving the filling of the Holy

Spirit changed my life here and now dramatically.

I experienced a new boldness and witnessing that I never had before.

I experienced a new passion and joy and worship, I had a new hunger for the Word of God, I

connected with God in prayer as never before, I experienced a new intimacy with God.

I began using my spiritual gifts, I began to see fruit in my witnessing and disciple making,

I began to grow as a spiritual leader.

That encounter with the Holy Spirit became the catalyst for me becoming a pastor.

I've had many subsequent encounters with the Holy Spirit, not all of them emotional, in

fact most of them not emotional, but that first one changed the trajectory of my life.

Have you ever seen a hawk gliding upward in a thermal updraft, soaring upward without

flapping its wings, just doing this, allowing the rising warm air to carry it along up and

up and up.

That's a picture of Spirit-filled living.

Instead of flapping our wings furiously in our own strength, we just stay connected to

the Holy Spirit and allow His presence and power to guide us and strengthen us and empower

us to live and witness for Christ.

The command to be filled with the Spirit is in the present tense in Greek, meaning be

filled continuously or repeatedly with the Spirit.

So being filled with the Spirit is not to be a one-time experience, but rather a way of life.

We call this walking in the Spirit, or living by the Spirit, and it's the means by which

the character qualities of Christ are formed in us.

We look then at the Holy Spirit, expresses the life of Christ in and through us.

But I say walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are

against the flesh.

For these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

gentleness, self-control, against such things there is no law.

So walking in the Spirit is a moment-by-moment lifestyle.

As we walk in the Spirit, controlled, directed, empowered by the Spirit, the Holy Spirit empowers

us to overcome sin in our lives and produces in us and expresses through us the life and

likeness and character qualities of Jesus.

Victory over sin is not achieved by trying harder not to sin.

If we're walking in the flesh in our own strength, we will lose our struggle against

sin, we will succumb to sin much of the time.

We'll end up doing things we don't want to do.

But if we're walking in the Spirit, He will strengthen and empower us so that we do not

gratify the desires of the flesh.

Ask Christians we struggle against sin, and ask Christians we sometimes sin.

What do we do?

It's very important that we know how to respond when we sin.

Mental breathing is a concept that enables us to keep walking in the Spirit after we

sin rather than allowing sin to gain a foothold in our lives and then lead us away from intimacy

with God.

So when we sin, we exhale spiritually by confessing and repenting of that sin right

away, not the next time you go to church, right away.

And then we thank God for His forgiveness and cleansing through the blood of Christ shed

for us on the cross.

But we don't stop there.

We see sin is a reminder to us to do a throne check.

Who is on the throne of the heart?

Christ or self?

So not only do we need to exhale, we need to inhale spiritually, and we inhale spiritually

by surrendering control of our life to Christ and throning Christ as we dethrone self.

And then we ask for and rely upon the Holy Spirit to fill and empower us by faith.

So we exhale our sin and we inhale the power of the Spirit.

And as we do so more and more consistently, the Holy Spirit forms and expresses the life

and likeness of Christ in and through us.

And over time, we begin to grow in Christ's likeness.

We begin to grow in patience and kindness and love and compassion and righteousness and

self-control and joy and contentment.

How about you?

Are you ready to live a spirit-filled Christian life?

How can you be filled with the Spirit and experience His power for Christian living and

witness and disciple making?

What are the conditions for being filled with the Spirit?

Number one, are you ready to surrender control of your life to Jesus Christ as Lord?

If the Holy Spirit has been living in your life as just a guest, a guest in your heart

and life, are you now ready to turn over to Him the title deed of your life and give Him

the keys to every room?

Your thought life, your eating and drinking habits, your social life, your sex life, your

social media life, your finances, your education and career, your hobbies and sports activities,

your friendships.

Are you ready to make room for the Holy Spirit in every area of your life?

Two, are you ready to confess and repent and forsake your sins?

Three, do you desire to be Christ's witness?

Do you desire to give your life to making disciples right where you are and wherever

God would lead?

Four, do you acknowledge your dependence upon the Holy Spirit and His power in order to

live a fruitful Christian life?

Do you sincerely desire to be directed and empowered by the Holy Spirit?

And then finally, by faith claim the fullness of the Spirit according to His command and

promise.

God commands us to be filled with the Spirit and He promises that He will always answer

when we pray according to His will.

Well, we know that it's His will to be filled with the Spirit because it's His command.

But we are filled with the Spirit by faith and we express that faith through prayer.

In your sermon notes, there is a suggested prayer.

It's not a magic formula, it's just a suggested prayer.

We're going to read that together if it expresses the desire of your hearts.

You can read it silently.

You can read it in your sermon notes or you can close your eyes and just listen.

You can say it silently or you can say it out loud, whatever you would like to do, whatever

expresses what's in your heart toward God.

Dear Father, I need you.

I acknowledge that I have sinned against you by directing my own life.

I thank you that you have forgiven my sins through Christ's death and the cross for me.

I now invite Christ to again take His place on the throne of my life.

Fill me with the Holy Spirit as you commanded me to be filled and as you promised in your

word that you would do if I asked in faith.

I pray this in the name of Jesus.

I now thank you for filling me with the Holy Spirit and directing my life.

We're going to close in just a minute with a closing song and we'll have an altar cause

we do that.

This is potentially life changing for some of you.

We want you to take your time and really read through that prayer and see if it expresses

the desire of your heart.

If it does, we want you to lay that before God, bring that before God as an expression

of your heart.

Then we want you by faith to claim that if you ask Him to, if you've met these conditions,

if you ask Him to fill you with the Spirit, He will.

He will.

I encourage many of you to come to the altar and make that commitment, make that surrender,

ask for the Holy Spirit to fill you.

Some of you might want help in doing that.

I'm going to ask our church leaders who are present, if you're at the altar and you want

help, there are instances in the book of Acts where believers would lay hands on other believers

and they would receive the fullness of the Spirit.

If you want help with that, then raise your hand while you're at the altar, raise your

hand.

If one of our church leaders will come and lay hands on you and pray with you to help

you to receive the filling of the Holy Spirit.

Or you can just come to the altar and do it by yourself.

Or you can remain in your seat and do it there.

But there is something about coming to the altar and kneeling and making a surrender

to Christ that can be spiritually powerful.

So we encourage you to do that if the Spirit prompts you to do that.

Let me pray for you and then we'll sing our last song and you can respond.

Father, I ask by the power of the Holy Spirit that you would move among us.

And I pray for those individuals who need to be filled and want to be filled, desire

to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

They want to be living for Christ.

They want to be a witness for Christ.

They want to make an impact in the lives of others.

They want to serve others with their spiritual gifts.

They want to help our church body to grow and to be built up.

They want all of these things, but they perhaps have been lacking the power to do so until

now.

And so I pray now, Lord, as they cry out to you for that power, the power of the Holy

Spirit, that you would answer that prayer, that you would grant them the fullness of

the Holy Spirit and His power, that they could live a new kind of Christian life.

And I pray for those who have never done it before, Lord, that you would confirm to them

that you are indeed filling them with the Holy Spirit, that they would leave this place

knowing that they are now filled with the Holy Spirit.

For those who have done this many times before, I pray that you would renew them in their

walk in the Spirit, renew them in their walking in the fullness of the Holy Spirit, that they

also might leave here this morning knowing that they are leaving here in the fullness

of the power of the Holy Spirit.

So Holy Spirit, we pray that you would move among us and we pray that we would be responsive

to your prompting in each of our lives.

And I pray this in Jesus' name, amen.

You may stand as we sing.

You may sit as we sing.

You may come forward as we sing.

However the Spirit leads you.

This is my surrender.

I pray that you would move among us and we pray that you would renew them in their walking

in the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

Here is where I lay it down, every burden, every crown.

This is my surrender.

This is my surrender.

Here is where I lay it down, every lie and every doubt.

This is my surrender.

And I will make room for you to do whatever you want to, to do whatever you want to.

And I will make room for you to do whatever you want to, to do whatever you want to.

Shake up the crown before my tradition, break down the walls before my religion, your way is better.

Shake up the crown before my tradition, break down the walls before my religion, your way is better.

Shake up the crown before my tradition, break down the walls before my religion, your way is better.

Shake up the crown before my tradition, break down the walls before my religion, your way is better.

And I will make room for you to do whatever you want to, to do whatever you want to.

And I will make room for you to do whatever you want to, to do whatever you want to.

Shake up the crown before my tradition, break down the walls before my religion, your way is better.

Shake up the crown before my tradition, break down the walls before my religion, your way is better.

Shake up the crown before my tradition, break down the walls before my religion, your way is better.

Oh, your way is better.

Shake up the crown before my tradition, break down the walls before my religion, your way is better.

Oh, your way is better.

And I will make room for you to do whatever you want to, to do whatever you want to.

And I will make room for you to do whatever you want to, to do whatever you want to.

Here is where I lay it down, you are all I'm chasing now, this is my surrender.

Shake up the crown before my tradition, break down the walls before my religion, your way is better.

Oh, your way is better.

Shake up the crown before my tradition, break down the walls before my religion, your way is better.

Oh, your way is better.

Shake up the crown before my tradition, break down the walls before my religion, your way is better.

Oh, your way is better.

Shake up the crown before my tradition, break down the walls before my religion, your way is better.

Oh, your way is better.

For some of you surrendering your life to Christ as Lord and being filled with the Holy Spirit will be an emotional experience as it was for me the first time.

But I have had many, many subsequent times of being filled with the Holy Spirit that were not emotional.

And so I don't want you to depend on emotions to know whether or not you're filled with the Spirit.

If you've surrendered your life to Christ as Lord and if you've asked for the Holy Spirit to fill you, you are filled with the Spirit.

If you had an emotional experience, great. If you didn't, that's great too.

The important thing is the act of surrender and faith and that is how we are filled with the Holy Spirit.

If you are here today and you would like to pray with me or Bucky and Annemarie after the service, I'm going to hang around for a few minutes.

I'm going to ask Bucky and Annemarie to hang around for a few minutes.

You can come and talk with us about this or anything else if you'd like prayer for anything.

We'll be glad to pray with you.

Let me say a closing prayer and then we'll be dismissed.

Father, I pray for each one who has yielded themselves to the Holy Spirit.

That you would confirm by the Holy Spirit who lives within them that they now are experiencing the fullness of the Holy Spirit in their lives

and they can count on His power to become the kind of Christian they long to become, to be the kind of servant they long to become,

the kind of husband and wife, friend they long to become, the kind of church member they long to become,

the kind of follower of Christ they long to become, that they now have the power to become the person that they want to become,

the person you have called them to be.

So I pray, Father, that you would confirm by your spirit in their soul, in their spirit,

that they now have the presence and power and fullness of the Holy Spirit in their lives.

I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Thank you all for coming.

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